La Paz Blog Catch Up

Since we have been here we have been trying to catch up on maintenance and repairs. However, we have not been as adamant at these tasks as we should be. The weather has been a bit chilly compared to what we have become used to this past summer, when it was consistently in the high 90s and low 100s. It is now in the mid 70s during the day and in the high 40s at night. We have been getting lazy and using the (cold?) weather as an excuse to stay inside and curl up with a good book. Back when we were in Oregon we could only dream of such warm weather, and that included during the last few summers. SUMMERS in Oregon became a joke to us. I spent most days working on the boat in preparation for our adventure south, rain or shine, in sometimes freezing weather. The only thing that kept me inside was the wind with rain if it was over 60mph. Yes I am serious, many days the wind was over 90mph in Newport while we were in our slip. The last supposed summer we were there, we had a whole three days of real summer weather. The rest was overcast, cold and windy. We would have given anything for the weather we are experiencing here in December, in our supposed Oregon summers! I guess one could say we are now spoiled. I should be ashamed, but I’m not, I mean this is supposed to be retirement isn’t it?


CHRISTMASS CHICKEN

Anyway, yesterday I talked myself into getting off my back side (no small feat, mind you) and fiber glassed the interior splint on a repair I made on the broken oar for our dinghy. I had decided to get at least one thing on repairs or maintenance done every day in the future until I’m caught up. That was about a month or so ago, and I actually did, for about a week. Unfortunately, as previously stated, my endeavors became lost in a book, or three. But alas, I am back on track.

LAST NIGHTS SUNSET



A couple of nights ago when the wind was howling and the waves were bashing into the port side, rolling Wind Raven back and forth in a commendable attempt at tossing us about in the v-berth, the dinghy began bashing against the fenders alongside the boat. This resulted in the lifting the rear fender up into the air, allowing the dinghy to slam into the side of the boat. Besides the obvious concern for the potential damage to Wind Raven and the dinghy, it makes a very loud banging noise that is impossible to ignore, no matter how deep you were previously sleeping. As a result I drug myself out of bed and headed out into the cold wind to remedy the situation. I have always been amazed at how Judy can sleep so soundly through all these disruptions in the night. Do you suppose she could be feigning sleep, I wonder at times. But when I ask her if she hears that, she is very consistent in her lack of a response. Anyway, I went out and added another fender between the two boats in an attempt to remedy the situation. It worked until a boat would race by creating a large wake, which would bounce the dinghy high into the air, which in turn would allow two of the three fenders to escape and land in the dinghy. At that point the dinghy would once again crash into the side of Wind Raven. Judy decided to move the third fender back further in hope of a remedy. It worked, that is until the next night in the wee hours when I discovered that we had an errant fender. Yep, it was gone. I think Judy needs to practice her knots some more. She announced on the cruisers net that we had an escaped fender wondering around in the bay , or in the sea, and asked anyone who found it to return it to its home. The chances of that might be pretty slim I think!


REPAIRED OAR FORMOST

NEW YEARS EVE MORNING IN LA PAZ

PANGAS HAVE TWO SPEEDS...STOP & FULL IT SEEMS

THIS ONE PASSED WITHIN 20 FEET OF THE BOAT

I will add photos for your perusal from time to time.

TO JOIN THIS SITE

Several individuals have stated that they have been reading the blog since the begining, but were unable to figure out how to make posts and how to sign up as followers so they can post comments. I have also had some followers express their disappointment in the fact that I am no longer describing our adventures, and the lack of photos of Mexico. As a result I will test joining the site and if successful, will attempt to give non- computer-geek directions. In other words "in common english."  If I can do it with geek directions, you should be able to do it with human directions. If you still have problems e-mail me at honquesp2@yahoo.com

If all goes well I will once again continue to document our adventures with photos and text.

Common english directions, I hope!

Scroll down below photo of Wind Raven galley (second large photo) on right side of the screen between smaller photo of JewDee in the salon and pictures of "Members." There you will see an elongated blue box that says "Join this site" and click on it!

A box will come up that says "Follow Jay and Judy sail Wind Raven" --if you have one of the listed accounts click on its icon and follow instructions.  If you DO NOT already have one of the listed accounts then click on the link that says "create a new Google Account" below!

A new box will then come up for you to register for a Google account (which enables you to view our sailing blog.) Fill out all info requested and then click on the box that says: "I accept. Create My Account" which is located below the "Terms of Service."

Then congratulate yourself! You DID it! You are now an Official Follower of Jay and JewDee and Their yacht, Wind Raven....WELCOME to our journey!

TURKEY? NOT!

Three days till Christmas! We will spend a quiet Christmas on the boat. Due to the now standard greed of our world society with exhorbitant mark ups on seasonal items, we refuse to be held up by a damned Turkey! The hell with tradition! We will have a roasted chicken (pollo) for Christmas, just like we did for Thanksgiving. They can keep their $3.60 a pound Turkey. I WONDER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF EVERYONE TOOK THIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS EXTORTION BY THOSE GREEDY RAT BASTARDS? FFELIZ NAVIDAD Y FELIZ ANO AMIGOS!

Yet, to Do's!

1) Install secondary battery in bow for capstan.

2) Check auto pilot at sea.

3) Pull anchor and scrub/clean chain rode and anchor bridle. Reset anchor.

4) Take Wind Raven to clear bay to scrape and clean bottom.

5) Make wind sock (before summer).

Work Completed...I Hope!

• The parts for the roller furling arrived yesterday. The company said that since the supplier sent two sets of bearings by mistake and that I was the only one to ever order them and due to my paitence concerning the delays, he sent both sets for the same price.
• I installed them yesterday, which was not as simple as one would think. It took several attempts and one tab broke off of one bearing. I placed the broken tab on the top side so that the bottom tab stops it from sliding up into the roller tube. The bottom tab rests on the Norsman connector, so it can't slide down. Hopefully, there is no unforeseen problems that this can cause. The system seems to work well at anchor, but the true test will be at sea!
• I retuned backstay to #25 on Loos gauge, creating 4 inch rake on mast.
• We also took the dinghy to shore, where we turned it over to clean and wax its bottom. It was certainly due!
• Roger the refrigeration man came by and checked to see why it was not working on the refrigerator side, but worked great on the freezer side. The problem turned out as expected, a bad expansion valve. He was to research it last night and give me a price today. At $60 an hour, I hope he is most rapido!
• Cleaned out and rearranged garage (quarter berth).
• Judy had her hair cut to a bit above her shoulders, looks good and will be easier to maintain.

OIL IN THE BILGE!

Yesterday I cleaned the bilge only to discover two new problems. The first being that the dripless seal on my prop shaft is leaking. At least I now know where the water is coming from and can fix it. The major problem was discovered this morning when I discovered oil in the bilge. This oil leaked in from the engine when it was not running. That leads me to believe that the oil pan has a breach in it. The pan rests on the bottom of the bilge on the front edge, so that is the likely source of the oil. I will investigate further today. If it is the source of the leak I will have to pull the engine, or at least raise it up a foot or so to get the pan off.

Freezing in Paradise!

Damn it's freezing down here. Last night it got down to 52 degrees! The forcast for today is a chilly 74 degrees and that doesn't even take in the "wind chill factor." Brrrrr!

Rust & Barnicles

We noticed that we had rust coming out of the water maker drain that was staining the side of the hull. Judy scrubbed it off a couple of days ago, but yesterday we noticed it was back. There should not be anything in there to rust, so I will have to disconnect lines until I find the source.

Since we have been in La Paz we have experianced an infestation of barnicles on the bottom of our boat. The water here is dirty also so I refuse to get into it. We will take the boat to the islands where the water is clean and scrape the bottom. All summer in the Loretto area didn't produce any where near as many barnicles as three weeks here did. That is except Puerto Escondido that produced a lot, but still not as many. P.E. also has dirty water.

Fishing Rod Storage

I drilled 1 1/4" holes in bulkhead on each end of bunk in salon and inserted rod buts into them. I then placed two lengths of velcro towards the middle to hold tips. So far so good. The test will be to see if the velcro will hold the tips up in heavy seas.