Category: 2025 Season 6

Published 05/06/2025
Up at 6:30, Reneé got the cinnamon rolls in the oven and I got a shower. Joe and Vanessa (maybe Julie from nest door) are coming over to watch the service from Savannah.
Later today, I think we will pull the boat out and bring it back in bow first. We have a delivery of 600 liters of water scheduled for tomorrow. Our water fill is on the starboard side, and it will be easier if that is the side to the dock.
At the end of the day, we did not move the boat, we did not go to Padre Santo, and instead watched a movie. Too much wind, it’s Sunday and Padre Santo was closed. We went to the fish taco stand and had lunch. A nice quiet day.

Published 05/06/2025
UP at 6 am, breakfast and bible reading. Then do a little organizing on the boat, and catching up on the blog. After lunch we took a “little walk” we went to the cemetery, it is less than a mile away, but it is 500 feet higher in elevation. This is about a 9.5% grade. Lots of stairs and steep roads. Then back to the boat.
We met up with a bunch of the other cruisers at Padre Santo for happy hour, with a plan to walk into town for the Hot Dog Festival. This is the 4th annual. They make a huge deal out of cutting a ribbon a speech by the mayor of Santa Rosalía and Mulege where she went to each of the hot dog carts and presented a certificate and talked about what they were selling. Of course there was a person in a life size hot dog costume, the mayor (a lady) wore a very red long dress and there was a bunch of hot dog carts. They sell hotdogs wrapped in bacon and with either pulled pork or aracherea in a fantastic local made bun. Then it is off to the stage in front of the government house to watch all the performances, kids dancing and singing and dogs in costumes like hot dogs and it goes on.
We got back to the boat about 8:45 and headed off to bed.

Published 04/26/2025
Up at 6:30, breakfast, bible reading and then Reneé is taking a walk to the bakery with two of the lady cruisers. I’m going to wash the solar panels. The seagulls love to poop on them. Of course, I have to wait until 9 am, as the water is off until then.
I washed the solar panels, and after Reneé got back we had lunch and walked into town. We went to the museum, we have done it before and it only takes a couple of minutes to walk through, but it is a good walk and view.
After we got back we went to the pub in the marina and met a bunch of the other cruises, played some games and chatted for a while over dinner and beer.

The following pictures are of the preventer system we have for our mainsail. This is a set of ropes that go from the end of the boom to the bow of the boat and then back into the cockpit so that we can hold the boom out.

Published 04/26/2025
Up at 7 (yes we slept in! Breakfast, bible reading and then get into the day. Today we will do an oil change.
Well that oil change is done. There are few jobs on a sailboat I hate more. This one is probably at the top of the list. It is not like a car, there is no way to get a pan under the drain plug, which is why there is no drain plug. So, you ask, how do you get the oil out? With a pump that has a hose that you stick down the tube for the dip stick. First step warm up the engine to make the oil thinner and make sure the “junk” is in solution. Then pump out the oil, 6.3 liters, then take the oil filter off, of course it is screwed in on the side so that you will absolutely spill at least half the oil in the filter under the engine. Next up is put the oil filter back on, then add the oil. Of course it’s a diesel so you have to find oil for a diesel (that took 3 autocrats store to get last time. So, I have the oil. Next up the oil is in a 5 liter jug, but they only fill it to 4.7 liters. No, I don’t have a reason for that. The next thing is to pour the oil from the jug into the engine. Space is at a premium on a boat, so no there is not room to pour it easily. Ok, all the oil is in now do the cleanup. Of course the bottom of the engine room is further down than my arms reach, so, I can’t just wipe up the spilled oil. But I got it done.
Now, what do you do with the oil? We are in a marina and we asked they said bring it to the office and we will take care of it. YEAH!!! That is the easy part. Total time from start to finish 5 hours. What a pain!
After a shower, I took the oil up to the supervisor and it was gone. Probably the easiest part.
Then to Padre Santo (micro brewery) for a beer and waiting for the rest of the cruisers to come up. Joe, Vanessa, Reneé and I played some cards and chatted then around 5 we walked up to the Chinese restaurant at the top of the hill. After dinner back for more discussion at Padre Santo.
We turned in about 9 pm.

Published 04/26/2025
Up at 6 am, breakfast, bible reading and showers. Then gather the laundry and get up to the parking lot where the laundry lady picks up at 9 am. Then we did some repair work on the insulation in the engine room. It is all metal foil over foam with tape to keep it in place. The foam is glued in place, but needs a little help occasionally.
Then I took a look at the battery charger that is supposed to charge the engine start battery. I found that it has two fuses that were both blown, I was headed to the parts store for new ones, but asked our neighbor if he had any, which he did. Score! It works! I have been dealing with this for quite a while. 
Reneé, Julie and I toured the power cat on the side tie at the end of the dock. This is MV Doublewide with Bill Fleenor on board. The boat is huge, there are only two cabins but both have walk around queen size beds, it is very large with a regular household kitchen style refrigerator etc,
Then Reneé went to the store. Afterwards we had lunch and looked for things to do.
I updated the blog, I had attempted to do that a few days ago and could not update the pictures, turned out it was due to an update on their end. Kyle (our son) helped identify what the issue was for us and got around our problem. So, I was able to update it.
I checked engine hours since the last oil change and of course it is time to change the oil in the engine. It is supposed to be done every 250 hours, and we are at 246). Of course we had the issue where we lost 3 quarts of oil and had the oil leak, but the next thing we are going to do is run across to San Carlos and that will be at least 12 hours across. So, probably ought to just do it.