The seven day crossing (that usually takes three) or Everything is Eventual

We left Friday evening to head to the Sea of Cortez. The motor happily putted along for the night until we got the sails up. We sailed on as much as possible until the wind was non-existent. I turned on the motor and went to the foredeck to drop the sails and the motor got funky sounding. David tells people that I have a heavy throttle foot and burned the bearing out. Whatever the case was the motor was no more. Again. Oh well, nothing to be done out at sea. For the first three days we saw the Tres Maria islands. Three days with no change of scenery. Stupid islands. We had one mile nights and we did good if we had twelve mile days. Painfully slow. Suprisingly it didn't really bother us. Sure we wanted to make it to the Sea, but it was beautiful, warm and calm.

The wildlife was neat when it was present. We had some Black-vented shearwaters flying by the boat for a long time. We saw tropicbirds, a masked booby and a pomarine jaeger. A couple times we were fortunate enough to see some long-snouted spinner dolphins and they played at our bow after showing us some spectacular aerial displays. They have definitely earned their name. The spinner dolphins are the only dolphins that spin on their longitudinal axis. They can get up to seven full rotations with one jump! Truly an amazing sight.

By the fourth day we managed to sink the Marias. We even thought our wind would stay (silly us). We had 15 knots of apparent wind (9 true) and we made a big 24 mile day! David and I realized that we were excited with 6 knots of wind...sad, but true. Another day of bobbing. And another. And then...wind! We were able to fly the chute for a while as we progressed towards our destination of Caleta Partida. By then we had already missed two days of racing and fun of the Sea of Cortez Sailing Week and we started to get excited that we might just make it before the event ended on the sixth. By the night of the seventh day of our trip we were in the San Lorenzo channel. The wind was blowing like stank. Some 26 knots spitting us out of the channel at eight knots of boat speed. That was a change!

By 1:30am we were at Partida. Sweet relief. More than two hours of sleep just an anchor away. I went to tend to the windless as David led us screaming into the bay. Wouldn't you know the windlass wouldn't work. Some sprays of WD-40, many hopeful clicks of the remote and 10 minutes later it still refused to cooperate. We decided to loosen the anchor windlass with the wench handle and send it flying over the bow. As we were ready I let is go and...it stopped as soon as it hit the water. Seriously, this wasn't happening! We got the little stern anchor out, rigged, tossed over and brought to the bow and set. Of course by the time it set we were now one boat length away from the catamaran Don Quixote. We went to inspect the windlass electrical box to see if we would be able to use our proper anchor since it was still blowing 23 knots in the anchorage. After some hitting, cursing and prodding we got the windlass to work. YAY!.

Now what to do with the little anchor? David muscled up some rode and no we were two lengths from the the large cat. Ugh. We debated pulling it up, but it seemed set so good that it would never come up with it blowing so much. Hmm, bundling the remaining rode and tossing it over with a fender attached so we could retrieve it tomorrow? Too iffy. We settled on David wenching the anchor up until we were a more comfortable distance from Don Quixote. The rode kept getting stuck between the roller and the big anchor so David devised a plan: He'd let out 20 feet and I would grab the slack, run it through the chalk and around a cleat. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong. He let it go and I hadn't been ready. I grabbed it but the rode had gotten full of tension by then. It did lift off the roller like desired, but it pinned my leg to the lifeline...not good. I weaseled my way out of that fiasco sending the rode to the side of the boat almost ripping a stanchion out of the deck before David got it under control. Well shit, now we were anchored from the stern back to a boat length away from Don Quixote. I did have a mental chuckle thinking if they were to look out* from their salon that it would bring panic to see nav. lights pointed directly at you 36 feet away. Not funny ha ha, but funny terrifying.

*I did talk with Toast and Dean the next day and they saw it all with a bit of worry not knowing it was us a.k.a. the awesome sailors.

David decided to turn on our poor little motor and use that to try and retrieve the little anchor. The motor will run for about two minutes before it poops out so we hoped that it would last for us. It did. We got the little anchor up and the big anchor down. Whew! What a trip, but we had finally made it.

The next day it was really touching to hear from so many people that they missed us and hoped for our quick arrival. We have great friends. We hailed Profligate and got their generator fired up and running on Eupsychia. We were amazed that the batteries lasted a week, but we weren't going to push it another day if we didn't have to. Richard asked us if we were going to sleep in or race to Isla San Francisco. I laughed and told him we sailed for a week to make this event and there was no way that we were going to miss one more minute than we already had.

Adios La Cruz! Hola La Paz!

As some of you may have heard through the grapevine or other various ways, David is freaking amazing (duh) and he got the engine running. From plastic baggies to a functioning motor in two days. I have the best man ever. EVER I say!

So now we are checked out, cleaned up, stowed and stocked with plenty-o-beer. In fact we built the Beeramid of Eupsychia. One of David's places of worship. Now we are ready to get going to La Paz. We will be partaking in the fun event known as the revised Sea of Cortez Sailing Week. It is a sailing, beach volleyball, potluck, sunset cruise and general merriment event beginning on April first. If you want to read up on it go here and you may want to plan on making it down next year because it is the best event of the year.

We will be off later tonight so the blog will be on hold until April 6th or something. Hopefully it will be a smooth crossing and the engine will do its job proper as it is supposed to be almost windless.

Caballos en Sayulita y la enfermedad

"Now you will get sick and have to stay in bed while I am gone!" David proclaims as he gives me a big kiss goodbye. I didn't care, but I did need that kiss. I waved as David got into the cab. This time I managed to choke back tears as I made my way back to the now empty boat.

The sickness. It begins. I got it. I awoke Monday morning to a sore throat and a general feeling best described as bleh. That kiss did me in, but it was worth it. I got up and made my way to Sea Level to hang out with Ann. She debated going back to the states, but I asked her to stay and keep me company. She did. We talked of big plans. Maybe going to San Sebastian or exploring PV. Heck, maybe even surf lessons at Sayulita. Feeling the way I did that first day...I had to bail. I vegged on the boat all damn day. It paid off though because I felt 80% better the next day.

Ann and I got moving a little later than planned, but whatever. We were on a mission to go to Sayulita. Surfing was off the map since now Ann had developed a bit of a cough. We decided to keep it low key by stopping by to see Eugenie and maybe do some horseback riding if we were feeling adventurous enough.

We stopped at the palapa topped restaurant at the La Cruz marina for a drink and we were soon joined by Richard. We chatted over tortilla soup (yum) and chips with salsa. On the way out we discussed our plans of Sayulita. Richard was appalled at the taxi idea saying it would be $50 USD for the round trip. Whoa, that was more than I bargained for. So the bus it was...except the bus to Sayulita doesn't come to La Cruz or Punta Mita. After some negotiating we settled on hopping on the back of Rico's bike for a lift to the bus stop. I got dropped off first followed by Ann with fenders (that she had taken for Eugenie) in tow. We caught the bus for a whopping 10 pesos and were there in 15 minutes.

After wandering around in the streets for a while Ann called Euge to get her coordinates. Once we made our way to the casa we were greeted with Nayali at the door. She led us to the bed ridden Euge. We talked about various things before deciding to go horseback riding and leave Eugenie to rest up. Nayali told us where we could find some horses and off we went.

We met Antonio and saddled up on our rides. Ann's horse was Gordo and mine was Tomate. It was a nice ride on the streets to the beach where were were allowed to run at full speed before slowing to a gallop and eventually a trot. Those were my horses two favorite things to do...run and eat. Tomate was eating constantly. Everything from tree palm leaves to shrubs. Antonio pointed out where Tomate has already eaten everything along the path.

The ride lasted about an hour. We went along the beach of Sayulita, up a "mountain" and down the other side to Playa San Pedro before turning around and going back. It was a lot of fun and I got to practice my spanish on Antonio who spoke no english. It was great fun.

After a stroll through town, a drink and a walk back to Euge's place we got our stuff and got a cab back to La Cruz where David would return to me later that night. I missed my boy, but Ann is great company. Thanks Ann!

Banderas Bay Regatta 2009

Wow, what a fun packed few days the racing was! There had to be over 50 boats racing in the regatta. There were every different size, shape, rig and number of hulls. There was a beautiful old schooner out that looked marvelous sailing with all sails up. The cats came in every shape and size, there were little J24's and a J160, heavy cruisers and super fast race boats. It was great to see so many smiling faces on the bay. And what weather! The sun was shining with great visibility in the whole bay. Amazing.

We were recruited as crew for Sea Level a ways back so we were both looking forward to it for quite a while. Our friend Ann even flew in from SF to do this race. For the first day I jumped over to Endless Summer since they were in dire need for crew. With me aboard it brought the grand total to a whopping three people and one dog. Though Endless Summer didn't do especially well in the race they were more than happy with themselves. The night before the race Steve and Manjula were unattended on the "enemy boat" of Sea Level. They were all giggles the next morning as they proudly showed me pictures of their sabotage...they wrote LOSER on the port ama of Sea Level in blue tape! The funniest part was that no one told them until they docked after the whole day of racing. Ha, ha, ha! Those two are too much fun, slightly evil, but fun.

The second day of racing I was back on Sea Level, but David was not. David has had a sore throat and a cough for a week and he had worn himself out on the first day of racing. So we were down two people since Carol had taken a bad spill into the cockpit of Sea Level the day earlier and was out of commision. The spinnaker had also ripped and was in the process of being repaired so it was going to be a semi-relaxing day under white sails. Sea Level didn't have a great first day, but we were hoping the next couple days would be better.

The race went alright, but without our tactician it was tough. We found way to many pockets of windless air to be a threat to anyone. We never went into irons, nothing broke and we got fifth place again. So all in all it wasn't a bad day.

The last day David was ready to be back in action as tactician/grinder. Our spinnaker was returned to us 20 minutes prior to the start. The guys got it in the sock and hoisted to make sure all would be proper for when the time came. We were a little late to the start, but we were in the running. We were late hoisting the chute for one leg, but we got it up and flying. It had been stuck in the sock somehow, but Jim and Dan got it fixed. It doused with out a problem and we sailed on. On the final leg we were neck and neck with Cirque when we saw a hole in the spinnaker. We dropped it and crossed the line under white sails.

With it all over we placed fifth. Not bad considering we lost to Profligate (63 feet), Escapade (52 feet), Humu-Humu (75 feet) and Pantera that is just stupid-fast. There were five classes in all, but I can't remember all of the winners. One did stick out really well though...Cirque. Luis got juggling with some crazy cool baton thingies as they went to accept their first place plaque. It was awesome. I guess the boat name Cirque has some history.

Now that things are done with racing it should settle down a little more. David is flying back for a couple days to see the worlds-most-perfect-daughter and pick up engine parts. Hopefully we will have enough parts for David to reassemble the engine so we generate electricity again. We are going to do a crossing to the Sea of Cortez for the race week that begins on April first. For now it is time to come down from the high energy racing and slip back into island time.

Pirates for pupils, Lucha Libre and the scrotum totem

This past weekend hosted the annual Pirates for pupils fundraising event. On Saturday all the boats participating were to "race" from La Cruz to Punta Mita. Of the six boats racing to Punta Mita only two were mono-hulls Blue the J-160 and Charissa. The rest were catamarans: Capricorn Cat, Endless Summer, Escapade and Sea Level. We were recruited by Jim and Kent Milski to be on Sea Level a while ago. David and I were both looking forward to sailing on this beautiful cat. The start of the race was intense! We were pushing Endless Summer up trying to pinch them out at the starting line, but Steve did an amazing job of turning up and dropping back down barely making it inside the line. Kent couldn't watch as we were about 18 inches away from having Endless Summer crawling up our rear.

Cap Cat was hot on our trail for most of the race, but two not-so-good tacks let them take the lead. We stayed inside hugging the coast to keep with the pressure and Cap Cat had gone towards the middle of the bay. By the time we tacked out of the beach some huge swells were rolling in...we had been in the surf zone! We could tell Jim was pondering going back to that very spot after the race, but for now we had to keep on racing. That little trick allowed us to catch Cap Cat. We kept closing the distance until we knew Cap Cat couldn't tack. We were both on starboard tack and they would have to duck us and lose valuable time. While we kept playing with Capricorn Cat taking them up towards the Marietas, Escapade started to catch up. We knew we had to pull out some serious tactics. We pulled up alongside Cap Cat less than a boat length away and began talking to Wayne. A little history about this tactic: We have raced with Cap Cat many times and David made a rule that no one was to talk to Wayne or vice-versa because he would stop steering the course. So we pulled out all the stops and taunted, yelled and chatted until there were water guns being pulled on us. Once everyone was distracted on Cap Cat we tacked in and made a hustle towards the finish line. Cap Cat scrambled and tacked quickly and were hot on our heels for the remainder of the race, but we are happy to say WE WON!!!

It was a great day of fun sailing so we went over to Cap Cat to congratulate them on a great race and give them their second place prize...the scrotum totem courtesy of Jim and Kent. Jim and Kent found these baskets in Zihuatenajo that turned out to be bulls balls made into cute "little" baskets. Huge and furry bulls balls. Wayne seemed pleased with his new toy and we all got a good laugh. Soon Cap Cat turned into the party boat as every boat came over to hang out, talk tactics, sail trim and mingle.

Later we caught a panga ride (since the swells were big) into the Blue Water Grill for some drinks and food. We got into some playful trash talk and started to throw down some money on the Lucha Libre challenge. The food arrived and my plate was delicious. I had the Pollo Adobada with a green pepper. Mmmm yummy. We enjoyed the socializing, but after a long day of fun in the sun we called it a night by cruisers midnight.

As we piled into Sea Level feeling elated we heard a horrible scraping noise on deck. Jim went up and was astounded to find that a turnbuckle (silicon bronze) broke allowing the now free shroud to flop around. The guys secured it to a cleat and ran the spinnaker halyard down to the deck for added safety. A closer inspection inside the boat revealed cracks in the partition joints. Luckily Jim realized that it wasn't structural part of the boat, but still a pain in the ass to repair. Not the best way to end the night.

The following morning we called Mike to see if he had any 3/4 turnbuckles laying around. Turns out he did. He brought two to the El Dorado brunch for us. We strutted the beach in full on pirate garb and made our way to the gathering. We weren't sure which restaurant it was until we saw two little pirates running around slaying people. Yep, that was us. The brunch made for some more successful donations for the Pirates for Pupils, more trash talk Lucha Libre fun and more Punta Mita Y&SC members. A successful start to the day.

Since we had our two turnbuckles to try out we hoped to be participating in the spinnaker run. We took on the Don Quixote family and after trying both turnbuckles with no luck we quickly hustled with them to Endless Summer. It was a full boat with Manjula, Steve, Dean, Toast, Jamie, Mera, Aeron, David, me and Sookie the boat dog. We were late to the start, but our spinnaker was up and we were on the way. It was a great boat to sail and a decent day for a spinnaker, but we never caught up to any other boat once we blew by Tomatillo. I really enjoyed talking with the Don Quixote family. I think both the parents of the girls and I had preconceived notions of one another and they were quickly set straight once we actually got talking. I love when that happens. The girls are so smart and free in the way that they think. We need more people in the world like them.

So in the end Cap Cat won followed by Escapade then us on Endless Summer. At least we got on the podium. I am told that it was a "photo finish" between Blue and Capricorn Cat. That would have been great to see, but we were busy not catching up, but enjoying ourselves fully. I also heard from Ronnie the Tea Lady that we raised a whopping 30,000 pesos, the most ever for this event! Very cool.

Happy birthday David!!!

There happened to be about four birthday boys all in La Cruz at the same time. Barry of Anna Banana's, a guy named Dale, Mike's son Merrik and of course David. Anna Banana's had live music, dancing, food and a cake. Kameron got the girls up on the dance floor and started to do the macarena. Anna gave us a special little piece of cake complete with relighting candles which thrilled Anna to no end. The festivities got going and the tequila got flowing. We found old friends and made new ones. We got a picture of a hound dog barking the blues and three celebrities all in one place! Gene Wilder (Monty) Clint Eastwood (David) and Michael Caine (Barry, but not the birthday Barry). The party moved on to the Britania where yet more tequila was distributed. We skipped the tequila and I opted to play with the most adorable puppy ever. I have never had dogs or puppies so I fell in love with the little ball of joy. I think David even had a moment of weakness and took a liking to the little puppy.

Puerto Rico for a night

Our first layover was 23 hours in Puerto Rico. After David did some flight research he found the *shortest* layover was 7 hours in either Miami or Puerto Rico. We opted for the longest layover in PR. Once off the plane we had to collect our luggage and an extra empty (read:full) bag that Dona asked us to fly down for her. We thought we would be able to check the bags, but it turns out that is not the case. The bags can not be checked until the same day of the flight. No worries. We grabbed our stuff and got a cab. The driver asked where to and we said "we don't know." He found us a nice hotel for a low price. The Hotel Las Americas was renovating so it cost a whopping $65 USD for the night. We thanked the taxi man, Rafael, and made our way to our room.

The hotel was all old style with paintings of Colombus on the walls, beautiful stained glass windows , fancy chandeliers and some things like the "peeping toms." The ceilings were painted along with banners over the balconies. The room was smallish and bare, but it was practical. We only needed a place for our bags and to sleep and this room was perfect for our needs. We dropped off our bags and headed to the local restaurant for some mofongo. Mofongo is the popular local dish made of fried plantains that are mashed and sometimes stuffed with chicken, shrimp, pork or other meats. I had the chicken variety and it was both filling and delicious. After such a big meal we had to lay down and let it settle if we wanted to be active later.

Later that night we found a nice place for a drink and appetizer before going to see a movie. We saw Milk which I thought was phenominal. We had to return to the hotel semi early so we wouldn't miss our flight the following morning. Not that staying in PR would be bad, but Eupsychia beckoned us.

We had a last chance to get some Puerto Rican grub before we were flying to Dallas and then home to PV. All went well and after flying all day we were glad to drag our weary bodies to our floating home. The cat was very happy to see us and she expressed that love with licks and copious amounts of fuzz all over everything she could reach. Vacation was great, but its is nice to be home.