Today stated off slow, neither of felt very good. Not really sure why, just generally down. After breakfast I made a couple of calls, checked on the sails (call back after 3:30 today) checked on why only two receipts for storage units in Missouri (instead of 3, and he is investigating). Then we dug out the seal kits for the vacuum generators for the heads.
I have managed to lose a couple of things since we got back to the boat. My coffee cup (travel mug that keeps the coffee hot and doesn’t leak). I had it in the rental car in Kansas and thought I still had it on the plane but three days later I was still looking for it. Finally I had a thought that it might be in the computer bag, and it was!
Next up was my spare set of sunglasses, these are special, in that they are prescription (I wear contacts, but the prescription is for an astigmatism only), wrap around, polarized, blue blocker with reader prescription in the bottom half, hardened lenses to prevent scratches etc.. The reason that these are so important is that we are in the sun a lot, and it is hard on the eyes. Reneé has a similar pair. In any case I was pretty sure I had seen the case for them on the boat when we unpacked, but three days later still had not been able to find them. Finally I had a thought this morning and looked in the computer bag, right under where the coffee cup had been. Oh well!
So, last month I was in for a physical and my blood pressure was up. I suggested it might be no breakfast or coffee or blood pressure medications that morning. The doctor said, ok but check it regularly when you have had your medications. So, knowing that we had a cuff here on the boat, I just planned to do it here in Mexico. Of course that means finding the cuff, I spent a few days looking here and there where I was SURE it was. After looking again this morning, Reneé was asked to take a look, because sometimes (ok almost always) she can find something I can’t. Of course the cuff was right where I had just looked. I checked and my blood pressure was 110/71. As in no problem.
Which made it time for a nap.
Then lunch and start into getting the water maker ready to run.
Issues:
- The light at the water maker controls was out. It is an LED, and the switch had high resistance, so it required switching back and forth several (like a dozen or more) to get it to work. But before I figured that out, I had taken the cover off the light to change the bulb, and dropped one of three screws. Dropping a screw in a car is a pain, typically if you are under the hood it goes all the way to the ground, if under the dash it goes into the carpet. On a boat it just disappears. I looked in both areas it could have dropped into, but did not find it. Oh well, I have some spares. Continuing on, I removed the light from the wall and dropped one of two screws. See the note above. I looked again and found the first screw, but not the second. About this time I figured out that I just needed to flip the switch a bunch and the light works. I found one of my spare screws, and managed to get it all put back together.
2 Next up we need filters to make the water maker work. I throw all the filters away at the end of the cruising season and start with fresh ones with the next season. It takes 4 filters to make this work. I use a carbon block between the dock and the water maker to remove any chlorine to protect the membranes. We have a 20 micron to remove junk from the water coming from the ocean, then a 5 micron filter to protect the membranes from sea water stuff, and finally in the flush system we have another carbon block filter to remove any chlorine from the water tank in case we filled from a dock with city water. Both of the carbon blocks are 5 microns as well. So, the membranes are pretty well protected. Of course while getting the filters out, I dropped a screw and spent a few minutes finding it, YES I did find this one.
- One of the two required hoses we use to run the water from the faucet to the filter then to the boat had to be repaired. So, there was another 20 minutes not running the water maker.
We ran the water maker and put about 120 gallons of water at 2 – 3 ppm into our tank. It is clear full at this point, 260 gallons. When we run the water maker, the A/C has to be off, too much power. So, it is rather hot in the boat now. When we finished running the water maker, the filter on the dock (which is in a clear housing) was almost black, instead of the white that it had been when we started. That is POTABLE water, which means it is “safe to drink”.
Today we finished up figuring out how we are going to help our son Nate. I am flying to Tijuana on Thursday and will pick up a rental truck in Oceanside on Friday morning. Then drive down to where he is in Potrero (East San Diego) help him load his stuff in the truck and then him his dog and I will drive from there to Niceville, Florida where he is moving. Some interesting facts, you hear that people are not leaving California, try and rent a Uhaul truck from somewhere in California (like Oceanside) to go to someplace else (like Niceville, Florida) check the price then reverse the direction. Since you will need a week to move go for the weekly rate as it is usually lower. Niceville to Oceanside a reasonable $637, this is a 10’ truck for a week, and from Niceville to Oceanside same dates $5,461 same truck same distance. That is 757% more to bring a truck out of California than to bring one in. We found a competitor for about $3,200. Still not cheap but better. The cost to fly to Tijuana (which is a domestic flight in Mexico) is less than $100, the cost to get across the border at the airport (which is way easier than any other border crossing from Mexico) is $35, then a ride to the train and a trip up the coast to Carlsbad. Again less than $100. Pick up the truck on Friday get Nate and drive across country. From Pensacola airport to Puerto Vallarta I will be using airline miles (12,500). We have almost 200,000 miles at this point. So, my getting to and from the states is not very expensive. Covid requirements are a negative test to fly into the states, but not to walk across the border, no requirement for it in Mexico, and none to fly back. I will fly back on Saturday.
Reneé will be on the boat by herself for a week overseeing some repairs that are on going.
No pictures today.