Category: 2021 – 2022 Season 3

Up at 7 am. Plans for today are, get the Boom Vang fixed and reinstalled. Get the dinghy wheels mounted correctly. There is the net at 8:30, the Panama Posse call at 9:30 and the Island Packet 445/465 call at 1pm. We are going to try and coordinate with a couple that is part of the Panama Posse, for dinner as well. This is a very full day for us.

Ok, it is 4 pm, the Net and then the Panama Posse call and finally the Zoom for the IP445/465 group (the net was about 30 minutes, the Panama Posse call was about an hour, and the zoom call about 3 hours). The dinghy wheels are done and … no progress on the boom vang. We are going to get together with Patrick and Lisa tomorrow night. So, 5 out of 6 done or scheduled out of the things we wanted to get done today, sounds pretty successful. Now it is time for a walk.

 

Up at 7 and breakfast and a walk up to the bus stop a quick ride into Bucerias and a walk up to church. Today was communion, a really good sermon. This is the church where the senior pastor speaks Spanish as a first language and English as a second language and the associate pastor speaks English as a first language and Spanish as a second language (He has been in this area since he was 12, he and his wife recently, last week, had their 3rd daugther). They trade off in the middle of a sentence who is speaking English and who is speaking Spanish. It keeps it interesting. At the end of the service they gave us all Bueñuelos which is a Mexican sweet, similar to a churro only not as thick (it is described as a fritter). Very tasty. Then a walk through town to the lunch place Rhythm and Blues (actually breakfast). We walked with Bethany and went through a market in Bucerias it was a huge market.

After lunch we got the bus back to the marina and then waked through the market on the breakwater, finally back to the boat and nap time. Late afternoon (after 4 pm) when the wind had started to die down, we got the boat ready and headed out about 5 pm. The only reason to go out was to pump the holding tank out. We go out more than 3 miles and pump out (this is the requirement in the US). This marina has a pump out dock and it is free, but what happens is the black water is pumped out of our tank and goes to the processing facility which is not quite the same as in the states, then it is drained to the beach about a mile east of the marina. So, we go out 3 miles and pump out.  On the way back we saw a few humpback whales, and lots of birds.

Then back to our slip where we backed in very smooth, tied up put shore power back on and had dinner showers and then a movie. The end to a fantastic day.

 

We got up a bit later than normal. The plan this morning is to listen to the net, have breakfast, and go help on the beach cleanup. Reneé says we should paddle board over. We will see. Later we will FaceTime with Kyle and the family.

We paddle boarded over to the beach, Reneé stood up and I sat down, I am not nearly as agile as she is. We picked up stuff on the beach for an hour or so, then took pictures and chatted with the others that were there then back to the boat. A rather quiet day, naps and FaceTime with kids and grandkids and moms. Then I called my uncle Gary.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Well It is Christmas Eve, and we don’t have a lot planned. Bethany is coming over to paddle board with Reneé. So, we had breakfast, read the Bible for the day and I started the watermaker while Reneé went to the store. Later, the guys working on the dinghy got here, and Karen needed help moving her boat, and Bethany got here. Oh and Patrick brought back the scraps of wood from the project he borrowed from us the other day. I spoke with Mike about our Boom Vang, he is off looking for parts. We will see when we see. So, by 3:30, Bethany has gone, the guys are still working on the dinghy and our water tank is full. Reneé headed over to the pool and I am waiting to see what is next.

We got a call from Nate to let us know that his new job at Walmart starts January 4th!!!! This is awesome news! Next up he will be looking for another place to live that has a lower cost than $1,100 a month. It probably won’t be as nice as where he is but there are other things to consider as well.

So, we had a couple of guys working on our dinghy wheels. It has been one of those projects that takes forever, and just doesn’t go right. I think we are going on a year of screwing around with these things. One of the downsides to cruising in Mexico. The company that makes the wheels has a great reputation, and they make two sizes and they have a great warranty, but….. well we are in Mexico and the company is in California. So, first I had to find the company then after finding out they are trying to retire, I had to find someone who carried the wheels. They told me that they could sell me a set for cost, I asked about the warranty, and finally they came through. I told them the ones we had were too small for our dinghy, so they came through with a complete set of the larger wheels. Actually the wheels are the same size, it is the bars and tracks that are bigger. So, we did not see that they were larger (we were in the states and the dinghy and parts were in Mexico). So we only brought the bars back with us. Which of course did not fit, so I had Brendan mail the rest of the hardware from Kansas via UPS. Apparently UPS doesn’t want to do business in Puerto Vallarta and it took about a month to get the parts here, including having the marina driver drive clear across Puerto Vallarta (25 miles, over an hour each way) after the UPS people said that they were unsuccessful in finding anyone at the office (open 7 days a week, from 9 am) at 10 am on Saturday. Oh and the gate is always manned and they take deliveries there. The next day they said, it is out for delivery and finally the next day we called and just told them to hold it. Anyway the two guys working on the project because not only are the wheels two different sizes, they use a different arrangement for attaching the racks. So, today 4 attempts to get the holes correct and … well maybe Monday or Tuesday.  That makes it nap time.

At 6 pm we headed over to the next dock for the Christmas party and white elephant gift exchange. A couple hours of mingling and eating and drinking and then back to our boat for showers and bed.

 

Reneé left right after breakfast to take a bus to Sam’s.  She met Salvador, MayCo, there at 9 to pick up the instrument cover.  He did a wonderful job on it.  She shopped at Sam’s and Chedraui before returning.  A woman who Reneé passed several times while shopping, took pity on Reneé as she walked to the bus stop carrying three heavy bags.  The woman took one and helped Reneé find the right bus.  Her name is Lynn and she is from Canada.  Neil helped Karen on Serenity splash.  Aaron stopped by to look at the dinghy wheel mount issue.  He will return tomorrow.  We watched Polar Express.

Helping Karen splash her 46 foot catamaran (S/V Serenity) was interesting. Her boat is the one we helped last week go into the yard, her starboard engine failed just as she was getting to the first strap going in. This resulted in a loss of control and banging the starboard side of the boat on the concrete wall in the lift. I spoke with Peter Vargas while I was there about some work I want done and he commented on her boat that the transmission cap (where you add oil) had been left off and spewed all the oil out into the engine room, which was part of the problem. Anyway, when they splashed her boat, we had Karen, me and Tommy another sailor I found just reading a book. When we got there, the yard decided that they would move her boat from the lift to the fuel dock without power and then verify the engines worked. So that changed the job for Tommy and I. We moved Karen’s stuff from her car to the boat, then Tommy rode with Karen back to the dock while I drove her car over.

That was an interesting drive, first I had to wait for the animal crossing of the road (a 3 foot VERY green iguana and then the construction work with a flagman who was watching above to make sure nothing dropped from the 4th or 5th floor above the road.  All in all a rather long drive for 5 or 6 blocks. By the time I got parked Karen had her boat tied up.
I talked to another guy about his boat (S/V Chelsea Amor) and his canopy, that he and his partner (wife?) were busy washing. Then finally back to the boat where I realized I had left my water bottle in the boat yard. So, I walked back over, figuring it was gone. But the security guard at the gate called to me as I walked in and handed my bottle back to me. I had only been in and out of this yard for a week, a few times per day. They are pretty observant here.