It's now the night before Christmas and we returned from a party with lots of other cruisers and expats. There is a couple that lives a few miles up the estuary that throws a party every Sunday having all their friends over for drinks and a meal. Everyone chips in $2.50 to cover their costs. Let me tell you, it's a NICE place. Nice swimming pool with two attached wading pools. Big cover porch and a dock out the back on the estuary so you can come and go as you like as it leads out to the ocean. Even has three boats to choose from. It was great fun where you could let your hair down and relax in idealic splendor.
We launched Puff earlier in the day as we needed to do it during slack water so we didn't get thrown around while trying to get her back in the water. We hauled Puff up last night and stowed her along side the boat for security and safety reasons. We would hate to loose her. We stuck on our Tohatsu outboard motor and took off just after 1215 to meet up with other cruisers that had planned on going and were either anchored or moored farther up the estuary. Three of us started out making our way up the estuary and shortly, one outboard died. The cruisers couldn't get it started so we towed them back to their boat and then one went with us and the other in the other dinghy. We zipped along nicely but found with three people in the boat, the bow goes far enough down into the water that the place where our hypalon had come apart from the hull started to leak water into the boat--lots of water. I slowed down till the bow rose back up out of the water and we continued along. Eventually we got Puff to plane in the water and no more water entered. I've since sent another email to the folks at Highfield(made out dinghy)about the change in it's status. It's not leaked before but now it does. Highfield had agreed to replace out dinghy or get it fixed but we need to get it to a place that can do the job or supply us with a new one. It's further complicated by all the tricking out we did to Puff when we bought her. She has a great set of chaps(canvas cover that protects the hypalon tubes and a step we had installed at the bow so we can get to the ladder on Zephyrs stern easier. If they replace Puff, we have to somehow get a new step installed and move the chaps(held on by tons of velcro)to the new dinghy. Sure hope the factory hasn't changed the layout of all the handles and oar locks. Guess we will see what they(Highfield) suggests when we hear back from them. Tom, the regional manager for North America has already agreed to replace her but the nearest outlet is in San Diego. That's a far cry from where we will be in Mexico and somehow, deflating Puff, putting her in the back of a truck or on top of a car for transport doesn't sound like fun to me.
Tomorrow is Christmas day and we will see how the good people of El Salvador celebrate it. So far, we hear a lot of music and people up at the hotels out door courtyard.
It's now December 26th and Christmas is behind us. As for the people of El Salvador, they love fireworks and there are firecrackers going off all day and late into the night. We attended a get together out on the island just north of Bahia Del Sol. No running water and no electricity but a lot of people living there. One of the residents invited us over for a typical Christmas dinner of Turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes as well as cranberry sauce and sliced carrots and lots of other side dishes. The woman that gave the party has lived on the island for years and tries to teach the local kids english. There were 25 of us there, about half kids and half adults(lots of cruisers). All the kids got gifts to take home. It started about 1430 and ended just as the sun was going down. A great way to spend Christmas.