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 . . .