Sailing Recap 2008

Jill joins boat in Victoria, BC, Canada - July 15
Leave Victoria BC, Canada – Aug 1
Otter Bay, Pender Island, Canada – Aug 1 – engine breakdown
Vancouver, Canada – Aug 2 – 4 With Terry and Lynn, Matthew & Annie
Orcas Island & Stewart Islands, USA - Aug 5 – 7 With Jess & Tracy
Victoria, BC, Canada – Aug 7 - 14
Port Angeles, USA – Aug 15
Neah Bay, Washington, USA – Aug 16 - 22
Eureka, CA, USA – Aug 23 - Sept 13 w/ 2 overnight passage
Emeryville (SanFrancisco), CA, USA – Sept 15 – Oct 15, 1 overnight passage, visit f/ Doug & Lucy
Santa Cruz, CA, USA – Oct 17 – 20 w/ 1 overnight passage
Morro Bay, CA, USA – Oct 22 - 24
Monterey Bay, CA USA – Oct 25 – 26 w/ 1 overnight passage
Santa Barbara, CA, USA – Oct 28 -Nov 1 w/ 1 overnight passage
Long Beach, CA, USA - Nov 3 – 6 w/ 1 overnight passage
San Diego, CA, USA – Nov 7, 2008 – Jan 7, 2009
Map also shows Mexico portion (green markers) in 2009
Turtle Bay, Baja, Mex - Jan 11, 2009
Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mex - Jan 15, 2009
Los Frailes, Baja, Mex - Jan 20, 2009
LaPaz, Baja, Mex - Jan 25, 2009

(Click on any image to enlarge)

A Close Brush with Mexican Security

Later Still January 2009
(Location: Cabo San Lucas to LaPaz. Matt has gone on to more adventures with his wife Anne in the Dominican Republic. Biagio has taken the boat from Cabo San Lucas to LaPaz by himself while I am taking the water pump to be repaired and also attend a seminar.)

You can spend weeks going down the Baja Coast from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas stopping and exploring along the way. We hurried down the stretch of desert in a very fast 8 days stopping only once to go kite surfing with Matt and also filling up with fuel. We wanted to fill up with water but it was so windy with Santa Ana winds blowing up to 60 knots from land spilling out to the bay that we weren’t able to get any unless we stayed an extra day. During the entire trip we weren’t able to make any water with our water maker.

I took the opportunity to go back to San Diego with the pump. I flew from Cabo to Tijuana and then crossed the border and took the trolley to Jesse and Tracy’s house to stay with them.

Now Mexico is having quite a struggle with drugs within their borders. I’ve never seen bags get x-rayed at the airport in Cabo and then a zip tie to secure the bags. OK, a little excessive with the zip tie. But then when I got off the plane in Tijuana, we had to take the bags to get x-rayed again before we could leave with them. So in the bottom of my bag was the pump for the water maker. The guards asked me what that object was. Since I imported/exported some cars while I lived in Chile, I knew some strange words for fixing mechanical things. Pump. Pump. Pump. Not let me see, what was that word. I was scratching my memory from 12 years ago when I lived there. Oh, I know, bomb. Or ‘bomba’ in Spanish. Oh no, that can’t be right. They call it a bomb. Well maybe I’m wrong. No, I think that’s right. So how do I tell them it’s a bomb?

Photo: Water Maker Unit. Blue cylinder is the 'pump' in my suitcase.

So I started to dance around the word by telling them that I came from a sailboat, and on that sailboat there’s a mechanism to make water. And…now they were getting suspicious because I wasn’t telling them what it was. Ok, ok I better get it out pretty soon. So I said, "Well the apparatus to make water has a bomb on it," and here I said “bomb” with a bit of a pause almost in a whisper, "and that’s what that big heavy piece of metal is". Then I searched their faces for any signs of alarm ready to duck any gunfire that might come my way as I continued to rambled on. My logic was that maybe they won’t think I’m going to detonate a bomb if I keep talking. It is called a 'bomb' isn’t it? I mean I could be wrong. So now their faces started to relax. "Oh, you mean a water bomb," they said. Yes, that’s it, a water bomb ‘bomba de agua’. Guns weren’t drawn on me and I didn’t get taken to any little room. Wheww. Lesson for you other sailors, test your water makers before you leave San Diego. It’s a lot safer.


Cabo San Lucas Passage: Left-Pelicans know who has fish. Center: Long Board beer, Right: Downwind sailing wing on wing (center and right photos by Matt)

Reefer Madness

Late January 2009

(Location: Matt is with us going down the Western coast of Baja California to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It will take 8 days to complete with a 1 1/2 day kite surfing stop at Turtle Bay.)

One of the challenges of cruising is organizing the refrigerator. We call it a ‘reefer’. The younger guests that visit us all give us a double take when we say ‘reefer’. There is only one meaning for 'reefer' states Matt. For us cruisers there is also only one meaning for 'reefer' and that is the refrigerator.

Our reefer has a double tiered ‘L’ shape. With this ‘L’ configuration, everything seems to get lost in never never land. I can access the large back area by feeling around until I come to the right shape of an object. I can also put my head down in and balance precariously over the opening with my legs up in the air to get down into the far reaches.

When something starts smelling ugly, it’s time to take everything out, wipe every thing down, get rid of the smelly culprit and start all over again. I do this with a ray of hope that this time I'll be better able to organize and rotate the food. Or I can just make another cup of coffee and get used to a little madness in the calm waters of the Sea of Cortez.