Well, the Tundra Rose group has come and gone, and our engine is still not fixed.

We didn't do to well in the Worlds, but we had a good time! The first race was a practice race, we placed second giving us big heads, thinking if we can continue to place in the top 5 we should do pretty well. NOT! Monday found us all charged up and no where to go, so we were penalized for being OCS, on the course side or premature start, for the two races held on Monday. We were pretty deep at the end of the day, about 38th. Tuesday got off with a bang! Actually, we were hit by another boat that put a hole in our boat, big enough for us to sit out the day while getting it repaired. Wednesday and Thursday we spent trying to dig our way from the back of the pack to the front, it didn't work. We were being a little cautious about being OCS which we did again. Friday, we had nothing to loose, we filled the cooler with ice and beer and said, "Let's just go have a good time, do the best we can and go home with the attitude that we did the best we could". It worked, we won the last two races! Still way out of the money, but we impressed the fleet with our comeback and our last two finishes.

As for our engine, that is another story, all during the week we were racing I was helping, a little bit, the mechanic get our engine put back in the boat. On Friday it was time to start up, NOT! Seems for some reason the starter wouldn't work. So we threw the starter in Tundra Rose and off I went to San Diego taking Tundra part way home. As it turned out I ended up driving all the way to Seattle since the other driver had something come up so with another two days drive I was back in Seattle.

I flew back to Puerto Vallarta on Sunday morning trying to carry our starter as carry-on luggage. TSA said NO, if we can't see inside it then it doesn't go. That was kind of OK with me since it weighed 35 lbs. and I had another bag along as well and it wasn't light. Monday we got the starter put in and got the engine started, YIPEE. OOPS, after looking at the housing for the timing gears, I noticed a small piece of metal sticking through, NOT GOOD. It seems that the cogs on the end of the shaft on the water pump sheared and one poked through the housing/cover. We were lucky that the two pieces didn't get into any of the other gears or we would have had to pull the engine out of the boat again, and probably would have committed suicide. Anyway, our new parts should be here "any day now" since they had to come from England, to LA, to San Diego, to Tijuana, to Puerto Vallarta. Place your bets!

This week while waiting our guest, Kevin Carey, and his two kids, Megan and Dylon are visiting from Halley, ID (Sun Valley). We've spent beach time, seeing PV, more beach time, going to Salulita (surfing/tourist trap), going SCUBA diving, and more beach time, so far. The kids seem to like it other than they aren't getting to practice their Spanish while we're tied to the dock in a resort.

More to come