09/24/2011, Columbus New mexico
Since our last blog a lot has happened. In October 2010 Russ had hip replacement and one week after his surgery I had emergency Gallbladder removeal. After recouping from that we left Duchesne Ut and headed south. Our time was spent in Sierra Vista Arizona and surrounding area. The only thing it is missing is the color green.
We headed back home in June and spent the summer following up with health. All is good in the health area.
As you know "Smoke - N - Blues" has been up for sale. While we were waiting for a buyer we were busy with starting the next chapter in our life.
First the toyota camery wagon needed work and the cost was more than the cars was worth. So we decided that we would trade the car for a truck. We purchased a Chevy Silverado 2500 HD. Then we went out to look for a bumper pull trailer. We found the trailer and sold the Motorhome to purchase the 29' 2009 Keystone Mountaineer trailer. It had been used three times. What a find. Nice little appartment. We also purchased a gocart "Hammerhead" toy.
Now it is time to head south. We ended up in Columbus, NM volunteering for the Columbus Historical Society. We have been here since Oct. 4th.
We headed south to leave the cold and snow in Utah. What a joke. We have learned that its not how far south you go, it's the elevation that maters. Columbus, NM is at 4000 feet. We are 3 miles from the mexico border. We have had freezing temperatures and even snow twice. Next year we will head to lower elevation.
We have friends that have Rzr side-by-side OHV (off highway vechiles). We got bit when we meet them at Coral Pink Sand Dunes last year. Since we could not afford the Rzr we purchased the Hammerhead. The first short trip was with our good friends Liz & Bert up in Providence Utah. We drove out their driveway and down the street to the trail. Up the trail a short ways and took a break. Then it did not start. Bert and Russ figured it out and to work they went. They bypassed the celinoid and then it started and back to the house we went. Russ went and purchased a new fuse housing and we are back in business.
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03/11/2011, Sierra Vista, AZ
Greeting to all. Sorry it has been so long since the last blog. We are still hanging out in Sierra Vista. The house sitting ended early. Since then we have gone down to the boat twice to off load it and list it with San Carlos Yacht Sales. Since then we have gotten in contact with Russ's aunt and cousin, both live in southern Airzona. Since we have been in the RV we have replaced all the tires and heater, installed 98% UV snap on shades, made a covers for our port a boat dinghy, seats and transom.
Today we headed up to Coronado Monument Cave. It was a 500 foot climb in 3/4 of a mile. The cave is 600 feet long. You have to climb down into the cave. Russ went in first while I watched the dogs and then I went in. It was a steep climb down in. Photos to come.
Russ has fully recovered from his hip replacement and I from my gall bladder removal. He still has some VA appointment that keep us here until the end of the month. Then we shall see what New Mexico has to offer.
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Good luck in all you do...
12/01/2010, Sierra Vista AZ
December 1st finds us on the road to Sierra Vista. We arrived at Bill and Linda's house where we got the motor home settled. They have a beautiful place. The fur butts (Taco & Lucy) really enjoy the back yard. They can run until they drop.
Today is December 7th; we have been here for 7 days and have seen havalinas (wild pigs), road runner, and many birds. The neighbor said there was a sighting of a couple cats. Now we are not talking the household domestic kind. No we are talking about the wild mountain cats. So I guess we will not let the dogs out at night unsupervised. We have been learning the household stuff that will need to be done while Bill and Linda are gone. We have also been exploring Sierra Vista to find out where what is available.
We have been staying in Sierra Vista house sitting. Since we have been here we have seen a couple of deer run across the back of the backyard fence, bunnies hop across the front yard and on the way back from the Tucson Airport at about 2:00 am and ten miles from Sierra Vista we saw laying in the center of the right lane what looked like a misplaced lane marker. As we approached Russ changed lanes to the left lane and the lane marker got up and ran off the road. It turned out to be a cougar. This morning (Dec 28) I got up early to use the bathroom. On the way to the head I let the furbutts out to go potty and continued to the bathroom. While sitting on the head the furbutts started barking nonstop. I got off the head and looked out the door to find a deer smack dab in the middle of the back yard feeding on grass. The deer did not seem to afraid of the dogs because he just leisurely walked over to the fence and jumped over it and took a couple more steps and stopped and looked back before deciding to graze other pastures. That is pretty much the excitement here.
January 1, 2011, Happy New Year. Here in Sierra Vista, 2010 decided to go out like a lion. We knew a bad storm was coming so we took down the hanging chairs, moved things that we thought might get damaged. The wind blew so hard that night it woke us up. When we woke up in the morning it was snowing and we could see the damage left behind from the wind. One of the wrought iron chairs was tipped over; a plant was blown off its stand and broke the pot, the rug out side our bedroom had been blown over to the Barbeque, the rug by the kitchen sliding doors was half blown over and the hot tub fabric cover that was snapped down, was blown off and carried about five feet. There were weeds in the Koi pond that blew in from the outside of the fence. A Fry's plastic bag decided it liked the Mesquite Tree so much that it anchored itself to it. The temperature had dropped so low and we were cold even in the house. It was a bone chilling cold that took a while to warm up.
I found another pot for the plant and Russ scooped all the weeds out of the koi pond, Phil helped and the yard was put back together in short order with the exception of the Fry's bag. Phil tried to get it out but the bag had other ideas. Last night was the coldest, down in the teens. The fish pond had ice in it. He took care of the koi filter and turned the pump to high for a while to get the water circulating. Today's high is a whopping 41 degrees.
Well, so much for heading south to the warmer weather. We shall see what the future brings.
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11/19/2010, Arizona
We drove to the Roper Lake State Park and the price for dry camping was $15.00 a night so we opted for a free BLM spot. We ended up at Gila Reptilian day site where we spent the night. The next morning the volunteer ranger came by and asked us to leave. Before we did that we took a drive to try and find the camp ground. Now that was a story in it self. The road was all gravel and wide enough to fit one car. Our SUV barley fit is some places. We only found the day site. One place it was a 15% grade. Thank goodness we did not take the motor home down that, not sure she would make it back up. After getting back to the motor home we moved down to the airport to stay. We had to get permission from the city manager to do this. We stayed there for three days. Mom and dad went over to the Roper State Park for the three days. They have a rock hot tub that is feed by a natural hot spring; although small it was pretty nice. The showers were nice there also. We had thanksgiving over at moms' trailer. I fixed the turkey, stuffing and bean bake and mom made the rest. A great thanksgiving was had by all.
We ended up at the Double Adobe RV Park for a couple of days. We go RV'ing like we go boating. We anchor out 99% of the time and go to a marina to wash the boat, take on water and do laundry. With the RV it is the same. Pull into the RV park to take on water and dump the black, gray water and do laundry. Then move to a primitive site to enjoy what it has to offer ie... wildlife, wilderness, rivers etc...
While here at the RV Park the temperatures are in the teens at night. The elevation is about 5,500 feet. I guess we need to move to lower elevation for warmer temps. Double Adobe is about 15-20 miles from the border of Mexico. The heater has been pretty temperamental and has a mind of its own. It works great for a few nights and then decides to not work in the middle of the night around 3:00 am. We know it has a sense of humor because it quit on the coldest night which was 11 degrees, thank goodness mom showed me how to make hats on the round loom. I had just finished two hats when this happened. So for a couple of night we put the hats on for sleeping. That worked great.
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11/13/2010, Utah
Well tomorrow is today November 13th, 2010 and we are up early to pull into the spot to get the tire changed. As we are starting the motor we notice that there is a truck pulling out of the spot we are to pull into. We get the levelers set so that the tire turns freely. Russ goes into the garage and nobody is around. We now play the waiting game. A couple of semi trucks pulled in and Russ talked to one and he said that the guy that was here got called out to help someone on the road and that the other guy will be in at 11:00 am. We are now sitting and hoping that someone comes in before then and that they have our special socket.
At about 10:00 am the guy shows up and he has the socket and starts working on our tire straight away. $267.00 dollars later and at 11:30 am we drive away heading for moab. We arrive in Moab and start looking for the campground. We finally found the street that leads to Sand Flats campground. You have to make a few turns in town before finding Sand Flats Road. This road winds up a steep incline and it costs $10.00 per night and the facilities consist of a pit toilet (shack out house) and a place to park. What a rip off. We chose this site because of the amount of spaces that they had and the amount of campers and RV's that we saw. We spent two days here while we check out the surrounding areas. We went for a little walk around the campground and there are a lot of fresh Cat tracks. This is our first night at Sand Flats.
Today is November 14th and we hop into mom and dad's car for a day drive. We drove the La Sal Mountain Loop road. This scenic byway took us through desert on up into the mountains to the snow line. We stopped and to let Taco and Lucy play in the snow. They have never played in the snow before. Lucy kept burying her nose as deep in the snow as if to find what was underneath. Taco just kept smelling it and wondering what that white stuff that he was walking on. As we were driving on the other side of the mountain we were on a road covered with snow, this is where we saw two mother deer with their little babies cross over the road. They saw Lucy through the window and made haste. Lucy on the other hand thought it was great fun to see them. While we were up in the snow line we could look across and down into the valley and see the red desert rock bluffs. This truly one of the best drives we have taken. One can only imagine what it would look like in September or early October with all the season changing colors. We will have to come back this way one day in autumn to see this. On our way back from the drive we stopped by the Goose Island Campground which only has something like 18 camp sites. There were only three RV's and a motorcycle camper. The camp host told us the fee was $6.00 per night and they had a bathroom not a pit toilet. From what I heard it was real clean, stocked with toilet paper and did not smell. That is a big plus. There were nice trees. So the plan was made to move to Goose Island tomorrow.
November 18, 2010 which is Monday we move the motor home over to Goose Island. We just get the motor home backed in and the wind started to blow. Mom and dad stopped in town before coming over. As they arrived the rain started and while I was directing them the rain started to pour, this lasted for about a half hour and then the sun came out and we took another drive this time we took the potash scenic byway. Since we got a late start we headed to Wendy's for an inexpensive lunch first. This drive was magnificent. Can you say Vertical??? These rock walls were straight up from the ground up to about 1000 foot or more. There were numerous rock climber's climbing. The road had these rock walls on one side and the Colorado River on the other side. The Colorado River is quite low this time of year but still neat to see. We decided to stay another night at Goose Island and go to the Arches National Park tomorrow.
This drive is an all day event especially if you like to take pictures and if you are a hiker it will take you a couple of days. There are fourteen arches in the park and uncountable majestic rock formations. It goes on forever and you never get tired of looking. It went like this. Oh wow stop, take a photo and drive real slow and then you would see another oh wow and have to stop. And then you would stop at an arch and get out and walk to it and take another 100 photo's. Around every turn and straight way you would see a rock shape that looked like an animal or person or body part or what ever you imagination comes up with. Then you pick a nice scenic place to have lunch and then continue. This park has twenty five miles from start to finish and it took us about 7 hours. A must see.
Wednesday November 17th. The heater decided not to work at about 3:00 am. It was freezing cold anyway it felt that way. The ground had frost on it when I went to the trash. Not sure how cold it was. Dad and Russ took a look at the built in heater to see if Russ could work on it. At this time we do not know what is wrong except that when turned on it blows cold air, which tells Russ that the pilot light is not lighting or it is not getting propane. Now I know what you are thinking and yes we have propane in the tank. Russ and dad pulled off the front cover and looked in side. Dad ran his finger over the over temperature censer and Russ had sprayed the thermostat with corrosion block. Not sure what fixed it but we now have heat. The rest of the day finds us touring the Canyonlands National Park.
This park had some nice vistas and of course Dead Horse Point. The rest was like the country side from Duchesne Utah to Vernal Utah. We enjoyed the other drives the best.
November 18th we move on down the road. The destination was to be Blanding but the camp sites are $10.00 and the RV parks are like $30.00 or more so we decided to go to Bluff, Utah. This camp site is also $10.00 up until Oct. 1st than it is free the rest of the year. We may stay here two nights. Everyone needs a down day and our site is next to the San Juan River. Pretty nice!
You need to go to the photo gallery on our blog page or face book to really appreciate what I have written about the scenic drives.
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11/12/2010, Mexico
Hi everyone,
The below is an e-mail we received from a very good friend of our. This is every sailors nightmare. Please read and let all you know that is comming down the coast to Mexico know about the currents at this particular place. Our friend Mark is however in good spirts. This story will also appear in Latitude 38. Here is a little background on Tachyon. Mark bought her and spent many years gutting her and rebuilding her. She was in tip top condition. Now here is his story.
LOSS OF S/V TACHYON
The following is a brief recap of the recent week. Please excuse if some of the dates are incorrect. Many things have happened during the past few days and keeping track of time, especially here in Mexico, is almost unimportant.
Somewhere around 0430 on October 31, while about three miles from the anchorage at Bahia Santa Maria, Tachyon went hard aground on a sandy beach.
The chart plotter showed the light on the point just north of the Bay, and the auto pilot faithfully maintained the course I trusted to bring me to the entrance of the anchorage. A nice NW breeze and double reefed main kept us moving at about 5 knots. I was dozing lightly in the cockpit waiting for enough light to avoid entering what, to me, was a strange anchorage. Unfortunately, I wasn't fully aware of the strength of the currents in this area, which is also very shallow very far out. Daybreak gave testimony to this by revealing the remains of a cargo ship and, within a few miles, the hulls of three other sailboats.
Although on the "correct" course, the current and wind pushed me too far to the east. I awoke to the noise of the keel hitting bottom and the roar of the surf. I immediately tried to recover but the elements worked against me and I was washed further ashore. Around 0530 I sent a Mayday requesting assistance. Forgive me for not remembering the names of the first responders, the same ones who agreed to get together and form some plan of action. The information was relayed to Profligate, who left the anchorage and appeared to my west around 0700.
Richard and his crew agreed that the situation was tenuous at best and advised that they would send a shore party to assist. During this time I was being pushed further ashore by the latter part of a rising tide and the hull was now pounding on the sand and rollng from side to side on her keel. Around 0800 the first of a party that eventually reached more than 50 people arrived and suggested that we begin to strip the valuables from the boat. My hope, of course, was to get her off the beach and I wanted to remove only the most valuable items for safe keeping on shore. However, the majority of the rescue party saw what I didn't want to see. Namely, that the boat was lost and everything should be stripped before it was too late. At the end of the afternoon, after an heroic effort working on a severely listing boat, nearly everything of value was removed and placed in piles on the beach. Thanks to Andy Turpin for his organizing skills.
Robert Hoyt of Mag Bay Outfitters based in Lopez Mateo overheard the radio traffic and arrived with four or five men and three trucks offering to transport and store the gear at his place in Lopez Mateo. In the early evening we began to make plans to attempt pulling Tachyon off the beach. I spent the night aboard sick at heart and discouraged, but somewhat hopeful that she could be set free. At 2200 I awoke to the sound of people climbing aboard and scary thoughts began to run through my mind. As it turned out, these were part of a group of marines that were sent to question me, set up a camp and stand guard over the rescue effort. On the morning of November 1st, I went ashore to sort through the piles of gear remaining, get acquainted with the marines and organize my thoughts. During the afternoon, Bob and his crew worked with the rising tide, lines, anchors and trucks to reposition the boat so she was bow on to the sea and placed two anchors 500' out. Early in the morning of the 2nd, Bob and his crew used 1000 feet of line and a Panga with a 75 hp motor to try towing the boat off the beach. Although unsuccessful, we were able to see some movement and agreed to try again in the morning with bigger equipment. This week saw steadily increasing tide heights for five successive days, so we were encouraged. However, the increasing tide height also increased the height of the surf to 15 to 20 feet. I spent the rest of the day organizing gear, helping the marines set up camp to shade us from the sun and getting lessons in Spanish. We used cushions, lines, sails, whisker poles and anything else to create a comfortable place to stay, dubbing it "Casa Linda". Bob had also contacted the Navy stationed at San Carlos and advised them of the situation. During the afternoon they dispatched one of their new "Interceptor" boats to recon. These boats are large, flat bottomed, heavily armed craft with twin jet engines used for quick response drug interdiction. I was able to return to Lopez for a much needed shower, hot food and a bed that was not moving. On the 3rd, we once again tried a tow with a Boston Whaler equipped with a 300 hp motor. Although some slight movement was noticed, we were still unable to move the boat off the sand enough to free her. At the same time, the stern of the tow boat was almost pulled under and we had to abort. It became apparent that the boat would have to advance at least 100 feet to gain enough depth and get off the sand. During the afternoon, the captain of the interceptor arrived with crew, more officers and photographers. It was his intention to turn the rescue operation into a training exercise and he spent the rest of the day instructing his crew on how to attach a bridle, towing angles, testing, line dimensions, etc. The plan called for the Interceptor to arrive at 0630 the following morning with 1000 feet of heavy line. A Panga would deliver the line from him and attach it to the bridle on Tachyon. My marine guards left in the evening since there was nothing left to guard and, quite possibly, the boat would be free in the morning. I spent the night on the beach in a Panga with mixed feelings of hope and discouragement. "Hope" because of the tremendous amount of work expended, higher tides, a powerful boat standing by and encouraging words from friends. "Discouragement" by hearing the sounds of Tachyon pounding on the sand, listening to the shrouds and stays shudder violently with each impact, piles of wet sandy gear spread over 25 miles, a cold, wet, sore and sand scoured body and the sudden loss of years of work and preparation. The following morning saw an increase in the feeling of discouragement when no one showed up at the appointed time. Eventually it was discovered that the higher tide had also increased the height of the surf to 25 to 30 feet, the Interceptor had been called off on another mission and the vehicle access on the beach had narrowed to the point where driving was impossible. When I was able to reach the boat, I discovered that the lashed wheel had prevented the rudder from swinging freely and the subsequent hobby horsing and yaw had damaged the quadrant, rendering the steering mechanism useless. Water was also observed in the bilge, but I assumed it was from water coming over the gunnels and through the companionway. Later in the morning a messenger from Bob arrived on a 4 wheeler confirming what was just described. I was able to phone and discuss with him my intention of declaring the boat a derelict. After the tide receded enough to allow vehicle access, Bob's crew and I started removing everything else of value, including the engine. We returned that night to Lopez to make further plans. On the 6th, I remained in Lopez while the crew returned to retrieve the mast and anything else that may have salvage value. Upon their return, they reported finding sand in the bilge and the portlights broken from wave damage. The hull had been breached and this report finally closed the adventure that Tachyon and I had started on so many years ago. Last night I hitched a ride with a San Diego native, returning home from a fishing trip off Mag Bay. We arrived in San Diego in time for me to purchase a ticket for a flight to San Francisco leaving on the 8th.
To get an idea of the tremendous effort expended, one must realize that this beach is a narrow edge of a barrier island stretching from Punta San Lazaro north to the entrance to Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateo, a distance of nearly 30 miles. To the east of the beach is a range of inhospitable sand dunes. As the slope of this beach is so gradual, any increase in a tide narrows the width of the part able to be driven upon. The tide cycles for this week were such that any vehicular traffic had to be done in the middle of cold, foggy nights. In addition, since this is an island, all the gear transported from the boat had to be reloaded onto a pontoon ferry for a trip to the town's dock which is another hour away, where it was once again loaded onto trucks for the trip to the storage yard.
The men operating these vehicles are utterly amazing. Driving on this beach in the middle of a moonless, foggy night, maneuvering between the waves and dunes, appeared to require nerves of steel. Yet, they approached this with the calm of years of experience. I have never before been afforded such help and comfort by anyone, anywhere. These people are truly misrepresented by the US media.
Another group to whom I owe a debt of gratitude I can only hope to repay goes to the members of the Baja Ha Ha 2010. It was an awe inspiring site to witness more than 50 fellow sailors arrive by foot and car to work together for a common cause. Working on a boat lying on her side is difficult at best, but an heroic effort managed to save almost everything of value. In addition, they took up a collection and donated some much needed money that will help me get home. Without this assistance, a bad morning could easily have turned into a disaster with much more significant proportions.
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