Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!

We are having a great time kitesurfing in Los Barriles and just wanted to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas! Thanks for following our blog and supporting our adventure. Happy New Year! We're looking forward to 2013.






Location:
Los Barriles
Latitude:
23.67904
Longitude:
-109.696598

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Staying Fit while Cruising

When I realized that our cruising plans would have us spending over a month in La Paz, I was a bit nervous that I would get restless. I absolutely love La Paz, but I always prefer quiet anchorages to cities. Part of what I love most about cruising is the constant exploring. What a feeling to turn the corner into a new anchorage and be stunned by the beauty of your new home just waiting to be explored.

Thanks to some great sailing ladies, I found some really fun ways to stay fit (and not feel restless) in La Paz. Sarah (S/V Hydroquest) and Lisa (S/V Molly J) introduced me to Zumba, a type of dance/fitness class. I thought it was going to be touristy, but it's all locals and all in Spanish. I'll never be able to wiggle my boobies or bootie like the women in this class, but I had lots of fun trying. One of the best parts is that it costs 70 pesos (~5.50 USD) for a week of classes!

Stephanie (S/V Le Letty) has been keeping us fit by teaching us aerial acrobatics on her boat. It's an amazing core and upper body work out. We always come back to Starship sore and happy. Stephanie is such a patient, calm and enthusiastic teacher. Thank you for the lessons! Here are some of Chris and my more graceful moves:


Here are some pictures of the pro (Stephanie) at work:

To see some of our less graceful acrobatic moves and see what else we've been up to, check out these pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/chris.foxxxy/LaPazNovDec2012

We look forward to having my parents visit in a few days and spending Christmas with them and my brother in Mexico! We then look forward to exploring the mainland of Mexico (Puerto Vallarta area) with Herb and Michelle in the New Year. Then.....it's Puddle Jump Time :D !!!

Location:
La Paz
Latitude:
24.160317
Longitude:
-110.33405

Monday, December 3, 2012

Thank You Perla Moon!

Starship has had a oil leak in the old iron jenny for most of the past year. She probably had it long before that also, but just wasn't getting enough use for the leak to be noticed.
Hard to see oil leak between water pump and front plate
Evidence of the leak is apparent below main pulley
One day last March when we were at the islands near La Paz, we met a boat named Perla Moon, with Fred & Linda aboard.
Perla Moon at anchor on Isla Espiritu Santos
Fred is a retired diesel mechanic, and was very eager to come over and take a look at our engine problem. He gave us some helpful tips about resolving some issues with the way our engine was mounted, and walked us through what might be involved in repairing our leak.

At that time, we were still trying to get a handle on how bad the leak was, and whether we could just live with it or not. Fred was the only person we met who considered an oil leak a problem. Most other people would just say "diesel's leak, carry extra oil", but Fred is a professional and doesn't put up with leaks.

Over the course of last year, as we monitored the leak and noticed it was getting worse, we decided we definitely wanted to fix it. We got a hold of Fred who was back in the San Francisco Bay area and asked if he would be willing to consult with us on the repair over the phone and skype. Fred was very enthusiastic about the prospect of helping us out over the phone, and we were very grateful for his advice! Linda also played a very important role in the process, acting as the technology advisor for Fred. Linda would get skype working and download PDF manuals of our engine for Fred to review.

After about five days of speaking to Fred for about an hour each day, the engine was disassembled and reassembled! AND it doesn't leak!! ... at least not from the repaired area...
The gears which needed to come off to replace the front plate (grey)
One can see where the leak was at the bottom of the water pump bearing housing above
Anne-Marie and I both gained a lot of valuable knowledge and confidence in our engine over the five days. We ended up having to take a part more systems of the engine than we initially thought, and have a much better idea of how all these systems work together.

Our leak free engine with a touched up paint job!
One valuable lesson I learned is to not worry so much about taking apart parts of the engine to gain better access to the area you need to work on. The extra work space is worth the time of taking off and reassembling some parts.

Thanks a lot Fred & Linda! We look forward to meeting up with you in Puerto Vallarta so you can redeem your kitesurfing lesson vouchers :)

Location:
La Paz
Latitude:
24.160317
Longitude:
-110.33405

Mandy and Kevin Visit Starship

Mandy and Kevin recently came to visit for a few days. We showed them around La Paz and the nearby Islands. Swam with sea lions and a whale shark! Saw dolphins at the bow of Starship and Twinkle. It was quite an action packed trip!
They take very nice photos so we thought we would just share a few of them on the blog, as well as a video of the whale shark and sea lions.

Enjoy...

NOTE: Video's only available on the blog, not in the email.


Location:
La Paz
Latitude:
24.160317
Longitude:
-110.33405

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

San Carlos to Isla San Francisco

Chris and I have made it back to La Paz! We had a great 2 day sail from San Carlos to San Francisco island. Here are some highlights from the sail:

November 6, 2012 - DAY 1
Day 1 was fast, fun and wet. We were on a beam/broad reach and averaging 5 - 5.5 knots. My stomach felt a bit uneasy, but I was holding down my food. We had 2 bites on our lines, but didn't catch anything.

We were doing 3 hour shifts and Chris was on night watch. I was merrily dreaming away about all the food I would cook/eat when my stomach settled down when I awoke to water being dumped on my head. My first thoughts were, "where am? what's happening?"  Then "crash", another wave hit and my head was further soaked. I quickly realized where I was…..in a wet and rocking boat. Ooops, I guess I should have closed that hatch above the settee before going to bed.

Chris yelled down below if I was ok.

"Yes, just wet"

"Sorry, the wind picked up. I'm going on deck to reef the main"

I really didn't want another splash to the face, so I stumbled quickly off of the settee and fumbled around until all of the hatches were closed. In order to reef the main, Chris headed into the wind on a close reach, which intensified the waves pounding into Starship and the queasiness in my tummy. Just get into the cockpit and you'll feel better I kept telling myself. I finally found my glasses, foul weather gear and and life jacket and made it into the cockpit.

Besides that excitement, we both had good night watches. We saw numerous shooting stars and Chris even found a guest squid on deck. Can we eat these little guys?



November 7, 2012 - DAY 2
This passage is definitely what I needed to get back into the cruising spirit.

We've had a truly magical evening. The wind had died down, but we didn't want to turn on the engine, so we were just drifting along at 1-2 knots with the tide while enjoying the sunset. Then we both heard a big "splash". DOLPHINS!!! We excitedly went to the bow hoping for a show and we were not disappointed. We didn't think the dolphins would stay long because we were moving so slowly, but we were sure wrong. We've never had dolphins swim so slowly to stay with Starship and they seemed in an extra playful mood. They would routinely jump and twirl out out of the water like acrobats. I was so amused and excited that I'd cheer and clap for each stunt. It seemed like the more I cheered, the more they would leap out of the water or continuously splash their tails.  "Maybe these dolphins were released from Sea World", Chris exclaimed. We were too excited to run and grab the camera, but here's a picture taken of the sunset right before the dolphins came.


A few hours later on my night watch, I was treated to another spectacular show. I thought I heard breathing in the ocean, but I wasn't sure if I was just hearing things in the darkness and going crazy. Then I heard breathing again and the outline of a dolphin framed by bioluminescence. It was eerie and beautiful to see the dolphin's silhouettes glowing with yellow/green sparkles. They would leave a bright trail every time they zoomed by. I wondered if these were the same dolphins that visited us a few hours earlier. How truly fortunate we feel to experience these wonders of our world aboard Starship.

ISLA SAN FRANCISCO
At Isla San Francisco, we were treated to the best water visibility (40 - 50 ft) that we've experienced. It made for some great snorkeling and playing around Starship.






We also went on a beautiful hike along the ridge of the island.






Thank you Earl and Louise for having us aboard Serenity and all of your generous gifts. Visits on your air conditioned and spacious motorboat were highly luxurious for Chris and me. We've already caught a fish with your lure! We're just hoping for a different species of fish next time!





Location:
La Paz
Latitude:
24.160317
Longitude:
-110.33405