{"id":8119,"date":"2020-07-13T06:16:40","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T06:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/?p=8119"},"modified":"2020-07-13T06:16:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T06:16:40","slug":"hot-hot-hot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/?p=8119","title":{"rendered":"Hot Hot Hot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monday 6th July 2020<\/strong>.
Did I mention it’s getting hot here, this morning I popped to the supermarket and bought some bananas which seemed fine there, but by the time I reached the boat they had ripened into a mush. My neighbours were fitting an aircon that looked just like the one I had been eyeing up in the supermarket.
Besides my Spanish, I don’t get a lot done due to the heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday:<\/strong>
Over to the Magote for a swim, I spot a few rays as I snorkel around. I have brought my cheapo GoPro copy and its waterproof case but as I swim around filming the fish underwater I can see bubbles floating up from the camera. It takes a few seconds, but I figure that means as the air is heading out of the camera case, so must water be heading in. I manage to get the camera out and dried fairly quickly, and it seems to still be working, but I expect the rot has set in now and it won’t be long before the salt crystals get to work on it.
I pay for another month in marina, I’m going to be here until the start of august then I really need to get out and do a bit of sailing, It has been too long and I might forget how everything works. Kathy is planning to return here in the middle of September if I don’t return home before then. I need to asses the Covid situation, flight options and the hurricanes before I can decide to head back. If I dont head back I will sail the sea here until Kathy’s flight, then return to La Paz to meet her here or in Mexico City.
Last night we had quite a strong gusty wind, I wondered if it was a Corumel, a strong wind that comes in from the Pacific over the land. I thought about getting the sails down soon and then remembered that the yankee headsail had jammed once on the way up, and I started to worry it might happen on the way down, and if that happened in a building wind I could be in trouble. So while it was calm I took both the headsails down. They didn’t jam, but the staysail was quite stiff, and the Yankee furler was jammed and required a bit of a tug before it ran free. I need to give it a good service soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday<\/strong>:
I pickup a kilo of fish from the fishermen on my way home from the beach, I think that’s enough work for one day, given the heat. I do manage to put the sheets (Long ropes) from the headsails in buckets of fresh water to try and get the salt particles out.
My neighbours have not been seen outside their cabin since the aircon was fitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday<\/strong>:
The hurricane that didn’t get named Cummings, but is in fact Christina is south of us and building in strength, 50 – 60 knot winds at the moment, possibly reaching 90 knots tomorrow, but its track takes it west of us so we won’t need to worry, Cabo San Lucas is going to get some good surfing waves from it.
I’m glad I took the sails down now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Friday<\/strong>:
My Spanish lesson is delayed as Arturo has to help a friend take her son to hospital. I have heard the hospital here is now approaching capacity with Covid cases and if numbers continue rising at the current rate they will be struggling to cope in a few days time. La Paz is the capital of BCS (Baja California Sur) and I think all the covid patients in the state are brought here. So it doesn’t mean that La Paz itself is a hotbed of infections, but it is a problem. I’m not aware of any track \/ trace\/isolate system in operation, there’s no testing for the general public until you reach the hospital, but you can buy a test locally for a few hundred dollars.
After the lesson I head off for an evening shop and notice the aircon in Chedraui is on special offer at around \u00a3105. I take this as a signal from above. They only have two left, so I decide if one the units is still there in the morning I will buy it. My theory is I only need it for 3 months max, say 90 days, if I sell it for \u00a350 then, I will have had 90 days of cooling for \u00a350, so about 55p\/day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday<\/strong>:
In preparation for the aircon purchase I have to practice some spanish. My problem here is that I need to get a taxi to bring the Aircon from the supermarket back to the marina, yet I have read that Taxi drivers are suffering a lot more infections than the public in general, thereby making it riskier for me to travel with the unit in the cab. I start of by telling the security guard at the marina that a taxi will be arriving with an aircon and can he guard it until I get back on my bicycle. He understands me completely, even shows me where he will store it. Next I cycle to the store, pickup the last remaining unit and wheel it out to the taxi rank. I then explain what I want, that goes well, and when I arrive back at the marina on my bike the taxi driver and guard are putting the aircon unit into a cart for me to take to the boat. I love it when a plan comes together<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’m going to have to build some ducting \/ coaming to get the unit the work on the coachroof over the hatches, but for now I shove it in the companionway hatch stuff a pillow in the gap and switch it on. I wait and wonder if I should get a jumper out ready for later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The temperature drops from 36 deg to 32 over the next hour, It feels a lot cooler and the humidity is right down. But I’m expecting better, when suddenly it stops working. I notice the mains power has gone, I check the time and it’s 14:00 and I remember they are turning off the shore power to the whole marina today until 19:00. Oh well…
I jump into the dinghy and head off to the Magote, I can’t think of a better way to cool down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Out of service sub, en route to the Magote. I expect it’s hard to social distance on a sub.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the problems with coming from Liverpool is that you can’t get away from the bloody beatles. In a small sailing club in Japan we had to karaoke to ‘Let it Be’ , In Borneo we could hear Macca coming out of the piped music, and now here they have a bloody yellow submarine! I hope it doesn’t go the same way as the scouse one which sank, twice, in the famous Liverpool Albert Dock, with passengers on board, before they took its license away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I thought the whole point of a submarine was that it could sink ok. Thinking about it, one of the first ever submarine sinkings was on a maiden voyage from Liverpool, the HMS Thetis? I think a good motto might be, ‘avoid submarines with a Liverpool connection’!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday<\/strong>:
I have the best sleep in months last night, other than the fact I dreamed about Liverpool Empire being in ruins. It’s a great theatre\/venue in Liverpool, many world famous acts have performed there, but in my dream it was in a very sorry dilapidated state. I wonder how it will fare in this post covid world. I expect a lot of arts venues will struggle, most of the ones I know could barely pay the bills before.
The boat is so cool I even pull a blanket over me at one point.
I spend the day mostly inside enjoying the cool air, but hating the noise of the aircon and feeling so confined.
I practice the Spanish I have learnt during the week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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La Escoba, the Brush. Barrer, To Brush or Sweep. Trapeador is the Mop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I have taken to labeling things so I don’t forget their name.
Apologies for a rather dull blog this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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25 deg c, Bliss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Collister.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday 6th July 2020.Did I mention it’s getting hot here, this morning I popped to the supermarket and bought some bananas which seemed fine there, but by the time I reached the boat they had ripened into a mush. My neighbours were fitting an aircon that looked just like the one I had been eyeing … Continue reading “Hot Hot Hot”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8119"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8146,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8119\/revisions\/8146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}