Near the end of our cruising season and as the Covid was blowing up all over the world, we decided to store our boat at Marina Seca in San Carlos MX, and head back home in Las Vegas. This required us to cut our season about 40 days shorter than planned. This is also the place we planned to do some needed yard work in the fall to prepare our boat for the trip through the Panama Canal this winter. After checking out most of the yard’s in La Paz, Puerto Escondido, Mazatlan and Cabo San Jose and not being very impressed with those places, San Carlos became our choice for several reasons. Main reason was San Carlos is a 5 hour drive south of Nogales Arizona and another 7 hour drive to home. This would allow us to bring in parts and materials from the states relatively easy for the upcoming yard period. Parts we can readily get in the states are difficult and very expensive to obtain in Mexico, so we decided to bring parts into Mexico when ever we made trips back to the boat.
For those not familiar with the Sea of Cortez, hurricane season is from June through October and the insurance companies require us to be north of the 23rd Parallel by June 1st with a few exceptions, this also means that boat travel into Mexico (or south of Ensenada) from the states isn’t covered until after November 1st. The weather during the hurricane season is very hot and humid. So being a non air conditioned boat we opted to store the boat and ride out the summer heat in Vegas, which isn’t much better.
Once we docked in San Carlos to haul out for storage and yard work we interviewed our future project manager and caretaker. While cruising the Sea of Cortez we asked everyone we met for a recommendation on “The Guy” to hire to take care of our boat. The same guy kept coming up from almost everyone and this is how we ultimately hired Garth Jones. Garth has lived in Mexico for the last 20 some years, fluent in Spanish and English and knows the best techs in every trade. We had electricians, mechanics, machinists, plumbers, laborers and fabricators at our disposal and Garth did the hiring, scheduling and oversaw every aspect of the work, while keeping me in the loop and discussing options. He also is adept in working around the system and very familiar with shortcuts to get the job completed. He helped us find a great butcher, the best restaurants, markets and even a casita we could lease. The Casita is another great experience and worthy of story in itself.
Marina Seca storage yard is huge and right next door to the work yard only divided by a fence, but no work is allowed in the storage yard so the boat was moved for a few days to remove items for rework. While the boat was in the storage yard, Garth would check on her every two weeks and forward his findings and any issues to us via email. A picture every now and then would be attached to an email. We had given him a long list of items we wanted to get accomplished during the yard period and trying to accomplish those items in a 30 day window was going to be a challenge. Ultimately, Garth recommended we remove some of the items needing rework early so that we could reinstall them when the boat was scheduled for the yard in the fall.
We felt so lucky to have found Garth and I would recommend him without reservation.
I’m a pretty hands on kind of a guys, and we had no issues between us in completing the yard work on time and for the most part on budget. As with any yard period we would find issues that we might as well complete while we can, we have a lot of miles to travel this next leg in some pretty desolated areas. At some point you need to draw a line and just get here back in the water. Below is the work completed, not all of this was in the original work list.
Completed Marina Seca Yard work Summer of 2020
- Bottom Paint, Sand and fair bottom, apply 1 coat of Red and 2nd coat of black.
- R/R all heat exchangers for cleaning, rodding, and all new seals. Main, Turbo, Transmission and generator.
- Replace Cutlass bearing.
- Install new zincs, Stern Plates, Thrusters, Cutlass Housing and spur cutter.
- Inspect and lubricate all thru hull valves.
- Remove, clean and replace Sanitation lines as needed, new diverter valves and install new clamps. New vent hoses. Clean black waste tank and leak check tank.
- Remove, rebuild and reinstall both Bow and Stern thrusters. New seals, bearings, brush’s and new blades on stern thruster.
- Remove, inspect, and polish main Prop and reinstall. Prop sent to prop shop for repair of pitting, polish and balance. Also installed zinc wiper on shaft.
- Install new raw water pump for wash down system.
- Clean and inspect Airsep filter for main.
- Inspect and replace where needed all coolant hoses on main and generator
- Purchased additional dink and motor. 2004 Zodiac 10 ft. 2005 Johnson 6 HP outboard
- New Strainer baskets manufactured for Genny and Freezer, 2 spare’s also.
- Owner manufactured new fender covers. 8 Each.
- Owner manufactured Phifertex Shade’s for stern, bow and new pilot house window covers.
- Remove, inspect and paint ground tackle for both anchors.
- Install new exhaust elbow on Generator. Install new Exhaust temp switch.
- Install new soundproofing material for generator enclosure.
- Wash and Waxed Gelcoat and Stainless polish.
- R/R swim step ladder to facilitate water intrusion. Dried and glassed bolt holes, installed new stainless bolts for ladder.
- Replaced Battery Charger.
- Inspect main exhaust for leaks and reseal as needed, found aft clamps loose and water leak. Cleaned salt contamination area.
Our time in San Carlos was complimented by a visit from our Moab Sisters
