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Our 1st Sailing Adventures’ Last Leg…..
I am writing this as I watch ‘Just Dandy’ get pulled out of the water to be put on the hard (dry dock) in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. We have spent two weeks getting her ready to sit for 7 months in the heat and wind.
But before I go into a few of those details, let me tell you about our last stop on the Baja, before we sailed across the Sea of Cortez….Santa Rosalia.
Santa Rosalia is an old Copper Mining Town. It was mined originally by the French, who also brought over wood to build the town. It is very quaint, looks a lot like mining towns similar to Park City or Canmore.
In fact, Eiffel, who built that tower in Paris, came over and built a church out of steel which is beautiful!
At one point the Mexican government took over the mining and then when the copper was mined out, the mines closed. Recently, a North American company has taken over with new technology to mine the remnants and it has revitalized the town.
So for those sailing friends, we limped into Santa Rosalia with once again a touchy transmission, no forward only reverse. So how to get across to San Carlos? Well, with a lot of input and watching the weather, we backed out of the marina, reefed our jib and sailed 65 of the 75 miles across in great time, about 14 hours. Then the wind slacked off and with a full sail and the motor we were able to do about 2 knots for about 8 miles and finally had to drop the sails, turnaround, and come into port once again in reverse. We can proudly say we came into our first and last port in reverse and Bill has become famous for his adept steering in reverse.
To make matters worse, if they could be, San Carlos Marina directed us to a slip on M dock, which we found out is too shallow for a sailboat, when we grounded. (that’s 2 this season, one for me and one for Bill) Immediately, dinghies came to our rescue unsuccessfully, then a marina paunga, unsuccessfully, and finally a big fishing boat, successfully pulled us lose but over a rock. Once we are in dry dock, we will be able to see if any damage was incurred. (No real damage, yea!!!!) We also need to figure out what is causing our transmission to fail.
Decommissioning a boat is quite an undertaking. Sails need to be removed, plastic needs to be covered in tinfoil, a cover needs to be made with grommets installed, oil changed, and the list goes on and on.
We have also had a lot of fun with new friends…dock parties, crib games,and Wednesday nights listening to Mark Mulligan, The Jimmy Buffett of Mexico.
We will spend a couple of days in the yard doing the final details and then head to Tucson and home, Bill to Canada and me to Park City (as I am homeless). Bill and I will hook up again in June in San Diego for Whitney’s wedding, go to Edmonton for Oats and Notes in July, and then back here around the first of November for our second season of sailing. We have removed ourselves from the Rookie status to Novice sailors and look forward to next year’s adventures.
If you are our sailing buddies, stay tuned for November’s blog. Also, check out the Photo Gallery from time to time for updated photos. More blogs will continue throughout the summer, if you are interested. Thanks to all of you for your fun comments and encouragement, this has truly been a chance of a lifetime!
One comments on “Our 1st Sailing Adventures’ Last Leg…..”
Hi Kim – We have followed your travels/difficulties with interest – loved the pictures – quite an adventure.
Hope to see Scott and Kristin in San Diego in June.