We all know everything is phony LA LA Land.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Toyota Dealership
You wife can buy a dress next door while you buy a car
California readers: feel free to change the gender references in this caption to be appropriate for your circumstances. I really didn’t mean to offend anyone.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Interesting (I hope) Odds and Ends
One characteristic of Mexican men is that they have trouble admitting they don’t know the answer to your question. I asked directions to a shopping plaza from the guard at the entrance gate to the hotel. He thought about it for a while. I ask him if we could walk from the end of the bus line that takes us to the main boulevard that runs along the beach for many miles. He said yes; I ask him how far, he ask me how do you say it, mile? So after a couple of miles we ask four guys sitting in the shade of a tree. We were able to overcome the language barrier. They told us the sopping plaza was several miles behind us right next to a large grocery store, which is very close to the side road leading to our hotel. They were correct; we found it on our way back to Vagari. How fortunate it is that American men don’t have that problem.
Taxis are inexpensive here. For 40 pesos ($3.65) plus a tip we can go just about anywhere in town. We often get another couple to join us so it cost us half that. Sometimes the ride can be an adventure but we usually prefer to take the buses. They cost either 35 or 45 cents US depending on how far you ride. Often we have to take two buses to get to our destination. Today we went to downtown Manzanillo. On the second bus an older gentleman got on with a small boom box. He stood in the center of the bus and turned on a tape in the boom box. Then he started singing with the music. He continues for a few minutes doing several tunes. He passed the hat before getting off and I assume does the same thing going back to where he started. Buses often leave the main drag and go into the neighborhoods behind the beaches. We find this is the most interesting part of the ride. We feel safe; the Mexican people are very non-threatening.
Most of the local buses are really old. We see and ride on lots of old buses but we never see them broken down by the side of the road. Our hats are off to the mechanics that keep these relics going.
This season we usually have to pull our dinghy way up on the beach to get above the Pacific Ocean waves and high tide line. Inevitability, if there is a Mexican male around, they offer to help us pull the dinghy. Rhea is really strong this year because her knees are working as designed so we don’t need help but it says a lot about the locals.
Manzanillo is not a tourist town. Tourist shopping is very limited. The downtown is built around the commercial harbor. The harbor is a large container port; an oil terminal and we did see one large Carnival Cruise ship. There’s also a lot of manufacturing and a large power plant that runs off coal, which is mined in the local foothills. On the other hand Mananzillo has miles of beautiful beaches and ideal weather during the winter months.
The large power plant just southwest of town is far and away the most polluting operation I have ever seen. The plant spews out dark smoke from at least four smoke stacks 24/ 7 year in and year out. The smoke blackens the sky downwind of the plant all day every day. I know the power plant outside La Paz has been cleaned up but La Paz is a state capital and a growing tourist center. I don’t know when they will clean up this monstrosity.
At the Cruisers New Years Day brunch we sat next to a couple that cruised down to Barra de Navidad two years ago. They put their boat in the marina and purchased a house in the very small town of Colimilla, which borders the lagoon where we anchor. Colimilla is at the extreme northwest end of the State of Colima. The town of Barra de Navidad where we tie up our dinghy and all but the west side of the lagoon is in the State of Jalisco. He has a profession that allows him to work anywhere he has a cell phone and an Internet connection. He explained that the Manzanillo airport, which is thirty minutes away, has at least two direct flights a day to Los Angeles. So he can be in any major US city the next morning.
He leaves Mexico during September and October because of the weather. Last year Colimilla got 100 inches of rain each of those months. Plus is in the 90’s all day. A good time to leave.
They talked at great length about the local schools, where they spend a lot of time and money helping them set up Internet access and a wireless network for both the local elementary school and junior high school equivalent. These schools would not have access to the Internet or even computers without their help. He has a fast Internet connection to his house so he beams a wireless Internet signal to the neighborhood schools. They also provide books for the libraries that would not otherwise be available to the schools. Vagari’s crew will make a monetary contribution to there efforts.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Manzanillo Bay
We didn’t leave Barra de Navidad until Wednesday. We waited our turn to get to the fuel dock Monday. Tied up and ask for 45 liters of diesel. Then we tried to take on water but the water was “not today”. Will it work tomorrow? Manana. Which really means “not today”. So we canceled the fuel order and anchored again in the lagoon. Only half the dock is open because a motor yacht too large for the marina is tied up to the fuel dock. It is so big that they back into the dock. They secure the front of the yacht by dropping one of their two anchors and the back they tie up to one side of the fuel dock. The yacht is so wide it almost covers one side of the fuel dock. When Vagari’s side ties to the dock there is at least ten, probably fifteen feet, of dock left.
Tuesday the water worked so we took on fuel and water and headed across the bay and anchored off the town off Melaque. Known to cruisers as “rocky Melaque” because the protection from the Pacific Ocean swell is poor. Therefore your boat rocks. That was not a problem the day we were anchored. We needed to spend some time out of the lagoon before traveling so I could remove the growth from the bottom and the prop. Vagari had a green beard along the waterline after a couple of weeks in the lagoon. For some reason lagoons promote more, different and faster bottom growth than we ever see in the ocean. We don’t swim in the lagoon because of the water quality.
The trip to Manzanillo was mostly a motorboat ride, does that sound familiar? We did sail for a couple of hours, but at less than three knots. The Manzanillo airport is just off the beach. We could see the tower and watched a couple of airplanes land as we coasted past. The coastline was one continuous beach with mountains and cliffs at both ends of the trip.
The entry to Manzanillo Bay is supposed to be spectacular. Just as we turned the last corner to enter the bay a light fog appeared and we missed the view. We found our anchorage, which is beautiful, and had a pleasant dinner on shore.
We have spent the next few days enjoying the pool, beach and restaurants at the Las Hadas Hotel & Resort.
The Las Hadas Resort & Hotel
We are anchored just off this resort. For a daily “dinghy dock” fee we can use all the facilities.
Cruising [krooz ing]
Cruising [krooz ing] verb- present participle (1) Repairing your boat in exotic anchorages
When motoring we turn the refrigerator compressor system to a setting that runs the compressor off the engine via a belt drive. After an hour or two everything in the freezer is frozen solid. The engine compressor is many times more effective than the 12-volt compressor system. Probable because the engine is so powerful. After clearing the point off Melague I ask Rhea to switch the refrigerator system to engine. She flipped the switch but the system would not turn on. So she switched it back to the 12-volt (house battery) system.
Later we were sailing without the engine and I noticed the 12-volt compressor was not working either. Once we anchored a quick check confirmed that neither system was working.
Perhaps we were low on Freon gas. The next day I checked the control box for power and I checked the internal fuse. Both checked out. That night I read the manual and realized that we had two separate Freon systems. Not likely that they would both fail at the same time. This left the thermostat as the common part. The first thing I did was check the thermostat for the second time, making sure that it was on and looked for any obvious issues like broken wires. I planed to short out the thermostat at the control box in the engine room.
The next morning before bypassing the thermostat I used a mirror so I could see the connections at the back of the thermostat. Looked fine but for some reason I got fingers in there and tugged on the wires. One came off in my hand. That was the problem. Both of the spade type connections were lose. They finally worked lose to the point where they no longer made contact. I crimped the connectors tight. The compressor is working now. Lets hope the problem was that simple.
We are in an exotic anchorage.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Update
We are planning to leave Barra de Navidad Monday. We hope to take on some fuel and water if the fuel dock is open and go just a few miles and anchor off the town of Melague.
Tuesday we will go twenty five south to Manzanillo and anchor off the resort near Los Hadas where our daughter and her family will visit in February. We will spend a week or so and then head back Barra de Navidad.
I’m not sure when we have internet access again but it should be within a week.
Funeral Procession
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