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12/12/2005 2:30:00 PM
South of Punto Colnett, MX
Somewhere between Punto Colnett and Isla San Martin, Mexico

Back to sea after lots of fixing with little outco

We are back to where we were last week Wed ... and a bit further, both distance as well as boat wise ... focus on A BIT

Well, we are back to where we started about 6 days ago, right off Punto Colnett south of Ensenada on our way south to either Islas San Benitos or Turtlebay depending on how the days go. If you are hoping for a conclusion to the suspense novel, you might not want to continue ? I can tell you right now, there won?t be any and quite frankly at times it is starting to wear on us but at the same time, the LAISSEZ FAIRE spirit is becoming easier as we go.

Let me rewind to last week, when we were down here before. As you might remember we had problems with our engine dying once we shifted in reverse after a long motor or even running in forward at low RPM was difficult; so we turned around to get it fixed. Well, to make a long story short we were unsuccessful to fix it and with the advice of a lot of people including our mechanic we found a safe workaround to our problem that allowed us to leave and deal with the problem potentially in La Paz ? to use our mechanics words ? the engine will either get better or the part that is only working intermittently will break all the way.

Niki wasn?t around when this all developed on Sunday morning and you can imagine how excited she was at first to leave with a boat that it seems has no reverse after motoring for a while ? I would venture to say we are the first cruising family in recent history, ie not including people like Slocum, who left their home port without a fully working engine ? ;-). But after we talked for a while about the issues at hand, what our options are and also consulted with a few of the friends that had accumulated around us for the weekend (felt a bit like communal tribal decision making), it became obvious pretty quickly that we were going to leave that day anyhow despite the motor not working all the way. You wonder if this is a good idea, well our primary concern was to make sure we are safe. Niki and I felt 100% safe with what we have and how we are planning to go about the situations ? it sounds too simple to say that sailing ships have been cruising around the world for hundreds of years without engines but there is something to be said to use your boat in different ways such as taking advantage of the dingy motor we have, taking advantage of the sails we have even during anchoring and after all we are NOT planning to park the boat in a marina every evening where you need to drive the boat in very tight quarters ? we are for sure planning our trips more cautiously by allowing more time for anchoring and we will make sure we have enough sea room for backup options when things should get tight ? I KNOW we are safe and so does Niki, hence the decision to leave. Funny this must sound like I am trying to justify our decision to you but it is more about trying to take you thru our decision making process and I hope you find something in that too rather then just dolphin and whale stories.

Before we left the dock, we made sure this time around we raised our Rikabambou flag, our talisman for good luck. We hit the bay right smack in the middle of the Xmas boat parade in San Diego including fireworks, what a send-off. We had to cross the parade and gotten followed by the Coast Guard for that but other then that, the night has been fairly uneventful. Seas are calm with fairly large swells for the last few hours, probably up to 8 feet but with a very large period so it feels like a gentle rocking rather then waves; there has been pretty much no wind so the engine has been running continuously now for over 20 hours ? I don?t even dare to idle down. As I mentioned before, our food stores are STACKED with delicious stuff though I already got scolded for opening up a liver pâté that was reserved for New Years Eve ? when Niki said I should make my own sandwich, that?s what happens; I guess next time I have to leave it to here again ? LOL ? it is amazing to me how much thought, work and effort Niki has put into all the little things and items we have onboard ? am I glad that I brought my MediFast diet with me while we are hanging around in La Paz though.

In terms of future planning, that is pretty pointless at this time, except that we are trying to make it to La Paz if possible by Xmas ? Frank would like to head back from there and we are meeting up with the cruising family we met a month ago in San Diego (see www.ohanakai.net <http://www.ohanakai.net/> ). If we can make that or how, is up in the air.

One more little sailing tidbit, these long overnight trips are an interesting animal and quite different from land live ? not that we are that experienced at it yet, but so far this has developed as follows ? Frank, Niki and I stay up at night in 3 hour shifts, typically Niki from 9-12, then myself from 12-3 and Frank from 3-6 ? what that allows you is to get a good 6 hours of sleep which in cruising terms is luxury and something we won?t get when it is just Niki and I. The kids go to bed and get up like any other ?land? day but during the day they are much more subdued then they are otherwise ? the exception to this rule is Benjamin. It amazes me how this guy is totally untouched by whatever goes on ? he is just the family clown, happy as a clam and upbeat even when we are tired from a shortened night ? and he was the one saying ?I don?t like sailing? ? well I guess he is proving himself wrong with that attitude. To me, the most interesting part is that you actually have a lot of time where you just hang out, read, nap or write reports like this ? overall I feel though like time is totally slowing down and so is your mind ? interesting feeling for someone like myself whose mind is always going at 100mph.

For now happy sailing

Robert

PS: I cannot send these reports while we are motoring due to noise our alternator creates on our HAM radio, so excuse the slight delay ? this might only go our tomorrow.

TheSchmids Family Sailing on Lawur

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