Taking the seanic route
(posted 05/xx/24)
Up at 6 normal routines, listened to the VHF net, went shopping, and got back at about 5:30 pm. This was when I saw the sign posted on the door to the bathroom that the office would be closed on 5/1. This changed our plans.
So, we went out for dinner, and live music. Food ok, but not great, live music too loud, but they took a long break about midway through our meal, and didn’t start back up until we were walking away.
(posted 04/30/24)
Up at 6, did our morning routines, and eventually got in touch with the marina. We contacted the port captain and got permission to leave the anchorage. Pulled up the anchor and headed over.
The channel from the anchorage is very busy with big ships, so it is important to work with the port captain to make sure we don’t get run over. Then it’s about 2 hours to get to the marina channel which is very very narrow. There’s a dredge parked in the middle of the channel, and the entrance points south parallel to the beach, the instructions are to hang to the left side of the channel going in. So, the first part of the entrance, we were rolling from the waves (heading north), then as soon as we got past the edge of the breakwater, we had to turn east and go past the dredge on the RIGHT side of the channel because the hoses from the dredge were on the other side of it. Eventually we were past the dredge and could stay to the left.
We found our slip and tried to back in, the slip was too narrow, and we didn’t fit. So, we checked with the office, and were able to go straight ahead and get the slip across from it. This slip was a double, rather than a single slip. While a single slip is nice for washing the boat, it needs to be wide enough to get into it. WE were tied up by noon!
Shore power on and running the water-maker by 12:30.
(posted 04/30/24)
Up at about 7:30 we got our breakfast, and checked with Joe and Vanessa, about coming over to watch a sermon with us. They came over at 9 am. We talked and watched the sermon and they left at about noon. We had lunch, and took a nap. Then got an invite for dinner with Joe and Vanessa. We picked them up at 5 in the dinghy, and went out and got back by 7:30, it was starting to get dark. We left the dinghy in the water, but locked it to the back of our boat.
Some history with Joe and Vanessa, we met them at Santa Rosalia during Covid in 2019. We recently moved to Savannah, TN and were sitting in church last summer there (on one of the few occasions when we were actually in town) and we were talking to the lady sitting next to us. We gave her a boat card and then the service started. Afterwards, she introduced us to her brother who was sitting next to her as he was also a cruiser in Mexico…. Yes it was Joe!
(posted 04/30/24)
We are motoring all day today. At 1230, we are about 140 miles from San Blas, about 50 miles west of Mazatlan, and 120 miles south east of Cabo. We have fairly calm seas, and we are making about 7.5 knots speed over ground. We have about 2.5 knots wind on the nose apparent, which means we have about 5 knots true wind from behind us. Water temperature is up to 76.5 degrees F. Our current prediction for arrival time is 0700 (+/- 3 or 4 hours) when we get closer, we will slow down to time it better for the tide.
We have seen some dolphins, and rays jumping out of the water, and Reneé saw some orcas.
We have RADAR & AIS, to watch for other boats and ships, so far we have seen very few, none closer than 4 miles.
Well….. the best laid plans…. About 1330, all three chart plotters died, ok that’s happened before, but they didn’t restart. Not the first time it the second.
We have decided to go Mazatlan. We will anchor outside, we have done this before. Admittedly, with chart plotters and depth sounders, in daylight. In the meantime, we are using Navionics Boating App on our iPads and iPhone. This is our backup.
After a few minutes we got the chart plotters back on, but we are still going to Mazatlan.
I suspect that the problem may be related to battery voltage. We are fully charged, the solar panels are in the sun and the engine (with alternator) has been running non stop, battery voltage is on the high side, around 15 volts.
Text I sent to family to let them know that we are back in normal communications again.
TL:DR (Too Long: Didn’t Read), we are in Mazatlan, and our communications are back to normal.
Well, things did not go quite as planned. We got underway at about 5 am, with a bit more wind the expected and less sleep (thanks to the party boat that was still going strong when we got up at 4:30!).
The wind was a bit much and the waves made for an uncomfortable start, but after a couple of hours they calmed down. We sailed for a few hours then the wind went away (the life of a sailor, either too much, not enough, or from the wrong direction!).
We motored through the day, and as we did the new electronics randomly shut down, either completely or just the comunications with the autopilot. Typically what we did when they shut down is go turn them back on, and then it would work for a while, sometimes 15 minutes sometimes for a couple of hours. No particular pattern.
About 1:30 on the second day (yesterday as I am writing this), they shut down and would not restart, we looked at where we were. We have Navionics Boat App on our iPhones and iPads, which uses the same charts as came with our new chart plotters, (since we have the iPads with GPS antennas, we can use them as backups to our chart plotters). We were about 140 miles from San Blas (our destination), 125 miles southeast of Cabo, and 50 ish miles west of Mazatlan. That might not sound like very far in a car, but we are on a boat and we only go about 6 miles per hour. We elected to divert to Mazatlan. After about 10 minutes or so, we restarted the chart plotters and continued our course to Mazatlan.
We arrived in the area about 8 pm, and it was pretty dark. Our plan was to wait for the moon rise (10:22 pm) and anchor between an island and Mazatlan.
Well, some friends (Joe and Vanessa Munday) had seen us on Marine Traffic and sent us a text, we were in cell range by then and suggested we anchor next to them inside the harbor which had plenty of room, flat water and lots of light. We dropped anchor between 10:30 and 11 pm.
I restarted our Starlink system and we are back to normal communications again.
We will stay here a few days, probably move to a marina on Monday, and get water and diesel. Then after we get something figured out on the electronics, we will head south to San Blas and Puerto Vallarta.
Regarding the electronics, what I suspect is the problem is battery voltage. We have Lithium batteries, and their voltage is higher than regular batteries (12.5 approximately vs 14 volts for the Lithium). We also have 1100 watts of solar, that is two panels of 550 watts each that have their own charge controllers, MPPT 100/50, which means that each panel and controller can charge at up to 50 amps to our batteries. The engine was running (and had been for almost all the time since we left our anchorage at 5 am), and it has an alternator that can put out up to 110 amps. The alternator has a regulator that monitors temperature as well as battery status and limits how much current it puts out to prevent overheating. When we got to the boat in February, I worked with Battleborn tech support (battery company that I bought most of my charge stuff from as well as the batteries (GREAT SUPPORT!) and updated all of the firmware and software for all the controllers.
In any case, when the system was shutting down I was looking at anything that might have an impact on them, the only thing that seemed out of normal to me was that the battery voltage was on the high side (15.2 VDC). Intermittent problems are very hard to diagnose and fix, and this is a complicated issue. On Monday, I will be communicating with Battleborn tech support to see if we can get to the bottom of this.
(posted 04/30/24)
We did not get much sleep. There was a big power boost in the bay that was having a party. Complete with drunken sing alongs to very loud music. This was still going strong at 0430, when we got up to get underway. A bit of wind had also shown up at about 0200. So, we debated not leaving today.
About this crossing, it’s about 350 miles at about 6.5 knots 55 +/- hours, with just the two of us. The weather prediction was pretty good for the 3 days, the moon is about 3/4 full and waning and is rising about 9 ish, which means only a few hours of no moon or sunlight. It’s a bit later the next day. Then there’s the marina we are heading to in San Blas, it’s up a river, that’s not huge. We have touched the bottom there before, so we want high tide for going in. On the 28th, high tide is 1417 at 1.62 feet. We decided to get going.
It was a little windy with waves for the first couple of hours, but then calmed down. We were able to sail for a couple of hours, then the wind went away. We motored for a couple of hours, then sailed some, finally by dusk the wind was down to effectively zero and we motored.
We split up the night watch with Reneé taking the 2100 to 0100, and I took the 0100 to 0500.
We are having issues with the new electronics, periodically all three chart plotters restart, and the autopilot loses its signal. When this was first happening, the autopilot was also dying, and we had to cycle the power to start everything back up. I think part of the problem was the battery charger/inverter was doing a restart when it couldn’t find the internet. I turned that “feature” off, and now it’s just the chart plotters that restart. Occasionally, the autopilot just loses the signal, but the chart plotters are still working. We are still working on what the problem is. In the meantime, we are also working on how and what we have to do when it happens.
From Reneé
4/26/24
Two things that happened today as we began our crossing.
1) my blue hat flew into the water and since it blended in well, retrieving it would be impossible to.
2) as I was driving and Neil was trying to nap in the cockpit. He laughed at a seagull trying to land in our solar panels. I then got involved and yelled at the bird upon each effort (and he was trying over and over). This was of course keeping Neil awake. Finally i picked up the fishing net and swung it at him. This scared him and his friend (who was already resting on the panels – though we couldn’t see him) away. They didn’t come back.
