Why did we go to Arizona?
Reason #1 – So Trevor and I both need to renew our tourist Visa for Mexico by December and we needed to technically leave the country and re-enter to accomplish this. I have a trip planned to visit my dad but Trevor had not yet committed when he was going to leave Mexico.
Reason # 2 – We needed more supplies and materials for the boat work. The original work plan for Slow Flight was to repair the skeg (stabilizes the rudder) which we were told had water in it from our original boat survey when we purchased the boat. This would require us to drill a hole in the skeg and let the water drain out and let it sit to dry before we could repair the fiberglass and then put a coat of bottom paint, all jobs we were going to do ourselves.
However, Trevor decided to have the yard do the sanding of the bottom after the “burn” of the paint dust hit his now delicate skin (hahaha). The yard found some moisture in the hull (bottom) of the boat. We knew we had some blisters (historically old boats like ours had fiberglass blisters) so we decided to bite the bullet and have the yard sandblast and grind the entire hull of the boat, fill the blisters, reapply the barrier coat (makes the hull “waterproof”) and apply the bottom paint all for about $5,000 usd. It sounds like a lot of money and it is, but a job like this in the States would be well in the ballpark of $10,000. So we bit….
Reason # 3 – Friends SV Kenta Anae was thinking about buying a car in Tuscon to bring back to Mexico and decided to also do some boat work here and needed supplies.
Reason # 4 – Life long friend, Danielle Shabazz and her husband Zakee and daughter Sakari let us stay at there home while we visited.
Reason # 5 – Trevor wanted to see his family in Missouri….only 18 hour drive or maybe fly?
The outcome –> ROAD TRIP with Kenta Anae! On October 30, Trevor and I rented a VW Jetta at the local car rental place (Sixt) and fit Merle, Alison, Chandro, and Matero in the back seat…thank goodness they are small people : ) We dropped them off at the Tuscon airport so they could rent a car to proceed to car shop. They didn’t find a car they liked but said that they had a great time anyways in the States (they are Canadian and had never been to Arizona)
Trevor bought plane tickets a day before he left Arizona to fly to Springfield Missouri….he totally surprised his family!!!! (Carri-ann (sister), Michael (brother-in-law), Steven (nephew), Janthanie (niece), Robert (nephew), Grace (niece), Claudia (mom), and Bill (step dad).
Halloween in Arizona – Trevor and I went to a local Goodwill and found complete costumes!!!! We trick-o-treated with the Shabazz family in thier neighborhood.
Sakari’s 11th Birthday – Before we left for Arizona, I had spent hours trying to get everything ordered from West Marine (boat supply store) to get everything we needed delivered to store in Tempe. To sum it up…a shipment was late and we had to stay an additional 3 days at Danielle’s while we waited. The silver lining is that we got be there for Sakari’s 11th birthday and all weekend celebrated with her!
In the end, we got all of our materials and supplies, Trevor got to see his family, spending quality time with the Shabazz family, Trevor renewed his Visa, and all safely arriving back in San Carlos! Saying it was a great trip is an understatement!!!
Thank you Danielle, Zakee and Sakari for putting up with us for over a week and on such short notice….it means the world to us!!!!