January 7 – 10, 2018
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| My New Kitchen |
Having finished my TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of
Other Languages) certificate program and kitchen remodel just before Christmas,
I was finally free to go sailing, once again.
My friends, JR and Sandra, moved into my house to take care of things
there while I was away. It had been a
stressful semester filled with student teaching and building a new kitchen and
I was ready for a break.
JR and I drove down to Los Angeles in my truck on
Sunday. She left me at my friend Tom’s
house in Van Nuys and took the truck back to her place to help complete their
move. I had a nice lunch with Tom before
My friend, Don, arrived in the late afternoon.
I would be sailing from Guaymas to La Cruz aboard Don’s boat, Comet, the adventures of which had been
chronicled in this blog in previous years.
The three of us visited for a couple of hours and then Don drove us to
Marina del Rey where we met the rest of our gang for a farewell happy hour. We finished the day by spending the night
with our friend, Andrea, in Topanga. It
started raining while we were in Topanga.
The storm barely troubled us, but it would later dump over 5 inches of
rain on Montecito, resulting in devastating mudslides that destroyed a hundred
homes and killed at least 17 people.
Andrea made us a hearty breakfast on Monday and we finally
left Topanga by the early afternoon to drive as far as Indio, where we spent
the night with our friend, Trish. The
traffic was heavy and we drove through some heavy rain, but it was only
sprinkling by the time we got to Indio.
We took Trish out for Mongolian Barbeque and spent a pleasant evening
catching up with her.
Despite our intention to hit the road early, it was 11:30
before we left Indio on Tuesday. We
shared a leisurely breakfast with Trish and then set off for Tucson, where we
stopped to visit Don’s sister-in-law, Annie.
The rain followed us to Tucson and, though it was only a light rain, it
remained chilly. Having seen a weather
forecast of temperatures in the 80s in Guaymas, I had not packed many warm
clothes and was getting tired of the same wardrobe. Annie made us an elaborate dinner and we
visited with her for a few hours before making an early night of it.
Having retired early the night before, we actually got up
early enough on Wednesday to have bacon and eggs with Annie and still hit the
road by 9:30. The rain had stopped, but
there was still a chill in the air and I was still wearing my jeans and
long-sleeved shirt. Annie packed us ham
and corn bread to go and we set off for the Mexican border.
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| Mexican Customs |
We crossed at the commercial border crossing in
Nogales. American customs hardly gave us
a look, but we had to stop at Mexican customs where the agent asked us a few
questions and looked casually through the tangle of personal belongings in the
back of Don’s SUV before sending us on our way.
After driving several miles through a no-man’s land where the highway
was lined with tall fences, we arrived at the immigration office.
We filled out our visa forms and showed our passports and
then were directed to go to the Banjercito office to pay our fees. A tourist visa cost 533 pesos and they
granted us 180 days. We returned to the
immigration office with our receipts, were given our tourist cards, and got
back on the road. The drive from the
border to Guaymas passes through oak dotted grassland before becoming drier and
more desert-like as we approached the coast.
Finally, we could see the rocky hills above San Carlos and pulled into
the Guaymas Marina about 4:00 in the afternoon, just as it started to get cold
again.
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| Comet in the Yard |
Comet was in disarray after having all of her gear stowed
below decks, so we spent the early evening putting things away and unloading
all of gear from the car into the boat. The
boat was propped up on jack stands in the yard, so all our gear had to be
hauled up onto the deck by attaching it to a halyard. We got the majority of it stowed away a then
enjoyed a dinner of Annie’s leftovers before having a couple of cocktails and hitting
the sack.
January 11, 2018
While the rain didn’t follow us to Guaymas, the overcast had
and it was cool overnight. I had a
fleece sleeping bag, but I was still cold at times and awoke early on
Thursday. It was nippy when I got up at
7:15 to use the restroom, but started to warm up as soon as the sun hit us
about 9:00. We made coffee and
breakfast, took showers, and cleaned the interior of the boat. Before noon, I was ready to switch from jeans
to shorts.
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| Broken Dock at the Fonatur Marina in Guaymas |
Our first order of business was to head over to the Fonatur
marina to make a slip reservation so that we would have somewhere to go once we
launched the boat. Many slips had been
damaged by a hurricane and we weren’t sure there would be one available. Fortunately, we were able to get a slip. That accomplished, we repaired to the Walmart
to stock up on groceries to last us as far as La Paz. By 3:00, we were back at the marina and made
a date to launch the boat on Friday morning.
That arranged, we wandered over to the restaurant Koyotl, owned by the
proprietor of the marina, and had a delicious late lunch while chatting with
some other cruisers at the next table.
Don paid the marina bill on our way back to the boat and we
bought Marina Guaymas long-sleeved T-shirts for just 50 pesos (<$3.) I was glad to have another long-sleeved
shirt, as the sun was starting to go down and it was getting chilly again.
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| Municipal Dock Outside Guaymas |
Don had heard that there was a free municipal dock in the
next cove over where many cruisers went after putting their boats in the
water. He wanted to check it out, so we
spent an hour exploring and finally found the spot. The docks were very nice and mostly
empty. The parking lot was fenced and
the gate guarded. It looked like a great
place to stay if you didn’t need water or electricity. We got back to Comet just as the sun began to set.
We made a mental list of the few things we needed to do before the boat
could be launched, made drinks, and settled down to relax and, in my case,
write my blog.
January 12, 2018
Friday was a busy day.
Comet was scheduled to be
launched at 10:00 AM, but we were directed to be ready by 8:00 in case the boat
scheduled to be hauled out at that time did not appear. We got up early and set about attaching
fenders and dock lines and removing covers.
We didn’t see anyone from the yard at 8:00 and I had just decided I had
time to hike over to the restroom when I met the travel lift inching its way
toward us. I reversed my course and ran
back to the boat to warn Don.
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| Launching Comet |
It is always alarming to watch a boat hang from slings while
it proceeds to the ways. I followed Comet and took pictures as they drove
slowly through the yard and out onto the ways.
Once suspended over the water, the boat was slowly lowered until she was
once again floating in her element. We
wasted no time in clearing the ways and made our way the few miles from Marina
Guaymas to the Fonatur Marina.
The marina had been damaged by a hurricane and all the slips
on one side had been destroyed. Water
and electricity had not been restored to all the slips on the other side. We found working electricity, but had to
share one water connection between three boats with a series of splitters and
valves.
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| Our Water Connection |
Comet was filthy from having spent the summer in a dirt yard
and I spent the better part of the day hosing dust from the deck and anything
else that had been exposed. The deck was
running with mud as I started hosing the topsides. We worked until 3:00 and
then stopped for a beer. After lounging
for a spell, we decided it was too early to quit, so we hopped in the car and
went in search of a new starting battery.
A neighbor from the yard had recommended MALPA Autovalu as a good place
to get batteries and we drove around for a while trying to find it. We had finally given up and decided to just
go to the Autozone, when I realized we were on the street we had been
seeking. We turned around and eventually
found MALPA, where Don purchased a starting battery to replace the one that was
failing.
That mission accomplished, we stopped by Autozone for a
gallon of oil and then ate dinner at a seafood restaurant in town. My coconut shrimp were delicious, but Don’s
fish was lukewarm. We returned to the
boat after dark, just as a loud band began playing on the malecon. With horns, drums, and accordion echoing all
over the waterfront, I managed to mostly stay awake until 11:30, when I
finished writing and decided to call it a night.
January 13, 2018
We planned to leave on Saturday evening, so we got off to a
good start in the morning. Don
reinstalled the jib while I made pancakes from scratch after the momentary
panic when we realized we had no pancake mix.
After breakfast, I rinsed the boat again, washed the solar panels, and
filled all the water containers. We hit
a snag when Don went to install the new battery, which required tearing apart
half the galley storage to reach it, and realized that the battery he had
purchased the day before had only automobile type terminals. He searched through his collection of parts,
but eventually came to the conclusion that his adaptors were in storage in
Marina del Rey.
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| Fuel Dock at Guaymas Fonatur |
It was 2:00 when we finally went out to the battery store to
return the core and look for adaptors and the store where we bought the battery
was closed for the day. We went to
Autozone and fortunately found adaptors.
We bought five gallons of purified water, dropped by the grocery store
for a few last-minute items, and then returned to the boat.
It took longer than anticipated to reinstall the battery and
reassemble the galley. We abandoned the
idea of leaving that night, but still managed to get to the fuel dock to buy
diesel and gas for the dinghy before they closed at 6:00. After returning to the slip, I made salad and
hot wings (Why does nobody sell pre-marinated hot wings in the USA?) for dinner
and we relaxed, knowing that we had few remaining chores to fill the next 24
hours.
