Adventures

For those of you in the know, that is a play on some lyrics from one of my favorite Beastie Boys songs…for those of you not in the know (family)….No we are not running from the policia, no we do not have a weapon on board…but we are about to have a boat load of fun. I mean, we have been having a blast, but we have officially arrived in the Sea of Cortez…land of short day trips, warm clear water, cheap beers, cheap tacos and the infamous Shack burger in La Paz (or La Paused as cruisers call it).

This is our 6 month update. It was supposed to be sent out on November 11th via SSB radio update…but as it often happens in cruising…fun happened and it was delayed. So here it goes. We left Seattle on a sunny cool morning on May 11th 2013 to join some friends for one last raft up. From there we started north…and then went south:-) We have traveled about 2700 miles (we lost track), we have increased the air temp. by 40 degrees, the water temp. by 30 degrees, the sun has officially been found and California has been conquered. We have traded fuzzy sea otters for angry looking birds and beautiful fish. No longer are we catching Ling Cod and rock fish, but we have caught 3 big eye tuna and almost snagged a Dorado. The crab traps and down riggers have been traded for spear guns and Hawaiian slings and the sun screen has been dug out and is being applied liberally (that’s for you mom).

We officially arrived in Mexico on October 22nd to be hauled out in Baja Naval Boat Yard in Ensenada for some work, as mentioned in the previous post. It was cool, rainy and felt pretty much like America with street tacos. As we started heading south it got warmer, the water temperature rose…but once we rounded the tip of the Baja Peninsula was when we found our Mexico. The Mexico you dreamed about while working endlessly on boat projects and while curled up freezing your ass off in bed in the Broughton’s. This is when it all begins…until you move on to the next location with even more awesomeness…that is the life of a cruiser. We are currently in Bahia de Los Muertos pirating some wifi from the beach bar…where they pirated us of our money for expensive, but delicious cervesas and nachos. We will be moving on tonight and will be in La Paz in a few days to meet and greet that Shack burger we have been dreaming of since we were down here 2 years ago with s/v Deep Playa.

We have been traveling with s/v Loukia (the couple mentioned in the famous dinghy flipping of 2013). We officially met them in Fife inlet way up in Canada when they saw us sailing off in the distance. They hailed us via VHF radio and said they were heading south as well. We never ran into them after that until we randomly saw them at anchor in San Francisco. We hooked up again in San Diego and have been traveling pretty much together since. They have a West Sail 32 and a dog named Boaty who is frequently threatened with being left on the beach to fend for himself with the Mexican beach dogs (usually after he jumps out of the dinghy and causes it to flip). There are numerous boats down here from the Pacific Northwest. 2 of them were from our dock in Shilshole. We are looking forward to more adventures with new friends and old. Here are a few pictures of our trip down the coast.

The small dusty town of Bahia Tortuga, 288 miles from Ensenada…this place is like 150 miles on a dirt road from Highway 1 (the main route down the Baja).

Beautiful Bahia Santa Maria, 248 miles from Bahia Tortuga. The 2nd stop on the way down the Peninsula. This bay is basically uninhabited accept for a few fish camps. We stayed here 5 days because it was so cool. Hiking, surfing, spear fishing and swimming were all achieved.

Fish Camps up in the mangrove lagoon in Bahia Santa Maria. You had to go over 2 sets of surf to get in here with the dinghy…we were successful…I hear s/v Bella Star was not when they came through 2 years ago;-)

S/v Loukia…Westsail 32 sailing wing on wing toward Cabo San Lucas…this was the only time they were in front of us…trust me.

From left: Boaty the barky terrier, Joanne, Brad and CB. This was on Joanne’s unknown #’d anniversary of her 29th birthday.

We got to San Diego a little earlier than most cruisers as my family was flying in and meeting up with the rest of the San Diego contingent for a last farewell to us and a much needed family reunion…my mom, dad, aunt and uncle flew in from Chicago. My cousin flew in from New York. We all gathered up at my aunt and uncle’s house outside of San Diego along with my other cousin, her husband and their two kids. It was a great 5 days. We went to the best fish taco place this side of Mexico, had fabulous meals at the local family homes and got to talk for hours on end catching up with each other after years of being apart. We even got to be slave labor by helping my cousin wrap product for her new company. It was great…the most often asked question “what do you eat on the boat?” CB’s response…”astronaut food”:-) On Saturday we got all 13 ppl loaded onto the boat and went out for a sail. It started out a little windy and ended up a little beery. It was a great sail…even my uncle Mike who feared he may chum the waters had a great time…maybe it’s time for a boat Mike?:-) As usual CB pushed the envelope and provided entertainment/butt puckering as we sailed very close to a cruise ship.

CB says “we have right-away…he needs to yield to us:…uhhh okay cappy????

When I say “close”…I mean my uncle Tom could ask the guests where they were going and what they were having for dinner. Overall it was a great sendoff. We even got t-shirts to memorialize the event (thanks Jenny).

Front: “Palarran – San Diego Send Off 2103”
Back: “Where in the World are Tawn & CB…Charts…check, Life Jackets…check, Beer…?”
Funny thing, we had to go to West Marine to buy a bag of life jackets before everyone went out on the boat…and beer?…never an issue:-)

Fiona and Eliza came up with the idea to sign the back of the shirts….great idea girls.

Although we will miss you all, it was good to show everyone our seaworthy boat and share the knowledge we have gained over the years of research for this trip. We will be safe and think of you often. Here are some more photos of the weekend.

This is a first world sweat shop…imagine if you will CB wrapping fanciful little things in tissue paper…I got asked to opt out after my “field testing” the razor handles ended in to many broken razors…hey…you wanted to know if they were strong enough Jillian :O

Catching up on the back porch of my aunt and uncle’s home in Alpine, CA.

Thanks Mom & Dad for making me the sailor I am today…

Between family and a list of projects, we decided to get a dock for 2 weeks. I do not like being tied to a dock…it means no late morning coffee followed by noon breakfast as well as crap load of work. But we buckled down and got to it. Parts were bought, awnings and dinghy chaps were made and provisioning was done. We had to make the best of our time at the dock and the use of a friends car (no amount of thanks can cover how appreciative we were for this and all the other assistance you gave us Dan). After 2 weeks we left the dock and pretty much did nothing for a week before leaving for Ensenada.

The best part of cruising is taking more photos of your boat that anyone would ever care about in weird and out of focus framing options.

San Diego was cool…but much like any large metropolitan city…expensive and hectic. We can’t wait for the bottom job to be done and get back to cruising…let this adventure continue!

P.S.
You may be wondering what this dirty waffle thing is about…our friend Dan Freeman has been trying to get this going for years and we’re just trying to help him out. Here’s the breakdown: San Diego…Sandy Eggo….Dirty waffle….got it? I don’t know Dan…I think that may be second tier stuff:-\

Tawn is writing up an update about our time in San Diego, or as a good friend calls it “Dirty Waffle”. If you think about, it makes perfect sense.

We left San Diego late in the afternoon on the 21st so as to make it to Ensenada, Mexico just after sun rise. We stopped in Ensenada to 1) clear in to the the country, get our visas, and 2) to get our boat hauled out and have a bottom job done.

We were going to get the bottom job done last year in Seattle, but the quote we got from the boatyards up there were ridiculous. Doubly so, due to the fact that me and Tawn do 93% of the work on our boat ourselves. But grinding off bottom paint down the the gel coat is something that boatyards in Seattle will not allow you to do anymore. So they are able to hand you an estimate of $12,000 without batting an eye…..

I batted the shit out of my eyes and pooped my pants a little.

We had a friend or two that had the same work done on there boats here in Ensenada two years ago when they came down. So we followed their lead and waited till we got here.

Tawn emailed the boatyard (Baja Naval Marina) and got an estimate for the work we needed done. The estimate was $2500. That was infinitely more doable, and no need to change my pants afterwards.

We got here a day early and the yard hauled the boat and got it in the stands while we walked down to the Immigration office and got cleared into the country. Clearing customs here in Ensenada is insanely easy by the way. It’s all done in one building (room actually). Took us less than 30 minutes.

By lunch the next day they had the old paint ground off and were cleaning up the mess!

Originally they told us we would be here a week to 10 days, but at the pace they are going, I think it’s going to be shorter than that. Possibly we will splash on Monday.

We’ve been spending time hanging out with our friend Erlin on his boat Ventured. Some other friends of ours (Brad and Joanne, on Loukia) showed up today. So we are showing them around town. Since we’ve been here 48 hours, we are practically locals.

We have found many delicious street tacos and I am now on the hunt for a hammock, and a tortilla press. I’ve also been eyeing the dude selling bacon wrapped hotdogs…..those are really looking tempting.

Picture from the roof of the Marina Naval office roof.

I may or may not have supposed to have gone up there?

Seems like everybody keeping a sail blog does a “numbers” post. You know, miles traveled, money spent, Islands conquered (We totally beat the Maraschky’s)…….

I’m not gonna do one, mainly due to the fact that our chart plotter took a slow shit on us and while it did get replaced under warranty, part of the process to try and fix it involved resetting it back to factory default settings. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to make a back up of my trip log, so I only have a rough guesstimate as to how many miles we have traveled. So doing a numbers post stings a little. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little pissed about that.

So instead of a numbers post, I’m gonna do a what we have lost and found post.

Since the lost column is longer, I’ll start there.

1) The Plastic cover from our Auto Pilot control box. Lost in Poulsbo. Second day out. Huge gust of wind blew it right out of the cockpit.
2) A white fender. Lost in the Straight of Georgia. Swept overboard.
3) My favorite lock blade knife. Flipped overboard at anchor in Shallow bay on Thurlow Island just before we got to the Broughtons.
4) Fishing reel. Tawn was doing some stunt fishing and the thing popped off the rod and went overboard. Kevin loaned us a spare he had on Andante
5) Seat cushion/flotation device. Went overboard somewhere between San Francisco Bay and Monterey. We don’t really know. It’s just gone.
6) A 7/16 inch socket. Tawn dropped it off the dock here in San Diego. I’ll never forgive her for that.
7) One pair of rusty pliers. I dropped them off the same dock the next day. I now forgive Tawn for dropping the socket.

Now for the plus column. As sad as it is.

1) An odd/old foam spool. Found it on a beach (Shed #4) on the outside of Vancouver Island. I use it for a fishing handline.
2) A fishing reel. We found that we did not return this to Kev at the end of the summer. Thanks Kev!!
3) A sombrero. Found floating it in the water about 3 miles from the coast of Catalina Island.

Ole`

I’ve been told that showing up in Mexico with your own (free range) sombrero is a massive sign of respect and marks you as a seasoned traveler. Not just some sun burnt, gringo tourist. So we totally got that going for us.