Only Two Days to Go . . .

Until we all get raptured up, or so they are saying.  Of course, the "they" I am talking about would tell me I am not a candidate for early release. Oh well - we will just have to see what happens.

Mike is almost finished with the watermaker install.  He says the hard part is done.  (And no, I did not get to paint the engine compartment.  He said he was having too much fun.)  I am pretty excited to see how it works.  It is supposed to make 30 gallons in an hour, and we can utilize our portable generator to power it. The generator runs on gasoline (as opposed to diesel) and is very fuel efficient.  We could make many, many gallons of water off of one tank of gas.  Once this is in, we will be free to do pretty much whatever we want to, wherever we want to.  Not bad at all.

Last night when we were coming back to the boat from dinner, we saw some phospheresence (spelling??) in the water.  It was just some tiny little green dots, and they were swimming around really fast.  It was like they would all come together and then the whole group would vanish.  We couldn't figure out what it was.  Mike went and got a flashlight, and when we shined it on the water we discovered the water was full of these little tiny worms.  It was cool but also sort of icky - I am not real crazy about anything that looks like snakes, even tiny ones.  It also made me happy that I haven't tried to swim in this water.  Marina water is always dirty.  I have no idea what these things are,  but I will try to find out. 

This is in great part why it is never boring here - if worse comes to worse, you can always just watch fish.  They are always doing something fairly interesting, even if it is just swimming around in patterns.  Some of then stick their heads out of the water.  Other ones jump.  In Cabo I watched a little fish jump high out of the water - and discovered it was being pursued by a big rooster fish, who jumped out right after it.  Rooster fish are really pretty.  Even the guys running the tourist boat anchored nearby were impressed by that one.  And while underway, I saw a real flying fish.  When they soar, their fins flutter like wings.  Here in the marina, there are millions (I do not think I am exaggerating) of little minnow-type fish.  One group is real tiny, maybe a 16th of an inch, tops.  Then there are some that are about as long as a half inch, but skinny. They have nice blue stripes down their backs.  There are others that are about an inch and are striped.  Late in the day,the bigger fish come into the marina, usually mullet, which like to stick their heads out of the water. 

Yesterday we had a nice surprize - visitors!  We met this woman in the St. Louis airport on our way to San Diego.  I said something about Mazatlan, and she told me they were interested in buying a house here for retirement.  She worked for the airline.  We talked for a bit, and I gave her the name of the boat and where we were docked, and they actually showed up!  It was great to visit with them and we are all having dinner tonight.  The other interesting thing is that they own vacation property in Mountain Home, Arkansas, which is where Mike's brother is a sheriff.  They told us that the lakes we saw when we were there in April are all now overflowing.  I guess we missed that Mississippi flooding by only a couple of weeks.  We drove all along the Mississippi from Wisconsin down to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.    I wonder how much of what we saw is now under water.  I think the real bad flooding was south of there,  but we were not that far from Cairo, Illinois.  It is too bad that the farmers will lose this year's crop, but periodic flooding is what makes that land so fertile.  But I think if your house spends days in the water up to its rafters, you can pretty well forget about living in it anymore. 

The other thing that is new is that we are using our air conditioner.  I have mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, it is really nice to be cool and comfortable in the cabin, especially when it is time for sleeping.  But I don't want to get totally dependent on it. I really need to get used to being hot and sweaty, as ridiculous as that sounds.  It is in the high 90s here, and humid.  When we are in the Sea of Cortez this summer, it will be in the 100s, but dry.  I think the dry heat is easier to deal with.  Plus we will be anchored instead of being in a marina, so if I get too hot, I can just jump into the water and cool off.  My nephew will be here soon, which means that Mike will have a partner to accompany him if he wants to go on some hellish hike through the desert at high noon.  This is a kid that hiked down the Grand Canyon and back in the summertime, so I think he can handle anything Mike can throw at him.  I will just sit on the beach and swim.  After all, someone has to guard the dinghy!  Listen to me - again obsessing over how hot I am going to be!  

Well, I guess this is enough for today - I am likely to just start babbling at any moment.  I will spare everyone that.  Now will begin another day here in paradise!