Leaving Stone Island...finally 12.7.08

Stone Island was a blast! We had a great time there and stayed for several days longer than we had intended to work out some kinks in both our systems & our buddy boat - Lady Hawke - as well as wait for a package mailed down from the states that had our boat documentation inside & Michael's repaired sunglasses. It was near torture as we were forced to swim in 75 degree crystal water, dinghy into shore for pizza at Benji's, watch magnificent sunsets, watch cruise ships come & go from the commercial
dock, spot dolphins in the anchorage playing, break in our sea legs, and more... It was sunny & clear most days and just gorgeous. We shared the anchorage with Lady Hawke and only a couple other boats that straggled in and out during our stay. There were never more than 6 in the anchorage which was perfect! Grey Max & Pacific Jade joined us on Thursday in the anchorage and we all dinghied into shore & partied pretty hard Friday night. Everyone except us came armed with flasks of tequila! We
felt a bit unprepared and a bit out of our league, but soon fell right in step and had a wonderful time. It was a great night - dinner at Victor's, margaritas next door, a fun dinghy ride after dark to our boat for cookies, and everyone was gone by about 9pm - cruiser midnight! haha...

While at Stone Island we discovered and fixed a few bugs in the system. Sparky the generator was misbehaving again. One morning we could not get him to shut down! Yep, most people have trouble getting them started, we can't get it to stop. Michael eventually got it stopped by pulling a lever but the next morning it was worse than the previous and try as he might, it just wouldn't stop. Mike from Lady Hawke came over and watched in awe as even when they tried to shut off the air supply, it just
kept going and going. Maybe we should change it's name to the energizer bunny! haha... Eventually Michael found the problem - a set screw had come loose and wouldn't allow the lever to be fully disengaged. Problem solved! With only about 2 hours in the super heated engine room working around a super hot generator that wouldn't shut down - only a few small burns later, it was shut down. Whew! That problem was resolved but for some reason when Sparky is running, the AC Volts periodically drop
from 150 (where it prefers to run) to never less than 110, but with no new load placed and no real reason for a drop. We're baffled as to the reason and concerned, but since it doesn't drop less than 110, we're not freaked. All other systems are working well.

We are currently motorsailing to Mantenchen Bay, outside of San Blas. It is 4:54 in the morning and I'm on watch so I'm writing to keep myself awake! Michael is sleeping in the cockpit. We have a swell coming from the NW hitting us on our rear quarter stern and the wind is dead on the nose. It's a bit bouncy but not super uncomfortable. We have the mainsail up for stabilization only and it's bouncing from side to side. We left the anchorage around 0100 with Lady Hawke & 4-P.A.C.K. Lady Hawke
is about a mile ahead of us on the same course and 4-P.A.C.K. is directly abeam to us and is headed to Isla Isabella. We decided to skip Isabella on the way down because conditions are poor and there seems to be a lot of people out there. We plan on catching it on the way back to Mazatlan in the spring. The stars are out like gangbusters again. When we left the anchorage a beautiful quarter moon was setting, it is cool outside, in the 70's. I even put on a sweats!! And socks!!

We should arrive around sunset to Mantechen Bay and I'll send an update as soon as I can get a good signal!

Rene