July 4: Geary's Party. When the Fourth rolled around, many of the cruisers emerged from their boats a bit later than usual, but all converged under the two big tents on the beach in the afternoon for conversation, beer or soda, and hot dogs. Besides the cruisers whose boats were anchored out front, other cruisers from more distant anchorages (such as Loreto and Puerto Escondido) were also in attendance, having rented cars and driven to the party. It was fun to finally meet some of the other cruisers who we hear on the different radio nets each day. Some local residents, including the owners of a resort and restaurant further down the bay in Playa Buenaventura, also came. I told you, Geary's party is legendary in these parts.

The party concluded after dark, with some fireworks (provided by Geary) launched from the dirt parking lot behind the beach, and some large, burning, paper balloon lanterns (luminarias?) that glowed for quite awhile as they rose up and up and up over the sweatroglyph hill, before winking out into darkness. There is no way that you would ever be allowed to do ANY of this in California, but we're not in California. It was fun, and the hill did not catch on fire.

July 5: Birthday #2 and Exodus. The most important thing to note about today is that it is our daughter, Kelly's, twentieth birthday! Happy Birthday, Kelly! Also, Mark and Olivia, the owners of the Playa Buenaventura Resort and Restaurant, had invited all party attendees to an all-you-can-eat pig roast on July 6. As a result, many of the boats pulled up their anchors and moved down the bay to Playa Buenaventura today. SCOOTS and Cavale stayed behind.

Eric and I were planning to find a ride into Mulegé to do some reprovisioning, but Geary informed us that because it was Sunday, most everything in town would be closed. BUT, he offered to take us with him into town the following day. Cool! (Thank you, Geary!)

With our day freed up, we changed into our bathing suits and took the dinghy to some small islands to do some snorkeling. When we got back to SCOOTS, I swam under the boat to check on our little ecosystem...I can now report that we still have about a dozen of those little striped fish living around our prop and rudder, so some or all of them made the trip across the Sea with us.

Then we did some laundry (see, our life is not all parties). While the laundry was in progress, Eric decided to troubleshoot the odd noises coming from the fresh water pump. As he was taking it apart, on his hands and knees with his head under the sink, the pressure sensor relay went SPROING! spraying Eric with water and sending springs and nuts and washers flying, some landing in the bilge. Ugh. Choice sailor words ensued. I shut off the water pump at the breaker. Eric toweled off.

We spent the next few hours fishing through our copious spares kits for some replacement nuts and washers (check!) so that Eric could reassemble the sprung pressure sensor relay and put the fresh water pump back together. The relay was a devilish piece of hardware that was not only sprung under pressure, that would go SPROING! if not held together just so, but also had to be turned upside-down before being reinserted into the pump. Not an easy task. After some consideration, Eric tried using Crazy Glue to temporarily hold the thing together. It held, and he was able to let go of it long enough to turn it upside-down and put it into place in the fresh water pump. Hooray! Our fresh water pump works again and no longer makes odd noises! The laundry continued and our clothes got clean.

We invited the crew of Cavale – the only other remaining sailboat in the anchorage - over to SCOOTS in the evening. Mary and Michael, we learned, had been in Shilshole Marina the same time as SCOOTS, and had admired the look of her hard dodger so much that they had a similar one designed for Cavale. Small world, no? We've seen their dodger, and it does, indeed, look great! We also taught them how to play Mexican Train, according to Impulsive's ruthless rules, as we were taught by Morris and Debbie. Two more Mexican Train devotees!

Now, on to Part 3...