Merry Christmas

After working on the boat projects for several weeks in Guaymas, Sonora, we set off sailing on a lovely beam reach across the Sea of Cortez to the Baja east coast.  The last few miles were the best as some dolphins joined us in the morning light. They swam in front and around Ladybug, twisting their bodies as they whizzed by to make eye contact with me as I leaned over the bow pulpit.

We arrived at one of our favourite anchorages, San Juanico, and were soon swapping stories with friends from the past on s/v Hotspur. That night we were invited for mouth watering pizza and our first margaritas on S/V Just a Minute.

Algodon flower -"windmill" stage!

That was an auspicious start to three weeks of near perfect sailing down the coast towards La Paz, anchoring at some familiar anchorages on the coast and the islands nearby. On Isla Carmen we sat out a northerly blow for 5 days in Puerto Ballandra and made new friends with other stormbound sailors.Since it was still possible to row ashore, we set out on exploratory hikes across the island to find bighorn sheep and new vistas from the scrubby hilltops. We did catch a brief glimpse of a sheep disappearing over a rock face thanks to the eagle-eyed Steve of s/v Corvidae.I ran down the steep gravelly switch back to try and get a photo for the blog but the creature just vanished. Maybe we had a collective hallucination!You can, however, see us in a photo taken from the top of that ridge as we featured it on our Christmas card.The view below of Salinas Bay with it's white crescent beach and giant rectangular salt pans framed by reddish brown volcanic cones was stunning.

Salinas Bay salt pan from the ridge 

Chris's shelter on Isla San Francisco

Exploring new anchorages is always a challenge as the seasonal northerly wind dictates our course for the night. However, we were fortunate to experience a few moderately calm days and sailed Ladybug into new bays. Hiking into new territory was a novel experience and we found many treasures; flowers, shells and beached skeletons, including a mummified wild cat.

wild cat, maybe a lynx, found mummified on shingle beach. 

This wild cat, maybe a lynx, was probably shot ( see bullet hole above left eye) and ran off the cliff onto a shingle beach.

Looking south towards Isla Cerralvo

Sailing into the sunset

Coyote melon vine

Thanks to the recent rain, the flowers were spectacular in the arroyos. Vines of bright yellow morning glories and pretty pink San Miguels clambered over rocks and shrubs and purple nightshade flowers stretched out like bats' wings. The plateaus above were decked out for Christmas with the luscious red berries of the boxwoods competing in the colour contest with the scarlet chilli-like flowers of the coral plant.

Boxwood shrub on Isla San Francisco

Nightshade family

Rama parda ( Acanthus family)

Cruising Again

Apologies for the silence.

We are in Puerto Escondido on the Baja Peninsula en route to La Paz where we will spend Christmas. It took two weeks to get Ladybug ready for the water because of additional projects that  needed completion  before we leave for the Marquesas.

New solar panel & slick black bottom paint

The radar scanner we bought on eBay works! This makes entering harbours at night much easier.

Adding insulation to the fridge.

Newly insulated icebox - still need to epoxy and paint the inside.

New hatch cover

The winds have been strong and from the north about half the time, so we have spent quite a lot of time hiding out in secure anchorages along the way, including 4 days in Puerto Balandra, where we had some excellent hiking with some new cruising friends who were also storm-bound. On one hike we crossed the island to a lookout over Salinas Bay and Steve pointed out a bighorn sheep as it disappeared down the mountain. We saw what looked like a hunting blind made of black plastic and tarp on a steep slope with a great view over the valley. Whether it was used by hunters or naturalists, one can only guess.

 Chris with Steve, Nona, Bo and Libby setting off  to Bahia Salinas from Puerto Balandra

Salinas Bay panorama from ridge above

View of Salinas Salt Pans, Isla Carmen

Scrambling up for a view of sand dunes and whitecaps on a blustery day on Isla Carmen

Libby, Rani and Bo feeling the wind in their hair

Nearly home - Chris, Hugh, Nona and Bo

WHAT?  I  found a small  BIGHORN 

More fall foliage

A few pictures from my last Nova Scotia hike with John Maly at Crowbar Lake on the Eastern Shore. As usual, click to enlarge.

Lakefront colours - The trail we hiked ran around two lakes and several streams.

Low lying trees across the lake. The trail later ran through this grove.

Reflections in a small pond near the trail head.

Silver birch and maples - iconic Nova Scotia trees.

Nova Scotia Colours and Grapes

Another non-cruising post, but I could not resist posting a few pictures from Nova Scotia. The following were taken during a short hike to a waterfall near New Germany in Nova Scotia.

North River stillwater

North River rapids

Apron Falls

Dad navigating

Christmas trees and fall foliage

I am currently staying at my parent's place in Barss Corner. It is nearing grape harvest time and today we even had a little sleety snow to let us know winter is near!

Measuring sugar level in the grapes

Measuring the Brix (sugar level) using a refractometer

And a gratuitous but cute picture of my brother and niece with her first undies :)

Coast 34 Owners web site created

Together with Doug Swanson of Ka'sala, we have started a new site dedicated to the Coast 34 sailboat (of which Ladybug II is an example). The site, which can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/coast34owners/ contains a list of Coast 34 owners and information about the boat. We may add a forum to allow discussion, but for now, owners and others are welcome to comment on the site or provide us with feedback via email.

Coast 34 Cutter

Installing a new tub

OK OK - not exactly a post related to cruising, but I thought it might be helpful to someone to share some of our experiences putting in two new bathtubs in my friend Ian's house. I am staying with Ian after having rented our house in Duncan on my way out to Nova Scotia.

Old tub - does not look too bad in picture but is quite worn and has been recoated once already...

 One thing that many articles and videos on Youtube neglect to cover in any detail is how to get out the old tub and how to put the new one in. Here are a few pointers I have picked up during the 3 tub installs I have done in the last year.

New tub - Ian with my niece's bear who assisted with the installs.

The order of destruction/construction is roughly:

Rip off tiles or old surround. Tile removal is therapeutic according to Ian...




Removing old tiles

 

Correct technique for removing tiles.

Cut away any wet drywall (we found that water had made its way behind the tiles (perhaps through unsealed grout). Scrape off old adhesive to make wall reasonably level.



Wall scraped to make even for installing the surround - note dry wall removed well above plumbing
to allow us to remove and install the tubs by swinging them up and into this space.



Cut away a piece of drywall at the tap end of the tub to a height of about 36 to 40 inches above the tub lip. Remove any insulation and vapour barrier and save to re-install later. This provides access to the plumbing and allows room for you to swing the new tub into place, allowing the skirt to clear the wall. You need room between the two end wall equal to the length of the diagonal of the new tub and this provides enough length, at least for a 20 inch high tub...



Measuring diagonal to see how much space we need to swing the tub through.



Cut away the drywall along the back length and foot of the tub up at least a couple of inches higher than the taller of the new/old tubs. Again - This allows you to tilt the tub away from the wall to help as you swing the old tub out and the new tub.

Old plumbing - Note drywall, insulation, and vapour barrier have been removed.
We will remove the valve assemblies to allow the tub to swing past.

Disconnect the drain by unscrewing the flange inside the tub. One way to do this is to insert a wrench or adjustable slip jaw pliers and use another pair of pliers or wrench at right angles as a handle. Unscrew the overflow plate. Turn off the water and unscrew the taps and faucet. You will need to remove the handles first...

You should now be able to lift the end of the tub beside the plumbing, tilting it slightly out from the back wall and wiggling it free of the drywall. You may have to work a bit to make it clear the old plumbing. If it will not clear this, you may need to cut the old plumbing taps out.

You will need to measure and put together a drain/overflow assembly for the new tub based on the dimensions and location of the drain overflow cutouts in the tub and the position of the drain pipe in the floor. The latter was a problem for us and required cutting old drain pipe (1.5" ABS plastic) and moving the drain location to line up with the tub overflow pipe. We assembled the plumbing at the tub and welded this with ABS cement and then attached the this to the newly positioned floor drain in the bathroom.

Now is also a good time to redo the faucet and taps, perhaps moving to a single tap installation. This required us to do a lot of copper cutting, joining, and soldering. We used an old baking sheet to protect the wood from being scorched and cut the old copper with a hacksaw. A pipe cutter would have been nice.

New faucet installed - lots of copper joints but quite easy to do it yourself with an appropriate torch.

The new tub may be quite a bit deeper than the old. This can make it tricky to install, but if you have cut away the drywall on the plumbing wall to a good height, you should be able to install the tub by swing it down from an on-end position with the high end swinging down into the cavity you have made in the plumbing wall. Again a slight twisting out from the wall may be needed until the tub is almost down flat.

Hook up the drain plumbing being careful to compress the gaskets evenly to get a good seal.

Finally, you will want to shim the tub's supports (for us this involved feet in one tub and rails in another. Because of the skirt, it is very hard to reach the feet to shim, so we cut an access in the drywall along the back of the tub to let us reach in and place a shim. You may be able to avoid this by initially cutting away at least 2 inches of drywall all around the top of the tub so that you can temporarily lift the tub to slide in the thin wood shims. 

Checking for leaks

Fill the tub with water and check for leaks (a long arm helps as you have to reach behind the tub for this. Fill up so the overflow overflows, too...

While the tub is full, secure the lip via drywall screws either through the lip or immediately above it, depending on the type of tub.

When replacing the drywall, use a product designed specifically for this purpose - not regular drywall. We found some very nice fibreglass faced panels that are 5 feet by 32" - 2 of these did the 2 bathrooms and are easier to fit in a car than the 4 X 8 sheets. We cut them using a knife and straight edge. 

We put in a polystyrene tub surround, too. Use a cardboard template to position cutouts for tap, faucet and shower and don't forget to cut out holes for the cover plate screws to go through.

PL 700 adhesive applied to back of new surround panel




New surround in place.

Preparations for the upcoming season

For the last few months we have been working part time and getting the house ready to rent out because we are planning a longer trip on Ladybug II. We hope to make the Pacific crossing in the spring of 2012 to New Zealand via French Polynesia and assorted South Pacific islands. There - I've written it, so now we have to do it! Well - anything can happen between now and the spring, but we are planning as if we will be away for two years or more...

Perhaps the biggest project we hope to complete before the spring is to improve the charging capabilities so that we can run a refrigerator. Rani sees this as a necessity to keep veggies for more than a few days in the tropics.

Even a well insulated small 12 volt fridge will draw 20-30 amp-hours per day. And to take this little power, we will need to add insulation and gaskets to make our ice box much more efficient at retaining the cold. The number of bits and pieces this project will require is amazing, because we have to make the power initially, store it during periods when we are not using the motor or the sun does not cooperate, and then draw as little as possible. Parts include:

• additional closed cell insulation sheets (5" total wall thickness)
• FRP board to re-line the icebox
• 2 gaskets for the lid
• new counter material for when we tear apart the galley
• fiberglass and epoxy to hold it all together
• 3 to 5 new batteries (our batteries are nearly 9 years old) 
• a smart regulator for a high output Balmar alternator (which the previous owners generously left as a spare)
• 2 extra solar panels and wiring + brackets + through deck glands
• ... and the list goes on. 

We already have an Adler Barbour compressor and plate that appear to work, but just can't keep things cold with less than 2 inches of insulation and an unsealed lid.

Carrying enough spare parts for the engine and other systems is also a concern, so in addition to the usual disposable items we are going to lay in a spare raw water pump, starter motor, shifting cable, and possibly a spare injector. We have a spare fuel lift pump and a good set of gaskets and miscellaneous bits from the previous owners.

Radar internals

We recently bid on and won the (hopefully) working guts of a Raytheon radar on eBay to replace the defunct one that did not work when we purchased the boat. Our EPIRB battery is out of service, so we need to replace the battery. The water maker has started leaking and the little parts to fix this are hundreds of dollars, so we will attempt a Mexican fix and failing this will retire it and rig up a system to collect rain water.

On a fun note - I just bought a little Singer portable sewing machine (1953 Featherweight 221) that should be very useful on the boat. We need to make new covers for hatches and repair the mainsail cover, among other stitching chores. The 'new' machines sews beautifully and is simple and well made (see picture). It has a zigzag attachment, so I may even see how it does with reinforcing our UV patch on the jib!

Singer 221 and attachments - the bed folds up and the whole things weighs < 20 lbs (11 lbs for the machine)

Much of this stuff, we have already purchased, and will have to lug to Phoenix, via the UK and Nova Scotia (visiting our parents). We will buy the rest in Phoenix and area or have it shipped to our Phoenix hotel. Then with a rental car stuffed to capacity we will drive the 7 or 8 hours south to Guaymas, returning the car a day or 2 later and busing back down.

Back at home, we need to move our stuff (again!) into storage, sell the car, arrange for someone to be a contact for our tenants, and work out the various flights and visits on our way back down to the boat.  Phew - it makes me exhausted just thinking about this!

Harry Pidgeon and "Around the World Single-Handed"

Harry Pidgeon was the second person to sail alone around the world. He did this between 1921 and 1925 on a 34 foot engineless sailboat that he built entirely with his own hands. In 1932, he set off again on the same boat (the Islander), completing his second solo trip around the world in 1937.


What strikes one is how much he enjoyed his experiences - both the adventure of ocean crossings and the people he met in the many lands he visited. I recently read a book by Louis Bernacot, the 2nd person to sail around alone by the three capes, as opposed to using the Panama canal (1936-1938). Bernacot's account is one of almost grim determination. He does not linger in many places, seeming focused on the goal more than the experience. His socializing seems limited to other ex-pats and colonial officials. In contrast, as the photos in Around the World Single-Handed show, Harry Pidgeon immersed himself in the cultures he visited, spending a great deal of time exploring ashore. 


Another facet of this book that makes it stand out are the excellent photographs. Harry was a self-taught professional photographer and his pictures have both ethnographic and artistic worth. Harry Pidgeon's voyage was the first solo circumnavigation via the Panama Canal (which had not been finished when Joshua Slocum - the first solo circumnavigator - sailed around South America via the Straits of Magellan).


Here is a link to a brief biography of Harry Pidgeon.


I obtained a first edition of this book and scanned it with the intention of producing my first e-book. It took me about 6 elapsed months (maybe 100 hours total) to do this work, which involved converting the images to text using an optical character recognition program, editing the text for both conversion mistakes and formatting errors, editing and reformatting the images from high resolution scans, and assembling into various e-book formats. The work is in the public domain to the best of my knowledge (Dover did a reprint of the original in 1989), so please feel free to download a copy for reading on your ebook reader or computer (see the side bar to the right of this blog). I have tested the e-Pub format on a Kobo touch and all formats on the Calibre e-Book reader Windows application.  

Back to Guaymas

Bahia Santa Teresa from the mouth of a cliff cave

From Santa Rosalia, we had intended to explore some of the more northern reaches of the Sea of Cortez that we have not yet visited. We sailed north towards Bahia San Francisquito in very light winds, making only 20-30 miles per day and stopping in somewhat exposed anchorages each night. There is a different feel to the big bays north of Santa Rosalia. The water looked greener than that further south and it teemed with tiny fish and hundreds of noisy, chattering royal terns and Heermans gulls.

Walking in the desert near our anchorage at Santa Teresa

On day 3, a forecasted northerly gale blew up before we had reached the protection of Bahia Santa Theresa. We had been motoring in a calm from around 8 am, but should have left earlier because we were caught about 10 miles south of shelter by sudden strong winds. The main was down and it would have been difficult to raise it and put in three reefs. Under engine, alone, we were unable to make more than 1 knot, so we rolled out a little bit of the jib and beat into this with the motor assisting. It was tense sailing with large choppy seas created in part by a strong current running against the wind. The gusts were so strong that, even with only 20% of our jib out, we were heeling 20-30 degrees. It was also tricky to tack because without the main up, it was difficult to bring the boat through the wind. On one tack I got the jib sheet double wrapped on the winch and the flapping of the jib tore several feet of stitching holding on the UV protection canvas before I could free up the sheet.

Playing primitive bacci ball with a golf ball we found

We anchored in the lee of Punta Santa Teresa off a mile long white sand beach and here we remained for 4 days as the gale blew. Outside the point, white 'buffaloes' galloped across the wild landscape. We managed to row our dinghy ashore and found a small community of Gringos and Mexicanos living at the far end of the beach and a mile or so north on Bahia San Francisquito. An airstrip and 75 mile dirt road provides access and on our first day there we saw a small private jet take off into the gale. 

Visiting with Howard

On our first walk the next day, we met Howard who rents an off the grid palapa on the beach from a Mexican owner. He invited us over for a coffee and told us a little about the area. The airstrip and buildings here were originally part of a Club Med development (his Palapa was one of these buildings) but this was long closed. We saw some small airplanes that morning and there are a few simple buildings in which pilots and their passengers can stay. Howard also told us that this area is popular with sports fishermen, although the gale must have kept them away because we saw no other boats during our stay. Howard is a collector and his palapa deck was covered in locally gathered fossils, whale bones, and copper nuggets.

Fossilized snails on Howard's porch

Big horn sheep skull with added snail 'eyes'.

The next day we walked into the desert and hills nearby where we found a cave that was probably used for shelter by the indigenous people. It looked like the archeologists had been here by the sizable mound excavated from the cave. Howard had found artifacts including several arrow heads nearby, which he had given to visiting archeologists for display in a museum in Mexico city.

Sleeping palapas for airport visitors

When the wind finally abated we had nothing but calms for two days during which we crossed the Sea of Cortez once again (our 12th crossing). The calm waters made for excellent nature watching and we enjoyed our first sightings of sperm whales. We saw pods of up to 12 whales - cows and their calves swimming slowly or lying on the surface. One whale came right up to Ladybug as we lay becalmed, rubbing itself along our side and clicking rapidly and noisily.

Here is a video of the sperm whales including 'logging' where they float like logs, a single whale moving past us, possibly feeding, and a whale that comes alongside:

At Isla San Esteban we anchored off a sea lion rookery and went for a snorkel in the chilly waters. The sea lions were very curious, perhaps because there were so many young ones, and they swam over to see what strange creatures had invaded their domain. Whenever I dived to the bottom, they would follow me and swim quite close, spiraling and turning somersaults underwater. I felt very clumsy and slow compared to these graceful creatures. I also saw my first shark on this swim - small (< 3 feet) and blue gray, sitting on the bottom in maybe 6 feet of water. Later we saw a  4 foot hammerhead as we sailed toward Guaymas.

Sea horse found at Bahia Santa Teresa

The winds remained light and we had to use the motor a lot in order to reach San Carlos. It was so calm that night that we took down our sails and put on the anchor light  while still 10 miles off shore. In San Carlos, we re-connected with Frank and Cheryl on Serendipity, whom we had last seen here more than two years ago. It was great to spend a few hours together and catch up on all that has happened in their lives.

View from the deck in Marina Seca Guaymas

Rani gathering perishable food to give away. Note folded mainsail and jib.

We had a splendid sail down to Guaymas where after two days in the Singlar marina, we hauled out Ladybug at Marina Seca Guaymas. Everything went smoothly this year despite strong winds and shallow water off the marina ways (we saw 1/2 a foot below the keel on the depth sounder at one point). Tomorrow we take the bus to Phoenix (8-10 hour ride) and fly home to BC.