Odd jobs.
11 March 2010 | Ensenada Grande
Bill Hudson
Yesterday, the wind shifted and came out of the South, right into the bay causing all the boats anchored here to rock and roll a good bit in the swells that came in. By afternoon, it had shifted back around and started coming out of the North again. We're protected from all but South winds and waves in this little bay. Mother Nature just wanted to play with us again.
We woke up to the rhythmic sound of thunk, thunk, thunk, over and over again as something moved inside Zephyr. A sound every now and then is ok, but over and over is not. As Zephyr moved at anchor in the swells, the sound just kept on thunking. If you have followed our blog for a while, you know we have had problems with our steering ever since we started sailing Zephyr. The bracket that controls the rudder post keeps coming loose. We lost steering the first time as we fought 40 knot winds and 20 foot seas on our way North from Newport Oregon in July of 2008. I had to crawl under the mattress in the stern(getting thrown all over the place) and get down into the bilge and tighten the clamps. I had stainless steel shims made to make the fit tighter between the bracket and the rudder post. Unfortunately, as we sail, these little buggers shift and that is what it had done. The thunking we heard was the rudder post moving back and forth inside the bracket(again). Up came the mattress and in I went with two wrenches and apart came the bolts and in went the shims(one had popped out the top of the bracket) and once tightened, the thunking stopped. Once we get back to civilization, I think I will try and find a better solution for this problem. I figured that having applied "Lock-Tite" to the threads of the bolt would have solved the problem. Guess not since the shims moved.
I grabbed my needle and thread and stitched up a seam on one of the pockets on the dodger(covers the cockpit). The thread had come undone and it needed to be redone before it got worse. It's better to tackle these projects as soon as they crop up so they don't get out of hand.
Other than that, we practiced our Spanish(computer program) and sat and read the rest of the day. The winds were picking up and we just decided to stay aboard for a change. Lots more boats came and went as the day progressed with pangas full of tour folks coming to visit the middle cove here. A large power boat dropped their anchor in the middle cove and pulled out their toys. A jet ski and their water skis plus a big dingy with a big motor. Their kids spent the afternoon buzzing around the bay making as much wake as they could. All three kids took turns at the wheel of the dingy zipping between all the other boats at anchor. Heaven forbid they should go out where there are no boats and do it there.
The winds came back over night and we are now set with 20+ knot winds from the North and they're forecast to continue through Tuesday. I've emailed Marina Palmira in La Paz for a reservation to stay there as of this Thursday for a week. We will see how long it takes to get all our jobs done and get ready for the leap to the mainland. Heaven help my credit cards.