Thanksgiving in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

A very busy and mixed week.  I explored more of La Cruz, partly in an effort to source everything from pumpkin pie to large stainless steel lag bolts.  In the midst of all that I went to the first public market of the season and went to a couple of tai chi classes.  I joined some friends in celebrating Thanksgiving on Delta Swizzler, a big power yacht out in the anchorage.  It was a very pleasant evening and we all had a good time.  I also continued to wrestle with the autopilot problems.  I have decided to replace the WH with a new Simrad or Raymarine so I can get parts and service more easily in Mexico.  I'm definitely making progress, albeit slowly.  As you'll see in the photos and videos, life here does have its compensations....

Thanksgiving

This is the pie shop in nearby Bucerias where I bought

a great pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.  You can see

why I had trouble spotting it even though I had an

address and basic directions.  It definitely doesn't look

like a bakery!

 Our Thanksgiving fiesta

Approaching Delta Swizzler

Cindy helps Liz and Brian secure their dinghy to

Delta Swizzler.

First order of business:  an icy cold martini!

Tod, Cindy, Mark, Liz and Brian on the flybridge for cocktails

and appetizers while watching the sunset.

The sunset

While the sun set, the full moon rose

Next:  turkey time!  Mark does the honors.

(Yes, that is the galley on the boat!)

Liz, Cindy and Mark loading up their plates.

Everyone sated and seated:  Mark, Cindy, Brian, Liz,

Tod, Donna and yours truly.

Party crasher

Moonlight on the water

Around La Cruz

You never know what you might come across just

wandering around.

I happened upon a lovely spot that was well off the

beaten path for cruisers:  Playa La Manzanilla.

At the end of a dirt road.  No gringos.

I decided to try one of the beachfront restaurants,

La Serandia.

The name comes from the wood-fired 

barbecue style of cooking.  It was

every bit as good as it looked.

November 20th was Mexican Revolution Day, and the

local school children dressed up in costumes and

paraded through the town.

Not all of them seemed happy about it.

I finally found a machine shop to do some work needed

to deal with the autopilot problem.

Luckily it was next to a fastener shop where I was 

able to get the specialized screws I needed.  It

was the third place I had tried.

At the first weekly market of the season in La Cruz

The La Cruz market has always been one of the best,

and this year it has almost doubled in size.

The food section is always popular.

A wide variety of food and drink is available.

 Music and dancers at the market

Flowers, Sunrises and Sunsets

Boat Work

While testing the old autopilot after installing the new

motor controller, several new problems arose, including

not stopping once the rudder hit the stops.  That resulted

in blowing out the end cap of the hydraulic cylinder,

dumping a bunch of hydraulic fluid into the bottom of

the lazarette.

The good news:  the end cap was held in place by a "C"

clip and was easily re-secured.  The O-ring appeared fine.

Decapitating a screw was the first step needed to

remove the hydraulic cylinder.

I needed to turn down some wine corks to plug the

hydraulic lines because I couldn't find any suitable 

plugs anywhere after looking for three days.

I used a washer to mark the center.

Did some rough preliminary trimming with a knife.

Then turned the screw into the center of the

cork, chucked it in the drill and turned

the end of the corks into a cone.

While not ideal, it did the job well enough so I could

pull the cylinder.

Next problem:  the base mounting screws were

completely rusted into the base plate.

I had to rip them out of the wood and fiberglass

mounting structure to get the cylinder out.

What's left of the mounting base after the plate

was ripped off.

Here you can see the separate small block (after it was

cleaned up) that broke off.

Old fiberglass matte and oily wood ground away

Getting ready to glue the block back in place with

thickened epoxy.

Block glued back in, epoxy filets added, two layers

of light roving and one of very heavy roving

with epoxy resin.

Rough spots ground fair and a final coat of epoxy resin

Old screws removed by machine shop and new 

stainless screws for remounting the base

Getting a perfectly mated surface by pressing base plate

into thickened epoxy, with a sheet of wax paper between.

Metal base plate removed, ready for paint.