Tropical Storm, Turtles and Travails

An "interesting" week.  What is now tropical storm Lidia had been forecast to come by Banderas Bay, so I did a bit of storm prep.  Turned out it was far enough offshore that all we got here was some rain.  Could be problems in Baja in the next day or two, though.  During one of the lulls in the rain I made it down to the beach again before dawn and saw more baby sea turtles making their way into the sea.  Always exciting to see. 
I continued my wrestling match with the water tank air vent issues and spent most of a day on a parts-hunting expedition with Tony and Denny.  I also had a new issue pop up:  pushing the kill button on the dash failed to shut down the diesel when I ran it to check for leaks after changing the fuel and oil filters.  Fortunately the fix turned out to be simple and I didn't have to worry about trying to get a new solenoid down here!  Always something.  That's why cruising has been defined as "Fixing your boat in exotic places."

This satellite image shows tropical storm Lidia in relation to where I am.

It remained far enough off shore to cause nothing more than a bit of rain here.

However La Paz is already feeling some stronger effects.

Lots of dock lines with chafing gear in anticipation of Lidia.

Happily, it proved unnecessary.

Newly-hatched sea turtles heading for the sea and survival

Their tracks show it's not always a straight path.

A race to the sea....

Tracks left by a mother coming up from the surf

Tracks from the mother leading to nest in the sand at the top.

The egg shells that remain

One of the many colorful characters seen around the docks here

First stop on our parts-hunting expedition:  Zaragoza Marine.

A huge store that never has what you need.

Next stop:  Opequimar Boat Yard.

This little shop in the yard was full of old marine junk,

but I did find just the right piece of wood trim I needed.

Tony and Denny were looking for oddball screws.  No luck.

After lunch we made a Costco run.  It's a huge store with the

best selection of food anywhere (if you're feeding an army).

I resealed the water tank and tried refilling it.  The original

air vent was not functioning.  A check showed it wasn't just

a clogged clam-shell, but rather something deep down and

completely inaccessible without sawing up floor and cabinets.

Without an air vent, nothing much gets in or out of the tank.

I had no choice.  I had to pull off the inspection plate yet again

so I could add a new air vent.  Pulling it off is always a challenge

because there is no room to insert a pry bar.  I ended up sharpening a

long screwdriver like a chisel and hammering it under the edge

from a neighboring locker.  A PITA, but it worked.

Mounting a new elbow presented it's own challenges.  After several

false starts I was able to do it by re-threading the NPT thread to

a standard 1/2 by 18 thread.

That allowed the resulting slightly smaller thread to just fit through largest

hole I was able to drill and it could be secured with a standard nut.  Sika 1a

sealed it all and will prevent loosening from vibration

Top view of the new vent fittings connected to

the new vent hose.

After cleaning and prepping the mating surfaces,

the inspection plate was reinstalled with Sika 1a.

I had to cut a notch in the floorboard cover to allow for the hose,

being careful not to get too close to the top surface..

(Lack of space prevented the hose being run any lower)

After a bit of futzing around, it all worked out.

The new vent hose that shows in the cabin is white to blend

with the white bulkhead.  It runs between the

air conditioner and the heater and terminates

just below the overhead.

Surprise!  Pressing the "STOP" button didn't stop the engine!

While there is a lever to manually shut down the engine,

I wasn't sure where it was at the time and didn't want to

poke around a running engine with moving belts nearby.

Instead, I shut off the fuel supply at the auxiliary filter.

It took several minutes, but eventually it sputtered to a halt.

I knew there were several possible causes of the problem:

bad connection, bad solenoid, bad wiring, or a bad switch.

Getting a replacement solenoid might be tough, so I hoped

it wasn't that.  Turned out I didn't even have to go through

a bunch of checks with the volt meter.  Cleaning the connections

at the switch did the trick!  Sometimes YOU get the BEAR!

My neighbor Tony had his own issues.  I convinced him he

should replace his raw water pump impeller when he changed

his engine oil even though it wasn't very old.  This is what

he found:  lots of fins broken off!  He had to remove his oil

cooler to recover the lost bits to avoid cooling problems later.

But he did it without additional problems, hence the smile.

I had never seen flowers like these before.

I learned they are Crinum Lilies.

They blossom at the end of a stalk about 3 feet long!