Back in La Cruz

After a 3 day drive from Tucson in early November, we arrived in La Cruz a bit tired but glad to be back.  We made it just in time for the Full Moon Bonfire at the marina where we got to reunite with some old friends.  Music made it through the summer very well.  I guess we did a good job of fixing known leaks last spring because she stayed dry down below during the rainy season.  We ran a dehumidifier to keep the humidity down and that worked really well to keep mold and mildew away.   We spent about a week re-commissioning Music, which means reversing everything we did to decommission her for the summer.  I won't go into all the details, but we have a 2 page spreadsheet of tasks so you get a sense for how much is involved.

As I mentioned in my previous posting, with John's shoulder surgery this summer he wasn't able to work as he had planned.  So he decided to head back to the states to work for a few months this winter while I stay in La Cruz with Music.  But don't feel too bad for me - John will be here for the holidays.  And there is always something to do and we have friends here so I'm not alone. 

 Just in these 2 weeks I had Thanksgiving dinner at the marina restaurant with a dozen friends, Thursday night is movie night, met some friends from California, attended a big chili cook-off to raise funds for school supplies,


Sundays are the local market with all kinds of crafts, art, and food, this week I am hosting a Ladies Night and we're grilling some wonderful tuna that a local fisherman gave me, and Saturday is the next Full Moon Bonfire. Hmmm - I guess I'll have to get some work done in there too.


 To all our friends - we hope you have a great Holiday Season.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To.....

Let's see, where did we leave off.  Oh yes, we were decommissioning Music and heading back to the states.  We came back to California in mid-July and caught up with some friends and doctor's appointments.  Lo and behold, John ended up needing rotator cuff surgery on his left shoulder.  His shoulder had been bothering him, but he had been hauling our heavy (70 lb) sails around, climbing the mast, and doing other heavy lifting in order to get ready to leave Music in Mexico.  So we were rather surprised with the MRI results.  This has put a bit of a crimp in our plans in order to accomodate his 2x a week physical therapy.  The surgery went well and he started physical therapy about 2 weeks ago.  The first month was shoulder immobilization and now it's passive movement - which means he's not supposed to use his left arm to lift anything heavier than a cup of coffe and certainly not to raise the arm.  Needless to say, he's going a bit crazy with not being able to do much.

m/v Nalu

Before the surgery we were able to take a 10 day trip up the Delta with our friends Jim and Diana Jessie on their Grand Banks Alaska 52, m/v Nalu.  The Delta is a series of waterways between the Sacramento and San Juaquin rivers.  The weather was perfect and it was great to visit with friends.  John spent much of his childhood vacations at the Delta, so he was excited to be able to see some new areas.  One of our favorites was Steamboat Slough.  It's one of the few waterways that still has the trees overhanging the water and you feel you are in the middle of nowhere.  But there are roads on either side of the slough.  It's called Steamboat Slough because you used to be able to hear the steamboats on the Sacramento River which is just around the bend.

The Jessie's were leading the Delta Cruise Out for the Oakland Yacht Club, so as we motored along to our various anchorages it was like the mother hen leading her chicks.  We visited Decker Island, Steamboat Slough, had lunch at 'Al the Wop's' in Walnut Grove, on to Potato Slough, and Suisun City. 

Chicks in a Row

Swing Bridge

We had a few bridges to navigate. When you are close, you call the bridge tender and he will stop traffic and open the bridge.  Some were draw bridges and some were swing bridges. 

It was a fun and relaxing trip.  Then it was back to the Bay area for John's surgery.  We were very lucky to be able to stay with a friend of mine from my Hewlett Packard days.  A couple of weeks after John's surgery we headed to Salt Lake City, UT with a stop in Reno, NV to visit with John's son and to change our residency.  We are now Nevadaites.  Nevada doesn't have any state income tax and the car insurance is about half of California so we'll save a few $$. 

After a few days in Reno, we headed to Salt Lake where my parents have a condo we'll be staying in for about 6 weeks.  Or, I'll be staying in since John has to head back to CA for physical therapy.  He'll be staying with his dive buddy Jeff.  When he has a few extra days he comes out to SLC where we do the tourist thing.  We went to Snowbird Ski Resort for Oktoberfest and visited the Kennecott Copper Mine.

The Pit

Kennecott is the largest man-made excavation on earth - it can be seen from space.  It's 2 3/4 miles across at the top and is 3/4 of a mile deep.  The machinery is huge - notice the scale of the loader trucks compared to a full size pickup.  The tires are over 12 ft tall and the truck drivers are 18 ft in the air.  It's hard to get a full appreciation of the scale, but if you can see the small specks in the bottom of the mine - those are loader trucks.  It was truely amazing.

Loader Trucks - note the scale compared to the pickup

The current plan is in mid to late October when John's PT will be wrapped up, we'll start working our way south again and drive back to Mexico with a car load of boat supplies.

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.

Detailed View: Music along Mexico's Gold Coast

Google Earth: Overview - Banderas Bay to Manzanillo

Music and the Tsunami

I've had a couple of questions from friends and family about what we experienced onboard Music when the tsunami came through, so I thought I'd share a little bit with you.

To start with, when we heard about the approaching tsunami I set our VHF radio to “scan” because on our normal cruiser communication channel (channel 22) I was hearing what appeared to be some audio distortion to someone’s communication. Since I wanted to be sure our radio was not suddenly malfunctioning. I put it in “scan” mode to see what we could pick up. Then, while in “scan” mode I picked up someone else’s conversation and they were discussing a projected “tsunami”. Well, I wasn’t quite sure if it was real or rumor, so I pressed the microphone button and said “break”. When acknowledged, I asked my question, and was subsequently given details. With that, I switched back to channel 22, and announced to the fleet in the cove of Las Hadas if anyone knew of a potential tsunami? That seemed to wake up the cruising community and started a lot of discussion. (Mexico’s president had issued a tsunami warning that morning, which was lifted about 9PM local time.)

The net result was that most of us decided that we should head to deeper water and monitor the situation. Within 15 minutes Gail and I had our anchor up and were heading out of the cove into deeper water. Once out with about 200 ft of depth under Music I tuned our SSB radio to get more information. Basically we learned that while the first event (that’s what they called it) was to occur about 1:30PM local time, there was a 6 to 7 hour window for subsequent events. Well, that meant that we would be out on the water the rest of the morning and all afternoon. And heck, it was a gorgeous day, so we decided that instead of just floating there we’d start our retreat to Banderas Bay, and head about 30 miles north to Bahia Tenacatita.

En route we heard about the port captain closing Barra de Navidad due to strong currents in the bottle neck channel going into the lagoon. A first hand report mentioned that the buoys were getting drug under water. – Well, the buoys in Barra are rather undersize compared with most “normal” channel buoys so that’s not hard to imagine. The next day we found out that in addition to the buoys being drug under water the more significant event issue was that the water pipe (maybe more like a hose?) running across the channel, and anchored to its bottom, floated free. This subsequently resulted in the “port” being closed for several days, not just over night as I originally thought.

In Banderas Bay the ports captains (there are 3 major ports as far as I know) closed their respective ports over night so many of those out on the bay, floated, bobbed, or sailed all night as many of the boats were participating in Banderas Bay race week and didn’t have any anchors onboard. The cruisers who left port, got to sleep that night after anchoring.

What the tsunami did in port areas such as Nuevo Vallarta and even la Cruz was surge in and out, and in and out. La Cruz suffered some relatively minor dock damage but that was it. It appears that some of the smaller bays such as Tenacatita where we anchored that night, essentially filled up a bit more than usual and the water in them sloshed around for a day or so.

While this was our event, our hearts go out to all of the earthquake victims and to all of those less fortunate along the various coasts that the tsunami did reach in force. - John