We gotta get outta this place....

December 4th we arrived in San Carlos Mexico in the late afternoon. We made it through the border at Nogales with ease. We were boarded soon after entering the border into Mexico but the man that entered our RV was very friendly and ended up just basically sitting down on our sofa petting Harley. He called her Gordita! Interesting she’s gotten that nickname here in Mexico. I really don’t think she is THAT fat! Anyway, he walked from one end of the coach to the other briefly shining a flashlight up at the ceiling and down on the floor along the cupboards, petted Harley a few more times and then told us to , “Enjoy”…sounded like EnYoy, and then alighted from our vehicle. 

So on we drove keeping our eyes open for KM21 (the place where you get your Visa’s). We got in and out of there…no lines, and continued on to San Carlos.

We arrived at Marina Seca (the dry storage where Solastra had been all summer) in San Carlos first thing to make arrangements to have our boat put into the work yard the following day. Then we drove over to the marina and parked the RV. Our friend Peter just so happened to be in the parking lot at the same time we arrived. We chatted with him for quite a while…grabbed a bite to eat and retreated back to the RV.

From the 5th of December to the 10th, we worked on Solastra…cleaning inside and out…which the outside was not so bad…not as bad as we had expected.  Rick sanded and painted a few spots on the bottom of the boat, and did a lot of other things that needed to be done. I cleaned the inside of the boat and polished all of the stainless outside.

One of the many things that Rick did was to put in a new ceiling and some LED lights in the V-berth

Our friend arrived from Colorado during our time at the yard on the 7th bringing us our new motor for our electric winch that we’d asked him to pick up at West Marine in Phoenix that was supposed to have been delivered by the time we were there, but as luck would have it, it arrived there the day we left for Mexico. Anyway, it worked out perfectly.

All of us out to dinner at Maria's...lots of laughs. 

Another cool thing since we have been here is that we found a veterinarian for Harley here and she was wonderful! She gave Harley some pills and some other concoction for her to drink twice a day. Harley was basically cured the next day (no more tummy issues)…and the bill was cheap! We took her back a few days later for a shampoo and a cut. She did an excellent job and again the price was cheap!

We were launched on Monday the 10th and motored into our slip on A dock with lots of help. Parking the boat into a slip is our least favorite thing to do…always nervous we will collide or crash into another boat! We are finding out that we are not alone on this. 

Since the time we have been in the water, we have been getting more things done in preparation for heading south. We’ve gotten everything done that needed to be done, now we’re just sort of killing time waiting for a good weather window. Saturday, so far, looks like the best to cross. It will be an overnight sail to Isla Coronado where we will anchor or not for the night. We may just keep heading on our way to La Paz. La Paz is where we plan to end up and to stay for a few days..probably out in the anchorage since it will be Christmas time and most every marina will be full! And…we have no reservations. We are planning to ‘buddy boat’ with our friend Peter on Juguete.  From La Paz, we will cross over to Mazatlan, which should be two overnights sailing. Peter will be staying in La Paz for an indefinite amount of time.

Peter and his crew, Marina

We’ve done a lot of walking here since we have no car and driving the RV around is not the best. We made one trip to Walmart in the RV for groceries but that was it. Every other errand we have done has been on foot. It’s a good thing since it’s great exercise and Harley is able to get in her 2-30 minute walks each day…sometimes more. 

I’m anxious to get out of here and a little nervous hoping nothing goes wrong like last season when we had to turn around and come back…spending the entire 180 days in the work yard!

Our plan as of now is to sail all the way to Chiapas, MX, arriving by the end of April. We will then leave the boat in the dry storage there for the summer and rent a car to get back to San Carlos. From there hopping in the RV and slowly make our way back home to South Dakota. Plans do change so maybe we should refer to it as a wish. 

We will probably be spending Christmas somewhere in the Sea of Cortez anchored somewhere. So…until we get to La Paz…we wish you all a Merry Christmas!