Log 9 of Albion (and other travels)
These are e-mails and letters sent back to family and friends from our travels to and in Mexico for the fifth season, 2003-2004, after missing a season of cruising during our RV trip across the nation and only working on Albion in San Carlos.
Oct. 15, 2003 Subject: Tucson, AZWe are about to cross the border this Friday (Oct 17). We stopped in Las Vegas for a week and saw a show and some movies and just got used to moving again. Then it was on to Tucson, have the RV serviced, and get some last minute supplies. This summer we went looking for new awnings and bought a new (to us) RV. It is a 1999 Tradewinds 37' diesel by National, with one slide out. It drives wonderful! We also had to get a new car, a 2001 Toyota Rav4, after an accident that "totaled" our old Mitsubishi. So we are now set for some long range summer road travel.Since we re-instated our Elks dues, we stayed at Elks lodges on the way down (Provo, UT and North Las Vegas) and here in Tucson at the Tucson Elks......about the cheapest place in Tucson! In fact, we plan to store the RV here for six months when we are in Mexico since they have plenty of room and there is a camp host right next to the storage area to keep an eye on it. It is only $30/month, and that is the same price we stored it last time, but 20 miles out of town. Some other friends from Portland are also here and going to store theirs too. So far our only hard schedule is: - Oct 17th: Leave this Friday for San Carlos and start getting the boat ready for sailing. We have an insurance-required survey scheduled Oct. 27th. - Nov. 20th: Reservations at Marina Mazatlan. The marina has a big American Thanksgiving Fiesta Dinner there for the cruisers. - Dec. 16th: Reservations at Paradise Village Marina & Resort, Nuevo Vallarta. We will be there for Christmas unless we find some reasonable airline tickets home for the holidays. - April 16th: Have to leave Mexico by this date because of our 6 month visa. We will probably be storeing our boat on the hard in San Carlos again because of the safety factor (although it didn't help this year!!!). - Therefore, we will probably aim at being back in Oregon near the first of June again......if the rain has eased up by then!! Will keep in touch!
Brent & Molly
11/10/03 Subject: San Carlos
We are still in San Carlos....many little things on the boat needing attention but we are hoping to sail on Thursday for Mazatlan.Weather has cooled a bit and it is comfortable during the day...much nicer for boat projects. Brent has been working hard....had several leaks in the sewer hose he installed last spring....funny you never know about those leaks in the yard! Water tanks have lots of gummy gunk that keeps fouling the filter....the battery charger went out....bought a used older one to replace until we can get the other one serviced....racor filter leaking...bought a new one here, but the fittings are different sizes.....if it's not one thing it's another....new (used) battery charger quit working, but found it was just the ground wire had come off.....that's the first thing that seemed simple! You know they say cruising is working on your boat in exotic places, except San Carlos has never seemed all that exotic to me!Looking forward to getting on our way again...the weather reports are good and we are planning to take about five days down the mainland side weather permitting and if the anchorage's look okay....in the past we have gone straight away in about three days. Would like to avoid the over-nighter if possible....in cruising there's the saying "It's not the destination, it's the journey." Well for me anyway.....it's the destination!Have weather reports now and then and it looks cold and wet most of the time in the northwest....it made it a bit easier to take the hot humid days we were having here, but like I said, it has cooled a bit now. The evenings are cool and we need a comforter at night where before we were sleeping naked on top of the sheets. Went to a beach party the other night and jeans and sweatshirts were in order. All for now from here....hope you are keeping warm and dry. Keep in touch.
Molly
11/21/03 Subject: In Mazatlan
11-18: Arrived in Mazatlan yesterday afternoon....left San Carlos on the 13th...the first half of the trip was rough and I was ready to give it up...had planned to stop at several possible anchorage's along the way, but the first was not a good anchorage, the next we would have arrived in the middle of the night and we don't go into unknown anchorage's after dark, so we just had to keep going....the seas were rough, but the boat did well...I didn't. Finally the next day about noon we reached our third possible anchorage and it was good...we were there along with about twenty shrimp boats....they only come in and anchor when it gets too rough so if it's too rough for them, it was surely too rough for us! It was fairly calm there and we had a chance to catch our breath and get some rest. Also had to work on the refrigeration pump as it had quit working. Got it going again and spent that night, the next day, and next night, there until the seas had calmed down.....then we continued on. The seas were flat and calm now and except for a lightening storm that night and a heat exchanger end plate coming apart, the rest of the trip was a piece of cake. We are here now along with several other Portland cruisers and it is like old home week. It is hot here, but I guess we will adjust. Will write more later, just wanted to let you know we arrived here okay. We can receive e-mail on our computer here at the marina, but have not been able to send from the computer here...have to go to internet cafe to do that.
Love Molly
11/26/03 Subject: Happy Thanksgiving!
We will have a not so traditional celebration here in Mazatlan. They will have a priest come to do mass in the morning then do a blessing of the fleet (we can use all the help we can get!). Then it is fun and games, dingy races, dominos and such, before dinner in the afternoon....they say we will have real turkey and even cranberry sauce instead of strawberry jam this year! The marina has arranged for an orchestra for entertainment after dinner...they say it is the most popular orchestra in all the state.. we'll see how the gringos like it. In the evening there will be fireworks....no matter what the holiday, Mexicans have to have fireworks! It's still very warm here, but becoming more tolerable. Brent is getting a lot of boat projects completed. We have been into town several times looking for boat parts and such. There are some new additions since we were here last, including a Walmart. Next week we have tickets to a concert at the theater in town....a very popular classical guitarist that we heard a couple years ago in Puerto Vallarta...we are looking forward to that. If all goes well we should be here a couple more weeks and then be heading to Puerto Vallarta for a while. Of course it is even warmer there, so I am in no hurry to head further south.Brent and Molly
12/20/03 Subject: Paradise Village, Nuevo Vallarta
Ola again from Mexico and Feliz Navidad. This time from Puerto Vallarta. We arrived here on December 16th after a two day trip straight down the 200 miles from Mazatlan. We anchored at a neighboring bay the day we got here because it was a little too late to come into Paradise Village Marina. It is crowded here and we were put on the furthest slips up the estuary from the resort.......we always joke that we are in the next state and need a passport to get from here to the resort. It is about a 15 minute brisk walk down to the pool. We have put our name on the list to be moved down the bay, and were just notified to move from E-58 to E-40!!!!! Big deal! We moved, but are still going to try to get down to A, B, or C dock. Up here it is noisy (we were right under the main bridge into the resort) and there are more bugs up here. Oh well, I guess we are still in Paradise!! Albion must have enjoyed the attention in Mazatlan, because the trip to Puerto Vallarta was a breeze, everything worked fine. We are planning a laid back Christmas here with a few friends, and maybe a trip back home after the holidays if we can find a reasonable flight. Until then, it's a tropical Christmas season for us again, soaking up the sun by the pool, and testing the fine places to eat here. In March we plan to head north again to Mazatlan, get some dental work done, then over to the Baja, and eventually back to San Carlos where we start all over again. Merry Christmas to all, hope it is a wonderful time for everyone.
Brent
1/1/04 Subject: Christmas & New Years
We had a good Christmas and New Years. On Christmas Eve we had dinner on another boat with two other couples...we had a spiral cut ham with all the trimmings....it was a nice evening. The next day we went with the same friends to La Cruz, a small town north of here, to a popular cruiser gathering spot....the restaurant provided turkeys, dressing, and potatoes, and the rest was pot luck....there were about 120 fellow cruisers there. It was a great afternoon. Hardly seemed like it was Christmas, however, as it was warm and sunny all the time. We spent New Years with the same two couples and started with wine and snacks on one of the boats, then we went to dinner at a new restaurant that is near here....just a dinghy ride up the estuary....it was great...Molly & I split a dinner of lobster, shrimp & steak for $17....we returned to the other boat for dessert and after dinner drinks before walking out to the beach to watch the fireworks at midnight....it was warm and muggy even at midnight! Perhaps you will feel better about all that cold weather you had there in Oregon when you learn it's been raining here. We've had thunder and lightning and lots and lots of rain....I do feel sorry for the tourists who only have a week here....they will no doubt be heading home without tans! Haven't been doing much of anything....not even any pool time recently. Weather is supposed to clear up by the weekend. Finally we got a slip on D dock near the ramp and yacht club and a few days later Perceptions got a slip on C dock. The yacht club has good internet access....actually Brent just got a wireless card that he can use there.....we just hope it works as well when we are back in the states. The showers there are better than the ones at the end of E dock also. So we are happy here and don't plan to move any more even though Dick, the harbormaster, did say he had some openings on A dock. Lately we have been going out to eat quite a bit to celebrate birthdays with our good friends Dan & Cathy on Perceptions and Barb & Monte on Reprise. Cathy had a birthday 1/12 so she made reservations at a restaurant in old town Puerto Vallarta that she heard would fix Beef Wellington if asked. They did, it was great, and they treated us like royalty when we arrived, with the owner making sure everything was to order and that we were being taken care of. Then on 1/19 it was Dan's birthday, so we headed over to Bucerias, another nearby town, and had monster shrimp and after dinner dessert coffee's at another restaurant that we like. Then it was my turn on 1/30 to choose where we go!!! With Molly's suggestion we went to a German restaurant that has a special all you can eat and drink Baverian Buffet in old town. There were 11 of us for that dinner including Portland cruisers on X-Ta-Sea and Glaoch Ne Mara.....sure is nice that our friends on Reprise have their van down here to hold us all and drive us around. Molly made a trip back to L.A. for a few days in late January. During all the rain, Perceptions left a port open just above their computer and it got fried. Cathy tried to get one here, but it either had a Spanish keyboard, or an external battery (very unusual), or the cost was outrageously expensive. She said she could probably fly back to the US and still get one cheaper. Molly spoke right up and said she had a $50 companion fare and would be happy to go and keep her company if she wanted.......so off they went! She also carried a list from Dan and I for needed boat items, and also got to see Lynda and the grandkids while there which made it nice for her. So Dan & I batched it for a few days. When they returned, we had more boat projects as a result of the acquired parts.
Brent
3/17/04 Subject: Putting Albion away in Mazatlan
We spent two and a half months in Nuevo Vallarta at Paradise Village and for a change, didn't do anything on the boat. The days were spent playing cards, reading, and hanging out at the pool. Many times it was off to town for dinner with friends, and luckily we had some Portland friends, Monte & Barb on Reprise, that had a van. There were many dock parties and boat parties and meeting new friends that came and went. The hardest thing we did was watch very close friends Dan & Cathy (Perceptions) leave Paradise Village for points South on their way to Panama. We had a great Bon Voyage party to send them off, but it was difficult. We have been keeping in contact with them via SSB radio, but it's not the same as heading down to their boat for a game of cards or kicking back with a beer. We will miss them, but the planned reunion this summer back in the Northwest at the Cathlamet Mexican Cruiser's potluck, will be something to really look forward to. The 200 mile trip up to Mazatlan was done in one leg in 28.5 hours. That's almost a record. The sea was so flat that it almost looked oily. Sea Turtles were everywhere looking much like stones in the road.....in fact we hit one square on the bow. Whales too put on a show near Isla Isabela, and the schools of rays when nearing Mazatlan where very impressive jumping and finning the water. We made the trip with Tica (Will and Brian...from Exodus). Joann and Laury (their wives) made the trip up on the bus. Boy did they miss a fast, flat, trip. Tica had been having over-heating problems for some time, and finally got it fixed so he kept increasing the speed to see if it would heat up. Consequently to keep him on the radar screen, I had to speed up as well, faster than my normal cruising speed. We averaged 7.0 knots, where it would normally be about 6 to 6.5 knots. That may not seem a big difference, but to a motoring sailboater, that's a bunch (up to 5 hours)! Since we've been here in Mazatlan, we have been renewing old acquaintances, making decisions on what to do, and where to keep Albion for the summer and getting our dental work done. The original plan was to take her across the sea, up the inside of the Baja , and then cross again to San Carlos where we have dry-stored her the last several years. But because of a confirmed yacht delivery and a possible future delivery, we decided to make them first and keep the boat here in Mazatlan in-water, like the first year we were in Mexico. So I have been learning the 58' power boat that I will be delivering to Ensenada (900 miles) and starting on the list to put Albion away for the summer. I will be making the delivery during the last two weeks in March, then fly to Tucson where Molly will be waiting at friends Nada & Dorsey's house. Then we will drive our car back to Mazatlan and finalize the storage process and bring some boat stuff back to the states in the car. That is if the other sailboat delivery doesn't materialize from Puerto Vallarta to Ensenada. We then will get the RV out of storage in Tucson and head to Thousand Oaks, CA. in late May for granddaughter Brianna's ballet performance. So this season has not seen the traveling of past years. After the initial maintenance work on Albion during the first two months, we have been taking it pretty easy, just relaxing like retired couples are supposed to do!
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