On the hard

The time came to pull Southern Cross out of the water and move her to dry storage. Of course, the wind was blowing like stink, so it was a bit nerve-wracking getting the boat out of the slip and maneuvering her to the launch ramp. But that turned out to be the easy part!

To move boats out of the water, Marina Seca uses huge trailers with hydraulic braces positioned via radio control. Something in the trailer malfunctioned as they were attempting to load our boat, and for a time, it looked as if we would be stuck at the ramp. But they were able to fix it, and we soon found ourselves rolling down the road from the harbor to the dry storage area.


We spent another 2 days in the work yard, finishing our de-commissioning projects, which included removal of a couple of thru-hull fittings. We had planned to remove just a single valve fitting, to serve as a drain in case torrential rains filled the boat with water (as happened to a number of boats last season). But our thru-hulls are plastic, and so we decided to pull those too and replace them with more durable bronze ones.



The final move was from the work yard to the storage yard, where Southern Cross was placed between "hurricane posts" (big pipes sunk deeply in the ground) to keep her from being blown over by hurricane-force winds, should they come. We're in the middle of a long line of boats, so we feel like the boat is in a pretty safe place. But with all of the weird weather we've seen this year, we're taking nothing for granted.

We do feel a lot of trust in this facility, and we've really enjoyed our interactions with the people working here.

So that's the end of the voyage for now. We're spending our first night on the hard in a little posada near the marina. Tomorrow we'll head for Guaymas, spend one more night in a motel, and catch an early morning bus for Phoenix.