November 31st, 2007:November in San Carlos, Best Thankgiving ever.
Author: Adam
Jason arrived in San Carlos with the van even earlier than we had hoped. He needed to keep it for an extra day or so to unload and since we weren’t remotely ready to haul out we were happy to oblige. We worked on getting Estrella readier for hauling out. Much work was done on the dinghy motor during this time.
While we were in San Juanico and the strong northerly wind was blowing I had noticed that our normal dinghy leak was being exacerbated by the wind chop that she was riding through the night. The cooler I was using to hold the fish I speared was afloat inside the dinghy and I became concerned that I could lose some of the dive gear that was taking up residence in the dinghy since daily spear fishing became the norm. I decided that I should bail the water out of the dinghy and get all my gear aboard Estrella until conditions moderated. I pulled the dinghy alongside and used a 5 gallon bucket to bail (there was at least 40 gallons of water in the dink). Once the water was out I put all the heavy dive gear on the deck of Estrella. Emptying the dinghy made it super light, all that was in it was the water in the cracked and flooded aft floatation chamber, and the outboard hanging off the transom. I stepped off the bow onto Estrella during the up roll of a wind wave and when I turned around I saw the bow of our little pram pointed skyward as she toppled over backward in slow motion. I laughed out loud thinking about how funny it is that every time we get the outboard working reliably I find some clever way to wreck it, and beckoned Kris to come help me while I watched the outboard get completely submerged. She was concerned when she came up the companionway since she knew whenever I laughed out loud before hollering “Hey, Kris?” something undesirable has happened. We used the main halyard to hoist the whole wet mess aboard. Since we were leaving for our crossing soon we just did our best to flush the outboard on deck and caught dinghy rides with our generous friends.
When we got to San Carlos I began working on the outboard. It ran after flushing it through the spark plug holes but there were awful scraping sounds that made my mind imagine cylinders grinding apart. I decided to pull the head off again and risk damaging the new head gasket. Since Kris made this head gasket out of some gasket material we bought in Loreto, I had no idea how it would handle being removed. Unfortunately once I got the head off the gasket disintegrated. Kris graciously made a new one and I cleaned the bits of old gasket off of the head. Once I got to torquing the bolts down they started shearing off. Michael on Sanctuary had a virtual machine shop aboard his austere Rawson 30 and he was more than happy to help cut threads into some stainless bolts he had on board. After some cobbling together and much inept bungling on my part the outboard came back to life and indeed seemed to run better than ever. Every time I start to love that little Evinrude I do something stupid to break it and the love affair is interrupted. Then, I fix the problem and flights of singing angels accompany the roar produced after the first pull of the starting cord.
We bought the van from Jason and became the third generation of cruisers to own it. Jason bought it from a fellow Bellinghamster cruiser in San Carlos, S/V Batwing. We thought about writing down the names of the boats belonging to all the cruisers who have road tripped in this van. Since Jason took Mark from Folie Deuce north with him when he drove home last summer and picked up Brian of S/V Phoenix on the way down we would have a respectable list.
I worked on trying to procure a roof rack for the van the following day and found that Yakima clamp-on racks that are ubiquitous in the northwest are completely non-existent in Sonora. After talking to a very expensive iron work shop about making me 6 steel bases to which I could screw some 2x4s, I decided to try the famed Hernandez Brothers’ machine shop. These guys are revered for their excellent stainless welding and machining in the Guaymas/San Carlos area and I had assumed they would be even more expensive than the first place. Luiz not only pointed out that the welded bases on the roof of the van would likely crack the first time the thin sheet meal roof flexed, he also refused to do it for me since it would likely set the interior on fire. Instead he insisted on making me a nicely engineered steel rack that clamps on for 15% less money than the other place wanted to set my interior on fire.
The only catch was it was a very busy time for the brothers Hernandez as the cruising fleet was returning and they were getting lots of orders. Through no fault of Luiz’s we would be delayed a further 2 weeks waiting for the roof rack. The first week Luiz had to go out of town for his daughter’s wedding and the second week their tig welder broke down and he had to try and find a new one.
While I am keen to make more money to cruise I would be lying if I said another 2 weeks on the hook was unappealing to me. It meant that we would get to spend Thanksgiving in San Carlos and that was exciting since Shannon and Tony invited us to join them for Thanksgiving feast aboard Sweetie. Shannon bought a turkey and planned to cook it in their solar oven on deck. A solar oven is basically a big black box with four reflective panels that focus the solar energy inside the box through a transparent door. I have to admit to being initially apprehensive that the solar oven was up to this pinnacle of household appliance trials but we were never worried since we all had propane ovens if the thing didn’t work.
A week before thanksgiving we were pleasantly surprised to see Bodran pull into the anchorage. Jason had been trapped in Guaymas dry storage marina while they repaired their travel lift. He was quite productive with his time installing his new Lee sails and a jib roller furler unit. We enjoyed a couple visits to the yard in Guaymas where we met Brian of Pheonix fame. Brian is another happy, laid back, young cruiser and we hope to run into him again.
When Jason pulled in he popped by in his new tiny RIB to pay us a visit. Jason had assumed that we would be gone long before he got into the water much less over to San Carlos. Jason didn’t know the Estrella very well, we never seem to get anything done in less than a month. Jason was another unexpected surprise reward for our lack of alacrity. We hung out with Jason a lot over the week leading up to Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. Jason joined us at our favorite football bar, Froggy’s, for Sunday football and downloading.
The internet at Froggy’s is free and very very fast. Alex, the owner, is a young laid back fellow who seems to really love his place and his customers. I parked the van in front one day before they opened and used their internet while waiting for a dental appointment. I went inside when I saw he was there to ask him if he was okay with me parking my van and leeching his internet while they were closed or if he would prefer I bought something. He seemed as confused as if I had asked his permission to breath. “Dude, you are welcome to sleep out there if you want, I leave the internet on so you can park in the parking lot all night and use it if you want to.” Good luck getting that kind of service in the U.S. Their thin-crust wood oven pizza is the best in San Carlos, if you ever get to San Carlos, don’t miss Froggy’s.
Kristina had been excited to have Thanksgiving with her family back home but once Shannon said Thanksgiving would be hosted aboard Sweetie, Kristina lit up. She and Shannon promptly doled out the dinner duties. Shannon covered the turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberries, homemade sourdough rolls and libations while Kris volunteered to make mashed potatoes, her aunt Lisa’s famous sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie. Shannon invited Jason Rose over for Thanksgiving too and he chipped in with a mustard glazed broccoli. It was quite possibly one of the most lavish Thanksgiving meals that we’d ever had and the evening was a huge success.
We had all made plans to go check out the bowling alley in San Carlos the Friday after thanksgiving. The crews of Sweetie, Bodran, DayDream and Estrella all piled into two vans and went to the bowling alley. After the guys working the counter made fun of me asking for size 15 shoes (yeah in my life footwear is a running gag) we got to bowling. Everybody bowled and had a wonderful time. We thought about getting dinner but we had all loaded up on leftovers all day so we just decided to grab some quick food at the bowling alley and call it a night.
Tony came over and helped me sort out a bunch of issues with Estrella’s rig and in exchange I spent a few days helping him rip UV covers off of old jibs for customers. This was super easy work and I still feel that Tony got the worse end of the deal and am eternally grateful to him for his time. He drew Estrella up a sail plan and we made a plan to add a 160 reacher on a sprit to the bow to help give Estrellla some upwind light air performance and to alleviate her crippling weather helm. Since I was planning on taking the bowsprit home to repair the roller and platform I might as well add another sprit to it while I am at it, right?
Tony was a huge resource and I feel like I learned a lot from him. I can’t thank him enough. Kristina was glad to be rid of me so she and Shannon could have ultra-competitive seemingly endless games of combat Scrabble and Boggle.
Jason and I spent a few hours paddling around the harbor on our surfboards to get our arm strength up to snuff, him for the Mexican Riviera and me for the frigid California coast.
Jason departed for La Paz on the following morning and we waved him goodbye as he exited the harbor. We really hope we catch up with him when we return.
Despite all the fun we were having the Northers were starting to pipe up and December was well upon us. Kristina decided we needed to make a decision and motivate this trip home. We would tell the Hernandez brothers that we are hauling out on Wednesday and either we have the rack before then or we don’t take the rack. Luis understood our rush and was kind enough to accommodate us. He would attempt to have it done Monday at the latest. So Kris and I went and made our reservation at the Marina Seca San Carlos to haul out Wednesday Morning at 10AM. If we didn’t have our rack by Wednesday would just have to leave the surfboard and bowsprit in San Carlos and drive home without the rack.
When I showed up at the machine shop on Tuesday I was not surprised to hear that extenuating circumstances had come up and the rack would not be ready till Wed morning. I was told they would try to have it ready for me Wednesday morning. Just haul the boat and then come get the rack.
Wednesday morning I decided we should get up at dawn so we could go to the fuel dock and unload the boat into the van while the van could be parked just 100 feet away. This worked out perfectly and we were sure we would have plenty of time to make our appointment. Tony and Shannon puttered by in their dinghy and stopped over to offer up their help with prepping Estrella for haul out. I didn’t think we would need help but figured it couldn’t hurt. Tony dropped Shannon off at the internet café to do some business she had to take care of and came promptly back to help remove sails and prep Estrella. As it turned out he was a tremendous help as usual. Had he not been there Kris would have had to help me remove the sails and bag them instead of staying below and moving gear up on deck. As it was we barely made our appointment, we filled the diesel tank at 5 till and were at the ramp on the hour. The haul out went as well as could be expected and soon Estrella as in the dry storage yard.
We decided that since the Van would be less comfortable to live in for the cat we would leave her aboard while we finished the work on prepping Estrella for the long months of storage ahead. We had met a lovely young couple from Quebec who were preparing for their grand adventure and we felt for them as they were inexperienced and preparing their boat in one of the most curmudgeonly environments possible.
San Carlos is a lovely town but is very much gringoized. There are almost more expatriate gringos than there are Mexicans. The problem with sailing in general is that there is a lot to know. Notice I didn’t say that one NEEDS to know a lot, just that one CAN know a lot. That said there is a huge amount of dogma in this sport. You can find reasonable rational arguments for and against any number of philosophies or storm tactics or sail plans etc. etc. etc.
Unfortunately, there are scores of crotchety old men who think they know the right answer. Of course this wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t so “helpful”. None of these dogmas are about comfort or luxury, they are all about the biggest catch phrase in the sport “safety”. So you aren’t just foolhardy if you go out of port with those kinds of hatches, or those batteries or that radar unit, you are an “idiot” who is risking your life and the lives of anyone aboard. Indeed if anybody ever waited until their skills or vessel met the approval of crotchety old men at the marina bar they wouldn’t ever go sailing at all. Poor Jean Francoise and Marie had to endure the kindness of all of their dock neighbors. I am glad to report that they did indeed finally make it out of San Carlos and are now enjoying the Sea of Cortez.
We finally managed to get Estrella stripped of her bowsprit (again with the Tony’s help) and battened down for the coming year. We spent a couple nights in the van while we finished these final tasks and found it surprisingly comfortable. Once we got the load sorted out on the roof rack and the van loaded we were ready to hit the road. Kristina wisely pointed out that a departure deadline was critical so we would leave right after the swap meet on Saturday.
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