Category: 2026 Season 7

Up at 7:30, planed meeting for breakfast with Joe & Vanessa at Barracuda Bob’s. From there the day got worse, the rigger did not come today. At breakfast there were four of us, me, Joe and Vanessa, and Steve and Cathy, yes the same Cathy from the previous day. Steve bought Steve and Denny’s boat Brendan, it is a small community.

The marina said I had to be out early in the morning, as there is another boat splashing cat 9 am that is coming to this slip. On the way to breakfast, I tripped over a faucet on the dock. Marina Mazatlan did not answer my phone call, etc. I couldn’t get a response from anyone about the stuff that still needed to get done. At this point, I don’t really have a good plan, it appears I will be at anchor here for awhile, this is not very good. The rigging work will take longer. I will have to put the dinghy ointment the water with the outboard, which means when I get to Mazatlan, I will have to rinse and flush it. (Much more work). Putting the anchor out means that in Mazatlan, I will have to go in bow first, put the anchor and chain out on the dock and rinse the chain, then put it all back on the boat and turn the boat around, probably a solid days effort. In other words, all combined, a royal pain.

After lunch, at about 2 pm, it all got better!

Marina Mazatlan called back, and they are open to me coming as early as tomorrow. So that is good. Then Allan got back to me with an electrician’s contact, then the San Carlos Marina called and said there had been a cancellation, and I can stay until Wednesday. I got a text from Joe and coordinated a ride to the bible study tonight. After the Bible study I went out for dinner and had Kung Pao Chicken.

No pictures today.

Put on shore power. Some work on rigging, washed the boat

Thursday night at Tortugas, there were about 37 cruisers there. I sat next to a couple who recognized our boat name. It turned out thier boat was S/V Tashee (Kevin and Amalia), we met in Puerto Don Juan in April 2020 and played Qwirkle. The lady across the street the table from me was a pleasant person and we talked for quite a bit. Her name was Cathy.

Well that was a bad night for sleep, just as I was about to shutdown for the night an old friend sent me a text, about a half hour later, we finally said goodnight, about 10:30. Then at about 11 pm the people in the next room checked in. Loud music, loud voices etc. about 1 am they headed out to the bars (maybe?) back about 3am, loud voices, turned the tv on. I got up at 6 am, tv still on. My boat is scheduled to be put in the water at 8 am. I was out the door looking for coffee. Instant was all I could find. YUCK!

Oh well, off to the boat last minute preps. 8:30 head off to the office to figure out what’s happening.

Well, my boat only draws 5’, the other boat they are launching is deeper, they go first. So, I headed over to the marina breakfast & coffee. Finally the boat went in the water!!

Pretty uneventful. Josh. The boat broker helped with lines.

Some work, was done on the rigging.

I figured out my card did not unlock the gate… but I was still out of it and forgot until about 4:55, the office closes at 5pm. In the ensuing confusion, between the phone call with no cell service on the dock, only able to make wifi calls from Starlink on the boat, the card not working, the heavy door with a strong spring, I slammed the door on my left hand pointer finger. I know I broke the nail (at the quick), I will almost certainly lose it.I have a bloody mess, no first aid stuff on board, (we cleaned out a bunch of stuff). So, I made a trip to the grocery store for bandaids, and food. No first aid stuff. So groceries. Good thing I have a cart. Then to the pharmacy hydrogen peroxide, bandaids, a splint, (I think it might be broken). Then dinner. Dripping blood everywhere. Back to the boat better bandages, and bed!!

No pictures today

 

The mast went up! All and all it was a very busy day. I did my best to not watch, as all I could think about was how bad it could get (the boat could fall off the jack stands and hurt someone). But by the end of the day, the mast was up, and nothing bad had happened. At one point Alejandro came up to get paid for the bow thruster work, I explained what had happened the day before, describing the car and the person, and the discussion. We talked for a while. He checked with his guys, no one admitted to getting the money, and none had a red car. He clearly was out the money. We left it that he would check deeper and figure this out. I talked to Carlos who explained that Alejandro had asked him about the money. At the end of the day, I ran into Alejandro in the parking lot. He had pretty much given up on the $100 for the work on my boat. I had recently learned that the workers have to pay $25 to work in the yard per boat they work on, they had used bottom paint on it ($600/gallon) so he wasn’t out just the labor. I gave him $100, and told him if he figures out that he got paid, he could send me a text to get it back to me. $100 to me is not the same as $100 to him.

 

 

The fan got fixed, the zincs got changed etc.

Today I got my laundry done, 6 pairs of underwear, 6 pairs of socks, a pair of pants, 6 shirts and 3 pairs of shorts, and a hanky. 258 pesos, washed and folded. $14.40 a bit high, but there are no washing machines available for me to do it myself.  I am taking these clothes in the bag back to the boat. I have to move aboard sooner or later anyway. This way it will be more convenient, and I will get it out of the way.I need to go back to the boat anyway.

On my way out of the boatyard, I stopped to talk to Joe Baron at his boat. A yard worker drove up, I recognized him but not his name. He asked for the payment for the work on the bow thruster, he described it in good detail including the amount owed that we had agreed on prior to start of work, and I was not anywhere near my boat. I paid him $100.