She Swims
The propeller and rudder are back on
Sunday March 24th through Friday March 29th – Ensenada (and San Diego yet again)
The clock is ticking. Guillermo tells me that they’ll launch the Victory on Monday or Tuesday. We have so much to be done.
First and foremost is the water system. We can’t go to sea without fresh water.
Sunday morning I got back on the horse. I found the parts I needed for the filtration system yesterday, so I went to work installing them. Now all of the pipes and tubing under the sink in the forward head look like a witch’s dream.
Next came moving my extra electric pump. What good luck. The pump I bought for providing cooling water to the compressor is a water system pump. That means it turns on and off automatically based on the pressure in the line. I had thought it was a regular pump and we would have to turn it on and off manually.
I removed the pump from the old line only to discover that I didn’t have a connector of the right dimensions to hook the two hoses up together. I did have a connector that I thought was the right size before I began, but unfortunately it was too big. This would necessitate another trip to the hardware store in the morning.
I figured out where to put my new pump. It goes in the cleaning supplies locker in the galley. No problem. Except that it is impossible to get into. I lay on the galley floor for hours struggling to get the pump fastened down. Then I went to attach the hoses. Big problem.
The pump uses ¾” hose for input and output. The water line here was only ½”. It expands to ¾” later on down the line. Why me Lord? I now needed adapters to take the hose size from ½” to ¾”. Another trip to the hardware store tomorrow.
Then I wired the pump into the electrical system. That part was relatively easy since I already had the switch wired into the breaker panel. I just needed to run new wires from the pump to the switch panel.
While I was doing this I spotted another problem. We have an electric pump in the fuel lines to transfer diesel from one tank to another, should we ever need to. The pump was not designed to be submersed, but it is way up inside the engine room where you can’t see it unless you are crawling around on your back like a contortionist. Well, I WAS crawling around on my back like a contortionist while I ran the wiring.
Being under water ruined the pump. I have to buy a replacement when I go to San Diego to pick up the stereo.
In the meantime, Dawn finished the last coat of varnish by herself and began prepping the cabin tops for painting.
She also went out of her mind worrying about “guests” (I call them crew) coming aboard and seeing the holy mess we have in the cabin. I’ll finish up with the mechanical work tomorrow and then she can start cleaning. Yeah, that worked.
The clock is ticking. Guillermo tells me that they’ll launch the Victory on Monday or Tuesday. We have so much to be done.
First and foremost is the water system. We can’t go to sea without fresh water.
Sunday morning I got back on the horse. I found the parts I needed for the filtration system yesterday, so I went to work installing them. Now all of the pipes and tubing under the sink in the forward head look like a witch’s dream.
Next came moving my extra electric pump. What good luck. The pump I bought for providing cooling water to the compressor is a water system pump. That means it turns on and off automatically based on the pressure in the line. I had thought it was a regular pump and we would have to turn it on and off manually.
I removed the pump from the old line only to discover that I didn’t have a connector of the right dimensions to hook the two hoses up together. I did have a connector that I thought was the right size before I began, but unfortunately it was too big. This would necessitate another trip to the hardware store in the morning.
I figured out where to put my new pump. It goes in the cleaning supplies locker in the galley. No problem. Except that it is impossible to get into. I lay on the galley floor for hours struggling to get the pump fastened down. Then I went to attach the hoses. Big problem.
The pump uses ¾” hose for input and output. The water line here was only ½”. It expands to ¾” later on down the line. Why me Lord? I now needed adapters to take the hose size from ½” to ¾”. Another trip to the hardware store tomorrow.
Then I wired the pump into the electrical system. That part was relatively easy since I already had the switch wired into the breaker panel. I just needed to run new wires from the pump to the switch panel.
While I was doing this I spotted another problem. We have an electric pump in the fuel lines to transfer diesel from one tank to another, should we ever need to. The pump was not designed to be submersed, but it is way up inside the engine room where you can’t see it unless you are crawling around on your back like a contortionist. Well, I WAS crawling around on my back like a contortionist while I ran the wiring.
Being under water ruined the pump. I have to buy a replacement when I go to San Diego to pick up the stereo.
In the meantime, Dawn finished the last coat of varnish by herself and began prepping the cabin tops for painting.
She also went out of her mind worrying about “guests” (I call them crew) coming aboard and seeing the holy mess we have in the cabin. I’ll finish up with the mechanical work tomorrow and then she can start cleaning. Yeah, that worked.
The Victory ready to launch
Monday came and I was able to get the parts I needed to finish the plumbing job. I finally got the new pump installed amidst lots of pain and cussing. I finished plumbing in the water filtration system. Now it was time to test it all.
I turned on the water pumps and viola! We had running water. But we also had leaks. When Jerry had the boat, they used it for a live aboard at dockside and never sailed it. One of the many things he did to make it more live aboardable was to change the water system. He cut the pipes to the water tanks so we couldn’t get water out of them, and installed a nifty system to use city water.
Since he didn’t use the water tanks, he never bothered to cap off the pipes he cut. When I installed the new water system in Seattle, I didn’t even find all of the open pipes.
We’ve had this problem with our water system at sea. We kept running out. I couldn’t believe how quickly we went through two hundred gallons of water in our main tank. Now I found out why. All of these open pipes and hoses were still connected and when we ran the water, it pumped it out into the bilge.
When we pressurized the system with the new pumps, water came gushing out of these pipes.
Now I needed to cap off the 3/8” copper tubing. I drove all over Ensenada looking for caps for these pipes. Apparently they don’t use 3/8” tubing in Mexico. No one carried them.
OK, WAC (Wild Assed Contraption, remember?) back up plan. I bought ½” caps and used 3M’s 5200 glue to glue the ½” caps on the 3/8” tubes. The first one worked. After letting it dry over night, I turned the water on and it stopped the flow. The second one, not so much.
On Wednesday, I drove up to San Diego once again to pick up the stereo and fuel pump and to meet Bill at the airport. Guillermo wanted to launch the boat on Wednesday, but I wouldn’t be there. So we decided to launch on Thursday afternoon. (remember this, it’s important later.)
We were mostly ready, but needed a few hours to clean and organize the decks so that we could work.
Wednesday morning I got up early and drove to San Diego. Our friend Elinor, the crazy cat lady upstairs, asked me to take two packages for her and mail them in the US. They were cat medications she’s sending to a cat rescue mission in San Diego.
I got to the border and made it through the line quickly. We moved right along and it only took forty-five minutes.
“Do you have anything to declare?” the CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) agent asked.
“Yes, I have some cat drugs I’m taking to the US for a friend.”
Bad move. He searched the Queen Mary, then pulled me out of line. The care and I went through an X-ray device, then waited half an hour or so in the “suspicious perp” lot. Finally, a different CBP agent came and inspected my drugs.
“These are commercial quantities. You can’t take them into the US.”
“But my friend does this all the time,” I replied.
“Well, she shouldn’t.”
After a serious debate over the merits of bringing drugs into the country, the agent went off to talk to his supervisor.
Now, remember, you can legally bring $300 worth of merchandize into the country. I had the receipts for the drugs, they totaled $285. The only real hang up was that you can only bring in drugs for your personal use.
The agent was gone forever. I think I read about three chapters in my book while he was gone. I suspect that he and his captain had to walk to the local Starbucks to discuss the issue.
He finally came back and said “Get going.” He wasn’t very friendly. I think he was disappointed that he wasn’t going to get credit for a drug bust. “You’re right on the border line. Don’t ever do this again.”
Not a problem officer, I thought. I don’t plan to cross this border again for a very long time.
In San Diego I had breakfast, then made my obligatory stop at Home Depot. I picked up some things I couldn’t get in Mexico, including caps for the tubing, and headed for the airport.
I turned on the water pumps and viola! We had running water. But we also had leaks. When Jerry had the boat, they used it for a live aboard at dockside and never sailed it. One of the many things he did to make it more live aboardable was to change the water system. He cut the pipes to the water tanks so we couldn’t get water out of them, and installed a nifty system to use city water.
Since he didn’t use the water tanks, he never bothered to cap off the pipes he cut. When I installed the new water system in Seattle, I didn’t even find all of the open pipes.
We’ve had this problem with our water system at sea. We kept running out. I couldn’t believe how quickly we went through two hundred gallons of water in our main tank. Now I found out why. All of these open pipes and hoses were still connected and when we ran the water, it pumped it out into the bilge.
When we pressurized the system with the new pumps, water came gushing out of these pipes.
Now I needed to cap off the 3/8” copper tubing. I drove all over Ensenada looking for caps for these pipes. Apparently they don’t use 3/8” tubing in Mexico. No one carried them.
OK, WAC (Wild Assed Contraption, remember?) back up plan. I bought ½” caps and used 3M’s 5200 glue to glue the ½” caps on the 3/8” tubes. The first one worked. After letting it dry over night, I turned the water on and it stopped the flow. The second one, not so much.
On Wednesday, I drove up to San Diego once again to pick up the stereo and fuel pump and to meet Bill at the airport. Guillermo wanted to launch the boat on Wednesday, but I wouldn’t be there. So we decided to launch on Thursday afternoon. (remember this, it’s important later.)
We were mostly ready, but needed a few hours to clean and organize the decks so that we could work.
Wednesday morning I got up early and drove to San Diego. Our friend Elinor, the crazy cat lady upstairs, asked me to take two packages for her and mail them in the US. They were cat medications she’s sending to a cat rescue mission in San Diego.
I got to the border and made it through the line quickly. We moved right along and it only took forty-five minutes.
“Do you have anything to declare?” the CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) agent asked.
“Yes, I have some cat drugs I’m taking to the US for a friend.”
Bad move. He searched the Queen Mary, then pulled me out of line. The care and I went through an X-ray device, then waited half an hour or so in the “suspicious perp” lot. Finally, a different CBP agent came and inspected my drugs.
“These are commercial quantities. You can’t take them into the US.”
“But my friend does this all the time,” I replied.
“Well, she shouldn’t.”
After a serious debate over the merits of bringing drugs into the country, the agent went off to talk to his supervisor.
Now, remember, you can legally bring $300 worth of merchandize into the country. I had the receipts for the drugs, they totaled $285. The only real hang up was that you can only bring in drugs for your personal use.
The agent was gone forever. I think I read about three chapters in my book while he was gone. I suspect that he and his captain had to walk to the local Starbucks to discuss the issue.
He finally came back and said “Get going.” He wasn’t very friendly. I think he was disappointed that he wasn’t going to get credit for a drug bust. “You’re right on the border line. Don’t ever do this again.”
Not a problem officer, I thought. I don’t plan to cross this border again for a very long time.
In San Diego I had breakfast, then made my obligatory stop at Home Depot. I picked up some things I couldn’t get in Mexico, including caps for the tubing, and headed for the airport.
Our first crew member, Bill
At the airport, I picked up our first crew member, Bill, who flew in from Detroit. Bill is a retired fire fighter (actually, he was a fire marshal) who looks every bit the part. He is six feet tall, but doesn’t have an ounce of fat on him. He runs and works out every day. He is also a musician and brought his “boat guitar” with him.
As we drove around San Diego picking up the other things on my list, we got to know each other a little bit. I think he’ll be a good fit.
At West Marine, I picked up the stereo I bought last week. I also asked for the fuel pump. They didn’t have one in San Diego, but could get it trucked in by tomorrow. No good. This was my last trip to San Diego.
We went down the street to Marine Supply. No, they didn’t carry that brand pump. They only carry stuff they can rely on. They had a different brand that cost about twice as much. I thought long and hard. We couldn’t go to sea without a pump. If for some reason we had to transfer fuel from one tank to another or give fuel to a stranded boat, we had to have the pump. It would cost me a hundred dollars in gas to make another trip to San Diego and we would lost two working days. I finally decided just to buy the gold plated pump and get out of there.
When we got back to Ensenada, I found a hotel in which to put Bill up. The boat was not ready for human habitation.
We picked up Dawn at the boat and all went to dinner together. After dinner, we left Bill at his hotel, only a few blocks from the boat yard, and went home.
The next morning (Thursday) we arrived at the boat yard only to find the Victory missing. Guillermo told me that we’d launch her in the afternoon. My plan was to spend the morning cleaning and organizing the deck so the launch would go smoothly.
Not to happen. The boat was already in slings and ready to put in the water. They were just waiting for us to arrive.
“Wait a minute,” I called out. “We’re not ready yet. We have to find the dock lines, the fenders.”
“We already did that,” Guillermo told me.
He lied. They lowered the boat into the water and Dawn and I boarded over the bow sprit. There were no dock lines or fenders in place ready to go.
We spent the next few minutes hurrying around getting the boat set up for launching. Eventually we found all of the necessary deck gear and they put her in the water.
The first thing you do when launching a boat is check for leaks. I opened all of the floor boards and stuck by head in the bilges. I flashed a light and waited a few minutes in each. No water. We are water tight.
As we drove around San Diego picking up the other things on my list, we got to know each other a little bit. I think he’ll be a good fit.
At West Marine, I picked up the stereo I bought last week. I also asked for the fuel pump. They didn’t have one in San Diego, but could get it trucked in by tomorrow. No good. This was my last trip to San Diego.
We went down the street to Marine Supply. No, they didn’t carry that brand pump. They only carry stuff they can rely on. They had a different brand that cost about twice as much. I thought long and hard. We couldn’t go to sea without a pump. If for some reason we had to transfer fuel from one tank to another or give fuel to a stranded boat, we had to have the pump. It would cost me a hundred dollars in gas to make another trip to San Diego and we would lost two working days. I finally decided just to buy the gold plated pump and get out of there.
When we got back to Ensenada, I found a hotel in which to put Bill up. The boat was not ready for human habitation.
We picked up Dawn at the boat and all went to dinner together. After dinner, we left Bill at his hotel, only a few blocks from the boat yard, and went home.
The next morning (Thursday) we arrived at the boat yard only to find the Victory missing. Guillermo told me that we’d launch her in the afternoon. My plan was to spend the morning cleaning and organizing the deck so the launch would go smoothly.
Not to happen. The boat was already in slings and ready to put in the water. They were just waiting for us to arrive.
“Wait a minute,” I called out. “We’re not ready yet. We have to find the dock lines, the fenders.”
“We already did that,” Guillermo told me.
He lied. They lowered the boat into the water and Dawn and I boarded over the bow sprit. There were no dock lines or fenders in place ready to go.
We spent the next few minutes hurrying around getting the boat set up for launching. Eventually we found all of the necessary deck gear and they put her in the water.
The first thing you do when launching a boat is check for leaks. I opened all of the floor boards and stuck by head in the bilges. I flashed a light and waited a few minutes in each. No water. We are water tight.
Heading for splash down
After we were satisfied that she wasn’t going to sink, the removed the slings and pulled the hoist back. We were floating on our own.
With the help of the boat yard crew, we hand lined the Victory over to the staging dock and tied her up. Then the mechanic and refrigeration guys came aboard to test their systems.
Panic. The engine guy couldn’t find the cover for the salt water pump. When he was working on the engine back in December, he removed the pump cover and left it sitting on the cabin floor. It banged around in the cabin for three months until I started cleaning up the boat. I vaguely remember looking at it and thinking, “They’re done with the engine. They must not need these parts.” I think I threw it away.
Then the refer guy couldn’t find a little bag with parts for the compressor in it. He hooked up the compressor and charged it with coolant, but he had a little leak in the cooling water system. The part that he needed was in that bag.
We searched the boat and couldn’t find the bag.
I wish these guys had communicated with me and told me that they would need these parts later. I would have put them in a safe place and we’d all be happy.
Thursday was part of a four day holiday weekend in Mexico. Everybody wanted to get done with the Victory and get home to the party. The mechanic finally begged off. They decided to make a new cover for the pump in their machine shop in the morning.
The refer guy went home. He said he couldn’t get the part he needed until Monday. Everything is closed for the holiday.
Drat, we would have to wait to get the boat ready to go.
In the mean time, I went back to the water system. I hooked up the city water for the first time and it was a disaster. Water came gushing out of all of those unconnected pipes like they were fire hydrants. I got to test the repaired bilge pumps right away.
Damn! More plumbing to do. I spent the next couple of days crawling around under the sinks patching plumbing.
One pipe in a hidden compartment behind the sink in the head did not like my WAC solution of gluing a cap on the pipe. The city water pressure blew it clean off. It had to be soldered.
On Friday morning, armed with the parts I got in San Diego, I got out my trusty soldering torch and began the job. Well, not really. My torch had been under water. It was all rusted up. Another trip across town to the Home Depot.
With my new torch in hand, I went to work.
Did I tell you how much I hate soldering? Working in a confined space, with plywood inches from the pipe I’m heating with the torch, bent over the cabinet work, was not fun.
My WAC for capping off the pipe consisted of a bushing to take the pipe from 3/8” inch to ½” inch. Then I soldered a ½” cap on the bushing. The first solder went OK, if not easily. Putting the cap on the bushing was a trial. There was some residual water in the tubing. As the pipe heated, it turned to steam and blew my cap off.
I finally had to hold the cap on with a pair of pliers as I heated it with the torch. Then, when the metal was glowing red, I needed to put down the torch, keep the pressure on with the pliers and reach for the roll of solder. Then I had to get the solder to melt smoothly all around the cap and apply the torch again. When it got really hot, it created suction and sucked the solder into the joint.
And what do you know? It worked.
I worked on other projects for an hour or so to let the solder cool, then turned on the water. Whoosh. I heard water gushing from under the sink. No, it wasn’t my soldered joint.
The idiot who installed the filtration system (your humble captain) cut the tube that brings city water into the system. He then capped the piece that wasn’t going to be used and was supposed to hook the other end up to the filter.
Curses! Foiled again! I hooked up the filter to a piece of unused tubing and left the water input tube open. I shut the water off and re-plumbed it the correct way and it all worked.
“Penn, there’s water under the sink in the galley.”
Crap. The hose from the drain pump to the through hull was broken. I’d deal with it tomorrow. As long as we didn’t use the galley sink, we were OK.
While Dawn cleaned the boat and I struggled with plumbing, Bill scrubbed the deck and cleaned the dinghy. The dinghy now looks almost like new. The deck still looks like caca. It’s damaged from the wreck and the boat yard workers dragging tools all over it. It’s stained from chemicals being spilled on it.
It was my plan to redo the non-skid on the deck before we left, but I think that job will have to wait until La Paz.
I should mention her that while I was struggling with plumbing and electrical issues, Dawn painted the cabins topside. This did not come without a little fretting and more than a few cuss words. It was a trial for her, but she gamely hung in there and did the whole job by herself.
The stress of having crew coming, rushing to meet the launching dead line and trying to do a quality job was getting to us. We had more than a few words and went to bed late several nights after long discussions about the project.
If we survive this it will be a miracle. We both have this dream that we’re working towards, but it has come at a terrible price.
Friday came. The mechanic came back and installed the new water pump cover. I was running around town with Bill, looking for parts, but Dawn dealt with the mechanics.
They started up the engine and tested it. Everything looked good. Just one problem. They couldn’t shut off the engine. When they pushed the kill button nothing happened.
The mechanic showed Dawn how to short out the solenoid to kill the engine. We can’t go to sea like that.
Dawn called me. “Guillermo wants to be paid right now,” she said. “He has to leave by 2 pm.”
“I’m across town,” I replied. “I can’t possibly be there by 2.”
Dawn charmed him and he agreed to wait until Monday to get paid.
I also told her that I wasn’t paying them until the engine and the compressor worked. That is my leverage to get the mechanic and refer guy back out to finish their jobs.
Saturday came and along with it, Ben, our second crew member. He arrived at the bus station here in Ensenada and Dawn drove over to pick him up.
He’s a young guy who just graduated from law school and took the bar. He won’t hear his bar exam results until May. He has accumulated massive debt in student loans and views this trip as his last chance for a grand adventure before he has to settle down into white collar life and pay off his loans.
Ben does not have much sailing experience. I selected him because I like his attitude and willingness to learn. With a couple of other experienced crew members aboard, I felt that we could take on a green horn and teach him the right way. So far he has worked hard and jumped on any task I’ve given him.
He and Bill hit it off right away. First of all, they are both big time baseball fans. Of course, this doesn’t offend me either. Then they are both musicians. They spend most of Saturday night at a bar drinking beer, eating tacos and discussing musical instruments that they have owned.
We continue working on the thousand little tasks that have to be done before we can shove off. After we get the boat ready, I intend to spend two or three days doing sea trials and teaching my crew how to handle the boat.
But the big news is that the Victory is back in the water and she floats. Everything else can be worked out. We continue to wait to hear from the insurance company to see if we can get hull insurance this time.
We’ll sort through the remaining tasks and move back onto the boat in the next couple of days. I am hopeful that we can get going on our trip again in the next week.
With the help of the boat yard crew, we hand lined the Victory over to the staging dock and tied her up. Then the mechanic and refrigeration guys came aboard to test their systems.
Panic. The engine guy couldn’t find the cover for the salt water pump. When he was working on the engine back in December, he removed the pump cover and left it sitting on the cabin floor. It banged around in the cabin for three months until I started cleaning up the boat. I vaguely remember looking at it and thinking, “They’re done with the engine. They must not need these parts.” I think I threw it away.
Then the refer guy couldn’t find a little bag with parts for the compressor in it. He hooked up the compressor and charged it with coolant, but he had a little leak in the cooling water system. The part that he needed was in that bag.
We searched the boat and couldn’t find the bag.
I wish these guys had communicated with me and told me that they would need these parts later. I would have put them in a safe place and we’d all be happy.
Thursday was part of a four day holiday weekend in Mexico. Everybody wanted to get done with the Victory and get home to the party. The mechanic finally begged off. They decided to make a new cover for the pump in their machine shop in the morning.
The refer guy went home. He said he couldn’t get the part he needed until Monday. Everything is closed for the holiday.
Drat, we would have to wait to get the boat ready to go.
In the mean time, I went back to the water system. I hooked up the city water for the first time and it was a disaster. Water came gushing out of all of those unconnected pipes like they were fire hydrants. I got to test the repaired bilge pumps right away.
Damn! More plumbing to do. I spent the next couple of days crawling around under the sinks patching plumbing.
One pipe in a hidden compartment behind the sink in the head did not like my WAC solution of gluing a cap on the pipe. The city water pressure blew it clean off. It had to be soldered.
On Friday morning, armed with the parts I got in San Diego, I got out my trusty soldering torch and began the job. Well, not really. My torch had been under water. It was all rusted up. Another trip across town to the Home Depot.
With my new torch in hand, I went to work.
Did I tell you how much I hate soldering? Working in a confined space, with plywood inches from the pipe I’m heating with the torch, bent over the cabinet work, was not fun.
My WAC for capping off the pipe consisted of a bushing to take the pipe from 3/8” inch to ½” inch. Then I soldered a ½” cap on the bushing. The first solder went OK, if not easily. Putting the cap on the bushing was a trial. There was some residual water in the tubing. As the pipe heated, it turned to steam and blew my cap off.
I finally had to hold the cap on with a pair of pliers as I heated it with the torch. Then, when the metal was glowing red, I needed to put down the torch, keep the pressure on with the pliers and reach for the roll of solder. Then I had to get the solder to melt smoothly all around the cap and apply the torch again. When it got really hot, it created suction and sucked the solder into the joint.
And what do you know? It worked.
I worked on other projects for an hour or so to let the solder cool, then turned on the water. Whoosh. I heard water gushing from under the sink. No, it wasn’t my soldered joint.
The idiot who installed the filtration system (your humble captain) cut the tube that brings city water into the system. He then capped the piece that wasn’t going to be used and was supposed to hook the other end up to the filter.
Curses! Foiled again! I hooked up the filter to a piece of unused tubing and left the water input tube open. I shut the water off and re-plumbed it the correct way and it all worked.
“Penn, there’s water under the sink in the galley.”
Crap. The hose from the drain pump to the through hull was broken. I’d deal with it tomorrow. As long as we didn’t use the galley sink, we were OK.
While Dawn cleaned the boat and I struggled with plumbing, Bill scrubbed the deck and cleaned the dinghy. The dinghy now looks almost like new. The deck still looks like caca. It’s damaged from the wreck and the boat yard workers dragging tools all over it. It’s stained from chemicals being spilled on it.
It was my plan to redo the non-skid on the deck before we left, but I think that job will have to wait until La Paz.
I should mention her that while I was struggling with plumbing and electrical issues, Dawn painted the cabins topside. This did not come without a little fretting and more than a few cuss words. It was a trial for her, but she gamely hung in there and did the whole job by herself.
The stress of having crew coming, rushing to meet the launching dead line and trying to do a quality job was getting to us. We had more than a few words and went to bed late several nights after long discussions about the project.
If we survive this it will be a miracle. We both have this dream that we’re working towards, but it has come at a terrible price.
Friday came. The mechanic came back and installed the new water pump cover. I was running around town with Bill, looking for parts, but Dawn dealt with the mechanics.
They started up the engine and tested it. Everything looked good. Just one problem. They couldn’t shut off the engine. When they pushed the kill button nothing happened.
The mechanic showed Dawn how to short out the solenoid to kill the engine. We can’t go to sea like that.
Dawn called me. “Guillermo wants to be paid right now,” she said. “He has to leave by 2 pm.”
“I’m across town,” I replied. “I can’t possibly be there by 2.”
Dawn charmed him and he agreed to wait until Monday to get paid.
I also told her that I wasn’t paying them until the engine and the compressor worked. That is my leverage to get the mechanic and refer guy back out to finish their jobs.
Saturday came and along with it, Ben, our second crew member. He arrived at the bus station here in Ensenada and Dawn drove over to pick him up.
He’s a young guy who just graduated from law school and took the bar. He won’t hear his bar exam results until May. He has accumulated massive debt in student loans and views this trip as his last chance for a grand adventure before he has to settle down into white collar life and pay off his loans.
Ben does not have much sailing experience. I selected him because I like his attitude and willingness to learn. With a couple of other experienced crew members aboard, I felt that we could take on a green horn and teach him the right way. So far he has worked hard and jumped on any task I’ve given him.
He and Bill hit it off right away. First of all, they are both big time baseball fans. Of course, this doesn’t offend me either. Then they are both musicians. They spend most of Saturday night at a bar drinking beer, eating tacos and discussing musical instruments that they have owned.
We continue working on the thousand little tasks that have to be done before we can shove off. After we get the boat ready, I intend to spend two or three days doing sea trials and teaching my crew how to handle the boat.
But the big news is that the Victory is back in the water and she floats. Everything else can be worked out. We continue to wait to hear from the insurance company to see if we can get hull insurance this time.
We’ll sort through the remaining tasks and move back onto the boat in the next couple of days. I am hopeful that we can get going on our trip again in the next week.