If this was a confessional, this blog entry would probably begin with; Forgive me friends for I have been neglectful. It has been, many, many months since my last update, and I'm just not as good at keeping this fresh as I had hoped. To which all you kind and benevolent people would simply say: "Absolution for your neglect is easy. Hail for 3 Corona and a bottle of Dark Rum and all will be forgiven" I must say, I like the way you think.
Since our last update, Kimberley and I have both been increasingly busy with work duties, and I personally have had more travel in the last 6 months than in the previous 6 years. For the immediate future, I see no change in that, but you do what you can do, and get by always looking forward to soaking up the sun and sitting by the surf.
It has been a fun and adventure-filled fall and winter however. From engine repairs in the fall, to Christmas in both Mazatlan and La Cruz, visits from family and friends, and some very enjoyable sailing in Bahia Banderas, we have kept ourselves very busy.
We are actually back in Mazatlan once again dealing with a few engine issues. The engine is in fact once again out of the boat as we had a failure of the rings, which required basically another full-blown rebuild including investigation as to why the rings failed. I still am not 100% able to answer that question, however the new rings are actually supposed to be in to the shop today, so hopefully inside of 2 weeks, we will have our motor back on board. Fingers crossed this time all works out as planned.
Last Christmas we had great plans of departing Mazatlan for La Cruz on Christmas Even with an arrival in Bahia Banderas on Christmas Day with time to spare to make Christmas dinner. You know what they say about all great plans.........It don't quite work out. Only about 10 minutes before we were going to cast off the dock lines, the Capitainia de Puerto (that's port captian down here) closed the port due to strong and deep swells right at the channel entrance. This lead to Christmas Eve playing cards and visiting with friends with a new departure on Christmas Day. That plan did work out well, but by the time we got out on the water, the winds had all but disappeared so it was once again a motor boat trip. But we did have a whale put on, well, a whale of a show for us and we figured he wished us a Happy Holiday.
We had planned on heading further south than Bahia Banderas this year, however with all my business travel, that kind of fell by the wayside. Still, two months at anchor at la Cruz was great, and one month in the marina for our travels worked well too.
Plans for the summer of 2012 are still up in the air. Once we have the engine back and everything is confirmed "good to go", we'll head across to La Paz for a few months which will allow me to fly out of Cabo San Lucas for my business trips in Canada. Plus my niece Mandy graduates from University this June, and Kimberley and I will fly up to celebrate with her. Possible in August we will take the boat northward for the states and spend a few months up there, but that is still up in the air. We'd like to get a new bed and a few other things for the boat, but we'll have to wait and see how the schedule looks as well as the weather for a north bound trip. It's against the wind, so can be a little tricky.
I guess that is the update for now. I will try to keep more actively updating this log, and we really do appreciate your comments to know that people drop by once in a while.
Rick and Denise, it is always great to hear form you. Please let us know how things are going in Richmond.
Kate and Gordon..........still in