Living the Dream

Today Mexico is celebrating Mariner’s Day. It’s a big deal since there are a lot of fishermen and the Navy here. Since the wind isn’t blowing, we left our slip to go out of the marina to make water. Our neighbors put a line across our slip so no one else would come into it while we were gone. Once we got out and away from the marina, in 200 feet of water, we turned the engine off and Dave went down to start the generator so we could make water. He opened the sea valves and warmed the plugs and tried to crank the generator engine. The only sound it made was a clicking noise which is not what you want to hear. He tried it again with the same results. He checked the water strainer to the generator and it was fine. He checked a couple other things, but nothing helped. I started the engine and we idled while Dave got his tools out to see what was going on. Unfortunately he doesn’t have all his tools here. After about ½ hour, we had to give up and we hailed our neighbor at the dock to let him know we were on our way in so he could remove the line from across our slip. He and a couple other guys helped us into our slip and now Dave is taking the generator apart. There is another American guy here helping Dave brainstorm. He has worked on refrigeration and diesel engines, so hopefully they can figure out what the problem is. So far, Dave found a bent rocker arm. Not something we wanted to deal with, but can’t sell the boat without the generator working. So here we sit. We started and ran the generator when we were here last month and it ran great. We never thought we would have to check it before going out. Well-----guess again. So much for trying to make water. Welcome to the world of boating/cruising!!

To stay out of the way, unless Dave needed me to do something, I played games on my computer. There isn’t anything I can do. I figured it was better just to stay in one spot. There wasn’t any room to look over his shoulder anyway.

I will go into town this afternoon, when the stores open and do some food shopping. I don’t have much to get. Tomorrow I will get fruits and vegetables.

I never made it to town. I was so bummed about the generator I just didn’t feel like doing anything. Being it was such a shitty day----and both of us were feeling down, our wonderful cruising neighbors, Lynn and Cliff off s/v Taya, invited us to come to their boat for margaritas and then go with them and some other cruising couples to dinner in town. It was nice to get our minds off of the generator for a while. We had a great time visiting with everyone, had a wonderful dinner and we were able to walk around town and enjoy the festivities. They had a carnival set up and the kids were having a ball. There was a band that played (LOUD) and Lynn wanted to do some dancing, but in the end, we all went back to our boats. We had more fun watching the kids run around and the music really wasn’t much to dance to.

Today, June 2, promises to be a better day. Dave spent the whole day taking the generator apart to get the exhaust manifold/expansion tank off, and when he got that loose, he noticed the dry exhaust elbow was cracked.


Not good. Once all that was removed, he could get to the head and take the injector plugs out and take a look at no. 3 rocker arm shaft. We found out no seawater had gotten in, which is a good thing, but the valve and injector plug got so hot, it welded shut. So we have lots of parts to bring back to Washington with us to get replacement pieces for and the injectors and tank will need to be steam cleaned. Dave said that once we get all the parts it will be easy to put back together. It usually is. We did our normal maintenance on the generator and don’t have a clue why it was so gunked up. An end of the mixing elbow was almost clogged shut. Hmmmm!!! Dave finally finished with that job around 5:30pm. Thank goodness we had some nice cruisers who let him borrow some tools to do the job. We were planning on going back to the house tomorrow, but I think we will head back on Saturday morning. This morning when Dave first started the ‘JOB’, I went to town to pick up a few groceries and get some medicine from the pharmacy. When I returned to the boat, Dave had the ladder that goes below, bungee corded up so he could access the generator better, but I couldn’t go below yet. Eventually, I was able to. In the meantime, we had our starboard and port water tanks filled. A Mexican man was bringing down 5 gallon jugs of drinking water to fill the water tanks on all the cruising boats. Not a good idea to use the water from the tap as it has a lot of chemicals in it and it doesn’t taste good. We always buy drinking water when we come down to use for making coffee and drinking. It took 12, 5 gallon jugs to fill the starboard and port tanks. Now we can back flush the water maker. Since we didn’t get to that today, we will do it tomorrow morning. I will also do laundry and then we will be ready to leave on Saturday. Dave feels good about getting the generator apart and accessing the damage which he was relieved wasn’t major. It can only get better from here!!! RIGHT?!

Friday was a little more relaxing for Dave and I was going to get fruits and vegetables today, but with all the generator parts we have to take back with us, there was no more room for anything else. Such is life. We back flushed the water-maker and I packed things up and took a lot of the stuff to the jeep so we don’t have that much to do in the morning before leaving. It actually got a little warm this trip as the wind didn’t blow much. We only turned the air conditioner on once while we’ve been here.

We made it home safely. Now Dave is looking on line to price what we have to replace and find out where we can have the head magna-fluxed. He did check with the mechanic here in town and he was able to tell Dave who he could see in Ensenada to have that done. All the repairs aren’t going to cost us as much as we thought initially. That is a good thing.

Today- June 8 is my sister Colleen’s birthday!!! Happy, Happy. She’d kill me if I mentioned her age so I won’t. She’s just my eldest sister!!

Fishing is picking up. Dave and our neighbor Phil went out several times, but had no luck until the other day. They caught yellow tail and bonita. Phil is smoking the bonita. Even if they don’t catch fish, they have fun. The Whale Sharks have returned earlier than last year which is a sign the water is warming and the fish are coming. In another month or so dorado will be here. Now THAT is a good eating fish! We are starting to see pods of dolphins too.

We went to dinner at Anne and Elwins’ house last night, Friday, June 10 and had a wonderful time. Creela and Phil joined us. Then this morning, we went back to have key lime pie and coffee for breakfast. I had made the pie but everyone was so full Creela came up with the idea of having it for breakfast. So this morning at 9:00am we went to Anne and Elwins’, had breakfast and Larry and Lois came over to visit as well. It was fun! Then we left and Dave and Phil are smoking fish and I am baking chocolate chip cookies for Dave. The guys are going on a road trip Monday to Ensenada. Phil needs to pick up his FM3 and Dave needs to have the generator head magna fluxed and get a couple other things. They will return on Wednesday. So Monday afternoon I will have the ladies over to play the card game, Hand and Foot. Party Time!!!! Waahoo!!!!

Today, Sunday, June 12, we had another person come look at the house. A man and his grandson. When they left, Dave said he thinks it is sold. So now we wait to hear what Larry and Lois have to say. I think this man is looking for a summer house, not to live here year round. Right now I am glad if it sells so we won’t be in the state of limbo any more. But we’ll see.

The guys left this morning for Ensenada.

I have had some coral plants drying for a while. I found them on the beach a few months ago and last week I lightly sprayed each of them blue, leaving some of the white to show through. This morning I hung them and added a shell and they look great.

This afternoon I had 4 ladies over to play, Hand and Foot. I am getting better at playing. It was fun. I found out that the guy that came to look at the house yesterday isn’t serious about any of the houses he looked at so far. He is still looking around. So that made me feel better.

After the gals left I sat outside, had a drink, smoked a cigar and enjoyed the view. It was a warm day with not much breeze. Actually right now there isn’t any breeze and I am hearing the coyotes yip back and forth to each other. I guess I will need to get the fan out to keep me cool until the breeze picks up. It usually does that around 10-10:30pm or so. The coyotes are quite vocal tonight!

The guys have returned and Dave was able to get everything done he needed and Phil got his FM3. So all is well. Now Dave is going to order the rest of the parts for the generator and have them shipped to the bus station next to the marina in Santa Rosalia. This way we won’t have to take any parts with us or bring any back when we go to Washington. When the parts arrive, we will go to the boat and put the generator back together, test it and then come back to the house to pack for our trip to Washington State.

The weather is getting warmer and we are having to run some fans to keep cool. The breeze blows most of the time during the day, but when you really want it, which is at night, it doesn’t. Summer is truly here!!!

Dave and Phil have been going out looking for fish and have caught some which is a surprise because Phil doesn’t like to stay in one spot for long, it is hard to catch anything. Thankfully we have some yellowtail fillets in the freezer.

For the first time since I have played the Train game, I won 3 games!!! That was remarkable. So now I don’t need to buy quarters. It is all a game of chance!!

Dave and Phil went out fishing this morning, 18th. Dave had planned on getting water this morning, but when Phil asked if Dave would join him, you know Dave isn’t going to miss a chance to fish. I told Dave I would get the water. I need to learn to do it anyway by myself so around 7:30am I took off for town and when I got to the water place I had about 4 cars ahead of me. When it was my turn I backed the truck up to the hose and when the guy next to me had filled his tanks, he handed me the hose and I filled mine. I paid, and headed for home. I had to go real slow as there is a lot of weight in the truck and on the tires and I am going over rocks. I made it home around 10:00 or so, backed the truck up to the pila and figured I would wait for Dave and we could pump the water out of the tank in the truck into the tank inside the pila. As it got later in the afternoon, I decided to hook up the hoses and get everything ready for when Dave got there. When it got to be much later in the afternoon, I finally worked up enough courage to pump the water. I was nervous about doing this because if I didn’t do it right, I could blow the hose off the tank in the truck and cause us to lose lots of water. The other fear was losing the weights off the other hose that goes into the pila tank that keeps the hose from flying out of the pila. I knew when Dave got back he was going to be tired and really not looking forward to pumping the water so I decided it was time to learn. I attached the dive weights on the hose to the pila tank and tied the line from the weights to the ladder. Once that was secured, I got in the back of the truck and slowly opened the faucet on the tank so the water could run slowing to the pump. If you open it too much there is so much pressure on the hose that it can blow off. Once the water started to bubble out of the top of the pump, I opened the faucet all the way, got down out of the truck and started the pump. Waahoo!!! It worked. So I got up into the bed of the truck and took the lid off the water tank so I could keep an eye on the water level. Then all of a sudden the pump stopped. Oh no!!! Now what! I had to talk to myself and keep telling me to calm down and think!!! It took me a few minutes to realize that the lever to allow fuel to the pump was off. I flipped that up and started the pump again and all went well. I checked the other hose going into the pila and it was down far enough it wasn’t going to swirl its way out. I climbed back into the truck bed and kept an eye on the water level and when it was down far enough I moved the tank closer to the edge of the truck bed so I could tip the tank up to drain the water. When I couldn’t tip it anymore, I got down from the truck and tilted the tank more over the edge of the truck to drain more water. I couldn’t drain it all the way, but there was just a little left which I would take care of later. I turned the pump off, took the dive weights off the hose and drained both hoses and detached them from the pump. I rolled them up and put them back in the garage. I put the lid on the pila tank and turned the handle on the faucet to see where the water level came to on the site tube. Perfect! We have a black piece of tape which marks the full spot on the site tube and it was way above that. So we are good for a while. I turned off the faucet and walked back to the truck. I pushed the black tank back and closed the tail gate. I pulled the pump over to the bushes and let water drain out, then I capped it off and rolled the pump by the trailer in the shade. Then I backed the truck to where we normally park it, leaving enough room to drain the rest of the water out of the tank and then pull it off the truck to stow. I got almost a full bucket of water out of the tank which I will use to water plants. When the tank was stowed, I backed the truck to where it normally sits and I was done. I got the weights and put them away, then went upstairs to drink some gatorade. I was very pleased with myself that I was able to do that by myself. Unfortunately, I torked my back a little and got it out of alignment, but nothing that hasn’t happened before. I will just need to stretch and try to pop it back into place. When Dave got home he was surprised I did the water, but pleased. He really didn’t feel like doing that little chore. So we both were happy. I can’t remember if they caught any fish, but the guys had a good time on the water. Now I can call myself a true Baja gal as I can do things by myself!!

The other night Dave and I were watching T.V. and there were a couple bugs flying around. When I got up to smack them with the fly swatter, my eyes caught a shadow on the wall above the window close to where the T.V. sits on a desk. I had to really look to see what it was. Dave was out of his chair looking at it wondering what it was too. It ended up being a big hairy light brown spider. The two front legs curved out from the head and pointed toward each other and the other 6 legs curved back along the body. It had a lot of eyes. We didn’t waste much time looking at it because we didn’t want it to get away. We got the bug spray and Dave sprayed it, after we put our shoes on, and it bounced and fell down behind the window blind. We couldn’t see it from inside, so I went outside and looked in the window and saw it was up on the underside of the top of the blind. Dave sprayed again and it fell and was going in circles. Then I swatted it with the fly swatter until I knew it was dead. It was sure ugly and didn’t look as though it was a harmless spider. I cleaned up the mess and we both we relieved we found it before we went to bed!!!! I was still looking around after that to see if any more critters were going to come out and surprise us. None did thank goodness. We tried to find out what type of spider it was but when we looked up Baja spiders we didn’t see one like what we killed. I’ll keep looking. It was nasty!!!

Lois, Larry, Anne, Elwin, Creela and Phil are now gone. It is pretty quiet. Joanne is still here, and Mary and George went to the states until July 1. With the heat and humidity we’ve been having, I don’t think they will stay here long. They like to spend the summers at the Ocean.

We are back in Santa Rosalia, on the boat. Dave got his parts for the generator and is starting to put things together. He did forget a couple things from home, but luckily we have some cruisers here we know from before that can help us. It is not going together as easily as he thought it would, however, but little by little. We are hoping to leave before Saturday, but it all depends on how long it takes to put it back together.

It is hot and humid, more so here than at the house. We are getting some cloud cover which cuts the sun, but I think we will get more humidity. We’ve been running our air conditioner which is sooooo nice!!!

Dave was hoping he could put the head and parts together and put the whole assembly on the engine but that didn’t work. Not enough clearance. So he had to do it part by part which took much longer than anticipated. Tuesday night he had most of it put together and all that is left to do is connect some wires and put the cover back over the fan belts and start her. That is Wednesday’s job.

We were excited about finishing up the job of putting the generator together and starting her. Dave did some final things and then it was the moment of truth, we tried starting her. We have to warm the glow plugs for a few seconds and then push the start button. Dave did that but once he let go of the switches the generator stopped. Uh oh!!!! Well to make a long story short, he had some help from a fellow cruiser that has a Northern Lights generator so Dave did some trouble shooting with the oil censor thinking it wasn’t reading oil pressure. Well what happened was the nuts and bolts weren’t tightened down enough which caused everything to loosen up. So our fellow cruiser Jim, loaned Dave 3 lug nuts to help tighten the bolts to the head. Then Dave had to reset the heads and tighten down all the bolts and screws again. After all of that, he pushed the button and it sang!!!!! We were so happy we hollered “YES” and high fived each other. It sounded so smooth and nice!!! We loaded the generator up and ran it for a while to make sure it stayed running. It did. We are sooo happy that is over with!!! So now we clean up the mess and put the tools away. I walked over to the store and got a 6 pack of beer and took it to Jim and Diane’s boat to celebrate and thank them for their help!!! After that we left their boat and were invited to another cruisers boat for drinks which ended up having most of the cruisers on their boat. We had happy hour and then walked to town and got a hamburger at the plaza from a little stand that shows up every night. It was really good. One of the cruising ladies were taking pictures and she took a picture of the owners little boy eating a frozen ice cream and then showed the picture to him. It was priceless to see his smile. After a couple more pictures she asked if he wanted to try and take pictures so here you see him with a camera around his neck taking pictures of the cruisers and other people in the plaza. He was looking like a professional after a short time. It was so fun to watch him. He had a ball. I know what he would like to have for his Birthday or Christmas!!!!! After we were full of hamburger, we all walked back to our boats. What a fun night!!! It was nice to see the cruisers we haven’t seen for a while. What fun people!!!! Cruisers are a great bunch of people!!