Season 2 – San Carlos
We’re skipping ahead a bit here, but after our last season took us as far south as Barra de Navidad, we retraced our route back up into the Sea of Cortez and ended Season 1 in San Carlos, Sonora. There we prepared Sonrisa to spend an entire summer ‘on the hard’ in a storage yard in the Sonoran desert.
We returned in October to find Sonrisa none the worse for wear after her long stint drying out in the desert. One of the portholes leaked during the torrential summer rains, but didn’t cause any lasting damage.
We called ahead to Marina San Carlos to have Sonrisa moved from the storage yard to the work yard before we arrived. The yard allows owners to live aboard while in the work yard, but not in the storage yard and we planned to rough it in the boatyard for just a couple of days put a quick touch-up coat of bottom paint before putting Sonrisa in the water and finishing her re-commissioning at the marina.
Unfortunately too many other cruisers had the same idea and the slips at the marina were completely full. Several boats were on waiting lists and some boats that were paying month-to-month even got bumped out of the marina by inbound reservations.
So our first change of plans was to spend more time in the boatyard and get Sonrisa prepped for the season there so that we could ‘launch and go’ without needing time at the marina.
Thankfully the weather gave us a break and the 100 degree temperatures we endured for the first two days abated and the rest of the week was a relatively pleasant mid to upper-eighties. Over the course of the next 10 days we slowly un-did all of the preparations we had made for Sonrisa’s summer in Sonora. First we cleared the cabin of the boat cover which was covering the decks until we had our caretaker remove it when hurricane Nora was forecast to make landfall in San Carlos (fortunately for us it turned and stayed well south of us). We then retrieved all of the canvas and put that back up to get some shade in the cockpit.
Next on the list was firing up the refrigerator and getting some food and drinks in there. We had brought some reflective bubble insulation to try wrapping the inside walls of the refrigerator box to see if we can eke out a bit more efficiency from the ancient refrigerator. That was when I noticed some caulking in the bottom of the refrigerator box had dried up and separated. Scraping that out revealed more issues. At some point in the past some extra insulation was added inside the refrigerator box and covered and caulked-in with a thin fiberglass sheet. The insulation was about an inch of thin foam and foil sheets and another inch of foam board. Unfortunately the sheets covered the refrigerator drain tube and were also spongy enough to allow the fiberglass sheet to move when pressed down on, breaking the seal and letting water soak into the insulation. The end result was a mass of wet (even after an entire summer in the desert) smelly insulation hidden under the false fiberglass floor. So before anything new went in, all that came out and after a quick trip to Home Depot for some new foam insulation board I re-constructed the extra insulated floor, but this time using solid foam board for a rigid bottom and creating a sealed drain tube to tie into the stock drain below. Hopefully the end result will give us a bit more efficiency from the fridge and prevent future moisture problems. Combined with the new foil lining the walls the fridge does seem to be staying colder even in the 90 plus degree heat.
As the days progressed Sonrisa started to wake up from her long summer slumber and although we were still in the boatyard, she was starting to feel like home again. Except rather than being at a sea-level dock with a lovely view, we were at the top of a ladder on the equivalent of the a second story in a dusty, noisy work yard.
As the launch-day approached we ticked to-do items off the list. Touch-up coat of bottom paint, grease and service the propeller, change the engine impeller, put the sails back on, attach the new solar panels to the bimini, retrieve all of the gear from storage and hoist onboard.
Finally the day came and right on schedule the Marina Seca staff wheeled a trailer under Sonrisa and towed her with a tractor back down to the boat ramp and into the water. Kristin and I went to Barracuda Bob’s for breakfast where we could watch for Sonrisa to arrive at the ramp. I was just finishing my breakfast burrito when Sonrisa came rolling around the corner and within a few minutes was in her native element again.
As customary, I had to make a quick trip below decks to confirm that there were no leaks before they released Sonrisa from the trailer. Crawling around the engine and bilges I checked the usual suspects – prop shaft seal, raw water intake and filter, speed transducer – no leaks. Giving the yard staff the all-clear they retrieved the trailer from under Sonrisa and I set about to get the engine fired up to move to our slip. Fortunately in the week we were in the yard, a 65-foot slip became available to reserve and the previous occupant thankfully cleared out early that morning so we actually had a place to go to.
The engine fired right up without hesitation. Looking over the stern, however, I could see that no water was coming out the exhaust. On an inboard engine like ours, the engine uses sea-water run through a radiator-like heat exchanger to cool the engine. After cooling the engine the sea water is dumped into the exhaust hose to cool it as well and is then blown out the stern with the exhaust. No sea water out of the exhaust means no cooling for the engine. I shut the engine down and felt the sea-water pump housing. It was pretty warm. I had just replaced the impeller and wondered if perhaps something was either wrong with the impeller or the installation. I removed the pump cover and a trickle of water came out past the impeller blades. I remove the intake hose and a gush of water came out. I wondered if perhaps some critters (bees, wasps) had taken up residence inside the inlet so I blew through the intake hose. I could feel no restriction and could hear the air bubble freely outside the hull. Hmm. Not finding any fault I put it all back together and fired up the engine again. Still no water, but I let it run a bit longer as I felt the intake hose and pump to try to determine if water was flowing. Finally after a nerve-wracking minute or so I heard the reassuring splash of water coming out the exhaust. Whew! The system was just so entirely dry that it just took that long for the water to fill the heat exchanger and muffler and finally start coming out the stern.
With Sonrisa back in her slip, I could do the last of the re-commissioning tasks that were best done in the water. We found a source for filtered water and put 20 gallons into the tank to get the water system started. Once we left the marina we would use the water maker to fill the tanks, but we needed something to use to flush the vinegar we had flushed the lines with and put some fresh water in to get underway. With water in the tanks I turned on the fresh water pump. The motor spun and spun but it lacked the ka-taka ka-taka sound that indicates it’s actually pumping. I checked the hose to the pump – no issue there, valves to the faucets – no issues there, turned on the pump and felt for suction – no suction. Hmm. I left the pump running and blew into the line leading to the pump. I could feel the intake valve pop free inside the pump and suddenly it had suction. Apparently the heat of the summer dried up the pump and the rubber valve stuck shut. I found a similar issue with the raw water intake hose for the water maker. The heat had softened the hose and it sagged on the fitting for the filter and crimped itself off. I trimmed the bent portion of the hose off and re-attached to the filter and all was well again.
The last task before setting off was to put a new joker valve in the head (toilet). This is a one-way rubber valve that prevents the black water from running back into the toilet from the line. They only last about a year or so and it was ready to be replaced at the end of the last season. It’s really good to have a functioning toilet for a multi-day passage and wanted to get that maintenance task out of the way for the season.
I removed the pump from the toilet and started scraping out the salt build-up that accumulates inside the pump. As I was getting ready to put in a fresh pump plunger and seal I noticed a black mark on the base of the pump. Looking closely I saw that it was actually a crack in the body of the pump, a crack that probably was sealed by the salt build-up that I just removed. Damn. Will it leak? We had noticed that there was a little water on the floor after a rough passage the previous season. I put the pump back together, turned on the water and worked the plunger. Damn. It leaks. Badly. I took the pump off again and broke out the Marine-Tex epoxy to fashion a patch. I left it to set and would try it in the morning, but with crew arriving for the passage to La Paz I was staring to wonder whether or not we’d be using a bucket for the passage.
Morning came and I turned on the VHF for the morning net. With the patched pump ready to be tried again I started looking online to see if I could source a new pump for our Raritan toilet in La Paz or get one imported. This isn’t the kind of thing you can get off-the-shelf at a hardware store. It could be difficult to source.
I listened to the morning net as I examined the cured epoxy patch on the pump. Would it hold? Maybe at least for a few days until we get to La Paz?
The VHF radio crackled away with the morning announcements: emergency traffic, check-ins, arrivals and departures, tides and weather, announcements, bay watch, local assistance, swaps and trades. The morning net is one my favorite morning rituals while cruising. I love hearing what’s going on and connecting with the cruising community over the radio.
“…swaps and trades come ahead now…”
“…yeah, I’ve got a brand-new Raritan PH-2 head I’d like to find a new home for if anyone is interested…”
Simultaneously Kristin and I froze and looked at each other in disbelief. Not just a new head (toilet), but the same exact freaking model. It would be a bolt-for-bolt swap to just replace the whole thing. Our entire time cruising so far this was the first time we’ve heard someone offering a toilet on the morning net, let alone exactly the one we needed on the exact day we needed it.
Before we set out cruising we sought the wisdom of experienced cruisers to help build our confidence that we could provide for ourselves far from our homeport. One wise cruiser impressed upon us his belief that if you keep a positive balance in your boat karma account, the universe will provide what you need. He told us a story about once he was helping a fellow cruiser in a remote anchorage build a mounting bracket for something important on her boat. They came to the conclusion that they could make the bracket work if they only could find a strong piece of teak to use for the base. “Like that one there?” she asked, pointing to a perfectly suitable piece of teak that just happened to be floating by at that very moment.
Without words Kristin and I both realized this was one of those moments.
I jumped to the VHF, grabbed the mike and stammered, “Sonrisa…”
“Come ahead Sonrisa” the net controller acknowledged.
“This is Sonrisa, could we get the name of the boat with the Raritan head again…”
By the end of the day I had made contact, tracked them down in the boatyard, and made arrangements to come back after we picked up our crew at the airport to pick up our new head.
The morning before our departure for La Paz, while Kristin and our new crew-mate Kellye made one last trip to the store, I swapped out Sonrisa’s toilet (easy-peasy) and with all systems operational were finally ready to start Season 2.