February, 2011
The month started with our trip from the dock at Nuevo Vallarta out into the large anchorage at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. There were about 35 other boats but we had no trouble finding a spot we were comfortable with. After settling in, we received word that our FM3s (papers that made us temporary residents of Mexico) were ready to pick up in Bucerias.
It was our first bus trek from this end of the bay and we left in plenty of time with maps in hand. It was an easy go and we arrived an hour early. I believe that Vilma (the gal we hired to do our paperwork for us) has all of her folks come at the same time and processes us through one at a time: it was a piece of cake. Our old broker, Nick, had arrived with Vilma’s group and was there to renew his FM3. He kindly offered us a ride into Paradise Village with him and we spent the rest of the day with Lyon Around and Toothpick; lunch at the Yacht Club followed by a great game of cards.
Next order of business was to install the new hub kits. They arrived the day after we left the dock and we picked them up when we went in for our visit. We made arrangements to haulout at La Cruz Shipyard on the 9th and found it strange that they were willing (encouraging us??) to do the changeout ourselves and not use their mechanic. We thought that was a bit strange, but were glad to save ourselves the extra mechanic charges. The haulout at 9:30 went smoothly and Rog immediately went to work on the props; and immediately found out why the mechanic didn’t want to touch them. When he reinstalled the hubs in November, he had used a pneumatic wrench and the bolts were on so tight Rog couldn’t budge them. After breaking an allen wrench in one side and busting the bolt on the other one, we had to ask for help. The mechanic was able to get both problems solved and Rog was back in business. What should have taken less than an hour took him 3 hours. This gave me plenty of time to get the hulls and waterline completely cleaned. We were back out in the anchorage about 2 pm totally spent. In fact, we weren’t happy with the spot we had chosen, but stayed there for the rest of the day because we were too tired to move. The spot we moved to the following day was perfect and we spent the rest of the month at the far southern edge of the anchorage with plenty of space around us.
From our new spot we could watch the whales when they ventured in close enough and our first day here we must have disturbed a pack of rays; they spent a good hour jumping around the boat.
We continued our projects while in the anchorage. The major one: repainting all of the anti skid sections. Andreas did this when we were in Paradise Village during the summer, but he thinned the paint and didn’t put on enough coats. We did one section a day, starting with me giving the area a thorough Ajax wash, rinse and wipe down. Then Rog would tape the section. Then I would mix paint and keep him stocked as he used a sponge roller to apply the paint. I only stepped in wet paint 3 times. By the end of the month, the boat looked brand new. Rog played with his new paint airspray gun and painted the hatch cover he had made. Now that he is proficient in using it, he will be able to do some touch up on some of the smooth surfaces of the boat that show wear.
We walked around the quaint town of La Cruz, ventured to the big Mega grocery store in Bucerias and made another trip into Paradise Village to meet with Pamela Thompson, the healthcare guru around here. Rog and I are looking into health insurance and Pamela was a wealth of information. We had gone through the FM3 process precisely to obtain the Mexican national health insurance. She gave us the pros and cons, and if we were planning to stay in this area, it would definitely be the way we would go. Unfortunately, we don’t plan to stay here and it is a system designed for use with primary physician gatekeepers. So we are now looking into other programs. It gave us the opportunity to meet up with our friends in Paradise and get another game of “64” in as well. The flu bug has hit PV hard and Judy of Lyon Around was really hit hard with it. Luckily we didn’t get it with our 2 visits there.
Toothpick and Lyon Around brought their boats out of the marina for 2 days and came and anchored in La Cruz. One of those days was spent on NEOS playing a marathon card game. The next day, Sunday, was local market day. The Harpers drove down and joined us for brunch after shopping the market. They dropped me and Ellen off at Mega on their way back to Nuevo and we stocked up. Lyon Around left after brunch and took their boat back to the marina. They were heading back to the States in 3 days so needed to get some last minute things done. Toothpick stayed on one more day and joined us for lunch and 3 more card games before they left in mid afternoon.
There were occasional trips into the marina here for fuel, internet and walks. We attended the swap meets and even hit Philo’s for dinner one night with Toothpick. We had studied and planned our trip to Mazatlan and hoped to get there before my sister Peggy visited us again in March. We figured we would like 2 weeks but would be able to do it in 10 days if we needed to. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas. The West Coast of the US was hit with cold front after cold front which sneak down into the Sea of Cortez and chop things up. We don’t feel them much in the bay here, but it makes travel off coast a bit of a challenge. So we made the decision to sit tight and have Peg come to Puerto Vallarta one more time. It is a totally different area than the parts she has seen and it will be quite different being at anchor instead of tied to a dock, so I think she will still have a good time. She has decided to stay on as a flight attendant with Horizon, so maybe she can come back in a month or two to Mazatlan or La Paz.
So here we stay and slowly chip away at the projects list. It was a great month: Max turned five, son Ryan is in love and all is well with the world.
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