Ouchie

When you live on a boat you quickly become accustomed to bumps, bangs and bruises. It's part of living in a small space. Thankfully, Susana is small and can fit into areas that aren't so easy for me. Yesterday, she spent two hours in the engine room changing our fuel filters (with the assistance of our nice boat neighbor), cleaning out bottoms of fuel bowls, putting it all back together and bleeding the system. She rocks! I would've taken a picture of her, but it would have been another ass photo and she probably wouldn't have appreciated it a second time.

We are also getting ready to go back to Oregon for a visit with family and friends. We were on our way to buy a bus ticket, when our neighbor mentioned that his guest was driving back to Phoenix the same day we were planning to go. A few minutes later we had a ride so no long, cold bus ride for us. We also sold our outboard motor we've been trying to get rid of for a few weeks. Yesterday was an all around score! 

But back to bumps and bruises. Susana got this shiner when she slipped on the stairs and fell back on the sink.

We'll try and update the blog when we're in Oregon, but if not I'm sure we will recap upon our return. Cheers!

This and That

Not too much to report as far as sailing. We tried to get Jade out the other day, but ran into some current and wind as we pulled out of our slip. We were being pulled in a direction I didn't want to go and I got a bit flustered. Thankfully, there was a slip nearby that we pulled into without incident. The only thing bruised was my ego, but we got a lot of tips from other sailors along with their own tales of misfortune. 

On Wednesday, we took advantage of the Guaymas swap meet and purchased some amazing vegetables, pepper cheese and clams! 

Susana captured some street art near our bus stop.

Since we are in a marina we have access to the bathroom and showers. Sometimes, we run out of hot water rather quickly so we devised a way to do things that take up time in the showers. Like shaving our legs. Here, Susana is modeling how we shave in Jade's cockpit using a solar shower.

Fun times!

Wind In Our Sails

And smiles on our faces! The last two days we've taken Jade out and had enough wind to sail. It was magnificent. We got her up to 6.3 knots at one point, although it was quite by accident as we were heeled over at about 28 degrees which was a bit much for us. However, we managed to keep her at 5-5.5 knots on a consistent basis and had a great time. We had a buddy boat sailing nearby and they took pictures of us, but I haven't been able to connect with them yet so here are just a few of our own for now.

The other boat behind us taking pictures.

Very happy Captains.

Cheers!

Captains-Only Maiden Voyage

Well, we did it. We took Jade out for the first time by ourselves. That meant, getting her out of the slip without hitting anything, especially another boat, getting the main sail up and returning to the slip, again without hitting anything. Also, we didn't get lost at sea! So those were the highlights, the not so great part is there was no wind to speak of so we only stayed out about 1 1/2 hours and weren't able to sail. The main sail just flogged around and we didn't bother to put up the head sails. Here are some photos of our trip.

It was a great day, even without wind. Hopefully, next time we get some real sailing under our belts. 

Happy New Year!

This new year started a bit slow with us since we didn't get much sleep last night. We thought we'd be kept up by all the parties going on in the marina, but actually we both came down with upset stomachs  and tossed and turned all night.

However, thanks to our very friendly and generous boat neighbors we managed to get a few things done today. We've been having problems with our outboard motor lately and one day, while joy riding in the bay, it stopped working and wouldn't start. This was after we replaced the impeller, so we were slightly miffed. We purchased a smaller motor that we wanted anyway, but we still needed to get this one working in order to sell it. With a bit of spark plug cleaning, testing and putting it back together, we managed to get it running again. Mission accomplished!

Afterward, our same friendly neighbor told us about his heating exchange sacrificial anode that had been disintegrating rather rapidly due to the high amount of electricity in the marina. (Sacrificial anodes are easily corroded materials deliberately installed to be sacrificed to corrosion, leaving the rest of the system corrosion free. Without these, other types of metals on a boat, like your propellor for instance, would be subject to corrosion.) We had already changed two of our zinc anodes on the outside of the boat, but our novice engine brains had no idea about the one on the engine. 

The nut and anode on the top of the picture is what it's supposed to look like and the nut below it was ours. As you can see, this sacrificial anode had been sacrificed already. Who knows how long it had been that way. Thankfully, Susana, the Engine Room Contortionist, was able to change it like an old pro. 

I don't think she appreciated that picture. Anyway, the winds have been either non-existent or too strong for us to comfortably take Jade out for her 'captains only' maiden voyage. Hopefully soon though.

We wish you all much love, good health and many new adventures in this new year. Cheers!