11/16/2014- Chiapas to Bahia del Sol

As usual, I've been slow to update the blog.
We had a fun and uneventful passage. Roughly 250 miles in about 53 hours. Leaving Marina Chiapas at 3 PM on Tuesday; we motored out of the harbor, and in twenty minutes we were sailing along at 4 to 5 knots. Just outside of the harbor, we nearly hit a 5 foot log attached to a net. We started looking for more nets, and there were several we had to avoid. Once we were clear of the nets and floating debris, we set our course, adjusted the sails, and time to try out the windvane!

It works great! It is very sensitive to the slightest sail adjustments, and I didn't have the control line adjusted tight enough. Still, it worked great as long as we had wind. By about 10 pm the wind had shifted, so rather than start the engine, I decided to sail the wind; I wasn't worried about our course so much, as keeping the sails inflated. This led us farther offshore than we needed to be, and we soon entered the shipping lanes. Huge cargo vessels heading for Costa Rica, Guatemala, and who knows where, seemed to be all around us!

Thank you AIS! We were able to see and avoid the traffic.

Eventually, the wind died, and we started the engine. The conditions were calm through the night, and the next day. We were accompanied by many dolphins along the way. The water was crystal clear, and we all took turns on the bow watching the show!

The only incident we had involved our water supply. At some point during my watch, a pot or something slid across the counter in the galley, and turned on the faucet. Luckily, almost all of our 50 gallons went down the drain, until the stopper fell into place, flooding the sink and overflowing! So, we have no water, and a very wet floor.  We decided to start up our water-maker underway. Everything looked good until we started the salt water boost pump, and nothing happened! I found the blown fuse quickly, and replaced it, only to have it blow again.... 3 times. I shook the wires around a bit, removing the short, and we were in business.

Anchoring at night is always a challenge, but we found the waypoint outside of Bahia del Sol, and waited for morning. Our VHF radio was the one thing I didn't test before we left. So of course, that's what gave us problems. We called, and called, and called; no answer. In the morning, waiting to cross the sandbar, we finally tried the handheld, and it worked fine.  We made it across the sandbar with the help of 

Bill and his pilot, and headed for the marina.

Our friends aboard Cetacean crossed the next day, and like us had no problem. It was actually over so quickly, we didn't know we had crossed. That's ok! Our arrival and check in went smoothly, and we decided to stay at the marina a few days so we could get Jack to the beach,

and, enjoy some of the free rum that was offered as part of a fishing tournament being held this weekend!

Bill and Jean, who host the El Salvador Rally, invited us and some other cruisers  to their house for a great BBQ'd chicken dinner. It was a fun evening.  Everyone here has been friendly and helpful; providing information and tips for getting around.

The adventure of taking the local bus is always fun! We made it to town, to try and find a speaker for our VHF... no luck.

But,...Karin got checked out on a new airplane, then we headed back to the boat. The fishing tournament was over...for a trade of two Tecate's, we had about 3 pounds of Yellowfin Tuna! Sashimi tonight.

 Sadly, our #1 crewmember, Mark, had to leave this morning. He's always a great help, and lots of fun to have along. See you next time buddy!

11/5/2014: Final preparations

Hopefully, we'll be heading out on Monday for El Salvador!
The last week has been pretty busy. A couple small projects everyday, but the biggest was our Monitor Windvane.

Fortunately, all of the mounting hardware came with it. We had to order new upper, lower, and diagonal tubes to fit our boat, the hardest part of that was getting the old tubes out. Next, I had to rig something to hang the entire assembly on for measurements. We had two wooden oars from our old sailing dinghy; I lashed them to the wheel, then suspended the windvane over the transom, and drilled some new holes in the boat!

The marina is getting alot of traffic, north and southbound. We were fortunate to meet the crew of Slacker  on their delivery from L.A. to Chile. Two days, several beers and many stories later, they left for Nicaragua. 

We just heard from them on Facebook, that they made it! We really might go to Chile! Who knows?!

Otherwise, the list is getting shorter: oil change, top off diesel, the only problem so far is our Yamaha outboard. After sitting for 5 months, it's apparently normal that the carb. gets gummed up. So, I've been running injector cleaner in the fuel to try and clean it up. The motor runs great, as long as it's at half choke!

I'm confident that we've covered everything, though there's always last minute stuff. We're hoping to go out for a day sail this week, just to make sure everything is seaworthy.

It will be good to be back out at sea!

Fast Fwd.- Hauling out!

Enrique, Memo, Ronnie, and the entire crew at Marina Chiapas are great!

The morning we were scheduled to haul out, it was low tide, so we waited until 11 or so, when it was nice and windy. Remember, I haven't driven her for 5 months; not to mention backing her into a lift! Everything went smoothly, and we hauled he out.

While we're "on the hard" we're staying at Villa Veleros, a beautiful hotel on Playa Linda. Dog friendly, with a pool and nice bar/eatery.

Meanwhile; I was able to assemble Tom's African hardwood battery box, and get our #1 bank relocated above the waterline, and further aft to offset the weight of our chain in the bow.

Our prop has been on for, I don't know how long, and as a result, it did need a wheel puller to remove. Luckily, Enrique's mechanic had one, and in five minutes, it was exchanged for the new one!

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Lastly, and more importantly, we're meeting other cruisers! Fred and Judy, Garreth and Venus, Jack and Judy. The circle continues to grow!

Back on the boat!

Taking a big step back; we left Scottsdale on Monday morning, headed for Tucson, with a quick stop at the drop zone. When we got to Tucson, Lew was at his shop with an Aluminum 80 scuba tank donated " for the cause". After a nice evening with Tom and Pam, we headed out Tuesday for Nogales. The TIP for importing the car went smoothly, and we were on our way!

Once again, we went to our old faithful, Hotel Creston in San Carlos. I needed to get the tank re-certified, and Gary's dive shop was across the street!

We had to go out to the Soggy Peso...being a weekday it was very quiet,

so Jack got to pose! The next day by noon we were on our way South. Driving in Mexico, you never really know how long the drive will be. We had planned for Los Mochis, but ended up in Guamucil at the York Hotel. Dog friendly, nice restaurant, pool, 40 bucks. Jack had his time on the balcony watching cats.

We were excited to get to Guadalajara, as we recently met Alejandro and Betty at Skydive Arizona.

Unfortunately, Betty was not in town, but Alejandro showed us all of the best of his city!

Almost there!

We'll be in Tapachula tomorrow... a great trip so far, photos and stories to follow!

Too much stuff!

 How does it happen? There's always too much stuff!  Here's the picture from May, on the side of the oxxo in Nogales.

Now a look at the beginning of the new pile!

For years, we've been "downsizing",  getting rid of stuff, and then we accumulate the new stuff we need! We've been provisioning, and getting ready for the next round of projects.... installing the new Lavac toilet, the Monitor wind vane,a new prop, and relocating our #1 battery bank. Our friend Tom fabricated a beautiful African hardwood battery box that I have to assemble in the starboard lasarette.


We  decided that we need to do a change of address on our car title, and go to the Mexican consulate to double check the importation requirements for the car into Mexico, just to make sure our paperwork is in order. Not unlike our govt. offices, in Mexico, it all depends on the person you get! It could be easy, or a major pain. So far, we've been fortunate.

The Toyota is ready for the drive, and we should be entering Mexico on Tuesday. We stopped in Tucson to pick up a scuba tank from our friend Lew, and stayed with Tom and Pam overnight.
 We made it to the border, and thankfully got the Green light! (the car is packed, so it was really nice not to unload everything for a search!) The TIP for the car went smoothly, and now we're in San Carlos getting the tank hydrostated and filled. We'll be on our way to Los Mochis this afternoon. Working our way to the boat, one day at a time.

The Magic Portal, Sept 16 2014

It's time to Go!  We've been softend by land lubber life too long.  When you take a break from skydiving the worst part is the mind game you play with yourself in the plane.  You start worrying if you'll remember emergency procedures, you worry about remembering how to fly, all sorts of things go through your head, then you poke your head out the door and there is that amazing world that you know so well.  The magic portal is what I call it.  All is good out there, it welcomes you back and it feels so comfortable and special.

Not a very good pic for what I'm trying to describe but it will have to do. 

Anyway we are on the countdown to get back to the boat.  Somehow I have brought organized, planner Joe to the dark side where my motto is " The best thing about waiting until the last minute to do anything is, that it only takes one minute".  

We had decided to drive the Toyota 4 runner to Chiapas,  since we have alot of add ons such as a new lavac toilet and other goodies, and just parking it at Marina Chiapas until we could come get it and have it in Costa Rica and Panama for inland travel like we did in Baja.  Travelling with Jack is difficult. He can't always ride buses and rental cars are expensive,.  

Then we realized some other options for flying with Jack, Thanks to some suggestions from airline friends......

and hey! why not just buy a beater car and drive it down and then we don't have to worry about our beloved Toyota and it will be at home waiting for us like the last two seasons.  

What if we don't come home at all and just keep going!                                                                                                                                                         

Indecision may or may not be our problem.                                                                                                

We both know we are ready to get back to the boat and a deadline of Oct. 7 has been set.

Magic Portal here we come!!!