On the HARD in Mazatlan

Fish out of water! The sea the sea the wonderful sea! Land-locked! Ugh, our scales and gills are drying out. Ok, what are we talking about? We are on the hard and have been since Wednesday April 8.

We left Nuevo Vallarta marina on Monday March 30 and motor sailed the 15 nm to Punta de Mita which is at the mouth of Banderas Bay. After having a wonderful potluck dinner with some friends we left early the next morning for Mantanchen Bay (San Blas). We motor sailed as the wind, currents and waves/swells were on our nose for the 15 hours it took. The big excitement for the day occurred when we were about ¾ mile away from anchoring. Gary yelled rock/reef starboard side and jerked the wheel to port to avoid. It was a narrow miss but it wasn’t a rock, it was a whale shark that slowly was crossing our path. The shark was probably 16-20 feet long and didn’t seem the least bit bothered by us. Sorry no pix – we weren’t prepared with a camera on deck, however, we promise to provide pictures this summer when, as we are told, we will see lots. We stayed at anchor for 3 nights with Thursday the 2nd seeing us going on the jungle ride. Lots of pictures attached – showing some of the birds and crocs that we saw.

We left Friday morning for an overnight to Mazatlan arriving there about tenish Saturday morning. We got a slip at one of the marinas so we could drain the house bank of batteries down to nothing and recharge. By Monday we realized this didn’t work and ordered 3 new batteries (ouch this really hurt the cruising kitty!). While searching for the batteries we also investigated having the bottom painted. We found a yard that has a good reputation and they pulled us out of the water on the 8th while we were on board (see a couple of the pix). Since being out of the water, we rebuilt the head (it broke the morning before we were pulled out), changed the oil, did engine maintenance, cleaned the shaft and prop plus all the thru holes, waxed the hull, made shade covers for the outboard gas can, shade covers for all the fuel and water jerry cans plus the dinghy wheels, designed and built a sunshade for the bow end of the boat, plus many other minor projects. Cindy is taking advantage of the power and the large lounge at the boat yard to work on quilts, knitting, etc.

Monday will be exciting because the yard plans to bring in the hoist and lift the boat so they can do the last minute touch ups that were missed due to the support braces. The boat will need to hang overnight which means we will be in a cradle overnight swinging with the wind. But, this means they will put us in the water on Tuesday and we will start our 48-50 hour jaunt to La Paz over the southern crossing of the Sea of Cortez.

Take care everyone.

Love,

Gary & Cindy

17 Apr 2009

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