Category: 2020-12 (December)

So, either we stay here (at Salinas) a day or straight to Agua Verde. The weather program says that we should expect high winds next Saturday.  If we stay here Thursday, then Agua Verde Friday, we will be in the islands north of La Paz on Saturday, and I really don’t like going into La Paz with a lot of wind. If we go to Agua Verde Wednesday, Then the islands on Thursday, we will be going into La Paz on Friday, which is a full week before our flight, which means extra slip fee’s. Time to Christmas shop and maybe time to get the outboard worked on, the boat detailed, the bottom cleaned, the stainless steel polished. Look for some parts that we would rather not bring back in our luggage. Like Fenders that are huge. 

So, we got up and motored to Agua Verde. We ran the water maker for about 3 hours (45 gallons or there about) we are now at about 90%. When we got to Agua Verde, we got the kayak down and paddled ashore, had a beer (or a couple) and talked to Leonore about the school supplies and the outboard not working. Her husband fishes at night, so he will come with a teacher to get the supplies when he gets up. She also has a nephew (husband of her niece actually) who will take a look at our outboard. Since it needs to be mounted on the dinghy and in the water we did that when we got back to the boat. We enjoyed some chatting with another cruiser and his guests there at the restaurant. Then we went back to our boat and put the kayak away and got the dinghy down and put the outboard on it. As we started, it began to rain. Not heavy but kind of cold. Anyway, we got it done and are back inside waiting for our guests.

Well the teacher the husband of Leonore and a student from the school all showed up about 5 or 5:30, we gave them the supplies and they told us the nephew who could work on the engine would be by tomorrow, so we told them to not bother and we would get it taken care of in La Paz. We then put the dinghy and outboard away again, went below and had dinner, read our books and bed.

While at the restaurant, we talked to the crew of S/V Pellucidar, which was named by the previous owners and is the name of the hollow earth that Edgar Rice Boroughs wrote about before he wrote Tarzan or the Barsoom (Mars) books. 

We got up as planned at 6:30, dealt with the spinnaker, and started motoring by 7:30. As predicted a very calm day. I set the speed at 5 knots to give us more time to run the watermaker.  After we were underway we had breakfast in courses, apple bread and oranges first, then cereal a bit later. 

We saw two boats heading south in San Juanico, and another one that was sailing north from Salinas heading to San Juanico. At one point we saw about 10 small fishing boats (not panga’s) sport fishing type boats 20-30 ft long fishing in one area. Renee’ ran three loads of clothes. Which takes about three hours to run the washer, and about 15 gallons of water per load, while the watermaker gives us a little more than 15 gallons of water per hour. We ran the watermaker for about 6 hours and raised the level in the water tank about 20% (0.20*260= 52 gallons). We talked to both boys on the phone today, and did a little texting (we had cell service for about an hour as we crossed and could see Loretto, until we got around Isla Carmen and the signal got blocked. In any case we arrived about 4pm, as planned and anchored in about 20 feet of water. There is another sailboat anchored here.

This was a salt plant, with a large salt pond just inland on this island that used to ship salt all over the world. We will kayak ashore tomorrow and take in the sights.

The plan is to head across to Agua Verde on Thursday. Renee’ exchanged texts with Leonore at Agua Verde about the supplies and getting them off of our boat, as our outboard is not working. What we have to give them is a bunch of school supplies. There are 17 small backpacks with a variety of supplies in each, these were aimed at elementary kids. There is a bunch of 1” binders and notepads, and drafting type tools, (triangles, protractors and compasses) and more stuff. There is a large rolling bag full of stuff, and 4 trash bags with the backpack and some of the other things in them. Leonore’s husband has a panga and will come out to get them. Her comment was that fishing has not been good due to the wind. The trip to Agua Verde is about 30 miles, we will probably go slow for that as well, so we can run the watermaker again. When we get to La Paz, I want to go in with the water tank full, as we will be there for a couple of weeks (part of the time we will be in Calif). We will also have the holding tank empty to maximize our time before we will have to go out and dump it.

Well we figured out that the coffee pot had the wrong time in it. As it woke us up early with the coffee being done. Renee’ goes right back to sleep, and I don’t. She takes a while to go to sleep at night, whereas, I typically go to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. Just one of those differences.

We eventually got out of bed, checked our messages, and downloaded the weather (all via satellite). We saw that none of the other three boats have left yet, so we will stay in this somewhat rolly anchorage. 

The following is an excerpt from my notes on the new batteries and our charging system. 

Today 12/6, we are in San Juanico, we will be here two days, I am going to see what we do with out the generator for a longer period of time. We ended the day yesterday with the generator running until about 4pm (running the water maker) which meant the battery was fully charged at that point, then used the engine to get into the anchorage (which kept the battery fully charged as well). Then about 5:30 or so the engine was off and we were draining the battery. As of 8 am, we are down to 67%. We will see what we have when we are at the end of the day, but we know that tomorrow the plan is to motor (due to no wind) south for about 50 miles, we will also top off the water tank, and perhaps do some laundry both of which require the generator to be running. We will see if we can go a day without the generator. I don’t want to go below 30% on the battery, even though Battleborn says 0% is OK, and everything I have read says LiFePO4 is good down to 20%. So, the limit I will use for running the generator is 480 AH discharged. 

Since this is about the time we will be getting underway tomorrow, I can expect that we will use about the same amount of battery capacity from 5 pm to 8 am tomorrow, we are at about 220 AH discharged, so we need to have less than 260 AH discharged by 5 pm or run the generator. That means the solar has to do some charging! 

Well, the best I saw out of the solar was about 20 amps. But, all bets are off, as two of the boats left, and we moved the boat. Since we started the motor, I am charging batteries and heating water for showers and washing dishes. We are debating staying here an extra day so that we can go ashore, as the wind is supposed to die down tomorrow.

We have noticed a drop off in the wind! We are staying here tomorrow, to go ashore and get the dinghy working. I am hoping for a good night sleep with minimal rocking from the waves. In the meantime, we had a great dinner. Renee’ spent the day in the galley making Banana bread and coleslaw, so we had left over pulled pork, rice and refried beans for burritos. A very tasty dinner. It was a pretty mild day, we worked on boat stuff, Renee’ polished the stainless, I washed the windows (lots of windows, and lots of salt), I got the lock off the outboard (rusted pretty good), and washed the solar panels. We also moved the boat, as explained above. 

****

We woke up at a little after 7 am. Very calm day! So, after it warms up a bit, we will get the dinghy down and go ashore. We might play around with the kayak as well. But first coffee and breakfast.

The battery is at 48%, with the old batteries we never got down to this point (even though the old batteries were 750 ah, and we are at 326 ah discharged, so this would be 56% discharged). We will see what happens today, but I will be running the generator sometime today.

From 9am to noon, was play with dinghy time. That included putting it in the water, and getting the outboard mounted on it, then spending a couple of hours pulling on the start rope and finally giving up and putting it all away. Things I tried, flushing the fuel out of the hose back in to the gas tank, pulling the spark plugs and pulling the start rope a few times to push anything in the cylinders out, putting it all back together and pulling a few more times. I actually got one short (VERY SHORT) run out of the engine. This happened early in the process. Finally by 12:20 everything was put away and we stopped for lunch. Renee’ worked on baking bread, and putting together a picnic lunch (that we ate on board). As of 1 pm, the battery is at 47 %, which means the solar is sort of keeping up with our use on board, things like microwaving a cup of coffee takes almost 1 % of battery capacity. 

Next plan is to get the kayak out, and go ashore. 

So, we had lunch, and went ashore. We stopped and talked to Greg and Diane on S/V Alma, for just a few minutes. They are from Quincy Ca. Then we coninued ashore and found the shrine for cruisers and added our shell with the boat name and year. We then hiked up the hillside and got the view of the bay and our boat. Another beautiful day. Then back down to the beach and walked the beach for a bit, then kayaked around the island and near the spires next to the boat and finally back to the boat and figured out how to lift the kayak up and put it away. 

We have been trying to figure this out ever since we started with they kayak on this boat. Renee’ suggested the location of where to lift it and I had an idea about using the holes in the body of the kayak to run a rope through so that the kayak comes up with the bow forward, and laying on its side so I just have to push it forward as Renee’ lowers it from inside the cockpit. Anyway, it worked very well!

Renee’ just told me the hot water faucet in the aft head is working now, apparently we have passed a “stone” here as I did not do anything other than look at it and see that it was not working and what it was going to take to get into it. 

We got up around 7 am. Renee’ has a bit of headache, and while there is some wind blowing it is not like it has been. Still not calm enough to deal with the spinnaker, but pretty mild compared to what we have had for the last couple of weeks. Today is a rest day waiting on the wind, tomorrow at first light we plan to get underway, as we have about 50 miles to go.

---

We got up a little before our alarm went off at 6:30, as the coffee maker was brewing. Neither of slept that well, Renee’ was worse than me. We got underway by 7:30 and had 30 knots of wind on the nose going up the channel out of Bahia Concepcion. This is a narrow shallow channel and the shallowest we saw was about 8 feet. When you look at Google Earth for this bay, it looks like the channel is pretty wide and the bay is pretty big. Well the bay is big, but the “deep” part of the channel is not very wide at all. After we were through the narrow/shallow part of the channel, we had breakfast and did our bible reading for the day. I have a screenshot of GoogleEarth that shows the channel to be over 2 miles wide. It also shows Santispac and Santo Domingo

Anyway, we got around the point, and got our sails set, the motor off and the generator going and the water maker running by about 9 am. We had a good day sailing, rather intense, as the wind was usually around 30 knots, at least until it was time to take in the sails when it was closer to 30-35 knots. We sailed most of the day at 6 – 8 knots part of the day wing on wing using the Main sail and the Staysail. 

Renee’ fished, using both poles, the one with the rattler was used to attract fish, lost the lure (this is a “tin” fish with a couple of hooks on it. The other pole with a feather caught a Mahi Mahi probably about 10 – 15 lbs, but we did not get it on board, and lost the fish. We looked it up in the fish book and saw that the eating of this was defined as “nothing better”. Oh well, Renee’ put a new lure (a cedar) on the pole that lost the rattler, and put both lines out. About an hour later she had a fish on the cedar, and I had instructions to bring in the other line, so that we did not have two fish at the same time. Unfortunately this is when we found out the feather was missing. So, loss of two lures today, and a Bonito with at least 3 lbs of meat off it, not quite as good as the Mahi Mahi, but still good eating.  Of course both fish were caught just as we needed to to change course on our route south. Also the second one after we got it aboard, and I got the head off of it, she had to clean as I had to keep watching and sailing as the wind was picking up etc. 

Later in the day, we had to take in the sails in preparation for anchoring for the night. Of course by then we had 35 knots of wind behind us. So, I thought about how to do this and did the following:

1. 1. Renee’ put the fish in the fridge.
   2. Stopped the Watermaker.
   3. Turned off the generator.
   4. Removed the preventer from the Staysail.
   5. Started the engine.
   6. Renee’ got ready to pull in the main sheet.
   7. Turned into the wind as Renee’ brought in the main sheet.
   8. Once the boat was turned we brought in the staysail sheet.
   9. Furled the staysail.
   10. Renee’ took over driving and kept us into the wind.
   11. I worked on furling the mainsail, which meant letting the out-haul in a bit then as the sail flapped brought in the furling line, then repeated until the sail was furled.
   12. Tightened all the lines and I took over driving again.
   13. Got back on course, as we finished putting away lines.

This took about 20 minutes and was incredibly intense. 

We finally pulled in to San Juanico and found three other boats already here, which means the best anchorages are already taken. So, it will be a bit rolly tonight, Again Oh well. (Should not be as bad as the other night). 

Well so much for the plans of mice and men. Overnight winds were Horrible! The boat rocked and rolled all night, things fell off shelves, and stuff slid across the floor. Oh, and yeah not much sleep was had by either of us. On the other hand, once again our anchor and chain kept the boat right where we left it. In the morning we got up as planned at 5:30, then promptly reset the alarm for 6:30 (hopping for a bit more light). When we got up, we checked the tide schedule and the weather and decided that today would be a good day to opt out and go to Santispac (a much more protected anchorage). We wanted high tide, as the channel into Bahia Concepcion is somewhat shallow (in some places less than 20 feet). So, when we found that high tide had been 20 minutes before we looked, we got moving and motored in. Watching the depth and windspeed. Highest wind speed we saw was just over 40 knots, and shallowest water was about 19 feet. We dropped anchor in 30 feet of water at about 9 am, had breakfast and went to bed.

We got up about 12:30, and had lunch and Renee’ is working on zippers and snaps on deck and I am finishing up the notes for the blog. 

I have been watching our batteries and solar system for a bit, it is somewhat hard to tell, as we have either run the motor or been on shore power or run the engine and the generator. In any case, today we ran the motor for a couple of hours, we started the morning with the batteries at about 65%, our refrigeration and takes a bunch of current. (A freezer, refrigerator, and a drink cooler). In the middle of the day we are getting about 15 – 20 amps out of the panels, but only about 8-10 (or less) of those amps are getting into the battery. This means that when we anchored this morning with the battery at 71%, and turned off the engine, with nothing going except the refrigeration, we are only at 79% by 2:30, and right now, we are pulling 7 amps out of the battery. We will be running the generator tonight to top off the battery.  This means we can’t leave the boat on a mooring ball or at anchor for the time we go to the states for Christmas or skiing in February.  Perhaps if we emptied the freezer and the drink cooler and only had the refrigerator going. 

Another downside to Santispac over Santa Domingo, there is no cell reception and we have heard that there is no WiFi ashore here either. So, we can check the weather and do texting and get email via the satellite, I just checked the weather and it looks like we will be here at anchor tomorrow as well, then headed south on Saturday morning. 

Our next planned stop is Caletta San Juanico about 50ish miles south. Again, partially protected from the north winds. We were planning on being there a couple of days to do some hiking. We will see how that works out. From there south to Bahia Salinas which is on Isla Carmen and is very protected from the north. Next planned stop after that is Bahia Agua Verde and dropping off the school supplies. We have come south about 340 miles straight line from Puerto Peñasco, and it is 520 miles straight line from Puerto Peñasco to La Paz. So, only about 180 miles to go, of course we don’t do straight lines very well, so more like 250 miles or so to go.

Dinner was pulled pork sandwiches, Renee’ did the pork in the pressure cooker, used a little orange and a couple of jalapeños in the process, we could taste the orange, but not the peppers (she took the seeds out, so we were just expecting some flavor, not heat). We ran the generator for a few hours to charge the battery back up, and watched a movie, “A Fistful of Dollars” with Clint Eastwood.