We haven’t done a lot this week, but things are noticeably changing here. The temperature has been steadily dropping, days are now in the lower 30s as opposed to the higher 30s, nightimes are much cooler and we don’t need the aircon running to be able to sleep now. Also we are just getting our first northerly blow of the season. From hereon in we can expect increasingly strong blows coming down from the north. This means I have experienced the whole cycle of Northerlies, Southerlies and Westerlies plus my first, albeit benign, hurricane season.

We leave here in two days time, so today and tomorrow is all about stocking up on supplies, downloading books and videos we want to watch later as we will have no signal wifi or Cell Phone for a few weeks once we leave La Paz. On Wednesday we take down the covers, stow the aircon, haul the dinghy onto the foredeck, top up the freshwater and head out. We plan to head back in a week solely for the purpose of listening/watching the US election results. Because we are heading back out into the sea again for two – three weeks after this we could easily wait until we reach Loreto to hear the result, but we are quite invested in it now. Being in the Americas we have been in the right time zone to be able to watch the presidential debates live. I think I was with Kathy on board in Thailand 4 years ago when Trump got in. Previously my good friend Tim was sailing with me when the Brexit result came in, I forecast both results would go the other way. Third time lucky eh?

We are glad Kathy got out of the UK when she did, Liverpool is know under strict lockdown (Tier 3) and the rest of the country is facing increasing restrictions. Parts of Mexico are seeing increases in the virus, but our area, BCS, seems to be doing ok right now.

I’m pleased with my migration over to Amazon for this blog site. Now I have full control over the server (Virtual) that is hosting things, I can try to write some interesting code. I plan to add a live data feed from the boat to this server, this means that you should be able to see our location, speed, course, water depth, wind speed and direction and other stuff, in realtime on the blog. I’m working through a design for it now, but I’m thinking of storing all the information in a database on the boats PI computer (MariaDB) and syncing it with the same database on this server. That way I can sync the databases when I get a signal. If I can get both my brain cells to work together on this I may be able to recreate past journeys by re-running the database from a previous date/time.

I’m also thinking of buying myself a telescope for Christmas, I had dismissed this as a mad idea for a boat, but my last trip out to the islands was wonderful for stargazing, the binoculars revealed so much, so I’m thinking I could set up camp in the beach at night in these remote places and see what I can see. I last had a telescope when I was about six, my uncle dropped it on the stone floor of our kitchen, smashing the lens inside. He sneaked off without taking any responsibility and that was my last telescope. I may have picked up a couple of weeks coding work so that would allow me to treat myself. I haven’t looked, but I gather there’s a lot of options out there, I understand you can get computer controlled tracking mounts and all sorts of extras. Research is needed.

Paul Collister

La Paz, BCS, Mexico

It’s been another quiet week. Life continues slowly here, yet the days fly past. Kathy made Vegan tacos in the week, based on some rather dull shredded soy. This gave me the chance to try one of the sauce trays I had seen in the supermarkets. It seems, and I could be making a fool of myself here, that you tip the contents into a blender and a few minutes later you have a fresh sauce. I think if you want to punish yourself you can use a mortar and pestle. The pack costs about 60p and made the tacos taste great. I removed half the chilies first. We also had a guacamole sauce which was lovely. Shame they have to use plastic packaging.

Salsa Rojo

On Friday we went for a meal at Estrella Mar on the waterfront close to the marina. They made a vegan pizza especially for Kathy and I had an assortment of fish beautifully steamed with rice.

Anyway that’s about as much food talk as I want to have for about for a year.

For fun I have migrated this Sister Midnight blog over to the Amazon Web Service AWS. I’m not sure how well it’s known, but Amazon are huge in the computer cloud business. They power many of the big web sites, streaming services and a stack of Internet stuff like eMail, eCommerce, Bitcoin, I could go on..
It was mostly fun, but it took many days to get the email notifications to work as Amazon are crazy to make sure Spam and fraud can’t originate from their systems. I’m all for it, but I had to jump through a load of hoops and be evaluated by a human! The previous email system suffered from being blocked by different ISPs from time to time, but hopefully these emails should be trusted and less likely to be dumped or shoved into the junk box.
Im hoping also to be able to stream videos faster, I have attached a HD video at the bottom as a test.

Paul Collister.

Not a lot happened, shopping, a trip to the Mogote and dinner in Bandido’s restaurant where Kathy was promised a Veggie burger, she was offered mushrooms with it, which she opted for; just as well as the burger turned out to be some mushrooms in a bap. Presumably their idea of a veggie burger is a meat burger with the burger removed!

Still it’s a lovely place to visit, I doubt we will return.

We did a bit of cycling this week and went out of town to the box stores to see if Kathy could get anything vegan there. I checked out the printers in Walmart, my current printer has run out of ink and the cost of the new cartridges is the the same as buying an identical (but with wifi) printer which includes cartridges. Just crazy. This will be one of the first things I change should I ever be voted world king.
We noticed very familiar labels on several products, like the pesto sauce and realised it was the same as Asda in the UK, who of course are owned by walmart, or where until recently.

The temperatures dropped a little today, mostly due to the cloud cover, but the sea also seems a little cooler so perhaps we might be near the end of the heat. I’m worried it might be too cold soon 🙁

Paul Collister

Monday 28th September.
We have a walk along the Malecon.

Tuesday: Nothing.
Wednesday: Bike to shop and beach.
Thursday: much like Tuesday except I make a joke based on the ‘Things, that in 2019, you would never have thought you might say in 2020’.
“Two bubbles walk into a pub and scan themselves in”

Friday:
Covid freedom day, It’s been 14 days since Kathy left Liverpool, and we have decided today that we are probably safe enough to go out for a meal. The temperature readings and oxygen levels are good, although it would appear the finger on my right hand might have Covid, often reading just 85%, the left hand is fine though, usually getting 98/99%.
We go to the Vegan taco restaurant and Kathy enjoys her first ‘meal out’ here since January.

Saturday:
Finally we get to the farmers market just off the Malecon, I feel for the stall holders there, there’s next to no customers. Then again, a lot of them sell artisan stuff, so they could well still be living off the profit on an artisan spud they sold in January. I’m mainly there for the Vegan Pesto, Arturo is coming over on Sunday to meet Kathy and we plan to do Pasta & Pesto for him with some of the real Parmesan cheese kathy brought back from Milan (Thanks again Bobbie), however she said she wouldn’t have any pesto until Tuesday.
Later in the day we cycle to Chedraui Palacio, a bigger version of the local Chedraui Abasolo. At least they have Cilantro, which seems to be in short supply here. It’s a lovely bike ride, especially on the way home as the sun sets and a cool breeze accompanies us on the 15 minute downhill cycle back to the boat.

I have setup a server in the Amazon cloud (AWS LightSail), and I’m spending a bit of time playing with this, it’s good fun, well mostly, and a side effect is that I can connect to the BBC iPlayer and we can watch our favorite programs now. I’m amazed how cheap this is, I wanted to do this a while back, but it was going to cost me around $50 / month, now it’s only $3.50/month with discounts and a free month. If this works out I’m going to move all my websites and this blog over to Amazon.

I have been struggling with the loud bangs/cracks I have been hearing in the boat since I arrived in the marina a while back. My first thought was that the mooring lines were two tight and creaking on the hawse, Something that happens when the lines are very tight, but this wasn’t the case. Sometimes the bangs are quite loud and I had wondered if debris was floating under the boat and bashing into it. Then I noticed after a few weeks that it seemed to be loudest around sunrise and sunset. I worried that the boat was expanding and contracting with the crazy heat and that perhaps parts of the hull expanded faster than other parts and that caused the cracking sounds. I was worrying that it might be damaging the boat, and today I could hear constant cracking and banging around the head area. Normally when I run outside I can’t see anything in the water and the lines are slack, but today underneath the head area I saw a large group of big fish taking turns to attack the hull, and as they did I could hear the cracking sound. I’m still not sure if it’s their teeth hitting the hull, or the crack of the barnacles being ripped off, but at least that mystery is finally solved.
The antifoul I have on, which is a Jotun Seaforce from Malaysia does not seem to be holding up anymore. I have provisionally booked a haul out for the middle of November in Puerto Escondido and will have some of the locally proven paint applied.

Sunday:
Arturo calls over in the afternoon and we take a trip to the Mogote for a swim, Later we have dinner on the boat and Kathy gets to know Arturo better.

Hopefully now we are out of our quarantine period we can do some more interesting things around town.

Paul Collister.

As September drew to a close here in La Paz, I couldn’t help but reflect that Mexico is the third country I spent time in during that month (the fourth if a couple of hours’ transfer time at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport counts). Not bad considering we are in the midst of a global pandemic. When I left Sister Midnight, back in January this year, Coronavirus wasn’t the word on everyone’s lips as it is today and facemasks were mainly seen in dentists’ surgeries and hospitals. It was at the beginning of its eventual progress to worldwide catastrophe. I had returned home to work for a few months and to see friends and family, yet for the majority of my eight month stay in the UK I did neither. Like most of the country I experienced the surreal state of lockdown and watched the government’s daily news briefings with alarm and trepidation (later to be replaced with growing disbelief, anger and total confusion).  Get-togethers, holidays, trips and birthday parties were cancelled and I was furloughed after just one month of employment with the education agency I’m signed up with. Adhering to the no contact with friends and family outside of my home rule, I prepared to sit out the lockdown alone. It took a couple of Zoom conversations to confirm my aversion to communicating via video calls and I promptly reverted to Facebook and WhatsApp audio or messaging as my preferred means of conversing with people. I ventured out every other day for walks and essential items and like many others, sorted out cupboards, clothes and drawers that had been long neglected. Finding myself in a not so ‘splendid isolation’, I read lots of books, watched several series and films on Netflix and managed to decorate most of my flat in that strange and ‘unprecedented’ period from March until July.

As restrictions gradually lifted I was able to fit in trips to see family in Swindon, Italy and Leyland and then finally to make the return journey to Mexico, two months later than planned, on September 18th. My daughter dropped me off at Manchester Airport to begin a journey that filled me with not a little trepidation. Having recently travelled to Italy where I faced a plethora of confusing and conflicting bureaucratic obstacles involving Covid self-declaration forms (these threatened to deny my permission to fly if incorrectly filled out), I was dreading more of the same. In the event, I was merely given a short paper form when I checked in, to fill out during the flight to Amsterdam. So far so good, but I still had my 23kg bag to put through the oversize luggage area. I’d been determined to get my money’s worth regarding the weight allowance, and since I didn’t need to pack many clothes, I had filled it with various grocery items that are impossible to get or are very expensive in Mexico, and a wide assortment of books and toiletries. To my delight, the scales displayed the permitted 23kg exactly, and as I watched it disappear on the baggage conveyor it felt good to know I wouldn’t have to tackle it again until Mexico City.

The first of my three flights was an uneventful 50 minute one. Passengers complied with the request to keep their face coverings on except when eating or drinking, and also to disembark row by row to limit crowding – something that hadn’t happened on the Ryanair flights to and from Italy. Schipol Airport was eerily quiet and largely deserted when we trooped into the arrivals hall late on Friday night. I wasn’t surprised to consign my self-declaration form to the paper recycling bin after presenting my passport. Perhaps there just isn’t the staff to process all these extra requirements. I managed to find one open bar near my departure gate and sat drinking a glass of wine, making the most of the strong WiFi to chat to Paul. As I queued to board the plane for Mexico City I knew that from hereon in, times for eating, sleeping and everything else that make up a daily routine would blur into a kind of ‘limbo’ period as we began the 12 hour journey across the Atlantic and through different time zones. I was pleased to see I had a row of three seats to myself, so after a tomato pasta dinner, I was able to stretch out and sleep for a few hours.

Reading, watching a film and listening to music took up the rest of the journey, and once again everyone kept their masks on and disembarked row by row. Toilets were disinfected at regular intervals and the crew wore masks and gloves for most of the flight. It struck me that it will soon seem strange to see people with ‘naked’ faces in public places. It was the early hours of Saturday morning when we hit the tarmac at Mexico City’s airport and I was surprised to see raindrops on the windows. Light rain was falling and the pilot announced the outside temperature as 20 degrees. People began pulling on coats and jumpers and it felt decidedly chilly as we walked down the steps. This wasn’t at all what I’d been expecting. Paul had been talking about the blisteringly hot temperatures he’d been experiencing and warned me to prepare for heat. It felt more like Merseyside than Mexico, however, as I splashed through puddles across the tarmac.    

Our flight was the only one to be processed, so getting through passport and immigration control was a relatively speedy affair. Waiting for our bags took much longer, and brought about my next spell of anxiety regarding the contents of my case. Nearby, x-ray machines were at the ready to inspect every bag passing through before it was allowed into the arrivals area. I knew from experience that the packets of coffee might arouse interest as they are a well-known way to disguise the smell of drugs. I also had large blocks of parmesan cheese, an assortment of vegan cheeses, pates and various dried burger mixes. It was no easy feat hefting the bag onto the machine’s conveyor belt and as expected, the operator nodded to the officer at the inspection table that it needed a closer look. The table was considerably higher than the conveyor belt and it took some effort to lift the bag up there but once in place I stepped back and let the lady and her colleague open it up. I wish I’d been allowed to take pictures to capture the look of bemusement on her face as she lifted certain items up and scrutinised the labels. She sought advice from a colleague about the parmesan blocks which were thankfully permitted, and for a moment I thought my precious jar of Marmite was going to be confiscated judging by the frown on her face as she set it aside. If she was intending to take every item out it would be quite a while before I would be going anywhere and I felt like the Chinese people on the Border Control programmes who get admonished for bringing in too much food. It was a relief when she smiled and nodded that I was free to go. After repacking it all and lifting it down I was at last able to reunite with Paul on the other side of the doors.

It was 4am local time by then and Paul had had to set an alarm to come and meet me from his hotel room. Luckily the hotel is situated in the terminal so it was only a short walk through the dimly-lit building to our room. We managed a few hours’ sleep before preparing for my third and final flight to La Paz at lunchtime on Saturday 19^th. By now I was feeling the effects of jet lag so I was relieved that Paul took on the task of filling out the required online Covid forms. The authorities were much more on the ball about checking them than anywhere else I’ve been recently. We were questioned, had our temperatures taken and presented the completed online forms for inspection via Paul’s phone. Plenty of staff were available for this mammoth task which might be a factor for the more lax attitudes in Europe.

The flight to La Paz took two hours, with a weather view totally different from Mexico City’s as we came into land. Bright sunshine, clear blue sky and a shimmering heat haze were visible from the windows. Heat wrapped round me like a cloak when I walked down the steps, reminding me of the tropical heat in Asia. This was more like how Paul had described it – a whole lot hotter than when I left in January. A short Uber taxi ride took us from the airport to the marina and by mid-afternoon I was back on board my second home, which now has a very welcome air-conditioning unit.  The photo below shows Paul the day after my arrival, in the one shower of rain we’ve had since my return. I’d like to state that he is expressing his delight that I’m back, but I was taking the picture primarily to show the state of his ‘work’ shorts to his children.

We made the decision to isolate ourselves as much as possible for two weeks due to our respective travels through airports and generally coming into contact with more people than usual. Paul makes the odd necessary trip to the supermarket, while I still have that particular pleasure to come. I spent the first few days unpacking, rearranging my ‘stuff’ and rediscovering things I’d forgotten I had left here. I also slept a lot, unsurprisingly and after a week my body clock had adjusted to the time difference. Getting used to the temperature might take a bit longer. It’s searingly hot outside, with temperatures often reaching 38 degrees and it remains warm well into the night.  We’ve gone for a few evening walks along The Malecon when the heat isn’t as intense, and last Sunday we had an enjoyable excursion over to the Mogote, a favourite spot of Paul’s and only a short dinghy ride away, for a cooling swim and snorkel. It was my first visit there and the surroundings are strikingly attractive: lush mangroves, sandy beaches complete with cute white lizards, and a backdrop of mountains in the distance. The local cruisers’ radio network we listen to each morning warns repeatedly about the ‘dangerously’ hot temperatures we are experiencing. I am reminded of this on the rare occasions I am outside in the daytime when I feel my skin start to burn during the shortest of exposures. It will be factor 50 for me well into October I think.

In other news, we have a couple of new additions to the medical equipment we carry on board, in the form of an oximeter which measures the oxygen levels in the blood, and a thermometer – the trigger kind now familiar in public places, which aims at the centre of your forehead – a bit like a gun! I have had my temperature taken more times in the past week than in the whole of my life I think!

The marina has taken all the usual precautions against Covid-19; hand gel, signs about wearing masks and keeping a distance and so on. Most people adhere to the mask wearing. Paul tells me he has seen police on the Malecon telling people to cover their faces, but there are always going to be some who flout the rules. This semi lockdown I am in currently, while not as restrictive as that in the UK from March until May has provided an ideal opportunity to acclimatise, catch up on sleep and reading, and to generally have a good excuse to be lazy. Next week I intend to ‘get out more’ as they say. I’m looking forward to cycling and shopping and to exploring more of the place I left back in January.  

Monday , shop for bread and drinks
Tuesday, walk on malecon
Wednesday, walk to baseball court, run out of propane on tank 1 , buy bread
Thursday, walk through town.
Friday, day off.

Saturday
Kathy asks for help on her laptop as she has started to compose her blog. She is running windows 8 on a Sony Vaio. This is hell. It’s been a long time since I had to deal with a Microsoft product, but within minutes I’m shouting at the screen because of its insane idea of how humans should work. I can honestly say that coming from an Apple perspective, this system is nuts. After trying to save her word file, its reporting errors, an investigation reveals it’s file formats that are not compatible, does Kathy fully understand this? All of the recent docs have been deleted, so why show them as available files? We have to reboot to get the wifi connection back, quite what the link between file saving and WiFi is I wonder. The circle spins, it says connecting, then the circle and text disappear. Does this mean we are connected? there’s no obvious way to tell, I hover over the icon and it gives me the option to connect, I click, it says you can’t connect, ‘would I like to run the troubleshooter’, No Thanks. Just pausing with my finger over the mousepad makes unrelated windows and new screens pop up with no obvious way to get rid of them. I close Word and can’t find anyway to restart it, I could go crazy if I had to use this for long. Now I’m thinking of the protests in Trafalgar square yesterday, they had placards blaming Bill Gates for the virus, and claiming he got the idea from a computer virus. I’m thinking bigger, I’m thinking the reason that the USA and the UK have their knickers in such a monumental twist is down to Bill Gates and Windows 8. If I went on twitter now I might well lash out at someone, it’s only because I’m back on my Macbook Air that I can calm down again. Rant over.

It’s a very hot day today, I have moved everything off the pushpit, mostly MOB (Man OverBoard) kit into the shade as it must be suffering from the UV.
We have been onboard now for 8 days since Kathy set foot into Manchester airport and the potentially dangerous covid world of international air travel. We have been self isolating on board, with me making the odd quick trip to the supermarket and a couple of walks in the evening all masked up and avoiding others. We plan to wait until 14 days have passed then we will head out and have a nice meal in one of the many restaurants now open.
I managed to find a use for my Pesos that were locked up in the online shopping site ‘Mercado Online’, I bought some H&S kit.

It seems like the timing has worked out well as Liverpool is heading into serious lockdown along with the rest of the UK, with Brexit looming I’m quite happy to be watching how it pans out from a good distance.

Sunday 27th.
Another super hot day so we pop out to the Magote for a swim. It’s busy there and a local family are racing up and down the coast towing kids on some kind of board, I would say water skis, but I suspect they went out of fashion many years ago, along with my big floating windsurfer board.

Paul Collister.

Monday 14th September 2020
This week is about getting the boat ready for when Kathy arrives, so to avoid doing any cleaning I decide to head off to the chandlers and pickup supplies, I manage to purchase 40 metres of 5/8″ 3 strand nylon to use as warps to tie the boat up with. Later as the cleaning beckons, I spend time splicing large eyes into the rope which I have cut into 4 x 10m lengths. I need plenty of rope as if a hurricane does come this way, it’s all going to be about the rope. I replace all my braided ropes with the new lines and get my old ropes soaking in a slightly soapy bucket of warm fresh water. They can soak for a few days and hopefully will lose some of the salt that has made them quite rigid.

It’s Kathy’s birthday today, and as a gentleman I wouldn’t dream of revealing her age, lets just say a lot of things are free for her now. We chat on the phone for a while, I had a present delivered to her by Amazon a few days ago, but the card and present I sent from La Paz hasn’t arrived yet. I sent it three months ago, and I think I now understand the look the postman gave me when I said I didn’t want the more expensive tracked service.
My government back home has just this minute passed a law (at least it passed first reading) that makes it legal to break the law. Whilst at the same time asking the public to snitch to the police on any neighbour that might be breaking the law by having more than 6 people in the garden. What strange times we live in.

Tuesday
I start cleaning up the boat, leaping into any distractions at the first opportunity. I’m not sure how, but I seem to have about 20 micro USB phone charger cables around, which is odd as I use the Apple connector.
In the evening I walk down the Malecon for some exercise and to see the Pre-Independence day celebrations. It’s lively tonight and there’s fireworks and a big formal do in the town square, which I just manage to miss.

Miercoles, Septiembre de 16th – Independence Day
Yes it’s independence day in Mexico.

“Mexico, once known as New Spain, was a colony harshly ruled by the kingdom of Spain for over 300 years. The native population was oppressed, farm land and personal wealth was confiscated and only Spaniards were allowed to hold political posts. Finally, a Catholic priest in the town of Delores named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla had enough.
On September 16, 1810, he rang his church’s bell and delivered a speech now known as the Grito de Delores (Cry of Delores), demanding the end of Spanish rule. This started the brutal Mexican War of Independence, which lasted over a decade. On August 24, 1821, Spain withdrew and officially recognized Mexico as an independent country. Today, Father Costilla is known as the Father of Mexican Independence. Mexican Independence Day has been celebrated every year since that momentous day on September 16, 1810.”

So I celebrated by washing some clothes and tidying up. Later I walked down the Malecon with Arturo and practised some Spanish. he got jumpy when a very agitated couple passed us both frantically talking down the mobile phones. He overheard them talking about guns, and stopped and asked the next couple if something was going on. They told him there had just been a shootout in a bar nearby. We carried on to the main square which was busy with families and kids jumping in the coloured water jets that have just been installed.

Thursday 17th
More tidying up, the boats looking smart inside, but the varnish has just evaporated off the rub rails outside. So far all the flights are still on schedule.
In the evening Arturo buys me a birthday dinner at a local seafood restaurant, which is very tasty.

Friday 18th
Up early and off to Mexico city, Kathy has left Manchester and started her journey. All these flights are going to require a lot of recycling to undo our carbon contribution. Besides the flights we are pretty good on the eco front, Kathy is vegan, I don’t eat meat, our only transport is bicycles and the boat, which I try to sail as much as possible. Also we generate most of our power from the solar panels.

It was a surprise to land at a cold and wet Mexico airport.

The hotel at Mexico is smart, but eerie with so few guests. Everyone at the airport and the hotel are very covid aware, masks everywhere along with gel and disinfectant foot mats. They ask me at the hotel check in desk if it’s my birthday, I had to think for a minute and confirm it is. They must have thought, poor old man, checking in to a hotel all alone on his birthday, which was fine as an hour later they sent up a complimentary birthday cake/dessert dish for me which the chef had prepared. Very nice, thank you NH Hotels T2 Mexico airport.

I get an early night and before I sleep I watch the news breaking of the Supreme court judge Ruth Ginsberg’s death. It’s a major story in the states, and I had been hoping she would survive a bit longer. She was a great lady from everything I have heard. Of course if the election race wasn’t already crazy, this throws another major spanner into the works. I have two english language tv stations on the hotel TV, this is a luxury for me, one is CNN (Anti Trump) and the other FOX news (Pro Trump) so flicking between the two I see the problem with the world so clearly, one channel stating it could be unlawful to delay the new appointment, and the other claiming the opposite. One saying the republicans are being incredibly hypocritical as they blocked the appointment under Obama, and the other saying it’s everyones duty to get this done quickly and there is no comparison with the past. At the same time back in the UK Boris has just announce the 2nd wave has arrived on our shores, as if the French or Belgians slipped it in overnight when nobody was looking. At the same time the top scientists on the subject are being ignored. What a crazy situation, whatever happened to reasoned logic and truth.

Saturday 19th
I’m up at 2am as flightradar24 says Kathy’s flight is nearly an hour early, and will land in 10 minutes. I’m confused as the map puts her over the gulf of Mexico which has to be 90 minutes away at least. Aeromexico has the flight delayed by 20 minutes on it’s arrivals page, so I go back to bed. At 3:30am I’m up again and sitting outside the arrivals area. Kathy appears after having her bags searched and we are finally reunited. It’s great to see her again.
We manage a couple of hours sleep back at the hotel and then it’s back to the terminal and a lot of flapping around while a paramedic interviews us for covid history and to take temperatures, I saw him using his oximeter on the passenger ahead of us. We had to fill out online questionnaires for the track and trace system. It all takes a little time, but nobody is arguing or complaining, it seems that a developing country like Mexico has a better grip on Covid than the UK, at least at the airport, it’s a different situation out in the public, especially in the city itself (CDMX). Kathy had to fill in paper forms at the UK on both her flights here and her round trip to Milan, but nobody collected the forms, so a bit pointless. Presumably the government know where everyone is, where they have been and who they have met anyway, and if not they could just ask Zuckerberg.

Back on the boat Kathy unpacks lots of goodies for me, from replacement credit cards, to USB dongles, a Raspberry PI hat, books and a decent supply of quality chocolate. She also brings me a present of a huge block of Parmesan cheese from Bobbie and Bruno in Milan, Thanks to you both, the European cheeses here are a little lacking.

Sunday 20th Sept
Kathy wakes me to point out that when she put the kettle on the mains power tripped, this happened when she first came out to the boat in Malaysia, causing some trouble in the marina as the whole pontoon lost its power and other boaters started shouting at each other, while we kept our heads down. The power supply is rated to allow the kettle/aircon/toaster to co-exist, but I think if the hot water heater is also on, then we could be pushing our 30A limit. Anyway, groggy eyed I crawled out of bed and onto the pontoon where I could see the cutout trips were intact and the power was good to the sockets, what was unmissable was the stink of electrical burning and the very charred and hot plug.

I’m not really sure why this has happened, I thought everything is rated correctly, if the current was too high the breaker should have tripped, so I’m assuming the connection inside the plug or more likely the connection between the plug and socket pins was poor, anyway I cut the cable back and replaced the plug. Everything is back and running, and the plug isn’t getting hot as far as I can tell. Something to keep an eye on.
Back on board I cook poached eggs on ciabatta bread, something of a Sunday morning tradition we haven’t been able to do since Kathy left 8 months ago.
Kathy has a lazy day while she gets over her jetlag and I potter around doing odd jobs.

Paul Collister.

Monday 7th Sept -Friday 11th
Not a lot to report, My SDR radio arrived, it worked, I listened to the Harbourmaster, some AIS signals and the local FM Radio, not sure what to do with it now.
I spent some time cleaning up my WiFi and router setup, on this pontoon, the wired ethernet doesn’t work with WhatsApp video. Very strange as the pontoon WiFi does. Also my WiFi on the macbook is half the speed of that on my iPhone, 24mbs/50mbs.
I cycle the Malecon and tonight I walk half the length, I’m 20 minutes out when I realise I forgot my mask, but looking around I notice most people havent bothered so I push on, trying not to cough on anyone. 😉 I’m pleased but also a bit surprised just how many people are out, the bars are doing well and there are kids on go karts and many cyclists. The infection rate continues to rise, but the critical care beds at the hospital remain around 60% full. It could quickly get worse, but I’m beginning to think that social distancing outdoors with a mask is probably quite safe for most people. I’m hoping I will live long enough to be able to read the research on the virus that should emerge over the next 5-10 years once the data is really analysed. It should make for some interesting facts.
I’m not doing much at all right now, due to the crazy heat, saying that, we had a bit of cloud cover for a few mornings, and one almighty downpour on Tuesday.

Saturday 12th
I head off to the town centre early as I heard the organic market had restarted in a new location, sadly I’m going to have to wait another few weeks before I can restock on Organic Pesto sauce as there was no sign of the market anywhere, sometime I wonder if the news on facebook isn’t always 100% right.
There’s some kind of a parade going on and the military have a band outside the Museum of Art.

Later that day I have a nice Raspado sitting at a cafe on the Malecon, this is made from Mango and shaved ice, it might even be healthy?

I spend Sunday trying to get my head around the various pronouns and conjugations in Spanish, it doesn’t help that I was rubbish at English Language at school and barely know the difference between an adverb and an adjective, let alone understand direct and indirect object pronouns. I’m still avoiding the subjunctive like the plague. Arturo was going to call over for a swim and then dinner but he got some work as a tour guide taking a stag party from Mexico City out to Isla Islote, and showing the guys how to snorkel with the sea lion colony.
No hurricanes this week, so I’m expecting some action in the next fortnight.
I’m flying to Mexico on Friday to collect Kathy, assuming all the flights are as planned. Hopefully she will start writing some more literate and entertaining blogs for you soon.

Paul Collister.

I thought I was light of a few days on the post before last, I just found them in the draft bin. A bit late but just for the record….

Tuesday 18th August 2020
Around 11 we slip our mooring, and head down to the fuel dock. We had very strong winds in the night and I checked on the mooring line and the backup around 2AM to find that somehow our line to the strop had wrapped around the main buoy and had slipped down onto the barnacle encrusted chain. So with the line being taut due to the 25+ knot winds it was only a matter of time before it parted. I’m glad I had a backup line attached and I was able to attach a third line to the strop before releasing the trapped line altogether. I was a bit worried I might do something stupid and end up losing our mooring. We were just a few boat lengths upwind from Warren on his boat, but it all worked out and it was good to see the strop take the weight again. My problem was down to too much slack in the lines to the strop, in future I will make sure the strop is at the height of the mooring buoy so it can’t wrap around it.
Fueled up and with both water tanks refilled we head north for the small uninhabited island/nature reserve at Isla Coronados, just 15 miles north of Loreto. We get both sails up and have a pleasant trip. It’s a popular spot being so close and we were pleased that there was only one power boat moored there, albeit a huge Bill Gates type of vessel. We anchor in about 5 metres of water over a sandy bottom with excellent holding.
It’s baking hot so we are quick to jump in the water, which is a perfect temperature compared with Escondido. Arturo dives down to 3 metres and reports back that it’s wonderfully cool down there and I must try it. For the next hour we fool around taking turns to haul ourselves down the anchor chain decompressing on the way and trying not to breathe. I get about 3-4 metres down and I’m very pleased my ears are equalising, Arturo manages to bring some sand/shingle up from the bottom, at this point we thought we were in 5 metres of water but when we finally get back on board find we are in 8 metres. Arturo is made up to know he free dived down to 8 metres. I’m hoping to get him looking for Oyster pearls soon 😉 .
After dinner in the cockpit we sit watching the zillions of fish that are swimming around the boat making quite a racket.
We are sleeping in the cockpit and a lovely breeze builds and builds, the lightning starts and the winds finally peak around 35 knots after 2 AM. I’m normally a bit on edge in these circumstances, but the anchor is set well, we have great land cover from the wind unless it does an 180 degree turn, and the waves are very small. Also the mega yacht is a mile or more from us at the other end of the bay.

Wednesday 19th
Hurricane Genevieve is advancing towards the Baja Peninsula and will pass Cabo San Lucas today. There is a warning of flooding in the Cabo area, but it looks like it’s just going to brush the peninsula and miss us. La Paz will see some strong winds, but up here we won’t feel much. The chart below, courtesy of NOAA, shows the probability of high winds where we are as being low.

However the hurricane is spinning off lots of cloud cover our way which reduces the temperature a lot. We dinghy over to a small cove and beach at the north end of the bay and enjoy a great snorkel over a large reef. Most of the coral here looks to be dead, but a few healthy bits show up. I don’t know if the coral died a natural death, or if warming seas or some other man made action is the problem. Arturo drives the dinghy to the main beach and we notice many rocks just below the surface some distance from the shore and later a big RIB from the newly arrived mega yacht screams across the water and hits one of the rocks. I was watching it in amazement wondering if the helmsman knew the area really well or was a complete plonker. As his passengers all shrieked following two big bangs, I was expecting at least a broken prop, but no, he slowed down for a second, then got back up to full speed on a plane and continued towards the cove. My estimation of the helmsman was now firmly in the plonker category.
Back on board we dd a bit of Spanish practice, focussing on how to handle restaurants. A big red trimaran sailboat arrived, and I taught Arturo the finer points of making Pasta & Pesto, pointing out it was always going to be pretty rubbish if the Pasta wasn’t fresh and the pesto recently homemade, not to mention the perils of using a cheap Padano cheese instead of an authentic Parmesan. Still he liked it and it was filling. He ate tostadas with it which made me wonder if he might have missed some of my finer points.

Monday 31st August.
Shopping and tidying up take most of the day up. I order a few bits on Amazon for Kathy to bring out with her and I order a SDR (Software defined Radio) for the PI computer to be delivered to the marina.

In theory this will add AIS, Weather Satellites, coastguard traffic and pretty much anything that happens in the VHF frequencies, to the ship’s computer arsenal.

But mostly it gives me something techie to play with for a while. These devices seem amazing, with an upconverter I will be able to receive HF fax broadcasts as well, so possibly I can leave it running 24/7 and have a rolling last few days of weather charts handy. There are plenty of areas around here where MF/HF (shortwave) radio is the only way to have any form of communication, unless you pay for an expensive SatPhone contract.
I take advantage of having an empty quarter berth, to stick my head through the engine access hatch in there. This is where I access the sea water filter and seacock for the engine cooling feed. Given the crazy growth on the hull outside , I’m expecting a very clogged filter, but it turns out to be remarkably clean, presumably because it’s made of brass or bronze?

I clean it up, but have to make a new sealing gasket for the top. Then I run up the engine and check everything still works. Omelette for dinner while I enjoy the new view from the cockpit.

Tuesday
I get the laundry done, now I can access my bed again. I have less success ordering some printer cartridges for my trusty cannon all in one pixma machine. It seems my printer and ink is only available in Malaysia, it’s a very different model name and number in Malaysia, Mexico and England. I’m sensing a scam, the three models all look the same as do their cartridges, so I take a gamble and decide I will try the Mexican ink for a different model printer, that looks identical and I find a good deal on ‘Mercado Libra’, a Mexican version of Amazon/eBay. I order it and hand over my credit card details, they take my money then ask for my Mexican Citizen number, which of course I don’t have. I can’t complete this form and there is no way out. I crash out and find I can’t cancel the order because I haven’t completed it. What a pain. I reorder using another cash method, where I get a code and at the local mini-supermarket I can pay cash with the code. That goes well, besides the unexpected £2 commision they add, checking back on my order process I find it went through and the order was placed only for the vendor to immediately cancel my order. Now I have no way for them to return my money. My experience with Mexican Web based IT systems so far has been a little disappointing.

Wednesday
I add a little extra functionality to the Solar Reporting system back in Latvia that I maintain, it takes three hours and I quite enjoy the work. Later I spend far too long on TikTok, mostly watching 30 second clips on carpentry or rebar bending in India, I hate their algorithm, but it has me hooked regardless.

Thursday
I do some database cleanups for work, a bit of shopping, then a lot of Spanish. I’m just about to set off to the supermarket when I get three txt’s from the airline I’m using to meet Kathy and bring her back from Mexico, they say to get in touch as the flight has changed. I was hoping this wouldn’t happen, but it’s a pain. Putting this to one side I set off on my bike, I’m halfway to the supermarket when I realise I didn’t bring a bag, then as I reach the supermarket I notice I didn’t bring my wallet either. I think this flight thing has annoyed me more than I realised. Skipping the supermarket I carry on down to the beach, it’s a lovely evening and a nice walk along the beach, lots of people are out and I come across a class of keep fitters dancing around and generally looking a bit silly.

Later I work out Plan B is as good if not better than Plan A, and there’s also a Plan C that doesn’t cost too much so I’m not too bothered about the flights.

Friday
There’s nothing like an hour on a bad voip line to customer support in a remote country to get the day started. The airline tell me they don’t do refunds for Mexican flights, I argue and get passed to a supervisor, I stay on hold for 15 minutes then I’m cut off. Somewhere there’s a bit of code, Let T2 = 15*60, if !T2–, KerChing. I will call back tomorrow, they can’t offer me flights that work, so it’s either an unlikely refund, or credits against a future flight. Perhaps we can visit somewhere on the mainland for our Christmas shopping, or maybe fly to Tijuana for a William Burroughs style adventure weekend, perhaps not!.
Over at Aeromexico I get flights that were around the same time as the canceled Volaris flights, I also change the hotel as everything is now at T2, which makes life simpler, and safer. Spanish lessons are early as I’m off to brave the shops with Arturo at lunchtime.
Despite feeling tired we march through the heat to a bookshop and I buy some Mexican magazines, one is a bit like the economist and the other a more topical gossip rag. They will join the pile of Spanish reading material I am yet to get to. I try a famous and popular Mexican drink, Horchata. It’s an Agua Fresca.
“If you have never heard of agua frescas before, it literally translates to “fresh waters” and they are thirst-quenching, light non-alcoholic beverages made mostly with water sweetened with a little sugar and flavored with anything from fruit, to nuts, to flowers, to rice.” Thanks to https://houseofnasheats.com/horchata-mexican-drink-recipe/ for the details. It’s lovely, and possibly vegan.
On our way back we stop and discuss the architecture of the newly restored bandstand, It looks fine from a distance but close up we notice it’s a mishmash of Roman, Greek, Mexican,French and Fascist styles of architecture. I arrived quite liking it, but left rather disappointed.
We take in the only Vegan restaurant in town, I say restaurant, they only sell Tacos and Vegan cakes, but Arturo is keen to try a vegan beef taco, and he loves it. He’s also impressed with all the ‘right on’ posters proclaiming the evils of animal farming that adorn the walls. I’m more impressed with the lovely slim young lady who is running the show and serving us, but you just know in this kind of setup, she will have an ultra cool boyfriend, a guy who has saved sharks, whales and other animals from peril, worked on the Sea Shepherd, looks like a young Brad Pitt and is entirely charming in every way. He probably plays guitar and piano as well. Still the platano (banana) smoothie tastes great, and the Tacos are nice enough. I expect we will visit here a lot when Kathy arrives, for the food of course.

Saturday/Sunday
Not a lot to report, I dinghy over to the magote for a swim, Arturo comes along and later we practise my Spanish over dinner in the cockpit and I help him with some of the weirder english pronunciations. I’m a bit worried the USAians & Canadians will struggle with his strange english versions, I don’t notice it much, but I’m told it’s very obvious with phrases like “I’ve got to” pronounced “I’ve Gorra” over here.
I have just ordered the Pi Sense Hat so I can record temp/humidity/barometric pressure etc and log it into the database. This should be fun.

Paul Collister