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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

No Puddle Jump for 2012

Yes folks, we've made the difficult decision to spend another year in Mexico. John came to the conclusion that the easiest and best place to do the next round of projects on Nakia is in Marina Mazatlan. There is some delamination in the support structure for the bowsprit, a few chainplates need replacing, and, of course, a hundred other projects. It helps tremendously that he has a house sitting opportunity there from 5/19 to 9/1 which is a nice chunk of time to be able to live off the boat while he works on it (especially without having Ziggy underfoot, or trying to escape to the dock). Eric and Sherrell (S/V Sarana) have even offered to throw in their portable A/C unit for Nakia in exchange for keeping an eye on their boat while they are RVing in the States over the summer (we sold the one John used last summer and he'll need another one for the interior varnish work he plans to do).

Because my tourist visa expires on 4/18, we were thinking of staying in Las Hadas until the end of March. The PATA 5-day free spay/neuter clinic is 3/22-26 and we wanted to volunteer for that again (http://www.patamanzanillo.com/). But logistically it makes more sense for me to fly out on April 11, the same day as my good friend, MJ, with whom I'll be living in Bothell again. John will look for a weather window in mid-March to depart Manzanillo so I can help him move Nakia north past Cabo Corrientes to Banderas Bay. That will give us time to stock up on cat litter at Costco (very important!), and then I'll fly out of Puerto Vallarta to meet MJ's later flight out of Manzanillo in Seattle. John will get pick-up crew to help him with the rest of the trip to Mazatlan.

It's almost too much to think about, especially with John's requirement of putting our condo rental up for sale this summer. (Anyone interested in a nice 1BR/1B/Plus Den across from the Bainbridge Island, WA ferry terminal?!). I think it would have been much simpler and easier to load theboat up with food and supplies and sail across the ocean to French Polynesia! But I'm sure everything will work out fine and it will be fun to spend more time with my Norte Americano friends and family, and hopefully make a little money pet sitting again.

Linda