Getting ready for Puerto Vallarta!

Well Mystic, Todd, Enzo and I made it up to San Carlos yesterday, (a whopping fifteen miles in the wrong direction) and had a day of rest today. Tomorrow we are planning on heading south to Puerto Vallarta. We heard this morning on the net that there was a storm rolling into the sea tomorrow, but all of our Grib files and weather information claims that there should only be 20-25 kts of wind, which means we will get there quick!

The boat is doing great, all of the systems are working nicely and she is finally tidy! I think I may have given Todd a heart attack when he stepped aboard in the dry yard and saw what a disaster she was. It took us two days to get her cleaned up! I am so excited to be heading off here in a few hours, I have to say that I am in desperate need of some trees... The desert is cool for a little while, but ultimately the dust and the dry air is not that pleasant. I think the wood on Mystic is also looking forward to a little humidity. When I bought her there was a small crack in the table, after seven months of sitting in a dry yard, that crack has grown. I am hoping that a little moisture will swell her wood a little bit and bring her back to normal.

I have been terrible about taking pictures thus far. That needs to change, and will change as soon as we get out of here, (so long as the weather isn't too bad.) I have also been playing with my go pro camera a little bit, and would love to start uploading videos, but the internet is incredibly slow down here. Hopefully I will be able to find some high speed internet in PV and get those out there. Until then you will just have to deal with my rants on the blog. Next time I write will (hopefully) be from Puerto Vallarta!! And warm weather!

Back on the Boat!

Well I said that I was going to keep up with the blog this year so here I go... I made it back down to Into the Mystic this evening after 25+ hours of driving. Todd, a good friend, drove down with me which was really great of him, without his help getting down here would have been a nightmare. I ended up driving my old pickup truck down to Guaymas and she ran great the whole way, I really love that truck.

When we climbed aboard I realized just how poorly I put the boat away last spring... In my hurry to get out of here I left her a disaster, then on top of that she sat in a dusty desert for seven months which didn't help anything. When we got here we hosed her off and unloaded the truck. As of right now everything we brought down along with the sails, dinghy, kayak and cushions are scattered around the deck. Unfortunately the drive took significantly longer than we expected which meant it was dusk when we arrived. Unloading the truck in the dark was not easy, but we did manage to get everything done and then grabbed some food. 

Tomorrow will be filled with cleaning, stowing supplies and getting the boat ready to be put back in the water, and hopefully we will head south to Puerto Vallarta no later than Wednesday. Wish us luck!

I have a departure date!

My last post was on September 20th, I was starting to get ready to head down to Mexico and Mystic, it is now November 12th and I haven't left yet... I do have a departure date though! I will be driving from Santa Cruz to Guaymas (over three days) leaving on Monday the 18th. With my departure looming I feel like I have 1000 things to do, but in reality everything is coming together pretty nicely.

I did end up finding a tiller pilot that should work. The idea of hand steering as much this year as I did last year was more than I could deal with, so I broke down and bought one. It may cramp the cockpit and will definitely be an eye sore, but with the light winds that we had last season I ended up motoring a lot, and the wind vane doesn't work when you're not sailing. 

My plans have solidified slightly since my last post. I will be spending Christmas in Puerto Vallarta with my mom, and then my friend Daniel is coming to PV in early January. Around the beginning of February I am going to head south again and see where I end up. The first leg of my trip from Guaymas to PV will be roughly 500 miles, and take me a little over a week (I will make a few stops along the way, after all this is supposed to be fun.) Ok its time to get back to work, heading to West Marine to pick up the autopilot.