THE TRIP NORTH

Last week I purchased a Bus ticket to take me from Santa Rosalia to Tijuana. With the Mexico senior card it was half price at 650 pesos. I tried to take Steves advice and purchase a ticket to San Ysrido to enable me to avoid switching Buses in Tijuana, but they weren’t available at this location. At least that is what they said. It seems that in Mexico they will tell you what ever is the most convenient for them, or what they think you want to hear.

About two hours out of Santa Rosalia we were stopped by the Federalies and made to exit the Bus. All luggage was removed and searched. It was funny watching them try to grab my backpack with the v-drive and wood for the crate in it, with one hand and swing it up on the table. I tried to keep from laughing as it overpowered them and hit the ground. This happened several times on the trip and each time it was harder to keep a straight face. None of them tried to empty out the backpack, I think they were too embarrassed from dropping it. One did come on the Bus and ask me where I was coming from, going, why, and what was in the backpack. I got rid of him by rattling on about my breakdown with way too much information, until he said; “have a nice ride.”

The Aguila Bus was older, but had very nice comfortable seats installed. The ride to Tijuana took fifteen hours and we were stopped and inspected a total of six times. I thought they were looking for drugs, but they must have also been looking for wanted persons, because they would sometimes just walk up the aisle and look at each person.

I arrived at the Tijuana Bus Terminal at 8:00am and bought a ticket from Greyhound to San Ysidro for eight dollars US. I was not going to San Ysidro, but this would allow me to circumvent the line through Customs if I walked across. The American Customs directed me to a separate area from everyone else and I was instructed to wait there. This made me a little apprehensive being singled out from everyone else. After a bit a new Customs agent came out and motioned me to step up. He looked at my passport and said okay, have a nice day! That was it, I guess he was just starting his shift.

When I exited the Customs building I located the machines to buy a two day Tram pass and proceeded to get ripped off for eleven dollars by the first machine. God, I hate putting money in machines, it’s like playing Russian roulette. That first machine gave me my change, but no pass. The second machine gave me everything, but that meant I paid double for it. Yep, it cost twenty two dollars to ride the tram for two days.

I went first to FedEx and assembled my prefabricated wooden shipping container around the v-drive and inquired as to the cost. The Mexican lady said it would cost $99.00 with insurance to NJ. I was a bit surprised and asked why it only cost $32.00 to ship it from NJ to San Diego. She said that they had a commercial rate from the factory. At this point I jokingly asked if I got a discount with my Mexican senior card and she said sure, and dropped the price to $82.00. Damn, I finally found something good about getting old!

By the time I had completed everything I was exhausted and had run out of time to get back across the border, through Mexican Customs and ride the Bus to the Tijuana Bus Terminal to catch the four o’clock Bus back to Santa Rosalia. I went to the Motel 6 off of E St. in Chula Vista and was again given a senior discount with my Mexican senior card. Of course the lady was also Mexican, so I can’t say this will work everywhere in the USA. The next morning I had some Boston Cream pastries from a real Doughnut Shop across from the motel. These were a real treat, as the pastries in Mexico leave a lot to be desired. Hell, they almost made the fifteen hour Bus ride worthwhile!

The reverse trip was pretty much uneventful, with only two federally stops. That is with the exception of the Mexican Customs who didn’t search my bags, because I got a green light. I just hope my luck holds when I bring the v-drive back across. I rode an ABC Bus made by Volvo that the shocks were worn out on, and if one had a tendency to become sea/car sick, they would be in serious trouble. The seats were terrible with no lumbar support. Everyone had a backache after the eighteen hour trip. The driver was terrible and should be replaced, but most likely won’t be.

I met a twenty year old male from Canada who was seated beside me on the trip down. I couldn’t believe it when he said that he forgot to get a visa. I gave him a lady’s name to help him in La Paz with a visa. I hope it works out for him, he seemed a nice individual.

I am now awaiting word on my v-drive back in Santa Rosalia. I have been reading a lot, but must stop reading and get to work on the boat, much to do! ADIOS

SHIPPING OUT OF MEXICO

Tomorrow morning I will go to the Bus terminal here in Santa Rosalia to purchase a ticket to Tijuana or San Ysidro if possible. Being an old fart does have one advantage, as I get my fares at half price. My Bus will leave on a 15 hour trip to Tijuana at 4:05 pm and will arrive in the TJ Bus terminal at around 7:00 am. I will then proceed to the border xing, go through customs, and then take a trolley to the UPS store in Chula Vista to ship the v-drive to Jersey City, NJ, to be rebuilt. After that I will pick up a few small items that aren't available in Mexico and then head back across the border, through Mexico Customs, to the Bus Terminal and then back to Santa Rosalia. I will then wait for the v-drive to arrive back in La Jolla at Richards,so I can do it all over again!

At that time I will be able to put Wind Raven back together again. If all goes well I will, at that time, head south to La Paz, thanks to my good brother Coyote!

"KISS"

Well, well, when it rains it pours. I have always noticed that when bad things happen they seem to come in threes.  I have to admit that over the years I have become somewhat superstitious about this occurrence. That is why I was rather upset yesterday morning when I arose to discover the $45 LED light with a five year guarantee was very dim and flickering when I turned it on. The night before it had flickered a time or two while I was reading, so I naturally thought it, like most cheap LEDs was going on the blink. No pun intended. Just another high priced marine piece of junk, I thought. That was okay, because it brought the bad occurrences of late to three!

I decided to put the light off till later and make my morning coffee. At seven thirty the Sonrisa net comes on, so I turned on the SSB. The moderator was speaking, but the voice was scratchy. I hit the auto tuner button and it went through its normal blinking process and then settled on “through.” I tried it again with the same result, but I now could not hear anything, no voices. Great, the SSB is now dysfunctional, damn that’s four, which puts me on a new set of threes. This day is not looking good!

I thought, okay maybe the batteries are low on water, even though they shouldn’t be, as I had checked them two weeks before. They were down a lot, not to the plates, but very low. I have three different gauges/monitors for the batteries and checked them all. One was in the red on discharged. This was a first. My neighbor (CHUCK) came out and we discussed the problem and possible solutions. Out came the testers and sure enough I was down to ten volts on the house batteries. That explained the problem with the LED light and the SSB tuner. Ah! Ha!, back to two. A serious problem, but at least I’m ending a set of threes, not starting a new one. Look on the bright side, right?

I won’t bore you with the technical specifics on how we traced down the problem and its cause. I will say that the original cause was two days ago at 5:30 in the morning, when all of the lights in Santa Rosalia suddenly went out. I was up making coffee at the time and immediately went out and disconnected the 110v power supply to the boat, to protect the system from a power serge when it came back on. It turned out that a vehicle had hit a power pole, knocking out the power. I thought I was safe, until two days later when my batteries went dead and I discovered that the power can serge when it is knocked out. Obviously, this is what happened, as the battery charger side of my inverter no longer works. It is kaput!

Chuck and I did some more investigating and he said that my inverter does not go through my smart regulator system, therefore I can disconnect my inverter, wire the 110v supply direct and chuck the inverter into the sea. You see, I don’t really need an inverter. All it does is convert 12v to 110v from your house batteries when you are out to sea, or at anchor. I only have one item that requires 110v to function that I need in that situation. That is my computer and I can run it off of my generator, until I get a pistol type inverter made for computers that inverts 12v to 19v, which is required for my computer. The way my system is now is it converts 12v to 110v and then the computer power supply cord converts it “back” to 19v. This is an extremely inefficient system and an excessive waste of power. Also I do not need the charger side of the big inverter, as I have 360 WATS of solar panels that charge the house batteries with a Honda  2000 I generator for backup.

Wind Raven was previously owned by a very wealthy individual that installed the latest (at the time) and best systems money could buy. Unfortunately, that was mostly in the 90s and I have had to replace, or rebuild them. It has been a slow learning and very expensive process for me. The problem with fancy systems is the complication they cause in a basically simple system. It is easy to fall into the “I have to have that Syndrome.” Especially when you have the money to do so, as I once had. Oh! If I only knew then what I know now! I’ll tell you, I would have a much more simple system and my cruising kitty would have many, many more fun tickets in it! As of late, due to the lack of said “fun tickets” I am simplifying the systems. For instance; no inverterter needed, auto panel on water maker replaced with hand valves etc. etc. Yep, I am now practicing that old adage “KISS.”   KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!