Delivery of SV Endurance

"If it's going to happen, it's going to happen out there" - Captain Ron

His gut told him (mostly literally) to not sail the 70 ft ferro cement schooner. Endurance hadn't moved from her slip in 3 years. It was questionable whether she was up for the 5 straight days from Huatulco (Bahia Chahue) to Opequimar in Puerto Vallarta. But Randy offered to help with the delivery. His dear friend Doug had no other seasoned sailors who could help. On departure day, when his stomach was giving him particularly strong "vibes", Randy tried to back out of his commitment but it was impossible at the last hour to find a replacement.

So off they went with an SSB and a VHF that could only receive but not transmit. Thank goodness developing third world countries have cell phone towers sprouting out of the remotest hills and towns. These were some of the reports I received.

Day 1 (two hours out) - the engine overheated and failed but they repaired it. The radios could not transmit but they could hear me.

Day 2 - Endurance was only trudging along at 2 - 3 knots. At that rate, it would take twice as long to deliver her. It turns out the propeller was covered in barnacles so they dove in and scraped off as much as they could... still not much improvement in speed... hmmm

Day 3 - Food and water supplies were not good due to not enough provisioning or too much consumption or both. Fuel and water tanks are much lower than expected.

Day 4 - Considered stopping at Ixtapa Marina to refuel and fill the water tanks but their maximum draft on a high tide is only 7 feet. Endurance is verging on 10 feet. The crew decided (thanks to Ken and Marilyn's suggestion) to anchor at the Playa Principal in Zihua Bay, have fuel and water supplied by panga and zip in to town (not exactly zip as the dinghy had no engine) for food and drinking water.

Day 5 - After a near miss with a freighter at 2 am and near mutiny on board, they rounded Cabo Corrientes which was pleasantly and uncharacteristically cooperative, but by now the already failing refrigeration and the heads have died. The food that they remained is already starting to get slimy in the heat. Oh, and the reason for the lack of speed?? A built in drogue was deployed. With a simple press of a little button it was retracted and Randy headed old Endurance straight for McDonald's at 8 knots. He just called between bites of french fries and slurps of chocolate shake.

Tomorrow they all return on Mexicana via Mexico City and will be happily back in Huatulco by 3:30 pm.