The Taco Traveler

Chemistry and I are back on the water. Drop in went well, though at the dock the engine didn’t want to turn over. There’s an electrical issue I’ve been struggling with for a while now, but this is the first time I’ve had a problem starting her when she’s cold. Usually it’s a warm start problem. I was concerned about getting her back in the water since I replaced a through-hull and seacock – the first time I’ve done that – but it’s holding steady and dry. I also had a disconcerting fresh water leak after filling the tanks last night; if one of my tanks is corroded through, that would suck. Inspecting all the water tanks is one of those things still on the to-do list, along with a thorough cleaning. I’m very slowly but surely getting things in order again, but she’s so dirty all over it’s hard to know where to start. And so few provisions, tools in a jumble, etc.... I've also been having to do quite a bit of work, so I've spent nearly every meal the past couple days over at Club de Capitanes, where they have good food, cheap beer, good service, and free wifi.

Anyway, it’s been howling here on the bay since early this afternoon – blowing 15 to 25 knots. The water is a beautiful light-blue and warm. My speed transducer / water temp sensor is saying 88 degrees, though that seems a bit high. I need to buy a cooking thermometer anyway, but calibrating the temp sensor makes a stop by a big-city grocery store even more important. I’d guess the water is 85 degrees. I asked the man at the fuel dock how the fishing was, and he says they've been coming in with a lot of fish - dorado, yellowfin, marlin.... So the warmer water is definitely going to mean some good free meals once I get out there.

Anchorage-wise, I’m deeper than I’d like in about 35 feet and with only 5:1 scope out, but the anchor has a good bite and the wind is starting to settle down to a reasonable, cooling night-time breeze. I just finished eating dinner and watching last week’s Mad Men (the Internet rules). I’ve got a decent signal here on the bay thanks to my excellent 10db wifi antenna.

Tomorrow is more cleaning, more working from el Club, drop off the scuba tanks at a dive shop for a fill, then bike to a hardware store and grocery store for some necessities.

Still haven't decided where I'm going, but the strong winds from the north were telling me to go south towards Mazatlan or east across the Sea towards Santa Rosalia. But I'd really love to head north and across to Bahia de los Angeles (LA Bay). I'm not sure I'll be back up in the Sea, so I want to be sure I see a lot while I'm here. But who knows what business and / or other trips might be necessary to distract me from sailing. Business may be another factor in where I go this trip, as I need to have Internet for some key teleconferences coming up. This is a critical time with the business and not a good time to be far from Internet and Skype.

At this time, the plan is to fly out of Guaymas again on November 14 back to Florida to see the boys. I'm not sure when I'll be back after that - no plane ticket yet. But there will probably be a few more weeks of sailing in early December, then back to Florida for Christmas, then back again to hit the Gold Coast (PV - south) in January / February. I'd love to get all the way to Zihuatanejo this year.

TT

 

Even as Gustav dies down as he rolls over the coast of Louisiana, there are 5 more potential trouble-storms out there, either waiting to form or waiting to roll in. Check out this screen from www.nwc.noaa.gov:

In one glance, you see Gustav, Hanna (which is now a Cat 1 Hurricane, should hit the coast of Georgia on Friday and then make her way north as a Tropical Depression), TD Nine, two other potential storms even closer than Nine, and another "high probability" storm just now leaving the coast of Africa. Nine will be called Ike, Josephine or Kyle depending on when it becomes an actual named storm. Most likely it will be Ike, but if the other two "low probability" storms form more quickly, they could still the first two names, leaving Nine with Kyle. Not likely, but I wanted to list the next two names because I thought it was funny that Ike and Kyle are both names from South Park. Interesting, too, that "Nana" is the "N" storm this year in the Atlantic. That would suck if Nana created havoc, as millions of small children all around the Southeast US would be angry thinking their grandmother had something to do with the destruction.
[Edit 5pm CDT - "TD Nine" is now "Ike"]

I'm still here with the boys at R's house, waiting for the weather (though I could wait forever for weather) and to figure out where / when I'm going next. I had planned to visit friends in New Orleans, but with Gustav there will likely be complications in that plan. The most likely scenario is I'll be borrowing a bike and riding / camping my way down to Key West to check out the rest of Florida. I need to be back here in Panama City on Sept 17 so R can go visit her mom. Outside of that, the business responsibilities are all do-able from the road.

Good luck, New Orleans - seem so far today that the levees are holding.

TT

12 days since my last post, and it's probably time to officially note the likelihood that there won't be any sailing posts here until late October or early November, when I return to San Carlos / Guaymas and get Chemistry back in the water for a couple weeks of Sea of Cortez cruising and then more southwardliness - hopefully all the way to Florida this time. And yes, one of my favorite things to do is make up my own words that sound cooler than the real word.

Since my last post I've been writing a lot, but mainly working on that Internet thing, trying to regain a level of financial comfort. The writing of late hasn't show up here in the blog because, frankly, I hope that someday you're gonna have to pay for it. At least $1.50 in the discount overstock book-by-the-pound bin. There are actually two books in the works, and they're such kick-ass ideas that I can't reveal them here. Okay, well, they'll both take my voice and my special bit of sappy/dream-pop/love-notes-to-reader style, I guess, to pull off, so I'll say that if you read my "I Saw You..." post, you'll get a little bit of a sneak preview. I have many of those episodes in my brain and journals, just itching to get out, and continue to have more almost every day. Call them "dating essays," maybe? Expect me to one day be hawking my book on Oprah, though to avoid a public backlash I'll freely admit on national TV that I've fictionalized some details to make myself look much cooler than I actually am.

What's next? I head out tomorrow very early from Seattle to Florida to be with my boys for three weeks, then to Colorado for a wedding, then back to Seattle late June. The posts will be less frequent than when I'm cruising, and much more about dating and literary stuff, but I'll still be here.

TT

San Carlos / Guaymas

I just learned today that it's pronounced "why-mas" after having pronounced the hard-G for a month. Oh well - at least someone finally told me. After getting Chemistry all set for summer, where temperatures here could get up to 120 (and hotter in the boat), I called for a cab from the Marina Seca office because I'm traveling heavy. As I was going through my clothes last night, packing, I just had too many shirts and pants (and yes, shoes) I wanted to wear this summer that haven't seen the light of day in Mexico. I've got my internal frame backpack, my regular rolling max-carry-on-sized suitcase, and my laptop backpack (thanks, Johnny G and Brenthaven - here's your blog mention for sponsoring me with a free backpack; twelve people just saw the brand name "Brenthaven" and two of them clicked on that link and are checking out your products right now). So, it wasn't until the guy on the phone said it would be 200 pesos to Guaymas that I decided I'd cram myself onto a bus for 14 pesos.

I actually started to walk towards Guaymas from San Carlos, which after riding the bus that far, would have been a crazy walk - like 12 miles or so. But as I was walking in the 85 degree heat, lugging my backpack, luggage and laptop, I couldn't help but think of Lawrence of Arabia and his desert crossings. I should be able to do 12 miles in only 85 degrees. But then the bus came, and I boarded last after 12 teen-aged boys, who all went to the back of the bus then watched me as I tried to maneuver all those bags without knocking anyone out or falling down myself as the bus started jerking along. I nearly got applause when I managed to get the backpack off and sit down (really, one of them yelled "Again!"). As the ride went on, more and more people crammed into that bus to where the aisle was completely full and people were almost hanging out the front door. And there I am with my three bags, wondering how in the hell I'll get off the bus when my stop at the Tufesa bus terminal comes. Luckily, a couple of stops cleared out most of the forward aisle-standers, and the nice girl next to me and the bus driver both took care to let me know that the terminal was coming up, so I had time to prepare a more graceful exit.

I'm sitting in a restaurant across from the Tufesa terminal called "La Palapa." Excellent food; I've had chips & guac (of course), shrimp tacos, a big glass of water, and I'm on my third Tecate Light. I have no idea how many hours it takes to get to Phoenix, so I'd better fill up. It was sixty bucks (US) to Phoenix from Guaymas. Then I hop on an Alaska Air flight tomorrow. I don't mind the red-eye bus trip, and I'll probably sleep well after barely sleeping last night and getting up at 6am this morning to raise the mainsail in zero wind to rinse the salt off and scrape all the barnacles and weeds off Chemistry's bottom before she gets put away for the summer.

There's a Scorpions Unplugged show on TV, and I almost feel bad that I hate it so much. I was psyched when it first came on: "Yeah, Scorps!" But it's horrible. It really is. The front row has been standing there, passively, twenty feet from the stage, not crossing what must be a taped line on the floor. Not rock-fan behavior at all. The backup singers, ala the Robert Palmer girls, sway along and coo "Ooh Ooh Ooh" for background texture on "The Zoo." There are sections of the audience swaying with their arms above their heads; it seems like a forced "I'm trying to have fun" compliance. Oh, and the average age of the audience seems to be about 20, and they're all beautiful. Half-way through just about any song so far, I feel like the Scorps must be thinking, "Damn, I didn't know our songs were this long."

"Holiday" wasn't bad, thanks to the rockin' island beat and the obviously paid background dancing chick with the black bra, white shirt completely unbuttoned, hopping and twirling. But when the rest of the audience started hopping, you could see the front row keeping an eye on their feet, ever careful to not cross the taped line that the producers said they couldn't step over. "And tilt your head back, close your eyes, raise your arms and clap and pretend this is the greatest thing you've ever seen, dammit, or you're outta here!"

It's only 6:30 and my bus doesn't leave until 10pm. But after sailing all this time, it would be crazy if I can't manage to productively kill 3.5 more hours.

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The bus ride wasn't too bad; it took a couple hours longer than it was supposed to due to a delay at the border, but I still arrived at the Phoenix airport in plenty of time. The frustrating thing was passing by the airport on the south edge of town, and continuing on for another 20 minutes to get to the bus station, then having to pay for a cab ride back to the airport. I shared a ride with a South African couple who were on the bus and who'd also put their boat into Marina Seca for the summer.

The plane ride seemed a lot shorter than it was because of a fortunate seat assignment that put me in a row with two gorgeous nurses who didn't seem to mind that after so much time trying to get my thoughts and needs across in Spanish, once freed to use English I was a blabbermouth and couldn't stop talking for much of the three hour flight. What's with all the nurses I've met lately? Maybe a sign I should be careful and remember that I'm... gulp... 40. No more front-handsprings on the sidewalk when I'm trashed, I guess.

So I'm here in Seattle now for a couple weeks trying to get some serious work done, see friends and family and clean up the house for sale. Then it's back to Florida for three weeks with the boys.

TT

I'm back at anchor off La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. Paradise Village was nice, but expensive. The moorage fees weren't bad, but the rest of the resort and resort area was priced for people on a short vacation: 42 pesos for a beer? 35 pesos for a little taco? After months of paying 15-20 pesos for a beer and a max of 15 for a taco, the prices there just put me off too much. And the marina didn't get much breeze, so inside the boat got up to 87 degrees every day, which makes it kinda hard to work. Why not work by the pool? Well... bad battery, shortage of electrical outlets. Am I complaining about heat? Sorry, I realize it's still snowing up north.

One of my least favorite things about the resort, however, was its emptiness. There are so few people around right now that it's just no fun to be alone there (having not yet met the girl from my eponymous blog entry). Empty restaurants, empty bars... it makes people-watching a lot less fun when there are no people. I think I've pretty much determined that I'm a city person. I loved Guadalajara, and I love crowds. I guess I get my fill of solitude on the boat, and when I'm ashore I need to be social. I'll go so far as to say I'll take a crowded airport over an empty luxury resort.

A new group came into the resort yesterday for a conference that runs all next week. I had a chance to talk to one of them yesterday, and they're from the Congress of Quantum Masters. It's some sort of computer program that helps tune peoples energies or something like that. This lady said she had a machine that she could program, for example, to her son's energy levels and heal his health issues from 1000 miles away. Ooooh kaaay. Well, I can probably buy into some of the energy / universe / spiritual vibrations stuff, but I'm definitely skeptical that she could make someone feel better from 1000 miles away by running a computer application on an energy machine. I have no idea how accurate my recollection of any of this is. I haven't checked out their web site and I was drinking my second very strong margarita at the time (happy hour at the hotel is 2-for-one drinks).

So I settled up with the marina this morning and cast off the lines again, exited the harbor and raised the sails for the one-hour beat across Banderas Bay to La Cruz. It was blowing pretty hard, about 20 knots with some decent sized chop, but it was great to feel the motion of the boat again. I hadn't sailed since my trip down to Manzanillo (on the way up from Manzanillo I motored the whole time in zero wind). Chemistry is in need of a bottom scrubbing, which I started this afternoon from the dinghy but I'll need to get in the water and get serious tomorrow. There is so much growth on her that it felt like we were a thousand pounds heavier and a knot slower than we should be. Add to that the fact that the growth got loose a bit on the sail over, and now is clogging the raw water intake for both heads. Doesn't sailing sound fun?

I'm considering yet another change in plans, the eight-hundred and twenty-fifth such change in plans since the plan-changing started a year and a half ago. This time I'm considering leaving the boat in Mexico and living out of my backpack for the summer / hurricane season. I'll be with the boys for much of June, and then to a friend's wedding in Colorado for several days, and then spreading myself around my company's offices in Seattle and San Francisco.... Basically, I've got a lot of visiting and state-side work to do. With all that traveling, it makes little sense to beat the hell out of Chemistry and myself making our way up the coast of Baja against wind, swells and current to pay $800/month to have her sit in L.A. while I roam.

TT

 

I've had this unsettled feeling for a while now. Well, that's stupid - I'm unsettled because I'm unsettled; I'm a transient in the most literal sense of the word. But this unsettled feeling had a lot to do with not knowing whether or not I was doing the right thing in continuing this trip all the way to Florida. I've felt for a few months that I was just unable to rush - I really wanted to stop, meet people, dive, fish, eat in lots of different palapas and cantinas; I wanted to cruise. And I've done that, to some extent. So I guess the unsettling feeling was that somewhere deep down I knew that now - or the next couple months - is not the right time to finish this trip. There are too many things pulling me: my job responsibilities; my need to spend a couple weeks of every 5 or 6 visiting the boys; my unsold home and its contribution to my dwindling (gone) finances; all compounded by my need to take it easy and enjoy the journey.

So, with the counsel of my business partners and R, I've decided that turning around and heading back to California is what makes sense right now. There will be plenty of time to travel, and to cruise with a more flexible schedule. My responsibilities right now are to be more accessible to the boys for phone calls, emails and visits. And to be more accessible to my business partners and our employees as we attempt to turn this business into "the next big thing." We're close on the business front, and the boys are doing great. Me being in Florida full-time would actually throw things into a blender as we worry about where I live and shuffle the boys from house to house every week.

So, back north I go. I will stay here in Manzanillo for 3 more days and attend Al and Yvette's wedding (they're on Sailfisher), and then I'll make my way back slowly to Puerto Vallarta or La Cruz by March 22 or 23. From there, I'll travel inland to Guadalajara for a couple days and then fly out of Guadalajara March 28th to Florida for a long visit with the boys on their Spring Break, and then return to the boat on April 10, where hopefully some friends will join me for a cruise north to Mazatlan, re-visiting San Blas and Isla Isabella, and visiting a couple places I missed on the way down, like Chacala.

After the hop across the Sea to Cabo, it will be an uphill slog, the "Baja Bash" all the way to Ensenada where I'll check out of Mexico, and then back to San Diego where I'll re-evaluate my next semi-permanent mooring. San Diego, LA, San Francisco... who knows? Maybe even something like Santa Barbara or Monterey. It's sort of exciting. For a while, anyway, California is my oyster.

TT

 

There was a time when I thought this city would be as far as I got on this trip. That I'd get here and love it so much that I'd decide to just re-settle and work, finish building the thing (the web site / technology) I've built, get a nice condo and start the bi-coastal life where I'm with the boys in Florida for two weeks and here for two weeks. If you've read my previous entry, you know that it only took me about fifteen minutes of walking to decide that this place isn't what I imagined it to be, and now I'm left wishing I could just wrap up the four or five people I've enjoyed of the hundreds I've encountered and just take them with me to somewhere that I can only hope is better, less emotionally taxing (not to mention less income taxing). But I don't know, maybe those places will suck, too. And if they do, I guess I'll move on. Or we'll move on.
 
Maybe I'm the reincarnation of the Ancient Mariner who once, many millenia ago, killed the albatross. And now, as penance, I'm forced to wander the earth and tell people how shitty their city is, and that they should stop being such dicks:

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, though Wedding Guest!
He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

Well, that's how Coleridge told it, anyway, with all the praying and the loveth-ing. But it boils down to this: Insensitivity is a crime.

At some point I expect I'll find a place that isn't too bad. A place where people don't accost you on the street and ask for "money for alcohol research" or sleep in every other doorway, where joggers make an effort to spit almost anywhere but the sidewalk, where there's warmth, and light, and good food, good people.... And probably, still, I'll move on. I hope it's always my fortunate privilege to wander the earth and seek out more of those places. Or, more accurately, more of that warmth, more of those people.

TT