Tuesday April 28th.

Flash back to Sunday.. We joined MoonDrifter crew to go to the farmers market in Loreto. The haul was so large it took two dinging trips to get crews and supplies back on board. In the picture right Gato Locos stores overflow with fresh fruit. No scurrvy on this leg 🙂

We need fuel and water and head for Puerto Escondido 10 miles south. Winds out of the NE at 12 making a perfect sail south. The plan is to meet MoonDrifter at an anchorage overnight so we sailed towards the SW end of Isla Carmen to check out the Bahia Marquer anchorage. Four boats are resting comfortably on turquoise sand. Looks like a good spot for this wind.

Entering Puerto Escondido, we see big changes this year for Loreto Fest. The Marina Singlar facility has lot of improvements. There’s now a store and restaurant near the marina office. The Festival will be held at the marina facility this year for the first time. There’s a buzz in the air about the new venue.

We’re in for fuel and water and off for Isla Carmen. MoonDrifter has decided on Punta Colorado on the SE end of Carmen. Winds have lighten so we are motor sailing with one engine.

Crap..Crap..Crap 15 minutes out first engine dies.. While we try to determine the problem we start the 2nd engine.. 15 more minutes the 2nd engine dies 🙁 A radio back to Puerto Escondido to a local boat and we find there are no reports of gas problems at Singlar.. Finally under full choke engines will start.

.

Decision is to sail on to Punta Colorado and try to diagnose our problem. MoonDrifter is anchored with Far Fetched out of Oregon as we arrive in the brightly colored anchorage with fossilized shoreline and sand bottom. Cool, we’ve not been to this anchorage before.

.

.

.

.

Engine problem pushed aside for the moment Frankie gets a beautiful bracelet from Australia from Kerry. By the way, Kerry is now on Baja time and doing great. .

.

Far Fetched showing her colors south of Punta Colorado. Bruce and his brother have been anchoring in the area for 20 years and have lots of local knowledge.

.

Near sunset a 3rd cat Endless Summer joins us in the anchorage. As the sunset we have a slight bit of wave action but fades quickly as we retire for a good nights sleep.

.

.

Endless Summer is a Farrier designed Australian built custom 47 (right) who offered moral support on getting our engines operational again.

Fresh nights rest and time to face our engine issues again.. Another call to the marina and no reported problems.. Service manual doesn’t match engines so not much help, fuel filters clear, spark plugs ok. Bad gas?? We connected a engine directly to a gas can of known good gas and voila the engine purrrrs like a baby. Yeah.. Bruce comes over from Far Reach for consultation and we determine that our fuel tanks are filled with diesel 🙁 Crap..Crap.Crap

Okay, It’s time for a recovery plan… MoonDrifter has a diesel pump and hoses so the plan is to return to Puerto Escondido running engines off gas cans and pump fuel tanks.

Singlar provided a barrel to offload the diesel/gas mix and 2 hours later tanks are flushed and gasoline loaded. Problem solved and engines seem to run better than ever. Our noisy port engine is now running quietly. ??

.

.

Seawind friends John & Patsy on SeaEsta are in the anchorage and invite us to join them at the marina resturant for dinner along with their friends Bill & Sue on a 42′ cat. Late night so we will stay on the dock overnight to be ready for Seawind rally that starts tomorrow.

Back to Tuesday (today). Contact from Kurt on CubaListo heading north from Cabo. They will be in Puerto Escondido mid-day after stopping in Punta Gatos for some rest last night. We’re off to Loreto for final supplies and all 4 Seawinds will join MoonDrifter in Bahia Salinas for the night on Isla Carmen.

Until the next Update… The GatoLoco Crew