So starts my third hurricane season in Mexico. And to think I had not planned on spending even a season here. Star Marine finished the work on Anna Marie by Wednesday evening, May 10. Marina SECA was able to launch me on schedule Thursday morning, May 11. This photo shows Anna Marie on her way into the water. I will be keeping her in the water over the summer as opposed to being on the hard in the dry storage yard. Much cheaper up there, but I just can't bring myself to store a boat out of the water. Heck, I hate storing her. She is my home and I should be on her.

They launched me into what turned out to be a 20-25 knot westerly, which put this breeze right on my port beam. So I had the dubious luck of reversing Anna Marie down this narrow and crowded fairway with this wind howling and Anna Marie wanting to turn to port into the dinghy dock and the bow into the downwind side. It was hairy, to say the least. But I did manage to get her out of that narrow fairway (by powering her out as fast as I could go in reverse) and into the larger, but still tight fairway that would take me to my assigned slip (which they had changed. How is it that everybody else gets to reserve a slip, but I can't seem to?). And Anna Marie would not turn bow into this wind without some major coaxing. After being pushed almost to the eastern end of this fairway, I managed to get her turned full circle and powered into the wind in a fairway "crossroads" and heading towards the slip. Which was an inside slip facing the east on B dock. Which I knew I could not negotiate in this wind, so I ducked into slip B-26, the same one I had prior to haul out, and favorably facing west. And here I sit on Friday evening, May 12. I will move the boat in the morning to slip A-20, which will cost me more per month but puts my bow into the prevailing westerlies that blow through this marina. I am getting increasingly anxious to get Anna Marie decommissioned and me on a bus heading north into the states.

I have been here about a month and am not impressed with San Carlos or the marina. Lots of cruisers come here but I have to believe that it mostly has to do with how close this area is to Arizona. I have noticed that many boats have inland hailing ports. The boats are kept here year after year, occasionally changing owners. Most of the boat owners I have met have a car or truck here.

I had a boat next to Anna Marie in the work yard for a couple of days. The owner came down to check on it and in order for him to stay aboard, the boat had to be hauled out of the adjacent dry storage yard and into the work yard. The owner told me that this was his first visit in over four years. And he said he was going to sell it cause he is not using it. I wonder how similar his situation is to many of the 600 odd boats in dry storage?

From here I will catch a bus to Tucson and get back to the PNW one way or the other from there.