After a few hours of sleep, got up for breakfast deciding to try and stay awake the whole day to snap us onto the current time which is 8 hours ahead of Puerto Vallarta.
At breakfast it became clear that the hotel restaurant was unaware of our food allergies. We had been promised by the travel age…
We departed our condo at 10am Puerto Vallarta, and arrived at our hotel in Arusha Tanzania at 4am local time – in total 34 total hours in transit. The trip from Puerto Vallarta to Houston was uneventful, but the flight from Houston to Istanbul was over an hour late departing.
Turkish air busine…
When we were originally planning our trip to Africa, we had thought to do it the way we usually do – Melissa researches a ton of options and then we book directly with the hotels. In this case though it’s a little different since you will need a guide to take you to see the animals and other cultur…
Unlike the good ‘ol US of A, Mexican residents and citizens have to ask permission to leave the country. Well, that might not be entirely fair. They have to fill out paperwork and get it stamped. Not clear anyone would be refused permission or if this is just a way to keep people employed rubber …
Two days ago a hurricane warning was issued for our area. We were like “yeah whatever” because we live in a hurricane hole. Meaning that hurricanes very very rarely hit our area because of the mountains just south of us. They push hurricanes around to the north such that they almost always miss P…
The mechanic pulled the high-pressure fuel pump off earlier this summer and sent it to the rebuild shop. Where it sat, and sat, and sat. Until this week when they pulled it apart. And sure enough, one of the pistons was totally destroyed and there was debris everywhere. They are able to rebuild …
Determined that the summer should not be a total boating loss due to the bad engine, we try to spend our time with friends on the lake.
Aug 25 and September 9 – Dave and Melissa went to Andrews Bay for a couple of nights just to chill. We decided to head back to the dock a bit late and ended up …
Dave has talked to a number of boat diesel mechanics. They are all stumped. Dave continues to hold that it’s probably the high-pressure fuel pump. But the mechanics keep saying that’s just not possible. The high-pressure pumps just don’t fail.
Today the lead mechanic from Man engine…
The AIS got installed today! Unlike Apsaras we both receive and transmit so other boats can see our location.
8/5/22 Sea fair
Because we are on the lake, we decided to check out the Blue Angel’s Sea Fair show from the water. We headed out early to ensure we could get anchored down before all the craziness sets in. We set anchor near the USCG ship that presumably will preside over the craziness to see i…
Dave might be depressed because his boat is broken, but burgers always cheer him up. Jim made his special burgers and Dave and Melody came aboard with Margaret to help Dave celebrate his birthday.
Today we headed back through the locks. We had been instructed to call the lock master when we reached the railroad bridge. When we got there, they were just closing the doors on the large lock for an uplocking. They said to proceed into the small locks despite the red light indicating, and that …
We had eggs benedict for breakfast.
We decided to head to Ostrich Bay on one engine, which allowed Dave to spend some time practicing maneuvering on one engine. Was not quite as bad as he feared.
Along the way we dropped Jennifer back at her place. We hung out on her buoy for lunch. Slider…
Today we awoke to sunshine and a grumpy captain with a broken boat. Not having one engine is going to make maneuvering in the locks a challenge.
We started out hopeful it was something simple and that maybe we could find a mechanic willing to come to us at anchor in Poulsbo. But as the day wor…
On July 16, Dave and Melissa headed out through the locks. We got applause for our performance. People were asking whether we were crew and if we were headed for Hawaii. We spent a couple of nights in Ostrich Bay hanging on the hook and working. Then on July 19 we headed to Elliot Bay marina for…
We headed up and spent two nights at Juanita Bay. We love it there. But for the milfoil that always comes up on the anchor. But this time... it was epic. The ball of milfoil was about 5 foot by 5 foot. Melissa couldn't get the anchor back aboard as she couldn't shake the milfoil loose. We had …
Melissa gets back to the boat after running errands. Its one of those days where the water is clear and the sun is overhead and you can see the bottom. She thinks to herself, "today would be the day to jump in and try to get that deck plate I knocked into the water when Robin and I were kayaking o…
Robin came by today to do a 1:1 "meeting" with Melissa. Most of this meeting took place in the kayaks. After which Robin jumped in. Melissa was like "nah! too cold!" despite Robin's teasing her about being a chicken.
During the trip Jim and Margaret made with Dave in May it became clear the house batteries were dead. They didn’t make it through the night even when fully charged before bedtime. Dave had it as a top priority to fix this. These suckers are heavy though and getting them in and out took teamwork.…
The boat came with a wine fridge. But it wasn't working. We debated pulling it out and adding more storage. But, wine. So Dave pulled it, measured, and was able to order a new one on Amazon.
The new one is a nearly exact fit. And it can take more bottles!
