November ‘98

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

November 1, Sunday

We’re having those nasty Northers – calm mornings – but 15-20k all afternoon and a better part of the night.
John and Jeff got the engine together – but the crank shaft won’t turn. The holes don’t line up right – so they took it apart again. Not good, but not sure of the next step.

November 2, Monday

John took the engine back to Daniel – or in Español, Danielle – he says don’t worry, he’ll fix it.

November 3, Tuesday
San Carlos

Engine is still not done, Daniel says the crank shaft has always been too big and he’s line drilling it all out  slowly – John’s worried.
He had a part welded at some shop in Guaymas today – when he asked how much, they (all Mexican, no English) brought out a coke can and said “tres” – so John went to buy them 3 Cokes! – Ah, Mexico!
Tom, Christina, checked out for tomorrow – but tonight when he started up the engine, it was blow’en smoke out the exhaust and racing the RPMs. The kill switch wouldn’t work – he finally cut off the air somehow. It was pretty scary there for a while.
He had the crank-case oil full of diesel – now he has to figure out why and how to fix it.
We went by Bill and Trisha’s for a while. Sure enjoy their company.
Danielle called, in another month of so, she should finally have the settlement from the car wreck in CA, September of ’96. She’ll get around $9,600.

November 4, Wednesday

John went into Guaymas to get the engine – Daniel has got it all like new. He took it over to Jeff’s shop at Dry Storage to clean it all up and paint. It’s now white.

November 5, Thursday

Tom, Christina, got his engine problem fixed, the seal on the fuel pump had rotted away over the summer and diesel had leaked into the crank-case oil. No one can figure out why he didn’t check the oil before he started it up! Anyway, they went to leave at 4 pm or so, but the tide was so low, he was sitting on the bottom!
It was 9 pm when they pulled out of the slip – but another half hour before he called to say they made it out of the entrance. You got it – he grounded going out, he draws 7 feet. I felt really bad for Val and C.J. – Tom never even took them out for a shake-down or anything. At least they had a nearly full moon. Even though it was colder than hell tonight.

November 6, Friday

John had a group of guys over to help him get the engine back into the boat this a.m. – I sat at the far end of the dock where I could not see any of the process! I had made myself sick worrying when they took it out! Anyway, tonight it is in and attached to the transmission. Still a lot to put back together tomorrow. We went out for pizza at Jax Snax – not as good as last year.
It was windy from the east in the a.m. – then turn nice, warm and no breeze.

November 7, Saturday

John worked all day on getting the engine back together. He did have to drive in to Guaymas to have a bolt made though. I’m really proud of him – getting it all together and no cussing!
Samie has a “bug” today, not feeling too good. We haven’t done school the last 2 days. It’s too hard when John needs my help.
Bill and Trish came by and, of course, as usual, we only have Corona and very few! They did hang around for a while though – Jeff came by and helped set the timing.
It was calm and warm again today – love it.

November 8, Sunday

Happy B-day Janice.

Samie was yucky all last night, the shits and a fever. Neither one of us slept too well. She ran a fever of 102° today – but was pretty much ok by 8 pm.
John worked again all day in the engine room and voilá, at 3:43 pm she fired up!! He ran it for half an hour for today. Another beautiful and calm day.

November 9, Monday

We worked all day on getting things back together. Got the loose valve fixed – got the floor on – the hard part was figuring out the wheel housing and all the gears and lines. We had to take it apart and start again – not an easy process. As I was pulling up the compass line, I snagged the clip that holds the steering chains together, so we have to take it apart again tomorrow.
John’s still trying to figure out what’s wrong with the oil pressure gauge.
Samie felt fine today. Barb and Steve, Blue Chablis, came over for happy hour.
The a.m. was nice, but cloudy, it got windy in the afternoon – 8 pm it’s still breezy and cool.
Oh – Brent said it was snowing pretty hard in Alpine this a.m.

November 10, Tuesday

John changed the oil cooler on the transmission and got the steering cable, wheel-housing and compass all put together.
Samie was his helper this a.m. – I was in bed not feeling so good.
He ran the engine about an hour and a half. Bueno!

November 11, Wednesday

John worked on the oil pressure gauge – finally got it fixed. It was the sending unit and the gauge itself. He sprayed down the boat, she’s pretty and clean now. We also hooked the steering cable back up.
Samie and I got back to school – NOT TO HER LIKING!
Cold morning, 44°, but a beautiful day, 82° and no wind.

November 12, Thursday

John took off the elbow to the salt water part of the exhaust – it has a crack. One more thing – he took it in to Hernandez to weld, what he did was melt bronze all over it, then John covered that with epoxy. But he’s gonna try and get a new one.
It blew like stink all day – up to 25k in the afternoon - 80°.
Bill and Trisha were supposed to meet us for dinner at Manuel’s Chicken. Can’t wait to hear this story as to why they never made it – something goes haywire every time it involves chicken!
Goon called, she most likely has a job in the Valley at Earnhardt Ford. If that’s the case, she’ll move down and live with Caleb and his brother and sister-in-law, Ben and Janice. She sounded happy!

November 13, Friday
San Carlos

Ah, Friday the 13th – nice day, other than the wind howled at 25k and the bar dropped 6 points.
John put the exhaust elbow back on – it’s fine for now, but he ordered a new one. We ran the engine for an hour in the slip.

November 14, Saturday

John dove on the boat bottom and propeller enough to get around to anchor before we haul out. Ran the engine again for one and a half hours, cleaned the boat up and made her ready to go out tomorrow. John and I went with Bill and Trisha to Manuel’s for chicken – as good as ever. Samie is at the age where she stays home a lot.
Wind blew again, 20-25k.

November 15, Sunday

It finally calmed down around 10 pm last night. We pulled out of Marina Real at 7:15 am and headed around to the main anchorage. It was a little sloppy, but not bad at all. It is a hard bottom over here and took a while to set the anchor – finally at 9:15 am. John dove the bottom and got it really good for tomorrow.
Bill and Trish took us to get the van. We had burgers at Jeff and Hilda’s. Nice day today, only a breeze here. John was so tired he was asleep at 6:15 pm.

November 16, Monday

It was as calm last night as being tied to the dock.
Samie took John to Bill’s to get the van, which he drove around to the haul-out ramp. Then she took the dink around and picked him up. We took the boat over to haul out at 8:30 am.
Samie and I took the cold stuff from the fridge in the dink, back around to Bill’s and carried it all over to his mom’s house – that he is so kind to let us stay in again. John worked at wet-sanding down the boat all day. He says next year we will have to leave her out on the hard for sure – she’s got several blisters all the way down.
Samie and I rode into town with Trish – then we all ate a wonderful prime rib dinner over there.

November 17, Tuesday

Samie and I are bored in the house – such a big house, no T.V.
John worked on the boat bottom.

November 18, Wednesday

The boat went back in the water at 9, we came back around to Marina Real in no wind and flat seas.
I’ve got everything put away, Samie went up to the pool for a cold dip.
It’s calm and warm – beautiful!

November 19, Thursday

John got a demo GPS at Skip Randal’s Marine Mart – ours has given it up – for some reason it won’t work either, so he took it back and is looking at having one shipped.
It was a warm day until the wind started blow’en from the north around 4 pm.
Samie sprayed some perfume this a.m. and brought in several bees! I killed one on her bed, got rid of him, but later my finger found his stinger still in the bed, ouch!
I spent about a half hour with James from Deva, he is a physiotherapist and works with anxiety and panic disorders. He showed me a very simple procedure that, like magic, gets the panic under control and gets your past it. What we worked on was my driving. I drove from the marina to the far end of town and back. I did have to pull over twice and repeat the procedure, but I did it!! It felt so good and so free!!
John worked on the floor in the bathroom all day. He built a new floor under the toilet. We are using a bucket until he finishes up tomorrow – oh, he finished it up tonight.

November 20, Friday

It started blow’en early today and continued into the night, 20-25k – yuk and cold!
John and I went into Juan’s Fruitaria (I drove again) and got 12 steaks, 12 pork chops and fiesta mix to put in the freezer. We drove over to Gibson’s for a bit.

November 21, Saturday

Not much went on today – John was at Prime Time all morning trying to hook up an inverter for Bill. It sorta went haywire though.
Us girls skipped school. Samie has been watching a lot of VCR movies every day – once again, I’m getting tired of T.V.
Windy again.

November 22, Sunday

Beautiful day – calm and warm sunshine.
John and John from Telitha tried to get our shaft re-aligned, but couldn’t get it – Jeff will come over tomorrow.
We went over to Bill and Trisha’s for a couple of beers – Cecil and JoAnn flew down from the mountain today – also, Mike and Pat Speers (from Lion’s Den) were there. Laughed my head off.

November 23, Monday

Happy Bday Deb

We drove into Guaymas this a.m. to see if we could turn in our FM3s for a VISA – Hilda went with us – but it didn’t help, Immigration said we have to drive to the border to do that.
John fixed the toilet and both the shower and kitchen faucets.
Another calm day.
So, early tomorrow we’ll drive to Nogales and back. Oh, what fun!

November 24, Tuesday

What a day! We left the boat at 4:30 am, headed for Nogales – it was a 10.5 hour trip up and back to get a VISA that will be good until May when we go back to work. No problems, thank goodness – lots of trucks – we got back to the boat at 3:30 pm – long day.
We stopped at Mike and Pat Speers, Bill, Trish, JoAnn and Cecil were all there. Then we, along with Steve, Blue Chablis went with us to Tequila’s for dinner.
Barb had to fly from Tucson to Chicago to their daughter’s for a while.
Oh, we had a visitor today while we were gone. We didn’t lock up the boat, but the hatches were down and the cockpit canvas snapped down. There were little bird droppings all over in the cockpit. I guess he came in through the windows on the dodger – thank goodness we found NONE down below.

November 25, Wednesday

Shine called this a.m., all is well with him. He’s spending Turkey Day at Duke and Ava’s with the Spears.
John went into San Carlos to check out – so anytime after Friday, we can leave and get this cruising life on the road.
We got the new exhaust elbow in – the tax or duty on it alone was $93 U.S. John got that put on today.
We drove downtown to find Tony, the veggie guy, so I could buy all the fixings for the salad tomorrow. Tony does a real bang-up business.
it was nice (84°) until around 4 pm when the north wind turned cold.
We had a chicken BBQ at Gibson’s, also Cecil and JoAnn, Mike, Pat, Jack and Parker. Nice time, great food.

November 26, Thursday

The weather was beautiful all day!
It was a lazy day.
The Deo gang came by, Lyle, Tony and Dana – they crought our GPS down. We had to have a new one – another WOW, money-wise - $700 U.S., but necessary. This one has the built-in charts on the screen.
At 4 pm was the cruiser’s Turkey dinner at the palapa by the condos. Ema and Dario, who run the marina, provided the turkey and dressing – the cruisers brought all the other fixings. Anyone staying in the marina was free and it was only $5 (U.S.) to anyone else. It was all very nice.
Danielle called – her car is finally fixed, new motor for $1,900.

November 27, Friday

It was cloudy and a cold breeze blowing this a.m.
John got the GPS hooked up and is learning to operate it. We bought the burger (5 kilos, 10 meals), chicken (6 meals), bacon (10 packs), along with a bunch of other odds and ends – only $45 U.S. The 12 steaks and 12 pork chops last week were only $34 U.S. I hate to even think what that would be in the States.
We went over ti Bill and Linda Pyle’s in the trailer park for a burger fry along with the Deos and several others. They have a beautiful view from up there.
Oh, today it was so cool – a “ribbon” of fog came rolling over the road that goes up to the look-out. It was just streaming up and over from the anchorage on the other side.

November 28, Saturday

The reports on the volcano 70 miles from Manzanillo  are that it did spit out a little lava and ash, but calmed down again. They say to watch out because it has been dormant for 4,000 years and if it blows, it will be really powerful.
The Deo gang came by for a little while.
It was a strange weather day – cloudy and cool. A front was supposed to go through and give us some rain.

November 29, Sunday

It did sprinkle a little last night and started blow’en around midnight as the front passed over .John said it blew 20-25k. Funny how he was awake and I slept through it. Tied to the dock I’m fine – now 20-25k at anchor, I’m awake and John sleeps through it!!
The Gibsons were up at 3 am watching Prime Time Chico out in the bay at their house. I guess it drug anchor some.
Cecil and JoAnn had to fly back to Pinetop – well, Phoenix and drive home – today.
John helped Bill re-anchor Chico. It was breezy and cool today – 7 pm and it’s cold and still blow’en 10-15k.
I faxed Rosa today in La Cruz – she faxed back that she has to fly to Canada December 17 to January 18th to be with family, said so many of them were either sick or dying.
Samie woke up with the pukes today.

November 30, Monday

We took the boat into the bay for a short hop this a.m. We wanted to run the engine up and make sure the prop was aligned right. It was pretty rolly with white caps. We were back at the dock in about an hour, then John and I did the Lays run - $1,700 pesos, and we filled both propane tanks, $43 pesos. In front of Leys, they had real pine Christmas trees – smelled good. Inside the store, they were playing Christmas tunes, in Spanish, but the tune is the same.
Bill and Trish came over for dinner, I cooked up a pot of beans and John BBQed some great T-Bones. Bill got a real good chuckle when John dropped the new tongs – just bought today – overboard while turning the steak!!
It sure is nice having them in San Carlos when we’re here. Hopefully they can meet us in La Paz and anchor hop north with us in April. Nice day, 82° - light breeze.