So close but...

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

The boat looks good.

Well, pretty good anyway.  The bottom is probably not as smooth as the original finish but looks alright to my uneducated eye.  The rest of the boat seems to have weathered the last 4 months amazingly well except that the entire deck is covered in dust.  The batteries, relying upon solar power alone, were right up to full charge and the inside of the boat is only a little dusty.  The problem is that now that nice clean, blister-free, bottom makes the ugly, dirty, above-water hull look pretty sad.

After putting on some zincs and popping in the speed/depth/temperature transducer, we decided it would be a good idea to get the hull cleaned and polished before plunging it back into the sea.  So I contracted the workyard to do just that, the work to be completed by yesterday.

Looks nice and calm doesn't it?

Today, we visited the boat to find that nothing had been done and were given promises that the work would begin later today, to possibly be finished tomorrow.  I am not sure I am holding out a lot of hope.  This is sort of critical timing right now.  Several factors come into play.  First, because of the shallow nature of the boat-launch, we need a high-tide to launch the boat.  Second, this time of year the winds usually come up a lot in the afternoon (up to 30 knots this week), making it difficult to maneuver the boat into a slip except in the mornings.  Third, the marina has a limited number of slips large enough to handle Sine Timore and we have managed to reserve an ideal spot if we can get into it quickly.  Based on all of this information, the ideal timing for having the boat ready and an appropriate tide in the morning would be this Sunday.  But the workyard, and thus the boat launch, does not work on Sunday.  This leaves us with a possible window of opportunity tomorrow (Saturday) around noon, if the work is completed by then (I give it a 25% chance), otherwise it is going to be Monday afternoon around 5:30PM and we will just have to hope for a break in the wind.

Catch 22 Beach

Meanwhile, to pass the time, we have been doing our usual mammoth walks, including following the highway all the way to the nearby Catch-22 beach a couple of days ago.  Otherwise, we have been forced into a life of meaningless leisure activities.

We will just have to grin and bear it!

 

 

{GMST}27|56.911|N|111|03.205|W|San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico|San Carlos,Sonora, Mexico{GEND}