Busy, busy! 2.27.09

Jeez, we’ve been back in Mazatlan for about 5 days and it has flown by! We’ve been so incredibly busy! We arrived with an unhappy computer – which turned out a full day’s work later to be a faulty driver with our wireless Linksys adapter. Once that was up & running, I tackled the website issue. It had a hidden script on the home page that was attempting to download a virus. Oh great!! And finally, I figured while the site was down I would re-do the blog page as the archive links were not functioning properly. Work work!! Haha… But it’s looking better and I’ll be continuing to transfer the old blogs over to the new one all the while getting caught up on pictures & video uploads too. So stay tuned!

And while I’ve been doing all of that fun stuff, Michael has been tearing the boat apart! He pulled everything out of the bilge the first day we were here (his favorite task!) to clean it all out down there & pull out any stuff we didn’t need as there is a swap meet this Saturday. Cleaning out the bilge is much like cleaning out a garage or attic….you pull everything out, scrub the inside of the bilge, and then put everything back inside. That took most of the day. Tuesday we made the ‘plan’ and pulled out our list that we must complete to get the boat ready to leave for hurricane season – a 3 page document! The past few days he has spent most of the day washing sails, soaking lines, straps, bungy cords, & tie downs from the dinghy, gerry jugs, MOB pole, etc. He pulled out the anchor chain & rode and washed it, scrubbed out the chain locker, replaced some fittings on the solar panels, refastened the towel bar in the galley, took apart & stowed the stern anchor – whew!! Laundry, website updates, organizing things to go with us this summer, and researching vehicles that we can trade the Jeep in on has been on my list.

We have decided we will drive up to Alaska so we can see more of the countryside that we have never seen. But we have also decided that the Jeep just isn’t the proper vehicle to do this trip with. So we’ve decided to sell or trade the Jeep in and purchase a Westfalia or Rialta…a very small RV type vehicle. It actually makes much better sense for us to have a vehicle like that so we can use it as a camper as well. The Jeep is just too small for our needs. Our only problem is how do we sell it & buy a Westfalia in a short amount of time?! We have few options so we are looking at a couple of things right now. I have found two dealers – one in California and the other in Colorado – that are willing to take our Jeep in on trade for an older Westfalia. Now we just have to figure out which place is the better spot to stop! We will be contacting them via phone next week and figuring out what our options are. Changes are always in the air! :-) So I’ll be posting a for sale ad on the blog to try & generate interest. And if you know anyone with a Westfalia who is trying to sell or who would want to trade for a Jeep, let us know!!

And you know us…we have been keeping busy socializing since we’ve been back too. There are daily dock parties on Dock 6 now from about 4pm to dark, we went to Carnaval on Tuesday, had Pamela & Ivy from S/V Precious Metal over for drinks & appetizers on Wednesday, Steve from Warren Peace had a birthday party on Thursday,



and today us, Barry & Pat from S/V Pacific Voyager and Milan & Adrian from M/V Integrity



went to the ‘shrimp ladies’ to pick out our fresh shrimp



and then over to a restaurant called ‘Dunia’s’ where you bring in your fresh shrimps and they cook them up how you like



and serve you tortillas & beers!



It was very yummy. It was another must-do while in Mazatlan! I love this city…

We will continue to tear the boat down for hurricane season – we have 2 sails down so far, only 3 more to go. We’ve decided to remove the halyards this year, clean them & leave them down for the summer and they are filthy!! We have lots of cleaning both inside & out to prepare for leaving for the summer. Scrubbing & treating the walls, cleaning the floors & cleaning out the cupboards… work work!! We hope to leave Mazatlan around the 9th of March or so, heading up to Alaska where we want to be there around the 15th or so. In between now & then…who knows!! Hopefully lots of exploring & enjoying!

Oh….it was just announced…the pesos closed at 15.22 to the U.S. Dollar. People often ask how we can do this so inexpensively…well that certainly helps!

I wish everyone a wonderful weekend! Give me some feedback on whether you like the new SLOG…
Rene