New Winter Home

Stopping by San Diego on our way north, we passed by one of the Navy's new high-speed warships.  This one had what looked like a flight deck in the rear, and you just had to wonder what kind of top speed it's capable of...

Sea Story is again back in the USA .  We brought her up to Ventura from La paz in early July, and now we're getting used to the cooler, wetter California weather.  We're also meeting new neighbors and exploring the nearby Channel Islands National Park - a fascinating cruising grounds I've long been curious about.

Our "Baja Bash" crew, Richard, Mary Lee and I the day we arrived at Ventura West Marina.  Our berth is close to the harbor entrance, and just a couple hundred yards from the beach.

To gain some knowledge about the Park, and to add to my seagoing skills, I've signed on as a volunteer crew member for the Park Services's transportation fleet of support vessels.  lots of fun so far, and it's been a chance to gain some of the skills required for hauling cargo and people to and from the Islands on a big boat.  Nice people to work with too....

The Ocean Ranger is my volunteer assignment for the Park Service.  We regularly take this 100' workhorse out to the Channel Islands in support of the Park's operations and research projects.

Sea Story is due for a haul-out in January, so it looks like a trip back down to the Baja Naval boatyard in Ensenada- probably leaving right after Christmas.  Already looking forward to spending at least a couple of weeks back in Mexico.  Sure hope we remember some of our Spanish....

RACING THE CONDO

Sea Story heading for the starting line after a night at anchor in Caleta Partida, one of the prettiest anchorages in Bahia La paz.  From this start, we raced back to the entrance of the La paz harbor channel (about 20 miles) and finished second in our class.

A couple of years ago, some local cruisers got together and started Veleros de Baja, a loose and very informal organization of racing enthusiasts here in La paz.  Because most of us are racing the boats we live on, the races are pretty low key, and no one gets too excited about a slow start or raggedy tack.  They're mostly fun events and a good excuse for getting out on the Bay for a pleasant afternoon of whale watching and sunbathing.

 Sea Story is fairly fast for a fully loaded cruising boat, so we usually finish in the top two or three of our class.  In this particular race, there was a big lull midway through, so we were one of only five boats out of thirteen to even finish the race within the allotted time.  Best of all, we managed to beat Talion, a very fast fifty footer that usually dominates the competition.  If course, it helped that skipper Patsy was single-handing Talion - but maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that....!

There's a full rundown and more photos of the race at:  www.velerosdebaja.wordpress.com

THE GLAMOROUS SIDE OF BOAT OWNERSHIP

Cleaning a clogged diesel fuel filter bowl on a nice Sunday afternoon at the dock.  Usually this happens at sea, in rough weather at 0300 hours.  Managed to catch a break this time...



I once thought nothing could be a bigger pain in the ass than owning and maintaining an airplane. 

I was wrong. 

None of my airplanes had plumbing systems, electrical systems operating in a salt water environment, or diesel fuel systems, ultra-sensitive to line leaks and algae growth.

So now I find myself continually re-educated and doing maintenance chores far beyond anything I could have imagined for someone who once was challenged by simply changing oil in my car.  Not sure if this is progress, but it does keep me busy and more knowledgeable about the inner workings of my floating home.  Of course, it also reduces my maintenance costs - most of the time.  Once in a while, the opposite happens, and I have to hire an expert to fix something I buggered up beyond my ability to correct. Fortunately, that seems to be happening less and less as time goes on, so this not-so-glamorous side of boat ownership has just become part of the experience down here in La paz.

Just letting you all know it's not all sunshine and pina coladas every day!

Like most old skydivers, I really don't like being this high without a parachute, so I'm hanging onto everything I can!





Entertainment in La paz

People are always curious about what we do for the six months we spend down here in Mexico every winter.  Here are a couple of highlights from the season to date:

Not long ago, we had a chance to get close-up and personal with John Davidson, the singer/actor/ TV personality who, among other things, used to host Hollywood Squares. John's son and daughter-in-law have opened up a small restaurant here in La paz, and he put on a couple of benefit performances on their patio for audiences limited to thirty people. John's a very  funny and personable guy who still has a great set of pipes. His hour and a half gigs really were excellent entertainment and you couldn't beat the intimacy of the setting.

A French couple, who happen to be ex-performers from Cirque de Soleil, put on a spectacular show in the rigging of their boat for fellow cruisers in Marina Palmira.  Their performance drew a couple of hundred people, and they didn't even have to warn us "not to try this at home!" 

Mary Lee playing and singing with 7 Clouds, a local jazz band performing at La Encantada, our favorite Art Gallery/Wine Bar here in La paz. 

We brought our own pole-dancers! A wild night at Tailhunters, a self described "dishing and frinking establishment," where Laura and the Baja Boys play rock favorites on Friday nights.  With only a bit of encouragement, our ladies took the initiative to start a pole dancing mania that entertained the band as much as it did  the rest of us...

 

BACK IN MEXICO

It's  been so long since I posted to this blog, I'm just going to do a quick over-view of the highlights since my last entry, the trip to Manzanillo..

From Manzanillo, we sailed back up to Puerta Vallarta, Mazatlan and our home port, La paz. Overall, the trip north was pretty calm and uneventful.  We dropped Doug and Jan in Puerta Vallarta and between P.V. and Mazatlan, we got to rescue a sea turtle.  Poor guy was so tied up he could only swim in circles at the surface, prevented from diving by a  plastic, water-bottle buoy.

Incapacitated sea turtle, wound-up in the buoyed, polypropylene line Mexican fisherman use for long-line sets.  Once I cut the line free, he went straight down to a safer environment.

Sea Story stayed in La paz for the summer.  In April, Mary Lee flew back to Wisconsin, and I drove back a couple of weeks later. We did manage a trip up to coastal British Columbia for a couple of weeks with Doug and Jan on Snowhawke in late August.  It was another fish-food orgy; salmon, ling cod, dungeness crab and prawns to excess.

The rest of the summer was a lot of biking, visiting old friends and relatives, gardening and a couple of weeks in Sacramento.

In late October, we drove back down to La paz, stopping in Denver and Sacramento along the way.  Denver was particularly nice, with great fall color and delightfully warm weather just in advance of their first big snowfall of the season (we got out of town just a day and half before it hit!). 

The drive down Baja is a daylight-only, 1000 mile haul that takes three days to do comfortably.  Other than a couple of difficult construction detours, the paved, 2-lane road is good, if a bit narrow by U.S. standards.  Biggest dangers are not bandits, but 18-wheelers that crowd the centerline, and free-range cattle that like coming up onto the pavement after dark.  The terrain is remarkably varied, although mostly desert and rugged mountains.  There are also several agricultural regions, some which feature miles and miles of plastic tented fields of vegetable crops.

Now that we're back on Sea Story at Marina Palmira, it's time to get re-acquainted with our neighbors, the other live-aboards who inhabit dock three, our particular block in the neighborhood.  Many of us are "commuter cruisers" who leave the boats down here and spend our summers in the U.S. and Canada.  Others are year-round residents who tough out the hot summers at the dock or up in the Sea of Cortez. Still others are semi-transients on their way to or from other sailing destinations.  It makes for a nice, eclectic mix of folks who have become some of our best friends over the past few years.

Right now, there's some friendly holiday, boat decorating competition.  Sea Story has a well-earned reputation in this category, so it's back up to the foredeck to hang another string of lights. 

Happy holidays everyone....

QUICK TRIP TO MANZANILLO

Sea Story Med-Moored at the Las Hadas Marina with part of the resort complex in the background.  This is a docking style common to the Mediterranean, but rarely used in the US or Mexico.  It requires a good anchor set and a competent crew.  Luckily we had both.

Friends Jan and Doug were interested in the coast south of Puerta Vallarta, so we sailed down to Manzanillo, a trip of about 140 miles along mainland Mexico's "gold coast."  Originally, we had only planned to sail down to Bahia Tenacatita, which is about 30 miles north of Manzanillo.  But our plans to do some snorkling there were frustrated when we found the renowned "aquarium" part of the bay was off-limits because of a property dispute - one of those things that still occasionally happen down here.

So, with our snorkling plans torpedoed, we headed down to Manzanillo, the farthest south we have been in Mexico so far.

Manzanillo is reportedly Mexico's busiest international port and its blessed with wide, beautiful beaches spread out along two exceptional bays, Manzanillo and Santiago.  The luxury resort of Las Hadas sits on a spectacular point between the two bays and is a favorite cruiser hang-out in Manzanillo. Its facilities include an elegant hotel, a wide, clean beach, a huge pool and a marina.  If  you anchor outside the mariana,  you can dinghy in and use the resort facilities for a nominal fee.  We elected to tie-up in the marina, which costs more but also makes all the facilities more easily accessible, especially when four people are aboard.  

Our two day stay in Manzanillo was short, but enjoyable.  The overnight trip back up to Puerta Vallarta included some rough hours around Cabo Corrientes, and that reminded us that seldom does something good come without a cost.  The final reward was the blissful six hours once we rounded the cape and found the smooth water of Bandaras Bay.  Sunny and calm never felt so good....

ALICIA AND ALFREDO REPORT

Good friends and adventurers extraordinaire, Alicia and Alfredo,  are off on another trip around the world on their sailboat On Verra.  This is Alicia's third circumnavigation.  At last word, they were in Gambier, French Polynesia after stopping off at Pitcairn Island and riding out the tsunami at sea.  Someday, someone is going to write a book about this pair....

 

GLOWING WATER AND TSUNAMIS

The view of Marina Vallarta from Dana and Gale's condo, with Sea Story snugged in toward the end of the dock at center, left.  This is where we rode out the Tsunami with little noticable disturbance because of the protected configuration of the marina.

Sea Story is docked in Marina Vallarta again.  This time we're sharing her with our power-boat friends, Jan and Doug, while their boat, Snow Hawke, is sitting out the winter in Olympia, Washington.  We're also having a great visit with old friends, Dana and Gale, who's hospitality includes the spare room in their condo overlooking the marina.  Good conversation, good wine and some superb day sailing on Bandaras Bay, one of my very favorite places for dependable wind, whale sightings and the company of friendly dolphins.
On the way down from Mazatlan, I had a downright eerie experience.  Well after sunset, on very dark, moonless night, we rather suddenly encountered a large (40-45 feet across) patch  of  glowing phosphorescence that Sea Story sailed right through!  For the next 10 -15 minutes we passed near or through several more of these glowing patches, and I could actually see fish swimming in them as we crossed them.  One of the wierdest conditions I have come across, although I've seen lots of smaller, dinner plate size phosphoresence patches in the boat's wake before - never anything nearly the size of these.  Almost expected to see a space ship lurking there under the ocean surface...
The Japanese tsunami was the other big excitement once we got down here to PV.  We had about six hours warning before it hit, and the forecast height was less than a meter so it wasn't too frightening.  Here in the marina, we experienced several up and down cycles that just felt like a reved up tidal cycle with the floating docks rising and falling within a range of about 32 inches every 15 minutes.  Nothing very dramatic, but it did roil up the harbor bottom mud, and we had very brown water for several days afterward.
At the moment, we're looking for a weather window for the transit back up to La paz, via Mazatlan.  Before we leave, I'll try to do another post about out trip down to Manzanillo last week,and the latest report from
Alicia and Alfredo who are off on her THIRD  circumnavigation!

We have inflatable life-vests on Sea Story, and Gale wanted to know how they work, so here is her trial inflation in the pool at their condo.