Ensenada vs Mission Bay

It looks like we will most likely go to Ensenada for our haul out repairs. The person who was supposed to arrange a haul out at Mission Bay never showed up. The first person (Brad) who was supposed to come by to check out the water maker, worked on it yesterday. He seems very competent and honest, no bullshit. That, my friends, is very refreshing, and rare I might add. He had to send the RO control unit into a shop to have a new one made. That will run around $500. The total cost will be around $1500. That's not bad considering that a comparable unit would cost over $8000. It puts out 20 gal an hour. On the test run yesterday it had a part per million content of 213, under 400 is acceptable. So that's pretty damned good. Especially since it was made in the eighties. I can't believe the pre-filters cost $49 ea. at Home Depot. That's just a regular home water filter, nothing special. I guess it is worth it to get all of those little "nasties" out. Brad is supposed to let me know today when they will have the parts ready. Soon I hope, as we are running out of dock time here. You are only allowed to stay here ten days. We have to leave here on the 18th for the haul out, either here or Ensenada.

We went over to Lynn and Richards for a great meatloaf dinner (prepared by Tammy) last night. It was very enjoyable seeing Lynn again and finally meeting her husband Richard, an exceptionally nice gentleman. They were very gracious hosts and both Judy and I enjoyed the evening tremendously. Their place is very nice with a great back yard. Trees, flowers and shrubs everywhere. We viewed both Tammy's and Lynn's paintings that exhibited a very talented family heritage.

Judy:  Wow, what an "answer to prayer" our water maker repairer young man is! We have been worrying about whether we were going to find someone who could get it working again or if we were going to fork out thousands for a new water maker....as our funds become ever more skimpy with all the other "needs" this "demanding mistress" of a boat requires......I was adamant about our need for a water maker on board and Jay agreed, but we were very stressed about what news we would find out about whether it could be "resurected" or if we would have to buy a new unit, most likely one being not as good and most likely some MADE IN CHINA rinky-dink defective unit that would cost a bundle and not deliver the "goods."  We know that when Lloyd  owned the boat he made sure to buy the best of everything on the market at the time he had it----problem is it was over  20 years ago when he owned the boat and then the last owner, Chris, told us he never even used it the entire five years he owned the boat! This turned out to be a blessing in disguise! It turned out to be "unused" in a kind of mechanical "suspended animation" seemingly waiting to have new life breathed into it again! We found that Chris had not been a very good owner of the boat and many things he just used and used till it was basically used up........then sold the boat to us! So, in effect, his not using the water maker "saved" it for us! Wow, I guess sometimes Guardian Angels are assigned to watch over little things like water makers!  And I disagree with Jay in that I have been looking at water maker prices (which are exhorbitant for such a mechanically unsophisticated mechanism) and have not yet found ANY on the market available to common yachties like us today that even come close to producing as much water as this Catalina 500 made by the now defunct "ASC Marine Systems"  does. This will be a most excellent thing to own in the Sea of Cortez where we hear very little fresh, clean drinking water is available.

Brad, the "water maker wizard"  is a very gracious young man who obviously has lived on a boat and knows the ins and outs of quite a few things regarding them.  Usually when non-yachties come on the boat to do work they take over my entire "home" and I feel "displaced" and usually resign myself to the fact that I need to stay top-side or go shopping, etc. to stay out of the way. Not so with this young worker.....he knows how to move around on a boat with other people aboard using the Tai Chi-like movements that Jay and I have been becoming familiar with since moving onto the boat. You other boaters know what I mean.....the graceful, slow, deliberate movements to perambulate about the boat without bumping into and displacing the others on board. Anyway, needless to say I am quite impressed with Brad and can't wait to witness the miracle of life spring up with true "living water" in our fresh water tanks via the repaired water maker.

As Jay mentioned, we had a lovely dinner with Lynn, Richard and Tammy.....and they even served my favorite dessert creme brule----darn I can't find the "accent" marks to spell the French delicacy correctly--oh well.......needless to say it was divine....I think I can truly say it was the best I have ever had.........thank you Lynn and Tammy......and Richard for a wonderful evening of great food and great conversation-----I certainly would love to get to know Lynn and Richard better......many thanks, again to such a wonderful couple!