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Caroline requires a yearly viewing of White Christmas.
Internet No WiFi. No 4G in the bay. There was 4G in San Blas Voice Verizon via Telcel: Caroline called me several times on 3g. The calls were very clear. Other Depending on what tower your phone talks to you will be in Mountain Time or Central Time. India’s phone was on MST, everyone else’s was on CST. Confusing to say the least. Airport and Airport Transport 2 choices: Guadalajara (GDL) or Puerto Vallarta (PVR). I think GDL is closer and it appears to be a hub of some sort for Volaris as many routes have a layover there. Caroline arraigned a taxi at one of the restaurants in Mantanchèn to have me whisked to PVR. The cost was $1500MXN. The morning of my departure out of PVR a man in a private car picked me up and started driving me to Guadalajara. He spoke no English. Using Google translate…
Internet $2/device/day. Use a rocket or other receiver to rebroadcast to the boat to save monies. Reasonable speeds during the day, slow at night. Fairly consistent. Skype for business worked well. Voice Verizon via Telcel: pretty bad. 4G until a call was made and then 3G took over for the call. The voice quality was like being underwater. *sigh*. No idea how well a telcel SIM would work. Airport Tiny. Make sure to give yourself at least 1 hour for the $320MXN cab ride to the airport.
But she can drive a house sized boat in a foreign country! Keely and India both took 4 hour watches for over 5 days on Waponi Woo. A fine crew I tell you, a fine crew.
The past few months have been a blur of travel and boat work. We hauled out at the end of July in Puerto Peñasco at Astilleros Cabrales SA boatyard. Waponi Woo stayed on the hard for the next two months while we traveled to the States for work, family, friends and to avoid the worst of the summer heat. We returned to Puerto Peñasco mid-September. We rented a small house through VRBO.com for a week while we had new bottom paint applied and we put in a new thru-hull so we could move the watermaker inlet closer to the high-pressure pump. During this week we also made several trips between Puerto Peñasco and Pheonix, AZ to make some last minute large purchases. Overall, I would recommend Puerto Peñasco as a place for summer storage, and restocking spares, etc… from the states before heading further south for the season. Pros of…
This spring the following conversation took place: India: The worst part of being on a boat is I have no other teenagers around! Me: We would be okay with Keely joining us for a year. … a few minutes pass… India: Mom, Keely’s parents said they might be okay with her staying with us for a year. (We love and hate the Internet) The last thing we acquired before we left Seattle was Keely, India’s friend since third grade. Keely was with us the day we took possession of Waponi Woo and traveled with us from Anacortes, WA to Tacoma, WA. She will be staying with us for the year as we head to Central America and through the Panama Canal. India has always been an only child and is very competitive. Whenever she does something positive, we tell Keely she is our favorite. India quickly responds by doing something…
India and Keely will be making a weekly video of at least 5 minutes in length. This is their first:
The Waponi Woo crew is back in Puerto Peñasco. We have not seen her yet. Tomorrow we start putting things away, putting in the new alternators, drilling new through-hulls and getting ready for bottom paint. We had a great time in the US. We saw some old friends in Phoenix and are glad to be back south.