Terry Bingham
20/03/2005

Hello everyone, here we are once again in beautiful Tenacatita - which the last few days we are calling "Lake Tenacatita" as that's how calm it is here !! Last night, with a clear sky and thousands of stars, we looked across the bay a couple of miles at the twinkling lights in the village of La Manzanilla and commented about how close it appeared across the "lake". We have seen our share of winter weather though, and it's just now starting to warm again following the last little disturbance that came through.

We spent a couple of weeks in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, near Puerto Vallarta, and made one day trip into the city there, finding a fantastic little cafe for lunch. For you Mexico visitors, it's "Casa Adolfo" and located on the second floor above the Woolworth store in downtown PV. Hard to miss. Adolfo is a frustrated chef, so he provides gourmet fare with fantastic presentation at village cafe prices. You can't miss the veranda directly above the main entrance to Woolworths. We also enjoyed Philo's Bar once again in La Cruz. Philo, a gringo cruiser who opened the bar in late 2000, now has wireless internet installed as well as cold beer, good food, showers for a buck (he includes the towell) and great music most evenings. It seems there are a lot more cruisers this year, as over 35 boats filled the anchorage at La Cruz and there were 40 when we arrived here in Tenacatita.

Leaving La Cruz, we moved out to the anchorage at Punta de Mita for a night and then headed off for the passage south around Cabo Corrientes (Cape of Currents) and down to the first real cruising anchorage along the gold coast, Chamela. We spent a couple of days anchored in close to the beach at Perula and then moved out for a couple of days off Isla Colorado and Isla Passavera, meeting up with some other cruisers there for frisbee on the beach, fish on the barbee, and fresh mochas from Tammy's espresso maker. With a forecast for some more north weather coming in, we moved on down to lovely Careyes, anchoring off the beach at Playa Rosa in front of the French restaurant there and filling the water tanks with the good water available from a hose at the base of the center palm tree. Careyes is a bit of an anomaly in Mexico as they appear to have an abundance of good fresh water springing from the ground, which supplies the many high-end resorts and private homes that line the cliffs there. With 150 gallons aboard we'll be set for the next month and there is plenty of good water in Barra de Navidad.

A few days ago we moved on from Careyes to Tenacatita and found my old anchoring spot in close to the little beach here known as "Good Dog Beach". It's quiet and fairly private - especially after this morning's weather forecast calling for decent winds and seas to move north (against the prevailing wind and swell), which caused about 10 boats to haul anchor and head for Puerto Vallarta. Tammy has a girlfriend flying in tomorrow so we'll move over to Barra de Navidad while she's there. Mid month, daughter Christen and her family are coming for a week stay at the Blue Bay Hotel here on the beach in Tenacatita, so we'll be back here then. About the same time, Tammy flies out to Mount Vernon to work the Tulip Festival there and returns to Mazatlan the first of May. It will be my job to get the boat from here to there by then - I'm looking forward to the trip north of PV which I haven't made for several years.

So far - so good, but there is a downside to this cruising life in paradise. Our late start in December exposed us to a variety of weather, mostly cool and some rain from San Francisco all the way to Puerto Vallarta. It looks like that has passed now, so we're enjoying the weather and the water. A few days ago we had a major seam separate on the dinghy floor, which puts a real crunch in our ability to travel off the boat. I've got a temporary fix going with some various forms of duct tape, but will be looking for some good adhesives to make it more permanent. It looks like a new dinghy is in the cards for next fall if not required sooner - the tropical conditions and use limits their life, but I'm glad to have seen at least 7 good years from this one. We had some problems balancing the charge in the refrigerator while in San Diego, but after bleeding a bit off in La Cruz, it seems to be performing quite well - the beer is cold !! And to wrap up, I put aboard all new batteries last spring, but they are not performing anywhere near to spec, so I'm dealing with that. We'll see what happens - I got 7 years out of the old ones and was obviously looking for an improvement with the new ones, but - - - - -?

In the big picture though, life is good. For the record, we're seeing slightly higher prices here in Mexico as compared to 2+ years ago, but there is also a lower value to the peso, so it comes close to balancing out. There are more cruising boats down here now, and that could reflect a change in attitude since the pull-back following 9/11. Some of the resorts seem busier too, which I'm sure is helping the local economies. We'll do our little bit to help.

Please feel free to email me with any comments or questions about this great cruising lifestyle. We plan at least one more season on the Mexico coast before heading south to Central America.

Fair Winds from Terry & SECRET O' LIFE.

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Terry Bingham
20/08/2004

Greetings to all from beautiful Steamboat Springs, CO. The short story - SECRET O' LIFE is tucked away in a secure slip in Pittsburg, CA and I am in Steamboat starting construction on son Brad's and his girlfriend Carri's new house. For the longer version, read on.

We hauled SECRET O' LIFE on 2 June in La Conner, WA for a bottom paint job and small repair on the rudder packing gland. Back in the water on the 5th and out the Swinomish Channel the evening of the 6th to anchor just inside Deception Pass to wait for a high slack the next morning. Tammy is aboard for this delivery, expected to take about two weeks, to a quiet marina - Snug Harbor - in the Sacramento River delta. Early morning on the 7th found us passing uneventfully under the Deception Pass bridge for perhaps the last time. With little wind and some minor fog, we motor-sailed toward Sequim and a planned visit with old cruising friends from Mexico and the '99 Ha-Ha, Brian and Linda aboard TUNDRA SPIRIT, ex Tayana 37, now a Krogen 42 motor yacht. It was Brian's B-Day, so we celebrated at the nearby Indian casino with fish and chips and enjoyed a nice catch-up with them. They plan to head south to San Diego soon, with the possibility of Mexico in another year.

Leaving Sequim early the next a.m. we soon encountered fog in Dungeness Bay with visibility of 300 yards and little wind. No sooner than we entered deeper water, we sighted an Ohio class sub parked in the bay and evidently exchanging crew as there was a small vessel transiting back and forth between the sub and the marina at Sequim. Leaving them with plenty of room we continued on in dense fog for the next several hours as we passed by Port Angeles on our way out the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Of my several trips west in the Strait, this day saw the least wind and adverse seas untill within 15 miles of Neah Bay, near Cape Flattery. With an ebb current opposing the west wind, the last few hours into Neah Bay were somewhat uncomfortable, but manageable. Arriving in Neah Bay and receiving a current weather forecast of fair winds - N 10-15 - for that night, we decided to not drop anchor, but simply drifted for an hour while we made the boat ready to round the cape and head south.

The sun was just setting as we cleared Tatoosh Island, the last bit of land at the tip of the Strait, and started a slow turn left that would take us some 10 -15 miles offshore and south toward Oregon. Hopefully, we raised some sail and continued to motor in quite confused seas while we waited and watched for the forecasted N winds. By midnight we were still motoring with just the main for stability when we agreed that we would be doing this for a while as what little wind we had was from the SW. At these latitudes it's a relatively short time - 6 hours or so - from dusk to dawn, so the night passed quickly and sunrise found us continuing to motor SSE about 20 miles offshore in varied seas. All day we continued to motor along, but I was getting some indications from the engine that either the fuel filter was clogging or a fuel line was sucking a slight amount of air, so we made the decision to go toward shore and make for the Columbia River, where we could enter across the bar on a favorable tide to anchor behind Sand Island, just a few miles upriver. This was the third crossing of the Columbia bar for me and the boat (Tammy's first), but by far the most unnerving. While the bar itself was fairly quiet at the top of a flood, a brisk westerly had come up late afternoon and the current was setting strongly onto Satsop Spit, south side of the channel and the site of many a shipwreck. For most of the 6 or 8 miles in the channel I was pointing the boat NNE while we tracked E - perhaps a 35 to 40 degree variance.

Once fully into the river channel and current we were drawn more directly upriver and found a decent anchorage before dark. Tired form the previous night and day, we decided to spend the whole next day replacing a fuel filter, tightening fuel lines and just relaxing. We had an option of leaving that evening on a high slack, but opted to stay one more night and leave fresh early morning on the next high slack. This also went well with another forecast of N-15, but after a very quiet bar crossing we raised sail and made perhaps 5 hours before losing all wind and motoring once again about 15 miles off the Oregon coast. We were shooting for Coos Bay where we could arrive the following morning on a favorable tide so we pushed on through the afternoon and evening. Once the sun set though, the engine started again with it's complaints that told me there was air mixing with the fuel (surging 50 to 200 RPM), but later started with the opposite - consistently dropping RPM, so we opted to alter course for Newport where we knew the entrance and were comfortable with an entry there anytime except the bottom third of the ebb.

Sometime after midnight the engine complained further, and just quit altogether prompting me to consider that the secondary fuel filter had clogged and required changing. This easier said than done while slopping around at 2 a.m. in confused seas, but with Tammy alternately trying to steer the boat in the little wind we had and helping hold a flashlight in the tight engine space, the feat was accomplished and after going through the precise Perkins air bleeding process twice, we were once again under engine power with an 0700 ETA at the Newport Jetty, which coincided well with the tide and current. Once into the marina we fueled at $1.78/gal, the cheapest we found anywhere on this trip, took a slip and caught several hours of sleep. Afternoon we checked in with Dennis and Linda, aboard S/V THE FIX, who maintain an SSCA outstation there, and who promptly offered a ride to the store and later the loan of a car so I could pick up some new fuel hose clamps and filters. We stayed the night there and while I did engine work the next day, Tammy was able to do a couple loads of laundry and some internet surfing on the convenient Ethernet connection in the marina's laundry room !!

Once again hearing the favorable reports of "N - 15-20" we decided to escape on a high slack that evening around 8:00, and once past the jetty raised full sail, set the wind vane and enjoyed great sailing S through the night. With the good winds, we bypassed Coos Bay and continued with an undetermined destination - perhaps Crescent City or Eureka. That evening the forecast was for N - 20-25, which with our downwind direction is about as good as one can find, but between 8 and 11 p.m. we had decreased sail to a poled out staysail only as the wind had steadily increased to 35, gusting a little higher. Sometime around midnight I heard a sharp "pop" and felt the boat changed course. Going to the wheel and getting back on course, I found the wind vane control line slack and saw that a turning block had exploded, obviously from extreme load in the rising seas. That was the end of a relaxing ride for me as I now had to stay at the wheel to control the boat and over the next few hours we continued downwind at 6-7 knts as the N wind increased to 45, gusting 50, and the seas built to 15'-18'.

It was fairly easy to alter our course for a landfall at Crescent City, so while Tammy monitored our progress at the nav station and passed me bits of jerky and chocolate, I continued at the wheel trying to maintain a decent course as the boat slewed port and starboard trying to surf every 4th or 5th wave (hard to surf a 25,000# full keel hull, but if the conditions are just right, it happens !!) During the worst of the seas - perhaps we had picked up some cross-swell - we took several breaking crests into the cockpit and one memorable wave that saw green water tumbling over the cockpit combing to rise above the bridge deck momentarily before quickly draining out. That put water above my knees as I fought the wheel to bring the boat back on course and was definitely the highlight of the almost 10 hours I hand steered before we found the lee at Crescent City and took a side tie at the transient dock there. We slept for several hours while the gale continued to blow outside the harbor.

The following morning the N wind subsided and immediately picked up from the S, blowing 20-25 kts for the next 24 hours, so we worked on a repair/modification of the wind vane and saw a bit of Crescent City, a town that once enjoyed the prosperity of booming timber harvests that now depends on a bit of fishing and tourism. After 3 nights in harbor we finally saw a forecast for N wind again, so on the morning of the 18th we headed out looking for a little less exciting wind and seas. Throughout the day and night we alternated sailing and motoring, making it around Cape Mendocino at night in quiet conditions. The coastline at this point makes a sharp bend SE and the winds can be substantial here, but we were treated to a calm passage this night. By mid-morning we felt the need for some rest and considered going into Fort Bragg (Noya River) for a spell, but opted instead to take anchorage in Mendocino Bay, about 10 miles further S, for several hours of sleep and a good meal.

Leaving in the early evening we soon found N wind 15-20, which through the night built to 30-35 and saw us back to running with the poled out staysail again as we passed by Point Arena and rapidly closed on Pt. Reyes, the place where we would turn east and head toward San Francisco and the Golden Gate. At this time of year and through summer the substantial winds along the entire coastline from the Columbia River to Point Conception are generated by pressure differentials caused by rapid heating of the inland valleys (from Salem, OR all the way to Bakersfield, CA) and fed by the ever present Pacific High pressure dome. As this low pressure trough builds inshore, the daily slackening of the afternoon sea breeze doesn't occur so that additional warming the following day generates more and more wind, leading to a high percentage of gales all along the coast out to 50 miles offshore. It makes for interesting passage along here - either not enough or too much wind, infrequently "just right".

As we approached the Golden Gate on Father's Day a little after noon, the wind was W -25 and we left the dismal overcast conditions to find brilliant blue sky and crisp views of the San Francisco skyline. Within an hour we had taken up a mooring at the Sausalito Yacht Club and were heading ashore for a hot shower and a walk around town. Leaving there early the next morning, we had a long day north and east through San Pablo Bay, the Carquinez Strait and up the Sacramento River to Snug Harbor Marina, where I had arranged to leave the boat while I traveled to Colorado. Unfortunately, we found inadequate depths there (why I was told they could accommodate us, I don't know) and were forced to seek an alternative which turned out to be a return down the river 20 miles or so to the City of Pittsburg Marina, a very nice facility where SECRET O' LIFE is waiting our return early November for a few minor repairs and continuation down to San Diego and Mexico.

Watch for an updated posting here by Christmas or New Years - Fair Winds to all.

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