Brenda Getting Established

The first order of business of the day was to learn the status of the engine shipment. UPS Customer Service informed me that the ETA of the engine in San Diego is Wednesday the 16th - two days away. I passed this information on the Judith at Columbia and Mark in Port Townsend.

Brenda and I then went ashore with a specific set of tasks on the agenda.

Our first task was to visit Telcel and attempt to have a SIM card installed which would enable Brenda to use the Nokia 3G phone that she had brought from Australia here in Mexico. The Telcel outlt near the marina sent us to their central facility so that an engineer could make sure that the Nokia was not blocked. We obediently set off for the main office and along the way hailed the first bus during my stay in La Paz. There seem to be neither bus schedules nor bus stops at La Paz - you hail one when you see it coming and the driver stops. Our ride to Telcel was so short that the driver charged only 12 pesos instead of the ususal 16 for both of us.

The Telcel office was its usual marvel of professionalism and efficiency. The first SIM card didn't work so the man tried another and it worked fine. The 150 peso fee covered the SIM card and 50 pesos of prepaid service and Brenda purchased another 200 pesos worth of service.

We then took another bus to the center of La Paz where we soon found a real bakery that supplied us with fresh snacks that we ate on the benches of a bus station. Next we found the Banamex bank and Brenda successfully used her Master Card to withdraw 3000 pesos. After I did a side trip to purchase some stationary we walked back to the marina along the seaside walk. During this walk I used my new camera for the first time to take a Photo of Brenda under a whale.

Back at the marina I found Neil in his office. I told him about the UPS shipment and he figured that the engine would arrive in La Paz late next week. He asked me to visit him tomorrow at noon for a meeting with Joel, who will be doing the engine work.

The broad plan is to have the engine delivered by Columbia to the Marina de La Paz workshop. Even before it arrives I will move Pachuca into a slip at the marina and begin to dismantle the SABB engine. The idea is to make it as light and small as possible for the extraction. I plan to remove the heads, separate the Hurth gearbox, and if possible remove the cylinders. In fact I'll dismantle as much as possible. It should be fun and a great learning experience for me. As far as the engine itself, there has been no interest in it and I am resigned to scrapping it after salvaging a few pieces from it.

Joel will then build some sort of scaffold for lifting the SABB block out of the engine bed. After the engine has been removed I will do two or three days of work removing all associated cables and wiring, then cleaning and painting the engine bed, knowing that parts of it will be chipped away for accommodating the new engine.

Then Joel take over and install the new Volvo engine. Brenda and I may have to take accommodation in a hotel for this phase but regardless, I plan to be present at the boat every day watching the activities and being prepared to make decisions.

Brenda's Bird of the Day is the Brown Pelican. These are our nearest neighbours. Around six of them hang out on an old hulk about 100 metres away from Pachuca. They are lumbering in flight but spectacular when diving as they explode into the sea at high velocity. They are the same species as those unfortunate oiled pelicans being fimed along the coasts of Alabama and Louisiana.