Salida

Yelapa Mexico

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Yelapa is a great little bay about 16 nm from La Cruz. A great waterfall just at the edge of town and an even more impressive waterfall about a 2hr hike from town. Best restaurant is Taqueria las Abduelo. Great food. Great price. This was the first stop on the way south to Chiapas.

Yelapa bay

Suspension bridge to the falls outside of town

great swimming at the upper falls

Yelapa town waterfalls

Leaving Yelapa. The adventure begins.

More Boat Projects

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Everything is going great with the boat projects.

I varnished the cabin sole of the entire boat. Three coats of epifanes rapidclear and two coats of rubbed effect varnish. A lot of work over a week to get done.

I also installed self tailing winch at the mast.

I also added a solid 1 inch stainless steel tube railing at the stearn of the boat. Actually Ricardo a great welder did the work.

I aslo got the 6 man liferaft mounted.

I still need to build a proper web strap with quick relase.

I also been rebuilding winches and adding clutch block for outhaul and boom vang.

We (Richardo) modified the dodger frame by added an extra hand hold and it will also act as a mast crutch support.

I have had time to sail (the boat sails great) and attend the Banderas Blast Beach Party

Here is the wood the town is named after. La cruz de Huanacaxtle.

Cheers

Jeff

Back in La Cruz

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone. I am back in la Cruz. It has been a long time since posting. I am slowly getting the boat sorted. I have the dodger, bimini and sails on. The running rigging is in place. The floors are sanded and sealed but still need varnish. Boat projects are proceeding. Salida has a new roller furling staysail that is almost done.

I just need to install the blocks on the mast. She also has a new mainsail, some new halyards and sheets.

In the off season I welded up some aluminum hinges for the main settee table so i can flip the table to acess the bilge and engine.. I also welded some mast and boom fittings for the new hydraulic boom vang.

That is the next project. I also built some stainless mounts for the life raft I bought last season. This will get installed this week. Its really great to be back on the boat.

Still lots to do but it is progressing.

Cheers Jeff

Fun times

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We had some great weather and sailing for most of the last month with a few days of heavy rain. I got the dingy davits installed.

But first the dingy bottom needed cleaning as it had sat in the water for a few months.

Many hands lightened the load. I also painted the dingy bottom and installed a new mast light. Well my son Vincent installed it and took some great pictures.

I also got the autopliot relocated and connected to the chart plotter. This meant more time down in the back lazerette but it was worth it.

I also finished the panel for the fridge thermostat.

But we found the time for a siesta or two.

And of course time to go to Lusty on Land for a drink and some great music.

Everything is working great on the boat and I am getting some time to enjoy La Cruz and time with good friends.

Cheers

Jeff

I got the power

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have the power. All 600 ah or 7680WH. Ok that is super geeky even for me but my batteries got delivered. I ordered two 12v 300ah LifeP04 batteries from Amazon.com.mx. They arrived.! They are alive !

Ordered in Dec, shipped from China and delivered to marina office, for about 40% of the price from local vendor and roughly the same price as AGM batteries. Thank you Amazon. Yet again........More expensive than Canada but I got them.

The hardest work was puling out the old batteries. Luckily Ian helped with this. Wow they were heavy. I then I rewired the connections to the new batteries, then reprogramed the alternator, solar MPPT charger, shore charger and finally smart alternator charger.

The smart alternator was troublesome as I used the wrong software and had a bunch of issues getting it programed. I even called tech support at Electromaxx and they quickly helped me solve the problem. My bad.

I also installed an alternator protection device to protecthe system from any volatge spikes which may occur if the BMS in the battery shut down

Once everything was done I applied power to the batteries. This "woke" them up and I was able to connect to each battery thru bluetooth and and app to program them.

Evertything lookeg great and I am now starting to do some load testing to verify capacity. Everything looks good so far. I could bore you with volatge per cell and cell volatage differential or SOC or cell balancing but I wont.

In the end this means the fridge will run overnight and keep the beer cold so we can anchor out. Great news. On to the next projects.

Cheers

Jeff

Just a small tiny task

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I was workinng on some projects over the Xmas break. I got the new VHF radio installed and the new AIS (Automatic identofication System )installed. This means you can follow Salida on her journey once we begine. Just use a website like marine traffic. This screen shot shows us coming into the harbour today.

I also got a new solar controller installed and a dc to dc charger which is used to charge the starter battery. This sets up the boat for the new lifepo4 batteries once they arrive.

As I was wrapping up these projects and getting ready for Josh and Alyssa to arrive I decided to tackle just a small task and take some time off. I had a new solenoid valve for the propane system to install. Simple 15 min job which on a boat should take no more than 45 min. Well it didnt. The new valve didnt work. I had 13V at the valve but it didnt open. I tested the valve with power at the navigation station and it worked. Heck the old valve worked. So what gives ?

Power = voltage x current. I had the volts but not enough current. I traced the wire back to a cupboard and found some green corrosion. Ah ha simplly resplice the wire. But ....... still no go. Now what ? Keep tracing the wire back and find some very corroded connectors.

So now I am rewiring the whole circuit and installing some better connections. Only took the better part of a day. Ahhhh sailboats.

A wise person once said pick 2 or three things per day to fix while you are in port. Be happy if you fix one without finding 2 or three more to add to the list. Genius.

So taking time off now to enjoy some family time in La Crusz and to sail. Today we were out in light 10 to 12 kn winds. We only had the small 100% jib on as the other sail was in getting its sun cover fixed. It was still a great sail. AND the whales were incredible. At one point it was hard to know where to look as the were breeching all around us.

More articles to follow as Salida has been getting spolied with all the new swag and parts that Josh and Alyssa brought.

But now its time to go and have a drink and see some live music.

Cheers

Jeff

Trouble in paradise

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

There is trouble in paradise, also known as Pierre. Now dont get me wrong It was great having him on board. He came down with boat parts and a prebuilt cabinet for the air conditioning unit.

We also got some other projects done like installing the remote mic for the VHF and we converted a drawer to a cabinet which added a lot more room.

The space can now be accessed from the top or side

We did find some time to go out sailing and we saw an amazing pod of whales. One got a bit to close for comfort. Check out the video at

https://youtube.com/shorts/-47zpSMQmME?feature=share

We also checked out the local music scene and the street food. Great tacos and hamburgers but Pierre was disappointed that he missed out on bacon wrapped hot dogs. Next time!

I had to go back and check it out. Your really did not miss out .....oooh..mmmmmm...soo good....... !.

Oh yes the trouble with Pierre and Jeff is that we enjoy our beverages and we blame each other for being such a bad influence.

But now we know.

Blame James

Smile - Sail - Dream - Drink -.......Recover

Jeff

Banderas Blast with Attila the Hun

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Team Stobbe arrived with more parts including a fold up bicycle. We went out for dinner and drinks at La Cruz Inn. Best margherita in town.

I had an invite from Attila the Hun(garian )to crew on his 50ft race boat. Such a wonderful nice person who is the exact opposite of the other Attila.

Check out his boat at IMS 50 Numbers by Jim Taylor Yacht Designs. A unique experiance of a lifetime.

It was a three day race with good food and party every night. The rest of crew was awsome and it was a great learning experiance. We even had Mike, owner of PV Sailing teaching us the fine points of sail trim and local weather conditions.

A great time was had by all and money was raised for a local charity. As part of the race I got to be a member of the Punta Mita Yacht Club, which had a unique initiation ceremoney.

I took one for the team, got paddled and in good cheer loudy shouted

Whip me ! Beat me ! Show me you care !

Team Stobbe helped organize and detail clean the boat. We also did a supply run to La Comer which is a wonderful combination of supermarket and department store. We also spent a day in PVR on the malecon (boardwalk)

Team Stobbe time is slowly coming to an end.

John and Avery plane was delayed so they cleaned the dingy. Talk about hard workers right to the end.

Cheers

Jeff

First anchor, red tide and the smell of death.

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We sucessfully did the first overnight anchor of Salida (for us). We sailed to Punta Mita in great winds, getting the boat up to 8 knots.

We cooked a great meal on the BBQ and watched a great moonrise.

The anchorage was very rocky and rolly due to the swells. We are also fighting battery issues on the boat as they all need replacement and it takes time to figure out how to get what I want to Mexico.

I am looking at a LifeP04 system to match the great electromaax 160 amp alternator we installed.

We had a nice swim but had to have bottle showers on deck as the aft cabin shower sump pump was not working.

We had a nice sail back once we got the motor started and again saw whales this time close enough to get a picture.

Then off that night for food, drinks and music. The following day we went out on another boat for a day sail. It was then time for my guests to depart.

But not before the red tide came in. This is acommon occurance here but it does kill a lot of fish. Below is a small portion of the fish they collected just in the marina in a day.

I am now focusing on getting some work done on electrical system of the boat to prepare for new batteries. The hard part is to figure out how existing system is wired. I also got a new switch installed in the aft shower. It was faulty as well as the wiring to the pump and no power from the panel.

I went out for great street tacos the other night. So so good and inexpensive. You buy your beer at the corner store and bring it to the taco stand.

All of the people I have met have been great and I am learning what a wonderful place La Cruz is.

Cheers

Jeff

This and that

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Still working on the depth sounder. Works great at dock so tomorrow we will do a sea trial.

Did an oil change today and decided to work on the throttle lever at the same time. The boat has a very short throw of the throttle plus its a bit sticky. This makes docking a big challenge.

So while the engine cooled enought to remove the filter I removed the throttle lever.

I tried to just drill a hole at the end of the lever but its stainless and with the tools I have it's a no go.

So I found a scrap piece of aluminium and fitted something out. Seems to work.

Amazing what you can do with hand tools.

Now I need to take apart the helm side to fix that side.

Slowly ever so slowly the boat is getting into shape.

A great sunset and fantastic meal with Kate and Richard. The local prawns thate Kate cooked were fantastic.

Cheers

Jeff