Melissa volunteered Dave to do a seminar on SSB radios here at the marina next week. She got on the morning net this morning (time when all the boaters get on the radio to chat about what’s going on and who needs help) and asked if there were people who were interested in an SSB seminar to contact us after the net and if there was enough interest, Dave would do it. To say there was “enough interest” was an understatement. Dave spent a half hour after the net taking radio calls from boats saying “we want you to do it!”. So Melissa went down to the marina and arranged a room and time for the event. The marina was so psyched that they are going to supply food and drinks for the workshop. Dave is still not so sure this was the best of Melissa’s ideas. We shall see next week.
We then took the bus into Puerto Vallarta to help Joe bring Cygnus back to La Cruz after the races yesterday. It was a beautiful day for a sail. And the whales were out so we got some good whale watching in.
While in La Cruz, Dave was asked to take a look Ahorita’s SSB radio that wasn’t working. He diagnosed it down to a likely problem with the DSP board inside the unit. So there probably isn’t anything that can be done for it. It’s a 20 year old unit, so it’s time for a new one.
We then headed over to our favorite restaurant Masala for dinner. We had heard that their VHF radio wasn’t working. So since Dave had all his gear packed anyway from helping Ahorita in La Cruz we figured he might as well look at their radio too. The restaurants like to have VHF radios because they get on the morning net and announce their daily specials and events at the restaurant for the boaters. Dave heads off with his pack, and comes back to the table 5 minutes later. Melissa says, “well that was quick”. Dave starts chuckling. Well it wasn’t hard to figure out what was wrong. He got upstairs and the waiter pulled the radio out of a bucket. There was no antenna attached. Dave looked around the room and there was no antenna to be found anywhere – but a relatively new roof had been put on. The radio was attached via alligator clips to a rusty old car battery – which Dave verified was dead. The one waiter that speaks English is not there – so we figured we would come back later and ask whether they want Dave to fabricate them an antenna or try to charge the battery. It’s clear it’s not been operational for a long time – so before he goes to all the trouble, he wants to make sure it’s worth the effort to them.