A Trip to Town

Mon. Oct. 31, 2011 – Halloween

This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise, it’s so peaceful here.  Neil and I unfortunately, though, had no time for enjoying too much of the morning sunlight, as we had serious work to do.  We had needed to get the boat back in top working order, which would require a bit of elbow grease today.  Firstly, we had to attend to clearing our poor old “Plan B” off the stern of the boat, and get her folded up, and put away, until we can get it to a dinghy doctor, in La Paz.  That definitely used up a fair amount of energy, because that girl is HEAVY!!  After, putting away the dinghy, we then turned our attention to our very soggy bed…unfortunately we have a small leak, from inside our aft starboard lazarette, where the exhaust hose from the engine is housed.  The hose, you see, has a small leak, and because we motor sailed here, much of the way (until our engine stalled, anyway) it had plenty of time to drip a fair amount of salt water into the lazarette, which in turn, ran down the wall/bulk head to our cabin.  Which, apparently isn’t completely water proof, because it leaked under our mattress, and thus…the need to dry out the bedding.  Sea life isn’t always an easy life, folks!  LOL

During the time we were dealing with the raft, and bed, we noticed that the local military boats were out, and they were going around from boat to boat. At first we thought they were going after just this one, very large, and fancy looking motor yacht, but then realized, they were making their way around to all the boats.  Sure enough, just about the time we finished dealing with the dinghy, they came round to us.  They pulled their boat forward, until they just almost touched ours, then their men, boarded our boat.  There were four of them, total.  One was carrying a very big, and scary looking rifle of some sort, (which Neil has just informed me, was an M-16) one had a radio system on him, with the longest antennae (I think would be a big pain in the butt to wear, very cumbersome) The other two men, just had clipboards.  They announced, they were doing routine inspections of all the boats in the bay, and that they wouldn’t take up too much of our time.  “No problema” we said….lol  and just let them do their thing.  Luckily, from reading our cruising guide books, we had read to have several copies made of things, such as; boat documents, crew list, insurance, passport/visa, and the permit we received in Ensenada for our boat to be in Mexico.  (kind of like getting your car registered each year, in the states) 

At any rate, we had copies of all our documents, which they seemed very impressed by, or maybe they were just happy to see it would save them time, so they could get busy, and finish up for the day. J

They went down below, as well, and had Neil open all the cupboards, lockers, etc, then told us to have a nice day.  They were actually very nice gentlemen, and were very friendly, during the whole thing.  They were kind enough to allow us to take some photos of them afterwards.  We passed with flying colors!  I was a little worried…ha ha…you know I have those herbs I’m growing, and I didn’t actually know if they would know what basil, rosemary, and thyme looked like, and might mistake it for something else?  Neil just laughed at me, and said, “Kris, I’m pretty sure they have a really good idea of what drugs look like!”  I hate it when he’s right, they paid no attention to my possible contraband! J

that pole thing sticking in the air, is the antennae that guy had to wear.

After the inspection, Neil and I decided to take “Last Resort” over to town, and go look for a fuel filter, and just look around.  When we arrived at the dock, we climbed out of our kayak (which, I’m embarrassed to admit, was quite a sight to behold!  We’re both really uncoordinated, apparently, and VERY out of shape, I’m sure we were being laughed at by anyone within sight of us….just sayin’)  Once we were safely on the dock, (approx 15 minutes later, no joke) this other couple, had just arrived on their dinghy, we began to exchange greetings.  Dave and Sam (Samantha), who, we learned had just arrived in Turtle Bay on Saturday, as well, and actually just a few hours before we did.  They told us where to go to get into town, and who does the laundry in town, what restaurants there are (only two, and one of them, is this lady’s house, with the little cafe in the front room)

So, we said goodbye to our new friends, and Neil says to me “okay, so where’d you put my shoes?”  I laughed, and said, “very funny” and he explained to me, that he was serious.  As I was shaking my head…I told him they were WITH his wallet and sunglasses, which I had placed out for him, just before we left, and since he was wearing his sunglasses, and his wallet was in his pocket, I assumed he would have also grabbed his shoes.  Ha ha!!!!  Fortunately, as we were trying to prepare ourselves for our departure on the kayak, once again…Dave offered to take Neil back to the boat on his dinghy (with a motor)  Ahhh!, this was a welcome relief, because neither one of us, was ready to look so foolish again, so soon. 

Once Neil came back, we walked into town, and what an experience that was.  Firstly, they have only one paved road here, so it was very, very dusty to say the least.  It was however, one of the most beautiful, humbling experiences of our lives.  As we were walking into town, we observed how humbly these people lived.  Their homes, though not shacks, were very, very modest.  Some without window glass, but fabric instead.  Their water supply is kept on top of each of their roofs, in a water tank, gravity fed, which need to be refilled when they empty.  Most of the markets, or places of business, were conducted in private homes, or just next to their residence.  Many of them would have a sign that read something like, “if you need me, I’m across the street at address…” (in Espanol, of course)

They had a circus in town, which our boat neighbors Sam and Dave, told us about. (they said it was terrible, but that it was fun to see the local children having so much fun) We passed the tent along our way to the part store.

When we arrived at the part store, they were closed for lunch. L  It was a pretty hot day yesterday, and now we needed to walk some more, to find a place to sit, until they reopened.  Neil, being the sweetheart he his asked me where I wanted to go, I said to the little café.  Poor guy, he really shouldn’t have let me decide, because it was all the way back from where we started!  I don’t know what I was thinking?  We chose the little place that was in the lady’s house.  It was nice, very modest, but clean.  She took our order, then sat down at a table with her daughter, and they ate their lunch…tee hee!  We’re not sure who was cooking our food, but apparently it wasn’t her?  It’s possible they may have had to kill the cow, before they cooked our meal, as it sure took a while to get, but once it came, it was very tasty. 

After lunch we went to the part store again, and tried, in very broken Spanish, to explain what we needed. Fortunately, Neil brought the filter with him.  Unfortunately, they didn’t carry boat filters! The man behind the counter though, explained, in very broken English, that we could try using an air compressor to blow out the filter, that it might buy us some time, at least until we reached La Paz.

He then took us over to the garage, across the lot, and took the air compressor to it.  It really made a huge difference; I think it will actually work now.  Neil plans to install it today, and we’ll see.  The man didn’t even charge us for helping us! We tried, he just said “no” We are so impressed at how nice the people are here.  They have so little, yet are so happy.  It’s so humbling to see.  We, as citizens of the U.S. have SO MUCH, and yet, are probably the most ungrateful people, who take it for granted.  I hope, through this experience, that we come home, better educated about what really matters most, and remember to always be thankful for every gift God gives us!  It was such a beautiful and enriching day, and we both felt so privileged to have been blessed to experience it.

To top the day off…we had our new boat neighbors over for dinner last night.  I made pasta, with homemade meatballs.  I even was able to finally use my lovely herbs.  It really was a great day!

Funny, as in (ha ha) side note:  Neil, while we were getting ready to eat dinner, had to rescue Dave’s dinghy.  Neil had tied it to our boat, when they arrived, and apparently, didn’t tie it very well….lol…as when Dave looked out, he said, in a surprisingly calm manner, “Oh, I think I may have to go for a swim” and was pointing to his dinghy, which was quickly beginning to drift out to sea!!  Neil hurried and jumped into the kayak…(with a lot of help.  *refer to the above mentioned difficulty in climbing into, and out of, said kayak) Dave had given Neil is handy, dandy head light, thingy, and off he went! Thank goodness he reached it before it went too much farther, or wow!  We may have had to call in the troops to retrieve it….WHEW! LOL

These two pics are unrelated to the funny, ha ha story, but I just wanted to show the pier they have.  It works, but man is it in disrepair...kind of scary!

Saturday Nov. 1, 2011

Woke up to yet another lovely sunrise, and had to share. J  Also, we want to mention, we will be staying in Turtle Bay until after Sunday, as the weather is forecasting some heavy winds, and high seas, for the next couple of days.  We COULD leave on Thursday or Friday, but Neil mentioned he wants to stay until Sunday, so we can go to church at the local LDS branch here. Not sure how “local” it is though, so we’ll find out today if that’s even possible?