Up a bit late, then breakfast and the net.
Interesting story from the net today: One of the boats (S/V Lee Ann) had headed west to the Marqueses 16 days ago, and got about 550 miles west to Clarion island where they discovered that their rudder tube had started to delaminate (which was letting large quantities of water into the boat). They have been getting advice and suggestions from here. There was a couple of boats that were organizing to take them parts. In the end, they dropped their rudder, did emergency repairs to stop the leak, then sailed back to La Cruz hand steering with a wind vane (small auxiliary rudder normally used with wind to keep a boat sailing with the wind). They had to do continuous hand steering, 2 hours on and 2 hours off with just the two of them for 550 miles (at a around 5 knots, means about 5 days).
After the net we did our Bible reading. Then Reneé checked on the bread she is making (did not rise enough yet), and moved it up on deck. Then we emptied the aft lazarette in preparation for the work starting on Monday. The only things we did not take out were the stern anchor (it sits pretty low) and the spare prop we carry, because why not.
A link to more information about Clarion Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarion_Island
So, after the bread, and lunch, we headed out to La Cruz to put the metal tag on our Life Raft. Two bus rides and a walk later we were there. While there we talked to Mike about getting a dinghy and what the story was on the Life Raft Certification. Well, if we take it to San Diego it will be about 1/2 the cost of the certification to transport and duty. So, we would be at 75% of a new life raft (except it would not be here). We are sending it across Mexico where there is a place to get it done shipping is about $200 US.
We talked about my not being able to get in touch with the AGENT (the guy who can get stuff done with imports and TIP’s). He is having an issue at the border. He agreed to take some art north of a client. At the border they stopped him and he spent 9 DAYS at the check point, the owner of the art was not coming to the border to verify he was the owner etc. Mike also talked about the time he drove north with his “big international” truck, and at the border, they thought he was only running on 5 cylinders and made him take the head off to show that all 6 cylinders had pistons in them and no drugs. Then no help on getting new gaskets. Border horror stories.
When we left La Cruz, we went to the market in Bucerias to get a new hat (sombrero) for me, and while we were there, we got an ice cream bar. Then we walked to the Cervecería Bahia de Banderas Brewery.
https://www.facebook.com/Cervecer%C3%ADa-Bahia-de-Banderas-Brewery-103625537672108
They have 5 brews on tap, Golden Ale, Blond Ale, Pale Ale, IPA, and a Stout! We tried 3, they don’t do samples. The Blond was a bit hoppy for our taste, the Golden Ale was a good summer (hot) beer, the stout was just plain great!
From there it was a grocery trip to Chedraui the grocery store. When we were done a cab brought us back to the boat. Almost 9,000 steps for me so far and we still have to go get showers. I might get 10,000 for the day.
All in all, a very productive day!
