The seasons are changing

The weather is beginning to change from summer to fall. In the span of a few days the nighttime temperature has dropped about 10 degrees. It is much nicer sleeping when it is 83 instead of 93! We actually had to find a sheet to use on the bed. The first time we needed that in months. The prevailing winds are also switching from the summer southerlies to the winter northerlies. This is good if you are heading back south towards Mazatlan, not so good if you are still heading north like us.
We recently had a bit of weather from Tropical Storm Olaf. We had some 30+ knots of wind and a bunch of rain. The wind was not a problem and the rain cleaned up the boat some. In fact the second time we had 4" of rain in the dinghy we decided that it would make a nice fresh water wading pool/bathtub. Quite refreshing.

We have been keeping busy with some boat jobs. We finally go around to a way overdue bottom cleaning. The growth on the bottom was getting really bad. Cleaning the bottom consists of getting in the water with our snorkeling gear and some scrapers and scrubbies. Cindy normally gets to work on the waterline where the growth is thickest, while I get the rest of the hull (all the way down to the bottom of the 6' keel). This can be hard work depending on how bad it is. We were in an anchorage that had a bit of current running through which is good and bad. Bad in that you have to swim just to stay in place, good in that the crud you scrap off all gets carried away instead of making a cloud around you. We usually put on our lycra divesuits for this as it helps keep the tiny shrimp (seamonkeys?) and other critters off of us. We often do this over two days at it gets pretty tiring.

We should be heading up towards Conception Bay and Santa Rosalia over the next week or so.