sailing casita

It’s been a busy 10 days for us since our last post, but we don’t have a lot of photos to share as we have mostly been just been doing chores and boring but very productive stuff.

We had arranged to have a marine surveyor look over Casita’s hull while out of the water. Overall the inspection went pretty well, the only concerning finding was corrosion on our propeller. We have a sacrificial anode on the prop to prevent corrosion but in only 3 months it was almost completely depleted (they usually last much longer). We aren’t sure why this happened, we were able to put an additional anode on for extra protection and we will monitor closely. The hull itself seems to be in very good shape so that is good news (she is over 40 years old now)!

One of the other things we got accomplished was finally getting appointments for our long stay visas for French Polynesia! The appointments must be made online (on a site with a glitchy interface) but availability is very limited so I just kept trying and trying and trying until I got lucky. I am flying to the Bay Area from Puerto Vallarta on January 30, back on February 3rd and our visa appointments are in Mexico City on February 10th so we will fly to Mexico City on February 9th. It should all work out nicely. Now that we are out of the boatyard (more on that below) we will be leaving La Paz tomorrow. We won’t go directly to Puerto Vallarta, we will stop for a night or 2 at Ensenada de los Muertos (we stopped there on the way to La Paz from Cabo San Lucas) and then go to Mazatlan! I’m excited to see Mazatlan, though I admit I know next to nothing about it, it is just one of those places I’ve always wanted to visit.

Our haul out at the boatyard went pretty smoothly with a couple of hiccups. There wasn’t a whole lot of prep we had to do to get ready the morning of the haul out, we had the dinghy packed away and a couple overnight bags packed. We dug out our dock lines and our fenders (last used when we first arrived in La Paz) and had them all ready and headed to the boatyard, hoping they would be ready to catch our lines. We didn’t see anybody as we approached so we politely tooted our fog horn and right away there were 6 or 8 guys up on the Travel Lift platform (A Travel Lift is a crane that drives out over the water on narrow platforms, lifts a boat in slings, and then drives the boat over land where it can be placed in stands). As soon as we tossed them our lines we cut the motor and Casita was in their hands. In the US it is standard practice for nobody to be on the boat during the haul out process, but in this case they had us stay onboard. It was quite eerie being lifted up out of the water on Casita. There was a scary moment when Casita shifted suddenly in the slings. We weren’t sure at the time what had happened but when they had Casita on land and we were off the boat we could see where the forward sling had shifted by about 18 inches. Due to Casita’s hull shape they really should have secured the 2 slings together with a strap, something they did without asking when they relaunched us so I guess somebody was paying attention!

The first hiccup was when we learned that the price we had been quoted for paint we preferred (Trinidad Pro) was lower than the actual price. Rather than $580 per gallon (yes, that is US dollars per gallon) it was going to be $850. We knew the paint was available at local chandleries (marine hardware store) for around $600 per gallon so we took our wagon and bought 3 gallons locally and brought it back to the yard, which they were fine with. I don’t think it was an intentional deception, rather the person giving the quote just didn’t have the correct info, but a ridiculous price nonetheless.

We hauled out on a Tuesday and checked into a nearby Airbnb. We stopped by the yard Wednesday and Thursday to check the progress of the work. We expected to be in the yard 3 or 4 days so on Thursday afternoon I asked if they expected to launch us on Friday, the reply was a noncommittal shrug. I said “Saturday?” and got the same response, it seemed they weren’t in a hurry, which was fine with us. But when we stopped by after breakfast on Friday we found Casita hanging in the slings and the guy in charge antsy to launch us immediately. Great, Casita was ready but we weren’t! When we moved into the Airbnb we brought with us a few changes of clothes, toiletries, our laptops, and everything out of our fridge and freezer (Casita was not plugged in while at the yard so no fridge). All of that stuff was (of course) still back at the Airbnb. This was the second hiccup. We told them we needed to go back for our stuff. They said there was a boat waiting to come in so there wasn’t time. (You might wonder why they didn’t call us to let us know of the need to launch ASAP, well they never asked for our phone number (or our names, just the boat name) so it wasn’t an option) but they said we could tie up at their docks behind the Travel Lift for a few hours. Not our preferred plan, but it would work. The tie up area looked pretty tight and there was a strong wind blowing onto the dock but they assured us they would help us get off the dock against the wind when we were ready to leave. So we deployed our dock lines and fenders and back into the water we went. As soon as we were tied up to the dock, the next boat came in (I think they were literally driving in circles waiting for us to be out of the way). With us at the dock it was a really narrow entry into the Travel Lift area and the wind was blowing the other boat right into us (they clipped our solar panel but no harm done to either vessel). The guy driving the other boat was pretty stressed and cursing up a storm, especially when they told him at the last minute that he needed to turn around and come in backwards! Even in calm conditions it would have been tight for a sailboat to do a 180 degree turn, but with the wind blowing like it was, it was not even an option. So we were told we needed to leave, let them get the other boat turned around, then come back in. The space where we tied up, between a catamaran and the Travel Lift, was literally just big enough to fit us with no room to maneuver. There was no way with the wind blowing like it was that we were going to come back in and fit into the space, but there was no time to discuss it so we just left and went to the anchorage. Well, we “just left” with 6 guys helping to push us off the dock against the wind so we could get clear of the catamaran in front of us.

The only way to go back for our stuff was by dinghy, but we had deflated it and packed it away so it took a bit of time to get it ready to go, meanwhile the wind was getting stronger. By the time we were ready the water was quite rough due to the wind and an opposing tidal current so it wasn’t a fun ride but fortunately it wasn’t very far. We tied the dinghy up to the boatyard dock, I went to office to pay our bill while Devon tracked down a fender we lent to the incoming boat during the morning chaos. That’s when hiccup number three happened. I pulled out my card to pay and was told the price I was quoted was a cash price, if I wanted to pay by card (debit or credit) there would be an additional 16% charge (VAT). I have no problem paying cash, but I was pretty sure the amount was above my daily ATM limit and we still needed to deal with getting our stuff and checking out of the Airbnb so it wasn’t going to happen today. I told them they would have to wait until Monday, which they seemed fine with. We went and dealt with the Airbnb, lugged our stuff back in our trusty wagon, and managed to get it all back to the Casita mostly dry. It was good to be back on board but I could have done without the stress of rushing at the last minute. Saturday was still very windy so we stayed on board (though we moved to a different part of the anchorage at the Navy’s request, a derelict looking sailboat dragged anchor and ended up against one of the Navy boats on Friday, so I think they were wanting a little extra space). Sunday we went to the ATM, Monday we went to the ATM, the API office to pay our anchoring fee, then back to the boatyard to pay our bill.

Tuesday we took a taxi out to the Banjercito (the military bank) office at the ferry terminal north of La Paz to get some paperwork filled out that should (fingers crossed) allow me to bring some supplies back to Mexico without paying VAT or import fees. The person who helped us seemed pretty inexperienced with our particular needs and she filled out only the minimal amount of info on the forms but she did stamp them so hopefully it is enough. Tuesday evening we went to a dinner at Club Cruceros (local cruiser’s club) and had a great time with our friends on Even Keel and Sonho. They both just got back from spending the holidays in the US, I wish we had more time to catch up but I’m glad we were able to see them again before we leave.

Wednesday (yesterday) was finally not windy so we did a bunch of dinghy trips filling up the diesel tank, filling up the water tanks, and hauling groceries back to Casita.

This morning we dropped our headsail and did a quick repair on a bit of protective sun cover that was torn, then we spent the rest of the day getting Casita back in passage mode (everything stowed away and secured, dinghy deflated and packed away, etc).

We are sad to say goodbye to La Paz, but excited to be going new places!