Sailing on Starshine

Today is Saturday February 18, 2017.

Starshine is still in the anchorage at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. Melodie is still back in the USA.

I've been keeping busy with a mix of social activities and small boat projects. Long time readers of our blog will remember we smoked an alternator in Puerto Escondido back in May of 2015. I had ordered an expensive rebuild kit for it over the summer of 2015. Then in the fall of 2015 we had the unit "repaired" in Guaymas. I use the quotation marks because the repair only lasted about 30 minutes before failing again. We buried the alternator deep in the bilge and purchased another spare over the Internet and Melodie brought the new spare down to Mazatlán or Puerto Vallarta in the spring of 2016. It stayed there until this week when I took it to a reputable shop in downtown Puerto Vallarta. He tested it and confirmed it was bad. When he took the alternator apart he quickly identified the problem. The shop in Guaymas had cut two of three wires connecting the diodes together. This was either done intentionally, or accidently when installing the diodes. Funny thing was if he had cut all three, the thing would have still worked, just at half capacity. Anyway, for only $75-100 USD, the shop in PV is fixing the thing. Time will tell if it was money well spent or good money after bad.

Another project was the solar air vent on our sail locker hatch. Turns out S/V Bright Moments uses the same vents. I told him mine stopped working and he asked if I'd changed the battery. I said "what battery?" Apparently they come with a rechargeable C battery inside. I still have an old one I keep as a spare (we keep A LOT of used stuff as spares). Anyway, I cracked the old one open and found there was no battery.....space and wires for a battery, but the space was empty. So Melodie has added a package of size C rechargeable batteries to her shopping list.

Some land based Canadian friends have invited me to dinner a few times in the last week or two. It's nice to talk with non-boaters. I invited them out for a day sail on Starshine. I asked the crew of Unleashed to come along as crew and it made for a nice day. Of course when you have guests it means you have to clean and declutter you place right? So I spent Monday cleaning up the boat, dusting and organizing. I discovered it was only a few dollars more to spend the night at the dock instead of doing a simple "touch and go" to pick up and drop off passengers. I decided to splurge and purchased two nights at the dock. The day sail went really well. We left just after noon. Enjoyed sandwiches and a beverage or two. The wind started at about 10 kts and peaked at about 18 kts. We returned to the dock just after 3:00. It was a nice sail and I think it gave them a taste of the sailing life. We did not see any whales though.

There was a pod of whales in the anchorage a few days ago. You could hear them breathing as they swam by. I was visiting another boat, but they came with 200 feet of us. Pretty cool. I also saw a sea turtle swim by the other day.

Back to boat projects. I cleaned up prior to the guests, then cleaned the whole boat after they left. I also cleaned the input filter for the water maker. I'm making (desalinating) water every 5 days or so out in the anchorage. It isn't the clearest water here, so the filter clogs sooner than it should. Making water off the coast the water is crystal clear and you can go quite a while between filter changes. I also cleaned our "flopper stopper" and the "snubber on the anchor. Neither has any kind of anti-fouling so they get furry with sea growth. Starshine was looking good when I returned to the anchorage.

I've been playing Mexican Train dominoes on Fridays at 5:00 pm. There are a variety of rules that can be followed and some people are stricter than others. It's a good excuse to meet people and have a beer or margarita. We all went out to eat afterward.

A fourth Outbound has arrived in Banderas Bay. Blessings, hull # 60 is here and I met them yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing their boat if they come to La Cruz. Bright Moments is trying to get us all out on the bay for a group photo when Ahalani returns. Four Outbounds in the same spot is very rare. We'll see if that happens or not.

Rain is expected tomorrow and there's a lot of talk about what the winds will be. I've got out lots of chain and our anchor is set well. I'll try to take a picture if it rains like crazy.

The photo is a Torta, or Mexican sandwich. It's like a French dip, except they pour the juice on it when they serve it. It's carnitas, or seasoned pork. It's a favorite down here.

That's all for now.