Category: 2025 Season 6

Up in time for the net, we both sleep very well here. After breakfast we organized our day, I was going to work on the voltage regulator, and Reneé thought about going to Sam’s, but decided against it, instead the covers came off the hatches and the kayak and paddle board got put into their holders. I called Balmar and found out what I need to ask Richard when he comes down on Saturday, so that project is on hold. Of course, I found a couple other things to work on. The light in the aft stateroom over the seat is in need of replacing, so I found a replacement on Amazon and ordered it in to our friends who are visiting next month. I also found the broken motor mount for the wash down pump (a piece of plywood 4”square is supposed to be glued down under the forward bed and then the pump is screwed to it), well, the wood is rotten, and needs to be replaced. Not a huge job really, but it needs to be addressed.
The sails got out of the forward stateroom and on deck, where they will sit until we get to putting them up.
When we listened to the net, we found out that there is a potluck this evening! So, Reneé is working on what to bring.
About 3:45 pm, I got a notification that someone was at our door in Tennessee. I communicated with them via the Ring door bell camera and let them know that they should not leave anything and that we were not home. They left, Technology is fantastic! We have camera’s and alarms, something thing’s that are necessary living like we do.
Well we went to the potluck and there was about a dozen of us. Pretty good discussion and hanging out, then back to the boat and showers.

Up for the net.

Bus to the Bible study (We were late, (we thought it started at 10 am, and we got there at 10:15) we allowed 45 minutes, we got both buses promptly.) normally start time 09:30. So, yes we were very late, 45 minutes. OOPs!

After the study, we walked out to get lunch on our way to the store. We ate at the restaurant with the red canopy next to the statue of Marilyn Monroe on 200. Then caught a bus to get to Soriana Mega and La Comer we got a bunch of stuff and took a cab back to the boat. We put stuff away and puttered around.

I made a trip to the local market for a few things we didn’t find at the bigger store. Like a bbq lighter (the regular lighter with a longer tube) we use them as a back up for the stove. Some raisins, we looked at both store and found none, at the market (which caters to vacationers from the states and Canada) I found some, but 150 grams for 41 pesos. (150 grams ~5 oz, 41 pesos ~$2.00). This was too expensive!

On the way back from the store, I stopped and talked to the owners of a trawler that we are considering for the Great Loop, it is a Selene 43. The only thing wrong with it, is the draft is 5’8”. We really want something less than 5’.

 

Up in time for the net.

The Ness’s brought by fresh fish.

I replaced the forward shower drain pump switch. This sounds like a simple job, the switch has two screws to attach the wires, and it sticks through a hole in the wall. Well, access is via a relatively small hole in the wall, the wires (from the factory are not long enough to pull out to where you can actually work on it. So, a job that should have taken 15 minutes, took about 2 hours. But, it is done!!

Reneé went to the local farmers market, we are restocking the boat. This is a good thing, it takes a lot of time to go get meals, especially when you do it on foot.

Richard came down today and we reviewed what he and his team had done on the boat. He scheduled Saturday morning to come and cleanup the engine room. He was not satisfied either. He also took a look at the refrigerator, what we found out is that the Auto speed controller is not working, but if you leave it in manual it does work. This is an energy saving function. We have rather “high end” refrigeration, so the compressor (while it its the same as everyone else’s) is operated with a speed controller that allows it to be more efficient. This speed controller displays the demand that it is sending to the compressor, but does not display what the compressor is doing. Whether the controller is in Auto or Manual it still cools to the setting for temperature. So, what we had was a demand display showing full scale and the compressor not running at all. Once it was shifted to Manual, it cooled right down. I called the company for the controller and was told they don’t sell that style of controller anymore. Bottom line, the refrigerator is working! We went all of last season with it not working. We replaced the compressor, and installed a dryer, and it is possible that all it needed was the switch to be taken to manual!!! Oh well at least it works now.

Reneé and I took down the Canopy, folded it up and currently it is in the cockpit waiting for the sails to go up. While looking for something else, we found the bags for the canopy, and now it is stowed. The canopy is two pieces of canvas that cover the boat from bow to stern and shade the whole boat, it also has two panels on each side that are screens these hang down from the canopy to shade the side and let some air flow through. We also have covers for all the teak. This was an awesome addition to the boat. There was a huge story before in the blog about the canopy, the previous owner had one made, and assumed we got it when we bought the boat, but it apparently got stolen in San Diego. We talked to the brokers involved, the previous owners, and the delivery captain. Eventually decided we were done looking. When we got to La Cruz we found Ivette (a stitch in time) and asked her to make one, it turned out she had made the first one.

While we were walking around getting stuff done in the marina, we chatted with Danny and Robin on All Set For Now.

We bbq’d the tuna, EXCELLENT!!! And had a quiet night.

 

We slept in until almost 9 am. Now we start the work, figuring out what has to be done first and what doesn’t work that was supposed to by now. For example the refrigerator was supposed to get fixed. Well no it is not, it is only getting down to 64 degrees. Which means dealing with ice blocks from the freezer and using the drink cooler to hold more stuff than just drinks. The freezer is currently 17.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and the drink cooler has been turned down, as it was freezing stuff. So, two out of three work well.

At lunch time, we decided to take a break and have lunch on the beach. While there, we took a picture or two and posted it on Facebook. Just as we finished our fish taco’s and Caesar salad, up walks Jocelyn and Brian Ness. We sailed with them back a few years ago, and they left and sailed to Hawaii then back to Alaska with their children. Once there, Brian went back to flying and they sold their sailboat and bought a smaller power boat. They were here vacationing and saw our post and recognized the beach we were on and walked until they found us. Pretty cool!

Finally back to the boat, about 3 hours out for lunch.

 

 

We drove a bit more than 500 miles per day for three days to get to Tucson, where we spent the night with a friend that we met in Puerto Vallarta (Jodi Blair-Jenson), then up the last morning and drove to Puerto Peñasco to drop off the truck and trailer. We met up with an old sailing friend (Michael Gingrich) went out for dinner to a nearby bbq place and then tried to nap for a few hours. Michael took us to the bus stop at midnight to catch a 1 am bus to Mexicali. This bus ride was supposed to be ~7 hours, and that was timed to get us to Mexicali where we could get a cab to the airport for a 1 pm flight. Well the bus ride was only about 4 hours, so we slept sitting up at the bus station and then took a cab to a restaurant for breakfast finally another cab to the airport. The rest of the trip was uneventful, finally we were back on our boat!!! We got some dinner, took showers and went to bed.