Oh Mexico...

My last blog was a bit brief about Cabo... and a little premature. We spent a couple more days there provisioning, doing laundry, and recovering (yachting is a lot of work!). I also spent quite a bit of time sneaking into 5 star hotels to use their hot tubs and poolside bars. Kat needed some major recovery after taking a header down the compainionway... Our first day in Cabo we swam in to the beach, and I got stung by a jellyfish pretty bad. After begging for vinegar from the palapa bar, and being the good mom she is, Kat ordered us a couple of grade drinks to "ease my pain". Let's just say we needed an escort while swimming back to the boat (thank you Gary), and after deciding to strip down in the cockpit, mom "went down like a greased refrigerator" so to speak. Luckily nothing lifge threatening, but a couple of black butt cheeks and a bruised wrist made the next few days a little, uh, tender.

Our first sail out of Cabo was quite the beat. We set sail to Los Frailes, a beautiful little anchorage about 45 miles around the point into the Sea of Cortez. After a wonderfully relaxing day of running, snorkeling, and reading, the local, Phillipe, put on a fish taco and margarita party. There is absolutely nothing like a bondfire on a private, white sand beach. The next day we all headed to the reef to snorkel (Toby, Jamie, Kat, Jay, Gary, and me). The kids kayaked and spear fished, and Gary and I almost made friends with some Dolphins that were passing though. We had a wonderful dinner of fresh red snapper with Di's Dream (Suebee left us for Mazatlan) and met some other cruisers that we hope to see along the way.

Our sail to Ensenada de Los Muertos was perfect. We sailed the whole way in calm seas and good winds. We dropped our hook and went in to meet Triumph (and Torsen and Elka) for drinks and dinner at the charming little restaurant. We pulled our dinghy onto the beach and let Jay coach us on exactly how to beach it. He, of course, did not heed our warnings to tie off to a rock. Can you guess where this is going? Yes, we got back from dinner, in the dark, and found our dinghy was no longer on the beach. So the search began, and our new friends not only got up, but put their motor on and offered to drive us around to find the drifter. Just as we were about the pull up the hook to search the ocean blue, Toby pulled up in our missing boat, he had found it on his kayak. We are buying Triumph a lot of beer. Disaster averted.

We headed out this morning for Puerto Ballandra. It was another wonderful sail, a little lacking on wildlife and fish though... Aside from Dolphins, our most exciting discovery was a floating goat in the middle of the Sea of Cortez. This anchorage is stunning, the shoal is only a few feet deep for about 2 hundred yards off the beach. Tomorrow dad and I are free diving a 10ft bronze statue and sank right off the point (without my marine biologist/free dive instructor), it should be interesting. Then we're off to La Paz for provisions and then islands for some diving.

I'm not sure this counts with the family bet, but I am probably jumping ship in La Paz...

Not for good though, I just plan to join my Triumph friends for a couple of days of sailing and diving.

SD to Cabo!

So our true adventure has begun. I’ll do my best to make this a catch up blog… we haven’t had much of a chance to update in the last couple weeks…

We ended up in Sunroad Marina in San Diego, which was much closer to the action then our original Pier 32 slip. The first day in SD was spend tracking down visas and fishing liscenses. We fortunately finished the chores in time to spend the day touring Balboa Park and the Natural History Museum. The special was “Oasis: Baha California”. The video of the wildlife got us very excited to head down the coast, but all my newfound confidence with snorkeling was demolished (too many creatures), we’ll have to see if I can regain some by the time we get there. The rest of the weekend we spent with Suebee and we were lucky to visit with Jesse and Shanna, boating friends who moved down the coast.

On Friday we were set to fly home for a week to check on things and see Ceejmo, who got leave before shipping off to Alaska. It was nice to be home and see the dogs, the house, friends, and family, but I think we all found the short trip oddly stressful. I ended up changing my flight to head back to SD on Tuesday in order to take care of some final touches and have time to see some friends. It was so great to catch up with everyone… and also to have a couple days to myself before the folks came back into town and we headed down the coast. Once their plane landed the following Friday it was nonstop go. Who knew that this cruising thing got to be stressful? We made sure to break it up a little with fun stuff. Saturday night we joined the NorCal crew on MorningStar (a beautiful and luxurious motor yacht Patricia was nice enough to host on!) Haha, I don’t think I had ever had better food in a prettier place, so thank you very much Mimi and Patricia! Sunday was the infamous Baha-Haha costume party, and we also welcomed our fourth crew member Barry White (dads lifelong friend). I ran into my new friends Jaime and Toby, met their fellow crew Gary and even made another friend my age who went to De La Salle! Needless to say, I was THRILLED…

We headed south Monday, October 27. One hundred and eighty boats, all with colorful spinnakers, crossed the starting line at 11 o’clock. The sight was beautiful. The first leg was set to be 350 miles, 3days and two nights. The first 24 hours the sailing was fantastic. I had my first night watch, which was less scary than I had imagined and went by rather quickly. Day two the winds died and the motor went on. Again. But all wasn’t lost, we fished our hearts out. Apparently the Bonitos love us, we couldn’t put a line in the water without hooking one of those guys within the hour. Unfortunately, I came down with a terrible headcold and enjoyed none of it. I was condemned to my room so my germs wouldn’t spread and hated life for the next 24 hours. Luckily for me, the fish still liked us when I was feeling a little better. We even hooked a huge Dorado (Mahi Mahi anyone?) but it got away. I won’t go into specifics, but my Dad blames me. Too bad he doesn’t get that it was too big to fit in the net! Knowing that we weren’t going to make it to Turtle Bay in the daylight, we anchored off of Cedros Island for night three. It was a perfect spot. We witnessed a beautiful sunset, BBQed up some fresh Bonito fish tacos (Barry was pissed we threw all of the fish back after that, they were delicious!) and we witnessed a breathtaking lightning storm. The next morning we pulled up the anchor to a perfect sunrise and headed for the Bay. Day four marks the best day thus far in our fishing careers. Two Yellowtail before ten. Haha, Kat was trying to take a shower off the stern and behind the “curtain of privacy” when we hooked the second. We all rushed back, and had to inform her that fishing trumps privacy, so she should put her clothes on and let us bring in our catch! All was good, we brunched on fresh sashimi. Plus, pulling into Turtle bay the Dolphins decided to escort us in, and both my mom and I reached down off the bow and got to pet our new friends.

Turtle Bay wasn’t exactly what I expected. There wasn’t the clear, torquiose water I was expecting, and the red tide and dead fish (a fisherman apparently decided to dump his tons of dead bait in the water) weren’t convincing me to jump in and swim around. But the weather was nice and I got to hang out with my new friends and eat fresh Yellowtail steaks so I guess there can’t be any complaining. And I do love my new friends, I definitely lucked out.

Wow, this is getting too long! Baja Santa Maria was beautiful. We had an AMAZING hike to the top of the world and I went snorkeling and tide-pooling with my new marine biologist friend (very convenient huh?). After a couple of fun days and a rowdy party, we headed for Cabo!

Cabo has been wonderful. Aside from the hustle and bustle, whistles and drinks, I have snorkeled everyday, swam, tanned, and kayaked to my little hearts desire. It’s been a blast. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to some new friends we’ve met along the way (Cabo is the end of the official Baja Haha). But we’re still traveling with an entourage… Di’s Dream, Suebee, Eager Dreamer, and of course, Triumph will all be headed in the same direction so we plan to meet up at anchorages along the way.

I promise I’ll try and get better about this blog thing…

Miss you all!

Dana Point, Oceanside, and our arrival to San Diego!

Our stay in Dana Point was nothing short of wonderful, thanks mostly to our dear friend Mr. Watson. The first night was spent in ultimate luxury; Kat and I took turns enjoying a soak in the bath while Tom prepared us an amazing dinner. After a couple bottles of wine I was entertained with childhood stories from Montemar Street (always love to hear the trouble dad got into). Needless to say it was a pretty late night for all of us. The next morning, er, afternoon, we went to brunch and since Tom was kind enough to lend us his car, we had the opportuinity to re-provision and shop for snorkeling equipment, running shoes, and other necessities. We all met back up later to watch the Charger game with Bree, Bob, and little Tom (sorry Conman) and to celebrate Toms birthday. I can't tell you how nice it was to spend time with their family. We even got to do ALL our laundry there... no quarters necessary. The next morning the adults went out to breakfast, including SueBee, and I went for a run.

The sail down to oceanside was perfect, even with the Santa Annas blowing. Most of the trip we had great winds and flat seas. we couldn't have asked for better sailing. We even fished for the first time... and caught nothing. We pulled into Oceanside at fourish and got settled for the night. Oceanside is one of the cutest beach towns there is, and we enjoyed the fish'n'chips, great harbor, and beautiful weather. With the huge fire that was burning close enough to cover our boat with ash, we were relieved that the entire city of Oceanside didn't burn down. During my run this morning I watched the surfers, I've decided on my new hobby...

We apprently liked the city a little too much because we didn't pull out for San Diego until noonish, largely underestimating the distance of todays sail. It was a lovely sail, just a very long one. We had good winds most of the day, saw some whales, got a suntan, and sucessfully avoided the submarine, war ships, helicopters dropping divers, and million of crab traps. We even caught a fish! Very fun. Being the avid fisherman we are we had no idea what we had caught and decided we should let it go. It lived. After all the excitement, we didn't get into Peir 32 until after dark (thank goodness for Suebee leading us into our slip). I hear we haven't missed much of a view, apparently we're in the middle of nowhere. Haha, I even got a text message "Welcome to Mexico!"... I guess we're almost there :)

Avalon

So we pulled out of paradise yesterday at about one thirty and headed for Avalon on the east side of Catalina. Our hopes of sailing there were quickly dashed, and we had to disapoint Martin and motor most of the way. All six weather reports we agonized over were wrong, so we are still waiting for some wind. We have found the antithesis to the quaintness of Two Harbors in this port; the whitewashed, tile roofed buildings, paved roads buzzing with golf carts, mission bells on the hour, and a promenade that is a shoppers paradise. Avalon is definately charming in it's own right, but I am a little disapointed that the Harbor Patrol seems to consider a shirt part of their uniform... although I'm not sure I'd want to see these guys without one.

We went to shore to check things out and watch the Dodgers lose (yay!). I've decided that Avalon is the ice cream mecca, we passed a shop on every corner. There is much more to explore today so I will keep adding! Oh, and I forgot to mention... I found a 22 year old friend going on the Haha! She's lovely, I'm stoked.

I thought I would just add onto this one for now... Our day in Avalon was lovely. Kat and I did some window shopping in the morning, while Jay had the most EAGER helper he will ever have help him with some odd jobs around the boat. In fact, I'm pretty sure that he was making up some jobs just to keep Marty busy, but I'm sure he liked getting some stuff done. We had to say goodbye to our guest at 3 o'clock, and the crew walked up to the botanical gardens. There was an absolutely beautiful view, I would show you a picture (I was SO proud I remembered my camera)... unfortunately I hadn't thought to bring my memory card, so it's just another view we'll have to remember. The wind howled all night, making us antsy to sail to the mainland. We headed out and had a wonderful sail to Dana Point to meet Watson... we're actually having our first drink with him now!

More soon...

Catalina

I think the entire crew can now look back at our rainy day cabin fever and laugh... thank goodness. The weather cleared and we took off for Catalina on Monday, a good 8 hour motorsail. We arrived in Fourth of July cove, a picturesque little cove just west of Two Harbors. Sunny skies, warm water, and lots of fishies and sea life greeted us while we moored (a unique experience on Catalina). We headed into town for a refreshment, one which I didn't get to participate in because of my lack of id (I got ice cream instead, not helping to convince the barender of my legal drinking age). The good news is that I befriended the Harbor Patrol immediately and have spend the last few days getting a guided tour of this little island paradise.



Settling in, we have finally found our first relaxing and tropical spot. Kayaking, hiking, drinking, eating, swimming, and putting around town have kept us pretty busy. Today we had to bribe a diver to get my moms lost readers, my dad had made it to the bottom but failed to recover her favorites. And I have gotten to go snorkeling a couple times... yes, ME snorkeling. In fact, not only did I swim through a field of seaweed today with my newfound friend, I actually swam into a dark cave without crying. I'm apparently getting braver, although I was terrified. We have all even been lucky enough to witness the wonder of phosphoressence (sp?). Although we had planned to head to Avalon today, we have loved our spot so much we decided to stay an extra night and head over tomorrow.



We have been blessed with our good friend Marty's company for the next couple days. He took the ferry over and plans to sail to Avalon with us and keep us entertained. Maybe he'll even cook for us...



More soon!

Waiting out the storm...

We arrived yesterday in Oxnard to wait out the foul weather before continuing to Catalina and beyond. Despite its awful name (seriously, probably the worst name for a town EVER), Oxnard is a rather charming beach town. We spent the day hiding from the rain. I thought boats were small before, but now I have a whole new understaning. Luckily we traded off taking walks when there was a break in the rain, doing laundry, and visiting neighbors. Our plans to take the half hour dingy ride to the grocery store was also postponed, but it gave us something to look forward to tomorrow...

I finally gave in and went for a long run on the beach. By the time I got back Kat and Jay had gone out to the local watering hole. I was hoping for a younger crowd, so you can imagine how disapointed I was when I walked into the club where my parents were the babies. Ugh. Well, lucky for us the bartender had extra long pours.

More soon. We miss you all.

Channel Islands

Back to civilazation, meaning back to the blog. After spending one extra night in Santa Barbara the Kat Den Rie headed off towards the Channel Islands solo. Suebee had a water leak to take care of, so the three of us were on our own.

After our beautiful sail over, we nestled into Frys anchorage for the night. Kat and I immediately hopped onto kayaks and explored the surrounding caves and cliffs. Of course I forgot my camera, but we had a blast spooking each other in the caves and arguing over who found the biggest starfish orgy. The next morning dad took a turn kayaking the caves with kat (they got pictures), then we took a trip to shore for a quick hike. Pulling out of Frys, we headed out into the SB channel and got some, uh, practice with rough water manuevers. After that we also got some pactice cleaning up, drying off, and reorganizing the cabin of the boat. We pulled into Pelicans for some rest and realized what was meant by the "Pelican roll". Not the best nights sleep, but dramatically beautiful none the less.

The next day we took things a little easier and headed into Coches Prietos, my personal favorite. Perfect beach. Dad and I headed in to set the stern anchor (entertainment for everyone watching) and Kat headed in to join us for a little exploring. My only regret is not getting to spend much time there, a menacing weather forcast had us scrambling to head into the mainland today. We arrived in Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard, early this afternoon and reunited with Suebee. We're looking forward to a couple of good nights rest before we head off.