Category: 2025-01 (January)

Up at 630, breakfast, bible reading, and the net. Today’s activities are work with the carpenter for the door to the aft lazarette, and pick up the propane tank. Then this evening go to the potluck here in Paradise Village. Tomorrow we will get underway. The net this morning was not very clear. Sometimes atmospheric conditions interfere with reception. Sometimes the people have radio issues that limit their transmissions. Sometimes, our location in Paradise village limits our reception (we are behind some tall buildings). Bottom line, we missed a significant portion of the net this morning.

We waited all day for the carpenter to fix our door, but he did not come. We checked with Richard several times to see what was up, finally at 5:30 we said perhaps tomorrow morning, and went to the potluck. We had a good discussion and dinner with a bunch of old friends and new ones as well.

Then back to the boat, we stopped by and got a tour of S/V Topcider with Janice and Norm, then showers and bed.

no pictures today

Up at about 6:30, we had our coffee, listened to the Net, had breakfast and did our bible reading for the day. Then Reneé headed off to take one of our propane tanks in to get filled, while she diid that I worked on getting the water tank filled. In the process, I found the door to the aft lazaretto is broken. I called for a carpenter. They will be here Friday. So, we arranged to stay an additional day. Eventually, we got the water tank filled (121 gallons, out of 260 gallons total). We put the staysail up, and stowed some lines. Just another work day on the boat.

At the end of the day, we took a walk, intending to watch the sunset. Instead of the sunset we got busy chatting with other boaters along the way. We ran into Jill on SV  Namahana who we knew from previous interactions here in Paradise Village. They are selling their boat this year as well, they have had it for 33 years.

Up at about 6:30, we listened to the net, had breakfast, Reneé went for a shower then the market. Then we headed to Home Depot and Zaragosa (the marine store) while we were out we had lunch Chinese, at Zaragosa, we got zincs for the shaft. These are sacrificial anodes that we install on the shaft to protect it from galvanic corrosion. I only bought two as this is about the most expensive place to get anything. Next stop was lunch it was ok, shopping mall Chinese fast food buffet. Then Home Depot for motion sensor lights for theft deterrence and some network cable connectors. Finally back to the boat, it is only about 4 miles to either of these stores, but taking the bus means that was about 3 hours out of our day. Once back on the boat, I reviewed our list for getting underway, and tomorrow I will be filling the water tank, and getting one of our propane tanks filled. 

no pictures today.

 

Up about 7:30, laid around for a bit then the net, bible reading and then getting the sails up. We are not putting the staysail up until we have someone take a look at the spool that has to be replaced. About 11 am, Gabriel and family got here as we were on the end of attempt 1 on putting the Mainsail up.
There are three corners on the Main sail, the HEAD is the top corner, the TACK is the bottom corner straight down the mast, and the CLEW is the outside corner. On the Jib, the HEAD is at the top of the sail, the TACK is at the very front of the boat, and the CLEW is where the sheets attach (these are the lines that you control the sail with.
The first time we put up the Mainsail, we attached the head to the halyard (the line that pulls the sail up the mast), but should have attached the halyard to the fitting inside the mast so that we could furl the sail (roll it up). We also threaded the mainsail up the track on the outside of the mast which is for a storm sail that we don’t have.
After the tour and a discussion with the Osorno family, we put the mainsail up again, OOPS! We put it back in the storm sail track.
Third time we got it right! So, it took from about 9 am to 1 pm (with a break for visitors) to get those two sails up.
After lunch Reneé took the laundry in to get it done. I am taking a break then I will hook up the Starlink. It works, but doesn’t look as good as it could.
Well, the more I looked at the equipment I had for upgrading the Starling, the less I liked it.
We took a break from working on the boat, I worked on the blog getting caught up, Reneé read her book and we cleaned the boat a bit. We had visitors in the evening, Janice and Norm from SV Topsider, they are relatively new cruisers from Canada. We played Mexican Train and talked for about 2 hours.

Up in time to take the two buses to church. After church we went to lunch with Robert and Iris and did some catching up. Then they dropped us at SAMS club where we did some more shopping. I watched what we bought at the bus stop, while Reneé went across the highway (via a crosswalk overpass) to Chedraui. Then bus back to the boat.
After a nap we went to the pool for happy hour. It was overcast and cool, so after a bit we went to the hot tub where we met Gabriel and Maria and their three kids. They are from Guadalajara and their last day is tomorrow. We invited them down for a tour of the boat tomorrow.
After dinner we went for showers, and invited Norm and Janice that we met at the potluck last week to come play Mexican train dominoes. They are new sailors (even though this is their second boat).