Allan
01/10/2009, Chacala

Hey Dave, we've got a real fixer upper for you here in Chacala. This is your kinda place. Kinda like Sayulita 10 years ago. Check out the gallery for pictures from our hike around town today.

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Allan
01/10/2009, Chacala

Nice blog babe!

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Rina
01/10/2009, Chacala

Well, I bet you guys thought I fell off the boat or something, the way Allan keeps blogging and I don't....I just can't get a word in edgewise...just kidding. I'm just not a blogger like he is....but here I go...

I think that I've seen more whales in the last two days than my entire lifetime. Pods of 6 or more each time...When trying to take pictures, surely they don't surface...then while sitting with one eye closed for a long time through the lens, finally, got them! Then they kept showing up, one pod after another, breaching, diving, and flapping their flippers. Seemed like they were playing with each other like kids play steamroller....ha ha! Got a few more breaching as we approached Chacala Bay! The series above was shot from about ½ a mile away.

On the way out of Mazatlan we encountered dolphins, dozens playing, we were going really slow so they were cruising with us at a delicate, relaxing pace, unlike the fast moving boat with the racing team of dolphins. It seemed as if they could talk to you when they turned sideways to swim and watch you through the water. When I whistled, or squeaked, they seemed to get more excited and played more. They stayed for a long, long ride.

This island of Isabela was quite a treat. There were so many birds flying about, feeding and breeding. They are very territorial, the frigates swarmed after these little white birds with long tails....then caught them with their claws, shook them, and dropped them in the water...it was a territorial freak of nature. The white birds (I'm going to google them since I don't know what they are called)...Flying in groups of 6+ and squawking like Sue and Gene's parrot PEPE!!! Boy was that annoying!! The frigates didn't give them a chance. I think they are stealing eggs from the frigates on the island. I was trying to imagine National Geographic magazine taking pictures since they were here along with Jacques Cousteau exploring this area several years ago. It was beautiful to watch waves crashing on the cave-like rock formations. The anchorage was a little rough, but well worth the stop.

I'm trying to figure out what this lifestyle is for me...it's halfway between a vacation and a working boat...a little of both, really. Things break...this frustrates me...the boat and its systems are new, but stuff still breaks ...but why does it break? I guess it is Murphy's Law of boat ownership. The clichéd definition of cruising consisting of fixing your boat in a series of exotic ports seems to be true in some cases for us.

Otherwise, we've gotten into pretty much a routine, late breakfast...dishes, a little cleaning boat, boat projects, then fun. Reading has been a lot of my new routine. I love it. More quiet time if under sail, or in port...doesn't matter, love my books. I've gained a new appreciation for books since the girls are all grown, house is rented, dog is taken care of, family is doing well.....I now have my own time.

Short book review: Sue & Josie, I finished Annie Freeman's Traveling Funeral....Great Book!!! Sad, but has a lot of realizations that we need to look at life with open arms and not as a closed book or a schedule to live by. Live NOW! Take chances, love life, Love you FIRST!! I Love you all! --Rina

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Allan
01/09/2009, 21 50.6'N:105 52.9'W, Isla Isabela

We left Marina Mazatlan early due to a minus tide expected by noon. Having bounced over the bar on the way in, Rina was in no mood to repeat that adventure. Unfortunately, this meant that at normal cruising speeds we would arrive at Isla Isabela, a nature preserve with rare birds like Blue Footed Boobies, in the middle of the night. To kill time we headed for the main Mazatlan port, where there is a small anchorage for cruisers, and prepared to eat a light breakfast. We hung out for a couple of hours before heading out, just as the wind began to build from the Northwest. After an hour, we were seeing a consistent 10-12 knots so we (I) decided I wanted to put the spinnaker out. It's "I" because Rina has learned from her new cruising friends that few of the wives like running with a chute. Darn, I almost had her convinced. I rigged the whole thing and launched it and boat speed went up to 6-7 knots. We spent the next 4-5 hours surfing down the north swells. picture per fect sailing.

Rina made it clear she did not want to run the chute after dark and I reluctantly agreed. Just as we (I) began to take it down, winds gusted to 18-20, leading to another farcical dousing session, with my butt bouncing off the foredeck several times before I wrestled the sail in. Rina begrudgingly assisted with the spinnaker halyard, otherwise I would still be hanging off the clew trying to stuff the sail into its bag. I'm going to have to put some lanyards on the tackline shackles to make it easier to blow the sail, which will release more air pressure and make it easier to douse (yes, we blew the spinnaker sheets). .Duly added to the growing list of little boat projects.

I came back to the scene you see above, a classic picture of the cruisers cockpit. I'm sure some purists out there will scoff at the seeming disarray, but I'll tell you, the picture tells a story, at least for those who have spent entire days at a time in their cockpit. Of course, 30 minutes later it was much tidier, but that's no fun! So here's the game. Name all the stuff you see in the picture and explain why it's there. You sharp eyed lurkers out there will get most of it I'm sure. yea, that's you Corey, Phillip, Larry, SJ, Doug, Gene, Melanie, Karen, Mom, Devin, Stark. Leave a comment on the blog telling us what you see and why it's there.At the end of a week I'll explain it all. A week's passage on Follow You Follow Me to the winner! (see small print for prize rules ;-}

Anyway, because we made such great time, we actually had to slow the boat down overnight so we would get into the anchorage at dawn. We pulled the jib in and de-tuned the main to get us down to about 4 knots and pointed the boat to the Southeast to ride the swells comfortably. What a strange feeling, trying to make the boat go slower! Rina made awesome Ceviche for dinner from octopus and shrimp we got in Mazatlan and we traded 3 hour shifts until 5am, when we turned on the engine and headed towards the anchorage due to decreasing winds. The anchorage here is known as an anchor eater due to the underwater rock formations so we rigged a trip line and marker buoy to the head of the anchor and set it in about 40 feet of water. Just as the anchor sets, I notice that my trip line is about 100 ft, meaning the polypropylene line floats on the surface for about 60 ft. Hmmmm, that could be a problem. Forget it, time for a nap.

After 2 hours of wonderful catch up sleep Rina mentions that the panga fishermen are playing chicken with the anchor marker line. I watch as two more come blasting out of the fishing camp within 5 feet of my marker and exposed line. Oops, guess I shoulda made that line taut so it didn't present an unseen target. I jumped in the dink and pulled in all the slack line, hopefully presenting less of a target to the pangas, who have a reputation for running into cruising boats, dinks, and each other all the time.

Rina's down for her catch-up nap, and I'm going to hang out in that cockpit some more, this time watching the gray whales breaching and flapping their flippers on the water not 300 yards away from us. Amazing.

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Allan
01/07/2009, Mazatlan

Justin and Dalia spent all day pulling old artwork off their stern as they get ready to rename their boat. Similar to our experience in Santa Cruz earlier this year, they spent 2 hours at the graphics place in front of a computer just staring at different fonts. Dalia spent 3 hours holding the dink steady so Justin could pull off the old wood, fill the holes and recondition the stern.

We leave this morning for point south, hoping to ride the remaining wind from the recent norther to Isla Isabela today.

7- Jan Depart Mazatlan
8- Jan Arrive Isla Isabela
10-Jan Arrive Chacala
12 Jan Arrive La Cruz, Banderas Bay

With a bit of good luck and some great friends, our freezer saga looks like it may end well. When we came back from the States, our freezer had failed. Mike from Mexicolder diagnosed a failed compressor. Alan from Boatguys worked with Southern California Marine and Vitrifrigo on a warranty replacement and here's the great part. Dietmar from Carinthia is bringing down a bunch of boat parts from San Diego today and kindly offered to swing by and pick up our new compressor. We will also get a larger evaporator plate to make sure the unit works well as temperatures increase later this year. There's a much longer version of this story (See Refrigerator 101 and 102) below but I won't bore you. Suffice to say, we've had great support from the vendors we have worked with. The nightmares about getting boat parts in Mexico have largely been avoided (so far!)

Time to go sailing!!!!

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Allan
01/07/2009, Mazatlan

Almost every day the long term cruisers who inhabit dock six at Marina Mazatlan gather at the dock boxes for an impromptu sunset party. Anchored by Mike and Julie from Slacker, who bring out their beach chairs, books and a brew after a long day working on their boat, they are soon joined by Bill, Rick, Justin, Dalia and the newly arrived such as ourselves. Each has a great story and background...Mike and Julie commuter cruise every year, down from San Diego - 6 months working, 6 months cruising, although this year they are staying mostly here doing some major refitting of Slacker. Bill and Rick run thriving boat related businesses, and in Rick's case, is completely revamping Olympia, a 52 foot Hallberg Rassy that sank at the dock about 2 weeks ago due to a plug failing on their knotmeter thruhull... ouch! We met Justin upon our arrival before Christmas, a twenty-something Linux coder from Montreal who purchased a 37 foot fixer-upper to sail for year. He has since been joined by his wife Dalia.

Tuesday nights are pizza night... all you can eat for 45 pesos. The dock box table cloths come out, with a candle or two and it's standing room only.

On saturday's there is a great swap meet at the clubhouse, where Rina and I lightened our load by selling the suitcase we brought a bunch of boat supplies back from California, old dvd player, an under-used stair stepper (we get plenty of exercise walking, biking, kayaking!) and other assorted stuff. It's also a great social scene and we met the crew of Andanzas, who were the "other" Gilligan crew at the HaHa costume party in October.

We're going to miss Mazatlan. The relaxed atmosphere, benign weather and friendly locals really made it special.

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Allan
01/05/2009, Mazatlan

Yesterday Rina and I did errands, taking a pulmonia around town. Pulmonia's are unique to Mazatlan, based on old VW bug technologies, rides like crap and give you a healthy dose of 1960's era exhaust... but how quaint... After errands we headed to old town to see the shrimp ladies who populate one area of old town, selling a wide variety of raw shrimp, octopus, squid and scallops out of large buckets under umbrellas. As the gringos walk up, you can see hear the prices rise... One local lady heard that she was paying the same price we were, gave the shrimp lady the evil eye and got "more change" When I gave her the the same evil eye, we got an excuse about a mixup in what denomination of pesos the lady gave her. Oh well, it was still a bargain.... 8 bucks for a kilo (2.2 lbs) of 5" long shrimp.

The best part was then taking the raw shrimp to a local mariscos style bar and grill that cleans and cooks them for you any way you want. Along with 1 dollar pacifico's it was good eatin! And since the financial incentive for not drinking too many beers had been removed, we enjoyed the afternoon listening to the local music, watching Nacho Libre wrestling on the TV and stuffing ourselves on shrimp, stumbling out of the place after several hours. That inevitably lead to a nice nap upon our return to the boat. All in all, quite a nice Sunday.

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Allan
01/05/2009, Mazatlan

We have been hanging out at Marina Mazatlan and El Cid now for a week preparing to head south to Isla Isabella and Puerto Vallarta. We came back from California to a not so frozen freezer, which apparently had begun leaking coolant at some point in the past several weeks, finally getting to the point where it no longer kept cold. This in turn meant that the compressor stayed on 24/7 and got very hot, likely frying some of the internal components. We have worked with Mike Wilson of Mexicolder over the past week trying to nurse the system back to health, which at times gave us hope of a simple and inexpensive repair. Alas, it was not to be.

Along the way we received a lesson in the physics of modern refrigeration and like most things in sailing, EVERYONE has on opinion on the best setup for the tropics.

Now it's time to learn the in's and out's of getting replacement parts into Mexico. If were lucky we can get a replacement in San Diego to our friend Dietmar who is flying back to PV on Thursday, and we can then meet up and get it installed there. Otherwise it's the dreaded shipping option with it's assorted official and unofficial duties and associated bureaucracy.

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Allan
12/31/2008, Mazatlan

We're back!!!! Arrived a couple of days ago, coming home to a dirty boat and a freezer on the fritz. Great time in California visiting friends and family and Riley the mutt.

We've moved the boat to the nearby El Cid Resort to play tourist, enjoying the pool and restaurants for New Years and Rina's birthday on the 2nd. Hopefully we can get our freezer fixed by Mike from Mexicolder in the next couple of days, otherwise we may be sticking around a couple of days longer.

It's new years... lets hope for a better 2009!

allan and rina

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Riley The Reindeer
12/16/2008, Sutter Creek

Riley, our faithful mutt, says she misses Allan and Rina, so we're home in chilly Sutter Creek, where there is still 2 inches of snow on the ground in places. We'll be here for 2 weeks, returning Mazatlan on the 27th. Christmas at Mom's in Volcano, where there's 1-2 feet of snow, promising a white Christmas.

We'll be on a blogging hiatus until we return to Mazatlan on the 27th. To all our cruising friends as well as our land-borne friends and family, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a great New Year...

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