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Eleytheria Journal: November to December 2004

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November 12, 2004 Dinner exactly where we wanted to be

We planned to have dinner tonight with Pat & Gene of Chalet Mer (dock mates from San Francisco) and Pam & Scott of Tournesol. Pat had been to Cabo 13 years ago and had dinner at this wonderful restaurant with a view of the sunset and bay. She made all the plans, reservations and set it all up. So we get a taxi for the 20 minute drive. Pat explains, in Spanish, where we want to go. The driver said he knew just where we wanted. So we drive, get to a very nice restaurant, and Pat looks confused. This isn't what she remembers. Before we let the the taxi driver go, we want to make sure we have reservations. That this is the place. Pat walks inside, and quickly returns. In response to our questions of "Is this the place? Do they have our reservations?" she responds, "They have room." This was not in fact what we were looking for but turned out to be a very nice place. Going with the flow is what we're learning to do. And finding some great jewels in the process. Back to the top.

 

November 13, 20004 Clearing out of Cabo San Lucas

Before you leave a place you have to clear out. This involves doing everything you did to check in. There is no rhyme or reason that we can see to their method or madness. Pam of Tournesol and I went to check our boats our while the guys fueled and watered Tournesol. Pam had 5 copies of the crew list and the guy at immigration wanted all 5. I had 4 and he wanted 3. Go figure. After sitting in Immigration for an hour, Pam and I walked the mile to the Port Captain. When we cleared in, we were able to pay the 245 pesos (approx. $22.30 USD) in cash. At check out, we had to walk back to the bank (near immigration) or pay by credit card. I like walking, but not that much. I paid by credit card. Master Card only accepted. And we needed a copy of the Customs document. Since they spoke no English, and I muy muy muy poquito Spanish, all I understood was that they needed una copia. Where? Since I looked so confused, and I smiled really big, they made a copy for me. How nice. When Pam got to the window, the Port Captain kept pointing to her document saying, "Scott? El Capitan? Aqui, aqui!" No idea why they wanted Scott, the official Captain of Tournesol to come to the office ("here, here"), but we looked thoroughly confused. I guess it wasn't much of a problem because he proceeded to stamp all her papers, too. And made a copy of her Customs document for her too. It certainly helps to smile nice and big. Back to the top.

 

November 14, 2004 Leaving Cabo is harder than it looks

Life is going much slower. Nice pace. There's clean up and preparation that we have to do to get the boat ready to move again. Pulling the sail lines (ropes) out of their protective bags, pulling the dinghy, engine, and fuel tank out of the water and stowing it for the trip, tidying up the cockpit and below of loose things that may fly during a passage. So it takes time. And we're not running at a really fast pace. Abe and I originally thought about leaving on November 11th or 12th. But we didn't feel much like moving so soon, so the departure was delayed until Saturday or Sunday. Friday came, and we decided Saturday wasn't going to do it. Saturday came, and Tournesol suggested going to a movie at the local theater. We jumped on it. Who needed to leave on Sunday? We could just as easily leave on Monday. For those of you paying $10 for a movie these days, I'll give you prices at the Cabo theater. For 2 adults, full price, tickets were $8.50 USD. Large popcorn and two large drinks were $8 USD. What a deal! Most of the movies are in English with Spanish subtitles. It seems the exception to this are cartoons. They've been dubbed into Spanish. So I'll have to find a different way to see the new Pixar film, The Incredibles. Or learn Spanish very quickly. Abe may go without me!

After the movie Saturday, we spent a leisurely day on Sunday getting the boat ready, going to the internet cafe one last time. I think it's finally time to move on. Back to the top.

 

Cabo San Lucas, The Theory Cafe

The Theory Cafe was a quick walk from the dinghy dock, and for the purchase on one coffee, we could sit and surf on the net as long as we liked. A beautiful outdoor cafe, it was a regular hangout for all the cruisers. They had one computer that you could use, but we brought our own. I am embarrassed to say that we were very geeky about the entire thing. We have two laptops. One is quite old, but we brought it for backup in case our main one crashes. It's hard to be at an internet cafe with one person surfing, and the other not having anything to do. So Abe, being the computer geek that he is, networked our two laptops so that we could surf with both computers using one wireless card. And then Tournesol caught wind of that, and Abe set them up. So here the four of us are, with four computers, four frappucinos, geeing on the internet, updating our sites. Sigh. You can take the gecko out of the country, but he's/she's still a gecko! We had quite a bit of updating to do so we spent quite a bit of time there. We arrived at noon on Sunday afternoon, and were bummed to find them closed. How could they? While we were pondering what to do with our day, the employee showed up, and with a knowing smile opened up the cafe for us. Probably thinking what dorks are here from open to close sitting on the computers when it's such a gorgeous day. It's just that we had so much writing to do to catch up. At least that's our excuse.

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November 15, 2004, Cabo to Los Frailes, 23°22'47" N, 109°25'32" W, and first fish on

We left on Monday morning at 07:37 in the morning. Let me just take a moment to say that I have seen more sunrises in the past 2 months than I have in the past 30 years. They're beautiful. But I will see more only because we have to leave in the early morn to make it to our destination at a certain time (before dark). They're great, but I still like my sleep. The trip to Los Frailes (The Friars because the rock at the entrance looks like there are 4 friars climbing the side of the cliff. I personally don't see it, but take a look at the picture) was absolutely beautiful.

The wind was at our back (great thing we waited until Monday to leave), the sun was so warm, the swells were in our favor and gentle. What better time to try our hand at fishing? Please understand that Abe has fished once. I have never fished. So it's like the blind leading the blind here. No clue what to do. And I haven't made time to read the Cruiser's Handbook to Fishing yet. We've heard that ANYONE can catch a fish in these waters so what did we have to loose? We stick some kind of lure (I have no idea what kind it was) on the pole, and throw the line out. Imagine our surprise when we had something on the line within 5 minutes. First Fish On! But, we're not ready to pull anything in! Abe's working with the line while I'm scrambling to find not only the camera, but something to get Mr. Fishy on board. The camera was first priority as we needed to get proof. But he's a small one, and Abe is pulling him in much too fast for me to get camera much less anything to net Mr. Fishy. As Abe pulls him out of the water, the fish jumps one last time and gets away. We think it was a tuna, about 18". A good size to start learning how to kill and clean on board. I found myself kind of cheering for the fish so that we wouldn't have to kill it. I don't mind spraying alcohol in it's gills, but bashing it on the head doesn't really appeal to me.. But the sushi would have been good. And yes, I did bring my wasabi, seaweed and rice just for this purpose. Not for the purpose of the fish getting away, but for the purpose of catching them and actually getting them on board!

We tried again, but didn't have much luck after that. We did have one other bite, but before we could drop the headsail to slow us down, he'd gotten away. We've been told that neither of these count because we don't have pictures. Sigh. Back to the top.

November 16, 2004, Party of 8

We arrived in Frailes about 3 PM on the 15th. Pat and Gene of Chalet Mer had us over for wine and cheese. We met Diane and Mark (AKA Isabel and Ricardo. They're giving themselves new names for each country they visit) of Con Te Partiro. Abe and I were pretty tired from the day's trip, so stayed for just a bit. Pat had made a wonderful roast for dinner. She handed off a chunk to us as we got in Isabel's and Ricardo's dinghy for our ride home. So yummy! The next morning, we noticed on the beach of Frailes (FRY-les) that there were loads of pangas. That means fresh fish. Pat and Gene came by to pick us up to go searching for fish as we still had not launched our dinghy from the deck (about 1/2 hour to get it all set to go).The fishermen had red snapper, and we picked up 3. Sounds like the beginnings of a feast! We invited Chalet Mer, Tournesol (just arrived) and Con Te Partiro over for dinner. As Abe and I were running low on anything fresh, our guests offered to bring the side dishes. Yummy feast, great company, and Gene showed Abe how to clean and filet the fish. Dinner for 8 in our cockpit is cozy, but it gave us a chance to try our new table that Abe built while in Tennessee with my Dad's tools. And of course, no photos.

What's been so interesting so far on the trip is dealing with the local folks at each different place we go. It's very different depending on the location and how much exposure the locals have had to Americans. The more they've dealt with gringos, the higher the price is for things they're selling. They ask for what this special market will bear. The less dealings they've had with gringos, and the more remote the area, the cheaper things are. We paid $20 for the three fish at Muertos, which seemed quite high. It's still much less than we would have paid in the US, and it's certainly not expensive. It's fun to watch the whole dynamic unfold. Abe speaking fluent Spanish certainly helps us, and I think we are probably treated more like locals than those who don't speak any. I've still been remiss in taking out the Spanish tapes to learn, but I'm picking up more and more from conversations. I'm always a good source for entertainment for those around trying out my newly learned phrases. Back to the top.

 

November 17, 2004 Leaving Frailes is much easier than it looks

As we've been running out of fresh food, and I didn't make the time in Cabo to replenish, we're running low on anything other than canned goods. So it was out to dinner again tonight. It didn't start that way. It started out as just drinks out. We'd heard vicious rumors of incredible margaritas at a small hotel on the beach. The hotel is owned by a lady from San Francisco, who makes these killer 'ritas. This time we hitched a ride with Pam and Scott on their dinghy. The rumor has it that these 'ritas have 3 shots of tequila in them. So we expected large 'rita glasses to hold all this liquor. Nope. Highball glasses. I've never tasted one so strong. I let it sit hoping that the melting ice would dilute it enough to get it down. We sat on the front porch, in the four rocking chairs enjoying the view, the company, the chairs (very comfy), and suffering through these margaritas. It wasn't long before Scott started wondering about the menu and food. Just for a small bite. Next thing we know, we've all ordered the special of the day, some simple pasta with shrimp. I think Scott originally tried to order something else, but the waiter thought the cook might be happier if we made it easier on her, and highly suggested that we all have the special. It was a good recommendation as it was the best shrimp pasta I've ever had. Very yummy, simple, and full of flavor.

A big part of our travels are dictated by weather, and finding good weather windows that will give us favorable conditions. Dinnertime discussions touched on the weather forecast we'd been hearing for two days: winds from the north at 15 - 20 mph on 17th, increasing to 25 mph from N to NW by the 18th. We would be headed directly into the wind on a NW heading. A very uncomfortable ride. It didn't sound like the weather would let up until the 20th or 21st. The only exception to this was that there would be somewhat lighter winds early in the morning of the 18th (pre-dawn). None of us were looking forward to bashing into the wind, but if we could time it for the lesser of the winds, it would be an easier trip. We though we'd leave early morning on the 18th or maybe the 19th. But on the dinghy ride home, one of us (and we won't say who she was) said, "You know, it's awfully quiet in the anchorage. Seems like it would be a good time to leave if we can get any sort of respite before the winds are to pick up. The forecast had them high tonight, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe we should leave now." The others all said, "Amy, what a great idea. We're game." And that's how it started. Back to the top.

 

November 17 - 18, 2004 Los Frailes to Bahia de Los Muertos, 23°59'22" N, 109°49'40" W and Whose Blasted Idea Was This?!

So with freshly full bellies, a bit cocky thinking we were beating the weather by just a little bit, we got to the boat, and started getting ready. We'd never dropped the dinghy, we'd not been in Frailes long, and we were pretty ready to go. At 22:33 we lifted anchor with the hope that it would be a nicer ride than what we'd originally expected. This trip was about the same distance as from Cabo to Frailes (45 miles), and we hoped to get in to Muertos by mid morning. We hoped we wouldn't make it before sunrise. Ha! Wishful thinking, come to find out. About a mile out from the protection of the Frailes rock, we were hit with wind on the nose. Rats! It was blowing 15 - 20 mph from the direction we wanted to go. We're committed now.

What made it worse was that the winds kept shifting. We wanted to be on a heading of 310°. On one tack, we were able to head about 350°, the other tack 250°. One tack would take us north, but far from land, the other back closer to land, but not much north heading. Add to this that the waves and swells were coming right at our nose, our forward progress was very slow. It wasn't as uncomfortable as we've been before, it was just frustrating because we couldn't get going faster than 3.5 knots. We're normally happy with 5 knots, disappointed with 4, ecstatic with 6+. We'd made such good time getting to Frailes, we got a little spoiled.

About 4 am we decided to motor sail. We dropped the headsail, turned on the motor and headed straight into the wind. With the waves, we wouldn't make any faster time, but we wouldn't be zigzagging towards our course. By now we were concerned that we wouldn't make it to Muertos by sunset. We still had 25 miles to go, and we were still very slow. We didn't lose any speed going into the wind which was really good news. We were finally going 3.5 knots directly there. Whose idea was this anyway? Cruising is supposed to be fun. This isn't really that fun. We had many radio conversations with Tournesol during the night cursing the idea man (or woman as the case may be) for this adventure.

We started making better time as the sun came up, and by 14:14 we dropped anchor in Muertos. Perhaps we should have known it would be a hard trip to a place called Bay of the Dead. But, it was an absolutely beautiful spot. The water was clear and calm. A nice respite from what we'd just come through. We touched base with Tournesol who were still 14 miles out. They weren't able to make headway directly into wind as we had. They would be pulling in after sunset. As if apologizing for giving us such a bad time, we were treated to the most beautiful sunset we'd seen so far. The clouds were a mixture of those with texture and those wispy streaks. And the sky kept turning amazing colors. We took one picture after another just because it kept getting better. Tournesol pulled in around 6 PM, just after sunset. Sun is rising about 6:30 in the morning, and setting around 5:30 each day. We hope to stay here for a long, long time because it's so pretty. Unless we can't find food in town to replenish our nonexistent stores of fresh. Back to the top.

 

November 19, 2004 Bahia de Los Muertos - How 4 miles Is a Lot Longer Than It Looks on Paper and How We Break-danced Our Way Home

I'd forgotten to mention that the passages are becoming much easier in terms of stress and me relaxing. The passage from Cabo to Frailes was very enjoyable. We have some books on tape that help with keeping us awake on night passages. The passages from Cabo to Frailes and Frailes to Muertos were less than 24 hours so we didn't have time to get very fatigued. I'm trusting the boat more that she'll stay afloat(she's been floating now for 23 years a good track record) and keep us safe. And I'm also getting more comfortable with the noises that are prevalent on passages. These noises are so very different from being at a dock or at an anchorage. But just like most things, as they become more and more familiar they aren't so scary. So for those of you who worried about my stress level with passages, you can stop. I'm glad that I seem to be at the point where I enjoy them rather then a passage just being a means to get to another place to explore.

A quick aside about communications: The VHF radio and the Ham radio/single-side band (SSB) radio are a cruiser's lifeblood. VHF radios are line of sight and the range is about 20 - 30 miles. While in the States, VHF is used to contact Coast Guard, marinas, to hail other vessels, and for weather forecasts. In Mexico and other countries, you can hail marinas, but mostly are used as communications between cruisers. We use the VHF to find details of a local anchorage, what's to be found in town (like ice cream!), or to make dinner dates or appointments to walk into town. The Ham/SSB radio is a high frequency transceiver that has the capability to send messages across great distances, and is also used for sending email and receiving weather faxes. Group communication or “nets” are scheduled daily with boats throughout a geographic area (i.e. Amigo Net is broadcast throughout Mexico) and cruisers use these virtual meeting areas to keep informed about many aspects of cruising such as weather, local customs, facilities, and location of friends. On Eleytheria, the SSB and Ham radio are one unit. The ham radio provides us many more features including patches to telephone communications, and an entirely separate group of frequencies to communicate worldwide. (Tournesol wrote about communications on one of their web updates. Since I'm having a hard time even making the time to update our journals, I plagiarize some of their communications explanation with their permission).

In Muertos, we finally met up with Andy, Marianne and Andrew of Soy Libre. We knew them from San Francisco, and had been trying to find them and be in the same place at the same time as them. They've been cruising Mexico for a year now. We'd heard Soy Libre on the daily Amigo Net that their location was Muertos - same as where we were headed. When we got into the anchorage we called them on the VHF radio to say hello. As they'd been at Muertos for a day longer we were asking them about food since we were low on fresh food. We had not been running the refrigerator since San Diego because it had been draining too much battery power. We had some kielbasa and some tomatoes that we had left over from San Diego. But that was it. (A short word on kielbasa That stuff must have so much preservatives in it to keep for over a month with refrigeration only when the engine is running. We fixed the last package for our dinner when we got in to Muertos on Thursday night and felt no ill effects - scary.) Marianne sent Andy over with a wonderful package for us: frozen pork chops, two apples, tortilla chips, avocado, tomato, oranges AND a bottle of wine. Amazing. We had a wonderful breakfast on Friday morning with the thawed pork chops and a good scrambled egg omelet (eggs never refrigerated don't need refrigeration. We'd found eggs in Turtle Bay and still had some left). Yummy. We didn't have wine with breakfast : )

This kind of gift is not unusual among cruisers. It seems there is always someone with the hardware that you need to finish a project or a helping hand or just fresh food when you haven't had some in awhile. Cruising community is very much like a small, old town mentality. Most of us know or recognize most of the boat names out here in our immediate neck of the woods (Mexico, for us right now), and have met a lot of them. We all figure that in places where parts are hard to find or impossible to locate, where even doing laundry is a long walk away, that helping each other is the only way to manage. And what we give up to help someone out will come back around when we need it.

Since we're low on food (we're living off canned foods and ramen) we decided to walk to town to scope out the local amenities. We knew it was a small town and didn't expect much. We hoped for some fresh veggies and maybe some more eggs and cheese. Pam and Scott from Tournesol, Andy from Soy Libre and John from Amazing Grace all needed to go to town as well. The guys looked at a map a couple from Idaho had (small world) to see how far the town was. It was 7 km, about 4+ miles. No problemo. Off we go, the 6 of us traipsing down the dirt road. In a short way the road turned to asphalt. We walked and walked and walked. Crossed paths with some cattle (no fence, just roaming). We walked and walked and walked. At some point the Idaho couple drove past us, stopped and asked if we needed any water. We confirmed with them that the little town was 7 km because we must have been getting close. No, the guy said. It's 7 MILES. 11 km. OOPS They took of, and shortly came back. They had driven the rest of the way and had come back just to tell us it was 2 miles further. Very nice. They had a small car, and offered to take one of us the rest of the way. We said no. 2 miles was nothing after the 5 we'd walked. And it really felt nice to walk. Exercise is prevalent on board as we roll and bash through waves. Isometrics and leg muscles getting nice and toned. Even at anchorage we're still doing all the compensation so we don't fall over! But the walk was wonderful way to stretch the leg muscles. It had been awhile.

We got to a sparsely stocked store. It looked like it had been awhile since they'd seen a restocking truck. We were able to get a little milk, more Un-refrigerated eggs, bananas, tortillas, and some of Abe's favorite crackers from when he was but a boy in Mx. We were looking for a way to hitch a ride back to the boats. 7 miles toting our groceries (even with a rolling cart) would have been a bit much. While were devising a way to hitch a ride, a white pickup with four boys in their early 20s drove by looking at us. They were very interested in us. Not that we looked out of place at all. Yeah, right! May have been all the blond hair in our group. I made a comment that they looked like we could get them to drive us back. They almost broke their necks driving by watching us. They drove by again, and Abe sticks out his thumb. We're sitting on the porch of the store, about 25 yards off the road. They weren't stopping for Abe's thumb so I yelled and motioned to come back. And they did. Yippee! We had a ride! Abe asked, "cuanto," (how much) they wanted and they said, "Nada mas gasolina," (nothing but the gas).

We piled our cart with all our goodies and 6 bodies in the back of the truck. They drove down the road , radio blaring, dodging the cows in the middle of the road, but they stopped where the asphalt ended. Since it wasn't far on the dirt road to the anchorage we were happy. Heck, we would have been happy with a ride for half the distance. We thought they didn't want to go down the dirt road. But as we started to pile out of the back, they motioned for us to stay. They'd take us all the way. Maybe they stopped to use the facilities (bushes)? But no. They turned up the radio even louder and started BREAK DANCING ON THE ROAD! It was a hoot. They were doing the hand stand thingys and the turning around on their hands or whatever. It was so funny. They wanted to show us their stuff! Break dance cartwheels and all sorts of goodies. When I motioned to one of the guys who wasn't doing any of it, he motioned for us to join him. So I did what any self-respecting person would do - I jumped out of the truck and did a cartwheel. It was over as quickly as it started. We got back in the truck and off we went the rest of the way. You never know what you'll find on a trip into town!

Looking back we never were scared that they were getting out of the truck on this very deserted road. It didn't even enter our minds that they may harm us. It's nice to be in a place that's safe enough to hitch a ride. There are places in Mexico that we wouldn't have tried that, but here we felt very safe. We're as much of an oddity to many locals in these small towns who may very well have never seen blond hair. I find that a lot of the kids will stare at me. It's the lighter hair and blue eyes. In these remote areas, they don't get a lot of exposure to a real live gringa.

Pictures below of the break dancers and Amy getting out of the truck to join in.

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20 November - 17 December 2004, Hotel La Paz. You Can Check in, But You Can't Check Out (to the tune of Hotel California), 24°09'29" N, 110°19'21" W

We left Muertos at midnight on the 19th. The weather forecast was for a good southerly which is what we'd been waiting for. Plus, the anchorage at Muertos was becoming very rolly since the seas had been building from the south (due to the southerly wind). We really liked Muertos, but it was so uncomfortable we decided to leave that night rather than wait for the next southerly window. We also needed fresh food. 4 boats decided to leave on the night of the 19th so that we would get into La Paz by sunset the next day - Soy Libre, Tournesol and Amazing Grace. It's nice to have people to chat with at night via the VHF radio. It helps keep you awake! The trip was uneventful which is just the way we like it.

We anchored out just off the Malecon (a nice winding sidewalk along the water) for a couple of days until the marina had a spot open for us. The plan was to install the watermaker, anemometer (wind indicator at the top of the mast), and the new anchor light. We also needed to fill our tanks with water, get fuel, and give the boat a good washing. We originally planned to stay through December 5th. We wanted to make our way leisurely to Puerto Vallarta for Christmas, and that would give us time to stop along the way to PV.

The projects were slow going as it took quite a bit of walking through town to get to the place we thought would have this or that widget. We went to one machine shop to have them make a bracket that would hold the water maker. They kept running out of stainless steel, but we didn't find that out until we were already there. And that was a taxi trip, so it wasn't as cheap as walking. (A side note on taxis: they are very cheap here. For a 15 minute ride to the movie theaters, it cost 30 pesos or less than $3 total for 4 people. For those of us on a cruising budget, though, we like to walk instead of taking taxis when possible.) We ended up with a wood shelf rather than a metal bracket. It took more time to build, but worked just as well.

For the watermaker, I had to go to three or four different plumbing supply stores to get the valves and hose I needed. Nothing takes just one trip. I had a lot of his help building the shelf for the watermaker, and with some input for the layout, but did most of the other work. As I can figure out plumbing, it's become my "thing" on the boat. Abe takes care of the engine, electrical, and a host of others. I like having something that is my contribution to the upkeep of the boat. We still haven't tested it. We didn't want to turn it on in the marina because any fuel, oil or detergent in the water will kill the membrane. A watermaker, for those of you who may not know, is a reverse-osmosis process that turns salt water into fresh water through a high pressure membrane. We have a Katadyn 80-E model that will make 3.7 gallons of fresh water per hour. For those looking to buy a watermaker, these guys have a great customer service from what dealings we had with them. We also have a Pur handheld watermaker (now Katadyn) for our life raft. Great products.

Abe went to the top of the mast 5 times for a total of 10 hours to install the new anchor light and anemometer. He had to take a look at what was up there to design a new holder for the vane part of the anemometer. It wouldn't be as easy as just taking one out and putting a new one in! He took about 30 pictures while he was up there so he could design from the ground. Another trip up was to remove all the old wiring and put in the new. We had a moment when we thought we might not be able to get the old out. Most of the wires on the boat are all taped together when at all possible. It's nice for some neatness, but makes it a real bear to remove only one wire. We thought we might have to take out the old VHF antenna wire in addition to the light and anemometer wire. It ended up that we didn't, thank goodness. You want to push as few pieces of spaghetti up or down a 70' mast as possible (we actually used the old wire to lead the new up). There was also running all of wire that had to be done inside the boat to power the new instruments.

All these projects and the longer-than-planned time to complete made for a couple of delayed departures. We felt like we kept trying to leave only to be delayed by one more thing. Labor is very cheap in La Paz, so we took the opportunity to have some touch-up's done on the cushions I had recovered right before leaving (Abe's take - Amy saw the work the upholsterer had done on Tournesol, and just had to keep up with them).

The local upholsterer made some nice piping and finished off my crude seams. Plus, they made the 4 end cushions that I had been putting off because it involved sewing. I can handle stapling fabric to plywood bottoms, but sewing from scratch is not my forte. Because we had torn the entire v-berth apart pulling out boxes for the instruments, the boat had been in total disarray for the entire stay at La Paz. It took 2 days to clean up the boat, and get it ready for sailing again.

But it wasn't all work. Some highlights while we were in La Paz:

  • Finding La Fuente ice cream shop. Yummy, yummy ice cream. I don't understand why they kept smiling at us when we went in almost daily for our double scoops. Didn't they understand that ice cream has become our favorite treat?
  • Thanksgiving Day was spent with 150 other cruisers at a semi-pot luck meal. Some folks provided turkeys (15 of them!), stuffing, gravy and drinks. We brought a side dish of veggies (thanks Pat & Gene for a great recipe), and had a feast. We met Stan and Rhea of Vagari out of Arizona. In cruising, you rarely find out people's last names. The last name becomes the boat name. Stan and Rhea Vagari or Pam and Scott Tournesol.
  • Local markets were great for food, fresh-squeezed orange juice, locally-made yogurt and cheeses (very yummy!), and so much produce. After being deprived of veggies it was great to have lettuce, bell peppers, avocados, etc. again. Remind me to take my Spanish-English dictionaries, though. I went one day without my personal translator (Abe), and had no idea what I was buying! I am picking more Spanish up, though, understanding more words. It doesn't sound so much like on mess of jumbled sounds.
  • Movie nights at the local Cinepolis. We're not getting current movies, but we've been gone from the States long enough now ((3 months now and it feels like at least 6 months!) that we haven't seen any of these in the US theaters. Still very cheap ($4.20 USD for the evening show) and in English. We saw Polar Express in English which surprised us that it was played in both Spanish and English. Nice to get in the holiday mood. Sad to say that Pam and Scott are also known to see doubleheaders. We put off our projects a day or two with some such nonsense.
  • Subasta is an annual auction/raffle to raise money for the poor schools out of town about 1/2 an hour. Club Cruceros is a local club of cruisers turned residents of La Paz. We had purchased our raffle ticket at Thanksgiving not imagining that we'd still be around for the drawing on December 5th. One of the prizes was double scoops of ice cream at La Fuente for 4. Wouldn't you know that our name was called? I let out a whoop so loud people turned, not understanding why I'd get so excited about ice cream. Don't they understand that ice cream is a necessary part of our diet?! As Pam and Scott had been going most days with us to La Fuente (and some days without us - how dare they?), we figured there was none better to share this prize.
  • Our Lady of Guadalupe - we're not sure if this is a holiday for the Catholic Church celebrating the sighting of Virgin Mary by a peasant hundreds of years ago or it it was just a fundraiser to finish the church. There was to be a parade through town, and an all-night celebration/mass at the church. We went in search of the parade, but missed it. Instead we found a concert of sorts put on by the local college. There were different dancing groups performing Texas line dancing (to include the appropriate outfits), hula dancers, and a Mexican Revolution interpretive dance. Fun to watch. We figured that even if we had missed the parade for the church thingy we should still go check it out to get a feel for local flavor. The mass was packed, they were selling food and balloons outside. Tons of people. Very big day in La Paz.
  • Dan and Lee of Afroessa were our dock mates in San Francisco. They left the Bay October 11th, and we finally met up with them a day before we left La Paz. There are good things about sticking around!

La Paz was a great place to visit. Many cruisers have made it there and never left. We were getting quite antsy being tied to a dock again, especially for so long. It seemed like we would try to leave, and something would come up. We extended the departure date 4 times. It seemed like we would never get out of there! But we made it out, and are on our way again. Back to the top.

 

December 10, 2004 Autographs anyone?

My alma mater publishes a quarterly newsletter. This newsletter contains latest updates that graduates send in - weddings, babies, new jobs, etc. I sent them a blurb to publish about Abe and I taking off on this trip back in July. They contacted me asking if they could do a full-blown article. I was so honored. The article came out in this latest quarterly, and Abe and I were both so impressed with it. Karilon Rogers did a fantastic job! Mom scanned the article and pages that I've attached here. Pam & Scott are no longer the only famous cruisers. They've been written up in Sailing magazine. But now they're begging for OUR autograph because we've been written up in the Berry Quarterly! Click on the graphic to see entire article.

Click on picture for a jpg format or you can click here to get the PDF format for a better view

The best part about this entire experience, though, is that we've received some e-mails from folks we've never met before telling us a little about themselves and sending us encouragement. There are some truly amazing people out there! It's also served as a way for some old friends to get in touch with me. It has been wonderful to read these emails. Back to the top.

 

December 17-20, 2004, From La Paz to Puerto Vallarta, 20°39.51'N, 105°14.59'W

The old sailors superstition says that you should never leave on a passage on a Friday. Pam has also told us that this same old sailor says to never have bananas on board. We were so happy to be leaving La Paz that I didn't even realize it was a Friday (I didn't figure it out until Sunday!). Oops. The trip was mostly motor-sailing. We put up sails, turned the engine off and the wind would die. Down to 3 knots (boat speed). Turn the engine back on. Wind speed up (is it going to stay up?), engine off, wind dies. Rats. So we kept the sails up, the engine on and didd 6.5+ knots for most of 24 hours. The other days were spent above 5 knots, but still engine. With the wind going too light we'd have to bring in the genoa (front sail) or it would slap too much.

We had been running on our port tank (the bigger tank) for 40 hours when the problem arose. Cough, sputter, and the engine died. That certainly sounded like we just ran out of gas, doesn't it? The port tank is reported to be 65 gallons. As we burn 1 gallon per hour, we were well within the limits of not needed to switch to our starboard tanks. We had never emptied the tanks fully, however, to fill them back up so this 65 gallon had never been tested. We spent an hour just letting the engine cool. Abe was going to have to bleed the air from the fuel lines before we could start it again on the starboard tank. It was too hot to lean over (of course the bleed points are on the opposite side from our access). While waiting for it to cool, Abe found two more leaking oil points. He had fixed the major leak while in La Paz (the valve cover needed to be tightened). Now that it was cleaned up a bit from the messy valve cover leak, he could see two small drip points - the tachometer cap and another bolt (not really sure what it does). We were sailing along at 1 knot while waiting for cooling. We were a sailboat, after all, right? An hour or so delay and we were on our way again, scratching our heads about the lack of fuel in the port tank.

This passage was the first since leaving San Francisco that we'd had anything resembling a meal - Chef-Boy-R-Dee and Ramen Ravioli doesn't count. I had cooked some chicken breasts before leaving so they wouldn't go bad. Abe made chicken tacos one night with avocados, cheese and yummy hot sauce. I outdid him the next day with the tacos I made, though - I put onions in them. The waves were from a good position in relation to us, and it was smooth sailing. Well, smooth motor-sailing anyway.

The original plan was to stop at Isla Isabela, about 85 miles from PV. We pulled in just after sunset on Sunday, while we still had the last bit of light in the sky. It's a beautiful island, but with small anchorages. We tried one spot, and found it too full to try to anchor at dark. Maybe during the light we would have found a spot, but not likely. We dropped the hook on the outside in the second anchorage. It was a bit more exposed, but not too rolly. The anchor seemed to grind and jerk a bit. We dropped it in sand, but it was laying on top of rocks. Something about it just didn't feel right. Call it intuition, I guess. Neither one of us felt comfortable about the anchorage, so we decided to just keep going to Puerto Vallarta. We'll have to make our way to Isabela when we head south again from the Sea of Cortez after next year's hurricane season (we plan on heading north in spring to spend summer in the Sea). It was sometime after we pulled out of Isabela that I realized we had left on a Friday. And we had bananas on board. Coincidence that we'd run out of fuel and that we couldn't get a safe anchorage on the same passage where we left on a Friday AND had bananas on board? I think not.

We pulled into Banderas Bay Sunday morning around sunrise. It's Mexico's largest bay, 20 miles N to S and 15 miles E to W. It took a couple of hours to cross the bay, but a beautiful trip. As we won't sleep off the boat when it's anchored, we decided to go to a marina as we would be spending Christmas and New Year's on land. On the way to the marina, we pulled to the fuel dock determined to solve our tank size question. It's only 50 gallons. We couldn't fit another drop in it. Instead of having 110 gallons of fuel, we have 95. We may have to seriously consider changing our 50 gallon water tank in the v-berth into fuel before making the big puddle jump (crossing the Pacific) in 2006.

Thankfully, we didn't have any major issues. Running out of fuel is no big deal - as long as you still have the other tank to turn to! And it's nice to know that we'll keep going if need be. The lure of a good night's sleep (that was questionable with the grinding noise that would have been going on), a swim and a shower, and a proper dinner were not enough to keep us there.

We'll stay in PV through the 3rd so we can have a proper birthday celebration for Abe on the 2nd. Scott and Pam have a time share here in PV and have invited us to use the Jacuzzi, pool, shower AND tub while here. Say no more! We'll spend the night off the boat on Christmas Eve and Christmas night. Their place has a kitchenette so we'll make a feast complete with chocolate pudding pie at a minimum. It will be a good substitute for being in Tennessee for Christmas. As it's my first ever away from the wonderland that Mom creates for the holidays it will be a bittersweet day. Since it doesn't feel like Christmas here (80 degrees, 78 degree water), it's hard to be in the holiday spirit. That helps with the homesickness. Back to the top.

 

December 21-26, 2004, Christmas in Puerto Vallarta

Pam and Scott have a sweet deal while in PV. And they, being the kind souls that they are, have shared with us. Scott has a time share in PV, and they invited us to stay with them for Christmas. What a great gift to be off the boat for a night or two. We enjoy our life aboard the boat, but it's nice to have a "real" shower and a head that flushes with the push of a button every once in awhile. We made a nice Christmas Eve dinner, and Stan & Rhea of Vagari joined us for a wonderful evening. I was unable to find frozen pie crusts (I wasn't too hopeful on that one), nor could we find Crisco or any substitute to make homemade pie crusts. No chocolate pie for Christmas. That comes a close second as being the worst thing about being away from Tennessee for Christmas. No pie. Pie isn't a big thing in Mexico. At the Burger King and McDonald's restaurants that appear everywhere, they advertise Pay de Manzana. It took us a bit to realize that "Pay" is "Pie." This is the American word spelled with the Mexican pronunciation of letters. They don't even have a word for pie. So sad.

I called Mom and Dad from Scott's satellite phone to give them the hotel's phone number. They can call into Mexico for $.12/minute. They're able to get cheaper rates than I can with a phone card, and it had been awhile since we talked. The last "chat" we had was through Instant Messenger while we were still in La Paz. That was a hoot. My niece, nephew, sister, brother-in-law and mother all got in all the chat. So fun! I made sure that Mom would call again on Christmas Day. Both for my benefit and hers! My sister in Florida also called us. What a great surprise. It wasn't so much that I wanted to talk with her or Jeff (kidding, you two!), but more to their kids! It had been since California that I was able to get the latest and greatest in Stacy's and Steven's lives. They have such busy lives that we miss out on some of the excitement by not being in contact with them as often as we would like. Both are great informers and storytellers, though, so I can usually get a good scoop when we talk.

Christmas morning was a warm, sunny, beautiful day. While waiting for everyone to get up, I sat outside on the balcony in my reindeer ears to the delight of some of the neighbors. You have to get in the spirit of things! The presents under the tree made a much larger pile than we expected. Mom had sent a package back at the beginning of December (that arrived just two days prior!) complete with a stocking and gifts. Mom sure makes Christmas special no matter where her girls are. Pam and Scott helped to make the day so very special. If you can't be with family during the holidays, spending it with wonderful friends is just as special. How fortunate we are in this life we have. Felix Navidad y Prospero Ano to all.

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