Today we decided to take in some culture. The boys did some Calvert in the morning and then we decided to take a traditional Sunday afternoon drive. First we stopped for delicious bírria tacos in town. Then, bellies full of delicious beef, we headed north to the village of San Pancho.
San Pancho is a small pueblo just north of Sayulita. The locals tell us that Bucerias used to look like this 30 years ago. We had a great time looking at all the Huichol handicrafts and playing on the beach. We came back the long way via Punta de Mita, stopping for fresh pineapple and green coconut.
This evening we had a special treat! To celebrate the end of four days of frolicking, virtuosic flautist Horacio Franco played a gala concert at the amphitheater here at the marina. It was amazing! It was just him and a cellist. They played everything from 14th century medieval to Bach and Vivaldi to Lennon and McCartney.
Now it's time for bed. We're hoping to receive our package from the States tomorrow. After that, we just need to finish getting Samadhi ship-shape, and we can get underway!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
2 down, 1 to go!
This time around the boys had a little under 3 months to complete three 22-lesson "units" of Calvert. As of this afternoon, the boys are happy to announce that they have submitted their Lesson 100 tests to Calvert! Now we've got over a month before they leave to visit their mom, and only one unit to go!
Alexander's teacher Mrs. Soyke warned us that this set of tests and the next ones are the hardest in the course, but we're very confident about the boys' performance. To quote Nicholas, "Bring it on!"
It's going to be such a relief to be able to scale back the amount of time the boys spend on Calvert. We're looking forward to 5 very kick-back weeks.
Alexander's teacher Mrs. Soyke warned us that this set of tests and the next ones are the hardest in the course, but we're very confident about the boys' performance. To quote Nicholas, "Bring it on!"
It's going to be such a relief to be able to scale back the amount of time the boys spend on Calvert. We're looking forward to 5 very kick-back weeks.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The excitement of cruising: Fixing the stove.
When people think about cruising to warm places aboard a fine yacht, they probably don't envision what life is really like. Here is a brief sample:
Aboard Samadhi V we have a fantastic 4 burner gas range with an infrared broiler in the oven (to cast the perfect caramel glow onto your Creme Brulée). Unfortunately, one of the four burners decided to malfunction. After some time of cooking on only three (so difficult!), it was time to dig in and find the issue.
The stove is equipped with flame sensors on each burner. The flame sensors detect if the stove or oven flame is inadvertently extinguished while the gas supply is on. Since propane is both heavier than air (fills up the boat) and explosive (makes the boat go away), these are important safety measures. Safety is good, but in our case, the flame sensor for one of the burners has decided to stage a revolt. No matter how we try, the stove would dutifully shut off the gas to this burner even though it was lit.
I performed surgery on the stove, carefully removing about 30 tiny stainless screws. After the screws are out, you can lift the top surface off of the stove exposing the delicate "guts" (technical term).
Once you have exposed the "guts", you must go about figuring out how the thing works. Our stove did not come with a service manual that covers the flame sensors. What I discovered is that each flame sensor is a thermocouple. The thermocouple powers (directly!!) a tiny electromagnet that apparently has enough oomph to hold the gas valve open. I started by testing the tiny electromagnet, which tested good. Next, I tested the thermocouple itself which did not produce a voltage. Normally, this would indicate it was bad. Upon closer inspection, I found a tiny bit of white corrosion at the base of the thermocouple. I cleaned the corrosion off and tested again. Lo and behold! The thermocouple was working!
Terribly impressed with myself, I removed and cleaned each thermocouple in the stove. I, then, reassembled the thermocouples with a corrosion blocking product to (hopefully) avoid this in the future.
After carefully reassembling the stove with its myriad micro-sized stainless screws, two hours later, I declared official victory!
Just imagine how much easier this is than calling a repairman "back home". Makes me wonder why everyone isn't out here cruising.
Next time, I'll share my adventures with the plumbing leak under the guest cabin's berth... Woohoo!
Aboard Samadhi V we have a fantastic 4 burner gas range with an infrared broiler in the oven (to cast the perfect caramel glow onto your Creme Brulée). Unfortunately, one of the four burners decided to malfunction. After some time of cooking on only three (so difficult!), it was time to dig in and find the issue.
The stove is equipped with flame sensors on each burner. The flame sensors detect if the stove or oven flame is inadvertently extinguished while the gas supply is on. Since propane is both heavier than air (fills up the boat) and explosive (makes the boat go away), these are important safety measures. Safety is good, but in our case, the flame sensor for one of the burners has decided to stage a revolt. No matter how we try, the stove would dutifully shut off the gas to this burner even though it was lit.
I performed surgery on the stove, carefully removing about 30 tiny stainless screws. After the screws are out, you can lift the top surface off of the stove exposing the delicate "guts" (technical term).
Once you have exposed the "guts", you must go about figuring out how the thing works. Our stove did not come with a service manual that covers the flame sensors. What I discovered is that each flame sensor is a thermocouple. The thermocouple powers (directly!!) a tiny electromagnet that apparently has enough oomph to hold the gas valve open. I started by testing the tiny electromagnet, which tested good. Next, I tested the thermocouple itself which did not produce a voltage. Normally, this would indicate it was bad. Upon closer inspection, I found a tiny bit of white corrosion at the base of the thermocouple. I cleaned the corrosion off and tested again. Lo and behold! The thermocouple was working!
Terribly impressed with myself, I removed and cleaned each thermocouple in the stove. I, then, reassembled the thermocouples with a corrosion blocking product to (hopefully) avoid this in the future.
After carefully reassembling the stove with its myriad micro-sized stainless screws, two hours later, I declared official victory!
Just imagine how much easier this is than calling a repairman "back home". Makes me wonder why everyone isn't out here cruising.
Next time, I'll share my adventures with the plumbing leak under the guest cabin's berth... Woohoo!
Friday, May 16, 2008
"Star Wars Saladin" the Musical!
Today we were privileged enough to see the world premiere of the Alexander and Nicholas Koken puppet show musical spectacular "Star Wars Saladin". The boys were brilliant. You can check out video and stills and promotional materials on our Flickr pages.
Go boys!
The Stills
The Video and Promo Materials
Go boys!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Visiting Las Islas Tres Marietas
To celebrate the boys' completion a unit of Calvert, we took Samadhi out to the Marietas islands. We had a fantastic day filled with fishing, bird watching and hermit crab chasing. The highlight was seeing all the blue-footed boobies.
Check out Kelly and Phillip's Flickr streams.
We're trying out this new PictoBrowser gizmo. Let us know what you think.
Phil's Flickr Set
Kelly's Flickr set
Check out Kelly and Phillip's Flickr streams.
We're trying out this new PictoBrowser gizmo. Let us know what you think.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
La Fiesta Patronal de La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
From 25 April until 3 May, La Cruz hosted its quadrennial festival to Santa Cruz, its patron saint. There were carnival rides, raucous partying, ballet folklórico, blaringly loud music, bottle rockets, games of skill and chance, and lots of church services and ceremonies. It all culminated in an amazing rodeo will locals riding bulls and horses dancing to a twenty-something-piece norteño banda.
You can see more photos on our Flickr pages:
Kelly, Phil, and Nicholas.
You can see more photos on our Flickr pages:
Kelly, Phil, and Nicholas.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The boys are sailing their dinghy again.
After a long sabbatical, the boys' Fatty Knees sailing dinghy has been relaunched!
Alexander and Nicholas will be taking it out daily while they work on their sailing skills. La Cruz Marina offers an ideal location to provide sailing instruction in a sheltered area. We are using the large Marina Basin as the training area. There aren't any yachts in the basin so the boys can sail freely. Tomorrow is exciting because we are doing capsize and recovery training!
Alexander and Nicholas will be taking it out daily while they work on their sailing skills. La Cruz Marina offers an ideal location to provide sailing instruction in a sheltered area. We are using the large Marina Basin as the training area. There aren't any yachts in the basin so the boys can sail freely. Tomorrow is exciting because we are doing capsize and recovery training!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Another magical day in paradise
Today was another fantastic day in Banderas Bay. The boys successfully went to town for tortillas and water. Much Calvert was completed. We've finally caught up with all the laundry. (All the clothes we'd left on the boat needed to be washed.) We're almost finished checking all of the systems to make sure they're in working order.
Just before dinner, Veronique and Chip called. We went over to the Yacht Club where the boys were studying to help them skype their mom. It went really well. It so amazing to be able to communicate so easily from so far away.
Now, it's off to the carnival. The boys can hardly wait!
Just before dinner, Veronique and Chip called. We went over to the Yacht Club where the boys were studying to help them skype their mom. It went really well. It so amazing to be able to communicate so easily from so far away.
Now, it's off to the carnival. The boys can hardly wait!
Back in la Cruz de Huanacaxtle
After a brief hiatus, we're back aboard in La Cruz. It is fantastic to be back south of the border. I'm not sure we realized how much we missed Samadhi until we were back. Now that we've finished washing all of the mildew smell off of the boat and our clothes, things couldn't be peachier.
Construction has been proceeding at the Marina, and while not quite on schedule, vast progress has been made. The building has been completed and it's now a matter of them getting the finer points sorted out before it's completely operational. The offices are all filled with people, and there's considerably less dust constantly coating our decks. When we got all of our bags to Samadhi, we took a break and had a late lunch at the La Cruz Yacht Club bar. It still needs some work, but you can't beat the view!
We've been glad to get back into the rhythm of life aboard. One of the nice perks of being here is that the marina manager has encouraged us to use the yacht club business center for homeschooling. While we're here, the boys have an airconditioned study hall to themselves! The boys worked on Calvert at an accelerated pace while they were with Veronique last time, so we're aiming to emulate that and have more time for adventure outside of schoolbooks.
Yesterday, just in time for Nicholas's 10th birthday, the town festival commenced. What an amazing event! There was a parade and carnival games and bottle rockets into the night. It's set to continue for a week and a half. We ate tacos and queso fundido con pastor on the plaza and watched the locals revel. Nicholas had a great time celebrating (for the fifth time!). If we can get any sleep with the blaring music and bottle rockets at all hours, the fiesta should be quite an experience!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
