Well, I haven't posted in a while. Partially because there was nothing to update about Marcus. Partially because I didn't want to admit we where back... I think secretly I was hoping we would win the lottery and never have to write this ;-)

I am back to work and we are berthed in Alameda at Marina Village. Next to the slip we had before we left. Since we have been home the boat has only been at the slip for 3 weekends, so we still enjoy going out. Marcus was happy to be home, but he is itching to leave or do something. We where all ecstatic about the results from his doctors appointments this week. The ultra-sound shows a clear area where the hematoma was and no other damage. The blood-work results have not arrived but we don't anticipate anything. So it's looking like a full recovery and release to normal duty, which is going to make Curtis very happy.

Again a big thanks to everyone who helped, reached out or just followed and supported us. Things are great here, and unfortunately we have re-acclimated. We will see you out there soon!

It was on the way to Oceanside while we where studying Sailflow and Passageweather that we decided to push through to San Francisco as quick as we could. The rides to both Oceanside and Marina Del Rey where pretty quick motor sails at over 6 knots sustained. Oceanside was literally a sleep over, but we did get up to the club for a decompression drink.

The motor to Marina Del Rey saw Rubber Duckies become an Aviary to several blue and yellow finches. One of the little guys stayed in the cockpit with Porthos and I for over 5 hours. He even landed on my leg and slept for 30 minutes. The marine life is changing to colder climate creatures and larger dolphins.

The stay at the Del Rey Yacht Club was all too brief. We pulled in around 7 and warmed up in the clubs bar. We met another gentleman from the Bay Area, Wolfgang. Wolfgang purchased a beautiful dark blue Tayana (48DS I think) named ... from our good friend Neil Weinberg, small world. Monday was fuel and provisioning with no time to visit friends and family. We will drive down later this year to make up for it Jim and Doug! Not wanting to round Point Conception too early meant we could sleep in until 6:30... Bonus!

We where off the dock at 7:20 and had a great motor sail all the way out to Santa Barbara managing over 7 knots sustained. We started feeling the effects of Point Conception around 10PM and discovered we where not alone. The sailboat Ebeniezer III from Sausalito was rounding on her way to Morro Bay. We stayed about a mile apart the entire night finally parting ways around 4AM. The rounding was pretty rough, very cold but at least the winds where light. Heading north finally we started seeing the sea state improve but it was not until 9:30 that we finally saw the sun. Today has been pretty good with slightly warmer temps, the sun and smoothing conditions. We should be hitting Point Sur around 11PM and we are already seeing the waves start to stack up. If things keep going this way we should be at Encinal Yacht Club around 5PM tomorrow.

Cheers!

The weather for the ride to San Diego was not great. It did allow us to motor-sail at over 7 knots which meant we could get there while the San Diego Yacht Club was still open. The trip itself was pretty uneventful. We radioed Krissy on our way out to discover that they left the same time we did, buddy boating again!

You could definitely tell where the border was, the amount of US military traffic was pretty impressive. There where several Seahawks doing patrol duty along with Navy small boats. On some obscure level this was comforting.

We pulled into the club just in time to check in and get keys. This also allowed us to go to the Olive Garden for my birthday :-) The next 2 days where about cleaning the boat, an oil change, fixing the head (broken flapper valve) and getting enough fuel to get to Marina Del Rey. We managed to squeeze lunch in with the crew of Krissy and our good friends Val and Richard came over to the boat for dinner with their two boys Chris and Ryan. We had a great time catching up, unfortunately it was all too short as we had a 5 am wake- up.

Today we managed to pull out at 5:41 and move north to Oceanside for the night. Then it's off to Marina Del Rey tomorrow, that will be about a 15 hour run. From there we are still trying to decide. It looks like our north bound window may close at the end of next week so we are discussing the merits of a couple of overnighters to get home before that happens.

Cheers, Darrell

Rubber Duckies and all hands aboard just passed back into US waters at appr 2:43 PST. So glad to be back, could someone please order summer?

It was anchor up at 5:45 AM and we where committed. We where also the only boat leaving Turtle Bay... We reached the Navidad and Cedros Islands just after sunrise and the winds started to pick up. Our decision to stay on the east side of the island was correct. We had a few hours of nice warm motor sailing along the Cedros coast. As our nose poked out from the tip we got nailed. In 500 yards the winds went from 8 to 23 knots and we were sailing at 7.5 knots with no engine assist. Unfortunately the wind clocked around to the nose and we spend the next 18 hours in miserable conditions We dropped of a couple of waves so hard that light bulbs came out of sockets or just broke and a 20 foot section of rub rail separated from the boat. We also discovered, to our amazement, that we where not alone.

It is said that if you can the San Francisco Bay you can sail anywhere. I don't know if that is true or not, but I do know that SF Bay sailors look at weather and grib files with a different set of criteria. This day illustrated this point. The other boat 'out there' was Crissy from South Beach Yacht Club in San Francisco, all of the SO Cal boats stayed put. For the next 2 days we stayed within 5 miles of each other. Fortunately by noon the next day things smoothed out and we where motor sailing at 6.5 knots. This is more like it, although still no fish and it was still in the 50's.

The last 30 hours moved so well that we pulled into Ensenada with time to handle our Mexican check-out. We heard it was easy, but you truly don't comprehend until you do it. If you are deciding if you should check in/out here or at Cabo, do it here. For a Mexican port town I found that I really liked Ensenada. The downtown area is fun to walk around and the roads and public spaces are all very well maintained. We met some new friends heading south and had a great dinner chatting about destinations and life in general. If any of our cruising friends see Carpe Iam please introduce yourselves. We decided that since we accomplished the 'major' checkout that we could rush everything into the next day and get moving north.

Today was a cram day that included laundry, bulb repairs, cleaning, etc and we even managed to find some fresh Oysters and huge clams. We pushed the oil change off till San Diego since the only Delo 400 I could find was 35 US per gallon. I was not out for engine work today though. Our dock neighbor Jim has a Columbia 41 with the same Perkins 4-107 we have. He was having trouble getting some high pressure lines fitted to his new fuel pump so i spun some wrenches for a bit. To return the favor he drove us and our 10 bags of laundry to the lavandaria, BONUS! I am going to miss the cruising community down here.

For our final dinner in Mexico it was steamed shellfish with sautéed garlic in a butter drizzle with fried rice served at Chateau La Ducky. A nice finish to our trek up the Baja coast. It occurs to all of us as we finish the day the adventure is winding down and we are all ready to be home...

So much for a quick stop to grab fuel. The weather window slammed shut the day we got here. There have been several boats, including the large boat fishing fleet, that have joined us to wait it out. We have pretty much been stuck to the boat with 30 knot winds and large swell. The last few days have seen a decrease in wind and a noticeable increase in temperatures (YAH!). I still dislike Turtle Bay as a whole.

We have been into town a couple of times to grab provisions and use the internet for weather info, etc. We have also met a few boats as well. Intrepid is completing a 12 year circumnavigation and heading back to San Diego. Sun Babies also caught up with us here and they are taking the slow track back to San Diego Yacht Club. Sweet Cherri will be joining us in Alameda, but probably a couple of weeks after we get home. We also chatted with a crew from a Transpack 52 that left Miami headed to Newport to tack part in this years TransPac, sometimes I don't mind my heavy slow boat. Watching these guys come into the bay during the storm was tiring.

After watching all 6 Star Wars, all 4 Twighlights, all 4 Indiana Jones and the entire West Wing series we are happy to note that it's time to go! We probably could have left today, but we got beat up for 6 hours on the way hear and decided to be prudent. Tomorrow starts a huge weather window that goes all the way to San Francisco and lasts more than a week. Our plan is to pull anchor at 5:30 AM and be in Ensenada on Monday. We are going to Naval Marina against better advice, but the price points are just to far off. We are hoping to clear on Tuesday then head direct to San Diego on Wednesday. Once we clear in then it's and overnighter to Marina Del Rey and the final decision on Marcus will need to be made. Oddly enough when he discovered that we only had 3 nights from Del Rey to SF he changed his tune, we'll see what's up then.

Our spirits are up, the weather is getting warmer, and we are exited to be coming home. See you all soon!