Taking the seanic route
We got up at about 7 am, I worked on getting the sermon for the weekend downloaded and finally walked up to the office and used the WiFi and got it onto the computer and then verified I could play it to the TV and Stereo for both video and sound. Bruce and Gina came over and we talked for about a half hour then watched the sermon. After which they left and we had lunch. Renee’ listened to a speech from the CPAC, and then we walked into town for dinner. Another quiet day.
San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico
We are at the marina in San Blas for a few days. We needed to fill up on water and fuel. On our anniversary, Saturday, 2/27, we decided to make a day of it…we began with breakfast out. We ate in the town square where they advertised breakfast for 50 pesos. Two dogs from the marina followed us hoping we’d share. Smart dogs, but also irritating. After breakfast we headed for the Spanish fort up on the hill. I chased the dogs away and they eventually got the message. The fort was very interesting and the view was fabulous. There was a burned out church that was dedicated to the female saint of sailors. The guard mentioned to me that I was hanging out with Santa.
Then down the hill we went and decided to get a look at the nearby river. We’d decided to find a cab to go to the jungle river cruise but luckily we found a tour guide and boat at the river near the fort. He took us through a maze of jungle. It was wonderful to let someone else drive while we enjoyed the slow, relaxing ride. He pointed out the wildlife…birds (egrets, vulture, and an isis), baby crocodile…then the big ones, turtles, and iguanas. About midway he brought us to a secluded swimming area with a restaurant. We had a seafood (spicy) lunch…I had aguachile and Neil had a shrimp burrito. We watched others swim and snorkel. The swimming area was bordered by a chain link fence to keep out the crocs. We then returned to the spot where we’d begun. Victor, our tour guide was very informative and a good driver also. II was a lovely cruise.
We walked back to the boat and showered and rested. For dinner, we were joined by Bruce and Gina (from Dream Catcher) at the restaurant here at the marina. After dinner, they came back to the boat and played Quirkle with us. They tied for first place. It was nice to spend the evening with them. They are Christians and plan to join us for a church service video on Sunday morning.
So, yesterday was a “work day” on the boat. We really did not do anything, except make water and deal with the anchor chain. Today was not as much fun. This was my last chance for a while to deal with my mom’s iPad issue. So, right after breakfast I called Apple support, this was not a great experience, as I have noted before this has been a long process, and by the end of the day we are probably over a dozen hours on the “help” line with minimal success. Today, I finally gave up with the first line techs and have simply started requesting a senior advisor and going from there. Today I was “disconnected” (or hung up on by Apple) at least 4 times. That means the first three senior advisors got the story from me and started investigating and then failed to call back when we were disconnected, ONE attempted to call back about a half hour after we were disconnected, one sent a generic email about how to get back into the queue. By the time I was talking to the third senior advisor, I made sure that he knew my number and that he had no excuse for not calling back. The last time I spoke with a tech before this, they said they knew the solution to my problem, and that they would send me an article to read with a link in it to fix my problems, I asked what email they were sending it to, and they gave my email, I asked twice and they repeated where they were sending it. Of course they sent it to my mother in Tracy California and a while later she forwarded it back to me, of course it would work to reset the activation lock on your iPad IF YOU KNEW YOUR PASSWORD!! Which of course we don’t, so that was a wasted effort. In any case, the last guy really wanted me to trust him and that he would get to the bottom of this and so he sent me his contact info after generating a new case number to add the second device id to it. He described how this email would bring it directly to him and that all I had to do was reply to sender and that because of the case number it would go straight to him. So, of course the email he sent me had the old case number in it, I asked him about that and he said, no that won’t work and tried again. Same thing. (This is the sort of thing that makes me doubt the tech or senior advisor can fix my problems). In any case the third time he sent the email it was correct.
Anyway after about 3 hours today, I was finally at the end of what I can do on this problem today.
So, it was time for the second issue with support. While we were in California, I got a notice that the firmware in our battery charger/inverter needs a MANDATORY update. Until this update is done, I can’t use the charger software to change anything, This can be sort of important, as one of the features of this charger is the ability to reduce the limit on the supply current, so instead of the maximum of 30 amps in, I can set it at 15 amps or 7.5 amps, which when you are on a weak shore power connection can be helpful to prevent tripping the shore power off. Of course when we are running the generator, I want the setting at the maximum current, as our generator supplies up to 80 amps AC to our distribution system. This way the battery charges faster when we are running the generator and since we don’t have a time concern when we are at the pier it can charge over night. In any case, the note that came with the firmware notice is that it will reset all the settings to factory default. GREAT! Except I have already found that I don’t have access to adjust any of the settings that need to be changed for LiFePO4 batteries, as Victron Energy has that locked with a passcode that they only give to VE trained tech’s. So, before I do this update, I want to talk to the support people at Battleborn Batteries, where I bought the charger and they set it up. No answer, just a recording message and I left a call back number at about 11am, and got no call back by the end of the day. So this will wait until next week sometime.
Overall a pretty frustrating day.
We got up early so that we could go in at high tide. The idea was to get in and not have to run aground, well that was the idea. No success, but that was the idea….
We got out of the mud and docked by 8 am. Then chores to do, get the anchor chain out on the dock and mark it for the various depths as the paint has flaked off, run the water maker to fill the tank using good water to dilute what is in the tank now. (Our water maker from sea water is at about 500+ PPM, but from the dock water about 1 ppm. We will have it looked at in Puerto Vallarta. We have talked to several people here, and one couple that we met in La Paz at church. We will be having dinner with them later.
We got an early start this morning, up at 5:15, and underway by 6:15. We hoped to sail, but instead had virtually no wind, complete with fog. We used our fog horn function on the radio which blasts a horn over our loud speaker so that all those near us would know that we were there (nobody was near us). We saw a few whales. At one point I was below pumping the holding tank and Renee’ was watching the boat. A mother whale with her calve surfaced just in front of the boat and then again just to the side. VERY close!
We arrived at Matachén bay, and anchored about 1:00 pm, and took naps and read until happy hour and then dinner on deck.
