Pierless Adventures - March 21 - Power Tripping

Since our journey home will be against prevailing winds, we decided to swap our two blade prop for our three blade prop.  This should give us more power when motoring.  The switch was a recommended change from many here in the boatyard.  I expected the switch to be a challenge, as props can become very fond of their place in the propulsion system (i.e. difficult to remove).  Fortunately, it came off without a hitch and the three blade went on easily! 
 

We did more sorting and tossing today and ordered in materials we will be needing later in the week.  We also met a number of other boaters here in the yard.  Some Canadians, an Argentinean, a Brit and others.  They are all friendly and happy to offer advice.  Laundry will be in our future as well.   We found where to buy tokens for the machines, so hope to clean up our act in the next few days.

Speaking of cleaning, afternoon showering in the boatyard turns out to be a surprising source of anxiety.  As near as I can tell, the hot water for the showers is on a timer.  The water is consistently hot in the morning (though I don't know what time it turns on).  It seems to be on at least until 3:00 p.m.  Sometime after that the heating elements are turned off and all you have is the residual hot water to deal with. This leads to a gradual drop in water temperature until the start of the next heating cycle.

None of this has much to do with the anxiety issue.  There is a second, somewhat insidious reality of the local plumbing that is the source of my woes...   When you turn on the hot water, it is invariably lukewarm to cold.  There is a no circulation pump and the distance to the hot water is substantial.  This forces you to decide whether there is hot water coming and you should just wait for it, or the hot water is off and the water you have is the warmest it will be.  Wait, and you risk taking a colder shower.  Jump right in an you have to endure the cold only to find it warms up...  Not a great choice.

El Jefe - Chester
From Scott:

 The days are starting to blur into one another. We are having difficulty remembering whether we accomplished a particular task last night or this morning. At home, the passage of time could be marked by events such as Garbage Day or the unmistakable calm of a Sunday morning even if one had no calendar, but here, no such delineations exist. Time is metered out in uneven increments, dictated by the purchase of ice for the fridge. I have been here three bags now.

Chester and I are friends now and he will gladly accept a dog biscuit so long as I break it into small portions for him. He doesn't bark at me anymore but that never bothered me since he barks in Spanish and I never knew what he was saying anyway. He makes his rounds from time to time to ensure that his underlings are hard at work expanding his empire and as far as I know, belongs to no one in particular. Or maybe we belong to him. He has been here many, many more bags than us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments are now open to everyone.

Popular posts from this blog

Pierless Blog - 2025 - Vancouver Island Circumnavigation

Image
 Pierless Adventures - Vancouver Island 2025 I bought Pierless in Mazatlan, MX.  In 2023, I sailed north from Mazatlan, leaving the boat in Ventura California.  Last year I finished the trip north, bringing Pierless home to Washington after 3,000 miles of solo sailing. This year I will enjoy taking trips that I want to do versus trips I have to do - starting with a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island during the month of June.  This is a good month for the trip as fog won't be as prevalent, days will be longer and the coastal winds have made their shift to the NW, allowing for better sailing home on the outer coast.  The plan is to circle the island counter-clockwise to make the best use of these winds.. I will have company on this trip in the person of Dave.  He will meet me in Anacortes where I keep the boat.  We plan to move north on the east coast of the island quickly.  Once in the vicinity of the Broughton Marine Provincial Park, we will slo...
Read more

Pierless Blog - 2025-06-11 - Launch

Image
 Day 1, June 11: It has been a frustration 10 days...  One of the pre-launch projects was to install a new propeller shaft.  There were several problems with how the new shaft was manufactured and after three attempts we decided to just go with the old shaft and deal with the new one after the trip.  This change in perspective was thanks to Tracy when we told her we were likely to cancel the trip entirely.  Her wise comment was "why not just put the old one back in?  It got you here from Mexico."  Sometimes you can get too close to a problem and need a little independent perspective...  Pre Launch Due to tides, our launch was scheduled for 4 p.m.  No problems with the launch (leaks, engine, etc.), so we headed out of Anacortes determined to make as many miles as possible before dark.  We selected a few possibilities to choose from, depending on our speed along the way.  Our hope was to make it to Canoe Island near the east side of S...
Read more

Pierless Adventures - April 20 - Cabo San Lucas

Image
 We got an early start today.  I had to check in with the harbor master and with immigration.  There were boat projects to do, and a new town to explore. The marina is quite nice.  Clear restrooms and showers.  Things mostly work.  The waterfront is very busy with tourists.  Lots of gift shops and restaurants competing for our traveling dollars. I had some hardware to look for, so made a list of possible locations and put them on the map the marina folks gave us.  I would check shops to and from the harbor master office and immigration.  It warmed up early, so I had a warm walk to the harbor master.  After getting our entry and departure papers, I checked on the first hardware shop.  Mostly car parts... Immigration was next after about a mile walk back toward the harbor.  It was much like a DMV back home.  A long counter with staff and three rows of chairs that people were sitting in.  It wasn't clear how things worke...
Read more