Acapulco

by Bob

Mike caught a 23 lb shark Wednesday. I'm not sure what kind of shark, but it had teeth. I'll upload photos when I have a chance.

We've been motoring most of the time, occasionally with the sails up. About a day out of Acapulco we started running both engines so
we could get there early enough to get out on the same day.

I went outside shortly before sunup Thursday and noticed that the right engine had died. Diesel engines don't normal quit running
all by themselves. So I checked the fuel gauges. Above a quarter tank. I put a stick into the tank to see if they gauges were lying.
They were. The tanks were almost empty.

So real quick, I started pouring diesel from the 5 and 6 gallon plastic jugs into the left tank. That's so that engine would keep
running. When a diesel engine runs out of diesel, at least on this boat and most tractors, you have to bleed the air out of the fuel
lines before it runs again.

Luckily, our Volvo 78hp engines are advanced enough to have an easy way to bleed the fuel lines. You just loosen a screw and press a
small manual pump until the air stops coming out. It's pretty messy, but it's better than doing each injector one at a time.

So I did it, according to the manual. It wouldn't run. I did it again. No luck. After four times Mike was awake and he used his farm
tractor technique to bleed each injector. It ran!

I happened to email David Renouf about something else during this, and mentioned we had to bleed the bleedin' engine. After we got
it running, I read his reply that said that it's been his experience that the bleeding method in the manual doesn't work, you have
the bleed each injector. I thought that was pretty funny.

About that time, the generator stopped generating, which killed the air conditioner. Apparently some sediment from the bottom of the
fuel tank stopped up the fuel filter. Mike cleaned it (we didn't have a replacement), then spent time time bleeding the fuel system
in the generator before it would run. He claims he was hot, but I think he's just out of shape.

Eventually we made it to Acapulco. We drove in, cleared customs, immigration, got our zarpe (clearance), got diesel, had the boat
cleaned (top and bottom), picked up Patty and Adam, ate dinner at a restaurant with metal utensils, and took off. That's pretty good
for one afternoon in Mexico.

On the way out we saw the place they dive off cliffs. We didn't stop and dive.

Patty asked if I had ever seen a stingray jump clear out of the water and turn flips. I said no. She said she saw one. I said she
was hallucinating again, and that it was probably a dolphin.

A little while later, we came upon a whole school of rays jumping out of the water. It was weird! They were dark colored on their
backs, light underneath, and about 3 feet wide. Then Adam caught one on the fishing pole. We turned it loose and it flew away
(underwater). Mike said if we tell anybody we saw that, they'll never believe us.