With all good there always seems to be some bad. About all one can do is hope the good outweighs the bad. The good news is that the Auto Pilot is continuing to perform great, and the new solar control is now installed and seems to be functioning properly. At least the indicator light patterns, which are quite complicated, indicate it is working.

JUST ANOTHER BORING SUNRISE!

The bad news is that I now have to purchase and pack water, due to the low oil level in desalinator. This condition will persist until I am able to locate some 30 weight non-detergent oil to fill it back to the required level. More bad news is that my batteries were down to 12.0V this morning. It was cloudy yesterday, so I hope that is the problem.

A FORMOSA KETCH?  NICE!

The good news is that while walking back from the Tienda a truck pulling a panga pulled up and offered to sell us some lobster. I declined, due to the fact they are out of season and I have enough problems without tempting fate, or the game warden. When Dale and I arrived back at the dinghy and were about to push off, the truck, minus the panga, came speeding up and stopped about a hundred feet away. The same Mexican jumped out and came running over with my wallet in his outstretched hand. Unbelievable, it had been almost three weeks. He found it on the beach four miles north of where I lost it. Of course the money was gone, which I minded not at all, as all of my irreplaceable items were present, be they in a somewhat soggily confused condition. I only had a little over 200 pesos on me, but I added that to what had been the wallet and thanked him profusely. Hell, I even gave him a great big hug!

RACING WIND RAVEN!  THEY ALWAYS WIN!

The bad news is that it cost me almost a thousand dollars in fees, gas, etc. to replace all the documents that I now have, or will have duplicates of. It's not like the states, where for a nominal fee you can get duplicates. Here you have to reapply and pay for brand new documents. For example the FM-2 replacement cost $942 pesos, the fishing license was $592 pesos, etc. etc.

AN OFF-ANGLE SUNSET!

The good news is that I canceled my Visa card before it could be used by anyone, which saved me a lot of 
future problems.

THE NEW SOLAR CONTROLLER!

The bad news is that I can't use the old card, so I am stuck here from ten to twenty days waiting to see if the new card will even get here to me, before I run completely out of dinero!


THE OLD GAUGE HOLES, NOW FILLED WITH FIBERGLASS!

THE GREAT NEWS is that I now have plenty of time to work on the boat and I have already started!