Terzian's Sailing Journal

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Marina Seca and Marina San Carlos

Our boat, Sea Lady, had been stored at Marina Seca since we pulled out of the water in spring of 2007. We visited her once in fall of 2008 to check on the batteries. So it has been 3 1/2 years that we have done any work on her or had her in the water. Thus we spent 3 1/2 weeks working on her in the work yard while we stayed in our vintage mini RV. The major issue was that all of our batteries died and had to be replaced -- all 8 of them. This required a wait because it was over Thanksgiving weekend and a trip to Phoenix, and many boat dollars.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Sailing season 2010-11

We are so happy, we finally made it back to

Mexico

and our boat, Sea Lady. It’s been since Oct 2008 that we were in San Carlos to check on the boat and since April 2007 when it went on the hard after a season of sailing in the Sea of Cortez.

This was our first trip with our very, very vintage mini motor home. It handles well and the engine runs just fine but the ride is very noisy, especially with windows down. We dubbed it ‘Land Lady’ as opposed to Sea Lady 2. We left home about 9 am got fuel and stopped at Les Schwab to check air in the tires on the way out of town. Two hours later and many dollars lighter we left with 6 new tires. We experienced wind and rain, but no snow on our drive south. Since we got such a late start we stopped at a rest stop in California to sleep, our very first time to sleep in the motor home, and woke at 4:30 when we realized the rain coming through the roof vent got our bed wet.

We started off with a stop in San Francisco over Halloween to visit family and participate in Open Studio. Then down to Mt. View for a visit with Karen and Dan. Then off again taking two days to drive to Tucson, AZ sleeping in the motor home at another rest stop on our way to a real vacation at Ranch Vistoso.

We expected to stay a week but ended up staying a bit longer because Kay crashed the motor scooter and needed a bit of time for healing. On Sunday, Nov 14 we left for Mexico, crossing the border at the Maricopa truck crossing. There was NO truck traffic in either direction, it felt very surreal. It took about an hour to get our visas which we need because we will be sailing the Sea of Cortez and clearing into different ports.

We arrived in San Carlos just at dusk and are staying at an RV part called Totonaka with the beach of Bahia San Francisco just across the road from the entrance. It was Steve’s good fortune to crew for Marv of S/V Odyssey on his transit from San Carlos to Santa Rosalita. They left Tuesday at 03:00 for a 12 hour motor-sail as the Sea was dead calm and returned to Wednesday on a 30 minute flight from Santa Rosalita. Thursday was a Mexican holiday, La Revolution so we couldn’t get to see our boat until Friday when it was moved into the work yard.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Steve, Kay and Sea Lady

Finally, we are off to Mazatlan

We finally received the new autopilot that was ordered just after Christmas. It arrived Monday Feb 12 and it took Steve a few days to install and run the dock side test. Yesterday, Saturday, we took Sea Lady out to program the autopilot and everything went well.

Our plan is to leave early tomorrow morning, Monday, sail to Los Muertos and anchor there for the night. Then we will take off early the following morning for the crossing to Mazatlan. The crossing should take about 27 hours, calculating a hull speed of about 6.5 to 7 knots per hour. The weather report is for light winds Monday and Tuesday with the winds picking up to about 15-18 kts and seas picking up to 4 feet on Wednesday. I'm so excited to finally be able to go after having spent over 7 weeks just waiting for the autopilot arrival.

It's carneval time here in La Paz for which La Paz is very famous and proud of. It began Feb 15 and runs through Fat Tuesday, Feb 20. It seems to be a combination of county fair and street fair, similar to the Asian night market in Vancouver BC and just packed with people. There are rides and food stands, booths selling toys, dishes, clothes, blankets and whatnot's, and several stages with very loud bands. There is a King and Queen and her court dressed in spectacular costumes attended by Mexican Naval officers in full dress whites. They set off fire works Friday night directly over head of the crowd along the malecon (street fronting the sea) and will have parades each night Sunday through Tuesday. Beer distributors, banks, cell phone companies and dairy products are featured, similar in flavor to the sponser hype connected to the Tour de France. It is wild and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

A great on-line e-zine for life here in La Paz is www.bajainsider.com. The author lives on his boat, along with his dog Abby, here in Marina Costabaja. So....we are ready to go I just need to bake some bread and muffins before we take off. Happy sails to me.............