Archives October 2019

Leaving Mexico! Really?!

This week has been busy!

Things have been coming together. Lots of things have been done (and cleaned). Everything has been stowed. Everything has been tested. Both sails are back up!! We had a refrigerator guy come out and $150 later, he refreshed the freon. Seriously, that’s more than a visit in the US! Ugh. But our food is staying cold.

Seth is feeling a bit better. Micah started coughing the next day. Now Sarah has a sore throat. Thankfully it seems to be short-lived.

We sent the biggest boy, Caleb, up the mast to reconnect a few things and make sure the lights were working. He loved it and did great! 

The baby birds hatched a few days ago. We moved them tonight over to another boat. Poor Mama was fairly distraught. We’re hoping she goes over to them soon. She’s been flying around a lot.

We talked to friends in El Salvador and the sand bar is open (crossable). Weather looks good. They’re expecting us.

And now, we’re all checked out of Mexico. Three years ago we were heading south and finally, finally, we are! At this moment, the only thing not working is our satellite phone but we have been assured they’ll have it up by midnight. My mom is a bit nervous right now because that’s are only connection when we’re on the water. Honestly, I’m a bit nervous too. It would be naive to not be. We haven’t sailed in 5 months and this isn’t the easiest thing we’ve done. It’s not necessarily difficult or more dangerous, it’s just new territory. It’s also a 250 mile sail rather a short jaunt to start us off again. We need to get our sea legs (and stomachs back). So, please pray for us and we’ll check in Monday or Tuesday once we’ve checked into El Salvador. Thanks friends!

Welcome home?

We made it back to the boat on Thursday, October 17th after a wonderful week working alongside many missionaries in Guadalajara. Our flight was uneventful, but our boat was a disaster. Some stuff is covered in mold, other stuff is just fine. There are a ton of some weevil kind of bug (looks like they hatched in our new vacuumed sealed yeast and ate their way out!). Most are dead but a lot aren’t. The batteries on the boat were completely dead. Based on some research, it seems our solar quit just 3 days before we arrived. There apparently was a small fire under our bed. The wire between the solar controller and battery bus was melted, but the in line fuse is just fine! The wood under our bed was blackened but no other damage. Our kitchen table looks terrible. We were told the damprid containers all melted (what?!) and the oily liquid soaked into the table. 
Some of the clothes in the closets are moldy. Supposedly they were emptying our dehumidifier and changing damprid bags weekly but I’m guessing not. We’ve been cleaning since we the moment we walked in. It’s coming together very slowly. The heat and humidity are still very high (90 degrees but heat index around 100). We have a lot of laundry and we still are trouble shooting the solar and batteries. The batteries are fully charged now through shore power and seem undamaged. We could have come back to nothing had the fire been bigger. We’re so thankful.
We almost have everything put away and our bags were stowed back under Caleb’s bed which actually gave us some floor space to walk around. The rain means everything has to be inside but inside is quite small while trying to unpack and put things away. We finally got to a point last night where we could have dinner (made in the instant pot bc we don’t have propane for our stove/oven yet), a time of family worship and game night. 
The work on the boat is exhausting, especially in the heat. Besides cleaning the boat and still working on everything inside that needs to be cleaned, Dennis and the kids have already cleaned and patched the dinghy. We still have to repair a tear in our sail (Dennis is working on that) before we can put the sails back up. Replace the solar wire with a new in line circuit breaker instead of a fuse. Check the engines, fill our diesel jerry cans, refill propane, figure out why the refrigerator won’t cool below 46 degrees,…the list is long. 
We’re all emotionally and physically drained, but pressing on. We all agreed we will never again leave the boat in a humid and rainy climate. We’re ready to leave here and get back on the open water (where’s there’s wind and it’s not so hot). 
Please pray for us:
-for our attitudes – a friend just reminded me that Paul had boat problems too and look what God did with him, thanks Robin!
-for our wisdom and insight to fix our solar, refrigerator and other mechanic/electrical things to continue working; 
-for us all to stay healthy (we all have heat rashes and mosquito bites, Seth started coughing last night which sounds like croup and is now running a fever but feels fine otherwise, and my back is terribly sunburned after doing laundry on the dock yesterday morning);
-for the checkout process so we can leave Mexico and sail south. The weather is still unsafe for us to head north. 
-And most importantly, for God to go before and show us where He wants us to be in the coming weeks and months ahead. 
Thank you all 😊