La Paz Blog Catch Up

Since we have been here we have been trying to catch up on maintenance and repairs. However, we have not been as adamant at these tasks as we should be. The weather has been a bit chilly compared to what we have become used to this past summer, when it was consistently in the high 90s and low 100s. It is now in the mid 70s during the day and in the high 40s at night. We have been getting lazy and using the (cold?) weather as an excuse to stay inside and curl up with a good book. Back when we were in Oregon we could only dream of such warm weather, and that included during the last few summers. SUMMERS in Oregon became a joke to us. I spent most days working on the boat in preparation for our adventure south, rain or shine, in sometimes freezing weather. The only thing that kept me inside was the wind with rain if it was over 60mph. Yes I am serious, many days the wind was over 90mph in Newport while we were in our slip. The last supposed summer we were there, we had a whole three days of real summer weather. The rest was overcast, cold and windy. We would have given anything for the weather we are experiencing here in December, in our supposed Oregon summers! I guess one could say we are now spoiled. I should be ashamed, but I’m not, I mean this is supposed to be retirement isn’t it?


CHRISTMASS CHICKEN

Anyway, yesterday I talked myself into getting off my back side (no small feat, mind you) and fiber glassed the interior splint on a repair I made on the broken oar for our dinghy. I had decided to get at least one thing on repairs or maintenance done every day in the future until I’m caught up. That was about a month or so ago, and I actually did, for about a week. Unfortunately, as previously stated, my endeavors became lost in a book, or three. But alas, I am back on track.

LAST NIGHTS SUNSET



A couple of nights ago when the wind was howling and the waves were bashing into the port side, rolling Wind Raven back and forth in a commendable attempt at tossing us about in the v-berth, the dinghy began bashing against the fenders alongside the boat. This resulted in the lifting the rear fender up into the air, allowing the dinghy to slam into the side of the boat. Besides the obvious concern for the potential damage to Wind Raven and the dinghy, it makes a very loud banging noise that is impossible to ignore, no matter how deep you were previously sleeping. As a result I drug myself out of bed and headed out into the cold wind to remedy the situation. I have always been amazed at how Judy can sleep so soundly through all these disruptions in the night. Do you suppose she could be feigning sleep, I wonder at times. But when I ask her if she hears that, she is very consistent in her lack of a response. Anyway, I went out and added another fender between the two boats in an attempt to remedy the situation. It worked until a boat would race by creating a large wake, which would bounce the dinghy high into the air, which in turn would allow two of the three fenders to escape and land in the dinghy. At that point the dinghy would once again crash into the side of Wind Raven. Judy decided to move the third fender back further in hope of a remedy. It worked, that is until the next night in the wee hours when I discovered that we had an errant fender. Yep, it was gone. I think Judy needs to practice her knots some more. She announced on the cruisers net that we had an escaped fender wondering around in the bay , or in the sea, and asked anyone who found it to return it to its home. The chances of that might be pretty slim I think!


REPAIRED OAR FORMOST

NEW YEARS EVE MORNING IN LA PAZ

PANGAS HAVE TWO SPEEDS...STOP & FULL IT SEEMS

THIS ONE PASSED WITHIN 20 FEET OF THE BOAT

I will add photos for your perusal from time to time.