We thought it would be rather comical (although not at the time) to post our first trials and tribulations of boat ownership.
Day 1: S/V Jade was launched, but our reserved slip was occupied. The temporary slip, which we contemplated keeping, was too shallow. We had to wait a few hours before our slip was available.
Day 2: Our galley sea cock was leaking, actually streaming, in the open position. Will our boat sink? We closed the sea cock, which still had a slow leak in the closed position.
Day 3/4: We inquired with our boat broker about the sea cock since he is very knowledgable about sailboats and he provided us with some suggestions, but he couldn't provide direct assistance because he was too busy.
Day 5: The sea cock was still leaking and we couldn't find anyone who could help our sorry asses.
Day 6: We made contact with a repair person who took a look at the sea cock. He suggested that it be replaced with a new one and, in order to do so, we would have to pull Jade out of the water and back to the dry dock where she just came from. Think $$$$$.
Day 7: We told our boat broker what we learned and he disagreed with the repair guy and suggested we ask other local boaters for assistance. The boat community hosts a boat net every morning on the VHF radio.
Day 8: We move onto our boat but couldn't use the galley sink since it still leaked. We noticed the beautiful teak floor boards were getting wet in the galley! Most likely a result from the leaky seacock. Oh great, will our boat sink?
Day 9: We asked the local boaters for assistance and a nice, young gentleman came by and took a look at the sea clock. He managed to get the leak stopped, but in doing so he sheared the tightening handle right off the base. So now, we don't have a leak, we can use the galley sink but we may not be able to close off the sea cock in the future. Our broker seemed to think it would be fine, so we considered it a victory.
Day 10: We brought one of our empty tanks of propane to the local pub, where the propane truck stops by to fill them. Usually, they are filled and available to pick up in a day or two.
Day 11: I'm sure something happened, but I can't remember.
Day 12: We arrive at the pub to pick up our propane tank. One of the workers told us that the propane truck couldn't fill our tank because our tank valve was wasn't centered and they couldn't get their valve on correctly to fill it. We returned to Jade and got to work on getting the valve centered, which took me about an hour and several different tools to get it back into place. We returned the tank back to the pub.
Day 13: We have two manual faucets in our galley, which are both fresh water that feeds from our holding tanks. One has a filter on it for drinking water, but it wasn't tasting as fresh as we hoped it would. Susana went to change the filter and let's just say it was the most disgusting slime we have have ever encountered on a filter....that we were drinking out of!!
Day 14: We went to pick up our propane tank, but it hadn't been filled yet.
Day 15: It was during the evening time, on this lovely day, that we check all of our outside boat lights, like our mast light, anchor light, running lights, etc. We couldn't seem to get our running lights working and it didn't appear that our anchor light was working either. We went through our electrical panel, turned on and off several switches and still couldn't seem to figure out why our lights weren't working the way they should. We decided to send an email to our boat surveyor to make sure he checked the lights, since there was no mention of them needing repair on our completed survey.
We also noticed that our refrigerator/freezer unit didn't seem to be working. The fan that we normally hear in the engine room wasn't on. We broke out the manual and still couldn't seem to get it going. The fuses looked fine, but we decided to pick up fuses the following day as we had already planned to travel to Guaymas to obtain our Temporary Import Permit (TIP) which is a requirement in order to keep a boat in Mexico and be able to import boat parts duty free.
During this time, I also discovered we had a leak on the toilet pump handle.....Aye!
Day 16: We traveled to Guaymus by bus and arrived at the bank that handles the appropriation of TIPs. After about 50 minutes of waiting for the previous owner's TIP to be canceled and our TIP to be issued, we were told that another previous owner of the boat (the one before the last previous owner) still had a valid TIP and we needed that TIP paperwork so they could cancel that one and issue one to us. It didn't make sense to me as the owners before us were issued a TIP so why didn't it get canceled at that time??? Of course that question couldn't be answered so it now became our problem. We made the best of our Guaymus trip though, by picking up some things we needed for the boat including those darn fuses. When we returned to San Carlos we contacted our boat broker about our issue with the TIP process. They were just as baffled as we were, but thankfully they had the paperwork we needed!
On our way back to Jade we stopped by the pub to pick up our propane tank. It still hadn't been filled yet.
We also got a return email from our surveyor who was out of town. He couldn't remember anything about the lights not working and he suggested we contact the previous owners. We sent the previous owners an email and asked about the running lights and the refrigerator/freezer since we had changed the fuses and it still didn't work. We placed several small bags of ice in the frig in hopes of being able to keep our perishables cold. When we drained the water from the melted ice we discovered the floor boards by the frig were wet. Aye, another leak!
Day 17: Back to Guaymus we went and this time, we a managed to get our TIP. Woo hoo! We also received an email from the previous owners who instructed us about the lights. Turns out there was another switch on the opposite end of the boat that worked the running lights. Go figure. He also said he never had any problems with the refrigerator/freezer and suggested we check to make sure the switch was on...wait, switch??? What switch? Get ready for it....the ignition switch on the electrical panel is actually the refrigerator/freezer switch. Well, that makes sense....NOT. Anyhow, it seemed that while we were checking the lights the other night we inadvertently turned off the switch. One big problem solved without too much embarrassment.
Day 18: We retuned to the pub to pick up our propane tank.....nope not yet filled.
Day 19: It was the evening time when we discover that Susana's wallet was missing. One of us had either left it in the marina bathroom, dropped it by mistake or misplaced it. We searched and searched but to no avail. It held her driver's license, her ATM card and about $300 dollars in pesos and American money combined. Crap!!!
Day 20: We got on the boat net and asked about Susana's wallet and if anyone had found it, but there was nothing. We checked the marina office for it too, but still nothing. ATM cancelled (with the help of a good amiga back home since we could not email the bank and making a call would look like this...$$$), and adios wallet money.
We also heard about another WIFI service near the marina and decided to give it a try. The marina WIFI is pretty slow and at times non existent. Well, so far, the paid WIFI service doesn't seem to work any better and often times it's worse. Some boaters can pick it up pretty well, but not us. If it keeps up like this we'll probably cancel it.
Day 21: Propane success!
Now, don't get me wrong, there have been many enjoyable moments along the way, but I thought I would just give you a taste of what we've been dealing with the last couple of weeks or so. As you can see, we've had no time for sailing but we plan to change that soon. We've met a couple of sailing instructors and we hope to get some lessons going in the near future.
Until next time...fair winds!
