Are we done yet?

La Paz, BCS, Mexico

As we near the time to leave this place, the work seems to be accelerating nicely.  Three main projects this week...

First was a fairly straightforward installation of a new A/B switch for our VHF antenna, so I could hook up our old backup radio in the cockpit.  The problem up till now has been that having the VHF radio mounted at the navigation table means that the volume has to be turned way up in order to hear it from the cockpit, then run down below to actually use it.  We attempted to solve this with a remote microphone with its own speaker that we can keep in the cockpit with us, but have found that it just does not keep a charge long enough to be used full-time.  Since we already had the 2nd radio available, mounting it in the cockpit seemed like the easiest solution.  Of course, it meant running a new antenna cable from the nav table to the cockpit and that meant taking half the boat apart (again). The fancy A/B switch was one of the purchases we made when we were in San Diego.

The second project consisted of some new shade for the boat.  For this, we hired a local awning guy who could supply the material and labour.  Altogether, there are 6 pieces to our new setup, 4 that attach to the bimini in the cockpit, giving about 75% sun blockage and providing shade from most directions, and two larger, more dense, pieces that go over the staysail boom and main boom respectively, to give some shade to our main hatches - this way we can keep the hatches open for some light and air without heating the boat up to the same degree (pun intended).  We sure wish we had these last summer when we were in the northern Sea of Cortez.  As it is, we have these in place now, just in time for us to take them down for this summer.

The last project, and probably the most exciting, is our new stove.

The old stove has served us very well over the years, but lately the rust was starting to win the war.  With the occasional flames coming from places I don't think they should, we have become a little concerned about how safe the stove is, so we had made the decision to replace it back before we got to La Paz.

Getting rid of the old stove is the easy part.  The problem was finding something that would fit in to space available and not look to silly.  After much study, via the Internet, of the marine stoves on the market, it looked like the only candidate was a European sub-compact model by Force 10.  West Marine carries this model, so we took a look at it while we were in San Diego.  It turns out that the actual dimensions are NOT the same as the ones in the brochure, and the stove would have been ludicrously narrow, although the height would have been perfect.  Disappointed, we cruised all of the marine stores and found what appeared to be the perfect stove, from a company called Seaward.  We took lots of measurements so we could double check the space on the boat before we ordered it.

Once we had returned to La Paz, it became apparent that the stove we picked out would be much too high for our space, unless we wanted to make major modifications to the boat (not really an option we wanted to think about).  After again browsing the Internet, we finally determined that another of the Force 10 models (the North American sub-compact) would be a close (hopefully not too close) fit.  We bit the bullet and ordered one from an expediter-dude in San Diego - he charges for his services and you still have to pay Mexican tax, duty and shipping, but he does save us the California sales tax, so it is a pretty good deal (Susanne can't get over the fact that we are paying a premium to purchase a Canadian-made stove in California).  It was a pretty exciting day when the big box arrived and we enlisted the help of our buddy John to help pick it up from the freight company.  In spite of the fact that the box looked a little beat up, the stove seems to be fine.

Now that we definitely had the new stove in hand, I tackled getting the old stove out.  As usual, this required taking lots of other pieces of the boat apart, mostly dealing with drawers and cupboard doors that stick out a bit too much.  The stove fit through the companionway with about 1/2" to spare.

The new stove is virtually the same size as the old, so it went in pretty much the same way the old one came out.  I had to take off the old "gimble" hinges and mount the new ones a little lower down, but it actually went very smoothly.  Getting the right gas fittings for the connection to the propane was a no-brainer, as almost all stoves are gas appliances here in Mexico.  After putting the old stove in the cardboard box, we donated it to the local charity auction, where we were assured someone would be very happy to get it - since that stove was not really a marine stove in the first place, it should do very well in the right environment.

Now, you are probably thinking that these little projects could have been done in much less than a week, but keep in mind that you can only work comfortably from about 7 till 10 in the mornings, before it becomes so unbearable hot and humid that you just sort of collapse.  Every day the temperature reaches to between 37 and 39 (sometimes we can keep the inside of the boat below 35), cooling off to a frigid 27 or so at night.  Lately what has been killing us is the humidity, which has really peaked over the last few days.  It has been partly overcast which reduces the heat from the direct sun, but seems to increase the humidity - no rain though.

It is interesting to note that since the start of July, there are a whole lot of Mexican tourists in La Paz, for their summer holidays.  The Malecon is busier than ever and there are quite often lots of activities going on at the beach - they don't seem to think it is too hot at all.

The ice cream shop remains one of the most popular spots on the Malecon.

Next comes the traditional removing of the sails.  Stay tuned to this blog for information on this thrilling endeavour.

{GMST}24|9.3042|N|110|19.6152|W|La Paz, BCS, Mexico|La Paz, BCS, Mexico{GEND}