Category Archives: Repair

Where we fixed something that failed.

Puerto Don Juan Days 2 – 3

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Sunrise, Tuesday August 30

As the sun was rising, a fleet of little fishing pangas came roaring into the bay and stopped suddenly near our boat. They fished for maybe an hour, then roared back out as fast as they came in. We heard several conversations between Americans, so we are guessing that tourists hire the pangas to take them fishing.

Eric had spent Monday evening trying to figure out how to fix the AC water maker. He realized that there was a way to re-set the computer on the AC water maker to keep it running despite the sensor indicating that the water was too salty. On Tuesday morning, he got up early, emptied out the lazarette so he could get to the water maker, took the water maker apart, turned the setting dial behind the control panel, tested it, and then put the water maker back together. He is pleased to report that it worked, and the AC water maker is again operational!

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Santa Rosalia days 6 – 8

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Here is the sunrise on Sunday (August 21).

Sunday was oppressively hot again. Eric got a very early start on the dive compressor. He reassembled the third stage. Sadly, the compressor still didn’t work. He took off the final pressure safety valve and cleaned it. It looks like this may be the part that is broken, but he doesn’t have a spare. He gave up on the project and put the compressor back into its mount, along with all the gear stored in around it. He was frustrated that he again put so much effort into the repair for nothing. There was another boat with the same compressor that left a couple day ago, and he is hoping to perhaps find them and try swapping in the part to verify it is the problem.

We wound up spending the day holed up on the boat, enjoying the A/C. Brett came over and the boys played. Christi and Eric did a few chores. In the evening, Eric went to the pool for social hour while the kids and Christi stayed at Kosmos.

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Santa Rosalia Day 5

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Saturday (August 20) was another cool day. Feeling motivated, Eric removed all the gear that we keep stored in front of the air compressor, then detached the compressor from its mount under the lazarette. He moved the compressor to be under the hatch so that he could stand over it and comfortably work on it from all angles.

He tried to refurbish the third pressure stage. He opened it up and took it apart, only to realize he needed yet another special tool, and this time he didn’t think he could fabricate one. He decided to simply clean it and change an O-ring.

Since the rain had not cooperated, Christi and Keith spent the morning washing the boat and doing other boat chores. It is amazing how much energy and motivation we have when the weather is cool!

In the afternoon, Christi, Keith and Brett went to lunch at a café called Ma’s. Eric was waiting for the water guy and said he’d join us once our water was delivered. Unfortunately, the dock water in Santa Rosalia isn’t up to many cruisers’ standards, so there is bottled water delivery service to the marina on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

After lunch, Christi and the boys went to what we’d thought was the museum. It was closed. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the museum may still be under construction and not yet open to the public. Or maybe the building was refurbished and is not currently being utilized. 

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Park Passes, Dive Compressor, and Solar Ovens

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On Tuesday morning (August 9), we left Puerto Escondido at 0830 to go to Loreto to get our park pass and do some more grocery shopping. We went to the park office first, arriving right before it was supposed to open at 0900. It was a good thing we hadn’t started the process yesterday; what we thought would take five-minutes took 1.5 hours to complete.

As part of the process, we had to go to the bank in the historic town center to pay for the pass. As we mentioned in the last post, Loreto was the first Spaniard settlement in the Californias, and was the capital until 1777. This is the Capital building.  

Here is a shot of the town center plaza

Some of the streets surrounding the plaza have tree canopies

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Dive Compressor, San Javier, and Loreto

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Sunrise on Monday, August 8

Eric spent the morning working on the dive compressor. The first order of business was standard servicing: changing the oil, filters, and hose. The hose completely disintegrated, so it is probably safe to say it was time to change it.

As he started up the compressor, air was not coming out of the final hose. He spent some time trying to troubleshoot the source of the problem, but at noon, he had to put the project aside. It was time to pick up our rental car and play tourists! 

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