Position Report April 1, 2007

We would like to inform everyone that in a very sudden deal, our beloved Nor’Sea 27, Guenevere has been sold, along with the rights to our DVDs! As it turns out a MAJOR motion picture company made us an offer (over 7 figures) we could not refuse. We have been informed that Brad Pitt will play the part of Greg and Angelina Jolie will play the part of Jill. We now plan to retire to a mountaintop and never return to the Sea.

NOW, read the date of this report! GRIN

Wrapping up the last report, we had a GREAT time at Carnaval this year. The parade seemed much larger and the floats looked VERY good. A LOT of fun was had by the locals and cruisers alike! Take a look at this cow on a bicycle! That’s a cruiser!

 
Murder mystery at the islands.

This looks like a job for Thomas Magnum PI! Friends of ours Bill and Kim aboard M/V Ocean Quest were out at the islands and ran across what you see in the picture.

They took the photo and a batch more and brought them in to the police here in La Paz. An investigation was started and they were told that is was not a prehistoric set of bones. Meaning that they were old, just not VERY old. It is unclear if it was a fisherman that washed ashore or something far more dastardly. I expect, we will never find out.

Lifelong friends Mike and Julie Cole, spent 10 days visiting us here in La Paz. We managed to hit a LOT of our favorite restaurants. They must have gone home with a few added pounds. There have been a number of GREAT new restaurants open up here in La Paz. One of the BEST we have seen is the Las Tres Virgenes. We have eaten there a LOT of times and it has never disappointed us!

Shortly after Mike and Julie departed to wing there way back to the USA, we took the boat over to the La Marina del Palmar boat yard.

All went VERY well and the yard here in La Paz, Mexico did a VERY professional job! The 60-ton lift driver never had our boat swing in the straps! He was very gentle.

Late last year I did a delivery of a power boat back here to La Paz and brought down 2 gallons of Pettit Ultima SR in red. This went on VERY well and was just as I expected. 

Now a warning…

We wanted to keep our green boot stripe that matches our canvas and beauty stripe just at deck level. But we are a bit overloaded (a 27 foot boat you know), so in the past the stripe got fouled from time to time and has peeled off in places.  We decided to re-do the boot stripe with one of the new bright colored bottom paints. In essence, we are raising the water line bottom paint.

During the same trip from the USA I bought a quart can of Interlux Micron Extra in “GREEN”, number 5691. The paint sample color on the can, around the number, looked very close to the hunter green on the rest of our boat.

When we opened the can, here in La Paz, the paint was TEAL!!!!!!!!!!!

We can’t run down to West and exchange it, so it’s on, but we are not happy. The only good part is that it’s “Self-Polishing” so it will go away after some time and we can find the correct color! 

Moral of the story…

Open the can before you leave the store! 

The other objective of the haul-out was to shim the bottom Pintail and Gudgeon. A lot of information was given on the Nor’Sea27 Yahoo group and I based our job on that. It seems that a lot of owners have had plastic shims made to take up the slack between the pin and the housing. Here in Mexico, it’s easy to find good machinists, but finding plastic is another story. So, what we used was high-density polyethylene or HDPE. It’s easy to come by here. You might recognize it as the stuff 1-gallon milk or water bottles are made from.

I cut the side of a 1-gallon bottle and made a strip the correct width to just fill the depth of the pin housing. I made the correct number of wraps to remove almost all of the slop. We should now be good for a number of years more! 

By the way, the haul-out/pressure wash/sanding/about 3 coast of bottom paint/a repositioning/another 3 coats of bottom paint/boot stripe – 4 coats/remove and re-hang the rudder (not including the paint) came to just UNDER US $500.00!  

After the Haul-out, we spent 5 days out at the islands. 

Jill collected some shells. These are “Paper Nautilus” shells.

The following info is from Jack Swords aboard S/V La Paloma, he is a schoolteacher and spends his summers here in La Paz. 

In the springtime in the Sea of Cortez, the “shell” of the Paper Nautilus can be found on the beach. This is actually a type of Octopus found in temperate and tropical waters. It is not actually a Nautilus, but an Argonaut. The “shell” is an egg case where the female protects her brood. The shell can be up to 45 CM in size. The male is only 2 CM and can reside in the same shell. There are 6 known species and here in La Paz we can find the Argonaut argo and Argonaut nodosa. Very little is known about this animal, as it is pelagic (open sea) and known by shells deposited on the beach. Sometimes the shell still contains the little octopus, or even some eggs. 

This is a mollusk… a cephalopod … an octopus. Here is a photo of what the live animal looks like when it visited our marina.

The beaches around the El Mogote and La Paz are an excellent place to find these shells. You must beat the Seagulls to them, as they will break it open to get at any residual eggs. This year the season is a good one. 

On our return to the marina, we were in the middle of some very dramatic events! 

A boat had burned to the waterline and sank. And a replacement boat was found!

Rather than make this longer than needed, take a look on the Lectric Latitude 38 site ( at: http://www.infoasis.com/~latitude38/LectronicLat/2007/0307/Mar23/Mar23.html#anchor373547 ) 

Photo by Tom Ireton 

Now, after our short time out, we are doing some prep work on Guenevere and catching up on some small tasks that we have put off a bit. We are getting ready to head back out, and up into the Sea for what may be the last season for some time to come. 

Till next time, that’s our life… 

Greg & Jill