Year: 2014

We spent one more day anchored in Santa Maria – a windy one, not good for going ashore. We had planned to leave the day after next, but we both woke up the next morning thinking it was the day to go. The weather from the net seemed to say there’d be wind that day but not so much the next. So we got the dinghy onboard and pulled up anchor. Our destination was about 8 miles away, as the crow flies – but it was going to be about a 30 mile trip to get around Isla Magdalena and back up into the bay. Here’s a good visual from our chart plotter after we arrived (pay no attention to the gangsta in the background).

Turns out there really wasn’t any wind – just 14 foot seas at 18 second intervals. Not the most comfortable trip and we had to motor the entire way. But it wasn’t awful, it was warm and sunny. Jonny caught a very nice bonita (kind of tuna) that would feed us for 3 days.   The mouth of the bay is 3 miles wide and the bay itself is just huge. You can’t see land across it. We anchored in Puerto Magdalena – just off the tiny fishing village. I had high hopes—groceries? Wifi? Shrimp for our traditional Christmas eve dinner? The Capitania de Puerto came out in a panga full of giant plastic containers – fuel. We arranged for him to come back first thing in the morning to check us in and sell us some diesel.

He arrived as scheduled and we filled up 2 of our jerry cans with diesel. He didn’t require us to show him our papers, but we filled out and signed his ledger. I asked him if the arborrotes had verduras (grocery store / vegetables). He laughed heartily and then shrugged a very discouraging “maybe”. He and his son then headed off for San Carlos – a much larger town on the main peninsula. It’s only 11 miles from here, but it’s a narrow channel to get there and apparently there’s a fee for using it and no real facilities or anchorage for yachts up in there. I know it has everything we need, but I think we are not going to make it up there by dinghy or hiring a panga (?). We are hoping he returns in a few days – because we discovered the diesel we bought is black. It’s supposed to be more on the clear side, and not smell the way it smells (perhaps there’s some 2-stroke fuel mixed in?). At any rate we are afraid to put it in our tank – so a little worried about this $50 worth of who-know-what we just got. And we may not have enough fuel to get to Cabo if we have to motor most of the way (which is likely, winds are super light).

When I first asked about a grocery store he misheard abborrotes and thought I said camarrones (shrimp) and I said “no, abborrotes” and then thought better….Y camarrones!!!”. Gomez was the link to shrimp. We were not sure if that was a boat or a man. Every year for my entire life I’ve had my Italian Grandmother’s traditional Christmas dinner of fried shrimp with a special spaghetti sauce and spaghetti. It’s one of the best dinners ever. The first part is cleaning and frying the shrimp, which takes a lot of time and requires you drink a lot of red wine while doing so. I have managed to save a couple bottles of Sante Archangeli Family Wines Pinots for the occasion (thanks, JB!!).

There are shrimp boats everywhere around here. This is shrimp county. How hard could it be to get us some shrimp? We decided to be bold and take the dinghy right out to a shrimp boat and see what we could do. We went pretty far out to a boat that appeared not to be moving. They were working hard pulling up their outriggers. We called out “camarrones?” and they told us not to get to close. It was more of a – ‘move back and we’ll let you know when it’s OK to come get some shrimp’ kind of gesture. We sat a ways off watching them work – it was pretty fascinating, really. But, when they were done, it appeared the crew was not able to persuade the captain to stick around for us. Off they went with their load of shrimp to San Carlos. No shrimp for the birds or us.

Optimistically we headed ashore to check out this little village. I had my grocery bags and everything. The village seemed kind of deserted, except for a group of fisherman gathered under a large lean-to. It appeared they were having a meeting of sorts (it was probably a co-op – Fishing Co-ops are very important and set all the rules and regulations that the fishermen are supposed to follow). Jonny boldly approached to ask about camarrones and Gomez. We were told Gomez would be around early the next day. Also the grocery store was not open until the next day, either. I guess Monday’s aren’t ‘business’ days.

Looking up toward the Port Captain’s building in Puerto Magdalena:

The Rebar Stick Figure Jesus on the church in Puerto Magdalena was my favorite:

We gave up our shrimp hunt for the day and went off to explore the dunes and see if we could hike across the ½ mile stretch of the island to come out on the beach at Santa Maria Cove (where we had just been – you remember, heavenly beach?). We decided to bring our soap, in hopes of a nice ocean bath. The dunes reminded me a lot of Cape Cod. We hiked up and down and through wiry vines grabbing at our toes – all in all I’m pretty sure that ½ mile was more like a mile with all the up and downs of the dunes! I could hear the roar of the surf, driving me steadily onward. When I finally saw the surf, I was a little dismayed. It looked reddish-brown. As I got closer to the beach, I saw all kinds of debris. Ah yes…the far end of the bay is where all the crap collects. Not sure what was in the surf – red tide? Some sort of plant stuff? At any rate, not very inviting. We decided to walk the beach a little and ‘treasure hunt’ – who knows what exciting things had washed up there?? Turns out it was just mesh bags, plastic bags, Clorox bottle bailers, rusty oil drums, giant pieces of Styrofoam. Nope. No treasures. It was a HUGE beach with an amazing, expansive view, though. And not a soul around.

We hiked back over the dunes to the huge and also deserted beach on the Mag Bay side. I spotted a coyote in the dunes.

We had a bath in the bay, which was actually quite nice (and I was 3 days without a shower, so it was a necessity).

Tuesday morning Jonny slipped away before it was light. He was on a mission to find Gomez – man or boat, we weren’t sure. He came back and apparently everyone in the village knew the gringoes were looking for Gomez. They said he’d be back in an hour or so. Jonny went back and I was feeling skeptical. What or who was Gomez and how was he going to get us shrimp? There were no huge shrimp boats that moored here. Maybe he knew someone on a shrimp boat and could arrange to go get some? After quite sometime I heard the dinghy coming back. I poked my head out to see what had transpired. Jonny held a huge bag of shrimp up. No way!!! I was very excited. It was at least a kilo, maybe more (well over 2 lbs). He said Gomez was a local / small time shrimper who caught them from his panga. He had just come in with a load of shrimp and Jonny helped him pull the heads off the ones in our bag. Freshest shrimp EVER! We had to go back and pay him – 100 pesos (I had set my max at 350 pesos for a kilo). I got dressed quickly because I had to meet this Gomez for myself. We gave him a few extra pesos and a t-shirt (one of our Minney’s Yacht Surplus shirts – try explaining what “Schooner or Later, We’ll Get our Ship Together” means in Spanish… I think I at least conveyed it was a very funny joke…)

Rafael Gomez and his wife (Amarela ?? I didn’t quite get it) offered us chairs and coffee. We sat out and chatted with them as best we could, for some time. Rafael has lived in this tiny village for 32 years. They will have turkey for their traditional Christmas dinner. Also, last year some cruisers brought them cookies at Christmas. I’m not sure if that was a hint. I’m also not sure they’d want my chocolate avocado cookies, which I have nicknamed “rubber dog shit cookies” – more due to look and texture than taste. Although I’m not sure they taste all that much better (hey, all my cooking experiments can’t be winners).

Rafael walked us over to the grocery hut. I was pleasantly surprised to see tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, limes, potatoes and avocados. I need all that stuff. Also got some eggs. Aside from that they had some canned goods and cleaners. Nothing else – no refrigerator, no junk food (and yes, we were kind of hoping for some chips and ‘sweets’! but we’ll be better off without. Besides, there’s always rubber dog shit cookies).

Satisfied with our great accomplishments for the morning, we proceeded to siesta for the rest of the day. It’s a rough life.

At the end of the day we spotted a sailboat entering the bay. Did I mention we were the ONLY boat here? As they got closer we realized it was a Hans Christian 33 (named Prism)– we’d met them in Turtle Bay. A husband and wife with the wife’s brother. I guess we’re not the slowest ones afterall!!

The next morning, Jon rowed over from Prism to say hi. They’d been stopping at a lot of places and having a great time. We told them we were thinking of moving about a mile farther up the bay – it was supposed to be nice and we were kind of getting over ‘town’ and all the fishing pangas going by all the time.

They pulled anchor and headed over there. That got us motivated to up and move, too. Not sure why we’d been so lazy for so long! We went a few miles past to check out the bay, but it wasn’t good anchoring so we went back nearby to Prism. We swam and hung out on Chrismas eve. Then it was time to cook shrimp. I opened some wine and got to cooking. We had a LOT of shrimp! It was the BEST shrimp EVER, I think. And of course the wine. Somehow we put away a lot of that, too.   All in all a very nice Christmas eve – I always like thinking about all my other family members all over the place who are having the exact same dinner. Even though we are far away and don’t even have phone or internet, we are connected by shrimp-nets that night.

Needless to say we were feeling a little sluggish on Christmas Day. I decided to row over to Prism and bring them a bottle of champagne and finally take them up on their hospitality to visit. Prism is GORGEOUS. I have to say it’s the first boat I’ve been on that actually made me a little jealous. Usually I come off of most every other boat thinking to myself “I still love Summer best of all”. I came off of Prism thinking “DAMN…” it’s 3 feet smaller but seems twice as big inside. Amazing seaworthy little boat it is, too. But it was great to get to know Jon, Shannon and Shawn a bit. Shannon and Jon did what we did—sold everything and took off – they’re all in and going cheap. So, you could say we’re all in the same boat 😉   Shawn is Shannon’s older brother and is along for the surf until Cabo.

I hung out with them for a few hours and then rowed back to Summer to have dinner (leftover shrimp! Yes, there was that much).   We were invited to come back for ‘game night’ in the evening. Jonny wasn’t up to it, so I rowed back over. We place cards and dice and Jon was kind enough to share his movie collection with us. It was fun to socialize – I realized how long it has been! The row home in the dark was fun- the stars were incredible.

The next morning Jonny went off fishing and caught us dinner. I had a relaxing morning getting a spa pedicure. NOT. I have to do my own pedicures now and I’m terrible at it, but not as bad as it was starting to look. In the afternoon we went ashore and hiked out on a ‘road’ to the other side of the island to see if there was surf at the point. It was probably a 2 mile hike. Lots of desert like flora and fauna, and we got to go along part of the estuary with mangroves and all sorts of birds. There was also a great abundance of trash. Everywhere. Real trash, too. In Mexico, the trash is very pure. There is nothing even remotely salvageable in what is thrown away here.

The tide in the bayside was still full of whatever it was that was making it all red. The whole bay looked like blood! But around the corner it wasn’t so bad. We found a pretty and remote beach and not much surf.

The wind picked up quite a bit when we were heading back. We stopped to see how Prism was doing and they were liking the wind and decided to take off for Cabo right then and there. We went back to Summer to radio them some weather from our SSB grib files (which was occasionally sort of accurate…). We watched them sail off and decided that tomorrow would probably be a good day for us to head out, too. The wind looked to be picking up, a nice fast sail would be fun, and it didn’t look like too much swell.

Well the wind picked up a lot in the bay and there was considerable chop. It was the roughest night we experienced there and not that comfortable. The next morning was extremely windy and Summer was hobby-horsing up and down. Getting our dinghy aboard was a bit of a challenge, but we managed to do so with out getting hurt or falling overboard.

I made some breakfast jars, some chocolate almond bread and black beans to hold us for our trip. We had everything ready to go and it was still early. We did not want to arrive in Cabo before daylight, so we had to plan to leave a little later in the afternoon. The wind died down and it got hot, so we decided to have one last swim/wash before the trip.

Out near shore we spotted what appeared to be a kayak. Kayak? From where? There were no other boats in the harbor any more and if they had come from San Carlos, that was like a 12 mile paddle. Sure enough it was a tandem kayak! They came over our way and said Hi. Debbie and Dave are from British Columbia and have a place in Pescadero. They like to kayak and camp all over. They were going around all of Mag Bay. They had camped on the beach the night before and had used up all their water. Dave thought he was shooting a noise-maker in the air to scare off an aggressive coyote, but it turnd out to be a flare. They set fire to the foliage! They used all the their water to put out the fire.   I think Dave would’ve been just as happy if Debbie hadn’t told us that story, but she enjoyed it very much. They asked if they could get water in town. Given our experience we didn’t think it would be a likely possibility. Since we were going to be in full-on civilization in 2 days, we thought we could easily spare some of our water. We gave them a few gallons of drinking water from our Water Fixer. It was fun to chat with them and think about life camping and kayaking – it really looked like fun! I can’t believe we haven’t done that…

We finally got underway, expecting a very pleasant, 36 hour or less journey. (Cue up Gilligan’s Island theme song…”the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed”). Anyway, as we were exiting the mouth of the bay (a 3 mile wide area between 2 islands) it was rough and weird, and all of a sudden, within 10 seconds the wind switched 180 degrees and backwinded our main and stopped the boat dead in her tracks. We couldn’t turn in either direction and because of the force of the backwind, we couldn’t undo any of the lines to move the boom. We were kind of freaking out and not sure what to do, and then, just as fast as it happened, it switched again and we shot off really fast. We were doing 7 – 8 knots with just the reefed main up. We went with it to get well outside the mouth and hoped things calmed down a bit.   The winds were really strong and the seas were coming at us from either side. We were doing a beam reach at the fastest speeds I’ve ever gone on Summer. It was kind of fun. At first. It got darker and rougher. I made us some dinner and we ate. I started feeling really sick, so I went to lie down for a bit and hopefully sleep it off as I often do. Things got really bad and it was necessary for us to reef the main again. Jonny came down and told me I needed to get out there and take the wheel. I had no idea how I was going to get my foul weather gear on without throwing up. I thought if I just eased it on as I lied there, it might work. All of a sudden there was a terrifying noise outside, shuddering and whipping of sheets. I knew that we had to do something FAST or we were in big trouble. This is when I learned that there is a hierarchy of bodily functions and apparently sheer terror will override the need to vomit.   I don’t even remember how I got my gear on, but I was suddenly behind the wheel, trying to hold us steady, ready to turn us into the wind if need be. Huge waves were washing over our beam, often hitting me in the face. I kept my head up, trying to see the windex to keep us on a beam reach while Jonny tried to take down more sail.

Jonny finally came to take the wheel from me and let me go throw up…but I didn’t just then. I sat for awhile watching us plunge up and down through the waves, still going at top speeds. I ended up sitting on the cockpit floor, kind of scrunched up with my head down. This was by far the roughest weather I’d ever experienced. Even Jonny started to feel seasick. He lost his clean record of never having gotten seasick on Summer as he lost his dinner. I somehow held it together for a while longer, slumped on the cockpit floor. I had my head on the seat and my arm up and a huge wave sloshed over the side and went down my sleeve. The jolt and scare of that propelled me to the edge of the boat where I also lost my dinner. Those black beans were actually almost as good the second time. Almost. Unfortunately for me, getting sick doesn’t make me feel better afterwards, as it seemed to for Jonny. I went down below and tried to hide under the covers for a while. There was nothing remotely approaching sleep possible. The waves were hitting Summer so hard that sometimes it sounded and felt like we were hitting something solid. If it weren’t for our CPT Autopilot, I’m sure we never would have survived. That thing is simply awesome. Jonny tweaked things as much as he could and eventually he started coming down below to rest for spells as well. It was cold and miserable out there. And it Did. Not. Stop. Morning came and there was a spell of it being less than horrible. I thought I might be feeling better and poked my head out like a groundhog. That was as much as I could handle, I ran back into my cave. Good thing for the breakfast jars, I was in no way going to cook breakfast. I really don’t remember much more of the day. Jonny was optimistic that we were done, but I remembered the forecast looking like it was going to blow for one more day. Sure enough, it came on strong again for the second night. I managed to make some sort of soup, but I was unable to eat any of it.

I couldn’t believe we were in for another night of hell. Several times this thought crossed my mind: “People in their right minds do not do this sort of thing”. But, I guess we knew that, no? At one point we completely dropped the main and we did 6-7 knots with bare poles for almost an hour.  At the speeds we were traveling, we were going to get to Cabo way too early. We decided to heave-to (make the boat stop, basically, sort of…) for a few hours and both try to sleep. As we were heaving-to, things got more violent and somehow the dishes in the cupboard slid up and hit the latch and opened the doors – dishes started flying out. Somehow we both managed to catch everything and nothing broke. But Jonny had to go out and finish up with the sails, and I tried to gather everything in the dark. I didn’t know what to do with any of it and I was afraid I was going to get sick again (into a bowl I was holding seemed like a good option?). I sat on the floor in the dark holding onto a pile of dishes and whatnot (and trying to pick up the trash that has spilled out when the trash can came crashing down on top of me). I just wrapped it all in some towels and soft stuff and pushed it under the settee. Then I got really sick again – this time in the bathroom, which was far more luxurious than overboard (tp and running water and a safe place to wedge myself in). Jonny held my hair (which was quite a brave thing to do – who knows what was in it from before and salt, oh the salt! I thought it had gone white from fright, but turns out it was just salt). Anyway we finally tried to lie down for a while, but sleep didn’t quite happen – but some rest anyway. The motion and sounds were just relentless and scary. We drifted out to sea and a little backwards during this time. When we finally started going again we had maybe 6 hours to go. Somewhere around 3 am I started to feel myself coming through to a more normal state. I was starving – my body had been completely purged of every last shred of anything inside it for more than 24 hours (do you think I could market this as some sort of ‘cleanse’??). I found my travel mug full of soup I had made the previous afternoon – I ate it cold, it wasn’t half bad. That’s when I knew I was going to survive. The sun came up and things had calmed down a bit. We were suddenly near land and surrounded by big, fancy sport fishing boats. We were almost to Cabo! It got warmer and sunnier and scenery got more interesting.

We saw the hotels, condos and beaches near Cabo Falso and the arches and pinnacles of Cabo. As we came into the bay area we slowed down and radioed the marina. We did not have internet access for weeks, so we were not able to make a reservation. But it was our hope to get a slip for 3 nights to be able to enjoy the luxuries of a marina – such as showers and laundry and a boat that wasn’t moving much if at all. The marina said they had a slip for us and told us the dock and number. We were SO relieved. As we approached I thought I saw Prism anchored out down the way. I was hoping we’d run into those guys again.   We made our way through the narrow, crowded marinas area and found our dock. A guy was waiting to help catch our lines and I somehow made a perfect docking. As we were entering the slip I heard people behind us yelling “Summer!! Summer!!” I knew it was Jon from Prism – they were on shore and spotted us coming in. I was glad they were seeing where we’d be.

We did what we had to in the marina office. It’s ridiculously expensive – more than 2x the cost of a slip in Santa Barbara!!! And no wifi – the hurricane knocked it out and they hadn’t had it repaired yet (and still, no discount?). We had high hopes of showering, getting food and doing some errands. Oh luxurious, clean, hot shower!! How wonderful. We managed to find food (at a Jonny Rockets? Really? Just not in the mood for fish tacos that day). After lunch we realized we were both zombies and the only thing we would accomplish that day was going straight back to the boat to sleep. We did for a few hours and then managed to find a store to get some food to cook for dinner, and found the Starbucks, which is very close and has wifi.

Next day I spent 4 hours in the morning doing laundry and Jonny de-salinated Summer. She was a mess, along with our foul weather gear. I talked to the guys in the office about our Black Diesel situation. They thought it sounded bad and we shouldn’t try to use it. They said they could help us dispose of it. Turns out it was going to cost us 480 pesos to dispose of it. I kind of threw a fit and refused. Which made Jonny really mad at me, because he wanted the whole situation to just be overwith and we find some clean diesel (I left out a lot of trying to return it in Mag Bay…but it’s been a thorn in our side). Anyway we managed to find a guy who was extremely happy to take it from us for free. As this was going down, a little dinghy showed up – Jon, Shannon and Shawn had found us! We all hung out and caught up on our most recent journeys. Theirs was rough, but not as bad as ours – they were smart to leave when they did and missed the worst of it. Finally the boys went off to find a fishing store, Shannon come to Starbucks to work on their blog (www.svprism.com) and I went off to find a TelCel office to see if I could get my cell phone working in some sort of fashion. We then hung out on Summer some more before they had to take off to get back to Prism before dark. They have quite the cute little motor and dinghy….

Tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve. We are going to have a nice dinner out somewhere with our Prism friends and then probably do what most Americans do in Cabo. On the 1^st we are going to head out to the anchorage area –our cushy, expensive slip days are over. We will anchor out there for a few days or however long it takes to get a good weather window to cross over to Mazatlan. We are hoping to do some snorkeling and other fun stuff around here before then, too.

Somehow we’ve been here in Chula Vista for quite some time. 3 weeks? 4 weeks? It’s just over 4. The only way I can gauge is that we’ve eaten at our new favorite, cheap and delicious Vietnamese noodle house every Thursday since we got here and it’s been 5 times. It’s not a plan, it just happened to work out that way (OK, well it is a plan NOW).

So much of what has been going on here, after getting our bearings and adjusting somewhat, involves working on the boat or visiting with family and friends.

There’s a big list of projects which includes, but is not limited to: replacing and reconfiguring rigging – installing rope clutches, cleats, LED lights on mast, new way to secure jib halyard (we’ve nixed internal halyards, thereby removing the need to pull the mast and saving us lots of $), fix the gooseneck, get the mainsail modified so we can actually reef properly (they didn’t make it right on our new ‘bargain’ sail…) check/fix spreaders,

remove/inspect and possibly replace chainplates, repair/fix issue causing galvanic corrosion at foot of mast, getting a bimini (shade structure), put a coat of cetol on the teak, install some kind of fish cleaning station, stocking up on spare parts and supplies, fixing the leaky bow water tank, getting more chain for the anchor, getting another propane tank and install mounting for it, tweak some of our systems based on shakedown lessons, finding a boarding ladder that works, fixing the galvanic corrosion between the solar panels and the arch frame, getting an anchor bail, rewiring our radios so the VHF and Chartplotter both have AIS at the same time (they can’t now, and we’re not sure why), see if we can get our PC program to talk to the chartplotter, Getting screens for hatches, getting fans, wiring power into the pedestal (right now the CPT autopilot is kind of hokily wired up), rebuild saltwater pump, devise quick disconnect system for Monitor Windvane, paint corroded parts of engine, install some sort of heat shields around stove (the wood is getting increasingly black and is bound to catch fire one of these days. Whose design was that?), get insurance for out of the country, figure out what to do with Verizon plans, stock up the first aid kit, learn how to use the sextant, clean up and sell my car….

That’s the bulk of it, mostly. I’ve been trying to write this blog for some time now, and we’ve actually crossed a number of these things off the list. But the guy we hired to do our shade/bimini and screens seems to be AWOL. We were warned he was sloooooow, but we really wanted to believe he could finish by Nov 10 like he said he could. We hounded him for a bit, but he last promised to come at a certain time last week and he didn’t. No call. No show. And I thought people in Santa Cruz were flaky!!! We gave up on him (he never even charged our deposit). We did find a large finished piece of canvas-y plastic stuff at Minney’s Yacht Surplus (used boat parts mecca) that I was able to get the majority of the mold stains off of – and we have ordered a grommet punch tool, so we can make holes in it to tie it down. It will drape over our boom like a big tent and shade the cockpit. It will do for now until maybe we find someone to make us something more fitted in Mexico? But, as we learn again and again, “There’s nothing more permanent than a temporary fix”, right?!?

We do have a rigger helping us out. Unfortunately between the time we found him and were ready to work with him, he took a “real” job and doesn’t have as much time for us. But he’s a super nice guy who’s happy to share his knowledge with us and give Jonny that boost of confidence he needs to do most of the work himself. He will be helping us replace our upper and back stays. His review of our rig is that we are in great shape (except for the gooseneck – the part that holds the boom onto the mast. That’s a mess/long story) – and that we seem to know more about what we are doing than most people he meets who go cruising. That is nice to hear!

We realized that our departure date of November 10 is highly unlikely at best. Just too much to do and the amount of stress we are feeling at this somewhat arbitrary date is unhealthy! We are supposed to be having fun, right?!?! Not so much. So we are going to give ourselves to the end of November. We will probably leave a bit before then. Can’t complain about having to be here longer, the marina is just wonderful and we’ve met so many great people. We could spend all day chatting with nice folks walking by.

So what else have we been doing in the last 4+ weeks?! The idea of having a gathering with our immediate families became a reality. What started out as a vague idea of an afternoon party, turned into 11 days of reunions, fun, visiting, eating and being merry. It started with the arrival of Becky – my cousin and best friend since before we were born. Somehow it’s been 7 years since we were together. Emailing nearly every day is nice, but nothing beats face time. We had a great trip up the coast / beach day ending with Korean food and amazing gelato in La Jolla. I spent a few nights in her hotel so we could make the most of the few days. Weird to be sleeping in a building on land! We also spent some time running around preparing for the upcoming festivities and visitors.

My parents rented a house in Chula Vista – it was very large and more than a little bizarre. The décor was interesting in a cartoon-meets-Ikea-meets the San Diego Zoo meets a fun house sort of way, with sloppy paint jobs and weird paintings thrown in. Also they forgot to clean up the yard – it was full of debris, broken mirrors, strange furniture and what not. Lots of what not. BUT, it was clean and roomy and had a great kitchen and living area for all of us to gather and eat and visit. It also had a washer and dryer. Yes- we did about 5 loads of laundry. No quarters required!

Aside from my Mom and Dad, many of our other favorite people came to town for extended visits: My sister with my niece, Kiyomi and nephew Adin, my Aunt Rosie (Becky’s Mom) came out from Pittsburgh, Uncle Art and Aunt Lisa from Utah (or Arizona, depending), Jonny’s dear friends (surrogate parents) Cliff and Dee came down from Fort Bragg, Jonny’s sister Laraina, brother-in-law Jerry and niece Bella came in from Long Beach area.

We had planned to have our gathering in the park right next to the Marina. It worked out to be a great spot. On party day we also got to see Jonny’s Mom, his brother Zac, sister-in-law Renee and niece Paulyne and nephew Cole trekked down from Long Beach, my dear friends – Erika (and Einstein, the dog), and Mindy, Paolo and their boys, Jake and Sammy.

It was quite a party!! I don’t think I’ve had that many people I loved in one place at one time, ever! And humbling to think they all came just because we asked. At first I was a little overwhelmed- wondering how on earth I was going to keep track of everyone all day… But it worked out and I felt like we got to visit with everyone – during and after the day. My Mom did a great job of listening to what I wanted to see happen as far as food and set up – we had a huge spread we picked up from Whole Foods catering (no they did not pay me to say that) and a tent and tables/chairs, real plates and napkins (not as much waste!). I think this is pretty much the closest thing to a wedding my parents will ever get to give me…it was wonderful and I’m SO grateful we got to have it.

Cliff managed to get everyone’s attention at one time and made a really beautiful toast for us. Everyone gathered around and it was amazing to be surrounded by so much love and support! Especially when I suspect a lot of people think we might be a little bit crazy for what we are doing… but hey, it’s our family and friends, they all know we’ve always been crazy, so I guess they aren’t so surprised by this latest manifestation.

The day after the party, Jonny got to take Laraina, Jerry and Bella out for a sail and I spent a day tramping around San Diego with Mom & Dad, Sandra and kids and Rosie and Becky. I got to spend some good beach time with Sandra and the kids (Adin’s first time body surfing! And Kiyomi and I in our skivvies…). There were also way too many trips to In and Out Burger – a novelty for many out-of-towners.

My parents stayed on a bit longer still and we got to take them out for a sail one day. We went into San Diego and got a guest slip for a few hours so we could go out to lunch. We had a gorgeous sail home, arriving just after sunset.   Jonny got to scare the hell out of my parents in a CVS – I was clear across the store when I heard my Dad scream…  Rest assured, someday, there will be revenge.We also got to poke around Old Town San Diego and downtown Chula Vista. It was nice to spend some time just relaxing with them!

The biggest bummer is that everyone left at different times, different days. That’s a LOT of good-byes. By the time my parents were the last to leave, I kind of fell apart. It took us a couple of days to come down. Actually, I think we came down hard immediately and it took a couple of days to recover from the crash! It was so wonderful to have everyone around for a happy occasion – and then suddenly we’re all alone again, in a place that doesn’t feel like home (except for when we’re on Summer) with an overwhelming list of projects to figure out and accomplish. We may have become a little bit cranky.

But this past week we got ourselves back on track and dove back into all these projects. I have my fantasy routine that I would like to see happen every day while we’re here – I get up, go to the gym and work out, shower, make a nice healthy breakfast, accomplish great amounts of work in time to have a swim in the pool, soak in the hot tub and then make dinner (Unless it’s Thursday, in which case I go to Pho Vinh and have a #22 with egg rolls and lemonade) and have a relaxing evening . I may possibly have had one or 2 of those days, and many of those things happen in some fashion each day. I may not always get to work out. Or shower. Or make a good breakfast. Or swim/soak. But it’s nice to have goals!

At the end of this week we will celebrate Jonny’s big 4-0 on Halloween. Costumes to be determined. Nothing better to make me homesick for Santa Cruz than Halloween! I don’t imagine the costume party at The Galley at the Marina is going to come close to Pacific Ave. in Santa Cruz. Someone send me pictures, please?!?!

In other news, The Baja Ha Ha is about to take off this week. That is a sailing rally where about 200 boats all zoom down the coast of Baja to Cabo San Lucas. Partying and living it up the whole way. We’ve met lots of great people who are joining in those festivities and gearing up to take off soon. I can’t tell you how many times other cruisers or sailing folks NOT doing the Ha Ha (in stores or other places) ask us, with a big, excited smile “So, are you doing the Ha Ha?” and we say “No, we want to go at our own pace and just relax and do our own thing” and they look at us with relief and say “It’s better that way… The Ha Ha is just so crowded and they don’t take time to stop for very long at places on the way down”.

I must admit to being a little trepidatious about leaving the country (for good-ish) and relinquishing the ease of communications and ability to almost instantly get whatever we need in the way of parts or food or whatever. I hope it’s like when we left Santa Cruz –wherein it turned out to be far less scary than I imagined it could be. I’m also hoping we can remember how to have fun and learn how to switch off this GO mode where we drive ourselves crazy with pressure and stress. That’s not what this is supposed to be! Right?! You guys would rather read about interesting adventures, right? Don’t worry, it’s on my To Do list.

OK I’m a little behind, so I will try to get caught up. I don’t want to spoil the ending of this entry, but I’m writing from the comfort of our new slip in Chula Vista…

I last left you at Santa Cruz Island, no? We got up at 3:30am and prepared the boat for a long day trip to Catalina Island. The wind had calmed down and it was, well, dark. We headed off and I got to see the dark mass of Anacapa Island as we approached. I had really wanted to see it in the daylight, but, you can’t have everything. I wasn’t feeling the greatest (not seasick, thankfully – more misery of feminine persuasion) so I had a lie down after we’d gotten on track and were on our way. It was pretty rough and when I finally got up and looked up into the cockpit, it looked kind of scary out there. REALLY big waves following and passing us. I had a split second of “I’m not going out there! Can I just go back and lie down until we get there??” But I put on my shoes (it was pretty wet in the cockpit) and came out. We had a nice strong tailwind pushing us along, but nothing overpowering. I took the helm as we decided whether to reef or not. It took me a little while to get used to the giant waves picking us up – and I had a little reminder that I’m vaguely afraid of heights. We decided not to reef and ended up just rolling up the jib and sailing with the main. We were making 6+ knots (sometimes 9 going down the face of a wave!) and were able to stay on course better without the jib noisily begging for more wind. Unfortunately we were not quite downwind enough to use our new whisker pole. Someday!

There was not much to see on most of this trip, just a lot of waves, a weather buoy and a dead bird. This would be a good time to fill you in on all the stuff we kept hearing on the VHF. Ever since passing Point Conception, and the farther south we’ve gone, there have been more and more radio transmissions such as this:

“Attention white hulled power vessel to our starboard side. This is the US warship 3715. You are in an area of live fire. You must turn to starboard immediately and go 13 knots away”

OR

General Securité announcement from a warship giving coordinates of an area to be avoided as there would be “live fire”. Kind of unsettling. Never heard anything like that up in our little bubble world of Monterey Bay!

The day got nicer and nicer and the waves got less and less scary. We ended up using Betty (the Monitor Windvane – aka “Steady Betty”) for a good part of the journey. Up until then we’ve been so enamoured with Moses – our CPT Autopilot -that we hadn’t hooked up Betty. It’s a bit of a process to get her hooked up (getting a quick connect set up is on the list for San Diego projects) – but in big seas and wind, her tracking and movement is very nice and gentle. Moses is all about keeping us on course and getting us to the Promised Anchorage – and SO easy to use – turn him on, pop the wheel in and flip the ‘hold course’ switch. Go about your business doing something other than steering. He requires almost no power. LOVE him. But Betty uses no power and actually does an excellent job keeping us on course as well. LOVE her! I guess we are lucky to have 2 such great crew members. They never complain, either. We do have to remember to look up now and then to make sure we aren’t going to hit another boat or something. Not sure how we’d do without autopilots though – I got about 2 hours in me and I start to get distracted and wander off course. Jonny’s got about 5 minutes in him before he turns on Moses to go do something else (as you might guess, I’m usually the one at the helm).

It was just beautiful as we approached Catalina Island. It is a beautiful island. It is also populated and there were a lot more boats than we’d seen in a while. And cell phone signals and such. Yes, we were getting back to civilization. Kind of exciting, and a little sad, too. My iphone got so over-excited after a few weeks of no signals- that I thought it was going to catch fire. I finally just stuck it in the fridge and ignored it.

As we approached the anchorages at Two Harbors, Jonny said “Was that someone calling us on the radio?”. Of course not, I thought! But sure enough, Ken and Michelle – who we’d met at Johnsons Lee on Santa Rosa Island were hailing us. They were anchored at Cherry Cove and saw us sailing by. They said we should call the harbor and request a mooring at Cherry Cove near them. It looked nice enough so we did just that. The harbor assured us that we would get some assistance with the mooring. After doing loops in the wrong mooring field wondering where our help was, we discovered we were not in fact in Cherry Cove. We zipped over to the next cove and saw our guy in a little powerboat waiting for us. We following him through what is basically a parking lot for boats. We found our mooring ball, C8 labeled “Destiny”. The kid in the boat who was supposed to be helping us was clearly already clocked out. I got us up to the mooring ball and he told Jonny to grab this buoy with a tall stake coming out of the top. It had all kinds of lines attached to it. Jonny tried to affix one of them to our bow cleat. The guy said nothing, until finally: “Drop everything and circle around while I fix all these lines”. Apparently something wasn’t done right –and we missed the tutorial on “How to Get a Mooring At Catalina Island”. We did a loop around and tried again, Jonny felt sure he knew what to do this time. He fumbled with it again, and secured the bow line. But then we discovered there is another line that you are supposed to walk aft and secure to the back of the boat. By the time unhelpful punk told us this, we were in danger of hitting the giant power boat next to us – so he bumped us with his boat and secured a line to our aft to pull us out of danger. We finally got all secured and the kid zipped off without another word. I went up to the bow to look at what-all was going on up there. I heard someone yelling “Don’t worry! I got the whole thing on video!”. It was Ken, we were just a row behind and a few boats back from them.

Ken swam over with a ziplock bag containing a booklet about Catalina Island. There were the missing instructions on how to pick up a mooring… Who knew?!? He invited us to come over for a drink after we’d settled in. They were going to make a big trip to San Diego leaving at 4:00am the next morning.

The water was so clear we could easily see the bottom 10 ft below us. And it was SO warm. We had to jump in. We snorkeled around the boat and looked at this mooring situation and tried to go to the bottom. I cannot go to the bottom EVER. Apparently MY bottom is a PFD. Just call me Titanic Butt. It is unsinkable. No matter how hard I try to dive, my butt pulls me straight to the surface. I demonstrated this for Jonny, who was watching underwater. He started laughing so hard I thought he was going to drown.

After our swim, Jonny decided he was too beat to get back in the water and swim over to Ken and Michelle’s boat (our dinghy was not inflated) and didn’t want to swim back in the dark. I did want to at least bring them some muffins for their trip. I had baked some chocolate chip cherry muffins the day before and they came out darn tasty, if I do say so myself. I put them in the ziplock and in a dry bag, which I strapped to my bathing suit top. I had a nice swim/snorkel over to Ken and Michelle’s boat. And what a gorgeous boat it is – Hylas 49. The back is all steps and as I climbed up, Ken offered me the shower handle with a nice warm water rinse off. He said to use as much as I wanted – they had just made 150 gallons of water that day! I just wanted to wish them a safe journey and offer up the muffins, but Ken was so hospitable (boatbitable?) that I was lured in with a towel and seat in the cockpit and offers of beverages. Michelle came up and we all chatted for a while and then they invited me down for a boat tour. This is their 4^th boat over the years and clearly they put their hearts into the design and subsequent care. It was simply gorgeous – like what you’d see at a boat show. They showed me some pictures of their early days of sailing back on their Ranger 33 – they’ve had some wild adventures down in the Channel Islands over the years. They insisted on giving me a lovely bottle of pinot grigio to take back. It just fit in the dry bag. It was starting to get dark as I donned my snorkel and dry bag and jumped off the back of their boat.   I heard the folks who’d just moored next to them asking “What IS she doing?!”.

It was a little on the chilly side when Jonny was helping drag me back up into the boat (boarding ladder solution – on the list!). I rinsed off and put some warm comfy clothes on and made our lasagna and salad. It was nice and stable being moored, something we very much appreciated after 4 nights of being anchored in gale force winds. We slept well and woke up ready for our next big adventure – right into the mouth of the second busiest seaport in the United States – Long Beach. We had to cross shipping lanes and an area marked “Caution Zone” on the chart. It was a beautiful day and the seas were peaceful. But we did have to motorsail. I took advantage of civilization’s luxuries and had a nice long talk with my sister on the way over.

As we started getting close, we noticed we were on a collision course with a giant container ship. Altering our course seemed like a good idea. We zig-zagged back and forth to avoid this container ship and a giant oil tanker after that. We finally fell in behind both of them to enter into the harbor. It was hard to get my head around the fact that every little box on that container ship was actually going to be a truck on the highway. We passed a huge Princess cruise ship and the Queen Mary on the way in to Shoreline Marina. We docked at the office and went in to get a slip. They wanted all kinds of information and paperwork, blood samples, fingerprints (ok, not really). And it was expensive! Close to $40/night. We got stuck in the back with a bunch of derelict boats. We were right near a huge beach and the bathrooms/showers were really nice there (realized it had been 9 days since a real shower). But we were excited to be at a dock again and get to visit with Jonny’s family.   Unfortunately, I had a bit of a migraine (too much sun? too much container-tanker excitement? Not enough water?) and 2 days on the water had worn me out a bit. I was in no shape for visiting – wanted to shower, do laundry and sleep. So that’s what I did. Jonny went out with his sister-in-law Renee and the kids –and visited with his brother –and spent the night at their house. I was doing laundry until almost 11pm, so I didn’t get that early sleep I’d hoped for – but we had 4 loads of clean clothes. It was my first time staying on the boat alone. I became acutely aware of the fact there was no way to lock myself in (yes, it’s on the list for San Diego!).

The next morning Jonny got my car, which had been darkening the driveway at Zac and Renee’s house for several weeks now. He picked me and then his Mom up and headed over to Ma n’ Pa’s Grocery – Zac and Renee’s awesome store. Zac made us all whatever we wanted for breakfast. I thing migraines make me hungry – I ate an entire 4 egg omelet. We then caravanned over to the park to watch 5 year old Paulyne score the only goal in her first-ever soccer game! We had several hours before Cole was to have a soccer game – so we convinced everyone to come hang out on Summer. It had been a couple weeks since we bought groceries, but I scrounged up some snack and we hung out on Summer. I forget which one of us had the brilliant idea to keep the kids from getting bored…but we hoisted Cole up to the top of the mast and let him hang out there for a while. Paulyne got hoisted just above the boom and that was far enough for her! Back to the park we watched the 10 year old boys pounding the field in a victorious game for Cole’s team. Renee had to work all day and missed out on the fun, but that didn’t stop her from whipping up an amazing short rib and pasta feast for us for dinner. Jonny had some ‘quality time’ rough-housing with Cole and Paulyne until I finally dragged him away, half asleep.

Sunday was work day – get the boat ready for the last 2 legs of this shakedown cruise. I don’t know why, but boat time seems to go by faster than normal time. Somehow it took us all day to get done what we needed to. But we got to have one last evening with Zac, Renee, Cole and Paulyne out for dinner.  When we returned to the boat, I almost stepped on something on the deck.  It turned out to be 2 Snickers bars rolled up in plastic wrap – with 2 napkins.  One said “Have a Snicker’s trip. Curtiss”  Curtiss is a guy who lives at the end of the dock we were on.  Jonny talked with him for quite a while, I guess he’s been living there for 45 years.  He wears a face mask as he’s very sensitive to scents – but I’m pretty sure he smiled at me a couple times…  It was a very sweet gesture, or, possibly a little creepy – I mean, what exactly IS a “snicker’s trip”.  We checked the wrappings carefully before ingesting and I’m pretty sure Jonny didn’t hallucinate (I didn’t eat any – not because I was afraid!).

We were up before dawn on Monday ready to head out on a long day to Oceanside. Got to see a nice sunrise over the beach before we left.   Leaving Long Beach was decidedly more calm and peaceful than the tanker and containership filled entrance. We did see a few big ships at anchor as we passed out the jaws. We passed closely by a couple oil platforms and there was lots more warships on the VHF and weird helicopters around. Jonny had fun naming all the places we were passing – all the surf spots he went to when he was younger. It was a pretty uneventful passage – we even got to sail a little! It was the calm and sunny sailing I imagined So. Cal to be all along.

As complicated as it was to rent a slip in Long Beach, our stay in Oceanside was the exact opposite. I made a call down to the Port Captain and we had a very nice chat. He gave me instructions on what dock we could tie up to and where we could find a clipboard to sign in and a key we could borrow for showers and bathrooms. No charge. He even invited us to a pot luck for Monday night football at the yacht club. We got in after 5pm and just had a relaxing evening – chatting with others on the dock and enjoying our dinner on board (not football fans…). Oceanside (the harbor anyway) had a sweet, smalltown feel to it – if you could ignore the distant thunderous booms coming from over the hill at Camp Pendleton (war games?).

We got a later start than we wanted on Tuesday – no real excuse for that – except that it was kind of fogged in and I guess it made us lazy. It was clearing by the time we left and we had a nice motor – sail. We saw a number of pods of dolphins – smaller and pudgier than the ones we’re used to. And the jumped REALLY high out of the water. These must have been show dolphins trying to get scouted for the movies or Sea World…

As we passed Point Loma and were about to enter San Diego Bay, we decided to stray from our charted course and cut the corner a little. I guess we were anxious to get in there. Unfortunately our path took us through a minefield of kelp. I ended up on the bow pointing frantically in one direction or the other as we wove our way through it all. We managed not to get our prop tangled up.

It was exciting to be entering the bay and seeing things we recognized from our past visits. I called over to Chula Vista Marina and got explicit instructions for getting there. We even had our slip number so we could go straight ‘home’, since it would be after-hours.   The bay was an overwhelming circus of sailboats, power boats, ferry boats, military boats, SO many helicopters buzzing around. We sailed as much as we could until the bay took a turn and the wind was too behind us. We pulled in the jib and kept the main tight as we motored. We tried to stay in the fairway, going from buoy to buoy. At one point, while trying to get lined up right to go under the Coronado Bridge, we looked behind us – something we apparently had been forgetting to do… There was a huge tour boat right off my aft quarter. I’m pretty sure I’d just cut them off. Oops.

I knew we were going to fit under the Coronado Bridge, but still, there was that moment as we approached when it just didn’t LOOK like we’d make it. It’s not the prettiest bridge out there- super tall and way too skinny. Somebody give that bridge a burger!

Once on the other side things got a little less busy and a whole lot more military. There was a huge tour boat coming straight at me and I had to veer off to the left to avoid a head on – I think that was the same boat I probably cut off – trying to get back at me. As we counted our buoys to make sure we turned at the right spot so as not to run aground, we passed by a huge row of warships. Gigantic, grey hulks looming ominously to our left. It just felt creepy going by them. I could almost feel death wafting off of them.

We later learned the huge number of helicopters was due to this being the largest Naval base in the US. This is where all the Navy Seals come to train. Interesting way to learn about what’s going on in the world…I guess we’re gearing up for more war! The helicopters went on loudly, in great numbers into the evening.

We arrived in Chula Vista and I squeezed Summer into her new slip without incident. It was too late to take care of any business, but the dockmaster had left us keys and info (and wifi passwords!) to get us through the night. We went on a walkabout, seeing what our keys could open. We have access to everything in the RV park right next to the marina. There’s a pool, hot tub, gym, little store, propane refills and super clean and nice bathrooms and showers everywhere. Everything is manicured and well kept and very secure. It was too late to get our propane filled and we were pretty sure it wouldn’t last through another dinner. We had no choice but to eat out at The Galley at the Marina restaurant. We celebrated “making it”. To be honest, I think we were both a little surprised to actually be at this destination we’d talked about for so long. It kind of didn’t seem real. We had a soak in the hot tub and the best night sleep ever.

We’ve been here almost a week now. Monday and Tuesday must be helicopter training nights – after our first night it’s been quiet until tonight. We’ve just been trying to get oriented to our new surroundings and get our project lists together and get to work. We have a huge list of things to accomplish to be ready for our REAL cruising life outside the US. We plan to leave here after the hurricane season subsides – which seems like it might be later than usual this year ? We shall see. For now, the adventures will be few and far between. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about our exciting trip to pump out our holding tank this morning or how I am now scarred for life thanks to a heat gun…so posts may be a little less frequent.

We fueled up and pumped out and were ready to (reluctantly) leave Santa Barbara. It was a really nice harbor – well kept and very easy to maneuver in. But we resisted the urge to spend a bunch more money and stay longer. The islands called to us!

Our desired course (surprise surprise) took us right into the wind. We motored all the way through the shipping channels. It was foggy and there was no visibility. It was also kind of rough going.   I got hungry and started to make black bean tacos for us as we started to cross the shipping channel. We were hitting some steep angles so I also tried to get Jonny to take some pictures (I have this crazy idea I want to get a “Mystery Spot” type photo because it looks so funny when you’re trying to stand upright inside the boat, but the rest of the boat is at a wild angle…). It was all a little too much for the Captain, who was sure we were going to get run over by huge boats when crossing the lanes (I was really cutting into his panic time). The AIS on our chart plotter showed that we were in no danger of being run over by container ships and it was too foggy to see otherwise. In fact we saw pretty much nothing all the way across. It was kind of dull, but it WASN’T cold, which I duly noted and appreciated. We finally got to sail on the approach to Santa Cruz Island. Found our first anchorage – Fourney’s Cove. It was sort of pretty in a Moon meets Ireland meets drought sort of way. And still pretty foggy. The best place to anchor happened to be kind of on top of a gathering of buoys set out by a urchin fisherman to store his catch for the night. He came over and said Hi to us and in the morning we got front row seats watching him load everything onto his boat. He chatted with us a while and we learned a lot more about the islands and where to go and what to expect. He’d been working these waters since 1974. He’s also written a book we will look for to be published eventually – called Diving the Devil’s Teeth. Unfortunately we didn’t get his name, but he was a really nice guy.

In the morning we decided to head over to Santa Rosa Island. We’d read that Johnsons Lee anchorage was nice. The urchin man confirmed “It’ll be sunny there when it’s foggy everywhere else”. That clinched it for me!

We had a rousing sail across Santa Cruz channel – big wind, waves and speed and even caught a mackerel (first catch) on the way. Johnson’s Lee was even better than expected. Warm and sunny and pretty. I finally had a chance to jump overboard for a swim and snorkel. I even decided to let Pierre come out of hiding for a dip.

Another boat was anchored there – we met them the next day when they paddled their kayaks over to say Hi – Ken and Michelle from Santa Cruz (!) aboard KeMiRa, a gorgeous Hylas 49. They have been visiting Channel Islands every year for 30 years now. They had some good tips and info from all their experiences, too. Ken described the anchorage as ‘living in a 9.5 earthquake all the time.” Yeah, that is a good description of life on the hook…

We were just going to spend one night, but it was so nice there and we could see clouds settled over Santa Cruz island…why go back? Best to stay put where sunshine is guaranteed! Jonny dove down on the anchor to check it out. Funny thing, it was just lying there, on the bottom of the ocean, not dug into the sand or anything. The chain was buried, but the anchor? Nah. Of course he wished he hadn’t seen that. He didn’t sleep for 2 nights. But the boat never went anywhere. I think the kelp the chain wrapped around held us.

On the 3^rd day we headed back across to Santa Cruz Island. The channel crossing got really windy! Around 25 knot winds and some rough waves – but all in the right direction for a change! We had a fun ride. The nice thing down here is when a wave smacks you over the boat, you don’t freeze to death! You just laugh and eventually dry off.   Did I mention I liked the climate down here?

We went to an anchorage that was supposedly one of the best – Coches Prietos (black pigs?). I guess everyone knew it was the best – there were about 8 other boats when we arrived and several more showed up (including a power boat that anchored directly behind us). It was also pretty rough and rolly, which meant the captain lost another night of sleep. Go figure – for months prior to leaving on this trip, I didn’t sleep a wink out of anxiety and stress and Jonny slept fine…now that we’re here, I sleep like a baby, rocked to sleep every night. Poor Jonny is a wreck, worrying that we’re going to drag anchor every night (we’ve never come close – our Manson Supreme anchor, 60 ft of chain and however many hundred ft of rode we need seems to do just fine, even in above-gale-force winds (that’s right, keep reading…).

We met a guy named Casey when we were swimming at Coches – he came over in his dinghy because he thought I was in trouble. I was trying to make rope loops off the back of the Monitor to climb up the back of the boat (I have a hard time using the so-called ladder we have). He spends several months out on his boat and he claimed to be sort of a recluse (not interested in attending the upcoming Buccaneer Days at Catalina, etc.). But he was always buzzing around in his dinghy talking to everyone. He seemed to know all the dirt of the anchorage. The Neighborhood Watch, if you will.   We had a sort of unpleasant night, swinging around, narrowly missing all the other boats around us. Even I got worried at one point! We decided to hit the road the next morning. It just wasn’t all that, there! We couldn’t even go ashore since it was in the restricted part of the island. We decided to put our dinghy together and tow it behind us, so we’d be ready to put out a stern anchor – which is required at Scorpion Bay.

We zipped around close to shore and enjoyed the view of the island and Jonny tried a little fishing (caught a little mackerel but threw it back). We were headed to Little Scorpion around the other side of the island. We passed by Yellow Banks and Smuggler’s Cove – just gorgeous and sunny little coves right next to each other. We rounded the corner and the cliffs got steep and tall and the water rough with white caps from the increased wind. We bashed through it for about 10 minutes and then thought “what are we doing?!”. It was going to be super windy there, and we just passed 2 gorgeous, peaceful coves. We turned around and hightailed it back to Smuggler’s Cove. Just for fun (!) we decided to put out our Danforth as a stern anchor. After we’d anchored, Jonny rowed out in the dinghy with the Danforth and dropped it. The boat no longer could swing around, and we stayed pointed into the swell. It was pretty comfortable. We were enjoying a very warm pleasant evening in the cockpit and discussing our anchor situation, etc. Jonny was worried about something and I said “Well, it’s not like we’re going to have a gale!”. His eyes got wide and he knocked on the teak. And, I swear I am not making this up, not 30 seconds later the wind picked up. A LOT. It blew and it blew HARD for a good 3+ hours! We were laughing so hard (and I have been forbidden to speak like that again). Luckily the wind was on our nose so it was quite pleasant behind the dodger. We just listened to music and looked at the stars until the wind decided to calm down and we could sleep.

In the morning I attempted my 2nd go at making bread (with fresh yeast this time). Jonny decided he wanted to pull up the stern anchor and see what it would be like NOT having it out that night. We weren’t really sure how you pull up a stern anchor. Kind of wish we’d thought of that before we tossed it out there.   Jonny rowed the dinghy out there and could pull it out. He dove down on it and it was completely buried up to the chain and there was no way to dig it out. We should’ve watched more YouTube videos on “How to Retrieve a Stern Anchor”. Jonny tied the dinghy to the anchor line and swam back to the boat. We debated for a bit on what we should do and how. Finally decided to pull the bow anchor up and bring the boat over to the other anchor and pull it up with the windlass on the bow. We finally got it up and re-anchored with just the bow. That took up half of an entire day (and I managed to have my bread rise and get it baked in the midst of all this – it came out good! I really need a real bread pan tho.).

I was itching to go ashore and walk around. There were some trails we could see and an olive orchard on a hillside. We thought maybe we could even hike to the top of the mountain and see over to Scorpion on the other side. There was really no place we could see to land a dinghy on shore. There was no beach, just lots and lots of softball sized rocks. And it was steep, like, straight up from the water. And a really strong shore break. But waaaay down at the other end seemed like there might be a spot. Jonny TOLD me it wasn’t a good idea, but I at least wanted to TRY, it looked like it got really shallow near shore (it didn’t) and it looked like there was a little flat sandy spot to land (there wasn’t)… so we rowed over there in the dinghy. The waves were not really breaking at the far end near the outer cliff of the cove. As we got closer and I saw how steep it really was, I was suddenly wanting to just go back to the boat… I didn’t want to do it. But I had whined about it so much that there was no way Jonny was turning us around…he said it would be fine. We did manage to land it OK and not get rolled (although it was waist deep when I jumped out near ‘shore’). The waves helped us get the dinghy straight up the rocks (they were all smooth and round, not jagged, but pretty big and hard to walk on). The dinghy was safe and I had managed (barely) not to pee myself in the landing. We had a long, hot walk just to get to the main spot with the sign and trail up the hill (and, as it turns out, a trail back into a campground). We walked up the hill and got some great views. It was blisteringly hot (so hot my phone even started whining about it’s temperature and stopped working – but I did manage to get some pix). The wind started to pick up a little. And so did the waves. The little spot we landed where the waves weren’t breaking? Yeah, it was gone. Waves were breaking everywhere now. The departure was even more terrifying than the landing. We had to hold the dinghy and run straight down the rocks to the water and wait for exactly the right moment to shove it in and jump on. Luckily, Jonny is expert at calling these moments. I would’ve just stood there sniveling and freaking out for hours. We made it in and were paddling past the point of danger. It was fine. Except. Jonny had lost his flip flop in the frey. I had to hold us in position while he swam back for it (do you know how much those flip flops cost?!?).   The wind tried to carry me off and I got a little flustered at the whole rowing thing, but I finally got it together and rowed back to pick up Jonny. The wind was getting stronger and stronger. We rowed along shore until we were a little past Summer and then headed out for her. The wind and waves were so strong we were very careful to not overshoot – as there was a chance we could blow past her and not be able to get back. We came barreling at her – aimed for the bow so we had a chance to grab on before we went too far. We got safely back on board and settled down a bit. The wind just got stronger and stronger and we had upwards of 35 knots blowing for almost the entire evening. Without a stern anchor we rolled around quite a bit more, but no dragging.

The next day we decided to moved over to Yellow Banks and see if it was calmer there. We ended up staying 2 more nights over there. Two more nights of gale forces winds that started earlier each day. On the first night at Yellow Banks we were kind of getting used to the winds. The rigging was howling and the boat was rocking violently…and we were quietly down below – Jonny with his power drill installing a new LED light strip to give us better lighting in the v-berth area, and me cooking up beef and noodles to make a lasagna. I’m not sure how smart it was doing all that cooking when the “wind chill factor” was 90 degrees. But we gotta eat, right? After I put away the leftovers and filled the pan with soap and water, I realized a new benefit to the rocky boat situation. Our dishes wash themselves (I have video of the soapy water sloshing around in the pan. It was practically clean by morning!).

We took a dinghy ride around to get a closer look at some of the islands great volcanic rock structures (and have been practicing with the GoPro!).

There were several boats in Yellow Banks, including Casey, Neighborhood Watch from Coches. A guy in a little sailing dinghy was sailing and rowing around, he came over to say Hi. Alex was a young guy from Sausalito, taking his Cal 29 down to Marina Del Rey. It was his first time single-handing and he was very excited and enthusiastic about it. He was also anchored extremely close to shore, but it seemed OK.? He mentioned something about wanting to go hiking ashore (maybe we were interested? I didn’t say anything at the time as it wasn’t really an invitation, but I remember thinking “go ashore again? Yeah I don’t think so”. Yellow Banks shore was far more treacherous looking than Smuggler’s.

The next day we were just chilling and preparing for a big sail down to Catalina the day after. We got the dinghy cleaned up and stowed and things looking pretty ‘ship shape’ by 2pm, which was good because the winds came up at 2:15 pm! (it was like someone turned on a switch).   Casey was visiting us in his dinghy, telling us about all the experiences he’s had. I kept being distracted by someone on the shore. I thought at first it might be a sweeper from the nearby powerboat (“sweepers” are what we call stand up paddle boarders – they look like they’re sweeping…). Then I realized it was someone with a dinghy. I interrupted Casey and said “It looks like someone is on the shore and they don’t look to be OK…”. We got the binos and sure enough, it was Alex and his sailing dinghy. The dinghy was upside down on the rocks and it looked like a yardsale trailing behind. Casey raced over in his dinghy, but couldn’t safely get close to shore. The wind was just getting stronger and stronger. He called the Coast Guard on his VHF that he had in his dinghy. Luckily there was a big USCG boat moored at Smuggler’s Cove. They sent out a big red dinghy with 4 guys. We tuned the radio to Channel 16 so we could hear what was going on. They couldn’t safely get to shore either, so they just hovered around and made sure Alex didn’t try to get into the water again. Alex was dragging his dinghy around, picking up the pieces and wandering around. We weren’t really sure what he was doing. The USCG ended up calling the National Park Service, since Alex was on NPS land. They couldn’t get to where he was, so they ended up sending a helicopter to retrieve him, which took a couple hours to arrive. We kept wondering if he was going to try to relaunch his dinghy? Or if the USCG guys could get close enough to call out to him, or if the helicopter was going to try to airlift him out or what?!? Casey kept chiming in on the radio, offering “helpful local knowledge”. Who needs TV?!?!?! The helicopter did arrive, and landed on the top of a hill. Two guys scrambled down to the shore and talked with Alex. Apparently he agreed to go on the helicopter to Scorpion Bay, where they had a pier. The USCG then would need to go there and get him and bring him back to his boat. They were hesitant due to the 40 knot winds and said he may need to stay there overnight.  We noticed later in the dark they did appear to return him to his boat. We never got the rest of the story, since we were planning to leave at 4:30 am the next morning (too bad we couldn’t TiVo it).

Check out these winds – and yes, we were at anchor, not underway!

GaleForce YellowBanks

While Morro Bay wasn’t even a thought on our initial trip South, it turned out to be a wonderful stopover… for TEN DAYS! Yeah, we kinda got stuck. Partly still unwinding from the craziness of preparing to go and the past few years of nonstop work. and partly waiting for swell and wind to turn a bit more in our favor, and partly due to the amazing comfort and easy life at anchor there. Protected and calm with unseasonably amazing weather. Jonny did some surfing on the other side of the rock, we explored the dunes, the bay and beaches as well and wandered about the town and I did a nice long bike ride. It was an easy dinghy ride to a number of public docks to tie up, and a fairly short walk to laundry and [REAL!] food shopping. And the skanky coin op showers were a welcome amenity, too.

Everyone we encountered was extremely friendly and helpful – especially the folks at the Morro Bay Yacht Club. We went there looking for a rigger or some one who could help us splice our anchor line (long story but something really weird happened to it – baffled everyone – started to come apart and fray near where it connected to the chain – brand new! Only used for 6 days…no one could figure out why). Anyway we got invited to burger night at the yacht club and they were sure someone would be able to help us get it to the rigging shop. Turns out a guy did it for us right there – and turns out that guy happened to be the captain on the Deep Water Horizon – the big disaster in 2000. We learned he wrote “Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster” – which I am looking forward to reading on my Kindle.

Did some good cooking and getting more used to the galley. We are eating pretty well.

The most exciting thing that happened in Morro Bay was that my dear friend Laura Laura took a spur of the moment road trip down to visit us! On what was supposed to be our last day there (more on that later) – as she astutely pointed out – “you aren’t getting any closer”. She drove 3 hours to help us do laundry, get groceries and she even took us to lunch! She left us with a bunch of great gifties and on surprise stow-away we didn’t find till after she left. Pierre is our newest crewmate. Apparently he is hoping to make it across the border undetected. He still refuses to talk. And I’m not sure who was more green on our last passage, me or him.

Jonny photobombing Pierre

We planned to get water, propane, fuels, etc. before heading out for an overnight passage to our next destination. Unfortunately the propane tank at the docks was not working properly, and it being Labor Day, no other place was open. We were pretty low on propane (which we use for cooking) and the malfunctioning tank actually released even more of what was left. No choice but to wait till the next day and try to make our way to one of the other places (at least a mile away). We did all our other chores and even took Summer to the public dock to pump out and give her a bath (she was DIRTY!). Carrying a propane tank 2 miles did not sound like any fun…but strapping it on the back of my little folding bike with 10 inch wheels and peddling it a mile up hill?? Yeah!!! I took a bit of a ‘shortcut’ to the propane place, so Jonny managed to get there before me, walking… Got all filled up and safely made it back downhill on my 30 lb bike with my 20 lb propane tank (the brakes almost worked…luckily didn’t need to come to any full stops down the big hill).

We had a final coin-op shower and settled up with the harbor office (only the first 5 days anchoring are free – we had 4 extra, but only $7/day, so not too bad…where else can you vacation in a charming town with 360 degree water view for 10 nights for less than $30??). Had a nice big dinner of spaghetti and sausage (freezing and vacuum sealing my homemade spaghetti sauce seemed like a great idea – getting thawed sauce out of a plastic bag, not so great… but still, much appreciated having it!). By 7pm we were making our way out of Morro Bay, saying goodbye to the 3 stacks and that giant rock. It had been overcast and gloomy all day. I was bundled up in my foulies and hat, prepared for the worst. We were to pass Points Buchon, Arguello and Conception. Point Conception is know as “The Cape Horn of California”. Even when everywhere else is fine, it can have some of the roughest, wildest weather. Our plan to go by at night when it is usually calmest seemed like a good one. It actually wasn’t a bad passage, all things considered. We did get to sail a bit, although still had to motor more than we wanted. It was exciting to see it getting darker as the stacks and giant rock disappeared from view, and millions of whale spouts faded away.

The *real* reason we stayed so long…

Just around Point Buchon it started getting really rough. I went below to try and get some rest. I didn’t sleep a wink, being tossed and thrown about. When I finally came up to relieve Jonny, I wasn’t sure I was feeling so great… I managed to pull off a couple hours watch, but I did lose my dinner. I think it will be awhile before we enjoy that last bag of sauce… We sailed on, pitching and rolling. When Jonny came back up, I lost it again. He took over and sent me below where I hid under a sleeping bag until morning. I managed to get out to see Point Conception in the gloom and fog, and a few of the oil rigs we passed. But had to go back down to hide until we were almost ready to anchor.

We got in to Cojo Anchorage around 9:30am and found a decent spot. Didn’t look like much to me. But at least it’s not freezing cold – even tho it’s gloomy. I made soup and we napped and recovered from our long night. Several other boats came in to anchor – one cruising boat from Cape Cod and some bigger more commercial ones. We were exhausted and in bed by 8pm. I read more in “Two Years Before the Mast” written by Richard Dana in 1835 – his account of sailing up and down the CA coast back then. I just so happened to be at the part where he was describing being caught in gale around Point Conception. Almost every sail they had got shredded and they were blown over 2 weeks off course (and ended up in San Francisco instead of Monterey!). We sure have it easy compared to those guys. It was a pretty rolly night and also a grey and gloomy day today. But it is not very cold, the one saving grace…

We are slowly getting more South! Jonny jumped overboard and paddled ashore with his surfboard a few hours ago. I saw through the binoculars that he is catching waves with a couple of other guys out there. I was a little worried, knowing how territorial So. Cal is for surfing – but after a couple hours I heard dinghy motor – the guys were giving him a ride back to the boat. They were clearly impressed with what a great surfer Jonny is. Being a friendly guy and a humble but impressive surfer goes a long way, I guess.

Our current dilemma has to do with some big swell that may be coming up from the South from tropical storm Norbert. We want to leave here tomorrow and maybe go down the coast a bit – Jonny wants to check out more surf spots. But we will likely head out to San Miguel Island and begin exploring the Channel Islands a bit from here. There’s a lot to see out there, but our supplies of water will only hold out so long (probably just over a week?) so we’ll see what happens.

I’ve really been having fun with the Ham nets and learning from and connecting with people. One guy is even helping me get technical support – I still haven’t got email or weather info working through the radio to that *&^%! PC we had to buy… but feel I am close!!

Until next time…I wish you 73!  (that’s hamspeak for ‘best regards’)

On Monday, August 18 we bid Moss Landing one last cold and gloomy farewell.

Van and Susan showed up to send us off with warm wishing and a nice bottle of champagne to celebrate with later. In one final surprise give-away, Van showed an interest in our dock steps. We hope he is able to use them with Windwalker. [As an aside, Cap’n Van was our first informal teacher – he took us out and showed us the ropes on his beautiful Islander 28, Windwalker about 5 or 6 years ago and we’ve enjoyed our friendship with him and Susan ever since].

My parents (and Mom’s bridge club) were watching our departure on the OtterCam and Van and Susan waved as we passed out the harbor mouth. Unfortunately no one was there mooning us (JB was busy bottling his latest Pinot, otherwise I’m sure he’d have shown his face, and his ass).

Last Moss Rabbit Ears

It felt a little anticlimactic, sailing off into the gloom as we have many times before. The south wind was such that we had to motor the entire way to Stillwater cove. And that old familiar cold and seasick feeling wrecked me toward the end. We anchored just in time – in Stillwater Cove, being looked down upon by the Pebble Beach golf course. We’d been to Stillwater before, so it was nothing new or special (and to be honest, didn’t like it much the first time we were there…). Somehow we spent 3 nights there. It was a little bit rolly, but not too bad. We had a few patches of sun, but not too much. It was very nice to sleep and get comfortable with the new boat life habits.

I have been checking in on a few Ham radio nets. Still a lot to learn but talking to a bunch of friendly folks. Still looking for some nets where conversation goes to more than just what antenna you are using and how good you sound… I heard a few people calling longpath to South Africa (longpath means the signal is going all the way around the world in the opposite from shortest direction). But again, all that was discussed was how it sounded.

We listen to the NOAA weather on our VHF every day – which is partly why we stayed in Stillwater for 3 days. We were waiting for the wind and swell to change. An unusual south wind has been blowing up the coast. It turned a little bit Southwest on Thursday and we decided to make a break for it.

Sailing from Stillwater to San Simeon was our plan. 85 miles, about 16 hours of travel time. While we really wanted to see the entire coast, there was just no way to split it up without having to leave Stillwater in the dark (I was game, but the Cap’n said no) or arriving in San Simeon in the dark (Laura Laura said no!). So, we left mid afternoon and planned to go all night. Our first all-nighter! It was exciting and I was a little nervous. We got to see some of Big Sur, the Bixby Bridge, etc. before the sun went down through the offshore fog.   I tried to get a little nap in, but I was too curious to see what happened when it got dark! I just couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like. Pitch dark where you can’t see anything? No, it wasn’t like that at all. Firstly, our steaming light at the top of the mast lit up the wind indicator, which always makes me feel a bit more secure (I know, I should be able to just KNOW which way the wind is coming from…someday). The chartplotter (in which we plotted our course and just had follow the line – too easy!) was all lit up in night mode – and still way too bright (we ended up throwing a towel over it for most of the time). But the most amazing thing of all was the bio-luminescence. Looking over the stern it was like we were a sparkling galactic glowing machine zooming through the water. The waves coming off our bow were all glowing and shining. I could’ve watched it all night. Wait, I almost did. I got a couple hours of sleep when I couldn’t keep my eyes open after 2:30am. During that time Jonny said he was standing at the bow and saw several glowing torpedoes shooting towards the boat. Dolphins! Clearly outlined in bio-glow, riding our bow! It sounded amazing – Life of Pi-like.

The south wind meant we had to motor most of the way again. We managed to get a couple hours of sailing in. The water was glassy and there was hardly any swell (save for the small south swell- also the wrong direction for this time of year and for the direction we are heading). Given what conditions usually can be like on that part of the coast, I think we were lucky to have it so calm and peaceful for our first overnight. We only saw about 4 -5 other ships off in the distances. The morning was really dense fog and we couldn’t see much as we rounded Piedras Blancas, just around the corner from San Simeon. We relied on that line on the chartplotter to get us into San Simeon bay.

A very tired little shore bird lighted on our spreaders and caught a ride back to land on our final approach and a dragonfly stopped by for a visit as we neared shore.

Shortly after anchoring, the sun came out. San Simeon looks and feels remote and peaceful. Beautiful change and we were very happy to be there. I felt GREAT on the whole night and that next day – seasickness no more! Aside from blindingly tired (we will get the shift sleeping thing dialed in – we were just too wired to get much sleep – save for a few hours each). Luckily I’ve had lots of practice in sleep deprivation the past several months, so I was feeling wonderful on our first day anchored in San Simeon. Jonny…not so much. He spent the entire day trying to wake up and continually napping.

A few other boats came and went during the 3 nights we stayed, but it was quiet and gorgeous the entire time

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On the 2^nd day we decided to deploy the dinghy and venture ashore. There was a harsh shore break (south swell, and this bay is pretty open to the south—had the wind been more south we wouldn’t have been able to anchor there). We opted to paddle ashore, leaving the motor on the stern of Summer. We saw the potential for getting swamped with waves and possible rolled, so we didn’t want to risk ruining the motor on the first day out. It wasn’t the worst landing ever… but Jonny did get thrown from the dinghy and ended up underneath it and we broke a paddle. Somehow I managed to stay in the bow (looking around wondering where Jonny had gone…he was under for about 30 seconds too long!). But we landed, wet , alive and uninjured.

Except for the paddle…they are made to come apart and the paddle end which snaps onto the longer bar cracked and broke. No way to paddle back to Summer!!

So, our mission being ashore became “Find duct tape!” and Lesson Learned became “Make bag of supplies for dinghy – which includes duct tape!”. We walked to the populated end of the beach. The guy who ran Sea for Yourself kayak rentals tried to help with tape or glue – but unfortunately had neither (as he pointed out, using duct tape on his equipment might diminish the confidence of his customers!). Up at the Discovery Center a nice docent named Rick found some ‘blue tape’ (the paper kind you use to mask off when painting). It would have to do! As Rick said, “use as much as you need, afterall, your tax dollars paid for it! This is a State Park!”)

Your Tax Dollars At Work

It seemed everyone was looking as us strangely as we walked the beach and out on the pier. After wandering a bit away from each other and looking back at Jonny, I realized how crazy he looked…wearing a big back pack, badly in need of a haircut (“maybe tomorrow?!”), barefoot – forgot his flip flops, and carrying ONE oar.

We got pretty wet launching back out through the surf but we made it back to Summer in one piece and the paddle held together. We were going to epoxy it, but it’s still holding with the duct tape we added. Maybe tomorrow. We decided to celebrate our first all-night sail and first shore landing with the champagne that Van and Susan had given us.   I finally had some room in the fridge to chill it…(our fridge, btw, is AWESOME…Cool Blue system is rocking on the solar power. All the vacuum sealed meat I froze was STILL frozen and the ice tea I made turned to ice…we finally turned the thing down from 3.5 to 2.5. VERY happy with it).

Things started getting pretty rolly in the little bay. South swell picking up a lot. We decided to leave on Sunday after a particularly rolly night. But then the sun came out and we said “maybe tomorrow”. We opted for shore leave again. This time Jonny told me to jump out of the boat (my weight in the front is probably what made it dive and throw him out). Unfortunately when I jumped out the water was up to my chest…but it was a smoother landing this time. We rested on the beach to dry off a bit. There’s a hiking trail that goes around the rim of the point – we decided to climb up and see the views from that side. Such a gorgeous blue green bay! We walked all the way to the end of the point. Got some great views of our little boat anchored down below. Oh and whales! Did I mention so many whales?! All around in that bay, got lots of close up whale time in there. We got to chatting with folks at the point – everyone was excited to see the whales. Roy and Debbie from Las Vegas were enjoying their coastal trip and we’ll be scoping out a little bungalow for them in Mexico so they can sell everything and move down there soon 😉 (hi guys!).

We enjoyed one last evening at our rolly anchorage (it was so rolly that night I felt like I was almost vertical in bed a few times…). I kept thinking of that Bugs Bunny cartoon where they were sharing a bowl of soup on a rolly boat and the soup just slid back and forth on the table and they each ate from it before it slid back to the other. Yeah, it’s like that.

We decided to try to stow the dinghy on the bow without deflating it and taking it apart (which is a big pain in the ass). We hoisted it up with a halyard and got it on deck and flipped over and lashed down. We could sort of see over it from the cockpit.

When we pulled up our anchor we discovered that the rode was coming apart where it connected to the chain. This is not a good thing…to have your anchor rope break and lose all your chain and anchor and possibly wind up on shore. This is bad. We decided to swap it out for the other rode we had (luckily we had another). That took a little more time, but we swapped it out so we would be ready to safely anchor in Morro Bay when we arrived. We will have to try to get that fixed – it’s a brand new line!

A dead fish found in our dinghy when getting ready to leave

We said goodbye to San Simeon without any other incident and headed off South. It was sunny and gorgeous and I was in a tank top. Happy happy. The wind was still too South to sail, so we motored for quite a while. Just over halfway there we were able to shut the motor off and sail for a bit. It was just gorgeous and although we were going awfully slowly (about 3.5 knots) it was nice to have the motor off.

As we approached Morro Bay there were dozens of whales everywhere! Just amazing. So much tail! It was incredible. Poor Jonny almost had a meltdown (we’re working on his whaleophobia). We worked our way into Morro Bay and found the anchorage spot (thanks to the info I got when I called the harbor earlier). Morro Bay has stacks so it’s like being in Moss Landing, but now with 33% more stack! It’s actually just beautiful here. The harbor guys showed up as we were preparing to launch our dinghy. They were super nice and just had us fill out a card with our info. We get to anchor for free for 5 days and then we will pay a nominal fee. And we might be here for that long or longer if that south swell doesn’t calm down. There’s a super hurricane down in Baja and it’s sending up swell and this is the last place to hide from it

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Luckily there’s lots here to keep us occupied. Laundromat (very excited for that), Coin-op showers (disgusting, but the best $1.25 I’ve spend in ages. So nice to get clean last night!). Looking forward to finding Sunshine Natural Foods, too…we’re running out of veggies and stuff.

So, here we are. Safe and sound for a bit. Unseasonably hot and sunny and I’m loving it.White Pelicans this morning!

In the past month we’ve had three grueling yard sales, countless Craig’s List ads, many friends carting off bins and one final big trip to the donation center.  That’s all it takes to erase the last 14 years of this land-based life.  Everything we need (and, surprisingly, more) is neatly stowed away in all of Summer’s magically ginormous lockers and cubbies.  I’d say the only space that seems less than super-adequate is the refrigerator (those who know me will not be surprised by this).  It’s packed to the tippy top.  We are finishing up some final projects and stowage today, and we will begin our journey South tomorrow.

“Stuff” purging aside, the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of visits and “bon voyages”.  It has only recently started hitting me just how many beloved people will be missed as we sail off into the sunset.

Of course my parent’s unconditional support – moral and material (for every crazy thing I’ve ever done…) has been a huge help in getting to this point. My sister’s recent visit helped ground me and make some clearer decisions and Adin helped me laugh again (it had been a while!).

I am SO grateful for the amazing local friends supporting and helping us.  It began with a wonderful Italian dinner with Van and Susan, joined by Steve and Jeanne.  Fun BBQ with Matt and Kendall. Delicious home cooking at Bob and Amy’s (and a boat-delivered dinner!). An amazing BBQ party thrown by John and Melanie (and the painfully adorable Lucca) – with Karine, Marina, Laura Laura & John, Diane & Patrick, Jon & Jacqueline, Daniel, Colin (Dr. F), Lisa-Ann, Matt & Kendall, Peter& Julie.  Larry and Amber took us to our favorite Thai place. One last lunch with my sweet surrogate parents, Avi and Celia and another with my beloved Karine. Yard sale moral support on the hardest day (and stuff-taking!!) from Sarah and Marlene. On-going visits, veggies/eggs and support by Deanna (and kisses from Yuki and Tofu).  Constant support and check-ins by Leslie.  Advice, dinner, lunch, boat washing and marathon laundry project…Laura Laura and John. Advice and support from Jeff and Anne.  All the new and interesting people we met at our yard sales (Jill & Ken, Danni!).  Looking forward to a few more visits before we go – Sharleen and Jon, and whomever else might show up today or tomorrow.  Lindsey will (somehow) get our car today so she can deliver it down to Zac and Renee’s for us.  Of course all the people we’ve worked with over the years that really made this whole thing possible, too!!  Very thankful for everyone in our lives.

I hope we have some interesting stories and pictures soon.