The Boatyard Blues

 Life in the boat yard continues. We were sleeping and making our meals in the Scamp parked outside the work yard in the parking lot.  Each morning we'd walk through the gate and the same guard would check our passes.  We've gotten to know the guard... but still he checks our passes. In this manner we spent another three weeks working on the boat and waiting on Omar to get parts.  Then Leo came back from staying in Tucson and made  his home in the Scamp while Connie and I stayed aboard in the construction site that is the boat yard.  

The workers brought in a Hans Christian 38 the other day that had a cracked diesel fuel tank.  The owner turned on the bilge pump and pushed all the diesel stink onto the ground which flowed in our direction and made a nice smelly lagoon right next to our boat.  Then the other neighbor scrubbed the blue paint off his bottom and all the blue stuff went into the same toxic lagoon.  So.... we have the pleasure of having a toxic blue pool of gunk at the bottom of our entry ladder.  Such is the joy of the boat yard. 

Connie in the starboard cockpit locker

When working on a boat, you find a problem and in the process of taking care of the problem you find yet other problems.  It's like peeling back an onion.  After dropping the anchor and chain overboard onto the pavement, we examined all the chain links and marked them every 30 feet.  We tried bringing the anchor back up and the windlass slowed to a crawl and finally gave up the ghost. While Connie used tubs of vinegar to remove the rust from sections of chain, we ripped out the ancient windlass and ordered a new Maxwell 1000.  We've taken possession of the new windlass but are still in the process of drilling holes and making backing plates for the unit.  As of now, anchoring is not an option.

Omar tried using many of the old parts of the fuel delivery system of tubes, valves, and filters only to find that some of that stuff was faulty and leaking.  Getting ready to launch, we used the parts we could and cobbled something together that we thought would work until we are able to get more parts delivered from the US.  The lesson here is, if you find a broken system, replace everything with new.  Act as if money is no object.

The prop shaft and new coupling went in just fine but we had to get creative with the zinc mounting.  The shaft is in for now but will need further alignment after the boat has settled in the water.  Because the boat is made of fiberglass, she flexes differently when in the water than when she is up on stilts in the yard.  This difference in flex can effect the prop shaft alignment.  

Noreen in the port cockpit locker

I tried to replace the cap on the incoming water stainless steel tube and must have crossed the threads.  When we tested it under water pressure we had a leak.  Later we tried again and hoped for the best for launch day.  

The heat exchanger came back from the shop with the rear connection rotated 90 degrees, so back to the shop it went to be cut and re-welded. Finally, it got installed with some new hoses.  

We had fun installing new 12 volt light fixtures and have added various hooks and do-dads to make life more comfortable.  We have a little cabinet that I've specified as the special place that has lots of little project items we hope to install once we are out cruising.  I've got more lighting 

fixtures there and other gizmos.

On a windless morning Myron, Leo, Connie and Scott bent on the sails, rolling up the big genoa and getting the battens into the main sail.  Connie figured out how to rig the main sheet through the blocks.  We still do not understand how the lazy jacks work.   The mainsail slugs kept popping out of the access gate which was rusted and inoperable so I ordered a new knurled nut to hold them in place, using a big hose clamp in the meantime to keep the slugs in place. 

Chewed up impeller

Omar's assistant dropped a hammer into the bilge.  On the way down, it slammed into the bilge pump float switch and broke it.  Leo fished out the hammer and a chisel we didn't know was down there...with a magnet and I bought a new float switch.  In the meantime, the sump pump self destructed in a loud clatter and it stopped working.  Here we were, two days from our splash date and I didn't have one working bilge pump.  Omar was waiting on parts for the fuel system so we didn't have fuel to the engine. In fact, we didn't even know if the engine would start.  And the incoming coolant raw water was leaking profusely.  It was a tense time.

Come splash day, we had some of these things working and in a big rush of activity we launched at 10 AM on Wednesday December 22nd.   Oh happy day!  We followed the tractor, trailer, and boat to the launch site. Everyone was excited.  The boat was backed into the water and we hopped aboard to go below to see if any water was coming in.   The packing gland was leaking hugely.  Myron set about tightening that gland.  Then we saw that the raw water stack was leaking in two places now.  Not good.  Going forward we saw that my new depth sounder transducer was holding it's own but the old transducer for the knot meter was dripping at a steady rate. Not good. 

The air went right out of our euphoria of being launched as I signaled to the tractor driver to come back and haul us out again.  Tails between our legs, we followed Nepenthe down the street back to the diesel blue lagoon cesspool in the boat yard where the crew put us back on stilts.  Omar set about his plans to fix the leaks and I opened a bottle of wine. 

She's floating, but not for long

The next day, Omar arrived with a newly welded raw water stack and a new plug for the transducer.  At 11 AM we had Nepenthe back on the tractor trailer rig headed down the street to the launch site.  In she went and we again dived down below to look for leaks.

With some added packing gland material, we staunched that incoming water flow down to just a slow drip.. as is how it is supposed to be.  The newly welded raw water stack was slowly leaking. What the heck?  Oh well.  The new plug on the transducer was holding it's own but was now leaking on the outside diameter of the hole.  And a second, unused transducer was dripping ever so slowly.  We had more leaks than before.  

With that knowledge, I popped my head up and gave our entourage on the dock the thumb down.  Connie's face dropped into sadness. The haul out and the splash cost us $420, and our problems were not yet solved.  Back down below Omar and I had a discussion.  The bilge pumps were both working well.  The yard was closing for Christmas.  Let's just keep her in the water!  We can haul her back out to fix the two transducers after the first of the year.

I went up top and gave the thumbs up.  We waved at the yard guys as they backed their launch rig up the ramp.  Starting the engine, we saw some water spurting out of the water pump.  That's nothing the bilge pumps can't handle.  Connie, Leo and Scott got aboard and backed the boat up into the fairway. Then we headed west towards our slip at B-21.  I passed the slip then started to turn the boat around when the diesel engine failed.  We drifted east towards A dock and I tried to point her into an empty slip, just missing by a few feet.  Luckily there was a nice shiny sailboat there next door that absorbed our impact, Connie and Leo pushing like crazy to fend us off.  A friendly guy on the dock helped us wrangle the beast that is Nepenthe into the slip.  

Omar jumped aboard and checked the fuel system.  He determined that the new location of the filters, above the tanks and engine, made it difficult for the little engine mounted fuel pump to draw the fuel all that distance to the injectors.  As soon as he turned on the auxiliary fuel pump, she cranked right up.  We inspected the nice shiny sailboat for damage and found two little indentations on her aft cockpit seat coaming. "Cast off the lines.  We're getting out of here."

Aires wind vane

I backed the beast out of the slip and proceeded down to B dock where an anxious crowd waited to take our lines.  Barely missing a beautiful Island Packet, I drove her into B-21, then slammed her into reverse to stop our forward motion.  We had arrived!  We were floating!  No lives were lost!

Now it is Christmas and everyone is home celebrating. The marina docks are quiet.  We have more parts on order and our plan is to wait a week then haul out again to completely replace the raw water stack and have a fiberglass expert remove the two old leaking transducers and glass them over permanently.  We've come to realize that any plastic or rubber part on a boat that has been on the hard, exposed to the Mexico heat for two or more years has suffered damage and needs to be replaced.  Electronic systems that might have been working a few years ago will not be working now.  

We've got more work to do, but hey, at least we are in the water.  Our next $420 haul out will be only for two or 10...days then back to the dock we go.  Wish us well.

The adventure continues.

 

Meanwhile, in Mexico, life goes on.  Here are some of the latest headlines for today.

 

 

Refit in San Carlos

What a hectic summer!  The charter business wouldn't stop, the phone rang and rang.  In the spaces of time we had left, we concentrated on planning our September escape; flee to Mexico and get acquainted with our new boat in San Carlos.  

Throughout late summer we bought a bunch of boat parts, and found that delivery schedules were not to be trusted due to Co-vid related shipping problems.  After getting skunked a few times, I figured out how to assure the part I ordered would actually show up.  First, find the part. Then call the company on the phone to make sure they could actually place their hands on it, have them hold it in my name, and finally I'd place the order.  

To this day, I might have some solar panels, and some stainless steel bimini parts trapped offshore on a container ship waiting to dock in Long Beach.   

Well,  we hooked up the little Scamp trailer and left town on September 22, crammed to the gills with stuff.  Stopping in Portland to pick up two gallons of tax free bottom paint we drove south through the NE California forest fire devastation, another stop in Reno Nevada where we picked up two solar panels and continued through the endless beauty of Nevada and Utah and finally arriving in Palisade, Colorado to stay with Damon and Desiree who sail on S/V Gaia, presently in the Pacific Northwest.  

The next week we met up with Connie's son, Ezrah in Denver and toured the newly opened MeowWolf complex where he works now.  Then the three of us set off to central Colorado and some high mountain passes and high country camping, finally getting run out of the altitudes by the approaching snow.

 

Ezrah drove back to Denver to work and we continued on to Telluride. Our journey continued south to Albuquerque where we stayed with Barb before dashing south to Phoenix for a visit with Connie's sister's family there.  

After stuffing the truck with more provisions we finally crossed the US/MX border and made our way to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico to pick up our friend Leo who flew in to meet us.  Then we made our way to San Carlos where Leo had reserved a condo on the water for us all to stay in while we refit the new boat that was waiting for us in the San CarlosMarina Seca.  After camping for a month, it sure was nice to be in a comfortable condo, right on the beach.  To the west, loomed the "Goat Teats" that appear in countless photos of San Carlos.  We'd sit on the balcony and watch people on the beach taking selfies with the Teats in the background. 

Our friends Noreen and Myron joined us in a few days towing their 20 foot ocean going Flicka, a Pacific Seacraft cutter.  Now we have an entourage of five persons.  In two days, they launched their flicka and are living aboard at the marina.

We had Nepenthe moved from the storage yard to the work yard.  Once we found a tall enough ladder we were able to climb aboard and start going through the boat to determine what gear was useful, what gear was old worn out junk, and what work we had to do to make this boat seaworthy.  The task was daunting. 

In the meantime, back in Olympia, our friend Peter, who had been telling us for a year that he wanted to sell us his house so he could retire to Hawaii, decided to seal the deal.  So now, once we were in Mexico, we were facing the "put up or shut up" moment and had to decide how to buy this house.  Somehow we were able to send paperwork back and forth and make a quick trip across the border to visit a notary and now we own a second house, almost next door to our current house.  We've got a temporary renter in place and it will wait for our return in April when we will do a complete remodel and turn it into a rental/investment property.  No shortage of work for us!

Back in San Carlos...

First we removed everything from the boat that wasn't bolted down and piled it on the deck and on the ground below the boat.  Then I started going through it all, rescuing what was useful and throwing away or donating everything else.  The useful items we either kept or gave away.  Meanwhile, Connie and Leo started with a deep cleaning inside the boat, a process that would take a week to complete.  

Nepenthe has been neglected.  We found tons of "deferred maintenance" that needed attention. While the engine, hull and superstructure were quite sound, there were lots of systems on their last legs and a quantity of badly wired components.   My list of to-do's grew and grew.  After three weeks working on the boat  we had a good handle on the existing systems and had made good progress ripping out old systems and installing new.  I took great pleasure in tossing parts, wiring, and bits of junk over the side.  I was ruthless. I was cruel. 

The yard maintenance guy liked me because I filled the trash can with interesting, and maybe useful, things for him to take home and ponder over. Because there were three of us, we made good headway.  I was sometimes challenged to keep us all busy and on track but we shouldered through it and kept up the pace for four weeks.  Thank goodness (Leo) we had a clean place to come home to at night.

Here is a project list of what we've accomplished so far:

Removed old hot water heater and old refrigerator compressor.  We took delivery of a new refrigerator system and Leo finished installing it along with retrofitting the box with more insulation.

Removed an ancient battery trickle charger and replaced it with a modern Blue Sea multi stage charger.

Installed a new AIMS Solar controller for the house bank and a smaller controller for the starter battery.  Added a small inverter for charging our laptop and phones. Thank you Leo.

Ripped out miles of wire that went nowhere and was connected to nothing.  I keep finding more.

Built a solid Bimini frame out of stainless steel to hold our two new solar panels.

Sanded and painted the bottom.  Thank you Connie.

Replaced the windlass solenoid system with new and disassembled, lubricated, and reassembled the windlass.  Thank you Leo.

Inspected the sails.  Cleaned all the interior cushions on settees and bunks.  Thank you Connie.

Made new screens for all the port lights and the companionway. Thank you Connie.

Hired a carpenter to give us better access to the area under the pilot house where the fuel delivery system resides so we could refit that system.  

Lacking any way of measuring the amount of fuel and water in the tanks, we ordered a new Tank Tender system and are in the process of that installation.

The depth sounder readout is unreadable so we've ordered, received, and installed a new depth sounder system.  I was pleased to see that the hole in the hull I drilled brought out a plug that was 1- 1/16 inch thick.  That's a bullet proof hull!

We checked all the thru hull fittings.  There aren't many, and they are very very beefy items, all in good working order and all solid brass. 

Installed a new GPS.

Connie finished making new dinghy chaps and dinghy fenders so we can hang the dink off the side of the boat.

 

After finishing the bimini, Connie made more shade, converting our old shade trees from Traveler to fit Nepenthe.  We were surprised to find that these shade canvasses fit Nepenthe without much adjustment. 

We replaced a halyard and jib sheets.

Replaced the on demand water supply pump for the galley and head sinks.

New LED fixtures and bulbs are going into the salon, galley, pilot house, and vee berth.

Hired Omar to come help. He has removed the fuel delivery system and with new valves and tubing will be installing a system to handle two tanks and two Racor filters.

Two more items on Omar's list is to replace a cracked prop shaft coupler and inspect the heat exchanger for pinhole leaks.  This project is taking awhile because Omar is in high demand here in the yard. Merely replacing the coupling might result in some vibration so we're removing the entire shaft and prop and sending it out to be balanced with the new coupler.

This part of the process is depending on Omar, our marine buddy mechanic. The problem here is that he rarely shows up at our boat... because everyone wants Omar.  It's a waiting game.  We wait for Omar.

 Our friend Myron went into the bilge and replaced the packing in the stuffing box on the prop shaft.  He is the one who found the cracked prop shaft coupler.  Good eye... Myron!  Noreen weaved us up an anchor snubber / harness for the big CQR on the bow.

So as you see, we've been quite busy these last weeks.  It was nice to be able to go to work on the boat in the morning and then return to a nice clean condo in the afternoon where we could have a relaxed dinner, hot showers, and time to get ourselves organized for the next day. 

 

 We are slowly figuring out where in San Carlos and Guaymas to get supplies and provisions and tools and parts.  More importantly, we now know where to get the slow cooked whole chickens and the Negra Modelo. Recently we found the pork carnitas place where we can get a half kilo for 130 Pesos. (About $7)

After a month in the condo the reservation ended, Connie and I moved into the Scamp and Leo took the bus to Tucson to spend time with friends there.  We set up camp in the parking lot at the yard and stocked the refrigerator in the Scamp.  Nice view to the north.

In the meantime we've ordered a windex, 30 feet of port light gasketing, a fresh water foot pump for the galley, and a few other parts.  There is a woman here who drives back and forth between Tucson and San Carlos every week and many of the boaters arrange with her to bring parts across the border.  

Now, with the luxury of a little time, we're finding space inside the boat to store items and getting the galley ready for cooking meals.  

The boat yard here is very busy as people constantly arrive and move their boats out of the storage yard and into the work yard. We see them washing the boat, painting the bottom, doing some refits, then BAM, the launch trailer shows up and the boat is whisked off to the marina where it splashes into the water and off she sails into the sunset.  We sure wish that would happen to us. 

We hope to splash the boat in about two weeks, but that all depends on Omar's schedule.  After we splash we will spend a week at anchor and do shake down cruises before heading west toward San Felipe.  But however long it takes, and however much it costs, we will make sure our vessel is seaworthy and the crew is ready for the crossing. 

In the meantime, Noreen and Myron are happy in the marina doing tasks on their boat getting her ready for the crossing.  It's nice to have their company. When we do get into the water, we'll all cross together.

Again, we knew that Nepenthe was a fixer-upper and she has proven to be just that.  But her hull is super solid, the sails are good, the engine runs well and she's a big comfortable vessel.  I think we made a good choice and look forward to sailing off into the Sea of Cortez soon.... er or later.

 

 

Nepenthe

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico anchorage

Olympia is a beautiful place with beautiful people, a nice place with a diverse population.  But the winters suck.  For at least six months of the year it is 40 degrees and drizzling.  When we remember the glorious winters we spent in Mexico aboard Traveler and compare that to our Olympia winters we thought, "What are we thinking?  We should be in Mexico."  But how can we be in Mexico in the winter on our limited budget?  We are enjoying having Traveler here in Olympia and she's finally paying for her keep for once with our summer sailboat charter income. Can't take her all the way to Mexico and back each year.  Hmmm, maybe if we had a second boat in Mexico.  That's the ticket!  But how?

1.  We could partner with another couple and split the costs:   It would have to be a strong relationship to survive all the unknowns.  And who would be in charge?  Na... Forget that one.

2.  We could take out a loan:  No way.  That's playing into the hands of the MAN and the insurance companies.

3.  We could search for a bargain boat and settle for something a little less than S/V Traveler:  Good idea.

I sat in our little, dreary mini-kitchen and started a boat search Craigslist and Yacht World:

-Year:  1975 to 1990

-Length: 35 to 45 ft. 

-Price $15k to $30K

- Location:  Washington, Oregon, California, Mexico

What other prerequisites?  Well, it has to have standing headroom and sleeping room for me, at 6 ft 2 inches.  And it has to be a solid, well built boat that we can be proud of in a traditional sense.  

It took me two months to compile a list of boats that fit our requirements and I include that list here:
Scott's Sailboat List 

I talked to someone with a Downeaster 38 that sounded promising.  At the time it was too far away and "Covid" was keeping us from traveling.

There was a Hunter Cherubini in California and an Islander Freeport 36 in Texas.  There was the occasional Morgan Out Island 41,but if priced right, it was a mess. Pearsons galore but I wasn't sure about those as to the standing headroom.  Union Polaris, Hans Christian, Mariner Polaris, Tayana, all very similar but usually too pricey for me. And a ton of Yankee Clippers, CTs, Formosa, Sea Wolf 41s, all the same mold but usually a little long in the tooth and a major refit project. 

And then, while perusing the "What's Up, San Carlos" online magazine, I found a Pan Oceanic 38 for sale by owner.  "What's Up, San Carlos" is a local online magazine for the ex-patriot little town a day's drive south of Nogales, Arizona.  It's a retirement and boating community full of gringos from the US and Canada.  A couple from BC, Canada had this boat up for sale with a few pictures and a short description.  I began an online search to find out more about this boat.  

It was designed by Ted Brewer. Ted designed the Aloha, Brewer, Cape North, Goderich, Mariner, Morgan, Oceanic, Three Seas, and Whidby sailboat lines to name a few.  He's known for designing heavy built, ocean cruising vessels.  His Pan Oceanic 46s number about 50 hulls shipped, and about 15 of the Pan Oceanic 43s and only 6 to 10 of the Pan Oceanic 38s.   What we had there in San Carlos was a limited version of an ocean crossing designed vessel that had been shortened to 38 feet.  That pedigree was enough to make us want to go see the boat.

Sadly, we were in the depths of a pandemic.  But fortunately, I was able to score an early vaccine treatment. ( My young wife, unfortunately, could not...) I contacted the owners and made a tentative offer pursuant to inspection.  Then, I got online and started searching for airline deals to get me from Seatac to San Carlos.  By pushing the calendar a month out, I found a cheap flight and booked it along with a rental car and an Air BnB.  All masked up and nervous I boarded a crowded American Airlines flight at Seatac. Thank goodness I upgraded to a seat at the emergency exit so I had some legroom and space away from all the other passengers. 

No social distancing here

At Phoenix the crowd stormed the door and I sat waiting behind my mask as everyone mobbed their way off the plane.  I caught a second AA flight to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.  There, in the airport, everyone was very polite and went to great extremes to socially distance and be safe.  My little rental car was waiting and I drove south down highway 15 towards San Carlos, 139 KM of straight, flat, Sonoran desert road.  I bought a Bohemia beer at the OXXO and rocketed south with the mariachi  music blaring.  

On the road

In San Carlos I found my "romantic" Palapa AirBnB and did the self-check in.  Later at the Super LEY I bought provisions for my three day, two night stay.  The next morning I met a friend of the owner at the San Carlos Marina Seca.  Marina Seca means Dry Marina.   Charles and I got through the gate at the storage yard and found the Pan Oeanic 38 named Nepenthe.

Nepenthe:  A fictional drug described in Homer's Odyssey as banishing grief or trouble from a person's mind.

Kind of a strange name, but whatever...

One thing that struck me was the high freeboard.  Freeboard:  The distance between the waterline and the main deck. 

 She towered overhead, with a huge hull, rudder, and keel and from below she looked like a 38 foot, short, fat, round stern bathtub. I was in love.  This was not your sleek, fleet of foot, cruiser/racer.  This was a sturdy, stumpy force to be reckoned with; Galaxy Class star ship, capable of crossing oceans and protecting its mariners from every source of calamity.

Normally, when a boat is sold, she is moved from the protected storage yard to the work yard where the prospective owner can have her surveyed and test out all the systems, hook up the batteries and even run the engine, using a water hose to provide cooling water.  Then she is moved to the water for sea trials.  We were skipping all that and thus saving all the money spent on a surveyor and yard charges for moving the boat from storage to the yard to the water and back.  Those costs could mount up to $1500 to be paid out of my pocket.  I foolishly chose to do my own inspection and forgo the sea trial.  Smart eh? (fingers crossed)

Anyhow, she seems like a sturdy craft.  Her teak decks look great.  All the teak topsides have Cetol coating on the wood, not the most beautiful finish, but one that protects the wood.   The original owner back in 1987 bought her in the Philippines and sailed her to Turkey and had teak decks installed, glueing them down instead of using screws.  This is a bonus.  Most teak decks are screwed down and have hundreds of little screw holes in the fiberglass that eventually start to leak. This deck has no reason to leak, nor did I see any signs of leakage below.  The engine (a 50 HP Isuzu) had been rebuilt recently by our Mexico friend Omar who installed our Beta engine in Traveler a few years ago.  I called Omar and he vouched for the reliability of the engine.   

We found two 8-D batteries with quite enough capacity to power the systems and their voltage checked out, so I think they will last the summer heat until we get there to recharge them. The refrigerator compressor looks good but time will tell.  

The boat has a smallish cockpit with steering pedestal. Forward of that is a pilot house with a second wheel and instruments so you can drive from inside. Then down a few steps is the galley, head, settee area and a vee berth.  For a 38 foot boat, there is a lot of livable space.  The galley has a big refrigerator and gimbaled stove.  I measured the berths and headroom to make sure that I fit and, sure enough, I do.

The sails are packed into their bags and stowed away but their fabric looks good and there is a lot of gear stowed in the many cabinets and lockers.  She's built like a brick shxt house with room to store tons of provisions and many cases of wine.... and accordions and ukuleles.

Outside, the hull looks solid with some new thru-hull fittings.  The cutaway fin keel is much like the one on Traveler with a skeg hung rudder just aft of the propeller. Just forward of the pilot house is a huge flush deck running to the bow with room to lounge about and stow a dinghy on passages.  Forward is an electric windlass with a heavy CQR anchor and lots of rusty chain. 

I spent another night in my romantic palapa and sent lots of pictures to Connie back in Olympia.  We decided to make the deal.  The next day I found a doctor to give me a 'Covid' test so I could get back into the US, and another doctor to prescribe some antibiotics I'd been having a problem getting in Olympia.  For some reason the antibiotic I take for my skin problem (Rosacea) costs $125 in Olympia but $25 in Mexico.  

I then bought some tacos carnitas at a stand, drove back to Hermosillo, and rented a room at the IBIS hotel.  Everything  was locked down because of the Coronavirus, but I finally found a place to buy a sandwich.So far I had avoided any restaurants and had masked myself whenever in public. 

Returning the rental car, I caught a Volaris flight to Guadalajara where I had a long layover before finding my Volaris flight to Seattle.  I noted that when the Volaris flights arrived at the airport, the passengers waited patiently in their seats for the flight attendants to release everyone five rows at a time. It was all orderly and seemed like the safe thing to do to maintain the little distancing available on a full flight.  And again, on this flight, I scored the emergency exit seat so as to have space and leg room. 

Connie met me at the airport with a jar of wine and a dinner snack and we talked excitedly about our upcoming purchase of a Pan Oceanic 38.

Asking price: $29,900.  I made an offer of $26,000. They countered at $28,000. I accepted.  We are so jazzed!

We own the boat now.  It sits in the San Carlos Marina Seca waiting for us to show up in October.  In the meantime we are preparing a load of boat supplies to bring along. We've got hoses, clamps, tools, wiring, rope, instruments, and all sorts of stuff.   There is a new Achilles LEX-96 hypalon dinghy and an ePropulsion Spirit 1 Plus 1KW electric outboard ready to load in the pickup truck.  We have two new Tower Yachtsman paddleboards ready to go.  

This weekend during the "heat dome" emergency I'll be spending time ordering stainless steel tubing and fittings to take to Mexico to make a bimini stand that will hold two new solar panels that will connect with a new solar converter.  I'm shopping for an inverter to bring along to provide 110 volt power for cell phones and the laptop. 

It is our hope to leave here in October to make our way south with a few stops, bringing the little Scamp trailer along with the truck full of parts and provisions.  In San Carlos we'll meet up with our friend Leo who has an AirBnB reserved where we can enjoy the comforts of a home while working on the new boat getting the refit done. He is excited about joining us on our next big adventure costal cruising!  We hope to splash in November and head south down the Sea of Cortez to many lovely anchorages where we have good memories of clear warm water, sandy beaches and good friends. Ain't life grand?

Wanna come visit?

My romantic palapa

Provisions