Category: 2025 Season 6

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.

 

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.

Up at 6 am, habits… Reneé watched the news, I tried to sleep some more. Oh well, at 0800 I called the Mechanic (Carlos Flores) he suggested getting oil from one of the pangas, fill it and keep moving. We tried, one of the Pangas said we would get some oil in a half hour. 2 hours later, no oil, so we got the dinghy down and headed into shore. On our way we stopped by the two boats left in the anchorage, one nobody home, the other one sold us a gallon of oil, so we turned around topped off the engine and were underway by about 1 pm.
We were able to sail about 1/2 way to Punta Coyote, then motored the rest of the way. We anchored in the dark, about 8 pm, with a plan to be up at 5 and underway by 5:30. One thin to note, holding here was very bad. We had over 200 feet of chain out and it was a very calm night. Which was good.

Up at 6 am, and we talked about leaving a bit later than normal, than leaving at our normal 7 am or so. Finally got underway at a little after 7. Wind speed at the anchorage was low about 6 knots, with little or no waves. Once we got out of the anchorage and around the point, it was 14+ and 3 foot waves. All day, it was 14 – 20 knots and up to about 6 foot waves. YUCK!!!
This is the sort of day, that makes you say “WHY?!”
We anchored at Los Muertos at about 5 pm. We are in about 25 feet of water with 9 other boats. We are not getting off the boat tonight. Tomorrow we will head over to Blandra and spend the night before going into La Paz.
We did not see anything of note today, no whales, no dolphins, no turtles, no other boats, Nothing.
Now we are having a beer and then diner a movie and bed.
Well, Reneé talked to her mom and sister for a bit. Then around 7 we were ready for the movie. But the TV said nope.
Now I am trying the one in the stateroom. The one in the salon appears to have had an interaction with saltwater. Which as most of you know is the end for electronic devices.
We have not used the one in the stateroom since last year, so first step figure out where the remote is. Then figure out it’s unplugged. Now it’s on and updating software. Then we will see if we can watch a movie.
Well we watched Hunter Killer. We have seen it before, but I didn’t remember that until it had started. Oh well, it was good enough to see a second time.
After it was done, we got ready for bed, and I was checking “things” out. We had gotten an alarm we didn’t recognize before the movie started, and it gone away. That makes it difficult to figure out what it is. I checked all the electronics, and verified there were no alarms on the radio, then I checked the bilge pump counter and saw that it was quite a bit higher than I expected.
So, then I looked in the bilge, and it looks very much like engine oil (this is bad). Then I looked in the engine room and saw a huge amount of oil under the engine (this is very bad). I pulled the dip stick and the oil level is still above the minimum scribe mark (this is the good news).
We have a mechanic scheduled for Saturday in the marina to fix the “small” oil and water leaks. But, we don’t want to motor over there (10+ hours) like this.
I sent a text to the mechanic at 1045 pm, and will follow up with a phone call in the morning.
Where we are is about an hour away from downtown La Paz by car. So, we will see what can be done, and just how much it will cost.
I chatted with the mechanic (after midnight, as I could not sleep). He suggested getting oil from other sailors here, and keep moving over to La Paz. The oil is visible above the minimum scribe mark.
I’m thinking if I can get several quarts (liters) of oil, I can fill it and check it periodically.
I will see in the morning.

Up at 6 am for Reneé, a little later for me. We have looked at the weather again. Tomorrow does not look like an early day will work either. So, a later start, with a plan to either anchor in the dark, or sail through the night to Balandra. That is about 15 hours or 90ish miles. In the meantime, we are stuck on the boat. I turned on the instruments for a bit to check wind speed, we have about 22 knots blowing us away from shore (the direction is preferable, in that if our anchor drags, we will be going away from land. We also have waves, at 1-3 feet. Considering that we are close to land, there is not much FETCH (the distance that the wind interacts with the water before it gets to you) so, these waves would be considerably bigger if we were out sailing in it.
Yesterday we made some arrangements for our time in La Paz, a rigger will come to the boat on Friday to work on our topping lift, and a mechanic will come on Saturday to work on the engine. Reneé will meet the laundry lady on Friday morning, and it will be brought back on Saturday. Sunday we will get to church and Monday morning we will head out. Probably going to Isla San Francisco. This is about 40 miles from the marina fuel dock where we will be getting fuel on Monday morning.
There are a couple of screen shots that show how protected the bay on Island San Fransisco is. We are planning to stay a couple of days here.
Reneé has been trying since we got down here to catch a fish. She has been planning on making ceviche with whatever she catches. Today she was successful. We believe it is a “Finescale Triggerfish” a couple of pounds and 16 or 17” long. NO, we did not measure it. This is based on the cutting board in the picture being 13.5” long. We looked it up on the internet and asked some friends (Thanks Josh Fox! Who identified it). From the internet: “The Finescale Triggerfish are deemed an excellent food fish and are primarily used by locals for ceviche.”
For those of you who have been reading along for the whole ride, will remember Josh & Cozette and Jeff & Angela who became our “boat kids” on our sail south from San Diego to La Paz in 2019. Josh & Cozette sold their sailboat and bought a power boat that they lived in (at least for awhile) in San Diego. Jeff & Angela sold their boat and moved to Montana. Jeff is a Real Estate agent there. We still stay in touch with them when we can.