I went over to the yacht club to meet Al and Nancy as they offered to take us to the swap meet. Janet wasn't feeling so hot, so she stayed behind. I had coffee with them and then we headed over to the Nuevo Vallarta marina (5 min drive, including parking) where the swap meet was being held. It was kinda anticlimactic as there were not many people there and not much for sale (mainly books, VHS tapes, DVDs, and fishing stuff). This guy Max was there (boat name?) and we all had coffee and chatted for quite awhile. Max has been sailing all his life and living (at least part time) in Mexico for the past 14 years. He built his own boat and is now in the process of selling it before Xmas to be back in New Zealand (he's a Kiwi - is that offensive? not meant to be. . .) Since he is a shipwright, I started talking to him about our boat construction issues. Basically, we have two berths on opposite sides of the boat. This is obviously not ideal. So we are trying to figure out a way to bridge the gap between the berths. What makes this a tad more difficult is that there is this very important pole between the berths (the pole is under the mast and helps support it). Max said he was really busy trying to sell his boat and that he has been turning down projects left and right. I asked if he would mind just coming over to Whisper and helping us brainstorm. He was a little hesitant, because he said that if he came over, he would probably just want to jump in and do the work. Anyway, I told him that we would be around this afternoon and if he was around we would really appreciate his insight. Fortunately for us, he did come by (Al brought him over, he is the one who introduced us to Max) and we chatted for awhile about different options. He said he would think it over this weekend and it kinda sounded like he would come by next week with some wood and tools and knock it out in a few hours if we would do the finishing. Just another example of how helpful cruisers are. . .
While cleaning (as that's what we do most of the day) Dan and Tom from Persistence came by and invited us over for dinner. They saw a truck in town with some fresh cheap shrimp and wanted to share the bounty. We brought over some beer and joined them for a delicious meal of garlic sautéed shrimp (cammarones con ajo ???) We stayed for several hours, listening to their sailing stories (mainly Tom's, as Dan only sails with him occasionally), looked at photos of the Sea of Cortez, and drank a few beers. Tom had many helpful comments about our situation, gear, and cruising plans. They are both fiftyish and seemed pleased to chat with other young folk (anyone here under 65 is considered pretty young it seems!). We hope to be able to reciprocate, but with our small space we'll have to be pretty creative (like bring dinner to them!). Persistence is a Kelly Pearson (correction - Kelly Peterson) 44' center cockpit sailboat (I have to double check the make, but the KP initials are correct). Tom has been cruising down here for several years with his wife and six kids (not all at the same time) and Dan is a good friend of Tom. Tom and Wendy even home schooled two of their kids onboard for a few years, but they are now high school aged and want to attend a normal HS. Anyway, we had a fantastic time hanging out with them and hope to see more of them in the future. Tom gave us his boat card (everyone seems to have a boat card - a business card basically). We'll probably be making some up soon enough. . .after we get our documentation straight and change the name.
I did start to figure out our water problem (Tom agreed with our disinfection protocol - clean the sucker out and use some bleach basically) which feels pretty good. So much left to do and I'm exhausted so that's all for today. . .