Well almost ready to leave for Mexico. We have had our watermaker installed and know how to work it! Hartley redid the seals on the freezer and refrigerator, between that and having the coolant recharged they seem to be working better. Good thing because I have stuffed them with food. We should not starve.
I was able to do all this great shopping as Susan and David, the parents of my former partner in Phoenix let us use their truck for several days. I addition they had us to their lovely house twice and fed as like we would never see civilization again. Susan is a great cook and I couldn’t resist eating all her goodies. They are new friends but already I know we will miss them.

My good friend Jacque drove all the way out to San Diego to bring us some of the stuff I bought in Phoenix when I was there (like a new set of flatware 🙂  )It was good to get to spend some time with her before we leave. Will miss her a lot. She and I ran around buying material to make a wind scoop, of course I haven’t done it yet. Will let you know how it comes out. We also got the things I need to make the Halloween costumes for the crew and got a good start on making them. (See below)

Other things we’ve done are put wheels on the dinghy so it will make it easier to tow up on the beach.

Dinghy wheels (in the up position)

We put kayak racks on the side of the boat to get the kayaks off the deck.

kayak rack

We also developed a new way to get the dinghy on and off the boat without me having to help Hartley turn it over. Before I was “helping” to turn it over but it was at an awkward angle and very heavy so I wasn’t much help. The dinghy always ended leaning on the lifelines and I worried about the stress that caused them. It is really a piece of cake now.

My brother Neil putting the dinghy on the boat

We also got D/C fans and put them all over the boat. I think we will need them as we don’t have air conditioning.

We have been to seminars almost every night this week learning about  all sorts of stuff. We learned how to repair our sail if it rips . They have this new stuff called Sail Doctor , works like magic. It is an epoxy that glues your sails back together and is a permanent fix! It only takes 20 minutes to cure and can be used when things are wet. Wow , hope we never have to use it. Also learned what to do for emergency rigging repair and great places to visit in Mexico.

Oh I figured out what to do for the problem that women’s clothes don’t have any decent pockets, I bought a runners belt and it works great.

We got a new mattress for the boat and it has solved my back problem but it was a little too firm for both of our shoulders. We went to Costco and bought one of their gel toppers and put it on top. It made it too soft for me and made my back hurt again. I then changed the whole order of things. Left the big piece of latex on the bottom , put the gel topper in the middle and then the thinner, softer latex(but firmer than the gel )  on top. It seems to be working!!! I feel like the Princess and the Pea. ( Always good to feel like a Princess.)

The princess mattress

My brother Neil came yesterday all the way from Connecticut to help us sail our boat to Mexico. The rally, the BaHa Ha Ha starts tomorrow and we are ready to go. The kick off party was today complete with Halloween costumes.

The Minions of the boat Atsa  Hartley, Lesley and Neil

So off we go, will update when I can , probably not for a couple of weeks. See you then.