On our way
11 March 2015 | San Carlos Mexico
Jay/ Sunny/ Hot
2015 blog
This year's blog will be blessedly short as all seems to be in order for a quick trip to Mexico and back. Today (March 4) we are on the 0515 ferry from Duke Point and then a quick hop to the border and to Mexico. Then we take about 10 days to commission and survey Karina. We need the extra time for the survey and to await the tides. We are tentatively slated for a March 18 splash and then March 19th we will leave for La Paz (weather permitting). At this time of year the 'Northers are all but dead. A little N wind would be helpful to push us S to La Paz from San Carlos. We are thinking about making only one stop on the way. We will likely spend a night in Salinas (on Isla San Jose) to visit Reno and Cathy. That is about a 30 hour passage. From there its a long day into La Paz. We hope to get into Marina Costa Baja (Lotta) as it is close to where the freighter will load us in Bahia Falsa. Once all that happens, we get on a plane to San Carlos, get in the car and drive like the wind to arrive in Victoria before Karina. The plane will be just big enough to accommodate the two of us without having to sit on the wing.
Once in Victoria, we will take our time to get home and then tie up in Newcastle Marina (our old digs). I was cogitating on putting a dripless seal back onto the shaft as they do well in the colder northern waters. We will need to haul out in Nanaimo to put paint on her bottom as they tell us not to paint before shipping as it is out of the water for so long.
We rolled out of bed at 0400 and hit the road at 0420 to make the 0515 ferry. It was -1C as we drove to the ferry. Hope we don't see that tonight. The dream is to find a place with a plug in so we can fire up the electric heater. The forecast is for the low 30s between Medford and Weed. Ugh!
My PSA test went very well. I bet I have the same PSA as Bruce Jenner (ha ha). Fortunately the new drug is working magic in my body. If I can get 3 or 4 more years without any other intervention, I'll have to say I've done well with this disease. Down the road looms a table and a knife. It seems a long way off from where I sit today. I am thankful for all the health I have at this point.
Anita is still the picture of health. And its a good thing too. As our marriage vows said "in my sickness and her health." Didn't say anything about her being sick. Who'd make supper?
The trip today was uneventful with one exception. Anita started driving and 5 minutes into her shift she noticed a bit of shiny plastic on the road. She attempted to straddle it to find it was really metal and made a huge bang when we hit it. Fortunately there is a collision plate that it hit and it just scratched it a bit. No real damage. She was so shaken I had to drive for an hour or two while she calmed down. I called Onstar and they performed a diagnostic on the car as we were flying down the highway and confirmed there was no damage. Anita settled down and took another swipe at driving and did a good job and offered me a much needed afternoon nap. We are stopping at a Pilot in Weed (an undoubtedly apt name for this town). The staff are very nice and are allowing us to sleep here with our electric heater plugged in. So there won't be two frozen cadavers here in the morning as the temp is going to be just over freezing. we have set the alarm for 0530. This gives us a good 8 hours sleep and then back at it.
The XM radio has been a real blessing. As well the Onstar has caused me to rethink not keeping it after it runs out. The speedo can be reset to standard or metric. As we are in the USA, we have it set to standard. We set the cruise control to the speed limit and we peel off the miles in fine style listening to great jazz along the I5.
We made it San Carlos Saturday afternoon and Karina was in the work yard. She wasn't too dirty. As the pic shows, she now has most of the rig back up.