A summer sunrise over Roam's home, Paradise Village Marina from the balcony of my respite condo.
Boats are in a constant state of deterioration. Much of boat ownership involves holding this deterioration at bay while trying to occasionally sail it.
We spent the summer on various boat projects to get Roam ready for her South Pacific adventure. Some were regular maintenance items, while others were upgrades we felt would make her safer, more efficient, and more comfortable.
Puerto Vallarta’s oppressive summer heat and humidity are the big enemies of these projects. I could get started around six in the morning, and by nine-thirty, I was completely spent. The locals tough it out. I don't know how they do it, but they do. The work gets done despite the heat.
Fortunately, friends of friends agreed to rent us their condo here in the marina for a reasonable weekly rate. Its frosty air conditioner allowed me to keep going and provided me with a place where I could do client work without passing out.
Amazon Mexico is a game changer. Somehow Amazon has worked out the details of import duty with the Mexican government. You order stuff just like you do at home, and it just shows up at the marina office.
Here is a tour through some of the projects that we've been working on over the summer and into the fall.
A Few Photos
Roam getting her proper graphics applied.
Luis finishing up the newly re-rigged mast. SeaTek replaced all of the stainless steel wire and rod rigging. They also ran new wiring for all of the components. We change out the lights, radar, and added a fancy ultrasonic wind sensor unit.
Peter Vargas and the SeaTek crew restepping Roam’s newly re-rigged mast. Roam's carbon fiber mast is over 6 stories tall and weighs nearly a ton.
Inventorying our pyrotechnic signaling gear. I'd really like fresh, SOLAS grade flares but you can't get them in Mexico and you can't import them. They are illegal. We'll go with what we have.
Paul, a local gringo cruiser runs a canvas business and built us a huge awning for the foredeck. It dramatically increases the useable living space on the boat.
The original deck locker latches had corroded themselves completely closed. It took a screwdriver to pry them open if you wanted into the locker. Found new ones on Amazon.
Roam in the travel lift in the La Cruz Shipyard for her final haulout before we leave. The team here are true pros. I think they spent an hour getting the blocking just right so as not to put undue stress on the hulls. Still, it makes me nervous having her hang in the air like this.
Those two dials in the cab of the TravelLift are strain gauges and they measure how much Roam weighs. 17 metric tons (about 37,500 pounds).
These giant tubes are located in each bow compartment. Catana's idea was that these could be lowered down so the boat could rest on them when the tide went out. That would allow the crew to tend to the bottom of the boat while the tide was out. A good idea in theory. In practice I can't imagine anyone acutally doing this. We had Peter's crew saw them out and glass over the holes.
A magic leg extended. Good riddance!
Jorge Santana's new hull graphics!
Roam was originally built with a "strobe tube" in our main cockpit floor locker. Inside it went a strobe light such that if the boat turned upside down the strobe would blink and be visible from the bottom of the overturned boat. Presumably to aid in rescue. Good idea in theory. Kind of ridiculous in practice. Out it came!
"Propspeed" is an insanely expensive concoction that keeps stuff from growing on the propellers.
Fausto wrestling the new lithium LiFePo4 battery into place. This thing weighs 112 pounds and we have three of them. This project expanded our lithium battery capacity to 900 amp hours (about 11.7kwh). We also updated the electrical distribution system and cleaned up the wiring.
300 feet of 3/8" Cromox 318LN Duplex stainless steel anchor chain imported from Germany all the way to our dock in PV. Our original galvanized anchor chain had become a rusty mess. This chain will outlast me and the boat.
The new Wakespeed WS500 alternator regulators are doing their job. Lots of juice! Each engine has two alternators for four in total. One alternator on each engine charges the starting battery. The other is intended to charge our big lithium house bank. They weren't configured correctly and didn't produce much in the way of charging. They do now!
Remodeled and upgraded navigation station. This was a lot of work. There was a huge wooden console with a bunch of old electronics there originally. It took up space and looked terrible. It's gone now. Lots more space.
Pam's new exterior upholstery! Pam worked with her favorite designer to come up with a color scheme and fabric choices. Some of this we were able to get in Mexico and some we brought with us from the US. I used a couple ski travel bags to get it on my flight down here.
This dehumidifier / AC unit worked full time when we were away from the boat. When I stayed on the boat I would move it down into the starboard hull and point it into our bedroom. It worked well enough, but it was no match for PV's summer heat.
Here is a reasonably complete project list to this point:
Installed Starlink satelite internet via the Regional Mobile Roam plan (I like that name)
New standing rigging
Rewired the mast
New B&G Halo Radar
New LED lighting on the mast
Cockpit furniture and canvas refresh
Added a stainless steel grab bar / backrest to the cockpit doorway
Interior upholstery refresh
Remodeled navigation station including new custom panels for flush mounting monitors
New window screens and covers
New navigation electronics on an NMEA 2000 backbone
Upgraded electrical system. Expanded LiFePo4 bank to 900AH / 11.7KWH.
Updated electrical distribution based on Victron LynxSmartBMS and CerboGX
Isolated house bank alternators and added Wakespeed WS500 smart regulators
New anchor chain - 300' 3/8" ISO Cromox 318LN Duplex stainless
Removed bow “magic legs”
Removed strobe tube
Painted the dingy support tubes
Bottom job -- Hempel Olympic paint
Engine and generator oil change
New zinc anodes
Removed several hundred pounds of old, unused wires
Added a Code Zero sail on a fuller to give us two furling headsails we can fly simultaneously downwind
Removed decrepit electronics -- Furuno Weatherfax, Furuno GPS, Raymarine Radar and Plotters, and their associated antennas and wiring.
Moved AIS transponder to masthead antenna and added an antenna splitter
Changed dingy davit lifting gear to 2:1 purchase
We're getting close to calling it good. A few things remain:
Expanding the solar array on the davits to increase our solar generation from 1.2kw to 2kw
Swapping out the existing Icon IC-M710RT HAM/SSB radio with a used one that actually works
Adding a few more critical spare parts to the inventory: autopilot computer, autopilot pump, vacuflush toilet kit, water maker kit, main and spinnaker halyards, etc.
Swapping the old PVC fenders for new inflatable Fendertek fenders
You never have enough time and enough money to do everything you want to do. At some point you just have to go. We're getting to that point.
You need to do a similar piece on work being done in NZ!