Auto Pilot

While in La Paz I met a fellow biker (Dale) who built his 37 ft steel sailboat and is back in the sea to reap the benefits. A few days back When walking my deck, I thought I heard someone call my name and when I looked around Dale was standing on his boat anchored close by, waving at me. He came over later and we got to talking about boats. I mentioned my auto pilot didn't work and told him that it hadn't worked since I had the control box rebuilt almost a year ago, and the warranty was almost up. He volunteered to come by the next morning and check it out. He is good at electrical and computers which I am not, so he went to work on it. After he had read the installation manual and the trouble shooting guide, we went on the internet to the Alpha Marine Systems website to locate the electrical checking procedure and he performed all tests that that were on the site to no avail.

The Ensenada Blanca wi-fi internet connection had been encrypted the day before, due to a few cruisers abusing the privilege, by downloading movies for days, using up the band width. The locals are now angry, as they have no wi-fi access. I don't understand why a few always have to ruin a good thing for everyone through their greed and lack of consideration for others. Anyway, the only wi-fi available now has a very weak signal here. As a result I can no longer get a good Skype connection, so when we called Alpha it took many hours and many dis-connected (failed/cut-out) calls. The good news is that Dale got it working on the third morning. Yep, after over a year without an auto pilot, it now works once again. That means that I can now sail with the Mainsail up along with the jib. Thank you Dale!

Yesterday we went into the village to get some gas and supplies. There wasn't anyone at the gas place so we went back to the Tienda for supplies. While there the lady from the gas place came by and said I could get gas now. I had 36 eggs on an egg carton flat that Dale volunteered to drop by my boat while I went with the gas lady. When I got to the beach Dale was about 150 yards off shore rowing his dinghy into the wind towards his boat. I figured his motor wouldn't start so went out to ask him if he needed a tow. Now I can't say that he was in the best of moods when I reached him. In fact he was kinda pissy-faced. It seems that when he got to his boat he laid the eggs down on the seat and turned around to start his engine. It refused to start no matter how many times, or how hard he pulled the rope. He stated that he got very focused on balancing while pulling on the starter rope, to a point that he failed to notice that the waves were washing him towards shore. Well, when the boat hit shore it abruptly stopped....he didn't, but he caught his balance.....almost! Yep he landed on the seat, right on top of 36 eggs. I can attest that it wasn't a very pretty site with egg yokes all over him and the bottom of his dinghy. I apologized for laughing, but I just couldn't help laughing all afternoon every time I thought about it.

 About a month ago a panga ran Dale down in front of Marina De La Paz. These pangas run around very fast with their bows high in the air, which blocks their vision directly in front of their boat. The panga ripped his outboard right off his dinghy when it ran over the top of him, just missing Dale. They brought up the motor off the bottom of the bay about ten days later. The guys that ran him down took the outboard to their mechanic to be fixed. They brought it back in running condition, and gave it back to Dale. I had Dale remove the tank and lines to clean them out, which he did. He doesn't know mechanics so wanted me to show him how to repair it. I told him it was most likely the carburetor. Today I removed, dis-assembled, and cleaned it, while explaining what I was doing and why. It was obvious that they had not cleaned it out, as it was full of salt deposits. It now runs fine and Dale has a little more mechanical knowledge.

Tomorrow we will try to align his prop shaft a little better.