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| Tender Moments; Tender Lessons |
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 | | Submitted Photo | | We brought Tamara into the Singlar dock for a day to wash down the outboard engine and take on fresh water. The northerneastern end of the bay and the two "windows" on either side of the conical hill beyond the boat let in the famous Sea of Cortez "northers" that blow regularly during winter months. |
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by Marili Green Reilly
It was a wet and wild ride. Our tender, a 9 ˝ foot inflatable bounced over one wave and through the next, drenching us both in the tepid, salty waters of Puerto Escondido. That "hidden port" on the Sea of Cortez side of the Southern Baja peninsula is reputed to be a hurricane hole because of its nearly land-locked position. The well- protected southern entrance leads into a good-sized cove known as the Waiting Room. Beyond that, a 200-foot wide channel gives access to the much larger Inner Harbor.
The Inner Harbor is protected on three sides by the mountains of the Baja peninsula. A natural arm of land shelters the eastern edge of the harbor, with high hills along the southeast edge. However, the neck of land that forms the northeast side of the harbor features two openings of lowlands on either side of a tall, cone-shaped hill. These "windows" allow the northern winds of the late fall and winter to whip up the waters in this natural harbor. That's what happened the week before Thanksgiving 2009 while Tamara was tethered to a mooring ball in the Inner Harbor.
The winds had not yet kicked up on our first full day there, so we rented a car and enjoyed a side trip up the coast to Loreto. We planned to go back into town the next morning, but by 10:00 we were seeing steady 10-15 knot winds with gusts to 20. If we hadn't had to return the rental car, we'd have stayed on the boat all day! Knowing we wouldn't want to make more than one trip, we had to make this one count. We wrapped the computer in a heavy-duty 3 gallon Ziploc® bag, made a salad for the cruisers' potluck that afternoon, and loaded them into the dinghy along with our camera and shower gear.  | | Submitted Photo | | Tamara's Tender, a 9.5 foot Zodiac inflatable, rested easily off our stern in Puerta Ballandra on Isla Carmen in the Sea of Cortez, just a few days before it made its fateful flip in Puerto Escondido. |
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Once ashore, we dropped off the car keys, showered, and checked email, then decided not to wait for the potluck--the white caps on the bay were getting bigger. Returning in the tender, I secured our backpacks with the strap that's attached to the inflatable floor. Dave started the outboard and we cautiously pulled away from the dock. Fifty feet out, a wave came over the bow, soaking me, and I hollered into the wind, "I'm sure glad I showered!"
It was a slow, wet slog back, then the struggle began to lift bags, oars, and gas tank onto the lurching deck from a tossing dinghy. Dave remained in the tender, pumping out the water, while I emptied our bags, put away the salad we wouldn't be sharing, and hung clothes and bags to dry in the sun and wind. Fortunately, the camera and computer had remained dry in their plastic bags.
When Dave came aboard, we talked about whether to bring the outboard aboard, how best to secure the inflatable, and what to do if it flipped over.
We have a hoist and a well-practiced system for hauling the motor up onto the seaboard on Tamara's aft pulpit. At 80 pounds, the five horsepower four-stroke engine is too heavy for us to manage by hand, so our radar arch, designed by the late Jim Leslie, includes a rotating arm with a block and tackle. I board the tender and Dave tethers it to the boat in two places to keep its stern aligned under the seaboard. He then lowers the block, and I attach it to the lifting harness and loosen the mounts so he can raise and secure the engine. In calm weather, we can easily get this done in just a few minutes. In 25 knot gusts, it was an intimidating task that seemed much too risky, so we opted to leave the outboard on the dinghy.
No more than an hour after we made that decision, I watched as the wind and waves lifted the inflatable like a feather and flipped it over. It was a sickening feeling to see the propeller standing up above the water, but I have to admit, the small boat seemed to ride the waves with a lot more stability while in that position! With much effort we finally got the dingy pulled alongside Tamara and uprighted. We had just gotten it tied alongside the boat when two guys from a neighboring sailboat roared over in a larger, more stable, inflatable to offer help.
The father and son from Lilly came aboard and helped Dave manhandle the engine on deck. Secured alongside, the tender rode well through the night. Clearly, we had made a mistake in not bringing the outboard up onto the rail. But that decision also pointed out a lesson about the choices we have made as we've outfitted Tamara for cruising in Mexico. Our choices were often based both on what fits the boat and what fits our pocketbook. Sometimes those choices don't fit each other.
First, there was the dinghy selection: a 9 ˝ foot Zodiac® with the inflatable floor. We wanted to be able to fold it as compactly as possible and store it on deck, so a more stable inflatable like Lilly's, with the rigid V-shaped bottom, was out of the question. So too was a larger Zodiac: this one, fully inflated, just barely fits on the cabin top of our Cascade 36, either between the mast and the hard dodger or forward of the mast, behind the inner forestay.
Maneuvering it aboard also had to be considered, as it had to be something the two of us could handle with the help of the main halyard. Although Dave can do it by himself, two of us can do it more quickly, and although we continue to perfect our technique, it's a two-step maneuver to pull the bow all the way through beneath the boom before moving it back to align the stern end of the pontoons around the traveler.
The second selection was the outboard: we'd shopped the boat shows and decided that a 2 ˝ hp four-stroke was as much as we could handle. Then some friends mentioned they had this 5 hp Nissan available. It was a good price for a well-maintained motor, so we decided to make the sacrifice on weight. Although the dinghy is heavy to haul ashore, it is certainly not overpowered. When you make trade-offs or compromises in selecting equipment, there are also trade-offs in using it. If it's not convenient, you may not use it at all, which has often been the case with our tender.
We pull into a quiet bay and would like to get out and look around: perhaps there's a nice beach for walking and beachcombing, rocks and reefs ideal for snorkeling, or a neighboring boat we'd like to visit. But if we are staying only one or two nights, it's not worth the effort to put the dinghy down. The total time for deployment, from launching to mounting the engine, takes over an hour. Bringing both back aboard before we leave is another hour of work. Sometimes it doesn't seem worth it, so the equipment goes unused.
That day in Puerto Escondido, our decision not to stow the outboard on Tamara turned into what Dave calls a "learning opportunity." Once it was back on the rail, we took the advice of Lilly's skipper and other friends on the bay, draining the oil, removing the spark plug, and rinsing the motor with fresh water. However, that wasn't enough: we did not get it running again until we had paid an outboard mechanic in LaPaz to give it a thorough cleaning and tune-up.
After we were through the crisis, Dave lamented that we hadn't taken the motor off earlier, but I am inclined to believe that if we had removed the engine, we'd have learned the wrong lesson. It most likely would have been a miserable struggle. The least injury might have been chipped paint on Tamara's hull; the worst might have been dropping the outboard or one of us getting hurt. The lesson might then have been "better to have left it on the dinghy." Instead, we now know that in high winds, it's safer on the pulpit, and we may think twice about making an on-shore commitment when high winds are forecast. Until we can find solutions that fit the boat, our pocketbook, and related components, we will have to accept the outcome of that particular "learning opportunity." |
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