Over the past several weeks we've visited Caleta Lobos, Caleta Partida, Isla San Francisco, San Evaristo, Agua Verde, Puerto Escondido, Los Gatos, (back to) Isla San Francisco, El Cardoncito and then back to La Paz.
Today, when we head out we're heading back north again..stopping at where ever we get to for tonight. We are determined to be back at Isla San Francisco (perhaps the most beautiful spot in all of the Sea of Cortez) by dinner time Saturday, March 17th (St. Patrick's Day and our 5th 'formal' anniversary). We have a bottle of champagne for the cooler, a fabulous new york steak in the freezer, and (now) some veggies to go with it :-) Thanks Barb M. for remembering it would be our 5th.. I think we'd lost track. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my baby sister Laura... on the 16th... she's looking great! and as she always reminds me, no matter how old she gets... she'll never be as old as me!
We have a short two weeks left on this end of our sailing adventure. It has indeed been an adventure as well as a huge learning experience and I doubt we'll ever think of things the same again... (don't worry, we're still 'us'... but we're so full of new experiences it will take some time to sift thru them all).
Praise for Engels: For those of you who are interested... we have been living with a system for refrigeration that is working very well for us. We turned our 'ice box'... you know, the one that comes with the boat with a curved bottom so nothing can stand upright, and that has little or no insulation so you're forever sucking melted ice (water) out of the bottom of it and looking to purchase large blocks of ice (that nobody sells down here).... Anyway, we turned that 'space' into dry storage and it's working quite well (how could it fail? :-). For refrigeration we use an Engels freezer (110 and 12 volt) to make ice blocks (we freeze nicely shaped juice containers - 3 of them at a time). We use the ice blocks (3 at a time) to cool one of those 5-day camping coolers and they work great. We've lots of 'flat' space for refrigerated foods and we just cycle 3 'blocks' of ice each morning. There's also room in the freezer for steak, chicken, prawns, whatever.. as much as you might need for 6 or 7 meals anyway. And we even make ice-cubes... !! The freezer draws only 2.5 amps when it's running and our solar panels can keep up with that so it's nicely balanced most of the time.
That's all for now, except to remind you that once we leave (within the hour) we'll be out of cell phone and internet range until we come back to La Paz... at the end of the month. As much as we've had and are having a great time, we're also looking forward to heading home to see family and friends... it's been a long time without those hugs!
Take care everyone... keep those home-fires burning... warm up the place if you can, we'd hate to lose these beautiful tans :-)
ttfn... CJ
