Stuck in Mazatlan

Sometimes it seems like we are only on a tour of boat yards and marinas. Not the cruising adventure we were thinking of. But, boy! have we had some exciting times lately. As you remember, we had to come to Mazatlan in order to have our boat hauled. No one on the Baja peninsula had a boat lift big enough to pull our 22 foot wide boat out to do the sail drive work. On Tuesday we went to a boat yard here and found out that our boat was about 6 to 8 inches too wide to fit inside the concrete enclosure of their 50 ton boat lift. Of course we only found that out by scraping our stanchions (metal railing) along the concrete as they were attempting to lift the boat. They tried a couple different scenarios, but it was all the same. It didn't fit. So they pulled out the belt and let us back away with concrete dust and chips littering our decks. No harm, no foul though, just a mess.


Thankfully Mazatlan is a huge town with a BIG commercial fishing fleet so there was another larger lift (150 ton) deeper into the maze that they call a harbor. We got an appointment to be lifted out the following morning which was Wednesday. Words can't do justice to the overwhelming rust streaked fleet of derelict fishing trawlers we travelled through, looking for the lift. The boats were stacked ten deep for a mile. We just wound our way through them looking for the blue of a travel lift. The harbor was full of trash and oil but the boatyard was even dirtier. When we found the lift, there were trawlers parked in front of it, blocking the entrance, and there was no company sign to let us know if we were in the right place. It was very confusing. But it turns out we were at the right place. Our boat fit in the lift enclosure and we were hauled out.


The boatyard was a dusty, barren stretch of land in the middle of a dusty, trash filled landscape. There was one building, one shack, about 20 dogs, 10 workers, and about 10 commercial fishermen with nothing better to do that watch the spectacle. So it was a circus. Our big concern was to find out whether the sail drive would be under warranty or if they determined that we had done something to ruin it (like run into fishing line.) We were grateful when the mechanic said that the sail drive was faulty. However, it wasn't just a bad seal like we all thought. The shaft of the drive was scored which caused the seal to fail. The mechanic decided to look at the other sail drive and he found that the other sail drive shaft was also scored and that seal was going to be failing any minute. Of course they do not have two new sail drives in inventory and so they are on order now. Our choice was simple. Either stay on the hard at that godforsaken boatyard, or put the motors back together good enough for us to motor back to Marina El Cid and hang out until the new sail drives arrive. It was a very easy decision.


So we are back at Marina El Cid. My parents who were vacationing in Puerto Valarta took a bus up and joined us here today. We are all very excited to have Grammy and Grandpa visit us here. We will be at Marina El Cid for another week or two while we wait for the sail drive parts to arrive. When our parts arrive, we will return to the boat yard and have another set of sail drives installed. After that, no plans yet.

Laura. Patrick, Jack and Rudy