Splash

Victor and his dad came over and put our boat in the slings and lifted it up off the blocks so it will be ready to launch at six thirty in the morning. A fter it was lifted we sanded and painted the areas that were under the jacks and the bottom of the keel. We disassembled the sea cocks, cleaned them inside and out and greased them. They now work great and are safe. I got most of the wiring done on the sonar, but will have to finish it tomorrow. We might stay at a marina tomorrow so we can finish it before trying to anchor without knowing the depth. There are sand bars here and I don't want to run aground. Everyone does sooner or later, I'm told, but I'd prefer later or better yet, not at all. It would just be too damn embarassing!  So the fun starts soon! I hope.

Sea Cock vs Sounder

I got up at five this morning when it hit me that I had forgotten something very important that  had to be taken care of while we are hauled out. We have a sticky sea cock for the toilet in the head. I can't believe that I forgot it. It was one of the main reasons we hauled out here and didn't wait until we hauled out in Guaymas. I will try to fix it this morning instead of finishing the wiring on the sonar first. If I have time I will finish the wiring after the sea cock. That means doing the wiring in the quarter berth in the heat of the day and it gets really hot in there. Hopefully I will have time to do both, so we will not have to attempt anchoring without the depth finder.

When reading the installation guide on the sonar I read where they say to hook up the power to the screen which controls the red control box. When I read the installation guide on the red control box it said to hook up the power to the red control box. The question is, do I hook up power to both, or just to the screen?... because you turn on the whole system with the screen on button, or is the red box supposed to be powered up at all times? They have options for using their screen, or using your computer or other type screens. They are not specific. I think I will give them a call. These companies need to have a normal every day person try to install their products using their tech's instructions and see if they are clear enough for the public. Most people are not electronic experts and do not understand their tech language, or what the techs take for granted that everyone knows! I don't know about you, but this frustrates the hell out of me. Why can't they remember "KISS"  KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID !

Another example of this is Garmin's instructions for their products. About six months ago we purchased a Garmin 78sc hand held chart plotter. The instructions that came with it were impossible to understand, so we went on the internet and downloaded their larger instruction manual. It still did not explain (in layman terms) how to operate the damned thing. We called Garmin and they informed us that we could purchase a video explaining how to use their product from an independent company on the internet. This went against my grain, but we had already invested about $500 in the unit, so we went on line and purchased the video. Yeah I know, chasing good money with bad! Anyway, the video does explain it well. The only problem is that they go through it so fast it's is impossible to keep up. So by the time you find the button to push that they show you, they are already six more steps ahead. As a result you have to either hit pause instantly, or start it over again. This becomes very frustrating and wears out the video in no time. They need to print out the video. No such luck, right?

Magnificent Frigate in flight

Steve informed me that if you click on an image it makes it bigger, and it works!

So if you want to see the photos up close and personal

CLICK ON EM!

These flew over the boat while we were painting today. The ones with the white breasts are females.

Dinner

It's three in the afternoon and we accomplished enough today to knock off and enjoy an evening with our friends Steve and Lulu. As we were finishing up the port side of the bottom painting, Lulu stoped by to invite us to dinner. Naturally we accepted her gracious invitation, as she was aware of our situation when painting (no water), from their previous experiences painting while living aboard. I decided to put the faring blocks off until tomorrow, and help Judy with the painting. The bottom is now painted, sort of. The port side is all green but we ran out of paint on the starboard side. It will be okay as is because we sanded the old paint to bring out the minerals. It should work just fine, but if they have a quart more paint, we might make it all match. Don't really need to, but we have this impulse to just do it! See what you think!





Starboard side

 Port side

Three days til splash!

We must have the boat completed by Tuesday night, because Wednesday is splash day. Today Judy will paint the port side bottom green. I will shape and install the inside faring blocks on the transducers. They must be angled correctly, or they will put excessive side pressure on the transducers and cause them to leak. We sure don't want that. After completion of this alignment, I will install a new zinc on the prop. We already cleaned and polished the prop and when doing so, discovered the cutlass bearing could use replacement, but we will try to make it last until it is time to haul out next fall. Yesterday I made mounts for the sonar screen and GPS above the compass in the cockpit and cleaned it up a bit. I will try to hook up the sonar before we splash, if time allows. Otherwise, I will have to do it at anchor. I started to read the instructions of operation for the sonar and discovered it to be a bit complicated, but I will not be intimidated, I will conquer it. I hope! Judy referred to it as "A master's in sonar course." One of the bow lights is out, so I must remember to check it also. It's six in the morning now, so I must get to work. Have a great day!

The sonar screen with GPS mounted above. Will straighten it up later.

Another "GOOD" Day

Today I recruited Steve to help me install the two transducers for our new sonar. He was a God Send to say the least. Thanks again Steve. I couldn't have done it without your help. While we were putting in the transducers Judy was sanding the bottom of the starboard side of the hull. Good job Judy!

Judy at work !

Posing with her native ochre war paint

Our friend Steve

Bill the supervisor

 The fairing block and transducer installed  (Port side)

Ah, finished at last!

 

Now all we have to do is wash it off, fill a few small blisters, and paint the port side to get us through the summer. The only paint we could get here is a green, so the boat bottom will be green to port and red to starboard. I wonder if that will confuse the fish as to our direction? Judy says it's okay, because it will match the Mexican flag!

Work

A Magnificent Friget in the yard

 On the crane

Wind Raven in front of super yacht

In the slings

Set up on the stands

The super yacht, in the third photo overlooking Wind Raven above, belongs to the richest man in the world, a Mexican!

Today will be spent installing the transducers for the forward looking sonar and installing the new high pressure line for the watermaker we picked up yesterday. If we have time we will do some more sanding on the hull. Maybe even put some ugly green bottom paint on, but somehow I doubt we will get that far. Must get to work before it gets too hot. Eat your hearts out up there in Oregon. The sun shines here every day, almost. Judy actually said the word cold this morning. It was somewhere in the mid sixties. Cold indeed!

Un Bueno Dias

Today was definitely a good day. We got up, put on our best rags, and headed off for immigration. We arrived early and one of the officers was sitting on the step waiting to get in. We spoke with him and he informed us we were early enough to go have breakfast. There were several places to eat along the promenade.One of which was also a bakery that turned out to have very good omelets. After eating we went back to immigration. Upon our arrival we discovered that many people had arrived in our absence, but they had not brought out the waiting list to sign yet. They brought it out after about fifteen minutes and we signed in. After about twenty minutes they called our name and luck was with us, we got the big guy. Oh, he's the best one, happy, friendly and speaks English. He looked over our papers that Judy had prepared, and declared them "perfecto." That's when I first knew this would be a good day. Every thing went smoothly and we were sent to the bank to pay the fees. When we returned to Immigration for the second time there were even more people waiting. This time it was not so fast, but still went smoothly. We accomplished the FM3 application in record time.

 On our way back we stopped at Marina De La Paz to find the refrigeration man that failed to show up the day before. After locating him (Roger Wise) in an art class/group, we made arrangements for him to come over at one. While waiting I flushed out the watermaker and removed the faulty hose. Roger arrived and found/ repaired the leak. As he tried to remove his gauges he discovered a valve was stuck partially open and he couldn't remove his hose without vacating the whole system. Great, if he does that I lose all the freon. It did work out after a bit of opening and closing the valve. The system is now as good as new. It will freeze ice cream as hard as a rock, if you so desire. After he left, Judy and I walked to Parker Hose where they made up a new high pressure hose for the water maker.  I will install it tomorrow. Judy fixed the keyboard on the laptop. It now functions very well and in English, too! So, all in all I guess it wasn't a good day after all. It was a "great day."

What a joke

Unfortunately the joke is on us! We had our Windows Vista changed by Telcel to Windows 7. The problem is that it is in Spanish. You would think, no problem, just change it to English. That’s what we thought. It does not work out to be that easy. You see, we have to change everything and that includes the keyboard. Yep, when you hold down the shift key and hit the question mark key, you get this _. Hmmm, that does not look like a question mark to me. I have not figured out how to fix this particular problem yet. The computer is now full of little surprises like this. For instance, when I started this post I discovered the spelling corrections were in Spanish. I am not a computer whiz, so this might take some time. Please be patient while I try to figure it all out.

Now, I will try to catch everyone up to date. We are presently hauled out at the Abaroa boat yard in La Paz. We had intentions of painting the bottom with the hard bottom paint we purchased in the USA. This, as most plans, did not materialize. They will not allow dry sanding in the yard. We tried to wet sand the old ablative paint off for five days and got less than a quarter of it done. This is no good, as it would take around a month to paint the bottom and would be cost prohibitive. We decided to buy a cheap [2000 pesos[ gallon of ablative paint to put over the area we sanded and lightly sand the remaining area to bring the minerals back out. This will allow us to spend the summer enjoying the Sea of Cortez, instead of working our butts off. That is not why we came here. We will then haul out in Guaymas where it is a third the price and we are allowed to dry sand the paint off. That will only take about three days to accomplish. They charge $ 150 a week space rent there and only $ 100 a month in Guaymas. Why didn’t we just haul out there in the first place? Because our depth finder went bonkers and we needed to install the new one we purchased back in Newport OR. You can’t anchor here without one. It’s just too dangerous. We also will try to get our refrigeration leak, auto pilot and our water maker repaired, while we are in the yard. We paid for two weeks here, so will get done what we can. As usual the people who owe us money are not making their promised payments to us, so money is a big issue. Everything, with the exception of medical is very expensive here. Guess I’ll have to make some calls again to get some cash flow. We applied for our FM3s, which will allow us to stay in Mexico and not have to leave every six months to reapply for visas. They cost $300.00, but that is much cheaper than returning to the states every six months. When we leave the yard, we will anchor out as it is free. At that point the expenses will drop considerably. The food here is cheap in restaurants compared to the states, and very good.

Internet Problems

We can not post until we get our computer fixed. We had Windows 7 installed and they screwed up our keyboard. This is what we get if we press shift and the # key " no at. for the address. If we try to type a question mark we get a _ . Try working with this crap sometime. Hope to get it fixed soon.

Safe and Sound In La Paz

Let me say first that this portion of our passage was begun after six days with less than four hours sleep, by yours truly. My accuracy might be a bit questionable, as much of this trip is rather blury. I will do my best to give an accurate account, although the order of events might be off a bit. After Judy's encounter with the whales we proceded into the Sea of Cortez heading for La Paz. The weather was good with mild winds not exceeding eight knots.We expected to make it to La Paz in a day and a half at the most. Unfortunately, it did not work out as expected. We sailed throught that day and into the night without any exciting moments. They were yet to come. A little after midnight I checked the GPS for distance remaining to La Paz. Now there is two ways to get there. One is to go between an island and the Baja peninsulla, continuing north until you reach an opening off the port side which enters the bay right above La Paz. The other is to skirt the outside of said island and go around the north end of another island dropping down into the bay, but much further north. I opted for the shorter route which enters the bay slightly above La Paz. The only problem with this route is that in the opening to the bay there is a large shallow danger area in the middle of the opening and it is too shallow on the north side to even consider. The distance was great from our position, but if I increased our speed to seven knots we could make it there in time to navigate the channel to La Paz before dark. So, a little after midnight I poured the coal to her and off I went. Judy was asleep below and I was having a hard time keeping from nodding off at the helm. It was very cold, which helped a little but at the same time made it miserable standing at the wheel in the wind. A little before daylight I was watching the GPS intently, as I was getting close to the channel between the island and the peninsula and was concerned about depth as our sonar was out. When I looked up there was a dark shape to starboard that should not be there. AS I reached for the throttle to slow down, another dark shadow appeared off the bow. I throttled back to an idle as land became visible directly in front of me. I turned the wheel hard to port and slowly made a u turn. I had run into a dead end and if I wouldn't have looked up at that moment, we would have grounded. I traced my path back out to safe (deep) water, shut the engine down and started rechecking coordinates. The coordinates on the GPS coincided with the charts. This didn't make sense. I almost ran aground. I rechecked the GPS track and it showed the boat entering the channel where it was supposed to enter. The GPS turned out to be eighteen miles off. At this point I lost all confidence in a GPS. At this point I changed my course to run outside the island as I no longer trusted the GPS to go through the opening with the danger area.




As we rounded the point on the north end of the island the sea had become angry and the white caps were enlarging considerably. I had a couple of rods out with a couple of magnum lures on that I had been trying to drown since my GPS fiasco to no avail. The wind was up and the current strong, pulling us south. There was a buoy ahead that I rounded on the north, forgetting about the fishing lines behind and the southerly current. Would you believe that it snagged both lures? Yep, I did a dandy job of losing both lures. The person who owns that trap will be delighted when he discovers two brand new $27.00 lures attached to it. In the seas that prevailed at the time, I was not about to stop and try to retrieve them. We could now see the island at the head of the bay that we must round. It was about eighteen miles distant. By the time we reached the lower end it was getting dark and the weather had become very bad. The sea was now raging. The currents were very strong, the wind howling, and the waves the size of two story buildings. By the time we reached the head of the island it was pitch black out. We tried to round the head but could not make any headway. At this time I began to hallucinate due to sleep deprivation. I asked Judy to take the helm she did but we still could not make any headway. At that point I decided to head north east out to sea. I went out into the sea approximately four miles to lie a-hull and wait for daylight. The current and wind were pushing us in a southerly direction so I had to keep a vigilant eye on the drift, as we were on a leeward shore. Once again the GPS failed me as we drifted towards the island shore. According to it we were a good three miles from shore when I noticed the high swells on the south side did not recede as the boat rose. That indicated that the dark outlines were not swells, but land. Sure enough it was. I throttled up and headed offshore again, going out even further this time. When daylight came we headed towards the point of the island. It took several hours to clear the point beating against the high breaking waves, the current, and the wind. Once around the point it was a downwind sail into the bay.



The channel entrance into La Paz is poorly marked, but once into it, it is okay. We tried to contact the marina on the VHFs but the mike was out on our main radio (we discovered later) and the hand held wouldn’t reach out far enough. We finally got the marina on the cell phone and made arrangements for a slip. It was touch and go for awhile there, but we made it okay and are now safe and secure in La Paz Baja Sur, Mexico! I still want to go fishing. Maybe after repairs this time.

Glasses

Since we arrived Judy has been in a slump, not feeling well. She was kinda okay the first day, but spent that night, the second day and last night in bed with a headache and dizy. Lulu told her that she was down for three days after their passage. Maybe she will be back to herself in a couple of days. I sure hope so. Today she decided to go with me to town. We walked in about three miles and she had to rest often. I could tell she wasn't steady on her feet when we left, but she insisted on going. On our passage she laid her new glasses on the salon table when she went to sleep. Of course they were not there when she woke up, as the rollers were tossing the boat around alot. I found them under the bunk with one of the arms broken off. It was soldered on, in China of course, and very poorly done. It broke off by simply falling about two feet to the floor. We found a frame store and asked if they could resolder them. They said they could not be repaired due to the way they were constructed. A long story short. Judy got new frames for her glasses (much nicer looking) for 500 Pesos. That converts to $41.86 American folks. That included the price of the frames, removing the old lenses, and fitting them to the new frames.

Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas

It is Friday March 11th and we are in La Paz, Mexico. This is Baja California’s capitol city. We arrived on the ninth, and have been trying to catch up on our sleep. I have much to say, but little time to say it at present. As a result, I will give a brief rundown of our trip at this time and add more at a later date. My mind is still a bit fuzzy, as during the trip I got less than six hours sleep in eight days. Yes, after all these years of “pushing the lope,” I reached my limit of physical endurance. There is no way I could have pushed myself any further, and without Judy’s help I could not have made it. I can’t understand how one can make extended passages alone. I mean, how in the hell do they get any rest? I will have to ask our friend Erik, who is sailing down from Alaska single handed, when he gets here.


We left Ensenada Mexico on the morning of March 1st at seven thirty. The sea was calm with no wind. The wind did pick up at noon to five knots, allowing us to motor sail. Hey, that beats no wind. We made 7 ½ knots at 2000 RPMs. At three in the afternoon the wind reached eight to ten knots. We also had a following sea with 3 ½’ rollers. It was frio noches, as they say here, a damned cold night. All in all it was a great day, as we made 178 nautical miles. At this rate we could be down as far as Cabo in four days. Unfortunately, that was not to be. At the end of our first day our possition was……N29*21 W116*21

On the second day the engine started using excessive oil, but where was it going? It was not smoking enough to warrant the consumption. With the engine going and the working jib out we made seven knots most of the day. At six pm the wind had picked up to 18 knots and we were sailing along quietly and making good time. It was great sailing weather with the exception of the fact that we were freezing our buts off. Where the hell is all this hot weather our friends keep telling us about down here? We will make it a point to ask. Maybe they lived in Oregon so long that they think anything over sixty degrees is hot. Actually after twenty six years there ,I kind of see their point. Our average speed was 8 ½ knots that evening, not bad for a couple of scrubs.

On our third day the problems began. The engines oil consumption had been joined by both the transmission and the v-drive. We now had three mechanical devices spewing their grimy fluids throughuot my once pristine bilge.The seals will have to be replaced in both asap. In the mean time all I could do was shut the engine down every three hours to check the fluid levels and then add the appropriate amounts of the required oils. Needless to say, we went through a shit load of forty weight oil and transmission oil., which of course ended up sloshing around in the newly cleaned bilge. The bilge now looked like a poorly maintained grease pit. To add to this tribulation was the shutting down of our sonar. Actually it didn't completely shut down. What it did was automatically switch back to fishing mode every time I tried to put it in the navigation mode. Great, now we can’t tell how deep the water is. That means no anchoring, which in turn means no stopping at Bahia Tortuga to get some needed rest. Oh well, on thje good side, it also means no lost time going in and out from the outside passage rout. We have been sailing thirty to eighty miles off shore. Generally the winds are better further out. This also meant that we would get south faster in search of that elusive "hot" weather.

On our fourth day the radar must have became jealous of the sonar not having to do its share of work, so it joined in the strike. Yep, it just refused to come on completely. It would go through its warm up and then shut down, just teasing us. Damn, now we can’t see the cargo ships on radar, and believe me, there was a shit load of them around. I crossed paths with fourteen in the wee hours of one morning alone. At one point, when I was below deck and Judy was at the helm, she yelled out to me to come up, because this giant ship had somehow snuck up on her. When I entered the cockpit and looked forward, the sneaky ship was about four hundred yards in front of us, yikes! She asked "what do I do?" I said turn around and get outa here. It got a little exciting for a bit there, but all was well as we headed off in the opposite direction.

By the end of the fifth day I had everything under control, kinda! At least everything was moving forward. I was getting a bit tired, but figured rest was coming soon, as we had decided to stop at Cabo for fuel and rest a few hours. Somehow it just didn’t work out that way. We arrived at Cabo San Lucas in five and a half days, but it was in the evening. As a result, since I refuse to enter a strange harbor in the dark, we had to lie a-hull and wait for daylight. The seas were raging, and the wind was doing it's part to make it miserablly cold once again. Now when lying a-hull one is supposed to be able to rest (sleep). Not so, at least not for me yet. So while waiting for daylight I noticed a light pop into view

There will no longer be any reference to days. They are now irrevocably blurred. Anyway, we left Cabo with Judy at the helm. I went below to get some long needed sleep. Once again this was not to be, for as I was just lying down I heard this God awful scream come from the cockpit and then this loud eruption. Now this was not a normal Judy scream. She has a habit of letting out these little startled screams when something unforseen takes her by surprise. Like if a piece of paper floats by unobserved and touches her arm. No, this scream was a, “I’m shitting my pants scream.” Needless to say, I jumped up and ran to this obvious "damsel in distress" call. Upon entering the cockpit the remains of a vast amount of water was showering down on its return to the sea from which it came. Judy was screaming “ a whale came up right beside the boat in the air, what do I do?” Very calmly I said; “It’s okay just turn away, and get the hell outta here” I took the wheel trying to exuberate calmness and turned hard to port. As I did so, another whale breeched directly in front of us, errupting through the surface of the water with only a small portion of her tail remaining in the water. As she lost momentum in her reach for the heavens, she rolled onto her side and then returned to the sea, hitting it full lenfth with a tremendous splash. About that time all hell broke loose and whales were flying out of the water all around us. Shit, we were right in the middle of a pod’s feeding frenzy. These monsters were huge, or as the children say in Oregon “great big huge.” As I have stated in the past, my greatest fears of  sailing the ocean are whales and lightening. At this point I must go, as we have much to do. So that’s all for now folks, gotta get back to fixin the problems. Oh I forgot to mention that the mike on the VHS took a dump also. It’s in the shop being repaired, I hope!