I've only been in the country a little while, but the further I get away from the gringos and the deeper I get into the actual culture here the more I find that Mexico is a very happy place. I remember every day getting up and rushing in traffic, jockeying for a seat on the ferry, trying to out walk some random stranger just to get to the office so that I could wonder what I was doing with my life...

People seem so much happier here. Ya, they don't all have new Apple products, but they do seem to enjoy their lives much more. And everyone is so eager to help. I've had trouble explaining to a shop keeper what I was looking for only to have them go get someone that spoke english or in one case where I was looking for a part for my stove on the boat, play a complete game of charades with me and 2 store employees trying to figure out what it was I was trying to find.

Family and friends seem to take a priority here. So, they may never match the US in GDP but from what I can see, they never thought that was an important part of life.

This wouldn't pass in the US, but this is a great restaraunt we went to in Guanajuato.

Our trip from San Jose to La Paz was fairly uneventful other than the crashing waves over our bow. We discovered a few more leaks in the deck that appeared after our submarine adventure. We've been dealing with a problem with the motor not wanting to start. I've tried different tactics including tapping the starter with a mallet, arcing the positive terminals on the solenoid with inconsistent results. We were both feeling a little overwhelmed and with the 'to-do' list increasing, we decided to take 3 weeks off and have a mainland vacation for Christmas and New Years.

We used some of our hotel points to get a swanky room in a nice hotel. We soaked in the bathtub and ordered room service. We're going to be visiting a lot of ancient ruins in and around Mexico City so we thought we'd better brush up on the subject by visiting the Anthropological Museum. I was amazed at how much stuff they had there. Jaw dropping... We took a day trip to Teotihuacan to see the pyramids and climbed to the top.

For Christmas, we went to San Miguel de Allende and stayed at Casa de la Noche, a former brothel that has been converted to a bed and breakfast. The owner, Barbara has done a wonderful job of restoring and furnishing the property. Highly recommended. Next, we rode a bus into Guanajuato and walked all over the city. The old colonial downtown has virtually no roads, they're all underground. So you get to walk comfortably and there's not very much traffic to contend with. Our next adventure was going to the Mummy Museum. Later tonight, we're taking an overnight bus to Puebla which will be our launching point for visiting the ruins of Cacaxtla and Xochitecatl.

We started this morning just before dawn readying the boat and pulled up our anchor. We had an uneventful morning and had good wind up to 20 knots. We sailed along for about 3 hours making 6 knots until the wind completely died. There were 7 boats we were traveling with and we were in last place. Every boater knows that 2 boats equals a race so I was trimming sails like crazy trying to gain speed. and we had moved up two places! Then the wind died. So we started up the iron spinnaker (the motor) and made 6.5 knots for the rest of the trip. Worth mentioning were the 3 skip jack tuna each over 10 lbs which we released and the 2 mahi we hooked, the second which we kept. She was just over 9 pounds and was delicious. Pics to follow when I have actual internet...

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

After quite a hiatus, I'm going to get back in the habit of writing. As I type, we are on our 4th day at anchor here in Turtle Bay. We are traveling with two other boats, Free Spirit crewed by Chuck and Lorrie and Spring Fever crewed by Don and Sherry. We planned to leave today but found the wind to be too strong this morning so we delayed until tomorrow in hopes of more kindly seas. Winds are in the low 30's, there are breaking swells in the anchorage and every bit of rigging is flapping and singing. Since my last post, we've sailed back and forth to Catalina Island and visited almost every yacht club on the way down the coast to San Diego. We were planning on staying in Mexico longer than the normal 6 month tourist visa would allow so we applied for a temporary residential visa before we left San Francisco. Upon arriving in Ensenada, we visited the local immigration office and began what was to be a month long adventure in Mexican bureaucracy which finally resulted in us receiving our resident cards. While we were waiting, we met an interesting couple from Vancouver Canada on a steel hulled boat named Tatau which was designed by the same fellow that designed Cythera, Ted Brewer. Tatau was crewed by James and Sarah. As it turned out, Sarah was an amazing tattoo artist and Larissa and I both got some ink to commemorate our trip. I'll post pics when I have access to internet as I can only post via our SSB radio.

We left Ensenada on Wednesday of last week and made a quick trip to Punta Santo Thomas. The next day we sailed to Cabo Colonet and the following day we made it to Bahia San Quintin. The first two anchorages started out very calm but both nights, we woke up to a lot of rolling around. Bahia San Quintin was much more calm and we caught up on sleep for our upcoming overnight sail to Isla Cedros. Our plan was to sail 150 miles and stop a Cedros town where they had a breakwater sheltered harbor. We left at 9am planning to arrive at Cedros town around noon. As it turned out, we made much better time and at daybreak, we were pretty close to Cedros. We talked it over with Free Spirit and decided to make the additional 45 miles on to Turtle Bay. We've made a few trips into town to eat and explore but it's so dusty that we'd rather stick to the boat.

Some highlight from town were encounters with stray dogs, feeding feral a cat at a taco stand, negotiating with a crooked diesel vendor and surprisingly expensive but very good shrimp tacos. As for the dogs, the technique is to reach down and either pick up a rock, or pretend to pick up a rock and hold your hand over your head. Amazingly, no matter how tough the dogs have looked, they cower and run away. I now pick up a rock when we get onto land just in case. We also encountered a pack of 6 chihuahuas that barked and wagged at us, but only on a particular block. Since they appeared to just be managing their turf and didn't follow us further, we did not need to use the rock technique. The cat approached us the first night as we ate street tacos. She preferred beef and would not touch the pork and as we fed her, she became more aggressive and practically climbed up the stool for bites. Enrique is the only diesel game in town and we read about him in our cruising guide and also heard stories from other boats here. Apparently one boat only holds 30 gallons of diesel and was half full. When they finished filling, Enrique told them they had pumped in 40 gallons! I think they only ended up paying for 15, but had to do some serious arguing. Larissa and I were ready! We confidently walked up to his desk at the pier and told him we needed 180 litres delivered to the boat. He said no problem, the price was 16.2 pesos per liter. We agreed and he said that we should go run our errands and he'd have the fuel ready when we got back. In our confidence, we totally forgot the part about watching him pump the fuel into the delivery boat's tank and making sure he started the meter at zero. When we got back to the pier, he was just finishing pumping the diesel into the delivery ponga's tank and the meter read exactly 180 liters. No telling where he started it. They followed us back to Cythera and we took on the fuel and it seemed pretty close to 180 so nothing to make a fuss about. Finally, the shrimp tacos... After walking aimlessly around town, we came upon a deserted restaurant that looked straight out of a western ghost town. We recognized the name, "La Palapa" a local had told us about but unfortunately no one was there. As we walked up to read the menu written some time before on a green chalk board nailed to a telephone pole, a woman we'd walked past earlier asked us in Spanish if we wanted to eat. We had the whole place to ourselves! The shrimp tacos were made from scratch in front of our eyes and were delicious. The owner, Paola even sat with us and practiced our Spanish. Another Mexico Lesson learned: Ask how much before you order. The tacos were 40 pesos x 4 which made the meal approximately $13 US. Overall, a very good experience considering how much time she spent talking with us. Not really expensive, but high compared to 17 pesos per taco the night before at the street vendor. The weather was supposed to break yesterday but based on the wind just here in the anchorage, it was a good call to wait another day. We just heard a weather report from another boat in the harbor and it's supposed to be blowing 30 knots off shore until 3pm today. With the seas coming from WNW and the wind NE, it would have made for bumpy ride. We did some fishing on the way down but so far have only caught Bonita and Skipjacks, no Tuna yet.

We're hoping to be in La Paz in the next 10 days or so, but it will depend on the weather. If we do make it we will be able to meet up with a group of friends who will be in Cabo San Lucas.

After spending a week in Santa Barbara harbor, we left for Santa Cruz Island for 5 days. We pulled out of the harbor and raised sail. Winds were in the mid teens and we were sailing along at 6 knots. After about an hour and a half, my handheld VHF radio made an unfamiliar blaring tone that did not stop. Usually, this radio only receives very strong or very close signals but I keep it on my life vest because it has GPS as well as a distress feature that is linked to the unique identifier for Cythera. I pulled it up and looked at the screen which was displaying a never before seen extreme weather alert. I pressed the acknowledge button and was immediately switched over to 03 WX channel. Over the radio came a computerized voice with, "Extreme weather alert. All small craft are advised to seek safe harbor immediately. Thunderstorm over Catalina Island traveling NW at 15 knots. Lightening, 3/4 inch hail and winds gusting to 45 knots. Small craft are advised to seek safe harbor immediately."

Shit.

Catalina is roughly 90 miles SE of Santa Barbara so I figured we had 6 hours before the storm would hit our area. Being unfamiliar with the local weather patterns, I called the Harbor Patrol back in SB and asked them if they'd heard the report and what they thought about our plan to sail to Santa Cruz Island. They replied that they'd not heard the alert but advised that they weren't able to give advice about weather. Larissa and I talked about whether or not to continue on to the island or turn back and get back in our slip. We made friends with a local sailor named Steve Hodges back in Alameda. He recently won the singlehanded transpac race to Hawaii for his class as well as overall. We were getting pretty close to the point where we'd lose cell phone service but luckily, he picked up! I explained what we'd heard on the weather channel and Steve gave us his read on the situation. He pointed out that the conservative thing to do would be to go back to harbor. He went on to say that it was not unheard of, but the storms didn't usually make it all the way up here. He said that he would just keep going if it was his decision, but that he'd also been out to the islands and seen water spouts and wondered what the hell he was doing there. Ultimately it would have to be our decision.

Grateful for the local knowledge, Larissa and I talked it over and decided to keep on going. To make the decision even more nerve wracking, the VHF chatter on 16 started really heating up. Boats were hailing each other with weather updates and not knowing the specific areas they were referencing it was a little unsettling. We listened as a urchin or abalone boat named Tall Grass talked with another fishing boat about pulling his divers out of the water due to lightning strikes that were happening nearby. He advised the other fishing boat that there was also hail and that it was heading his way. I watched on my AIS and tried calling to a couple of other boats that were in my area and a nice fellow on a power boat replied. We switched over to a non commercial boat to boat channel on the radio and we discussed the weather alert. Then I heard a familiar voice come over the VHF,
"Cythera, Cythera, Cythera, this is Okiva" It was Spencer, the fellow I met on our first day at the Santa Barbara harbor. He's a teacher at the SB Sailing School and grew up sailing in this area. We switched over to a clear channel and he said that he'd heard me hailing the other boats and asked what I needed. After discussing the weather, he agreed with what Steve had told me earlier and suggested we go to Pelican Bay just up from Prisoner's Bay.

Upon arriving at Pelican Bay, we saw 2 other sailboats which was reassuring since we weren't the only folks out there. I noticed that the older couple on the right hand side by the cliffs were bow and stern anchored while the other boat was bow only. Proper protocol is to match the anchoring method as the other boats in a harbor, but with no consensus, we would be the deciding vote. I decided to go with bow and stern since I'd so competently done the maneuver two years ago during my sailing classes. I often say that I can fix anything on the boat and I can do it correctly by the third time. Bow stern anchoring was to be the same. On the third try, after providing some marina theater for the other two boats that were watching us, I finally got the bow anchor to stick and after backing down, we dropped our stern anchor and then motored up on the bow hook. After checking that we were not dragging, I put on our snubber bridle and we settled in for the night.

The storm never arrived.

The next morning, we got up and Larissa took her kayak to shore and went for a hike. I took the dinghy around the corner to a little cove where I landed on the beach and met up with her. I found a decomposing sea lion and was able to pry one of it's massive teeth out for a souvenir. The top predator on the island is a cat sized fox appropriately named "Island Fox". We saw none of them but much of the evidence of their being well fed. The days were spent trolling around in the dinghy for fish, catching way more bait fish than we needed and then not catching any crab.

The first night I put out the crab trap I caught a small shark that somehow wedged himself through the trap door. He was difficult to get out but I released him. After moving the trap further out into deeper water, the next day we caught a very small halibut, again in the "crab trap". Too small to keep, we let him go. Next try was to catch lobster near the rocky shore. This attempt produced what we would later find out was a male sea urchin with no eggs to eat.

Wednesday night, we were sitting up in the cockpit under the shade and we saw a massive 3 masted tall ship approaching. We watched as she anchored right in front of us. They stayed overnight then left in the morning. The boat was called Tole Mour, you can read about her here: Tole Mour

The last day before we left, we decided to dinghy down to Prisoner's Bay. I learned about driving a dinghy down wind with swells with a small horsepower engine. It didn't look that challenging from the boat but as we approached, the swells seemed to get bigger. I had to really work the throttle to keep us from getting in front of the swells which might have resulted in getting flipped. The ride took about 20 minutes, but it seemed longer. When we arrived, Larissa asked me if I was scared and I said, "ya, a little bit". I didn't figure telling her that I was shitting my pants would comfort her for the ride back. So we learned that day about when to and when to not take non essential dinghy rides.

Friday we made our way back to Santa Barbara. Initially, the wind was right on our nose, so I opted to just motor. As we crossed the shipping channel, the wind shifted and we would be able to sail. But thing was, I didn't really want to. If I'm honest with myself, after our awful night I've been pretty gun shy with sailing. I guess while sailing in and around SF Bay, I got to feeling very confident with the boat. In retrospect, it was mostly because I didn't know what I didn't know. After having a couple of scary nights, I was becoming more and more aware of what I didn't know and this was rattling my confidence. That and a poorly executed landing in a crosswind convinced me that I needed to get some help.

I was doing a load of laundry mid week and ran into Spencer, the guy I mentioned earlier. We had a frank conversation about my state of mind and I asked him if he'd be able to take us out and help me work through some scenarios that were bothering me and help me get a little more comfortable. A bit about Spencer... He's holds a 50 ton Coast Guard Captain's license, is an ASA Certified instructor, NAUI certified scuba diver. He's been sailing around Santa Barbara since he was 7 years and he's been an instructor for 10 years. He's also 24! We worked on some engine questions I had as well as helping me get better at backing my boat up, which I'd had a lot of difficulty with in the past. After practicing the docking scenarios I wanted to work on, we took Cythera out and worked on heaving to and several reefing options. He was a terrific teacher and made Larissa and I both feel much more comfortable with the boat and working together. You can see his website here: Captain Spencer

We have a rigger recommended by Steve Hodges coming early next week to tune/inspect our rig before we head south again. Larissa and I received our yacht club credentials and she began researching our options going south and it seems like we're going to be able to yacht club hop all the way down to San Diego. Our next big destination is Catalina for Labor Day weekend. We will be meeting some friends that are meeting us from the Bay Area to do some sailing and scuba diving.

I've just been informed by the Admiral that the aft head is not flushing properly, so I'm off to diagnose and hopefully repair the problem.


I've put up some pictures of my favorite sunrise to date and other pictures from the island trip: Pics from Santa Cruz Island

I now understand why our new local friend Spencer said "good luck" when he saw us anchor next to his boat in the Santa Barbara anchorage. Things started out nice enough... Nice NW wind to match the NW swells. We had a lovely dinner of pork chops with apple slices and mac 'n cheese. After we put everything up, which is a neverending job of jinga, we a dvd in the master cabin. I say a never ending game of jinga because every time you want to get one thing out, you have to move 4 others.

We watched Master and Commander since Larissa had never seen it (boat porn) and went to sleep around 10:30. Apparently, at 1:10 am, the wind shifted to the south but the swells continued from the NW. This means that the bow of the boat points south while the NW swells hit the front quarter of the boat causing it to roll from port to starboard constantly. I'd put down the anti roll devices, but it was still enough to wake me. And when I say wake me, I don't mean hmmmmh.... what's happening. I mean, HOLY SHIT!!!! what the hell is happening....

Sleep was not an options, so we sat up and talked while the boat pitched and rolled till 4am when the southerly wind finally calmed down.

Luckily, we were able to get a slip the next morning and we've been tied up in a slip since. Larissa has a friend, Emily, who picked her up today and took her exploring for some quality girl time. I used the day to fix 106 teak plugs on the deck.

We have a sneaky leak coming into the boat and my theory is that it's coming in from the deck. Basically, what you do is take out any remaining teak plug if there's any left and remove the screw. If it comes out that is... Otherwise, you have to remove it using a special drill bit that takes out stripped out screws. Then you re-drill the countersink and since the deck is already glued down, I just put in epoxy and a new teak plug. Until I'd spread epoxy all over the deck, then I switched to caulk which I could control better. Then you hammer in a new teak plug and in a couple of days, take your chisel and lop off the top of the new plug.