Make Me Laugh Again

Up at 6 am with planned underway at 7. Well, security showed up at 7 am to get our card for opening gates. And we were underway by about 7:10. We sailed for a couple of hours and listened to a sermon, then the wind died down and we started the motor. Of course, just as we were arriving at Ipala the wind was back up to about 28 knots! We had to bring in the main so into the wind. We are out of practice.

Then we anchored in Ipala. We looked at the charts, but not closely enough, and OOOPS! We found the rocks in this harbor, we bounced a couple of times, and then got off the rocks and went back to where we anchored the last time we were here. Downside, it is in a bit deeper than I would like, upside, no rocks. We are finding the things that we are out of practice with, and it will get better.

We really need to consider new iPhones, I used mine today to control the radio and play the sermon. So, when we got to the end of the day (about 3pm) the battery is dead, and that is where we run the anchor monitor program, so it is plugged in. This phone is a little over 2 years old, and maximum battery capacity is down to 91% which means it is not low enough to get the battery replaced by Apple, when we were in the states, I asked about it and not only will they not replace it under warranty, the authorized repair places won’t replace the battery at this level. I was told it would be better with the next upgrade of software, yeah, not so much. The reviews on the iPhone 13, the new and current phone says much better battery life.

Up and bible reading before breakfast and the Net. Then a trip to the swap meet to see about selling our small kayak. It only took a couple of minutes and it sold for 1000 pesos ($50 US) we spent $100 so we had it for a year or so and it is gone. Reneé has been looking at paddle boards. We have a free rack now.

We ran the water maker and finished running the various lines. Then the Flora Family Zoom call, which took an hour and a half. After it was done, we had lunch and finished up topping off the water tank. Then pack it all up and underway by about 3 pm and out to check the sails. Everything looks normal and we were back tied up and A/C running by 5:15. Tomorrow morning we will head out first thing and south. That is when we will figure out what is not ready.

Breakfast and our bible reading, then coordination of stuff today. Reneé is going to get laundry done, we have a load of rags washing on the boat, and I will be supervising polishing the stainless steel (on deck) today. I am also going to continue cleaning up the old picture files. So far I have identified more than 6 GB of duplicate pictures that I can delete. The hard drive in our MacBook Pro is only 1 TB, and right now it only has about 25 GB free. So, I need to do some cleanup. We MIGHT pull the anchor and chain out and check the markings at the various intervals.

The last thing we told Mike about the sails, was that if he did not have confirmation that the sails would be in his loft by tomorrow, he should put our old sails back on the boat and we will sail to Barra that way, we will be back by the second week in December to get the sails. He texted at this morning about 9 am, that he should know more by 11 am. 

Mike just called, the new sails are still in custom. The old Mainsail has a rip near the top from sun damage, he is fixing that and then after his crew gets back at about 3, they will be down to rerig the boat. 

By the end of the day, the stainless steel was all polished, the old sails were back up, and the straps that need sewing are off to Ivette.

We went to dinner at the La Cruz Inn  complete with dancing horses.

Today we are moving the boat over to La Cruz. We have a couple of small things to get done before we leave here, like tying the dinghy down (normally we have straps but they broke and the new ones will get sewn later today or tomorrow), put the outboard cover on, and some other odds and ends. It is about 8.3 miles from slip to slip, so between 2 and 3 hours.

We have no special plans for Thanksgiving, it is not celebrated here in Mexico (by the Mexicans) and many of the cruisers here are Canadian, and we have just not connected with any from the US that are celebrating it this year. This makes 3 years without a real Thanksgiving dinner. 2019, we were in Turtle Bay and had high winds and waves, so we did not want to get off the boat. 2020, we were in Santa Rosalia (Baja California) we arrived    late the night before. The other cruisers that were there had nothing planned. We had pie with another couple late in the day. Today we will move the boat, and have pumpkin pie later.

We tied up around 11:30. Got shore power hooked up and started washing dock lines. Reneé went to the office to finish checking in. Things to get done here, have Ivette sew the straps for the dinghy, wash dock lines, check the marking on the anchor chain and most importantly get sails

Well by the end of the day, no news about the sails, we walked over to the bathrooms and had showers. Then watched a movie Don Knots in the Reluctant Astronaut.

Up as usual, then the net. Our new beer cooler was delivered to the boat, and Charlie has been told it is here. He is scheduled to be here “midday”. We are down to about 2 items on our list of “TO-DO” items before getting underway to Barra, the beer cooler and the sails. We also want a new mast boot before we leave the area for the last time. This is not a MUST do, but would be very nice to get done. We also need to fix the dinghy wheels, the parts have been shipped from the states. Thanks Brendan!

Reneé is making a pumpkin pie this morning. Thanksgiving is tomorrow, we won’t be having turkey, but we do get pie!

The beer cooler was installed today! We had him check the freon in the aft A/C unit. I think it might be just a bit undersized for the demand on the unit. It is a 6k unit and that is big enough for the forward stateroom which is a bit smaller than the aft stateroom. In any case, all of the refrigeration equipment is working!

We have checked out of Paradise Village effective tomorrow, everything is done but paying the bill. They have our credit card, and when we call to tell them we are leaving they will total our bill and pay it. Tomorrow night we will be in La. Cruz across the bay. We have a couple of things to do there, and hopefully get our new sails.

We celebrated by going to happy hour at the pool and then getting a hamburger and onion rings for dinner. On the way there we saw an iguana, and we saw a pretty good sunset at the beach.