Author: Neil Scheuerlein

(posted 04/30/24)
Up at, underway by 6:45. Breakfast and morning routines underway.
We saw about a dozen boats, only a few of them had AIS, and had it broadcasting.
AIS, is an Automatic Identification System, it uses a VHF radio (on a different frequency) to broadcast information about your boat.
For much more information about it, check out this link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_identification_system

In the various sailing and boating groups that I am a member of (both on Facebook had other websites) there is a semi frequent discussion about which is better RADAR or AIS, and if one is on a limited budget, and you can only afford one which should you choose. We have both, and as we saw today, probably 10 – 15% of the boats we saw were using their AIS (if they had it) all were visible on the RADAR. A frequent argument is that RADAR is too difficult to use, depending on what you are trying to use it for it can be difficult to use it well. But as with any tool, practice and it gets easier.
For example, I was able to identify boats on the water about 5 miles away from us that required binoculars to clearly see that it was a boat and not just haze. In this case, they were not using AIS.
Reasons to have it off include concerns about pirates (not a huge concern here in the Sea of Cortez), and not wanting to broadcast your location worldwide. I am not in that group.
Bottom line, we have both AIS & RADAR, and use both most of the time. AIS virtually always.
We arrived at Balandra (this is on Isla Carmen, off the coast near Loreto) at about 11:30. We were able to sail for about 30 minutes, there wasn’t much wind today.
After lunch and a nap we went for a swim.
The water is warmer than it has been, about 74 degrees. Certainly clearer than anything I have swam in here this year. I was able to see the bottom of the boat and that is time to get it cleaned.
Now that we are out, Reneé is going to fish for dinner and see if she can catch anything she saw while we were snorkeling.

(posted 04/30/24)
Up at 6 to the coffee pot. We had the anchor up and we were underway by 0645.
Three hours later we’re in the Sea, outside Bahia Conceptión heading south. Good news Sirius XM is working again. So, it’s a problem with shadowing from Starlink.
Today it is very calm, we are motoring at 6.9 knots, and the wind instrument says that we have 7.5 knots of wind from 15 degrees to port. This means most of the wind is actually the boat moving through the air.
Reneé saw a shark (briefly) this morning, and we have seen quite a few sea lions resting with their flippers out of the water.
I spotted a whale, first one this season.
We saw several sailboats heading northbound, we were able to identify a couple as they had AIS, we spoke to them on the radio.
As the day continued, we saw rays jumping out of the water.
We dropped anchor at about 1630 (4:30 pm) almost 10 hours today. There are 8 other boats here, we saw two leaving as we pulled in. Good thing it’s a pretty big bay.

(posted 04/17/24)
Up and morning routines. Then we went out and polished stainless steel. One of the regular chores on the boat. We have a bunch of stainless steel, and living on the sea means lots of salt spray. This means that there is a reason to rinse the boat fairly frequently. But that means me ween to be in a marina that has water. Santa Rosalía is the only marina we have been in since we left Puerto Peñasco, and they have not always had water to rinse the boat. As a result we have only washed the boat once since we left Puerto Peñasco. 2 and a half months. There is quite a bit of salt crust on everything. After polishing we rested for a few minutes then got the dinghy down and took our trash in and joined a group of other sailors and a local ex pat for lunch. Then back to the boat and put the dinghy away and plan our next several days of sailing.
Then because we could, we got in the water and floated for a bit. Followed by dinner and working on the blog.

(posted 04/17/24)
Up and most of our morning routines, while we were eating breakfast Brian showed up. We will do our Bible reading later.
Brian went up the mast and installed the loud hailer and fog horn, then we mounted the Starlink antenna. He was on the boat from 0800 to 1130. We are waiting for our auto pilot remote, which is getting a new battery. We committed to waiting until Thursday for it. If it’s not ready by then, it will get shipped to Puerto Vallarta for us.
The only bad thing that happened today is that the Sirius XM antenna appears to be in the shadow of the Starlink antenna, this will need to get fixed.
We put all the stuff away that’s been out for this project. The boat looks much neater.
About 4:30 the wind died down, and we got in the water. I used a scrub brush to clean the keel coolers for the fridge and freezer. They are about 3” wide and 8” long and are the heat exchangers for the fridge and freezer. Both had about an inch of marine growth on them. Now we will see how the freezer works.

Here’s Reneé’s take on today:

Today Brian came to the boat and he and Neil got the hailer mounted on the mast and the Starlink mounted on the back arch.

Good news – bad news… most everything is fixed on the boat . The thing about a boat is…when one thing gets fixed another thing breaks. The Starlink got mounted and in the process of working with the wires the Sirius XM got disconnected. And oh yeah, the fridge still doesn’t work. We have a new compressor for it and will have it installed by Richard’s Marine in Puerto Vallarta.

It is windy today so we just sat around waiting for it to calm down so we could go in the water.

 

(posted 04/17/24)
Up and morning routines, (Reneé listens to the news before breakfast, I review Facebook and play on my table for a bit. Then Breakfast, followed by reading the Bible Monday through
Saturday, on Sunday we watch a sermon via the internet). Then figure out what the plan is for the rest of the day.
Today, we replaced the overhead lamps in the salon and galley. Brian came by and fixed the issue with the 9” chart plotter above the gangway. I also put in brass threads for some panel screws. The wood threads had stripped out from too frequently being used. While Brian was here we mapped out the rest of the changes to the electronics.
– [ ] A new speed probe and the associated wiring
– [ ] A new Micro SD card reader for the master chart plotter
– [ ] A new short backbone cable for the network
We also planned out the work for tomorrow:
– [ ] Install the Loud Hailer
– [ ] Install the Starlink antenna and run the wire