We had just settled into our air-conditioned seats in the bus on our way to Tijuana from Guaymas at the end of my last blog. The total trip would be about 14 hours and just the air-conditioned nature of the trip was a godsend for us. We pulled out books and IPods, had a couple of diet cokes to sip on, and indulged in some snacks as the sun set in the west to our left as we headed north. We found we could lean back in the seats and put our feet up to be completely relaxed and comfortable.
About two hours later Sheilagh began shifting in the seat to find a more comfortable position, and she continued this practice for the next twelve hours. Having traveled by bus for up to 48 hours at a time when I commuted to high school from Walla Walla, Washington to Columbus, Ohio in the fall and back in the spring, I learned that there is no position in a bus seat that can ever bring comfort over a long period of time. The only thing to do is to assume a single position, move one’s feet a few inches occasionally, and make one’s mind fixate on something other than one’s bodily comfort. This did not fall willingly on Sheilagh’s ears. Instead she continued to swivel her hips onto the edge of my seat, then reverse herself in the other direction with her head and shoulders overlapping. Later on in the trip she found another seat that allowed her to drape herself over two seats together. Needless to say she never achieved the comfort she sought.
Every three hours we came to a stop for a 15-minute break, where a few of us got up and walked around. If you’ve never ridden a long-distance bus you wouldn’t know that these stops always coincide with REM sleep, and they are announced by turning on the overhead lights in the bus and waking everyone. The food was the same as that found in train stations, namely pre-wrapped cold turkey and ham sandwiches, and burritos that could be warmed up. This was offered along with all the cold soft drinks one might find anywhere and candy and snack treats. Over time the bus became littered with the packaging of all these items after they were consumed by the riders.
Sometime around midnight we were stopped at a military checkpoint and everyone was herded out of the bus to stand around as our bags were opened and searched. Some military types also searched the seating area in the bus while we were disembarked. It appears nothing was found of any significance and no one was escorted off the bus. We were loaded back up and the trip continued. We found nothing missing from our checked bags when we had a chance to look through them later.
I actually got some good sleep despite the conditions, but Sheilagh developed a bug of some sort during the trip and was miserable. The bus climbed over a very high pass to get to Tijuana from the east in the early morning. The pass seemed higher than the 7,000’ Donner Pass I’m familiar with, and I have never seen so many boulders piled on one another. I was surprised there weren’t more rock falls on the steep faces of the hills. For that matter I couldn’t see how anyone could have built a road over what appeared to be loose boulders everywhere. In the case of Donner Pass in California the road was carved out of granite and there are no apparent rocks hanging over the highway ready to fall. In the case of this pass in Mexico it would appear that any slight earthquake tremor would cover the highway in very large boulders. I kept my eyes on the situation; so I could brace myself and Sheilagh when a boulder rolled down and tipped the bus off the edge of the steep road!
We arrived almost 14 hours to the minute after we left the bus station at Guaymas. That means we were about 45 minutes late at every stop (based on our 45-minute late departure), but that didn’t bother us nor the other passengers who got on and off at various stops along the way. We retrieved our bags and decided that they were too heavy to take on a local bus to the border. We hired a cab which took us to the back of a long line of people entering the U.S. that Saturday. We were immediately met by a couple of entrepreneurs who suggested we take their bus through the checkpoint, so we wouldn’t have to carry our bags in a long line for at least a quarter of a mile. We took them up on it and spent the next 30 minutes or so sitting on a very slowly moving bus that saved us a lot of wear and tear.
Getting through the final checkpoint required that we carry our bags a few paces, and then we spilled out in front of a San Diego McDonald’s, where we had good old American Sausage McMuffins with Eggs. We had planned to load our bags on the trolley and disembark about a block from our condo, but the number and weight of the bags, along with Sheilagh’s not feeling well, caused us to decide in favor of a taxi. This 20-minute cab ride cost about half as much as the total cost of the 14-hour bus trip. Furthermore, adding up all the taxi rides from the marina to the Guaymas bus station and the three cab rides at this end of the trip, we paid $5 less for cabs than we did for the entire bus trip. So we got off with a tab of about $250 plus snacks and drinks to get from Guaymas to our condo in San Diego – cheaper than an airplane ticket for both of us by about half.
We got into our condo where our niece (who is renting it from us) had previously purchased a battery for our car. We quickly installed it, got an oil change and fluids checked at a Jiffy Lube, pumped up the tires, got a car wash, and checked into a local motel at about 4 times the price of the rental we receive on our condo. We crashed for the night and then spent the next two days ordering new halyards for the boat and buying a few other items that we have needed for some time on the boat. We also called Rich and Debbie of ‘Oasis’ who had sailed back to San Diego a few weeks before. They invited us over for pizza on their boat and offered us nearly a ringside seat to a Pat Benatar concert scheduled for the same night beside their marina. We had a great time catching up on their travels and comparing notes.
Today we are setting out to visit relatives up and down the west coast and will discontinue this blog until we start back to the boat in late September, or maybe even late October. We will be doing car camping on the way up the coast, and plan to loop back inland a bit to catch some National Parks going both ways. The climate in California has been wonderful, compared to what we just left in San Carlos, Mexico, and we are very appreciative. Hopefully we will be ready to return to the warmth after spending some cool nights camping in the mountains.
We hope you have enjoyed some of our experiences and musings as we have vacationed for the past nine months in the waters of Mexico. We’ll be back in the fall. More later . . .
Monday, August 11, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
August 1st – San Carlos – Jim’s Blog #62
We actually had a lot more nights like the hot and muggy one we had at the end of the last blog. A little breeze would come up at about 5PM and last about an hour or so, which made that time a good one for getting some chores done outside despite the sun shining down on us at that time. In the morning we could work reasonably comfortably from 6AM until the sun began shining down on us at 8AM, but those two hours in the morning and one hour in the evening were not enough time to get everything done. We just got used to being covered in sweat (or “glow” in Sheilagh’s case), and continued working as we looked forward to the shower in the evening. When things got too hot we would wear our bathing suits to the shower, wash off, and walk back to the boat with fresh water versus salty water all over our bodies.
New sailors might ask what needs to be done to put a boat up for a couple of months in potential hurricane conditions. Here is a smattering of the tasks we performed:
1) Changed the oil in the engine, replaced the oil filter and cleaned out the dual fuel filters,
2) Removed the raw water impeller to keep it from developing a weird shape (and discovered that one of the impeller blades had broken off),
3) Added biocide to the fuel tanks and topped them off,
4) Emptied all water tanks, including the hot water tank,
5) Pickled the water maker with a special chemical to preserve it for two months with no activity,
6) Took down all the sails and rolled them up for storage in the cabin – this involved disconnecting the reefing lines and the furling,
7) Cut the fittings off four of our halyards to be used for new halyards, and tied off the old halyards to keep them from flogging the mast in a strong wind,
8) Took down the bimini and the canvas-supported flexible plastic windows around the dodger – effectively eliminating our shade on top of the boat,
9) Cleaned out the head and holding tank and filled with water to keep the smell down,
10) Defrosted and cleaned the freezer and refrigerator, throwing out some food that had gone bad and donating the good stuff to the gals in the front office,
11) Filled up the shower, the sinks, and a bucket with fresh water to allow for some moisture in the cabin during the hot days to come
12) Placed an elastic stretch band (Shockles) tied into each of the dock lines to allow for some boat movement with the dock in the event of high winds and waves.
Generally, sailors pull their boats completely out of the water in hurricane territory and store them on dry land in braces to keep them standing in the strong wind of a hurricane. We saw hundreds of boats put up that way and it is an economical way to do it. One of the problems with this approach is that the boats suffer from being out of the water, causing the hulls and thru-hulls to dry out and crack to some degree. We wanted to avoid the problems with dry storage, and we reasoned that leaving the boat in the water would be appropriate based on the sheltered nature of the marina we were using and the history of hurricanes in this area.
Marina Real is a well protected marina from both the winds and the surge of high waves that can damage most in-the-water boats during a hurricane. We learned that hurricanes had seldom reached as far north in the Sea of Cortez as San Carlos in the past, and the ones that did reach here were winding down in force. We stripped the boat of anything that could blow away in a strong wind, and tied the boat to a good solid dock with strong lines that had some elastic tied in to provide some flexibility. We will be back in October at the end of the hurricane season and will reverse everything we’ve done to prepare to go south for the winter.
We had a marina worker drop by with his son on a particularly hot day offering to wash the boat and shine up all the stainless steel for a very good price. We left the boat in his hands and took the shuttle to the San Carlos Marina to do our laundry. When we returned he and his son had done a great job, and one that saved us at least 4-6 hours of work in the hot sun. I think this shaved a day off of the time needed to perform all the tasks we wanted to accomplish.
Marina Real offers a shuttle to San Carlos three times a day, of which we availed ourselves nearly every day – once to get marine supplies, once to get bus tickets to Tijuana, and once to get the laundry done. This shuttle is handy because the marina provides very few services other than a safe place to tie up, along with electricity and non-potable water. I should mention that the showers are adequate and there is internet availability in the office, which is air-conditioned (but only open from 8AM to 5PM.
To get the bus tickets to Tijuana we had to grab a local bus from San Carlos, after the shuttle, to Guaymas (where the long range bus stations originate), a trip of about 12 miles. Afterwards we visited an auto supply store where we picked up a DC fan for the boat (to replace one that had quit working) and some silvered windshield covers that we later cut up for covers to our hatches and portholes. We also discovered a LEY department/grocery store (similar to a Kmart) where we got some cleaning supplies, and then it was back to the boat.
Finally Friday rolled around, the day of our departure, and we could finally put the sails and dinghy down below where we had been sleeping and cooking. The night before leaving we had a marathon of the last 6 hours of the sixth season of the TV program, “24.” Sadly, we were so tired that we stopped with the last hour to go, planning to watch it on Friday before we left. Yeah, we forgot all about it until we were in the bus later and realized that it would be another two months before we could see the wrap-up of all the plots for the sixth season. Oh well!
The shuttle had broken down; so we took a cab to the San Carlos Marina, where we planned to have lunch and play with our laptops in air-conditioned spaces while waiting for the bus departure at 6PM. We hadn’t realized that the little restaurant we were using closed down at 2PM, which ended our air-conditioned plans. We grabbed a cab to the TAP Bus Station to wait the four hours and found that they were having difficulty with the air conditioning there. As a result, we waited in the shade until nearly 7PM for our bus to finally arrive. We hadn’t expected that the buses would run on time based on our previous 9 months in the country, so the late departure of the 6PM bus was just another part of the experience.
We finally got off at 7PM and were very happy to be sitting in an air-conditioned bus, knowing that we would be in Tijuana early the next morning and in San Diego soon after that. More later . . .
New sailors might ask what needs to be done to put a boat up for a couple of months in potential hurricane conditions. Here is a smattering of the tasks we performed:
1) Changed the oil in the engine, replaced the oil filter and cleaned out the dual fuel filters,
2) Removed the raw water impeller to keep it from developing a weird shape (and discovered that one of the impeller blades had broken off),
3) Added biocide to the fuel tanks and topped them off,
4) Emptied all water tanks, including the hot water tank,
5) Pickled the water maker with a special chemical to preserve it for two months with no activity,
6) Took down all the sails and rolled them up for storage in the cabin – this involved disconnecting the reefing lines and the furling,
7) Cut the fittings off four of our halyards to be used for new halyards, and tied off the old halyards to keep them from flogging the mast in a strong wind,
8) Took down the bimini and the canvas-supported flexible plastic windows around the dodger – effectively eliminating our shade on top of the boat,
9) Cleaned out the head and holding tank and filled with water to keep the smell down,
10) Defrosted and cleaned the freezer and refrigerator, throwing out some food that had gone bad and donating the good stuff to the gals in the front office,
11) Filled up the shower, the sinks, and a bucket with fresh water to allow for some moisture in the cabin during the hot days to come
12) Placed an elastic stretch band (Shockles) tied into each of the dock lines to allow for some boat movement with the dock in the event of high winds and waves.
Generally, sailors pull their boats completely out of the water in hurricane territory and store them on dry land in braces to keep them standing in the strong wind of a hurricane. We saw hundreds of boats put up that way and it is an economical way to do it. One of the problems with this approach is that the boats suffer from being out of the water, causing the hulls and thru-hulls to dry out and crack to some degree. We wanted to avoid the problems with dry storage, and we reasoned that leaving the boat in the water would be appropriate based on the sheltered nature of the marina we were using and the history of hurricanes in this area.
Marina Real is a well protected marina from both the winds and the surge of high waves that can damage most in-the-water boats during a hurricane. We learned that hurricanes had seldom reached as far north in the Sea of Cortez as San Carlos in the past, and the ones that did reach here were winding down in force. We stripped the boat of anything that could blow away in a strong wind, and tied the boat to a good solid dock with strong lines that had some elastic tied in to provide some flexibility. We will be back in October at the end of the hurricane season and will reverse everything we’ve done to prepare to go south for the winter.
We had a marina worker drop by with his son on a particularly hot day offering to wash the boat and shine up all the stainless steel for a very good price. We left the boat in his hands and took the shuttle to the San Carlos Marina to do our laundry. When we returned he and his son had done a great job, and one that saved us at least 4-6 hours of work in the hot sun. I think this shaved a day off of the time needed to perform all the tasks we wanted to accomplish.
Marina Real offers a shuttle to San Carlos three times a day, of which we availed ourselves nearly every day – once to get marine supplies, once to get bus tickets to Tijuana, and once to get the laundry done. This shuttle is handy because the marina provides very few services other than a safe place to tie up, along with electricity and non-potable water. I should mention that the showers are adequate and there is internet availability in the office, which is air-conditioned (but only open from 8AM to 5PM.
To get the bus tickets to Tijuana we had to grab a local bus from San Carlos, after the shuttle, to Guaymas (where the long range bus stations originate), a trip of about 12 miles. Afterwards we visited an auto supply store where we picked up a DC fan for the boat (to replace one that had quit working) and some silvered windshield covers that we later cut up for covers to our hatches and portholes. We also discovered a LEY department/grocery store (similar to a Kmart) where we got some cleaning supplies, and then it was back to the boat.
Finally Friday rolled around, the day of our departure, and we could finally put the sails and dinghy down below where we had been sleeping and cooking. The night before leaving we had a marathon of the last 6 hours of the sixth season of the TV program, “24.” Sadly, we were so tired that we stopped with the last hour to go, planning to watch it on Friday before we left. Yeah, we forgot all about it until we were in the bus later and realized that it would be another two months before we could see the wrap-up of all the plots for the sixth season. Oh well!
The shuttle had broken down; so we took a cab to the San Carlos Marina, where we planned to have lunch and play with our laptops in air-conditioned spaces while waiting for the bus departure at 6PM. We hadn’t realized that the little restaurant we were using closed down at 2PM, which ended our air-conditioned plans. We grabbed a cab to the TAP Bus Station to wait the four hours and found that they were having difficulty with the air conditioning there. As a result, we waited in the shade until nearly 7PM for our bus to finally arrive. We hadn’t expected that the buses would run on time based on our previous 9 months in the country, so the late departure of the 6PM bus was just another part of the experience.
We finally got off at 7PM and were very happy to be sitting in an air-conditioned bus, knowing that we would be in Tijuana early the next morning and in San Diego soon after that. More later . . .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
