Category: 2021-03 (March)

Up at 7 am, breakfast and hike out to catch the bus to get to church, early to church (almost a half hour) then after church a walk to Chedraui (the store, sort of like Walmart) for groceries and stuff. Then we got an Uber back to the square near the marina and I carried some of it down to the boat while Renee’ got our lunch. When she got back to the boat we had our lunch (street taco’s, YUMM!) then we went to the outdoor market on the Malecón. Renee’ got a basket or two, I got a hat then back to the boat.

We ran the water maker from 2:20 to 8:20 and topped off the water tank. Then we went for showers. While running the water maker, a load of clothes got done and we had to turn off the A/C as we can’t run everything at once. We will probably only go to Punta Mita tomorrow, just a couple of hours up the coast, then Tuesday head south towards Barra de Navidad.

The message this morning was a comedic take on the story of Esther, that is to say there is certainly a dark comedy there, in that Haman gets his just desserts. This was Esther Chapter 4. I highly recommend you take a few minutes and read this passage.

Dinner was BBQ sausages and spicy beans.

We listened to the Net, and coordinated a visit to see Mike with PV Sails to finalize our order. This was scheduled for 3 pm, but we were running a few minutes late and just as we were about to leave the boat, the radio came alive with information about a conflict in progress between the CARTEL and the NATIONAL GUARD, not really local, but the officials were asking the cruisers and ex-pats to stay home and not on the road for at least the day. Oh, and the announcement was made by Mike the guy we were meeting with. As a comparison, the conflict is between the CARTEL and the POLICE/NATIONAL GUARD, in general neither side involves civilians, as opposed to gang land violence in say Detroit or East Los Angeles.   Mike introduced us to a few of his strange pets…a possum (found as a baby and raised in the home), some ducks, a three legged dog (the fourth leg was run over by Mike’s car…sadly), and two cats (one named Stoner – see photo below).

At the end of the day we watched the first hour and 35 minutes of Ben Hur

We got up a little early (probably 6:30 or so) I really hate waking up at that time, I can’t get back to sleep knowing that I only have a half hour to go, so it is a waste of time to even try. So, up and wait for the coffee to brew (it is on a timer).

Then shortly after that I got a text from John Pounder about the speed probe being available. He said “it’s expensive, because the other person bought it as a spare and paid full taxes to get it here in Mexico, then sold his boat and doesn’t need it”. So, I checked on line to find the price in the states, I could not find a new one, but the used ones on eBay were priced at $199 to $135 in the states (that does not get it to the boat), and he wanted $175 for the part. So, I said I will take it.

The probe got to the boat around noon and I worked on seeing if it was the fix for our problem. I plugged it into the back of the boat speed instrument and everything that was supposed to worked! Which means it will fix the problem. So, the next step is to wire the new one into the circuit where the old one is. The spot where the wiring goes is in the bilge, so it has to very well protected. The wire is plenty long, so I pulled enough out to work on it on the floor so I don’t have to reach down to work on it. I got part way through and thought about it and said, I wonder if this works? So, I checked and NO it does not. I thought about it for awhile (I took a break to just walk away from it all).

Short little rant here, I am really tired of working on stuff on boats where they (who ever put the system in) decided that it would be a great idea to save a couple of pennies on cheap wire! In this case our entire boat network for instruments was done with RAYMARINE wiring, so it is not the fault of the installer, rather the RAYMARINE electronics company. They chose to set up their system with fine, very fine multi strand wire. As in this is like network wire. Which in a house that does not move probably is ok, but this is a boat, and every thing moves. So, not only does RAYMARINE use this very fine wire they use these really small spade connectors to attach to the back of the instruments, in this case there are 5 connections. These spade connectors are plugged into the back of the instrument and the instrument is mounted above the sliding hatch for access to the cabin. Which sounds “okay” except the sliding hatch goes under where the instruments are and the outside is exposed to the open air, so the back side of the instrument while they don’t get sprayed, they frequently get the mist and spray from breaking waves etc. So, these wires and connectors look like they have been through the war. So, if they used decent sized wire with reasonable connectors this would be ok, but these things have NO weather protection at all! So, next I looked under the hatch and saw where the wires run and thought maybe there is a problem there, and opened up the cable run and looked around, oops! I bumped a connection and the stereo stopped working on the left speaker in the cabin. Here is problem #2, there is a large wire coming from the stereo to the speakers, I would guess 16 gauge wire. But connected in the middle of the wire run is the wire running to the speaker, it is 22 gauge speaker wire (Again very fine multi strand wire). It is good enough if not bumped or if you don’t want to run a lot of watts to the speakers. This wire is so fine, that I broke the wire several times as I was trying to strip it back to put it in a new butt connector, oh and the butt connectors are one size for the the 16 gauge and a smaller size for the 22 gauge. They are not supposed to be connected this way. Oh and I found that the wire on the speaker, (about 2 feet from where I had bumped this wire) was also frayed and needed help to make a good connection. Renee’ reminded me that the speakers on the arch at the back of the boat are wired the same way. Very fine speaker wire. When we redo the solar panels we will probably redo the speaker wires as well. Bottom line all told on this boat they probably saved at least $50 on  wire by using very fine wire for all this stuff. Okay so the rant was not very short.

So, at this point we are at the end of the day, the varnish work is done and looks FANTASTIC! The prep is getting started for the windlass and base of the mast paint, the handles have been glued back on the dinghy, the chart plotter has been swapped and is working and is programed as it is supposed to be (NO, the guy never got here to fix the back light). The fridge is working like it is supposed to, the new membrane has arrived in San Diego at the exporters, and should be here in a week or so.  Measurements have been taken for most of the canvas work, we are supposed to get together with the sail guy tomorrow to finalize ordering new sails, we have had our annual review with our financial company, all looking good for now. We have our reservations for flying to the states on May 1st. The boat speed and wind speed instruments still don’t work (common problem that will go away when I get the boat speed instrument to work).  We said it is time to quit!

So, we changed and went out to dinner, it is an Italian restaurant, with a guitarist. Good music great food and company! Then back to the boat, write up the blog, and bed. Tomorrow early we will go out and dump the holding tank. Then back in for the swap meet and the sail meeting, and start of the paint work. Sunday we will top off the water tank, and Monday we go sailing. We plan to stay out of a marina for at least a week. Sailing south to Barra Navidad, into a marina to top off the water tank and then back up the coast to here (La Cruz),to get the membrane. Then out again and south in the bay. Pulling into Paradise Village about April 24th or so, in preparation for flying out on May 1.

Well, we got up this morning and thought about what to do. First check on the membrane for the water maker. Yep it has not moved still has not shipped to the importer. So call about that, and it turns out they are out of stock and it should ship today. Then call about the back light again. No answer. OK…. Next up we went on deck and attempted to redo the chart plotter. I asked Renee’ to watch and see if she could see anything I was missing to save it. She said “what about that reset thing”….. So, we reset all the defaults, and that reset everything, data rates from the AIS (so it stopped working until both chart plotters were reset), turned off the radar overlay reset units to imperial gallons etc. etc… BUT!! It also allowed me to change a page and save it! So, it took a few minutes to reset many of the settings (I am sure I missed some) then we were done.

We took a walk to the pool and ran into Chris there then back to the boat.

We woke up at 7, when the alarm went off, then rolled over and slept in until almost 8. Got up and had breakfast, I listened to the net, and Reneé went to the Bible study by bus. Mike is coming by at 11 to review our sails, the varnish work is on its last day, the bottom cleaners are here to clean the bottom of the boat, and I have to take one of the propane tanks into get filled. She should be back by noon or so.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
May the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Happy St Patrick's Day!