Category: 2021-04 (April)

We slept in until almost 8 am! Then up and around with coffee first. My arm and other pains are almost completely gone. (More evidence suggesting the pinched nerve, when it is unpunched there is no pain).

Gareth Clark is coming by this morning to look at the beer cooler which has stopped working. We have been communicating with Victoria about a pair of folding bikes she and Roger had on this boat until they sold the boat, the bikes are now here in storage and she wants to clean out her storage unit and get rid of things she is not using (like the bikes). We may go take a ride today and see if we want the bikes. We will also take a look at our list and work through it. Then in the afternoon go back to the pool at happy hour.

Well all of the above were the plans, what actually happened was we worked on the boat, we looked at the bikes and have pretty much decided that we will not be getting them. This is a very complicated decision:

Advantages to getting bikes, ease of getting around in SOME places.

Advantages to getting folding bikes:
They take up less room on the boat

Advantages to getting these folding bikes:

They are in excellent shape.

The price would be significantly lower than buying new folding bikes.

These are Montague brand bikes (one of the better folding bikes.

They are very solid and handle pretty well.

Disadvantages of getting bikes:

They take up a lot of room, even the folding ones.

Reneé is really uncomfortable riding in busy streets, or anywhere she does not feel safe.

There are few places we have seen that there is anywhere near safe enough to ride a bike here in Mexico, and we expect it to be worse the further south we go. 

We rode the bikes around the parking lot and there were no moving cars, but it just doesn’t feel right. 

Late in the evening we walked to the store for Ice cream. 

 

Up at 7:30, breakfast, the net and our bible reading. Then checked out of the marina and a stop for fuel and across to Puerto Vallarta. (About 10 miles). We motored, and came into the marina. Good news there will be no swell here, bad news the access is VERY narrow. We got the boat backed in and tied up, then had lunch, after which, I did dishes and Reneé got us checked into the marina. It is a long walk to the office. She checked on getting laundry done here, the lady at the laundry who said if we dropped it off today, it might be ready on Friday. She checked the bathrooms (about a mile away, and not spectacular), so showers will happen on the boat. But she did get a pool pass for one of the hotels near us.

When she got back we washed the boat, and polished the stainless steel, then rested for a bit followed by a pool trip. Complete with 120 pesos for a bucket of 5 beers (about $6 US) on ice). Tonight is movie night!

Well, it got too late to watch a movie, so that will be some other time.

Up at 7 am coffee and breakfast then the net. Ivette is coming by at 9 am to measure for the canvas. Mike from PV sails is coming by today to measure for the sails. After all the measuring is done, the next thing to do is check out of this marina and head over to Puerto Vallarta. We plan to be there for about 3 days.

Well, the plans might be there, but that is not what happened. Mike came by to measure the sails at almost noon, the wind was howling, and it was not a good time to pull the sails out or to go sailing, so we decided to change the schedule to measure the sails to about 4/21 in Paradise Village. We also decided to spend the night here. Ivette also said she could not make it today, so, she will be down to measure on about 4/21 as well.

We went to the pool for a bit and connected with Steve and Denise Pepper and met for dinner at La Cruz Inn and then back to our boat for a game of Qwirkle.

Up at 7 am, breakfast and then off to church. A walk to the top of town then a bus ride followed by another walk. It was a good message. Then off to the store for beer and steak. Then take the bus back and a lazy afternoon. Late afternoon when it had cooled down some, I ran the water maker using the marina water for an hour to test at full pressure (800 psi) and see how it did with saltwater (140 ppm) finally shutting it down and hooking up the dock water and filling the water tank. While it was working, I fixed the wire issue for the speaker above the nav station. Again Reneé helped holding stuff and handing me tools. I took a shot at fixing the hot water in the aft head, it only flows a trickle, I think that there is a blockage in a water line between the manifold and the faucet, so not really sure how to fix that.

We had bbq’d steak for dinner, and potatoes and fried veggies. Very good! Then showers and bed.

When we got up we had our coffee, breakfast, read our bible passages for the day then got underway. Out a couple of miles to dump the holding tank, then back into the marina and tied up in slip B11 on dock 3. This is over a bit from where we were the last time. We are here to get some things done, and get to church on Sunday.

After getting settled in, we checked into the marina and eventually got around to replacing the membrane for the water maker. This required watching some video’s about how to do it, eventually getting it in. While working on it, I discovered that somewhere along the way someone lost one of the four screws that hold the two membranes up in the aft lazarette. I also dropped one, (then a nut as well) so we were short two of these fairly important screws. So, I took the cover off the steering box and flushed out a really good hiding place for screws and nuts, all told I think I found about 10. Two of which were the missing screws that I needed to mount the membranes back in place, the nut too. Reneé helped handing me tools and pointing out that it was a good thing I was not claustrophobic. As I was laying there putting it all back in place I thought about my least favorite job in the Navy, which was the replacing heaters on the Lube Oil Purifiers. These were in the bilge under the Lube Oil Purifiers, in the lowest most aft bilge in the engine room on the submarine. In that case, I worked on my back reaching between my knees, in this case I was laying on my side holding the membranes up and using my left hand to put the screws in. Finally everything was in and hooked up. So, I hooked up the dock water and ran it for an hour to flush the chemicals out of the membrane, then we got showers and went to bed.