Lee's amazing plans for the installation of two water makers.

The puppy's we nearly purchased. Two for $20.

Lee has been working out.
We're standing outside a church at the Riviera Del Pacifico which is a cultural center in Ensenada. Once a casino and hotel owned by famous boxer Jack Dempsy. Rumored to be backed by mobster Al Capone. It was a favored gathering place for wealthy Americans and Mexicans during the Prohibition era. Among the glamorous clientele were Bing Crosby and Rita Hayworth.

A lovely bush

The water maker is working after just two days of Installation and fitting. Here's Katie tasting the water. It tastes really good.

Dinner at Antares

The Crew. Lewis and Katie 

Mexican mixed grill, served with cactus

We met the boxer Daniel Ponce De Leon at the restaurant. He had just finished a fight  and was still a bit bruised swollen. Check out those knuckles!

Daniel Ponce De Leon

Bit late but here's a few pics from LA

Installation of the solar panels

Finally had chance to get the solar panels installed in Ensenada. After much measurement we figured we could add a third solar panel to the two we originally had bought back in San Francisco. I ordered it while we were in San Diego and now have just over 700 Watts of solar for Solent. Should give us plenty of power.

I had some lengths of Aluminum cut for the panels to be mounted to and they installed relatively easily with help from Lewis. The structure isn't as stable as i'd like so i'm going to get some additional mounts and tubing to give it extra support.

Fitted the solar charge controller next. Went with a new product the Midnite Solar Classic which looks to be a great unit. It has web access and you can access the unit on the internet to see what power your producing remotely.

When we installed it the weather was cloudy so we haven't been able to see what we will get on a typical day, but was still able to get a peak of 250 Watts on cloudy days and had charged the batteries for the last days consumption by lunch time.

Anyway will post what we get on a sunny day once we have one, which should be tomorrow.

Just a quick one...
Today we went into Ensenada and were offered two newborn pitbull puppies for $25! I don't like pit bull's much but as babies they were adorable. The Mexican guy with no teeth placed one in my arms and the other in Katie's. We held them for a while but Lee wouldn't let us keep them so we gave them back. They were grey with big blue eyes. When we tried to give them back he started lowering the price!
We had fish taco's, pina colada's and marguerites in town then visited the civic center/museum/church/bar/restaurant/garden/theatre.
We have made amazing progress on the solar panels, invertor and water maker and Lee will blog about these tomorrow. I've got to go as Lewis has made us a sausage surprise.

The Journey to Mexico

About to cross the US border to Mexico 

Officially in Mexico

We're in Mexico so I whipped up a south of the border stylie breakfast

Baby Raphael Louis Alfred Moreton is born and we receive the news via the Satellite  phone!

Hooray! well done Louise.

Uh Oh, some traffic. Hope they're not moving.

Surrounded by dolphins that escorted us for 20 minutes. 

I tried to convince them to stay

Captain Sparky

Lee puts shaving foam on his ball bearings...

We were told that fixing the sail would cost about 3000 dollers. Lee realigned the boom and replaced the bearings in the main furling unit and then retuned the rig so that it had less rake (bend in the mast) and now it is working fine. We're off out for a sail in the Todos Santos bay on Saturday.