Get the vaseline, Martha...I'm goin' in!!

Get your mind out of the gutter!!
The title of this entry refers entirely to the activities that took place yesterday when we had to fit a boat 13'10" wide into an area that was 15' 5" wide!! Yikes!!
Our friends, Barb & John, had a slip they had rented through Dec 2nd and got finished with their boat work and left early. This marina has a serious shortage of slips (especially in the Spring & Fall when all the cruisers are getting their boats into or out of storage) so they offered to sub-let their space to us for the balance of their time. We were delighted to accept as this not only saved us money but also allowed us to get the boat out of the work yard and into the water much sooner.
John & Barb's boat is over a foot narrower than "Faith" and the slip in question is a double with a very large, wide powerboat installed in the other side. John measured carefully and we determined that "Faith" would fit, but with only 19" clearance it would be very, very tight. We arranged to have a friend of Chris' join us on the boat to help fend off if needed as well as Chris' brother, Lee, and a couple with another Morgan 41 on the dock to take lines and pull us in.
I spent a sleepless night worrying about all the "what if's" and "how's" that would take place. Turned out to be pretty painless but I still tend to worry.
The boat was to be launched at 8am yesterday but they were almost an hour late so that added to my list of things that could go wrong ("What if the wind picks up? What if the tide goes out?"). When they got her in the water it was quiet, calm and sunny. After being stored on the hard for the past 5 months we were delighted when the engine started right up and after about 10 minutes of idling it was purring like it did all last season. Now it was time to go.
In order to get to our slip, we had to back out of the launch area to the main fairway and, since "Faith" has an "I back only to port" problem I had been concerned about how I was going to negotiate the backing straight and then to starboard in that very confined area. Well...I learned a great trick from a new Canadian friend of ours. We'd recently been to dinner with John & Barb and Bill & Janet from "Optical Illusion" and John & I were commiserating about how poorly our boats back up. Bill told us to set the rudder in the middle, put it in reverse and get started backwards and then put it in neutral and "you can drive it anywhere". I was skeptical at best but decided to give it a shot. OMG!! It worked like a charm! Not only did she back straight but she went to STARBOARD as well!! It was a beautiful thing!! I saw Bill later that afternoon and thanked him for the new skill and he assured me that with practice I'll be able to parallel park. Well, I'm not at all convinced about that but who knows?
When we got to the slip Lee & Steve were there to take lines and the power boat neighbor was out on his bow to fend us off if need be. We're only 4 boats down the dock so not a lot of room to get Faith pointed in the right direction but I got pretty close. We were pretty much nose-to-nose with the power boat. Chris threw the bow line to Steve and then he & the neighbor pushed us away while Steve pulled us toward the dock. Steve pulled us in far enough for Rex to throw the stern line to Lee and I just sat and watched the 5 guys literally pulled us into the slip. I just love strong men, don't you?
Once we got tied up, Chris & the neighbor were positioning fenders and I tried to turn off the engine. No go! The cable that you pull up to turn it off seems to have seized up during the summer! Once we got tied up and stabilized Chris went below and stopped the engine by hand...and added that fix to "the list".
It was great to have the boat in the water and tied up to a dock but both of us were exhausted. Between my cold and my "parking anxiety" neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before so we just closed the girl up, went to lunch and came back to the trailer for a couple hours sleep. Today we washed all the yard dust off and then started on all the myriad jobs we need to get done so we can start cruising this year. It won't be much longer now...and the best part is now we can go sit on the boat again. It is amazing how relaxing just that little thing can be.

Work, work, work!

First look! She looks great!

OK. Silly me. I was convinced that inside of two weeks we would have Faith cleaned up, put back together, the projects done, bottom painted, she'd be back in the water and ready for another season of fun in the sun. Hmmm. A bit too optimistic perhaps?

After leaving Tucson at 9 last Wednesday morning we arrived in San Carlos at 6 pm. This is normally a 5-1/2 hour drive but towing a trailer added another 2-1/2 hours to the trip. We pulled into the Totonaka RV Park on the outskirts of town just as the office was supposed to close but the manager was waiting for us thanks to our friends, Ken & Linde, who are also staying here, telling him to wait for us. Better still…by the time we got parked and set up it was after 7 but Ken & Linde had dinner and wine waiting for us. It was great! I just love cruisers!! They really do “pay it forward”.

Thursday morning, after a good night’s sleep, we got our first look at Faith and it was a bit of a good/bad thing. She looked wonderful at first glance. The wax job we had done before we put her to bed last Spring was still shiny and new looking and there was no outside damage from the storm. Once we got on top we discovered she was a total dirtball. Inside wasn’t too bad. We could see where water had gotten in from Hurricane Jimena but it appeared to be only a couple inches in the galley and aft part of the salon. The only damage we could really see was that some of the varnish had lifted off the cabin sole so we will have to re-finish a section of that. Not bad at all. When we inquired about getting her into the work yard we were told there was a waiting list. Harrumph! Since the flooding wiped out the work yard entirely (not to mention the road and parking lot) they have been working very, very hard to get it all put back together and I must say they have done an admirable job. Still, at this point only half of the work yard is usable but, because of the space shortage, the management has given the OK to work on boats in the storage area. Since there is no water or power available there we opted to wait until they could get us in and late Thursday afternoon they had us installed in the very back corner of the work area.

Friday morning, bright and early, we were at the boat with buckets, brushes and soap to start on the first project…getting the top layer of dirt off so we wouldn’t be tracking it inside. It is hard to believe how thick a layer of dust can accumulate in a few short months. We spent a good three hours just washing the topsides and then went below and while Chris checked all the batteries (Yippee!! All are perfect!) I scrubbed the section of floor that was muddied by the workers who pumped the water out. By 1:30 we were done working, had lunch and crashed back at the trailer! From then on we have been working pretty much 9 am to 1-2 pm every day doing as much as possible.

Chris spent a good part of today taking apart the steering so he could re-pack the rudder post. When he got it disassembled he discovered that this particular rudder is not made that way…there ISN’T a packing gland in it! Oh, well, he needed to check out the steering system anyway and was happy to see that it is in superb condition. His current project is filling up the holes in the deck from the old windlass and getting the new windlass installed. Brother, Lee, and Lee’s wife, Julie, are here in San Carlos as they rented a house for the winter and Lee has been down helping on the boat almost every day. We are quite happy to have him, especially since he is an excellent fiberglass man.

Friday we made arrangements to have the bottom painted and once we signed the papers the guys were there quickly to start sanding. By Saturday afternoon they had the whole bottom sanded and pressure washed and I thought, “Wow! This is going to be fast!” Alas…they don’t work on Sunday, Monday was a holiday (Revolution Day) and no one showed up today. I wonder if they forgot?

I almost feel like a piker since my jobs have entailed mostly cleaning, oiling the teak, putting things back in their proper places, etc. The operative word in that sentence is “almost” as both heads were quite icky and required some serious rubber gloves and chemicals. No…we didn’t leave them that way. In point of fact, just before the boat was hauled out we went out, dumped both holding tanks, added vinegar & water and then flushed that out so, presumably, they would be nice & clean & empty. Judging by the rings in both bowls there must have been some residual water still in the plumbing and as the water evaporated during the summer it left progressively heavier stains. Yecch!!! Do I even need to elucidate on the fun involved in cleaning that?

Sooo…we had planned to celebrate Thanksgiving in La Paz and have friends arriving there on the 29^th to spend a couple weeks with us. Will we make it? Only the Shadow knows!!

Done Shopping!

Finally we are ready to go! After postponing our departure from Tucson for one more day and then one more day again, tomorrow we are finally off to San Carlos. We began shopping as soon as we returned to Portland from the South Pacific and have continued that at every stop along our southbound route. Tucson is where we were to get the last minute items that we’d need (think wine and cheese) once we are out of reach of the local Safeway. After having visited way too many bookstores (used and new as well) the book inventory seems to be pretty complete as we are returning to the boat with 74 new items. Granted, some of these are new guide books, cookbooks, how-to’s, etc but most are just plain reading material. Added to the tomes that stayed on the boat when we left in June I suspect we will have a library to incite envy in other cruisers (who are, almost without exception, avid readers as well), not to mention having a good deal of “trade goods” for book exchanges and dinghy raft-ups. Now, of course, not included in my count are the books that Chris has on his new Kindle. For those who haven’t heard of this new invention, it is an electronic book that allows you to just download new reading material to it at will. Most of the books are under $10 and other publications, such as magazine and newspaper subscriptions are substantially less than their newsstand price. My preference is “real” books that you can touch and smell and tell how far you’ve read and how much you have left by where you left the bookmark but the promise of having access to regular news via subscriptions to Time magazine and a Sunday paper or two was the argument that won my “ok” for the new purchase. Alas…it is clearly Chris’ “baby” and usually only available for my perusal when I’m busy doing something else. Some other new “toys” we purchased for this season include a flat screen TV (with built in DVD player) and a portable, battery powered, DVD player. We really do not watch TV other than the occasional news program but we do enjoy movies and both items were purchased with that in mind. Last year we had the use of Patty’s Mac laptop which did a lovely job of playing movies. Sadly, our laptops struggle mightily with that task and sitting through an entire movie is impossible given the technical issues involved. Of course, now that we have a couple spiffy new ways to watch films we have purchased few (74) new ones to add to the collection we have on the boat! So you don’t get the wrong idea (that we are only in this for the fun of it), we are bringing back some presents for the boat. We bought her a beautiful new windlass that, theoretically, will never get overloaded and quit. Chris calls this pretty piece “boat jewelry” and it certainly looks that way right now as it sits in its wooden crate. We also had the mainsail re-cut with longer battens in hopes that we will see some better sail shape (without having to buy a whole new sail) this season. We also have lots of other new little odds & ends for the boat as well as more tools, parts and “goopy stuff” for fix-it jobs. Another category of “needed items” is the day to day things you need no matter where you live. You know, Things like toilet paper, sunscreen, hair dye (for those of us who refuse to submit to the gray factor), and myriad other odds and ends. Some of these can be purchased in Mexico but often the quality is quite different from the U.S. (One-half ply vs 2 ply is a biggie!). Further, some things require reading the directions before using and when they are in Spanish only it is a serious challenge to those of us who are still in the “just enough words to order beer and find the ladies’ room” category. I was thrilled to finally find a new pair of Tevas here in Tucson. They are impossible to find in Mexico and the pair I mail ordered last year never did fit right. Since mine are in the process of falling totally to pieces (after having served me well for 9 years) getting a new pair was at the top of the list. My regular attire is flip flops but when I have to walk a long distance it is much cooler to wear Tevas than sneakers, not to mention the fact that they hold up a lot better when you are wading around in salt water all the time. I have two goals for this season and the first one is learning more Spanish. Last year I relied heavily on my two “interpreters”, Chris & Patty, and the few times I attempted shopping on my own it was only due to the kindness of the vendors that I was able to complete transactions. This year I have a brand new Rosetta Stone Spanish course that I have already started using. It is great and I believe I will learn a lot. I’m sure I will try the patience and understanding of some but the Mexican people are so gracious I doubt I will even know if they are frustrated with me. My other goal is to do more sailing and less motoring this season. A lot of that will depend upon the weather and any schedules we find ourselves on but I really do miss actual s-a-i-l-i-n-g so intend to remedy that. Well, enough of these long musings. Chris should be “home” any minute and we will be spending the balance of the afternoon getting things stowed wherever we can find room in the trailer so we can be on the road at first light tomorrow. Until the next blog, adios amigos!

Philosophizin'

The community of the world.

This post was written back in June when I first returned from my first season of cruising Mexico. I am just now getting around to using it.

Death is out and about of late. None of his usual lurking behind closed doors and hiding in the nooks and crannies of my mind. These last couple weeks he has been right out front in his finest daywear reminding me that time is fleeting for us all. While I’ve been away all winter I have received missives from numerous friends and relatives who have seen him up close and personal. While I have been affected by the news, the physical distance between usseems to have blunted the impact so that for me it was a rather dull feeling of distress. Upon my return I’ve been faced with several instances that have rather hit me upside the head with the realization that Death is “alive and well” and happily gathering those he wishes to his bosom. Those who have, clearly, not much time left in this life, appear in my thoughts a great deal. I find myself worrying about them struggling for breath and facing the inevitable. Ready or not, Death takes you when he wishes. I do not know how much time I have left in this incarnation but my gratitude for the way in which I have been able to live is beyond measure. It is unusual (at best) to be able to actually “live ones dreams” but that is exactly the gift I have been given. I have been told that this was because I worked and planned everything and while that is, indeed, a part of the answer, I am happy to report that I have also been pushed, prodded, handed opportunities, given obvious choices and occasionally slapped silly (figuratively) by a force much larger than I. God has received very little credit in this whole process but he/she has been quite clearly behind the whole plan. Whenever I leave port I humbly request guidance and protection for the upcoming journey. When at sea in uncomfortable conditions I am sometimes afraid (as all mortals are) but I am never alone. The world is there to enjoy. The gift is life. It is up to each of us to choose how we will use it.