UPDATED (2/18/18)

Upon leaving Costa Rica, we flew to San Diego and stayed for one week. The first day we spent taking long, long HOT showers and sitting in the air conditioned room. The next day we hit the Good Will store to replenish our work clothes. We finished up    shopping at a few local stores, shipped a few things to NC, and just relaxed.


We went out to eat and have a few drinks some nights.

One night we ate at a place called Trailer Park After Dark. It just served burger and stuff but the atmosphere was unreal.

rest rooms (LOL)

        
If you remember some of this stuff you must be as least as old as us.

ON TO THE NEXT WORKAWAY
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On February 1st our little vacation was over and we caught a van to Ensenada Mexico (about 100 miles south of San Diego). When we got off the bus we thought, this must be a mistake. Mexico is suppose to be warm. It was REALLY cold. This is how we learnt that, at least this part of Mexico can get very cold and windy.

We met our new workaway hosts, Boris and Shirley. They are from Vancouver and own the Pacific Aurora, a 188 foot expedition boat, which they bought 2 years ago and sailed down to Mexico.  (I will get a picture of the boat and insert later).

They have worked and owned boats all their lives (yachts, some sailboats, some expedition boats). They showed us pictures of some of the ships they worked on (Boris is a Captain and Shirley is a Chief Stew). They have met many people such as Ryan Seacrest, Dr. Oz, Ellen DeGeneres, some prime ministers, etc. Needless to say they are interesting people.

The Pacific Aurora is very nice and has 34 guest cabins

, crew quarters (which is where we stay), an indoor and outdoor bar area, a lounge on the top deck of the ship

 

, 2 galleys, and 2 dining rooms (one for guests and one for crew).

There is also some very impressive work areas on the ship. One is the chain locker where the anchor chain is stored (more on this later). Another is the massive engine room.

2 huge diesel engines (48 cylinders in all)

 

 

huge generator

small section of electrical switches

As a side note – we now have hot water, but have to take very quick showers due to the fact that the water we use is pumped into the ships holding tank every month or so. Still better than ice cold ones. Life is good.

We were anchored just off shore at the ship yard when we arrived, but moved about 1/2 mile off shore a few days later. We were waiting to move to a dock but had to wait for other large ships to be shuffled around (this is the 2nd largest shipyard in Mexico).

It was nice being off shore for a few days. It was very quite and the sunsets were magnificent.

It did make going to shore a little harder and colder riding in the dingy at night. We ended up moving to the dock about 10 days after we arrived. This is when Mike got to experience the chain locker.

He went down into the locker and layered the anchor chain out neatly as it was raised so it would be ready to drop next time (called flaking the chain). Quite a messy job as this is a huge chain.

 


Life on board the ship is really nice. Boris and Shirley are great. They ensure there is enough food to eat and things to do. They have taken us out into the city a few times to eat and just walk around. We even got to watch the Super Bowl at a place called Papas and Beer.

February 8th – 13th was carnival here (the 100th anniversary).  We all went to the parade. There were a lot of people and lots of good food.


Speaking of people, the people of Mexico are very nice. We like walking into town and seeing the people, the fish market, and all the shops. This is a cruise liner destination so there are lots of touristy things to do.


As far as work goes, we get up a 7:00 a.m. have breakfast and start our day at 8:00 and finish at 1:00. We are doing things like, grinding the rust spots off the decks and hull, painting the spots with both a rust chemical solution and deck (or hull) paint, and stripping and varnishing doors. If you ever wanted to see Mike with color in his hair, now is the time. As we sanded the doors down Mike’s hair turned blond.


We have learned how to start the massive generator (13 steps) and other small things associated with owning a large ship. It is a great place to be “working”.

Another workawayer arrived on Monday the 12th. He is a really nice hard working young man from Venezuela (Lesther). He has been traveling for 4 years on his bicycle all over South America and is now working his way up to Alaska. His girlfriend Stephanie will be joining us in a few weeks. Lester is teaching us Spanish and we are helping him with his English. I think he has his hands full. Our memories are not as good as his (of course he is David’s age lol).

Boris and Shirley left for the week to go to LA and see their new grandson. We have been working hard to make the ship look good for them when they come back. We lowered the dingy yesterday so Mike and Lesther could paint some of the hull. You have to understand that this is not a little dingy you lower with a small wench. It is a crane that lowers and raises it, so someone has to get in it when it is lowered to drive it to the stair ramp on the side of the ship.

I was elected to go down with the dingy. This is about the time I learnt that I have never driven a small boat and when I put it in gear, well it freaked me out. I immediately turned off the engine and used the oar to bring the dingy to the stair ramp. You need to understand that the Mexican equivalent to the U.S. Marines is only a football field away from our ship. I could just image myself going out of control and ramming my little dingy into the side of one of their boats. OH BOY!!! can you say National Security issue. It was really funny but I am glad no one got it on video.

The marines were practicing sea rescues on Wednesday. Lesther, Mike, and I got to watch as one person jumped from the helicopter into the water (acting as the rescuee) and another rescued him (the rescuer) via basket, lines, or just hoisted him up to the helicopter. They were very close to us so we had first row seats.

          


As I said the port is very busy, what with the cargo ships, shipping container vessels, marina, ship yard, military, cruise liners, and cement barge that goes out and back every day. We are not in the jungles of Costa Rica anymore.


Oh yeah and there are sea lions. This is a big tourist attraction here. Little boats take out people all day to see the sea lions. Some are on near by shores, in the water, or on floats that were put in the canal so the sea lions would be a little safer when ships come in. You can hear them all day. They are really cute. Here is a picture of the float and the grandfather of all sea lions.

Well that’s it for now.  We are really enjoying it here.  We will be here till the last week of so of March.  Then back to CT to see family for Easter.

Till next time..

“FILL YOUR LIFE WITH ADVENTURE, NOT THINGS.  HAVE STORIES TO TELL NOT STUFF TO SHOW”

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UPDATED  (03/11/18)

Here is a picture of the Pacific Aurora…

So a lot has happened since last time I updated the blog.  First let me tell you about our last few weeks on the Pacific Aurora.

We continued to grind away, sealing and repainting the rust spot, as well as sanding and varnishing the doors and railings.

Here are a few pics…

Mike working on door                         door prior sanding              one in progress

This is Lesther grinding the city name off the back of the boat so Boris and Shirley could change it to Vancouver.

I would love to show you pictures of the finished doors and rails, but we had a little (well not so little) accident and had to leave early.  More on that in a minute.

Boris dropped his cell phone off the side of the boat, so Mike decided to scuba dive and see if he could find it.  It was about 20 feet below the deck and virtually no visibility and really cold.  Mike went down and felt around (going in circles) and low and behold he found it.

On our 34th anniversary we decided to go to Guadeloupe Wine country and do same wine tasting.  We went to 4 wineries and a museum. It was  a great day.

 

1st – Santos winery (Russian)

Very nice winery that caters to weddings and concerts

 

 

2nd – Sol Y Barro (Italian)

Truly old style.  The wine tasting was done in a small cellar.  There we cool flowers all over the grounds.

3rd – Decantos Viniola

This one was very crowded and more of a hipster place.

4th -Baron Balche

This one was really cool.  This tree was a made from grape vines, and all the wine was in the underground wine cellars.

This is where you do the tasting.

 

I didn’t think the museum would be too interesting, but I was surprised (or maybe a little tipsy).  We learnt a lot about the history of wine making and cork making.  This is a grape vine that is hanging in the air outside the museum (just for the artsy type).

A few more workawayers came on the ship to work.  Lesthers’ girlfriend Stephanie (from Switzerland),

Antonio (from Canada), Stan (from Russian), and David (from France).  Really nice group of hard working people.  They thought it was funny that Mike is the one who colors my hair purple.

I wish we could have spent more time with them, but our workaway ended 11 days early.

On Tuesday (March 6th) Mike and I decided to go to a place called La Bufadora about 1 hour away.  It is a tourist attraction place with LOTS of vendors, restaurants, and even some baby jaguars and tigers.  We used the local bus system to get there and had lunch in a restaurant called Habana Banana.  This restaurant has 3 floors.  The top floor is a kind of dance hall, the 2nd is where we ate, and the 1st is where the little animals are.  To get from one floor to the next you can take the stairs OR the slide.  We saw other people going down the slide and decided to go also.  What we didn’t know is that the slide took a 90 degree turn and ended abruptly 10 inches off the cement floor.  Had we see this we would have never gone down it.  But we did.  Mike went 1st and as I was going down I heard him yelling “Don’t do it” .  A few people grabbed me on the way down so I would not land on Mike who was laying on the ground in sever pain.

I guess I don’t have to draw you a picture.  Mike was hurt.  An ambulance was called and got there within 2 minutes.  (We found out later that injuries happen several times a week on this slide, but no one can sue a restaurant in Mexico, so injuries just keep happening.)

The ambulance took us to a med unit in Ensenada (right near the Pacific Aurora) and proceeded to take x-rays.  They first thought he was just badly bruised so we waited a short time to see how he felt when he sat up.  We never got that far.  As soon as Mike tried to sit up he went into back spasms and was in excruciating pain.  They put him back into the ambulance and brought him to an imaging center for a CAT scan.  It was kinda weird, because the ambulance pulled up in front of what looked like a garage door in a back alley.  When the door opened, I saw white tile floors, a state of the art CAT scan machine, and some very nice and caring medical professionals.

The doctor had come with us in the ambulance (that doesn’t happen in the US).  He looked at the images and said Mike had fractured 2 vertebrae and compressed a disc and would need to be transported to San Diego trauma unit.  So back we went to the clinic and waited 2 hours for the San Diego hospital to call us back to say they could take him.  Let me tell you, the medical people that helped us in Mexico were outstanding and we can’t thank them enough.

After lots of pain meds, Mike was put back in the ambulance and transported to the border (1 hour and 10 minutes north).  There was an ambulance from the San Diego Medical Center waiting for us.  We switched ambulances and 25 minutes later were at the trauma unit.

They did more CAT scans, ultra sounds, and other tests.  After a few hours we were told he did not need surgery but the spine team would take a look (this is a teaching college like UCONN).  The next day the team come to his room and said that they needed an MRI to ensure the spinal column and ligaments were not injured and had tentatively scheduled a surgery for Friday.

Good news is, we were told on Thursday that there was NO injury to the spinal cord or ligaments and no surgery was needed.  Physical therapy came in and fit Mike with a brace he has to wear 8 to 12 weeks.  They said he should be 100% recovered once the bones heal.  We were discharged on Friday and will be picking up his medical records and images on Monday so we can bring them with us for a 1 month check-up (probably in CT).

Right now we are going to drive to Texas to let Mike heal for a week or so.  The doctors thought it best if we don’t fly right now.  If we drive somewhere we can at least get out of the car when he gets uncomfortable.  Why Texas?  We are going to stay with the women we did workaway for last year.  We love her and she has a nice place for us to rest.  We will be taking a flight later from Dallas to NC.

Mike and I took a walk today down by the water outside the hotel.  He is walking and doing great.  (You can see the city of San Diego in the background.)

So many people have offered to help us and let Mike recovery at their place.  Thank you Boris and Shirley for being there for me and bringing me back to the ship to pack our stuff and for offering to let Mike and I stay on board for as long as we needed.

 

Till next time…..

You can count on friends (new and old) in times of trouble.  Count your blessing, Mike and I are.

We thank God that the injuries are not more severe!