64. New Ride

I arrived back from Mexico City and Eitan from California after our week apart and were ready to get back onboard. Eitan worked to install the first solar panel with the new welding modifications to the davit while I unpacked and began taking inventory of galley supplies and preparing a list for reprovisioning. Our second solar panel was due to arrive the following day, so, we made our way from Guaymas back to San Carlos and dropped anchor again next to our friends Joe and Michelle on S/V Soul Rebel. Coincidentally, they also had some stuff scheduled to arrive with the importer, so Eitan and Joe walked over in the morning to meet her while Michelle and I got crafty onboard. Despite having a similar-sized boat, I am always impressed with the amount of stuff Michelle manages to store onboard. She has not one, but three sewing machines and even makes some of her own clothes and bathing suits. So, I wasn’t too surprised when she asked if I wanted to come over to make some chapsticks and enjoyed learning the creative process.

An hour or so later Eitan and Joe returned, but it seems the importer forgot our solar panel, AGAIN! She promised to have it next weekend, so it seemed we would be stuck in San Carlos for another week. I remembered my family friend, Diane, had offered her daughter’s truck for us to use if we needed to get around to run chores. So, I messaged her and she agreed to take us to pick it up in the morning. The truck was a 1990’s Toyota Tacoma single cab with well over 200,000 miles on it. If there is anything I know about this kind of small truck, it’s that they are solid and reliable, despite the check engine light being permanently lit.

Having a vehicle for the week in San Carlos opened new horizons for our time there. Our grocery store trips were no longer limited to how much we could physically carry, meaning we could stock up on beer, margarita supplies, juices, and other liquids. It also meant Eitan could make trips out to Guaymas to get propane and miscellaneous hardware, where the availability and selection were much greater. To get WiFi, we drove to a cute little café at the corner of town and realized how little we get to see, being limited by walking almost everywhere. We also decided to do the nearby hike up Cerro Tetakawi, or “goat tits” as it’s translated, and in all honesty, they do look like a pair of goat tits. It was a short but intense hike to the top but the views over the marina and the surrounding area were incredible and well worth the effort.

Although I learned to drive in a small pickup truck with a manual transmission (a skill you never really forget), Eitan did most of the driving after I tried to pull a U-turn and got stuck in the middle of the main road because I couldn’t get the transmission back into first gear or reverse. In fact, it was a bit hard for me to get the truck into any gear, not to mention the lack of power steering and grinding sounds whenever we’d make a sharp turn. So, I welcomed being chauffeured around. When we ran into friends while parking the truck at the marina, they ask us, looking a little confused, if we had bought a truck for our short time in San Carlos since it clearly wasn’t a rental.

I like that the truck fits right in this relatively small Mexican town, and hoped it would save us from any run-ins with the local police, who are known to scam tourists from time to time. But I was wrong, and one day Eitan came back from the hardware store and handed me some strange, photoshopped-looking sticker. He had gotten pulled over for no reason and the officer asked him to buy a $5 San Carlos Police sticker as a donation and a friendly gesture to the police force. Then, when we display the sticker in the car window, the local authorities would know we support the police and would be sure to let us off easy. Although it was clearly a scam, since this wasn’t our car and the registration status of the vehicle was a bit ambiguous, given the 2007 registration tag on the California license plate, Eitan decided it best to play along and purchase the sticker. Seeing the stickers on other cars in San Carlos always gives me a laugh knowing the number of other people succumbing to this same little scam.

By the end of the week, Eitan returned to the importer and was finally able to pick up our second solar panel. Having the truck worked out perfectly because getting the first panel into a small taxi was a bit challenging. For our last day, we dropped off the truck with a full tank of gas and Eitan paid for one night in the marina, since we needed the dock to be able to finish the panel installation. With the new panels and lithium batteries, suddenly S/V Sierra Wind was much more energy independent and we hope to no longer need the engine to top off the charge on the batteries. Our friends on S/V Soul Rebel came over for one last dinner and we got to bed early, preparing to sail back across the Sea of Cortez for the fourth time.