While here, I took apart and reconditioned our electric windlass, which has been misbehaving. It has clutch pads, which have been slipping, making it difficult to raise the anchor. To get the clutch pads off for cleaning required removing a chain pipe and chain stripper assembly, which was bolted through the deck. Once I had the windlass disassembled, I noticed water coming from a vent in the gearbox, so I decided to drain and replace the gear oil. That required removing the entire windlass from the deck to pour out the old oil. The job took most of a day, but the windlass now seems to work much better.
At anchor near us are Richard and Roseanne Packard of the Willard 40 trawler Lilliana. When we first arrived in Bahia Chamela they were the only other boat here and they generously invited us to dinner. We learned that he is a physics professor at UC Berkeley and she is a lawyer as well as a registered nurse. It was a very interesting evening.
Richard has spent the past 17 summers on another trawler that they own in southeast Alaska. When he learned that we are heading to the northwest at the end of May, he offered to give pointers on cruising to Alaska. I spent the next afternoon going over charts and getting inspirational guidance from a true cruising veteran. It was a pleasure to learn from such an enthusiatic, generous teacher.
A high school group from Guadalajara is visiting the bay. They are spending time on the beach at one of the palapas. One of the teachers and two of the student swam out to our boat to say hello. They spoke little English, and they soon exhausted our limited Spanish, but were very friendly. The students have brought along musical instruments, including a tuba, and are now producing mariachi music with perhaps more enthusiasm than skill.
Here are two of our visitors.
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