Warning: many f-bombs in this post.
Late November, 2015. We had driven from New Mexico to Mazatlan per our usual strategy. We rolled into Mazatlan on the afternoon of November 26 and found the city was packed with people. It was difficult to get a decent hotel room at the prices we were willing to pay, but at least we were in the Golden Zone, near enough to Marina Mazatlan, with off-street parking – which with a fully-loaded pickup truck is always appreciated. Another bonus is that Restaurante Panchos was almost directly across the street from our hotel, so fine dining and beverage enhancement were well in hand.
Next morning we drove to Marina Mazatlan where our dear friends G & J aboard m/v Shamrock greeted us warmly.
And then things fell apart.
I was the first one of us to go belowdecks on The Fox.
I found that Tony's Boat Service, its owner Grant, and the people he had hired to keep the boat clean, had done the opposite. They had kept the companionway hatch open while hosing the cockpit, and so had flooded the nav station (which still had standing water in it that had destroyed the papers and rusted the small tools we'd kept there). These fking people had done this so often during the months they were responsible for The Fox, that our bilges were flooded and the items we had stored in them were destroyed; the cushions in the salon were water-stained and beginning to show signs of black mold; and the beautiful mahogany woodwork also showed signs of water damage in two places. I. was. livid.
Fking Grant appeared from out of nowhere, full of apologies but empty of ideas as to how to resolve the damage. He was pretty confident there would be no way for us (Americans) to, erm, induce him (an Aussie) to cover the damage he and his people (Mexican nationals) had done, but he (grrrr) generously told us he wouldn't charge us for the last month of his fking "services." As Ed Anger used to say, "I was pig-bitin' mad."
I took photos of all the damage, but none of them turned out very well. (See above. They do not show what I saw in real life. Took 4 days to clean & re-ScotchGard all the cushions, but they all turned out just fine and have stayed fine ever since. Lucky; but: GAH.) Plus, GB and I were able to clean up 90% of it in the first 2 weeks, and fix the last 10% of it later. So: no permanent damage, which is nice; but a whole lot of elbow grease, cleaning supplies, and permanent ill will on my part.
During the following days I learned that fking Grant and his fking "boat management service" had done similar damage to at least 5 other boats during the same period he was "taking care of" The Fox. Oh, the stories I heard. There was this one sailboat whose owners discovered their whole interior – wood AND fabric – was covered in black mold because fking Grant and his people had left portholes and hatches open for weeks on end during Mazatlan's steamy summer hurricane-season months. After they'd "washed" it.
Fking Grant and Tony's Boat Service soon disappeared – I'm guessing because other cruisers whose boats he had damaged were looking for Grant with torches and pitchforks. I have also heard that a new boat-watching service has established itself in Mazatlan with a new owner who is not Grant. Best of luck to them!
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