June 20, 2015 - San Carlos

We spent almost two weeks in San Carlos, 5 nights at anchor, 5 nights in the marina, and 2 nights in the RV.  It is a great little town, that has a heavy American influence and feel.  To drive here takes less than 5 hours from the US.  It has several very nice marinas as well as several great storage yards.  There are hundreds of American boats here during the summer "off-season".  Most hurricanes don't make it to San Carlos, so it is considered by most insurance companies to be out of the danger zone.  This is a town, like most larger Mexican towns we have visited, where you can get by quite well without knowing much Spanish.  This has, in fact, become a bit of a sore spot for Steve.  He was really hoping to come back from this adventure with a solid understanding of Spanish.  But in fact, we have had to learn very little Spanish during our 8 months in the country.  We have met several Americans that moved here 10+ years ago and still don't know any Spanish.

San Carlos has a lot of charm, and is very clean and comfortable.  We were able to ride our bikes around several times to both explore, and provision.  It is a bike friendly town.  We met a great American couple, Dan and Shirley, who moved here years ago and spend most of their time exploring the "Sea" aboard their trawler.  Dan is the kind of guy that will offer up help at the drop of a hat.  He helped us out numerous times during our time in San Carlos.

While in San Carlos Steve went back to Arizona to get our RV and drive it here.  The bus left at 11:30pm from Guaymas, a town about 15 miles away.  We were going to call a cab, but Dan offered to drive Steve to the bus terminal.  Thanks Dan!

Steve arrived in Tucson 3 hours late.  The bus to pick Steve up in Guaymas was about 30 minutes late, and then later had to slow way down during a major thunderstorm with strong winds and heavy rain.  Then at the boarder crossing, US Customs took over an hour.  So, poof, three hours late.  Fortunately, Steve's ride from Tucson to Casa Grande was still waiting for him.  Steve picked up the repaired RV and headed south for the border.  The border crossing couldn't have been easier.  No inspections, no major paperwork hassles, no trouble whatsoever.  He was across the border in record time.  Unfortunately, the RV motor quit running about an hour into Mexico.  Same problem as before; the fuel injection pump fuse blew.  Steve put in a new fuse and only got a few feet before that fuse popped.  So, there Steve was, in a foreign country, with a cell phone that had no data connection (couldn't look up any phone numbers or services), trying to contact someone to get some help, broken down and barely off the road.  Finally he got in touch with a road service where the person spoke a little English.  They were able to send a large flatbed service truck that was able to tow Steve and the RV to a gas station with a convenience store (a Pemex and and an Oxxo).  Steve ended up having to stay overnight in the RV in the parking lot there, but it was a safe location.  Via Skype, Steve and Kathy were able to communicate and our Friend Dan offered to come out to Steve to assist and bring tools and supplies.  The next morning two young Mexican "mechanics" arrived to help.  They worked on the RV for several hours and were able to find a problem.  The Fuel injection power wire had a problem where it passed through the firewall via a big multi-wire junction block.  They bypassed the original wiring and ran a new wire to the fuel injectors.  Problem solved.  Our friend Dan drove three hours with tools to try to help Steve, and arrived just as the two mechanics were finishing the job.  So, Dan was there to follow Steve all the way back to San Carlos.  The RV made it back with no fuel injection problems, but a different problem did arise.  One of the leveling jacks lowered to the ground while driving down the freeway.  One of it's springs had broken.  Steve pulled over and Dan had a tie-down strap and Steve was able to use that to secure the broken jack.  There were no more issues getting back to San Carlos and they were back in the late afternoon  Thanks you Dan for being there!!!!

Approaching San Carlos entry

We saw a face in this rock outcropping?  American Indian with head-dress of mohak?

mv Adagio at anchor in San Carlos

Zappa enjoying cooler temperatures as the sun goes down

The beautiful rock toward Martini cove.

This blue Velella - saw an article that they are hitting the pacific coast in the millions

The work begins.  Days of washing the salt off of everything!
Kids and Steve in the background with our big dinghy, scrubbing it clean 

Kevin making fun with washing.  Sitting on a lid filled with water and scrubbing

More fun cleaning.  Kevin in his Jacuzzi (as the local next door pointed out)

Steve's hand after hours of washing in water here.  We all get this same wrinkle with salt water and fresh water

Mexican boater's like to play their music.  Loud!

Kids took some time for water fights.  Kevin sitting in the big bin

Attack time for Cindy

Adagio in the slip

Another view of the dock we were at!

Next blog will contain information on our haul out to dry storage.  So this is the last on the water blog entry for us.  Our adventure was 10 wonderful months and a lifetime of memories.  The boat still needs to make it back home which will bring another set of stories!