Make Me Laugh Again

Reneé is going to a women’s thing at church this morning, and I will be cleaning the dinghy. We are trying to sell it so we can get a smaller one. I have one interested party (maybe only to “kick the tires”) but we will see. Somewhere in here, I contacted the Import agent here in Banderas Bay. He might be able to get a better price for brining in the dinghy, so we exchanged details about size and weight. I got a text from Jose the guy with the solar panels, who said they could be delivered on Monday. I texted John Pounder the electrical guy who chatted with Chava the welder who came by about noon to get an idea of the project, (more about Chava later). When the guy interested in the dinghy came by, I lowered the dinghy and pulled the cover off and dumped the bucket that we had stuff in inside the dingy. I think that everything landed on the deck, except a dinghy anchor. So, I contacted Cano who will be cleaning our boat on Tuesday to see if he can find it down below.

The guy that came by said he was 80/20 in favor of buying the boat and that he would be in touch by Monday. Reneé got back a little later and I washed the dinghy and together we washed the cover. It all looks a lot better.

So, it is a small world, when Chava the welder showed up, he pointed out that he had made the ladders on the sides of the our boat for the previous owners.

SMALL WORLD

We bought our boat in San Diego in August 2018. The previous owners had a delivery captain take it from Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta) to San Diego in about January of 2017. It was first listed in February of 2017.

Some things in the listing were not in the boat when we got it most notably the satellite TV system. This really wasn’t a big deal to us, as we don’t watch TV so it was not a selling point or even a dickering point in the price.

One thing that was not listed that was supposed to be on the boat was a canopy, this is a canvas cover that goes from bow to stern about 6 feet above the deck. After we bought the boat and we were inventorying everything on the boat we came across a couple of panels of white mesh. These are about 3 feet wide and 20 feet long. We contacted the previous owner who said they were part of the canopy, we said what canopy? She sent pictures and we thought it was very nice, but most certainly not on the boat.

1. When we first got the boat, it was moved to Ensenada, Mexico then we took it back to San Diego and then back to Ensenada etc. One of these trips, we were tied up and I was on deck/dock and a guy walked by and asked “What was the name of that boat before?” We told him and he said, “I was the delivery captain that moved it from Banderas Bay to San Diego. This would have been in 2019, after we had retired and started seriously working on the boat. (Two years and change since he had done the delivery). I asked him about the canopy, and he clearly remembered folding it up and putting it in the forward cabin. Oh well still no canopy.

2. We sailed south and around the end of Baja, being asked occasionally  “What was the name of that boat before?”  We would answer and then hear something about our boat before we got it.

3. In the sailing season of 2020-2021, we sailed to Isla Isabella a small island in the Sea of Cortez. This is a natural habitat for a few birds, most notably the Blue Footed Boobies and the Frigate Birds. We anchored and went ashore. There were abut 5 or 6 boats at most anchored here. One was Chris a solo sailor that we met here, and he ‘showed us how to kayak off the island’. While we were walking around the island, we heard voices and eventually two people came out of the bush and we got into a conversation with the 5 of us. The lady (Elisabeth Shanahan) in the other group asked the question  “What was the name of that boat before?” We told her and she said, I thought so, Victoria is my very good friend (previous owner). She also turned out to be a delivery captain and runs an organization here in the bay to watch and maintain boats etc.

4. While we were in Banderas Bay in the winter/spring of 2021, we decided to have a new canopy made for our boat. We looked for a couple of different people do get quotes as we did not have any references for anyone. One of the lady’s who came to the boat asked  “What was the name of that boat before?” And she said, I made the last canopy for this boat. We contacted the previous owner and there was our reference, so Ivette made our canopy.

5. In May 2021, we sailed south to Barra de Navidad and stayed in the marina. I failed to check out the night before we intended to leave, so at 9 am we were at the office checking out when Elisabeth walked into the office. She and Reneé started talking and it turned out that Victoria was up at the pool so we hung out with them for a bit. While we were there Elisabeth pointed out that she had a boat in Long Beach (maybe?) that was getting teak work done and the guy doing the work was Ivette’s son in law.

6. So, now we are getting new bigger solar panels, this requires some steel fabrication and welding. I have been in contact with a welder here and he came to the boat Saturday 5/7/2022. He took one look at the boat and said, I made the ladders on both sides of this boat. These ladders are exceptionally well done and fit so well on the boat that we had assumed (when we bought the boat) that they were standard equipment or maybe an option. But had talked to other owners and found out that these were personalized upgrades.

Up a bit later than normal, no particular reason, we just slept a bit longer than normal. Today is a day to clean and work on the boat. Reneé washed the fenders (these are the inflatable cushions we hang over the side of the boat to keep us from scratching the hull on the dock), After that she made cookies.

I installed the DVD player again! It still did not work, I tried everything I could think of I verified that the HDMI cable and the TV worked by hooking up the Apple TV to it and seeing a picture and hearing sound. But no sound out of the DVD player. So, I called tech support and spent about an hour not getting anywhere. About the time I had given up it was time for lunch so I cleaned up enough to get to the table. Reneé asked about sending it back. Well, we bought it on Amazon and that was in November 2021, so I was not very confident. But said I would try. This time when I called Alpine support, I went to Customer support instead of Tech support. This guy spent about another hour trying to get the DVD player settings to get sound to the TV. We failed. So, he sent me an email and two weeks before we are going back to the states, he will send a new one where I ask him to and I will have 3 weeks to get the one I have back to them or have to pay for the new one. Certainly can’t ask for more than that!

So, I cleaned up the mess from the DVD job, and then went after the supports for the cockpit table that are bent. When those were replaced (yes Reneé helped with that), I was pretty much done for the day. About this point as she was making cookies I heard a strange sound from the water pump. This sound means that the tank was empty. OOPS!

This meant that at 3 pm I started filling the water tank. It is coming up on 9 pm now, about 200 gallons so far. The tank holds 260, and it has been a while since we emptied it.

I talked to my uncle for an hour or so. He lives alone and it worries me a bit. Nothing I can do about it, but keep him connected as well as I can. He has a new computer (a Mac mini), and Apple support is available, but he hasn’t called. About half of our time was spent working on getting him to call for Apple support.

Well we finished filling the water tank about 9:30, about 210 gallons, so the tank was not completely empty. Now that we are finished with that we can turn the A/C back on. It is not so much to cool the boat down as to dry it out. It is 82 degrees and 65% humidity outside, and 82 degrees and 54% humidity inside. We have three A/C units in the boat, a 7000 but unit in the forward cabin and also in the aft cabin, and a 13,000 but unit in the main salon. Temperature is set for 75 degrees and we usually turn the one off in our stateroom overnight, as the controller is an LED unit and it is on the dimmest setting and is still very bright, and RIGHT in my face where I sleep.

So, we were up and around at 7 or maybe a bit after.

Reneé washed windows and portholes and lubed zippers. It is amazing how bad the zippers on everything get down here on the water.

This was a day for phone calls, we had gotten a letter in the mail (forwarded to us by way of Kyle) that said we needed to deal with our LLC and that we needed to send a check for $110 to this company by May 13. Well, I did some investigation and called the state office where the LLC is registered, and found out that this is a scam. It costs $10 to update the registration and they send an email to us to tell us when it is due (August 1), and that we can do this up to 2 months in advance. All in all a very nice conversation.

I called and talked to my mom for an hour and change. I do this a couple of times a month (maybe more). If you are reading this and haven’t given someone a call lately perhaps now is the time to do it.

I tried calling my uncle, but he was out.

We went to the pool about 4 pm and then back to the boat for dinner. Then showers and game night, this time we played Rummy 500. A game Nate taught us.

No pictures today

Up at 7 am. Reneé off the boat by about 8:15 headed to Walmart to drop off part of our canopy to get fixed. (This is with Ivete who made it). After doing that she will head over to the church for a bible study. I am meeting up with the guy to do the electrical work on the boat for the new solar. John Pounder. Afterwards the plan is to meet Reneé in Bucerias, get my hair cut and then go order the stuff for the solar. 

We ordered the solar panels and the controllers. They should all be on the boat early next week. Afterwards, we went back to the boat and relaxed for a bit then off to the pool and happy hour. 

This was movie night so after dinner and showers we watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers from 1954. This movie is most certainly NOT PC today. Still the music was good. Then bed. 

Up at 7, breakfast and getting organized. Listened to the Net. Today, we have to finish checking in with the Port Captain, meet with Cano about bottom cleaning and stuff, maybe moving slips. We were waiting on a different slip down the dock. The one we are in is sort of pie shaped so we are pretty close at the stern to our neighbor. The other slip is more rectangular.

Well, that did not work! Current and wind got in the way, also a bigger boat was parked in the next slip, making the new “better slip” not that much better. End result at the worst possible time the bow thruster said “I AM TIRED” and stopped working. This is not surprising, the bow thruster is a 7 hp 12 volt motor. For those of you interested in the technical stuff, there are 746 watts per hp. So, 7×746 = 5,222 watts. The formula for power is I (current) x E (voltage) = P (power in watts). So, this motor is drawing about 435 amps from the batteries. EVERYTHING about this is HOT, the wires, the motor etc. So, we went out and puttered around the bay for a couple of hours to let it all cool down. We also talked to the office and got a different slip. While we were out, we saw a couple of dolphin and some birds. When we pulled back in to the new slip there was plenty of room.

Reneé went and got the laundry, I worked on contacting people about solar, generators, and dinghy’s finding a new dinghy that is in the states, that is only marginally more expensive than the one we did not get in February. That is no longer available.  A part for the generator is supposed to be shipped tomorrow from Florida, and then forwarded by the importer. I had my meeting with Cano about what to do this summer, and I arranged to meet with the electronics guy about the solar stuff tomorrow morning.

After all the screwing around, we headed to the pool. We stopped by Denny and Steve’s boat and chatted for a bit, then headed out again and ran into Turi and Jeli on another boat and chatted with them for a bit, so all told it took us an hour and half to get from our boat to the pool, about a 10 minute walk.

After happy hour at the pool, back to the boat for dinner and our bible reading, we are trying to move it to the end of the day rather than rush through it in the morning. Then a real treat ICE CREAM! After the way today went we deserved it! Then showers and bed.