The old fuel filter system was just that - old. After our last "fun" sail and the dirty fuel issues, a new Filter Boss system was installed. Now if one of the filters starts to clog up, a buzzer sounds at the helm. Run down below and flip two levers and we are back in business. The old filter can be changed without shutting down the engine or bleeding the system. How cool is that?

We took three weeks off of work (Rick, Shazam and Rick) and slooooowly made our way down to Turtle Bay. After several liesurely anchorages, we made our way into Tortuga Bay, sometime around midnight. Unbeknowst to us, the Baja-ha-ha was in town! Time to party!!
The fun really started when we had to head home. We left Turtle Bay and motored north in rough seas. At our closest approuch to land (still 200 miles from our marina) and in the middle of the night (does it happen any other time!) the engine quit! After doing all the usual stuff to get it running again, it was determined that the fuel injector pump was blown. Oh, well. It is a sailboat. Up go the sails. after 5 days of sailing, we made it back. Time for the next upgrade!

Wow! After lots of research and price checking, we bought a whole bunch of new instruments abd installed them ourselves. In the picture you can see the istrument arch, the radar screen, ST 60 wind, depth, speed and temperature instruments. Also installed was a low profile compass and VHF radio. The chartplotter (upper right on the pod) is the next instrument to get upgraded. Although the chartplotter is great to have on board, these old eyes just can't see enough of it to be truely useful. Other upgrades/purchases included a multi-stage battery charger (also divided the batteries into two banks - 400 AH starting and 1000 AH house), a Magma bar-b-que, compressor for the fridge, hooka system (for diving, bottom cleaning, etc) new dinghy and outboard and replaced all the ports.

After the sale was completed, we moved to the police dock in San Diego. We could only stay there for 10 days - then it was time to move on. During one of the worst storms San Diego has seen in years - we left for Ensenada! As you can see, we made it! We have been at this marina since 2002.

We aquired this 1981 Morgan Out Island. She is 41 feet long and weights in at a whopping 31,000 pounds!! Time to go on a diet! Here she is getting a haulout for the survey.

This is the start of our sailing careers! A cold pizza in a crappy motel and a current chart book of Southern California. But even this wouldn't stop us from buying a boat - on Shazam's birthday, no less!