We plan to polish stainless this morning and Carlos is due here at noon to work on the leaks.
We have done an hour or so polishing stainless. It is hot when there is no breeze.
An interesting note we have temperature monitors set up in the fridge, freezer, beverage cooler, engine room on deck and in the salon. This monitor displays on a single location as well as at each individual monitor. We have 6 channels used.
An interesting point was that our beverage cooler (drawer fridge) has no other temperature displayed, but the regular refrigerator and freezer both do have (just that we don’t completely trust them. So, here we are in La Paz at a the Costa Baja marina in a slip and channel 3, which shows the beverage cooler is reading very high, like in the 60’s in the evenings and higher in the daytime, for example 91 degrees right now at 11 am. Well it turns out our neighbor has the same system on his boat and channel 3 is zip tied under his solar panels. Now that I have changed channels, I have to wait about a half hour for the temperature readings to stabilize. So far I have figured out that two channels of our monitors are looking at something on his boat.
Up at 6:15, breakfast, the net, and bible reading. Reneé went to the local market, I stayed here waiting for the mechanic and the guys to clean the oil. Reneé got back and I was still waiting.
The guys to clean the oil showed up about 2:30 and found a coolant leak on the engine (very small a weep really) and tightened the clamps. They found a similar leak on the generator, also tightened the clamps, then they cleaned the oil out of the bilge. I believe it is coming from the accumulated oil that leaked that is under the generator and slowly flowing into the bilge. Carlos the engine mechanic said he will be here tomorrow, he has the parts in hand now.
Tomorrow morning we will be polishing stainless steel.
Collar plate at the base of the mast from the port side.Looking at the base of the mast. The windows are aft of the mast.The two blocks on springs are for the staysail sheet.Close up: This shows the gap at the base of the collar plate on the aft end.Close up: This shows the crack in the plate around the block on the spring.Close up: This shows the crack in the plate around the block on the spring.
Up at 0600, I did not sleep well, the temperature was not being very consistent, mostly too cold. We had all three units running, and I thought I had them all on heat. When I finally got up, and checked, I found the front unit was on max cold, and the front stateroom was 60 degrees, the salon was 65 as was the aft stateroom, all three were set at 73. Apparently, on max cold the front unit really works!
Anyway, after breakfast and dishes we caught the shuttle into La Paz and walked to church. After church we didn’t communicate well, and walked to the Malecon (walkway by the beach in front of town), realized that the restaurant Reneé was thinking of was north and east of where we were. So, we walked some more. Eventually we got to that restaurant, Reneé said, no. So we headed towards the Catholic Church where we were supposed to meet the shuttle. We checked a few more restaurants along the way. No joy. We had about given up. Church got out at 11:30, the shuttle was scheduled for 1:30 and it was about 12:35. One last check, we found a restaurant around the corner from where we were (1 minute walk according to Google). We got lunch, not exactly what Reneé wanted, but still pretty good. Then a short walk and as we got to the pickup point, the shuttle showed up and we got on. By the time we got back to the boat, we were both pretty tired and I had walked 10,400 steps or about 4 miles.
After a nap, Reneé did some cooking, and I rinsed the salt off the boat.
After dinner we played a game then just vegged.
Up at 6:30, breakfast and listened to the net, then Reneé headed up to take the shuttle into town to do some shopping, I started filling the water tank, and called the office for help with cleaning the oil up. Juan Cota from the marina came down to see the problem and made some calls, he got in touch with Ceser & Francisco Pineda (brothers). They will be down to the boat by 1 pm to start cleaning.
I contacted Reneé to let her know the plan to go out for dinner this evening is off, as the last shuttle for the day leaves at 3 pm, and I will be here on the boat while they clean up the mess.
I finished filling the water tank at 1240, approximately 121 gallons used in the last 12 days. About 10 gallons per day.
As it worked out, they were done before 3 pm, and we took the shuttle and got oil. We walked a bunch and first stop was O’Reily’s. There power was off and as a result they were running generators to keep the lights on.
One of our neighbors, they are in a 60 foot slip, this is the rear view.One of our neighbors, they are in a 60 foot slip, this is the side view.This is where we areAnother signInside the church
Up at 5 am and underway right at 5:30. A pretty uneventful motor to the marina. I checked oil level before and after, it is a pretty small leak (but persistent). We leaked out 3 quarts of oil in about 80 hours of run time. What a mess!
The rigger showed up promptly about 10:30, gave us an estimate and we agreed to the price, they left and came back in the afternoon, our topping lift is fixed.
At the same time they showed up, to fix the topping lift, Carlos Flores showed up to work, on the engine. After looking at everything, and running the engine at 2000 RPM, he suspects either two copper washers need to be either replaced or installed for one of the heat exchangers (maybe?). He will probably be here on Monday morning to fix the oil leak. He believes the second problem, the water leak maybe the raw water impeller seal is not good, so that will require a new gasket. Again Monday. (Both of these issues are very small, but it is a boat, so they make a huge difference.
Somewhere in here, Reneé and I went up to the bathrooms and got showers. That felt very good. We take showers on the boat, almost every other day. This is to minimize our water usage, this is important, as we don’t have a level gauge on the water tank. (It has been broke for a year or two).
Water tank level gauge issue:
The tank holds 260 gallons, which is a bunch, our normal usage is about 10-14 gallons per day, assuming it’s just the two of us. So, usually we have no problem going 2 weeks between filling it. I prefer to fill it while in a marina, running the dock water through our reverse osmosis system which results in the water going into our tanks being 1-4 ppm, which compares to taking it straight out of the sea through the RO system at around 250 ppm, or bottled drinking water at around 10-15 ppm, US drinking water standards says less than 500 ppm. So, while it would be fine to take it straight out of the sea, I prefer the ultra clean water from dock water via RO.
Regarding the level instrument, the one that came with the boat uses a capacitive detector, two probes are glued to the outside of the tank, a small current is passed through them and that provides a signal to the level detector. Unfortunately, one of the probe tapes came off, and the computer died (this also affects the holding tank, another story). The down side is that this readout, is not available in a useable format anywhere but on the computer/processor which is proprietary, and that means I can’t have it on any of the other networks that I have on the boat. Another issue is that when the system worked it never worked well. The name of the system is Acu-gage, most people I have talked to about it that have used it, refer to it as Acu-guess. I have been looking for a level probe that I can use that will give an accurate, consistent level indication that works across other networks. Most of them use either a float (means drilling a hole in the top of the tank) or a level Dp (requires drilling a hole in the bottom and top of the tank), the other issue is that the one that goes into the top of the tank only has about 2” above the tank to work with. So, drilling the hole is going to be hard, and then getting the probe installed is also hard. Since both tanks are pretty big, I have not felt pressured to get “just anything”.
Regarding the holding tank, our tank is 55 gallons. We pump it out weekly when we are in a marina, and pump it out probably every other day while we are out. Most other boats we have talked to have about a 30 gallons holding tank, so ours is pretty big. Again, i don’t feel pressured to get “just anything”.
At the end of all of this, we walked to a restaurant, part way there we got a ride by one of the marina employees on a golf cart, we stopped at an ATM and got some pesos as well. The restaurant was: Taberna Española Puerta Cortes
we hade an appetizer sausage and cheese plate.
Reneé had Fideua a seafood dish over pasta with shrimp, crab mussels etc. VERY GOOD!
I had Piglet, pork over potatoes, also VERY GOOD!
Service was outstanding and the only down side was it was a bit expensive.
After dinner we headed back to the boat, part ways back we got a ride in a golf cart again. Once back on the boat we relaxed for a bit, Reneé worked on her book, and I fell asleep.
Just another sunriseThe appitiezerLa Paz at nightReneé’s mealthe critics
