September Continuing to Bring Hot Temps

It has cooled down some from the heat of the past couple days. I rinsed and scrubbed the port side of the boat to try and get more of the bird crap off. A little more was removed but not all of it. Oh well. That is the way it goes. After that job I rinsed out the cockpit while Dave went to town to price car batteries. We need to replace our start battery now. We have known it for a long time, but we can’t wait any longer in replacing it because it is on its last leg. I was almost finished with the cockpit when he got back with battery in hand. I finished my job and let everything dry. Dave hooked up the new battery and now it is charging. We will have to buy another one later on, because this doesn’t have a lot of amp hours, but it will do for now. Clouds started coming in and it looked like it was going to rain. After lunch I went out and waxed the port top side of the boat. Just the smooth parts. Dave took the old battery back to the hardware store while I polished. I finished polishing and had to quit. I have had enough of the sun for today. I had been sweating a lot and I needed to cool down and get some water in me. Dave returned and checked on the weather. We have a small storm cell above us passing by. I think it is moving south so we won’t see any rain. Dave is also keeping an eye on a tropical storm south of us on the mainland. It was churning and then headed inland and we thought that was going to be the end of it, but it is reviving and does not look too good for us here. Carlos, the marina manager, says that most of the hurricanes develop and come this way around September 1-15. He has lived here all his life so he should know what he is talking about. The tropical storm could generate itself again if it goes out to sea as the waters are warm enough to help it along. We were planning on heading back to the house tomorrow morning, but depending on what this storm is doing south of us, we may have to stay. Dave will take another look at it around 5:00pm when it is updated again. No sense leaving if we have to turn around and come back again right away. Dave and I made a decision about the man wanting to lease our boat for a year. We said no. Dave wrote our broker and told him that if he had enough money to pay the boat payment each month and the moorage fees, he would be able to buy it. The broker thinks this man just wants a cheap place to live for a year. I don’t think it has much to do with selling his boat. It sounds as if he has money. So we wait for the next offer to come along. We have plans to work a lot on the boat in the next 3 months to get her looking nice and protecting her from the elements. The weather should be much cooler. We have just scratched the surface in waxing her. Dave also is waxing the starboard hull where the fender has rubbed the wax off, leaving a black mark. As suspected, the little storm cell has blown away from us. The cloud cover has definitely cooled us off. Well it is time for a beer before I have to do a load of laundry. Toodles. We had dinner in town and when we returned we packed up for leaving tomorrow. We noticed the sky was getting grayer again and looked like it really might rain this time. We got everything packed and ready for transport tomorrow morning to the jeep. Before going to bed we heard thunder and looked out and saw lightning. We didn’t think much of it until it intensified and we had to put the computer in the oven to keep it away from the electrical charges the lightning creates. There is no pilot light on the boat stove so it’s o.k. That is the safest place for electronic devices during a storm. For about 3 hours or so, we heard it thunder and saw the flashes. You thought it was the 4th of July celebration!!!! It seemed as though there were several storm cells converging over us. It rained like crazy and all I could think about was having the jeep and foresail on the boat rinsed as we had a lot of dust flying last week in a 50-55 knot wind chubasco. Then we wondered how the road was going to be in the mountains. We had thoughts of roads being washed out. That is what happens when it rains hard here. We didn’t get a lot of sleep, but we did get up early to head back to Bahia. After securing the boat and saying goodbye to our fellow cruisers, we loaded the jeep. Then we found out that Carlos wasn’t going to be in until 9:30am. Dave forgot to give Carlos money for the diver and boat washer so we had an hour and a half to wait. We drove to town, parked and I waited in the jeep as Dave went to the bank to get pesos. When we returned to the marina, Carlos was just getting there. That was great timing!!! Carlos told Dave the roads were fine once we got out of Santa Rosalia. The majority of the rain fell in town. So that was good news. With all the heavy rain last night, the mud from the hills came down through town and they had backhoes and dump trucks taking the mud away. It made a big mess. We said goodbye to Carlos and headed home. He was right about the roads. No problems after getting through Santa Rosalia. We stopped to do some shopping on the way home in San Vizcaino and then came home. It was pretty warm coming into Bahia. We stopped for gas and then one more store and came home. The house was 106 degrees!!!! We opened all the windows and skylights. It took a while for everything to cool down, but it was just hot. We are back to normal again, in our home. It has been hot and humid, with the wind blowing during the day, but when you need it to keep you cool at night there is nothing. Good thing we have a big fan above the bed!!!!  We have had 2 thunder and lightning storms in the mountains south of us, but no rain here. While we were in Santa Rosalia getting all that rain, Bahia here, got a lot of wind. They had 50 plus knots of wind from a chubasco. It was enough force to blow some items off our storage shed where we keep the garbage can, and one of my rock formations at the beginning of the driveway, which never gets blown over, did!!! Everything else was fine. We seem to fair very well with the weather so far here. I heard from a couple people chairs came blowing off decks and all. Today, the 6th, Dave launched the boat and went fishing but didn’t catch anything this time. He did get a couple hits, but they didn’t latch onto the hook. The wind started picking up so he headed in. I met him at the boat ramp and helped him get the boat on the trailer. This time I resigned myself to getting wet!!! You just can’t fight it. The surf was up a little, but Dave said it was nothing compared to the way it was off the town. So no fish today. We relaxed for the rest of the day. Dave played his computer game and I read. There has been a nice breeze blowing but it is slacking off. We have gotten clouds over the mountains and we are hearing the rumbling of thunder. The clouds have covered the sun so we aren’t getting as much solar power any more. This happened yesterday and then around 4 or so the clouds went away and we had enough power to last all night. Just typical summer weather. We were invited to a birthday party at a friend’s house in Rincon. One of the cruising ladies was having a birthday so Mary invited all those cruisers that wanted to come and us too. Mary knows we use to cruise and we know some of them. So that was nice. It was a potluck and there was lots of food. It was nice to see those cruisers we had cruised with for a while and also to meet new ones and hear of their adventures and plans. It was a fun time. There is going to be a full moon party next weekend in La Gringa, which is north of Bahia and we have been invited to it. Happy 6th birthday Dominick!!!!! Our next to the youngest grandson is going to be starting 1st grade this fall. We were blessed to be able to see him while we were in Washington State. He didn’t remember us because he hadn’t seen us since he was about 2, but we had a fun time at Point Defiance Park with his dad, mom and step brother. Dave and I attended the La Gringa full moon party. We didn’t stay for the potluck, but we did get to see the floaties the cruisers had put together to float in and out of the estuary. They were all great and some were very, very creative. Every year they have this competition of who can make the best floatie and they are judged and prizes are handed out at the potluck dinner later that evening. I wore my bathing suit and got into the water with my noodle to join the fun and talk to some of the people. It was a hot day and the water was cool!!! I floated out of the estuary prior to everyone else so I wouldn’t be among them when the judging started. It was a fun afternoon. Just when you think the weather is cooling, you get another blast of heat. It has gone back up to the upper 90’s and even 100. Dave and I don’t exert much energy when it is that hot. So we’ve been reading and working on jigsaw puzzles. I’ve been trying to walk on the beach after the sun goes behind the mountains as it seems to be a little cooler. Dave has always wanted me to learn cribbage but it just seemed so complicated. But Mary Ann and another gal, named Penny, and I are learning together. As soon as I get a little more comfortable about the game, Dave and I will be able to play. That would make him happy. The gals and I have been playing hand and foot and also train to pass the time. It has been fun. Pretty soon the rest of the gals will be down here so there will be more people to join in. There are just 4 of us that are here all summer, give or take a month for vacation. Ruth, Mary Ann, Penny, and myself. Now we have 5 gals since Joanne has returned. The first part of October there will be more people returning to spend time here until the holidays, then they will go home to the states to be with family and then come back in January or February until it gets too hot for them. So the Bahia shuffle will start soon.  There isn’t going to be a pre-Christmas craft show this year. There wasn’t enough interest to go through all the trouble to put it on, but we are going to have a huge Spring Show. That should be interesting. We had a bunch of people last year and it was pretty crowded. Don’t know where we will fit all the tables-----but wait!!!! I’m not in charge so I don’t have to worry about it!  That feels so good to say!!!! Ha!! The weather is starting to get cooler again. I hope this time it stays cool. Our refrigerator is having a hard time trying to keep things cold. Just a couple days ago we got a west wind which blew very hot air down the mountains and across our area. The temp in the refrigerator was 57 which needless to say spoiled the milk. The inside house temperature was 107 and outside the temperature was 109. That is too hot! Running the fans really didn’t help much but we had to circulate the air somehow. The next house we have I want it to be cement. It is the best type of construction for this heat. Wood absorbs the heat and it takes a long time for it to cool down. If we don’t get a cooling breeze during the day or evening the house never cools down. Just when you think you can’t take it anymore, the weather changes. Just two nights ago it got cool enough that Dave and I had to pull the covers up over us. So maybe the cooling trend is starting. We have had some cooling breezes both in the day and night which is cooling the house down nicely and the refrigerator. I think the weather forecast for next week is to start getting into the 80’s. That will be soooo nice!!! Maybe then I can get back to my cross stitching craft. We got some news from a couple that has a boat in the same marina as we do and they live across the bay from us. They said they heard the marina was changing hands, which we knew, and Carlos, who is the harbor master right now, will be resigning on Friday, the end of the month. That saddened us as he was so good to us. His partner was offered a job at the mine so he left a couple weeks prior. There is no power to the facility so the boats that need power can’t get it unless they run their generator or engines. We are good because we have the solar panels working for us while we are off the boat, but we are going to the boat October 4, and I sure hope the power will be back on by then. It will be interesting to see how the marina will run in the next few months. All the personnel that worked there under Carlos and Evan are being laid off and being replaced with Mexico City personnel. If it gets too bad, we may take the boat down to La Paz, or bring it back to Washington State, in the spring of next year, if we haven’t sold it yet. Time will tell. Always an adventure!!! What would life be without all these ups and downs? Dave and I took the truck into town to the mechanic to have him take a look at the breaks. They are not holding like they should. Every time Dave launches the boat he worries if the breaks will hold. I followed Dave in the jeep and did some grocery shopping while he was talking to Philippe. Then I picked him up when I was done and headed home. Philippe said he would give us a call to let us know about the truck. Our gate guard, Nasario came by and tried to tell me the truck was done and asked if I needed a ride into town to pick it up. I really didn’t understand the truck was ready until after he had left and I was telling Dave about it. Ruth was over for a visit so Dave went to see Nasario and figure out if that is what he was saying, while Ruth and I visited. Sure enough, Philippe told Nasario to tell us the truck was ready. Dave told Nasario we would go into town tomorrow. The next morning we went into town and picked up the truck. Dave drove it while I drove the jeep. Dave said the truck runs really well. Philippe adjusted the breaks, changed 2 spark plug wires and plugs added brake fluid and it only cost $300 pesos. That is pretty cheap!!! Especially with the exchange rate at around 13.7. I played cribbage on Wednesday and hand and foot on Friday. Keeps my mind active and also gives me something else to do. Not doing much crafting stuff right now. Just reading and working on my cross stitch again. We heard the power is back on in the marina in Santa Rosalia so we will be heading down on October 4. I am glad that has worked out because I have some bedding and towels to bring down to wash. So life is good. It should be interesting to see what changes have been made.