FELIZ NAVIDAD!

We wish all our friends and family a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season. We're enjoying our stay here...work aboard is progressing as we wait for the fabrication of the new mounting bracket for the alternator. Michael has completed the wiring and says it's ready to pass inspection. We've also replaced our starboard upper shroud chainplate (due to crevice corrosion cracks in the old one), and begun to put things away and straighten out the boat. I happened to have my camera when I noticed the Tall Ship Cuauhtemoc go directly past Infini. She's in active service as a sail training vessel of the Mexican Navy.

Dec. 20, 2009 Bluey

We found a squatter on our hipped dinghy when we went to use it to reinstall our starboard upper shroud chainplate. The blue footed booby (sulu nebouxii) was using it as a perch to fish from. I was thrilled to get an up close and personal visit. He didn't move when we launched the dinghy, moved it around to the starboard side and started working...until he saw a fish to dive after. One of the joys of cruising for me is to be so close to nature and I've always held a special fondness for our aviary friends. Those webbed feet are an unusual blue, and each talon, or toe has a hooked nail on the end of it. They can dive from a sitting position on the water surface, or plunge from 80 feet in the air. Their wing span can be nearly 5ft (1.5m). What a sight...they're so much more streamlined and skilled then the pelicans I'm used to seeing. Their thick necks, streamlined bodies, long strong beak and webbed feet make them great sea hunters.

Progress......Dec. 11, 2009

There's a nice big mess aboard Infini...Michael is deep in the project of rewiring and simplifying our electrical system to better reflect our full time live aboard demands. I made a quick trip to Florida to pick up a new large capacity Balmar alternator,
(a 94-165-12-IG Dual Delta Stator model), Balmar MC-612-H regulator and various other stuff. This trip coincided with the expiration of my Panama 90 day tourist visa, and to top it off I had a chance to visit with kids and grand kids! I also drove up to visit my sister in Georgia...no moss growing under these shoes! (sandals). We make progress every day, but the scope of revamping is huge, and we're both looking forward to sea trials in the near future. The evenings have been pleasantly cool, and there's been no significant rain to talk of.

Nov. 26 HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We were more than ready for a nice break. We really do have much to be thankful for! This was the 5th year the VFW Ladies Auxiliary put on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. There were about 120 people...20 of them our new cruising or expat friends. The history of the holiday, along with Obama's Thanksgiving proclamation, and leading prayers were welcome.
We've been dealing with the reality that we've been using many more amps than we've been replacing with our current charging system. We nursed our three lead acid house batteries back to health, and bought a new starter battery. We have been revamping our charging system...hence going over our wiring and changing quite a bit to make it a more simple/user friendly system that we'll understand. Changing from AGM to lead acid has also been a learning adventure. Our friend Rick has been very patient helping us through this and teaching us once again what sometimes doesn't sink in the first time. Getting down to the nitty gritty cell health using a refractometer is just one more item to be stored in the 'ol brain.
We hope all our family and friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving....you are in our thoughts!
The picture is taken from the yacht club resturant of the anchorage...just the section where Infini's moored

Nov. 13 HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY MATT!!

Special family events still tug at our heart strings when we know we're not able to be there to share in person. Modern communication tools have made such a big improvement for the cruiser...but we're still adjusting to the fact our family thrives and flourishes without our physical presence. Perhaps it's because we're still working on major projects and have not yet departed on our long awaited passages, expected early 2010. So, Happy Birthday, Matt, and enjoy a wonderful, safe, healthy, and challenging year full of joy and satisfaction! We're thinking of you and send our love your way....and yes we need a current picture of you without your dreads!

Nov. 1, 2009

We're back at the Balboa Yacht Club after spending the night at Contadora where the only other boat anchored was a friend we had met in Cartegena! Paul has been to Costa Rica and down to Peru in the last year. He has a fast catamaran.....some folks move around a lot....others like us take our time! Paul was one of the three single handers (all bald!) we did our one night of 'clubbing' with. It was good to see him at Contadora and swap stories. As to Infini,we've installed an aluminum 'rain frame' around two of our solar panels that will work as a rain catcher. The rain awning we use now over the foredeck can only be used when the dinghy isn't stored there, so this can be used anytime. We've still got a work list, but things are coming along...Michael has a dentist appointment to get his permanent crown put in; Sue will get an MRI of her knee, which is feeling a bit better but the stability/strength isn't there. She misses swinging from the rigging. We need to sew the leech of the roller furling jib as the sacrificial cover needs restitching from sun exposure. We'll get some advice on our engine driven refrigeration unit which is a bit low on freon and has moisture in the system. We've not been running it much lately, and it hasn't been really inspected/gone thru since we put it in over 4yrs. ago. The weather has been wonderfully pleasant....cool nights with partly sunny days and occasional rain.

October 22, '09

Espiritu Santo,

We're back in the Perlas Islands. We left the Balboa Yacht Club and sailed in squally weather to Contadora Island. Motoring is necessary so often that we were happy to sail in any weather! We spent one night at one of the northern anchorages of Contadora, and motor sailed down to Espiritu Santo the next morning in more rain but little wind. Along the way we caught a 3' mahi mahi, so all in all things are looking good! Now to try out our new fishing gear we bought for dinghy trolling. We did score a big one like this....it must be in the snapper family...our books don't positively identify it. And we'll let Sue's knee heal (she crashed it on a slippery curb while doing errands in town after our weekly breakfast of Dim Sam at the Lung Fung Resturant!)
N08deg25min,W078deg51min

October 9, 2009

Life at BYC has been interesting! The windlass has been completely taken apart, rebuilt and reinstalled. We've had our routine dentist and dermatologist visits, and finished our dodger-bimini rain 'window'. M is still working on the refridgerator condenser blockage. We've decided to spend more time in Panama then Ecuador, so we'll get back out to the Perlas Is. for another visit. We've also updated our Picassa web album pictures.