Aboard Astraea

On October 28th, we hauled the muddy anchor off the bottom in Guaymas and high tailed it up to San Carlos. Astraea motored out the bay at six knots with her fresh bottom paint and clean propellor.

Local fishermen returning to Guaymas

Sully wanted to be outside for our first passage in a long time

After rounding the point and turning right towards San Carlos we set the autopilot and started to relax. I threw out a fishing line with low expectations. I hadn’t had success fishing since Sully and I fished off the docks in Mazatlan last spring. Not long after trailing a bright yellow lure behind us we spotted giant fin whales off our port side.

We hung out in the cockpit eating snacks and reading books until our relaxation was interrupted by line screaming out of the fishing rod. We slowed the boat and I reeled in our first fish of the season – a small bonito. The wind was just right so we unfurled the jib and got some motorsailing in on our way to San Carlos.

Reading about Canadian Outlaws

I caught a tiny bonito!

Cockpit snacks

After sailing almost up to our anchorage we furled the jib and dropped our anchor in 20 feet of water at the beautiful anchorage of Caleta La Posada.

Sailing with the jib unfurled

We’re happy to be sailing again

The water rushing along the port side

We dinghy’d ashore and had a nice lunch at the Palapa restaurant on the beach and played in the water with Sully. It was a perfect way to spend a day cruising and a great return to Astraea.

The anchorage at Caleta La Posada

Hola Mexico!

Finally it was time to get back to Astraea and get her back in the water. Natalie’s Dad, Ted, would finish selling Astraea Mobile on eBay for us. Our friend Gary, from Sea Rover II was driving down to Guaymas from Phoenix and offered us a ride.

The ride was pretty smooth. We stopped for tacos along the way. Gary was worried about making the long drive with a 3 year old, but Sully was great. He had lots of snacks, drinks, rest stops and games on the phone to keep him occupied.

Riding down in a fully loaded Subaru with Gary at the wheel

Sleepy kiddo in the back seat. We got a craigslist carseat just for the trip.

We made it to Gabriel’s Yard in Guaymas that afternoon and got Astraea opened up and ready for bedtime. Before we knew it we were ready for dinner. We rode back in to town with Gary and Bill from Graybeard for some cheeseburgers at Popeye’s Hamburgesas. We were ready for good authentic Mexican food, but decided on burgers because they have a great play area for Sully since he was cooped up in the car all day.

Hamburgesas Popeye’s. Thanks for the recommendation from our friends on Terrapin. Popeye’s is the In-N-Out of Guaymas, complete with toys considered dangerous by American standards and no safety waiver.

Natalie and I worked quickly for the next two days to get Astraea ready to launch. We finally launched on a rising tide on October 21.

One slacked forestay, fenders and dock lines and Astraea’s ready for the slow roll to the water

Happy that Astraea’s back afloat

The approach to the Fonatur Marina in Guaymas

We motored across the bay in Guaymas to Marina Fonatur and tied up for a few days. We restored the outsides to seaworthy conditions, took on fuel, water, and fresh provisions.
We were lucky enough to meet up with two other kid boats, Sangvind and Coastal Drifter. Sully enjoyed running around with the bigger kids. It was exciting being back on the docks meeting other seasoned cruisers who do this year after year. We exchanged boat cards with many of them and went out for tacos at the local loncheria (snack bar) Doney.

Sully has learning game apps on Natalie’s old smart phone

One of the biggest problems we had with the boat last season was with our outboard motor. If I were a smart guy I’d have bought a new (used) one and brought it down from the states, but after 5 months of RV cruising it slipped my mind. When it came time to put the outboard on and test it out the engine wouldn’t start. I pulled the spark plugs out and found lots of black gunk in the cylinders. After about an hour cleaning the cylinders out with WD-40 and Marvel’s Mystery Oil I put new plugs in and the engine started on it’s first pull! After a quick ride around the marina the engine wouldn’t restart, but I cleaned more gunk out of the cylinders and it ran fine again.

While we were in Guaymas an ominous looking message appeared on our DeLorme inReach device. It said, “Your inReach is damaged. Messages cannot be sent or received. Contact Technical Support for Assistance.” Ouch. We’ve been using the inReach for a year and this is our second problem. The fist one we bought had a faulty arrow key so we couldn’t text without using a smartphone. Now after one replacement device we needed another. After a quick call to DeLorme I was guarenteed a replacement device overnight if I paid for the shipping. Four days later it still hadn’t arrived at Natalie’s Dad’s in Arizona for forwarding to us, so I called their support number again. They didn’t know when a refurbished unit would be available to send to us, so we got a new unit shipped overnight instead. The last day of our stay in the marina we rinsed the dirt off the topsides and moved out to the anchorage. We had more trouble with the outboard while we still stowed and prepared Astraea for voyaging. Sully did well keeping himself entertained playing with his toys on the boat. After not seeing his trains for five months it was like a brand new toy!