We flew up to the Northwest on January 25th and have hardly had time to catch our breath since we arrived!
We had great fun doing the Boat Show on the weekends -- Terry was doing book signings in the West Marine booth and we sold lots of books and met a lot of interesting people -- and also ran into lots of old friends!
We spent as much time as possible with our daughter, Carly, and, among other things, enjoyed going to see the movie Avatar with her.
We're lucky to have some great friends that opened up their homes to us and gave us a place to stay whether we were in Seattle for the show or in Gig Harbor for our annual Dr. appointments and fantastic dinner parties. We felt a bit like wandering gypsies as we'd figure out day by day where we would need to be and packing our bags and moving around.
We were happy to go to Gig Harbor Yacht Club's annual Crab Feed last Friday night after a long day at the Boat Show. It gave us a chance to catch up with a lot of good friends -- including Dave Calhoun who provided the musical entertainment for the evening.
We also squeezed in a few good long walks in Gig Harbor just like old times. This morning was a real treat doing our long walk up the hills and then ending up at the Tides Tavern for breakfast, and catching up with our favorite waitresses there: Olivia and Mary. Ah, good times!
The pace of life, traffic and rain have us feeling anxious to get back home to Cetus in La Paz. It was a whirlwind of a "working vacation" and we didn't have near enough time to see all of our friends and family. We have plans to be up this way again in June and hope to have a little more time for visiting than we had this time.
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I added a few pics to our photo gallery today -- click on the link to the right to see pictures from La Paz, San Evaristo and Isla San Fransico.
Enjoy!
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We were able to set the spinnaker for a bit on our sail back to La Paz.
Winds were light and the seas were smooth, but we enjoyed about an hour of silently slipping through the water with the big sail pulling us along.
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Isla San Francisco was a favorite when we were down this way on Cetus 10 years ago -- and once again we found it a real delight!
It's large crescent shaped bay is lined with a gorgeous white sand beach and the red rock cliffs offer great protection from the wind. The turquoise water is so clear we could see our anchor set in the sand 30 feet below our bow.
We hiked up the ridge on the south of the island and enjoyed great views in all directions, then, after visiting with friends on the beach we went back out to Cetus for a swim.
Would have loved to stay several more days, but the weather forecast said it was time to head for the barn -- and, it will still be here when we head north again at the end of February!
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We had to beat into the wind and waves on Sunday to get to San Evarvisto, which was a nice anchorage. We snorkeled, hiked and beach combed in our 2 day stay there. Last night we went into a little cantina on the beach with some friends who had made arrangements for dinner there. We walked in to the small cinder block and thatch roof 30 by 10 structure and sat down at one of the 4 tables. An older gentleman greeted us and soon brought our our prepared food -- no menus needed here! His young (8 or 9 year old) grandson happily sat nearby.
We dined on some fresh caught batter fried fish with refried beans, freshly made corn tortillas and then he brought out a bowl of ceviche as an added side dish. With drinks (cervesas and water) the bill for all four of us came to 224 pesos -- or about 18 dollars! It was a real treat.
Then this morning we began our trip south to head back to Marina Palmira. A stronger Norther is predicted to come in Thursday and Friday, so we've decided to head back to the dock on Wednesday.
We had a lovely downwind sail to Isla San Franciso and anchored in the large crescent shaped, white sand beach lined bay with about 10 other boats. This was one of our favorite stops when we were down here 10 years ago, and we're looking forward to doing a lot of hiking and exploring today.
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We left the marina this morning for a little vacation.
Today we traveled up to Ensenada Granda to meet up with our friends on Galatea. We plan to be out a week to 10 days and hope to make it as far north as Agua Verde before heading back to La Paz.
The weather is great!
Check out the January issue of 48 North to see Terry's latest article -- though they put my name on the byline by mistake -- I really didn't work in construction for the past 30 years!
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We did a short overnight trip up to Bahia San Gabriel when friends Paul and Sarah stopped by on their vacation to Baja California Sur.
We had great weather for walking the white sand beach and some swimming -- just not enough wind for sailing.
Now we'll head out again tomorrow for a longer trip. We'll be gone a week to 10 days and head further north to explore some new territory.
Going to Espirtu Santo and Isla Pardita is about the equivalent of going to Blake Island from Gig Harbor -- this next trip will be more like going to the San Juans!
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It's been a little over a month now since we pulled in to the dock here in Marina Palmira and put a temporary end to our constant traveling and overnight passages. We are enjoying life here tremendously!
We've managed to get out to the nearby islands for some fun "mini vacations" where we hike, snorkel, explore and relax in the beauty of the red rocked islands as they rise out of the azure sea. And there's a lot more of that to come.
When we're back here at the dock, we are content with some comfortable routine -- our morning hike (or climb!) to the Fisherman's Cross high atop the hill over looking the marina, walking to town nearly every day to shop, browse or just poke around learning our way through the city. Evenings bring a gathering of cruisers on the dock to watch the sun go down and talk about our days and our plans and exchange information. We've got a great group of people (and pets!) here. Celebrating the holidays with these new found friends was a real treat.
Dishes, the dog, is a very special delight. She's a true Boat Dog and has been traveling the Sea of Cortez with Vicky, aboard Inspiration at Sea, for several years. She's always there to greet you with a wag and a smile when you walk down the dock, often running to you like you're her long lost best friend. She happily jumps aboard Cetus to sit with Terry in the cockpit when he's out there reading or writing.
We are constantly busy. In fact, I still haven't been able to find enough time in the day to accomplish everything I'd like to -- organizing pictures, editing our movies from the camcorder, writing Christmas letters (opps -- too late for that now!) and on and on. When we're not walking or cooking and cleaning or any of the other normal everyday activities, we are working on "The Book". Terry's about 3/4 through the writing of the 1st draft of the sequel to Rick's Place. Once he writes it out longhand, I take it over and type and tweak and throw in my two cents worth -- it's really a fun project.
The city of La Paz is much as we remember it from 10 years ago when we fell in love with it. With no cruise ships coming into port and no huge high rise hotels, it is a quiet, comfortable city. It doesn't have the hustle and bustle and noise or street vendors with their trays of silver or piles of hats like you find (or they find you!) in the larger resort towns of Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta or nearby Cabo.
While Gig Harbor will always be home, we quickly realized as we set sail down the coast that we wouldn't ever be living aboard a boat there again -- at least not through the winter! When we reached San Francisco and settled in again at our old marina in Emeryville, we thought that might be a good place to return to when were done with this traveling adventure and want to settle in a bit. It's close enough to "home" for travel back and forth, yet the winter on a boat is much more pleasant than in the Northwest. Plus, we love walking through and exploring San Francisco!
Now that we're here, we're starting to think this may be The Place. We don't plan to "get stuck" here as so many cruisers do when they get to Mexico, because we still have some traveling dreams to fulfill. But once our wandering days are done and we want to grow some "semi-roots", La Paz, with it's quiet lifestyle, nearly perfect climate (at least in the winter) and the lower cost of living (which makes our retirement dollars go further!), just may be the spot!
| Blog Posts; Cruising Life |
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Happy New Year Everyone!
We wish you all health and happiness in 2010!
Cheers!
Terry & Heidi
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For the 1st time in MONTHS I've had a good enough internet connection and some free time so I could upload some pictures to our Photo Gallery!
Enjoy!
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Here's a shot from the top of the hill/mountain just behind Marina Palmira. It's a nice little hike with a great view.
I did a SPOT location from the top today -- so I thought I'd better show where we were so you wouldn't think Cetus had traveled inland!
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12/24/2009, the Sea of Cortez
We send warm wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with health and happiness!
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We've been enjoying the beautiful anchorage of Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida since Friday. There's great snorkeling on all sides and some good hiking. Then today we had a special treat -- finding the Blue Footed Boobies!
I'd always thought they were only found in the Galapagos and I would have to wait till then to see them. But, the newer, 2nd edition of Sea of Cortez, A Cruisers Guidebook by Sean Breeding and Heather Bansmer has a little sidebar showing where there is a rookery right here on Isla Partida -- in a small bay, La Cueva, right next to where we are. So this morning we jumped into our dinghy, and along with Jim & Ellen (Galatea) in their dinghy, we went in search of the Blue Footed Boobies.
I did a little reading up on them last night and found out that nearly half of the worlds population of them do live in the Galapagos -- some 20,000 pairs. They're a graceful flying and diving bird, but turn clown like during their courtship dances as they awkwardly lift their big bright blue feet up and down. It was amazing as we approached their area to see them sitting on the nooks and crannies of the sandstone cliffs -- you could see the big blue feet from far away!
As we sat quietly watching for some time, you could see some pairs performing their dance and hear their calls -- the female honking and the male whistling. Truly fascinating!
We followed that by going to the small beach at the head of the small bay and hiking up the arroyo to the top of a cliff overlooking Ensenda Grande -- a spectacular view. We then snorkeled around the point on our way back to the boat and saw more fish than we'd seen any other day.
It was a good day.
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Terry will be doing book signings at the West Marine booth at the Seattle boat show this year!
Come on by to get an autographed copy -- or just to say hi.
The show runs January 29th thru February 6th -- Go to the Adventures Aboard Rick's Place link for more information.
Other notes:
Check out the link to the right for Bryce Dylan Edwards -- he's my very talented great nephew. His artwork is amazing! His dad's website is right next to his: Brian Edwards Photography
Also click on Kavenga's Wake -- our friend Steve Van Slyke has a new book out, "Sex, Lies and Spinnakers" that's an exciting who done it set on the high seas and a must read.
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