Guaymas at LAST

AT LAST!

The last 3 days have been on the go while we grind down the 1,300 miles between San Anselmo and Guaymas.  And there is a whole lot of nothing along most of those 1,300 miles so I don't recommend this route to anyone.

We left early Monday with a goal to be in Long Beach at the Viking production center by lunch time to pick up our new life raft.  Along about the grapevine we were surprised to see rain sprinkles -- what rain in LA?  The drizzle lasted the better part of the day.  Anyway we were delighted to find car pool lanes and we zoomed along at the speed limit; found Viking; repacked the car with the raft; and then immediately headed towards Riverside and points east.  We spent Monday night in Blythe CA.  A rather unattractive town with a small selection of tired hotels for weary travelers.

Tuesday we started with a goal to make Tucson by lunch time.  Again, many miles with not much but tumbleweed then suddenly Phoenix; nothing again and then Tucson.   Once in Tucson we found Porter Marine, the authorized Volvo dealer that may work on the engine.  Or they may not.  We have not felt much confidence in them but perhaps by showing up in Tucson and being in Guaymas (where they also work on marine engines) -- well, maybe they will turn out to be the professionals we seek.  We had a great afternoon in Tucson doing a bit of a walking tour of the downtown and eating at a fabulous restaurant.  We also went to the Pima Air Museum and saw hundreds of military and commercial airplanes including a Super Guppy, a Lockheed constellation, and an SR 71 Blackbird.  As we left the museum, another deluge began -- this one complete with thunder and lightening.

Wednesday also began early as we wanted to cross the border and be to Guaymas by mid-afternoon.  I am not sure how it all happened but we got our visas at the border.  We then tried to explain to customs that we had this paper work to show a swap of goods plus we had additional items to declare.  Somehow Alan thought we paid customs at about km 21 -- so he acted like we would pay down the road.  The border custom agent looked in a few bags & tried to believe that we had a liferaft in the back of the car.  I think he was totally fine with telling us to go on and pay at km 21.  But km 21 came and went with no sign of customs or anything official.   We figure this little snafu saved us $120 USD so a bit of honest confusion was a sweet savings.

The boat looks great; it had been washed off in anticipation of our arrival.  We unpacked a few things and have some simple goals for the next few days:  get the trampolines on the foredeck and lifelines up (both safety issues), get the shade awnings in place, begin cleaning and sorting the interior, arranging for the stainless guy to come on site, and having the new Volvo mechanic in town check out the engines.  Actually that sounds like about a week of work in that sentence alone.

It is great to be here.  The weather is hot.  We will keep you posted.