Category: 2024 Season 5

(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.

(posted 02/19/24)
We got up early to get to the boat, Reneé took laundry in and we were expecting a 1015 time for splash. I saw Salvador when I got to the yard, and he said 1415. Of course I did not look at the tide chart. We did not splash until much later (closer to high tide).
I worked on electronics, I got the chart plotters to talk to each other and to show the maps, but I could not get the Auto Pilot to see the network. That will be a project for tomorrow. Then I started into the project of changing the set points for the Battery Charger, I had already updated the solar controllers. First thing I did was disconnect the network from our old router. This was a wired connection, and the new router (with Starlink) doesn’t have a port. Then I went online to find out how to connect to the WiFi. Very easy. In the meantime, I had called Battleborn, the company I bought the batteries and chargers from and left a message for tech support. Hugh Sprock called me back and we spent the next hour or so updating the firmware and adjusting set points. This was the first time I had updated the firmware since installation, so quite a few changes had been made (I can see almost none of them).
Eventually, the yard picked up the boat in the truck, finished the bottom paint, and pulled us out to the lift. They picked up the boat and turned around so that we would go in bow first. We had a couple of people from the yard help with lines and we were in the water. We opened the isolation valve for the engine and verified water flow, then out!
We did not have far to go, and of course the wind was blowing. We banged into the dock pretty hard, and tweaked the port side ladder. Someone is coming tomorrow to look at “fixing” that.
We rigged up the bosuns chair and Reneé hooked up the lines for the dinghy, and polished some of the stainless steel on the aft arch and we put the paddle boards and kayak out, this cleared the deck.
Now that we are back in the water, we could turn on the refrigerator and freezer (both are keel cooled, so we have to be in the water to use them), good news the freezer is working, bad news the refrigerator is not. We expected something like this, the refrigerator has a small Freon leak, as in about once a year we have to recharge it. I have the Freon and the hoses/gauges so I can do it. So, it is on the list.
As I said the leak is very small, we have talked to the manufacturer of the unit, who said absolutely do NOT put dye in the system, as the dye will settle out in the keel cooler (at the bottom of the boat) and block the Freon flow, and the fix for that might include removing the keel cooler and replacing it. Refrigeration on a boat is a complicated thing, there are three major parts, the keel cooler, the cold plate in the refrigerator and the compressor. Of course the piping in between. Most of the piping is inside the cabinets, so I can’t see it to find a leak, we have had a couple of refrigeration techs look at it, but the end result is, charge it and wait until next year and charge it again.
Another thing to add to the list is the wind speed and direction, it did not appear to work as we had the electronics turned on. That typically means replacing the sensor at the top of the mast (I don’t do heights) and of course we don’t have a spare, and the nearest one is a mail order from the states and then getting it here. I just checked and the delivery date is February 22 – 26, and it’s about $360 plus tax (19% or about $70) and shipping to get it to us. We might have to figure out how to get it sent to Santa Rosalia or Puerto Escondido.
Then dinner and up to the room here in the marina for showers and back to the boat for our first night sleeping in our own bed on our boat.

(posted 02/19/24)
Up at 5:30 to get to the boat by 7 AM. This is to get the bottom paint to the guys painting it.
Today, I got rid of the old batteries, and the bottom got painted. Reneé made a trip to the store and I worked on the Blog.

This is some questions a friend asked:
Forgot to ask……about future plans.  At least the one question I asked awhile back when you e-mailed about changes.  Your current info. isn’t clear.
The dual question is your intentions on keeping the boat you have now…AND…whether your longterm goal is still to take it through the Panama Canal (considering how much you’ve spent maintaining and upgrading/replacing systems–like sails).  You already have a slip, I believe, near your new home in Tennessee.  Would you sell the boat you have (and buy a different one–maybe smaller?) for doing the Great Loop?  I can’t imagine you doing the PP routine every year…and never getting beyond PV.

So, our plans look something like this (Remember life is what happens when you make plans, and GOD is always in control):
We have decided that we will keep Make Me Laugh Again in Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta area) for the next 5 years. We have looked at going south to Panama and then across to Florida and exploring the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. As we looked at this the cost of slips in Florida have gone up in price, and we really like the Puerto Vallarta area.
In 2023, we restructured our finances, sold our house in Florida and bought a house in Tennessee. This significantly reduced our tax bill,(property tax as neither Florida or Tennessee have state income tax).
We chose Tennessee based on wanting to do the Great Loop (a boating trip around the eastern part of the US) and no state income tax, it is also a very beautiful state. The area we picked is near the Tennessee river (5 blocks) which is part of the Great Loop. To do the Great Loop our boat doesn’t fit the bill well. Because it is on the inland waterways, draft is important our boat has a 5 foot draft, which is the upper limit on recommendations. But shallower is better, our boat has a 65 foot mast, the shortest bridge is 19’6” and if you get around that, there are some in the 20 foot range etc. So a different boat is necessary for that trip.
We are on the waiting list for a slip on Pickwick Lake (near our place in Tennessee, but it is supposed to be about 5 years).
What does this all mean for the Panama Canal? We probably won’t go there. However, when it comes to selling Make Me Laugh Again, we will have to decide the best place to keep her while selling. Choices will be to keep her in Mexico, take her up to San Diego, or through the Canal and up to Texas, or Florida. That decision is still 5 years away though, so we will table it until we get closer in time.

(posted 02/13/24)
Up at 6 AM. Had breakfast and hit the road. We had a planned stop at West Marine to pick something up for someone at the boat yard.
I thought they opened at 9. So we got there at about 8:55. When they didn’t open by 9:05, I knocked on the door. The lady inside opened it up and said that they didn’t open until 10, and she was waiting for a trainee. She said she was confused about the day, and since it was Saturday she was wrong and she would get right on it. Eventually, I pointed out that it was Monday, but she had already opened the store and I had gotten what I came for. BTW, the posted hours are 10 AM to open Tuesday through Friday 9 AM on Saturday, and CLOSED on Sunday and Monday.
Then return the rental car, get an Uber to the Shuttle and then back to Puerto Peñasco. A cab ride to the boat (to drop off stuff) and a walk back to our room. Another long day.

(posted 02/13/24)
Breakfast and chatting, hors d’oeuvres. We played a game of Mexican train (dominos).
At 4:30, another couple Walt and Shelly SV DUNE came over.

At one point someone asked what time the game was, we had to look it up. While I was looking it up, I found out who was playing.
At the appropriate time, we spent about 2 minutes looking for the game on TV, realized they didn’t have network TV, so we gave up.
Of the 6 of us there, only Reneé was disappointed that she couldn’t watch the commercials or half time show.
We had a great time, ate pizza, drank beer and other adult beverages, and swapped stories about SAILING.
The next morning, I found out who won, when reading an unrelated post on Facebook that someone commented on it. Oh well.