We finally splashed!

We’re back in the water... after a month on the hard! What a relief to be out of the boat yard!

 Living in the yard has been an experience. We’ve been hauled out and living on the hard in Mazatlan for a month. We’ve all had really good attitudes about it, but towards the end we were getting restless. First, it’s filthy! The sand particles and dust that blow around get everywhere... no matter how hard the employees try to stave off the mess with tarps and plastic covers. Our feet may be permanently discolored!

Next, the inconvenience of doing dishes in the restrooms... also brushing teeth, using the W/C... it became cumbersome. Lifting the old doggie up and down in the homemade harness was a pain and it’s only short of a miracle that Carolyne didn’t break her neck going up and down the ladder... the wrong way!

The worst part of being on the hard for me was that I began having serious asthma attacks. I get asthma once in a blue moon... very infrequent and very mild. I have some Chinese herbs on board that I take when it rarely flares that really help. However, my asthma was intense and terrible while on the hard. I had to use two different inhalers: one was Xopenex HFA, a fast acting, instant relief inhaler that my friend Lori on s/v Third Day gave me. The second I bought at the pharmacy, a preventative steroid Beclometasone. I was using the inhalers several times everyday... it was horrible and I really feel for the guys who work in that environment.

The positive side of all this is that we are in a slip in the Singlar marina at 28¢ a foot. Getting into the slip, however, proved we definitely need more practice with Hotspur's displacement. She was coming fast... and we were in neutral! Jim hit reverse twice to slow her down a tad. The wind was kicking up and we knew she would stern out and towards the catamaran parallel to the dock. We were prepared with many friends there to help even thought he finger is only 1.5' wide. Unfortunately, the stern line didn't get cleated immediately and the stern got away from the line handler. It took four men to pull hard so that Hotspur didn't hit the catamaran. Oh, well... if you ain't livin' on the edge, you ain't livin'... right?