Last Stop: Puerto Penasco Part 2: March 13th - 19th, 2024
First things first! It’s another video week! And yes, Zephyr is pretty much the star! Click on him to watch:
Click on photo above to watch me in action!!!
A week after we had been in Puerto Penasco it was Haul Out Day! Haul out day is the day we took our boat out of it’s natural habitat, the water, & put her on land.
If you recall from last week’s blog, the tidal difference in Puerto Penasco is vast. So we had to wait until the tide was more than high enough to go ahead with the complex operation. I think we waited almost all day. -Until 4:30 to go ahead with the procedure.
It may sound like I’m talking medically about the whole situation. But it did sort of feel like MerSea was going into surgery while we were holding her hand. I was very nervous. -Not about Cabrales Boatyard messing up or anything. I was scared I was going to do something wrong & screw the process up.
However, Salvador senior, the owner & manager of Cabrales Boatyard, explained how things would go. He & everyone else involved were very helpful. And aside from me not being able to toss my lines very well, the whole operation went very smoothly. And MerSea was on land! Furthermore, since it was so late in the day when the process took place, we were still hooked up to the crane for the night!
Awaiting the high tide.
And here we go!
Slowly getting lifted.
Out of the water!
Being towed onto land.
MerSea’s temporary home until the lift could be taken off of her the next day.
Yep. This is where we stayed the first night out of the water & on land!
The next day we got moved to our ocean front lot! Kind of cool!
A few days before leaving, I wanted to stay at an Airbnb so that we could organize things properly on the boat. It was easier to separate our stuff, that we were taking home with us, from what we were leaving on the boat.
It was a fairly nice Airbnb but only had one tiny window. I tried to not let this bother me. It did though. Thankfully, everything was super clean & fairly new. And we only stayed 2 nights.
Our Airbnb with 1 window.
One night when we were walking back from dinner we saw this:
It’s a a a…
It was actually a Space X satellite being shot up into space! Pretty crazy thing to see!
In the week following the haulout, we both tried to clean up the boat & do what needed to be done before leaving. I’m not even sure if we finished all of the tasks. I am pretty sure though, that we completed all the important ones. Now where is that list we have of things to do when we get back on the boat?…
Matt flushing out the sea water of our engine’s cooling system so it doesn’t corrode while we are gone.
Sails stowed. And almost all packed up & ready to go!
Matt sealed up the boat. Hoping she’s not too terribly filthy when we get back. That was how we last saw her before being picked up by the shuttle to take us to Phoenix. I miss her a lot. She is a really good home for the 3 of us!
Sealed up for 6 months.
So, MerSea is waiting for us to get back to her in Puerto Penasco in a few months. I’m very excited to see her again & even more excited to set sail on her again! Less excited for all of the stuff we need to do to get ready to sail her again. One of the tasks involves painting her bottom! From photos it doesn’t seem like a lot of area to cover. But if you get up close, you can see how it is going to feel a little daunting. Enough of that talk for now though. There will be plenty of time for that in the future. -Which is coming up soon!
I will miss my cave.
Thanks for looking at ALL of the photos & for coming along on our journey this season. Our journey does continue though. Next week we’ll be showing you our fun journey, in an RV we rented, to make it back from Arizona to southern California! Until then, keep enjoying your summer. -Or start enjoying your summer. -Or winter if you’re in the southern hemisphere…
