Journal March 16th La Paz

La Paz means “The Peace”. There are several cities in Mexico that have that name but just one in Baja Sur Calif, Mx. It is nice here. The days are quite warm. The temperatures now are between 70 and 90 degrees during the day and they drop to about 50 at night which makes it comfortable to sleep. We have been busy trying to restock and find the necessities, (showers, food, water, etc.)
We now have an internet connection but the signal is not strong enough to stay connected long enough to send the journal or use the email system much. We need to keep looking. A couple people we met in Cabo said that they were using TelCel which is a phone company in Mexico. I want to check into that and see if we can afford it.
Tony is here on Windstrutter and he is an engineer of some kind. I am not sure what he is an engineer of, but he seems to understand engines.
Jim has about run out of ideas to fix the engine. He has tried everything he can think of. And he has tried everything anyone has suggested that worked for them. Jim offered to pay Tony if he can fix it.
March 22, 09
Tony came over and spent a day and a half working on the engine. He had Jim change the oil and flush out the system with fresh oil then change it again. He did several things like that to improve the cooling. He bled the air out of the cooling system. He had Jim re-plumb the water heater into the engine system which had been disconnected. Then he re-plumbed the system the way that Jim had done it a few weeks ago. He put the transmission and the oil cooler into the salt water system. And he straightened out the salt water plumbing system by rerouting the pipes. Jim says that the main problem was air in the cooling system. He had tried to get it out before but with Tony’s help they removed more air. It looks like the problem is fixed. Finally!! Now I can put the house back together and try to get the black grease off things.
We have found most of the things we need to survive here. I located a fabric store and a craft shop. There is a café on the dock and several little cafes along the walk way. I even found some salt and pepper shakers which I really like. So I guess we will be fine. We will really need to live conservatively in order to stay within our budget. But I think it is possible.
Tony gave me a recipe for Sour Dough bread which I made yesterday. It turned out good and I didn’t have any left when I went to put it away for the night. I guess I need to make more next time. Oh, I guess I can’t because my oven will only hold 2 loves. Oh well, two loves are usually enough for us.
I took the computer to shore yesterday to send my journal and to find the LDS ward. It is about 3 miles from here. I haven’t figured out how to get there and back yet. The only way I can think of to get to church is to take a taxi and they won’t be available to return home. I can’t call them because I don’t speak the language. I haven’t even been able to make the phone work because I don’t understand what the voice on the phone is telling me. I will figure it out if I am here long enough and Jim seems to want to stay. He said yesterday that we better try to get long term visas. It is a little confusing because one day he will say we need to get long term visas and the next he will say we need to get out of here. But the weather is beautiful and if you know Jim, you know how he hates the winters in Utah.
I wish I could make a trip home. That is something I can work toward! My leg is fine and my hand is healing so I am in good shape. The engine works and we are repairing all the little things that went wrong on the boat so the boat is going to be in great shape too soon.
March 27, 09
Jim had the bottom of the boat cleaned today. A man in a wet suit came out and scraped it clean. You need to do this every few months because plants grow on it. Our bottom paint is old so it doesn’t do a lot to inhibit the plant growth.
I am making a couple of blouses. I forgot how much work they are to make. I have learned that this heavy duty sewing machine is not for making blouses. When we bought it, they said we could just adjust the tensions and use it for lighter material with lighter thread but it sure doesn’t work as well for light fabrics as it does for heavy ones. I have had to do much of the sewing by hand because the stitches aren’t very good quality and the material doesn’t feed the same. Oh well, I have learned a lesson.
We are enjoying the great weather and beautiful scenery here. We have been staying pretty much to ourselves so we haven’t met many people.
I bought a USB port modem so that I can get the internet from the boat. It works anywhere there is phone service. I am hopeful that it will make my internet connections much better. I pick it up today around 1 pm. The fellow at the store said that in order to “unlock” it, so that it will work in other countries and with other networks, he has to send it to someone else. It should be back today at 1:00pm. I hope it works! When we had our phones unlocked so that we could use them down here, it only took a few minutes. I don’t understand why it is such a big deal, but I already paid for it and I can’t get my money back so I will wait.
I will go shopping after we get the modem. I hope to go to Sam’s Club. It is quite a ways and I will have to take a taxi. It may cost too much. If it does, I will need to go somewhere else instead and get by with what I can get!!
April 2, 09
It has been quite a while since I wrote in my journal. I have been busy. Monday we took the washing in to the laundry mat and got the propane tanks full. We got gas for the dingy and generator and we got the water bottles filled. Then we went back and picked up the clothes. The fellow that was getting the modem unlocked finally gave me my money back. We waited several days and made several trips to his store. He never did get the modem unlocked. We went to another Telcel store and got a different modem. The man at the store said he would have to get the modem from the store house. He would bring it over to us about 4:00pm. So at three we went to a café. We ate dinner and waited for him to come. We called him a few times. About 5;30 he told us that he had to send to Tiawana and it had not arrived as fast as he thought it would. He said he would call us in the morning. He didn’t! And he didn’t call all day. But yesterday when Jim called him he said it was in and we could go get it. So we did! Now I have an internet connection that is slow but sure.
Yesterday I decided to finish the blouses I was making. I got so disgusted with them that I put them away. I don’t know if I will ever finish them. We will see what happens later. I have also found Sam’s Club and Walmart. When I take a taxi they always want to wait and bring me back so I let him wait for me. Sam’s Club and Walmart are too far away to go there very often but I just learned that there is a bus that goes there so perhaps one of these days I will catch the bus and go to Walmart and see what they sell there.
I have worked hard all week and today I am taking the day off!! Imagine that. I can take a whole day off if I want. I am sure many of you can do that too. But it still seems like a real luxury to me Well, I still have to fix meals and that kind of stuff, but that is OK.
I am sitting in the cockpit of the boat in the middle of a beautiful bay with about 20 other boats. We can park here for free and we get into the dingy and go to shore when we need something. The boats need to be spaced far enough apart so that they don’t swing into each other in the wind. But two days ago, the navy towed a boat into the bay and parked it right by our boat. Jim told them they were too close but they couldn’t move because their engine overheated. (That sounds familiar.) So we have been watching the boats swing around since then. They come pretty close sometimes. Their boat lost its engine and they called the navy and ask the navy to tow them in. They have had more experience that we have. I thought the navy would probably charge us to tow us. And I have heard stories about when the navy boarded your boat they sometimes took it away from you. I guess that isn’t usually the case. The couple on the boat said they didn’t have to pay the navy to tow them. That is good to know.
In most anchorages, the boats all move together as the wind shifts. But in this anchorage that isn’t true. The currents move the boats in one direction and the wind moves the boats in another direction so the way your boat faces has a lot to do with the shape of the hull. And it is possible for all the boats to face every which way at the same time. Jim and James, on the other boat, have been keeping a close eye on the two boats. We don’t want to move, so Jim just pulled in some of our chain so that we won’t swing so far. Today, he told James that it looks like they are all right. James wants to move the boat into a marina for repairs. Tony has gone back to England so he can’t offer his help with the engine. We were very lucky to have his help even though it was expensive.
There is a side walk that runs around the edge of the bay. It is called the Malacon. It is about 10 feet wide and winds around the bay between the road and the beach. It is paved with red and gray cement. The curvy red strips that run through the walk extend over and run through the road in many areas. About every 100 feet there is a statue or a bench or a table with a grass roof over it or just a grass roof on a pole. In places the sidewalk gets very wide and forms a patio on the beach side. This sidewalk runs about 2 or 3 miles. It is really pretty and it is a good place to take a walk, but it is quite hot because there is no shade.
We have been walking to the center of town about 3 times a week. We quite often walk along the Malacon part of the way. If I get a chance to get a picture of it, I will send it. If I don’t, you can see a picture of it on Google-Earth.
Well, I guess I have had my day off. Jim is scrubbing the deck and I wanted to scrub the cockpit. It would be nice to have them both done at once so I will do that now.
April 4,09
It took me 2 days to scrub the teak bench and floor in the cockpit and oil it. The problem is that the wood wasn’t clean enough and probably needed sanding in some places. I used salt water to wash it and there are places where the salt is caked and white on the edges of some of the boards. It doesn’t look very good with oil on it. It is uneven and places are discolored. Jim was not happy with it either. I guess I need to scrub it off. I kind of wanted to put another coat on to even it out and sand and clean it again before I did. He wants me to just scrub it off. That is certainly the easiest thing to do and he likes the silver color better anyway.
April 4 and 5th
We spent the week end listening to conference. I am really glad that we can get it. I thought it was exceptionally good this time.
April 6th Happy Birthday Kevin and Aurora
Today I scrubbed the oil off the cockpit floor as much as I could. The rest needs to wear off I guess.
The weather is gorgeous here. Every day is sunny and warm. Every night is cool with a breeze. Yesterday was Sunday and the bay was so calm and peaceful, I felt like the water must have known it was Sunday too, but it didn’t last all day long.
Today I am going to start making mosquito netting for the companionway hatch. Then I plan on altering the shade over the cockpit so that I can hang mosquito netting from that too.
April 7, 09
Late yesterday afternoon, we went to shore to get water. Our big tank was empty. Jim let me drive the dingy. It was fun but the current was so strong that the dingy didn’t go the way it was headed. It was a learning experience. We stopped to talk to people on other boats and the current took me right into the side of their boat at about 4 nautical miles per hour. I had almost no control at all. Luckily the dingy has inflatable sides and we just bounced off the side. Like I said, it was a real learning experience. I found that when I approached our boat to dock, I could not do it. Jim explained that the propeller had to be moving in order to steer the boat. There was no rudder. That helped a little but honestly, it will just take practice.
This morning Jim suggested that we get in the dingy and go down to look at the marina which is the farthest in along the channel. Someone said their slips were cheaper than the rest of the marines. We decided to go look. It was a great ride. The marina was probably a couple miles away and the water was really flat and smooth. Pelicans glided over the water with their wing tips so close to the water that they occasionally made a ripple in the smooth surface. Sometimes they would glide for hundreds of yards that way and one time I spotted a dolphin swimming about 20 feet from the boat, but he soon disappeared into the water. We passed hotels that were sticking up out of the middle of palm tree groves, and we passed barren deserts with old run down shacks. We saw two different ships that were rotting in the water. One was almost rusted away. The water was so shallow in some places that the motor to the dingy got caught in the mud. It would be a hard place to get the boat into.
When we got there, we learned that they were full and their slips were much more expensive than we had been told. But it was a fun ride so I am not sorry we went.
I am sending a couple pictures I took last night from our boat so that you can see the area. It is beautiful here.

I will start a new chapter and send this before it gets too long.
Love ya all,
Donna and Jim