A Note From Gail

It’s now hot and humid and the town of La Cruz seems to have shifted into summer mode.  We all have heard of “siestas”, but we didn’t really notice any significant siesta time during the busy winter cruising months.  But now that things have slowed down I am noticing a change of pace.  In the winter, shops here in La Cruz were open all day and seemed to close around 5-6 pm.  Now, quite a few shops close from 2-4pm for lunch and siesta but stay open later.  As it cools down in the evening more people are out and about.  One interesting thing about La Cruz is that it is still a small town with a mix of homes, shops and restaurants next to each other on the streets.  The homes are typically small with very few windows to help keep them cool.  But during the evening the streets are converted into their “patios”.  Out come the tables and chairs and the families sit down to talk, have dinner, and enjoy the evening.  It’s great to see, but I feel like I’m walking through their living rooms. 

As for us and Music – shade, shade, and more shade is the order of the day.  We’ve brought out all our shade options – a bimini to shade the cockpit, a Shade Tree to cover the main part of the boat, and we had a cover made here in La Cruz for the foredeck.  Music has beautiful lines but they are hard to see with all that canvas.  Summers in this part of Mexico have a lot of rain and we are getting into that season.  August and September are supposed to have the most rain, but we’ve been getting a lot of early morning squalls which at least cool things down a bit.  It’s also hurricane season and the tropical storms, even if they don't come close to Banderas Bay, bring a lot of humidity and monsoon type moisture.  According to historical records, however, when it comes to direct hits from hurricanes we are well protected here in Banderas Bay.  Mountians immediately to the south along with a very mountainous point on the southwest corner of the Bay, called Cabo Corrientes, seem to divert hurricanes or tropical storms out to sea, away from us.  

One of the benefits of staying here this summer is that we’re getting to know more people around the marina as well as some locals.  There is a cruiser here in the Marina who organized the La Cruz Kids Club to give the children of cruisers some kids time.  Tami is a bundle of energy and has been doing the kids club for about 6 months now.  They have been getting involved with the locals and during the 4^th of July invited the Bucerias Orphanage over to the Marina to join the celebration.  The Marina really embraces the Kids Club and supports its activities.  We were supposed to have a bbq at the beach palapa, but the weather didn’t cooperate so we had it at the Marina restaurant instead.  It was great fun to watch them play musical chairs, get their faces painted, and beat John up with their balloons.

Kids playing "musical Chairs" at our July 4th celebration

We’ll be leaving in about a week and the rest of our time here will be “de-commissioning” Music for the summer.  The big thing is to minimize mold and mildew and to prepare for storms.  So sails come off, the propeller gets bagged so the barnacles don’t cover it, take down all canvas, and then do what you can down below to open things up.  We bought a dehumidifier which we used every winter on Music in Bellingham and California and we’re hoping it works as well for us here.  We will have folks watch Music while we’re back in the States who can take care of any problems that might come up.  We’ll be back in October to continue our adventures.

Adios amigas!

The Lazy, Hazy, Days of Summer

Music didn’t make it back to the Sea of Cortez this spring which means that our boat will be staying here at La Cruz on Banderas Bay thru the summer. The reasons are many but suffice it to say that Music will also not be hauled out of the water only to cook in +120°F heat while sitting on the hard. And, that I am sure is a good thing.

As many of you already know, we still plan on heading back to the States this month (July) and will be sure to see as many of our friends as possible. Aside from that, I plan on picking up as many work assignments as I can, but I’ve also got some ongoing issues with my left foot and now left shoulder. What it means is that I will be seeing some of my docs while home. And, with luck, maybe I’ll even get in a dive or two.

Now to the question I’m sure many of you are wondering: what happened that we didn’t get back up into the Sea of Cortez? Well, it’s a long story with many factors involved, some of which were related to boat projects, some to traveling, some to the flu, some to other delays and some to just how long it takes to accomplish errands. But, the most significant reason we didn’t make it back to the Sea was related to a rather nebulous and enigmatic popping that had developed seemingly in the mast while heading south from La Paz.

Over time the popping grew worse and by the time we returned from the Gold Coast the noise now sounded like a wrench suspended inside the mast banging away as the boat rocked from side to side. Even a thorough search inside the mast for loose strings, wires, and feeder lines revealed nothing!

Back here at La Cruz, with head liners removed around the mast we found signs of a lot of water leakage, and many totally loose fasteners securing the mast collar to the aluminum backing plate below deck. Oh Boy, another project!

Starboard Mast Collar Backing Plate:
Note the salt like corrosion from water leakage.

To deal with all of this, I replaced the existing backing plates with G-10 but before installing them, I faired the cabin ceiling to make the whole surface level. This had never been done and the unevenness may have contributed (along with a lot of sea miles) to the fasteners working against each other creating movement, leaks and my popping/banging?. While we don’t know for sure if we’ve got the problem fixed we haven’t heard any more ominous banging, even while out sailing for an active tune. – And that is definitely a good thing.

Something else I believe the banging could be related to is a rubbing between the mast and spartite (a product used to fill the void between mast and mast collar). Replacing the spartite, I was informed, would most likely require pulling the mast due to the age of the spartite and its adhesive properties if improperly installed. (Some professionals say that mast rubs and leakage around the mast can develop even if spartite is properly installed.) So, in addition to fixing the mast collar, we also fixed the leaks stemming from the mast/spartite interface and will wait to see what develops.

Newly Installed Starboard G-10 Backing Plate:
Check sidebar for a few photos of the individual steps. 

By about mid May Music was back together and we were finally ready to head north. Unfortunately, all the delays meant that we would now be on a schedule, moving constantly, and unable to take our time. Added to that, if we did go north, next fall we would only be retracing our steps to head right back here, on our way to the “Gold Coast” just a little further south. All of this begged the question Why head north? The net result was a decision to stay put and relax here la Cruz. Our decision made, we would now have time to make some improvements, and install a few other things (like a new Gori 3 blade folding propeller) we hadn’t had the time to earlier. Not heading back into the Sea? Disappointing? – Perhaps a bit, but there are certainly a lot worse places for Music to spend the summer.

A Note on Black Holes:

Among the cruising community this year we’ve heard a lot about black holes; like the black hole of La Paz and the Black hole of Mazatlan. Places cruisers find themselves due to circumstances and who appear to not be able to extricate themselves. While some might say that we have fallen into a black hole here in La Cruz, Gail and I don’t see it that way. The reason is that Music was sound enough to leave in mid May yet we have made a conscious decision to stay put. Put another way, we’d rather enjoy some quality time here in La Cruz than rush to get somewhere else on a contracted schedule where we would hall the boat only to return to this region next fall.