Tangled Nets

An episode of Deadliest Catch played out right in front of out house:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84ko6mCZafg

Last night the wind was howling, 40 mph. It was out of the south, so our bay didn't provide much protection for the shrimp boats. I think there was about 30 of them anchored trying to get out of the weather. These guys arrived late and probably didn't want to risk fowling someones anchor in the dark, so they set his anchor right in front of our house.

We're located a bit outside the mouth of the bay. I woke up at about 5:00. In the dark it looked like they had run aground. They were actually anchored outside enough, but if there had been swell, they would have been toast. In the dark I noticed that one of the outriggers was swinging wildly. When it was light enough I could see it had come loose and was fouled on the boom. Watching these guys shimmy out onto the boom to free it, I thought for sure one was going into the drink and we'd have to figure out a rescue. I'm sure they can't swim.

On the other side of the boat you'll notice a guy in his underwear wrestling with the other boom. Must have woke him up... no time to dress!

They eventually wrestled the outriggers onto the deck and moved further into the bay.

Move is Finished

The second trip went so well it's not worth posting about. We've finally moved our goods to our new home. Just in time I might add. The storms that hit California have also affected Northern Baja. Several bridges on the main highway have collapsed. If we didn't leave when we did, we'd still be in California waiting for the roads to be repaired.

Getting Settled

The rains from last summer's two hurricanes left a lot of weeds to pull. This time I hired someone to do it. Must be getting old (or wise).

Before:

Unpacking went a lot faster than packing because Cindy was wearing several hats:

It didn't take long before we had time to play. Here we are filling up for the morning commute:

We did run into some traffic:

But eventually secured front row parking:

The view from the bleechers wasn't bad either:

Enough play....storage is costing a fortune. It's time to head back up and get the final load of our junk...

Day 5 - Home at Last

We finally reached the crossing I was most worried about. At first, we weren't sure if we could do it. We walked back and forth across the river picking out the best path. The water wasn't all that deep, but the rocks were slick as ice and a deep channel ran along side the best path. At the other side, it was necessary to make a jog to the left that would line the trailer up with a channel to exit the river. I was concerned I couldn't line the trailer up properly with the channel because we were so long. It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought.

Fortunately, someone who seemed familiar with the crossing came from the other direction. We were able to watch his path before committing:

Now it's our turn:


Lining up with the exit channel the truck started to slip. 4wd solved the problem and we made it with no issues.


The rest of the drive was a combination of sand, washboard and rock. Not as bad as we've seen it, but not great either.

Afternoon of Dec. 23rd. We made it!

Christmas Eve Day Sunrise:

Day 4 - San Quintin to the Sea of Cortez

This was a pretty uneventful day. With the new Randy Wayne White book on tape, the 10 hour drive went by in no time.

Morning at Bahia Concepcion on the Sea of Cortez:

Day 3 - The Border and Customs

Finally on our way. The first stop was going through customs. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I gave them a list of what we had, we bartered for a while over the total value, then paid duty. The only down side was having to unload the back half of the trailer so they could see in the middle. Of course, when re-loading the trailer, nothing went back in the same way it came out. Took a while to stuff it all back in.

Waiting in the holding area for the customs broker


Unloaded at the inspection dock:

Customs took about 2 hours. We breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the main boulevard to Rosarito. Driving though Eastern Tijuana made me a bit nervous, but everything seemed normal.

The next hurdle we experienced was in Ensenada. As we pulled onto the main road, through the busiest part of town, we struck some debris with the trailer. One of the tires was shredded by a piece of metal. When a man pulled next to us shouting - LLANTA! - we knew we had a problem. With a smoking tire and very few parking spaces, we pulled across a couple of driveways to get out of the road. Fortunately, I packed the tools and spare in areas that were somewhat accessible...unfortunately, I didn't make sure the valve to the hydraulic jack was closed completely when I packed it. Some of the hydraulic fluid had leaked out and the jack wouldn't raise the trailer high enough to remove the tire. As luck would have it, we pulled across the driveway of a muffler shop. I went in to ask for a piece of wood so the jack would have more height. One of the workers, who was under a car changing a muffler, slid out, pulled the pipes and muffler parts from under the car, lowered it, and offered me the floor jack. Thank you!

With Cindy watching traffic and warning me of approaching trucks, I hefted the big floor jack out to the street. In no time we had the tire changed.

Now to find a suitable replacement for the spare. WalMart was just down the street. Seemed like a good place to start. I wheeled the flopping spare to the tire shop where I was greeted by the manager. He took one look at it and told me it was from a trailer and different than the tires they have. I didn't realize it, but car tires don't work on trailers. They don't have a high enough weight rating for cargo trailers, especially considering the heavy load we were hauling. He suggested a shop down the street, of course they didn't have one either.

Finally, the third shop we visited was able to procure a suitable tire from one of his other shops. It had the proper weight rating, but was slightly smaller and cost $180 dollars. It's one of those expensive Michelin, mount on your fancy Escalade tires. We needed a spare though, and it was getting late. Hopefully we won't need it, but it'll do in a pinch. I usually carry two spares for the truck and two for the trailer. Since the trailer was so loaded this time, and it had been forever since we've had a flat, I opted to carry only one for each. Bad move.

After a little over an hour, we were on our way with a new (expensive) spare tire. We made it to San Quintin for a nice dinner and some well deserved sleep.

The Trip South Day 1 & 2

We had to be out of our house on the 17th. We wound up leaving the morning of the 19th. Didn't quite meet the deadline. Since we had more projects to complete before driving South, we camped on our friends property in the Ortega's for a couple of days.