Life in Turtle Bay, Baja California

We have been hanging on the hook off this small dusty, yet fairly prosperous town....fish, and more fish. We came into the dinghy dock and there was a giant sport fisher type yacht waiting for fuel...$3 a gallon. Cheaper than Calif.
Cannot load my photos here...will do so in Cabo..and we will show the good, bad and the difficult.
One night on my watch, with the sail full up (this never happens in the Bay Area - that is three reef country)....and the full jib, we were smoking to tens. It was downwind and a bit frightening. Then Peter decided to reef, after furling the jib, and we had to go into the wind, themain creating a racket that would wake up the deaf, and we all had specific jobs. The reefing did thejob and we still did 6s and more. WE were among the first 30 of over 150 boats to arrive at this small bay. And we were able to get laundry done, get the dogs to shore, and eat somen good food and wander around sort of stunned around the eyes. We sleep a lot.
The weather is in the 70s, good sleeping at night, and shorts day time. And by the time we are in Cabo it will be int he 80s. Yes. As is we wear our foulies on night watch and just watch the GPS get us to where we are going....Bahia Santa Maria is the next stop. There for a few days and then almost one day to Cabo.
The trip down was real ocean sailing - long, big swells and even larger waves...but not so great wind except for a small bit of sailing. Frank does the radio, and in port, drives the dink. Robert continues projects, I cook, Peter works the navigation and skippers us so we know what to do, and Craig handles what is left over. The boat is a bit of a pit as we don't have any fresh water to clean the decks - we will be making water on this leg and I definitely plan to get rid of some of the salt. The dogs think that leaping into the dink from the boat is a hoot - but getting gack on the boat is a bit of a hassle - Robert has to get their paws on the boat and then boost them.
I miss my sons. That is strange - but I really miss being able to talk to them. We are signed up for Skype and plan to use that soon. I really miss being able to talk to my friends, also - big time.
I have spoken to other women and got the same feeling about dealing with men, all the time. Laters.

San Diego and rain, rain, rain

Does Robert look happy? He has this great system where it looks as if I have the "Arnold" muscles, as I tail very fast as he goes up the mast. He was puttting in the for the storm sail. we were ten days at the Police Dock and you can tell the crusing boats as they have all the "stuff" on deck. So much for looking like the Clampetts...we all look like floating West Marine stores.

This is the last post until we find a wifi area somewhere along the coast. I don't know about Turtle Bay until we get there...it is a small village half way down the Pacific Coast. Our first stop.

So have to go reef the main, walk the dogs and get ready to leave. It is, as usual, raining.

Snap, Crackle and Homeland Security

The elegant sailboat in the back drifted by us outside of Long Beach: they had wind and we had

breeze on the nose. The same SW winds that have had us wondering about the weather gods and why we are not allowed to sail down to San Diego are still with us. Oceanside was kind and said yes they could give us a slip. What they didn't tell us is that the transient slips are short and if you are holding the spring line and need to

get off the boat, you either hang on outside the life lines, fending off the concrete pillars or fall in. Almost. That was a job for a gymnast.

Fog again, all along the coast, with the wonderful large balls of nuclear plants, mysterious military installations and such to vaguely allow us to know there was a west coast over there. Robert say a "field of dolphins showed up, boiling for ages while I was sleeping with the dogs. You know that saying, lie down with dogs and wake up with.....not fleas. A sub, in our lane, pushing us over outside the red bouys insided Pt. Loma. The escort boat flew over in our direction,

as if to say we were crowding the

sub. Off Oceanside, also, we heard

Securite announcements that San Clemente Island was being bombed by "warship" in the morning. Well, great. We couldn't see it, anyway and the dogs huddled below thinking those damn fireworks were going to get them. Here is the escort boat going huffily away as we waved and smiled
at them. Yes, we look terroristic. Right. It might be the ugly bird on the bow.

Both Marina Del Rey and here in San Diego had water sounds of critters eating things off our hull: Rice Krispie sounds of very small creatures, a shrimp of sorts. As we are aluminum, the snapping is amplified.

We just got the long range forecast for the Baja trip: rain on the 24th and light winds. Well, NOAA has not been correct this whole trip and we have been in gloom and rain in lovely, fun San Diego. We did what everybody with any sense does on a gloomy Saturday. We went to the swap meet and bought more duct tape.

Friends along the way

Channel Islands harbor was a quiet, almost spooky place - hardly anyone around and a lot of vacant slips. We did see a wonderfully lit up paddle wheeler majestically going down the channel at night, with a few people on board. Debbie and Harold brought food and a wonderful visit, with minimal talk of our real estate woes in Az. In that sunshine, it is good to forget the economy.
We tried for hours to get around Pt., Dume and then could see all the Malibu houses, and wondered if they are having lower home value estimates. As if.
Marina Del Rey Harbor Entrance on a Saturday afternoon is not to be believed for sheer cussedness of the local boaters. We re to go 5mph, not pretend we are bumper cars and having pregnant women on board having babies. A boat of beautiful, semi naked black people stormed by trying to run over kayakers. Ah, Hollywood, or something.

Neal found us 40' slip that Robert gently put us in in front of the Ritz Carlton. At 4:30AM I called the night manager and politely asked him to turn off his obnoxious music, that people were trying to sleep in front of his hotel. I used politer language. It was off the following night, think ticky tacky sounds driving you nuts. Look real closely at the big black boat...you can see a small figure on the bow - if this boat ever leaves the harbor, nobody could find the fuel dock.
The man who had I'O built in New Zealand, is now building these huge, elegant monsters.
Iand and family came to visit, and then Ian got on a plane to Amsterdam. Neal has known Ian since he was nine, and the tenth was his 47th birthday.
Charleen came bringing food: us two ptotentates of the church got some illegal parking. Sigh. Parking is impossible in Marina DR.


We left early, into the offshore marine layer,

into rotten seas and wind, which
calmed enough for us to get into Long Beach, Alamitos Bay. I put together the double bunk down below and the dogs and I curled up to ride out the waves.
We fall into our bunk, so tired, we wonder who's idea this was. We are off to Dana Point today, we hope, with our schedule all messed up. But that is cruising.

Beautiful Santa Barbara

The harbor is surroundedby lovely green hills, almost mountains on the land side, with the city tucked at the base. The water is calm, peaceful and we slept for a couple days. Our time there was a time for being with family and friends, of long standing. Lois is on the outside, her friend Sylvia and her daughter Carol - Lois is my sister from my father's first marriage. We met years ago in Hawaii, and again in Scottsdale and were blessed to be with her and also the nephew I had not met before, her son Steve. How lovely to find new family.

We had previously written about elegant SB harbor being brought to a lower level by our wet laundry, but my friend Barbara did the laundry while we napped and tried to get some energy back after the long slog down.Barbara and I have been friends since Bremerton, Washington, which is a long time
ago, and I had encouraged her to go to Hawaii. The rest is history and lovely history at that. We have found each other at times, in strange places without knowing that we would see each other.

The boat to the right may have trouble getting out to sail as it is full of vegetables growing all over it. A bit of charm in the harbor or denial.
Robert said the leaving is the hard part and that he likes the arriving.
We hear that from cruisers all the time - and it is awful to leave and not know when you will see dear friends again. Dick and Robert talk boats and share memories of adventures in Hawaii.

Leaving Santa Barbara was difficult but we don't say good bye, but aloha to Barb & Dick and given our crazy schedule, who knows when we will be back. Their house sheltered us this past January when that wild storms blew in and life on the boat in Alameda was asthma central.

Leaving SB to Oxnard this AM - we saw dolphins playing in the flat water, oil rigs and traffic on 101, We are tucked in at Anacapa Isle marina

and resort...sauna, anyone?

Bye, Santa Barbara, hello Oxnard/Channel Islands.

On our way to warmer waters......

The Golden Gate shrouded in fog...we were fighting a flood with a 5knt current. Fog all day, good visibility at night of Half Moon Bay - we passed it and kept going. We were wearing just about everything we own - to keep warm. That is Alcatraz and Treasure island in the distance. While still in the Bay we were hit with a huge wave that got our bunk and a lot of clothing wet. Right now, we are in elegant Santa Barbara and we have wet clothes and linens draped all over the outside. The Clampetts have arrived. Saying aloha to the Bay area was difficult, but we realize that we need to toughen up and get south for the warm weather.

Our neighbor, Robert took the photo just before we cast off. Do we look nervous? We were, but Frank is another angel andwe trust God to lead us.

Right after this we headed down the Estuary, under the Bay Bridge, to our rendevous with the giant wave and a wet bed. We drove through the night

on three hour watchs, but no one could sleep very well with the big rollers. Off of Monterey and Big Sur, we hit wildly confused waves, coming at us from all over. At one point, Robert asked if that was normal for cruising. My answer was no really, but those conditions were not too bad. They were just awful and the boat handled it, one side to another, one side, swing over. Not fun.

I went to bed with bad news and woke up to Robert having brought the boat in with Frank on the GPS to Morro Bay. We crashed five hours before getting thrown off the Yacht Club dock by a guy who used big words and was sort of a jerk. To get fuel, we had to sidle up to some tall pilings and climb a steel ladder to get the hose down. Another first.

The fog cleared slightly as we clawed our way out using our reverse course....it was the case of the missing bouys and a narrow channel. Once we were out, Iwent to bed, with dogs and prayers for calm seas. Well, the seas were long, high rollers and we steadily made tracks south to here, wonderful Sant Barbara, where our laundry is all over the outside of the boat for all these elegant people to see. Do I care? Not much. We are having adventures -but are so pooped that we nap a lot. We had the best crew: Frank, who now we consider the best friend we could have for this adventure. He left and will join us in San Diego for the Baja. We miss him already.