When a Week Feels Like a Month

For the past five to eight years, we have read books and other boater’s blogs to gain as much knowledge as we could to embark on this trip. We took as many classes as we could and taught many classes as we gained knowledge. It is because of things that I learned from other peoples’ adventures and mistakes that I have chosen to write about this week. I could keep it to ourselves but no one would learn things that could be advantageous if they chose to take a similar trip

The decision was made to continue to Guaymas on the mainland. It is still in the hurricane safety area. It was however hit by Hurricane Jimena.
There appeared to be 2 tropical occurrences happening further south so we didn’t want to wait around too much longer. The “Weather Guru” Don Anderson had anticipated that by Wed. more information could be determined on the possibilities of it turning into Tropical Depressions. This gave us the weather window we needed.
Sunday September 13, we departed Bahia de Los Angeles and headed out in calm seas.
We were about an hour into our 10 hour journey when Ken snagged his Dorado. It was doing lovely acrobatics in the air. It turned out to be about 30 lbs. The waves were kicking up a bit so we made a decision to alter our course so we could take more of a following sea. This would add about an hour to the trip but it would be way more comfortable.
Ken brought in the fishing lines and filleted the fish, but when he went to rinse off the deck of the boat, he realized we were out of water. The evening prior we had filled up a sailboat with about 100 gallons of water and figured we must have left the tap running and ran it dry. We weren’t too worried as we would make water when we arrived at the new anchorage.
It was right about this time that I observed what looked like a squall line. We were going to have a little more action. It was SE swells approximately 5’. No Biggy. All of sudden we took one a little harder and things were flying around. I started securing things down. When I went down below it was a mess. The cutlery drawer was lying on the only portion of the floor that had not been left open to let the heat out of the engine room. Cutlery was everywhere including down in the engine room. I picked up things secured the drawer and went up stairs to tell Ken he needed to get down to the engine room to check it out. As I was coming up the stairs he was heading to go down the stairs the starboard engine was overheating.
He was checking the sea strainer when his foot hit the radiator cap. Hot antifreeze was now showering the cabin. Ken managed to get out of the way but still received some steam burns. NO WATER! He did the only thing he could do and ran to the back lazerette and doused himself with sea water, full of bacteria.
Now the seas were becoming confused and we had only one engine. I checked on him and he was ok to continue dealing with himself. I went above. The seas were getting larger. They were 9’ from one direction and 5’ from the opposing direction.
Ken had now found enough water that we had in water bottles to clean the wound and kept a wet towel on it. It would be too warm up top and he needed to stay below and deal with his burns.
Now I am half Newfie and half French. My Mother’s ancestors were fisherman plying the Atlantic coast waters in boats called Dories. My Father’s ancestors were French voyageurs that floated over rapids in canoes among most of our Canadian river openings up places for the Northwest/ Hudson Bay Fur Companies. I bring this up because I was hoping I processed a recessive boating gene at this precise moment. It was also about at this time I made a few PLEASE GOD notes. 1) Ken would be ok. 2) That the left engine wouldn’t quit. 3) Keep us safe. I held back any tears and started to examine the water. It appeared that the smaller 5’ waves would knock down the larger wave and leave a trough. I experimented. If I stayed within the trough things were ok. Next I observed that on the 9th small wave, it wasn’t small. In fact it was as large as the large wave. So I needed to turn starboard into that wave before it hit me on the beam. First attempt did not work so well. I think that is where I thought try again. It will work. I did try again and it did work. The speed now had dropped us from 3 knots to 1 knot. We were now also dealing with a current against us. I figured if I could get closer to the lee of the island I could get rid of one directional wave. I headed over there only to encounter a floating cement dock, a tree and much debris left in the wake of Hurricane Jimena. I headed back out. I just had to “suck it up princess”, and so 3 ½ hours later we made it to a safe anchorage.(It felt like 12 hours) When all is said and done I think I took 3 on the beam. It felt like 100, but I know it was only 3. We sat and analyzed the situation. We decided we had become too complicit. The last few months had babied us. We were back in the real ocean again, with swells and waves. Neither of us was hungry. Hot dogs were supper.
That evening we slept outside as the inside was a steam bath with all the liquid, all evening I laid there thinking of scenarios. The next safe anchorage was 72 nautical miles. It was over 24 hrs on one engine in seas that were loaded with debris. Kino was 24 miles but the anchorage was not good. Kino however was 1 hr away from the capital with hospitals, mechanics etc. If I woke up and things were any worse I could radio the Mexican Navy stationed in Kino. I could fall asleep knowing things would be ok.
The following morning things looked brighter, Ken was fine. He was hurting but fine. Into the engine room he climbed. First why didn’t we have water? The hot water tank had sprung a leak and emptied all our water into the bilge and overboard. Ken isolated the tank and we made 150 gallons of water. Now what was wrong with the engine? The sea strainer, then the impeller, and then the exhaust systems were checked. Nothing seems to be working. The boat was torn apart, this would be when the Mexican Navy approached and decided to board us.
Passports and registrations were shown. I think they felt bad for us. They left fairly quickly. They set up camp on the beach for the 2 days in this bay where we anchored.
I was very, very happy to see them and was reassured that they were there if we needed them.
That day went by and we did not have any success. The Captain spent a restless night I am sure thinking about the engine and what it could be. The next morning, he decided to continue on the exhaust elbow. Bingo. It was plugged. Once it was cleaned all things looked good. The engine was purring but more importantly the exhaust was spitting out lots of cooling water. We could continue on with two engines.
Bahia Las Cocinas would be our next stop. It was 72 nautical miles away.
The seas were nice and calm with refrigerators, hydro poles, coolers, plywood, and palm trees sharing the water with us. It was an obstacle course. I didn’t care the seas were calm just a swell. As we were arriving to our anchorage the starboard engine made a funny sound.
In our boating classes we taught the 1/3 Rule. You travel out using 1/3 of your fuel, you travel back using 1/3 of your fuel and you keep 1/3 of fuel in your tanks. Yep you can guess what Neptune had in store for us next.
Adventures are made up of things that happen and people you meet. Ken headed out to the fishing camp on the beach with his Spanish boating book in hand. He met Phillip Surman. A gentleman that lives in the United States but whose family has owned this beautiful land for 40 years. He offered us his jerry cans and a 15 km ride inland to get diesel.
The next morning we drove through the beautiful desert totally in bloom thanks to Jimena, and 24 inches of rain. Everything was so green. Once we were inland we began to see irrigated fields used for growing vegetables and fruit. The state of Sonora is well known for its beef. Personally I still favour Alberta beef but I am just a little biased.
Now that we had fuel we weighed anchor and headed into Marina Real where we would fuel up and stay the night.
The following day we headed to Guaymas, our destination for the next month. Upon arrival one of the marina staff took us to a clinic to have KEN looked at. He did a great job at keeping the burn clean. He received 1’st degree burns on a portion of his lower right leg that are healing nicely. All will be fine. The doctor cost a whopping $40.00. This was a private clinic. I think if I were an American I would have everything done down here for 1/100th of the cost.
The staff at the marina are wonderful. They have driven us around to get things that we need. I would highly recommend to anyone travelling to Mexico to stay at Singlar Marinas.
The plans are to explore this area, going inland to see the Copper Canyon by train. We are also planning a trip by bus up to Tuscon to get spend some boat units and extend our tourist card so that we can leave this country without rushing. I will also be editing pictures and updating the photo portion of the blog as we have good internet connection. This will take awhile as I have so many pictures and need to limit the number I post.
Yes this week has felt like a month.