Fred, who had been sailing south from Puerto Vallarta, turned up Saturday night, boatless, in the marina in Barra de Navidad with a harrowing tale to tell. Coming around Cabo Corrientes, he lost the wooden mast when a chain plate broke (that's the hardware that holds the rigging to the deck). He drifted offshore with no motor, no sails, for three days in rough seas before the locals came out in their pangas to tow him into the little Ipala Bay. He caught a bus, arrived home in Barra and began making arrangements to have Mi Sueño towed back to the marina tomorrow. His plan now (written in sand at low tide) is to fix the motor and put Mi Sueño up for auction on eBay.
Mi Sueño (my dream), which perhaps should be renamed Mi Pecadillo (my nightmare) drifted motorless and mastless off Ipala Bay for three days before her captain, Fred, was rescued by pangueros
The Capt, reminded that our boat has a chain plate that needs replacing, has set about getting that done. A failed chain plate caused our first boat, Pollo del Mar, to dismast in a sudden gale in Richmond Bay near San Rafael in 1993. Been there, done that.
In other news, the writing workshop I organized with the help of my friend Julie from Vancouver, brought in seven enthusiastic participants (I expected maybe three or four). Two men, five women. One of the women already has a book in progress, while another one is still working out her concept. The rest of us are noodling around with ideas, but everyone perked up when Julie showed off her book, "A Seven Year Journey Around the World," and talked about the advantages of self-publishing and her program, InspireABook.
Because San Carlos is a way station, most of these people will vanish in the coming months, migrating back to the States. But I'm thinking about how I can make the group a hybrid, allowing each of us to continue sharing our work online, and meet f2f at my house when they're in town.
In fact, if it's online I could open it up to others as well. There are some logistics to work out, but I think it can be done. I'm not a writing teacher, only an editor, but then, I'm not charging for it, either. The payoff, for me, will be the extra nudge to get something written.