New Boat Update!
New Boat Update!
But that's what we did! Most of our updates have been on YouTube the past few months, so I'll insert them here in case you want to watch, or better yet, subscribe!
Selling Noeta 50
So the stars all aligned, our 50 Nordhavn never actually went on the market, as James Knight had a buyer in mind for ours. They came down to Mexico, fell in love, and made an offer! (Read more about that HERE). So within weeks we had to get our personal items off of the boat and into a small storage shed, pack the car, and clean Noeta (now called Solana) up for her new owners.
They kept most of the home-type things, dishes, blankets, pots, pans, towels etc, and most of the 'extra' things like e-bikes, paddle boards, kayaks, etc. So we didn't have to move everything off, which was nice. Then we loaded the car with Gilligan the Fat Boat Cat, and all of the items we would need to cruise the coast again on our new boat, and drove north.
This episode explains how the 2500 mile drive went!
Our broker and friend, James Knight, ended up bringing the boat down to Washington from Homer. His crew included his best friend, who is also a skilled captain, his wife and his sister in law. They had a nice cruise, saw the sites and even cleaned up and fixed a few things on the boat. It was the best sea trial ever!
This episode shows how their journey went - they got great footage!
Friends of ours, Greg and Kari, took us up to Friday Harbor, an island not far from Anacortes, on their Nordhavn 47, so that we could meet them and our new boat when they checked into the country from Canada. It was super exciting watching it round the corner of the bay and come straight at us!
Boat Projects!
From there we jumped on board and took it back to Anacortes where she underwent months of projects including:
- New ceiling panel headliners
- New toilets
- New engine mounts
- Lots of new hose clamps and hoses
- New LED light bulbs - 72 of them!!
- New Bottom paint
- New stabilizer seals
- New life raft
- All new hydraulic hoses
- New cable for the davit
- New line cutter
- New air conditioner raw water distribution manifold
- New dinghy
- Stocked up on spare everything
- Water maker maintenance
- New stacked inverter system
- All new electronics, auto pilot, follow up levers, monitors etc. in the pilot house
And I'm likely leaving out a dozen projects.
We lived in the boat on the hard, which is tricky because you can't shower or run water out of the thru hulls while on the hard. So we used a marina shower and used the boat's bathroom only as needed (we do have a giant holding tank). But it started to get cold as we entered October and we were eager to get back to Mexico.
These episodes show all of the boat yard projects!
Episode 13
Episode 15
The Shaft Saga
We were so happy to drop back in the water, only to discover that our shaft now had a 'wobble'! We had to haul out AGAIN. So after having a renaming ceremony and putting the new 'Noeta' name on her, we went to haul out again. We have a 17.5 foot long, 3 inch shaft, and it's important that it is straight and aligns perfectly with the engine. It wasn't perfectly straight and the coupling that attaches the shaft to the engine was not perfectly aligned. So we spent a number of weeks having the shaft analyzed, fixed, then re-fixed, then installed again.
These episodes explain why we had to haul out again, and then re-send our shaft in to be worked on.
Episode 16
Episode 17
So once we fixed the shaft issue, it was time for a few final projects while analyzing the weather to head south. Our goal was always to return to Mexico, where we spent the past 6 years, but it was getting late in the season to head south. It was now early October, which means the Pacific Northwest starts getting weather systems that one does not want to cruise through. So finding the weather window was critical. For the first time, we did enlist the help of a weather router, 'Omni Bob', with OMNI - Ocean Marine Nav Inc. It was nice to have a third set of eyes on the weather as he advised us.
This episode shows our final projects before leaving.
Episode 18
Finally Cruising South
Anacortes to San Francisco
Once we and Omni Bob agreed on a weather window, we took off! October 8th, we entered the Straights of Juan de Fuca, then took the BLT (Big Left Turn) into the Pacific Ocean. While the straights were calm and lovely, the ocean was not. It was a washing machine of confused seas. The weather was fine, but the sea state was 9-10 foot seas from all directions. I, who had gotten cocky in the straights and hadn't taken my sea sick meds, got sea sick. It lasted for around 24 hours. The first night we could only run 1 hour sleep shifts, since I was sick and weak.
Unfortunately the sea state continued that way the next 24 hours, so we decided to head into Crescent City, California, a marina we stopped in last time we came down this coast 6 years ago. So October 10th we got to sleep at a dock, rest, recover and regroup to head back out.
Did I mention that we didn't have any helm chairs? Yeah, we had ordered some new comfy Stidd chairs, but they were delayed in delivering them by 4 weeks. So instead we had tall director's-type chairs. They were mostly worthless for this uncomfortable passage. Leaving Crescent City, October 11th, the seas now were on the bow, and had developed wind waves. So it turned into a bashing, crashing cruise. However I was no longer sea sick, my meds were working, so things were a bit better.
The next day we entered San Francisco Bay at the exact same time that the Blue Angels Air Show was being cancelled due to low visibility. So we dodged hundreds of small boats as we made our way back to Berkeley Marina where we stayed for a few days.
We saw lots of friends, hung out with our daughter Mikayla and my sister Anneliese, brought the car down from Anacortes, installed new Stidd chairs!, and continued a few more boat projects for about 3 weeks. T
Here's a short video of our new chairs!
Import Paperwork Nightmare
Before we could head south though, we had some serious paperwork to take care of with Mexico. It turns out, the boat we bought had existing import paperwork for Mexico from 2006, but didn't have any record of exiting Mexico. In addition, the import paper, called a TIP, had expired a number of years earlier. Since July, I had had a 'fixer' working to get the TIP cancelled, so that we could get a new one, as it's illegal to have 2 TIPs on a vessel. The 'fixer' finally notified me that he had tried in numerous places and failed to get it cancelled. So I had him FedEx my paperwork back to me so I could find another route. I spoke to a number of other agents, some said it couldn't be cancelled, some said they could do it but would be 7 months, and another said he could help me do it, but I would need to bring the boat to Mexico, claim it was abandoned and then clear the title....ummm...nope.
But just as I was giving up hope, I read, on social media, about a woman who had herself gone to Ensenada with papers and letters and was able to get it cancelled by herself. So I reached out to her, and followed her exact steps just a couple days later. I flew to San Diego, got an exit form at the airport for our boat, taxied to the Tijuana border, walked across, got on a bus to go 1.5 hours south to Ensenada, met with Banjercito (the federal bank), and somehow...by some magic....was able to get the document cancelled! Not only that, they issued me a new TIP for Noeta so we were cleared to bring her into the country! That was a huge hurdle!
This episode shows my journey!
So NOW it was time to head south again in the next weather window.
San Francisco, CA to Long Beach, CA
The window appeared November 7th. This passage was quite pleasant. We saw dolphins in bioluminescence, some whales and very little boat traffic. There were stunning sunsets and beautiful sunrises. We finally remembered why we love cruising!
November 9th we arrived in Long Beach, to have our lines caught by some of our best friends, John and Molly, former owners of catamaran Ruby Vi. While in Long Beach, we got about 600 gallons of fuel, hung out with friends, made new friends, brought the car down from San Francisco, and provisioned to leave for Mexico! We spent about 10 days here.
This is our SFO to Long Beach video episode
On November 19th, just before sunset, we set off for the 15 hour cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. The seas were calm, the weather was warm. We had more friends catching our lines - after they kicked the sea lions off our dock - as we pulled in to Cruiseport Marina. The staff at the marina were efficient as they walked us to the immigration offices to check into the country and check in with the Port Captain. This was the same office that I had visited just a few weeks ago to cancel our TIP! And since I already had the TIP, we didn't need to meet with Banjercito, the federal bank.
We had dinner with Jelle, another cruising friend, then took off the next morning for a 5 day passage to Banderas Bay.
Episode 22 - Noeta Goes to Mexico
Ensenada, Mexico to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico
This was the final push! We anticipated excellent weather, good sea states and 5 non-stop days of cruising nearly 980 nautical miles. This was one of our our longest non-stop passage and while we were excited, we were apprehensive about how our bodies would handle the fatigue, how the boat would handle being under way, and how the sea state might change. It turned out that our bodies, boat and the sea were all excellent. We rotated sleep shifts at night. We each slept 3 hours and stood watch 3 hours. Then during the day, we rested as needed. By the 2nd day we were both feeling fine. And by day 3, we were in a groove. We felt like we could have kept going easily beyond 5 days.
We saw hundreds of dolphins, a couple whales, some sea lions and occasionally a boat or 2. After rounding the point of the Baja at Cabo San Lucas, we were on the home stretch! Just a day and a half left! We entered Banderas Bay around 10 pm and arrived at our marina just before midnight. Even though we know the marina really well, entering at night is a unique experience.
Episode 23 - Ensenada to La Cruz - Part 1
Episode 23 - Ensenada to la Cruz - Part 2
So now we've had a few days to rest. There have been many nights where we have woken up and said 'Why aren't we moving?!' or 'Where are we?' But it feels great to be back, where we spent the past 6 years cruising. We feel like we've accomplished a lot in the last few months. We plan to cruise in and around this area for awhile, while we continue to fix and work on our new-to-us boat.
I will try to do better at making more, shorter updates, but I'm also (obviously) vlogging now too. So be sure to subscribe to the MV Noeta channel, so that you get updates when I post a new video.
Watch more videos at https://www.youtube.com/@mvnoeta
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