"Stuck" in Puerto Escondido

4-20-13 – Puerto Escondido, Baja California Sur, Mexico

AW patiently waiting at the fuel dockl

I guess the idea of being stuck in Puerto Escondido isn’t that bad, and like all things having to do with cruising and Mexico, you have to be prepared to change you plans; sometimes daily.  Really the title could be the Great Puerto Escondido bottom paint adventure, since that’s all that’s really happened since the last post.  Each aspect of this adventure could warrant its own post as everything is an experience of some sort or another.  I will say it is a good thing we have been fully acclimated to the Mexican way of doing things before this operation.  From tying up to the fuel dock a day early to ensure you actually get pulled out (this is the fuel dock that regularly runs out of fuel, but a really nice big clean Pemex tank and an attendant that is there daily just in case the fuel does show up) to getting the paint and then not getting splashed when you want to.  It’s all an adventure here.

Unlike our past experiences in the States where the entire operation is controlled by one entity, here the travel lift is run thru the marina who rents yard space to Elvin who actually does the work on the boat.  You also need to show up with your own bottom paint for them to apply to your boat.  So you pay the marina for the travel lift, you pay for the application of the paint to another guy and you buy the paint from another store in town.  Thankfully part of the upside of the world down here is willingness of people to give you a ride or help each other out.  So Elvin’s partner Dave gave Elizabeth a ride into Loreto to buy the paint and had checked on its availability the previous day.  Seems odd, as in, why didn’t he just buy it and charge us for it, even upcharge us for the delivery?  I’m not quite sure, maybe because it’s a lot of money to be out and it’s not like we signed any contract or anything to guarantee we would show up on our haul out date.  If fact except for the 25 page, not kidding, contract we signed with the marina (can you guess it is run by the government with a contract like that) we never saw anything resembling a contract and actually have a handwritten receipt.  I’m not sure if any of this is good or bad, it’s just a thing you don’t think twice about after being in Mexico for a while.

Gentle, that's my house!

So Dave gives Elizabeth a ride to Loreto to get paint in his early 90s Jeep with Sarah the dog.  Elizabeth is very excited as it takes her back to the days of her Jeep.  They stop by the bank so she can pay for the paint and Elvin’s services (remember “no cash no splash”) and then stop by the ferreteria (hardware store) where she picks up their two cans of West Marine blue bottom paint.  So I guess we didn’t get the high toxicity paint, but oh well.  On the way back Dave decides they will run out of gas.  Apparently his gas gauge sticks and it’s hard to tell how much gas you really have.  So they pull over at the last stop, a little restaurant,  before a long hill and luckily still have cell service for Dave to call his wife to bring him some gas.  An hour later a pickup truck with Nevada plates has pulled in, had lunch and is now leaving so Elizabeth jumps in with them.  They will give her a ride out to Puerto Escondido.  They just need to stop of in Juncalito, a little beach side palapa community just South of PE, to drop off some propane and wood.  No worries it’s on the way.  Come to find out, these people own a house in Golden Valley, NV just across the road from where we lived.  We actually used to run past their house and they spend winters in Juncalito and summers in Nevada.  Very small world.  In Juncalito Elizabeth runs into Elvin, the guy who runs the boat yard so she figures she’ll just catch a ride with him so the Nevada people don’t need to go out of their way.  No problem, Elvin is moving and all he needs to do is finish loading up his car drop if off at the new place and then they will grab some gas for Dave from his place and be on their way.  Elizabeth proceeds to help Elvin and his wife move for an hour or so and then they go to Dave’s and find his shed locked so they give up on that and just head back to PE.  Along the way they pass Dave, who has since Elizabeth left, had a beer at the restaurant, his wife arrived with some gas, been back to the boatyard and is now going home.  Meanwhile, I have been on the boat at the fuel dock, borrowed a crew member from another boat to handle some lines and had the boat pulled out.  Now hours later I’m getting a little worried that my wife disappeared with a guy we barely know to drive 15 miles each way to buy 2 gallons of paint, how long could that really take, but it’s Mexico so I will not get that worried until the sun goes down, these things happen when the national motto is Manana.   Needless to say it all worked out and we now have our paint and the boat on the hard.

Our new home for the next week

The actual painting of the boat went as expected and took three days as planned.  Unfortunately, the weather picked up on our launch date, Friday, and with 20 knot sustained and gusts to 30 for two days straight, the marina didn’t want to pick our boat to re-launch, very understandable.  The crane guy doesn’t work on Saturday so now it looks like Sunday is our splash date.  We had two days to kill with our boat on the hard so why not wax the hull?  Now Autumn Wind has the full paint and wax and looks great.  Any buyers out there?

View of the anchorage from our tree house

AW on the hard

Wax on

Wax off

View from our patio at the Tripui Hotel

Living on a boat that’s not in the water is a whole new experience in itself.  We’ve been pretending it’s our grown up tree house.   Climbing up and down the ladder and looking out over the anchorage from high above has been interesting, fun may not be the word.  Boat systems are made to be used in the water so doing your daily things and washing dishes are a little challenging but we seem to be making it.  We even treated ourselves to a night in the Tripui hotel up the road.  A nice little hotel, a little spooky that we were the only people there, but we had some good food and relaxed on the patio overlooking the pool and slept in a bed twice as big as the V-berth on Autumn Wind.  It was weird not fighting for foot space at the peak of the bead.

The layup in Puerto Escondido has been fun all around.  We have met many nice people, hung out in front of Pedro’s little store at the marina, socializing and having a cerveza and run into old friends from past anchorages.  You can’t walk the ½ mile to the Modelorama without someone offering you a ride and the same on the way back with groceries.  It’s been a good time but we are now excited to splash and get back to La Paz.  Let’s hope all goes well today!

Sunrise on the  mountains from our tree house