This weeks blog includes many of the chores, maintenance and repairs that had to be done to get Silhouette ready to sail again. We didn’t have time for fun in the sun but we were content just to be back! Steve’s been keeping a daily log and the following are parts and pieces of that.
April 16, 2019
2:30 pm and Liana yells out, “Everything is moving around!” she’s just giddy with excitement over being home on Silhouette. Neither of us could sleep a wink last night. Liana tossed and turned most of the night. She still woke up at 4:00 am ready to go to the airport. We have TSA pre-check and that saves us waiting in a huge line at Denver security. Right up until Liana got busted for smuggling erythritol. Don’t ask me what it is. I just know it’s some white powder that makes the security chemical test computer go crazy. So here I am watching them pat her down and take her luggage away. They find her stash and the guard tells her she must wait until the supervisor checks things out. I am expecting they are going to get drug dogs and the swat team. They will be reading her her rights and I will have to go to the boat alone. So after taking the contraband and giving Liana the 3rd degree frisk to see what else she has hidden under or in between her … “Oh disregard, I guess she’s going with me after all.” Turns out erythritol doesn’t get you 5-10. As we’re walking away from security she reminds me of how much time we’ve saved by doing TSA pre-check. Hmmm…
After we landed in San Diego we grabbed an MTS bus right out front and for $2.25 each it took us to the trolly station downtown. Then for $2.50 we hopped on the blue line for San Ysidro. It took us to the border where we walked across the new pedestrian bridge. We showed our passports and then were in Mexico. That was the easiest crossing ever! Just a short half mile walk and we were at the ABC Bus Station getting ready for a two hour ride to Ensenada. In Spanish, the lady asked Liana if she would like the one leaving right now. Liana checked the schedule and said, “Si” and we had tickets for the 11:30 am bus. Now I know she didn’t understand anything the lady said because I sure didn’t but she pulled off another “fake Spanish”. Maybe she does know Spanish and is just keeping me confused. $200 pesos each, about $21.00 for both of us. Not bad for a two hour trip on a really nice bus.
We got to Ensenada and walked 3 km to Baja Naval. When we finally got to the dock Silhouette was missing! Gone! Not where we left her four months ago…Liana had a bit of a panic but I recognized her tall mast on the outside of all of the boats at the marina. They had to move her to fit another big boat. Dirty and grimy, with salt stains running down her sides, her windows were so dusty you almost couldn’t see through them. Our feet left tracks on the deck as we boarded. But down below everything was fine. I spent the rest of the day washing off the dust and grime from months at the dock while Liana put away everything we brought with us.
April 17, 2019
We had a very calm night on the boat as the waves gently rocked us to sleep. While having coffee we made our to-do list. We know we have two hull valves that are damaged. Both valves are safe right now but need to be replaced when we haul-out. One leaks when open, the other has a broken actuator handle. I made a video so the manufacturer could identify them and give us replacements. We finally managed to order them and the quickest way to get them is to go back to the United States to pick them up on April 19th. So we are spending Easter weekend with family in San Diego.
The next dreaded project is hull cleaning. Everything takes more time than you expect on a boat. To get to the aft ladder I had to lower the dinghy, it needed air so I pumped it back up. Then I had to move it to the side of the boat and lock it up. The lock was frozen, as in corroded beyond repair, and it took bolt cutters to get the chain off. Then I had to pull out the dive tanks and dive gear but only one tank had air. So I put on my gear, got in the water and wouldn’t sink. I forgot to add dive weights. Once that was fixed, I cleaned the underside until I ran my tank below 500 lbs and it was time to get out. Cold cold cold. The hot shower was very welcomed.
Liana wanted to go get some lunch since we hadn’t shopped for groceries yet. We ordered seafood cups from a street vender. It was filled with octopus, shrimp, chunks of fish, clams, and mussels all mixed raw in lime juice with onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapeños and cilantro. It was delicious.
Then we went back and tackled another problem – a broken sea strainer. These strain all the cooling water and stops clams, mussels, crabs and all the other stuff in Liana’s seafood cocktail from clogging up our cooling lines. But ours was cracked and leaking. It took an hour to install the new one. We charged dive tanks so I can finish hull cleaning tomorrow. Liana worked for hours setting up our Iridium satellite service. This is how we get our weather while out at sea and away from cell service. It also gives us the ability to send and receive “text only” emails and very expensive phone calls in an emergency. Then Liana made keto pizza for dinner. We’re both exhausted and happy.
April, 22 2019
Last Friday we drove from San Diego to Rancho Santa Margarita to pick up our parts. We got up this morning at 4:50 am to go back to Mexico. (Same process as before but Lita drove us to the trolley, then walk across border, walked to bus station, rode the bus, walked to marina.) We made it to Silhouette at 10:00 am, unpacked then headed to Costco for provisions. It was several miles away so we hired a cab driver to take us and wait while we shopped. This took about 3 hours. While Liana put away groceries (another three plus hours) I went diving to replace main propeller shaft zincs and bow-thruster shaft zincs.
We cleaned sea strainers and started the generator..runs wonderful, praise God. The watermaker sprang a leak almost immediately after we started it. I spent the next hour fixing the leak. Then it mysteriously developed a new problem. It won’t pressurize. Oh, and I found another problem while trying to sort out that one. Our navigation antenna wires were too close to the watermaker high pressure hose and the vibration skinned all the insulation off the coaxial wires. Now I have two more problems to fix, minor but could have been real hard to troubleshoot at sea.
Liana worked all afternoon helping me. She was my safety, parts and tool-getter person while organizing groceries. Putting away stores is a long process when you have to squeeze stuff into every nook and cranny. All the meats have to be individually packaged and labeled then frozen. We use a sharpy to write on top of cans so we know what’s inside and then remove the paper labels. We have one month to go 1,400 nm to Puerto Penasco. We’ve been watching the weather and the conditions are just about perfect.
April 23, 2019
This morning we finally relaxed a bit and had breakfast in the fog. The harbor was quiet and we just enjoyed the sea lions swimming around and big dumb ducks splash landing as they snag breakfast. I put on my dirty clothes from yesterday expecting to get more dirty with watermaker repairs. We put in brand new filters but the testing and flushing I did yesterday clogged them with oil from the harbor. After checking the whole system for clogs and sea creatures I changed out both filters again. Normally these would last months not an hour.
I tackled a battery problem while Liana stored the last of our provisions. All six batteries are wired in series and tied together as pairs. One of the connectors was loose and allowing a voltage drop. I tightened it down and tested the batteries and good as new. Then I added distilled water to top-off the cells.
The dinghy motor needed adjusting so I checked the carburetors and the fuel had de-stabilized and turned to something resembling apple jelly. I cleaned and reassembled everything and darn-it if it still wouldn’t start. Eventually we got the motor running nice again. Liana used the engine crane and we hoisted it up on the railing mount and screwed it down. It’s much safer there than hanging off the end of the dinghy in the davits. A big wave could come along and flood the dingy in a following sea. With the motor removed it would be able to shed the extra water weight quickly enough through the transom drain but if the motor was on we might risk breaking stuff.
April 24 2019
It’s warm tonight, in the seventies. The crickets are chirping, the water in the bay is flat calm and the fog is just starting to set in. The shipyard where I just took trash is a ghost town, only a night watchman walking the docks with a flashlight. The shipyard had a busy day hauling boats out of the water. Friday starts the San Diego to Ensenada Regatta sailboat race with 201 entrants. When we went to check-out everyone was getting prepared to be overrun by yacht crews checking-in, partying and then checking-out. We’re leaving at a good time, our peaceful marina will become party central for the whole weekend. Our check-out went as planned and our paperwork is sorted for an early morning underway.
Liana has been cooking and baking all day except for the hour or so she helped me tune up the rigging. She always does this food prep before long underways so if the seas are rough, we still have options. She made cupcake size and regular size meatloaf, chili, chicken broccoli casserole, taco meat, pepperoni chips, fried bacon, boiled eggs, flax seed muffins,
mini cheesecakes and last but not least bacon, cheese and jalapeño muffins. She’s exhausted! Now she’s cleaning dishes and stowing for sea.
We looked at the most recent weather grib files and it looks like we should have a nice ride. I checked the tide charts and stowed the engine room. We’re finally ready to leave tomorrow.
