Category: 2024-02 (February)

(posted 02/25/24)
Little to no wind all day. We got up around 6 am, and had breakfast and underway by a little after 8 am. The other boat was gone by the time we went past where we had seen them. We went down the channel and Reneé asked about the internet since we were supposed to be inside the area where it is supposed to have service for the price we are paying. Once it was running, I checked on Ray Marine representatives and B&G as I was hoping to find one or the other in Puerto Vallarta to possibly replace or at least fix what we are dealing with. Fortunately for us, I found that while neither of those companies are represented there, the Ray Marine representative for this area of Mexico is actually in Santis Pac, BCS. This is about 150 miles south of Puerto Don Juan where we are headed tonight! So, I tried calling and found out that my phone is not setup for WiFi calling, and it will have to wait until I have cell service. However Reneé does have WiFi calling turned on, so I used her phone and talked to Brian Coleman of Coleman Marine in … Seattle. Well, okay, his company is in Seattle, and his cell phone number is from Seattle, but he lives in Santis Pac, Baja California Sur (BCS). We talked and kept getting interrupted as the satellite connection while moving is not very good. We will talk more tomorrow.
The rest of the trip was pretty dull, no wildlife, no boat, no weather, no sailing. All while hand steering. YUCK! We arrived at about 4:30 and found a spot with about 33 feet of water and anchored. Had dinner took a nap and played a game of cards then bed.

(posted 02/25/24)
We sailed until nightfall last night, then pulled in the Jib and motored overnight. While sailing we hit a high of 8.6 knots. Motoring was 5.5 knots. We had issues putting the Mainsail in, We have roller furling, and when it works it is great. The rest of the time not so much. We did not see any sea life, we did see some birds. We had planned on taking about 20 hours to make this crossing, which is why we left at 1:30 pm, that way when we got to Refugio it would be daylight, but with having sailed fast, and oh yeah the time change we did not plan on, it was dawn when we arrived. We worked on the sail, and were unsuccessful, so decided to try again at anchor. Eventually we got in and anchored there is one other boat hereabout they are a couple of miles away and we can’t even see them from where we dropped anchor. We put out the starling antenna, and the first thing I did was turn off the priority roaming (that lets us have internet when we are away from shore or sailing fast. Cost to us is 46 pesos per GB, or about $2.70 per GB. This anchorage is considered part of the shore so the regular service works here.
Once we got the anchor down, we had breakfast, and showers then took a nap. It is pretty rolly here, we hope it will calm down later tonight. We are back to cruising!

(posted 02/25/24)
After breakfast and our bible reading, we headed out for our last stuff to do in town.
Pay for the marina $300 USD for 8 days (expensive).
Check out with the port captain.
High tide is 1:28 pm. It’s 20 hours to our next stop.
So, we are leaving afternoon. I turned on the mobil roaming for the Starling, we don’t intend to use it, but if you don’t turn it on before you leave, you can not turn it on later .
1335 left PP
By 1430, main and jib up, course 180 degrees (due south), 100 miles to go, engine off, making 6-6.5 knots no auto pilot. The boat is pretty balanced. I locked the wheel and the course is holding.
I have added a video.

(posted 02/25/24)
Out for breakfast (the stink was too much). We dropped off the wet towels from last night, then we went to the German place and got an awesome breakfast. Afterwards, a couple of try’s to get a new shower head, the one in our head broke so we took the one from the forward head. These are nothing special, just like the shower on a hose in a house. The only thing extra that we look for is a way to shut off the water while keeping the temperature adjustments the same. Three hardware stores, plumbing supply and Walmart for no joy. These things run about $20 on Amazon. We will look again in San Carlos when we get there.
Then back to the boat and took it out to dump the holding tank. It was a good day of motoring, and yes we did see dolphins. Then back and tied up.
Once we were at the dock Reneé went for laundry, and I cleaned up the filter on the vent line. Then started the water maker to fill our tank to maximize drinking water.

(posted 02/25/24)

A very busy day.
We started at about 8:00. Reneé took the laundry in, then when she got back, we started putting up sails, the staysail and the Jib. These are the sails forward of the mast. This took us a couple of hours. Then washed the boat, and cleaned windows, this took until about 5 pm. Actually, if you include all the work Reneé did on polishing stainless, this cleaning of the boat outside and in has taken at least a solid week. Somewhere in here, Reneé went back and got the laundry.
While washing windows, I fell getting from the cockpit to the deck, I was wearing sandals, and the only injury (besides my pride) is my little toe on my left foot.
At the end of the day we figured out that we overflowed the holding tank.