6/17/2011 - This and That

First, let me preface this by mentioning that I'm currently enjoying a mellow buzz brought on by 5 Coronas (did I mention that the beer in Mexico is 4.5% alcohol? Except for that pansy "Lite" crap which is only 3.0-3.5.). Anyway, I'm feeling pretty darn good right about now.

(playing right now: Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels)

So I'm sitting here listening to tunes and decided now was a good time to write a blog. Lulu's been feeling a little punk lately so she's up forward taking a nap, although "feeling punk" didn't stop her from doing laundry earlier today.

I managed to get the secondary fuel filters changed today, both the free-standing one and the one on the engine itself. And, amazingly, I managed to do it with minimum of spilled diesel. (Santana just started playing...) I'm hoping that this will cure the surging issue I mentioned earlier. Tomorrow, I plan to up-size the wire between the alternator and the battery's positive buss and also, to see if I can find and eliminate the source of the seawater leak in the engine room.

Today, we went to "town" (actually an RV park/hotel/restaurant/store). Got some fresh vegetables, some chips, eggs, tortillas, etc. We actually caught a ride on the way there from Dennis from the vessel "Prime Time". He just stopped to see if we wanted a ride and, not knowing the way for sure, we did. (Loggins & Messina)

Okay, here's some miscellaneous stuff from the past few weeks:

Trigger fish: We're really getting to like these little guys. We enjoyed them for dinner in San Evaristo courtesy of Dave on s/v Kievit. Then, when we got here, Jay on s/v Wind Raven (from Newport, OR) turned us on to some trigger fish filets. Good stuff. Trigger fish seem to be pretty prevalent around here and I suspect we'll be eating a lot of them. Jay has promised to take us out and show us how to completely decimate their population.

This is what they look like:

However, this photo just tells part of the story. As you can see from this photo of a desiccated trigger fish, they have some amazing teeth:

There's brief story in "The Cruiser's Handbook of Fishing" where the author tells about spearing a trigger fish. Seems that, on the way back to the surface he was holding the fish a little too close and he had a "near religious experience" when it grabbed hold of his left nipple with those teeth. Yikes-O-Rama!

And, speaking of fish, here's my fist big fish, a Crevalle Jack caught between San Evaristo and Agua Verde. It provided enough meat for 5 meals. But, we've decided to try not to catch these bigger fish anymore (except maybe for a Dorado) because it's too likely that some of the meat wil get wasted.

I think we actually enjoyed this little sand bass more than the jack:

I forget for sure where this photo was taken, Ensenada Grande, I think. But it just shows the kind of water we've been anchoring in. Lulu proceeded to jump in right after I snapped this. The water temperature has been somewhere around 80-82 degrees. You can just float around until you get tired. You never have to get out because you're too cold. This is what Lulu has been dreaming of since she was a tadpole.

Here's a photo of the village of Agua Verde. The tienda is off to the right beyond the edge of the photo.

The next to the last day we were there,I dinghied ashore with a bag of garbage. I walked up to a young couple who were doing some work on a panga and watching their children swim. I asked if there was a place around somewhere that I could take a bag of garbage. They said (in Español), "Sure. Just throw it in the back of our pick-up and we'll take care of it." "Really?" "Sí." Do you know if anyone wants these aluminum cans? "Sure, just throw them in the back, too." Wow! Thank you very much! And that's pretty much how it is in these little fishing villages on the Baja so far.

This is where we set up our folding stool so that Lulu could give me a haircut on the beach. Siempre Sabado is anchored in the background, on the left side of this photo.

Here's another shot of Agua Verde with Siempre Sabado anchored way in the background.

(Listening to Buck-O-Nine)

OK, enough for now. It's hot and humid here. Seems weird to have humidity in the desert but, so it goes. Been using our fans a lot, especially to sleep at night. Rigged shades for the side decks as well. And, you know what? It's going to get hotter. Wouldn't be so bad except that we're going to Oregon for about 3 weeks in a month or so. Unless they have a really heavy heat wave while we're there, we are going to get completely un-used to the heat and it's going to knock us on our collective ass when we get back in August. Yikes.

(listening to The Bangles sing "Manic Monday")

OK, hast luego....