11/18/13
Yesterday saw my last crew member, John, leave for the States. I figured I would have a quiet day and mess around on the boat. The outboard motor is now running, thanks to Sea Otter Jimmy, who has a boat a few slips away. That is how you are known around here, boat name first. So I will be Odyssey guy until they get to know me. Anyway, with the motor now running, I took a dinghy tour of La Paz harbor. It is very pretty, and 8-10 miles long, I'm told. On my way back in to the Marina, I was invited for sundowners (cocktails) on Mintaka, a boat we met while berthed in San Diego. As I was getting ready to head over there, two couples dropped my my boat, drinks in hand, so I was not lonely yesterday.

This morning I decided to get industrious and wash the boat, which brought some interesting observations with it. Now, I already knew that red wine and coffee would stain light colored fiberglass, but I found some new stain-makers. Fish blood stains, live squids stain when they squirt their ink or die (see picture). If I had known this about squids I would have made a special effort to remove the dead ones from the deck and then clean up after them. I also found that vomit is good for removing varnish and some boat paint. I am going to make seasick guests vomit on specific areas that need stripping and repainting from now on, ha ha.
Because La Paz Harbor is long and has a narrow entrance, the tides create pretty good currents, both in and out. This afternoon I went stand up paddle boarding (SUPing) across the harbor to the magote, which is the long finger of land on the ocean side of the harbor. When I returned I discovered that the tide was going out and that it had a pretty stiff current going out as well. I made it back, but worked much harder than I had planned. Next time I will check the tides before leaving the Marina. Tomorrow I will be going with people from several boats to dinghy out to snorkel with the whale sharks. Should be a blast again. That is it for now. Wish you all could be here. Weather is 80 ish, water is close to that.