When good belts go bad!

We were driving back from Barra de la Cruz, when we heard a small pop come from the engine compartment, followed by a loud squealing sound and the smell of burning rubber. Quickly slowing to a halt on the side of Hwy 200, Mexico’s version of PCH, I popped the hood. As I stepped down from BIG Blue, I could feel the blistering heat of the midday sun on my shoulders. Opening the hood, I was forced to hold my breath as a plume of burnt rubber waged war on my nostrils.  Peering into the engine compartment, I bare witness to the mess we now faced, all four of our belts were no longer in their original state or positions on their pulleys. Two were absolutely shredded and wrapped around the fan; one twisted over on itself and the smallest one was miraculously still intact, although somehow managed to make its way to the other side of the engine compartment. What a cluster F@*$!!!

After gathering my thoughts, which consisted of "Thank god we have an entire spare set of belts" (thanks to Diesel Doug and Mikey for suggesting this one) and having a quick pow-wow with Colleen and our friend Jorge, a local from Puerto Vallarta catching a ride with us to Huatlulco, we laid out our game plan. Since neither of us had ever done an entire belt replacement before, we went straight to the Ford mechanic books, which we had fortunately received when we purchased BIG Blue, and have since used multiple times.

After setting out our orange safety triangles (thanks Tomas and Valerie for help locating these in Corpus Christi), and setting up shade over the work zone so we wouldn’t melt, we got started! The next two hours went by in a blaze, literally, it was about 97 degrees out on the scorching asphalt! Once we figured out that we could slide the new belts over and fortunately not have to remove the entire fan/clutch assembly, everything seemed to go on without a problem. After tensioning all the belts and tightening all the pivot/adjustment bolts we were done!!! With a celebratory swig of water and a quick cleanup, we fired BIG Blue up and hit the road!

I am so proud to report that we both managed to keep our cool under those less then ideal conditions, and it is yet another perfect example of why Colleen and I make such a solid team. Not to mention Torch, who is our International Ambassador of Fun, reminding us to have as much fun as possible every day!

Next stop, Oaxaca City for...

When Visiting Virginia...

 

-Do some skeet shootin’ in your backyard.

-Visit some caverns.

 

                                        

                    -Add onto your home.

-Join the Moose. 

  -Have a beer at an establishment that LEGALLY sells guns and serves beer.

-Pick and/or eat fresh veggies daily.

 Learn about home-canning in the process.

 -Try some “shine”(sshhhh), perhaps in the rain?

-Go wine tasting in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

                                            -Hike!

and most importantly.... Eat apple sausage and mom’s peach cobbler daily.

All these good times were made possible by my mom’s generosity and that of her amazing circle of friends.  Mil gracias to Judie and Gary Carnahan, Bobby Ward, Joyce and James Allen, the Whetsel clan- Jay, Susie, Destiny, and Faith, the Pearmans, and the many others who took time to chat  and share with us!!

While in the hills of Virginia, we got an offer on Mer-Sea…

Buttoned up and lonely in Marina Chiapas, she [Mer-Sea] must have sang her siren song to a local from Tapachula, by the name of Arturo Cordoba, owner of Macaw Tours. Eager to learn to sail and seeing her sitting there must have stirred the salt in his blood.

It seemed perfect timing, as is usually the case with the universe, since we had recently been discussing our desire to open up our sailing range and get a blue water cruiser, something in the 32’-38’ range, and capable of sailing around the world! But more on that later!!! ;)

After a few tweaks and an impromptu diesel mechanics crash course on Big Blue, she was Mexico road ready. And well frankly, we were less than bummed on getting back to those, oh so rico y sabroso, sights, smells, and sounds that we came to love south of the border. Stopping at a few of our “adopted” families along the way south through Texas, to rest and provision, gave us the energy we needed to make the four day charge down to the bottom of Mexico. Thanks a million Doug and Yolanda Harrell, Connie Boudreaux, and Tommy and Valerie Elliott!

The drive through the states of Veracruz and Chiapas were breathtaking! These states are “Mayan” territory riddled with dramatic views of mountains overrun by jungle with some of the only interruptions in the sea of green being rivers snaking their ways to lower altitudes.

Upon arrival to the Marina, all the smiling faces of the employees there greeted us, including the manager Enrique Laclette. Enrique is a classic Mexican businessman, who is responsible for the development of two Marinas in Mexico. He was more than helpful and accommodating throughout our entire experience with Marina Chiapas, and above all, making the introduction to Arturo, Mer-Sea’s newest caretaker. If you ever have the pleasure of meeting Enrique, you might be lucky enough to hear one of his many great adventure stories, which he draws from a lifetime spent in communion with the sea.

After clearing all our personal belongings, surfboards and food stores of the boat, which brought her about a foot out of the water, our next order of business was to get Mer-Sea and her new owner acquainted. As is common with most business transactions here in Mexico, this was done with the aid of a “few” cervezas , a “bit” of tequila, some dancing, and a ceviche feast! To sum it up, a grand ol’ time!

Before we could officially let her go though, we had to pop a bottle of bubbly (much to my approval a bottle of Vueve Clicquot!!) with Arturo. This bottle had a special significance, as it was given to Marc by a professional sailboat racer friend of his, named David, upon purchasing Mer-Sea over two years back. He has been saving it for this precise occasion! Ohhh how sweet it is!

Gracias por todo Mer-Sea! What a beautiful journey we have had with you!

Will Brake for Family

 It has been over 10 years since I have made my way east to my moms cabin in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  And since she was holding Torch hostage it was time to make the journey. Just kidding about the hostage situation, that was part of the deal, she agreed to keep him while we sailed south, as long as we agreed to come pick him up in person. Done and done. It was nothing personal why I had not been to her place in so long, only that as I was living in beautiful southern California the past ten years and it just seemed like the better use of a plane ticket if she came to me. Also, the winters in those mountains are out of the question for me. I don’t do cold well.

 

So we tuned up Big Blue, and hit the road from Wills Point, Texas. Destination-Broadway, Virginia.  What was supposed to be a week or two road-trip turned into a solid month plus!

In that time, Marc’s sister Kristy came out for her birthday. To celebrate, mom so generously cooked us a massive lobster feast!! Kristy had never been to Virginia or spent much time in the country and it was good times to explore around mom’s world with her.

We also drove up to Connecticut to visit my brother Rob, his wife Tina, and my niece and nephew, Isabella and Cristian. We only got a week there but we were able to spend some great quality time due to the fact that they had not started back to school yet. The day we left we got to see Cristian off on a milestone experience in every youngsters life, his first bus ride to his first day of kindergarten. Love those little monkeys!!

While in Connecticut we shot over to NYC for a day to hang out with Marc’s cousin Justin. He has been going to grad-school at NYU, and we were excited to check out the niche he had dug into that concrete jungle. It seems we were just in time as he had decided to head back to California to finish his degree. We spent the afternoon catching up and waiting for the movers to arrive. Once the boxes were loaded we headed out for some beers and good eats that that city is so famous for.

Our time in Virginia was filled with many good times and more than merits its own post. So, next up… “Things to do in Virginia”