It has been awhile.

It has been a long long time since we updated our website. We are all back at work as engineers. I am electrical engineering once again for a company called NeuroVista and am having a bunch of fun. The boat is FOR SALE! and is all cleaned up. I realized last week that it has been six months since we returned from our adventure. That is one quarter of the time that we were away. It is amazing how fast time moves back in this life as compared to out at sea. I often times look back at our adventure almost like I am remembering a movie that I had watched. I have to remind myself that it really was me, and yes, it really was two years, and yes, we really did sail a 44 foot boat around the entire world.

Welcome Back Party!!!

Well we're back and it's about time to have a little welcome home party to see all the people we've been missing for 2 years. The invitation is open too. We'd love to meet anyone that followed our progress and lack there of at times.



Sunday, November 4th. : 12 Noon to 6 pm. stop by anytime

Marco Polo Bar and Grill

5613 Fourth Ave S.

Seattle, WA 98108-2422

Phone: (206) 762-3964



The food is damn good there and prices to make engineers smile. We'll have a slide show going. Stories will flow. And it will just be nice to see faces again.Again please invite anyone you think wants to come. I know I don't have everyone's contact info. So pass this info along.Hope to see as many of you there as we can. If you cant come (I know a few people for sure aren't even in this country) send an email so we know you're alive.That about covers it.

Papers Please

I got in the Ballard Tribune! http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/articles/2007/10/22/features/features/feature01.txt

job

I got one and started today. www.kvichak.com. Aluminum boats of all sorts. No sailboats yet, but you never know.

A few more pictures.

More pictures are up, but I haven't put descriptions on them yet. The bottom few are from the triumphant return in Tacoma. Enjoy.

Home.

Yesterday was the big day of our triumphant return. We arrived yesterday around noon in Tacoma and had a welcoming party awaiting us on the dock. My parents have a bunch of pictures of the arrival that I hope to get from them soon and put up here. We had champagne, cigars, and some apple pie. After a little party, I went back to my girlfriend's house and slept for 16 hours. I am still a bit groggy. It hasn't really hit me yet that we are back. I imagine that maybe the commute to my first day of work on October 1st may help shock me into the realization the the Trip is over. I hope to put up a few more wrap-up posts and then the details of our welcome back party, which will hopefully be in the next few weeks. Right now all I can concentrate on is the novelty of a shower, a flush toilet, and a real bed. I may have to head back for another nap here it a little bit.

Latest news.

For current updates on position, speed, ETA and mental health, feel free to contact the crew at 253-691-5445. One of our friendly operators are standing by to assist you.

It's kinda crowded in here.

After a few years of offshore passages, being back in inter-coastal waters is a bit weird. I can see land on both sides of us, and right now, there are 8 freighters, two barges, a cruise ship and a shitload of fishing boats scattered all around us. We are hugging the coast, which keeps us out of the shipping lanes, but even being within a mile or so of land wigs me out. There is no wind to speak of right now, but we are getting a current boost once again. Currently we are making 6.2 knots. I wish that we had the most current Washburn tables(I think that is what they are called), which are tables that tell you where the max currents are running and which direction. You can use them really effectively to get a boost, or more importantly, avoid the areas where the current is running strongly against you. Oops, nevermind, as I was writing this, we dropped down to 5.2 knots and I can see big tide rips all around us. . .oh well. Only about 25 miles to go to Port Angeles, which makes it 101 miles total to Tacoma. If we keep making 5 knots, we could be there in 20 hours, which would be 11am. If we make 6 knots, it puts us there at 9am. We will keep you posted on our progress.

this is the end

No more " ocean" for us. Now it's just inland waterways. Cell phones still don't work and we're not getting radio but the tip of WA is kind of it's own world. The water is still glassy smooth. Just a handfull of freighters out right now to keep track of. They should stay in there lanes though. It's nice to see proper pine trees all over the coasts too. No more scrubby desert or palm trees. T-minus less than 24 hours now and we'll be past Seattle and tied to a dock for as long as we want. I want to take this time to thank our Perkins engine. Last couple weeks have been hard on you but you've done everything asked. Besides the 12 hour pit stop in Newport, you've been running for almost a week straight. And that's just from San Francisco alone. I'm going to get you some of that fancy oil to celebrate.

A long time ago.

Two years and two weeks sure seem like it was a lifetime ago. That is how long ago we were navigating these same waters, except heading South at the very beginning of this epic journey. Just like tonight, there was zero wind and it was glassy calm. There was a bunch of fishing boats all around us, just like right now. . .maybe even the same ones. I remember being absolutely terrified about what we were going to find during our first offshore passage. Were we going to hate sailing, get hurt, fall overboard, kill each other, break the boat, sink. . .the list of anxieties was quite long. Now the anxieties include running out of Dr. Pepper and suffering frostbite in this god forsaken cold Northern climate(two years in the tropics ruins any tolerance to the cold). Read some of our early logs of that first trip and you can see some of the things that we take for granted now, but completely escaped us at the time. Things like packing the boat so that shit isn't constantly banging around. That banging around is what led us to use ear plugs, which in turn caused the infamous - Casey's Sleepwalking/Catastrophe Preparedness Drill- web post(which can be found under the nov-dec 2005 logs).

I saw

A Mola Mola today. Big and white and weird. Also we've got black and white dolphins all around right now. There is no wind and the sea is glassy. So nice being that a few days ago and I'm sure soon again this place will have 35 knots of wind and 10 foot seas. Oh and if you've got one of those fire fighting boats hanging around feel free to send it out when we get to Seattle with all the pumps going and we'll drive under one of the fountains. On second thought that might rip a bunch of expensive things off our boat, we'll drive NEAR the fountains.

Contact Info.

So, here is the super secret email address that we check from the boat. WDC6783(at)sailmail.com. Replace the (at) with the @ symbol. This is so that the bots that scan our website daily won't pick up on it and we get flooded with spam. I encourage everyone reading to send us an email. We will only have the account for about another 5 days, so go wild. For all you sailors out there, google Sailmail to check out this really cool program for use with your Single Side Band radio and a Pactor modem. We have used it all around the world and is how we check our email at sea and send in website updates. For only $250 a year, it is a really really good deal. We are checking email right now a couple of times a day, so if you write, you should hear back from us pretty quickly.

Less than 100.

Right now it is 95 miles to Cape Flattery and the big right turn that will take us into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and then HOME! I spoke with the people at the Dock Street Marina(google it) in Tacoma and they have a number of slips available for a boat our size. It is roughly 450 dollars a month for moorage there, cheaper than Shilshole in Seattle by 200. I really wanted to come and tie up at Shilshole, as a completion of the circle, but passing within a mile of there on our way to Tacoma should suffice. At our current speed (5.8 knots) we should be near Port Angeles in 32 hours 36 minutes, and Tacoma another 15 hours after that. That will of course change, but we WILL be in the Straits of Juan de Fuca within 24 hours from now. Right now we are due West of Cape Shoalwater and Willapa Bay. Time is totally slowing down. In my mind it seems like crossing the entire Indian Ocean took less time than this last passage from San Francisco. These next two days are going to be excruciating. Like when you were 8 years old and Christmas was two days away. ..but I want it NOW!

Destination and Destiny

When we left they were just starting a complete renovation of the marina at Shilshole, in Seattle. New buildings, new docks, new water, everything. I signed us up for a welcome back special which gets us on the list for a slip once everything is completed. Which is great because we're still on the list and when I called yesterday they'll have a slip ready for us in.... 2009. Suffice to say we're not going to be going to Seattle. Plan is to go to a place in Tacoma, about 25 miles South. It's a marina in front of an apartment place called Thea's Landing. The marina may be part of the same thing but I'm not sure. It's on the internet, google it. So if you we're thinking of coming to see the boat or us you'll have to drive a wee bit farther (assuming you are coming from the north). But don't complain, that extra 25 miles will take us 5 extra hours. Also it looks like we'll be getting there sometime early Sunday morning. I hear they have showers there, of which I will be testing and making a detailed report.

Worst Shower Evar

Goes to Newport, OR. Something like this. Took my laundry to do so after I take a shower I can have something clean to put on. Use 2 dollars in quarters to get that done. Then I head for the shower building. It's a ways from the boat. Then I realize I didn't bring a towel. Oh well, I can make due with either clean clothes or dirty ones as a towel (not the first time). Then realize that I have no soap or shampoo either because I took it all out of my little bag when I flew up to Seattle from Santa Barbara. That's ok a rinse is better than nothing. And that's what I planned to do. Get in the shower building and what do I see, a little machine that wants 75 cents from me. For 5 whole minutes. Crap. I hope I have enough quarters. Dig in every pocket of my backpack and luckily come up with it. All set to take my rinse. Put my money in and glorious torrents of hot water is coming out. For about a minute. Then all the hot instantly dies and it's just icy cold water. I wait and play with the dial for a trying to get the hot water to come back. No luck. So now I'm freezing cold and just have to shut off the water and be done. No more money to try another stall either. I left feeling very unrefreshed. Later Jeff and I went to the Rogue Brewery for dinner. Good food. It's right next to the marina. They have really good beer. And the place is cool. You pretty much walk through the brewery to get to the "restaurant", which is a pretty casual affair. Great food though. Not pub food. Went back to the boat and crashed. Fuel guy was actually there this morning. Smoking on the fuel dock while he handed us the nozzle too. It's Diesel so it's safe right? Filled up and left. A much needed 12 hour pit stop for fuel and rest. back to it and we should be getting to Seattle in 3 days. Something like Sunday morning. Not sure where we are going as Shilshole (where we had the boat before) is still under construction and doesn't have anything for us. So we're still figuring that out. Anybody have a 50 foot slip in Seattle they want to give up?

The best laid plans.. .

Well, our quick stop in Newport didn't quite work out exactly as we planned. We got here right on time and since we had called the harbormaster earlier in the morning, we knew that we could tie up the the transient dock that is right next to the fuel dock, without having to pay. The Coast Guard was using the whole fuel dock, so we tied up on the guest dock and took off into town to buy our groceries. A free shuttle comes down to the marina every half hour and we hopped onto that and made it to Thriftway. We were back at the boat about an hour later and noticed that the fuel dock now had a big CLOSED sign out front. Well, it was about 1pm, so maybe fuel guy was just out having lunch. The Rogue brewery(well known for it's Dead Guy Ale) is about 100 yards away from our boat, so Matt and I went over there for lunch, hoping that the fuel dock would be open. . .no luck. Around 5pm I went up to the Marina office and let them know that we would be staying the night. The fuel place is supposed to open tomorrow at 5am, so we are going to get up early, fill up with fuel and get back on the way.

Halfway done with Oregon.

It looks like the Oregon coast is around 260 miles long, and we are right now (3:51am) exactly halfway up it(130 miles for you non-math types). We are also 33 miles away from Newport, Oregon and hope to be there in about 8 hours. We are planning on a quick stop to get fuel, ice, lunch-meat, bread, and another case of Dr. Pepper. Our cruising guide claims that Newport is the Dungeness Crab Capital of the World, so I may add some fresh crab to our list of groceries to buy. Maybe even some salmon. For the last two days I have seen some HUGE salmon just swimming along on the surface. I am assuming that they are Kings, but my Salmon identification is a big rusty. I fished all during my watch today, but other than a bunch of interested seagulls, and a curious shark, nada. I will try again tomorrow once we get back offshore a little bit. I hear that the tuna are really biting off of Westport, WA these days, so maybe we will hit some Albacore on the way by. Once we leave Newport, we have 238 miles to Neah Bay and then another 120 miles to Seattle. If we have the fuel(and we should), we will head down the Straits and maybe only stop in Port Angeles, or Port Townsend. . .skipping Neah Bay altogether. The weather looks like it is going to continue to cooperate, and the 10-15 knots on the Northern Washington coast today is going to turn to almost no wind Thursday and then 10 knots from the South Friday. . .perfect. We have tried to sail a few times since San Francisco, but the wind has just been too light and we have wanted to keep up our 5 knot average to take advantage of the weather window. Yaaarrrrrr.

sohcahtoa with the assist

After miles and miles of our own troubles we finally were able to assist another boat. About 8 am I heard Wind Song calling another sailboat to say that he had no power, no engine and his VHF radio was going to die soon. He just wanted someone to relay his position and situation to the Coast Guard. I don't think the first vessel was able to get all the info as about an hour later I heard them trying to call Wind Song again with no answer. About this time I saw a few contacts on the radar and noticed that one of them had full sail up and heading toward the coast. Now who would have full sail up and be heading for the coast with hardly any wind? Probably a boat with no engine, so I headed in their direction. Once I got close enough to see the stern of the boat I made out the name Wind Song. Of all the luck. I woke up Jeff to begin the information relay while I paced Wind Song with our boat. Jeff would talk to the Coast Guard, then stick his head up and talk to the guy, then back down to talk to the Coast Guard again. This went on for 20 minutes. At least 4 Coast Guard stations we're in on the conversation. In the end they aren't sending anyone out just yet, but they know where he is. He seems in good spirits considering his predicament and not having slept much in two days. Most of the ports here have nasty entrance bars and few services which doesn't help. Wind Song is solo sailing and said he's headed to Seattle eventually after he gets the engine back going. So we may see him again. At least it would be good to know that he made it there ok.

Nothing new.

Nothing incredibly exciting to report out here. Last night around midnight I had an interesting experience with a bird sized dragonfly. I was reading by headlamp when I heard this weird rattling sound which I thought was some kind of mechanical failure. I had just stood up to investigate when Mothra's cousin buzzed into my face. It either wanted to eat my face, or make sweet sweet love to it. . .either way it scared the shit out of me. After trying to fight it like a fat kid jedi with a broom stick, I realized that it had no personal vendetta against me, it was the bright red light that I had attached to my forehead that it lusted after. I threw the headlamp into the corner and my assailant fled into the night. Later when I woke Matt up for his watch, he found the face rapist down in the galley trying to hump one of the cabin lights. A quick smash with a cutting board silenced our buddy and we got a photo of him before dumping him overboard. And we also made it around Cape Mendicino which is known as a pretty nasty bit of coastline. The weather was calm and the seas were moderate. Onward and Upward.

Awesome.

I think that most boat owners would agree that a hot shower is one of the biggest luxuries on a cruising boat. Especially after a cold morning watch freezing your balls off. When we were in Santa Barbara, Casey fixed the heat exchanger portion of our hot water heater, so once again we heat up water when the engine runs. In fact, the water gets to whatever temperature the engine is running at, which right now is about 150 degrees. Hot enough that you need to be careful to test the water before burning something critical. All this coastal hopping means that we are always guaranteed to have lots of water, so there is no need to feel guilty about showering. It is pretty nice. However, a shower on land that is next to a flush toilet would be pretty nice too.

Super Dragon Flys

Jeff was out reading last night with the headlamp on and said a huge dragon fly tried to eat his face. A little while later I found one in the kitchen. They like light I guess. Almost the size of my hand. You don't want to kill them for the quart of juice that will come out. Where do these things come from? Are these an army experiment out of Fort Bragg. What do they eat? Fingers?

Leaving SF

Went back under the bridge and making our way to Seattle now. Had a ton of fun in SF. Thanks to the Creatures and everyone else we met there. Such a good time. Winds are light to nothing out here. Which is good because a few days ago it was blowing like stink out here. But we've got a great weather window for heading north right now. A big high pressure trough is coming over the whole west coast and we're going to use it to have some easy motoring up the coast. Probably have to stop a few times for fuel but at this pace we should be able to hit Seattle in about 8 or 9 days. A 2 person watch gets a bit old and it seems like if your not driving you're sleeping but we're managing. There is some great phosphorescence too. Sometimes big blooming areas of it bigger than the boat. Not sure what that is from. Whales? Bait balls? Just weird ocean? It's kinda creepy at the same time not knowing what it is. We lost our terrestrial radio a few hours ago so we're back to CD's. The cooler full of lunch meat and cheese is making good sandwiches. Thanks to Louis and Laura for the idea of using hamburger buns to make them in. I'm sold on the idea. The last big trip is bitter sweet though. So I'll try and enjoy it as much as I can for what it is. After this it's no more watches but also no more trip. Not sure how that feels just yet. But we've had a really good couple years and putting the finishing miles down seems productive. Bringing the whole thing home has it's rewards.

Still on the dock.

We are still waiting for a weather window to leave San Francisco. Things look pretty good for Friday late or early Saturday when the offshore winds are going to switch around to the South West, so we may actually get to sail North for a little while. If we are lucky enough to get SW winds for a few days, we may be able to make a big dent in the 670 miles to Cape Flattery before having to turn on Senor engine and start burning diesel. We have been enjoying the city, seeing old friends, and making new friends. Yesterday we were out sailing with Laura and Louis an their Benetau 42 named Cirque. We met them through Matt Holmes, who found us through our website and is planning his own trip around the world. Today we just had lunch with Nikki and Aron Rosenberg, who we met in Bonaire when they were crew on the South African boat Life's A Dream. They took us to amazing indian food in Berkeley and now we are sitting the the conference room of Aron's company, SightSpeed. They make really cool video messaging software. So, that is the latest and greatest from the boat. I really hope this weather window holds for about a week and we are able to get the boat up and around Cape Flattery(the NW corner of Washington). Once around that corner, the rest of the journey to Seattle will be easy.

Golden Gate waterslide.

We just tied up to the Municipal Marina Poop Pump-Out dock in San Francisco about 30 minutes ago (10:00pm). It was a beautiful night to come into San Francisco Bay. There was very little wind, no fog, the stars were out and the moon was HUGE. Hopefully some of Matt's pictures turn out. We came under the Golden Gate bridge just a little bit after the peak flood tide (tide coming in) and it was a bit of a river ride. At one point we were motoring at about 6 knots right at the southern tower and were actually moving completely sideways from the huge current rips. Matt was at the bow and said that he could see bunches of little whirlpools. We must have been smoking along at about 9 knots. Once through, things calmed right down and we crept into the crappy little marina that we are in now. The night watchman said to stay on the pump-out dock until the morning and then they will try to find a spot for us. More to follow.

Out of the frying pan, into the fog.

The radar that we had shipped to us while we were in Australia is proving its worth these last two nights. I think that the visibility is around 100 yards right now. Every time I poke my head up to scan what little bit I can see, my glasses get all covered with mist and I have to wipe them off. . .DAMN THESE EYES! There is very little wind and the sea is quite calm, unlike last night. It must have been a combination of the two Points and then some deep sea up welling that made the steep confused seas that we had to slog through to get around the corner. We were making about 2 knots at times and then once we got just a bit north of Point Arguello, the seas calmed way down and we started making 5 knots. . .which was sweet. Earlier today we were motoring along at almost 6.5 knots. Our boat hasn't seen 6.5 knots in a long long time. We are currently 25 miles South of Point Sur and about 100 miles away from San Francisco Bay. I really hope we can keep making over 5 knots. On the wildlife front, I have seen Humpback whales, Finback whales, Dahl(?) porpoises, sea lions, grey dolphins, a shark, regular seals, and otters. Plus tons of birds. You can obviously tell that I am up on my animal ID (wtf are regular seals?). Matt finally got to see whales, after missing them countless times during this trip. He was convinced that Casey and I were just messing with him everytime we would say we spotted whales. I really hope we get to see some Mola-Mola (sunfish) again. We saw them on the way down to San Diego two years ago and they are super cool.

After Conception

We rounded point Conception last night. I guess it always blows off the coast there. Forecast was for 10 knots of wind but we had at least 15 on the nose. Seems like everything is always on the nose. That's about as light as we've seen any of the forecasts so we picked a pretty good time. Also going through there in the middle of the night we might have taken advantage of the nightly lull in winds. I'm not about to try it again during the day to be sure though. Biggest issue is the fog. Lots of it. Radar is on constantly and is the only way we can see more than a mile most of the time. Sometimes the fog will open up to a few miles, just to close back in half an hour later. This is all expected and just takes a little getting used to. We're well inside of shipping traffic but there are oil platforms, their workboats, and fish boats here though. Radar seems to get them all pretty good though. Also it's quite cold. I'm working with 5 layers on right now. Need to dig out my thick socks. Other than that we are making good time now after making the corner. Around the corner we were only getting about 2.5 knots average. Now we're up to a respectable 5.5. Means we have plenty of fuel and get to San Francisco that much sooner.

Leaving Santa Barbara

Had a great time here. Probably why we didn't write anything. Jeff and I flew up to Seattle to be in our friend Tyson's wedding. That was a lot of fun. Probably too much. Casey flew up too, but to start work. So it's just Jeff and I for the remaining trip north. Which should be trying. Jeff's cousin came down early before class (she goes to school in SB) and drove us to the grocery store. Which was very nice. So we're all stocked up on junk food and things we don't have to cook. Weather outlook looks good for going north. Probably 4 days to SF then maybe a few days (3 max) there to get a picture of us under the bridge, go around Alcatraz and see as many folks as is possible. So if you're reading this and near SF (Ben, Janet, Louis, Robin, Creatures, ect) send us an email so we can have a good way to get a hold of you when we get there. Otherwise here's to a great trip up to San Francisco.

Slow progress

We're currently in Santa Barbara. We arrived yesterday after a slow and cold passage from San Diego. We had a great time in San Diego and, as usual, didn't update the site so I'll summarize some of our stay there. We saw our friends Jim and Eva formerly of Serenity on 3 occasions. It was nice to catch up with them and compare our experiences in the South Pacific. We also had our first meeting with a couple of fans of the site. Mike, commanding officer of the soon to be commissioned LCS-1 Freedom, arrived with a backpack full of gifts and beer and Steve, a soon to be retired attorney, took us out for a steak dinner. They've set the bar pretty high for anyone else that might want to meet us, see the boat and hear some stories that didn't make the site. I was happy that we didn't end up in hole in a basement getting yelled at for not putting the lotion back in the basket. Also in San Diego, we got our Turtle Bay repairs repaired and some more boat projects done. It's amazingly easy to get things done on a boat from Shelter Island, such a nice change from most of the places we've visited. Most of all it was just nice to be back in the States. The circumnav seems a little more real now that we're back in our own country. I don't think it's fully set in for me yet, it probably won't for a while.

A wee bit closer.

We left San Diego Monday morning and arrived here in Santa Barbara early this morning (pretty sure it is Wednesday). We are waiting for the wind to die down around Point Conception, where it is currently blowing 35 knots. It is supposed to died down by Sunday, and we really hope it does since Matt and I are supposed to fly back to the Seattle area for a wedding next Friday/Saturday. We were hoping to fly out of San Francisco, but depending on the weather, we may be leaving from here. We had a fairly uneventful passage here. Things are getting COLD! Man!. . .I had to put on my pair of heavy cold weather shorts. I don't foresee things getting any warmer on the way North. Two years in the tropics have turned us into cold weather wimps. From the dock we can see a huge cloud of smoke rising over the hills, which I have been told is from a massive forest fire that has been burning for over a month.

Picture Descriptions.

I haven't put up any new pictures, I just finally put up the descriptions of all the pictures from Brazil to Panama. The pictures might make a bit more sense now. We do have some more pictures to put up. . .I'll try to get to that soon.

Phones and stuff.

We are still here on the dock and are getting pieces of our boat fixed as we speak. The people at Ullman Sails are picking up our main sail and our jib this morning and will be doing some repair work on them. The sails have held up great, but most people don't put over 20,000 miles on their sails in 18 months, so they do need some TLC. I've been trying to get a hold of the local aluminum welder guru, but haven't yet. I'm going to walk out to his shop here in a few minutes. Hopefully he can redo the welding we had done on our spreader in Mexico. We are scheduling a survey so that we can get insurance and are doing a bunch of miscellaneous projects that are on our -big list of broken stuff-. We have met a bunch of sailors here that have made the passage up the coast to Washington and they have all said that this is the best time of year to do it. . .it is still going to suck, but not nearly as bad as the rest of the year. I bought a cell phone when I got here and you can call me if you want at (253)-691-5445. That's it for now. We will try to remember to update the website while we are on the dock.

Holy Shit. . .we made it!!

Well, we are back on the dock in San Diego. Today I feel the 'closing' of the loop much more than I did somewhere off the coast of Mexico or in Cabo. We did it. . .we sailed around the world. Wow. I'm going to be impressed with myself for quite a while after this one. And the lady in the office here at the Police Dock remembered us. We arrived at about 5 in the morning and the customs guys came down, filled out some paperwork and welcomed us back to the states. No hassles, no questions, nada. It was great. We had to throw away our old potato, three limes, a black onion and some rotten eggs. . .so not too much of a loss there. I walked into the Point Loma area to stretch my legs and get some breakfast. I had a Sausage Egg McMuffin and now my stomach doesn't feel so hot. We are already getting things taken apart so that we can get important parts ordered and get people working on broken stuff. We hope to be back on the road in about a week.

So close.

The GPS shows that we are about 70 miles from San Diego and are motor sailing along at about 6 knots right now. This should put us on the Customs Dock sometime around midnight tonight (Friday). Hopefully the customs procedure won't be too difficult(see posts from September 06 regarding Australian customs). It will be weird to be back in the states WITH the boat. No more paperwork going from port to port, no more passport stamps. I am sure the I will miss those things very shortly, but after the paperwork battles in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama, it will be good to have a break. . .besides, I don't think that any of us have any free pages in our passports. We have plans to be at the Bar -The Brigantine- , tomorrow (Saturday) night around 7pm. Our friends Jim and Eva are going to meet us there and it is going to be awesome to see them again. We last saw them around 300 miles off the coast of Mexico when we were all sailing to the South Pacific. Anyways, the Bar is on Shelter Island Drive, near the San Diego Yacht Club. Anyone in the area is welcome to meet us there. . .or just come down to the Transient Dock (at the end of Shelter Island) where we hope to get a slip for a week or so.

Run for the border

Before we even entered Turtle Bay yesterday we were approached by two pangas competing to sell us fuel. We went with the cheaper one who also said he'd coordinate someone to fix our water pump and spreader. We took on fuel, dropped off our parts with Fuel Guy and headed into town. Our guide about town was Pedro the one armed wonder boy whose English was nonexistent and Spanish was limited to, "Soy Pedro, amigo de Enrique." This may have had more effect if we know who Enrique was. For the pittance of one dollars we had access to Pedro's vast repertoire of skills which included showing us to the one bank in town, pointing at random items on the grocery store shelves while shopped and repeating his signature catch phrase every 30 seconds. For an extra dollar a bag he would have disposed of our garbage for us. We told him we didn't have any garbage because we threw it all in the ocean. He was unmoved by this comment, possibly thinking that it was only a matter of time before someone caught on to his brilliant idea for waste management and cut out the middle man. After lunch with Pedro we headed back to the dock to check on our parts. It turned out the Fuel Guy's assurance that getting the parts fixed today would be "No problema" was a bit premature. They didn't have the parts for the water pump and the guy who might be able to weld aluminum was out of town until six. We had a total of three broken water pumps, one with a bad shaft, one with a bad seal and one with bad bearings. We asked to see a mechanic who could swap the parts around to make one functional water pump. It wasn't that the mechanic we found was incompetent so much as he was just indifferent. After he destroyed one of our two good seals Matt stepped in and started helping/instructing him before he pissed away any chance of leaving Turtle Bay that day. The two of them eventually cobbled together on whole water pump out of the three partials. All we had left was the spreader. After a bit of riding around in the back of the mechanic's pickup we tracked down the welder. He said he could fix it but had to take it away to a secret welding location. He returned half an hour later with the spreader back in one piece. Now the term "shoddy" gets thrown around a lot these days but this workmanship really does deserve such a description. It only has to last us to San Diego though, a little over 240 miles away as I write this. At the end of the day we were able to get two significant repairs done and get back to sea, no small feat. Hopefully this marks our last stop in Mexico but we hoped the same about Cabo.

What the Hell is happening?

I'm not sure what we did, but we seem to be reaping the kind of karmic reward reserved for the likes of phone solicitors and defense attorneys. I was mentally handling all the recent breakdowns okay until we lost the upper starboard spreader today. I had a brief period of 'F#ck the spreader, F@ck this Boat, F$ck this ocean, F%ck sailing, F*ck THIS!' After looking at the piece that is broken, we think that we might be able to either get someone to weld it back up, or that we might be able to conjure up some engineering magic and get it back into a slightly usable state. I don't have a problem with motoring all the way back to San Diego, I just hate to NOT have the option of sailing. . .just in case. And as we seem to be living mainly in the 'Just in Case' realm lately, getting it patched back together is pretty high on my list of To-Dos. We are trying to get up to Turtle Bay where we can get Diesel and maybe get really lucky to find someone that can weld aluminum. It is 115 miles away and right now we are motoring at 2.5 knots into about 15 knots of wind and some pretty decent waves. The forecast says that the wind should die down, which would make us all very happy because motoring in this pretty much sucks. Stay tuned for tomorrow's spin of the Wheel-Of- Malfunction.

What the Hell is happening?

I'm not sure what we did, but we seem to be reaping the kind of karmic reward reserved for the likes of phone solicitors and defense attorneys. I was mentally handling all the recent breakdowns okay until we lost the upper starboard spreader today. I had a brief period of 'F#ck the spreader, F@ck this Boat, F$ck this ocean, F%ck sailing, F*ck THIS!' After looking at the piece that is broken, we think that we might be able to either get someone to weld it back up, or that we might be able to conjure up some engineering magic and get it back into a slightly usable state. I don't have a problem with motoring all the way back to San Diego, I just hate to NOT have the option of sailing. . .just in case. And as we seem to be living mainly in the 'Just in Case' realm lately, getting it patched back together is pretty high on my list of To-Dos. We are trying to get up to Turtle Bay where we can get Diesel and maybe get really lucky to find someone that can weld aluminum. It is 115 miles away and right now we are motoring at 2.5 knots into about 15 knots of wind and some pretty decent waves. The forecast says that the wind should die down, which would make us all very happy because motoring in this pretty much sucks. Stay tuned for tomorrow's spin of the Wheel-Of- Malfunction.

Way Beyond Ridiculous

I'm pretty much at a loss for words at the moment. After all the things that have been going wrong on the way up the coast, today did nothing but add to our frustration. Just before noon one of the blocks that the main sheet runs through broke off the deck. Jeff was able to come up with a fix to last a while by tying the block onto the traveler mount. Then not more than an hour and a half later, one of the upper spreaders breaks. We got the sails down and started motoring. At least the engine is back to working right. So no more sailing until we can get the spreader fixed. Plan is to go into Turtle Bay, 150 miles from here, and about in the middle of the baja peninsula. There we will top up on fuel and try to get someone to weld the spreader back together. To top it all off now we are heading right into about 15 knots of wind and fairly steep 5 foot seas. We barely make any headway in this junk. Maybe 2 knots but burning enough fuel to do 5 and a half. Hopefully this wind and the sea will flatten out soon. We knew it wasn't going to be a picnic coming up the coast but really you have got to be kidding me.

Brrrrr

It's 9 in the morning here and I still haven't seen the sun today. Overcast and 70 is no way to go through the day. Though my crystal ball predicts this will be our future. Perhaps even colder. Meh. I'd put something warm on but I don't think I own any warm clothes anymore. Yesterday we saw 2 strange shapes in the water and detoured to investigate. We thought they might be 2 huge misshapen turtles at first (I know what imaginations). We could see heads of some sort rising every once in a while. But unlike turtles which are round/oval these things were at least twice as along as they were wide. We really had no idea what they might be until we got close and the boat made them move. Sea Lions. 20 miles off the coast of baja. Now that I think about it aren't Sea Lions more of a cold water animal? This is not a good omen.

Circuits 101

Early yesterday morning as the wind died off we started having some trouble getting engine to start. The lights on the control panel would turn on but the starter wouldn't do anything. After our usual scientific method of wire wiggling failed we went into debug mode with a little guidance from Nigel Calder. A sparking screwdriver proved that the starter and solenoid were okay, good news since we don't carry a spare of either. We narrowed it down to a general problem with the wiring so we went through and cleaned or replaced every connection in the system. We put everything back together and she seems to start on command. A few hours later the wind dies again and we're once again back to not starting. We're rewiring the control panel again when Matt, the guy without a background in electronics, has the brilliant idea of isolating the starter circuitry to one button. If the button works then we know the problem is somewhere in the panel. The button works and upon inspection we find a crack in the switch on the panel. We've replaced the switch and everything seems operational. While we were putting everything back together we got a visit from the US Coast Guard. We're still in Mexican waters but since we're a US flagged vessel they still have jurisdiction over us. They were friendly enough and after a round of questions wished us good luck on our passage.

Projects

We were like a floating boatyard it seams today. After the engine not wanting to start lastnight things just kept coming. The 3 of us spent the morning taking all sorts of connections apart and cleaning them. After a couple hours we had it all figured out and running again. Or so we thought. I later replaced a bow light that had burned out. All while motoring along of course. Then when walking back I noticed a chunk of webbing that looked mighty familiar sitting on the deck. It was a piece used to attach one of the main sail slides to the sail. The reason it was familiar was that I replaced all of these in Cape Town. Ugh. I suppose that was months and thousands of miles ago though. So I went to work dropping the main and sewing on a new piece of webbing. It was much easier to do last time at a calm dock sitting down. Then it was time to work on the freshwater pump. It's has been running extra long after we use the faucets and we were thinking that maybe the diaphragm had finally given up. Took it all out and apart. With Jeff getting out one very stuck screw out without stripping it. Inside everything looked fine though. So I put it all back together and now the pump seems to be working great. That done what else, maybe back to the engine? Jeff was trying to track down the issue of the gauges acting funny since we fixed it this morning. Guess was another loose connection. But all of the sudden the engine dies and no amount of wire jiggling will resurrect it. Lots more probing and testing and jiggling but nothing. In the end we basically hard wired the starter to a switch and slowly added pieces back in one at a time. We put in a new key switch, which the old one may have been the main culprit as it was old and cracked. Took out the old starter push button as the new key has a start mode (fewer connections and wire). Then completely rewired the back of the panel with a lot less wire and all new crimp ends. If this doesn't work the beast lies in some place much more in accessible but I think we should be set for a while. Oh and during our little rewiring project who of all shows up, the US Coast Guard of course. They circled us until they could read our name and then hailed us. Just wanted to know our particulars, how many people, last port, next port, homeport, purpose of visit, ect. We're still 500 miles from US waters but being a US flagged vessel they could board us anywhere they please. Yes anywhere. But they didn't, which is good because it surely looked like we were making a bomb in the cockpit. It's dark now, so no more projects for today.

Reintegration

So, here is a small example of what I expect to be an interesting process of my imminent return to society. During the mad-dash of paperwork in Cabo, I found myself at the bank, waiting in line to pay some sort of a boat-in-Mexico fee. The customer at the only open teller window was doing all sorts of transactions, so the line was starting to build up. I was getting my paperwork all in order and making sure I had all my copies (see my previous post) in order. Then, without even thinking about it, I farted. In fact, I didn't even think anything about it until I smelled it. Then I looked around and realized. . 'Hey, I'm in public. I can't do that.' The line wasn't moving and I didn't exactly turn around to see the reaction of my fellow line-waiters, but I have a pretty good idea of what it was, because it was somethin' powerful. The line finally started moving and I was laughing on my way out the door. Maybe it won't be this exact situation replayed back home, but it is going to take some time before all those layers of social and political correctness accrete on me like barnacles onto a boat. I'm going to try to avoid it like the plague, but I have a feeling that it is inevitable. In the meantime, don't stand behind me at the bank.

Getting colder...colder...

We left Cabo yesterday heading for San Diego. It was great to get out of Cabo which is by far the worst place in Mexico from my experience. I blame Sammy Hagar. Everything he touches turns to suck. But I digress. We've mostly been motoring so far but at least waves are in our direction so we're not getting stuffed by oncoming waves. We did get some good sailing in last night. I noticed that the inside of the boat was quieter than usual and then realized that none of the fans were on. It still heats up during the day but the nights have gotten considerably colder. Last night I actually wore a fleece for the first time since South Africa. It's actually a nice change for someone raised in a temperate climate but it's also like we're playing that hotter, colder game and we keep getting further from the hidden prize. Is this a sign?

You touch it, You buy it.

We arrived in Cabo San Lucas yesterday morning in the middle of some pretty nasty weather. Winds were maybe 20-25 knots with driving rain and lots of weird wave patterns. Our goal was to get diesel, get checked out of the country, get some food and be back on the road in a few hours. When we arrived, we were told that the power to the town was out, so we couldn't get fuel. They weren't sure how long it would take for it to come back on. I decided to take this opportunity to go and start getting paperwork done. I ran into town to go to (In this order) the bank, the Port Captain, the Immigration office, the Port Captain, the Fish and Wildlife office, and then back to the Port Captain. All of these offices open at 9 o'clock, so I'm thinking 'Perfect. . .It's 8:45'. Nope, forgot about the time zone, so it is really 7:45. Crap. We have a pair of Motorola TalkAbout radios and Matt lets me know that the fueling has commenced and that they aren't going to let us stay on the fuel dock after we fill up. The fuel dock is about 200 feet long, there is NOBODY else using it, and we are tied up at the very end, way out of the way. Matt thinks that he can stall until about 9 o'clock or 9:30. I am now well into my paperwork quest. Each office is equilaterally spaced by a distance of no less than one mile, so lots of walking is involved. The trick to the paperwork down here is copies. Have lots and lots of copies. Copies of the crew list, copies of the passport, copies of the boat documentation, copies of the copies you made in the last port, copies of bank receipt. . copies, copies, copies. If you have any loose pieces of papers on the boat, make a copy (3 copies) of it and bring it along just in case. I was even asked once if I had a copy of something, (which I did), and they just nodded and then didn't ask for it. Just making sure, I guess. . .maybe their brother owned the copy store that is inevitably next to any government office in Mexico. Matt gives me a call and says that the boat must be moved and that the fuel dock workers pointed to an empty slip on the other side of the fuel dock. Great! We can hang out for the next two hours and then leave. I finish up the paperwork, meet Matt and Casey at the grocery store, and we get the boat stocked back up and ready to go. We are about 15 minutes away from leaving when the dock security guards come by with a clipboard and say that we need to go to the marina office and pay. . Pay? For what? I ask. For the slip they say. For the slip? But we have only been here for two hours. Doesn't matter, you stay for 1 minute, you pay for one day. Bullshit I say. Tough shit, gringo (they didn't say that, but I could see it in their eyes). So I head up to the marina office where I try to explain to them that the $160 bill for staying on the dock for two hours is completely retarded and that maybe I could just give the office lady $20 and we would quietly disappear. I don't know what has happened to Mexico, where people won't accept bribes any more. Worked in Puerto Vallarta to get our clearance papers for the South Pacific. Anyways, she patiently sat there and just kept saying No, you must pay. . .well crap. So out comes my well worn and travel weary Mr. Visa and takes a kick in the nuts for team SohCahToa. I make damn sure that I get the internet password, the shower key, and anything else I can get from them. I even took a bunch of books from the Take Once, Leave One, book exchange. . .WITHOUT leaving one. . .Bwaahahahah, showed them. Upon returning to the boat and swearing about Mexico for a while, we decide to use the slip for the night and Viola. . here we are the next morning getting things sorted out for heading up to San Diego. I wasn't overly impressed with Cabo San Lucas when we were here almost two years ago. That opinion has not improved.

Hey There Delila

I'm under the impression there is a recent song by this name that is somewhat popular. I've never heard it. What I'm more interested in though is a Tropical Storm, named Delila. Right now she is about 320 miles SSE of us. We're fairly far away right now and not seeing any effects (motoring in light winds/seas). The predicted path is NW at about 6 knots, changing to WNW over the next few days. As these things spin clockwise north of the equator, we should be getting a little wind boost of around 10 to 15 knots (got the latest weather prediction too). Nearest we might come to the predicted track of this is 180 miles. This is not something to worry about but definitely something to keep an eye on. The forecast also calls for the storm to be dissipating in 5 days around 500 miles west of Cabo. You can track and read all about this on the NOAA website I'm sure.

It's Official!

We have crossed our Westward bound path and have offically SAILED AROUND THE WORLD!!!(with some motoring). It was 16 months and lots of miles ago that we were in this same spot of ocean. This has been a goal of ours for almost 6 years and it hasn't really sunk in yet that we have accomplished it. I think that I will really appreciate it when we bring the boat back to Seattle, and are officially DONE with the trip. Meanwhile, celebratory Brownies are baking and we are sailing along to Cabo San Lucas with only 160 miles left to go.

Well we've really done it now

Sometime last night we crossed over our original track from Puerto Vallarta to the Marqueseas. We are now officially all the way around. The earth really is a ball, or at the very least a cylinder. We've seen one more day of sunlight that we would have had we stayed put in Seattle. When we started this crazy plan the 3 of us didn't know how to sail and had only a small amount of boating knowledge. 4 years ago we would never have been described as sailors, but from here forward we will always be circumnavigators.

West bound and up...

loaded up and sailin. We gonna do what they say can't be done. We got a long way to go, and a short time to get there... The Snowman could never have been more right. If you don't get the reference, here is a hint: Moustaches and a Trans Am. Speaking of trans, ours is working great. We're back sailing now however. Winds are right out of where we want to be going, so we're tacking back and forth, trying to make up the most ground towards Cabo that we can. There are plenty of freighters to watch out for and the coast is just off to our starboard between 5 and 20 miles depending on whether we are zigging or zagging. Also we put a hole in the jib yesterday somehow. A vertical tear about 4 inches long, 5 feet from the tack and 2 feet off the foot. Once the wind slacked off today we dropped the monster that is our jib. I cut 2 patches out of stickyback sail repair stuff. Each the same size, about 2 inches bigger than the tear in every dimension and rectangular. These I put on staggered about an inch, one down and to the left. The other on the reverse side, up and to the right. This should help spread the load and also minimize any stress concentrations coming from the discontinuity of the repair itself. I started to sew everything together by hand in a zig-zag, but this was going to end up being overkill, and take forever. So we hoisted the jib back up with just the stickyback repair. It all looks fine when sailing on it and pulling the jib in tight, close hauled like we are. I imagine when we take it to a sail loft they would just leave that bit alone. Now for how it tore. We have the inner forestay up and have been doing a lot of tacking. So on one of those tacks the jib must have gotten pinched by the sheet as everything was being pulled around the inner stay. Luckily it only made a small repairable tear. It could have been something much bigger. Rendering our jib useless until we made the next port. Here's to small victories.

If I have to type Zihuatanejo one more time.

Of all the words I ever thought I would learn to spell. Yesterday we got up early (9:00) and walked across town to the DHL office. After a bit of calling around they told us the package would be there at 2:00 and that our duty would be about $500 instead of $600. It's almost like we're making money now. Not quite though. First we went to the taco place we've now been to like 6 times. I had 10 more tacos for $3. Then we went back to an internet cafe and waited. 3 of us just surfing around, writing emails, and constantly updating the tracking page. Finally at just after 2, the package arrives. We walk back to the DHL office. Pay the ransom. Then Jeff carries it back to the dinghy. I think the thing is like 60 pounds all together. Get it back in the dinghy which is in this little muddy cut out area with a bunch of fishing boats. Also we see some strange waves in what should be a flat surface. Get closer and what is it? Oh just a crocodile. Yes, crocodile. Oh and he has a friend too, how cute. It's shallow so the dinghy engine keeps slowing way down and almost getting stuck in the mud. The crocodiles don't seem bothered at all. One yawns either because he's bored or to show me what he's going to use on my arms or rubber dinghy. They finally submerge and I swear one went a about 2 feet from the boat, right past us. So after everything to get this transmission, now we have to fight our way past man eating beasts. About another 50 yards further the dinghy engine comes to an abrupt stop. Pull it up to find a big thick plastic bag wrapped around the prop. So Jeff, just leans out back and tear that thing off. Forget all about the crocs we just saw. It's quite comical by now the things that have allied against our getting this transmission into the boat. So we get everything including all our limbs back to the boat. I set to work putting it back in. Goes pretty smooth for hanging this thing down below me trying not to drop it. It doesn't really have anything to hold on to and my hands are sweaty. At one point I almost lose my grip and go to catch it. In the process I go eye first into the dipstick, but don't worry the transmission is ok. So is my eye, the dipstick top is rounded and kinda springy. Still didn't feel good. Finally work it into place and put the many bolts in. Reattach the linkage, exhaust, propeller shaft. Fill it with fluid. Then we give it a whirl. Who would have thought but it works just fine. With everything new inside, this thing really goes into gear with a positive "clunk/bang". None of that mushy stuff we had before. Still we have a bunch of other stuff to put back together and a few problems to fix (see earlier post). So there it is, the culmination, freaking crocodiles. Perhaps they were alligators. All I know is they were teeth.

And We're Out

Picked up the transmission at DHL today just after 2. Got it in. Found a fuel leak from a cracked banjo fitting. JB Welded that up. Found a leak in the muffler. Fixed that. Put all the trim and furniture type pieces back in that we had to remove to get the trans out. Went to the giant grocery store here and filled a cart of goodies to get us to Cabo. Tonight's meal that needs refrigeration but it's only out of the store 2 hours is: HotDogs!. With onions, cream cheese, ect. Just got the dinghy put away and I think we're ready to pull anchor and get out of here. Will write more once we get moving. There were some more interesting trials even after we got the trans into our hands. Stay tuned.

Lots more rain

In the last hour the rain has become quite impressive. I put a cup out in the cockpit about half and hour ago and it now has almost two inches of water in it. The East Pacific weather forecast said that the ITCZ has moved north and a bump of it crosses right over Zihuatanejo. That is most likely what is bringing the wind and rain. It must be pretty windy offshore because the swell coming into the bay has gotten quite a bit bigger. For a little while, the visibility was down to a few 100 yards at the most. The wind has shifted to the NE, so now we are stern to the swell, which is much better than having it right on the beam. Here is a link for the weather down here. It looks like it might be rainy tomorrow as well.

maybe??. . .maybe??

We just received an email from the Customs guy saying that the transmission has been cleared for shipment and that we should receive them tomorrow. My first reaction is to interpret that to mean that we will get the box sometime in August. But, I really really hope that tomorrow is the case. We are all hanging out on the boat right now. It is raining like hell, and a strong wind is blowing from the SE, which holds us sideways to the waves coming from the SW. This means that we are rocking like hell. Thankfully the rain and cloud cover have cooled things off quite a bit and we aren't all sweaty greaseballs.

Supplemental

The scanner place was still open. My passport and license are scanned, in my email, and forwarded on to the guy in Mexico City. It's just that easy. Not sure what the next hoop will be but I'm not taking bets. Also I'm positive I missed a few steps of the process in my last post. We did eat some more tacos somewhere during our quest and I can only account for myself during this adventure. Think of all this the next time the UPS guy leaves a note on your door and you have to wait another day for your ChiaPet. You will get through it.

Open Letter to the Mexican God of Shipping

Help us please. I think we might have gotten somewhere, but let me tell you first what we've been up to today. Started at one internet cafe at 9:30 this morning. I call the guy in Mexico City who I think is the customs agent for DHL there, but no idea what that really means. I'm still not sure who's side he is on. Anyways. He says he has more forms he needs to scan and send to me. And that he will email them in 30 minutes. Wait 45. Email him saying he can fax them to the DHL office here in Zihuatanejo if that is easier. Still nothing 30 minutes after that. Call him again, and now he wants me to send him the fax number for the DHL office here. He doesn't have it and somehow couldn't tell me that until I called again. Oh and each call to him seems to eat up about 4 dollars. So Jeff finds the fax number online and I email it to him. Walk to the DHL office across town (2 miles), and nothing is there. The DHL office here calls Mexico city, can't get a hold of anyone. Go to another internet cafe. Forms are in my email, yay! Except the internet/computers at this cafe totally blow. Takes me 30 minutes to download the 6 attached pictures and print them out. I'm very close to murdering the kids next to me playing Age of Empires in spanish with the sound on. Take these to the DHL office here, and say " now what". Turns out the forms are just copies of the paperwork for another yacht who was having a water maker shipped down here last year. They are just an example and already filled in. After much wrangling and calling to M�xico city from the DHL office here, this is what we need to do: Retype 3 of the pages (everything is in spanish of course) and BUY a copy of another form. Jeff splinters off to begin the hand retyping. Casey and I go in search of the blank form we can buy. It's not at a place that DHL recommends, but they draw me a new map. Go there and it's some government looking office where all the people look bored and useless. This couldn't be more true. One guy passes me off. Next guy just stares at my form for like 5 minutes. I think he read the whole thing. Eventually he sends me to another office around the corner of the building. Guy there sends me around the building even more to another door. The people in there send me back to the first people. Now the same guy who sent me out before says I have to goto the Port Captain to get the form. Ok, back across town, the whole town. But now what? Oh yes the Port Captain closes at 3, and its 3:30. Back to the very first internet cafe of the day to use Skype to call him for cheap, but it closes at 4. Never mind it's not 4 yet. Goto a pay phone and use a calling card again to call Mexico City. Tell him I just want to pay the $600 duty and get the shipment moving ASAP. He says ok, just fill in the forms he emailed Friday. We start to walk through the forms as they are in spanish and I don't want to mess them up. Only my card dies halfway through this and I don't have any more. Walk around to find another, finally do. Back to a phone. Call again and work the rest of the way through the forms. Ready, now I just need to scan the completed forms in and email them off. Go find where Jeff and Casey are retyping forms and tell them they can stop. Then I head off to find a scanner. Not so easy. 3 stores later I find one. Scans and emails them to Jeff who is sitting at another internet cafe. Go back over there but Jeff has nothing in his email. Wait around 10 minutes, still nothing. Back to the scanner place get him to email every other address I can think of that we can check down here. Now it works, the pages are scanned and in my email. I forward the copies off to the guy in Mexico City and wait for a reply back at the cafe where Jeff and Casey are. Nothing for 45 minutes. Then he writes back. He got them only... He needs a copy of my license or passport with picture and signature to get it all going. That just came a minute ago. So I'm off. Back to the scanner place. Hope they are open, it's past 5:30 now. Hopefully this will get the package released by customs and back into DHL hands and they can move it along to Zihuatanejo where we get the privilege of paying $600 more to get it into our hands. So I'm off. Oh and please ignore any grammer/spelling mistakes, no time.

This is retarded.

Thursday and Friday were spent calling and emailing the customs broker in Mexico City regarding our new transmission. He kept saying that he would know about our transmission in one hour, or call back just a little bit later. He finally came back with a definite answer Friday night and said that we either have to pay $600 in tax, or we have to do a bunch of time consuming paperwork to get the new transmission temporarily imported into the country. He said that it took another boat about two weeks to get through the paperwork, but since he now had the forms all sorted out, it could possibly be quicker. Either way, after all the waiting, we found out that we weren't going to be able to make anymore headway until he is back in the office on Monday. We offered to come up to Mexico City if that would help, but he said that it wouldn't. It has been 8 days now since we arrived in Zihuatanejo and I am getting pretty stir crazy. It is time to leave this place, it is time to get out of Mexico.

other news

We each ate about 20 tacos yesterday and I had at least 10 more today. They are little tasty guys made from marinated pork that spins in front of a propane fire. Then they add a bit of pineapple and then some cilantro. Some hot guacamole like sauce and you eat them in about 2 bites each. Oh yeah and you get 5 for $1.50. Not too shabby. We are also under attack from flying ants out on the boat. There have to be 30 around/in the cockpit now and many many more of the wings that have fallen off. They are a little more than a half inch long. Not cool. I really hope these aren't some sort of super flying teak eating termite.

Ransom

Our transmission is help up in Mexico City at customs for the moment. We called them and got a line about how we need to pay an import tax of around $200. We're supposed to pay no duty/tax because the parts aren't technically being imported to Mexico and are destined to a "yacht in transit" that will be taking them out of the country shortly. We even have an Importation Permit that should allow this. So we've faxed that along with some other boat docs to Mexico City. After this I was emailed that they think they might be able to get the transmission here on Monday. No word on the $200 though. Ugh. So I wrote a sob story back about how were are immobile and a hurricane might brew up and run over us. The guy is actually being very helpful I just think they don't want to give up on the $200 super easy. I got another email back saying that they work Saturdays and might be able to get things going tomorrow and then get it to us Saturday. I'm not totally sure. Customs isn't responsible for shipping so DHL has to take it somewhere in this process and get it to Zihuatanejo. Plan is to get up tomorrow morning and call around again to see where things are. So as things sit now, Saturday at the earliest, possibly Monday or more at the latest. Oh and we might get to add $200 as well.

Play along at home

We have a tracking number for the new transmission. Click Here, or goto the DHL site and the number is 8785142995. Looks like it didn't get out until today. So if we're lucky with 2 days of transit we'll see it Thursday. Else I'm hoping for Friday at the latest. I really don't want it to get stuck somewhere for the weekend.

What weighs 18 pounds and costs $2000?

New transmission is ordered. Friday I thought a company was going to be sending all the parts to rebuild our current broken transmission. Then I got an email that said "just kidding". The parts weren't in stock and whenever they did get them they were going to be 3 times the price. So today we went a different route. Called every place I could find on the internet. Finally found a place that had our exact transmission, rebuilt, and ready to ship. Other places had ones they could rebuild and ship out later this week or brand new ones. Problem with the new ones is that the reduction ratio is a bit different. 1.88:1 instead of 2.05:1. Not a huge deal but it does affect the loading of the engine a bit. Also the new ones are more expensive. I don't have a tracking number yet but it should have shipped out today from Florida. It should be here Wed or Thursday unless there are more snags. We also ordered a new damper plate because ours was worn out. The total is something like 1300 for the transmission, 500 for a core charge (we have to send the old one back to Florida to get the 500 back), 107 for the damper plate, and about 150 for shipping. Lets hope it shipped today and doesn't get lost or held up along the way. In all we will probably have lost a week for this whole debacle. We did get our fresh water pump rebuilt here for $80 in one day which was amazing. Thank you Jesus (that was the guys name). Only now the salt water pump seems to have a small leak but we have a few days to get that figured out. Not much else to do here except sweat. The weight over the weekend of not knowing how we were going to get out of this situation has lifted slightly and morale is improving.

Well. . .SHIT.

So, on our way from Acapulco to Cabo San Lucas our transmission decided to go tits up. We could drive the boat in reverse, but not in forward. . .which is bad. We were about 50 miles away from Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo and we had decent wind, so we made a beeline here. The people at Marina Ixtapa wouldn't let us get a slip unless we could come through the breakwater under our own power(which we couldn't), so we came into Zihuatanejo Bay under the cover of dark last night and sailed at about 0.5 knots to the area near town and dropped the hook. The wind was just barely a breath and we were just about to turn the boat around and drive the boat in reverse. We did get the anchor down around midnight and all slept badly. This morning saw us taking the transmission out of the boat and then heading to shore to track down someone who could do something with it. Like most places, on a Friday, everyone disappears around noon, so we have some good leads for mechanics, but haven't talked to anyone in person yet. We called MER in Seattle and ordered all the possible pieces to fix our transmission and hopefully DHL has the box in hand and it is on the way here. . .supposed to be here on Tuesday. During our search, I bought a cell phone because of all the calling we need to do. If anyone back home wants to call, the number is +52 1 755 115 6289. We didn't intend on making a stop enroute to Cabo, but this place seems pretty decent. Casey found the bootleg DVD store and we now have Die Hard 4, Transformers, 300, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Spiderman 3, Casino Royale, Scoundrel School, Shrek 3, Apocalypto, Babel, Borat, Blades of Glory, Shooter and a few others. We are also able to get internet out here on the boat, so we have things to keep us busy until we can get things fixed. I was just thinking that maybe we should change the DrinkLink to the BoatRepairLink. If anyone knows anybody down here in Z-town, let us know.

Blow something up for us!

Everyone should go to their local purveyor of fine illegal fireworks and purchase something that shoots into the air and goes BOOM. Celebrate the 4th of July for the crew of the SohCahToa, whom are in Mexico, where the 4th of July means another hot humid day to overcharge Gringos for boat parts. I finally conquered the Port Captain bureaucracy today after two days and many trips to the office. As usual, three different offices required three copies each of various documents, with stamps from each other, then a trip to the bank and three copies of the receipt, back for more stamps, then finally back to the final lady who controls the whole show like some puppetmaster with a paperwork fetish. As far as I could understand, she needed me to buy her some sort of refreshment because she was sick and had a sore throat. I told here I didn't understand, grabbed my papers, dropped a 20 peso bill on her desk(Por una Coca-Cola), and scrambled. If she asked for any more damned copies, she was getting three copies of me sitting on the copier.

Viva la Mexico!

Leaving Acapulco today. After a few attempts by Jeff to clear us out finally all the right pieces were in place. Nothing ever seems easy down here. It will be nice to get out of this heat and away from the vicious mosquitos. On some good news in a few days we will be crossing back over our path and becoming circumnavigators. Everyone is invited to the ceremony, somewhere about 100 miles off the coast of Puerto Vallarta. We worked on a few things here. Got the forestay tighten up a bit as we had too much rake on the mast. Fixed a leak where the dodger mounts and would get the aft bunk wet. The staysail was repaired overnight. I dropped it off here about 5 in the afternoon and when I went by the next morning they yelled at me that they were all done already. The Club de Yates here in Acapulco is pretty nice, just a bit expensive. Lots of nice old IOR boats sitting on the hard here too. There is supposed to be a large group of good racers for them. Probably not during hurricane season though. The forecast looks like 5 to 10 from offshore, which should at least give us some assist on the beam.

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