Getting Hauled Out at Guaymas

March 16, 2023 

On March 16th, just as the sun rose over the hills, we motored into the industrial port of Guaymas. 

Twenty minutes before our scheduled haul-out time of 08:00 we arrived just out from the Marina Seca Guaymas, which was the “dry marina” where we were going to be hauled out and then would be leaving the boat for the summer. 

We dropped anchor and waited until we saw that the marina guys were ready for us to come in.  We had read that the channel in to the lift was quite narrow, and that there were shallows on either side.  The marina staff had also told us that the channel itself was shallow, but that it would be deep enough for our shallow keel at 08:00; our haul-out time had been booked around the tides and the depth in the channel.  

We lined ourselves up with the lift and motored slowly towards shore.  There were three things that looked like garbage floating on the surface of the water in front of us, and it was not until we got closer that we realized that they were actually supposed to be markers, but it was not clear what they were marking, the channel or the shallows.  As we crept inwards, the marina employees signalled to us to go more over to starboard, and we think that we figured out that we were supposed to keep two of the markers to port and one to starboard, although we are still not certain that that was correct.  As we continued to make our way inwards the numbers on our depth sounder continued to drop and we saw only six feet of water, this was definitely the shallowest water that we had ever been in with our sailboat, but we could not see the bottom.  The water in the commercial port of Guaymas was a very dark, muddy colour.  We made it in to the gantry dock and Jason put us perfectly between the two sets of pillars, and finally we were tied up and stopped only feet from the rocky shore in front of us. 

Although I had asked on the phone if we would need to remove our forestay for the lift, it was only now that we were told that in fact we would.  We saw that the travel lift was much smaller than the one that had lifted us out in North Vancouver, and although it would have no problem with our weight, it was too small to come over us without us removing our forestay so that the beam of the travel lift could drive further over top of us.   

We put Falcon in his carrier, and quickly grabbed out the tools that we needed and went to work removing our stay.  It went quite smoothly, and Falcon remained patient.   Soon they had the straps positioned underneath our keel and while we remained onboard, they lifted us up and out of the water. 

Soon we were settled in a spot in a dry, dusty yard, and one of the employees got ready to give our bottom a pressure wash, although it was already fairly clean thanks to Jason having dove and scrubbed it just about every month of our time in the south. 

The marina workers were very friendly and incredibly happy to see Falcon.