Category: 2025 Season 6

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).

Up in time for the net. Breakfast and wait for Richard to show up. While he was a little late, he did everything we asked! The engine room has been cleaned, the engine paint touched up, the wash down pump has been remounted. He has a guy who can deal with the staysail roller, he will get the correct size hole saw and be back, After he and his team left, we got after some projects on deck, first up was getting the lines down, as we thought about putting the sails up, so all the lines are up. Next was fixing the stern light, I took the fixture apart and found the problem was a little corrosion on the contacts, so fiddling with the light was enough to fix the problem. Then we worked together to install the new auto release for the life raft. This has to be replaced every two years, the life raft is supposed to get certified every 3 years. (This is really dumb and a Palin in the butt), getting certified requires sending the life raft away to get repacked and is expensive. About 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of a new life raft or between $3000 and $5000 the auto release is about $200. Getting the life raft certification last year was a 6 month ordeal of finding out where to send it (San Diego means across a border, and taxes one way or the other). We sent it to the second choice, Cancun on the east coast, it was a little less money, but there was shipping either way. So, obviously there are a lot of people with outdated life rafts and auto releases.
After lunch we noted the wind was a little higher than we wanted for playing with sails. So, we installed the new lights fixtures for the overhead lights. This was a good project to work together on. We installed a total of 10 fixtures. All are LED. Four sets were two lights on a string, the fifth was adding to the Salon lighting, for a total of 7 lights on the string. Of all of those everything worked well except the set in our stateroom and the forward head. Those two would not get to full brilliance, and flickered. They worked with the old fixtures, but not the new LED fixtures. (The old ones were a different kind of LED). We found that with one old one and one new one they were fine, but looked funky. What I tried was holding an old LED lamp across the contacts on one of the new lamps and found that it made it all work. So, I soldered an old LED across the contacts in two of the lamps and put them up, it all works. There is more light everywhere. This was a project that four hands made much easier.
We thought about going to the pool for happy hour, but it is overcast, and looks like rain, so we will stay in today.
This was a very productive day!

Up in time for the net, we both sleep very well on the boat. Today is overcast, but there is no rain in the forecast. Also there is not supposed to be much wind. Perhaps less tomorrow, we need to get the sails up and some other stuff on deck needs to be done.
Well, not much got done today, (1) I started on replacing spool for the staysail roller furling, there are four screws holding the spool together, 3 are broken so it will have to be pried apart. There is a guard that also has to be removed, it has two screws, one is very hard to turn, the other didn’t move and I thought I was going to break it. (2) Next up was installing a USB/SD card reader for the Raymarine chart plotter. This requires drilling a hole for the device the template shows 40.5 mm. well, the hole saw set that I have has a 38 mm hole saw, and so that is a non starter. I went on line to find the saw, 38 mm ‎ = 1.496 in, or about 1.5”. The 40.5 mm ‎ = 1.594 in. The next size hole saw I can find on line is 1 5/8” ‎ = 1.625” = 41.28 mm. Which will work, and all it takes is an hour long trip each way to Home Depot with two buses each way, and about $20 US. (3) Well, next up was the stereo. Ours failed due to high voltage when the voltage regulator failed high. Of course I bought the new stereo, the new amplifier for one channel of speakers, and a new XM receiver to make sure I had all the parts I needed. So, here I am looking at the new one and the old one, and they are not the same size. So, a phone call to support later, I now know that there is a RETRO FIT kit ($27) to make the new one fit in the old hole. At some point the best answer is to stop trying to break the wall with your head.
We laid around until mid afternoon and then took a walk. After the walk, we checked the navigation lights on the boat. All were fine except one of our two stern lights was out, another project. Then Dinner, showers and bed.