We're still alive and kicking! Things did not quite go as planned and therefore we have not had the chance to update our site at all. To give you some context, I am now sitting in a Howard Johnson hotel (which is actually quite nice, big pool, A/C in the rooms, and a great view) next to Opequimar. Opequimar is a marina and haul out facility for boats. How did we get here? Well it's quite a long story so be patient.
Our big plan was to be able to check out of PV (Banderas Bay really) and leave with Ben for three days (practicing our sailing, learning the systems, etc.), check back in and then haul out the boat so we could do some work on her. We went to talk to Vilma, the woman who handles paperwork here for a fee (which we needed to do for a variety of reasons that I probably shouldn't explain on a public website) and told her we wanted to check out Friday. We saw her several times that week and each time she told us to come back on Friday to check out. Well, when I show up on Friday, the people in the office tell me to come back in one hour. One hour later I return, only to find out that Vilma is in Guadalajara and that we cannot check out until Monday! This ruins our plans because that means the earliest we can haul out is Thursday (if we could get an appointment, the check out/in paperwork had to be done before we could even schedule a hauling) and Ben leaves on Friday, so there would not be much time for him to help. As it turns out, we couldn't get hauled 'till Friday afternoon and is why we are still here now. Okay, back to what happened while Ben was here. For those of you who don't remember/know about Ben here is a quick summary. Ben owned the boat (Whisper then, now renamed to Tupo) and sailed her down to Mexico last season with his friend Aaron. Janet was in Peace Corps with Ben and we have both known him for quite some time now. We bought the boat from them (Ben and Aaron) on the condition that Ben would come down for a week and teach us everything he could in those seven days. Here's how it went (generally as I may misremember/forget what the heck happened as I didn't write down anything at the time). . .
Ben's plane arrived last Friday (24th of November) a little early. Sounds great? Well it was, except for the fact that Janet went to meet him at the airport (unbeknownst to him) and must have just missed him. She waited for two hours thinking his plane was late (they had no arrival monitors - maybe Janet will tell the whole story when we get her voice dictation up and running). Ben and I went and got a bunch of beer (you know, to make sure the fridge was working properly :), and put on the new 22lb Delta anchor that Ben brought down for us (we didn't have the space when we came down). That went quite well and was a good first job, because our next one took awhile! This is when we started attacking the outboard (2.5hp 2-cycle Evinrude) which was still not working. We managed to get to the spring that recoils the pull-cord and noticed it was quite brittle. We managed to do a quick fix and tried out the outboard. It ran for about 30 seconds a couple of times and then no more (and the spring broke again). Fortunately we brought the oars with us and I rowed back to Whisper since I was sitting in the right/wrong place for that. Janet had returned by this point and was happy to see Ben (but unhappy to waste those few hours at the airport!) We decided that since it was getting dark, it would be best to wait until the next day (Saturday) before we tackled that problem again! Dinner was at this fantastic place called Fajita Republic and I'm sure you can guess what we ate! They fixed us some pretty strong margaritas and we had a great time catching up with Ben and planning our week together.
Most of Saturday (before starting work on the outboard) we spent cleaning up/out the boat after we recovered from those killer margaritas. We got everything off the decks (we had started looking like the Beverly Hillbillies with all our stuff strewn around all over the place) and washed her down. Ben's philosophy was to clean the boat first and then every other job seemed just a little simpler and we had a better overall feeling about things. Ben came at just the right time as we were really starting to feel overwhelmed with all we had to do and were having moments of doubt thinking we were in over our heads with this whole owning a sailboat and cruising plans. Once he showed up, things started to feel a lot better. Cleaning up the boat really did help ease our minds about the rest of the jobs we had left to do.
Janet's muffins that she handed out on Friday morning were a big hit with everyone (she gave some to Kim and Jorge (our neighbors), Al and Nancy, Boomer, Mick and Barb (on Navigator) who are also from Seattle, and Rick and Jenny). We also looked at several of the other boats in the marina as Ben wanted to check them out. We met some cool people, but I'll get into that at a later date if we run into any of them again.
We went to the yacht club for lunch and I picked up my guitar that Alejandro bought for me. It is a decent Mexican-made (I think) small acoustic guitar that should be perfect for me (assuming it can hold a tune - I haven't had the chance to play very much yet) on the boat. Then we went to see Boomer who immediately set upon Ben to help out with some of his problems (VHF, if I remember correctly).
We then refixed the spring on the outboard and tried to figure out why it wasn't running. At this point we drew a bit of a crowd (and ). Chris from Robyn's Nest and Randy from Aphrodite (I think) offered their help and tools. We (meaning mainly Ben) then took apart the carburetor and then tried putting it all back together in the dark. Not the best of plans as it still wasn't running when we were done. Needing a break, Ben and I looked for some goings ons in the area (Janet was still recovering), thinking that on a Saturday night it should be easy to find some happening bars. But Nuevo Vallarta was not cooperating and nothing was going on. We ended up hanging out and drinking some of the boat booze that Ben had left aboard.
Sunday started with working on the automatic bilge pump. The sensor circuit had shorted and needed to be replaced. The hard part was getting the bilge pump out without taking out the diesel (a MAJOR undertaking that we hoped to avoid). After quite some part maneuvering on Ben's part, he finally got it out and now we knew we could replace the sensor. The sensor is so that when the bilge gets water in it, it will pump it out and then turn off when done. It had some sort of conductivity sensor that sucks (in Ben's humble opinion) and we added a float switch to the list of things we needed to buy.
Next on the list was getting back to the outboard. We took it all apart again and realized that in the dark the previous night, we had put in a part upside-down! Once it was back together, the outboard was finally running!! Only a three day job. . .
Third thing we worked on that day was the automatic tuner for the SSB radio had become unglued from where it was mounted (in the starboard lazzarete?) and so we re-epoxied the supports that the tuner was screwed into. We decided to let that set for several days in the hope of it holding better this time.
That night (Sunday) Ben and I went into town (PV) and went to the old-town (romantic zone) and hung out at Andele (same bar we were at with Dan, Tom, and Gabriella that had the whistle-shot-lady and burro) and met a bunch of cool people. This one guy, Gary I think, ended up buying us several rounds of beer as I think he was just happy to be talking to some people. Also we met these girls who were pretty happy to talk to us as I am married and therefore "safe" I guess. We tried going back to this place called Rojan's that we went to in September where we met the owner. However, when we asked about the owner we were told he was a "bad man", so we left not wanting to be associated with that guy! We had a great time, though missed Janet as she was tired and stayed onboard.
Monday we went to Zaragoza (the marine store here, pretty good for Mexico, but no West Marine and super expensive - one guy here calls it the Gucci store) to get some things for the boat and then went to Mega (another big grocery store down here) for supplies. With the new float for the bilge pump (acquired at Zaragoza), we (meaning Ben) installed it and replaced the pump. That sentence took only a few seconds to type, but it was several hours of work. I'll just leave it at that!
Finally about 4:30 PM we were ready and left for our first trip on the boat since we arrived! We got to La Cruz, about an hour away, and dropped anchor and hung out with the sun setting. For dinner we cooked up these dorado fillets that we got from our short-term sport fisherman neighbor that he had caught the day before. I helped him with his dock lines each time he came in (the boaterly thing to do according to Ben) and I guess he was grateful as he gave us some nice fillets. I should mention that his docking skills were superb and that he didn't need any help at all!
While out, I turned on the radar the first time to see how it worked and what everything looked like. Unfortunately, it decided not to work (it worked in September when we were here, so Ben thought it should be an easy fix).
Tuesday we pulled up anchor and headed for Punta de Mita (another close by anchorage). On the way there, we stopped at this beach that is known for good surfing and Ben gave me my first surfing lesson! I didn't catch any waves that day, but I wasn't really out for very long. There was this blonde hottie that Ben starting talking to so I headed back in to give him a little space and check on Janet. She decided to take the opportunity to swim on the next beach over. When Ben got back, we headed to Punta de Mita, anchored, and he hooked up our 1000W inverter so Janet could use her food processor to make tortilla soup. It was delicious!! And pretty darn spicy!!!
Wednesday we just hung out in Punta de Mita for most of the day. Ben showed us how to use the water maker (7 gallons per hour of fresh water out of seawater is a really nice thing to have!) and a few other things about the boat. We all swam around a bit and I took the opportunity to take the letters (spelling Whisper) off the back of the boat in prep for Thursday's renaming ceremony. Late in the day we headed back to La Cruz and anchored in the dark - boy did we wish the radar was working!!! We went in the dinghy to go ashore and ate at Philos, a cruiser bar there in the little town. On the way to La Cruz the alternator belt broke and so we lost our charging ability while under power. There was a spare aboard, but it looked old and like it wouldn't last long. Still we put it on in the hopes for the best. I should mention that the pizza at Philo's is fantastic and it was nice to have a working outboard to go to shore for the evening!
Thursday morning came and it was time for the name change ceremony. I put the letters (spelling TUPO) on under Janet's guidance from the dinghy and we poured tequila overboard to appease the gods (Neptune, or Neptuno here, and any other gods inhabiting the seas). We then each did a shot and headed to the bow for more ceremony. Janet put a coin under the mast (a 10 peso coin - we're no cheapies!) and we did more shots and poured a good deal more tequila around. Name changing is supposed to be bad luck and so the ceremony is to help appease the bad mojo. Since we didn't skimp on any aspect of the ceremony, we are hopeful that the sea gods and karmic beings will be kind to us at sea.
Then it was back to Paradise (marina) and on the way the second alternator belt broke, which really wasn't much of a surprise. Just something else to deal with. . .
We checked in to get our paperwork straight and then used Vilma (the paper lady) to help us schedule a haul out for Tupo. The earliest we could get in was for Friday afternoon. Since Ben was leaving on Friday that meant we were on our own for the haul out. We spent the rest of the day fixing the radar. Since the radar is about half-way (2/3rds?) up the mast, we needed a way to get up there. The standard way is with a bosun's chair that you sit in and someone hauls you up. However, Tupo has this cool alternative way to do it. There is are these "steps" that slide into the groove that the mainsail goes up and down in. You then haul up these "steps" (really straps, closer to a rope ladder than anything else - I think the product is called a mast mate?) with a halyard and then just climb up them. For safety, we wore a harness going up that had another halyard attached and then went through a block that only allows the line to go one way (I am spacing on the name of the block thing right now). This way, if one was to lose his/her footing, the harness would keep them from falling.
Anyway, after a few attempts, Ben managed to fix the radar! Is there anything this guy can't do?!?
We then went into town for Ben's last night with us, had a delicious meal, went for some drinks afterwards, and then headed back.
Friday we tried to finish the last of our jobs. Ben bolted the SSB tuner on and then it was time for docking practice. Since we had to go to Opequimar and dock there by ourselves, we thought that some practice was in order! The way we practiced docking was having Janet at the helm and I would jump off on to the dock, fend off the boat so we didn't hit the dock, and then secure the boat in place. This seems to be easiest for us (plus that is what we did on the Tanzer in Seattle.) While practicing, we saw this guy practicing with one of the sailing schools here (J-world, I think) and totally scraped the boat against the dock. Needless to say that made us both feel a lot better about our docking skills! Ben was an excellent teacher and we are now much better (though by no means all that good yet!). On the way back to our dock (we practiced on an easier dock - ours has a decent current most of the time and is near a bridge that we CANNOT fit under) with Janet still at the helm, we stopped moving and didn't know what was going on. Ben looked at the depth sounder and saw we were in 5 feet of water, which basically means we ran aground (though I think Ben knew what the problem was before even looking at the depth). Ben immediately leapt into action, telling us to get out of the way and putting us in reverse (and hard!) and then when that didn't work we went forward full blast and managed to get out of the mud! We were just inside the buoy (on the correct side mind you) and we learned a valuable lesson about staying in the middle of any channel (particularly in Mexico)!! Janet and I were pretty shaken up by the experience, but felt a little better that it would have been easy for anyone to do as we were where we were supposed to be (in the channel and inside the buoy). Also (and I said this about everything that broke/went wrong so far) it was a great learning experience as we got to see how Ben handled the situation. If this happens again (which it well could) we have some practical experience about what to do. Plus it sparked a general conversation about how to handle similar situations.
Now back at our dock, we said goodbye to Ben and thanked him for his time with us. We can not emphasize enough what a big help it was to have him for a week. The time was, in every sense of the word, invaluable. He was very patient with us and really taught us a lot about our new boat and the systems aboard. He saved us countless hours if we had to do things ourselves (or countless dollars if we had to pay someone!) Everything that he fixed or worked on, I was there and he walked me through the entire process. Not only do I feel I can now make a good stab at any of the problems I saw him/helped him fix, we now feel much more confident in general with being able to fix things and sail safely. I probably should have said this all earlier as I have no idea how many people will get this far into this horrendously long post!! Also, I should mention that it was not all work, we had a blast hanging out too. "Work hard, play hard" seems to fit Ben pretty well.
Okay now onto the rest of Friday. . .
We had to be at Opequimar by 3:30 for our haul-out appointment. We decided to leave about 1:30 to give us plenty of time to motor there. Even though our docking practice went well, we decided to enlist the help of some friends getting off the dock. Randy and Nancy (Aphrodite) and Al came and helped us shove off for the first time on our own. It went very smoothly as did the ride over to Opequimar. We are very happy that Tom let us tag along with Persistence a coupla weeks ago as it made it very easy to find the marina and the haul out location. We tied up (first docking all alone on Tupo) with no issues and then went looking for someone in charge so we could get hauled. Finding no one around, we tried calling them on the VHF. We thought we heard that Omar, the head guy, was on his way to us. However after about an hour, we realized that there was some mis-communication. I eventually found his assistant and gave him our papers (all paper work has to be perfectly in order to haul out for some unknown reason). When he looked at my papers, he said I was missing the import permit. The problem is that import permits are not being issued in PV for some reason. Vilma (paper lady) assured me that we didn't need one for six months. He said that wasn't true and there was nothing he could do without the import permit. I then explained to him that Vilma called can set this up saying that we were fine. He asked me who she talked to and I guess and said Omar (since I had earlier found out he was the head guy, figured it was a good guess and the only name I knew there anyway). He then called Omar and after a few minutes hung up and told me everything was fine! I have no idea what's going on and it's situations like this that really make me want to learn some more Spanish!!!
Haul out went well and we found a guy to do the bottom painting (Juan Gonzales, highly recommended by a couple of other cruisers we spoke to down here.
We decided to spring for a hotel for the haul out as we didn't really want to sleep on the boat at the yard and felt we could use a real bed for the first time since we got to Mexico on November 7th! We found a deal online for a howard johnson that is practically next door to Opequimar.
Saturday they started the painting prep work and fixed some blisters on the rudder and skeg. We went to Zaragozas for some zincs and a few other parts. We were also in the market for some new alternator belts. After going to Zaragosa's and about six other places, we came up empty handed. Finally we realized that bringing an old broken belt would greatly help in our quest. Sunday we went back to the boat yard and checked on the progress. I remembered that we wanted to fix a through-hull (basically a purposeful hole in the boat, used to pump in sea water for the head, drain for the sinks, etc.) as it was leaking just a little bit. I realized that I couldn't do it myself (needed to hold a nut on the inside of the boat, while unscrewing the part on the outside of the hull) so we hired someone to help. While they finished up the through-hull and painting, we went into town looking for a belt (again). This time, with the old belt in hand, we were successful on our first try (from a shop recommended by the painter, Juan Gonzales, and fortunately open on Sundays)! We bought four belts (just to be sure, plus they were like $4 US a piece). No one has ever been happier to purchase a piece of rubber (well, maybe THAT'S not true).
Check out our photos, there's a lot, but I think they help tell the story.