Once in a slip it was time to find a weather window. This ended up being three days on the dock, but it allowed us some fun with friends. Cabrales’s yard has a Friday night bonfire/BBQ, which was a great chance to meet some other cruisers. Sandra hollered out, “Hi Strikhedonia” as I arrived and after chatting with Salish Dragon I grabbed a seat next to her. Each Friday it is a wonderful chance to meet new people and commiserate on all the work that still remains, truth be told Strikhedonia didn’t have much so I mostly kept quiet after hearing that many other boats had two months of work left before launching. Behan on Totem and I have exchanged messages and emails over the years but had yet to get a chance to chat. Well bonfire night was the perfect chance. Always a blast to talk to someone in person after only knowing them via social media and emails. I made it past cruisers midnight but with the stress of launching I called it a bit of an early night and headed home so sleep on my floating bed, ahhhh.
With most of the work done, Saturday I managed to get a very long overdue haircut. We also picked up a few provisions and got the dinghy tested and ready for service. That was the last item on our list before heading out. Then in the evening we motored over to Sea Rose in our dinghy for their launch party. So much food, and so much fun talking to everyone, life is just better with sundowners on a friend’s boat.
Sunday we were anxious to leave but the weather was still not cooperating. So we watched a bit of a football game at a sports bar and found a few small projects to fill out the day.
Monday looked like our chance to depart for the Baja. First thing in the morning, Ray gave us a lift to his favorite fruit/vegetable stand where we made our final provisioning. Rushing back to the boat we settled up the bill and asked for some help pushing off the dock. Engines fired up and ready to go, Migel (the manager at Safe Marina) explained the port was closed. What the?!?!? He called a friend who works for the port captain but no luck. I even walked over the the port captain but he was not budging. 90% chance it will open by noon he said. Ugh. Back on the boat we lamented this small window closing and getting stuck for another five days in Penasco. Around 1:00pm Migel knocked on the hull and said the port was open and if we wanted to leave we had better go now. That is all the motivation we needed!
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