Friday,
April 22 we left Agua Verde, buddy boating with Sail La Vie and Rebecca,
heading for Escondido. Sail La Vie passed us all at a rapid pace. She sails at
around 7 knots with ease. By the
time we arrived in Escondido, Sail La Vie had already gotten fuel and was
anchored inside the Harbor. We also got fuel, and then anchored close to Sail
La Vie. Rebecca was on a mooring
ball not too far away from us either.
After
getting situated in the anchorage, Cyndi and Marcus picked us up on their
dinghy and took us to the Harbor Master’s office. We were searching for
Internet so that we could get an accurate wind, wave & weather forecast for
the next few days. It was pretty sketchy but we managed to get a good enough
report to move forward with our plans heading north to San Carlos.
There
was nothing really at all to do in Escondido. Most of the people that go there
take a bus over to Loreto because the anchorage in front of Loreto is
unprotected. It’s a very vulnerable spot to be in. But we did not have the
extra time to do that. So we spent the night on the hook and sailed over to
Loreto in the morning planning to be there for just a few hours.
So
when we arrived at Loreto along with our boat buddies Cyndi and Marcus, we
anchored in the safest place we could find and then went inside the Harbor with
Cyndi and Marcus’ in their dinghy.
Loreto
is a very clean upscale town. A lot of gringo’s love to spend time in Loreto.
Some have even called it their home at least during the winter season.
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| Very nice upscale Hotel & Spa in downtown Loreto |
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| Hotel Lobby |
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| Ceiling of Lobby area is also the glass bottom of the swimming pool above |
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| Loreto Mission |
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| Love seeing all of the Mexican arts and crafts |
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| Vegetarian Enchilada's were to die for! |
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| Streets of Loreto (this is the same street the farmer's market was held earlier) |
We
walked the streets, checking out the town and the farmer’s market. We stopped
for lunch at a small restaurant further off the beaten path. The food and service were excellent.
After lunch we stopped at a market for provisioning then walked back to the
dinghy dock.
We
really liked Loreto but it was a little pricier than most towns we have been
in.
We
left Loreto around 3:20pm. The wind had piped up a bit and our two and a half
hour sail over to Los Coronados was a little choppy due to the Northwest
wind-waves.
Los
Coronados is an island with not much on it. It’s just a small bay with the same
beautiful water and sandy beaches we’ve been seeing in the Sea of Cortez. We
did not get off the boat at all because bees were attacking us. Seriously!
There were so many that Rick and I went down below and shut our hatch &
companionway curtain, which isn’t something we ordinarily do not do because we
like the fresh air flowing through the boat. Poor Harley had to fend for
herself out in the cockpit. But the bees didn’t seem too interested in her
anyway, only her water dish. Apparently the bees come looking for fresh water.
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| Just arriving in the morning after an overnight sail to the San Carlos anchorage entrance |
The
night came and went and we woke to sunny skies, calm seas and light winds. We
had a big sail ahead of us…an overnighter to San Carlos. Rick and I were
feeling a little jipped on having to cut our plans short. We were a week ahead
of schedule and had wanted to spend more time in “the Sea”. But we weren’t too
disappointed because we knew that we could pick up where we leave off next
season.
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| Anchorage just outside of Marina San Carlos |
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| Inside the Marina we noticed our good friends Margo and Robert's sailboat, Nomad, in a slip right behind ours! Unfortunately they had already left for home a week or so earlier. |
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| Starting the cleaning process on the boat in preparation for hauling out, which looks like a bomb went off on our boat. |
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| Jimmy polishing our hull |
The
sail to San Carlos was without incident. All went well. We arrived at 7:15a.m
the following day, Monday April 25th and anchored in the anchorage
just outside of Marina San Carlos. We stayed just for the night because needed
to get into the Marina dock in the morning to get busy on preparing the boat
for dry storage at Marina Seca.
As
soon as we arrived in our slip we got started right away on cleaning the
boat. Rick cleaned every inch of
the V-berth with some water and vinegar and I started on the Galley. We also
tried to make different piles of what was staying on the boat, what was going
home with us and what we would give away.
We
hired this very nice and apparently a hard working fellow to help us clean our
boat who was busy cleaning a catamaran across from us. We were impressed with
his speed and thoroughness! His name was Jimmy. Rick worked with him as well.
They first took everything off of the boat, and thoroughly cleaned everything,
even the sails. A huge undertaking but with Jimmy’s help it didn’t seem so bad.
We
spent about a week preparing the boat for delivery to Dry Storage. During our
time at the marina and through all this preparation, we were trying to also find
a ride across the border, since you cannot cross the border in a rental car and
Harley was not allowed on the bus that goes to the border, our options were
limited. I was on the ‘morning net’ daily asking to hitch a ride to Tucson. We
did get a generous offer from our son-in-law, Justin for him to drive from
Oakley all the way to Mexico to come and pick us up and bring us home. At one
point we were on board with that offer. But that same day we accepted that
offer; I was sitting at Barracuda Bob’s
(a small cafe located in the Marina) with Harley having a Latte, when a
woman stopped at the table and asked if I was the person asking for a ride to
Tucson. I said, “YES”! She told me she knew just the man to give us a ride. His
name was John and he was going to Tucson the same day we wanted to leave and he
had a big truck and loved dogs. Sounded perfect! So we contacted John and made the
arrangements for our ride to the states. What a relief!
Our
last few days in San Carlos, Rick and I had moved over to a nearby pet friendly
hotel since our boat was full of stuff and it was going to be moved to dry
storage. We also rented a car so
we could get back and forth to the Marina and to take care of some errands.
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| The balcony of our hotel |
The
day before we were scheduled to take the boat over to the boat launch, Rick
thought it would be a good idea to take the boat over that afternoon just in
case the winds would be too heavy in the morning, which would make our landing
at the dock a difficult one. The winds were higher than what we prefer to leave
a slip in, but we went for it anyway. I kept suggesting we get some people to
help us, but Rick knew we could handle it ourselves. I went along with his plan with a lot of skepticism. But we managed just fine! It was a
little touch and go as we first left the slip but all went well! Fhew!...my
last time being anxious until next season.
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| Everything off the boat, all clean and ready for Haul-out |
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| Here comes the tractor to pull us out |
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| Pulling Notre Isle onto the trailer |
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| Bye bye Notre Isle.. |
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| Dry Storage at Marina Seca |
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| They really pack 'em in |
The
tractor towing a flat bed arrived on time bright and early in the morning as
scheduled. The boat was out of the water and over at Marina Seca (Dry Storage)
in no time. By the time we got in the car and drove over, Notre Isle was
already up on stands and tucked in between two other boats. We checked out her hull and scraped off
a few little remaining barnacles and poked open a few blisters. We will come back in October/November
and sand and paint her bottom.
It
was kind of a sad feeling that came over me as Notre Isle was being taken out
of the water. This was our home
for the last seven months and now we had to say goodbye. But the sad feeling was outweighed by
feelings of relief. A huge weight had been lifted off of our shoulders. It was
a lot of work, stress and lack of assuredness during this part of our journey.
The
next morning at 7am, John arrived at our hotel in his Dodge double cab, pickup
truck. Rick, Harley and I jumped
in the cab of the truck after piling a lot of our belongings into the bed of
the truck. We did not bring with
us all that we wanted to bring back home, but we definitely could have looking
at the size of his truck. But, we did not want to be too much of an imposition.
We just felt so lucky to be getting a ride.
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| Harley pretty much slept the entire ride to Tuscon |
It
was a 6-7 hour drive to the Tucson Airport. The drive was quite comfortable and
pleasant. John couldn’t have been nicer and more accommodating. He was a wealth
of information too! He pointed out the sights to us along the way and described
all that he knew about them.
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| The border at Nogales Mexico/Nogales Arizona |
When
we got to the Border Patrol, John rolled down the windows for the officer to see inside the front and back seat. As the officer looked in the
back seat of the truck, Harley was sitting very still right next to the
window looking forward just as if she were a human, the officer took one look
at her and burst out laughing. This was not the behavior I expected of this man
carrying a riffle around his chest.
We all laughed a bit releasing our nervousness. It’s not
that we had anything to hide, but it made a serious moment not so serious. The man continued smiling while
checking our passports and asking us questions. Then waved us through.
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| It's beginning to snow as we approach Williams |
After being home for about a month or less, we will drive the RV back to San Carlos, Mexico and begin another season on Notre Isle.
Stay tuned….
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