Whales: my third try.
Ok, every time I try to post this it drops everything into cyber nowhere after I've finished writing it all.
Last week we took a 3-1/2 hour drive in a crowded van to Magnalina Bay to go whale "watching". Of course with Wease there it soon turned into whale kissing and hugging!
I'll try once again to post some pics....

Landover is comin together:
Raw water pump replaced
Coolant pump replaced
Alternator re-installed
Two oil sending units relocated
Prop shaft flange "dressed"
Prop shaft aligned
Our old engine is run smooth.......
We'll be heading north to the islands in the next week or so for hiking, snorkeling and kayaking.

The US Buck is doing real well down here! Many business's quote in dollars to us from north of the boarder to keep from getting burnt.

We're having the caulking removed from the bottom inboard edge of the cap-rail (gunnel) and new caulking installed for $50 US. I could have done it and then paid $150 for chiropractic adjustments!

I'm going to attach a bunch of pictures from Puerto Escandito. We're really looking forward to heading back up north to Puerto Escandito and beyond but we have our maintenance and upgrades to finish before we go. La a Paz is a great place to do maintenance and upgrades. Parts and expertise are both readily available and many of our friends are here doing the same.

All's swell here. Went to Carnaval last night to see the parade and eat street vender hot dogs. The parade was funky and fun, the dogs real good and crowd large and noisy.

Took the flange off the prop shift today. It's going the machinist to be turned smoothed to a perfect right angle.
Had a great long nap too!!!
The wind more or less stopped this morning. Finally!
There was a "safety meeting" on our dock tonight to celebrate John's birthday. Parties are against the rules so we have a "safety meeting". Also, no alcohol is allowed on the docks do we have be real careful not to spill any!
Later

Well, it's still blowin like stink here in La Paz. We're nice and snug in Landover though.
Yesterday was about doing small projects onboard. Thursday we walked to into town to get parts and stuff. We visited 10 stores during our 3 hour walk. We got back aboard about 6:30p and pretty much went streight to bed! GEORGIE LET US SLEEP THE WHOLE NIGHT THROUGH! What a treat!
I'll try to get some pics on here soon. I'm doing this on the iPad. The memory is full. Maybe I'll update next time from the iPhone....
Later

Well, it's still blowin like stink here in La Paz. We're nice and snug in Landover though.
Yesterday was about doing small projects onboard. Thursday we walked to into town to get parts and stuff. We visited 10 stores during our 3 hour walk. We got back aboard about 6:30p and pretty much went streight to bed! GEORGIE LET US SLEEP THE WHOLE NIGHT THROUGH! What a treat!
I'll try to get some pics on here soon. I'm doing this on the iPad. The memory is full. Maybe I'll update next time from the iPhone....
Later

Ok,ok,ok I said I'd update this thing daily and missed my first update! There was no wifi at the dock and I didn't feel like going up to the cruisers lounge.
It's b
Blowin' like stink here in La Paz for the next few days.
Yesterday we walked to town for breakfast, banking, Doctor info., farmers market, and grocery store visit. We got a cab ride back.
Spent the day organizing drawers and small projects.
Today it's time to align the prop-shaft. Probably a long tedious job. The big question is how did it get out of alignment?
Hasta

Hmmmm, I just spent an hour summarizing and updating this blog. AND I lost it all!
Soooo, heck with the damn summary. Here we are in La Paz in our third season of cruising. We started in Puerto Escadito with a month an a half of engine repairs. All in all it was a good time. Puerto Escadito is a beautiful place and nearby Loreto is our new favorite town!
This year we are three. George has joined us. She is a 7 month old kitty who (or whom) uses the head instead of a litter box.
She's a fun addition and is training us well.
While in La Paz we have repairs and upgrades to do as well as some fun activities planned.

Since last writing, Mama Kitty has gone up and down. . . Blood Tests found her anemic and very high white blood cell count indicating she still has a raging infection in her delicate little body. She's been back and forth to Doctor G many times for more injections and intravenous hydrating. She is not a happy camper when she's away from her new home (Landover).

As of today, she is hanging in there with her twice daily, by mouth antibiotics and once a day pain meds. She is very comfortable and happy on HER sailboat. She feels safe and adored! She actually begs for pets, massages and attention whenever we are in sight!

We are struggling with finding just the right food that she likes. We've tried Whiskas dry and moist cat food, Whiskas Kitten Food, Purina Felix moist food, people tuna, Fancy Feast moist food (every flavor), and the list goes on . . . One day she loves one and the next day she turns her nose up at it! The only one she is showing continued interest in (at least this week) is the crunchies that are in a plastic container in the Cruiser's Lounge. But . . . we have no idea which brand these are because they are in a Mixed Nuts jar. Sooooooo, can anyone tell us the brand of cat food that is? . . . Wally? Cetus? Rosie? If any of you Mama Kitty lovers knows the secret recipe, please post it in the comments section on this Blog . . . thanks ever so much!

Well, time is getting near to putting Landover "on the hard" at Bercovich's Boatyard for six months and heading home to Sacramento, California to see our family and friends and four grandkids (two new ones). We're hoping Mama Kitty will be strong enough to travel by car for more than 1500 miles. Flibertygibbit is driving us home and we will be stopping in motels along the way. We are hauling out on May 2, but will be checking into a really nice hotel close to our Marina on May 1st so we can settle Mamma Kitty into her air conditioned room through May 4th. We will start the long drive home on May 5th. The three of us will be back on Landover in Marina Palmira, La Paz, sometime in November 2014 to continue our cruising adventures. While home in Sacramento, we may revise and update our Blog to include things not yet posted. We will type "UPDATED" into the titles so you can scroll back through the dates chronologically to see what we have sandwiched in to the old blogs.

Mama Kitty says to check out a couple more photos of her in her Photo Gallery. So for now she says Hasta Luego and come back soon. Hopefully my lazy people will have made some more posts about me soon (after all, it is all about ME)!

Once upon a time, rumor has it, a young little furry creature showed up at Marina Palmira in La Paz Mexico with 5 little baby kittens in tow. No one knew from which land she came, but here she stayed.

At first she was very feral and wouldn't come near the alien people of this strange land. But over time, she came to trust and actually enjoy a few of these strange aliens that seemed to wander aimlessly from their boats to the bathrooms at all times of day and night. Some were even accompanied by various sizes of other furry creatures that made strange barking noises.

These aliens became her friends and actually started feeding, watering and petting her. Wow, she thought, these are pretty cool people! She slowly began to trust them and would share her baby kittens with them while they sat having breakfast at the restaurant near the bushes she had claimed as her new home.

As the years went by, "Mama Kitty," as people would call her, became more and more promiscuous and consequently would always have either a litter of kittens in her belly or kittens by her side. Well, the Marina Palmira cruising community thought, we have to put an end to this endless parade of new kittens several times each year. So . . . time for the sneak attack!

Mama Kitty was tricked into a cage and taken to the local Vet to be fixed once and for all! Or so everyone thought!! Mama Kitty was brought back to "her" Marina and continued to live a carefree life with plenty of food and love from all the cruisers.

Heidi and Terry on the s/v Cetus would be one of her main suppliers while they were in La Paz for the cruising season. When they would leave, a few other people would take over kitty duty and Mama Kitty would continue to thrive.

In the 2013-2014 cruising season, a new couple in the s/v Landover, Chris and Louise, showed up on the scene. Being the suckers they are for any animal that happens to cross their path, Mama Kitty won over their hearts! . . . Of course she did!

As the season ebbed and then flowed, the cruisers would come and go and the Marina was starting to empty out for the year as the weather got hotter and more uncomfortable. Heidi and Terry and their little person Rosie (the cat they rescued from Santa Rosalia many years ago), headed up north into the Sea of Cortez to enjoy the many islands and anchorages. At the same time, Chris and Louise headed to the mainland to visit friends and have many exciting adventures in the Copper Canyon.

After three weeks, Chris and Louise returned to find Mama Kitty, who was healthy and plump when they left, had become skin and bones. She was definitely dying and wouldn't eat or drink anything. They gathered Mama Kitty up into her friend Tiko the Skipper Key's little crate and off to the Vet for only the second time in her little life.

The news was very bad . . . Mama Kitty's x-ray showed a hard-as-rock mass in her abdomen as large as a lemon. Doctor Gabriella would have to do surgery. On the day of surgery, Doctor G called Chris and Louise to ask permission to put Mama Kitty to sleep because the mass inside her was compromising her stomach, spleen and other organs and it didn't look like they could remove the infected areas without it being fatal to Mama.

Louise was devastated! Her heart was heavy with sadness. The next couple of hours she spent accepting that Mama Kitty was gone forever. But then . . . the phone rang a few of hours later . . . Mama Kitty was still alive but very weak! Doctor G and her husband, who is also a Vet, had continued working on Mama and discovered that they were able to remove the infected mass without destroying any of the other organs!

Here's what they found! . . . There were actually three tiny kitten embryos that had been left in her body years ago when she was spayed (she must have still been pregnant at that time). Her body's defense system had encapsulated the "foreign bodies" and over the years had calcified into three rock-hard masses. One of these embryos had broken open and spread infection in her abdomen that her body wasn't able to fight this time. Mama Kitty was very sick.

The surgery appeared to be successful and Mama Kitty was released from the hospital. Chris and Louise brought her back to their boat Landover and set up a new little home for their Mama Kitty. She is still very weak and is on antibiotics and pain killers for the next 10 days. She is eating small amounts of food and is very calm and relaxed like she had never been a feral cat. Time will tell whether she will regain her weight and thrive in her new home.

Her new people, Chris and Louise, will be returning home to California in May 2014 and will take Mama with them. Their boat will stay in La Paz for the hot summer season and the three of them will return in November 2014 to continue their cruising adventures . . . with a new little second mate.

And they all lived happily ever after . . . for now.


Mama Kitty . . . And the Saga Continues . . .

After Mama Kitty was back in her new home for three or four days, her tummy became bright red and swollen. Back to the Doctor she went. She had developed peritonitis (an infection in her body cavity). Apparently a few evil critters had not been cleared out of the tummy during the first surgery! So Doctor G opened up Mama again and flushed out her tummy with a "fire hose." Be gone with ya damned evil critters. Arg! She made it through another successful surgery, and with a drain this time to keep any fluids from accumulating. (Hum, I wonder how many of her nine lives she's used up?)

Then home again Mama Kitty came along with some new baggage (a new plastic carrier AND a larger wire cage for traveling home to Sacramento by car (thanks to Flibbertygibbit and Betts and Jim!) and a pretty green harness and leash (like she will ever allow that to be put on her!)

So back on the boat, the ritual continues; change her full body bandages twice a day (cleanse her incision with iodine, then sterile cotton and gauze pads wrapped around her whole body and taped on--she really loves that . . . NOT!) Next, Chris gives her an injection of antibiotics between her shoulders (The first time, Chris got the LOOK from her and "DON'T TOUCH ME!); then oral antibiotics with a syringe down her throat; the pain pills are gone, so no more stuffing them down her throat; AND THEN we try to get her to eat tuna that we've added Metamucil to (to help her go potty), BUT she's not having any of that!!! She looks at us like "You think I can't smell that crap? I'm a CAT . . . Hello!

Since Mama Kitty has been feral all her life and not used to being handled (just petting), she has turned into an incredibly sweet, full of love, patient little kitty. She allows us to do anything to her with not too much fuss. She has been used to living on the ground in bushes and occasionally up a tree. So far in the boat she has wanted to stay on the floor, BUT . . . for the last two nights she actually hopped up on Louise's bed and slept with her all night long. "Um" she says, "this is really soft stuff to lie on. I think I'll keep my new people around for a while--as long as they keep spoiling me!"

"If all continues smoothly, on April 18th, my stitches will be removed (along with these damned bandages) and I'll be FREE AT LAST!"

Take a look into my Gallery of Photos to see what I've been up to . . .

We are here and staying in a beautiful Casa (called Casa de Bamboo) perched on a hillside that overlooks the jungle and the beautiful Tenacatita Bay.This is where our friends from Nevada City/Grass Valley have built a gorgeous casa where they come here to Mexico from November through March every year.

The casa WE are in has five levels. (Check out the Photo Gallery of more pictures of our Casa and surrounding La Manz.) Bottom level is the garage with bikes and snorkeling gear for us to use. On top of the garage is the 1st level which is the guest room that has a small sitting room and a large bedroom and huge bed and a really nice bathroom with shower. Beautifully decorated with colorful rugs, and artwork and sculptures with a rock floor like big slabs of slate.

The 2nd level is the great room with a palapa roof (made from palm fronds and bamboo). It's a large area with an area like a front room with seating, couch that is also a bed, four main pillars that hold up the palapa roof and are lighted at the top so they "glow" upwards into the bamboo and fronds. Beautiful decor and artwork all around. Then a dining table that seats eight. Then the counter that seats five which separates the living area from the kitchen. This whole area is kind of like a patio nestled in a tree house. It's open to the outside all the way around with palm plants and flowers planted all around the edges. This level is way up high overlooking the jungle, the town and the bay. There are birds singing, hummingbirds in the flowers, Mexican music wafting up from the casas below, church bells ringing, dogs barking, and the surf breaking!

The 3rd level is our master suite which is two levels in itself; the gigantic bed being on the upper platform with a view of the bay, which at night is quite beautiful with the lights out on the water and the moon and the stars shining. We open all the doors and windows and the evening breeze is fresh and cool. The bathroom is also open to the jungle in our back patio with no windows, just bamboo poles spaced about six inches apart from counter to ceiling; then an open area with plants in pots spilling their greenery over the edge of the counter down the outside wall. The shower is above a large two person spa-like tub made of stone with steps up into it.

It's all very different living in a treehouse with everything open to the sun, wind and sea. There has been no noticeable insects, so no worries about getting bit.

The 4th level is like a rooftop patio. Again, it is open to the sky with a large umbrella over the patio area and a palapa palm frond roof over the kitchen and the area that converts into another sleeping platform. It also has a bathroom and shower. Up there you feel like you're on top of the world! All of these levels are connected by a spiral staircase winding its way up to the sky. It is also protected from the rains with a palapa roof over it. I'd love to be here while the rain was pouring down experiencing the roaring sounds and the fresh cool breezes.

As I sit here writing, the music and voices singing from the church are floating up here on the breeze. Today is Sunday, so the town is more quiet than usual for the time being. The casa up the hill in back of us is playing jazz and another casa down below and to the south is playing slow melodic songs that make me feel relaxed and lazy.

Chris has been under the weather for the last three days with a cold and cough, so he's not feeling very perky. Today I woke up with a sore throat and cough so I guess today we will take it easy and not do anything too crazy.

Yesterday, Cat and Ron took us to the crocodile preserve at the north end of town. It is a jungly area where they have built an elevated walkway over (and a swinging bridge). The crocs were so cool. . . great big ones, medium ones and a little baby one which we got to hold (I'll post a picture after I get the photos downloaded off the camera). Their textures are amazing, and their beady little eyes keep a keen watch of everything around them. It was only 10 pesos (.80 cents or so for admission). They also have boats you can rent to go through the swamp to see them up close and personal.

After the crocs, we headed to the beach to one of the Mexican restaurants in the sand at the ocean's edge; waves crashing, kids swimming and playing up and down the surf. This is one of Cat and Ron's favorite places for Heuvos Rancheros. We all had a great breakfast while many of the Mexican "entrepreneurs" tempted us with their many treasures (jewelry, hammocks, toys, purses and much, much more). I was guilty of getting an interested glint in my eyes and they had my number every time. It got to where I had to lie my head down and not look to avoid them bombarding us. What fun! My sister would have been in hog heaven too!

It seems like every thing we do, no matter how small or how large, at the end of the day we are exhausted. Might be the high humidity or that we are just plain out of shape (probably both). We are here in La Manz for 11 days and the time if really passing too quickly. There is so much we want to do and see, and not enough energy to do it all. This is a really great little village with wonderful people, beautiful homes, flowers everywhere, and a good supply of fresh food just minutes away.

Cat drove us to the nearby town of Melaque which had lots of shops, restaurants, banks, bus station and more friendly folks. We went in search of a "skull" to be her protector in her casa's courtyard. She actually found a little restaurant back in a shady covered alley area, where the cook had a large pot boiling a goat's head while the meat was just falling off the bones. He scooped it out with a large ladle and Cat was thrilled with her "fresh find." She took it home and baked the rest of the meat off, and like an interior designer with a keen eye, placed it in just the right setting in front of the courtyard gate grouped with three lovely potted flowers.

Tonight, if all of us are feeling up to it, we will be going to a soccer game in town with some of the better teams playing. Then tomorrow morning Cat and I will be walking the beach for exercise and breathing in the beauty of the surrounding palm trees, flowers and mountains. . . and chatting to our heart's content solving the worlds problems (well maybe only ours).

So I will bid you adios and hasta luego until I can get all our pictures downloaded and ready to post. We miss all of you and are looking forward to being home in June.

Be sure to check of the Photo Galleries for new pictures posted.

Well Hmmm,

We took a detour. We wanted to visit our friends Cat and Ron in La Manzanilla on the southern shore of Bahia Tenacatita on the mainland about 80 miles south of Puerto Vallarta. It's a small fishing village that also hosts quite a few gringo homes and tourists. It is still "unspoiled" by the invasion. By that I mean the people are warm and friendly in that amazing Mexican way.

We had wanted to sail here but time was running out and it is lots of miles - like 600 or something. And the return trip to La Paz would most likely take a long time because of the northers coming down the sea like a freight train. Sooooo, to get here we were given a ride to the La Paz airport at 8:00 am by our friends, Marilyn and Will, THEN - took a 30 passenger plane to Mazatlan (very nice airport and plane), THEN - took a taxi to the bus station (Central de autobus), THEN - once we had our next bus tickets we walked to the beach front where Carnival was happening along the malecon, to have some lunch (very noisy, especially for two very tired hombres), THEN - we took a VW Thing (remember them?) taxi back to the bus station and waited a zillion hours for our 11:15 pm autobus. While waiting we met a wonderful 14 year old girl and her mom. We now have new friends in Mazatlan, THEN - we boarded the "comfort" bus for an eight hour bus ride (thinking we could sleep - right?...NOT!), THEN - we arrived in Puerto Vallarta bus station and found another bus heading south toward our eventual destination, (alas -there was no time to check out PV), THEN - about 4-1/2 hours into our latest bus ride, Sergio gets on the bus at one of the many many many stops and we start talking with him (he's very good with the English). It turns out he is heading where we are and there is in fact a bus stop near the town (previously we were told there wasn't one by the people running the counter at the bus station) and he even knows "Catalina and Ronaldo" (Catalina and Ronaldo are very popular with the Mexicans. Cat and Ron love the Mexican people and their culture and the locals know it) and Sergio knows that near the bus stop is a little store that will call a taxi for us AND he will ride with us to show us the way even though he has to go back to the store!, THEN - we arrive at Cat and Ron's beautiful casa and live happily ever after.....

Hi All,

We're having a do-nothing day today. Weasie has had a cold for several days and hasn't let it slow her down. Sooooo it's time to let her body recover from her overdoing. We've been hanging out in the various bays of Isla Partida. For the last three days we have been anchored in the southern end of Ensenada Grande Cove. We have hiked across the island to stand high upon the huge cliffs looking east across the beautifully blue Sea of Cortez. It turned out to be quite a hike. It was a lot of up and over a lot of boulders for 2-1/2 hours and it was warm. It was another 2-1/2 hours climbing back down. Rhonda Mancini from s/v Swan joined us. She is a fun and adventurous spirit.

Yesterday we (Rhonda too!) took the dingy to the northern parts of our cove intending to visit the baby seal colony a little further up but it was too rough. We settled on landing on a beach and snorkeling along the base of a cliff. We saw all kinds of fish in among the corals. The water was 72 degrees. I guess it was a little too cold for our thin suits. Wease and I both had numb fingers by the time we got out. On the way back we were hauling along full throttle planing and jumping through the bumpy seas when we took a nose dive into a large wave and half filled the dingy with the Sea of Cortez. I throttled back, Weasie was a little freaked and Rhonda was laughing and cracking up! The two ladies got busy with the big sponge and started emptying out the dink. Mental Note: bring a baler and keep the weight aft in the dingy.

Last night we had Rhonda and Dave over to Landover for BBQ chicken, green beans with bacon and onions, Jasmine rice, corn bread and Rhonda brought us bread pudding for desert. It was a great feast with great company. Dave and Rhonda have sailed over much of the South Pacific. They have some wonderful stories and tales to tell. Dave is a traditionalist. He hardly ever uses his motor - hates the thing. I think Jack Aubrey would approve.

Time to go. This is a great life but we sure do miss our family and friends!

Chris & Louise

CHECK OUT OUR PHOTO GALLERY "ISLANDS GET-AWAY" FOR MORE PICTURES!

Good Morning All,

Well we are finally leaving our slip in La Paz. Most all of our projects are done and ready to go.

We are headed up north to the Islands (many beautiful anchorages) and are rushing around this morning trying to get out of here while the south winds are blowing so we don't have to start the stinky engine.

So just wanted to let you know we will probably be out of touch (cell and email) for a few weeks. We'll try to send emails through our Single Side Band radio to let you know all is well.

We are finally having a great time and really excited about actually getting off the boat and snorkeling and hiking the islands.

Hasta Luego For Now,
Lots of Hugs from Weesie and Crees

Hello Again Sports Fans,

Okey Doke, so let's start with the widely accepted definition of cruising: Repairing and upgrading your boat in exotic places. Well there ya go, that's it, right there in a nut shell. Good though!

So we've been in La Paz since November 29, 2013. La Paz is referred to by the local cruising community as "Velcro bay" cuz folks come here and just don't ever leave again. It really is quite wonderful place. The weather is perfect. The people are so helpful and friendly. And, the pace of life is just slowed down and there is no way to fight it. Ya just got ta go with the slow flow.

Yesterday we went lookin for a chiropractor to adjust my neck. There was one listed in the phone book. When their phone number was called the lady at the other end says "Yes, I get a lot of these calls. This is not the chiropractor's number". This was in Spanish of course, via the nice lady (Elisa) in the marina office. Ok, so we go looking for the location based on the address. Simple thing you think. Well not so much! First off we have found the address' must have been assigned to people based on when they asked for one or something. THEY AREN'T SEQUENTIAL ALONG THE STREET. You walk along and find #663. You walk further and find 856, You walk further still and find 312! The place you want is 456. Oops, and across the street is 1385! Sooooo a Mexican lady told us the cross streets for address the chiropractor. We went there and asked some people in the lobby of a big modern office building. Their building didn't even have an assigned address! We asked another guy coming out of a door along the street if he could help us. Mind you these folks don't speak English and our Spanish approximately zero. We do have a translator and a book though.

Anyway, this nice man invited us into his office and had his secretary do some checking for us. They spent 15-20 minutes trying to help us. In the end we decided the chiropractor was no longer around. The guy that helped us asked for our phone number so he could go home and see if he could find a chiropractor for us and let us know via phone. These people are soooooo nice!

Since we have tied up to the docks in La Paz we have:
Replaced the injectors on our diesel.
Adjusted the valves on our diesel.
Replaced the impeller and seals and one broken bolt on our diesel's raw water pump. Changed the oil on the diesel.
Removed, disassembled and cleaned the carburetor on our dingy outboard.
Removed the whole damned floor from our dingy and glued it back on. Big job!
Cleaned and sealed our starboard water tank - it was leading from a welded joint - we think. Cleaned and waxed the hull.
Repositioned the oar on our wind vane (the wind vane steers the boat based on wind direction - with no electricity).
Re-calibrated our Alfa-4000 auto helm - another steering device.
Modified the wind vane - tiller pilot connection to be more durable - yet another way to steer the boat.

With all the above taken care of we're now ready to re provision our little home and head out of here! We're shootin for February 2nd. At least that's when our slip fees run out. We're heading to some islands north of La Paz. They are supposed to be absolutely beautiful with crystal clear water to swim in with the local fish and in one spot there are baby seals to swim with too. We're told they come out and play with you. Put their noses on your mask and even nibble your toes playfully. There are also trails to hike around on the islands. Our departure date will be all about the weather. The Sea Cortez here has northerlies that kick up quite a chop: 4' waves very 4 seconds for example. We call those square waves. Why? Because they are! They aren't huge but their shape makes for a very very uncomfortable ride. If you are sailing into them the progress of the boat can be about ZERO.

Weasie just took some of her new seasick meds. They were prescribed by the local doctor that has been so helpful. Hopefully these will not interact with her other daily meds like the last ones did. That's why we are doing a test before we go out on the Sea.

Weasie is preparing a bunch of our pictures to post to this blog. There will be:

Textures
Statues of the Malacon (the Malacon is the wide street that goes along the shore here)
Around Town
Up the Mountain
Stuff and Things

That's all for now.

Le vere mas tarde.

Wellllll, not really whales but whale sharks!

Our boat neighbors in Flibertygibit, Jim and Betty stuck their heads out of their boat yesterday and said they were going to see the whale sharks in their dingy - would we like to join them. Well duh! IT WAS WONDERFUL! Jim did a great job and took us right to them. We had about five close encounters with these gentle giants. Jim would maneuvered the dink just in front of them and cut the engine. One great big guy went right under us twice. Weasie did a no-no and touched it's tail with here toe. It's against the rules make contact with these guys. We used our GoPro for the first time and I stuck it under the water and got some great video of these crill eaters. Once we figure out how to get some stills out of the video we'll post them here too.
Feliz Anos Nuevo (Happy New Year)

Chrees and Weesie

Hokey Dokey,

Yeah, yeah, yeah it's about time we updated our blog. Alrighty then, I'm gunna give it a try. "I" Chris or Chrees as the locals call me.

First off Wease has been doing all the blog posting. She's been sick one way or another the whole way down the coast and really had it bad the further south we went. Soooooo, here's that story made as short as I can and still make some sense:
Sick #1 - As we came down the coast Wease was suffering from sea sickness. She was taking something called Sturgeron. It wasn't doing the job so she decided to try the scopolamine (sp?) patches like I was using. They worked great for me. They worked for her . . . BUT (this is the big but) unknown to us they were reacting with her other medications(not in a good way). She started to get more and more paranoid. We didn't really realize it was happening.

As she got more paranoid she started getting sea sick again. It got really really bad. Two nights she was absolutely terrified and hysterical. On those nights I was able to get her into her bunk where she was the most comfortable. I got to be on watch all night long but luckily we were anchoring the next morning in each case. So I never got really exhausted. Just really sleepy. Once each night I got pretty tired so I haled our friends Heidi and Terry on Cetus and asked whoever was on watch to talk to me for a while to wake me up. I worked great. Once we figured out that the patches were the problem she had a choice: use the patch and get paranoid and queezy or don't use that patch and get full on sea sick! Two bad choices.

Sick #2: Once we made it to La Paz she started feeling better but about the fourth day she started getting queezy and real weak. We went to Doctor Tuchmann here in La Paz. After hearing our story he went straight to her ears. Turns out she had plugs in her ears made up mostly of fiberglass dust from our boat work. She uses ear plugs at night to sleep and the plugs shoved the stuff in tight. It took three doc visits to get that cleared up. She started getting better again.

Sick #3: A few days later she got food poisoning. She was violently ill for three days or so. I called the doc and he had us pick up some stuff that helped. She didn't start feeling well for at least a week this time. As of today she's been feeling good for about a week and a half. Keep your fingers crossed!

OK OK Ok now for a catch up session:

11/10/13
San Diego to Ensenada
We left San Diego at 2am. We motored the whole damn way (again) to arrive in Ensenada Mexico at 2:30pm. It was an easy trip except for the lack of wind. In Ensenada we did our first foreign country check in. Luckily Terry and Heidi were there for us yet again. They helped us get through a fairly complicated process in about 3 or 4 hours. In the old days it took cruisers one or two days! The last step of this was to push a button. If a big red light came on the port authority would have to come out and search our boat. If a green light came on we were home free. The guy just in front of us got a red. Good news for us - bad for him. With the odds with us we got a green light. Yay!

11/12/13
Ensenada to Cabo San Quintin
We threw off the dock lines at 8:15am. Our original plan was to sail to San Tomas but we were making good time so we had a pow wow with Cetus and decided to keep going on to Cabo San Quintin. Well the weather apparently didn't read the forecast for calm seas. The wind and waves started to kick up pretty good. I didn't reef as soon as I should have and therefore when we did, it was a real pain. Finally got reefed down. Some of the jib sheets were tangled in the sail. Oh well, that's easy enough to take care of when it isn't blowing 20 knots. We had confused seas: waves coming from two or more directions. Wind was blowing 15 to 25 knots with gusts to 32knts. It was pretty bumpy. Two waves joined together and dumped a bucket of water down Wease's back. Not good. This was the first time Wease got attacked by the paranoid monsters. We put her in her bunk and I sailed the boat alone for 16 hours. 3 or 4 of them I hand steered her. Landover did absolutely great. She took it all in stride - no big deal. We anchored in a nice secure spot in Cabo San Quintin in 13 feet of water at 7:30am on the 13th. Chrees took a looooooooong nap.

11/15/13
Cabo San Quintin to Cedros Island (North Anchorage)
We weighed anchor at 7:40am and motor sailed all night and arrived at Cedros at 7:30am the next morning. It was an easy passage. The first mate actually enjoyed it. Cedros is a beautiful island: volcanic mountains, rugged, rising straight up out of the sea; some of the beach areas had a shelf so we could anchor in 20 feet. We used our full 200' of anchor chain as well as our sentinel (a weight hooked onto the anchor chain just in front of the boat to hold the chain flat on the sea bed). There were 100's of seals, sea lions, and dolphins making music and playing around us everywhere. Cetus and Landover were the only boats in the anchorage snugged up close to the shore. At this point we had logged 871 nautical miles since leaving San Francisco Bay. That's a long way at 5 or 6 knots per hour!

11/17/13
Cedros Island to Turtle Bay
We weighed anchor at 5am. Did I mention that pumping the anchor windless 400 or so times to get the anchor up at 4am isn't the best way to start your day.... However once done you're wide awake and thankful that once again the windless worked smoothly and the job is done for awhile.

We arrived at Turtle Bay on the 18th at 2:45pm.
During this leg we had the water maker making fresh water out of sea water for 7.5 hours. We netted about 10.5 gallons of fresh drinking water.

Turtle Bay is one of the two places to get fuel on the Baja coast. The dock is a tall old rickety thing with crooked slippery metal steps covered in bird poop and whatever else. The town is a poverty town with dusty dirty streets. The houses looked to be falling down and in terrible disrepair. The people seemed happy and they were all in neat clean clothes. The grocery stores sometimes were in peoples front rooms. It was weird to walk into a shop and find yourself in somebody's home while the kids were having lunch at the kitchen table.

11/21/13
Turtle Bay to Asuncion
We weighed anchor at 6:30 am.
Ten hours later we dropped the anchor at 4:30 pm.
Not much to say about this trip. Once we anchored we rested up for a day and a half for an early departure and a long haul.

11/23/13
Asuncion to Santa Maria Bay
We weighed anchor at 4am for a long overnight passage, 34 hours, arriving in Santa Maria on the 24th at 1pm. The water maker overheated on this run. It bit the dust. Luckily Landover carries 80 gallons of fresh water in two separate tanks. We still had plenty to last us.

We left in light winds motor sailing. By the time we were approaching Santa Maria the wind was blowing 15-21 knots and the seas were bumpy and confused again. We pulled into our anchorage and dropped the anchor in 22 feet. The anchorage was a little windy. Wease went swimming in 75 degree water. It was kinda cold cuz of the wind so Chrees stayed on deck (of course I did!). After Wease washed her hair she had a heck of a time climbing up our boarding ladder. We then realized that the bottom step was too high. What with the wind and wave action she drank up some of the ocean in her efforts. She struggled mightily and made it up. To this date we haven't figured out a good solution to this problemo. I rinsed her off with nice clean hot fresh water. Wease was a happy and worn out camper.

11/25/13
Santa Maria Bay to Magdalena Bay
This was a short 5 hour hop.
The coast line along here starts to get real impressive: big rugged red and dark gray mountains shooting up from the sea. Near the entrance to Mag Bay two whales were on a parallel coarse with us. We watched as their huge backs rolled out of the sea and back in. This only about 100 feet off our port side. Too close for comfort but wonderful and breathtaking all the same. After anchoring we heard a odd tap, tap, tapping on our hull. I went out to investigate and found some odd sea life: Terry and Heidi had snorkled over. They brought us a new pre-filter for our water maker to see if that would fix it. We jumped overboard too. The water was too cold for Chrees (of course it was). We did a few laps around Landover and struggled up the ladder again to a fresh water rinse.
Alas the filter didn't fix the problem...

11/26/13
Mag Bay to San Jose Del Cabo (bottom tip of Baja)
Got up too damn early again and left the anchorage at 5am.
32 hours later we pulled in to the San Jose Del Cabo Marina at 1pm on the 27th. This was a pleasant passage and we pulled into a slip - no anchoring - yay! It was a beautiful marina with wonderful landscaping. We went out to dinner with Terry and Heidi at an outdoor restaurant overlooking the marina. We topped off our fuel tanks, took showers and cleaned up the boats. Hit the sack early for an early departure. By this time we are now racing against the clock because we wanted to get to La Paz before the Northers kicked in and made going north very rough and slow.

11/28/13
San Jose Del Cabo to Caleta Lobo Cove
Left at 6:30am and rounded into the Sea of Cortez anchoring in Caleta Lobos Cove 25 hours later at 6:30 am on the 11/29/13. During the night we had our Thanksgiving meal. I prepared a sumptuous meal of quesadillas with cheese and turkey bacon heated up in the microwave. Yum! We went through the San Lorenzo Channel during the night. Normally we would not go through a squeezie place like this at night unless we had done it previously during the day, but we had reliable waypoints and were following closely behind our friends on Cetus. On the starboard side of the channel lies the Isla Espiritu Santo. This is the island we're looking forward to visiting to go hiking and snorkeling. Just before we were going to go swimming we found out we could get a slip early in La Paz so we up anchored at 12:00pm and were making fast our dock lines in La Palmira Marina by 1:45pm.
This made our trip from San Francisco to La Paz 1,508 nautical miles.

This is Chrees - over and out....

Sorry for the long delay in posting.

I've got a slippery little connection right now, so I'm squeezing in just a quick little post. We've been enjoying the most ritzy yacht clubs all the way down the California coast since Cetus joined up with us (friends in high places).

In Channel Island Harbor we stayed in two beautiful Yacht Clubs and enjoyed such warm and friendly people. Everyone treated us like family and welcomed us into their facilities. There has been swimming pools, hot tubs, fine dining and so much more. Heidi (on Cetus) and I have been laughing about rating each of the Yacht Club shower areas. They seem to be getting more fancy and extravagant as we continue south.

Currently we are in THE MOST BEAUTIFUL Yacht Club facility yet. It's the Silver Gate in San Diego. It's a brand spanking new Yacht Club facility. I can't begin to describe all the decor (incredible), but so far they have won the shower facilities GRAND PRIZE.

We also had a really fun time in Chula Vista at their yacht club (CVYC). Heidi and Terry brought us there specifically to listen to their friend Gary Seiler and his band playing at the Galley Restaurant. Great variety of music from country to rock to oldies. What a great time we had there.

Previously to San Diego and Chula Vista, we were at anchor in Cat Harbor on Catalina Island. Beautiful Place!! A little rocky and rolley but that just helped rock us to sleep at night. We took our dinghy ashore and hiked the island a bit and explored a few of the other coves.

Above is a photo of Chris and our only Spinnaker run to date. This was the leg from Monterey to Morro Bay while Richard was joining us.

At the moment, our transmission is leaking quite a bit. We have a mechanic coming tomorrow to take it apart and reseal it. Barring any unforeseen problems, we will be leaving the Silver Gate Yacht Club on Thursday and proceeding up to the Police Dock in final preparation for our first trip into Mexico (Ensenada) to sign in and get cleared by all the port authorities. We'll probably be there for a few days before we head out for our first foray into unknown waters. We'll be stopping each evening and anchoring in safe harbors and nooks down the Pacific side of Baha California. We'll have a couple of overnighters further down the coast.

Chris and I have been walking our butts off. He has actually lost two notches on his belt. So he really is "wasting away in San Diego-ville. Being cruisers means walking everywhere you need to go.

There are so many things to write about and so little Wifi time available to squeak it into. From Ensenada on down to Cabo San Lucas and then up into the Sea of Cortez to LaPaz, we may not be able to post any photos. We may be able to add short posts through our single side band radio. I'm still in the learning mode. Single Side Band 101 (for dummies). Heidi has given me a few lessons and Chris knows quite a bit about the radio, so we'll do just fine.

Hasta Luego and Missing All of You Very Much,
Lots of Love From Chris and Louise
Cruisers In Disguise

p.s. We are loving to hear your comments . . . Thanks Nicki, Paul, Heidi and Susan. We'd love to have all our friends and family make comments to our sail blog. It makes us feel closer to you--we miss so much. All you have to do is click on comments and type away! Can't wait to hear from YOU!

I must apologize for presenting our Blog in such a disjointed fashion. Although I do have a bit of a reputation of being "not so spatially aware," I'm trying to learn how to do this "cruising thing" and this "blog thing" and feeling like everything that's been "normal" and "routine" has now disappeared.

As I stumble (literally) along learning all the necessary skills to "be cruising," I'm pretty sure I'll be able to report in a more sensible fashion.

I do want to mention here, that there is also a link on the right hand side of our Blog that if you click on their link, you'll be able to see how an organized and experienced couple report on their adventures. Heidi and Terry on "Cetus" (a 35 foot Fantasia Sailboat) have been cruising for many, many years and have travelled to Mexico several times and on to the Galapagos and the South Pacific, and back to Hawaii, then San Francisco (where we met them). We have become good friends and are "buddy boating" down to Mexico (and beyond?) with them.
What an incredible couple they are. So if you'd like to enjoy reading their blog, just click on their link to see what they've been up to.

Now back to the present: We are enjoying the amenities of the Del Rey Yacht Club and meeting lots of really nice people. Everyone who meets us gets a big kick out of Cetus and Landover traveling together to destinations unknown.
While we are here, we will be GOING TO DISNEYLAND! YAY! We haven't been there in years.

We are missing our families and friends very much.
Hugs from Chris and Louise