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| Tank Tender Installation Mishap - Mike did a great job of installing our new 5 tank monitoring system. In order to finish the job, he gave the tank caps to Alejandro to bore a special hose fitting through each one. We covered the opening in each tank with pieces of duct tape, just to keep the dust out while we wait for Alejandro to return with our finished screw caps. Then we put the cushions back on the settees and locked the floorboards back in place. The next day, we had the brainstorm to fill our water tanks, forgetting about the duct-taped caps on the water tanks. On Aquila, we have 2 methods of filling our water tanks. If we are underway (not in the marina), we make our own water with our Sea Recovery Reverse Osmosis Desalinator watermaker. If we are at the dock, we fill our tanks from the hose, running it through our Baja Filter (a triple filter - carbon, 5-micron, & ultra violet light water filter). You know the tank is full when the water begins to flow out of the overflow spicket at the sink. It was taking longer than usual to fill the starboard tank, we were surprised that we had let it get so low. It didn't occur to us that something was amiss until the bilge pump kicked on. We pulled up the floor board to look at the bilge. Water ... lots of water. Oh no! The cap! We forgot about the cap! We yanked the hose out, and ran back down to pull off the settee cushion and teak access board. Water had been freely flowing out the top of the tank and running down the sides to the bilge. It's a good thing that Hylas has a well-designed boat. Everything was very contained and fairly easy to mop up. Lesson learned. I'm not sure what the lesson is. Maybe to pay attention to what we're doing! May 28, Saturday - What a party last night! We invited everyone over for happy hour on Aquila. Bill and Linda from Creola, Gary and Jeannie from Bad Attitude, Patricia and Joe from Bamboozled, John and his wife from Second Chance, Dave from Bella and us. There were all kinds of things to eat, plus Mike made a big bowl of his homemade salsa. Too many beer and wine bottles to count by the time the evening was over, and our sides hurt from laughing so hard. I was having so much fun I forgot to take pictures! Patricia and Joe joined us in the morning for a 3-mile walk on the beach - the guys ran and the girls power-walked. Walking on the beach is our new daily routine, even though Mike doesn't like to power walk (he prefers to run). I was desperately missing my morning walks that I used to take when we lived in our house. I was going to join the hotel spa if Mike didn't want to walk with me. So the frugal side of Mike is forcing him to do this with me. We walk in the morning and kayak in the afternoon .. lower body and upper body workouts! Three days in a row so far. But then, with Patricia and Joe, we went out for a Mexican breakfast at Alfonso's (the local breakfast hang-out) after our walk, and replaced all those calories that we burned! June 1, Wednesday - We drove up to Moorpark on Sunday to spend a few days at Kimberly's house. Lance cooked BBQ and invited the whole family over in the afternoon. It was great to see all the kids and grandkids. On Monday, Mike went swimming with Blake, Garrett and Paige. Linda got some great video footage of the kids swimming. Looks like Paige is going to be another little water bug. This makes us very happy as we think about all the good times ahead of us when the kids come to visit us on the boat. On Tuesday morning, Linda went for all of her pre-op doctor's appointments. Her shoulder surgery is scheduled for June 10. We don't know exactly what to expect in terms of recovery and rehabilitation, but in any event, it's going to mess up our plans a bit. We're still trying to figure everything out. We will be flying to Boston the last weekend of this month, and then we plan to sail Aquila up to Ventura Harbor the first week in July. If Linda isn't up to the sail, then Mike is going to have to recruit some help (anyone?). Went out to dinner tonight (8 of us) to celebrate Creola's departure tomorrow morning, and wish Bill and Linda fair winds! June 2, Thursday - We joined Gary and Jeanne on Bad Attitude as they escorted Creola out of Ensenada Harbor this morning. Bill and Linda are on their way to the Sea of Cortez, and then they plan to go to the South Pacific next winter. Then we spent the day on Bad Attitude which is a 50-foot fishing boat. These folks are avid fishermen and their boat is rigged for serious action. We had six lines out, two on spreaders. This was our first fishing trip and we were excited to catch something big. Even though we followed Jeanne's advice to pay the sea gods (we threw coins in the water), the only thing Mike caught was a 40 pound lump of kelp. It was exciting for a few seconds until we saw that it wasn't a fish! We had a fun day anyway and hope to do it again sometime when the fishing conditions are better. June 4, Saturday - The Baja 500 Desert Series was today. It was amazing. The whole town was jam packed with people, race cars and motorcycles. There were 9 helicopters in the sky. And to top it off, 2 cruise ships arrived in the morning. The starting line is on the main street and turns down into the dirt riverbed which runs through town. Then, it's approximately a 450-mile track of rocks and dirt through Baja California, finishing back in Ensenada. We got up early and walked through the crowds to watch the cars take off. The cars are started at 30-second intervals. It took two and one-half hours to get them across the starting line! There were hundreds of cars in the race. It was very loud and quite entertaining. We found a spot (with about 3,000 other people) on the bank of the riverbed which had a built-up dirt ramp causing the vehicles to leap into the air for the crowds enjoyment. The crowd would cheer louder based on the height of the leap. Mexico is pretty casual about safety, but we were still surprised to see people running across the race track between the race cars! I got some great video footage that the grandkids will like. Then, we walked to Alfonso's for their excellent Mexican breakfast and fresh squeezed OJ. Several new boats have arrived in the marina on our dock. We met Chris and Ian from Australia. Six of us (Chris, Ian, Lee from Stanhaven, Dave from Bella, and us) walked into town for dinner and margaritas at a sidewalk cafe on the main street (known as Gringo Gulch). We are eating out entirely too much!! June 5, Sunday - We took a four-mile walk on the beach this morning to get some exercise. I think all the off-road vehicles that were in town this weekend must have been having fun on the beach last night, from the look of all the tire tracks in the sand! This would have been such a great weekend for visitors! Maybe all our friends are waiting for us to return to Ventura to visit us this summer? Due to my surgery this week and then our trip to Boston, I think we are out of available weekends for visitors here. It sure has been fun. See all the photos in the June Photo Album.
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