S/V Dolphin Tales: 2017

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Dolphin Tales In The Water , Out Of The Water and Back In The Water

Well the ship arrived when it was supposed to, but the unload sequence changed dramatically on Thursday. Dolphin Tales went from being scheduled to be unloaded Monday to Friday at 1830. We got this news as Lynn was waiting in the Doctors office to get his blood pressure checked. This is also boat show time in the inner harbour and most of the moorage has been taken we are now changing our reservation for the third time.......Everyone else's changed as well. Doctor said it was a little high but not unusual with all the stuff going on......

Everything went off according to plans, Dolphin Tales came off when scheduled and proceeded to the Victoria harbour. Along the way some water was noticed seeping in by the speed and depth sounder transducers, not a lot but enough to require some sponging up. Anyway we talked to the guy from C Tow if he had any ideas and he called the yard to ask when we could be hauled. The yard in Sidney said they could lift us at 8:30 am Saturday and do the repairs with the boat in the slings . Well the weather was good, Saturday was forecast rain and some wind , Sunday very windy, so we left downtown Victoria for Sidney , it is now 7pm Friday and the tides are not in our favour for the whole trip..

At midnight we are anchored at Sidney Spit one half hour away from the travel lift. We knew there were crab traps floats in the area so Lynn spent most of the time looking out for the little buggers. With 20 minutes to go we see a large float right off our Starboard side, some evasive action and it slides down the side and does not follow us, now about 10 minutes to go and another large dark float is spotted and avoided. Anchor down with a couple of other boaters a few hundred feet away. We now settle down to a cold night as the furnace has not been checked to see if it working.

Up and gone at 7:15 Saturday am and are shocked by the mine fields of crab floats we navigated safely thru, so someone was watching out for us and Dolphin Tales.

The boat is in the slings at about 8:30. Once out of the water and inspecting the problem we have concluded along with the guy from the yard that the slings either going on of off the ship probably damaged it. A retaining nut on one of the units was broken. This is the nut on the inside of the hull.

Anyway they got the old units out found a new retaining nut and have now got it all sealed up again. They had thought that they would be able to launch us later the same day, but decided to let the caulking cure better by leaving us in the slings until very early Monday am, so we are going back in at 6 am Monday. And then heading to the yacht club in Maple Bay.

The boat was a little dirty but not as bad as we expected but did have a lot of salt spay on it. But since we did not get it washed before taking off the dirt got tracked every were and now it looks like shit. Motoring out of Victoria in 20 knots trying to but up the dodger was interesting as well.....

So, needless to say getting from Maz to La Paz was not our last night time cruising adventure.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

In the water

Dolphin Tales is just about in the water, we are sure she has been missing us and can't wait for us to take her back to Maple Bay Yacht club. What an ending eight and a half years of sailing in Mexico.

Back in Home in Victoria waters

Dolphin Tales is home, she was the second last vessel on the deck to be off loaded.
There was still a 100ft. yacht on deck and a couple more motor boats in the hold.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Ship to take DolphinTales home

Strapped on the freighter

Hitching a ride

Monday, April 3, 2017

Farm land in a valley

Another Road trip

Ranchers here survive in some harshest places

Playa Tecolote. English owl beach

How Many Mexicans does it take to get the panga out at low tide for tourist

Humming bird

I just want to feed my baby, but all you people with cameras won't leave us alone

Trip to Isla Espiritu Santos

We poked are way in and out of numerous bays till we were one anchorage away from Caleta Partida. We had a very quiet night with a beautiful full moon. We might have anchored out just a little far

Debbie's day out

Yes I did jump in the water with this baby,

Lost a buddy in Todos Santos

Poor Tom, we missed place him in Todos Santos. We did look but not hard enough, he got so lonely waiting for the rest of us, to show up he made a new friend.

More hotel cal

Trip to Todos Santos

Had lunch here and drinks here

Ensenada de Los Muertos

We didn't go and check out the resort at the west end of the bay when we were here in 2008. So we did a road trip with Debbie's five men that left Mazatlan on different sail boats. We all rented a car , Angus was the driver, Russ was the navigator, Garry was the restaurant guy, Tom and Lynn were the herders.

The Train collection this resort has is awesome, we understand the resort is owned by some American football player.

How much longer

Well it's about 8:30pm on the 27th of February, we have done one over nighter, and have about another hour and a half to our way-point at Playa La Bonanza. We will have done one over night plus about two hours of darkness. No more extra radar eyes needed for a while. We can see the area it's just taking for ever to each it.