First of all, I just discovered how the comments thing works too. So I was really excited when I found out people were commenting. I can sometimes respond and sometimes not, depending on whether I am using the internet (can see them and comment back) or the short wave radio (all I can do is post). But I will try to reply. If I don't, it likely means no internet access.
We are currently in San Carlos, on the Mexican mainland in Sonora. It is absolutely beautiful and I think this is one of those "I could stay here if I wanted to be in one place" places. We are on a mooring ball out in the harbor, and on one side of us there are beautiful homes, on another side a pretty town area tucked in betweem two mountain ridges, two other sides have mountain and cliff views, and then there is the view of the harbor entrance. As soon as Mike downloads pictures from the camera, I will post them, not only of here in San Carlos, but of all the other places we have been.
I mentioned in the last post that we stopped at an anchorage. But what I didn't tell you was how gorgeous it was. We had it to ourselves, and although we were really tired, we still just sat in the cockpit and drank it in. It did get rolly after we went to bed, but it wasn't bad enough to disturb the anchor (we have been though a LOT worse than that with no dragging) and because I knew there was nothing to worry about, I was able to sleep quite nicely, even while literally being rolled from side to side in my bed. I have discovered the best way to sleep in conditions like that is either flat on your stomach (my choice) or flat on your back (good when its really hot). You don't roll around as much. Before we went to bed we watched a movie - "Desk Set" with Tracy and Hepburn. We didn't finish it because we started fallin asleep. So the next morning, we had a nice breakfast and set off. We found a friend of ours from Santa Rosalia out there - his engine had thrown a rod and was dead. He has this 50 add foot gaff rigged schooner - a small version of a Johnny Depp pirate chip) and was having a terrible time. He couldn't sail into the harbor because of adverse winds and currents, and had been going through this for a couple of days! But he made it in today, with help from a big power boat he met along the way who towed him in. He is in his seventies, had a man with him who is even older, and that is a big boat to handle. But we came real close to him, and got some pictures of his boat under full sail. It is really hard to get pictures of your boat under full sail, but Magda Jean and Sundancer will take pictures of each other when we leave here for Topolobampo in a few days. I am hoping to use a picture like that for a Christmas card.
We have met up with our friends on Sundancer, and we are all looking forward to the Copper Canyon and our trip and then heading south to end up in El Salvador in March. It almost doesn't seem real. And the best news of all is that my nephew will be joining us again - he sent us a wonderful email and we are eagearly anticipating his arrival. Today we went shopping and reprovisioned - there are regular big supermarkets in the nearby city of Guymas about 10-15 miles away I think - we went with Sundancer's visiting parents in their truck, but we have heard it is easy to take the bus from the harbor to the stores in Guymas. Maybe we'll try it if we need to go back for anything - but I can't think what it mught be. We were pretty thorough.
Tomorrow we are going to the marine store, and also to talk to a mechanic about our engine. It is much better, but still acting up, and it acted up when we had to enter the harbor. It calmed down, and no harm seems done, but it is too stressful not having a dependable engine. I mean, this is a sailboat and can always be sailed, but we are not hard core enough to be cruising sailors without an engine. It sometimes doesn't want to start, but Mike can always (so far, at least, get it to start after some messing with things, and the dipstick is not accurate because of the way our engine is installed. It has been running great for quite awhile now, but it started smoking and refusing to accellerate or acellerating on its own (both of them pretty bad things I think) but then it simply cleared up. But some of the places we will be going this winter require a reliable engine to get in and out of. So tomorrow could be either traumatic (all our worse case scenarios come to fruit) to heavenly ("Gee it is just dirty connectors, $100 dollars to clean them"), that is if we get someone to look at it right away. I hate mechanical problems.
Well, I am getting tired and I think I will go to bed. I can never think of any real good way to end each blog post, which is why I have taken to just saying different versions of "Hope your day today was great - and that tomorrow will be even better." I do really mean it, but I have to start working on something better. Buenos Noches.
No comments:
Post a Comment