La Cruz (N20˚44.885’, W105˚22.693’)

We arrived back in the Marina Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz on Wednesday and it was like coming home after all the time we were here in Nov/Dec. We love having the amenities (showers, internet, shopping and restaurants close by…sans iffy dinghy landing) but today is the first day we haven’t worked all day. We took everything off the deck and scrubbed the boat from top to bottom on Friday. Saturday Chris was busy adding more new batteries and hauling out and cleaning the anchor chain (which, last time we used it, picked up a bunch of tiny shrimps and created quite the stench in the anchor locker and v-berth). Patty & I spent the day masking off the brightwork in preparation for some fresh coats of Cetol.

It is amazing how fast a boat can become totally grungy in saltwater and tropical sun…especially the bottom. We had the bottom cleaned before we left here in late December and by mid-February it had over an inch of algae and critters growing on it so we had it scraped again before we left Barra. The standing rigging rusts. The stainless rusts. The running rigging gets stiff with salt. The wood loses its finish. The canvas and cushions get full of salt. Before you know it everything looks dull and feels “sticky” when you touch it. Since we don’t have a watermaker and must fill our tanks with 5 gallon jugs, we’re not much inclined to use fresh water to wash the boat unless we’re tied up to a dock with a faucet.

And then there are the repairs! The saying goes something like this: “Cruising means fixing your boat in different locales.” It is soooo true! Our repairs this time are fairly minimal. Chris has purchased and installed 4 new house batteries and will next be working on finding the parts to fix the windlass (again). When we left Tenacatita it spit out the key stock and we now need to locate a replacement (not easy here)…or “someone” will be doing the anchoring by hand. One very cool thing: We had 3 new 12 volt batteries from here and Barra that just weren’t quite what we needed so when we bought the new 6 volt ones, Chris decided to just give these away. One went to our friends on “Hooligan” and one went to a guy who just came in today because he needed one. Turns out he is a rigger so in exchange for the new battery he re-tuned our rig (which has stretched some since it was installed). Very cool!

So, that’s the latest for now. We are cleaning, repairing, re-provisioning and waiting for Sue to arrive. Sometime around mid-March we’ll leave for Mazatlan. Life is tough but the sun is still shining!