I was all set to start my semi-annual varnishing yesterday, but it rained during the night, and off and on during the day. So, instead, I jumped in the water and scrubbed the bottom. The last time we did a bottom job (i.e. antifouling paint) was two and a half years ago, and the bottom paint was completely worn out. Besides a thick layer of slime, there were thousands of small barnacles. There were even patches where the paint, a soft type that is designed to gradually wear off, was completely gone. We were hoping to make it to New Zealand before needing to paint again, but it looks like we have no choice but to do it here before we leave to go west. Oh, well, we've gotten our money's worth with two and a half years.
Scrubbing the bottom in the water is one of those heinous boat jobs. I hold on to the hull with a suction-cup device, and scrape with a nylon spatula. The top foot or so isn't too bad, but the hull goes down six feet, so there's a lot of breath holding. It takes me a couple of hours, and by the end I am wasted. Usually I do it in clear water at anchor somewhere, but this time was in murky harbor water. It's a bit unnerving to have only about six-inch visibility, and see a dark shape swim by. I know it's just a fish, but ....
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Friday, January 3, 2014
La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico, Dec 29th
We're not in the desert any more. The mountain sides here are densely verdant. No doubt the rain washing the salt off the deck is the reason. We dropped the hook here this afternoon after a three-day passage from La Paz, Baja California. But first, let's back up a bit to Isla San Francisco, where I left you last.
The time had come for us to tear ourselves away from Baja, and move over to the mainland. We had a great downwind sail from Isla San Francisco to la Paz last Sunday, the 22nd. Wait a minute! Was that just a week ago? What a blur! The morning after sailing in to La Paz, we lucked into a slip in the all-too-often-full Marina de la Paz for a maximum of three days. We actually finished our chores and got out in just two days, chores which included provisioning, washing the boat, and repairing the refrigerator (which had stopped working the day we left for the islands two weeks before).
That Monday morning, we had a wonderful cruiser experience. Years ago, we were friends here with another couple on a boat, with whom we had since lost contact. The last we had heard of them was that they had sailed down to Panama, and sometime later had sold their boat. The last they had heard of us was that we were in New Zealand. Imagine our surprise, and theirs, hearing each other on the morning VHF radio net. They were spending some time on land in La Paz. Anyway, we had a great reunion, in between those two days of chores.
We left La Paz Christmas morning, intending to go non-stop to La Cruz. Not that far out of La Paz, motoring upwind (and hence pitching up and down), one of our engine alarms sounded off. That one indicates water and sludge in the fuel filter - this is not an uncommon occurrence in such conditions, although rare for us - which needed to be cleaned out before the sludge overran the filter and fouled the engine. A convenient anchorage was at hand for us to duck into, and once anchored we decided to continue at "O-dark-thirty" the next morning. Leaving there early Thursday morning, we had a mixed bag of a passage (some good to great sailing, but too much upwind motoring) across to the mainland, arriving here this afternoon, in the rain.
We're not in the desert any more. The mountain sides here are densely verdant. No doubt the rain washing the salt off the deck is the reason. We dropped the hook here this afternoon after a three-day passage from La Paz, Baja California. But first, let's back up a bit to Isla San Francisco, where I left you last.
The time had come for us to tear ourselves away from Baja, and move over to the mainland. We had a great downwind sail from Isla San Francisco to la Paz last Sunday, the 22nd. Wait a minute! Was that just a week ago? What a blur! The morning after sailing in to La Paz, we lucked into a slip in the all-too-often-full Marina de la Paz for a maximum of three days. We actually finished our chores and got out in just two days, chores which included provisioning, washing the boat, and repairing the refrigerator (which had stopped working the day we left for the islands two weeks before).
That Monday morning, we had a wonderful cruiser experience. Years ago, we were friends here with another couple on a boat, with whom we had since lost contact. The last we had heard of them was that they had sailed down to Panama, and sometime later had sold their boat. The last they had heard of us was that we were in New Zealand. Imagine our surprise, and theirs, hearing each other on the morning VHF radio net. They were spending some time on land in La Paz. Anyway, we had a great reunion, in between those two days of chores.
We left La Paz Christmas morning, intending to go non-stop to La Cruz. Not that far out of La Paz, motoring upwind (and hence pitching up and down), one of our engine alarms sounded off. That one indicates water and sludge in the fuel filter - this is not an uncommon occurrence in such conditions, although rare for us - which needed to be cleaned out before the sludge overran the filter and fouled the engine. A convenient anchorage was at hand for us to duck into, and once anchored we decided to continue at "O-dark-thirty" the next morning. Leaving there early Thursday morning, we had a mixed bag of a passage (some good to great sailing, but too much upwind motoring) across to the mainland, arriving here this afternoon, in the rain.
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