March 2025
So after being with Kathy in Liverpool for some 7 months and being 9 months away from the boat I finaly got a taxi to Manchester airport and started the trip back. An exceptionally good price £280, got me a single to the hell hole they call Cancun. I didn’t go into the resort but stayed overnight in an airport hotel and got an early flight to Mexico city the following morning. Cancun airport is like Tenerife, or Mallorca, just mad busy, millions of people trying to find their coaches/taxis. As I lifted my ten ton bag of boat parts of the baggage carousel, the weight caused the bag to tear badly, bugger, I still had two more flights to go and sellotape wasn’t going to cut it. I had been dreading the customs search, and sure enough ahead of me they were stopping everyone and putting the bags through the x-ray machine. I figured I was going to be paying some import duty. But just as I approached the machines, a guy stepped out and directed a large group of us around the machines, it seems the queue was getting too big. Wished I’d brought more now 😉
The next morning I arrived at the airport at 6am and was delighted to find a man who would wrap my bag up in plastic for about $20 usd. This solved the rip problem, but also made me feel the bag would have a safer trip transitting Mexico city without me. I was ticketed through to Tapachula, Chiapas
The bag made it here and a quick taxi ride got me to a local hotel in Puerto Madero, just 15mins ride from the boat. They wont let me stay on the boat while it’s in the yard. I booked 5 days in the hotel thinking that would be all it takes to get the boat ready and launch.
After I dropped my bags I popped down to see if she was still there, all looked good on first sight.
The boat was a tip inside, but thats normal, Stuff I want to protect from the UV was brought below, lockers opened for airflow, and everything made of fabric, or metal, or anything really, gets wrapped in plastic bin bags.
The Computer Power supply was showing a healthy 13v and the little raspberry pi computer had been sending home healthy messages for the last 9 months and continued to do so.
That night I ventured into Madero for food and found this scruffy little fish cantina where I ordered fillets of fish and ended up with pork chops. As a non meat eater I had to send them back, lovely as they looked and waited for what turned out to be quite delicious fish, with a wonderful salad, all for just a few quid.
Madero is a tourist town that also serves the port here, it’s a busy port, with a huge coffee processing plant that exports Chiapan coffee around the world, and also to Starbucks here I believe
The next day I started work. The main job, and the reason I hauled, was a through hull/seacock that had to be replaced. This one carries waste, I’ll say no more. I prayed I had emptied and flushed out the tank at sea, otherwise pulling the hose off wasn’t going to be fun. I was mostly right. Not a nice job.
The seacock was a Blakes Bronze job and was probably original to the boat. What was good was that the new replacement fitted to same holes exactly. Unlike most through hulls, this one is held on with four bolts. It took three days to fit it in the crazy heat, it was in the high 30s every day, and I had to rebuild the base inside with epoxy as it had broken and delaminated in places. This is one of those jobs that if not done right, the boat sinks. I had to use my new Dewalt batter powered grinder to get the nuts off the old one. That tool is one I should have bought years ago, just marvelous.
Finally the new one was fitted and I hoped to be ready to launch, a year ago I put three layers of anti foul on and only one has worn off so I didn’t bother with any more as I hope to haul later this year anyway.
The poor old Spade anchor I love so much has suffered badly. I took the grinder with a wire brush cup fitting and cleaned it up, but I think it’s beyond repair.
Next to check the engine, sadly it didn’t start and the first problem was a dead starter battery. I got some charge into it over a few days, but basically I buggered it by not allowing it to trickle charge while away. I sort of expected that. However the fuel was the real issue, it had drained out of the engine and I couldn’t bleed the air out. This is the first time this has ever happened to me.
The heat was getting just unbearable, I was close to passing out several times inside the boat where one day it was 38 degrees and that’s too much for work. The aircon wasnt working well back at the hotel and it was all getting a bit much for me.
I had to extend my hotel stay another 2 days until Monday when I arranged for them to launch me, I had to beg them to do it and then tow me to a slip so that I could get some respite, the boat is cooler when in the sea, plus I can plug in the aircon then having shore power hooked up.
I arrived early on Monday to find that it’s a national holiday and nobody will be here to launch me, I’m not a happy bunny now, no hotel, no launch, no AC.
I bite the bullet and book a nice room with a pool at the Holiday Inn in Tapachula, jump on a colectivo outside the marina and bugger off for the day.
What luxury, Wallmart next door and loads of eateries.
The next morning back at the marina and it’s all action
Tuesday 18th March 2025
The crew turned up with the hoist and ten minutes later I’m in the water. I check the bilges and uh oh, water is pouring in. It’s coming in from around the area where I changed the seacock, but that seems ok. I soon find it, it’s the removable speed log paddle wheel thingy, it wasn’t screwed down fully. A quick fix. Next I get towed to the far end of the marina where they can dock me easily away from the posh boats. I surrounded by other crippled boats, Jake on my starboard side has a wrecked transmission and unsure how to fix it, Liam to port has no steering. So together we make a fine bunch.
Now I find out that there’s no power here so I can’t run the AC anyway. Apparently the pontoon lost its power when the ten boats further along the pontoon all arrived together a few days ago and plugged in their AC units.
But, I have a plan. I’m told that Manana will bring power, so tonight I will run the AC off the inverter off the Lithium batteries. I should get three hours, which is more than enough. Since installed they have never been discharged below about 75%, but now I get them down to 50% in one go.
The next day I start to work on the engine. The main Racor needs fuel so I borrow some from a neighbour, I top it up and can now get fuel up
to the secondary filter and bleed it there, but not a lot comes out at the injectors. I accidentally tighten up one of the injector feed banjo bolts that I had already tightened up and strip the thread. Things are now going downhill quickly. I’m worried I might have ruined the injector housing.
Manana had come but still no power, it’s hot and that night I run the aircon again for just an hour. I’m down to 20% battery now, but at least I can sleep on the sofa and don’t do to badly.
Thursday arrives and I’m promised if they don’t have power, then they will tow me to a slip with power. Confident things will look up, I hire a car for a few days and head off into town to provision, and get parts.
The boat had no propane, so that was soon sorted, plus I took the starter battery into town and exchanged it for a new more powerful battery.
Back at the boat, loaded up with tons of fantastic fruit and veg I despair to find the power may come back Manana. I demand they move me, but I’m told it’s Ronnies day off so they can’t. At least I get to cook a gorgeous tuna steak dinner with roasted Poblano peppers. It was delicious.
I lie down on the sofa, turn on the AC knowing I only have 20% battery, maybe 30 mins max, and promptly fall asleep. Waking up several hours later, I have fully depleted the batteries. Bugger. Fortunately the fridge has enough residual coldness to hang on until the sun rises and the batteries start charging. The great thing about these batteries is that it’s perfectly ok to discharge them this way, at least for the first 5000 times.
So up early at 6:30 while its cool, I just persuade the batteries to run the kettle long enough to make coffee, but not long enough for toast. Searching through my spares I find the two spare injectors I bought on eBay 5 years ago and they have banjo bolts with them. Fantastic, and better still I try one on the injector and it tightens up snugly. So I’m expecting to bleed the injectors, and be able to motor on over to where there’s power. No such luck, I thought I bled it all, but no, it wont start. whats worse there’s smoke coming from the starter motor when I crank the engine over. Think I may have pushed it too far. Bugger even more expense and time. These Volvo starter motors are several hundreds of pounds. I decide to push the Marina to move me, however that fails as Ronnie, the boatman, is busy checking out (as in customs/immigration etc) 5 boats today and has no time for me.
I sit by the pool and start a computer project I have decided to take on. Thinking about it, the money this project will bring in means It’s not the end of the world to have a new starter motor shipped out by DHL and for me to pay an engineer to come and sort things out. I needed a new starter anyway. In the meantime I will just have to sit here by the pool coding and enjoying amazing food.
It’s now Friday afternoon 21st March, the workmen seem to have gone home and it looks like a hot night without any chance of AC awaits me, when out of the blue, the kettle lights up. A quick glance at the switch panel and I see we have mains. Hallelujah.
I fire up the AC and it works, funnily enough the indicator ligths for the mains circuits dont light up, and the voltage is only 96v, but I’m ecstatic.
I was on my way to have a drive around and enjoy the AC in the car anyway, so I pop out and visit the little fish market around the corner near the fish dock. There’s a massive fish processing plant there, but in front of it a group of Senoritas sell various wares. I bought half a kilo of large shrimps, and about a kilo of tuna for £8. Mustn’t grumble.
I had a drive around, mostly as I felt guilty not using the car I had hired and took a few pictures. This building below is in the derelict scooby doo fairground end of town. I presume it was a hotel once?
So I’m very saddened to know two of my favourite readers and long time good friends, Neil (G4oar) and his wife Win, are no longer with us. They were wonderful people and they spurred me on to write this blog. They are very much missed by myself and Kathy.
Whats next?
Well they 2025 hurricane season will soon be upon us, so I need to get this boat working and head north into the hurricane zone and away from this heat. I think. Possibly I will settle on Barra De Navidad as a destination/hurricane hole. Maybe Mazatlan, we will have to see. It’s hard work going North against the prevailing winds.
One thing I have decided on is that I’m going to avoid America, Kathy and I had thought of another road trip there this hurricane season, possibly the train trip from New York to San Fran, however with the crazy stuff going on there at the moment I wouldn’t feel safe. Yesterday I finally decided this after reading the story about Jasmine Mooney https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
Hopefully things will improve, and it’s such a shame, I know so many wonderful Americans, and there’s so much I like about the country, but right now I think I will have to give it a miss.
I’m so glad I did my Washington DC and NYC visits on my way home last time. By the way, 20 minutes after I left the whitehouse last year, Joe Biden announced he was not going to run again. Just saying.
Appologies for poor grammar and typos, this was all a bit rushed.
Paul Collister
21st March 2025