I don’t have to tell all you sailors. You already know. For all you non-sailor readers that think this is an exotic life, I want you to see a glimpse of real life.
All the way down the coast, we added needed items to the boat. Biagio calls some of these things ‘real things’ i.e. engine parts, etc. and the other things are stuff’. That would be the things a female would like on a boat such as Tupperware, shoe holders and laundry separators. You get the gist. For my part, I call it all ‘stuff’. Now there was a big rush on the boat of ‘stuff’ in San Francisco where we stayed for a month. Then there was the final ‘stuff’ loaded onto the boat in San Diego. Mosquito nets, sun screen mesh, bicycle baskets, extra parts, etc. With such preparation you would think that all the ‘stuff’ got on the boat and that would be the end of it. You would think.
Photos: The repairs in a 24 hr. period: Left - Major bicycle repair requiring several trips to the bicycle store after we were able to find one; Center - A bird broke off the radio antenna which required a trip to the store for a new one and several more trips to find the right coupling, Lower right - A stanchion was bent when single handing onto the windy LaPaz dock. Lower - Trouble shooting the battery charger before resting it in peace and finding a replacement.
In reality, the water maker didn’t work all the way down the coast. We should have started it in San Diego. But we didn’t. Hey, it always works. Until now. We’re still waiting for the rebuilt pump to come from San Diego as noted in an earlier vignette. And then the battery charger went out. One night after shutting down a computer, there was a soft 'boom' sound. "Hey Biag, I heard something." "What did you hear,” he said? "Something," I said. "I didn’t hear anything", he said. "No it was something", I insisted. Well, we later found that ‘something’ was a battery charger which had come to a dead stop. The battery charger charges our batteries which gives us the power to operate our fans, computers, tv, boy are we spoiled! Well now we have to run the generator to charge it all. Until the new battery charger is installed. Biagio had to scour the car engine stores to get one strong enough to replace the one we had. So now what’s next? Well that is after we get the pump back for the water maker. Maybe then it will be the motor for the water maker. Now remember we still don’t have fresh water.
It’s always something. That’s boat life. So all of you who think this is the ideal life, just remember, all that fixing you’re missing out on. Well that and the dolphins and whales, and the exotic tacos and 'platos corridos', and the walks along the shore, and the diving. Well, I guess it’s worth it. Just don’t tell Biagio. He’s got his head under the navigation table trying to fix the latest malfunction.
