Mary's Visit

Mary "practising" her reading skills at anchor in San Carlos.

My longtime friend, Mary, has been one of my staunchest supporters in my years of planning to sail off into the sunset. She has been by my side as I walked docks, posted ads, answered ads and went to great lengths to “find the right man with a boat”. Finally realizing that was not the answer, I purchased a boat of my own and Mary & I spent many summers sailing and learning on it. Then I moved up to something a bit bigger and finally bought THE cruising boat.

In the 7 years since I left Portland Mary has been my “go to” person taking care of my mail and handling situations that are not handle-able long distance.

Almost every winter Mary comes for a visit here in Mexico and is always great fun to have aboard. When it comes to all the little inconveniences that are a part of life on a boat she “gets it” and never complains when plans change or things break. She is just as happy to sit a dock with a good book and a good Margarita in hand as she is sailing about.

Up until this year Mary has been with us in ports along the Pacific coast of Mexico but we have always wanted her to see the Sea of Cortez which is best during the Spring. That has not been possible. This year we asked if she would like to do the passage from San Carlos to Puerto Vallarta. That would give her a chance to experience real “cruising” - the way we do it in the Sea – instead of being in marinas most of the time. As an added bonus, we could pick her up in Tucson which would give us a chance to get some last minute items from the States. She jumped at the chance!

 

San Juanico...pretty much empty!

We left San Carlos December 17^th intending to make the trip to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in 2-3 weeks. Well, “plans” are never written in stone in this lifestyle. The crossing was mostly quiet and as we approached the Baja side it was necessary to slow down so the sun would be up when we entered the anchorage. 

Mary and the "Cruiser's Shrine"

We were surprised to find only two boats in San Juanico as this is a much loved stop. Another surprise…one of the boats was a Morgan. The owners of “Air Supply” came right over to say “hi” and check out the differences between their boat (a ’78 model) and ours (an ’87). Shortly after they left we discovered that the prop shaft had backed out of the transmission. That happened at the end of last season but the yard was supposed to have fixed it. Chris and Clay (off the other Morgan) fixed the problem but from then on we would not be able to use reverse to set the anchor. Using the wind & water to do that worked fine but it was still a little un-nerving.

The next morning a Norther came roaring in right on schedule and we were there for a week reading, playing Mexican Train and, basically having a “slumber party”. One day we were able to dinghy in to walk the beach, give Abby a bit of a run and re-install our memento on the “Cruiser’s Shrine” but that turned out to be the only opportunity we had to leave the boat until we got to La Paz.

Chris caught dinner at Isla Coronado!

On Christmas Day the wind let up enough to make a run for Isla Coronado and we arrived to find the same boats from San Juanico waiting for us. One night in the NW anchorage was all we had before having to move to the southern end to hide from another 3 day blow. Once that was over we made the 8 hour passage to Agua Verde for one night and then pushed on to Isla San Francisco with the intention of staying there long enough to take Mary to the beach. Alas, yet another “wind event” was predicted so first thing the next morning we were off again for the final leg to La Paz.

Even with a broken wrist Mary can play Mexican Train.

Some friends were waiting at our slip to take a line and help us get docked since we couldn’t back up. A good thing as it was New Year’s Day and the office was closed when we arrived. Anne even loaned us a gate card so we could shower and go to dinner. All went well until we left for the restaurant. Mary took a misstep getting off the boat and fell on her wrist on the dock. We weren’t sure whether it was broken or badly sprained so we all decided to go to dinner, ice it and see what tomorrow looked like. Tomorrow it was worse so we taxi’d in to a recommended doctor who took one look and said, “Ee’s broken”. From then on the day got complicated very fast. 

Lunch in Todos Santos

After seeing the X-rays an Orthopedic Surgeon admitted Mary to the hospital and did surgery that night. She was released the next afternoon. She was in much less pain and we spent 2 weeks showing her around La Paz and even took a couple road trips. 

Beach day!

Once the stitches were removed and Mary was fitted with a shorter brace, work began to call more stridently. It didn’t look like we were going to have a weather window to cross to La Cruz any time soon so Mary flew home from here. 

Mary with Dr. Sanchez.

We had a great time showing Mary a passel of new places and she never once complained about weather, being stuck on the boat, getting injured or anything. When asked about her wrist, she consistently said, “It could have been so much worse”. We are looking forward to her next visit but I think we’ll skip the injury. Even though the medical care was excellent, it was certainly not on the “things to do while I’m on vacation” list.