No More Pencils, No More Books...

Bathroom Basics for Non-Sailors

2009-04-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Speaking of boat bathrooms... the first thing you need to remember about bathrooms on a boat, is that you don't call them bathrooms. Oh sure, you can say bathroom and everyone will know what you're talking about, but they'll probably snicker and giggle behind their hands, arch their eyebrows at other people who happened to hear you, and basically, you will become the "butt" of all their non-savvy sailor jokes. On a boat, a bathroom is referred to as the head. It may be the forward head, or it may be the aft head, but it's a head, not a bathroom. Heads on boats are not the spacious "throne rooms", which many Americans have grown accustomed to. They are tiny little cubbies in which, once you enter, you can easily touch all four walls without moving your feet even a millimeter. They have tiny little sinks, a tiny little window, a tiny little toilet, and a tiny little bit of a permanent stink. Probably from their tiny little holding tanks which travel with the boat wherever it goes.

Using the head on the boat is not quite like using the bathroom at home. When you use the toilet on the boat for instance, you cannot flush the toilet paper. Our captain says, "Nothing goes down that toilet that you didn't eat first!" The toilet paper goes in the garbage can. (Right now, that's not so different for us, because in Mexico, you can't flush the toilet paper either, no matter what toilet you're using.) When you're ready to flush the toilet on our boat, there is a little red lever beside the bowl that must be flipped up in order to flush. Once it is up, you have to pump the handle to flush water into the bowl. When you've successfully flushed water into the bowl, the red lever must be flipped down and the handle pumped again, in order to drain the water and everything else from the bowl. On our boat, this last step has given us and our guests some pretty exciting moments, (and probably elevated some blood pressures to dangerously high levels) because it doesn't always work so smoothly. Another thing our captain says is, "Don't be embarrassed if you can't get the toilet to flush and have to ask for help. 'It' happens!"

Keeping the head clean is not a job for the faint of heart. It's so small in there and full of pipes below the toilet, that no matter how clean you think you've got it, there is always just a hint of that unpleasant smell that never seems to go away.

It's no wonder that cruisers get pretty revved up at the prospect of using a "real" bathroom. At the marinas, it's one of the first things Sandy and I check

out. Our current bathroom in Marina de La Paz is lovely! Not only is it clean and pretty, but it has some rocket-powered fans overhead that keep the air moving and the place cool! (That's our marina bathroom in the picture.) We look for the good bathrooms all over town. La Paz has some notable bathrooms, but the one at the top of my list, is the one at Applebee's Restaurant. Yes, Applebee's. A couple nights ago, several of us went to dinner and then decided to get ice cream. We were walking down the malecon, and as we passed Applebee's, Susie veered off and headed for the entrance. She said to me, "They have the best bathrooms in here!" So in we went. She was right. The place was palacial and we oohed and aahed as though we had just checked into a 5 star hotel!

Like everything else involved in living on a boat, the head provides a challenge, but hey... I've been on boats that don't even have a head. Why, we know people who sailed all the way from Hawaii to Vancouver BC with just a bucket, which makes the heads on Faith seem like Applebee's in my book!

Zip-Lining

2009-03-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, my friend, Carlyn, had a rope swing that hung from this huge maple tree in her back yard. The way it worked was you climbed up onto this big fat branch, grabbed the rope, and down you went, like Tarzan, swinging from a vine. But here's the deal. I don't think I ever actually took that ride because it always looked so far down and I was terrified of it. So I ask you, what in my history of experiences, could possibly make me think that I should take a Zip-Line Tour of the Mexican jungle canopy? I have no idea, but last week I decided I couldn't live without trying it.

I invited all of the crew from Faith to join me, but no one would because they're afraid of heights. (I won't name names, but you know who you are.) I invited people from other boats. George and Sue wanted to go, but had too much to do before taking the Puddle Jump. A few people were deterred by the cost. Others fell back on the old, "I'm not comfortable with heights" excuse. To my credit, I never called one of them a sissy. To their face anyway.

That left only me; so off I went. At the Vallarta Adventures office, we buckled ourselves into an open-sided truck, driven by a head-banded character who never stopped talking. Fourteen strangers, seven on each side, trying not to stare at the seven on the opposite side, as we traveled for an hour out of town and up into the outlying mountains. It probably would have taken only half the time if the truck hadn't had to slow from 60 mph to 0, every 2 miles or so in order to navigate the speed bumps, which apparently is Mexico's answer to controlling traffic speed. Their law enforcement can't be bothered with radar guns. They're packin' uzis.

When we got to the turn off for the canopy tour, the road changed to a steep climb of dirt and ruts. Naturally, the truck transmission began slipping and couldn't make much headway up the hill. So the driver sent the photographer, who was riding along up front, out to get a huge rock to place behind the back tire of the truck in order to get some purchase on the road. But that didn't work. So we all got out and walked the rest of the way, with the promise that we would have a truck to take us back to town by the end of our tour.

Once we arrived at the tour site, we were outfitted with our gear. I had

a moment of trepidation, wondering if "the gear" was going to fit around my thighs. I noticed a couple other women looking a little worried, but as it happened, the straps were very adjustable. Next came a little demonstration of how the zip-lines worked, how to control your speed, plus a little pep talk to get the crowd excited. Didn't work all that well. Turns out those women weren't worried about their thighs. They were scared stiff at the idea of zipping through the trees with no net.

The five guides assured us it was totally safe, and that we would all have a wonderful time. Don't they look reassuring?

We hiked up to the first zip-line, a narrow little treehouse-like platform.

Somehow, I foolishly agreed to go first.

I could see the next platform in the distance through the trees, so at least I knew where I was heading. But it was a long way down to it. Paco hooked me to the zip-line and said, "Are you ready?" I said I guessed I was, so... I went. And it was awesome! I couldn't believe how fast that thing moved down the line! Do you think it has something to do with how much you weight? Anyway. As I flew along, my eyes were glued to the next platform, and more importantly, the comforting sight of the guide who was waiting for me! Once I was firmly on the landing, he clipped my safety line to a rope which encircled the tree, and then unhooked me from the zip-line. We were never without the safety line attached to something. Nice plan.

We got to zip about 10 lines, and got better and better at controlling the speed so that we would land "gracefully" on each platform. Easier said than done. If you didn't apply enough brake (and I should state here that your brake is nothing more than a heavily gloved hand on the line above your helmet) you would just about knock the guide out of the tree as you landed. If you applied too much brake, you had to get yourself to the platform using hand over hand along the line. And in that case, the guides give you the business and refer to you as a pinata. You know... hanging from a line in the middle of nowhere. (At least no one had a stick to beat us with.) I will admit that I was a pinata, at least once.

The last part of the adventure was repelling down from the final tree platform. This was quite a bit different from the zipping. I knew you had to control your speed with your right hand by gripping a rope, but of course, when the guides demo for you, they show off a bit, and it looks like they are dropping like a rock. In fact, it was very easy to control your speed as you descend. As you can see, I look totally in control! :-)

My one regret was that there were very few insects or wildlife of any kind for that matter. It was pretty dry. Apparently, the rainy season of June, July, and August, are a better time for bugs and stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and believe I have redeemed myself from my cowardly behavior all those years ago!

Whales, Turtles and Rays...Oh My!

2009-03-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

Looks like something dead, doesn't it?

Adventure stories abound in which some unfortunate sailor, marooned on a desert island, manages to make his escape by lassoing two sea turtles together and either rides them or is towed to safety by them. A fanciful solution to an impossible problem. Most people have never even glimpsed one sea turtle, let alone two. However, on a recent passage from Tenacatita to La Cruz, it crossed my mind that it just might not be so far fetched.

It was a glorious February day aboard S/V Faith as we made our way north from the anchorage at Chamela where we'd spent the night. Traveling fromTenacatita to Chamela the day before, we had not really encountered an abundance of wildlife. Although Lord knows we tried! It's amazing how long one can sit and stare out at the ocean, hoping for just a glimpse of something above the surface. Any suspicious little splash of water will do. On this day, we were handsomely rewarded for our efforts. Everywhere we looked we were spotting whales, rays and turtles!

The humpback whales were mostly making their way north, like us, but we never assume. Once we see one break the surface, we try to determine which direction they are swimming. Wouldn't do to run over one, of course. We'd hate to harm a whale, and have heard some grizzly stories of the damage that hitting one could do to the boat! Only a few came remotely close to the boat. Personally, I consider them "close" when we can hear them blow out their air at the surface. That's close enough for me! It's exciting to see them no matter where they are.

The water was exceptionally clear which could be one reason we saw so many rays that day! They were easily spotted near the boat, swimming just below the surface, usually in synchronized formations. Two or three would glide, turn, dive or jump (Yes, jump!) in unison. The Blue Angels have nothing on these guys! When they swim at the surface, you can see just the tips of their wings above the water. From a distance, they look like dolphin dorsal fins. Only as they move closer to the boat can you see their broad bodies slipping by. Generally, the boat startles them and they immediately dive. What I didn't know about rays is they like to jump... as in clear out of the water! And they don't just jump once and then disappear. They jump, maybe fly would be a better word, time after time after time. Once, as we were having lunch in Puerto Vallarta at this lovely restaurant with a view, Sandy and I watched one leapfrog its way almost clear across the Banderas Bay. At first we thought it was a fish, which would have been strange enough. But then we realized it was a ray, and of course, since we'd had a couple margaritas, we thought THAT was hysterical!

Believe me, turtles don't do any leaping! The first time I saw a turtle I thought it was the bloated body of something dead in the water. Only when they lift their little head and take a peek at the above water world can you see any sign of life. When the ocean is calm, you can see them from pretty far away. They are the only dark spot in an otherwise smooth, blue surface. When the water is choppy, you can't see them until you're right on top of them. The turtles we saw were Olive Ridley Turtles. They are sort of a light green color. I think the best one I saw, was one who was surprised by the boat going overhead. He came zooming up from under the boat on the starboard side, took one look around, and immediately ran for cover. His little flippers were going a mile a minute in his effort to get the heck out of there! As the day went on, we saw an amazing number of turtles. Of course after about the twentieth one, we thought, "Gee. We should have been counting them!" I would venture to say we probably saw 40 turtles. I'm not making this up! It was amazing. And I think, if the occasion had called for it, since there were so many around, we probably COULD have caught two or three and escaped from a deserted island! Really. We could have. :)

Oh Baby!

2009-02-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

Baby (left) and Mom. Look at the difference in the size of their dorsals.

It was probably 15 (or more) years ago that I was in Mexico on a kayaking vacation in the Sea of Cortez. I remember getting a lot of flack from friends like, "How can paddling a kayak for a week be considered a vacation?" But it was, in fact, the best vacation I ever took. The thing I had anticipated most about such a trip was a chance to see whales- moms and their babies to be exact. But after a week of paddling from one island to the next, I had counted zero whales. Our naturalist guide said it was too late in the season (the second week of April) to see whales in the Sea of Cortez. Bummer. When would I have such a chance again?

Well, my friends, the chance has come again and THIS time...wait for it... we've seen them! Yesterday, the boat was resting comfortably in Santiago Bay which is just around the corner from Manzanillo. It was a pretty lazy day on board. Since temperatures are reasonable, I was baking chocolate chip cookies, which takes all morning because the oven and consequently the cookie sheet are so small, I can only bake 9 cookies at a time. In between batches I was reading a book, Chris was reading a book up in the cockpit, and Sandy was reading in the aft cabin. Around noon, Chris noticed a humpback whale in the bay, which appeared to be resting at the surface. So we all came up to inspect. The longer we watched, it became clear that there was more going on than just a resting whale. We began to see snatches of another whale, who was a bit more frisky and much smaller. We realized then that it was a mom and her calf. We got to watch them for two hours as the baby frolicked - never far from Mom's side. (Although my viewing was interrupted by multiple trips up and down to deal with batches of cookies.)

Dingys from two other boats went out to get a better look, but the mom remained at the surface. A ponga pulling an inflated "banana ride" full of tourists even pulled up and stopped to watch a while and she still stayed where we could see her and was actually moving closer to our boat. Every once in a while, she would roll on her side a bit, which we think was for the baby to nurse. We were snapping pictures like crazy! Since the mom was just lying at the surface, she was easy. But we never knew where that kid was going to pop up, and therein lay the challenge.

It wasn't until two clowns on a jet ski went zooming by at full speed, oblivious of the whales, that she decided she'd had enough, and headed out to sea, swimming so close alongside one of the dingys on her way out, that the occupants could nearly touch her. Boy, those people's eyes were wide open as they headed over to our boat to compare notes!

At happy hour last night at The Oasis restaurant on the beach (What else would it be called, right?) the whales were a big topic of conversation. Apparently they'd been in the bay the day before too, so we'll be looking for them again today. All in all, a very rewarding experience... the reason I came to Mexico!

Miracles

2009-01-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

Somewhere back in November, Sandy and I decided we needed more swimsuits. Which meant shopping. Well, if we have to shop, we have to.

We ventured into Puerto Vallarta, where, as you can imagine, swimsuit stores abound. However the swimsuits available in a resort town like this, seemed to be more appropriate for... well, someone else. Sigh... One night, with nothing better to do and a good Internet connection, I stumbled upon the website for Miracle Suits. All the suits looked like "normal" swim suits, and were offered in a variety of colors and designs. They were a bit on the pricey side, but since swimsuits comprise a huge portion of our wardrobe, that wasn't an insurmountable obstacle. But here's what closed the deal: They guaranteed that the suits would make us look 10 pounds thinner in 10 minutes! Who among women over 50 could resist?

I picked out the suit I wanted, a jungley type on a black background. Luckily I happened to notice some small print suggesting that, due to the extraordinary amount of spandex involved in the construction of a Miracle Suit, (apparently the secret to the guaranteed "miracle") you should order a size larger than you normally would. Now, if they're going to add a requirement like that, why don't the makers of Miracle Suits save us all the trouble, not to mention embarrassment of having to order a size larger, and just make the suits bigger? For cryin' in the sink! We already are a size larger than we want to be, or we wouldn't be ordering a Miracle Suit in the first place. Right? Now, we have to order an even bigger size, just to ensure that we can squeeze into it.

Never the less, since our friend, Mary, was due to visit in December, we quickly ordered and had the suits shipped to her house so she could bring them. We anxiously awaited her arrival on the 20th. (Not just for the suits. We were happy she was coming!) Minutes after her arrival, Mary riffled through her bag and produced the long awaited Miracle Suits. They were gorgeous! We were delighted!

If you're thinking, "Hmmm. Maybe I'll check out that site myself..." Let me caution you: Getting into a Miracle Suit is not a job for sissies. It just possibly would have been easier to pull on a section of bicycle tire inner tube! All that extra spandex is a force to be reckoned with. In the small confines of the ever humid forward head, I wiggled and squirmed, working up quite a sweat, which of course, only added to the challenge. It was slow work, punctuated by frenzied moments of, "Who am I kidding? This is never going to fit!" Every inch of progress required strenuous effort and a brief respite. To wipe away the sweat.

And suddenly, I was home free. In it. Done. Had it on. And let me tell you, (I'm not kidding here) it was a miracle. And worth every penny, too!

Dinghy Dependence

2008-12-19T17:36:00.000-08:00

Elvis

The beach at Punta de Mita

When people reminisce about their cruising years, they talk of the lovely towns they visited, wonderful people they met, spectacular coves where they snorkeled, and the glittering beaches which were overflowing with shells. What they don't mention so often is the dinghy, and its importance to the success of their travels. While anchored in one of those lovely spots, the dinghy is a cruiser's... shall we say, Honda Accord. You all know approximately how long it takes to head for the garage, get into your Honda, start it up, and take off. Rough estimate: 5 minutes?

That's not how it works with a dinghy. Sandy named our inflatable dinghy Elvis. But right now it looks like his name is E S, because most of the letters have fallen off. Elvis is carried on the stern of the boat, swinging from dinghy davits. Before we do anything we make sure the dinghy is secured to a cleat, so that Elvis doesn't leave the building without us! The dinghy davits have little pulleys on them so we can easily lower him into the water. That's the easy part. Elvis has oars, mostly for emergencies, but he has a hulking old 7.5 HP Honda motor, which weighs a ton. So once Elvis is in the water, the next trick is to get the motor attached to his stern. That motor is one heavy piece of work, and for now, we are using a dingy davit to lower it down. Chris lifts it off the rail, I hold the pulley line and lower it down to Sandy, who positions it and clamps it onto Elvis.

Next we have to load the dinghy with the essentials: oars, gas can, flotation devices, dry bags containing anything we don't want to get wet, and finally, the hand-held radio, just in case. Once Elvis is loaded, we cheerfully load ourselves, (one at a time please, and step in the middle of the boat) in, and off we go. Now call me crazy, but I'm thinking that this took longer than 5 minutes. But, hey. What else have we got to do? :)

While recently anchored at the nearby town of Punta de Mita, we decided to go ashore and explore the beach. We were getting ready to go, when we noticed a brown booby (big sea bird) perched on the bow of Faith. We laughed and called him our guard booby. Sandy named him Bobby. Weren't we lucky to have our very own booby aboard? And off we went.

But back to our dinghy story. All dinghy riders know (and if they don't know, they learn very quickly) that once in sight of the beach, timing is everything in order to execute a successful landing. You never want to try to beat a wave to the shore. Always be nice, and let the wave go first. If you time it right, your dinghy will scrape bottom at the opportune moment for the crew to jump out "commando style" and drag the dinghy clear of the water. Oh yes. I forgot to mention that in that nanosecond before the crew jumps into the water, they need to do a quick perusal to make sure there are no rays or skates that might be waiting to sting them.

Okay. Pretend that we've been on the beach, had lunch, found a shell, and are ready to go back to the boat. At Punta de Mita, returning to Elvis, we noticed that the tide had receded significantly, which meant we had quite a ways to drag him. Once in the water, Chris got in first because he was driving. But "the crew" couldn't get in yet, because we didn't want the motor to drag on the bottom. We needed to be in deeper water. So we pushed out a bit farther, until Sandy and I were over our waists in water. Chris started the motor and announced, "Okay, get in." Sandy and I, who are on opposite sides of the raft, looked at each other and burst out laughing. Of course, now the waves are changing, and we're even deeper, so Chris' voice gets a little louder, "Come on!" So Sandy and I jump up and dive head first (can you say face plant?) into the boat like a couple of big sacks of flour! Wasn't pretty; and I've got the bruise to prove it, but we made it. And lets face it. The people on the beach who were watching all of our shenanigans... what did they think? Who cares. We'll never see them again! Once we were in the dinghy, we never looked back.

When we got back to Faith, our little dinghy foray was the least of our problems. In our absence, the boat had been white washed (and I'm not exaggerating here) with bird poop from our friendly brown booby, Bobby, but who we now fondly refer to as Butthead.

Thanksgiving in La Cruz

2008-11-29T07:26:00.000-08:00

Lots of people have emailed asking what we were planning/did for Thanksgiving. Well, first of all, it does not seem anything like Thanksgiving here. The weather and the atmosphere just don't jive with our mindset of Thanksgiving. However, there are enough never-say-die Americans around to warrant a celebration of some kind, which is what we did. You all have heard me mention Philo's restaurant. This year (maybe every year, who knows?) he held a Thanksgiving pot luck dinner for anyone who wanted to attend. He provided turkey, rice and stuffing, and everyone else brought a dish to share. Every food group was represented and it was spectacular! Not only that, but his band played while we ate, so people could dance. It was great fun! Chris and our friend, Chuck, went up early to save a table, which we shared with 6 other people from the marina. So we weren't with our families, but we were with our friends.

Philo's band is something else again. He plays the guitar and sings, and leans towards Johnny Cash and country songs. He has a woman who plays bass guitar, an awesome saxophone player, and various other accompanists, which sometimes includes a keyboard player, a washboard/banjo player, and my personal favorite, a spoon player. One night the spoon player was a little kid who looked like he stepped right off the set of "Deliverance"... yes, the movie. On Thanksgiving, the spoon player looked like a leftover from the days of Haight-Ashbury. What can I say? This is Mexico.A good time was had by all.

Bobbleheads

2008-11-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

This is a Magnificent Frigate bird. With the white chest, we can tell she's a female. Solid black are males, and those with white heads are immatures.

If you've been reading Sandy's blogs, you'll know by now that between our marina and the tourist town of Puerto Vallarta, lies a nether region which needs to be crossed on a Mexican bus. I have no aversion to buses, or mass transit of any kind, for that matter. It's always interesting to compare different systems. The subways in Russia, even 45 years ago, were lined with sparkling tiles and elegant crystal chandeliers. New York buses and subways are easy to use, however at times, have sported endless graffiti, the stench of urine, and rats. The San Francisco BART system was clean, but could be a bit more clearly marked. (Got lost there a couple times.) Los Angeles buses were a bit mysterious, and you need exact change. No exceptions.

Puerta Vallarta buses are a well organized system. They run frequently, so you never have to wait long for one no matter where you want to pick it up or where you want to go. At some of the stops, there are coordinators who are rounding up people and getting them onto the correct bus. These guys usually speak English, and seem to be keeping a tally of how many people they can load onto any given vehicle. This poses the question of whether or not they get paid by the head.

My favorite part of the Mexican buses is not the system and its organization, but the ride itself. First of all, when you get on the bus, tell the driver where you're going, then give him some money (usually about $1.50) he can give you a receipt and change, in the time it takes to drop the correct change into the slot on an LA bus! Doesn't waste a second after that either, because before you can move past him and take a seat, he's got the bus in gear and is pulling forward. So grab onto something or you're going to end up on your ass in the middle of the aisle! What usually happens to us is we get mostly to a seat, when the sudden forward motion of the bus propels us the rest of the way into the seat. I'm sure to the amusement of the locals. It is almost becoming a competition: us vs. the bus driver. Can we get sat down before he pulls out? Who knows. He may be getting a big charge out of watching Americans flail their way down the aisle of his bus!

Once the bus gets rolling, it flies! I'm not kidding. We've looked at the speedometer en route. He gets up to top speed, and then slams on the brakes for the next stop. At these speeds, over the many cobblestone roads which make up the Mexican bus routes, some buses are more comfortable than others. The buses that come out to La Cruz are the cushy ones. They have upholstered seats, which tends to make you think you'll be getting a smoother ride... but you don't. All the buses come with 10/60 air conditioning. That's 10 windows open at 60 mph. Sometimes, just as we're thinking, "Boy! This thing is really moving!" the bus slows down and pulls off the road, into a gas station, where we all just wait while the driver gets out and fills up. I know! This is unheard of in the United States! Once we're back on the road, we try to make up time by dodging and weaving in and out of traffic. Do you remember how when you learned to drive, you were taught to leave a"margin of safety" between you and the other cars? Well, in Mexico, you don't have to do that! You can stay right on someone's bumper! It's amazing how small a space a bus needs to actually squeeze by another vehicle. Most of the time it looks like they'll never make it, but they can! Everyone of these near misses elicits an, "Jeez!" or an "Eew!" from Sandy. I try not to watch. I just keep my eyes trained on the passing scenery, NOT out the front window.

The buses that go all the way into the old town area of PV, are the El Centro buses, and only have plastic seats. Those are the bobblehead buses. We suspect strongly that they have no shocks. It certainly feels that way as the bus is roaring down cobblestone streets and our heads are bobbing around like those little dogs in the windows of cars. When we go into town, we ride the La Cruz bus as far as the driver will let us. Then we move onto an El Centro to continue into Old Town; which is where it's at in PV. On the way back to the marina, we get off the El Centro bus at the Wal-Mart, and pick up the La Cruz bus there. Before it pulls away from the stop, vendors selling water, ice cream, and all sorts of nuts get on the bus to try to hock their goods. They do a pretty brisk business. After a ride on those El Centro buses, you're ready to pamper yourself in any way that you can. We also get treated to an occasional guitar player on the ride back to La Cruz, who explains that he doesn't want to bother you, but forces you to listen to him play for, of course, tips.

The bus trip takes about an hour, from soup to nuts. That seems like a long time. But, hey. We're retired and we're cruising in Mexico! What else have we got to do?

A Little More From Hahatown

2008-10-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

The Gordon Lightfoot concert was a lot of fun. Most everyone there was around my age, so I felt in good company. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed his music. The walk back to the boat was about a mile. As I hurried along (it was dark after all) I discovered something quite unexpected. Several of the trees that grow along the sidewalk have huge amounts of bird droppings on the ground below. So, making sure I wasn't standing right where the droppings fall (I'm not an idiot) I began looking up into those trees. And guess what was up there. Now, I know you're thinking, "Well, duh, Patty...a bird!" But not just a bird. Herons. At first I thought they were owls, but upon closer inspection, I could tell they were just tucked all up and sleeping. We first noticed that herons and egrets even went into trees when we were in Bodega Bay. Up until then I had only seen them standing in water or in flight. I guess I never gave much thought to where else they might spend their nights. Just a bit of heron trivia for you:)

We visited Sea World last Saturday and I must say, those dolphins and killer whales are worth seeing! They were spectacular! I'm sure that every kid who sees those shows wants to grow up to be a dolphin or killer whale trainer. Very inspiring!

Isn't it funny how a noise can trigger a memory? Each evening, when things quiet down on the boat, we can hear these little clicking sounds and I panic, for reasons which I'll explain in a minute. Chris said the noise is tiny crabs which like nothing better than to amuse themselves by eating the gunk on the bottom of the boat. I pictured them like the little one inch crabs that we used to find under rocks on the Puget Sound beaches. I wondered if they could climb up the boat hull and enter through the portholes. But mostly what they made me think of is rain on the tent. Which is why I panic when I hear them. I guess it's from so many camping trips in the northwest which inevitably are spoiled by rain. I say spoiled, but my dad's answer to rain on the tent was just bring out another plastic tarp so we could tough it out! Plus, make a note to himslef to get more plastic for next year. We're surrounded by sunshine, but I wonder how long it will take me to shake the fear of rain!

San Diego: Hahatown

2008-10-19T18:22:00.001-07:00

We've finally reached San Diego, or as I think of it, Hahatown. Everything around here revolves around sailing and right now, the Baja Haha.

When we left Marina del Rey, we headed for fabled Catalina Island! I think I've heard of that my whole life. In the old movies, people were always heading for Catalina. Didn't Bogie go there in one of his movies? The maps have it listed as Santa Catalina, one of the Channel Islands. We didn't go to Avalon, the main marina because there were huge seas predicted for that side of the island. We went around to the west side, and got a mooring buoy at Catalina Harbor. It was a lovely setting with a full moon, and very quiet. We took the dingy to shore and walked across the island- only half a mile or so, to Two Harbors for lunch one day. Michael, Finn and I also took the dingy and did a bit of exploring along the shore. Very rugged, and interesting geology. We spent two nights there and then headed for Mission Bay, just north of San Diego, where we anchored for 2 nights. The big excitement there was that we really wanted showers by then, and didn't want to use all the water on the boat, so Chris took us over to a public park that had an outdoor shower, and we soaped up with COLD water. It was horrible, but then felt great- once it was over, that is. After all, it is very warm here. About 80 degrees. Not that I want to make you feel bad or anything:)

We wanted to time our arrival in San Diego at the Public Marina just right, since we're only allowed to stay for 10 nights, but for cheap...$10/night. We got one of the last slips so will be able to stay here until we leave for the Haha, on October 27th.

I'm going to post this now, (I am going to a Gordon Lightfoot outdoor concert tonight), but I have more to tell. So will write more later about San Diego.

love,

Patty

Monterey/Marina del Rey, California

2008-10-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

The most memorable part of Monterey was the butterfly reserve. Michael, Finn and I took the bus out to an area where monarch butterflies come for the winter. It's a protected area, and really, it's not much to look at, but it has the exact conditions to keep them returning each year. It was a bit early to see them actually hibernating. In fact, there weren't very many to be seen. But we got all excited and took pictures of one of the bushes that they were frolicking in and around. On the way back to the boat we had planned to stop at Pacific Grove's Natural History Museum, but found out it was closed on Sunday and Monday and we left on Tuesday. So we had to content ourselves with views of the pelicans, Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf!

We traveled for three days and two nights to get to Marina del Rey. It was a smooth

passage, but we were glad to get in. That's a long time to be rocking and rolling around in that boat without a lot of good sleep. Since we missed the Natural H

istory Museum in Monterey, Michael, Finn and I decided to take the bus to the LA County Natural History Museum. We're getting pretty confident with our abilities to use mass transit, so gamely hopped on the bus and headed out. We only got on one wrong bus, but Michael quickly realized our peril and we exited at the next stop. Hey. It could happen to anyone.

The Natural History Museum is located near the USC campus, at what is called the Exposition Park, which besides the NHM, includes The Museum Of Science and Industry, The California African American Museum, The Coliseum and an Imax Theater. Big, busy place. Just outside the museum was an additional exhibit about spiders. So we bought dual admissions and went to spiders first.

There were around 20 different spiders in little habitat cages. A few were rather exotic. Lots of tarantulas. One that was especially fun to see was the "bird eater" tarantula, which, the display explained, is named that because of its size, not because it actually eats birds. Which came as a surprise to me and I'm sure would be to many of past first and s

econd graders, who all learned from me that since it's so big it needs to hunt birds in order to get full. Ah, well! Needless to say, it was gigantic! Much bigger than my tarantula, Pinky. Also in the exhibit, in an adjoining room, were bushes and plants, with exquisite giant orb weaver spiders hanging in them.

Next we went into the museum, which was not as big as the one in New York but never the less, was very good sized. It was pretty typical, as Natural History Museums go. There was a t-rex and a triceratops in the lobby, but the other dinosaur displays were closed, which was a disappointment. The rocks and minerals department was great. It was disillusioning, however, to discover that there was no entomology display. Again. I'd found the same situation when I visited the New York museum last March. What is with that? Don't they know that pound for pound there are more insects in the world than people? How can you have a natural history museum without an entomology exhibit?

We wandered around for a couple of hours and then reconnoitered for lunch at the museum cafe. We decided we were done with the museum and only needed to stop at the Museum Store. Before I went in, I mustered up the courage to ask one of the museum information people about the lack of an insect exhibit. She, of course, had no idea, and looked at me as if to say, "And you would like to see that because..." But to her credit, she pulled out her directory and called... wait for it... the entomology department! Then she handed the phone to me. I was speaking to a fellow named Wayping. I asked him if they had any insect specimens for public viewing. We chatted for a while about why thee were no specimens on display. He explained that the museum's collection can be viewed on-line, which does not seem at all satisfying to me. Long story short, he said he had the time to show us specimens. I suppressed a whoop of joy and went to find Finn and Michael. Wayping (I have no idea if I'm spelling that right) came to meet us at the store, and took us upstairs to the entomology department. He asked us what we wanted to see, so we just said, "The big stuff!" They have drawer after drawer of specimens in these floor to ceiling rolling cars. He pulled out a bunch of drawers to let us see African beetles, rhinoceros beetles, giant atlas moths, luna moths, walking sticks, butterflies, grasshoppers, and the most colorful iridescent beetles I've ever seen! It was great! I was so excited that I forgot to take any pictures! After about 15 minutes (I could have stayed there a lot longer), we felt like we had imposed on Wayping enough, concocted some lame excuse about having to run along and did.

The rest of our stay in Marina del Rey has been uneventful. It's a nice marina with a park right in the middle. The weather has been sunny and warm, with some serious wind going on most days and nights. The rigging on the boat makes a perpetual gonging sound- day and night. Earplug central! Today is Marina del Rey Days at our marina, so the place is crawling with people, kids, games, food, music. You know the drill. Tomorrow we leave for Catalina for a couple days, then on to San Diego. We're monitoring the weather reports about the hurricane down in the Baja area, and are glad we've only come this far!

Until later...

Patty

Cover Me! I'm going in... (to the city)

2008-09-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sandy gave me "the business" this morning about not writing in my blog. I guess some of us need a bit of encouragement (AKA a kick in the ass) to get projects started. So...

Greetings from sunny San Francisco! Having a wonderful time... wish you were here! It's true. We have yet to wake up to a day here that is not sunny, and

whose temperature doesn't rise to a pleasant 75 degrees.

This is Harry, our resident Great Blue Heron. He hangs out here in the evenings.

Whitey thinks he own the

place, and struts up and

down our dock all day.

Last week, armed with my map of San Francisco and my BART Destinations Guide, I braved the mass transit system and headed into the city to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. If it had been the New York subway system, which I am familiar with, it would have been a no-brainer. Or maybe if someone had been with me who knew what they were doing. But since I'm not familiar with BART, I kinda had to pay attention. Luckily, people were happy to answer my out-of-towner questions. Particularly, a fellow name Jose (of course his name was Jose) who helped me get my ticket out of the machine, and let me sit by him on the train into town. I told him I was planning to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and he said, "Well, hey...look at you! Still out there gettin' around!" What he failed to add was "at your age." Jose had to get off in Oakland, so after that I was on my own.

When I got to my stop I asked the Muni information lady (that's the bus information booth and it's perfectly legitimate to ask her stuff) if she knew where the # 45 bus stopped. "Oh, sure. Upstairs at 3rd and Kerney." Piece of cake. The escalators were under repair (of course they were) so I trudged up four flights of stairs to 3rd and Kerney, which more closely resembled Times Square in New York City, than the intersection of two streets. There were several visible bus stops, and after crossing the streets (I lost track of how many times I actually crossed back and forth) to see which buses stopped at each one, I finally decided to ask a woman at one of the stops. "Excuse me. Do you happen to know where I can catch the # 45 bus? " She looked at me a little wildly, ran her hand through her already disarrayed hair, shook her head, and said, "I'm sorry. It took me 20 minutes to find this place!" I was this close to going back down to the Muni lady for more specific details (which I didn't really want to do because I wasn't relishing the prospect of climbing back up those three flights of stairs again, and also because I had a sneaky feeling that she didn't know much more than she had already told me, or else she just got a kick out of telling tourists '3rd and Kerney') when I happened to glance down Kerney street and spotted an older style electric bus (you know the kind- with those two prongs sticking up to the wires overhead) with a #45 on the front. I scooted down the street hoping it wouldn't pull away before I got there. Luckily it was a tiny little Chinese lady getting aboard, who could barely reach the first step, so it was taking a while for her to get on. Once on board, I noticed, her feet stuck nearly straight out from the seat, she was so short.

The bus route took us down through China Town and all over the place before dropping us at the Presidio, an old fort at the south end of the Golden Gate, which is now residential and businesses. From there I discovered the free Presidio Shuttle, which eventually took me to the Golden Gate Visitor's Center. I scoped out the Gift Shop first of course. A true shopper, I spotted the t-shirt I planned to buy after the walk. (It says: I WALK. Golden Gate Bridge). Next, I went and stood with my back to the bridge and asked a man to take my picture.

Rather fetching, don't you think?

Then on to my original mission. I joined a stream of people heading up the pedestrian walkway along the bridge. You walk along the east side of the bridge, so it's hard to see the ocean to the west as you're walking, but since I just came off the ocean a few days prior, I didn't need to see it all that bad. The city looked pretty cool. Exactly like in the books.

It was a perfect day for the walk. All different kinds of people were on the bridge as we first started out, but as I approached the middle of the bridge, the crowd thinned noticeably, so I am assuming that many people go out a ways, snap a picture, and head back the way they came. One old woman had an awfully mean look on her face as she passed me going heading south. She looked like someone's grandma from Iran. A mean grandma. I wondered why she was walking it. Maybe she had been thinking of jumping until she read the signs that said that jumping off the bridge is against the law. She still looked mean on her way back. And yes, she walked the whole way. I walked round trip from land to land which I estimated to be about three miles total. I was rather pleased with myself, and celebrated by buying the t-shirt plus a fleece pullover for good measure.

The trip back was great. That Presidio free shuttle really gets around! This one took us downtown to San Francisco, so I got off, clutching my map of the city, and began roaming. I loved it! By now it was rush hour, but I managed to get myself back to the BART station and home in time for dinner! It was a perfect day!

We also visited Sausalito twice. Once to just shop and the second time, to meet with Chris' cousin Stephen (who is a blues musician) and his wife, Judy, for dinner. He gave us two of his latest CD's. Great meeting them!

It's been excellent weather for getting our boat projects done. Our main sail has been repaired and is back on the boat ready for action. Chris has finally been able to finish installing his single side band radio. Plus he replaced the pull cord on the dingy motor. (I helped on that one.) I've sanded and sealed with Setol, a board that we'll mount on the rails of the foredeck to attach our jerry cans to. Tonight we pick up Michael and Finn at the Oakland Airport. Thursday we leave for Monterey and places south. We'll be offshore quite a bit so will not be in touch so often.

Until later,

love,

Patty

The Golden Gate

2008-09-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

We were able to leave Bodega Bay after waiting for two days for 6 little screws to be FedExed to us, of which we only used 4. AND which took Chris about 5 minutes to install. What's wrong with this picture?

The trip from Bodega Bay was smooth and basically uneventful. The fog lifted right where we were sailing south. It really did. I'm not making this up.

It was weird how it was still hanging over land, and out further to sea, but we had a nice little path to follow. The sea was so calm it felt more as if we were sailing (ahem...motoring)

across a big lake, than on the Pacific Ocean. Everyone relaxed (I've included a couple of pictures of the cockpit activities), and we let Dion take over. Chris has tweaked Dion's 'gain' a bit, and on my watch, he stuck to his course admirably. We did see a couple more whales, and got as excited when we spotted them as we did for our first ones. So much so that I wonder if we should temper our enthusiasm just a bit. I seem to recall Chris clutching his chest when Sandy and I simultaneously screamed with excitement at two whales diving nearby. We wouldn't want any coronary 'incidents', now would we?

Passing under the Golden Gate Bridge was spectacular!

Not only for its splendor, but just for the fact that we

FINALLY got here, for cryin' in the sink! We had

waypoints in the GPS to get to the marina,

so were able to easily navigate the Saturday sailing

traffic in San Francisco Bay, and get to the Emery Cove Harbor. Sandy got a little (don't know if that

adjective is strong enough) tense at the thought of

putting this fat boat into another single slip, but we managed with only one little nudge on the dock. We tied the boat off, and settled in, pleased that we hadn't sent the boat crashing into the boat in the next slip.

Emery Cove is a quiet marina at the east end of the Bay Bridge, with most things we need within walking distance. Sunday evening, the dock we are on, had a little social get together. Very friendly bunch, with lots of sailing stories to tell, and helpful tips to share. Today Sandy and I walked to Emeryville and pampered ourselves with pedicures and haircuts. Sandy also got a manicure, then went back to the marina to wash the salt off the boat and probably ruin her new manicure and pedicure:-)

We will be here for about a week more, (which, believe it or not, has been our plan all along) to get our sail repaired, shop, see a few sights, (I'm trying to convince someone to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge with me, but so far no takers) and pick up our crew, Michael and Finn Golden, who will go with us as far as San Diego.

Everyone is healthy and we are loving the gorgeous weather here!

Feel free to put your comment on the blog. We eagerly look for them. Sort of like being away at camp. Waiting for that letter from Mom to arrive!

Meet the Auto Pilot!

2008-09-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

The autopilot is your friend. You could refer to him as your co-pilot, since he does a lot of the work (a bit like cruise control in your car) and is with you all through your watch. He never leaves to go to the bathroom. Never needs a cup of coffee, or a cup of noodles, no matter how cold it gets between 1:00-3:00AM. Those are his strong points. Most auto pilots are nameless, because, well, they just are. Our copilot, however, has been given a name. I'd like you to meet Dion. You know... as in, "cause I'm a wanderer, yeah, a wanderer- I roam around and 'round and 'round...".

Dion has taken on a personality of his own. One of perpetual unpredictability. We can set him on a course designed to get us to our destination in the safest and most direct fashion, and for a while, he cooperates, steers the boat, and basically does our work for us. This affords us the opportunity to sit back with a foolish grin, relax, and in daylight at least, to enjoy the scenery, look for wildlife, and generally try to make the best of 2 hours of piercing cold, moist air. We have learned however, to not take his abilities for granted and to not take our eyes off the compass. For just as we've been lulled into a state of tranquility and least expect it, Dion, with no warning whatsoever and with cunning stealth, will take an unscheduled break, leaving us veering wildly off course.

Sometimes the veering, (Hey, we could have called him Vera!) is noticeable enough to be felt. And then it's a simple matter of putting us back on course. More often than not though, the first sign that he is on break is that perhaps the land which we have been comfortably able to see to the east, is no longer there. At night the tip off might be that the lights from a fishing vessel seen off the starboard bow for quite some time now, have inexplicably disappeared, only to be discovered somewhere off the stern. Either way, Dion needs a helping hand, which we are only too willing to give. Anything to keep him happy.

On a wildlife note, yesterday during my 7:30-9:30 AM watch, I finally spotted whales off to the west. After about 3 spouts, one of them dove, and I could clearly see his tail. But there was more to come! Just after I turned my watch over to Sandy at 9:30 AM, we were visited by a pod of dolphins leaping alongside the boat, and playing in the wake. Almost immediately afterward, two humpback whales crossed our path, diving right in front of the boat, so that I thought we were going to run over the second one. In fact, his tailed cleared the bow with what appeared to be less than a foot. Sadly, in all the excitement, no one got a picture! Ah, well. There will be others.

We are currently in Bodega Bay, about eight hours north of San Francisco. Another bird sanctuary. Yesterday on the way in, we saw beautiful white pelicans. We are planning to stay here a couple days to rest, and wait for parts that Chris needs to make a repair to the prop shaft. We had some leakage, in the prop shaft compartment, and discovered that two screws had backed out. We are having replacements, which will arrive tomorrow, sent from the company. Our friends Dick and Carol, who we sort of buddy-sailed with from Eureka, are also here and are having an autopilot installed. Hmmm. I wonder if I should introduce them to Dion.

Patty

Will Wonders Never Cease?

2008-09-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

We actually were able to leave Newport on Thursday morning. Our intention was to head for San Francisco, with no stops. So with only 3 crew members, we took 2 hours watches, with 4 hours off. The first 20 of our 40 hours were basically uneventful, which is always a good thing on a sailboat. Very little wind, so we were motoring, although had our mainsail up for some stability. Around midnight, unbeknownst to us, the outhaul let go and the main sail began scooching up the boom. Around 3:00AM, a big gust of wind hit us and the main, which was flapping wildly, tore loose from the foot. So everyone had to come up top. Sandy took the wheel, steering us into the wind, while Chris and I went to the foredeck to take down the main. At the time we didn't realize the damage to the sail, but managed to drop the main and tie it to the mast, just to secure it. The next day, we decided we needed to find a marina to do some repairs. So we headed for Eureka, California, and are now in the Woodley Island Marina.

Chris and I spent all day yesterday retrieving the outhaul which had disappeared into the boom. We took the main off and have it tied behind the cockpit, and will be searching for a sailmaker to do repairs once we get to San Francisco. Sigh...

The marina we're at is very nice. It's located on an island, which is a bird sanctuary, so there are tons of different birds, including pelicans and egrets so close you can almost touch them! The marina's quiet, our slip is not far from the showers (which flow for a LONG time on 50 cents, I might add), and several new found friends from our "Newport Days" are also here. Last night we were invited to happy hour aboard Trudy and Delbert' s big power boat. Very nice. This afternoon we had a visit from Dick who sails a Passport 45'. We're going over there later today for a tour.

Tomorrow we'll fuel up, and head south again. We're thinking 28 hours to Bodega Bay, which will put us about 8 hours north of San Francisco. We'll be picking up Finn and Michael around September 30, and plan to leave SF on October 1. Well, That's our PLAN anyway!

Mayberry

2008-09-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Okay. Here are my thoughts on sitting in this marina day after day. This morning a couple of boats left, so Chris has been listening to their transmissions back on the radio. Doesn't sound good out there. Then, just a bit ago, Chris said, "Someone else is going out...Oh, no. Just to the fuel dock." I said, "This is just like the old men in front of Floyd's barber shop in Mayberry." Not much more to do than keep an eye on the comings and goings.

Waiting Patiently

2008-09-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

We're still in Newport, but have a window now where we believe we'll be able leave. Looks like things improve on Wednesday, and we are planning to pull up stakes then. I hope nothing changes between now and then to delay us further. We're all getting tired of hanging around here. Heck. I'm volunteering to cook just for something to do! The picture is of the dock where we're sitting, and all the boats waiting along with us. We are the third from the end of the dock. You can kind of make out our dark blue sail covers.

The weather today is gorgeous- the best we've had. Sunny, warm and the wind is staying mild, instead of gale force. Sandy and I got out and washed the boat. THAT'S not a job for sissies! Looks squeaky clean now. I vacuumed the inside and cleaned up the galley.

We have a car for the day, which belongs to a friend of Sandy's who lives here in Newport. Awfully generous of her to loan it to us. So Sandy and Chris have gone to Fred Meyers and the marine store.

And that, my friends, is about it!
Take care.
Patty

Still in sunny Newport...

2008-09-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

We're stuck in Newport Oregon. The off shore conditions have hindered our travel south big time. So much so that today one of our crew, Michael, has to leave. He was going to go to San Francisco with us, but we are so behind schedule that he won't be able to get his train from San Francisco back to Portland if he stays with us. We may be here until Monday the way things look now. So his sister is driving down to get him and he can spend the last week of his vacation working on his own boat. Needless to say there are some pretty glum faces aboard today.

The weather in Newport is sunny and warm, but very windy, which is the problem for offshore. Ugly chop, huge swells, and confused seas. Plus there is a wall of fog that we can see from here that is unbelievable. We are waiting for safer conditions. There are 20 boats in this marina now, all trying to get south. Everyone is waiting (dare I say it?) "all in the same boat." The last boat to arrive was brought in by the Coast Guard during the night. Pretty serious.

Yesterday, Sandy and I took the free shuttle into town to the Verizon Store to see if she could get her phone working again, which she did. Then we trotted up to the Thriftway store to get a couple things. After that, we had to wait an hour for the shuttle back to the marina. But, it's not like we had a ton of other things we had to do.

Since all the boat jobs are done, today we are walking over to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which is about a mile away I guess. Haven't been there since Pam and I took out first and second graders down on a field trip to see Keiko! That was a field trip for the record book! A fellow who I believe was from the Rogue Brew Pub (also within walking distance) came by this morning and told everyone about tomorrow's local surfing contest. Afterward, the brew pub will have a live band and dancing. He won't have to twist our arms to join in the fun!
love,
Patty

Newport News

2008-09-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Okay. We left Astoria around 2:00AM on Monday morning. Even in the dark, we had a smooth bar crossing. I called it a swell crossing, but Sandy didn't think that was so funny. She said it was probably a good thing it was dark so we couldn't see the size of the swells.

Once we got across the bar and heading south about 5 miles out, we took turns doing watch. 3 hours on, 3 hours off. We had the auto pilot going so pretty much just had to be sure it stayed on course, watch for other traffic, of which there was very little, and steer around crab pots.
Not enough wind to put up much sail, although the boys put up the jib for a bit to help stablize the boat. But then Sandy and I rolled it back up because the sheets kept flapping and knocking things around. The rest of the trip was beautiful. Sunny skies, but cold. We were all bundled up. We saw lots of sea lions, sun fish, sea birds of course, and the boys claimed they saw whale spouts and Michael saw an actual whale tail diving. He has a picture of it, that is sort of like the pictures of the Loch Ness Monster. You know, where the photographer swears it's the real thing, but the rest of us go, "Well..."

So now we are in Newport for a couple days. We had a hose leak on the way down so the boys have fixed that, and we have tweaked several things that needed it. Looks like we'll be leaving tomorrow to continue south. Weather is favorable. It is very strange weather for this time of year, and has slowed us down a lot.

Chris' brother who lives about an hour away, arrived this morning in his DeLorean, so we all had our pictures taken in it, and got to go for a little ride, one at a time. Pretty fun! I volunteered to do the shopping so I got to the grocery store in it, plus down to the docks to buy some tuna steaks. It was so cool. Everyone who saw us stared and asked about it. One man was walking by as I was climbing in and said, "Look, Honey. That's a DeLorean, and look, she's getting in. Look, look! She's just about to get in! Honey, look!" It was so funny!

This afternoon I'm going to bake more chocolate chip cookies. I think I may have opened a can of worms by bringing them in the first place. It seems now to almost be a demand that we have them in stock!
Patty

Getting to know Astoria INTIMATELY!

2008-08-31T18:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are getting to know Astoria very well! This is our 5th day here, and we are pretty much out of little jobs to do on the boat. Today we went on the trolley-again- to town, intending to go to the Sunday market and then down the line to the Safeway store for a few provisions. We got to the market, went out for lunch, went to the top of the Elliot Hotel (on the advice of the waiter) for a spectacular view of the river, then sat around waiting for the trolley (which is no New York subway, let me tell you) to go to the Safeway, farther down the line. But we got tired of waiting for the trolley, and pretty soon all anyone really wanted to do was catch the trolley back to the boat and do the Safeway trip tomorrow. So we did. Now people are crashing left and right.
The weather has been windy and patchy clouds in Astoria, but very little rain. That's been nice. Not really much to report.

We LOVE Astoria!

2008-08-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

After several delays, we were at last able to leave Portland on Monday morning. The trip downriver was peaceful until just past Longview, when we were hit by a nasty squall. It was shortlived, but we were soaking wet as we pulled into the tricky entrance to Cathlamet, where we spent the night. We moved on to Astoria the next day after going to breakfast with Ken and Linda, another cruiser couple who lived next door to Sandy at Tomahawk Marina until last fall when they left for Mexico. They had been at the annual cruiser's reunion at Cathlamet, an event which we had hoped to attend, until the problems with the forestay happened.
Mary and Michael arrived last night about 8:00. After we fed them, we plied them with wine, and then I got everyone to play Catchphrase. Didn't go to bed until midnight. We had already checked the weather off shore, and it looks nasty for the next several days. A storm blew in last night that had the boat rocking and rolling, and wind howling all night. It was pretty nice this morning when we went up to take showers, but now it has started to rain again, so I just got done yanking all the towels off the lifelines and bringing them down here. We plan now to wait in Astoria until we get a favorable day to leave. We're thinking maybe Monday. That's a lot longer that we had planned to be here, but there's no reason to take a beating on the ocean, when we have the time to wait for better conditions. Everyone but me has gone into town to shop. First to the chandlery (sp?) to see about some boat items, and then to the grocery. We are planning to do some jobs on the boat. Still lots of things to work on. Until later.

Close...but no cigar!

2008-08-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today we were scheduled to leave Portland, however, Monday morning, Sandy and Chris found the inflatable dingy somewhat submerged, so it had to be taken in for repairs. Sigh...

Not to mention the backstay, which we were hoping for on Monday, wasn't ready until Tuesday afternoon. It's been pouring down rain, so Mike wouldn't have gone up the mast to attach it anyway. Tomorrow the rain is supposed to ease up, and Mike's planning to play mast monkey for us again. Sandy and I are provisioning on Friday, and the new leave date is Saturday morning.