Dawn & Patrick

Final Battery Heater Design

2024-12-06T09:07:00-08:00

My Final Battery Heater Design: Keeping Things Cozy in Winter

This is the heater pad system I put together to keep my batteries from freezing their circuits off in the winter. It keeps the temperature right around 80-90°F, which is warm enough to keep the batteries happy and also doubles as a toasty hand warmer while I'm tinkering with stuff. The pad itself came with a built-in sensor that turns it on when things get “around freezing”, but I wanted more control. So, I snipped that sensor off and hooked it into a smarter setup.

The system is powered by my 24V house batteries and uses a couple of key components to make everything run smoothly and efficiently. Let's get into the details.

Here's what I'm using:

Facon Heater Pad (Model CW-ST725):
Runs at 13.5V and pulls about 78 watts.
Big enough to do the job (about 25” x 7.5”).
I modified this by cutting out its “dumb” sensor, which only turns on when it feels like it.
DROK Temperature Control Board:
This little guy is the brains of the operation. It lets me set exact temperature limits for when the pad kicks on and off. No more guessing.
TOBSUN Buck Converter:
Converts the 24V from my house batteries down to 5V for the control board and other electronics.
It's rated for 75 watts, so it's got more than enough juice to handle this setup.
Home Assistant-Controlled Relays:
These give me full control of when the heater turns on. I can press a button in Home Assistant or let the automation handle it for me.

Power Details (Because Numbers Matter)

When Idle: It barely sips power at 0.001A.
When Heating: It pulls about 0.48A, which is roughly 12 watts.

How It's Set Up

The wiring diagram I made shows the heater connected directly to the 24V house batteries, but that's not exactly how I'm going to use it. Instead, I'm hooking it up to relays controlled by Home Assistant. Why? Because automation is awesome.

Here's how it'll work

Manual Control: I can flip the heater on or off from the Home Assistant app if I just want to use it like a big, warm switch.
Automatic Control: I'll set up rules to turn the heater on when temps drop below a certain level or when the van is in “Adventure Mode” (aka, not parked at home).

This setup gives me flexibility to keep the batteries warm when they need it, without wasting power when they don't. It's especially handy when I'm not around to babysit the system.

Eventually, this whole thing is going inside a dedicated winter battery box. The box will help trap the heat and protect the batteries from freezing temperatures. It's one more layer of protection for those really cold nights, especially when the van's out in the wild.

Why I'm Loving This Setup

This design just works. It's efficient, it's smart (thanks to Home Assistant), and it's built with reliable components I know won't let me down. Plus, it's super satisfying to build something that solves a real problem without breaking the bank.

All the parts are available on Amazon, so if you're dealing with cold-weather battery woes, you can totally DIY this. Whether you're keeping batteries warm or just want a heated surface for whatever reason, this setup is pretty flexible.

Alright, that's it! If you've got questions, ideas, or just want to chat about heaters, drop me a comment. I'm always up for a good nerd-out session.

Here's the wiring diagram in case you're a visual person like me.

Battery Heater - Facon Test

2023-10-23T20:07:00-07:00

In the previous post I did some testing of a battery heater system and the pads were able to melt XPS foam. I was concerned about this and wanted to do some testing with pads from Facon which are used in the RV world for tank heaters.

The Facon pads are desinged to be used at 12V and draw about 4-6 amps depending on your voltage. They have a built in hard-wired temperature sensor that turns the pad on when it is "near freezing". There is not a specific temperature mentioned.

I wanted to test these pads at different voltages to see how hot they get. I would not plant to use them with their own temperature sensor but rather with the DROK temperature controller I used in the previous test.

Modification

At first, I thought I had ordered pads without the thermostat they advertise because the it is just a pad with two wires coming out of it. I had assumed a thermostat would be am external device. I was wrong. The thermostat is built into the pads. It is inline with the positive wire, under the foam approximately 1 inch (2.5cm) from the heating wires. I believe as-is the heater would likely cycle on and off quite a bit as the thermostate is sensing the temperature of the pad and not the ambient air or the tank\battery it is heating.

To modify the pads, I pealed back the glue, and the black tape covering up the positive and negative wires. I then cut the positive wire, removed the thermostat and used a wago connector to rejoin the wires. In this configuration I used my benchtop power supply to test the pads at various voltages.

Test Results

Voltage	Amps	Temp (F) Range
25	8	Hot very quick
12	4.7	115-145 F
5	2	90-95F

At 5v, and in an enclosed space, I think these heater pads would be perfect for batteries. They are not going to melt anything and they will keep the batteries warm. You could argue they'd heat more slowly than at 12V but I think that is more of a benefit than a problem.

Battery Heater

2023-10-14T11:07:00-07:00

As the fall sets in and the winter is coming, I did some test of a battery heater system. The parts of this system are:

The DROK temperature control board is a nice little board with a temperature sensor that can be used to control the output. The temperature sensor is a thermistor that is attached to the board with a 2 pin connector. The board has a 3 pin connector for the output. The output can be configured to be on when the temperature is above or below the set point. The board only supports Celsius display and settings.

The heaters are 12V 15W silicone pads. They are 50mm x 100mm.

At 24.8 Volts

With the heating pads off the DROK draws 0.001A. The heating pads draw 1.377. The pads reach over 300F!!

At that temperature they are hot enoogh to melt XPS foam very quickly. They did not seem to have any effect on the Coosa board.

NOTE: I am considering these materials in my winter battery enclosure.

Comparisons at other voltages:

Volts DC	DROK Only (A)	Pads On (A)	Pads Temp. (F)
24.8	0.001	1.377	300 (open air)
13.8	0.004	0.773	190 (covered 5 min)
12.0	0.006	0.690	220 (covered 25 min)

The 12V test was done with the pads covered with a piece of XPS foam for over 15 minutes. I was reading 200F max, but usually around 190F. At 25 minutes, I did checked again and it was 220 and had started to melt the XPS. I uncovered the pads and they cooled down to 190F rapidly. The room I was in was 71.2F.

I then set some 1 inch wide by 1/8" thick aluminum bar on the plates and let is sit for 10 minutes. The temperature of the bars was max 93F and as low as 77F in the end not under the pads.

Next test was to use the aluminum bar and set the XPS directly on the bars. 10 minutes in max temp was 122F and the pads were around 135F. The XPS was not melting.

I'm not decided exactly how I will go but I thought this was interesting and worth sharing. Some thoughts:

Definitely do not want to put the XPS directly on the pads. I'd even say not on the aluminum bars or other heat sink either to be safe.
Definitely want to run at lower voltage. I did test at 5V and the pads did not get warm at all so 12V it is.
A heatsink greatly reduces the max temperature of the pads even when covered with the XPS there was enough air movement to keep the pads from getting too hot and melting the XPS.

Adding GPS to Victron Energy System and Home Assistant

2023-09-06T10:00:00-07:00

I have been working on a project to add GPS based location updates to my van automation. This will allow me to track my location and the location of my van on a map. I will also be able to use this data to trigger events and fetch location specific information (ex: weather) in Home Assistant.

Hardware

I am using a Adafruit Ultimate GPS with USB and a Parsec Belgian Shepherd 7-in-1 Antenna which will also provides external LTE and WIFI antennas for my router.

Software

The Adafruit GPS is connected to the Victron Cerbo GX via USB. It was automatically recognized by the Cerbo GX and is then available in VRM and Victron Connect. Victron is integrated into my Home Assistant instance using SFStars's HASS-Victron integration. I had already set this up previously and had to ReScan the GX Device to get the GPS to show up in Home Assistant as entities.

Configuration

Sample Scripts

To test all this, I made several Home Assistant Scripts to write to the logbook, work out how to get the GPS data, and to do some special calculations. These scripts are created in Home Assistant under settings, Automation and Scenes, and then select Scripts. I used the YAML editor exclusively.

Current Location

This is how to access the location set in Home Assistant. This is stored in the zone.home entity which has latitude and longitude attributes. Notice I am using the state_attr() helper not states(). This was non-obvious to me as it does not use use dot notaton object.attribute or object[''] style like in Python and took a while to figure out.

alias: Log Current Location
mode: single
icon: mdi:map-marker
sequence:
  - service: logbook.log
    data:
      name: Current Location
      message: >-
        lat: {{ state_attr('zone.home', 'latitude') }}, lon: {{
        state_attr('zone.home', 'longitude') }}

Update Home Assistant Current Location

This script captures the current location from the Victron attached GPS and then updates the current location in Home Assistant with the homeassistant.set_location service.

I also started to get more advanced here and I'm using script variables at the beginning which makes the code more readable to me.

alias: Update Van Location
mode: single
icon: mdi:crosshairs-gps
variables:
  cur_latitude: "{{ states('sensor.victron_gps_latitude_100') }}"
  cur_longitude: "{{ states('sensor.victron_gps_longitude_100') }}"
sequence:
  - service: logbook.log
    data:
      name: New Location
      message: "lat: {{ cur_latitude }}, lon: {{ cur_longitude }}"
  - service: homeassistant.set_location
    data:
      latitude: "{{ cur_latitude }}"
      longitude: "{{ cur_longitude }}"

Distance between Home Zone and Current Location

This script calculates the distance between the current location and the home location. This is done using the Haversine formula which I found on Omni Calculator and then convterted to Jinja \ HA Script with Chat-GPT4.

If you want to use this, but you prefer Miles over Kilometers, you can change the earth_radius_km variable to earth_radius_mi in the formular for the distance variable

alias: Calculate Distance
mode: single
icon: mdi:map-marker-distance
variables:
  earth_radius_km: 6371
  earth_radius_mi: 3959
  pi: 3.141592653589793
  prev_latitude_deg: "{{ state_attr('zone.home', 'latitude') }}"
  prev_longitude_deg: "{{ state_attr('zone.home', 'longitude') }}"
  new_latitude_deg: "{{ states('sensor.victron_gps_latitude_100') }}"
  new_longitude_deg: "{{ states('sensor.victron_gps_longitude_100') }}"
  prev_latitude_rad: " {{ prev_latitude_deg * (pi / 180) }}"
  prev_longitude_rad: "{{ prev_longitude_deg * (pi / 180) }}"
  new_latitude_rad: "{{ new_latitude_deg * (pi / 180) }}"
  new_longitude_rad: "{{ new_longitude_deg * (pi / 180) }}"
  distance: |-
    {{
      (2 * earth_radius_km) * asin(sqrt(sin((new_latitude_rad - prev_latitude_rad) / 2) ** 2 +
      cos(prev_latitude_rad) * cos(new_latitude_rad) *
      sin((new_longitude_rad - prev_longitude_rad) / 2) ** 2))
    }}
sequence:
  - service: logbook.log
    data:
      name: Distance From Last Known Location
      message: "Distance: {{ distance|round(0,floor)|int}} Km"

This could be made more robust by checking each variable is valid but if everything is working, it works. I did have a problem where all my sensor.victron_gps_** entities switched from ending in _0 to _100 after upgrading HA to 2023.9, this appears to be a known issue.

Final Scripts

... More to come ...

2022 Winter Goals

2022-10-12T00:07:00-07:00

The main goal right now is to get the van ready for ski season so we can sleep in the van and be warm. This does not mean a finished interior, but a "campable" interior. We'll be using our Exped mattress, sleeping bags, and our camping kitchen from the Jeep. We'll have a place to sleep, eat and most importantly it will be warm and dry.

In addition to the Minimum Van Project goals, we're also trying to complete some projects which are hard to do to later in the build mostly because they involve cutting holes in the van.

Goals

Seat swivels alreary done and working!
Second Skin Damplifier sound dampening
3M Thinsulate SM600L Insulation
MaxxFan Deluxe installed front and rear
Eberspächer Hydronic S3 D6L 24V diesel heater from Heatso.com
Eberspächer EasyStart Pro Timer
Kalori Silencio 2 (I call this a radiator)
Webasto Blower Control Unit
Enough of an electrical system to run the MaxxFans and Heater
SmartPlug install (won't be hooked up yet)
Prototype platform bed for the Exped MegaMat Duo 10
Subfloor Install
~~Lonseal Vinyl Flooring~~ <- Not till spring
1/2" Coosa Board
Owen's Corning Foamular NX 250 Insulation
Soundsulate 1lb Mass Loaded Vinyl for sound deadening

Platform Bed

The platform bed you see above is just a lazily built prototype. We used 2x12's to create a mounting point for the Ikea Skorva support beams. This is sitting about 38" off the sheet metal floor which will be 36" off the finished floor. We'll be sorting out the final height of the bed and the final bed design in the spring. We want to be able to sit up in bed and have room underneath for our systems and toys like biks, SUPs, skis, etc..

We definitely will not be using the 2x12's as the final bed suport. They are too heavy and take up 4" in width. Even in this prototype, we'll be cutting them down so a platform can extend out beyond and into the wall cavities. The Exped is longer than the area you see Dawn laying down in.

Subfloor

The flooring install is a variation of what many vanlifers do with some slight improvements. We're using 1/2" Coosa Board instead of 1/2" plywood. Coosa board is lighter, as strong, and will not absorb water. Foamular NGX 250 XPS insulation will be used instead of the 150 you can get at big box stores. The 250 can has a higher compression rating and the NGX is a more "green" product. On the bottom Soundsulate 1b mass-loaded vinyl for sound deadening. All of this will be glued together in layers as it is installed. We'll likely hold off on the Lonseal vinyl until spring.

One thing others commonly do is filling in all the ridges in the floor. Its our belief that you will get moisture in the van no matter what you do so you want to allow for air flow and drainage.

I'll provide more details on the electrical and the heating system in future posts.

Installing Amazing Auto Seat Swivels

2022-09-28T00:07:00-07:00

We installed the Amazing Auto seat swivels which are the only option for the 10 way power sears. It seems as though there are manufacturing variations both in the seat swivel and the Ford Transit seat riser as many people report wildly different experiences with the installation experience. For us, it was OK, but we had to hammer down two little tabs on the riser so the seat swivel's holes would line up with the riser's holes. Not a big deal.

One other area of installation disagreement is if you need to disconnect the battery since you are disconnecting the seat wiring which is connected to the air bags in the 10-way leather seats. We did disconnect the battery, but I don't know if it was necessary.

After the installation, I can see it was always going to have been be a huge pain in the butt to access the starter battery under the driver's seat. With this (any?) swivel installed this just get worse. I am planning to add external terminals so we could jump start or charge the van without taking apart the driver's seat.

Ford Transit 3D Scan for Design Work

2022-09-22T00:07:00-07:00

I went to Calgary, AB back in August to visit Rapid 3D, who sell 3d scans of popular vans. Unfortunately they didn't have a 2022 Ford Transit LWB AWD HR in their inventory, so we worked out a deal for them to scan Van Luna.

I drove up and spent a good night at Robinson Lake Campground before crossing the border into Canada and driving the rest of the way to Calgary. This was my first solo long-trip in the still empty cargo van, and it drives awesome. The Ecoboost has a ton of power and the longer wheelbase tracks straighter and is an easy drive on the freeway compared to our Jeep Renegade's shorter wheelbase.

Once at Rapid3D I met with with Cesar and the gang who showed me around and then got to work. It would take them three days to do the scan and a week or so to prep the files to be usable for DIYers and Upfitters.

If you'd like some tips on how to use the mesh files in Fusion 360, Rapid3D put a nice how-to on LinkedIN. Also convenient, Fusion 360's September update had huge perf improvements for working with Meshes.

One of the great things about the accurate scans is using them to place drawn objects and plan as in the picture above. The other useful thing is being able to extract outlines of shapes to use for things like cutting floor panels on CNC.

I'm a novice CAD user, but so far this has been a good process and fun to learn. Thanks to the whole gang at Rapid3D!

Hydronic Updates

2022-08-16T18:45:00-07:00

After many hours of research, I've answered some of my questions I mentioned in Hydronic System Planning, so it is time for an update.

Did I miss anything? :-)

Yes. since I plan to isolate the house sytem from the engine system, a coolant expansion tank is needed. The expanstion tank cap will be the highest point in the system. It is the kind of tank that is pressurized (7PSI). If the system is too full or boils over, the capp will open and release coolant out the vent hole. It can be run out of the van or into an overflow tank. Overflow tank is nice if you don't want evey spill coolant on the earth or fear you migth overfill. But it is not necessary in our application.

3 Way Valve Control

Can the the EastStart Pro control the Eberspächer 3-way valve so I can run the coolant pump and circulant coolant through the plate heat exchanger? I believe residual heat mode will run the pump, but I’m not sure about the valve.

No. The EasyStart Pro only connects to and controls the furnace. It can not control the Silencio 2 (air matrix \ radiator) or the valve.

Further, the Eberspächer valve is an automated valve, not a relay controlled valve. It is not suitable for this use case, where we want to control water flow to our preferences.

Can also add the EasyStart Web to the system?

Yes. But Not in the U.S. This controller has its own builtin in LTE connectivity. It is only available in certain countries.

Silencio Contoller

I’ve looked through the EasyStart Pro Installation, Instruction and Wiring diagrams. I don’t see how the EasyStart Pro wires up and how it controls the Silencio 2.

Sadly, it does not also control the Silencio 2, or any air matrix \ radiator fans. This is very disappointing as it means having to controllers. Seems like a real miss. In an Air heater solution, the Pro will control the whole system, this limitation is only for the hydronic heater.

Awesome Ford Transit

2022-08-02T02:20:00-07:00

"Awesome Lists" are very popular in the tech world. They are well-formatted lists of helpful things for developers many times.

This list is an Awesome Ford Transit Resources List. Curated links to awesome stuff for your Ford Transit.

You can make a pull request to add to the list, or get a hold of me and I'll do it.

Enjoy!

Hydronic System Planning

2022-07-29T02:16:00-07:00

First system design discusion !

I've looked at several paths to achieve a comfy camper with warm showers and hand washing. This can be done many ways and you can find them all online, so I won't get too far into the other options. But this approach with a single Eberspächer Gasoline furnace which heats coolant that is then used to heat water or the camper was my preferred approach. The main advantage to me was the single furnace system and not using AC (see the common Bosche heaters) except when on shore powr.

The main goals and requirements of the system are as follows:

Runs off the gasoline fuel tank
Camper heating while driving and camping
Water heating while driving and camping
Shore power water heating
Engine system isolated from camper and water heating
Engine coolant heat can be used to heat water without extra furnance
Remote (over the internet) Control

System Diagram

Major Components

Eberspächer S3 Economy B5E Kit Part Number: 29.2135.30.0021
S3 B5E gasoline (petrol) furnace w\ High Altitude
Water (coolant) Pump (12v)
Fuel pump (12v)
EasyStart Pro Controller
300mm Fuel Pickup
Muffler
Wiring harness
and more …
Silencio 2 Air Matrice (12v) Part Number: 41T0034
Eberspächer 3-Way Valve (12V) Part Number: 29.2180.01.0030
Kuuma 6gallon Hydronic Water Heater (w\AC heater)
Single-wall plate heat exchanger
T Check Valve
Coolant reservoir

Remaining Open Items

Did I miss anything? :-)
Can the the EastStart Pro control the Eberspächer 3-way valve so I can run the coolant pump and circulant coolant through the plate heat exchanger? I believe residual heat mode will run the pump, but I’m not sure about the valve.
Can also add the EasyStart Web to the system?
I’ve looked through the EasyStart Pro Installation, Instruction and Wiring diagrams. I don’t see how the EasyStart Pro wires up and how it controls the Silencio 2.

Meet Van Luna

2022-06-28T23:50:00-07:00

16 June we picked Van Luna our 2022 Ford Transit 350 AWD Cargo Van.

We ordered the van in October 2021. Then the waiting and hoping to get a VIN, which is the golden ticket, letting us know our van would actually be built. In April we recieved the email from Ford with our VIN and then we waited for Chris Reade at Evergreen Ford in Issaquah to let us know when the can arrived.

I won't go into every little decisions we make, but as we do our build becuase there are so many good posts and DIY builds we're copying. I will do write-ups similiar to those we did for s/v Deep Playa when I think there is more to share, or when I feel like writing things down.

Here are some common quetions we get asked though:

q: Why Van Luna?

Dawn named the van. We both love to go stargazing and with her silvery paint she just felt like a Luna.

q: Why a Ford Transit?

1) AWD 1) Because they're less expensive and parts are readily available in smaller rural towns.

q: Why not buy a fully built van or a kit?

We enjoy this stuff. We enjoy the project, the learning that goes into the build, and making our own compromises vs. living with the compromises someone else made.

q: Which Transit did you get?

spec	value
Year	2022
Make & Model	Ford Transit 350
Body Type	LWB Cargo Van
Drive Train	AWD
Engine	3.6L Ecoboost
Color	Silver Ingot

q: How long will the build take?

Forever. :-)

I think we'll always be tweaking it. But the short term plan is to get the van ventilated and insulated so we can use it for rough camping this summer. Then to work on a more permanent bed and heating so we can use it as a ski van this winter.

After that, we'll work on the planned large electrical system and more finished carpentry.

q: What are you going to do with Artie McFarti the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk?

Artie will still be our daily driver and there may be times we plan to go place Luna can't fit or can't get to, that the nimble Jeep Renegade can easily go.

Jeep Renegade Modifications - Making Artie More Awesome

2022-05-08T16:30:00-07:00

Artie has been amazing and reliable adventure buddy. Dawn and I love seeing his bright Orange glow when we come back to a parking lot after a day in the mountains.

The Jeep Renegade Trailhawk is not a Wrangler Rubicon, or a Sportsmobile. However, for the forest service roads we venture down its a very capable truck for our needs. We've only twice gotten stuck. One was due to poor judgement when I drove into snow that was too soft and high-centered the whole Jeep. The other was with friends and were just trying to see if we could get up a steep hill and up a log. I think if I had gunned it or didn't have so much gear in it at time it could have done it. But this was just a for fun thing. There was actually no reason to go that way, there was a perfectly easy road we could have gone around this section.

The one thing we were struggling with was our camping setup and bringing gear. We never take passengers in our vehicle so we decided that the back seats were really in the way. Lots of other vehicles have after market kits to replace rear seats with flat panel systems and access hatches. A "Rear Seat Delete" package does not exist for for the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk so we made our own.

This is the completed platform. You'll notice we cut the cup holders out of the arm console and made a spot for tissues. These are both easy to access even when driving. The whole thing comes by removing two bolts if needed for repairs or accessing the fuel pump. Before assembly we put down some rattle trap. The foam of the seat absorbed a lot of noise and this helps with that.

The platform has a lot of room underneath which we access from the sides and and it gives a nice large flat rear cargo area for loading in gear.

One thing I would do differently, is not paint the platform with bedliner. We've scratched helmets and goggles on the rough surface. We plan to resurface it with a rubber mat.

We also added Maxtrax to our recovery kit. They would have been great that time in the snow, but they'll be really useful as ramps when we need that extra bit of ground clearance.

Water Tank

When we go camping, we bring 5 grocery store jugs of water. Sometimes we refill existing jugs, sometimes we buy new ones. All of this creates plastic waste and it is not ideal to work with jugs of water instead of pressurized water like we had on the boat. Easy fix, buy a tank, hook up a pump and you have a portable water system. (see pic above.)

iPad Dash Mount

In the RV we used an iPad for navigation. That RV was from the 80's so it didn't have a big screen or navigation, but even the Jeep with its own screen doesn't have good integration with the iPhone and Apps.

The main issue was where to mount the Ram Mount attachment. Again, there is no turnkey solution for the Renegade so I had to design something. I started with the Ram Mount ball on the back of the center console air vent but that placed the screen really high, almost cent of the windshield. The approach I'm currently using is this prototype wedge I fabricated in the shop.

This wedge tilts the ball forward which then enables the iPad to be lower. The main issue is the Ram Mount arm has limited mounting angles. Since I've made this, I've also been thinking about using an piece of 90 degree aluminum so the ball is mounted horizontally. But as-is, I'm going to use two arms and see how that goes on my next trip. Even if we stick the wedge, it will be redone to be the full width of the Ram Mount track and painted black or CNC'd out of black UHMW plastic or Delrin.

1UpUSA Bike Rack

We recently bought gravel bikes and need a way to mount them that would hold up off-road.I won't go super into details, 1UP has a great website. But the rack doesn't wiggle or make any noise at all. So far we love it. I might add a swing-away arm and\or a adapter to raise it up some. We'll see if that is needed after the next trip.

COVID Times

2022-05-08T15:30:00-07:00

Last night, I updated the version of Pelican I use to generate the site, and fixed A LOT of layout issues with articles that I never cleaned up when we switched from using Wordpress. Still a lot of bit rot links that are gone forever, links to spreadsheets, etc.. But as I did that it was a lot of fun to take a trip down memory lane and remember all the fun things we have been so priviledged and fortunate to be able to do.

Let's get back into that !

Wow, last update was in January 2020 when we went to Winter Park. Well in February of 2020 we went to Zermatt for our 10th Wedding anniversary with friends. It was an amazing trip. Zermatt is so beautiful.

This was right when COVID was starting to become the big news story. And from Zermatt we skied into Northern Italy which was a COVID hot bed at the time. One our friends thinks she got COVID either on this trip or the wayback, but the rest of us faired well.

When we got back to Seattle, Dawn was first asked to work from home because she had been travelling, but the next week the whole company went to work from home.

We still skied during COVID and that was such a stress reliever. We thought about geting kayaks. Couldn't find any. Also it would have been hard for us to store them.

Still did some camping with friends. Socially distanced at the time because no one was vaccinated. Artie has been such a joy to give us a way to get out when the times were more scary. I will do some posts about Artie soon, as we've made some modifications.

Through these times, we've been careful, but not completely shut-ins (well except in the beginning). I had been going to Kraken Games, until they stopped asking (they never enforced) mask wearing. Kraken hockey games have been so much fun.

Both Dawn and I are life long Flyers fan it is a little weird to now have two teams, but going to games is a blast and it helps when your seats are amazing.

I'm not going to rehash two plus years of generally miserables times. But even with that, it was not all bad, and it is good we remember to make great things happen even when the days are dark as night.

Dawn and I have many irons in the fire and planning new and exciting adventures. With that, I plan to get back into the blog as it is a great time capsule and ocassionally its been enjoyable and helpful to others as well.

Winter Park Resort

2020-01-07T00:07:00-08:00

We spent Christmas Ever through New Year's Eve at Winter Park Resort in Colorado. We chose Winter Park because the ski-able terrain resort looked immense (it is) and it had no blackout days with our Ikon Base Pass.

The whole West was suffering some from lack of snow so I didn't get to ski all the things, especially the side-country areas in Vasquez. So it was a lot of groomers which was fun and good to work the legs into shape. I put in 23K vertical feet one day.

They do a great job grooming the mountain. And because of that every lift has a Green and Blue run and most also have Diamond and Double Diamonds, so from one lift your whole group can ski what they like and then regroup at the bottom. I definitely recommend Winter Park for families and groups where everyone is not the same skill level.

Dawn took a full-day lesson one day and she really loved the instructor and the lesson. The class was focused on improving your parallel skiing. She feels like she got a lot out of it. I can also say, her skiing improved as well. (Solid skills are the foundation of a lifelong love of skiing!) The instructor was soo friendly. I ran into the class on the mountain and he took our picture. He didn't need to do that, it was very nice of him.

Ikon Pass Experience

Winter Park is a fully digital lift experience, which let's you walk up, scan your Ikon Pass trough your parka and use the lift. No need to stop by the ticket booth lines or barcode scanners. In addition, on-mountain you can pay with your Ikon Pass and get discounts on food and other purchases (t-shirts, stickers, gloves, etc.) the Ikon Pass was a great experience at Winter Park.

Travel

We flew Alaska Airlines to Denver and then took Home James Shuttle to the hotel. Flight was great, and Alaska is used to handling Skis so he whole experience was seamless.

You meet Home James Shuttle at the airport and they drop you off at your Hotel. Shuttles are High Roof passenger vans, very comfy. Easy Peasy! On your way back to the airport, the shuttles can get off schedule. I would plan to take the shuttle that is the one before the one you think you need to take. Give yourself extra time. You may think you'll have 1.5 hours when you get to the airport, but you'll end up with 50 minutes and no time to eat or whatever else you need to do. Just pad your schedule, their website will let you cut it too close.

Lodging

We stayed at the Viking Lodge. Its a very affordable lodge which at the time of our visit was also being remolded. This place is very cute and the people are super nice. I am sure once the remodel done prices will go up. Beds were comfy mail-order type memory foam mattresses. I had never slept on one of these, and was worried, but it was comfy. They offer pod-coffee in the lobby where you can also sit on coaches by the gas fireplace and read a book by the Christmas tree. It was a place to relax.

The hotel also has outdoor lockers to hold your skis. They will hold up-to 2 pairs. It was nice to have and right on your way in. I've stayed at other places where you had to go down into the basement to locker your skis which was less preferred.

Overall, I would definitely recommend the Viking to travelers who don't like to spend their whole budget on hotel rooms and when the remodel is done, I think the charm will grow exponentially!

Dining

!! FOOD DESSERT WARNING !!

If you are arriving to Winter Park after 8pm on any day, depending on your dietary needs, you may have limited or NO options to get food. We arrived on Christmas Eve and NOTHING was open. McDonald's was closed. We ate some bars we brought with us and some chips from the vending machine at the Best Western. We could have grabbed some food at the airport before we got on the Shuttle. I wish Home James or the Viking had mentioned this.

On-Mountain and In-Village

Snoasis

This place needs to be remodeled. I guess its the cheap place to eat on the mountain. I thought it was dirty and not up to the standards of the rest of the resort and the food was not interesting or good. I wish we had not gone in.

They were playing a Jazz Station from Denver on the PA outside the DJ was straight outta the Beatnik playbook. Very funny and great music!

Sunspot Mountain Top Lodge & Provisioner

I had the chicken noodle soup, solid soup soo good when its 10F outside. It was PACKED.

We had a drink one afternoon at the bar. They cannot make a Manhattan. Order a beer or something on their cocktail list.

Lunch Rock

OMG the Chicken Confit Pot Pie is soo good. Seriously. Just go and eat it. The Green Chili is also good. But order the pot pie again the next day too. ;-) It was PACKED.

Doc's Roadhouse Food good, the sausage appetizer is 3/4s of a pig I think. So plan accordingly. We sat the bar and the service was horrible, waiting for drinks, waiting to order food. It was not busy and the bartender was chatting up everyone else working instead of waiting on customers. (Bad service is a thing in Winter Park... there were lots of help wanted signs in town.)

Mary Jane Ale House

Solid Beer. Not more to say other than again... crappy service. Sitting at the bar and no they will not ask if you want anything... ever. You have to interrupt the straightening of coasters.

Vertical

Vertical has hands down the best pork chop I have ever eaten. Go there. Eat things. Be Happy. The baked Avocado was also soo good. I'm going to have to try that at home.

We again sat the the bar and it was busy but I thought this bartender did a good job keeping up. the food though was soooo good!

In Town Dining

Deno's

We prebooked (weeks ahead) a reservation for 7pm for Christmas dinner. We were given a crappy table under the stairs. Staff could NOT deal with the traffic at all. What I wanted to order (the special for tonight) was unavailable. Fine, I guess... mind you its 7pm not 10pm. So, I had to then wait 20 minutes for the waiter to come back and take our order. They do have an extensive wine list if you can afford it. I've had 1975 Mouton its not worth $800.

The food we finally did get was good but not great. My thought on Deno's is order a steak. If you don't eat steak don't go to Deno's. It seems to be what they do, it was my fault for thinking I could eat something else. (I don't usually eat steak.)

Paella's

Really good. Great Service. Staff super friendly. Best place we ate in Winter Park.

Casa Mexico

Solid Mexican. I had the Pollo Mole which was great. I'm picky about my mole. The bartender was super friendly and funny.

If you're really nice they'll give you a shot from the hoof!

The Peak Bistro and Brewery

We went on Sunday. Last Day of the Regular Season Sunday. The staff was SLAMMED although the place had just turned over 1/2 the tables (1/2 empty). Sitting at the bar did not yield faster service. I don't blame the staff on this one, clearly they lacked the people to deal with the size of this venue. The bartender was also busing tables.. The staff was nice though and I could tell they were also frustrated. Beer... very good. Food... good quality bar food. Solid. Nothing you've never had, but a solid brew-pub.

Ciao Monte

I had the lasagna, REALLY good. Also order a salad though, its not huge. It is the right serving you should eat. You just might also want a salad.

Dawn had a salad that looked nothing like the photo and it was extremely boring and meh. I think all their photos are from stock photos and not of their actual food. Read the descriptions carefully.

The Perk

Great coffee comfy seating. All you need. They share space with a high-end outdoor retail shop so you can look at that too.

Other Places

Green Spaces Co-Working

We need to put in a day of work so we hit up the Green Spaces co-working. The place is super functional, the guy working the desk was very nice. Everyone was wearing their Everest expedition down jackets because it was cold. The exposed concrete in the couch alcoves and the exposed metals beams were the s ame temperature as outside (it was 6F or maybe 12F that day). I think the place is new, I'm sure they'll fix that.

Otherwise, we were very happy with the network and the coffee. Dawn had phone meetings the phone booths were great. They had these suction cup desks on the window so you could also stand up if you wanted. I liked the space, it just needs a couple tweaks.

The Foundry (Movies and Bowling)

We just walked through here and it was adorable inside. Newly renovated the place is done very well and it was very busy\popular. I wish we had time to bowl, it looked fun!

My Grandparents

2018-02-09T00:00:00-08:00

This pics have been online for a bit. But now that the blog is up and working I wanted to take a second and share them here. My Grandfather William Durward Walters (aka Durwee), I served in the Navy aboard the USS Laffey and did a world tour. In that time the entire family: Rosemond Barnett Walters (Honey) my Grandmother, My father and his brother all visited Hawaii and lived in Guam for 2 years. Also seen in the photos are stops along my Grandfather's tour including Singapore.

Meet Artie

2017-07-28T00:52:00-07:00

This is Artie, Artie McFartie.

This 2016 Jeep Renegade is our new adventure platform. We had a Prius when we moved back to Washington but after the lease was up, we wanted to upgrade to something capable of handling the snow and the US Forest Service roads around the Pacific NW. I've been delinquent in posting for a quite awhile but I'm hoping to be more diligent about that moving forward.

For now, say hi to Artie McFartie!

Super Bowl 50 - Cross Country Skiing

2016-02-11T15:54:00-08:00

Since Dawn and I returned from the warmth and sun of the Pacific Ocean both in Mexico and Hawai'i we really wanted to get into some snow and enjoy some seasons other than Endless Summer. January 2015 that was impossible in Washington state since we had zero snow. this winter [snow has been great. We've been renting a lot of different Xcountry gear and going a bunch of different places to see what we like and the best way to get more into Xcountry skiing.

We've already been to Lake Easton, Cabin Creek, Rainier, Methow Valley, and The Nordic Center at Snoqualmie. As always, I'll share our adventures and do geeky write ups on gear from time time because me. Super Bowl weekend we drove up i-90 and visited the Erling Skordal Trails (Crystal Springs) and Salmon la Sac.

If you've skied the Nordic Center at Snoqualmie, the flat sections of the John Wayne Trail, and are ready for something more challenging, but still well-groomed the Erling Skordahl trail system at Crystal Springs is the next place to go.

The trails have some rolling hills, some loops that go into harder areas (and some that don't) and really I think for the intermediate skier its the place to cut your teeth, especially on how to go up and down hills, feel your edges, etc. I absolutely loved it here.

It is also one of the more used places for those who are into racing so if you're a true beginner I'd go to Lake Easton or the Nordic Center a few more times. I'd suggest checking the Kongsberger Ski Club page to see if there are races going on which might impact the availability of the trails.

Salmon la Sac is one of the many Sno-Parks in Washington state that have groomed trails for Xcountry, snowshoeing, snowmobiles (skidoos for you Canucks), snow biking, dog sleds, etc. The Sno-Parks all have different rules and uses; Salmon la Sac has Xcountry, snowshoeing and snowmobiling trails.

Trails are reported to be groomed by the State's site and Snowrec.org, but on the day we went, they were not really groomed after the first mile or so and even then they were only packed down with snowmobiles. I'm not sure if that is normal, or if the big snowfalls this year have made it impossible to keep up with the grooming. Definitely not suitable for skate skiing and our traditional skis (no edges narrow for tracks) made it a litlte challenging, but we're ok with that.

After crossing the Cle Elum river the wide open trail quickly narrowed down to a snowshoe trail. With our skis in the snowshoe track and our poles on the unpacked snow, my traditional longer poles were definitely not ideal, Dawn's adjustable poles were great and are now on my wishlist.

While trail conditions were more challenging, we liked the extra workout that comes from that and we saw 2 people while were out. Super Bowl Sunday may had a lot to do with that, but it was still great to have the forest to ourselves.

P.s., I'll do a write up on the software I'm using to do those maps another time.

Changes at DeepPlaya.com

2015-03-02T14:23:00-08:00

Since we're not just sailors and currently living on land, I've made some tweaks to the site over the past couple of days. Mostly I changed the theme so the main site and my tech\ham W7PEA subsite look the same and are more inline with our personal tastes.

I've also been working on the Blogroll to include all my friends blogs. If you're a friend, send me your link! I want to keep up with you, work, personal, family, whatever you got. I love to keep up even when we can't be together.

More and bigger changes coming down the road, but this is a nice start.

Survey Results: Favorite Beer, Wine or Whisky Establishment

2015-02-02T11:45:00-08:00

Since its been a few years since we lived in Seattle I surveyed my friends about their favorite places and things in the city. This is my favorite question we asked and it was the most interesting to me. Witness had 4 votes and I've never heard of it. There was a greater diversity of locations around the city, which I think proves my friends will go great distance for good drinks!

What's your favorite beer, wine or whisky spot?

Canon (4) | http://www.canonseattle.com/ | "if you can get a table go on an off night"
Witness (3) | http://witnessbar.com/ | "for any time"
The Barrel Thief (2) | http://bthief.com/ | "We're friends with the owner, and that place is amazing, so many wines available by the glass!, due to the Coravin system, it's really neat, ask them about it"
Chuck's CD (2) | http://chuckscd.com/ | "CD"
Quinn's (2) | http://quinnspubseattle.com/ | "with Kevin MacDonald"
Sun Liquor Co. (2) | http://www.sunliquor.com/ | "in general", "the one on Summit and E Roy, not Pike/Pine"
Tavern Law(2) | http://www.mccrackentough.com/tavernlaw/ | "if you can go to the secret upstairs"

The others in alphabetical order:

Black Raven brewery | http://blackravenbrewing.com/
Capitol Cider | http://www.capitolcider.com/ | "NIce downstairs on music nights"
Crescent Lounge | http://thecrescentlounge.com/ | "for amusing karaoke"
The Beveridge Place Pub | http://www.beveridgeplacepub.com/ | "for beer"
Brouwer's Cafe | http://brouwerscafe.blogspot.com/ | "for beers"
Can Can | http://www.thecancan.com/ | "for absinthe"
King's Hardware | http://kingsballard.com/
Knee High Stocking Co. | http://www.kneehighstocking.com/ | "for intimate"
Lava Lounge | http://lavaloungeseattle.com/ | "for five"
Lenny's Place | http://www.yelp.com/biz/lenys-place-seattle | [ED: Note. I don't think person has ever been to Lenny's (SIC) since they would have remembered Leny's is so cheap it only has one "N"! :-) ]
Liberty | http://www.libertybars.com/ | "for cocktails"
McLeod | http://www.macleodsballard.com/Macleods.html
Mistral Kitchen | http://mistral-kitchen.com/ | "for Happy Hour"
Naked City Tap House | https://nakedcitybrewing.com/
Pink Door | http://thepinkdoor.net/ | Patio in summer
Poco Wine | http://www.pocowineandspirits.com/ | "Best truffle, mac and cheese!"
Radiator Whiskey | http://radiatorwhiskey.com/
Tin Hat | http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-tin-hat-seattle-2
Tippe & Drague Alehouse | http://www.tippeanddrague.com/

Survey Results: Seattle Tourist Attractions

2015-01-30T11:45:00-08:00

Since its been a few years since we lived in Seattle I surveyed my friends about their favorite places and things in the city.

What is your must see tourist site?

Fremont (3) Fremont and things in Fremont were a clear cut winner, which is funny because I don't think any of my friends live in Fremont.

Fremont Wandering around Fremont The Fremont Troll Theo Chocolate Tour

Underground Tour (2)

A close second was the Underground Tour and apparently they now also have an "adult" version of the tour for the 21+ crowd. When I knew I was moving to Seattle from NJ in Junior High, I did a book report on the Underground Tour. Its a little odd now that I think about it, but there was a narrow and thin book on the Tour in my Middle School library in Mt. Laurel, NJ. I recommend the tour as well.

Two people suggested complete itineraries: Ferry to Bainbridge, ice cream at Mora, ferry back downtown timed for sunset. Best in summertime obviously. https://www.bainbridgeisland.com/ferry http://moraicecream.com/ While your there also go to Bloedel Reserve from the others list.

Bike to West Seattle, eat all the things, water taxi back across at night

The others in Alphabetical Order:

Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island
Discovery Park
Flying Heritage Collection
Kayaking So many great options
Museum of Flight Restoration Center at Paine Field
Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI)
Olympic Sculpture Park
Seattle Great Wheel
Smith Tower Observation Deck
Volunteer Park Water Tower
Woodland Park Zoo I love the Zoo!

Survey Results: Every Day Restaurants

2015-01-29T11:43:00-08:00

Since its been a few years since we lived in Seattle I surveyed my friends about their favorite places and things in the city.

What is your favorite everyday restaurant?

The top vote getters:

Annapurna (2)
Cafe Pettit Rosso (2) "for brunch or lunch"
Judkins St Cafe (2) "for breakfast(1)"

Nishino was on this list as well as the Special Ocassion list. Someone in our friend group has good every-day taste.

The others in alphabetical order:

Ada's Technical Cafe
Aloha Ramen
Ayutthaya Thai
Central Pizza
Chaco Canyon "if you want some amazing vegan food."
Chef Cafe "Ethiopian"
Hi Spot Cafe
Honeyhole
Hopvine
Hudson
Humble Pie "if it's nice outside"
In the Bowl Bistro
Jack's BBQ
Kastoori Grill Indian
Kedai Makan Take out/Malaysian
Luc
Machiavelli
Mamnoon "Slab Sandwiches and Pie for M-F lunch"
Momiji "Happy hour"
Morsel "for getting your biscuit on"
Naan Sense "food truck"
Nishino
Paseo
Pecado Bueno "3 margaritas and outdoor fire pit"
Pestle Rock
Phinney Market Pub "Especially now that we need restaurants that are kid-friendly"
Pink Door
Pinto Bistro
Quinn's Pub "but it's a goat rodeo on the weekends. weekends start on Wednesday now, in case you missed that."
Rom Mai Thai
Royal Grinders
Samurai Noodle "ask for shredded pork instead of the other kinds"
San Fernando Roasted Peruvian Chicken "roasted chicken, divey Peruvian"
Shiku
Skillet
Sushi Kanpai
Tallulah's
Taqueria El Asadero at 3513 Rainier Avenue South "Taco Bus"
The Leary Traveler
Trove "go straight to the bbq section"
Voila
The Wandering Goose

Survey Results: Special Occasion Restaurant

2015-01-28T21:16:00-08:00

Since its been a few years since we lived in Seattle I surveyed my friends about their favorite places and things in the city. Our first question:

What is your favorite special occasion restaurant?

Revel was most frequently suggestedalong with Crush, Canlis and Poppy and the rest are in Alphabetical order.

Revel (3) | http://www.revelseattle.com
Crush (2) | http://www.chefjasonwilson.com
Canlis (2) | http://canlis.com | "if you only order the duck"
Poppy (2)| http://poppyseattle.com
Artusi | http://www.artusiseattle.com
Cafe Campagne | http://cafecampagne.com
Canon | http://www.canonseattle.com | "drinks/dessert"
Chandlers Crabhouse | http://www.schwartzbros.com/chandlers-crabhouse | "The Book Bindery is closed now, so I'll go classic"
El Gaucho | http://elgaucho.com/El-Gaucho-Seattle.html
Harvest Vine | http://www.harvestvine.com
Lark | https://larkseattle.com
Maneki | http://www.manekirestaurant.com
Marjorie | http://www.marjorierestaurant.com
Mashiko | http://sushiwhore.com
Nishino | http://nishinorestaurant.com
Red Cow | http://www.ethanstowellrestaurants.com/locations/red-cow | "Went for my birthday and it's hands-down the best steak in town."
Restaurant Marron | http://www.restaurantmarron.com | "super, super tasty...but spendier."
Rock Creek | http://www.rockcreekseattle.com
Roux | http://restaurantroux.com
Spinasse | http://www.spinasse.com
Terra Plata | http://terraplata.com
Westward | http://westwardseattle.com

Playing Tourist in Honolulu

2014-07-14T00:16:00-07:00

We're trying to do a better job taking in the sites around Oahu. Last weekend we went to the Pacific Aviation Museum and this weekend we went to Shangr-La, Doris Duke's home and now Islamic Art Museum.

We have done a lot of site seeing and tours in our journeys and we are now 100% convinced if there is a guided tour, pay the extra and do that. We've have never once had a bad experience. The Pacific Aviation Museum has such a docent lead tour and it was great. I think it was \$10 extra, but worth ever penny. We also got a Kama'aina discount by showing our Rainbow ID Card (HI Driver's license). We didn't quite work the deal right though as we could have got one ticket for Kama'aina AND buy one get one free. Gotta figure that one out when we go back for the other exhibits at Pearl Harbor.

Shangri La was once Doris Duke's private residence, but it was also designed to be what it is now a Museum to Islamic Art. The building and the grounds are absolutely beautiful. You're not allowed to take photos inside, but this panorama of the view to the ocean gives you a taste. This is a must see if you make it to Honolulu.

Something for the Cruiser Friends

2014-03-25T09:56:00-07:00

Everyone need specialized Coconut equipment! http://www.coolthings.com/coco-jack/

America's Cup 34

2013-09-30T19:40:00-07:00

Dawn and I were at home in Honolulu watching the America's Cup on YouTube on the day they tied the race up forcing a final deciding race. We booked a last minute flight to San Francisco to watch the race and were not disappointed! Team USA Oracle won the race, retaining the cup in one of the most exciting come from behind wins in sporting history.

The event was excellently staged and watching from the shoreline with the TV monitors and live audio coverage was perfect! These boats are going so fast it is amazing. In our America's Cup Flickr set there are couple of videos that give you sense of how fast they really are. After the race we walked down to Pier 39 to see the trophy ceremony. You can see how close we able to get to the cup!

To top it all off, we just happen to also have friends from Seattle in town in SF at the same time! So, we had a mini reunion with great friends which wasn't even planned! Yay Universe!

Great weekend. Great Race. Great Friends.

Super Bowl - Check
America's Cup - Check
Pipeline Masters is looking like the next epic sporting event to check out!!

You either get it or you don't

2013-09-14T02:59:00-07:00

New Videos

2013-08-14T05:00:00-07:00

I uploaded some new videos from last summer's RV road trip and one of Dawn on her SUP in La Cruz.

Update 2022: We don't post on YouTube any more

Aloha from Kaka'Ako Honolulu, Hawai'i

2013-05-30T07:12:00-07:00

We've been in Hawai'i for about three weeks now and we're settling in quite nicely. Originally we landed in Waikiki to a place we had setup to be in for a month as a launching pad to check out neighborhoods and find an apartment. After about 10 days though we found a great place in the Kaka'Ako neighborhood. We're directly across from Ala Moana Park which is both a great park, beach and surfing area! Our place looks West and South offering us great views of the Pacific Ocean during the day (the makai side) and of the city and mountains at night (the mauka side). There's a ton of shops, restaurants, and geek spaces in the neighborhood most of which we've yet to explore. But we did manage to find Real A Gastropub, @realgastropub1. This place has awesome beer on tap, hundreds of bottles I've not even started to look at a tapas style menu with amazing items like duck confit corndogs and candied bacon! Yep, things are working out here just fine.

sv Deep Playa Final Route

2013-04-01T01:45:00-07:00

This image is from ShipTrak.org. It shows all the times I logged our position via AirMail while we were out cruising.

Best Systems: Spectra Capehorn Extreme Watermaker

2013-03-29T06:08:00-07:00

I'm going to write a few post about some of the projects and systems we loved the most on the boat and less about things we didn't use as much as we thought or wish we had done differently. To kick this off, let's brag about our watermaker.

Our Spectra Capehorn Extreme Watermaker was expensive and it was worth every penny. We love water. We drink it. We cook with it. We wash dishes with it We shower in it. We never wanted for water and especially when we we're surfing or cleaning the bottom we'd take two showers a day. There's just nothing better than fresh clean water. I pitied those folks carrying water jugs looking for a free spigot, or looking for a cart to carry full water jugs from the store. If you want to do one thing which will make your boat more like your home, then I say a watermaker is it.

Spectra Capehorn Extreme Watermaker <- Can't say enough good things about it!

Pearson 424 Hull #152's New Owners Natasha and Owen

2013-03-29T05:08:00-07:00

Natasha and Own are the new owners of Pearson 424 Hull number 152, now christened as sv Wine-O Rhino.

Fair winds and Following Seas to both of you and your new boat!

Punta de Mita is live on NoonSite.com

2013-02-01T20:21:00-08:00

As we were coming down the coast, I was pretty appalled at the lack of "free" content about where to go, what to do, etc. There are some great cruiser guides you can buy, but even the brand new one is out of date because of how quickly things change in Mexico. With that in mind I've tried to get out the word whenever I can by sharing information and here's the latest installment.

Punta De Mita on Noonsite.com

V-Drives Rattle By Design

2013-01-31T22:10:00-08:00

[]({static}/images/2013/01/WalterVDriveManual-1024x545.png)

Just wanted to make sure this got into the world.

Walter Gear V-Drive, they make noise when running at idle. Walter Gear says this is normal right in the manual.

What's Next?

2012-11-18T18:49:00-08:00

After our successful fall navigation of the west coast of the United States, winter and spring cruise of Mexico, and summer Land Yacht tour of the United States we've decided we're ready and excited to re-engage in our careers. We own nothing but Deep Playa, her contents and a couple of boxes at our Moms' houses. We have no storage unit full of junk and no property to which we need to return. So the obvious first question is where to do want to live?

We’ve given a lot of thought to how we’ve been living and here’s what we’ve learned.

We love the ocean even more than we did in Seattle. The seabirds, the whales, the fish. Crystal clear, green warm waters. Long beaches to run on. All amazing!
There is a lot to be said for amazing weather. Although, Patrick could definitely handle some cold crappy weather every once in a while.
We have grown to love this more relaxed cruising lifestyle.
Cute dusty Mexican towns are nice to visit, especially if there is surf, but we get bored living there.
As in our house, in our condo and on the boat, we continue to enjoy living in a simple space with modest amounts “stuff”.
We miss the variety of dining and entertainment options modern US cities brought to our lives. Coastal Mexico is very homogenous.
We miss the Asian influences of Seattle. Especially the food!
Living at anchor can be isolating, inconvenient and it’s hard to sleep more often than you’d think.
We miss the convenience land mobility brings to life. Being able to jump on the scooter or a car and go someplace or get something.
We need a bed which can be accessed from the sides, so one person isn’t crawling over the other to enter and exit.
We miss having a tinker space or workshop to work on geeky stuff and projects.
Dawn needs to be able run when she wants and go to the gym.
We eat a lot of veggies and miss the variety and high-quality of produce available in the US.
Dawn misses a full size kitchen and pantry full of options.
Long hot showers with water pressure so strong you can barely stand-up.
We miss really good wine. And Matty won’t bring us any!
We miss hoppy IPAs. And Russian River Brewing won’t bring us some Pliny!
We miss friends our own age. We miss younger friends. We miss geeks. We miss our kind of weirdos. We miss the depth of friendships and conversations you get from living in one place. We miss having a place to host our friends.
We miss the collaboration and excitement that a great job brings to life. Working together with others to make something new. Growing our own skills. Mentoring others and seeing them grow.

With all that in mind, we started to think about where to live and really the only two coastal cities with adequate job options and access to the Ocean are San Diego and Honolulu. Ultimately, while Honolulu may be more complicated logistically and have a smaller job market, we think the lifestyle which is offered there is more appealing. We also have friends who live there already which is a huge bonus.

Will we sail to Hawaii? Living in a marina again would be fun. Living in a marina offsets a lot of the “living on the hook” inconveniences. But, in our mind, Hawaii is not is not a great place to live aboard a sailboat while working. The day and weekend trips seem limited and we’re not day sailors or racers. We think a power boat or catamaran would be more ideal in Hawaiian waters. It’s not a done deal, but we’re looking into selling Deep Playa here in Mexico. We have yet to meet with a broker, but we’re gathering information and looking into our options. It might turn out to be better to take the boat up to San Diego. We don’t know enough yet to make that decision. If we go to San Diego instead of Honolulu then living aboard is a more viable option and one we’d consider. It would be very hard to say goodbye to Deep Playa, but it’s just as exciting to think about what we’re going to do next and to get on with doing it.

So there it all is. We’re getting jobs. Honolulu is our favorite option. We don’t plan to take the boat to Honolulu. We have no precise timeline, but we definitely won’t be in Mexico for the summer.

How was the Land Yacht?

2012-11-18T16:44:00-08:00

Overall, we really enjoyed the Land Yacht and mostly I think we like the convenience of land. On the boat, when Dawn wants to go for run, she has to row the dinghy in, drag it up the beach, clean off her feet, put on her running shoes. A half-hour later the run begins. On the Land Yacht, you put your shoes on and you open the door and you run!

For me, I liked working on the RV. I liked crawling underneath it. I liked not worrying it would sink if I did something wrong. It was awesome to have my older brother (and one time mechanic) help me work on the engine. I love me a project and our crappy motor home was definitely a project. ;-)

Shopping and dining was also a treat. That had to do with land, and also with being in the US. There’s just sooo much stuff in the US. It’s truly amazing how convenient the US is. Things which will take an entire day of busing and walking to get in Mexico take 10 minutes in the US. You want something? Pull off the freeway and get it.

The only thing wrong with our gear and setup was not having a second vehicle. RV Parks are not located as close to things as you might have thought. They are frequently 20-30 miles away from the stuff you want to go to see. Our RV was small enough, we’d just drive it there and look for parking, but there were definitely times we sat tight at the RV Park because we didn't want to unhook the RV. We had bikes, but again frequently we were too far away for our comfy beach cruiser bikes to make that kind of trip reasonable. Public transportation was also a failure in most places. A small car, motorcycle or scooter would have been great. A scooter would have been limiting though since it cannot go freeway speeds. If we RV again, we’ll have a second vehicle.

The route we went on was not ideal. We drove across the US SW in August. The A/C in the engine didn't work. That sucked! Next US trip will be coastal or mountains for sure. I would also like to go back to the desert SW in the winter someday. From the Grand Canyon (loved!) to the Appalachians (Dollywood was fun) was mind numbing, tedious and devoid of things we found interesting. Don’t need to go back there!

It did teach us a few things about what we like and need in our personal space and our lifestyle. These will be things that we’ll use as we move forward with future adventures. As an adventure this was a good RV practice run.

What are we up to?

2012-11-18T16:22:00-08:00

Back in October, we spent two weeks putting the boat back together and getting things ready. It was still pretty hot then and I (Patrick) was a pretty uncomfortable during the days. It always takes me some time to adjust. All of our (read Dawn's) work prepping the boat before we left paid off. We had only a tiny bit of mold on some clothes, and that had happened before as well. But the boat itself was spotless. Having Rob from sv Katrina Liana open/close the boat and keep an eye on things for worth every penny!

When we left last season, my free surfboard was on its last legs and was about to break. I gave it to one of the kid boats for them to play with. I hear it got good use and eventually did break. It was part of the plan to get a new board here in Mexico from a local shaper. I wanted to spend my money here and I wanted my first new board to be from the place I learned to surf.

Tzahui Poo is a local surfer and owner of a family run surf rental and lessons shop in Mita called Mictlan Surf. I met with Tzahui at his home and shaping loft. We went over what I wanted and I was able to pick out the colors and put my own logo on the board! All of that for 2/3rds of what I would have paid for a new mass produced board. El Chicharo is 9’1” x 23” x 2-3/4” a basic longboard shape. Such a pleasure to ride! I dinged the board on like the 3^rd^ day and had to send it back to Tzahui for repair. He loaned me a Bruce Jones. It didn’t have the specs on the bottom, but it was a bit narrower and less buoyant. I could ride it, but it was a struggle to catch waves. That’s more a function of my skill level right now. My board is perfect for me right now and will be a good longboard for me in the future too. I will definitely want to get some other boards though as I get better.

Anyway, since I got my new board, we've been up in Punta de Mita. The first week the swell was awesome with some 4-5 foot waves. PERFECT! That went away though and the past week or so, there's been a lot of reading going on. I've also been watching Jacqueline Gargus' Architecture 5110 from THE Ohio State University class on iTunes (Knowlton School of Architecture). I can tell she’s the kind of professor I would have enjoyed when I was in school. When we’re not filling our minds, we’ve been laying around on our boards looking at the fish, watching the pelicanos and terns catching fish on the reef, and cleaning the bottom of the boat.

Last year we let the bottom cleaning get away from us a bit. This year I think we need to be in the water once a week to clean up Deep Playa. There are two basic things we get on the bottom. First, a ring of slime around the waterline which is scrubbed off with a scotch bright pad. Second, barnacles. The barnacles are tiny, less than ¼” around right now. They have to be scraped off with a putty knife. It’s not hard work, you just run the knife along the hull and they pop-off. The hardest part is cleaning the entire bottom with a 3” wide blade! I’ve been thinking about making something about a foot wide out of scrap metal. I think it would be perfect.

Lots of routine, lots of relaxing, a bit of boredom. Another day in paradise. More on what's to come next...

We're Home !

2012-10-16T22:02:00-07:00

We've been aboard Deep Playa for about 5hours now. We're getting things organized, unpacking and sweating a lot! All of our boat prep and the boat sitters paid off, we have zero mold and things are going together pretty quickly. Mexico is reminding why weleft in the summer as the air and water temp are still 90F! More on everything later, just wanted the word to get out that we're home safe and sound.

Packing and repacking

2012-10-15T18:30:00-07:00

We're trying to balance the bags and keep them under the weight limits. 15 hours till take-off!

36 Hours til we're home !

2012-10-15T03:32:00-07:00

It's 11pm EST and in 36 hours we should be back on Deep Playa.

See you soon!

RoadTrip 2012 - 5270 Miles

2012-09-29T00:25:00-07:00

Here's the full route of RoadTrip 2012 - 5270 Miles!

Final Route RoadTrip 2012

Ahhh…how refreshing it is to be in Flagstaff.

2012-09-01T16:24:00-07:00

I am really far behind on blog posts due to the lack of good internet. So here is Flagstaff's blog post...but we are currently in Nashville, TN.

We were happy to get the hell outta Phoenix after record 113 degree temps sent us quickly heading north to Flagstaff. We were even more excited that it gave us an opportunity to spend some time with our friend Karin. After climbing from 1,500 feet in elevation to over 7,500 feet we enjoyed the greener more lush landscape and much lower temps that Flagstaff had to offer. We decided to stay at another KOA, KOA Flagstaff, which makes our third KOA on this trip so far. It was clean and beautiful with the added feature of being just feet away from some of the best hiking in the world. Karin was very gracious and took us on a little tour of downtown Flagstaff. I have never been so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Flagstaff is my kinda town. Karin warned that it has very strong gravitational pull and I totally agree. There are tons of people out and about on bikes and walking around just enjoying the outdoors. It has some awesome paved trails that lead in and out of downtown and follow the historical Route 66! It was so great to spend some QT with Karin and meet her roommate and doggies. Karin is a huge outdoor enthusiast and she graciously gave me a list of recommended trails to try for my morning run. So the next morning, it was bright and sunny and I was rearing to hit the trails. The KOA backs right up to the Elden Lookout trail and the Fatman’s Loop Trail. The trail climbs 2,500 feet in about 3 miles and ends right on top of Mount Elden at the Peaks Ranger station. I started out running and scampering up the many many switchbacks. The views were spectacular and so breath-taking that I had to stop and take a few pictures. I ran up the trail until it got so steep that I had to climb over big rocks and up stairs. I made it up there in one hour and ten minutes! So for those friends back in Seattle, Mt. Elden is about the same elevation as Camp Muir on Mount Rainier. I took in the amazing views of downtown Flagstaff and could even see Meteor Crater in the distance. After some rest and pics I descended the trail quickly and made it back to the trail head in one hour. But man, were my quads screamin’! And I loved every minute of it! After we spent some time with Karin we decided to visit the Lowell Observatory. If you don't know what the Lowell Observatory is, it is the place where Pluto was discovered back in 1930! Man it was so cool. Pea and I spent several hours there walking around from lecture to lecture and movie to movie. The volunteers that work there are absolutely wonderful and engaging. My favorite part of the tour was seeing the Clark Refracting telescope, built in 1896 for \$20,000! Today it is still used for education purposes. We also got to see the telescope that Clyde Tombaugh used to discover Pluto in 1930. After we spent hours walking around the campus we were told that we could stick around until after dark and look through some of the telescopes! Once they set everything up we were able to look through the Clark telescope to view the M11 Wild Duck Cluster, which is an open cluster formation of over 2,900 stars which are about 220 MILLION YEARS old! Amazing...then we got to look through another telescope to see the globular cluster M13 in the Hercules constellation and Vega, the brightest star in the Lyrae cluster. But the best part was seeing Saturn's rings and it's moon, Titan! I can't even describe to you how breath-taking it was to see the rings so vividly. Pea asked the volunteer if he had any newspaper for me to stand upon (insinuating that I would pee the floor from my excitement...very funny Pea). As Karin mentioned, Flagstaff has a very strong gravitational pull…and she is right. We are going to stop back in Flagstaff after we leave the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon

2012-09-01T00:24:00-07:00

Pea and I were looking forward to going to the Grand Canyon, it wasn’t originally on our planned route but since it is only an hour’s drive outside of Flagstaff it was the perfect opportunity to visit it. Pea was very much looking forward to seeing one of the biggest holes in the ground in the world. As he so eloquently put it, “You know how I love me some huge hole!”

[] You know he is wondering how long it is going to take him to fill it.

[] There is nothing like the awesome size of the Grand Canyon.

Today's fixes to this old Winnebago

2012-08-26T03:43:00-07:00

Real quick background. Our RV refrigerator, the Dometic RM2612 runs on AC Power or Propane. It involves witchcraft and physics, but it makes stuff cold. Pretty much right from the get-go the self-igniter for the Propane died. Then in Phoenix when it was 115F we learned it can't keep up with that and we lost all our food. Since then it had seemed to just not be getting cold enough. While we were in Albuquerque we took it to Camping World to get a tune-up.

After four hours, the Technician at Camping world said the igniter and the lower board were bad. I had figured this going to into it. He said they don't make the lower boards anymore. I asked him if there were 3rd party boards. He said, there are for the Norcolds, but Dometic is a Swedish company and they keep every secret. He then said the guy in the store would give us a deal on a drop-in replacement. (\$1000 or so). They did clean the flu in the unit and when lit manually it was working way better, but it still needed the new board or if it ever blew out then propane would still be flowing and it would not relight.

Here's the deal. Bill is either ignorant or the Camping World was trying to rip me off. It took me about 2 minutes on their free wifi to see that the dometic boards are widely available and that there is even a 3rd Party board with some improvements from Dinosaur Electronics.

I explained this to Bill, the Service Rep Jeanne and the parts guy. They all seemed shocked since they couldn't find one. They sent us on our way with a free cleaning. I then called Jack Sisemore's Traveland in Amarillo, TX. They had the Dinosaur Electronics board and the reigniter in stock! I paid them right over the phone to hold them for me.

Today I installed both pieces, took me about 30 minutes to remove the old ones and install the new. Refrigerator is now working awesome, automatically switches back and forth from AC to Propane. We're happy!

If you're older Dometic RM2612 is limping along, get the flu cleaned and have the lower board tested. There is a service manual in PDF on the web if you want to do the tests yourself. Its pretty easy with a multimeter.

Parts:

Dinosaur Electronics MICRO P-711 Lower Board
Dometic Replacement Reigniter PN#2931132019

Fantastic Vent Installed

2012-08-25T05:36:00-07:00

We bought this vent at Camping World outside of Portland and have been driving around with it sitting in its box since then. Its a drop-in replacement for the vent the bathroom which also the only manual roof vent in the motorhome. There used to be a fantastic vent with a built-in fan in our motorhome (there are manuals for it), but for some reason it had been replaced over the years with a crappy non-fan one. Because there had been one in the past though the install was super easy as the wiring was already available in the ceiling and these things just drop right in to the 14"x14" vent hole which is standard on all motorhomes.

While I was up there I slathered some Dicor Lap Sealant on a bunch of spots we think could leak and I spent about two hours cleaning regular house caulk on top of tree-sap on top of old sealant that was all around the skylight in our shower. I was able to clean it all up back to the original, still maleable sealant, and with the fresh coating that sylight seems to be water tight. It rained a few hours later, so hopefully that didn't mess anything up. Nothing leaked though!

Chitwoodville, Arizona - AKA The Surface of the Sun

2012-08-15T02:09:00-07:00

We left Calistoga and decided to skip Hearst Castle as I was antsy to start heading East. So, we headed for Phoenix, AZ to see the Chitwoods. I've known Matt AKA T.O.M. AKA The Original Matt since I was in 3rd grade and lived at 865 Lafayette Drive, Mt. Laurel, NJ. Without a doubt Chitwood is the person who I've known the longest. His parents also live in Phoenix and I really wanted to see his mom as well.

It took two days to get to Phoenix which let us have our first ONP experience (Overnight Parking) at a WalMart in San Bernadino. It was definitely not glamorous, but it was convenient and just what we needed. Sleep. No fees. The next day we drove on to Phoenix and with every passing desert mile it was clear we were approaching the center of the sun. It ended up being a record 115F in Phoenix that day!!! Did I mention the engine based AC in our motorhome doesn't work?!?! We tried to run the overhead AC, which means running the generator as we drive, but it couldn't even put a dent in the heat.

Matt and his wife Anne were kind enough to put us up for the night in their air conditioned guest room. Anne made an awesome pasta dinner, we met their kids Allison, Ryan and Jacob who I'd never met. Mom made a stop in, which was awesome. And even Matt's little sister Susie was ther with her two kids and one on the way were in attendance. It was great to catch up with old friends and see how well they were doing.

With the heat-wave in the SW going to continue until the rapture, we bailed on our plans to go to Roswell, NM. The RV just can't deal with the heat and neither can we! It was so friggin' hot the referigerator couldn't keep up either and we lost all of the food. Luckily the refrigerator isn't that big and the freezer did ok. So, after a great healthy mediteranean lunch at Pita Jungle (horrible name) with Matt, we immediately headed North to the cooler highter de of Flagstaff AZ.

Thanks again to Matt and Anne for a great visit!

Land Yacht Tracking Engage

2012-08-11T04:49:00-07:00

Thanks to the miracle of Ham Radio, we have the Land Yacht Tracker setup finally. You can go to the APRS.fi page and seach for W7PEA-9 or use the LandYacht Tracker link on the homepage and you will see the last position report sent as well as a trail showing our route. We only turn this on when we're driving, so not seeing new information posted does not mean anything bad has happened, just that its off or we're camped somewhere!

Enjoy stalking us!

For more on all this, follow my HAM Radio blog - W7PEA

Wine with Matty

2012-08-11T03:38:00-07:00

Matty is the CWO, Chief Wine Officer, aboard Deep Playa and planned out an entire day and a half trip in wine country California. He had already planned to be in town on a Wednesday for work so he drove up to Sonoma where we met him and visited our first winery, Hanzell. The next day we had a full itinerary:

Hanzell is absolutely gorgeous and our host Zakk, who happened to be a Burner, was very funny and gracious in answering Dawn and my rudimentary questions. The tour of the property was amazing. We happened to visit while estate workers were 'netting' the vines to keep the birds from stealing the precious crop. It is always nice to witness the wine making process first-hand so we can learn. In particular, Zakk happily geeked out and educated us on soil composition, how the age of the vines changes the characteristics of the wine and how the vines are trimmed and shaped to protect and encourage the grapes to yield their best. Of the wines we tasted, I really liked the Chardonnay. It had a very big mouth feel for a white, something I like in my reds. I'm probably not explaining this correctly, but I believe this is due to the controlled secondary fermentation process used at Hanzell, which produces a very viscous and creamy mouth feel. This controlled fermentation was invented at Hanzell in the 1960s. If I got that right, Zakk gets the credit, if I got it wrong, blame me.

At Chateua Montelena, the vineyard famous for producing the Chardonnay that took first price at the 1976 Paris Tasting. Which put Californian wines on the map and raised its reputation around the world. We were lucky enough to meet with Jeff Adams, the director of marketing at Montelena. He gave a beautiful tour of the vineyard and private residence and we able to taste their Estate wines. Along the tour, we even bumped into and were introduced to Bo Barret!! He was quick with a funny quip about the movie featuring him and his wines (Bottle Shock). It was very nice of him to stop and take a second to say hello. The Chardonnay at Montelena was interesting because they do not intervene during the fermenation process as they do at Hanzell. They allow the natural fermentation to occur and let nature take care of the rest. It was very delicious, but so much different. I could feel my wine education beginning! The Chateau Montelena Chardonnay and Henzell Chard would be great to taste side by side, but unfortunately, we downed the bottle we bought the night before. Our favorite red we tried was the 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a very big wine and had a nice smooth mellow finish on the pallete. This wine also has opportunity to mature even further as it ages. I hope Matty has some of these in his cellar!

We had some time before our appointment at Charles Krug, so we ran down the road to Inglenook. Inglenook is both famous for its history, its wines and its owner, Francis Ford Copolla. The property is straight out of the movies. It was stunning with lots of old world charm and sweeping views of the valley. We went here principally to look around the grounds, but we also drank a bottle of Edzionne Zinfadel, a wine we were familiar with. We enjoyed the film exihibits in the Chateau with a glass of wine... heaven!

The next in the massive lineup was Charles Krug. It is a special vineyard for me because Matty has been kind enough to share some of his older bottles when we went to dinner for my bachelor party. I was very excited to visit the tasting room. We did a very thorough tasting and in all honesty, I had to stop and dine on some water crackers and water several times because I was getting pallet fatigue and wasn't getting the same signals everyone else was getting. Throughout the day I learned that my pallet may not be ready for tanins and I definitely was learning that at Krug as well. Our host was even nice enough to warn me at one point about a wine she referred to as ole' Tannin-bomb. ;-) We did buy a bottle of the Zinfandel Port. We do like ports, and this was so unique we had to have on for our RoadTrip this summer.

Finally we visited Keever Vineyards, our host Ashley was the nicest person and I felt more like we were getting a tour of her family's passion and being invited into their home than a place of business. The tasting and tour at Keever were combined and we we able to linger more with each glass as we toured the production facility, the cave and the property. Much like Zakk and Jeff, Ashley indulged our questions and rolled with out jokes. At the end we all sat in the entrance lounge for a while as she and Dawn discussed different health topics and Matty and I plotted how many bottles of Keever's Inspirado we would buy! Many of the wines we tasted throughout the day were really glimpses into the wine making process and were meant to be stored for several years. Keever's Inspirado was ready to drink now, but could be cellered for some time as well. I wish we could have bought a case and watched it evolve over time. Since we'll be keeping ours in the barely temperature controlled Land Yacht we'll be enjoying our bottle much sooner than that!

Thank you so much to Matty, and the friends he hit up for favors, for making our first wine tasting in California so magical. We will definitely be back and we can't wait!

Redwoods and San Francisco

2012-08-11T01:54:00-07:00

We spent a couple of days enjoying the Redwoods. That allowed Dawn to go on a run through the trees and for us to take what amounted to a 20 mile round trip bike ride on the Avenue of the Giants with three pretty steep climbs on the way back. I would have been happy on my old race bike from college, on these beach cruisers we have it was pretty much a death march. I was VERY happy to see the RV Park come into view because I was dead and I actually thought we had another climb to go. I did survive and Dawn was happy to go on a bike ride.

Next we made a quick stop in Santa Rosa, CA home of the Russian River Brewery. They don't have a tour but they have our favorite beer, Pliny the Elder! They also have an amazing sampler tray of 22 different beers! Dawn and I split that and Pliny was still our favorite. For our Settle Pliny brethren, Pliny is \$4.50 a bottle in CA not the \$8.50 I remember paying in Seattle!

We visited with Zander and Gwen in Sausalito and met their beautiful daughter Decima. We'd never been able to stop in Sausalito on the way down in Deep Playa, so a Land Yacht visit was a nice consolation. Now I really wish we'd stopped by, the anchorage along Sausalito would have been very cozy! We spent a day seeing the sites in SF. Coit Tower, Long Now Foundation, Fisherman's Wharf, Aquatic Park Museum all on foot! It was a good day of walking. We then walked back to SOMA and met up with Brady and Mollie at Brady's new loft. Absolutely amazing space Brady is well setup!

Next Stop Oakland to see Paul and Erin originally hailing from Seattle, but Paul is now a shipwright in Oakland working on wooden boats. We met at Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon home to Jack London and sailors of all kinds. Paul and Erin are doing great and it was good to catch-up with old sailor\drinking buddies.

While in Oakland, I also made a stop at Ham Radio Outlet and got the rest of the gear for the radio in the Land Yacht. I'll save that for the W7PEA Blog.

The Bay Area was great and we were lucky to meet so many friends, next stop Wine Country.

Back in Charleston, Oregon… Again

2012-07-31T05:26:00-07:00

Patrick and I have a running joke about Coos Bay, Oregon…It is an old Native American term meaning “come here and fix shit”. About this time last year, we sailed into Charleston’s port and across the Coos Bay bar with the intent of getting Deep Playa’s leaky fuel tank repaired as soon as possible and quickly return to our trip south to Mexico. Well things didn’t move along as quickly as we had hoped and we spent a month here….yes, a month. Don’t get me wrong, we tried to leave, on a few occasions. One of our attempts to leave resulted in having Deep Playa towed by Boat US across the bar and onto Charleston's vagrant dock after we boiled our starting battery (big ooooopsey). So, after almost a year since leaving Charleston, we became nostalgic to return in our Land Yacht on our way to California. And of course, as to be expected, we experienced a problem with the land yacht and had to stop in Coos Bay to fix a screeching alternator belt.

We decided to pull into Charleston’s Oceanside RV Park, located behind Bastendorff Beach, which is one of my favorite beaches in the world! This was one of my favorite running destinations last year so coming back here is very exciting for me. Since Pea and I both own bicycles this year, my new ride is in the pic, I am finally able to show Pea all of the cool places I visited while on my long distance running escapades. By the way, my running legs are definitely in need of some hours of training on the bike. The hill up Bastendorff Drive and Coos Head Road did me in and I had to push my bike up the hill. It was pitiful.

Land Yacht parked at Oceanside RV Park in Charleston, Oregon

My *awesome* new ride.

The beach is so close we can hear the distant eerie whistles and muffled bells of the channel buoys in the bar entrance. Hearing these sounds brings me back to last year when we were crossing the bar on Deep Playa in pitch dark and fog without our iPad as a cockpit navigational aid. The bells and whistles seem so much louder and recognizable then they did that night. I am thoroughly enjoying the contrast in perspective that I am experiencing this year compared to last year. The status of the sea state, weather, boat projects and storms have all taken a back seat this year and, man… are we waaaaaaay more relaxed.

We are enjoying the relaxed and quiet RV park today and finishing up some projects on the land yacht. Tonight we took a long walk on the beach to watch some surfers and doggies playing in the surf. We are missing surfing something fierce but I don’t have the urge to get into the 52.2 degree Fahrenheit water (I Googled it) and freeze my booty off.

Pea walking on Bastendorff Beach

Surfer running into *not* too much surf…sorry dude. Note the full head to toe dry suit he is wearing. COLD!!!

Little inlet. Look at those beautiful colors and contrasting light and darks. Love it.

This dude is not wearing anything but his board shorts! Hardy people these Pacific Northwesterners…or just crazy. I am wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants while on the beach taking this pic.

It is soooo magical here and it makes my heart and soul very happy. I <3 Oregon Coast beaches.

Shower Repair

2012-07-30T23:44:00-07:00

I mentioned the shower drain was leaking. Turned out the floor in the shower flexed enough to break the p-trap (no, not a pea trap) under the shower. We replaced the p-trap a few days ago and today I cut the 3/4" plywood strips to firm up the floor in the shower. They are tensioned pretty good and I put some liquid nails on it as well. I think it will hold forever. No idea why it wasn't built this way in the first place. :-/

Now the shower floor feels solid and the p-trap should be protected from being damaged again.

For any of you doing this kind of thing, be sure not to block your access to the p-trap or wiring when you put the boards in. Also, its very likely I now have a high spot in the shower, so we may have to sponge up or squeegee up water after our showers which doesn't run down the drain. Not that a big deal, we never level the rig anyway. pow!

Bike Rack Modification

2012-07-30T23:09:00-07:00

Our beach cruiser bikes have multiple curving top bars and didn't fit the bike rack we bought at Harbor Freight. Part of the frame would rub on the metal arms and slowly grind the paint off our sweet rides. \$1 pool noodle from WalMart fixed that right up!

Window liner

2012-07-30T23:05:00-07:00

Reflectix is cheap and awesome. We used it on the boat and its works great. Here we've not only made the front windows darker than just the curtain, but also added some heat shielding. Yay for cheap!

Available at Home Depot's in the US, but unfortunately not in Mexico!

Our first KOA Campground

2012-07-27T18:13:00-07:00

LandYacht KOA Kent, WA

First Stop Kent, Washington

2012-07-27T06:00:00-07:00

We finally made it out of Seattle!! We were recovering all morning from last nights bon voyage party and ran more errands this afternoon, including another stop at Matty's house to use the shower and drop off a few things.

Thanks to everyone who cam down to Golden Gardens for the send off, it was a great spot and Dawn and I were happy to see everyone! We can't wait to see you all soon, maybe on the road, maybe in Mexico, or some other exotic location! We miss you all already!

After running errands including get a bike rack and some more tools from Harbor Freight it was almost 8pm so we decided to head to the Seattle\Tacoma KOA Campground 12 miles away in Kent. We just got back from taking a walk through the place, and while the setup is very compact, there are a lot of amenities, including a heated pool, showers, large chess and checker boards, dog park. Its pretty nice. The place is packed too.

Of course no blog entry from me would be complete without a project or two. Two days we used the shower for the first time and immediately after we noticed water dripping out from under the coach. After a little online research and digging around under the shower floor, i figured out the shower pan sags enough with an adult in it that the p-trap bears all the weight. This lead to the p-trap becoming cracked and thus the leaks. We bought a new p-trap and I installed it shortly after we arrived here in Kent. When it dries out under there, I'll cut two pieces of 3/4" plywood to add additional bracing.

It feels good to finally be on the road. Road Trip 2012 is underway!!

Finding a Land Yacht

2012-07-15T18:53:00-07:00

The Requirements

When Dawn and I decided we wanted to do the RV thing for 4 to 5 months, we started thinking about the amenities. We love our boat; it’s very functional with our lifestyle. Dawn goes to bed early and I usually stay up pretty late. In order to make this work we knew we’d need a dedicated bed, separate from the living area of the motorhome so she could sleep and I could read, work on projects, research, play with the HAM Radios, etc. In addition to that we also really wanted a separate shower stall. We don’t have a wet bath on the boat and we prefer this. Given the right motorhome this probably would not have been a deal breaker, but it was a definite preference. That was it for living requirements really. As for the rig itself, we wanted something pretty easy to drive and small enough to get into older parks, so we ruled out anything over 30 feet and we were looking primary around the mid 20 foot range.

We also have a passion for all things vintage, and minimalist. We also believe strongly in community. For us this meant we really wanted a funky vintage RV. We also wanted one with a strong owners group, selfishly for our own help, but also so we could return the favor over the long haul and help others.

The Search

Searching for the RV happened exclusively via Craig's List using http://SearchTempest.com. On Craig’s List you can only search one city at a time. Search Tempest let’s you define your search across as many Craig’s List cities as you want. We started searching Oregon and Washington, but as time went on we realized we didn’t need search the entire NW, and Puget Sound was good enough, which still requires Search Tempest to do the search easily.

We spent about a week visiting 1970’s eras Winnebagos. We LOVE these. The boxy style is gorgeous, and some of the layouts of the \~25 foot Braves and Chieftains are really awesome. This was our initial target and we saw some great rigs, but ultimately they all required more work to be ready to do a big trip then we were willing to do. Along the way we also had some great stories.

We called one owner who we knew had a late 70’s brave with the entire interior disassembled and needed to be reinstalled. We talked to him on the phone and he went over this again. We asked him, if the exterior was tight, waterproof, no rot, etc. He said, “Totally.” We went to see it and there was a 1 foot by 6 inch hole in the roof where a vent should have been and rain was pouring into the RV. A lot of people love their RVs and can’t see the warts I guess. ;-)

The Find

After about a week of looking we felt the clock ticking. We gave up on the vintage Winnebagos and expanded our search to other years and body types within our price range. This led us to finding a 1991 25 foot Winnebago Chieftain on a Chevy 6.2L Diesel chassis. We’re attracted to the diesel because we work on them all the time on the boat. The layout is great with an aft double bunk, dedicated shower, and convertible dinette table. This rig lacked the vintage styling we wanted but it has the benefits of having more modern systems and a very roomy layout for its paltry 25 foot length.

Right now she’s at the mechanic and we’re expecting that to finish up any day now. I’ll explain all that in a future post.

Deep Playa Land Yacht Division

2012-07-09T21:20:00-07:00

Hey all, if you want to know more about the motorhome, the great US roadtrip of 2012 or any of that kind of stuff, I setup a separate blog for that.

https://deepplaya.com/LandYacht

All of the posts will some day get posted to the Deep Playa Facebook page and sent out as tweets @DeepPlaya.

UPDATE 2022: We don't do the Face or the Tweet any longer.

So for now, this will be last of the Land Yacht talk on this blog.

Land Yacht

2012-07-07T00:02:00-07:00

When we left La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and headed to Seattle, our plan was simple: Get a cheap RV and tour America by land. Route TBD. We had hoped we could find something vintage and cool looking which we might want to keep and then renovate in the future, but the quality of those rigs was so poor and we didn’t want to do a renovation up-front. That lead us to expand our search to the ”less-cool”, but more modern rigs. In the end we found a 1991 Winnebago Chieftain 25RC with a diesel engine. We were drawn to the diesel since we are more familiar with the care of a diesel from owning sv Deep Playa. The layout has a dedicated bunk, stand-up shower and a dedicated dinette and sitting area. These match with the way we live on the boat and that works pretty well.

Right now the RV is getting some brake works, tune-up, fluids changed, etc. We’ll hopefully be able to pick her up on Monday, give a deep cleaning and start moving in.

More adventures to come !!

Decommissioning the Boat

2012-06-18T04:17:00-07:00

In order to leave the boat for an extended period of time you higher someone to clean bottom and to watch after the boat (check dock lines, batteries, dehumidifier, etc) and you have to do a bunch of prep here’s a list of the things we’re doing to prep our boat:

Go through all storage areas and look what can be removed from the boat
Empty, Defrost and clean Refrigerator
Clean shower sump
Wipe down the interior with Vinegar
Remove and clean Bimini
Remove all perishable food stores
Fill the water tanks and add Vinegar
Leave zincs and wrench out for bottom cleaner
Change engine oil, oil filter, primary fuel filter and Racor fuel filter
Equalize batteries and add water
Rinse surfboards and bags
Giveaway gasoline
Remove and clean all halyards and jib sheets
Prep Generator for storage by draining fuel and spraying Fogging Oil into Spark plug, pull starter several times
Mount and lock outboard on the stern
Pickle the watermaker
Change outboard Oil, flush engine, fog engine
Have diver clean bottom put on new zincs and bag prop
Put extra cleats on t-track
Fill Diesel Tank and empty Diesel Jerry Cans
Remove jib leads form t-track, clean and store
Set Xantrex battery charger to HOT setting
Repair mast boot tape
Docklines and Fenders arranged for both sides
Engine Coolant Topped Up
Remove and clean sails and sail covers
Wash, polish and wax topsides and cockpit
Rinse bilge with fresh water
Repair, clean and re-install Dodger
Close all thru hulls
Setup Dehumidifier to drain into the bilge
Setup AC powered fan in salon
Put AC Fan and Dehumidifer on their own extension cord direct to the dock
Setup DC fans throughout boat

Busy busy busy… coming in a week earlier than we originally planned made this bearable because we could take days off when we were too hot and tired. There were other projects we worked on too, but they weren’t necessarily required, I’ll save those for later.

Getting your FM3 in Bucerias

2012-06-10T16:35:00-07:00

[NOTE: This post is current in June 2012]. Currently there is a Mexican tourist visa law, which has not been implemented yet, but will change the process outlined below.

Your FMM is the 6 Month Mexican Tourist Visa granted when you clear-into Mexico (or fly in). It's good for six months and it not supposed to be renewed. However, some cruisers I know go to the airport, ask for a new visa and they are provided with one. Apparently, it depends on the person at the service counter. When we tried to do the same we were turned down and informed that it was not possible to so any longer and we would have to apply for a FM3 (non-residential visa).

We took the following steps to get our FM3 visas.

Location Location Location When I was asking around about the location of the INM Office none of the cruisers or the bus drivers seemed to know anything about it, so I will give you detailed directions to the immigration office in Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico. The INM office closes at 2:00PM sharp! Leave yourself plenty of time. From the bus, get off the at Camarones Hotel (this is the landmark the drivers know). It has a big arch spanning across the street. There is an OXXO on the opposite corner. The cross streets are Highway 200 and Las Palmas. Once you get off the bus, walk down the hill towards the bay and the INM office is on the right hand side, there is a nice big sign and guards with machine guns to keep the Canadians under control. ;-P

Here is what you are going to do:

Acquire an permanent street address
Fill out the printed and online forms.
Print out three months of bank statements
Get your passport photos
Go to the INM, drop off paperwork and pay the paperwork fee at the Bank and receive receipts of payment.
Go to the INM to verify everything is ready, pay for FM3 at Bank and pickup FM3

That's the summary I wish someone told me, for us, we went to the INM first to see how it all works, they explained the steps to us, then I came back with our paperwork and I had left off our middle names so we had to do it again. Then when it was all complete, we had to make an extra trip because while the person who signed Dawn's paper work was in that day; the person who signed mine was not.

I had to come back. Not a big deal, we're cruising we got all the time in the world! Let's go through the detailed process without our mistakes.

Step 1 - Get an Address You need a local address which is in the vicinity of your INM office. The easiest way to do this is to stay in the Marina La Cruz. If you're paying customer they seem very happy to write you a letter saying you live there. We had stayed there a few days here and there and we had planned to leave the boat there over the summer. If you're not a customer of the marina, I don't think they will do this for you. They will print off a letter stating your address and signed by an attorney.

Step 2 - Fill out the Printed and On-line Forms There are printed forms you need to fill out which has information they use for statistical purposes, but it is required. Club Cruceros in La Paz has good instructions on this here: http://www.clubcruceros.net/index.php/guides/documentation-and-visas/mexican-visa-applications.html They have an English version of the form as well. You CAN NOT turn in the English form. It is merely a guide.

There is an on-line form you fill out which is what I'll call the official FM3 Application. In theory, you can track the status of your application from the website, This did not work for us and wound up going to the office after 3-4 weeks to check the status and they were completed. Here is a link to the form: http://www.inm.gob.mx/index.php/page/Solicitud_de_Estancia This image translates the fields for you.

Step 3 - Print your Bank Statements You need to show you have \$1500.00 USD in the bank for the past three months per person (\$3000 total for 2). You can use paper statements or you can print out your statements from your bank and use those. If you are submitting the same bank account for a husband and wife BOTH your names need to be on the statement. If one of you doesn't have an account with enough money in it then there is more work to do. I don't know what it is. Contact an agent to help you (see bottom). I also don't know anything about Mexico's views on gay marriage, but I guess they just want to see the right names and the right amount of money.

Step 4 - Get your Passport Photos Get all of your paperwork together and go to the INM office in Bucerias. If there is not a person with a sign for passport photos standing outside the INM, walk back up the hill and about half-way up the street you will see a sign for FM3 Photos. We paid \$300.00 MXN for our photos. This takes about 30 minutes.

Step 5 - Goto the INM to drop off your paperwork and pay the processing fee When you go to the INM, a nice man with a large automatic weapon will ask you to sign-in (your ID # is your passport #) and will give you a number. You can wait inside if there are chairs or outside, or if you are number 73 and they are 10 you can go get lunch. I would bring a book and I would be prepared to spend 2-3 hours here waiting. I would recommend not going on Mondays.

When your number is called they will check that everything is filled out OK, you have all the right papers, etc.. Then they will hand you a form to take to the bank to pay the processing fee. This fee is just for paperwork. Its not the FM3 fee. They will also tell you to bring back 2 copies of the receipt along with the original. The Bank will not print these for you. You need to get a copy.

There is a bank on the corner of La Palmas and Highway 200 (at top of the hill) to the right, next to the OXXO. You can get copies at the Internet Cafes across the street on the same corner. Copies are like \$1 Peso!

-- WAIT -- We were told to come back in 2 weeks. We waited three. Then we went back only Dawn's was ready. This is their country, be patient and don't be a jerk!

Step 6 - Go to INM to Pickup FM3 and Pay FM3 Fee When you go to INM you do the same sign-in get a number thing. Assuming everything is ready they will send you off to the bank to pay the FM3 Visa Fee. You will again need 2 copies of this as well as the original. They will have you sign your FM3, supply both thumbprints. You'll sit back down while they laminate your FM3. When they are done they will hand you a shiny new laminated FM3 !

If you are not up for that, in every town there are agents who will fill out the paperwork and stand in the line for you. The fee for this service is around \$1000 Pesos. Ask around on the VHF Nets if you want an agent.

Thinking of Dive Hookahs

2012-06-08T22:39:00-07:00

I want to build a 12VDC Hookah which will support two divers while cleaning the bottom of our boat (6 feet). We don’t have room to store one of the floating motorized version, but we have plenty of room to mount one inside the boat.

Here are the basic features \ design elements I’m looking to include.

2 Divers for shallow dives less than <30 Feet. 90% of the time < 6eet while we clean the boat bottom
12VDC Compressor with switch to cycle on\off to fill reservoir tank
Reservoir tank to allow air from compressor to cool, and to keep compressor from running continuously
40 Micron particle filter
4-5 CFM @ 45PSI minimum 100-150PSI maximum

If you have built something or have comments on the specs, let me know!

Cleaning the Hull

2012-05-24T20:14:00-07:00

It is a never ending battle to keep the boat bottom clean. In fact, I think it’s impossible, but we try. You get three kinds of growth. The sea cabbage grows all over the bottom. Its is leafy it is easy to remove by running a wide blade putty knife along the hull. There is a slimy but that seems to prefer the sunny side of the hull along the water line. It only comes off with a fairly aggressive (black) 3M \ Scotchbrite pad. And lastly there are the barnacles. They grow very sparsely along the hull and cluster on anything which is metal and thus not bottom painted, as well as LOVE the overhanging stern section which is always bouncing in and out of the water. On the hull they pop off with the putty knife. On the waterline and metals bits you really have to hack at them to get them off which uses considerable oxygen\energy.

We had been able to keep up with the waterline and the bottom fairly well by snorkeling. The stern is always a bit of a mess though, and the brand new paint on the waterline stripe is now scratched up badly.

The metal bits (deeper in the water) are just too hard to do via snorkel. I can’t hold my breath long enough and without a weight belt, you spend most of your time trying to keep from floating against the boat. Today we borrowed a dive hookah and weight belt from another boat, and man was it awesome. I spent about a half hour in the water and was able to hack all of the barnacles off the prop, shaft and gudgeon. Maybe that 1.5kts of boat speed we were missing will come back!

We use Petite’s Barnacle ban on our metal bits (prop, shaft, gudgeon). It seems to ban nothing, but when I did scrape them clean the grey paint was still there where it didn’t get scrapped off, so I think its doing ok.

Our boat sits perfectly on its waterline in calm water at the dock. But there is RARELY calm water at anchor. This is why people raise their waterlines. Not because they’ve overloaded the boat, but because at anchor your boat is always bouncing around and at all times 4-6 inches of your waterline are bouncing in and out the water. Filter feeders like Barnacles LOVE this! When we redo the bottom paint this next year I am going to look into raising the water line and I’m going to paint the stern overhang completely in bottom paint.

Zincs at Shilshole Bay Marina were replaced every six months. We haven’t been in Marinas much at all since November and the zincs are about 1/2 gone at 9 months. We’ll have the divers replace them when they clean the boat while we’re gone.

After today’s experience I can really see the benefit of a dive hookah. You could even use it for snorkeling in general. Unfortunately, retail dive hookahs cost \$2000 to \$5000 depending on the make and model. Not something that is in my budget right now, but it is possible to build your own for less than \$500 and I think I’m going to start looking into that.

Road Trip !

2012-05-16T18:11:00-07:00

First off let me say we have no immediate plans or dates or tickets or destinations or anything yet, but I can tell you we will be touring the US this summer.

Dawn and I both had not been looking forward to going back to the Sea of Cortez for the summer and we were both not looking forward to the oppressive heat anywhere in Mexico. I was not excited about leaving the Pacific Coast of Mexico to go to the waveless and surfless Sea of Cortez. I’m not that into snorkeling and haven’t been very impressed with it anywhere (in the world) so I wasn’t excited about that as a trade-off. Dawn was probably more into that, but she (and I) were also a bit homesick for the US. Neither of us were very excited about making more overnight passages just to get North to avoid storm season. That’s kind of the why’s behind all this…

SO…. we decided we’re going to put the boat in Marina Riviera Nayarit (AKA Marina La Cruz) at some point this summer, fly somewhere in the US, buy a crappy RV or a Bus and do some visiting, see some places we might want to live, etc.. The official Storm Season is 1 June – 31 Oct, but we probably won’t leave Mexico till closer to July. Weather is still pretty benign, not yet oppressively hot or humid surf is still good and we will have some to-do’s to do to decommission the boat.

Anyway, just wanted to let y’all know that and when we know when and where we’re headed we will let you know!

Deep Playa at Sunset

2012-05-09T14:33:00-07:00

photo by sv Camille

location: Punta de Mita

Test

2012-05-05T04:45:00-07:00

Let's see if the facebook thing is working...

Update 2022: We don't Facebook any more

Surfing, Surfing, and more Surfing

2012-05-05T04:35:00-07:00

I’ll crank out one more post and tell you about my surf experiences here in Mexico from the beginning…

For our wedding anniversary (Last weekend in February) Dawn and I take turns and trade off planning something. This was Dawn’s year and she took us to Sayulita for surf lessons. We walked the beach and ended up going with Patricia’s Surf School.

Surf lessons are composed of two phases. A brief dry-land training and then in water practice and instruction. The dry-land training consists of some do’s and don'ts and general orientation information. Then the art of learning to “pop-up” from a paddling position to your surf stance. Once we all mastered this (there was one other couple). We took our boards down to the water where we were going to re-learn to do the same in the water.

The great thing about a lesson is the instructor will position you properly on the wave and give you a push to help you catch the waves for as long as you need it until you master popping-up. This is worth every penny because the more tries you need the more tired you’re going to get and the less you will be able to paddle to try and do this yourself. So if you’re new to surfing DEFINITELY take a lesson! After about 3 waves I was done with being pushed and was paddling in on my own. Lots of failed attempts and the instructor was still there to give me tips on my positioning on the board, pointing out if I was popping or crawling to my surf stance. It always felt like a pop to me, but I guess not. Anyway, we had a great day and I was hooked!

On March 13th during the morning VHF net in La Cruz, sv Convivia had a 9’6” Murphy Shapes longboard by Pacific SurfGlass to give away which was exactly what I needed! I did a little bit of repair to it to try and seal the rails and a week or so later we went up to Punta de Mita to try it out.

There are several surf spots around what is commonly called Punta de Mita. The one I am going to is actually called Anclote. It is directly ashore form the anchorage. I mention this because the proper Punta de Mita surf spot is actually out and around the point from the anchorage and Punta de Mita the hotel area.

From the anchorage I paddled in to the surf lineup (about 200 yards) and did ok catching a couple of waves. Bill on sv Pegasus (AKA Mister Surf) was kind enough to give me tips and I basically followed him around and tried to copy what he was doing. That helped me a lot, but he is a lifelong surfer and I was a newb so I was still a little discouraged at times. After about 2 weeks and a couple of days of 4-6 foot high swells (which make it easier) I was doing better and the bigger waves had me even more hooked. I was even starting to get picky!

That was about a month ago, and between now and then we had gone back to La Cruz for some parties and to start the paperwork for our FM3 Visas (more on that later). But now we’re back at Punta de Mita and I’ve been back in the water at Anclote for almost a week.

The surf this week has not been as big or as consistent as it was, but it’s decent. I am trying to copy what the locals are doing. I’m paddling around more trying to catch the wave in the right spot which ultimately is easier on the arms but harder to do right so I’m missing more waves but getting better even as I do it. But I catch my fair share of waves and that is the fun of it! Surfing is like hockey was for me in that its something physical I can do where I can learn and see myself improve over time. Two of my favorite things: Learning! Improving!

So what about this board? Well, its an old beat up board. It has sections where the fiberglass skin is delaminated on the deck and a big 2 foot long section rail to rail where it was previously repaired and a lot of other rail repairs as well. Two days ago I noticed some water weeping out from the inside of the board through cracks in the board. I was taking on water which is the first step to the death of a surfboard if its not just broken by a wave on a rock. I took the board to Mictlan Surf here in Punta de Mita. Tzahui Poo (pics of Tzahui surfing), the owner, is also a shaper (i.e., makes boards) and does repairs. I’ve not yet spoken with him directly, but one of the guys who works there thinks it will be a better deal just to buy a used board. Not to mention it will probably take a week to do the repair because you have to let the board dry out. Yikes a week out of the surf! The extra water weight in the board isn’t helping things either as I’m paddling around out there.

So that’s where we stand today. I am hoping to talk to Tzahui tomorrow and we’re also going to jump on the bus and go on a board hunt to see what else is available in the area. Not sure what I’ll end up doing yet. I will keep you posted!

Carb Cleaning Numero Tres (not Trace)

2012-05-05T03:15:00-07:00

The outboard has been running like poop. It will not run at anything but slightly above idle when in gear. In fact sometimes when you lower the throttle that little bit you were able to get above idle it even goes faster! Out of gear you run the darn thing wide open. Go figure!

Anyway, we can’t get any parts for our engine in Mexico. There is a Yamaha distributor in PV and everything just nothing is in stock and it would take 2 months to get anything from Japan. I think the person at IMEMSA (The Yamaha Importer) was trying to explain to me that this has to do with Mexico's import laws, but I’m not sure.

Anyway, I got another can of cleaner, and I’m going to let this stuff sit overnight. I don’t have enough cleaner to really immerse the entire carb and let it soak so this is probably all for not, but who knows. Last time I tried this I was unwilling to take the float off and this time I did that and there’s another pin\jet doo hickey under there, so maybe this is the magic time it will all work.

Wish me luck and if you have any expertise with 4-stroke Yamaha F8 outboards please do drop me some hints.

Surfboard repair

2012-05-04T16:38:00-07:00

We dropped the surfboard off at Mictlan Surf. We have to wait for Tzahui to get back to us to see what it would cost to fix or maybe what other board I should be considering instead. In the mean time it's a rest day I guess...

Toes must die!!

2012-04-19T22:21:00-07:00

Yet another toe injury. I had been in the water for a couple hours and my feet were soft, then I managed to slice my toe on the porthole again.

Not serious at all, but it will be annoying since I basically sliced the callous on my big toe and it's now a flap held on with the bandage.

Dr. Rodney is tending to my wounds and she tells me I will make a full recovery.

Cleaning the Carb on your Yamaha F8 Outboard

2012-03-23T04:13:00-07:00

I was going to make a video or shoot some pics of me cleaning the carb on my Yamaha F8 outboard, but this guy’s video about his Mercury is perfect already. Its not a Yamaha, but all the bits looked the same to me and the disassembly was exactly the same. Enjoy!

AIS Distress

2012-03-23T02:12:00-07:00

This button is way more badass than the other buttons! AND you are less likely to accidentally flip on the AIS distress alert.

I dedicate this button to CB_Midkiff. GARBANZO!!!

Acapulco 7.9 Earthquake

2012-03-20T18:38:00-07:00

Just an FYI before we get inundated with concerned emails...

There was an earthquake in Acapulco this morning and we are not expecting any impact to us in Banderas Bay. There is no tsunami warning associated with this event either.

All is good despite the VERY rolly sleepless night last night. We're waiting for the winds to die down at Punta de Mita and then we're going to silver there an do some surfing. Rolliness is increasing here in Banderas bay so we're also starting to think about heading North and back into the Sea of Cortes as well.

My first surfboard

2012-03-13T17:24:00-07:00

Picked up a free 9'6" longboard today!! The fin even comes off for easier storing aboard. I'm going to repair a couple of dings and can't wait to try it out!! Thanks to sv Convivia for the board, enjoy the bottle of Kraken!

Toe injury #748

2012-03-05T16:15:00-08:00

This toe is a gluten for punishment. No sooner had the last injury from licking the port light healed when I kicked the door. Luckily I had slippers on and only suffered this ugly blood blister.

It's all fun and games till someone loses a toe!

Our Life in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

2012-03-03T00:05:00-08:00

I must apologize for ignoring our blog lately. Life in Mexico is rewarding, relaxing and wonderful, but it also has its challenges. One of those challenges includes finding good reliable Wi-Fi access to upload our pictures and blog posts. So we spend a lot of time moving from café to café utilizing free Wi-Fi while enjoying a bebida fresca. Most of the time the Wi-Fi is iffy, at best, so I have to utilize the time online very efficiently.

We are currently anchored in La Cruz (“The Cross” in Spanish) de Huanacaxtle in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. It is a small fishing village just north of Puerto Vallarta in Bahia de Banderas (Bay of Flags) on the Pacific mainland of Mexico. La Cruz is a popular destination for cruisers because of its benign weather during the winter months, relatively quiet anchorage (although rolly at times), and easy shore access via a dinghy dock in the La Cruz Marina. The village is growing from its original roots but still holds its small town vibe due to its beautiful town square and cobble stone streets. Along the marina malecon is the open-air fish market where the pangas are docked and fish is carted off straight from the bay. Every Sunday there is a farmers market where I buy organic fresh salad greens, fresh fruit, handmade jewelry and art and, most importantly, yummy homemade baked goods.

La Cruz Sunday Farmers Market

La Cruz Fisherman’s Panga Beach

La Cruz’s Fresh Fish Market

Stingray swimming by in the La Cruz Marina

So far we have been here for about a month. And we love it. The people are so friendly and the restaurants located here are so diverse and interesting. There is a German restaurant, a British pub, and an Italian restaurant with wood-fired pizza. And not to mention the many cheap and delicious local taco stands that pop out of the wood work after dark. One of our favorite places is Huanacaxtle Bar & Café that is is owned and run by a local family. They are super friendly and make you feel like one of the family every time you show up. They have an awesome happy hour, 10 peso draft beers, and host karaoke night on Tuesdays, but Oliver is ready for some karaoke any night of the week and will try his hardest to convince you of the same!

Patrick and me singing karaoke after a few 10 peso happy hour cervezas.

It’s also a popular day trip for tourists from Puerto Vallarta and Punta de Mita because of the easy and inexpensive bus ride. Since La Cruz is so convenient to get from PV’s airport, we had our friends, Melissa and Ruben, down for a visit. It is always so nice to see friends from back home. We took a bus up to Sayulita, a quaint hippy surfing town known for their beach palapa restaurants and surfing schools. Since they were visiting from Seattle, they brought a gift for us…rain and clouds! We hadn’t seen rain since we left San Diego! That didn’t deter us from enjoying ourselves so we took a bus ride up to Sayulita.

Melissa, Ruben and Pea getting wet in Sayulita

Sayulita beach during our wet beach walk

Downtown Sayulita in the pouring rain

At least we got an amazing rainbow in payment for the rain and clouds.

Double rainbow over the La Cruz Marina

And when the clouds and rain cleared up we took at trip into Old Puerto Vallarta and explored the city a bit. We really enjoyed this part of Puerto Vallarta because of its beautiful beach, historic buildings and streets and interesting art work. This is much better than Neuvo Vallarta and Paradise Village, which has a very sterile and “Americanized” feeling.

Walking along the malecon in Old Puerto Vallarta

View of the breakers along the malecon in Old Puerto Vallarta

Patrick trying his first tamarind-flavored margarita based upon Ruben’s recommendation…yes it was quite yummy!

This February was our second wedding anniversary and it was my turn to plan our celebration, which wasn’t too hard since there is so much to explore and experience in this area of Mexico. And so I surprised Patrick with a surf lesson in Sayulita. We decided to use Patricia’s Surf School, which is located right on the beach. Edgar, our teacher, gave us land-based instructions before we hopped into the water to try and catch some waves. The small surf allowed us to get up quickly and we had such a blast that we decided to make more time for surfing and consider buying our first boards.

Sayulita’s beach after our surfing lesson….enjoying mas guacamole and tatopos

Sayulita’s local surfers at the school enjoying the sunny evening on the beach

Sayulita’s beach just as the sun begins to vanish behind the hills

So what’s next for Deep Playa and her crew? The month of March will be a busy one…there is a regatta from March 2 through the 18th, Regatta Copa Mexico, which is a HUGE event including J24 races, kite surfing, laser and big 80 foot yacht races, which is held in PV and La Cruz on the Bahia de Banderas. Many of the boats and events are taking place in La Cruz Marina and right outside the anchorage. So we will be hanging out here to watch the boats racing and hopefully hitch a ride on some viewing boats to get close up to the action. The entire town is being beautified for this event and is quickly being transformed into a clean and well-primped world-class marina. There is also a big Stand Up Paddle (SUP) and longboard surfing contest in Sayulita that we want to watch. So our cup runeth over for the month of March. After March, it all depends on the weather, but we plan on making our way back north to La Paz and up the Sea of Cortez.

Overlooking Los Arcos

2012-02-29T16:05:00-08:00

We are above PV

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle is now on Noonsite

2012-02-27T19:38:00-08:00

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle was notably absent from Noonsite. This is the primary cruiser destination for those who anchor and it wasn’t on the site at all. I sent in a draft to them and now it’s on the map so to speak.

http://www.noonsite.com/Countries/Mexico/LaCruzdeHuanacaxtle

If you’re familiar with La Cruz de Huanacaxtle do take a minute to check for errors or omissions. Send any edit to Noonsite via the link on the bottom of the page.

New throw pillows

2012-02-16T22:49:00-08:00

Dawn made this lovely cover for our new throw pillows!

Supporters of Mar

2012-02-13T02:52:00-08:00

We are waiting for a beauty pagent to start at the marine amphitheater. The yellow balloon holders are all supporters of a contestant named Mar. We totally stumbled onto this and we ate completely fascinated!

Everyone sleeps on the bus

2012-02-12T00:28:00-08:00

Riding back from a day of walking the beach in the rain at Sayulita. Must return to surf!

Gifts from a foreign land

2012-02-11T14:29:00-08:00

Thank you Ruben for this awesomeness which we are about to receive!!

Rain drops on the V-berth hatch

2012-02-11T14:20:00-08:00

We just had the boat washed. We have two guests in town. I guess that makes us to blame for the first measurable rain we've seen since before Thanksgiving. I think the Museo del Tequilia y del Mariachi is going to get visited today!

Buoy out of place

2012-02-03T22:49:00-08:00

Large swells came through the anchorage today. It was enough that we even moved the boat. One of the channel markers broke free and is now on the beach!!

So, What's the Plan....

2012-01-28T20:50:00-08:00

There is a saying that cruising plans are written in the sand on the beach at low tide, so keep that in mind.

Right now we're in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in Banderas Bay. The biggest city you've heard of nearby is Puerto Vallarta, abour an hour away by bus. We plan to stay in this area until at least the 1st of March and the head South some more before we turn back North and head into the Sea of Cortez for the summer. Heading North is important because you don't want to be in this area during Hurricane season which is the same as the Gulf of Mexico.

After that, your guess is as good as mine!

[gpress map_position="20.7488889, -105.3822222" marker_title="My Map" map_type="SATELLITE" map_zoom="13"]

We found the local fruit and vegetable market

2012-01-28T00:42:00-08:00

Seems like this is the place where all the mercados and restaurants buy their produce.

La Cruz swap meet

2012-01-27T22:08:00-08:00

This is a mighty pile of goodies we are going to break out for the swap meet tomorrow.

It's at 11am on the malecon. See you there!

Huanacaxtle Cafe

2012-01-25T06:35:00-08:00

Best bar ever!!!

On the bus to PV

2012-01-24T17:00:00-08:00

\$16 pesos pp each way

First impressions of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

2012-01-24T00:59:00-08:00

We have only been here a little over a day and already we are enjoying the services which a little bit larger town has to offer. Sunday was the farmers/artists market and we managed to find whole bean coffee! We will soon be out of the US variety so we're hopeful this is just as good if not better. Dawn also picked up a parcel of veggies and a hunk of tuna for less than a half rack of beer in the states. Tonight we eat large for sure!

For me, my skin is freaking out still, the humidity changes and increase in heat are causing me much itching. I have had this eczema thing since I was a baby, nothing to do but ride it out till I adjust. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Tomorrow we plan to head to PV on the bus to see if we can find the bits and pieces we need for various projects. I am excited to see how PV compares to Mazatlan and La Paz.

More on all of this to come! If you have anything in particular you want to know about feel free to drop questions in the comments.

Anchored at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

2012-01-22T17:22:00-08:00

We made it safe and sound. Fueled up already, now to clean up a bit and go eat!

On our way to La Cruz

2012-01-22T08:36:00-08:00

Be there in 6 or 7 hours.... It's a dark moonless cloudy dark dark dark night.

Wow!!!

2012-01-15T00:53:00-08:00

It's a stunner! This pic doesn't do it justice.

Sunset in Chacala, Mexico

2012-01-15T00:35:00-08:00

Life is good.

Mainland Mexico!

2012-01-14T22:13:00-08:00

Having landed safely in Mazatlan, we headed to Marina El Cid to meet Patrick’s parents for the holidays. We had arranged to have his parents stay in Marina El Cid Hotel while we acquired a slip in the marina, which worked out very well indeed. El Cid Resorts are sprinkled across Mazatlan and each has a different set of offerings to its patrons. The Marina El Cid Hotel and Marina had two nice pools, a Jacuzzi, a couple restaurants and bars to choose from. This was a little high-end for us but we splurged since his parents were visiting and it was Christmas, after all. We had decided to partake of a few tours during their visit. The first tour we went on was the Old Mazatlan city tour. It took us through the historical sections of Mazatlan and allowed us to explore the Mercado (open public market), Cathedral and town square.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

The Mercado Central in Mazatlan

Here we go! Trolley tour of Old Mazatlan

Our favorite tour was the Puerta de Canoas Tour and the Los Osuna tequila factory.

Los Osuna Tequila Tour

The tequila tour was very interesting and the farm in which the agave was growing was incredibly beautiful. The tour guide explained to us the process in which the agave is farmed, roasted, and then fermented.

Blue Agave

The Still

Tequila bottling and aging facility

My most favorite part of the tour was the lush green and vibrant flora and fauna on the farm. The small buildings that dotted the farm were painted in bright colors that contrasted nicely against the deep greens of the palms and bright pinks and oranges of the Bougainvillea bushes. They were attracting a ton of beautiful and graceful migrating butterflies that fluttered amongst the brilliant back drop of the Bougainvillea flowers.

Bougainvillea and White Butterfly

Purple Bougainvillea and a blue butterfly

The old fashioned method for extracting nectar from the agave plants

The latest technology for chopping up the agave plants.

Pure tequila dripping from the still. 100% alcohol waiting for aging.

Our next stop on the tour was the small village of Puerta de Canoas. We visited a horse farm where they trained dancing horses, yes, dancing horses. These horses are hired for municipal and state events and parades such as Carnival and Revolucion Day. I worked on a horse farm in high school and have rode my share of horses, so I appreciated the hard work that went into training these very large animals. A couple of these horses were easily 19-20 hands tall while the trainer pushed 5’3” (including his heeled cowboy boots)!

Dancing horses

After the horses danced, it was time for almuerzo (lunch). We went to a small family-owned open air restaurant where the lovely senoras provided us with a mortar and pestle, roasted chilis, garlic and tomatoes so we could make our own salsa. After we made our own salsa, they showed us how to roll and bake our own homemade corn tortillas. There is nothing better than fresh warm homemade tortillas, salsa, and guacamole. I think that was one of the best meals that I have had in Mexico!

Yum!!!!

Homemade tortilla lesson

Throughout Bill and Becky’s visit, we were able to enjoy several local restaurants in Mazatlan, including Te Lucy, which had excellent food and some of the best mole Patrick has ever had! We appreciated the personal service and the local knowledge imparted by the maître d’.

Te Lucy Restaurant in Old Mazatlan with Bill and Becky

Thanks to Bill and Becky for coming to visit us during the holidays. It made it feel a little more like Christmas having some family near to help us celebrate!

El Cid Morro Christmas Tree!

Suggestions on Winlink Position Reports

2012-01-14T18:31:00-08:00

This is for all you Maritime Mobiles who are probably not really active in HAM Radio, but are using Winlink for email and position reports. Here are few operating suggestions:

Sending Position Reports

When you send a position report, ALWAYS but your vessel name in beginning of the comment fields. No one probably knows what your callsign is, but we can look around and see your boat name.
While underway, send at least one position report. I usually do this once a day on long passages or at roughly the midway on shorter passages. Its fun to later connect all the dots!
Always send a position report when you reach your destination indicating you are anchored or moored safely

Check Who’s around you

Did you know you can ask Winlink for a list of other people who are nearby? It goes without saying that you need to have updated your position recently for this to work. But assuming you have done that send a mail to INQURY with the subject REQUEST and the message body WL2K_NEARBY. Send that off and next time you check your mail you will have a list of nearby folks. Notice I didn’t say vessels. Winlink is for any HAM to use, so you will see RVers, Backpackers as well. Here’s a sample. If you always put your vessel name in your position report comments this is lot nicer to read!

List of users nearby W7PEA
Postion: 21-09.69N  105-13.60W  posted at: 1/11/2012 6:16:00 AM
(NOTE: All dates in UTC, distance in nautical miles and bearings true
great circle.)
Winlink 2000 Nearby Mobile Users
(Only the latest report for each call within the past 10 days is listed.
CALL     Dist(nm @ DegT)        POSITION             REPORTED           COMMENT
W7PEA          0.0 @ 000   21-09.69N 105-13.60W  2012/01/11 06:16  Deep
Playa - Anchored at Chacala
KJ6LNI        26.1 @ 198   20-44.83N 105-22.13W  2012/01/08 15:15  Anchored
in La Cruz
KJ6NYJ        26.5 @ 197   20-44.40N 105-22.00W  2012/01/10 23:08
VE0NAV        55.0 @ 319   21-50.88N 105-52.72W  2012/01/13 00:59
Arrived Isla Isabella much warmer here than Mazatlan All Good
KQ6MY         55.0 @ 319   21-50.88N 105-52.76W  2012/01/13 22:36
Isla Isabella
KJ6NKS       113.8 @ 169   19-18.03N 104-50.19W  2012/01/09 01:04  Here in
Tenacatita with all of our local friends
KD7NPI       113.8 @ 169   19-18.02N 104-50.15W  2012/01/09 00:39

Let People Know Who you Are

One of the best things you can do is to put your vessel name in your position reports. The next thing you can do is update your entry on the HAM Lookup servers, login to www.QRZ.com and www.HAMQTH.com and at least update your description with your vessel name and a link to your web page. This way if someone looks up your callsign because they saw it on Winlink they can know your vessel name and send you an email via Winlink or contact you on VHF. Pretty handy!

SSCA Burgee Available

2012-01-14T18:17:00-08:00

If you need an SSCA Burgee I have one available for free. Just need to swing by the boat and pick it up. Current Location is Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico. We will be in Puerto Vallarta eventually. Contact me via the blog or on Winlink, my callsign is W7PEA.

A Shark Ate Our Anchor !

2012-01-11T06:17:00-08:00

OK, not really, but a rock tried to.

We tidied Deep Playa last night and went to bed early with the idea that we would pull up anchor around 0400 to depart beautiful Isla Isabel and head to Chacala. Well, our anchor was hung up on a rock so we let the scope back out and went back to bed to wait for daylight to deal with it.

At daylight, I first tried to snorkel down and put a trip line on the anchor. A trip line is attached to the anchor opposite the boat and let you pull the anchor backwards, (i.e., away from the way it is set) to hopefully unstick what is stuck. The anchor was in about 3.5 - 4 fathoms of water (21-24 feet) and I just couldn't get down that far. The pressure in my head was too much.

I got out and we consulted Nigel Calder's Cruising Companion for ideas. The book suggests running a line down to the anchor by shortening the rode and using a length of chain around the rode which will weight it down and let it slide to the anchor and hopefully around the shaft. From the dinghy you can can then pull the anchor out backwards and clear it.

Well, it worked like a charm! We cut 2' off our stern rode and the old furling line, I ran it down the main rode from the dinghy. With the dinghy going slowly in reverse I let out about 60 feet of line so I could get a good angle. I basically had the dinghy holding steady as it coudl in the considerable swell and I yanked and pulled on the anchor for about 5 minutes until it seemed like the main rode was moving every time I pulled. I then held my line tight as Dawn pulled up the remaining 30 feet of rode with the windlass.

We were now off the hook, with me in the dinghy, with the outboard and the main engine running. Dawn put the engine in gear so we would not was up on the beach or into our friends anchored 30 feet away on sv Camanoe. We managed to get the outboard and dinghy back aboard which was difficult but without incident.

I highly suggest if you don't already have it, go cut 2 feet off your stern rode or pick up and extra 2 feet of chain so you can do this yourself!

We are now underway to Chacala about 4 or 5 hours out. We owe lots of posts on Mazatlan and Isla Isabel (amazing!) and a ton of pics and videos need to be uploaded. We'll do that when we have unlimited data uploads so we don't use up the data plan on the card.

Finally Leaving the Grips of La Paz

2012-01-03T00:38:00-08:00

While we understood why many cruisers claim that La Paz is where cruisers come and they never leave. We had plans to meet up with Patrick’s parents in Mazatlan for Christmas holiday week so we weighed anchor and headed back down the coast to return to Ensenada de los Muertos, which is approximately a two-day sail to Mazatlan. Mazatlan is located in the state of Sinaloa on mainland Mexico. It is approximately located just north across the Sea of Cortez from Cabo San Lucas on the border of the Tropic of Cancer. It borders the southern end of the Sea of Cortez and has a more lush and tropical climate compared to the desert-like climate of the Baja Peninsula. After having our share of Northers and cooler temperatures they brought to La Paz we were ready for warmer temps and tropical waters of the mainland. After staying overnight at La Bonanaza anchorage on Isla Espiritu Santo with s/v Bella Star we headed out early to make Los Muertos before night fall. The water was like glass leaving the anchorage with absolutely no wind so we needed to motor to make it through the Lorenzo Channel. As we were motoring along, I noticed a ton of fish jumping out of the calm waters so I took that as a hint and dropped the hook. I had a feeling we were going to land something good! A few hours later just before heading into the anchorage we heard the wonderful sound of the line whizzing out of the reel. Patrick grabbed the rod and I got my gaff and the “fish booze” ready, which is cheap vodka in a spray bottle used to knock out the fish after it lands on board. This time we caught a Skipjack tuna! This fish was soooo beautiful and strong!

Just as we were bleeding the tuna on deck a pod of dolphins showed up to greet us and check out our catch. I threw the head overboard for them but they didn’t seem too interested in my measly scraps.

We quickly got on the radio to let Bella Star know that we would be hosting a tuna dinner onboard Deep Playa that night. After quickly bleeding and fileting the fish I threw it into a marinade of soy sauce, fresh ginger, mustard and lemon juice for a couple hours. It was a good fish but, like many say, Skipjack Tuna are the ones you throw back, and now Patrick and I agree. It was a little too fishy for our tastes, so next time we will throw it back.

After spending some quality time hiking and enjoying nachos with Bella Star, they took off the next day for Mazatlan. We decided to wait till the next day for the seas to settle a bit more. The following evening we weighed anchor for Mazatlan about 7:30 in the evening. After leaving the anchorage in a completely moon-less night we experienced rough swell (not forecasted of course) and after 45 minutes we decided to turn around and head back.

The next day we decided to leave about 4:30PM to avoid departing in the dark. S/v Journey, who we met in La Paz and were fellow participants in the Baja Ha-Ha, buddy boated over to Isla La Piedra anchorage with us. Everything was going great, we were even able to put up all the sails, including the mizzen, and sail along at 5 knots for about 6 hours! Just as the sun was setting and Patrick decided to go below to take a nap the winds increased and the swells built to 6-7 feet on the beam. Patrick came up to see what was going on and decided that perhaps this was not going to be a nice calm night of sailing. We reduced sail to a double-reefed main. Throughout the night the winds built up to 30 knot gusts with 8-9 foot swells with a very short period. Due to the conditions, we decided to take short naps in the cockpit while the other was on watch. The spray was coming over the dodger and combing making for a long, cold and damp sleepless night. At one point, I opened my eyes to see the port side solar panel flap in the wind so we had to tie it down to ensure it didn’t flap off the boat. Around 2:00 in the morning we chatted with Journey about our decision to turn up into the wind and the swell for a few hours to make for a more comfortable ride and they agreed and followed our lead. Finally about 4:00AM we were able to turn down wind, which put the swell and wind on our stern and made for a MUCH more comfortable ride. We were able to watch the sun rise just as Mazatlan came in to view. Oh what a beautiful sunrise it was for such very tired eyes.

After weighing anchor in Isla La Piedra anchorage we crashed hard for many hours. We didn’t even drop the dinghy in the water the next day. At least we were in Mazatlan, in warmer weather and water! Or at least we had hoped…but no mi amigo…it was only 68 degrees and the water was 65!!! AAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Coming soon to my belly!!

2011-12-31T00:42:00-08:00

Fresh homemade tortillas!!!

Our slip at Marina El Cid

2011-12-29T21:26:00-08:00

Shot from the balcony of my parent's room

W7PEA

2011-12-25T08:06:00-08:00