Yup, we are back in La Paz! But this time we didn’t get blown out. We actually had a lovely time as reported earlier. However, when we were planning to leave yesterday and proceed farther north, Larry got to thinking and decided that he just wasn’t comfortable with getting farther from La Paz without fixing our balky starter motor. Pretty much every time we go to start the engine, there are several unsuccessful clicks by the starter. Then he has to beat it into submission. We just weren’t anxious to deal with that and have it fail on us completely in a remote anchorage. Why we couldn’t have decided to deal with this last month when we were footloose and fancy free here, before and after the holidays, is anyone’s guess, but I think it is related to some funky aspect of the Mayan calendar (i.e. we are not getting any younger!)
So we had a wonderful visit to our boat yesterday by Roger and Jean Wise who have established a boat mechanical repair business down here in La Paz. (Jean is a friend of Muggs’s from the Oakland Yacht Club ladies’ book club. She and Muggs ran into each other (well, not literally, of course!) last summer while Jean was up in Alameda. Jean immediately offered to help us learn the ropes of cruising and living in Mexico. We met her husband, Roger, at the club on the night of our get-together. And now we have met up with them again here in La Paz where they are in the thick of things at the Club Cruceros.)
Anyway, Roger specializes in electrical problems and refrigeration, so he is the first person we called when we got back. He and Larry spent two or three hours yesterday, kneeling on the floor, rebuilding the starter motor solenoid. The engine started nicely twice, but then not again for about 5 or 6 more tries. Very disheartening, but at least he was pretty certain that the problem is a manufacturing defect. As of now (next day afternoon), the supplier we purchased it from (in Oakland) has been contacted. He is rebuilding another one for us in Oakland. Our friend, John Rollins, will go pick it up and bring it to us when he returns to La Paz in a week or two in his car. John Rollins was a boat neighbor of ours at Grand Marina in Alameda, and he just happens to have returned to the area in order to take his car out of storage and bring it down to La Paz. This is a REALLY small world.
In the meantime, we are “trapped” again in La Paz but loving every minute of it. Today, we received this picture from Rod and Elisabeth of Proximity:
This was taken in Puerto Balandra where we had our scary evening at anchor a month ago. This was taken as the sun was setting behind the photographer. The gray “slash” below the main boom is our dinghy partially hoisted. This is probably two hours before all hell broke loose. I hope you agree with me that this is an amazing and beautiful picture. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures of Proximity for them.
That’s all for now. Adios!
wow…that is just a BEAUTIFUL shot of Perigrine!
I am grabbing it to use as my desktop. I just got back from the Carribean and also loved the picture of Bahia San Gabriel as the water and sky blues were SO beautiful. I thought of you and Larry often as we had very choppy waters most of the trip and not until we got past Cuba and Haiti (on the way home Jan 15th) that the waters were calmer and warmer.
you are a VITAL part of this trip for many of us back home!
keep up the updates!