20th February, 2026

Smoke on the Water

February 2, 2026

The day after.

This morning, we woke to a calm bay with the sun rising over the mountains. The sky was a soft pink before clearing to a light blue. Few clouds were in the sky.

We sat in the cockpit with our coffee and blueberry muffins.

“Now I remember why we do this,” Jay said. “Just look around.”

The sea was breaking gently on the white sandy shore decorated with palm trees. Men were fishing off the pier. A few people walked along the beach. With only two other boats anchored in the bay, it was peaceful.

February 3, 2026

Yesterday was a day of rest. We stayed on the boat. Jay and Marshall worked on Jay’s keyboard. We left the portholes open while underway and in those strong waves, water got into the boat. When Jay lifted his keyboard to check it out, water came pouring out. Not good.

This morning, we lowered the dinghy and took it up the river. We tied up by the pangas.

We walked into town and met Al and JoLinda of SV/Chez Nous, and their friends, Finn and Debra at Jazz Café for breakfast. Later we did some shopping. We didn’t stay on land long. We wanted to get out of the river before low tide.

Swimming around the boat was our afternoon activity.

Today I am feeling sad because I realize we have only three more days at anchor before we reach the marina at Barra de Navidad.

February 4, 2026

Our plan was to leave Chamela for Tenacatita. 29 NM to go. Everything started out well. A relaxed morning with coffee. We got the boat ready. We raised and tied down the dinghy. We weighed anchor and raised the sail. We were heading out of the bay at 9:23. At 9:30 I went down to make breakfast. I immediately came back up.

“There’s smoke in the cabin!”

We stopped the engine and drifted. Jay and Marshall went below to investigate. It wasn’t a fire, as I first thought, the engine had overheated. We started the engine long enough to anchor in a safe place.

At 11:15, the boys were still below working to fix the problem. At 12:30, they thought they had it fixed. Jay was ready to head to Tenacatita. It would take six hours minimum to get there. If we were lucky, we would arrive before dark. I was nervous but agreed. (It would have taken us another half hour to get the boat ready and mainsail up. I saw a few white caps in the bay and thought there was a good chance we would have strong wind and waves which were coming from the south. The direction we had to go.) Cadenza decided for us. Even with added coolant, the engine overheated again. At 1:30, we called it and knew we were staying at least one more night. I fixed lunch while the boys went over everything they did and everything it could possibly be.

They realized the wave action from yesterday jarred loose the mounting plate for the raw water pump. As a result, it loosened the drive belt, so it wasn’t running properly.

They decided they at least needed more antifreeze. Jay didn’t want to put the dinghy down and go up the river because it was low tide. He used What’s App to contact Cocina Tours who run pangas out of the docks up the river asking them if they had a boat that could help us. Since business was slow, Captain Monkey responded almost immediately, “Send me a photo of your boat.”

Twenty minutes later Captain Monkey and his mate picked up Jay and Marshall from Cadenza and took them to the docks. Their offer to help didn’t stop there. They drove them to another town to purchase the antifreeze. Only the store was closed. They called the owner who came and opened the store to sell them the antifreeze. One hour later, Captain Monkey returned Jay and Marshall to the boat. They had three jugs of antifreeze and a six-pack of beer. When Jay asked how much he owed them, Monkey said, “Just give us what you think is fair.” This is how it is in Mexico. They are always available to help.

February 5, 2026

Jay was up at 5am watching YouTube videos on how to fix the cooling system. Yesterday, Marshall called a mechanic friend. At 7:50, I heard Jay digging in the tool drawer. I was hoping he and Marshall had a plan. I was also hoping it would work.

Jay had a spare raw water pump that was rebuilt and a used impeller. They tried to make the impeller fit. It took several hours but that didn’t work.

Next, they wanted to check the thermostat but needed a 12mm socket and some gasket goop.

We dropped the dinghy and took it in to see if the hardware store had what they needed. When Jay asked for a socket in his excellent Spanish (Ha!), he was brought a light socket. Thankfully, with a little help from Google translate, we left with a 12mm socket and gasket goop.

On the walk back to the dinghy, I bought a few groceries. We also bought three tamales and a precooked chicken dinner from street vendors.

We stopped at the Jazz Café for a drink and a fruit plate. There were four other people at a table off to the left of us. I could tell they were sailors from their conversation. Otherwise, the restaurant was empty. The street was quiet. Hanging from strings crossing over the road were colorful flags waving in the breeze. A haunting song came over the speaker in the restaurant. I smiled. It all felt surreal. Like I was on a movie set.

After checking the thermostat – it worked – and cleaning the raw water pump strainer, the engine still overheated. The boys were stumped.

It is two days later, and Jay just wants to get to Barra. We could sail but there is no wind. Nor is wind predicted for several days. We decide to wait for the wind. This leads them back to the drawing board. One more effort at fixing the problem.

February 6, 2026

When the engine was cool, Jay was able to manually move the raw water pump indicating that the pump was still good. They then correctly attached the raw water pump and tightened the belts to both pumps and added more coolant. But the coolant still wasn’t flowing through the system. That led them to believe it might be the heat exchanger.

While this trial-and-error episode was going on, Jay and Marshall were talking to several people, all who had various opinions as to what to do. Neil, the mechanic, suggested to “burp” the heat exchanger.

Following his advice, they disconnected the heat exchanger from its mount, tilted it and opened it by disconnecting a hose and found no coolant. It never got to the heat exchanger. They primed the heat exchanger with coolant while it was elevated and put it back together. They refilled the radiator again.

Andy from sv/Hey Ya (who had just arrived from Nuevo with Tim and Charity) came over to see if he could help. Jay started the engine, and they went below. Everything was working but Andy noticed they hadn’t put the radiator cap on.

“You have to put the cap on so it will pressurize,” he said as he twisted on the cap. Of course, they knew that…

February 7, 2026

Cadenza and Hey Ya motor-sailed to Barra de Navidad. We never did get to Tenacatita. I did get three more nights at anchor though.

P.S. Thank you Charity for the photo.