Just when you thought it was safe (yang side #2)

Greetings from Zihuatanejo (17.625183N, 101.547867W). For those of you who were here with us just about a year ago, thought you might like to see some of the friends that have joined us around ceilidh.

The first is from the trip here out in the Pacific.











The others are from just off La Ropa beach here in Zihua (it’s the one we’re anchored off of if you look at google maps … same as last year).















Needless to say we haven't been jumping over the side for our daily swim. We notified the port captain who happened by in his panga, but the beaches weren’t shut down and no notice went out.







This one, at 6 feet, is too small to present a threat.




Eventually they will catch it and relocate it to another swamp. It’s a fresh water croc and is protected in Mexico.

The good news on the cruising front is that the parts for the engine problem came in, have been installed, and ceilidh is back to her effervescent self. It took 5 oil changes to get all the water out of the crankcase, but the last change was 100% oil and nothing but water and exhaust fumes are going into the outside water. Of course, I had to remove (it seemed) about one-half of the engine to get to the one part that needed changing … air cleaner, intake manifold, fuel shut-off and transmission shift cables, two of the four fuel injector lines, the governor bracket, the exhaust mixer elbow, and the fuel filter. And I only made one small mistake. The governor bracket has three bolts holding it together … of course they don’t tell you there is an order to removing and installing the three and I started with the wrong one. That added only an hour so all in all, not too bad.

Plus I must add that Hope is a great assistant. You just can’t appreciate how much of a blessing it is to be able to ask for a tool after you’ve just spent 5 minutes wiggling and wedging yourself into a cramped space with the wrong tool.

So we’ve lost a week in our schedule and the cruising kitty has taken another hit, but the money will be made up in the next tax year. So we’ll be off the Huatulco next week after a bottom cleaning out at Isla Grande. That’s right, I’m not doing it here near La Ropa.