I remain anchored here in San Evaristo waiting for the Norther to blow out so I can continue north in the Sea of Cortez. The anchorage is comfortable. I am currently sharing the anchorage with three other boats.
I listened to the Picante, Amigo, and Sonrisa nets in the morning. The Sonrisa net is the best source of weather information. They are forecasting strong Northers today and Sunday. Monday may be better. The day was windy in the anchorage with scattered clouds overhead. The anchorage is quite protected so the boat is floating comfortable with just a gentle rocking back and forth.
I spent the morning doing boat maintenance. I cleaned the engine raw water strainer, the refrigeration raw water strainer, and the deck wash raw water strainer. I replaced the sacrificial zinc that prevents corrosion of the engine cooling system. I cleaned the bilge and the bilge pump. That took about two hours.
I spent the afternoon reading and swimming. I just began reading “The House of Morgan” by Ron Chernow. It is a history of the Morgan banking family from its founding in 1835 to the present. It is fascinating reading. The power of the bankers in those days was immense. In some ways they had more power than the sovereigns because they funded entire countries including the industries, commerce, railroads, canals, other capital investments, and wars they engaged in.
I had dinner with David and Dottie on “Victoria”. Dottie created a nice Thanksgiving meal to celebrate the holiday. They were underway during Thanksgiving day so only had a simple meal then. We had baked chicken, cranberries, sweet potatoes, and salad. She made hot pumpkin pie filling with whipped cream for dessert. They are thinking of travelling to Alaska, so I shared my Alaska pictures with them.
David is in his late seventies. He is a graduate of Stanford in mathematics. He worked in the early computer industry for Philco and then for defense contractors in the Los Angeles area. Dottie was a school teacher in New Hampshire. They have been together for 11 years. They keep one boat here in Mexico which they store in San Carlos on the hard when they are not using it. They keep a second boat in Maine. They spend about 6 months of each year on one boat or the other. The rest of the time they live ashore.
I finally got Sailmail working this evening and was able to send an update to Pam, Janis, and Yvonne. I learned yesterday by accident that having the navigation instruments powered on causes static on the SSB. I am not sure if that was the source of the Sailmail transmission problem, but I was able to transmit and receive email for the first time while in Mexico. I also learned a few days ago while talking with another cruiser that the SSB does not work well in marinas with lots of other boats around. That may also have been a factor, though I think I tried sending Sailmail while underway but was unsuccessful. I simply cannot remember what I was doing during previous attempts.
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