Friday, June 17, 2016

A " Baja Bash" that lived up to its name!

Up to this point I've done 18 Bash's, each with its own issues. Most have been a mix of rough conditions and good sailing. Occasionally we have engine issues, rigging issues or the like. 
I will tell new crew, that haven't done this trip before, there are mostly two types of days; some days you can't believe you're getting paid to have such fun, then others you're not getting paid enough for this crap! Not much In-between. 
This one was 12 days of the latter.
This is the first delivery, in15 years, that I was crew and not captain. Because of this I didn't do a complete inspection of the vessel, which turned out to be a mistake. 
I met the owner in Cabo, where he'd been anchored for a couple days. It was to be just the two of us on this trip, which is normal, but just means less sleep then if we have 3 on board. I got there on a Friday. There's a old wise tale that you should never leave on a long sailing trip on a Friday, or you'll have bad luck. So we left the next morning, but that didn't seem to help.
The owner and captain on this trip was a soft spoken man that just bought the boat less than a year ago and spent many months fixing a verity of issues. Up to this point, he told me, he hasn't had to much time sailing her. 
I've never sailed a boat much like this. It's a Fantasa 35. These boats were built to motor up wind and sail down. It's a foot shorter than our Cal but has 4 times the water storage and 3 times the fuel. It is also more roomy inside and has much more food storage. But all this extra storage comes at a price. Her fat bottom and heavy weight means she can only point about 55 degees into the wind, on a good day. To compensate for her poor pointing ability the designer put in a huge 77 horse, turbo charged desiel engine so she can at least motor up wind. ( ours was over powered with a 40 horse). 
On a normal bash you'll get a mix of winds, from 0 to 20, and almost always right on the nose. But at least you have a few low wind days from time to time. But this trip we had 20 to 25 knots for 11 of the 12 days. Like most bashes we motored right into it, until the motor decided to start its series of issues. 
I should have known this wasn't going to be a good trip when we were 5 hours outside of Cabo and he came up from the bildge with a 5 gallon bucket full of oily water to throw overboard. I asked if everything was alright and this is when he desided to inform me that the boat takes on 2 to 4 gallons a hour and none of the bildge pumps worked! So for 12 days we would bucket out 3 to 5 full buckets every 4 hours. 
Without going into to much detail, we ended up fixing the engine 7 times before she finally just gave up and nothing would get her to fire up again. At this point we were just 60 miles from Turtle Bay, about the halfway mark on this delivery. Without that engine we tried for 20 hours to sail closer to Turtle Bay but actually lost a few miles. After hours of contemplating we desided the only course was to sail 3 days backwards to Mag Bay and try to get parts in the small industrial town of San Carlos. 
Because it was going to take weeks to get parts, he desided it would be to expensive for me to hang around waiting, so he sent me home on the bus. 
I let him know that I am still available to help in any way I could, including delivering parts, finding him crew or anything else he needs. 
The good news is that the owner learning a lot about his boat that he didn't know before this trip. He also learned how to sail into and off of anchor as well as other sailing tricks I was able to show him.
On a side note, I also learned that Mexico has a great bus system. I took two buses a total of 140 miles. I never waited more than 10 minutes to board and one bus had wifi, movies and extremely comfortable seats, all for under 28 bucks.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Homeless dogs of Mexico

We have come to love Mexico. The landscapes, the people and the beautiful sea life. Sailing and traveling around Mexico for the last 3 years there is one thing that still pulls at our heartstrings, the incredible number of homeless dogs. Some towns have more than others, but you can find them everywhere. In some places, like La Paz, there are groups organizing spay and neuter days, where anyone can bring a dog to get fixed for free. This has helped but even in La Paz there are homeless dogs everywhere. 
There seems to be specific breeds of " Mexican" dogs. The "breed" we see a lot looks just like our Mexican rescue dog, "Bean". About 40 lbs, black with some white spots or strips. 
Some times these dogs will bark at you, but through many years of behavioral training, if you bend down and act like you're picking up a rock they will turn tail and run. If you tried that with Mika or Bean ( our gringo raised dogs, even though " Bean" is a Mexican rescue) they would think you were going to throw them a ball. So the locals have no fear of the street dogs here. But I have seen many who seem to be afraid of American dogs. I asked a local friend of ours why that is and he just said Mexican dogs run from people but American dog protect their people. 
On one trip to town I saw over a dozen stays in various stages of malnutrition. 
This poor guy had a broken leg. 
This pack is where we think our "Bean" came from. They all look so much like him. 

One thing we have noticed is that these dogs seem to smarter than the average dog. If you're ever in the market to adopt a dog, there are many in Mexico. 


The "right" way to go cruising?

Way back when I first started dreaming about leaving the "rat race" and sailing off to beautiful blue waters, I really didn't fully understand that the "rat race" will follow you and it's not as easy and romantic as advertised. At least not the way we're doing it. 
We're what's called working cruisers, a rare breed. The vast majority of cruisers either have a large retirement or at least a social security check coming in. While we're in a location working for months on end, we watch as boat after boat come in for a few days to visit and re-supply and then off for more sailing the islands, fishing and relaxing. We hear about their plans on sailing to South America or the pacific islands and then hear about their adventures on their blogs or emails. They have the cash to buy replacement parts and pay experts to fix things and go out to eat at local restaurants and bars. 
Our income, on the other hand, is only what we can earn where we are. And working in Mexico isn't as easy as we'd like. Any repairs we need must be done by ourselves and usually with second hand parts we scavenge from swap meets. Eating out or going to bars is a rare thing indeed and always on a tight budget. 
As I write this we are in La Paz Mexico, for the second time in 3 years. The first time we were here for almost a year, working full time, and made just enough to make a short trip to the states to visit family and work up there. Now we're back here working again, knowing full well we can't get out of here for at least through another hurricane season. Of the over 200 cruising boats here we are the only ones, we know of, that don't have a monthly check coming in from somewhere. The only exception to this is one friend that just sailed down from Canada this year. We'll see how long he makes this work.
It's still a good life. We make many new friends, from all over the world, swim in warm clear waters, fish, watch as Dolphins feed under our boat almost daily and enjoy the beauty that is Mexico. But most people don't understand that this isn't as easy and carefree as they may think. A can't tell you how many times we've considered packing in and moving back to the states for a "normal" life (whatever that means). We work almost every day and struggle to make ends meet just like everywhere else. 
Maybe someday we'll have enough to sail to the pacific. Anyone know where a good canvas person or charter captain can get work in, say, Fiji?




The 12th van

He is safely stored in Guaymas, same place we left Nomatia. He will be missed. We have so many fond and frustrated memories of the Beast. He always got us where we needed to go. 


El Mero, Guaymas, Sonora Mexico




Redwoods, Northern California 

Sausalito California
Crater Lake, Oregon