Cruising Active Transport

We circumnavigated between 2008 and 2014. After sailing to Alaska we ended up in Seattle for four years.

19 September 2018
Youtube Video of our Voyage
08 August 2018 | Marina del Rey
Settling in at Marina del Rey
23 July 2018 | Marina del Rey
We are tied up in MDR
22 July 2018 | 25 miles west of Cambria
Good first day
21 July 2018 | Crossing Monterey Bay
Whales
21 July 2018 | South of the Golden Gate
On our way on the last leg
16 July 2018
Enjoying the Bay Area
14 July 2018 | Grand Marina
Change in Marina
14 July 2018 | San Francisco Bay
Back in the Bay After Ten Years
13 July 2018 | Point Arena
Passing Point Arena
12 July 2018 | Thirty Miles NW of Humbolt Bay, CA
Weather Is a Bit More Contrary Than Forecasted
11 July 2018 | Crescent City
Not a Whole Lot to Report
10 July 2018 | Neah Bay
Waiting in Crescent City for Blustery Weather to Die Down
09 July 2018 | Thirty five miles WNW of Reedsport, Oregon
Another Day of Motoring in Flat Water
08 July 2018 | Forty Miles West of Columbia River Entrance
A Successful First Day at Sea
07 July 2018 | Neah Bay
On our way
06 July 2018 | Neah Bay Marina
The Gods of Lousy Weather Don't Want Us to Change Our Minds
05 July 2018 | Neah Bay Marina
Weather Still Looking Good for a Saturday Departure
04 July 2018
Tied up in Neah Bay
03 July 2018 | Port Angeles City Floats
Docked on the Cheap in Port Angeles

Youtube Video of our Voyage

19 September 2018
John
I just added a link to a youtube video of a google earth animation that shows the route we took around the world. The route for our circumnavigation is in red. Our subsequent voyage to Alaska and then Seattle is in Yellow.

Settling in at Marina del Rey

08 August 2018 | Marina del Rey
John
We have been here in Los Angeles for two weeks, at this point, and life has settled into familiar routines.

We bought a car. We got a 2012 Honda Civic that runs on compressed natural gas. Almost all the airport shuttles use CNG for fuel so there are quite a few fueling stations nearby.

CNG and Electric vehicles are the only ones that are allowed to use the car pool lanes with only 1 person in the car. They used to allow hybrid vehicles to use those lanes but ended that program when Toyota sold thousands of Prius cars just so their owners could get the magic sticker that entitled them to use the carpool lanes. The carpool lanes became so crowded that their original purpose, of encouraging car pooling, was negated.

We have both ordered bicycles. Neither has shown up yet but we expect them to be very useful here in Marina del Rey because parking can be a real problem in the shopping plazas like the one where we have to go to pick up our mail.

The bicycle trails are well developed in this part of Los Angeles. It is possible to ride all the way to Malibu on bike trails and there are a lot of cultural activities that we will be able to bike to. We are going to see Shakespeare by the Sea this Saturday evening at Pollywog park in Manhattan Beach. We are seeing "The Merry Wives of Winsor" which is Shakespeare's take on "Housewives of Beverly Hills."

We have also bought tickets to a couple of events at the Hollywood Bowl this month. The first is a performance by the LA Symphony. dorected by Dutamel and with Itzhak Perlman on the violin. The, later in the month we are going to a performance of Carmina Burana.

The Hollywood bowl is a wonderful venue for big performances. It's way too big for a lot of things but it is very nice to have your picnic dinner and wine before the performance starts.

LA has so much going on that we could spend a fortune on everything that is worth seeing.

We have been having a heat wave but here on the edge of the ocean we have cooling breezes most of the day.

Shawn has actively started looking for a job and has a lot of leads on really interesting opportunities. A couple of the jobs he has looked at are in Santa Monica which is so close that his commute would consist of a 25 minute bike ride along the beach.

Im adding a satellite view of Marina del Rey that I snagged from google earth. At the bottom are some of the runways at LAX. Any of our international friends with layovers at LAX can easily come visit us. Give us enough warning and we will pick you up. Visiting some place like Venice Beach would be a lot more fun that sitting in the airport.

The blue dot in the marina is our slip.

We are tied up in MDR

23 July 2018 | Marina del Rey
John
After a bumpy ride around Point Conception last night we made it to marina del Rey around 5 PM this afternoon.

It was a motor boat trip the whole way.

After a couple of tries we got docked with the help of our friend Cecile who was sitting on her boat waiting for us and then did her Vanna White imitation to show us to our slip.

Tomorrow we will be occupied with errands like getting a mailbox, getting driver's licenses, picking up a rental car, etc.

At the fuel dock in Oakland Shawn's shorts got caught on the lifeline and it ripped the pocket off. His cell phone was in the pocket and it had a pocket on the back that contained his driver's license and credit cards. So replacing all that stuff will be among the errands we have to deal with.

Our friend Cecile, who has her sailboat next to our old slip in Seattle, is coming by in a few minutes so we can go get some supper. I ate the last of our KFC this morning (aka the Breakfast of Champions)
Vessel Name: Active Transport
Vessel Make/Model: Tayana 37 PH
Hailing Port: Seattle, Washington
Crew: John and Shawn
About:
John and Shawn left San Francisco in September of 2008 to sail around the world. They completed their circumnavigation when the came out of the Panama Canal in late October 2013. From there they sailed to Mexico, out to Hawaii and up to Kodiak, Alaska. [...]
Extra:
This blog is intended for friends and family who may or may not be sailors. It is not intended to provide technical details of any of the boat's systems. Its purpose is to keep friends up-to-date on our progress and, whereabouts Following the completion of our circumnavigation our blog entries [...]
Active Transport's Photos - Colca Canyon tour
Photos 1 to 61 of 61 | Cruising Active Transport (Main)
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This was our bus for the Colca Canyon Tour. It turned out to be a big advantage to have a red bus since most of the buses of the other tour companies were white. Over the two days of our $20 Colca Canyon tour we spent around 12 hours riding in the bus.
As we started climbing out of Arequipa we came to an area where the wild Vicunas live. Llamas and Alpacas are domesticated breeds that the indigenous people bred from the wild Vicunas.
These are Vicunas doing their thing, which is mostly eating. As you can see from the surrounding landscape, life is not easy for these critters.
Here are some more Vicunas.
This pic shows the coca leaves that we bought to ward off altitude sickness. You use it like chewing tobacco. The give you a little hunk of dried clay with the leaves. You are supposed to wrap the leaves around the clay and stick the whole mess in your cheek. The clay makes your saliva alkaline so that the coca alkaloids are extracted from the leaves.
This is the mate de coca or coca tea that they serve to ward off altitude sickness. Neither Shawn or I could detect any sort of buzz from drinking this stuff or using the leaves. It requires a significant concentration of the coca alkaloids, by extraction with organic solvents, to get a product with the kick of refined cocaine.
We stopped at a place where a lady had a bunch of Llamas and Alpacas in a pen made from rocks. They pierce the ears of the animals and thread colorful yarn through the holes to make they look pretty for the tourists. The Llamas and the ones that are mostly white. Their snouts are more refined looking than the alpacas.
This is an Alpaca. Compare it with the previous pic to see the differences from Llamas.
Here are a few llamas and alpacas together,
Despite the reputation these animals have for spitting on bystanders we never saw them do it.
Shawn decided to visit the wayside servicios hygenicos.
Hygenico is a strong word to use to describe the facilities.
The town of Civay, where we spent the night, is down in a valley with a switchback road that we followed down the mountain
More views of the Canyon.
The town entry arch for Chivay. The thing running over the top of the arch is a pvc pipe that brings water from mountain streams into town.
Another view of the valley.
Another view of Chivay from above.
This view of the town of Chivay was taken from an overlook on the hike the guide took us on. These tours are big on getting everyone to tromp around on hikes. I think it is to wear you out so you are more manageable. This town was at about 12,000 feet (twice as high as Denver) and we were huffing and puffing by the time we to to the high point of the hike. But the teenage exchange students were huffing and puffing too.
These two weird statues in Chivay reminded us of Mormon pioneers.
This amphitheater is pre incan. Our guide told us all sorts of details of the ritual sacrifices that took place here. I think the guides make this stuff up.
Dusty little town that lives to accommodate tourists.
This was the entrance to our hostel with the duena (manager) standing in the door. This lady was barely 4 feet tall
A view of our accommodations in the hostel. We forgot to get pic of the bathroom. It had the ugliest toilet and sink that either of us had ever seen. It was a strange dark maroon color.
We had dinner at a place that specialized in the gringo crowd. It came complete with folk dancers and a band of very marginal musicians with the ubiquitous pan flute.
After our hike they took us to a public pool that was fed by thermal springs. You could sit in the hot water and have a nice friendly lady serve you a cold Arequipena beer. Very civilized.
Our tour group was dominated by 24 exchange students from around the world. When the kids decided to make pyramids, with the girls on top, the local gentlemen seemed to enjoy the show.
After a little while in Colca Canyon we got trained to reach for our wallets when we saw a Smurf house. This is what the toll booths looked like. You have to buy a ticket to get into the park.
One of the more remarkable things about this Canyon is that it is covered with pre inca terracing that is still farmed.
We stopped briefly in a little town called Maca. The nicest building in town was the catholic church. That seemed to be the case in most towns in Peru.
Another view of the church in Maca.
As we climbed into the Andes we got very good views of many of the volcanoes that surround Arequipa.
This is Lucas, one of the exchange students we met on this tour. The kids in the group had been immersed in family life in Lima and it was amazing to hear how good their Spanish was. Most of them had just had high school Spanish courses before coming to Peru for a few months. Of course the European kids spoke multiple languages before coming to Peru. The kids were accompanies buy a couple of men from Rotary International. The exchange program was sponsored by Rotary.
In Maca we came across a couple of people who had an eagle and a big hawk for tourist pictures. You could smell the guy in this pic from 20 feet away.
Shawn may look like he is cringing because of the bird on his head but I think it was really because the guy with the bird took the hat off his own head and put it on Shawns. Shawn was lucky the bird was the only animal he had on his head after wearing that hat.
There was not much in the way of facilities on the road to Chivay
After Shawn got his pic taken with the bird I had to try to so I used the services of a lady who not only had a big bird but also a llama
In Maca we found a good deal on silly Peruvian hats.
Just a view into the Canyon
The signs for the park were in the form of two mountain peaks with a symbolic condor stretched beneath the lettering.
The high point of the tour was our visit to Cruz del Condor. Its an overlook where the Andean condors soar on the up currents from the Canyon. There were a couple of rocks like this one where they would rest. Sometimes there would be 5 or 6 of them fighting over a place to sit.
The Andean Condors are the largest birds on the planet with a wing span of about 10 feet.
We took a lot of pictures but it was hard to get good shots. One thing we learned is that the less expensive digital cameras that we have ($159-$200) have too much shutter delay between when you push the button and when the picture gets taken. That made it difficult to get good closeup shots of the birds.
This looks fake, but its not.
Condor pics
Condor pics
Condor Pics
Condor pics
Condor pics
A brief video of the condors
Three at once. We probably saw a total of between 20 and 30 of the birds at Cruz del Condor.
This is a view of the town of Chivay whrere we spent the night. The road from the mountain pass to the valley was scary.
Mountain streams were forced into channels and routed where the water was needed for irrigation
One of the Miradors at Cruz del Condor/
Condor on his break.
One of many photo ops of folks in native dress.
Another view of the Canyon
I think this cactus is the same species that blooms in the desert near Palm Springs. They were very abundant at Colca Canyon.
 
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On the hook in Tomales Bay

Who: John and Shawn
Port: Seattle, Washington