There must be someone reading these, because I have had several readers wonder why I haven’t written a blog in a month. Since the last blog I flew back into Mazatlan from Los Angeles, leaving Sheilagh back at the condo in San Diego. I went through customs with a green light, although the only questionable item was the repaired GPS receiver that didn’t fit into the computer, cell phone, or portable radio/IPod categories that are permitted. I had a story in mind about how I use it in the car, but didn’t have to employ any subterfuge. I was last in line because I first ducked into a men’s room and changed out of my jeans for shorts.
When I had signed up for the flight in early April, I had only 4 seats to choose from. About three days prior to the flight I checked on the internet to see if I could get a better seat. Imagine my surprise to see one-fourth of the 200 seats now available for seating. This was in the initial stages of the swine flu “epidemic;” so I counted my good fortune and picked a better seat with no seatmates in the row. When I finally got aboard on April 30th, the Vice President had just advised everybody not to travel in closed environments, and the plane was only one-fourth full. Naturally First Class and the exit row seats were all taken, but I got my own row completely across the plane.
The main Mazatlan Beach looking North - the volume of tourists is down so low that the beaches are nearly empty and the locals are suffering a serious economic slumpThe flight path was almost directly down the Sea of Cortez, which kept me moving from one side of the plane to the other to note the places we had sailed on the eastern side of the Baja Peninsula, and the places we had skipped by on the western side of mainland Mexico. I think the other few passengers behind me might have been a little curious as to what I was doing, but they seemed more interested in taking alcoholic medication to prepare to confront the swine flu in Mazatlan.
Getting back to the boat, I found that I needed to go through all the cabinets to find out where Sheilagh had been storing everything. She did a walk-through with me before we left the boat, but my memory remains challenged. Thankfully, Sheilagh had prepared a mini-cookbook for me, made up of simple meals that “even I” was supposedly able to handle. Since we had left the refrigerator/freezer in a defrost condition, I needed to bring it back up online and then restock it, along with restocking some of the other cabinets.
Although I gave a tribute to Sheilagh (my gorgeous cruising partner) in my April 10th blog, I was only now beginning to realize the full extent of her usefulness in the past. Now it was necessary for me to do the actual shopping instead of wandering over to the wine section, while she did the real shopping. My shopping seemed to take a lot longer than it did with Sheilagh, forced as I was to wander around and find the proper sections for the various products I needed. The next item on my list always seemed to be at the other side of the store.
That night I forced myself to start using Sheilagh’s recipe book to do some actual cooking on my own. You have to appreciate the fact that I do not like to cook and have been happy to leave the galley completely under Sheilagh’s management. I tried some beef stroganoff with hamburger, managed to cook the noodles enough to chew them, and heated up a can of mixed peas, carrots, and corn for my vegetable. It all turned out pretty well, and I had enough for lunch the next day. It seemed as if this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
In the four-plus weeks since, I have decided that I was never meant to be a bachelor and certainly not a single-handed cruiser. In the past I could get away with dropping various articles of clothing around the boat, knowing that somehow they would be picked up and put somewhere more appropriate to being found. Sheilagh’s not around to find the things I’m missing, and I can no longer blame the loss on her either throwing them out or hiding them from me. I seem to be missing a lot more things with her gone than I ever did with her around.
In the past I helped with the dishes occasionally, but now they don’t seem to get done unless I do them. Whereas Sheilagh wouldn’t go to bed without the dishes being done, I usually have to do them when I have run out of the pots, pans, or dishes that I need for the next meal. Now doing dishes is a major chore because there are so many of them to do. I even have to hand dry them, rather than let them drip dry, because there isn’t enough room in the galley to pile them up and still have room to prepare the next meal. It’s a real bummer I can tell you.
One of the benefits of this new lifestyle is that I can comfortably sit on my butt and read or relax without any feeling of guilt. It was difficult to do this with Sheilagh around because she has an inherent need to be constantly busy with one thing or another. She might sit down with a book now and then, but at the end of the next chapter she would be up and about seeing what else she could get busy with. She kept assuring me that I could sit and relax while she was sweeping or mopping the cabin deck – sure!
So I would attempt to ignore her and continue relaxing, lifting my feet as necessary to avoid the broom or mop. I prefer to wait until I can feel the grit on my bare feet, and then I know there’s definitely something there to clean up. I’ve also found there aren’t many places to sit on the boat and take my ease, now that the cushions in the saloon are covered with books, navigation tools, clean clothing that hasn’t been put away, a backpack, a couple of DVD albums – and that’s just taking a quick look around the cabin.
Cooking, of course is the big problem. I can remember Sheilagh asking what I wanted for lunch or dinner, and responding that I wanted the usual “caviar a la crème,” which is my shorthand for saying that I had no idea what I wanted. I always knew that whatever she came up with would be delicious, and the unknown nature of the coming meal would be part of the attraction. Now I have to think up something on my own, a task I get around to doing at about 7 or 8 in the evening. Naturally this is too late to thaw anything from the freezer, so I don’t have a lot of choices.
Our microwave only has a high setting; so it’s not usable for defrosting anything. I have learned to immerse the packaged chicken in a hot pan of water to speed the process, after which I fry it up as thoroughly as possible to avoid getting some disease Sheilagh has warned me about with regard to partially cooked chicken. I also take the precaution of eating only the exterior meat not touching the bone just in case my cooking was not thorough enough.
I have also learned to rely on hamburger meat for a variety of dishes, such as hamburger stroganoff and hamburger sprinkled over a chef’s salad, not to mention cheeseburgers. I’ve always liked vegetables; so I sometimes boil up a packaged soup and add a cup or so of canned or frozen vegetables to it. I could survive this way, but it’s a real chore to not only think of what to have, but to thaw it out in time, cook it correctly, and then clean up the mess at the end. No, this is definitely not the way I would want to survive over any length of time.
Despite my moaning and complaining above, I have had plenty of time to go hiking, kayaking, swimming, shade bathing (I’ve had more than my share of sun bathing), and taking naps. It has been hot and muggy here over the past four weeks; so the middle of the day is not the time to be working on the boat or exercising, both of which are better done in the early morning or late afternoon. The grocery stores are quite cool, so grocery shopping is a good exercise for the middle of the afternoon, and it allows a certain amount of hiking as I look for just the right food items to avoid going back out in the heat.
At about 3 or 4 PM every afternoon I grab my beach bag and head to the El Cid pool to relax in the shade and take a dip every now and then. In the beach bag I have my latest book, a Sudoku puzzle book with pen, my IPod, my wallet, a key to the gate, a towel, and a small flask of rum. As I arrive at the pool I select one of the better chaise lounge types under an umbrella and unload everything, including my hat, shirt, glasses, sandals and watch. Then I hotfoot it over to the edge of the pool and dive into the most wonderful cool water you can imagine – helped of course by the fact that I was dripping with sweat before plunging in.
Then I dry off, order a diet coke from the bar, turn on my IPod to some classical music, and start reading my book. As soon as the diet coke arrives, I wait for the waiter to retire and slip out my flask to add some “seasoning” to the coke. Then I alternate reading, working puzzles, selecting songs, and taking dips between sips. Not a bad way to end the afternoon every day. Then it’s back to the boat to remember that I forgot to get anything out to thaw for dinner – but you’ve heard that story above.
This is how Aurora looks out of the water - I was embarrassed to show a "before" pictureLast week I had our boat lifted out of the water and taken to the boatyard to get the bottom painted. I had been having less and less success at keeping the bottom clean, and it had been over a year and a half since last we had it painted; so it was about time. The boatyard did a great job for a price about one-half of what I paid in San Diego and they did it fairly quickly. I lived on my boat as it was sitting in the yard, and that was a challenge. I had to block up the sinks and not use them, since they would have dripped dirty water over the hull that was being painted. My solution was to do the dishes in the cruisers’ lounge attached to the boatyard, and do all face and hand washing, along with teeth cleaning, over the head – allowing me to pump the residue into the holding tank until I could get the boat back in the water.
This is Aurora hanging in the straps just prior to being relaunched - they leave it in the straps overnight to let the paint dry on the very bottom of the keelIt got a bit hotter on the boat while it was in the yard, since I had to keep the portholes closed to keep out the sanding that was being done on my boat and the others nearby. During that time I took refuge in the cruisers’ lounge, where there was air-conditioning and internet access. That was where I did some very detailed trip planning and caught up on my messages every day. The boatyard did not provide cable TV, which caused me to miss the final performances of Dancing with the Stars, but I had Sheilagh tape it at home, where I can watch it when I return.
I have also had a chance to do some sightseeing, even remembering the camera on a couple of occasions. Here are some of the pictures I took:
This is the main Mazatlan Beach looking S0uth toward the communication towers on the hill
This is the Fishermen's monument in the center of the Malecon - it shows a rather flexible anchor leaning up against a lighthouse with a plump lady reclining on the anchor shaft and a fisherman around the tower preparing to throw his net
This is a typical neighborhood beauty parlor - closed on Sunday
It was easier to see the spires of the cathedral from the rear - the front of the building faces on a formal park, overgrown with trees, shrubs and flowers - and spread throughout the park are shoeshine stands everywhere - who knows why they congregate here?On Thursday evening, Jim and Craig will be flying in from Kauai and Seattle respectively to help me take the boat back up to San Diego. It is almost 1000 nautical miles from Mazatlan to San Diego, and we hope to do it in 10 – 20 days, if the weather cooperates. I’ll be describing the trip in a future blog. More later . . .
