We got about 6:30 or 7, had breakfast and did our devotions, about 9:30 we started making preparations to go kayaking. About that time, Colin and Janice from S/V Kaya (a trimaran) came by in their kayaks. We talked for awhile, and I volunteered to give them the charts for OPENCPN that I had for the Sea of Cortez. That took longer than I expected, so we offered to bring the thumb drive by later.
We had lunch and then went kayaking, first stop was to see Dale on S/V Oly Girl, we are invited for dinner tonight, and then over to S/V Kaya to drop off the thumb drive. They are in the next cove over, so about a half mile one way to get to them. We chatted for a bit, and they said they would bring it back in the morning, Then we kayaked over to Division Island, a small island about a mile from S/V Kaya. We saw some fledgling sea gulls and a bunch of Pelicans. From there we went to the beach and then back to our boat for a quick dip in the ocean and then down for relaxing and rest. It took us until about 3 pm to make that whole trip.
I took a nap, and Renee’ worked in the kitchen for a bit, then we went over to S/V Oly Girl and had dinner with Dale. He made a fantastic Mandarin Chicken over white rice. We shared a few beers and then back to our boat, we ran the generator to finish charging the battery and heat the water for showers.
We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a passport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
We got up around 8:30 (maybe), we still don’t know what time it is. We were underway about a half hour later, we had breakfast underway, followed by devotions.
As we traveled north, first we had great wind (20 knots from 90 degrees to port), then the wind was on the nose, so no sailing. Then an hour or so later we had 20 knots from 90 degrees to port for a couple of hours and got to sail. Finally we got to the north end of the island and pulled in at Refugio. At about 4:30. We nosed in slowly, it is a pretty narrow entrance from the south west.We had seen at least a dolphin and some birds on the way up.
We anchored and then realized we were almost on a rock, so up came the anchor and we moved. We are planning on being here for two nights. The S/V Kaya a trimaran is here in the next cove over, probably a mile or two away, we spoke on the radio about plans for the future. They need a very high tide to get hauled out, so they need to get to Puerto Peñasco by May 22, when there will be an especially high tide.They said they will try to get there a day or two before that.
The Iridium GO! Is acting up, when we get texts, instead of being at the bottom of the string, they are now at the top, which is a little difficult to figure out, as all of the texts have the current date and time stamp. Sort of a mess, and oh yeah many of the messages are duplicated, both to us and to the people we are texting. I have already reported some of this to the Predict Wind support people, who have passed it on to the Iridium GO! Support people. The service of Predict Wind is excellent, the hardware (the Iridium GO!) is horrible. But there really does not seem to be an option that is reasonable in cost. Predict Wind plus the Iridium GO! Service run about $250 per month. The next step up seems to be around $1,000 per month. I will be looking for cost effective alternatives.
We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a passport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
We got up around 7:30 or 8:30, we still don’t know what time it is. We were underway about a half hour later, almost that is. We picked up a garbage bag with the anchor, so, I had to do some cleaning before we really started moving. After we got moving, we had breakfast. A the couple of hours later, we got a call on the radio from Dale. He was fishing and just checking in.
There was almost no wind, and what there was came straight from where we were headed. So, we motored the whole day, part of the time with sails up, most with just the main. After lunch we did our devotions.
We arrived in Puerto Don Juan about 4 (maybe) in the afternoon. We found two boats at anchor, one power boat and the other was our friends from before, Michele, Christine on S/V Inia. After dinner, we kayaked over and spent some time talking with them. Then back to our boat, and showers and a movie.
We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a passport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
We got up early (5:30), and underway by 6 am. We had a piece of banana oatmeal carrot cake, then underway. After we were out and on course, we had breakfast and did our devotions.
As we ran north, there was some wind, then too much wind (35 knots) we got a call on the radio from Dale on S/V Oly Girl. We met him in Santa Rosalia, we may see him again this year somewhere, or next year. We will see. After having too much wind, it dropped back down and eventually went to 3 to 4 knots, then back up to 20 knots, part of the time it was right on the nose, and part of the time we actually got enough wind to help push us along. In any case we arrived at San Francisquito at about 6 pm based on the analog battery powered clock in the Salon.
We had some issues with time today. We have two iPads, and two iPhones, we also have a chart plotter, all of which have the time and all of which seem to adjust the time based on time zones. Which all did at some point at least twice (maybe three times) as we came north. Right now, the clock says it is 7:30 pm, my computer says it is 7:30, Renee’s iPhone says it is 6:30, mine says 6:30, both iPads say it is 6:30, and the chart plotter is off. We are pretty sure it took us 12 hours to go about 75 miles. About 6 knots.
Once we got settled in, with the anchor down, we opened the windows and Renee’ got dinner ready. We noted the water pump running periodically. Without having used the water. This is not good, as it means we have something leaking somewhere. We checked all the usual suspects, faucets, and toilets etc. We did not find it there, I checked the water flush for the water maker, not there either. Then after much thought I thought about the water heater. We looked and there is a puddle around it. This is not good. We will keep an eye on it, and when it is cooler, I will check the hoses to see if I can find where it is leaking. If the heater is bad, it is a huge job to change it out.
While I was publishing the post yesterday, Renee’ asked me about some loose wires in the aft head. (See the picture), these wires are under the cabinet that is above and behind the toilet.I posted the question to other IP445 boat owners, and found out that all of them have a light where we just have wires. Renee’ said, she doesn’t want a light there. So, we have wires.
We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a passport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
Ok, in the last week, we have gotten pretty lazy, getting up by no later than 9 am. Except on days when Renee’ walks to the store. On those days, she gets up at 6:30, and I sleep in another hour or so. When we get up, we have breakfast and do our devotions. Then eventually start in to a project. So far, we have cleaned from the front of the boat to the aft lazarette, everything out of every cupboard, closet, drawer, and nook and cranny, all the holes into the bilge opened, and everything out. Then vacuumed and wiped down. Good news! Absolutely no sign of any bugs!
We have done laundry and run the water maker every 5 days (just done today) using the water off the dock. I don’t trust the Mexican water, so we run it through the water maker, the output is about 1 ppm total dissolved solids. That compares to city water in the US at less than 500 ppm TDS.
We have gone out to eat a couple of times, always takeout. It is abit depressing to see how little business there is going on. When we go to the stores, we are frequently the only ones inside, especially in the restaurants. What really makes it bad, is that there are no reported cases of the virus in this area. We are in the state of Baja California Sur population: 763,929. Covid-19 cases today: May 12th.
Municipality
Confirmed
Deaths
Recovered
Comondú
7
0
2
La Paz
90
19
48
Los Cabos
126
5
90
Loreto
0
0
0
Mulegé
9
1
2
Total of 399 cases, Those are the Confirmed+Deaths+Recovered.
Covid-19 May 12
This says that 0.05% of the population in Baja California Sur has, had or died from the virus, and less than 0.02% have died from this virus here.
Today we are finishing laundry, filling the water tank, and getting diesel. We are leaving here tomorrow and headed to Puerto Peñasco. It will take us about a week to get there. We have been in touch with Salvador the guy who runs the boat yard there. It appears we will be able to get hauled out and start the process of getting work done on the boat. We are expecting some period of quarantine, even though we are coming from an area without the virus. Oh well.
While we have been here, we have seen some wildlife (the fledgling osprey took its first flight) there are lots of fish in the harbor, and plenty of other birds as well.
We took the boat over to the fuel dock and got diesel. 88.7 gallons, cost was $309 US, or $3.48 US/gallon, including a 12% docking fee. We could have done the Jerry can transfer and saved the 12% fee, and since we have 2 jerry cans, it would have been about 9 trips, or an all day event. While recording fuel usage, I noted that it is time to change the oil in the generator. Bummer. That will take a couple of hours today to get that done. Ok, now it is done. Renee’ took the used oil up to the garbage. That is what the security officer here said to do. Not quite what I am used to.
So, at this point the only area we did not clean was the aft lazarette. That needs to be done in the morning some day, as it can be rather hot in there. We will need to run the generator so we can use the vacuum to clean it. We will probably do it when we get Puerto Peñasco. Either once we get in to the yard, or while we are waiting to go in. It will probably take a couple of hours to do, as we have been in and out quite a bit, and it is fairly well organized, and not as dirty as some of the other areas.
Renee’ went to the office to check out and found out that they did not charge us for the last 5 days electrical or water use. But in any case, we are checked out, the fuel is full, the water is full, the generator oil is changed, the engine oil has about 130 hours to go to the next oil change. Most of the boat is clean, and all of it is organized, and sorted as to what is staying on the boat and what is going to storage, or tossed. I think we are ready to go.
We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a passport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
