Category: 2019-11 (November)

We had a bit of walking around town, Renee’ went to the pharmacy, ok she went to about 4 of them, and finally got what she was looking for. She also went to the grocery store and then met us at the KuKa-KuKa restaurant here on the beach. Then back to the boat and took naps, had dinner and played cards and then bed.

This is where Saturday starts.

A quiet Saturday morning

Only thing on the agenda for today is getting fuel. Whether we get it with many trips to the Pemex, or get it delivered we need fuel before we head south again. We are just under half a tank of diesel. The tank is 160 gals full, so we need a bit more than 80 gallons, assuming the level is linear. I suspect it will be closer to 100 gallons. But we will see.

We plan to head south tomorrow, it looks like about 60 miles or so to the next stop. Bahia Asuncio’n. I don’t expect to get fuel again before Cabo (Cabo San Lucas or San Jose Del Cabo).

Diesel 34 pesos to the boat delivered +10% for credit card. Pemex station 22 pesos at the pump. Last time we looked it was about 19 pesos to the dollar. So, $4.47/gallon or ~$6.32/gallon +10% = $7.01/gallon.

If we are talking about 100 gallons, the difference is $701-$447= $254. Which is quiet a bit of money. It is also a lot of work to haul the tanks up to the Pemex station, and then back to the three boats. Which means about a mile through town and then a half mile across the bay in a dinghy up on to the deck and pour the fuel.

Between us we have a couple of 13 gallon containers and a few 5 gallon Jerry cans. There is a cart on Lost Pearl that can handle about 60 lbs. which means probably 1 of the 13 gallon containers will be a bit more than that.

We negotiated a price of 30 pesos to the liter. 300 liters (80 gallons) $529 or about $6.60 per gallon. Delivered, and a tip of $21. Ouch! This filled our tank to about 7/8’s full. Which should be plenty to get us to Cabo. The tank looked fairly clean, at least what I could see through the plastic. We still have two 5 gallon Jerry cans of diesel in the aft laz. It is pretty old, as I suspect it was there long before the boat came up from Puerto Vallarta in Feb. 2017. Another way to think about the fuel, is we saved 1,200 pesos by dickering, which is about $70 US.

I am considering something I have heard about & read about on the various forums, which is a fuel purification system. Most that I have heard about have a separate tap into the tank with a hose to the bottom the fuel then comes out and goes to a pump and a filter (or a couple) then back to the top of the tank. This pump runs when the engine is on, and circulates the fuel through the filter and back to the tank, so it keeps the fuel fairly clean. I think that I would put a relay on the start so that either the engine or the generator running would run the cleaning system, and I would like a pretty good sized pump to move quite a bit of fuel at a time. However, I might tap into one of the already installed penetrations into the fuel tank, either the connection for the engine or the generator and the vent line going back into the tank from the same side and that way minimize the holes in the fuel tank. Also, all of those connections have a welded up threaded connection into the tank. My concern would be starving the engine or the generator of getting enough fuel if I put too big of a pump on the cleanup system and would rob the generator of fuel to just clean it up. Anyway, something to think about.

Well, lunch is done and Renee’ is getting stuff out for dinner. We have a pumpkin pie that has not been eaten yet. She still has firecracker salsa left from the other day. We are still planning to have everyone over sometime. It will have to be today, as we are sailing all day tomorrow and the next day. We will never get there (Cabo) if we don’t start. Pretty profound huh?

So, we made a trip into town. Bought some more groceries. Talked to the crew of the “Wild Blue” they have an Island Packet 45 (1999) so the previous generation of boats. They are having problems with their battery charging. We will talk some more. Jeff and Josh got a better deal with fuel, the police were involved, and I believe their final price was about 25 pesos per liter. Good for them!

We are all going to meet ashore at the KuKa KuKa for pumpkin pie and beer. Cozette is over washing her hair, so we are running the generator to get some hot water, and charge the batter. We will shut it down when we go ashore and restart it when we come back out. We are currently at 86% charged and I don’t believe we will make it overnight with a start point of less than about 92% or better.

We are at the KuKa KuKa for pie and social life.

Well, the pharmacy was not open, we went back two times together, and then Renee’ went back by herself, finally to the hospital and got what she needed there. Some grocery shopping, and then back to the boat. It is pretty humid aboard, all the clothes drying, so I opened the windows and turned the fans on. We can’t do this for long though as it is getting dark and will be cold soon.

We got up and had breakfast followed by devotions, this morning was Morning Mercies. We ran the generator to charge the batteries. We were at a new low (I think, ~69%). But while it ran we had all the fans and the A/C’s on to finish drying the clothes. We read our books and dealt with a couple of anchor alarms. The wind is really blowing, my guess is 25 knots straight off the ocean (west) the boat is rocking pretty good. We thought about making a trip into town, but decided against it as there are swells (waves here) that would make it a wet trip.

I chatted with Joe Gifford (we worked together at San Onofre and at Duane Arnold) for a bit. He was attempting to show his kids where we were using our boat name and the website Vessel Finder, and it showed us still in Ensenada. This is based on our MMSI number which is broadcast by our AIS transmitter. This sends out a signal about our boat, (Name, Length, Beam, Speed, Location, etc.) this goes out via VHF, and if you have an AIS reader you can get that information. If there is someone who has an AIS reader and is connected to the internet, they can upload that information which is then read by the websites like Vessel Finder. But you will notice there are a lot of “IF’s” and AND’s” in that description about where we are. Bottom line is we may or may not be where it says we are, but we were probably there once. Our MMSI number is 367467250. Another way to find our where we are and where we have been is to use the PredictWind website: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again this is updated about once an hour via satellite, and the track is kept for 9 months. At which point the old stuff is deleted. We will take a screen shot of it and put it on the website later. The chat with Joe happened via satellite, as I can’t text via my phone right now, and I have no internet either. It was good to chat for a few minutes.

Our satellite plan is interesting in that we have unlimited text and data and 150 minutes of OUTGOING phone calls. While that sounds great, it is important to note, that the data rate is only 2.4k, and I am limited as to what data I can get. The important thing is the weather. To download the high resolution GRIB files, (3 MB, or thereabouts) takes about 4 hours. The lower resolution files don’t really help figure out what we are going to do very well, so that means at night we try to download the files. The problem with that is the Iridium GO! needs to have a clear view of the sky. So, we installed a hook up to the external antenna that was already on the boat, and a place to plug in to keep it charged. Sounds good, except the external antenna connection is really weak, and we broke the center wire off about 3 days into this trip. For now the iridium sits in a window above our nav station with a cord running to a USB socket to stay charged. This is good, until the boat swings and it loses the signal. Not too much of an issue when we are just sending hourly updates of our location, but when trying to get the weather….. well it does not work well at all. I have found that if I move the GO! Up on deck under the dodger, it keeps the signal better. BUT, the battery is only so good, and it won’t download a large file before the battery is drained. I have asked for a new external antenna adapter from the electronics guy in San DIego, but he has to have a place to send it. I hope to have the address today. But we will see. I am sure I have already told part or all of this story before, but it is what I am thinking about now.

An interesting thing about the satellite texts, we have the iPads and iPhones set up to give notifications about incoming texts, and the notification says what number sent the text, but if you click on the notification, it takes you to the application, but does not open the message, and the incoming message is not highlighted in any way, so to find the message you have to look through each thread until you see the new message. If you go back to the front, (where you get the notification on your iPad or iPhone, it has been cleared because you clicked on it.

Bottom line, we are having a quiet day on the boat. We are expecting Jeff and Angie (Lost Pearl) and Josh and Cozette (Merry Lee) this afternoon for the Thanksgiving meal.

It is now 3 in the afternoon. All of our guests have cancelled, wind speed is at 30 knots. Swells are about 3 feet, here in the bay. This is rather uncomfortable. Renee’ and I went out and lifted our dinghy out of the water, and tied it up. This is a bit better than it riding the swells and banging into the back of the boat, but not much. We looked at the weather again, and it looks like it will calm down in the morning, being a bit worse here by midnight tonight. I am not looking forward to it. We communicated with them, and they are all aboard the Lost Pearl. It is a bigger boat than the Merry Lee, but we ill be watching all three boats to see if there is any dragging going on.

I have turned on our Radar and electronics to get a backup on location to make sure we are not dragging our anchor. I turned on the anchor alarm, on the chart plotter, I have also turned on our track, but I am not sure what it will show as we are not moving very much. The anchor alarm on the chart plotter is set at 0.01 NM, that is nautical mile, which is 6000 feet, so it is set at 60 feet from where we were when I turned it on. If we decide to pull the anchor, I will go out to the middle of the bay, it is a little deeper (30 feet or so), but if we do drag we will have further to drag than where we are right now. I doubt I will get much sleep tonight.

Well that was exciting! Renee’ looked out and saw that the kayak that had been behind the Merry Lee was not there. We got in touch with the 4 of them, all on the Merry Lee. Jeff and Josh got out in the dinghy and went after it. Jeff took Josh to the pier, he then ran back down to the beach, then over to the kayak, and started back out in the water. The kayak and the paddle board are now on deck on the Merry Lee, and all 4 of them are on the Lost Pearl. A pretty exciting little vignette!

Well, as we sit here, getting really tired of the boat moving around, Reneé is watching a movie, and I think I am going to lay down for a bit.

At 9:15 pm we had sustained 40 knot winds and gusts to 52. Heavy rain. I did not go out to check anything, I looked through the windows and depended on the anchor app on my iPhone and the anchor alarm on our.chart plotter. Renee’ asked what we would do different next time if we knew the weather was going to be like this. I said anchor further from shore. I think we would also put out more chain. We will also practice putting out two anchors. Something that was recommended by Bob for this evening, but the weather had already started and I don’t know how to put out two anchors, and I don’t know how to direct Renee’ to move the boat to do it either.

We tried sleeping in shifts, the first hour we thought I would sleep first, but I could not. The wind was high, the waves were high it was not a good time to sleep. But she could not sleep at all. Finally, I was able to get some sleep, and of course that is when the smoke/CO detector decided to tell us it had a low battery. Or that it was wet or something. We purchased and installed this on 10/29/19. We picked a spot high in the salon. On the side of the mast. When I found it beeping, it was a bit damp, so that maybe the problem. I was able to get to sleep with it chirping but Renee’ did not think she could. At 1:30, the wind speed is a fairly steady 30 knots with occasional gusts to 45 knots. The waves are just as bad, and our anchor is still holding. The equipment that we kept on tonight, the VHF and the chart plotter, Have drained the battery. So at 65%, battery power (12.0 volts) I started the generator. Good news it masks the chirp. I am trying to dry it out as it is right in front of the heater vent in the front cabin. Renee’ has gone to bed in our stateroom, and says that she can sleep through the generator.

So, morning came, all the boats were still about where we left them. Renee’ and I slept on the settee’s. One or the other of us had been up all night. It was pretty rough. I ran the generator for about 4 hours to recharge the battery. We are now at about a half tank of fuel, so we will be getting fuel here. We have been told it is still too rough to take diesel out, so that means another day here. Saturday to get fuel and recover from this storm.

Renee’ went to the pharmacy, and it was closed, again. We have been communicating by phone, and she has been all over town. So far she has not found what she is looking for. I went to the restaurant Moroco with Josh and Cozette, we attempted to get the internet, but the internet is down because of the rain. After breakfast, we went to the KuKu restaurant and we have WiFi again! So this will get posted.

Good morning! We slept in, again! We were up by 8 am, it is a gray overcast sort of day. I was able to get the weather last night, and it is a good thing that we are waiting until Saturday to leave. Thursday and Friday should have a real blow going through here. The next few days after should be pretty mild. Good traveling days. Pancakes and our last bratt for breakfast then Jesus Calling for our devotions.

We thought about what to do today and decided we really need to get laundry done. We have 80% in our water tank, 70% in the battery, and a half a tank of fuel, and lots of dirty clothes. Plan to get fuel on Friday, and it looks yucky out. So, laundry is the order of the day. Renee’ plans to make a pie this evening. We hope to go to the store this afternoon. About the time the first load got done in the washer, I noticed that it was raining. This is (I believe) the first real good rain we have had since we left San Diego. The boat is getting washed too. Inside the boat we have all three heaters going (A/C in the heat mode), and all the fans are going to help dry the clothes as they come out of the washer. Normally we would hang some outside, but I think it is wetter there than in the washer. Each load of clothes takes a bit more than an hour to wash. Renee’ figured out that the grab rails along the ceiling in the salon and the cabinets in the forward cabin make a great place to string a clothes line. Now we have wet clothes drying.

After lunch (fish sandwiches) we got the dinghy ready and came in to town. We waited until the rain stopped and got in and walked up to the pharmacy, and found that it was closed, won’t open until after 3. We were there just before, and then headed back to the Moroco Restaurant for the internet. Right after we got inside it started raining again. We will wait a bit and then go try again.

Tuesday 11/26

We slept in until about 7:30. Got up and had breakfast, then got underway to go and dump the holding tank. We went out 3 miles, and got rid of it. Our holding tank is supposed to be 55 gallons, but I measured it with a 5 gallons bucket (timed how long it took to fill the bucket then timed how long it took to fill the holding tank with a hose) and it seems to be a lot closer to 35 gallons, using a pump out station at the marina, it is important to note that I calibrated the tank gauge at zero, when empty that way, but when we pump out with our macerator, it only goes down to 20%, so how empty is it really? I don’t know and don’t want to risk using the vacu-pump heads into a full holding tank. This is bigger than some other boats, but not big enough for us to make it a whole week including having guests over for Thanksgiving. On the way out the knot meter did not work. (This is a little wheel that gets turned by the water flowing under the boat). Anyway, out three miles and dump the holding tank. Then back in again.

On the way in, I could not get the Radar to work, so I had Renee’ cycle the power to the Radar, the autopilot and the electronics. The Radar did not “come back” and neither did the knot meter. So, we did it again, still no joy. I eventually got the Radar back, and was using just the radar to see where the charts thought we were. It was a clear day, minimal wind and the swells were only 1 to 2 feet, and pretty much gone by the time we got into the the bay. I really did not need the electronics or autopilot or radar, but it is certainly annoying. A few minutes later the boat position showed up again. At this point the only thing not working is the knot meter. Tomorrow I will pul the sensor and clean it and put it back in again. That is the most common problem with these things is marine growth on the little wheel.

We had lunch and did our devotions for the day. Morning Mercies for today. A bit later than we like, but we had planned to do them while underway to dump the holding tank, and got caught up looking for lobster traps.

I got a shower, and Renee’ did the dishes from this morning and the cooking/food prep she did getting ready for the afternoon card game. After lunch we had the crews from the Merry Lee (only Cozette) and the Lost Pearl (Jeff and Angie) over and played “Tripoli” (Michigan Rummy) and then “May I”. We also talked about the plans for the Thanksgiving day meal.

They all left just before dark, as Cozette had to get Cody ashore and back to the boat before dark. We had dinner, fish! Renee’ cooked up what we had and we had fish for dinner and we will have fish for lunch and dinner again tomorrow. Fish does not last long unless it is frozen, and when she got it out of the freezer, it was time to cook it and that is that. It was really good, black rice, fish and green beans, it is what is for dinner.

Now dishes are done, the place is cleaned up, I am writing this, and Renee’ is reading. Plans for tomorrow are cleaning the speed probe and go ashore (maybe) and some sewing for Renee’.

We talked during the card game about the price of diesel, apparently it is about double at the fuel dock as compared to the gas station in town. But in town you have to haul your cans back the boat. The plan is to take a few cans into town and get them filled, and then when the guy at the dock complains, dicker on the price to get it closer to the town price. We will see, there are three boats, and we need about 140 gallons total between the three boats. That is a lot of hauling with two 13 gallon containers, and two 5 gallon Jerry cans. So it would be worth something, just not double the price. We will see what we can work out. That is planned for Friday.

Deck a boo blind closed. I previously described these, and thought I would try again.

Deck a boo blind open.

Monday 11/25

Some more from 11/24 after we posted the previous day. When Renee’ and I got back to the boat, we decided to have BBQ’d Brats. This will probably be the last time (not counting leftovers) that we have Brats unto we are back in the states, as we have not seen them in any of the stores here.

The BBQ is a bit finicky, there was one that came with the boat, but it was really dirty and in pretty bad shape, so we trashed it and bought a new one that fit in the old cover. Great idea, but…. that was before we did our shake down cruise to Monterey. Apparently even a polished stainless steel Magma grill does not like being soaked in saltwater. The trip was pretty rough in spots, specifically the last leg getting up to Moss Landing, over 100 miles, with 45 knot winds, and gusts to 65 with 8 – 10 foot swells. We had waves breaking on the dodger. In any case, the sparker in the BBQ does not work, I have replaced the battery, still no joy. The last time I tried to use it, there was not even enough gas flow to heat up the BBQ to the low end of the normal range. So, I took it apart and used the wire brush on the burner. Tonight I saw that one end did a better job than the other, so I will wire brush it again. But it worked, and we had corn on the cob and brats from the BBQ. Renee’ made black rice. (This is a variety of rice, not brown rice, but black. Really good. We are getting showers and will watch a movie later. The generator is running, and we have hot water. The battery is almost charged, and we will shut it down in a bit and watch the movie on the laptop.

The movie was Red Rock, a thriller. It was ok, but not something I would go out of my way to see.

It is now Monday morning. After breakfast we are planning on going into town, and I will be:

1. looking on line for the door for the refrigerator

2. downloading some apps for the laptop

3. Iridium Go

4. Iridium Mail

5. Offshore (weather)

We need to remember to put the screen across the hatch. There are a few pesky flys.

We are sitting in a restaurant, using the WiFi, been here for an hour or so. So far we have checked the weather. Found the drawer refrigerator door, now we have to get an address to ship it to. The download for the software on the MacBookPro is not going so well. After an hour the first APP is about 10% downloaded. I have not found either the Iridium GO or Iridium Mail apps for the laptop.

I have restarted the download to see if that makes a difference. So far not helping.

So, another hour and we are not much further on the download. I have looked and the text and mail apps are not available for the MacBookPro. I would really like to get the weather though.

Two and half hours, only about 15% of the app downloaded for Offshore weather. No good. I give up.

It occurs to me that you might all be thinking that it is always summer here. Well not quite, today for example is overcast and grey, temperature is in the mid 60’s. But there is no wind, and the swells are at a minimum. Not a horrible day, just nothing special.

We have some parts to get ordered, and need an address to have them sent to. We should have the address this week.

We went ashore this afternoon. Renee’ went to the street market. We were talking to a couple that were headed out the pier as we were headed in and schedules being what they were, he and I headed to the bar/restaurant, and Renee’ and the other lady (Mary) went to the market. Michael and I talked about Iridium and Predict wind with how long it takes to get a download. After we had been there a while a Canadian and another guy showed up (Mike and Bruce) they were headed out in the morning. Michael and Mary are planing on being here until Friday. He had been an actor, Mike was the Canadian and he had been merchant marine. We talked for awhile and then the lady’s showed up and shortly there after Renee’ and I came back to the boat had dinner and read for a bit before bed. All in all a pretty quiet day.