Catch-Up Jan-April ’22 Post
UPDATE: I will post position reports roughly every 48h here:
https://cms.winlink.org:444/maps/positionreports.aspx?callsign=ke6jen
NOTE: I wrote this mid-April and was unable to post it for lack of internet, so the content is behind the posted date.
As in past years, the process of leaving home proved challenging and November turned to February turned to almost March. There are all of the last-minute projects that we (mostly Harry) get called for, the last-minute “oh no, we forgot to order XYZ part for the boat and it’s going to take 6 days to ship”, the last-minute “hey, we should grab dinner before you go” calls, and the unforeseen but inevitable emergencies with friends and family. I now believe that the longer you have been at home, the stronger the magnetic force is that keeps you there. Thankfully, a deadline emerged. We had to be in San Diego by close-of-business on February 24 to pick up critical parts, or be forced to wait another full week for the next opportunity.
We break the drive up into several days as we have friends in King City and Long Beach. Since Tux starts melting down at about the 10h mark, these stops are necessary for all 3 of us. Plus, San Diego has a bunch of stores we like to hit for parts and supplies. On the 25th, we were safely tucked into a little motel in Gila Bend, AZ, primed to hit the Lukeville border crossing shortly after it opens at 6a. The customs agents took one look at our fully loaded F-250 truck and sent us into the “items to declare” line. Thankfully, I had rough packing lists for each of the NINE 27-gal totes (though next time I’ll make sure they are in both English and Spanish), and the agents were satisfied after looking through only the first few crates in the back. Considering we paid $0 2 years ago, I did not balk at the $40USD duty this year, and we were finally on Mexican soil.
Six hours later, we saw our beloved Solla Sollew…covered in 2 years of dust, dirt and grime of course, but otherwise safe and sound. The next 4-5 days are always pretty tough. The boat is nearly unlivable when in storage – everything that is normally out on deck is stored inside so you can’t move around much, but nothing inside can be brought outside until the 15’ x 40’ cover is removed and cleaned (ish) and the deck and cockpit are cleaned (well). The water at the yard is full of mineral deposits and dirt, so we have to buy filtered water at a filling station down the street or from the water guy who delivers more or less 6 days a week. There’s no cooking yet either – everything is too dirty, nothing is organized, and we’re too tired at the end of each day anyway. Then there’s all the stuff that needed sorting in the 9 aforementioned 27-gal totes…all while going up and down a ladder and tramping through dust and dirt. Slowly but surely though, we put our home back together.
One week in and we were finally able to start on our *actual* boat projects. This year, rather than a short list of big projects, we had a long list of little projects. Harry optimistically penciled in 2 weeks; I was more realistic (but still low) at 3-4 weeks. The highlights: Replace alternator, voltage regulator, and battery monitoring apparatus. Find and patch leaks in dinghy. Sand down and paint outboard. Finish cockpit shade partial enclosure. Hand stitch new steering wheel cover. Rebuild stove. Repair boat cover (thankfully a local guy ended up doing this for me). Make anchor-riding sail. Celebrate Jen’s birthday. New blocks and lines for dinghy davits. Replace workroom light. Re-install refurbished Electroguard. Sand down and apply special paint on propeller. Grind out and fill bottom blisters. Address corrosion on backstep and steering console. Repair vinyl graphics on hull. Make new zinc mounts and machine zincs to fit. Complete bottom job.
Between everything just always taking longer than you think, actual setbacks, my still working at my job-job periodically, 3 days of head-colds for us both, and frankly some days just being too hot or too tired to do much, we topped out at 6 weeks and 3 days to launch.
I’ve typed all of this at anchor on the West side of Isla Carmen, a 110 nautical-mile sail from Guaymas after we spent one day and night at anchor in a bay near the yard. Poor Tuxie did not enjoy the trip, and I did not enjoy the hours it took to bucket-wash all of her urine out of our duvet cover, sheets, and mattress pad after we arrived. She PPP+D (puked, peed, pooed, and drooled) and generally felt lousy the whole way. She hasn’t sailed for 3 years so I expect it’ll take time to get her sea legs back. However, the next night she was first to the back deck staring at all the fish swimming around us at anchor and loudly demands her share of the catch every time Harry has a rod in the water.
On a bummer note: we have a teency salt-water leak. It’s contained and not in any way causing us danger, and we’re probably going to be able to do our short cruise without having to make an official repair. But, the repair when it happens is going to suck.
As to cruising plans, we’re resigned to not covering any new territory this year. We just don’t have enough time to branch out and still make it either back to Guaymas or all the way down to the southern tip of Mexico by July. (These are our chosen summer storage spots.) So, we’ll bob around in the central and northern Sea of Cortez for yet another season. Barring another global pandemic or disastrous wildfire, we will *really try* to get back to the boat this coming November.
