Engine is fixed, heading South!

The engine is fixed and I’m underway. The front seals went, thus it was leaking oil all over the place. $1000 later, the seals were replaced and the raw water pump rebuilt. I headed out of Maz on 2/13, buddy boating with a friend named Temo. He has sailed around the world and is currently single-handling a 27 footer. We headed out around 11am with beautiful weather. I checked the engine about 2 hours into the trip and found it puking oil all over! I turned around and limped back into the marina, mostly with sail power. After looking at it, it appears the mechanic forgot to tighten a screw on the valve cover. It was fixed in an hour and I decided to go catch Temo.

Our plan was to depart Mazatlan and head for San Blas (Longfellow wrote a poem about the bells there or something….). It would be about a 26hr passage, first true single handling I’ve done. About 2am, my auto-pilot alarm went off stating I was off course. After checking everything, I found that I had no propulsion! Temo was about 4hrs ahead of me. I gave him a shout on the radio and told him to hold tight. I went below and checked the transmission and engine, everything appeared perfect. I then looked down into the water and saw white water as I throttled up but I didn’t go anywhere. My biggest fear….I lost the prop! I grabbed the big flood light and immediately identified the problem....I ran through a fishing net that had no buoys, lights or boats around. Just a couple floats on the line. I eventually found the two fishermen in their Panga about 300yrds away. I hit them w/ the search light and woke them up. After 10 minutes, they arrived and we cut the net. Luckily, it was just snagged on my skeg and not wrapped around the prop/shaft.

About 2 hours later, same thing! I didn’t panic; I simply looked for the Panga. Unfortunately for them, they were gone. I guess they dropped their nets in the middle of the ocean and went back to the shore! Highly illegal btw. Well, they’ll have a surprise in the morning. I grabbed my boat hook and cut the line myself. No fish for them……

That was about 4am. We sailed into San Blas around 3:30 pm on 2/14…about a 28hr trip. We spent 3 days there, and then headed out. PV is pretty expensive and hard to find an anchorage so we made the decision to bypass PV and head south. This trip will be about the same length but it’ll put us on the north end of what’s called the Mexican Riviera. From Chamela south, there are beautiful anchorages all the way down to Zijuantenejo, with each anchorage being appx. 4-12hrs apart….nice!!

Well, that’s all for now. The engine is purring (although a little bit of white smoke in the exhaust. It’s not overheating and oil pressure is good so I’m going with it). I’ll be hopping down the coast for the next 3 weeks, ending up in Zijuantenejo ready to party with The Millers (Steve/Christine/Kate) for 10 days). More later!

Dan

Carnival

Carnival will be an annual trip from here on out! I had an amazing time. Bands played non-stop with dancing and drinking till morning. This went on for 5 straight days! I never experienced a party where everyone was having such a good time. Parents, kids, teen-agers....everyone was dancing and laughing. Everyday when I got out of bed (around 1pm), I was gently reminded that I'm not so young anymore and I shouldn't try to compete with the mexicans down here....gringos will never win when it comes to partying and dancing but I'd like to think I gave them a run for their money.

Boat update: When I arrived from La Paz, I burned a lot of oil. Well....I came to find out that I didn't burn it, it leaked into my bilge. I had some guys take a look at it and the front seals are bad. I'm currently back in the marina getting the work done. I had to dismantle my kitchen and sinks and literally remove the cabinets to allow room for the mechanics to work. We're going on the 2nd full day and they hope to have it wrapped up shortly. Once finished, I'll take it on a test sail back down to Old Harbor south of Maz. If all is well, I'll turn around, head back out and point South to San Blas and PV. I plan on staying there for a few days, then logging some serious miles to get to Zijuantenjo by mid March. From there...who knows.

I'll be posting some pics from Carnival in the next day or so. Hope this email finds everyone well!

Dan