We got up early 6 am, and had breakfast and made preparations for getting underway. Which means, take out the trash, fill the holding tank with water from the dock, (this helps to clean the tank out), take off shore power, turn all the instruments on, put the speed probe back in the water, and finally say goodbye’s to those we are leaving behind. Then we start the engine and take off the dock lines.
We headed out of port, Renee’ gets busy with putting things away on deck while I am focused on getting us out of the bay. All the dock lines get coiled up and tied to places on the life lines, the fenders all come on deck, she makes a point of checking that the decks are clear and that one of the dock lines is looped though the anchor to tie it down (only really an issue in heavy weather). Finally everything is done and we exit the bay. We had checked the weather the last couple of days, and downloaded it this morning before we left, but, it is after all only a prediction, and like all weather predictions, really only a best guess. So, we expected light winds in the 10 knot range what we got was 25 to 30 knots. Much more than we wanted.
In any case we sailed out for awhile and dumped the holding tank, then started the water maker and ran it for about 3 hours. While all this was going on, we did our devotions for the day.
Pulling into San Carlos was interesting, the channel is narrow, and the chart looks like the east channel marker is near the west side of the channel, and that is where I was headed. At almost the last minute, Renee’ told me that the “Red” channel marker I was looking at was ORANGE, (a non specific buoy) and that I should be further east. So, we stopped and looked a bit closer at the chart and the water, then moved east and continued on slowly. Turns out the “Orange Buoy” was not a buoy, as in fit was built on a concrete stand and there was a pretty good sized rock right where I had been headed. OOPS!
In any case we got in safely and got fuel. The price was 21.45 pesos to the liter, and the dock fee was 5% on top of that. We spent almost $400 on diesel topping off the tank. While that sounds like quite a bit of money, you really have to keep it in perspective. We have put in about 420 gallons of fuel since we left San Diego at the end of October, which means we have spent about $1,500 on fuel. Which gives us propulsion, power, and water, or our utility and fuel bill is about $300 per month. We also have occasional slip fees, depending on the weather we are trying to anchor more (free) and stay in less expensive slips when we do stay in a slip. For example the last couple of slips have been in $70 -$80 per week range. This keeps our overall expenses down. Other expenses we have include cleaning the bottom of the boat once a month. Typically that costs about $1 per foot or around $50. We got it cleaned in Guaymas and it was about $33. Repairs, things break and have to be fixed, typically they are not very expensive and we can find someone to do most of them. Beyond that it comes down to food and beer. Oh, and don’t forget the souvenirs!
We pulled out of San Carlos, and made a hard right turn and looped back into Martini bay. This is a very small little cove with tall cliffs around three sides and a huge rock (mountain) in the fourth side. VERY protected. From almost every direction. This might be my favorite anchorage from the last 5 months.
We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a passport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again
