June 23: At anchor once again at Las Cocinas and with engine off, we were relieved to note that
Cilantro's automatic bilge pump was managing the leak well, coming on every five minutes to run for a few seconds. Curtis descended into the engine compartment to see about improving his emergency repair of the shaft seal. Sue, meanwhile, climbed into the rather spongy dinghy (it had lost some air during the rough trip south) and rowed over to the only other cruising boat in the anchorage to inquire about buying some diesel. We weren't sure we would need it, but we wanted to play it safe.
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| Hemisphere Dancer, Mel and Larry's Hardin 45 cutter ketch |
Hemisphere Dancer, a 45-foot Hardin cutter ketch, was owned by Mel (Melanie) and Larry, who were just finishing dinner when they heard Sue's "Ahoy!" from below. Mel, a retired professional dancer, and Larry, a licensed ship captain, have lived and cruised aboard
Hemisphere Dancer for 18 years, spending much of their time near Mazatlan and points south along the Mexican coast. Their many years of cruising experience far exceeded our months of know-how, but they were immediately welcoming and, after hearing Sue relate the events of our day, happy to help. As the sun was nearly down, Larry suggested we bring our fuel jug over early the next morning to try siphoning some diesel from their tank.
June 24: We dinghied over around 6:00 a.m. with a jug and our shaky siphon, which was one of very few things Larry had not seen before. He and Curtis discussed the shaft seal problem while they tackled the challenge of extracting diesel from a tank beneath the cabin sole. Mel showed Sue around their lovely floating home. At 45' long, and with a 13' 4" beam,
Hemisphere Dancer felt huge relative to
Cilantro (length 37', beam 10' 10"). There were actual "rooms" to walk into and spend time in, compared to our simple, straight passageway from companionway to forepeak.
Shortly after 6:00, Larry tuned in the daily Sea of Cortez weather forecast on his SSB (single sideband radio). The southeast winds we had been battling were forecast to last one more day and then shift to the west; Larry encouraged us to spend the day at Las Cocinas and wait for more favorable winds. We agreed that was good advice. As we left, trading dollars for diesel and offering our many thanks, Larry gave Curtis some hose clamps and two pieces of rubber inner tube to try wrapping around our shaft seal. An hour or so later, Curtis had successfully used them to stop the leak -- not a drop escaped, even with the engine running. We made a note to add inner tube to our stock of spares. We also pledged to "pay forward" the kindnesses that Mel and Larry had shown us.
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| Shaft seal wrapped in inner tube; pressurized hose kinked and tied off |
We spent the rest of the day exploring ashore. Sue was intrigued to discover several gearstem cacti (Peniocereus striatus), a rare species of night-blooming cereus, snaking their way up through mangle dulce (sweet mangrove) shrubs. They had buds but no open flowers -- too bad! Curtis climbed all the nearby hills and headlands, obtaining spectacular views of the wind-whipped sea. He also spotted a school of dorado (mahi-mahi) in a nearby shallow bay. They were nearly five feet long, with pointy tail fins that broke the water's surface and tipped slowly from side to side as they cruised slowly beneath mats of seaweed. Smaller fish leapt frantically out of the water ahead of these giant predators.
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| Buds of gearstem cactus (Peniocereus striatus), a rare night-blooming cereus |
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| View north from Las Cocinas |
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| Curtis, dwarfed by two cardon cactus, scans for birds |
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| Shallow bay where we watched a school of dorado |
