Repairs to Active Light in Mazatlan
May 8th, 2001

Our guests have come and gone and we have been here in the Marina Mazatlan for over two months refurbishing Active Light's decks. But not all is work. Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon at 3:00 we gather by the marina office and try to make a little music. This is sometimes hard to do because of the variety of instruments and talents that do (or do not) show up. Most often there will be several guitars and an accordion, and always a mandolin. Sometimes a violin. When Neil first shows up with his trombone, people do not know how to react, maybe they are thinking they will hear something loud and brassy like "76 Trombones". Neil enjoys those "uncomfortable moments". But he soon fits in by using a variety of mutes to soften the volume.
"The Band" at Marina Mazatlan. Clockwise are George from Canada, Richard from Chekloslovakia, Louise from "L'il Gem", Susan from "Valkyrie", Roger and Darlene Weaver from "Waltz Time", and Neil.	They will play anything from polkas to folk songs, blues to "Puff the Magic Dragon"(!!!), and always in G or E, or A minor if it is to be "Hotel California". We play lots of Eagles tunes and Beatles tunes down here in Mexico. Sometimes Nancy will sing. We started playing on our cruise in La Paz with "The Bilge Band". One of our few deadlines we have now is to get the repairs finished to be in Puerto Escondido on the Baja side in time for LoretoFest, which has lots of musicians gathering to play. We have been asked to show up for that and we are looking forward to it. There are some good musicians amongst the cruisers down here and the performance environment is very, very relaxed!
The inebriated gringo in the lower right kept sprinkling confetti on the heads of passersby. What an annoying jerk he was!	It was a surprise to us to learn that Mazatlan hosts the third largest Mardi Gras or Carnaval parade in the world. This happens in late February each year and we were there. We were a bit uneasy about milling around at street level with several hundred thousand people. We did not know then what a fun, family-oriented event this is, so we paid for a dinner, open-bar, and seats on the veranda of a hotel to view the parade. Next year, we will be down on street level with the people having even more fun. The people on the floats threw out lots of candy and trinkets to the crowd. In between the floats were groups of costumed dancers who would stop and do some dance routine assisted by a sound truck at maximum volume.
Cinderella was one of the Carnaval 2001 queens. We think, at this point, the Carnaval Queen for 2001 had not yet been chosen and the floats each featured a different queen candidate. They were all beautiful. The theme for this year's Carnaval was "Music".
The colors of the floats along with the sunset were wonderful! We think the riverboat float to the right showplaced representatives from other South American countries as well as other states and cities in Mexico. The banners across their chests read "Venezuela", "Brazil", "Miss Chichipapas", or whatever. Odd that Neil would remember such detail!

Another fun thing we have been doing is going to the horseraces. We suppose Nancy's mother, Betty, is saying "I knew it! That no-good Neil is leading my daughter on a path to sin and dissolution!" Actually, it was Nancy's idea to go. The horseraces are only about a two-kilometer walk from the marina, and they are fun. You can enter into the betting by just holding money over your head and someone will wager against you. Word was that if you bet against a local and he lost, sometimes he would just run away. We did not bet because we never really figured out which horse was in which of the two lanes. One of the horses was named "La Monica Lewinsky". She won her race. We drank cold Tecate beer and had wonderful tacos while watching.
Prerace view of the quarterhorse track. The starting line is beneath the red Tecate beer sign, finish line is where we are sitting. A polaroid carmera was rigged for the photo finishes. To the right, several Mexican gentlemen are negotiating a wager prior to a race. The fellow with the plaid shirt and bluejeans was moving quite a few pesos all afternoon.
Nancy got the bug to buy a Huichol Indian yarn painting. So instead of paying three times the going rate in the tourist district of Mazatlan, we decided to give the Indians a visit in their home state, Nayarit, just to the south. We went to Acaponeta and Tepic and had a really interesting time. The Mexican buses were an experience! We have some good advice about those if you are ever so inclined. In short, always go first class on the newest bus available. Always sit as far forward as possible, away from the "can" at the rear of the bus, and always examine your seat well before you sit. At Acaponeta, we felt like the first tourists who ever visited that little agricultural community. As we strolled into the plaza, a restaurant, or even a street corner, everyone stopped talking and just gawked at us as if to say, "Who in the world are you and what are you doing here?". People were not unfriendly, we think they were just amazed that any gringo tourists would bother to come to their town. We took a nice room in the (only) hotel overlooking the plaza for US$15 and just sat in the plaza, ate, walked and read a bit.
Looking out of our hotel window in Acaponeta onto the plaza. The cathedral is off to the right. We cannot remember the name of this nice couple who sold cheese in the mercado central of Tepic. The older fellow in the white baseball cap insisted that Presidents George Bush and Vincente Fox were talking about putting a new "Panama" canal through southern Mexico. He wanted to know what Neil thought of the proposal. He sold very nice cheese as well as dried beans and fruit drinks.
This is one of several Huichol and Tepehuana Indian yarn paintings we bought in Tepic. They are made by laying yarn down onto a board layered with bee's wax. The symbols have religious and medicinal significance to the Indians, who allegedly receive inspiration for the paintings while under the influence of the narcotic peyote cactus buds.
Huichol Indian merchants in the plaza in Tepic, with the head of a passerby who shall never know she has been immortalized in our webpage.	One of many colorful ceiling murals in the Palacio Municipal in Tepic. The black-uniformed municipal police armed with automatic weapons in the doorway to this building were courteous to us.
About this time, our visas needed renewing. We have been in Mexico for six months now. We also wanted to visit Nancy's daughter, Shawna, and her friend, Joe Hirsch, in El Paso, Texas. So the next weekend we boarded a bus for the 23 hour ride to the border. Bus hint #2, when you take a long bus ride in Mexico, moderately dehydrate yourself and bring your own food, water and toilet paper. Also bring lots of two peso coins to get into the restrooms at the bus stops. We had a great time sharing food and laughs with the other passengers. We saw three or four of the worst movies ever made. One of them twice!
Mountain view from a speeding bus.	The trip took us up over the Sierra Madre range from Mazatlan to Durango, then across lots of mesa land and semi-desert, most of which we slept through. The mountains were wonderful. The road was so winding that several people got motion sick. There is much of pine timber in those mountains and large logging trucks were packing it out. Joe and Shawna met us at the bus station in Ciudad Juarez and took us by car across the border to the good ole USA. Nancy's first request was to have a hamburger. It was wonderful to see Shawna and meet Joe for the first time. Shawna is teaching biology at the high school in Anthony, New Mexico. She made a wonderful dinner on Saturday night which included an apple pie which would do justice to both her mother and her grandmother.
Why is Shawna laughing so hard? Why is that devilish look on Joe's face? Does Shawna have some deep secret she is about to bare to us? Right photo, Shawna with her Huichol yarn painting from Nayarit.
Joe patiently and kindly carted us all over El Paso on shopping sprees. We went a little bit crazy. After all, suddenly there we were with all this exotic merchandise we cannot get in Mexico! And even a private car to get around. We actually made it back to Mazatlan with two new aluminum propane bottles, ten tubes of deck caulking, 13 yards of sun mesh awning material, plus loads of medicine, cosmetics and edibles without paying a peso of import duty. Jonathan Rowe of Marina Market in Poulsbo deserves a pat on the back for getting all that stuff together and to us in one week and at deep discount prices. We have spoken before about the good job this fellow does in finding marine hardware and we repeat, he is worth checking out! The visit was far too short, but we had to get back to our deck refurb job in Mazatlan. So we said tearful goodbyes and hope that we will see Joe and Shawna for a visit aboard Active Light in Puerto Escondido on the Baja side in May or June.	Shawna, Joe, the elegant Duffy (looking rather doltish here), and the sweet and sophisticated Raisa.

We received this photo in the mail from our friend Sharon Shope at Esquire Hills Elementary School. We are so flattered to learn that some of the students there have been following our trip on the internet and have made this beautiful bulletin board to keep track of where we are. A special "Hola, amigos!" from Nancy to her former students at Esquire Hills. We will try to put something interesting for them in each new letter on our webpage.

There are two young boys who live aboard a sailboat in Marina Mazatlan on the same dock with us. They have written a letter to the Esquire Hills students about what it is like to live on a sailboat and have "home schooling". The young authors' names are Kyle and Nicholas Barthel. You can read their letters by going to our Kids' Page.

Back in Mazatlan, we had to hire a taxi to get our overloaded backpacks to the marina, we could not get them on the bus. We resumed work on the decks with renewed vigor. Neil went to sleep many nights with his hands, forearms, and back aching from the work. By mid-April the decks seams were completely recaulked for the forward four-fifths of the boat. Then began the job of refastening and replugging the 1058 deck screws. Meanwhile, Nancy made us a wonderful full-boat sun awning, to the accompaniment of much colorful language.
Active Light in Marina Mazatlan under her new deck awnings. They make such an amazing difference in comfort while aboard. Max and Sylvie's Histoire d'Amour can be seen in the background. Han's and Maryhelen's Nitefighter was in the slip between. Right, Neil squeezes 3M 101 into newly grooved deck seams. On a good day, he could cover two feet of side deck consisting of 13 seams. We primed the new grooves with MEK and taped the sides to avoid messy overrun. As soon as the polysulfide is in the grooves, we pulled the tape and threw water on the whole thing to accelerate the cure. 3M 101 is the messiest, stickiest stuff to work with in the world!	Not a favorite job for a 58-year-old man. Oh well, perhaps it keeps him flexible?
A view of Active Light's new bimini that Nancy sewed. That single piece cost her more trouble and cussing than all the rest of the awnings and sunscreens combined. Of course, after sewing all that canvas for two months, Nancy really enjoyed stitching the captain's pants.	Best looking seamstress in Mazatlan!
The electric motor on our Pfaff 130 sewing machine began overheating, . . . we think it was because we were driving it from our on-board inverter, which is not powerful (only 600 watts) and puts out a modified sine wave. So Nancy tried the hand-crank mechanism on the Pfaff and found that it worked really well after she oiled the machine frequently. She even prefers to use the handcrank now.
Neil, Roger Waltz and Darlyne Weaver under the sun tent at the horse races. We had just all polished off a great US$4.00 dinner of fried pork, beans, tortillas, salsa and Tecate beer. There was some confusion about just what some of the pork parts were, but they were delicious nevertheless. Later in that afternoon, Neil lost $20 pesos to Roger. The downward spiral of sin and dissolution has begun!	We are almost ready to leave Mazatlan after a long stay. The retired cruising life is not all sitting on the beach and smelling the tacos. We have worked very, very hard for the last two months to upgrade Active Light and make her more ready for sea and the cruising life. But it is now time to take leave of our friends whom we have come to love while here. They have helped us a great deal and have put color, meaning, happiness, and sometimes consternation into our lives. Nevertheless, our new friends are a big ingredient in what makes this cruising lifestyle wonderful. We have spent many hours sitting in the cockpit on beautiful sunset evenings, sharing a drink and anecdotes with them. They are the salt and pepper in our lives.
Phillipe displays his new French flag aboard the CT-41 he is restoring. Phillipe is the food & beverage manager for a huge cruise ship stationed in the Marquesas. He spends six months there and then gets several months to play with his boat in Mazatlan.	Hans Bakker and Maryhelen aboard Nitefighter. They are friends from our home town of Poulsbo, Washington. Hans has been down here cruising for 4 years now and declares it is time to put the boat away and go tour Europe for a while.
The Haley Kay crew, Judy, Kyle holding Popeye, Mark, and youngest son, Nick. Mark works really hard every day restoring Phillipe's boat, Amariss.	Our resident French representatives, Max and Sylvie, from Histoire d'Amour. Max is tranquil, honest, and kind. Sylvie is the exotic, charming French woman who makes jewelry.
Our friend, Jose Marie, is one of the security guards at the Marina Mazatlan. He is one of the kindest and most honest and honorable persons we have ever met. He rides his bicycle to work and back for a commute of thirty minutes. He is one of two night watchmen working the 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM shift at the marina. He has a daughter and a so, both grown now, and a wife he alleges is both good-looking and taller than he is. He has given us good advice and great tamales made by his wife.	Brian James has been retired and cruising for about ten years now aboard the Baba 30 Rari. He helped us with rides into town in his truck, showed us the best taco stand (Taco Loco) and gave us much valuable advice regarding life on the hook in the North Baja Sea.
So Thursday we will leave for a three-day crossing of the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Escondido, our fourth crossing! We will meet Nancy's daughter, Shawna, and her friend, Joe, for a good long visit and tour of the middle and upper Sea. They will probably travel with us to San Carlos, from where we will fly home for a visit with Nancy's mother, Betty. This is likely the last letter we will post until we get home in July. These letters seem to be getting both longer, with more pictures, and more personal. We think that is because the focus has shifted a bit from what we think our readers may want to see, to that which we want to remember. In that regard, this webpage is becoming a sort of pictorial log book of our travels. Take care, remember us fondly. We enjoy hearing from all of you.
Nancy and Neil S/V Active Light Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico