The Vortex Voyage

Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Music of La Cruz - Part 1

Hello friends,

Its been a while since we updated the blog. So sorry, life got in the way. We have decided to live here, in La Cruz, for a while. At least until we decide its time to move on.

We separated for a while. Neil lived in town and Sharon stayed on the boat. But we found we missed each other too much and decided we couldn't live without each other.

One thing we really like about living here is the music. There are several really good musicians and we thought we'd give you a taste.

The following is a guy named Lobo. He is very popular here and has been mentioned in a few novels too. He plays flaminco music, which we are really getting to like. Hope the video does it justice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3RMBTF2ESQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMfjjYUJG6E

Geo is a fellow boater who lives on his catamaran on our dock. He is a gringo, but he plays flaminco music as well. He plays a mean violin. His band is called Luna Rumba. We hope you like it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70JCDvfvlwQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY0Q6qHTalc

Just so you know, not all the music is flaminco. These guys are called Deep River and they play rock and roll. This is just a sampling. Sorry the video is so dark. It was filmed here, at the marina restaurant/bar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEXUh_83EHY

We will provide some more music samplings next update.

This is a short video of our favorite beach. We hope to have move/better videos later. Especially if we can catch the hump back playing again. They put on an amazing show for us the other day, jumping straight out, two at a time, and slapping their tales, etc. Next time, we hope to have the camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzG7BW7XcGI

This is a short video we took one day we went out to dinner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HpzbhX_rwQ

Its high season and the demand on the marina internet is too high, we have to leave the boat and go somewhere where there is wifi to post here, so it could be a while before our next update. Once summer gets here, we should be ok on the boat again.

So, adios from paradise...

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Our vacation from our vacation

Hi Everyone:
It's been awhile since we last updated you on our Mexican experience. We have included videos of our experience in San Miguel and Juanawato. Some incredible experiences we had in these places. We have tried the local cuisine, the ones that said american/canadian food. We also had thai food, these gringos sure know how to cook. Gringos if you don't know is another term for north americans. San Miguel was a cute little town with lots of history. Juanawato on the other hand had this amazing underground tunnel system. Up on the surface was pretty cool too. They had an event where you follow musicians in a parade at night, however, we didn't get to see that. Our hotel was a pretty cool place too. Once you climbed about a hundred stairs with your luggage, that was tough, it had an amazing view overlooking San Miguel. Every night there were fireworks put on by the local church. We wondered where the money from the collection plate was going. Anyways, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD8zlnIfSpc&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLO8YNjRguQ&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUwASA-ndMA&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk8ny6GdbmY&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSSCLpzwDYA&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkRQPCy3vmU&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5stNX4VwDc&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtHzg8WWas0&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJyI6dSpeP8&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4faeNP7TuA&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmaF2iJXZc&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewM9TPDEAhA&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAcFaHMyWoI&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IQyi2irWag&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av83GqdhmBE&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkzlg8NAHFA&feature=youtube_gdata

Monday, July 16, 2012

The Iguana Party

Greetings to everyone,
We have just discovered a secret here in La Cruz. It's called the Iguana Party. Not many have been fortunate enough to be invited, but, once you are it's the best party you'll ever get to see. They can sing, they can dance afterall it's La Cruz and the dinner here is never second best. We think the next mexican election should have the Iguana Party for election. Anyways enjoy the video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXTOU2MlcEk

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Story of Our TimeShares

Hi all.

Its been a while since our last update. Not much is new, except that long-story-short, we bought another timeshare.

If you recall, we recently acquired a new timeshare, here, in Puerto Vallarta (Nuevo Vallarta, to be exact). When we sold our Hawaii timeshare in exchange for the timeshare here, the company that liquidates them offered to let us keep the deed by paying them 1/10^th of its value. It seemed too good a deal to pass up, so we bought it back for $4200. Then, when we bought this new timeshare, the new place purchased both the Hawaii and the Mexico properties from us, at considerably more than we paid for them.

In the end, they gave us way more than we paid them. Now we have a new timeshare and a profit of around $65K. It feels strange to make money on timeshare, but what the heck. Oh, and since we’re living on our boat, we won’t be using it for a while (5 weeks in a private villa is what we ended up with) so they are going to rent them out and pay us just over 10K a year, profit. That’ll go nicely into the cruising kitty.

This new timeshare is quite nice, but different. Instead of hotel/condo rooms, each unit is a private villa. We got a 2 bedroom. We have a private swimming pool. We get unlimited use of the water sports, including the wave runners. And there is a yacht that we also get to use. We see it here at the marina. It’s a 50-foot or so powerboat.

We’ll be spending some time there later, so will get some video.

Aside from that, things are quiet around here. Its getting hot. Normal temperature during the day is 36, 37 degrees. Its going to get hotter, and humid. We just installed an air conditioner. It cools the bedroom nicely.

There is a tropical storm brewing south of us and we’re going to see the tail of it this weekend. We should get high winds and rain. We’ve added a few extra dock lines and tomorrow we’ll secure everything outside.

Everyone here says that where we are here, in Banderas Bay, they do not normally get hurricanes. It is considered, for insurance purposes, to be a hurricane hole, which means no extra premiums for coverage during hurricane season. So, we should be safe here all summer. We’re counting on it.

The other day, we saw a whole bunch of really big iguanas just inside the marina entrance. We knew there were at least 3 of them up in the trees, but we had never seen them on the ground. Neil almost ran over one, so we stopped. By the side of the road, in addition to the on crossing in front of us, were 6 very large iguanas. Maybe next time, we’ll have the camera.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Sightseeing from La Cruz

We were taking Spanish lessons, but they are over for now, slow season. However, we made friends with our teacher, Jesse. Jesse lives in La Cruz, but spent some time in Montreal. He's one of the younger gringos around here, only 30 or so.

Anyway, he offered to take us on a sightseeing trip and we jumped at the chance. His parents live in Guadalahara, so we started heading there. The trip was around 4 hours. It was interesting driving across some of the country. It was amazing to see all the fires. Jesse says they set these fires this time of year, just before the rainy season, and let them burn. The country side is pretty dry, so everything burns fast, but there not much vegetation on the trees, and they are really far apart so they don't really burn, just the underlying bushes. And no one lives in the areas, so they leave the fires to burn out on their own. One thing you notice in Mexico is that you can always smell smoke. That's cause there's always something buring here - besides the fact that most restaurants cook over wood fires.

We headed into the city square. We didn't see any other gringo's there, Jesse says they are afraid to go there. We had no problem and enjoyed the day. We got a bit of video, but it seems to have disappeared (since Sharon cleaned up the files), so sorry.

We spent the night in Guadalahara, at Jesse's parent's and headed into the mountains the next day. We drove for around 3 hours, into a place called Lake Chapala. Lake Chapala is where the richer Mexicans keep their summer places. It was at once such place where we stayed, once again, thanks to Jesse. Here is a short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvTzWiDtxwU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUb_HQ3EyG0

Once we arrived there, we were told to head into Ajijic (pronounced Ah-hee-hic), which was a nice town. Very old style Mexican, with narrow, stone streets. We really enjoyed it and even particpated in some sort of meditative walk on the beach. Afterward, we wondered if we were really supposed to be there. We didn't ask, just joined in. The temperature there was much cooler than back in La Cruz, which is why it is so popular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3PgLETz8h8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaZNpBmnN7U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7E0I7HbvlM

The next day, we headed back towards Guadalahara, this time stopping in Tonola. There, Jesse introduced us to the most amazing market ever! Sorry, no video, but it was so large, and so cramped, it would take days just to walk through all the alleys. But what a paradise!! Really nice stuff, specially if you are looking for interior decorations. And there you'll find matching pillows and lamps, etc. And really nice dry bamboo and stick things. Not sure how to describe them, but you use them to fill large, floor vases in big empty corners. Anyway, back home a bundle would easily sell for $45. At the market - 35 pesos, about 4 bucks!! I know how to make some money if I decided to live in Mexico. You could buy up the most amazing stuff for 1/10 of what you can sell it for! And we tried traditional Mexican food (Gorditas and something else) as well as shaved ice with fruit we have never seen before. Lots of fun. We really want to go back some day and get some more stuff now that we know what is there.

We didn't see any other gringos there, but at one point we heard someone say "Hey, you speak English". It came from a youngster and his mom, of Mexican heritage, but from California. We stopped to speak with them for a few minutes. That's how unusual it was to hear English.

We took this video back in February but can't remember if we ever posted it. Came across it cleaning up some files so here it is just in case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjtBkZRspZA

That's it for now. Sorry our blogs seem to go between droughts and floods. Kind of like life, eh?

Monday, April 23, 2012

4 Leaf Clovers!!

Hello everyone,

Sorry, its been a while since our last update. We have lots of video to post, but will do it in small batches. Maybe we'll be able to provide a weekly update, at least for a while, until things get boring around here.

The biggest news we have to report is that we have decided NOT to head to Costa Rica at this time. We were working with an American captain whom we hoped would help us get there, but his price is too high for us. So we're going to try spending the summer here in La Cruz. We've heard it gets really hot and we believe it. Already the temperatures are between 31 and 34 Celcuis every day. People here tell us that no one ventures out during the day in the summer, its just too hot. We're preparing for that and purchased an air conditioner at the last swap meet. Now, we're looking for someone to help us install it properly.

A little while ago, we took a tour to the local hot springs. We didn't get much video, but we did find the most unusual patch of 4 leaf clovers. Not one or two, mind you, but the entire batch were the 4 leaf kind. But you don't have to believe us, just take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVt9hpHFaQI&feature=endscreen&NR=1

La Cruz is situated in the northern end of Banderas Bay. Banderas Bay has some of the best sailing in the world. We haven't been out lately, but the other day we had an unusually clear day where you could see the entire bay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjbdw9L6pVM&feature=relmfu

Mexico is an amazing place in that events crop up all the time, out of nowhere. A few weeks ago, there was a very large, very expensive Mexican Tourism event held at our marina. It was quite the spectacle, with lots of performance art, including pirate ships, native dancers, fire dancers and an entire cast of Cirque De Soleil characters. These characters roamed around the crowd most of the night, it was something to see. Tickets were supposedly $200 each, but some of us at the marina were able to just walk in and get free food, booze and entertainment. (Sorry no video.)

And not too long ago, in a dirt lot here in the marina, out of nowhere again, a horse dancing show just popped up. They brought in bales of hay, which they decorated with branches off the local bushes, and plastic chairs for people to sit in, not to mention hot food and cold beer/margarita vendors. We watched asd someone took a manual auger, dug a quick hole, spliced into the marina power cable, and voila, we had lights! We do have some video of this event, which we'll put in our next entry.

At the moment, the marina grounds are filling up with carnival rides and the like. Apparently in a few days, a week long celebration will be starting up. Not sure what all will be there, but we'll try to get some video for you.

So for now, know that we are settling in for the summer, not really sure what we're in for. We hear they have huge rain falls and thunder storms, and we'll have to rig up a ground or something. We'll know more after this Wednesday, we'll be attending a seminar on preparing for the summer.

Hasta Luego, Amigos

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

First day of Spring in La Cruz

Hello all,
We are enjoying it here in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. Its starting to get hot here. Most days now its around 30, but the other day it was 34 degrees.
We've started taking Spanish lessons. So far, we've learned clothing, foods, things around the house and animals. We should be able to get a half dozen more lessons in before we leave.
We did some calculations based on our route and the stops we want to make. The "gold coast" of Mexico is supposed to be one of the most beautiful cruising grounds in the world, so we don't want to rush through it all. It should take us 50 to 60 days to get to Costa Rica once we depart. We're looking at leaving around the 12th of April or so.
We got hooked into a timeshare presentation. But we loved it so much, we traded in our Hawaii timeshare for this one in Neuvo Vallarta. It is the most beautiful resort we've ever seen. We spent a day there a while ago and got some video, as you can now enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov73nRLhkF8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SN0BPALWpE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI12J5Nca1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCOS8FImG5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFT1qmffBzg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5SgUer7_cw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Sd0meiYks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zshYC4DBUwA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utVvGM8n0XU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6jKDKXQwDc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJVToyPw2L4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcWyvmksZ70
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssbwwQDkPfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATobU65OW28

Monday, February 27, 2012

La Cruz

Sunday, February 19, 2012

La Cruz

We are now in La Cruz, 15 minutes from Puerto Vallarta. It's a beautiful small mexican town. We just came back from a farmer's market in the marina vicinity. A great market with local foods and cultural products.

As for the trip here it was quite the experience. Our captain that we became friends with was helping a boat go from La Cruz to Guymuas, a place north of Mazatlan. The captain (Marc) would then get dropped off at our boat on the way to Guymuas and take our boat back down to La Cruz. On the way north to Guymuas this guy's boat breaks down in San Blas about halfway between La Cruz and Mazatlan. They still came to Mazatlan and spoke to us about taking our boat and us down to La Cruz. Marc's friend Steve decided to take our car and look for parts in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta we thought we were doing him a favour. Steve's girlfriend said she would crew on our boat for free. The night before we left we got into a huge argument with Marc, Steve and his girlfriend Isabelle. We were going to call the whole thing off until Steve threatened to do something bad to us if we didn't proceed as planned. This was taken seriously and we followed the plan. We started on the journey south and hit some rough weather. We finally made it to San Blas where Steve was waiting for his girlfriend. We took our dinghy to San Blas' beach, locked it up and left for the town of San Blas (cute festive town). Later we came back at night to find we had no light to see the combination on the padlock that locked our dinghy. We thought we were in trouble with lots of noseams biting us. Minutes later a motorcycle came by with someone holding a light thankfully and we were able to unlock the padlock. We put the dinghy in the water and found out the motor wouldn't start. We problably paddled about an hour before getting to our boat. Later That night a gale storm went by blowing winds up to 35 miles per hour. The boat was rocking during the storm furiously. The next day we left San Blas and 2 hours later our boat was having engine problems as one of the belts broke to the generator requiring us to turn around and head back to San Blas.
The next day we were talking to people who entered the anchorage in San Blas and said we missed a squall, so thankfully we turned back when we did or we would have been in it. That day to La Cruz was some great smooth sailing. We arrived at the marina and lots of people greeted us. The office thought we were come kind of celebrities. They didn't realize it was people we got to know from other marina's in Mexico.

The day after, we get a bill from Steve for driving our car down to La Cruz. We told him we wouldn't pay for that. He charged us for a 2 day trip (which should have only been 1 day by car) and expenses. He freaked out on us yelling and screaming. We both thought Steve was going to hit Neil, thankfully Marc was there so he pulled back. He then started screaming at Marc the person who helped with his boat for free. Beware of Steve Arnold on the boat "Go For Broke". Apparently he had bad dealings with other people in town. His girlfriend Isabelle also yelled at Marc because she wanted money for crewing on the boat even though she said she would do it for free. We ended up paying for Steve's and Isabelle's expenses but that wasn't even enough. Steve went on the vhf radio and started bad talking about Marc and us so all the cruiser's could hear. We also found out that the car needed some serious work done on it. The coolant container had a leak, the car was overheating and other stuff. It was an adventurous trip to say the least.
Good news is that Steve and Isabelle are gone from La Cruz because Steve found the part he needed and is now on his way to Guymuas.

Here are some videos of Mazatlan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCMhLyCWiHQ&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8pGGwdePXk&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggTwIz5h-ZQ&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JADMhwTEYk4&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-nHYp7tmc&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUi9D6bYEM&feature=youtube_gdata

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

February in Mazatlan

We've really been enjoying it here. There are tons of Canadians living here so we have great company.

The water here is different. Sometimes, at night, the water is lumiscent. It glows when its disturbed, and if you use a hose, you can make what looks like a laser show on the water. Neil stuck his hand in and it glowed when he pulled it out. We're told its some sort of algae. We saw turquiose, but we're told it changes colour too!

Lots of fish in the marina. The other day we thought it was raining (hard!!), like a big cloud burst, but we couldn't see any sign of rain from below deck, so we went up top for a look. Turns out all the noise was from fish jumping in the water. Yeah, there were tons of them!!

There is a fishing charter or two that go out deep sea fishing every day. They almost always return with a marlin or two or even three.

We have a few visitors with us at the moment. Some fellow cruisers, that ran into some engine problems on their way north. We're helping them get parts and then will probably sail with them (3 additional people) down to La Cruz. We'll let you know when we move again.

In the meantime, here are some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk8yDqsQ3_0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0zWMjYovFc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO40GtrA1aY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zj60vaAxQE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lwG4CLPg1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M0dmmVa6rk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLXbsWdwyyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOlVXZ2eqOs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wEpGv2oUH0

Monday, January 16, 2012

Hi from Mazatlan

We're running a little behind in our blog...
We have arrived in Mazatlan. The marina here is nice, connected to a big resort. Will post some video later. Some video's have arrived:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk8yDqsQ3_0&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPoDoFdA4bA&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb9J7yx7G50&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zj60vaAxQE&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lwG4CLPg1U&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAqaabo9cG8&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M0dmmVa6rk&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUgCQgxaL9g&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOlVXZ2eqOs&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wEpGv2oUH0&feature=youtube_gdata

Life here in Mazatlan is exciting with water volleyball at 1pm, bingo at 2pm, blackjack at 3pm, darts at 4pm and poker at 6pm. There's very little time for eating..haha
The trip here was exciting - crossing the Sea of Cortez. We got some winds and waves. We actually sailed most of the way. We hit a top speed of 10 knots. That was with a double-reefed main and a small jib. We had a crew member from France - Flo. Nice guy, quite smart, helped us a lot. He was only 23, but worldly, spoke several languages. He and his buddy went across Canada by hitch hiking, then on to California where someone gave them bikes. They biked to La Paz then crewed across the Sea of Cortez, on their way to South America. The other guy went on our friend/mechanic's boat Foley Douce.
We think we'll spend a bit of time here..
Oh, poor Archie fell into the water the other day. We had been working on the sail and left the boom off to the side with no cover. He must have gotten on it, then slipped off into the water. Luckily Neil heard something that made him get up and check. We found him swimming around the boat at around 6:30. Sharon got down on the dock and was able to pull him out by the scruff of his neck. Poor thing was traumatized. He's fine now, though. No worse for wear.
Anyway, we have lot's of work to do. Our lazy jacks broke on the way over so we have to fx them.
Here is a video of the last marina we were in - Costa BaJa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZblPOmX_tp8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Last Post of 2011

We also thought we had posted this earlier, so it is late. Better late than never, right?

Hi all,
We've been busy again. Still lots to do on the boat.
We did some sightseeing, so have lots of videos for you.
We went out to the desert on Christmas day, with some friends, and dropped off car loads of gifts and clothing for the poorer folks out there. It felt really good to do that and we enjoyed it a lot. It was heart warming to place a new doll into the arms of a 3 year old girl, who was too shy to say a word!
We moved into a new marina yesterday, Costa Baja. We actually won a free week here at one of the BaJa HaHa parties, so its not costing us anything. Its a brand new, very classy place here. There are swimming pools, beaches, hotels and even a golf course. Next blog, we hope to include some video.
We've decided to head over to the mainland sooner rather than later. We're thinking of perhaps spending the hurricane season in Costa Rica. So the plan is to leave here in about a week. After we finish getting our new solar panels installed and our new anchor chain.
Here are the latest videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiW9ZCfiwoU

Our Trip From La Paz to Bellandra

Friday, December 9, 2011

Swimming With the Whale Sharks

Hi everyone,
The other day we went swimming with the whale sharks. They are almost the largest sharks in the world (I believe there is one bigger one, Mega Mouth), but they are very slow, docile and harmless. They eat krill, not humans, so we weren't scared. Well, not much anyway. Sharon got so close to one that she had to back off to keep it from touching her. At one point, it turned and came at her, mouth first, Wow!

They hang around La Paz, in the shallow water. There were also a lot of manta rays there. It was really something.

It was hard to get good pictures, but here are some of the better ones.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Videos - Ensenada to La Paz

Monday, November 14, 2011

The Trip to Cabo

We did it! We sailed (well, motor-sailed really) all the way from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas.
We left around noon on Oct 24th, sailed for three days and two nights until we arrived at Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortugas). The trip was mostly uneventful. We had 11-foot swells the first night, but that was mostly during Jesus's watch, so we slept through most of it. We caught our first yellowtail. Not a bad size fish, probably around 6 pounds. We made sushi with some of it, but it was too much and we ended up throwing the rest out.
During the day, a tiny little yellow bird flew onto the boat. He stayed with us into the night, even going into the cabin and spending about a hour or so walking around and checking out the v-berth. Funny thing, the cats never knew it was there. It was so cute, we think it was too tired to fly to shore. He was gone the next morning, so he must have eventually made it.
We didn't see much of the BaJa HaHa fleet until just before we arrived at our first stop.
There was a baseball game the day after we arrived. Many of the boats didn't get there until the day after we did. The following day was the famous pot luck beach party. There were around 500 or so sailors and their crew and families (for some). The food and company was great and fun was had by all. There was lots of fish, as most boats caught something, and something large at that. Someone caught Marlin, but had to let it go, too big. Someone caught a 61 inch Wahoo.
During the next leg of the trip, we saw some great sun rises. We also experienced something call the "green flash" during one of the sunsets. Kind of neat, just before the sun set, it turned green.
This time we caught our first Durado, or Mahi Mahi. What a beautiful fish! This one was about 3 feet long or so. Jesus made us some ceviche, which was delicious. We later marinated some filets in teriyaki sauce and grilled it. Also delish. We still had too much and had to throw some out.
We saw dolphins many times, playing in our bow wave. The water was so clear, it was awesome to watch them. We could hear their squeaks too.
During one night, many baby squid jumped onto the deck. We heard one sailor say that one even hit him in the face! During another night, some flying fish got on deck.
Our next stop at Bahia Santa Maria was a little different than the first stop. There was not a thing there. But amazingly, for our beach party, a band showed up and meals were also cooked for everyone. We hear that this little "town" magically appears once a year, during the BaJa HaHa.
The last leg, to Cabo was the shortest and the easiest. The first night there was a "I can't believe we cheated death once again" party. We ran into some engine problems and missed the beach party, but we made the awards ceremony the next night, where we won 3rd place. (Everyone got 3rd place unless they got 2nd or first.)
We think our engine problems are fixed, so we're now headed to La Paz. More on that once we arrive.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Checking in from Cabo San Lucas

Well, we arrived safely with the head of the fleet. Currently, we have some major engine problems that are preventing us from leaving for La Paz. Just as well as we've been advised to wait until Friday (today is Saturday) anyway due to a strong northern wind.

We found a mechanic with the fleet who is willing to help us if he is able. We're having breakfast in a local restaurant with WiFi so we thought we should provide a brief update.

We have lots to report, but will wait until we have some time.

So far, it's been quite awesome even with the problems. It's so cool to jump off the boat into to the 84 degree water.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Leaving Ensenada

We're just making our last minute adjustments - putting our steps and bikes, etc on board. We're fueled up, our water tanks are full and so are the fridge and freezer.

We'll be leaving within the hour.

Next update, from somewhere else.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Red Tide, Glowing Fish and A Wet Security Guard

Hi all,
We thouht we'd make a quick posting as we have a few moments.

We've been busy making all our last minute repairs and stocking up (lots) before we take off.

Things have been interesting around here. For the past week or so, there've been these "Red Tides". At first the water just got sort of cloudy. Then it turned red. It's neat, for some reason it's making some of the fish phosflorscent (not spelled correctly). At night, there are these little glowing trails in the water as fish swim close to the surface. It some kind of natural phenomenom, too many microscopic organisms or something like that. Alas, it is poisonous. It's killing a lot of fish and birds. It's really starting to stink.

The other morning, Sharon got up for her usual trip to the facilities. It was early and still dark. There was a man in the water in the slip across from us. Turned out that one of the security guards fell in. Sharon couldn't get him out so quickly ran up to the security station for help. Bit of a mystery there, poor guy. I think he was in there for a while.

The hotel/marina is hosting what looks like a beauty pageant here this weekend. Could be interesting except that they make us move our cars whenever they have an event like this.

We hope to make one more post before we leave on Oct 24. Boy it's coming quickly,

Friday, October 14, 2011

October 14, 2011- Preparing for the BaJa HaHa

Its nice to be back in Ensenada. The weather has gotten a little colder. Normal daytime temp is around 20C, but we've been up to 25C. Nighttime cools off quickly. We hit the dewpoint right after sundown and things stay wet until sunrise again.

We're leaving in10 days! It is exciting and a little scary thinking about it.
It took us a while to get moving after we arrived. Somehow, our power was turned off long enough to have thawed everything in the freezer. It took us all day to clean it up. Then Neil got sick. We also discovered that water got into one of our food storage areas. That was a hell of mess (and stink) to clear up. The smell was so bad, we're not sure we'll ever get it out of our heads. Hopefully all the bleach and vinegar we used did the job well. We're learning a lot!

We've been busy, as usual. We have a few minor things to take care of before we leave. We've been getting updated Mexican papers. We're working with a nice lady and she says once we're done, we can drive our car in Mexico (we couldn't get it licenced in Canada anymore). We will also get free medical care. We need to make some minor adjustments to the dinghy setup. And we have a new loadhailer speaker to install. We need to install new wires for our steaming lights. We have a second anchor holder for the bow coming that needs to be installed. No skidding material has been installed, for the most part on the parts of the deck that didn't have it (the house). We'll probably finish it today.

Neil is learning a bit about scuba. We've got all the equipment and he's been trying it out in the pool. (Sharon has her license.)

We're not sure where we'll end up in La Paz. There are many marinas there and some beautiful anchorages. We're planning on using the time there to decide how we prefer to journey - via the marina/city life/car, etc way, or via the free and natural way, on the hook.

Everything is under control. We're almost ready for the big trip.