What do you mean early!

As many of you know, we have been working our way north to Puerto Penasco where we are going to haul the boat out of the water for the summer / hurricane season. Most of you also know that we are cutting our season a bit short this year in anticipation of our first grandchild’s birth at the end of March. We were scheduled to leave Santa Rosalia and continue moving towards Puerto Penasco the morning of the 6^th however all plans are subject to change.

Late afternoon on the 5^th, we received a call from our daughter to let us know she was in labour and on her way to the hospital. What!!! 3 weeks early!!

We did some quick calculations and weather checks and decided to make the run straight through to Puerto Penasco. A few emails and phone calls along the way and we were able to reschedule our haul out and flight home.

We arrived in Puerto Penasco 43 hours later and had a couple of days in Safe Marina before the haul out to cross some chores off our decommissioning list.  With the 20 ft tide swings, the lift bay is nothing but mud at low tide, so lifts must be timed with the rising tide. 

Shutting down the boat and leaving it for several months requires a surprising amount of work. Throw in a couple of hours of torrential rain and we had our work cut out for us.

With the chores completed and the boat prepped for the off season, we were on our way. We made arrangements with a local shuttle company to take us to Phoenix. We had friends with a car that were kind enough to drive us to the shuttle location.  The location on the shuttle company’s newspaper ad was not where they were. After circling the block a couple of times looking for the office, we called them only to find out they have moved a few blocks away but had not changed the ad yet. Hey, its Mexico, don’t expect perfection.

We find the new location and check in along with 6 others. Apparently the shuttle company did not think of this, the first vehicle they were planning on using was too small, so they had to go and get a larger van. Finally, passengers and luggage on board the new van, off we go to the Mexican / US border.

There is a rule in the US that commercial drivers in Mexico are not allowed to drive commercially in the US. This means that we had to unload the van about 100 feet from the border, walk ourselves and all our luggage (7 pieces in our case) across the border and through customs. Then reload a different van with a US driver for the balance of the trip to Phoenix. A night in a hotel close to the airport, an early morning flight and just like that we are back in Vancouver.

We are planning on being in the Vancouver area for several months. We probably won’t post much during that time. We plan on heading back to Mexico in the fall and will carry on with the adventure and blog then.

Thanks for following our adventure. Have a great summer