Well here is what is going on this month. I have gotten together with the gals to play hand and foot and Mexican train. In a couple weeks almost everyone will be heading back to the states for summer, to return in the fall around October. So it will be pretty quiet here.
A couple of us gals have been getting together at my friend Annie’s house to exercise with Zumba Gold. It is fun and that is just what I needed to rev up my exercise program. The gold is for us old gals because it is a lower pace than the original but you still get to dance and work the pounds off. Right now I have the DVD as Annie let me borrow it while her and her husband, and 3 other couples take off for 2 weeks of camping.
Our friends Creela and Phil invited us and some other people to a birthday celebration for Phil last night, the 16th. We went to Alejandrina’s restaurant in town and I made a cake for desert. We had a good time.
Today---the 17th we arrived in Santa Rosalia. Robert and Kristi are coming to see the boat tomorrow and will stay overnight. We can take our time showing the boat to them. They still aren’t in a position to buy it yet, but it is only a matter of time. They will leave on Sunday to go back to their house in Loreto, south of Santa Rosalia, and we leave on Monday heading to Bahia.
We were suppose to get zippers and thread for the boat screens but unfortunately our canvas guy didn’t mail them in time to get to a friends house so he could bring them with him to Bahia when he came. Bummer. I guess we will just get them when we go to Washington this summer and see about getting the zippers replaced when we get back to Mexico.
The sun is eating away the thread on the bimini over the helm station. I am using sail tape to keep it together. We are definitely going to have to do something about that.
Usually the next day after arrival to Santa Rosalia I rinse out the cockpit, but didn’t have a chance as Robert and Kristi are coming tomorrow. Actually it was a little dusty but not bad so all is well. It is a little warmer here then Bahia, but there is a nice breeze.
Robert and Kristi arrived and we gave hugs all around. The first thing Kristi said was it felt like she knew us because of all the emails and phone calls back and forth. Very nice people. We spent the day going through the boat. Robert already saw it so I took Kristi and showed her all the storage pookas and everything. They asked questions and we supplied the answers. Neither one has sailed for a long time. Kristi took sailing lessons many years ago and Robert has his 100 ton license to operate boats. Kristi and Robert own a fishing boat (small) so they know about traveling on water. We suggested a boating class might be good to take when they go back to Oregon. She and Robert want to learn how to operate the boat. We had them unroll the mainsail and it is good we did because it hadn’t been done in so long we had some trouble getting it to roll. We finally did and unrolled and rolled it up about 3 times so all is good. Robert pretty much did the mainsail and Kristi unrolled and rolled the headsail. They got to get the feel of how hard or easy it is to do. They aren’t doing any long distance cruising right now until they get use to the boat. We offered to help them and they were grateful. Kristi was overwhelmed a bit with all the information but that is to be expected. We suggested also she read a couple books that talk about the basics of sailing. They actually have one of the books titled ‘Chapman Piloting’. We went to dinner and Robert and Kristi paid for our dinner which was nice. We will treat them to breakfast in the morning. Dave filled them with his stories of when he worked with NOAA and the adventures and places he got to go for work, in addition to corrections and things he fixed on our boat. Kristi asked me what my favorite memories were of places we have been. So we talked about that then around 10:00pm we went to bed.
Sunday morning everyone was up by 7:00am and we fixed coffee and sat in the cockpit and talked. We discussed more of the boat and Dave ran the engine, bow thruster and turned the max prop to show them how it moves the boat. All worked great. Then we ran the generator. So they know all systems on the boat work and are well maintained. They like the idea that the boat was well maintained and Dave did a lot of trouble shooting with problems we had. Like Robert and Kristi said---they are reaping the benefits of all our knowledge and careful care of the boat. I showed Kristi the provisioning list I made when we were cruising where it listed everything we had on the boat, the quantity and where to find it. Both of them thought it was a really great idea!! I shared with Kristi I read a lot of how to provision and sailing stories and all to prepare for our voyage. Dave and I will be able to share the knowledge we have with them so they will enjoy ownership of the boat.
We treated them to breakfast at our favorite place to eat, Tercos. We had never eaten breakfast there so we gave it a try. Wonderful food!!! We had a nice breakfast. After the bill was paid we stopped at the outdoor fruit and vegetable stand on our way back to the boat. Kristi and Robert got some fruit and veggies. They said they don’t get really good fruits and vegetables in Loreto which surprised me. I figured with the good sized community they have there that wouldn‘t be a problem. They said when they do get good veggies and fruit it is expensive. So I am glad we live where we do. We did think about finding a place in Loreto, but fell in love with Bahia instead. I’m glad we did. There are a lot of American and Canadian people living there. Having a large gringo community doesn’t interest us. We want to experience the life of the Mexican people. Plus if you are around a lot of the Mexican people you have to learn some Spanish!! That’s what I want! Anyway---Kristi and Robert had to get going so we got to their car and said our goodbyes. We don’t know when the next time we will see them, but they definitely want the boat. Robert said there are two prospective people who want to buy their house in Brookings, Oregon. So he really thinks his house will sell around July/August timeframe. He is going to contact the broker and tell him he is very interested in our boat and let him know what is going on with his finances. That way everyone is well informed. So who knows----by September we may have new owners of our boat. They want the 4 of us to take the boat to Escondido, which is south of Santa Rosalia, to get it hauled out and the bottom painted. He will make the arrangements for the paint and haul out when the time comes. While the boat is being worked on they invited us to stay with them at their house in Loreto. Loreto is really close to Escondido. Robert doesn’t see a need to have a survey done on the boat. After talking to us and Dave filling him in on all the maintenance he did, Robert knows the boat is sound. That is a good feeling. I think this is a start of a good relationship. Robert made the comment that when they take the boat over and go to Puerto Vallarta and something happens with the boat, Dave will be the first person he calls to tell us to board a plane and get down there!!!! Since we have owned 6 hunters, Dave knows pretty much everything about them and there isn’t much he can’t fix!!! I told Robert and Kristi we could be crew with them until they learn the boat!!! I think that would be fun!!!! I wouldn’t mind that at all!!! After they left, Dave shared with me that the house they were trying to get a reverse mortgage for went through. The only problem is when Kristi’s dad died, there were a lot of bills incurred and so most of that money went to pay off the debt and there wasn’t much left to make an offer on the boat. So now he thinks he has his house sold and we will go from there. I believe with all my heart and soul that it will happen and Robert and Kristi are the perfect owners for our boat. God has a plan and it is in the works. Hallelujah!!!! Good things are coming!!!
We head back to Bahia tomorrow morning. We are stopping in Vizcaino for groceries and I have to find a Similar Pharmacy either there or in Guerrero Negro to get more cholesterol pills. The pharmacy here was closed. I thought it might be since it is Sunday. No worries.
The evening is pleasant and it is cooling down. Yesterday was a warm one but with the air conditioner going it was nice. We all kept cool. Today we ran the air conditioner for a while and now we just have the fans going. The evening is cool so no problem sleeping. So on to my wine and relaxing!!! Life is very good!!!!!
We stopped in Vizcaino and did shopping. Picked up a couple of things for our neighbor and found no Similar pharmacy in town. So we shall stop in Guerrero Negro as we know they have one. I did a stupid thing------I forgot my cholesterol medicine on the boat. The container fell over and rolled next to the wall under the shelf in the galley and I should have gotten it then but didn’t so out of sight out of mind. Uh oh!!!! I didn’t realize I left it behind until we were half way home. So I am hoping I can get 2 packages of the medicine at Similars. Well Similars had it but only one package of 30 at 10mg each. I have to take 40mg a day so that means 4 tablets of the 10mg. It won’t last long. They said they would get more in on Saturday. This was Monday. Oh well. It is what it is. I walked just a couple buildings away to another pharmacy and they didn’t have any. So I was stuck. At this time Dave didn’t know I had forgotten my pills on the boat. I had enough to get me through this month and then would supplement with the 10 mg. So now what will I do. Dave asked me about the medicine and if I had enough and I had to tell him the stupid thing I did. So now I will have to figure something out. It is a 2-½ hour drive to Guerrero Negro and it makes for a long day.
We made it home safely, unloaded the car and put groceries and other things away then relaxed. We will be going back to Santa Rosalia at the end of June to pay moorage for the summer.
We heard from Robert a day or two after we got home and he said the sale of the house was good. We really don’t know any more than that, but something is in the works. Robert had contacted the broker in La Paz and Mike sent us an email stating that fact. So the ball is rolling. No offer yet. I’m sure we will hear from Robert when his business is taken care of. They are heading to Oregon in July to attend Kristi’s father’s funeral. We are heading to Washington in July so we figure nothing will be done about the boat until after summer. It would be nice to have an offer on it before we go though. We shall see.
We didn’t get our zippers and thread and won’t from our canvas guy in Washington. Looks like he is out of business!!!! The friend that was going to bring them down for us went back to his house yesterday and reported he never got them. So now we have a call in to Tori, a good friend who sells boats in Seattle, to contact a warehouse to see what the cost is for a box of zippers. So looks like we will get the zippers and thread when we go north. Oh well. It is what it is. At least we can get them.
There are 2 water pumps in town. The one in town has a pump broken so they can’t distribute water. The place where we get our water is at the south end of town and their water comes from a spring. When the water place in town breaks down, it puts a strain on the water supply from the spring so they have to limit how much water people can get a day. They are only open from 7am to noon every day except Sunday. We need water and asked our guy that brings it to come out. I usually send an email to his wife, Yolanda and request water and Andres generally comes out the next day. We waited and no water for a week. I had sent 2 emails to Yolanda but didn’t get a response. She goes to Ensenada to visit the doctor frequently. She has either a stomach or intestine problem that seems to be getting worse. Anyway----we asked our friend Penny & Murray to stop and see him when they went to town and send him out to our place. They live close to town so they are in town quite a bit. They passed the info on to Andres so I figured we would get water the next day. Nope!!! So when I went to town on Saturday to get groceries I stopped to see him. He said Yolanda was in Ensenada and he could deliver water to us on Monday. So I said o.k. Another day wouldn’t make much difference. Well Monday came and went and no water. We were getting pissed because now we have to think of who else to bring water and it would cost us more. We have a 1250 gallon tank we hold water in but only let the water get down so far before filling up. We know that the water pump situation in town happens a lot so we don’t want to drain the tank. In this case we would just almost empty it and then ask Pepe, he runs the ‘Home Depot’ here (figure of speech), and delivers water to many people, to come out and fill it. It is just more expensive. I was holding off doing laundry until we got more water, but decided to get it done.
Well guess who showed up Tuesday morning with water at 6:30am!!!! You got it!!!! Dave and I figured Yolanda was back from Ensenada and read her message from me. So we are good. We are still a little low but Andres will be back next Tuesday to bring more water and we will be totally full then.
Our friends Creela and Phil had a rock path put in on the south side of their house here. It looks really nice. Next year they will expand it to go around the east side of the house and around the fire pit. It will be awesome.
Our other friends and neighbors, Lynn and Tom are having a garage built. Busy time. Lynn and Tom are only here for another month so they want to get that done before going back to San Diego.
Dave went fishing with Phil about a week ago. Caught a large sheeps head fish. I didn’t get to see it but I was told it was pretty. I guess it is a good eating white fish. No yellow tail yet.
Phil came over the other day and Dave mentioned he heard that Phil wanted to do some riding and exploring on the quad. Creela can’t go long distance on a quad due to her back, so Dave said he would love to go sometime with him. They couldn’t go that day because we were going to a Memorial Day dinner party, but they said the next day would be great. So Dave will ride Phil’s small quad and follow Phil on his new one he brought down. I was bummed as I wanted to go too-----but Dave is going to see if it is something we might be able to do together.
Well the guys just got home from quad riding. They went down to Los Flores. Dave and I and Noreen and Ron went down there in the truck about 3 years ago. It was fun. Anyway---Dave said it was a bit warm (further inland from the water it is warming up). They were on the tail end of the exploring season. No one goes hiking or exploring June on due to the hot weather and snakes. They had fun but the trail Phil wanted to take Dave on had been washed out and the going would have been rough. So they did some exploring and Dave brought back a deer antler for me!!!! Cool!! The guys were gone for about 3 hours. Dave told me it would have been hard on my back because the trail was rough. Darn. Well they had fun and that is all that matters. We’ll have to figure out a way to go sightseeing in the near future.
Today, Tuesday the 28th is Susannah’s birthday. That is Jons’ wife, our new daughter-in-law. He is so happy being a dad and husband. I am thrilled for him. Little munchkin, Jonathan is growing like a weed. Can’t wait to see him this summer.
I’ve been in a mental slump ever since the Art and Craft show. I was very disappointed in not selling much. I had envisioned making some money, but the Americans didn’t come down until after Easter because it was so early this year. So I had been struggling with being bummed and then not selling the boat-----So needless to say I needed to work harder on pulling myself up by my boot straps and move on. Life is full of ups and downs and this won’t be the last time I have to deal with disappointment. With that said------we got some discouraging news in an email from our boat broker (Mike) this morning. Seems as though Robert and Kristi went to La Paz to talk to him. While they were there Kristi wanted to look at a 50 foot power boat they had for sale. THOSE were the discouraging words!!! To even think they would consider a power boat. Kristi is a little apprehensive about starting to sail this late in life and so she is checking out other options. The boat they were looking at is a really nice one. Dave said if we had the option, it would be a consideration to live on. But that’s not going to happen. He said that after he looked at the pictures online. Anyway----they have to be comfortable in what they want. It is an investment. So we shall see.
The weather is absolutely wonderful!!!! Flat seas, calm breeze but no fish are biting. Dave and Phil went out last week and caught bait fish only!!!! The water is getting warmer so the Yellow Tail should be here soon!!! We saw a whale shark a week or so ago but apparently he was just scouting around and it is still too cold for them so we haven’t seen any more.
I’ve been trying to walk on the beach at low tide to get more exercise so today I started out and figured I would keep going if my back was up to it. Well it was and I had a wonderful walk to the large estuary. I wanted to see the baby grey whale the locals towed into the estuary a couple weeks ago. There was a huge uproar with a couple American ladies here in town that thought it would be disastrous to have the whale decompose letting all the oils and other things enter the water and soil. The estuary doesn’t get flushed out on a regular basis so they were concerned about the environment. Emails were put out by one of the women telling everyone to email the office in town that deals with the environment and wildlife. Phil went down shortly after getting the email to check on the whale and said it had already blown up and there was no moving it. The ladies wanted it taken out of the estuary. I didn’t respond because nature has a way of taking care of itself and I didn’t see the harm. Phil, who is a marine biologist, didn’t think it was a big deal either. So when I got to the whale, all that was left was bones and a little of the skin. The birds, coyotes and fiddle crabs have been feasting on the remains. As I walked on the dry estuary bed toward the whale I had to dodge a bazillion fiddle crabs on the way!!!! It was amazing. They were getting what they could that was left of the flesh and skin. Nature has cleaned it up. Just a few days ago there was another dead baby whale found floating in the bay. This time the guys towed it across the bay to an alcove where nature would take care of it. The word was it wasn’t a grey whale but another type. It is a shame that these little guys get lost and end up in here. It was a wonderful walk and I must have walked about 6 miles. I think it is 3 miles one way.
