Resources

One of the more challenging aspects of cruising in a small boat is making limited resources last until they can be replenished. Food, fuel, water, propane, and battery storage are primary resources that have to be carefully monitored on a trip like this. You can turn fuel into battery storage with the alternator, or battery storage into water if you have a desalinator. And you can move the boat without fuel if you have wind and sails, but regardless of how you trade resources off, they are constantly dwindling. Entropy always wins.

I've put some effort into improving our hand in the resource game over the last few years. I installed a couple of removable solar panels with charge controllers. I retrofitted the nonfunctional wind generator and installed a charge controller for it. I replaced the engine alternator with one that produces a higher output. I improved the fuel filtration, installed water filtration, made multiple repairs to the desalinator, and installed a salt water foot pump in the galley for washing dishes.

In spite of all that investment of time and money, we find ourselves losing the resource game when it comes to fresh water. Regrettably, this is a familiar story. In Alaska several years ago, we had to curtail one leg when the fresh water tanks didn't get filled properly or we used more than we thought we were using. The cause wasn't clear, but regardless, we've learned how to be more frugal, learned how to use less water.

We started out this leg with 110 gallons in the boat's fresh water tanks and then, with about a third of that remaining, I reluctantly decided to try to make more water with the desalinator. I say reluctantly because the desalinator on this boat has a sorted history. Every time I try to use it, something fails. Pressure sensors, then the salinity sensor, then a cracked membrane vessel end cap. Each time I got it working, I tested it in Puget Sound and it worked great, then when I wanted to actually make fresh water, it failed anew.

And the thing about reverse osmosis desalinators is that they have to be flushed with fresh water to keep them functional, so it doesn't just fail to make water, it costs water. You have to run it for twenty minutes to make up the water you lose before you begin to make ground. If I'd been able to run the desalinator for six hours as intended, I'd have made 45 gallons and paid five gallons. Instead we just paid five gallons. And then, not wanting to have nothing to show for that five gallons, I worked on the problem hoping to resolve it and paid another five gallons. It's enough to make a guy pull out his hair by the roots.

Thankfully SV Rover has a fully functional watermaker and donated ten gallons to the cause, so we are back where we started, but without a working water maker.

I contacted the service representative for the manufacturer by email and learned that the most likely cause this time is the stroke sensor. If that doesn't mean anything to you, you're not alone. I didn't have a clue what a stroke sensor is either, but it apparently senses water flow and gives a thumbs up to the onboard computer. Lacking that, the desalinator shuts down.

So now the big question is: is the sensor bad or something else? If I was home I would just replace the sensor and see what happens, but working in the middle of Mexico with all its concomitant difficulties, I'm thinking maybe we'll go to plan B: additional water storage. I brought eight five gallon collapsible water jugs for just such a purpose. That won't be enough to wash our hair, but it'll help us ward off thirst.

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Something for Everyone

We're in a quiet little double cove tonight called San Evaristo after the name of the village that occupies it, mostly people who fish for a living. A gentleman on a boat called Second Wind has been here for a week and is the only other occupant of the lobe of the cove that we're in. He rowed his dinghy over to say hi before we even had our anchor out. We were anxiously attempting to sort out a kink in the chain without the anchor being properly set, while hearing all about a whale and her calf that had wandered through the cove recently.

We didn't come far today: four miles or so across the channel. The spot was chosen for its protection from the northern winds that have been forecasted to move in tonight. They're expected to rip all day tomorrow, so we'll be here for a couple of nights.

Kay and I took advantage of a nice day today though, paddling around the perimeter of the cove in our standup boards while Petar motored the dinghy into town in search of internet. There's something for everyone.

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An Evening to Herself

With three of us on board we've been rotating cooking duties for the two regular meals we eat each day. Lunch is usually a light snack. That means we're each responsible for cooking breakfast one day, dinner the next day, and we're free from cooking the day after.

Yesterday was my day to make dinner. I boiled a chicken, shredded it, and flavored the stock with bullion. Then I fried chopped onion, crushed garlic and poblano chilis in olive oil. I added the chicken and stock, chopped tomatoes, and substituted left over pasta for the cooked rice the recipe called for. I have to say the flavor of the sauce was exceptional.

Regrettably Kay wasn't on board to share the meal with us, so Petar and I enjoyed it in the cockpit while we watched the sun go down. Where was Kay, you might wonder? She was eating cold left-over spaghetti in her tent on the beach. What a girl won't do to get away from the boys for a night. Word has it she enjoyed a lovely evening to herself.

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Staying Put

Alert Quijote followers who have been keeping an eye on our In-Reach tracking will no doubt have observed disappointing progress. So what gives? Have they really been sitting in one place for four days? Pretty much. The first two days were deliberate because we like the anchorage we're in. But then the winds picked up for a couple of days and gave us the choice of bashing our way up wind for six hours to the next anchorage, or staying put and enjoying more of a good thing. So here we are. We'll be on our way tomorrow though as winds are predicted to be more moderate for the next several days. The nice thing about windy winter weather in Mexico is that it makes temperatures pleasant and keeps the bugs away. Our anchorages so far have been relatively bug free.

We anticipate good hiking and snorkeling tomorrow afternoon, which might tempt us to linger for two nights. Granted hiking and snorkeling is exactly what we've been doing at this anchorage, but such is life on a boat in the Sea of Cortez.

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Scrub a dub-dub

I have little doubt that this trip will be a huge learning experience. There will be all sorts of times that I will look back on and say: If I had it all to do over again, this is what I would do differently...

Leaving La Paz yesterday I could tell right away that we were under powered. What was going on? Were we really underpowered or dragging a dead horse behind the boat? The 2000 rpm of engine speed that usually generates 6 knots of boat speed was giving us around 4 knots on our way out of La Paz. I had two choices: throttle up and double our fuel consumption or put up with the slower speed. We weren't in a big hurry, so I chose the latter, but it was a problem that needed solving.

I've heard about other boats making this kind of trip describing the marine growth they experience in tropical waters, but I'd hoped that a fresh coat of hull paint would give me a period of grace. When Kevin dove under the hull at the first Mexican anchorage during the Haha, I was pleased to see in his videos that the hull looked great. It was clear though that two months in La Paz had taken a toll on the condition of the hull

So it was that I found myself spending the better part of an afternoon with mask, snorkel, and kitchen spatula scraping muscles and barnacles off the hull and propeller. The tenacity of those mollusks is impressive. Later on the beach while chatting with Eric from Rover he told me he paid a guy $90 in La Paz to scrape his hull for him. Why didn't I know to do that? Yet another item in a long list of things I would do differently. Preparation is all about keeping that list as short as possible.

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Anchorage Personalities

If we divide this voyage into segments, we find ourselves in the "Exploring the Sea of Cortez" segment. The first segment took us down the West Coast to San Diego with the Coho Hoho rally. The second took us to La Paz with the Baja Haha rally. While we do this third segment without the benefit rally company we are certainly not without company. In fact we're anchored tonight next to Eric and Linda on SV Rover that did both the Hoho and Haha with us.

We're on day two of our Cortez exploration in a cove called Ensenada Grande. Every cove has its own personality. Last night we anchored far from shore in a large bay, San Gabriel, with only one other boat. We were more than half a mile from shore because the bay was shallow. This made for a long dinghy ride to do the usual recreational activities: hiking and snorkeling toping the list. But those attributes also make the bay less popular. We skipped the recreating and enjoyed a degree of solitude that allowed us to listen to a variety of bird life while we ate dinner under a stunning sunset.

Tonight's anchorage, by contrast is substantially smaller and anchorage depths are closer to shore. That brings the surrounding landscape closer, making it more visually appealing, and going ashore is much easier. That also makes the anchorage more popular, so we're in a smaller anchorage surrounded by a half dozen or so other boats.

The two anchorages have completely different personalities. Yesterday was about soaking up the surrounding environment. Today was about going ashore and recreating. All good stuff!

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On our way again...

After a long holiday break, we will finally be on our way tomorrow morning. That's assuming this wind settles down long enough to let us maneuver out of the marina. It has really been blowing.

The wind tomorrow will be from the north, which will impede our northbound progress. That's not necessarily bad though; since storms are what bring winds from the south, we'll be happy with light winds from the north. They just need to get light. Fingers crossed for an early departure.

Why won't that sink drain?