The autopilot again worked properly all day.
I completed the crossing from La Paz to Mazatlán early Friday afternoon. I was a little apprehensive because it was my first singlehanded overnight trip, but all went well. I made the crossing from Las Frailes to Mazatlán yesterday and this morning.
I was about 45 miles out of Mazatlán at 1:00 AM this morning, when I switched down to a partially furled staysail which kept me moving along at about a knot. I had not seen a single vessel during the crossing except for two ships that were forty or more miles away that showed up on AIS. I left my AIS transponder running to broadcast my AIS position. I slept from 1:00 to 6:00 AM and awoke each hour to check the course and look for traffic. I saw a sailboat when I awoke at 3:00 but saw no traffic aside from that. By 6:00 I was rested enough to complete the trip and arrive in good condition.
I tried to make the crossing last week with two young French women who are travelling the world. Friends in Marian Palmira introduced them to me. We got about four hours out of La Paz and the autopilot started reporting “autopilot drive failed” errors on the MFD. After the third failure, I abandoned the trip and returned to La Paz. Since the problem was intermittent and the failures were fairly rare, it was hard to diagnose the problem. After searching the web, I found someone else who had a similar problem and said he was able to fix it by disassembling the autopilot linear drive, and cleaning the motor. Apparently dust from the motor brushes builds up in the drive motor. I took the linear drive and the motor part and cleaned the motor but there was relatively little dust in the motor. It did not seem likely that there was enough dust to cause a problem, but I cleaned and reassembled the motor. I tightened all of the electrical connections, but none seemed loose. I short I have no idea what is causing the error. I decided to give the autopilot a trial run and it seemed to work fine for the two hour test, but that was hardly conclusive. I decided to try the crossing and see if the autopilot would cooperate. It worked flawlessly for the entire crossing. I am still not sure what, if anything, fixed the problem. At least I now feel comfortable taking apart the autopilot drive unit.
Upon arrival, I stopped at Marina El Cid to refill the diesel tanks. I like to keep the diesel tanks full at all times. I had to hover around the fuel dock for about 30 minutes while another boat completed refueling. When he finished, I bought diesel fuel and then continued on the short distance to Marina Mazatlán.
I am enjoying Mazatlán. The weather here is good and the other cruisers in Marina Mazatlán are very friendly. The marina is not very full. Apparently, it was much fuller in late November and December. Most people then headed further south to PV and beyond leaving Mazatlán fairly empty.
My next door neighbors are Don and ??? on the power boat “The Grand Wazoo”.
I have learned that I can store the boat in the water at Marina Mazatlan for the summer at a really good rate. I need to check with the insurance company, but that seems like the best bet so far. That would allow me to start from Mazatlan, and head south to Panama next November.
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