Visits, R12, and Engine Report

This morning we got a quick visit from Noel and Jackie from Pyewacket as they were making their way to the dinghey dock for laundry and other things. They had come across a that 51 ft sail boat shortly after daylight drifting near Bahia de Frailes where Arnold and I had spent a night or two. The young owner had had the engine overhauled in San Diego and something had gone seriously wrong. Noel and Jackie towed this 30 ton monster at 2.5 knots all the way into La Paz. At one point the tow line broke, they had gear trouble and could not raise the sail, and were drifting toward the rocks. Anyway, the owner is going to repower his boat with a brand new engine - oh, and did I mention that his parents are paying for it?

I then went ashore alone and met all of my objectives. First I dropped off a large bag of laundry. The girl was surrounded by laundry bags and looked very busy so to her relief I told her that I would not need it until tomorrow, and we agreed on Noon. This is what the last cleaned laundry looked like: beautiflly folded into a watertight pastic bag.

After a long walk to "Auto Zone" I purchased 3 canisters of R12 refregerant gas and the hosing and valve to deliver the gas to the refrigerator. The fellow did not speak much English and my Spanish is execrable but he must have recognized the words "refrigerator" and "gas". I then rememberd how to say "R12" in Spanish, "ere doce", and that sealed it.

I then walked to the tourist precinct where I purchased some post cards and got a fresh injection of cash from a bank ATM.

When I returned to the boat Arnold told me that he had been visited by a lone sailor from a nearby boat who had been attracted by Pachuca's stainless steel cockpit frame. He told Arnold that Colin had just repowered his boat with a 3-cylinder Yanmar diesel that delivers something like 29 horspower. Anyway, the man said that he would return to have a conversation with me.

Arnold then took the Zodiac ashore to get off the boat and do some walking around on dry land.

Late in the afternoon I had a go at finding the source of the leak in the starboard pot cupboard with no success. It is too difficult a job for a bucket of water and a fully laden boat.

Regarding the engine, I've just received the following email from Colin:

"Robert, call me, we need to talk, Head is cracked, crack is from inlet valve seat to the exhaust valve seat, both seats are cracked also, need other head."

Fortunately I've got the old head in my quarter berth. I hope that it will do because ordering parts from Norway will take time and from what I hear there is a good chance that the part would not arrive through the Mexican system.