Returning Home: back to life-on-the-hard...

Sound Discovery with a freshly sanded hull!

It's been a little over tens months since we said a rushed goodbye to our little home in Marina Seca Guaymas. We closed the gate behind us, planning on returning 6 months later (after our summer work in Alaska), and like many cruisers who sail seasonally, 6 months turned into 8, 8 turned into 10, and here we are. It's a wonderful thing, coming back to a boat. The excitement of being afloat again has been fueling our hard work these past several days ("hard work"... might be a little bit of an understatement). I forgot how much work we put into the boat before it was hauled out of the water last spring. The same amount of effort, hours, to-do lists, cleaning, scrubbing, assembling everything that was disassembled, is required to ensure a safe departure.

Rudder hug. First photo when we got to the boat.

We drove 25 hours to reach Guaymas from the Bay area (over the period of a week), visiting family and spending "kitty" money along the way. New boat purchases included: an outboard motor for the walker bay, a head rebuild kit (talk about bathroom remodels), new lines, an oven-sized cast iron pan, new sheets, several new dishes, a new swim ladder, a random assemblage of spare parts... etc. We crossed the the border at Nogales with ease, stopping only once to grab lunch at a road-side restaurant. The hustle and bustle of Guaymas was fun to navigate and made for a very exciting experience in Clif's truck. I'm off firm belief that Mexicans may be crazy drivers, but they are very KIND drivers. Maybe it's the Alaskan plates?

Long way down. Taking care while working...

We arrived to a boat very laden with dust, a mixture of dirt and bottom paint being sanded off our hull. The boat is still the same old Sound Discovery, but has required some familiarization. The wood and plastic inside the cabin walls lost all of its moisture over the year and shrunk. One can almost picture the boat exhaling and relaxing into place once it hits the water. A thin dust covered most of the inner cabin (a thicker dust on the outside). I worked room to room the first day, starting from bow to stern, cleaning all surfaces, oiling wood and putting belongings back into place. And so work commenced...

We've taken several breaks driving into town for community festivities. We timed our Guaymas visit just right, arriving the first night of Carnaval (the week leading up to Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday). Parades, music concerts, dancing, eating and vast amounts of confetti are all apart of the celebrations, making the downtown streets of Guaymas an entirely different cultural experience. I dragged Clif down to one of the four (yes, four) parades, which lasted for over three hours. We began to walk against the parade, trying to catch a glimpse of the last float, but the endless groups of dancers proceeded by trucks with generators and loud speakers seemed to continue on forever. It was like American 4th of July on steroids... and salsa. I promptly bought a crown of flowers to wear on my head, hoping it would not make me look even more foreign. From our boat (about a 10 minute drive out of Guaymas) we can hear loud dancing music long into the night, carrying across the bay. Last night I woke up to get a glass of water around 3:50am and the music still continued! Gotta love falling asleep to Mexican horns and drums blasting away.

One of the many Carnaval Dance groups in the parade.

Our boat isn't scheduled to enter the water until Thursday. We are getting the bottom of the boat sanded and painted, as well as getting the rudder touched up-- which all will get done Tuesday or Wednesday. Our friend Eric, captain of our buddy boat, Emma Bell, just arrived with his brother today, so we have company now in our race towards our cruising season.

More soon, from the water, once we finish up at Marina Seca Guaymas!

Giselle