We have been taking care of many projects prior to sailing south. Now, finally, we are ready.

Prior to our departure, we did a major upgrade to the fuel filtration system on board Calou. Fuel filters are of critical importance on a diesel powered boat. The fuel filters on board were really inadequate. The new filters are Racor filters about 4 times the size, and there are two of them, with valves so that we can switch from one filter to another while the engine is running. We can now also change a fuel filter while the engine is running, and transfer fuel from the auxiliary fuel tank to the main tank.

Our friend Bob Soleway joined us for this part of the trip, he'll be sailing with us for the next few weeks.

We were ready to depart today from Barra de Navidad (we've been here since January!!). However at the last minute the water pressure pump blew a fuse. We had noticed that the pressure pump was also taking a long time to come up to pressure. This was a signal to us that the pump needed tp be replaced. Fortunately we had packed a new replacement pump on board when we left California. So instead of leaving Barra today, I spent the afternoon installing the new pump. The old one was so noisy, and the new one is so quiet, we can't hear it at all! So we're happy to have taken care of that item.

Now it looks like we're all ready to sail south to Manzanillo in the morning. We'll spend one or two nights in Manzanillo to provision before heading south to Zihuatanejo.