The Dinghy Diaries (and More)

We spent a couple of nights in Turtle Bay catching up with new friends and old. It was a strange day for me and the dinghy on Thursday. When we got anchored in the afternoon, I launched the dinghy, put the outboard on and went over to see Nausicaa who had arrived about half an hour after us. They had called us earlier on the VHF and asked how many fish we wanted. Apparently Catherine imposed a moratorium on David's fishing until they ate what he had already caught so in order for him to keep fishing, he caught fish for us. Who needs a fishing license with people like him around! Anyhow, I went over and picked up a couple of 1 lb. Bonito that he had for us and went back to Tarun to clean them. I don't know what I did (or rather didn't do) but when I got out of the dinghy I didn't secure the painter. I went below to get my knife, cutting board etc and when I went out to get in the dinghy to clean the fish, no dinghy! It was floating 100 meters behind us and slowly drifting away. I scrambled below and got into my swim trunks intending to swim for it (the water was an inviting 15 degrees) when the fuel Panga operator saw the dinghy and retrieved it and brought it back for us. We gave him a nice "Canada" hat for his efforts and he was pretty happy. OK, one dinghy episode down, one to go. Nausicaa had invited us for a dinner of fresh lobster (they traded a box of cookies and 5 bucks for 6 lobster) and fish. Cathy supplied a nice salad and a tray of fresh brownies. We were sitting in the cockpit having a veritable feast when Jim accidentally knocked his seat cushion in the water. It floated away before anyone could get the boat hook. No problem, I jumped in the dinghy and went after the errant cushion. The dinghy painter and I seem to have had a problem with each other Thursday because for some unknown reason, instead of dropping the painter in the bow of the dinghy like always, for some unknown reason I dropped it in the water, without realizing it! Off I go to get the cushion and then wham, the motor stops ABRUBTLY. I had caught the painter line and wrapped it around the prop and killed the motor. Now, the line is securely tied to the bow of the dinghy and is now tightly wrapped around the prop with the free end trailing behind the motor. I can't lift the motor to unwind the line as it is essentially now tied down to the front of the dinghy with the painter. David then had to jump in his dinghy and rescue me (and the cushion). We get back to Nausicaa, a knife is produced and the offending line is cut from the bow so I can lift the motor and unwind the painter from the prop. Thankfully, no damage to the motor. We made it back to Tarun without further incident.
Indian Summer (Kristie and John) who we first met at the Oakland Yacht Club and then again in San Diego had arrived earlier in the day. We had a quick chat Thursday night and then caught up with them the next day for awhile. They had about 30 knots of wind the night we spent at Cedros Island. It made us glad we had stopped, despite the rolly anchorage.
I managed to break a stanchion base on the way down from Cedros Island by dropping the whisker pole onto the lifelines. I forgot to snug up the topping lift before I released the sheet end of the pole, live and learn I guess. No problem for the repair as I have replacements for all the old bases on board as I know it's just a matter of time before they all need replacing. I think I've done half of them now. Past experience in doing the job made me look forward to having to re-drill holes, clear out the core, epoxy fill and then re-drill through the epoxy. A simple job that only takes a few hours in total to do stretches to 2 days. Well imagine my surprise when the replacement base fit EXACTLY in the existing holes. I started tearing apart the v-berth at around 9 in the morning and had it all back together by early afternoon, job DONE! Friday night we traded a few computer files with David and Catherine from Nausicaa. They got weather fax's and a few pictures of their boat under sail that I managed to get and we got 33 episodes of an American public radio series called "American Life". It should make good listening. This morning we cleared up the boat and weighed anchor (about 45 pounds) and left by 10:30. The winds were light but we managed to sail for a few hours before it dropped out. We have been under motor for the past 6-7 hours now. We have reduced revs to keep our speed to around 5 knots as we don't want to get to Santa Maria in the dark. We should arrive first thing in the morning on Monday if everything continues as it is.

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