Splashdown

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

The day was perfect for launching a boat - light winds and a noon high tide.  Of course, there was a weird fog rolling in - nothing to worry about though; I don't need much visibility to move from one dock to another.  With that in mind, I hiked down to Marina Seca to apply some pressure to the workers who were supposed to have the hull nicely cleaned and polished by 11:00 AM.

When I got to the boat in the workyard, they told me they would have it finished by 1 PM and I would have to wait until Monday afternoon to put it in the water.  "Not satisfactory" I said - "What alternatives can you suggest?"  They said they could put it in as-is and finish the job tomorrow while the boat is in the water.  Sounded good to me and thus all of the stars in the heavens aligned and the boat showed up at the San Carlos Marina boat launch at about 11:45 AM, right on time.  And the fog had completely disappeared as well.  Good omen.

Splash!

A short motor over to our new home, only slightly embarrassing myself as I cleverly turned the boat around in it's own length (I was actually trying to back up in a straight line but you have to go with the hand you are dealt).   And just like that we are boaters again.

I spent the rest of the day trying to piece our dinghy back together.  I had dismantled it in an attempt to patch the leaky floor just before we left.  The assembly went pretty well except that my trusty hand pump broke before I got everything re-inflated.  It doesn't look repairable to me so I guess we will now be on the lookout for a new pump.  I am just happy it happened now, not last summer when I was having to pump up the floor every other day while we were in the northern Sea of Cortez.  Timing is everything.

{GMST}27|56.8825|N|111|03.3573|W|San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico|San Carlos,Sonora, Mexico{GEND}

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}

 

Boatless wandering

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

Cool temperatures and great anticipation.

We woke up this morning to a frigid 14 degrees outside.  But we were warmed with the thoughts of being reunited with our beloved boat.  This however was not to be.

Somewhere in there is our home

After taking the short hike to Marina Seca, we found the office closed.  Apparently this is some sort of national holiday and we were denied access to the storage yard.  The work yard was open but there was no sign of Sine Timore there.  As for the storage yard, try as we might, we could not even spot the boat from the fence.

So it was, with tears in our eyes, that we spent a surprisingly pleasant day exploring parts of San Carlos that we had not seen before.  As the day progressed, it did warm up a bit and some blue skies appeared.  We have great expectations for tomorrow on both the weather and boat fronts.

 

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

 

Planes, buses and automobiles

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

It's like a time warp.  Here we are, exactly where we left off, 4 months ago.

In the last 2 days it feels as if we have experienced 3 seasons.  We left Edmonton in the tail-end of winter (albeit a very mild one). 

We flew directly from Edmonton, south to Mazatlan in Sinaloa province in Mexico, where it felt like summer.  The weather was warm and humid although a bit overcast (probably a blessing as we were facing a long bus ride back north to our ultimate destination in San Carlos).

Bus terminal in Mazatlan

While in Mazatlan, after a long taxi ride from the airport, we were able to store our copious amount of luggage at the bus terminal and walked and used local buses to revisit our old haunts from last winter, including having a coffee at our favourite coffee shop at the marina.  From what we observed, things seems even slower this year than last, with less people out and about.  This was confirmed by the locals.  Tourism is really down, probably a direct result of the bad press they have been getting over the last few months.  It is so sad that such a nice place and such nice people are getting the worst of a combination of gang violence (yes, there is a definite problem), sensationalistic reporting of the trouble a few tourists make for themselves, and the horrid economic situation in the US of A, forcing a lot of Americans to just stay home.  Sorry to say there is little we can do about it.

Typical tourist antics that end badly!

After our day in Mazatlan (the plane arrived just before 11 AM and our bus was scheduled to leave at 9:45 PM), the bus eventually left 1-1/2 hours late and took more than 12 hours to get to Guaymas, due to the many stops along the way - we lost count of the number of military check-points.  Fortunately we were tired enough to sleep for most of the overnight trip and arrived feeling almost human.

Bus terminal along the way (Obregon)

In Guaymas (as far as the big bus would take us) we took a 20-minute taxi ride to the Marinaterra hotel in San Carlos.  The weather here feels a lot like fall.  With a fully overcast sky and brisk wind, there is definitely a chill in the air - not what we were expecting.  Jacket weather - what a drag!

Tomorrow we will hopefully find out the fate of our boat.

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

When Winter Gets Tough, the wimps get going

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Winter!  We finally got a taste of winter!

After over 3 months of unusually warm weather (2nd mildest winter on record) and almost no snow, this week we were hit with a significant snowfall and some cold temperatures.  Susanne can be seen here demonstrating how to handle it all.

Really, we have very little to complain about.  If we had to be stuck in Edmonton for the winter season, this was definitely the year to do it.  As I am writing this, the temperatures have already risen to above freezing again and it probably won't be long until the snow is gone.  With the days getting longer, it is already starting to feel like spring.

Meanwhile down south, one of my fears has come to pass.  After getting no word from the boatyard on the status of the boat for several weeks, they called yesterday to say that it is ready.  No advance warning so we would have had time to find reasonably cheap flights to Mexico.  Here are the pictures of Sine Timore's new, blister-free bottom.  Only time will tell if it is also blister-proof.

We have decided to try a different route back to San Carlos.  If we were to reverse our bus trip from Guaymas to Phoenix and flight to Edmonton, we would have to fly in to the USA and then take a bus into Mexico.  This is the shortest and quickest route but would mean that we would have to check into the U S with their paranoid post-911 security and ridiculously small duty-free allowances, followed by crossing into Mexico at Nogales, where the news reports would have us believe that people are victims of random violence on an hourly basis.

Instead, we will fly from Edmonton to Mazatlan, further south in Mexico.  From there we will take a bus north to Guaymas.  This means a 12 hour bus ride instead of 6 to 8 hours, but overall it should be much less hassle.  Fortunately we were able to find a reasonably priced direct flight from Edmonton to Mazatlan - we will be leaving on March 17th.

Now, if only we can remember how to sail...

{GMST}53|35.3868|N|113|32.3568|W|Edmonton, Alberta, Canada|Edmonton, Alberta, Canada{GEND}