Up on the Hard at Marina Seca in Guaymas

We took Good as Gold across the bay to the Marina Seca Guaymas, or the Dirt Yard as it is fondly called. We spent two days up on the hard having two thru-hulls fibreglassed over and two new thru-hulls made, above the waterline.

Fortunately, the staff at Marina Seca were waiting for us to motor across from Fonatur. They were on the radio directing us to their travel lift – more to starboard…ok, stay straight…a little to port… Their channel markers get stolen regularly!
Ready!

Up she goes

The work went well, although we had to take apart some cabinetry to get at the inside of the hull. These two newly located through hulls are used for emptying the water from the shower drains any water that gets into the bilge.
BeforeAfter

It was very hot and dusty at the Dirt Yard and after we had thoroughly washed the boat, we were swarmed by mosquitos. We assume that water touching the dirt after a millennia caused a great release of dried insect larvae.

We were also anxious to return to the water as we needed to run our engine or generator as our batteries were very low. There had been no wind, our solar panels are ancient, and our fancy expensive 120 volt inverter-charger kept shutting off because the voltage at the yard fluctuated between 130-139 volts. We need the inverter-charger so we can charge the batteries and use electricity onboard.
We asked to be splashed back into the water early Monday morning. We had made arrangements for the stainless steel guy to meet us at noon across the bay at Fonatur. Unfortunately, we were scheduled to be the third boat to be put into the water. The travel lift arrived at the boat about noon. At this point we were asking (and confirming repeatedly) if the tide was still high enough for our almost 7’ draft. The staff re-assured us, repeatedly, that there would be no problem. The travel lift gently set us down into the mud.
We called the stainless steel guy and re-scheduled. There was still no wind and there was not enough water, certainly not clean water, to run the engine or generator, so we watched the battery monitor lights pulse red.
Once it was confirmed the boat was resting comfortable in mud and was not going to move, the staff then looked at the day’s tide tables. “Yep, low tide. We will come back in a two hours when the tide changes,” they said as they walked away. Malcolm pointed out that if we were stuck 2 hours before the tide changes, we will be stuck 2 hours after the tide changes, and they shouldn’t bother to come back in 5 hours rather than 4. They looked at him quizzically and returned in 4 hours. Although they pulled and pulled, we did not budge. They came back an hour later and with some effort pulled us away from shore enough to float.

We followed their instructions on where the dredged canal is as precisely as possible: “See the white house across the bay, not the white hotel, but the house? Steer directly toward it until it is deep.” We only touched bottom once as we cross the bay back to Fonatur. Luckily the bottom is just mud, so no damage was done.
When we returned to Marina Fonatur, we found that occasionally the electricity there also spiked above 120 volts. Apparently, this is common in Guaymas. Fortunately, Malcolm was able to by-pass the inverter and get the batteries charged.  With all those Canadian boats at Fonatur, it felt a bit like coming home.