“I’ve never been a snowbird before but why wait until 65?”

Oct 19

8:30am departure from Sylvan Lake with Kayla at the wheel. It appears to be a tradition for her to get me to the airport to say goodbye. It always feels the best with her spilling with excitement and positive vibes for the journey.

I’ll skip the next 23 hours because it all went without a hitch. 5 checked bags down to Mexico with 4 of them costing $40/each and then the fifth bag was $200! Dangit.

Flew to Chicago, slept on the concrete floor for 10 hours, flew to Phoenix had a bite to eat, flew to Hermosillo Mexico.

Oct 20

We land at Hermosillo airport and feel the Mexican heat creeping through the doors from the desert outside. We clear customs after the guard doesn’t understand why we say we are staying 90 days or more! He wishes us good luck in the future HAHA. Our pre arranged pickup driver dude is waiting outside. 2 hour ride to Guaymas through the dessert. Being a Sunday, we decide to go right to the same hotel we stayed at in April. There’s no chance of us getting into the boatyard Sunday so we grab a room, a few tacos, and a 6 pack back to the room. Decompression in the courtyard.

Fall asleep like a baby after 48 hours.

Oct 21

7am and we are up with the dogs for a hot coffee. The heat is already starting to show. We take a walk to the locals fishing shop and unload a few hundred bucks on fishing line, lures, and odds and ends we didn’t get a chance to pickup before coming down. We grab a taxi to the marina and I check in with my favourite gal Gabriel in the office. Pay up for the last 5 months of boat storage. She mentioned when we left in April that If I bring down Pesos she will give me 10% off. We end up paying $200/month for the dry storage. She doesn’t charge us for the upcoming 3-4 weeks we will spend in the board yard which will be $17/day. That will all be due at the end once we make the splash into the sea. I leave with a giant smile and a few horseshoes hanging out my tail end. We get our bags into the boat and start de summerizing the boat! We remove the sun shades and all the tinfoil we taped around all the exterior hardware to protect from UV and sand storms. The heat is turned on big time down here but Im not complaining just yet, simply climatizing.

1:00 pm arrives and we are greeted by the same Mexican crew that hauled us out of the water 5 months earlier. They throw the straps around us, pick us up, and move us over to our new home for the next month. The boatyard is across a rocky dirt road with fewer boats that all appear to be in MUCH better shape and better looking than the ones here in storage. We are placed in the back corner with plenty of room to unload and start rebuilding a damn sailboat! Water, power, and a few other things are on site but not sure if anything really works yet. We also don’t have a hose or power cord yet to use the services. Our first major task is to remove all large items from the boat and place them under the boat and beside the concrete wall. Love our new location because the corner lot gives us heaps of privacy and an area to temporarily store our gear. The boat is up on stilts so there is plenty of room to walk and work below. The ground is dirt and not concrete. There is absolutely no barefoot around here as the boatyard floor is full of glass, nails, thorns, and anything else you can image that is sharp. I’ll track down a rake tomorrow to clean up our little chunk of paradise tomorrow. We remove almost everything from the boat and then get settled in for the first night aboard The Struggler.

I have been waiting months to have a look at the fresh cushions covers me and Momma made over the summer. I unpack them and 6 out of 6 covers fit perfectly on the existing cushions here. The workmanship she shows is unbelievable. She can turn a raggedy old saloon into a home in a flash. We also unpack the navy and cream pillows that Britt helped create back in Canada. The boat has a quarter sleeping berth in the stern (back) but never came with a bed or anything. So I took measurements in April and created a curved bed with a memory foam cushion to fit in the new captains quarters. Mostly everyone thought it was crazy to build cushions, pillows, and a bed and bring down to Mexico.. I think it’s part of building a dream boat. Our first real task on an endless mile long list is scratched off. We grab a 6 pack of cervezas and wander to the north end of the boatyard. We have full access to the lift, the dock, and sea. Sunset offers views of many birds, pelicans, jumping fish, and lots of other sights and sounds.

Back to the boat we make a quick egg dinner sit down and start unpacking the bags. In the dark we turn on the batteries and the 12V lights flip right on like never leaving. Pumping the wattage into this cottage.

A dream. Night.

Oct 22

Happy Birthday Joshua!
5:50am. Up for a hot cup of coffee and oatmeal. Early morning is going to be the best time to get work done. Its HOT.
We were up on and off from 3am on with a very loud alarm or siren from the yard beside us. It started just before 3 and went off every 15 minutes with a very loud siren lasting until dawn. Really hope that isn’t normal around this area.

My first task today is measuring everything we will need for a brand new auto helm (cruise control). If you read my previous delivery post from April you will know the … system onboard was very crunchy and was falling about. After some research, Ive decided on the CPT autopilot because of its simplicity and how ruggid its built. I take all the measurements and send an email off to them in California. Billy spends his morning (entire day) pulling every single item from the boat and either throwing it away or organizing and inventory. We get to know the hidden nooks in the boat and make Tupperware containers with everything from plumbing, electrical, to miscellaneous parts and tools. We map out the boat and document where the items are now stowed away.

I’ll spend the next 2 hours installing window curtains I made over the summer in Canada! With no idea how they would work, they turned out great! They take up zero realestate and do a great job of blocking the sun out. The Navy and Creeam striped fabric payttern looks lovely with the navy cushions!

The afternoon until sunset is spent organizing the boat and getting it livable.

Dinner is spaghetti. The evening is spent up on the bow looking at the masts, mountains, and boatyard.

You really wouldn’t want to take a fall over the lifelines here on the hard.

Oct 23

6:00am
Morning coffee up on the bow. We decide to snap some shots of the boatyard and the bay as the sun rises behind the mountains.
Continuing on with removing everything from the exterior and lazarettes of the boat. We have now removed, cleaned, and inventoried all the items on the boat and freed up heaps of storage areas. We located 3 extra anchors including a Brucey, Delta, and CQR. There is also a small dingy anchor on board and a nice 20lb Danroth for stern anchoring. It’s pretty fun unloading the boat and looking into its past through the parts on board. This baby is one real sweetheart. ‘Ever New’

A new boat slowly wheels into the boatyard from storage yard and we meet an interesting character named Skeeter from Colorado. He has been sailing here for 2 seasons and offers a lift to town. He gives a few tips and we are off on a wild goose chase from store to store which ends up taking us 4 hours.. Life sure is interesting when its not spent working for 8-10 hours of your day! So much character and things to experience on this planet. We locate almost all the things on our list for tools and equipment to get most of the work done in the next few weeks. Larger items among other things include a new drill, saw, hammer, wrenches, drivers, hose material, adhesives, and most importantly we secure our anti fouling bottom paint! Its my firt time in a boat yard and first time applying actual antifouling bottom paint. We go with the Copper Shield 45 at $250/gallon. Not cheap but from what I read its a great product.
Evening is spent on a few small projects. Billy installs our new homemade folding cockpit table we made back in Canada and packed down here. Its hand made from cedar strips. I sand and stain a rail to hold our gawddamn plates on the table in the saloon! Basically a rail around the countertops when we are healed over at sea.

We witness a giant tarantula spider kill the biggest locust (grasshopper?) I’ve ever seen. Right in front of our eyes.

We start on a new little video up on deck…
Couple cervesas .
Video complete!
♡

Night.

Oct 24
7:00am wakeup and coffee on deck. Slept in because we didn’t sleep much. The alarm across the street at the OXXO store went off almost entirely through the night. I had earplugs in but it was pretty tough to get any real rest. Billy took it harder as its been keeping him up. I recommend we may need to ask to move in the boatyard. I’ll throw it by the office lady tomorrow and see what options we have to try and get away from the siren. Possibly if we get to the other side of the yard with our door opening to the sea we should be primo.
Today’s an exciting day. By 8:00am I’m suited up and sanding the bottom of the hull. The black antifouling paint is okay to come off but its awfully messy. Almost like a fine soot like in a chimney or coal! I have a full white hazmat suite on and a mask. The next 4 hours are spent palm sanding the bottom. The idea is to get all the growth off the bottom and sand down any ridges. I’m also looking for any concerns in the hull that might jump out now. The entire Starboard side is done by noon. I’m happy with the progress but its hard on the shoulders and neck looking up and working. So thats enough for today on that project.

After a shower and lunch I switch to some smaller little projects inside. Billy finishes installing the new plumbing system on the shitter and with our newly purchased drill from a pawn shop ($70) we screen down the new wood tabletop up in the cockpit outside. Its smoooth.

We organize the boat and continue knocking off small jobs. I make a fried rice and tuna dinner and its an early night to bed.
.Pooched.

Oct 25

Second day of sanding sees the Port side finished from the waterline down. This side was in much better shape for some reason? Maybe it was not in direct sunlight more often but there was far less growth below. This antifouling is so nasty to work with. Quick shower and I run into the office manager on the way back to the boat. He lets us know he got a call from the OXXO across the street. He said in a very kind way they let him know that “2 young lads from the boatyard” had taken a 20L water jug without paying. I explained we thought we purchased it. Its doesn’t matter how thin you cook a pancake, there’s always two sides. Basically I went in there to join the water exchange program which is $35 pesos ($2.50) to refill your bottle. I tried to explain that I need to purchase the bottle to begin with so they charged me a random number of $75 pesos. So when they said we stole the bottle, I went back and asked to purchase the bottle, she then charged me another $75 pesos bringing the total up to $150 pesos. So I do believe I now own the bottle for 150 pesos ($11/CAN.)

Afternoon is spent disassembling under the galley sink. We fight, grind, curse, and spit to take apart and remove 2 out of the 3 thruhulls. We have decided to take the sink drain thruhull out and replace it with a new larger fitting that will be the water intake for a saltwater cooled refrigerator as well as the sink drain. It doubles as both. I will put together a how to article once we finish the refrigerator in the next few days. Its going to be great. The idea is to also install a new foot pump that will also suck in saltwater for doing dishes and rinsing up. This way we will use far less freshwater.

At +35, today is the hottest day since we got here 5 days ago. Haven’t seen a cloud in the sky yet.

My skin is burning from the sanding and fibreglass work below.

Its Friday night in Guaymas so we grab a taxi to town and stock up on groceries. We try out our charcoal BBQ on the stern rail of the boat. Tocas and a few cervesas and it’s off to bed. First real BBQ on the boat and its great! Such an odd feeling. Its like being out camping but you are cooking and eating 15 feet above the ground. You wouldn’t want to take a fall off the side when there’s no water to stop your fall.

Night.

Oct 26

Was up a few times in the night sweating in the bunk. So hot in this boatyard right now making it uncomfortable to sleep. Spent the rest of the night and morning up on the bow. Very calm and silent until 6am. Bit of a breeze to keep things cool. I can see myself spending lots of nights up here this winter.

2 hours spent on the final waterline and bottom sanding. This paint is so toxic its very horrible on the body. The afternoon is HOT and we continue working on the interior projects. Bull paints the inside of the fridge white and I take over and slap a fresh coat on the nasty inside of the bathroom cabinets. I also lay down a fresh coat below the sink where all the new equipment is going. Sweating in the hot cabin and my skin is breaking out everywhere in rashes from the chemicals I’ve been exposed to. Chest, arms, and neck are burning up.

We make a trip to town for more paint and boat supplies. Billy has been looking for a guitar so we stop at the only shop in town. He finds a sweet little beauty. An acoustic guitar that you can plug in as well. It will be perfect for recoding with and jamming on the boat. Its a bit smaller so it will stow away nicely on the Struggler. He also brought a little tool that fits on the nut of an acoustic guitar. This way he can make a ‘slide"‘ guitar out of any guitar. Dang thats cool!
Our boatmates from Colorado offer to take us to San Carlos for a live band tonight tonight. We join and make the 30km to another planet! We arrive in town when the sun is just setting over the mountains surrounding the bay town. Everything glows in bright golden hues with so many copper and brown shades. People walk around with excitement and the homes and stores are lit up. Complete opposite of Guaymas. We park at the harbour and walk the boardwalk. Gorgeous. Boats everywhere. This place will most definitely be our first anchorage when we splash into the sea in a few weeks. I originally planned on hauling out in San Carlos but now I know why the price was double here. Glad the choice was made to stay in the dusty ghetto so we can actually get the work done on the boat without beach distractions.

We sit down at a round outside bar and enjoy the sweet sweet sounds of The Dudes band! Lovely peeps everywhere. We enjoy a few bucklets of cervesas. All the seats are full so we join a round table with a middle age, well dressed fellow saying hes expecting friends at some point. Those friends never arrive so he opens up his circle of seats and enjoy a great night. On the way out he demands to pay the bill for us all. We all try and hand him 500 pesos and he says absolutely not. It’s rude to offer he says. He covers the entire bill and our trusty Designated Driver ‘Skeeter’ makes the drive back to our little dustbowl. 13 years sober he’s the man making better decisions in life.

Guitar up on deck sends us deep into the night.

Oct 27

Up at 7 and a little hazey. Slower moving Sunday morning. I might just miss church again today. Dang
We spend the morning on electrical ands what a f*cxin mess it is. Bull climbs the mast to remove the anchor and steaming light. They are both not working or getting power. He runs the wires down to the bottom of the mast inside the boat and figures out a few problems that need some attention. A bad ground and some sloppy workmanship disappear in the rearview mirror and we move forward with another small project checked off the list.

The afternoon heat is too much to get anything done so we make the 3km walk to a nearby beach/harbour that was destroyed in a hurricane a few years back. It looks like there were originally 4-6 long docks for boats but now its all a wreck. Garbage everything and stray dogs is all we see in this area.

Back for 5pm. I lay out some masking tape on the hull of the Struggler and begin the bottom antifoul painting. Working quickly to stay on the bright side of the day but the sun is quick behind the westward mountains. Running out of time but the temperature is right for curing this paint overnight. I would typically start a project like this early in the morning or in the daytime but with the direct sunligt on the boat ALLL day, this was the only time to get this laid down. 2 hours in and the hull is almost done! Billy cooks spaghetti and hops out for a rush finish. He brushes the hard to get areas and by 7:30PM our first ever bottom paintjob is complete. Shes got a nice clean booty! Looking foreward to seeing it in the morning.

9pm. Journaling until late. Skinny Dyck from Lethbridge Alberetas new album came out today so that makes this night just perfect.

Night.

“Take care of the boatyard, and the boatyard will take care of you”

I seen this flipped over sailboat in the news today. No info behind it.

Oct 28
6am. Instant coffee. Misty morning with a thick dew on the boat! Temps must finally be dropping. The first clouds we have seen in a week are creeping over the mountains. A nice cooler morning. We watch Skeeter and Amanda splash in and sail into the mist. Hope to run into them in the Sea. I believe they plan on staying in this area for a month or two.

Today we finish installing the ice box to refrigerator conversion kit. We test it out before locking it down and the fridge starts to cool! Such a relief. I start on the saltwater foot pump that will be used for dishes and cleaning up in the galley sink. Looking through the original Islander manuals shows a slatwater pump from factory but besides a little hole in the floorboards, theres no sign of this feature. No problem, installing a new one.

We go look at a rowboat dingy for sale in town. Its listed for 5,000 pesos ($350CAN) but was in far too rough of shape. Figured they would be plentiful around here.

Back at the boat we continue on the grind into the evening. T̶a̶s̶k̶s̶ o̶n̶ t̶h̶e̶ j̶o̶b̶l̶i̶s̶t̶ are d̶r̶o̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ l̶i̶k̶e̶ f̶l̶i̶e̶s̶.
Journaling.
Night.

Oct 29

Work.

Playa.

Oct 30
6am Coffee. Billy named his guitar Patty and plays up on deck in the mornings. We get a lift to a beach and hike with a few friends. We explore a place called Estero “El Soldado”

Back to the dustbowl by 1pm for the afternoon work shift. I tackle sanding the royal blue strip along the freeboard. I’ve decided to paint all the Royal Blue into a rich Navy Blue. Billy finishes sanding and applying the first coat of teak oil on all the exterior wood. Huge project knocked off the ever expanding list.

I obviously knew that purchasing a cruising boat out of the country in a spanish speaking state would be a yuge undertaking. I tried to stay calm with it since April and took it all in stages. When we arrived here last week I made conscious thoughts on breaking the jobs up into parts and compartmentalize the tasks somewhere in my brain…. Today it’s actually starting to hit me how almost unobtainable this project is.

To me it feels even bigger than buying a house back home. With this project there’s everything on a house like plumbing, electrical, woodwork, trims, paint of all shapes/types/colours, keeping the inside dry, plus you add in a diesel engine, maintenance, sails, and rigging to run the whole rodeo.

“Stay on budget and don’t fuck anything up”

The only way to navigate this right now is to not think of the entire scope of the project but just stick to small chunks and picking away at chapters of the book instead of the entire novel. To be honest its slightly daunting and a bit overwhelming at this moment. There’s nothing to complain about I mean people have kids, make families and get overwhelmed all day long. I shouldn’t even be typing this out but its my journal in this is my tiny slice of the universe so that’s that.

Maybe we just need to go sailing or something…

“This is messy business, but the mess is surely mine”

We cook a big meal over the charcoal bbq on deck. Large prawns on skewers, veggies, onions, rice and a homemade cucumber salad. Best meal yet in Mexico bar none.

Cucumber Salad Recipe

-1 half cucumber chopped
-2 tomatoes chopped
-Half onion chopped
-Fresh garlic minced
-Dash of hot sauce
-Dachshund of green salsa for taste
-2 limes
-Cilantro

Billy goes to bed at 8:30 and I find myself researching marine diesel engine oil and fuel filters and typing out this journal at 11:19

.Night.

Oct 31

Last day of October. Halloween doesn’t appear to be celebrated here. Just the Day of the Dead which is celebrated by the youth on November 1st and then by everyone on the 2nd.

My day is spent walking to town from store to store on a wild goose chase. Trying to find marine paint for the boat and not speaking Español is tricky. The work on the boat isn’t the hard part its the sourcing of tools and parts in this town. Its like we have the skillset but not the toolset to get everything done just yet. Its all part of the experience of working with what you have available on hand at that momemt.

Walk 4km back to the dustbowl.

No tricker treaters in Marina Guaymas. Haven’t seen a tourist in Guaymas yet!

Boat name “Thats What Sea Said”

Nov 1

Day of the Dead for the youth.

Seen a hummingbird first thing.
Full day spent here in the dustbowl. Exterior wood is fully complete and the bright blue strip around the freeboard is sanded and ready for painting this weekend. We start messing around inside on the teak floor that needs complete refinishing. Temps are finally bearable at night and decent in the day. +29 today.

I start installing something called the Windvane autopilot. This is one of the most exciting pieces of equipment on the Struggler. The Windvane will enable us to steer with a a fully mechanical autopilot that requires no power at all. I clever piece of equipment invented for ocean navigation in 1968 by Derek Daniels, an engineer from Nottingham, England. He made it his life’s work. It uses the wind angle in relation to steer the boat in the direction you are pointed. This could be like having another crew always steering.

Our Dewalt orbital palm sander we brought down has burnt out. Woof! So the entire day until 7pm is spent on hands and knees hand sanding.

Navy boat paint has been secured. Tricky Spanish translator app used on the phone to make this happen. I also purchased 1 pint of marine negro (black) paint to refurbish and paint the aluminium toe rails along the entire upper deck of the boat. Toe rails are a feature I really hoped my first cruiser boat had and now they rest under my feet.

Nice walk on the boardwalk tonight. Locals are out but not many of them. Everyone likes to go home when darkness falls over town. We have heard from many sources that the cartel is dangerous at night here in Sonora. We will not gamble and try to stay in at nights.

Nov 2
Day of the dead ☠️

Up at the crack of dawn. We move everything we will need this weekend out of our berths and up on deck. Our first lick of teak wood stain goes on at 8am. What a great look and feel. Teak wood is so hard and robust. Lovely wood to have throughout the Struggler. Appears to last forever.

.Coffee.

10am we are off to San Carlos to “hopefully” meet Debbie and grab our autohelm we had shipped to her a few weeks back.

After sailing with Max last December from LA to Mazatlan and using his CPT autopilot for a month straight, I knew this rock solid brand was going to be right for me. There are cheaper and much more expensive cruise control manufacturers but this one is extremely simple, can be serviced at sea, and is known to last for years on end without missing a beat. But a $3,200 piece of equipment shipped sight unseen to a lady in the states that drives it over the border to the marina was a bit crunchy you could say. Since the import fees into Mexico are insanely expensive we take the word of the other cruisers in the boatyard and send the unit to Debbie to bring down. What a stressfull few weeks with no reply from her whatsoever. All we had was an address to send to.
When we show up in a dirty old derelict parking lot with this tiny old lady smoking a dart. She doesn’t say much and points to a box under a dead tree in the shade... We see the CPT box and the excitement is great. She charges us $400 pesos ($28/CAN) and we walk off towards the beach with the biggest smiles on. Another big piece of the puzzle worked out. FEWF

This is our first real day off in 2 weeks. We grab a siesta and a dip at a local playa. Perfecto.

!Estoy tan cansado!

Fish tacos for lunch.

We stop at a brewery called La Zurda Beer Co. This is one of the coolest bars Ive ever seen. The artwork fills the walls and the outdoor seating wraps around trees and feels much like the buoys at home at Sea Change Brewing Company.

We run into a few friends we met in Guaymas!

Ride home and off to bed.

Cool boat name “Bear North”

Nov 3

7am coffee. Full day is spent sanding, prepping, cleaning, and painting new Navy blue strip on boat.
Its a nightmare product to work with. Was a struggle all day to get the paint onto the boat before curing in the pot. I asked for a printout of the specs at the paint shop but couldnt get through to them. One good thing is the paint is very hard and probabbly wont be gong anywhere soon. It’s on there.

By 7pm I was all done 2 coats with a big sand in between coats to try and smooth out the bubbles and texture left from the roller. In the end it looks okay but spraying would be ideal. We will take it for now.

Second lick of teak stain inside is complete.

BBQ dinner up on deck and early bed.

Nov 4

Up at 4:45 Stomach grumbling bad all night. Almost slip right off the toilet in the morning. Yuuuuf.

7am-1pm.

New CPT autohelm is installed and wired in. Very happy with the results! The customer service down to the professional product these guys offer is superior. It feels good to support a made in American small family business. This will be huge for the Struggler journey.

Remainder of the day until dark is spent cleaning up navy paint and overspray. I’m not happy with my job on this part. It will be just fine but I know it could be done better. Billy says no one will ever see the navy when we are reeling in a giant Marlin off the stern. Good point.

I crawl down into the starboard laz·a·rette (which is basically our engine/electrical room) and clean up lots of wiring. Add a bunch of zip ties and strapping to the walls and get this place back into shape. Overall the electrical is pretty decent and could be MUCH worse. We aren’t starting from scratch or anything but it does need some work. Lots of this can be done at sea.

Evening is spent cleaning the interior while Bulls out on a hot date out of the city. Jaja.

This ship most surely can sail to New Zealand. ♡

Nov 5

“On the road ahead, signs offering a nice bed, wander in the stars, a little longer.
Call me in the evening, you don't need a reason, I can listen all night long, without knowing”

Full day in the dustbowl. Struggler come from the factory with rails along the entire upper deck called toe rails (tow rails?). I loved the idea of having these before purchasing the boat. They are used to secure anything to the upper deck of your boat. That may be water jugs or spare jerry cans of diesel. You can also grab a quick rope and tie the boat off to a dock or ledge in a hurry. Great thing to have built in! These rails are in a bit of a rough shape so today was spent sanding, re sealing, and painting the starboard rail. Big day but not much to show in the end. They come from the factory with hard coated anodized finish so Im not sure how well this acrylic enamel automotive paint will hold up on them.

The boatyard is starting to come alive. Each day one or two new boats are hauled over form the storage lot and we get to meet new faces of travellers around the world. We have new neighbours right beside us from Washington, USA. A younger couple younger than us have sailed down to Mexico from Washington. Also met an older couple from Brisbane, Australia. They have been cruising since 2008 and have done the ‘ring of fire’. Australia, Indonesia, Asia, Japan, Alaska, Canada, United States, and now in Mexico. The next trick for them is the Panama Canal from West to East. I love meeting these folks and hearing the stories of traveling the ‘wrong way’ through the ocean. Doesn’t appear to be any wrong way in the water..
They now only travel home to see the grandkids. Wow.

Night.

I knew from sailing how special this trip could be.
Rollin,Rollin,Rollin
Gathering no moss

Nov 6

Sun comes up. Sun goes down. Toe rails are finished and in the past. The to do list is now only 1 page long. Scratch

I stepped in the tray of black acrylic enamel paint.. It’s time to go sailing.

Im convinced this project couldn’t have happened any earlier in my life. A lot of lessons learned earlier make some of the problems here feel like nothing at all. If only we got smarter with the mistakes made in the past.

Being okay with things that aren’t perfect is crucial here and throughout this journey.

“Sí the Sea”

Nov 7.

Hottest day this week.

Finished black and white caulking on the upper deck/rails. Im sick of running up and down the ladder times a day.

Did some bucket laundry and left the delicates hanging on the lifelines.

Sometimes I leave my anchor light on in the boatyard. That way I can find my way home.

Nov 8
Up early to say goodbye to another sailing pal. Wes from Duncan, British Columbia, Canada launched his boat and made his way onto the blue. Lucky bastard. “Get on the blue”

The time has come to finally start tackling our Isuzu diesel engine maintenance.

I haven’t had the brain capacity until now to start thinking about the engine. This project has to be broken apart in pieces. We read through the manual and run inventory on all the spare filters aboard. We luck out by finding 2 new oil filters in the box and also 2 out of the 3 fuel filters still on board in the original box.

We drain the oil, replace the filter and top up the oil with new oil that was also onboard (bonus!) The engine took 4L to fill. We replace the water separator, install an in line fuel filter. We finish by flushing the entire coolant system from top to bottom. Lots of scaling in the lines and especially the heat exchanger so we rinse it out well and top up with new coolant. Next on the list before we launch is go over all the hoses and clamps to make sure we are fit for sailing sideways out there. Once we leave the hard, we are are on our own with what we have in that moment. Many nights now are spent up at 3am thinking about what is needed and what can happen. It’s a bit of stress but this is part of the journey to the sea.

The afternoon is spent running around town sourcing a last fuel filter and other miscellaneous parts. Cant find the canister filter anywhere in town so it will have to be sourced later on once we splash. Back to the dust bowl we stain some new floorboards, make a dinner, and rest.

’Both feet on the ground.
Looking across the bay at the lights of the small town.
On the homestretch now.’

Nov 9

Drive all the way to San Carlos (30 mins) for the monthly Marina swap meet. Arrive at 10:15am and see the tables and chairs packing up. Vendors loading the vans and moving on. The market is once a month from 8-10am! Well shoot. That’s a bit of a ‘Miss Adventure’
So we hit the thrift store circuit and snag some goodies. Blankets for the boat and other miscellaneous tools. The evenings are actually starting to cool off so a top sheet will not do out on the big blue.

6 pack and the playa. Saturdays are for the Buoys.

Back to the dust bowl. Billy continues working on our electrical and rebuilding the steaming light. I mark out the chain and start painting colours to show different heights up the chain. I have seen a few great techniques for depth sounding on the chain over the years. Now with my own boat I need to come up with a technique that I want. Sticking with the theme of working with what we have now, I come up with a plan for marking the chain. We will spend the next 6 months “field testing” this this and sea how it works out in the end. You need to start.

I have seen captains place small coloured zip ties on the chain. Also have seen spray painted chains with colours. Im sure they all work but what will be the most durable and simple?

I have 100 feet of chain and 3 good marine paint colours so here’s the plan. The first 30 feet of chain will be ‘white’ the next 30-60 feet will be baby blue, and the last 60-90 will be navy blue. I mark off spots and dashes every 10 feet and lay on the paint.

Our primary anchor is a BRUCEY 35lb

100’ of 3/8” chain.
120’ of 5/8” rode (rope)

Nov 10

Bunch of random small projects. We are struggling with some electrical now. Re-wiring lots of negatives/grounds from the main panel to other systems on the boat. Some odd things are happening and Bill figures a grounding issue. The negative/ground wire could be the culprit here.

Chain and anchor is triple checked and ready to get packed away. This job needs to be scratched off.

Found what could have been a pretty bad flaw in the boat this evening by complete mistake. When I was refilling the coolant in the engine I decided to wash down the engine with soap and water. That water went down into the bilge which isn’t a problem but I have the bilge pump off at the moment until we get out to sea. So the water level went a bit higher than normal. Later on while outside under the boat, I noticed water coming out of an old thruhull on the keel that houses the speed log fin sensor! This thing is basically an old school piece of equipment that spins in the water and shows your current speed. I didn’t plan on using the log for speed so we didn’t even check the thruhull or the plastic log itself. We checked every other fitting on the boat except that one. Turns out it’s breaking apart and cracking and is majorly leaking! The thing was basically breaking apart and cracking if you looked at it wrong. The only reason I noticed it was water was leaking OUT of the boat onto the boatyard dirt HAHA
We have a real good laugh at ourselves “dry sailing” in this dustbowl and still managing to leak water!? what the fuck is wrong with us. and what is actually happening here. This could be the first signs of cabin fever. Will report back.

So if we didn’t find this problem today, water would be coming INTO the bilge and would need to be pumped out regularly. Tomorrow I’ll need to seal that up or plug it off somehow.

We made no forward progress today. Only a few steps back. That is okay and most definitely part of this journey. Theres no day without the night. I have to be honest its a bit of stress. Up at 3am each night thinking about systems.

I cleaned up the galley well before bed. The dishes were finally done inside in the sink for the first time tonight because our new plumbing pipes and sink drain are all complete with a new thruhull. The grey water and food scraps land in a pwil under the boat but hey its progress!

Oh yeah I sanded and finished this most amazing flagpoll that was in one off the bottom compartments. Its great looking. Bill says we should fly a Trump 2028 flag to troll the Americans out at sea.

Nov 11

Up at 5am. It’s a new day and time to get on.

Read a book and have a coffee on the new cushion covers made by my Mother (thank you Mum) These are absolutely perfect to spend time on. She really made this little boat a home. ♡

My little commute from the couch to the upper deck this morning was made with ease. No traffic backed up on the blacktop and no one flipped the bird. I dig into the bilge and start finding a replacement for this log sensor. I explain the dilemma to Bill and he mentions he put a black rod into the “garbage pile” when we arrived. This is a pile of stuff we dont know what it is but don t scrap just yet. I explain it more to him and yes we find a replacement for the speedometer log! It appears to be a new but doesn’t actually have the paddles for the log on it. So it could be more of a digital sensor speed log. Either way, its a perfect fit into the 2” thuhull. I drill a few new holes to keep it in place, set it in, and marine silicone seal the exterior. This baby is sealed up now and wont be going anywhere this season. That job is done by 9am. Jump right to wiring. We sit down and discuss the boat and the condition some wiring is. We decide to take the rest of the day running wires from the main panel to the stern and up the mast and to the bow. We start with 2 hot wires and a good solid negative/neutrel. We are basically re wiriing a good chunk of the systems on board the ship. Not a bad idea while on the hard …

When I can lend a hand, I pull wires and flip some switches but my morning is also spent inspecting the anchor chain and the rope that follows it. For people reading this that aren’t aware of the nonsense terminology. There is an anchor and chain that keep a boat landed near shore. There is also a “backing” rope behind the chain to reduce weight yet keep length for deep depth anchoring. This rope is called a Rode. We have 150’ feet of rode secured to the anchor and stopped below in the anchor locker for the times we need it.

All of this anchoring rig is now inspected, cleaned, and stowed below the bow deck. It’s time to go sailing.

Job after job we start making progress. By the end of the afternoon Billy has every light on the exterior of the boaty working well and looking good. This includes a “foredeck” light that is 2/3 of the way up the mast. Its job is to flip on and eluminate the entire deck. These lights are obviously a horrible idea to run while sailing at night but they work miracles when changing sails or in any trouble at night. I have used them 2 times in the past few years when in a bind. The entire deck lights up and any problem can be soaked on. Our kind neighbors Liam and Heather mention their foredeck light also can switch on red so its less intrusive on the eyes at night. Good for reefing down the sails or inspecting the decks at night.

Billy signs off on the stern and bow navigation lights as well.

The bilge pump also shits the fans this morning. So we replace and purchased a backup from a boatyard neighbour. Now the bildge is cleaned out and re wired ready to go.

Shower, tacos, journaling by the Sea.

Now Im just rattling on.

“Sexy Sad”

“Im like a delicate house flower, I need my sleep”
-Roo

Nov 12

Bonus day! We planned on launching Thursday but with the wiring and bilge problems we switched our splash day to Friday at 10am. So this gives us the day to scratch the jobs away.

I feel like Joshua would have been a proud today. When I painted the boat bottom earlier this month, I kept wondering how to paint under my stilts that the boats sits on while on the hard? Obviously we can’t use the crane to lift the boat until we splash in and all other cruisers say just roll the paint on before launching when they lift the boat up! To me this makes no sense. The paint doesn’t cure in 15 minutes while you roll down to the launch at sea. What’s the point?

So I grabbed a spare stilt from across the yard, manually set it up under the boat, and move each of the 8 stilts over a bit for painting independently. This way I was able to get the entire bottom painted and cured. A few of the neighbors looked at us like we were insane. Our neighbors couldn’t believe the idea haha. It worked out!

Billy cleans and re touches all the interior wood. We found a great colour match that allows us to simply rub on the new stain and it freshens up the wood without looking too shiny or off. Its great! Sand and scuff any bad areas and apply the stain with a rag. Repeat for the entire interior. It’s a wonder what 2 hours can do on this tiny little home.

We have been avoiding our outboard dingy engine (kicker) since we got here. We did put it away running back in April but I want to service it so I change the oil, inspect the impeller, and give it a once over. I walk to town and get new petrol and propane for the boat. This kicker will not fire! I cant get it to even cough at me. Its getting fuel, and I zap my hand with a shock that shows we are most definitely getting spark! So theres only 3 things an engine needs to run. We have 2 of them. Fuel and spark. We rip the carb off and clean it thoroughly. We notice the air intake hose is blocked with gunk! Clean it out, re install, back together she fires up with the first pull. And that’s no joke. “If it has a pull cord, we’ll pull it”

When I bought the boat in April, there was a big blow up dingy aboard. Its large, takes up so much space on the boat, heavy, and leaks badly. I do want to find a small solid rowboat/dingy. We will keep our eyes peeled on the rtreip down the Mexican coast. Casey did mention there was a spare dingy in the boat. We blow it up to find a rad little old 8’ foot inflatable. It has oars and a wood floor. This will make a perfect Snuggler for the Struggler. ☺️

We walk the dingy down to the water with smiles from ear to ear. Walking by 10 boats at least and anyone thats out looks back with smerks and good luck wishes. They all know the feelings right now. We launch the Snuggler and head across the bay towards town! In a moment the 2.5 horse power engine ripps off the transom and Billy has a good handle on it as it spins out of control! I lashed the engine down beforehand just in case but Billy keeps it out of the water! We share a fuckin laugh and row our tiny boat home.
It turns out we ripped the engine off the transom of the Snuggler. The original owners actually riveted the mount from metal to wood which is so odd to me? How is that even possible. So lesson learned. We should have inspected this before. sea trial.
Back at the boat we rebuild the transmon and consider it a job well done. Night out on the town tonight. Few cervezas.

Even though the boatyard can be a dusty and a nasty place, it’s also filled with charm. It’s so funny looking out at all the people with hardly any clothes on kneeling on the dirt and running power tools with no cares. There’s no rules and no one gives a flip what you do. You build what you need all day and wear a smile while you do it. Each person or couple have a dream and have things to get done.
My upbringing with Dad had a huge part of why this place feels so comfortable. You use the tools and the lumber on hand to make a small dream come true.

The people here are all friendly and there’s a group chat on WhatsApp for for tools, advise, and any other odds and ends for parts.

Inspiring watching people making stuff and working on things. There’s no safety gear and no one says no to your crazy fuckin ideas. Mexico is the place to keep your head down and work on you and your family. Dont ask questions and dont pry into your neighbor's life.

“I’ve never went on a 3 week tropical vacation without a full day off before! This is an experience”

“I know I’ve been a stranger lately”

Nov 13

We’ve been waiting weeks for this day. Rigging day!
8am-3pm is spent up on deck pulling the lines and sails out of storage below. A few climbs up the mast to start by getting the halyards back through the mast and into place. Everything goes surprisingly smooth. We rig the entire running rigging in about 6 hours. It will be easier next time but we are still learning about how things work around this joint.

It’s become apparent how many things had to go right just at the right time on this project. I banked on a positive attitude and some hard work to make this project work. I feel fortunate that some things work out. We are lucky to be here experiencing this.

FaceTime date with nieces and nephews tonight.

Taxi driver says Kings of Leon is the best band ever. Is he wrong though?

“I’ve got a warm dog at my feet and a mug full of brewsy”