Windows or not and weather!

Crazy year for weather!   We are doing well even though we did get hammered by Storm Frances which is aka the leading edge of Kayla.   Plastic wrap turned our boat into an igloo almost a month ago to remove windows for replacement.

 It stayed that way while they drilled, grinded, sanded, sprayed toxic chemical, re-sanded and resprayed because paint severely orange peeled the first time, then sanded some more to prep to insert windows.  Sealant did not set up as well as should have so some will have to be redone.   We are 5-10 degrees colder than usual so at the edge of cooperation for each of these chemicals.  We at least had the 4 long windows sealed in and the 2 front ones set in.  Then we tarped in front of the igloo for rain protection.  Then rethought about the wind-age and lowered it.  Then rethought more and moved it again as the winds were picking up.  Then they picked up and shredded the igloo portion.  During a lull we went up and rearranged the tarp to just on top of the cabin top and tied back the flapping plastic.   Next lull we tied more plastic and duck tapped even more.  This morning we repeated the duct tape.  Can you say sloooow learners????  lol  Then a friend says 'almost hurricane winds' and we go DUH!

Winds/gusts here were clocked by several boats at over 56 MPH.  I felt like we were laying sideways a few times and one sailboat in between big boats measure a 7 degree lean.  We did not measure but wind swooped down from the parking lot and over the cute little blue Bella beside us.  We got very little sleep but that was OK cause the only damage was shredded plastic wrap!  No water leaked in the unfinished windows!  Most of the other boats fared well thankfully, just various degrees of discomfort

After windows are in, we will return to grinding, etc to restore the rest of the boats deck finish.  Should be another 3-4 weeks of 2-4 guys and working on our roof before returning to 'normal.'  HA HA  Like we know what that is!!!


love to all and sleep well before Kayla catches you!  Be safe!!!

This morning's adventure

Something went "clunk" while we were making coffee.  Doug ran on deck to see if something had hit the boat, Cindy turned off one of the noise makers and was able to hear running water.  So turn off the water pressure and tear into that part of the cabin.  We discovered one of the hoses had blown off the hot water heater, probably due to a failed hose clamp. So turn off the heater and water valves, dig out the plumbing box for a new hose clamp, re-attach the hose, then power everything back on and check for leaks.  Next up?  Drain the bilge from a couple gallons of hot water.  And finish coffee.

Tsunami report

Tsunami report for Ensenada: about 4:28am this morning 2nd cat Maui reported a slight tremor on board, waking the officers who otherwise might not have noticed.  Punta Banda is good at blocking stuff from the south.

Fleas

Maui has been confined to quarters.  His crimes are:
1 Eating the marina cat's dry cat food, resulting in bladder stones which cause blood in his urine.
2. Bringing home fleas.

Since he's decimated the Brush Rabbit population, we haven't seen too many more sticktite fleas.  But he still has the rest of them, and has shared them with his older sister, who does not leave the boat.

We've been flea-combing the cats daily.  Still pulling the buggers off.

Today, I put another dose of Frontline on Maui.  The fleas started vacating the premises. I was not quick enough for two of them, so I decided he needed to vacate the premises, too, so the vacating fleas would vacate some place else. He had no problem with that.  Good news is he has been back twice for lunch and dinner. Hopefully he will not come back with scars from cat fights.  Fleas like that.  Or a belly full of dry cat food.  He was pretty full of Doug's cat chow #6 when he left.

More odds than ends

We've been trying to listen to the morning cruiser's net on VHF radio.  It's a way for the cruisers in Ensenada to communicate needs, events, and otherwise be sociable.  We hadn't heard anything in a week, had assumed that everyone had dropped off.  Doug's the net control (host) for Monday mornings, he started off, didn't hear anyone check in, so assumed no one was there and signed off.  Peter, one of our neighbours and radio experts, ran over to say something's wrong, we're all here.  Turns out the volume on the radio had gotten turned down, so everyone could hear us, but we couldn't hear them.  Doug got back on and finished the net with egg on his face, but had a good laugh at himself.  Once a bozo...

We finally got far enough down in the todo list that we pestered the guy who does higher speed internet on the docs again.  He took our information, he did program his equipment, but never let us know he had. Doug checked yesterday, saw we had signal, and now has it set up with our external antenna/signal booster and on board wifi.  Cindy can watch "Bones" again, and we don't have to go up to the office to make cheap phone calls and download updates for the devices.  It also cuts out the major part of our phone bills (data plan).  Near as we can tell, we're down to about $50US/month for unlimited internet on the boat, cell phone coverage, and unlimited phone and text between us.  We pay by the minute for outgoing calls, but a lot less expensive than our old Verizon plan.  Ya'll know you can still call us on our old US numbers, right?  Sorry, text messaging from the US still doesn't work, so we get to hear the sound of your voice.

Big shout out to our nephews and nieces.  Kyle and Shannon Monroe just gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and along Daniel and Keisha Lira celebrated third wedding anniversaries.  Getting to see them married was on Doug's mother's bucket list.  We just celebrated 26 years in May, keep the adventures coming.

Blessings to all.

Odds and Ends

Crazy busy time in Ensenada.  Three weeks ago Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto visited for National Maritime Day, so we had Navy ships, helicopters, brass bands, 21 gun salutes, the big Mexican flag, Federali military guards in addition to the regular private security, a number of road closures, and we were restricted from leaving the marina by sea or land.

Then the next weekend was the Baja 500 off road race, which started and ended right outside the entrance to the marina.  Roads were closed, crowds were huge, loud music and exhaust noise, helicopters, and Bud Lite was everywhere. We stay on the boat as much as possible during the crazy time, but we needed to provision on Friday so we braved the crowds.   Then Saturday we ran out of water on board, and the water truck couldn't get to the marina because of the traffic.  Sunday we  went to 7-11 to get a couple of 20 liter jugs until we could get more water on Monday. Yes, a cruise ship was in town, too.

About water:  In the US, the water at the docks is usually drinkable, so we used to filter it and put it in the two 100 gallon tanks on board the boat.  At Ensenada, the water on the docs comes out of a well that is not deep enough or far enough away from the ocean.  It has a high mineral (a.k.a salt) content, so we don't really want to drink it, even though it is safe to do so.  But there is a booming business in purified water here.  We call a truck, and these burly guys deliver purified water in 20 liter jugs to the boat and pour them in to our tanks.  The company is Ciel, which is owned by CocaCola.  We get about 200 liters (50 gallons) every week, which we use for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes.  Water cost about 1 peso/liter, or about 28 cents/gallon.  Showers are done on shore (with the salty water), as well as the laundry.

The towel is on this guy's head to keep the sun off, and because our boat just geysered some water on him.  We've fixed the geyser problem.

The marina is a busy place for social events.  We've had several Quinceanera's (girl's coming of age party at 15), and last night was a wedding reception complete with sit down dinner and a live band.  Fortunately last night the band knocked off at 11pm.  The Quinceaneras go on until 2am.  Shouldn't these girls be home in bed by then?  Some of us old fogeys need our sleep.

The cats are fine with us being on the boat, especially for the Navy gun fire and the helicopters.  Since we haven't been able to find a suitable cat food in Mexico, I have been making it for them, from chicken, with the proper nutrient additives.  Maui had been having an issue with his urine again, probably due to him wanting to stay off the boat all night and eating the marina cat's dry food.  We add water to his chicken chow and feed him "Tinkle Tonic".

Maui in his marauding has become quite the hunter.  He pretty much took out the marina's population of Western Brush rabbits, and has since brought us several gophers and field mice.  Thanks Buddy.  With the bunnies he was also bringing back a face full of "stick tight" fleas that Cindy would have to pick off of him.

We'll try to get updates out once a week, but so far this has been an elusive goal.

Adios!

Floating again

The view from our friend Karla's boat last Friday 05/15

.

On April 20, after two weeks "on the hard", we got splashed again.  Boat is floating nicely just below the new water line, so hopefully no more growth on the boot stripe.

 

  Our friends Eric and Pati on Shearwater were in the boat yard two weeks before us and another week after us.  Not that the work they had done was much more than ours, but they needed their propeller rebuilt, and had some communications problems with prop shop in Seattle.  Shortly after splashing, they headed south, and are currently in Cabo San Lucas on their way to the Sea of Cortez.

We've elected to stay in Ensenada until after hurricane season, then we'll be headed that way too.