The tans are starting to even out, Nancy is almost done peeling, and we have made it to Loreto. We spent most of the time alone at Pt. Pulpito. Had the place completely to ourselves for three days and nights. Then we bopped the short distance south to San Juanico in time for the Halloween party. Two people that actually wore costumes won first and second prize. Nancy won third because she’s Nancy. Placing determined who got to go through the potluck first.

Anyway, we met some old friends, more extraordinary people, and had some good conversations.

And today we’re at Coronados, just north-east of Loreto, getting some internet stuff done. Nancy has some boat selling stuff to do, and I have some book selling stuff to do (more on that later, I won something), and there is also some boat work to do.

Bright Water is actually in good shape. No smells, no mold, no mildew. The watermaker came back to life after being stored pickled for 16 months. That was good news. The engine and systems are running perfectly. The refer/freezer and galley are going strong, and the solar panels and batteries are working as new – all is mostly well.

The work we did last trip applying sealant to the toerail and the hatch covers was a waste – both the UV4000 and the ultra-special silicone on the hatches failed completely – to dust. Bummer. The flexible plastic covers on the “Quick” anchor winch switches turned to dust, too. We’re using Gorilla Tape to try and keep salt water out of the electrical system. Having the anchor self-deploy could be too exciting. New switches in the boat’s future.

Our AIS transponder died a sudden death. No blinkenlights, no USB comms. Dead dead dead. Shame, really. It was so young, so full of promise.

Our PSS dripless shaft seal was dripping like a faucet. We used a little 600 grit wet/dry paper on the stainless ring and removed the pitting corrosion, and now it’s as good as new.

The Iridium phone is not playing at all with our new Windows 10 computers, so nothing except texting is working there. It’s actually causing a blue-screen-of-death protection violation. Haven’t seen one of those in a very, very long time. That’s a bummer, because we like to have up-to-date weather forecasts and we like to stay in remote areas. Getting computerized GRIB weather files over the iridium phone was/is a key to that strategy.

We’re still eating some of the canned food that Lena packed for us three years ago. We just had a wonderful dinner of canned roast beef on instant mashed potatoes. Yummy.

Speaking of yummy, fishing is not going well.  We caught two small mackerel early, but that’s it. Spear fishing has been especially frustrating, but the rubber band on the speargun broke so now it’s just not going to happen. We did see a large fish follow the lures for about five minutes today. Nancy thought it was a big dorado, but I’m pretty sure I saw a bill, so I’ll go with a small sailfish. Either way, not dinner.

We’ve seen lots of dolphin and have been snorkeling everyday. Baja really is great.

We haven’t been taking a lot of pictures. Let us know what you want to see.