The Green Flash: No place for Sissies

Morgan OI 33 Sailboatv2

2011-12-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

3D model by
Jim

Updated Model of my 1973 Morgan Sloop with a proposed wind turbines, solar mounts and davit design.

On Stage Tonight...

2011-10-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

The 1st Mate and I have been singing and playing in some of the nightspots in San Carlos in recent months. We just got our promo photos done and tonight, turned on GarageBand and did a quick little recording of our opening number. While Bliss sings, I play guitar and use a "vocalizer" to expand my voice into a quartet. Neat technology. We use a backing track on an iPad for drums, piano and bass.
Hope you like it.

Goodbye, Dave. Goodbye, Steve.

2011-10-06T10:46:00.001-07:00

This week my Uncle Dave passed away from a brain tumor. He was 87 and was surrounded by loved ones. Dave introduced me to sailing, and I now sail 2,000 nautical miles a year, on average. I was impressed as a child by his architectural renderings and became an artist, which led me to cartooning and illustrating in newspapers and magazines, and eventually, to publishing, where I am today (and the last 23 years). I'm still painting if I can find the time. Good for the soul. So it's safe to say that Dave was a phenomenal influence in my life. He was gentle and kind, but could be firm too. A good man. I'll miss him.

Also this week Steve Jobs died from pancreatic cancer. He was 56, and I always thought of him as being older than me.

When computers were first available to the public, I bought a Commodore 64 and taught myself BASIC programming. There weren't a lot of software titles at the time so if something interested me, I would have to write the software myself. A little later I learned to code in "assembly language" because BASIC programs ran so slow. Assembly was a library of three-letter codes that addressed the computer chip directly. It would only add and subtract, so if you wanted to divide or multiply, you had to figure that out for yourself. It was fun and challenging and I found myself dreaming code in my sleep.

Steve's Macintosh computers enabled me to take my artistic skills (see above) and make them commercially successful. Because of Apple's simple and elegant interface and software, I quickly developed the ability to start and run a publishing company and a commercial art and design studio. I found I could work at home and having gained that freedom, took it a step further and moved to Mexico where we run a publishing house from our condo near the beaches and our sailboat (also see above). I'm an Apple "fanboy" because Apple allowed me to write my own ticket.

I try to remember that when someone I admire passes on, that they are still in the universe... and therefore, still close by.

Woke up this morning, got myself a Gretsch.

2011-09-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

For the past 10 or 15 years now, I've been buying Ibanez guitars... Acoustic, bass, semiacoustic, jazz acoustic, solid body... I gave the solid body guitar to the 1st Mate. She's taking lessons now and the Ibanez RG I bought from her son long ago is much easier to play than the acoustic guitar she has. That left a space on my wall for a new guitar.

When I was a teen and learning to play, I sold my moped for $50 so I could buy a new Sears-Roebuck black and white Silvertone electric guitar. My friend Bob Niesmith and I started a rock band called the Titans. We would play wherever we could, and eventually started getting paid for it.

My dream guitar was a Gretsch, like the one played by Chet Atkins. (At the time, I really didn't much care for the songs Chet played, 'cause they weren't cool. But I admired Chet's skill, and especially his Bigsby Tailpiece equipped Gretsch.) The Gretsch he owned would have bought a new Chevy Corvette in the early sixties, and I would have certainly bought the Corvette if I had that kind of cash...

Fast forward to 2011 and Chet has died and gone. I have a space on my wall. Gretsch now builds a line of guitars that are less than the "Chet Atkins Country Gentleman" that still fetches $4,000 and up. So I shopped around the internet until I found a lightly-used double-cutaway Gretsch Electromatic in a beautiful natural mahogany finish and I bought it.

I picked it up this week when we traveled north for a business trip. It's a fabulous guitar, and as much as I like the Ibanez quality/price balance, the Gretsch is heavenly.

My new favorite guitar, with a Bigsby Tailpiece. Stay tuned for some recordings later.. (pickin' & grinnin')

Screw Facebook

2011-07-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

I got a notification from Facebook that I have 2 messages, 2 event invitations, several comments, etc. When I tried to log in they notified me that my account information had been "compromised." Whose fault is that? Guess who.

I logged on and after a grueling process of establishing a new password ("No, you can't use that. No, that one doesn't have any numbers. No, that password is in the Nigerian dictionery, etc.") they require me to upload a copy of a government-issued photo id. (That way the hackers will now have my drivers license to use to purchase weapons and drugs and kiddie porn).

Why does Facebook think I need them in my life? This company is an example of pure arrogance coupled with an unlimited sense of entitlement. I'm posting this to let all my friends know that Facebook is out of my life forever, and if they want to get in contact with me, they can just email it to me.

Anything with Facebook in the subject will be deleted before I even see it, unless of course, you attach your government-issued photo id to the email.

Our Summer Job

2011-07-11T08:58:00.001-07:00

Happy B'Day to the 1st Mate. She's XX years old today.

And we're into our summer pattern... which includes the four letter word, w-o-r-k.
Each summer for the past 23 years, we've fired up our little publishing business. It's online version is here.This routine has developed into a series of activities that go like this:

I'm in charge of graphic design and promotional material; the internet presence (web page and site design, writing code for special online functions, uploading changes and corrections, building the eBook version for downloads, etc); creating the annual custom database (rate increase data, carryover of past due balances, updating forms for invoicing, etc.); and designing the cover for the next edition. As advertising comes in, I produce the ads, place them in the book, create a custom detailed map, send the finished page to the database on the 1st Mate's computer for proofing. When proof changes come in, I fix those, resend the page for final proofing if necessary.

I'm also the sysop of our little network. Which sometimes can be challenging: We're Mac-based, and certain functions, like purchasing postage online for our Dymo Labelmaker requires work-arounds (in this case, a mix of virtual Window programs, Java applets and a virtual printer) because the Mac isn't supported.

I do some calling of potential advertisers and sell some ads, prepare packages for mailing, and do followup calls. And print labels and postage for mailing promotional materials and single copies.

We do the cover design early in the process. Above, the 2012 Edition.

The 1st Mate is the real powerhouse of sales activity in our business, and is constantly on the phone or emailing potential and existing customers, to present our latest idea to generate interest in our book.

Once the book is completed in the fall, we email (or ftp) the pages to our printer in the USA, who generates proofs for us. Once approved and final corrections are sent and incorporated, the press house plates up their web presses and runs off 65-70,000 copies. They box them up and hold them until we send Fedex our shipping list. Fedex drivers deliver the labels to the press house for affixing. Then Fedex sends a semi to pick up and ship the books to our advertisers. This print job results in 25 pallets about 6 feet high of boxes filled with books. Very heavy.

Once the books arrive, we start getting calls about the errors in the book (nobody is perfect). I make the revisions and post the updates on the eBook and the online version of the Guide.

Together, we build free web pages on our website for our advertisers who want one. This is a promotion that has worked well for us over the years and excites interest.

My work on the website then begins in earnest. I go through the book in the design program I use, adding hyperlinks where needed and then export each page individually into a format that retains the hyperlink data. When these files are uploaded to the internet my work for the year is done.

The 1st Mate writes an occasional blog for the website throughout the year, keeping interest alive there, as well as taking calls from potential customers who like our work.

Checks are sent off to Fedex and the press house, and we (and Uncle Sam) get to keep what's left.

It's a good system... it's really too hot to be outside now and we can work in air-conditioned comfort... in Mexico!

The Bitter End

2011-06-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

Today our sailboat, SV BLISS, was hauled into the dry storage yard (behind the boat in this photo), where it will sit for awhile. Someone once called Marina Seca (dry marina) and it's plethora of masts, "The forest of broken dreams."

We were scheduled to splash the boat in the wet marina last Thursday, and in my final preparations, I mounted the 31" destroyer-type wheel on the steering post. I had rented a slip for a day/night to do final loading of the boat, and once in the water, we would motor over to the slip, take care of stuff and then motor out to the mooring the next day. I had also rented a mooring (and that's another post).

The helm felt funny, and when I turned the wheel something snapped under the cockpit floor and the wheel spun freely. I emptied out the cockpit lockers and climbed in to find one of the sheaves had broken from it's mounting. I devised a way to fix the problem, and bought the parts to do that. When I tried to move the rudder it would not budge.

Somehow the rudder had frozen to the steering tube during the two months in the workyard. That precipitated the break in the sheave mount.

I tried long levers; I tried spraying lubricants; hammering; dripping muriatic acid into the steering tube in case the problem was barnacle infestation. All the time working under the cockpit in a space the size of the trunk of a compact car. Temperatures were hitting well over 100° (ten miles away, in Empalme, the record was broken at 114°).

I soon realized the entire steering post/steering tube would have to be cut out of the boat. That would create a ragged hole 5 inches in diameter where the thing sits now, if I can drop the rudder. It's a big job, and I've had enough of big jobs for awhile. I decided to put the boat in storage until parts can be found, a place to drop the rudder can be located (I need a pit about 6 feet deep under the stern), the money could be earned to attack the problem (boat yard fees increase each month to discourage long term project boats) and I'm ready for it. I cancelled the launch, the slip and the mooring.

We've spent more money than we wanted to, we missed Loreto Fest completely, and the last 2-1/2 months have been hell. I've been getting up at 5-6 am daily, working to sundown, and sometimes past that. I'm exhausted from the physical labor and working conditions, and lack of rest: I've had to work every day because the yard fees have gotten so high it's a waste of money to take time off.

All this, and I end up with a boat I can't use.

As a consolation, I've kept the dinghy out of storage and we will use it for snorkeling and short fishing trips around the bay. It's pretty small (7-1/2 feet) but it will have to do for awhile.

Credit Where It's Due

2011-05-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

The 1st Mate says that I'm doing all the work on the boat... if so, who's this?

1ST MATE

But she does more than sand and stick down blue tape.
She provides me with the best possible infrastructure I could ask for.

When I get up at 5 am to get an early start on the boat (when there's a lot less heat and no wind) she's up making coffee and breakfast so I can get out the door in a timely manner... usually, I get a wake up call from her- hot espresso in hand, a kiss on the lips.

She just now delivered a load of workyard laundry... with all the fiberglass particles, sweat and dirt washed out. Fluff dried and ready to put on tomorrow morning.

When I break for lunch, she's got that all ready to eat, and when we're done we stretch out for a brief nap. She makes me another coffee and sends me off to work while she does the dishes and cleans up the galley at home.

She shows up at the workyard when I need her, sometimes stopping off at the paint store to pick up supplies (with her own money), and sometimes she brings colas, Dr. Pepper, cookies.

Tomorrow she'll mix catalyst and gelcoat for me to spray the deck, cockpit and topsides and stand by if I need something else masked off or taped.

If I had to do all that stuff myself, I'd still be months behind.

1st Mate. She really earns her title.

On and on...

2011-05-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

We've finished spraying the sides of the hull and the 1st Mate is busy putting blue tape all over the deck in preparation of the new gel coat. Meanwhile, it falls to me to disassemble and remove the hardware we don't want painted or we're just not using anymore. The stern, shown below, had four pairs of brackets used to hold a Monitor wind vane steering system I installed prior to our trip to Mexico in 1997. The vane worked fine, using the water sweeping past the boat for power, and the wind telling it which way to turn the wheel, We would set it and forget for up to 24 hours as we made our way down the California coast. The prevailing NW winds didn't vary much until we entered Southern California at Point Conception. Since then, the winds have been either too light or too shifty for it to be much use to us, so we removed the vane and stored it (installing instead a electronic autopilot on the helm). The brackets have sat, stuck to the stern, dripping rust for thirteen years now and it's time to remove them. That part wasn't hard, the sealant I used held up well and the 16 quarter-inch bolts came out with just a little coaxing, but the rust under the brackets will keep me busy for awhile. I have to remove all the sealant so the epoxy filler I use will stick to it. Just another step along the way.

We're both feeling really good about how this project is shaping up, and we're losing a little weight because of the exercise. We get to the boat at 7am and work until lunchtime, nap for an hour and drive back to the boatyard to finish up the day when the shadows get long.

Today a Mexican yard worker next to me gave me a lesson on using polishing compound. I had been using it like rubbing compound, where you keep your powered buffer loaded up with compound and just swirl away until you get a shine... Nope, wrong.

The idea is to spread a thin coat of polishing compound over the area, let it dry for an hour or two and then come back with a clean buffing pad to shine it up. Here's the result of the stern, after a few days of filling, plugging and sanding... priming, painting and buffing.

And from the side...

and the port side hull using the new buffing technique... thanks, Arturo!

Hole in my heart

2011-04-28T06:57:00.001-07:00

Last week I got a message to call my Uncle Dave in Santa Barbara. He's in his late eighties and is in the final stages of life with a brain tumor. I made the call and surprised myself with my own honest expression of my emotional state... something I normally keep, if not hidden, at least camouflaged.

Dave Smith is a highly regarded architect and has designed many of the larger homes in Santa Barbara. His use of Spanish tile roofing was quickly copied by others when in the '90s, Santa Barbara was hit by a series of large fires. The only houses left standing in the ravaged areas were Dave's tile-roofed structures.

When Jack in the Box Restaurants wanted a national redesign of their eateries, Dave got the contract.

He was very influential in my life. When I saw his gouache architectural renderings as a child, I chose to pursue art, which led to college-level classes on a scholarship at Carnegie Institute at age 14. Later, I chose commercial art (now called graphic design) as a way to keep myself in food and art at the same time. My graphic design business led to publishing, my current occupation.

In the early '90s, Bliss and I would stay at Dave's large cliffside home while we worked selling ads in Southern California for our fledgling Collector's Guide publication. Dave fed us tri-tip roasts from the barbie in the evenings, and made us pancakes in the morning. We would eat on his treetop patio, so high we could see the oil rigs seven miles out in the Pacific Ocean.

And he would take us sailing in his Santa Cruz 27 racing sloop. We learned to sail in and out of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club harbor without a motor, tacking through traffic to his slip. Dave was a charter member of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, and in 2000, was told he no longer needed to pay his annual dues... the board felt he had paid enough in his lifetime.

We would go the SBYC for an occasional lunch, sitting in the glittering crystal finery, being served by immaculate uniformed waiters and waitresses.

Dave got us started in sailing.

We wait for the news, bags packed.

Semana Santa in SC

2011-04-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

San Carlos is a beach town. So when Easter break comes to Mexico, Mexico comes to us. Our little town is home to about 4,000 residents, 3/4 of whom disappear to higher latitudes around this time of year. When Easter week gets here, our population swells to around 10,000. The party starts at 5pm and runs 'til 5am. Tecate beer tents pop up on every street corner to make sure nobody runs out. The music is LOUD. My friend, Greg Pyros took these grand photos of the event and I built a little slideshow with my Mac. If your browser can play Quicktime content, it should be just fine.

Painting in the wind...

2011-04-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

This week I was just going to touch up a few spots on BLISS' hull and purchased some primer and gelcoat to do it. I sanded the entire boat from accent stripe to the bottom of the keel, and when I started shooting the gelcoat I was stunned at how good the boat looked... so I started painting the entire hull. It just has one coat on it now, with two more to come. Then I'll tape off and paint the waterline stripe (the "bootstripe" it's called) and the accent stripe our favorite color of blue/green. Then two fresh coats of bottom paint. It will look better when that's done but I had to post this photo to keep my spirits up.

Life in the boatyard is complicated by the wind, which still "lingers" if you can call 50mph lingering! This is today's wind chart thus far.

When it gets windy, the painting stops. So, I've been going to the yard at 7am and shooting until noon or so. After that, I'm wiped out and ready for some down time. Sleep. Read. Eat. Blog.

In like a Lion, Out like a.. Lion

2011-04-04T17:11:00.001-07:00

If you look at the wind speed for today, you see the extreme at 43 mph. That's not just the highest the wind reached today, that's just the last time it clocked in at 43. It's been hitting that speed all afternoon.

My boat BLISS, is in the workyard and I've been replacing the styrofoam in the dinghy (see The Three Dollar Cure). The stryofoam I used then was the open cell stuff and it didn't hold up. Now I'm using the closed cell foam that I bought for the FLASH. Trying to work with styro in a gale is foolhardy. So I came home and took a shower and wrote a blog. That's it.

Xmas in March- a new guitar

2011-03-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow the 1st Mate and I are heading for Errorzona. I'm picking up a new jazz guitar and we're celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary in Tucson on Thursday, St Pat's Day.

We've been a couple since 1989, but it took her 3 years to finally propose. : )

Perspiration, then Inspiration...

2011-03-09T08:58:00.001-07:00

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
- Frank Tibolt

The quote above popped up on my iGoogle home page this morning, and it's really tuned-in to my thinking these days.

A couple of weeks ago, the 1st Mate and I joined a group of cruising folk at a local pub and the instigator of the event, Jimmy B. of the Morgan 28 OI "Anne Marie" started bragging about my watercolor art.

He suggested that I start painting for money, and turn the money into materials and extra labor for the Green Flash project. That idea has been slowly revolving around in my brain since I heard it. One of the things I like to paint the most is water and boats, and there's a lot of that around here... this painting was done in Northern California. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner large enough to accommodate this painting, so the photograph shows artifacts from lighting and the glass in the frame... and the colors are a little off. Oh well.

There are quite a few large yachts in the marinas hereabouts, whose owners may provide a market for my work.

Nothing would please me more than to be able to hire an army of workers to unleash on the Flash project. And painting for money can be fun.

In other news, the 1st Mate and I are making plans to attend LoretoFest for the first time in late April. LoretoFest has been known as a big party for cruising families and musicians, with lots of performances and potlucks, boat races, etc. We'll leave San Carlos Easter week aboard SV BLISS and slowly cruise down the Baja coast to Loreto. If the 1st Mate approves, we'll continue down to her favorite city of La Paz for some R&R after LF concludes.

The Pix are Out...

2011-02-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

Local photographer (and aspiring rock star) Greg Pyros snapped some photos of the concert (see previous post). Now that it's dipping into the 50s at night, everybody bundled up against the cold... especially those of us who live in Mexico year 'round and walk around comfortably in 100+ degrees in the summer. Anyway, here we are doing our jazz sets...

Benefits

2011-02-09T21:01:00.001-07:00

One of the benefits of living in Mexico is good weather.
Also good friends.

The 1st Mate and I elected to perform (along with several amateur and professional bands) in a concert tonight at the Fiesta Hotel in San Carlos. A benefit concert for the local orphanage. Tickets were 100 pesos per person and included two free drinks and free music. A low cost dinner menu was offered and... did I mention the weather was good? The event sold out.

The entertainment was to start at 5 pm, so at 3 we all showed up for sound checks... at least the gringos & gringas did. One Mexican group did their sound check at 5 pm. But it's Mexico, and nobody sweats the small stuff... like what time it is.

In this photo, sound engineer Ron Daisley is setting volume levels for the Trailer Trash Royalty band, and yes, they're amateurs. They've gathered each winter for years to play country/western/bluegrass music in their trailer park to amuse themselves and their neighbors.

Between the soundman and the bermuda-short-wearing bluegrass guitar player, sits the 1st Mate chatting with the producer. And you can see it's a lovely location overlooking the Sea of Cortez.

How did we do? Well, the producers want us to come in and spend some time in their recording studio, so I guess it turned out ok. They'll be posting some photos by a very talented amateur (and friend) and some video in the next few days. I'll update this blog then, so stay tuned.

Finally, I had a chance to chat with a sax player about other jazz musicians in the area and I've got some warm leads. Very beneficial for all concerned.

In other news,
I ok'd the adoption of the white puppy we had fostered for a few days.. or a week.

We've decided we'll call her Daisy.

The Design Stage reaches maturity

2011-02-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

Like a fine wine, the Green Flash has evolved to a pretty good design. The image below was created in three different computer programs (four, if you count a Windoze emulator). The first was Adobe InDesign CS5 for 2D planning and layouts, then FreeShip for Windows to create the 3D hull, then to Google's Free Sketchup 3D program to create decks, bulkheads, floors, etc.

The rendering above was done in Sketchup7 using a plugin called IDX Renditioner ... a close up of the cockpit is here...

And this is the non-rendered 3/4 view of the Flash without the pilot house in place. The Flash has an inside steering (hydraulic/electric) station for inclement weather and/or night watches.

Directly under the interior steering station is the diesel genset and electric motor propulsion system, in sound proof enclosures.

Now that bulkheads are designed in, I can start creating a shopping list for the materials. The structural bulkheads will be doubled 3/4" marine ply covered in an off white laminate, the others will be doubled 1 inch foam sheets, with the same covering. Deck will be doubled 1" foam sandwiched between layers of fiberglass and/or carbon fiber and epoxy.

After the Electro-Shock Therapy, He Escaped...

2011-01-22T09:15:00.001-07:00

The 1st Mate and I have a favorite soap: Dr. Bronner's All-One liquid and bar soap. We buy it at Trader Joe's when we're in Errorzona, the US of A(nxiety). We've been using it for years (I discovered in the 60s) and, this morning, as I unwrapped a new bar of soap, decided to Google Dr. Bronner and see what there is about him online.

Wikipedia says, "Emanuel Heilbronner (who was never really a "doctor") was born in Heilbronn, Germany in 1908."

He migrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name. As his father was Jewish, he pleaded with his parents to emigrate with him for fear of the then-ascendant Nazis, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father."

Bronner was the subject of a documentary film,"Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox." From the producers website:

"Dr. Emanuel Bronner was a master soapmaker, self-proclaimed rabbi, and, allegedly, Albert Einstein’s nephew.

In 1947, after escaping from a mental institution, he invented the formula for “Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap,” a peppermint-infused, all-natural, multi-purpose liquid that can be found today in every American health food store. On each bottle of his soap, he printed an ever-evolving set of teachings he called “The Moral ABC,” designed, in his words, “TO UNITE ALL MANKIND FREE!”

A human story about a socially responsible company, “Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox” documents the complicated family legacy behind the counterculture’s favorite cleaning product — Bronner’s son, 68-year-old Ralph, endured over 15 orphanages and foster homes as a child, but despite difficult memories, is his father’s most ardent fan…"

From YouTube, the trailer for the documentary...

The film is available for rent on iTunes...

Procrastination: A Labor Saving Device

2011-01-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to remove the remaining 16 foot section of portside deck on the FLASH, and unlike the starboard, I did it without cutting up fiberglass and creating clouds of dangerous dust. It occurred to me that I could just use a hydraulic jack and some jackstands from the car to force the deck off the boat.

And it worked.
If I had done this job in the distant past, I would have continued with saws and drills and all manner of dust generating devices, but I procrastinated. And this way was a lot easier and cleaner. As I dug into the boat, though, I discovered a layer of black mold between two pieces of plywood that had been bolted together.

Since I had removed the decks from the other side, I had fought battles with mold after two major floods, and discovering the other boat, BLISS, covered in mold in Barra de Navidad. My research then had taught me that this stuff was not to be messed with... and that white vinegar was my friend, so I fired up the compressor and fitted my engine cleaning wand with a gallon of vinagre blanco. A few minutes of spraying with the face mask on, and I could leave the mold to die overnight.

So, by putting off the work, I gained knowledge from intervening projects to make the day's work go easier and safer.
By the way, it was a warm and sunny 75 degrees in the ranchitos today. Eatcher heart out!

Danger on the Low Seas

2011-01-11T14:04:00.002-07:00

Our Morgan 33 OI series sailboat BLISS is currently moored in San Carlos Bay with a bunch of other boats, and as is normal this time of year, we get "northers." When high pressure builds over the 4 corners area of the US, that pressure is relieved by blowing down into the Sea of Cortez, usually for days at a time. The winds are normally about 25 knots, but gusts to 50 are not uncommon. It makes the Sea a lively place to be and unsheltered anchorages a place to avoid. In the Bay of San Carlos it looks like this:

Note the boat in front of BLISS... it's a Hunter sloop of recent vintage named MYSTIQUE and lies directly upwind of our Morgan. Today I took a tour around MYSTIQUE's mooring ball and discovered the chafing around the thimble (the teardrop shaped metal piece in the picture) had almost cut that line.

Then I noticed the other line holding this boat had chafed and had just two weak strands between the mooring ball and total disaster for the Hunter. And possibly BLISS as well, since it's likely the rope would part in a strong northerly gust and send MYSTIQUE barreling down into BLISS. That's 10-15 tons of sailboat crashing into our Morgan. Not good.

So, I motored back to BLISS and found a heavy 3/4' dock line that could hold up when both of the Hunter's ropes failed and looped it through the hardware and tied it off on the deck.

I checked at the marina office when I got back to shore only to find they had no record of the owner. Later today, I'll jump on the internet and see if I can find a link to someone responsible for this boat... but in the meantime, we'll both be safe for awhile.

ADDENDUM: After an hour of searching the web I found out the boat belonged to a local resident and he's been notified.

For New Year's, a Dog that dances better than I do

2010-12-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

See you all on the dance floor tonight!

Work has begun, again...

2010-12-29T08:34:00.002-07:00

Today I dressed for fiberglass.
After practicing guitar and fetching drinking water for the house, I stopped at one of the many convenience stores and bought a bag of ice and a couple cans of Arizona Ice Tea (Green Tea with honey), a bottle of acetone and headed for the FLASH.

Regardless of what plan emerges between me and my friend Mike, the hull/deck joint will become pivotal in the construction. When I tore off the old cabin and decking, "Pastries and Heavy Lifting", the bare hull joint was exposed. The previous owner had used thick applications of polysulfide to seal the two (deck and hull) and it has to be removed before I can make my own mess of things. That's the picture on the left.

I found that a heat gun helps a little to soften it up, but only special chemicals not available (and costly if they were) in Mexico. The acetone didn't work. It has to be a "mechanical" removal. I tried using an air chisel with a broad, sharp edge and it cleaned off this stuff pretty well if I leaned into the job. I didn't even power up the chisel, just started scraping with it.

After scraping off the cured goo, I finished the cleaning job with a Makita grinder with a coarse wire brush. It kicks up a little fiberglass dust but it's manageable. In 2 hours I got about 40% of the joint cleaned off.

The design has me extending the sheer (the side of the boat) up, and this is the area that supports much of the new structure. It has to be cleaned up to provide a strong bond. It will have to reinforced here and there with marine plywood to support stanchions (posts for lifelines) and sail handling attachments.

The red line on the drawing above shows the hull/deck joint and the stuff above it is what I have to build.

It's really all about a philosophy of life, isn't it?

2010-12-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

For a couple of years now, I've been sort of stuck in a place where many of us find ourselves... questioning whether I have enough time left on this planet to finish the projects I've started.

I know one thing for certain: I will die with some things unfinished.

This morning I awoke feeling really good and serene, and I felt like somehow my pondering and my affliction of mental paralysis has resolved itself. And my future had opened its doors to me at last.

The answer for me is simple (thank God):
I will plan to live past a hundred. Whether I do or not is unimportant.
And now I don't have to concern myself with my age and my burgeoning project list.

The Green Flash:
I am inspired by the following video to design the Flash as a solar-powered vessel as well as a fast sailboat.

Back-up power will still be supplied by a 15 kilowatt diesel generator bought for this boat a couple of years ago, but the solar thing is just what I needed to get off Square One. I'm not planning the energy storage system at this point in time since that whole thing is a moving target... but space will be allocated. Getting the boat built with the solar cells installed is a huge first step.

I have been in contact with a Chinese manufacturer of carbon fiber and epoxy resin offering prices I can actually afford (sort of). With some planning and "help from my friends" I think we can match the finish of this vessel. I, and the 1st Mate, love the colors in this picture, too.

Now I have to notify my friend, Michael, the naval architect, what I have in mind.

Oh, and another thing... I'm exploring a touch-screen interface for all the boat's operations and systems. That sounds like fun. Maybe a prototype on Bliss, first...

Why I love Mexico

2010-12-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Lookit this desktop weather gadget I have on my home page... I just came back from the ranchitos and the Green Flash workyard because it was getting too warm to work!

I was sitting out on the patio this morning with my guitar and it was too warm to play out there. Here is the 1st Mate stringing the Christmas lights (appropriately shaped as red peppers).

Through the window it appears there's actual flowers outside, so let's go see...

And next to the bougainvillea there's the orange tree and the fountain...

OK, 'nuff said.

Getting Serious, sort of...

2010-12-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today I lost my first adult tooth.
Not bad, at the age of 65.

The lower right molar was still solidly rooted to its location, but was giving me such pain that I opted for the extraction. The maxillary nerve was inflamed and I had lost my appetite, and most of my sleep, and all of my patience in the several days preceding. Pain pills couldn't get the job done. So I'm back on antibiotics again, and most of the pain is gone along with the tooth. My dentista, Doctora Maria in the town of Empalme, is a fine person as well as the area's best dentist. A deep cleaning and the extraction was about $50 US.

The veneers are ready for my two front teeth. These teeth were cracking down the middle, lengthwise, and would eventually break and cause pain and a general ugliness. They had already absorbed years of tannic acid stains from my coffee addiction and looked pretty bad to begin with. Dra. Maria charged me about $250 each for these dental caps and all the associated labor. If I want, I can go in tomorrow and have them installed. All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

Tomorrow night is a benefit concert produced by my two friends, Bobby and Leslie Sahlen. It might be nice to have my smile fixed for that. The 1st Mate and I are getting comp tickets because we'll be performing in their concert in January or February. We've already starting selecting the three melodies we'll do. We like the song, "It's Probably Me" by Sting, even though it's not jazz... but I'm working on an arrangement that will push it in that direction a little. The concerts are designed to benefit local orphanages.

On the Flash front...
I've hired Beto, a 15 year old boy from Guaymas to help me on the Flash. Right now we're cutting brush and weeds that popped up after the rains. Today I also got the 1971 VW van running. It, with the pickup truck, have been stored on the ranchito lot since last fall when I sailed Bliss south to Zihuatanejo.

Also, a naval architect/mechanical engineer is volunteering some design work on the Flash. Mike Capitain read my post about the Flash on boatdesign.net and my plans to employ a diesel-electric propulsion system. He's been sending me some 3d renderings and he's offering his expertise for the time being. I've also had offers of help from some gringo carpenters who are interested in the project.

I'm staying in San Carlos this winter to put some time and energy into the Flash and it looks promising.

Back on Track

2010-11-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

I try to do something new every day. I'm easily bored and I've found that trying something scary is a sure-fire way to stay out of the blahs.

Life is very accommodating for these activities. Almost daily, something I spent good money on breaks down and I'm faced with two possibilities: I can tear it apart to find out how it works, and maybe even fix it; or I can throw it away and try to find a replacement. The logical and most appealing choice is to try the repair, but if I take that approach with everything, I'm soon drowning in a deluge of nonfunctioning crap...

And I'm already way behind on a lot of projects.

Anyone who's dropped a vase knows that it only takes a second to break something, and a lot longer just to clean up the mess. And if you're going to glue that vase back together again, you better set aside a good chunk of time.

Then there's the stuff that just seems to appear on its own.

Last year the 1st Mate had a new room built onto the condo and I volunteered to build in the back door and create a design for the rear entrance. Then the topic of tool storage came up and i agreed to build that into the new room. These projects have me working in new mediums: adobe brick and mortar, glass brick and white cement. After constructing the doorway in 2x4s and plywood, I'm now sheathing the outside in parota, an indigenous wood that resists bugs and rot. It's also very beautiful and lightweight, but the sawdust is highly toxic. Any cutting, routing or sanding has to done with a good respirator mask. Pictured is a cockpit table I made from parota, butterflied and inlaid with strips of Mexican cedar. I build without plans or instructions- just some basic measurements. The fun is figuring out how to do something on my own. I know there's tons of how-tos online... if I was repairing my iPhone (which I have) I would do that. But this stuff isn't that big a deal, and discovering processes and techniques and tricks is a blast. Then you end up with something useful.

Goodbye, Sophie (1997-2010)

2010-09-19T12:10:00.001-07:00

Today the 1st Mate, Dr. Salomon, the Vet, and I concurred that it was time to let go of our 13 year old Maltese mix family member. Two weeks ago she stopped eating, started to stagger when she walked, started losing weight. We've been making daily visits to Dr. Salomon for the last week for injections, instructions, IVs, and prescriptions. Two days ago the infection moved into her lungs and that pretty much meant the end of the game.

Before her illness, sleeping on her favorite cushion.

When the sea breeze comes up this afternoon, we'll go out to the ranch where the Green Flash sits, and find a place to bury her mortal remains. Digging in the desert is hard, but when you live in a condo development there's no place near the house. The 1st Mate and I will take the air compressor and an air chisel along with the shovel to create Sophie's resting place. The desert doesn't yield easily.

Emotionally, I'm a wreck. And with almost 10 years without a drink, I want one now.
Maybe tomorrow.

The 1,000 year old man (or woman) is alive and well

2010-09-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about a blog regarding aging and the science of aging for about a week now... I received a link in the mail about this very subject today, and that got me writing.

Life expectancy is:
White women: 81 years
African-American women: 76.9 years
White men: 76 years
African-American men: 70 years
(These numbers were published by the CDC in Feb., 2008)

Each year, new drugs, treatments and research extend our lives. Breakthroughs, like the one I'll reveal today, make it seem possible that the cures for what kills us will be there before we get sick, or at least, before we die from them. The thing about these numbers is that they include accidents, murder, war fatalities, drug and alcohol abuse/overdose, etc. If you are 60 now, your numbers are higher than the chart above... unless you have dangerous habits and have just been lucky so far.

We live in a time where it's possible that we could survive almost indefinitely.

From Gizmag:

A region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome called a telomere, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration, is thought to be the "clock of aging" contained within the human body. Many scientists believe that the limit on lifespan and decline in health is imposed by the gradual shortening of our telomeres that occurs with every cell division. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that a human cell that does not undergo telomere shortening will divide indefinitely and is, by all available measurements, immortal.

Now researchers at Sierra Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues at TA Sciences, Geron Corporation, PhysioAge, and the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), have discovered the first compound that activates telomerase – an enzyme that lengthens telomeres – in the human body, potentially opening the door to arresting or even reversing the aging process.

So there it is.

Take good care of yourselves and you may just get to live a lot longer than you thought possible; I suspect funeral directors look at this subject with mixed emotions.

Stumbled onto Sadness

2010-09-08T16:53:00.001-07:00

This is a beat up business card that was given to me by my friend Karl Karlsson. It was new when I got it, back in 1999, when Karl retired from the San Francisco Police Department and opened his office as a Private Investigator. He was serious about his work, but loved to play... he and I drank a lot together, back in the day. Superbowl parties were Karl's specialty and the booze and food was good and plentiful at his house on the Petaluma River, just south of Petaluma.

In late 1999, Karl and his wife Carol told me they were going to Puerto Vallarta to party for 10 days and watch the Superbowl and then fly home. I was headed to Mexico for the winter and it turned out I was in Vallarta on my boat BLISS in late January. I got their number and invited them out for a sail on Banderas Bay, so we did.

As we started back after the daily sea breeze died my diesel wouldn't start... so we sailed into the anchorage at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in the dark. Carl was steering, Carol was reading off the depths as we came in and I was on the bow ready to drop the anchor. After we succeeded in sailing in the hook, I gave them the vee berth and went to sleep in the quarter berth near the nav station.

The next morning, I got into the engine room and started the diesel by jumping across the starter motor with a screwdriver (lots of noise and sparks) and we motored back to my slip. I drove them to their hotel. Karl told me he wanted to spend their last day together alone in PV (Superbowl Sunday) so I bid them adieu and drove back to the marina.

The next day I watched the Superbowl at a pub somewhere and the following Monday Karl and Carol boarded Alaska Airlines flight 261 out of Puerto Vallarta for San Francisco and Seattle. A flight I had taken a number of times. But theirs never made it. They died with the 86 other passengers and crew when the plane slammed into the Pacific Ocean near Pt. Conception in California on January 31, 2000.

I was cleaning out some stuff when I came across Karl's card., and it all came back to me.
So I wrote it here.

Big Brother isn't who you thought He would be

2010-08-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the famous Apple TV ad most folks refer to as "1984" or the "Big Brother Ad?"

According to ARS TECHNICA Apple Computer has"applied for a patent on a method to differentiate between authorized and unauthorized users of a particular iOS device. Once an unauthorized user is detected, the device can then automatically disable certain features or send notifications to Twitter or other services.

The patent, titled "Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device," describes several ways a device could sense who is using an iPhone or iPad. Among the methods considered are voice print analysis, photo analysis, heartbeat analysis (!), hacking attempts, or even "noting particular activities that can indicate suspicious behavior."

If the various analyses detect someone who is not authorized to use the device, it could set off a number of automated features designed to protect the device's data, suss out the offending party, and alert the device owner. Sensitive data could be backed up to a remote server and the device could be wiped. The device could automatically snap pictures of the unauthorized user and record the GPS coordinates of the device, as well as log keystrokes, phone calls, or other activity.

I can see where it would be helpful to disable a stolen phone.

Some of those who comment on ARS suggest it could be a way for Apple to disable unlocked or "jailbroken" iPhones, although a US Court has ruled that jailbreaking phones is not illegal activity. Apple could bypass the ruling by defining jailbreaking and/or unlocking as "suspicious behavior." This is actually stated in the patent application. It could be made part of the Software User Agreement. If you don't agree, then your iPhone won't even start up.

Steve Jobs is now a multi-billionaire, and his peers own things like AT&T, Telcel, and major recording and film companies. These are the people he cuts his deals with... if Carlos Slim (Telcel owner and world's richest man) wants Mexico's iPhones only to sell through Telcel, then the unlocked and jailbroken phones have to stop working. Of course, that's a big IF and purely speculative. But the lust for power and unbridled greed have no boundaries.

Jobs is now part of the network of filthy rich guys.

On the lighter side of the argument, one commenter writes: "Apple should buy into cattle prod technology. If somebody steals my phone, i want the battery drained into the the person using it. I want them to flop on the ground like a seizing trout. Maybe it can detect a lack of heartbeat and stop the discharge to conserve enough battery to upload its current location."

Maybe we'll get to see that on YOUTUBE in the next few years, if Big Brother lets us.

And you thought Jet Skis were bad...

2010-08-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

New to emerge from the diabolical minds of recreational technologists is the shark-shaped Seabreacher X. A machine that can do 50 mph on the surface and 25 mph underwater, carry two people, and wreak havoc at your nearest anchorage.

Even at around $100,000 each, you can be sure the superyachts will keep at least one of these aboard for their spoiled kids/grandkids....

Pride in your work... from where does it spring?

2010-08-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

This week we got our first taste of the monsoons and while the cool rain and cloud cover made conditions delightful outdoors, we did get some outdoors indoors.

This photo shows several leaks that occurred in our new condo addition during the rains. It was enough to have us putting buckets out, mopping and moving stuff when we'd rather be sitting and gazing out at the lightning.

I climbed up to the area and found this brick wall riddled with voids and holes in the mortar (not to mention the drainpipes that were disassembled and left on the roof). Somebody didn't give a damn, and the contractor who paid this bricklayer didn't check his work.

Anyway, this morning at 6am, I mixed up a batch of mortar, climbed up and patched the holes after wetting them down. We could, and maybe should have called the contractor to complain, and maybe we still will do that, but for now the problem is fixed. We're ready for the next rain, whether the contractor does anything or not.

In my experience, this kind of shoddy workmanship is more common in Mexico than the US.
It's particularly scary if you are trusting someone to fix your boat or car. I, for one, do almost all of my own repairs. It's cheaper and safer in the long run, but I do get tired of the constant job lists. I believe I have too many things and have embarked on the task of getting them to someone else, but that's kinda' off-topic. Another blog.

I learned pride in my work... a sense of craftsmanship, from Mrs. Mary Chandler. She was my art teacher from the 2nd grade to the 6th. A year after entering junior high school, she was my teacher again, and moved with me into high school. I'm surprised I didn't find her in my college classes, but she was instrumental in getting me into college level art classes at Carnegie Institute of Technology at the tender age of 14. She had engineered a scholarship for me.

Mary made me work through the hard parts, when I would have said, "Hey, that's good enough!" Good enough wasn't good enough. When I saw the results of the extra effort and attention to detail, it seemed worth it all.

In this world we all need someone like Mary. Even bricklayers.

Dogs, and Not Dogs

2010-07-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

I heard it once said that dogs think that we humans are also dogs, but a very special kind of dog. I suppose this could be true for some people, but for people who hate dogs, do dogs still think they're really dogs? Or do they think "he's too damn mean to be a dog..." Maybe you have to qualify to be a dog.

A couple of years back I watched a documentary about Shaun Ellis, a man who raised a couple of wolf pups, then got involved in a wolf pack. He lived with wolves for almost two years, running around (sort of), with the pack, hunting and gnawing on bloody carcasses for food.

One part of the documentary that stuck with me was the way that wolves would greet each other by biting, and getting bitten on their muzzles. Shaun is no wuss... he got in there and bit and got bit and his face started to look like one of those bloody carcasses at the dinner table. Check this out... ahhhh Wolf Heaven.

I thought I would try that with Chica and Sophie. But instead of biting their muzzles, I would grip it with my hand (my face already looks worse than Shaun's) and shake it a little and growl. Surprisingly, Chico thought it was really cool and would push her muzzle deeper into my palm, wagging like crazy.

Sophie just wanted to know if I had any food... and walked away.
But I think Chica would just rather get scratched than anything, except to play ball.

This reminds me that when I was a toddler, my Uncle Brooks would grab my nose and give it a little shake when he came to visit.
Maybe I was already a dog then.

Hot Tamale

2010-07-23T17:26:00.003-07:00

This little map was on WeatherUnderground today and I wanted to share it. If you look along the Mexican mainland coast as it climbs into the Sea of Cortez, you see a little indent near the the top. That's where San Carlos and Guaymas are located. That's us. It would seem that we're the hottest place in Mexico/Central America at the moment.

And we just got our electricity back after a blackout. Only a couple of hours... but still.

We responded by sending the Capt. down to the boat (SV BLISS is currently in a slip at Marina San Carlos for cleaning and unloading after our trip) and fetched some flashlights and the Honda generator and a jug of gasoline. When the power goes out here, the gas stations can't pump gas. Short story, we hooked up the generator to the fridge, a fan, and the 1st Mate's computer. Internet is like, important to us.
Our A/C in the condo is 220 volt and the Honda can't handle that.

Will the power stay stable? We don't know, but we can cool down the boat pretty fast with the A/C there and our generator, so in an extended blackout we could move aboard to survive. Nice knowing that.

Heading for the Barn

2010-07-20T18:44:00.002-07:00

The Tetas of San Carlos.

Distinct and large enough to work as a landmark from 20 miles out...

Monday July 19

We've decided it's time to head for the barn. After a restful night at anchor in Agua Verde on the Baja peninsula, we caught an early westerly that brought us up to 6 knots for a couple of hours and launched us on our way to San Carlos.

The development of Puerto Escondido doesn't appeal to us, and we'd rather be getting home than spending money on what used to be free at the Hidden Port. Maybe next LoretoFest, we'll see.

Speaking of LoretoFest, we've been thinking about starting a cruiser music festival in San Carlos, maybe between October 15 and November 1st. In the past I've organized rock/music concerts to raise money for people who have needed medical care and it's been a lot of fun. The 1st Mate and I would need to work some things out because those dates coincide with our deadlines/publishing of our annual traveler's guide. Again, we'll see.

It's 94 degrees in the cabin this morning at 11… a hot one. The westerly has died and we're motoring (dieseling?) over a flat Cortez. Fortunately, the 120 amp alternator I found at the San Carlos sailors swap meet is working, and coupled with a 2000 watt dc to ac inverter and a countertop ice maker, we are enjoying fresh limonades as we go. The sea surface is getting that ruffled look it gets prior to the daily seabreeze, so there's hope that the wind will start up soon.

11pm update

Still no wind, but the seas are flat. Hot and humid.

Tuesday July 21

We arrived in San Carlos hot, tired and sleepy around 12 noon. The 1st Mate, Sophie and Chica were dropped off near the big Marinaterra Hotel restaurant dock to get a cab for me from the dinghy dock to the condo. We're heading in for showers and naps and air conditioning… then we'll start unloading the boat tomorrow when she's moved to a slip. So nice to be back, safe and sound.

Navigating Life...

2010-07-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is a screen shot of a nautical chart of our current location and part of our route back home. The GPS we use with our computer is a GlobalSat BT-328, on the left, below. It uses Bluetooth wireless to connect to our MacBook Pro laptop and establishes our position within about 20 feet. It costs less than $50 on the internet and has worked flawlessly for us for years.

When you use it with Google Earth, you get something like this, which puts us in our temporary slip at Marina de la Paz.

Google Earth requires an internet connection, of course, and that's rare when underway, so navigation charts are used. Also, they tell you about things like water depth, so you don't run aground (like oil tankers) and they're much more compact so you you can keep all the world's waterways on a laptop, available wherever you are (mostly). If you don't have a chart, then you're really exploring.

So, where's the challenge, you say? Well, if somebody sinks their boat in a waterway, and the wreck isn't on your chart, then there's a good chance you'll run into it and share its fate. There's also logs, whales, and partially sunken (but floating just below the surface) shipping containers that have fallen off ships. It's estimated that there's tens of thousands of those out there. And there's weather.

Actually, the list of potential hazards runs so long, there's not room or time here to list them all, but that's also true of any human undertaking.

I had a good friend who was killed in his race car, on the race track. He died doing what he loved, so where's the sadness in that?

I suppose he could have sat in his rocking chair, safe and sound, until his doctor gave him the bad news. Many people do. It's not wrong, but to me, sad.

For me, the real joy of this trip is sharing it with the 1st Mate (who has lots of ideas on how to have fun) and the two mongrels we brought along. Joy, unshared, loses its lustre.

Arriving in Baja

2010-07-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

Painting with the camera.

For me, doing subtle compositions is easier with photography than a canvas. Faster, too.

It seems that I can express powerful images better with a paint brush, but fine grain monochromatic stuff is better left alone there. Maybe I don't have the patience for it, more likely though, is I want my paintings to say more not less, and to say it louder. It's very easy to overdo a painting. With the camera, you get what you get.

These photos were taken as we arrived on the Baja side after 48 hours at sea. We left Mazatlan on Wednesday morning and decided to sail north of La Paz to the islands there (Isla Partida and Isla Espiritu Santos) for their beautiful turquoise waters and quiet restful anchorages. Unfortunately, we were assailed by a local weather phenomenon called "corumels." Sudden high gusting winds, disturbing our sleep. I was worried that the anchor might might slip… but it held just fine. The morning dawned with a 22 to 25 knot southerly and one of our boat fenders had gone missing. Right now we're plowing through a steep choppy sea toward the La Paz boat channel, still another 17 miles away. Slow progress against this southerly.

The 1st Mate has lost her appetite and says she is comforting the dogs up in the V-berth. The dogs, however, say different.

Cruiser's plans are written in sand...

2010-07-01T15:33:00.000-07:00

Mazatlan

And some will add, "at low tide" but that doesn't rhyme worth a damn, and if art isn't important, what is? We originally had planned to leave this morning, but when I checked the weather, something had popped up. Actually, two things (so far).

Hurricane Alex moved over northeastern Mexico and started pulling air from the Pacific Ocean. The spillover across the Baja peninsula was creating high winds and seas off the coast and up into the Sea of Cortez. Stuff that would overpower our autopilot and force me to hand steer for 36 hours through dangerous seas. Postpone the trip. Maybe to Tuesday.

Last night, the 1st Mate made chicken mole on rice and I washed the dishes... and I discovered that the light over the galley sink wasn't working. It was a leakage of electrons, I learned today, inside the wiring in the engine room, which adjoins the galley. Armed with a light, I entered the engine room and while there, found that the fuel line from the deck fill to the tank had a problem.

Evidently, the hose clamp had loosened, allowing diesel to seep around the fitting on the tank, attacking the exposed insides of the hose where it rested against the tank. The material of the hose had turned into a black, greasy, sticky substance that can only be removed by petroleum distillates or (lucky for me) automotive hand cleaner. Also lucky for me, the gunk hadn't entered the tank, which would have clogged up the diesel engine in a hurry. Loosening two other hose clamps enabled me to pull out the hose for the 1st Mate's camera.

We'll locate a replacement hose somewhere and look for the next show stopper. But since we can't do anything about the weather, we'll try to take it easy and enjoy the "time off."

So, what do you do in summer?

2010-06-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

Used to be, in summer, I'd put away the raingear but I'd keep out the coats, sweaters and sweat pants. The reason was the Humboldt Current flowing along the Northern California coast, where we lived. The prevailing northwesterlies would blow over this cold upwelling of water just before they hit land and the resulting climate was cold and rainless. I won't say dry. The Pacific Ocean, driven by these winds, would pound against the rocky, redwood strewn shore and spindrift would be caught in the winds and thrown against anything standing in it's way. Icicles of salt would form on automobiles... an oceanic blessing for body shop owners. And it was cold, hardly ever reaching over 65 degrees in the hottest part of the year. It rained in the winter and the rain was warmer than the air, it seemed. Summer was a colder, drier version.

The 1st Mate and I were the night managers for a romantic getaway, called Seacliff on the Bluff in Gualala, California and we lived above the lobby. Their website is here, and if the weather gets to be too hot for you, make a reservation. There are sixteen rooms in four separate buildings overlooking the Pacific, and each room has a tv, a king bed, a redwood deck, shower, two person jacuzzi, a fridge with complimentary champagne (or fizzy apple cider, your choice), gas fireplace with ceramic logs and no telephones. The gray whales roam along this coast and stop and rub their large bodies against the sandy bottom just before the surfline at Gualala. They're just 15 to 20 yards offshore. Amazing to watch.

But we left Gualala in 2005 to live in Mexico, and summers have never been the same (thank God!).

In a few days, we'll be driving to Mazatlan from San Carlos to prepare our sailboat BLISS for a trip to the Baja and the Sea of Cortez before crossing back over to San Carlos. At five miles an hour, it will take us a couple of weeks. And the temperatures will be close to double those of distant summers in the north.
This year we're taking a window-sized air conditioner and using our quiet little Honda eu2000i generator to power the ac. Tearing down the carburetor I discovered this in the gas bowl. Pink colored salt crystals. The coloring is dye they use in the gas, the crystals found their way into the gasoline somehow. I suspect the daily heating and cooling of the gas can, which sucks salty air into the jerry jug at night.

Sailing with an air conditioner is grand, by the way. The sea water is still below 90 degrees and will help when the air temps get over 110.

Belay That...

2010-06-22T12:54:00.001-07:00

belay |biˈlā|verb [ trans. ]1 fix (a running rope) around a cleat, pin, rock, or other object, to secure it.• secure (a mountaineer) in this way : he belayed his partner across the ice| [ intrans. ] it is possible to belay here.2 [usu. in imperative ] Nautical slang stop; enough! : “Belay that, mister. Man your post.”

I've had experience with addictions, and one feature of the addict's landscape is that after a length of time in recovery, the horror of addiction and toxic living doesn't seem so bad after all. For the unsuspecting, the unexperienced or the uneducated it leads back to another round of temporary joy, then indulgence, misery, wreckage, loss and finally if one is lucky, recovery. If unlucky, death, imprisonment, permanent disability, and/or complete poverty.

Nothing to mess with.

"My name is Jim. I'm a boataholic...."
Is my relationship with boats the same thing as an addiction to say, drugs or alcohol? I don't know. Though I find that after several months ashore, living in relative comfort, with an abundance of all the things not provided while aboard (unlimited food and fresh water, electric power, space, security, stability, companionship, communication, tools and equipment, easy and fast transportation, replacement parts, professional assistance, entertainment, medical help and supplies, etc), I want to go sailing.

Boating is expensive, and I attenuate the costs by doing most of my own work. It enables me to understand the systems that I might have to repair while underway. And repairing those things without anything on that long list in the preceding paragraph.

It has made me competent in a number of things, and has illuminated my shortcomings. (The repair of electronics and things that require welding and/or machining go to the shop.) I also do my own installations and I have completely rewired BLISS and will rewire her again now that I know a few more things... It's more work than I want to do though. It seems that the ratio between enjoyment of the vessel and the work to keep her fully functional has shifted out of balance. Way out of balance.

It's my fault. Rather than accept the limitations imposed by the nature of sailing a small yacht, I have added a lot things that I thought would make life aboard more pleasurable. I've increased the load on the electrical system with all my gadgets that I now need to have 500 pounds of batteries, a backup generator, fancy regulators and meters, inverters (convert battery voltage to household current), solar panels and wind generators (and their structures) and miles of additional wiring throughout the boat. All this stuff wears out or breaks down and costs money to fix or replace, and all of it requires my time and labor to install and uninstall, to run it out to a repair shop or sit down with my tools and soldering gun and an internet connection to find the repair info if I can't figure it out myself.

Gone is the serenity and happy-go-lucky joy of my first boat.

I'm reminded of a time I spent with my brother back in Pennsylvania in the early 70s. He was buying high quality surplus electrical cords with a good standard grounded plug on one end and some obsolete, funny connection on the other. He would take a hatchet and chop off the obsolete connector and then sell the perfectly functional cord to a company that needed them for a 300% markup. He called it de-manufacturing.

I need to apply that same logic here.

There may still be joy left in the old girl yet, after I wipe off all the make-up and lipstick, and remove the implants and tummy-tucks.

boats for sale by owner

2010-05-14T19:19:00.001-07:00

I've been back in San Carlos almost a month now. Mostly doing Honey-Dew lists and recovering from the battering I got from the sea and self-important Port Captains. Later this month, when all the parts have come in to make SV Bliss seaworthy again and the winds are into their southerly weather pattern. the 1st Mate and I and our two dogonauts will drive back to Mazatlan.

The plan: Sail across the sea to LaPaz and spend some quality time in the 1st Mate's favorite city, then some time kayaking around Isla Partida and the turquoise water there. Make our way up along the Baja coast doing a string of day sails and then cross at Sta Rosalia to San Carlos. I'll take the bus back to get the car.

We'll haul the boat, paint it, fix what needs to be fixed, finish what needs to be finished and put the boat on the market. We bought BLISS on St. Pat's Day in 1994, and we've had a pretty good run. So this will be our last cruise on BLISS. The work/fun, money/adventure equation is no longer working, so it's time to let go.

Me? I'm tired of being bounced around in a seaway, losing sleep and spending money. If I want to go on a cruise, I'll call Royal Caribbean or Princess (but not Disney... I'm not good with other people's kids) and join the thousands of non-captains on the sea.

What does this mean for the Green Flash?
It means I'm looking for someone to take the baton.

Landed!!

2010-04-23T12:28:00.003-07:00

After what seems like forever, I'm parked in an outdoor cafe (Calypso Coffee) overlooking Marina Mazatlan, listening to piped in reggae and sipping a limonada (made without a single, solitary limon) and watching Sergio wash down my boat.

This is the moment I've dreamed of for weeks (except for the limonada and reggae, that is) while I lurched and pounded my way upwind through some pretty disgusting seas, and some really rolly windy anchorages. My cruising days are almost over. I really should have waited until later in the season to bring it north, it would have been faster and easier.

A surprise at the anchorage at Jaltemba Bay
... free auto accessories.

It's even uglier from this side of the boat.

I was able to shake it loose in a few minutes, though.

On Sunday, the 1st Mate is driving the Nissan Quest down from San Carlos with Sophie and Chica. We'll spend four days or so having some fun in Mazatlan. If we're lucky, we'll take care of some car issues with the Nissan (install new front struts, check on the engine light, steering and alignment) at either the Ford or Nissan dealership. (The Nissan Quest is simultaneously known as the Mercury Villager, both having been built in a US Ford factory).

I was able to get a great wifi signal 3 miles

out from this little beach house along the coast.

Then we'll leave the boat in Mazatlan (I've purchased a new bilge switch here for a good price) and probably sail up to San Carlos in June, haul it out, paint it, correct a few minor problems and put it on the market with 10 gazillion other boats. Maybe we could just make the boat and the business a package deal... sell a lifestyle, not just a business. A fantastic deal for a forty-something with a house payment, a boring job, and some people and computer skills. Sell the house and do this. Work part-time for 5 months of the year from Mexico, spend the rest cruising the coast and Sea of Cortez. (End of commercial message....)

Imagine the life... (please direct your friends with

disposable income to this blog. Thank you.)

Full Gale!

2010-04-12T13:21:00.001-07:00

This morning the wind started up early, about 10:30 am local time... 3 hours too soon. And it didn't really die until around 4 am, 7 hours too long.

At 10 am I took the dinghy into Barra and got my paperwork done with the Port Captain (5 minutes, no hassles), walked to Beer Bob's Book Exchange and dropped off my novels and picked up some new ones, said goodbye to the folks I know in Cabo Blanco (it's near the PC and BBs) and headed back to the boat. The wind in the lagoon was blowing about 30 knots when I hauled up anchor and made my way down the channel. I was looking forward to a nice calm night in the peaceful waters of Tenecatita Bay, one of my favorite places in all of Mexico.

When I got to the mouth of the estuary (the "Bar" in Barra) the sea was churning with whitecaps, foam blowing around the place and a washing machine for Bahia de Barra. A 65 foot ketch was barreling into the narrow channel. He took the left marker, I took the right. Suddenly my forward motion dropped to about 2 knots and all the power in BLISS' diesel was being used to mount the waves that hit us. I cranked up the rpms for more power and noticed the temperature gauge was on its red-line. I slowed the motor down, turned 180 degrees and back into the lagoon.

I dropped the anchor near the fuel dock and shut the diesel down after checking for water leaks in the cooling system. The fan belt that drives the alternator and heat exchange pump was stretched out and not doing its job. I let the motor cool down, retightened the belt and got the diesel functioning properly again, but I knew I was spending another night in the lagoon. The sea was too dangerous for me and a boat this size, (and for 65 foot ketches, too).

I found a space in about 8 feet of water behind Dog Island and ran out 100 feet of chain. The wind is still strong enough to shake the cockpit awning to pieces, so I took it down and have the dinghy in the wind shadow behind BLISS.

There's a small ketch near me whose owners have left her parked there and the roller furling jib is starting to get pulled out by the wind. It sounds like a motorboat as it pops and collapses. The wind is easily gusting up past 50 knots and I don't know if I would be able to do anything about their sail. The loose end is now 20 feet off the deck and I can't reach that far. If the whole thing comes out it will either destroy the mast or pull the boat off its anchor and send it crashing downwind... or it may do both.

Anyway, being stuck here in this blow for an indefinite period of time encouraged me to sign up for the local internet service. I get 24 hours of service for $7.00 but I can sign off and on to stretch the total period out over a couple of days if that's what it takes to get out of here. I'll be using it mostly to search the weather sites for some information.

Back in the Lagoon and a Good Sign

2010-04-11T17:04:00.000-07:00

The Barra de Navidad (est 1644) lagoon is really quite big. It's almost bigger than the town/city it occupies, if that's possible. My little boat is right about where the map pin is.

For those of you who don't know about this lagoon, it's a wind magnet. Every day around 1 pm until after dark, the sea breeze comes in from the west at around 25 to 40 mph. The 1st Mate and I and our dogs were here when it was clocked at 68 mph. Speeding, indeed. It sets up a nice breeze through the boat but keeps us below to write, play music and read, cook and eat cookies (which is what I'm doing today). Thoughts of going to town in this weather are suspect, but the water taxis handle it just fine. Try this in a dinghy and you'll be soaked to the bone in minutes.

I spotted this sign outside a hotel lobby in Barra today, and had to post it. It's uniquely honest in an industry that is anything butt.

This is my favorite sign in all of Mexico so far

And if the Surgeon General REALLY wanted people to quit smoking, he'd put THIS on all the tobacco products sold in the US. Maybe with a Healthcare Plan for Americans in the works, he will.

The Song Blog

2010-04-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

Right now, I'm about 5 miles off the coast of Barra de Navidad, (on the state line of Jalisco and Colima) on my way home to San Carlos, Sonora hundreds of sea miles away. I'm trying to steal a little wifi from out here with my dish setup. Looks like I did.

I've always wanted to write music, and although I'm a pretty accomplished guitarist, and I can play just about every piano chord ever built, I don't have any original material.

It's not laziness. It's just lack of inspiration, and maybe, somebody needs to just show me how it's done. And maybe I lack confidence too.

But I don't want to write the same old love-addiction songs that sell trillions of records. I want to do something a little more original and just sell a million records... that would be fine.

So here's some song ideas that I have that are maybe a little more timely to the 21st century:

Your Cheatin' Avatar

If you stay in one place too long,

someone will kill you by accident.

One webcam too many.

Goin' Native, and can't afford it.

They can't make anything right

(pay me once, pay me twice)

I ain't God, but that's not my fault

WiFi ain't workin' Blues

If you're gonna' do drugs,

did you bring enough for everyone?

I know where you are (the GPS song)

So, I'll let you all know when the CD is ready and on my new website, mxsailor.com, which isn't built yet… but neither are the songs

Return of, escape from civilization

2010-04-07T09:18:00.001-07:00

Last night I met Scottie at the Flophouse, where we picked up an amp and the Capt and off we went to Troncones Beach.

There's only one road into and out of Zihautanejo, and it runs along the coast. It's two lanes and sometimes has a shoulder, but more often not. This is the road I took on the "Express" to Barra de Navidad.

The main road in Troncones is not paved (unless the pavement was buried under the ever-present sand) except for large concrete topes. A lot of them, strung along this road.

Our destination was the Inn at Manzanillo Bay, a palm covered resort of 6 bungalows situated around a glistening pool. The restaurant was 1st class.

After we set up our gear, Scottie suggested we eat. His meal (shrimp) was free and my excellent hamburger and fries with limonada ran 120 pesos.

It was my hope that we could do a few numbers together to get a sense of things before too many people showed up, but Scottie launched into his gig without a warm up. I played the bass (through my guitar synthesizer) behind his guitar work and singing, and he turned to me and "take off" which meant, I thought, that I should jump in and solo. I hit a switch on the guitar and I go from bass to jazz guitar and "take off."

He had brought some sheet music with him; I was able to reprise "Scotch and Soda," a 1st Mate favorite, and play rhythm for his occasional solos. "St. James Infirmary" and some slow blues allowed me to switch to muted trumpet solos for a nice, smoky feel. It was Scottie's show all the way though, and I was just the side-man. I stumbled once in while over an unexpected chord change and had trouble with some of Scot's fast-moving, fast-changing R&B tunes… trying to keep an unfamiliar tempo going while Scottie soloed. A humbling experience at times.

Moments of brilliance, moments of shame. Just like life.

On the return trip, we both agreed to forgo the Wednesday night joint performance at the Flophouse. Too much work needed to be done and there was no time to do it. I'm getting ready to sail north and a trip of a thousand miles in a sailboat requires a lot of preparation.

I woke up Wednesday morning with a wrenched back, from carrying the amps and other gear, I think. I planned to take it easy. Then the local provisioner, Ishmael, sent out his panga with my fuel and water purchase. 35 gallons of diesel in 5 gallon jugs, and one 5 gallon jug of gasoline and 5 gallons of drinking water. So despite the pain, I'm storing away this stuff.

Yesterday Ishmael delivered my refilled propane tank, I was able to buy some block ice from a restaurant, and I scored big at the ISSST market, finding Ades soy milk on sale. So now, I can make espressos on the boat, have hot water for washing and showers, run the generator for lots of lights and entertainment gizmos, eat some fresh food (I'm so tired of restaurant food), and nurse my aches and pains.

Today I'll go in and bid adieu to the irascible Port Captain of Zihuatanejo, and start working my way up the coast tomorrow. It will be good to get the sails up again and get away from the noise and chaos of populated cities. Back to the sea.

Separate Ways

2010-04-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

This is TICA, a Cabo Rico 38 of Costa Rican manufacture, home and transport for my friends Bill and JoAnn Sylvester as they make their way south. First to Hualtaco, then to El Salvador to a cruisers rally at Bahia del Sol near San Salvador. They plan to continue on through the canal to the islands of San Blas... with that accomplished, they'll decide on the next destination. (They tell me they'll be driving through San Carlos around May 19th, so it's possible we'll connect again.) They're leaving today.

Cruising, like life, is more about the journey than destinations. When you travel long distances at the stately rate of 5 or 6 miles an hour, there's a lot of time invested in getting from on place to another. The importance of the destination varies with the individual, but we all agree that the weather is paramount. The one thing we can't control (yet).

My plans? I've been invited by the local blues guitar maestro, Scottie, to accompany him to Trocones Beach tonight for a performance at one of the bars/restaurants there. ZihuaRob (who has commented here before) says, "Troncones is a small ecological beach community about 37 kilometers (22 miles) to the north." If all goes sort-of-well, we'll play Wednesday at the Flophouse in Zihuatanejo on a stage that's measured in square inches. To a full house (seats about 12).

Scottie and I have a lot in common. We're both Vietnam vets, both been playing all our lives, know a lot of the same songs, laugh at the same things... we even take the same meds. Only difference is that I'm a few years older and don't drink at all, while Scottie has learned moderation... a word I have difficulty understanding.

In May Scottie will traveling through Mazatlan where he has lined up a short gig with a piano player, and then on to the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

On Thursday I'll be heading back north aboard BLISS to connect with the 1st Mate, either in Mazatlan or San Carlos. We hope to participate in this year's cruiser/music rally, LorestoFest. We'll either take BLISS or the Quest on the ferry and a tent.

Doing the Right Thing...

2010-04-03T08:36:00.004-07:00

It was my intention to transfer the registration of SV BLISS to Arizona, get new documents and present them to the Port Captain upon my return... so the 1st Mate and I, our Maltese-mix pets Sophie and Chica drove up to Tucson to the Game and Fish Department to do just that. Upon arrival, I was told that being a non-resident of Arizona would cost me $292 each and every year for the boat registration. A shock. I said, "OK, but just for one year..." Then they took a look at my California registration and the title and said, "This hull number has the wrong number of digits. We can't register it."

According to AZ regulations, the number of digits in a hull number must match the Coast Guard requirement. The law must have gone into effect after my boat was built, in 1973. So in order to register the boat, they needed a rubbing (put a piece of paper over the hull number etched into the hull and rub a pencil on it to transfer the image, take that to Game and Fish). Of course, the boat is 2000 miles away.

Another obstacle. This whole thing looked impossible to do.

The 1st Mate suggested that I contact her son in Petaluma, California and use his address to re-register the boat... then it occurred to me: Why not have Jay, her son, do the registration for me?

I called Jay on the US cell phone we have, and proposed paying him $50 to take my paperwork to DMV and emailing me back copies of the documents. He agreed. We stopped at the Tubac Deli and Coffee Company where I ordered a double espresso. Took my coffee, my digital camera, old documents and laptop to a table. Spread out the docs and photographed them, emailed them to Jay using the coffee shop wifi system. Drank my espresso. Got in the car and headed back to San Carlos.

When we got home, the new registration was sitting in my email inbox. I logged into TrustFax.com and faxed the docs to the Port Captain, logged into Paypal and paid Jay the $50 plus the registration fee of $60 (for 6 years of past due fees). I felt fantastic.

I could have done this from the boat. Duh.

But, the 1st Mate and I would still be separated, the Quest would still need to be moved back to San Carlos, and the 3 kilos of coffee and 5 kilos of seedless raisins I bought would still be on the boat instead of in the hands of the 1st Mate. I would still be missing the dog kisses I got. And the time we all had together.

And, with the Arizona registration, all my other documents would have to be redone: the insurance papers, the temporary importation permit for the boat from Mexican Customs (a biggie).

And although I was sorely tempted to create a forgery for the Port Captain (being a certifiable computer artist), I would always worry that I would get caught... the boat impounded; me arrested, jailed, fined and deported. So the price I pay for keeping my serenity is doing the right thing, regardless of how long it takes, how much it costs, and how much work is involved.

The rewards are worth it.

Back in Zihuatanejo, warm puppies and the good life.

Finding the Nugget

2010-04-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm sitting in bed, next to the 1st Mate (yes, we're married again) and contemplating the last 11 days of my life. I'm rested but achy, tired but not sleepy, and only slightly less confused than I was yesterday, but serenity has returned and that's important.

Eleven days ago, Bill on TICO took me to shore where I caught a 8 pm bus from Zihuatanejo to Barra de Navidad, 200 miles away. It was an express... it took nine hours. Put THAT in your calculator.

The road was narrow and twisty and dark. It felt to me like sailing around Cabo Corrientes on a lumpy night at sea. Lots of noise, lots of leaning one way and then the other, lots of bumps, pitch black. We got into Barra at dawn and I caught a cab to the Cadillac Ranch, where my friend Don was storing my car. Don bought me a cup of coffee and I threw my bags in the car and drove to a mechanic who installed the rear shocks in the Quest for 60 pesos. I had wanted to get the front struts done too, but the only place I could find the parts was in Manzanillo/Santiago where the Nissan dealership was asking about $600 for a pair (and 5 days wait). I ordered them online Autozone for $78 each including shipping.

I had decided that I wasn not going to take my usual route back to San Carlos (to PV, Las Varas, San Blas, Mazatlan). I drove back toward Manzanillo and took the toll road to Colima and the route to Guadalajara. It was a route I hadn't used before so everything was kinda' refreshing. The rear shocks kept me from bottoming out on the topes, I had my camera with me, and lots of coconut cookies. I was set. Oh, and I had my little $130 GPS unit for the car, and was directed and entertained by the voice named "Amy" (Aim Me, get it?)

The volcanos above the city of Colima

As I reached the plateau near Guadalajara, I saw my GPS coloring the next several miles in the color blue... and I thought, "Gee. Am I coming up to a huge lake? I should get out the camera..." But when I got to the area, it was a large, flat region of white sand... a high plains desert. Then I saw the nicest expanse of shimmering blue near the horizon and I got it... my GPS even has mirages in its database?

High Plains Drifter. The plateau south of Guadalajara

I started seeing signs that said "Beware the Tovaneras. Slow down near Tovaneras." I realized that tovaneras are what we call Dust Devils and I could see half a dozen of them swirling around and through the desert and mirages... (would that be some kind of waterspout?)

Amy was fantastic in Guadalajara. The freeway traffic reminded me of rush hour in the East Bay (San Francisco) and Amy coached me through three different cloverleaf intersections to the toll road for Tepic. I drove until dark, and stopped at a toll booth rest area to sleep.

Awake at 5 am, I headed out and got into San Carlos around sundown... 45 hours after leaving the boat. The Colima/Guadalajara route was fast and really easy with wide highways (only about 40 miles of 2-lane road), no twisty jungle roads and plenty of things to see. Recommended!

Next: The trip to Tucson and Arizona's Game and Fish Department

What, Luck?

2010-03-20T10:18:00.004-07:00

When I was having it out with the Port Captain, I heard a kinda' distress call on my VHF radio.

It was the sailboat TICO 3 miles out, with a bad diesel water pump. They had been drifting for 25 hours on the light winds we have in these parts sometimes. They were looking for a tow in. My diesel was apart with a cooling problem too, and an appointment with the Port Captain. All I could do was acknowledge their hail, and wish them luck. No one else was on channel.

When I got back to the anchorage several hours later, Bill and Jo-Anne on TICO were anchored near me and I stopped on my way to BLISS to see how they were.

Bill said he was ordering a new water pump and asked if I knew the best way to get it to the boat, and I said, "Sure, send it to Nogales. When I go north to get my paperwork sorted out this week I'll bring it back with me." What luck.

Bill looked at my dinghy and said, "Hey! We've got the same outboard! I love my Nissan, it starts 1st pull every time..." Hmmmmm.

Yesterday, my outboard went down, and I called the mechanic, Adel, this morning to get the verdict... "It's the impeller, " he said. "Do you have a spare?" I said, "I'll call you back."

I hailed TICO on the radio, and sure enough, Bill had a couple of spares and was happy to loan one to me. He launched his dink, drove over, and together we ran into the beach where Adel was waiting with the old impeller.

The vanes were still intact, but the entire part had spun off it's shaft, resulting in two parts and not one. I handed the spare to Adel, who promised the motor would be back at 5 pm, ready to go.

Bill said that he and Jo-Anne were coming to the beach at five so they could catch a guitarist at Coconuts Restaurant tonight, and would tow my dinghy and me to the beach. I said I'll join them tonight at Coconuts 'cause I'd like to hear this guy too.

Then I jumped on the internet from BLISS and ordered two complete water pump kits for the outboard. One for TICO and a spare for me. It was $90 including shipping to Nogales.

Everybody is happy except the Port Captain, but that's HIS problem...

Beached

2010-03-19T17:08:00.001-07:00

As I approached the dinghy landing today the outboard quit working. I restarted it and noticed there wasn't water emerging from the coolant spout underneath the powerhead, so I turned it off. It was really hot. I checked to see that I still had compression by pulling on the starter, and I did. So I took my single oar and proceeded to complete the half-mile journey to the beach, rowing the catamaran shaped Livingston dink as if it were a canoe. First one side, then the other.

Jesus, the guy who is working the beach today, got out into the water at chest depth to bring me in. There was a pretty good surf today and I was glad he did. I gave him my usual 10 peso tip and he was pleased. Jesus didn't know of an "el mechanico." so I grabbed my dirty laundry, my backpack and my floppy hat and went in search of an outboard repair.

On my list today: get the bus schedule for the only Directo Bus to Manzanillo, buy spare drive belts for the diesel engine, replacement caps for the heat exchanger (automotive radiator caps), a better bolt for the alternator, some toothpaste, floss, and whatever (without an outboard motor, the whatever list had to be very portable). One cruiser sent me to one guy who is known for knowing everything about everybody. He told me the nearest laundry was on the other side of town, and called a mechanic who told him he might show up in an hour, so I got a cab to Centro de Autobuses and the auto parts store nearby. The parts guy had the belts and the caps, but no bolt that would work. So, the cabbie took me to the bus station. The bus line is called Estrella Blanco (White Star) among 6 others at Zihua, and it's Directo daily leaves at 8:30 pm and takes "7 to 8 hours" to get to Manzanillo. Right behind the bus station is the Commercial Mexicana, a really huge Walmart-type super shopping center, so I paid the cab and walked around the block to shop. I just picked up my dental items and a bunch of bananas and a bottle of ice tea, and grabbed my dirty laundry and the backpack with the car parts from the "paquetta" to catch a cab back to connect with the mechanic.

The cab driver wanted to stop to get some lunch on the way to town and before I could say no, pulled into a taqueria. "Comida rapido," he assured me.

I'm no rank tourist. I know that any sentence with the word "rapido" in it is an out and out lie.

I gave him 5 minutes, and then got out of cab with my stuff and flagged down another cab. I told the cab driver I was going to "El Muelle" (the wharf) and I would pay him 20 pesos (the standard rate). He said, "25?" and I said "No, 20 pesos." (I'm taking command now...)

He did a good job (no taco stops) so I gave him a 5 peso tip, got out and waited for the mechanic to show, which he didn't. I said I'd check back in an hour, when my cell phone beeped. I had a message that the 1st Mate had tried to call. I tried to return the call, got a message and the phone battery went dead. I thought it might be time to replace the battery, but they don't sell them anywhere. I tried 3 Telcel stores, spread over ten blocks of Zihua. I knew it was pointless. I had gone through this with the 1st Mate's phone (eBay was where we eventually got the battery).

I kicked around for another 15 minutes and went back to check on the mechanic. No show.

Walked down to the beach and found some guys selling tickets for boat rides around the bay. They knew a mechanic and in 10 minutes, the guy, Adel, was pulling the motor off the dink and to his shop. I had him write down everything and we agreed I would call him tomorrow at 9 am. Then I went off to Rick's Bar for a coke and scrounge for books. After two cokes, I wandered down to the beach where I met a couple who were headed back to their boat and gave me a tow. I owe them.

Now, I'm back in my comfortable home with the phone on the charger, my dirty laundry and an uncertain future.

Nothing really changes much.

Trouble in Paradise

2010-03-18T07:04:00.004-07:00

It is a requirement in Mexico, that you visit the Port Captain's office before you leave and when you arrive at a port. The paperwork on the boat is examined, The Port Captain, (or usually one of his underlings) stamps the old paper, issues new papers for the new arrival.

On the Saturday I left Barra de Navidad, I went to Port Captain's office and waited outside patiently for them to open. A little after 9 am, a woman who lived next door and came out to sweep the sidewalk, informed me that since Monday was going to be a holiday, the office was closed until Tuesday morning. So I left without the paperwork.

When I arrived in Zihuatanejo, the Port Captain's people didn't believe me that the Barra guy would close up for 3 straight days, so they told me to come back the next day. They were going to call him.

The next day, the issue of not having a "despacho" was not mentioned. Evidently my story proved out. (People are not expected to sit around for three days waiting). But another issue came up: my registration papers on the boat had expired. "Of course," I said, "the boat has been in Mexican waters since 1997."

Nevertheless, the Port Captain wants me to produce current registration within two weeks and he's forbidden me to move the boat until I do.

But the point being is why is the Mexican government enforcing the California Vehicle Code?

The last registration was 2005 in California. I know that if I show up at Fish & Game in Tucson with the title, they will happily make this an Arizona boat for less than $20.

California, on the other hand, would punish me dearly, for not updating the thing. The problem is, that all the other ship's documents have the California issued numbers (the same numbers painted on the bow), and all that would have to change when I switched to Arizona documentation.

It may be that I'll have to have the importation papers redone to match. Oh, well. My current plan is to take a bus to Barra de Navidad, get the Nissan Quest and drive it San Carlos, pick up the 1st Mate and then Tucson.

We both have business in Tucson.

Then I'll catch a plane from Hermosillo to either Zihuat or Guadalajara (and bus down). Show the paperwork to the Port Captain, and hopefully, be done with that. But my guess is that I'll have to have my papers revised at Aduana... Mexican customs, to reflect the change in registration.

That's the plan.

Legendary Zihuatanejo

2010-03-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

Monday Night

Settled into the anchorage; sails covered up, awning installed, table and laptop in the cockpit. It so pretty here. The bay is ringed with thousands of lights climbing up the hills. Sounds of guitar strumming drifting out over the water. Not me. There's a big palapa on the beach and that's where it's from.

Tonight I'm going to have a simple meal (probably oatmeal) and sack out. I've been underway and on watch since Sunday at 3:30 am, so I've had a long day. Hard to hang onto a wifi signal with the boat rocking tonight and too tired to make a big deal out of it, so I'll post this thing tomorrow, maybe, with some photos. G'night all.

Back at the anchorage: Day 1

2010-03-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

Sat. Mar 13, 2010 11:20 am CST

19° 8.835 N 104° 43.010 W

A month to the day I left San Carlos, I left Barra de Navidad for places south. This time aboard the sailing vessel BLISS.

This morning I got up at 6:30 and spent three hours doing final packing, loading (extra chain, fresh water), and saying goodbye to friends. Fred came to the marina and helped with dock lines, and with the high tide I had plenty of room to motor slowly through the canals of Barra to the sea.

Close in (within 4 miles of the Barra headland) there was a lot of confused currents with an occasional large wave, but it's always like that, and my practice is to motor out to the big Pacific rollers before hoisting sail. Today the wind was almost right angles to the waves and trying to bring BLISS' nose to the wind meant lying abeam to the sea (bad idea). I split the difference by swinging the boom as far starboard as it would go, moving the lazy jacks to the mast and hoisting. That worked well, and my thoughts are that I might keep the jacks there until I drop sail.

I'm currently motorsailing SE at 4 knots for the the anchorage at Santiago.

5 pm Update-

Settled into anchorage at Santiago Bay, took a few minutes to find an open network, but I did. This evening I'm going to pick up the boat a little. In my hurry to get out of the Cabo Blanco marina on the tide, I just threw stuff onto the v-berth. CB was driving me crazy.

I'd spend two days scrubbing the boat and the next day some guy upwind of me would start a trash fire and then leave it to smolder and die. That would usually take all day, smelling the smoke and the boat would be filthy again.

Here in Santiago it's the waterski boats who throw in a tour of the anchorage to whomever they're towing. There's three big power boats and three jetskis here towing people through the cruising fleet. But it's better than the smoke and it looks like they're having fun. At sundown they'll leave us in peace.

Thanks to the 1st Mate for introducing me to Hunt's boxed tomato sauces. They're good, easy and fast. Hard to beat.

Finally, boating for the couch potato...

2010-03-11T17:06:00.002-07:00

When I saw this on GIZMAG, one of my favorite websites, I just HAD to post this. Now it doesn't matter who you are, if you can sit, lounge or lay down on a sofa, we've got a boat for you! For those of you who might feel just a little guilty about cruising in the sofa-boat, I should mention that it has all-electric propulsion and can come with add-ons like a wet-bar and stereo.

Poor Mexico... except for Carlos, that is...

2010-03-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

Today Forbes Magazine named Mexico telcom owner, Carlos Slim, the "World's Richest Man," edging out Bill Gates and Warren Buffet for the honor. Poor Carlos has only 53.3 billion dollars to rub together.

Carlos Slim, 70, world's richest man. At 64, I am not.

But I've got 6 whole years to catch up to him.

And since we're on the subject of Mexico and money, I was enjoying an imaginary scene in my head where, Mexico and Germany are having a conversation. Mexico says to Germany, "No thanks for the work ethic, but we like the polkas!"

In other Non-News:
I've been sewing up a storm down in Barra, putting in long days to recondition the dodger that we had made for us in San Carlos. The threads are breaking from the sun and abrasion by the boom as it swings across the top, sometimes dragging an unhoisted mainsail with it. Also there was a place where I put my elbow through the sunbrella. It didn't bother me so much at the time since it kept me from falling overboard, but the unsightly hole has been repaired with some white naugahyde I had onboard. I did both sides with the nauga so it looks better. The entire aft portion had to be rebuilt because of abrasion, accumulated crud, and a switch from snaps to zippers for the sunbrella awning I built as part of the cockpit enclosure. Also I'm building a screen windshield that will zip into/onto the front to knock down the wind. It's a dark green and is a lot easier to see through than the tan colored stuff I used for the enclosure... and the enclosure itself will need some restitching and webbing replacement (nylon webbing turns into dust in Mexico's glaring sun), but the enclosure has done a fine job of keeping the sun off my lily-white (not really) skin. There's really nothing to photograph now, just piles of green fabric laying around a sewing machine. Whereas Carlos has piles of green money just laying around. Wanna' trade?

Enough.

2010-03-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

I've been spending more and more of my time deleting comment spam from my blog... I'm implementing "Word Verification" now because my time is more valuable to me than it is to spammers and their machines. The world is host to some scum, and that's all there is to it.

The Good, the Bad and the Costly

2010-03-06T12:48:00.003-07:00

Starting off with the Good, I have my mid-morning break on the boat: an Almond croissant and expresso...

The French Baker, those of you who know Barra can attest, is a fine man. He gets up at O-Dark Thirty and bakes lovely things for his admirers throughout the anchorage and marinas. Around 8 am, he jumps into his panga and motors out to these places, selling his baked goods to us at reasonable prices. Once he's made his rounds, he returns his panga to Cabo Blanco, where I keep my boat, BLISS. So if I miss him at 8 (because I'm usually on the ham radio, getting weather reports and forecasts) I can catch him when he returns.

The Bad is the Cabo Blanco marina, which is largely occupied by sports fishing boats and some panga fishing charters. The marina charges about one fourth the rate of the Big, Rich Marina at Grand Bay (which is home to several megayachts). Because these are the cheap seats, nobody pays much attention to the infrastructure of Cabo Blanco. One of the main uses of the marina is as a water ferry station between one end of town (the barrio) and the Grand Bay Hotel, wherein stay the likes of the Governors of various US and Mexican states (Arnold comes here). The cheap labor from the barrio gets their ride to work here at Cabo Blanco. As long as the docks don't totally collapse, the rest of it is ignored. The marina manager is middle aged woman who knows nothing about boats or marinas and sits in her office eating and watching soaps on Mexican TV and once a month, collects the money for the slips. Don't take her a problem, she'll just shrug, if she's even there. A sweet job. So, like most places in Mexico, if you need a job done, you do it yourself... like when the electricity goes out.

The costly.
Following that train of thought is the repairs on the Nissan Quest I drove down this year. When I go over a tope (speed bump) in this car it tends to bottom out. I took the car to a shop in Melaque, gave them 1,000 pesos for a deposit on the parts (MacPherson struts on the front, shocks on the back) and waited for two days while they didn't touch the car. When I went back to pick it up, they gave me the 1,000 pesos back... an ominous sign (you NEVER get refunds in Mexico).

So I drove to Manzanillo with the part numbers I got off the internet from Autozone. I found the best thing to do is search Autozone US for the part, get their stocking number, write it down and take it to the store in Mexico. They punch the number into their computer and the part pops up. No complicated translation.

Autozone had the rear shocks for the car so I bought them: 900 pesos for the pair. The struts, though, can't even be special ordered. They say they don't exist in Mexico... so I got directions to the big Nissan dealer in Manzanillo. Their parts department says they can get the struts in 5 days at a cost of 3,525 pesos +16% IVA EACH ($323 US). I laughed and walked away. They're available on eBay at $63 each, and evidently Northern Auto Parts (eBay) will ship to Mexico for around $83 for the two. They also sell an install kit that I should consider as well, for about $50 each delivered to Mexico. I just need to have a visible address to ship to. And I'm thinking that since Grand Bay Marina runs Cabo Blanco, sort of, maybe I can have the parts shipped to a "vessel in transit" in the marina, bypassing Aduana (customs) and the snares of imported parts. Today I'll buzz over and talk to them if I can get the outboard running. But no hurry. The other thing I could do is call Autozone in the states and see if they'll ship the part to their Manzanillo store. It would be safer that way.

And I still haven't checked with the Ford dealerships, since the car was also made as a Mercury Villager... but now I see why the shop in Melaque returned the job and the money. The whole thing turned out to be too hard to do for the price he quoted. I would still prefer that he do the job at least on the front of the car. I also realize the car has to be completely empty when the final adjustments are done and the nuts torqued down. So, if I can get the parts delivered here, I'll take them to him to do.

Use it, or Carry it Around

2010-03-04T13:48:00.001-07:00

My horoscope today:
Even if there are lots of things for you to have to take care of today, you probably won't mind all that much. You should have the energy you need to handle everything right now.

* * *

I'm getting ready to take a trip south, maybe 400-500 nautical miles, to somewhere near the Guatemalan border with Mexico.

And I have a lot of stuff that I wanted to work on this year, like getting the dodger patched up and work on some of the screened enclosure I built a few years ago. When I built the enclosure, I used a lot of nylon webbing and the sun has pretty much turned that stuff into powder. Also the polyester thread I used has been pulverized by UV and turns to dust when you clean it.

So I brought replacement materials with me when I drove down, as well as the (very) heavy duty walking foot sewing machine and 20 yards of sunbrella fabric, snaps, buttons, scissors, 10 yards of new screening, needles, all that stuff.

It takes up a lot of room and it's heavy, so I thought I would do the large sewing jobs before I left so I could leave a lot of the materials behind in the car instead of dragging it around Mexico with me.

I'll still have stuff with me (I need to sand and varnish all the wood, and finish up some formica installations), but with most of the fabric work done I'll have a lot more room to lay around and watch cheap movies.

Yes, today I went to tianguis and bought five dvd movies for 100 pesos. So, between those and my "Burn Notice" downloads from the iTunes™ store, I can kick back and check out the films on my new in-dash dvd player while I stand watch on my overnight legs down the coast. Vampires, and Sci Fi, and Action flicks.

By the way, I wanted to show off my new Alfa wifi amplifier- here's a photo of the wifi connections I can see with just the laptop:

and here's the connections I can see with the Alfa amplifier... notice the elevator bar indicates there's still more on this list. I love this thing. Since I bought it, I can count on one hand the places I've been that I couldn't get on the internet. I could probably sell 50 of these every season on the local cruiser's nets.

Frequent Provisioning=The Good Life

2010-03-01T11:20:00.003-07:00

This morning I had a fruit salad made with a perfect cantaloupe, a fresh pear, banana, and fresh strawberries covered in dried, shredded, sugared coconut and cream (or crema, down here) and a pot of espresso French Roast in the cockpit as dolphins frolicked around the anchorage. I wore a bathing suit and freshly applied sunblock. Monday morning aboard BLISS.

This week I got my first Social Security check deposited to my account in Tucson. Wasn't a whole lot, but I don't own a partnership in a business so I can declare and pay excessive taxes to make my SS high. What the government doesn't take goes toward buying, among other things, sailboats (three in the past 17 years).

Eatin' good in the Neighborhood. Here's the neighbors...

The partnership, because it's seasonal, allows me to run off to places like Tenecatita Bay, Zihuatanejo and other tropical paradi (plural of paradise?). It even allows us to do our parts in the business from Mexico or, for that matter, anyplace in the world that has Internet and automatic teller machines... and that covers a lot of the globe, or at least the parts I want to see, and stay.

Today I'm going to sort out the boat a little. When I packed for this shakedown cruise, I wanted to catch a rare (this time of year) southerly, so it was a bit fast and sloppy. It needs to be more organized than it is, and then I'll take the boat out for a sail this afternoon during the sea breeze (usually a westerly) to check out all those systems including a new snuffer for the spinnaker/drifter if it gets light (it will near the end of the day).

Wifi on the boat. Tenecatita Bay

2010-02-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, motoring into Tenecatita Bay,

about 150 miles south of Puerto Vallarta

I've been exploring ways to get wifi for free when I'm cruising and one setup I'm using today is getting the job done. I was given an old TV/satellite antenna and I mounted it on the aft arch I built to hold my solar panels and my wind generator. Instead of the usual LNB, I have an Alfa USB wifi amplifier and antenna for wifi.

So, does it work? Yep. I'm posting this now from the boat... maybe a quarter mile from shore. I've also been able to place a call using my Magic Jack telephone.

Panic on the Low Seas

2010-02-27T17:53:00.011-07:00

This morning an 8.8 offshore earthquake rocked the South American country of Chile, triggering an international tsunami alert. The morning cruiser's net, a casual and chatty affair usually, was not broadcast because many of the boat owners were hauling anchor and a** to get their boats out into deep water.

One woman, whose husband/captain was off in New Mexico, was pleading for help to get her boat out of the lagoon. I contacted her on the radio and assured her that the tsunami would be knocked down to nothing by the time it had traversed the several thousand miles of open sea, and was blocked by the huge Barra headland, then squeezed into a 20 foot wide channel in the opposite direction to the wave. But, those around her were scattering and running to open sea and she would not be dissuaded.

Several hours later I had returned from the mechanics shop with my car (he had it for two days and still failed to install the shocks and struts on the vehicle- which is why he had it), I started unloading my provisions for the shakedown cruise I have scheduled for tomorrow. Another woman came hurrying down the dock looking for her husband, out with his friends in their runabout looking for fish. He was, as it turned out, just motoring up the canal so she waited, fidgeting, while he approached. Then she turned to me and said "the tsunami is due here now and it's going to be 2 meters! I saw it on the internet!" It was almost exactly 3 pm.

I looked around and we were at low tide (a minus 2 feet) and saw that 6 feet would put us right about where we were at high tide. So I said, "well, looks like we have room for it..." and she thought that was very unfunny. She had her husband and friends tie up the runabout and ran up (the very steep) walkway out of the marina.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not picking on the women, here. I also overheard men on the radio trumpeting their success in getting their vessels out to sea before the disaster struck, one of them a close friend.

I thought it was time to fire up my laptop and see what was really going on. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency had the goods, as I thought they might.

This from the NOAA site:

We are 6 hours behind Zulu time, so at a little after 12 noon, Manzanillo, 20 miles to the south, was clobbered by a 1 foot wave. And then again, 24 minutes later.

It's a wonder anyone survived.

Rock Star

2010-02-25T14:47:00.004-07:00

You don't have to play rock'n'roll to be a Rock Star. Here's Luis, my diesel mechanic. Sweet guy, patient, smart, funny, and a pleasure to work with. His shop is located near where highway 200 meets the two lane road out to Barra de Navidad, and he gets to play with big stuff.

He took my crap encrusted pump with all but one of the cover screws broken off and gave me back a nice, clean, functioning bomba de aqua. And he asked for 150 pesos for the work (I gave him 200 because he deserved it and I didn't have change).

So back to the boat and in 15 minutes, I installed the pump and had the diesel purring. I thought I would try spraying the pump with a corrosion inhibitor that's made for battery posts. It's tinted red so you can see where you spray it. We'll see if it will help put off the need to buy a new pump (at about $300 USD).

Aside from taking on some minor provisions, and taking some stuff (unnecessary weight) off the boat, I'm ready for a shakedown cruise. In the mornings there's a nice high tide I could use to get out of the canals and maybe I could go out and spend the night in Melaque after a day of sailing, catch the morning tide back into the slip... or spend a day or two more out on the boat testing out systems.

Post 100, another Fix-It post

2010-02-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

I took my heavy duty, deep sea fishing rod to the man known in these parts as Chaparro, (which Google translate fails to recognize). It will be repaired for 300 pesos and I can pick it up at 4 this afternoon.

This morning, I open up the ER (engine room) and removed the raw water pump again. Since I bought this engine in 1996, the raw water pump is the one thing on this motor that needs repeated repairs and parts. It pushes a lot of seawater through the heat exchanger (which transfers the heat generated by the diesel from the closed loop freshwater cooing system to the flow of relatively cold sea water) and as we all should know, sea water is highly corrosive to almost every metal known to man. (That's why I have to replace the "stainless" steel rigging that holds the mast up every seven or eight years... the salt water corrodes it).

The pump works by spinning a little rubber water wheel called an impeller. This one is broken, as you can see. The last time (2003) I bought one of these in the states, it was about $27 and included a gasket for the pump.

Look at the packaging in this photo. The new price is 946 pesos, or about $74. And it doesn't include a gasket. I drove to Santiago to buy two of these (a backup is great idea, because I could be stranded at sea under certain conditions where I would be more than happy to pay $74 for a functioning diesel engine). They've ordered the gaskets and I'd have to drive back to pick them up on Saturday.

Now that the pump was out, I took it to my FLDM (friendly, local diesel mechanic) Luis, who had rebuilt my engine in 2005. I asked him if he knew a machinist who could remove and replace the little brass bolts that hold the cover on the pump, and he said he could do it... and he could close it up without a gasket, or make one if needed, I'm not quite sure. One thing I know about Luis is that he's really good and is used to working with close tolerances. And he's really affordable.

Tomorrow morning I should get the pump back and BLISS will be ready to go on a shakedown cruise, after sitting for 9 months. Oh, yes, I had a local diver clean the bottom and the Trinidad paint I put on two years ago is still good.

Maybe I'll be posting photos of actual sailing activity before too long- you know what they say about sailors who spend too much time ashore...

More toys...

2010-02-22T21:43:00.003-07:00

I'm a guy, I love my toys.
Today, aboard the BLISS, I installed an in-dash dvd player. That's right, not CD (but it will play CDs) but DVD. You know, movies.

You can see the little TV screen upper center of photo. It's showing a movie on one channel.

It also has ports for SD chips, a USB, and a standard audio input. I also installed a flip-down TV screen that I once had in the Westy (now sold and gone) in the nav station to display the movies and, get this, a little weatherproof color security cam!

Here, you can see me taking the photo in the TV screen on the second channel. The security cam is on the desk.

I plan on mounting the security cam underneath the radar dome on the mast and get a forward view, day or night, of the sea directly from the nav station. So when I'm on "watch" I can watch a movie, and click over to a view of the sea ahead and back instantly. If the radar picks up a blip, the camera will give me a better view because it's so much higher up on the boat... kinda' like an electronic crows nest.

Customer Service

2010-02-17T17:14:00.002-07:00

This morning I took the Nissan Quest to a little shop in Cihuatlan ("see-WHAT-lan" ) between Barra de Navidad and Manzanillo to have some work done... namely, replace a cracked windshield, a broken turn signal lens assembly, and to have some touch-up paint applied to a badly scratched rear bumper. (You know the kind- it's plastic and the same color as the car). I got there at 9 am and was told it would be ready at 3 pm.

I was able to catch a bus back almost instantly after dropping off the car, and headed back to the boat... and it started to rain- just a light kinda' drizzly thing that kept the temperatures down and everything drippy. The drizzle continue all day, so I just took it easy, practicing guitar, writing emails, tinkering a little. And at 2:30, I caught a bus back to Cihautlan- it's about 10 miles. When I got to the shop, it was locked up tight. I noticed some curtained windows on the second story, so I tried banging on the steel doors to roust somebody. Nobody was rousted. I waited. I banged some more. I stood in the drizzle. I had to pee. I banged some more. I waited. It rained harder.

A little old lady who lived across the street motioned to me that they had closed up and left, so I started walking around the building until I found a phone number painted on the wall up the alley adjoining the building. I called the number and in my broken Spanish, explained that I was waiting to get my car, and I needed my car NOW.

About 15 minutes later, the guy who owned the shop showed up, telling me that the phone number belonged to his son, who got word to him that his customer was wanting to pick up his car (standing in the rain, now for an hour). There was no apology. He had done all he could for the day so he locked up and went home.

The front lens was the wrong one, and with the rain, there wasn't any painting going on. I agreed to pay him a portion of the price and gave him my phone number with instructions to call me when the right part shows up and the weather is suitable for painting. I asked him also to price a door handle for the driver's side door since it was missing when we bought the car.

I've decided I'll wait in the car next time... take my laptop and watch a movie while I wait, maybe.

"Now let's see the galley..."

2010-02-16T07:59:00.004-07:00

The 1st Mate comments in the previous post...

This photo is from last night's easy curry recipe inspired by the 1st Mate Herself:

chop and microwave potato, carrots and onion
chop and saute green and red bell peppers and Costco canned chicken breast
cook some egg noodles and toss it all together with Trader Joe's Red Thai Curry Sauce.

I heated up some flour tortillas and ate under the stars in the BLISS cockpit.

This photo is the galley this morning.

Perhaps the 1st Mate will recognize the green tiles on the sink splash. She helped pick out the pattern.

The Return of the Mold Monster

2010-02-15T11:05:00.011-07:00

After I left BLISS on a quick September flight down from San Carlos (The Green Flash- OMG, etc.) there was a series of downpours, the most recent brought 10 inches of rain to Barra according to the local wags.

The toerails and lifeline stanchions have needed rebedding for some time now, and it was these leaks, along with Barra's warm climate, that unleashed a serious mold infestation on BLISS. I arrived in Barra just after dark Friday, after 11 hours of two lane, pothole dodging, nerve-wracking driving from Mazatlan to Barra. The discovery of reeking, soaked bedding sent me screaming to the nearest hotel, where I purchased an overpriced room in order to rest my weary self.

I was only suicidal for a little while.

Sunday morning at 6 am, I left the hotel and started pulling out musty, damp linens, pillows, cushions, towels and food items that suffered from the intrusion of rain. Once the pile was in the cockpit, I hauled the dinghy off the foredeck so I could fully open all the hatches and went off in search of equipment and chemicals.

Not long ago, I was induced into doing a similar job on the condo, so I knew that I didn't need anything exotic to do the job: two gallons of white vinegar, a face mask, a one gallon garden sprayer, lots of disposable latex gloves, and several pots of good coffee.

I don't have to go into detail here, but you should know that 12 hours later, I moved onto the boat and although there's a strong odor of vinegar in the vessel, the presence of mold is history. I'm now sitting in the cockpit, writing this by the light of my little kerosene lantern (filled with citronella oil for the bugs), and listening to the sounds of this little village and the slap of water against the hull of the boat.

A NEW ADDITION TO THE NAV STATION
is this "Executive Style" phone with touch sensitive buttons, and it works great using MagicJack on a wireless network on the boat. It gives me a US phone number regardless of my location as long as I have an internet connection. Cost? $19.95 for the USB gizmo and $19.95 a year for phone calls. You want to call me? You have to call the 1st Mate and get the number. I'm not dumb enough to post it here!

Changed my mind...

2010-02-13T19:21:00.002-07:00

I'm now down in Barra de Navidad aboard the sailboat BLISS. And although I thought I could switch back and forth between blogs, it was probably a PITA for the few followers of my misadventures. So, no. I'm going to keep things right here.

The Quest continues...

2010-02-04T21:12:00.001-07:00

The 1st Mate, at my suggestion, purchased a 1999 Nissan Quest minivan about a month ago during one of our trips north to Tucson. We've had really good luck with Nissan cars, even with high mileage.

The motors in these cars have proven their longevity and, although not terribly efficient on gas, we've driven these cars over scorching Sonoran deserts at 80 mph hour after hour, with the air conditioning going full blast and still got 22 mpg. That's in a car loaded down with goodies from Costco, WalMart and Harbor Freight and two dogs.

This particular car supposedly had an engine overhaul 35,000 miles ago, but there's no paperwork to prove it. It's got 195.000 miles on it and we're not sure when the timing belt was last changed. We have taken it to a garage in Guaymas and had the heater core disconnected. Fumes of coolant inside the car made us do that, and the 1st Mate took the car to Midas and had the brakes checked (rear drum brakes good, front disk brakes got new pads and had the rotors turned).

The 1st Mate was having discouraging thoughts about the car, so I offered to make the Nissan a partnership vehicle. I have the tools and experience to do most major and minor repairs, and I really need a usable vehicle for my trip south. I'm giving the 1st Mate half of what she has in the car (right now, I'm paying for new tires, lights, windshield) in parts and cash. My labor is free, because it's my car now too. But we still have a long way to go before we catch up to the Blue Book value of the car, so I feel like it's a good deal.

We both want it customized for camping trips , so we've got the same goal for the car. I've already removed the seats from the back (we won't be hauling around 7 people in this thing) and will be working up some plans to tweak the car into a camper. We own an nice 9x13 foot tent that could be the primary accommodation at campsites.

Today I took the car to Guaymas and had two new top-of-the-line front tires installed, and while the wheels were off, I had them knock off the hubs so I could examine the brakes. The brakes checked out fine. I also bought 4 lightbulbs for the instrument panel (in the dark, you can't see the shift indicator for the tranny, so you don't know what gear you're in) and, with the help of folks on the internet, removed and replaced the burned out bulbs. Complicated job, but worth the effort.

Saturday the windshield will be here from the windshield storage/factory. We'll go to Empalme and get an All-Mexico travel sticker for the car. I'll then be free to drive the car to Barra de Navidad, the current dockage for the 33' Morgan sloop, SV BLISS. I want to leave Tuesday morning.

I hope to take some time from the chores on the boat to replace the timing belt, and I'll be able to do it in a warm, dry climate.

It doesn't appear to be working...

2010-01-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

Someone once said that time was invented so that everything doesn't happen at once... It doesn't appear to be working.

The Bing has landed, and the brakes are really, really bad. Returning home yesterday I found the car veering sharply off to the left when I applied the brakes, and then it felt like they were not disengaging... I had to accelerate against this huge drag... it sounded horrible. Driving in Guaymas is like a video game- untrained drivers lurch onto the road without looking, without warning, swinging wide into oncoming lanes to make their turns, some drive at 10 miles an hour, others race past in huge SUVs, bus drivers use their size to bully everyone on the road, and then there's me in my 39 year old VW bus with brand new paint and bad brakes, working on an ulcer. At least I had a windshield this time, so I could see the horror in front of me.

Once home I took a hot shower, a pain pill and got in bed. With a vow that the brakes would be the first thing I would do to the Bing the next day.

So today came along like Guaymas at rush hour.

There was my usual Friday morning breakfast meeting at Tequila's. The 1st Mate showed up, and came over to see the Bing.

The BING. Through the new windshield you can see the Westfalia

Captains chairs I've installed. They're heaven on your buns and back.

S and B stopped by to say that B wants to buy the Westy (which is in the bodyshop now) and will have his bank in Scotland wire the money to my account. The money should arrive in a week.

I drove out to the ranch in my pickup to get all the parts that came off the Bing when I started sanding and patching... mirrors, lights, radio antenna, etc. The truck has been acting up... and today it was really bad, stalling every time I made a turn. It was my suspicion that when the fuel was low in the tank and I made a turn, the fuel pump would take a big gulp of air and send that to the fuel injectors and the motor would stall. It would start right up until I made another turn... so my answer to this was to add fuel and the problem disappeared. Except recently it started doing it with over a quarter of a tank on the gauge.

I had a moment of clarity.
What if, I asked myself, the conditions in the truck haven't changed at all, but my information is bad? If the gauge was reading higher than it should, it would explain the symptom. So, I filled up the tank and the problem went away. Bad gauge. Good thinking. Pat self on back.

I got home with the lovely chrome parts, some of which had gray primer on them (blame body man worker #1 in 2003) and no paint remover. I went to the hardware store and they had no paint remover either. Another moment of clarity.. I went to the grocery store and bought a small can of brush-on oven cleaner. It works beautifully. Pat self on back.

I also brought home a pair of saw horses and a 4x8 foot sheet of plywood. This is my work table in the house now, for doing the interior parts of the Bing. I have an industrial walking-foot sewing machine I'll use to do my tucking and rolling. With that set up, I started pulling door panels off, and then remembered my vow...

I jacked the front of the van up and started pulling off the calipers (the 1971 VW van was the first year they used front disk brakes on the bus- cool!). I found the pads were pretty much frozen in place against the disks, and a leaky fluid reservoir. I also found that the hydraulic lines were original equipment (that is, 40 years old) and they almost crumbled in my fingers. My plan is to replace every hydraulic hose and fitting in the bus before I drive it again, unless I get suicidal or something.

The calipers and drums/disks will go to the machine shop for rebuilding, and I will be going to a variety of places to get my hoses, lines, fittings and brackets. And then I'll pull off the rear wheels to check the brake shoes and drums, wheel bearings, etc. I may pop new shocks in there too. There's a LOT of bumps in Mexico's roads.

I discovered that the 1st Mate was sold the wrong tires for the van also. Because of it's design, the Bing needs to have a reinforced sidewall, truck rated tire. Most people don't know this, but the VW bus was rated to carry a one ton payload. That's ten 200 pound guys. More than most pickup trucks.

If the Westy really does sell, I may use part of the proceeds to buy some spiffy alloy wheels and the Continental tires I put on the Westy last year.

So that's it. Turned out to be fun, but I knew it would. It always does.

The Bing and the Duck

2010-01-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Among my possessions is a 1971 Volkswagon van that I started to rustproof about 7 years ago. (It didn't seem that long, now that I think about it). I brought it down to Mexico in 2003 and hired a guy to sand and prime the vehicle while I worked on SV Bliss in the San Carlos dry storage workyard. My stateside address at that time was on the northern California coast, and the spindrift was eating up the car. It belonged to the 1st Mate for years, and when we parted company she gave it to me (bless her heart).

When the 1st Mate and I moved to Mexico (Christmas 2005) this car was placed in storage in California. We retrieved it, and the rest of our belongings in the spring of 2007. It then moved out to the Flash workyard where it sat until this year.

I decided to sell the VW Westfalia and finish up the Bing... I wanted to drive this car south instead of the Westy. So, I started sanding, removing rot, painting primer, etc until I fell off the ladder and injured my ribs. Up until this time, we called the car "The Gray Van" because it had been covered in gray primer. Before I fell, I had the local paint store mix up a gallon of deep red paint, which reminded me of bing cherries, hence the new name.

I contacted my good friend Earl, and he introduced me to a body shop owner in Guaymas who had taken the name, "El Pato." (It is customary here, in this region of Mexico at least, for auto painters to adopt the name of some creature. "El Pollo, El Pato and El Raton" are working locally. Certainly there are more). El Pato looked over the van and gave me a price of 7700 pesos, which I rejected as too high. I told him I wouldn't pay more than 5000, but I could provide all the materials. He agreed to the price and gave me a list of materials, in addition to the paint I had brought with me. The paint store in San Carlos charged me less than 300 pesos for the remaining stuff and I took it out to the Duck. The Duck looked over the dings on the Westy and priced it at 2500 pesos. Pretty good, I thought. So the plan is to drive the Westy to pick up the Bing this afternoon and leave the Westy with El Pato, then take the Bing to get a new windshield and bring it home. The Bing will be my new daily driver.

Recently I purchased some stuff for this car: Two gray captain's chairs from a Westy owner on the east coast of the US, two louvered windows from a guy in PA, 4 yards each of light and dark gray naugahyde, an in-dash cd/dvd/ipod player, an external oil cooler, an aftermarket cruise control, a 2000 watt inverter and two heavy duty golf cart batteries, and rain gutter clips to build a custom roof rack. From our old RV I salvaged some aluminum awning parts to build an awning off the roof rack I have planned. I also salvaged a 300 watt car amplifier, a 7 inch flip down video screen and a backup camera. I'd like to take the fancy wheels off the Westy for this car, but will probably just get new wheels and tires when I sell the Westy.

I will bring a 4x8 sheet of plywood and saw horses to the house and set up the industrial walking-foot sewing machine to do the interior panels in two-tone gray naugahyde. There's some great instructional videos on youtube for auto upholstery.

I'll be chronicling my progress here.

Some people...

2010-01-08T17:47:00.001-07:00

I've had to institute comment moderation. A recent comment on this blog included a link to an oriental kiddie porn website. It would seem that are lives and activities are sometimes defined by the worst of us. Just take an airline flight in the USA to get the point.

Some people...

Downtime...

2010-01-06T09:47:00.002-07:00

I fell off a ladder day before yesterday. I was arranging the shade over my workspace next to the Flash, when the flimsy ladder I was using slipped and I landed on my right ribcage on the side of a dinghy on the ground. I fell about nine feet. When I hit the boat I could actually see my ribs deforming and the lower right part of my chest move to the center of my chest. It was remarkable.

Of course it hurt like hell.

My brain started screaming panic, but after a second I just muttered to myself, "It's just an injury." Then I took my first breath, and once through that, took another.

Of course it hurt like hell.

A bit dizzy and wobbly, I got up and covered up my tools, locked the gate and drove home.
Once at home, I fired up my computer and Googled "rib injury." I called the First Mate and told her about my mishap so someone would know, and after a brief discussion, drove to "Rescate" to have the ribs wrapped. Rescate is our local Mexican-manned First Aid and Ambulance station in San Carlos. It's supported by the residents of our town through a variety of means, mostly fundraising events.

They gave me some lightweight drugs and taped me up. Then I went back to the house to consult with my next door neighbor, Dave. Dave is a retired physical therapist, specializing in sports medicine. He was so good at his job, he worked on the Olympic teams. So after a several minutes with Dave, I knew that I needed to get x-rays, and I would not be getting a lot done on the Flash, or the cars or anything else for a few weeks. Dave gave me a couple of Vicodin tablets he had, and I went home and setup a comfortable chair in front my computer to watch dvds while the drugs kicked in.

At one point, I sneezed. Of course, it hurt like hell.

My plans to head south for winter cruising are now postponed for a month while I heal up. The 1st Mate came over with extra pillows and white dogs, and we made plans to go get x-rays the following day. After the Vicodin started working, I was able to crawl into bed and get some sleep. I've had worse nights.

The x-rays show no fractures, all normal. So, according to Dave, it's all soft tissue stuff. Still very painful, but I will recover faster than if there were cracks or breaks. I figure it's God's way of telling me to slow down.

My plans now evolve around getting the Bing finished at a bodyshop. Getting the Westy up to the states and on the market. Getting the 2011 database designed for our next book, getting some old graphics files replaced in the book we do, and taking it easy. I'll hire somebody to clean up the workyard, put all tools away in the trailer and tow the trailer next door to the secure yard. Heal and go.

This morning, while surfing around I ran across this quote, which I try, in my humble way, to emulate:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
-Robert A. Heinlein

Who's the Cat in the Hat?

2009-12-16T08:30:00.001-07:00

Rob asks in his recent comment. So here's one of many of Tom Waits' performances on YouTube:

Looks like...

2009-12-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

Whattya' mean, this is your truck?...

These two local cats have the "looks like trouble" thing going. And the yellow cat on the right, in my mind, anyway, looks like Tom Waits...

You never know who you might find lying on your truck in the morning.

I'm not so snart...

2009-11-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

The last few days I've been putting in long hours in the desert, building large structures out of steel. In the evening, I bring a truckload of stuff that needs to be fixed back to the duplex. The last few weeks I've been frustrated with my Makita drill/driver. I bought this thing back in the 90's and it's the best all around tool I've ever owned. It's got an expensive habit of going through NiCad batteries (around $35 each) and lately I had problems with the charger. Again. Last time I found a used one that I bought.

This time I decided I'd fix it or replace the guts with a 9v charger that I had laying around. So I took it apart and found a little circuit board inside that everything was wired to. I remembered that someone once told me that most service techs fix circuit boards like this: if there's corrosion they clean it off and then test the unit. If it works, they button it up, charge you $25 and go out to dinner on your dime.

If the cleaning doesn't work, they heat up a small soldering iron and lightly touch it to each connector on the board, reflowing the solder. They test it, and if it works, they put it together and charge you $35 and go out to dinner.

If that doesn't fix it, then it gets into deep dark secrets of leaking or clogged electrons, of which I know next to nothing, so I won't go there...

But I've learned that I can do the first 2 things. And you know what? I fixed the first one with the soldering iron ($5.95 at Radio Shack 10 years ago-came complete with solder). The second one I will do tomorrow.

Don't have to be genius, but a good memory goes a long way.

The Boatyard Pedicure

2009-11-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

I like to wear sandals. I wear them everywhere, except to bed.

Today I was unbolting chainplates from the boat and I dropped one on my foot. When I drop things on my foot, though, the only thing between the thing I drop and my foot is, well, nothing. A chainplate is 3/8 inch stainless steel 8 inches by about 20 inches long. Maybe 20 or 25 pounds. If you drop one of these on your toe, you'll probably break the toe.

That's where the sandals come in... just tuck an ice cube between the toe and the sandal and keep on working. No sweat.

Put some iodine on it when you get home and don't drop anything else on it for a couple of months. 'Cause that would really hurt.

OMG, ETC

2009-10-30T05:56:00.004-07:00

The Sands Hotel in Barra de Navidad has a monkey cage. Monkeys are hard to photograph when they're moving around, I've learned.

I have a friend who lives in Barra de Navidad, Jalisco state. Fred has a boat next to mine in the little marina in Barra, and, as a favor, keeps an eye on it for me and puts water in the deep cycle batteries I keep on board… That's so the bilge pump has electricity if water intrudes into the boat. My batteries are powered by two large solar panels, and I don't attach the shore power connection to the boat when I'm gone. Why, you ask? Well, the Mexican utility company, CFE, is known for its "variable" voltage. I don't want the boat to experience a power surge while I'm working in San Carlos… power surges can fry the wiring on a boat and cause a fire, or burn up the battery charger (and maybe the batteries, too). So I rely on solar. Simple, safe and free. Fred sent me an email this week that said "the boat has 4 inches of water of the floorboards… I tried bailing it out but got tired because I've got some flu."

Was that 4 inches of water under or over the floorboards? Well, Fred lost his cell phone and didn't reply to my frantic email for clarification. He had moved so I didn't have his new house phone. Fred is in his mid-seventies now and I did not want him to have heart attack trying to save my boat, so I got online and bought a plane ticket for Guadalajara (airport code: GDL).

Barra is about 150 miles south of Puerto Vallarta (PVR) on the southern coast of Mexico. I didn't fly into PVR because there's no direct flights from Hermosillo (HMO) to PVR. Also, the road between Barra and PVR is a twisting, mountainous two lane jungle road. It's murder to drive and no fun on a bus. On the other hand, Guadalajara is a four lane toll road to Colima, Manzanillo (ZLO) and then Barra. Also, Barra is served from GDL by the ETN bus line, an executive class bus that is a dream to use. The beat up buses that run to PVR can be (and have been) a nightmare journey through Hell.

My best price for a flight was through Vivaerobus… a sort of aggregator that puts bus lines and plane flight packages together. I just bought the flight (roundtrip for $190) because they didn't offer a deal to Barra by bus, but on the plane, my middling Spanish caught the words "discuenta" and "autobus" during an announcement.

Once I got to GDL and the Centro de Autobus, I found the ETN desk and started to buy the ticket for $315 pesos, one way. I stopped and showed the counter girl my boarding pass and she refigured my rate for the bus to 73 pesos. Wow. I had two hours to wait, but once on the bus I kicked back with my book (fare includes a soft drink and bag lunch) and read and dozed all the way to Barra.

I arrived at 11 pm local time, walked to my sinking boat (almost trembling with trepidation) and checked the waterline before I climbed aboard. It didn't look bad from outside, and inside I found the water sitting in the bilge, about 4 inches below the floorboards. I pulled the switch for the bilge pump and it started running, clearing the water out in five minutes. It's a real mess in there though, so I will degunk the bilge while I'm here and see if I can fix the automatic switch on the pump… the one that failed.

I also installed a replacement pump for the fresh water supply in the boat that I took with me on the plane. ("What's in the bag? A Bomba!") The water system is now first class, with plenty of pressure and fast hot water. The new pump is almost silent and energy efficient (and retails for around $300 Yikes!).

Some of the boat has mold growing, and an Italian stovetop pot that I left with coffee in it created some kind of living blob thing that was hard as hell to kill. (Pour boiling vinegar on it and then throw on some oxyclean and stand back when it explodes).I think it ate all the bugs cause there's no bugs on the boat (not even mosquitos). I had it soaking all night in baking soda to remove any remaining blob.

This is the year of mold and pump problems.

Pumps that failed this year:

1) The raw water intake pump on BLISS failed. Shredding rubber impeller, over-heating the diesel engine.

2) The fresh water pump on BLISS failed. Water to sinks and shower.

3) The pump that supplies the duplex with water from the tinaco burned up.

4) The fuel pump of the Dodge pickup failed, requiring removal/replacing.

5) The bilge pump automatic switch on BLISS failed, requiring an emergency roundtrip flight and bus ride to Barra from San Carlos.

6) and the year isn't over yet…

ETN really knows their stuff. I stopped at the office on the way back from town to find they have a bus direct to the GDL airport leaving Barra at 1 am. There's no local wifi access around the boat so I'll need to carry the laptop into town to a cafe to print out my new boarding pass for the return flight. (I'm only here for a few days, because of the work needed on our book and the new condo.) Then I'll get my bus ticket. (As it turned out, nobody in Barra had a working printer, so I emailed the boarding pass to myself and printed it in an Internet cafe in Melaque, 5 miles distant and home of Steve).

I've hoisted the dinghy off the deck and put it in the water, but there's no gasoline aboard. A gringo fisherman named John promised to fill a jug for me on his way back to his boat this morning. John lives in Chapala, on the lake. Once the dink is running, I'll be able to get the large drinking water bottles refilled and buy a bag of ice. The ice machine is now cleaned and runs fine, but there's the problem of feeding it drinking water. Life on a boat is a lot easier with a car to support it.

Barra is still hot during the day- it hit 100 degrees yesterday, and now that I'm accustomed to the great air conditioning in the condo, it seems even hotter on the boat. The evenings are nice though- I took a walk last night to my favorite restaurant and had a burger with fries, picked up more vinegar and water, and lugged it to the marina. I confess that I let the monthly rent to the marina lapse, so I'll have to pay up the last three months today.

The coffee is good, so my efforts paid off there. I'm up early: 4:45 am local time. When the sun comes up, I'll go to Bananas restaurant for their great fruit plate and oceanfront seating. With coffee, still under $5.

The portable keyboards I have on the boat lost 3 more keys and is now virtually unplayable. The airlines wanted $40 more per flight to bring a guitar, so I passed on that. It reminds me that the return flight was only $1.16 plus tax. The tax was $74.00! The guitar would have generated more tax, as well. The keyboards may go cruising this winter, but I doubt it…

The Not-So-Super Superswitch

The Rule Superswitch (above) sells for about $65 in most places. It's about twice the price of the Rule Regular switch because it lasts more than one year. This switch has a little container of mercury in a float. When water in the bilge makes the float tilt up (being on a pivot) the mercury flows down to make contact between two wires. That's all it does. The wires carry the current to the bilge pump, which pumps out the water. The float drops back down, and so does the mercury, and disconnects the pump from the electricity. This switch quit doing that and so the bilge started filling up, and my friend Fred sent me an email saying my boat was sinking, more or less. Water gets in through the propellor shaft, and when it rains, various parts of the boat, mostly the engine room hatch in the cockpit.

Enlarged version of bad wire (bottom).

Since there's not a marine supply store in Barra, I thought I would see if this switch was repairable… Look closely at the photo and you see a broken wire. It's not supposed to be like that. So I created a jumper wire to fix it, but I didn't bring anything to seal up the wire with…

In a risky experiment, I've encapsulated

the wiring repair in hot glue.

I think it will be strong and waterproof.

I found the hot glue gun and embedded the bare wires in a little capsule of hot glue to protect it from all the nasty stuff in the bilge (you can see lots of nasty stuff in the pictures) and to give the connections some strength. I'll probably buy a new Superswitch to replace this one and put this switch in storage for the spare. The regular switches aren't worth the money, and frankly, neither are the Superswitches. Maybe I'll just make one of my own and start selling them…

So, in response to a broken wire, I have to buy a plane ticket and fly a thousand miles to reconnect the wires. Now that the wires are connected, I can fly a thousand miles back and pick up where I left off in my life, which was, as I remember, fixing some stuff.

It looks like a late season hurricane...

2009-10-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

Rick is now a category 5 hurricane and heading toward us.

We've been watching this developing storm for the last 4 or 5 days, when we caught wind of it from one of the sailmail weather sites. It's now due south of Puerto Vallarta and moving northwesterly at about 11 knots, with winds gusting to 170 knots and seas of around 48 feet (that's waves as high as the Green Flash standing on its nose). Most of the models have it hitting Baja, and crossing the Sea of Cortez near Topobolampo, 200 miles south of us.

We just got back tonight from Tucson, where we bought sandbags (among other things). If this thing dumps more water on San Carlos, we'll be a little better prepared. But there's still plenty of roads and bridges that are still out, and still plenty that could go wrong. Pray and prepare.

There's still hdpe... or Time Traveling Trash

2009-09-22T07:35:00.007-07:00

No, not a typo. HDPE is a common plastic.

A few weeks back, it occurred to me that what Mexico really needs are cars that run on white plastic bags, since the entire landscape of many of Mexico's roads are littered with them. If you live and/or drive in Mexico you know exactly what I mean. It's unsightly and sad. You will see drivers in front of you casually toss trash out the windows. Kids see the parents do it and litter and littering travels through time this way.

But there is hope. I recently caught wind of a company that makes conversion plants for plastics. One ton of waste plastic can be converted into "approximately four 42-gallon barrels of high quality, synthetic light to medium oil. That oil in turn could be used to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and kerosene."

More information is here

The Latest Recording... Black Orpheus

2009-09-19T21:10:00.015-07:00

The theme song from the movie of the same name, performed by the 1st Mate, myself and our good friend, Daniel. Listen to it at the 1st Mate's Blog here (I promised her she could post the next song we record). As usual, Bliss does vocals, I play electric guitar and the keyboards and do the mix. This time Daniel sat in to add his muy rico acoustic guitar work.

Hurricanes I've known and loved

2009-09-06T08:42:00.011-07:00

Hurricane Jimena. Beauty and power.

(Sept 6) Since I wrote the stuff below, Jimena stretched across the Sea of Cortez to slap us around a little bit, kinda' like a strict aunt at dinner, correcting bad table manners.

You can read more about Jimena at the 1st Mate's blog, while I reminisce.

(Sept 3) I'm stretched out in bed writing this on my laptop. Casual, you say?

Right now Tropical Storm Jimena is raging outside, filling the landscape with seascape, knocking out power (ours has been out since last night). The dogs refuse to go out do their thing this morning because it sounds like freight train out there.

We're on the internet now because I have a 2000 watt inverter connected to the VW van parked in the carport with the engine running.

I've been in a few hurricanes, starting with Arlene in late July 1963.

Arlene's track in 1963

Hurricane Arlene

I was on a 200 ft flat-bottomed troop transport ship in 50 ft seas. Of the 100 people on board, only 8 of us didn't get seasick (maybe I should have joined the Navy instead of the Marines). We were in that storm for 3 days and nights.

Wikipedia: A cloud mass in the central Atlantic became a tropical depression on July 31. It headed to the west, becoming a tropical storm on August 2. Arlene rapidly intensified that day to become a 100 mph Category 2 hurricane, but lack of outflow weakened Arlene to a tropical depression on the 4th. For the next three days, a disturbed area of low pressure that may have had a circulation moved to the northwest. On the 8th, while turning northeastward, conditions favored development again, and Arlene rapidly intensified to a hurricane that night. Arlene passed over Bermuda on the 9th, and, after reaching its peak of 100 mph again that night, steadily weakened until it became extratropical on the 11th. Arlene caused $300,000 in property damage in Bermuda, but no lives were lost.

Then came Flora...

Hurricane Flora

Flora struck the southwest peninsula of Haiti on October 4 as a 140 mph hurricane, causing heavy rains. Flora then hit southeast Cuba near Guantanamo Bay on the same day, but a high pressure system to its north and west caused it to drift over Cuba and nearby waters. During this time, intense driving rains caused catastrophic flooding, resulting in thousands of deaths and millions in crop damage. A shortwave trough finally pulled Flora to the northeast, bringing the hurricane into the Atlantic Ocean on the 8th. Flora strengthened over the open Atlantic, but posed a threat only to shipping, and became extratropical on the 12th.Hurricane Flora originated from a tropical depression which formed on September 26 in the Central Atlantic. The depression moved rapidly west-northwestward, and on the 29th it reached tropical storm status. It then rapidly intensified into a 120 mph Category 3 hurricane by the 30th. Flora moved through the Leeward Islands, first striking the island of Tobago, and passing near Grenada shortly afterwards. Flora then crossed the Caribbean Sea and strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane, peaking at 140 mph winds.

Hurricane Flora was the 5th or 6th deadliest Atlantic hurricane of all time, causing over 7,000 deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, mostly due to flooding from intense rains as it stalled over Cuba and the surrounding areas. Damage estimates (mostly crop losses) reached over $500 million.

Enlargement of Flora's Track over Cuba

I spent all of that storm alone in an underground bunker- the nerve center for a 155mm howitzer battery in Guantanamo. I was there for a week, and by the time Flora was done, I had three feet of water in the bunker with me. Water and C-rations was all I had to eat and drink.

In 1964, I was stationed on Okinawa before heading to Danang. That's where I spent some time with:

Wilda's track in 1964

Actually, the 13 months I was in Vietnam and the Far East, we had dozens of typhoons. So, I've lost count. Wikipedia states,

"The 1964 Pacific typhoon season was the most active season in recorded history with 39 storms.."

Super Typhoon Wilda.

Super Typhoon Wilda, having started on September 19 and reaching a peak of 175 mph (282 km/h) on the 21st, steadily weakened after its peak. It turned northward and northeastward, and made landfall on southern Japan on the 24th as a 115 mph (185 km/h) typhoon, and became extratropical the next day. Wilda left 42 dead or missing from its heavy flooding.

Nobody was talking about global warming then...

The last hurricane that sticks in my memory is Carlotta, because I was solo sailing in Cortez when it caught me 20 miles offshore of Bahia Conception. After 13 hours of dodging shoals, reefs and islands, I blasted into Santa Rosalia on a breaking wave, nearly decapitating a fisherman who parked his panga at the mouth of the manmade harbor there. (No I didn't hit him or his boat, but it was really close).

Hurricane Carlotta was the most powerful hurricane of the 2000 Pacific hurricane season. The third tropical cyclone of the season, Carlotta developed from a tropical wave on June 18 about 270 miles (470 km) southeast off the coast of Mexico. With favorable conditions for development, it strengthened steadily at first, followed by a period of rapid deepening to peak winds of 155 mph (250 km/h) on June 22. Cooler waters caused Carlotta to gradually weaken, and on June 25 it degenerated into a remnant area of low pressure while located about 260 miles (420 km) west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas.

The hurricane produced heavy rainfall and rough surf along the southwest coast of Mexico, though no serious damage was reported. A Lithuanian freighter traversing through the peak of the hurricane was lost after experiencing an engine failure; its crew of 18 was presumed killed.

Carlotta track in June 2000

Carlotta contributed a lot of southerly wave action to the Sea of Cortez by taking huge storm tossed seas from the Pacific and, by virtue of her counterclock rotation, spinning them up into the Cortez as I solo sailed across.

My sense of things are this: I would rather be ashore than at sea in a hurricane, but when it's time to clean up afterwards? Well, I'd rather be at sea.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the references and photos.

Vegetarian Tacos, instantly.

2009-08-28T15:30:00.004-07:00

Today was the day the 1st Mate ran out of ideas for lunch. She told me that yesterday, so I could plan on cooking today. There's criteria for cooking for the 1st Mate: it has to conform to the diet we've been on since April, i.e. No meat, no cheese or dairy, no eggs, no bread.

We had been talking about Soyrizo™, a local (as in Mexico, local) vegetarian chorizo made with TVP (textured vegetable protein) but we didn't want to run off to buy it because they use pig lard in it... ('nuff said about that.)

So I cranked up the new laptop and looked for recipes for pig-lard-free chorizo. I found this one:

Measure	Ingredient
2 cups	(dried; not reconstituted) TVP*
6	Dried Anchos or New Mexico chile or some combination of the two
2	Dried Chipotles; optional, if you want smokey flavor
½ teaspoon	Coriander seeds
3	Whole cloves
½ teaspoon	Pepercorns
½ teaspoon	Oregano
¼ teaspoon	Cumin seeds
1 small	Piece cinnamon; about 1/3" x 3/4"
8	Cloves garlic; peeled and crushed
2 teaspoons	Paprika
2 teaspoons	Salt
¼ cup	Vinegar
½ cup	Red wine
¾ cup	Water or stock
¼ cup	Oil or more

Mix it up and put in the fridge for two days.

This recipe is really a lot harder than it needs to be, in my lazy opinion. All the spices here I have already ground up... And two days in the fridge?? I could die of starvation.

So, I did this: I took the TVP we had and ground it fine in a mini food processor we have. Two cups full size TVP rendered down to about half that. I poured hot water on it and I had two full cups of reconstituted stuff. In the mini blender I dropped in 8 cloves of peeled garlic (1st Mate buys it that way), 2 tsps salt, 1-1/2 tsps of Chipotle abodados, 1/2 tsp coriander, 1/2 tsp clove, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp cumin, 1/4 cup of veg oil, 1/6 cup Basalmic vinegar. I don't drink, so the wine came out, as did the paprika and oregano. Blended it well and mixed everything together in a bowl, fired up the skillet with a little veg oil in it and cooked.

Because the TVP is finer, it picked up the flavors right away, so it's virtually instant. I figured that since I was going to use these in tacos, if somebody wants it hotter, they can add salsa.

I think it was better than Soyrizo™, and certainly cheaper and healthier. The 1st Mate approves.

See the Cherubs?

2009-08-25T12:18:00.003-07:00

Ask the 1st Mate. All I see is nekkid wimmin'.

Odds and Ends

2009-08-25T08:43:00.003-07:00

ODDS

One thing leads to another, I believe.

The air conditioner in "my" room failed, and being mostly stark raving mad, I removed it so I could repair it.

It's not like I don't have anything to do.

With the a/c gone, the window was was letting in the desert heat and something had to be done, so I took a block of styrofoam that I had purchased to modify the dinghy (The Three Dollar Cure) and cut it to fit the window. It wasn't quite wide enough to fill the space so I decided to foam in the rest with Touch 'n Foam polyurethane one part sealing foam.

That led to my finding the can was a little old. This stuff is under pressure, sort of, and the trigger to release the foam is to bend the spout over to one side. I really had to lean into it, because, for some reason, as hard as I tried, only a "trickle" would come out. (If you're a man over fifty I don't have to explain). I finally got enough out to do the job and I put the can aside on the workbench.

This morning I found the foam was still oozing out of the can... and creating this-

1st Mate was seeing cherubim in the thing (read her recent post on the 60's), so I decided to photograph it against the morning sky. What do you see?

ENDS

This is my good friend Alan. He has said his goodbyes and is going back to Colorado to die. He's contracted lung cancer, which has moved into the rest of his body. Alan came to San Carlos for the last time to put his condo on the market, sell his sailboat, and say goodbye. He a smart, sweet man with a loving wife and a ton of grandkids.

It makes me aware of my own mortality, and grateful for every day I have. His latest gift to me.

Wish I had good news...

2009-08-22T08:42:00.003-07:00

The Westy motor is now in the car.

That qualifies as neutral news, I think.

Looks complicated doesn't it? Well, it is.

Getting it to run will be good news, but that will have to wait for another day. And perhaps another, and another.

I've decided that I will sell this car once it's ready. I have a big boat to work on and the money and time I have available should go there. Neither of those things are unlimited.

Sigh...