As planned, we went to the Port Captainia here in La Cruz yesterday and checked out of La Cruz. With that done, we headed over to Paradise Village to do the last of our laundry. Once home, we spent the evening cleaning and storing things getting ready to head over to Nuevo Vallarta to get our "Zarpe"(official clearance documents to allow us to leave Mexico and get into Tahiti).

At 0745, we started up our engine and started out of the marina with our two "buddy"boats for the short 6 mile trip to Nuevo Vallarta. About 1.5 miles out, our engine dies!!! It was like tsunami day all over again. It had died as we approached Punta de Mita while we waited out the waves and swells of the tsunami. We'd fixed it while out in the anchorage here and gotten into the marina where I further explored why it may have happened in the first place. Suddenly, here we were right back where we started--dead in the water!!

We deployed out big Genoa sail(after radioing our friends) at the bow and took advantage of what wind we had and limped back to the anchorage all over again. Out two friends continued on to Nuevo Vallarta and got checked out.

Once at the anchorage, I dropped the anchor and prepared to see what the problem was. With in a minute, a dingy took off from one of the other boats at the anchorage and came over and offered us a tow into the marina. He'd heard our call to our friends and came over to assist us. So here way a nice guy with a small 7.5 horse power outboard ready to haul our 50,000 pound boat. Amazingly, he got us up to 3.5 knots as we headed in!!! I was amazed but I guess it helped that we had had the bottom cleaned the day before so there was little drag from the hull.

Since the morning radio net had just started, I made an "emergency" call to everyone listening that we were coming in with a dead engine and could use some help at the dock. Several people called back and assembled at the dock to assist us as we came in.

Once tied up and with much thanks given to our rescuer, I started talking to other folks on the dock outlining the history of the problem. One of those on the dock was a mechanic so I hired him to come on board so we could find out what the problem was. We checked the tanks and most of the hoses and blew air through the lines to make sure they were clear. All appeared just fine though the engine still refused to start. We tried bleeding the air out of the lines with limited success. There appeared to be no fuel in the lines!! The extra electric fuel pump that the last owner had installed in the fuel line to assist in bleeding the lines appeared to have died also. No fuel was getting anywhere. We tried to make fuel move through the lines using the diesel fuel pump that is attached to the engine. No good there either. We came to the conclusion that the fuel pump had died and it needed to be replaced. Being the good cruiser that I am, I had a backup one already on board. Actually, I have two but that's neither here nor there(can't have too many spares you know). So out came the old one and in went the new one. In the process, we found two coolant hoses in the system that had just about fallen apart so off they came also.

Once the new fuel pump was installed, I tired to bleed the air out of the system. You guessed it---NO FUEL!!!! I think the words that best sum up my feelings are "OH CR-P!!!!. What now. Any how, with the fuel still not flowing, I headed into Puerto Vallarta to get new hose for the coolant system. Amazingly, the chandlary actually had it and I got home a bit after 1630. Tracy had left shortly after we had gotten back to the dock to get more kitty food as when we inventoried what we had, it didn't appear to be enough.

We I got back to Zephyr, I found out that one of our "buddys" had broken his wind instrument so he was off to town the thy and get a new one and our friends off GiGi(second buddy boat) were on board talking to Tracy about the checkout process. Lots of papers to sign and have stamped as well as a boat inspection. Not sure why the inspection as they didn't look at our boat when we came in but want to now as we are leaving.

Any way, back to the project(dead engine). Tomorrow, I'll replace the water hose and start in on the diesel lines. I'll replace all of them from the primary filter to the engine. Not sure how old they are but what the heck, I already had the hose on board so it's back to the engine room for more fun and games. At least the lines from the tanks to the first filter are copper so all I have to do is disconnect them and then blow through them to make sure they are clean. The rubber ones that I will be replacing shouldn't be that hard. I will simply become one with my engine. If I can't figure out the problem, there are lots of others here that will lend me a hand or make suggestions on how to get poor Zephyrs engine up and running. I not only want it fixed, I want to know why it died. This way, it shouldn't happen again. I'd hate to be 1,000 miles from here and need the engine to get through some storm and she won't run. We have enough stress already, we don't need more. It's not all sitting around and reading and noshing on chips and salsa as we have a margaritas. Boy don't we wish it was.

So stay tuned. There is more coming. We can't leave till at least Monday as the Port Captain's office is closed till then.