Summer End

Capt. Eric
Dec 3
6 min read

We left Paradise Village exactly on schedule, with good weather forecast and fairly certain the busy hurricane season had come to an end.

We'd spend 3 days in neighboring La Cruz to fill up our diesel tanks and buy a last batch of fresh fruits and vegetables from the small local shops.

While there we'd also enjoy a last meal at "Ballena Blanca", our favorite restaurant, just outside the marina gates.

That was the plan. Poorly paraphrasing a friend, "the only certainty on a boat is change": I caught a small cold, just strong enough to knock me down for a few days, so Di added a few days to our La Cruz marina stay.

Of course, in the cramped spaces of a small 40 foot boat, she later caught it too, adding discomfort and delays again.

Eventually, both of us still coughing, but having recovered our strength, we anchored Enfin just in front of the marina, off the beach, so I could start diving on the hull to scrape 3 months of growth accumulated since our haul-out. It's amazing how fast "stuff" just grows in the murky tropical waters of Paradise Village. I'd estimate we had more than a year's growth in a cold weather place in the 3 months here.

I spent a fair amount of time each day for 4 days cleaning the hull and getting it back to its pristine look from the haul-out.

One of the many storms that went by us this summer

Meanwhile however, I was facing another problem: The water-maker was stubbornly refusing to make any fresh water. After some diagnosing, chemical cleaning of the membranes, and running a number of checks, I concluded that unfortunately our membranes must have died.

I'm not sure why: The unit was on the same automatic self-flushing cycle we used in the past with great success, and I had tested it only a few weeks ago.

Since reliable water making is so vital to comfortable cruising, we had no option but to solve this problem as fast as possible, and to delay our cruise towards Chiapas and beyond towards Costa Rica and Panama.

Very luckily we got a slip at Puerto Vallarta BVG, the downtown marina, which has potable water and would be able to receive our US ordered membranes.

Adding to the problems, the generator -also thoroughly checked recently- acted up 3 times, shutting itself down only a few minutes after starting. A completely new experience for us, since the generator has been so reliable over the years.

I investigated it as well, finding nothing of concern, and concluded that the most likely cause for the stoppages was air bubbles in the cooling system, after a full flush and swap of the coolant. I triple checked all levels and temperatures, and without having really changed anything, the generator has now been running completely normally ever since. It probably just wanted a little attention!

We'd left Paradise Village with a boat we thought was completely ready to cruise, and within a few days had to change our plans! The only constant....

Enfin got a fair amount of love, upgrades and general maintenance over the summer. Most notable we got brand new settee cushions with ultraleather, both in the salon and in the pilothouse. My berth got upgraded foam, and we had a number of covers and sheets made to measure as well. The whole boat, including the engine room got a good detailing. Looking good!

Start the generator when air conditioning is needed in the cabins

An interesting upgrade came from discussing things over the NOG (Nordhavn Owners' Group) where one owner was asking for ideas on how to automatically run his generator when reverse AC heating was needed.

Other owners offered a number of complex solutions, and I remembered my auto-start for the generator is equipped with an external trigger that can start the unit when the temperature reaches a certain point, so the AC can run. I proposed that it would be trivial to

have a similar system for cold temperatures versus high ones.

This of course had me realizing I should implement this great feature on our boat!

In the Baja heat last year, we enjoyed a number of cruises with the generator running 24/7 like the big boats. It felt very luxurious, and supremely comfortable, but of course it meant extra diesel consumption and more importantly more routine maintenance.

By running the generator only when the AC is needed I figured we could save both fuel and maintenance.

A simple connection later, and I now had a thermostat plugged in directly to my auto-start, ready for testing. After a few tests, it seems having the generator auto-start when my cabin reaches 80f and then running for 30 minutes cools the boat down sufficiently to stay comfortable. The resulting On/ Off cycle seems to be 30 minutes On, followed by at least an hour Off. Basically the generator runs only a third of the time to keep our cabins cool. A fair deal I think.

Many little ones didn't make it, but plenty did

Our extra time in Puerto Vallarta proved very pleasant. The marina is very close to a Walmart, so Di was able to add to our already impressive provision reserve. Since we have no idea when and where we will next replenish, it's nice to have the option of staying out for a very long time.

Our friends from Paradise Village came and visited us, making for a great morning. One problem with our nomadic lives is that we meet many really nice people, only to leave them again when either side weighs anchor. Still, we will keep in touch, and hope one day we will be able to reconnect in a distant harbor.

Our friends from Paradise Village paid us a visit. We were delighted to see them, and Princess was ecstatic

Overall, we're both glad summer is over. The boat has benefited from our attention but it is now time to move on.

The decision to stay put for 6 months in a safe marina was the right one, as we saw named storm after storm come up the coast, a total of 18 of them, damaging our local beach and destroying many turtle nests.

The marina however remained untouched, even when some waves found their way inside and I had to lower my flopper stopper to calm the roll. A first for me in a marina.

Marinas are rare on the Mexican Pacific Coast and getting a slip is difficult, so you must reserve for the season, otherwise you will not get a slip when a storm approaches.

We're hoping this is the last time in a while that we'll need to stop for hurricane season. Next year we should be below the hurricane zone and shouldn't need to hide. Later years we should be in zones that have many more hurricane safe options, or we'll aim to be outside hurricane zone again.

Even if we do end up hiding away, we will run the boat more often, to avoid last minute surprises like these.

After some chasing around we got our membranes package delivered to the marina. I was a little apprehensive about changing the membranes on my own. I don't particularly enjoy plumbing, even less so high pressure plumbing (up to 850 psi) on a very expensive unit. Of course all that in a small and hot crowded spot in the lazarette.

It turned out to be a lot easier than I expected, in part due to the nice design of our modular water-maker, and in part due to the solid preparation I'd done in learning the tricks of the trade to make the swap easier. A short test showed the unit producing excellent quality water with a nice flow, no signs of leaks, finally freeing us from our shore shackles and allowing us to leave.

Waiting for the cruise ship to dock before we can leave

We spent a few hours at the "Capitania" to get our "Zarpe", the document allowing you to leave a zone that must be presented at the next port.

One last delay, waiting for a large cruise ship to berth before being allowed to leave the port, and we were on our way South.

Finally the summer ends!

Enfin!