Santa Rosalia, again

The second time around, Santa Rosalia is much improved. My memory of our time here in July is mostly of unbearable heat, but now it is down-right cool. The days are in the 70's with the early morning dipping down to the high 60's. People are walking around in jackets! The Norther wind storm that we were running from is still blowing outside, but being tied to a dock makes it a non-event. No worries about anchors dragging! Today is Day 5 of the storm and it is hoped that it will be easing tomorrow. The winds have been blowing 20-30 even 35 knots at times. Third Day and Windfall are still pinned down in the San Francisquito anchorage, but hope to be moving to Santa Rosalia tomorrow.

Our time at the dock has been well spent. We were very happy when we first got here to see s/v Juniata tied to the dock. Dave and Marcia, Juniata's crew, are knowledgeable cruisers and friends of ours. Dave is one of those mechanical geniuses who just knows how to fix things. We knew he was just the person to help us figure out what was wrong with our engine that had conked out on the trip down. Sure enough, the next day Dave spent hours diagnosing the problem with Patrick and then showing Jack and Patrick how to fix it. Jack's school that day consisted of a guest speaker on diesel engines! And boy did he learn a lot - Dave is a very good teacher. By the end of the day, the engine was fixed and purring again. Yesterday, Patrick and Jack made the same repairs to the other engine - just to be proactive. Now we just have the engine water leak, the water maker leak and the propane system to figure out. But that is life on a boat. Every system is being used a lot in a very harsh environment of sun and salt water. Repairs and breakdowns are par for the course. Hopefully we have had our share for a while.