Sail Cutthroat

17-20 January 2007

The holidays are over and we hope everyone reading this had a great Christmas and New Year. We got back to the boat late on the 15th of January after a wonderful month in Florida. The weather was okay (not as cool as last year, but still very nice). We even had a little rain – of course it only rains when we invite 10-15 people for dinner and plan on using the lanai for seating. Since this is also the smoking area, maybe it’s God’s way of sending them a not so subtle message to STOP! Okay, that was my subtle message to my very addicted relatives.

Our new Sun Shade

The trip back included both weather and mechanical delays in Miami and Dallas, so it took a little longer than scheduled. Nobody was handing out cots or blankets upon arriving in DFW so all ended up well and we were just a tad late. The big benefit and tip for international travel is traveling with Mom Wag. When getting her ticket she is always designated as needing “special assistance” to get her moved between gates. This service includes getting her to baggage claim which when traveling overseas includes customs. There are no lines, they just wheel her through with very limited questioning or searches. We just follow along and take advantage – it’s pretty funny especially since this trip we brought along LOTS of boat things that would have otherwise gotten some “scrutiny” at the least. No, there was nothing illegal, just unusual.

Fortunately I got my phone time in while in Florida. I think I spoke to just about everybody. As much as I don’t enjoy talking on the phone (really!) it’s amazing how much time one can spend on the phone. It really bothers me that I have to actually pay by the minute when away from the home-based land line. Forget using my Cingular cell phone connection – that’s out of sight! Enough whining! Feel free to call me on Skype at 941.306.2071.

But don’t bother until I get a better internet connection. The internet is a bit flaky here as well. Oops, sounds like more whining. When we first arrived in November we just used the Vallarta Yacht Club connection which was rather hit and miss. While it’s listed as an unsecured network, the only way to get in is for them to list your PC’s MAC address in their system. That precludes using two computers unless you want to pay them twice. At $50 per month that doesn’t meet the cruising budget guidelines. We started to hear about another alternative – a retired guy who goes by “Radio Rob” runs a net out of his condo across the harbor. We radioed him and he was on the boat within five minutes. So far so good! He logged us on to his network at $30 per month and promised excellent service (that’s what I’m talking about). Service always has a subjective definition; I probably don’t need to say more. But I will. Internet never got a good connection so we called “Radio Rob” (he promised excellent service). Rob said if we didn’t have a good connection that he had some other hardware that worked well. We already knew this from our next dock neighbors who are online at lightning fast speed. They have a really cool router and additional antenna. So we called Rob first thing yesterday morning. He said he’d stop by “sometime” during the day. That’s not my favorite response and needless to say, we have yet to see Rob. So I don’t have my internet, or Skype, or my patience. Maybe this is part of the continued process of morphing into the retired lifestyle, or maybe it’s the cruising lifestyle. It does remind me all too much of waiting around the house for the guy to install cable TV or fix the dryer. At least that’s what Roger told me happened while I was at work. These guys never come. So we’ll see what today brings. I’ll let you know when it gets resolved. Actually, you’ll know when this gets posted to the internet.

But back to “Radio Rob.” This is entertaining. Rob is an old guy, probably well in his seventies and very energetic. He is in business here as a retired American who also is the King Hamster in the area. A Hamster is a Ham radio operator. The old ones are unique in that they are absolutely certain that they know everything, and can make the rest of us mere mortals feel stupid and inadequate. That’s primarily because they think we are stupid and inadequate. It also allows them to show up when and if they want and generally jerk you around at their discretion. There are many “retired” “working” Americans down here. The longer we’re here, the more we find them offering just about any service needed. Even some for which there is no need.

Well to Rob’s credit, he did show up later this morning with the necessary equipment – unfortunately, he had a bad router and it took us another day to resolve that. Once he figured out it wasn’t my fault, it was in fact a bad router, he became surprisingly helpful. He really is a great guy and we’re lucky to have him around here.  So we’re connected through hardwire, and wireless. The internet is operating as fast as I’ve seen it on the boat anywhere, and Skype is also working well. This only took most of our first week back here – not acceptable – but in addition, the dinghy is back in the water (well hanging off the davits), the outboard is working, and we got the new shade awning up. That was actually easier than I anticipated – but will definitely keep us at the dock more. Putting it up and down is not all that simple – well it’s not hard, but it’s a BIG awning and just getting it over the boom is a chore for us vertically challenged. We saw the benefit, however, last night while it rained and we didn’t have to close the hatch to keep the water out.

The neighborhood is growing…

Now it’s time to start planning the next phase of our journey – the trip to Hawaii. We sat in on the Puddle Jumper Meeting – that’s a group that’s headed to the South Pacific. There’s quite a few of them and since much of the planning is the same for us, we figured it only made sense to see what they were up to. They meet weekly and right now we are scheduled to attend a 3-day medical training seminar for emergencies at sea. That’s a good skill to add even though we will have John Mirus our resident EMT along for the ride.

Other than that, Mom Wag is thoroughly enjoying herself – it’s party time in PV again. I’ll get back in the habit of providing more frequent updates. Roger is actually working on a piece about sailing with your mother-in-law…can’t wait to see the final product.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the beginning of 2007. It’s going to be a great year!

The Cutthroat Crew – Roger and Elise and Mom Wag