A day in Mazatlan, December 28, 2009
Long term cruising is not all vacation, quite obvious when you think about it. Besides the boat maintenance there are the normal activities, like food shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, you get the picture. Having to deal with those mundane tasks definitely adds to the experience to come to know a place beyond the tourist attractions. For example yesterday, a Monday and regular workday during this Holiday season, we headed out to Telcel, which is one of the companies offering internet access and cell phone service. We had gotten our phone and ‘Banda Ancha’ (translating to ‘Broad Band’) gismo in La Paz. There it had taken a couple of hikes to the Telcel store, which was very much organized like an Apple Store in the States, and standing in line and spending at least two hours with a very nice guy to set us up. Now our first month was over, and we had to renew for the next months. To get the banda ancha and renewing it is topic of endless cruiser discussions, because there are many pitfalls for the non Spanish speaking gringo. We had found out where to go already before Christmas and where hoping for shorter lines after the Holidays, but no such luck. We waited our turn. There was plenty of confusion on how to extend our services, as there are several options. In the end it all worked out as supposed, but it sure took a while. The only real aggravation during all this was provided by a gringo couple, who totally cut the line, with a big smile on their faces. What were they thinking, that’s not promoting a good image of the cruiser community!
In the end we got out of the Telcel store sooner than expected, and we continued on to explore the historic town center. Since we couldn’t find a bus to get us there, we opted to use a ‘Pulmonia’, which translates, I believe, to ‘Pneumonia’. Those are open vehicles, much like ‘Kuebelwagen’, small VWs with a jeep-like appearance. They are fun to ride. The driver offered a tour, which we declined, figuring that we would not get much out of it with our oh-so-limited Spanish. But he dropped us off right at the Plaza Machado, which seems to be the center of the historic downtown. It is a very nice mix of renovated, not renovated but in use buildings, with the occasionally boarded up building or even a ruin. I just wandered around imagining how much fun it could be to fix up one of those old beauties. I do suffer from this fixer upper syndrome, derelict boats cause the same reaction in me. I want to take them all in and restore them to there inherent beauty, but of course those are only quickly passing thoughts. After all we are busy enough with taking care of our almost 34 year old classic plastic.
But back to the historic plaza; we decided on a restaurant for lunch where we could sit under a roof of leaves, and most of the customers were Mexicans, which is always promising. In the afternoon we continued on exploring the area in larger and larger circles, until we ended up at a Cathedral which is located in the city center. The center in itself is a mix of old and new, not really so much different form the historic center, with the exception of being much more lively. Pleasant and bad smells, dense traffic at a slow pace with crossing pedestrians thrown in, the accompanying sounds, and lots of small stores all contributed to the image of the city. We found the ‘Mercado Juarez’, an old fashioned market building, where all things eatable along with clothes, shoes, toys, and all kind of other items are offered for sale. The different articles are grouped in separate areas, much like a modern supermercado. As one walks through the area where shoes are being displayed, they come with a distinct leather smell. Every once in a while there was a stand selling prepared food, sending out a pleasant aroma of what ever was simmering. And then there was the meat area, which was not for the fainthearted. There were no pre-packaged sterile little Styrofoam containers displaying the meat cuts from their most appealing side. No doubt was left about the origin of the meat pieces, as they were displayed along with whole heads of the originating animals, and a butcher could be seen skinning a cows head. Chicken came with heads and feet still attached, and all was underlined with a very ‘meaty’ smell. After having lived a very sheltered life where everything is provided by Safeway in a very sanitized fashion, these images are somewhat disturbing, but after all that’s what we eat unless we opt to live vegetarian. Getting off my little soap box, we ended up in the fruit and veggie area, where we purchased some incredibly aromatic tangerines and tomatoes almost for free.
We were quite far away from the marina, thus there was no thought of walking back. The streets around the market hall were like a central bus station, lots of busses circling around, scooping up their passengers and taking them to all directions. We looked for a bus which had some destinations written on the front window which we would recognize. Eventually one showed up which we agreed that we might have seen it at the station where we started out in the morning. My question to the driver in rudimentary Spanish seemed to confirm this, and we got on the bus. There were times were I wasn’t so sure we’d ever get to a place we would recognize, but in the worst case we would just end up at the Mercado again, at which time we would be sure that we had taken a wrong bus. But that did not happen. After we had toured as it seemed most of the suburbs of Mazatlan, we ended up at the same bus station where we had gotten off earlier in the day and thus the bus took us back to our Marina. We had a great tour of the town, got to see the places were people live and work, and got a glimpse on their daily routines before we disappeared back into our little enclave of luxury resort existence.
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Crossing the Sea of Cortez, December 19 to December 21, 2009.
So after leaving Espiritu Santos, we headed south again, back to Ensenada Los Muertos, where we waited for our weather window for the crossing over to Mazatlan. We had considered heading further south to Los Frailes because it would make the crossing much shorter. The trip would be just one night out, versus two (by our conservative calculations). The wind angle would be different though. Instead of the wind being behind us (as from La Paz) or on our side (nice beam reach from Los Muertos), from Los Frailes, it looked like we would have more of a headwind. The northers are blowing this time of year, and they whip up the Sea of Cortez into a rough, steep, chop, so we chose Los Muertos.
As soon as we arrived in Los Muertos, a nice norther followed us right in, and although our anchor held nicely, we didn’t leave the boat for four days because of it. The boat was secure enough, but the bay was rough and the boat was bucking on the anchor. Loading the dinghy engine on to the dinghy would have been a drag. So, we stayed on board, every morning listening to good old Don Andersen’s weather broadcast. Finally the wind broke, so the plan was to let the seas settle down for a day, then head out. This gave us a chance to go ashore and see our buddy Jerry at Grand Ensueno, the nice little luxo-resort that had been so nice to us last month. After a nice visit, we said our good byes and it was back to the boat for an early departure in the morning.
Funny about passage planning when sailing. The passage was going to be about 200 miles across. Our calcs. for one speed would show the trip taking two nights. If we adjusted the speed by just a tenth of a knot, the trip would now take only one night. In sailing, of course, one does not have this kind of control over speed. It all depends on the wind, so we decided that our departure time was not really critical – we would just made adjustments, if necessary, once we got closer, so that we would arrive in daylight.
As we were bringing up the anchor, I was at the helm and Elisabeth on the foredeck. She looked back at me with a concerned expression on her face, and said that the anchor was stuck and wouldn’t come up. Hmmmm…not good. We traded places, and I went forward to have a look. Yep, we’re stuck alright, but it’s the chain, and we have about 75 feet out. We could see that the chain was lodged under an enormous rock. I’m thinking that this is probably why we held so nicely in the blow. Bummer, it’s going to be near impossible to dislodge. But we had dive gear on board, and were anchored not too deep – about 23 feet, so I must try. Elisabeth suggested that before I suited up with the tanks, maybe just try a snorkel dive and maybe, well, just maybe….
So I did, and once in the water, I could see that the chain had probably, only just this morning, got stuck under the rock, and that if Elisabeth powered the boat forward in the right direction, we just might get free. So then, here I am asking Elisabeth in that big boat to “just motor right toward me while I look down”. A little spooky, but she is careful, and it worked. The chain just gently moved right away from the rock. Whew! Now on with the crossing. (Remember the crossing? This is the story of the crossing.)
It’s mostly a boring story, which means that it was a great passage. We loved it. We did the right thing by waiting our the seas. Our reward was a near-perfect 15 to 18 kt beam reach with just a gentle beam chop. For you non-sailors, this means that we flew across the sea, and made stellar time. Now, about that planning for two nights….. Had we not been delayed by our little anchor entertainment, we very well might have made it into Mazatlan by dark and in only one night. Now, it was questionable, but if we didn’t make it, we would have to entertain ourselves just offshore for the entire night (since we just missed it being a day arrival). So we kept the spurs to it, and wouldn’t you know it, the wind died a ways out. So we were close, but not close enough to motor in by day’s end. We sail much, much faster than motoring.
We then reversed course, got back into the wind, and enjoyed a night sail directly away from where we wanted to go. After a while we turned around again and headed back to Maz. This time the wind didn’t die, so once again we were going to be too close too soon. We did not want to arrive before sun up. Another course reversal did the trick. We know that we could have hove-to, but we just felt like being more active, and the sailing was nice. We pulled into the Marina El Cid about 8:00 am, so it really did work out to be two nights.
We had made passages before. But those had been done with other people and on other boats, or were made just along the coast. This time, we were just the two of us in our little boat, actually crossing a major body of water. Even if it was only 200 miles, the initiation is meaningful. We had a great time, and look forward to more. Of course there were the usual Sea of Cortez animals to keep us company. This time we saw some big sea turtles and some big birds, one of which clearly wanted to land on our masthead. It was an interesting activity trying to keep him off.
About day arrivals……we recently had dinner with John and La’Shandra of Alias. They told us of an experience they had had only last week. They were at an anchorage a little further north. A boat that they know, a 51’ Beneteau, attempted to come in at night. They saw a red light, mistook it for the entrance buoy and ran aground. They lost the boat. It was a total loss. In 2006 when we arrived at the Alaska Eagle, anchored in Suva, Fiji, we saw a tug pulling a sail boat that was lying on its side in the water, complete with sails still up, (the boat is on its side, but the sails are on the mast). The previous night, that boat had attempted a night arrival at Suva. Its owners had mis-read a light, hit the reef, and suffered a total loss. These things tell us that it’s just fine to arrive tired and a little bored in the daylight.
Caleta Partida, Sea of Cortez, December 8 -14 2009
Caleta Partida is an anchorage separating the islands of Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida. It is protected against most directions, so it is a good spot to wait out a Northerly. It appears that the Northerlies were getting more frequent, with fewer days in between. Caleta Partida is a very beautiful spot, a crater of an extinct volcano. Funny enough there were a couple of nights with about 20 boats in the anchorage, mostly HaHa boats. Eventually most left before the approaching Northerly.
It is strange how fast the days pass by, even when we are not leaving the boat at all, which we ended up doing a couple of days. It was so windy and choppy that a dinghy ride just was not appealing.
But we had some fun expeditions before the wind picked up. One day we went beach walking on a beach full with huge, fossilized shells. The islands in the Sea of Cortez are all part of a nature park, so collecting of shells is strictly forbidden. It makes good sense, because it is easy to imagine that the eager collectors could deplete this amazing display within a few years. There was a fish camp nearby, and since the pescaderos had just returned from their daily fishing trip, we asked in our best Spanish if we could comprar some fish. Turned out one of the guys spoke pretty good English, and even some French. He sold us a bunch of Triggerfish files, which were very good eating. These guys in the fish camps are leading a very tough life, at least it appears to us that way. Tiny little shags to provide shelter from the harsh conditions, no running water, not much electricity, and going home may be only once a week or not even that frequently. But they appear to be very happy people. As we are finding out for ourselves, one doesn’t need most of the ‘stuff’ we typically acquire and believe we must have. Of course there still is a huge difference between our fully equipped boats and the life in a fish camp….
Another day we attempted to hike up a canyon/ dry riverbed on Isla Partida, together with the crew of Fly Aweigh. We met on the beach, and even found a posted sign indicating a trail. But that really was the last trace of said trail, we were climbing over rocks the size of a VW bus. It was absolutely spectacular, a huge variety of cacti and other desert plants, a breathtaking view over the anchorage, and a good workout. The folks from Fly Aweigh had turned back earlier, because Allan’s parents were having a hard time negotiating the climb over the rocks which seemed to get bigger and bigger, the higher up we went. So for a while Rod and I continued on by ourselves, wondering what kind of snakes might be living under these rocks. Well, we didn’t have to wonder very long. Rod got a glimpse of a snake, all I saw was something disappearing very quickly. This was enough for us to decide to turn around, especially since I had started to wonder how I would ever be able to climb down these rocks. Up is always so much easier….
So we started our decent. It didn’t take very long and I saw a rock covered with black and yellow striped snakes, a whole bundle of them. After that the climbing down was no issue at all, in no time we were catching up to the Fly Aweigh gang, who were warning us of a rattlesnake just about where we were. They didn’t see it, but Allison had heard the rattle. So we made a huge detour around the suspect area. Rattlesnakes are supposed to be hibernating this time of the year, don’t they know that?
To complete the nature experience, I detected a scorpion, whose presence I indicated with a squeal. It was yellowish and rather large. We all watched it until it disappeared under some plants. What an adventure!
I later found out that the snakes we saw are very special, they are endemic on Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida and are called ‘Espiritu Santo Striped Whipsnake’ (Coluber barbouri or Masticophis barbouri). To bad my only reaction to them at the time was ‘flight’ rather than ‘take pictures’. Rod also saw briefly a squirrel, which turned out to be an endemic species as well, the ‘antelope ground squirrel’.
Bahia Balandra, 7 Dec 2009
We escaped La Paz, the cruiser black hole. After a quick run to the CONANP office to purchase our park permits for all Mexican national parks we left Marina Palmira. The trip was very short, less than a couple of hours to Balandra Bay, famous for its mushroom rock, and besides that, a spectacularly pretty place.
The cruising guides describe Balandra as “good in settled conditions”. The anchorage is wide open to the west. This means that while it may be perfect for day anchoring, staying over night may have complications. Well, today we had settled conditions, the forcast was benign, and it seemed like a perfect time to enjoy Balandra.
When we arrived in the early afternoon, the air was absolutely still, the water like glass and I couldn’t get into the water quick enough. After two weeks marina life, I was experiencing some swim-deprivation. Just about that time, Larry and Muggs of Perigrine arrived as well, and set anchor close by. I swam over to say hi, and gave them a complimentary zinc check. Then I swam back and cleaned our bottom, Proximity’s that is, as far as I could reach without actually having to resort to formal dive gear. In the meantime Stella Blue had also arrived. So we were having a little Alameda reunion. We were all stunned by the beauty of the place. The sunset , the colors, the birds, the mountains – it could not have been more peaceful and beautiful.
A couple of hours later, the wind picked up. Not much, maybe 20 kts for less than an hour then steady low teens. Surf started to build in the anchorage. Eventually, Proximity was hobby horsing rather unpleasantly. The warning from the cruising guide came to mind - something along the lines of ‘no protection from coromels at night’. Coromels are local west winds, typically occurring during summer time. So, who would have thought! We were now anchored in breaking waves, not huge, but definitely ‘uncomfortable’, to once more cite our cruising guide. After dinner, we looked out (now it was really dark) and noticed that Perigrine had disappeared. As we found out subsequently, their anchor had dragged. As Larry was trying to reset it, the anchor chain had jumped off the bow roller, and things were not too good. They had thrown in the towel, and had headed back to La Paz in the dark, dark night. Muggs said later they almost t-boned us while trying to reset. All along, we were down below, quite comfortable, not having the slightest idea about the drama unfolding next to us. A little later we decided to put out some more chain, just in case, so we had to go forward. It was a two person job, because the chain was snubbered. So Rod takes the snubber off, and I operate the remote for the windlass. Proximity was taking plenty of water over the bow, and Rod got quite wet re-setting the snubber. Wally, of Stella Blue, commented to us the next morning that the night went O.K. for him. He said that he only got scared when we had our foredeck light on, and he saw our boat’s movement while we were letting out the chain. We decided that night to sit anchor watch, and during one of my shifts, Wally turned on his decklights and I was watching his boat in the waves, it looked rather small all of a sudden.
As it turned out, our oversized Ultra anchor held beautifully, and we had no real drama on board Proximity. We do feel bad about Perigrine. They had a difficult time of it. We had talked of exploring the anchorages of Isla Espiritu Santos together, and we are sure it would have been great fun.
In the morning around 9 AM we left for Caleta Partida, since the waves were still going. We passed on exploring this gorgeous place this time around, but we feel that we must return some time in the future!
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06 December, 2009 We are still at La Pazzz until tomorrow. Then, we head up to Espiritu Santos for a while - maybe a week maybe more if it is wonderful. The temp. is cooling here too. Lately we have been wearing sweaters at night. So, we will see if the beauty outweighs the cool temp. If it doesn't, then we head south.
We had a fun outing the other day. We hired a guide to take us out to a former mining town called Triunfo. In the early 1700's, it was established as a silver and copper mining town. Had about 11,000 residents. Now, there are about 400. The ruins of the old mines are there, and there is a museum of old musical instruments in a beautiful old hacienda. We had lunch a very traditional restaurant which was just a house with an open wood fired cocina outside. The lady made fresh tortillas, beans, and cooked some really tasty shredded beef. The salsa was made from a wild pepper that grows there. It was wonderful. True old rural Mexico.
We then went to the National Cactus Sanctuary. A cactus national forest - truly beautiful.
Last night, we had a guest of honor come over to play music. In Los Muertos, we met a Jerry and Patricia, a local Mexican couple who work at the Grand Sueno resort there. Jerry plays guitar and sings beautifully. So he and his wife were our guests of honor and came over last night. Along with our friends Chris and Duane from Risk Taker and Valerie and Eric from Pacific Mystic, we played and sang into the night. Super. Jerry knew Pink Floyd and Eagles as well as some wonderful Mexican stuff, so I was in heaven. We all had a great time, and we hope to have them aboard again when we pass through Muertos southbound.
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24 November 2009, La Paz
We arrived in the Marina Palmira in La Paz a couple of days ago and plan to stay here for two weeks. Boat chores are on the agenda. We already got the Temporay Import Permit for Proximity, an important document to have while in Mexico. It is good for ten years! The thick salt crust has been removed from the boat, and we went to town and bought an insane amount of fresh veggies and fruit. Our diet during the last few days had mostly consisted of canned food, so we went a little overboard, may be, to compensate. We even found a small bakery selling real fresh bread! That is a great find for an Ex-German. Bread is a very important staple for that sub-species. If you ever have the chance to read Beate Kammler’s book “Komm, wir segeln um die Welt” (translated into many languages but unfortunately not English, the title means “Come on, let’s sail around the world”) you’ll be surprised by the detailed descriptions of looking for, finding, trying to conserve bread for passages etc. I guess it is engrained into our very cores – got to have good bread. Along those lines, we had just finished our last pound of black bread, which we had found in Santa Barbara which seems a long time ago. That is somewhat of a milestone, which will be surpassed only by finishing the last pound of Peet’s coffee, an event which will occur in about a month I am afraid (people at Zogenix – can you even imagine such an existence – no Peet’s!!)
I am digressing, back to the chores. We’ll have to find a sail maker, fix some problem with the head, yikes, and may be even do some varnishing. The inside of the boat needs to be re-organized, now that we have been out for two months, we have a better idea of what needs to be accessible and what not. May be we can re-arrange our aft cabin such that it does not always look like it was just hit by a bomb.
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Bahia Santa Maria, hike to mountin top overlooking anchorage with HAHA fleet
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| Night watch |
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| Los Freiles, Baja, Sea of Cortez, walk in the desert |
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| Los Freile, Palapas |
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| Cacti huge like trees |
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| Rod and his guitar |
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October 29, 2009 N27 40, W114 53 Bahia Tortuga
Wow. We are here, but it has been difficult and wild. We have damage. We left San Quintin and quickly found that the wind and seas had not subsided. During the day, we saw sustained 30 kt. winds with gusts to 34. The seas were pretty huge, nearly 20 feet, bigger than any we had seen previously. We hand steered for the entire day and into the night after the autopilot allowed an accidental gybe. We had the boom brake on but the wind was fierce enough that it broke a few of the mainsail slides. This in turn led to a zipper effect and we lost 6 slides total. We then brought the mainsail down to the second reef – while sailing downwind. It was pretty amazing in that we got it done.
Through the night the seas subsided to about 12 feet or so. Normally we would have though of this as really big, but now they seemed pretty benign and friendly. We are tired. We both slept in the cockpit and hand steered all of the day and all of the night (hmm…nice name for a song, isn’t it?) We have spare sail slides and Elisabeth is sewing them in today. Dave Benjamin of Exit Strategy is a sailmaker and has spares with him. Thus, he has offered us some replacements for our spares, so that we still have a few spares with us. Wonderful.
I wanted to go ashore and walk around the little village, but we are both so very tired that we will just go to bed early, safely anchored in this wonderful bay. It is beautiful here with so many boats. It is as if a city is traveling together. As for the big weather – we have grown and found strength that we didn’t know we had. Cool.
October 27, 2009 N30 17, W115 57 San Quintin Anchorage
We started the Ha Ha. At the skippers meeting, this issue with the weather was discussed at length. Our intention was to get to San Quintin as Colnett doesn’t offer enough shelter. This meant motoring – a lot of motoring at a fairly high power setting, which means that we burned our fuel to near critical levels early in the leg. We can get fuel at Bahia Tortuga, so it should work out, although we are a bit uneasy about it all. Welcome to the big world of world sailing. Bottom line is that we are here, anchored safely along woth about 100 other boats. The system is to hit tonight.
As we were pulling into the anchorage, another boat, Stepping Stone announced that they had caught a few skipjack fish and offered them. We radioed that we would like one, as did a boat Paikea Mist. Competition! It ended up that the guys from Paikea Mist went over to Stepping Stone, retrieved two fish and delivered one to us! They are two nice couples from Canada, and we will probably hook up with them later on in the rally.
For now, we are all talking about missing the biggest of the weather tonight and getting an early start in the morning. The wind and seas will still be up, but we will be rested, and they should be on their way down to more reasonable levels.
October 25, 2009
We are considering ditching the Baja Ha Ha. There is a storm which is forecast to bring in 30 kt. winds and 17 foot seas to the area along our route to Bahia Tortuga. We have checked, and there is an anchorage along the way at Punta Colnett and at San Quintin, IF we can get there on time beore the sh…hits the fan. We will see if the Ha Ha organizers will delay the start. This is what we would do if we were traveling alone. Don’t go doing something stupid just because we are with 190 other boats.
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October 19, 2009 N32 43.6 W 117 12.2
Cabrillo Isle Marina, San Diego
Well, we are here. This is the completion of phase 1. We got up early (05:00) in Oceanside for the final leg to SD. We had a mostly sunny day, light wind, but forward of the beam, and it was wonderful. On the way, we passed by a family of whales. They were big and close - closer than we perfer, but they were there, so we just enjoyed their beauty and majesty. Imagine an animal with an elephant's back, only much , much, MUCH, bigger - swimming toward you - in a group of three. Very impressive, and we were spellbound. Simply the best.
Upon arrival, we were met by our friend Wally from Alameda (remember, we spoke on the radio the other day). Well, he is here at the very next dock, and he took a dockline for us. After checking in to the marina, we all went to the hotel bar here and shared stories and a drink to celebrate our arrivals. It has not always been easy. We have earned our celebration. On the foggy day, Wally had his challenges. His day too, was rough. We are all suddenly very close. It's a special thing. I've heard of this "cruiser" comaradery, but now experiencing it, it is rather touching. It is real. This evening, we're off to the marina gate to collect a pizza dinner, being delivered to celebrate together on Proximity, the three of us. Wally seems comfortable here, and we are glad to have him.
Now, we are here, the weather is nice, and we have about a week to get everything ready before we all head to Mexico together. The steering is making noises I don't like and must be checked. The engine oil needs to be changed. The watermaker needs to be serviced. The boat needs to be washed. The laundry needs to be done. We have spare parts to pick up in town, we have do some final food shopping, and the rum bottle is empty, so you can see that the next week will be full. ...and we are happy.
October 18, 2009 N33 12.6, W117 23.8
Side tie at Oceanside Yacht Club
What a difference in a day. We almost didn't leave today because of the spectre of......FOG!!!! Boy it was sh......y yesterday. But today, ther was enough visibility to see the hill tops, so we went for it to Oceanside. This was a short trip - only about 5 hours. It was great. We got here early enough to go walk around, to go up to the club and visit, etc. Our email is: svproximity@gmail.com You should really send Elisabeth a request for her to tell you about Dana Point where we were yesterday. She has a most entertaining perspective on it. i cannot do it justice. Just ask Schatzie. So one more day trip and we'll be in San Diego tomorrow. Cool! Goodnight!
October 17, 2009 N33 27.7 W117 92.3
At anchor, Dana Point, Ca.
We are tired. Elisabeth is sleeping, and I will be soon. First, I must check engine oil, strainers, double check routing for tomorrow's passage into San Diego. Our morning started off beautifully at Kings Harbor. After a nice cup of coffee on a beautiful morning, with my best buddy, we got started for the passage across Long Beach, one of the busiest places in the world for sea traffic. What great adventure to see this busy port in action. After rounding Point Palos Verdes, we saw a wall of dense fog ahead. It had not been mentioned in any of the forecasts, so we guessed that it was probably localized, and proceeded on. The visibility gradually dropped to less than 1/4 mile - and this is one of the busiest shipping areas of the world remember? We worked our a----es off staring at the radar, checking against AIS, one contact after another. Hour after hour for ten hours. (Although, thankfully, the busies commercial area lasted only about four hours).
The weather broadcasts never confessed the fog which remained all of the way to Dana Point. So here we were, arriving in completely socked in conditions. And that is how we got into the harbor and anchored - by instruments. This was the condition all through the Los Angeles Area to San Diego. All day, the radio was alive with people experiencing difficulty. I think the local Vessel Assist work harder here than anywhere. Bottom line is we are fine - but by golly, we worked for it. You would be proud of us, your two steely-eyed fighter pilots. We had formulated an alternate plan in that we would head out to sea and continue on to San Diego if we were unable to make "contact" with the entrance buoys. Nice we didn't have to use it.
We managed to speak again with Wally. He was in the soup too, and was two thirds the way to San Diego. Had any of us known, and I'm sure this goes for nearly everyone out on the water today, we would have stayed another day. But then, that is the way things go, and one must be prepared to deal with them. I'm proud of us today. Now, I'm going to have a rest! (By the way, the forcast now confesses the fog.)
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October 16, 2009 N33 50.9 W118 24.1
Kings Harbor, Redondo Beach, Ca.
We woke up this morning dreading having to cross that Channel Islands Harbor exit. Elisabeth held me and admited that she was scared. I assured her that the sea state had probably settled down, and confirmed with a call to the Harbor Patrol. Yes, it had indeed settled. The exit was uneventful. What a difference in a day.... The trip to Redondo was pure Southern California heaven. Sun, warmth, flat sea, birds. It was all there, and simply wonderful. A truly beautiful day. We arrived at Kings harbor and were hosted by the Kings Harbor Yacht Club. They were very nice to us and we had a great evening with them. It was the spot for a photo op of our trusted and beloved Proximity.
October 15, 2009 N34 09.8 W119 13.5
Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard, Ca.
The storm finally blew through, and we got up early and had a nice trip down the road to Oxnard. A highlight was along the way we got to speak with our friend Wally Bryant from Alameda. We knew that he had been staying at the Ventura Harbor and was planning to leave around mid-day. We chanced a call, and there he was. We discussed our individual plans, and decided that it would work out best that we remained a day behind him.
The sea state was quite lively today, with the swell left over from the storm. This resulted in quite a big surf at the entrance to the Channel Islands harbor. Looking ahead, we could see that one had to pass through a surf line to enter the harbor. The cruising guide did not offer any warning, so we went for it. Good old Proximity got us through in fine order, but we must admit that it was indeed Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. This was further confirmed when a local woman we met at the very hospitable Channel Islands Yacht Club remarked that she "couldn't imagine"...and then later the locals offered their warnings. We both were a little rattled, but not too badly. What was the Jan and Dean Song? Ride, Ride, Ride the Wild Surf. Yep. Cowabunga!
October 14, 2009. Santa Barbara
While we wait the storm to pass, we spent the day walking into town with our new friends Nigel and Bay of the s/v Arena. They are a couple who left British Columbia bound for the Panama Canal and further on. We first shared an anchorage with them in Half Moon Bay, then quickly met in Monterey, another anchorage in Port San Luis, and now, we have actually spent an afternoon exploring town and getting to know one another, although after seeing their boat in so many instances, we already felt a kinship. Here is a photo that Bay took while we shared a coffee. It was a wonderful day, and we hope to meet up with them again in the unknowm morrow.
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October 13, 2009 still Santa Barbara Harbor
Today is the day of the rain – it has been raining all day. So I did laundry while Rod filled and tied the jerry fuel jugs on deck. After the fueling, Rod met me at the laundry. Unfortunately, on our way back (in the rain) with the nice dry folded laundry, we found out that our bag is not entirely waterproof, so most of the pieces had to be spread out in the cabin to dry again. Fortunately we are still having our electrical heater, which we almost left behind, since we were heading towards the warm South.
Right now, we just returned from a walk along the breakwater. The Harbor authorities had closed it due to rain and hazardous surf, waves are breaking over the wall, etc. Being Northern German, it looked like great fun. We did get quite wet, but that’s what the foulies are for, or? The only other people out there were a couple of guys in wet suits scoping out the surf. The wind did not exceed 19.9 knots, as predicted.
October 12, 2009 Santa Barbara Harbor
When we left Cojo anchorage a couple of days ago, we had intended to anchor out east of Stern’s wharf in Santa Barbara. But, along the way, the weather forecast started to predict SE winds, and our cruising guide reported that this anchorage is fine EXCEPT in SE winds. So, we changed plans to try and get a slip in the Marina. We called the Santa Barbara harbor office fairly early, and of course they don’t take reservations, it’s first come first serve, and they had only one slip left. Also, when we left Cojo in the morning, we met another sailboat just coming around Point Conception. So, we were now looking at the other sailboat, which had almost caught up with us. We figured they were probably getting the same forecast and heading for the same destination, so we gave our engine the Italian tune up and revved her up a little. The wind was light and variable, sailing was out of the question, so it looked like a motorboat race. After traveling a couple of hours at flank speed (read big fuel burn) we got lucky, won the race by a margin, and got the last slip of the day in Santa Barbara.
The first thing coming into the harbor, one has to tie to a dock in front of the harbor office, and go and check in. While we were approaching this dock, we saw our welcome committee. There were literally about a hundred people looking our way. Fortunately, we presented a flawless docking maneuver. It would have just been too embarrassing if something would have gone wrong. As it turned out, the people weren’t really awaiting us. There was the annual Harbor Fest going on, and they happened to be standing in line to get onto a ship for a tour. Not only were these people looking down on the dock we were tying to, as soon as I had gotten onto the dock, they all started to come down to get on the ship, which was tied to the other side of the same dock. I felt like a football player trying to muscle past them to attach the mooring lines.
After we had Proximity tied up in her assigned slip, Rod and I headed off to join the festivities. Located on the Harbor area, is The Endless Summer Bar. It’s an old favorite surf bar of ours from three years ago, when we were here with our boat the first time. It was fun to visit the place again.
Of course, we have to do some boat maintenance while we are here waiting for the storm to pass. Rod tightened the steering cables, adjusted the engine idle, checked oil, and a few other things. We are now mostly done with that, and can enjoy Santa Barbara. It is just so pretty here - even in the rain, which has started this afternoon. We count our blessing that we are not in the Bay Area at this time, where the forecast predicts gusts of 60 knots and swells of 17 feet at 12 seconds. We are much better off here. But, since the SE wind and swells are the worst conditions for this area (as we are ensured by our local friends) we’ll stay put and enjoy our time.
The local sea water has a fluorescence condition in which the water glows like a blue light when disturbed. Last night we were watching the fluorescence in the water, with lots of little fish darting around and lighting up their traces. I am always fascinated to watch this.
This morning, when cleaning the engine seawater strainer; we found a little fish in it. It appeared to be still very happy, and we made sure it got back into its element mucho pronto.
I think we are slowly getting the hang of this cruising life, though I still feel weird about not working, but I think I am getting used to it. Rod is very focused on the responsibilities of our well being, weather, navigation, mechanical condition of the boat and all of its gear, so I watch to make sure he doesn’t stress. He says we’re a good team and I agree.
October 9, 2009 N34 26.9, W120 26.4 Cojo Anchorage
This morning we got up early and left Port San Luis bound for the crossing of Point Conception and anchor at Cojo. We brought up anchor in the dark, so it is always a little more challenging and goes just a bit slower, making it very satisfying once all is stowed away for passage. Follow this with a nice hot coffee once safely out to sea, and you have sailor bliss. I always enjoy this time of the day watching the sun rise. Great stuff.
The wind is still very light, so we had to motor all the way. The sky today was grey with a thin overcast, but the seas were flat with a nice ride. We enjoyed looking at the missile gantrys at Vandenburg Air force Base as we went by. Along the lines of military activity, the Pacific Missile range was active today with the Navy conducting operations in the area south of the Channel Islands. We were entertained by the radio exchange between an unfortunate boat that had sailed into the “hot zone” and a Navy aircraft that had to direct him out of harm’s way. The poor fellow was instructed to change course to the east and make his best time for 40 miles. That is almost an entire day for a sailboat, so his day’s progress was for naught. Word to the wise, check the Notices to Mariners.
For those unfamiliar, Point Conception is the symbolic dividing point between northern and southern California, and it has it’s own local weather conditions that are most often strong winds and rough seas. Sailors always brace themselves for “getting beat up” while rounding the point. Today, the point was quiet, and we still had to motor around. We arrived about 4:30 pm, set our anchor in about 40 feet of water, and are sharing the anchorage with three other boats. We are celebrating this crossing with a bottle of champagne given to us by our friend Craig in Alameda. We will get up early tomorrow, and make our way to Santa Barbara where we plan to anchor on the east side of Stearn’s Wharf.
October 8, 2009 N 35 09.4 W 120 45.1, at anchor at Port San Luis
Yes, we actually left Monterey and did an overnight leg to Port San Luis., where we are anchoring now. As we arrived, we called the harbormaster as to where to anchor. The instructions were less then clear, so we set anchor in an area with many mooring balls and anchored sailboat. We had merely finished the setting the anchor, as the harbormaster called us on the radio and send us off to the ‘correct’ anchorage, where we are now. Funny thing, nobody else anchors here except a couple for derelict, so we have it all to ourselves. Thousands of birds, I am not kidding, and plenty harbor seals and fish are keeping us company. This bay is beaming with life, and so far I have not seen any floating trash, such as plastic items, which is a nice change from previous places.
So what kept us so long in Monterey, you wonder? Well, first we had to deal with the engine problem, which would shut off when throttling down and every once in while made noises so that we both were looking for an airplane or something. With the advice of a very skilled mechanic Rod re-aligned the engine, and we exchanged the fuel filters. Nobody, and we talked to a lot of people, had a conclusive idea of what might be going on. In the end we weren’t sure the problems were fixed, but all went well on our way to Port San Luis, thus I dare to conclude that we corrected the issues. This had taken a few days to get sorted out, and in the meantime we had asked for a credit card, which was send to our old mailbox in Alameda, to be forwarded to a friend living in Carmel. By the time this important piece arrived, we had lost our weather window and we were waiting for some nasty seas to lie down again, together with quite a few other HAHA boats.
Monterey is a good spot to be stuck, though. The sailing community on our dock is great, we felt right at home hanging with the ‘tres amigos’ from Tier A.
From Monterey to Port San Luis it takes about 24 hours at an average speed of 5 knots, which we use for planning purposes. So we had our first overnighter on this trip, which all went well. For once we had the moon and lots of stars during the night. At some point during the day we had the wind from South West, which made for a nice upwind sail. Note, I really like upwind sailing better than downwind. It didn’t last very long, and the wind returned to NW, as expected. Mostly it was not strong enough for a good sail, thus we motored along, sailed whenever we could make >4 knots.
On my last off-watch, when I just started to warm up in my cozy bunk, I heard a loud THUD and then the engine went silent. I was sure we had run aground, even though we were about 7 miles off the coast. I shot up into the cockpit, where Rod only said “Kelp Patty”, and he already tried to turn on the engine, which actually come back in fairly short order. That was some excitement. Now the boat speed was not reading, so I got the paddle wheel out of the water, merely looked at it and put it back in, which actually fixed the problem right away. Sometimes you just have to be lucky. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the compass for the autopilot gave up on us earlier in the day. Strange, but that compass almost seems to be a wear item, as it was already our second. Anyway, since no wire wiggling could make it work again, Rod quickly put in the spare compass, which worked flawlessly so far. So we already used up one critical spare. It is the ‘old’ B&G H1000, which is not supported by B&G anymore. But in the meantime Rod located a store in San Diego, they have a couple of the H1000 compasses in the inventory. We will pick them up once in San Diego. But now I am digressing, back to our trip.. When I got the mainsail down while entering into Port San Luis, I noticed two of the sliders connecting the sail to the mast were broken. So my first action item after anchor setting was to replace them - aaah, cruising at its finest. At least our current location is almost exotic, we hadn’t been here before, so the ‘fixing things’ is well in order.
September 28, 2009. Postion: N 36 36.19 , W 121 53.39 Monterey Municipal Marina
Well, ja, as Rod left off mentioning he would tell more about the sudden shutting of our engine, that is where I will pick up. When we were close to enter the breakwater at Pillar Point, and I was ready to drop the main, Rod throttled back the engine and .. it stopped. Fortunately it came right back on when asked. So we anchored and once we found out that we had actually less fuel in the tank then we thought we had, we were not concerned about the incidence.
We then stayed in Halfmoon Bay waiting for a day with a little less fog, which was predicted to be Saturday the 26th. We poked our heads out the hatch at 3:30 AM in the morning and, yikes, it looked really bad outside. There was may be two boat lenghts of visibility, very eery. But we brought the anchor up and very slowly glid out through the breakwater. We could hear the waves breaking, but saw really nothing. Thanks for GPS and radar. This early in the morning there was no wind at all, so we were motoring along and having our watermaker filling up our tanks at the same time. Once the tanks were topped off, and the wind had come up, we wanted to sail, after all that's what Proximity does best. But now, oh no, when we throttled the engine back, it stopped again. We turned it back on, brought the rpm back to cruising speed, throtted back, and again it went off. Looks like an issue...
To make along story short, we got into the Marina in Monterey, and now are working on trying to figure out what is wrong with our engine. It runs fine, but this issue needs to be resolved before we go on. Along the lines we are learning a lot about our engine, its aligment, fixing the boat at exotic places..... Hey, Monterey is way more exotic than Swensen's (sorry , Swendsen's crew...)
In the meantime we had a good time walking around and hanging out at San Carlos beach, where we exactly a month ago got our dive certs. We managed to snitch a picture of Mitch emerging from the water, it was fun to catch him there. We are feeling right at home here at Tier A, there are a bunch of really nice guys around helping with our problems at hand and always ready for a friendly chat. And then there is our resident pirate from the Alaska Eagle, Jeff, lots of fun to hang out with. Monterey is really a good spot to be stuck for a while, oh, and there are otters in the Marina providing endless entertainment.
September 23, 2009. Position: N37 29.78, W122 29.31
Yesterday, we finally got underway from Alameda. It was a beautiful clear, warm morning. We waved good-bye to friends at Marina Village as we passed. We were touched by the turnout. Thanks to all of you. After a nice cookie, baked by my little sister Charlene, we had cameras ready with high hopes of getting that last beautiful shot of the Golden Gate as we passed under. Mother nature had other ideas. As soon as we cleared the Oakland Estuary, we could see that the bridge was completely socked in, enveloped in the thickest pea soup one could ask for. So with the help of Mr. Radar, we passed under the Gate without even a glimpse of it. It was that thick. The humor of it was not lost on us, but we do admit to have being a bit saddened by it.
The heavy marine layer persisted all of the way to Half Moon Bay. Along the way we talked with our friend Bob Hanelt who was having lunch at HMB. He said that the anchorage was sunny. And yes, it was for a short while after our arrival. We are snugley anchored here, my morning coffee is ready, and I have had my foot-pumped shower and shave. Now, we will do a few boat projects and see how the day goes. We expect to up anchor tomorrow for Monterey.
I will write more later, and tell of the Canadian boat we sailed with for awhile, and the momentary loss of engine power just as we were passing through the HMB breakwater. But for now, I will have coffee with my best buddy.
September 1, 2009. Still at Svendsen's. All rig work is done, and now we are finalizing our yard bill (yikes!). The peace of mind will be worth it. We had our going away party on Saturday with lots of sunshine, wonderful people. After 5 years and all of the preparation and mental readying, we are ready to go. But, we are also realizing that bittersweet feeling that we will, indeed, miss these special people. We expected this....
Today, we started prepping the deck for painting. We will wire brush today, mask tomorrow, and paint on Wednesday. We still have to button up the house, and officially slipped our departure date to September 22. ...and the clock is ticking. Gotta go. Love ya honey! Bye!
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August 15, 2009. Position.....Svendsen's Boatyard. We are down to one month from departure - exactly. The chainplates have been fabricated and installed. The backstay will now be removed and the Holmatro hydraulic tensioner will be attached. The rig will then be tuned. We will replace the old mast mounted captive main halyard reel winch with a modern self-tailing one. We have two port light windows out for replacement. TAP plastics has cut us new ones, and I will install those most likely Tuesday. We are starting to move things on board that have been in storage. This weekend, we are attending our scuba cert class with Wayne Mitchell. We had attended in June, but I managed to break my finger two days before the cert dive in Monterey. So, let's try again. Wayne (Mitch) is just a super teacher, and we heartily recommend him if you are looking to go diving. It was great to get back into the water again, and it all felt great to do something other than boatyard duties. It is often said that this last flurry of activity happens to everyone just before they head out, so we are right on track. People ask if we are getting excited or nervous.......we're probably only nervous about getting it all done without our departure date slipping.
August 2, 2009. Position....Uberraschung! (surprise in German). We are in the water, but still at Svendsen's boat yard. We have decided to replace our chainplates. Of course, this is not a trivial project and has added about three weeks to our yard stay. However, we had some rust stains that we didn't like, so the decision was easy. We have gotten the plates for the lower diagonals out and the steel shop has built new ones that we will install next week. Then the uppers will come out, and we will do the same there. In the mean time. it turns out that the water maker doesn't like to fresh water flush without pressure water. We had removed our old pressure water pump for the cruise in the interest of water consumption. (You use much much less when foot pumping.) So, we have installed a new water pressure pump. We have to admit, that pressure water is really nice!
As a result of our extending our stay here at Svendsen's, we will have only a bout 3 weeks until we depart once our work here is done. Hence, we have worked out an arrangement that we will leave from here rather than return to our berth at Marina Village. I guess this means that we have officially set off on our "voyage". Our friend, Bob Hanelt, did remind us that when people say that cruising is going to exotic places to work on your boat, they didn't mean Svendsen's! We'll work on that one. The crew here at Svendsen's are just super. They are really good to us, and we feel like we have been adopted by them. We are quite comfortable and happy!
Elisabeth had her last day at work on Friday. Her work mates came by a gave her a nice little party, and it really was a bittersweet occasion. One one hand, all are excited and happy for her, and on the other, it was clear that they all love her very much and will miss her greatly. She will miss them too, but rather than staying here with them, she is inviting them all to come spend some time with us somewhere along the way.
July 21, 2009. Position....you guessed it. We're still in the boat yard. We've gotten our watermaker in. The new refrigerator is all set. Bottom is all good and painted. We were introduced to a product called "Prop Speed". It is a two-part etching primer and clear coat system that gets painted on the prop and shaft. It is supposed to keep barnacles from attaching.....we tried it and will report whether or not it works as claimed, but it sounds really good. We would be back in the water by now, but during my thru-hull maintenance on Saturday, I discovered a pink color on the one bronze thru-hull that we did not yet replace. After a little consultation, we decided to replace it. We will have plenty to keep our minds and imaginations occupied out on the middle of the ocean. We don't need to worry about a suspect fitting. For those who aren't familiar, a boat has a variety of through-the-hull fittings for various things, sink drains, engine cooling water, etc. These are often made of bronze which turns pink when it corrodes. So, pink is bad. We should launch on Thursday. Elisabeth is still working through next week, then she is also "retired". We cast off in 8 weeks.
July 8, 2009. Position unchanged for all practical purposes.
We have moved the boat to Svendsen's Boat Yard for a few last installments and bottom job before we go. We are installing the Spectra Ventura 150 water maker that we bought at this year's boat show. We are also doing the final hook-up of our new IsoTherm refrigerator. The old Grunert is working wonderfully, but the IsoTherm is much much smaller giving us a whole new locker for stowage. It is also, and more importantly much more efficient. This , of course, allow us to be ever more independent of running the engine to charge batteries. Lastly, we are having the rig inspected and tuned. As part of that, we will have the masthead tri-color, and anchor light changed to LED. Adam Sadeg, an old friend from Marina Village is our project manager, so it makes the yard sort of fun rather than drudgery.
We spent the 4th in San Francisco at Pier 39 with our friends Bob and Beth Jacoby aboard their boat. A nice dinner, good friends, super fireworks followed by a nice bay sail on Sunday morning was quite welcome from our prep duties. Hopefully, we have talked Bob and Beth into joining us somewhere along the way........"out there".
July 3, 2009. N37.47.14 W122.16.03
In our slip at Marina Village Yacht Harbor in Alameda, California, USA. My hand is in the cast (see photo on "About Us" page) from the surgery I had two weeks ago. The cast comes off on Monday. Hopefully then I can start working in earnest. We leave in less than 2 1/2 months now, and there is much I want to do.
We did get some things crossed off of the "endless list" (every cruiser has their own "endless list") We got our kayak dock dismantled today, and Elisabeth got our medical kit updated and organized. There is more to add to the kit, but it is progress.
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