Category: 2025 Season 6

We had a very long day, up at 3:45 am, off to the airport, and finally back on the ground in PV around 4:30 pm. Then a long cab ride back to the boat we changed and went to dinner at Falconi’s the Italian restaurant here in La Cruz. Reneé got her lasagna. I had a spicy chicken and mushroom dish with no cheese. Than back to the boat and bed.

Up at 6 am. This is a travel day (we hope) going to the states to help our son move home. The weather may get in the way.

We finished packing and getting ready to travel.

I updated the blog, there was over 1000 pictures to sort through, change format and resize (my blog software doesn’t like heic files, or pictures bigger than 800×600). I try to have pictures every day, and just a few so the blog will load. But some of these days I had about 20. I set a limit of being done by 11 am. I made it, but barely.

Today we are scheduled to fly to Normal Illinois. The plan was to pick up a Uhaul truck and drive to Ottawa Illinois to pick up our son Nate and move him to our house in Tennessee.

Everything was setup, we had the flight, the hotel and the truck. Uhaul wants to move a trailer to Tennessee so we are supposed to pick it up in Normal and drop it off in Savannah.

Then, the weather got in the way. We might not get to Normal, so, we moved the truck pickup to Ottawa for Nate to pick up and then drive to Normal and get the trailer.  IF our flights work, we will still meet him in Normal. Which is on the way from Ottawa to Savannah. This took at least a dozen phone calls. The last one from the airport in Puerto Vallarta, several were three way calls.  What a pain.

I’m writing this in the plane, we were delayed and then delayed again, then moved up. We have about 20 minutes to go, then a 1.5 hour layover in DFW with customs, before (hopefully) flying to Normal.

Apparently, we were suspicious, as one of the ground attendants in the airport came up to us and chatted with us before asking to see our boarding passes and passports. No issues and we got on the plane.

No pictures today

Up at 6 for Reneé, about 7:30 for me. I did not sleep that well not really sure what was keeping me awake. Oh well. We listened to the net and had breakfast.

Reneé will be taking the laundry in and getting some beer. We like Modelo Negra, being on the boat, we prefer to get it in the can, as it crushes down when empty to minimize our trash. This is difficult to find, but we have found a location that carries it at the top of the town (about 2 miles from the marina) Reneé will have the cart from dropping off the laundry and will walk up the rest of the way and get the beer.

The people doing the woodwork, will start today, and work on it while we are gone. $400 down and $800 when we get back. 5 coats, supposed to last 2 years. The plan is to have it done now, so when we get back in May, it will look good for pictures (we are selling) then have it buffed up and another coat every so often as needed until it sells. Teak toe rails look great when freshly varnished, but being in the sun all the time, requires FREQUENT re-varnishing. Our experience, is that we have owned the boat since 2018, we had ok brightwork then, and we had it redone in 2020 (2021?), and it was down to bare wood. Again it is down to bare wood.

I worked on the boat. Richard (from Richard’s Marine Maintenance) came by, he found the water leak (a hose they had removed and reinstalled when working on the boat), fixed. He found a wire from the alternator that had become disconnected (a crimped connection), fixed. He found a loose sensor in the oil system that might be leaking, he tightened it.

I replaced the light in the aft stateroom that was not working, then installed the SD card reader for the chart plotter, then replaced the radio. This last part took much longer than I anticipated, probably 6 or more hours. I didn’t get it all done. The XM is not working, but the speakers on the arch are. I did not get the volume adjusted correctly for them. They are zone 3 on this system, so they have a separate amplifier, this is installed behind a panel at the nav station. This will take two of us working together to get it adjusted correctly.

I had considered buying the necessary parts to allow control of the radio from the chart plotter at the helm, but it was too pricey. When I was taking out the old radio (that died due to high voltage from the alternator last year) I found that all the hardware needed to control the radio from the chart plotter was there. I checked after I was done and it works. Because of our travel day coming up, I stopped my work and put all the tools away and cleaned everything up. No more work until we get back.

Then dinner (late) showers and bed.

Up about 7 am, this is the last day for our guest David and Susan Poole. They are flying home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Reneé did some shopping for Susan, in Bucerias and I filled the water tank (107 gallons). We had the mechanic from Peter Vargas take a look at our bonding, he found no problems, we got an estimate for doing the varnish on the wood.

Overall a pretty quiet day.

No pictures today

The ladies got up early with a plan to walk through the market. They will be back by 9 and we will all go to church together.
Off to church, it felt like swimming upstream against the current. Lots of people going to the market. We got to the top of the town and walked right onto the bus.
The service was full, we heard from a Mexican missionary to Japan, he gave a powerful message (in English), Josh translated into Spanish.
After church we walked to lunch, then to the shops in the Arollo then out to the Malecon. Finally took the bus back to La Cruz and the boat.
Dinner was pulled pork, then after showers for Reneé and I, we watched Star Trek IV the voyage home.