Back in the swing of things - Bahia Jaltepeque

We’ve now been back on Carpe Vita for a little over a month having arrived on October 1st. We’ve been pretty much working on the boat constantly – getting it ready to take off for another chapter of our journey. The first thing we discovered was the salt water pump on the port engine had frozen up and needed repairs. Luckily, the bearings that were shot due to salt water incursion were easy to replace but finding a new stainless steel round spring to fit in the special O-ring was impossible. It had rusted and weakened and let the salt water get to the bearings. As with most cruising, we found an ad-hoc solution that will be better than Yanmar ever designed. It all took a week to fix and now both engines work fine. This also explains why we were starting to overheat during passages on that engine.

So, with both engines working fine, next came time to test out the water maker and it was time for the salt water feed pump to fail. Same round spring failed but this time it only meant that the pump would not pump rather than ruining something else. The O-ring needed replacing and we ended up using a master brake cylinder rubber ring that fit the space. Then cut a notch in the rubber ring to hold an inside O-ring to mimic the SS spring, then epoxy it in place to mimic the star retainer ring that had rusted away. Well, sounds crazy, but it works and we are back in business. This took two weeks to finally fix.

We are on a mooring ball outside of Murray and Collette’s house on the island here in the estuary. They have a haul out facility that they can use at high tide when the mud flats are well under water. One day we woke up and saw 18 young men standing around their house. Something was up. In about an hour they each had a shovel in their hands and were digging a trench in the mud leading to the travel lift. They got paid $7 for four hours work and boy were they happy as the average wage here is $6 for 12 hours work!

We are currently working on replacing the trampoline netting. Using netting material we bought late 07 and carried around with us throughout Mexico for a year, we decided it was time to get to work. Mary has been at the sewing machine for about a week and we should start installation in a day or so.



When we got here it was the last month of the rainy season. It rained every day, usually at night, and thus humid – very humid. Then on October 25th, the dry winds came from the North signaling the beginning of the dry season. For four days the dry wind blew and that was it; no more rain! We went from 85F/85% to 85F/30% in one day. Two of Mary’s violin strings just popped off. We went from sleeping under nothing to a sarong to a small lightweight blanket to our great quilt. The days are now hot/dry and nights cool. Stars are out and except for the no-seeums and mosquitos from 5:30 pm to 7:00pm life is great.

We took the 1 ½ bus trip for the 60 km to San Salvador for our 39th anniversary. We stayed at a B&B near the World Trade Center for two nights. Had Argentine steaks for dinner, got serenaded by the restaurant singer our first night. The next day we saw El Salvador’s only colonial city – Sugitoto (which, after you’ve seen Antiqua, was not very impressive). We did major food shopping – starting to provision – on the 3rd, rented a taxi and drove back to the boat. It was wonderful to get away for a couple of days.

Last night the local crusiers got together to have an election party (any excuse you know). Our group was half Americans and half Canadians. We negotiated for a free hotel room and had beer and dinners delivered. We stayed until Barack gave his victory speech. The feelings in the room were interesting. Every single woman thought McCain shot himself in the foot when he chose Palin. They all thought it an affront to all women; but these are pretty independent and self confident women. Everyone thought that no matter which one won, the USA standing in the world could only go up. The Mexicans (in person) were calling Bush a “payaso” (a clown) and that will now stop. With Barack’s win, it appears that most of America has grown past skin color and can actually focus on issues. We now have our first half white president in a land of immigrants from virtually the world over. Let’s hope that he can restore the faith in government and each other that Mr. Bush has managed to destroy. And hope that the Republicans don’t try to oppose everything and do business as usual but actually help make meaningful solutions. We will watch from afar and wish everyone back in the States the best of luck.

Well back to the netting, working on the anchor, and figuring out how/where to get propane. Oh – life is simpler here. Eat, sleep, work on boat, swim in pool to relax!