Taking the seanic route
Our 3rd season of sailing
We got up early (4:00 am) and underway by 5:15. Which considering it has been a couple of months since we took the boat out. The Peppers beat us by about 15 minutes or so. We buddy boated up to Bahia Chamela together and anchored around noon. Ahead of the higher wind speeds that were predicted. Then spent then day on our respective boats and slept. No marine life except some birds.
Up early, Reneé went to the market in town. I started the water maker and filled the tank, 77 gallons used in about a week. We went to the aqua-aerobics, then back to the boat to rest. Tonight out for dinner with the Peppers.
The restaurant we went to specializes in dinners made with baked potatoes and lots of cheese. Some of my order was lost in translation and I got a carne asada plate with tortillas and no potato, on the other hand I got no cheese either. It was still good.
After dinner we walked through a gated community in Barra for those with money. The Peppers are considering buying a lot here and having a house built, they wondered if we would be there neighbors, Reneé is considering it. Then back to the water taxi and home to get some sleep before getting underway.
The first thing we had to do this morning was take down the canopy and teak covers on the boat before the wind came up. It has been an especially windy week this week (mostly picking up in the afternoon). Our canopy is a puzzle to remove and even trickier to put up. After removing it and the teak covers, we folded everything up and stored them in sail bags. The hatch covers got removed and the screen panels on the cockpit got rolled up. We are preparing to depart Barra de Navidad at 5 am on Friday. We are joining Steve and Denny Pepper on a sail to Bahia Chamela (north of here). We will hang out there for a few days before heading to Banderas Bay.
After dealing with the canvas (canopy). We ate an early lunch (PB&J – haven’t gone shopping for sandwich makings yet) and walked to the pool for water aerobics. Anna led us in water exercises for an hour.
Next, Neil stayed on the boat doing things like… and Reneé took a water taxi then a bus to Melaque where she shopped at Super Hawaii Grocery store and the pharmacy. Tomorrow she will finish provisioning at the Farmer’s Market in Barra de Navidad.
On the list for today, defrost the freezer, going to the store for margarine, aqua-aerobics, fold the part of the awning we took down and guest for dinner and games.
It’s coming up on 2 pm, and the freezer got defrosted, the margarine got bought and I am about dead from the aqua-aerobics. Me missed the short period of time with little to no wind, so the awning folding will wait. We also got the covers back on the generator, until we get to Puerto Vallarta for more work.
After water aerobics, we returned to the boat. We relaxed mostly durning the afternoon. Reneé made guacamole to go with the chicken dinner that the Peppers were bringing over at 6. They brought the meal (picked up in town) and we enjoyed a lovely dinner. Afterwards we played Mexican Train. Steve suggested looking at the fuses on the generator to see if that is the problem. We opened a bottle of Oscar’s Maracuya Tequila
But Neil is still abstaining while he goes through the parasite cleanse.
No pictures today
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.
