"Working for Rewards"

"Working for the Rewards"

Before we left San Diego, my dive buddy, Jeff, asked, “Where will you be for Thanksgiving?”

“We think La Paz”

Then, “Where will you be for Christmas?”

“We think P.V.” (Puerto Vallarta)

Following that he asked “What are you going to do with all that time in between?”

Well, today is December 5th and we are anchored about 40 miles north of La Paz on the south side of Isla San Francisco. – If only San Francisco, CA were this nice. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Backing up - It's a fact that cruising means doing boat maintenance in exotic ports. Our friends who have been cruising already know this while some of our friends who have never been cruising may not comprehend the reality of the statement. After the Pac Cup in 2008 while in Hawaii I'd already become acquainted with this truism and so for this trip I tried to get as very much prep done as possible before we left. Upon starting a journey like this it doesn't take much time, sailing, or wear to initiate the cycle of maintenance.

So, here we were pulling into La Paz, nothing major has happened - knock on wood. But the solar panels still aren't putting any power to the grid. The dingy wheels still need to be installed, and one of the D-ring patches that we installed in San Jose del Cabo already needs to be reattached – perhaps we should have done a better job the first time. This was my list of projects.

My sweetheart, however, had her own list of projects and upon asking what I intended to work on she asked if before I launch into those projects I could get the forward head straightened away. Not much work involved just installing 2 teak racks for toiletries and a teak plate to create a “finished” look on the watermaker overboard pump hose. I also needed to secure the overboard pump hose better than it was.

By the time we left, the forward head looked great. And, along the way, I made, varnished, and installed a teak cover for an unsightly hole in the aft head left over from changing our plumbing there. I also managed to get the D-ring pasty cleaned up so it can be reattached to the dingy, and removed the old wheel brackets from the dingy so I can install the new ones. Add to that, helping other cruisers solve some of their problems, and the myriad other things that go on in a day's activity and, well, things just take longer to get done when in Mexico.

Ahh! But a few days ago we saw, and went swimming with, our first whalesharks in the Bay of La Paz. They were not huge by whaleshark standards, but still 18-25ft. Yesterday we were anchored on Isla Partida at Ensenada Grande enjoying an absolutely stunning sunset, and now here we are in a beautiful Isla San Francisco anchorage, the wind is dying, the sky is clear, the weather warm, and we are out for a week in the islands enjoying the rewards of why we put all this effort into getting here - life just doesn’t get any better