Reneé is going to a women’s thing at church this morning, and I will be cleaning the dinghy. We are trying to sell it so we can get a smaller one. I have one interested party (maybe only to “kick the tires”) but we will see. Somewhere in here, I contacted the Import agent here in Banderas Bay. He might be able to get a better price for brining in the dinghy, so we exchanged details about size and weight. I got a text from Jose the guy with the solar panels, who said they could be delivered on Monday. I texted John Pounder the electrical guy who chatted with Chava the welder who came by about noon to get an idea of the project, (more about Chava later). When the guy interested in the dinghy came by, I lowered the dinghy and pulled the cover off and dumped the bucket that we had stuff in inside the dingy. I think that everything landed on the deck, except a dinghy anchor. So, I contacted Cano who will be cleaning our boat on Tuesday to see if he can find it down below.
The guy that came by said he was 80/20 in favor of buying the boat and that he would be in touch by Monday. Reneé got back a little later and I washed the dinghy and together we washed the cover. It all looks a lot better.
So, it is a small world, when Chava the welder showed up, he pointed out that he had made the ladders on the sides of the our boat for the previous owners.
SMALL WORLD
We bought our boat in San Diego in August 2018. The previous owners had a delivery captain take it from Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta) to San Diego in about January of 2017. It was first listed in February of 2017.
Some things in the listing were not in the boat when we got it most notably the satellite TV system. This really wasn’t a big deal to us, as we don’t watch TV so it was not a selling point or even a dickering point in the price.
One thing that was not listed that was supposed to be on the boat was a canopy, this is a canvas cover that goes from bow to stern about 6 feet above the deck. After we bought the boat and we were inventorying everything on the boat we came across a couple of panels of white mesh. These are about 3 feet wide and 20 feet long. We contacted the previous owner who said they were part of the canopy, we said what canopy? She sent pictures and we thought it was very nice, but most certainly not on the boat.
- When we first got the boat, it was moved to Ensenada, Mexico then we took it back to San Diego and then back to Ensenada etc. One of these trips, we were tied up and I was on deck/dock and a guy walked by and asked “What was the name of that boat before?” We told him and he said, “I was the delivery captain that moved it from Banderas Bay to San Diego. This would have been in 2019, after we had retired and started seriously working on the boat. (Two years and change since he had done the delivery). I asked him about the canopy, and he clearly remembered folding it up and putting it in the forward cabin. Oh well still no canopy.
- We sailed south and around the end of Baja, being asked occasionally “What was the name of that boat before?” We would answer and then hear something about our boat before we got it.
- In the sailing season of 2020-2021, we sailed to Isla Isabella a small island in the Sea of Cortez. This is a natural habitat for a few birds, most notably the Blue Footed Boobies and the Frigate Birds. We anchored and went ashore. There were abut 5 or 6 boats at most anchored here. One was Chris a solo sailor that we met here, and he ‘showed us how to kayak off the island’. While we were walking around the island, we heard voices and eventually two people came out of the bush and we got into a conversation with the 5 of us. The lady (Elisabeth Shanahan) in the other group asked the question “What was the name of that boat before?” We told her and she said, I thought so, Victoria is my very good friend (previous owner). She also turned out to be a delivery captain and runs an organization here in the bay to watch and maintain boats etc.
- While we were in Banderas Bay in the winter/spring of 2021, we decided to have a new canopy made for our boat. We looked for a couple of different people do get quotes as we did not have any references for anyone. One of the lady’s who came to the boat asked “What was the name of that boat before?” And she said, I made the last canopy for this boat. We contacted the previous owner and there was our reference, so Ivette made our canopy.
- In May 2021, we sailed south to Barra de Navidad and stayed in the marina. I failed to check out the night before we intended to leave, so at 9 am we were at the office checking out when Elisabeth walked into the office. She and Reneé started talking and it turned out that Victoria was up at the pool so we hung out with them for a bit. While we were there Elisabeth pointed out that she had a boat in Long Beach (maybe?) that was getting teak work done and the guy doing the work was Ivette’s son in law.
- So, now we are getting new bigger solar panels, this requires some steel fabrication and welding. I have been in contact with a welder here and he came to the boat Saturday 5/7/2022. He took one look at the boat and said, I made the ladders on both sides of this boat. These ladders are exceptionally well done and fit so well on the boat that we had assumed (when we bought the boat) that they were standard equipment or maybe an option. But had talked to other owners and found out that these were personalized upgrades.
