We’ve met a number of people whose boats were flooded while they were in “dry” storage during the hurricane. Typically this happened because the cockpit filled with water and then emptied into the cabin. For some it has just meant a muddy mess to clean up; for others, it has meant lost gear, dead batteries, and ruined engines. One guy (who, incidentally, is responsible for reintroducing wolves to Idaho- you meet such interesting people while cruising!) had hoped to spend a month sailing the sea, and instead is hauling his rusty engine back home. So, we were even luckier than we realized!

We worked hard getting ready to launch. While Todd was busy taking the engine apart and then putting it back together, I was in charge of scraping all the old cetol (varnish) off the boat. After coming off my previous job of waxing the hull, which took two days and left me with some sore muscles, I was glad to move on to a less taxing chore.

Though removing the cetol wasn’t difficult physically, it was very time consuming. And, since we were using a heat gun to soften the cetol so that we could easily scrape it off, I ended up with a number of burns on my hands and fingers.

“Why don’t we hire someone to do this?” I asked Capn Taskmaster. “A lot of guys would be happy to do this for $40 a day,” I pointed out. Todd shook his head, saying “No, this job takes a lot of concentration. You have to be careful not to damage the wood, or burn the fiberglass. I really can’t trust it to anyone but you.”

My heart swelled with pride! I had an important job that my Captain would trust to no other! My burns became badges of honor, and I threw myself into the work.

Well, one afternoon the Captain deigned to join me in scraping varnish. “Ah,” he exclaimed, “it’s so nice to do mindless work for a change!” Excuse me? Mindless? Oh no he didn’t!

As my scraper clattered to the deck, he realized his mistake. Capn Backpedal did all sorts of verbal somersaults, saying how difficult this work was, how important it was, how good the boat was going to look, and ending it all with a promise to take me out for a margarita as a reward for all my hard work. (Of course, then I knew he really thinks I’m an idiot; obviously he’s the one who wants a margarita…but, I figured I might as well get something out of him, so I went along with it.)

Speaking of idiots, one afternoon while we worked, we listened to Queen’s Greatest Hits. Freddy Mercury sang, “I want to ride my bicycle…” and Capn Camel observed, “I think it’s so funny how in this song, one guy says ‘Buy’ and the other says ‘Cigarettes’!” I paused a moment, trying to make sense of his statement. “They’re saying ‘Bicycle Race’,” I explained. And thus Todd has joined the ranks of those who woefully misunderstand song lyrics, like “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” (Purple Haze) and “There’s a bathroom on the right” (Bad Moon Rising).

Well, despite a little scheduling hiccup, we managed to launch on Tuesday, March 2. We’re now anchored out and so happy to be back in the water (and out of the dusty yard)! The only downside of anchoring out is that there have been some thefts recently- some solar panels taken from one boat, and an attempted dinghy theft. We’d be really screwed if we lost either of those things, so we’ve been locking everything up at night and checking topsides any time we hear noises in the night.

We’re almost done putting on 6 coats of cetol. We need to get the wiring done for the new windlass, and do our big shopping run, before we head out across the sea. The winds have seemed pretty variable, so we’ll be keeping an eye on the weather as we ready for our departure.

For those of you who are interested in the Idaho wolves: The guy we met is a wildlife biologist who was hired by the Nez Pierce tribe to help reintroduce wolves and bighorn sheep. What Todd found most interesting was the method of capturing the wolves: they went up to Canada, got in a helicopter, then flew about 20 ft above the wolf packs, armed with net guns. When they were in the right position, they’d shoot the net and hope to get the wolf. I was most intrigued by the difference in methodology from the Yellowstone wolves (“Yeah, Wyoming gets all the press,” lamented our biologist friend). The Yellowstone project tried to capture related wolves, and release them as packs. In Idaho, they just got a bunch of random wolves and let them go. Both methods were successful. In Idaho, they released something like 35 wolves, who first took off roaming all over the state, then paired up and formed new packs. They now have over 900 wolves!

We had been worried because we thought she was still in the work yard, which had 4 feet of raging water running through it. You can imagine our relief when Adam said no, she had been moved to the storage yard a few weeks back!

Plus, she was moved to an ideal location, with the least amount of water and mud. Hooray!

Adam trudged through mud and scoured the yard, checking on a number of boats for folks like us. And he got this photo for us:

Three cheers for Adam! And let’s hope that San Carlos, and other hard-hit towns, will have a speedy recovery from Jimena.

So, when your boat is hauled out on land, you don’t say “on land”, you say, “on the hard”. I asked Capn Nautologic why that is, and he said, “I don’t know,” then thought for a moment and postulated, “Because the ground is hard?” Hmmm….

I have another explanation: that life on a boat out of the water is hard. Actually, “inconvenient” would be a better description, but saying that your boat is “on the inconvenient” takes too many syllables.

On Sugata, many of our comforts depend on the boat being in the water. There’s our refrigerator, which uses salt water to cool the compressor. There’s our galley sink, which empties out into the sea (but since we’re having the bottom painted, we need to keep the hull dry). And most of all, there’s the head, which uses sea water for flushing.

The boat yard has a bathroom, but we’re about 200 yards from it, so… while “on the hard” we have this special piece of equipment, which in nautical terms is called… (wait for it)… “the pee bucket”.

The pee bucket works just fine, but emptying it is tricky, as it requires Capn Sloshy to carry the bucket up the companion way, out through the cockpit, and down the wobbly ladder that we use to get on and off the boat. The other drawback of the bucket is… the smell! At times I felt like a hamster with a negligent owner, left to scurry about in search of fresh air. One night I had a dream that we had a baby boy, and his diaper was wet so I went to change him, but he peed all over the bed! I awoke in a panic, and though I was relieved to find the sheets dry under Todd, I realized that the whole cabin smelled like wet diapers!

Luckily we discovered the solution: we just add a few drops of this Japanese toilet deodorizer that my mom picked up in Hawaii. This amazing product somehow nullifies foul odors. Capn Einstein theorizes that it creates an oily barrier layer on the top of the water; I don’t know why he ignores the obvious, which is that the stuff is magic! We call this magical deodorizer “poop juice”.

You know you’re in for a romantic evening when Capn Sweet Talk turns to you and asks, “Honey, did you put poop juice in the pee bucket?”

The other hard thing about being “on the hard” is all the work you end up doing. In addition to getting the sails back on, polishing all the stainless steel, and putting on a couple new coats of varnish, we ended up having to scrub down and wax the hull. Apparently the boat was stored near a pond, off of which came a weird greenish dust that stained all of our fiberglass.

Fortunately, I have discovered the ultimate tool for getting Capn Slacker to work: the 30 peso margarita! We found these cheap yet potent concoctions at a bar called Charlie’s Rock, which overlooks a pretty bay just west of San Carlos. One afternoon, we drove over to the city of Guaymas to pick up a new exhaust elbow for the engine. There is an amazing welding shop there where we took our old, corroded piece, and in just over 24 hours, they custom-built an identical one out of stainless steel, for about $160!

On the way there, we hit something on the road that made a terrible racket. We pulled over and I could hear air coming out of our tire. We high-tailed it for the nearest gas station, and on the way came across a tire store. In about 15 minutes we had a new tire installed. “We need to get a jack,” said Capn Boy Scout. “I could have sworn I had one,” I mumbled. “It’s irresponsible,” he continued. “What if we’d been on the freeway, miles from anywhere? We’re going to buy one immediately!”

So off we went to Auto Zone, where we bought a new jack. Todd went to put it in the trunk and then said, “Oh.” “What is it?” I asked. “Um, looks like we already have one,” he said. “I just didn’t see it. But you know, we really should have one of those special lug nut wrenches….”

After our second trip to Auto Zone, neither of us was in a very good mood. Even the thought of his shiny new exhaust elbow didn’t cheer up Capn Cranky Pants. So when he mentioned stopping at Charlie’s Rock on the way back, I agreed. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about the 30 peso margarita. “For $2.25, how good can it be?” I asked. Todd, however, was suddenly an optimist. “For $2.25,” he cried giddily, “how bad could it be?!”

This past Sunday was our last work day “on the hard”, so we had to finish up. I told Todd that if we were done before sunset, we’d hit Charlie’s Rock again. Guess who was up at 8am, for the first time in weeks? Guess who had a special spring in his step all day? It seems so obvious now- I don’t know why it never dawned on me before! Oh mighty margarita, is there anything you can’t do?

Click this link for some serious dance action…

From 20090214SanCarlos

The sail over from Mazatlan was one of the tougher passages we’ve had. Our plan was to sail northwest until we reached the latitude of La Paz, then turn due west to cross the Sea of Cortez. The forecast called for 20 knot winds from the north on the day we’d be crossing, so we hoped for a good sail.

Well, to make a long, bumpy, sea-sick story short, our plan didn’t quite pan out! The wind was more northwesterly, and with the rough seas, we got pushed quite a bit to the south. About 55 hours after we’d left Mazatlan, we ended up anchoring at Muertos (about 50 miles south of La Paz) to get a day of rest, then came up to La Paz the following night.

We were lucky to get a slip at Marina de La Paz, which we prefer because of its convenient location near the carnivorous crewmembers’ favorite restaurant, Rancho Viejo. After a filling breakfast and several cups of coffee, I spent the afternoon doing load after load of laundry and Toro washed the salt off the rigging.

The next morning I overheard Todd telling another cruiser that we’d be in La Paz for about a week, because “the old lady needs a lot of work”. When I asked him what exactly had to be done, Capn Cro-Magnon made his “thoughtful” face (furrowing his considerable brow and rolling his eyes back; think Frankenstein without the neck bolts). Finally, he said, “I think we should hire some young Mexican guys to do most of it.”

Well, my ears certainly pricked up! “Really?” I squealed, imagining myself relaxing in a cream and rose petal wrap, having my nails done by Miguel and my neck rubbed by Alberto, while Juan mixed me a refreshing cocktail. Todd quickly dashed my reverie, saying “Yeah, we can get the boat washed down, and the stainless polished, the deck and hull waxed… the works!”

So while Sugata got a freshwater rinse and good soaping, I got a lukewarm shower at the marina. While her stainless steel got polished, I painted my toenails. Her fiberglass got rubbing compound and wax; I got my teeth cleaned and a cavity filled. She got two new coats of cetol (like varnish); Todd and Koiya did my hair with two colors of dye.

Todd had a bit of a scare when it seemed our refrigerator pump had conked out; it was not moving enough sea water over the motor to cool it. But I’m happy to report that, after making his “thoughtful” face a number of times, Todd figured out that the problem was with the salt water intake. He went around to the various hoses, sucking in sea water (eeewww!), blowing into them vigorously (ooohhh!), and poking into them with a metal claw (huh). Turns out the culprit was a bit of sea weed that we must have picked up in the marina. Todd was sure relieved to get that out of his pipes!

For the first few days, I felt bad for Koiya, because we weren’t doing any fun kid stuff. The most fun she had was going to the panaderia to buy bread and pastries. Luckily, there were some cute puppies to play with, and after a few days our friends on Theophilus arrived. Soon, Koiya was plugged in with a number of kids, and busy playing all day.

Over the weekend there was a kid’s birthday party at the Mogote, which is a stretch of beach right across from the marina. It has been so hot here (high 90s), that Capn Delicate Flower began whining very early in the day. “2:30?” he whimpered, “It’s going to be so hot then!” “Don’t worry,” I reassured him, “We can just go for a bit, then leave the girl to play on the beach while we come back and work on the boat.”

Well, the air was hot, but the water was perfect, and there was a keg of beer…. so I ended up bringing Koiya and three boys back to play a game on the boat, while Todd stayed on the beach with Captain Ron to drink beer.

Koiya is really in heaven since Sassona pulled in a couple days ago. She doesn’t want to leave her friends in La Paz and head north. Though she knows the water has warmed up and the snorkeling should be good, she asked me, “Why do we have to go to the islands?” Oh, the things I put her through!

See all of our latest La Paz photos here:

20080429LaPazAfterMainland

Many of you have been asking about when we’ll be back in the US. Our current plan is to have the boat hauled out in San Carlos (in the northern Sea of Cortez, on the mainland side) in the end of May. Our friends on Sassona left their van there, and we’ll be driving it back to Sacramento. We hope to make it back in time for Uncle Bumper’s birthday, June 6. We’ll come back to the boat around November; those plans aren’t solid yet.

1. Putting on 2 new coats of Petit Trinidad SR
2. Replacing the 10 year old standing rigging (including bobstay, whisker stays, and ham radio back stay insulators)
3. Replaced a corroded aluminum mast step (which was sitting on a stainless deck plate ughh)
4. Replacing some suspect blind rivets in the mast track
4. Pulling/refinishing/rebedding the bowsprit

From Click here to see the photo gallery

The work was generally good and I have nothing but good things to say about Chris Tibbe who managed the rigging portion of the project. Like all yard projects though you have to keep a close eye on the work and manage the project because they are just too busy to keep track of all of the details. I’ve taken my boat to 3 bay area yards and the experience at Svendsens was very good. However, after every major yard project (and Svensens was no exception) I’ve had to spend at least a day fixing some things that were not done properly.

Now to the project. I spent most of my time refinishing the bowsprit. It turned out to be a big job. I had the yard pull and rebed it (12 hours) and did the rest myself (amounting to about 30 hours over 3 weekends). Fortunately it was in great shape (no rot). It took about half a day just to disassemble after the yard had removed the fully assembled bowsprit from the boat. Then I used a heat gun to strip it, sanded it clean, applied 3 coats of penetrating epoxy (epoxy thinned with acetone), put on a coat of Interlux epoxy primer, and then 2 coats of Interlux perfection 2 part polyurethane.

Now we have the boat back at Emery Cove and I’m starting the process of tuning the rig myself (I just had the yard stabilize it) armed with a Loos tension gauge and Brion Toss’ book the Riggers Apprentice. So far so good!

When I mentioned this to a friend he recommended re-passivating the stainless using Wichinox. I haven’t tried it long enough to know how well it’s working but in theory it should re-passivate the steel which will stop it from rusting for a good long while.

The sensor is just two metal contacts that when connected via a conductor such as water sounds the alarm and it can easily be tested by dripping a little water on it. I didn’t even bother installing the remote receiver since I can hear the main unit’s alarm well enough even with the engine running.

I realized I needed something more elastic and had read good things from people who had rebed bowsprits, toerails, and chainplates with butyl mastic. So in 2002 I hit McMaster Carr and picked up some Butyl-Coated PVC Foam Sealing Tape part number 75875A661. I knew this stuff had great potential because with it’s PVC core it’s highly elastic and extremely sticky. So I rebed all of my chain plates in late 2002 with it and since then I’ve only had one start to leak, a much better track record than I ever had with polysulfide.

The best part was that rebedding was so much easier because the tape stays intact so you just pull it out, clean the contact areas with a putty knife and some acetone, and then re-apply. It’s also a lot cheaper than polysulfide!