Up on time with a “plan” to get to church for the Bible study. But, we were late getting stuff done in the morning, then there was the confusion about welding work on the boat today or not.
So, we got the lines put away for the season. There’s a lot of lines to deal with, 3 for the Jib, but the sheet is over 100 ft long and about 3/4” in diameter. The halyard (goes to the top of the mast), and the furling line. The staysail has 3 as well, the mainsail has at least 9. Then the lines for lifting the dinghy and the outboard. All have to be taken off for the welding. This was pretty much an all day affair. Then the canvas that goes around the mast had to be put on. The welder didn’t come today, he got the panels last night to do shop work.
After, all that, I started working on the phone and doing some investigation on the internet about the smart solar controllers and our existing setup. I realized that we needed two more communication cables. I priced them in the states, about $19 each, (shipping handling and TAX in Mexico $93 for the two of them). My first source in Mexico $89 for the two of them, then I was referred to Marine Vallarta down here at 454 pesos each, delivered to the boat this afternoon was 900 pesos, about $45!
We went to the pool, stopped by the Pepper’s to get the food she didn’t want to leave on the boat. They are flying out tomorrow.
Somewhere in here we decided to give up getting an AB dinghy, we finally got in touch with our only hope for the AB dinghy, who had not been answering emails or returning phone calls. He admitted that he could not get one for us. We decided to go with a similar dinghy made by Highfield. I called Shelter Island Inflatables and bought one, now I just have to get it here. I am investigating with 3 importers we will see what it costs.
Working on pulling lines out of furlers. It only looks like I am laying down on the job.
Up later than normal, about 8 am. We listened to the Net, had breakfast and read the Bible. Then took down the Jib, this is the second biggest sail on the boat normally. Mainsail, Jib, then Staysail, if we put up the Spinnaker that is biggest. Then Reneé took a trip to the store for buns for dinner tonight.
I ran the water maker as it has been about 11 days since the last time we filled the tank. We don’t want to have to run it while there is other work going on. So, when it was full, I checked out what we have used this year.
2,545 gallons of water, for drinking washing dishes and showers. All of that water has been dock water run through our water maker reverse osmosis system with the highest PPM reading of about 8 ppm. This compares to tap water in the states like this:
The upper limit of what is acceptable is about 500 ppm, most households are in the 350 ppm range or less. Anything less than 17.1 ppm is considered SOFT water. Bottled water is somewhat better most of the time: https://watertestingkits.com/ultimate-bottled-water-test/ but still is typically higher than what we are dealing with. In general, the dock water is supposed to be “potable” drinking water, before I run it through the water maker, but we like really clean water. If we make drinking water out of the ocean, we will probably be closer to 180 ppm or so.
Note mineral water by its very nature will have a higher ppm.
So, back to the statistics 2,545 gallons, we have been on the boat 162 days for Reneé and 152 for me this year (I went back and helped our son Nate move). Based on the 162 days, we have used 15.7 gallons of water. If you deduct half of when I was gone to average the use, it is a bit more 16.2 gallons per day. Or just a bit more than 8 gallons per day per person. (We did have guests for 8 days so maybe a bit less).
We went up to a Palapa (BBQ area near the pool), we were unable to get them to light the when we wanted it lit (5 pm) we could have had it lit at about 3:30, but they were too busy to come at 5 pm. Someone else had the area reserved for 6 pm, so we headed back to our boat with the Peppers (we had played Mexican Train and I lost again!). So, as we were walking back, I got a text from the welder Chava who said he was on the boat now. Remember we are in Mexico, I don’t speak Spanish and his English is not that good. He had said that he was starting work tomorrow AM. Turns out he was picking up the solar panels for work in the shop, the frame for the support. I really don’t want to be trapped on the boat again. It seems like I wind up waiting all day on the boat, and no body shows up for days, then they do at 5 pm.
Communications! I am done with my rant.
We had Italian sausage and watermelon salad with chocolate cake for desert. They are flying back to the states on Thursday, so this is probably the last time we will see them this season.
We got the jib down this morning, and need to fold it properly, it takes a bit of room, the sail is 57 feet tall, and 17 feet across the bottom of the triangle, and it is rather stiff material so hard to told/roll. We got the staysail down this evening. It fit in its sail bag without having to refold it. The Jib is going to take more work. On our list of things to do is to remove all the line on deck to minimize the damage from the UV radiation. To do this we run string in its place so we can get the lines back where they belong next season. Only problem is where did we stash the string from last year?
No wasted space in packaging TP. Since not all public restrooms have it, it is just as well that the TP comes this way.This is a scale for seeing just how hard the water is. What we typically have is less than 10 ppm
Up and breakfast the net and bible reading. Then a little after 9 am, John Pounder the electrical guy was here to start work on pulling wires out to get ready for the welding work for the new solar. We got our third bid, all are in the same range so we are going with the first one, advantage is he is doing the 316 stainless (more expensive but less polishing will be required).
The control panel for the generator got here, so I have a project to install it. Reneé cleaned the floors and vacuumed the edges of the pockets in the floor. I walked up to the Embassy to get the notary work done on selling the dinghy, first trip the other day they were closed on Friday, and when I got up there at 8:30 when they opened, I was told I needed an appointment. They gave me a slip of paper with a phone number and an email, the email did not work and the phone number did not have the country code on it and was written in a different format than I was used to so I could not get through. Later with some help we were able to figure out the number and then I got an appointment for later in the morning. I went up with my iPad (the documents for our LLC are there electronically) to show that I was authorized to sign for the LLC, which is where the dinghy was registered. Well, at the door to the embassy, the security guard (armed) made me turn off the phone, and the guy at the counter would not let me open my iPad, instead I had to go out to the mall and email the documents to the Embassy so they could check out my story. Then back in and I was done in about 15 more minutes. At this point the dinghy is really sold, we have the money, the documents all show it in the buyers name and the letter is sealed we will give it to Steve and Denny to put in the mail in the US. They are leaving Thursday. The mail in Mexico is not only bad, sometimes it is downright horrible.
At 4 we went to the pool and swam for an hour then had a beer at happy hour and back to the boat. Dinner showers and bed.
This is how they water the center walkway down the middle of the streetThis is how they trim the palm trees
Up at 7 and off the boat at about 9:15 two buses later we were at church. We were a bit late (bad to be late to church, good we missed the first song which is usually too intense for me). After church we went to breakfast with some people from church.
After breakfast we walked through the market district and I got a new hat, then down to Chedraui the grocery store and did some shopping. By this point, I was a beat tired and wasn’t looking forward to carrying the groceries back on two buses so we got a cab and then back to the boat.
Then naps and at 7 we met up with Steve and Denny at a local restaurant and night club with a fantastic singer. Then a late night watching the lunar eclipse. Dave (my brother) texted me about singing happy Birthday to mom (she turned 89 today) well, we were in a night club and it was sort of noisy, so I got the four of us to go up to the stage and get the singer to sing happy birthday to mom over the phone.Not quite what he had in mind I am sure.
While it doesn’tsound like much, it was a rathder full day, lots of walking and pretty enjoyable spending the whole day with the one I love.
Dinner with the Peppers at a local club with an excellent singer.The lunar eclipse is startingReneé had the stout, I had the margaritaThis is the pork shank that Steve hadThe Lunar eclipse at about 10:30, we are in the marina, so there is quite a bit of light around. The “peak” of the eclipse was supposed to be at 11:11. So, it was almost gone.
Interesting story from the net today: One of the boats (S/V Lee Ann) had headed west to the Marqueses 16 days ago, and got about 550 miles west to Clarion island where they discovered that their rudder tube had started to delaminate (which was letting large quantities of water into the boat). They have been getting advice and suggestions from here. There was a couple of boats that were organizing to take them parts. In the end, they dropped their rudder, did emergency repairs to stop the leak, then sailed back to La Cruz hand steering with a wind vane (small auxiliary rudder normally used with wind to keep a boat sailing with the wind). They had to do continuous hand steering, 2 hours on and 2 hours off with just the two of them for 550 miles (at a around 5 knots, means about 5 days).
After the net we did our Bible reading. Then Reneé checked on the bread she is making (did not rise enough yet), and moved it up on deck. Then we emptied the aft lazarette in preparation for the work starting on Monday. The only things we did not take out were the stern anchor (it sits pretty low) and the spare prop we carry, because why not.
So, after the bread, and lunch, we headed out to La Cruz to put the metal tag on our Life Raft. Two bus rides and a walk later we were there. While there we talked to Mike about getting a dinghy and what the story was on the Life Raft Certification. Well, if we take it to San Diego it will be about 1/2 the cost of the certification to transport and duty. So, we would be at 75% of a new life raft (except it would not be here). We are sending it across Mexico where there is a place to get it done shipping is about $200 US.
We talked about my not being able to get in touch with the AGENT (the guy who can get stuff done with imports and TIP’s). He is having an issue at the border. He agreed to take some art north of a client. At the border they stopped him and he spent 9 DAYS at the check point, the owner of the art was not coming to the border to verify he was the owner etc. Mike also talked about the time he drove north with his “big international” truck, and at the border, they thought he was only running on 5 cylinders and made him take the head off to show that all 6 cylinders had pistons in them and no drugs. Then no help on getting new gaskets. Border horror stories.
When we left La Cruz, we went to the market in Bucerias to get a new hat (sombrero) for me, and while we were there, we got an ice cream bar. Then we walked to the Cervecería Bahia de Banderas Brewery.
They have 5 brews on tap, Golden Ale, Blond Ale, Pale Ale, IPA, and a Stout! We tried 3, they don’t do samples. The Blond was a bit hoppy for our taste, the Golden Ale was a good summer (hot) beer, the stout was just plain great!
From there it was a grocery trip to Chedraui the grocery store. When we were done a cab brought us back to the boat. Almost 9,000 steps for me so far and we still have to go get showers. I might get 10,000 for the day.
All in all, a very productive day!
There is nothing quiet like fresh baked bread!Just us at the breweryHer is the menu SpanishHer is the menu EnglishHere are the beers EnglishHere are the beers SpanishThis is the stout
