April 6th – Paradise Village – Jim’s Blog #37

Well, here we’ve been in Paradise Village for a week, and I haven’t written a single line of blog until just now. It appears that a completely paradise-like existence gets in the way of getting anything done in the real world for the benefit of others. When one has achieved paradise, what more is there to do? I now have greater respect for those spiritual masters who have achieved perfection and yet take the time to teach those who have not yet reached nirvana. I suppose I would have to include myself in their ranks now that I am taking the time to step down from paradise to help the rest of you achieve your paradisiacal aspirations.

This past week has been filled with enjoying life: getting up late every morning, deciding on a single task to accomplish for the day (nothing over an hour or two in length), getting started with that task by 10AM at the earliest, knocking off for the day at lunch time, taking a nap after lunch, swimming some laps in the lap pool to get some exercise and to cool off, reading by the pool with a cold drink to enhance our winter tans, settling in for a quiet night on the boat with the Horatio Hornblower movie series, or attending some social event, and finally capping it all off with reading in bed before turning out the lights at 10PM at the latest. It’s a soft life, but we understand someone has to do it; so we’ve thrown ourselves into the task with gusto.

On Sunday last we attended a potluck dinner at the Vallarta Yacht Club (of which we are now members) and met an interesting couple, John and Heidi of Raven, who are in the process of selling their boat and living as CLODs (cruisers living on dirt) in Puerto Vallarta. They split their year up into winters in Mexico and summers in France where they own an 85’ canal barge with which they travel over Europe. I was unaware of it, but apparently there are canals everywhere in Europe from one end to the other and crosswise as well. John said there is almost no place in Europe that one cannot go by barge, except perhaps some areas in the higher Alps. I don’t ever remember reading any history of Europe that included the use of canals to transport freight and troops in the many wars that took place there over the years.

An interesting point that John mentioned is that Napoleon had a lot to do with building and expanding the canals in France to assist in his establishment of an empire. In so doing he built low bridges over the canals in France so the larger barges used by other countries in Europe couldn’t use the canals in France. Apparently this helped him protect against the influx of opposing troops by canal, and required that goods from other parts of Europe had to be offloaded onto French barges, thereby assisting the French economy. Sheilagh and I are planning to look into a trip through Europe by barge someday, hopefully when the dollar is a little stronger against the Euro.

This week we erected our “Shade-Tree” canopy over the boat to see how it fit. Sheilagh had to make some adjustments to one of the panels to fit our particular boat configuration; so on that day she actually worked 5 hours (instead of the normal 1-2 hours) to sew Velcro flaps into the material. You would have thought she’d put in a week of work from her moans and groans, but the attached picture shows the outcome.


The shade-tree panels covering the boat - they allow us to walk nearly upright underneath - it's a little difficult to cover the mast; so one panel covers the boom and back aft, while the other covers the front section of the boat





These panels will keep the sun off the deck while allowing the wind to pass over the boat from the bow (which is normally held into the wind by the anchor). We understand that these will make the hot summer in the Sea of Cortez a bit more bearable, but we’re not sure how effective they will be. So far the Paradise Village Marina doesn’t allow a lot of wind to circulate; so we haven’t experienced the cooling effects of the wind that we would while anchoring. However, one of the days this past week was quite hot, and not only were our decks kept cool by the awnings, but we could also leave our hatches open to what breeze there was without having sunlight pour through the opening. These panels are supported by heavy-duty folding fiberglass rods with elastic through the center, just like the ones used for supporting modern tents. Naturally we will be taking these awnings down when we sail from place to place.

This week we had a mechanic come in to perform a 1000-hour service on our diesel engine. In the course of 2+ hours we learned a lot about the engine and now have pieces of it being cleaned and adjusted while we go on our trip to California. It should be all back together when we return in three weeks and good for another thousand hours with minimal servicing. When we return we will also have the boat cleaned and waxed all over and the bottom cleaned prior to starting north again. Hopefully we will be in clean, clear water within a week or two after leaving Paradise Village; so I can do my own bottom cleaning in the future. We’re both looking forward to the absolutely clear water we have heard about in the Sea of Cortez.

Speaking of water, as part of getting our money’s worth at Paradise Village, we have been taking a lot of showers in their supplied shower facility nearby and I have been swimming in the lap pool every day. We also bought and hooked up a coaxial cable to the cable outlet provided at our boat slip. It was quite a shock to see TV again after 5 months without it. I was struck by the shallowness of most of the programming, particularly the news, and by the constant barrage of commercials. Maybe the slower pace of life that we have been leading just makes it seem as if everything on TV is moving at a frantic pace – squeezing as much as possible into a 30-second time frame.

The positives are that I was able to see some of the March Madness basketball playoffs, and Sheilagh has been able to find “Law and Order,” her favorite show, or I should say shows, since there are so many different versions. I see no problem with giving up TV again, when the time comes.

We have been having trouble with our internet connection on the boat – a large steel power boat has blocked our signal from the yacht club. I was looking up possible solutions on the net, when I ran across plans for a home-made parabolic reflector made from some cardboard and a Pringles potato chip can. I built one, aimed it at the yacht club, and got no better reception. Then I positioned it accidentally facing a building across the marina and suddenly picked up a stronger signal – evidently bouncing off a building across the way. The only drawback is that the Pringle’s can looks fine from the inside metallic side, but it looks a bit “clatty Irish (low class)” according to my Irish wife; so I sprayed it with some white paint and it doesn’t look so bad to me. See what you think.


My new internet signal strength amplifier antenna - I don't think I'll go into business with this until I can prove it works a bit better than at present


We are looking forward now to our trip to California starting tomorrow, April 7th until April 28th, when we will visit Chuck and Rene at LOP along with a number of other friends, our daughter Megan and her friend Rob in Sacramento, our daughter Stephanie and her husband Hayden (and son Evan) in San Jose, my sister Lisa and her husband Bob in Yorba Linda, and our daughter Melissa and her husband Tim (and daughters Delaney, Riley and Paige) in Newport Beach. We also plan to get some shopping done for equipment and supplies that can’t be found in Mexico and a visit to the Sailboat Show at Jack London Square in Oakland. It should be a great three weeks, and I will keep you informed from the perspective of a cruiser going back to his roots.

That’s enough for now. More Later . . .