Make Me Laugh Again

So, yesterday was a “work day” on the boat. We really did not do anything, except make water and deal with the anchor chain. Today was not as much fun. This was my last chance for a while to deal with my mom’s iPad issue. So, right after breakfast I called Apple support, this was not a great experience, as I have noted before this has been a long process, and by the end of the day we are probably over a dozen hours on the “help” line with minimal success. Today, I finally gave up with the first line techs and have simply started requesting a senior advisor and going from there. Today I was “disconnected” (or hung up on by Apple) at least 4 times. That means the first three senior advisors got the story from me and started investigating and then failed to call back when we were disconnected, ONE attempted to call back about a half hour after we were disconnected, one sent a generic email about how to get back into the queue. By the time I was talking to the third senior advisor, I made sure that he knew my number and that he had no excuse for not calling back. The last time I spoke with a tech before this, they said they knew the solution to my problem, and that they would send me an article to read with a link in it to fix my problems, I asked what email they were sending it to, and they gave my email, I asked twice and they repeated where they were sending it. Of course they sent it to my mother in Tracy California and a while later she forwarded it back to me, of course it would work to reset the activation lock on your iPad IF YOU KNEW YOUR PASSWORD!! Which of course we don’t, so that was a wasted effort. In any case, the last guy really wanted me to trust him and that he would get to the bottom of this and so he sent me his contact info after generating a new case number to add the second device id to it. He described how this email would bring it directly to him and that all I had to do was reply to sender and that because of the case number it would go straight to him. So, of course the email he sent me had the old case number in it, I asked him about that and he said, no that won’t work and tried again. Same thing. (This is the sort of thing that makes me doubt the tech or senior advisor can fix my problems). In any case the third time he sent the email it was correct.

Anyway after about 3 hours today, I was finally at the end of what I can do on this problem today.

So, it was time for the second issue with support. While we were in California, I got a notice that the firmware in our battery charger/inverter needs a MANDATORY update. Until this update is done, I can’t use the charger software to change anything, This can be sort of important, as one of the features of this charger is the ability to reduce the limit on the supply current, so instead of the maximum of 30 amps in, I can set it at 15 amps or 7.5 amps, which when you are on a weak shore power connection can be helpful to prevent tripping the shore power off. Of course when we are running the generator, I want the setting at the maximum current, as our generator supplies up to 80 amps AC to our distribution system. This way the battery charges faster when we are running the generator and since we don’t have a time concern when we are at the pier it can charge over night. In any case, the note that came with the firmware notice is that it will reset all the settings to factory default. GREAT! Except I have already found that I don’t have access to adjust any of the settings that need to be changed for LiFePO4 batteries, as Victron Energy has that locked with a passcode that they only give to VE trained tech’s. So, before I do this update, I want to talk to the support people at Battleborn Batteries, where I bought the charger and they set it up. No answer, just a recording message and I left a call back number at about 11am, and got no call back by the end of the day. So this will wait until next week sometime.

Overall a pretty frustrating day.

 

We got up early so that we could go in at high tide. The idea was to get in and not have to run aground, well that was the idea. No success, but that was the idea….

We got out of the mud and docked by 8 am. Then chores to do, get the anchor chain out on the dock and mark it for the various depths as the paint has flaked off, run the water maker to fill the tank using good water to dilute what is in the tank now. (Our water maker from sea water is at about 500+ PPM, but from the dock water about 1 ppm. We will have it looked at in Puerto Vallarta. We have talked to several people here, and one couple that we met in La Paz at church. We will be having dinner with them later.

We got an early start this morning, up at 5:15, and underway by 6:15. We hoped to sail, but instead had virtually no wind, complete with fog. We used our fog horn function on the radio which blasts a horn over our loud speaker so that all those near us would know that we were there (nobody was near us). We saw a few whales. At one point I was below pumping the holding tank and Renee’ was watching the boat. A mother whale with her calve surfaced just in front of the boat and then again just to the side. VERY close!

We arrived at Matachén bay, and anchored about 1:00 pm, and took naps and read until happy hour and then dinner on deck.

We got up at 5 am! Underway at 6 am, breakfast after we got out of port. Yes, just another sunrise at sea!

We followed S/V Monarch and motor/sailed north to the island. We did not go fast, and since it was about 35 miles, took all day. When we got there, we found this LITTLE island had 4 boats at anchor in the two anchorages. With us, there will be 6. Or there would have been, except it looks like one of them left as we arrived.

On the way north, we saw about a dozen whales, some humpbacked and some we don’t know as we only saw the blow or it was in the distance. We dropped anchor at the second or third choice as we were the last ones in, and oh yeah lots of other people. We anchored in about 35 feet of water not far from the beach. The books all warn that this is a rocky anchorage and to make sure and use a trip line to be able to free a stuck anchor, so we put a 50 foot rope on the anchor with a fender tied at the end. Hopefully we won’t have to use that, and we can just have some fun getting the rope and fender back on board.

The first thing I noticed about this island as we approached (after the other sailboats and whales) is that there are lot’s of birds flying above the island. The book says, the optimum time to visit is Mid February to Mid March to see all the birds. So, it looks like we hit that window!

Our refrigerator is not working well again, currently we have two jugs of ice in the box, and a small fan to circulate the air. The refrigerator is running hard, and holding temperature to about 42 degrees. Renee’ said, “we may have to cut this playing around short and get to Puerto Vallarta to get this fixed”.  I have suggested moving the important stuff to the beer cooler, which is working well. To come back from Matachén. Bay to here was an all day sail, to come back from PV it would take about 3 to 5 days up against the wind and then 2 to 4 days to get back. I am not saying we won’t ever do that, but it is a pretty big investment of time.

We just heard from Michael, they had originally planned to stay here until midnight tomorrow night, then go to Mazatlan stay for a day or so, then cross to Las Muertos on the peninsula. Well, they have decided to leave mid morning tomorrow and cross directly to Las Muertos, a 48 hour crossing. So, we will not be getting together again for awhile.

 

Renee’s comments about Isla Isabel

2/22 we arrived in late afternoon after a lovely trip, some sailing, mostly motoring.  The Naccaratos ahead of us checked out the south anchorage first…too rocky.  They then anchored on the east side and we parked next door.  We used a trip line in 30’ of water because of the rocky bottom.

2/23 we said goodbye to the Naccaratos in the morning as they left for La Paz (150 mi).  We then dropped the kayak in the water and packed our hiking boots to go ashore.  We first paddled by Shari Ann (38’ Hunter) and spoke to Chris, a single handed sailor.  Then on to the shore.  There was some wave action and we surfed in to the beach smoothly.

We walked along the beach to find the trailhead and had to dodge the many Blue Footed Boobie nests on the coastline.  The mommies complained but didn’t leave their nest.  Some daddies stood by the mommies and babies.  There were other kinds of birds and iguanas all over the place!  It was like walking through an aviary!  Our hike took us up to the rim of the inactive volcano where there was a lake.  Then we hiked down to the south bay/anchorage.  Here there were many fishing huts, pangas, and fishermen.  Two sailboats were anchored in this bay.  On our way back we ran into two hikers that were very happy to see us because they were off the trail and looking for the trail.  They were Elizabeth and Mark.  Elizabeth runs a boat maintenance co in Paradise Village (Banderas Bay).  We got her number.  Chris was on the trail as well.  When we got back to the kayak the tide was out and the waves were breaking on the rock shelf that we didn’t know was there when we came in.  We stared at it for quite a while trying to figure out the best spot to cast off to get back to the boat.  Chris want first and made it look so easy.  Neil and I made it without capsizing but it took several tries to get past the rock shelf.  Then we paddled over to another boat where we met Brad and Sarah.  They’d been on the boat in front of us in the Cabrales boatyard.   

Once back on the boat, we had a beer, lunch, and collapsed.  Our plans of going snorkeling evaporated.  It was a somewhat calm evening…not real rolly but not still either.  We watched “The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission”.

We both agreed the island of Isla Isabela was worth the trip.

We woke up early (before 7 am) had breakfast, watched a sermon from North Coast and worked on getting the dinghy down. Then washed the solar panels. I found the stern light still on this morning. When we turn on the navigation lights, there are breakers for most of them, but one of the two stern lights has a switch at the helm. I turned it on when it got dark and forgot to turn it off when we got here. It takes about 1 amp, which means that since it was on for about 24 hours extra, 24 amp hours. We have 600 amp hours to work with. So, about 4% of our capacity went to the light. This morning we are at 47%, so that means we would have been at about 51%. The refrigerator is really using some amps! We need to get the leak fixed and get it recharged. We will be running the generator tonight to get hot water for showers and charge the batteries. Right now the solar is putting out about 24 amps, but only about 8 amps is going into the battery. The rest is being used by the things that are running. Freezer, Refrigerator, Beer cooler, the charger for my laptop, and one fan. Oh, I was going to turn off the fan to see how much current it was drawing and … Renee’ started the microwave which uses the inverter to the tune of 60-80 amps out of the battery. The fan is drawing about half an amp.

Well it is time to go. I will write more later.