Back in San Carlos - 10/2/09

Welcome to the Solera Blog!

Cyn and I are back in San Carlos for a couple of months. No problems on the way down with one exception. We stopped after crossing the border to pay customs duty on a transmission and a couple of other items for the boat. Long story short, we were delayed for two hours because our customs agent was not able to make sense of a simple receipt. I just stay calm and pleasant through these situations and things always seem to work out.

It is HOT though. We came down a little earlier than last year mainly to complete some boat projects before the good sailing weather arrives. May have been a bad idea. It was 107 in Hermosillo and 96 in San Carlos when we arrived. Humidity is around 80%. Quite an adjustment from Colorado weather. Our Airedale Morgan is with us and she made it clear she wants a bus ticket back.

San Carlos is recovering quite well from Hurricane Jemena in early September. Roads are in good shape and all utilities are back in operation. Evidence of the storm is still visible all over town if you look close enough. The clean up effort has been amazing.

Yesterday I met a fellow who was in the dry storage yard on his boat during the hurricane. He said the little arroyo nearby looked like the Mississippi. He was on the edge if the fast moving current watching the water continue to rise. If his boat floated off it’s stands his plan was to drop anchor to hopefully keep him in place. Imagine, anchoring out in (dry) storage. Luckily his boat stayed put on it‘s stands.

Today I successfully installed the new transmission in Solera! We were having issues with the old one binding up in forward. It was about a five hour job in extreme heat and humidity. The biggest problem was removing the hub from the prop shaft. Who knows how many years it has been since it was last removed, maybe 25? Anyway, after the equivalent of a thousand or so arm curls and ab crunches, it parted from the shaft. To add insult I used a torch to heat and expand the hub. The float switch tripped the bilge pump twice during the job… just from all the sweat.

Olaf is churning and gaining strength off the coast of Baja. Computer models show it heading this way in a few days. We’ll keep a close watch and do what it takes to be safe. It can’t happen twice in one year can it?

Ric &Cyn