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In the month of November every year the ship that I work on comes to Alameda, California in the San Francisco Bay Area to get some work done and go through a Coast Guard inspection. The whole process is really quite chaotic, because this is one of few opportunities to do work on the ship that simply can’t be done any other time of the year. We bring the ship up out of the water on a synchro-lift and then it gets a paint job on the part of the ship that is normally under water. We also had to have a bit of steel replaced this year, as she is starting to show her 29 years a little bit. The good thing is that the Sea Lion is in far better shape than other ships her age, a tribute to the maintenance of the crews that have come and gone.

This year I was in charge of painting the entire machine space, which was quite a chore. There is very little open space in these two rooms, so it can be quite an ordeal to clean, grind, chip and paint some spaces under and around machinery. Good thing I had some awesome helpers of Matt and Kathy, and we got everything done ahead of schedule and I was even able to send the two off to help others complete their chores. Everything turned out very nice, and we got to prep and paint a lot of places that hadn’t been touched in quite a while.

After completing that project I was put in charge of completing the Coast Guard inspection by showing the inspector around the machine spaces and demonstrating all of the alarm systems we employ on the ship. That went well, and I found the inspector very knowledgeable on ships and a great guy to talk with.

Shortly after Thanks Giving Dinner we headed out of Alameda, under the Golden Gate Bridge and south to our final destination of Costa Rica. While we did catch a weather window, the waves heading down the coast were HUGE! Luckily we were riding the waves down and the 25 foot swells weren’t so bad. It sure was interesting being on the highest point of the ship and looking UP at the waves all around.

After we got passed San Diego, Ca the seas became smooth as a babies but and it was real good all the way down to Cabo San Lucas. We stopped at Sand Dollar Beach in Magdelena Bay for a swim. This was the start of what would be the best positioning trip I’ve had to date. Swimming became a daily routine, though that was the only time at the beach, and the further south we went the warmer it got. The water temps around Guatamala topped out at 86 degrees! That was amazing, I’ll tell ya.

We made our fuel stop in Cabo and got to run around town for a little bit. I feel so bad for the people down there. they are obviously feeling the pain from the swine flu scare and the down economy. Prices were marked down quite a bit and people were seen getting deals on top of that as well. I’ll help stimulate their economy as much as I can, but about all I can do is suggest here that you take a trip down to Baja and spend some time. It’s a beautiful place and the people are great.

After making our way south for a few days we entered the much talked about Gulfo de Tehauntepec, where rogue waves are said to be a common sight. We took the safe route and hugged the coast line a mile of shore and had a good ride the whole way. After that we were into Guatemala waters with an escort from the Mexican Navy and then the Mexican Air Force, which was pretty entertaining after not seeing much for several days. Not much came of it, though.

Unfortunately, heading south through the waters of Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica was worse than being on a road trip across the US on an interstate. Staying off the coast really didn’t allow for any type of view of what the terrain was like or anything. All that I know was the swimming was good, the water and air warm, and there is apparently no rules that fisherman have about setting out lines in any of those countries. We ran over lots of long fishing lines, unfortunately, we probably ruined a couple of fisher mans day. What can you do though….