We arrived in Puerto Penasco on a Sunday afternoon, just in the nick of time for our haul out the following day.   After a brief exploration of town (documented in my last post), we managed to get the head sail down that first night.   There was still so much to do before we were to be hauled out of the water so we were up bright and early the next day.

The first order of business was to get the mainsail down and folded away, before the wind picked up for the day.   Luckily, this went without a hitch.   We also started to remove loose items from our rail – the life ring, life sling and ladder for example.   We needed to find 4 lines long enough to run from the boat up to the travel lift – luckily, we had a couple of long lengths of rope in storage and were able to use those, along with our jib sheets, to have sufficiently long lines.

We were originally supposed to be hauled out at about 2pm and were quite surprised when the yard phoned at about 9am to see if we were ready to come over.   Owen explained that we were not quite there, but could be available for about 11 and so that was the time-frame we were now working under.  

We continued to round up all of the fenders that had been languishing for months and were finally ready to go.   We were just untying the boat to head over to the travel lift when we heard another boat call in to say that they were just heading into the harbour and would come over directly to be lifted out.   We were expecting the boatyard to explain that there was a boat on the way over to be lifted but instead they told the other boat to come on over.  Okay then – we retied the boat and called in to clarify how long we should now be waiting – they suggested that it would now be another hour so we sat down to wait for the call.

Finally, they were ready for us and we made our way across the harbour and over to the terrifying cement holding space for the lift.   There was not a lot of leeway from side to side and I was so afraid of running us into one of the walls, or directly into the front!!!    Luckily, I was able to land us fairly squarely in the middle and we got all four lines tossed up to the handlers.   They pulled the front corner of the boat over to the wall to allow us to scramble up onto shore and got ready to get us lifted.   All did not go as planned – they got the straps in place and two of the yard guys were on board ready for the lift.   As they were lifting, we could see that the front was not coming up quite as quickly as the back and sure enough, just as the hull was about a foot out of the water, the back straps slipped and the boat plunged back down into the water – it was so sudden and scary!!!!     It seems the combination of the slimy coating on the hull and the slightly mismatched lifting of the straps was enough to send everything off track.   Luckily it was just a short drop and there was no damage.   They decided to opt for the safety of tying the straps together and once everything was secured, they went for round two – we both held our breath while the boat was lifted and then moved forward but everything went much smoother on the second try.   Just like that our boat (and home) was sitting on the hard in the middle of the boat yard.   Being the last boat to be lifted that day, they set a couple of stands underneath us and left us suspended in the slings for the night!!   It was a bit surreal to see the lift hovering over us when I peeked out the hatch over our bed!! 

The next day, the boat was power washed and moved to our new summer home, tucked away in the yard across the street.   Now the real work could begin.

Putting the boat away for the summer is no joke – it is a lot of work.   The boatyard provides us with a manual of suggested steps to take to ensure that the boat will be sound (and hopefully critter free) when we return and this was so helpful to us newbies.  We had decided to stay on the boat – initially for the first few days before we headed home, and finally we ended up on the boat the entire time we were prepping to leave.  

Living on the hard is a bit of a challenge – it is hot – there is nearly no breeze moving through the boat.   There is a very tall set of steps to climb up to get to deck level and then you need to step over a gap (probably less than a foot but felt like 10 feet!) to step onto the boat – being terrified of heights, this was my least favorite part of yard life.   We only wanted to have to have our holding tank emptied out once so if we needed to use the washroom it was a climb down the ladder, through our yard, across the street, stop to visit the puppies, and then either up to the cruiser’s lounge or into one of the washrooms in the main yard.   At night, this was not even a possibility for me so I continued to use the head on the boat but of course had to use the shower to put water through as we could not pull water into the boat.   

Did I mention the puppies?    That was the best part of the yard – they had 2 puppies who were being trained to be the new yard dogs – Drake and Riley were the cutest things – attacking your ankles, giving licks and generally making the misery of the boat yard a little bit better.   I was sure to stop in for snuggles anytime that I was near the main yard.

The next best thing about the yard is the staff – everyone who works at Cabrales boat yard is friendly and helpful.   Most speak only Spanish but with google translate and our every improving charades, you could generally get your message across.   The night guard in the main yard, Federico, took it upon himself to be sure that we were learning some new Spanish words and phrases every day (the puppies for examples are cabrones (or bastards!)).    Most nights we found ourselves standing out in the street at 10pm, on the way to or from the washrooms, having a very long Spanglish conversation with him.  

But back to the work involved in getting the boat cleaned out.   Owen started with giving our poor rusty boat a bath – the salt was so thick on her – even after having had a quick rinse in Santa Rosalita.  While he was doing that, I was taking everything out of the boat, starting at the bow, giving a good wash down and trying to get rid of items we don’t need before loading everything back in.   The suggestion was to get rid of all food on board – we had hundreds of dollars of canned food and spices and I just couldn’t bear to give that all away – I am hoping I don’t regret it, but we bought a few big bins and loaded all the non-perishable food into them.   Once we had made some progress with the cleaning process, it was time for the tinfoil.  Pretty much everything on deck that could not be removed needed to be wrapped in tinfoil and tape – winches, hatches – anything that had any plastic component.   All blocks were removed.   We went on the hunt for good nylon line to use as messenger lines so that we could take our halyards down but found that was nearly impossible to find – lots of poly line available but we had little doubt that those would just disintegrate in the sun.  In the end we managed to find 2 lengths of nylon that we hope will hold up, and two old halyards to swap out with the halyards presently in the mast.    We still have a couple of our regular halyards exposed to the sun but did the best we could do – hopefully the messenger lines all hold up and we are able to swap everything back without drama!   Owen even took the time to wrap our upper life lines in tinfoil as they were newly installed, very expensive, dyneema.   Our sail sheets and lines were crusty with salt so one by one, I took them down and soaked them in a bucket to loosen up the salt and then rinsed them with a bit of fabric softener before hanging them to dry and coiling them up.   This process took nearly the entire time we were in the yard – who knew we had so many lines!

I took all of the clothing that we were not taking home, bedding, linens, etc. out of their cupboards and put them into bags for summer storage.

In between boat jobs, and usually for the purpose of a hardware store or grocery trip, we were able to get out and explore a tiny bit of Puerto Penasco.    The area around the boat yard is a bit sketchy – the happy endings massage parlour and brothel being the 2 most notable neighbors.    A short walk from there took us out to a main drag where we could find hardware stores and quick-marts but no real grocery store.   We were of course trying to not bring more food onto the boat as we would be throwing out everything in our fridge and freezer so we were able to manage with just the items available at the quick-marts (milk, bread, tequila seltzers!)   We did come across an adorable café where we were able to sit and enjoy fraps before heading back for more work.   There were also some great roast chicken places in town – we tried one that was fantastic and were told we must check out one a bit further from the boatyard as it is even better! – we didn’t make it there this time but after hearing everyone rave about, it is on our list for when we return.   By the last few days, we were running out of food and I needed to empty and defrost the fridge and freezer so we needed to head out for all meals.   We were lucky to find a great breakfast place only a block away as well as a couple of American style restaurants where we could find decent pizza and good burgers for a reasonable price.   

On our last day, we took everything we could off of the deck, tucking it all away below – when we left, we could hardly step away from the ladder and the salon was filled with sails, bins, my stand-up paddle board, deflated and in its bag, and of course, Owen’s kayak!!   I had already filled the v-berth with lines, the life ring and sling, life jackets, and any other small items.   It will be quite the task to get everything out of there when we come back (I am actually quite concerned about getting the kayak back out – it was a bit of a tight squeeze going in! 

We arranged to head to Phoenix by shuttle and what a trip that was.   On the day we were leaving one of our wonderful boat-yard neighbors loaded us and all of our bags into their vehicle and drove us to the shuttle.   There was a 10-person van waiting for us, and there were 13 passengers ready to go!!!   They loaded our bags onto a rack at the back of the van and sardined us all into the van – one of the guys was sitting on a stool between the 2 front seats!!!   It was a bit of an uncomfortable trip for the 40 minutes to the border, with both Owen and I perched on the edge of our seats with only one butt cheek actually on the seat – luckily, I had someone else’s bag wedged between the seat and the door so I had a bit more support.   As we approached the border, we got the first glimpse of the “wall” – what a site – miles and miles of a tall, steel fence – sort of like vertical blinds – slashed through the desert.  At the border we needed to get out of the van and carry all of our stuff (think a huge duffel bag, back pack and purse for me and a duffel bag, computer bag, breathing machine bag and back pack for Owen!) over the border.   Thankfully the process of crossing was easy.  Once we got through, we headed over to another van – this one was smaller than the last with the luggage rack on the roof and we had no idea how everyone was going to fit inside!!!  Thankfully another, smaller passenger van also pulled up and Owen and I and 2 other people jumped into that van!!   It was about a 3 hour drive up to Phoenix, passing through a beautiful national park full of rolling hills of cacti with a brief stopover at a truck stop for a quick break.   Other than the packed start, it was a great (and reasonably priced) way to get up to Phoenix.   We called an uber from the shuttle drop off location and we were at our hotel before dinner.   Next stop, Canada!!!