Okay so a lot has happened in the last 3 months and very little of it had made it up here to the website. I feel remiss in my duties. I will try and fit all of the highlights into this post. My mother came to visit us for the Christmas holiday. We enjoyed a delightful 8 day visit during which time she helped me put my clutch case back together and we took two trips to the wine country in the Guadalupe river valley.
The wine country was lovely. I played interpreter for our group so we could take the Spanish language tour. There were two other boats from our neck of the woods in town, Scotty, Katie, and Sarah aboard the sailing vessel Petra as well as Meghan and Jeremy White aboard Madeline. Scotty organized a Christmas day cruiser’s potluck at the Cruiseport marina complete with white elephant gift exchange.
An astounding 35 cruisers showed up and a really fantastic time was had by all. Around this time we met up with the crew of the Convincer. The Convincer is a Skookum 53 sailing vessel and her crew is the nicest couple you could hope to meet. Jimmie and Pat Brown were a force to be reckoned with. Despite our best efforts we often found ourselves aboard the Convincer enjoying the many culinary delights that Jimmie and Pat cooked up. Sopas, Shrimp cocktails, and Pecan Pie that were better than any I had ever had to name a few.
For New Years Kristina and I went out with Meghan and Jeremy to set off my “Retireworks”. In July of 2000 I answered some lame question at this corporate “Jeopardy” thing that the marketing department put together to celebrate the launching of the new corporate website. It was far less fun than they hoped it would be and I answered the question in an effort to end it sooner so we could go eat BBQ. My prize was a box of Oregon fireworks. I put it on a shelf in my cubicle and in the blink of an eye 6 years worth of dust accumulated on them. One anonymous co-worker stabbed them with a match to leave a gentle hint.
Christopher Liddell came by and asked why I hadn’t set off the fireworks. And I told him I was going to set them off when I left the company. He then remarked “Oh so when you get fired you’ll set off the fireworks?” I knew at that point that I was not going to get fired since I was planning to quit and go sailing and told him something to the effect of “I may not get fired.” When I returned from my lunch that day I had a “post-it” note covering the letters FIR with the letters RET. That day they became “Retireworks”.
There was much speculation as to whether or not they would work after 6 years and I can report happily that they were 100% functional. Not one retirework failed to ignite and produce its intended display. There was extra irony in the fact that while I Was setting off lame super safe Oregon legal fireworks people were selling M9000 bombs and the most crazy dangerous fireworks were going off in the streets all over the place. Jeremy bought a giant rocket to set off and Meghan got some whistling strobe things.
Right around midnight we went to Hussong’s. It is said that Ensenada is a town that was built around a bar. Hussong’s used to be a big celebrity hang out for the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Steve McQueen. Now it is the least touristy bar in the touristy area. Mostly locals hang out there and every weekend it is packed to the rafters. It is my favorite zoo bar in Ensenada. The other bars are lame and have loud American music blaring while women with whistles make noise and pour margaritas down your throat.
By comparison Hussong’s has peanut shells on the floor and the only music is the 8 piece Mariachis that come in and play for tips. These Mariachis are very good and usually they will have a couple violins, accompanying them. On New Years Eve they were playing American music. It was kind of funny to be in Hussong’s hearing Hotel California played by an 8 piece Mariachi band. We got some Pacificos and did the countdown to 2007 in Spanish “Tres! Dos! Uno! Feliz Ano Nuevo!” and the mariachi played Auld Lang Syne.
With the holidays over, the crew of Convincer returned back home to work and the time came to help another cruiser out with his hernia surgery. Jeremy got a small hernia in California on the way down the coast and even though Jeremy is a competent Spanish speaker he wanted me to come along and help him interview surgeons in Ensenada. I have found myself doing a lot of medical interpretation for cruisers during our time here in Ensenada and plan to write a detailed accounting of my experience with the Mexican health care system.
After choosing a surgeon for Jeremy we booked him an appointment and then took a trip to San Diego to learn how to surf. Jeremy’s stepfather Chuck is an avid surfer and has been for many years. He spends his winters in California surfing and his summers at their retirement home in Puget sound sailing his Pearson 26, Josefina. Chuck was eager to help us learn to surf and offered to take us out and we gladly accepted.
We took the bus to San Diego and went to mission bay to stay in Chuck and Gail’s RV and on the 3rd of January we went out to a beach in San Diego and tried doing pop-ups on the sand. I am not what one would call nimble and I did nothing on that sand that one could call popping up. So off we went into the surf. Chuck had three boards and so he set about helping push Kristina into waves on the beach while I played at trying to catch the whitewater on my own. I was having a blast catching little waves on my belly. Kristina wasn’t feeling well when we started the day so she took it easy after a few rides and went ashore to bask in the sun while Chuck, Meghan and I went out past the break to paddle around looking for waves.
The surf was small and we did more paddling than surfing most of the time we were out there. I found this paddling to be some serious exercise and when I got tuckered out Chuck started towing me out past the waves so I would have enough energy to paddle when the big one came. A set would come and I would ineptly turn the rear of my board to it. Chuck would holler the command ”Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!” and I would dig into the water with both arms blazing, pushing that board with all my might eventually a lump would lift the rear of the board up and then the middle and then the front and I would be watching the back of the wave as it started to break in front of me. Chuck would be waving me back to come try it again and I would be as tired as a newborn kitten.
The only solace I took was in assuming all of the people out there with me not catching waves were better surfers than I am. It was at this time that I watched a guy out past the surf standing up on his board but not surfing. He had a 7’ long oar and he was rowing his surfboard like he was standing in a canoe. Every time I tried to sit up on the board it would start bucking like an angry bronco and here was this guy rowing around standing bolt upright on his surfboard. I watched him row to the more dangerous point break and row into a wave that would lift him. He would surf it and then pop over the top of it and resume rowing until the next one came. Chuck told me it was a new thing people have taken to doing as he hadn’t seen anyone rowing till this year.
The next day the gang went shopping while Chuck and I got dropped off at the beach for more surfing. We stayed out for a couple hours and at the end Chuck started trying to push me into surf. The closest I got to standing up was when I was in the face of the wave moving really quick and I thought to myself that I probably didn’t have enough time to stand up. Just then I realized I was further from the beach than I thought I was and did indeed have time. Unfortunately by the time I got this all worked out in my head I had one knee on the board and the fin was digging into the beach, I was too late. Lesson learned. If you think you are surfing GET UP!
After running around town spending money on yet another “last chance” visit to San Diego we hopped a bus back to Ensenada and I was instantly in the market for a surf board. After my day in the surf I decided the more appropriate name for the sport would be “Paddle Paddle Paddle!”
I ended up purchasing a 10’2” longboard at the local shop here in Ensenada. They threw in all the accessories I would need with the exception of the bag. I checked out the bag that came with Meghan’s custom board and noted it was basically just some silver tarp layered over closed cell foam with a zipper and some webbing for a handle. Kris and I were eager to start a sewing project so we bought the materials and got started saving our first $100 with the sewing machine.
Soon enough, we took Jeremy to his surgery and all went well. Jeremy was very happy with his outcome here and a week after his surgery he had his stitches out and Madeline headed right back out to sea where we all belong.
Meanwhile Estrella was getting her transmission installed. I got the tranny bolted back in and put in many bolts that were left out by the previous installers (I assume they are ancillary but thought I might as well put them in while I was at it. I got the transmission bolted back in and the realignment I was dreading proved unnecessary since I never removed the rear mounts. The shaft lined up perfectly on the first try. I bolted everything together and ran the engine for the first time in months.
I figured bleeding the engine might be necessary since I detached the fuel line at the lift pump but I took a gamble and fired up the engine anyway. While it was running on the fuel in the system I opened the bleed screw at the fuel return on the secondary filter. Bubbles came out and then turned to clear flowing diesel and this turned out to be all the bleeding that was needed, for once, a shortcut worked.
We got a lot of encouragement on the use of our sewing machine by our new friend Tony on the sailing vessel Sweetie. Tony was a sail maker before he set off on his cruise with his lovely wife Shannon. Shannon and Tony have done so much with their boat that I can say without a doubt that thier's is the most together well thought out most modified cruising boat I have seen. Sweetie is a Hunter 45 but there is little of the original Hunter about her. Tony and Shannon are highly motivated professionals who actually had a 5 year plan to go cruising. They lived aboard for 5 years making modifications and meticulously planning their escape, and it shows. While Estrella is a testament to luck and labor Sweetie is a testament to meticulous planning and labor. I used to say that these people with 5 year plans never went anywhere and I think a lot of them don’t but Sweetie is probably going to end up beating us out of the harbor despite arriving months after we did.
Anyway, Shannon and Tony have been very instrumental in helping us get our projects done. Tony spent a few hours helping tune up our machine and giving us pointers on how to use it. He is confident that with some practice all of our canvas work projects are well within our reach and his confidence rubs off.
Kristina and I came up with a surf bag design for our first big project. The patent pending “Surf Taco Bag” was soon enough completed and the bag is excellent. In the final analysis it cost us less than half what the store bought bag would have and was actually kind of fun to make. With the motor running and the tranny back in we set about getting the heck out of this expensive marina and into the lovely anchorage.
Baja Naval Marina is a lovely facility with lots of professional helpful staff on hand. Their yard is top notch but there are a few things that are not ideal about being in a slip here in the winter. There is a tidal surge that consumes fenders. When the surge is at its worst the boat is pulled away from the dock by its keel and heels sharply due to the dock lines being attached on the deck. When the line comes taut the boat then bounces back into the dock with enough inertia to explode the highest quality fenders.
Having spent time at this dock during winter surge season I can say that none of my fenders held up. All of them exploded. I was told that if I took them to West Marine I could get the Taylor Made brand fenders replaced for free. Since my two large fenders are Taylor Made brand and cost $100 a piece I tagged along with a group of cruisers when they drove up to San Diego.
I rode up with Victor and Andre of S.V. Easy Breeze. Victor spent some years as a charter skipper in the Sea of Cortez and has led an eclectic life. His
Wife, Andre is an artist and her many beautiful paintings adorn every the bulkhead aboard Easy Breeze, their Freedom 36 sloop.
Also along for the ride was Bob from motor vessel Dark Side. Bob was a sailor until recently when he sold his Tayana 49 to come over to the “Dark Side” and become a power boater. The Dark Side is a lovely Taiwanese Offshore 43 twin diesel trawler. We all had our agendas for the day and after Bob treated us to a lovely lunch at the Brigantine restaurant in San Diego we all went about our errands. I tried to get West Marine to take back the fender that exploded most catastrophically that bore their name but they informed me that Taylor Made is the only one that is guaranteed and that those were the only ones they would be replacing.
Amazingly these West Marine fenders were almost brand new and the Taylor Made Fenders were 20 years old. The West Marine fender was trash and the Taylor Made fenders instantly turned into two nice brand new Taylor Made fenders. The moral of the story here is obvious. Don’t scrimp on fenders if you are going cruising. Pay extra and get Taylor Made.
After I loaded up on Coconut Milk at the grocery story and got all the stuff on our list done we headed back S across the border into Mexico again. This drive is becoming far too common an occurrence for me. Once back in town I thanked everybody and took my swag back to the boat where Kristina was enjoying a nice relaxing day free of me. I am sure that despite the remarkable harmony we enjoy locked on a little boat together 24/7 she was probably better off enjoying a nice relaxing day without me aboard.
I had one more small project to do before the next phase of Operation Ensenada Escape could be accomplished. I had a cheapo, crappy partial bulkhead in the boat and it broke off when I stored heavy things next to it. So I decided to build a new one out of sturdy ¾” ply and make it nice and bulletproof. I bought a sheet of ¾” ply at the Home Depot and bribed the parking lot attendant to take me and my plywood to the marina in his truck. I cut out my pieces in the cockpit and in a day or so had the bulkhead installed. The following day we decided it was time to get into the anchorage.
When Steve and I pulled the transmission he told me to either have the yard do the rebuild real quick or try and find a bench vise where I could do it myself. The only reason he suggested having the clutch packs swapped out by a yard mechanic was that it was going to be hard to do in the cockpit and the hour of labor would be worth not trying to rig up a bench vise in the cockpit of the boat. I asked the yard to come and do this and they sent a mechanic down. Eduardo was courteous and professional. He took one look at my transmission and said he could rebuild it in an hour no problem. I asked him if he minded me looking over his shoulder so I would know how to do it and he said that wouldn’t be a problem at all. I was pleased that he was available as the yard guys have been slammed and especially as this was the week leading up to the holidays, were all trying hard to get their work done before leaving on their respective vacations.
When we got to the shop Eduardo was looking at the transmission quizzically and asked me if I knew if there was a circlip on it that needed to be removed or not. At that point I remembered that I have an excellent Yanmar manual with blow up diagrams. I asked him if I should get it for him and he indicated this would be a great thing to have. Since Eduardo spoke no English I can only paraphrase.
I ran down to the boat to get the manual and when I came back up the companionway Eduardo was standing in the cockpit with my transmission in hand apologizing. His boss had reminded him that he had an important job to get done before the holiday and he wouldn’t have time for my transmission. Eduardo was very apologetic but confident I could do it myself. He told me it was really easy and the book should help a great deal and encouraged me to just go ahead and do it myself. He said getting it out was the hardest part and since I had already done that I was easily qualified enough to do the rest.
I told him that I didn’t think I would be able to find the parts I needed in town and that I had tried Napa and AutoZone looking for seals that would fit my transmission and had failed. I was also looking for a bearing puller and could find nothing like that at either location. Eduardo told me there were at least 3 places in town that sold only bearings and seals. I was shocked and thrilled to have Eduardo’s local knowledge to guide me in my quest. That day I added 2 words to my Spanish vocabulary “Baleros y Retenes” which means “Bearings and Seals”. I asked Eduardo if I could use their Bench Vise and do the work in their shop and he said “no problemo”. I was set, I had the words I needed to find the parts and I had a proper shop in which to work.
At first I walked 8 miles to a store and found they had only expensive seals that didn’t quite fit. I walked 8 miles back and my day was gone. At this time I realized that I can read and speak Spanish. The office here has a phone book and I can let my fingers do the walking. I called all around and finally found what I needed. My mother drove me to the shop and I had my seals.
I installed the seals and then saw Steve walking up the ramp. As was becoming the custom Steve asked me how the rebuild was coming and I told him I was about to start on it and he offered to help. I gladly accepted his offer and he told his wife Wendy he would be busy for a few hours. He grabbed a few tools of his own and we went to work in the shop.
The Yanmar manual is the most excellent manual I have ever owned. It had a section on rebuilding the transmission using a bearing puller. I hadn’t found a bearing puller that would fit my specific needs but fortunately for me it had an alternative section “how to rebuild the KBW10 transmission using a hammer” I had many hammers so I was all set. Steve and I set about beating the living daylights out of my transmission and replacing the disks. There were spring loaded detent balls that I was told by the professionals would require a hydraulic press to install once removed. With some coordination and teamwork Steve and I managed to do it with a pencil.
Apart from the seals being blown it seems that the main problem was Terry Foren. He is the professional I hired through Cascade Yachts (the local Yanmar dealer in Portland) to rebuild my transmission. It seems that he didn’t tighten the locking nut that holds the transmission together nearly enough before he deformed it to lock it into place. I suspect when the prop got wrapped in kelp this caused the nut to back off and thus began our slippage. If I had just tightened this nut I strongly suspect the tranny would have worked just fine again.
Steve helped me to design a tool for locking this nut in violently. I purchased a piece of pipe that had the correct diameter for fitting around the nut and using a hacksaw and dremel I cut 4 slots into it so it would fit the nut. When I put it back together I thought it was excessively strong. I disagreed with Steve when he told me it might not be strong enough. I thought 2 out of 4 prongs would be strong enough but he insisted it would not be and that 4 might still not be if everything were perfectly made. Again in the end Steve proved to be the experienced engineer that he was. When I pounded on that tool to get that nut in tight all 4 prongs bent. The tool had to be disposed of but in the end I think it did its job.
While I am convinced I could have done this without Steve now that I have seen it done, I can honestly say I would never have had the courage to tear into it had it not been for his intervention. I owe Steve many cold beers and hope some day that he is rewarded for his generosity.
We fired up the motor and got off the dock with relative ease. I was pleased to see that the boat was now moving along at 1.5 knots at idle RPM and once out into the Anchorage I went for a little putter. Opening up the throttle to see what the boat would do. Much to our great satisfaction she lurched forward at top speed. I spun her back around and chose a spot close to the marina to drop the hook. We dropped the hook in 9’ of water at low tide and it set instantly. I backed down on it with the engine and went below to check out the transmission.
The flange was bone dry. Not one drop of oil had leaked out, the clutch case was cold to the touch and the oil was clear and clean. I am optimistic that this tranny is fixed. But thanks to Steve on Le Reve I can say that even if it isn’t I wouldn’t hesitate to rebuild it myself.
Now in the anchorage we would be saving some money on moorage though not as much as we would have hoped as dinghy dock fees here are mandatory and exorbitant. While in Ensenada we watched the NFL playoffs and I was privileged enough to get to see Virginia McCaskey be handed the NFC Championship Trophy that bears her father’s name (no pun intended). Consequently I decided we would stay in Ensenada till the 5th so that we could watch the Superbowl.
The Friday prior to the Superbowl there was a regrettable incident at the dinghy dock. I rowed the pram to the dinghy dock and tied her up right next to the dock tower. These towers are about 4’ tall and are what one plugs their boat into for shore power and they have hose spigots at their bases for filling your water tanks or hosing off your salty decks.
I go into such detail about these towers because one of them would soon become the funniest minor calamity of our trip thus far. Due to dinghy dock complacency I had my laptop bag slung over my right shoulder and got out of the dinghy loaded down with stuff. Just as I stepped one foot onto the dock a tidal surge came and pulled the dinghy with my other leg away from the dock. I lurched toward the dock to fall into it instead of falling into the disgusting Ensenada harbor. However there was a tower in my way. These towers are evidently strong enough to stop me falling while being weak enough to buckle under the load of my considerable weight. The result of these characteristics was that the tower prevented my fall onto the dock but began to buckle when I came to rest upon it. The tower and I then proceeded in slow motion to topple over parallel to the edge of the dock and when the base of the tower exploded into flying chunks of plastic the pressurized fresh water feed hose under it’s base snapped the nipple into two pieces sending a cartoonish geyser of water into the air. When I landed on the dock there was not enough of it to accommodate the tower and myself so into the disgusting harbor I went.
Unfortunately the first thing that caught my eye was my laptop bag floating in the harbor beside me. I threw that bag up onto the dock and collected my sandals which were floating around me. I then climbed into the dinghy over the bow and got onto the bow. Nobody had seen it. I know usually our embarrassing moments occur with a large audience but here I was with a doozy and nobody had seen it. Just then Tony and Shannon from Sweetie came up and took my laptop to their boat to dry it out. I called the office and they came down and fixed the tower. Unfortunately I after disassembling the laptop and drying everything off, I fired it up. It died instantly and the motherboard was fried. So it will take another week or so for our replacement laptop to arrive.
I am sad about the loss of our laptop but these things happen. I am however totally disappointed in Rex Grossman for turning the ball over so many times in the Bears’ first Superbowl appearance in 21 years. The Colts did not play inspired football but they played consistent and competent football. The Bears defense should have won that game but instead they missed tackles all over the place and allowed Peyton Manning to do his thing all over that field. I am ashamed to say the Bears got what they deserved in that game and I hope next year they repeat their appearance in that game but not their performance. Go Bears.
Meanwhile we are making great progress on projects on board. Shannon on Sweetie gave Kristina the idea to purchase vinyl from the Mexican fabric stores and use our sewing machine to make water resistant bags for storing items in our wet bilges. Also Tony gave me his lazy jacks design and sold me some materials he had on board that I wouldn’t have ever found in Ensenada so I got started on those. At the time of this writing we have Mizzen Lazy jacks and Kristina is emptying out a lot of our storage into the bilges. The transmission is good and we are finding storage all over the place that we never knew existed. Things are good. We are eager to head south to warmer waters and surfing and all that stuff people go cruising to do.
Kristina is in good spirits and really enjoying the sewing machine projects. I am thrilled that now when I drop the mizzen a pile of sail wont land on my head. It feels like we are finally close and hopefully we will be able to keep up some semblance of a respectable pace to our updates. This update was meant to have some embedded video but unfortunately all of our videos are on the dead laptop and will have to wait to be resurrected.
I would also like to thank Sweetie for lending me their spare laptop. Without their generosity this update would not have been possible, so for once, there is somebody to blame for boring you other than just me.
Thanks to everybody who sent us emails helping with our transmission woes and inquiring after our well being.
