Today we had a choice, we could work on the boat again or we could go for a sail and visit Bahia Ballandra where we were blown out of three weeks ago. Well guess what we did? We had a great sail. When we started we didn't have a favorable wind but as the afternoon progressed the wind shifted and Vallerie took us right to our destination. For those of you that don't know Valerie she is our Hydrovane selfsteering vane. Now what do you need a selfsteering vane for with a auto pilot and Nelda and me? Well Nelda and I are pretty lazy and steering is hard work. It is just like driving a car only you are doing it 24 hours a day! You are constantly making small corrections to stay on course. The autopilot (Auto) does this but he eats allot of electricity to keep him happy. And if you have an electrical problem forget Auto, he's toast. Plus when things get really crazy Auto gets easily confused and just turns himself off. Not what you want when things are really crazy. So back to Val erie, she is actually Engish. That is she is from, a small town in England. As you can see she has a slender build and bright red hair. Don't let that pettie figue fool you, she is tenatous when it comes to keeping Diamond Girl sailing on the wind. With every puff of the wind or wave that goes under the bow she is making tiny corrections to keep the sails full. As long as the wind comes from the same direction, as it usually does, she works great. The best part is she works for free, 24/7 and she doesn't eat ellectricity like her big brother Auto. In fact she is different from most other wind vanes in that she lets Auto and Rudy the rudder take the day off anytime she is working. She can even take Rudys place if he gets sick. This keeps Auto and Rudy in shape for when you need them. So there you have it, our secrete crew member that helps Nelda and I get where we want to go. I will be introducing some of the rest of the crew in future posts. So tonight we get a special treat. When we were in La Paz we bought some huge porterhouse steaks. Yum, but then we find out we can't BBQ in the marina. It seems that the marina manager was visiting a small marina in Canada named Monigue and saw what he thought was a BBQ on a sailboat buring down the marina. So now we have to pay the price, but not tonight as we are anchored out on the hook. Nelda is planning a green salad and carmalized sweet potatos. Double yum! As you know Nelda is a great cook. Take todays lunch, we had soup but not just any soup. It started as three individual packages of cream of chicken cup-of-soup you add boiling water to and serve. It's ok but nothing to write home about, Nelda takes the three packets of soup, adds a teaspoon of chicken buloin and some peper. Then she simmers it into a a thick delicious soup. That is the way it is with most things Nelda whips up. Its alays better than it starts out. This is a short stay as we have to get back to the marina in La Paz by tomorrow morning as we are having a motor lift made for our outboard Sizuki Sam.