Summer too
- Capt. Eric
- 7 days ago
- 6 min read
Hurricane Priscilla is now offshore, putting us in a Warning Zone, with yet another probable cyclone following in her track with a 70% chance of formation in the next 7 days. That would be the 17th named storm of the season so far, making our decision to wait and hide in Bahia Banderas the right one, as much as I dislike staying put that long.
We used the cruising interruption to continue normal boat maintenance, most notably by having her hauled-out for bottom paint, general maintenance and zincs.
Since I knew we would haul-her out in a few months, and we were in a marina, I stopped cleaning and scrubbing the hull a while back, which can be seen in how dirty she was when finally put ashore.
Still, that red bottom paint lasted 3.5 years, so I cannot complain, especially since in tropical waters like here, critters tend to grow on anything at full speed.
We cannot run the water cooled ACs whilst the boat is on the hard so we had to get a hotel room. We'd originally reserved an apartment in a hotel nearby for 3 nights, with a proviso that we might need to extend one or more nights depending on yard work. "No problem" said the charming lady receptionist.
There turned out to be a problem, as in the meantime she had booked her hotel full to a large group, preventing us from adding a night to our original reservation. She kindly pointed us to the hotel across the street instead.
There, the owner told us they didn't accept dogs, but Princess stayed on her best behavior, sitting nicely and politely next to me as we were discussing our options. That convinced the owner that Princess wasn't going to be a nuisance, and she decided to rent us an apartment.
Princess made a few new friends in the owner and crew of the hotel, and once again our long training, years ago, paid off. Good girl!
The new hotel proved to be brand new and much nicer than the one we'd originally reserved. It was also double the price, but at USD$90 a night was still good value considering the comfort and cool AC.
Similarly we couldn't cook or live on the boat, so we elected to make full use of all the nice local and reasonably priced restaurants instead. In particular we enjoyed the hotel's restaurant, just steps from our room, in a nice cool breezeway. Good food and service too.
We decided to switch the bottom paint color from red with a blue stripe to full black. That blue stripe was always dirty and created a lot of work, especially with a heavy laden boat after refueling.
We really like how it came out: the black bottom paint echoes the black rub rail, and frames the ivory colored hull. I think it makes Enfin look more distinguished in a way?
In any case, with the first couple of feet using hard paint and the rest using ablative paint, I hope we'll have the best of both worlds. We used local Mexican paints, which I'm sure are better adapted to tropical waters.
We went to see the boat morning and evening, keeping up with the hard work the guys did. Scraping, preparing the surface, painting multiple coats, putting the zincs, cleaning the keel cooler, checking rudder and propeller clearances. Checking thru-hulls. A lot of work.
On the way back we'd stop at local tienda to stock up our room kitchen with basics.
In the meantime we simply enjoyed a mini holiday, with a nice hotel room and nearby restaurants.
We were lucky that no storm came near us during the haul-out and were very impressed with our chosen contractor, Peter Vargas, who delivered exactly as promised, on money and on time. It wasn't cheap compared to US prices, but it feels like we got our money's worth in terms of quality, scope and duration of work.
Hauling out in La Cruz allowed us to save on hotel compared to Puerto Vallarta, Loreto or La Paz, whilst also alleviating the need for a rental car. All included, haul-out, materials, labor, hotel, restaurants, etc, it proved to be a good solution for us.
Seeing Enfin ashore is always impressive. She's a big small boat and we keep changing our vision of her depending what we do. To live on board she's definitely on the small side, though our nice home. To wash or polish and wax, she's absolutely huge. Ashore when standing next to her, she's a behemoth.
After checking all the underwater appendages and essentials, she was refloated and we made our way back to our slip, back for more maintenance, upgrades and provisioning.
Di was able to get her US passport renewed using the local US consulate and the adjoining Mexican help office. Her passport was nearing 6 months until expiration and so would not have allowed her to re-enter Mexico. It took 3 weeks all included, but as promised by the Mexican sorter, her passport was waiting for her at a local Fedex office exactly as expected. A very nice service that saved us from having to spend any time back in the US.
That done, she was able to book a trip to Puerto Rico to assist her mum with her knee surgery.
That meant that for a while, Princess and I are the guardians of Enfin. We continue our summer routine. Walks on the beach in the morning and under the palm trees in the afternoon.
Maintenance and upgrades on Enfin continue. The upgraded AC system is purring and having no problem keeping the boat cool. A new generator heat exchanger is being installed after routine maintenance showed the old one to be at end of life.
Di did a large provisioning run before leaving, making a few trips to Walmart over successive days and the boat is full to the brim with food and daily consumables. I did a large Amazon haul, since it is likely our last opportunity in a while to do so.
As a result the boat is overflowing with "stuff" and I'm slowly getting things under control so that we be in full ship-shape by the time we restart our cruise.
In Di's absence, some baby turtles have started their journey in life. It's a lot of fun to see them scramble, and we try and help as many as we can make it to the sea. Of course little tiny turtles look to Princess like walking chocolate chips, and are very interesting. I keep her well away from any baby turtle, egg or nest. With her big nose, I know well in advance where the next turtle is and she also finds all the empty egg shells along the way.
Di will regret not seeing those, so I hope we'll see more next year wherever we may be.
I've started working on possible routes down South. Info, charts and guides are a lot sparser than for Mexico. A lot of the areas we will be transiting flash bright red on all security websites and databases, mostly due to current cartel wars.
We will see and adjust as we go. One great thing about Enfin is that we can easily "jump" over long distances once we fuel her up. That will give us plenty of options if needed.
Of course most of our trek down the Mexican Pacific coast was also in areas deemed extremely dangerous. So far, normal care and attention have been more than enough to keep us out of trouble. We find that locals, especially in marinas, are excellent guides and want to keep tourists safe. Di being fluent in Spanish, and Princess being our ambassador also helps a lot in making friends and getting good information.
Princess is also a deterrent of sort, with her wolf like features, and we appreciate that. So far though, marinas are all safe bubbles, so we will continue to aim for the major ones along the way.
Summer end is getting nearer. Enfin is looking good, with all systems in great condition, even a new navigation tablet to replace an aging one.
We have plenty of food and perishables.
Documents in order.
Ready for the next leg of our adventure as we get closer and closer to ending the Mexican chapter of our cruise.
Comments