Last Dqy at Frailes (maybe)

This is the first of March already. My, how time flies on when you're having fun.

This morning we plumbed our water tanks. The starboard tank services the galley manual pump and the port tank services the head. The galley tank had over 50 liters of water in it, out of a total capacity of 140 liters. The head tank had 110 liters of water. This was a pleasant surprise to Arnold an d myself: utilization of 120 out of our 280 liter capacity remaining after 14 days since our last water fill, or 8.6 liters per day. We attribute this improved fresh water consumption to the total elimination of fresh water rinsing of our dishes. Now everything except the pressure cooker gets washed and rinsed in sea water while we are out of port.

We discussed building our stocks from the well ashore but it would have taken a huge effort and we would have had to chlorinate the water and boil it before drinking. We decided to compromise. I emptied the last 6 liters of fresh water from our 10 liter container with the plan to go ashore to fill both 10 liter containers with well water for bathing and washing clothes. Hopefully fresh water would be easy to get at Ensenada de Los Muertos ("Cove of the Dead"), our next planned anchorage 46 miles to the north.

But first I had to get the outboard motor running. Try as I might it would not start so I hoisted it back up to its place at the back rail to see what I could do. I could not find the manual but I did remember that I had had the motor fully serviced in Port Townsend. I managed to get the cover off then dropped the back panel exposing the spark plug. The plug looked OK, though a bit oily, so I swapped in a new one to be sure. Before I screwed the plug in I put some raw fuel into the cylinder. A few cranks and the engine started, ran a few seconds, then died again. This told us that the ignition was OK. I had topped up the tank the previous day with a mixture that must be at least 6 months old, from raw fuel that is probably a year old. Arnold was pretty sure that old fuel was the problem. He was probably right and I will get fresh fuel at first chance but at the moment I didn't have much choice in the matter. I noticed that the fuel on/off valve was a bit loose so I tightened it by hand and next thing I knew the motor was running OK, although I had to shut it down after a few seconds because the motor was out of the water and not getting any cooling.

I lowered the motor back onto the Zodiac, loaded up with the containers, one bucket, rope, and some laundry, and headed for shore. The engine got me ashore and back with no problem. When landing on the beach I stepped out of the boat to quickly get it away from the surf and stepped into a steep dropoff and wound up half in the water. At the well I filled the containers then washed not only the planned laundry but also the wet pullover and T-shirt off my back and my khaki shorts. I was left wearing only shoes and bright red underpants.

As I was finishing up I saw a white van whiz by blaring a jingle out of a loudspeaker about "pan". Hmm, the bread man was here. It took a 1 km walk to the main camping "settlement" wearing my newly-washed shorts to find him but the walk was worth it. He had a wonderful selection of pies, cakes, and cookies in addition to bread. I purchased two nice pieces of pastry and 10 small loaves of bread for 55 pesos. While there I saw again the two men whom we had met the day before at the well. They said that there are a lot of whales around but they think that they are moving out to head for Alaska. I mentioned that from the summit of the Cabo I had raised my binoculars to see a boat on the horizon to catch the classical "T" profile of a large whale less than 3 miles away as it made its dive.

I returned to the boat and after hanging out the washing surprised Arnold with the goodies that I had purchased.

Soon we set off for the restaurant for cold beers and a seafood meal. After all of our effort to go ashore and walk the 2 or 3 kilometers we arrived to find that the place was closed, even though it was still daylight. Unfortunately the restaurant does not post its hours and my weak Spanish had discouraged me from asking. We both took the setback philosophically and enjoyed the walk back. After all, on the way to the restaurant at least two whales had put on a show of splashing about 2 miles off the coast.

I put together a quickie meal of the usual rice & vegetables with chili beef accompanied by beer and bread. After that we watched Master and Commander for about the third time.

Our plan is to depart tomorrow for the anchorage at Ensenada de Los Muertos 46 miles away. Because the wind will be against us we have decided on an overnight sail with some long tacks. If things go well we will arrive at our destination with plenty of daylight. The forecast for this part of the Sea of Cortez is for light to moderate northerlies until Friday, when stronger winds will arrive because of a storm expected to hit southern California. We will listen to the 6 AM forecast then have a look at actual conditions outside. We will postpone our departure if the winds are either too light or too strong.

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