The first quarter moon in April had arrived...time to make a trip to Baja. A long time had passed since I was last down there on New Year's Day. We missed last year's April trip because of the bad vibes from the thieving predators. They have been gone now for almost a year. Good riddance.
Cathy was busy since the New Year. Because we're so popular, she was determined to make our guests comfortable. Another boat fit the ticket. We found a 14 foot Gregor with a 15 horsepower Johnson up in San Marcos. It looked good, so she bought it. It looked better than it actually was and I ended up spending way more time than I thought I'd have to, but when all was said and done, Cathy ended up with a dandy boat. All the wood turned out to be rotten, so I replaced the seats and even the transom. The motor ran well when the previous owner was running it. He had the hose turned up a tad high, but I thought nothing of it. One thing for sure, it had never seen salt water...the inside was immaculate. When I got it home, I saw a few problems. The water pump was weak, to say the least. When I dropped the lower unit and removed the old water pump, its state of meltdown was apparent. Looks like someone ran it dry. Oh well, I was going to replace it any way. The bad news was that the water tube was tweaked and damaged. Now, I had to remove the powerhead, which was a pain, as this motor is an electric start. It came apart easily though, and was purring like a kitten before long.
Cathy also wanted another trailer so plenty of accommodations are available when we have lots of guests. I protested vehemently, to no avail of course, saying that if she was hell-bent on getting another trailer, I would do nothing to it. That was only a ploy (don't tell Cathy), but at least I could minimize the amount of work that I'd have to do. We looked at one up the street, but it was hammered. Everyone advertising in the Trader wanted top-buck, so I encouraged her to just wait for opportunity to come a-knocking. We met Russ down at the Santee Swap Meet the Saturday before going to Baja. Opportunity knocked. Russ had seen a nice looking trailer in front of some guy's house, right on Los Coches road near his house. We went and looked at it. The proverbial deal that was too good to refuse materialized. Cathy bought it on the spot. This trailer was very well maintained and clean. The guy was the original owner who bought it in 1971. I removed the air conditioner before leaving. It's useless in Baja without electricity. I charged the battery, filled the propane and she was ready to roll.
Pandro, Tracy and Freddie showed up early Friday morning. They loaded the boat onto Pandro's lumber rack, hitched up the trailer and headed down to Baja. We caught them south of the Mexicali Valley. We caravaned, more or less, down to San Felipe. They kept going while I iced, gassed, beered and tequilaed-up. We caught them again about half way to Puertecitos. For those of you who are road-watchers, things are moving along...albeit slowly. More, but not much more of the road has been repaired within the last three months.. The good news is that the road is now in good shape almost to Campo Pulpo (near El Coloradito), which is 30 miles south of the Laguna Chapala turnoff, off the airport road. The long straightaway between El Coloradito and the Campo Christina S-curve is still hammered big time. More good news was apparent on the way back on Wednesday. Road crews were actually working on it. Some dude was blowing the potholes out with a compressed air hose. Apparently, the crew was planning to do some potholing. Hopefully, they will elect to do a better repair up the straightaway. I can't see how they would be able to pothole that. Don't get me wrong though, I'll take every mile I can get...however, whatever.
The road south of Puertecitos is likewise badly in need of repair. It needs grading big-time. Down to Campo La Costilla, it's not too bad. Rocks and ruts predominate between Campo La Costilla and Nacho's Camp, after Huerfanito Grade. From Nacho's to around the 5 Islas Cafe, washboard give you a pretty good shaking...and it's getting worse. From the Cinco Islas Cafe to the Yorgo turnoff (32 miles south of Puertecitos), going through the hills involves traversing more rocks and ruts. From Yorgo to the Conejo Feliz sign, which broke in the wind and is down, by the way, more washboard. We waited about a half an hour for Pandro to show up.
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