Broken............

12-18-12 Tuesday, Wednesday,

I don't know when I've been quite so discouraged! Living on a boat has been one of the toughest challenges of my entire life. But living in San Diego, though very expensive was pure Heaven! I loved living there and when we realized we could not sell the boat without taking a huge loss, we decided to get ready to take her cruising. Over the last year we made all the preparations for this huge undertaking. Planning has taken a whole year, (should have been 2). Then as we came right down to the leaving date, I can't even begin to tell you the things that went wrong. They just kept happening, over and over and over. Then we finally made it to Ensenada, and even more went wrong. Then we end up there a month and finally have to spend every last dime to get out of there. On our way to Turtle bay had a horrible storm that ripped our Bimini to shreds, among lots of other things going wrong. We lost power to the generator which then shut down our water-maker. One thing has snowballed into another and the last 2 nights getting from Mag Bay to Cabo, has been literally HELL ON EARTH, (water)! We've been in horrible weather and the boat has felt like it would break into pieces. I spent hours praying we would be OK. Then last night in the ugliest part, while on shift, Whitney discovered that our oil was showing very low. It had been right were it should be the entire trip. Darrell went down stairs and sure enough we had a leak. He had to turn off the engine and dig into the compartment. There was oil filling the bottom of the engine compartment. We tried a few things and discovered where the leak was. He got into the area and found out that a fitting had broken right off, inside of the other fitting. The weather had been to much and the weight had finally made it snap. We were out in the middle of the ocean for hours, with the winds howling, and waves chopping. He put up the sales and had Jordan and Jamin take over. Darrell and I spent 3 hrs., trying to rig up something that would make it possible to limp to Cabo. We should have landed in Cabo at 7:00 am, and were all excited. It's now almost 1:00 pm, and the leak has overtaken us. We have no wind, no engine, no generator, no water-maker and are at our very lowest. I have noooooooooo idea what this lesson is all about. We've even talked about just finding a way to take the dang boat back to San Diego and putting it on the market again. We have got to ge t into Cabo......

We called for vessel assist, and they would come get us, but not unless we paid them $500.00 American dollars. NOTTTTTTTTTT We have barely enough for fuel and food. So we are limping along at about 3.2 knots toward Cabo. We should be there in about 2 hrs., and are praying we can find a way to start the engine, though it's leaking, by poring oil in as fast as we can and get into a Marina. This is one of the most expensive places on the globe to be in a Marina! The boat is torn to shreds with boat parts and it's absolutely beyond discouraging!

• So here's the run down...... First came the batteries, (fixed), then the toilets, times 10 (fixed). The radar..............(fixed). The kids teeth...........(fixed). On the way here, the generator, the Bimini, the battery to the generator. Without the generator, we can't make water, without the generator we can't make electricity unless the engine's running. With the engine not working we are SCREWED!!! Anybody, anybody, what would you do................ we are at a loss! I don't know when I've been so blue. This is a huge boat that you can't just let float anywhere because of the keel........
• What do we do from here.?????

Well I did what I always end up doing when there are no answers in life..... I hit my knees, (believe me, they have callouses on them)...... While praying the thought came to me, that I should grab my measuring cups, have someone help me siphon the oil out and right back into the engine. To keep it going and to do it NOW!!!

So that's what we did, Darrell went up on deck with the kids, and Jamin and I did the siphoning. He knew what marina to head to and how to get the boat in the cramped spaces. So for 45 min., Jamin and I worked our butts of, with the oil going in and out through a funnel with a filter. I know this will make people cringe, but HEY, you do what you have to do.

We made it into the Dock and there were several people waiting at the slip for us. One of the men said he had a great mechanic who was honest and he could get to come to the boat in the next hour. We had barely got things picked up off the floor, (what happened when your sailing), when the mechanic and was there. He worked on the ending for a couple of hours and said he would take the part home, and bring it back Menyana! So we found out where to go buy a generator battery, and walked to the Marina office, (4 blocks away). The Marina here usually costs $250.00 a night for our size of boat, but because it was so close to Christmas they only charged us $83.00 per night. (Tender Mercy).

The kids were pretty thrilled because we were put right in the middle of the mega yachts and had the best view in that area. About 4 boats down, was a Mega Yacht from San Diego, The Piano Bar. Whitney swam in college with one of the crew members. We had hoped to see him, but he's home in Capetown, SA., for Christmas....

We all pitched in and got the boat back in shape, and the kids took off. Darrell and I were so exhausted we just walked around a little bit, after going to the office. Both of us worried about the cost of the repairs and wondering once again (WHAT IN THE HECK ARE WE DOING).....