Well, we're still here. Nothing's wrong.. we're just slow I guess... Seems there's even more involved than I imagined to being ready to haul out when the time comes. Remember tho', this is our first time... so it's not as 'relaxed' as it will be a few years from now. The biggest challenge has been making a final decision as to exactly where we will haul out the good ship Shannon to then abandon her for 6 or 7 months. When I say "there are pros and cons to every location"... I really mean it! You can't ask even one person for their advice cuz they all have opinions and it takes days to find even two people who can agree on one or two points. That being said, every crew has their unique needs, and ours' is no exception. Some of the 'opinions' and facts that we have to sift through include price (ranges from approx. $900 to $3000 US), expected heat (San Carlos is much hotter than La Paz - but they both get very hot), the type of lifters employed (special trailers vs. antiquated slings), the types of support employed (questionable dirt yards vs. newish cement pads), the types of weather expected (you know, light stuff like monsoon rains and hurricane winds), whether or not you can do your own work or have to pay the yard crew to do the work, location (with respect to where we think we might be), Baja ferries that you might need to actually get to your boat next season, parking facilities for whatever vehicle you may drive back, and so on and so on... oh yeah, even where you will stay while you're prepping your boat to hoist or to splash back... and whether or not they will allow the princess to stay with us... and, if you find that hotel, whether or not there's a decent restaurant to feed at... oh, and moorage at a marina near enough to both the hoisting yard and the hotel to make sense... Enough already! You get the point. If that isn't enough to curdle your cereal... wait 'till I tell you about the list of things we have to do to actually ready 'the good ship' well enough that she'll actually survive the experience! It's enough to make you think about staying home. I'll see if Kathy can add a link to this post so as to share our tudu list with respect to that lovely task. And, if you think I'm 'old' (my baby sister does), think about the fact that the dear ship Shannon will be 37 years old in April of 2012!
OK, I know I sound like I'm complaining... but you'd be surprised how many people think that this trip is all about 'having fun' and just 'sailing around'... It's a lot of hard work; probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life (except maybe for surviving the police academy :-).
Fact is tho' we are just a few days away from heading out to those warm waters, white sand beaches, fishin' holes and small, friendly Mexican villages... all the reasons we left home in the first place... Can't wait.. we're more than ready. Northers are up for a few days so we'll hang here until Saturday... then off we go! We'll head up the coast and be back here by April 2nd to begin the pre-hoist prep. Until then.. it's sun and sand... and fish. Take care friends.. later... CJ
