Sept 4th Penny’s and Deloy’s daughter Jackie died today. That was really a shock. Funeral is next Wednesday. We will stay in SLC for the Funeral.
Friday Sept 12, Headed back to the boat
Sept 13 Traveling until about 1:30 pm. Then started unloading the car.
Sept 14, Sunday
Finished unloading the car.
Spent the day trying to find places to put things away. Wow! What a job
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Journal: August 22, 2008
We are finally legal! Jerry got the paper work done and gave it to us. He never did send that paper to Mexico City. He still had it. He charged us $50 for his work! But he did get it done. I find that he has a lot of clout. I guess he can actually keep the lawyer out of the marina. Someone said that he is the nephew of the person who is in charge of all the marinas in this area. Whatever! I don’t care. We have our papers in order and we can take the boat out of the marina without fear of being boarded by the military and having the boat seized. Before, we could not.
Jerry told us he would send Alex with us to get it done at the office of Immigration, but when it came down to doing it, he just said, ‘you know where the office is, don’t you?’ Well, we did by this time, but we don’t speak the language. We went on over and guess who we found there, Silvano, the lawyer we had paid to help us. He helped us through the lines and interpreted for us. Then we offered to take him out to lunch. He asked to borrow $10. I gave it to him but I don’t think we will ever see it again. Maybe he felt like we owed him more, but I felt like we had paid him plenty. So anyway, that is over. We are legal.
And Jim had the boat bottom cleaned by the divers who are doing that for anyone who will pay.
Meanwhile, I tried to put my imitation feather comforter in the trunk of the car and messed up the guidance system. Then when I tried to fix the disc, I must have disconnected something. Now we don’t have a guidance system and we don’t have an air conditioner either.
I was talking to one of the cruising ladies here in the marina. She told me that Amazing Grace has a reputation up in Ventura. She said that the former owner there would fix one thing then have something else go bad. I think she meant the former owner before the one we bought it from. Actually, whoever did the fixing really must not have known how things went together because a lot of things were bypassed. But the seller did get us the papers when we needed them. We were very grateful for that, believe me. We got an email from him the other day and after reading that, we really think he didn’t suspect half of what was wrong with the boat he sold us. He even asked how our batteries were working. None of them would a charge! Boy!
Aug 23rd
I made bread today and washed the cover on the “couch” and the cover on one of the other cushions. 5 more to go and they will all be done. Jim worked on re-caulking the teak on the deck and he patched the whole in the back of the fridge. Our toilet still is not in San Diego. Either that or they forgot to tell us it came in. We were going to call them today, but didn’t do it. The Mexican attitude is setting in. Maybe we will do it manyana. No that is Sunday; maybe we will do it Monday.
Aug 24th
Yah!!! Wendy said they finished the work on the house. I am so grateful. Now the loan can close and we can quit paying “double rent”.
The band on the dock kept us up till 2AM. Then I couldn’t get to sleep after that. What a night. I missed church. I just could not get up. I didn’t get to sleep till after 6AM. I hear that the dock is scheduled to have a wedding every week end for the next few months. Oh dear, what will I do. I love the music but they play it so loud and so late. I have to get to sleep early if I am going to get up for church. It may be a mental block but whatever it is, it works to keep me from getting up. Maybe I will need to take naps on Saturday. I will think of something.
Jim looked at the engine today to see if he can find what is wrong there. He cleaned up a lot of oil and cussed a little. Then he put everything back together and decided to wash down the boat. The most exciting thing that happened today was Jim’s colorful language.
Aug 25th Monday
We got an email from Wendy. They have finished the house! This is the best news we have had in a lonnnnnng time! She is calling the bank today. We will be going back to sign the papers as soon as they tell us they are ready.
Today I started learning to do fiberglass on the boat. I spent the day building ledges to hold up shelves. It doesn’t seem to be setting up right. I will wait till tomorrow and see what happens.
Aug 24th Tuesday
My fiberglass didn’t set up. We spent the night smelling that stuff. The shelves are in the forepeak and our bed is right next to it and boy did it stink! We should have experimented with the resin before using it. We could not get instructions when we bought it because the clerk at the store didn’t understand what we needed to know.
After thinking about it, I decided to experiment after the fact. Then when I find how many drops it takes to make this stuff set up, I will put a layer over what I did yesterday. Maybe I can still save my work because I know this will set up eventually. If the top coat is dry we can go ahead.
I experimented and found that it takes about 60 drops of hardener to each cup of resin. I started out using 2 drops and gradually increased to 10 drops. No wonder it didn’t set up. Oh well! It will harden eventually.
I finished with the fiberglass we went to Home Depot to find wood. I bought one of each kind of wood molding they had except the quarter round. I came home with 3 pieces of molding and a sheet of plywood that they had cut for me so I could get it in the car. I was in the store for 2 and ½ hours because of the language barrier. I bet they were glad to see me leave.
We got word from Wendy, we need to be in SLC at the first of next week. We will leave here on Sunday and get there on Monday.
Wednesday Aug 25th
Jim helped me and we made shelves to fit on our fiberglass shelf braces. It took all day. I didn’t get the washing done. By the time we finished with the shelves and I put everything back into the forepeak I was very tired. I even left the dishes till tomorrow.
Thursday Aug 26th
Today I washed clothes and made bread. Jim worked on the bilge pump so that we can leave the boat. He got it working! It seems that the problem was in the switch that was supposed to turn it on and not in the pump itself. Then he decided to start looking at the holding tank again. He may need to bring his plasma cutter from SLC to cut it up and remove it. It is too big to remove without cutting it up. It extends under the bathroom wall and under the cupboard that is under the bed. It would be nice if he could fix it but how do you weld a tank if you cannot even see the seams?
We invited Sharon and Cris to come over tonight and watch Jim’s video on sailing in stormy weather. Then Jim didn’t get through working on the holding tank until too late. We just went to bed.
Friday, Aug 29th.
The toilet came in today. If we pick it up now we will need to carry it to SLC so we will get it on the way back.
Cris and Jim worked on the holding tank yesterday. It looks like the patches they put in it worked. Boy that was the worst job that has to be done. It will be so nice if that really works. We didn’t watch a video. We will just let them take the video home while we are gone.
Today we get ready to leave. Tomorrow we head back to SLC.
Sunday Aug 31st
We left about 10:00 AM Saturday and headed back to SLC. We stopped to see Karen. She had purchased a couple of bottles of Worcestershire sauce for me and some yarn and crochet hooks so that I can start a project. Then I will be able to join the group of ladies that meet at the café on Friday mornings and work on their projects.
I don’t know if I will make it over there but I am glad to have a project or two to work on. She found some real cute patterns and the yarn is pale blue, real soft and kinda crinkly. She got some other yarn too so I would have some choices. It will make a darling blanket. I will be able to just crochet without thinking to hard about it. She also had some jackets she gave me. They are one thing I have really missed. Since she has been living in a climate much like the one we are in, she knew exactly what I needed. She didn’t have a man’s jacket so she got a light blanket for Jim to wrap up in. She knew we were headed back to SLC to get a jacket but said she wanted us to take them anyway. I guess she didn’t think Cheri needed a jacket. Karen didn’t want to leave her out so she bought her a toy. We all thought it was Christmas in August.
It was really fun to see Karen again and we will be lonesome when she leaves for St George. She is moving there on Sept 19th. Even if we could not see her, it was nice to know she is so close (maybe about 150 miles from Ensenada). Maybe we can stop at her house in St. George on our next trip to SLC. Who Knows?
After leaving there we drove straight through to SLC. Jim drove hard because we wanted to get home. We arrived about 1:30 AM on Sunday morning.
In Salt Lake City
The first thing we saw when pulled in was the new porch railing that Tony built. It really adds character to the house. It looks great and he made a hand rail for climbing the steps too. Then when we got in the house we went directly to see the ceilings that he and Wendy had repaired and painted. They are gorgeous! They textured the three rooms that had the paint falling off the ceilings. They also painted the ceilings too. It makes those rooms look new.
I am so thankful for all the help and support we get from family and friends. I can’t explain the deep gratitude I feel when people are so unselfish and caring. I have so many blessings. Live is great!
Sunday
We woke up this morning to the sound of a knock on the door. Wendy and Tony had come over to get the house ready for our return. Ha! We fooled them didn’t we! We got here first. But the house didn’t need much getting ready.
It was a wet rainy day. We spent a couple hours talking to Tony and Wendy. Then they got ready to leave. We had parked in front of the car they left in the drive way to make it look like someone was home. When they went to move it, it wouldn’t start. Tony and Jim worked on it for a while but couldn’t get it to start. They had to call a tow truck to get it home.
Later we went out to eat because we had turned off the fridge so there wasn’t much to eat here. We stopped to get a supply of pet shampoo and then went out to Wendy and Tony’s house to go through the mail and the bills and to check the bank accounts. We will miss the internet while we are here at home.
Sunday went to church. Got there an hour late because I slept in.
Monday, Sept 1st, Tyler’s Birthday
We called Steve and Tyler to let them know that we were home and to wish Tyler a happy birthday. Trouble is I forgot to tell him Happy Birthday even though that is the reason I called.
It is raining and it is a holiday so I don’t know what we can accomplish. Today is Labor Day too.
Tuesday Sept 2nd
We closed on the loan on the house. So glad! No more house payments.
On September 4th Jackie Leavitt died of a massive heart attack. That was really a surprise and a very sad thing. We stayed in SLC for the funeral. It was a very nice funeral service but very small. It was good to see the family. Wendy attended with me. I am so grateful for her support in all the things I have been trying to do lately.
Funeral was held on Sept 10th. Then Jackie was taken home to Star Valley to rest.
We bought an industrial sewing machine on Friday and headed back to Ensenada with a car full to the top with all the things we couldn’t take on our first trip. We also had some fresh produce from our neighbor’s garden. That will be a welcome addition to our meals for a few days.
We are finally legal! Jerry got the paper work done and gave it to us. He never did send that paper to Mexico City. He still had it. He charged us $50 for his work! But he did get it done. I find that he has a lot of clout. I guess he can actually keep the lawyer out of the marina. Someone said that he is the nephew of the person who is in charge of all the marinas in this area. Whatever! I don’t care. We have our papers in order and we can take the boat out of the marina without fear of being boarded by the military and having the boat seized. Before, we could not.
Jerry told us he would send Alex with us to get it done at the office of Immigration, but when it came down to doing it, he just said, ‘you know where the office is, don’t you?’ Well, we did by this time, but we don’t speak the language. We went on over and guess who we found there, Silvano, the lawyer we had paid to help us. He helped us through the lines and interpreted for us. Then we offered to take him out to lunch. He asked to borrow $10. I gave it to him but I don’t think we will ever see it again. Maybe he felt like we owed him more, but I felt like we had paid him plenty. So anyway, that is over. We are legal.
And Jim had the boat bottom cleaned by the divers who are doing that for anyone who will pay.
Meanwhile, I tried to put my imitation feather comforter in the trunk of the car and messed up the guidance system. Then when I tried to fix the disc, I must have disconnected something. Now we don’t have a guidance system and we don’t have an air conditioner either.
I was talking to one of the cruising ladies here in the marina. She told me that Amazing Grace has a reputation up in Ventura. She said that the former owner there would fix one thing then have something else go bad. I think she meant the former owner before the one we bought it from. Actually, whoever did the fixing really must not have known how things went together because a lot of things were bypassed. But the seller did get us the papers when we needed them. We were very grateful for that, believe me. We got an email from him the other day and after reading that, we really think he didn’t suspect half of what was wrong with the boat he sold us. He even asked how our batteries were working. None of them would a charge! Boy!
Aug 23rd
I made bread today and washed the cover on the “couch” and the cover on one of the other cushions. 5 more to go and they will all be done. Jim worked on re-caulking the teak on the deck and he patched the whole in the back of the fridge. Our toilet still is not in San Diego. Either that or they forgot to tell us it came in. We were going to call them today, but didn’t do it. The Mexican attitude is setting in. Maybe we will do it manyana. No that is Sunday; maybe we will do it Monday.
Aug 24th
Yah!!! Wendy said they finished the work on the house. I am so grateful. Now the loan can close and we can quit paying “double rent”.
The band on the dock kept us up till 2AM. Then I couldn’t get to sleep after that. What a night. I missed church. I just could not get up. I didn’t get to sleep till after 6AM. I hear that the dock is scheduled to have a wedding every week end for the next few months. Oh dear, what will I do. I love the music but they play it so loud and so late. I have to get to sleep early if I am going to get up for church. It may be a mental block but whatever it is, it works to keep me from getting up. Maybe I will need to take naps on Saturday. I will think of something.
Jim looked at the engine today to see if he can find what is wrong there. He cleaned up a lot of oil and cussed a little. Then he put everything back together and decided to wash down the boat. The most exciting thing that happened today was Jim’s colorful language.
Aug 25th Monday
We got an email from Wendy. They have finished the house! This is the best news we have had in a lonnnnnng time! She is calling the bank today. We will be going back to sign the papers as soon as they tell us they are ready.
Today I started learning to do fiberglass on the boat. I spent the day building ledges to hold up shelves. It doesn’t seem to be setting up right. I will wait till tomorrow and see what happens.
Aug 24th Tuesday
My fiberglass didn’t set up. We spent the night smelling that stuff. The shelves are in the forepeak and our bed is right next to it and boy did it stink! We should have experimented with the resin before using it. We could not get instructions when we bought it because the clerk at the store didn’t understand what we needed to know.
After thinking about it, I decided to experiment after the fact. Then when I find how many drops it takes to make this stuff set up, I will put a layer over what I did yesterday. Maybe I can still save my work because I know this will set up eventually. If the top coat is dry we can go ahead.
I experimented and found that it takes about 60 drops of hardener to each cup of resin. I started out using 2 drops and gradually increased to 10 drops. No wonder it didn’t set up. Oh well! It will harden eventually.
I finished with the fiberglass we went to Home Depot to find wood. I bought one of each kind of wood molding they had except the quarter round. I came home with 3 pieces of molding and a sheet of plywood that they had cut for me so I could get it in the car. I was in the store for 2 and ½ hours because of the language barrier. I bet they were glad to see me leave.
We got word from Wendy, we need to be in SLC at the first of next week. We will leave here on Sunday and get there on Monday.
Wednesday Aug 25th
Jim helped me and we made shelves to fit on our fiberglass shelf braces. It took all day. I didn’t get the washing done. By the time we finished with the shelves and I put everything back into the forepeak I was very tired. I even left the dishes till tomorrow.
Thursday Aug 26th
Today I washed clothes and made bread. Jim worked on the bilge pump so that we can leave the boat. He got it working! It seems that the problem was in the switch that was supposed to turn it on and not in the pump itself. Then he decided to start looking at the holding tank again. He may need to bring his plasma cutter from SLC to cut it up and remove it. It is too big to remove without cutting it up. It extends under the bathroom wall and under the cupboard that is under the bed. It would be nice if he could fix it but how do you weld a tank if you cannot even see the seams?
We invited Sharon and Cris to come over tonight and watch Jim’s video on sailing in stormy weather. Then Jim didn’t get through working on the holding tank until too late. We just went to bed.
Friday, Aug 29th.
The toilet came in today. If we pick it up now we will need to carry it to SLC so we will get it on the way back.
Cris and Jim worked on the holding tank yesterday. It looks like the patches they put in it worked. Boy that was the worst job that has to be done. It will be so nice if that really works. We didn’t watch a video. We will just let them take the video home while we are gone.
Today we get ready to leave. Tomorrow we head back to SLC.
Sunday Aug 31st
We left about 10:00 AM Saturday and headed back to SLC. We stopped to see Karen. She had purchased a couple of bottles of Worcestershire sauce for me and some yarn and crochet hooks so that I can start a project. Then I will be able to join the group of ladies that meet at the café on Friday mornings and work on their projects.
I don’t know if I will make it over there but I am glad to have a project or two to work on. She found some real cute patterns and the yarn is pale blue, real soft and kinda crinkly. She got some other yarn too so I would have some choices. It will make a darling blanket. I will be able to just crochet without thinking to hard about it. She also had some jackets she gave me. They are one thing I have really missed. Since she has been living in a climate much like the one we are in, she knew exactly what I needed. She didn’t have a man’s jacket so she got a light blanket for Jim to wrap up in. She knew we were headed back to SLC to get a jacket but said she wanted us to take them anyway. I guess she didn’t think Cheri needed a jacket. Karen didn’t want to leave her out so she bought her a toy. We all thought it was Christmas in August.
It was really fun to see Karen again and we will be lonesome when she leaves for St George. She is moving there on Sept 19th. Even if we could not see her, it was nice to know she is so close (maybe about 150 miles from Ensenada). Maybe we can stop at her house in St. George on our next trip to SLC. Who Knows?
After leaving there we drove straight through to SLC. Jim drove hard because we wanted to get home. We arrived about 1:30 AM on Sunday morning.
In Salt Lake City
The first thing we saw when pulled in was the new porch railing that Tony built. It really adds character to the house. It looks great and he made a hand rail for climbing the steps too. Then when we got in the house we went directly to see the ceilings that he and Wendy had repaired and painted. They are gorgeous! They textured the three rooms that had the paint falling off the ceilings. They also painted the ceilings too. It makes those rooms look new.
I am so thankful for all the help and support we get from family and friends. I can’t explain the deep gratitude I feel when people are so unselfish and caring. I have so many blessings. Live is great!
Sunday
We woke up this morning to the sound of a knock on the door. Wendy and Tony had come over to get the house ready for our return. Ha! We fooled them didn’t we! We got here first. But the house didn’t need much getting ready.
It was a wet rainy day. We spent a couple hours talking to Tony and Wendy. Then they got ready to leave. We had parked in front of the car they left in the drive way to make it look like someone was home. When they went to move it, it wouldn’t start. Tony and Jim worked on it for a while but couldn’t get it to start. They had to call a tow truck to get it home.
Later we went out to eat because we had turned off the fridge so there wasn’t much to eat here. We stopped to get a supply of pet shampoo and then went out to Wendy and Tony’s house to go through the mail and the bills and to check the bank accounts. We will miss the internet while we are here at home.
Sunday went to church. Got there an hour late because I slept in.
Monday, Sept 1st, Tyler’s Birthday
We called Steve and Tyler to let them know that we were home and to wish Tyler a happy birthday. Trouble is I forgot to tell him Happy Birthday even though that is the reason I called.
It is raining and it is a holiday so I don’t know what we can accomplish. Today is Labor Day too.
Tuesday Sept 2nd
We closed on the loan on the house. So glad! No more house payments.
On September 4th Jackie Leavitt died of a massive heart attack. That was really a surprise and a very sad thing. We stayed in SLC for the funeral. It was a very nice funeral service but very small. It was good to see the family. Wendy attended with me. I am so grateful for her support in all the things I have been trying to do lately.
Funeral was held on Sept 10th. Then Jackie was taken home to Star Valley to rest.
We bought an industrial sewing machine on Friday and headed back to Ensenada with a car full to the top with all the things we couldn’t take on our first trip. We also had some fresh produce from our neighbor’s garden. That will be a welcome addition to our meals for a few days.
August 7, 2008
Yesterday I didn’t accomplish much. I made bread and tried to make hamburger buns. They didn’t turn out too well, mostly because they browned on the bottom but not on the top. I turned them over like pancakes and browned a little spot on the top to make them more appealing. White hamburger buns aren’t very appetizing. It is hard to fix a meal with no fridge. I go grocery shopping but can only buy meat for a few days. Then I have to get really creative to come up with things to eat. Luckily Jim is a good sport and tries to eat whatever I come up with. Sometimes it is a stretch.
I tried using Listerine to ward off mosquitoes and I think it worked. I sprayed it around the doors and windows. Last night I tried to put it all over me. I didn’t like the feeling of that too much. We really haven’t had much trouble with bugs of any kind. I am surprised at how few mosquitoes we have had here but one is one too many and we do get a few when the wind stops blowing. There is usually a breeze off the ocean and in the evenings it gets kinda cool. I wish I had remembered to bring a jacket. I taught my kids to never leave town without a jacket. Now look at me!
Today is our 44th wedding anniversary. We went to San Diego to buy a toilet. Isn’t that what everyone does on their 44th wedding anniversary? Actually, that is what I wanted to do. I am anxious to get a toilet that works correctly. We found a place that fixes sails and a place that repairs canvas and a place that sells marine toilets and things like that. Those are all different places. But they don’t have places like that in SLC. That was one of the things Jim had a problem with while he was trying to build his boat. We need to know where to get things. The toilet we wanted had to be ordered in. We went home without it. My toilet will have to wait.
I also went grocery shopping in San Diego. I found a store that is much more like the ones at home. I was able to get most of what I needed. We are beginning to get things stocked up on the boat. I even found roast beef in a can which I haven’t seen since I left SLC. Still couldn’t find Worcestershire sauce though.
Aug 9th 2008
We are sitting in the cockpit of the boat relaxing and enjoying the sun. I had to put up the sun shade so I didn’t get it in my eyes. The ocean is sparkling around us and the ripples are gently rocking the boat. We don’t feel the waves of the ocean here because we are on a harbor within a harbor. But the boat rocks gently. As usual, there is a breeze coming off the ocean. It feels so good. Wish everyone could be here with me. Our little cabin is fairly clean all the way through. I still have some walls to do, but they will wait.
We are beginning to feel more at home and getting to know some of the people here. They call themselves cruisers and now I guess we can call ourselves cruisers too. We are all just sitting here. None of us are actually cruising. Everyone is helpful and friendly. Well almost everyone.
Yesterday was a big day. I expected it to be a big day but I didn’t know how big it was going to be. I had planned to take the dog to get groomed. I had an appointment at 10:00. I wanted to go shopping while she was in the doggy beauty shop. Then I planned to go back to the boat and get the clothes and go to the laundry mat. I wanted to wash the walls and treat the wood while I had the sheets off the bed. Since the bed is enclosed on three sides by wood, that had to be done while the sheets and the bedding were not on the bed.
Well, this is what actually happened. I left at 9:30 to take the dog. But I could not find the groomer. After about 45 minutes of driving, I FINALLY found the shop. I dropped her off and went shopping. I spent the next 2 hours looking for a place to buy yarn. I did get a map of Ensenada but that didn’t help much. I finally went back to Wal-Mart because I knew there was a man there that spoke English well enough to help me. They don’t sell things like that at Wal-Mart. He could not help me but he knew someone who could. Another employee spoke English. She gave me instructions on how to get to the store that sold yard. Just then I got the first phone call on my Mexican phone, (except for Jim’s test calls). The groomer wanted me to pick up the dog. I said OK but wanted to stop at the yarn store first. While I was trying to find the yarn store, I got pulled over by the police. He said I had gone the wrong way on a one way street and did not stop for a stop sign. But worst of all, he came up behind me and honked and I didn’t pull over. How was I to know that police honked and you were supposed to pull over? I couldn’t speak Spanish and he couldn’t speak English. He was quite upset with me and I thought he might take me right to jail. I was so scared that I was shaking. In the end, he pulled over a person he knew who did speak English. After some translation, he just warned me and did not give me a ticket. I don’t even want to drive in that part of town again. It was pretty scary even without the police pulling me over. There were taverns and nightclubs and that kind of thing everywhere. I don’t think I would have found a yarn store anywhere near there. I forgot about the yarn and went to get the dog from the groomer.
I took her home and got the laundry and went to the laundry mat.
When I got back to the boat, I learned that Jim was not having a good day either. He had taken the chain out of the chain locker and found a pile of dried dirt in the bottom. He got out the wet/dry vacuum to clean it up. After vacuuming for a few minutes, he happened to look behind him and found that the vacuum was blowing the dirt all over the inside of the boat. The filter was missing and the dirt was just going in one side and out the other. He took the vacuum outside to finish but there was dirt all the way through the house. Not just dust. There was sand on the bed and on the bathroom counter and on the dinette. I was not very happy! But after a while I realized that it was a good thing that it happened before I cleaned the bedroom walls and not after. I emptied the forepeak of the boat again and began cleaning it up.
Meanwhile, Jim was cleaning some brass with vinegar. He set the bucket full of vinegar on the bench. The dog must have thought it was water. We thing she might have drank some of it. Maybe she just smelled it and got it on her whiskers. Poor dog! She wreathed and squirmed and tried to get it off her face. I tried to wash it off but she was squirming too much and I didn’t want to drown her. Jim took her out for a walk and she washed it off with dirt. Then she had a muddy face. Great! Well it seemed to help her. After that I washed her face as well as I could and she was much better.
I spent the rest the day cleaning the bedroom. I decided I still needed to take care of the wood before I made the bed. It was late and we were tired before we made it to bed.
Today I finished cleaning the mess up. This has been a great day. One of the other men who are working on their boats happens to be a refrigerator man. He really knows boat fridges and he has spent the day helping Jim with ours. It is getting cold inside now but they aren’t done yet. They want to use a different kind of Freon in it so they are filling it again.
Ron has been here working on his boat for 2 years. I hope it doesn’t take us that long. He has practically rebuilt his. IT is beautiful now with fresh varnish everywhere.
Joe is the doctor from Holland that is next to us in the slip spaces. He has an old gaff rig schooner. That means that the sails have a pole on top and are square on top like the old time sail boats. His is rather old fashioned but really neat. He is rebuilding the poles and things.
There is a couple from Germany across the way. And I talked to a man from Japan yesterday at the laundry mat. He is here getting ready for the big race. I believe it starts in Sept.
There are a lot of new people on the dock this week end. There is a family next to us. They seem to use their boat like a cabin. There is an older couple across from them. We will probably get to know them all sooner or later.
Aug 10th
Sunday and we are taking it easy. I am making chili and bread for anyone who wants to come join us.
I should have said that I am taking it easy. Jim ended up spending the day working on the fridge again. It didn’t stay cold so they decided they needed to change the unit. Then Jim decided to make it bigger. Let me explain how you make a fridge bigger. Our fridge is a hole in the cabinet. Inside the hole is a box that is lined with stainless steel and has a drain in the bottom. It has insulation around the outside, and on the back of the hole there was a stainless steel sheet with a bunch of holes in it. Outside there is a hole in the deck with a stainless steel box in it that joins to the one in the cabinet. The one on the deck was designed to place chunks of ice in. Then the cold was supposed to go through the holes in the stainless steel and into the fridge inside the cabinet. In the past, someone put some Styrofoam behind the divider and put a refrigeration unit in the hole in the cabinet. That no longer works. Jim took out the petition and is going to make the fridge as big as both compartments together. It was not easy to get the petition out. He spent all day trying to break the welds that held it in place. Without tools, that was a real challenge, but he did it.
Monday Aug 11th
Tonight they have the fridge working. I checked on our legality today and learned that the papers we need have probably been sent from the former owner of the boat to the dock master. We wait again. I think that on Wednesday I will ask the lady here who acts as an agent for people with problems like this to help us.
I learned the definition of cruising today. It was in a book I was reading. Cruising is “Doing boat maintenance in Exotic places”. Hay, we made it. That’s just what we are doing!
Journal: August 17, 2008
Well here it is Sunday again. Boy, how the time flies when you are having fun. I guess that means we ARE having fun. This afternoon we sat in the cockpit and relaxed. I didn’t want to do much, so I didn’t. After church we had lunch then I spent a few hours on email and then I relaxed till dinner time. Now I need to catch up on my journal.
Jim and Ron got the fridge running early in the week and before he left Ron said that we probably needed to line the whole box with a couple layers of one inch Styrofoam. Then he said we could use a sheet of fiberglass inside that to make it easy to clean. That sounded like a good idea to me. I could just see myself being successful at cutting the Styrofoam to fit and making the inside of the box neat and clean.
I spent the rest of the week cutting and fitting Styrofoam into the fridge. I had it pretty tight and looking snug and warm. I worked hard all day Friday cutting the sheets of plastic (not fiberglass) and gluing it to the inner layer of the foam and placing each piece into place carefully and snuggly. Jim cut the plastic for me. He is really much better at that than I am. I didn’t finish but I worked late and was very tired. I had spent most of the week on that fridge and Jim and Ron spent more than a week before that. Saturday morning I got up and looked into the hole on top of the freezer.
Everything had come unglued and was hanging down. The glue was not drying. It was just sitting there. It looked like I would have to start all over because the glue was not working at all.
I tried to get the pieces out and label each piece so I could reuse them but I had them pushed in so tightly that I could not get them out. I broke them when I tried to remove them. I couldn’t bear to start all over and spend another week. Jim really didn’t think it was necessary anyway. I gave up and told him we would do it his way.
He connected and mounted the freezing unit. Then he plugged the outside hole and turned on the fridge. Now we are trying it out. It is actually stainless steel inside and would be fine except there are places that have sharp edges. The fridge will probably use a lot of power like this but for now anyway, I have a fridge.
I went shopping Saturday afternoon and bought milk and eggs and meat and butter and things like that. Another hurtle has been passed! Three more to go then the house will be intact enough to live in. The water heater still leaks. The toilet needs replacing and the holding tank is a huge problem. Emotionally it has been a rough week.
I went into the office on Tuesday and again on Wednesday to see if our paper work had arrived. I was told it had not both times. Then there was a social on Wednesday. One of the other boaters introduced us to a lawyer they had been using to help them with their paper work. They suggested that perhaps he could help us get our paper work straightened out. We hired him to help us. The first thing he did was to take us to the immigration office. (Jerry told us we didn’t need to go there.) The lawyer got us Visas so we can stay here legally. We did have to pay a fine because we hadn’t done it earlier. Then the lawyer called the office and spoke to them about us. When we arrived back here at the dock, they would not let the lawyer in the marina. The dock master has barred him from the marina. The dock master (Jerry) complained to the authorities that he was trying to steal the marina’s customers and take them to other marinas. Jerry must get a kickback from fines we have to pay or something. (I don’t really think he is but we can’t figure out what his angle is.) We can’t understand why he would be angry about the people getting someone to help with their paper work. He should say thank you, but he is really angry with Silvano (the lawyer). He is also angry with the people who brought him to the marina. I don’t know if he is angry at us or not. He keeps telling me that we are legal. I know we are not. Silvano got our Visas for us but the boat is still registered in the country under the old owner’s name.
Thursday, I got proof from Fed Ex that our papers had been delivered here on Monday. Jerry said they had not opened the package because it was addressed to us. He said they will have our paper work done in about a week. I hope he doesn’t come up with something else.
The couple that brought Silvano into the marina is Sharon and Chris. They are also new to cruising. They have a boat that is similar to ours only newer, nicer, and bigger and it has everything Jim was building into the one in our back yard. They are nice people. I just have to remember that ours is paid for and if we had one like that, we would have a payment like theirs too.
They are quite friendly and trying to help everyone. Chris talks about 4 times as much as Amy and Steve put together. Actually Amy and Steve don’t talk as much as they used to. I wonder why! I rather enjoyed it myself. It was especially cute when they would try to be patient and let the other one tell the story. I miss my family and friends.
I see the little kids at church or other places and I wonder how my grand kids are doing. I really miss the kids. I just can’t let myself think about it right now.
We got an email from Karen. She may be able to come see us for a while before she leaves California. If she does not, we will go see her when the toilet comes in. I am surprised to see how our lives have started revolving around “when the toilet comes in”. That seems like it is going to be the next big occasion in our lives
Aug 19th
The toilet did not come in yet. I spent yesterday cleaning canvas coverings. Jim helped me take them off and I laid them on the dock and scrubbed them with a brush and some soapy water. Then I decided to take the rest to the laundry mat although other people didn’t advise it. I couldn’t get any quarters so I saved that job for today.
I spent the rest of the day yesterday scrubbing the main cabin. Now I have two of the three “rooms” done, the bedroom and the dining area. Just one more to go and that would be the kitchen and chart table area. It looks much better to me. I don’t really think Jim can see it. Someday maybe I will ask him.
Today I made bread and went to the laundry mat with the canvas. It washed up as well as I thought it would. I wonder if Amy knows any way to get rust or mildew out of material. I will have to ask her. She knows how to clean everything. The bread I made turned out real great. I have been experimenting with recipes. I think I found the right one. I will have to make a couple more loves tomorrow.
There is another couple here that is in a similar situation to ours. Their boat is bigger and better. I mentioned them before. I am going to take Sharon to the store tomorrow. I am really growing. Just a few weeks ago I needed someone to show me where the store was. This week I am showing her. She doesn’t have a car so she will need a ride.
We are noticing how tired we are at night. I think it is because of the steep learning curve that we seem to be on. We are tired and our joints ache. But someday we will look back and laugh. Meanwhile, the “house” is cleaner this week than it was last week and cleaner last week than it was the week before.
Jim sanded down part of one of the rub rails yesterday and varnished it. It looked really nice but when we got up this morning, it was all scarred up. I thought it looked like the rope had rubbed it in several places. Jim said that he didn’t know what it was but he knew it was not the rope. Hummm. Interesting!
I went up the office today and ask Jerry if our paper work was done. He said it was not. I ask him when I should come back. He said to come back tomorrow night. We will see. I found out that the lawyer we hired ended up in the hospital with a gall bladder attack. He got out today. I don’t know if we will see him again or not. Time will tell. He still cannot come back into the marina.
I lay in bed at night and I have the hatch over my head over open. I can see the stars up there above the mast that looks like a big cross above me. We listen to the sounds of the marina. Sometimes we can hear little crunchy noises. Jim thinks that little sea creatures are feasting on things that cling to the hull of the ship. Last night there was a bumping sound. There wasn’t much wind and the water was pretty still. It sounded like a piece of wood was bumping against the hull. Jim went to sleep so I decided there wasn’t much to worry about and I went to sleep too.
I am going to try again to send the pictures we took at La Bufadora. We will see what happens. Not today.
Aug21st
The toilet still did not come yet! I ask Jerry again this morning about the paper work. He said to come back later today. He said he would be here all day. I went back about 2pm and they said he was at lunch till 4pm. I will go back at 4pm and wait a while and see if he shows up.
We have learned that Jerry’s uncle is in charge of all the marinas in this area. That is probably where he got his authority. Rob Webb told us we need to be nice to him even if he is a flake because he is our link to the Mexican government. I keep trying to remember that.
We haven’t heard back from the lawyer since he got kicked out of the marina, Sharon and Chris said he went back to the hospital with a gall bladder attack and just got out. After Jerry does get out permit to be here, we might need Silvano to help get out 10 year permit for the boat.
I sat out in the cockpit for a while earlier and watched some pelicans diving for fish. There is one that has a baby pelican following her. Today I also saw another pelican that I decided was the father pelican. I tried to get pictures but my camera has a delayed reaction and didn’t get the best shots.
Jim is working on the rub rail again today. It is really obvious that he would rather work on the boat than the holding tank etc. I wonder why that would be so.
Well here it is Sunday again. Boy, how the time flies when you are having fun. I guess that means we ARE having fun. This afternoon we sat in the cockpit and relaxed. I didn’t want to do much, so I didn’t. After church we had lunch then I spent a few hours on email and then I relaxed till dinner time. Now I need to catch up on my journal.
Jim and Ron got the fridge running early in the week and before he left Ron said that we probably needed to line the whole box with a couple layers of one inch Styrofoam. Then he said we could use a sheet of fiberglass inside that to make it easy to clean. That sounded like a good idea to me. I could just see myself being successful at cutting the Styrofoam to fit and making the inside of the box neat and clean.
I spent the rest of the week cutting and fitting Styrofoam into the fridge. I had it pretty tight and looking snug and warm. I worked hard all day Friday cutting the sheets of plastic (not fiberglass) and gluing it to the inner layer of the foam and placing each piece into place carefully and snuggly. Jim cut the plastic for me. He is really much better at that than I am. I didn’t finish but I worked late and was very tired. I had spent most of the week on that fridge and Jim and Ron spent more than a week before that. Saturday morning I got up and looked into the hole on top of the freezer.
Everything had come unglued and was hanging down. The glue was not drying. It was just sitting there. It looked like I would have to start all over because the glue was not working at all.
I tried to get the pieces out and label each piece so I could reuse them but I had them pushed in so tightly that I could not get them out. I broke them when I tried to remove them. I couldn’t bear to start all over and spend another week. Jim really didn’t think it was necessary anyway. I gave up and told him we would do it his way.
He connected and mounted the freezing unit. Then he plugged the outside hole and turned on the fridge. Now we are trying it out. It is actually stainless steel inside and would be fine except there are places that have sharp edges. The fridge will probably use a lot of power like this but for now anyway, I have a fridge.
I went shopping Saturday afternoon and bought milk and eggs and meat and butter and things like that. Another hurtle has been passed! Three more to go then the house will be intact enough to live in. The water heater still leaks. The toilet needs replacing and the holding tank is a huge problem. Emotionally it has been a rough week.
I went into the office on Tuesday and again on Wednesday to see if our paper work had arrived. I was told it had not both times. Then there was a social on Wednesday. One of the other boaters introduced us to a lawyer they had been using to help them with their paper work. They suggested that perhaps he could help us get our paper work straightened out. We hired him to help us. The first thing he did was to take us to the immigration office. (Jerry told us we didn’t need to go there.) The lawyer got us Visas so we can stay here legally. We did have to pay a fine because we hadn’t done it earlier. Then the lawyer called the office and spoke to them about us. When we arrived back here at the dock, they would not let the lawyer in the marina. The dock master has barred him from the marina. The dock master (Jerry) complained to the authorities that he was trying to steal the marina’s customers and take them to other marinas. Jerry must get a kickback from fines we have to pay or something. (I don’t really think he is but we can’t figure out what his angle is.) We can’t understand why he would be angry about the people getting someone to help with their paper work. He should say thank you, but he is really angry with Silvano (the lawyer). He is also angry with the people who brought him to the marina. I don’t know if he is angry at us or not. He keeps telling me that we are legal. I know we are not. Silvano got our Visas for us but the boat is still registered in the country under the old owner’s name.
Thursday, I got proof from Fed Ex that our papers had been delivered here on Monday. Jerry said they had not opened the package because it was addressed to us. He said they will have our paper work done in about a week. I hope he doesn’t come up with something else.
The couple that brought Silvano into the marina is Sharon and Chris. They are also new to cruising. They have a boat that is similar to ours only newer, nicer, and bigger and it has everything Jim was building into the one in our back yard. They are nice people. I just have to remember that ours is paid for and if we had one like that, we would have a payment like theirs too.
They are quite friendly and trying to help everyone. Chris talks about 4 times as much as Amy and Steve put together. Actually Amy and Steve don’t talk as much as they used to. I wonder why! I rather enjoyed it myself. It was especially cute when they would try to be patient and let the other one tell the story. I miss my family and friends.
I see the little kids at church or other places and I wonder how my grand kids are doing. I really miss the kids. I just can’t let myself think about it right now.
We got an email from Karen. She may be able to come see us for a while before she leaves California. If she does not, we will go see her when the toilet comes in. I am surprised to see how our lives have started revolving around “when the toilet comes in”. That seems like it is going to be the next big occasion in our lives
Aug 19th
The toilet did not come in yet. I spent yesterday cleaning canvas coverings. Jim helped me take them off and I laid them on the dock and scrubbed them with a brush and some soapy water. Then I decided to take the rest to the laundry mat although other people didn’t advise it. I couldn’t get any quarters so I saved that job for today.
I spent the rest of the day yesterday scrubbing the main cabin. Now I have two of the three “rooms” done, the bedroom and the dining area. Just one more to go and that would be the kitchen and chart table area. It looks much better to me. I don’t really think Jim can see it. Someday maybe I will ask him.
Today I made bread and went to the laundry mat with the canvas. It washed up as well as I thought it would. I wonder if Amy knows any way to get rust or mildew out of material. I will have to ask her. She knows how to clean everything. The bread I made turned out real great. I have been experimenting with recipes. I think I found the right one. I will have to make a couple more loves tomorrow.
There is another couple here that is in a similar situation to ours. Their boat is bigger and better. I mentioned them before. I am going to take Sharon to the store tomorrow. I am really growing. Just a few weeks ago I needed someone to show me where the store was. This week I am showing her. She doesn’t have a car so she will need a ride.
We are noticing how tired we are at night. I think it is because of the steep learning curve that we seem to be on. We are tired and our joints ache. But someday we will look back and laugh. Meanwhile, the “house” is cleaner this week than it was last week and cleaner last week than it was the week before.
Jim sanded down part of one of the rub rails yesterday and varnished it. It looked really nice but when we got up this morning, it was all scarred up. I thought it looked like the rope had rubbed it in several places. Jim said that he didn’t know what it was but he knew it was not the rope. Hummm. Interesting!
I went up the office today and ask Jerry if our paper work was done. He said it was not. I ask him when I should come back. He said to come back tomorrow night. We will see. I found out that the lawyer we hired ended up in the hospital with a gall bladder attack. He got out today. I don’t know if we will see him again or not. Time will tell. He still cannot come back into the marina.
I lay in bed at night and I have the hatch over my head over open. I can see the stars up there above the mast that looks like a big cross above me. We listen to the sounds of the marina. Sometimes we can hear little crunchy noises. Jim thinks that little sea creatures are feasting on things that cling to the hull of the ship. Last night there was a bumping sound. There wasn’t much wind and the water was pretty still. It sounded like a piece of wood was bumping against the hull. Jim went to sleep so I decided there wasn’t much to worry about and I went to sleep too.
I am going to try again to send the pictures we took at La Bufadora. We will see what happens. Not today.
Aug21st
The toilet still did not come yet! I ask Jerry again this morning about the paper work. He said to come back later today. He said he would be here all day. I went back about 2pm and they said he was at lunch till 4pm. I will go back at 4pm and wait a while and see if he shows up.
We have learned that Jerry’s uncle is in charge of all the marinas in this area. That is probably where he got his authority. Rob Webb told us we need to be nice to him even if he is a flake because he is our link to the Mexican government. I keep trying to remember that.
We haven’t heard back from the lawyer since he got kicked out of the marina, Sharon and Chris said he went back to the hospital with a gall bladder attack and just got out. After Jerry does get out permit to be here, we might need Silvano to help get out 10 year permit for the boat.
I sat out in the cockpit for a while earlier and watched some pelicans diving for fish. There is one that has a baby pelican following her. Today I also saw another pelican that I decided was the father pelican. I tried to get pictures but my camera has a delayed reaction and didn’t get the best shots.
Jim is working on the rub rail again today. It is really obvious that he would rather work on the boat than the holding tank etc. I wonder why that would be so.
July 29, 2008
Yesterday we went looking for water. We had used all the bottles we had on board. We had been told that we could buy it at OXXO (a store like 7-11). One of our neighbors told us that OXXO would fill our bottles for a quarter. We found some big blue water bottles like the ones we had been told we needed and headed for OXXO. But when we got there OXXO told us they only sold bottled water and did not fill the bottles. Someone had given us bad information. Next the waiter in a café told us about a place that would fill our bottles. We spent ½ a day trying to find that place. We went back once and ask for better directions because we could not find it. We finally give up and brought our empty bottles back to the boat. We bought the bottled water from OXXO for $8 a bottle. We will look for the water store later.
When we got back to the boat, I took an old blanket apart to try to cover pieces of foam to make a mattress for our bed. The former owner left this blanket on the boat. It was heavy and lumpy and taking up space we needed for other things. It was full of kapok. I guess that is what you call it when they take material and grind it up into lint and fill a blanket with it. I was very careful but still had lint all over. Most of the mess came from getting it in the air. I tried to be really careful but I had lint everywhere. Then I went outside and shook the material out in the wind. The lint collected on the canvas covers on the boat. That was pretty messy too. Now I get to brush them clean. I worked on the mattress cover for several hours. I didn’t finish it because even though I sewed the pieces of foam together, they did not stay in place very well. I need some of the spray adhesive to make things stay in place. I will have to start over and do it right later after I get the spray and maybe some real material. It is hard to make a nice mattress from old worn out material. I will wait until I get real material. It would be nice to have my sewing machine too.
Jim started working on the refrigeration system. He fixed the motor and then found that the thermostat didn’t work. Ok, he could replace that fairly easily but next he found that there was no Freon in the system so the fridge would not cool. He had to remove the fridge from where it was mounted down inside a compartment of the boat. While he was working on that, he found a leak in the water system that is coming from the hot water heater he fixed last week. He took the refrigeration unit out so he could inspect the lines for a Freon leak. He was pretty discouraged and he decided to take a break and do something he wanted to do.
He had taken the dingy off the boat and put it in the water. The glue they had used on the railing was dry and he decided to hang the dingy on the davits (dingy hangers). The dingy is the boat you are supposed to use to go back and forth to the shore if you don’t have a slip space. When he hung the dingy the rail broke again. He will have to redo that repair job with some reinforcement. You would expect him to take the rest of the day off but he didn’t. He just puttered around the boat for a while doing little repairs and adjustments.
Yesterday, he decided to install the tank that keeps the pump from running all the time. This is a little water tank we bought while we were in San Diego last week. It has a name but I don’t remember it. Those of you who understand plumbing motor homes will know what tank I mean. We also bought a pump to empty the holding tank with. I think every pump on this boat needs replacing. There are 11 of them. He installed the tank and the pump and then he ran some water into the holding tank to flush it a little. The smell was terrible from installing the pump. At least that is what I thought was causing the stink because he had to open to line into the holding tank to install the pump. Sewage had spilled into the boat. The boat had always had an odor that we have not been able to track down but now the odor was horrid.
He cleaned the bilge several times and the odor just kept getting worse. He finally tried pumping the holding tank out. Boy did that make a smell. Our neighbor complained and I was really worried about getting in trouble. The smell outside finally thinned out. I think that was the first time in days that the breeze was not blowing.
He decided that the holding tank must have a leak in it and when he flushed some water into it he must have dislodged something because no matter how many times he cleaned the bilge the odor was still there. And the bilge kept filling up with stinky stuff again.
We finally gave up and went to bed about midnight. The smell was still terrible and we wished we could take our bed out and sleep in the cockpit. Jim got up once and would have tried again to solve the problem except I insisted that he come back to bed and try to get some sleep. I am ready to take this boat to the boat repair shop and tell them to fix everything. Jim says we can’t afford that and I know he is right but I still think that is the only solution. Maybe we could go back to SLC and work until they repair all the systems on the boat, the fridge, the water heater, the sewer, the water, all the water pumps and hoses. Then we could use the money we earn to pay for the repairs.
Well today is another day. It is a very stinky day. We slept a little but the smell was overpowering. It is still there today. I am sitting in the cockpit playing on my computer. Jim is vacuuming up the water in the bilge for the 100th time. He has found two more leaks in the water system and fixed one of them. I don’t know how he can stand to be down there in the boat. I am in the cockpit and I can hardly stand the smell. Our neighbor is having a problem with the smell too.
This IS an adventure. I wonder what our next adventure is going to be. I am not sure I want to know.
August 2nd
Today is a better day. One of the ladies from another boat invited me to meet with a group of ladies on Friday morning and do needle work or something. Humm. I wonder what I could do. It has been quite a while since I did anything like that and I left all my craft supplies in SLC.
I got really tired of not having anything for dinner that needs to be refrigerated. I went to the store and bought real meat. The grocery store we went to was very much like home. I wonder if I am adjusting or just finding better places to shop.
I have a book that tells me how to keep meat fresh for a few days without a fridge. I will try that. For Sunday dinner, we will have a real roast, cooked in the crock pot. The book said that you can cook meat and leave it on the stove with a lid on it. If you heat it every day to boiling for a few minutes and leave the lid in place, it will keep for a few days. It seems to me that would work. I am going to try it. August 3rd
Today, live is great! This is Sunday and I went to church today. The smell is gone. Jim finally put some Clorox in the tank and flushed out all of the smelly stuff. Now the boat smells good. I used our little shower for the first time last night. We have been using the public shower on shore. Our little shower was so nice! The water was hot! It felt so good. Isn’t it funny how grateful you can be for such small things?
We figure we only have 4 more problems to solve before this place can be a comfortable place to live. The holding tank is the biggest problem. The leak in the water heater is another problem. The fridge needs to work and the toilet needs a lot of repair. The way the toilet is now, the whole ocean will fill the boat if we leave the valve open. That won’t do.We have decided that we need to go back home to SLC and close the loan on the house. We will have to do some work on the house in order to do that. Then we will be able to come back and stay here as long as we find it convenient.
I attended the correct ward today. I liked the other ward a little better. Maybe that is because it was the first. People here are very helpful and anxious to make me feel welcome. For some reason, they are not using the Joseph Smith Teachings in RS. I wish I could ask what book they are using, but I can’t seem to get my question across. The people are very thoughtful and helpful.
We plan on returning to SLC as soon as we can get the paperwork from the boat sale straightened out. The broker left us without the proper papers to be here. The dock master said that we are legal but I just don’t think so. Kevin, the former owner, did not have his entrance paper with him when we bought the boat. They could not issue his exit paper. That means that we could not get our entrance paper which we need to get the proper paper work done. The dock master says we are legal but we don’t know if we can depend on what he says. We got the paper we needed and gave it to him. Now after waiting 2 weeks he tells us they need more paperwork from the former owner. We hope this all works out OK. Things are looking up and I think the worst is behind us now.
I was reading this journal to Jim to see what he thought, before I sent it. He said that I make it sound like we have had nothing but problems!!! Gosh, I wonder why I make it sound like that! Well things are looking better now. They really are. It is all in your attitude and Jim is actually much happier than he has been for quite a while. He is right at home and he is willing to fix whatever needs to be fixed so It will all work out.
Aug 4th
Jim worked on the toilet. He cleaned clogged hoses etc. We learned we have to replace many more hoses and also the toilet. Oh Well. This means we get a new toilet. That is a good thing. We also got an email from Wendy and Tony. Tony and Wendy will try to take care of the repairs on the house. They will let us know if there are things they cannot do. That is wonderful! Hopefully that will save us an expensive trip to Utah.
Aug 5th
We took the day to go exploring. We went to La Bafadora. That is the blow hole that is around to the other side of the gulf. If you look at a map, there is a chunk of land missing that looks like a circle. We are on the north side of the circle. La Bafadora is on the south side. It was fun and I took many pictures. There were about two blocks worth of stands on both sides of the road you walk down to get to the blowhole. People were trying to sell things there. I want a bracelet but they charged too much there.
We did stop and eat lunch at the Hanana Banana. We had a great view of the ocean and the food was very good, but mine had jalapeno peppers all over in it. Wow! I wonder if I will ever get used to them. But it was really good anyway.
Then we also found a dog groomer, the water store and a fabric store. And I made a new friend. That makes two that live here at the marina. This lady has lived here in Mexico on a boat for 7 years. Her husband got Parkinson’s so they can’t go sailing any more but she loves it here so she stays. Her name is Kim. She gave us a lot of advice. I will try to send some pictures with this. I do not know if I can.
Love you all,
Donna and Jim
Yesterday we went looking for water. We had used all the bottles we had on board. We had been told that we could buy it at OXXO (a store like 7-11). One of our neighbors told us that OXXO would fill our bottles for a quarter. We found some big blue water bottles like the ones we had been told we needed and headed for OXXO. But when we got there OXXO told us they only sold bottled water and did not fill the bottles. Someone had given us bad information. Next the waiter in a café told us about a place that would fill our bottles. We spent ½ a day trying to find that place. We went back once and ask for better directions because we could not find it. We finally give up and brought our empty bottles back to the boat. We bought the bottled water from OXXO for $8 a bottle. We will look for the water store later.
When we got back to the boat, I took an old blanket apart to try to cover pieces of foam to make a mattress for our bed. The former owner left this blanket on the boat. It was heavy and lumpy and taking up space we needed for other things. It was full of kapok. I guess that is what you call it when they take material and grind it up into lint and fill a blanket with it. I was very careful but still had lint all over. Most of the mess came from getting it in the air. I tried to be really careful but I had lint everywhere. Then I went outside and shook the material out in the wind. The lint collected on the canvas covers on the boat. That was pretty messy too. Now I get to brush them clean. I worked on the mattress cover for several hours. I didn’t finish it because even though I sewed the pieces of foam together, they did not stay in place very well. I need some of the spray adhesive to make things stay in place. I will have to start over and do it right later after I get the spray and maybe some real material. It is hard to make a nice mattress from old worn out material. I will wait until I get real material. It would be nice to have my sewing machine too.
Jim started working on the refrigeration system. He fixed the motor and then found that the thermostat didn’t work. Ok, he could replace that fairly easily but next he found that there was no Freon in the system so the fridge would not cool. He had to remove the fridge from where it was mounted down inside a compartment of the boat. While he was working on that, he found a leak in the water system that is coming from the hot water heater he fixed last week. He took the refrigeration unit out so he could inspect the lines for a Freon leak. He was pretty discouraged and he decided to take a break and do something he wanted to do.
He had taken the dingy off the boat and put it in the water. The glue they had used on the railing was dry and he decided to hang the dingy on the davits (dingy hangers). The dingy is the boat you are supposed to use to go back and forth to the shore if you don’t have a slip space. When he hung the dingy the rail broke again. He will have to redo that repair job with some reinforcement. You would expect him to take the rest of the day off but he didn’t. He just puttered around the boat for a while doing little repairs and adjustments.
Yesterday, he decided to install the tank that keeps the pump from running all the time. This is a little water tank we bought while we were in San Diego last week. It has a name but I don’t remember it. Those of you who understand plumbing motor homes will know what tank I mean. We also bought a pump to empty the holding tank with. I think every pump on this boat needs replacing. There are 11 of them. He installed the tank and the pump and then he ran some water into the holding tank to flush it a little. The smell was terrible from installing the pump. At least that is what I thought was causing the stink because he had to open to line into the holding tank to install the pump. Sewage had spilled into the boat. The boat had always had an odor that we have not been able to track down but now the odor was horrid.
He cleaned the bilge several times and the odor just kept getting worse. He finally tried pumping the holding tank out. Boy did that make a smell. Our neighbor complained and I was really worried about getting in trouble. The smell outside finally thinned out. I think that was the first time in days that the breeze was not blowing.
He decided that the holding tank must have a leak in it and when he flushed some water into it he must have dislodged something because no matter how many times he cleaned the bilge the odor was still there. And the bilge kept filling up with stinky stuff again.
We finally gave up and went to bed about midnight. The smell was still terrible and we wished we could take our bed out and sleep in the cockpit. Jim got up once and would have tried again to solve the problem except I insisted that he come back to bed and try to get some sleep. I am ready to take this boat to the boat repair shop and tell them to fix everything. Jim says we can’t afford that and I know he is right but I still think that is the only solution. Maybe we could go back to SLC and work until they repair all the systems on the boat, the fridge, the water heater, the sewer, the water, all the water pumps and hoses. Then we could use the money we earn to pay for the repairs.
Well today is another day. It is a very stinky day. We slept a little but the smell was overpowering. It is still there today. I am sitting in the cockpit playing on my computer. Jim is vacuuming up the water in the bilge for the 100th time. He has found two more leaks in the water system and fixed one of them. I don’t know how he can stand to be down there in the boat. I am in the cockpit and I can hardly stand the smell. Our neighbor is having a problem with the smell too.
This IS an adventure. I wonder what our next adventure is going to be. I am not sure I want to know.
August 2nd
Today is a better day. One of the ladies from another boat invited me to meet with a group of ladies on Friday morning and do needle work or something. Humm. I wonder what I could do. It has been quite a while since I did anything like that and I left all my craft supplies in SLC.
I got really tired of not having anything for dinner that needs to be refrigerated. I went to the store and bought real meat. The grocery store we went to was very much like home. I wonder if I am adjusting or just finding better places to shop.
I have a book that tells me how to keep meat fresh for a few days without a fridge. I will try that. For Sunday dinner, we will have a real roast, cooked in the crock pot. The book said that you can cook meat and leave it on the stove with a lid on it. If you heat it every day to boiling for a few minutes and leave the lid in place, it will keep for a few days. It seems to me that would work. I am going to try it. August 3rd
Today, live is great! This is Sunday and I went to church today. The smell is gone. Jim finally put some Clorox in the tank and flushed out all of the smelly stuff. Now the boat smells good. I used our little shower for the first time last night. We have been using the public shower on shore. Our little shower was so nice! The water was hot! It felt so good. Isn’t it funny how grateful you can be for such small things?
We figure we only have 4 more problems to solve before this place can be a comfortable place to live. The holding tank is the biggest problem. The leak in the water heater is another problem. The fridge needs to work and the toilet needs a lot of repair. The way the toilet is now, the whole ocean will fill the boat if we leave the valve open. That won’t do.We have decided that we need to go back home to SLC and close the loan on the house. We will have to do some work on the house in order to do that. Then we will be able to come back and stay here as long as we find it convenient.
I attended the correct ward today. I liked the other ward a little better. Maybe that is because it was the first. People here are very helpful and anxious to make me feel welcome. For some reason, they are not using the Joseph Smith Teachings in RS. I wish I could ask what book they are using, but I can’t seem to get my question across. The people are very thoughtful and helpful.
We plan on returning to SLC as soon as we can get the paperwork from the boat sale straightened out. The broker left us without the proper papers to be here. The dock master said that we are legal but I just don’t think so. Kevin, the former owner, did not have his entrance paper with him when we bought the boat. They could not issue his exit paper. That means that we could not get our entrance paper which we need to get the proper paper work done. The dock master says we are legal but we don’t know if we can depend on what he says. We got the paper we needed and gave it to him. Now after waiting 2 weeks he tells us they need more paperwork from the former owner. We hope this all works out OK. Things are looking up and I think the worst is behind us now.
I was reading this journal to Jim to see what he thought, before I sent it. He said that I make it sound like we have had nothing but problems!!! Gosh, I wonder why I make it sound like that! Well things are looking better now. They really are. It is all in your attitude and Jim is actually much happier than he has been for quite a while. He is right at home and he is willing to fix whatever needs to be fixed so It will all work out.
Aug 4th
Jim worked on the toilet. He cleaned clogged hoses etc. We learned we have to replace many more hoses and also the toilet. Oh Well. This means we get a new toilet. That is a good thing. We also got an email from Wendy and Tony. Tony and Wendy will try to take care of the repairs on the house. They will let us know if there are things they cannot do. That is wonderful! Hopefully that will save us an expensive trip to Utah.
Aug 5th
We took the day to go exploring. We went to La Bafadora. That is the blow hole that is around to the other side of the gulf. If you look at a map, there is a chunk of land missing that looks like a circle. We are on the north side of the circle. La Bafadora is on the south side. It was fun and I took many pictures. There were about two blocks worth of stands on both sides of the road you walk down to get to the blowhole. People were trying to sell things there. I want a bracelet but they charged too much there.
We did stop and eat lunch at the Hanana Banana. We had a great view of the ocean and the food was very good, but mine had jalapeno peppers all over in it. Wow! I wonder if I will ever get used to them. But it was really good anyway.
Then we also found a dog groomer, the water store and a fabric store. And I made a new friend. That makes two that live here at the marina. This lady has lived here in Mexico on a boat for 7 years. Her husband got Parkinson’s so they can’t go sailing any more but she loves it here so she stays. Her name is Kim. She gave us a lot of advice. I will try to send some pictures with this. I do not know if I can.
Love you all,
Donna and Jim
July 28, 2008
We have been here a week and a half. Jim is working on getting the refrigeration system working. It looks like it needs Freon, Of course. He got the compressor working and then it wouldn’t cool. It appears that the thermostat is broken too. This is getting kinda old. Last week he rebuilt the pump that empties the holding tank only to have it go bad again. He repaired the toilet then it flooded over because it was siphoning the ocean into our bilge. He hasn’t fixed that yet. He also repaired the hot water heater and the pump to the fresh water system, replaced hoses and fixed the leaky water tank. He is making progress but we find new things that need fixing every day. But on the bright side, we now have hot running water and a toilet, as long as we shut it off when we aren’t using it.
Yesterday we drove up to San Diego to go grocery shopping. I was tired of trying to guess what I was buying. But in San Diego, it wasn’t much better. I knew what I was buying but it was a lot like Christmas shopping with bumper to bumper people and not much to choose from because I went to Costco and I can’t use those big cans. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get the rest of the things on my list and to my surprise, Wal-Mart was more like a 7-11 with no meat and no produce and very little of anything else to eat. The canned fruit and vegetable section was about 7 feet long and the baking section was about 7 more feet on the other side of the isle. No small vegetable cans at all. They had a lot of clothes and other things though. I got some of the basics but the only meat I got was canned tuna and chicken. Oh well, that is a start.
I went to church for the first time today. I found the ward myself and everything. The people were so friendly and helpful that I felt right at home even if I didn’t understand what most of them said. I learned that I was in the wrong ward. I need to go at 9:00. I really want to stay with this ward because they are so friendly but I will do what I am supposed to do. One of the members sat by me and pointed to all the words in the song book so that I could sing with them. Then they found someone to sit buy me who could interpret. I wonder what I can do for them?? The chorister sang the opening to the songs. They didn’t have a piano player. She just sang the first line then started over with everyone singing with here. I wished I could go play the piano. Where is Mary Ella when you need her?
Jim has made friends with two other sailors who have similar boats. They are both here fixing things. The three of them have a lot in common. One of them fixes refrigerators. (What good fortune is that?) The other came over and tried to mend the wooden rail around the top of our boat. He had some glue that he thinks will fix it. That was really nice of him. He is a retired MD from Holland. He has been sailing for a year and a half. His name is Joe. We offered him our leftover dinner in exchange which he gladly accepted.
The plan is for Jim to climb the mast tomorrow and check the rigging. Scary business! I plan on trying to remake a mattress pad we got for the bed. It needs to be cut to fit and covered. I wish I had my sewing machine.
We have been here a week and a half. Jim is working on getting the refrigeration system working. It looks like it needs Freon, Of course. He got the compressor working and then it wouldn’t cool. It appears that the thermostat is broken too. This is getting kinda old. Last week he rebuilt the pump that empties the holding tank only to have it go bad again. He repaired the toilet then it flooded over because it was siphoning the ocean into our bilge. He hasn’t fixed that yet. He also repaired the hot water heater and the pump to the fresh water system, replaced hoses and fixed the leaky water tank. He is making progress but we find new things that need fixing every day. But on the bright side, we now have hot running water and a toilet, as long as we shut it off when we aren’t using it.
Yesterday we drove up to San Diego to go grocery shopping. I was tired of trying to guess what I was buying. But in San Diego, it wasn’t much better. I knew what I was buying but it was a lot like Christmas shopping with bumper to bumper people and not much to choose from because I went to Costco and I can’t use those big cans. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get the rest of the things on my list and to my surprise, Wal-Mart was more like a 7-11 with no meat and no produce and very little of anything else to eat. The canned fruit and vegetable section was about 7 feet long and the baking section was about 7 more feet on the other side of the isle. No small vegetable cans at all. They had a lot of clothes and other things though. I got some of the basics but the only meat I got was canned tuna and chicken. Oh well, that is a start.
I went to church for the first time today. I found the ward myself and everything. The people were so friendly and helpful that I felt right at home even if I didn’t understand what most of them said. I learned that I was in the wrong ward. I need to go at 9:00. I really want to stay with this ward because they are so friendly but I will do what I am supposed to do. One of the members sat by me and pointed to all the words in the song book so that I could sing with them. Then they found someone to sit buy me who could interpret. I wonder what I can do for them?? The chorister sang the opening to the songs. They didn’t have a piano player. She just sang the first line then started over with everyone singing with here. I wished I could go play the piano. Where is Mary Ella when you need her?
Jim has made friends with two other sailors who have similar boats. They are both here fixing things. The three of them have a lot in common. One of them fixes refrigerators. (What good fortune is that?) The other came over and tried to mend the wooden rail around the top of our boat. He had some glue that he thinks will fix it. That was really nice of him. He is a retired MD from Holland. He has been sailing for a year and a half. His name is Joe. We offered him our leftover dinner in exchange which he gladly accepted.
The plan is for Jim to climb the mast tomorrow and check the rigging. Scary business! I plan on trying to remake a mattress pad we got for the bed. It needs to be cut to fit and covered. I wish I had my sewing machine.
July 4, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Last January Jim was in the hospital again with chest pain. They had a hard time finding the problem. They assured us that it was not his heart this time but could not find the problem right away. When they took some x-rays of this chest they discovered emphysema. This was really a worry for me.
Jim has been working on his boat for about 8 years. But let me go back a bit. When he was about 10 or 12 years old he was in the sea scouts. He used to go to the lake with them and on one occasion he was given his own sail boat. But there was a catch. It was under the water. He had to figure out a way to raise it up. He said that he would go out to the marina and look at the boat and wonder how he could do it. But he never figured it out.
When we first got married we took a trip to San Diego to see where he had spent so much time when he was in the navy. We looked at the boats and I fell in love with the climate and the foliage in Southern California. (Everybody does.) Jim told me that when he was in the navy they had sailed past some small islands in the pacific. He really wanted to stop and spend some time. He could not do that while he was on the navy cruiser but he vowed that someday he would go back and spend some time on those islands. While we were in San Diego, we decided that someday we would like to live there. But that never happened.
The pressures and pleasures of reality pushed that idea to the back of our minds. But Jim never gave up the dream he had of sailing back to see the little tropical islands and spend some time there. Several times over the years, we made a trip to the Pacific coast to watch the boats. Many times we walked up and down the slips and talked about how we would do this or that if we ever had the chance to get a boat and go sailing. On one trip, we went to see a broker and told him we were interested in getting a boat. He took us to see boats that were for sale and we had a chance to “check out” the interior of many of them. There were two kinds that we really liked. One was the Hans Christian. It was a very expensive and beautiful boat with a lot of wood and both ends were the same shape. The other kind of boat that we really liked was the Taiwanese boats. There were about three different kinds of Taiwanese boats. They looked pretty much the same. They had beautiful lines and lots of wood. They were built for world cruising with a full keel and lots of storage space (for a boat). Of course we could not get one at that time. They just cost too much.
The years went by and we raised a family. Sometimes Jim would talk about how much he wanted to get away from the lifestyle we had and live on a boat. At one time we were able to move to Fruitland and try living away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I really loved the country but there was no way to earn a living there so we had to return to the city.
Later we bought a 22 foot sail boat and the whole family took the Coast Guard Sailing Course. We sailed that boat many times on the lake and on the reservoirs. We thought at the time that we would trade it in for a down payment on an ocean going boat. That didn’t happen either.
When our children left home we decided to sell the house and start working toward going sailing. We moved into a mobile home in Sandy that we had paid for with the equity from our home in Holiday. Jim started looking around for a place he could build a boat. We both had decided that we would never be able to afford to buy one. We didn’t want to go into debt for one because if you are in debt, you need to work to pay for it and you can’t sail around the world while you are holding a job in one place.
When mother died, she left us a home in Magna that was being rented at the time. It was in pretty poor shape, but it had a back yard where we thought we could build a boat. We moved there and Jim spent the next two years remodeling the house so that it was livable. Then he started working on the boat.
He has worked on the boat for the last eight years. But last January when he was told that he had emphysema, working on the boat became a problem. Now when he would come in from working on the boat with black dust from grinding the metal, I worried about his lungs. So did he. We tried different breathing systems but could not find one that worked to prevent the black dust from getting into his nose. I began praying that he would have a chance to live his dream because he had wanted it so bad for so long. Then the chance came for us to get a boat.
May 26th 2008 found us in San Diego looking at boats again. Jim had been looking at boats on the Internet and found several boats he was interested in. He had called the broker and made an appointment to see them. We spent that weekend looking at boats and came to the conclusion that we would never be able to afford one that would be able to take us cruising. The broker told us that we could offer less than the owners were asking and they would probably counter offer. He said this was customary in the boating world. So we placed an offer on a boat. It needed a lot of work. But it was one of those Taiwanese boats that we had fallen in love with so long ago. The owner refused to even consider our offer because it was so low. But we felt like he had overpriced his boat to start with. We returned home discouraged and feeling like it would never happen.
I kept praying that something would come along that would make it possible for Jim to live his dream, or that he would get over it and find another goal. Then it happened. Jim was looking at boats on the Internet and he found one in Ensenada Mexico that was just perfect. It was priced low for quick sale because the owner really needed the money. Jim called the broker and asked him if he could arrange for us to make an offer on the boat. He did. Jim made an offer on the Internet before we had ever seen the boat. The owner accepted the offer without even countering. The boat is called Amazing Grace. What a coincidence!
Things began to happen quickly after that. I gave my notice at work and finished up there on Thursday June 21st. By Sunday we were on our way to Mexico. On June 24th we were in Ensenada on a boat that was the same make as the one that had needed so much work.
This boat is in much better condition and the floor plan is much better. It even has a galley and a walk in shower. We closed the deal that same day and spent the night on the boat. Before we left in the morning, Jim had discovered many problems. The toilet backed up. How was that possible with a pump toilet? The electrical system was wired up wrong and the inverter didn’t work. The batteries that the previous owner had taken off the boat were replaced with cheap ones. He had also taken the microwave and the light bulbs and everything that he thought he could get away with. But, before we closed the deal, our broker had gotten the dingy and the engine to go with it thrown in. We were very glad of that because we plan on anchoring out instead of paying slip space when it is possible.
When we were driving home Jim began to think of all the things he should have done like check to see that the sea cocks were closed. Sea cocks are holes in the boat with valves that open to let the water out. If they are not closed, the boat could sink. He also worried that the bilge pump which is supposed to come on automatically would not work and the boat would sink if the sea cocks leaked. Then about half way home he remembered that we had left the tent over the cockpit up. If a wind came up, it could be ruined. Oh, well! We could not go back.
When we got home we began making arrangements to have the house taken care of while we go back and stay on the boat. We hoped that we could make all the arrangements and get back in a couple of weeks but there seems to be more to do than just a few things. We have worked hard and made many arrangements and had many appointments. I have applied for Social Security and Medicare. They are approved and even a supplemental policy is in place. The dog has her traveling papers. The motor home and Jim’s little Honda are sold. The mail and the house are arranged for. The bills are taken care of. Today we are almost ready to leave Salt Lake for an extended stay in Mexico. We have had a lot of support and help from family members and friends. We are so grateful for all that everyone has done to help and support us.
July12th
Today is the day we originally planned to leave Salt Lake. We had to put it off till Tuesday because we needed some rope that we ordered on the Internet. It won’t be here till Tuesday. We can use the time. We have taken care of about a dozen different things. I have spent the last two days cleaning the house. The packing is done except for our clothes which will need to be used and washed before we leave. The fridge still needs to be emptied and the pilot lights turned off and things like that. We will do those things on Tuesday before we leave. I will try to send an email to the people I have email addresses for. I think we have Internet service in the marina but we may not have it anywhere else. We will see.
Love to you all, Donna and Jim
July 13, 2008
Sunday afternoon. Today I am thankful for family and for friends who care. I am thankful for everyone who has shown love and concern for us. I am grateful for our home and all the many things we have, especially for food and clothes. Most of all, I am grateful for my family and my religion. I wonder what life would be like it I had not been blessed with a strong family the knowledge of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is a pleasant and peaceful day. We have most of the work done and are ready to leave. We are waiting for the rope to come in the mail. Tomorrow I will do the last of the washing, empty the fridge and things like that. Then on Tuesday, we will leave. Today I went to church. Now I am relaxing. Nice break.
July 15, 2008
The time has come. We are leaving our home and we don’t know when we will be back. The car is packed. The fridge is cleaned. The table is freshly varnished. The house is clean and everything is turned off or as low as possible. We are ready to go. The rope still isn’t here but we expect it any time now.
I have very mixed feelings. Excitement about the future is mixed with fear and wondering. What will our future hold? Will we be able to cruise the world or will we be two sickly and weak to even handle the sails? How will Jim’s health hold up? Will I be left out there alone in the middle of the deep blue sea? Will he have a heart attack and not be able to get help? Will our house be broken into or will it be protected until we get back? When will we be coming back? I just have to put all those thoughts aside and think about the beautiful climate and the fun of “camping out” on the boat for the next few months. Then we will see what happens.
We have said our good byes, . . . . several times actually. I will write again when I get settled and get an Internet connection set up.
Love, Jim and Donna
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July20th
This is Sunday afternoon and we have decided that we need a break. We have been working hard all week. I have cleaned out most of the cupboards and closets in the boat. Jim has practically rewired the boat. The toilet doesn’t work and water tank has a leak so he had to take that out to get it repaired. But it leaked into the bilge and there was oil in the bilge. We can’t pump the water overboard now. Maybe we can just add soap and wash our clothes in the bilge or something. (That is a joke in case you can’t tell.) Jim did get the propane stove working and today I actually cooked our breakfast but breakfast left a lot to be desired. I dropped some potato slices down the crack between the stove and the cabinet. I managed to get them out again so they won’t spoil down there. I also spilled a pan full of bread I was “toasting” in the fry pan onto the floor. That was ruined of course. This cooking thing is going to take some getting used to.
Jim spent the week trying to get things working in the boat. Every system is a problem. It looks like the former owner just used a system till it went bad then left it and went on to the next. The fridge still doesn’t work and the toilet and the running water don’t work yet either. Jim has really spent a lot of time trying to get things working right. He was pretty discouraged yesterday so we just left it all and went for a walk. We found the fish market but didn’t buy anything because we don’t have a fridge. I was really good and didn’t buy anything from the street venders, but I promised myself one trinket from Ensenada before we leave. Tomorrow Jim will probably work on the toilet problem and the wiring again. I plan on starting to scrub the walls and oil the interior teak. Everything has been neglected for a long long time so it will take some work to get things back into shape.
July 21, 2008
I had my first experience at the grocery store. It was pretty stressful because I couldn’t read any of the labels. I bought something that I hope is cottage cheese but it may be yogurt. I will find out when I open it up. The bakery was a mystery too. Everything was sitting on shelves with no prices or labels and no bags or boxes or anything. But I watched other people and figured it out. Since our fridge does not work, I tried to buy canned meat. I could not read the labels again so I wondered what I was buying. I wanted beef of some kind. Later we found a Spanish to English dictionary on the internet. I actually bought turkey and pork. On well, we can eat that. I was worried that I might have ended up with something we could not eat.
We found a place to order the parts for the toilet and some batteries for the boat. Each thing we accomplish seems like a big thing. We are making progress.
Jim is working at it again. I better go help.
We are doing great. This is really an experience.
Love to you all,
Jim and Donna
July, 23rd
Jim has the lights working with shore power now. He fixed the leaky water tank and hoses . He rebuilt one of the water pumps and now we have water to the kitchen sink. We cannot drink it. And the hot water still doesn’t work. We will probably have to replace another pump and a water heater to get hot water. The biggest problem we have now is the toilet. He has ordered a part for it and will probably need a new pump for the holding tank too. Today I plan on bathing our very dirty dog Cheri. I don’t know how I will do that. It is kinda chilly for her to be wet and I will have to take her up to the people showers and try to hold her under the water without getting in the shower myself. Hope it works. Maybe I will get the stove cleaned too. I never did get the teak oiled or the walls cleaned yet. That still needs to be done. I wonder if we are having fun yet.
Love you all,
Jim and Donna
Dear Family and Friends,
Last January Jim was in the hospital again with chest pain. They had a hard time finding the problem. They assured us that it was not his heart this time but could not find the problem right away. When they took some x-rays of this chest they discovered emphysema. This was really a worry for me.
Jim has been working on his boat for about 8 years. But let me go back a bit. When he was about 10 or 12 years old he was in the sea scouts. He used to go to the lake with them and on one occasion he was given his own sail boat. But there was a catch. It was under the water. He had to figure out a way to raise it up. He said that he would go out to the marina and look at the boat and wonder how he could do it. But he never figured it out.
When we first got married we took a trip to San Diego to see where he had spent so much time when he was in the navy. We looked at the boats and I fell in love with the climate and the foliage in Southern California. (Everybody does.) Jim told me that when he was in the navy they had sailed past some small islands in the pacific. He really wanted to stop and spend some time. He could not do that while he was on the navy cruiser but he vowed that someday he would go back and spend some time on those islands. While we were in San Diego, we decided that someday we would like to live there. But that never happened.
The pressures and pleasures of reality pushed that idea to the back of our minds. But Jim never gave up the dream he had of sailing back to see the little tropical islands and spend some time there. Several times over the years, we made a trip to the Pacific coast to watch the boats. Many times we walked up and down the slips and talked about how we would do this or that if we ever had the chance to get a boat and go sailing. On one trip, we went to see a broker and told him we were interested in getting a boat. He took us to see boats that were for sale and we had a chance to “check out” the interior of many of them. There were two kinds that we really liked. One was the Hans Christian. It was a very expensive and beautiful boat with a lot of wood and both ends were the same shape. The other kind of boat that we really liked was the Taiwanese boats. There were about three different kinds of Taiwanese boats. They looked pretty much the same. They had beautiful lines and lots of wood. They were built for world cruising with a full keel and lots of storage space (for a boat). Of course we could not get one at that time. They just cost too much.
The years went by and we raised a family. Sometimes Jim would talk about how much he wanted to get away from the lifestyle we had and live on a boat. At one time we were able to move to Fruitland and try living away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I really loved the country but there was no way to earn a living there so we had to return to the city.
Later we bought a 22 foot sail boat and the whole family took the Coast Guard Sailing Course. We sailed that boat many times on the lake and on the reservoirs. We thought at the time that we would trade it in for a down payment on an ocean going boat. That didn’t happen either.
When our children left home we decided to sell the house and start working toward going sailing. We moved into a mobile home in Sandy that we had paid for with the equity from our home in Holiday. Jim started looking around for a place he could build a boat. We both had decided that we would never be able to afford to buy one. We didn’t want to go into debt for one because if you are in debt, you need to work to pay for it and you can’t sail around the world while you are holding a job in one place.
When mother died, she left us a home in Magna that was being rented at the time. It was in pretty poor shape, but it had a back yard where we thought we could build a boat. We moved there and Jim spent the next two years remodeling the house so that it was livable. Then he started working on the boat.
He has worked on the boat for the last eight years. But last January when he was told that he had emphysema, working on the boat became a problem. Now when he would come in from working on the boat with black dust from grinding the metal, I worried about his lungs. So did he. We tried different breathing systems but could not find one that worked to prevent the black dust from getting into his nose. I began praying that he would have a chance to live his dream because he had wanted it so bad for so long. Then the chance came for us to get a boat.
May 26th 2008 found us in San Diego looking at boats again. Jim had been looking at boats on the Internet and found several boats he was interested in. He had called the broker and made an appointment to see them. We spent that weekend looking at boats and came to the conclusion that we would never be able to afford one that would be able to take us cruising. The broker told us that we could offer less than the owners were asking and they would probably counter offer. He said this was customary in the boating world. So we placed an offer on a boat. It needed a lot of work. But it was one of those Taiwanese boats that we had fallen in love with so long ago. The owner refused to even consider our offer because it was so low. But we felt like he had overpriced his boat to start with. We returned home discouraged and feeling like it would never happen.
I kept praying that something would come along that would make it possible for Jim to live his dream, or that he would get over it and find another goal. Then it happened. Jim was looking at boats on the Internet and he found one in Ensenada Mexico that was just perfect. It was priced low for quick sale because the owner really needed the money. Jim called the broker and asked him if he could arrange for us to make an offer on the boat. He did. Jim made an offer on the Internet before we had ever seen the boat. The owner accepted the offer without even countering. The boat is called Amazing Grace. What a coincidence!
Things began to happen quickly after that. I gave my notice at work and finished up there on Thursday June 21st. By Sunday we were on our way to Mexico. On June 24th we were in Ensenada on a boat that was the same make as the one that had needed so much work.
This boat is in much better condition and the floor plan is much better. It even has a galley and a walk in shower. We closed the deal that same day and spent the night on the boat. Before we left in the morning, Jim had discovered many problems. The toilet backed up. How was that possible with a pump toilet? The electrical system was wired up wrong and the inverter didn’t work. The batteries that the previous owner had taken off the boat were replaced with cheap ones. He had also taken the microwave and the light bulbs and everything that he thought he could get away with. But, before we closed the deal, our broker had gotten the dingy and the engine to go with it thrown in. We were very glad of that because we plan on anchoring out instead of paying slip space when it is possible.
When we were driving home Jim began to think of all the things he should have done like check to see that the sea cocks were closed. Sea cocks are holes in the boat with valves that open to let the water out. If they are not closed, the boat could sink. He also worried that the bilge pump which is supposed to come on automatically would not work and the boat would sink if the sea cocks leaked. Then about half way home he remembered that we had left the tent over the cockpit up. If a wind came up, it could be ruined. Oh, well! We could not go back.
When we got home we began making arrangements to have the house taken care of while we go back and stay on the boat. We hoped that we could make all the arrangements and get back in a couple of weeks but there seems to be more to do than just a few things. We have worked hard and made many arrangements and had many appointments. I have applied for Social Security and Medicare. They are approved and even a supplemental policy is in place. The dog has her traveling papers. The motor home and Jim’s little Honda are sold. The mail and the house are arranged for. The bills are taken care of. Today we are almost ready to leave Salt Lake for an extended stay in Mexico. We have had a lot of support and help from family members and friends. We are so grateful for all that everyone has done to help and support us.
July12th
Today is the day we originally planned to leave Salt Lake. We had to put it off till Tuesday because we needed some rope that we ordered on the Internet. It won’t be here till Tuesday. We can use the time. We have taken care of about a dozen different things. I have spent the last two days cleaning the house. The packing is done except for our clothes which will need to be used and washed before we leave. The fridge still needs to be emptied and the pilot lights turned off and things like that. We will do those things on Tuesday before we leave. I will try to send an email to the people I have email addresses for. I think we have Internet service in the marina but we may not have it anywhere else. We will see.
Love to you all, Donna and Jim
July 13, 2008
Sunday afternoon. Today I am thankful for family and for friends who care. I am thankful for everyone who has shown love and concern for us. I am grateful for our home and all the many things we have, especially for food and clothes. Most of all, I am grateful for my family and my religion. I wonder what life would be like it I had not been blessed with a strong family the knowledge of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is a pleasant and peaceful day. We have most of the work done and are ready to leave. We are waiting for the rope to come in the mail. Tomorrow I will do the last of the washing, empty the fridge and things like that. Then on Tuesday, we will leave. Today I went to church. Now I am relaxing. Nice break.
July 15, 2008
The time has come. We are leaving our home and we don’t know when we will be back. The car is packed. The fridge is cleaned. The table is freshly varnished. The house is clean and everything is turned off or as low as possible. We are ready to go. The rope still isn’t here but we expect it any time now.
I have very mixed feelings. Excitement about the future is mixed with fear and wondering. What will our future hold? Will we be able to cruise the world or will we be two sickly and weak to even handle the sails? How will Jim’s health hold up? Will I be left out there alone in the middle of the deep blue sea? Will he have a heart attack and not be able to get help? Will our house be broken into or will it be protected until we get back? When will we be coming back? I just have to put all those thoughts aside and think about the beautiful climate and the fun of “camping out” on the boat for the next few months. Then we will see what happens.
We have said our good byes, . . . . several times actually. I will write again when I get settled and get an Internet connection set up.
Love, Jim and Donna
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July20th
This is Sunday afternoon and we have decided that we need a break. We have been working hard all week. I have cleaned out most of the cupboards and closets in the boat. Jim has practically rewired the boat. The toilet doesn’t work and water tank has a leak so he had to take that out to get it repaired. But it leaked into the bilge and there was oil in the bilge. We can’t pump the water overboard now. Maybe we can just add soap and wash our clothes in the bilge or something. (That is a joke in case you can’t tell.) Jim did get the propane stove working and today I actually cooked our breakfast but breakfast left a lot to be desired. I dropped some potato slices down the crack between the stove and the cabinet. I managed to get them out again so they won’t spoil down there. I also spilled a pan full of bread I was “toasting” in the fry pan onto the floor. That was ruined of course. This cooking thing is going to take some getting used to.
Jim spent the week trying to get things working in the boat. Every system is a problem. It looks like the former owner just used a system till it went bad then left it and went on to the next. The fridge still doesn’t work and the toilet and the running water don’t work yet either. Jim has really spent a lot of time trying to get things working right. He was pretty discouraged yesterday so we just left it all and went for a walk. We found the fish market but didn’t buy anything because we don’t have a fridge. I was really good and didn’t buy anything from the street venders, but I promised myself one trinket from Ensenada before we leave. Tomorrow Jim will probably work on the toilet problem and the wiring again. I plan on starting to scrub the walls and oil the interior teak. Everything has been neglected for a long long time so it will take some work to get things back into shape.
July 21, 2008
I had my first experience at the grocery store. It was pretty stressful because I couldn’t read any of the labels. I bought something that I hope is cottage cheese but it may be yogurt. I will find out when I open it up. The bakery was a mystery too. Everything was sitting on shelves with no prices or labels and no bags or boxes or anything. But I watched other people and figured it out. Since our fridge does not work, I tried to buy canned meat. I could not read the labels again so I wondered what I was buying. I wanted beef of some kind. Later we found a Spanish to English dictionary on the internet. I actually bought turkey and pork. On well, we can eat that. I was worried that I might have ended up with something we could not eat.
We found a place to order the parts for the toilet and some batteries for the boat. Each thing we accomplish seems like a big thing. We are making progress.
Jim is working at it again. I better go help.
We are doing great. This is really an experience.
Love to you all,
Jim and Donna
July, 23rd
Jim has the lights working with shore power now. He fixed the leaky water tank and hoses . He rebuilt one of the water pumps and now we have water to the kitchen sink. We cannot drink it. And the hot water still doesn’t work. We will probably have to replace another pump and a water heater to get hot water. The biggest problem we have now is the toilet. He has ordered a part for it and will probably need a new pump for the holding tank too. Today I plan on bathing our very dirty dog Cheri. I don’t know how I will do that. It is kinda chilly for her to be wet and I will have to take her up to the people showers and try to hold her under the water without getting in the shower myself. Hope it works. Maybe I will get the stove cleaned too. I never did get the teak oiled or the walls cleaned yet. That still needs to be done. I wonder if we are having fun yet.
Love you all,
Jim and Donna
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About Me
- Donna M. Colbert
- A few years ago, my husband and I bought a boat in Ensenada Mexico. We have traveled back and forth from time to time since then. We sailed down the coast of Baja Calif and into the Sea of Cortez. The boat is currantly in La Paz Mexico. A few months ago we returned to our home in Salt Lake City for a time. We intend to spend some of our time sailing and some of our time in Salt Lake with our family and friends. We have the best of both worlds now.