Monday 30th June 2020.
Today is really hot and humid, and the cheery man giving the weather report on the morning net informs us that we can expect to add another ten degrees to this over the next few months. That has me worried. My google search history is now mostly made up of the phrases ‘Mexico’, ‘Aircon’ and ‘Cheap’. I have seen window units for about £130 at the supermarket, and if they make it bearable in the cabin, just for the next few months, and allows me to get some sleep, then I’m up for it.
I head out for a swim in the afternoon and end up returning via the south side getting close to the shore so I can look into people’s gardens and also check out the abandoned hotel from it’s beach. It also means I pass through the Navy’s dock and get a good look at their setup, I’m hoping they don’t get upset. I see a man on the back of their bigger warship look my way, then he goes back to his half asleep watch from his hammock.
Tuesday:
I have a recipe for making the Jamaica tea, but I’m lacking fresh ginger, which I can’t find in the supermarket. I’m hoping it has rejuvenating properties, as I feel I may be aging prematurely here. Just the other day I was in the supermarket checkout queue under a sign that said ‘Priority Aisle for the elderly 7AM to 11AM’, Which given it was now the afternoon was irrelevant, however a younger lady in front of me looked around, saw the sign, looked at me and started apologising, saying she hadn’t realised it was for the elderly. If I hadn’t started this dammed Spanish language learning nonsense, I would have been blissfully unaware of the sign and her exclamations.
I suppose I need to get used to this.
Today it rained for much of the day, which was wonderful, however I hadn’t quite realised how the rain and heat makes for humidity, in such a stark way as today. The rain stopped around 11 and the sun came out, full on, within an hour the humidity was unbearable as the wet surfaces quickly gave up all moisture to the air. By the evening it had become quite pleasant, with the temperature below 30c for the first time in many days/nights. The only downside being the amount of bitey things flying around the cockpit.
Wednesday:
Today I watched a new video from our good friends Robert & Vanessa, who set off from Canada on their boat ‘For Good’ at the same time as us. We boat buddied (if that’s a word) with them around the outside of Vancouver Island from Port Hardy to Tofino last year. They have produced a wonderful film of their trip and I suggest you connect your computer up to a big screen with surround sound before you watch it as Robert, who is a real filmmaker, has made a high quality production, and it isn’t doing it justice to watch it on a mobile phone screen. Most of the footage is stunning and makes me want to go there and see it myself, but then I remember I was there. He documents the places we both visited much better than I ever did. I feel slightly guilty about the terror they describe as I encouraged them to set sail in the big swells, I knew it was perfectly safe, but had forgotten just how scary it might feel first time around.
I noticed two more Mega Yachts arrived yesterday.
I’m hoping they don’t break free and drift down on me in a storm.
Now on the subject of GPS, a lot of you will think of GPS as a system for finding out where you are, which it sort of is, however most people probably don’t realise that GPS is the USA brand for their global navigation satellite system (GNSS), and there are several other GNSS out there. It’s a bit like how Google became a verb, despite them going to court to try and stop it. GPS is just one version, The Europeans have Galileo, the Russians have GLONASS and the Chinese have BeiDou.
The British planned to launch their own system before they saw the cost, as they can’t fully use the European one after Brexit. and instead have bought into a satellite broadband internet company, some say by mistake, but perhaps the military will be using google earth on their phones instead of GNSS.
Anyway, some recent launches have meant that all four systems are up and running to various levels and I wondered if I can use any of them. Looking at the satellites on my ships main GPS receiver I can see 11 GPS (USA) satelites, but nothing else. This is a shame as the GPS is actually a Chinese brand! I downloaded an app to see what my iPhone8 could see and was quite surprised that it is receiving signals from 35 GNSS satellites.
There are 7 GPS (USA), 10 Galileo (EU) and 14 BiiDou (Chinese) and no Russian ones, if I’m reading this correctly. That’s a lot of Satellites to choose from, I expect I would see more if I could use my external GNSS antenna on the boat.
Later while eating my dinner I felt something slowly crawling over my bare foot, which for some reason didn’t bother me, I think I imagined it was a gecko, but when I looked down it scurried off into the dark, I just saw it was big, a couple of inches long maybe. I wasn’t mad on going to bed with this guy wandering around, especially as it headed into the dark near the V-berth where I’m sleeping. I grabbed the biggest bowls I could find and went into hunting mode. I could just make it out in the dark and pounced. I figure this particular cockroach has been smoking weed or something as he/she was so slow. I removed it and started it on it’s first swimming lesson. Given that it was marching along the main thoroughfare of the cabin, I’m hoping it blew in through the open hatch in the wind and got confused. We have been very lucky and have never had a problem with roaches onboard, despite being in the tropics for most of the time.
Regardless, the poison is out along with several roach hotels, which if you don’t know, are pretty little houses made of cardboard that are full of attractive smelling roach food, in the middle of very sticky glue.
Thursday:
I head off to Chedraui Palicio, which is a bigger supermarket, or ‘super’ as the locals say. They have a bigger range of veg and I manage to score a few roots of jengibre (Ginger) for my tea project. It’s a fair trek on the bike and it’s also baking hot, even at 9:30 in the morning, I go early in case I am mistaken for a pensioner again.
Later my Spanish lesson is fun, and we end up discussing the Falkland Islands or Las Malvinas as Arturo knows them. Of course I hadn’t appreciated quite how opposite the Latin American understanding of the dispute was.
Later I call around to the chandlers to see if my pump for the head has arrived, but I find they are shut.
The heat is unbearable now so I take the dinghy over to the Magote and drop the anchor a little off the beach and snorkel around. It’s absolutely stunning, when I am in just a few feet of water, near the beach, I am surrounded by so many small fish, hundreds or more, If I look into the water from the beach they can’t be seen, but just dip below the surface and they are there, quite amazing. I really am very lucky to have this on my doorstep. I will take my gopro next time and try to capture some of the magic.
I fall asleep watching a boat building video, he was just fitting the knees when I fell asleep, when I woke up he was painting the hull, I slept through several episodes and it was now 1AM, heading to bed I spotted a cockroach on the bulkhead in the head. A Benny Hill chase ensued, where I had him captured twice and he escaped both times. So I don’t have a one of visitor, more likely an infestation. I wonder if I will sleep with the thought of thousands of Cockroaches climbing over me, but in the end I have one of my best sleeps ever.
Friday:
Back to the chandlers and my pump has arrived from Cabo San Lucas. The man I normally deal with is at the counter and he knows nothing about my order, I did it via emails, the manager comes out and brings the pump with him, The assistant looks amused as he produces the same pump from the shelf behind him, he says they had it in stock in La Paz all the time.
Back on the boat the temperature is rising and I have a stack of homework to do. The one hour lesson with Arturo goes on for nearly 3 hours as we keep going off topic, I’m teaching him the finer points of English, at one point we have a great laugh as he asks me to rip out a piece of paper from my notebook, but he uses the phrase, ‘Take a piece of sheet’, now his accent is quite Mexican and I’m sure you can work out how it sounds, he can tell from my expression there is a problem, so I take this as an opportunity to get my own back for his uncontrollable laughter the other day. I have him repeating ‘Piece of sheet’ over and over trying to get him to say sheet properly, Sheeeet Sh eeeeeeee eet I keep saying but he keeps saying ‘Piece of Shit’, eventually I tell him to only ever say ‘Sheet of Paper’ unless you are talking about certain famous world leaders, and we move on.
Later I head off to Soriano, a more down to earth supermarket to tool up for ‘Cockroach Wars’. They have a great selection, but which one to go for. I pick up a killer spray, but see on the label it says, safe for children, I put it back, I’m thinking I can take a stronger brand, but realise I’m unlikely to find one that says, ‘Kills Children’, but I want ‘kills children, old and weak people‘. I’m not taking any prisoners. I end up buying a Powder Spray, a liquid killer and an Aerosol, I have a stack more roach hotels. I wouldn’t want to be a creepy crawly on this boat right now.
When I bought Sister Midnight some 4 1/2 years ago in Malaysia, it had been sitting unoccupied for a couple of years, it had had a lot of cockroaches living there but they had all died, probably because there was no water or food onboard, I removed dozens of dead guys then. They don’t seem to decompose like most creatures. Since then we have only ever seen one and it was quickly caught and removed. I have been a bit lax, Kathy would regularly brush up the crumbs and dirt in the main cabin, I tend to do it only if I have spilt a bag of of flour or similar. Now the work surfaces are spotless.
Before I leave the supermarket I look for a lighter for the stove, the electric ignition is broken and we use the plastic gas lighters that are everywhere here. I’m sure you know the type
Anyway, my phone can’t get the internet so I don’t know the word for it in Spanish and I’m wandering around the kitchen section looking with no luck when an assistant asks if she can help, from the top of the ladder she is on. I’m able to say thank you, and explain I’m looking to buy a …. for a stove, and I perform the lighting action, which is basically holding the invisible lighter and pulling on the trigger while pointing it at her. I then realise it looks like I’m in a rap video trying to pretend shoot the poor assistant on the ladder. I quickly stop, she shouts across to another assistant to come and help, and thankfully I’m led away to the correct aisle.
On the way back from the super I pop down to a little fisherman’s cove, this is the place where Arturo had to babysit the restaurant overnight.
Cycling along I’m realising how much nicer it is nearer sunset, a better breeze and generally cooler. In the mornings when I normally go out, I rarely see another cyclist, right now it feels like the Tour de France is passing through town. It’s very pleasant, I muse on the sounds of the birds as I pass under some trees, there a regular squawking sound I can hear, it stays with me after I pass the trees and I soon work out a spot of oil on the pedal will fix that, all the same it’s a beautiful evening.
I stop off at the basketball court and sit at the edge looking out over the bay where one of the original fishing families is based. There are two families that have fished here since the land was settled, possibly before, and this location is home to a dozen or so of their descendants. I’m hoping to learn more about this history at some point. the other family is based at the other end of the Malecon.
Back on the boat I prepare for action.
The moon seemed very bright tonight, but I didn’t hear of it having a special name this time round, I’m going to jump in and name it a ‘Marina Moon’
Saturday is a lazy day, no Spanish lesson, but stacks of homework I mostly ignore. It’s hot so I razz over to the beach and cool down.
Sunday, more heat, another trip to the Magote for some very refreshing swimming and lots of homework. I fall asleep watching wooden boat building videos, again.
Paul Collister.