S/V Northern Lights

Vessel Name: Northern Lights
Vessel Make/Model: J/42 - #61
Hailing Port: Seattle
Crew: Rod and Mary Deyo
29 May 2015
25 April 2015 | Mazatlan, Sinola, Mexico
18 April 2015
27 January 2015 | Banderas Bay
18 January 2015 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico
09 January 2015 | Nuevo Vallarta, Nayaret MX
09 January 2015 | Nuevo Vallarta, Nayaret MX
28 December 2014 | Nuevo Vallarta, Nayaret MX
25 December 2014 | La Cruz and Neuvo Vallarta
15 November 2014 | Marina de La Paz
22 October 2014 | San Diego
17 October 2014 | San Diego
Recent Blog Posts
27 June 2015

Yanmar engine repairs - Replacing the oil cooler

Before heading to Chula Vista where we left the boat for the summer, we spent a couple of days anchored in Glorietta Bay as a nice break after working on the boat. While inspecting the engine before leaving Shelter Cove Marian, I had noticed a slight seepage around the oil cooler raw water intake at [...]

23 June 2015

San Diego - Shelter Island, Glorietta Bay, Chula Vista

After finishing the Baja Bash, we stayed at Shelter Island to work on the boat and haul-out at Driscoll's. We made a coouple of trips to Glorietta Bay in Coronado for a total of five nights. Before we headed back to the NW, we took the boat to Chula Vista where it will be moored for the summer.

29 May 2015

29 May 2015

Mazatlan to San Diego – Southern Crossing and Baja Bash 7 May – 26 May 2015

Mazatlan to San Diego - Southern Crossing and Baja Bash 7 May - 26 May 2015.

25 April 2015 | Mazatlan, Sinola, Mexico

Fixing a leaky hull seam in Mazatlan

Hull seam repairs on Northern Lights being done in Mazatlan, where the seam area forward of the keel was the source of the small, persistent mast step leak from flaws in the filler. The original seam filler is being ground out, the area dried, then it will be epoxied and covered with two layers of glass [...]

18 April 2015

La Cruz to Mazatlan

Photo is Isla Maria Madre to west near sunset.

Adventures in Cruising: Showers

02 January 2015
Mary Deyo
We have been living aboard Northern Lights for just over 4 months. During this time we have certainly wanted an occasional shower. Our J/42 isn't like many of the modern cruising boats that have separate shower stalls, but we mainly avoid showering aboard for water conservation.

Since we don't shower aboard, we look for showers in marinas. Fortunately, it is a rare marina that doesn't have shower facilities available to guests. These facilities vary, though, between wonderful and unusable.

Highlights and Lowlights

Pay showers
These have almost all been in Canada, where the Loonie ($1 Canadian coin) usually provides about 3 minutes of shower time. We are used to this and have learned how to take very quick showers and to have a few spare Loonies in case the shower stops before we are rinsed.

Gym-class-style showers
This is what I call the shower facilities where there is a communal dressing area and (usually) separate shower stalls. These tend to be drafty and lack any idea of privacy (or security). Some surprisingly upscale marinas have this design. Perhaps the designers really enjoyed socializing in gym class?

Cold showers
We've seen this mainly at beach resort marinas. My suspicion is that no one complains because the large power boats all have huge water tanks and nice shower stalls. In one marina, the men's showers were fine--but these were also used by the male workers. The women's showers had no hot water pressure--and few female workers.

Crescent City (a Work in Progress)
The Crescent City marina had barely reopened when we arrived and they hadn't yet worked out their shower protocols for visitors. We were invited to use a unisex shower near the marina office, taking turns. This was a nice, large room but there was an unstable wooden platform to stand on that made the shower an adventure. Later, we asked some workers about a shower building much closer to our guest dock and they expressed surprise that we didn't have a key. They let us in and we had nice, warm showers shared with the local spider populations.

Recycled county jail facility?
The transient moorage on Shelter Island in San Diego Bay includes a public restroom and code-protected shower facilities. The women's shower stall was metal, with random holes in the wall (angry prisoners?). The men's shower was just a large concrete space with a dirty floor and no place to sit or place anything down.

Personal favorite
My favorite shower facilities (so far) were at the Shelter Cove Marina in San Diego. These had individual stalls with doors to keep the showers from soaking our dry clothes. We were there a month and made liberal use of the facilities.
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