Economics Lesson
What Do We Do All Day
Friday (6/18) The first order of the day was to rig the flag halyard, which runs thru a block on the spreaders that are about half way up the mast. Rhea must crank me up using a winch on the mast. I’m in a chair attached to the main halyard. I show Rhea how to use the self-tailing winch to crank me up. It’s very hard for her to crank me up but she does. I’m nervous about swing out toward the outside end of the spreaders to rig the line but I finally work my way out and run the line thru the block.
All is not well however. I now realize I didn’t show Rhea how a self-tailing winch can be used in the non self-tailing mode to lower me down slowly. She has already figured out how to let me down quickly. Rhea gets detailed instructions from above but is unhappy because she doesn’t get much chance to practice. As we all know, Rhea is a “quick learn”.
We need a flag halyard because foreign vessels are expected to fly the host nations flag below the starboard spreader. The US flag is flown off the back of the vessel.
Next task is to unfold the Portabote on the front deck. We have practiced this on our patio in Tucson. No problem even on a moving deck, we are ready for a test run in 5 minutes.
Next, check out of San Carlos so we can enter Santa Rosalia on the Baja side of the Sea next week. First step is to get our visas validated. We got our visas in Nogales after showing our passports but they must be validated at a bank. That means we must pay 420 pesos ($38).
What an economics lesson. Two tanks of propane with which we can cook with for six months cost 36 pesos in the free market; two stamps on visas that provide nothing of value to anyone but are required by the government and are only good for 6 months cost almost 12 times as much.
Mexico does not allow its officials to collect fees. Fees are paid at a bank then you show your receipt. Not good for us because banks and officials have different hours and are often miles apart.
The actual check out costs only $25 US or 275 pesos. Vagari can now leave San Carlos on Monday.
Next we test the dinghy. We launch it off the deck. Mount the outboard, load it with extra gas, life jackets, oars, and lines and off we go. Great ride into “Catch 22” bay (the movie was filmed here). We went swimming on a beautiful beach and had a great time. The Portabote worked great. I dropped Rhea off at Vagari and took a solo trip hoping I could plane the dinghy with only one person on board. I did but ran out of gas off shore a mile or so. I had more gas on board so I was up and running in a couple of minutes.
Now we unload the dinghy and put it back on deck just to make sure we can do all this. We cheated by using the dock but it is easy. We flush the outboard with fresh water and adjust the outboard to better fit the Portabote.
It’s very warm by now so I take a shower and we head to JC’s for lunch/dinner and email.
After we eat it’s to late (3:45) and too hot to work on the boat (after an hour in air conditioning) so we head into Guaymas for some sight seeing and provisioning. After going down a one-way street the wrong way we cut short the sight seeing and do the provisioning.
Back on the boat by 5:30 and relax the rest of the day.
Remember, on Vagari “we have no plans and we are sticking to them”. However, our plan is to go for a one or two day cruise up (or down depending on the wind) the coast tomorrow then come back for a day or two then head across the Sea for a week or two. Then we will decommission the boat (this will take about 4 days we think) and then home.
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