Things were going well today. I rode my folding bike 3 miles to a Parker fitting shop where they fabricated two new high pressure oil lines while I waited for $29. I even had time to eat lunch on the bike ride home and spent some time riding around La Paz as king of the world, which turned out to be short lived!

After getting the new oil lines in and getting the engine back in service with fresh oil and oil filter, I decided it would be a good time to check all the various fluid levels. The Paragon transmission was a-ok...but alas...the Walter V-Drive was BONE DRY. "Crap...that's not good", was my first reaction, and it got worse as I added new oil and saw it running out of the back of the V-drive through a hole the size of a $10 Peso coin! Sitting right below the hole was the piece that somehow broke away, apparently from wear.

The evil V-drive has struck again and this time it appears to have pulled all the stops in it's attack on our cruising budget and sense of wellbeing! So tomorrow morning during the cruisers net, I will put out a call for someone with transmission and/or V-drive experience and map out a way beat the V-drive once and for all. It most likely won't be pretty or easy, but I will win because I have no choice. To lose to the evil V-drive is not an option for several reasons. For one, THIRD DAY would be trapped in La Paz. Lori and I have already discussed the option of flying back home and decided that it would be too difficult to sell THIRD DAY in Mexico, so we ruled out abandoning ship. Secondly, who would want to buy a boat that can't move anyway?

Tonight is what we call down here in Mexico, "a double shot drink night" in preparation for the next day's battle. The sun will rise in the morning and as sure as it does that damn V-drive will one day work again, on that there is no doubt! The only question is will the Boren cruising budget survive the battle? That is still an open question to be determined by the course of events that will begin unfolding at dawn.