Leaving Mazatlan

At long last, work on the boat is finished. Sabbatical is currently suspended on slings from the travel-lift in the Singlar boatyard, ready to be splashed into the water tomorrow morning--not long after the staff at Total Yacht Works puts a final coat of paint on the bottom of the keel (which is only accessible while the boat is in slings).

It has taken two weeks rather than one to complete work on the boat. Much of the delay was due to Santa Semana (Easter Week), which is a major holiday here during which not much gets done--other than drinking, partying, and late-night revelry.

There is, believe it or not, a night club in the Singlar boat yard. I don't quite understand the appeal of the location, but starting last Friday a lot of people showed up around 10 pm for loud techno music, which continued until 4:30 am. The cruisers who are living on their boats in the yard, and at a nearby dock, were not happy. Claudia and I were lucky--we happened to have ear plugs, which we put to good use.

I managed to watch the final four NCAA basketball games in local sports bars with Neil Kelly, a retired eye surgeon who is in the boat yard with his 55-foot power cat. It was a lot of fun and suffered not at all from commentary in Espanole.

Tomorrow we plan to head off across the Sea of Cortez. We will probably anchor in the islands north of La Paz for a few days, before heading down to La Paz. It will probably take us two days to cross the Sea because we are expecting headwinds from the northwest. We may need to go north some distance to get a good angle to cross.

Here are a few more pictures of the boat in the yard. This one shows Sabbatical with all the paint stripped from the bottom.



And here she is after a coat of primer (and epoxy "barrier coat"). She will receive two coats of the epoxy primer, and two coats of anti-fouling paint.


With her smooth new bottom she should be fast. After two weeks on the hard, we are eager to go sailing.