Weebles - Day in Cruising Life

[mvweebles]

Engine Maintenance and D6YC

Engine maintenance - changed the oil (~250 hours) and general engine maintenance. I had a small weep where the vented loop connects to the exhaust manifold; and another out the weep-hole on the Jabsco raw water pump on my Perkins 4.236 diesel. I have a new Jabsco pump as a spare that I decided to use since I do not have the lip-seal that was leaking. On a lark, I decided to see if "Rafa," a local mechanic could help.

Scot/Slowgoesit mentioned finding the right guy is paramount - and it's so true. Turns out Rafa is a solid mechanic and is very familiar with Perkins' engines, including have a decent selection of parts on his shelf. So he was able to rebuild my old pump including new bearings, seal, impellor, and gaskets for around $175 USD. I met Rafa when I first arrived in Mazatlan 6-weeks ago - I hired him to replace a bilge pump hose that really needed a jockey-sized technician which he happens to have on his team. He's not exactly cheap ($65/hr for him and his helper), but straightforward and competent. I'd use him again in a heartbeat.

BEFORE rebuild of Jabsco Raw Water Pump (note rust at weep slot)


AFTER rebuild of Jabsco Raw Water Pump. Pump was ready about 5-hours after I dropped it off, which is amazing.


Rafa's shop is in a boatyard next to the marina. One of his guys is re-caulking this beautiful little 30-footer that a friend of his built in High School 40+ years ago. The bottom looks clean and sound. No rot whatsoever.

Cool boat:


Marina Mazatlan is a social place. Each afternoon at 4pm is a 'safety meeting' at D6YC (Dock 6 Yacht Club). Don and Lena who are in their mid-80s (seated mid-row on left, in matching denim shirts), have lived aboard in Mazatlan for over 25-years, though have been active in boats for all their lives. When they were raising their children, they starting hosting a quick cocktail hour for dock neighbors but rather than tell their kids they were having a drink, they told them there was a mandatory safety meeting. Old habits die hard. For the record, I have not seen anyone have more than a second drink/beer, and have yet to witness anyone being the least bit over-served.

Safety Meeting at D6YC:


Most of the people in the above picture are just passing through as cruisers. The folks at the far end have been cruising aboard their Amel Super Maramu for 10-years and are getting ready to sell their boat and on to their next adventure.

All in all, a pretty typical day in our life these days - boat repairs, nap in the afternoon, some socializing.

Peter

 

[mvweebles]

Watermaker Day

Today was Watermaker day. We almost didn't leave Ensenada because I really struggled to get a new watermaker installed. Unfortunately, it's a PITA ever since. Some of the issues are just the way it goes, but if I had it to do over again, I would not buy CruiseRO despite their stellar reputation. If I did buy it, I would not get their options (TDS meter, auto-flush option, TDS diversion). Overly complex and the wiring was difficult for me as I had to make-up all wiring harnesses which was not as easy as it sounds, at least not for me. Why CruiseRO doesn't take the time to make it easy with plug-in harnesses I'll never know. The instruction booklet is difficult to follow - all 105 pages of it.

The TDS of the product has been high since Day 1 so CruiseRO gave me a replacement membrane which I finally got around to installing today. There was also a mistake in the instructions about where to install the TDS sensor so I moved that (small item). Bummer is I cannot really test it because the water in the marina here in Mazatlan is filthy so will have to wait until I'm underway in a few days. Until then, we're in water-conservation mode.

This morning started with a trip to the Fuel Dock on Muirgen, Scot and Laura's Beebe 50 (Scot's TrawlerForum handle is "Slowgoesit"). It took a couple hours but they put on over 600 gallons of diesel. They would have put on another 300 or so except he drained their tank dry. Price was $25.00 pesos/liter, which works out to $5.55/gal. I have to say, Scot is a pro at maneuvering the boat. It has a Controllable Pitch Propeller which I'd only heard of prior. It's odd to say the least - RPMs are constant so you control speed by pitch of the blades, which means it has a constant prop-walk, not just in reverse. I asked him how long did it take to get used to it to which he responded "I'll let you know when I do....."

All good here in Mazatlan -

Peter

 

[slowgoesit]

QUOTE=mvweebles;1212398]Today was Watermaker day. We almost didn't leave Ensenada because I really struggled to get a new watermaker installed. Unfortunately, it's a PITA ever since. Some of the issues are just the way it goes, but if I had it to do over again, I would not buy CruiseRO despite their stellar reputation. If I did buy it, I would not get their options (TDS meter, auto-flush option, TDS diversion). Overly complex and the wiring was difficult for me as I had to make-up all wiring harnesses which was not as easy as it sounds, at least not for me. Why CruiseRO doesn't take the time to make it easy with plug-in harnesses I'll never know. The instruction booklet is difficult to follow - all 105 pages of it.

The TDS of the product has been high since Day 1 so CruiseRO gave me a replacement membrane which I finally got around to installing today. There was also a mistake in the instructions about where to install the TDS sensor so I moved that (small item). Bummer is I cannot really test it because the water in the marina here in Mazatlan is filthy so will have to wait until I'm underway in a few days. Until then, we're in water-conservation mode.

This morning started with a trip to the Fuel Dock on Muirgen, Scot and Laura's Beebe 50 (Scot's TrawlerForum handle is "Slowgoesit"). It took a couple hours but they put on over 600 gallons of diesel. They would have put on another 300 or so except he drained their tank dry. Price was $25.00 pesos/liter, which works out to $5.55/gal. I have to say, Scot is a pro at maneuvering the boat. It has a Controllable Pitch Propeller which I'd only heard of prior. It's odd to say the least - RPMs are constant so you control speed by pitch of the blades, which means it has a constant prop-walk, not just in reverse. I asked him how long did it take to get used to it to which he responded "I'll let you know when I do....."

All good here in Mazatlan -

Peter[/QUOTE]


Wow Peter, CruiseRO's instruction book is 105 PAGES?!? Holy Cow!
SeaWater Pro's complete instruction guide, maintenance procedures, and troubleshooting booklet, including full page pics of the various installation configurations, as well as front and back covers, is only 30 pages, and it had everything needed for myself and my Father and Law to install our system over two days almost two years ago. And most of that time was figuring out where the components of the modular design would be placed.

Once the individual components including high and low pressure pumps, filter "rail", control panel and membrane housings, the actual connections, high & low pressure hoses, brine and product hoes, and wiring took maybe two hours tops.

I would recommend, if you purchase the Seawater Pro watermaker, spend the extra money and buy the pre-built "control panel". Everything is already done for you, just connect a few hoses, and, IIRC, 4 wires, and you're all set! And the back flush timer, a simple garden timer from Lowes or Home Depot has worked flawlessly for the past 21 months and over 6000 gallons!

I'm hopeful that once you get it up and running as designed . . . . or maybe as RE-designed, you'll be happy with the system.

I hope when we leave Saturday heading South that it all works just fine.

 

[Muirgen Afloat]

Peter



Thanks so much for your help getting fuel. I know you probably don't think you did much, but having a third person on this boat makes an amazing difference. So wish we had that more often. Was pretty weird to run the fuel place out of diesel. But at least we are good until Panama.


Love the pictures of the cats. Cato drives me nuts with his hanging out over the edge. I always like he's going to jump ship.

 

[mvweebles]

Why I don't recommend CruiseRO Watermaker

Here's a longer discussion on my Watermaker issues; and why I do not recommend CruiseRO because the components are overly complicated; and they wiring is 100% DIY vs factory harnesses with plug-in connectors.

Scot & Laura/Slowgoesit asks about the 105 page manual (there are also a couple addendumes for auto-backflish and TDS, so actually closer to 125 pages). Here's why so many pages: Rather than have a separate manual for each iteration of model (120V vs 240V vs 12V), they have one giant manual with everything. On the face of it, makes a certain amount of sense. However, in practice, means that diagrams that would normally be contiguous in the manual are separated by many pages. Also means that some diagrams look very similar (for example: 120VAC vs 240VAC) so you have to be really careful.

I ordered my watermaker with all the options 120VAC. These options really boil down to two:

1. Auto backflush. On paper, this is a superior setup to the SeawaterPro (SWP). It has the ability to turn-on your potable water pump so you don't have to leave it on. The SWP is a slightly adapted battery operatedgarden hose timer. CruiseRO is large and bulky -- and wired to whatever voltage the watermaker is wired (120VAC in my case). It does mean the watermaker needs to be on all the time or the backflush will not operate.

Top of this picture is the CruiseRO auto-backlush assemble ($700). Bottom is a simple garden-hose timer ($35) similar to what SWP uses (and what I now use). Much easier to use and program, though you do have to make sure the batteries get changed.


2. TDS meter with divert bypass. If the TDS is too high (user adjustable - typically 500 ppm), it will divert the product to waste instead of the tanks. Cool feature, but not really that important. TDS is usually high at start-up and most users are knowledgeable about diverting the initial product overboard anyway. Saves that minor step.

The main challenge I had was in wiring. For each of the two above, they need power (120VAC in my case) plus the sensor wires must be connected to punch-down boards. The hi-pressure pump was a bit challenging for me as it had five yellow wires with very faint markings that needed to be wired for 120VAC vs 240VAC. The boost pump needs to be wired of course, and it also has a klugey cooling fan that needs to be wired to 120VAC. What would make this sooooo much easier is if CruiseRO provided pre-assembled wiring harnesses with plug connectors. Even the on-off-on switches have to be wired-up including crimping spade terminals. Not a big deal, but it sort of felt a bit more DIY than it needed to be. And made troubleshooting difficult (one of the two switches was bad).

I also had issues due to the system had incorrect components (the solenoid and relay for auto-flush was 12VDC instead of 120VAC) and a missing timer that the owner was supposed to bring to La Paz except he never came to La Paz and didn't want to ship it to Mazatlan unless I could guarantee I'd wait a month for it (his partner Charlie solved this quickly). Also, one of the membranes was bad so the TDS readings were incredibly high. Charlie was at the Baja Ha Ha kick-off so brought a new one which I finally installed yesterday.

Bottom line:

• I definitely like the overall design of the system with mostly off-shelf components. But I would go with SeawaterPro instead of CruiseRO.
• The garden-hose timer makes more sense for backflush than the way-too-complicated system CruiseRO uses (a $700 option!!!). I eventually gave up on the CruiseRO backflush - first, the timer was missing. Next, the relay was wrong voltage. Each time I did a fair amount of troublehsooting to figure it out.
• CruiseRO does indeed have excellent customer service. Charlie is amazing - very knowledgeable and patient. Even on Sundays. My complaint is I needed too much of it - quality was high, but quanitity was also high (a bad thing).

In short, in my opinion as a totally average shade-tree mechanic, the CruiseRO design is great if you're installing it on a wide-open bench with lots of space and light; and plenty of spools of wire, terminal ends, and terminal connectors. For those with 60-foot boats, it should work out well. For me, with limited space, the install was overly difficult. I've made over a dozen calls to their tech support, most were not dumb-mistakes by myself (example: figuring out the relay was 12V but needed to be 120VAC). My suggestion to CruiseRO was they should consider asking their next middle-of-road DIY customer to put a time lapse camara overlooking the install to see how long it takes and where they get hung-up. Perhaps my frustration was too apparent, but the suggestion was not well received by Rich, the figurehead of CruiseRO who does the vidoes (which are excellent, by the way - great one on disassembling the membranes).

Hope this helps someone down the line.

Peter

PS - Excellent YouTube on swapping membrane from Rich/CruiseRO

 

[SteveK]

Peter



Thanks so much for your help getting fuel. I know you probably don't think you did much, but having a third person on this boat makes an amazing difference. So wish we had that more often. Was pretty weird to run the fuel place out of diesel. But at least we are good until Panama.


Love the pictures of the cats. Cato drives me nuts with his hanging out over the edge. I always like he's going to jump ship.

Laura,
with a bit of notice and an airline ticket (return) I can make myself available to assist you when fueling.

 

[ksanders]

Peter, it looks like the Cruise RO is really just not for your boat and or your time in the saddle installing electrical equipment.

In hindsight a better choice might have been a plug and play system where you bolt it down, connect water and power and it's working.

I'm a big fan of Cruise RO and Rich, but admittedly a "stuff in a box" watermaker kit is a bit more complex of an install than many are happy with.

 

[mvweebles]

Peter, it looks like the Cruise RO is really just not for your boat and or your time in the saddle installing electrical equipment.

In hindsight a better choice might have been a plug and play system where you bolt it down, connect water and power and it's working.

I'm a big fan of Cruise RO and Rich, but admittedly a "stuff in a box" watermaker kit is a bit more complex of an install than many are happy with.

Kevin - I think you missed my point. Not a fan of an all-in-one frame mounted plug-and-play system. My comparison was between two direct competiors with similar features: SWP and CRO.

In my opinion, the CRO is unnecessarily complex. Apparently the complexity of the CRO add-ons tripped them up too - the only way to tell the valve was the wrong voltage was to disassemble it and check the solenoid. And this only after eliminating all other possible issues. Same thing with a board-mounted relay. Given the start-from-scratch nature of the wiring, it took a lot of time to clear those possible causes.

The SeawaterPro is significantly less expensive But the bones of each system are identical. SWP has refined some of the wiring which saves a bunch of time and makes troubleshooting easier. As you say, CruiseRO is really a box of parts with a 105 page instruction manual. It wouldn't take much effort for them to refine the presentation and esse installation. To be fair, the CRO options have a couple additional features that may be important to some, but, compared to the SWP, the cost is steep and complexity high.

All I can say is that if I had it to do over, I would not go with CruiseRO, I would go with SeaeaterPro. If I did go with CruiseRO, I wouldn't go with their options. And the SWP is about 25% less expensive to boot.

Peter

 

[mvweebles]

Departing Mazatlan Today

We've spent 7-weeks in Marina Mazatlan, including 2-weeks back in Florida over the holidays.

A few numbers:

• $35/day for the 90-day rate ($0.80/US + 16% tax (IVA))
• Consumed 56 kwh, so around 1.25 kwh/day in addition to the roughly 1.7kwh/day our solar produces. This included approx 5-hours of A/C on a few days.
• We will depart around 9AM this morning and hopefully top-off with Diesel (around 80-gals for a total of around 425-450g) as it's cheaper here than further south. Around $5.65 USD/gal.

We will be travelling with Scot and Laura on Muirgen, their Beebe 50 Passagemaker (SlowGoesIt). Plan is to slowly wind our way to Puerta Vallarta. The channel into Marina Mazatlan is shallow and tricky, so a common practice is to exit the channel at high/slack tide and anchor nearby to time departure based on arrival at next destination. For us, that means timing arrival to Isla Isabela, 90-miles to the south and approximately halfway to PV. We'll depart Stone Island anchorage around 3AM Sunday morning for arrival into Isla Isabela by around 5PM. Scot and Laura are about 1/2 kt faster than we are so they could conceivably sleep in an extra hour, or beat us for the best anchoring spot.

OpenCPN tutorial

Cheryll and I have really enjoyed our stay in Mazatlan, especially the marina here. It's incredibly welcoming and friendly. Yesterday, a fellow cruiser offered to give an OpenCPN tutorial session which was invaluable for me. Torsten provided a couple tips that really cleared some learning-curve blockages for me and I know feel I could actually use OpenCPN if I really wanted to, which I may if for no other reason but the satellite views are handy.


Goodbye to Mazatlan -

Cheryll and I spent the evening in the historic part of Mazatlan which dates back to the 1800s. "El Presidio" restaurant is a hi-end restaurant in a semi-restored hacienda-style house. Some of it has been restored, some left in ruins with a garden feel to it. The overall effect is stunning.


A Mexican family was celebrating a quinciera for the girl in the photo below. When Mexican girls turn 15, they celebrate their "quinceañera" ("fifteen years" in Spanish), according to wikipedia, marking her passage from girl to woman. This is apparently a pretty big deal in Mexico - I could be wrong, but roughly analogous to debutantes in the American south, or bat mitzvah for Jewish girls.


Historic Mazatlan

The historic section of Mazatlan is especially stunning at night with galleries, shops, and restaurants that spill on to the street.


While technically not a colonial city, the old section of the city shares some of the classic hacienda style architecture where the house's rooms encircle a central courtyard (the El Presidio restaurant picture above). Restored examples in this neighborhood apparently fetch up to $1m USD.

 

[Muirgen Afloat]

Laura,
with a bit of notice and an airline ticket (return) I can make myself available to assist you when fueling.

Hell... with the weather people are having in the states, I'm surprised we haven't had a run on reservations for the bunk room. I keep telling people to come while we are out cruising and as time passes I can't help but think we will be back in the states in a few months and it will have just been Scot and I that have cruised the oceans. People are weird... they always say they are going to do something but very few take the opportunity and jump...

 

[SteveK]

Peter. High and Slack? What happens should you bottom out and tide is falling?

When I moored in a marina there was a shortcut through the mud flats to deep water where the river current changed the unmarked channel. I was one of the few that would leave or enter on a rising tide so if I missed the channel, wait a few minutes and try again.

 

[mvweebles]

3am and underway.

We departed Marina Mazatlan at 9am yesterday and stopped for fuel. Unfortunately, Scot and Laura on Muirgen had drained the Pemex storage tank a couple days before so we ended up stopping at the other marina and paid a slight premium for 115 gals diesel at US$5.80/gal

It took a little over an hour to steam to an anchorage off a popular beach area where Mexican families spend the day, and Mexican party hounds spend the night. We were serranaded by a pretty decent band - they were still going strong 1-1/2 hours ago at 3am when we pulled up anchor and departed.

We're headed south at around 6 kts - Muirigan is slowly pulling away from us and will arrive in the anchorage of Isla Isabela, which is 85 nms away, about an hour ahead of us.

Good to be back on the water, though Cheryll and I will miss Marina Mazatlan. We made many friends who we hope to bump into along the way. Weebles is looking great and grabs a lot of attention from the predominantly sailor crowd of cruisers.

Peter

 

[slowgoesit]

We departed Marina Mazatlan at 9am yesterday and stopped for fuel. Unfortunately, Scot and Laura on Muirgen had drained the Pemex storage tank a couple days before so we ended up stopping at the other marina and paid a slight premium for 115 gals diesel at US$5.80/gal
/QUOTE]


Hey, we only took on 611 gallons! And I'm a little concerned that we may have gotten the "dregs" when they told me we had run them dry! I don't like doing that. . . . Think of it as us preventing your from having potential problems!

 

[mvweebles]

San Blas and Chacala -----

I decided to organize this post into three sections so folks can skip-over the parts they don’t find interesting. Weebles and Muirgen have developed a fondness for one another so we continue to buddy-boat which has been great.

Voyage & Planning.
We left Mazatlán several days ago and anchored at Isla Isabela, an interim stop on the way to San Blas. A world heritage site, Isla Isabela is about 25 miles off the coast of Mexico with abundant birds. From there it was a 6-7 hour steam to an anchorage near San Blas. The following day we moved the boat to a marina so we could more easily walk around town. Yesterday, we made the 4-hour run to Chacala as we inch ever closer to Puerto Vallarta.




Boat & Systems.
Charging system (12VDC – Alternators). Fingers crossed I have slain this dragon. When we left Ensenada, my Balmar 612 regulator would prematurely shut-down and never fully charge the 600AH (12V) LFP battery bank. I resolved this by removing about 25-feet of negative 2/0 cable to reduce the run. But…..I’ve still had unusual charging issues where it would charge at full output (>150A) for a few minutes, then drop to zero for a few minutes.


For those familiar with programming the older style Balmar with reed switch activated by a magnet, you no-doubt understand why I say it’s pretty easy to screw-up the program, which is what must have happened because when I rebooted to factory settings and made a few tweaks, seems to operate just fine. Whew…..it’s been a couple months of chasing gremlins and tweaking configs to get charging setup.

For those of you reading this over your coffee and thinking “Jeez, how hard can it be? My charging system works fine!” I’m here to tell you that running a boat 24/7 off their ship’s systems without shore power is a different animal than anchoring out for a couple days. Weather here is pretty warm, and we carry quite a bit of refrigerated/frozen provisions. It really gives the energy system a workout.

Watermaker. While operationally fine, I suspect the TDS reading of 350-ish ppm is too high for a new system. The sales’ guy at CruiseRO says it’s fantastic – not a problem. The technical guy there thinks its too high for a new system. I’ve gotten a wide range of responses from other cruisers except to say that 500 ppm is the upper threshold limit.

Stabilizers. Weather has been beautiful, so nice that I didn’t realize the stabilizers didn’t seem to be working. They are on, and seem ready to activate, but are not actually doing their thing. In reading the manual, I’ll try re-calibrating them today and see if that works. If that doesn’t work, Wesmar gave me the name of a tech in Florida who I’ve talked with and look forward to meeting someday. It’s odd that Wesmar only provides bare-bone tech support, rather shunts it to a third party repair company. For me, Wesmar is in the same bucket as Lewmar, Navico/Simrad, and CruiseRO – companies that make an acceptable product but with whom I would not do business again (C-grade in product, support, and/or value). Note, this is a sizeable notch above what I consider F-grade companies such as Renogy.

Charting. I am slowly migrating to OpenCPN due to availability of charts, specifically ‘o-charts’ from third party providers such as Shawn & Heather Breeding of Blue Latitude Publishing, authors of the cruiser’s bible for Pacific Mexico. TwistedTree will be somewhat disappointed to know that I have not yet installed my NEMO device (NEMO is built by Rosepoint, the creators of Coastal Explorer, and broadcasts NMEA2000 data to WiFi for use by all devices). Just has not been a priority as the Simrad system works fine, at least when the Navionics chart coverage is decent.

Boatlife & Destinations.
We loved San Blas. San Blas was first settled in the 1700s by Junipero Serra, a Catholic missionary who established missions up Mexico, Baja, and into California. It’s a distinctly Mexican town unpolluted by gringos……yet. It reminds me of the Mexico I used to drive 35-years ago, before Soriana built supermarkets and Oxxo built 7-11 style convenience stores on every other corner. There are still many stray roosters roaming around, plenty of dogs, and the streets are rough-laid cobblestone. One person at the marina spoke barely passable English. He seemed to be the town’s interpreter.

San Blas is up a river a couple miles. Here's a fish-camp along the way.


We docked at an unused fuel dock for the night, a short walk to town.




One of my favorite destinations in any town is the mercado, the public market with stalls of vendors. For the most part, the butchers specialize. There are separate vendors/butchers for pork, beef, chicken, and fish. I asked this pork vendor to grind pork with extra fat so I can make sausage patties (we brought Italian sausage seasoning with us).


A 4-hour run from San Blas brought us to Chacala, the beginning of the Puerto Vallarta area with beach bars/restaurants that are more gringo-oriented.

 

[guy with a boat]

Nice writeup. Sounds like an excellent adventure.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Action]

Being close to MX, I have fond memories of being in Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point) some years ago. Being there NOT on a weekend when the regular people are out is rather awesome. Versus thhe gringo adaptation of the weekends or US holidays.

Sadly it has changed a lot to accomodate the US dollar and recently the US/MX border was closed in AZ.

AND kudos for the write up details with your opinion on products. I may or may not take the opinion you put out when the time comes however it is at least more info than just the websites of products.

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

you and Scott are the few on here with suitable Ocean capable boats on here. Real cruising boats...

 

[mvweebles]

you and Scott are the few on here with suitable Ocean capable boats on here. Real cruising boats...

Scot and Laura's Muirgen is a rare offshore capable boat. Willard 36 looks the part but really isn't more capable than say, a Grand Banks 36, Albin 36, Monk 35, Herahine 37, or Nordic Tug 37 (or a NT 32 for that matter). If I happened to own a different boat than my W36 and had a desire or reason to make this trip, the level of prep would be essentially the same. And the trip itself would be the same - a whole bunch of mostly day trips. Later as we get to southern Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, the distances will get much longer and require overnight running again as it for coming down Baja and crossing to Mazatlan, but for the most part, trip is a bunch of day trips with good weather.

I'll write more in a future post. But suffice to say if anyone is sitting on the fence about cruising until the get s perfect boat, chances are you're stalling and wasting time. The issues you'll have will not be weather related but rather mechanical, systems, and power/electricity related.

My best thinking? Go now. Go with the boat you have. Plan accordingly.

Peter

 

[mvweebles]

Nice writeup. Sounds like an excellent adventure.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the kind words. Its been fun so far.

Special interest forums like TF naturally focus on the boat. When it comes to destinations, there's a lot of talk at the extremes - the picture of an umbrella drink at sunset; or the wild weather crossing someplace. There is a lot that happens in between.

From a mechanical perspective, I wanted to be as honest and transparent as possible. I feel like I used to be so much more confident with boat systems. Now, 20 years hence? There's a lot of hope and prayer. The upside is it's really gratifying when it all works out. I'm resolved to a mental list of tasks and projects that require daily attention (I've toyed with writing the list down but I'm afraid it would push me into depression and heavy drinking).

For those who are considering cruising, you don't need a perfect boat. My advice is smaller is better. You don't need extra staterooms because your friends will not come visit. Weather forecast products are very accessible - you really don't need a Nordhavn/Selene/KK (though if you can afford one, they are beautiful boats so you may want one). We chose Mexico because our boat was in California and we want it in Florida. But the trip would be very much the same if we were doing the Loop or PNW, except clothing would be different.

Just go.

Peter

 

[PierreR]

Peter your words ring loud and true, but they also largely fall on deaf ears. Anyone who has been out there cruising for some distance basically writes the same post as yours above yet, "The boat is everything and needs to be cruise ready" persists with those who have not actually left the dock. The other persistent thing is miles per gallon of fuel appears to be some kind of a show stopper.

For me, the boat was everything for many years, even though I vacation cruised. I am in my late 60's and the clock is ticking. I decided to pull the trigger and get a quasi-blue water boat. Still in the coastal cruiser category but more capable that what I needed for the type of cruising I will be doing. I had my list of "must have's" including good fuel mileage and long distance. I found the boat half way around the loop from our home.

I bought it in the fall, planned on taking all winter to fix it up and really get it ready including researching the entire trip. I set a "will leave by date".
When my "will leave by" was rolling around I accomplished about a quarter of what I had planned as the minimum needed to depart. I was also heavily leaning towards the east coast route vs up the rivers. Up the rivers sounded like a fight in lousy weather and through Florida, in April/May, sounded much better.

I was then faced with the decision go or stay. That is when threads like yours finally sunk in. Years of reading posts that all just say. It ain't gonna be perfect, just go with 100% consistency of "don't wait". I then decided to push the issues and see if it was really true. It was then that I decided "Screw it, I know how to fix anything on the fly, I have enough experience, enough money and the time" Load a bunch of spares, put Navionics on a I pad, get a hot spot, take the car back home, fly back and cast off. Whatever happens, happens and will be a bigger adventure because threads like this said so and were consistent.

I did just that. My planning was to plan the next day once the boat was secured in an anchorage, or at the dock. Basically look ahead at "how I felt" the night before about distance. See what was at about that distance, pick a couple of anchorages and maybe a marina and call the planning quits. Shopped for the nicest looking anchorages or marinas on the fly and the plan worked perfectly. Our breakdowns were never more than a couple of hours. The trip took 77 days and was far more uneventful than I had ever imagined it could be. By half way back, fuel was largely off my radar of concerns and I found out what I really want on the boat and it is considerably different that my original plans before departure.

Bottom line is: Untie you damned lines and go before I cut you loose in the middle of the night for complaining and procrastinating!. I could now see myself doing the loop in an expedition kayak with electric drive motor. With a 300 watt motor I could get 6 knots for as long as I could sit in it and recharge from solar.

 

[Hippocampus]

My best thinking? Go now. Go with the boat you have. Plan accordingly

Words of wisdom Peter.


Our biggest hassles were disengaging from land based responsibilities (business, investment, family etc) and keeping the residual responsibilities on autopilot to the degree possible. In spite of that budget and schedule for at least two to three trips per year home. Boat problems are physical problems. So devise a plan and fix or address. It’s the other stuff that’s harder when you’re at a distance.
We’ve gone from new construction balls to the wall blue water sailboat to new to us coastal power. At the risk of being politically incorrect. All are beautiful. None do everything well. It’s a very different life but still great fun.

 

[SteveK]

Been there done that

Many years ago the crew I was on doing sailboat races (for fun) that involved overnight passage due to distance decided we should do the VicMaui race.
Within weeks or a month we were on our way on a test run to find an underwater mountain with a depth of 90 feet some 300 miles off Oregon.

The captain and myself were the only two of seven who functioned the entire trip. So it is not for everyone to hit blue water when storm force winds blow.

That was my first and last trip offshore. I found that I am not interested in a journey of that duration. That was 24/7 on duty, with cat naps. I do not have the desire to travel long distances. Perhaps the fact that only 2 of us operated the boat made me realise what would be involved when it is just me on my boat. Thus my boat is not heading to Mexico.

 

[Action]

We chose Mexico because our boat was in California and we want it in Florida. But the trip would be very much the same if we were doing the Loop or PNW, except clothing would be different.

Peter

Thank you for this nugget!

I am a couple of years away from retirement. Living in the Valley of the Sun.
Retirement is planned to be on the Eastern side of the US. Anywhere along the loop. Just to be on navigable water.

With that move, seeing boats on the West can be appealing. I have even made a vacation trip around looking at a couple. And the land mass called the Western US is an obstacle for those choices. What you are posting about is the solution. Well at least for you. That does open an ocean, OK well a coast of more choices in boats.

Again, thanks for that. Being in Phoenix, I am at some distance from salt water. (There is inland boating here which I participate in) Pulling the trigger on something on the West coast means I could get to it. However, only a few times a year. Just not the best solution. So I have waited.

 

[mvweebles]

We just pulled into the marina at La Cruz at the northern end of Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta is 15-miles down the road). Weebles draws a lot of attention, especially with her grey-striped sun awnings out A young-ish couple paddle-boarded up to us as we were hauling anchor to move to the marina. Turns out they're from California and have a 1970 GB36 woodie that they brought down some time back!

By far, the hardest leg has been the first 10-feet. Just casting off docklines in Ensenada. We had very good reasons not to leave. Watermaker was not working properly. Charging system wasn't working well. I knew I had been so distracted that I probably forgot all sorts of stuff, which we did. Honestly, we were not ready to leave. But, the Baja Ha Ha departed October 30th and we were part of the rally, so we left. I'm glad we did.

I'm really happy with Weebles. The two big reconfigurations we did were the flybridge with hard top; and moved the berth from a quarter-double berth with head in forepeak to a pair of fairly wide v-berth bunks and moved the head aft. The v-berth gets excellent breeze so is comfortable for sleeping (except underway, of course). The flybridge is just wonderful for this weather.

But any old boat in decent condition and adequate range would do. When I'm old and strapped to a wheel chair with drool gurggling down my chin, I'll remember the destinations, people, and food, not the boat.

Peter

 

[mvweebles]

With that move, seeing boats on the West can be appealing. I have even made a vacation trip around looking at a couple. And the land mass called the Western US is an obstacle for those choices. What you are posting about is the solution. Well at least for you. That does open an ocean, OK well a coast of more choices in boats.

Cautionary tale about being too distant from your boat: it's what we planned. As a Mmt Consultant, I flew out every Monday morning and home Thursday night. I could fly anywhere I wanted so figured we go back to San Francisco frequently. Life got in the way and Weebles slowly deteriorated from neglect. If you think about it, brightwork takes the better part of a week to do because of drying times. So when we we did get to San Francisco, time was spent working on the boat, not using her. I think this is a fairly common experience unless the boat is in some sort of boat club.

Action, if you do pull the trigger on a boat in California while you're in PHX, I'd suggest buying one in above average condition with as little exterior maintenance as possible. But I think the most practical solution is to rent boats until you have a firm departure plan. Unless you have fallen in love with a Unicorn of a boat, I'd bide my time until I find an example fairly close to where it will live.

Good luck -

Peter

 

[Hippocampus]

Many years ago the crew I was on doing sailboat races (for fun) that involved overnight passage due to distance decided we should do the VicMaui race.
Within weeks or a month we were on our way on a test run to find an underwater mountain with a depth of 90 feet some 300 miles off Oregon.

The captain and myself were the only two of seven who functioned the entire trip. So it is not for everyone to hit blue water when storm force winds blow.

That was my first and last trip offshore. I found that I am not interested in a journey of that duration. That was 24/7 on duty, with cat naps. I do not have the desire to travel long distances. Perhaps the fact that only 2 of us operated the boat made me realise what would be involved when it is just me on my boat. Thus my boat is not heading to Mexico.

Racing is a very different activity than cruising. Worrying constantly about VMG and pushing the boat. Had no issues with fore reaching or hoving to putting the alarms zones at 5m 360* and taking everyone off full watch. Yes one person was always left awake to monitor things and do a 360* visual scan.but that was a casual handoff. The rest of us would sleep, shave and shower or just rest. Commonly took that break 5-7d out or after a stressful time. It’s great fun to drop some lines aft or float a sail and go swimming with 2nm of water under you. Of course the boat isn’t moving and sea state totally benign.
Also you just don’t do passage with two nor with inexperienced people. Yes always took a newbie but the rest of us could run the boat by ourselves. A good minimum number is four on a small boat. 3 experienced blue water and one experienced coastal. Bad weather is maybe 5% of the time. You can always put drogues or a JSD out, button up and sleep on the sole until it passes if you’re beat up. I get my best sleep on a boat the other 95% of the time . People have this fear of blue water. I’m much more apprehensive when coastal.
I’ve not done passages on power. Would think in weather it might be more disconcerting. Passive techniques might be less available. No hoving to, fore reaching or using a JSD unless there’s winches aft and the superstructure/house can take a beating. Used a sea anchor on friends boat while drift fishing. Even that small one was difficult to retrieve. Would think one big enough for heavy weather would be difficult to retrieve but have no experience.

 

[Action]

Action, if you do pull the trigger on a boat in California while you're in PHX, I'd suggest buying one in above average condition with as little exterior maintenance as possible. But I think the most practical solution is to rent boats until you have a firm departure plan. Unless you have fallen in love with a Unicorn of a boat, I'd bide my time until I find an example fairly close to where it will live.

Good luck -

Peter

It is for this reason I have a 27' Express Cruiser locally and not a 40'+ trawler on the ocean. I have seen some opportunities and typically reality hits me on the head some days later. In my head I have bought several. And in an account, I do have the liquid funds to make it a cash deal.

Just biding time, lookin' at the pictures showing all of the best features. (and hiding the problems that hopefully a surveyor will find) Keeps me entertained for a bit. Even if it is frustrating.

But it is good to know someone is on the path around the Americas to home.
Know that I will be following this thread. I did not know how limited Willard was! Just got done searching that make.

 

[slowgoesit]

We moved on our boat in the PNW in September of 2021. Lots of work to do to outfit it for the way we wanted to cruise.
We made a somewhat spontaneous decision mid-April of 2022 to go to Glacier Bay and back as a "Shakedown Cruise". Lots of stuff still to do. Finally realized we'd never finish fixing/upgrading EVERYTHING, as if we had waited to do that, we'd never leave the dock. Set a date of May 27th departure. Let go the lines and off we went!
Three days in, the hydraulic pto coupling to run the generator off the main engine became larger than it was designed to be.

Sourced a new part in Seattle, but couldn't get it to Canada in a timely manner. Shipped it ahead to Alaska for pickup.
That's when we found out that the engine driven alternator didn't work . . . bad regulator, and it was only a 65 amp alternator anyway.

We had completed the design, construction of the hard bimini aft, to which we had mounted the solar array. And the solar controllers were already mounted . . . but no wiring yet!
Anchor in Tribune Bay, BC for two days and start running wires! Then configured the controllers for our batteries.

Once we got that done, we didn't use the generator the remaining 2 1/2 months of the trip!

We DID get the coupling part in Ketchikan, and got that up and running again, and later (much later) finally got the Balmar 210amp alternator w/ external regulator installed as well. We have multiply methods of charging batteries now.
Bottom line, as stated above, once you have the all the big chunks in the right places, get the parts and goodies you need to complete upgrades. Just leave the dock, you can fix the little stuff underway!

 

[heysteve]

Watermaker. While operationally fine, I suspect the TDS reading of 350-ish ppm is too high for a new system.

FWIW, I just replaced the two membranes in our system with Dow Filmtec 2540 membranes and we also get in the mid 350s (located in SoC). The design is DIY but similar to CRO. I don't know if things have changed in the manufacturing process at DOW or what but I'd say your system is working as expected.

 

[mvweebles]

Headed to Chamela

On the move again. Muirgen and us left La Cruz yesterday at 2pm southbound headed to Chamela (cha-MAY-la), a bay 85 nms south. We made a slight diversion to Yelapa, a cove on the south side of Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta). Yelapa is a fairly remote community anchored by indigenous people who have lived there since the King of Spain granted the land to them in the 1500s.



It's a total of 16 hours to Chamela. We decided to leave mid afternoon to arrive at sunrise the next morning. Weather forecast for 5-foot seas at 12-seconds from the north. Winds were forecast to be light to moderate, though from past experience, I wasn't surprised to see the low 20s coming around Cabo Corrientes, the point that forms the southern end of Banderas Bay. My wife was less than thrilled with the choppiness and motion.



We passed four sailboats headed north, all four of whom were broadcasting AIS, one of whom did not respond to VHF hail for passing instructions. The third sailboat was poorly lit with lights only visible less than a mile out, and was not showing a steaming light. Seems odd to spend over $1k on AIS B yet have lame running lights. The fourth sailboat was displaying two sets of lights - passing port-port shows red/red which is the light signal for Not Under Command - "red-over-red the captain is dead." Or something like that. Not sure why, but has been my experience that sailboats often show incorrect or poorly illuminated lights.

Peter