Category: 2020-01 (January)

We got up a bit early, about 7 am. We had our breakfast and did our devotions. Read for a bit, and got underway about 9:30 or so. We ran the water maker again today for  4 or 5 hours. That is 80-100 gallons of water. Our water tank level indicator says it went from 70 to 90%. We have a 260 gallon tank, 10%=26 gallons. 30% is 78 gallons,  so maybe it is right, or maybe it reads a bit low. In any case, we did not get water out of the overflow yet. We will be running the water maker again in a couple of days and see if we can top of the tank.
We anchored between a large power boat, and a sailboat, there are now 3 sailboats in this part of the anchorage, and two power boats. There is also a bunch of people on the beach to the north of us, brought in by Panga’s from La Paz (I think).

I am looking for some input here:

I have had several people suggest that we should be filming this and posting it to YouTube. What do you think? Would you watch it? Should we film it? By the way, I can’t upload video here. I could post it to Vimeo or Youtube and link it but not directly here.

This is not a small commitment, I have watched a number of video’s on YouTube from sailors, and several of them (who admitted to having had a career in videography prior to sailing) have said that it typically takes them 8 hours of effort for a 20 minute video on YouTube, If we posted a video once a month, would that be enough to keep people interested? That would still be a bunch of work on our part, but it would be spread out over the month. On the other hand, if we posted a video a week, it would almost be like having a job. Which we really don’t want.

So, drop us a line, comment on this post, send an email, send a text, let us know what you think.

We got up about normal time 7:30, had breakfast and did our devotions.

We read for a bit this morning and then about 10 am we kayaked around the cove. Most of this cove is very shallow, as in less than 4 feet with the tide in. We decided to come back to the boat for lunch and then snorkel afterwards.

After lunch and a nap for me, (Renee’ worked on setting up the hammock) we kayaked ashore and snorkeled for a bit. This is not a good location for this, as the water is too shallow, with a sand bottom, very few rocks, so not much to see. Anyway we snorkeled for a bit then came back to the boat. Put the kayak away and started the generator. That way we can have hot showers in about a half hour or so.

Just another quiet day in our life.

 

We got up normal time, had breakfast and listened to the net. Then got a phone call from Bill Brown, we worked together in the training department at San Onofre, which makes it about 15 years ago! We have stayed in touch occasionally. He used to live in Texas, and is now retired and “homeless!” Ok, he does not have a home that he lives in, he does have rental property, a sailboat and a trailer. He was in New Port Richey, Florida and looking for us.  We chatted for awhile, and I sent him the address of this blog. 

Anyway, after all that was done and breakfast and devotions, we were starting to get the boat ready to leave, when the couple who had just arrived across the dock stopped by, we gave them a tour and looked at their boat as well. Then they left to get breakfast and we finished our departure preparations. 

Rich and Danielle on S/V Festina Lente 

We left and eventually got out in the middle of the bay. Good day for sailing with no particular schedule. Our plan was to get to Balandra bay by 5:30 and have the anchor down. Only about 15 miles total. We were out in the bay making water (as usual) for about 3 hours so, 60 gallons. This puts us at 80% in our tank. Enough for showers and everything else. 

We anchored in about 25 feet of water, with 150 feet of chain out in about the same spot as we were the last time we were here. In the morning, we will kayak ashore, over to the shallow part and do some snorkeling (assuming it warms up a bit). 

 

Well, I have an update on how this (IRIDIUM GO! failure) is working out, PredictWind (PW) does not ship to Mexico. Bummer. Need a work around on this.
So, the way this is working is:
1. PW will sell us a new one, deliver it our friends in Calif. When we send the old one back, they will finish the RMA process with Iridium, and when they get the replacement unit back, they will put it in their stock, and reimburse us for the cost of the device.
2. We will fly to Tijuana and walk across the border spend a couple of days in San Diego area and then reverse the process.
3. Advantages of this, we have about a dozen other parts that are lower on the priority list that are waiting for us in Carlsbad that we will be able to pick up while we are there.

One thing I want to stress: the support from PW has been very good. As an example, they pointed out that the full RMA process takes about 8 weeks (not counting shipping) but they suggested the other option where we buy a new one and get reimbursed when the RMA process gets finished.
They answer the phone quickly, and text messages very quickly etc. I have no complaints with that part of the issue, only with the fact that I have to know how the support works. The equipment should just work. That is IRIDIUM, not PredictWind.

We have paid for an extra day here in Marina Cortez, we will sail tomorrow morning and go explore an island or two or three and come back to La Paz in a couple of weeks. Book our flights and fly back to Tijuana and walk across the border to get our parts. In the meantime our location will not be updated while we are not in La Paz as it uses the Iridium GO! for doing that update.

We just ran out of propane on the inservice tank. The other tank is the one I use to BBQ, but since that has not been working we think that tank is very full. So, before we head to San Carlos we will have to go and get the empty one filled. This is a couple of weeks away. Of course it means no BBQing in the meantime, as we have to turn off the gas to the stove while the BBQ is cooking. The last time we got propane was Dec 3rd, about a month and a half for a tank of gas.

The issue with Propane, is that Mexico is fairly safety conscious, all propane filling stations are on the outside of town, so we will have to take an uber out there, or use the service here at the marina (about double the cost) to get it filled.

We got up at our normal time, about 7:30 or so. I checked the weather and our Iridium Go Satellite stuff. I checked our messages and found the battery for the device was down at 21%. This was not a good sign as it has been plugged in for the about a week. So, I looked at the charging port, and found that it was broken.

Bottom line, the satellite device to get weather when we don’t have cell service is dead. We also don’t have a way to get text messages or email while out of cell service. All in all this really not a good thing.

We were planning to head north to go to San Carlos and leaving this morning. But now I am not sure we want to leave this morning.