03/31/2010, La Paz, Baja, Mexico
After bashing up into the Sea of Cortez from San Jose Del Cabo for 2 full days, we finally got a day of flat seas and a beautiful morning. Ever since turning the corner at Cabo Falso, near Cabo San Lucas, we have been basking in the warm weather and warm water. We left San Jose Del Cabo for the 39 mile passage to Los Frailes and while the first half of the journey was blissful, a norther came through and pitched a hissy fit, turning the seas into 4 ft jabs every couple of seconds. The boat slowed to 3 knots or less unless we headed off on a reach, which usually took us in the wrong direction. Doing so increased our speed to near 6 knots again, so at least if *felt* like we were going someplace. Actually, VMG was better and the ride was ok, and 8 hours later, we were anchored in Los Frailes enjoying the 25-28 knots of wind tugging on our anchor.
This picture is the moonset and the sunrise coming out of Bahia Los Mertos around 6:00am, on our way to La Paz. A few dolphins greeted us for a morning romp on the bow. It was a really flat motor sail, not much wind to speak of, but again on the nose. You could easily see the sea life as we cruised through the glassy water. Sea Lions didn't even flinch at our boat going by; we actually had to steer away from them. I have to say, I don't remember the water being so flat that I could actually cook a full on breakfast in a LONG time!
We are enjoying the temperatures here in the sea, it's been around 90-99 degrees the last two days in La Paz. We have biked around town running errands for boat parts and of course re-provisioning food and drinks before we take off for a couple of days up into the islands above La Paz during the Sea of Cortez Sailing Week. We missed it last year since we did the Puddle Jump across the Pacific in March last year, so we are looking forward to meeting old and new friends here in Mexico. We're off to the skippers meeting tonight and Allan's going to the open mic night at the local cruisers hangout. I'm sure we'll have some photos to follow.
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03/20/2010, Turtle Bay, Baja, Mexico
Three short days in Ensenada, ensconced at Marina Coral, allowed Rina and I to clean up and re-provision the boat for our trip down the coast of Baja California. We caught a convenient hotel shuttle from the West Marine parking lot in San Diego with our gear and the spoils from our Port Supply and Downwind Marine runs. The 90 minute trip to the Hotel Coral along the coast helped reacquaint us with the Mexico we have been away from for the past year. On Saturday, our trip to the Port of Ensenada to inspect Follow You before the boat was lowered into the water was delayed from 10am to 6pm, precipitating an additional night in the hotel before floating her off Dockwise Sunday morning. The boat travelled the 5000+ miles pretty well, with only rusty stanchions to show for her journey. This was much better than our friends Tom and Monique's catamaran Zen, with a new paint job, which had been covered in Auckland by shrinkwrap for her journey. Super Servant 3 encountered 55 knot winds and rough seas around the Cook Islands, which tore or bent most of the stanchions on Zen. Fortunately her new topsides and hull paint job still looked great, with only 3-4 gouges where the uprooted stanchions had bashed the nearby hull.
For two days at Marina Corel, Rina and I cleaned Follow You, inside and out, removing gummy tape residue and rust stains from deck and stainless. Our new friends Emily and Mark from S/V Groovy had a pickup truck, greatly easing the logistics of our provisioning runs to Commercial and Soriana, where we stocked up for our 2 week run down the coast of Baja. As thanks we invited them over for a manicotti dinner and boat talk, as they are at the very beginning of their cruising journey, having just purchased Groovy, a Hunter 44DS, and learning to sail in the last year. Thank you Mark and Emily and best of luck on your own sailing journey.
We checked out of Ensenada on Wednesday and headed down the coast in mild conditions, sailing, then motorsailing overnight as the winds died. At sunset we were munching some snacks when we noticed the engine temperature rising slightly and a hollow sound coming from the exhaust. We eased the throttle, which made no difference. So after cutting the engine, I went below to investigate. We found a mildly fouled seawater strainer... it's amazing how rich in bio-matter the pacific coast is compared with the entire South Pacific, where clear blue waters are the rule. The green sludge of plankton, kelp and assorted other creatures created a mild blockage, but was ultimately not the cause of our overheating. My first reflex was engine impeller, but then reflected on past episodes and how the simplest explanation usually was correct. As we continued to sail towards San Carlos, I exercised the primary thru-hull for the engine (we have two, one at the thru-hull and another just before the strainer to simplify cleaning), noting a slight resistance, pointing to something we may have sucked up in the kelp infested waters. Removing the strainer and opening the thru-hull revealed a continued blockage, so after reconnecting and priming the system, I rev'ed the engine to 2500 RPM's, sucking the above small apricot-sized kelp ball into the strainer, clearing the obstacle. After a big sigh of relief at NOT having to replace an impeller in the middle of a seaway, we continued on down the coast.
Our original plan to spend the next night in San Quentin, about 120 miles down the coast from Ensenada was replaced by plan b, San Carlos, 60 mile further. This was due to major new sand bars in the San Quentin anchorage which would have forced us to anchor in an open seaway where the 10 foot Pacific swells were rolling in every 10 seconds. As it was, the reflected swells in San Carlos were almost as bad, becoming more sharp and frequent as they bent around the point. We spent a rolly night in the anchorage, tossing and turning in our bunk, dreaming of the warmer and calmer waters of the Sea of Cortez. We left mid-morning on Friday for the 126 mile overnight run to Turtle Bay, where we last anchored with 160 boats in the 2008 Baja Haha. The passage around Cedros Island is notorious for bashing boats around as the wind funnels between the mainland and the island, but conditions were benign as we tucked behind the island at midnight, with smooth seas and little wind as we motored the next 10 hours into Turtle Bay. We arrived mid-morning and finding only 3 other boats in the anchorage, settled close to the dock as Enrique the fuel guy came to greet us. The small village of perhaps 500 people is quiet as a chilled 20 knot wind blows through the streets and anchorage. The buzz we last experienced here in 2008 has been replaced by calm, likely the normal state of things in this lonely outpost in the middle of Baja California.
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big hug from NZ !
big hug from NZ !
03/14/2010, Ensenada, Mexico
After what seemed like an eternity, we are finally back aboard Follow You... not that we didn't have a blast on the South Island of New Zealand or visiting relatives and friends in California. It does however reinforce again how much this has become our home. We enjoyed several days in Newport Beach last week visiting Stephanie and John, who last visited us in the Marquesas and Tuamoto's last year. John was kind enough to put his 22 foot RIB with twin 50hp outboards on Newport Bay so we could get our water fix in after 3 weeks on land. Rina played race photographer and shot over 1000 pictures at the WD Shock Memorial Regatta, where Lido 14's and S20's carved up the bay under rain threatened skies. John and partner Kurt Wiese took top honors in two days of sailing. Full results at www.lido14.org. Later we visited with daughter Megan in San Diego and spent a night with Kurt and Susan, who have spent much time on Carinthia over the past year. Congrats to Kurt for getting his 100 ton captains license on Friday after a grueling 14 straight days of classes.
We arrived in Ensenada Friday night anticipating a Saturday morning inspection and offloading of the boat, only to be delayed until early Sunday morning. Upon inspection of Follow You we found that the boat travelled well... a bit dirty, but otherwise in good shape. We departed Dockwise Super Servant 3 by 9am and headed out into Ensenada Bay where we encountered the Northern Pacific swell for the first time in a year. After checking all boat systems we headed to Marina Coral and tucked into our slip. No sooner had we done so we were greeted by several cruisers. We met Mark and Emily from Groovy, a Hunter 45DS, who had been following our blog for awhile and were surprised to learn we were headed to the same dock. Several other cruisers introduced themselves over the next couple of hours as it slowly dawned on us that we were back in the friendly cruising grounds of Mexico.
We spent all day cleaning the boat, getting most of the dirt off, but only some of the rust and sticky adhesive from the shrink wrap tape used to secure the covers used during transit. We'll tackle the rest of it over the next 2 days, along with provisioning and fueling up for the trip down the coast of Baja on Wednesday, weather permitting, and head for the Sea of Cortez sailing week in early April.
We now return to our normal programming... let's go sailing!
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MIke & Julie
03/03/2010, Auckland, New Zealand
After a gala party on Carinthia last night and not so sad goodbye's today with Dietmar, Suzanne, Aaron and Lauren, we are headed to the airport and Ensenada to pick up Follow You...
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02/28/2010, Queenstown and Christchurch
The last 5 days have been a blast, meeting up with Drew and Margie from Dosia in Queenstown where we all partook in some serious adrenalin-junkie sports.... jet boats, multiple bungy jumps and absolutely picture perfect weather to go along with our two bedroom suite with private hot tub. See the picture gallery for all the highlights.
After 3 days we headed to Christchurch and enjoyed another great weather window playing tourist in the central district, botanical gardens and the river Avon...
Follow You is around the equator now on the Dockwise freighter and email reports from the crew on board some of the superyachts report bad weather and headway of 4-6 knots around the Cook Islands.
We head back to Auckland to see Carinthia and Wayward wind one more time before heading to LAX on the 3rd, visiting relatives for a couple of days before meeting the boat in Ensenada around the 12th.
Getting the boat itch again.... need to be back aboard soon!
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02/24/2010, Milford Sound, New Zealand
So this is what the South Island is really about... and it delivered in spades. Stunning mountains, waterfalls, verdant rainforests that look like they belong on Bora Bora. We arrived in the tourist town of Te Anau, dodging campervans and busloads of German and Asian tourists, but finding a wide selection of great restaurants for satisfying our foodie urge. We quickly headed out of town about 70 miles towards Milford Sound looking for an aggressive hike. We found a 3-4 hour hike to Lake Marion that fit the bill perfectly, with a 500 meter incline over several miles. We arrived at the summit and found the lake shrouded in low clouds. We could see the near coastline and about 30 meters up and down the shoreline... that is until the clouds suddenly parted and both Rina and I were startled to find a huge glacier right in front of us. Our minds had played tricks on us, thinking that the lake was large, until the clearing clouds revealed a sheer wall at least half a mile straight up. It was an eerie feeling.
The day after our hike we drove all the way out to Milford Sound through some of the most stunning scenery we have ever seen. Sheer rock walls, glaciers, lush rainforests and interesting wildlife made it all interesting. We toured the sound on MV Sinbad, a 4 month old tour boat built for 60 but with only 30 passengers. Captain Denny, an former crawdad fisherman from the sound had the pleasure of skippering the boat and was very friendly, talking about the boats state of the art systems and how she was constructed.
Yesterday we drove the 180km to Queenstown, THE tourist hotspot on South Island, to find a downtown buzzing with tourists. This place has ski resorts all around it, so during the summer they go for extreme sports... bungy, jet boats, huge swings, sky diving, wheeled luges and zip lines abound. We booked a 2 bedroom apartment with hot tub for the 3 days, rendezvousing with Drew and Margie from SV Dosia, who are back over after delivering Dosia to her new owner in Brisbane. Today we're getting our yaya's off by canyon jetboating and doing the huge swing, with a 100 meter drop. Rina's panicking already!
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02/24/2010, South Island, New Zealand
New album in the gallery of our hike to Lake Marion and tour of Milford Sound on the west coast of South Island.
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02/20/2010, Invercargill, New Zealand
What a blur... 3 days of go, go go, seeing a wide variety of cool places. Waterfalls, penguins, beaches, old architecture, museums, churches... We finally got to the very southern end of New Zealand, and found Invercargill to be...ahem, less than scintillating. The sidewalks rolled up early and that gave Rina and I a chance for a down day... Now we're headed for more excitement, to fiordland, glaciers and meeting up with Drew and Margie from Dosia, who are headed back to NZ from Oz after touring there for the last 14 days. And just to make sure we didnt miss boat maintenance and break downs too much, our Subaru legacy started giving us problems. In line with our sailing ethos, we will not let the slipping fanbelt fester into something worse, and will get it fixed here in Invercargill before heading out into the stix. Amazingly, AA here runs shops on Sunday's just for the tourists... Good on ya!
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02/17/2010, Portobello, near Dunedin, New Zealand
While Follow You is slowly making its way across the Pacific, Rina and I are starting a 14 day road trip of the South Island of New Zealand. After a short flight from Auckland to Christchurch, Rina and I rented a 4wd Subaru and headed south, stopping our first night in Timaru, enjoying the view of the ocean from our room at the funky Sea Breeze hotel and enjoying a nice dinner. The next day we headed to Omaru, home of the endangered blue penguins. We got a back stage pass to view 150 mating penguin pairs, who unfortunately for us, are nocturnal. The conservation society here has set up marine-world style bleachers for 300 to view the nightly pilgrimage of penguins that waddle up the beach back into their little huts to feed their young. Fortunately, there were viewing boxes with infrared light that allowed us to see great examples of young chicks molting before they make their first foray to the sea.
In the afternoon we travelled the last 120 km to Dunedin where we will spend several days before heading west to the highland lakes and glaciers. We entered Dunedin to the sight of many "no vacancy" signs on the many motorlodges lining hiway 1. We started our search, and after 90 minutes had found exactly one B&B with only one night available. Apparently we arrived 2 days before college classes start, so families are descending on the town to deposit their young at school. Having done this drill with both Megan and Alyssa, we know how overwhelmed the local infrastructure can become. We changed strategies and headed out the long Otago peninsula, with many historic sights, summer cottages and tiny towns tucked into the many protected bays. We travelled 16 km along a twisty shoreline road, watching 25 knot winds churn up the whitecaps on the bay, until we came to the first cottages and B&B's. After several strike-outs we pulled into the Portobello Hotel and Pub, whose young proprietor Tiny gave us the bad news... fortunately he knew a couple of places that might have rooms, so after making 5 calls, located a one room B&B just up the hill, with a view of the town of Portobello and the bay beyond. We relaxed in our studio apartment with a glass of wine, then walked back down the hill to Portobello's for a bowl of nibbles, before turning in for the night.
Today it's off to Museums and other inside activities as rain drenches the coast until the late afternoon. Then it's off to the settlers museum on the Otago peninsula and the historic Fort Taiaroa, home of the only working Armstrong disappearing gun.... Ooooooooohhh! Oh yea, Rina says it is also home of the royal albatross.... Isn't that a cousin of a certain rat with wings? Yawn! These kiwis certainly work the tourism thing hard, don't they.
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We are now getting mentally prepared for our 23 day crossing...nervous!
02/14/2010, Port of Auckland
Check out this sequence that Rina took of Slojo heading into Super Servant 3 in the picture gallery on your right....
Another folder holds a bunch of pictures of our Dockwise loading experience. It's pretty illustrative of what to expect loading and securing your boat.
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