Make Me Laugh Again

I flew out at 10:37, leaving Reneé to watch the boat and enjoy PV without me. My flight to Tijuana was quick and uneventful. In the TJ airport, I used the CBX system to walk across the border. I had purchased my ticket on line before leaving PV, so it was only $19. The walk across and out the other side put my in the States. I sent updates on where I was to Reneé, so I can tell it was 34 minutes from the time we touched down and I could turn my phone on and when I was in the US looking for a ride to the train station. If I had chosen to walk across the border (leave the airport and cross TJ it would have been hours, in my mind that $19 is well spent!
I was at our friends the Miller’s by 6 pm. We had dinner and talked for a bit, then bed.

Neil’s story:
I picked up the rental truck from Penske, we had checked with U-Haul, too much money, so we checked our options. Interesting note here, the price to rent a U-Haul 10 foot truck from Southern California to Pensacola, $5,600 from Pensacola to Southern California $670. We rented a 12 foot van from Penske for $3,200. The van was almost new, (when I turned it in in Pensacola, it still had less than 10,000 miles on the odometer). Nate and I drove the truck from Potrero (east San Diego) to El Centro (short first day, as I had a doctor appointment in San Diego, then we had to pack the truck and finally drive east) on Friday. From El Centro to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Junction TX, to Jennings LA, arriving in Niceville in Florida Tuesday night.
We unpacked the truck, met his roommate and had dinner then bed.

Wednesday, Nate and I went to a laundromat and washed all of our clothes between the two of us I think we used 10 washers and probably 7 dryers, while he has access to a washer and dryer at his new place that would have taken a couple of days to do. Afterwards, we did some driving around Niceville (where the people are Nice! They will tell you that). We did some shopping and just looking around. We planned to drive around to some churches on Thursday, but it was Veterans Day and the churches we went to were closed. So, back to his new place and Nate spent the day cleaning and putting stuff away. It looked great by the end of the day. Then dinner and beer at the nearby brewery THE 3rd PLANET. Then bed and getting up early for me.

Friday, I left at about 6:15 am to get to Pensacola to drop off the truck by 8 am. Then Uber to a hotel and a quiet day for me. My flight back to Puerto Vallarta was a 7:30 am flight to Dallas then a 12:45 flight (that was delayed to after 2!) finally back on the boat by 6 pm.

Reneé’s story:
11/4
Washed shoe crate
Repaired deck shoes
The settee above the water heater fiberglass work was finished.
The holding tank got pumped out.
Put the pirate costumes away
Put the curtains up
Made pozole

11/5
Sergio and friend replaced the toilet gaskets but found cracks in both pump mounts. They will return to replace the mounts when the parts arrive – Neil is ordering them. (Both 11/5 and 11/6)

Worked on removing blue tape from bottom of mast.

11/6
John Pounder worked on electronics – found damaged connections behind nav station and got the speed probe working.

Finished removing blue tape as best I could

11/7
Was gone most of the day…church, out to lunch with church group, shopped at La Comer.

11/8
John Pounder replaced the depth gauge which fixed the obnoxious anchor alarm.

Made hummus and refried beans

Washed the floors

11/9

Visited Tracey and Steve on Sailish Dragon and Turi and Jelly on Alexsea (Slip B28…next to Brendon)

Went to the parking lot market behind the boat and bought three pairs of shorts

11/10

Left at 8:15 to get to a Bible Study at Church…it was on Romans 6. Good study and lots of prayer time.

Walked to Mega Soriana (1.5 mi east of church)…compared prices between Mega and La Comer…cheaper at Mega.

Met Monica at the bus stop on the way home. She was with her crying 3 yr old. She shared with me that she and her husband are fighting over custody. I gave her bus fare + and I prayed for her.

Didn’t make it to happy hour for the first time this week. Made banana bread instead.

11/11

Did laundry

Made oatmeal raisin cookies

Missing Neil

11/12

Took the bus to Walmart and fortunately ran into Turi (Alexsea) from whom I bummed a ride home.

Made meatballs

Replaced the blinds on the portholes with pieces cut from a yoga mat with suction cups. They are easy to put on and to remove and if on, let less light in than the blinds. I only plan on using them for privacy. I like them much better than the blinds.

11/13

Finished the blinds

Cleaned the portholes

Dropped off the contact information for Sergio to Rona on Paloma (E Dock). Met Charlie, a local who can do the fridge replacement. Got his ph#.

Waiting for Neil to get home.

Up at about 8 am. No particular reason to get up early, so why? We are expecting someone today to work on the cover over the water heater. I have to pack for my trip, we have to pick up mail to take back to the states at 5 pm, and we are meeting Danny and Robyn (who watched Reneé’s sourdough starter over the summer) for dinner. It is another glorious day here in PV!

Most of the fiberglass work got done today, but he will be back tomorrow to finish it up. I am not posting pictures until it is finished. I announced on the net this morning that I could take mail and that I would pick it up at 5 pm in the office here at Paradise Village. While I was watching the work getting done on the boat, there was a knock and lady was standing on the dock, her name was Turi and her boat is S/V Alexsea she had a letter for me to put in the mail for her. Shortly after she was here getting a tour of the boat, Reneé got back from Home Depot getting a fan. I gave Turi a boat card and she and Reneé talked about getting together while I was gone. After everything was done for the day, I packed for my trip tomorrow, and then we hiked up to the office and then to our dinner date with Danny and Robyn, dinner was at the Fajita xxx and was a fantastic dinner on the river. Afterwards they brought us back in their golf cart. We had showers and bed.

Work was scheduled on the boat today. John Pounder came and worked on electronics. Our VHF radio did not sound very good on our first day back so I had him look at it. Our radio is a nominal 25 watt radio (he said in most cases they were typically close to 20 watts) ours was over 23 watts, all the rest of the checks also came out good. He had listened to us on the Net this morning as well and said we were fine. Next up was our tank level monitor. He figured out that the computer terminal strip (card edge connector) was dirty and used a pencil eraser on it and it is working now. Finally he checked our speed probe. After about 45 minutes on that he is planning to come back on Saturday with a plan on how to fix what he found. (4 out of 5 wires have no continuity between the probe and the instrument).

Next up is the cover over the water heater. They are scheduled to be here about 1 pm. Sergio showed up and we discussed the issue with our vacuflush heads (they cycle too much). He will be back Friday to work them. The fiberglass work will be tomorrow. 

Today is the day of the market that happens in the parking lot right next to the marina. Reneé got a new purse and I got a new hat.

We had several discussions with Mike about the sails, shackles, and lines. 

At the end of the day we discussed what we had gotten done today. Reneé made carnitas and coleslaw, bought a gift, got the laundry done while I watched the work on the radio, the tank level instrument, and the trouble shooting on the speed probe, I also adjusted the battery charger and solar controller for the cruising season. While doing that I realized I need some forced ventilation for the battery charger, so I ordered a fan that I will pick up in San Diego. Together we took the dodger windows down to get them replaced, as they are pretty foggy and hard to see through. Finally we went to the pool and just hung out for an hour or two.

All in all a pretty productive day.

Again, no pictures. Sorry.

Today stated off slow, neither of felt very good. Not really sure why, just generally down. After breakfast I made a couple of calls, checked on the sails (call back after 3:30 today) checked on why only two receipts for storage units in Missouri (instead of 3, and he is investigating). Then we dug out the seal kits for the vacuum generators for the heads.

I have managed to lose a couple of things since we got back to the boat. My coffee cup (travel mug that keeps the coffee hot and doesn’t leak). I had it in the rental car in Kansas and thought I still had it on the plane but three days later I was still looking for it. Finally I had a thought that it might be in the computer bag, and it was! 

Next up was my spare set of sunglasses, these are special, in that they are prescription (I wear contacts, but the prescription is for an astigmatism only), wrap around, polarized, blue blocker with reader prescription in the bottom half, hardened lenses to prevent scratches etc.. The reason that these are so important is that we are in the sun a lot, and it is hard on the eyes. Reneé has a similar pair. In any case I was pretty sure I had seen the case for them on the boat when we unpacked, but three days later still had not been able to find them. Finally I had a thought this morning and looked in the computer bag, right under where the coffee cup had been. Oh well!

So, last month I was in for a physical and my blood pressure was up. I suggested it might be no breakfast or coffee or blood pressure medications that morning. The doctor said, ok but check it regularly when you have had your medications. So, knowing that we had a cuff here on the boat, I just planned to do it here in Mexico. Of course that means finding the cuff, I spent a few days looking here and there where I was SURE it was. After looking again this morning, Reneé was asked to take a look, because sometimes (ok almost always) she can find something I can’t. Of course the cuff was right where I had just looked. I checked and my blood pressure was 110/71. As in no problem.

Which made it time for a nap.

Then lunch and start into getting the water maker ready to run. 

Issues:

1. The light at the water maker controls was out. It is an LED, and the switch had high resistance, so it required switching back and forth several (like a dozen or more) to get it to work. But before I figured that out, I had taken the cover off the light to change the bulb, and dropped one of three screws. Dropping a screw in a car is a pain, typically if you are under the hood it goes all the way to the ground, if under the dash it goes into the carpet. On a boat it just disappears. I looked in both areas it could have dropped into, but did not find it. Oh well, I have some spares. Continuing on, I removed the light from the wall and dropped one of two screws. See the note above. I looked again and found the first screw, but not the second. About this time I figured out that I just needed to flip the switch a bunch and the light works. I found one of my spare screws, and managed to get it all put back together. 

2 Next up we need filters to make the water maker work. I throw all the filters away at the end of the cruising season and start with fresh ones with the next season. It takes 4 filters to make this work. I use a carbon block between the dock and the water maker to remove any chlorine to protect the membranes. We have a 20 micron to remove junk from the water coming from the ocean, then a 5 micron filter to protect the membranes from sea water stuff, and finally in the flush system we have another carbon block filter to remove any chlorine from the water tank in case we filled from a dock with city water. Both of the carbon blocks are 5 microns as well. So, the membranes are pretty well protected. Of course while getting the filters out, I dropped a screw and spent a few minutes finding it, YES I did find this one.

1. One of the two required hoses we use to run the water from the faucet to the filter then to the boat had to be repaired. So, there was another 20 minutes not running the water maker. 

We ran the water maker and put about 120 gallons of water at 2 – 3 ppm into our tank. It is clear full at this point, 260 gallons. When we run the water maker, the A/C has to be off, too much power. So, it is rather hot in the boat now. When we finished running the water maker, the filter on the dock (which  is in a clear housing) was almost black, instead of the white that it had been when we started. That is POTABLE water, which means it is “safe to drink”.

Today we finished up figuring out how we are going to help our son Nate. I am flying to Tijuana on Thursday and will pick up a rental truck in Oceanside on Friday morning. Then drive down to where he is in Potrero (East San Diego) help him load his stuff in the truck and then him his dog and I will drive from there to Niceville, Florida where he is moving. Some interesting facts, you hear that people are not leaving California, try and rent a Uhaul truck from somewhere in California (like Oceanside) to go to someplace else (like Niceville, Florida) check the price then reverse the direction. Since you will need a week to move go for the weekly rate as it is usually lower. Niceville to Oceanside a reasonable $637, this is a 10’ truck for a week, and from Niceville to Oceanside same dates $5,461 same truck same distance.  That is 757% more to bring a truck out of California than to bring one in. We found a competitor for about $3,200. Still not cheap but better. The cost to fly to Tijuana (which is a domestic flight in Mexico) is less than $100, the cost to get across the border at the airport (which is way easier than any other border crossing from Mexico) is $35, then a ride to the train and a trip up the coast to Carlsbad. Again less than $100. Pick up the truck on Friday get Nate and drive across country. From Pensacola airport to Puerto Vallarta I will be using airline miles (12,500). We have almost 200,000 miles at this point. So, my getting to and from the states is not very expensive. Covid requirements are a negative test to fly into the states, but not to walk across the border, no requirement for it in Mexico, and none to fly back.  I will fly back on Saturday. 

Reneé will be on the boat by herself for a week overseeing some repairs that are on going.

No pictures today.