Category: 2020 – 2021 Season 2

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.

Again we woke up late, 7:40. It is interesting in that it was still not very light. Listened to the net had breakfast and read the Bible for the day. Then got in the dinghy and went ashore. We caught the bus and headed to Walmart looking for a coffee mug to replace the last one I lost. When we got out of the bus we had to walk past an Autozone and since we also need speaker wire we thought what the heck. I found the wire for the speakers. But No luck on the mug. The guy at Autozone suggest a particular place for the other wire I need (5 conductor instrument wire), that was a short walk away, but by this time we were late to look at a dehumidifier another boater was selling, so we took an Uber to Paradise Village.

At Paradise Village, we went to the M/V Context and spent an hour or so talking to John and Jan who recently came up from Panama on their Hampton 558. So, we got some current info about the canal and also a dehumidifier to leave on the boat for the summer. Afterwards we went to lunch and then an Uber to “NRGTICO” the company that we were suggested to check for the wire I needed, and yes they had it, and they also have 420 watt solar panels that are about a 1/2” wider than the panels we have now. I may have to go forward with these to bring our solar energy up from 470 watts to 820 watts. We had a clear day  today, and our batteries were at 62% when we left the boat this morning and 67% when we got back at dusk. In other words they keep up with demand during the day but don’t really help with the overnight drain.

We then took the Uber back to La Cruz and hung out in the park for a bit, and heard a horse go by, and finally figured out that the La Cruz Inn had a horse and rope show going on, so we went over there and got a drink and watched the show.

I had a phone call so we sat in the park again for awhile and then out to dinner at an Italian restaurant with a guitarist, quite good too (both the food and the music). Finally headed back to the boat so we could get there before dark as we did not bring a flashlight. Put the dinghy away, started the generator and got showers.

We got up late and listened to the net after breakfast, and read the Bible for the day. Then got the dinghy down and went to the marina. We picked up our membrane, and then hiked into town and found a restaurant (Balena Blanca, White Whale) with WiFi. I updated the blog and Reneê went to the store and got more antibiotics for her leg. I also sent off pictures of our broken dinghy wheels to see what I have to do to get them replaced. Did some research and then we had lunch and went back to the boat.

We ran the generator for a couple of hours to top off the battery, and then after dinner, we went back to the marina and watched the free movie, “The Call Of The Wild”, this was the 2020 release. The movie got over around 9:30 or so, and we went back to the dinghy and arrived at dock at the same time as Harry from S/V Shalia (sp?) who has a sailing dinghy (either wind or oars for power) and towed him back to his boat as there was no wind. When we got back to our boat, we got showers and went to bed.

We got up about 7:30 had our coffee and then up anchor and underway. We sailed some and motored some and finally arrived at the anchorage about 4:30 or so. As we were trying to take the sails down we had 35 knots of wind, as opposed to the 10 or so we had most of the day. We saw a whale (we think as it was pretty far away), and quite a few turtles. At the end of the day, we are at anchor and will run into the marina in the morning and wander around the town, we have a slip reserved for Saturday, we will go in and wash the boat and make it to church on Sunday, and be in position for getting the sails measured on Monday. We will either come back out and anchor Monday night or Tuesday  then there is a sailing outing to Yalapa on the south side of Banderas Bay for the weekend. That will take us through April 18 Sunday, we fly out on May 1st, we have stuff to do to get the boat ready to leave it for 6 months or so, it will take at least a week maybe more time to get it ready. So we will head into Paradise Village Marina (where we are leaving the boat for the summer) probably on Tuesday 4/20. We have reservations there. We still have to figure out who is going to watch the boat. We have two people that we are considering both have fantastic reviews by the people who have used them, so it won’t be any easy decision as to who gets the job.

We got underway at about 8 am. Which sounds late for us, but considering that with the time change dawn is at about 7 am, it is really not that late. We planned to go to Chamala, then spend the night and then to Ipala and spend the night then to La Cruz and anchor in the anchorage. Well, we figured out that we were making really good time (motoring as there was virtually NO wind, as opposed to the expected Big Wind today), so we decided to skip anchoring at Chacala and go straight to Ipala. We had a little excitement about 6 pm, as the depth finder decided that we were in shallow water (14 feet or so) as opposed to what the chart showed at about 600 feet. So, we slowed down and I got the handheld depth finder and it said — which translates to too deep for this device (350 feet or so). This cost us about a half hour, as a result we arrived just after sundown. We turned on all of our lights and anchored. It was a little rolly but not horrible. Reneé is having some issue with her knee, either an infection or a bump and it hurts. She used Ice and a wrap and antibiotics. Overall, a very dull travel day, just a gorgeous sunrise, sunset and a calm day on the ocean.