Livin' The Dream - Friday Night

Our sailing compadres, Joe and Karin of Flyin' Sideways introduced us to the phrase "livin' the dream" as irony. As we recall their story, they were carrying 5-gallon jerry jugs of diesel down a hot, dusty road in the Baja when one of them, exhausted and dripping with gritty sweat looked at the other (in similar condition) and said "Hey, livin' the dream!"

Their story resonates with most cruisers because, well - our daily life is not always consistent with the vision that drove our plans. Nor is it the life some of our friends and relatives think we are living. So, for readers who appreciate "truthiness" in blogging, here's our latest "Livin' The Dream" story:  

We spent last Friday doing boat projects in 90 degree heat and god-only-knows-what-percentage humidity. Not all of the projects were successfully completed, but when the bug hour approached (4:30 - 7:00 ish the mosquitoes come out) we quit work, drew the screens, cranked up the fans and took our boat showers (what others may call "spit baths"). It was time for dinner.

Molly was feeling pretty clever because she had an idea for a dinner that could be made from the few food items remaining on board.  

As an aside: There are wonderful, well stocked "American style" grocery stores in San Salvador - but the city is an hour and a half car journey away. Shopping trips to San Salvador are infrequent and expensive. There is a small, marginally well stocked "super market" in a small town (La Herradura) that is close to the marina by dinghy (4 km) but far by bus. And as of Friday our dinghy motor was still dead (see above re: unsuccessful projects . . . ). Our last shopping trip had been nine days earlier.

Molly began to put together a gourmet feast (more irony) of onions, canned corned beef (a remaining "emergency supply" staple), eggs and cheese. The onions went well. Then we opened the can of corned beef and found that it was much more suspect looking than we had anticipated. What had we expected? Not much, actually - but something slightly more appealing than the suspiciously pink lump that oozed from the can. Our readers with pets will know what we're talking about.

We assured ourselves that if we fried it up enough, it would be edible. We applied heat.

Then we began to crack the eggs. Food bloggers warn that in Central America one should open each egg into a separate container before joining it with the other eggs in a dish in case one egg in a pack has "gone off". Don't worry, they write - it's easy to tell if a egg is no good.

Nothing we'd read prepared us for the vile, black mess that came oozing out of one of the eggs. Or the smell that filled the galley and salon and the back of our throats. Had it spoken up and cursed us for disturbing it we would not have been surprised. And yes, the food bloggers were right -- there was no question of whether this egg was "off".

We got the devil egg out of Abracadabra as soon as we could and tried to return to cooking the bejeezus out of the pink goo. But no matter how much we cooked it and the remaining eggs (about which we remained somewhat suspicious) the smell of The Evil Egg clung to them. And to us. 

Finally, we loaded "dinner" into the trash at the end of the dock, sat out in the cockpit to get away from the smell for awhile, and ate our last two granola bars.  

[Lest you worry we are starving to death, we are happy to report that we went food shopping in San Salvador the very next day and the dinghy engine is now working, so we can get to La Herradura for future provisioning. Our one remaining question is how long it will be before we can crack an egg without flinching.]

So WHERE THE HECK Are We?

After 16 months wandering around North America by car we're finally back home on Abracadabra which is currently docked in the estero Jaltepeque in El Salvador. We're very happy to be here -- and we'll tell you more about how we found our home upon our return -- but before that we wanted to alert our readers to:

Something You Can Do To Make The World Better

Remember the fabulous eclipse of the Supermoon last Sunday (27th of September)? Spectacular pictures on the Internet, etc.? Well, it won't surprise any of you who are sailors but Supermoons (a full or new moon at its closest point to the earth in its rotation) make for super tides. And for people who live on a tidal estuary that's not always a good thing.  

Isla Cordonilla in estero Jaltepeque was flooded on the Monday and Tuesday following the Supermoon due to extremely high tides brought on by the moon event. Many of the families on the island lost everything - crops, food, wood for cooking, bedding, clothing - everything. Their water wells were polluted and their sanitation facilities were ruined. 

An American couple (Bill and Jean of s/v Mita Kulu) who have settled on the island (and were not badly impacted by the super tide) are working to assist these 270 villagers (over 50% of whom are under 18). They are raising money for mosquito nets and clean drinking water. Sailors may know Bill and Jean as the people operating the Cruisers Rally To El Salvador. 

If you can find some money in your pocketbook for the people of Isla Cordonilla please contact Pamela of s/v Precious Metal at mybentley@yahoo.ca. She's gathering donations and is set up to send money to Bill and Jean. We personally assure you that the money is going to the people of the island. This isn't a charity event that's grabbed the attention of the big relief agencies. That means that no money will go to support a sophisticated aide distribution network. Any donations will go to assist the flood victims, many of whom are children. We're donating some money and some clothing -- but we're just a small drop in a big bucket.  

Thanks for any help you can provide these folks!

Arrival

We arrived in El Salvador on September 22 and Neptune must have been with us. We hit the green light and were able to get our four huuuuge checked bags (including one 69.5 pound roll-on full of boat parts and another stuffed with an inflatable kayak) through customs without any explanations or excitement.  Additional evidence that the god of the sea was looking after us: TSA didn't confiscate the CO2 cartridges for our inflatable life vests! Although, perhaps more effective than divine intervention was the fact that they were wrapped in a highlighted photocopy of the TSA rule that said we could fly with them.

We found Abracadabra sparkling clean on the outside, thanks to Jose's hard work. And we found her in pretty good shape on the inside as well, considering she'd been a floating storage locker for 16 months in the tropics!

Abracadabra's Transition

The auxiliary (inboard) engine is working (woo-hoo!) along with almost everything else -- the starter battery is kaput, the dinghy outboard is having some shifting issues . . . 

The Outboard Runs - But It Doesn't Go Anywhere!

. . . , the galley sink strainer was rusted and half of the zippers on the storage bags are seized up (salt air; cured by vinegar), but we found very little mildew (Molly's #1 fear) and after some fiddling and cursing the navigation systems both seem to be working (Bryce's #1 fear).    

We stayed at the lodge for eight nights while we sorted through the stuff "stored" below:

Abracadabra As (Poorly Organized) Storage Locker

And after a marathon provisioning day in San Salvador (gracias para su ayuda, Jorge!) we were able to move aboard on the 30th of September.  

Life In The Estuary

The estuary where Abracadabra is located has had a very dry wet season, which for much of the peninsula means the well water is very salty (even those wells not impacted by the super tides described above).  Salt water showers followed by agua dulce (sweet water - non-salty water) rinses were the order of the day at the lodge -- so in some ways living aboard is better! Our showers are way shorter - but all agua dulce.

Mostly the weather is hot and humid, with rain at night. One rainy, breezy evening we even broke out light rain jackets for outdoor dining. 

The Captain In His Dinner Jacket

Our Spanish teachers and fellow students may be interested to know that we have been adding some Latin American (vs. Mexican) words to our Spanish vocabulary. For example, mosquitoes in Latin American Spanish are zancudos (in Mexican Spanish, mosquitos). And sadly, this is a very important word for us here! [Molly's new perfume is eau de DEET. Bryce is struggling to find it attractive.] 

We have at least another two weeks of projects before we travel off the dock. The big project will be installing a wind generator we purchased in Mazatlán but there are others (starter battery, outboard, rotating a hatch for better breeze catching, etc.) - likely including many we haven't yet anticipated. So, while we're here we'll take it easy (the heat, you know) in the afternoons to enjoy:

• Naps in the palapa hammocks and soaks in the lodge's "swimming" pool (nice for soaking but too small to actually swim);
• Sunday events at Lynn and Lou's - a couple from Sacramento who have purchased a lovely place on the estuary with a fabulous swimming pool which they are kind enough to  open to yatistas on Sunday afternoons; 
• DVDs of the television series "Six Feet Under" (thanks, Anne and Perry!); and
• Catching up on our blog [Where were we between Guanajuato and El Salvador? Why, Chihuahua, Toronto, Lakefield and Pacific Grove (thanks, Ken and Claudia!) to name a few].

So -- Where are YOU?  Write us and let us know!