Normal people run around like gobbling turkeys during Thanksgiving week… frantically driving, visiting, shopping, cooking, eating and more eating.

Us? We ran around like turkeys too…except on the boat. Up and down 9ft ladders, ducking in and out of companionway entries, squeezing in and out of tight engine rooms, reaching into inaccessible lockers…ah, the joys of boatyard boat work.

Preventing Undue Perspiration
We’d decided to begin our seasonal work detail a couple weeks later this year. Our aim? Avoiding the typical high-90’s late October weather, which about killed us last year. This slight delay worked in our favor, with high-70’s to mid-80’s all week. Jealous yet? Don’t be. Instead of sailing the high seas during Thanksgiving, we were in San Carlos…in the boatyard… working, working, working. Our Thanksgiving week looked like this:

Replace Prop Shaft and Cutlass Bearing
Why? We’re hoping to resolve Brian’s nemesis – minor engine vibration. A big job with many steps, this could either go really smoothly or turn into a complete nightmare.

• Disassemble the steering quadrant (chain under the wheel linking to the rudder).
• Remove the gudgeon (bronze piece holding the rudder post to the keel).
• Drop the rudder (not easy…it’s juuust a bit heavy).
• Pull out the drive shaft after undoing interior coupler (piece of cake, for once).
• Remove the cutlass bearing. (When pounding doesn’t work, hack it out!)
• Clean the bronze gudgeon, bolts & stainless rudder post. (Scrape, sand, polish, repeat.)
• Reverse: Put in new cutlass bearing, drive shaft, coupler, repack stuffing box, add new hose clamps to the rudder post (all 4 were cracked), put the rudder and gudgeon back, reassemble the quadrant.  Done!

This entire procedure took about 4 days. (OK, we did take a day off to go see Justice League.)

Fortunately, things went relatively smoothly, except for…(insert dramatic Monster Truck announcer voice)…Brian’s Cutlass Bearing Battle. This short metal tube fits through the hull, cradling the prop shaft perfectly in place (see photos). While the shaft spins, the cutlass bearing remains rock steady. Knowing its tight fit would cause difficulty removing, Brian welded his own puller tool this summer to assist in this procedure (yes, he really is MacGyver). But this bearing was practically fused to the hull. And its walls were so thin, his manufactured puller just made mincemeat of the metal. Yanking, tugging, jerking and twerking did absolutely nothing.

Frustrated, Brian was forced to slice it up. With a SawzAll. Veerry carefully. Try using a Sawzall blade inside a hole the size of your mouth…sawing through the bearing wall without nicking the skin below. Nice image, huh? He was not happy doing it; but he won the Bearing Battle.

New Steering Cables
Since we needed to undo the steering assembly to work on the drive shaft, we decided to just replace it altogether. After 23-years, it’s probably about time. This is the perfect example of how one project leads to another project because, well, “since we’re in here taking this apart, we might as well replace it, otherwise we’ll regret it down the road when it fails…all because we were lazy or cheap.”​

Our steering chain/cable threads up into the steering column and over the wheels’ gear mechanism. So, of course to replace it, we must remove the wheel along with the compass sitting atop the binnacle.  Again, another “might as well” project. Now, we may as well replace the bearing, circlips, plastic washers and o-rings attached to the wheel shaft. This was like doing an operation inside a 5“ hole. Flashlight in one hand, I played surgical tech with the other, providing Brian tools upon request. Needlenose pliers. Here. Dental pic. Got it. RoboGrips. Black or grey? Why does every boat project feel like a surgical procedure?
 
New Cockpit Drain Hose
Our cockpit drain hoses were original to the boat. So we planned on replacing them this season. (We tried last year but couldn’t find the right hose, so we brought some with us). Upon removal, we discovered one of the two cracked. Good thing this project was high on our list! Each hose runs from the cockpit, through the engine room, and out the hull to the ocean. So any water running into the cockpit (from washing the boat or from boarding seas) will leak right into the engine room via a split hose. Not good. Engines and water don’t mix.  Sinking is even worse.

Doing The Hard Stuff First
We decided to complete the above hard projects first. The ones that involved Brian awkwardly wedged in the engine room (“the hole”) for a week straight. The ones that could become super-complicated if everything didn’t go smoothly. The ones we didn’t want to do.

Our thoughts: get ‘em over with now and we won’t be too tired or too irritated or too lazy later, ultimately determining “well… we can wait ‘til next year.” Our plan worked.

We have at least another week of boatyard drudgery, but it’s all stuff we’ve done before. Painting, painting and more painting. Hard work…but easily done. Would I rather be watching the Macy’s parade and eating every hour with naps in between? Yes, please. Would I rather be shopping or driving in the Black Friday mayhem? No way. I’ll actually take boatwork over THAT.

Before proceeding south to Mexico, we indulge in a 3-4-day “time-out” in Tucson. It’s a combination post-driving-cross-country and pre-boatwork mini-vacation. During this self-imposed sequestration, we do… absolutely nothing. Except this time, I decreed one day as tourist-day. Where did we go?

Pima Air & Space Museum
For aviation enthusiasts, the Pima Air & Space Museum is a must-see, with over 300 aircraft displayed on over 80 acres. Some reside in hangars; many more live outside in the scorching Tucson sun … row after row of bombers, fighters, trainers, transports & tankers.

What did we see?

• Cats…lots of cats: Tomcats, Bobcats, Cougars, and Wildcats.
• Winged creatures: An Osprey, a Blackbird (SR71), an Owl… even a Quail, a Bumblebee and a Grasshopper!
• Intimidating aliases: Invader, Liberator, Commando (hmm), Superfortress, Avenger (best name).
• Experimental aircraft, foreign aircraft and Presidential aircraft.
• Eye Flight: a retired hospital plane designed to teach eye surgery in developing countries.
• The “Vomit Comet” - astronauts practiced weightlessness in this high flyer.

Unfortunately, you cannot go inside any of the aircraft, but you can get right up close and personal. Docents prowled about ready to answer questions, most of whom were retired pilots who flew this or that plane over there, in this or that war. Pretty cool. Take the $6 tram tour…your veteran/pilot guide is chock-full of facts on the exterior displays…plus the hour-long sit-down is a welcome respite after hours of standing!

The Boneyard
Adjacent to the museum, The Boneyard consists of multitudes of carefully stored, older and modern planes sitting on 2,600 acres! It is accessible only by a separate tour requiring a 10-day notice (they run a security clearance on you). Brian hovered over it once after obtaining permission from air traffic control. He remembers it as fields upon fields of planes... some intact, but many missing key components. These old birds are, in theory, able to be returned to service in case of national emergency. In practice, the planes are more valuable for parts that are still compatible with current aircraft. Due to our impromptu visit, we were unable to take this extra excursion…maybe next time.

6-Hour Tour
This is the 3rd largest aircraft museum in the US, behind the Smithsonian in Washington, DC and the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. I had no idea. So I originally planned on a 2-3 hour visit. We spent six hours! Mmmm, slight miscalculation. I should have known better. (Brian. Pilot. Duh.) But even he was overwhelmed by the number of aircraft to peruse. We could have spent another 3 hours, but were both so exhausted from standing and walking and reading, we had to quit before we fell over.

GO HERE
If you are flight fanatics like us you will spend all day here; but even a non-enthusiast will enjoy touring the vast variety of viewable aircraft and listening to their expert veteran docents for a couple hours. Enjoy lunch at the Flight Deck too – get the tuna melt!​

I love Texas. I love its polite people (yes ma’am), its fried food (chicken fried everything), and its independent, cowboy soul. But I hate driving across Texas. It’s the worst part of our trip back to Mexico. Boorrring. 600 miles of flat earth…dirt, as far as the eye can see… vast, vacant fields trailing in telephone poles… dotted with oil derricks, giant windmills and truck stops. UNinteresting.

So this time I decided to MAKE it interesting. I perused TripAdvisor for “things to do” that were cheap or free and didn’t take much time, without straying too far off the I-20. So, what did we see in this vast expanse of nothing from Dallas to El Paso?

1. Frontier Texas, Abilene
In the quaint town of Abilene stands a museum dedicated to the formation of the Texas frontier. Holographic “spirit guides” portray real frontiersmen and women, Native Americans and soldiers, narrating their points of view along our route (so realistic I wanted to pinch them). Well-crafted exhibits described the region 13,000 years ago up through the Comanche Empire, both Mexican and American pioneering efforts, clashes between those settlers and the Comanches, the military’s peacekeeping arrival and eventual shift to war, the buffalo trade craze leading to near extinction, and the subsequent segue into cattle ranching. We certainly got a feel for the hard-scrabble life on the frontier and the tough-as-nails people who populated what is now West Texas.

2. Chris Kyle Memorial, Odessa
Several miles off the highway in Odessa, a small memorial commemorates the Navy Seal of “American Sniper” fame. It’s pretty much just a statue, but a nicely crafted one. There’s just one problem. A giant tarantula guarded the entrance…aackkk! Good thing he was slow and didn’t chase me. Otherwise I woulda been outta there!

3. Stonehenge, Odessa
Just down the road is Stonehenge! In full scale replica. Unusual, right? Not exactly. Did you know there are at least 7 other Stonehenge reproductions all over the USA? Like this one, most are built using gigantic rock slabs. But one version is actually made out of cars – Carhenge; another of foam – Foamhenge; one is even made with refrigerators - Stonefridge. (Refrigerators? Really?) Well, THIS stone Stonehenge isn’t quite so quirky. While 14% shorter than the original 22ft-high megaliths in England, these 20-ton limestone slabs do form an impressive scene. But knowing this imitation was built in literally 6 weeks vice 2000 YEARS, using modern equipment… well… somehow that dampened the intrigue.

Visit Frontier Texas!
If you’re I-20ing and bored out of your mind, I’d recommend Frontier Texas for a great history lesson. It was worth our 2-3 hour delay. After examining the travails of living in & traversing this harsh land, we saw our I-20 doldrums in a whole new light: traveling in a fast, air-conditioned car, on asphalt roads, with convenient Flying J’s, clean Microtels and an Arby’s at every exit…thank goodness for the modern era!

Every cruiser has one…that interminable inventory of things to purchase (or make) when we get back to the States.

Why d’ya think we don’t just fly back to our boat in Mexico? Seems like driving our truck all the way from Atlanta to Tucson and back down to San Carlos, taking well over a week to do so, wouldn’t be worth it. Well, aside from the awesome convenience of a car during hauling out and launching periods…

It’s because of… THE LIST.

We need to get all that crap back somehow!

Another year, another LIST.
THE LIST begins the moment we arrive back in Mexico. It develops gradually as we travel… as stuff breaks and we need a new widget, or as we run low on this cleaner or that goop.
Nearing the end of the season, THE LIST balloons as we consider what we really want to repair, improve upon or outright replace next year… incurring mood swings as it ages.

• By the time we leave Indigo, THE LIST has grown into a spoiled child who keeps whining for more and more stuff. Think Cartman. “But Moooom.” Alright dear. You can have whatever you wish.”
• Once we’re IN the States, amongst every big box store imaginable, THE LIST turns into an almost-broke-but-who-cares millennial, “Oooh preettty, I totally NEED that pair of high heels”. Wait, high heels for the boat? It’s not on THE LIST. You’re joking right? Preeetttyyy. $$$ Ching, ching. Picture a penniless Kardashian.
• As the summer winds down, in preparation to leave, THE LIST evolves into an efficient, middle-aged, middle-manager. Every day, another order... 2 days later, another box. Check! Next item!
• In the last week, after 98% has been purchased, THE LIST devolves into a bloated, badgering wife…like Gloria on Modern Family (minus the bloat, keep the shrill accent)…  “But Jay, you already haaave 5 flashlights on the boat! Are you kiiiidding me?”
• In the end, THE LIST becomes Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino… a weathered 80-yr-old… economical, practical…and ornery. He requests things like paper towels because “Mexico cannot make a decent paper product if it bit them in the @#$.” And “For God sakes, how on earth can I never find chocolate chips, anywhere!”  Hey, it’s THE LIST talking, not me.

Reasons for adding items to THE LIST varies widely:

• Sometimes, we cannot find certain things in Mexico that are the right shape to fit a space (like trying to find a certain-sized jerry can (holds 5 gal. of diesel) to fit under our cockpit seat).
• Or when we do find it, especially boat maintenance stuff, the price is outrageous due to high import costs (special cleaners, paint, glue, lines… I can go on and on).
• Or maybe they sell it in Mexico, but they don’t sell the brand I want (certain powdered drink mixes like Gatorade and Propel or iced tea without sugar! Or lemon!).
• Or maybe it’s a highly technical part that we’d just rather have manufactured in the States to make sure we can communicate the particulars properly. Like our new, 3ft propeller shaft we had made in Michigan, a piece that must be made of specific stainless grade with zero tolerance for measurement error. Plus, we wanted it done before we got to the boat so we could install it right away. A timing thing.
• Or maybe we could get it done easily in Mexico, but we didn’t feel like (a) researching companies (usually word of mouth) or (b) waiting for them to get around to it once we finally got a quote. When we arrive at the boat in November, we are trying like mad to splash & beat feet out of there; conversely, we had mucho time to wait during the summer. So we loaded our 2, 7ft long sea berth cushions in the truck bed and had the 20-yr-old, crushed and uncomfortable foam switched out for new in Atlanta while working on the van.
• Or because it just may not exist, period. I searched all over La Paz looking for standard, rubber-backed floor rugs after the backing on mine crumbled in the extreme heat, finding squat. Hmmm, probably because the backing crumbles after a couple years in the extreme heat, ya think? OK, fine. But on a pitching boat, our rugs CANNOT slip-n-slide. And we need a couple rugs on our slick teak floor to keep US from slipping & sliding.

This last bullet point is key. While Mexico’s version of Walmart and Home Depot are great options for most everyday items, they OFTEN do NOT have what we want. Black zipties? Nope. Rug aisle? Forget it. Denatured alcohol (for our alcohol stove)? Always in Home Depot USA… never in Mexico. To be fair, without those big box stores, we’d be traipsing around each city five hundred times more than we already do, searching every mom & pop store for XY&Z. And while yes, those giants unfortunately contribute to the downfall of mom & pop stores everywhere… when you don’t have a car to do said traipsing, traipsing sucks.

Why don’t you Amazon?
Yes, Amazon is increasing its distribution in Mexico. But unlike in the US, most natives are wary of online purchases due to credit card and mail fraud…with very good reason. But if Amazon can make import purchases with guaranteed delivery & hassle free (declaring and paying customs fees online without having to trek to an airport to pick it up, praying it actually arrived, paying more “fees”, bribing an official to “find” it, or any other number of horror stories), sign me up.

Problem is… I have not heard nice enough things about UPS/DHL/FedEx Mexico to take the risk of our direct purchases getting “disappeared”.  Most cruisers we know use a local marine supply store to order their parts 3rd party… expensive & takes longer, but they handle the hassles. Until I hear more first-hand success stories on Amazon, I refuse to let my money be the guinea pig. Except for maybe the last season of Game of Thrones.

There Can Be Only One… OK… Two.
Actually, we have TWO LISTS. MY list, that I type into my iPad so I NEVER lose it, consists of VITAL matters like which season of Parks & Rec we need to acquire. BRIAN’s list (THE LIST) is written on a piece of paper (how old school) and consists of IMPORTANT STUFF to keep the boat maintained properly. He likes to scribble schematics on the back, so I get it, but that physical piece of paper always ends up MY responsibility somehow. Why is that?

SO, the worst thing that can happen…is LOSING THE LIST.
Holy hell.

Where’s the list? I thought you had it? I don’t have it. How come you don’t have it?

THE LIST’s proper place is in my computer case. It’s not there. I search all through the thing to no avail, only to find it in a pocket I already checked. Another time, after frantically searching, THE LIST was in my purse (we had taken it into Home Depot). Another time, THE LIST was laying in the truck’s console cupholder. When the door opened, THE LIST blows right out the door! Dear God, NOOOOO! We caught it, headed for the next town, and put it back in its proper place. But not after lots of finger-pointing.

Sometimes, I think THE LIST is trying to run away from his nit-picking, over-burdening parents. Have we given him too much responsibility? Weighing him down with our boat problems…piling on more and more until he can no longer breathe?

You think… maybe… you could take a picture of THE LIST with your phone? Just in case he disappears again?
​
Yeah. Good idea.

Now...where am I going to put all this stuff??