Gitana arrives, evening music begins

Rick and Darcy arrived on Tea Leaves a couple days before Janis and Greg arrived on Gitana. They are tied up to the same dock as we are.  Greg, Rick, and Darcy are all musicians, so music sessions on the dock

or in a cockpit soon became a nightly event.



John and Mary on Emar, from England, and tied up at the next dock, joined us a couple of times. Mary is a sign language translator and signed along with the singing and playing.

The only thing to beware of is when the tequila bottle shows up. The music lasts longer, Janis Dick and I join in the singing, and the walk back to the boat is a bit wobbly.

A hike over the "mountain"

Last week, I decided to go for a walk, up the hill we can see from our boat. I say "hill" but Roberto told me these are "mountains."

The higher I got, the better the view of the panga docks and our boat (far right).

From the other side, you can see the entrance to the Guaymas bay and to the right

fish processing plants.  If the wind blows from this direction, it does NOT smell very good.  Thankfully, that's not too often.

I walked back along the curvy road, watching and listening for traffic, getting off to the side of the road to let vehicles pass.

When the government built the in-town Marina Singlar, they displace many panga fishermen.  These docks were built for them, but they're so far away from town and services that they've gone unused.  These docks are free, there's no water or electricity, and there's a 24-hour guard who opens and closes a gate for vehicles.

The entrance from the main road, it's about 1/4 mile to the docks from here.

Sunday at Ernesto's

Ernesto invited Dick and I and Rick and Darcy from Tea Leaves for dinner today.  He lives nearby in the Mirador neighborhood in Guaymas.

His wife, Carmen, gave us a tour of her garden:  mangoes, avocados, tamarind, limes, and lotos of shade trees.

Because I like flour tortillas so much, Crucita decided to make them from scratch.  Flour, lard, water, and a bit of salt then knead for about 10 minutes.

She pushed up between thumb and forefinger little uniform balls of dough.

Keep those hands greasy!

Slap the ball of dough back and forth between your hands for make a 4" round, lay it over the side of the bowl.  Then take each of those and pat it out back and forth again until it's about 6-8" round.  Crucita was really fast at this process.  By the time the one on the stove had browned slightly, the next one was ready to be cooked.

My turn.  Crucita could pat out 3 or 4 tortillas in the time it took me to do one.

Darcy struggled.

The whole crowd, minus Ernesto who took the picture.  Rick is at the far right in the front row.

Thank you so much, Carmen and Ernesto for inviting us into your home.  We all had a great time.

Casona del Bueno

A new restaurant opened in downtown Guaymas. A "casona" is a large home, "del Bueno" is the last name of the owner who happens to be Panchis' brother.

 L-R: Panchis, Roberto, Chuyita (Panchis' sister)

Tonight only a great mariachi band performed.

Back to 1903 (with updated info)

My cousin Terry from Vancouver, BC, Canada, sent me this photo. This is my mother's family, the Neu's. It's a picture of our great grandparents taken in either 1899 or 1903 in Arbura Bukowina, Austria (now Romania), taken just before they emigrated to Canada. Terry said, "There seemed to be some dispute about who they all were . . . It's no wonder our great grandmother Ludowika died when she was in her 50's, she was worn out."

Back row (L-R): Juliana (my grandmother), Ferdienand, Eva, Theresia Front row (L-R): Francesca (on lap) Ferdienand, Elzabeth, Frederich, Lodowika, Joseph(on lap) Katherina,

The alternate opinion comes from Helen Wagner. Back row (L-R): Eva, Ferdienand, Frederick, Juliana (my grandmother), Elizabeth. Front row (L-R): Herman(on lap) Ferdienand, Francesca, Joseph, Ludowika (holding baby who later died), Katherina. 

Two of my grandmother siblings are not in the picture. John was in the army and joined them later. Theresia was already married and joined them later.

Thank you so much, Terry, for sharing this photo. Since I'd not seen it before, it's quite a treasure.

At the panga dock

Weekends are especially busy at the panga docks. People come to fish, have picnics, and maybe to have their picture taken on a boat. 

This group taught me the phrase uno por uno - "one by one."  Being energetic boys, I constantly encouraged cuidado, despacio.  "Be careful. Go slowly."

L-R: Dick, Ruben, Ernesto, Carmen, Lupita, Monica, Carmelita, Crucita.  Ernesto came to the boat a couple of days ago and introduced himself.  He explained that his family was having a picnic at the end of our dock and invited us to eat with them.  His "wok" was a cast iron pan set on a wheel fueled by propane.  He'd already cooked potatoes and onions and moved them to the outside edge.  The fish just entered the hot oil, warming the tortillas came last.  Then came ceviche de calamar y pulpo (squid and octopus) served on tostadas.  Delicioso! Saboroso!

We invited them for coffee and to see the boat.  Lupita was so excited.  She said she'd only see yachts in movies, but had never been on one.  Lupita and Ruben were in Guaymas for the funeral of Carmelita's husband

Boat work continues

Among the many task on the to-do list is securing the hatches for ocean-going conditions. These covers are from the 4 forward compartments.

Who's that so effectively using the drill?

Dick pulled the core out of an old braided line, then inserted shorts lengths of dyneema (the world's strongest fiber, so says the manufacturer) but is subject to degradation by the sun.

The loops were potted into epoxy-filled holes.

More epoxy was filled with a syringe until the hole was full.  When finished every hatch cover will be lashed down.