Category: 2022-11 (November)

Up at 7, breakfast and bible reading, we planned to do the net on the handheld radio but it got on the wrong channel, we heard part of the net but not all of it. Anyway, we took our laundry in to get it washed today, we met with Ivete to get the new cover for our dinghy, and then I headed over to the fish market to meet up with the lady from Vallarta Marine who is bringing the switch. She is supposed to be there between 10:30 and 11:30, I called her a bit after noon, and found out she was running late. Reneé and I went to lunch at the La Cruz Inn then I headed over to the marina office to meet up and get the part. She was there about 1 pm or so. I am not complaining, if I had gone by bus I would not have gotten the part any sooner, and it would have been an ordeal on the bus. By the time we had the part the laundry was done, so we went back to the boat, only one trip ashore. We think we have too big of an outboard for our dinghy. More on that another time. When we got back to the boat, I took a nap, then we went for a swim, finally about 4 I started working on the switch, finishing up by 5 pm, tested good! This feels great!
Electrical systems on the boat are all working! The solar is charging to 100 % so we don’t need to run the generator daily. We only need to run the generator to run the washer, the water maker, the air conditioning (makes no sense to run the generator to run the AC, so that doesn’t happen) or to heat the water for dishes/showers. We limit our showers to every other day, so that means we run the generator every other day for about an hour. We will see how that goes. For the dishes, if we don’t have hot water in the tank, we heat it on the stove.

Tonight, we are going to celebrate and watch a movie!

Up at 7, the fridge is acting up, too cold and the controls don’t look right. So, we will keep an eye on that. The inverter is not working, so I have to investigate that as well. This meant we had to make coffee with the French press rather than having it ready when we got up. This is boat life. Breakfast and the net, then bible reading, followed by fixing the inverter.

Plans for tonight are to go ashore for a “Taco Crawl!” With some other cruisers.

After several hours of troubleshooting, with many phone calls to Battleborn tech support (for the batteries and the battery charger/inverter) we identified the switch as being the most likely source of the problem with the inverter. Before we got to that point, the suggestion was to pull all six of the lithium batteries out and hook up a load to them and monitor the voltage and see which if any of the batteries was bad and needed to be replaced (under warranty). Thankfully I don’t have to do that test! This would have required being in a marina as to take the house bank out physically requires taking all 8 batteries out of the battery space, the engine start battery, the generator start battery and all 6 of the house bank batteries, meaning NOTHING on the boat would work that requires DC power and the way the boat is set up the 120 volt outlets, are powered through the inverter, so with it out of service (due to the battery work) about all that would work is the water heater, one of the three refrigeration systems, and the air conditioning. No lights, No fans, no radio no water pump, no bilge pump etc. It would take about a whole day to do the test and another day to put everything back together again.
So, since I now had a problem identified (the switch) I went looking for one nearby, first I asked one of the cruisers who was ashore here in La Cruz who checked at the local marine shop (no luck) then I called Zaragoza the marine shop that is VERY expensive who had it for 1287 pesos. Finally I called Vallarta Marine, who had it for 871 pesos and would deliver tomorrow.

So, off to the taco crawl! We hit about 4 or 5 places, but only got tacos at about 3, the rest were closed, either we got there too soon or too late. Reneé and I called it a night about 8:30 and headed back to our boat, as we have things to do in the morning. Back to the boat, put the dinghy up and the motor as well, then off to bed.

Up at 7, breakfast and the net, bible reading then wash the boat, and check out of the marina. We expect to head out of the marina by around noon, to go over to the anchorage.

We checked out, then took the water taxi to the port captain to finish the checkout process. Then we went to the beach and had pizza for lunch with a beer while enjoying the view of the ocean. Finally back to the boat, showers (last one where we can just let the water run for a while).

Finally back to the boat and put the speed probe int the water. We keep it out of the water to keep it clean when we are not using it. I took the opportunity to show Mike and Jenn on Bright nest how this works, as they have an Island Packet as well, and they have heard about pulling the speed probe but have not done it, and only clean it by going under the boat. It is much easier from inside the boat.

Then we pulled out of our slip and left the marina and sailed for a bit, seeing the usual, dolphins and seagulls.. Finally we stopped in the anchorage. In about 27 feet of water with 150 feet of rode out for our anchor. All done by 5 pm,  and it is about 91 degrees outside, and 90 inside the boat. Now it is time for a beer. There is a Taco Crawl scheduled for tomorrow night, and we will get our dinghy cover back as well.

It will be different being at anchor without air conditioning, but it costs much less! Our boat has been in Paradise Village since early May, or about 6 months. Which is typical for hurricane season (BTW, hurricane season is not really over until the end of November, but we are figuring that we are going to chance it).

Up at 7, breakfast, the net, bible reading, and voting today. John is working on the dingy wheels. Reneé went to aqua aerobics, and I am running the water maker. 

We did some other odds and ends around the boat, and the dinghy wheels got done. We took it our new dinghy out for a spin then put it away. Got showers and had Jeffery and Laura from MV Nomad over for dinner followed by a game of Mah Jongg.