Approaching Santa Rosalia on Friday, September 30. It was much greener than when were here in mid-August!

We arrived at the marina is Santa Rosalia at 0845 local time. Just like last time, several men came to help us get into our slip safely. The docked us next to a Nordhavn 50.

We don’t think we’d mentioned this, but last time we were here, there were several coast guard search and rescue vessels in the marina. This time, there was another military ship, as well.

The marina staff us know that the water to the docks was only on daily from 10:00 to noon. Last time we were here, we’d mentioned that the dock water wasn’t up to our standards, so we’d never put it in the tanks. Since the water in Santa Rosalia’s harbor didn’t look particularly clean, we hadn’t made water while we were there. Instead, we bought water in 5-gallon containers and dumped the containers into our water tanks. To save water, we ran the dock hose through the kitchen window and used the hose to do dishes. 

We were disheartened about the dock water. This meant we had to wait until 10:00 am, after it was already hot out, to do certain chores, such as washing the boat. We like to do those kinds of chores first thing in the morning. It also meant we could only do dishes from 10:00 – noon, which killed any desire Christi had to cook. 

The water delivery guy happened to be in the marina, so we ordered some. Eric was shocked to find out that the price was literally five times higher than last time. Eric wasn’t sure if it was general price gauging due to the hurricane or if it was the “Nordhavn discount” (which means we’re charged more than the going rate). Eric went to the marina office to ask about it, and they confirmed that was not the correct price. We didn’t want to buy any bottles until we got it figured out.

Another disappointment was that the fuel dock was out of fuel, and the marina had no idea when more would arrive. 

When the water went on at 10:00 am, Christi did the dishes, then Eric quickly rinsed off the boat. Eric and Christi were both exhausted from the night run and each took a nap.

In the afternoon, we decided to lunch at Terco’s. We picked that restaurant because the food was good, it was a relatively short walk, and it was air conditioned (which we think are the same reasons that Avalon had picked it last time). 

We turned north on highway 1 and walked a few thousand yards to the cross-streets that led west into downtown. Where the highway and cross streets met was a roundabout that marked the entrance to the historic downtown area. Last time we were here, the roundabout was full of decorations, including little wooden houses and a large sign that said “Santa Rosalia”. We were saddened to see that most of the decorations were gone. All that was left was the train engine. 

The roads were muddy, and there were many piles of mud pushed into piles away from the traffic. We’d heard that during Hurricane Kay, the streets of Rosalia had been completely flooded with muddy water. Clearly, this entire area had been inundated with mud and someone had cleared enough mud to re-open the roads to vehicle traffic. 

As we walked, a couple of military trucks full of soldiers passed us. We passed a car that had been decimated. 

We noticed that the park adjacent to the library, which was raised about 2 – 3 feet above street level, also had a thick layer of mud.  

In good news, the buildings we passed all looked to be intact. We were pleased to see that Terco’s was open. This time we sat in the back corner, near a display of artifacts from Santa Rosalia’s mining era. We were surprised to see that there used to be a couple of sky trams to the top of the mountain.

Christi tried something new, Bistec Ranchero, which was basically a beef stew with chunks of beef in a tomato base with onions and mild chilis. 

After lunch, we went to the historic bakery and stocked up on pastries. We were all feeling very off-kilter from the night run and went to bed early. Here is a sunset photo.