Having fun in La Cruz!!

So we are still hanging out in La Cruz Mexico, having a great time going out to listen to bands, and they had the Taste of La Cruz the last weekend.  Where different businesses came out and had samples of food and drinks for a couple of hours.

The band at Taste of La Cruz!!

They had a great turn out!!

 Jerry and I really love going on Monday nights to a bar called Ana Bananas, there is a great band that plays 70's and 80's music called The Pacific Rock Band. 

Sayulita Mexico!!

To get you up to date on what is going on on SOMF, Jerry has been still working on the battery problem.  He has taken every cable off, and back on, checked terminals, checked the bildge pump, checked the solar panels and still can not seem to find where the 6.2 volts are coming from.  The Nigel Calder Book say to imagine your electrical system like a water system, you have a tank of water, the battery, pipes that are the wiring, valves are like switches, ect..so we should be seeing a pool of electricy laying in the bildge.
So while Jerry is working hard on the batteries and the watermaker that is acting up, I (not being the best of crew) have been having fun, I went to Sayulita which is a 30 minute, 2 bus rides town away.  It is a very large surfer town, so of caurse it seems right I go with a surfer. While he surfed I had a great time walking around this very new meets old hippy town, with an artist flare.

lots of surfing!!

Cool little town, but lots of tourist!!

the little church in the square

awesome produce stands!!

Bees on a Boat...oh no!!

One afternoon I was hanging out on SV Finess (which is a 28 foot sailboat anchored less than 100ft away from SOMF) when all of a sudden Donnie (the owner) came rushing in through the companion way shutting the doors faster than I could ask what was going on.  Looking out the side portholes we could see thousands of bees swarming in the cockpit.  They were so loud, we did not know where they came from or why they choose this boat to try to make a hive on.  But about an hour the noise started to die down so slowly looking out the campanion door we could see them all bunched in the port side cubby hole.  Not quite sure what to do, the first instint Donnie had was to try to get them off his boat so he took a can of carbarator fluid and sprayed the massive swarm.  Well to say the least that pissed them off, they all took off flying, after about another hour or so of being trapped in this small, hot boat we could not hear them anymore, so we ventured out.  We were not sure if they were still on the boat, we had a feeling that they might have moved up under the sail cover, but we were not sticking around to check it out.  I got in my kayak and went back to SOMF, while Donnie went to shore.  That evening I saw Donnie go back to the boat, did not check around, just went inside and lock up.  The next morning I dinghed over to his boat to see if he check to see if they were still on the boat, he said he had not yet but was about to .  So going up to the front of the sail cover, and slowly unzipped it, and WOW there they were, so he jumped in the dinghy and we took off to go see Steve on SV Go For Broke, who we heard was the guy to see if you have questions about bees.   About an hour later Steve was on Donnies boat while we were safely in the dinghy, if we needed a fast get away, but I'll be damn, a couple of hours later Steve had almost of the bees in a box with only one sting on the arm. 

First Steve added honey to a box try entise the bees into it

Second, Steve had to find the bees

There they are!!!

Third, he put the box with honey up to the box and....

Skrapped them off!!!!

While a bunch started to fly around, there were quite a few that went into the box, he repeated this process a couple of times till he got the majority of them in the box

He then stuck the box up there (with the lid tapped shut) and a small opening for the rest of them to find there way in.  He claims that they want to be in that box, because the queen is in there.  And after a while almost all of them went in there.

After Steve had the box safely taped up, I invited him and Donnie over for a beer to celebrate a victory.  He then went and released the box in a open field far away from the boat, and said that the would find a new place to build a home.  The few bees that were left, would expend their energy and die off.  I have to say that is was quite an experience and thank got it was not on SOMF!!  Great Job Steve!!!

Boat Projects!!

While we have been here we have been trying to take care of some of the issues we are having on the boat.  Jerry went down in the engine room one afternoon after calling the Gillete Genorator Company trying to figure out why the the genorator is not genorating any power and why we had that black smoke.  Well we figured out that it was the fan on the back of the genorator and the set screw came loose and that allowed the fan to move forward into the coils causing it to freeze and producing black smoke.  Jerry put the set screw back in place of the fan, started the generator, no smoke but no power, so now we will have to have the whole genorator taken out (which ways 148 lbs) and have the the coils rewound.  So back to using the 1000 watt genorator, so thanks again Dad Wilhite for saving our butts!!

Trying to get the fan back in position to put the screw back in...

The genorator with the side panel off!!

We bought three 6 volt batteries off SV Blue Dolphin here in La Cruz, to add in line with the eight that we have already.  We are hoping that with this addition the solar panels will be able to keep up our house battery bank over night. 

Starboard battery bank of the original 4 batteries

Port side battery bank with the addition of the new battery

When adding the new batteries and new cables that Jerry made up, he got a spark of electricity off of one of the battery terminals (when there should not have been any volts running through).  After testing and testing and more testing of all the batteries and connections we still have a 6.2 volts comming off the ground when all the batteries are disconnected.  We are going to have to do some research of this problem, and will keep you up to date on the prognosis. 

Making som new wire cables for the battery banks

Ta Da!!

Happy New Years!!!

I wish to all our friends and family near and far a very Happy New Years, may 2012 provide all your wishes to come true!!  For us on SOMF, we had a very happy new years eve on the boat with our friends Tim and Joan from SV KONA.  Joan brought over shrimp and dip and I made some tortilla roll up sandwiches and a pizza, we enjoyed drinking and eating and playing monopoly on the WII (which I won!!) until ten minutes till midnight.  At midnight we ejoyed the wonderful fireworks across the bay while toasting to good friends and great times with a bottle of champain. 

On the Wednsday before we went back to Puerto Vallarta with Joan and Tim walking around downtown!!

Yummy!!

love our taco carts!!!

WOW!!!  love all the creative art along the malacon!!

Tim, Joan, myself, and Jerry at Cheeky Monkey!!

Jerry...yeah he doesn't need a mask!!

Merry Christmas!!!

We spent Christmas and Christmas Eve on SOMF, having our share of really good food and listening to Christmas music!!  Christmas Eve morning, while trying to light the propain on the stove to make some coffee, we ran out of propain.  We were pretty nervious not knowing if we were going to be able to fill our propain bottles on Christmas Eve, but we had to try.  We halled the bottle down to the dinghy then up past the marina and out to where taxi's stood.  Ezequiel, our taxi driver who spoke great english, new right were to take us, and it was busy.  Everyone needs propain to cook Christmas Eve dinner, he informed us that tonight was the major celebration for Mexicans, then they sleep all Christmas Day cause of to much Tequila and Cerveza's.  After lugging the (now heavier) propain bottle back to the boat Jerry was able to make homemade Chicken Pot Pies, that were delicious, while we had "Becky's" Pain Killers and caught up on Burn Notice on the computer!!

 Christmas morning we woke up to a present under the tree left by Santa, yeah we were hoping he would figure out our GPS cordinance here in Mexico.  We know this bailey's was left by Santa cause it is way out of our cruising budget, so thanks Santa, we had a great morning drinking our coffe with baileys and listening to the morning nets. 

Our present awaiting us under our Christmas tree!!

 After watching a Christmas Story, a SOMF tradition it was time start cooking for dinner! 

Poor Jerry, I always make him and the animals wear the hats for pictures!!

 On Monday, Jerry and I want grocery shopping at Mega (the major market closest to La Cruz) and saw that they had Rib Eye cuts of steak, so we went back a couple of days later to get a roast.  We asked the meat counter man for a roast with two bones and he went back to the back and came out with two entire roast, we then tried to explain that we wanted about half of one of the roast with at least two bones in it.  He then started to cut away at the bones we quickly got him to stop that and again showed him where to cut and to wrap it up as is, no cutting the fat or bones away.  Finally with our poor spanish and the butchers lack of knowldge of American roast cuts, we  got our three bone in Standing Rib Roast!!  Christmas Day Jerry packed the roast in rock salt (the salt we found was  little smaller than rock salt, but worked) and boy did it turn out perfect!!

Our Christmas Table on SOMF!!!  We had the wonderful roast, along with green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with brown suger, garlic and cheese mashed potatoes, homemade pumpkin pie and plenty of vino!!!







Yes I made a pumpkin pie, and I have to say it turned out wonderful!!

 We enjoyed a wonderful night on the boat, with a wonderful sunset over the La Cruz anchorage!!

Puerto Vallarta!!!

On Thursday Jerry and I spent a day in Puerto Vallarta, we got on the bus around 10am and didn't get back to La Cruz (by bus) till 10pm.  We had a great day sightseeing, especially since it is the holiday season and it is all decorated!

The beautiful nativity scene on the malecon

How did they do that???

Got to love the coca cola tree!

These pinatas are all over!

We first went in and looked a smaller church that was more on the outside of the centro area!



We then went and looked inside the main Cathedral, it was so beautiful for the holidays!!

The sculptures along the malecon were amazing!!

Rest Time!!

Had to have the $1 margaritas at The Cheeky Monkey!!

Now those are some mushrooms!!

The Hangout Bar, what fun!!

On the malecon there are talanted men who construct these beautiful sand sculptures.