YET ANOTHER DELAY IN LEAVING FOR MEXICO

We've been planning on leaving Chula Vista to head south on October 31. We've been waiting for the end of the Mexican Hurricane season, which is traditionally November 1. We've also been waiting for the Baja HaHa fleet to take off. This year the HaHa fleet has over 130 boats in it. They are mostly first time cruisers who want to make friends and have some other company as they make their first trip into Mexican waters. All 130 HaHa boats leave San Diego Bay at 10 AM, October 30. They sail and motor non-stop to Turtle Bay, about half way down the Baja Coast, where they have a big party. Then they sail to Bahia Santa Maria for another stop and then on to Cabo San Lucas.

We didn't want to get out ahead of that fleet, all headed to the same anchorages as we planned on.

Thursday afternoon, October 18, we learned from Arlene's dentist that we won't be leaving here until at least November 8. An oral surgeon extracted one of Arlene's molars on September 21 (see the log October 4 2001). Arlene planned on having a semi-permanent appliance (a 'flipper'), fit the space where the extracted molar used to live. On Thursday we went in to have a casting made for the flipper but were told by the dentist that Arlene's gums were still too swollen to get an accurate impression for making the flipper. He wants Arlene to come back on October 25 for the casting. Once that is done the dentist will need five days to make the flipper and to fit it to Arlene's mouth. Then we need to wait a week to ensure that the appliance doesn't affect her bite or jaw.

So, we won't be leaving until at least November 8th. No big deal in the slow paced life of a full time cruiser.

We are also having to deal with broken boat equipment. The masthead portion of the Autohelm ST50 wind instrument is at the Raytheon repair facility in New Jersey. Now, Raytheon says they won't know until at least October 22 if it can be repaired. This seems a bit slow since the Raytheon dealer sent the ST50 to Raytheon on October . They promised we would have the instrument back on the boat by October 26. The wind speed instrument reports a wind speed about twice what our hand held instrument indicates. That is not so important but we decided to have it repaired by Raytheon. We could live without a windspeed indicator.

Thebigger problem is that the ST50 wind instrument provides the wind heading readings that are used by the ST6000 Autopilot for sailing the boat to a fixed relative wind angle. We really can't take off on a cruise without the apparent wind indicator. Reinstalling the ST50 requires a trip to the mast head and five minutes work up there. We need to inspect the rigging anyway so putting the ST50 back in place is no problem. I just hope Raytheon gets the instrument back to us before November 3.

The more difficult equipment failure is that our six-year-old Freedom 20 Inverter/Battery Charger is acting very strangely. At various times when we try to start the inverter it displays an E06 error code, which indicates an "electronic overload" as described in the Link 2000R manual. There seems to be no consistency in when the error occurs.

An inverter converts the 12-volt DC current produced by the boat's batteries to 120-volt AC current that can be used by "normal" appliances. When the inverter shows the E06 error code it will not produce any 120-volt AC power. Sometimes the inverter will decide that it doesn't mind working and will turn off the E06 error code and then starts making AC current. At other times the only way to get the inverter to turn on is to turn on the 120-volt AC shorepower for five to 20 minutes. For some reason that resets the inverter and it works fine for hours to days. Once the inverter is working it continues to work without fail.

Xantrex, the company which recently purchased Heart who builds the Freedom series, technical support claims they have never heard of such a problem. They don't even know what an "electronic overload" means. The local electronics shop that works on Heart equipment says that it is not cost effective to repair a seven-year-old inverter.

A new Freedom 20 inverter costs $1,099 and is a nuisance to install since it weighs 56 pounds and is mounted on a bulkhead in the engine room that can only be reached while lying on top of an 8D battery and the waterlift muffler. We are not sure if we want to spend over $1000 for an inverter that is really only used to power the microwave and a small vacuum cleaner. We have a small, 350-watt, portable inverter that can power most 120-volt devices. We have 12-volt power supplies for the laptop computers and the TV/VCR can run off 12 volts.

Well - We’ll have to decide this week if we want to replace the inverter. We've had many other problems with the Freedom 20 during the six years we have owned it. (For example see the comments at Mirador Log Tacoma to San Diego). The Heart Link2000R micro-processor control system for the Freedom 20 and engine alternator has been rebuilt by Heart on at least two occasions.

Another time consuming project we periodically engage in is to build up our DVD library. Our new SONY laptop has a built-in DVD player and a wonderful bright 15" LCD screen. We have watched part of one movie on the PC and the picture just jumps off the screen. We have about 20 DVD movies at the moment but would like to get another 10 or so. We want enough movies that we can trade with other high tech cruisers as we cruise south. Arlene and I are finding that we differ in our movie tastes when it comes down to spending $15 for a DVD. I want to buy the Godfather Collection but Arlene thinks we've seen those movies enough times that we don't need to spend $75 on them. I, on the other hand, think that they would be great to watch some dark night while anchored in the Sea of Cortez.

I have been working on some neat HAM radio/PC stuff during the last week.

I have set up our Airmail software, (the program that we use to send and receive e-mail via either SingleSide Band or HAM HF radio), so that it will automatically send an e-mail to the Winlink 2000 Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS). The software interogates our GPS to collect the current position, course, speed. It then fills in a form with that info and sends it off to Winlink where it is stored in a database that can be acessed by WEB users. You will find the instructions for using the APRS site on Miradors home page, right under the introductory pictures.

I also downloaded some software that lets me operate the ICOM 710RT Ham/SSB radio from the PC. The PC program loads a simulated radio control panel onto the PC screen. I can then perform most ICOM radio functions from the PC. This is an advantage because the ICOM control head is mounted on top of the electronics panel back where, as you can see in the picture to the left, it is very awkward to reach as you can see .

The PC control panel allows me to select any one of 15 preprogrammed frequencies just by pressing a simulated radio button. This is much easier than spinning the real radio's right control knob to select one of five pre-programmed frequencies in a "group" or the left control knob to select one of 32 "groups" of frequencies.

The simulated panel also allows me to directly tune the radio in increments of 1 MHz, 100 kHz, 10 kHz, 1 kHz, or 0.1 kHz. This beats the heck out of spinning the real right knob on the radio which only moves the frequency 1.4 kHz per full revolution. It takes a lot of spinning to change the frequency from 7.294 MHz (Chubasco Mobile Maritime Net) to 14.313 MHz (another popular net). I can key in the frequency on the radio but the keys are small and awkward to use, once I press the keys needed to enable direct frequency entry.

Pretty neat PC program! And it was free off the Internet.

I am also trying to figure out why the fresh water pump cycles on for about 2 seconds every five minutes. None of the faucets leak and the pressure accumulator seems to be holding pressure OK. The pump cycling on and off at night wakes me up occasionally so we turn the pump off when we go to bed. But, then it is hard to get a drink in the middle of the night.

We have decided to keep both the genoa and mainsail that came with the boat. We have rolled them up very tightly and stowed them deep in the bowels of Mirador. If anything happens to our new North sails we will now have very good spares. Or, we may use the old 135 %genoa while sailing in the Sea of Cortez where there is little chance of getting strong winds. That will keep the Spectra 120% Genoa for use in more serious oceanic passages.

The refrigerator in Mirador is about nine cubic feet which is a little big for the Isotherm compressor/freezer plate. Much of the time the upper part of the refrigerator is about 39 degrees while the bottom is 34 degrees. The aft portion of the box is often five degrees warmer than the forward portion. We thought maybe we needed to increase the air circulation because the cold plate is mounted on the forward bulkhead of the 32" long icebox. We installed a small 12 volt powered icebox fan but I am afraid that the fan causes more heat than the air circulation removes. The fan is controlled by a switch mounted next to the refrigerator control panel so we can switch it on or off as needed.

Just to add color; here is another picture of the Chula Vista Marina complex: