Make Me Laugh Again

Up as normal, then breakfast, the net, and our bible reading. Reneé is off to do laundry, and I am on the boat waiting for Eddie to come down and reinstall the clamps for the mast boot, while we wait on parts.

We got an email yesterday with the tracking numbers for out toilet parts (due today!) and our new refrigerator (due 11/22/2021). We tracked the toilet parts and they were delivered this morning about 9:30. I have checked with Sergio about installation, he says Saturday at 10 am, yeah!

We have not signed for the sail import yet, as far as I know Mike has everything he needs from us, and the new sails and halyards are supposed to be to the importer today or tomorrow in San Diego/Tijuana. So, when we have to sign, we will figure out how to get that done.

Finally the fan for the settee is installed, well the wiring has some work needed but the fan is working. The thing about boats, is that there is never enough room. So, things get put in less than perfect locations. The original design put the batteries under the galley. (I am not 100% sure of that but I think I heard it somewhere. Our batteries are on the opposite side of the boat under the settee, some of the batteries are under the seat at the aft end of the settee (couch), some are in the compartment under the back of the settee at the aft end of the settee. This means the batteries are separated by a piece of wood/fiberglass that is the back side of the settee and take up an approximately 3 x 3 foot square area. The battery charger/inverter is mounted above the battery box inside the settee just forward of the Nav Station (desk). The solar charge controller is mounted to the outboard wall just forward of the inverter/charger. When the cushions are in place for the settee there is limited ventilation for this compartment to remove the heat. There is one small fan that takes a suction on this compartment and blows our into a space between the back of the compartment and the hull which dissipates some of the heat, but not enough for the charger/inverter. This heat is really only an issue when the charger/inverter is running at “high” load, so either shore power is on (powering the charger) or the inverter is on supplying the AC outlets. So, the fan that I installed is an AC powered fan with a temperature switch that comes on at a preset point. We are in the tropics, so ambient temperature is mid 80’s without any heat added by the charger, so it is currently set at 91 degrees F. There is pretty good air flow, even with the cushions installed.

Up early so that we can get to Bucerias by 9 am to get a haircut before the Bible study…… off the boat and up to the bus stop and we are off! Only problem is …. The barber doesn’t open until 10 am. OOPS! Well oh well, off to the Bible study that starts at 10 am. This was very well attended, 22 people. We started out with some praise songs and then started into Romans 7. This is a complicated chapter, and if you do read it, I highly recommend you read both chapter 7 and 8, it is easier to fully understand together. At the Bible study, we found out that one of the women cuts hair, and she was going to cut one of the guys hair at the event that we were going to after the Bible study. This worked out well for us. So, after the Bible study Reneê and I walked into town for lunch and then out to the house where the game and pool time were going to be at. Addresses in Mexico are somewhat iffy at best. The address given was 64 Cinco Calle de Julio Bucerias. Well we walked from the restaurant to where Apple thought it was and found the Logostino Restaurant at 2  Cinco Calle de Julio, who said the house at the corner (where Apple Maps said 64 was), was actually 72, and she had no idea where 64 was. So, we kept walking about a block further out we found the house. BTW, we tried calling and texting the owners of the house but they did not respond.  Eventually we got there and had a pretty good day of it, Reneê in the pool and games and me watching the other guys play pool.

Late in the day, I got information from Carlos that our packages were in transit. I checked with Mike about signing documents, and he said maybe tomorrow. In any case, we eventually got back to the boat (on a very crowded full size bus, all seats filled and no more room to stand in the aisle). We verified that Cano had been to the boat and cleaned the bilge.

So, catch up the blog get dinner and then bed.

 

We got up on schedule, had breakfast then went up to the market, we wandered around and checked out what was there. I followed up with Cano about the oil, and he came down to look and figure out what he would need, then committed to returning on Wednesday. We of course won’t be here, we are attending a bible study at church and then spending the afternoon with some of the couples there, the guys play pool and the ladies hang out in the pool then play games. Mid afternoon, I got an email from Mike about the sails saying he needed scans of our boat documents, passport and TIP (temporary import permit). I tried taking pictures and then converting to PDF, (not good enough). I hiked up to the office to get them scanned (about a mile), they were in “black & white” and not good enough. So, then to the yacht club, they don’t do it. Then to the book store suggested by Mike, they don’t either. Finally I checked back in with Reneé who had gone to Home Depot to get some screws, and she was back on the boat so we headed to La Cruz for dinner and to get the documents scanned. This is a 13 mile trip by car. But we could not get an Uber, none available. So we took a cab. 250 pesos (Uber would have been 189 pesos, again 20 pesos to the dollar). Also of note this is about a 30 minute ride. Once we got there, we got the documents signed then went to dinner at the LA CRUZ INN Very good dinner!

Then we headed back to the boat we asked the cab drivers, 300 pesos to go back. We took the bus, crowded and slow. It was about an hour to get to Walmart where we transferred to a second bus, total time about an hour and half. Somewhere in there I got a text from Mike that he needed an additional document….

We waited until we got back to the boat to look for it. Found that we did not have it on the boat, so we called our friend Bob Miller who found it and scanned it and sent it too us. In the morning I forwarded this to Mike! Sometimes it is amazing just how hard it is to do something (while cruising) that is normally very simple to do in the states. All told probably 5 hours to do what would normally take 15 minutes in the states. (We have had a scanner at home for the last 10 or more years). Finally showers and bed.

 

Another quiet day in the marina. After listening to the net I contacted Mike about our sails asking him to call, then I contacted Peter Vargas about the Mast boot repair/replacement.

Mike called and 2 of the 3 sails are in San Diego, the third is expected on Wednesday, then there is paperwork to sign and final payment, and the new sails should be flown in over the weekend! Meaning probably have the sails early next week!!!

Peter sent his son down about the mast boot, and he is working on getting parts.

Reneé worked on lubricating zippers on deck stuff, and figured out we missed two of the clear parts of the dodger. So, we are coordinating with Ivett to get those done as well.

We cleaned the oil spill in the engine room and discovered there is too much in the bilge to get out easily. Cano is going to take care of this. We also are scheduling a bottom cleaning.

Well we walked down to the lounge to use the wifi for updates. OF course that is not going to work. For the laptop (MacBook Pro) it was a 12 GB update and that was only the OS. It was on track for 14 days. After an hour it had dropped to 2 days. But never got any better than that. So, I gave up and figured I will just tether to my phone and when I run out of “high speed” tethering, I will slow down. Oh well. It is what it is.

We figured out we missed two of the windows in our dodger/bimini, we will get those replaced latter in December, as they don’t have the material here now.

Up early and then out to catch a bus to get to church. We were a little late to church (only missed part of the first song). A very good message, the pastor and associate are both bilingual and sometimes one will forget he is preaching in Spanish and will shift to English, the other will immediately shift what language he is speaking so that it is correct. I have seen them shift in the middle of a sentence for 1 word. It goes both ways, the one giving the sermon will start in English and 99% of the sermon will be given by him in English, except for the occasional word. 

After church we walked with Bethany from Church to the Rhythm and Blues Lounge for lunch with some of the others from church then back through some shops and I bought a new hat. (No idea where I left the last one).
Then back to the boat and hang out until 4:30 or so, when Ivett showed up to deliver our dodger windows. WOW! Are they clear we can actually see now!

Afterwards, we went to the pool and happy hour, then back to the boat finish up the blog then showers and bed.