Beautiful Tenacatita

We are back in Tenacatita after a very eventful sail down from Isla Pasavera. We were able to sail through some fairly choppy conditions beating into the wind for the whole 35 miles. We made three tacks which were very interesting in 4 to 6 ft chop. It was a fun but somewhat wild ride. On the other side of the coin we had the worst 24 hr mechanical day yet. The night before we left we went to raise the dingy and found that our winch had a dead short somewhere in the system. After trouble shooting it till 11;00pm I found that both the up and down solenoids were stuck closed, causing it to push and pull at the same time. The next day I bypassed the solenoids and was able to get the anchor up and off we went. I needed to make water so we motorsailed till the alternator belt blew apart. I put a new one on in the rough seas only to find out later that the reason for the blow up was a bad Alternator. Couldn't do anything about it till I dug out my spare so we continued to sail on. We sailed into the bay and went to start the engine to anchor and the engine sounded like crap. I then discovered that the raw water intake was either clogged or the impeller was bad,and we were a dry exhaust which isn't good. We anchored fast to avoid heating up, and just sat there thinking about all the projects I had for the next couple of days. That night I went to take my evening pills and I found that our two water tanks were filled with saltwater. Some how my watermaker had produced saltwater and contaminated our two biggest tanks. The next day I started in on our projects and needed to recharge the batteries and guess what, my brand new Honda generator wouldn't start. Tearing the case apart I found the fuel tank was half full of water. I have been able to solve all the problems so far with the spare parts I had on board which is a good thing. I just hope I am done for a while. The saltwater in the tanks actually came from when the anchor well filled with water in the rough seas and with a slow drain the water siphoned into the tank through the vent. We have been the rare boat to be repair free for the two years since we left the northwest. I guess it was time.

I think we will spend Christmas here with 5 or 6 other boats that we know and then move south. Hopefully our next leg will be uneventful as usual. Just to make everyone not feel too sorry for us, the weather is great. It is in the mid 80's during the day and mid 60's at night. The water temperature in around 82 degrees

This is a great place to be broken down!!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com