Kestrel Heading North

Greetings from Oregon & Mazatlan.

As you know, Leslie flew home last November from Costa Rica after becoming very ill with dysentery. She is recovering nicely back in Oregon and is back at work (WORK??? What's that?!)

Jay got the challenging job of bringing Kestrel home from Costa Rica -- against the winds and currents. His good friend Guy Stevens from sv Pneuma (Seattle) helped him sail from Costa Rica to Mexico. They did a racey trip covering nearly 1500 miles in less than 3 weeks. They even anchored off the coast of Tehuantepec during a big blow w/gusts up to 45 knots.

Upon entering Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta), Suzi the wonder diesel gave up the ghost yet again. Jay was stuck in La Cruz (near PV) for several weeks waiting for an outboard to come down from Mazatlan by boat, so he could take Kestrel up there. We have a good friend who is a mechanic in Mazatlan, Rick off Cape Starr, plus we'd heard there was another great mechanic there as well -- so we wanted to get Kestrel up there to work on the engine. Jay single handed Kestrel up to Mazatlan with just the outboard. (He wrote an entertaining log, which we will post in the future.)

In any case, he made it up to Mazatlan without a hitch, and then started the grueling engine issues. We talked long & hard about what to do with Suzi. We could put another patch on her ($1000), which would get Jay up North -- but we'd have to patch the engine yet again once he got North. Or, we could just retire Suzi and buy a new engine.

The latter was our choice. We repowered with a boat show special -- a new Universal 26 HP. Leslie got to wheel and deal with the vendor (you get good at that after living in Latin America for a couple years) and got a good price on the engine. We flew it down to Mazatlan and Jay got to do the Customs Cha Cha -- but we got it in w/o paying any duty. A feat in Mexico! Good on ya, Jay! :-) (It definitely helps that Jay knows Spanish fluently.)

The new engine was christened "Sal", seeing as Suzi was a she and Kestrel is a she -- we thought Kestrel might want some romance with a male engine this time 'round. So "Sal" the UniverSal is now part of the crew.

It took Jay nearly a month to install Sal -- during which time Jay got shingles (a painful outbreak of sores on his neck and back -- caused by the chicken pox virus becoming active again.) Jay had to build new engine mounts because the new engine is so much smaller than Suzi. That took several weeks, then there was the install and sea trials.

We then flew our crew down, Lee Hoffman, from SIYC (Sauvie Island Yacht Club). Lee and Jay are currently waiting for a weather window to depart Mazatlan and are planning on making the Sea of Cortez crossing possibly as soon as tomorrow. The big low approaching Southern California needs to be watched, however, as it could affect the weather as far South as Cabo/Mazatlan if it has a big front associated with it.

Leslie is really looking foward to Jay and Kestrel's return to Oregon. It'll be nice to be a 'family' again and to potter on Kestrel in the Columbia.

Please do keep in touch with us, whether you are land-bound or still out there cruising. We will continue to send updates about Jay and Kestrel's trip North as we have information.

Fair winds and smooth motoring,
Leslie and Jay