Breaking the Silence

It has been over a year ago when I last posted. It was Granny’s memorial with a promise to post the experience of caring for her in the final months of her life in the following weeks. My intention was to share everything as a cathartic to help my grief and as an informational piece for anyone going through the same thing and feeling a bit lost and alone, not knowing what to expect or what was “normal” as I did. In the end, I couldn’t do it. I tried many times and even have written a few unedited pages, but I felt worse after each attempt instead of better. And in the end I decided not to tell the story because so much of the information was too personal, that I greedily wanted to keep the experience all to myself, and because Granny would be horrified at the undignified difficulties of how things progressed. What I will say is that I love and miss her very much, and that caring for her in her home was the absolute most difficult but most important thing I have ever done in my life. And I should say that I could have never done it without the love and support (both emotional and physical) of Jim. For years, in addition to writing about Jim’s and my experiences and adventures, I wrote daily mini-blog emails complete with pictures of even the most mundane things to Granny. once I no longer needed to write to her daily, then later wasn’t able to write about the experience caring for her, it totally blocked the desire for any writing. 

Deep Breath

Life moves on, and it’s time to break my silence. Thanks to those of you who encouraged me and said you wanted to hear about what we are up to. (By the way, I haven’t completely discounted writing about caring for Granny and her death.) So, what are we up to? After missing the last season of sailing we are back in Mexico. The last time we were on the water we had some difficult times due to equipment failures, so it was time for some upgrades. After spending nearly 3 months on land in the boat yard building, repairing and installing we are finally back on the water! We splashed on March 4th.

When we arrived at the boat yard early December estimating that we would spend a good month completing the necessary projects while living on the boat in a dirt yard where we knew things would constantly be dirty, we vowed that we would make sure to take one day off from working each week to enjoy ourselves. We managed to abide by that for a few weeks while it was still warmish.

On a hot day Lily enjoys a coco helada!

But as we got into our known projects and discovered some unanticipated projects, as we noticed the quick 30-minute projects taking all day, and as the weather got colder we no longer abided by our day-off policy. We were desparate to get out of the yard and onto the water to start sailing our way south to warmth.

Here are some highlights of the projects we accomplished this season.  When we leave the boat for the season, we always replace the halyards with string to guide the halyards back up the mast the following year. This preserves the halyards keeping them out of the elements so they last longer. This time the sacrificial string rotted away, so Jim had to free-climb the mast to put up the first halyard before being able to use the bosuns chair to keep him safe climbing up the mast for future work up.

Our radar was not working properly last season (safety equipment used to see ships, other boats, and land up to 24 nautical miles away in the dark or fog), so we replaced it. The new model was a bit larger than the other so Jim needed to modify our mounting platform on the mast. And fishing the wires through the base of the mast to push through the cabin top is always a fun job for me as my hand is just barely small enough to fit in the space.

We decided to switch to a composting toilet for the head. Not only is it consistent with our lifestyle (having composting toilets at home), and uses considerably less power than our previous system, but we have talked to many sailors in the last few years with them who highly recommended them. So, if you will pardon the expression, Jim took on the sh*tty job of removing the old toilet and related components and installing the new. This will also allow us to remove 2 through-hulls (salt water inlet and the poop shoot outlet). We didn’t take the time to remove them and fiberglass the holes this season, however, we just closed off the valves. Of course, one of these valves which has never leaked before is now leaking! Not enough to haul the boat out to fix; just enough to be a nuisance.

We also hired a welder to do some stainless steel welding for us. We added a section of rail in the stern (back) to mount 2 additional solar panels. And we had him add additional railing to shorten the length of the gate on both sides. The old configuration had an opening of about 6 feet (much too large for safety’s sake). It is now only a couple of feet wide with a hard rail to latch it closed. As part of this project, Jim needed to fiberglass another mount on the gunwhale to securely attach a stanchion for the additional rail to weld to. And once that was all finished I had to secure new netting all around the rails and gate—a tedious task.

Another big project Jim took on was building a pullman bed in the salon like the one he built for the ambulance. We got the wood at a local lumber yard. It is always amazing there—so much wood and so little fancy equipment or regard for safety measures. The bed turned out great and now we can both sleep comfortably in the center of the boat (there is lots more hobby horse motion in the v-berth at the front of the boat making it less comfortable when waters get rough).

Our old auto-helm for steering the boat to a compass heading was under-sized for our boat when the weather and seas got really rough (which is when you need them the most!) will now become our backup. We installed a new auto-helm system with a much stronger motor for steering.

Jim cut off about a foot of our boom that had always been a head-banger!

In addition to lots of sanding and varnishing exterior wood surfaces, we sanded, patched and painted the hull. It is the first time she has been painted (it was original 1978 fiberglass and gelcoat). Marine paint is sooooo expensive, that I bought a color for the stripe that was on clearance to save some money (we were also amused by the name of the color: dull dead grass). While we like the looks of it now that it has grown on us, we may repaint it in the near future as the “dull” part in its name must have referred to it being a flat paint not an adjective referring to the lack of interest of the grass! And the main part of the hull stayed a nice off white, but it is now nice and shiny.

While in the boatyard we always meet interesting people and forge new friendships. Steve and Jane are added to our treasure chest of people we will always call friends. And I had to include my favorite picture of Jane painting their boat.

One afternoon a pelican came walking through the yard, which never happens. Upon closer inspection, the poor thing was covered in something we suspected might be oil as there is a Pemex terminal nearby. Along with Jane and Steve we set out to rescue this bird. The long narrow beaks of a pelican is remarkably strong and sharp. Once we got some Velcro around the beak we attempted to wash the bird with Dawn dish soap. It didn’t help at all. It wasn’t oil but something more like epoxy that was hardening. The bird was covered from head to toe in it and while we could separate some of the feathers nothing was coming off. We tried vinegar then a gasoline-soaked rag. Nothing would break up this substance. Sadly, the pelican would never be able to fly and with its down also matted in this substance it would not be able to stay warm, so we did the humane thing to spare it a long, suffering death.

On a more positive note, the sea eagles are quite healthy at the boat yard. Every day they fly through the yard announcing their catch of the day while searching for the perfect mast to light upon to feast—until someone else decides they would like to perch there.

I think I’ve talked about the problem of stray dogs in Mexico before. This year Jim and Lily ran across a pack of them while running. While trying to fight them off and protect Lily, one got around behind Jim and bit him on his calf.

 Left untreated, rabies is nearly always fatal by the time you experience symptoms, so we decided to try to get the rabies vaccine at a local hospital. They gave Jim a tetanus vaccine, antibiotics, and said that no rabies was necessary. I thoroughly researched this, and apparently Mexico has rid the country of dog related rabies. I questioned this, but Jim said they surely have monitored the reported cases and if there haven’t been any reported cases they declare they are rid of this deadly virus. To wit I say there aren’t any reported cases until there are! And since it is nearly always fatal, it just seems prudent to go ahead and vaccinate anyone who has been bitten by an angry, mangy, stray street dog. At any rate, I am pleased to say that in spite of not getting the rabies vaccine Jim did not contract rabies—he lives to get bit another day.

Here's a picture I took in the waiting area of the hospital. If you are wondering what he is in for?...wait for it…avian flu!

Before I end this blog covering the Guaymas Boat Yard experience, I will share a few of the beautiful sunsets we enjoyed there—with a cocktail in hand of course.

Stay tuned for more on the water adventures…