 |
| Mt Shasta - inspiring, great views |
 |
| Leaving Las Vegas, dinghy drag meant lower mileage |
 |
| pile o' stuff before loading up the Ford |
 |
| Janis & Greg - requesting we find their fave bags of enchilada sauce. We'll search! |
 |
| Hiking with Jerid & Scott in Palm Springs |
 |
| Thanks for the wine, Kelly & Jeff sipped with Cathy! |
We arrived gleeful and ready to get out of the car after 10
days travelling south. The dirt yard at Marina Seca Guaymas beckoned, we were welcomed
by the Jorge the guard and the 3 weed-eating sheep who keep the yard “mowed”,
quickly followed by the yard workers, Andres, Alejandro and Roberto, all anxious
to tell us in rapid fire Spanish how they’ve saved our boat on the night of
Hurricane Newton! Turns out, they did save our bacon, as our 3 tight fitting
covers which are intended for sun protection, couldn’t handle the windage of up
to 140 KM / hr winds on that stormy night. They were at our boat at 3AM,
cutting the strings and stopping the swaying of the boat on her stands. While I
lost some of the Spanish, it sure sounded like she was close to a tip… and they
held her and also had to move some stands as the mud didn’t provide good
holding. Wow. We are thankful and provided gifts to acknowledge their fortitude
of working through the night protecting us and many boats in our yard. That
wasn’t the case with a few other boats whose stories weren’t so sweet.
 |
| Marion & Theo - our gracious San Carlos hosts |
 |
| Pura Vida: a sight for sore eyes! |
 |
| Deep muddy ruts required the yard workers to move our boat stands |
 |
| Guard station at Fonatur yard - got a paint can? |
 |
| Mike looking down! |
 |
| We both went up the mast today. Me first, unsuccessfully, then Mike did the required repairs! |
But I get ahead of myself. We had a superb trip south, just
a lot of (slower) miles with the dinghy up top, meandering through CA, NV, AZ and
CA again, finally arriving Sonora after visiting friends and swapping stories.
A great time – thanks to all of our hosts! And now we celebrate good times and life
in the dirt yard with many other cruising friends. It is a special place working on your boat in a arid desert environment, and
not for everyone, this we know.
 |
| 5 newly crafted ports - ready for installation |
We’ve spent the last few days working our way through dust
plus too much stuff brought with us, stowing and dispositioning items that
seemed so important when we created our lists last spring! And now on to
projects that will bring us safety and security on board. New set up for the
generator, 5 new ports to be installed (leaking ports are never a welcome thing
on a boat), redefined anchor locker config and well, the list is long and the
hours will be long. It’s why we’re here and thankful for every day in the
Mexican sun. Morning walks to the bay to count waterfowl, warm tortillas and fresh
fish, butterflies, the sound of banda music and barking dogs, holiday displays
of lard. Welcome to Guaymas!
We enjoyed the first of the parades on Independence day.
Everyone’s included and the parades go on forever.
Happy Thanksgiving!
 |
| Enthralled parade goers |
 |
| Cute little Mexican flag girls, dancing |
 |
| Revolutionaries |
 |
| Lots of marching in uniform |
 |
| Unusual musical instruments, 30 strong |
 |
| Traditional Yaqui Indian dance |
 |
| Check out the parade shoes! |
 |
| Oh, and it's about 85 degrees. No sweat. |
 |
| Tons of pick ups filled with giant speakers! |
 |
| Waiting for the dancers in front of them |
