Back in Mexico

We're back!

We flew into Cabo during tropical storm Octave.  The roads were flooded and there were rapids running down many of the steep side streets.  That did not stop our friend Charlie from picking us up at the airport and bringing us back to their luxury beach side surf condo in San Jose del Cabo.  We showed up just in time for a condo potluck.  It felt just like a cruiser potluck on the beach, except we had real nice chairs.  The next morning we had to go to Susy's for breakfast.  A great little local spot with excellent, reasonably priced food.

Rickie, Charlie, and Cathy

In between torrential downpours, we managed to check out a few shops and art galleries.

The next day, Charlie was in the mood for a road trip.  Luckily, his plans included dropping us off in La Paz at our boat!  How nice!!!  It is about a three hour drive, with added time for scenic stops and lunch.  We stopped at one of the more famous surf beaches on the Pacific Ocean side of Baja.  This place was just a bit south of Todos Santos, where we would stop for lunch.

We brought them to our favorite fish place in Todos Santos.  Amazingly, it was a place that they have not been to, and we had a great seafood lunch before continuing on to La Paz.

Once we were back on the boat, the work began.  Fixing, the toilet, the engine stop switch, the sail cover, and shopping for food to restock the boat.  It felt good to be back on the boat again, even if it was an unlivable mess at the time.  We did manage to dig out the bed after a few hours, and got a great sleep.

Working on the engine stop switch.  Engine starts fine, just won't stop!

Summer Vacation 2013 Part 2

Summer Vacation Part 2

One evening, we invited Rick and Marilyn from SV Tortuga over for a night of food and music.  Rick brought his guitar, and Marilyn brought here fiddle.  Rich played guitar, and Cathy was on ukulele.  Rick is a very good guitarist, and he managed to hold us all together for a couple of fairly good sounding songs.  The real pleasure here is just getting together with friends to make music.  It is a lot of fun, no matter how it sounds.  We were glad that they agreed to come back to our house again for another music night before we all headed for Mexico.

We also had a chance to get together with our neighbors David and Jackie for a couple of good dinners on the town.  We went to the 1400 restaurant, which is owned by a couple local guys that Rich grew up with.  They have great burgers, and a nice dessert called the "adult root beer float".  It's not root beer in there with the ice cream though, it's dark beer!  Now that's what I call a dessert.  

There is a local restaurant on the waterfront called Quinns Lighthouse, that has sort of pub food.  They have peanuts on the tables for free, and you just throw the shells on the floor.  Every Thursday night they have a "sing like a pirate night".  A group of guys play traditional instruments and sing old sea chanties.  They try to get everyone to sing along, and it's really a lot of fun.  We went here with our friends Erik and Maria who we hadn't seen for quite a while.  It was really nice to catch up them in between songs.

Don and Ruth

After hanging around the house and doing home projects, we were ready to get out of town again.  We were off to see Cathy’s family in Massachusetts.  Although it rained on and off the whole time we were there, we managed to do some great sightseeing.  We took a walk in a nearby park with Cathy’s dad and step-mom, Don and Ruth.  They live in a very nice wooded area in North Reading with several nearby  parks that we went hiking through.  On one rainy day, we went to the Gloucester Schooner Festival.  It was a lot of fun even though the weather chased most people away.  

Glouscester (pronounced gloster)

The factory where bottom paint was invented.

We competed in the knot tying competition where you had to tie a bowline as fast as possible.  The champ did it in 3.5 seconds, Cathy made a good showing at 4.2 seconds, and Rich could only muster a measly 5.1 seconds.  He blamed it on the wet rope!  We had a nice lunch and the first of many lobster rolls. 

Next on tap was a trip to Sheffield in western Mass. in the Berkshires.  This is farm country and getaway for claustrophobic New Yorkers.  We spent the night with Cathy’s brother Steve and his girlfriend Lynne at their house in the country.  We stuffed ourselves at a local restaurant for dinner one night after polishing off some homemade wine.  While it poured rain the next day, we sat on their porch eating pancakes and playing guitar, ukulele, and mandolin.  It was a lot of fun and great to see them again.

Once back in Reading, we took the commuter train into Boston.  We walked around Quincy Market and downtown a bit before heading over to the Boston Aquarium.

Quincy Market

Faneuil Hall

Penguins in Boston?

The Aquarium has recently been remodeled and has some great exhibits.  After looking at so much seafood, we were now ready to eat some.  The Union Oyster House was on our must do list.  This is the oldest restaurant in America, started in 1826.  Some of our founding fathers ate here at the very same oyster bar that we sat at.  They shuck the Oysters right in front of you, (yes you get a little wet sometimes) and they are as fresh as can be.  The chowda (clam chowder) is of course the best. Pair it all with some local ale, and you’re ready for a nap on the train back home.

With still a little time on our hands while on the East Coast, we took a day trip up to Maine.  Yes, it’s possible around here to visit three states in one day.  Our destination was the LL Bean store in Freeport, Maine, and of course, more lobster rolls.  Did we mention that there is one of the original Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream stores at LL Bean?  Have to say, these were the best lobster rolls that we have ever had. Perfect roll, perfect lobster, perfect sauce and seasonings, it just does not get better.  We managed to get some shopping in, and got back to Mass. in time for dinner.  It was nice to be able to spend some time with Cathy’s family as we don’t get to see them that often.

Once back in Alameda we got in touch with our friends Anne and Jeff on SV Outrider.  They were back in the area for a few weeks before heading to Mexico.  We had them over to our house for a little dinner to catch up on their adventures. It was a fun evening of trading stories. We are looking forward to seeing them in Mexico, as their boat is docked just behind ours!

Here's how you can sail at 40 knots!

Our friends Kurt and Katie invited us to join them for some of the Americas Cup finals in San Francisco. The racing was amazing to watch.  The speed of the boats constantly topping 40 knots and barely touching the water.  One day, Kurt and Katie were nice enough to treat us to their Grandstand seats near the St. Francis Yacht Club.  From here you could see the entire race course as well as the jumbo TV screen that had the live feed. 

After race festivities at the MOA Beer patio.  And yes, Kurt and Katie were rooting for the Kiwis.

The Cup, Rich, Katie and Kurt.  Can this thing fit under my coat?

Next on our massive social agenda, was Rich's mom's 75th birthday.  We had the family over to our house for a brunch.  It was nice to see Rich's brother and his family, as well as Rich's Aunt Holly.

Rich's brother, Mom, and Rich

The next week we were visited by Cathy's Aunt Marge and cousin Linda.  They were on their way back to Oregon after a wedding in southern California.  We had a nice dinner and they were on their way to tour the north coast and the redwoods the next day.

Marge, Cathy, Linda

To finish off our summer adventures, we took a hike on the new San Francisco Bay Bridge.  It was about a 5 mile walk, but the bridge is really beautiful.  It should be for the gazillion dollars it cost!  We walked with our friends Rickie and Charlie who live down the street from us.

Charlie and Rickie.  New bridge to the right, old to the left.

Summer Vacation 2013 Part 1

Summer Vacation Part 1

It probably sounds a little strange to think of our time back home as summer vacation.  But that’s how it seems to us.  Cruising in Mexico is fun, but it is constant work.  It’s nice to get home and not worry about your house dragging anchor, running out of water, or fuel, or food, or bees, or high winds, or low winds.

This year our friends Kurt and Katie from SV Interlude were home.  They had just completed their circumnavigation when we met them in La Cruz.  They have been our good friends for many years now, and Kurt and Rich both grew up together in Alameda.  During the summer we were lucky to be able to spend a lot of time with them.  We got together as often as possible to play music, eat, drink, watch movies, watch Americas Cup, ride bikes, etc. It was great to be able to spend some time with them after both of us being gone so often.  It was also nice to have some other friends around that are retired, so we could do things together on week days!

Once we were home, we couldn't wait to go camping and see some trees.  Our first trip was to Silver Lake on HWY 88 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  This is a great high altitude (7,500 feet) lake with good fishing and beautiful scenery.  We swam in the river and caught some small trout fly fishing   We also took a trip one morning over the pass to the Carson River where we had a picnic and did a little fishing also.

A few weeks later we also went camping with a group of friends at Union Reservoir. The group was composed of our friends Kurt and Katie from SV Interlude, Karen and Dave from Tahoe, Matt and Judy and Jackson from San Francisco, and Tony and Crystal from Sacramento.  We had a great time singing and playing guitar around the campfire and swimming in the lake.  Rich, Kurt and Tony went to high school together, and try to meet up on a regular basis.

Karen, Cathy and Dave

As we live very close to wine country, and as we drink a lot of wine, it seemed only natural that we take the short drive out to Livermore Valley and visit our cruising friends Jim and Jeanne from SV Kanga.  They are also home for the summer and live smack dab in the middle of wine country.  We had a nice lunch at one of the wineries, and explored a couple that we had not been to before.  We look forward to meeting up with them again in Mexico next season.

Eating better than the Donner Party

Zoom in on the full moon through the smoke!

Enough camping? Not yet.  This time we took a couple of days to go to Donner Lake, site of the famous Donner Party encampment.  We did some fly-fishing in the nearby Truckee River and enjoyed a nearly empty campground due to the previous storm.  However, there was a large fire burning in Yosemite to the south, and the air in the Tahoe basin was thick with smoke.  Visibility was a half mile at times.  We decided to cut the trip short and head down the mountain for cleaner air. 

We planned to visit some cruising friends that had recently sold their boat and moved back onto dirt.  Roger and Sue, formerly of the cat Neos, had just rented a place in Rocklin just outside of Sacramento.  We had a nice visit with a wonderful pulled pork dinner prepared by Sue.  So it seems that there is life after cruising!  We wish them all the best in their new adventure.

      Kiwis and the Italians going at it.

To get back into the sailing theme, we attended a couple of Luis Vuitton Cup races with Kurt and Katie, and Robert and Virginia from SV Harmony, who we also know from Mexico.  The best way for us to get from Alameda to San Francisco for the race was to take the ferry boat.  It dropped us off a couple of miles from the event site, and we walked to the races.  The racing was spectacular.  We can’t wait to see the Americas Cup Finals.

Kurt, Cathy, Teresa, Kai, and Wayne

Agua Verde to La Paz 2013

Agua Verde to La Paz 2013

We left our nice anchorage to battle the headwinds.  After 9 hours of motor sailing we finally dropped anchor on the north side of Punta San Evaristo.  The anchor chain got jammed on the way out and we luckily hooked up with just 25 feet of chain out before we hit the beach.  Apparently the chain got twisted while we swung in circles at Agua Verde.  It took Rich a good hour of diving into the chain locker to untangle the mess.  Also caused a nasty rotator cuff injury that is still a problem almost five months later!

The colored pebbles

The next day, we waited for the current to lighten up in the channel, and took off for Bahia Amortajada a few miles away.  There is a beach here composed mostly of small rounded rocks that stretches on for miles.  The rocks are all different colors when they are in the water, but are all grey when dry. 

We felt this was a good anchorage to be able to judge the south winds, and determine a good time to make the crossing over to Isla Partida and La Paz. 

We chose to leave the next morning when we thought the Coromuel winds had died off.  Wrong!  We rounded the point and were met by 20 knot plus winds and 4-5 foot chop.  We struggled to get to the lee anchorage on the north side of Isla San Francisco where we dropped the hook and took a nap.  We awoke a couple hours later to dying winds and calmer seas.  Time to go.

 

The trip to Isla Partida was very pleasant with lots of jumping rays, dolphin, a distant whale sighting, and calm seas.  We stayed at Caleta Partida for a couple of days before tiring of the frequent large, loud, Mexican power boats.

It was nice to be tucked back in our slip in La Paz at Marina Costa Baja.  We took a trip into town to get some groceries to keep us for the next week while we prepped the boat for hurricane season.  We are looking forward to getting back home for the summer, but we always miss Mexico when we are away.

Sunrise

Agua Verde June 2013

 We passed the Candeleros Chico anchorage on the way down.

Our first stop on the way back to La Paz was Bahia Agua Verde.  Things got a bit crowded here as we were starting to encounter the large power yachts that use La Paz as a home base.  We met up with several of our friends here, who were also heading back home for the summer.  We made a quick grocery run into the village with our friends Jeanne and Jim on Kanga.

The neighborhood goats came by for a visit every evening.  The village makes really good goat cheese that we try to get whenever we can.

We anchored off the beach.  The town is behind the trees.

The Admiral at her station

After waiting out some stronger winds from the wrong direction, we made our traditional early morning start and continued heading south.