From drydock to the bay...in less than 3 days.

Taking the boat of of storage in dry dock, where it lives for the summer, to the bay is definitely a process.  Usually it takes us a good week to accomplish all that has to be done.  Last year it was 3 1/2!  This year we arrived late Friday, spent Saturday and Sunday prepping and we splashed at 8am on Monday.  A record for us.  Here is the time lapse of the event.

Click on this pic to see the video.

We are now in the Bahia de San Carlos and continuing to prep the boat for the 9 months that we will spend in the warm waters of Mexico.

 A view from above the Liahona in dry dock.

Marne is more than ready to get into the water.

A view of the beautiful Bahia de San Carlos.

Let the season begin! 

SV Liahona

Bret and Marne

Reviving a striped marlin...the video version.

Most of you have read the post of the marlin catch, release and rescue.  Here is the video version of that event.

Until next time,

Bret and Marne
SV Liahona

Finally getting our feet wet in the Sea of Cortez!

 One of two Dorados that we caught 2 days before getting into La Paz.  The sail was amazing.  All down wind.  It doesn't get any better than that. (This photo is out of order but was a much better header than some fiberglass repair pic.  The rest of the pics are mostly in chronological order.)

Dry dock repairs update:

 Abran, Jorge and another prepping the final layers of glass.

 This was not a small project and although it took a lot of time we wated to get it done right.

 The last layers going on before final sanding, a barrier coat then the red primer coat.

Primer is on and now ready for the bottom paint.  

 Welding the stainless pole and supports for the new wind gen.  I will most likely do an entire post on our first impressions of the D400 wind generator.  (A sneak preview...we love it!) More later on this subject.

 Salvador making some last connections before more green power starts to flow into our battery banks.

Final bottom paint was done around the 26th or so of Oct.  At this point we are ready to hit the water!

 Dia de los Muertos is a big deal here in Mexico and throughout Latin America.  It is much more than our Halloween costumes and trucks loads of candy.  Here they celebrate and honor their relatives who have passed into the next realm.  We went to a seminar put on by the local college in Guaymas that gave us an overview of their beliefs and why they do what they do on these important few days.  Very interesting and so much deeper than our Halloween.

 The cathedral in Guaymas lit up in lavender for the celebration.

 Many of the skeletons had puppy skeletons along side.  Their belief is that you should be buried with a dog and he will protect you and watch after you in the afterlife.  Marne loves the thought and sentiment of this tradition.

 As we wandered the streets of Guaymas we were among thousands of Latins with nay a Gringo in sight all evening .  It was pretty awesome.  Good food, great people, wonderful traditions.

This is our buddy Brian on S/V Cat 2 Fold.  A very unique folding catamaran that he can put on a trailer.  He went out for a short day sail that afternoon to make sure everything was working ok and wound up just never turning back into San Carlos harbor crossing the Sea of Cortez overnight and landing on the Baja side somewhere near Loreto.  We look forward to spending more time with him.

 Marne on the bow enjoying one of MANY of our wonderful downwind sails as we head south toward La Paz.  The water was about 82 degrees and crystal clear.  You gotta love this place!

 We ran into several pods of dolphin who shared the waters with us.  The water clarity made it a magical experience.

 Snorkeling at one of our favorite anchorages in the Sea, Isla Danzante.  The diving was fantastic but we arrived back to the boat to find a massive swarm of bees on board.  They come looking for fresh water and I guess they found what they were looking for.  Marne went to the bow while I tried not to step on or sit on one of thousands of bees that were sharing the boat with us.  They forced us out.  We picked up anchor and headed toward Puerto Escondido.  After about 30 minutes the last of them had left and we managed to somewhat coexist receiving not a single sting.  They really are not aggressive and are just looking for water, fresh water.

 More dolphin.

 The above and below pics are of S/V Harmony.  Some of our dearest friends.  They, along with Jeff and Pamela from S/V China Cloud came over for dinner as we shared our Dorado catch with them, Marne outdoing herself whipping up Coconut Encrusted Dorado and curry cauliflower.  Before dinner we had this amazing display played out over 30 minutes or so.  Gorgeous.

And last but not least for this post is the captain lounging on the foredeck as we sail wing on wing with the genoa and the drifter quietly but swiftly toward Isla San Francisco just north of La Paz.  

We love the Sea of Cortez in the fall.  It is an amazing and magical place.  Soon the northers will start to blow more consistently stirring the waters, cooling them down and sending the cruisers seeking the warmer waters of Pacific Mexico.  We will follow them in time but will hang here as long as the conditions permit.  We are so grateful to be able to experience the joy, peace and beauties of cruising.  Leaving behind the stresses, expenses and worries of the "real world" back on the hard stuff.  There is no other place we would rather be.  

Ciao for now.

SV Liahona

Bret and Marne

Launching the boat for the coming cruising season.

It is definitely a little late as we launched the boat at the end of Oct but we have not had good enough internet until now to be able to post.  It was a long 3 1/2 weeks on dry dock taking care of several smaller projects and one large, unanticipated one in order to splash.  Here is a quick vid of the splash.

We are currently in La Paz, BCS and enjoying amazing water and weather here in the Sea of Cortez. We will post again soon to update with some of the happenings along the way.

SV Liahona
Bret and Marne

The dry dock grind.

After 3 days of driving our trusty 1991 Honda Civic (amorously named White Lightning) we arrived in San Carlos to start the work filled process of preparing the boat to move from dry dock to the water.  As you can see White Lightning carried more than her share of the load.  Many called the trip "The Clamplets go to Mexico" and indeed we did receive a fair amount of attention as we motored the length of California  on I-5 to SoCal then east through Phoenix and Tucson before making the last leg down through Sonora Mexico to San Carlos.  An added benefit of looking like homeless people living out of our car was that we had no "ass riders" following too close in the crazy southern California traffic, probably out of fear that something was surely to fly off the car and strike their "keep up with the Jone's" new Beemer or Cedes.  There were many who blew past us then hit the brakes, slid back next to us and either were taking pictures or videos, laughing hysterically and giving us the thumbs up.  We are probably the newest You Tube sensation.  

After 3 days we arrived safely in San Carlos, White Lightning performing flawlessly with no issues whatsoever, using not a drop of oil and all the while getting about 28 mpg while packing that massive load.  She is like a magic carpet, carrying us to our dreamland.  Arriving in SC we wore perma-grins for hours just so happy to be back home and ready to start the adventures of this season.

We arrived in SC on Sept. 30th and here we are on Friday the 7th of Oct., now 7 days into our dry dock experience.  Originally we had planned to be in the water tomorrow but with boat karma that turns one project into 4, that is not going to happen.  We have rescheduled our launch date for Tuesday.  We will see if that is attainable in the next few days.  Hopefully so, but we have 9 months down here this season and there is no need to rush, we want things done right.  When your home is supposed to float, you don't mess around with half assing it.  Do it once, do it right.  And with that here is a pictorial view of a few of the things we are digging into...in no particular order...

 Newly galvanized chain and anchor. (More on this later)

 Jesus working on the through hull for the new wash down pump.

 Living in this mess requires patience and faith that it WILL get better, hopefully soon.

 The nav table...one of the many collection spots.

 Putting up the genoa, one item off the deck, MANY more to go.

 Robert and the lovely Miss Virginia from S/V Harmony next to us on dry dock.

 Harmony heading out of Marina Seca.  Splash time for them.

 The captain prep sanding the bottom.

 ...and more sanding...hours and hours of sanding.

 Cappy and Jesus discussing the through hull.

 Not having a usable bathroom in the middle of the night has it's disadvantages.

 This started out as what I thought was a small project after seeing a small a small crack in the paint on the forward side of the keel. Moisture had gotten inside and delaminated the fiberglass.  So you chase it back until you find clean glass, then build it back up again.  During the process I got a piece of fiberglass dust in my eye and have been struggling with that.  Grrrr.

 Sealing up the keel joint is finally done and you can see some small areas of repair where the paint began to flake due to moisture. The lower, aft part of the keel shows the final part of the repairs to the lead keel that was damaged last season when I haplessly guided us onto the Swanee Rocks just outside of La Paz.  

 The work mess below the water line.

 

 We had to pull the boom and the lower part of the main furler in order install new Torlon bearings.

Putting new bearings in the masthead furler for the main furling system.

The new wash down pump that will supply us with pressurized sea water to the bow and stern.  On the bow it will be helpful to clean off debris from the chain when we are in anchorages with nasty, muddy bottoms, mostly in commercial harbors. The stern wash down will mostly be used for fish cleaning.

We will try to keep you up on the progress as we go along.

SV Liahona

Bret and Marne