I’m sure you watch our posts and think…. “If only?” or “what a life” or “wish I could do that”…. but the real day to day life is more hard stuff and work than just sunsets, swimming in the ocean and eating tacos. Dan keeps an ongoing list of projects, some really hard and some easy… of course while we are working on the list, something else breaks and is more important and we reshuffle our priorities.
One of our most recent fix and a bit complicated was the removal, welding fix and reinstalling of a couple exhaust elbows. We have 4 two on each engine, 1 of them had previously had a leak and was repaired. When 2 of the remaining ones started to show signs of leakage we quickly decided to do the same to those that we had done to the first. This time I documented it and it was a bit easier because we understood more about it than before.
What we learned from the first repair:
– The water line is above the level of the elbow (when you remove the elbow water starts to pour into the bilge)
– Having a plug ready & sized properly to stop the water entering is a good option
– Helping hands is needed, Dan couldn’t do this alone
– You get wet, dirty and sweaty!! I know first hand
Prior to the removal of the elbow Dan went hunting for 4-6 inch thick hunk of wood that he could cut to size, plugging the opening once we pulled the elbow out. He found some solid wood remnants that the marina had left over from installing new whalers and were in process of tossing out. “It was Lucky” He attempted to cut them in circles to fit the diameter of the pipe but he didn’t have a good enough saw to accomplish. We asked the stainless steel repair shop to help us, he gladly cut them for us.
Sergio from, “Machine Shop Vallarta” swung by to pick them up from us and started the repair. If you need any stainless steel repairs done or machine work while in Puerto Vallarta, we highly recommend them. You can find them on FB at Machine Shop Vallarta. The completed elbows came back all shiny and like new! We then prepared for the install… of course the opposite procedures of pulling them off was the process for putting back on. It wasn’t a hard process, but a bit messy and the final product and results are “perfecto”.
One other projects we are in-process of completing is the repair of our dinghy crane hydraulics. The hoist cylinder started to leak fluid from the main seals. Our nextdoor boating neighbors Ben and Andrea on SV Belle Vie helped us disassemble the crane. We took the cylinder & one of the sheaves (rollers for crane line) into this same shop to have fixed. While it was out and down we were able to clean and paint the boom, and assess the hoisting crane cable & decided to purchase a new line. We will be getting a line with different material called Dyneema AmSteel, that will help the crane work more smoothly.
Here are some action pictures, using the Port crane to lift and move the Starboard one.
We always feel lucky….to have our friends to help us! New boating friends, Machine Shop Friends and You that read about our crazy adventures! Thank you!
Hasta Luego Amigos
As you can see the entrance into the marina was very tight and was very hard to see visually. As we approached the opening (or where we thought was the opening) the waves were building up behind us and it was not a comfortable situation to be in. We could have been pushed into the rocks/land very easily. So we abandoned the idea of staying at this marina near Altata. We had already been underway for 20 hours and now we were heading down the coast for who knows how long. We looked for a bay we could anchor in overnight. We found a good looking one about 7 hours away. So we headed toward “Barras de Piaxtla”.
han expected) Watch out for the winds and waves which can come up unexpectedly and hit you hard. Have a plan and be prepared on what you will do if this happens.
Puerto Los Cabos is a short jaunt around the corner from Cabo. The marina is small and no town next to marina. There is a small amount of anchorage area inside the breakwater. Small cafe with the “Best pollo nachos”. There is an OXXO on the far side of the marina. Internet and cell service is okay in this location. We enjoyed this marina and would go back. As long as you understand it is a bus or taxi ride to town.
This marina had everything including resort amenities & very luxurious! It is a bit of a ways out of town, so some people don’t like it. But the shuttle runs almost every hour for free, just tip the driver. You can find just about anything in town. Grocery with lots of very good choices, bagel shop, banks, sail shops and farmers market (smaller than PV but still very good) on Tuesday and Saturdays. Marina is very clean, great security, helpful & friendly staff, pool, restaurants, very small store (limited items), fast strong dock based pump out came to us & didn’t have to move, fuel dock, Good internet & cell service. (Not great!)
We have stayed here a couple times too. It is a great location downtown, cheaper than Costa Baja. Docks are newer and seemed well maintained, cable internet (hard wired) & Wi-Fi is good & cell service. Easy walk to lots of restaurants, we have had dental work and new eye glasses done in this town too. Lots of anchorages in bay and dinghy’s come in to dock here. One restaurant at head of marina, showers & toilets. The sewer pump-out at this marina is a manual process and didn’t work well for us. There is a small yacht club, Club Cruceros de La Paz, they have books and DVD for free. Rent DVD’s and exchanges books
This island is the largest in the group of islands just north of La Paz. Lots of snorkeling and scuba is done on the group of islands. We picked Ensenada dl La Raza as our first anchorage location. Very windy stayed 1 extra night than planned because of weather. If we would have been able to get in the water might have rated a bit higher. Lots of turtles cruising around boat. Length of stay 3 nights. No cell service.
We really enjoyed this very small cove. Only a few boats at a time can fit in here. We snorkeled mid-day and saw dolphins hunting all the fish we saw when we were snorkeling. The next morning the dolphins came back in force. It was really fun to watch. Length of stay – 1 night. No cell service.
This was a stop on our way to Santa Rosalia Marina. It had flat sandy bottom for anchorage for hundreds of feet at 20′ depth. It was easy to pull in pretty close We didn’t make the next planned stop to Rosalia due to family emergency. We turned back to Escondido marina to be close to an airport. If we had more time we could have gone into Bahia Concepcion area where there was a lot more anchorages and a bit of population. But family first always.