Confidence and the Fall of 2015

By the end of September David was just getting frustrated so he decided to come back down to Barra. So we have been getting new cushions,

 doing some repairs and getting the sails back on and such. We still have the use of Armon's house while we are here so it has been nice to work on the boat in the day and back to the house in the evening. Armon's house was a little cooler for sleeping.

 

We do require a couple of larger ticket items - new windless, paint, repair on auto pilot. It is so expensive and frustrating dealing with custom when trying to get boat parts in - decided to fly back to Victoria for a few weeks at the end of the month. Example - we sent the auto pilot for repair over three weeks ago. It cost us $200 for shipping and export duty. It is still sitting in Guadalajara at customs. A one way ticket to Victoria is $139. Can't even imagine what the windless would cost as it was 6 times the weight.And that only weighed 10 pounds. David called FedEx and following a bit more bureaucratic frustration was able to get the auto pilot sent back with reimbursement for the shipping and tax.

 

So we decided to go to Victoria and bring it back ourselves. It is also David's mom's 90 th birthday on the 5 th of November and there will be a small party for her. I will also get to see my sister Susan again. And it will be time to renew our visitor visas as they would have expired before we were ready to leave Mexico.

And I the meantime a little hurricane called Patricia decided to pay us a visit. But I have already covered this part of our adventure in the three previous blogs so I will not repeat.

Though the time in Victoria was short we were able to see most of our friends and family. We spent as much time as possible with Sadie - Halloween, the museum,the oceanographic center and the beach! 

Visiting always involves a lot of eating!  The party for David's Mom was lovely.

Sadie was there in her glory to help GG open her presents.

And of course there is always a cake!

Susan came down from Campbell River for a couple of days of eating and talking. And shopping. And talking. An unexpected time that I was able to share with my sister as I am not sure when we will be doing it again. 

We picked up the new windless in Bellingham and passed it on to Armon. He will be driving down to Barra and will bring it down, along with the paint and varnish - things we are not able to carry on the plane.

We flew into Puerto Vallarta again and took the bus to Barra. It was amazing the change in the landscape in just two weeks. The hills were looking green again and some were even in flower. I looked at it as a reflection of the Mexican people themselves. Lots of places in Barra already had their new palapas rebuilt  and were open for business. Some of the other towns took a bigger hit but Barra is back and the hurricane is a distant memory!

New palapa at taxi Aquatico

Other boaters are starting to return to the marina and everyone is getting ready to leave the dock. Our cheap moorage is up at the end of the month so we have decided to sail up the coast a bit, buddy boating with Tim and Constance, on Lady Midnight. I am looking forward to being at anchor and swimming off the boat. It will be a good test for Confidence after being stationary for 7 months.