On My Own in Mazatlan…Again

Marina Mazatlan

Ole was contacted at the last minute to switch to the Azamara Quest for this contract…long story…but as usual everything worked out for him to join the ship in Barcelona.

It’s pretty empty here at the dock, with Rick and Goldene from Magic Places and Rick on Cape Star the only folks on the dock. The good news is that I do have company whether I want it or not – there’s a black cat on the dock who’s lived here on his own for nearly 11 years, scrounging and ingratiating himself with whoever strolls down the dock to feed him. In terms of feral cats, “Slacker” has it made. It’s clearly HIS dock…none of the other 40 feral cats venture down here except a timid little tabby named “Debbie” who Slacker seems to tolerate.

Beto, Rick’s varnish guy, has decided to go into business for himself, and approached us about doing the caprails. Two and a half months on the hard amid all the dust, grinding, and god-knows-what flying through the air in the yard has pretty much eaten all the varnish away…so we agreed to be Beto’s first big contract. The varnish looked great – and Ole and I agreed that we ought to have rail covers so he won’t have to varnish every six months. (It stopped being fun a long time ago!)

Since most of the boat looks great…especially with new varnish…I made an executive decision to surprise Ole by having Beto paint the foredeck and the deck around the Portuguese bridge to match the new non-skid. And while he was at it, it made sense to go ahead and varnish up on the flybridge and slap some on the teak table. It seems that whenever Ole gets back from work, he’s buried in chores and fix-its, and has little time to enjoy himself.

I must say, the boat is finally starting to look pretty sharp!

And me…well, given the relative cost of dental work here in Mexico, with braces at ¼ the cost of the US…braces, just shy of my 61^st birthday! Got fitted for the top set this month, and learning to eat while stuff hangs in the wires is a whole new skillset. Gaspacho, milkshakes, and noodles seem to fit the bill just fine.