This is about Cascabel, a 65 foot MacGregor Ultra Light Displacement Boat, built in 1987. Cascabel means rattle snake in Spanish and I find that’s a good name. Originally her name was Barking Spider II. That name had to be changed as well as most of the rest. I bought the boat in 2007 in San Francisco. Months later, for the first time on the boat yard, I noticed that the keel was damaged and it was nowhere near to the typical MacGregor keels. The next thing I saw was water coming through the hull the day after the bottom had been cleaned. I was about to realize that I had bought a junk. However, I liked the boat and I put some fibre glass on the worst spots for the time being.

San Francisco was terrible. The city is nice but to be on the boat was hell. Though I am German, who should be used to the cold, it was a torture for me as I had to wear long underwear in July. For that reason I decided to take the boat to San Diego by the end of 2007. There I stayed six months. I had the rig overhauled and did some small work. But major repair would have been too expensive in California. In May 2008 I went to Ensenada, Mexico, where I stayed at the Cruise Port Marina. Everything was different here. People did fibre glass jobs in the marina and labour was far cheaper.

Since everybody spoke badly about Mexico I went there with mixed feelings. Word is that every Mexican is cheating. But to me fact is that real cheating takes place in California, especially by the cost of labour. 100 $ per hour in San Diego boat yards is a real joke. A few miles further south they charge you one tenth of that. Are the jobs of the same quality? In a few months I will know. So far my impression is good.

Due to the draught of 9 feet we had to take the boat out very early in the morning when the tide was high. But Ramón and his crew were flexible: We startet at 4 a.m. Motoring out of the Marina to Ramón’s boat, yard one and half miles away, was easy, however, I was happy to breathe again arriving there without any incident. At 6 o’clock the boat hang in the travel lift and we went together for Breakfast in a 24 hour restaurant in Ensenada. Returning at 7a.m., a hole for the keel was dug in order to give the boat more stability because the supports don’t have to be too long. Fortunately the yard has no pavement.

For the rest of the day, Ramón and two of the crew,  were busy putting the boat in a stable position while I, with the rest of the crew, made the boat emty putting all the stuff in a container which Ramón put at my disposal. When the boat was empty eventually, the container was full, and I could hardly believe what junk I was carrying aboard. That has to change once the boat goes out sailing again. Because on of my intentions is to make the boat lighter for better performance.

Mexico has been in the bad news for many years now.  On TV they are talking about drug cartells, killings, and kidnappings. For that reason safety was my major concern going back to Mexico. Fortunately we did not experience any problems. I was moving with my son Marlon freely at any time of the day. Ensenada never seemed dangerous to me. And I hope I won’t experience anything bad during my next visits. I agreed with Ramón that I would pay him in advance. Four labourers cost 2,200 Dollars per week or about 11 Dollars per hour. And I would come to Mexico once a month to see what progress they make. To make sure things are done in the meantime we also agreed that Ramón would send me pictures twice a week.

I call that stuff Devil’s Food. I had done a number of fibre glass jobs on Cascabel already and I made some experience on the boats I had before. Everytime I came to the conclusion that I’d better leave this work to others. Running around with a mask all day and suffering from an itching skin was not what I really wanted.