We visited Bob & Roberta Soleway's gorgeous new house. The last time we saw it, two years ago, there was just the foundation. The construction was a painful lesson in Latin American business practices. The results sure look great, though.
See photos here.
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Comments [6]
We will be in Puerto Vallarta Dec. 21 -30th would love to see you guys. Our Mexico #s are: 322 209 1178 (home); 322 150-0007. Bon Voyaging!
Greetings from your former Tiburon neighbor ... looks like you are all have a wonderful adventure.... good for you. May the winds be always in your favor. JD de Haseth.
Sunset at the beach at Mazatlan
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11/19/2008, Mazatlan
We visited Mazatlan's superb "mercado", or open air market. There's an upstairs section with restaurants that cater to market workers and the locals, and you can get an excellent lunch there, e.g. shrimp or beef with tortillas, salad, rice and beans, for just 35 pesos (less than $3).
Then we bought a kilo of giant shrimp, 70 pesos for a kilo (about $3 a pound), from this seafood vendor. They even peel the shrimp for you.
Shrimp is Mazatlan's specialty, and it calls itself "the shrimp capital of the world".
We got back to the boat and served the shrimp in garlic butter with pasta and alfredo sauce. Yum!
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11/19/2008
We just received a copy of a newspaper article that was printed in the Marin Independent Journal on Oct 29. You can see it here:
www.calou.com/blog/article.jpg
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larry
cheers
Bruce
I had the local Yanmar diesel mechanic to the boat today, to look at why the engine was losing oil. Great news, the problem is relatively minor. The crankcase oil is cooled by seawater, and it is common for a leak to develop in the oil cooler. Since the oil pressure is greater than the seawater, oil leaks out into the seawater cooling circuit and goes out the seawater exhaust.
I was concerned that the oil consumption was via another route, past the piston rings, but thankfully that is not the case.
The mechanic also noted that the valves needed to be adjusted and the turbocharger needed to be rebuilt. Since we're in Mexico, all of this work is relatively cheap.
It feels great to know that the engine will be solid and reliable going forward.
One thing I learned, is that Yanmar engines like to run at a high RPM, around 3000 or even higher. It turns out, that our boat reaches hull speed at 2700 RPM, which indicates the prop has too much pitch. When running at a lower RPM like 2000, the engine builds carbon deposits that will shorten the engine life.
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Cheers,
Bill
11/10/2008
We had a long windless passage from Cabo to Mazatlan. There was never more than 5 knots of wind, often less than 3. Therefore, we had to motorsail the entire way. Along the way, at 5 in the morning, we inadvertently ran out of fuel. Calou carries two fuel tanks, and we ran the first one dry. Normally this would not happen, but at 5 o'clock in the morning, well, it's easier to overlook such things. In a flat calm, I bled the air out of the fuel pump and injectors and got the engine going again on the second tank. Well, it's a good idea to practice this procedure once in a while, anyway.
We arrived at Mazatlan around 9 a.m., or about 25 hours after we left Cabo. The Marina El Cid is luxurious yet inexpensive. We have two large swimming pools and a hot tub just yards from our boat. We like this place so much we'll hang out here for a while before heading south after Thanksgiving.
Mazatlan has a great cruiser community, excellent shopping, and a very nice "old town". In fact Mazatlan is the oldest port city on the West coast of Mexico.
We have a bunch of projects to get done on the boat, and Mazatlan is the perfect place to do it. I plan to beef up the stainless steel radar mount that broke on us twice. I have a few other ideas for stainless steel projects that we can do while we're at it. And it's about time for a new dodger. We can get this work done in Mazatlan very inexpensively.
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Great to hear you have safely arrived, we were hoping all was well with your trip. Great to see the photos. Karen & I hope your trip continues to be both safe and fun!!!
Best Regards to you all;
Larry
cheers, Bruce
11/10/2008
Here's a video clip from our first experiment with lofting a video camera with a kite from Calou while under sail. It's rough, and we need to design a more stable camera platform, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
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11/09/2008
We're on our way to Mazatlan now, crossing the Sea of Cortez from the tip of Baja California to the mainland, heading East. There's 190 nautical miles of water between Cabo and Mazatlan.
The winds are very light just 5 or 6 knots, so we're motorsailing and making 8.5 knots. I hope the wind picks up some time soon so we can shut off the motor.
We passed a sailboat along the way, otherwise all we can see is water in every direction. Having left Cabo at 7 a.m. this morning, we will arrive in Mazatlan around 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.
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