It's Friday! That means Ben is arriving today for his week of educating us all about Whisper. We hope to be able to check out today, so that when he gets here, we'll take off for a few days (so probably no updates, unless I manage to grab a signal from shore somewhere - e-mail over radio is not operational yet), and then check back in as Tupo. Exciting times. . .
We've been pretty busy getting ready for his arrival. On Wednesday Janet varnished the wood for the "boomboom bed" as Dan called it and I spent a good deal of time working on the outboard. I have figured out the ripcord problem (the base of the spring slips, so it doesn't pull the cord back in) but have been unable to get to the spring. There is one screw that has this other hardware mounted above it and I just can't figure out a way to get at that screw. Of course I feel that if I could only get to that one screw. . .but who knows if that'll fix it and even if it does fix it, if it will work! I'll give it a shot with Ben hopefully. . .
We then spent the rest of the day and evening organizing and cleaning up as we were planning for our big shopping trip on Thursday. There is a fair amount of storage space here on the boat, but it is not very accessible and so organizing has become quite a bit more important than in the past (in our apartment).
Thursday we went to Commercial and bought a LOT of stuff, so we can survive for a few days away from the marina and be self-sufficient. After shopping we went to the marina Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious - they had all the traditional fixings (turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, etc.) and even had pumpkin and pecan pie for dessert (among many others). After a delicious meal, Janet and I decided to head to the beach and watch the sunset. Before going to the beach though, we both called home for the first time since arriving in Mexico on the 7th. Janet got through and talked to her parents and sister Cathy. At 7 pesos/min (~$0.70/min) she had to keep the conversation fairly short - we hope to find cheaper rates in other places, we'll see! When I called home my parents were out, so we just left a message :( I'll try planning a bit better next time!
Today I finished varnishing the wood while Janet is baking muffins to give out to some other boaters on our dock. We'll keep a few too! Now it's the final stages of cleaning/organizing before Ben arrives so I should be going. Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone and hopefully we'll have a good update about our first multi-day sail in Whisper sometime next week. . .