Plan A was to pull into Cabo, check out, and be on our way. Too easy, you say, and you are right!
A day earlier, Mike had noticed what he thought might be a crack in the toggle on one of our Turnbuckles. We had spares on board, so he thought he’d quickly change it out at Cabo. However, once he took it off the stay and had a closer look, he found another, more alarming crack at the base of the T-bolt which threads into the turnbuckle. Ahlthough we had done a thorough (we thought) rigging inspection, we had foolishly omitted pulling these crucial components off for a closer look, somehow mentally lumping them into the ‘totally solid’ category despite the fact that we bought them second-hand several years ago… they just looked so strong on the surface! Ha ha, well the joke was on us. There are nine of these pieces on Picara, and all were now inspected… and several found to be compromised. Yikes!! This was really the eleventh hour and as we rolled around in the wake of the jetskis and watertaxis whizzing around us in the anchorage we kicked ourselves for not checking these bits earlier. Spirits on board were so low that afternoon that Mike couldn’t even rally himself to binocular the daily wet T-shirt contest at the nearby beach bar.
However, better to discover these things while near land and services than as your rig topples in the middle of the sea – an experience we’ve had once before on someone else’s boat and don’t wish to repeat.
There was little chance of a quick turnaround in getting new parts down to Cabo, and we really didn’t want to hang out there for much longer anyway. While the washing-machine anchorage was good training for seasickness resistance, the party atmosphere was wearing thin. Marni was getting ready to head down to the beach bar and give the wet T-shirt commentator a totally futile lecture on treating women with respect!
Luckily, the local boatyard, Cabo Yacht Centre, helped us out with a quick grind-and-weld fix on the cracked T-bolts, but our awesome buddies back home at Yacht-Tech Rigging in Sidney thought that it would really be better to have new gear, since welding is an OK quick and dirty fix but it can alter the nature of the metal surrounding the weld. Even more luckily, a friend was getting ready to come down to La Cruz, near Puerta Vallarta, this week and kindly agreed to carry our parts with him– so we upped anchor and pointed the bow toward Banderas Bay 270 miles South-east.
Another note about Cabo – our friends on Buena Vista have a brother-in-law that runs a very cool and funky hotel in Cabo San Lucas called the Siesta Suites. We went in to their café to use the internet and got a tour from Alex, the friendly owner… a great spot for anyone thinking of vacationing in Cabo San Lucas!