SVSoulsticeAdventures: Summer 2019 and Return to Mazatlan

Marina Mazatlan - view from Soulstice cockpit

June 2019 to January 2020

Wow! This is a lot of time to cover and summarize but I will do my best. Stephen and I left Mazatlan after meticulously setting up SV Soulstice to ensure a safe return to her in January 2020. We worked from the middle of June 2019 to December 29th back in the US. I was fortunate enough to return to my old job as an NP Hospitalist at Carson Tahoe Hospital and Stephen took a position as a critical care RN with a company called ProTransport in Sacramento. We worked 7 (12-hour shifts) on and 7 off the same weeks and then we would both pick up extra on our 7 off to continue to feed the piggy bank. Our time off was spent getting out and doing lots of camping, hiking and exploring eastern Nevada and the Lassen area in California. Snow play also was enjoyed the last few weeks. We did remember how to ski and even climb peaks to ski down.

Our boat had a careful watch for the Hurricane Season under the eye of a local Raul Lopez. He would What's App video call us weekly. He started our engine up to temperature twice a week, cleaned the bottom with zinc changes as necessary, check dock lines and even changed out damp rid bags and canisters for us. He did an excellent job of care-taking our boat home and we so appreciated it. It made our stay in the States more comforting having peace of mind about our Soulstice. We would highly recommend him and his son to anyone who needed boat care in Mazatlan.

Our lovely Nevada friends, Ryan and Krysi, opened up their home to us so we had a place to stay on our return to the US. They have a bedroom set up in their walkout basement. It has its own bathroom and shower and a laundry room, which is also home to Norman and Silver, 2 guinea pigs. I decided to offer up my services to be a caretaker for Norman and Silver since our living quarters were so close. Ryan and Krysi also are the parents of Sawyer, a very inquisitive 4-year-old boy. He turned 4 while we were there in September and his birthday party was at the planetarium. Sawyer would affectionately greet us whenever we came from work by yelling our name out and opening up the front door. We were not used to such a welcoming home from work since we are kidless and it helped make the transition from work to home seamless. By the time he screamed, “Jen!” I didn’t remember work at all anymore. ha! Stephen’s greetings were every other Sunday and of course the extra days he worked locally in Carson City.

Krysi and Ryan started a garden this past summer and acquired their first eggs from their chickens. Ryan built a beautiful chicken pen that has a solar operated door on the second floor to allow them to go indoors for at night. The garden produced tomatoes, peppers, and melons this past summer. We enjoyed some homemade jamming and butter making. I admire their farm to table lifestyle and their education to Sawyer about sustainable living.

Our other big summer treat was to enjoy Tenzing, their 2-year-old German Shepherd! Immediately we fell in love. They got Tenzing they admit because they really liked our Petra and Ryan was always a fan of German Shepherd's. Tenzing is such a loving and cuddly dog. We got to enjoy summer hikes and even some winter skiing with him. Any activity you do is ALWAYS better with a dog and Tenzing reminded us how much we miss having a dog in our lives. The joy and unconditional love that a dog affords you is hard to manufacture with any other feeling in life. ‘Nuff said! We MISS you Tenzing and eventually will be a dog family sometime in the future.

Our friendship with Krysi and Ryan stayed true and we are grateful that such close living quarters didn’t change that. I guess ask them too?:) They also hosted a fun going away party for us that included Soulstice themed cakes inspired by the show "Nailed It!". Although, truly there was no poorly made cake. They both turned out amazing and tasted delicious. Lei, Krysi's mom, was also an important person in our lives this summer. She helped teach me some basic sewing and to sew two new sail bags and was thoughtful and kind in so many ways. She treated us as extension of her family and we really appreciated her.

Krysi, Ryan, and Sawyer are planning to visit us in New Zealand in January 2021 so that puts some reality to a big upcoming adventure that seems surreal for now. It is hard to imagine even saying that because it is quite a big journey we must prepare for and have been truly since June 2019. The UPS, FedEx, and USPS delivery guys got some extra time on their hand since they are not delivering to Krysi and Ryan’s now. We certainly filled up their recycling with cardboard ( and of course beer and wine bottles!). We purchased some additional items for the boat to include a new single-sideband radio, a new battery monitor, a fish finder, Dyneema line for new lifelines, and two new 100 W solar panels with MPPT chargers to give us a total of 440 Watts now. All of these purchases helped us fill up 6 bags again to return back to the boat! Traveling light is soo over-rated - ha! Oh yeah and we bought our own collapsible dolly.

We did make it back to the boat on January 1st and had friends pick us up with their van. They are from SV Three Quarter Time, Debbie and Paul and Sydney the dog. They are absolutely fantastic people who are a joy to be around and always willing to lend a helping hand. We’ve been able to share a few evenings out together downtown including another trip to the cerveceria Tres Islas. SV Three Quarter Time has their boat hauled out right now getting quite a bit of work that has now delayed their return to the cruising season. They have to return back to Alaska to work for April so they have just realized their season will be just hanging in Mazatlan. They are making the best of it and certainly will have a beautiful boat to return to next season. Interestingly, they are also considering buying a catamaran and selling their boat, so who knows…

Well, I better get back to work so we can get out of Mazatlan ourselves. Everything was going smooth and then now our aft head doesn’t want to work and our navigation lights decided to quit working, the ones on the bow altogether and the ones on the masthead, our anchor light now strobes white instead of staying a static white. There are always boat gremlins to remind you that this life takes an effort. I know people think when we returned to Mexico we would be frolicking in the sand and the water and sipping on Margaritas. Well.. not the truth at all. We have not had one day of fun and sun yet. Every day has been putting the boat back together, fixing broken items, installing new items, and surviving the “welcome back” GI bug from yours truly, Mexico. Oh and did I mention our dinghy tires dry rotted and the inner tube blew up, split the tire and then when we thought we still had an inner tube, it also exploded green goo everywhere!!! It was the kind of inner tube that self seals with a puncture…. So now off to find new dinghy wheels, seems easy but that is never the case in the marine world. Wish us luck! I hope the paddle boards will hold up for now like our personal dinghies.

Of note, this is my 3rd attempt at trying to complete this blog as each time I am editing pictures the entire blog disappears despite hitting Save! I am guessing I added too many pics so I will keep the picture part shorter on my 4th attempt. Uggh!

Tenzing!

Hiking just behind Krysi and Ryan's house

Eastern Nevada Hills

Toquima Cave - Native drawings by Austin NV

Lassen NP

Homemade butter!

Hike to Snowy Peak off the Tahoe Rim Trail

Jamming Day

Ryan and Tenzing

Happy boy!

We had eggs from these guys all summer! Never bought eggs again:)

1st Garden Season. As you can see planting boxes on right not even set up yet. Look out gardening Season 2.0 for Krysi and Ryan

Sewing 101!

Summer Home for us thanks to Krysi and Ryan!

I snuck in a Montana visit with the girls in September

Mt Aneis in Swan Mountains always has mountain goats at the top. I used to live in Creston MT when I first moved to MT and this guy reminded me of many days hiking and trailing running in the Swan. Tread carefully... they do get grumpy/territorial

Fall colors in September in MT

Happy 4th Birthday Sawyer. He loves pink frosted donuts so Mom decided this would be the best Bday Cake!

Our summer buddies! We will miss these guys!

Heading south of Austin NV

Spencer Hot Springs again. We liked it here and the wild donkeys that really do go "EEEE AWWWW!" especially at 3am.

A quick change to winter time and find the snow gear in the storage unit.

Lake Tahoe view from backcountry off Mt. Rose

Back in Mazatlan!

Taco Wicho! One of our favorite local taco places!

A medical mission ship going through a refit! The owner Zeus Ebio, who also participates with YWAM, has plans for this 100ft ship to be in the Sea of Cortez offering medical help to the local communities. We are considering volunteering when we return from NZ. We went to go see the ship particularly in honor of our friend, Greg Desler, who we befriended our last 2 weeks in Mazatlan de-commissioning Soulstice. He was on our same dock, just recently purchasing his own sailboat and his dry sense of humor and easy-going nature made him instantly likable. His main reason for being in Mazatlan was donating his time and knowledge of diesel engines to get this ship's 2 diesel engines up and running. Unfortunately, we were given the very sad news that Greg died in his sleep back in his home state of Nebraska most likely from a big heart attack on December the 5th. He was planning to return to Mazatlan on January 1 and to start single-handing his sailboat and cruising Mexico. He was 61 and a kind soul. He will be missed! Full pic of the ship below.

Stephen in the lazarette- yep he can fit in there of course after taking everything out! I told my mom that imagine if you went into your room and every day opened up all your drawers and emptied them onto the floor and then put everything back by the end of the day. You can do this daily for many days. This is what you need to do boat projects. That is living on a boat! Ha!

Stephen doing some electrical gremlin finding

Navigation light on masthead- of course, all the wiring looks fine, no explanation so far for our sudden strobe light.

Great Sunset at Marina Mazatlan

Yep - we need a new dinghy tire and inner tube - eventually, that inner tube exploded green everywhere!
Thanks to Raul Junior, the son of Raul our boat watcher, he helped us find the tires and inner tubes.

Plans are to leave this Tuesday 1/21/2020 am at high tide, get through the tricky breakwater and anchor on a local island. We will wait until evening and then head 95nm to Isla Isabella. After that, we will then head to Chacalla and then eventually to La Cruz Huanacaxtle in Banderas Bay. Then the beginning of February, Karen, and Carlos from Montuckybama as we call it, are headed to spend some time with us on the boat!