ZIHUATANEJO HAS WORN ME OUT!

Today is Saturday, February 15 and I am exhausted from the pace of life here in Zihuatanejo.   I know it has been over two weeks since the last time I posted a WEB update but I have been working eight to 10 hours a day on several projects and I have been battling a mild form of flu for eight days.

Here is a view looking from Mirador toward shore, about 60 yards away.

I came to Zihuatanejo to attend Sailfest 2003 which is a cruiser sponsored event to benefit the  Netzahualcoyotl Indian children's school in Zihuatenejo.  Everything that the cruisers donated was matched by a private foundation.  Last year $4,000 was donated to the school.  This year $23,500 was donated.  Eighty eight boats and a dozen shore based ex-patriates attended the many events, parties, and dinners. 

You can read about Sail Fest at SailFest2003.htm

An interesting aspect of Sailfest occurred at the final dinner where the check was presented to Lisa Martin, the director of the Indian School.  After that presentation the Secretary of Education for the Mexican state of Guerro (Zihuatanejo) made a speech and thanked all the cruisers for supporting the school.  I really thought someone would stand up and ask him why the State and Federal governments refused to support the school and why he was there getting some implied glory from all the work and financial support offered by the cruisers. But, all that happened was the 200 attendees refused to applaud his remarks. 

During the Sailfest festivities it was determined that about 30 boats were planning to move north into the Sea of Cortez and that most of them had not previously been north of La Paz.   Several of those folks asked that experienced "Summer in the Sea" cruisers prepare material about their experiences in the Sea of Cortez.  I organized a group of five boats who had spent at least one summer up north.  We eventually did a three hour presentation to a standing room only crowd (60+) at Rick's Bar.  The panel was comprised of seven cruisers who each talked for four to five minutes about one of 25 topics we had selected.  Our criteria for a topic was "what did you learn that was not included in the cruising guides or how did the cruising guides mislead you?."

The talk and discussion lasted about 3 hours at which time  the meeting broke into smaller discussion groups. 

This picture is taken from the town square, looking NE along part of the the Zihuatanejo beach. Many restaurants along the beach set up their tables in the sand under blue plastic tarps.

I also decided that we experienced "Summer in the Sea" boats should put together a CD containing our respective opinions and ideas about the Sea.  That project took on a life of it's own that consumed all my spare time for about ten days.  By the time it was done, the CD had grown to contain 11,307 files and 408 MB of data.  We ended putting the Sea of Cortez WEB sites for Mirador, Music, Good Neighbor, and Gemini on the CD.  We also developed a large HTML table that contained our personal opinions about and, experiences with, over 50 anchorages in the Sea of Cortez from La Paz to well north of San Carlos on the Mexican Mainland.  We eventually distributed over 35 copies of the CD.

I have also become known as the "guy to make your HAM e-mail work"  here in Zihuatanejo.  I spend about three hours each day working on boat computers, radios, and e-mail systems.  I meet a lot of nice folks but it does keep me from Miradors maintenance projects.

The list of things that are broken or not working properly is growing much faster than I can work on the miss-behaving equipment:

    - Leak in high pressure fitting on water maker

    - Suction line for anchor wash down system has collapsed

    - Need new swivels on both anchor chains

    - Bearings around main shaft for Sailomat windvane have seized

    - Springs that hold the dinghy wheel struts in a locked down position have failed

    - Suction line for Isotherm water cooled refrigerator develops an airlock whenever Mirador sails faster than 6 knots

    - The control panel for the Solar Panels has fallen off it's mount (how does a 5200 bond to fiberglass fail?)

    - The USB  mouse for this computer has lost it's de-bounce ability

    - The cockpit floodlight bulb burned out - where to get a GE4046 12V "tractor" bulb?

    - Piezoelectric starter on propane stove is dead

    - The flopper stopper needs to be re-assembled with new hinges

The big item in the list above is the Sailomat bearings which are being shipped to me by Sailomat.  The old bearings were a Delrin type material that Sailomat insisted should NEVER be lubricated.  That plan just didn't work.  What happened was that the salt water that inevitably would get between the sleeve bearing (it is really a bushing) and the metal casting would evaporate and leave salt crystals.  Those crystals would start a corrosion process that would generate enough pressure to force the Delrin bushing to press too tightly against the shaft.  Eventually large holes were worn thru the bushing material and much of the Delrin bushing was attached to the shaft. 

As long as the vane was used every week or so the corrosion process would not advance too far.  But, when we left the Sailomat on the foredeck from January thru September last year the corrosion process destroyed the bushings.  Now Sailomat recommends that the shaft and bushings be periodically cleaned with fresh water and WD-40 and then lubricated with light machine oil.  I hope the new bushings, made by a different firm from different material, last longer than the first set. 

There are many spectacular homes and small hotels along the hills surrounding Bahia Zihuatanejo.

The cruising social life in Zihuatanejo is the most intense I have experienced.  Every single day has multiple events planned, such as morning walks, lunch time cribbage games at a restaurant in town, afternoon volleyball on the beach, afternoon diving at one of the dozens of rock piles around the bay, cocktails and/or dinner on someones boat, dinner in town, movies in town,  and finally, movies on a boat.  Last summer I got used to having many hours a day to lay around reading, puttering with the boat, and napping.  Here there is no time to lay about.

One of the major tourist activities involves being towed behind a ski-boat while suspended from a parachute.  It looks like a lot of fun but the 'chute is attached to the boat by a 100 yard long tow line.  The ski-boats weave through the fleet of anchored sailboats, each having a mast that is constantly trying to snare the tow lines.

Last week one of the tow lines hit the mast on Dry Martini.  The parachutist fell into the water with no injuries and no damage was done to Dry Martini.  The current story (rumor?) is that last year eight (8) tourists were killed when their tow lines tangled with sailboat masts. It is a fact that many of the most recently printed tourist guides recommend that tourists not try the parasailing in Zihuatanejo.

Here is a close up of a couple of the neat small hotels.

There are hundreds of small, inexpensive restaurants, ice cream stands, and bars here.  It is easy to eat a excellent lunch for less than $3 and a huge dinner for $6.  There are many small silver and pottery shops that display wonderful craftsmanship.  There are also several large grocery stores and a large "mercado" that has dozens of stalls for fresh meat, produce, and fish.  All in All, Zihuatanejo is a great place to spend a winter. 

I plan to stay in Zihuatanejo for another week or ten days and will then start back north.  I have cancelled my plans to go to Acapulco after talking to several cruisers anchored in Acapulco.  The unanimous opinion was that Acapulco was a dirty, expensive, crowed, noisy, and cruiser hostile environment.  The yacht club is full so cruiser have to anchor out.  There are huge cruise ships coming and going each day as well as hundreds of smaller fishing boats.