A Note From Gail

It’s now hot and humid and the town of La Cruz seems to have shifted into summer mode.  We all have heard of “siestas”, but we didn’t really notice any significant siesta time during the busy winter cruising months.  But now that things have slowed down I am noticing a change of pace.  In the winter, shops here in La Cruz were open all day and seemed to close around 5-6 pm.  Now, quite a few shops close from 2-4pm for lunch and siesta but stay open later.  As it cools down in the evening more people are out and about.  One interesting thing about La Cruz is that it is still a small town with a mix of homes, shops and restaurants next to each other on the streets.  The homes are typically small with very few windows to help keep them cool.  But during the evening the streets are converted into their “patios”.  Out come the tables and chairs and the families sit down to talk, have dinner, and enjoy the evening.  It’s great to see, but I feel like I’m walking through their living rooms. 

As for us and Music – shade, shade, and more shade is the order of the day.  We’ve brought out all our shade options – a bimini to shade the cockpit, a Shade Tree to cover the main part of the boat, and we had a cover made here in La Cruz for the foredeck.  Music has beautiful lines but they are hard to see with all that canvas.  Summers in this part of Mexico have a lot of rain and we are getting into that season.  August and September are supposed to have the most rain, but we’ve been getting a lot of early morning squalls which at least cool things down a bit.  It’s also hurricane season and the tropical storms, even if they don't come close to Banderas Bay, bring a lot of humidity and monsoon type moisture.  According to historical records, however, when it comes to direct hits from hurricanes we are well protected here in Banderas Bay.  Mountians immediately to the south along with a very mountainous point on the southwest corner of the Bay, called Cabo Corrientes, seem to divert hurricanes or tropical storms out to sea, away from us.  

One of the benefits of staying here this summer is that we’re getting to know more people around the marina as well as some locals.  There is a cruiser here in the Marina who organized the La Cruz Kids Club to give the children of cruisers some kids time.  Tami is a bundle of energy and has been doing the kids club for about 6 months now.  They have been getting involved with the locals and during the 4^th of July invited the Bucerias Orphanage over to the Marina to join the celebration.  The Marina really embraces the Kids Club and supports its activities.  We were supposed to have a bbq at the beach palapa, but the weather didn’t cooperate so we had it at the Marina restaurant instead.  It was great fun to watch them play musical chairs, get their faces painted, and beat John up with their balloons.

Kids playing "musical Chairs" at our July 4th celebration

We’ll be leaving in about a week and the rest of our time here will be “de-commissioning” Music for the summer.  The big thing is to minimize mold and mildew and to prepare for storms.  So sails come off, the propeller gets bagged so the barnacles don’t cover it, take down all canvas, and then do what you can down below to open things up.  We bought a dehumidifier which we used every winter on Music in Bellingham and California and we’re hoping it works as well for us here.  We will have folks watch Music while we’re back in the States who can take care of any problems that might come up.  We’ll be back in October to continue our adventures.

Adios amigas!

The Lazy, Hazy, Days of Summer

Music didn’t make it back to the Sea of Cortez this spring which means that our boat will be staying here at La Cruz on Banderas Bay thru the summer. The reasons are many but suffice it to say that Music will also not be hauled out of the water only to cook in +120°F heat while sitting on the hard. And, that I am sure is a good thing.

As many of you already know, we still plan on heading back to the States this month (July) and will be sure to see as many of our friends as possible. Aside from that, I plan on picking up as many work assignments as I can, but I’ve also got some ongoing issues with my left foot and now left shoulder. What it means is that I will be seeing some of my docs while home. And, with luck, maybe I’ll even get in a dive or two.

Now to the question I’m sure many of you are wondering: what happened that we didn’t get back up into the Sea of Cortez? Well, it’s a long story with many factors involved, some of which were related to boat projects, some to traveling, some to the flu, some to other delays and some to just how long it takes to accomplish errands. But, the most significant reason we didn’t make it back to the Sea was related to a rather nebulous and enigmatic popping that had developed seemingly in the mast while heading south from La Paz.

Over time the popping grew worse and by the time we returned from the Gold Coast the noise now sounded like a wrench suspended inside the mast banging away as the boat rocked from side to side. Even a thorough search inside the mast for loose strings, wires, and feeder lines revealed nothing!

Back here at La Cruz, with head liners removed around the mast we found signs of a lot of water leakage, and many totally loose fasteners securing the mast collar to the aluminum backing plate below deck. Oh Boy, another project!

Starboard Mast Collar Backing Plate:
Note the salt like corrosion from water leakage.

To deal with all of this, I replaced the existing backing plates with G-10 but before installing them, I faired the cabin ceiling to make the whole surface level. This had never been done and the unevenness may have contributed (along with a lot of sea miles) to the fasteners working against each other creating movement, leaks and my popping/banging?. While we don’t know for sure if we’ve got the problem fixed we haven’t heard any more ominous banging, even while out sailing for an active tune. – And that is definitely a good thing.

Something else I believe the banging could be related to is a rubbing between the mast and spartite (a product used to fill the void between mast and mast collar). Replacing the spartite, I was informed, would most likely require pulling the mast due to the age of the spartite and its adhesive properties if improperly installed. (Some professionals say that mast rubs and leakage around the mast can develop even if spartite is properly installed.) So, in addition to fixing the mast collar, we also fixed the leaks stemming from the mast/spartite interface and will wait to see what develops.

Newly Installed Starboard G-10 Backing Plate:
Check sidebar for a few photos of the individual steps. 

By about mid May Music was back together and we were finally ready to head north. Unfortunately, all the delays meant that we would now be on a schedule, moving constantly, and unable to take our time. Added to that, if we did go north, next fall we would only be retracing our steps to head right back here, on our way to the “Gold Coast” just a little further south. All of this begged the question Why head north? The net result was a decision to stay put and relax here la Cruz. Our decision made, we would now have time to make some improvements, and install a few other things (like a new Gori 3 blade folding propeller) we hadn’t had the time to earlier. Not heading back into the Sea? Disappointing? – Perhaps a bit, but there are certainly a lot worse places for Music to spend the summer.

A Note on Black Holes:

Among the cruising community this year we’ve heard a lot about black holes; like the black hole of La Paz and the Black hole of Mazatlan. Places cruisers find themselves due to circumstances and who appear to not be able to extricate themselves. While some might say that we have fallen into a black hole here in La Cruz, Gail and I don’t see it that way. The reason is that Music was sound enough to leave in mid May yet we have made a conscious decision to stay put. Put another way, we’d rather enjoy some quality time here in La Cruz than rush to get somewhere else on a contracted schedule where we would hall the boat only to return to this region next fall.

Detailed View: Music along Mexico's Gold Coast

Google Earth: Overview - Banderas Bay to Manzanillo

Music and the Tsunami

I've had a couple of questions from friends and family about what we experienced onboard Music when the tsunami came through, so I thought I'd share a little bit with you.

To start with, when we heard about the approaching tsunami I set our VHF radio to “scan” because on our normal cruiser communication channel (channel 22) I was hearing what appeared to be some audio distortion to someone’s communication. Since I wanted to be sure our radio was not suddenly malfunctioning. I put it in “scan” mode to see what we could pick up. Then, while in “scan” mode I picked up someone else’s conversation and they were discussing a projected “tsunami”. Well, I wasn’t quite sure if it was real or rumor, so I pressed the microphone button and said “break”. When acknowledged, I asked my question, and was subsequently given details. With that, I switched back to channel 22, and announced to the fleet in the cove of Las Hadas if anyone knew of a potential tsunami? That seemed to wake up the cruising community and started a lot of discussion. (Mexico’s president had issued a tsunami warning that morning, which was lifted about 9PM local time.)

The net result was that most of us decided that we should head to deeper water and monitor the situation. Within 15 minutes Gail and I had our anchor up and were heading out of the cove into deeper water. Once out with about 200 ft of depth under Music I tuned our SSB radio to get more information. Basically we learned that while the first event (that’s what they called it) was to occur about 1:30PM local time, there was a 6 to 7 hour window for subsequent events. Well, that meant that we would be out on the water the rest of the morning and all afternoon. And heck, it was a gorgeous day, so we decided that instead of just floating there we’d start our retreat to Banderas Bay, and head about 30 miles north to Bahia Tenacatita.

En route we heard about the port captain closing Barra de Navidad due to strong currents in the bottle neck channel going into the lagoon. A first hand report mentioned that the buoys were getting drug under water. – Well, the buoys in Barra are rather undersize compared with most “normal” channel buoys so that’s not hard to imagine. The next day we found out that in addition to the buoys being drug under water the more significant event issue was that the water pipe (maybe more like a hose?) running across the channel, and anchored to its bottom, floated free. This subsequently resulted in the “port” being closed for several days, not just over night as I originally thought.

In Banderas Bay the ports captains (there are 3 major ports as far as I know) closed their respective ports over night so many of those out on the bay, floated, bobbed, or sailed all night as many of the boats were participating in Banderas Bay race week and didn’t have any anchors onboard. The cruisers who left port, got to sleep that night after anchoring.

What the tsunami did in port areas such as Nuevo Vallarta and even la Cruz was surge in and out, and in and out. La Cruz suffered some relatively minor dock damage but that was it. It appears that some of the smaller bays such as Tenacatita where we anchored that night, essentially filled up a bit more than usual and the water in them sloshed around for a day or so.

While this was our event, our hearts go out to all of the earthquake victims and to all of those less fortunate along the various coasts that the tsunami did reach in force. - John

Fat Tuesday in Barra

Jim and Diana caught a taxi to the airport from Barra de Navidad on Tuesday morning, a week before the Catholic holiday of “Fat Tuesday”. After seeing them off, Gail and I stayed in town, having a leisurely lunch on the upper deck of a restaurant overlooking Bahia de Navidad (see photo labeled “Bahia de Navidad” from our post of “New Times, Old Friends, New Friends… ”). Mid afternoon, we were ambling down the street when we ran into friends from s/v Serendipity. Hugh and Ann asked if we were interested in staying for the “Fat Tuesday” parade (here in Barra the parade was actually 1 week before Fat Tuesday) so we replied, “Why not”!



Some floats, like this one, were really quite colorful
and very well done.



It was a real treat to see how the locals celebrated the holiday with a street carnival during the day and a parade in the early evening. The parade itself was really quite casual with no police motor cycles or crowd control. Locals of all ages from kids to adults participated in the parade, with most in costume. Some of the parade entries were quite simple, consisting of someone’s car or truck with a bunch of kids or teens sitting on the hood or standing in the back, while others were actual floats pulled by farm tractors or trucks, see photo in the side bar.

As the parade progressed, someone on a float was tossing candy to the kids lining the route, and I happened to look into the face of one of the kids disappointed at missing out. With that, I hoped across the street, passing between floats, and ducked into a tienda, neighborhood convenience store, where I bought a bunch of candy. To the delight of both moms and kids, I handed out candy to as many kids as I could while walking along the parade route in our area. – What fun! Public festivities concluded with men dressed as vaqueros, or cowboys closing the parade. Hugh and Ann headed to a bar or restaurant for dinner while Gail and I took our dinghy back to Music. While sad to see Jim and Diana leave, the evening was a sign of more adventures to come.

A Note on Jim and Diana's Visit

Jim Jessie driving Music enroute from

Ensenada Carrizal to Bhia Tenacatita

While it was fun having Jim and Diana on board, what we really benefitted from were all of the small hints they imparted to us. For example, we’d had a water maker on board since 2008, and we really benefitted from it during our Pacific Cup race. While on that race we really appreciated the showers the fresh water afforded us. What we didn’t appreciate was all the additional showers we could have had if we’d have saved the water we dumped overboard! Here’s how it works: When the water maker cycles into making water the saline content decreases to “potable” levels but there is still a time when it just doesn’t taste or smell fresh. And between the “saline potable” and “fresh taste” a whole lot of water goes down the drain that can be used for such things as rinsing dive gear, rinsing cloths, or maybe even taking showers! How about that? As it turned out we were perfectly set up to gain some real benefit from all the “in between water” we were letting go down the drain. We just hadn’t done so. Now, due to Jim’s suggestion, we collect that “in between” water in our shower bag, let the sun heat it up and viola, we have an extra 2 to 5 gallons for additional use every time we make water.

Another tidbit from Jim was that while we have a light line securing our anchor to the base of the forestay to keep it from inadvertently deploying, it would be better to install a small shackle on the stem fitting and feed the securing line through it to avoid any potential chafe issues. It seems that somewhere in their travels they had a light line rigged securing their anchor similar to ours and it had chaffed through. With that, in my mind’s eye, I could just see Music crossing the Sea of Cortez, slamming off of a 4 foot wave, the line chafing through, and the 55 pound anchor along with 200 feet of chain deploying in deep, deep water. That could be ugly, so now we have just such as shackle installed and anchor securing line re-lead.

Then, there was the time Diana pointed out to me that once on Nalu 4 they had a carving knife jump off the counter and over the 2 inch rail, just like we’ve got. It stabbed the floor right next to a crew’s foot, due to unexpected wave. Now we pay attention to where we set sharp implements, particularly while at sea or in “rolly” anchorages. 

One day Diana asked if we knew how to make ice cream onboard. Her recipe was simple, but I am only allowed to reveal it upon pain of death. But basically you use a hand egg beater (like your mom used to use) to mix cream, canned sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and in our case berries, together. Then you put the concoction into the freezer (called the evaporator box on board a sail boat) and let it set up. The key is to have an evaporator box that gets cold enough! We’d learned previously that you might well be able to freeze ice in your evaporator box, and maybe even meet, but it’s quite another thing to keep commercially made ice cream frozen, let alone freeze ice cream.

That said, my first project was to decrease the temperature in our evaporator box. We accomplished this by gluing 2 pieces of insulation together and then fitting them to make a lid for the evaporator box itself. This dropped the internal temperature from about 20 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit.  Next, the ladies set out to acquire the necessary ingredients which turned out to be surprisingly easy. Then came the mixing, which required a strong arm or two. Once in the freezer, 12 hours later (don’t laugh) we had ice cream. – Seriously!

Unfortunately Jim and Diana left for home before our ice cream was firmly set up. Even so, the evening we made it, the four of us enjoyed freshly baked pie (from our French baker of course) ala mode, with slightly soft homemade ice cream.  Four days later, however, the real beneficiaries of our endeavors were our friends on s/v Full and By whom, following a steak dinner,  we surprised with homemade ice cream while at anchor in Santiago Bay. Ahh – to be so clever. Truly the bar has been set, and at a very high level!

Thank you Jim and Diana!!