LaPaz, Baja Mexico

One of the many sculptures on the board walk (‘malecón’ in Spanish) in LaPaz.

This is one by creator Guillermo Gómez Macías . At the base of the sculpture there is a poem.

I have a paper boat

It’s made from a page

On which I have written my dreams
It has neither anchors, nor mooring ropes
I want to sail in it
On the seven seas; in the eighth

I know I will run aground in the port of my desires.

Has someone ever seen the light shining from their lighthouse?










Photos: Downtown LaPaz from one point: Up the coast, toward town, and down the coast.

Fixing Things in Exotic Ports

Also February 2009

I don’t have to tell all you sailors. You already know. For all you non-sailor readers that think this is an exotic life, I want you to see a glimpse of real life.

All the way down the coast, we added needed items to the boat. Biagio calls some of these things ‘real things’ i.e. engine parts, etc. and the other things are stuff’. That would be the things a female would like on a boat such as Tupperware, shoe holders and laundry separators. You get the gist. For my part, I call it all ‘stuff’. Now there was a big rush on the boat of ‘stuff’ in San Francisco where we stayed for a month. Then there was the final ‘stuff’ loaded onto the boat in San Diego. Mosquito nets, sun screen mesh, bicycle baskets, extra parts, etc. With such preparation you would think that all the ‘stuff’ got on the boat and that would be the end of it. You would think.

Photos: The repairs in a 24 hr. period: Left - Major bicycle repair requiring several trips to the bicycle store after we were able to find one; Center - A bird broke off the radio antenna which required a trip to the store for a new one and several more trips to find the right coupling, Lower right - A stanchion was bent when single handing onto the windy LaPaz dock. Lower - Trouble shooting the battery charger before resting it in peace and finding a replacement.

In reality, the water maker didn’t work all the way down the coast. We should have started it in San Diego. But we didn’t. Hey, it always works. Until now. We’re still waiting for the rebuilt pump to come from San Diego as noted in an earlier vignette. And then the battery charger went out. One night after shutting down a computer, there was a soft 'boom' sound. "Hey Biag, I heard something." "What did you hear,” he said? "Something," I said. "I didn’t hear anything", he said. "No it was something", I insisted. Well, we later found that ‘something’ was a battery charger which had come to a dead stop. The battery charger charges our batteries which gives us the power to operate our fans, computers, tv, boy are we spoiled! Well now we have to run the generator to charge it all. Until the new battery charger is installed. Biagio had to scour the car engine stores to get one strong enough to replace the one we had. So now what’s next? Well that is after we get the pump back for the water maker. Maybe then it will be the motor for the water maker. Now remember we still don’t have fresh water. It’s always something. That’s boat life. So all of you who think this is the ideal life, just remember, all that fixing you’re missing out on. Well that and the dolphins and whales, and the exotic tacos and 'platos corridos', and the walks along the shore, and the diving. Well, I guess it’s worth it. Just don’t tell Biagio. He’s got his head under the navigation table trying to fix the latest malfunction.

The Vortex of LaPaz, Mexico

February 2009
(To orient you, LaPaz is the first stop into the Sea of Cortez after Cabo San Lucas. It's on the west side of of the Sea. From here we'll go north into the islands for some diving and fishing.)

Like quick sand, did you ever get stuck into something you couldn't get out of? LaPaz is a lot like that. With 80 degree temperatures during the day in February, and 55 degrees at night for cool evening walks, it's very easy to hang out here. One person said, "I've been here for a couple o f years and I'm leaving any day now." I heard another say, "We just came down for a sail and wound up buying a house. We've been here for 3 years now."

It starts out by listening to the 'net' in the morning. It's like an active newspaper of the morning. Someone gives a weather report, someone else tells what's going on in town, another about what meetings might be of interest, who has something to trade, what get togethers you can get together at, etc.












Photos: Left-Marina de LaPaz, Right-Super Bowl Sunday al frescoe at Bandito's Restaurant. (note the very large screen)

Our stay started out like this:
Waiting for the pump from Seattle via DHL
Decided to have cover made to protect the dinghy. This will take one week.
Go to the blues bar to hear music. Meet 3 new couples.
Go to the 'how to organize your food' meeting. Meet 20 new women.
Go to the club house to rent a video and have a coffee. Meet 10 of the women you already know.
Walk down the malecon. Meet 2 couples you previously met.
Invitation to someone's house. They arrived 10 years ago.
And so it goes.

Any day now, just as soon as the dinghy cover is ready, we're going to leave. Honest.

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.

Transportation

January 2009

Photos of Biagio carrying home supplies from Home Depot and me wearing and carrying my new dive BCD.

Everyone who has talked with us here in San Diego has said, ‘Isn’t it hard to get around without a car here?’ I tell them it’s a trade off. A car and a house or a boat and a bicycle. We decided. Getting the bicycles down to a science is a trick. Reflective tape. Carrier baskets. Backpacks. Flashlights for the early night falls at 4:30pm. All of these things help.

When someone asked me if it was late to ride a bicycle at 5:00pm in the dark, I replied, ‘No, the sun just set early.’ He laughed.

We have found there is nothing you can’t carry on your bicycle except for dive air tanks. How do you roll an air tank home? Or put an air tank in your carrier? They are so darn heavy but so light in the water! Even aluminum rather than steel are heavy. So, it’s taxi time with the air tanks. But we CAN take the dive BCD home on the bicycle. See photo.

So, there are buses with bicycles racks, trolleys with space in the back car, and if you are Biagio, sheer energy to go the distance. No it’s not hard to get around on bicycles, it’s easy! Our friends Liz and Michael know as they also cruise down the coast on their sailboat and Bike Friday bicycles.

Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, CA (LaJolla).

Photos below: Left: Clark & Suzie now back in San Diego from Final Straw with thoughts of going out again; Center: San Diego's Torrey Pines Rock Layers; Right: A hike at beautiful Torrey Pines with Jess & Tracy, Matt, Biagio and Jill.

Giddy Up Gem and Whims

January 2009

Every needed gadget, switch, fan, screen, wind catcher, sun dodger, kayak, absolutely everything has been put on the boat. I believe we are ready to leave this land where you can get anything fairly easily (i.e. the USA). San Diego is sort of the hopping off point. Anything that is added to the boat south of here is much more difficult to find and to get on the boat. That’s why we’ve spent the extra time here. That and also ‘home’ for the holidays.

I feel sadness as we leave San Diego because I am leaving family behind but also looking forward to being away from the dock and doing more exploring of unknown shores. I’m also happy that we will have extra crew of more family. Biagio’s son Matt (http://www.mattmaddaloni.com) has signed on. We will be part of HIS current project which seems to be something to do with going down the Mexican coast and along the way, kite surfing and taking movies. Great timing Matt! More of this in next month. He will be crew with us for about 2 weeks. I’m sure he will have us doing interesting things. (Photo of Matt on the cover of a magazine with the earth well below him.)

The trip from San Diego to Cabo takes about 1 ½ weeks if you stop for 2 nights along the way. Our goal is to go around Cabo, then up to La Paz and on through to the islands just north of that in the Sea of Cortez to do some diving. I just checked on the temperatures and they are in the 80’s. That is motivation!

My Dad told me that many people are asking him where we are going. Well for us, the best plan is not to have a plan. Unlike a car trip where you may drive through bad weather, snow, mountains, etc. we have many more things to consider. Not only bad weather but hurricanes, hot weather, insects, wind and water currents, and of course your health because this lifestyle is work. And did I mention 'whim' factor? That would be when you are tired of the heat or another island or whatever. You just head North or South from where you are. Depending on the other factors, of course. So we sort of mix all those things together and come up with several plans that can change over night. For example:

Plan #1 – Hang out in the Sea of Cortez through the summer with diving and dipping in the water when it gets too hot. Combine that with overland travel in Mexico or surrounding countries and a year will pass. Then we would continue to other countries.

Plan #2 – Enjoy the Sea of Cortez for 3 months through April. Put the boat on the hard (on stilts in a marina) and travel on land for 6 months, returning to the boat the following March and then head out.

Plan #3 – Enjoy the Sea of Cortez for 3 months and then go on to Plan #A, #B or #C.

After Plan #1, #2 or #3

Pacific Ocean – (the area encompasses half of the mass of the earth)

Plan #A – Head further south going through Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and the Galapagos. Then go to Plan #B below or go farther to South America including Peru and Chile.

Plan #B – Go West to the Marquesas Island Group, Tuoamotos Island Group, Society and Cook Island Groups, Tonga, Vanuatu, and maybe Australia and New Zealand. At this point we would need to decide to stay in the general area or if we headed west of Australia, we would be committed to going around the world.

Atlantic Ocean - (not as likely we'll do this, but possible. We don't like crowds.)
Plan #C – Go through the Panama Canal and on into the Caribbean Islands and the Mediterranean.

As a point of reference, during Biagio’s last sailing trip out for 7 years, out of 250 countries in the world, he visited only 25 (living in one country for a year). It’s a big world out there.
(Photo of currents)
So as you can see, it’s best to take it a few months at a time with a general plan and an open spirit to enjoy things as they come. After all, we could take Plan #4 (not previously mentioned above) and be in Hawaii in 14-21 days. All it takes is enough food and the desire to follow our whim.

Holidays in San Diego

December 2008
It’s quiet here at the marina on Shelter Island in San Diego. We rented a slip for a month until January 1 complete with swimming pool, Jacuzzi and weight room. Life is good! The reason it’s quiet is that the other cruisers have left to go south already for the warmer weather. We are noticing the chilly mornings while turning on the heater and waiting for the sun to makes its appearance around 9am. Then we can take off our sweaters and put on our shorts again. (Photo: December Lights in Balboa Park on the Prado)

The wedding was a grand time complete with trips to the florist shops for decorating supplies, tying bows, an after wedding party on the boat, a morning high tea with Nick and Sayaka, and a bay cruise the following day. All with 75 degree weather. It reminds me of the weddings when I was a kid where they would last for days. A wonderful time. (Photo: Mini Regatta race here at the Marina in San Diego.)

I lived here in San Diego for about 15 years. That was 12 years ago. So being in San Diego feels like dejavu for me. The holidays are fun with Balboa Park being the kick-off party of about 300,000 people over 2 evenings visiting the museums, drinking cider and mingling with the Christmas revelers.

We’re getting our exercise here on our bicycles. The grocery store is about 3 miles away. And every thing is beyond that. It’s good riding if you can avoid the cars. (Photo: Spending time in the 'International House of Booze' next to the Prado, with Luis and Leslie friends for the last 25 years!)

Celebrations of Life.....Wisconsin, San Diego, Victoria BC

November 2008
I’ve noticed that the more we celebrate the passages of life the more life we feel.

Last week I celebrated the life of my mother in Wisconsin. We had a wonderful ceremony for her. It was a great feeling to be surrounded by all my brothers and sisters and their families, all my aunts and uncles and my parents friends. The coming together affirmed my mother’s love that she had for everyone. She passed after having ALS for two years. I am grateful that she didn’t contract the disease in her 40’s – 60’s which is typical for most people that have it. I was able to enjoy her for many years with time to say our goodbyes in the summer. She passed just after her 80^th birthday. (Photo: Jill & Mom in July)

Now one week later, I will celebrate the wedding of my son here in San Diego. He and his wife help each other out in life just as my mother and father did for all those years. (Photo at right: Newlyweds Jesse & Tracy)

This is also the week that Biagio learned he will be a grandfather for the first time later this year. (Photo at left: Expectant parents Jesse & Tia)..........

The passing of a life, the celebration of joining two lives, the beginning of a new life. It’s a wondrous existence.