Just a Minute

Something Wrong in Barra

2012-01-27T06:40:00.001-08:00

A confluence of dead fish caught in an eddy and some of the birds circling overhead for the ones just dying.

Two years ago when we first visited Barra de Navidad, there were many, many fishermen plying the waters of the Lagoon. Some had nets, others were diving for clams and oysters. Just entering the long, dredged canal that leads to the lagoon, you were forced to drive around fishermen, some in the traditional boats that looked like dugout canoes, and others in their modern pangas. Not so, this year.
Every day now, thousands of fish float dead on the surface. They are mostly a six to eight inch, herring-type fish, but there are other varieties too. The winds push them around the lagoon and the tide sucks them out into the bay. They look freshly dead, all of them have bright red marks by their gills, most haven't even begun to swell with gases. Every day, at various time of the day, the water is disturbed by scores of fish swimming erratically in their death throws. Hundreds of pelicans, seagulls, frigates and terns swarm in the skies feasting on the easily caught dying fish. As you can imagine, there are few fishermen to be found in the water.
We've heard that this is an outcome of the Jova hurricane that pummelled the Barra area this last hurricane season. We were told that the lagoon became contaminated by sewage and has not recovered. Whatever, the reason, the sight is disturbing and our hearts go out to the fishermen that once worked this water.

Life in Barra

2012-01-24T05:20:00.001-08:00

A Barra de Navidad Water Taxi in Service

The Grand Bay Hotel is an enormous, luxurious resort overlooking the Barra Lagoon, with views out to the ocean.

Some of the water taxis lined up at their docks, awaiting customers. Several different taxi companies ply the lagoon, taking customers between Collimilla and Barra, the two towns on the huge Barra Lagoon

One of the many lagoon-side restaurants that line the shore.

Barra is a popular tourist town for Mexicans and foreigners alike, with lots of shops, restaurants, hotels and charming streets to meander.

Every day, Jack writes a short essay about some topic or other. Here's his view of Barra de Navidad.

"Barra de Navidad is the closest thing to assisted-living on a
boat. If you wanted to, you would never have to leave your boat.
People in pangas will bring everything out to you, for a price. You can
get ice, drinks, food, trash pick-up, drinking water, bakery goods,
propane, fuel, and laundry services delivered right to your
boat. There is even a water taxi service so you don't have to launch
your dinghy. If you want to be lazy, this is the place to be."

It's a true accounting, and I have to say, it's very nice. Yesterday, we had our empty propane tank hauled away, our dirty laundry picked up, and a fresh delivery of baguettes from the French Baker, all before 9:30 AM (we've never gotten so much accomplished so early in the morning!). Then later, Jack and I went in and had a great day playing at the Sands Hotel pool with friends and Patrick and Rudy took a water taxi into the beach for a romp in the ocean surf.

Barra is the only place I've been where the locals are all set to provide boat-side services to the cruisers. Most towns do not offer these conveniences. Since Barra and Collimilla already had an extensive water taxi service system in place for their own needs, it's easy to see how these entrepenuers branched out to make even more money off the cruisers. Adding to the amenities, is the fact that the anchorage is free and flat calm, so it's easy see why so many cruisers enjoy a long stay in Barra.

The Mexican Riviera

2012-01-21T07:12:00.000-08:00

The lagoon waterfront in Barra de Navidad

I love this butcher shop's logo.

At the beach in Cuastecomate, JaM is anchored in the background.

Below, A street in Cuastecomate

Coming straight from La Paz where it's cold (50's at sunrise), windy and semi-desert, and moving 400+ miles south to Chamela sure highlights the difference between the Baja and the mainland. Here on the mainland, it's warm (80+ at sunrise), with very gentle breezes, and lush jungle. It's simply wonderful. The other big difference is the proliferation of people, resorts, hotels, and restaurants that line all the anchorages on the mainland.

Passage Lessons

2012-01-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

We had our second full night's sleep last night, and now we are recovered from our passage between La Paz and Chamela. The passage was just shy of four full days/nights and took us 92 hours, and covered about 450 nm miles.. We only used the engines on the last 40 miles when the wind was on our nose. This was the longest passage we have completed since arriving in Mexico and we learned some good lessons, had some scary moments, and lots of good sailing.

We left on a Norther, hoping for a good push to get us going. Unfortunately, the weather was a little stronger than the weatherman anticipated and the 6-8 foot swells at the top of the Cerralvo channel promised to be very nasty at the bottom of the channel where they funnel into a bottleneck, so we were obliged to sail around Cerralvo Island to avoid the channel. While that kept us out of a nasty situation, it meant a 20 mile detour to the East with the wind/seas on our beam, before we could turn the boat to the south and have the wind/seas on our stern. As I've mentioned before, it is no fun to have short period waves hitting a catamaran on the beam, especially when they are six foot high, short period waves in 20-25 knots of wind. It took seven hours from leaving our anchorage before we could start heading south on the outside of Cerralvo Island - it was a very long, unfortunate, uncomfortable start to our journey. Lesson learned on that was, "If you are leaving on a wind storm, position yourself in an anchorage where all you have to do is sail out of it and be immediately on your way."

Things got better quickly once we turned south, which was good since both Jack and I were getting very sick. The seas were pretty worked up, but mostly in one direction and as we moved further south and away from land, the waves became further spaced apart, which helped immensely. We were sailing wing on wing, using our spinnaker pole to hold the jib out to the side and were making about 8 - 9 knots. The rest of that day went well and we flew along.

Then, disaster. It was my watch and I was taking the time to clean the cabin windows before night set in. Since I was working, I wasn't paying as much attention and failed to see the small floating cube of styrofoam that bouyed a long-line, before it was too late. We didn't have time to turn and were hooked by a shark fisherman's long-line gear with its heavy poly-propalene line, thick steel leaders, and huge hooks. Being very concerned for our sail drives with the heavy line pulling on them and our boat sailing so fast, I immediately turned up in to the wind to stop our boat. Unfortunately, the wind was about 20 knots and the spinnaker pole was still attached to the jib. When we turned up into the wind, the jib was back-winded against the bamboo spinnaker pole and SNAP went the pole. It exploded spectacularly into pieces. If there was a choice to make between saving the pole or the sail drive, the sail drive would always win, but we were heartsick anyway. We love that spinnaker pole and used it often for wing on wing sailing - our favorite, most comfortable, and fastest way to sail. Lesson learned - "The person on-watch, needs to BE ON-WATCH, not distracted by other things." I thought I knew that, but I guess I didn't.

Since we were under sail, the engines were not going, but the lines were wrapped up around the sail drive and we couldn't get it loose. Night was falling and the seas and winds were still high, so it wasn't safe for Patrick to go swimming right then. We simply cut ourselves free from the styrofoam and tied the dangling lines up to our stanchion, to deal with later. We turned back on course and cleaned up the pieces of the spinnaker pole. We couldn't hold a wing on wing course anymore without the pole, so our speed dropped down to 5 and 6 knots. Bummer.

The next day, the wind was lessening to 15 knots, and the seas were down to 4-5 feet, but Patrick still wasn't feeling comfortable about jumping in to untangle the sail drive - until he noticed a funny whine that was coming from that area of the boat. We turned up-wind again, dropped the main, backwinded a small section of the jib, turned the rudders toward the wind, and hove-to. Heaving-to makes the wind push you one way, and the rudder, the other. This effectively holds your boat slightly nose into the waves, but moving only at .5 to 1 knot. Patrick suited up, tied a big rope around his waist and jumped in. He quickly unwrapped the pieces of poly-propalene and ascertained that both sail drives appeared undamaged. Once back on board, we started up the engines to test them and found them undamaged. We quickly got the sails back up, turned off the engines, and started on our way again.

The wind kept lessening over the rest of that day and night until finally we were able to use our spinnaker on Day 3. It was a joy to travel along on the flattening seas, pulling along at a good clip in the gentle breeze. For safety, we pulled the spinnaker in at night and continued on with the regular sails. Our power drain at night was remarkable due to the demands of the auto-pilot, GPS, and the navigation lights, along with the regular drains of fridge, lights, etc. Adding to the fact that the skies were overcast, so our solar power was not very effective. At night, with the auto and nav lights on, we were draining over 30 amps per hour. This was the first time we had seen the effects of a long sailing, passage. Lesson learned, "If we were going on a big passage like a puddle jump, we would need a wind generator or our power usage would have to seriously change." Another thing we learned was that our helm seat is akin to a torture device over a longer passage. Good thing we have no plans to do a puddle-jump.

Day 4 was very similar to the previous day. The wind kept lessening a bit, down to about 8 knots. We threw up the spinnaker again. Unfortunately, I did not get the spinnaker sock finished before we left and so we still needed to use the main as a wind blanket. However, the main had been flogging around horribly in the swell and light wind. The wind was forecasted to continue lessening, so we decided to leave the main down. Well, guess what happened? The wind picked up right before sunset, right before we were going to drop the spinnaker anyway. We all talked our parts through and went up to pull it down, with the winds at about 15 knots. Patrick threw off the one bottom line on the spinnaker and all hell broke loose. 46 feet by 25 feet of fabric started whipping about in the wind. It was exciting. Working all together, we had trouble getting that wild thing safely on the nets. But we did, no injuries outside of a friction burn on my hand, and a few pulled back muscles. Lesson learned - "Don't screw around with spinnakers - either use a sock or use the main - but you have to have some way to control it."

That craziness happened at sunset and we were still 70 miles out of Barra de Navidad, our destination. I was feeling battered, bruised, and tired from lack of sleep. So when the wind switched around from a light NW (oh, did I mention that right after we dropped the spinnaker the wind died right off?) to a light breeze from the SE, I was done. Suddenly we were nose into the wind, on a long stretch of highly trafficked water, at night. It was going to be a long night Patrick took pity on me and suggested we pull into Chamela which was just 30 more miles on. Going into an anchorage at night is asking for trouble, but I jumped at the suggestion. We had a few things in our favor. We had been there before, we had the waypoints from our earlier trip, Chamela is a large bay with a mile wide entrance, no rock obstacles and a sand bottom, there was a full moon, and we had an excellent guide book with more waypoints. Using our GPS and radar as guides we pulled safely into the anchorage and dropped our hook exactly 92 hours from our start time.

One month gone, and what do we have to show for it?

2012-01-07T10:16:00.000-08:00

God bless my old Pfaff sewing machine. I use it so much more than I ever thought I would

Well, actually, quite a bit! It's been almost an exact month since we pulled into the La Paz Harbor, and boy did we get a lot done.
First, we'll set aside all of the socializing we have accomplished with our good friends here in La Paz, and go straight to the work we've gotten done.

Patrick saved a man's home and dog from certain peril. Then he polished our fuel (a long, drawn out process), cleaned out the gunk in the fuel tanks, and replaced the deisel and oil filters in the engines. Then he had the water pump rebuilt for the refrigerator (both the spare and the one being used) and replaced it to get the refrigerator operational again. Also Patrick and Jack have been working on checking over our inventory of spare parts and replacing items that are needed since La Paz has so many boating stores here. Patrick and Jack have re-provisioned the fuel and food so that we are ready for any diversion our next jump hands us.

Meanwhile I have been working on all the little projects that fill up a boatwife's day - cleaning, cooking, storing provisions, polishing, scrubbing, washing dishes, laundry, changing sheets, cleaning heads, and homeschooling. My special project has been tackling the construction of a spinnaker sock. One week ago, I had no thought in my head of undertaking a project like that. Then in the space of one day, the idea had taken hold and since then, hours and hours of my time have been consumed by it.

It all started when someone mentioned they had a ripped spinnaker and they were going to use the ruined sail to make a spinnaker sock for their other spinnaker. I had never thought of making a spinnaker sock, I just knew they were downright expensive to buy ($20 per foot!). Well, he said he had enough matrial for me to make one and that another boat had the instructions. And that was that, my project began.

Let me all assure you that sometimes you can be too cheap for your own good. If I had simply purchased the ripstop nylon instead of cutting apart an existing spinnaker, I would have been finished days ago. Unfortunately,a sail has an inherent curve in it and when you cut it apart, it still has a curve in it - kind of like when you peel an apple in one long slice. The peel curls like a corkscrew, just like my fabric does. I've been fighting it for days now, and I think I finally have it licked, but the sock isn't done yet so I will have to let you know the outcome. It will be really great to have a spinaker sock since our next passage looks like it will have lots of light wind. We hope to be leaving La Paz this afternoon to go stage up in the islands outside of La Paz. Then on Sunday, we will start our passage to Barra de Navidad, about 400 or more miles away.

A Very Good Christmas

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

All pictures are courtesy of Nancy on Eyoni, our favorite photographer

At the beach with my hero

Ethan from Eyoni exhibiting a perfect Bocce Ball tossing form, while Rich from 3rd Day watches

Lori from 3rd Day and me, sharing a shot of Christmas Cheer

Running with Rudy across the sand flats

Picnic at the wreck. Somebody's dream died here years ago when they dragged, but the remains make a convenient meeting spot and picnic table.

********

It's hard to get the Christmas spirit when you live on a boat in the sub-tropics. All of the cues I used to have that would put me in the Christmas mood are gone. There's no school Christmas pageant, no school Christmas break, no weeks of shopping for the perfect present for loads of people, no watching endless commercial reminders on the TV in case you had missed the fact it was Christmas, no going to the tree farm to chop down a Christmas tree, no frantic preparations for hosting a dinner for 30 of your closest relatives and friends (okay that one I don't really miss). Anyway, you get the point.

However, you can't beat waking up on your boat, opening a couple nice little presents found under your 1 foot high plastic tree, and then meeting up with good friends on a nearby beach for a picnic and a Bocce Ball game, with kids running around on the sand flats, and Rudy racing around everyone, fishing, playing fetch, and trying to steal the Bocce balls.

After the picnic, we headed over to 3rd Day for a potluck dinner and movie.

It was a perfect day.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

2011-12-26T07:03:00.000-08:00

We’ve hung around La Paz longer than anticipated, first because there was no wind and then because there was too much wind. Unfortunately, any time you get high winds and lots of boats together, there is usually drama. This time around, Just a Minute’s captain took a starring role.
Our story starts a few days ago when a Norther blew into town. As Norther’s go, it was a pretty good one with a Gale Warning posted for the entire Sea of Cortez, and winds forecasted in the 30’s to 40’s.. Here in the La Paz harbor, we have some wave protection from a low lying spit of land, but no wind abatement. The first day, Thursday, we saw winds in the teens. Around 2 a.m. Friday morning, the wind started mounting and as dawn broke, the winds kept growing.
As I came up the stairs at dawn on Friday, I noticed a new boat anchored close to us with a dog running around on deck. As my sleep-numbed brain started to function I realized that the boat wasn’t anchored, it was dragging - right over the sand bar and moving past us. I knew we weren’t in danger, but there were several other boats in the downwind direction that it was moving toward. I put a hale out on the radio, to the fleet, warning of the danger. Then I woke up Patrick. I was very worried about this boat since the dog on its deck was obviously scared and there was no sign of the crew.
The seas were up about two feet and the winds were blowing about 20-25 knots so lowering the dinghy was a chore, but Patrick was soon on his way. He went to a nearby boat and asked that captain to jump in and help him. Christian, his fellow volunteer, was an excellent person to have along. He already had a spare anchor and rode lined up ready to use on the dragging boat. Together, they headed off to the dragger, a large ketch named Callisto.
Callisto was an obvious live-aboard with sun tarps up, lots of junk on deck, and the dog running around. At first Patrick and Christian just tried banging on the boat, trying to wake up the crew they assumed was on board. No one answered and the dog seemed friendly, so they tied up alongside and climbed on board. The boat was moving quickly now that it had passed over the sandbar. They found out that the dog was the only one on board. The boat had broken loose from its mooring ball, and so its anchor was on deck and ready to deploy. Christian threw the anchor over and started paying out chain.
Like most permanent live-aboard boats, this one had lots of junk scattered on deck. Patrick came up to the bow to help and when a wooden pole fell over and landed on the anchor chain, Patrick bent over to pick it up. As he leaned forward, Patrick put his head right into the spinning blades of a wind generator that was screaming along in the wind. The boat-owner had mounted the blades right over the anchor windlass at about 5 feet. It was sideways to Patrick and with the speed of the blades, he never even saw it.
All Patrick could do was sit down and try to cover the wound that was instantly pouring out blood. You know how head wounds are - it looked like a scene from a slasher movie. Of course it was an old wind generator with metal blades, so thankfully Patrick was not scarred for life, and did not lose an eye. It’s a miracle that he only has one, deep, 1” long gash, right at his hair line.
The anchor quickly grabbed and the boat (and dog) was saved just a few hundred yards from shore. With that rescue complete, it was time to rescue the rescuer. Thankfully we have lots of good friends in La Paz. Rich on 3rd Day reached Callisto just after Patrick hit his head. Once Callisto was secured, Rich took Patrick over to Hotel California. Rick on Hotel has a car and he drove Patrick off to the hospital for stitches and wound cleaning. And so another day comes to end with another good lesson learned - not every boat owner has a boat that’s safe to board. Who would put spinning metal blades 5 feet above an area that you have to access?????

Care to Dance?

2011-12-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

Pushed up over our anchor during the La Paz Waltz

The La Paz Waltz is the one thing that spoils the joy of anchoring out in this great city. La Paz is situated at the mouth of an enormous estuary. As the tide comes in and out of the narrow channel where everyone anchors, it creates a terrific current. If the tidal swings aren’t big, or if the wind isn‘t blowing, the effect is not that bothersome. However, when the tidal swings are greatest the current is amazingly powerful and if the wind is blowing, then The Waltz begins.
The current over the different keels of the boats, combined with the push of the wind above (which is usually in the opposite direction of the tide) makes the boats twist and turn over their anchors, sawing back and forth. All the boats move at their own speeds and soon, boats will be moving towards each other, and then swinging away. Sometimes the boats move around like egg beaters. At one moment two boats will be close enough to toss water balloons at each other, and then the next moment will see the boats moving in opposite directions, away from each other. When The Waltz is on, the 70+ boats at anchor will be pointing in about 50 different directions.
Unfortunately for us, there’s a high wind storm right now that is coinciding with some very big tidal movements. Despite wind speeds up to 30 knots in this storm, the boats are being held perpendicular to the winds by the flow of the water on their keels. At the same time, the wind is pushing the boats up over their anchors, and so the boats move awkwardly in the waves and wind.
The tough part of The Waltz is that all the boats respond differently to the conditions based on how deep their keels are, what type of chain or rode they use, and how much windage they have. Incredibly, this afternoon, I watched a boat named Arabella drag UP wind because it has a 9 foot keel and a low-profile, flush deck. Our boat has lots of windage and shallow keels so JaM responds to the wind more than the water - which is exactly opposite of the mono-hulls around us. It can make for an unkind surprise. Suddenly, two boats that would be anchored safely apart from each other in a normal anchorage, will be uncomfortably close during the La Paz Waltz. To make sure our boat is safe in the conditions, someone (basically me) has been on board constantly since the winds started.
So, to while away the time on anchor watch, I’ve been working on new lyrics more appropriate for this Christmas in La Paz, set to the Christmas tune of “Let is Snow“.

“Oh, the weather outside is frightening,
But the anchor chain is tightening,
And there’s really no place to go,
So let it blow, let it blow, let it blow.”

Our Plans for the Future

2011-12-15T15:17:00.000-08:00

* Move to an oil boomtown in North Dakota and jump in on the excitement.
* Open a restaurant.
* Call up the old contacts and try to jump back into the corporate world we left in the Pacific NW.
* Run a sailing charter business in Alaska.
* Contact a corporate head hunter and put the search out for Anything in Anywhere, USA.
* Put the boat for sale, buy a cheap camper van and tour America while we wait for a buyer
* Sell JaM, buy a much cheaper boat suitable for the Inland Passage, move to Alaska, live on the new boat and get some funky low-wage jobs that allow lots of time for cruising the Inland Passage.
* Take JaM to Panama and keep cruising until the world ends or the economy improves, whichever comes first.

We've discussed all these possibilities and more on JaM in the last six months. None of them is quite the right fit. We've already stayed on our boat one year longer than originally planned. Though our lifestyle is getting cheaper and cheaper in Mexico as we learn more and more tricks, we are still spending money. We are not retired and we know we will have to return to work someday, but when? One thing for sure is that life in Mexico is much, much cheaper than life in America. Our dwindling dinero can either last us for months in America, or years in Central America.

We just have these circular conversations, trying to divine what the best move is for our family. The truth of the matter is - it was a lot easier to make the decision to come out here. Even though it was so scary to pull the plug on everything we knew and move onto a boat, the reverse decision of how to jump back into American life is even scarier. It’s like jumping off and on a fast-moving merry-go-round. Every kid on the playground can tell you that jumping off is easier than getting back on. If you don’t time the re-entry just right you are going to get trampled. The decision to move back is almost impossible to know what to do, especially since the economy still sucks. There are two big unknowns we face because of the economy - “Can we find a buyer for our boat?” and “Can we find viable employment?” Anyone with a crystal ball is very welcome to jump in with the answers for us. In the meantime, we’re just enjoying life, and having lots of conversations.

Having 2 Engines Means Twice the Repairs

2011-12-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

Patrick in the Penalty Box

Our engines have been working great all summer. However, cruising on a boat means that all your systems are being used constantly and things wear out, break down or just need a little tweaking. Approaching Escondido two days ago, our starboard engine decided to sputter and die. Turned out to be bad gas. It happens. Despite the fact that Patrick always filters the fuel that is poured into the engines, stuff gets through and can build up. That's life in the north Sea of Cortez.

Patrick worked that day cleaning out the fuel system and replacing the filters, and voila! it's working again. Who knew I had married such a great deisel mechanic? Thank God, because if you are going to be cruising, you are going to be finding yourself broken down in crazy places with no mechanic around.

Flying the Spinnaker

2011-12-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

We‘re very happy with ourselves on Just a Minute these days, and it‘s all because we learned a new trick - how to sail with a spinnaker.
We bought our boat with only two sails on it, the main and the jib, and we were very contented in the beginning, just learning how to work those to the best advantage. After time, we wanted a spinnaker and even researched buying one, but the cost didn’t seem to warrant the need.
Then we went home last July and our good friend (and our personal Patron Saint of Sailing) Mark Schrader gave us two spinnakers to use as we would. His generosity was overwhelming and very appreciated. Who could argue with that price? Mark has lots of bits and pieces of sailing equipment left over from his many sailing adventures (solo circumnavigating twice, and the expedition/circumnavigation of the North and South Americas). It is good quality stuff. He gave us two, since he is not familiar with catamarans and we weren’t sure of the size we needed.
Spinnakers are huge sails and are intended to make the most of light winds coming from behind you. They are flown from the front of the boat. They do not have one edge on a fixed attachment, like a jib or a mainsail does. They have a halyard at the top to raise and lower it, and a line off each bottom corner. They fly in front of the boat like a big kite pulling you along. The stronger the wind, the harder they are to control. They can get you into trouble if the wind becomes to strong, and the general rule is that if there is enough wind to sail your boat with your regular sails, then don‘t raise a spinnaker.
Back on the boat with our spinnakers, we consulted several sailor friends and got lots of advice but the best advice came from Ethan on Eyoni. He graciously came over one day at Isla Angel de la Guarda and looked over the gear. Ethan walked us through the whole process of how to raise and lower it safely. He told us a couple tricks like using the main sail as a wind block. He also had us put rubber bands every five feet up the length of the spinnaker so the first time we raised it, it didn’t immediately fill with wind too quickly and fall into the water before we had it raised. That trick worked great, so we had the whole sail raised to the top before the winds started breaking the rubber bands apart and expanding the sail.
Finally the right conditions presented themselves on our sail from Conception Bay down to San Juanico. We had a light wind on our stern of about 8 knots and it was not forecasted to strengthen until hours later that afternoon. We followed Ethan’s instructions, and everything went according to plan. It’s so fun to learn a new trick. The spinnaker is awesomely huge and colorful. We were very tickled with the whole experience. When the wind started picking up in the afternoon, we used the mainsail to blanket the wind to the spinnaker, and it quickly was dropped and secured.

A Brief Recap of the Last Few Weeks

2011-12-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

Hiking the hills of San Juanico

Our stay in Conception Bay was much longer than anticipated for two reasons. First the winds this winter in the Baja have been coming fast and furious, with lots of strong blows and just a few days off in between. Santispac Beach in Conception Bay offers fantastic protection for north winds and so we were very comfortable during many days of high winds. The other pull of Santispac is Lupe’s Paradise Resort Bar and Restaurant (formerly known as Ana‘s). We’ve been stopping in at that restaurant lots of times over the last three years and have always had great meals and lots of fun. The owners, Russ and Lupe, serve up good food and it’s a popular hangout for local ex-pats and vacationers. On Saturday nights, Russ throws a Dinner and a Dance that is a lot of fun. We went to two of those and felt like kids again, dancing up a storm. At 44, I was one of the youngest women in the bar and so I had lots of willing dance partners and Patrick didn’t have to dance as much. A win-win for both of us. There are so many retirees in the Conception Bay area, that the place was packed with them. I highly recommend Russ’s Saturday night dinner if you are down that way!
Finally another weather break came and we traveled down to San Juanico to rendevous with Hotspur. We hadn’t seen those good folks for about a year, so we were all looking forward to catching up. Tim is the first teenager that Jack has even seen in the last eight months, so he was very happy to meet up with them. We only had one day together before Hotspur left the anchorage headed north, but we fit in two games of Scrabble (she beat me horribly the first and I redeemed myself the second), hours of skurfing, and a potluck dinner with Hotspur and Lady Bug that night, which lasted until Cruiser’s Midnight (9 pm) when I kicked everyone off the boat. I would have gladly let the evening go on longer, but I had to get up in the morning and run the Amigo Radio Net at 7 a.m. and I knew I wouldn’t be able to if everyone stayed longer!

After two nights at San Juanico, we moved on down to the Puerto Escondido area, which is where we are now. We had wanted to spend just one day here, but our engine began acting up as we approached the harbor and now we will be here for a couple days while Patrick affects a repair.

Tomorrow happens to be the beginning of another strong blow. This coming Norther is expected to last four days with winds up to the high 30’s, so it looks like we will be watching a lot of movies, playing marathon games of Parcheesi, baking lots of goodies to heat the boat, and maybe do some hiking in the next few days. It’s getting really chilly down here with morning temps in the low to mid 60’s, and we’ve broken out our long pants, jackets and furry slippers. There have been several rain storms this winter (!) and we have seen more rain in the last month than all three years combined. Not having heat on the boat means we do lots of baking just to stay warm.
There are just a few anchorages we want to visit on our way south to La Paz, which means we should be entering that good city around the 10th of December, which will be the next time we get internet. 22 more days to Christmas!

Conception Bay

2011-11-19T11:32:00.000-08:00

Coyote Island in Conception Bay. It's just a tiny little island with room for one (maybe two boats) to anchor. And it's all yours for the taking.

We picked up our car we had left in Santa Rosalia, so we have been able to do some sightseeing around the Bay. We drove down to the end of the bay for a bit of beach-combing on this miles long, sandy shore. Since it's the lee shore for the prevalent winter winds, there were lots of good finds.

Just a few of the islands that dot Conception Bay

*****

We love this place, and we have ever since we honeymooned here almost 18 years ago. Back then we were traveling down the Baja, camping out of our car, so our lot in life has definitely improved. Any way you see it though, Conception Bay is a wonderful place. There are white sand beaches, and turquoise waters. Many homes dot the coast line and there are lots of campgrounds for RV's and tents along the shores. The bay is 22 miles long and five miles across. The land surrounding it is mostly high mountains. Most of the water is less than 100 feet deep, and large areas are much less, so between the shallow water and the sheltering mountains, it stays warmer than the rest of the Sea. It can be unbearably hot in the summer, but in the fall, winter and spring it is lovely.

Sometimes the Weatherman gets it Wrong

2011-11-19T11:23:00.000-08:00

Moonrise at Bahia Catalina near Guaymas

*****

We hung around in Guaymas a couple extra days waiting for a strong northerly to blow through the area. We did not feel like crossing the Sea when it was too lumpy or breezy since our destination meant that we would be abeam of the wind and the swell - which makes for an uncomfortable experience. Finally the weatherman called for decreasing winds and after waiting one extra day to let the swell lay down, we decided to jump off for the Baja side.
The crossing from Guaymas to Conception Bay is about 78 miles, so it wasn’t going to be an overnighter if we got an early start. We usually figure we will travel at 5 knots of speed - that’s usually a little on the slow side for us, but it just gives you something to be happy about when you best it. So at 5 knots, we would need 16 hours to complete the crossing. With that in mind we left at 4 am. It would mean that we might be anchoring in the dark, something we have done maybe three other times in the three years down here. It’s not a smart thing to do, but we had been to the anchorage before, it has a big open bay with sand bottom, and we had waypoints for it on a night with a full moon. We figured we would be okay.
We got off fine, but from the get-go there was more wind than we figured on, or that was called for by both the weathermen we listen to. We decided to keep going, figuring that it would lay down as the day progressed. Wrong. By mid-afternoon we had about 25 knots of wind on the beam (the side of the boat) with 4 to 6 foot swell coming in fast and steep. For a catamaran, this is as lumpy and uncomfortable as it gets. It was very lumpy. Books and things were leaping off shelves and loud crashes and bangs reverberated through the boat as the waves hit us. We put two reefs in the main sail (which reduces it’s surface to less than half) and we were STILL making 8 knots of speed. We were making good time, but it was a little scary. At one point, one of our bows was lifted up on a wave, the other was deep in a trough and then the front half of the upside pontoon hung out over the air before it caught up to the next wave. You could tell that we were suspended in the air for those few seconds. It was a very unsettling feeling, and one I would not like to experience ever again in our catamaran. We changed our course angle against the wind a little so that we were slightly more into the wind to stop that from happening again.
With the extra speed, we reached the Baja side before the sun set, and we set our anchor down on Santa Domingo which is on the lip of Conception Bay.

On the move again

2011-11-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Guaymas. However, the time comes to leave because we simply can't fit any more food in our boat. Guaymas is located in a farming area and so we have loaded up on lots of cheap fruits and veggies. Avocados are 13 pesos per kilo which equals over 2 pounds for one dollar!. Limes are 3 pesos per kilo, or in other words over 2 lbs for about 25 cents. We also scored pounds of excellent Sonoran beef steaks and kilos of fresh, beautiful, huge camarones azul (blue shrimp) for 10$ US per kilo. Our larder is stuffed, the freezer is packed and the fridge can barely hold all the fresh veggies. Back on the Baja side, we won't find those cheap prices since most food is trucked into the Baja.
For the last two days we have been sitting out high winds, day and night, but tomorrow things are calming down and looking good for a crossing back to the Baja side. We still have no functioning pactor modem, so we will be unable to make blog posts or email anyone until we are back in internet range on the Baja. We were able to contact the pactor modem company while we were here and they informed us that they would happily fix it when we get it to them in the States. That won't be happening anytime soon, so we will continue on making contact as we can.
We are planning a jump from Guaymas to Conception Bay which is about 80 miles. We will definitely have internet within two weeks.

Guaymas

2011-11-05T07:27:00.000-07:00

Entering the busy Guaymas harbor
****

For the last three years, we've stuck to the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez, as many people do. There is so much to see and do over there that there didn't seem a need to come to the mainland side.

However, after three years of ending up in Santa Rosalia both for the last provision kick off before the summer, and then the clean up and reprovision after the summer, we decided we were ready for a break. When you provision for a family of three with a large dog, you end up with hundreds of pounds of food and fuel that you have to get onto your boat. Santa Rosalia (population 12,000) is great but it is a hard place to provision. There is no public transit system. There are no "large" grocery stores so you have to go to several stores to get all your stuff. It's always hot. The taxi bill is always high since you have to ask them to stop at several stores and wait while you shop.

So this year we decided to give Guaymas a try. Man, I wish we had figured this out years ago. Guaymas has so many advantages over Santa Rosalia that it is not even a contest. Like Santa Rosalia, Guaymas is a great, working Mexican town without a lot of tourists (like us) mucking things up. After that, there aren't a lot of similarities. Guaymas is a city of about 130,000 built on an extensive, well-protected, natural harbor. The Singlar marina is just a few blocks away from the downtown with it's bustling Central Market and a very good grocery store. The bus system is frequent and fast and costs 5 1/2 pesos per ride! The town boasts a Walmart, AutoZone, McDonald's, Leys', and much more all conventiently assessible through the transit system. It's easy to anchor out with lots of room and good protection.

The only negative to Guaymas is that the Singlar here has a very popular bar on the top floor that just gets cranking up around 10 pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They book great bands and we have enjoyed quite a few concerts from our boat. Unfortunately they have a karaoke machine that they turn over to the drunks after the band stops playing around 1 am. They entertain themselves until around 3 am. With the volume at the max, the singers warble out Mexican tunes or badly pronounced songs in English. It's painfully funny and the first night I sat up laughing. I thought about vidoetaping it for the blog but decided to spare you. It's not so funny now after several nights missed sleep. Bring ear plugs.

A Wild, Fun Ride

2011-11-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

Sunset at Bahia Algodones on the mainland.
*****

We had arrived at San Pedro Martir on October 25th in the calm before the storm and by the 27th, I couldn't stand spending another day in the anchorage at San Pedro Martir. The island is incredible, but the winds were seriously impeding my enjoyment. All day on the 26th we rocked and rolled in swell while the winds howled around us. We were protected from the true force of the wind which was blowing about 25 to 30 knots, but it was wrapping around the point and coming into the anchorage around 20 to 25 knots, along with a very worked up swell.

You just don't feel like doing much when it's that nasty out. Dinghy exploring is wet, lumpy and slow. Snorkeling is ruined because the sediment is all worked up and visibility is down. Even the sea lions were staying out of the water! Since there was no beach to walk, and way too many sea lions lining the rocky shore, land was out. So then you are stuck on the boat, watching movies and trying not to be sick.

Unfortunately, I was scared to pick up the hook. We were securely anchored, but less that 50 feet behind us, huge rocks rose up from the water. If our anchor left the sand, the current and winds could easily push us into the rocks before we could get the boat under control. In windy conditions at low speed, JaM is like a big Macy's Day Float, lots of windage and not much steering.

Our solution was to leave in the middle of the night, since the winds were calming down in the dark hours to 10 to 15 knots. So at 2:30 am on the 27th, Patrick and I pulled the hook and starting motoring out of the anchorage. Everything went smoothly and all my worries were for nothing (like worries usually are).

Once free of the island's protection, we settled into our course taking us toward the mainland. Our destination was about 80 miles away, but the wind was in a favorable direction. Slowly as dawn broke, the winds increased and we had quite a ride to the mainland. By the time we were nearing the coast after noon, the winds were 25 to 30 knots directly on our stern. We were flying along, wing on wing, doing a solid 7 to 9 knots! Wing on wing is a lovely way to sail and very comfortable. With the jib to one side, and the mainsail to the other, the boat is very balanced and stays relatively flat. Since you are traveling with the winds, you are tricked into thinking it's a lovely calm day, despite the white caps all around you.

When we reached the entrance to Bahia Algodones though, we suddenly got to feel the force of the wind. We furled the jib and pulled a hard left into the harbor. Suddenly 25 to 30 knots was on our beam and we were really flying, even with the main all the way over, spilling the wind. As we got further into the large bay, the waves were completely blocked, but the wind kept increasing since it was being funneled through the hills around the anchorage. The three of us, working as a team, quickly got the boat facing straight into the winds and had the main dropped in seconds. With that, it was just minutes before the hook was down next to a miles long, sandy beach lined with restaurants, hotels and resorts. Our summer in the north Sea of Cortez was over and we were back in the land of people. Our 80 mile trip took about 11 1/2 hours, which means we averaged almost 7 knots!

Isla San Pedro Martir

2011-11-02T08:12:00.001-07:00

View to the north.

View to the south.

That little golden blob at the top of the rock is one of two sea lions about eight feet straight up above the high tide line. How did they get up there?

The glow of sunrise. As the sun starts to rise, the noise level goes up with sea lions calling greetings.

It's hard to feel cozy and comfortable when you are anchored this close to cliffs.

****

Isla San Pedro Martir is a tiny, remote island at the bottom of the Midriff Islands chain in the Sea of Cortez. Not many cruisers visit it primarily because it's out in the middle of nowhere and the island is basically a rock that rises straight up from the Sea into steep cliffs without any beaches. It does not really offer good protection for anchoring overnight. So why did we want to go there? Basically the answer is, "Because it was there."

San Pedro Martir has been designated a fish and bird sanctuary by the Mexican government. The steep cliffs offer home to thousands of boobies, gulls, terns, cormorants, herons, and pelicans. Huge boulders have calved off the cliffs over the years and provide excellent shelter for thousands of fish. (They also line the island and increase the hazards of anchoring.) Being so steep sided out in the middle of the sea, the currents swirl and upwell here, offering up a smorgasbord for fish, whales, dolphins, birds and sea lions. Hundreds of sea lions call this rock home.

We had coordinates on our GPS for an anchorage on the east side, but pulling up to the island, I was convinced they must be wrong. It didn't look like an anchorage to me! Sheer cliffs rose straight from the water and there was just a little indent to tuck into. There wasn't even a strip of beach. As we moved closer toward the anchorage, we found a sand bottom at about 37 feet close to the cliff. We set the hook and backed down hard because strong winds were forecasted to start the next day from the northwest.

Once anchored we had a chance to take a look around. And then another. The place was incredible. It overwhelmed the senses with all the bird and sea lion calls. The noise was constant and loud. The cliffs were so close and so huge, rising white with bird guano, straight up. It's hard to describe how strange and other-wordly this island seemed. It was like taking a left and ending up in Jurassic Park - you half-expected to see a pteradactyl winging around the cliffs.

The first night, sea lions played around our boat outlined in bright phosphorescence. They were so curious of Rudy. One sea lion swam around and around the boat on the surface with Rudy following, walking above him. Another tried to climb up onto our back steps, but got caught up in our swim ladder. We all three sat on the back steps and watched their antics late into the night.

I would never term the anchorage as offering good NW protection, as our guidebook suggested. We bumped, rocked and rolled the entire two days we were there. Sometimes the swirl of the currents was strong enough to hold us sideways to the 20 knot winds that were wrapping around the corner along with the swell. But even when we were nose into the winds, JaM was bobbling around in the confused swell. I got a little seasick at anchor when the high winds starting working up the swell. Sounds awful, huh? But it wasn't. The wonder and awe we felt anchored there outweighed the discomfort, at least for a couple days.

Passage through the Midriff Islands

2011-11-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

Often you can see the dolphins turn on their sides like this guy is doing and look at you while they are swimming and jumping and you can hear their calls both when they are above and below the water.

Rudy goes nuts when the dolphins show up. He must be able to hear them talking because he always runs up to the bows just before the pod breaks the surface in front of our boat. Then he races back and forth jumping on the nets. He used to bark and scare them away but he has learned to hold his tongue and just races back and forth whining.

Looking down over the bow at the dolphins swimming in the bow wake. Sometimes you think you're going to hit them since they get so close.

When the north winds started blowing on October 22nd, the anchorage we were sharing with Eyoni on the east side of La Guarda quickly became uncomfortable. We were reluctant to leave, but we knew our time had come. We had decided while in Refugio to change our destination from Santa Rosalia on the Baja side to Guaymas on the mainland, just so we could keep exploring new territories. The change in destination would take us through the Midriff Islands, some of which are very remote.

The first few days of the journey were spent working down the east side of la Guarda, then jumping to Isla Partida Norte, just ten miles south of La Guarda. The winds were very light these first few days, but high winds were forecasted to be building. We wanted wind to sail, but winds stronger than 25 knots can create some lumpy seas. With that in mind we decided to jump off on the 45 mile trip from Isla Partida Norte straight to Isla San Pedro Martir. We had planned to visit some of the other islands of the Midriff, but the descriptions of their anchorages didn't sound too promising on finding good protection for a strong blow, so we went straight to our main goal of Isla San Pedro Martir (St. Peter the Martyr). San Pedro Martir is a fish/bird sanctuary that is off the beaten path of cruisers. We were very excited to see it.

Since we were in the calm before the storm, we had no wind for our trip to San Pedro Martir - it was just one, long (almost ten hours), motorboat ride on flat calm seas. However, it was not a boring trip. Along the way, we saw several sperm whales, and lots of fish boils with feeding birds. We caught three dorado, keeping one 40-incher and letting the other two go free. The thing that was most amazing about our trip was the dolphins. We saw maybe twenty different pods of dolphins (mostly Saddleback dolphins, some Botttlenose) totalling probably 150 dolphins or more. For almost two hours our boat was their playground and they put on quite a show. The water was so calm and the seas so crystal clear, it was a magical show.

The Second Trip to La Guarda

2011-10-31T07:12:00.000-07:00

Jack skurfing at Refugio behind Eyoni's super fast dinghy with its new 15 hp engine. We had a lot of fun with Eyoni and when it was time to head south we realized that we might not be seeing them again. They are headed south on a faster track than us and plan to be leaving Mexico headed to Central America by the first of the year.

Yellow tail caught on a fishing pole. In fifteen minutes you could catch more fish than you could eat up in Refugio from your dinghy.

Patrick's "Fish of the Season" spearfishing, nabbed at Pulpito. The fishing this summer has been phenomenal in all venues - spearfising, and pole fishing from the dinghy and the big boat.

Pulpito, the east side of la Guarda. At the base of this cliff, we found some of the best snorkeling we've seen. It was a undersea garden with lots of soft corals, sea turtles, schools of BIG grouper, and even a sweet female sea lion and pup who swam circles around us. What a great experience!

***

So all the way back on October 12th, I was telling you that most of the boats had left to head south, but Eyoni and Just a Minute were headed north for one last trip to Refugio. The north winds finally subsided and the next day the two boats were pulling out of LA Bay village near dawn and headed north. It was a great motorboat ride with the spring tdes pulling us north on strong tidal currents. We were doing 7+ knots on one engine! Along the way we saw a pod of Orcas. Eyoni saw them much closer than we did and even had one "bump" into their boat - something I was glad not to experience. I know from all our dealings with Orcas in the Northwest that they are very aware of their surroundings, that bump wasn't an accident! Eyoni has fantastic pictures of the Orcas on their blog so check it out from my blog list.

I don't know how we got so lucky, but our second trip to La Guarda was also blessed with perfect weather. For days, we saw little wind from any direction. Our two boats enjoyed the deserted playground of Refugio for about a week and then moved around the east side to Pulpito for a couple more days of fun. Then the winds began to pick up and we started our move south, reluctantly

Jack's 14th Birthday

2011-10-30T14:53:00.001-07:00

Jack and his two birthday rapalas

Jack's just a half inch from 6 feet tall and he's growing into a fine young man. Now at the age of fourteen, he has the skills of a real crewman. Over the last three years he has learned most procedures on the boat and is a great help to Patrick and me in many ways. He's a great boat handler and docks our boat in marinas, takes watches on passages, drives the boat for raising and lowering the anchor, and many other duties. He is in charge of the small motors, taking full responsibility for oil changes, fueling, and maintenance of the dinghy motor and the Honda 2000 generator. He's Patrick's grease monkey for the big engines and has learned so much about their maintenance. And yet he is still a great big kid in so many ways. He's at times very responsible, very irresponsible, goofy, mature, emotional, unsure of himself, cocksure, and full of testoterone.

Jack's fourteenth birthday was celebrated several times this summer when we would meet up with different friends, but the real celebration took place at Islotes with Hotel California in attendance. It was a perfect day. We rose early and hit the beaches for a miles long beach combing session. Jack's passion is finding rapala fishing lures on the beach and he found two that day. Then later that afternoon Hotel California sent him on a treasure hunt with clues that took him from our boat, to the beach, to their boat, back to the beach and back to our boat again where he finally received a small present from them and a plate of cookies. It was very sweet of them and they really added to our fun that day. Then we all shared a birthday dinner of lasagna and a cream cheese cherry pie to follow. It was a very low key event but all the more special for being so simple - just a great day spent with loved ones. Patrick and I didn't have one present for Jack and he didn't even seem to notice the lack of one.

That day is one of my fondest memories from our time here. We came out on this adventure, in part, looking to help Jack grow and mature. I like the way our experiences have shaped him. Most notably, he has none of the "gimmees" that so many kids have - no need for new things, electronics or a material present. It's an unconventional childhood, but it's been a good one for Jack.

Back in Civilization

2011-10-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

The Dirty Laundry. Over the hurricane season, we end up doing hand wash for two months. Nothing really gets clean, the smell is just knocked down a bit. By the time we get back to a self-serve laundromat, every article of clothing, every sheet, towel and slip cover is stiff from grit, sunscreen, sweat and sand. It's disgusting. Today begins the first of many loads, and this pile doesn't even include all the sheets.

We just dropped the hook in the harbor of Guaymas. Tomorrow we are set to pull into the Singlar marina here and tie up to the dock for a week. Oh, the joys that await us. A hose with running water! Internet on the boat! A self-serve laundromat! Large grocery stores just blocks away! Hot showers! Taco stands! Really, it is just too good to be true.

When you finish up a summer in the far north Sea of Cortez, you tend to need a few of the little luxuries, just to restore the balance. It's like coming home from the best camping trip ever - dirty, bug-bitten, out of food, and kind of tired. All you want is clean clothes, a hot shower and a nice take-out dinner eaten in front of the big screen TV. For the last one, we'll have to settle for a boot-legged movie on the laptop, but the rest we'll get.

We had the best summer yet and over the next few days, I''ll be posting pictures and telling stories.

Still Finding New Favorites

2011-10-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

The beach near Islotes is about 2 to 3 miles long, with beautiful sand, and very shoal so at low tide the beach is enormous. It took us days to walk all the sections between the three estuaries.

Blue Crab caught in the Islotes estuary. No one seems to be harvesting these lovelies and so there were many, many large guys running around.

We've spent three years in the Sea of Cortez and some people might wonder if we are bored stiff from seeing the same old same old. I have to tell you that this summer proved to us once again that the Sea of Cortez is worth a long visit. We just returned from a week spent in a new (for us) anchorage that quickly vaulted to my second favorite place in all of the Sea of Cortez. It's amazing to think that even after three years, we are finding even better places to drop our hook.

Everyone's idea of an ideal anchorage is going to be different. The reasons why I loved Punta Islotes in the south end of Animas Bay are numerous. First there is about a two mile long stretch of perfect sand beach that is the lee shore for norther storms - which means that there are tons of interesting items to find on the beaches. Jack found nine rapalas, and we saw many turtle shells, turtle nests, great shells, dolphin skulls and bones, coyote skulls, bird bones and other interesting things. Second, there are three separate, extensive estuaries with lots of bird life, clams and fish. Third is that few people come here. Fourth is that there are just tons of big, blue crabs running around. Rudy became a great crab-catching fiend and it was fun to see him snorkel his head under the water and come back up with a big crab in his mouth. We spent six fun packed days in Islotes and celebrated Jack's birthday there along with our friends on Hotel California. I thought that our circumnavigation around La Guarda was as good as it was going to get this summer, but our time at Islotes will always be a treasured memory.

A seven day northern blow is just subsiding now and we are gearing up for one last trip in the far north SoC before heading south with everyone else. Most of the boats have left already and are miles south. The ten that are left in the area are mostly gearing up to leave today or tomorrow. I know of only two boats (Eyoni and us) that are planning another trip north. We plan to leave tomorrow or the next day and head up to Refugio for one last visit. Then we'll turn our bow south and head for Santa Rosalia without stopping again in LA Bay - which means that you won't be hearing from us again until we are in Santa Rosalia in a couple weeks. Take care everyone. I still can't get any pictures uploaded, so I will have a ton of pictures on the blog when I get to SR.

The Summer is Over

2011-10-01T12:13:00.001-07:00

Every day at 4 pm this summer, a Swim-In Party was held at any anchorage holding mulitple boats. We hosted the last one of the summer in Don Juan. 26 people swam over for an hour or so to cool down and chat with friends. It was a great group of cruisers up in the Sea this summer.

We had to careen once again to work on our sail drives. Trying to outpace the incoming tide, Patrick took advantage of every second the sail drives were out of the water. I made him wear the rubber boots since he was working with power tools standing in the water.

Today the first few boats in the northern cruising herd began their migration south for the winter season in Mexico. The hurricane season is still active, but coming to a close and these first few boats are starting the trek back down to civilization. It's always a sad day for me each year, but this year I am nearly in tears knowing that this is our last time in the far north Sea of Cortez. In a few weeks we will be joining the herd on the trek south. All of our favorite times over these last three years have been the months we spend north of LA Bay.

Until the day we turn our bow south, we are heading out to enjoy some of the best weeks of cruising in the far north Sea of C. The weather is cooling off, the anchorages are thinning out, and the fishing is still good. We plan another trip up to Refugio and are hoping the weather stays mild enough to round to the East side of La Guarda again. Sometime in the next couple weeks, the wind will switch and suddenly become strong northerlies. When that happens, our time here will be done.

Internet in LA Bay has been worse than usual, so I have not been able to post the great pictures from all our adventures so far. I will probably have to wait until we are back in Santa Rosalia. Not only do we have tons of great pics from our La Guarda adventures, but these last few days have been jam packed with fun. We attended one last party in Puerto Don Juan. We also careened while in Don Juan. Once we had completed our work and floated off again, we hosted a swim-in party for the entire anchorage and had about 26 people attend. So we have lots more great pictures from those adventures, too.

I won't be posting again for several weeks, so everyone take care and look for more posts (and maybe pictures) in another two weeks.

Circumnavigating Isla Angel de la Guarda

2011-09-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

The small islands of Hueso Bay that provide protection to the north winds. The beach at Hueso is just loaded with good shells, especially pustulatas.

The East Bay, West Bight - our favorite Refugio anchorage.

We came north our third year with just a couple goals in mind. The main one was to circumnavigate Isla Angel de la Guarda (Guardian Angel Island) which is the second largest island in the Sea of Cortez. It’s a 41 mile long island, just outside of the LA Bay area, which has no permanent residents. There is one anchorage on the island called Puerto Refugio (Refuge Port) on the very northern tip which is often visited by cruisers, but few venture past Puerto Refugio to visit the rest of the island. La Guarda is full of tricks - changeable wind directions, strong winds, extreme tidal movements of up to 12’ on average, sudden storms, hidden reefs, pinnacle rocks and other dangers. The east side of the island is not well charted, and few cruisers visit it, so there is little information to go on.

La Guarda’s remoteness has always called to us. Since the first time we entered Refugio three years ago, we have talked about what we would find if we explored the rest of the island. Puerto Refugio has always been our favorite anchorage in all of the Sea. It is so ruggedly beautiful and full of life. Unfortunately, each year we were blocked by bad weather or bad timing. We’ve visited Puerto Refugio several times each summer, but we could never get a break to see the rest of the island. Twice in the past, we have tried to anchor at Bahia de Hueso (Bay of Bones), just south of Refugio and were bounced out by big swells and wind in the middle of the night. And each time that we even thought about rounding around to the east side of the island, high winds from the north were forecasted and so the trip had to be put off.

But finally we have reached our goal. We just made it back to the village of LA Bay after a wonderful two week cruise around La Guarda. Our weather has been phenomenally calm, with light and variable winds every day, which has made our trip around the island, idyllic, simple and completely out of character! We have walked miles of beaches and found great shells (28 pustulatas on one beach!), 6 rapalas laying in the high tide line (an expensive fishing lure), 1 salmon plug (!), and lots of dolphin, sea lion, whale and turtle bones. We were visited by dolphins at numerous anchorages, and even had them come and play in our dinghy bow wake while we sped along, just inches from us. We’ve swum with numerous sea turtles, seen some very big groupers and schools of good-eating fish. We have eaten so much sea food that we started giving it away and finally just stopped fishing. We experienced perfect wind conditions for every anchorage, so we were able to see even more than we could have hoped for. We can now tell you that there is far more to Isla Angel de La Guarda than Refugio, and it just gets better.

During our circumnavigation we spent 5 nights in Refugio, 2 nights in Bahia de Hueso (eerily beautiful and my favorite place in the world), 2 nights in Caleta Pulpito West, 3 nights in Caleta Pulpito East, and 1 night on the north side of Estanque. I can’t begin to tell you of the beauty and life we saw. It was magical. The only fly in the ointment was No-See-Um’s, but every paradise has to have something to keep you from staying forever. And our experiences were worth the price of a few more scars from scratched bug bites.

Buddy Boating with Hotel California

2011-09-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Just another afternoon spent playing Rummikube with Rick and Pam. What a fun game.

Our time up north has been very fun mostly because of Pam and Rick from Hotel California. They are new to the Sea of Cortez this year and came down on the HaHa in 2010. We first met them in Mazatlan in January 2011 and then again in San Blas in February, but did not really get to know them until we met again in Santa Rosalia in July.

We both left our boats in Santa Rosalia to travel home and we both came back around the same time, so it was natural that we would cross paths as we traveled north into the Sea. But somewhere along the line we just began buddy-boating and have been traveling in tandem with them ever since. And so endless games of Rumikube and Bocce ball have been played, along with lots of shared dinners, sundowners, snorkeling and goofing off. During the recent hurricane scare for Hilary, we had joint war councils, and discussed options. And we all shared a sigh of relief when Hilary decided to head off into the Pacific instead of visiting the Baja.

Our time to separate is coming in a few weeks, as they are headed south faster than us, but that is the life of a cruiser. Friends tend to be made quickly and also quickly separated. But the good friends you make, still manage to stay in touch.

Floaty Party

2011-09-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

We made it to the village at LA Bay just in time to attend the last Floaty Party of the Season. Since this is our last season in the Sea of Cortez, we really wanted to make it in time. I am so glad we did. It’s just a silly party for people who obviously have a lot of time of their hands. Almost the entire fleet of boats who are summering here attended, which meant that 26 boats were floating around in La Gringa.

At high tide, everyone assembles in a small lagoon and then as the tide turns and starts to run out, everyone rides the current out of the lagoon and into the bay. As you float out of the lagoon, you pass the judges sitting on a small spit of land, and they decide who gets the prizes for best costume. And that is a Floaty Party. Like I said, it's a silly excuse to get together, dress up in costumes and talk!

My costume of a hammerhead shark did not even get a nod from the judges (probably because it was pretty lame!), but Jack's re-enactment of Cast Away with his bouy "Wilson" got an Honorable Mention and a bag of goodies at that night's Award Assembly and Potluck Dinner.

Pirates Marcia and Dave on Juniata were one of the big winners at the Awards Ceremony, pictured to the left.

Another big winner was Linda on Jacaranda who was Blue Octopussy. Considering that she hand-sewed her elaborate costume and actually bought fabric and goods specifically to build it, I think her win was well deserved. It's no wonder I didn't win since all I did was strap a half-deflated floaty to my head and put some duct-tape teeth on my hat! But it's the thought that counts.

2 Days Out and I Find a Lump...

2011-09-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

Dolphins playing in front of our boat underway

Yeah, I know I said you wouldn't be hearing from me for many weeks, but here I am. Just when you think you know where your life is headed, you get handed a surprise.

Finally our summer had started when we left Santa Rosalia on August 28th and headed north for the remainder of the hurricane season. Our first day started out great with a couple different pods of dolphins providing escort and we had amazing fishing. We caught and released several dorado on barbless hooks, had numerous strikes that got off (since the barbless hooks don't dig into their flesh and hold on). We also saw two hammerheads swimming by the boat (an unusual experience) and just had beautiful weather with a slight southern breeze pushing our boat along.

The second day dawned gorgeous also and the fishing remained hot with us bringing in and releasing 5 dorados and again losing many more when they shook off the hook before we got them to the boat. Life was good. Then that night I discovered a lump in my breast. It just didn't seem real, but it was there every time I checked. Being the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, there was no way I could ignore it. I wasn't too worried, but I couldn't wait two months for the hurricane season to end before getting a doctor's opinion. Of course, there was a hurricane brewing and it was hard to turn the boat around and head back closer to the danger, but what's a possible hurricane compared to possible cancer?

So the next day, we turned the boat back south and began our 1,000 mile roundtrip journey to get to a doctor with a mammogram handy. Of course, we kept fishing and caught and released another five dorados and finally took the hook off and just trolled the jig and still had strikes that made the pole sing! We motored into the wind for 8 hours that day and tied the boat at the dock in Santa Rosalia that night. We made several phone calls and found out the closest place to get a mammogram on the Baja was in La Paz. So we lined up a doctor's appointment for the following evening and went to bed. The next morning we began the 8 hour trip to La Paz in our car. Patrick drove like a demon and we made it to La Paz in 6 1/2 hours and in plenty of time for my appointment. The doctor is a sweet woman who pulls out a long needle and sticks it into the lump to see what comes out. Thankfully the lump was filled with a clear liquid and the doctor tells me this is a very good sign. The doctor told me to bring the mammogram films back to her the next evening and she would read them for me.

The following morning's mammogram was an exercise in embarrassment caused by my extremely bad command of the Spanish language which is completely the result of how easily flustered I can get when I am trying to speak, let alone speak in a different language than English, especially when I am anxious. Truly it was embarrassing and involved lots of really bad charade moves. Monte Python should consider it for a possible skit idea. At the end, the doctor who oversees the mammogram clinic handed me the films and said a little speech in which I caught the word "Bueno." I took this as a good sign and left feeling hopeful. Later that evening, my doctor confirmed that the results for all tests had come out perfectly fine. I had a benign cyst and there was no other treatment necessary.

We woke up this morning and started our 8 hour trip back to Santa Rosalia and arrived back at the boat just an hour before dark. And tomorrow morning, weathing permitting, we will begin again our summer in the Sea.

Gracias Amigos!

2011-08-28T08:11:00.001-07:00

We've reached a milestone folks, and it's all because of you. I just got a notice that my very first AdSense check for $100 USD is being sent to us. We get paid fractions of a penny for each person who visits our site and a few more if they click on an ad before leaving. Our site has about 60 to 100 people check it per day on average, and we've had the ads on the blog for about a year, so you can see that it is quite an achievement. Thanks a lot! We'll enjoy many great taco cart meals with our bounty.

We didn't get out of Santa Rosalia yesterday because another chubasco hit two nights ago and we got little sleep and were too tired to leave. It was pretty much a repeat of the last one but with slightly less wind, still lots of dust, thunder and lightning that reverberated through the boat, and the biggest rainfall we've seen in three years on the Baja. Of course, I had just washed the boat earlier that evening, so I have vowed not to wash it again while we are in Santa Rosalia.

We are leaving today in just an hour or so and beginning our summer in the sea. We have heard that the internet situation in the LA Bay area is still deplorable. Unfortunately our pactor modem has stopped working and we will not be able to send emails or blog posts through our SSB radio. This means that I'll only be updating the blog when we are in the LA Bay so there will be spotty postings for the next month or two. When we do have internet, I will post several entries at a time. It also means that we will be completely cut off from the outside world with no email or phone service for weeks at a time - it's heaven and hell at the same time.

So take care everyone, and we'll catch up in a few weeks.

Chubasco

2011-08-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Our first day back on the boat after our trip home dawned cool and cloudy, so Patrick and I jumped up early to get some work done. The first thing on the list was to wash five weeks of town dust off of our boat. Santa Rosalia's main employment is a copper mine and so the town has an inordinate amount of grime - even for a Mexican town.

We did a thorough washing job and finished up a few hours later. Then thirty minutes after we had finished washing, a 50+ knot Chubasco hit us. One minute we were looking up to see the brown haze to the south, with not a breath of wind in the air, and the next minute we were enveloped in an instantaneous 50 knot wind that was loaded with dust and grit. The wind had evidently traveled over the mine on its way to us. This Chubasco was masquerading as a Sahara dust storm and it did a really good job of it. Three hours later when the winds stopped our boat was dirtier than when we had started cleaning it.

A Chubasco is a type of wind storm created by the extreme convection in the Sea of Cortez, the cooler sea air and the hot air over land create extreme storm cells that travel quickly and can have winds over 60 knots. I've seen Chubascos more often at night since they are easy to spot with lots of lightning, but they can happen any time. They are very localized and you only experience the effect if it is near you. This type of storm is probably what caused the charter fishing boat to capsize and sink, causing the death of seven Americans, a few months ago up north in the Sea of Cortez.

When the Chubasco hit, suddenly the docks were filled with people checking their boats and the boats that were unattended. One unattended boat had all four of it's fenders pop from the impact of the wind and its bow sprit was getting raked on a piling. Several people worked to retie it and we donated a fender that we weren't using to help hold it off the piling. Another boat was pushed over at about 20 degrees against the dock - just enough to make their fenders useless and to scratch the heck out of their striping and port windows. Seven people pushed like Hercules to get enough space to raise the fenders up and retie them. Our boat was tied up all goofy because we had just repositioned the bow closer to the dock so we could do some work on the anchoring system. Of course, we hadn't retied it very well since we were planning to complete the work within an hour or two and then we would have retied correctly. No problem as long as the weather had cooperated. All of the weight of our boat ended up on one cleat. Not good. I kept expecting it to snap off at any minute. We spent quite a bit of time digging out more lines and even moved an unused cleat from another section of dock over to our side to help hold our boat to the dock.

It was quite a welcome home. Since then, we have continued to put the boat back together and provision up for the summer up north. We just got back from a few days anchored at a nearby island. We wanted to do a quick run-through to make sure everything was working correctly before we left for the wilds of the North Sea of Cortez. We put the headsail back on, re-commissioned the dinghy, un-pickled the water-maker, cleaned the boat bottom, unwrapped the main, and stored away our luggage. It was nicer to get that work done somewhere where you could jump in the water every couple hours to cool off. It takes a lot of work to put your boat back together in working order after an absence.

Our work is done now and this is our last day in Santa Rosalia where we are tying up the last few loose ends. Tomorrow we leave! I'm always excited when we leave dock, but I'm also anxious this time. It's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security. Day after day the weather is hot, it's windy but it nothing you can't handle. Then when you see a storm like the Chubasco hit without warning and with such ferociousness, your false sense of security gets ripped away. And that's a good thing. It's when you let your guard down that things can go very wrong.

Pickles, Cheese, Butter and Nuts

2011-08-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Our last stop in America was.......Costco. Where else? Sure there are Costcos in Mexico but they just do not carry all the same items, and the prices on the imported things are not quite as good. I love Mexican food, but there are some American foods that cannot be translated into Mexican food tastes, I guess. And there are some excellent Mexican foods that are far less good in America (our tortillas are a pale comparison to what you get in Mexico!) It's like the language barrier. There is a difference in the national food tastes. For example, in Mexico you can buy a Chile and Lime flavored Tootsie Pop sucker. (I am not kidding. They are revoltingly grainy from the chile powder.) And Cheetos here are not the Cheetos of your childhood.

Pickles are one of those things that just don't translate well. You can find pickles in Mexico but they tend to be limp and extremely salty. They remind me of salty, green slugs. So we loaded up in Costco on baby dills, bread and butter chips, and big dills. You know those giant Coscto jars? We have pounds and pounds of pickles that should last us a few months, since Jack and I can sit down and just devour pickles with nothing else. They are not a lowly side dish on our boat.

We also now have 8 lbs of sweet cream, salted butter on board. The only reason I didn't buy more is because I anticipate getting back to America in a couple months. Sure, butter is available everywhere in Mexico. The Mexican butter often has a funny vanilla taste and is very oily, and you can easily find imported butter on the shelves of major grocery storey. In this case it was the price that caught my eye. Four pounds of butter were packaged together for the price I pay for one pound of imported butter in Mexico. Score!

The Cheese Section was where I spent the most time. I reverently walked the aisles with lust in my eyes. I didn't buy half what I wanted, but I came away with the most important ones to me. There are lots of types of Mexican cheese, and some are pretty good. Some imported cheeses are available in many Mexican stores (like bleu or Monterey Jack) but again the price makes it painful to buy. God Bless the American Costco. Our freezer is now loaded with 3 lbs of bleu cheese, a 2 lb block of Romano that cost 5$!, and blocks of Gruyere, regular Swiss, fine aged Swiss, Parmesan, sharp Cheddar, and Monterey Jack. I think I am forgetting some but, you get the picture. Our Engel freezer is to the rim with butter and cheese.

Last but not least were some nuts. How could we leave without a huge container of cashews? You just don't see them down here and certainly not a huge container for 13$. I should have bought two. We'll be eating like kings in the next few months and seeking out secluded anchorages where we won't have to share!

Bryce Canyon, Utah

2011-08-13T19:25:00.001-07:00

Our road trip continues to speed along. Today we decided to take in Bryce Canyon in Utah. Wow! It is just fantastic. This weekend is one of the last summer weekends for all those families with kids in schools so the parks are full and the hotels are, too. Since we are doing this on the fly without pre-planning (ie. no reservations) we decided to skip the Grand Canyon and hit a less traveled park. After three years without a lot of people around, large crowds are kind of overwhelming anyway!

Red Canyon, Utah

Rudy continues to be a great road traveler. However, after sleeping all day he turns into a demon at night!

Montana Fly Fishing

2011-08-12T08:45:00.001-07:00

We’re on our way back to the boat now, but we took a little detour east to Montana to visit a good friend in Helena. It’s also part of our grand plan to check out places we might like to settle down in when our time on the boat is done. Since we sold most of our possessions to get out on the water in a boat, it means that our options for where we want to land when we come back are pretty open. We each have our own ideas, but my criteria are simple - I would like to settle in/near a college town with lots of recreational opportunities close at hand. With that in mind, Montana has a lot of potential! What an amazingly beautiful area of America.

We’re headed south now and the hurricane season looks like it is cooperating with our plans - no storms are forming in the next 48 hours so we have time to keep touring America.

Jack and Mack fishing on the river. Mack's an old hand and was able to give lots of tips since this was Jack's first time fly fishing. Rudy and I were the only ones not to catch fish - I was too busy trying to keep Rudy from jumping in the water and trying to catch them on his own.

It was very sad to see the devestation of the pine beetle infestation that is covering large tracts of land through Montana and other Rocky Mountain states. In this picture you can see some of the dead trees that are liberally spread through the forests. Some stands are completely dead, this one just had a few trees affected - for now.

We stopped for the night in Idaho Falls, Idaho and took in the sights.

Seattle Field Trip

2011-08-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Jack, Patrick and Brett (owner) in front of the still at the Woodinville Whiskey Co. which specializes in creating hand-crafted, organic spirits.
We spent the day in Seattle, catching up with old friends, hitting a favorite eating spot and getting to the best boating supply store in Seattle. Our first stop was to catch up with Brett, a former co-worker of Patrick's who started up the Woodinville Whiskey Co. a year and a half ago. Brett and partner started the company after we had left the area for Mexico and this was our first glimpse. We were quite impressed when he showed us around the operation. Our trip home has had Patrick thinking about returning to work someday soon, and I think he was fantasizing about working for Brett! The company is growing quickly and already is sold in several states, and available online everywhere. You can find out more about them at http://woodinvillewhiskeyco.com/

The next stop was Pagliacci's for some of our favorite pizza. We have been talking about eating here for the last couple months. Yummm.

Enjoying the Capitol Hill Ambiance, Seattle

Fishery Supply Store - the Mecca for boaters. If they don't have it, it hasn't been invented. Before we left for Mexico the first time, we spent thousands of dollars here and hauled a truckload of items away. On this trip the bill was much less and it fit in one small bag - Progress!

Ahhh, Seattle. No wonder we love boating.

Redwoods Road Trip Pictures

2011-07-22T08:02:00.001-07:00

We took Highway 1 up along the coast of California through the Redwood Forests and then cut over on small highways through Oregon before joining I-5 south of Eugene, Oregon on our way up to the Great Pacific Northwest. We saw elk herds, elephant seals, acres and acres of huge trees, and miles of beautiful vistas, vineyards and small-town America.

Rudy was a very good Road Tripper and slept most of the way

The Drive Thru Tree was just a goofy hoot. I couldn't believe it when I saw the line-up! At $5 per car, it's doing good business. The tree is about 2400 years old and still looks pretty healthy. We were so grateful to see beautiful forests again. Most of our pictures are of trees and we kept pulling over to take little hikes in the woods.

Often, the Best Thing to Do is Laugh - Pt 2

2011-07-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Break Down #1 So, there we sat in the parkng lot with a car straight from the mechanic, with a dead battery. We have battery cables on board but since we use them in lightning storms to create a circuit from mast to water (we attach one end to a stay and throw the other end over the side into the water) they had stopped being able to jump our car. Patrick went into a nearby auto store, purchased new cables and got a jump start. With the car loaded, we piled in and started off.
Break Down #2 We didn't even get past the place we were stopped the first time we tried to leave Santa Rosalia. The "Low Coolant" warning light came on. Patrick was ready for that one - the mechanic had told him to buy some antifreeze since he had to take the radiator system apart to reach the alternator. Patrick had already added coolant several times in his trip from the mechanic's to the marina, but the light was still coming on as we headed toward the city limits. We pulled over and added some more water and antifreeze. We started up again and the sign was gone.
Break Down #3 Then the warning light came back about 1 mile later outside the city limits. So Patrick pulled over to add more antifreeze and water. And more water. And more antifreeze. The car's engine temp just kept climbing. But we can't shut the car off because the battery is not strong enough to start us up again. Then the radiator hose just pops off and water and coolant gushes out. Panic! Frantically, Patrick reattaches the hose and tightens down the hose clamp. Thankfully, I had insisted on loading up 5 gallons of water before we left (we're traveling through a desert!). We hastily pull that out and dump about 3 gallons in, and the rest of the coolant, yet the car's temp keeps climbing. It gets up to the red death line and holds for a minute. We were just reaching to turn off the engine when the needle stops, then slowly lowers. Fiasco averted. After our hearts slow down, we load up and start off again. It seems that the mechanic had not tightened down the radiator hose clamp when he put the car back together.
We keep going to San Ignacio and find a lovely campground for the night.
Breakdown #4 The next morning, we start off and it seems to be going well. I fell asleep. Only to wake up to a sort of panicked sounding, "What happened?" from Jack. The car was sputtering to a stop and we were totally encased in a thick cloud of dust. The car won't start. Patrick tells Jack to jump out and wave off anyone coming up from behind because the dust is so thick we could get hit by an unsuspecting driver. Patrick tries the car several times with no result as the dust clears. I get the scoop from Patrick - there was road work going on and we were traveling on a stretch of gravel road that was several miles long. Everything was fine until a huge semi passed and threw up a thick cloud of dust. When the car was enveloped in the dust, it just died.
Then the dust cleared off enough and the car starts up again. Jack jumps in and off we go. We are a little wary since we are still traveling on a long stretch of gravel road and dust is flying from every car passing. We kept going until the road went back to paved. Then we found the first shady spot and stopped to shake out the air filter. Thick dust comes out. After that, the car is just not running right. It won't idle well and often sputters to a stop if we are going slow. We keep going to El Rosario to a lovely hotel we know there to spend the night.
In the parking lot, Patrick figures out that the 3" air hose that runs to the turbo charger is hanging loose. No hose clamp to be seen. Evidently the mechanic also did not reattach that hose and tighten it when he put the car back together. Patrick calls a friend with a lot of mechanical knowledge and finds out that the loose air hose would cause the stuttering and idling problems. Since the car had kept running for hours despite the loose hose, Patrick decides to press on to San Quentin (a large town two hours away) before looking for a hose clamp to firmly attach the hose.
Breakdown #5 So bright and early that morning, we start out of town, headed up a large mountain. The car just sputtters to a stop on a steep incline. Except this time, it won't budge an inch uphill. Patrick can start it up but when he puts the gas on, it just dies. Jack and I jump out to wave off any other motorists as Patrick lifts the hood and reattaches the hose. Once it is on, it pops off again, almost as soon as he puts the gas on. So after reattaching it a couple more times, we get it to the side of the road and turned around to coast down the hill back into El Rosario. Thankfully, there is a ferreteria in town so we park the car and find the hose clamp we need. Once the hose is clamped on good and tight, we start off again headed to the border.
For the rest of that day, and the next two that follow, everything is working great. The car is running like a champ.
Breakdown #6 After several more days of travel, we are camping in the redwoods of California, traveling up the coast along Highway 1. One afternoon, we pull into a store parking lot and pick up a nail in our tire. We don't find out until we stop the car a few miles further on in a campground. Thankfully, we stopped while the tire was still deflating, and no further damage was done to it. We decide to just camp for the night and get the tire fixed in the morning. We were lucky because our good friend Ethan on Eyoni had loaned us a little 12 volt air compressor for just such an emergency! We fill up the tire so we can cruise the campground to pick our spot. Then we get a big log to prop up the car and let the tire go flat. The next morning, we inflate the tire and drive into town to get it fixed. Ten dollars and 15 minutes later we were good to go.
And that was our last breakdown. We are currently in Everett enjoying cloudy skies, drizzling rain and cool temps. It is heaven.

Sometimes all you can do is laugh or cry - Part 1

2011-07-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

It's hard to even know where to begin this post. So much has gone wrong that it's hard to remember what happened when and what came next. When last we left off, we had packed up the car, left Santa Rosalia and even before the city limits were reached, we turned around with a broken car. We drove straight back to the marina and moved back on the boat for the night. We thought we would be leaving the next day.
The next morning, Patrick started playing with the car to diagnose the problem. It was definitely the alternator gone bad. He went to two auto body shops and asked them if they could fix our alternator. Both said "Yes" at first and then said "No" when they found out our car was a Volvo. Volvo cars are not common down here on the Baja. We knew before we started that we could run into problems having an unusual car, but we thought it wouldn't be that bad. We thought wrong.
The next step was getting on the internet to find out if the alternator was going to be specific to Volvo or a more common brand. Turns out it was a Bosch from Germany, but several other brands could be used instead. With that info we went walking into town to a ferreteria (hardware store) that had lots of alternators in stock. No Bosch's in stock or the other kinds that could be used. We asked if they knew of anyone who could rebuild the alternator and just as they were writing down the guy's name for us, the very man walked in the store. He agreed to meet us at the marina to see the car in one hour. We were excited, everything was going so well. The man showed up, we jump-started the car and drove it to his shop.
And there it sat. Day One. Day Two. Every day that went by, Patrick was calling the mechanic asking what was going on. Communication was a real problem. Patrick had some of the marina officials helping him by calling and asking questions. We just got a lot of run around. Day Three. Patrick is told that the regulator is shot on the alternator and it has to be ordered from the USA since no parts are available down here in Mexico. That afternoon, Patrick takes the broken regulator around to 1007 ferreterias and is directed to a different mechanic. This mechanic takes one look at the regulator and goes over to his pile of goods. He pulls out a regulator that is almost a perfect match, but has just one connection that is different. No Problem for him. He takes out a soldering gun and adds a couple wires to it and VOILA! it's a perfect match. We pay him about $50 USD for his 10 minutes of time and the part and take that to our first mechanic. If we could have just retrieved our car and given it to the second mechanic, we would have. But how? We didn't have anyway to move the car. So instead we delivered the jerry-rigged regulator to the first mechanic for him to install. We left it with him that afternoon.
The next day, nothing is done when Patrick calls in the morning. He goes there with a cruiser who speaks fluent Spanish. The car is just sitting with no-one working on it. They leave. Then at 3 pm they go back and get the car. The mechanic has installed the jerry-rigged regulator given to him. Patrick and the mechanic look through the engine that he has put back together. The mechanic pulls on the hoses. Patrick pays him the $50 USD that he charges and drives the car away and brings it back to the marina.
We all cheer and start loading up the car. After two hours of intense work, we all pile into the car to start our journey again. Patrick turns the key in the car and......Nothing. The car is dead.
The next installment - The Journey - and it goes downhill from there!

Well, we tried to leave,,,,

2011-07-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

Nancy has been taking lots of great pictures up at the marina pool

There is something funky happening to keep us in Santa Rosalia. Yesterday morning, we were set to leave and then Jack said "I don't feel well." As a mother, I was attuned to that message, and said, "We aren't leaving today." About an hour later, he started heaving into a bowl. So goes that day.

Then today dawned bright and beautiful and we were worked hard to finish up the last details to get out the door. We did one last load of sweat-stained laundry, took down the bimini cover and the last duties were unplugging the air-conditioner, cleaning out the fridge, putting the last bits of tin-foil on the windows to insulate from the sun, cleaning the heads and closing the seacocks.

Then we headed out to the car and loaded up. The first stop was to a hardware store, but it was not opened so we didn't stop the car. The next stop was the bank where Patrick left me off to get money while he drove around the block. The next stop was the gas station, where Patrick did not remember to turn off the engine while the attendant was fueling.

Then we drove out of town. Just at the edge of town, the warning light came on "Battery not Charging" Patrick read off the warning light to me and after nearly twenty years I knew better then to question him about it. I waited a few minutes and then said, "What does that mean?" He said that there was probably a problem with the alternator but he wouldn't know until he looked at it. Another ten minutes went by and I said, "I think we should turn around and go back to the Singlar marina before we turn the car off." Patrick thought that was a good idea and we turned around. Once back parked in the Singlar marina, Patrick turned the car off and then tried to turn it on again.... Nothing. The alternator is dead. It was a very good thing that we never stopped the car while we were running all of our errands or we would have been stuck out in the middle of nowhere!

So here we sit back at the marina, on a boat that is decommissioned - no toilet, no water, no fridge, no food, no cold beer....... It's a nightmare. But we have air conditioning, friends, beds, a nearby mechanic,,,,,so a nightmare with a happy ending. We are still headed to the States, just a few days later.

Ruminations on Catamarans

2011-07-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

We just received the following comment on our blog and I thought it would be fun to turn it into a posting.

".....By the way, I would be interested in your thoughts on your Lagoon38 in so far as compared to other multihulls you've seen up close. Is your boat too this, too that, just right? Ahh heck, let's include lead mines too. How things compared to them. Also, any anchorages down there where you've been especially happy to have shallow draft?"

Since I've been living on this boat for three years, this is a topic that I have thought a lot about. I have a love/hate relationship with my boat. I think most people living on a boat for several years would understand what I mean. I have spent hours pondering the ways I wish I could change it, and I have spent hours pondering how much I love it the way it is.

Here are the positives I see with our Lagoon. The 2001 380 model is very well built for a production boat. We have beefy winches, solid construction, and lots of wood paneling. Our friend who is a delivery captain compares the 2001 380 model to a "bull." He raves about how strongly it is built. He has done numerous Atlantic Ocean crossings on this model and still marvels at its construction. One time he had 40+ knots on the nose for days and had to pour fresh water over the helm station to get the salt crust off, just to be able to read the instruments, and the boat took it no problem.

I don't know how much has changed for the Lagoon 380, since I have not been on a new one, but I have been on new Fountaine Pajots and I was not impressed. We were on a new Mahi model and everything was just kind of wimpy from the winches down to the decking. The winch torqued on the fiberglass when it had a load on, and the deck dipped when you walked on it - it was just not very sturdy feeling. On the positive side, it was absolutely gorgeous inside with great design. I've been on similar sized, older Fountaines and they were sturdily built, but their interior design was not much different than an older Lagoon except that our staterooms are bigger and their cockpit was bigger.

Another positive is the Lagoon has a high bridge deck (the area between the hulls) which is a must in a my opinion. The lower your bridge deck is to the water, the more often it gets slapped by waves. Some catamarans like the Seawind and the Gemini have pretty low bridge decks and they must be really loud on the rougher passages. Sometimes when we are crossing from La Paz to Mazatlan we have been in bigger seas that are hitting us at just the right angle to make the waves slam our hulls like a giant banging on bongos. It reverberates through the boat. It is loud. I can't imagine what those conditions would be like in a boat that is lower to the water. We usually never hear that.

Also a positive, the Lagoon 380 is a pretty simple boat to sail. It's not intimidating with lots of line, rigging or sails. We have only two sails - the main and a genoa. All lines lead to the cockpit and it could easily be sailed by a single-hander. It's a piece of cake to handle for a couple. The main is pretty big so a power winch is nice to get it raised. The helm is raised so you can see over the top of the cabin to view anything coming at you (something you can't do on the 38 Seawind) on both sides. The twin engines make handling in tight quarters or strong winds very easy. You can do a 360 degree turn in place.

Here's what I don't like about our boat. In my opinion the designers of the 2001 interior space put too much emphasis on looks and not enough on function, practicality or good use of space. When you take the wood paneling off in every stateroom you find large areas of dead space not used for anything. They could have utilized this space for tons more practical storage of all the small things you have when you live on a boat - book shelves, storage compartments, clothing cubbies - you name it. There is wasted dead space all over the boat and that is frustrating when you are living on it.

The curved settee of the dining area of our boat is a travesty and should be abolished. You can't sleep on it during rough watches. There are times when I wish that the off-watch person could be closer to the helm to keep an eye on the on-watch person. You just can't do it because the only place to sleep is in your bedroom. The curved settee is also a pain in the ass because there is no place to "flop" and read a book with your legs up except in your bedroom. There is no seating with a straight back in the entire boat and it is impossible to get comfortable for lounging, reading or movie watching unless you are in your bedroom. You get the picture - the only comfortable seating is propped up on your bed with pillows. The dining table should be able to be reduced with fold down leaves or be able to be lowered or rotated. The outside table should be the same way. The seating outside around the cockpit is also formed by curved fiberglass and it too, is very uncomfortable to sit at for long.

For comparisons, I have been on newer Seawinds, newer and older Fountaines, older Catanas and a new Leopard. The newer boats of those makers have absolutely lovely interior design and use of space. The older catamarans of all the companies were very similar in design, and did not have all the thoughtful finishing touches like the newer ones did.

The Leopard was the one catamaran that I thought was impressive for several reason. It was lovely on the inside with lots of thoughtful touches. Like a lot of new models, it had a very nice kitchen down in a pontoon which leaves much more room in the main area for comfortable seating and entertaining. It is an interesting idea to me, but I am not sure it would be good underway in rougher weather since I get seasick. Being able to pop easily into and out of the kitchen when it's rough is nice for me.

My favorite thing about the Leopard was in the forward pontoons in the bow. Our bows are two "watertight" areas that are supposed to keep the boat afloat if it's taking on water. They are cavernous spaces that we throw lots of junk into (floaties, extra fishing poles, storm sail, etc.) It all ends up in a heap on the curved floor. I wonder if it will still keep us afloat because we have so much stuff crammed in there willy-nilly. What if there was a hole in the bow? How would we get to it through all our junk? The Leopard has the same watertight bow areas but on the Leopard the bottom third is taken up with a fiber-glassed in flotation foam. This provides a very nice flat floor for putting your stuff down on and cuts down the amount of room you get to stuff things into. Also common sense tells me that the most likely place you are going to get a hole would be in the lower forward section of your bow from running into a rock. The fact that the smaller glassed in flotation foam area would cut down on the amount of boat that could flood seems like a good idea to me, even though you would only be able to patch the hole from the outside of the boat.

Obviously, I am not a boat builder and have no real knowledge about boat design. I only know what I have learned from three years of observation and living on one. I really appreciate the sturdiness of our boat and the ease of use. It sails pretty good in my opinion (though that is something I don't know much about.) All of my real complaints are about cosmetic things which affect my comfort and if we wanted to spend some money, we could fix. So, all in all, I would have to say this Lagoon has been a great boat for us.

Regarding anchorages - there are few anchorages in the Sea of Cortez that we have found which are only accessible to shallow draft boats. The only one that comes to mind is Teacapan. There are some anchorages that deep draft boats have to pay attention to tides like the pond at Estanque. In most anchorages, we anchor close in to shore in 6 - 15 feet of water and that affords us more protection and less wind, but the deeper draft boats are there with us, just anchored out at 20 feet.

A Change of Plans

2011-07-06T10:58:00.001-07:00

Nearly every one of my posts could be titled "A Change of Plans" it seems. Me and the rest of the cruisers. You have to flexible between weather, breakdowns, immigration busts, injuries, and the like. Sometimes it seems like just when you make a decision, something happens and you have to come up with Plan B, or C, or D.

Plan "A" was to boogie up to Puerto Penasco and leave the boat there for a month or more while we drove home to the States. There were several advantages to that - Puerto Penasco is WAY out of the hurricane area, we got to be ahead of the herd of cruisers who are on their way up, we would get to enjoy the N. Sea of C when it was a little cooler (July) and miss some of the hottest times in the N. Sea of C (August/Sept), and very few cruisers get up there so it seemed like we would have the place to ourselves.

While we were here in Santa Rosalia, we asked the marina manager to call ahead to the Singlar in Penasco and make a reservation. The word came back that they were full. No openings. Even the Santa Rosalia manager was surprised! It's usually empty. There are other marinas in Peurto Penasco but since we had never been there, we were leary to make a reservation at one and then find out when we got there that it was a dump. The Singlar chain of marinas are all pretty nice, but there is no guarantee for other marinas. We've occasionally seen marinas in Mexico that we would not dream of using, let alone leave our HOME at unattended for a month and a half. It was too big of a risk for us to take. So we went with Plan B.

We're leaving the boat here in Santa Rosalia and we are going home from here. We've been working through all of our chores that we need to do before we can leave the boat. The list is long, but the work is going well. Plan B has some disadvantages - we'll be behind the herd now, we won't miss any of the really hot time, and our trip has to be shorter since Santa Rosalia's potential of being hit by hurricanes increases significantly in early August. But there are two advantages, the car is here and we have a slip in the marina. That's good enough for us. We hope to be leaving by Saturday. USA here we come!

Santa Rosalia Silliness

2011-07-03T15:53:00.001-07:00

Tres Amigos - Patrick, Rich (Third Day) and Ethan (Eyoni)

Just Enjoying a Mexican Evening like the Mexicans do - hanging out in the town plaza, chatting with friends, having a great meal at one of the dozens of street side stands.

We have been having the best time here at Santa Rosalia. There's a great group of cruisers tied to the dock. We are surrounded by friends we've known for years (Airborne, Eyoni, Wavesweeper), friends we are just getting to know (Hotel California and Adirondack) and friends we've just met like Gypsy and Firefly.

The marina is small and it is packed (not one slip left!). Best of all, everyone is just very nice. We all have been having a lot of fun together - dinners on board, dinners in town, cocktails, impromptu gab sessions on the dock, shopping trips together, dinghy fishing trips and all sorts of interactions. Fishing has been really good too, and Patrick and Jack landed a 32" dorado in the dinghy right off the harbor. All in all, it's been a hoot.

Even with all this fun, I think the highlight so far was when Rich on Third Day swung into town on his car drive down the Baja. Most of the boats on the dock hadn't met Rich, but when they heard that Eyoni and JaM crews were heading into George's Burgers with Rich (a little street side stand that makes fabulous burgers) everyone was in for the fun. So after everyone gathered on JaM for a few cocktails, all 18 of us hiked into town at dusk.

It was going to be a fun night any way you sliced it, but then Nancy and her camera added a whole new element of fun. Nancy is just one those special people who is open and friendly and generous with just about everyone. I could not believe it when she befriended a 5 year old Mexican boy who was fascinated with her camera - her big, expensive, delicate and complicated camera. Nancy took her beloved camera off from around her neck and put it around Alejandro's neck. After teaching him a few things about aiming and pushing the button, she let him roam the plaza taking photos of whatever caught his fancy for about an hour. Whenever he came our way, we struck poses for him. His delight was infectious. It's hard to describe what a hysterically funny evening it was, but Nancy does a great job explaining it better on her blog eyoni.blogspot.com

Jack and Nancy in an avante guarde pose

Zada, Patrick and Laura

More Pics from the last few weeks

2011-06-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

"I'm Living the Dukes of Hazard!"

this was Jack's war cry after his driving lessons in Escondido. Do you remember how excited you were to learn to drive? With that attitude, you can see why I was screaming in the back while he was driving. He actually wanted to do donuts in the parking lot! And there is just something so very wrong about putting volvo station wagons and the Dukes of Hazard together.

Rudy and Laura

Jack and Zada

We believe they are the only two kids in the N. Sea of C this year.

The Cruiser's Shrine at San Juanico -

it was fun to walk around and read the names of friends from years past.

This was Jack's offering from two years ago. It's hard to read in the sunlight,
but it says SV JAM Jack and Rudy. Patrick and I are only the hired help.

Proof that Jack had a happy childhood - see the smile?

Walking San Juanico's beach with Eyoni

Bad Camera Karma (what did I do to deserve this?) plagues us, leaving us with over $500 USD of two broken cameras, neither of which is over a year old. Oh, how painful. Thankfully we ran into Eyoni and Nancy shared some pics, as mentioned above. Since these will be the last pictures you all will see from us before we return from the States, I thought I would post a few more.

Once we finish our chores and leave Santa Rosalia in a couple days, you will probably not be hearing much from us for about a month. There is very little internet available north from here, and our sail mail is not working so we can't post through our SSB radio.

Cheers,

Laura

It's Time for the Great Annual Sweat-Off in Santa Rosalia

2011-06-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

We got into the Santa Rosalia marina yesterday afternoon and within seconds of tying the lines, we all sprang into action. Jack and I had already pulled the window unit air-conditioner out from storage under my bed and I began installing it in the front hatch. Meanwhile, Patrick and Jack pulled out the giant green tarp (20'x40') that we tent over our cabin roof for shade and got the power lines layed out. We had shade and a functioning air-conditioner in about 20 minutes. Every year we get faster on our times.

Santa Rosalia is (as I have mentioned numerous times in the past on this blog) the virtual epicenter of hellish heat. I don't think there is anywhere in the Baja hotter. The walls of the harbor concentrate the heat and block any refreshing breeze. Santa Rosalia is the last good provisioning center on the Baja side before you venture off into the wilderness of the upper Sea of C, so every year you have to come here for the last good (read cheaper and more abundant) shop. Santa Rosalia is the sole reason we have an air-conditioner on board. We bought the unit after our first experience in Santa Rosalia two years ago. We basically store it all year round and only pull it out for our time here (although this year it certainly came in handy when we were on the hard in La Paz!).

We will be in Santa Rosalia for a few days while Patrick takes the bus back down to Escondido and brings the car up to here. We'll provision and then point the boat north on our way to Puerto Penasco.

Busted! Illegal Immigrants in Mexico - Learn from our Mistake

2011-06-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

It's true. America is up in arms about the illegal Mexicans flooding our lands, but there is a very large group of illegal American (and Canadian) immigrants in Mexico, and we were some of them! And we just got caught.

It's a hot topic for the cruisers infiltrating Mexico. Every person entering Mexico receives a visa for 180 days, but then you have to leave the country and come back in again to get another 180 day visa. Some visitors here opt to get an FM3 instead which takes more paperwork, time and money but it grants the bearer 1 year in Mexico before needing to be renewed. Sometimes, people let their 180 day visas lapse before they leave the country for a trip home.

For the last three years, we have been very careful to stay legal, and even paid about $700 USD for our FM3's in La Cruz since we knew we would not be going home for a long time. Our FM3's were timed to run out in February 2011 which was perfect when we were planning to be leaving for Hawaii around then. And then our plans changed. We never went back to La Cruz so we couldn't renew and we did not want to pay hundreds of dollars to go through the process again, in another town.

We knew Jack was going to be left high and dry before we were all able to get home again in August this year. I went home in December and got a 180 day visa which took me to June17th 2011. Patrick went to the States in November 2010 and May 2011, so he was good until November 2011, but Jack was completely illegal since his FM3 ran out in February 2011. We were not happy that Jack was illegal, but we figured our odds were good for not getting caught, and we knew Jack was going home in the summer on our car trip.

And then we went to Puerto Escondido on the Baja Peninsula. It's a lovely port with a large group of nice, year-round, cruising people. You would think there wouldn't be a problem, but things are a little stirred up in Escondido right now. I don't know the ins and outs of the problem, but the gist is that the management of the marina is up in arms about a situation with one cruiser and it has blown up to involve Mexican government officials. The back lash of that was that a panga full of Mexican immigration officers, marina officials, and other Mexican government employees took a tour of the anchorage and stopped at just three boats asking for immigration paperwork. And we were one of those lucky boats. It's absolutely unheard of to have immigration officials roaming anchorages in pangas, so we were truly in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we were caught, dead to rights.

Patrick was not on board, so I was left to deal with them. I handed them our passports and the 180 day visas that we had. They were mad that mine was running out in five days and that Jack didn't have one. Then they asked about our past paperwork and I told them we had expired FM3's. They asked for those and got even angrier. Evidently FM3's do not "just expire" like driver's licenses or US passports. They are supposed to be surrendered and cancelled. And if you do not comply with that, there are big fines. Evidently it is a serious offense. The main person talking, looked at me and said, "You have an appointment with me tomorrow at 10 a.m. at my office. There will be many fines to pay." I was sick.

So the next morning, we all three got scrubbed up, shiny and clean in our best clothing (that's not saying much, but we looked fairly respectable!). We got to our appointment early and promptly at 10 a.m. we were ushered back to meet with the official. And then we had the typical Mexican experience. The offical was warm, friendly and gracious. She explained our mistake about not cancelling and surrendering the FM3's and asked us about our travels and whether we liked Mexico. Then she said she wasn't going to fine us for not taking care of our FM3's. And then she asked us when we were planning to leave Mexico. We said we were planning to go home at the beginning of August and she cheerfully told us she would give extensions to Jack and me so we would be legal until then. And she wasn't going to charge us for those either!

Patrick and I basically sat there with out mouths open, just nodding and saying "Gracias". We were very lucky. You may not be as lucky. Learn from our mistake. If you do have an FM3 just be aware that you have to surrender it and have it cancelled when you are done using it. They do not simply expire. And try to stay legal. Go home on time!

A New Type of Cruising

2011-06-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

We're happy to report that our boat is working perfectly now! Our stay in La Paz was long but well worth it now that all the work is done. We were thrilled that our new paint job has gained us about two knots of speed (which goes to show how bad it was.) Our sail drives are purring along and appear to be working well. Our wax job was quickly lost under a thick coat of salt spray, but that's to be expected.

Our biggest bit of news is the change that having a car brings to the cruising life. It's just a big paperweight that you have to take care of but, when you have a car in a city it suddenly makes the provisioning difficulties disappear. No more one mile tromps through city streets in the pounding sunshine to the grocery store and then the cab ride back. No more struggling to get to three different stores in one day using public transportation. Got a hankering for that taco stand across town? No problem now. Just hop in the air-conditioned spendor and settle down into the leather seats. Oh the luxury! Having a car is definitely a luxury that you don't appreciate until you have lived without one. It's so ingrained in most Americans' lives that I don't think people can even imagine life without one.

We left the car behind in La Paz while we traveled up to Puerto Escondido by boat. Once here, Patrick and Jack took the bus to La Paz, picked up the car and drove it up to Escondido. We will leave it here when we travel north to Santa Rosalia, and then perform the same procedure to get it to Santa Rosalia. We will continue to play hop-scotch with the car and the boat and move on up north. The plan is that eventually we will leave the boat for a month or two this summer and take the car up through the States on a car trip. Grand Canyon, here we come!

Leaving La Paz, Take 2

2011-05-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well it's been about five or six weeks since the last time we tried to leave La Paz. We are hoping the second attempt goes better. We're busy this morning scrubbing the boat, putting things away and tying things down. Our next posting should come from Loreto in about a week or two if things go well. Until then, we're keeping our fingers crossed that the sail drive repair was good, and that Jack's knee continues to improve.

It's not all fun and games

2011-05-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

Every life has its ups and downs. Yesterday was just one of those days when the downs all came at once! If the gods had been smiling on us, we would already be out in an anchorage, headed north on our annual migration into the non-hurricane zone. Instead we are still tied to the dock in La Paz being pushed around by a lovely south wind that could be blowing us north if only we were luckier.

The problem? It's not the boat. It's injuries. Three of our four crewmen are down with bum legs in the last 24 hours. Patrick's limping around in great pain right now just because he is old. So, light duty for Patrick, which means no provisioning the boat to leave. Rudy had the unfortunate accident of ripping his dew claw completely out of his paw when he was climbing back on the boat. (Out of all the injuries, his is the one that makes me grimace - Ouch!) So no walking on land for Rudy until it heals over a bit since infections are such a reality down in the tropics/sub-tropics. But the icing on the cake was when Jack came home from playing with a friend with half the skin on his knee missing, and deep gashes running down his leg.

What could they possibly be playing that would cause such an injury? Well, in the tradition of thirteen year olds everywhere (but especially boys) it really wasn't such a bad idea on the scale of 1 to 10. They weren't playing with gasoline or fireworks. They hadn't climbed to the top of the garage roof to jump their skateboards off the roof. They hadn't made a pipebomb from dismantled shotgun shells and copper piping. Instead Jack was simply out knee-boarding behind the dinghy with his friend driving. That's not dangerous, really. But then Jack started jumping his kneeboard off of a mooring ball so he could get some air. He did it successfully quite a few times. Unfortunately, there's always that time when it doesn't go quite right. And the fact remains, it's just not a good idea to hit solid objects on anything when you are going at a fast rate of speed. The unforeseen complication was that the mooring ball had lots of silver-dollar sized barnacles growing on the bottom of it. Jack can now tell you from experience that running into barnacles at a high speed is not a good thing. (I could have told you that without doing it, but then I am 44). We took one look at it and got the car keys out to take him to a clinic for a doctor to patch him up.

As mentioned, infections are something that you must diligently watch out for in the tropics. Deep skin injuries caused by nasty things like barnacles, sustained while swimming in the salt water off a harbor where people don't use their sewage holding tanks is just an infection waiting to happen. So Jack is on antibiotics and we are going to hang around in La Paz for a day or so until we are sure that his wound does not become infected. We would not want to be far from a doctor if any complications start up.

The picture was taken by his friend Al and posted on Facebook, so you know Jack going to be just fine. If it's really bad, I don't think they stop and take pictures! Even thriteen year old's have some sense.

Wax On....Wax Off

2011-05-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling great empathy for the Karate Kid in the last few days, except we had the electric buffer (Thank God). My arms still feel like lead lumps. Patrick has a deep-seated psychological aberration known as "wax envy". Every time we see an especially shiny boat, he gets very depressed. Finally we have gotten our boat to a point that he can feel proud. It looks pretty good for a ten year old boat. It should stay that way for maybe a month.

It's Monday morning and our work is finished. We have yet to complete the installation of the bilge pumps, but we don't have to be on the hard to finish that project, so we are calling it good. As long as the wind stays low today, we will splash back in the water. If it gets too windy, we won't do it since we are such a tight squeeze in the boat launch that we would probably get banged up and scratched if the wind caught us.

And Now for a Shameless Commercial Plug

I cannot say enough good about this miracle product. Along with Patrick's wax envy he is also acutely conscious of the greenish scum line along the water line of the boat, and rust stains on the fiberglass. Before we used a rubbing compound to get these tough stains out and it was a LOT of work and never really got clean. Then we found "MaryKate On and Off Gel". This gel took the stains away in less than a minute right before our very eyes. We de-scummed the water line in about 20 minutes of work. Simply brush it on, wait about a minute and then rinse it off. No scrubbing, no rubbing, no big mess. Even though I am not affiliated with the company I am tempted to offer a Money Back Guarantee if you buy this product. You will not be sorry!

The Beatings Continue Until Morale Improves...

2011-05-20T19:14:00.001-07:00

Still on the hard and it's getting harder to take. I don't know how people survive when they have a serious refit to do that keeps them on the hard for months. God bless the poor beggars. Meanwhile our work is progressing really well. The starboard sail drive is installed, the port sail drive has new seals, and the bottom is painted with two coats on all, three coats on the waterline. We were on line to be dropped back in the water tomorrow (Saturday) but decided to be kind to ourselves and slow the work level down and stay the weekend. Since the yard is closed Sunday, we get an extra day of work in a deserted yard - that should be a pleasure! Our last jobs include installing the automatic bilge pumps and cleaning and waxing the hulls. Oh Joy of Joys. Thankfully we have an electric buffer.

We ended up using twice as much paint as the last (crappy) paint job and so we found ourselves a can short since we weren't thinning it with thinner like the last boatyard did. We had brought down black bottom paint and had one can left which was not going to be enough to cover the two hulls for the second coat. So we scoured La Paz and found the exact same brand and type of paint - only in blue. But being desperate, we bought the blue paint and a big bucket and combined the two. It turned into a lovely deep charcoal-navy blue. It looks really good and I like it so much better than the black. It looks great with the navy blue boot stripe. Serendipity!

Marina Singlar yard in La Paz has been a great experience so far. The workers under Enrique Abaroa are very kind and professional. We are very happy so far with how this is turning out.

It's Not Easy on the Hard

2011-05-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much about our life while we were hanging out waiting in La Paz, trying to figure out how we were going to get repaired and moving again. It was just too depressing. We could have simply bought a brand new sail drive (our fourth) to replace the sail drive that had failed. We just weren't thrilled at that prospect since the $4,000 USD investment doesn't seems to last long before it begins to fail again and allow salt water into the engine. When we bought the boat the two brand new sail drives failed after two weeks of use and were replaced in early 2009 with another brand new one, and one was rebuilt. Things were fine until the starboard side began showing signs of saltwater intrusion again about six months ago and we nursed it along until April when the ball bearings began to go out. After all those failures, we are feeling very leery of trusting the wisdom of buying another brand new sail drive.

So we devised a new plan. When we first purchased our boat in 2008, a condition of the sale was to replace the sail drives since they were pitted and corroded from sitting in a marina 7 years. Instead of throwing them away, Patrick stored them in a storage locker in Everett, Washington just in case of a rainy day. Wise man. We have decided that it couldn't hurt to just refurbish one of them for a thousand dollars, and put that on. This way we save about $3000 USD and it will probably last as long as a new one anyway. Then we will take the one that is broken now and have it refurbished. We will find a place to carry it on board waiting for the one from Everett to fail. We plan to just keep switching them out and refurbing them as needed. That way, we will never have to be broken down waiting in some foreign port for months for parts to arrive. After our experience with our Yanmar sail drives, you can see how confident we are in them.

So on April 30th, Patrick flew "home" to Everett, picked up our car that had been in storage there and the sail drive, visited with friends and family and then hightailed it to California where List Marine in Sausalito refurbished the sail drive. He made it back to La Paz in about two weeks, arriving here May 12th. Jack, Rudy and I stayed on the boat, anchored out in the La Paz harbor during that time.

It took a few days to get reacquainted and rested and then we were hauled out of the water on May 16th at the Singlar Marina in La Paz. It really was a great experience and the crew did a professional job. Our boat is so wide that there was only about nine inches total to spare to squeeze between the concrete sides of the boat haul out slip. But everything went perfectly and we were hauled without a scratch. It was very impressive.

And now begins life on the hard. Some (smart) people simply rent a hotel room while their boat is on the hard, but we have decided to live on it while it is being worked on. We know that it will motivate us to get the job done quick, and we can keep a close eye on the work being done. Since we are parked over concrete in a boat yard, no water can go through the through-hulls which means no dishwashing, no handwashing, no toilet, and no shower on board. Also we are suspended fifteen feet in the air, above concrete in a crowded boat yard with boats all around - so no privacy, and no air. However, there is lots of noise, lots of toxic dust, and lots of heat reflected off the concrete.

We're taking advantage of this opportunity to get not only our starboard sail drive replaced (Patrick and a mechanic are working together on this), but we will also replace the seals on the port sail drive, and paint the bottom of our boat (we're doing it ourselves so we don't have to worry about getting a crappy paint job), and Patrick is going to install automatic bilge pumps, something that our boat did not come with. The automatic bilge pumps will probably never be used, but the day that you need them would be a disaster if you did not have them. The automatic bilge pump is wired in so that if there is ever standing water in the bilge, it automatically pumps it out. Right now our boat could be filling up with water and it is possible that we would only figure it out and manually start up the bilge pump when the water rose above the floor boards. So with all of this work to do, we are optomistically hoping to be out of the boat yard in a week. We shall see. Let the work begin.

Making Bagels

2011-05-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

Every year in Mexico, more and more food products are becoming available to help keep the cravings for “a taste of home” at bay. But there are some things that just haven’t shown up yet - Thai food, good dill pickles, and bagels to name a few. There’s not much I can do about the pickles except schlepp them down from the US. Good Thai food is just something that we won’t be getting in Mexico for some time, I think. But I’m happy to say that I now can make my own bagels, thanks to Colin on Mamabird who passed this recipe along.

If you already know how to make bread, then it’s not too difficult to add this recipe to your repetoire. To make about a dozen bagels, mix the following ingredients in a bowl:

3 cups flour
1 cup plus a couple tablespoons hot water (wetter dough makes for a crispier crust, but is more annoying to knead),
Couple tablespoons of gluten if you have it (I don‘t have this so I just omit this and it‘s fine.)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1-2 teaspoons Mexican instant dry yeast (more yeast = lighter bagels).

Knead the dough 5 to 10 minutes on a floured surface. Then let the dough rest in a warm place for 20-30 mins. Put a large pot of water on to boil. Pull off a piece of dough, roll into a snake shape and then form into a loop, add a dab of water where the ends overlap and press together.

When the water is boiling, drop the bagels in, cooking just a few at a time. At first they sink, but then rise to the surface. Boil 2 minutes on each side. Remove from the water and place on a greased baking sheet that has cornmeal sprinkled on it. (A little hint, I first pull them out of the water and put them on a plate with some paper toweling so they are not sopping wet when I put them on the cookie sheet.)

Brush a little beaten egg white over the top of the bagels to help them brown. You can jazz up your bagels by sprinkling some mix of fresh diced onion, fresh minced garlic, dried onion, grated cheese, Italian herb mix, sesame seeds, or whatever appeals to you over the top. Or you can leave them plain.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until lightly golden brown. My oven is not very constant or hot, so I can’t really tell how long they would cook in a good oven that has temperature control, so keep an eye on them when you are cooking them in your oven for the first time. I tend to very slightly under-cook so that the inside is still a tad doughy, then cut in half and toast.

They are so yummy and have a great texture. Philadelphia cream cheese is available everywhere in Mexico and costs around 17 pesos for an 8 oz bar ($1.40 USD?) so you won’t go broke enjoying your taste of home. Now if only I could find some lox.

Heaven on the Side of a Road

2011-05-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe. Patrick and I were nearly stunned. But we can't deny it, we have found The BEST EVER in All of Mexico shrimp tacos. There couldn't possibly be one better. Over the last years we've been evaluating the taco stands of different locations and rating them. We looked at everything - ease of seating, the number of condiments available for garnishing, the amount of filling, the freshness of the tortilla, the choice of stuffings. Shrimp tacos are our favorite and the ones we focused most on finding. We've covered a lot of ground in Mexico and eaten at a lot of taco stands and had come up with a couple shrimp taco stands that were superlative.

The Top Two BLP (before La Paz) were equals since each one had a little edge over the other for different reasons. Pepe's in Santa Rosalia was just really good and had some interesting garnishes (superb, spicy pickled onions, and corn relish in cream sauce) but no place to sit. The Fish Market in Mazatlan was just like a slice of California in a cute little store and offered a choice of octopus, scallops, or shrimp either grilled or deep-fried in batter but did not offer any extra garnishes to add to your taco. Eating at either establishment was a guaranteed good meal. Pepe's was cheaper at 13 pesos per shrimp taco, and the Fish Market was about 22 pesos per taco if I remember correctly.

And then in La Paz, we found Tacos Estadio. It is to die for and gets full star rating on ALL the criteria. It's a street taco stand on a wide sidewalk with lots of good seating in the shade. The shrimp and fish have the best tasting coating ever. The meat is perfectly cooked, crispy and not greasy. They have a separate cart loaded with mounds of freshly made condiments to pour over the top - shredded cabbage, limes, seven different sauces, guacamole, salsa fresca, pickled onions, roasted peppers, and on and on). They are absolutely the most GENEROUS stand and give every customer about 11 shrimp on each taco. If you order a fish taco you get nearly a WHOLE fillet on your taco. It's incredible. Each time you go there and take your first bite, you just can't help but sigh. It is incredible. Then you try to slow yourself down so you can enjoy the eating experience but before you know it, your two tacos are gone. There's no hope of ordering another because your stomach would split open from being too stuffed. All you can do is look forward to your next visit.

And it's hard to believe that heaven can be had for sixteen pesos. Tacos Estadio is across the street from Allende Books and on the corner. It's a walk from the marina but it help work up the appetite.

The SSB and Me

2011-05-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

We are still stuck awaiting repairs and there’s nothing of much interest going on, so I’ll take this opportunity to do a blog or two that could be helpful to all those potential cruisers at home who are either dreaming or actively working on getting out here.

One of the things I have been most surprised at over the last two and half years has been the evolution of my relationship with our SSB (single side band radio). In my land-based life I didn’t even know there was such a thing or what it would be used for. Now it is an integral part of our daily life and I cannot imagine cruising without one. It plays several vital roles - it’s one of the major pieces of safety equipment on board; helps us keep track of friends who are spread out over hundreds of miles; it provides great entertainment; it’s our primary weather source; and it sends and receives emails from what some of you guys on land like to call “The Real World”. All in one piece of equipment and we haven’t even been using all its functions. We can also receive weather fax GRIB files, broadcast on Ham radio frequencies, and listen to AM radio. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out there are other uses that I don’t even know about.

When we were still on land trying to figure out what we needed to cruise, we debated the SSB issue for some time. Not everyone has one, or they have cheaper units that can receive signals, but not transmit. It’s pretty expensive at a thousand or two, to buy and install one that transmits and receives. We finally decided that it would be good from a safety standpoint to have one so that we would have a chance to contact the outside world in a true emergency. Though that is still an important function, our SSB is used for so much more.

Every day when we are out in the anchorages, we listen to at least one of three SSB radio nets that run seven days a week - the Amigo Net and Sonrisa Net in the morning and the Southbound Net at night. Each of those nets provides weather and check-ins for boats in the Mexico area so you can find out who is where, what weather conditions are like there, and hear about any big fish caught or other news-worthy announcements (breakdowns, thefts, good restaurants). All in all, it’s pretty entertaining (and educational!) to listen to the nets and they have come to take the place of TV shows in our life. It’s Days Of Our Lives without the visuals. Except in this soap opera/comedy-drama, you can take a part, ad-lib your own lines and participate. Even better, you get to meet the show’s characters out in the anchorages.

When we first started, we were only “lurkers” on the marine radio nets - the silent multitude who abstain from participating but who listen. In a few weeks, Patrick was comfortable enough to do our ship’s first check-in on a marine radio net. I felt brave enough to grab the mike and check-in JaM after about six months. By then, Patrick had volunteered to be a Net Controller for the Southbound net once a week. It was another six months or so before I became a Net Controller for the Amigo Net once per week. Think of the net controller like the TV Game Show Host; they set the tempo of the Net and keep it rolling smoothly along, making sure everyone who wants gets a chance to check-in and they contact the weather man and take the weather. Somewhere along the way we began listening to nets (like Sonrisa) run on the Ham radio frequencies, but since neither of us had ham licenses we were unable to speak, just listen.

The email function of the SSB has been one of the only ways we’re able to keep in contact with our family and friends when we were out in anchorages far from internet or phone access. I still don’t know how it works but you can type up an email on your computer, hook your computer to your SSB and then send your written words out over the radio waves to someone’s internet email account. I think it’s magic so I don’t question it, I just do it. It’s brilliant.

But now, I’ve just completed the steps to access another feature of our SSB - the ham radio. Last month I took the ham radio test in La Paz. I’ve been waiting months to be in the right place at the right time to take the ham test. To broadcast on ham frequencies, you need a ham license which means you have to pass some tests. I haven’t crammed for a test in a long time and was very happy to find out that my brain still works pretty much like it used to, despite being sun-baked in a beer sauce for a couple years. You have to assimilate a lot of information about radio frequencies, propagation, radio equipment, and electricity - things which I have never had a clue about. But happily I crammed for a week, and managed to pass both the Technician class test and the General class test, making me eligible to participate in the Sonrisa net and a lot of other nets (but not Patrick - hee hee hee). The Ham radio nets open the door to an even bigger and cooler network of people. The hamsters tend to be a little more serious, long-term, and experienced cruisers. All things I would like to be.

Though I had no idea how important the SSB would become in my life back then, I can honestly tell you that buying one was one of the best decisions we made in that frantic two weeks of outfitting the boat. We chose an ICOM IC-M700PRO. It’s a larger unit than many, but we had the room for it at our Navigation Station and the larger size just means that it’s cheaper to buy since everyone wants the sleek little ones. I’m sure there are even more choices on the market now. So in conclusion, when you’re getting ready for your cruise, investigate getting an SSB. The longer you are planning to be out, and the more remote places you are going, the more useful it would be. If you decide to get one, then while you’re at - get your ham license now. It’s hard to find a test out here!

Broken Down in La Paz Ain't Sooo Bad....

2011-04-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

Honestly, if you have to be broken down, it's not too bad a place to choose. It's certainly a lot better place to find ourselves than our friends on Ceilydh who are 200 miles from the Marquesas with only one rudder (just like us with one engine, a catamaran really isn't meant to only have one rudder!) Jokes aside, we are worried for them and are sending them the best as they make their way to safety.

Anyway, La Paz is a lovely town and the weather is warm and sunny with pretty benign winds. The harbor at La Paz offers a safe place to anchor without incurring marina fees. There are several other teens around for Jack to hang with. There is a great beach for Rudy to play on. And there is a nearby bar with good internet for me. (You know it's bad when the bartender comes around to shake your hand and kiss you on the cheek every time you come into the bar!)

And so, we sit here in La Paz figuring out our plan. The sail drive needs to be completely replaced which would mean a $5,000+ USD bill for us. So that would be about 3 or more months budget - Ouch! Unfortunately, that sail drive would be the 4th completely new Yanmar sail drive placed on the boat in 2 and half years by certified Yanmar mechanics. Not counting the one that was simply rebuilt when it failed after one month of use. Believe me, it is a long story and it will be coming to a computer near you soon!

But in the meantime, we are enjoying our predicament as best we can and counting the many blessings we have.

My Secret Beach

2011-04-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

(We are currently still in La Paz waiting for a resolution to our sail drive issue, but we found this beach before our breakdown.)

One of Jack's and my favorite activities is beachcombing. Patrick loves it too because it means he gets the boat all to himself while we beachcomb. Jack looks for fishing lures (it's amazing how many rapalas he finds in good shape) and I look for shells.

Since this is our third season in the Sea, our goal is to seek out the "unknown anchorage." We're going to try to be more like our friends on Eyoni who are always heading off the beaten path. We've already seen many of the no-brainer anchorages that are well known, well-written about and often crowded. Anyone looking at a map could figure out that they would provide good shelter. This time we are consulting the old guide books and Google Earth to see if any little indent looks promising for a good night's sleep and a new experience. Since they aren't the deepest of coves, you have to be a little more careful of your weather conditions and always post a "rock watch" to make sure there aren't any free-standing obstacles or reefs in the anchorage.

There are two advantages the unknown anchorage offers - no neighbors and less-walked beaches. In this lower section of the Baja, we didn't think we would find anything very interesting since there are so many cruisers in this area right now. After all, this is the "cruising season" of the Sea of Cortez. The area is crawling with cruisers and the popular anchorages have up to 18 boats in them. Most everyone is finished on the mainland coast for the winter and they come here for a few months before packing up the boat and leaving it in a marina before the hurricane season. By June, the part-timer cruisers will be back home, leaving the Sea to all the crazy people willing to brave the heat and hurricanes.

So, it didn't seem possible that we would find a beach that someone hadn't walked just that morning. Oh, but we did! We went to a little indent on an island that we couldn't find mentioned in any of the cruising guides we have on board. Our reward was finding a beach that had more amazing shells than I have ever seen on any other beach. One type of shell (the one with the triangular markings) I have never found any place else! Most beaches offer up one or two shells in good shape, but usually sun bleached, their deep colors often faded to cream with faint markings. On this beach I found a hatful of beautiful shells with deep colors, and shiny finishes. It was amazing. I felt like a kid on an Easter Egg hunt - one beautiful treasure after another.

The pictures show a close up of the shells with the triangular markings (I don't have a shell identification book so I don't know the names). All of the shells on the blue cloth are the ones that I found on our Secret Beach in just an hour of looking.

Broken Down and Back in La Paz - A new adventure begins

2011-04-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

We just set the hook down in the harbor of La Paz, about six months earlier than we intended. It's pretty disappointing, but like anything in life, every situation has a good and bad side.

We left La Paz all excited to start our continued exploration of the Sea of Cortez about two weeks ago. We were having a great time hitting new anchorages, and finding a new one of our own. Then one morning, we were messing around trying our hand at sailing off the anchor (how I wish sometimes that there was a salty old sailor stuffed in a closet somewhere on the boat that I could pull out for consultations!) We got it figured out and were sailing off but the wind was a little light to go very fast so I started up one engine to give us a boost. (I know, it's cheating, but sometimes you just want to GET someplace. My friends call me the Deisel Queen.) And then Jack came out on deck and said, "That doesn't sound right." Patrick came out, lifted the engine hatch, and hollered for me to turn off the engine.

The curse of the sail drives had returned. We've been dealing with a little salt water intrusion in our sail drives since we bought the boat. It's a very common occurrance on multihulls. We've been hauled five times and had the sail drives changed twice in the last two and a half years because of it. The current sail drive has had salt water intrusion for about the last year. We had two different mechanics look at the current sail drive in the last couple months and both said it looked ok and to just watch it. Well, the ball bearings finally are giving out. The engine is making a lot of noise but the transmission is not shot yet.

Since that moment we have been working to get back to La Paz, against the wind. Many mono-hull owners have smugly said to me over the years that we have struggled with our one sail drive, "Well, we only have one engine and we do just fine." News flash for Leaners (people who own monohulls) - catamarans are meant to have two engines and they can't manuever in confined spaces with one. Believe me. We had a couple exciting experiences getting our boat off the anchor in the last few days on one engine, in the wind, without hitting other parked boats or the rocks. It's taken us five days to get back since we got pinned down by a strong south wind.

As I said, we haven't been here long enough to have any answers about our repairs. We have a lot to figure out. We may have to go to Mazatlan. Thankfully we have lots of time and no constraints - no visitors are scheduled and the hurricane season won't be a problem for us for another couple months. So we will keep you posted, but for the mean time, we are back in a beautiful city that we are only beginning to know. How many more great taco stands are waiting for us to find?

How to Make the Leap

2011-04-05T16:04:00.000-07:00

We recently received a very nice comment on our blog that I've been thinking about since I read it. I started a private email back to them, but then thought to turn it into a blog post. The comment read: Love your blog! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience. I spend most of my free time dreaming about what you are doing. My family of 5, me being 38 and no where near retirement makes this seem so far away. Maybe you can tell us/me what my wife and I would need financially to get rid of everything and sail away like you? We have agreed that in 10 years when the kids are gone we will sell everything but that doesn't tell us how much residual income we need to have each year to stay "afloat". I am concerned we'll never save enough for this. Any thoughts? Jay and Patty I never really blogged about our jump into this life since we did it on hyperspeed over six months and we barely had time to breathe, let alone blog about it. Our blog starts out on our trip south on our boat. There are a couple blogs I follow right now that deal extensively with all the decisions and steps to disentangle yourself from your present life. I'll give the links here to the stories of one couple who is out now doing it on Zero to Cruising and the other who is a family working toward leaving on Del Viento. You might find those interesting. The biggest thing you need is the guts to jump and will to do it. It's scary and everyone you know is going to be telling you that you are NUTS. Don't believe them. There are lots of people living this life all over the world and they aren't (for the most part) millionaires. Once you have the guts and will, the rest is easy. Well, relatively. It is hard to try to figure out what you will need to be happy in this life when it is so hard to even conceptualize what the life is like. We've been out 2 1/2 years now and we finally know what we need to be happy living on a boat. It's different for everyone. But there are a few bites of wisdom I can tell you that will help you figure out how much money you will need to be happy out here living this life. You need a boat, obviously. The boat you choose has a big impact on your cruise. Keep it simple or you will be sorry. Sailboats are cheaper to run since they sip fuel and wind is free. Buy the smallest sail boat that you will be comfortable on. Two people who like each other don't need a lot of space. If you follow that rule, then you save in several ways. Most importantly, the boat will be more affordable. It will be cheaper to place in marinas. It will have fewer components (heads and the like). Therefore you have less maintenance. Which also means you have more time to play and less time and money spent maintaining. Try as best as you can to own your boat outright. You will make your life much more enjoyable. The simpler you keep your boat, the easier/cheaper/less time it is to maintain. Beyond that bit of advice, the rest is just too dependent on you and what kind of cruising you want to do. Some people love being in marinas and so they will need a lot more money. Some people want to travel the world which is going to be more expensive than hanging around in a relatively cheap area to live. The longer we spend in Mexico the more we figure out how to save money. Right now we are very comfortably living on about $1500 per month. There are several sailing families who publish detailed info on their budgets. One is our friends on Hotspur and the other is our friends on Third Day. I can tell you this with certainty. There are LOTS of retired couples living this life and having a great time. It is completely possible that you and your wife can finagle your way out here and have a great time, if you want to. Save your money, cut back now on your silly expenditures and save, save, save. Stay focused. One of my favorite quotes is "Chance favors the prepared mind."

Back on the Baja

2011-04-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

We've been back on the Baja (our favorite place) about three weeks now. It feels so great to be here. We have been filling our time with little projects and lots of goofing off. Once my sister's visit was over, we spent a few more days hanging around La Paz, and then decided that we needed to get the heck out of Dodge. We headed back out into the islands around La Paz, mostly lazing around but getting a few projects done. I spent two days re-stitching and repairing the dinghy chaps (the sunbrella cover that saves our Zodiac dinghy from sun damage and Rudy's claws). They were made for us two years ago in Mazatlan, and they were definitely showing their age. I have also been spending hours trying to learn everything to pass the upcoming Ham radio test that is scheduled for April 6th. For those of you hoping to cruise some day, I really encourage you to get your Ham License before you go. But that really is another blog for another day.

Rudy, The Huichol God Wanna-Be

2011-03-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

We are now in La Paz on the Baja Peninsula, awaiting the arrival of my sister for a visit. Our crossing from Mazatlan on the mainland to La Paz, was very good, we even had a light south wind to push us along instead of the north winds that have been dominating for the last few months. The crossing covered 225 miles and it took about 36 hours before we were anchoring on Isla Partida near La Paz.

Our crossing was also great since we saw two new sights. First, we are pretty dang sure that we spotted a blue whale on the crossing, close to the boat. Blues are very rare and are the biggest animal on the planet. At 110 feet average adult, they outsize the other whales by tens of feet. The back of the whale was about 20-25 feet across and he had the correct medium grey/blue color. We grabbed our whale identification book and saw that his dorsal fin was also correctly sized and placed in the right spot to be a blue whale. If they were any less rare, we would say we had definitely seen one, but it's like winning the Lotto. Some people do it, but your chances are pretty slim. Truly, it was an amazingly big whale!

And then, Patrick was on morning watch before anyone else was up. The seas were oily, flat calm and he noticed a large lump floating in the water, with birds hovering over it. He was curious and pointed the boat in that direction, but didn't slow the engines since that immediately brings everyone up on deck to see what's happening. Alongside the lump, he realized it was a floating hunk of flesh about four feet by five feet with large suckers on it - a giant squid piece? Then slowly rising to the surface under our boat toward the flesh was the snout and back of a HUGE shark. Patrick said the back was about four to five feet across for as far as he could see. He couldn't see the end of the shark because it disappeared into the blue, under the boat. We don't have a shark identification book, but I don't think many species get that big. Maybe a Great White? Patrick said his knees turned to jelly and then the boat had moved past since it was traveling at 6 knots. Can you believe he didn't wake me???? And he didn't turn around???? I gave him a bad time for that one, let me tell you! I would have loved to have seen that!

But back to the story of the Huichol God Wanna-Be. The Nayarit state which includes San Blas, has a very large population of indigenous Huichol people. The Huichols live in the distant mountains, but they travel down to the lowlands to sell their crafts and go on pilgrimages. The Huichols have their own language and religious beliefs. They are treated like second-class citizens in Mexico. In San Blas, there is a fairly small island (or a large rock) that the Huichol believe to be sacred. The island can be seen from the beach that is on the other side of the sand spit that creates the estuary. Since Rudy loves a good romp on the beach in the surf, one day Patrick grabbed Rudy, Jack and 3rd Day's Jason to go to the beach.

As Patrick's group was crossing over the sand spit from the estuary side to the beach side, they passed a group of Huichols moving in the other direction. They were pristinely dressed in their traditional clothing. They exchanged greetings and went on their separate ways. When Patrick got to the beach he let Rudy off leash and threw the ball. But Rudy went in the other direction, racing down the beach. Patrick followed in time to see him snarfing down bananas in the surf. Rudy adores everything about bananas - even the peel. All around Rudy bananas, oranges and other fruit were floating in the surf along with beautiful candles that had obviously only burned a short time. The Huichol had performed a ceremony and these were their offerings! Oh, the embarrassment! Thank (my) God that the Huichols did not see our idiotic, pure-bred Flabador Eater scarfing up their God offerings! It's just mortifying. After gobbling up all but the last banana, Rudy sat his butt down and waited for Patrick.

Mexcaltitlan - Place of the Herons

2011-02-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

Above is an aerial photo of the village called Mexcaltitlan. It's located on a tiny island in the middle of the mangrove wetlands of the Nayarit coast. A couple days ago, Lori and the kids of 3rd Day joined Patrick, Jack and me on an excursion to visit it. The round trip excursion involved a second-class bus trip, two fairly long taxi drives in tiny sedans crammed with seven people (us and the driver), a ride on a collectivo (small van), and pangas to and from the island. It was quite a journey, and though it didn't go as planned, it was one of those adventures that you can't think about without bursting into laughter.

Mexcaltitlan was worth the effot. This island town is believed to be the ancient homeland of the Aztecs. When the conquistador Cortez met with the Aztec Emporer Montezuma in Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), Montezuma told Cortez that all the Aztecs were immigrants from a land called Aztlan (the place of the herons). The Aztecs had long ago forgotten where that was. All they knew was that Aztlan was a magical island with seven caves. Since then, the archeologists have pegged this town as the place they came from.

By the time we had navigated all the transportation hurdles, and had finally set foot on the island, we found that we had little time for much more than a lunch and a quick look round before we had to leave to catch the last collectivo home. The town was very attractive with narrow cobbled streets (no cars obviously), red tiled roof homes, and a lovely town square. Standing in the town center, looking down the main avenue in both directions, you could see the shores on either side. It is quite a tiny town with about 2000 inhabitants. Of course the museum of the Aztecs that I so wanted to see was closed despite the fact that the sign said it should be opened! Knowing Patrick, he probably called ahead and promised them money if they would close early - he hates museums.

Our lunch was quite the experience. It was one of the strangest meals we've eaten in Mexico. Only shrimp and fish were sold as you can imagine on an island in the middle of nowhere. The most unusual thing was the plate of deep fried, whole shrimp. I usually avoid eating things that still have their eyes on them, but they were pretty good.

As you would imagine, the town survives on fishing and tourism. We saw many vacationing Mexican families who had traveled out to Mexcaltitlan, but we were the only non-native tourists I saw.

Birds of San Blas

2011-02-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

One recent morning, I took our kayak up the estuary on an incoming tide. The current pushed me along with it, past the masses of mangrove trees. I hardly had to paddle. Since I was drifting along not making a sound, I was able to get very close to the birds resting in the mangroves.

Most of the mangroves around the estuary in San Blas have been left untouched, and large sections are even protected so there are many birds, and many types of birds. San Blas is hip to ecotourism and there are several outfits that give guided birdwathcing tours. Accordingly, San Blas has become a mecca for birdwatchers, people like my Dad. In his honor, here are some pictures of the birds I saw - he could probably name them all, alas I cannot. ( 02/25/11 As I figured, my Dad was able to name the birds for me, so I added their names in today.)

Snowy Egret

Osprey

Great Blue Heron

White Ibis

Whimbrel

Tri-Colored Heron (his best guess since the photo isn't quite close enough to make out all identifying features.)

Black-Crowned Night Heron

Snowy Egret

Bad Bottom Rant

2011-02-21T12:40:00.000-08:00

Port Pontoon

As mentioned earlier, we got a HORRIBLE paint job at Abarroa's rail yard in La Paz just a year ago in November 2009. Here are pictures of the deteriorated paint taken a few days ago. Our original bottom paint was that bright marine blue that is so common. That November, we chose to paint the bottom black so that we could keep track of how the paint job was holding up. Within just a few months, the first spots of blue began showing up under the black. (A bottom paint job is "expected" to last about two years in this climate.)

Over the last year, the blue spots just keep getting bigger and spreading over more and more of the boat. The paint job is essentially gone now for all intents and purposes and so the barnacle and seaweed growth is becoming harder and harder to control. We are planning to careen the boat this summer up in the far north of the Sea of Cortez where the tides are more extreme (which will give us more dry time to get the job done over several days) but I wonder if we can keep it going that long. I am a strong believer in the old phrase, "If you want something done right, do it yourself!"

There are lots of stories from cruisers about bottom paint jobs in Mexico. Some have excellent experiences, many don't. We had heard lots of the bad stories and had done everything we could to keep that from happening to us. There are all sorts of tricks to watch for from swapping out a cheaper paint for a more expensive one, to adding paint thinner, or not putting on all the coats of paint they are paid for. One of the best ways to stop this from happening is to monitor the workers constantly. Patrick oversaw the workers, working alongside them, from the paint prep through the painting. When Patrick saw the workers bring out a can of paint thinner, (they like to add it since it makes the paint cover more surface, is easier to work with, but it comprimises the integrity of the paint) he told them not to put it in. They agreed that they would not use it and they set that can aside and did not touch it again. However the next day Patrick found them sneaking paint thinner into the the paint using a different can! We think too much paint thinner is the cause of our problem. The areas that Patrick painted himself with unthinned paint are doing fine. You can see in the pictures the difference. Patrick did the first foot or so of the bows and the three inches around the waterline of the boat.

Not only did Abarroa's do a horrendous job painting, but they also managed to damage our boat with big chunks taken out of our keels, and deep scratches marring both a stainless steel stanchion and a section of fiberglass on the starboard side. It is just too long of a story of ineptitude to repeat here, so I will give the curious a link to our earlier blog post here that documented all of the inept things that happened on that haul out. I know that sometimes you can just get bad service from a good store, but the string of ineptitude along with the horrible outcome is just too much to wish away. If you are thinking of using Abarroa's rail yard in La Paz all I can say is "Buyer beware!"

Below is a close up of Port pontoon - you can follow the tracks of the paint roller the worker was using on the side, and the three inches of paint Patrick painted around the waterline.

Starboard Pontoon

Careening Pictures from San Blas

2011-02-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

Oh the glamorous life of cruising! Scrambling around in the mud, covered in bottom paint, aching arms straining to keep scraping off the mutant barnacles that have taken hold with only a plastic spackle knife as a tool, wading out into potentially crocodile-ridden waters to retrieve the truck brush that was floating away! Oh the good times! Actually it was a lot of fun. The careening went very well. Any day that you can put your boat up on the beach without damaging it is a successful day. And we had Lori and Amy from 3rd Day around to help us have some fun. While we were waiting for the tide to recede enough to get to work, we all played a rousing game of Parcheesi. Then Lori and Amy went off to our favorite taco stand and brought back a hearty lunch we shared on the beach. Good friends are at the heart of the fun of cruising.Cruising is a lot fun, but my God it is not a life for the lazy. There is always another project waiting, and lots of them require a lot of effort. As hard as we worked this day to clean the bottom, it was still a lot easier than it would have been if we had tried to do it while snorkeling around the anchored boat. Our barnacle situation is getting out of control since we got such a crappy bottom paint job in La Paz last year. But that is another blog post soon to be coming to a computer near you..

Careening and the Old Fort

2011-02-18T14:04:00.001-08:00

We've been busy in San Blas. Two days ago, we careened the boat on a sandbar in the estuary and spent hours scraping off the barnacles. Once again, the careening was as easy as pie, though this was a harder spot than Don Juan since the beach was steeper, the sand mushier, and the tide created a strong side current. Jack and Patrick scoped out the best spot on the previous days' low tides and then marked the spot we wanted to be sitting on with a four foot stick. A few hours after the high tide, we simply drove the boat up next to the stick, dropped a stern anchor to the side to hold us still again the current, and dropped the main anchor off the front. Then we turned off the engines and waited for the tide to drop. Since we had not gone in at the highest part of the tide, we were able to easily back off the sandbar that evening and re-anchor out in the estuary. Very cool, but we worked so hard that we didn't do much of anything yesterday. Unfortunately I can't post pictures today of the careening, but will do so as soon as I can.

Then today, Lori and Amy from Third Day took Jack and me on an excursion to the old fort of San Blas. We walked there and so had plenty of time to look at all the homes, the cemetary, the stores and finally the fort and abandoned church. The highlight of the day for Jack was swinging from the vines hanging off an enormous old tree up at the fort. My favorite thing was a tidy little home we passed with a beautiful old Virgin of Guadalupe picture hanging on the wall by the door, beautiful flowering bouganvilla and a banana tree (with bananas!) at the gate, and a pot of something smelling good on the outside fire pit. The old church was pretty cool too.

San Blas

2011-02-15T12:11:00.000-08:00

It was very hard to leave El Cid this time around. Each time we go there, we get a little further enmeshed in life there. What a great place to retire - unfortunately, that won't be us for a long time. So with great reluctance, we cast off the dock lines and headed out to Stone Island to get ready for our trip to San Blas. We tried cleaning the bottom free of the barnacles and seaweed growing there, but we just couldn't stay in the water long enough to get the job done. Therefore, we had a very slow ride down to San Blas - all the growth dropped our speed down in to the 4 - 5 knot range. Ouch! The winds were light and of little help, so we had a gentle, slow motor sail down the coast. Surprisingly, we only saw one pod of dolphins, one mom and baby whale, and no sea turtles. We also saw very little boat traffic and no fishing nets - yeah!

We joined our friends on Third Day at their favorite anchorage, the San Blas Estuary. The waters are so calm, it feels like the boat is on the hard. San Blas is a great traditional Mexican town with a large bustling town square that is the heart of the action, day and night. We have all sorts of trips lined up to see the local sights and surrounding towns, so stay tuned for more pictures and stories coming in the next week or two.

SO HARD TO SAY GOODBYE ----- Leaving El Cid

2011-02-10T10:54:00.001-08:00

Just preparing to leave the dock and head to Stone Island

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About Money

2011-02-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

We recently received a comment stating "I have a curiosity about how all you boaters fund the extended lifestyle of traveling. Could you enlighten me on how your family survives and buys things?" The comment was posted under the blog entry titled "A New Level of Luxury" about our week in a condo unit here at Marina El Cid. I could certainly see how that posting might mislead people and I have to confess that we got a SCREAMING deal through a friend of a friend - the entire week in the condo cost us $50 US! It was truly a gift from the universe and we took it and reveled in it. Honestly it was a real treat and we have done nothing like it in the two years down here.

So with that misconception aside, the question remains. How do we fund this? Well, we are extremely fortunate. But we got that way with a lot of hard work. My husband worked a very good job for 18 years, during which time we always lived under our means, investing and saving the excess. Our only debt was a mortgage, and that was at much less than the value of the house. Then we were extremely fortunate to sell our house right before the market nose-dived in 2008. Ever since then we have been living off the proceeds from the sale, the money we had saved in the bank, and investments. We did not win the lotto. As we tell our son, "We are spending your inheritance now."

Obviously, the families out cruising tend to have a much tighter budget than the retired people. For one thing, most families don't have money coming in every month, since they don't tend to have pensions and no Social Security. Also, we have not had as long a time working to amass money. For another, we are feeding more hungry mouths, and we have the costs of education materials and clothing for growing kids. The good news is that since we have kids and no real babysitters around, we rarely spend money out at night on a date. I can think of several families that are making ends meet because the father is still working while the family is cruising.

But basically everyone is trying to make their money last as long as they can. During the summer months up in the Sea of Cortez, we spend about $700 US for the entire month (and over half of the 700$ is the money that goes out every month for boat insurance and major medical insurance). During the winter, we come to Marina El Cid in Mazatlan as a "break" and spend about $3,000 US for the month. That is only because we spoil ourselves here. Our time in El Cid is limited - we can't afford to live like this for longer than a month or two. We spend a lot less in the other months.

Mexico is pretty cheap in a few ways, and that definitely helps the money last. Great food can be had for very little money, both in the markets, and in little taco stands. Marinas do not charge as much as those in the States - especially catamarans which get charged double at home for being so wide. There are tons of great anchorages that you can spend months of time at. If you own your boat outright and stay out of marinas, your housing expenses are basically nil. You can have a very good life here, for very little money compared to what it would cost in the States to feed, clothe, and house a family, and get medical help when needed.

The budgets of boaters range greatly, but the bottom line for the families stays the same. We all took a huge gamble to bring ourselves out here. We took a "time out" in our careers at the height of our earning potential. Patrick and I joke about it, but it's true - we "retired young" so we could work when we are old. We know we will never be as wealthy as we could have been if we had just kept on working. We know our money will be running out and we will have to go back and work. However, the gamble was an easy decision for us. Right now, we are spending all of our time (and money) with our son - when it matters. In just a few years he will be off on his own adventures, but we will always have a lifetime of great memories to keep us warm while we work in old age.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2011-02-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

You know there is something to this La Nina thing when the morning temperature in Mazatlan (41 degrees) is colder than the morning temperature in Seattle (45 degrees). Hard to believe but those are the actual temps in both cities this morning. We are freezing! Thank God s/v Evergreen graciously donated a space heater appropriate for use on a boat to us before they left Mazatlan. And, thankfully the subtropical sun helps warm the afternoon temps a bit higher than Seattle, but still we only reach 64 degrees to Seattle's 51 degrees. Not enough of a difference in my opinion. It's 4 pm and the heater is still running to keep us warm.

Just a Minute has no source of heat beyond the donated heater, so it is not a comfortable boat for cold weather. This cold snap in Mazatlan is just reinforcing the fact that staying another year in Mexico is a good idea. Can you imagine how cold we would be in Alaska with no heat? Even in the summer? We thought we could survive in the northern waters long enough to get a heating system installed in the States, but now I realize that is not a reasonable option. I am glad we found this out in Mexico.

A Change of Plans

2011-01-30T07:51:00.000-08:00

I knew I was getting into trouble, all those months ago when I changed our declarative statement at the top of our blog. From the beginning, I had only stated that we were cruising Mexican waters, and very purposely left off any other goal. And then I got cocky several months back and added in that we were going to be going to Alaska in the spring of 2011. I should have known.

A cruiser cannot say he is going ANYWHERE until he is there. It's the thing I love most about cruising. This life makes it abundantly clear to anyone who is paying attention that they are not in control of their life. All of our lives are ruled by the circumstances we find ourselves in, but when you are cruising around on a boat, that fact becomes very clear. You aren't in control - the weather, breakdowns, money situations and more, these are the things that rule us. I can tell you with fairly good accuracy where I will be tomorrow, maybe the next day. But the further into the future you wander, the less likely you will be to pin down where you will be and what you will be doing. It's really cool. It makes you live in the moment, just like the great thinkers tell you to.

With that said, I humbly ask your forgiveness as I take that statement about Alaska off the the blog. Our circumstances have changed and so our plans have changed. Through a happy string of coincidences, we have decided that we can stay another year in Mexico! I have always been the type of traveller who would rather see one foreign city really well, than four countries superficially. We all love the Sea of Cortez and though we have spent two years there already, we are getting excited about another one. Every year we have sought out new anchorages, and despite this we still haven't even come close to seeing everything there is to see.

To keep it exciting, we are thinking of a few changes. We are planning to do a lot more gunkholing far up north where there aren't as many guidebooks to use. We've been scanning Google Earth and have picked out several bays and islands that look cool from space. We also plan on leaving the boat in a marina during the hot, hot months and going somewhere else. While July and August are some of the best times to be out in the anchorages snorkeling around - it is just too hot for Rudy and us.

So, the Mexican adventure continues. Eventually we will leave here, I just won't even hazard a guess as to when that will happen.

Eating our way through Mazatlan

2011-01-27T06:43:00.000-08:00

We've been in Mazatlan almost 8 weeks! Shocking but true. We love Mazatlan and the El Cid experience so much that it is hard to leave. This is the third January we have spent here and after all that time, we feel very comfortable here - we have friends here besides other boaters, we know the tricks of public transportation, but best of all we know some REALLY GOOD places to eat.
#1 Eating Experience in all of Mexico - El Montalayo. This restaurant can be found down past the Home Depot at Av. La Marina Y Colima. The specialty sold at this restaurant is barbacoa de borrego (barbecue lamb). It is hard to even describe how good this stuff is. You simply cannot stop eating it until your stomach explodes. You buy the lamb by the kilo, with or without bones. They bring it out on a platter with a special little clay pot that has glowing embers in the bottom that keep the lamb hot as you work your way through it. Along with the lamb comes mounds of fresh, hot, homemade corn tortillas, and about 8 different topping choices of salsas, guacamole, pickled onions, etc. which you use to create your own lamb tacos. They also sell carne asada (red beef) in the same manner, but the lamb is so good we have never ordered anything else. The word is getting out on this place so now you often see a table with long term visitors here, sitting among the locals. You never see an average tourist.
The Fish Market - This absolutely cute place just opened within the last year about a block or two past the El Cid entrance. Someone put a lot of money into this tiny restaurant and it looks like you could pick it up and place it down in California and no one would notice. All tacos cost 20 pesos (or 3 for 50 pesos) and you can chose to have octopus, shrimp, fish or scallop in your tacos, either grilled or deep-fryed. The other items on their menu look fabulous too, but they are much more expensive (shrimp burger for 90 pesos) and since we are so happy with the tacos we have not branched out, yet. I have only seen other tourists eating here since it is so brilliantly packaged to appeal to them and the prices are a little high for tacos, so the locals don't go here.
Claudia's - This restaurant can be found on the upper level of the Central Market. There are about ten different restaurants on the upper level and we happened to choose Claudia's. We were not disappointed. The first time we ate there, I had the Second Best Chile Relleno in Mexico (poblano chile stuffed with cheese). The second time we went there, I had very good Albondigas Soup (meatball soup) and Patrick had the Best Ever in the World Chicken Mole. It was truly spectacular, and I don't usually like Mole since most places just use the stuff from the can. Obviously Claudia's makes their own mole sauce and it is exceptional. The entire meal came to 50 pesos which is about $4 at the current exchange rate. I have only seen locals eating here.
Q Cotorro - This taco stand can be found on the same street as the Mega grocery store, a couple blocks further down on the same side. It is large, clean and packed with locals after 8pm. Not being Mexican, we tend to eat dinner at 5 or 6 pm and so the place is nearly empty. They have excellent charros (bean soup) for 12 pesos a bowl, fabulous grilled whole green onions, and a variety of really good tacos for a reasonable price.

I could keep going, but I think you get the picture - forget the budget and who cares about our expanding waists. There are so many places that have been recommended to us that we could stay another two months checking them out, in between going to our favorites.

A New Level of Luxury

2011-01-18T14:55:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying our stay at Marina El Cid, as always. We take this opportunity tied to a dock and work through a big list of repairs and maintenance. After a summer in the sea, it is heaven to tie up to the dock at El Cid and enjoy the electricity, water, pools, beach, and most of all the staff. El Cid is a great resort and it's a treat to be here and enjoy it. But this year we decided to really pamper ourselves. We booked a week in a room here. It's perfect since we can get off the boat and still be around for Rudy. We tell ourselves it's so we can repair the broken head (toilet) on the boat. But really that is just an excuse. Our unit has a nice TV, two beds, a huge shower, a sitting area with couches, a balcony with beautiful ocean and marina views, and a handy little kitchen.
Since our lives are a holiday anyway, when we are on holiday at El Cid our interests are different from the average guest. Most important is that each one of us is fighting to spend the most nights alone in the suite. After two years of extreme togetherness as a family, we are all craving a little space. We have a roster all lined up to make sure we each get at least one night alone. The next thing high on our list is laying in bed with the remote control and a TV. Jack and his friends have spent several afternoons hanging out in the room, ignoring the sunshine so they can watch Sponge Bob. Patrick is all excited to use the kitchen to can some tuna that he caught on the sail over. It will save our propane and keep the smell out of our boat - not sure what our neighbor will think! But my favorite luxury is a flushing the toilet that you can put toilet paper in - what heaven.

Safety in Mexico

2011-01-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

Recently a friend who follows our blog asked in the Comments Section about safety in Mexico. He had noticed that in the pictures I posted of Mazatlan, every home had bars on the windows and doors. It is true, it's not just in big cities like Mazatlan, but virtually every home I have seen in Mexico has had bars on the windows and the doors. Mexico being Mexico, the bars are usually very beautiful, ornate hand-wrought iron, but still there are bars. At first, it unnerved me since I too imagined the lawlessness that must exist to make this necessary, since in America only homes in very poor areas in large cities tend to have bars on the windows and doors.

However, I think there is more to it. It's hot in much of Mexico through most of the year, and many homes do not even have glass in their window openings, they simply have wooden shutters to cover their windows. Many homes do not have air conditioning. People often leave their doors and window shutters open all day and night to keep the air circulating. The iron bars let air circulate and keep people and large animals out. They also keep little children in. Also, many of the homes in cities and towns are built directly against the sidewalk with no "front yard" or space to create a barrier to people passing on the sidewalk, so the bars add that sense. So I think the bars offer more than security, though that is a primary good.

When people think about safety in Mexico now, the images in their heads are from the extreme violence caused by Mexico's war against the drug cartels. It is getting bloodier and bloodier but so far it is affecting only a small segment of the population in certain areas. The Mex-Am border and large cities on the mainland are the most dangerous areas to be in. I was reading through the BBC news and in this article it mentions that of the 34,000+ murders in Mexico related to the drug wars, 89% are drug cartel members killed in turf wars. That 11% is still a lot of innocent lives being lost, but they tend to be the police officers and officials fighting the cartels. The fact of the matter is the Average Joe has little to worry about. I think that the same advice that keeps someone safe in America will do the same down here - do not buy, sell or use drugs, do not hang out with people who buy/sell/use drugs, do not wander through areas of large towns late at night alone, stay aware of your surroundings and the people in your surroundings, do not flaunt money or wear expensive watches or jewelry. Oh heck, that's good advice for any part of the world.

The other violent crime that very rich Mexicans must worry about is abduction of family members for ransom. It is a very serious, frightening problem and many rich Mexicans have been abducted for ransom. Abductions are on the rise, but I believe that tourists are not usually targeted. Apparently they are not random incidents and the victims have been watched and assessed. These abductions happen in large cities.

More pertinent to cruisers is that Mexico has just had its first acts of piracy within the last year. US fishermen/boaters on a large lake which spans the Mex-Am border were held up at gun point by Mexicans (most likely cartel members) in a panga. In one incident an American has died. Documented piracy in Mexico had never happened before. Piracy in the Sea of Cortez is probably the one thing I would be most concerned about, but not as a problem now, as a problem that could develop in the following years. It is something to be aware of and to keep an ear out for, but I would not change my plans trying to avoid something that has never happened.

There is crime against the cruising community down here but I have only heard of "things" being stolen - I have not heard of any violent crime against cruisers in Mexico (unless they were walking in a large town at night and they were mugged). In the large cities on the Baja peninsula and basically from Mazatlan on down the Gold Coast, cruisers have to be very vigilant of their personal items. I have heard of many items being taken from cruisers (especially on the Mexican Riviera) - everything from surfboards to dinghy motors. Usually the items are taken off the outside areas of a boat when either no one is home on the boat, or late at night when people are sleeping. Just like at home, the thieves take the easiest pickings first which means dinghys floating behind boats only tied on with a rope, or cans full of gas set on the outside rail of a boat. Thieves have been known to even take outboard motors off of deck railings, or off of dinghys that were hoisted high above the water, so it is a good idea to secure your dinghy motor with locks and cable to the dinghy or railing, even if it's high above the water line. I have heard of items being stolen from the inside of boats when the boat has been put in storage for the season, but that is not as common.

It's true, though many cruisers think of themselves as "poor" or on a budget, we still have far more personal wealth than the average Mexican citizen. However, I have never felt unsafe, threatened or in danger down here throughout our last two years. We have never had anything stolen. Instead, I have felt welcomed, accepted and befriended - especially on the Baja peninsula. Mexico and the average Mexican citizen are wonderful.

The Contract

2011-01-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned earlier, Jack has been resistent to learning/school since the beginning, stemming from his feelings of failure caused by his dyslexia. By the time he was in 4th grade, I knew school was not the place for Jack to learn and grow. However, by then he had spent years in a setting that had destroyed his self-confidence, and made him feel like a complete failure. To protect himself, he had stopped trying to learn and was picking up a "class clown" attitude. I knew that our biggest hurdle was going to be getting Jack to believe in himself again.

Man, has that been a big hurdle. For kids who have been victimized by a school setting, they need to decompress for months before they can even start trying to learn. The standard wisdom in homeschooling support groups is that decompression takes about one month for every year spent in school. For Jack that would mean 7 months of decompression. So he stopped school in June of 2008 and we began homeschooling in earnest in January 2009.

Since January 2009 we have struggled through homeschooling's ups and downs. Jack's attitude to learning was slowly getting better if we kept up a constant day to day effort, but anytime we had to take a break, his resistance was immediately up again. We continued on in this manner until about July 2010. Things were slowly getting better - he was doing well reading, he stopped saying negative things about himself, and he actually enjoyed taking the Standardized Test (that was a miracle!).

Then all systems broke down. You see, it all kicked off when we had back-to-back visitors on JaM which took out the entire month of May, then we tried to get back into schooling in June. And then in July, Jack and I went home for two weeks. When we returned after that trip, homeschooling had plunged down into the worst situation yet. I think it mostly had to do with Jack's burgeoning hormones as he was nearing 13. Suddenly he had the worst attitude ever. He was disrespectful, angry, moody, and uncooperative. It is impossible to teach someone anything when they have that attitude. I think he honestly thought that if he made it horrible enough, I would just stop trying and he wouldn't have to have any schooling!

We kept struggling on, but I was getting angrier and angrier at the way he was treating me and the things he would say to me. Who needs it? It was destroying our mother/child relationship. Finally I had enough. I told Patrick I was done cruising since we needed to get Jack into a school again since he was telling me that I was a bad teacher and he couldn't learn anything from me. It was September and I wanted to get Jack into a school at the beginning of the year. I wanted the boat driven immediately to Loreto so we could be on the next plane out. It took a few minutes for Patrick to realize I was serious and we began having the heart to heart talk about how we would make it happen. It took Jack about twenty minutes to realize that we were serious.

And then miracles began happening. Over the next 24 hours we three had many heart to heart talks. And so "The Contract" came into existence. It is a document that hangs on our wall signed by Jack and myself which says "I will: Try, Be Cooperative, and Be Respectful." That's it. It doesn't say anything about What he Learns, it's about How we Act. And I mean "we" since I was getting a bad attitude toward him in response to his attitude toward me. Then every day of the year, Jack either gets a star on the calendar for meeting that goal or he gets an "X". If he gets three "X's" in one month, then we are on the next plane home and he is back in school. If he makes it through the month without any "X's" then he gets to take three days off in the following month. The contract still lets Jack have a bad day, even two of them every month - but if he has three of them, we are on the next plane home. The contract started in September, 2010.

Since then, homeschooling has been a dream. It is always pleasant, is usually fun, and is filled with great discussions about history and science questions. I absolutely love being his teacher now and he is learning so much. In the last four months, he has become a self-learner. I can set out a list that has his subjects on it and the expectations for that day and he can complete the assignments on his own (you know- Do page 45 and 46 in Math, Read pages 384 through 392 in science and answer these questions, etc.) It is a miracle. Always before this, homeschooling meant I was sitting next to him the whole time keeping him on task.

Jack has competely changed his attitude towards us, also. Now that he realizes that his actions can stop our trip, he has taken on a whole new ownership of our adventure and is extremely helpful with boat chores and other things. The Contract has changed our day to day life. Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom before you can find the steps to make things better.

A Homeschooling Day

2011-01-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

On our boat, homeschooling sets the pace of the day, almost every day of the year. We do not take weekends, most holidays or summer off. I know this seems pretty extreme, but after trial and error, we found this works best for us. Even with just a weekend off, Jack is hard to get started again on Monday, let alone any serious time off like Christmas vacation - so we just keep at it, day after day.

The holidays Jack gets are two days for Christmas and his birthday. He gets the occasional sick day, but thankfully he has had few of those except when he had Dengue Fever. When we are on a passage, or moving for more than four hours, we also take a skip. If we have visitors, or if we go home for a visit we stop schooling. This means that school is in session probably 310 days a year. The good news is that we can then spend less time each day on school, since we have so many of them.

On JaM, we take our mornings very seriously. Generally everyone stays in bed as long as they can before getting up. For me, that's around 7am; Patrick follows around 8 and Jack gets up sometime before noon, but usually between 10 and 11. Why not? There aren't usually any pressing issues that require early action. Once Jack is up, fed and ready, we start the day. We try to never do anything else before school is done. Sometimes this can be a real drag because you feel like the day is wasting away, but it is the only way to make sure it gets done. Generally a homeschooling session takes about an hour and a half to two hours depending on Jack's concentration level.

I put my own curriculum together for Jack. I did not feel that a set curriculum from a school would work at all for us. In the beginning I started with several reading programs specific to dyslexics, a Math program that I absolutely love called Math-U-See, and fiction books for reading. That is the program we started with - just reading, writing and 'rithmatic. Since that time we have added in a map reading program that encourages critical thinking skills, history lessons, a grammar program and a science program. I am the usual teacher, but when the substitute gets called in (Patrick), they cover other subjects like compass coordinates, barometer readings, latitude and longitude readings and dishwashing.

We hardly ever have internet access so I cannot use the internet as a tool for teaching, or use any program that requires internet participation. Also some programs require parents to send in school work to be corrected by the program, but that would not work for us either. That would be too much hassle. All of the programs that we have are self-contained in books or on DVD's.

Once school for the day is done, Jack is free to go about his business. It is great when there are other kids around since he is highly motivated to finish quickly, but I think he does a better job of learning when we are just out floating around on our own with no interruptions.

The next topic is "The Contract." It single handedly saved our cruising and is the secret to our success.

The Truth About Homeschooling on Just a Minute

2011-01-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

This topic is so huge that it is going to take several different posts to cover it all, so this first one is just general info.

Boy for cruising families, this is the "hot" topic. Usually, unless you are VERY good friends with a family, it is politely avoided like the elephant in the living room. And it should be. There are so many variables in the equation of homeschooling that trying to converse about homeschooling with a parent is like trying to get directions in Hong Kong from a person speaking Chinese - you can ask, but you are still going to feel lost. The age of the child, whether the kid enjoyed regular school or not, the attitude of the child about learning, whether the child has any special education needs (either super smart, or with learning disabilities), whether or not you have a lot of internet access, the family's religious beliefs, which state your child is registered as a homeschooler in - all of these things, and more, can make each family's homeschooling experience completely different.

So I can't tell you anything about homeschooling other than what our experience has been. We are a family with one 13 year old son who absolutely hated the school experience, has a horrible attitude about learning, and who has been diagnosed with moderate/severe dyslexia (which was the cause of his hatred of school), and who is quite intelligent like many dyslexics. Did you know that Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Alexander Graham Bell, Richard Branson and Erin Brokovich are all dysleyxic? So dyslexia is not about intelligence or abilities, it's about how your brain takes information in.

School was going so poorly for Jack that we were going to pull him from the system in 2008 regardless of whether we went sailing or not. School had completely demoralized his belief in his abilities and basically only "taught" him that he was "dumb". And he was attending a great private school with small classrooms where he was a popular guy. His idea about himself came from comparing his abilities to those of the kids around him. And truthfully, no dyslexic is going to shine in a school setting.

So for us on Just a Minute, our number one goal of homeschooling has been building self-esteem. We started out slow and just focused on Reading, Writing and 'Rithmatic - just like a little pioneer schoolhouse. Over time we have added in more subjects. Homeschooling has never been easy. But it has been incredibly rewarding. After two years of sometimes absolutely painful struggle, I am happy to say - things are going very well. I feel great success. Jack is now reading for fun; though it will never be his favorite thing to do, he does enjoy reading a good book. His attitude toward himself is very positive. He has passed his once-a-year Standardized tests that WA state requires with very good results (mostly in the 90th percentile ranges for the six different topics). But best of all, we have reached a place where our daily school session is not a battle of wills punctuated with anger and frustration. And that is heaven.

Mexico's Greatest Invention

2010-12-26T08:21:00.001-08:00

Media Crema. And no, I am not being facetious. I LOVE the stuff. We buy it by the case!

Media Crema, for those of you who are Spanish challenged like I am, means "half cream" or what we would call "half and half." Now I am one of those people who believe that butter should be butter and that adding 2% milk to coffee instead of cream is disrespectful to your taste buds. (As you can imagine, I have been known to have high cholesterol but my high number of good HDL's cancel out the lower number of bad LDL's - or was it the other way around? Anyway, that's what the doctor said so I am not changing my game plan!)

In Mexico, they have taken 1/2 and 1/2 and elevated it to a whole new level of useful goodness. Mexico's milk products are ultra-pastuerized so they do not need to be refrigerated. All the milk products are found in plasticized cartons on the regular grocery shelves. You only need to refrigerate them after they are opened. So they are very useful on a boat. The Media Crema comes out a much thicker consistency than our 1/2 and 1/2 - it's so thick that our other name for it is "cow goo."

What makes Media Crema so amazing? It's not just for coffee! Over the course of the last two years we have learned its versatility.

Media Crema can be used to make:

Sour Cream - simply add a tablespoon of vinegar to a cup of Media Crema, stir well, and it magically becomes thick, tasty sour cream. If you like a little tarter sour cream, just add a little more vinegar (or use lime juice instead if vinegar)

Buttermilk - Simply thin the cup of Media Crema down with about a 1/3 cup of water, then add in the tablespoon of vinegar. Voila, you can make your grandmother's buttermilk biscuits.

Alfredo Sauce - This is the best alfredo sauce ever. Lightly saute a couple cloves of fresh minced garlic and whatever meat/vegetables you want (chicken, scallops, lobster, red pepper?) in butter (what else?). When the meat is cooked, remove pan from heat and then pour some Media Crema into the pan, as much as you need for a nice amount of sauce. Stir it up. Dinner in minutes!

Chipotle Cream Sauce - Mix a store bought chipotle sauce with Media Crema to the heat you prefer - Patrick likes it hot, I put in less chipotle sauce. Yum. Try cooking strips of chicken breast or shrimp in this sauce on the stove top.

Tomatillo Cream Sauce - Mix a store bought can of green salsa (made of tomatillos) with some Media Crema so it turns a light green color. Pour this over fresh fish in a baking pan and cook it in the oven until done. Yummy.

Milk in a pinch - Thin it out with water and use it instead of milk in recipes.

Well, you get the idea. We love the stuff. We eat it every day, starting with the cream in our coffee, through to sour cream at lunch, and on to sauces for our dinner. I would hate to have my cholesterol checked now since I am clearly addicted to Media Crema.

God Bless Us, Everyone

2010-12-22T11:18:00.000-08:00

My trip to Iowa was emotional, sad and wonderful all at the same time. Terry had a beautiful send-off and hundreds of people attended. He was a good man who was so involved in his community and church that he will be truly missed be many. I was so grateful to be there for my sister.
Iowa is cold. I spent my childhood there on a farm, but somehow I never realized how cold it was until coming back straight from Mexico as an adult. Absolutely freezing. We had a blizzard! 50 mile per hour wind, snow, nearly zero degrees Fahrenheit. Add in the wind chill factor and it is not fit for man nor beast. Yikes.
Meanwhile, while I was braving the cold, Patrick, Jack and Rudy picked up Patrick's brother Neil in Loreto on the Baja peninsula. Then the four of them crossed the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan. They had a good crossing. Some of the time they had so much wind that they sailed with only a reefed main and no jib and still did 6 knots. At other times, they had to motor. But even so they made the crossing in 55 hours, so they were making good time.

We are having some goofy luck right now on several different fronts. Our 1 month old Honda 2000 generator has just stopped working. There is no way to get it back to America for them to fix it under warranty and it looks like they do not sell that model down here, so parts are not easily avaliable. Rudy is having another bad hot spot outbreak and his neck is a mass of sores. Despite having reservations for one year at El Cid, they did not have room for us on a dock with power, and will not have room until after Christmas. And last but not least, somehow all 150 gallons of fresh water that Patrick made on the crossing has gone missing from the tanks (a leak, or open spigot?). Despite all of these tales of woe, I can't feel anything but gratitude for all of our many, many blessings. Everything that matters is just perfect.
A very merry Christmas and a properous New Year to all of us!

To Iowa I Go

2010-12-06T06:36:00.000-08:00

I got one of those calls yesterday that we all dread - especially those who are far from loved ones. It is the one big downside to this amazing cruising life. When something happens and you HAVE to go somewhere, it's often not just a simple - "I'll get on the next plane out." There are times in our cruising when we wouldn't even HEAR about it until it was all over. Up in the far north of the Sea of Cortez it would take days to just hear about it (no phone service, no internet, only sail mail if you remembered to check it) and then it would take days to get to an airport.

The ironic thing was, we've been hanging around Loreto since I was already planning to fly to Iowa on Dec 9th to be with my sisters and parents. Loreto is the furthest north area which regularly has cell phone service and internet available, and a commercial airport. So while we sat yesterday morning (the 6th) at the beautiful anchorage of Ballandra on Isla Carmen, the phone rang. It's always a surprise when that happens. We found out that my sister's life partner died suddenly the night before (the 5th). A vibrant, active, great guy in his early 50's who started to feel ill at lunch time and died that night in the hospital. The shock is overwhelming. After hanging up, we motored back to Puerto Escondido for internet and to change my flights. I fly out today on the only flight that leaves Loreto for the States. It will take five airports and over 18 hours to make all the connections it takes to go from one obscure airport to another one. I'll get there the day before the funeral.

But I will be there.

A "Wind Event?" - Oh, Let's Just Call it a Gale

2010-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

I've noticed somewhere along the way that the hip phrase to use in cruising circles when talking about an upcoming wind storm is to call it a "wind event". It does sound so hip and unconcerned - and isn't that what sailors are all about? We don't worry about the weather - we use hurricanes to dry our clothes!

Meanwhile, we've been sitting out the last "wind event" on a mooring ball at Puerto Escondido. Yesterday we had mid-30's pretty consistent with gusts up to the 40's - some boats saying they have recorded up to 50 knots of wind. The"event" is continuing on today since there is an 18 millibar gradient difference encompassing the 900 miles of the Baja Peninsula from tip to tip. Don Anderson of Summer Passage Radio (the weatherman for the Amigo and Southbound nets) is calling for winds from 50 to 60 knots today - even higher than yesterday.

Am I worried? Truthfully, no. More grumpy than anything else. It's no danger, as long as the system anchoring you in place remains true. It's just lumpy, and loud and it makes it hard to sleep. Puerto Escondido is a large bay nearly perfectly enclosed by surrounding hills. It is supposed to be the perfect hidey hole for all big blows and boaters come here during the hurricane months to sit them out in safety. Unfortunately the problem I am having is that since the bay is so big, you still get a lot of fetch. The bay has white caps with the tops being blown off. The waves are only about 1 foot, but they are very closely spaced. And I do not like relying on the marina's anchoring system. How do I know what their line looks like that is attaching me to the mooring ball? Or what about the one attaching my next door neighbor to his?

I know a lot of people would disagree, but I would much rather be anchored in some tiny cove all by ourselves with good NW protection for this "wind event." We've been anchored in 88 knots (for those of you new to the blog check out the Feb 4, 2010 blog - scary stuff) and the only thing I was really worried about were all the boats with failing anchors that were trying to hit us. My advice for any new cruiser - get a good anchor, have lots of big chain, supersize your ground tackle and always take the time to really set your anchor well. Then the next time there's a "Wind Event" coming, set yourself up in a good little cove, close to the sheltering shore and get your movies and popcorn ready. I'll be sure to follow my own advice next time around, too.

Making Ricotta Cheese

2010-11-24T15:20:00.000-08:00

Living in a country that has a very different culinary culture from your own for over two years can cause some pretty extreme taste cravings. Thankfully, Patrick and I both enjoy cooking and we manage to keep body and soul together with some very good meals out here. But there are some grocery items that are just not available here, or are only available for a very high price (Can you believe I once paid $8 US for a box of Fig Newtons?). But since we are trying to stay out longer than we originally intended, we are now on a budget. For some time I have been craving a good pan of lasagna, but I have not even seen ricotta cheese for sale for almost a year, I think. Lasagna noodles are a little easier to find, and I had picked up some last time I saw them almost six months ago.

So imagine my joy when my good friend Meri on Hotspur told me that you could make ricotta cheese. I was desperate, so I tried it. Wow! It was like magic and I was so jazzed about it (and the resultant pan of yummy lasagna) that I had to share it with you.

The entire process takes about fifteen minutes. The ingredients are simple - 3 cups of dried whole (must be whole) milk, 6 cups of cold water, and 3/4 cup white vinegar. In a large saucepan mix the dried milk and water until dissolved. Heat over medium heat until the liquid is hot to touch but not boiling. Do not let it boil, but keep it hot. Then dump in the vinegar and start stirring. Almost immediately the curds will begin forming. Keep stirring for about ten to fifteen more minutes until the curds (the cheese) and the whey (the yellowish leftover liquid) seperate completely. Then pour this into a strainer lined with cheese cloth. I don't have cheesecloth so I used a clean tank top. Gently squeeze out the whey, then rinse with cold water and squeeze out the liquid again. Then empty the cheese ball out onto a plate lined with some paper toweling, just to get a little more water out. If you squeeze out too much water, the ricotta is a little dry, but you can just add some cream when you are mixing it up for the lasagna, later to compensate. And Voila! you have perfect ricotta cheese. The recipe makes about 2 1/2 to 3 cups ricotta cheese. I don't have access to store bought ricotta so I can't do a side-by-side comparison, but I am pretty sure that it IS ricotta cheese. It sure makes a great tasting lasagna.

Our lasagna was so good that we made two pans of lasagna in two days! Still recovering from the overload.

Meri has started a very cool website with lots of great lasagna recipes on it. She is working on adding the ricotta cheese recipe too, so you should see it on there soon. There are more recipes for different lasagnas than I have ever seen, so it is already a great site to visit. You can find it at http://lasagnarecipehq.com/

Check it out!

Team Budget and the Baja 1000

2010-11-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

Today was just one of those magical days. You set off on one adventure and then you find out that something even better is in store for you. Since both Steff and her kids (Adios 3) and Jack and I are hanging out in Puerto Escondido waiting for our Captains to return, we decided to have some fun. Well truthfully, Steff decided to have some fun and she invited us along for the ride. Glad she did. We set out in a small rental car for the San Javier Mission which is about 32 kilometers out of Loreto, up into the Sierra de la Gigantes mountains.

It was 32 kilometers off the main road , and only half of it was paved. We were a little worried starting out since the Budget Rental representative was a little hesitant when we told him our plans. But Steff is a woman not to be deterred, and off we went.

Honestly, the road was not that bad, but when we hit the 20 miles of dirt roads, things started to get interesting. Up, up, up we wound through the canyons, past a couple of remote ranches, and through some spectacularly beautiful countryside. We saw caballeros (cowboys) on horseback, free ranging cows and goats, and lots of cactus, rocks and empty land. But our first indication of something special going on was the tricked out motorcycle that blew by us with driver decked out in fancy protective clothing. The next clue was when we passed two men standing by a fancy truck in the middle of nowhere who started laughing when they spied us and told us that they were a check point for the Baja 1000 race. I didn't really believe them. The final clue was when we reached the San Javier Mission and met the driving team of contestants #601 with the driver J.T. Taylor, his back-up driver and one of his road crew. (J. T. is the one with the mustache.) For those of you not in the know, the Baja 1000 is one of those crazy off-road races that started back in the late 60's. It has morphed into something entirely different since then, but basically teams of drivers in different vehicles (motorbikes, dune buggies, big trucks) race off-road through the Baja Peninsula with the help of big money sponsors.

After that, the afternoon became sort of funny. On our way back down the mountain we passed a couple different Baja 1000 contestants who were practicing on the road. I can't imagine what they thought, contestants in one of the roughest motorized off-road land races in the Americas when they were passing two Moms and 3 teens in a small sized Budget Rental car. Go Team Budget!!!!

Captainless in Escondido

2010-11-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!
Currently Jack, Rudy and I are in charge of the boat. Though we have thought about voting Patrick off of the boat at times in the past, that is not why he is absent now. One of Patrick's best friends from home came down for a visit. Within two days of Tom being down here, they had rented a car and headed for the states. Supposedly they are picking up all of the replacement parts, supplies, and upgrades that we need after this Summer of Breakdowns. They aren't fooling me though - they are just off on a Boys Only Road Trip. If they find their way back "on schedule," I will be surprised.
Meanwhile, Jack, Rudy and I are having a very nice time. Our good friends on Adios 3 are also in Puerto Escondido without their captain. Charlie is off on a business trip, leaving Steff and the kids to manage without him. So we have been having a lovely time together. Today we have rented a car to go exploring the San Javier Mission which is nearby, and are hoping to take in some pictographs (cave paintings) left from the indigenous inhabitants. So over the next couple of days, look for more pictures of our experiences.

Life with a Salty Dog

2010-11-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

This post is in response to some comments and questions about life with a dog, cruising on a boat.

Nothing is better than waking up in the morning and seeing the goofy, happy face of Rudy, excited to see me after a WHOLE night spent apart. It is just a great way to start the day. Anyone who has been following our blog for long knows that we have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep Rudy healthy, safe and happy while we cruise around Mexico. It is not an easy task. But Rudy makes the effort worthwhile for us. He has put his mark (so to speak) on our time cruising from deciding what boat to buy to where we go.

Bathroom breaks - We are very fortunate since Rudy quickly learned how to use a 2' x 3' piece of astro turf as his personal potty. It only took him 2 days to figure it out, which is pretty good for him. I know many dogs who require daily trips to the beach to relieve themselves and will hold it for days if they are at sea. I don't know why he picked it up so quickly, but these are the steps we took. We poured some of our pee onto the mat and had it in place before he ever even set foot on the boat. We placed him on the boat and did not let him off until he peed. It took just over 24 hours. He went right to the mat and peed. We gave him a big chunk of raw bacon (first time in his life). About 30 minutes later he had a bowel movement on the mat and we gave him more bacon. And then after that he started running into the galley whenever he used the mat, so we figured he had it down and stopped giving him bacon. He has never had an accident. We keep his mat up on the bow of our boat and when it is dirty, we simply drop it overboard on a line and let it soak.

Food - Rudy eats a 40 lb bag of dog food in about a month. Back home in America we fed Rudy an imported dog food that was 70% protein, 100% hype, cost $80 per 50 lb bag and was only sold in high-end pet stores. They don't even sell that down here. The best brand dog food we can find is Royal Canin and it costs $120 for 40 lb bag. We have only found it for sale in Mazatlan or La Paz. So guess what? Rudy has actually continued to survive just fine eating Purina Dog Food! It costs about $35 for a 50lb bag and it is sold anywhere that is big enough to have a real store. Since it is probably not the most nutritious food, we heavily suplement Rudy's diet with potato peelings, apple cores, tomato ends, homemade dried fish treats and chicken broth. Rudy is a regular compost heap. We often travel with 150 lbs of dog food on board since the food bought in large grocery stores in large cities is less likely to be infested with bugs.

Excercise - Rudy is a big, young dog and he needs a lot of excercise in order to be well behaved. His main form of excercise is swimming. If we are in anchorages, he swims at least once, but usually several times a day. We are very lucky that Rudy quickly learned how to haul himself up onto the boat all on his own by climbing the swim ladder. If we are in a marina or anchorage, we try to bring him onto land at least once a day for a walk/play. In a marina he gets lots of little walks every day. If we are on passage, he just puts up with not having any excercise. Like any dog, the more excercise he gets, the better behaved he is - so we are highly motivated.

Where to sail - Having a dog has really shaped our cruise in one huge way. It severely restricts where we can go and what we can do. One of the joys of cruising is putting your boat in a marina and getting off of it for a couple weeks of inland travel. Big dogs like Rudy are not allowed on public transportation usually (you can find a nice driver, but it's not a certainty.) So if we want to go traveling with Rudy, we have to spend a lot of money getting a rental car, which takes a lot of fun out of the trip since you don't get to experience the fun of public transportation. We don't feel comfortable leaving Rudy behind and paying someone to take care of him on our boat, and would only do it if we really knew the people and liked them.

Having Rudy on board is also a big part of why we are not interested in going to the South Pacific, or even Central America. There are very strict quarantine laws for animals in most of the island countries of the Pacific. And Central American cruising involves long stints in marinas and lots of inland travel. Both of those destinations involve ocean passages where Rudy would get no excercise. Therefore neither of those destinations can be on our list.

Safety - Sometimes it seems that Rudy is intent on killing himself and taking one of us with him. He has often picked up dead pufferfish and gleefully run around the beach, refusing to drop (the poison in their innards can kill a dog in less than a day.) He has raced off into the hills of desolate anchorages and refused to come back (rattlesnakes). He has been attacked by a pack of dogs (stray dogs are everywhere in Mexico) which we had to beat off with a chair. He has had mange, hot spots, skin infections, been stung by a stingray, infected with anaplasmosis by a tick bite, and been swarmed by bees when he was drying off from a bath. Once he almost knocked me off the boat during a passage when no one else was on deck. Life with Rudy is exciting. He has required more medical care here in Mexico than all three of us combined.

So in conclusion - We decided to get a dog three years ago because life seemed so hum drum and we felt like we were missing something. Some people get pregnant when they have that feeling but that wasn't an option for us. So we got a dog and realized after the puppy glow wore off that it wasn't the fix we were looking for. So a few months later, the idea struck us that we should sell everything and leave that life behind. We were very fortunate and managed to be casting off dock lines 6 months later. Now that was the right answer and we have never regretted it. But we still had a dog - a very big, very young dog who had completely wormed his way into our hearts. If I could go back in time, I would never have gotten a dog and would have jumped straight into selling everything. Our life would be much, much easier. But it would not be quite as much fun, I think.

2010-10-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

Why are we buying water when we own a Spectra Watermaker, built by one of the leading (and most expensive) water maker companies? It's a good question. And I'll get to the answer after I talk a little about water and cruising in the Sea of Cortez.

When we set about outfitting Just a Minute in that crazy two weeks before we left, we knew for sure that we wanted a water maker for our cruise. It was one of the best decisions we made. We purchased the Spectra 15 gallon per hour model. Spectra is really great due to its low power usage. Our solar panels supply enough power to run it. I love being able to take solar power and make fresh drinking water out of sea water. And the water tastes so good. It is magic! An abundant source of fresh clean water makes life a joy.

There are lots of cruisers who either do not have water makers or they have water makers that do not produce many gallons per hour. These cruisers are constantly thinking about their fresh water usage and use salt water for taking baths, washing dishes/clothes, washing off their boat - then quickly rinsing in fresh. It's a lot of work. When one of these cruisers see us giving Rudy a thorough fresh water shower on the back steps after every swim (sometimes three or four times a day) they are flabbergasted. We have to do it for his health - it keeps him from breaking out in hot spots. And we do the same for ourselves - it keeps our boat interior from getting inundated with salt residue, which helps it last longer. We are water pigs, and happy to be that way. OINK!

If you were only cruising in America and Canada, you could easily get along by refilling your tanks at the marinas, but in Mexico that is not really an option. Most Mexican marinas do not offer potable water on their docks. Or if they do offer it, it often tastes bad. So if you don't have a good water maker, then you have to buy water and fill your tanks from five gallon jugs. Which is what we found ourselves doing just yesterday. It's a lot of work. Buying, loading, hauling, and filling tanks with 160 gallons of water is an effort, and expensive.

Which brings us to the answer of why we bought water. After two years of babying along our Spectra, it finally had a catastrophic failure two weeks ago. Thank God we were at anchor (not running the engines) and we heard the faint little "PHeewwt" sound that heralded the absolute cascade of water that came gushing into our boat under our bed. If we had been underway, we never would have heard it and the boat would have been filling up like a bathtub. (Once again we are incredibly lucky in our bad luck!)

During our two years with the Spectra we have had almost innumerable problems, even though we have faithfully followed the manufacturer's care instructions. It has only been making 1/2 of its advertised output for about one year; both feed pumps have failed seperately; a stainless steel pipe developed hi-pressure pin hole leaks; and now the membrane housing has cracked. One of the feed pumps was covered under warranty, but everything else has happened outside the warranty. We have been using it extensively for two years,

but I would expect more lasting power from a major purchase.

Would I recommend getting a large output water maker before starting a cruise - absolutely. Would I recommend Spectra brand - probably not. We are already thinking about replacing our Spectra with a CruiseRO water maker. It's a much cheaper, simpler, higher output water maker which needs a generator to operate. Interested? You can find them at http://www.cruiserrowater.com/

You Can't Go Home Again

2010-10-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

I always thought that was a stupid saying. Now thanks to Washington State tax law, it is true for us. We've been researching the in and outs of coming home and have hit a nasty little roadblock called the WA State Use Tax. Let me explain.

We bought our boat in CA. Now two years later we want to return to US waters. We are legally WA state residents though we have not lived there or voted there for two years and we sold our primary residence, but we do still hold WA State Driver's Licenses. Since we are WA state residents, the moment we enter WA state waters we are liable to pay the WA State Use Tax on the "Blue Book" value of our boat. It is equivalent to the WA state sales tax so it is anywhere from 7.9 to 9.5%, depending on where you register your boat. That's a lot of money! If we had that kind of money to spend, we would be sailing in the Mediterranean!

On the other hand, Alaska charges a flat fee for registering a boat for use on their waters. It's $24.00. You have to pay it if you are planning to stay 90 days or longer. I think that is an annual fee, so look out folks, plan ahead.

So for all our family and friends, here's fair warning. We may be coming up to the PNW within the year, but you won't be seeing us in WA waters until we figure this out. We are interested in moving to Alaska and that could be one solution. Once we are non-residents, we can enter WA waters for 60 days. You can then apply for another sixty days, but after that time period is up you have to get your boat out of WA waters or you get nailed with the Use Tax again. OUCH! that is a lot of money to pay for the pleasure of exploring WA waterways.

Snapshots of Summer

2010-10-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

There are so many great memories from this summer - old friends, new anchorages, new experiences, lots of fish, lots of breakdowns and lots of making due. We swam with whale sharks, beached our boat, speared large fish (just not as big as Ethan's!), made new friends, and read tons of good books. We saw thousands of dolphins, hundreds of whales, and more beautiful sunsets and shooting stars than I ever saw previously in my life. Here is just a recap of some of the highlights.

The Great Race - our very first time actually trying to sail fast enough to beat someone else. I really didn't want to participate; I was scared to tell the truth. I still feel sometimes like we don't know how to sail, even though we've been sailing around two years now. But in the end, despite the broken camera and the pain of my felt-like-broken leg, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. What a riot! And next time I'm in a race, I'll make sure all the hatches are closed first.

Lots of fish - The new spear gun has earned it's purchase price in meals, that's for sure. And when you add in the entertainment value that Jack and Patrick had, then it's worth more than we paid. The Sea of Cortez is loaded with fish and we've enjoyed our fair share! We caught some of the fish the old fashioned way with a pole and hook, but the boys have had most of thier fun, snorkeling along with a spear in hand - selecting exactly the fish they wanted.

Careening!!! I still can't believe we did it! We have talked about doing it for about a year but had not seriously committed to it by picking a time or place. And then when we pulled into Puerto Don Juan and saw Java already up on the sand, it just seemed as easy as pie to follow suit. And it was surprisingly easy. But it just seems so WRONG to drive your boat up on the beach! All and all, it was a very cool experience and we will definately be repeating it as needed.

Great Anchorages, as always. We spent about ten weeks on the hook in the northern 1/2 of the Sea of Cortez. We re-visited our favorites from last year including Este Ton (pictured here) and Puerto Refugio. We also managed to explore some new anchorages including Alcatraz, Bahia de Hueso (Bay of Bones), Isla Salsipuedes, the Inner Harbor at San Francisquito, and checked out a few that weren't in any guide books. There are still plenty of others we haven't seen, and if we weren't so excited to explore the Inland Passage to Alaska, I'm sure we could spend another summer.... I say that now, but just don't remind me of the heat! Yikes, it gets hot down here.

Friends - the best part of cruising. Maybe it's because we all made the same choice to leave everything and come out here, or maybe I just have more time to get to know people, but either way I have to tell you - I have never met so many people that I have bonded so easily with. We have all made so many good friends out here, and many of them feel like family. What a blessing.

Story #4 You Can't Be More Generous Than A Mexican

2010-10-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

In the two years we have lived here, I have been amazed time and again by the generosity and kindness we have received from Mexicans. For the most part, we have only been met with kindness and this story proves that in Mexico, it is hard to be more generous - the more you give, the more they give.

One morning in Refugio, Patrick and I were discussing how strange it was that this summer we had not once been approached by a "pangero" (a fisherman who lives for weeks at a time out in the islands in a 20' open boat). Many times last summer we were approached in remote anchorages by these fishermen, asking us to trade water/food/gas for lobster or some other delicacy they had caught.

In the usual way of life, not ten minutes later a panga pulled up with three men on board. Despite our lack of Spanish, we learned that they had run out of water five days ago. There was currently a strong wind blowing from the south and they were pinned there until the weather changed. They held up a five gallon container and asked for us to give them some water. Even though our water maker has been on the fritz and making far less than it usually does, we were happy to fill up their container. They seemed a little surprised when we filled the whole thing up. Since we were being so generous, they asked shyly if we could fill up another container, which we did.

Then the lead man asked if we liked scallops. Sure! Who doesn't? He asked us to wait just a little bit and he would be back. While he was gone, we decided to give him some new Cemex T-shirts that we had hanging around the boat (Patrick came down with bags of them to give away) so we dug those out.

About fifteen minutes later, they returned. They handed over a burlap rice bag that looked about 1/4 full. When Patrick opened it, he saw that it wasn't filled with scallops in the shell as he expected, it was filled with just the scallop meat and a couple lobster. The bag weighed about 30 lbs. I got out a Ziploc bag and we started putting some of the huge scallops into it. We asked the man, "How many?" and he replied, "Todos." All!!! "Es verdad?" Are you sure?

We couldn't believe it! We didn't want to take that many and started protesting. He went on to explain that they had been living at Refugio for the last month in a little fish camp and they were out of water, and their ice supply was getting thin. They had brought supplies to stay there about a month. We had told them earlier that the weather was forecasted to continue on for two more days and they didn't think that they would have enough ice to keep all of their catch fresh until they could get it to market. So in the manner of asking us to do a favor for them, they gave us about 30 lbs of fresh, beautiful, huge, ice-cold scallops and a couple lobster tails.

Scrambling to keep up with their generosity, we filled up another five gallon water jug for them and handed over the bag of three T-shirts. Our fifteen gallons of water and T-shirts seemed a paltry trade in comparison to our bag of treasure. That is a lot of scallops! Thankfully there were two other boats at anchor, so we shared the bounty and still ended up with two gallon Ziplocs stuffed with luscious scallops in our Engel freezer.

Story #3 Why is Mexican Medical Care More Accessible Than the US of A's?

2010-10-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

So, here my family is, foreigners living in a "Second World" country in which we enjoy the beauty but do not support by paying taxes. Our personal wealth is far above most of the inhabitants of this country, yet we really we are not even middle class by American terms anymore. I share this story with a sense of awe and shame that my "First World" country cannot offer the same kindness to the foreigners living on her soil.

On the last day we planned to stay in the LA Bay area, we chose to anchor at La Mona, which is in a corner of the giant bay area. La Mona boasts a beautiful rock hill, which almost looks like an ancient city since the rocks have very grand geometric shapes, and look like building blocks stacked on each other. Jack was throwing Rudy's last tennis ball against one of the rocks and it lodged way up on the cliff. Jack climbed up to get it, barefoot. Of course, he fell without good footing. He fell six feet onto a small ledge and only caught himself because his foot got jammed up on some rocks. One of his toes was the only thing that kept him from falling another twenty feet onto a pile of rocks. His toe looked like it had been pulled off and put on backwards. He was in a great deal of pain.

I looked at his toe and thought that he had dislocated it, but was not sure if instead it was broken. Like I said, it was obvious that it was not put on the right way. I knew that a dislocation could be snapped back into place, but a broken bone should not be manipulated so harshly. I wasn't sure what to do. Jack did not want to be my guinea pig. We consulted a fellow cruiser with a lot of medical experience and she just said, "Take him to the clinic in BLA." So we did.

We walked into the tiny clinic. We waited about ten minutes for someone to be able to see us. They then examined Jack, got the doctor and had her examine Jack. Then the doctor said in perfect English, "This will hurt." She pulled Jack's toe out and we all heard it snap back into place. Voila! They then gave us pain medication and told us how to care for his toe. When we asked how much we owed, we were told that we owed nothing! We were stunned. We asked if we could give a donation, and were refused.

Can you tell me, how in the world a child of a foreigner who does not pay taxes can die from an ear infection in America because the family can't affort to bring him in for care, and yet my family can walk into a Mexican clinic without an appointment, without giving our name, without signing one form, without waiting hours, and receive not only free medical care but also free medication? How is that possible? It makes me feel very ashamed and sad.

Story #2 Shopping at The Godfather's Food Mart - Remember the Horse Head in Bed?

2010-10-21T14:45:00.001-07:00

Shopping for groceries in Bahia de Los Angeles is full of interesting contrasts. Since it is so close to America, the shelves of the five major (all tiny) food stores are stocked with American products not seen in other parts of Mexico - even the big places like Mazatlan. Here you can find molasses, brown sugar, David brand sunflower seeds and Kirkland brand everything. Yet, while you are happily snapping up G&H Dark Brown Sugar, you can find quite a few other items "not seen at Safeway" as Jack sarcastically states.

Take for instance this skinned cow head with attached horns. It first showed up in the tiny freezer section of Guillermo's tienda about a week or two into the summer. It was gently placed on the cement floor, on top of a piece of cardboard with a plastic bag filled with it's innards next to it. Since it was tucked into the corner, the first time I glimpsed it in the dark room, behind the 20# bag of carrots I was reaching into, I gasped. But then over the following seven weeks, each time I inadvertantly glimpsed it while heaving around and restacking the boxes of veggies, looking for oranges or celery, I would still be surprised. Even though I KNEW it was there. But that last shopping expedition, when I was grabbing up handfuls of fruits and vegetables for the last sailing expedition up to Refugio, I screamed. Its eyes had by now fallen into its head, the tongue was lolling out blackened. Truly a gruesome sight and one I will never forget. What meal do you cook with that as the main ingredient?

And that wasn't the only thing that was "not like Safeway." I still remember picking through a pile of apples in a refrigerator in one LA Bay store last year, and coming upon ones with fresh rat bites (were the rats in the freezer section with me????). Or walking through the aisles of another store and dodging four cockroaches busily moving around the bags of bread. And another cruiser had the fun of watching a street dog peeing on the box of fruit just unloaded from the delivery truck outside of one store. A decaying cow's head just inches from the carrots? Ok, as long as the carrots were from the TOP of the bag.

And that is the fun of traveling off the beaten path - it keeps you focused on the fact that this is a great big world and there are lots of ways of doing things. Is Safeway food safer? I doubt it. One thing is for sure - I now religiously wash every piece of fruit or vegetable that comes on the boat in an iodine bath - and I will when I am back in America, too.

Story #1 Thar She Blows! - Encounters of the Whale Kind

2010-10-21T12:34:00.001-07:00

We are finally back in civilization - okay it's just Santa Rosalia, but we are tied to a dock, we have all the hot running water on the boat we need, all the electricity we can use, cell phone service, and INTERNET on the boat! We are in heaven. Internet was so spotty up in LA Bay and beyond that I never got a chance to share some of the pictures and stories of the summer. So over the next week while we are enjoying civilization again, I'll be posting some of the better stories, and this one was an amazing experience.

On our way south from LA Bay, we decided to visit Isla Salsipuedes (Leave if You Can Island). Who wouldn't want to visit a place by that name? We had to see it. It is said to have very jagged, detached, submerged, pinnacle rocks around the shore; very strong currents; and an extensive reef. The island was lovely and we had no trouble leaving, but getting there was a different story!

You have to cross a very deep channel to get to the island which is about 14 miles off shore. As we were crossing, directly in our path to the island we could see the blow spouts of dozens of whales, covering about a mile. In the distance, a few whales were breaching completely out of the water, and all around in front of us we could see their tails lifting up out of the water as they dove. We angled our boat off to the side, to avoid them, but it didn't work. The pod was too big, the area they covered was too large. Soon we found ourselves encompassed in a vast pod of sperm whales - about 100 or so.

Sperm whales are a very different looking whale. They look a little like a rectangular-headed submarine - they have very dark, sleek and shiny skin, and a sort of knobby knuckle on their back instead of a dorsal fin. They have tiny eyes that are hard to distinguish and very thick, stubby tails. They average about 50 feet long, so they are pretty big. Sperm whales are known to be aggressive toward boats that get too close, especially during mating season. Not being a whale, I don't know when mating season is - I just know sperm whales have rammed boats.

The whales would come up from feeding with an explosive breath of air and then stay on the surface for up to 20 minutes or so just breathing and then dive again, lifting their stubby tails straight in the air. We slowed our boat down to 3 knots by letting most of the wind dump out of our mainsail, we rolled up the jib, and then we turned on an engine and left it in idle just to make noise so we wouldn't sneak up on anyone. The wind was blowing pretty good, so the waves were worked up and the white caps and swell were making it hard to see the whales as they lollygagged on the surface. We all got on deck, scanning the water. For an hour, we threaded our way slowly though the huge pod, turning left and then right by 30 or 40 degrees - always trying to get to the outside of the herd, but then more whales would surface and we would be surrounded again.

At one point we found ourselves with a mom and a baby about 70 feet to starboard and a big bull about 70 feet to port. We turned hard to port, trying to bring our boat around the back of the bull in order to give the mom and baby more room. This, of course, brought us closer to the big one. We were within 40 feet of him and moving parallel alongside him. Still the whale was showing no sign of noticing us, or moving. We continued slowly along, trying to get behind him.

Suddenly, dolphins showed up out of nowhere. We hadn't seen them before this. They came up to our boat and instantly we had a phalanx of about 10 dolphins around us. At the same time, the whale started and came to life in an agitated manner. He lifted his massive head up out of the water to fix us with his eye. Then two of the dolphins did a very brave thing. They swam over to the head of the bull and got within feet of his snout. The whale reared his head higher, and then gave a mighty lunge toward the dolphins and away from our boat. With a huge splash, he dove.

That is the second time in Mexico that I have seen dolphins come from out of nowhere to help us when we were in potential danger. There is something very special about dolphins, and I will be forever grateful.

Our First Step in the Journey Home....

2010-10-10T17:56:00.000-07:00

We celebrated a two momentous occasions just a few days ago. It all started when we went north once again to celebrate Jack's birthday in his favorite place, Puerto Refugio on Isla Angel de La Guarda. Our good friends on Adios 3 decided to come along too, to help us celebrate and to enjoy the wild beauty of the anchorage. All the blocks were in place for a memorable 13th birthday, but it turned out differently than planned. Jack became violently ill with the 'flu on his birthday eve and most of our time at Refugio was spent watching movies and recovering. Still memorable, but not what was planned!

And then another momentous event happened. After waiting out a wind storm, we made our first step on the journey home. Refugio was the farthest north place we reached this summer and when we left it, we were headed home. From now on we are working south. We have decided that our next step is to sail to Hawaii in spring and from there to the PNW. In the following six months, we will be traveling south to the tip of the Baja and preparing our boat for the ocean crossing. We have much to do, but our focus now is leaving Mexico instead of enjoying it.

We no longer have a "home" waiting for us, but in our hearts the PNW is our home. It is exciting and sad to be leaving such a beautiful country. We have found everything that we were looking for when we first decided to start this journey - greater family bonds, personal growth, and peace of mind.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2010-09-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Good
I didn't break my leg when I fell through the hatch in the middle of the Great Race.
Meri has Amoxicillin on her boat that she is willing to give me.
Third Day brought down the Spectra water maker part from the US to fix our water maker.
LA Bay has two Internet cafes.
The lump on my head I got from dropping a 10 pound water can on it is finally small enough that I can put my snorkel mask on.
The starter on the boat's port engine can be tricked into starting with a well placed screwdriver.
Patrick is able to bleed the air out of the diesel lines before starting the boat engines whenever we need to move.
Patrick has jerry-rigged the dinghy motor so he can shift it into forward with the help of a vice grip and screwdriver.
We have been having a great time with Hotspur and Third Day, and today Adios III showed up in LA Bay.

The Bad
I did break my brand new camera when I fell through the hatch in the middle of the Great Race.
Rudy has developed a staph infection on his skin that is no longer responding to the antibiotics I have on board.
The part that Spectra sent to us is not the right one and our water maker is still broken.
The Internet in LA Bay is as slow as molasses and it's hard to upload pictures.
I still have a lump on my forehead from dropping a 10 pound water can on it three weeks ago.
The starter on the port engine cannot be fixed until we reach a larger town with a parts stores.
Despite working for hours to figure out why we have air in our diesel lines, there is still air in our diesel lines.
The dinghy motor can only be shifted into forward.
Third Day left this morning headed south and we won't see them for about a month.

The Ugly
Our dinghy broke two days ago in two different ways - the shifter cable snapped and it no longer can be tilted up when entering shallow water. Our breakdowns are just becoming ridiculous.
The bruises on my leg from falling through the hatch in the middle of the Great Race are truly just ugly.

Things are looking up!

2010-09-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

First off - no new break downs. Well, not really. Our water maker stopped working, but Patrick quickly figured out that the water flow was stopped by the three (now dead) Gobi fish who had been sucked into the water intake valve and were clogging up with pipe. But that's not really a breakdown. Thank God we did not make any fishy tasting water before we found the problem. And he also found two dead fish in the engine water intake valve in the same week, so our boat is doing better than us lately at catching fish this week. Depressing!

Meanwhile, our friends on Third Day and Hotspur have finally shown up in LA Bay. Both the captains of those vessels need Internet for work, so hopefully they will be able to manage in this absolute desert of Internet services. There are two Internet "oases" in town, but even they are not always reliable for service.

Another change for the better is that the kind American who drove the cruisers around in his pickup on provisioning runs last year has set up a "Cruiser's Sleigh Ride" for tomorrow. He shows up in his pickup and trailer and everyone who is there climbs in the back, hangs on and gets driven around town to all the grocery stores, propane, laundry and gas station. It is heaven and very fun.

And best of all, there has been a respite from the heat. Lately the morning temperatures have been in the high 70's and the daytime temperatures do not go too far over 90 degrees, so life has improved immeasurably.

The Summer So Far

2010-09-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

We just came back to LA Bay after spending about 2 weeks out in the anchorages. We returned to Quemado which is a south wind anchorage, but when the winds changed to the north, we took our opportunity and moved to Este Ton on Isla Angel de la Garda. What a beautiful anchorage. It is very small and really only fits one or two boats. Everyday there were whales feeding just outside the entrance and at night you could listen to them breathing just over the sand spit. Every day while snorkeling we saw sea turtles and octopus.

And the beach combing was superb! I found hundreds of beautiful little shells (most, no bigger than a pea) that were all different shapes, colors and varieties. They look like jewels. Jack was thrilled to find buoys, a "perfect" bucket, and even Patrick kept a length of line he found coiled up and waiting for him. I also found a perfect skull of a tiny shore bird, a length of dolphin spine, and lots of sea urchin shells and dried starfish. Needless to say, I think JaM is floating a little lower with all our "treasures". We were going to stay even longer but one day the wind changed again and suddenly we found ourselves bounced out of the anchorage on big swells and 20 knots of wind from the wrong direction.

Bahia de Los Angeles

2010-08-26T10:44:00.001-07:00

Well, I can sum up the last month pretty quickly - bees, breakdowns, no internet, whale sharks, fishing, and sweat. There you go, you haven't missed anything. For those of you interested in more details...

When last we left off, we were just leaving Santa Rosalia, over a hundred miles away. Our grand plans to hit the islands sort of fell to the wayside, partly because of the wind (not a good direction) and partly because the islands that did have good protection had lots of boats in them. So we stuck to the less traveled peninsula side and had several beautiful anchorages mostly to ourselves.

It's kind of strange to be back here in LA Bay area. It is not quite what I expected. Over the winter months we had run into so many new cruisers who told us they would be up here for the summer. I thought there were going to be 50 or more boats up here - but only a few of them showed up. Only one of the kid boats that said they would be here actually turned up, so Jack has had much less kid interaction than last year. So far, not even our old friends from last summer (Hotspur and Third Day) are up here. Jack has not been complaining though, since the snorkeling and spear fishing are as excellent as we remembered.

This cruising season has been remarkable for a few reasons - more bee swarms than last year, fewer hurricanes/tropical storms, and tons of breakdowns. It has seemed like one long episode of "McGyver" around JaM. So many important systems began breaking almost as soon as we reached LA Bay, which is just the backwater of all places to try to find replacements or goods. So Patrick has been fixing breakdowns with anything he can find. He used a cut-up plastic bottle to replace the lid of our dinghy gas can which blew off from the heat pressure, and miraculously he used hose clamps and tape to repair the two holes in the 1000 psi, stainless steel tube on our water maker which had burst, sending pressurized salt water streaming into the storage compartment under our bed, which is where we store 150 lbs of dog food and books. What a MESS! We have also had a water pump on one engine fail, and the sail drive on that side has salt water intrusion again, and the starter on the other engine is in the process of failing, and the refrigerator's water pump system began failing. I think that covers all of the major system failures we have suffered in the last two weeks, but you can understand if I forgot a few. I am starting to feel a little besieged.

Many of the anchorages on the Baja have very aggressive bees, searching for water sources. Due to the design of our boat, we are a prime target. Our fresh water sink is placed right near the door to the cockpit and so the bees easily scent and find the water on our boat. We have responded by fashioning a "Tent Mahal" by taking two queen-size bed nets and sewing them together to form a tent that encompasses the entire cockpit area, all 10 feet by 15 feet of it. It is pretty sweet, but it severely cuts down on the air flow. So our choice is no bees and no air, or bees and air. It's amazing how many times we opt for no air.

Speaking of air, the temperature has been hovering around 100 and the water is about 86. It is not so refreshing to jump in the water - oh how we long for the 54 degree water of home! Thankfully, the catamaran offers shade and a wind tunnel effect between her two hulls, so we have a little more relief than others. We three have spent many hours floating and lounging under JaM's hull, just trying to cool down. It seems much hotter than last year.

Provisioning in LA Bay is much harder than last year, and NO INTERNET is available from the boat. Both these details are severely affecting our enjoyment of LA Bay. Last year a fellow American would bring all the cruisers around in his truck to get all their diesel, food, laundry and such. This year, there is no free ride. It is sorely missed, and provisioning around here has taken on epic measure. You try hauling 20 gallons of diesel a half mile in 100 degree heat! Let alone provisioning beer and groceries. And very expensive. Yesterday we bought one roll of paper towels and one small can of meat for $8 US. Ouch!

Pepe's Inferno

2010-08-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last week in Santa Rosalia Harbor, tied to a dock. Barring the center of the Earth, it is one of the hottest places on this planet, I think. Yet, we survived smiling. How can this be so? After spending a few weeks here last year, we did something that proves how desperately our brains were baked. We bought an air conditioner - just a small, in-window unit. We couldn't find one here in Santa Rosalia, so we had one shipped to a friend. We had already left Santa Rosalia by the time we picked it up from our friend.

It has sat in its original box, unopened, unused, for one entire year. I can't tell you how many times I cursed the huge, heavy box that took up so much room under my bed. There was never a cause to use it in all of the places we have been in Mexico. And then we returned to Santa Rosalia. Within one hour of tying to the dock here, we had the box ripped open and the unit fitted into our salon cabin window. Ah, Heaven.

Santa Rosalia is so hot and humid that it is hard to even bring ourselves to leave the refrigerated confines of our boat. Yet every morning, we leave before 11 am to get ourselves to Pepe's Taco Stand for the BEST SHRIMP TACO IN THE WORLD. He opens at 7 am, and he closes when he runs out of food. Every day, he starts with a fresh pile of shrimp and fish, and every day he sells out around 1 pm. We don't want to risk getting there after closing, so we head in around 11.

So the days have passed, waiting for Rudy to get better - eating tacos, braving town for provisioning trips and the vet visits, and hanging out in the luxury of our air conditioned boat. It is hard to leave Santa Rosalia, but we plan to untie tonight and keep moving north. Our next anchorage is 80 miles away and so we will be leaving around 3 am to make it in sometime next afternoon. The wind has died now, so it will just be a motor boat ride.

Rudy has recovered well from his latest issue. He is still not a pretty sight and mothers in town drag their big-eyed children away from his pestilent looking hide, but I can't blame them. He really does look like Hell.

We rented a cab for one hour yesterday and had the driver take us all over town provisioning - the modelorama (beer store), two tiendas (food), three ferreterias (hardware stores), and the vet. It cost us $22 US for the cab, but it was the only civilized way we could get all that stuff back to the boat in the heat. By the time he was driving us to the marina, the back end of his car was riding very low from all the weight.

Now we are stocked and loaded, so we will be heading straight up into the islands of the Northern Sea of Cortez, bypassing the next town (LA Bay) which is about 124 miles away. We plan to hit a few islands in the next weeks including Isla Salispuedes (Leave If You Can Island), Isla Partida Norte (North Departure Island) and Isla Angel de la Guardia (Guardian Angel Island). When we finally run out of vegetables, beer and fuel (or some combination there of), we will head back into LA Bay to re-provision, so our next internet will not be for two weeks or so.
Cheers,
Laura

From Beauty King to Horror Movie Extra

2010-07-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

What a time we have had since last writing in Loreto! There's been lots of different things happening, so this posting with be a smattering of this, and a tidbit of that.

The winds from the south have continued on for weeks now, making our passage northward, one long, fun sail. We have rarely needed the engines and have used only 12 gallons of deisel since leaving La Paz - 224 miles away! It's a major break-through for us power-boater people. We are continuing to work on our sailing skills and have pretty much perfected the "wing on wing" procedure for our boat. We still pull out our "Start Sailing Right!" book that we got 15 years ago from a lazer sailing class on a lake, and use it to figure out the best sail configurations for the wind. Thank God the Lagoon has a fairly simple sailing design with only two sails. I can't imagine knowing how to sail one of those "pirate" ships with multiple masts and sails.

North from Loreto, our first stop was San Juanico. As always, SJ is a beautiful anchorage, though it is not the most protected one you could find in a south wind. Despite that, we stayed through the swells since the anchorage was also home to Adios III and Iweld - both kid boats with "tweens and teens". For three days, it was teen heaven for Jack (and a nice break for Patrick and me). When Jack's busy with other kids, we get a little alone time - something that can be hard to come by in this lifestyle.

Finally the others departed and we moved around the corner to La Ramada. a tiny cove with superior south wind protection. Though nothing too beautiful to look at, La Ramada has become one of our top three favorite anchorages. It is not visited as often since it is so close to stunning San Juanico, and so the snorkeling is FANTASTIC. We snorkeled every day and saw things that we had not seen in two years of snorkeling - huge sea turtles, poisonous scorpionfish, big colorful eels and many beautiful, colored reef fish not seen before. The water is really warming up and even I can stay in swimming for hours.

One our third day in La Ramada, we spotted the beginning of trouble in paradise. I noticed a lump on Rudy's hip and a spot on his neck. The next day, the lumps had burst open and Rudy had oozing sores. Concerned, I washed them out and disinfected them, but they seemed to grow by the hour. By the next day he had more spots on his head, another on his leg. We realized we needed help and pulled anchor. The decision was to either back track 26 miles to the vet in Loreto, or head 77 miles up to Santa Rosalia. We decided to head for Santa Rosalia. That day we rocketed along and made 42 miles in 6 hours, but decided to pull over early to an anchorage we knew had good southwind protection, instead of continuing on to another anchorage that we had not visited before. Since the waves and wind were so strong that day we decided to be cautious. It was a good decision. Later that night we heard another couple on the radio who had a very bad day trying to make it into the anchorage we had been contemplating, before they turned around and beat it back to our location. They were seasick, scared and exhausted by the time the dropped anchor next to us at sunset.

The following day the winds were down to 10-15 knots, and we jumped off to an early start. Our speeds were down with the wind so we kept a motor on to make sure we would reach Santa Rosalia before the vet closed for the night. We made it in time. Some of the first words out of the vet's mouth after looking at Rudy were, "You need to take him to a cooler climate. He has hot spots." Easier said than done, doc. Then he asked if Rudy had experienced any "Tick problems" lately. When we affirmed that he had recently had anaplasmosis, the doctor went on to tell us that he often sees hot spots on dogs who had the "tick problems". Rudy doesn't just have hot spots though, he has nuclear hot spots. He looks like a zombie dog, with huge gaping, oozing wounds on his neck and head. He's so depressed and in pain. Though our plans were to quickly leave Santa Rosalia, we will be staying until Rudy starts to get better. His head and neck wounds are still getting worse, even under a doctor's care. Currently Rudy is sporting a new shaved look over his entire body, a "cone of shame" to keep him from ripping his neck open scratching, and the saddest look you could ever stand. It's heart breaking.

For anyone contemplating becoming a cruiser, I have some words of advice. Think long and hard about taking "Fluffy" with you. Medical care is hard to come by, and many things can go wrong out here.

Back in Loreto Again

2010-07-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

We have had a fantastic sail up from La Paz! The wind was always on our stern quarter and we flew along "wing on wing" which means the mainsail is pushed out all the way to one side of the boat, and the jib is pushed off all the way to the other. It is a lovely, gentle way to sail. The waves and wind are both working together to push you along and even in 20 knots of wind, it feels like a fine day since you are running with the wind and not against it. We only had to run our engines a few hours the entire way from La Paz to Loreto.

Our plans now are simple. Having spent the last two months exploring the Loreto area islands, we feel it is time to move north, though I am sad to go. This area of the Sea has become my favorite area, hands down. There are so many beautiful anchorages spread thickly over a small area. Another reason it is so great is Loreto, itself. What a beautiful, convenient town, and very easily accessed by anchoring off.

Nothing exciting on the fishing report - though not from lack of trying. We have caught a four foot shark and numerous large (20-25 lb) Jack Crevalles, but nothing else. We have seen dorado (mahi mahi) all around the boat, jumping and feeding and swimming, but they never bite our lures! Frustrating!

We leave, headed north again, tomorrow and our next internet access should be in Santa Rosalia - about a week or two away. Talk to you then!