This post set in the outbox for a while, and it’s a little out of date, but it shows the state of things right before Mary got hurt (next post) so I’ll post it now.
Well, Jane’O has been resting. I’ve been pretty busy actually. Quite a few things were damaged on the way down here, so I have a new critical list before I can consider heading back north.
Some notable events:
Vince caught a 54” wahoo. Wahoo! It fed us for days. There’s still some left. It was delicious.
Dave, my most valuable crewmember, got a bit dehydrated, ended up with an infection, and had to be emergency rescued from sea. A big THANK YOU to Garmin and the prepaid emergency evac service. It took less time than an emergency room visit to get Dave to some first responders and get him treated. The rescue was mostly uneventful, other than the fact that we couldn’t seem to communicate well with the spanish-speaking staff.
And, once Dave bailed, my remaining crew hasn’t been in any tough conditions. One of the crew members thought that taking a mule from Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta would be easier. Perhaps it would have been. That second segment was much worse.
Probably the biggest reason for the damage was an under-forecasted easterly flow on the trip to PV that was at least 40 knots. Probably 50. I’ll never know because it seemed to damage the anemometer. I think it came off the masthead somehow. I’m going to need to get up there to have a look. And, when we tried to start up the engine, we couldn’t seem to get it into gear. Panic ensued, and one crewmember really wanted to get off the boat immediately. The cockpit was getting hit with some decent sized waves, and we ended out taking on a lot of water for a variety of reasons. There weren’t too many dry spots left on the boat. But, thanks to much of the canvas, the amount of the splashing was reduced. It could have been worse.
Once things calmed down some, I was able to get the transmission working again just by changing the fluid. Unfortunately, the worst thing for getting me seasick is hanging down in the smelly engine room changing fluids. That meant I was the final crewmember to get seasick.
I really did well with regard to that otherwise. I ended up only really getting sick when dealing with engine fumes plus heavy seas.
The starboard engine still isn’t working. The replacement part is in San Francisco, and Mary is bringing it down.
The critical list
- The starboard engine. I’m not bashing with a single engine. At least not at departure time. I think this needs two things: a replacement coupler and figure out why belts keep shredding.
- The radar. It quit working. I need radar when the visibility drops or I need to enter an unfamiliar anchorage. The odds of one of those things happening are high enough that I’m not leaving without a functioning radar. To make things more complicated, I seem to have broken the power switch on the console, which makes it impossible to even turn it on. I can fix all this.
- A functioning anemometer. The mount just need inspection and repair at the masthead.
And there are still a bunch of stuff on the high list, like fixing the dinghy wheels, replacing the fog horn, and such. But I’m working now from PV for a few days, hopefully can work out a prototype for a new project at Uber. I feel like I owe them a lot now.
A few people asked about photos. Hang tight, and I’ll get an album going.