We're Leaving Santa Rosalia!!!

Okay, so we are about two to three weeks later than we said. But you try to get more than one thing done per day when it is hotter than the planet Mercury outside! But today we are ready. Our next stop is back to Isla San Marcos for one night and then north to Bahia San Francisquito, about 77 miles north of Santa Rosalia, early the next morning. In company with us are our friends on Pacific Voyager and Third Day. From B. San Francisquito, we will jump into the three islands off the coast which are Is. Salsipuedes, Is. Animas, and Is. San Lorenzo. Our boat is loaded with supplies so we won't need to hit a town for several weeks, which means no internet, no blog posts, no cell phone for the next few weeks. But when we return to internet access in Bahia de Los Angeles, we will have lots of pictures and lots of stories I am sure. So look for new blog posts in about three weeks!

Fair winds and following seas to us all,
Laura

Monsters of the Deep

Jack and I took our dinghy out the other night to try our luck catching Humboldt squid. Santa Rosalia is the Humboldt capital of the world. Every evening this time of year hundreds of pangas (small Mexican fishing boats, 17-20 foot, tiller steered) head out with each boat allowed 1000 kilos per night. Friends of ours on the boat Third Day said, "Hey let's buddy up and give it a try." We didn't get any six footers but the action was fast and furious. In the space of about an hour our two boats pulled in 15-20 squid and lost four times that. Most the squid were about two feet in length or so. I would guess eight to ten pounds. The other squid would attack the ones we hooked and the water would fill with squid. We saw some three to four footers shooting by as we pulled in ours. They would flash their colors as they shot by. These squid are cannibalistic opportunists. Much like some of the people I have worked with in my life. The experience was, well it was really creepy. But oh wow! was last night's calamari to die for.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!
We are trained professional midnight rubber dinghy squidders.

When you see Discovery Channel dealing with Humboldt's --- The TERROR of The DEEP -- This is where they are filming from. We kept the smallest one we caught as there is only two of us (remaining) to eat it.

Our friends on 3rd Day video-taped the evening and put together this You Tube clip. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7iXYzWhACc&feature=player_embedded

Patrick

Santa Rosalia

Our time in Santa Rosalia is winding down. We are planning to leave on Saturday. Looking back on all of the things we have accomplished since coming back from the States, I am amazed. We have completed the new solar panel addition. It was mostly Patrick's work, but I helped since I'm his "monkey" - I am lighter, more flexible and not afraid of heights so I climb all over the arch and help him tighten screws and such. I sewed up new cushions for the outside cockpit area which increased our comfort level greatly. One of the biggest beefs we have with our Lagoon is that there really isn't any comfortable seating area. Patrick bulit and installed shelves into a closet to turn it from clothing storage into a pantry. Major improvement since now all of my food is easily accessible, visible and secure. Before, if I wanted a can of beans I had to take apart the dinette seats and dig down into a deep locker. We added water aerators, a small change but with big results. Now we are using 1/12th the water we were when washing dishes, which means we don't need to make as much water. I have cut out the fabric for window shades but have to wait and see if my sewing machine will agree to work for me. Very frustrating, but if it's broken maybe we can use it as an anchor? But biggest of all, we have gone through every storage area, organized and repacked it all to make better use of our space. Phew! And I learned how to make tamales!

Above is a picture of the famous church in Santa Rosalia, the Iglesia Santa Barbara. It's a pre-fabricated building designed by Frenchman Alexandre Gustav Eiffel (of the Eiffel Tower fame). After it was displayed at the World Exposition in Paris in 1889, it was bought by the French mining company that was encamped here in Santa Rosalia and installed here for its workers. Santa Rosalia is such a different looking Baja town due to its French influence from the Victorian era. It's strange to see the old Victorian wooden (the wood was shipped down from the Pacific Northwest!) homes and buildings lining the streets of the old town, most still in use.

Our luck continues.....

It's mid August and still no hurricanes! Lucky for us and everyone else out here. The light hurricane season has allowed quite a few boats to take a more leisurely jaunt to the North Sea. There are still several boats in Santa Rosalia who have not ventured north yet, and listening to the Amigo Net, there are even a few boats further south still coming north. The weather forecaster on the Amigo Net mentions every day how strange the season is. We are not complaining. We are hoping to be done with the last of our chores and on our way north within three to four days. We will be working very hard to keep us on that schedule. It is ten degrees hotter inside the Santa Rosalia harbor that it is just ten miles away on anchor. When the difference is between 90 and 100 degrees, that is a lot of motivation.
Laura

Hot! Hot! Hot!

103 degrees in the shade (if you can find any). Have no idea what the humidity is but it feels like a sauna (100%?) and still the relentless sunshine. But boy! are we happy to be back! The good news is that our skin looks fabulous - all pores are open and pouring. We are all losing the weight we gained when we were home and gorged on fast food and homemade cookies. It's just too hot to eat much. Our work list is shortening, but that's mostly because we just decided not to do some projects we had planned before we leave the marina. That's one way to get things done. So all and all - things are great. The one project we are going to finish before untying from the dock in Santa Rosalia is adding the extra solar panel so it can power our new freezer. The freezer is like magic! Ice Cubes! Frozen yogurt smoothies! Frozen blueberries and strawberries from home! It keeps a person civilized. (And no, we don't have air-conditioning on the boat.)

Laura

On the Road Again

So, it has been one long, long time, but finally we are getting back to our life on our boat. It was great seeing everyone, but we are all so happy to be getting back! We ended up spending the entire month of July back in Western Washington, instead of the two to three weeks we were planning on. It gave us lots of time to see friends, spend waaaay too much money, and spend time with family. I even took in a class reunion! That was a trip.

Our trip down is going a little slower than the one up. Last night we stopped to see Ken and Kim from Summerwings in their new home in California. It was so great to see them again. Their new home is lovely. Their boat is still available for sale in La Paz and can be viewed at http://home.mindspring.com/~kkcordes/id22.html. Currently we are about 100 miles north of Los Angeles and have plans to see Bill and Sue from Sunbaby tomorrow. They are enjoying their new granddaughter.


We plan to be back in Santa Rosalia in about three days. And then the work begins! Back up the mast to replace the parts we took down, new solar panel to be installed, boat cushions to be sewed. We hope to be out of there as fast as possible, but it will probably take four or more days.


Laura