The Start to the 2011 Cruising Season

It has been a busy summer at home and we're finally ready to pack up the truck and head back to the boat. Citla has spent the hurricane season in the Fonatur boat yard in Puerto Escondido, just south of Loreto, Baja California Sur. We've been away from her since May and look forward to the reunion.

The drive south was uneventful until just north of Santa Rosalia in Baja California Sur. I'm only including this story to counter some of the paranoia and fear many people have regarding the police in Mexico. We had made the descent down the Tres Viregenes grade and were make time (e.g., exceeding the posted 80km speed limit) going south. Cresting a grade, about 15km north of town, I spotted a car about a quarter of a mile on the opposite side of the road. Almost immediately upon cresting the hill, the car activated it's overhead red-flashing lights. I turned on my flashers and began coasting down the dip in the road and back up the rise to the police car. A federal officer met the truck on the road and asked for my drivers license. After a brief series of questions, he advised the posted speed limit was 80km and not 125km (80mph). He told us, being a Friday evening, if he issued a ticket we'd have to stay in Santa Rosalia until Monday to take care of it. Instead he issued a warning and politely suggested we slow down. We thanked him and proceeded on our way.

Just north of town, at the Federal Police headquarters, another set of police cars were parked and a second officer stopped us, had a polite conversation and allowed us to be on our way. Needless to say, we heeded the first warning and drove the speed limit and were glad we did.

We arrived in Puerto Escondido to find the trailing edge of the rudder that had been repaired previously at Driscolls (along with unexpected deformations along the leading and bottom edge of the rudder). Since we had to repair the trailing edge, we decided to try to reshape the entire foil. Well, three weeks later, we're nearly there. It's not perfect, but much better than it was. We hope to have the boat back in the water this Tuesday. More later...