Log 7: Mexico--Season 3--'01-'02

Log 7 of Albion (and other travels)






For our third season in Mexico, 2001-2002, we wanted to concentrate on seeing some of the inland portions of Mexico. From San Carlos, we sailed to Mazatlan, and then to Puerto Vallarta, our base for the inland travels. The following are the emails sent back to family and friends during our trip.


10/21/01 Subject: Back in Mexico

Yep, we are finally back in San Carlos Mexico where we left the boat last May. We left the RV in Tucson again after nearly a month heading south from Portland via Las Vegas seeing several shows. Crossing the border always seems like an adventure, but perhaps it is the anticipation of it more than anything else. One thing is certain....the lack of consistency. It seems every cruiser has a different experience. Our's was relatively uneventful and we managed to get here with all our parts and supplies. Everything looks great on the boat (in dry storage) except the boat cover we had made split over the cockpit from stern to cabin....but no problem. There were big brown water marks on the boat cover where water had pooled during the summer rainy season before evaporating. Albion is due into the work yard Monday (10/22) where it will get a good sanding and new bottom paint. Then it's back in the water where we put everything back together (sails, lines, clean up, and move aboard). It's great to be back and renew cruising acquaintances again. We had a great dinner last night with about 14 other cruisers we had not seen in a while. It seems we all tend to migrate back here about the same time. This summer was busy with family and friends. The major events were a 7 day cruise to Alaska on Norwegian Cruise Line with friends Bud & Lisa and two other couples we knew. We WILL do that AGAIN! Then we spent a week cruising in Desolation Sound on a friends' power boat where the weather, beauty, and relaxation were supreme! Another highlight was watching grand daughter Brianna practice with the Northwest Ballet Company in Seattle. We had several get togethers with Mexican cruisers, went to the Fred Meyer Challenge (and took grand son Travis one day), went to the Oregon State Fair, to the coast several times, and a nice picnic with Carrie and Emily at Willamette Park on a beautiful warm summer day. Our plans this year for Mexico are to do more inland trips. We plan to use PV as our base camp for the inland trips and stay there in luxury for four months, December through March. We plan to bus back up to San Carlos and drive the car down so we will have better transportation into Puerto Vallarta from Paradise Village. So if anybody is planning a visit this summer, you won't have to run us down, we will be up by the pool! Several have said they missed our occasional updates last year (and we didn't have any this summer either), but we felt we didn't do much other that work on the boat most of the time. We will try to remedy that this year and let friends and family know that we are still alive and living our dream!
Brent & Molly

11/5/01 Subject: San Carlos, Mexico

We have been back in Mexico a little more than two weeks now. The first week was spent in the motel as Albion was still in the yard. Guess we are not "real cruisers" as most of them are okay to live aboard while the boat is in the yard. But it is hot and dirty and very buggy there, so we treat ourselves to an air-conditioned room with a pool. It's clean and we're happy to part with $35/night for a few creature comforts. While we were waiting for space in the work yard, we were able to start the process of renewing our paperwork. The process of getting "legal" here is a lengthy one. Last year we established the FM3 (temporary residency) in Mazatlan so this year we had to change it to San Carlos. We spent several hours at the marina making copies of everything and getting letters and forms from them. Then off to Immigration, where even though we had everything in order, it still took over an hour. They are very nice and patience helps. There are many forms and in many cases they take an old one, make a copy, white out the old info, and start over. It's been years since I have seen white out! It doesn't matter if it is the case or not, but we have to submit a letter stating that I am dependent upon Brent for my support and he is responsible for all my actions! Another cruising couple submitted a letter stating that the wife had the income, and that was just not acceptable! Then it's off to the bank to pay the fees (about $100 per person), back to Immigration with the receipt, then we wait, maybe 10 days or two weeks and go back to get the official okay. Then they tried to give Brent the wrong passport....."That's not me!" he said, pointing to the picture. Next year we may just have to rethink it and maybe plan to spend less than six months. We would only need a tourist VISA if that were the case. Today, (11/5) we picked up the finalized FM3's so we are legal now and can stay a year if we want! Albion went back in the water on Friday 10/26 after getting three new coats of bottom paint. It was good to get back aboard, but then the work began. First order of business was to get the dirt off....six months worth. Then getting all the sails back up proved to be frustrating. I could make a very long story out of it, but will spare you. Just suffice to say, Brent thinks that just taping the messenger lines to the halyards is good enough; Molly thinks they should be sewn first. Molly's tongue is bloodied from biting it trying ever so hard not to say "I told you so!" Three days later, and Brent making many trips up the mast, things are finally back together again and we have sails! Men, if they would only learn!!!! We have decided to let Copper Canyon go for another year, but we are planning a day trip inland to Alamos, an old colonial mining town that is supposed to be very nice. After that, we should be ready to go. We are anxious to get going. Then we will head across the Sea of Cortez and on south. We had planned to stop in Mazatlan, but the marina there is closed, so we will by-pass there and go on to Puerto Vallarta by December 1. The weather has moderated somewhat. It was very hot when we arrived and lots of bugs. But now it has cooled down to the eighties or low nineties most of the time and there are fewer (but not gone) bugs. There is usually a breeze in the afternoon that helps. We continue to get little news from the homefront. We manage to get a USA Today occasionally and can catch CNN at some of the restaurants. The last week was pretty well dominated by the World Series since we are so close to Arizona. I guess if the TV is showing sports, that's good news as there's no urgent breaking news. We keep you all in our thoughts and hope all is well with everyone. We love hearing from you, so keep in touch! And remember, we'll be in PV most of the winter and will be open for visitors! all for now,
Molly

11/15/01 Subject: Back to Mexico AGAIN, finally

Finally the car is fixed and we are back in Mexico after traveling back to Tucson. What we thought would only be a couple of days turned into a week. Guess we bought each other new fuel injectors for our anniversary! They first tried to clean them, but that didn't work, so we had to have new ones. First they ordered them from LA and they only sent one and the rest were ordered from Texas, shipped FedEx which took an extra day because they went through Memphis, twice. The dealership rented a car for us and felt really bad that we had to stay so long. They ordered a dash mat for our car and it is being shipped home to Gresham. We will pick it up in December. We stayed with Nada and Dorsey the first two days, then our friends, who had driven their RV up from San Carlos to store and were planning to ride back with us, arrived. Of course they also had not planned to be there a week. They had only a couple days of clothes and all shorts. Nada and Dorsey also had some other company coming on Sunday. So we borrowed their small RV and camped out at the state park along with our friends. The weather was changing and it was getting cold in Tucson, so we were glad when the parts finally arrived on Wednesday. The four of us left Tucson about 5pm and arrived back at our boats about 11pm last night. It is usually not advisable to drive in Mexico after dark, but we didn't have any problems. Just one close call with cows on the highway! The weather here has gotten cooler also. It is pleasant to work on the boat during the day. Think we will wait until later to come next year. We are planning to fly home for Christmas this year to see the kids and grandkids. While there we will drive to Seattle on Saturday for Chuck Walter's retirement party, a very good friend that Brent used to work with and Best Man at our wedding. Now we are planning to leave here this weekend and sail straight through to Mazatlan (400 miles) to refuel then continue to Puerto Vallarta.

12/18/02 Subject: Inland Travels from Puerto Vallarta

We have just returned from a short vacation from the boat. We made a big circle driving south from Puerto Vallarta to Barra de Navidad and then inland to Colima, Comala, Lake Chapala and Guadalajara and then returning to Puerto Vallarta. When our friends, Tom and Sue, returned from Portland, transporting them back to their boat in Tenacatita was the perfect opportunity for us to take off for an inland trip. After a breakfast get together with several of Tom and Sue's friends, we headed off with some provisioning stops and finally were on the road headed south. After seeing the way they drive here on these hilly curvy mountain roads, one comes to have a real understanding of why there are so many roadside memorials along the way! We passed through many small villages along the way and finally picked one for a late-lunch, early-dinner stop. We stopped at a roadside palapa where a woman was BBQing chicken. She spoke no English and our Spanish is less than mediocre, but we managed to get a great meal and a couple of cervazas for very few pesos and were once again on our way. Tom and Sue graciously offered us a bunk on their boat for the evening, but since we were planning to head off early the next day, we decided we would prefer to stay some place ashore. We stopped and checked out the Blue Bay Resort there at Tenacatita. It was obvious that they don't often get asked for a rate for one night as they had to get out a book, check the computer, and ask about three different people, but finally came up with 780 pesos per person ($86 US). It's an all-inclusive resort which would include all our meals and drinks, but having already had dinner and planning to spend some time drinking beer on Seadater, also anchored in Tenacatita, we decided to pass and look for something on down the road in Melaque or Barra de Navidad. Horst on Seadater met us with his dinghy on the beach at Tenacatita . He made a couple trips getting Tom and Sue with their luggage and provisions back to X-TA-SEA. Then he came back for us and every now and then a dinghy launch through the surf goes wrong. This was one of those times and we got soaked. But after a couple of beers aboard Seadater, we were almost drip-dried and really didn't care. We had a great visit with Horst and Bea and then bid our farewells to them and Tom and Sue and decided it was time to find a place to sleep for the night. We found a place on the beach in Barra, had a shower and got into some dry clothes. It happened to be Carnival time in Barra so we walked through town to see the happenings. We spied Nancy from Sea Tern up at a second level restaurant and headed up to say hello. We found Nancy and Herm there having dinner with Barb and Monte from Reprise. We spent the rest of the evening with them touring the town and taking in the Carnival events. It's always great to catch up with other Portland cruisers and swap stories of how much rain they are getting back in Portland! The next morning we continued south around the bay at Manzanillo and on to Colima. Before Colima, however, we took a side road to some supposed caverns, but it was way off the road (about 18 miles) up a rough, steep, cobblestone hill, and the car was over heating. We turned around without making it to see the caverns....maybe next time! Colima is a colonial city and the capital of the small state of Colima. We found a nice hotel right on the town square convenient to do a walking tour of the city. There is a nice museum right across the square and several nice restaurants. Sunday evening is a big event in the Mexican town and everyone seems to show up at the town square just to be there. There was much activity. There are two volcanoes just north of the city; one is active now and had been spouting steam and ash in recent days. We drove towards the mountains through Comala and on to a small village, San Antonio, located on the lower slopes of the mountain. We couldn't see much of the mountain as it was cloudy and stormy while we were there. Back in Comala we stopped for a beer. The restaurants adjacent to the town square fill you with hors'd overs for the price of the beer. They just keep bringing food and we finally had to say "no mas." Then back to Colima and we searched out two archeological sites. One was closed for the day because no one showed up that day to sell tickets, but we spent some time touring the other site. The cloudy afternoon weather turned dark and menacing towards evening. By night time we had a good thunder, lightning and rain storm. It was a real tropical downpour. The next day, we had planned to go back to the archeological site we missed, but decided not to spend time tromping around the wet grass. So we headed north to Lake Chapala. It was still a rainy dreary day, reminding us much of Oregon. We nearly missed the turn off to Jocotepec and the lake, but finally got turned around and headed in the right direction. Jocotepec is the first town we went through on the lake, a typical Mexican town with ultra narrow streets and very few signs directing you through to the next town. Since it was still rainy and over-cast, we could not see much of the lake, Mexico's largest lake (53 x 18 miles). We opted to go on to Guadalajara and save a visit to the lake for another time. In Guadalajara we encountered heavy afternoon traffic snarled due to the rain, but finally located a hotel in the historic downtown area. We had a late lunch and since the rain had let up, went for a short walk over to the square and plaza. Even though we were on the tenth floor of the hotel, it was very noisy due to the heavy traffic on the street below. So, the next day we found another hotel close by but on a side street that should be a little quieter. It was and closer to the plaza and less expensive! We took a drive over to the town of Tonala and shopped till we dropped. Then we headed over to Tlaquepaque for lunch. We spent most of the afternoon there enjoying a great meal at a restaurant we had found when we were there last month. We made plans to take a town tour the next day. We had been on a bus tour to Guadalajara from Puerto Vallarta last month, but thought perhaps this local tour would give us a little different perspective and perhaps see some other areas. It was exactly that, we saw some of the same areas along with many new areas. Then it ended the afternoon with another visit to Tlaquepaque so we enjoyed another wonderful lunch at our favorite restaurant, Adobe Fonda! The next day it was time to complete our circle and head back to Puerto Vallarta. We considered going to Tepic which would have given us a visit to three state capitals on this trip, but we are planning a tour to the Huichol Indian village later and it will include Tepic so we headed home to the boat in Paradise Village. The distance between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta is only about 300 miles, but because it includes the worst section of roads, it's a long day on the road. We were tired and hungry when we returned to the boat in the afternoon, but would recommend the trip to anyone. It was great to see some different country and see some of Mexico that reminded us of parts of Oregon.

3/23/02 Subject: More Inland Travels

Shortly our time here in Paradise will have come to an end and we will head north into the Sea of Cortez and on to San Carlos where we will store the boat for the summer again. We are happy with the time we have spent traveling and seeing some of the inland sights of Mexico. Two of our recent trips have been the tour to the Huichol Indian village and an overnight trip to San Sebastian. There are about 56 villages of Huichol Indians still living primitively in the Serra Madre Mountains. They are a gentle people who are clinging to the old ways of their ancestors while the world around them struggles to move forward. The trip was a tiring, but very rewarding one. We left here about 8 am and traveled for several hours past Tepic and into the mountains. The village we visited is situated on a lake formed by a hydro electric dam. We took a panga ride up the lake; then it was a short hike up a hill to the village. Although the village is a few miles from the largest hydro electric plant on the west coast of Mexico, they choose to live without electricity. There were some homes with small solar panels, however, and the high school had a satellite dish for classroom use. We were asked not to take pictures of the people. Our guide would tell us when it was okay to photograph the houses. Unfortunately there were those "ugly Americanoes" on the tour who ignored those guidelines and clicked away. The homes are very primitive, made mostly from adobe and thatched roofing. They sleep in a separate open air sleeping loft on poles to keep unwanted animals out. Many of the children in the schools come from outlying areas and are housed in the village during the school week and return to their homes in the hills on the weekends. The children are taught both their native Huichol language and Spanish. At the end of our tour of the village, there was a small market set up where we could purchase small items of their native artwork at a considerable savings from the shops in the city. We returned via boats (very rough ride since the wind came up), to the bus and then back to Tepic where we enjoyed a wonderful meal at a very nice hotel. What a contrast in lifestyles in less than an hour! We had a short time to visit the town square in Tepic as well as a Huichol Indian friend of the tour guide (and his native shop) and then it was back on the bus for the long trip home. We arrived back at Paradise Village about 11 pm. The following week we made reservations at a bed and breakfast in the community of San Sebastian about 45 miles into the mountains east of Puerto Vallarta. San Sebastian was a mining community and at one time was the capital of the state of Jalisco. During the height of the silver mining in the area, the population was about 22,000. Today it is about 400. Until sometime in the 1950's, there was only a mule trail into the community. Today the road is not much better. We chose not to drive our own car and instead rented a four-wheel drive Tracker. Good choice not to take our own car, but bad choice to have gotten an open vehicle. The road is extremely dusty and both the car and we were filthy. It is only about 45 miles from here, but the trip took about three hours. Five to ten miles an hour for the last 25 miles of the trip. We crossed steam beds several times. At one place, there is a toll.....a chain across the road and a man collects 20 pesos and allows you to continue. Apparently the funds are collected for road maintenance and improvements, or at least that's what the receipt says! We were relieved to finally arrive and find our accommodations for the evening. The bed and breakfast is run by Mike and Pauline Hussey, a couple originally from Wales, who have lived in Mexico for eight years and in San Sebastian for the past three. They have a very comfortable inn with two guest rooms, both with private baths. After the rough drive, it was nice to relax on the cool patio and have a beer and glass of wine. Mike is quite a history buff and provides guided tours of the area. Before dinner, he took us on a walk around the town showing us many of the plants that grow there and are found no place else in the world. We also visited the coffee plantation and processing plant. The coffee was delicious, but not sold anywhere but there in San Sebastian. Because the previous weekend had been very busy, the main restaurant in town was closed having to go into PV for supplies. So Pauline prepared a spaghetti meal for us at their place. San Sebastian is located at 4500 feet elevation so the evenings can get pretty cool. But it was a nice evening and we sat out on the patio for a while and watched the stars in the very dark night sky. The next day after a very filling breakfast, Mike again guided us about the area. We visited a moonshine still (actually Ricea, a 100 proof form of Tequila made from the century plant Maguey) and saw the entire process in operation including tasting. Of course, we bought some! Then we climbed up the old mule trail a ways and saw some of the remnants of the old silver mines. We were able to explore a ways into one, complete with bats. The mining in the area came to a halt during the Revolution. Any building materials or scrap metal were hauled away to Guadalajara by the caretakers that were left to watch the mines. Today, there is probably still much ore in the mines, but the price of silver does not make it economical to mine. We wished we had planned to spend two nights as there was still much to see and do, but reluctantly we had to head back down that awful road. We will be here for a few more days, at least through the Easter holiday. Lisa Merino, a long-time friend from Brent's office will be arriving in PV next week so we are looking forward to a visit with her and a chance to show her some of the town. We have truly enjoyed the visits we have had with Al Mirati, Doug Dehart and Katherine Kostow, and Tom Pansky and family when they were lucky enough to escape the northwest winter for a few days. So for now, we are busy with all those little jobs we have been putting off, but now must be done before we head north. We'll be in touch again soon with a report on the sailing trip north to San Carlos. Brent and Molly ForsbergParadise Village, Nuevo Vallarta

4/29/02 Subject: PV to San Carlos

On 4/1, along with Dan and Cathy on Perceptions, we left Paradise Village heading for the anchorage at Punta de Mita. After four months at the dock, we thought it best to spend an evening getting our "sea legs" back before heading for Mazatlan. We headed out from there at daybreak on Tuesday. The trip was fairly uneventful with calm seas and comfortable winds. We sailed for about four hours in the afternoon, but the rest of the trip was a motor sail. We arrived at Mazatlan about mid-day the next day and had to wait for the 2:00 dredge opening to enter the channel to El Cid. We had a bit of a pot-luck reunion with other Portland boaters already in Mazatlan. Tica, Seadater and Xtasea had arrived from the south about a week earlier. Dream Weaver and Perpetua have been there a while and Moonshadow had arrived from the north getting ready to head off across the Pacific shortly. Sea Tern was in transit from PV to the Sea choosing to by-pass Mazatlan this trip. Even Reprise managed to make it by land. They had driven our car to San Carlos for us and picked up their own vehicle to return to Puerto Vallarta. Our stay in Mazatlan was short but we managed to work in a couple of our favorite restaurants and some shopping stops. It was tempting to stay longer, but the winds and seas were favorable so we opted to push on and left Mazatlan on Monday the 8th with Pat & Susan on Pertputua and Earl & Marta on Kelmar. Altata, a little known anchorage on the mainland coast was our first destination. It had been written up in Latitude 38 by other Portlanders, Ron an Linda Caywood on Spindrift. The stop there gives an alternative to the double overnight across the Sea to the Baja. We had probably the best day of sailing in our three years here in Mexico. Although we had only about ten knots of wind, the seas were flat and we moved along at about 5 and half to 6 and half knots all day long! It was wonderful! By nightfall however, the winds died and we were forced to turn to the iron sails for the rest of the trip. We arrived at the entrance buoy to Altata about 8 am. We followed GPS coordinates provided by Ron and found his information to be very accurate. After traversing the channel entrance, you make a very long trip up the lagoon. Ron had reported there would be no problem finding the darker water of the deep channel all the way up, however apparently the light was just right to make it difficult for us. We plodded along at slow bell, Albion leading the way. We did find shallow water and ran aground briefly once and nearly another time, but finally found our way to the small village of Altata. It quickly became apparent that few cruisers come this way as the locals found us something of a novelty. Many pangas made passes by the boats to have a look at the gringo sailors! There are lots of palapa restaurants along the shoreline. After a late breakfast and a nap, we went ashore and were greeted happily by Gustavo at the La Perla restaurant. He promptly produced photographs of his amigos, Ron and Linda, on Spindrift. Gustav speaks no English, but is very helpful and willing to do anything for you. He told us his son, Ceasar speaks good English, but goes to school and works in Culiacan during the week. We enjoyed cold refreshments there at La Perla and stayed for dinner. We had a bit of a problem with the language barrier and Brent and I ended up with two meals each! Oh well, can't complain, we each had garlic shrimp, shrimp ceviche, and shrimp empanadas, with drinks for about $25. It was without a doubt the best shrimp we had eaten in Mexico. Gustavo drove the guys to the Port Captains office, but he was closing for the day, so they agreed to return the next day and Gustavo will also take them to fill the jerry cans with diesel. The next morning another boat, a power boat Lady MJ, arrived and joined us in the anchorage. And word had definitely spread of our arrival. When the guys went to the Port Captains office, they were met by a news reporter and photographer from Culiacan and were interviewed for the newspaper. Gustavo had driven to Culiacan the night before and told his son about us and that he must come to see. Ceasar managed to get the day off work and made it nice for us to have someone who spoke English to help us gringos out. Ceasar and Gustavo came to tour our boats that afternoon. Then we all went to shore again and enjoyed another great meal at La Perla.....only one meal apiece for Brent and I that night! The next morning, along with Perpetua, we weighed anchor and headed across the Sea. Kelmar and Lady MJ opted to spend a couple more days in Altata. The passage across was relatively comfortable except for several hours during the night when some strong westerly winds kicked up right on our nose. We fell off the rum line a bit to get some speed and by late morning the winds and seas had calmed to make the rest of the passage comfortable again. We arrived at Isla San Francisco late in the afternoon. There we found another Portland boat, Walt and Dee on Essence. They had come down on the HaHa this season and spent the winter sailing out of LaPaz. On Sunday we went to shore and explored a bit, swam, and Brent worked at cleaning the boat bottom. On Monday the westerly winds were strong all day and made the anchorage pretty choppy, so we spend most of the day hunkered down in the cockpit catching up on our reading. Kelmar and Lady MJ were making the passage across that day and definitely did not have the comfortable passage we did. Lady MJ arrived late in the day, but Kelmar did not make it in until well after dark. The next day, Albion bid good-bye to the rest of the boats there and headed north. We had an easy day to anchor at Punta Prieta, an anchorage that did not appear to be too protected, but when the winds kicked up during the night, it was very flat and calm at anchor. In the morning, we continued north to Agua Verde, one of our favorite anchorage's from last year. There were several boats in the north and middle anchorage's, but only one in the south cove where we dropped our anchor. We went to shore the next day and found the small tienda where we restocked our fresh fruits and vegetables from the supply that had just arrived that day. That afternoon another cruiser arranged a pot luck on the beach to celebrate her husband's birthday. We met some new cruisers and reacquainted with some we had met along the way. Again the next morning it was time to move on so we continued north to Ballandra Bay on Carman Island. We explored some anchorage's along the way including Candeleros South and Honeymoon Cove near Puerto Escondido. We were the only boat at Ballandra and spent a comfortable night. Since the weather prediction was for strong northerly winds, we left early the next day for the anchorage at San Juanico. By ten o'clock, we had 20+ knots on our nose with a heavy northwest swell. We were glad we had made the headway we had, early in the morning. We made it to the anchorage about noon and were ever so happy to get our anchor down and stuck. We measured 20 to 25 knot winds in the anchorage most of the afternoon, but finally about five it started to die down. At San Juanico there is what is referred to as the "Cruiser's Shrine." It is really a tree on the beach where for several years cruisers have left some kind of memento of their passing that way. It was interesting to visit and see many of the gifts left by cruisers we have come to know along the way. Of course Albion had to leave her mark there also. We stayed another day there until the seas looked to be calming down and finally we moved on north. A pineapple express cloud-cover had been covering the Baja for several days so we had gray looking weather....with the northwest winds on our nose, except for being in shorts and tee shirts, we felt like we are back in the northwest sailing up the coast. We reached Bahia Concepcion and spend one night at anchor just inside the bay and moved on the Santa Rosalia the following morning. Santa Rosalia is unlike any other town we have seen in Mexico. It is mostly wood buildings (a rarity in Mexico) having been settled by the French as a mining town in the 1800's. Wood was imported from the northwest to build the original town. Also imported was the prefabricated steel church designed by Carl Gustav Eiffel. It apparently was originally on display with the his "Eiffel" tower at the Paris Exposition, taken apart, reassembled in Brussels, then again taken apart and reassembled here. Santa Rosalia is also famous for their hot dogs! Go figure. They certainly are different from any others we've ever had, but mmmm good! The museum was most interesting with all the historical items laid out to handle, first hand. The original French hotel was also a museum of such, and we had breakfast there one morning. There is a "French Bakery" but I think the French have been gone too long. The cruiser gathering spot at the marina, the "palapa of knowledge" is gone due to a hurricane, but the office now serves as the cruiser's hangout. Beverages are on the honor system. There is a sheet to mark down any sodas, waters, or beers you drink and you just pay up when you are ready to leave. The weather had been good and we planned to make the 75 mile crossing to San Carlos on Friday night, but Thursday night the wind kicked up and blew about 30+ knots all night and all day Friday. A large power boat left and came back, so we decided we liked it there and would spend a while longer. By midnight Friday, the marina was calm and we were bemoaning the fact we had opted to put the trip off another day, but the next day we learned that three boats at an anchorage just south of us had left about midnight and encountered heavy seas and wind and ended up turning around also. By Saturday the weather had turned around again, so we left that night, along with the three boats that had returned the night before. We had no seas and no wind and ended up motoring all the way across. It seems we sailors are never happy, it's either too much wind or not enough! But it was a most comfortable passage and we arrived at San Carlos about 8 am and managed to finagle our way into a slip. The marina has been full with a waiting list, but Brent just pulled into an empty slip, checked with the office when they opened and got the okay to stay put. It was certainly nice to find our car waiting for us. Monty and Barb on Reprise had driven it up from Puerto Vallarta earlier in the month. What a contrast San Carlos is from Santa Rosalia, just across the Sea. While gringos are the exception in Santa Rosalia, here we are the norm. In about 12 hours, we went from a community speaking hardly any English at all, to one where Spanish is rarely heard. Even when we pay with pesos here, we usually get some US dollars back in change. For today we rest, but tomorrow we start about the job of putting Albion to bed for the long hot summer ahead. She will be hauled on May 6th and if all goes right, we may even be back in Tucson in the RV that night. Then Brent will be flying back to Puerto Vallarta to deliver a boat up the coast to San Diego. We hope to be back in Oregon by early June. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
Brent and Molly Forsberg, San Carlos, Mexico

5/9/02 Subject: Tucson

It has been a real windy year in San Carlos; by mid-morning every day the wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to get much done. But we had some extra days, so we managed to get it all done with some easy days at the end. Albion was scheduled to be hauled at 9 am on Monday, but when we pulled over to the ramp at 8:30, the 10 am boat was already there waiting....claimed he got confused and moved his watch ahead instead of back! The crew hauled him first....a smaller, shallower draft boat needing less water....and by the time they got to Albion, the tide had gone out too much and there wasn't enough water.....you can only imagine the words Brent had about that! They said they thought they would be able to get us out that evening about 6:00pm, but if not, then we would have to wait until Wednesday....more words from Brent! Lucky for them they did get us out that evening, so we were just one day behind and were on our way to Tucson Tuesday am. Wish I could say all went well with getting the RV going, but it took a new battery (actually two trips to get the RIGHT battery and $90 for a road service guy to tell us we had wired it wrong and had the wrong one for a starting battery), but now we are here in Tucson staying in an RV park right in town. Except the park nazi (who makes Donna at El Cid seem like Mother Theresa), it should be an okay place for me to stay while Brent heads back to PV for the delivery. All for now,
Molly