Things can only get better!

Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico

My ace repair guy, Henry, has let me down.  It seems the extent of the problem is much worse than he anticipated (what a surprise), so now we have had to make a slight change of plans.

I have contacted the work yard in San Carlos and they are anxious to see the boat, more out of their anticipated windfall of expensive repair work to be done than any altruistic motives, I suspect.  I have instructed Henry to just finish off repairs to the most egregious blisters, a lot of which has already started, then give the bottom a single coat of anti fouling paint.  We will then endeavour to get the boat to San Carlos, where they will strip off the paint and do their evaluation. Sigh!

With any luck, the boat will be back in the water early next week.  Then we just have to start our leisurely journey from the furthest south port in Mexico to what is almost the furthest north port, about 1500 nautical miles via the shortest route possible.  Since we had already planned to go a lot of this distance this year anyway, it is not quite as bad as it sounds.  We still intend to make the usual stops along the way and try to enjoy the rest of the cruising  season.  Most likely we will be in the Sea of Cortes by sometime in April.

Meanwhile we are not really doing much, spending our time reading, watching TV, exploring a bit of Tapachula, making regular trips to the marina to see the progress on the boat, etc. etc. etc.  Yesterday, in the company of some cruising friends who arrived from El Salvador a couple of days ago, we had lunch at our local Toks restaurant and treated ourselves to a movie (the Black Panther).  All in all, life could be worse.

{GMST}14|52.4833|N|92|17.0833|W|Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico|Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico{GEND}

Houston, we have a problem!

Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico

Just once, it would be nice to get a pleasant surprise.  But that was not to be!

The haul out on Wednesday morning went well, in spite of my usual embarrassing display of boat handling skills as I backed us into the travel lift.  While the workers scrubbed off some of the accumulated green slime from Sine Timore’s hull, we watched from the comfort of the BAOS restaurant next door, enjoying a delicious lunch.  By the time we were done, the boat was whisked off and deposited in the work yard.  Everything was going according to plan at this point.

The plan was to be on the hard for no more than 2 or 3 days, just time enough for the bottom to get a light sanding and a couple of coats of anti fouling paint, while I was going to tackle removing and cleaning out the head discharge hose and make another attempt at freeing up the seized valve for same.

As soon as I took a close look at the bottom, the first problem became apparent.  Near the back of the boat there is an old, unused through hull fitting that was once a depth sounder.  This had been disused long before we owed the boat, probably because the back of the boat is not the ideal place to have a depth sounder - as a result, we have basically ignored this fitting up till now.  Now however, it has suddenly started to disintegrate, possibly leaving a boat-sinking sort of hole in the boat.  I removed most of the residue from the hull, leaving a few screw holes and the remainder of the plastic appliance sticking out of the big hole.  After some discussion, I decided to just have the plastic piece cut off flush and the whole area coated in a thick layer of epoxy to seal it off forever - problem solved!

Later came the real bad news,  While sanding the bottom, an incredible number off bleeding blisters were discovered.  This is especially disappointing since we had spent a lot of time and money to solve this issue just 6 years ago, in San Carlos - obviously not money well spent.  We really have very little choice right now - we have to try and fix it.  Henry, one of the yard workers here, assured me he can remove the old primer, repair each and every one of the hundreds of blisters and re-prime the entire hull, all in 1 week - he has just finished doing the same for one of the other boats beside us, and it looks pretty good.  It will cost a lot, but on the positive side, it will cost a lot less than anywhere else we can think of.  He started on the project today.  If he is done in under 2 weeks I will be surprised.

So here we sit, ensconced in probably the nicest hotel in the area, the Holiday Inn Express, just on the outskirts of the city of Tapachula.  We have rented the marina managers old car so we can make to 25 km commute back and forth from the marina whenever we need to.  The hotel is connected to the Walmart anchored mall where we have a food court and a couple of nearby restaurants so we won’t starve.

There may be a slight delay before we are able to continue our journey north.

{GMST}14|52.4833|N|92|17.0833|W|Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico|Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico{GEND}

A foot in Mexico

Marina Chiapas, Chiapas, Mexico

My apologies for not posting sooner - the Internet here has been lousy or nonexistent.

To summarize...

We left the estuary in El Salvador on an 8AM high tide, last Wednesday morning, along with 4 other sailboats.  Everyone else turned south/east towards Nicaragua while we headed north/west towards Guatemala and Mexico beyond.

The 50 hour passage was basically uneventful, except for the discovery that our favourite instrument, the wind instrument, would only work from about an hour after sunrise to an hour before sundown.  Apparently the rechargeable battery in the wireless sensor on the top of the mast is no longer taking a charge.  The tiny solar panel on the sensor could power it during the day, but there was no power during the night.  We have become so used to having this wind speed and direction information constantly displayed in the cockpit, that we can no longer figure out how to sail without it.  Actually it was not that much of a problem as there was virtually no wind at night - not much during the day for that matter.  In spite of the lack of wind, the seas were quite lumpy - a bit of a beam-on swell.

We saw the usual assortment of shrimping boats, pangas and unexplained lights on the sea at night.  We managed not to hit anything.

Since we did not want to arrive in Mexico at night, and we had a small favorable current most of the time, we were happy to go slow, sailing in the light winds whenever they would move us at more than 2 or 3 knots.  In total we only managed to cover about 40 miles of the 250 mile passage under sail, arriving at Marina Chiapas around 10AM on Friday.  As usual for us, after a 2-day passage we were thoroughly exhausted.

Most of the rest of Friday was spent on the incredibly complicated process of checking into the country.  We were visited on the boat by a contingent of Navy personnel, complete with AK47 guns and a drug-sniffing dog (who fortunately showed little interest in our boat), followed by a customs inspection agent and a representative from the port captain’s office, with lots of paperwork to be filled in by each of them.  Meanwhile, the manager of the marina took copies of just about every conceivable piece of documentation we have, preparing for phase 2 of the checkin process.

Once everyone was happy, and off the boat, the manager took us, and the crews of 3 other boats that were checking in or out, by car to the various offices.

First was customs, to complete some more paperwork and sign some document or other and get our official piece of paper.

Second was a visit to a lonely little trailer in the navy yard, where we paid a 200 peso port fee and collected our receipt for same.

Third was Immigration, where we filled in the same forms that we would have if we were arriving via air, paid our 533 pesos each, had our passports stamped and received our 180-day tourist visas.

Last, but certainly not least, was a trip to the port captain’s office in the nearby town of Puerto Madero, where we stood around for hours while some extraordinary complex calculations and reams of documents were produced to determine that our fee (for the use of the port?), based on the weight of the boat, was 200 pesos, which cannot be paid for with cash - must be a credit or debit card only.  Of course, none of our cards would work.  After much trial and error, and lengthy telephone calls to somewhere, it was determined that their system cannot accept a Canadian card.  One of the other cruisers kindly offered to pay the fee with their credit card and we gave them the cash.

We are officially in Mexico!

Back at the marina in the late afternoon, we had a wonderful lunch at the marina restaurant, and went to bed early!  We slept for about 12 hours straight.

Nothing much has been going on over the weekend.  Now that it is Monday, the marina workers are back on the job and it is time to start thinking about scheduling our haul out and such.  There is to be a potluck tonight with all of the cruisers that are currently here.  BTW It is brutally hot here!

{GMST}14|41.9333|N|92|23.5167|W|Marina Chiapas, Mexico|Marina Chiapas, Mexico{GEND}

We’re leaving when???

Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador

After another month of procrastinating, we have actually set a departure date.  In only two days time, we plan to exit the estuary for the first time in almost 3 years. Needless to say, it feels as if we are starting this sailing life all over again.  It’s not that we aren’t organized, we have been working through some pretty comprehensive checklists; it’s more that we aren’t really sure what items should be on said checklists anymore.  Oh well, as I have often told anyone who will listen, it is not rocket science.

One of the things that has made it most difficult to leave is that we have been having such a good time this last month.  With most of the major boat projects completed, and an influx of new boats arriving, we have been busy with a heavy social calendar.  In addition to the usual evening gatherings at various venues for sundowners, cocktails, pupusas, swims and such, we have taken part in a few extra activities that we have not done since the El Salvador Rally days.

A trip up the estuary to the Rio Lempa, stopping at the village of La Colorado on Isla Casahara.

A day trip with “the boys” to the hardware store, on to Puerto de Diablo, and an attempt to find an elusive stellar observatory (we found it but it was closed to the public).

The hotel put on a Super Bowl party yesterday, that was almost a joke when they couldn’t get the Internet stream to work for the big screen.  Sometime in the first quarter, they did get it going, only requiring a reset every 10 minutes or so.

A couple of the last minute boat projects on my list were cleaning the decks of all the bird crap and cane-burning residue, and then a long overdue servicing of the mast winches.  Susanne was a bit upset with me for not wearing a shirt during these projects, resulting in a rather attractive red and white striped backside.  You would think I would know better by now.

Tomorrow we have scheduled Deny and his boys to clean the bottom and the prop, ready for an early morning exit over the bar at high tide around 8 AM the next day, Wednesday. We have a freshly filled propane tank and plenty of fresh water.  Today I topped up our diesel via jerry jugs.  With any luck we will be in Chiapas in Mexico by Friday!  WooHoo!

{GMST}13|18.4|N|88|54.1362|W|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador{GEND}