Category: 2024-02 (February)

(posted 02/19/24)
We rigged the Main Sail
Got the dinghy outboard running, which included putting all the accessories in the dinghy, like the seat, the portable manual bilge pump, the life vests, and the ladder. Then we put the cover on it and put it away. It is now ready for travel. We need to buy some more two stroke oil for it, but since we filled the gas tanks, yesterday we are good for the season. We have 2 five gallon jugs, plus the 3 gallon jug that rides in the dingh. We have rarely used more than about 8 gallons for a season.
Looking at our list, and the weather and the tides, we think we will leave here on Thursday. Tomorrow we will put up the Jib, and Staysail, then wash the boat. Wednesday, Reneé will make a laundry run, and final grocery run and I will top off the water tank. Thursday, we plan to get underway. With a planned arrival in San Carlos of about 2 weeks later. Around March 7 Thursday.
This evening, we walked back to the yard to watch a life raft popping, this one was about 14 years past certification. The certification is good for 3 years. The cost for re-certifying when they are current is about 2/3’s the cost of a new one. When they are this old, they are not worth very much. When we bought our boat, it came with an out of date life raft in a valise, which took us an hour or two to get on deck. We checked on re-certification, and decided to buy a new one. Then donated the old one to the US Power 
Squadron in Oceanside for training. When they popped it, it shredded itself. I will try to put the video in this post. Here is the LINK.

(posted 02/19/24)
Today we enjoyed the use of Mike Gingrich’s pickup. We drove to church. We went to Auto Zone, Sam’s, “Walmart” (Walmart has a different name in Mexico), and to Duke’s for lunch. Duke’s has great salads! They also have a pickleball court. We probably bought more food than we need but Renee is trying to provision for 3 months. We filled our gas tanks, and our propane tanks, we should be good for the whole season!

(posted 02/19/24)
Ran the water maker and verified it works then filled the tank. I worked on the fridge some more, no change, and the auto pilot, no change. It has been a pretty frustrating week regarding these two issues. This is a place in Mexico with NO technician’s to call for help. It does not matter what you need help with, they are not here. We are going to head out without these three things working, the refrigerator, the auto pilot, and the wind speed sensor. We will pull into San Carlos in a couple of weeks and deal with it there.

 

(posted 02/19/24)
Our ladder came back today…nice and straight (and the scratch marks were gone…polished out?)…1300 pesos. Neil worked on the auto pilot all day. He swapped the old one out for an upgraded model (out of our spare boat parts). Unfortunately the same error message appeared.

Renee’ got 15000 steps in looking for a stainless bolt and nut for the kayak rack. Found the bolts. Was directed to another hardware store. On the way she found a kitchen supply store where she purchased a sea salt grinder (unfortunately not refillable) and some frozen meats and veggies. The fridge on the boat is still not working. The hardware store was closed and a gal in front of it said it would be closed for two weeks.

We advertised on the Cabrales WhatsApp group site and gave away our two defective boat hooks.

Blue Pearl, Jessica, returned from a trip to Phoenix where she bought two summer sausage logs for me.

The stainless is almost all polished. The only part on done are the far back bars on the solar panels. The water on the dock isn’t working so we cannot wash the boat or check the water maker.

(posted 02/19/24)
We were a bit late getting up, it is cold on the boat in the morning here. We did not sleep super well, as we need to find another blanket. Since we don’t have shore power here, we have no heat on the boat. The solar is doing a good job of keeping the batteries charged, but that doesn’t heat the boat, or the water heater. The plan going forward will be to run the generator for a half hour to heat the water to wash dishes and take showers in the evening. That has to be figured in to our fuel supplies. We have 160 gallons of diesel and we have two 5 gallon Jerry cans. Our engine or generator burn about a gallon an hour. There is no fuel dock here in Puerto Peñasco, and the next stop south where there is a fuel dock is Santa Rosalia, but…. The marina is being taken over by the Mexican Navy to run, and apparently there is an issue with paperwork so the fuel dock is closed until they get it fixed. The next fuel dock south is in Puerto Escondido, and they have about the most expensive fuel in Mexico! It is roughly 300 miles to Santa Rosalia and 450 to Puerto Escondido. When motoring we go about 6 miles an hour, and we don’t want to go straight there, as there are many anchorage’s between here and there.
The first 125 miles or so from here is straight out to Refugio on Isla Angel de La Guarda. We have not found any “great” places to drop anchor at the north end of the Sea of Cortez. This is about a 20 hour crossing. We will probably motor most of that, depending on the wind. Then continue south bouncing from one anchorage to another. As there are quite a few places to stop between there and Santa Rosalia.
At Santa Rosalia, even though the fuel dock is closed, there is a gas station about a block away, which means that we can haul our Jerry cans there and fill them and haul it back to the boat. Which is what we will probably do. We expect to take about 3 months to get to Puerto Vallarta which is about 1,000 miles south (straight line distance), so at a guess we will get to Santa Rosalia mid March, so the fuel dock might be open by then.
The coffee is ready, and breakfast will be soon, so I will add more later.
Today’s plans are to add Freon to the refrigerator. I have watched a couple of videos on doing this, and I have started, one thing the videos stressed was patience. For those that know me, that may be an issue. But, I am trying..
Low tide 11:43 AM 0.98 ft, next high tide 6:26 PM 10.47 ft. 9.49 ft difference. Biggest I have heard about here is 22 feet.

We went to the BBQ House for dinner. The owner knows how to sell his product. He took us in the back where the meat was slow cooking in the smoker. He gave us some pork rib right out of the smoker. We ordered the Valentine’s special…Brisket w/ two sides and cheesecake. It was delicious!

On the way back to the boat we met Joe and Jenna, from My Song. They purchased the boat from Mike Gingrich.