5-mos Cruising Pacific Mexico Q&A

[mvweebles]

We left Ensenada MX (80 nautical miles – nms – south of San Diego) on October 30th 2023. Our boat is a 1970 Willard 36-foot displacement trawler designed by Bill Garden. She is powered by a Perkins 4.236 75 hp diesel with a top speed of around 7.5 knots, and a cruising speed of 6.3 knots where she burns a bit over 1 gph. Very similar to many sailboats in the 40-45 foot range.

We are about to store Weebles on the hard in Chiapas, a few miles from Guatemala, for the summer months. We will return in the fall and continue southward through the Panama Canal, then up to Florida. I thought I would offer some notes in a Q&A format – many of which are agnostic (sail and power).These are our experiences – everyone’s experience will vary. Mind you, we’re retired with a middle-income retirement income stream (approx. $5k/mo in cruising expenses, not including boat payment). For those on very tight budgets, the following will not apply.

• Was diesel expensive for a powerboat? Since departing San Diego on October 30th 2023, we’ve covered about 2400 nms and burned around 500 gals diesel. On average, diesel has been expensive in Mexico – around $5.50 USD per gallon. Roughly, cost has been around $1 per mile.
  
• With a single diesel, do you worry about failure? Yes and no. Our ancient Perkins 4-cylinder diesel has been one of the most reliable components on the boat. That said, we view our trip as a lazy delivery to our new home in Florida. If we were cruising full time, I suspect we’d prefer either a get-home engine or a twin engine just in case.
  
• How may overnight runs? In the 2400 nms, we spent about 7 nights at sea. My wife does not like overnight runs but we have adapted. I carry a bit more of the watch schedule than she does at night.
  
• What’s the worst weather you hit? We use PredictWind with a $250/yr subscription. We rarely saw spray over the bow, though would have been different had we been running north. Having time to wait out weather systems is key. We are retired.
  
• Is 36 feet large enough? This as a ‘lazy delivery’ from California to Florida – 4500 nms over two seasons. If we were to cruise full time, we would get a larger boat if for no other reason than a 50-footer bridges the ubiquitous 3-foot chop better. So we are extra careful with the weather. Most of the sailboats in the 40-foot range are also pretty careful.
  
• Do you need a watermaker? Mexico is difficult to get potable water. If I were to go again, I would definitely include a watermaker. That said, I would avoid difficult to service watermakers such as Spectra.
  
• Do you need LiFePO4 batteries? Well, this is a tip-of-the-iceberg question. LFP batteries usually man hi-output alternator(s) plus a robust monitoring system such as the Victron GX Cerbo system. Plus a way-cool inverter. This stuff works really well until it doesn’t. When it fails, its impossible to service in Mexico. We have a LFP system and it’s worked well, but we’ve met a lot of people with charging system problems. There is a piece of me that thinks AGMs, while less power-assisting, are a good way to go. They are easily replaced anywhere in Central America. Bottom line – if you can install yourself, go for it. If you require outside assistance, chances are you will have troubles down the line and be tremendously frustrated. Judgement call.
  
• Do you need a generator? So far, we have about 400 engine hours and under 20-hours on our Northern Lights 6kw generator. But its an important back-up power supply. Plus, now that were in Central America, AC has become important.
  
• Do you need Air Conditioning? It really depends on a number of factors. Our primary sleeping quarters is in the v-berth and we have an overhead hatch and six opening ports. We get a decent amount of breeze. If our cabin were in the aft, would be a problem and we’d have a lot more generator hours.
  
• How much rough weather have you hit? We are retired and have plenty of time so we just wait. The woman of the our couple hates bad weather so decisions are made to make her happy. Heading southbound has made that much easier. As the guy in the crew, I can say that having her happy has proven to be a godsend. She’s now talking about Rio Dulce on the other side and all sorts of expanded cruising destinations. I would definitely recommend making innocent passages for a while.
  
• How has your compost toilet worked out? We are a one-head boat. I converted to compost (Natures Head) before heading out because I had issues with the holding tank. We’ve had flies once (RAID helped); and we both had the flu which meant wet #2s so more maintenance. It’s not all-that as the faithful proclaim it to be, but overall, generally happy. Would be nice to have a direct discharge head but Id definitely do a Compost Head again and avoid the issues with a traditional wet-head.
  
• How much time in marinas? We thought we’d anchor out more than we have. I’d say 2/3rds of our time has been in marinas because we have traveled inland. Plus its where we’ve met other cruisers. We are not overly social, but have really enjoyed meeting other people.
  
• How much money have we spent? We don’t get track that closely, but overall, around $4k for everything excluding purchase cost of boat (we bought her over 25-years ago so do not have a mortgage). We eat out whenever we want – average cost has been around $35/couple in Mexico. We traveled inland to Oaxaca and went to some of their best restaurants and splurged – around $80 - $100 per person. But that was a rarity. And we could have spent less. A nice hotel in Oaxaca was around $100 USD/night.
  
• Any tips that have worked well? We sewed awnings over the foredeck and side decks. Absolute golden additions. Once you get south of Mazatlán, the sun beats relentlessly. Keeping the boat cool and ventilated is extremely important.
  
• What kind of dinghy do you carry? We bought a new AB Aluminum 310 RIB with 20hp Tohatsu. It’s heavy and difficult; plus is a theft target. For our next leg, we will buy a small easily blown-up dinghy to mate with a 3.5hp Mercury we’ve had for years. Should be perfect for anchorage-to-shore which is a large percentage of our usage. Wheels would be great too, but some beaches are really steep. Plus there is worrying about theft.
  
• What would you do differently? If possible, I’d go more simple on the boat. As mentioned above, batteries AGM vs lithium. Keep the energy budget as low as possible. Watermaker as simple as possible – I’d consider a very small watermaker such as a Katadyne survivor and run it all the time. As great as the Spectras are, you could not give me one. Would go with a smaller dinghy.

The one question I intentionally left off is "Is it safe?" I can tell you we feel safe and find the people in Mexico incredibly welcoming and friendly. But many Americans worry about safety in Mexico so I intentionally avoid the subject. If you are worred about safety in Mexico, don't come. You're wrong, but life is too short to spend liesure time in a place you don't feel comfortable.

In closing, the less adept you are at mechanical systems, the more simple you need to go. Once in Mexico, you simply cannot pay someone to fix stuff unless it’s something that was stock equipment on a 1975 Ford. Refrigeration, rigging, autopilots, Balmar alternators – none of that can be serviced south of the border. We’ve met a lot of people who have dramatically altered course/plans due to inability to fix stuff which is frustrating and expensive.

We're having a great time and look forward to coming back in the fall and continuing southward.

[sv_isara]

This is a great post and I agree with much of it! I have found time and time again as you have that the limitation people have is their inability to fix things. I also agree with your call out that troubles with charging is a huge problem all over the cruising community. I have an extremely rare solution in a water-cooled alternator that can push out 130 amps sustained for 4 hours so I can run a high-powered water maker Etc while the alternator pushes out amps running at 120° f. It's just fantastic.

From my experience you also nailed it with regards to safety. I'm sure there are many places in Mexico that are very dangerous. But so far taking a walk in Oakland or Richmond an hr from where I live would be more dangerous than anywhere I've been in Baja

[sv_pelagia]

We had good luck having work done on our Yanmar in Mazatlan.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

We had good luck having work done on our Yanmar in Mazatlan.

I'd guess you used Rafa who has a shop at the boatyard there. He rebuilt a water pump for us in a few hours time which was super helpful. Very nice guy. In addition to starting with the Baja Ha Ha, we continued with the Panama Posse. Local information on who to use (and who not to use) has been pretty handy, albeit not always accurate.

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

I'd guess you used Rafa who has a shop at the boatyard there. He rebuilt a water pump for us in a few hours time which was super helpful. Very nice guy. In addition to starting with the Baja Ha Ha, we continued with the Panama Posse. Local information on who to use (and who not to use) has been pretty handy, albeit not always accurate.

Indeed, we did use Rafa. Very happy with his work.

[JPA Cate]

Being in Mexico, if you don't have rudimentary Spanish, it is very difficult to find people to do repairs, but if you do, it is possible. Sometimes cabbies know. Sometimes you just have to ask people where is the ????? in very poor Spanish. They immediately know you're a foreigner, but usually your expression and terrible accent have already given you away.

Without Spanish? Often marina's personnel know folks who will help. The fishermen know, too. I would also suggest learning a few phrases, like "thank you very much", and "what a lovely country you have", and use the formal forms. It is perceived as being respectful. There are phone apps that will translate your English into something they can understand, too. A caveat here: I had Spanish in school, also French (useful in FP) so it is easier for me to see how useful it is. The peoples in the countries you visit appreciate it so much, it's really an asset. Some places you will be invited into other peoples homes, and treated to wonderful times.

One of the virtues in poor countries is that they fix things, rather than throwing them away, so I am sure refrigeration folks are around. But you wouldn't tell them it was boat refrig, as if refrig were somehow different in boats. It's just refrig, and the principles are the same, just the ease of access is different.

If the hotels have AC, there are folks who work on that, too, and plumbers.
However, if they have to come to your boat, and grovel physically, to help you, be prepared to pay for the privilege, and even then, say "thank you", also.

Ann

PS:

@mvweebles: Thanks for writing this up. I really enjoyed reading it, nice to hear how it is now for cruisers, because we've been gone from Mexico a long time. There are teething problems in the cruising community, still--as there were when we were there in the '80's: anchoring, having "enough" electricity, and "enough" refrigeration. In the old days, we used wind scoops, and 12 v. fans for cooling, and awnings, and slowly let our bodies acclimatize.

A.