La Cruz Projects

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The Crossing:

Coming home from La Paz was typical: Too much motoring. We went way east to avoid some nasty headwinds over by the Baja coast, but we fooled ourselves. There was no wind. We got some sailing in each day which was nice but we motored every night. But the highlight of the trip was the last 48 miles. From the Marias Islands to La Cruz we caught a nice Northwesterly breeze which started at 10 knots and built and built. We set the A2 spinnaker and sailed like bandits for six hours. Rounding Pta Mita Judy took over driving and she caught the swells just right. As we sailed on a beam reach in 20 plus knots Judy hit the top speed for the day of 10.5 knots (actually, top for the last umpteen years!) and it was a lot of fun.

wingssail images fredrick roswold

Judy hits 10.5 knots!

Concentrating on Steering

Her reward for the fastest time: Take down the kite.

Wings' Dingy: After a three month cruise in the Sea of Cortez our old Zodiac needed some love and attention. We scrubbed and scrubbed and got it somewhat clean (but PVC does get damaged by the sun and it is not possible to remedy that). But also there were some leaks and we found the air leaks and patched them (Hurrah!). Now of we couild only stop the water leaks we'd be in good shape. We did put a new drain plug in but there are still more leaks. When using the dingy we just carried a hand pump and pumped out the water when ever we used it.

Dingy got Cleaned and patched

Chicken Wings Contest: The marina put on a chicken wings cook-off and we entered our famous Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wings. In this photo they are the two rows in front of the poster and you can see the yellow mango salsa on the plates. Well, the presentation was good but the jerk spices were old and lacked flavor, we got fourth. Wings' Chicken Wings entry

Oops!Chrysler got a dent. Bad driving by Fred resulted in a fender bender. Ouch! So the car had to go into the shop and get fixed. That was easy, took two days. While it was in the shop we also got the headlights polished so now they are clear and they detailed the engine which was dusty from La Cruz dirt. It cost $125.00. But there were other car issues. When we came home from La Paz the battery was dead. Really dead. It wouldn't even take a charge. So a new battery was bought and to put it in YOU HAVE TO TAKE OFF THE RIGHT FRONT WHEEL! Dumb! And the guy who did it didn't get the lug nuts on tight so there was this loud sound from the right front when we got on the highway. We're lucky we didn't loose the wheel. But we just checked the bolts, they were OK, and tightend the lug nuts. AND a transverse link in the rear suspension lost its bushing and we had to get that replaced. Well, a few car problems but it's all good now (for now). Chrysler got a dent

Even in the rain you can see that the dent is fixed. Got fixed

Winch Work: A big project was the repair of one of our primary winches. Some of the teeth inside the winch drum, which were aluminum, broke out during racing last season.Thankfully we had a spare drum, one of the two original drums which came with the boat back in 1986. And both of those original drums had evidently had the same problem at some time because they had been modified with new teeth, stainless steel teeth. Several years ago we bought new drums because the original ones were getting worn. The new drums had aluminum gear teeth, not steel. They lasted for a while but finally they started to break. We put the spares on and sent the broken ones to the shop. (You cannot buy these drums any more, they stopped making them decades ago). This was a six week machine shop job and cost plenty but now we have two fairly new drums and two spare drums all with stainless steel teeth. In the photo you can see one of the original drums (tipped on its side) and see the stainless steel gear ring which was put into it. Winch Drums

Mexican Car Registration: Our Chrysler was temporarily imported from the US when we moved to Mexico but since we became permenant residents the car was no longer legal: foreign cars could only be in Mexico if they were owned by visitors, not permanant residents. And due to its age it could not be imported permenantly. Well, a recent change in Mexican law now allows these old used cars from the US to become "regularized" and then we could have a Mexican registration and Mexican license plates, and be legal (Yea!) It took two long days waiting in line in a small office to go through all the steps, and plenty of paperwork, but by this Friday they finally gave us a sticker and our car is now a Mexican car. It even speaks spanish! Next we have to go back and pick up the plates but at least now we won't have to worry about it getting confiscated. Look at all these papers. Now I have to scan them into the computer. And Geez! we already spilled wine on them. Car Paperwork

Mexican Car Sticker

Hydraulic Panel: Being a very old fashioned race boat Wings has hydraulics to operate several of its rigging components. This picture is the hydraulic panel. It is about 38 years old, and needed refurbishing. I put new guages in it, and some new hoses and fittings and new bolts for attachment, and it has a new handle (right). It looks pretty good and I hope Richard, who is the main trimmer and also operates the hydraulics, will approve. Hydraulic Panel

New Dodger windows: Before leaving La Paz we decided to replace the window glass (plastic) in the dodger. The old windows were getting really foggy and you could not see through them, especially at night. We found a place that sold Strata Glass (pricey) in La Paz and we sewed in new windows. This was a hurry up job and we completed it in a single day. The new windows were fantastic and really made our tip home much easier. Working on the windows

New windows

About the Nikon: Last Spring my trusty 20 year old Nikon D3 camera failed completely and I didn't feel it was worth it to send it to Buffalo for a possible repair. So I was stuck with my phone camera. But a neighbor, and some of our best friends, loaned us their D200 which they were not using. Gosh, that was generous! I put my lenses on it and have been shooting with it ever since. It's great. I still use the phone sometimes because I want to keep the D200 in the camera bag and sometimes it just takes too long to get it out. (I kept the old Nikon D3 sitting on the pilot berth all the time and it collected a lot of dust and corrosion, which may have contributed to its failure). So, in all of our blog entries from the Sea of Cortez this Spring the best shots came from the Nikon D200 and we thank our good neighbor for the loan. Nikon D200