Dear F&F,
December 25, 2008
Day 9 – San Benedicto Island
Scott and Linda went out snorkeling this morning & they got to see 2 big turtles. She was very excited.
Scott & I did only 1 dive today. No mantas. No sharks. But lots of colorful fish & some lobsters & an eel, so always lovely to blow bubbles. It rained in the afternoon & the skies were dark.
We caught enough rain in our dive gear rinse bin to wash the gear in rainwater – cool. The sky looks \”wintry\” but it is 77 degrees. I am so happy with the warm, but not too hot, weather. It suits me just fine. The prediction is for some stronger winds tomorrow & bigger seas. So it may get less comfy here in the anchorage.
Lunchtime: I found some hot dogs lurking in the fridge, maybe I opened the package a week ago. A few small white dots washed off easily. Certainly Mexican turkey hot dogs have gobs of preservatives so not too worried about food poisoning…
The afternoon project was helping Scott tweak the watermaker. The Spectra Newport 1000 is supposed to desalinate 40 gallons an hour. We got the big one so we wouldn\’t have to run the generator a long time to make a good quantity of water. But since he changed the vane pump, the output went down to 20 gallons an hour. No bueno. Kyle provided technical support by email, so Scott knew the potential remedy. He gave me a list of tools he would need & I went to our \”garage\” to fetch them:
3 Spectra wrenches (cleverly labeled by husband so wife can readily identify them)
1 crescent wrench (clever wife asks clarifying question: what size? Answer: 6)
Long phillips head screwdriver
90 degree hose tool
Hose clamp tool
Bucket
Yellow ratcheting phillips screwdriver
I tell you, I feel like I win a prize every time I come out of that garage with all the requested items. Knowing which drawers they are in, recognizing the correct item and delivering them to Scott in a timely fashion are just a few of my talents that makes him appreciate me as his boat wife.
After the adjustment on a difficult to get to screw, we test the unit & have full output. Another successful repair by the roving Spectra Watermaker technician!
Later on, I put back on my chef hat. From the pantry, I grab the 5th (out of 6) jar of \”Cuban Mojito Sauce\” from Trader Joes to saut with chicken & serve over pasta. I am sad not to have any Christmas CDs onboard & we can\’t get the Sirius radio to play well out here. Scott makes a playlist from our master music hard drive and after discovering the technical difficulty preventing us from hearing anything last night (mute button on the computer), we have a great time listening to Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Frank Sinatra and many other wonderful voices belting out Christmas music. Propagation for connecting to ham radio email after dark is lousy. Scott indulges me to connect via satellite phone. (We have a limited number of pre-paid minutes and try to save them for retrieving large weather files and potential emergencies.) Correspondence to and from friends and family make it a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah as well.
Scott & Cindy