Sea Bella is our sailing home taking us, Scott and Kathy Erwin to travel the world one island at a time. Come along on this adventure to learn, explore and see the world.
Things have gone well on the engine maintenance. The machine shop that rebuilt the injectors and injector pump was done 2 days early. We remade a few hoses and had a local paint shop mix up some paint and insert it into a spray can (Which I’m sure you can only buy in Mexico). We were feeling a bit dizzy afterwards! She’s purring like a kitten with a rebuilt fuel system. No more fuel in the bilge and saved a few thousand bucks to boot.
We stopped for lunch after we picked up the parts and had the best burrito ever had. Bacon wrapped with cilantro sauce, and always a mucho frio cervasa!!!!
Hanging out with boat kids and families who cruise is such fun! The energy, curiosity and laughter is quite contagious! Children have a special place in my heart, of course, since I raised 4 kids and taught all ages for 31 years. I am so glad for my diverse career and always reflect with a smile. These last few days on at our calm anchorage, I have been teaching Luca to sew. He asked if he could make a shirt. He also said he really wanted to do it all himself. I happily took the challange. He was the best student ever! Patient, inquisitive, focused, willing, happy, helpful and incredibly polite!
The Arkouda boys: Luca, Kai and Thad. When they sail into a bay their parents Mark and Carli report the boys always excitedly search for Sea Bella and just jump in and swim over to greet us for pretzels and lemonade. Awesome family.
We are back on the Baja. Gorgeous anchorage just north of La Paz. Our 340 mile journey/passage northwest and Sea Bella was a super star. Super nice evening l anchored in emerald green water. We are now in La Paz, for some needed engine maintenance and then we’ll head north into the largest aquarium in the world.
So cruising life…… …..incredible places, good food and people, lots of sailing and unfortunately…….motoring. As much as we want to sail, the conditions aren’t always optimal for sailing. The other big part of cruising life is maintenance. As someone once said of boat maintenance “everything is broken, you just don’t know it yet”. Others say “Cruising is just fixing your boat in exotic locations”. We are very fortunate as we have 2500 miles under the keel in the last 8 months and very few issues. But….new boats, old boats, well maintained boats and minimalistic boats all require constant attention to be safe and seaworthy. Those who have little mechanical skills can sometimes get by with credit cards but they have a difficult time getting too far from capable people/cities/marine expertise. Last week Scott noticed a small leak on our primary diesel injection pump. Not huge and not urgent but definitely calling for attention. While a few drips a minute won’t stop us (or this motor) we have to be considerate of the fact that the fuel ends up in the bilge, and the bilge gets pumped occasionally overboard. We just can’t have that! Also, we are preparing to be “off the grid” for the next three months in North Sea of Cortez (and another 900 miles) and we just can’t have this get worse. So……a pump rebuild is in order. We called a few Mechanics in La Paz and most seem booked out for the month. Waiting a few weeks to a month during the best season in the Baja seems very undesirable. So, with a little bit of advice from the mechanic in San Diego, a few YouTube videos and even a few phone calls to my Ashley, we decided to tackle this!
We found a machine shop here in La Paz that can rebuild the pump. It also seem prudent to pull the injectors at the same time as I have no record of them being maintenanced and the shop can do those as well. Our motor is a Perkins 4.236 which is a great motor and is in good condition. Changing oil, regular care and feeding, and a little TLC this motor will last forever. While pulling the injection pump sounds pretty easy it requires complete disassembly of the fuel system, making a record of the pump timing to the cams. I do not want to retime the fuel system!! Pulling the injectors required some WD40 and a crowbar, hammer and sweat. Also, getting this work done by noon is also important as it is 90 outside by noon and life in an engine room at 90 degrees sucks! Lol One thing I’ve learned in my life…..taking things apart is relatively easy. Putting things back together is much more difficult! So, lots of pictures and blue tape for reminders! Lol Hopefully part two of this post will be in a week after we have all the rebuilt parts.
If you like quaint, hippy towns, find Yelapa on Airbnb. Our 3rd time here and we love it even more. So much so, we will be back next November for a few weeks, with more family.
We met a lovely lady, Chrissie, from my hometown Santa Cruz, who has a few darling, open air villas. She kindly invited us up for a tour, fun chat, best view and a beer. Just 50 hand laid steps up from our private snorkel spot and mini achorage/beach. The jungle wall and cliff was awesome and so green, even in the dry season.
We brought a new cruiser family with us, sailing on “Nirvana”. The 10 of us explored the town, delicious foods from the funky yacht club and hiked the 2 beautiful waterfalls. See ya next year Yelapa!
