Up at 7, breakfast, the net and bible reading. Then a whole bunch of nothing much. At noon we had lunch then in to dock 2 to pick up Bill and Jean, and Barb and Rob from church for a day of sailing. A pretty mellow day, out and back uneventful docking in both directions then back to anchor. We had some great fellowship on the water two days in a row!
Once back at anchor a beer and then in to the water to cool off then Reneé started to work on dinner and discovered we had an empty propane tank so swapped the tanks and good to go. Tomorrow is propane Wednesday at the marina so we will tank the empty one in and get it filled tomorrow, when we head to the Bible study.
A school of fish by the boatBill, really he was having a good timeJust enjoying the dayBill and JeanRob and Barb
Up at 7, breakfast, the net and bible reading. We plan to head out and dump the holding tank this morning then in to the marina to tie up and pick up 4 guests and go sailing. We did some odds and ends around the boat, then went in and picked up Val, Bob and Iris, Larry wasn’t feeling up to it today. Then out and sailed, we saw some whales and lots of birds. Then back in and dropped them off at the dock and went out and dumped the holding tank, final back at anchor by about 6 pm. Tomorrow will be a repeat with different people and no dumping of the holding tank.
Now it is beer 30 and time for a dip in the bay. After dinner we got showers and then off to bed.
Val and Iris (Val’s husband Larry wasn’t up to sailing today). Iris is the wife of Bob that is where we go on Wednesday’s after the Bible study for pool.Bob, Iris, Val and me, Reneé is taking the pictureJust another sunset
Up at 7, breakfast and off to church. We rode the bus, and walked (it only takes one bus from here). The bus stop here is at least twice as far from the boat dock, not counting the dinghy ride to get there. It took us almost an hour to get to church. We met a new couple and introduced them to some of the others. Then we scooted out to get to the market at the marina, Reneé is looking for someone to paint some outlet covers. When we got to the market, we found several couples from church. Then the cruisers that we have been hanging out with. Afterwards, we went back to the boat and invited any who wanted to join us for cocktails aboard were welcome, unknown to us, one of the other boats had already put it out there, so we had one couple and then we too went to the other boat and swam off their stern for an hour or so. Finally back to our boat, and finished the movie we started the other night.
Our schedule for the rest of our time here in Banderas Bay is pretty full:
Monday (tomorrow) we are taking 4 people sailing from church
Tuesday we are taking 4 other people sailing from church
Wednesday – Bible study at church and then the pool party
Thursday – Saturday nothing on the schedule
Monday taking my cousin Mark and family (?) sailing
Tuesday headed to Marina Vallarta to prepare for a week with guests
Wednesday 11/16 – Wednesday 11/23 John and Laura Fowler will be here on board
Wednesday 11/23 as soon as John and Laura leave, Bob Griffith (both of these guys are high school friends) will be here to help us move the boat to Puerto Peñasco
Thursday, Friday or Saturday begin our trek north to put the boat on the hard for a year while we go back to work.
At the market after churchThe music at the marketKen and Tina (and Lola) from MV Tits PierreDave and Michele (in the floaty’s) from SV OhanaSmiling ReneéJust another sunset (from the water this time)
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!
There is the crocodile, probably about 6 feet long. Recently bit a small dog off the dock, killed the dog, but didn’t eat it, apparently too big. The croc is out of it’s normal habitat, they need brackish (not salt, but not fresh either, somewhere in between) water not saltwater. So, it is dehydrated, and not eating well. Too much time in saltwater will make them blind. It is a complex issue, the rescue people can’t touch the croc until called in by the authorities, being involved with a croc (feeding teasing touching rescuing etc) is a several thousand dollar fine. Our instructions are to call 911 if we see it, I did not know when I took this picture near a dock in the marina.This is the switch, you can see the contacts inside are sort of brown, rather than copper colored.
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.
That is the switch lower right side that had to be replaced.Another Island Packet SV Bright Nest, at anchorLooking pretty on the boat, this was before we discovered the poop!
