False start in Mazatlan

I flew down to Mazatan, Mexico, on Saturday November 26^th with plans to help take a three masted schooner named Valkyrie down to Costa Rica over the next few months. Another crewmember named Jim had been on the boat for a week already, and we were waiting for a third to arrive two weeks later before leaving. By the next day, we were both doubtful that we could stand to be around Rita, the skipper, for long enough to get very far. She liked to talk. A lot. Mostly about how stupid other people are and how smart she is. The more I was around her on the boat, I began to doubt that we would really be leaving in a couple weeks. There was a lot that needed to be done, and not a lot getting done.

Jim decided he'd had enough and left Tuesday to stay in a hotel before his flight out the next day. After he'd gone Rita talked about how he didn't "do anything" around the boat or seem to know anything about sailing. Actually, as we were rigging lazy jacks, she kept asking Jim and I what needed to happen next and where should this go, and how does this work, etc. He seemed knowledgeable enough and certainly willing do pull his weight on the chores. When I asked her what her expectations were regarding how much help she wanted from me before we left, and suggested 4 hours a day. She said that an hour a day would be fine. We spent the morning going over the electronics and navigation tools, some of which worked, and she voiced encouraging words about how I was taking initiative and getting into this and this was going to work fine. When I left to have lunch with Jim, she said, "See you this afternoon. Take your time." When I got back to the boat my stuff was packed and on the dock. Hmm… I asked why. She said, "You're outta here. You're a stupid girl and you don't even know that you chose sides and you chose the wrong side." I said that I wasn't choosing sides, and reiterated that I was staying out of her problems with Jim. She responded with an interesting line, "How can you stay out of it when you’re not even here! " Huh? She then ranted a bit about how I don’t know where anything on the boat is, and why wasn’t I spending more time learning the boat. As if she hadn’t just said an hour a day is fine a few hours earlier. But it isn't worth arguing with crazy people. I had been wondering how and when I might leave. This answered those questions for me.

So there I was, four days after I had arrived, on the dock an hour or so before sunset with more stuff than I can easily lift, in a country where I barely speak the language and no friends. I felt rattled, a little sick, and stupid for not catching on BEFORE I left the U.S. that Rita is a nutcase. I went down the dock to ask an American couple I had met a day or so before for a ride to a hotel. They quickly took me aboard, gave me a beer, reassured me that it was best that this happened now and not later, and said that no one really gets along with Rita. Larry and Sherry of "La Burjita" are really great people, without whom I'm really not sure what I would have done. After giving me a ride to a nearby affordably priced hotel (and lifting the heavy bag - thanks Larry!), they let me come to their boat for the daily morning radio "cruisers net", where I could send out a message that I was looking for a boat that needed a hand heading south. Don and Judy on "Force Nothing" in the next slip over also helped, letting me use them as contact for people trying to get a hold of me.

On top of it all, they're all a lot of fun to spend happy hour with. Painted the town Wednesday with them. Tequilla shots led to dancing.


Don and Judy, me and some guy, Sherry and Russ

So I spent the next couple of days between the beach, my hotel and Isla Mazatlan, the marina my new friends are at. Here's a pic of the Isla. There're selling condos there now, if you're in the market for some overpriced Mexican real estate.

Judy's been crewing on boats for three years, after selling her house. She's been with Don for about a week and is in the process of getting his bachelor’s boat whipped into a shape where she can cook as well as she's used to. I was encouraged by her experience that this IS possible. And she had some good advice on finding my next ride. I also owe her a debt of gratitude for packing heavy (all that stuff is very important if you don't know where you might end up). Larry didn’t think my bag was so heavy after carrying Judy's. He swears there’s an outboard motor in there. She was also kind enough to let me borrow her wetsuit for my snorkeling adventure to Deer Island. The water isn't cold. But it isn't bath-like either.

Sherry and Larry have a Hans Christian 34, which looks very similar to the boat I'll be on starting Tuesday the 6th of Dec. The boat I'm on will, however, not have a smart-alec ship's cat named Barney, as theirs does.