Dia de la Splash!
Written from the El Mero Docks (aka the "almost free docks")— Just Outside of Guaymas
As of yesterday morning, Sedna is officially a boat again, and not some bizarrely shaped cabin on stilts. We lowered her into the water via travel lift— not without some excitement, as there always will be. Putting a boat back into the water after any amount of time out on land, will always result in some shrinking and expanding— some sun damage or heat damage that was unexpected. I feel like every time we drop a boat back in, we run around the inside of the hull, searching frantically for leaks or water coming in through any unknown. This time, we did have some water coming in— from our dripless prop shaft, which just needed the engine to be turned on, and the boat to run in and out of gear to expand the seal and bring the leak to a hault. However, the initial shock of water pouring into your boat is NEVER comfortable— so the slow steam over to the El Mero docks, was not really a victorious ride. Our depth sounder wasn’t working, the engine was slightly overheating— but the hull was dry! All thru-hulls and prop shaft were dry. So… we are a floating vessel, and continue to float very successfully.
El Mero in a small chunk of docks that is only a mile and half away from Marina Seca Guaymas, up and over the top of a steep hill. It has the most basic of amenities: a dock, some cleats to tie off on, garbage cans, and a guard both day and night for the entrance gate. For many cruisers, this is a little bare bones, but for anyone will a car, this is a cheap way to prep the boat and work on the boat once in the water. We pay Miguel (the day guard) 50 pesos a day (about $2.50) for his guard services, which he takes very seriously. Also, he has an adorable Weiner dog names Millie, who has had several litters of puppies. Thankfully, Millie has never had puppies while we’re around, because otherwise… we would have a boat dog.
Working on the boat in the water make a world of a difference in the heat. The hull is no longer basking in the hot sun, but absorbing the cooler water temps, keeping the inside of the boat very comfortable. There is little to no dust blowing about, so I can varnish (hooray!), and we can do projects on the upper decks without threat of falling from great distances. The major projects for us, now that we’re in the water, is to finish the installation of our brand new manual windlass, a Sea Tiger 555 Double Gypsy, putting on sails and completing the running rigging, and doing several provisioning runs while we still have the luxury of a truck.
Provisioning: Where is it all going to go!?
I have been finding new nooks and crannies to hide dry-goods. Clif has been working on creating a new stainless steel plate to mount the windlass on top of the bowsprit. In between we cook, clean and do odd-jobs. I’m starting to really enjoy me Nescafe Instant Coffee in the morning (my Swiss exchange brother would be proud). That’s about it for life in El Mero. We can hearing the little ‘pop rock’ noise of the cleaner shrimp on the bottom of our hull, and feel the boat rock when the fishing pangas roll by in the morning and evening.
Our plan right now consists of getting down to Puerto Vallarta is a safe, but speedy fashion, dong a couple days of sailing with warmer waters and nice surf waves on the brain.
The Preview for the Podcast is finally up! You can find it on the iTunes Store now for free downloads. and I’m hoping to complete the first full episode by the time we reach PV— since we will have some sailing and motoring time for listening and editing. We went to the Cruisers Thanksgiving Potluck tonight in the yard, and recording some excellent material to wrap up the episode with. Looking forward to that.
Keep an eye on our Delorme Tracker in the next two week— as we hope to be moving south!