We had
a wonderful northern holiday. It was
beautiful and snowy and Christmasy and perfect
We saw all the family and had Christmas afternoon and dinner with our
three Alaskan sons and families. Steve’s
kids were not there and we missed them but we were eleven for dinner, if the
one in the high chair merits a full number!
We had
less than a week in La Conner, but it was enough to fill our bags with stuff
that we had to take to Mexico. As usual
the list was something that we could have used for the game “ I packed my
grandmother’s trunk”: The major items were
food, dvds, a large number of (probably expensive) stainless steel fittings for a project of Earl’s and a
30 inch LED light to mount ooutside for running at night. Earl said my bag was too heavy, so at the
last minute I moved some things to his bag, which was a good move. Our three
bags were all between 46 and 50 pounds.
Earl
spends a lot of time doing internet research and inevitably finds things that
we need for the boat. The new LED light
is an example. It uses only 9 amps and
puts out something like 10 millions candle light equivalents. Obviously we needed it. He had made preliminary arrangements with a
man who does stainless work for a bracket for said light before we left La Paz
in December and the work and installation were completed within days of
arriving in La Paz on the 14th.
So far, although we made a night crossing to Mazatlan and to San Blas, I
cannot report on its usefulness. It is
dazzling! In fact it was so bright that
when we turned it on, the reflection off the railing around our bow was
blinding. We partially wrapped the railing with black and tried it again last
night, but with the full moon and a lot of moisture in the air it seemed
underwhelming. No matter, with the moon
we had plenty of light, but it will be interesting to try it again when it is
really dark outside.
The
rest of Earl’s week was consumed by his ‘project’. He had installed a bimini before we left
Washington in 2009. It had been
wonderful and heavily used, but Earl had spent much time thinking of alternatives. Minor alteration made to the design a couple
of years ago had worked, but the canvas needed replacing and the stainless bows
kept coming apart. We now have what we
are calling “The Pavilion”. This is a square piece of canvas, held up by 4 magnificent
stainless posts and an impressive amount of hardware. It needs a little tweaking, but it does
provide a much better view and more coverage than the old bimini.
The
Scarboro’s arrived on Friday, just 4 days after us, and work was still
underway, so we could not leave immediately.
Joan arrived with a nasty cough which has taken more than a week and
some drugs to get rid off. Earl and
Clark both had a touch as well, but I think we are finally on the road to
recovery.
We
could not have left right away anyway, because the weather had been
violent. The first day we were in La
Pas, it blew 35 in the boat basin and outside there were twelve foot sees. The port was closed most of the week. Finally on Sunday we had everything finished
and reasonable weather and we took off for Mazatlan on the western mainland of
Mexico.
We got
about 3 miles before the electrical system stopped working. We obviously were not going anywhere that
way. Earl swung the boat around to head back into the marina, just in time for
a Mexican navy dingy to stop and board us to check our papers, then back into
the marina we limped. Earl and Clark
spent the day looking for solutions, and Earl called his favorite electrician,
Jim Rovang, in Washington. We went to
bed, hoping things would look better the next morning. And they did!
Laying in bed, Earl came up with the possible problem – and he was
right. In putting in the wiring for the
new light, he had knocked a connection loose.
When he called Jim to tell him, we found out there was a technical name
for this –owner sabotage.
So
Monday morning we started off again and had a reasonable run down to Los
Muertos. It was lumpy and neither Joan
nor I felt well, but Earl and Clark were in their element. It is some 190 miles to Mazatlan from Muertos,
a little more than 30 hours for us. That
means a 5 am departure will get us in by early afternoon. For once, we did not leave earlier than
advertised. The further we got from
shore, the nicer the seas, and we had a pleasant ride. As an added bonus, there was an almost full
moon. There is something quite lovely
about running at night when the seas are good.
A special quiet time! Well,
almost quiet. Our auto pilot which is
working well on the auto function (taking us on the course we set) is not
working on the ‘nav’ function which corrects the course for drift. As a result, every minute, an alarm starts
ringing. A push on the button to reset
the pilot turns off the alarm until it comes on again. Thus, there was no chance of anyone sleeping
on watch.
To add
to the excitement, at around 11 Earl noticed the electrical system acting up.
The alternator was not doing what it should.
He turned on the generator and it kept all the systems running, but
things were clearly not as they should be.
Early Wednesday afternoon we pulled into a slip at the Mazatlan marina
and started looking for a repairman.
Thursday
afternoon, Rick who lives on a sail boat in the marina came, puzzled over the
autopilot, examined the alternator and announced it dead as a door nail, drank
two beers and said his alternator man would be by at 8 am to get the
alternator. This being Mexico there is
an alternator man who showed up at 11.
He did a great job of repairing it for a modest price, but it was not
ready till Monday, so we spent longer in Mazatlan than we intended. The diodes were burned out and there was a
problem with the stator. Apparently the
type of alternator that we have is not very expensive, so I think we will be
adding one to our spare parts.
The
Marina Mazatlan where we stayed is a 20 minute bus ride from El Centro. The old city is quite charming. It has a spectacular old Mercado, although
the meat section can put one off beef.
The fruits and vegetable are gorgeous.
Each vendor seems to have a more beautiful display than his
neighbor. Joan, Clark and I toured the
town on Saturday and had a lovely lunch on a little square called Plazuela
Machado at the Beach Burger. The food
was yummy! We spent a few hours
wandering around and checking out the little archeological museum and a couple
of shops selling the work of local artisans.
Lovely for us, but sadly for the town, the streets were almost
deserted. We took an open air taxi
back. Delightful – but best remember to
hold on to one’s hat!
The
area around the Marina is not very appealing. It is a development that ran out
of capital and buyers before it was finished and it looks rather sad. The Marina itself is very nice, although the
water is not potable and the pump out facilities consist of a couple of men
with a very large plastic tank on a wheeled cart who don’t work on weekends. By the time we left on Monday, our holding
tank was full and –due to a leaking hose outlet- our fresh water tank was
virtually empty. Definitely time to head
off.
We are
having a pleasant run to San Blas. The
weather report was iffy for Monday afternoon, but we found it fine. We are back in the land of whales! We have seen a number of them, several
repeatedly slapping their tails. One put
on quite a show, repeatedly slapping its tail twenty or so times before
stopping to breathe. The porpoises came for Daisy, and they too put on a
show. Two of them jumped as high as our
rail right in front of our bow. The
night was peaceful. We were going
through a large number of shrimp boats but we never really got close to them.
We will
be in San Blas sometime this morning and are all looking forward to a repeat
visit in this little town that we have loved in the past
