Upon our arrival in La
Cruz we made plans for a 2 week visit to our Las Vegas condo to do what folks
of our vintage do….Go see a long list of doctors and the tax man. Wow was I ever looking forward to that
trip. Not sure which poking and prodding
is worst, the Dr. or the taxman…….
While we were scheduled
to be away arranged to have our mast painted and the boat waxed. Dennis of Sea Fox volunteered to keep on eye
on the work and it seemed like a good plan.
The wax was to take 3 or 4 days and the paint 4 days max.
It was my job to get
the paint. The painter said to find the paint (2 part epoxy) located here.
After a little
excitement including a power outage for the entire block in Bucereas preventing
them from producing a bill, finally got the paint and materials together.
So far so good and we
left on our trip.
Flying Keela back to
the US on Delta cost $400 even with her as a carry on bag. Just a few $ less than my ticket round
trip. No issues getting her back into
the US as we had all the required paperwork and her Mexico exit
certificate. No one checked at customs
but all the customs workers wanted to pet her.
One of the many Dr.
visits in Las Vegas included a trip to the ophthalmologist for me to have some
special procedures associated with my diabetes and a routine visit for Mary. This was suggested by the
Costco in Puerto Vallarta where she got new glasses. My visit went fine but the Dr. confirmed Mary
had a real issue. I’ll report here for
any readers who might be putting off a eye exam especially as you age!
Mary was diagnosed with
closed angle Glaucoma. In my lay terms
about 10 % of the population with get Glaucoma if you live long enough and about
10% of those will have closed angle. It
is related to the pressure in the eye, hence the PUFF test we all flinch from,
and too much fluid causes the damage to the optic nerve.
Wikipedia does better…..
Glaucoma
can be roughly divided into two main categories, "open-angle" and
"closed-angle" (or "angle closure") glaucoma. The angle
refers to the area between the iris and cornea, through which fluid must flow
to escape via the trabecular meshwork. Closed-angle glaucoma can appear
suddenly and is often painful; visual loss can progress quickly, but the
discomfort often leads patients to seek medical attention before permanent
damage occurs. Open-angle, chronic glaucoma tends to progress at a slower rate
and patients may not notice they have lost vision until the disease has
progressed significantly.
Mary did not have any
discomfort and it was a complete shock to us.
Treatment was straight forward, laser relief of the openings in the eye
that allow fluid to drain followed by a week of observation. She will have the other eye done this winter
as a preventative measure. This added a
week to our land time.
One final note, after 3
weeks in Las Vegas, without any work and without any plans, its clear we would go
nuts without the boat or something to occupy our minds. So, cruising, often defined as working on
your boat in exotic locations, seems to fit us well.
Back to cruising:
Dennis did a great job
with the painter and his crew but since I was not there to push our job got
pushed back as “urgent” jobs made it to the front of the line. After 3 weeks the mast work was finally done (thanks again Dennis) but no work on the wax job since Aron was waiting for the painter to
finish. Sounds just like a normal
construction project but was disappointing to return to the boat a mess.
For the next week we
watched Aaron arrive each morning and work until almost dark waxing and
detailing WORKNOT. Without a doubt, the
best wax job we ever received. His
attention to detail paid off and the end result was outstanding. I will be hard pressed to keep it up to the
level he left me.
Aaron is also a good
resource for any needs and is highly recommended . He helped us figure out our Mexican cell
phone, wireless internet device call Banda Acha and much more.
We finally left La
Cruz, headed north to Mazatlan on March 29th. Anchoring overnight at Punta Mita we got an
easy start (8:00am) to Mantenchen Bay
(21.31.8 x 105.14.38 W) about 60 miles
north.
Fishing was slow but we
managed to catch 2 Skipjacks and return them alive. Just outside Mantenchen Bay we caught a
yellow tail and had fresh fish for dinner.
Our fish identification skills are growing but could use a good guide. If not a yellow tail it was still delicious eating.
XM Sat radio is great
to have on board and we got to listen to my Kentucky Wildcats make it to the
finals of the sweet 16 while offshore. Without TV, radio has become an important place to get information and can only imagine what a thrill it was to get radio back when it first reached rural America.
We arrived at
Mantenchen Bay around 4 pm well rested.
We could have continued on as weather was very good, 10 kt breeze and
warm. Long swells of 2-3 feet 15 seconds
apart.
After resting for the
next day we departed for Mazatlan at 2:35pm on 3/31/14. This trip will be 135 miles and 19
hours. We plan to arrive in Mazatlan
around 9:30am. Timing a departure to
arrive at daylight, with some room for delay is always the best.
Engine room temps are always an issue with power boats and being in the topics compounds the
issue. With just the right (wrong) wind
pattern and outdoor temps in the high 90’s along with high humidity we saw the
hottest part of the ER approaching 120F.
This is uncomfortable and accelerates wear on anything rubber in the
engine room. To combat this I added a
fan to the intake side of the ER. Also
made some improvements on the air flow characteristics of the intake. Results so far are impressive as the ER temps
are 10-12 deg. F lower than before. The
penalty is about 8 amps of DC load. Well
worth the effort and makes ER checks much more pleasurable and therefore likely…
Work underway opening up the intake
Improved air flow with the screening removed (50%+ gain in area)
Finished fan and duct installed
Will move the water lines when we get some parts from the US. Making the duct included a trip to a Home Depot where you can get lumber cut to size for 8 pesos ($0.05) per cut. Pretty fair price and the young man running the saw quickly realized what I was building and squared up the ends and made sure the plywood end cap fit perfectly. The fan is an automotive radiator fan slaved to the existing engine room fan system. This keeps it linked to the on-board firefighting system which shuts down the fans in case of fire.
Next up Mantenchen Bay
to Mazatlan…
The fan is automotive
radiator fan controlled by a relay slaved to the existing ER fans. This keeps it in the shutdown circuit of the
onboard fire fighting system to shut the fans down in case of an onboard fire. Will move the water lines when we return to
the US and get the needed fittings.
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