First up was fueling the boat. I got the port side refilled before Jack woke up. Once he was moving, we worked together to carry the fuel cans to the nearby Pemex station. With the first load done, we took a break for coffee at a nice little shop at the marina. A latte and a bagel were all I needed to finish the job. The starboard tank took less fuel since we ran it at lower RPMs and for fewer hours, which made our second trip to Pemex easier than the first.
Slowing down, just like I mentioned in yesterday’s post, meant next up was a nice lunch at Si Sabor, a great spot I found back in the spring. We both ordered a couple of gorditas and a limonada. The food was great and much needed after a busy morning of work. After lunch, we stopped by the town museum. I last visited on my first trip in 2017, so enough time had passed that much of the history felt new again, though I did remember the room full of memorabilia from pro baseball players born here. It is wild to think about growing up in a tiny Baja town and making it all the way to Major League Baseball (as one local player actually did).
We wandered through the neighborhood with all the French-style buildings, checking out the old hotel built for visiting executives, the retired train engines, and the old smokestack that runs half a mile up the nearby hill from the oceanfront smelting plant. Our last errand was a first round of grocery shopping at Ley’s. With our backpacks full, we lugged everything back to the boat in the hot afternoon.
We went over to SV Luna for sundowners with Tammy and Mike, who had quite the adventure getting here. While cruising, their engine ingested coolant and seized up. They had to sail 28 hours into Santa Rosalia, only to find the wind and waves were too strong for their dinghy, which they had planned to use to push the boat into the dock. They called the marina and got a visit from the Mexican Navy, which resulted in a lot of selfies but not a tow since there was no threat to life or the boat, there was likely a language barrier too. Eventually, a local panga towed them into the safe harbor, where they anchored for the night. Either way, they walked away with a great story. Mike is a retired helicopter pilot, so we had plenty of aviation talk along with stories about skiing adventures. It was a great time.
Some downtime before grabbing some lackluster tacos for dinner, they can’t all be winners… While wandering around town afterward, we stopped at one of the local hot dog stands. It turned out we arrived right before they opened, and the line grew quickly while we waited. We got the first two bacon-wrapped hot dogs, loaded with nacho cheese, mayo, relish, and onions on a very soft bun. It was a messy, delicious treat, as long as you ignore how bad it probably is for you. Oh well, it was a splurge, just like the ice cream cones we grabbed for the walk back.
Later, back aboard we were watching a movie while keeping an eye on boat friends heading toward the marina. We walked over around 9:00 p.m. to help catch their dock lines, and it is a good thing we did. The wind was blowing hard from a bad angle for docking, turning the whole thing into a bit of a mess. We eventually got a bow line tied to the dock. After a few failed tries, we got two more lines attached, and with brute force from the two of us plus a couple of Navy guys, we got them tied up and safe.
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