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Back on the boat October 15th
After being
away from the boat for 4 months it was with great anticipation
that we approached Nuevo Vallarta and Paradise Village where we
had left the boat back in the middle of June. Had all our
preparation to leave her is a humid climate been enough? We had
heard that part of the sun shade had ripped, but were there any
other problems? Did we have any uninvited guests (bees, birds
or iguanas) living aboard, like the boat down the dock from us?
And finally was our boat safe from the lightning strikes that
hit two other boats close to us? All these things were on our
mind, and I knew that the closer we got to the boat the more
Hank worried that he had done enough to secure Equinox’s safety.
 Pulling
into the yacht club parking lot we immediately pulled out the
two big suitcases and starting rolling them down to the dock.
 The
boat looked great from a distance for she had been recently
washed and shined by Juanito who also cleaned the bottom while
we were gone. We quickly set the suitcases down and climbed
aboard to unlock the companionway hatch. Upon removing the
hatch boards we were happy to see that things looked great and
there were no foul odors slapping us in the face. The two
dehumidifiers that Hank had modified so that they would drain
looked like they had done a good job and the electric fan that
was set to come on several hours of the day had helped to
circulate that air and keep the mold in check.
We moved
things around so that we were able to get to the master cabin,
rearranged the mattress, made the bed with new sheets that Betsy
had made in Seattle, and knew that we would be able to sleep in
our own bed for the first night in a long time. After making
several more trips to the car and loading things into the
cockpit, we decided that we had done enough work for the
afternoon and headed to the yacht club for a cold frosty one and
a light dinner. It had taken us 2 long driving days to get from
Tucson to Puerto Vallarta and we were truly happy to be back
home on Equinox!
The
following morning we moved slowly as we planned out the things
that needed to be accomplished, you must remember that it was
still hot and very humid here, so things needed to be done in
the morning. The afternoon was spent at the pool or simply
reading and sleeping in the air conditioned boat till the
coolness of the early evening arrived. We did a week of eating
out for we had left only canned goods on the boat and we needed
to clean before we shopped.
Betsy did
learn that the louvers on the hanging lockers and the galley
cabinets were not as air flow friendly as she thought. Things
in these cabinets did have a fine coating of white mold, so many
things had to be washed and wiped down with vinegar. Next time
she will know to remove the doors or at least prop them open.
Also she had wiped down all the surfaces with vinegar before we
left, but she found that there are strips of wood inside
cabinets that also need care. PFDs, safety leashes and
harnesses can all show signs of the humidity if placed in a
closed space. So, even though the boat looked great on closer
inspection, we found that we needed to clean.
One
 of
Betsy’s first projects after the major clean up was to repair
the sun shade so that we could have more head
 room
in the cockpit. We had left the sun shade up because that we
felt that the shade it afforded the boat was better than the
chance that a hurricane would come through and that we would
have to pay our boat watcher to remove it. The sun shade was
made of rip stop fabric and shade tree supports. There are
three panels of white rip stop and the final panel that covered
the cockpit was green. I say was, because the green had faded
to white and the fabric was then so fragile that it slowly
ripped to shreds. Choosing rip stop was a big mistake, the
colored panel rotted in the intense UV sun down here. Since our
boat watcher had informed of this fact via email, we had
purchased new fabric to replace the last panel. We thought of
biting the bullet and purchasing a complete ShadeTree cover, but
we didn’t think that was necessary at this point. Betsy was
able to sew a replacement panel and we got it up as soon as
possible. We also did another sewing project of covering the
navigation station back cushion. Some how that cushion didn’t
get covered when Betsy did all the rest of the cushions and so
she was able to make a cover using the cover fabric and terry
cloth.
Hank’s
projects were quite involved for he pulled wires through the
radar pole so he could mount our Sirius radio, sat phone and
wifi antennas and a new aft flood light for security. Crawling
around in those lazarrettes was not that easy, the perfect
person to work on a boat would be the size of a jockey with arms
of a 7 footer with articulating wrists and the grip of a world
class arm wrestler. He reinstalled our Icom M802 SSB radio
which had been sent back to Icom solve the potential clipping
problem. The water maker circuit board was reinstalled after
inspection by Spectra Watermakers. While our watermaker is out
of warrantee we really appreciate the support given by the fine
folks at Spectra. Hank’s worse or messiest project was when
he realized that the vacuflush head was taking way too long to
flush and he needed to replace the duck bill valves. Now we
have all sorts of replacement parts on board but the size of the
duck bill valves we had were some how too small for what we
needed. It takes 4 valves for each toilet and luckily we have
two heads on board this boat or one of us would be making many a
night run up the dock. Hank was able to order the part and a
friend’s sister who was coming from Seattle was able to bring
them to us. Problem fixed! Phew!
 Life
was not all work and siestas; we found many fun things to do and
some great friends with whom to do them. One of the fun things
was taking candy down to Old Town Puerto Vallarta on Halloween
and walking the
malecón.
We went with Lyon Around, Crème Brule, Valerie
K, Andante, and Naomi and her friends. We were told
how to pass out candy by Judy and Bob of Lyon Around so
that you are not mobbed. Take your bag of candy and place it in
your back pack, get out only a small amount of candy at a time
and try to keep walking to reduce the crowd. We found that the
Mexican people celebrate
Día
de
Muerte
on Nov 2nd, but they also are embracing the Halloween tradition
of costumes and collection candy. As we walked the
malecón
we saw many great costumes on many little trick or treaters.
They might be small but they had learned to say, “Trick or
Treat” and “Thank you” in english. The main problem was that
once we started passing our candy, all the kids that were close
by surrounded you and as the circle got larger, the pushing got
a little more intense. That is why it was good to have only a
small amount of candy to pass out and then when you were out,
you could walk on a ways before getting out more candy.
We also had
time to take Spanish lessons until December 18th
every Monday and Thursday from Anna over at
Estudio
Café and to take a CPR class giving by Jim Nordstrom (SV
Toothpick) at the club’s commodore’s home. We went to
immigration on the 27th of October to renew our FM3
tourist visa and 7 weeks later we were again legal to be in
Mexico for a year. If we had not renewed this year long visa we
would have had to remove our car, since we will be leaving the
car here as we sail off, this would have been a real problem.
Cruising is
a lifestyle that you meet many friends and for quite a while we
hung out with Island Packet people, Bill and Cynthia, Judy and
Bob, and Kathy and Dave. Of course we did things with others
but for a month or so we were the Island Packet gang here at the
Vallarta Yacht Club. We all went out to Black Forest Restaurant
for the October Fest, had great pot lucks together whether on
one of the boats or in one of the Paradise Village hotel palapas
which you could reserve. David Reed (S/V Andante )
thought of the latter idea and we used it several times watching
the sun go down before we started cooking.
November
 November
was filled with many events. The opening of the sailing season
flag ceremony at the Yacht Club
 and
the blessing of the boats by a local priest. The first Saturday
evening there was a spaghetti dinner to raise money for the
junior sailing program. We went in with Doug and Susie from
Defiance and purchased a dinner for four from Jane Wheeler.
This was a real steal of a price when we thought back to Auburn
and what our dinners auctioned for when we raised money for the
hospital. But the price had nothing to do with the quality of
the wonderful dinner that Jane finally prepared for us. It was
outstanding!
 
Our
November activities also included Spanish lessons, cruisers
luncheon and speakers on Monday, cards and games on Tuesday and
Thursdays (Betsy’s thing), and pot lucks dinners on Sundays. As
we have said to friends, it would be so easy to be sucked into
this lifestyle for we have met so many great people who have
finished their sailing dreams and are now full or ½ time
residences of this community. But we must resist this pull and
keep getting the boat projects ready to sail on South.
 Hank
wanted to add davits to the boat so we could easily hoist our
dingy up at night for security and have a place to mount our new
solar panels. This was a major project we and we found a great
stainless fabricator, Salvador who can be reached by email
aceros_inoxidable@hotmail.com . His welding was fantastic
and Hank raves about it everyone. Securing the dinghy is
really important as you head south and it is a pain to raise it
using the spare halyard! Our daughter Jennifer brought down a
bunch of boat parts when she arrived at Christmas. Salvador
also made us a security grate for the companionway.
 Thanksgiving
for us was again celebrated with other cruisers for we drove out
to Philo’s Bar in La Cruz for their
 big
pot luck. Scot and Sue of SV Sue Bee went with us and we
got there in good time to find a nice table and not have to wait
too long for the food. Philo provides all the turkeys and
people bring all the side dishes. We got a pecan pie from Costco
as our contribution and Sue made a great broccoli salad. We were
supposed to meet some friend’s of Sue and Scott who were in the
La Cruz marina and were saving a table but they got confused
with the time changes and arrived an hour after we did. It was
great to meet John and Rosie on Eager Dreamer and they
consented to helping us with the chili cook off at the yacht
club the following week end. After acknowledging our many
blessing of family, friends and the ability to be sailing, we
headed off to see the new marina before saying good night.
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