We splashed last Friday morning, and are ecstatic to be back in the water. Lower temperatures, no ladders off and on the boat, and we can use the sink and head again. Even Minion seems more content, although after Jenn noticed he seems to be a bit pudgy and plans to cut his food ration, we’ll see how happy he remains.

After our launch we’ve continued boat project mode. Our progress was interrupted by the several hours it took me to figure out the battery monitor had gone wonky because a couple fuses blew (not sure why but the problem hasn’t reoccurred). After disconcerting shore power and the solar charger and still showing 200-300 amps coming into our system (normal is maximum of about 20 amps) according the the batter monitor I figured I either stumbled on some kind of perpetual energy or we were getting a seriously erroneous reading. Sadly, it was the latter, and after checking all the connections and checking the actual battery voltage I finally found a couple blown fuses that were causing the problems. Once solved, we moved on to solving some other electrical issues, namely not having a compass light and power for autopilot I’m going to attempt to install.

We knew all along we didn’t have a compass light. There was a bulb there, but no power to it, and none of the switches on the electrical panel seemed to turn it on. I found a random wire in underneath the cockpit with nothing hooked up to it that was connected to one of the switches, so I hooked it up to the light. But something was amiss with this wire, and it would blow fuses or dim the whole panel when turned on. Pus, it was speaker wire. So… it was time to run a couple new wires to the cockpit, one for the compass light and one for the autopilot. As simple as this sounds it took about a day of work to get these two lines run and hooked up to breakers in the electrical panel.

All this had to be moved. Out of “storage” and back in.

Minion actually found a place to be out of the way. For once.

Jenn works on hooking up some wires after I crawled in the bowels of the boat running them.

All that work made us very thirsty, and a mug of Chope bigger than your head solved the thirst problem.

All that work for a compass that lights up at night.

We had been using a 9 volt battery and LED light someone left at one of our super bowl parties years ago to light up the compass, all taped up the pedestal. It was not the ideal solution, especially esthetically. And we refilled the compass with fluid to remove a large bubble, although a small one had reappeared for reasons unknown. Further investigation is required, but will occur later.

Since the boat seems to be keeping water out after our haulout and work, we are ready to head to La Paz and should be leaving in the next couple days if the weather works out for us. I finally have batteries for the Spot you can track our progress. I’ll get some final boat yard pictures and opinions up soon, but we are happy with our experience.

Spa Day

After several thousand miles of sailing, and our arrival in warmer waters, I noticed our bottom paint is not holding up well.  When we bought the boat it was moored in fresh water and the bottom looked great during the haul out for the survey.  And on the trip down, with pretty constant movement and cold water, I didn’t notice any growth (granted I didn’t jump in to check).  But after some time anchored in La Paz, I noticed some growth starting, and by the time we sat in Banderas Bay for a few weeks, it was getting disturbing.  It turns out this a a good place for disturbing bottom growth, as the going rate for bottom cleaning is a whopping $1 per foot.  I would have paid $3.  But beyond that I probably would have dug out the scuba gear.  Although after watching another cruiser spend a good chunk of two days in the water, maybe not.  But fortunately the rate stays the same regardless of the condition of your bottom.

In tandem with arranging for the bottom to be cleaned, I dug out the receipt the previous owner left on the boat for what I’m assuming is the last bottom painting, and realized I’m having issues because it was dated 2008.  Bottoms Up Marine Service in Port Townsend was very responsive to my email and helpful with advice about how to prep the current paint (or what is left of it) for the next bottom painting.

Having worked out and date and time with one of the local bottom cleaning crews in the marina, we arranged for a slip and brought the boat in for the dreaded exercise in docking.  This is only the third time I’ve docked the boat in Mexico, but with a couple friends on the dock to catch lines it went smoothly.  Because the dinghy dock at the La Cruz marina is usually packed, and a bit of a walk from the happening spots we’ve been slipping in between Bella Star and Jace (aka Knee Deep).  Since Jace pulled out the day before we went into the marina, we grabbed their spot since we were already so familiar with it.

We arrived mid morning, and our cleaning crew showed up within 10 minutes or our appointment.  Not shabby for Mexican time!  They were done within an hour, and stuck with the original quoted price.  I pitched in a few extra pesos for a job well done.  With the bottom clean, we started to think about the topsides.  Of course we had given the boat the mandatory scrubbing that comes with getting a slip in a marina after weeks of anchoring.  But there were some crews that do topside cleaning, and one of the cruisers on the dock I had been talking to about boat cleaning had just hired a crew that was well regarded.  He sent the Jeffe, Ernesto, down to talk to me, and the quote was pretty reasonable.  So, we took the plunge and hired them to start the next day on our boat.  Of course this also meant a few extra days in the marina, but the rate wasn’t unreasonable and since Aaron’s birthday coming up it would be nice to be able to walk back to the boat after a night out rather than taking the dinghy on the search through the anchorage for our boat we sometimes find ourselves involved in after dark.

It took Ernesto’s crew two days to polish and wax the stainless steel on our boat, clean and wax the topsides, and buff and wax the hull.  Ventured looks great, except now my motivation to do something with the teak toe rails is a little stronger.  We’ll be working on that soon.  We also spent the time in the marina to let the growth on our anchor chain die off by spreading it up and down the dock beside our boat.  I never anticipated scrubbing my anchor chain as part of the cruising life.

The house and car, looking shiny and clean.

Next post – How Ventured thanked us for all the TLC.

While the boat was being cleaned, Nicole arrived back from Seattle with a couple goodies from Seattle including our new Coast Guard documentation and some cat toys for Minion, kind of a late birthday present for him.  And speaking of birthdays, she arrived on her husband Aaron’s birthday so we headed out on the town.  After some happy hour draft beers at the Huanacaxtle Cafe, it was time for some tacos.  Full from our trip to Red Chair Tacos, and approaching cruiser midnight, we poked our noses into the Huanacaxtle Cafe to say hi to their friendly beyond description staff on our way back to the boats.  They waved us in and despite an approaching closing time offered to serve us more beverages, and agreed to let us plug in a computer and play our own music so we could dance.  I had my laptop and soon started playing DJ, trying to play songs everyone knows and loves rather than dipping into my obscure collection.  And then… the karaoke book came out.  It didn’t take long for the door to be closed and our own private karaoke party to begin.  We didn’t even have to request songs, we just ducked in the back room and punched in the number for the songs we wanted and they queued up.  Besides ourselves and the birthday couple, we were joined by the Deep Playa, Panache and Wings of the Dawn crews, and the eight of us tore it up.  The staff even joined in some songs while keeping our social lubricants flowing.  It was a great time that would have been hard to top if we hadn’t returned a couple nights later for another karaoke party, this time joined by crews from Jace and Popoki along with their kids.  If you ever find yourself in La Cruz, go say hi to the folks at the Huanacaxtle Cafe, they are delightful, friendly and have the best wings we’ve found in Mexico.  Their Happy Hour draft beer is 10 pesos (we’ve agreed you can’t afford not to drink it) and the cocktails are 2 for 1 and they bring the bottle and mixer to your table and pour the alcohol till you say stop.  And they don’t chicken out.  But I have – I’ve yet to order a mixed drink but I need to do it once before we head out.

It isn't a Mexican karaoke birthday party without the birthday boy wearing a sombrero.

I couldn't let Aaron have all the fun.

Jenn doesn't want to be left out of the fun.

Dawn (SV Deep Playa) and Oliver, patron of the Huanacaxtle Cafe, play along to Sweet Child of Mine.

Karaoke night round two, this time with children. It didn't keep things any tamer as one of the mothers (who shall remain nameless) sang Why Don't we Get Drunk and Screw.

After just two days Ventured was sparkly clean, the hull shiny enough to reflect the sun hitting the ripples of water dancing around the boat.  Since we had to do something to keep ourselves from feeling too guilty for paying others to work on the boat, we scrubbed the dinghy and installed the dinghy wheels (finally).  We returned to the anchorage, happy with our investment and hoping Ventured enjoyed two days of spa treatment.