WHITECAP's
SAILING
EXCURSION
Port Isabel, Texas to Veracruz, Mexico
Nov
1, 2000 - Dec 19, 2000
- Nov 1, 2000 - IT'S ME WHITECAP, I've been sitting
here since June waiting for something to happen and I must admit it's been
pretty quiet....lonely actually....not even a hurricane to speak of, so
far. I just got word however, that the Boss (Dick) has acquired his air
ticket to rejoin me and will be walking all over me again in about a week. It
sure will be nice to get my belly scratched and get rid of all that itchy
stuff down under, and then we'll be on our way again. It turns out, he's
been busy building me a present for when I return to Summerside in a couple of
years; you remember my old boat shed that appears in the pictures from the
first
part of the trip, well here's my new
shed, in its infancy....no plastic wrap this time. Drop in again and
check out our ongoing saga as it begins to unfold once more. Talk to you
later.
- Nov 13, 2000 - IT'S ME AGAIN, WHITECAP, I just
got word, Dick flew out this morning and will be back with me by tonight or
tomorrow morning. I heard Gerry Arsenault (from Summerside) is coming
with him, but on a different flight, and then they'll link up in Texas and
come straight to me. I can hardly wait. I'll keep you all posted;
drop in again anytime and don't forget to sign the guest book, so I'll know
you've been here.
- Nov 14, 2000 - DICK'S HERE,,,DICK'S
HERE, FINALLY. He got away early Monday Nov 13, up and about and at the HFX
airport by 0530. Gerry's flight left on schedule at 0625 and the
skipper's to Boston at 0805, no problems, except he forgot his
duty free Bacardi in the overhead!!! and did not realize it until he was on
the bus from Terminal 1 to terminal 3 at Logan. Ah well the clean-up
crew can have a party on Dick... Slept most of the way from BOS to
Chicago's O'Hare, and then to Houston where he had a 4 hour wait for the
Brownsville flight. Arrived BRO 2330, Gerry had not arrived yet, missed
the last flight by 1 minute!! so the skipper simply got a taxi to the Holiday
Inn for the night. Rented a car on Tues AM and picked up Gerry at the airport at noon.
Tuesday we drove to Port Isabel, rented a small trailer at Anchor marina, for
a few days. WHITECAP is well, the
bilge was absolutely dry, and unexpectedly, there was no mould anywhere, she
was just as we left her in April. We "fogged" for critters,
just in case, and left her closed up for 24 hours, while we scrubbed and
cleaned the deck and cockpit. The teak deck came out just like new.
The only growth is at the waterline, where we have a fine crop of oysters and
barnacles. Met up with Ian Rose, works for the Trappers an AAA ball team
from Edmonton, Alberta, on a Macgregor 26, with a 50 hp outboard. Ian and a
lady friend have twice started out sailing for Cancun
straight across, and twice turned back. He was carrying 15 cans of
gasoline "in the
cabin"!!! (the cans leaked) and they are smokers!!! A bomb waiting
to go off!!! The lady has since gone off to Belize on a bus.
When Ian heard about us, he wanted to follow us down the coast. Even though it
would be nice to have the company of another boat, we have convinced him
to take the ditch to Florida and then maybe cross over by way of Cuba, the
Macgregor
is too light for this trip. We traded charts, we now have his Mexican
coastal paper ones to Cancun, and he has our waterway guides and charts to
Mobile; we also purchased all his Mexican pesos.
- Nov 15, 2000 - Wednesday, nice day, temp 85F,
we wiped down the whole inside cabin and then
went over to the storage locker, everything fine there also, took all the pillows
and sheets back to Anchor for the laundry. Everything went fine until
the last load, Dick's favorite pillow burst in the washer, and we had Red
Rock hen down feathers everywhere!!!! It took us several hours to
clean it all up and run the wash machine about ten times to get rid of all the
feathers. We keep imagining, some other tenant, after laundering her
slinky negligee in the same machine, wondering where all these red feathers
came from...
- Nov 16 & 17, 2000 -
Thursday and Friday. Arranged with "Sea-R Sea" across the basin to
lift us out, scheduled for Monday at 1030, the earliest they can take us.
$4 per ft for in and out and
$1.25 ft for pressure wash. We purchased a gal of black
"International Bottomcote" in Brownsville, after we met with US
Customs to fix up our expired US cruising permit, now we have all our papers
in order. Could not work on the boat or load any gear, as we are in the
mist of a "norther" high winds and rain rain rain.
- Nov 18, 2000 - Saturday, temp down to 50F,
with the oven on for heat in the trailer. cold
and rain, and another "norther" coming in today, just when we do not
want one. Guess we will have to spend the day watching movies and
drinking rum... hope this all passes by today.
- Nov 20, 2000 - WHITECAP came out at 1000 today
Monday, and as we
expected, there was only growth along the waterline but for some reason
lots under the stern, probably because there was more sun around that
side. And there were big barnacles too....
The Sea-R-Sea guys power
washed
all the stuff off and are presently scraping the barnacles. The weather
broke up today, and the sun came out, the temp is 75F so the bottom
should dry out quickly.
This afternoon we will go over and sand to get her ready for new Bottomcote.
Looks like only one scrape, I think it is the one I put on in Providence Bay,
Manitoulin Island, where I touched a piece of cement slab from a partly fallen
down wharf away back last fall...
The zinc needs to be replaced on the prop and I don't have another new one,
but the one we removed in Midland is in better shape, so I will have to put
it back on. Guess we can't think of everything....
- Nov 21, 2000 - Cleanup is coming along well,
we will be painting the new waterline and bottom today and should be ready for
re-launch Wednesday AM. The yard is shutting down at noon Wed, for the
Thanksgiving holiday and will not be open until next Monday.... we have
to be out of there, or get locked in.... Here are some pictures, most of the
growth was under the stern, should have
backed into the dock!! In retrospect, it would have been better to have
stored her "on the hard". Some vandals got on a trawler yacht
in the yard and cleaned out all the electronics from the fly-bridge, hope they
stay away for the next 2 nights.
The weather has cleared up, and it topped 80F here yesterday, but cools off
after dark which happens around 1800 hrs, but they are forecasting rain for
Thurs and Friday. I am writing this at 0416 and the outside temp is
60F. The last "norther" (high north winds for about 2
days) went through here last Thursday, and the winds are still from the
north at about 10 -15mph just
perfect for where we want to go... except we are not ready. The shrimper
"KATHERINE", who ties up across the basin, tells us the seas are
only 5 ft out at the jetties. By the time we are ready to go I am
sure things will be worse. Another "norther" this weekend will
be perfect!!! everything else is great, I cook, Gerry cleans. We got 5
meals out of 1 HEB (the Texas equiv of Sobeys) barbeque chicken, finished up
the fricot yesterday.
- Nov 22, 2000 - Got the bottom finished last
night after dark, looks real good, should be the last paint for the next 18
months or so, especially if we get to fresh water in the Rio Dulce next
spring. Salt water creatures do not live in fresh water, and just drop
off, and visa versa, I suppose if someone went in and out the Rio Dulce
every couple of months you would never have to paint again!!! Here
are some pictures, one shows Gerry supervising our "boat
Gringo" Chris, who did all the dirty sanding work for us,
another shows the new waterline
on port and the old on stbd, before the masking tape came off. Also a
picture of the bow of a 30' Grand Banks trawler
and her blisters opened for drying!!! they are the size of a dogs head.
Some glad she's not ours... and finally our finished waterline
and bottom paint, nice eh!!.
Launched this AM (Wednesday), they had 3 boats to launch before they shut down
at noon until Monday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Around here everyone works
on Mexican time, manana. Got the first 2 in before 0900 and us shortly
after, $206.US total for lift out/in and power wash. Spent the afternoon
cleaning out the storage shed and moving everything to the boat. Air
temp 78F. Picked up our departure documents from the port Captain today, he
also gave us a message introducing us to the port captain in VeraCruz who is a
friend of his.
Tomorrow we will re-install the wind instruments and steaming light.
Everything is closed around here for the holiday.
- Nov 24, 2000 - We are still in Port Isabel,
the "norther" that we expected went through during the night, winds
to 50 kts, tied more lines to the boat during the night. Today is nice, winds
NW 15, but another stronger one of these is forecast for Sunday, then light
northerlies until mid week, giving us a better window. Even the
fishermen are not going out today. If we get a real good window, and
everything is ok, we will try for Altamira. After Cabo Rojo, north of
Tuxpan, there are no more of these freak winds. All our paperwork
is in order, have to recalibrate the depth sounder, reading 11 ft and we know
we only have 4 at the dock.
Loading groceries and dinghy today. Had to replace the bottom
bilge pump this afternoon, what a job to find parts around here, everyone
closed!!!
Temp here is 68F at 0914 hrs. All is well, Mercedes is working
great, and we fixed the front hatch which somehow has been leaking around the
screws, probably overheated during the summer.
- Nov 26, 2000 - We are finally fit and ready to
go; just have to take on water, fuel up and wait for this front to go through,
if it comes. If this storm doesn't materialize, we just lost two good
north wind days!!! Tomorrow, Monday, we will move over to South Point
where be can fuel up and more conveniently head out "Brazos Santiago
Pass" into the gulf of Mexico. The winds are now
forecast as light NE until Wednesday; Pete, the fisherman, went out at noon
today for 5 day fishing trip 50 miles out in the Gulf.
Spent the day today (Sunday) up the mast, reinstalled the wind
instrument fitting, then modified steaming/deck light, moved the upper blocks
for the lazy jacks to the spreaders so the lines would not clank the mast and
replaced the seized domestic water pump with a new one which I picked up
at Blind John's store. John opens his business on Sundays because he has
nothing to do at home (can't watch TV). Tonight we dined on a HEB $5.49 b'bque
chicken.
Ian Rose, the Edmonton guy on the Macgregor 26 left yesterday at noon, headed
up the ditch towards Corpus Christi, New Orleans and Tampa, towing his
inflatable dinghy full of 5 gal cans of gas. This time he did not have
the cabin full, so I guess we taught him something!!! He says he will
see us this winter in Belize, easily done in that boat with a good window, as
he can do 15 kts and a 90 mile hop to Cuba then another to Isla Mujeres.
If everything goes well, our next message will be from Tuxpan or Vera Cruz.
-
Nov 28, 2000 - Here are some pictures of ElMezquital
the small village and a sunset, and La
Pesca's Marina del Mar (not really a
marina but a lodge). Also a young lady
from Monterrey, Carla, at the lodge with her
parents for the long weekend and who we tried to get started e-mailing David,
she is quite fluent in English and wants to learn more, as does most of her
generation. Met the port Captain at the market tonight, he says the surf
will be down by Monday, and the winds will still be north. We hitched a
drive out to the jetties, it looks like Cavendish beach during a nor-easter
back home, and it is impossible to pass through.
- Dec 1, 2000 - Hi folks, WHITECAP here.
Well, I've made some progress down the Mexican coast and am now in La
Pesca. The weather is supposed to close in for awhile, so I'm going to
stay here over night and take another look in the morning. Things are
going well; I'll get the skipper to update this again as soon as we can get an
e-mail link.
- Dec 7, 2000 - Well, it's me again, WHITECAP
that is. We rode into Tuxpan, Mexico at around 5am this morning. I
say rode because we had quite a ride, what with 80 km winds behind us, it was
like the downhill slide on a roller coaster.....And the luxuries here, it's
the first time since we left the US that the umbilical cord could be hooked up
to pump a little life back into my system. Now my batteries are getting
all juiced up and I'm feeling much more rejuvenated. Not much news for
now as this all in from a quick phone relay, still haven't been able to send a
detailed e-mail for awhile. Will send more info when the skipper
can get a good computer link.
- Dec 7, 2000 - Found an internet cafe for 10
peosos/hr (US$1). Bustling city, especially up by the bridge in
downtown. The port Captain is 2 miles, and the playa 4 miles to the right, and
downtown is 2 miles the other way. We are tied up to the local dive
boat, he says we can stay here as long we want, but we will probably head for
Veracruz tomorrow or Sunday, it is a 30 hour jump. We can plug into his small
shop, but the polarity is bad, so we just charged the batteries and un
plugged. We cleared into Mexican Immigration here yesterday, so now we
can take down our "Q" flag. Tuxpan must be a mexican tourist
place, there is a beautiful 5 mile long beach here with palapas and cantinas
everywhere, but this is not the bathing suit season. We crossed the Tropic of
Cancer and the vegetation is now all different, palm trees everywhere.
The city is cleaner than the other ones we have stopped at, but as they do all
over Mexico, when they finish with something, they just drive it up the shore
and leave it. The CN ferry Bluenose
is just across the river from us, not in very good shape.
- Dec 8, 2000 - We decided to sail early Sat
morning for Tecolutla, about 34 miles, this will shorten the Veracruz hop.
Getting to the point where we will soon have to turn our socks inside out,
Already turned the sheets!!! Got my worst pair of deck shoes shined
today, the guy took 15 minutes, now they are my best pair.... cost US 50
cents, gave him a 50 cent tip... stopped at a street
front cafe for lunch, 24 Tiger shrimp and 4 beers US$19, only $9.50 each
not bad eh!
- Dec 11, 2000 - WHITECAP here again, quick
phone call home to let everyone know that I had arrived in Veracruz early this
morning. No docks here, have to anchor out, no place for me to stay by
myself for Christmas.......the skipper can't abandon me now. Gerry has
to fly home on Thursday, so the skipper will probably take me at that time and
head out for Cancun so he will have somewhere to leave me for the
holidays. High winds moving in again for tomorrow so the lay over for a
couple of days is quite timely.....I need the rest and it's the last chance
for anyone to fly out until we reach Cancun. I'll bet Gerry and the
skipper spend the next two days checking out the local atmosphere here in
Veracruz. As always, I'll let you know more as soon as we can get that
much sought-after e-mail link.
- Dec 13, 2000 - We are in Veracruz arrived at
5AM Monday morning, anchored in the basin and slept until 10AM, put the dinghy
in and paddled over to the Veracruz Yacht
Club. There is only one sailboat here, a C&C 34 or 36,all the others
are power from 35 down to small outboards. The entrance to Veracruz, is
between two islands or reefs, they are well lit. One is Arreclife
Sacrificios, and the other is Arreclife Blanquilla, a larger palm covered
island. We did our Puerto Captania thing, and they were very nice, he
gave us a new "dispachio", saying our destination of Isla Mujeres,
and any Puerto intermedio in between. The word "any" has
significance, because, if you go into a port that is not listed they will tell
you to leave. We thanked him very much. We are learning more
Spanish every day. The port here is closed for small boat traffic, for
another "norther" last night (it did not materialize). As a
precaution, we anchored off in the basin for the night. Veracruz is a
bustling city, very clean, there are street vendors and artisans everywhere,
especially along the "malecon" a waterfront walk from the YC to
Centro (downtown), even found an local artist named Giorgio
to paint the light house on Sacrificios for us, he did it using only his
fingers, with a small brush for details. We discovered where our water
was coming from, there is a hole in the "rubber boot" on the engine
exhaust, and as the salt water goes through here under pressure, it simply
went to the bilge. It was only happening when the motor was running.
We also burnt out our automatic (upper) bilge pump, and another boater here,
Julio (a retired federal police officer) has just received a new one from Boat
US, he is selling us this one and will order another for himself. Hope
to install it today. We are not having much luck finding internet
service so far, but today I found out there is a cafe just 3 blocks from here
which I will try. Gerry is leaving for Houston tomorrow Thursday Dec
14, and I will continue
on directly to Campeche (311 miles) and then Progresso (another 100
miles). We understand there is a new marina in Progresso, where it
will be possible to leave WHITECAP for 2 weeks, it is not mentioned in any of
our guide books.
- Dec 18, 2000 - Well, things never seem to go
the way one would expect, or want....By the time Gerry got away, headed for
home, the port of Veracruz had shut down for the weekend (until
Tuesday). When things are shut down here, you can't get the necessary
papers you need to clear port and carry on......Hence, here I sit with the
skipper. Veracruz is not so bad!!! The skipper is looking
frantically for someone to take care of me, right here, for a couple of weeks
so he can go home to his family for Christmas....to no avail so
far. Will keep you posted, WHITECAP.
- Dec 19, 2000 - EUREKA!!! Dick arrived
home tonight, as he found someone to baby-sit me (boat-sit???). They get
free accommodations for a couple of weeks (staying on board) and I get someone
to keep me company while the skipper celebrates Christmas with his
family. I will tell you more when I hear from the skipper again....in
the mean time.....
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL, HAPPY SAILING IN THE NEW YEAR!!!
Ca va dire
"Joyeux Noël et bonne année"
and
"Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo"
