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
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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!
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Our Thanksgiving fiesta
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| Approaching Delta Swizzler |
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Cindy helps Liz and Brian secure their dinghy to
Delta Swizzler.
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| First order of business: an icy cold martini! |
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Tod, Cindy, Mark, Liz and Brian on the flybridge for cocktails
and appetizers while watching the sunset.
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| The sunset |
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| While the sun set, the full moon rose |
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Next: turkey time! Mark does the honors.
(Yes, that is the galley on the boat!)
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| Liz, Cindy and Mark loading up their plates. |
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Everyone sated and seated: Mark, Cindy, Brian, Liz,
Tod, Donna and yours truly.
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| Party crasher |
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| Moonlight on the water |
Around La Cruz
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You never know what you might come across just
wandering around.
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I happened upon a lovely spot that was well off the
beaten path for cruisers: Playa La Manzanilla.
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| At the end of a dirt road. No gringos. |
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I decided to try one of the beachfront restaurants,
La Serandia.
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The name comes from the wood-fired
barbecue style of cooking. It was
every bit as good as it looked.
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November 20th was Mexican Revolution Day, and the
local school children dressed up in costumes and
paraded through the town.
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| Not all of them seemed happy about it. |
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I finally found a machine shop to do some work needed
to deal with the autopilot problem.
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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.
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| At the first weekly market of the season in La Cruz |
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The La Cruz market has always been one of the best,
and this year it has almost doubled in size.
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| The food section is always popular. |
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| A wide variety of food and drink is available. |
Music and dancers at the market
Flowers, Sunrises and Sunsets
Boat Work
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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.
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The good news: the end cap was held in place by a "C"
clip and was easily re-secured. The O-ring appeared fine.
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Decapitating a screw was the first step needed to
remove the hydraulic cylinder.
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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.
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| Did some rough preliminary trimming with a knife. |
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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.
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While not ideal, it did the job well enough so I could
pull the cylinder.
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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.
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What's left of the mounting base after the plate
was ripped off.
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Here you can see the separate small block (after it was
cleaned up) that broke off.
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| Old fiberglass matte and oily wood ground away |
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Getting ready to glue the block back in place with
thickened epoxy.
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Block glued back in, epoxy filets added, two layers
of light roving and one of very heavy roving
with epoxy resin.
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| Rough spots ground fair and a final coat of epoxy resin |
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Old screws removed by machine shop and new
stainless screws for remounting the base
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Getting a perfectly mated surface by pressing base plate
into thickened epoxy, with a sheet of wax paper between.
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| Metal base plate removed, ready for paint. |
