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Dear F&F,
January 14, 2009

Chuck & Linda got a head start at 7:30 am since they are a shorter & slower boat. We stowed the dive gear & up anchored at 9:00 am. There were mantas feeding in the anchorage & a couple of dolphins that cruised by. It was a sad farewell to our fairy tale dive-land. We have no particular expectations of Socorro so anything positive is a bonus.

There was no wind so we had to motor the whole way. A heart sinking moment came as we were winding the engines up to normal cruising speed & the starboard engine would not reach full rpm. We did various tests: it would go up to full rpm if out of gear, but not if in forward or reverse. This potentially points to the dang transmissions – again! Scott put a satellite call into Bob\’s cell, the Mazatlan mechanic that did our transmission work when we hauled out there. His remote diagnosis is something changed the pitch of the propeller. We do not think this is the problem, as we dove on the anchor as soon as we arrived & checked everything under the boat which looked fine. We did have a loud noise & problem putting that engine into gear upon traveling to San Benedicto here a month ago. It is possible we caught a line that did some kind of damage that is not visible from the outside. Or the transmission repair they did in Mazatlan has failed. Scott has emailed Bob again & gone through various scenarios involving throttle cable adjustment etc. We hope to get a reply from him tomorrow.

Meanwhile it took 6 hours to motor with just the port engine, 30 miles. As we approached Socorro jumping dolphins welcomed us. Being the faster boat, we entered tonight\’s anchorage a full hour ahead of Chuck & Linda. We had been instructed to check in with the Mexican Navy in the south part of the island. We hailed them on the VHF channel 16 & they told us to enter & anchor in Navy Cove & that they would come to check us in. Eight guys in uniforms came out in their panga to our boat. Three came aboard. One with an M-16 that just stood watch on our stern. The other 2 higher ranking officers were shorter than me so I made Scott sit down immediately so he would not be towering over them. I gave them all the usual paperwork for inspection: passports, long stay Mexico visas, temporary import document & US official documentation of the boat, our Revillagigedo visitation permit, good through 1/31. They had their own form to fill out. They did not speak English to us, we managed with our pigeon Spanish. They said we could stay in this protected anchorage overnight. There are a few buildings visible onshore. We had been told previously to not even ask about going ashore, so we did not. There is a bit more vegetation here than San Benedicto, but it does seem to also be a volcanic type island. We saw steam coming from the top peak. It isn\’t currently active, but one day, Socorro will again blow her top!

Both boats got through the check in process ok. We made copies of Chuck & Linda\’s documents since they do not have a copier onboard. It is hotter today, 92 in the afternoon heat. This is the furthest south we have been. It is now cooling down as the sun has set. I made hamburgers served with a leaf of iceberg lettuce each. No buns left. Side dishes of canned corn for Scott & canned beets for me.

In the morning Scott will dive under the boat to check the propellers again. Our entire future hangs on the extent of the starboard engine/transmission problem. Please send good thoughts our way that an in-field repair is possible. It is against the wind if we have to limp back to Mazatlan with one engine. It is hard not to play out \”worst case scenarios\” & how that may affect our life. If we get delayed for parts, have to haul out again, etc. etc. we won\’t be able to stick to our plans. Just having to return to Mazatlan instead of sailing directly to Zihuatenejo from here will cost us a week of time, not including any time for work needed. But tomorrow, we will do more research & must take it one day at a time.

I am always hopeful that things will turn out better than Scott\’s worst fears. He also often surprises himself at how much he is able to fix out in the field. Obviously our enjoyment of this place will be second to what we discover & decide is needed. It is not prudent to sail down to Zihuatenejo with unknown resources there. Bob & Raphael, the Mazatlan mechanics have been most resourceful & we have confidence in them. Even though it is possible the work they did there has now become a problem. We are still under the 90 day warrantee for Yanmar. We shall see. More & hopefully better news tomorrow.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
January 13, 2009

I had one of my best night\’s sleep in a long long time. I guess the excitement & exercise of the day wore me out enough to shut my brain off. Very nice. We were awake by 6 am, but it\’s pretty dark still at that hour so we lingered in bed, resting until 6:45. Chuck is the \”Amigo Net\” (Cruiser\’s radio group) Controller on Tuesday mornings, so we turned on the Single Side Band to listen. After a year in Mexico, I am starting to recognize a lot of the boat names that check into the net. The net is somewhat a safety device, but mostly a social group and a way for people to contact each other, hear where friends are. Our main purpose for listening is to hear the weather report given by Don Anderson, transmitting from his house in Oxnard, California. He is a 70+ year old ex-pat British curmudgeon, but something of an institution for his years of service, broadcasting his weather forecasts to cruisers. Not just Mexico, he covers a wide range including Central America & the Pacific crossing. Scott always downloads weather faxes directly from NOAA himself, but Don is another source of information. We have been lucky that except for a couple of rainy & gusty days, our weather here has been very good.

So good in fact, that after the net we decided to give \”The Boiler\” another go. Chuck & Linda needed to patch the leak on their dinghy from the day before encounter during the fish/shark feeding mayhem. They stayed around the big boats while we headed out. I had been a bit concerned that \”Nautilus Explorer\” might have be out there with their group since they are due to return on a new trip today. But we got lucky & had the place to ourselves. With the handy dandy GPS in the dinghy, finding the waypoint was easy. We geared up & rolled in, eager to see if \”Black Beauty\” would show up to play like yesterday. She was there right away, but did not stay long. Scott handed me the video as we descended the anchor line, then he went to go secure the anchor & inflate our lift bag just enough to float the 10 feet of chain off the reef.

I felt something wasn\’t right as I tried to swim. I was sinking fast, down to 75 feet despite kicking & trying to inflate my BC. One of the wonderful things about diving is feeling weightless in the water, despite how awkward & heavy the gear feels out of the water. I felt like I weighed 1000 lbs. I did not seem able to regulate my buoyancy despite pushing the inflate button. I could hear it working but I could not swim shallower. I managed to maneuver to the rocky plateau & began to climb up with my hands. Like a rock climber. This is not normal diving behavior & when Scott glanced at me he saw me struggling. I used our crude sign language to spell out \”too heavy\”. He checked my weight belt & concluded that I had mistakenly put on one of his. I knew that was not the case, as I carefully check the gear as we load the dinghy. Plus his strap would have been way too long on me & I would have noticed immediately. It was my weight belt alright. The problem had to be with my BC (buoyancy compensator). He checked me out & shrugged as it appeared to be inflating. Since I wasn\’t in any danger, we continued the dive. With me pulling myself around the reef hand over hand. My fins seemed of little use & it was not pleasant at all. After circling the site once, I came up with the brilliant idea of ditching my weight belt by the anchor. Oops, now a little too light & going up without control. Manage to swim down & disassemble my weight belt, taking just 2 lbs in each pocket of my BC & leaving the belt & the remaining 2 lbs with the anchor. Seems like a small adjustment but it made all the difference in my ability to swim normally & relax for the rest of the dive.

We had nice close encounters with \”Black Beauty\” with a second manta doing cameo appearances. The visibility was less than yesterday, so they quickly disappeared if they swam too far from us. I mostly hung by the reef & let Scott shoot video without a goofy diver in the film.

We figured out during our surface interval that the primary control that inflates & dumps air from my BC was loose at the jacket attachment. Thus even though it was inflating, it was not holding air properly. A quick tighten of the hose & I was back in business. What a relief! As we enjoyed our pb&j sandwich with Gatorade, I saw a whale near the island. Scott saw it also & we think it was a mother with baby. The dinghy was still anchored, so we didn\’t get to drive closer. But it is nice to see them starting to be in this area.

We stayed up about 45 minutes, then rolled in to be greeted by \”Black Beauty\” with another black backed manta we had seen before. Scott calls her \”Rosie\” and thinks she is a manta that Terry has described to us; he gave her this name. Do you know the Barry Manilow song Copacabana? There are words that go something like: \”Lola, she was a show girl….\” Well, Rosie is a manta show girl – swirling, swooping, swimming up close to Scott for lots of great video footage. It seems that she took over the interaction & \”Black Beauty\” was 2nd in the pecking order. What was great for me was to have \”a manta of my own\” while Scott was shooting Rosie\’s close ups, I played with \”Black Beauty\”. Then out of the distant blue, we begin to see 2 other mantas swim near to join the party! The 2 newcomers were the type with white triangles (chevrons) on their shoulders & did not come too close. Near the end of our dive, I was able to swim eye to eye with one of the new ones. It was practically Manta Mayhem with 4 swimming every which way, you hardly knew where to look. Fabulous.

I am absolutely tuckered out. Each dive was an hour long and especially the rock climbing dive did me in. After unpacking the dinghy, rinsing the gear, having a shower & snack I stretched out on our bed. But instead of napping, I read out loud to Scott from the autobiography I\’ve been reading by Ellen MacArthur, \”Taking on the World\”. (Ellen at 5 foot 3 inches tall, sailed solo single handed around the world in the Vendee Globe race – she took second). It is completely enthralling & I felt the adrenaline flowing again, just lying there reading about all her sailing exploits. If you ever think we are crazy for doing what we do, you should read her book. Solo racing in the Atlantic & eventually around the world. Incredible! Quite an inspiration. No worries, we will not be following suit. We are interested in warm water, comfy sailing. No Southern Ocean for us, thank you very much.

Since we\’ve had 3 spectacular days of mantas in a row, we\’ve decided to set sail for Isla Socorro tomorrow. The weather is favorable & it is time to move along. As far as we are concerned, San Benedicto is the shining star of Mexico. Hopefully, exploring Isla Socorro will bring unexpected discoveries as well.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
January 12, 2009

We awoke to the sound of Jeronimo\’s panga zooming past our cabin window at 6:45 am. We quickly threw on clothes & scrambled topside to say hi. \”Solmar V\”, the commercial dive boat had pulled in after we went to bed last night & they were already getting ready for their first dive. Jeronimo told us they had seen a humpback whale earlier. As Scott was talking to him, he saw the spout in the distance & then a nice jump. The sun was rising on the horizon & the whale breached 2 more times. A roar of cheers drifted across the water from Solmar\’s deck. It was going to be another good day….

The swell was down, so as we ate our oatmeal & drank our tea we topped off 4 scuba tanks with the compressor. We hailed Chuck & Linda that we were heading out to \”The Boiler\”. They were eager to go also since they had not yet been. The dinghy ride after we turn the corner of the island gets more rough & I have to slow down not to slam too viciously into the oncoming swell. I cannot tolerate the ride in the front, so I always drive. Plus it helps the dinghy ride more level with Scott\’s weight in the front. About 2/3rds of the way there, I look back & see that \”Solmar V\” is turning the corner also. Rats! Darn \”retails\” are coming out, the Boiler will be swarmed with 20 divers. Oh well, we were already nearly there & may not get another chance, so just hoped to make the best of it.

We managed to get our anchor down & cruise around the rocky plateau for about 30 minutes before the \”Solmar V\” divers invaded. For the first 15 minutes of the dive there was nothing special. That sounds jaded, I know, as it is always great to go diving & see the colorful fish. But we have become manta sluts & that is our main interest. After about 15 minutes of ho-hum, out of the blue comes an all-black-back manta. It has been our experience that they are not as interactive as the ones with large white triangles (chevrons) on their shoulders. After doing one somewhat distant circle of us, it swam closer & then hovered over my head, clearly asking for a belly rub. I had to oblige. Chuck & Linda had tied their dinghy off to ours & were now in the water snorkeling. The manta went shallow enough that they could free dive down to touch it. Chuck has developed really good breath-holding capability, so after an eye to eye introduction & gentle touches, he went for it. The manta swam right under him & he grabbed on. He had a nice ride, and the manta never dove deeper than 15 feet. Terry had told us that they seem to know the difference between a diver & a snorkeler. Scott caught this on video.

Well, Linda was not going to be left out, so when the manta swam shallow under her, she took a lungful of air & kicked down, hanging on for a ride also. The four of us had this magnificent creature all to ourselves for a good 15 minutes, before the \”retails\” started descending. We were curious to watch how the manta would react to the big group. We were amazed. She swam amongst them all, as if laying eyes on each & every diver to say hello. Like a dog sniffing people. Scott got all the video footage he could take & we finally got low on air & had to go do our safety stop. The manta continued to swim amongst the \”Solmar V\” divers. We congratulated Chuck & Linda for joining the club. After putting our BCs & regulators on the fresh tanks, we enjoyed a peanut butter & jelly sandwich & some Gatorade. It was only 10 am, but we are always hungry after diving.

As the \”Solmar V\” divers started surfacing we were eager to jump back in, so only had about a 30 minute surface interval. There were about 8 divers hanging on for their safety stop & \”Black Beauty\”, as we\’ve named this one, was still parading up & down, staying close to the group. Once she saw us, she swam right over & now we had her full attention again. Linda stayed in the water the whole time, snorkeling. We had another 35 minutes of wonderful close interaction. Scott took a ride that I filmed. Face on, the 2 of them swimming right at the camera. When he took back photography duty, I got to have some tender moments. She would literally stop & hover beside or on top of me. More belly rubs. (Need new gloves!) She swam under me a few times, dipping a wing as if to scoop me up for a ride. I declined, just didn\’t feel the need to hang on from the top & enjoyed myself thoroughly being close to her in every other way. Truly precious moments. Unforgettable. Unimaginable. Indescribable.

Jeronimo, the Captain & another deck hand were all in the water snorkeling while their divers were on break. We motored near Jeronimo & chatted, sharing our awe & wonder at this island and its mantas. Their group will do 2 more dives here then head back to Cabo. He was uncertain if he would be working the next trip or not, so just in case it was our last chance, we said our goodbye\’s & thank you\’s. He is a good friend and we hope our paths cross again.

It is a smoother dinghy ride back to the boat, going with the waves. We unloaded the dinghy, rinsed the gear (vinegar with a fabric softener chaser does a bang-up job on the stinky wetsuits) & hoisted the dinghy up on its davits. It is only 12:30 pm & we have had a full day.

We invited Chuck & Linda over for rib eye tonight. She sounded grateful for a change from wahoo. Scott is working on burning a DVD of their manta ride so they can show their friends.

We are hoping to see more whales from now on. We are thinking that tomorrow will be our farewell day to dive here at the old favorite spots, then set sail for Ilsa Socorro Wednesday. There are wonderful things awaiting us there too I am sure. But it is going to be hard to say goodbye to San Benedicto which has been such a divers dream come true.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
January 11, 2009

As I am writing, the full moon is rising, absolutely beautiful.

This morning there are no commercial boats, just us 2 sailboats, the generator started right up, purred like a kitten & mantas were visible near our boats & off Turtle Point – already it was a good day! Scott & I took an early scouting ride in the dinghy around the west side to see if going to the Boiler was do-able, but there were pretty big swells once we rounded the corner, so turned back. Since it looked like the mantas were here we were not too disappointed. We would like to get out there one more time before we move on to Isla Socorro.

Linda had given me a recipe for beer bread & as I am about to dig into my last store-bought loaf I decided to give it a go. She also gave me 4 packs of yeast, but I don\’t have tons of flour onboard so don\’t know how many loaves I can make. The beer bread recipe called for baking soda, salt, sugar, flour & beer. Butter the pan & top. No kneading or rising. All my flour I had pre-mixed 1/2 whole wheat & 1/2 white since I usually like to bake that way. For bread this is fine. I\’d stored it in the vacuum bags so thankfully no weevils or other evil creatures seen. My main trouble with baking is keeping a steady oven temperature. It is a royal pain that our oven gets too hot and when I turn it down about half the time the flame goes out altogether. So you have to reach into the hot oven the full length of your arm, trying not to get burned & re-light it. I usually curse until Scott comes & rescues me on this task. So I didn\’t have a lot of hope for the bread which did not seem to rise at all & looked raw, but we were eager to get in the water, so after 50 minutes cooking at a variety of temperatures ranging from 225 – 400 degrees (supposed to be 350) I just turned off the oven & left it in there.

Chuck & Linda were already snorkeling with 4 mantas when we got near them with our dinghy & all our dive gear. We hadn\’t really anchored off Turtle Point before, but with all the manta action we decided to give it a go. We could see that at least one was somewhat below the surface, so potentially done eating breakfast and ready to play. Scott entered first & by the time I swam to where he was, he was already filming a friendly manta. I hung back & then it swam towards me. This was an animal we\’d never identified before, but a real sweetheart. I swam alongside her, under her, stroked her rough belly (I\’ve worn holes in my gloves from manta belly rubs!). When I stopped, she stopped. If I swam away, she followed me. It was so amazing. We had wandered down to 70 feet deep & our air lasts a lot longer the more shallow we are. So I just swam shallower & led the play group to 35 feet so we could stretch out our air.

After I played a while, I took the camera from Scott to give him a turn. She played just as well with him & I got some beautiful footage. We have gone absolutely ga-ga about these girls. We have been told that almost all the friendlies are female & now know how to tell the difference. I named her \”Snuggle Bunny\”. She rivals \”Buttercup\” as the most interactive manta to date. And since she did not prefer Scott to me, I am absolutely smitten. If I was a child I would certainly be asking my parents: \”Can we keep it, can we keep it? Can we, can we? PLEASE!\” Instead we are grown up enough to just let the experience fully soak into our souls & are thrilled to have the video that we can replay for a lifetime. Once again, our air tank was the limiting factor. As we started to swim away toward our dinghy, a second manta came to keep our girl company. And to frost the cake, a turtle swam by. Oh my! It just does not get any better than this!!!

Linda radioed us afterwards: \”I bet that is the most BORING video in the whole world!\” Scott is curious, waiting for the punch line… \”You, playing with your dog on the lawn for an hour!\” We all laughed. She said they were snorkeling above us & watched the whole love fest below.

After lunch, accompanied by instant video replay on the big screen in our bedroom, we were eager to get back in the water. While we were suiting up I saw a commotion of birds on the surface a short distance in front of our boat. Looking with binoculars, we could see a wooden pallet that had become refuge to a school of bait fish & the birds were having a hay day. There were also bigger fish jumping & eating the small fish. We decided that would be a cool place for our second dive. As we approached in the dinghy we saw a shark fin. A few times. We get even more excited. We didn\’t want the pallet to float away from our anchored dinghy, so I drove right up to this food chain & Scott quickly clipped on our long painter (dinghy tie off line on the bow). He hung the video from one of our gear lines so he could grab it himself & we could roll in together. We reviewed our plan: Scott take the video. Cindy on shark lookout & stay very close to Scott. Both of us turned on our shark shields before entering the water. I am thinking to myself, \”Are we nuts? Choosing to enter the water with feeding sharks?\” But there were not tons of them. It was not in any way a \”feeding frenzy\”. And we were pretty sure these were silky sharks (6-7 feet long, all grey, classic shark shape), which are not known to be that brave with divers. There were no hammerheads.

The bait ball was quite a bit smaller by the time we got under it. Part of it had separated from the pallet & some fish had already been eaten. We saw jacks & yellow fin tuna feeding on the bait fish. No sharks at first. Then we saw 2 or 3 Silky sharks, but they kept their distance. They were not close enough (closest was 20 feet away, briefly) to feel the effects of our shark shields (works at 10-15 foot range). They just saw us as a bigger, unfamiliar predator so did not move in to feed while we were there. Just seeing the scenario from topside was very cool. Scott got some decent video.

We hadn\’t stayed under very long there, so surfaced & moved on out to our favorite 25 foot mound to see if anyone would come play. The water was murky (visibility 40-50 ft) & the some current. An all-black-back manta did a couple of fly-bys, not that close. We saw schooling needle fish (very shiny 18 inch long silver bait fish) and then schooling jacks. We saw another Silky shark in the distance.

We cruised by Linda & Chuck\’s boat on our way back & she had a tale to tell also. Linda went alone in their dinghy out to another bait ball who decided her dinghy was good refuge. Suddenly feeding yellow fin tuna started bashing into her dinghy as they continued eating. She also saw shark fins & was alternately terrified & fascinated. She put on her mask & looked over to see the action below then sat up straight in fear of getting her face bitten by a fish or shark. But the curiousity kept her there, alternately peering down & backing off. I think this is called \”horror / fascination syndrome\”. She went back to pick up Chuck & he enjoyed seeing the remaining action on the pallet as it had drifted past their boat. Later, they learned that either a fish or a shark had slightly punctured the inflatable tube on their dinghy. Chuck repaired this with some fast curing \”Scotch 5200\” that we had on board.

We were so happy to have some exciting stories to tell Terry at the 6 pm radio check in. He has been hanging on our tales, knowing them all well from his trips out here for a month or two at a time for the past 20 years. It is a shame it didn\’t work out for him to get here when we did, but he & Dawn hope to return here as soon as they can. Meanwhile in the Sea of Cortez, their water temperature is 64 degrees, air about the same, plus 35-40 knot winds. Hard to believe just 4 months ago when we were there, it was a sweltering 90+ air with 82 degree water. We are 400 miles south which is why it is tropical here. Our latitude is just south of Hawaii.

Every day is different. Today was certainly one that will stand out as one of the highlights of this trip.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
January 10, 2009

After tea & oatmeal we got back to the generator job by 8 am. I was the tool fetcher & moral support as usual. It turned out that we needed to replace the coolant temperature sensor. It is a small locker where the generator is installed (3 feet wide x 2 � feet deep x 2 feet high). The same space holds 300 feet of anchor line, with 325 feet of anchor chain on top. He puts cushions down to pad his bones from this lumpy, pokey floor.

Thank God he was a dentist & used to working while looking in a small mirror & doing tedious, detailed work. It should have been \”plug and play\”, but partly due to the access problem and the fact that they left no service loop on the wiring it was a major pain & took 5 hours! I know that sounds crazy, but we only took 2 short drink & potty breaks, otherwise it was non-stop. Poor Scott is contorted in there with no visual, doing the impossible.

Even I, who was not down in the trenches, am worn out. The good news is that it was successful & we are back in the power business, including the scuba compressor. Scott is stiff, sore & dirty, but immensely encouraged & relieved. Cheers to my mechanic!

We are too worn out & there is no sign of mantas anyway, so no diving today. There were 2 of the commercial boats here diving this morning. \”Nautilus Explorer\” said they didn\’t see any mantas either so left to return to the Boiler where they had mantas all day yesterday. It is too windy & rough for us to go in the dinghy around to that side. We must wait for calmer conditions.

The Nautilus boat was kind enough to let us give them our trash. Since Scott was still wedged into the generator locker at the time, I did \”salad bowl\” duty. I picked up Chuck & Linda\’s trash also, then zoomed out to Nautilus in our dinghy. Five guys are standing there, watching me on the stern while I miss a graceful approach & have to circle back around. Oh well, I am no longer embarrassed about such things. I do my best & know that I will get better with practice.

We are pretty pooped from the big job & just going to take it easy. Linda generously gave me 4 packets of yeast & also a recipe for beer bread that doesn\’t require yeast. I actually still have bread frozen, but would like to experiment since that takes up a lot of room & I could have packed other stuff like frozen peas, maybe frozen fruit even for more variety after the fresh was used up. I cut into my last avocado with lunch (chicken tacos) & was so happy that it was still good. I think I have a slimy jicama in the fridge. So hard to know how long you can keep stuff. I was amazed that Chuck & Linda served lovely crunchy cabbage with last night\’s fish tacos, she said it was a month old without refrigeration. Apparently jicama also keeps better out of the fridge. We are learning.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
January 9, 2009

We were up early in hopes of heading to The Boiler dive site. But we saw Nautilus Explorer leaving the anchorage & when Scott radioed them they were heading there with their 22 divers. No fun for us to be in a crowd if we have a choice. Plus the swell & wind kicked up early & the dinghy ride would have been rough for us. So we had a leisurely morning instead. Fried eggs & toast – new jar of blackberry jam opened was the highlight.

We are still having a generator glitch so Scott spent a couple of hours researching it this morning, trying to find out if there is 2nd coolant leak or why the heck the failure alarm/auto shut off keeps happening. Big concern… But it was a beautiful & rare sunny day so I dragged him out to dive finally at 11 am. Usually we are back from our morning dive by then & I\’m starting to think about lunch. Anyway, I had a pre-dive granola bar & mocha since the early breakfast had worn off.

No sign of mantas on the surface, but not knowing where else to go, we returned to our 25 foot mound. The current was up pretty good, but the visibility the worst ever, barely 40 feet. We hung around hoping a manta would come to the playground. After 10 minutes or so, we swim down the ridge of mounds to the deeper area called \”The Canyon\” where we have seen hammerheads. Sure enough there are tons of \’em. Well, what we can see through the murky water. It is kind of eerie to be down at 100 feet & straining to see, as if through fog, and in the distance see a bunch of sharks, but very cool. We watched them for about 5 minutes, but our air goes fast at that depth, so we know to get shallower soon. While we are still focused on the sharks, too distant & too poor visibility for video, a dolphin buzzed by & scared the bejeezus out of us. We are thinking sharks & a large grey thing comes at us at high speed. We laughed at the prankster & enjoyed seeing its gang of 3 zoom off. We swam back to the mound area & hung out visiting the lobsters, zebra fish, eel, jacks & usual suspects. After a while we popped the anchor, went to our safety stop & as we were drifting along 15 feet below holding onto the dinghy we saw another fairly shallow mound & decided to plop the anchor back down & go check it out. We still had plenty of air, so did a little exploring in that area. Saw a couple of pretty trumpet fish. The visibility started to improve near the end of the dive.

By the time we got back it was close to 1 pm. Without the incentive of seeing mantas, we decided one dive was enough for today, plus Scott had the generator concern weighing on him. We rinsed the gear, showered, ate turkey sandwiches & listened to 60s music on Sirius radio. Later Scott napped & I read. Then I made dessert to take since Chuck & Linda on the other sailboat invited us for dinner. I found a lemon pudding cake recipe in the pressure cooker cookbook. It had pretty much the same ingredients as a lemon dessert I\’d made in the oven before. Very cool that it only needed 5 minutes at pressure instead of 1 hour in the oven! Except for the fact that I had pre-mixed my white & whole wheat flours together it turned out fine. The whole wheat gave it a rather organic taste, not as nice as if all white flour had been used.

Tonight we told Chuck & Linda a lot of stories from the time our boat was being built in France. Seems like a long time ago� \”Beach House\” will be 5 years old on April 15th, 2009.

Linda cut her own hair quite short today. Hers is thick curly & grey. Now she looks like she kind of has a short Afro. Practicality over styled for us boaters. I have nearly been driven to chop mine off too. I get horrible snarls at the back of my neck. You would think I sit underwater twisting & twirling it into knots! I love being able to put it up in a pony tale so am holding off extreme measures for now.

\”Nautilus Explorer\” pulled back in the anchorage. When Scott talked to Buzz, the divemaster on the radio he said it was a bit lumpy at the Boiler, but they did 4 dives there & saw mantas. The bums! We asked if we could bring them our trash tomorrow since they will head back to Cabo tomorrow night. They said sure. Nice!

We are running one engine to charge our batteries since the generator won\’t start. Scott just tore apart the salon cushions to get to his storage area behind the long seat & dig out generator spare parts. He emailed the Mastervolt dealer in Florida to get any ideas or suggestions. It may be a bad coolant temperature sender if that means anything to you, (doesn\’t mean much to me, but when Scott tells me I try to look appropriately interested & concerned). In my mind I am already thinking that the worst case is we had a great 3 weeks & we will head back to somewhere that we can get this thing fixed. But when I mentioned that returning to Marina Mazatlan may be necessary, Scott was insulted. \”I will not be defeated by an alarm sender!\” So he is out there now at 11:30 pm with his headlamp, box of spare parts, having actually read the service manual & going at it with great determination. Keep your fingers crossed.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
January 5-8, 2009

We certainly are getting plenty of exercise & I think it\’s caught up with us a bit. We are really moving slow on this grey & rainy day & since there are no mantas visible we did not go diving. We picked up Linda & Chuck on the other sailboat, \”Jacaranda\” & went to see \”Nautilus Explorer\”. We had not been onboard that dive boat. We got good information from Buzz the Divemaster & Brad the Captain & enjoyed a tour of the boat.

I asked for & received a cube of butter from the galley girls. The chef that gave us bread, fruit & cookies on our first week here is not working this trip. That\’s fine. We are not starving by any stretch. For baking I find I am using more butter than anticipated.

So what did we do instead of diving? Breakfast: Hot tea, oatmeal with dates & pecans & brown sugar. Unload & defrost main refrigerator. Reload & take secondary fridge offline. This will save 40 amps a day. We have had such overcast skies we are not getting much solar power so having to run the generator more. In hindsight, I would have bought more apples & fewer onions… I must also be braver about not refrigerating the eggs. Boat neighbor Linda said she\’s kept them up to 1 month as long as they have NEVER been refrigerated.

Scott tore apart the shower pump. Really really really stinky! Diagnosis: motor shot. He scavenged & cleaned some parts. New one is already ordered & friend Mike is holding it for us in LA. We have been using our back up sump pump which is adequate, but does cause some leakage into the bilge. Cleaned sumps on both port & starboard. Cleaned starboard bilge. Port is dry.

I read my book, autobiography of Ellen MacArthur, \”Taking On the World\”. Scott is learning about the video editing from tutorial DVDs. I would never have the patience for it, but I love his results.

Another \”retail\” boat came in for a few dives m/v \”Sea Escape\” apparently from La Paz. We didn\’t talk to them. They left we presume to dive a the site called the Boiler & then returned to anchor here for the night. We expect \”Solmar V\” again any time. The neighborhood is crowded. We chatted with Terry at the designated 6:00 pm radio date hour. He got his new hard drive so had many computer questions for Scott. Talked on VHF to Linda & Chuck. We are all eager for this weather front to pass so we can get back to diving with the mantas.

We would like to have 4-5 more good manta diving days then will head over to Isla Socorro.
January 7
Generator keeps giving \”Coolant Failure\” warning. This problem was a blessing in disguise. On repairing the coolant hose that had melted, Scott discovered a very badly cracked, worn out ready to break at any minute fan belt. That would have been potentially more serious & created additional difficult repairs. We have spares of just about everything. The space is insanely small & awkward to work in, especially for Scott\’s tall self. In sympathy for his wounded ribs, I offered to try to do it & just have him talk me through it, but he bravely carried on with me running back & forth for tools. We had a good post-repair run. Then this evening it \”hiccupped\” again with a coolant warning/auto shut down. Scott re-siphoned the coolant to make sure there was smooth flow & it has now been happily running one hour. We are watching it closely & checking everything. The generator has only been used 350 hours which is very low use for diesel, but who knows how old the unit was sitting on the shelf in Europe before we purchased it. Plus we know rubber parts, like belts, don\’t like heat & because it is such a small space, not well ventilated despite our adding fans, removing sound insulation cover etc. We must have the generator to run the scuba compressor. I am always impressed at how much Scott has taught himself & is able to do. It gives me a lot of confidence to be out here in the back of beyond since he knows how to fix things.

He had less yelping & more just wincing during the night as he changed positions & when we awoke to mantas swimming near the boats there was no stopping him from going for a dive. We asked Chuck to drive our dinghy & follow us as we snorkel & tried to determine if the mantas were still feeding or ready to play. Scott was pretty sure he saw \”Buttercup\”, so he descended. I stayed on the surface & observed to see if it looked like the manta was interested. Seemed that she was still feeding & not interested in interacting yet, so Scott surfaced. We were all \”dressed up\” & eager to play with mantas so dropped Chuck off at his boat & went back out to our 25 foot mound where we\’ve had the most encounters.

The visibility was pretty low, maybe 45 feet but a good current was flowing which often brings more sea life activity in general. We just hung around the mound waiting and watching. I swam to visit my lobsters and my zebra fish. I turn around & see Scott videotaping \”Buttercup\”. Yeah!!! She is her usual playful self, swimming circles around Scott. I swam near her & got in 1 belly rub but the truth is she is Scott\’s manta. I took the camera away from him to let him go play with his girl. (We have confirmed that she is a girl by the way. Dr Bob Rubin, of SRJC and his research assistant Karey has been in close email touch with us & given us more info. She has never been here but very familiar with the animals here & eager to see Scott\’s photos & video.) \”Buttercup\” clearly prefers Scott & we have heard that they will often choose 1 diver over another & connect & repeat encounters with 1 person. I don\’t know why MY first Magic Manta never returned, but our most frequent repeat manta is \”Buttercup\”. I have resigned myself to watching Scott with his new best friend & doing my best to capture it on film. She swayed with us for 45 minutes, limited by our running low on air. She swam right beneath us throughout our safety stop. We were so jazzed. Scott of course instantly bursts into his new theme song \”Buttercup\” which happens to be hilariously perfect.

We couldn\’t refill tanks & chow lunch fast enough. We were so enthused we decided to invite Linda for the 2nd dive. Chuck gets cold easily & she is more of the fish in their family. We saw some mantas between our 2 boats on the surface during our break. We just imagined \”Buttercup\” eagerly awaiting Scott\’s return. Linda snorkeled a bit with one near her boat, but it was chowing lunch, not in play mode. We head out to the playground (25 foot mound). It is such a big ocean & only being about to see 40 or so feet in any direction we need to have somewhere to base out of. We know the mantas cruise around there, so that is why we keep going. We don\’t know if they hear our dinghy or our bubbles once we descend, but they do seem to know we are there. The current was still strong & the visibility low. A different manta came to play fairly soon. An all-black-back one and wouldn\’t you know it…it was another Video Vixen! Completely ignored Linda & I, just swimming circles around Scott. Linda stayed near Scott in hopes of being near & being about to touch it, which she did. I hung back, keeping an eye on the mound where our anchor is & seeing how quickly we are being blown away from it by the current. It vanishes from my sight as we drift more than 50 feet. I know it is upstream of the current so am slowly kicking back toward it, but also wanting to stay with Scott & Linda. I give up the mound to stay with Scott. Linda is not kicking against the current as a 2nd manta enters the scene & chasing the first in play. Soon the 2 zoom off, but we are now quite far from our mound. Scott gestured to me: where is Linda? We had lost sight of her as she did us. Our rule is to surface in 1 minute after losing visual contact of each other. We had told her this & reviewed all rules with Linda on her first dive with us (over a week ago…) but neglected to review the rules. The reason for this rule is you have no way to know which direction your buddy is. And you can waste precious air searching below. On the surface, it is easy to spot each other & reconnect. Plus on the surface everyone has air to breath & you can know quickly that all are ok. By the way, only when Scott & I have take a 3rd party have we had to use this 1 minute surface rule. I NEVER LET HIM OUT OF MY SIGHT, EVER. Since he is doing photography or video most of the time, I know he is NOT watching me. So I watch him like a hawk & we have never gotten separated underwater, due to my vigilence. Scott & I swam back against the current to our mound & surfaced slowly holding the anchor line so as not to get blown away by the current again.

Chuck was just resting in their dinghy (tied up to ours). We asked if he saw Linda. He said no. He had not really been on lookout, not that we had asked him to or needed him to. Chuck cast off & starts motoring around the area down current of our dinghy searching for her bubbles & quickly finds them. She has stopped on a different mound. Later she said she was afraid to surface that quickly. It was our mistake for not reviewing again the \”keep in visual contact\” rule, the \”surface after 1 minute\” rule, etc. She had only done that 1 dive with us, prior to that it had been 10 years. And when you are first taught they do emphasize that you must do a safety stop to avoid \”the bends\”. As we were never deep that wasn\’t a concern. We blamed ourselves & realize the tremendous responsibility when we take someone else diving. Chuck is now trying to bang on his anchor to get her attention to surface. She eventually gets the message, does a champion job of swimming up current toward our dinghy. She makes visual with Scott on the surface & since he sees she is fine, he motions her to hang on our anchor line & do her 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet.

No harm, no foul. She was apologetic that she forgot the 1 minute rule. She got disoriented. She thought if she just sat on some mound some where we would come & find her. Scott & I plopped back down since we had plenty of air & just blew bubbles for 25 minutes. The exciting manta interaction was over for the afternoon.

We are starting to try to figure when to sail over to Isla Socorro. We have heard there are more potential whales, more sharks & fewer friendly mantas. We will have to check in with the Mexican Navy there.

We got a very nice email back from the manager of \”Solmar V\” telling us not to worry about paying for the diesel, he said he was happy they could help us. That was very nice. That was the boat that also treated us to fantastic dinner. They were here yesterday morning & Scott gave Jeronimo a DVD of some of his manta photos. He was thrilled. We haven\’t had a chance to see him again since he\’s looked at them, but will no doubt catch up to them either here or Isla Socorro. I am about ready for one of these boats to take our trash.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F
January 4, 2009

Scott is nursing his sore ribs, so no diving for him today. Chuck & Linda picked me up in their dinghy & Chuck dropped Linda & me off near the lava point, which she also has dubbed \”Turtle Point\”. We saw mantas feeding from the surface & I was looking forward to seeing some of the turtles she\’d described seeing. Chuck went back to their boat since swimming back home to the boats; we would be going with the current, so not difficult.

Right away we had 3 mantas all around us. We are having a grand time watching them feed. They stay mostly on the surface so being on snorkel is actually better than scuba sometimes. Then we saw a turtle. Then we saw 2 turtles on the surface flopping around. We swam closer. It was obvious that they were attempting to mate. We watched both above & below the surface for about 10 minutes. I decided this was too good not to share, so swam back to our boat & hollered for Scott. He gave me the video camera in its underwater housing & I swam back hoping the encounter was still going on. Sure enough, Linda had her eyes on them the whole time & they were still at it. One climbing on the other, swimming around each other in circles, head to tail, they were going through a whole assortment of positions. It is very hard to hold the video camera still while snorkeling because the sea swell is bouncing me around, but I did get some viewable footage (albeit X-rated). But since they were so persistent, I swam back to the boat again & asked Scott to get me a tank. I knew I could get better footage of them from below. I don\’t think they like the sound of the bubbles from scuba though because I didn\’t get that near them before they dove deep when on scuba. The male (I presume) was latched on top of the female and they started sinking together fast. I descended with them down to about 70 feet. It is hard to see anything in the small screen if I am not very close to my subject. I am swimming like crazy to get closer. The two are still \”as one\” and can you believe that a pair of mating turtles could out swim me?! I simply could not keep up. I had to let the lovers go & find somewhere more private. When Linda & I were watching them on snorkel they did not seem to notice us one bit. In fact, they kept drifting towards us & we kept finning back to not intrude on their ritual. Each animal was about 2-3 feet long. Green turtles probably. Turtles have to surface to breath, so we were not surprised to see them again. What was surprising was how long they mated. Hours… We kept seeing them on the surface in various areas. Amazing. Poor Scott, bad day for the resident photographer to be nursing an owie.

Once the turtles swam out of view, I swam a bit shallower & shot some video of a manta. But being down on scuba by myself, handling the video which I am not that familiar diving with & not having surface support, I decided to not push it & just slowly surfaced. Scott was watching me from the big boat & I motioned for him to come get me in the dinghy which he did. Chuck also came out in his dinghy to spot Linda who was still snorkeling. I hoisted my tank/BC into the dinghy to Scott, trying not to make him strain himself lifting it. I hopped in & we started to motor home. But there were several mantas still on the surface between the front of our boat & the lava point. So I asked Scott to drive me over there & let me finish off my tank which still had about half its air capacity. I slipped in, he handed me the video & right away I had a friendly manta. It was not feeding & seemed interested in me. I was doing my best to emulate Scott\’s expertise behind the camera. It swam circles around me, just as the friendly mantas have with him. It was a real sweetheart, one we had not encountered up close before. It stayed with me about 20 minutes & then my videotape ran out. I was sort of relieved to be free of filming duty & could just swim & play with this manta. But wouldn\’t ya know that about 2 minutes later it just swam off! It seems that they do have some sort of attraction to being filmed. Or it could just be a coincidence.

I was pretty stoked when I surfaced. Scott knew I must be having a great time to stay down alone so long. It was very comforting to see the dinghy & know he was following my bubbles. He could not see \”my\” manta, but said there were several all around the area. We got back home, I showered, made lunch & we relaxed a bit.

C & L will come over for dinner & video viewing. It is pouring rain right now, looks like that low front has arrived. A nice fresh water rinse for the boat. My laundry was mostly dry so I quickly pulled it off the lines before it got soaked. It is clean sheets & towels day again – yippee! Scott is laying low still, but said he was up for company, probably a good distraction. When the rain first started & I was outside taking in the laundry there were 10 mantas on the surface between our 2 boats! That is the most I have ever seen at once. Unbelievable! If I hadn\’t just rinsed all my gear, I would have been really tempted to jump back in the water. But tomorrow is another day & I don\’t like to be in the water alone unless I have a spotter.

Well we aren\’t getting any solar power, but with the diesel we got from \”Solmar V\” we are feeling a little more flush to run the generator as needed.

Every day seems to bring new adventures & we are just pinching ourselves at how lucky we are to be here.

Scott & Cindy