CURRENT LOCATION: On a mooring ball near the reef in Ensenada Dakity
18 17.609' N, 065 16.813' W

Sheryl has done a good job of divorcing herself from land-based responsibilities. This week, it is only me who still has to make daily trips to town to teach my class. Meanwhile, Sheryl is content to stay on the boat. Her time is mostly spent reading or doing craft projects. Lest you think that this is just idle leisure activity, the reading is a necessary pre-departure task because we must complete the books we have temporarily borrowed from the library or friends on island before we take off. And, as described below, craft projects can sometimes be considered equipment upgrades.

In addition to the almost meditatively soothing effect of sorting smooth and colorful sea glass, Sheryl takes solace in tying knots for creative purposes. Most recently, she has come up with a fantastic new application: Engine motors for dinghies come with a safety key. These are generally attached to a coiling line coated in red plastic which you are supposed to attach to yourself while driving the dinghy. In the unfortunate event that you and your dinghy become separated, the key will pull out and the engine will stop. Previously, we have been using the ubiquitous red coiled line which came with our new engine key, and we added a Velcro wrist strap to it for a convenient attachment point. As with any key which is to be used over water, we also attached a 'floatie'. The construct was extremely functional; however, it was a bit bulky to stuff in one's pocket.

Recently, we picked up a spare safety key for the dinghy engine and Sheryl decided to make something a little bit more pocket-friendly to serve the purpose. The result is shown below...



Of course, as soon as I saw it I said that I wanted one too. So, we snipped off the standard red coil, and Sheryl showed me a wide assortment of line from which to choose. Once I had selected the desired color scheme, I asked for one additional modification. I wanted mine long enough to loop over my head and wear around my neck. Thus, creating a pocket-free version. The result is shown below...



The true beauty of the new construct lies in its simplicity. Sheryl used champagne cork as the flotation device, secured in place with a knot lanyard, then wrapped the line with a tight turk's head knot which slides along the line to cinch up on the wrist, or (in my case) opens to allow easy transformation from bracelet to necklace.



Today I will head to town to teach class and (for the third day in a row) take Patience burdened with three jerry jugs. On Sunday, I ferried three full water jugs from town to the boat and yesterday it was two jugs of diesel and one of gasoline. Today, I am planning on another 3 jugs of water which should top off the onboard tanks. After which, we may need one final trip to depart with a little spare water in jugs on deck. It would have been nice if the Porta-bote had lasted one more week, as the extra space makes this type of journey much, much easier. But it is good to get used to Patience again. She's our primary tender for the foreseeable future.

So, if you see me around the island today, I'll be the one with a champagne cork around his neck or the guy stuffed into a tiny blue dinghy along with three blue jerry cans. Wait a minute, the winds just picked up to a steady 30 knots and the tops of the waves in the harbor are being blown to mist. Perhaps the water can wait for another day.