Picked Up a Loose Pointer

DrC has found his idea of heaven. It is a boat full of tools complete with a man who speaks Toolish. The captain of Loose Pointer thus far finds it amusing that the good doctor has borrowed his crimping tool on 4 separate occasions. I have, however, instituted a New Rule: If you borrow a tool from Dan three or more times, you have to march your butt down to Home Depot and buy one. I'm hoping this will gradually reduce the number of calls to our buddy boat.

Yes, buddy boat. The source of all this good toolishness is s/v Loose Pointer with Dan, Kathryn and Adam on board. When we met them, they were headed down the Central American coastline to see all sorts of amazing ruins and the like. However, about a week ago, they decided to hang a right and cross the South Pacific with us instead. Adam is a teen in the Jaime-ish age range. The appeal of heading out with another teen along with the lure of the many kid boats Jaime knows that are either ready to go (Evergreen, Watcha Gonna Do, et al) or on their way already (Calou) was apparently a big factor in this decision. The good news is that this is tantamount to shipping out with a large tool chest off the starboard beam. The bad news is that Dan and Kathryn are -seriously- more experienced than DrC and I; They have cruised all over everywhere including already completing the Puddle Jump. Loose Pointer has been prepping for exactly 4 days, as near as I can tell, and they are almost done provisioning. Really? Do you have to make us look like such pikers? And then Dan and Adam keep talking about how they need to leave early so that we'll "catch up to them on the crossing." I'm reluctant to put up sail anywhere within their line of sight and forever dash their romantic illusion that all catamarans are faster than all monohulls.

We'll be lucky, in fact, if we move at all. We've been buying stuff and moving it on board practically non-stop since we arrived in Mexico, and we haven't even gone grocery shopping yet. In addition to all the boat gear, we've added god knows how many meters of canvass, lightly used sunbrella (for replacement hatch covers and a dinghy cover), fabric for cushions, skirts, quilts, and a belly dancing costume, and all the trimmings, strap, velcro and thread to put all these grand dreams to practice. We still haven't gotten rid of the old chain so now we have 400' of 3/8 G4 chain on board. We've just about rebuilt the med, tool, and sewing kits as well as built a galley from the ground up starting with forks, plates and cups and extending to spatulas, tortilla maker and citrus squeezer. We've fixed, installed, and upgraded dozens of systems. For details, feel free to the Don Quixote ship log (http://svdonquixote.blogspot.com). Warning: The ship log is the nautical equivalent of telling you what we ate for lunch.

Greg comes down in a few days bringing our cat with him. Getting Dulcinea down here is proving to be an incredible nightmare of vet visits and paperwork. I don't really understand how this can be, but I attribute it to the lunacy of the American air line system. Getting Dulci TO the United States required a plane ticket. Getting her out of the United States is insanely complicated. I don't know how we are ever going to pay Greg back in time and Herculean effort. I offered to give him my first child, but he apparently has read this blog and met Jaime and isn't interested. Snap. The upside is that in three short days, our cat will be back on board, and the family will be whole. Greg is also shlepping down some god awful amount of "last minute purchases." I think we would have been okay if DrC hadn't at the last minute decided he couldn't live without a buoyancy compensator. Honestly, we're lucky Greg didn't take one look at this entire endeavor and tell us to take a long hop off a short peer.

Immediately after Greg's arrival, Uncle Glenn comes down as well. It'll all be a bit tight on DQ for awhile, but we'll enjoy the company. DrC and I are setting Sunday as our last full working day. Boat prep has to be done. We'll use the excuse of renting a car to pick up Greg and the cat to do one third of our provisioning. The next day we'll do the second third. And then after Greg and Glenn have headed back to the States, we'll do the final third and all the fresh foods. If the boat is still floating, we'll be ready to leave Mexico. The plan is to stay in La Paz through Bay Fest April 9-10, then depart the next morning. Ideally, we'll pick up a good friend of DrC's from -way- back and take him with us as we make our way around the corner via Muertos and Frailes. We'll spend two days on the dock in San Jose Del Cabo checking out of the country. Then on April 15, we'll head off shore.

At this point, I must admit that I am not convinced that sailing across the Pacific with three children and a cat is such a good idea. It is a very big ocean, a very small boat, and I'm not sure I can find enough room to stow six months of chocolate let alone six months of food.