Things are looking up!

First off - no new break downs. Well, not really. Our water maker stopped working, but Patrick quickly figured out that the water flow was stopped by the three (now dead) Gobi fish who had been sucked into the water intake valve and were clogging up with pipe. But that's not really a breakdown. Thank God we did not make any fishy tasting water before we found the problem. And he also found two dead fish in the engine water intake valve in the same week, so our boat is doing better than us lately at catching fish this week. Depressing!

Meanwhile, our friends on Third Day and Hotspur have finally shown up in LA Bay. Both the captains of those vessels need Internet for work, so hopefully they will be able to manage in this absolute desert of Internet services. There are two Internet "oases" in town, but even they are not always reliable for service.

Another change for the better is that the kind American who drove the cruisers around in his pickup on provisioning runs last year has set up a "Cruiser's Sleigh Ride" for tomorrow. He shows up in his pickup and trailer and everyone who is there climbs in the back, hangs on and gets driven around town to all the grocery stores, propane, laundry and gas station. It is heaven and very fun.

And best of all, there has been a respite from the heat. Lately the morning temperatures have been in the high 70's and the daytime temperatures do not go too far over 90 degrees, so life has improved immeasurably.