The last two days have been some work and some play along with some shopping.

I spent most of yesterday working on more of the watermaker installation. I'm almost there. We had a slight setback when the installation manual didn't tell me that the fixture for the water intake for the flush cycle uses a 1/2" fitting and all they supplied was 5/8" hose. Tough to get a 5/8" hose to clamp tightly to a 1/2" fitting. I, of course, had already run the 5/8" line when I found the problem. Amazingly, I had a piece of 1/2" hose stored under the stern bunk that would solve the problem. If not, I would have been stopped for quite a while until we got back to La Paz where such hose can be bought. So, it was out with the wrong and in with the right hose. I hooked up the connection for the "product water"(that what they call the fresh water the machine makes)to the water tanks. It will fill all four of the tanks the way we set it up. I also did the connection for the "flush" water that has to be pumped back out of the tanks and used to flush the filter on the water maker. That all went smoothly. Unfortunately, I got stopped when I found I was missing a "T" fitting to the hose that will pump out of the boat the excess "brine" water. Oh well, all in good time.

Today, we went into Loretto with Dale and Linda off Moxey. We' met them back in San Diego well over a month ago when we were there. We knew they were headed to the Loretto area but were surprised the find them still here. They are planning on staying here for quite some time. They even moved one of their cars down here. They gave us a tour of Loretto and took us to lots of store for provisions and on a quest for the missing fittings. We had a lovely lunch and one of the local cantinas. Now we are all restocked and just about ready to go. We'll top off the water tanks tomorrow before we leave Escondido just in case it takes me longer than I think to get the final connection on the water maker done. Better safe than thirsty.

I have to hook up the hose for the raw water that will get made into fresh water. It will be connected to the through hull that used to supply water to the forward head. I have to re-plumb it(the forward head) to take water out of our fresh water tanks. Then I have to run(and drill holes)the hose for the "brine" water to get it to a through hull fitting so it can be pumped overboard. That's where I am short a fitting. At the worst, I can just shove the hose our a portlight till we reach a "big" town that has the proper fitting. All in good time.

I got a question from Dave in Idaho as to when we are thinking of heading out into the Pacific for the crossing. As of now, heaven only knows. The plan(set in jello) is to go farther North in the Sea of Cortez about another 100 miles, the head East across to the mainland and down the coast to Puerto Vallarta for a while. Then back up the coast to San Carlos to put Zephyr into storage for the hurricane season and go back to Denver for a few months. Then back in late September and set off again. God knows where.

I've got to close now. More tomorrow from where ever we end up.