Barb and I departed Colorado Springs for San Carlos, MX, November 9th, making our "usual" gas and motel stops along the way. We arrived in San Carlos Marina Seca the next day with
Jupiter's Smile waiting for us in the work yard. We checked into our "go to" motel in San Carlos, Departimentos Adlai and went to the boat to begin the decommissioning for road travel process.
Some things went well, like the yard crew prepping and painting the bottom with one coat of toxic bottom paint while I was up the mast to disconnect the radar wire leads and remove the radar dome. I detached the connections for the wires for the various mast lights and radio antenna lead at the base of the mast. Trying to extract the radar wires from the base of the mast did not go well. I decided to cut these wires in the end. On the 11th, the yard crew extracted our keel-stepped mast from the boat and I spent the rest of the day removing the radar guard, Windex, radio antenna and spreaders. I removed the three solar panels and the wind generator and pole. On the 12th, I unbolted the arch and the crew used the crane to remove it. On the 13th, I purchased some hose at Home Depot intending to syphon the diesel fuel out of the tank but that didn't work. The instructions for shipping said we should have empty tanks (water, waste and fuel) for shipping so I wanted to empty them, but I never did since I couldn't. The waste tank was empty. I figured full water and diesel tanks would slosh less than partially full tanks and would remain stable on the trailer. In the end, it proved to be a non-issue. On Monday, we celebrated the Mexican holiday, Revolution Day. Tuesday, the yard crew helped me coil, tape and bag the nine stays and shrouds of the standing rigging, plastic wrap the mast and arch.
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| L to R: Mast, Boat, Arch |
and we were loaded onto the trailer. Notice that the truck is green.
The departure was delayed Wednesday morning because of a flat tire on the tractor truck.
I had placed a Spot tracking device on the boat, so we knew where
Jupiter's Smile was located. Barb and I drove brhind the big rig through northern Mexico until it turned off the toll road. We went on, crossed the border and went to "our motel" in Nogales, AZ.
The next morning, we watched the tracker as the boat got underway again, reached the border and stayed there for quite a while. We went on to Tubac to spend waiting time roaming about in this cute town checking the Spot app on my iPhone from time to time. Eventually, the boat got underway again and we intercepted it as it passed the Tubac exit. The tractor truck was now white! That switch explained the delay. We followed the boat to the transfer station in Tucson where it was off-loaded and blocked on stands at Marco Crane.
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| Following the boat to Tucson |
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| White truck delivers in Tucson Nov. 18 |
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| On U.S. soil, waiting |
Joule Boat Transport was coming on Monday, the 21st, so over the weekend we visited the Sonoran Desert Museum, met the #1 Borzoi in the nation and runner up at Westminster, "Lucy" at the Tucson Kennel Club dog show and met Barb's friend from high school, Carol King at the Art Museum for lunch and to visit the craft fair.
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| Loading onto Joule's trailer, 11/21 |
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| Almost ready to roll |
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| We are driving right behind |
We followed for a very short distance eastbound, then we left the boat and turned north towards home. We got home at 4:30am, 11/22 and prepared to close the house and leave with our stored boat gear with a fairly full van. Thanksgiving weekend was coming up preventing the trucker from traveling. The Spot device indicated that the boat was in Orange, TX and we knew it would remain there until Monday, the 28th, so on the 26th we left home. On the evening of the 27th, we found our boat and put into a motel near by.
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| Parked for 3 nights in Orange, TX |
We followed the boat through rain in Louisiana for a while on Monday and then went to an AirBnb in Mobile. The next day Jupiter's Smile was off-loaded at Turner's Boat Yard in Mobile and we slept aboard that night, November 29th. The land segment of the 2016-2017 cruising season was finished.
