Category: 2022-04 (April)

We got up and had breakfast. Today we are supposed to have a refrigeration guy down to repair our fridge and maybe our A/C in the aft stateroom. One of our sailing friends who asked us to get something for them from the states will be by to pick it up, and I am going to tackle the repair on the winch that is broken.

So, Steve and Denny were by. They will be back with chicken from town on Tuesday for games. Pancho was by to say no luck on the generator repair. It will wait until we get back to Puerto Vallarta. The refrigeration guy should be down by early afternoon to work on the fridge and the aft stateroom A/C.

Based on all of the above, while Reneé went to aqua-aerobics, I cleared out the interference to work on the fridge and the aft stateroom A/C. When I got everything out of the way for the A/C unit, I saw that the problem was the duct tape that held the duct to the outlet of the A/C had failed. I removed the old duct tape and used gorilla tape to reinstall. One less thing to fix!

I am still looking for Youtube videos of how to do what I need to do on the winch.

Ok, so no luck on video’s for the exact part of what I wanted to watch, but it was a bit helpful. So, I went after replacing the parts that were obviously damaged. First up, I had to take the top off of the winch, that was explained in many of the videos I watched. There are two points that you can use a screwdriver and a hammer to get it started, but it should only be hand tight. I wound up having to hammer it off almost the whole way (bad sign number 1). I got all the old parts off cleaned up the stuff that was staying, and after a couple of false starts got it put back together except for the top ring (the one I had to hammer off). I tried a wire brush on the threads, and more grease, finally about to give up, I pushed the button that causes the winch to turn (this is an electric winch), good news it runs, bad news the center shaft is bent and it wobbles, this bend is probably why the ring won’t go on. There are two center shafts, I don’t think the inner one is bent. The outer one is hollow and made of bronze. When I push the button to make it go around, neither of these shafts move, but the parts that do move wobble. If it is only the outer one, the price is $439, if the inner shaft also has to be replaced, I will have to find a price for it.

So, the refrigeration guy was down, and added freon to the fridge. Now that I know to watch for the “frost line” we just had to wait for the temp in the fridge to get low enough. It stopped several times we reset it and it slowly worked its way lower in temp. Finally I was able to see a frost line, but it was all the way at the compressor. This means that liquid refrigerant is getting into the compressor, which is a positive displacement. This is a bad thing. So, I vented some freon out, let the frost line go away, and then restarted the system, I repeated this process several times, end result the system is running just fine at 26 to 30 degrees on the cold plate (it is set to 26 which keeps the fridge at about 40 degrees or so.

At the end of the day, we have agreed on a payment and we are done with Pancho, (still not happy, but done). The aft stateroom A/C is working, the refrigerator is working, we know what is wrong with the winch ($$$). There is a possibility (very slim) that the diesel guy with an electrician will be down this week.

We were up and out on time for church. Pancho was by to say the diesel guy would be here today (they have had two months to fix this), and the refrigeration guy would be here tomorrow.

We took the water taxi to Barra (the town) and caught a taxi to Melaque for church. At church, we talked with some people we had met last year, and met a guy and his parents. Josh grew up sailing in the Caribbean, with his parents. Now they have a house here in Barra, and he has a sailboat and a year or so from now he will head south to the canal and continue on his way.

After church we walked into town for some shopping and then lunch and back to the town square and caught a cab back to Barra. We walked through town and then back to the water taxi and back to the boat.

Today was the day to tackle the stereo/DVD player in the aft stateroom. Five hours later, the mess is cleaned up and we are back where we started. I was able to get a picture on the TV, but no sound. I hooked up my computer to the same HDMI cable and got video and sound out of the TV. I suspect a setting is wrong on the DVD player, or it requires an AUDIO PROCESSOR ($700) which means I have the wrong DVD player.

Oh and we got one of the lights near the DVD player to work. (Salt air gets into everything!).

We arrived last night had dinner in Barra then used the water taxi across to our boat. We had almost two months in the states visited both of our kids and families, saw some friends and bought some boat parts. 

This morning we slept in until almost 9 am. Got up in time for the net (abbreviated, as their aren’t many boats here) and we have a bunch of stuff to do, laundry, put things away from our trip and restart the boat. Issues we found on arrival, the A/C in the aft stateroom (our bedroom) isn’t working, the refrigerator isn’t working right. We will find out what else is wrong as we work through our lists. Both heads worked when turned back on, always a good thing, they are vacu-flush heads and can be problematic. 

We went out for lunch (there is nothing on the boat to eat). We did a few small projects on the boat, but all in all a pretty quiet day, we ended by going to the “hot” tub. Pretty cold and no real jets. Oh well. 

The following is the story of me and the parasite. Current status as of today.

It started January 31, I felt horrible and no energy. It got progressively worse. I was sleeping about 20 out of 24 hours. We get up at 7 am, have breakfast and I would take my after breakfast nap, get up and pee, have my before lunch nap and then have lunch, then take the after lunch nap, get up and pee and then my before dinner nap get up for dinner and go to bed after dinner. With all of that I lost a bunch of weight. By mid February I was down to about 210 lbs from about 235 lbs.

We had a grand daughter who was due on 3/14 and we were invited to be there to watch the two older ones, so we had plans to fly up to San Diego and visit friends then head up to the Sacramento area. But with this parasite (we did not that was what it was at the time), we headed up two weeks early. I saw a doctor and started round 1 of antibiotics. The blood and stool samples said there was a parasite and possibly worse, so I had a referral to an oncologist/hematologist. We changed PCP’s due to convenience, as we spend more time in the Sacramento area than the San Diego area. At the end of the first round of antibiotics, I got another round of blood work and stool samples.

The new test results said that I still had the parasite, and started round 2 of antibiotics (it might have been round 3). There was a total of 30 days of antibiotics by the end of it all. At the end of the antibiotics, we flew to Florida to spend time with our son Nate, then back to Puerto Vallarta and the boat.

At this point, I am on a “Parasite Cleanse” from a homeopathic Dr. that takes a month. I am not convinced that the parasite is gone. I am VERY weak, that could be just not doing anything for 3 months, or it could be the parasite. In any case this is not done.

Oh yeah, and I have not a beer or any alcohol since Jan 31 either. Even when we were in San Diego north county where there are a bunch of micro breweries and we got together with our beer group. Nor when we were at our sons place (he brews beer and is in walking distance of a couple of micro breweries. For the first month it was a matter of just not being up to it, the next month was 3 rounds of antibiotics with instructions to avoid alcohol and now the Parasite Cleanse has the same restriction. Truth be told, I have only wanted a beer a couple of times in the last 3 months.

No pictures today.