There is nothing like a deadline to make things happen. The crew is here and we are grinding through final preparations. This morning we received our departure clearance from the local port captain and set our departure date for Tuesday, March 26th.
Pam has been here for several weeks cooking and provisioning. Shop, prep, cook, vacuum seal, freeze, repeat. That's been her life lately.
I got down on Sunday after two weeks in Australia and New Zealand for work. Flying over the very ocean we are about to sail across was humbling.
Mike and Joan arrived on Monday and immediately jumped in to help with the prep. John came down on Tuesday and successfully smuggled in a replacement for our Single Side Band, long distance HF radio.
Despite nearly a year of working on the boat there are still a few projects left to finish. We're expanding our solar energy generation by over 50%. We also decided at the last minute to have a clear enclosure made for the cockpit to make it livable when it rains. We have a large shipment of spare parts from the US that we hope arrives on Saturday after more than three weeks in transit.
Mike and I took the boat over to La Cruz on Tuesday to fill the fuel tanks and our extra fuel jugs. We'll take 200 gallons of fuel in our tanks and another 30 gallons in reserve in separate fuel jugs. That gives us the ability to motor for almost 1,500 miles. We don't expect to motor that much, but it is nice to have the option. While in La Cruz our rigger, Peter Vargas, was on hand to go up the mast and give our rigging a final inspection. He pronounced it healthy and fit for the ocean.
Thursday Mike and Joan rented a car and ran a bunch of errands gathering up more spare parts. We needed extra oil for the engines, hydraulic fluid for the steering system, parts to make up an emergency "crash pump," fittings to allow us to transfer propane from French tanks into our US tanks, and another run to Costco for more groceries.
While they were out, Chava and his crew were onboard welding up our new solar panel frame, and Pieter our electrician was working out the details of the installation. They will be back tomorrow to do the final installation.
John has led the way in reorganizing all of our spare parts and tools. He's emptied every locker, consolidated the contents and then put everything away.
I've been working with our meteorologist and weather router, MetBob on our plan and routing. The conditions aren't ideal but they are good enough to go. We'll be chased by spell of light winds behind us. With luck we'll be just in front of it. If not we may have a few days of motor sailing to get away from the coast. But MetBob agreed with my assertion that it is better to try to outrun a lull than try to outrun a storm.
The port captain here requires 2 business days notice. We processed our paperwork today. He, his staff, the customs official, and the immigration official will all be on our dock at 10am on Tuesday to inspect our passports and ensure we actually leave the dock and the country. I'm not sure why they need to do this, but they take it seriously.
I had to show "proof of competency" before they would approve our clearance out of Mexico. Fortunately, I'd gotten a heads up on this requirement several months ago and got an "International Proficiency" certificate from US Sailing along with a "California Boaters Card" while I was home. Neither of these is a testament of my competency to captain a boat across the Pacific, but the port captain seemed satisfied and stamped our forms approved.
We hope to have everything done by Sunday so we can take Monday off and lounge by the pool and rest up for the big voyage.
These are long days of hard work but Tuesday will come and we will go.
