Ventura Boat Doctor Cruisin'

Happy Holidays!!!

2010-12-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season! I wish our annual Parade of Lights here in Ventura Harbor, CA would have been less wet, but BRAVO to all the boats that participated in a very rainey parade... You are our heros!!! To the few, but cheery friends who braved the wet to come aboard South Trail, we salute you! You made our holiday!

We had fun decking the "hall" of South Trail for the festivities and the season especially after last year when we (re: Eva) had to forego the traditional fanfare in lue of our impending voyage to Mexico. Viva la Decoration!!!

The guy in his foulies says it all... But WOW! This is one of the numerous amazing efforts for this year's theme "Holidays in Whoville"!!! Yeah Generators!!!

Here's Thanksgiving with Mom Sue and Craig, Aunt Roxie and Eva not pictured, but waiting impatiently to delve into a non-traditional surf-n-turf feast! To heck with the hives... Give me Shrimp!!!

Dover enjoying what we tell him is "the big boat" at Grandma's on his own bed after feasting on meat scraps... Lucky, full, happy dog!

Our Halloween Jack-O-Lantern display for the night... Jack at the bow is blowing his wad with M&M's strewn into his internal angst and a sign reading, "Eat Candy Responsibly". Nuff said...

Yup... His eye is popped-out... Had a blast carving duel heads onto the pumpkins... My artistic effort for the year! But wait there's more...

True Blood inspired...

This one is reacting to the barf... We've all been there... Oh my!

Oh yeah, we also worked... Alot. Thank you to Ed and Annette, Dr. Neal, Linda, Bruce, John, Mike and Julie, Mike and Patty, Ventura Harbor Boat Yard... and all you fabulous peeps!!! Also, a shout out to Beth and Skip and all their four paws who I am responsible for on the Oxnard Shores.

There he is... The Ventura Boat Doctor at work!!!.... Hey, when do we get to go cruising again???!!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!

Summer 2010: Memorial Day to Labor Day

2010-09-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Dover and Eva Kayaking in Dana Point Harbor, Memorial Day

No big Labor Day weekend for us this year. Craig is working on the last part of a now 8 week boatyard project and was only able to take off one day over the Labor Day weekend. We made the most of it, and joined our friends George, Patti, Mike and Marvin up at Marvin’s cabin in Camp Shydack (SP?) in the Los Padres National Forest to celebrate Patti’s Birthday. It has been foggy, damp and cool all summer in Ventura Harbor and it was a nice change to get up to the mountains where it was 90+ degrees and sunny. This was Dover’s first time in the mountains and he enjoyed all the new sights and smells the day had to offer. He did not though like the winding hour and a half drive to and from! It was a great day of great food and friends. Just what the Boat Doctor needed!

Transom Before Modification

The aforementioned boatyard project is a structural re-do of a 1980 Nordic 40 sailboat, s/v Seaquel. The owner, and our dock neighbor in Ventura West, wanted to have a walk-thru transom rather than the fixed transom this production boat came with. He is blind, with an aging German Shepard Seeing Eye Dog, who will benefit from being able to simply walk on the boat from the dock. Also, in the unlikely event that this experienced sailor falls off into the water, he will more easily be able to get back aboard his vessel. Craig has done a fantastic job first demolishing the old transom and rebuilding it using fiberglass.

Transom Modification in Process

Prior to the transom project, Craig took out an old sailboat engine on s/v Freedom and re-powered it with a new diesel engine; completed a blister job on s/v Slow Ride; did an insurance job on s/v Althea and worked on various boat projects for our friend Patrick’s boat, s/v Kamikaze in both Dana Point and San Diego. We are still taking care of Dr. Neal’s Hunter 45, s/v Matt’s Dinghy. Eva does the week to week cleaning and detailing. Craig is taking care of all the engine and system’s maintenance and vessel upgrades. Wally, who is back in town this summer from cruising Mexico, is taking over skipper duties for Dr. Neal while Craig finishes his various other boat projects.

Craig working up mast on s/v Kamikaze

Eva is also back to work again for Beth and Skip in Oxnard Shores taking care of their beach home and cats Almond and Coconut (aka, Al and Cocopuff… “I’m Coo-coo for Cocopuff!”) while they do their work in L.A. during the week. I'm also doing some writing in addition to this blog on some ideas that have been kicking around in my head regarding our life on a boat in the harbor, and all the fabulous characters that we have had the pleasure of experiencing thus far.

s/v Freedom gets shiny new red engine

Our beautiful home, s/v South Trail, is resting after her long journey of 3000 nautical miles. We have not had a moment as of tying her off to her new berth on June 1st to get her out to the local Channel Islands. We plan to take her out on a couple of one to two week jaunts this coming winter as boat work slows. We also have a long list of boat projects that we hope to complete this winter including ripping out our cabin sole and re-tanking our old diesel tanks. Messy work. We will probably stay with Craig’s mom, Sue, for the duration of that project, as it will be impossible to live aboard while doing this work. We also need to take the mast out and re-rig the boat. Those are the biggies and there are about 2 dozen other small items we hope to address before next summer rolls around.

As if s/v South Trail is not enough work for us, we went into a partnership with Craig’s friend Johnny, a top notch automotive and helicopter mechanic, on two small fishing boats. A 25’, 1967 Luhrs Sportfisher and a 23’ Mako. They were great bargains needing the kind of work that Craig excels at, and Johnny has family property inland that will enable us to work on them and house them rent free. So, in addition to everything else, we will be working on these two boats as additional projects which we hope to sell eventually for a small profit… After we enjoy fishing off them locally first!

Our new/old baby: 1967 Luhrs Sportfisher

Dover is happy to be back to his favorite, home harbor and regular routine. I walk him to the beach every morning (about a mile) and there he plays Chuck-It and frolicks in the surf. In the afternoons he goes to a big dirt lot by our marina and chases rabbits. There are tons of them there and he is very entertained. For you bunny lovers, never fear, he never actually catches them. He doesn’t even come close. The rabbits are way smarter and faster than he will ever be… I think I may have actually seen one of them give him a raspberry before darting across the field and down a hole!

Martha, Tamara, Eva and Kari wine tasting in Nashville

I was thrilled to be able to attend a reunion with my best girlfriends from William Woods University, Fulton, Missouri, 1989-93: Kari, Tamara and Martha. The four of us converged at our friend Martha’s home outside of Nashville, TN in late July, early August. It had been six years since our last get together, and it was a blast to hang out with all of them again. Like putting on a favorite sweater, it was warm, comfortable and familiar. We went wine tasting, out for a night at a local bar with a live band, and into Nashville for some site seeing and dinner. Martha and her hubby, Rob, were fantastic hosts and pulled-out all the stops with a crab boil feast, homemade BBQ hotwings and Rob’s hangover smoothies. I hope we don’t wait another 6 years to do it again!

BBQ on South Trail with dock pals: George and Patti pictured

Dover playing ball on "his beach" in Ventura... So happy to be home!

Many other folks that I was able to see over the summer included my co-worker pals from Anacapa Isle Marina days, Julie and Gabi, my old L.A. waitress buddies from Café Tartine and Marmalade Café and Baccaro Designs Faux Finishing days, Celeste and Gina, and Joanne from Pasadena. It was also really great to reconnect with all our old dock buddy neighbors here in Ventura. We look forward to making many new friends on our new dock and new side of the harbor at Ventura West Marina. It is good to be home! Happy Fall everyone!

Full Circle: Back in Ensenada!

2010-05-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

We arrived Tuesday morning into Ensenada Harbor and back into a slip at our favorite place, Baja Naval Marina. Once again, we arrived just as our last provisions of produce from Turtle Bay were all but totally depleted, and were so very happy to back in the big city up north with all of our favorite restaurants. After giving Dover a much needed walk on the malecon, we practically ran to our favorite breakfast place, Las Cazuelitas (Little Pans) They have simply the best comida and service in town, and we "yummmmmmm"ed our way through a plate of machaca y huevos con chilaquiles rojo, the house specialty and two grande jugos naranja (fresh squeezed orange juice) So nice to take a break from cooking! After breakfast, we took in an early showing of Iron Man II. 35 pesos per person for first run movies. Have I mentioned lately how much we love Mexico?!

Our passage up from Turtle Bay was full of ups and downs, great sailing followed by barely making headway in steep seas and strongs winds. It took us four days to transit, but we stopped overnight in San Carlos and San Quintin to take much needed breaks. The Baja Bash is officially over for us even though we have a few hundred more miles to go north to Ventura. The worst is over and we don't anticipate the remaining passages to be at all difficult.

In Turtle Bay, we waited out a gale with a large group of fellow cruisers. It was very nice to connect with other people facing the same challenges. We went up to a restaurant recommended by our friend Niell and his buddy Pete, Las Palapas. The proprietors, Carlos and his wife Mercedes built this great restaurant overlooking the bay in front of their home. Pete apparently helped Carlos build the first palapa 10 years ago and they are the official Bahia Tortugas Yacht Club. Carlos showed us a photo album filled with pictures of visiting yateros and had us sign his guestbook. Due to the fact that eleven boats were stuck in the harbor for a week waiting out the gale, we all organized a party at the yacht club. Mercedes made fantastic Baja fish tacos, Chicken Pajole, and Pescado Mexicana for us and the tequilla and Negro Modelos were flowing! Great to meet some new folks, swap Bash stories, and patronize some really wonderful Bahia Tortugas folks in their beautiful place.

Looking forward to heading back out and up the hill this weekend for Dana Point and then home to Ventura!

In Turtle Bay at last... Warmth!...showers, fuel, comida and muy necessito... cervesa!

2010-05-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been three weeks since our last shore leave off South Trail in Cabo San Lucas, and all of us have been suffering from a bit of cabin fever and hypothermia... until today! We left Bahia Asuncion at midnight last night and arrived in Turtle Bay, aka Bahia Tortugas, today at 1pm. Huge west swells plagued us the entire leg, but South Trail did a great job averaging 4 knots to weather under power alone. Dover ran his fuzzy rear end off at the beach upon landing, and then we three hoofed it into town for some desperately needed re-provisioning. We were out of all fresh produce and had our first homemade alfalfa sprouts yesterday on a turkey cheese quesadilla wrap... Yummy! Muchas Gracias to my big sis Aina for the sprout kit before we left the US! I knew it would come in handy coming back up this remote coast, and by golly it did!

Tonight we are grilling hamburgesas on Bimbo Integral pan with fresh tomato, onion and sprouts along with homemade french fries... Life is very good right now! We will get fuel from Sergio manana which should take us all the way to Ventura, and then weigh anchor at midnight to head north yet again. This next leg has the potential of being a tough nut to crack as the wind and seas can really stop a boat like ours in it's tracks. We have a good game plan though, and the smarts to scrap that plan should conditions change for us. We will be fine, and look forward to getting up to Ensenada within the next week, God willing, so we can check out of the country and head back up to work in Ventura. We visited a few new anchorages for us on this last leg out of necessity, and now have vowed to visit them again under less time constraints. The bain of our existance for over a week was Abreojos, but when we were so protein deprived that we flagged a local panga down, we were so pleasantly surprised to meet some very nice pescadores who practically gave us a freshly caught, seven pound halibut... still kicking. Craig asked, "Cuantos pesos?", but they wouldn't sell it. So he gave them one of his Rapala fish lures and they were thrilled... so were we! We ate two huge meals off that one fish... Dover too!

Abreojos was the hardest nut to crack in terms of getting out of the area and heading north. The seas were steep and the wind blows there all the time, but we got a window and took it... 12 miles up the coast to Hipolito which is a remote fishing village. We anchored for the day and left in the wee hours of calm night to head up north again to Bahia Asuncion. That was our best leg motoring in a dead calm sea. We arrived aroud noon and left Asuncion at midnight again to avoid strong winds, but the seas were very high. Still, it only took us 13 hours to go the 50 miles to fabulous Turtle Bay where we now sit happily eating burgers with cold Tecate's... Life is Good. Also, got a great email from Ricki at Ventura West Marina. They have a liveaboard slip for us June 1st... Yippee!!! Home again!!! Life is now REALLY GOOD!!!

A recap from Santa Maria to Turtle Bay:

Our last bottle of vino (made in Baja... fitting) and grilled lobster tails in Bahia Santa Maria before heading into the very cold Pacific to head north...

Land Ho!!!! Hipolito!!!

In one of our darker days of waiting out a Baja gale, we made pizza, which lifted all our spirits!... It's all about the food for us...

Dover manages to find the only on-deck shade sitting here in warm Turtle Bay!

Stuck in Abreojos...

2010-04-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

We are at an anchorage at the very top of Bahia San Lazaro (top portion of the middle bight of the coastline) waiting not to patiently for the weather to die down a bit before pushing north again to get into Turtle Bay and a required fuel stop and mini-provision. We are only 80 miles away, but it seems like 1,000's because the wind howls through here, and every mile gained since leaving Santa Maria Bay has been hard won for us. We actually tried to push through this morning. We weighed anchor at 4am and got around the corner only to be slapped back. The weather guru Don, s/v Summer Passage who broadcasts via ham on The Amigo Net, says that a gale will blow starting this afternoon down the Baja coast and be blowing 30-35 knots NW for the next couple of days. We will probably be stuck here through Saturday, May 1st... Big bummer... We are down to our last 6 eggs and are out of fresh produce save for potatoes and onions. My big sister Aina's sprout kit will be coming out this afternoon! The town of Abrejojos has few services and we are well tucked in a cove east of it, so popping into town for a few things is not an option at this juncture.

Other than our frustration at the Baja Bash, which was to be expected, we are all well. South Trail has been running great, and other than our bow mounted running lights going out all the time (understandable with all the pounding seas) knock wood, we have had no major system failures. Dover is resigned to the fact that he will not be going ashore often on this part of the journey, and is getting his daily exercise running the decks and warning away all manner of sea bird and mammal away from his South Trail. He also gets nightly games of tug-o-war and boat fetch. We all desperately need a shower and are lamenting not hooking-up our watermaker for this trip. The water we have onboard must be conserved for moments like this when we don't know how long it will before we are able to fill up again. Turtle Bay is the Oasis in these parts. They have fuel, water, provisions, restaurants, and even one of the local hotels offers cruising sailors showers in one of their hotel rooms for $3... Yeah, we will be doing that deal bigtime!

Whata Difference a Bay Makes!!!

2010-04-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

We arrived 180 nm's NW of Cabo today, Tuesday at sunrise, in our favorite deserted anchorage, Bahia Santa Maria, outside of Mag Bay. No Sea-Doos here baby! Just a small fishing village who love to barter with us gringos for their commodity...fish and lobster. We are in hog heaven right now, and it is a good thing because according to the weather gurus, South Trail with be here for a few days while some Gale's blow down the Baja coastline...

Our Bash out of Cabo was not the trauma inducing experience we were stealing ourselves for. Once again, Capt. Craig picked a great window to weigh anchor and get outta Cabo. We left the anchorage at 10am on Sunday. We rounded Cabo Falso with no major head wind or seas. It was choppy and we were only doing about 3.5 knots, but it was very doable. The afternoon blow which is typical was very mild. We saw nothing over 14 knots during the whole passage.

The worst part of heading uphill in a boat like ours, is that you have to get used to the fact that you will most likely be averaging less nautical miles per hour than you have been used to the entire cruising season! I think it is more of a trauma psychologically than physically. We just kept thinking the whole passage, "shouldn't we be further along by now?" You are beating and the wind is in your face and the boat is working, but you are just not going as fast as the conditions might lead you to believe you should be. It's a bummer for sure. But like anything, the more you do it, the more confident you get... We should be very confident by the time we make it back up to Ventura!

Time to relax, get some sleep and enjoy these bugs for dinner tonight!

We are hoping to leave on our most challenging leg, the middle bight of Baja up to Turtle Bay, on Friday depending on the weather gurus instructions. There are a couple of possible anchorages in between that we may have to stop at due to necessity. Stay tuned for more bash updates!....

Fair winds to all on your own life passages...

In Cabo: Teeing-Up for the Big Bad Baja Bash!!!

2010-04-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Cabo at midnight Wednesday night from our Mazatlan crossing. Very pleasant, benign Sea of Cortez passage. Got to actually sail a bit when we left Mazatlan. Got a little bit of SW Pineapple Express gentle push to get us outta town. As this is possibly the last calm, benign passage for awhile, we REALLY enjoyed the lack of drama. We are in the lovely rolly anchorage here in Cabo San Lucas with a lot of pasty white tourists wizzing around us on rented Sea-Do's after too many cocktails, and worse, trying to show off their incredible Sea-Do prowess of going way too fast through a crowded anchorage... There are more ways to die here in Cabo on the water than anywhere else on the Baja really. Craig, Dover and I had to run into town for parts and were nearly capsized by a glass bottom boat and a cruise ship tender respectively. We thwarted the full bath, but got a good soaking nonetheless... We will leave as soon as we get a good weather window to get us up to Magdelena Bay. At this writing, we may be leaving on Sunday or Monday. Hopefully, before the Sea-Do's drive us all totally bonkers !

We really had to tear ourselves away from Mazatlan as it is our new favorite city in Mexico and so many of our friends were there when we left. We will miss Jack and Elvia, Neill Randle, and Patrick Martin and all our new aquaintences in Old Harbor, Club Nautico, Isla Marina and Dock 4, Marina Mazatlan. We did lots of laundry and stowed all our non-necessary items (read: all Eva's little homey touches that could get destroyed in the coming weeks of pounding to weather)

We celebrated our wedding anniversary on Easter Sunday this year down in the Plaza Machado in Centro Historico at a lovely outdoor cafe and then went to our favorite pastry place, Panama, for some sweets to take back to South Trail.

Dover is absolutely the star of this cruising trip. He has made so many new friends, and has turned into the very confident smallest big dog we've ever had the pleasure to know. Everyday he impresses us with his abilities and great attitude. Dover has opened doors for us and added a great dimension to this trip for us. We could write a book about moments and places Dover has experienced in the last few months... Maybe we will!

Our Baja Bash strategy is pretty simple... We are going to go with the fastest (Read: Sea-Do story above), best weather window that gets us around Cabo Falso and up to Bahia Santa Maria/Mag Bay for our first passage. Based on our experience with our Telcel Dongle coming down the Baja, we will be able to check our favorite online weather sources (buoyweather.com, sonrisanet.org-Geary's weather, passageweather.com, noaa.org -for the cool big picture satelite images) as well as listen to Don, s/v Summer Passage on the ham Amigo Net @ 8.122.01. Being realistic about this trip having already completed it under sail power alone with no self-steering on our Cal 2-29, s/v Tigertail Street five years ago, we are understand all too well that plans can change quickly depending on what Mother Ocean is giving you to work with. We try to be flexible with plans for the sanity of the crew and the health of our home and transportation! Also, we really study our charts and guides to have the most alternate routes, as well as strategies, thought through ahead of time. Craig goes through the boat systems with a pretty fine tooth comb to smooth out any issues. He's got his tool bags out and ready to work on any issue quickly and efficiently in a seaway if necessary. He will dive on South Trail tomorrow to check our prop, shaft and zincs one last time, and I have been cleaning the waterline so our gal with be as slick as humanly possible. We need every possible speed advantage we can find. Our decks are kept pretty clear. We put our jerry jugs down below to keep the weight low. Our V-berth has been cleared of all our heavy items and they have been moved to displace her weight aft and keep the bow light into the seas. We put up our new/old kevlar working jib... Very exciting. It worked great on our Sea of Cortez sail in light wind. We are provisioned up with a lot of easy quick meals and tons of grazing foods and snacks... We are ready to rock-n-roll!!! Stay tuned...

Time to Go Upstream!

2010-03-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

All good things must come to an end, and our downwind sailing time is over. It is time to turn around, go from gybes to tacks, and work our way back up the coast to the tune of 1500 or so nautical miles back to Ventura. The boat is running great thanks to Craig, and we are optimistic that we will not have any major problems beyond finding favorable weather windows.

After Randy and Vicki went home, we stayed an additional week at Marina Riviera Nayarit at La Cruz. We let Patrick use our extra key card as he was anchored outside the marina. He came in for water and gave Dover dinghy rides, which he totally loved.

We were thrilled to be able to see our old G Dock Ventura West neighbors Rick and Karen, s/v Eyes of the World for a fun evening of sundowner cocktails and great sailing stories before leaving La Cruz. Back in the day, Rick taught Craig how to sail in Channel Islands Harbor and it was so great to be able to both be in Mexico on our own cruising boats and celebrate that moment!

Speaking of dinghy rides with Dover, Craig took Dover out to the point at Punta Mita which is a world class surf spot and the northern tip of Banderas Bay. We stopped here and anchored for a night before heading up the coast to Chacala again. Dover is barking like a wild man because Craig is full throttle on the outboard trying not to get rolled by a swell he misjudged as being smaller than it actually was... No worries. They lived to dinghy surf another day and Craig caught this great Dover action shot.

This is a good shot of Patrick aboard his Crealock 34 s/v Amy Michele as we all head up the coast from Punta Mita to our next anchorage in Chacala. Just an FYI: you can click on any of these photos for a larger version to see detail.

Craig hooked this guy on the way to Chacala too... To the untrained eye, it looks like a really nice tuna. We know better. This is the fish we have lovingly termed "Ass Fish". He is a tuna poser with warm flesh the color of liver. He is relatively easy to catch, but don't get excited about having sushi from this guy. He is best sliced-up and used as bait to catch other, better fish.

Here's Craig adjusting the leech of our foresail outside of Jatemba. We had a really nice sail back into Chacala.

Coming into Chacala anchorage.

The beach at Chacala with Craig and Patrick

Palapa construction in downtown Chacala.

Enjoying Ceviche at our local palapa restaurant in Chacala. The great thing about these restaurants that differ from the states is that you can stay all day at a table if you like for the price of a beer or soda. In the background on the right you can see someone at the jukebox. The tunes were pumpin' on this very nice day in Chacala.

Our view of Bahia Chacala and the boat anchorage from the palapa restaurant. We are nice and cool here!

After we left Chacala, we did a day sail up to Mantachen Bay which is the ocean side of San Blas. With Eva still suffering from San Blas jungle river bug bites we decided to anchor out in this bay away from the bugs... Okay, we only got bitten 20 times as opposed to 200 in San Blas. Luckily, the weather gods were on our side and we were able to head to Mazatlan in the am after only one semi-intolerable bug night here.

Back in Mazatlan, Old Harbor again! It was a really pleasant 26 hour leg between Bahia Mantachen and Mazatlan. We saw little to no traffic and easy sea state. It was good to be back in Mazatlan, and we are looking forward to getting ready here to cross the sea again and hang the big right turn for California and home.

La Cruz and Friends!

2010-03-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

We find ourselves in a very cool little town called La Cruz de Huanacaxtle near Puerto Vallarta. We visited here before in 2005, but so much has changed in five short years! Our friends Randy and Vicki Rowe from Idaho are staying aboard with us on South Trail and our friend Patrick Martin, s/v Amy Michele has just sailed into town from a month in Zihuatanejo. He lives aboard in Mexico full time now... Lucky guy! We also met up with many of our old Ventura West, G-dock neighbors: Wally and Linda, s/v Andanzas; Don and Judy, s/v Wind Ryder; Lucy and Jim, s/v Passage II. We had a lovely potluck aboard Wind Ryder and were very happy to see so many of our old neighbors with huge, "we are so happy cruising!" grins on their faces!!!

This first picture is a combination courtyard which includes Huichol Indian Gallery, Coffee Hut, Restaurant and Artist's lofts. Patrick took us all their to purchase coffee beans from a very talented Frenchman who roasts a wicked good bean with plenty of early mornin' kick if you follow my groove... Patrick told us all the story of how this entreprenuerial cruisin' couple sailed their boat down to La Cruz and found what they were lookin' for and started this magical place. The green shade awnings pictured are old sails, and there are other boat remnants incorporated into the courtyard. They were playing some very interesting jazz music selections mixed with the sounds of birds and the smell of that fabulous coffee. The place and the feel of it reminded me of Berkeley, CA. pictured from left to right are Craig, Patrick, Vicki and Randy. In addition to our coffee bean score, Randy got Vicki a beautiful huichol beaded ankle bracelet. Whata sweet guy!

Here is a picture of Marina Riviera Nayarit at La Cruz where we stayed for twelve days. We got into our slip a day before our dear friends Randy and Vicki were to arrive, so it was great to have ample water and power to clean our very messy boat! The marina was not here five years ago when we were last in this port. It is a very nice facility with all the emenities that you could ever need or want. During Randy and Vicki's time with us the marina was hosting a boat show with quite a few mega yachts. It was quite a change between venues. You go out of the marina glitz, and into this sleepy little town with chickens, dogs, iguanas and the occasional horse walking around... We heard from some fellow sailors here that Presidente Calderon was in town the week prior to our arrival. A cab driver also told us that the roads were all spruced-up for the Presidente's visit along with certain areas of the town.

During the boat show, the local marina restaurant had a 90 peso per person breakfast buffet that we all enjoyed thoroughly (exchange was 13.3 pesos to $1USD). The best part was fresh squeezed orange juice and pinapple juice. They lost money on us for the juice bar alone! Also, during the boat show they would have shows every night in the marina amphitheater which was behind our boat. So each night we could sit on the back of our boat and hear music or watch dancers all for the price of the slip!

We blew-up the kayak and Randy and Vicki, as well as Craig and Dover took it for a spin around the harbor.

We took several little walks into town (check out those stone streets!) and had a couple of very nice dinners in La Cruz including pizza at Philo's and traditional Mexican fare at "The Cave" which was really quite good. Here is the namesake of the town...

and the very colorful town square which is hoppin' with townsfolk at night. Very cool to be able to go out and meet your neighbors and friends in this central location to share an ice cream and catch-up during the cool nights.

On Sunday, we broke free of our gilded slip and got Randy and Vicki to the local islands, Las Tres Marietas, for a day outting... What better way to start a Sunday than Randy's Famous Bloody Mary's?!!!

South Trail to Puerto Vallarta

2010-03-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

After Jack and Elvia departed, Eva lost the war with the no-see-ums and skeeters and was pretty much in hell with itching, or trying not to itch, for the next two days. We got South Trail out of the river mouth easily, and set a course for Chacala a short 20 mile or so trip south. This was again a new anchorage for us, and we were hoping to catch some cruising friends from Ventura, Jim and Jeannine from s/v Char Ann on our way to Banderas Bay and Puerto Vallarta. We got them on VHF radio about an hour into our sail. They were leaving Chacala! Bummer! We saw eachother later in the day... Two ships passing...

We were bummin' on missing our compadres when all of a sudden... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! The not so familiar sound on this trip of a fish on our trolling line. It was a very nice Sierra which we fileted, bbq'd and had as tacos. Muy bueno comida! The ocean wisked our friends away, but gave us a nice fish... Good Yin/Yang balance of life stuff...

Dover checking out Chacala as we pull in. This is about 20 miles from Punta Mita, the northern point of Banderas Bay which is home to Puerto Vallarta. We stayed here for just one night as we have friends flying into Puerto Vallarta on March 11th and we need to get into a slip somewhere in the bay.

I made it a point to take a dip in Chacala, and let me tell you, the salt water did wonders for my very itchy bug bitten skin!

We saw a gorgeous sunset before packing it in for the night.

As Craig weighs anchor, we wave goodbye to our old G-Dock neighbors, Jim and Lucy, s/v Passage II whom we anchored next to here in Chacala. They are headed into Banderas Bay as well, and we look forward to seeing more of them down the road.

This picture sums up our mood on the next leg to Banderas Bay. Seas are rough. There is not enough wind to sail for the first five hours and we are forced by rum line to be riding in the trough. Everybody is a wee bit sea sick. The sun is also pounding on us, and poor Dover is just a little black sun sponge!

When we take the left turn into Bahia Banderas everything changes, wind pipes up, we are going downswell and now flying! This is Craig's best sail of the trip thus far and he turns Sig the Autopilot off so that he can enjoy helming this great sail. We were cruising at 7.5 knots sustained with bursts of 9 and 10 knots with the swell. What a great way to arrive in our furthest southern destination!

Craig secured a slip for us via VHF at Marina Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle which is about 15 miles from Puerto Vallarta. We stayed in La Cruz during our last visit in 2005, but there was no marina at that time just a good anchorage and beautiful, peaceful beach community. What a change! It was great to get into the barn and clean-up our very messy boat...

The Bells of San Blas...

2010-03-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

... the famous last poem by Longfellow and South Trail's next stop on the Jack and Elvia's Sailing Tour!

This pic is of the sunrise coming up on the mainland as South Trail approaches San Blas from a midnight run off of Isla Isabella.

Originally, we were not going into San Blas which lies on the shores of the Rio Santiago and requires crossing a sometimes boat eating sandbar and navigating up an ever changing river... These were Craig's thoughts prior to having his old cruising buddy Jack aboard. It took one comment about how Jack had never gone up a river in his boat to which Craig replyed, "neither have I". Yup, then a new course was set, and Elvia was flagging down a local panga with el pescadores to see if they would lead us over the bar and up the river...

And that they did! Have I mentioned how totally cool it was to have Elvia onboard? She has motivated my lazy ol' self to really start studying my Espanol. The ablity to communicate freely and easily, with Elvia's help, brought a whole new, fabulous dynamic to this trip, and brought home the importance of accurate, sensitive communication among all of us peeps on the planet. These fisherman wanted no compensation for the huge favor, and slowed way down to accomodate our wee engine power compared to their ample one. We ended up using the GPS track these guys provided us in reverse to leave San Blas and the river bar safely. Thank you San Blas Pangeros!

Okay, this is a suck pic of a really important moment... We are crossing the bar at San Blas, and these are (out of focus) waves, being surfed by about a dozen surfers as we are going by. Sailing and surfing are done in very different ocean environments as a general rule, and seeing breakers off our port side was definately a bit disconcerting. In contrast, the blurry little surfers in this picture were totally stoked and had huge, ear to ear smiles. The very ridable waves just kept coming for them to enjoy.

Dover checking out the lay of the land as we head up river to our anchorage. Notice the cloud cover. This was a real blessing for us during our stay as it kept the heat tolerable... The no-see-ums and mosquitoes were prevalent in the mangrove rich environs, we managed to keep them at bay during Jack and Elvia's time aboard with the help of massive amounts of citronella tea candles throughout the boat, and gallons of deet. When they left we suffered an attack of biblical proportions... At least Eva did. Craig apparently is not prefered bug food... Lucky guy!

Eva onboard Alvino's Panga for the Jungle River Trip. Alvino was another Elvia flag down, and he was a fantastic guide up the river. He knew all the bird and fauna species along the river. We saw about a billion species of herons, boobies, hawks, and various other long billed sea birds and jungle birds. Lots of noise along the river. This area also has a population of wild boar and big cats including Puma and Jaguar. We never saw anything, but one night anchored Dover did a straight Jack London, Call of the Wild growling, howling thing that we have never experienced before or since... He smelled SOMETHING.

This was the palapa restaurant that Alvino took us to up river. The folks that run the place came a bit later to this remote location after getting provisions for our meal. Remote save the three sacked-out dogs and caged crocodile (thank goodness we didn't see any on the river so I could continue to sleep at night!) The man who runs this place with his wife was super nice and very proud of all the varieties of plants that he grows on his property including a pistacio tree and agave plants... Our personal favorites for what they produce! His wife was an great cook, and served us up a sumptuous platter of shrimp, fresh salad, frijoles, rice and homemade tortillas and salsa. Mmmmmm Good.

The dogs at the restaurant had their own dedicated palapa. We are pretty sure it is on stilts because of the crocs. These dogs need all the advanced warning they can get. They were not in any hurry to move at all. They vaguely recognized us while we were there. During the hot days the Mexican domestic animals pretty much have only one concern, conserve energy. Dover is, finally, starting to understand this warm weather survival technique, and has been easing-up on asking for anything remotely strenuous during the daylight hours. Come buenos noches though, he is ready to rock!

Craig and Alvino charging down the river back to our boat at anchor. I love to sail and think that sailing on the world's oceans is the most affordable adventure you can have with the skills and mindset to accomplish it, BUT... I love me a fast boat every now and then, and when Alvino opened his baby up, wow she flew!!! Forget Magic Mountain or Disneyland... This was THE BEST water ride ever and all for the grand total of 500 pesos for about five hours of tour and 100 pesos per person for lunch with 2-3 cervesas per person. Jungle River Trip in San Blas, Mexico... PRICELESS.

Jack and Elvia leaving South Trail on a local panga headed for the Bus Station in San Blas to catch a bus back to Mazatlan. A note to all cruiser's anchoring here is that we had a steady stream of local panga traffic, and found that waiving them over to catch a ride into town was a very easy proposition. We tipped anywhere from 30-50 pesos for this ride, but it sure was nice not to have to put the dink in the drink! We had a great time with Jack and Elvia n this trip and look forward to seeing them again on our return trip to Mazatlan in a month.

Elvia, Dover and Jack hangin' on the guest berth. Dover slept with them the whole trip and loved having his new tia and tio aboard. When they left...

Dover was a little blue!

Isla Isabella

2010-03-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

Craig and Dover on the surfboard at our anchorage at Isla Isabella (no, that is not the island in the background... it is one of two pinnacles which make a nice wind break in the right conditions). This little island about 80 miles from Mazatlan in the Pacific Ocean has been featured on National Geographic with Jacques Cousteau. It is a Mexican National Park and is home to literally 1,000's of nesting sea birds and iguanas. It is also a fabulous place to snorkel as it has a reef system which is rare for this area of the Pacific. Jack and Elvia came with us on this part of our trip. After all the great places they showed us in Mazatlan, it was nice to be able to offer them a ride to some pretty cool places on South Trail. This was Elvia's first multi-night, high seas adventure on a small boat and she impressed us all with her easy transition to boat life as soon as she stepped aboard! Capt. Jack was a superior hand, fabulous company as always, and happy to be out on the water again after a hurricane took his beloved Catalina sailboat, Dream Catcher. We came down the Baja and up into the Sea of Cortez with Jack back in '04-'05 and it was a real treat to be out on the water with him again!

This was also Jack and Elvia's 2nd anniversary and if pictures speak, I'd say they had a good one!

We all had a great day on the island! If you take a close look at the "sand" you will see that it is all bits of dead coral, and shells. If you sit on the beach here quietly, after just a couple of minutes, the whole beach starts moving with about a billion (educated guess) hermit crabs... You would have to be a hermit crab with all these hungry birds around!

If you have time, click on this picture and check out the color of these peds! These are the Blue Footed Boobies and they are working with a color that I believe VW stole for the 60's Bug... Hey there fancy feet!

These are Frigates, or as we lovingly call them, Devil Birds. This pic does not really do justice to the size of these beauties. They are about the same size as Dover, or a Turkey. They are sea birds that cannot land on the water... God does have a sense of humor. They have to pluck fish from the surface of the ocean without getting wet or stopping flight. They launch themselves into flight from a perch... ergo the tall bushes here. They are Devil Birds to us because they like to plant their large, destructive bodies on our mast heads and do all sorts of havoc wreaking on our instruments and antenaes up there! They also have a split tail (forked?) for gliding all stealthily onto said masts...

Two Old Salts coming into anchorage at Isla Isabella.

It was a great day with perfect conditions for us on the island and then, at about midnight, everything changed and we had to high tail it outta there, or else risk being in a world of hurt. Why does this always happen at midnight?!

Oh well, we got into San Blas the next morning which was another fantastic adventure for another day...

Club Nautico, Old Harbor Mazatlan

2010-02-25T16:40:00.000-08:00

We moved South Trail down to the Mazatlan municipal anchorage with the help of our dear friend Capt. Jack Hinely and his fiancé, Elvia. We spent the day “moving” from our slip at the Isla Mazatlan downtown via this great little anchorage at Deer Island where we slipped in for a swim. The municipal anchorage is much more to our liking than the Marina portion north that we spent two weeks at. First off, it is an anchorage and therefore feels much more cruisin’ than a slip. You have to get your dinghy to shore and that requires a little effort. Once on shore, it is a quick jaunt via Pulmonia (indigenous taxi’s of Mazatlan. Picture a golf cart with a VW engine. Good times!) to downtown which is just so fabulous, unique and picturesque. Jack and Elvia live just a few blocks from historic downtown and about a 20 minute walk from where were anchored. They took us to all sorts of fabulous places. We ate at the old town square with Dover. We bought fresh shrimp from the outdoor tiendas and went to a local cantina to have them prepared for us. We went to the historic downtown cathedral. We went to the municipal Mercado where we saw beef and pig heads. Elvia informed me that folks do actually cook these items and they are delicious. After tasting Elvia’s fabulous cooking, I do not doubt that she could make a pig head that I would savor! Instead though, she made me and Craig Chili Rellenos stuffed with shrimp. The best Chili Rellenos we have ever had. Dover got a bowl of Mexican rice from Elvia and now she is his absolute favorite person. It was a very nice dinner for all three of us at Jack and Elvia’s casa. It was on a Saturday night and when we left to walk home to the anchorage all the neighbors were in the streets with tables and chairs and food and music on almost every block! It was magical. Craig and I are not night people. Heck, sometimes we are not day people either. This was a rare look, for us, at the neighborhood, local night life of this amazing city.

Craig and Dover after a meal at one of the lovely cafes in the old town square... Dover tried to jump on top of the table when we arrived! Not a practiced city dog! He was very good after that and sat under the table without so much as a peep while we finished our meal...

Jack, Elvia and Dover sailing into Mazatlan Harbor on South Trail after spending a few hours swimming and marveling at the sites on Deer Island.

Elvia, Craig and Jack purchasing local shrimp on the street. We then went to a local Cantina around the corner that cooks the shrimp for you. Elvia, who was born in Mazatlan, was our designated haggler. She knows what the prices should be for just about everything and will not let vendors get the better of her gringo friends! All Hail Elvia! She really showed us an amazing time in her city!

Tails from Isla Gato, Mazatlan

2010-02-18T17:25:00.000-08:00

"Cats and dogs living together... Mass hysteria!" Was that Caddyshack or Ghostbusters? Definately Bill Murray... It has been an odd week here for all of us, especially Dover, which I will get to shortly. First and foremost though, Craig had been long battling a bout of Montezuma's, or so we thought, and was very dehydrated and weak upon arrival to Mazatlan. He has been for weeks, but we just kept chaulking it up to the demands of the trip. As soon as we got into Mazatlan and got the boat settled, we took him to Sharp's Hospital. Long story short, he had contracted amoebic dysentery, we think in Ensenada during all the storms. The doctor, who we liked very much, put him on IV fluids, took blood tests, etc and had us out the door in a little under three hours with three presciptions for a little over $100. Craig just finished his prescribed treatments today and is feeling much better. He is also happy that he can now start to resume eating his favorite local dishes and cervesas again, as part of his prescription was a bland, no alchohol, no spices, no fried food diet. Not very fun to have to do on vacation in Mexico. Thank goodness it is over! Hopefully, we will never have to repeat that fun again.

We are currently in a slip on Isla Mazatlan which is part of a small marina harbor resort area just north of the main municipal harbor in Mazatlan. Our friend and colleague, Neill Randle is berthed here as well. We delivered his new solar panels into Mexico for him, which he was thrilled to finally, after months, have in his possesion! He met us at the harbor entrance, which is teeny tiny, via his dinghy and led us to our slip for the next two weeks on the Isla. First thing we noticed upon pulling in was our neighbors with whom we share a common finger had two cats on board and did not look happy to see our barking, overly excited Dover. As soon as I disembarked South Trail with Dover on leash to get him a walk/run after our 32 hour transit across the Sea of Cortez, I noticed everyone staring at us like we were from a different planet... and we ran into more cats on the docks. I take him up the ramp to the island and we give it a walk about. There are some new developments and construction also going on. Everybody though is staring at us and I'm beginning to feel a bit self-conscieous. Do I really smell THAT bad from the trip? Does Dover have blood coming from his mouth? We stopped in an open, undeveloped area of the island and I let him off leash to run some of that energy off. Workers from some of the high rise construction stopped and watched him. It was like they had never seen a dog before. After a good run, I called him back and on our walk back to the boat, we saw more cats. Cats were everywhere. There were no other dogs...Welcome to Kitty Island! After two days of being here, that is six dog walks in dog owner speak, we got a letter from the marina saying that "even though we don't allow animals on the island, you can walk your dog off the island per instructions from the security staff". Nobody mentioned that they didn't allow animals when they took our money for two weeks of moorage?! After two more days walking Dover directly from the boat to the shortest distance off the island, the security staff stopped us. Apparently, they didn't like us walking him by the pool area (the shortest distance) Now, we walk him pretty much over half the island to get him off the island. It is crazy- making logic, but hey, as long as the powers that be are happy.

We are slowly getting out of the Island area and exploring as Craig starts feeling better. We found the local beach access here for Dover and it is a nice little hike to get there for all of us. The beach is taken-up by hotels and condos. We took some pics of some of the cooler looking condos. What is so great is that they have these huge yards in the back of the condo, as well as the beach access. I love the use of color too! For Valentine's Day Craig really rallied and we went to a local restaurant, Gus Gus for very nice Arachera Platillos. We are still trying to find out what cut of beef Arachera is. All we know, is that we really enjoy it. We also have been staying aboard and playing Master and Commander which is a board game based on the movie and actually quite fun. You can only move your boats based on wind direction. Craig has been kicking my ass at it, but Admiral Swack may lose the battle, but not the war! Thanks to our neighbors Bill and Kathy for putting this one at the recycle area... We love it!

We made very good time on our crossing from Puerto Los Cabos to Mazatlan. It took us 32 hours door to door thanks to a consistent 15-20 knot breeze for the bulk of the crossing. We double reefed the main, rolled out about 70% of our working jib, kept Goldie, our diesel cranking to help push us comfortably through the trough and had a pretty good ride. Neill Randle, dinghied out to the breakwall to lead us into our new slip and home for two weeks, Isla Marina, Mazatlan on Wednesday morning. We will be in this slip on the Isla until Feb. 25th and then we are hoping to head south to Isla Isabella, San Blas, Chacala, Punta Mita, La Cruz, Puerto Vallarta... Here are some pics from our crossing to Mazatlan and life on Isla Gato...

"Dover, we are not in Cabo anymore..."

2010-02-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

Dover is beyond happy as we pull up to the breakwall at Puerto Los Cabos. He knows this gig. Breakwalls and jetties mean boat slips, and boat slips mean walks and potentially, his absolute favorite, beach runs. His wildest dreams were coming true.

We pulled into this new marina development which is about 15 nm from Bahia Cabo San Lucas. We got a deal on a slip for 2 nights while we provisioned, rinsed the boat with fresh water, and generally took a break from living on the hook. The slip was still on the par with transient slips in SoCal, but man was the clientele different. The security guard showed us our slip via quad from land, and we were greeted by marina staff driving a golf cart who whisked us away to the office for our check-in. Dover enjoyed riding in the cart, which was a first for him. This new development is only partially completed, but the parts which are completed are filled with some pretty impressive motor yachts and sport fishers. We definitely did not fit in re: our “yacht”, and there was only one other cruising sailboat in the whole harbor that we could see. They were very nice to us though, and the little village that was up the ramp from our dock was very quaint and nice.

We had some tacos and cervesas at this little hotel café up the block. The following morning we went to another local restaurant down the street called Ali’s International Café, which was a house with a palapa restaurant section. The woman who ran the place was very nice. They didn’t have menus and so we just asked for café, huevos con frijoles y harina tortillas and she made this fabulous scrambled egg dish with veggies and peppers that was simply amazing. The coffee was some of the best and strongest (Thank God) that we have had the pleasure of enjoying here in Mexico. We ate with the company of her black dog, Baghdad, and her calico cat who were both respectful of the eating time, but when that was not happening, really wanted to be petted and we indulged!

Dover had a huge beach to run and swim at, and he loved the fact that we didn’t make him wear a leash when we were going into town. None of the other dogs had leashes. It seemed unfair to do that to him. Also, with his zapper collar on he heals pretty well when asked to if a car is coming and we want him to be close. He greeted the local town dogs with great enthusiasm, and they really just didn’t react like American dogs do. They were very laid back, very into conserving their energy, and didn’t quite know how to react to the little hyper black dog. Dover seemed a little disappointed, but didn’t let their lack of wanting to play deter him from enjoying his shore leave. He got a lesson in cactus too as he rambunctiously ran through the well coifed desert landscaping. Nothing horrible, but got pricked a couple of times and then we noticed him watching his distance to plants and smelling a bit more cautiously.

On Saturday night they had this comedy show on this little island across the channel from our boat. It was quite the scene when these big yachts pulled in just for the show. We watched the sunset and tried to hear from our boat, but it just wasn’t loud enough so we popped in a movie and called it a night. It was a peaceful, no wake or roll night, and worth every penny!
It is Monday afternoon now and we are getting ready to untie from this dock and head out to sea at night for a Wednesday morning arrival in our first port on the mainland, Mazatlan. We are very excited. Mazatlan is a new port for us, and we have a slip lined-up courtesy of our friend Neill, at the Isla Marina for about half what we are paying here. We plan to stay for Carnival in Mazatlan which by all accounts is something to be experienced. We also may try to go inland and take a train ride through the Copper Canyon. I digress. First, we must cross the Sea of Cortez safely tonight and tomorrow!

Hangin' at The Horn of Mexico

2010-02-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

Cabo San Lucas... Lot's of folks here for their vacations staying at the over abundance of beach hotels or on the cruise ships trying to pack in a lot of FUN! FUN! FUN! All that activity turns this very peaceful anchorage at 6am into a raging cauldron by 10am with more potential than the open ocean for death or dismemberment. Dover is on deck warning every banana boat, Seadoo, parasail boat and seemingly taunting sea lion population that he is watching and ready to defend his vessel. We came into the harbor last night at 9:30pm completely blinded by all the hotel and bar lights. We have been in this harbor twice before in '05 but I do not remember the amount of hotels, condos and developments. It looks like it has grown to twice the size that it was.

Our leg from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo started out wet. We left on a cloudy Tuesday morning which turned into rain about an hour outside the harbor. Craig is borderline fanatic about checking the weather before we head out anywhere, which is a very good thing. He usually checks the wind and wave forecasts though, not precipitaiton. Somehow we were both under this blissful delusion that the "weather" portion of our journey was over. It wasn't a driving rain. The light wind forecasts were correct, but it was very wet and produced a fetch and albeit light, wind that was heading us. We were going approximately 3.5 knots motorsailing on a presumably downwind, downswell run... Welcome to El Nino!!!! The rain lasted about 7 hours and then just partially cloudy skies. We hugged the coast down so as to minimize the cape affect. It was still pretty rolly at 20 nm from the cape, but we got a NE shore breeze at sundown which enabled us to get in pretty tight around the cape.

Once again we saw a huge amount of Grey Whales on our trip. We have nicknamed Dover, Ensign Ahab, because he has displayed the uncanny knack of smelling the whales minutes before we see them. He's basically The Whale Wisperer. They are amazing creatures and at times we had dozens surrounding the boat. Seeing a full body whale breach the surface of the ocean never gets old... We just say a little prayer that they don't inadvertently do it under our boat.

We are here for 2 days and then will trade the washer machine anchorage for a quieter slip up the road about 15 nm in San Jose del Cabo. Once there, we will provision and get ready to cross The Sea of Cortez headed for Mazatlan and our friend Neill who is waiting patiently for the solar panels of his that we are bringing onboard with us.

Bahia Santa Maria... No more kelp at last!!!

2010-01-31T18:58:00.000-08:00

We arrived yesterday afternoon in beautiful, tranquil Santa Maria Bay which is just north of Bahia Magdalena or as the cruiser’s call it, Mag Bay. We are approximately 175 miles North of Cabo San Lucas and very happy to be out of the most challenging legs of our Baja transit. As we sit now on the hook, Craig is BBQing four (of eight) small, live lobsters that we traded for batteries, chocolate, and chewy granola bars. Did I mention how much I love Mexico? We are one of two sailboats currently in this huge bay. We are sharing the landscape and seascape with a small fishing village of which the aforementioned on the fire were brought to us via local panga fishermen. I think they are so removed out here that they are sitting in their village basically saying, “hey, check out the batteries and sweets I scored from the visiting gringos for a few, small langosta.” Win-win. Barter makes so much sense in these moments! The ocean temperature here is 72 degrees and crystal clear, and we are now done with having to look out for kelp that can foul our prop. We are swimming today, catching-up on email (hard to believe that we can be in such a remote place and have internet, Mexico Telcel 3-G ROCKS!) and generally having a relaxing Sunday. It is hard to believe it has been just one week and 520 miles since we left cold, rainy Ensenada.

Our trip from Turtle Bay started out fairly benign, but as we approached the next big bight out of the coast near Abreojos, we got hit with a pretty impressive Santa Ana condition. The wind kept building, and although are wind speed indicator took that moment to decide to fail, we think it was blowing a solid 20 knots with gusts in the 25 knot range. The fetch built to 4+ feet and steep immediately, it was 11pm and we were on a course where the land was falling away from us. We made a tactical decision to head into shore to avoid building seas… All I kept thinking was T-Pecker (Gulf of Tehuantepec, notorious for high ferocious winds forcing boats far out into the ocean) The only prudent course is to head as close to shore as is practical to try and avoid the building seas. Needless to say, it was a long night for all of us. Dawn brought no relief, but we could at last see the ocean and realized that it was not going to build any higher, so we put out the head sail along with our main already up and gave our engine, Goldie, a well deserved break. It was a great sail for about 3 hours and we were averaging 6.9 knots toward our waypoint… not too shabby!

When we got close to Santa Maria in the AM, Craig took us on a small detour to Thetis Bank, a world-renouned fishing destination. No one else was there. We started trolling in 250 feet of water, and immediately had fish on both of our lines… They turned out to be Skip Jacks but it was still exciting! Then, Craig found the sweet spot, and let the boat drift as he fished, and almost immediately he got hooked-up to his Moby Dick of fish. I got this shot of him fighting this leviathan for over an hour. He has bruises in his groin area from the rod digging in and his hands are not really into closing today. The strong, smart fish finally got the better of Craig, but he has vowed to come back again someday with bigger guns and fight this fish another day! He thought the fish was probably either a Black Sea Bass, territorialized Yellowtail, or large Grouper. In any case, the fish wedged itself in the rocks before Craig had a chance to get his head in the fight. Our GPS just shows the boat doing circles in the same 300 foot spot! We both wished that we could have seen this big guy, but alas it was not in the cards.

Coming into the anchorage we spotted no less than ten different Gray Whales, six of which were pairs of mothers and their babies. This area is a huge birthing area for them and we just happened to hit this area at the right time of year. They were breaching and blowing and tail slapping all around us. It was truly amazing. I got some very vague pictures of which this is one (whale is in right side of pic frame) , but it does not do the moments justice. Dover was pretty much ready to defend the boat when he finally saw a huge tail come up out of the water. He thought it didn’t get any worse or bigger than the dolphins! Ha! Wait 'til he gets a gander of a Blue Whale.

We will spend one more day here putting the boat together for our next leg to San Jose del Cabo. We intend to get a slip there, relax, recreate Dover, and reprovision before heading across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan to meet our friend Neill and off-load the solar panels that we brought down for him... Also got to get to Zihuatanejo to see our friend Patrick and give him some "burro" items.

Recap of Turtle Bay:

These three gals from SoCal, circa: in their 20's are taking this Islander 30, s/v Misty Moonlight down the coast with us, and they ran into a bit of a problem when their strut completely electolicsized and their cutlass bearing then parted way with the boat... Big problems, but nothing but positive thoughts and actions produced the ultimate success story. These gals, with the help of this Mexican seiner and some wonderful cruisers from Canada (s/v Nordic 5) sorted their problems out old school style which we respect wholeheartedly. We got some great shots of this event. Notice the transom raised out of the water.

Total hairball, triage boating... They pulled it off in spades!!! Great to watch them all work so well together. Great mariner spirits from all involved. We just saw Misty Moonlight and S/V Nordic 5 sailing past us into Mag Bay for fuel. Hey all you sailors who don't get out much on your boats, if three chicks can do it in an old Islander 30, what are you folks, with newer boats, better equipment, and all those great toys doing?! Get the out here and enjoy the adventure before it's too late!

Well, here I am braving the Turtle Bay waters to free dive on South Trail, and check for kelp in the prop or other fouling of our drivetrain. Thankfully, I found nothing. The boat is perfect, and I then used the opportunity to clean myself up with a salt water bath, and clean, warm water rinse thanks to Craig waiting on board with a pitcher of water. Now THAT is love!!!

Bahia Tortugas, Baja's Oasis

2010-01-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

Turtle Bay Welcoming Committee: "Bienvenidos Bahia Tortugas Amigos!"

Arrived in Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortugas) at 5pm last night after leaving Ensenada Sunday at 10am. If you look at a map of the Baja Coast, we are half way down on the south side of that giant hook in the coast, just below several islands (Cedros, Navidad and Benitos). It is a long, approximately 300 nm run. We took off on the first clear day after the storms. The sky was good, but the sea state was still really big from the storms. The first 24 hours were really rolly and tough to sail through. For the most part, we consistently had light North wind to fill our mainsail the whole ride, but also needed the motorpower to give us consistent speed.

We are under that pink dot on the Pacific Ocean side, and yes, we have seen Gray Whales!

Our Universal diesel engine, Goldie, is running fantastically. She just did a solid 55 hour motor with no hiccups whatsoever. She runs a consistent 185 degree temperature and Craig figured out that we can run her using her oil pressure gauge as our own tachometer (which we do not have on her currently). Oil pressure goes up as the engine revs up, so Craig can put her in the sweet spot of Highest RPMs : Least Fuel Burned which is the goal. We are burning approximately 1/2 gallon of diesel per hour which puts our fuel consumption for this leg at 27 gallons... Not too bad. Also, diesel fuel in Mexico is about $2.50 per gallon. Way more fun to spend our pesos on carnitas tacos rather than diesel!

Dover Surveys the Scene as we Enter Bahia Tortugas

Turtle Bay is the only fuel available on the coast, easily accessible, between Ensenada and Magdalena Bay which is why so many cruisers stop here. Not a lot of amenities or local attractions are here. If Ensenada is Las Vegas than Turtle Bay is Barstow. It is utilitarian. Helio (Ice), Basura (Garbage), Agua (Water), Cervesa (Good Beer, not like in the states!), Huevos (Eggs, not refrigerated, they last a long time that way), and most importantly, FUEL is what you stop for here. If you are looking for specialty boat parts, you are probable not going to find them here. You will find some very handy folks who may be able to help you jury rig something until you get to the next big port. Your knowledge of Spanish will help immensely in those situations. Turtle Bay is a great natural bay for anchoring in all weather conditions. The last time we were here in December '04, the wind blew with ferocity from every concievable direction during our time here and we found comfortable liveable anchoring on many different points in the bay. Also, the people here are very nice and amenable. They are offering basic services at very reasonable prices and as long as you agree to a price ahead of time, you shouldn't get fleeced. Bottom line is Turtle Bay is not Cabo San Lucas, but for the weary cruiser it is truly an Oasis on the Baja Coast.

A recap of our trip from Ensenada to Turtle Bay in pictures:

Our finger at Baja Naval: It used to have an inset piece with rollers next to the pylon. The last 24 hours of the storm it became so damaged that the staff at Baja Naval removed it so the finger and our two boats attached to it could float freely in a truly tremendous surge condition. It should be noted that the staff of Baja Naval had workers on the docks 24/7 throughout the stormy week. They saved numberous vessels from costly damage many times over. They handled some difficult weather with great attitudes and fearless action. They gave us peace of mind to be able to sleep through some of the worst weather we have ever experienced.

This is Capt. Craig very happy indeed to be out of the scary docking situation in Ensenada and on to better, warmer weather south. This is just before we headed out to open ocean in the Bahia Todos Santos which still had some pretty big swells coming at us. The next 24 hours was pretty rough on all of us. Nobody lost their cookies, but I for one, came as close as I ever have to being really sea sick. It was not the best ride, but man, when you finally do get to calm seas you really appreciate it... Ying/Yang.

Craig finally able to relax into this cruise. He put his first fishing line in the water to troll. No bites, but it's great to start enjoying the ride!

This is sunrise at the west coast of Isla Cedros or Cedar Island. Yes, there are cedar trees on this island which is totally bizarre for this area of the world and the topography of the mainland. We rounded this island and did an S turn around the smaller Isla Navidad (Christmas Island) to get into Turtle Bay.

Looking back at the East Coast of Isla Cedros in the background and Punta Eugenia. Out of frame on the left side is Isla Navidad. Between Isla Navidad and the mainland is called the Dewey Channel and it is covered with lobster traps. You definately want to come through this area in the daylight hours or you risk fouling your prop big time.

The Great Pacific Storm 2010!

2010-01-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is what it looked like behind our South Trail this morning in the fairway. Ensenada has a huge river flowing into the harbor and when it storms like this, just like LA/Long Beach, all the trash from upstream gets dumped right in the harbor. It looked much worse last night, but we’ll see what a few days of storm does with this trash. We may be delayed due to trash in the harbor! We certainly couldn’t run our engine in it! This big storm hitting the Pacific Coast of California churning-up the ocean swells and creating some pretty heavy winds on the coast down here in Baja has forced us to wait it out here in Ensenada before continuing south. All in all, we are pretty happy here, and not shaking our fists at the heavens. We do want to get down to the mainland, but also know that it will happen in due course. If our timing works out, we are hoping to catch a ride south on the NW clearing winds from this storm and not have to burn a lot of diesel. Our departure from Ensenada will be this coming Saturday or Sunday depending on what and when this storm does it’s thing down here and how long it takes for the seas to calm down.
Craig has been attacking our fuel intake issues and has focused his efforts on our Racor fuel filter at the engine. Craig took the whole unit apart and found that someone had removed the ball check valve from the unit. Luckily, we have another Racor on our fuel polishing system, which really doesn’t need that valve, and he switched Racors. After a minor, yet time consuming and annoying, leak on the “new” Racor upon mounting in the engine compartment, Craig thinks it is all good to go. Only time and use will tell… Such is the cruising boat lifestyle. Everything wears and breaks. The only variable is “when”, and even with all the best planning in the world, no one can fortune tell that one!

Meanwhile, while we sit in hospitable Ensenada, we are re-acquainting ourselves with Spanish. Most everyone speaks English to some extent, so it is a great learning environment. We can practice, and many times get a new word or phrase or meaning from the many bi-lingual folks we come into contact with daily. This is certainly a country overall that enjoys it when foreigners try (even as ham-fistedly as we do!) to speak and learn the language. We got a fantastic book “Spanish for Cruisers” by Kathy Parsons. We highly recommend this book for Mexico and beyond. In addition to the basics for travel it also includes navigational, maritime, and most importantly, mechanical Spanish. Any book can tell you where to find a bathroom, but this one allows you to find el foque de capa (stormsail) or el impulsor/impelente (impeller) and bridging that gap for cruisers is invaluable. Craig and I drew a lot of pictures last time here in ’05 with varying degrees of success, and as such we are thrilled to have this book! Kathy also has “French for Cruisers” and we will definitely be purchasing that before heading to French Polynesia or the Caribbean. We are also berthed a whopping 2 blocks from the local Cineplex, and have caught up on some of the new movies that our out. They usually offer both Subtitled in Spanish and Spanish Dubbed. We have seen Avatar (what a visually beautiful film!) Law Abiding Citizen, Sherlock Holmes, and Zombieland (very funny!) I have found that I learn Spanish language usage by reading the subtitles, also at $3 USD per ticket, what a deal to go to the movies!

As I write this, our wind instruments are reading a steady 30 knots with gusts to 35 knots and we are fairly protected in our slip. The City of Ensenada put their beautiful, huge Mexican National Flag up this morning thinking that the rain was over. I got this shot of it through our overhead hatch as it started to blow heavily. Within’ fifteen minutes, the crew came by to wrangle it down. This picture doesn't do justice to the size of this flag. Craig and I estimate it is about 40'x 100' minumum. We saw another cruiser trying to row out to his boat on a small skiff, and thanked our lucky stars that we have a slip and don’t have to do that in this huge storm.

Craig did brave the malecon in his old fishing rubbers to get us some fresh pescado at the local fish market. The fisherman recognized the Guy Cotton logo on his bib and asked him if he fished commercially which he was able to reply, “Si!” due to his stint in Ventura Harbor as a crab fisherman. They in turn gave him a smokin’ deal on some black sea bass (not available in the states or even legal to fish) and some huge prawns, he paid about $10 US for a huge filet (2 1/2lbs approx) and approx. 1lb. of prawns.

We may be in a storm, but we are FEASTING!!!... Dover gets some too!!!

Ensenada

2010-01-13T22:13:00.000-08:00

We're safe, in a slip at Baja Naval Boatyard and Marina. The surge is amazing. We have out every dock line, spring line, and fender we have, and it's like riding a bronco. This water is moving so fast back and forth it's hard to know if you have enough gear out. Is there enough gear?

Big Hans Christian (44'?) came in yesterday and its bowsprit went to war with the Baja Naval concrete dock pillar. One good hit...solid hit, from surge while pulling in. Believe it or not, the boat won! Teak bowsprit took a chunk of concrete out of the the pillar. There was a piece of concrete the size of a pop tart on the dock and I could hardly see any damage to the bowsprit. Those Han's guys build a strong boat.

Was not the guys fault. He put her right in the slip...then the water shifted 20' to the left in about 3 seconds. I'm just not quite sure how one "safely" docks in these conditions. It's pretty intense. The dock lines are so loud right now I'm not sure how they can take it.

Anyway, today did a bunch:

Officially checked in us, the boat, and the dog into the country. We're all here legally for up to 6 months. This involves 3 hrs at one big office going from window to window and back to the same window several times. But it really is better than the "old" system, which added a butt load of walking into the mix.

Purchased Telecel internet dongle. We should now have internet access for most of our voyage. Thanks to Niell Randle for telling us to get to the main Telecel office early. Basically we were first in line and it was about and hour+ once we were in the store. Got there about 1/2 hr before store opened . If you're 5th in line...you better have water with you...it's gonna be a while. Price is $70.00 for USB broadband hardware and one month free. After that, $35.00/month for up to 3gigs. The reports are that they work extremely well.

Saw Avatar at the local theatre. Best movie I have ever seen. See it.

Dover wants his grandma.

We'll be here the next 4 days at least.

Craig

Dana Point Pit Stop

2010-01-08T23:23:00.000-08:00

Our engine quit two times when we left Cat Harbor due to lack of fuel. After going through all the usual suspects, filters and lines, Craig concluded it was a venting issue from our day tank going to our upper fixed tank... Long story short: needed to be NOT IN A SEAWAY to diagnose and fix this one... Ergo, Dana Point... This is why we call it a "Shakedown" cruise.

Going back a day or two... we had a cool couple of days, our last for awhile, on Catalina. First of all, when walking from the dink docks into town, Craig and I walked, no kidding, 15 feet passed a huge Buffalo. Wow! They are amazing animals and although we had both heard of them and seen them in movies, nothing compares to seeing them up close and personal. Alas, I did not have my camera, and thankfully Dover was not with us! But upon a subsequent journey, with Dover on leash. I got this shot from about a 1/4 mile away.

Dover and I found a tuft of Buffalo hair which we brought back to the dink dock for Craig to get a gander at. Dover also brought back a mouthful of Buffalo dung, and a shoulder full of dung from a gigantic Buffalo dung patty. He then looked up at me with great pride as if to say, "THIS is what you have been grooming me for mother, isn't it?" He continued, "I have the scent, now we will kill the giant beast and our pack will eat off the carcass forever?!!!" "Dover! Sit!" was my reply, and then I took this picture...

Cat Harbor, Two Harbors, Santa Catalina Island

2010-01-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

All the holiday traffic here has gone home, and we are at home. How cool is that?! I have tons of great pictures to attach to these posts, but alas our Virgin Mobile 3-G Dongle is having connection issues, and I’m only able to work online for about 10 minutes at a time before losing the signal... (UPDATE: WE ARE IN DANA POINT HARBOR AND I AM FINALLY ABLE TO ADD PICTURES!!!) The stars have to be aligned correctly, the tide must be high, and the boat must pitch ever so gently. It is forcing me to be very organized and less verbose which is probably a good thing.

We have been hiking in the island hills, kayaking on our new inflatable and playing ball with Dover on the beach closest to where we are moored in the harbor. Yes, that is correct, the boy went ashore now three times… the poop has left the pooch… onboard the boat and begrudgingly. He is learning the new ropes of living on the hook, and is certainly very much more appreciative of his trips ashore. Dover is now a Salty Dog!
We are doing little organizational things aboard and small projects (backing-up files on hard drive, re-stowing things for better access, etc) Craig caught a small bonita fish off the boat, but we let him go as he was not big enough for a good meal.

Tomorrow we will head into town and fill our water jerry jugs (we will not attempt hooking-up our reverse osmosis watermaker until we are in Mexico) drop off garbage and recycling, pumpout our holding tank, and generally prepare for departure. We are thinking of bypassing San Diego and heading directly for Ensenada, and our Mexican check-in to the country, due to our unplanned stop here in Catalina… we’ll see. The great thing about cruising is that you are on your own time frame and can make these decisions as you go.
We are very much enjoying everyone’s comments and holiday emails. Please keep them coming! If we don’t respond right away, don’t despair, we will respond eventually… (If you have, what I like to call "super zoom", you will find Craig and Dover hiking on the trail that I have photographed... Good stuff that is!)

New Years Eve

2010-01-02T11:34:00.001-08:00

We left Channel Islands Harbor at 1pm on the 30th with every intention of heading to San Diego. There was a mild rain when we left, but it did not seem mild when we got out to sea and had to contend with beating (yes, beating) to weather going on what should be 99% of the time a down wind, down current run. Combine that action with two sailors who are exhausted from all the “last minute” stuff we’ve been doing for the last month and a dog who hasn’t done a sail in over a year, and by 10pm Captain Craig put Catalina on the table for the crew… Yes, by all means, let’s stop and finally, relax! That is exactly what we are doing… Well, maybe not Dover. He has faced a tough-love demon the past 32 hours. Dover is used to going out on walks/beach runs with us 4 times a day. Even at Channel Islands where there is no beach access for doggies, we managed to “chuck-it” ball on the grassy bits above our guest slip at least twice a day. Bottom line, Dover has got to learn to go #1 and #2 on the boat, solo and with impunity. He absolutely refuses to defile his boat, which was cool in the marina community, and is not in the cruising environment. Long, painful (for everyone) story short… He pissed on the deck after 32 hours of whining and holding out for a trip to shore. Huge praise from us, but he still has not gone #2. We are hoping for the am on January 1st, 2010 so that we can treat him to a shore run on the kayak. I’m upping the anti in our favor with cheese snacks. It works for me! Dover poop news will follow!!
Engine ran great. Radar was right on. The only problem we encountered via boat systems was, well, US. We need to give ourselves the time to catch-up to what we’ve accomplished with this boat in the last two years and get on to the business of reaping what we have sewn! First lesson being learned right now… Happy New Year to you and yours. The souls of South Trail wish you peace, health, happiness and new adventures in 2010.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

We are in Channel Islands at the guest docks finishing up our boat projects and provisioning. Our van is now safely tucked-up in the Los Padres National Forest at a wonderful little mountain community called Reyes Creek at our friend Marvin's cabin. It was a gorgeous drive through the mountains yesterday, and now without vehicles once again, we really feel like we are cruising again!

So far, Craig has successfully installed the old Furuno Radar and it works like a charm. He spliced this crazy multiple colored wire and it actually worked which is like some sort of black art to the technologically challenged such as myself. The Radar tower and davit that our friend Travis designed and manufactured is really a thing of beauty and looks like functional art. We have it rigged so that if anyone of us, God forbid, needs to be lifted out of the water the other person can easily accomplish the task. It will also be handy for putting our outboard on and off our dinghy and lifting heavy provisions. Craig installed some very bright lights on the tower as well which light up our cockpit and the side of the boat. It has the added benefit of attracting bait fish at night too! We are spending the holiday at Craig's mom Sue's house and should be departing for San Diego on Monday. Happy Holidays to All!

2 days until depature...

2009-12-18T08:59:00.000-08:00

...from Ventura Harbor at least. We are resigned that we still have a couple days of projects left to complete so we may head to San Diego to complete them or someplace along the way. It will be good to get out of our slip here if only psycologically. Craig is STILL finishing a clients boat project today, and we have our annual Holiday Parade of Lights this evening with Sue and Roxie coming down to enjoy a last bit of holiday cheer before we head out. Craig's only been able to put in about 2-3 hours per day on our boat for the last week. The time is counting down and still there are many projects to complete on South Trail. Eva is attempting to fit all of our gear aboard while also trying not to impede the fix-it projects Craig has going. Dover is just trying not to get stepped on and frequently has a very concerned look on his face. It will be nice for all of us to get back to a regular routine and have the boat put back into "home" order.

Diesel Ready...almost

2009-12-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

Our boat is powered with a Universal 5432. The more I learn about this little beast the more I've come to love her. Having a 30 year old engine used to concern me considering what we will be expecting of her. But now, I have few worries. She has a new oversized heat exchanger, new raw water pump, new exhaust mixing elbow, and all new belts and hoses. The past 2 weeks has been fixing minor fuel leaks, repairing a chaffed heat exchanger (totally my fault...rubbing on bellhousing bolt), all fluid changes, all new hoses and clamps, and alignment.

The engine was running a little hot yesterday (195 at full load) so I drilled a small hole in the 180 degree thermostat and reduced the coolant ration to 30%. Lesson learned: change only one thing at once. The temp is now too cold. Soooooooo, back to the "no hole thermostat with the holed one as a spare for the warmer water we're heading off to. I believe the high concentration of coolant was the problem. Live and learn and spend time and money.

I believe today that this engine could motor around the world...and hopefully will have to! The Kubota block that the Universal is built around might just be the most robust and bomb proof diesel ever made. I know people love their Yanmars, but I'll take this ol' girl any day. 30 years old, pushes this 10 ton boat at 6.3 kts at 80% throttle, 7.3kts wide open, 45lb of oil pressure, and burns less than 1 gal/hr. With our 93 gallons of fuel onboard (ok, this includes 4 jerry jugs), our range is well over 500 miles with plenty of reserve. This, of course, with no wind. And it doesn't take much wind to make this boat go.

We also have a day tank system with onboard fuel polishing and transfer which is similar to commercial fishing boats. This means that fuel from the day tank to the engine fuel filters (racor 500 and engine mount filter) has already been pre-filtered with seperate Racor 500 and a 30 micron racor. It also enables us to keep the 12 gallon day tank topped off, eliminating the possibility of sucking air into the system in a rough seaway (this happened on our last boat and was not fun!)

Anyway, we blew up the diesel on our last boat (12 hp Farymann) and have no intention of a repeat. The Farymann had no gauges or alarms and got hot enough to sieze. We now have all gauges and an alarm system to wake the dead. Add to that, when the alarm goes off Dover barks like the sky is falling. I think he knows the importance.

Tomorrow I'm going to delve into the black art of NMEA 0183 and try and make the Navman wind instrument and Garmin GPS talk to the Furuno Autopilot. I rate my odds at about 35%. It sure would be nice for the autopilot to steer off the apparent wind. But, to be honest, I'm so thrilled just to have an autopilot (last trip was 4000 miles of hand steering) that none of this matters too much.

A week of rain is in the forecast and we just want to go go go. Anything non-critical can be installed someplace warm with many cervesa breaks!

No Rest for the Wicked... or Cruiser's Readying for Departure!

2009-12-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

To do this story justice, we need to go back 24 hours to Friday, yesterday, morning. I had a relatively short list of "TO DO's" on my daily list: stow boat for autopilot sea trial, study, study, study for Ham test Saturday, pick-up present and food from restaurant for Aunt Rox's B-Day Celebration in the evening.

We all woke early to greet the day with great enthusiasim and positive energy! Craig spent a long day on Thursday finishing our engine maintenance, and removing our old Robertson Auto Pilot, and installing our brand new brain, the Furuno. At 8pm Thursday night, he completed the "at dock" portion of the autopilot programming. He stayed up late reviewing all the steps necessary for our "sea trial" phase of programming where we take the boat out to the ocean and it "learns" how the boat steers.

Friday AM we were ready for just that. After walking the dog, I set about to tidy the boat (Ha!) or at least get things stowed so that no one would get impaled or we wouldn't lose valuable equipment. This minor project included re-bedding our galley cabinetry atop our engine compartment after the maintenance was completed. I had it off for two days and was more than ready to have our galley back to normal. After an hour or so, the boat was ready to go out for the test. Craig came back from The Captain's Breakfast Table (or old sailor's coffee clutch as I call it) and was upset about a neighbor getting involved in a business discussion which was not his affair to be involved with. Craig takes great pride in what he does, and not feeling good about leaving the discussion the way he did, he went back to have a further, calmer dialogue with the neighbor. Meanwhile, it is now about 10am. I decide to go online and check mail as I am waiting for two boat insurance quotes. Yippee! I get one... Seems a little high priced. Oops. I got dyslexic with the value of our boat to the tune of several thousand dollars. No message from our current insurance agency who seems to be dragging their heals. Craig is back. He talked at length with the neighbor in an effort to communicate rationally, and is feeling like he's beating his head against a brick wall and wasted valuable time. Our earlier optimisim for the day has taken a good hit, but we are going to rally for the sea trial! Craig goes to get a glass of water from our galley and no pressure water. We check and our 30+ year old pressure water pump and it has in fact given up the ghost... Put that on the list for tomorrow...

Our Universal Diesel Engine, "Goldie" starts right up and away we go to sea trial! Our new Furuno is a dream! "Doc" as we have named her, is a super star! She is steering the boat better than either one of us ever could! The only negative is that she is not yet hooked-up to our speed indicator and has a rather annoying alarm that sounds whenever she can't tell what speed the boat is traveling, which is quite often. Put "Call Furuno" on my list for tomorrow.

Back in the slip Craig noticed some smoke coming from the engine and took a look. Bad news again. There was coolant leaking from the engine, and we couldn't initially tell where it was coming from. Time to take off the galley cabinet... again! Craig was panicking and thinking it was the engine block which would be a HUGE fix, but as luck would have it, it was our heat exchanger that had been rubbing against a bolt and warn through. Starving at 2pm, we took a break and ran up to Carrows to grab a quick lunch. Craig decided not to attempt the Ham test as he had not had a minute to study in days and had to work on our client's vessel on Saturday. I will go alone for team South Trail, and am starting to feel the pressure! Craig took our leaky heat exchanger it to our neighbor Travis at the Ventura Boat Yard and got the hole welded while he waited, and then spent time putting a fiberglass patch over the weld and painting the whole thing. Meanwhile, I managed a whole 2 hours of uninteruppted study which only served to show me how totally unprepared I was for this test in the morning. Ahhhh!!!

No time to worry now, I ran out to pick-up a b-day gift, stop by the post office, and then swing by to grab Craig and Dover to go to pick-up BBQ and get to the B-Day party. It was a nice event, and when we finally got home to our boat last night at 8:45pm I started to study. I studyed most of the night. I took a little nap and a shower (in the public showers... no pressure water!), and DRUM ROLL PLEASE... at 8:15am this morning I passed my Ham test!!! I am now a Technician Class Amatuer Operator and in about a week I will check the FCC database online, and have a call sign assigned to my name which will be mine for the next 10 years. I'm at the lowest level and don't get to talk legally on hardly any radio bands, but it sure feels good to have it! Craig is proud, I'm proud, and now back to that never ending list of THINGS TO DO TODAY! Only 15 days 'til departure!

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back...

2009-11-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

As with all good fairytales, the hero must, by design, get through an evil forest, lay waste to a few dragons, and fight some bad guys before he can claim his "happily ever after"... We souls aboard South Trail are wading through our own ying/yang bog of hurdles necessary to get our boat out of the harbor and onto our own "fair winds and following seas" ever after...

Our Robertson Autopilot, which Craig has painstakingly installed, has a serious glitch. It will hold a compass course perfectly for about 3 minutes, and then just stop steering the boat. We can then adjust course +/- one degree and it "wakes up" and starts steering again... for three minutes. It's a sailor's version of "Groundhog Day"... Not a great scenario for the relaxing cruise we have been planning! Craig is 99% sure it is the control head computer which needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, we have not been able to locate a used one to fit our unit in all our usual favorite internet and land based spots. Our other option is to purchase a whole new "brain" for our quadrant linear drive, which by virtue of it's cost, would shorten our cruise. Either way, we have to have reliable self-steering while crusing. Our previous Mexican cruise '04-'05 we completed the Baja Bash from Acapulco to Long Beach with no self-steering autohelm. That was 4 hours on and 4 hours off watch schedule with one of us always at the helm steering 1800+ nautical miles. I never knew it was possible to actually miss someone's company on a 30 foot boat. Although that was a great sailing experience with valuable lessons learned, it is not a scenario Craig and I will willingly repeat!

Meanwhile, our new ICOM 718 Ham Radio has been successfully installed (the old Kenwood we got turned out to be a dud unfortunately) and along with our new ICOM antenna tuner, we have been listening to all sorts of radio traffic from all over the world. It is pretty cool, I must admit. It does inspire one to study for the Ham test. Craig is definately going to pass. Eva?... Jury is still out.

Craig also finished putting together our new fuel transfer and polish system which is very cool. On our last cruise aboard our old Cal 2/29 Tigertail Street we had some real issues in rough seas with our engine cutting out due to lack of diesel flow in half empty tanks. Craig designed a pretty genius system on our Newport 41 by installing a 12 gallon day tank which is the only feed to our engine. It sits in our salon settee, amidships and just port of our centerline which all but eliminates the tank sloshing about. Our two original diesel tanks each feed to a Racor filter which polishes the fuel prior to being pumped to the day tank. The day tank feeds the engine after it goes through a second Racor filter mounted next to our Universal 5432 engine. The fuel transfer and polisher sits in our "garage" aft of our companionway and also has a spare hose to allow polish and transfer to the day tank from jerry jugs or fuel bladders.

Eva has been attempting to tame the storage beast. Storage has grown exponentially over the last few years, and with the addition of Ventura Boat Doctor projects overlapping eachother, we have managed to create quite the disorganized mess. The boat itself has been cleared of all extraneous extras (books, pillows, cushions, etc) in order to make our system's installs easier. All of that is in storage too! It is a big project and one that must be accomplished before we depart.

Dover is our "One Step Forward" success story this blog. He has turned a corner in recent days, and is now enjoying being a social doggie with his previous dock dog nemesis'. He actually played and frolicked on the beach with Jenga, a small white dog, which we have lovingly refered to for the last year as "the other, other white meat". After a year of lighting-up at poor Jenga and her master, Vicki, when they walked past our boat, Dover met her on the beach sans leashes and acted the perfect gentleman. They played and frolicked in the sand. It was a wonderful moment!

Happy Halloween! Scary? Try Amateur Radio License...

2009-10-31T12:47:00.000-07:00

Count Dover-cula

Eva completed her last day with her part-time job yesterday! Whoopee!!! This means that we are officially on "Countdown to Cast-Off: Mexico Here We Come!". Craig is still finishing projects for some of our Ventura Boat Doctor clients, but is trying to balance them with our own, still very long list of projects to complete before we leave.

We added a big task to that long list last week when we purchased a used Ham Radio. We both started studying to take the written exam for our Amateur Radio licenses which is required for us to legally transmit via our new/old radio by the FCC. Craig LOVES it! He is like a kid at a candy store and giggles with delight at pouring through our new Ham Radio study materials. "Whiskey! Bravo! Delta! Zulu!..." Call signs. Super Secret Radio Language. Add antennas, knobs, buttons, sky and ground wave propagation with a dash of historical romance, and Craig has found his next big hobbie and new great love! I'm happy for him. Truly.

Eva just wants to be a safe, prudent mariner, and have a logical, dependable form of communication aboard South Trail. She now finds herself trying to memorize questions like this:

What is meant by Harmonic Radiation?
A. Unwanted signals at frequencies that are multiples of the fundamental (chosen) frequency
B. Unwanted signals that are combined with a 60-Hz hum
C. Unwanted signals caused by sympathetic vibrations from a nearby transmitter
D. Signals that cause skip propagation to occur

In case anyone cares, the answer is A. My point is this is really BORING for Eva. I am giving it the ol' college try though. That means because I find the subject so dry I am pulling every memorization trick I have ever learned out of my dusty collegiate hat. December 5th is our exam here in Ventura. I have no doubt that Craig will pass with flying colors and have his very own call sign and station... Eva? Stay tuned. We'll see.