Livin' the Boatyard Life - Marina Seca, San Carlos, Mexico

San Carlos Marina and Hotel Marina Terra on the right.

 

The wind is howling and its raining off and on today. The boat is shuddering on its stands and Cinnamon is hiding under the covers. Looks like a good day to write while Greg is away in Guaymas.

We arrived on Sunday and our boat wasn't moving from storage to the work yard till Tuesday afternoon. We parked Amby by our friends', Robert and Rose, motor home.

 



 

The marina office is surrounding with beautiful flowers soaking up the sunshine.

 

The only one I can identify is a hollyhock.

 

These pictures are for my friends that say all they see in my blog is pictures of rocks and desert.

 

 

 

Our first mornings were pretty laid back. Greg enjoyed some early morning conversations with Robert and Pinto. Alejandro, the local shrimp and Mexican food peddler, happened to stop by on our first day so we feasted on chile rellenos that night. To our surprise, Pinto enjoyed chile rellenos too!



Pinto was really into chasing cars and while we were gone he was struck by one. His hip was dislocated and now he hops around on three legs. He's a boatyard dog and no one felt like taking him to a vet. Rose and Robert would have, and so would I, but they arrived after the bone had set and not much could be done. This was very sad since Pinto isn't very old. He does however, find it difficult to chase cars now.

One evening we were in Robert's motor home and we noticed a flat of eggs. He told us that they weren't for cooking, they were for the dogs. Everyday he mixes up some kind of raw egg soup for them. I don't know how they are going to cope when Robert and Rose head  back to the South Pacific next spring for three years. I know I'm going to really miss them.

Alejandro is a character, to be sure, but I really like him. Like a lot of Mexicans, he works really hard and makes very little. His truck looks pretty sad from the outside. One day he tried to sell me some shrimp and snapper but I didn't have any money and couldn't get to the bank (Amby was inoperable once again). He said "Here. I trust you (something he says frequently). When I come back in a couple hours I'll take you to the bank." Great. I didn't give it a second thought. When he returned I opened the door to get in his truck but had to wait while he moved a large bag of aluminum cans. Then it hit me. I was taking my life in my hands. His poor truck was a total wreck and seemed to be running on a prayer. I commented on the lack of a muffler and he said something about a little more money next week and maybe it would get fixed. Then he told me that most people would never think of getting in his truck with him. I told him "I trust you."

 

Gitana got moved into the yard without incident and Greg got right to work but found time to reacquaint himself with friends from last year and meet many new people. Brian was probably the most interesting this season.

 

Brian is a very good looking young guy except for his choice of dreadlocks.

 He told us that he had married into money and when his wife just wanted to work their farm he couldn't stand it and they divorced. He got a nice settlement and decided to buy a boat. Not just any boat, but a very unusual one-of-a-kind catamaran called  a Cat2Fold. When we met him he was busy putting some interesting decals on it. This boat is 24 feet wide when expanded, with a sold platform spanning the middle. The flush sides make it especially interesting.

 

I never realized how useful kids could be until this season in the yard.  Apparently kids that spend a lot of time on boats don't have second thoughts about going up the mast, and actually seem to enjoy it!
 

A family of four was busy preparing it for launch. What initially brought my attention to this boat

 was hearing a very young voice coming out of the sky. They had sent their youngest up the mast. Apparently going up wasn't too difficult but coming back down was proving to be a challenge. The parents where providing lots of suggestions from below. The mother suggested wrapping a line around the child's neck (I didn't hear this but it was mentioned later) while the father said that wasn't a good idea. The child replied "I'm not that stupid". As far as I could see the child was the smartest one in the bunch. The decent was eventually safely completed.



The folks on Puddle Pirate used the same tactic, pulling their daughter up the mast. Both mom and pop are kinda portly so I can see the logic.

We've made some great new friends this season. Once we get out of the boatyard we will be heading to Bahia Conception and hope to meet up with our new friends on Cada Dia Mas ("more every day" is how I think that translates), Bill and Elli, also from Washington.

 

 

Gorda, the real watch dog, is waiting for the next call to action.

 

 

 

 



 

Cal 34 Maintenance Projects - #1 Hull Blisters

 

We arrived with a list of projects, just like everyone else, I'm sure. Greg was determined that we were only going to be in the yard for thirty days, unlike last season when we were here for three months. We never expected to spend four weeks just doing blister repair. When we bought Gitana she had been out of the water for at least two years and the hull had dried out. Consequently, the hull inspection didn't reveal blisters. However, once she was back in the water, the water began to seep back in. When we hauled her out last spring Greg started to find blisters.

 

Greg jumped on the blister problem as soon as the boat was on the stands.

 

There are two schools of thought on blisters in fiberglass: those who think there isn't anything to 

worry about (the smallest group) and those who think that they will undermine the integrity of the hull (which is how Greg thinks). When the gelcoat is breached and water enters it interacts with the bonding material in the mat (it doesn't affect the roving) forming an acid. The acid creates more osmotic pressure, causing more water to be drawn in. This creates more pressure on the gelcoat leading to more damage.

 

A few blisters turned into hundreds. All the bottom paint needed to be removed and every blister identified and ground out. Greg found patches on patches and poorly completed work. He ground day after day for weeks. Everyone in the yard new about the guy doing such a thorough job on his hull, and most stopped by to talk about it (adding to how long it took to finish - so if you plan to do this be sure to add this to your time frame). There is a tool called a "hull peeler" but unfortunately not down here with us.

 Down to the gelcoat.

 

  Gitana is ready for her blisters to be filled with epoxy. 

 

 

 

 

We had some keel damage from a close encounter with a rock last year so Greg needed to do some fiberglass work on the keel. The solid red area on the keel is last year's repair that didn't need to be redone.

 

 

Gitana is 34 feet and it took 3 gallons of epoxy to fill the blisters (epoxy and fairing filler) and create at new barrier coat. Greg put three layers of epoxy with barrier additive. This was intensive since the coats went on one right after the other. Finally bottom paint was applied while the barrier coat was gelling to ensure good adhesion.

 Note the shininess of the hull from the wet epoxy.

The finished product. People who were looking for us walked right on by because they were looking for the spotted hull. They were really surprised because the transformation was so quick after weeks of looking like a leper. The project took four weeks +. The stands have been moved and the spots repaired but they still need the barrier/bottom paint treatment. 

 Gumby takes a break. Greg had initially insisted that we were only going to work on the boat for 30 days and that was it! We were going sailing. Now after spending four weeks just on the bottom, he has decided that he can't stand having all these uncompleted projects so we are staying for an undetermined amount of time. This isn't too terribly bad since we will be able to celebrate Christmas day with out friends, Rose and Robert (Rose is making a BBQ turkey with a bottle of wine in the stuffing - sans bottle), and be here around January 10th when our other friends return from WA with our mail. I hope at that point we are ready to go though because I am getting tired of living in a dirty tree house.

 

 

Now I have not spent all my time sitting around "playing" with my computer and sipping wine. I consider being the galley slave a significant job but I have tackled a few projects myself. No. 1, since I am the official toilet mechanic on this boat, I rebuilt the toilet pump assembly with the new kit we purchased (last year was more of an emergency repair). I'm getting much better at getting at the impossibly located nuts on the base and although I got very hot and sweaty while working on it, I was never tempted to smash the damned thing. Now I just have to wait to get some water under us to see if I did a good job. Note the dainty little girl tools.

 





 

 

My second major project is creating a new V berth mattress from a foam Walmart mattress-in-a-box.

Greg did this several years ago for Comocean. That project turned out very well. This time its turning out to be a bit more difficult. I don't mean to complain (much) but he had a nice big table that was smooth to work on. That foam mattress was all one piece. I'm working in Amby which is a bit tight for a queen size mattress and the plywood is very rough. I discovered, too late, that the steel box tubing stands like to tear the foam too. My biggest problem, and take note if you plan to do this too, is that the mattress has egg-crate topped with a separate thermal foam glued to the high spots.  I did not see that important feature on Walmart's website. I had planned to cut the mattress on a diagonal and flip one over. Can't do that. I have to try and glue a corner on the inverted piece to create the mirror image of the other side. I'm using a heavy duty spray adhesive which is curing as I write this. We'll see how it turns out. I'm hoping that once its in the cover, all will be fine.



 

My other major project was a "wana do". Gitana's former owner was very fond of having lots of stuff

on the walls (Robert corrected me "bulkheads") - either screwed or stuck on with industrial strength sticky Velcro. He also was addicted to 110 power and power strips which he screwed into the bulkheads (I like "walls" better). To run the big, fat plugs around he cut lots of 2" holes in the bulkheads. The result is a horrible mess!  Rose had shown me last year how to use the heat gun to strip varnish and I couldn't wait to start. Last year we found a great heat gun at the Home Depot here in Guaymas. I've waited all summer to get my hands on that thing. Now its my new best friend. I keep finding more and more stuff that I want to strip - to the point that Greg has demanded that I stop.

 

After a couple days the stripped wall was starting to look a little better. Robert and Rose have shown me how to make plugs on their drill press and loaned me a set Forstner bits to prep the holes for the plugs. With all my new skills I may have to start a new profession.

 

Before and after. 

 Cinnamon tried to help but hot heat guns and wet varnish didn't seem like things he should mess with so he pretty much just tried to stay out of the way in his "tent"

 



 

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Kris Eggle Visitor Center at Organ Pipe Catus Nat. Monument
























The Organ Pipe Nat. Monument is in southern Arizona and is contiguous with the US Mexican border. It showcases the Sonoran Desert and its many plants and animals. It is "green desert" with vast expanses of Mesquite and Palo Verde. 

 

It also contains its name sake, the Organ Pipe cactus, Saguaro cactus and lots of Cholla. The Teddybear cholla made look cuddly from a distance but its definitely not!

 

The area supports abundant wildlife including the endangered Sonora pronghorned antelope (only 100 remain in the US and about 650 in Mexico), gila monster (a 2 foot slow moving lizard which is the only venomous lizard native to the US), the javelina or peccary which is a wild pig and the desert tortoise.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any animals.

 

In the 1930's concerned citizens that wanted to protect the area took actions to persuade President Franklin D. Roosevelt to use his executive powers to create Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. He did so in 1937. The monument preserves one of Earth's major ecosystems. The United Nations, recognizing its significance, designated the monument as an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976.

 

After visiting the visitor center we had lunch in a little picnic area across from the parking lot.

 

There are several hiking trails and a 21-mile, mostly unpaved, loop trail within the monument. We decided to take the loop trail and then hike the Arch Canyon Trail. Memory tends to blur things like the pain of childbirth and prior hikes so I was looking forward to the hike. It was a beautiful day and the temperature was very pleasant.

 

 

The mountains and valleys of the area were formed about 25 million years ago when large blocks of the earth's crust were thrust up and over areas sank. 

There are two major types of rock which are visible in the striated rock formations: rhyolite and tuff.

 

The trail, described as "easy-moderate" was more on the moderate side to my way of thinking. Desert plants have to protect themselves from the hungry animals and we had to protect ourselves from the plants! The end of the trail reveled a beautiful view of the rugged mountain and was well worth the effort.

After our hike we headed over to the main campground. The campground is a beautiful facility with concrete pads tucked into the brush, complete with a bbq and picnic table, and several restrooms that were equipped with solar-powered showers (how cool is that!) all for only $8 per night. Cinnamon found the place to his liking.

The next morning we had breakfast utilizing the wonderful little hotplate that our friends had given us while we enjoyed the lovely quiet desert morning. I made a quick walk into the desert to listen to the birds and then we were on our way to Mexico. Hopefully, on our return north we will be able to visit Organ Pipe again and see all the cacti and desert marigold in bloom.