Haul out and home to Nova Scotia

We have now been in the Singlar marina in Guaymas for 3 days, making Ladybug ready for the summer. The summer here is very hot, particularly when your boat is pulled out on the hard. We put away everything that we can to protect from the sun, including the sails, dinghy (in our case the kayak), and even the various ropes, which get stored inside the mast and boom or bundled up in cloth bags with light sacrificial 'messenger' lines left to handle the UV. Inside, we make sure every locker is left open to allow circulation and we tape foil lined insulation on all the port lights. The head is flushed with fresh water and olive oil to keep the rubber seals lubricated, and the diesel engine is put to bed with fresh oil.

It has not all been work. The marina is very close to downtown and we visited the local market where Rani picked up 5 delicious canteloupe melons and 10 green peppers for less than two dollars in total. We have an open air disco in the marina, which lulls us to sleep each night and we watched some local lovelies preparing their runway walk for the Miss Guaymas pageant that was also hosted at the marina. Before supper tonight we wandered over to a stage on the malecon where dance troupes from all over Mexico were performing traditional and avant garde numbers. We recognized some mariachi favorites from our New Year's stay in Tlaxcala and I was particularly impressed by a bevy of beauties doing Tahitian style dancing and a young and incredibly flexible couple who acted out a story in dance involving copious draughts of tequila. In one traditional dance troupe, the men each wielded two machetes, clashing them together between their legs and behind their backs, at one point while blindfolded! They also crossed 'swords' with each other sometimes with one of their lovely partners in the middle of the fray. I found myself subconsciously ducking as they swung their blades around and around at head level, all the while performing complicated choreography. Another group balanced glasses of water on their heads while doing numbers that got progressively more animated – only a few glasses went tumbling and the ladies did better than the men in keeping their heads dry.

We haul out the day after tomorrow across the bay. The harbour is very shallow – less than 6 feet in places – so we will sail over tomorrow night at high tide. We take a bus to Phoenix after we haul out and after a night in a hotel, fly to Nova Scotia. From there we will drive Rani's Nissan back to BC.