Category: 2020 – 2021 Season 2

We got up at 7 am, slowly got around, took showers came back down and had breakfast then walked out and caught the bus to Walmart, where we transferred to another bus to get close to church. We checked at Autozone for a grabber tool. This makes 4 Autozone’s, 2 hardware stores, and Walmart. No success looking for this tool. I am done with it, we will just get it in the states.

We ran the water maker and filled the water tank. We used the dock water, which is supposed to be potable, I am not sure if it is because I don’t trust Mexican water, or that I really don’t like Chlorine in my water, or that I just like really pure water, but we run it through our water maker. We are getting 33 gallons per hour at less than 5 ppm impurities. Which is way better than typical bottled water (I read somewhere that it is typically in the high 60’s). We use a carbon block filter on the water to remove the chlorine before putting it into the water maker, as it is very bad for the membranes. 

Island Packet Sailboats have used aluminum water tanks in a number of their models, ours is fiberglass though. Why this is important is that Aluminum tanks (generally) have a life of something less than 20 years and it is a huge job to replace the tank (in the range of $25k). Aluminum tanks also really don’t do well with chlorine in the water. This is not our problem. Our water heater has an aluminum tank, and has an occasional leak. Perhaps that is to be expected. 

One question I was thinking about how far have we gone, last season I would estimate 2000 miles +/-. This year, a bit less. 1,600-1,800.

Up at 7 am, plans for today are the sails come down and go off to hopefully get sold. We will do some more deep cleaning today. Still working through the list to get the boat ready to leave for 6 months. 

We have continued to work through our list. Checking things off as they get done, some of these things are really easy and don’t take very long, like “pull drain plug from the dinghy”. This one is important as when it rains the dinghy will fill up with water, probably 1 foot deep by 3 feet wide and 10 feet long. 30 cubic feet of water, lets say I exaggerated and it is only 20 cubic feet of water, that is still about 150 gallons of water, or 1200 lbs. Not a good thing to leave hanging on the dinghy supports. It only takes a couple of minutes to pull that plug. Other things like “Sheets/halyards/furling lines stowed”. Which means removing all the lines, was about 6 hours of both of us on deck dealing with all the lines and putting everything away. Again very important to protect the lines from the UV over the summer when no one is using the boat. 

Reneé has been busy deep cleaning everything. This is like spring cleaning, the point being we have been living here since October, and the backs of cabinets, and the pockets under the floor collect dust and debris. This is the time to clean it so when we get back in the fall, the boat is clean and ready to go. 

Thursday we got our Covid test done to allow us to fly. Fairly easy to setup as it was done in the lobby of the resort. The resort has the team come in and do the testing, as they have guests leaving all the time and this is a service for them, we are in the marina and it just makes it easy, we don’t have to figure out where to get the test done. It was 800 pesos (about $40 each). 

Work continues to be done, like the holding tank got pumped out, Ivette is here (on Thursday) measuring and making templates for the various covers for the teak. Mike was here earlier in the week to get the old sails down, and is supposed to be back today (or Friday) to adjust the standing rigging (stainless steel wires that hold the mast up). 

While all this was going on here, I have also been dealing with issues in the states, computer stuff for my mother and my uncle. That has taken quite a bit of time as well.

So, early this month we bought a used dehumidifier. I screwed up and broke a piece on the front of it as we were taking it off the other boat and moving it to the Yacht club. I waited to look into what part(s) I had broken until last week. Then found the company and had an excellent interaction with the service and parts department. We had given up, and a few minutes later the person I had been talking to called me back and was able to figure out exactly which parts I had broken! Good news I could order them, bad news two small pieces of plastic a spring and a plastic nut were about $20. Good news they were in Las Vegas and the importer was in San Diego. Bad news the “expedited” shipping was $20 to get them to San Diego in 2 days. Worse news, it was Fed Ex, so they went by way of Memphis. Good news, they made it to the importer on time. Bad news with tax and shipping in to Mexico, it was another $35, so $20 worth of plastic and $55 shipping and taxes. Good news, the parts got to the boat on Thursday and about an hour after I had the parts in hand it was fixed! Better news, we paid $100 for the dehumidifier and even with the $75 in shipping and tax, it is only about half of what the thing cost new, and it is in almost new condition. Oh well.

We had Danny and Robin from S/V “All Set … For Now” over for appetizers and to get to know them. This was Friday at 3pm. After they left we got started working on the last few things on the list. Empty freezer and fridge defrosting and cleaning, replacing the struts that hold the fridge lid up. These are “special” struts. I bought a couple when we first got the boat then found that some were already on the boat. The manufacturer is rather proud of these, I looked up when we bought the last batch,  they were special order and we bought 3 of them, the bill was $222.65 including shipping and handling. At this point we have two spares, and we use 4 of them, two for the freezer and 2 for the fridge. 

This has been a busy week. But we are on track to be ready to leave Saturday. We fly out at 10 am. 

By the way, we have on occasion been cautioned to keep track of the tides, I have included some tide pictures from Puerto Peñasco.

We flew out as scheduled, had an extended layover in Phoenix, (4 hours+) due to mechanical issues for the planes. Finally got to St. Louis and got our rental car (another issue there as the rental company was closed) but we were back in the states.  So here are some pictures, and the blog will pick up again in the fall when we are sailing again.

Cano came to replace the aft head drain hose.  He did but the problem still exists.  He then cleaned the bottom of the thruhull and yep, the problem still exists.  Neil worked on

flushing out the anchor locker and Reneé continued deep cleaning.

After lunch it was beachtime.  We sat under a beach umbrella and drank beer for much of the afternoon then back to the boat for dinner.

We have turned off our subscription to Iridium (satellite system and tracking) so, our track is done for the season. We will clear our track next season when we start back up and it will be fresh. Here are some screen shots of where we went on our journey this year.

We had two morning appointments today.  Cano, Elizabeth’s employee came by to measure the drain hose he’d need to replace the sink hose in aft head.  It is draining very slow.  Ivett came by to make templates of the portals and pick up fabric to make covers for them.  We also went over some other needed repairs…fastener on dodger cover and zipper on shore power bag.

After lunch we headed out to do some shopping.  We took an Uber to Home Depot and then a taxi, driven by Julio, to Auto Zone.  Then we walked to Costco.  Julio picked us up at Costco and drove us to another Auto Zone and then to dinner at La Puerta Grande.  Julio then picked us up and took us to yet another Auto Zone and then home.  Why did we go to 3 Auto Zones?  I’m glad you asked.  We are looking for a tool…a flexible grabber claw thing.  Auto Zone carries it but all three were out.  We weren’t successful at finding other items either so yuck…our US shopping list gets longer.

 

No pictures today

 

We got up at 7am, well, OK, Renee’ got up at 7am, I slept until about 7:40. I we listened to the net, then we waited for Elizabeth to come by to explain what she would do for her money as regards to watching our boat. We got the estimate from Armando yesterday, and we are comparing the two. Advantage of Armando is he is somewhat lower in price, and he does direct supervision/involvement of watching the boat. Advantage of Elizabeth , she speaks English and is a “go getter” and organized. With lots of contacts to do a variety of types of work. Of course the rates for all that work include her cut, as nothing she does is for free. 

We had our breakfast after the net and before Elizabeth got here. Around noon, I noted that the pump out guys had not been by and I called the office as they were supposed to be here in the “morning” (that being what I asked for). They sent someone by shortly after that. We put some water in the tank afterwards and they pumped it out again. Somewhere in there I changed the filter on the vent, under the forward head sink. Easy job but stinky!  I also got the outboard ready to leave for the summer.  Reneé worked on deep cleaning.

We are continuing to work through our list of things that have to be done before we fly out. The list of things we are bringing back in the fall is getting longer. We will have a lot to bring across the border.