SANDS HOTEL IN BARRA DE NAVIDAD

The Sands Hotel might not be your first choice in Barra if you are land travelling.  It is the oldest hotel in town.  Thirty or forty years of Mexican heat and rain have taken thier toll, causing it to appear somewhat seedy.  But for the cruising community it is a triple A place.  I would be willing to bet that almost every cruiser in Mexico has been here at one time or another, as it is the front porch of Barra for yachties. It has a very nice dinghy landing with lots of room for folks coming in from the anchorage.  The other day there were twenty or more dinghies tied up.  The unspoken deal is that cruisers spend a few bucks at the bar or buy an hour or so of wifi in exchange for the use of the pool, pool shower, and dock.  It's a great place to hang out, take a dip or head into town. 

FRONT DESK

LOBBY



WIFI HOTSPOT



BARRA DE NAVIDAD

ENTRANCE TO  BARRA
DE NAVIDAD LAGOON

If you are one of those lucky boaters who has never run aground, I would like to invite you to Barra lagoon.  It takes little or no talent to find the bottom while wending your way through the breakwater, around the marina an into the narrow channel, about twenty feet in width, back into the anchorage.   Ten feet off the centerline either way, and you're in the mud.  Fortunately there seems to be a flotilla of dingys ready at a moments notice to rush to your aid and push you back into the channel.  The trick now is not to hit the other side.  I know the drill.   We planted ourselves firmly in the mud on the way in, and were rescued by the flotilla.  We will soon have another chance to find the bottom as we make our way out of the lagoon.

Barra, about the same size as La Cruz, is a charming place built along a fabulous sandy beach.  There were surfable waves coming in even in the calm conditions prevalent during our first walkabout. 

NITA, MIKE AND JUDY

GATE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE MALACON
IN MEXICO A GATE LETS YOU KNOW YOU'RE
ENTERING A SPECIAL PLACE 

HUANACAXTLE TREE
BARRA'S MOST SENIOR CITIZEN

BEER BOB'S BOOK EXCHANGE

THIS WOULD FIT NICELY IN OUR HOTEL

IN LA PAZ

Thank you Odessa for showing us around Bara.

IT'S BUSY OUT THERE.....

One has to be vigilant always....

Looking up, however, is not required while doing Sudoku or when not on watch. 

We have arrived at Barra de Navidad, having escaped the feared Banderas Bay cruiser's vortex.  It sucks in the unwary with it's beauty and charm, never to let them go.  We survived by the skin of our teeth, having fallen more in love with it then before.  However, we will return to Banderas on our way north.  Hope we don't get stuck.

OUR CANVAS GUY SAYS THURSDAY IS THE DAY

Stopped by his shop this morning.  He is working hard, but not on our job.  It's an emergency repair for someone else.  He has promised, promised I say, that Thursday morning is it.  I am going to become a presense in his life between now and then.  His shop is next door to our favorite bar, so I can go have a beer and check in with him real easy.

Dogs, buses and churches.  They got 'em down here too, but with a wonderful Mexican style. 

Take churches.  Mexican newspapers are filled with the most graphic pictures of street violence that I have seen.  The more blood and guts the better.  This fasination seems to be at work in church too, the agony of Christ is portrayed prominately, usually behind glass.

This is not a criticism.  It's just different.  And that's why we travel.

LA CRUZ WON'T LET GO OF US

We're still here, but hoping, hoping, hoping to get going tomorrow.  The current delay has been caused by the death of our canvas maker's mother.  She passed away early last week, and understandably his focus has not been on work.  He contacted us yesterday and is hopeful that he can get everything done and on the boat tomorrow.

He is making sunbrella dingy chaps, a new sailbag for our spinnaker and covers for the 5 gallon fuel tanks we carry on deck.  The sunbrella should save a lot of wear and tear on our dingy besides protecting it from UV damage.  Will take a photo of the finished product when it arrives.

The delay has allowed us to attend a Valentine Party this evening that is being thrown by Lupe, a mexican lady who has a posh bed and breakfast somewhere nearby.  One of the old timers told us leaving Banderas Bay without making it out to Lupe's was like not seeing the pyramids while in Egypt.  Will be sure to take the camera.

GROW UP IN A CIRCUS? THEN PUT ON A SHOW!

If your audience likes it.....do another show.

WE'RE LEAVING BANDERAS BAY

Soon.  As in next Thursday. 

Judy has an appointment for a root canal Sunday afternoon, and a crown prep appointment next Wednesday.  Then we're free.  No more excuses.  We're gonna be a boat again and go sailing. 

The plan is to head down the coast maybe as far as Manzanillo, perhaps Zihuatanjo.  Sometime while on our way south Judy will jump on a bus to come back to have the crown installed.  The ride from Barra de Navidad is only about 4 hours, so maybe that be where she will depart from. 

Make progress on projects.  The only significant one to complete is replacing the raw water pump for the generator.  The pump impeller is mounted on the motor shaft which passes into the pump through a seal.  This shaft is supposed to be impervious to salt water, being made of 316 stainless steel, but the shaft on our pump has dissolved badly in salt water.




316 stainless is essentially non magnetic.  A magnet should never latch onto 316.  Besides the obvious corrosion, the fact that the small magnetic has attached itself to the shaft is proof positive the pump was not built to specs.  The pump manufacturer is going to get me a new one from it's motor vendor.  I just have to figure out how to get through Mexican customs and delievered to the boat.

OIL FUTURES

I don't get it, the government in Tunsia was overthrown, Egypt is teetering on chaos, the king of Jordan has fired his government.  The Arab world may be on the brink of a paradigm change, in all likelyhood turning toward the ideals of the Islamic Brotherhood.  I have not heard much about Saudia Arabia, but I have read that there is wide-spread unhappiness with the monarchy.  If the lid comes off in Egypt I wonder if they are next.  Should the fundamentalists take over Saudi, they might turn off the tap, and we might end up competing with the Chinese for oil from Iran (that's a small joke I hope).  Yet through all this the markets are steady and oil futures are trading within it's three month range. 
.
I am wondering if I should get out of the market before the world gets any crazier.

STRUT DAY

The party is over. 

We're back at home and boat projects beckon.  Here's the immediate to do list:

1. Replace engine temprature sensor.
2. Trouble shoot holding tank level light.
3. Add a ring or two to shaft packing gland.
4. Replace generator raw water pump.
5. Finish companionway turtle: install new teak bungs and apply 8 coats of varnish
6. Adjust v-berth gas strut.

I did #1 Saturday.  #2 Saturday, and #6 was Monday's treat.  #1 was easy.  Drop the cooling water level in the heat exchanger, screw out the old sensor, screw in the new, turn on the engine and enjoy having a water temprature guage again.  Only it didn't work.  The darn guage is acting exactly like it did with the old "defective" sensor in place.  Guess that wasn't the problem.  I know the wiring harness is OK.  The source of my problems would now seem to be in the engine control panel.  This is where we enter high dollar land, and Volvo way over-charges for replacement parts.  Maybe I'll stick with the infrared temp sensor I bought in Cabo.  Price $97. It's a little pistol like thing that gives me the temprature of whatever I aim it at.  Pretty neat device.  Besides taking the temp of my engine, I never have to jump into the water without knowing how cold it is....to a tenth of a degree.  Anyway, Saturday's job was a big disappointment.

Sunday I needed a win, so I did job #2, removing the float that activates the holding tank high level alarm light.  Of course that meant opening up the holding tank, removing the alarm float and cleaning off the six years of poo that was stopping it from floating up and down on the liquid inside the poo tank.  Simple, yucky and sucessful. It now works good as new.  I hope the fix will last long enough to become the next owner's problem.  Nice to win one.

Monday was strut day.

In order to make the storage beneath the v-berth easily accessable, I installed gas struts underneath the bed to push it all up.  Mattress, sheets, blankets pillows all swing up without disturbing anything except Buster.

I installed the port side strut slightly out of alignment in order not to have to remove any wood from the bed supports, but the misalignment was causing the strut attachment points to wear badly and start popping free when the bed was raised.  So todays job was to move the strut into proper alignment, notching out as much wood as necessary.  The alignment is still not perfect, but much better then before.  Hopefully good enough.  We'll see...

Today I will start on job #3, add a ring of packing to the shaft seal.  The steps are: 1: unload lazerette  2: measure gland size.  3: reload laz.  4: take a bus ride into town to buy the packing.  5: happy hour.  6: tomorrow's problem.