Kristina and I took a couple days to make a decision about how best to proceed after this latest setback. We got a lot of supportive emails and comments from the readers of this blog who have followed our travels (some for years). When I say "supportive" I want to clarify that I don't necessarily mean "encouraging us to continue".
We were surprised to see how many people wanted us to continue on for their enjoyment but admitted that it might be in our personal best interests to pack it in. I would like to make it clear that every single comment and email was greatly appreciated.
We decided that regardless of what decision was made, we would need to make the boat whole again. Its a lot harder to sell a boat with a broken transmission, especially in Mexico.
Our first order of business was to get back to San Carlos, where our mechanic is, and where we feel more comfortable being broken down. We set out on a nice windy day in hopes of practicing sail balance with a beat to San Carlos.
San Carlos is only about 12 miles uphill from Guaymas. The harbor in Guaymas is very sheltered. Its at least 6 miles inland from the sea. The entrance channel is guarded by Cabo Haro and all of the hills surrounding Guaymas shelter it from the wind. When we left Guaymas that day there was almost no wind in the inner harbor but once we cleared Cabo Haro, we encountered stiff 3-6' steep seas and 15-19kts of wind (as indicated by our wind instrument).
We rolled out the entire 135 genoa and banged the 2nd reef into the main. the weather helm we experienced was moderate. We sheeted that big head sail in board-flat and pointed as high into the wind as possible. The helm eased up as we pinched to within 45 degrees of the apparent wind direction. The waves were quite stifling and slammed into the weather side of the foredeck. We were actually sailing a respectable speed of 5.5 knots upwind. It wasn't a very comfortable ride but we were making good progress toward San Carlos, that is, until we tacked.
Kris wanted to tack earlier, theorizing that closer to the coast the waves might be smaller. I thought her logic was sound so we tacked, er, attempted to tack. I thought for sure that making 5.5 knots of boat speed we would be able to tack. We prepared the sheets and I activated the "tack" function of the autopilot.
The autopilot immediately turned the helm hard to windward. As we began to come through the tack I let off the sheet just as the bow went into the wind and some steep waves hit the bow and our speed dropped to 0. The autopilot "off course alarm" went off as the boat parked into the wind and waves. We sheeted the jib back in and fell off the failed tack. I deactivated the autopilot and took the wheel. Kristina would work the sheets while I tried to steer up "snappily" through the tack. It surely must have been the autopilot's fault.
This time we fell off onto a reach to get our boat speed up to a maximum in an effort of getting us through the tack. Kris was ready at the sheets and once our speed hit 6 knots I threw the wheel hard over turning it as quickly as I could. Kris let go the leeward sheet and we parked into the wind and waves. This time I harnessed all the sailing smarts I had and pushed the big black button next to the tachometer firing up the diesel and put the boat in gear. We pushed through the tack and got the genny sheeted in on the new tack. Turned off the motor and accepted that tacking into the wind and waves was not in Estrella's DNA. Or perhaps just not in ours. Fortunately, we hadn't lost considerable ground in the "double fail tack" debacle.
As we sailed closer and closer to the coast it became apparent that the waves were not diminishing. We were learning a great deal about beating upwind with Estrella. We also were barely making any headway toward our destination. We decided rather than continue this exercise all day and maybe pull into San Carlos 8 or 9 hours later we would just crack off and sail around Cabo Haro into Guaymas.
I told the autopilot to fall off and sail back to the cape. No sooner had we presented our stern to the waves we saw a big breaker froth its way almost to the upper rail before rolling under us. We've been in way bigger seas than these but we've never seen a wave so steep that it almost came into the cockpit over our transom.
After remarking how glad I was that we had turned around at that moment, we rocketed around the cape and all our wind and waves were gone. Kris went below to tidy up the mess from beating and I had to decide if I wanted to fire up the motor or do some light air downwind sailing with the reacher. I decided to roll in the genny and roll out the reacher. Our apparent wind had died down to less than 5 knots and the reacher was still cooking us along at a steady 3 knots of boat speed. Evidently in wind speeds below 8 knots, our reacher will pull us along at half of wind speed. This is very impressive and doesn't bode well for our future spinnaker use.
Drifting happily along downwind with our huge light furling-reacher
The big dredge thats been digging out Guaymas harbor managed to make a round trip out to sea and back while we were ghosting our way back into the harbor. He overtook us pretty close alongside and startled Kristina. I told her that we had seen each other and there was nothing about which to be alarmed. She waved to the guys on the bridge and they all waved back.
Once we hit the inner harbor the wind was officially gone. We were making 0.6 knots in 2 knots of wind. I decided then to roll up the reacher and fire up the diesel. After an uneventful trip back in we dropped the hook and stayed aboard for the night.
The big radar display is reading 2.0kt of boat speed and the wind instrument on the lower right hand corner is showing a wind direction of 120 degrees and speed of 3.1kt. Love that reacher.
As much fun as that experience beating into a Sea of Cortez norther was our new plan was to focus on arriving in San Carlos by leaving early in the morning the following day and motoring north before the wind filled in.
Which is basically what we did. We pulled up the anchor which was fouled by fishing line, a plastic coke bottle and a T-shirt. We motored to the cape where we saw large fishing trawlers ramming each other, presumably to exchange gear of some kind. Once we began rounding the cape we were visited by a large bottle-nosed dolphin who sent us on our way in style.
T-shirts and fishing line on the bottom in Guaymas.
mucky bottom on the snubber, glad I bought those gardening gloves from Harbor Freight in Phoenix!
Guaymas bottom garbage
Fishing boats exchanging gear?
Flipper escorted us out when we finally left on a lighter air day for San Carlos.
"What a difference a day makes!" remarked Kristina as we motored over the glassy sea at a speed of 5.5 knots pointed directly at our destination. As we cleared the headland just north of Cabo Haro, Kristina suggested we roll out the reacher and do some sailing. "You know, for fun?" and my natural instinct was "Fun?! thats insane!" We rolled out the reacher and turned off the motor. We then began sailing upwind in the light 7 knot breeze.
We started discussing tacking angles and playing with sheeting the reacher and pointing as close to the wind as we could. We were cooking along at over 4 knots and having a lot of fun. The seas were flat and the wind was building. We decided to attempt a "roll tack". A "roll tack" is what is required to tack with the big reacher. Since the reacher is only inches forward of our furled genny we have to roll it completely in to tack the boat. So we hauled on the furler line and rolled in the reacher and tacked the boat with the main alone. Since we only had 10 knots of wind and no seas Estrella flew right on through. Once we had tacked we quickly unfurled the reacher and sheeted it in tight on the new tack. The wind was starting to build now and we had roughly 13 knots of wind. We were now pushing the limits of the light air reacher but we were having a blast. We would successfully complete a 2nd roll tack before the day was out.
What a difference a day makes! flat and calm enough for a sunning sea lion.
We had some disagreements about how best to tack into the harbor that were resolved by the punta doble eating up all of our wind as we approached the Indian head rock at the entrance to Bahia San Carlos.
As we rolled in the reacher and fired up the motor we saw a familiar looking ski boat approach being driven by our electrician, Mike Church. He was taking some friends out on the water that morning prior to selling his ski boat and came out to greet us on our way back in. We drove around the harbor for a bit finding our old spot and motored downwind at 2 knots in order to set our anchor. With no reverse we really cant dig our anchor in when we arrive so we decided to do it how we would if we were under sail. The anchor dug in just fine and whiplashed Estrella 180 degrees as we hoisted the delta riding sail.
We felt somewhat recharged after that day sail. Everything went really smoothly and we had a lot of fun just sailing. Once we got settled in and launched the dinghy I called Omar to find out how soon he could come out and pull our transmission. At this point the Christmas holiday was less than a week away and we could end up being trapped for some time waiting for parts if we didn't get them ordered right away.
Omar was very busy but being the consummate professional he came out that evening and pulled my transmission. I told him I needed to order the parts before Wednesday or risk waiting until the middle of January for parts. My parts dealer would be open for half a day on Wed to ship my order and then they would be closed until January 7th. Tony would be coming back down on the 11th for a week then not coming again for 3 weeks. The worst case scenario would be not getting the parts ordered until the 7th and having them arrive after the 11th and having to wait until Feb (or rent a car) to get the parts.
Omar knocked the job out masterfully without removing my engine (contortion and magic were employed) and he took it home and sent me an email at 10PM that night after disassembling the tranny to make sure no unanticipated parts were needed, and indeed none were.
Tranny out! that seal spring caused some seepage, my fault!
Lots of sediment and blackness means new clutch disks are needed, among the long list of parts.
I got the call in first thing in the morning to order the parts and they were meant to arrive on new years eve. The Canadian fellow who sold us the old cylinder head from his 2QM20, having read about our woes, most generously shipped us a box of old parts he had in his workshop. Among those parts was his old low pressure fuel lift pump with banjo bolts, fittings and hoses. I cant thank Paul and Rosalind enough for their generosity. They are without a doubt the single most valuable treasure we've ever gotten from Craigslist.
We swapped the top of Paul's lift pump for the bottom of my lift pump and made a nice pump with proper fittings. Seriously in debt to Paul and Rosalind Turje!
We then began to discuss the merits of renting a car, not just to save us from waiting until the 11th to get our parts but just to release ourselves from endless boat incarceration. I know it may seem like paradise to be living on a boat in Mexico but when you're trapped you basically spend your time trying to divert your attention and focus on getting to the next parts arrival date or repair date, or weather window. It can be rather like prison. We were getting really tired of being incarcerated and Kristina was getting really keen to do something for new years eve.
We decided to rent a car and drive up to Phoenix for new years eve and see Avatar IMAX 3D while up there. Basically to refresh our spirits and hasten our departure by getting our parts sooner.
Upon contemplating our return home I had started to resume my studies and found that my netbook wasnt really up to the task of programming. We found a smoking deal on craigslist in Tempe for a brand new "sealed in the box" laptop that somebody had received as a Christmas gift. After some minor haggling we decided to buy the laptop in an attempt to give me a platform from which to work remotely. If I can land a remote contract, the laptop (which was unbelievably inexpensive) will pay for itself in short order.
We had intended to stay in a motel 6 and just sort of hang out in Phoenix for a couple of days but Shannon and Tony weren't having it and invited us to stay in their spare room yet again. It was very generous of them to offer, as it was the previous several times, and they made us feel as welcome as they did the first time. We remain seriously in their debt and would not be here today if it weren't for them.
We rented a car last minute and they were all out of the inaptly named Chevy "Comfort" that we've grown accustomed to renting so we got upgraded to a much nicer 2009 VW Jetta. After we filled out all of the paperwork and were heading outside to inspect the rental they asked for a cell number they could cal to trade out cars the following day. I told them we wouldnt be in the country until it was time to return the car and they agreed to let us have the upgrade car for a mere $10 more per day.
We went next door and bought a Papa John's pizza and were offered a 2nd pizza for 10 pesos (approximately 75 cents) and decided "what the heck" we stuck that pizza in the back seat and it would prove to be our sustenance for what would become a 12 hour day, the following morning.
Our drive north was relatively uneventful until we approached the border. The line to cross the border was miles long. I suspect that due to the Christmas day bomber homeland security kicked the inconvenience up a notch at the border. As we got closer to the border, agents with dogs walked along all the rows of cars sniffing around.
On a good day the border crossing takes around half an hour. That day we were in line for 3 hours. We had an appointment to meet the guy with the laptop in Tempe at 5:30 PM and by the time we were across the border it was already 4PM and we had another 3 hours driving to go. In the end we managed to track the guy down at 7:30PM and arrived safely at Tony and Shannon's at around 8PM.
We had a delightful time in Phoenix with Tony and Shannon, got to see Avatar IMAX 3D the day after we arrived. Gorged ourselves on dim sum and cleaned out the grocery stores for more of those precious commodities we cant find in San Carlos. All of our parts had arrived and after a really enjoyable weekend with our Sweetie family we drove back down to San Carlos.
Kristina likes to drive the leg back and she really found her lead foot. We had to have the car back by 4:30PM so we left Phoenix at 6:30AM for the 8 hour drive to San Carlos. Once we crossed the border I had to continually remind Kristina that while the Federales with radar guns didn't choose to stop me when I blasted past them in a 100KPH(60MPH) zone going 135KPH(85MPH) they might actually care about her going 165KPH (100MPH) She was really enjoying herself and luckily for us we didn't run into any Federales on the way back south. Insanely, we arrived in San Carlos at 1:20 PM after having stopped 4 times including a half hour stop at the Safeway in Nogales to pick up some last minute forgotten items.
We got the dinghy loaded to the gills with stuff and made 2 trips to the boat to unload the rental. We returned the car on time and jumped on the local bus home. I couldn't reach Omar that day because it was Sunday and he was likely having a life that day rather than eagerly waiting for my call. I managed to get the parts to him on Tuesday and by the following Sunday Omar came out and installed our newly rebuilt transmission.
I highly recommend installing a pair of hands in your engine room!
Its actually much tighter than it looks!
The stripped threads on my fuel pump.
You can see the crappy wrong fuel pump fitting that my boat came with on the left.
Estrella is again ready to go. We are waiting for a weather window and enjoying the NFL playoffs in the meantime. Its looking like maybe we could escape this weekend or Monday but our plans are wide open. Our kitty was dinged pretty severely by this last issue (The transmission parts alone set us back almost $800) and we're looking at maybe having enough cash left to last us until April (if we're very lean).
A friend of ours who is in the same business as I am and also cruises down here has encouraged me to market myself for freelance remote QA on craigslist. That is my plan to try and bolster the kitty. If we can even add a couple thousand more dollars we could fund another 3 or 4 months of cruising. This all naturally assumes we get to go cruising and have fun times that make us wish we had enough money to continue doing it. The fall back plan is to put Estrella up for sale (in the best condition of her life) and go home for the long term to earn money start a family. Really its a win/win situation for us when we look at it that way.
Ultimately we may run out of money and fail to get anywhere but we're not going to quit until the money's gone. Maybe we're being foolish throwing the last of our fund on the table and spinning the wheel but someday we wont have access to the wheel anymore and neither of us wants to wonder "What if our number had come up?" So I guess we're not quitters. I might not be smart enough to know when to cut bait but I'm gonna find out soon enough.
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