October 5, 2018

This week was an uphill boat maintenance week, punctuated by one disaster of my own making.  Fortunately, it was relatively painlessly rectified in a few days for only $600.  The payoff for all my blood, sweat and tears this week is that I can now start to ready the boat for sea again as cruising season approaches.  I get to go from one task list to another, yippee!! On the other hand, as summer draws to an end, some of my cruising friends are beginning to return, always a happy time! 
A notable influence this week was hurricane Sergio which is now about 500 miles off the coast. It brought thunderstorms, rain, breaking waves at the harbor entrance and more than the usual surge at the dock.  It also brought dramatic clouds and some nice sunrises.

I went with a small group of cruising friends and locals

to try a restaurant in the Romantic Zone that specialized

in moles.  It was good, but not outstanding.

We ate on the sidewalk with dinner accompanied by a

pretty good singer.  Also had a little light rain for a bit.

The highlight of the evening came when these little kids

decided to join the singer.  Very cute!!!

Hurricane Sergio was far enough away not to be a concern,

but it did bring big surf, thunderstorms, a bit of rain and 

some nice clouds!

Hurricane Sergio brought big surf and dangerous

breaking waves at the harbor entrance.  Not every

boat that tried leaving the harbor made it safely.

(RIB photo:  Eric Walker)

One of the nicer consequences of a nearby hurricane:

spectacular clouds.

Sunrise from the Vallarta Yacht Club

Even though I see it every day, I never tire of watching

the fishermen cast their nets.  The "boat" is just a

salvaged and re-purposed jet ski hull.

One of the biggest iguanas I've seen visiting someone

else's boat.

The younger ones are smaller and bright green.

I changed the engine oil and filters last week.  This week

was the engine zinc, transmission fluid and topping up

the coolant.

A not-so-good idea leads to disaster:  I tried taping a stick

to the transmission dipstick so I could read the level.

When I pulled it out, it caught on the lip, got pulled off

and dropped into the transmission.

I didn't want to risk damage to the 

transmission, so I paid a local mechanic

to pull it, bring it to his shop, open it up 

and remove the tape and stick.

A Canadian ex-pat, Jack Tinsley turned out to be 

competent, honest and fair-priced mechanic.

Even showed up right on time, practically 

unheard of in Mexico,  and he didn't give

me any grief over my stupidity.

Two days later, the tranny was back, less stick and tape.

Jack said it looked like a new transmission inside, and

all the bearings were good.

Re-installed and good to go.

While Jack worked on the tranny, I tackled my leaking

Skipper head.  There was a small seep coming out the

pump handle shaft.  First step was removing the 

handle and the old packing.

Putting in the new packing was easy, but stopping the

leak was not.  The paper towel underneath was merciless

in showing the smallest leak.  It took many repeated 

cycles of adjusting the packing and tightening the 

nut to finally get it. The nut had to be tightened all the 

way to the end of the threads, so I'll be keeping my 

fingers crossed.

No drips and the paint touched up, ready to re-install

the handle.

Even with the key and key way marked, getting

them lined up was difficult because there was

no room to see what was happening.

I finally got it after a good deal of trial and error.

Back together and dry.

Looking good with the new paint!

My reward:  progressing from the maintenance list

to the prep-for-cruising list.  At least it's a little shorter.