Ilse and Pete arrived on the 24th of December bearing almost all the gifts of Christmas upto and including Appa's new feathering propellor. Luckily they did not get stopped by customs upon their arrival in PV.
The above photo is Sammy helping to pump out the dinghy after the torrential rains that we had for most of Pete and Ilse's visit. Last time I seen it rain that hard was in Miami. It just poured for hours. We had to empty the dinghy a couple times.
Couple days after mom left the skies cleared and it got nice again. We did a tour of the set of Predator and did the multiple zip lines that they had there. One was 1,200 meters long. You could hit 50 mph. Max was not allowed to do the biggest line as they said he would not be able to stop and could hit speeds of 90. The ziplines crisscross a river that has a restaurant along it and was the scene of the CIA camp in the movie. After zipping we swam in the crystal clear fresh river and small waterfall. It was great. After that we had a nice sleepy bus ride home.
Santa got Ben a new boogey board and he has been perfecting his catching of the waves ever since. I am amazed at the difference between a cheap board and Ben's board. So much easier to catch waves with a stiff slick board. We also are borrowing a 6 foot surf board and are slowly working up to use that.
Couple days ago the kids along with Jen and Max went swimming with dolphins. Even Sam got to ride. See Jen's blog for all that action.
I went along but did no stinking dolphins! The dolphin adventure park is inside a pretty big waterpark. The rides are about as scary as I've been on in a water park. One ride is called the flush and you climb up about 200' or so and get launched down this tube into the bowl. Round and round you go till you hit the center and drop into a 5' deep pool. Really fun. Hard on the body though.
The other rides were equally as fun. Great day. We really enjoyed our stay at Paradise Village and will be back in March for the Banderas Bay Regatta.
The boat gets hauled out tomorrow at 1300 to change out our propellor. My only worry is getting the pitch of the prop right.
We have been spending the night at anchor now for the past three nights and it has been remarkably calm at night. Hardly any rolling. Our day usually starts like this:
Wake up to the sun and the kids more or less wake at the same time. Call it 0745 or so.
Jen starts breakfast and maybe sometimes I do.
The radio net is on at 0830 and it has the marine forecast, tides, lost and found, service needed and other stuff. That is done by 0900 or so.
There is always something that needs to be done on Appa and this morning I started up the motor and ran the watermaker. The alternator belt started squealing which was odd because I just tightened it 2 days when changing oil on the motor. I shut down everything and inspected the belt. It looked ok but hasn't been changed since Seattle so maybe it is time. I changed it out and then tightened the watermaker belt also. Fired it all back up and no squeal. Exciting eh? Such is life on a boat. Of course I had to take over more than half the boat to get this job done. Tools live in one place and the problem is another place and I need room for all the tools after taking them out of their storage place.
Anyway, Sam and I got into the dinghy to visit friends while Jen and the kids got down to schoolwork. I do math with Ben and he is ahead now so he and I had the day off from math. Max is in review mode and Jen is helping him with English and we all know that is for the best.
Yesterday almost the same thing except Sam and I went Home Depot and the Mega grocery along with hitting the big marine store here. We left the boat at 0930 and got back at 1730. It took all day. Multiple buses and searching for parts eat up a lot of time.
Sam and I went with our good buddy JC as he needed some parts also. We stopped for lunch at Sofa King Good. Not kidding that is the name. Say it fast and aloud to get the full effect. Crazy eh? Nice place really. Had a sign over the bar.
So the boat is holding up well and we are doing the same. More or less. I think Jen and I are ready to get the hell out of here and head south to Zihuatanejo. Our buddies Sea Otter are coming home today and we are going to meet them on their boat and maybe grab a bite to eat. Once they get their boat back online and settled in, we are leaving. Friday I think. Providing the prop gets all fixed.
It surprises me how many people down here are just not prepared. I have my prop issue but our anchor setup is set, engine and watermaker all ok (touch wood), shade, etc. We are doing ok. Talked with others throughout our stay and they have ordered anchors from the states and waiting 5 WEEKS for them to come through customs. Water makers are getting installed down here and again, waiting for the part to arrive. On and on it goes. How in the hell can you come down the coast and then figure out that your anchoring setup is suspect? Same with sails. And electronics. And charts. And dinghies. My goodness the people giving their money away to the inflatable repair guy down here and then when that fails they have to buy a new one. Very pricey. Had a guy ask my friend Eric if he knew someone that could change his oil for him on his sailboat! Where is the self reliance?
Alright. I gotta go. More later....
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