April 3 2024 Wednesday Playa Santispac

(posted 04/06/24)
Up at 6, morning routine. It was a pretty windy night, and morning.
Then a couple of phone calls, and Brian came over about 9 am. He installed the last chart plotter. Then we spent a couple hours going over how to use it. He was done a little after noon. I then spent an hour or so working on the rebate for all the new stuff.
Mid afternoon, Lisa and Patrick from SV Soulmate, a catamaran came over for games and laughs. By the time they arrived, the wind was significantly reduced. They left at about dusk. We ran the generator to heat the water for showers had dinner then read and bed.

This is the new chart plotter at the helm
This is the new chart plotter at the gangway
This is the new chart plotter at the nav sation

April 2 2024 Tuesday Playa Santispac

(posted 04/06/24)
Up at 6 and get our routine done, then I worked on the refrigeration again, Reneé went for a walk on the beach with Lisa from SV Solmate, and I remembered to charge the start battery, still don’t know why if did not charge before.
I spent a couple of hours on the help line with the refrigeration people, and ordered a spare compressor.
Then I got a call from Bob. He and his wife Sharlene were supposed to spend a week on our boat starting next Tuesday, but …. Things happen and they won’t be coming.

Reneé & Lisa

April 1. 2024 Monday Playa Santispac

(posted 04/06/24)
Up at 6 like normal and our daily routine. Brian and Ben did not come to the boat today, Ben is flying to Seattle today for another job. Brian is working on the wood and will be back on Wednesday. I worked on figuring out what is going on with the refrigerator, the help line is in Maryland, and they take that day off on Monday following Easter. So, not a lot of progress. All the stuff in the settee got put back, all the stuff in the aft head got put away. Etc. etc. The boat is mostly back together. YEAH!!

No pictures

March 31. 2024 EASTER SUNDAY Playa Santispac

(posted 04/06/24)
Up at 6 like normal. This was a work day for the guys working on the instruments, so they were here a bit after 8, and got right to work. The speakers in the salon got rewired. What a horrible job they were before. Cheap speaker wire that was spliced into better wire here and there, etc. the speakers on deck also had the same sort of poor job done before. All fixed now. At this point all the speakers have been rewired, all work except the port speaker on the arch. Nothing obvious, but it does not appear to be a fault of the wiring on either end, Which means I have a puzzle to work on.
At the end of the day, all of the electronics are working, and the new piece for the gangway has been test fit and drilled, just needs staining and varnish.
At some point I noticed that the engine start battery is not getting charged. So, I have another puzzle to work on there. We watched the sermon from Northcoast and then off to bed.

Yes we are still dealing with a refrigerator issue

March 30. 2024 Saturday, Playa Santispac

(posted 04/06/24)
Up at 6 am, Reneé listened to the news, we had breakfast and read our bible for the day, such is our morning routine. Brian and Ben arrived at 8 am and immediately began working.
There are a few really tough parts of the instrumentation update that are difficult, the part up the mast is one and was the first thing that they worked on. The cell amplifier came down, an idea that sounded good when we were leaving San Diego, but n practice didn’t really work. The limited power for the amplifier and other technical issues prevented it from ever really working. There is also the issue of virtually no cell towers in Baja. So, while the amplifier might get an additional 25 miles, that is less than a day’s travel, and then it will be a couple of weeks before we were in range again. The next issue with it is that the co-ax cable was very large, and loose inside the mast resulting in a lot of noise from it. It also took up a bunch of room inside the mast.
The wires inside the mast were pretty crowded, the following wires are or were in the mast:
Cell amplifier (very large co-ax)
VHF radio antenna
Wind speed and direction sensor
Anchor light
Masthead navigation light
Old Analog Radar very very (yes really big) co-ax and power
Deck light
Steaming light (another navigation light
Loud hailer (speaker/microphone) very large shielded wire (.oversized for the application)

We removed the cell amplifier cable and antenna, the old analog radar, and replaced the wire for the loud hailer with smaller wires.
All to give room for the new radar (digital) that uses two smaller wires, power and data.
In the process the loud hailer got broken and will have to be replaced.

The next big project was wiring up the instruments above the gangway, this was probably the hardest part of the project, requiring “fishing” cables through the ceiling and a variety of small holes.
They finished at about.6 pm, at the end of the day the radar is working. They will be back at 8 am, EASTER SUNDAY.

no pictures today