The Fuel Run

We decided that we would get some fuel to keep us going for a while. In Bahia de los Angeles there are no docks, and therefore no fuel docks. This means that we need to transfer the fuel in jerry jugs using the dinghy. Another complication is that the gas station is about a mile from where we land the dinghy on the beach. Carrying the jugs is not feasible as each jug(5 gallons) weighs about 40 lbs when full, we have a folding cart but that can carry only 2 jugs at a time. We had talked to some friends
from "Hooligan" (Tim & Paula) about getting a taxi to carry the full jugs back (the town has one taxi). Another boat "Came to Believe" (Rich and Annette) had made friends with a local named Jose, and arranged to have him help us. So all three boats brought our jugs to the beach, we had 4 diesel and 2 gas, and the others had about the same number, plus a few water jugs. Jose arrived in his older minivan which we loaded up with the jugs. He then said (in spanish) that he wanted to use his panga. We
were confused till we understood that the panga was on a trailer and that it would be used as a storage trailer for the fuel jugs. We left the women to do some shopping as we could not all fit, and drove out to the edge of town to Jose's house. Once we arrived we moved the jugs to the panga. The panga was attached to an old Bronco, and there would be no room for the 4 of us, so Jose's wife and daughter came along to drive the minivan. After topping off the radiator we headed for the Pemex station.
On the way the Bronco ran out of gas. Luckily we had a bit of gas in a partially full jug, this was enough to get us to the gas station. Once at the station we started to fill the jugs. They did not want to fill each boats jugs separately, so they filled all the diesel together, and all the gasoline together. Since we all have different numbers of jugs we cannot just split it evenly. We have no calculator, or paper or pen, we also fail to do the math mentally. We borrow a pen and Tim from Hooligan
starts to use a $20 bill for his calculations, but the attendant cringes in dismay. In Mexico most businesses will not accept a bill that has been defaced or has the slightest tear or rip (though they are likely to give you one as change). I dig in my wallet and find an old receipt and am therefore elected to do the math. Being a bit out of practice this takes a few minutes. We each dig through our bills and change and manage to get close to what we each owe. We all load up into the cars and head
to the next stop, one of the small stores. Rich needs to get water, you can get filtered drinking water at the store placed in your own containers or rent garafons (5 gallon sparklets bottles). Rich goes in and starts loading up about 30 gallons of water which gets ferried out to the panga. Inside the store is even hotter than outside, which is in the 90's. Once the water is loaded we again load up the family and the cruisers and drive the minivan and the bronco over to the launch ramp. We gather
up the wives into the dinghies, and the family into the panga. We lead the panga out to the sailboats, quickly put out a few fenders, and lift the jugs from the panga up to the deck. We thank Jose and his wife and daughter and pay him for his help. Now all that is left is pouring each 5 gallon jug through the filter and into the tank. By this time several hours have passed and we have drank about a 1/2 gallon of water and sweated out about the same. We are wiped out for the rest of the day and it
is time to go for a swim. While out cruising, one job a day is quite an accomplishment; getting fuel is one job. Just think if we'd had to jerry jug a full tank of 100 gallons (2-3 days of work as we only have four jugs, 20 gallons)!