We are in Ensenada on Northern Ranger I, hull newly polished, bottom paint newly applied, just-varnished teak shining in the sun ( it’s sunny!!!!! hooray!!!) , miscellaneous mechanical issues all taken care of.
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Two days ago we were in San DIego, moving Northern Ranger II over to Marine Group ( the small yard… yeah, right..some mighty fine yachts there!) in Chula Vista, all hauled out and ready to be worked on ( again, miscellaneous mechanical issues, some electrical gremlins to be chased down and dealt with, and maybe a shaft replaced…remains to be seen)( Oh and toilets to be replaced… sooner than later I hope)
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It’s been a whirlwind trip down here, shoehorned between packing, Lawrence working, a business trip, and oh yeah, more packing. (can’t forget the total eclipse of the sun trip…) The movers come in…..18 days. wow. It sure helps being married to “what me worry?” Talbot… I guess it’s rubbed off on me because my rose coloured glasses are in full-on optimist mode and I don’t have any concerns. Chaos? what chaos? We will get moved – whether or not there will be any room in the garage remains to be seen. The boats will all come out of their various yards ready to roll – one in a southerly direction as we return to La Paz in November, and the other – well, somewhere out there, is a potential owner who wants a Nordhavn 46 really badly – they just don’t know it yet. Once they meet Northern Ranger I they will fall in love.
Ya gotta believe!
anyway – so it’s a quick day in Ensenada, we are puttering around, one last overnight on her – then tomorrow we drive back to San Diego ( I almost said “home” … oops) and fly back to Vancouver tomorrow night.
Some photos of the trip down – never let your guard down but it is pretty fun – we are getting used to the passing protocol…. luckily along the Guadalupe valley route there are good stretches of wide shoulders… which are considered “letting people pass” lanes…usually.
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After the boat was splashed, the crew had to come along for the ride, to ensure that everything in the engine room was working well. That was fine by me, as backing out of the dock was made very dicey by the interminable wind – but all went as hoped, and once we were underway and worked the bugs and the air out, it was All Good. Some consternation when the generator was started and no water came out – but they figured it out. Also some question as to why the engine temperature wasn’t going up at all after running for a while, but whatever needed doing got done and up she came. And remarkably, she ran very cool! which is as it should be, as we had the keel cooler dropped and cleaned and new coolant put in – all ready for cruising in warmer climates.
I think the guys from Cruiseport had as much fun playing on the boat as we did, big smiles all around and a few comments about “nice boat!!”… and after helping us into the dock ( not our best effort , but not our worst either), they went back to work.
Next trip down will be to hopefully splash NRII and get her back to Chula Vista. There may be a weekend down to Ensenada with her, to get some paperwork in order – and also to transfer more stuff from NRI, easier to do it boat to boat than boat to truck to border to boat. We think.
And it would be a nice shakedown cruise for the new boat. But meanwhile – there’s that move thing to worry I mean think about. And the eclipse weekend to anticipate….
No chaos here folks. Nothing to see… move along… ( which is basically my life right now… move along, move along… what day is it? where am I going? what bed is this?)
That’s what makes it fun, mon!
And the next day: Sunday we safely arrived in San Diego after a quick drive up and a long wait in the border lineup at Tecate, picked up an Uber to the airport and hopped on our flight home at 4:30, give or take ( time is kind of stretchy with the airlines lately, have you noticed???) – and back home in time for dinner. Another successful weekend adventure completed. One step forward.. or probably more like two or three steps forward. Now it’s time to pack and get ready for the Oregon Adventure.
With Lawrence gone for three days as of tomorrow I figure I have lots of time to shuffle stuff out of here and pack what needs to be packed. What he doesn’t know doesn’t hurt him ( I promise I won’t throw away anything really important – I hope)