Back in Paradise
21 May 2015
Bruce
We set sail Sunday morning from Barra De Navidad to Puerto Vallarta. We picked the "weather window" when there were't strong winds blowing from the north. Our first day's sail was from Barra De Navidad to Chamela, where we anchored off of a tiny little village called La Perula (the pearl). Along the way, we had some minor troubles. We have a vacuum gauge that tells us when there is a vacuum between the fuel filters and the fuel tank(s). When there's a vacuum there, it means that fuel isn't flowing from the tank to the filters. The gauge goes from white (normal) to yellow (borderline) to red (really bad). Every other hour or so, the gauge would go from white to yellow. When I would switch from the Main fuel tank to the Auxiliary, the problem would resolve itself. Then later, on the Auxiliary tank, the problem would reappear. When I would switch back to the Main tank, the problem would resolve itself. This went on all day. But we made it to Chamela.
We spent two nights at anchor at Chamela, because the winds were blowing strongly from the north. We never went ashore, because there were huge breaking waves on the beach. We just enjoyed relaxing on the boat. Except for me, that is.
This is when the electric pump for the head (toilet) decided to quit. So I had to take the electric pump off of the toilet and replace it with a backup manual toilet pump. But all of our backups are old, old, manual pumps. The best I could do, after 2 hours of sweaty, messy, smelly work, was to replace the electric pump with a manual pump that sort of half works, now we have to use the bathroom faucet to fill the toilet bowl with water. At least it works.
You guys who think we sailors just sit around and drink margaritas, have no idea how much hard and dirty work is involved in keeping a boat afloat smile emoticon
Next chapter:
After 2 nights at Chamela, the winds had calmed, so we headed north to the next anchorage, Ipala. However the fuel tank gremlins came into play again, with the full line vacuum gauge telling us that something was blocking fuel from getting to the engine. When that happened, I would switch from one of our 2 fuel tanks, to the other, and the vacuum would go back to zero (where we want it to be).
We arrived at Ipala, set anchor and went to shore. There's no cell phone coverage at Ipala, so I was eager to use the internet at the little restaurant on shore. No such luck: their internet was down.
Next morning, at dawn, we left Ipala and sailed towards Banderas Bay. After 10 minutes, the fuel line vacuum gauge indicated we weren't getting flow from the fuel tank. So I switched from the Main tank to the Auxiliary, which has always worked before. No dice!. I checked everything else (fuel tank vacuum, fuel filters). The only choice was to shut off the engines so I could work on the fuel lines from the tanks. Fortunately there was some wind so we could sail smile emoticon
With the engine off, I connected a portable vacuum pump directly to the hose from the fuel tank. At first there was resistance, but as I increased the vacuum pump pressure, all of a sudden there was a "whoosh!", and fuel rushed in. Proof positive that our problems have been due to "crap" (a precise technical term meaning unknown substances) in the fuel tank.
Drama over, we motorsailed in the light 5 knot winds to the marina at Paradise Village.