Make Me Laugh Again

We got underway at about 8 am. Which sounds late for us, but considering that with the time change dawn is at about 7 am, it is really not that late. We planned to go to Chamala, then spend the night and then to Ipala and spend the night then to La Cruz and anchor in the anchorage. Well, we figured out that we were making really good time (motoring as there was virtually NO wind, as opposed to the expected Big Wind today), so we decided to skip anchoring at Chacala and go straight to Ipala. We had a little excitement about 6 pm, as the depth finder decided that we were in shallow water (14 feet or so) as opposed to what the chart showed at about 600 feet. So, we slowed down and I got the handheld depth finder and it said — which translates to too deep for this device (350 feet or so). This cost us about a half hour, as a result we arrived just after sundown. We turned on all of our lights and anchored. It was a little rolly but not horrible. Reneé is having some issue with her knee, either an infection or a bump and it hurts. She used Ice and a wrap and antibiotics. Overall, a very dull travel day, just a gorgeous sunrise, sunset and a calm day on the ocean.

We listened to the net, then Renee’ took the laundry in and worked on baking some cinnamon bread. After it was done, we went over to the S/V BAY DREAMER and took their tender out for a spin. It is very light weight, and a bit unstable at low speeds, but we were able to get it up on the beach with just the two of us, and then launch it again. Afterwards, we ran into town for some groceries and had Steve and Julie from S/V ALWAYS over for appetizers. They had considered buying an Island Packet before they bought their current boat, but decided that it was not a good fit for them. We will see their catamaran a little later this afternoon.

So, we toured the Catamaran, S/V Always and had some more discussion with Steve and Julie, then they had to run as they were going to a wine tasting tour. We came back to to the boat and got ready to go to the pool. As we were walking towards the pool we decided to go check out so that we don’t have to do that in the morning. As I was paying the bill, Renee’ was sitting behind me on the couch as we had forgotten to bring our masks. We asked about an envelope and a bicycle that we were possibly supposed to deliver to La Cruz. Well someone else had taken the envelope and the lady behind the desk called about the bike and eventually found out that it is staying here and the lady who was going to get it in La Cruz is going to wait until she gets down here. In any case as the time was dragging out in walks a lady who Renee’ recognized as Elisabeth, the lady we met on Isal Isabela who is the connection to Victoria, the previous owner. It turns out that they are here for a couple of days, Elisabeth is surveying boats, and Victoria is basically along for the ride. We walked up to the pool with Elisabeth and met Victoria and spent the next hour or two chatting about the boat and the sailing in the Sea of Cortez. At the end of the day we invited them to come down and see the boat. After a short tour they left and we got dinner going.

We will connect with Victoria and get some more “stuff” she wants to clean out of her storage unit. We will also look at her folding bicycles and see if we want to make an offer on them.

No pictures today.

We had a time change, the phones updated on their own, we had the coffee pot time correct and it was ready by the time we got out of bed. We got our act together and called for a water taxi to get to church. It was amazingly fast. When we got to church we realized that Chris from the S/V Cherri Ann needed a ride to church. So, we took a hike and found a cab and then went looking for Chris. We found him and brought him back to church.

After church we went to lunch and walked by the Super Hawaii store (a small store with a bunch of imports) sort of like shopping in the states. Good news, we got lots of stuff, bad news, I lost my coffee cup. I think this is like 4 either coffee cups or water bottles (stainless thermal, that we fill with ice and water off the boat, since we can’t drink the local water) that we have lost between the two of us in the last two years here.  Oh well, another thing to put on the shopping list. We had shrimp for dinner! Very good! Then ran the water maker to fill the tank. 20 gph from the pressure from the hose and the low pressure pump. We could get 30 gph if we run the hp pump, but then we have to shut down the A/C.

When Renee’ went to take a shower she noticed that one of the other boats here in the marina has the dinghy/tender that we have been looking at to replace ours. As we have said multiple times, ours is too big/heavy for the two of us to get up a beach or to launch afterwards. Here is a link to the tender we are looking at. I am hoping that the 330 model will work for us. Weight is 105 lbs, as opposed to the one we have which I think is approaching 400 lbs. (probably not really that heavy but it is a big dinghy).

https://octenders.co.nz

Later in the day on Friday, we motored over and anchored off of La Manzania. It was a fairly quiet night with not too much rolling. In the morning after breakfast and getting the dinghy down, we went ashore. Renee’ did some shopping and we connected with Elton Lee from the church we went to the week before. When we were ready, we got the dinghy back out through the surf and in the process we broke one of the wheels for the dinghy and of course we got wet. Once back to the boat, we put the dinghy away and got ready to sail. We motored out to the middle of the bay and put the main and staysail up as we had about 22 knots of wind. We sailed for several hours, as the wind died down a bit, we put out the Jib. Finally got lined up on what should have been the best angle of sail for the day based on where the wind had been coming from all morning and early afternoon. Of course that was when the wind speed went below 4 knots. Effectively ending the sailing for the day. We put the sails away and motored into the channel and the marina. Then once docked we all went to the pool.

We woke up to the coffee pot making a fresh brew. Slowly waking up and getting our act together. We had breakfast and did our bible reading for the day. Then debated what to do and when to do it. We decided to run a load of wash. The things that had gotten wet with sea water, it takes forever to get them dry, and you can’t really put them in the dirty clothes basket until they are dry or they get moldy. If you wash them, they dry fairly quickly. We have a concern for water, and power. I don’t want to run the washer after we fill the tank next Sunday, as we are headed north on Monday and in case there is an issue we want as much water for that trip as possible. Tomorrow we have company scheduled to sail, and I don’t want to run the generator while sailing. Sunday is Easter and we will be going to church in the morning and running the water maker in the afternoon/evening. So, the laundry needs to be done today. About an hour of so later the wash is done, the generator is off and the battery is about 87% charged. The solar is trying at about 7 amps most of the time. But it is just not enough to really make any progress. We use 200 amp hours over night. The solar pretty much keeps up with our day time loads, but does not really get ahead on the overnight load.

A quiet day, sometime we just need that. I looked at instruments for the boat on line. Ours are from 2005, and the charts are old as well. I am leaning towards B&G instruments and chart plotter(s). A significant part of the reason behind the replacement/upgrade for the instruments is cameras. One of the cameras that we have seen on other boats and has great reviews is a FLIR. This is a “night” vision camera. This goes up the mast and has zoom/pan and tilt. Which means we could see where we are going at night. At least some and better than we currently have. Downside to this is the price, the reason we have not installed one already (Renee’ really likes the idea) is for the camera/controls and display it is probably over $20k, and it is important to note that it would probably not interface well with our 16 year old electronics. It would also require running more wires in the mast. We already have to take the mast out at some point and repair the conduit that has come apart somewhere in the mast, meaning some of the wires are loose inside the mast. Which means that when the boat moves so do the wires hitting the side of the mast and making noise, even when it is just he boat rolling due to swells at anchor. So, it is on the list for the upgrade rather than doing it separately.