STILL IN LA PAZ - MORE EXCUSES FOR NOT LEAVING!

Today is May 20 and we have found yet another week's worth of excues for staying in La Paz. We had really planned on being out of here by last week but decided the new sun awning needed some more fine tuning. And then we discovered a major problem with our Debit card that we use to get cash from ATMs. And our alternator quit working for a while.

The sun awning has worked very well and does keeps Mirador's interior and cockpit significantly cooler during the heat of the day. We left the awning up during several 20 to 25 knot blows and found that it needs one more batten just behind the mast. That section of the awning needs to be held aloft so that the notches cut into the side of the awning stay aligned with the shrouds they are supposed to fit around. We also found that there need to be more reinforcements around the lifting rings for the middle and forward battens. Chuy made all the modifications we requested and returned the awning to us on May 17.

You can see the new batten just behind the mast in the picture to the right.

We purchased six feet of white mesh sunbrella that allows only 30% of the sunlight to shine through. We hang the mesh from the awning around the cockpit to block the morning and evening sun. We use four plastic clamps to secure the mesh to awning and move the mesh as the boat or the sun shifts. Being from Puget Sound, 47 degrees North, we had no idea that the 7 PM sun could be painfully hot as it shined into the cockpit. Now we can control the amount of sun we allow into the cockpit.

Our debit card, which allows us to use a ATM with no service charge stopped working earlier this week. The PIN was declared invalid for no known reason. We need the card fixed here since there are no ATMs between here and Loreto. We need cash in our pocket if we want to buy any supplies before we get to Loreto.

We had to make four phone calls to the States at a cost of $20 and send two e-mails to get the problem resolved. The issuing bank has an automated phone system that allows a card holder to establish a new PIN. The problem was that the automated system kept asking for security data like what is your birth year? I responded with what I thought was the correct year but 1947 was unacceptable to the system. Three phone calls were required to get the bank to admit that I did indeed know the correct year of my birth and that their system was in error.

That problem took two full days to resolve. Our financial manager's assistant in Seattle was very efficient and helpful in convincing the bank that I was correct and they should fix their records. The Seattle folks then reimbursed us the $20 we spent on phone calls to the bank's "toll free international customer service number."

The problem with calls from here in Mexico to US based customer service is that you must pay $1.10 a minute to use a pay phone, even to call a collect or toll free number in the states. And, since the pay phones do not accept coins, you must use a phone card in the phone to get acess to any number, . The largest phone card you can purchase allows only 10 minutes of talking to the US. The phone goes dead and you have to call back and start over if the customer service call takes more than 10 minutes. Mexican pay phones do not accept incoming phone calls so customer service can not call back.

We also had to fight with our old insurance agent via telephone. State Farm, per our request, cancelled our auto policy on January 22 when we sold our car to the towing company that impounded it after it was stolen and recovered by the Tacoma Police. State Farm issued a cancellation notice and sent us a check to refund the premiums they had collected for the period after Jan. 22. Since that cancellation the State Farm computer has just kept deducting the premiums from our checking account as if the policy had never been cancelled! Last June we had set up a monthly payment schedule and authorized State Farm to automatically collect the premiums from our checking account. When I talked to our agent at the end of January he said they would stop the automatic collection from our checking account.

Our April 30 checking statement, which I download off the internet, showed two deductions for the policy premiums in April. I tried to send an e-mail to the agent thru the StateFarm.Com "contact your agent" WEB page. All that happened was the e-mail came back to me as "undeliverable." So I made another $5 phone call to the agent and found that StateFarm.Com has the wrong e-mail address for our agent. But, my records show that the bad e-mail address was on that WEB page as long ago as January.

The agent says they will stop the automatic premium deductions and refund the money they have collected since the policy was cancelled four months ago. We'll see.

We had a strange struggle with our alternator the other day. Our solar panels (for details and picture see: Caliber 40 Specifications) are now making more than 20 amps from 10 AM until 3 PM and have the batteries fully recharged by 1 PM everyday. We just never have to run the diesel to charge the batteries. It had been 25 days since we ran the Yanmar diesel and alternator . On the day of the alternator failure, we ran the Spectra Watermaker until about 7 PM because the incoming tide did not start until about 4 PM. About 6PM I started the Yanmar because the Spectra was drawing 10 amps from the batteries and I wanted to warm up the diesel so I could change the oil.

I turned the refrigerator onto high power and set up all the small battery chargers, (Camcorder, Digital Camera, Computer, Spotlight...etc), that run off the inverter to take advantage of the 120 amps the alternator would put out. The Link 2000R voltage regulator then started flashing E-14 which is: "Inappropriate charged voltage selected for sensed voltage" per the Link manual. I also noted the Link2000R display was showing MINUS 38 amps and the battery voltage was 11.95 volts with the alternator running full speed. The red charge LED was lit as were the red and green LEDs on the back of the regulator. I also verified that the field wire at the alternator had 12.6 volts on it. I then verified that the alternator was putting out 0, as in zero, amps.

That was pretty confusing because the Link2000R regulator indicated it was telling the alternator to produce current and there was 12 V at the alternator to excite the field. The alternator should have been producing about 100 amps. It was 8 PM by then and I was tired and hungry. I just turned off the Yanmar, opened a beer, and resolved to fix the problem in the morning. I'm getting pretty relaxed about this stuff. I didn't even worry about it.

The next morning nothing would test correctly when I used the Fluke DVM. The voltages were all over the place, the diode tester gave impossible answers, and I couldn't even test the resistance of a light bulb. I couldn't even get the ohm-meter buzzer to buzz when shorting the leads together. I tested the 9V battery in the Fluke DVM and it was OK.

Finally I tested the Fluke leads themselves with another ohm meter. The red lead looked perfect, felt perfect, and had infinite resistance between the two ends. I couldn't see anything wrong with it other than it but it wouldn't pass any current.

Once I got the Fluke working again, for some reason I had a 2nd set of Fluke leads, I went back to the alternator. I verified 12.5 V on the field wire at the alternator. I verified all the alternator nuts were tight, etc. Everything looked and tested OK. I removed the alternator and tested the diode in the ZAP stop. It was OK. I reinstalled the alternator and ran it again with no output. I took it off again and took it to Lopez Marine who said the alternator guy would pick it up that afternoon and return it the next afternoon.

You are probably asking yourself: "Why didn't he install the spare alternator that he so carefully vacumn packed and stored in a warm dry compartment?" Good question - Arlene and I spent a total of six hours looking for the spare (actually it is the $650 Powerline Silver Bullet) alternator with no success. Arlene fears that last November I lent it to a boat in Turtle Bay and forgot to get it back. They are now in Costa Rica.

About 10 PM Friday night I decided to think a little more about that E-14 error. I didn't look the error up at the time I first saw it because I thought it was due to the 11.95 Volts. At that time I just turned off the refrigerator and then turned off the diesel. I restarted the diesel and the E-14 never reappeared. So I again concluded it was due to the low voltage. Arlene had told me that the E-14 appears on many mornings when the 'fridge is running before sunrise and the battery voltage is at 11.9 volts. I wouldn't know since I am now very careful to stay in bed until at least 8 AM.

I read the manual more carefully and then asked the Link2000R what it's setting was for "Charged Voltage" (that is how it knows when the battery is fully charged). The readout showed 20.2V !!! I have no idea why the charged voltage was set to 20.2. That is one of those values where you have to hold down a button for 5 seconds and then another button for 10 seconds to change the value. You can't enter the value accidently.

That sorta' agrees with the problem I had early last month: The voltage sensed by the Link2000 would jump up to 18.5 V if we sped up the engine to quickly from idle. I was afraid that the Link2000 had tried to drive the alternator to 20 volts and fried it's little wires. It was about 3 minutes from the time I started the engine until I checked the voltage on the control panel.

I reset the Link2000 to 13.4V for it's charged value. When I went up to the shower room on shore that evening I walked by the closed Lopez Marine counter and noticed our alternator still waiting to be picked up. I decided I would re-install it in the next morning and see what happened.

That night I read thru my maintenance log notes. On Jan 19, 2002 I described a problem where there was no alternator output but there was 11.8 V on the field wire. Turned out to be the ribbon cable that connects the regulator to the display head. It has a nick in one of the edges that screws it up.

After reinstalling the alternator and wiggling the ribbon cable we again had an alternator that would produce 120 amps.

I sure am glad we have the big solar panels!

We are currently in the process of provisioning for the summer. We purchased the essentials at El Faro:

4 cases of beer
1 case of white wine and 3 bottles of red wine
30 boxes of tomatoe juice
20 boxes of grapefruit juice
60 packages of Crystal Light drink flavoring
20 bags of Taco Chips 20 bags of Potatoe Chips
a case of black beans
a case of refried beans
a case of Toilet Paper

El Faro is right next to the dinghy dock and loads all the stuff right into the dinghy.

We are anchored at the very western edge of the Marina Santa Cruz Anchorage. We are about ten feet into the shipping channel when the south wind blows and the tide is ebbing. The Mexican Navy ships come by pretty close sometimes:

We watched a parade the other evening on the Malecon. It was led by a police car and fire truck, both with their sirens going. There were marching bands and lots of kids. The highlight of the parade were three semi-truck auto carriers with new vans and cars on them. The cars were decorated with ballons and flags. I guess they were new models?

I have been talked into being the Net Controller for Chubasco Net on Wednesday mornings. That means I am responsible for getting all the relay stations on frequency, opening, and running the net. Chubasco is the most formal of the HAM nets and I suppose I will be nervous for the first couple of times I do it. You can read more about HAM nets at: February 3 2002

I have recently upgraded my Pactor II TNC to use the Pactor III firmware. The TNC is a "Terminal Network Controller" - i.e. a $1,200 modem that goes between the computer and the HAM HF radio and converts the graphics, text, or binary computer files into radio signals for transmission on the HF radio. The TNC is what allows us to send and receive e-mail from the boat just like we can from a shoreside internet connection.

The SCS Pactor II TNC contains two very powerful computer chips (Motorola MC68360 32bit CMOS and XC5603 Digital Signal Processor) and 3 MegaBytes of Memory. The program that runs in the TNC is stored in firmware. The manufacturers of the TNC recently came out with a firmware update that was delivered via the internet and I downloaded to my laptop PC. The Airmail e-mail program on my PC controlled uploading the firmware to the TNC.

The new firmware makes the TNC send and receive about 3 to 5 times faster than the older firmware; depending on radio signal propagation. The speed depends on the protocol selected by the TNCs at each radio. It is dynamic and speeds up or slows down as the radio signals change. I can now send and receive at an effective rate of about 4 Kbytes per minute (533 bps)! What an improvement over the 600 bytes per minute with Pactor II. The new firmware does a better job of compressing some files so the effective increase in thruput is more than 5x.

The Winlink HAM e-mail system will now automatically send me Weather Faxes on a regular basis. I can specify which fax or faxes I want sent and how often to send them. It takes about 3 minutes to receive each fax which come in as a TIF file. The faxes will become important this summer as we try to stay out of the way of Chubascos and Hurricanes. On a typical day I receive three or four faxes including:

Satellite photos of Baja down to Panama
Wind Forecasts for San Diego to Panama including the Sea of Cortez
Surface Analysis for San Francisco to Panama east to Florida
Technical discussion of tropical weather features in the Pacific from Baja to Columbia.

The weather faxes are updated every six hours so we can keep a real close eye on the tropics and storm formation. The first tropical disturbance seems to be building today. It is west of the Gulf of Tehaunatepec, about 650 NM south of us. Storms that develop between now and mid to late July almost always head NW to Hawaii, but we will watch the charts on a daily basis.

We are off to CCC for one more round of grocery shopping. Then all we have to do is check out with the port captain, $14 and three hours walking, and away we go for the summer.