Ophelia Offshore

After getting back to La Paz, Jesse and I pressed the easy button and got a slip at Marina Cortez. It would be infinitely easier to finish projects and finalize preparations for the crossing tied to a dock. Faster to run errands. No dingy rides with mountains of provisions. Dock space for having the arch installed.

I took a quick trip to San Diego to refresh my passport. Given that the opportunity presented itself, we also ordered about one of everything marine related to our friends house in San Diego. Of some things, we ordered two. When asked if I was excited or nervous about taking off for the crossing, all I could honestly say was I was excited to throw the dock lines off so the preparations could end. Maybe then I’d have a minute to think about if I was excited or nervous.

Dirk and Sarah flew into La Paz to join us – Dirk with a mystery illness that kept him bed ridden for the first few days and earned him the name Dengue Dirk. Sarah jumped right in as lead on provisioning – we kicked off with a massive two cart Costco run while Dirk waited in the hot car.

Sarah went on about 20 more provisioning runs, going all over town to poke vegetables and prod fruits from the co-ops and organic markets and bulk sellers to see which were the most fresh. She took notes and updated the provisioning spreadsheet. At one point, we were in Chaudri Selecto with two carts filled to the brim and Sarah left me to get butter. The two carts were in front of the donut case, and every time someone came to get a donut I had to move the carts back and forth so they could get to the chocolate donuts, then the glazed, then the sprinkle. Sarah was taking ages. More people were coming for donuts. How long could it take to get butter? When she finally came back 15 min later I was expecting an armful of all the things she had been picking and instead all she had was a single stick of butter. Apparently she spent all that time just looking at the butter playing out various scenarios for the crossing that would require different quantities of butter. Debating the pros and cons of being over and under provisioned on butter. It was good to know Sarah was also slightly losing her mind over the preparations.

As Dirk’s illness improved, he joined us at the dock and took up electrical work, rewiring a fan for us. Then he moved onto BBQ cleaning and dingy detailing. There is always something to do on a boat. I learned various rigging methods, making eyelet ends for our traveler lines and an endless loop for the furling line. Jesse tuned all of the rigging and installed our new dingy arch.

All this work was happening under intense heat – it was over 90 degrees every day without a whisp of wind. The maria showers locked at 7pm, so every night at 6:30 we all dropped our work where it was, and went in for cold showers followed by happy hour margaritas at the dock bar. It was hot and hard work, but we were making progress and getting so close to being ready.