Out with the new, in with the old!

Well...

After a very long time of being unable to access my "old" (original) blog because it had been hacked by Neoworx, it appears Google has fixed the problem! I have also discovered that other blogs were affected. I think the thing that made me the maddest was that when it happened there we absolutely no way to contact Google about getting it fixed. They now have a "send feedback" button so "someone" must have gotten in touch somehow. Anyway...now that it is back on line I have decided to go back there. I know it has been a long time but I've finally started writing again. If you still want to follow, here's the link:   travelswithfaith.blogspot.com

Another Attempted Escape from La Paz

Well. It appears I have been quite remiss (lazy?) in writing of late. I have to admit that when we are in one place for a length of time I find it challenging to come up with a subject that I think will be entertaining, informative or just plain interesting to my readers. That is the case now.

 

Good times in La Paz.

As previously reported, we arrived in La Paz on New Year’s Day at which point our friend, Mary, proceeded to fall and break her wrist. That entire episode is detailed in my previous blog post so I will proceed from there.

Homes on the "golf course" in Los Muertos (photo from '09). Golf course is now pretty much dead grass and sagebrush.

Shortly after Mary flew home we attempted, once again, to continue on to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in expectation of a 2+ month stay in one of our favorite places. The farthest we managed to get was the anchorage at Bahia de Los Muertos (Bay of the Dead). As an aside, the developers are working hard to change the name to Bahia de Los Sueños (Bay of Dreams). It seems this is a response to the reluctance on the part of buyers (mostly retirees) who are put off by the thought of living in a “dead place”.

 

Beautiful water in Los Muertos.

On that first day as we transited the Ceralvo Channel I began to detect a bit of “Ode de Diesel”. We’d originally planned to bypass Los Muertos (we insist on using the original name) but the farther we progressed the more pronounced the odor became and if you have ever smelled diesel fumes you will know precisely why it became prudent to stop and investigate the problem. Once we were anchored that was diagnosed and corrected quickly (tho’ it took a bit of time to eliminate the s-m-e-l-l) but when Chris arose the next morning and stepped into the forward head he discovered another dilemma. The new electric toilet had decided to siphon water somewhat continuously during the night and there was quite the puddle on the floor. Fortunately, boat bathrooms are made for water! The walls and floor are gelcoat (fiberglass) and there is a handy dandy switch that runs a pump to drain it into a sump and out of the boat. Still, it presented another problem to be solved. The boat was not in danger of sinking but if the siphon continued it could drain our fresh water tanks. After several unsuccessful attempts to correct the problem, we decided our best option was to return to La Paz where we happen to know a very good boat plumber.   

 

Restaurant on the beach. Weather this year was chilly, overcast, windy, drizzly at times.

Los Muertos is a beautiful anchorage with emerald green water and a white sand beach but there are few amenities. There is no store so what you bring is what you have. The restaurant on the beach will allow you to use their internet if you patronize them but there is no cell tower or other internet service available. The weather had turned kinda crappy so we spent a few days on the boat but we were unable to receive the SSB net to get the weather predictions and with no internet couldn’t get GRIBS (weather fax) so we were “flying blind” so to speak. Finally the wind & chop eased enough to take the dinghy ashore where we had a wonderful lunch, downloaded the GRIB files and, by walking around the corner to a rise, Chris was even able to call the marina and re-reserve the slip we’d so recently vacated.

 

Faith back in her slip in La Paz.

So…we arrived back in La Paz five days after we’d left. As it turned out, the toilet fixed itself and Chris deduced that somehow the solenoid had gotten stuck. It has functioned perfectly ever since. By then, however, the minimal weather window we’d counted on had slammed shut with no end in sight. After much discussion we decided that 2 attempts were enough and La Paz was a perfectly fine place to spend a couple months during the winter. After all, it is where we were last year.

 

Even in a marina the Mexican sunsets are gorgeous.

Thus…we have now confirmed that the so called “La Paz Vortex” is still functioning well.

Mary's Visit

Mary "practising" her reading skills at anchor in San Carlos.

My longtime friend, Mary, has been one of my staunchest supporters in my years of planning to sail off into the sunset. She has been by my side as I walked docks, posted ads, answered ads and went to great lengths to “find the right man with a boat”. Finally realizing that was not the answer, I purchased a boat of my own and Mary & I spent many summers sailing and learning on it. Then I moved up to something a bit bigger and finally bought THE cruising boat.

In the 7 years since I left Portland Mary has been my “go to” person taking care of my mail and handling situations that are not handle-able long distance.

Almost every winter Mary comes for a visit here in Mexico and is always great fun to have aboard. When it comes to all the little inconveniences that are a part of life on a boat she “gets it” and never complains when plans change or things break. She is just as happy to sit a dock with a good book and a good Margarita in hand as she is sailing about.

Up until this year Mary has been with us in ports along the Pacific coast of Mexico but we have always wanted her to see the Sea of Cortez which is best during the Spring. That has not been possible. This year we asked if she would like to do the passage from San Carlos to Puerto Vallarta. That would give her a chance to experience real “cruising” - the way we do it in the Sea – instead of being in marinas most of the time. As an added bonus, we could pick her up in Tucson which would give us a chance to get some last minute items from the States. She jumped at the chance!

 

San Juanico...pretty much empty!

We left San Carlos December 17^th intending to make the trip to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in 2-3 weeks. Well, “plans” are never written in stone in this lifestyle. The crossing was mostly quiet and as we approached the Baja side it was necessary to slow down so the sun would be up when we entered the anchorage. 

Mary and the "Cruiser's Shrine"

We were surprised to find only two boats in San Juanico as this is a much loved stop. Another surprise…one of the boats was a Morgan. The owners of “Air Supply” came right over to say “hi” and check out the differences between their boat (a ’78 model) and ours (an ’87). Shortly after they left we discovered that the prop shaft had backed out of the transmission. That happened at the end of last season but the yard was supposed to have fixed it. Chris and Clay (off the other Morgan) fixed the problem but from then on we would not be able to use reverse to set the anchor. Using the wind & water to do that worked fine but it was still a little un-nerving.

The next morning a Norther came roaring in right on schedule and we were there for a week reading, playing Mexican Train and, basically having a “slumber party”. One day we were able to dinghy in to walk the beach, give Abby a bit of a run and re-install our memento on the “Cruiser’s Shrine” but that turned out to be the only opportunity we had to leave the boat until we got to La Paz.

Chris caught dinner at Isla Coronado!

On Christmas Day the wind let up enough to make a run for Isla Coronado and we arrived to find the same boats from San Juanico waiting for us. One night in the NW anchorage was all we had before having to move to the southern end to hide from another 3 day blow. Once that was over we made the 8 hour passage to Agua Verde for one night and then pushed on to Isla San Francisco with the intention of staying there long enough to take Mary to the beach. Alas, yet another “wind event” was predicted so first thing the next morning we were off again for the final leg to La Paz.

Even with a broken wrist Mary can play Mexican Train.

Some friends were waiting at our slip to take a line and help us get docked since we couldn’t back up. A good thing as it was New Year’s Day and the office was closed when we arrived. Anne even loaned us a gate card so we could shower and go to dinner. All went well until we left for the restaurant. Mary took a misstep getting off the boat and fell on her wrist on the dock. We weren’t sure whether it was broken or badly sprained so we all decided to go to dinner, ice it and see what tomorrow looked like. Tomorrow it was worse so we taxi’d in to a recommended doctor who took one look and said, “Ee’s broken”. From then on the day got complicated very fast. 

Lunch in Todos Santos

After seeing the X-rays an Orthopedic Surgeon admitted Mary to the hospital and did surgery that night. She was released the next afternoon. She was in much less pain and we spent 2 weeks showing her around La Paz and even took a couple road trips. 

Beach day!

Once the stitches were removed and Mary was fitted with a shorter brace, work began to call more stridently. It didn’t look like we were going to have a weather window to cross to La Cruz any time soon so Mary flew home from here. 

Mary with Dr. Sanchez.

We had a great time showing Mary a passel of new places and she never once complained about weather, being stuck on the boat, getting injured or anything. When asked about her wrist, she consistently said, “It could have been so much worse”. We are looking forward to her next visit but I think we’ll skip the injury. Even though the medical care was excellent, it was certainly not on the “things to do while I’m on vacation” list.

        

Dreams (written in December)

The marinas and work yards in Guaymas and San Carlos are humming like a hive of bees in a field of blooming clover. Cruisers are working hard to get their boats ready for another season of sailing. Cleaning off the dust from the summer months when the boats sat idle in storage yards. Re-running lines. Bending on sails. Repairing all those things that failed last season. Installing new equipment. Inflating dinghies and checking for leaks. Starting outboards to make sure they run.

 

"Faith" getting her bottom painted.

We have had “relatively” few new projects this year and most of those are on a much smaller scale than the past couple years so we are pretty much ready to go sooner than usual. What we have had to wait for is our new immigration cards and those arrived on Monday. We’ve notified our friend, Mary, that we are ready and will be picking her up tomorrow since she is joining us for the trip south.

As we plan this year’s voyage I am struck by the changes that have taken place since I first began dreaming of “sailing off into the sunset”. Way back when, I wanted to sail around the world so badly I could almost taste it. As much as I wanted the adventure, I was also afraid I couldn’t do it. Over the years I have accomplished much of what I dreamed of and changed plans so many times one would almost think I was schizophrenic. I do think, however, that being flexible is a very necessary part of the lifestyle.

There are as many different kinds of cruising as there are people who cruise. There are folks who are not able to be away from home, family, jobs for long periods of time so they keep a boat in the port of their choice and whenever they can get away they go for a few hours or a few weeks. There are people who don’t know any life other than on a boat and spend their lives circumnavigating the world and have long lists of foreign countries they have visited. Then there are hundreds of styles in the middle.

 

The cold, gray Pacific Ocean.

Over time, Chris & I have pared our cruising down to spending winters on the boat in Mexico. When we began this journey, 6 years ago, we had visions of the South Pacific, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Europe and “the world as our oyster”. The first wakeup call was the leg from Portland, OR to San Francisco, CA. Even though we spent much time waiting for bad weather to pass the conditions still involved mostly big, sloppy seas, fog, too much wind and cold & damp that permeated our bodies all the way to the bone marrow. At that point we adjusted to “places that are warm and sunny”. Then, we received an invitation to crew for friends in the South Pacific. We flew to Tahiti and sailed with them as far as Tonga. Overall, it was a wonderful trip and we got to see many of the places we’d always dreamed of…not to mention getting married on an uninhabited island! It was very nice but we came to realize the boats that do these very long passages take a huge beating, as do the people.

 

Wedding on the beach - Suwarrow Atoll, Cook Islands

Over the past six years of cruising in Mexico I have discovered that I am not a big fan of long passages. I am finding that as I age, my eyesight (especially night vision) is gradually deteriorating which makes me pretty uncomfortable on night watches. I also find it difficult to sleep as every small noise causes me to awaken with “What was that?” screaming into my mind. And, every year there are more of the physical jobs that we hire out because our bodies are getting older.

 

Jesus & Eduardo. Our faithful helpers in San Carlos.

This year has begun with a higher than usual amount of lousy weather which meant sitting in (supposedly) protected anchorages for longer periods of time waiting for it to end. It is cold & windy with very large chop which makes moving about much more uncomfortable. Add to that a fairly major boat issue that came up after we left San Carlos and my flexibility ability has really taken a dive.

So…while dreams are what propel us into action and keep us looking forward to new experiences, it is important to remember that dreams are not set in stone. The only constant in life is change.

Immigrants

Since we arrived late in Mexico we found ourselves with a mere three days to renew our “green cards” (Temporary Resident Status). Given the challenges in the past we were a bit concerned but first thing Monday morning we took ourselves to the INM office in hopes that all would go well. The very nice young woman gave us a list of items we needed to provide and stressed that we had no more than 2 days to get back with everything.

After a quick stop to have the required “prison” photos taken (no jewelry, no makeup, no bangs, no glasses, no smiling), we stopped at JJ’s for a couple tacos and a beer and then spent the afternoon at the RV putting together the balance of required items.

The first item of business was to complete an application for renewal. You go to the INM website and fill out the application form (which is, of course, all in Spanish). I filled it out with the Spanish/English dictionary by my side but Chris figured out that if you check the “Nue” box it will pre-fill everything from last year and all you have to do is make corrections on anything that has changed. Arggh. In our case, the only thing we changed was our physical address. In the past we have used the marina where the boat is but this year we decided the RV park address would work better…especially since the coach will stay here even while we are out cruising on the boat. Once completed, printed out a copy. Check.

Next, make copies of 1) a very specific letter asking Mexico to allow us to continue being temporary residents in their country; 2) page 1 of our Passports; 3) both sides of our current green cards and 4) bank statements (for each person) from the past 3 months. Mexico, like most countries, isn’t all that jazzed about immigrants who can’t support themselves.

Next: have a glass of wine to celebrate completing everything without becoming overly stressed out.

First thing the next morning we were off to pick up the photos and go to the bank to pay our fees. Since we were requesting a 3 year renewal the cost was $6,154 pesos for each card. At the current exchange rate that is somewhere between $439 and $473 U.S. The bank was a little challenging since they will only accept cash (no credit or debit cards) for this transaction but, fortunately, we had both gotten money from the ATM the day before so didn’t exceed our daily limit to get the rest that way.

When we got to the INM office the young woman who processed it was pleased that we had everything but did chastise us a little (with a smile) because we hadn’t made copies of the receipt from the bank. Still, she made the copies, stamped everything (Mexican authorities REALLY like stamps) and said the cards should be ready for pick up in a week.

The next day I received an email telling me my card would be ready in 3 days. This morning I went into the website to check and received the message that the card is “aqui” (here)! Given past experiences with Mexican government stuff I am stunned at how quickly everything was done. But…happy! Now we can leave any time the boat is ready. That, of course, is a whole different issue!