Once we'd filled our eyes, ears, and nose with the sights, sounds, and smells of the market we wandered down through the streets toward the waterfront and the Comercial Mexicana where we figured we'd get most of the things we needed. By the time we got there though, it was almost noon and the produce section was a madhouse. We'd been warned, but didn't take to heart, that Wednesday was "Especials" day at Comercial. All the local ladies were there to take advantage of Wednesday's bargains. We got our beer and pop, some cheese, and a few other things, but you could hardly walk in the produce area, let alone take a shopping cart in there. Lois and Kris bought a few carrots and avacados then gave up.
We (I guess it was really me, although the others went along with the idea) then decided to try an easy way to get our haul home - our two cases of beer and case of pop were pretty heavy to haul all the way through the yacht club. So, we went across the street to a palapa restaurant, had a beer, bought the ladies a second, then Bob and I took off for home. We walked quite a ways looking for a bus stop before we gave up and took a taxi back to the club. There we found that our Metz had had a problem, having been driven under the bulkhead by the surge. One tube was quite badly scraped, though not punctured, and a casting on the Johnson was broken. Fortunately, both were still operable; someone had rescued the ding before really bad damage occurred. Going back to the boat, Bob and I put on our swim suits and then headed across the harbor in the Metz to where the ladies were waiting. There, I held the Metz just outside the low surf while Bob carried the goodies from the beach to the boat, then Kris and Lois waded out, jumped in, and we ferried the whole load back across the harbor. I'm not sure it was really easier, but it was more fun than doing it the ordinary way.
We cleaned up the Metz, then all went over to the pool for a swim, a margarita, and some nachos, resting up after our hard day's work. In the evening we took the Hornos Base bus almost all the way out "Hotel Row" to a restaurant we were told about called the Antigua where we had a very good meal in a lovely garden setting for a very reasonable price. After that, we walked for quite a ways down hotel row. I hadn't realized what a long and busy gringo district Acapulco had, but here it was, with more fancy shops and restaurants than we've seen anywhere in Mexico. Lots of the fast food chains are represented here: Big Boy, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried, Tastee Freeze, Denny's, etc. Surprizingly, we saw no McDonald's.
* Take me and my VCR to the shop.
* Take the girl friend of another yachty to the airport.
* Take another couple who were having trouble with customs to the Tourist Assistance office.
* Help David break loose a windshield from the customs office
I was his first stop so it didn't take long. The shop was a very modern and clean place which looked very much like something you'd see in the U.S. The wall was plastered with certificates of graduation from technical schools on video equipment. Len helped me explain what was wrong with my machine, they told us they'd have an estimate at 6:00, and gave me a receipt. That was it. I thanked Len and started walking back along the waterfront to where I'd agreed to meet the rest of my crew. It's about a mile from the video shop to the Comercial Mexico and all of the big supermarkets are located in that mile: Gigante, Super Super, Blanco, ISSTE, and Comercial Mexcana. I checked them all out as I went. All are like the Super Safeways except ISSTE which has a limited range of merchandise. There are also several ice cream places along the way and I had to sample a couple. It's surprizing to me, although I don't know why it should be, that they have such good ice cream down here, as good as Baskin-Robins any day.
I met the rest of the crew at a little restaurant called El Jardin (The Garden) where we had a very tasty lunch before heading off for the open market for our produce run. Bob, Kris, and Lois were supposed to have done the shopping before we met but instead spent the whole morning changing some money at the bank. No problema, we walked up to the market and, because it was getting pretty hot and the odors were getting pretty strong, we didn't spend much time there. We got our goodies, I hailed a cab, and we were back at the club within an hour. There we put the stuff away, took a bit of a siesta, then went to the pool for our afternoon swim and cleanup.
We programmed our evening again around the VCR and it worked out great. We caught the Horne Base bus to the Giganta, walked the two blocks past it to the video shop where we found that our machine has a burned out capstan motor which is not available in Mexico, and were walking back toward the waterfront when we passed a little sidewalk cafe which looked and smelled really good. A couple of gringos sitting there confirmed that it was good so we decided to stay. It was great! Called the Bocana Beach, they gave great service, excellent food, and had an old guy at the Hammond organ who played quiet music with a nice touch. The bill was a surprize; the 84,000 pesos, which included a round and a half of margaritas, compared to our lunch of 80,000 and our dinner last night of 187,000.
We got to talking to the couple who urged us to come in, Paul and Mona from Saskatchewan, Canada, who were celebrating their last night here. They asked to see our boat, so we agreed to meet them tomorrow at four, just before they take off for the north country. We should be back from fishing by then.
12:00 I headed the boat over to where the cliff divers were scheduled to do their act at 1:00 o'clock. There, we found that the best place to watch is probably not a boat, at least not a boat as big and as hard to maneuver as ours. We had to stand off so far that I couldn't even get a video shot of the divers. Never the less, we did watch while three of them did their spectacular dives. It does appear to be quite a death defying feat. The swell and surge in the cauldron into which they dive looks intimidating to me. We'll have to go watch from the observation area where we can see better.
14:00 Back at our mooring. It's so scrungy that nobody else took it while we were gone. By the time we got the Metz back down and the awning up we were happy to be able to run over to the club pool and dive into the cool water. It makes a great place to come back to after a tough day.
True to their word, Paul and Mona showed up on the bulkhead right at four. We'd failed to mention that we weren't on the dock, but they were game and braved the surge to climb in and run out to the boat. I mixed a batch of margaritas and we talked for a while before they had to leave for the airplane. As I took them ashore, the yoke on the Johnson which got damaged on the bulkhead the other day gave up completely, so now you have to steer with one hand and work the throttle with the other. Tomorrow will have to be a repair day. I hope I can Mickey Mouse some kind of a fix. I'll put in a panic call to Nancy and see if Howard can bring down a new yoke.
Dinner on the boat tonight - Tacos a la Lois. Superb!
I tried calling Nan from the club office but first got a busy signal, then no answer, so we gave up for the moment and headed for the bus stop. Our first stop was on the Malacon where, wonder of wonders, we found that the outboard repair shop had the frame of a Johnson six horse lying right behind the door. The place is kind of a mess with dozens of outboards, big and little, scattered around the room, but the kids in there seemed to know what they were doing. Once our guests leave I'll take the Johnson over and have them replace the frame as well as the water pump.
Next stop was the post office where I dropped a Birthday card to Nan - it'll be a little late but it will have a Mexican stamp on it. Then we walked a couple of blocks through the center of town to what appeared to be a very big hardware store. I wanted some plastic pipe fittings to improve our awning setup, but if I had realized what I was getting into I'd have kept on walking. It was a good store and it didn't take too long to find just what we were looking for, but then the fun began. First the clerk I got seemed to be not only a trainee, but also not very bright. He would thumb aimlessly through the pages of the price book until someone else gave him help in finding the price of a fitting which he then wrote on the order. He then tried to use the calculator to extend the quanties and sum the total, but was constantly interrupted by other clerks who were more aggressive and capable. After each entry he would wait with his mouth hanging open while they completed their order, then he'd get back to mine for one more entry. When he finally completed the order I still couldn't have my parts; instead, I had to take a copy of the order to the Caja (Cashier) to stand in line and pay for it first. OK, but they didn't have the parts at the Caja either; now I had to stand in a third line where, when I got to the window, another clerk searched for each of the parts we'd already found and set aside and checked them off on the order as she put them in a sack. The whole process took almost an hour for four pipe fittings and a hose clamp. The only place we've found that kind of foolishness before is in the banks. Bob's only comment was, "Now we know why there are so many unfinished buildings down here."
By now it was noon so we walked up the street a ways to a sidewalk cafe where I'd noticed quite a few Mexicans eating. It turned out to be very good, and inexpensive. We had a couple of beers apiece, tacos for Bob, and burritos for me, all for 17,000 pesos, the price of two margaritas at the club; and it was tasty. After our lunch we figured the ladies would probably be wanting a ride back to the boat, so we grabbed a but to the club. We needn't have hurried, I got through my call to Nan (who told me that Howard and Judy can't come until after the first of April), went to the boat for my swim suit (Bob had his on), and we lay around the pool for an hour or so before they showed up - and they'd done nothing but get Lois' hair done and each had a pedicure. I took them to the boat to change, then we all spent another hour swimming in the pool.
For dinner, we started out for a place called D'Raffaelo's which the hair stylist had recommended but changed our minds after going there, hearing the rock music they were playing, and looking at the prices on the menu. Instead, we took a horse drawn buggy covered with pink balloons to a place called "Cabrito" where they were roasting goats in the window. It turned out to be great. The goat which Bob, Kris, and I had was good (kind of like lamb); you ate it with your fingers like chicken; and Lois', who is not an adventuress eater, enjoyed the the enchillatas she had. Another fun day in Acapulco.
About ten o'clock Len of Casandra called saying he had the anchor I'd been talking to him about down at his boat, so Bob and I went over to meet him. Len has quite a setup here. He has been down here fourteen years and has just purchased from a wealthy Mexican friend a house and a boat. The boat, a forty some odd sports fisher, is moored on the same concrete bulkhead as the yacht club and right in front of his house, a beautiful three story affair with an open patio, landscaped yard, and swimming pool. We negotiated on the anchor, which we'll use as a spare stern hook, and I paid him 200,000 pesos for it, or about $85.00. Then we got to talking about travel and he offered the use of his phone to call the airline so we got to get a peek at the interior of his house - really nice! While making the call we also got a bit about Len, himself. He's a former sports fishing skipper from Santa Monica who left there when his wife died in 1972. He did a hitch working as a skipper for a beer baron in San Francisco, then ended up here as an outgrowth of working as a delivery skipper. He says he's made 57 deliveries of boats to and from places as far away as Alaska. He spends an awful lot of his time helping people in the yachting community find their way around Acapulco, and says he loves it. Neat guy!
Lois had taken the handheld radio with her and, when she gave us a call from the docks, we grabbed their swim suits and towels and went ashore, first for lunch at a Mexican palapa restaurant across the street, then for a swim at the pool. We spent most of the afternoon there, swimming and sunning.
For our evening adventure, we first went to another place that Olivia had recommended but it turned out to have high prices and not so good food, at least judging from the shrimp cocktail we ordered as a test; so we hopped a bus and were on our way back to the Bacana Beach when we got diverted by a Canadian couple who steered us into another restaurant which they swore by. The guy, a taxi driver from Montreal, had been coming down here for several years and spoke fluent Spanish. We had an interesting chat with he and his girl, who was from Sweden and on her first visit. The food was good, but not outstanding. I think the best tasting food we've had was at El Jardin - we'll have to try that for dinner one day.
The fueling went pretty well. We had a couple of interruptions for other folks wanting small amounts of fuel, one of them from a boat called the "Spirit of Australia" which was heading for that country this morning; but other than that it went tickity boo. The man at the pump helped us get set up then he made himself at home, coming up on the deck, climbing into the new hammock I'd bought for Lois, and going to sleep. It took a total of about two hours to take on 2600 liters of diesel. In the meantime Bob made a trip to the bank to get some pesos because the fuel man would only offer 2250 per dollar. Bob got 2332, saving us about $20.00.
While we were finishing the fueling Lois and Kris went shopping at the place where Olivia had told them they could buy articles painted by the indians. And buy they did, arriving back with arms full of painted plates, fish, and a huge parrot on a swing. By this time it was about 1:00 so, (after a short emergency run to the beach when we discovered we were out of scotch, Bob's favorite drink) we slipped the mooring we'd picked up and headed for Bahia Marques, a bay about four miles to the south which people have said is a nice quiet anchorage. On the way we did some sightseeing along hotel row and the high rent district that Olivia had taken the girls to see yesterday. At the far west end of the harbor the Mexican navy has several ships anchored, including the square rigged sailing vessel, Cuhuatamal, their training ship. The thrill of the day, however, was seeing Sylvester Stallone's round windowed house on top of the hill.
15:00 Anchored in Marques. It is kind of a pretty place even though there are several high rises and lots of ski and tour boats running around. We parked at the far west end away from the crowded beaches and the ladies sunned while Bob and I went snorkling. That was a little disappointing. We'd heard that the water was clear, but at least today it was pretty murky. There were lots of little fish but nothing big enough to eat so we gave up after about an hour. We also had a few mosquitoes in the evening, something we haven't had anywhere since Puerto Vallarta. The absence of insects for the last month was quite surprizing to me, considering the weather we've had. We haven't had as many bugs as we've normally had in Seattle or Coeur D'Alene any time it was warm there.
By the time we finished our tour it was warming up pretty well, so we ran over to the north beach, anchored the Metz, and swam to shore. There's not much surf, but it's just easier that way. The beach was almost deserted, just one young couple walking and a couple of Mexicans working on a boat ramp for one of the mansions. We walked the beach, then swam for a while, then decided to go to one of the two palapas tucked in the rocks near where we were anchored for a bite of lunch. Again we anchored out and swam in. The place was neat, a tiny sand pocket between the rocks, a few steps leading up to an open area on top of a rock overlooking the bay covered by a palm thatched roof, and a friendly lady and man ready to serve us. We ordered a beer and, because I only had 50,000 pesos in a little waterproof holder around my neck, I checked the prices of food. They had seafood of several kinds and we settled on 40,000 for a combination plate, one half orders of clams, shrimp, and oysters. That seemed kind of high, but not half so high as it did when she brought the single plate. It had about six small cold shrimp, six raw oysters, and six clams, a dozen limes, and a bottle of picante sauce. To top it off, they had no change for my 50,000 note. Bob tried to console us by reminding us that Sam's in Tiburon now charges $4.00 for a beer. First time we've been stung in a palapa!
Back at the boat, we hauled the anchor and headed back for the yacht club anchorage, planning to have one last night out before the gang all leave me. We decided that the Bacana Beach was the best spot we'd been to so went back there for dinner. Oops! It didn't seem like the same place. On Tuesday nights they have their "Mexican Fiesta" special, an all-you-can-eat-and-drink orgy complete with a Marachi Band. The food was just as good as we remembered, plus they had the best tomales I've ever tasted rolled in banana skins rather than corn husks, but the price was a hefty 45,000 per person. I guess this was just our day to contribute to the economy of Acapulco.
By 10:30 Lois and Kris were finished packing so we all headed for the pool for one last swim. I was sure sorry I didn't have the camera with me because, while there lounging around the pool, we were treated to a fine display of skill and strength; harvesting of the coconuts on the surrounding palms. A young man, dressed only in a pair of shorts and with a machette hung on his belt, would walk up the trunk of a forty foot high palm tree using nothing but his hands and bare feet, almost like a squirrel goes up a fir tree. I'd seen pictures of them doing that in Hawaii, but the pictures always showed a leaning palm. These were straight, with trunks at least ten inches in diameter at the base. He carried a length of rope over his shoulder and when he'd get to the crown he would work his way into it, tie the line around a clump of coconuts, hack the clump off with the machette, and lower it gently to the ground where another man waited to collect the bounty. As a sideline task, he would then trim off all the dead or dieing fronds before decending the tree in the same way he climbed it.
We had lunch at the side of the pool then the ladies went off to the showers which they'd planned on using to save water on the boat. They were back in about five minutes. As luck would have it, there was no water in the ladies shower room. So, back to the boat, get Genny going, and I had a cerveza while the girls showered and curled their hair. We were still able to be at the club entrance on schedule at 2:00 o'clock. We passed up several taxis before finding one which looked big enough to haul the four of us and all the baggage and must have lucked out. People had been telling us it cost $26.00 to go to the airport; the guy we hailed had a cartop luggage carrier and only charged us 35,000 pesos, or about $15.00. Of course Bob, who is 6' 6" and big, was just a tad crowded in the front seat which was held into the forward position with a cable, but we managed to unfold him at the airport without too much trouble.
At the airport things went tickity-boo. At the American Airlines counter we checked the various price options, none of which were in the tour package class. For the record they were:
Round trip to Seattle $793.58
Round trip to San Francisco $453.28
One way to San Francisco $395.28
We chose the round trip to San Francisco, hoping that Lois could get a better deal in the States (All air fares in Mexico are the same; they are dictated by the government and include a 15% tax), but when I got to checking the Visa receipt I found that the clerk had sold us a one way to San Francisco instead! I hadn't picked up on that in the conversion to pesos. Oh well, she wasn't really planning on using the return fare anyway. She'll be coming directly from Seattle, probably on Delta or Alaska.
On the way back I took one of the suburban carriers for 7,700 pesos. It was almost filled with Mexicans when I bought my ticket and they all laughed when I told them I was going to the yacht club, not at me but at the driver. I found out why later when they all got out downtown and I had an "Especial" ride to the club with only the driver. I sat beside a nice man who worked for the company and spoke fair English. We got to talking about restaurants and he said he like two downtown ones: Amigo Miguel's and Flor de Acapulco. We'll have to try them.
The visit to the outboard repair shop, with Len who did the translating, didn't do much to improve my confidence in getting ours fixed. First, the lower end and frame Bob and I had seen behind the door turned out to belong to the upper unit lying in pieces on the other side of the room. It was waiting for parts. Next, the repairman didn't know for sure whether he could find the parts to fix ours in his pile of broken machines, or what it might cost. I ended up leaving the motor with a promise that he'd know if he had the parts and could give me an estimate on Saturday morning.
On the way back Len stopped at the Quaker State dealer, Naranja Mechanica, and, after a bit of discussion, found that Series 3 API CD oil for diesel engines was available, but only in five gallon pails. That's not quite as convenient as the gallon jugs but I decided to go with that and bought two for 160,000 pesos, about $1.70 per quart. The manager was a good friend of Len's and had it delivered directly to the dock at the yacht club.
The rest of the day was spent straightening up and cleaning the boat. I got all the beds stripped and remade, stuff put back in our "by ourselves" configuration, and some of the cleaning done. It took over an hour just to clean the fenders that we'd used at the fuel dock to protect the hull from the big black tires they had there. I'll work on the hull itself tomorrow; it might be easier to clean than the fenders.
'Bout 4:00 o'clock I gave up and went over to the club for a swim and a shower, then went to the Scott Free for drinks with Ken and Andre. They also had a couple, Jim and Debra, from a little trimaran called Elan who had sailed straight here from L.A. and plan to work their way north before heading to the south Pacific. They have a pretty dismal picture of Mexico cruising at this point, based only on what they've seen in Acapulco. I'm sure they'll think better once they get out of the big city.
With a little coaching from the morning net, I found a guy on the beach who does stainless welding and took the parts to him. He drilled a hole in the plate allowing both tubes to penetrate the full 1/4 inch, welded both tubes on the under side, then used stainless to put the finish weld around the upper side of the plate. It's now as strong as it should be. I think I may take about five more of the mor critical stanchions to him; I don't like the supports for our lifelines breaking!
While he was working on the stanchion I took a bus downtown, had lunch, and was wandering around the hot streets looking for something to replace our old deck chairs which are about to give up the ghost, when I started feeling kind of whoozy. So, I got on another bus, came back and picked up my stanchion which was ready, and went back to the boat. I wasn't feeling bad, just not very good. I took a nap, then decided that a swim might help me feel better, so went over to the club, swam, and took a shower. By the time I got back to the boat I was, if anything, feeling worse. I'd invited Bill from Sloop de Jour' over for a drink so I could pick his brain on diesel engines (He works for Catapiller as a troubleshooting mechanic) and, by the time he got here and we'd had a drink, I was starting to really feel bad, running a fever and hurting all over. Bill suggested that I might have a case of heat prostration and brought over some stuff he swears by called Electrolit which is a rehydration solution sold in all the Farmacias down here. I swallowed about a pint of that, took some asprin, and went to bed. I'm not sure that the Electrolit did the job, but by about 10:00 PM I was feeling better. I'm going to have to watch what I do on these hot days. Normally I drink enough beer to keep me in fluids, but I was too busy today.
The rest of the day I did nothing. I picked up some aspirin and some fruit juices, then came back to the boat and slept for several hours. In late afternoon I went over to the club, swam, tooka a shower, and had a club sandwich and a vase de leche. The sandwich was excellent; lots of ham, cheese, chicken, bacon, tomato. They do put out good food at the club even though it's a bit expensive. Since we haven't been paying a daily fee for use of their facility I don't feel bad about spending some money with them.
I was back at the boat sitting watching the sunset when the first occasion arose to use the new wattmeter which Nan brought me. Ken on a boat named Gannet was trying to get his single sideband radio to work. I volunteered to work with him and, while I could hear him very well sitting here in the harbor a quarter of a mile apart, he couldn't get out to KMI or anybody else. I took the wattmeter over to his boat, hooked it up, and confirmed that he was putting out about 1 watt instead of the 150 his set is supposed to produce. That's not a lot of comfort to him (He paid an outlaw in La Paz, Abe on Red Wing, a pretty good price for it) but at least he can stop fussing about whether he has a good antenna. The best antenna in the world wouldn't help him unless he can get more power into it.
Don and Phyllis got back this evening from their trip to Mexico City. Said their real favorite stop was a town on the way called Cuerna which in their opinion is the prettiest town they've seen in Mexico.
Interesting day today, not because of things that happened, but because of the people I met and talked to. First off, they don't have a radio net on Sunday morning but I heard Len make a call so called him to report on my experience at the outboard repair shop. Somewhere in the conversation I asked him what the duty is on things like outboards coming into Mexico. I then got a fifteen minute lecture on what and what not to do when shipping stuff to a boat. There's no duty on articles shipped in if it is to a yacht "In Transito" but, undoubtedly because people have cheated in the past, they are very careful that anything so addressed is really going to a yacht which will be leaving Mexico and not to some local black market dealer. To get something shipped to us here in Acapulco the following procedure would be used, and I imagine it would work in most countries with similar rules:
* Address the package to:
Dale W. Putnam (Name shown on Temporary Import Permit)
Yate in Transito, "SEA RAVEN" (Very Important!)
Acapulco, GRO., Mexico
* Get the Bill of Lading Number from the carrier company. An airline with a direct flight is the best deal.
* Arrange to get the Bill of Lading Number and, if possible, the Flight Number to the addressee immediately.
* I call the airport cargo officer of the carrier to confirm that the package is on his manifest, then go to the airport in less than 24 hours to claim the package. (Otherwise, it gets shunted to downtown customs and will incurr transfer fees and a delay of up to several days)
* I must have my boat documentation and Temporary Import Permit with me to prove that I do indeed own the boat.
* A customs officer will then ride with me to the boat to assure that I take the package there. That will cost about 20,000 pesos for his time and transportation back to the airport.
According to Len that's all there is to it and it works, at least most of the time. He says that his favorite cargo officer is a guy named Bobby Macias who has worked for Delta (and Western before they were bought) for twenty-five years and who is very helpful. For the record his phone number is 4-04-46. Good to know in case our outboard repair doesn't work out.
Once I'd gotten through getting all this straight and thanking Len for his help, I took Don's 4 horse motor over to him and traded it for his 1 and 1/2 horse Cruise & Carry, a little air cooled cutie which only weighs 12 pounds. It took a few pulls and a shot of WD-40 to get it going because he hadn't run it for over a year, but once we got it started it ran beautifully! It's one more step down in speed from the 4 horse, but it ran me to the dock twice and to the beach once and is a lot easier than rowing. The neat thing about it is that I can pick it up with one hand and my arm outstretched. Don says he's willing to negotiate and, if he doesn't want too much for it, I'll buy it as a spare.
The surprize of the day was that Richard and Dee showed up this morning on their boat Moondancer. We left them in Zihuat headed north; now they are going south. Richard is a man in his late sixties with a snowy mane of hair and a pretty wife, and who loves to talk on the radio. Although they've never advertized it, I guess they've been in the process of decision making for quite a while. Last year they came down heading for Acapulco but only got as far as Zihuatanejo before turning back to spend the summer in the Sea of Cortez. This year they still weren't sure they would make it to Acapulco until about a month ago when they passed us and came in here. They then went back to Z town and, as I said, were going north. Something changed and it was nice to see them again - they are lovely people.
In the afternoon they had a potluck on the beach so after my afternoon shower at the club (I doubt that I've used five gallons of water since Lois left) I went across the street to the Colonel's for a batch of Kentucky Fried and took it as my offering. It didn't last long; the box was empty thirty seconds after I set it on the table. I did have the foresight to take one piece first which, along with all the pasta salads, made a nice meal.
I had a chance to talk to Phillis (Shibumi) for a few minutes on the beach. She is firm in her decision to leave the cruising to Don. She says it's because she wants to do her own thing, go to college and see the U.S. by car, and I'm sure that she's sick of packing fuel and water, but the thing that really comes through is her fear of wind and wave. It's odd how hard that fear is to overcome. In the almost three years that we've now been cruising we have encountered two storms, both of which we rode out at anchor, and in addition may have had a total of three days of somewhat uncomfortable passages with the boat never in danger. The rest of the time has been just "Rolling along". Other skippers relate similar experience, yet many of the ladies express concerns similar to those of Phyllis and Lois; and, I have to admit, I still have butterflies in my tummy when we start on a long passage. I wonder how long it takes before fear of the sea gets to be just a healthy respect. Maybe never for some of us Old Farts.
My project for the day was to pull three more of the stanchions and take them to the machine shop for rework. I think the old guy there, Angel is his name, was kind of pleased that I thought enough of his work to come back. He promised these by tomorrow afternoon. The rest of the day just sort of disappeared, some doing little jobs, some napping, some at the pool, and some talking to other boaters. It's not what you'd class as a high stress environment. Even the boats that are leaving - and there are quite a few headed both north and south - don't seem to be very hurried about it. If we don't get away today, there's always tomorrow.
I'm getting pretty tired of Acapulco in spite of the super facility we have here at the Club de Yates. I'm not very good at sitting by the pool for hour after hour no matter how pretty it is. The city, like all big cities, is big, and noisy, and dirty, and has more than it's share of the rabble. After a month in the anchorage at Zihuatanejo I was still enjoying watching the occasional parasail boat come through, but here there are dozens of skiers churning the water every afternoon. One came by this afternoon and half filled the Metz with water as he leaned over to slap it with his hand as he went by. If I'd been in it, he'd have had an oar in his face.
I think the above paragraph reflects the fact that my honey has been gone for a week now. Life do get depressing without her! Don's little Cruise & Carry gave out today, starter rope broke and then I broke a phillips drive bit trying to get the screws out of the retracting mechanism, so now I'm down to oars. The Johnson is supposed to be ready tomorrow. If it isn't I may move the boat. We're a long way from the docks if I'm rowing. It's sure a tough life!
After breakfast I took a bus to the outboard shop and found that they had a problem with the water pump Nan brought down from Seattle, it's the wrong one. I was a little worried about that. It didn't look to me at all like the one Lois and I had seen when we took the motor apart. Nan was working with the right model number, 6RL76A, I'll have to have her try again. In the meantime they are going to put it back together with the impeller in backwards. It probably won't last long, but should push water better while it works. I think we'd better have another motor anyway. Not having an outboard in the place we live is like not having an automobile in a city without buses. The question is should we buy it here (We can get a new Mariner 8 HP for about $1300.00) or in the States. I'll call Lois about that in the morning.
With one won, and one lost, I went to the machine shop and made it two for the home team when Angel had my stanchions ready as promised. I took those and the awning back to the boat and started putting things back together. The four most critical stanchions are now re-welded and much stronger so I think we're in good shape there. I got the awning all up and it was flying nicely when all of a sudden the length of 1/2 inch plastic pipe across the front broke. Bah! Now I have to find a plumbing supply near here. A sixteen foot length of pipe doesn't fit very well on a bus or in a taxi.
Had dinner with Shibumi and Ruby Lee in the Palapa across from the yacht club. We'd intended on going to see the cliff divers but it took us so long to get dinner that we missed the time of the last show; maybe tomorrow night. We were having an ice cream at the Tastee Freeze when we ran into a couple on the Prairy Sailor from Winnipeg who just arrived from Costa Rica. They are about to complete a two and one half year cruise down the east coast, the Bahamas and the Caribean, through the canal, and north to San Diego where they'll sell their boat before going back to work. There are lots of boat coming and going both ways now. Acapulco seems to be kind of a gathering place.
Just fooled around the rest of the day. Found a coupling and repaired the broken pipe in the awning, washed down the decks again (The bulldozer on the hill just above the anchorage stirs up a cloud which the wind blows over us every afternoon), and sanded the rail in preparation for oiling, a job now due according to my maintenance schedule. We were going to try again on the cliff divers but, somewhere during the afternoon, Phyllis got carried away drinking Margaritas and wasn't feeling like going out; so, I went across the street and brought back some Kentucky Fried for all of us. Those margaritas will get you if you don't watch out! They taste so good, and go down so easily, that it's easy to overdo.
Other than for that problema pocito, the day went very well. I called Nan and gave her the latest list of goodies (That was before I'd determined what was wrong with Gennie), went to the bank and changed $172.00 in Canadian money that we'd been carrying around for two years into pesos at 1,923 to one (I had also planned on drawing some money on the Visa but here they want to see your passport which, of course, I didn't have with me), oiled the rail, and even went swimming with my screwdriver to clean the barnacles out of the thru-hull water intakes - it had been getting harder and harder to pump the head. Before we leave here I'll have to do another bottom cleaning job. It's amazing how fast they grow!
In the evening we finally made it to the cliff divers; we being Don and Phyllis (Shibumi), Jim and Maxine (Ruby Lee), Bob (Akevit), and I. They put on a better show tonight than they did when we watched them from the boat in the afternoon. There were six divers, two of which did a nicely timed double dive, and the final diver did a forward gainer from about the sixty foot level. I took the camera but it was showing "low light" all of the time; the artificial lighting they use isn't very bright. After the show we took a taxi to the Bocana Beach for dinner. As it has been before, the food was good, the service excellent. I think all were pleased.
On the way back to the boat I met George and Ellen from Wind Dancer for the first time. Ellen is a Pullman girl and we had fun talking about mutual acquaintances. She said she knew the Neals very well, including Tom our next door neighbor at Conkling Park. She said her family name is McNeil. Won't get another chance to talk to her for a while; they're headed out for Costa Rica in the morning.
Back at the boat, I changed oil in the Onan, going to Series III for the first time. Handling the five gallon pails isn't as bad as I'd expected and they sure do make fine buckets. I had planned on doing a bit of scrubbing on the waterline but changed my mind when the waterskiers started buzzing us. It was wilder than ever this afternoon; I guess the Easter holiday week has started.
After I'd finished that job I called Don to see if he wanted to go across the street for breakfast and caught him in the middle of baking hotcakes; he invited me over to his boat instead. While there I had the second chance to make use of the wattmeter Nan brought down - I checked his antenna installation which he'd been fussing about. It checked out OK, saving him a trip up the mast. Other than that, I didn't leave the boat all day, just lazied around doing little things and reading a book that Bob brought me, The Glory Gamblers, the story of the 1927 Dole Race to be the first to fly to Hawaii. Quite a tale!
Once I had my money in hand I went for a walk around town, not looking for anything in particular. There are lots of people in town for the holidays. The streets are crowded and the beaches teeming with bodies. I guess a lot of people are sleeping on the beach. You don't have to be a real outdoorsy type to camp out in this country, at least at this time of year. I found a few more places that sell batteries so as soon as I have the boxes Lois is bringing in hand I'll buy a couple of 8-D's and deep six our golf carts. I was talking to Bill on Margorie Grace about batteries when a guy named Roy came on and gave us a tip on buying them. He's owns a boat called the Buccaneer, an old square rigger parked on the malacon near us which he salvaged and is turning into a tour boat. It's pretty well along and he's already running groups aboard to watch the restoration work. He invited us over for a beer and a tour of his ship. Nice guy!
Bob and Verna, another Boeing retiree couple on a boat named "Sailorr" came in this evening, and we were all invited over to Margorie Grace for a spagetti dinner. They too are working their way slowly in the direction of Panama. I also met a couple of guys in the office this morning who are taking a big fishing trawler to Prince William Sound in Alaska. Sure are a lot of boats going a lot of different directions from here! It's kind of neat, talking to people about their expectations and concerns. As far as reports from down south, people seem to be having a great time. Ikimasho stopped in at least two ports in Guatamala and says they were treated royally at both. They are now near Puntarenas, a place in Costa Rica the name of which I've been consistantly misspelling because of the many Punta Arenas (Sand Points) in Mexico.
I had picked up the laundry (It was all there and folded nicely), stopped at the club for a shower, gone back to the boat, got out some lamb chops, poured myself a martini, and was all set for a last night on the boat alone when a boat came roaring up with Ron and Jan Gundlach aboard! I couldn't believe my eyes! Lois had said that Jan might be coming back with her, but to have them both show up a day early was a real surprize. Ron is a retired Western Airlines pilot so he and Jan can fly anywhere on Delta for free if they go standby. Jan had called and found that they had a good chance of getting here today but not tomorrow, so they put a few clothes in a bag and came. They were all dressed up in warm weather clothes and started stripping as they came aboard.
We had a drink to celebrate, then put my lamb chops away and went ashore in search of a place to eat dinner. At the club we ran into Bob and Verna (Sailorr) who had been here last year and recommended a restaurant only a few blocks away, so we decided to go with them. It turned out to be a quite nice, and very inexpensive place, which caters to Canadians. They have a lot of gringo food on the menu, but also pretty good Mexican fare. I had the best beef tacos I've had since Zihuatanejo.
This morning Ron and Janet helped me clean up the boat. Jan vacuumed, Ron did the breakfast dishes and polished the brass, while I washed down the decks. We got everything looking presentable for Lois then went over to the club for a swim and a shower before the transporter came to pick me up. It came at 1:45 to give plenty of time to meet Lois' 3:45 flight so Ron and Janet did some exploring of Caleta beach while I was gone. The flight was pretty close to on time and by 4:00 o'clock people were starting to show up in the baggage area. At first I thought they weren't going to let me in to help Lois but after a bit pleading the guards let me though. She had quite a load: the outboard motor all wrapped up in a blanket and tied with 5/8ths inch rope, two 8-D battery boxes full of stuff, Bob's big cardboard box that he'd had made for Tuck's chair pedestal, the new VCR in its box, the big red zipper bag stuffed full, and Lois' softsided luggage. Fortunately, there were plenty of porters around to help, in fact almost too many of them when it came to tipping time.
As I'd expected, the customs guy started opening the boxes, but didn't seem very interested in what he was finding until he came to the VCR, then he said we'd have to pay duty. I was ready for that (I thought) and hauled out my boat papers to prove that it was for a Yate in Transito. I satisfied them that we had a boat but then I couldn't find our temporary import permit, a very important piece of paper. I was getting a little panicy when the head customs officer said that if I'd pay one of them to go with us to the boat there'd be no problem. Cost us 50,000 pesos as compared to the 20,000 that Len had told us to expect, but I suspect that his info is a little out of date. All together, with the $90.00 excess baggage fee Delta charged Lois, it cost us about $130 to get that pile of goodies down here, not too bad a price to pay for the load she had.
Ron and Janet were waiting for us at the club and, after some more tips for help in carrying and two runs to the boat, we got it all aboard. I mixed a batch of margaritas and we sat down to celebrate Lois' return. We didn't want to mess with dinner on board but didn't feel like going very far, so just walked up to a restaurant about a block from the club and got a very passable meal plus some nice conversation with a waitress named Estella, a very friendly lady who helped us with our Spanish.
It was four o'clock before we'd gotten everything put away and the new VCR installed and working. By then Ron and Janet were back, so we all put on our bathing suits and headed for the pool and showers. That's a real luxury that we haven't had before and aren't likely to find again for a long time. For dinner we went again to our favorite restaurant, the Bocana Beach; and, as usual, had a good meal and a good time.
09:00 Off the buoy and running for the first time in three weeks. We decided to take a little boat ride, and also make a little water along the way. It was a beautiful, flat calm day with a hardly visible twenty second swell. We ran out Boca Chica to the north, then came back to an idle and started Gennie to do the water making while we all just sat on the deck under our awning and enjoyed the day.
12:30 Lois says the little red light on the HRO panel is flashing continuously. Yep, she's shut down, and furthermore I can't get it to come back on. It will start but then stops as soon as I release the start button. No more water making for today; so, we shut Gennie down and ran into the bay for a sightseeing tour past the hotels and navy base where the navy training vessel Cauhaunemoc is moored.
15:30 Anchored in Bahia Marques at Pichelingue. It's quite a different place today than it was when we came here with Bob and Kris. There must have been twenty boats anchored here this afternoon. We parked down off the big fancy place with the dock in front until some of the afternooners left, then moved back into the cove where we anchored before. Jan hadn't been feeling very good all day and Ron managed to get a bit too much sun today in spite of staying under the awning, so we just stayed on the boat. Lois fixed some lamb chops for dinner and I ended up eating most of them - the others just weren't very hungry. Hope they're feeling better tomorrow!
It was a quiet, beautiful morning as usual and, while we were sitting on the deck drinking a cup of coffee and greeting the mail boats, we had a show especial by a couple of hot air balloons. They were evidently sponsored by the government because both carried signs saying Policia Federal de Caminos (Highway Patrol) and carrying the message loosely translated from the Spanish, "Drive Safely! Your Family's Life is at Stake." One in particular put on quite a show, dropping down to the surface and now and then dipping the bottom of the basket in the water. He had a tether hanging down with which a boat used to pull him between all the anchored boats and over to the little beach in the corner of the anchorage. It was kind of neat watching them maneuver around the masts with the roar of the propane torch waking up the late sleepers. He stayed a while on the beach, or rather in about a foot of water, while he changed fuel tanks, a couple of strong guys rolling the big cylinders right into the salt water and boosting them into the basket, then took off again behind the boat headed across the bay toward hotel row. The other balloonist just landed on the hill above the anchorage and, after a while, deflated his balloon and disappeared. Nice show anyway!
About 1:00 o'clock we all went over to the club, took a shower, and Ron and Jan put on their traveling "uniforms". The Airporter showed up about fifteen minutes early and they were on their way. Since they were standby, we weren't sure that they'd made it until about 7:00 when we figured they'd have been back if they couldn't get seats. They had a pretty nice little vacation and seemed to enjoy themselves even if we didn't do much exciting. Too bad they both were feeling a bit under the weather yesterday.
After we'd seen them off, we went back to the boat where I changed Gimmy's oil while Lois put us back into our "Two people aboard" configuration. Things went really well on the oil change, I got it all drained and the filter changed without making a mess, until I started adding the new oil (Quaker State Series III API CD/CC). I had dumped about half of the five gallon pail into the engine when I heard something dripping into the bilge. I knew Lois was topside and not running water and couldn't figure out what it was until I suddenly realized that I hadn't closed the drain cock on the engine! I think we only dumped a couple of quarts into the bilge but there's no reasonable way to get it out; so I dumped half a gallon of bilge cleaner on top of it and we'll contribute our share to the oily scum on the surface. Stupid, stupid, stupid!!!!!!
We had a demonstration today of why it's best not to anchor in a harbor that has been used for 400 years if you have any alternative. A boat near us, the Donna Jean, had been snagged for two days, unable to raise her anchor so this afternoon Bill, a former navy salvage diver, went down to find the problem while I rowed the Metz around over him to keep the skiers away. He found her chain wrapped around an eight inch I-beam. I'm glad we've been able to find mooring buoys available.
While we were waiting for Donna to show up (She never did so we'll have to call Nan tomorrow and find out what happened) we had a visit from Don and Jerry Clark of the "WIZ", another Seattle boat. They build sailboats called San Juans in Seattle and are just on their way back from a three year cruise of the east coast and the Caribean. They are thinking power boat and had asked to see ours. Seemed favorably impressed, as most people are. They spent last summer in Venezuela and said that, although it got oppressively hot in the cities, the anchorages alway had a breeze and were never uncomfortable. Possibly my fears of a summer in the tropics are overblown. They also said that they think many of the stories about Panama are exaggerations by people who love to tell a scarey story; that they had stayed off the streets, rode taxis to do their provisioning, and saw no signs of trouble.
There was a pretty low tide and lots of surge at the docks today and by the time we got our groceries back to the boat we were both pooped and Lois' voice, which had been gradually fading all day long, completely disappeared. She could only whisper! Seems like you just can't get more than one thing done in a day, so why try? We put the stuff away, napped for a while, then went over to the club for a shower.
It was about six when we got a call from Dale on Shaharazade saying we had a visitor on the dock, Donna of course. She was bringing down a HAM radio for Doran which hadn't been ready before the weekend, so she had to delay her flight in order to pick it up on Monday. She was carrying her usual monster backpack and guitar, plus two suitcases full of stuff, all ready for a great adventure. She'll leave most of it here with us while she takes the bus to Zihuatanejo to help Doran bring the boat down. She thinks they will be here by Saturday.
Back at the yacht club, Len drove his VW bus right down to the bulkhead in front of his house where we loaded the batteries into the Metz using a davit which he has mounted on the sea wall beside his boat. So far, so good. Bill used his main halyard to lift his battery into his boat (The dang things weigh more than a hundred pounds) then we manhandled the old one out and the new one into place under his settee in the cabin. At our boat we used the block and tackle on our boom to lift the two batteries onto the deck. Since I'm changing from golf carts to 8-D's, I've got some work to do before I can install them. Lois and I then spent the rest of the afternoon moving canned goods so that we can get the new battery boxes in place, and at the same time inventorying our supplies. Busy day!
Once they were in place, the actual hookup of the new batteries didn't take long. With two, instead of four, in series the wiring is simple. We then loaded up all our dirty sheets and towels, took them to the laundry, and stopped by the club for a shower on the way home.
In the evening we went with Bill, Debra, Bob, and Verna to see the cliff divers. I was a little disappointed in tonight's show, there were only three divers and two of them dove from the lower rocks. I think I lucked out the day I got the videos of the six divers. I was glad Lois got to see it though. It's much better up close than from out on the boat where we were the first time. After the show we went to the top of the hill above the yacht club to the Hotel Cantamar where we ate dinner on a patio with a spectacular view of the city and bay. For some strange reason we were the only customers, although the food was good and the atmosphere much nicer than most of the noisy places we've been. I had the best meal I've had in Acapulco, tender beef and vegetables barbequed on a skewer. I also ate half of Lois' chicken which was excellent.
I then set off on the checkout tour: riding the bus downtown to the Palicio Federal; climbing the stairs to piso 3 to have a sour faced, uniformed Migracion officer stamp and sign my crew list for the passage to Puerto Madero; walking over the hill through the military base at Fort San Diego to the SCT building; waiting in one office while a nice lady typed up my bill for the port fee (I must have looked tired from my walk across the hill because a young lady sitting at a typewriter got up and offered me her chair.), then going to another office where another nice lady typed the receipt for my 13,450 pesos and charged me 14,450, the extra 1,000 being for something to do with the paperwork, probably to pay for the carbon paper; and finally, climbing one more flight to the Port Captain's office where the last of the nice ladies frowned at my crew list for a long time, then asked me how long we'd been here and, when I told her since the 25th of Febrero, seemed satisfied, smiled, and proceeded to stamp and sign my papers. Acapulco is evidently one of the few places where the Port Captain delegates signature authority. After a year I'm learning to live with the Mexican bureaucracy. It's probably good training for Costa Rica where we're told there is twice as much paperwork.
The SCT building is just a little ways from Comercial Mexicana and, since Lois had assigned me to pick up some fruit, bread, and eggs, I did a little shopping there before riding the bus back to the club. At the club I called Nan gave her the phone numbers where she might reach Betty from Shaharazade who will be coming back from Seattle next week and might bring our Johnson water pump and mail. She's still had no word on when Howard and Judy might visit. Then back to the boat which Lois had almost ready for cruising. We took down the awning, put the Metz on the deck, and cast off out mooring lines.
12:25 On our way. It's nice to get out of the harbor again.
13:05 HRO on. Seems to be working fine. The problem of the other day must have been a corroded connector.
13:15 Came to idle and started Genny - might as well make our water at 2/3 gallon per hour rather than three.
13:35 Alarm sounds! I shut down both engines and checked below. Genny was a bit overheated and, when I opened her sea screen only a trickle came out - damn barnacles again!
13:45 Running again, this time with Gimmy and the cruise generator keeping the watermaker going. Since we had to run Gimmy I put out the fishing lines.
15:30 I'm lying on the couch taking a little nap when Lois hollars, "Fish on!" Sure enough, little Bonito but enough for dinner.
17:00 Anchored in Marques. I braved the wakes of the ski boats to go over the side with a screwdriver and ream out Genny's water intake. There was a huge clump of grassy barnacles over it. I was surprized at how cold the water was; the temperature must have dropped ten degrees since Bob and I went snorkling here. I'm going to have to use my wet suit to clean the bottom tomorrow.
By six o'clock the skiers were gone and we had a nice quiet night away from the roar of the city. I won't miss Acapulco in spite of the lovely yacht club. More?