Monday, Monday

So here we are - awaiting the arrival of our water pump via the USPS.  And waiting.  And waiting. 

Most people down here believe that the reason mail takes so long between here and the US is due to issues down here.  I have discovered this is wrong.  I have a tracking  number for my package.  It took five days to get from Connecticut to NYC.  Please.  I could walk from Connecticut to NYC in five days.  Maybe even less.  And it has been sitting in NYC at the "International" department since the 13th.  It's making me crazy, but there is nothing I can do about it.

So what else is new?  We made a new bimini.  For those who don't know, a bimini is a canvas shade for the cockpit.  We had to take our old one down when we added the new solar panels, and we had decided we needed to have a new one made.  Mike looked at the old one for awhile, and then grabbed a scissors and cut the old one into three pieces.  We then sewed a new one in place by hand.  It is not a perfect job, but we only need it to last for a year (when we plan to get all new canvas) and it will certainly serve its purpose.  And it looks really good, especially if you don't look too  close and examine the stitching.  We used sail needles and sail thread, and both of us poked holes in our fingers in the process.  But I am really proud of the results.  And it would not have been fun to try and sail with no bimini - sailing through the tropics with no shade?  Not for me. 

We also got the new chainplates put on, and they are  better than the old ones ever were.  Our friend and landlord, Santos, made them for us.  It turned out to be much easier to replace the chainplates than we thought it would.  I can't think of anything we need to do to the boat before we can leave, other than small things that you don't do until literally a day before leaving, like padding the glass in the cupboards. 

I also made chili rellenos for the first time - they were really good and easy to make, if a bit tedious as there are several steps.  I made vegetarian ones, stuffed them with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and some spices.  I blackened the peppers, peeled off the skins, stuffed them, doused them in egg and flour, and then fried them.  I did not batter and deep fry them.  I also did not add cheese to them, because I wanted to eat them, too.  I also made another batch of bread dough, baked one loaf that came out perfectly and froze three more for future use.  After fifteen years of practice, I finally got it right.  I have never been able to bake decent bread in the past, even with a bread machine.  Tonight we are going to have shrimp that we bought from a passing canoe.  I have some fresh ginger that should go well in there.  Last night we had my fresh, homemade bread and lentil soup.  We are eating well here on Magda Jean.  I like to cook, but I get stuck in a rut and have trouble thinking of new things to fix for us. 

Right now I am using the computer, the fridge is going, and we are listening to the radio.  Because of our solar  capabilities, we are still generating more power than we are using.  By midday, we will have earned  back all the power we used yesterday after the sun set.  This happens every day now, and there will be another 100 watt panel added by this weekend.  So we have gone for seven days without using the generator to charge the  batteries.  Mike is going to use the generator for charging tonight, simply because it is good for the batteries to do that every now and then, but not because we need the power.  The other boats have been stopping by to see how we have our stuff set up.  Between the stuff Mike does and the things Santos has made for us, we are sort of a show boat of sorts, with everyone wanting to check out our systems.  

So anyway, we continue in the holding pattern, awaiting the water pump.  While I have been bitching and moaning about this, the truth is this s a problem often faced  by boaters.  The parts are expensive, hard to get, and that is just they way it is.  I had  better get used to it, there will be no change in that situation any time soon.  Some places are better than others - Panama is supposed to have everything -  but until then, we just deal with it.  We all complain about it, but this is the choice we have made.

Today our plans are to finish washing some rugs (at the dock, because this process is very water-intensive and I want to use that water instead of ours), get some beer, and go swimming.  I think I can handle that!

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring." (Marilyn Monroe)             

As Time Goes By

So I am really sorry about writing the whining post but I have decided not to delete it - "I yam what I yam" and so on. I do have a depressive streak a mile wide.

I think one of the reasons I got so down was a combination of the stuff breaking - which at times I am sanguine about and other times it makes me crazy - and the fact that I have been feeling strange lately, sort of like I have lost my way.  I kept thinking to myself "I have lost sight of my goals."  Then I would think "What goals?  What is it that I feel I am not accomplishing that I should be accomplishing?"  And I have no answer for that.  There really is no goal to my life right now - except to travel as many places as I can and see as many things as I can.  And heaven knows I have accomplished this in this past year - five countries in depth.  Not too shabby, as my dad would have said.  So I guess I am really on track, whatever that means.

So we know we have a freon leak in the fridge system but that is not fatal - we have the tools and the gas, and Mike knows how to give it a charge if it starts to need one.  He is also coming up with a plan to find and then fix the leak.  The chainplates have been removed, and have been sent to San Salvador with Santos, who plans to fix them himself.  He likes metal work.  I thought wood was his specialty - our new table and my new spice rack and our new  baseboards and the box holding our home entertainment center speakers would certainly be strong testimony as to his woodworking expertise.

Today for breakfast we are having tamales that Santos's mom made.  I can hardly wait for Mike to wake up so I can eat mine.  I could do it now, but then I would have to watch Mike eat his later after mine were gone.  It is better to wait.  I'll enjoy it more.  I do have the capacity for delayed gratification, after all.

Mike figures the chainplates will be fixed by the weekend, and after that, it is just a matter of waiting for and then replacing the primer pump for the water maker.  Mike can install it in a few minutes.  The only fly in the ointment is the fact the pump is being shipped from Connecticut - where they had a horrible blizzard that may have disrupted shipping.  And hopefully it will not get held up in customs.  As soon as that all happens, we are underway.

Tomorrow we are going into San Salvador with some friends from another boat - this time we are going to a spa and getting massages.  I have had massages only twice, and both times I was glad when it ended  because it hurt.  I am the only person I know who does not like getting a massage.  So I figure I will keep trying and see if it gets better.  It is not like they are massaging too deep or too hard - it is my skin that hurts, not the muscles.  I am hoping they do facials too - now those I like.  I always fall asleep and they have to wake me up when they are done.

All in all, things here are pretty good.  I am savoring, or trying to, anyway, my last time here in El Salvador.  I have mixed feelings about sailing straight to Panama without stopping in Costa Rica or Nicaragua,  but I can go there by land and do not plan to leave Central America until I have seen them.  I'd like to fly to Cuba while we are in Panama,  too.  And it has nothing to do with the long sail without stopping - I am interested in doing that and I like multi-day trips.  It takes about 72 hours to get a good rhythm going so that everyone gets enough sleep.  Once that rhythm is down, it is great.  I love being at sea. with just the water and the birds and the sky and the sea life. 

So anyway, here we are.  There are new boats coming in everyday now, so that keeps things interesting.  The staff at the hotel is expressing sorrow at our impending departure.  I wish we could take Santos with us,  but he has a business to run.  Today we are heading into Zacatecoluca for the ATM.   It is a nice bus ride, especially early in the day.  Maybe I'll get some ice cream for a treat.

"If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience." (Woodrow Wilson)
                

Next Day

Ok, I am officially over it.

"Ignore any loss of nerve, ignore any loss of self-confidence, ignore any doubt or confusion. Move on believing in love, in peace, and harmony, and in great accomplishment. Remember joy isn't a stranger to you. You are winning and you are strong. Love. Love first, love always, love forever." (Anne Rice) 

Jinxed It

I jinxed it, I know I did, it is all my fault.  Just as I was bragging on and on about how the water maker is working again - well, no it is no longer working. It seems one of the pumps - the primer pump - is out of commission.  We got it working for awhile - hence the earlier post - but then it started overheating and that is that.  The marine supply store here (more of  fishing supply store, actually) told us they had one at their branch in San Salvador had one and it would be available today.  So we haul our sorry asses over there only to discover that yes, they do have a water pump - but not the one we need. I almost cried.  Now we have to order one - and god only knows how long it will take to get here (two weeks if we are lucky) and then the likelihood that we will spend hour trying to get it released from customs.

I know I have no right to complain, but I am sick and tired of sitting in the mud here in the estuary.  I want to move on.  And  I am tired of feeling guilty if I am not happy happy happy 24/7/365.  It ain't happening.  Right now I am just feeling really beat down.  Although I think the geckos are making a difference in that there appear to be less roaches, there are still a lot of them.  Mike complains bitterly everyday. I don't like them either, but there isn't any more that I can do that I am not doing.  The pesticides didn't seem to help much more than the geckos, and at least we aren't living in a toxic waste dump.  It is not my fault that they arrived - neither of us are sure how it happened - but certainly I did not carelessly throw something on board that was full of roaches or roach eggs, or whatever.  I am too embarrassed to let anyone come on the boat, except for a few friends like Santos that do not seem to think badly of me because of it.  And then there is the water maker problem.  And I am getting old and wrinkled and all that goes with that issue - it seems like I was waiting for my good looks to develop and now I have to face the fact that if I ever had any good looks at all, they are all gone now.  Without ever even really getting there.    

As you can see, I'm not in good mood. So if anyone wants to scold me for my bad attitude, have at it.  At this point, it is a drop in an overflowing bucket of self-pity.  And sometimes I wonder if anyone really reads this.  There is a "stats" thing here on blogger (I wonder if "app" is the proper term) that tells me how many "hits" per day there are on this blog.  So it does seem like it is being read by someone.  Someone somewhere.  Hopefully this crappy post won't scare off any readers.  Who knows - I might even go back and delete this post.

"It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are finished." (Debbie Macomber)      

We Are Making Water

He fixed it.  He called the guy who designs and sells these things, discussed the matter, and the bottom line is we are now making water.  He also took this opportunity to mak it a tighter system.  And the water quality is very, very good.   I checked the calendar and we are getting out of here and heading to Panama by the 17th.  We have to make one more trip to San Salvador for last minute provisioning, then off we go.  The water maker gives us a sort of freedom that is almost more important than anything else.  We can live without a lot of things, but fresh water is not oneof those things. 

Otherwise, things are fine and there is nothng new.  Nothing else seems to be broken.  Actually, the boat is in btter shape than she has ever been.  We went through more lockers and storage bins, and threw out or gave away lots of stuff that we just didn't need and weren't going to need in the future.  We have done this three or four times since we got the boat, and each time things get more orderly and neat.  There is actually some extra storage space now.  Everything is also very clean.  It is just as well we are leaving soon as our El Salvador courtesy flag is torn to bits.  (Although it really doesn't matter as El Salvador is not particularly strict about the courtesy flag issue.) 

We have also seen one of our geckos in the last few days, so we did not kill all of them at least when we used the wood restorer.  I have no idea what happened to the other four.  I am hoping they are alive and well, living in the bowels of the ship happily eating cockroaches. 

So the great sailing adventure will resume shortly.  This hiatus has been too long. I am looking forward to a multi-day passage and looking forward to my night watches and my sunrises.  Today is a good day.

"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."  (Jack Kerouac)   

        

Stasis

Damn damn damn.  For everyone who has wanted me to be more honest in this blog, show some of the crap as well as the beautiful sunsets, here it is.  We were so close!  I was figuring out our route south!  Tuning into the Pan-Pacific net each morning on the SSB radio!  (The radio in question is like a short wave radio, or a ham radio.  The "net" is a time when people of like mind meet up at a certain frequency at a certain time and talk about stuff of mutual interest.  This particular net is from people cruising Central America, with a sort of emphasis on the Pacific coast of Panama.)  Everything was going so well.  Then - we decided that we really needed to test the water maker.

Some background.  This water maker has been the envy of all the other cruisers.  It makes over 30 gallons of water per hour, and most units on sailboats make only six or seven gallons per hour, tops.  Mike installed it himself, which in and of itself is impressive, especially since he had to redesign the configuration.  When we got here, Mike decided not to use it because the estuary water is not the same as ocean water, which is salty but clean.  There is a lot of detritus floating in the estuary, and that is hard on the filters.  Plus we could fill our tanks for 20 bucks and the water was brought to us, no need to haul jerrycans.  So we "pickled" the water maker,  which is a process that involves soaking the membranes in a special solution to keep bacteria and stuff from growing while the unit is not being used.  We have done it before, it is an easy process.

So of course now the unit is not working!  I believe that there is air in the lines.  Mike thinks that could be the case and today had to trace all the hoses back and make sure every thing is properly sealed, or it could be one of the pump, none of which (of course) can be obtained here.  Or some other part that will have to be ordered, thereby increasing the time we need to stay here.  And money, as well - it could be pretty expensive. 

But then, so what else is new?  As I have probably said before, the definition of cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places.  And you never know - Mike just might be able to fix it.  He has pulled off these miracles before. 

Today we are going to concentrate on finishing the cleaning of a lazarette, take the dinghy to the hotel to pick up laundry and take a swim, then try and watch the Superbowl on the computer.  Go 49ers! 

Here is some awesome news - I now have a recipe that makes a fish like jack cravalle- a fish I believed was inedible - not only merely unpalatable, but actually pretty good.  I got the recipe from Santos's mother.  This is a big deal, because when we are underway,we catch  lot of these fish and have been throwing them back.  We tried to eat one once, making fajitas, steaks,and chili.  The chili was the best, and I soaked the meat in Worcestershire sauce for hours to try and hide the strong flavor of the fish itself.  But all of them were pretty bad - my nephew was with us for that incident and will vouch for this.  This recipe is easy, and now we have a new food source.  It will work great for any strong tasting fish.  It will be wonderful for fish like bonita, which are not bad, just not great.  And this is also good for us because our freezer s pretty small, and being able to catch and eat lots of fish makes it possible for us to stay out longer without coming into port to replenish our supplies.  Plus bad taste aside, these fish have that fish oil that is supposed to be so good for you. 

Otherwise, all is well here in El Salvador.  Although I was looking forward to moving on, there are certainly worse places to get "stuck."  There are new boats here and more on the way, so we will meet some new people.  And if the delay is going to last for several weeks, I may get the boat cushions all reupholstered as it is pretty cheap to do that here.  So that winds it up for today - time to fix something to eat.

"Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed." 
(Alexander Pope)