Boat commisioning

We are still in Mazatlan and have been joined by our granddaughter Mysti. She will be spending a month or two with us on the boat.

We are finishing up getting the boat ready to go. We had to put everything back together that we took down last year and do some cleaning. We also needed to make room for our new crew. We are getting some brightwork done by Rueben and that should be finished soon. Since we are off schedule we are getting the boat out of storage mode while most boats are getting ready to be stored for the summer. The good news of it is that we are getting lots of gifts of food that they need to get off the boat before they leave!

 

We drove down so we have a truck here now. Driving in Mexico and especially in the old part of town is a challenge. First off the speed is all in kilometers so that takes getting used to. In addition gringos are the only ones held to keeping the speed limit; last year many cruisers got tickets even though traveling at the speed of other traffic. Speed limits and stop signs are treated as suggestions not rules for the most part. Street signs are few and far between as are painted lanes. There is one main street that varies in width from about 2 lanes to 4 wide, however there are no painted lanes and traffic just kind of goes wherever. I usually try and follow behind someone and hope they are in a lane. There are many busses and they are the top of the food chain. They make sudden stops (in traffic) sudden lane changes (to get around other stopped busses), and often speed as well. You need to keep an eye on them and stay out of there way! Our truck is big (a dually) so the narrow streets of downtown are frightening. We barely squeezed through a few spots with inches to spare. The narrow streets don’t slow down the buses and trucks though. I try and stick to wider streets. I am glad I got a little driving experience in last year, using a smaller truck. That was a cruiser vehicle that once belonged to Nakia who sold it to Hooligan, who now sold it to V’ger. The car keeps getting passed around to new cruisers as the previous owner leaves Mexico for other countries.

 

We hope to leave the marina this weekend, weather permitting.

Heading South!!!

We are finally out of CA and heading towards Mexico. Currently in AZ, we will hit the consulate here and cross the border tomorrow. We should be in Mazatlan in a few days.

The tide is rising...

Although we are still in California the end of our landlocked days are near. We are getting close to the end of our job list (at least the ones that really,really need to be done). We hope to leaving here around the end of April and start heading towards Mexico. We will most likely be driving ourselves to Mazatlan. This way we can bring down more extra goodies and parts than we could on an airplane. We also hope to have our granddaughter visit us this summer and having our truck there may make some of the travel easier.

Back to the home improvement blog, the house is now listed as being up for rent! The house looks nice enough to show while we finish up a few more tasks. It is amazing to us how much work/time/money this has taken up, but everything looks so much better. If I get some time I will post some photos to show the dramatic changes since we started. This may take awhile as working on the website never seems a high priority after a long day working on the house.

At the beginning of the April it has been exactly 3 years since this adventure began. Strange how time passes, the time goes by so fast, but looking back it seems so long ago that we left Seattle. I realized the other day that we had been living on our boat for the last 6 years, but have not seen the sea at all in the last 6 months. Can’t wait to be back on the ocean again.

California castaways

Rather than being in a small boat surrounded by water we are in a small 5^th wheel surrounded by snow. How did this happen?

 

Our 3 month trip to California to avoid hurricane season and check on our property has turned into a 6 month (and counting) work marathon. The house which had belonged to Cindy’s Grandmother has suffered 10+ yrs of deferred maintenance, then 5 yrs. of a renter that had an aversion to cleaning supplies, and an affinity for boyfriends who liked to kick in doors when having an argument. Needless to say we had underestimated the amount of work needed to be done.  We are definitely building up our home improvements skills here; installing doors and windows, plumbing gas lines, rewiring, installing drywall, refinishing hardwood floors, pouring concrete.  Working on an old house is like working on a boat; there are no simple fixes. Every job that you start uncovers several other issues that need to be fixed before the original job can be completed.  

Today I was starting to replace a piece of drywall next to a window that looked like it had water damage. Once I started to cut out the bad piece I noticed a few ants. The few ants became a lot of ants. A lot of ants became a biblical plague. I had to attempt to stop the ant explosion by taping over the hole with masking tape (no sailor is without his blue masking tape), while I ran to the store to get some poison. Once the eruption of ants (living and dead) ends I will get to determine the extent of the damage and the scope of the next repair job to add to the list.  The good news is that this explains the strange dust that found on both side of this wall (inside and outside the house), unfortunately the amount of the dust now terrifies me.

 

Georgetown is a small town between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. We are at an elevation of 2700 feet so we are getting snow.  There is about a foot on the ground but I am guessing it won’t last the week. Georgetown originated as a mining town and still retains a bit from it’s rougher days. Soon after arriving we were walking down Main street and passed the “Miner’s Club” one of the 2 main bars; the music playing inside was the “Dueling banjoes” song of Deliverance fame (as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up!).  We also heard that the toothbrush was invented here in Georgetown. We know because if it was invented anywhere else it would have been called a Teethbrush!

 

We do plan on getting back to our boat soon. We just need to get the house finished and rented out to a responsible party (no problem!). We will be shooting for Jan. sometime, and hope to catch up to all our cruising friends enjoying Mexico and beyond. No we have not “swallowed the anchor”.

 

I have finally made a few updates to the website. It was pointed out that the “plans” section was seriously out of date; now it is accurate but vague. There is also a new photo page for some of our California adventures.

 

Crossing the Rubicon

Back in late July we had a chance to participate in the 56^th Jeepers Jamboree, a famous 4x4 off-road event. This is a multi-day trip on the historic Rubicon Trail, which goes from Georgetown to Lake Tahoe. The trial was at one time a stage coach route, that was also the last time the road was maintained. 80+ years of rain, snow melt, and Jeep traffic has not been kind. This is rated as one of the toughest off-road trails in the US, a 10 on a scale of 1-10. We were tagging along with Cindy’s brother and his wife (John and Gwen) since we do not own a jeep ourselves (we have enough money pits for now). It did not take long for me to be surprised and impressed by what a Jeep is capable of getting up/over/down.  There is also a different set of driving skills involved. My short time at the wheel showed me I still had quite a bit to learn. You need to read the road ahead and pick a good line to follow. You also have to memorize what the road looks like and where the rocks are because as you get close the hood obscures your view and you need to remember what is right in front of you. I did OK driving; I got us stuck once and needed a tow; and got to one large rock that I just could not get over.

 

John and his friend Dennis volunteer as mechanics for the trip (along with several others). This means that they get to help fix the jeeps that breakdown along the way and there are always breakdowns.  The mechanics are true McGyver’s. They have a small set of tools and spare parts that they carry, and that is what they have to make whatever repair necessary. Of course they jeeps are outfitted with both welders and air compressors. I got to watch them pull apart a rear differential on a dirt trail, weld it back together on a rock, put it back together and drive the rest of the way out and back home.  Another repair that was done was to an engine that blew a rod. In an open air repair area, they disconnected 2 rods, wired the cylinders in place with bailing wire, and plugged the valves with wine corks. The engine came into the mechanics as a broken 6 cylinder and left as a running 4 cylinder and drove out under it’s own power.

 

The trip was an adventure. We met some great people, did some amazing driving, and got to camp out in the high sierras. A great couple of days.

Yes, the blog is still active.

 

 

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From: cullen [mailto:cullen@svmasquerade.net]
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 9:21 AM
To: 'moblog2.moblog@blogger.com'
Subject: Yes, the blog is still active.

 

I thought I had better get a quick update on the blog or people might think I abandoned it.

We are in Georgetown California, (population 962), out in the sticks between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. It’s about 10 miles from Sutter’s Mill, where gold was discovered, for those of you who know Ca. history.  We have been very busy working on our rental property and dealing with an unwelcome tenant. We have also been doing a few fun things like the Jeepers Jamboree up the historic Rubicon trail, a trip to see family and the Bodie ghost town, and a trip to Napa to visit with Hooligan and Lovely Reta. More details on our adventure and some pictures when I get a bit of free time.

Delta Sucks!

Time for a short rant.

We purchased tickets online for round trip flights from Mazatlan Mexico to Sacramento CA. from Delta airlines. About a week before our first flight they contacted us by phone asking us to call about an issue with our return flight. When we called them they told us that they were dropping service to Mazatlan mid August. We had the option of flying into either Puerto Vallarta, or Guadalajara. PV the closer of the 2 cities is around 200 miles away from Mazatlan and in another state (This would be like buying a ticket to San Francisco and getting flown to Reno or Los Angeles). We were told that there was not a seat available on any partner airline, and no way for them to get us to Mazatlan. We tried to be flexible even offering to come back 3 or 4 weeks early. Again we were told there was not a single flight available to us for the entire month on any of their partner airlines. Obviously not every seat on every airline was already booked, they were refusing to do anything that might cost them an extra dollar. Talking to the supervisor also had no effect. Delta was completely unwilling to stand behind our agreement and do the right thing. We eventually asked for a refund for our tickets, and booked elsewhere. This caused us many hours of searching for new flights and delayed or flight home by about 2 weeks.

I understand the need to reduce costs and cut back on service when needed. What I have a issue with is the attitude towards customer satisfaction. They had no problem leaving us stranded hundreds of miles from our destination, or making changes to the agreement without remuneration. If we make a change to the flight they charge heavy penalties, but they expect to renege on an agreement with no penalty at all.

Needless to Delta will not be getting our business again.