Neil Scheuerlein

Tenacatita, April 2, Friday

We woke up to the coffee pot making a fresh brew. Slowly waking up and getting our act together. We had breakfast and did our bible reading for the day. Then debated what to do and when to do it. We decided to run a load of wash. The things that had gotten wet with sea water, it takes forever to get them dry, and you can’t really put them in the dirty clothes basket until they are dry or they get moldy. If you wash them, they dry fairly quickly. We have a concern for water, and power. I don’t want to run the washer after we fill the tank next Sunday, as we are headed north on Monday and in case there is an issue we want as much water for that trip as possible. Tomorrow we have company scheduled to sail, and I don’t want to run the generator while sailing. Sunday is Easter and we will be going to church in the morning and running the water maker in the afternoon/evening. So, the laundry needs to be done today. About an hour of so later the wash is done, the generator is off and the battery is about 87% charged. The solar is trying at about 7 amps most of the time. But it is just not enough to really make any progress. We use 200 amp hours over night. The solar pretty much keeps up with our day time loads, but does not really get ahead on the overnight load.

A quiet day, sometime we just need that. I looked at instruments for the boat on line. Ours are from 2005, and the charts are old as well. I am leaning towards B&G instruments and chart plotter(s). A significant part of the reason behind the replacement/upgrade for the instruments is cameras. One of the cameras that we have seen on other boats and has great reviews is a FLIR. This is a “night” vision camera. This goes up the mast and has zoom/pan and tilt. Which means we could see where we are going at night. At least some and better than we currently have. Downside to this is the price, the reason we have not installed one already (Renee’ really likes the idea) is for the camera/controls and display it is probably over $20k, and it is important to note that it would probably not interface well with our 16 year old electronics. It would also require running more wires in the mast. We already have to take the mast out at some point and repair the conduit that has come apart somewhere in the mast, meaning some of the wires are loose inside the mast. Which means that when the boat moves so do the wires hitting the side of the mast and making noise, even when it is just he boat rolling due to swells at anchor. So, it is on the list for the upgrade rather than doing it separately.

Tenacatita, April 1, Thursday

We started out with breakfast then got the dinghy down and went over to see if we could help Chris with his radar and chart plotter (same model as ours). We talked for a while, then took a stab at the radar, unsuccessful. Oh well, then we came back to our boat and took naps. This retired life and schedule avoidance is great!

When we woke up and decided it was calm enough to go ashore, Chris came by with his dogs in his dinghy we talked for a bit, then he went ashore and we followed. We had a difficult landing (read VERY wet!) I almost lost my glasses and hat, and anyway we got ashore and walked to a resort to get a beer. Of course you had to be a guest with a wrist band to get a beer, and we were not guest so no beer. But the staff thought we needed one and gave us a couple of beers. We figured that was worth a tip, so we checked our finances, the smallest bill we had was a 500 peso note, (about $25 US). We asked for change and when the waitress came back with 2 200 peso notes and a 100 peso note, we gave her the 100 peso note. Shortly after that she brought back two more beers. We were happy. Then we walked back to the dinghy noting the size of the waves were bigger than they had been.

As we approached our dinghy we saw Chris was still there and he was taking to another couple, we got into the conversation, and chatted for awhile then they went for a walk and Chris helped get us back out.

We got back to our boat and put the dinghy back up planning to go for a swim. About that time the other couple came by and told us that Chris had some issues getting back out and basically they had to pull him and his dingy and dogs out. We invited them aboard for a beer, and then we talked for a while more. We talked about being retired, and I asked him what he was retired from, turns out he was a switchyard supervisor at San Onofre until about 2005. We had crossed paths a bunch. Steve and Denise Pepper. We talked for another hour or so. As you might imagine. Eventually they left and we started the generator to charge the batteries and clean the boat.

Cuastecomate, March 31, Wednesday

Well, the intention was to stay here two nights, but it was very rolly. We had breakfast did our bible reading then got the kayak out and went to shore, Renee’ looked for her glasses (did not find them) and then we went to the side of the bay and tried out our new face masks. They worked sort of ok, but the water was really too murky here to really see much. So, back in the kayak and to the beach and we had a beer. Renee’ got a couple of souvenirs and then back to the boat.

Barra de Navidad to Cuastecomate, March 30, Tuesday

We got up at almost 8 am, we plan to leave after the net this morning (9 am, channel 22). We will need to check out of the marina and get rid of our trash (the bins are all the way around on the far side of the marina from here). Then we will pull out and head up to Tenacatita (about 16 miles) or the “secret anchorage” Cuastecomate, about 6 miles. There is no rush to get to either location. If the weather is good, and not to big of waves, we will try for Cuastecomate, as there is very good snorkeling there. Two nights here would be the plan, and then two nights at Tenacatita, where we would pick up Elton Lee on Friday night, and then sail back Saturday morning to Barra de Navidad. We will see what we actually do.

We wound up talking to John Schulthess from S/V Baja Fog (a catamaran) for about an hour, then left and headed out to Cuastecomate. We sailed for a couple of hours and then took the sails down and motored in and dropped anchor (only about 6 miles). We had lunch and talked to a few people on the phone and then Renee’ went for a swim.

Good news the water was great! Bad news, she lost her hat and dove in to recover it. Good news, she got the hat, horrible news, she lost her sunglasses. These are not “just” sunglasses, they are tools that we need for daily operation on the ocean. It is important to protect your eyes when you are out in the sun all day every day, also we get reflected sunlight off the water again all day. So, these glasses are wrap around with wide temples to block the sun from the side, polarized, blue blocking anti glare and progressive lenses for distance at the top and reading at the bottom. In other words not cheap.

We called the place we got them and ordered another pair. Ouch!

Barra de Navidad, March 29, Monday

We got up around 8 am, made coffee and called the French baker. This is an incredible service! Within about 10 minutes of us calling him we had a knock on the hull as he was there with a very good supply of fresh baked goods. Renee’ had a quiche and I had an apple tart, we also got a baguette. All for a very reasonable price (170 pesos, or about $8.50 USD). At 9 am, I listened to the net and Renee’ took the laundry in. Plans for today include going into town and getting a haircut.

We walked for awhile, checked the map, and walked for awhile, then checked the GPS, and then walked for awhile (sometimes in semi circles), then asked someone and continued to walk for awhile. Then asked someone else and then we saw a paper/office store, we have been looking for one so we could get a better envelope to hold the boat documents, so we got that taken care of and then walked for awhile. Renee’ checked the GPS, and I crossed the street and looked down where we were headed, and found it! The Port Captain’s office is in a residential district nowhere near the water. In any case we got checked in and the port captain checked us out leaving on Monday after Easter, so we don’t have to go back! Then it was look for a place to get a haircut for both of us.

Mr. Google likes to take us on weird routs, this was a zig zag through a residential district and eventually (at least we were walking towards the water taxi and downtown) we found the shop. They were closed, but the window was open and when Renee’ asked she opened the shop and did a very good job on our hair and my beard. Afterwards, we stopped for lunch then grabbed the water taxi back to the boat.

After Naps, and relaxing for a bit, we changed into swim suits and washed the boat, boy was it filthy! That took about an hour and half, when we got done, it was time for Renee’ to go get the laundry and me to run the water maker. The water pressure here is the highest I have found in Mexico, good for washing the boat, not so good for the water maker, I have to throttle the supply quite a bit to keep the supply pressure on scale, it is almost high enough to run through the membrane with out the high pressure pump.
We ran the water maker from about 4:30 to 8:30, at about 30 gallons per hour, 120 gallons of water for a week.

We had company after dinner, Elton Lee from the church we went to on Sunday came over after his swim in the bay. He might join us for the sail back from Tenacatita next Saturday.