Fred, who had been sailing south from Puerto Vallarta, turned up Saturday night, boatless, in the marina in Barra de Navidad with a harrowing tale to tell. Coming around Cabo Corrientes, he lost the wooden mast when a chain plate broke (that's the hardware that holds the rigging to the deck). He drifted offshore with no motor, no sails, for three days in rough seas before the locals came out in their pangas to tow him into the little Ipala Bay. He caught a bus, arrived home in Barra and began making arrangements to have Mi Sueño towed back to the marina tomorrow. His plan now (written in sand at low tide) is to fix the motor and put Mi Sueño up for auction on eBay.
Mi Sueño (my dream), which perhaps should be renamed Mi Pecadillo (my nightmare) drifted motorless and mastless off Ipala Bay for three days before her captain, Fred, was rescued by pangueros
The Capt, reminded that our boat has a chain plate that needs replacing, has set about getting that done. A failed chain plate caused our first boat, Pollo del Mar, to dismast in a sudden gale in Richmond Bay near San Rafael in 1993. Been there, done that.
In other news, the writing workshop I organized with the help of my friend Julie from Vancouver, brought in seven enthusiastic participants (I expected maybe three or four). Two men, five women. One of the women already has a book in progress, while another one is still working out her concept. The rest of us are noodling around with ideas, but everyone perked up when Julie showed off her book, "A Seven Year Journey Around the World," and talked about the advantages of self-publishing and her program, InspireABook.
Because San Carlos is a way station, most of these people will vanish in the coming months, migrating back to the States. But I'm thinking about how I can make the group a hybrid, allowing each of us to continue sharing our work online, and meet f2f at my house when they're in town.
In fact, if it's online I could open it up to others as well. There are some logistics to work out, but I think it can be done. I'm not a writing teacher, only an editor, but then, I'm not charging for it, either. The payoff, for me, will be the extra nudge to get something written.
9 comments:
I am BajaDove, the other side of Comitan. We have a writer's Group in La Paz and face the same situation everyone leaving in the summer. This year we decided to keep our Thurs. morning date by computer. We're Emailing what we would share to each member and will receive a critique from each member, If it works.
Thurs. is our last meeting this year, so a week from Thurs. we'll find out.
Chain plate backing is essential and often overlooked. One can only imagine the stress on those plates in heavy winds.
That's so scary for both of them...
Hope your writing group works out, sounds like a good idea.
BajaDove - Once I attended a writers' group in La Paz back in 1998, at Los Arcos Hotel. Is this the same group? I really enjoyed it and wished I didn't have to sail away.
It is the same group. Many faces have changed but we're still going. This year we found a permanent meeting place in the home of an editor /journalist and a Lit professor/linguist and things are great. Come if you get to La Paz between the second week of Oct. and May whatever, usually
BajaDove
Comitan - thanks for the invite.
I'd like to stay in touch with you and possibly compare notes about keeping a group going when we scatter hither and thither.
My Email address is mycomitan@gmail.com
Be great to have someone to talk to about groups and activities.
BajaDove (carol)
Well, getting back to the sailing part of the blog, I had a tiny machine shop in Manzanillo cut some quarter inch stainless and bend and drilled it for the new backstay chainplate. The job was crudely done, and I cleaned up the piece before installing it. It will work, but it´s butt-ugly. Fred thought the existing chainplate (at 36 years old) looked just fine... that´s when I decided to replace it.
I bought the remaining pieces of stainless stock for repairs I might need later... never know.
Fred never checks the weather. He left his handheld radio at home. He could have dragged warps to stabilize the boat. He was within swimming distance of Ipala at one point, but did he think of firing up his cell phone?? Oh well.
One does respect mother nature when such things happen like that! He's a lucky man, thanks to the locals.....
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