San Carlos - Mixing work and pleasure!

Everyday we have worked on the boat.  Some days something small. some days something big.  But being here in Mexico is pretty awesome.  

We've enjoyed having a Mexican plan on our Verizon phone, Wi-fi connection (most often), recenly we bought an Aircard for when Wi-fi goes down or is non-existent (but cell service is).

Here are some snapshots of our month here (not working on the boat)
- Dinner and music at "Departmente Adelade" where we stay when the boat is in the work yard.  We invited some new friends and one of Tom's former clients, Christopher Jette, from the work yard over for a Bar-B-Q -- and what a great time.  Turns out Christopher (PhD in Music Composition and classically trained violinist) was quite the musician -- and played our Backpackers Guitar and played as if Bluegrass was flowing in his veins.  Everyone at the hotel enjoyed the evening!

- Once Begone was in the water we enjoyed dinner and music aboard "Begone" with fellow cruisers Janie & Jeff (at least his feet) from "Adagio" and John from "Ichi Ban".  We were pleasantly surprised with John, who said he could play "a little", turned out to be an awesome guitarist joining with Tom on the fiddle and me on the Autoharp:

And then there's a little music at our favorite taco stand "JJ's"  The home of "Por que no?!!" (why not?!) and "Many have eaten here - Few have died" logo wear.

Shopping has many flavors.  

The Sunday outdoor Flea Market in Impalme (30 minutes south of San Carlos)

And the Wednesday outdoor Flea Market in Guaymas (15 minutes South of San Carlos) -
Tom loves the Chickorenes (sp) -- they're fried bits of pork parts (which parts I'm not going to guess), but the best are found at these open air markets.

- There's also the cruiser swap meet where everyone tries to get rid of the things rattling around in their bilge.  Paperback books to boat parts to boats can be found each month.

- Grocery shopping offers some interesting choices.  From huge Wal-marts and the newer Santa Fe and Lays markets you feel like you're in the USA with price checking machines and isles are marked in both Spanish and English:

Lay's Market in San Carlos - could be anywhere in the USA

But I loved this busy market in the working community of Impalme.  It reminded me of shopping in Puerto Vallarta in the mid-80's!  

Busy Impalme grocery market on a Saturday morning

- We took a car trip up to Phoenix to visit our friends John & Dorothy Kiesling.  We had all planned to be together with them while preparing Begone for the season and then sail together over to Santa Rosalia to visit some mutual friends, Brooks & Judy Townes.  But alas, John the day they came down they rushed home and discovered John had a tumor in his abdomen that was removed in a 6 hour surgery in Scottsdale, AZ.  John and Dorothy are so much a part of every part of Begone and they were always on our minds, so we decided to drive up for a few days after his surgery.  We were so glad we did.  Suzanne got to go out for lunch with Dorothy while Tom and John hung out together in the hospital room.  And even in a couple days, John showed his determination for getting his strength back while Dorothy was her usual trooper -- a great support throughout it all!   We're hoping they'll feel like coming down the visit San Carlos when we return from our trip.  We'll see!

Of all the great parts of being here, getting up early one morning to see this sunrise from the  cockpit of "Begone" was pretty amazing!  I know there will be many more skies to photograph, this was my first of the season.
I'll close this entry with this photo.

"Cruising is just going somewhere else to work on your boat"

We arrived in San Carlos on December 29th.  

Because Begone draws 6'8" below her waterline, the earliest there would be enough water in the San Carlos Marina to float the 'ole girl was January 12th.  So we scheduled that date and proceeded to get to work to wake her up after almost 2 years "on the hard".

Here's a partial bit of our TO DO list:

- Remove Boat Cover and Wash and wash 2 years of dirt off the deck

- Inspect and Repair the Wooden Mast - the first time Tom went to the top, he was in a boatswain chair and I hoisted him up on the jib & spinnaker halyards.  Luckily, when it came time to repair the wooden mast, Tom figured setting up a ladder to do the work would be kinder to me and both of "the boys").

Repair Mast 

Clean Stainless Steel (and there's lots of stainless!!)

Varnish toe rail, cabin top, cockpit (and there's lots of wood, too!)

Repair Bimini Cover (thanks Janie - and Jeff - on Adagio for your sewing expertise and Sailright Sewing Machine)

Repair Weather Cloths (thanks Tom for fixing my Singer Featherweight)

Sand and paint the bottom (yes, that's Tom in the Tyvak suit)

Reinstall the halyards

Bend on the Jib & Mainsail

Put the pontoons on the dinghy

Repair the Single Side Band Antenna

Find a Vinyl Letting Artist to make new "Begone" lettering for the boat

...And the list just kept growing.  But we got it all done and sure enough on Saturday morning, 12 January 2013, Begone made the 2 Km trip from the Marina Seca (dry marina) to be launched into the harbor at Marina San Carlos.

And just in case you think it was ALL work, the next entry is about some of the other things to do for a month in San Carlos.

San Carlos - Firefighters sell beer

We were driving to the boat from our little apartment when Tom said, "Could you stop?  I need some pictures of this!"  Every day we had been driving by the the San Carlos Bomberos (Firefighters).  Many of you know that Tom is a volunteer firefighter in the Crockett/Port Costa/Carquinez Volunteer Fire department.  So his curiosity was quite appropriate. 

They had one heck of an old fire truck parked next to a Super Six Beer Store that they worked in when there was no "business".  When the alarm goes off, they close the store and head out in their truck that looks like it and the fire hose last passed inspection around 1978.