"Before"

 

This is a composite picture that I put together from some pictures we took before trucking NAKIA to Seattle in 2004. The perspective is a little off, but you can at least get the idea of what the deck looked like before we started work.

"After"

 

In this picture you can see most of the work we've done over the last six months. Four new Lewmar hatches (three replacements and one new installation), removing the teak decks, filling in the inserts, and painting and non-skidding the deck.

"Before", looking forward

 

A view of the foredeck before the teak was removed.

'After", looking forward

 

Here we are looking forward of the mast.

Another view of the new decks and hatches.

 

Here's a little closer view of the new hatch. I'm especially proud of this because if you note in the 'before' pictures there's nothing but deck in this area. I had to fabricate the raised hatch frame from scratch and even close up it looks pretty good. You can also see some of the stainless work we've had done here in Mazatlan. We had some supports added to the mast pulpits to stiffen them and also provide a protection for the dorade vent (in case we want to add staysail tracks someday).

Another view of the new decks and hatches.

 

Another view of the new decks and hatches.

Non-skid pattern

 

Here's a close up look at the non-skid pattern we now have instead of the teak. It's been a lot of work, but we saved ourselves a bundle by not having the local guy do the work, and we're pleased with the results.

The pastry cart at Panama

 

Birthday girl at La Costa Marinera 2/10/2007

 

 

Leslie and Tom at El Capitano 2/11/2007

 

Wine tasting with Lisa and Steve on 2/8/2007

 

 

Surprise!

1 March 2007
Marina Mazatlan

Well, that was quite a month! Between a week of dog sitting, my 50th birthday surprise party, Carnaval, a bus trip to Tucson, boat projects, and a head cold that started on February 1 and just won't quit, February was a memorable month that left little time for blogging or email. I apologize for being out of touch for so long, but I was either out having the time of my life, or wasn't feeling well enough to document the great times we were having.

February started with Caravan leaving for a train trip through the Copper Canyon. Rather than letting them kennel Clipper, their Schipperke, I begged John to let me take care of her for the week. Fine, he said, as long as it doesn't interfere with the weekend following your birthday (Hmmmm). Clipper was a sweetheart, very smart, and an affectionate little girl who loved being brushed every day. But her twice daily walks were ruled by her nose (she wanted to track every interesting scent), and she missed her pack terribly and barked when I left her alone on her boat. We finally figured out that we could keep her on Nakia to keep her quiet during the day, and I chose to sleep on Caravan so she wouldn't be lonely at night. After a few days I learned that being owned by a dog is more demanding than it looks, and I definitely prefer being an auntie. But now that Caravan has sailed south we miss Clipper, Fiona, Vici, and Gene very much!

My birthday was the absolute highlight of the month, and John need never think about planning another party for me because he couldn't possibly top this one. First we went out the night of my birthday with Flying Free for a wine tasting seminar, fondue, hot dogs from a street cart, and a glimpse of the Carnaval fun fair. I know it sounds like a weird combination, but it worked (you had to be there). On Saturday I was led to believe that John and I were spending the weekend at a sedate B&B after having dinner with Stan and MJ as they were passing through town. Instead I walked into the restaurant to find the SolMaters sitting at a table for 20, along with cruising friends (Flying Free, Caravan, Traveler, La Balena, Willow) and, TA DAH!! - my sister, Leslie; brother-in-law, Tom; and college friend, Amy, with her 11 year old daughter, Alex. Overwhelmed by the thought of these four special people flying down to celebrate my birthday, I couldn't hold back the tears as we hugged and laughed. Everyone was pleased as punch that they'd managed to pull off the big secret, and it took me forever to stop gazing in wonder at the out-of-town faces. I had no idea how fantastic it would feel to have people from our previous lives join us here in Mexico, as this was the first time anyone had come down to visit us. It was very moving, and I will never forget the fun we had with all our friends that night. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who was invited but couldn't make it, and for keeping it a secret from me! I love you for even remotely considering the possibility of being there.

Fortunately I had recovered from the first round of whatever's been going around Mazatlan in time to enjoy the long weekend at the Hotel Playa Mazatlan with our visitors. We had a great time playing tourist; eating far too much delicious food at places like La Costa Marinera, El Capitano, El Bambu, and Panama; practicing numbers in Spanish with the beach vendors (Alex wins the prize for going home with the most souvenirs); sun bathing by the pool, and building sand castles on the beach; taking jet ski, boogie board, and banana boat rides; riding pulmonias, red trucks, and local buses all over the city; and crashing from exhaustion at the end of the day in our comfy rooms overlooking the ocean. Many of these things were firsts for John and me, and it was a real treat to ignore the budget for a few days of pure indulgence!

We barely had time to recover from my birthday weekend before Carnaval was upon us, but I'll cover that in another post. Then Carnaval had just ended and I was on a bus for the 22 hour trip to Tucson to visit my parents, who were staying there for the month. After more delicious meals with them, a visit from my aunt and uncle, and watching the Academy Awards show (a Hill family tradition!) I was back on the bus to Mazatlan. Finally we're back in boat project mode, hoping to wrap up the deck work by the end of March so we can cross over to La Paz and get back to our beloved Baja for the summer.

Thanks again to everyone who was involved in making my 50th the birthday surprise party of a lifetime!

Linda and John

Totally Babeled

[Here's an email I sent my sister. It's off our usual topic of living and cruising in Mexico, but she thought the rest of you might enjoy it.]

I think I mentioned that we were going to see Babel this week. Most of the time I like to go to movies knowing as little as possible about them so that I can be pleasantly surprised. On Tuesday I checked the theater's web site for show times and we made arrangements to meet Steve and Lisa yesterday to drive together for the 5:00 show. A half hour before we were to meet I checked the web site again because the show times had been different from those posted in the newspaper. Sure enough Babel now started 1/2 an hour earlier and we were going to miss the 4:30 show. John decided we should continue as scheduled and maybe there would be something else we could see at 5 PM. I was bummed because I'd really wanted to see the Oscar nominated and Golden Globe winner Babel.

We arrived at the theater and Babel had actually started at 4 PM, so both newspaper and web page were wrong. The only other option for 5 PM was Storm Breaker, which looked pretty lame, so we bought tickets for the 6:40 Babel and went out for tacos next door. Yay, I was going to get to see the movie I didn't want to miss.

A related aside: Recently we popped one of the DVDs a friend had copied for us, titled A Beautiful Country, into our machine for an evening's entertainment. I know that often a movie will begin with an unsubtitled foreign language as a means for setting the scene. John pressed the Subtitle button on the remote and got No Subtitles for a response. So we were patient and waited for the expected transition to English. We listened to Vietnamese for six minutes into the movie until John fast forwarded to another chapter where we heard English. So we went back to our previous six minute point of departure and watched some more scenes in Vietnamese. Finally we accepted the fact that for whatever reason the subtitles hadn't transferred to the copied DVD and we gave up.

Thus I had a feeling of foreboding when Babel started off in Arabic (?) with, of course, Spanish subtitles, and there were no signs of the advertised stars, Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett. Our discomfort increased when the scene switched to Spanish speakers (no subtitles), and then to Japanese (Spanish subtitles again). Finally, there was a scene with the Pitt/Blanchett duo, and we could understand what they were saying. Yay! Wait, wait, don't leave; we don't want to go back to Mexico, Japan, and the Arabic speakers - go back to P/B! If you've seen the movie you know that the P/B scenes were few and far between, and they seemed to us to be much shorter than scenes with the non-English speaking characters. Our Spanish is okay, and I was managing to get the gist of most of it. John pointed out later that the Japanese scenes were best because they seemed to use more syllables/words, which gave us longer to decipher the Spanish subtitles.

The movie theater in the Zona Dorada has a quirky little habit of abruptly stopping the movie and raising the lights somewhere near the middle for an "intermission." Afraid I would lose our new friendship with Steve and Lisa (not to mention John's good humor), I proposed we make our getaway at that point (which was: Mexican pistol had been fired into the air at the wedding; Japanese girl attempted to kiss her dentist after flashing her crotch to boys in bar; and Blanchett was stoned from the old Morrocan woman's opium cigar). They were all polite and asked if I was sure I wanted to go, but I knew everyone wanted to give it up and so we left. I'm not sure they would have been any happier with Babel even if the whole thing had been in English however.

That was our evening. Hope yours was uneventful!

Linda and John

Waiting for the ball game to begin

 

 

Lisa and Linda at the ball park

¡Sí, se puede!

27 January 2007
Marina Mazatlan

Most of you up north probably don't know it but it's baseball season down here. We started watching some of the games on TV when we were in San Carlos. When we got to Mazatlan and realized that the Mazatlan Venados were in the play offs I decided we had to see a game. John went to the stadium for tickets to the final game against Mazatlan's bitter rival Culiacan but the only seats available were "lateral" (way out in left field) or bleachers. Uncertain that he could rise to the level of machismo we might encounter in the bleachers, John opted to pass on that home game. We crossed our fingers that the Venados would beat the Tomateros and watched the game on TV. Mazatlan managed to squeak by, only to face the much tougher Naranjeros of Hermasillo in the upcoming finals.

If you've been following along with your Spanish dictionary, you will have learned that venado=deer, tomate=tomato, and naranja=orange. I thought these were odd names for baseball teams but my dentist explained that each team is named for what its city is best known for. Visitors to Mazatlan soon learn that the city's name means "land of the deer." What we didn't know is that Culiacan grows the best tomatoes and Hermasillo produces the finest oranges in Mexico. Thus it is that you have the deer playing the tomato'ers (or tomato growers) and the orange'ers (or orange growers).

Tickets for the games being played in Mazatlan went on sale Tuesday morning, and John and Steve (S/V Flying Free) drove to the stadium an hour before the ticket windows opened at 10 AM. The stadium officially seats 13,000 but my dentist told me that one night they estimated a crowd of 16,000, so we expected long lines for tickets. I was a little surprised however when John hadn't returned by Noon since I figured he would give up after only a couple of hours. By the time Lisa called me on the radio at 3 PM we were both concerned that they still weren't back. I was imagining fist fights and hospitals, or traffic accidents and jail and/or more hospitals. Shortly after Lisa's call John walked in the door, cold and tired but otherwise unharmed.

It turned out that the lines themselves weren't particularly big, but they took forever to move. Apparently most people were buying 10-20 tickets, and spent a lot of time trying to get all their seats as close together as possible. Needless to say, when it was finally their turn at the window John and Steve felt a little ridiculous buying only two tickets each. Exhausted from his ordeal, and with a belly full of the arrachera lunch they ate before coming home, John fell into bed for a much deserved nap. My hero!

The Venados lost the first two games of the league championship series (best of seven) against the Naranjeros in Hermasillo on Monday and Tuesday. They had Wednesday off and then came home to Mazatlan to lose a third game on Thursday. The games were close with two of them going to 12 innings, but it wasn't looking good for Mazatlan.

The do-or-die game day finally dawned on Friday and we went about our chores with great excitement. At 3 PM we met Steve and Lisa to start off the festivities with a fortifying meal of all-you-can-eat ribs at Munchkin's. The AYCE offer was lost on Lisa and me but the guys managed to get their money's worth. We then strategically positioned the truck outside the stadium for a quick post-game getaway, and caught a bus downtown to see a Carnaval Parade Preview. The confetti in the streets along the bus route was our first clue that we were too late for the parade, but we were even more puzzled by the lack of a crowd in Plaza Machado, the advertised end of the parade route. We shopped our way back towards the bus stop, caught the tail end of a fireworks show coming from Plaza Republica a few blocks away, and realized that all the action had ended up there. We snapped a few pictures with the candidates for queen (egged on by a helpful guy who then wouldn't let us take our picture with him!), and hopped a bus back to the baseball stadium.

And that's pretty much the end of the story. Our beloved Venados lost 3-1 in the most boring game of the series. We banged our Pacifico thunder sticks, waved our Venados flag, and chanted "¡Sí, se puede!" (Yes, you can!) to no avail. But it was terrific to be a part of an important local event, and the nice guy who caught a souvenir T-shirt right in front of John's hands, and then handed it to him to give to me, will always be remembered as a symbol of the generosity of our gracious host country.

Linda and John

16th Anniversary

25 January 2007
Marina Mazatlan

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes today. It's our 16th wedding anniversary which, as every boat owner knows, is a fiberglass year. We marked the occasion by epoxying two layers of the precious cloth to Nakia's foredeck over the foam core filling the insert where there used to be teak deck. John laid the glass as fast as I could mix the two part epoxy (15-20 squirts of each at a time), and we managed to finish it all before Noon. We donned our best work clothes, latex gloves, and industrial strength respirators for the festive morning, and many a neighbor strolled by to pass on glad tidings and murmured approvals over our gift of fiberglass. We're taking pictures of every stage of the deck job and as soon as the Project Manager has time he will post them for your edification.

This afternoon I cooked up a batch of tamale pie (see Alber's corn meal box for recipe) for an impromptu potluck dinner here in Marina Mazatlan. The upstairs lounge was packed with hungry cruisers ready to dive into a feast that left no one hungry. Many thanks to Dave and Sally on S/V Hopalong for announcing the time and place on the local VHF net, and to everyone else for cooking their hearts out for our special day (even if they didn't know it). Sally had intended to hold the potluck Friday, but I talked her out of that night because of other plans we had. When she chose Thursday instead, I told her that worked for us, completely forgetting the date. It's hard to remember special days when every day here is a gift!

Linda and John

Anniversary Dinner

 

Fiberglass job

Open Studio Tour in Old Mazatlan

22 January 2007

http://www.openstudiomazatlan.com

This past weekend we attended a wonderful event held in the Centro, or old part of downtown Mazatlan. The annual open studio tour is not only an art show, it's an opportunity for a glimpse of what's behind some of the doors in this beautiful city. The artists showcase their work in their studios/homes, in gift shops, in bed and breakfasts, and sometimes in borrowed homes of friends. These locations vary in style from remodeled casas, to historic homes, to small apartments, and even to one old crumbling building.

On Saturday I joined three other women from Marina Mazatlan for the self-guided walking tour. Lisa (S/V Flying Free) had done the tour last year and had a route for us already marked on her copy of a map listing the 19 venues. She did a great job of navigating us through the streets and we managed to see twelve places in about three hours. We got a little side tracked looking at the rooms of a charming bed and breakfast (http://www.casadeleyendas.com), but we made up some time by not lingering in the gift shops which we could return to another time.

The art work varied tremendously, but it was all interesting. Even if you didn't particularly care for the work itself, the opportunity to see the space in which it was being shown made each stop well worth the time. Just getting off the beaten path and onto some of the side streets you might otherwise never walk was an adventure. The artists themselves were available and willing to discuss their work with you. They were a mix of expatriates from all over the world as well as Mexican nationals, and they ranged in age and style from young and modern to older and more classic.

I enjoyed the Saturday tour so much that I got John to return with me on Sunday to see the rest of the places on the list. The building that got the most buzz from the other cruisers who'd done the tour on Saturday was one we had missed. It was off the Plaza Machado above one of the chi-chi restaurants (Pedro y Lola) which borders the square. John and I walked through an open doorway into what looked like a construction site, and climbed a rickety staircase to the second floor. Assuming they don't change the photos on the home page, you can see what it looked like at the web site at the beginning of this post. As we walked through the rooms we were warned to watch our step because "it's an historic building."

If you ever find yourself in Mazatlan when this event takes place, I highly recommend setting aside the time for it. And be sure to bring plenty of cash because there will undoubtedly be something that you'll want to take home with you!

Linda and John

First Week in Mazatlan

13 January 2007
Marina Mazatlan

We've been in Mazatlan for a week now and are really loving it. The weather is significantly warmer than it was in San Carlos, and we're back to wearing mostly shorts and T-shirts or tanks around the marina. Even though Mazatlan is a resort city, we try to wear long pants and nicer shirts when we venture into the city proper so we don't stick out as tourists. Our disguise isn't foolproof though because we still are approached by the time share salesmen! The long pants are also good for preventing no-see-um bites (we hope). We don't know when/where we're getting bitten, but we each have a few bites already.

Life in the marina has it's ups and downs. We love the dock we're on. We moved to an end tie in order to save some money by paying for our documented length (33 ft.) instead of the slip we were in (41 ft.). As we walk the full length of the dock up to the gate we get to say hello to all the cats, dogs, and people along the way. I think we're on one of the more transient docks because it's farther away from the office/bathroom/lounge building, and it's interesting to meet all the boats coming and going. The major downside is that since we arrived at Marina Mazatlan the internet here has been spotty at best and mostly just not working. The WiFi is definitely down which is beyond the marina's control, but even the hard connection is unreliable enough that one wouldn't want to carry a laptap and peripherals up to the office just to find that the internet isn't working again.

Little things like the gate cards not working and the pilot lights going out on the bathroom water heaters are more easily solved. For the former you can reach in and turn the knob to get in the gate, but the bathroom entry is trickier since you have to wait for someone else to go in or come out. When a woman warned me about the cold water showers one evening, I simply went back to the boat and asked John to bring a lighter and come with me to the bathroom building. The three hot water heaters are easily accessible outside, and he managed to light the two out of three pilot lights that had blown out. Ten minutes later I had to turn the cold water faucet on to mix with the hot!

We've started learning the bus routes and after a few missteps are getting better all the time. Learning the streets is complicated by the fact that we have four freebie maps of varying scales and detail, and none of them is really useful on its own. One good map is on my list of things to get. We're lucky in that we have three major buses that run right by the marina, and it's very easy to pick up any of the several other bus routes to get where you need to go. Once we have our truck here (John is driving it down from San Carlos today) we'll probably do more driving to the mega stores, but I think I'll feel more comfortable riding the bus to the busier, more congested parts of town.

Carnaval is fast approaching (February 15-20) and is one of the reasons we chose Mazatlan to lay over for part of our winter refit. Last night Vicky and Fiona of Caravan joined me for the "Second Computation of the Votes" for Carnaval royalty. We had one detour after going to the wrong church square (my bad), but I asked a policeman for directions and, after a long bus ride to a completely unknown section of town for us, we arrived in time to see the candidates for Queen of Carnaval. Nine young woman were competing for the honor, and the square was packed with family and fans cheering and holding up signs with pictures of their favorites. At first it didn't seem as though we'd be able to see a thing with the crowds, but we found a little corner of a raised section upon which we first hoisted seven-year-old Fiona. Vicky and I didn't want to climb up ourselves for fear of blocking the view of the elderly man standing there, but he finally beckoned us up for a better look. It was so fun to be part of what appeared to be a completely local event, and we didn't see any other tourists in the crowd. The queen candidates were in beautiful evening gowns, and what we took to be four past queens were in full Carnaval regalia complete with hand held masks (the kind on wands) and two inch eyelashes. We think a new queen was chosen at the end of the evening (one of the candidates received a bouquet of flowers and was flanked by two women wearing tiaras), and there were two candidates each left from the competition for King of Joy and Child Queen. Vicky and I were a bit disappointed by the king candidates as they didn't quite measure up to the prospects for queen. Is the king traditionally supposed to be short and portly?

Linda and John

Safe Passage

Saturday, January 6, 2007
Marina Mazatlan

All of our preparations for a return to the Sea paid off in that we had one of the easiest passages ever. For the most part there was minimal swell from the NW so it didn't take long for us to get used to the motion again. And except for the first morning when we took our only spray on the decks, the winds were light and mostly behind us. I guess it's a good thing I dug out our foul weather gear and boots from deep within the storage lockers as insurance.

Except for 12 hours of sailing it was a motorboat ride for two reasons. The first was a gale warning in the northern Sea that we wanted to outrun before the wind and seas built farther south. The second was that we wanted to arrive at the marina entrance before the dredge in the channel began operating at 8:00 AM, otherwise we'd have to wait outside the entrance until he took his breaks later in the day. With a clean bottom we made excellent speed, and we were happy to get into the protection of the marina earlier than we had planned.

The other hoped for, but still unexpected, plus was how warm it got and so quickly. We left freezing (I know, I know, but to us it was cold) San Carlos where the low air temps. were in the 40-50 range and the water was a chilly 62 degrees. By our second day out the water temp. was up to the high sixties, and by Friday it reached a high of 73. The air temperatures followed suit and John actually broke a sweat yesterday making a sail change.

It was great to discover that dolphins and whales don't hibernate during the winter, as we had plenty of sightings all three days. It almost seemed like we saw more spouts and breaches off in the distance than we normally do in an entire season, but maybe it was just seeing large groups which we're not used to. No close encounters with any of the big guys, but the dolphins came to play a few times.

Now it's back to work to get the decks finished so we can start cruising again!

Linda and John

In safe and sound

January 6, 2007
Marina Mazatlan

We arrived this morning after three days straight travel. Only two small problems. First the alternator belt broke the other afternoon. We have spares and since it was calm it only took about 15 minutes to replace. The other problem had a larger impact; the pump on our marine head started leaking the first day out so we had to use a bucket for two days. We have spares for that too, but they are in 'long term storage' under our bed and we decided to wait to get them until after we arrived.

The marina is nice, and we're happy to be here were it's warm.

John and Linda

That's more like it

January 5, 2006
At Sea, off Altata (120 mi NW of Mazatlan)

When we left San Carlos is was cold. Not cold by you north of the border types, but cold for us. Daily highs were in the mid to high 60s and lows often dipped into the high 30s. The water temperature was a chilly 59 degrees, that just three degrees higher then the water off the coast of Northern California!

We hoped that our move south would produce warmer climes, and I'm happy to say it has! Last night's air temperature was right around 70 and the water temp also broke 70 this morning. We were both able to strip off our multiple layers of fleece and we can comfortably sit on deck in the shade in a T-Shirt. And we still have another 100 miles to go!

We should arrive in Mazatlan tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

John and Linda

Quick update

January 4, 2007
At Sea, about 20 nm NW Topolobampo

We're going to continue on to Mazatlan. We are making good time in spite of the fact that there is little wind. According to the weather guy there's a 'hump' in the Sea of Cortez, north and south of it there's wind but not in it. Looks like we're in the hump.

Friday's forecast is not good for the far N Sea, gale warning there. But by Friday we'll be a mere 130 mi from Mazatlan so should not see any part of the heave winds.

ETA MAZ Sat morning.

John and Linda

Underway for Mazatlan

Wednesday January 3, 2006
At Sea

We departed San Carlos this morning for our trip to Mazatlan. The weather forecast is for 10-15 knots of wind from the north so we should have an easy ride of it. Right now the wind is just 5-7 knots from the SSE and the seas are very low from the WNW. Unfortunately the weather forecasters are saying that Friday will be very windy in the Sea of Cortez so we will pill in to get out of the weather at Topolobampo.

It was pretty cold this morning getting underway and we're looking forward to getting further south into warmer water.

John and Linda

Happy Holidays!

24 December 2006Marina Seca, San Carlos, MX

We are home again in Mexico after our month long road trip to Seattle and back. We departed San Carlos November 19 and returned to Nakia in Marina Real December 19. We drove over 5,000 miles (including miles covered doing errands in various stops) with overnight stays in nine cities. Most of our time was spent on Bainbridge Island waiting to finalize the business of buying our condo. We were in a hurry to get north for that and then in a hurry to return south to the boat, which resulted in our not getting to see everyone we would have liked to visit. The rainy, cold, and sometimes snowy weather wasn't conducive to adding more miles to an already long trip.

On our way north we made a brief stop in the Bay Area to retrieve some winter clothing out of storage, and another stop in the Portland area for some day-after-Thanksgiving-sales tax free shopping. For the return trip south we had to make stops to pick up a new mattress and anchor chain for the boat. Needless to say the old truck was loaded down and not happy to be in the cold weather, but it was a trouper and got us everywhere safely. Crossing back into Mexico we paid duty on some of our items at Customs, got a red light, and only a cursory look in the back of the truck before being waved on. Feliz Navidad!

Two days after our return we bashed Nakia around the corner from Marina Real to Marina San Carlos for our haul out at Marina Seca. It has been windy out of the north so there was some swell which we weren't prepared for after sitting in a marina for so long. Now we are up on the hard, but enjoying the comforts of home with Stan and MJ in their 2Bed/2Bath San Carlos rental. We go to the yard after breakfast and John does the dirty work, while I fetch and carry for him. This is our first haul out since we left the States in 2004, but it's still just the usual projects of replacing through hulls and putting new paint on the bottom. We're actually paying the yard do the latter for the first time in 15 years of boat ownership.

It's wonderful to be back in shorts and T-shirts again. The nights are cool (below 60), but the sun is warm and bright most days. We hope everyone is enjoying this time of year with friends and family no matter where you are or what you're doing!

Linda and John

Haulout pics

Here's the trailer getting set to haul NAKIA. They don't use a travlift here, just this big trailer. NAKIA's so small she only uses about half of it.

Haulout pics

The trailer is backed into the water and positioned under NAKIA. The trailer operator spent about 15 minutes making sure the trailer was properly positioned.

Haulout pics

Half way out of the water.

Haulout pics

NAKIA's all the way out of the water and ready to go down the road to the yard.

As many of you may know, we're buying a condominium at the Harbor Square Condominium complex on Bainbridge Island, WA.

Thanksgiving week we traveled north from San Carlos to close on the condo. Here are some pictures of the weather and the condo.

It's been cold, to say the least. Doubly so for us because we're used to 80 degree days and 60 degree nights.

John and Linda

Snow falling in Eagle Harbor. Current temperature today: 25 degrees F

Bath

View outside on the balcony.

Kitchen

Pictures of New Hatches

Here are the before, in progress, and after pictures of our recent hatch refit. In addition to this we're removing the teak decks and replacing them with fiberglass non-skid, fitting new overhead material over the existing overhead, and revarnishing the interior.

Now with the hatches done, we feel like we've got something to show for the work so far. We've also made good progress already on the overhead, and with the updated hatches the interior is really taking on a new look.

John

Original butterfly style hatch over salon.

Original forward hatch over head. Together the teak hatches weighed almost 100 pounds

Salon hatches with fiberglass frame edges cut off and plywood in place to build new frame.

Forward hatch with fiberglass frame edge cut off and plywood in place to build new frame.

Salon hatches after plywood has been fiberglassed and epoxied.

Forward hatch after plywood has been fiberglassed and epoxied. (Note: you can see where the teak decks have been removed in this picture.)

Looking up through salon hatches after frames have been cut.

Looking up through head hatch after frame has been cut.

New Lewmar Ocean 50 hatches after installation.

New Lewmar Ocean 60 hatch after installation.

Red Light, Green Light

6 November 2006
San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

We made another trip to Nogales, AZ (John's third, my second) to pick up boat parts and misc. supplies last week, and got our first red light at Mexican Customs! Fortunately we were prepared with our paperwork, and it turned out to be a non-event anyway. After unloading everything from the truck onto their table John realized that last out (so first to be seen by the officer) was the bin with all the beer on top. But he just asked John what we had to declare, took a cursory look at the beer (and not much else), and wished us a good journey. The trip was actually worse going north into the U.S. because it took us two and a half hours to cover one mile in stop and go traffic to the border!

John installed the last of the replacement hatches and should be posting some before and after pictures soon. He's now working full time on the new Formica overhead which is probably going to be the job he hates the most. Cutting the Formica sheets is fairly straightforward, but fitting all the bits of teak trim to cover up the seams and edges is driving him to frustration.

Hopefully listening to Howard Stern on our new Sirius satellite radio will help ease the pain. We still have the XM radio and we'll decide which one to keep after we've played with Sirius for awhile. So far I think I prefer the Sirius NPR programming, but I hate the thought of giving up Bob Edwards for Howard Stern - not a fair trade! It's a good thing we have plenty of radio to listen to since renting DVDs at the local outlet has turned out to be a bad idea. Out of probably eight movies, we've only seen one straight through without any problems, and half of them were completely unwatchable due to heavy scratches. So I'm giving up on that as a waste of money and time.

We made a successful trip to the Enpalme (a town south of Guaymas) tianguis (flea market) yesterday with the SolMaters to buy a 20" screen TV to go with the cable service they had installed in their little rental house (they had to purchase the cable service in order to get the internet service - see how things snowball when you move to land...). So now we have a place to watch football where the beer and snacks are free - or at least the prices are lower and we don't have to tip the waitress.

Nights are cool and the days are sunny and warm. What are you doing up there?

Linda and John

Winter Refit

24 October 2006
San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

It's been three weeks since we came into Marina Real to begin our winter refit projects on Nakia. Interestingly it's a lot like life in the marina before we left to go cruising, including having a job. But at least we're working for ourselves and we get to set our own hours. In our case we usually get up at 5:00 so John can be ready to start at first light. So far we haven't had any complaints from our neighbors which may be because the "boat boys" (the local crews and hired captains of the power and sport fishing boats) arrive for work at about the same time, as does our neighbor, Stan on SolMate.

The current project involves replacing the hatches up on the cabin top. We have one forward hatch over our head in the bow (where most sailboats have a V-berth) and a butterfly type hatch in the middle over the salon. We are replacing those with three Lewmar hatches. To date John has:

Removed the old (extremely heavy) teak hatches
Pried out the interior teak frames
Cut and ground the fiberglass exterior frames (which were built up for a custom fit of the original hatches)
Made plywood inserts to create new frames
Tabbed the inserts into place
Filled, fiber glassed, and epoxied the new plywood frames (interior and exterior)
Cut holes for new hatches in the new plywood frames
Filled and faired frames (currently ongoing)

He's taped heavy plastic to the interior overhead, vacuums as he sands, and we hose down the entire boat after any sanding to keep the mess to a minimum.

To pick up parts and supplies for the refit we've made one overnight trip to Nogales, AZ, and John went a second time making the round trip in one day with a friend. It's a 5-6 hour drive each way plus stops at Customs both leaving and entering Mexico to take care of paperwork. We'll need to go up there at least once or twice again, but hopefully those will be over night trips so that we can take advantage of the U.S. shopping.

The "marina life" part of the refit includes unlimited fresh water from our hose on the dock, which was great for cleaning and stowing things we won't be using for awhile; unlimited electricity at the dock; showers and flush toilets in the marina bathroom (there's no hot water though, and the weather is already getting a little too cool for tepid showers); choice of two self-service coin laundries; WiFi access up at the marina office, which unfortunately doesn't reach our boat in the slip; and we've even decided to get a Skype phone number so that people can leave us voice messages. Our truck gives us access to all kinds of shopping including small markets locally in San Carlos, bigger stores 20 miles south in Guaymas, and mega stores (Costco, Home Depot, Office Depot, Ace Hardware, WalMart) 85 miles north in Hermasillo. We've signed up at the local video rental store to try to catch up on some of the movies we've missed, and we're working our way through all the local eateries with SolMate.

As I mentioned the weather is getting cooler and tends to be too breezy for swimming already, but we're only a few blocks away from a pretty beach for walking, if we ever make the time for it. Fortunately we can already tell that the improvements we're making will be well worth the time off we're taking from cruising!

Linda and John

Tied to the Dock

3 October 2006
Marina Real, San Carlos

The Catch 22 anchorage in Bahia Algodones was lovely (imagine a 20' deep swimming pool with a sandy bottom) and we hated to leave it, but we are now in Marina Real for the foreseeable future. We've returned to civilization (including our little Toyota truck!) to begin the winter refit projects that John has planned for Nakia. The two big jobs that he's going to start first are installing a new Formica overhead and replacing our boxy teak hatches with sleek new Lewmar ones. We're excited about giving Nakia a new look and will try to post pictures as we progress through each task. Working conditions are less than ideal right now as we try to acclimate to the higher humidity, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that someone will switch on nature's A/C by the middle of this month. A simple thing like doing four loads of laundry at the not-well-ventilated laundromat this morning had me soaked in my own sweat and it wasn't even 10:00 yet. And we find the marina showers won't run cold water - the best we can get is tepid which isn't very refreshing. But we are plugged in, and can run multiple fans; keep the refrigerator full of cold water and beer; and when we get really desperate, go for a drive in the air-conditioned truck to eat pizza in an air-conditioned restaurant.

As Ray on Adios always says, life is good!

Linda and John

Mainland Ho!

30 September 2006

On Wednesday we crossed over from Isla Tiburon to the state of Sonora on mainland Mexico. This was a 40 mile trip which took us a little over 11 hours (with a 4 AM departure), only three hours of which we were able to sail without the engine. We anchored with SolMate in Las Cocinas and it didn't take me long to get in the water for a late afternoon snorkel and beach walk. The water clarity was good with a wonderful variety of small fish, and shells of all kinds on the sandy beach.

Las Cocinas isn't well protected from the swell, especially anything coming from the N/NW. It got a little rolly overnight so we departed Thursday morning for Rada el Pasito just four miles to the south. On our way there we ducked in to take a look at Ensenada Julio Villa. This is a charming and well protected small cove but it's tight for a big boat. The water was completely calm and there was a nice little beach, but John wasn't comfortable with staying overnight so we continued on.

SolMate anchored in about 25' at Rada el Pasito and we nosed around until John found the edge of rock and sand where we could get tucked in at 14-15' to keep us out of the worst of the swell. Welcome back to the mainland anchorages where it seems we are always rolling.

That afternoon we took the dinghy back to Julio Villa and snorkeled a rock outside that anchorage. Not a lot of fish there but I enjoyed watching all the small creatures close up on the leeward side. It's so wonderful to be able to float at leisure in the 82-84 degree water. I just can't do that in the winter water temperatures of 76-79 degrees! That's fine for swimming but I start to freeze if I don't keep moving in the lower temps. We walked the beach at Julio Villa and then went back to the beach at Pasito for more shelling. The greenery above the beach was full of small flowers and greenish yellow worms with a spike on their tails which MJ said looked a lot like the green tomato caterpillars/worms in the States.

By late morning on Friday we were getting big wind waves rolling straight into the anchorage so we followed SolMate out. When they reported 18-20 knots out of the SE (on their nose going south to Bahia San Pedro) we opted to turn tail for the easy sail back to Las Cocinas. There was a lot of high overcast which increased during the day making it very humid.

It felt great to finally jump in the water at 3:30 and go for a snorkel. This time we went along the south wall and reef which were loaded with a terrific variety of small fish, including sierra, ladyfish, gafftopsail pompanos, and even a golden grouper. The sandy floor in shallow depths was covered with sand dollars, and we spotted an octopus in its hidey hole. The latter really give themselves away when they litter their doorsteps with the shells of their prey! A walk on the beach turned up a treasure trove of interesting things to pick up and look at, with even more waiting in the shallows of low tide. This was a terrific stop, the only drawback being a little swell and the ubiquitous flies.

Today we got an early start to continue south before the SE wind kicks up again. We've sailed past Bahia San Pedro and will shoot for San Carlos. If it gets too windy to slog into the chop, we can always turn around and go back. That's the beauty of cruising!

Linda and John

Isla Tiburon

27 September 2006

We departed Ensenada Pescador (just south of Ensenada Quemado) at sunrise on the 23rd, and I had a little cry as the rosy desert mountains faded from sight. We both definitely prefer the Baja to mainland Mexico and hated to leave it so early in the season. I never get tired of the rugged, remote scenery and the numerous protected anchorages. The mainland has a more cultivated, civilized feel to it (could it be the jets and contrails overhead which we haven't seen all summer?), and we are cranky in the higher humidity. It's nice to see so much greenery, butterflies, and land birds again, but not enough to ever make me sad to leave it.

It took us until mid-afternoon that day to reach Isla Tiburon, four hours of which were nice sailing. We hit a lot of tidal current before Noon and had to motor against it the rest of the way. We anchored at Punta Willard (north side, east cove) which turned out to be the prettiest stop we made on the island in spite of the large amount of trash on the beach (including a few rusty refrigerators). John swam out a stern anchor to keep us pointed into the swell, and I jumped into the clearest water I've seen in months (okay, so the water visibility in BLA during the summer isn't the greatest). In just that one late afternoon snorkel I saw a nursery full of grouper with a few big adults, the biggest trigger fish I've ever seen, a nudibranch, a small moray eel, and big schools of bait fish in about three different sizes (S, M, and L). I'm sure the fishing there must be excellent.

Not knowing that this would be the best the island had to offer, we decided to press on farther east the next day to get through the channel formed by Isla San Esteban to the south. Less than 30 minutes after weighing anchor John pulled in a nice sierra for dinner. He had fun releasing skipjacks and a bonito (and we had a brief whale sighting) before we got tired of bucking the current and pulled into Bahia de las Cruces, just to the east of Punta Colorado. This was pretty, but the beach was gravel, we had to be careful to anchor in a sandy patch (there were many rocks on the bottom), and the water clarity had dropped.

We got another sunrise start Monday morning to get through Cactus Pass at low tide and calm water so that we would be able to see the reefs to either side. We took it slow and I don't think we ever saw less than 35', but we were glad that we hadn't tried it the day before when the wind was blowing hard in the afternoon. It only took us a couple of hours to rejoin SolMate who had taken the safe route around Isla Turner the previous day when we decided to stop at Las Cruces.

Dog Bay is where we really started feeling the humidity of the mainland. The bay was loaded with life - birds, at least one turtle, and fish jumping clear out of the water - but there was so much organic matter in the water that we were back to snorkeling in a snowstorm. It was so bad that when we got to where we could touch bottom we couldn't even see it very well. This makes me nervous since I'm afraid I'll run into a rock (or worse), so after a short beach walk I swam back to the boat. The flies, gnats and mosquitos were bad here so we didn't sit out on deck for long either. It seems as though that's the drawback to getting so much rain in the summer. Even the boats left on the Baja have been reporting annoying bugs in their anchorages.

Linda and John

Farewell to BLA

20 September 2006
Ensenada Quemado (28 56' N 113 25' W)

After a couple of "last flings" Nakia has officially departed Bahia de los Angeles for the year. It's very hard to have to be one of the first boats to say goodbye but John is anxious to get over to San Carlos to begin working on the boat projects he has planned for this winter. We are buddy boating as usual with SolMate and we will take our time making day trips across the Sea of Cortez. Local fishermen are still reporting floating debris from hurricane John, so we want to avoid having to make any overnight passages.

Fortunately before we left we were able to spend time with our favorite boats. We went down to SoBLA for a birthday party, and had three days in a row of pleasant weather and competitive dart games. Our last morning there we had sunrise temps of 72 F in the cabin and 65.5 F outside, making it our coolest morning of the season so far. Maybe that was a sign that something was up because the wind built to 25-30 kt gusts out of the northwest, and we waited too long to bail out of the exposed anchorage. We raised anchor mid-afternoon and took spray across the entire boat during the three mile voyage to La Mona where we could get out of the worst of the wind waves. So much for our fresh water boat wash from the remnants of hurricane John...

The next morning we returned to the village anchorage for two more days and nights of shopping and eating out on the town with friends. I got my chilaquile breakfast fix for the summer at Costa del Sol; we had one last Sunday birria and taco night with the gang at China's; I bought my BLA souvenir T-shirt from the excellent little museo in town; I got my last dog fix on the beach with Rocky of Milagro; and we had killer margaritas and botanas at Costa del Sol for our final farewell to our friends. It is just too hard to say goodbye, so instead we say "see you down the road." As John told a friend on the Sonrisa net this morning, summers in the Sea are our favorite part of the year in Mexico, and it almost (almost!) makes us wish hurricane season was a little longer.

As a final wrap, here's a list of the BLA summer class of 2006. Hasta luego!

Adios (Ray and Jayne)
Aquarius (Jerry and Sally)
Caravan (Gene, Vicky, and six year old Fiona)
Catherine Estelle (Ricardo and Linda)
Cat 'n' About (Rob and Linda)
Ceilidh (Jay and Janice)
Elusive (Dick and Carol)
Endeavor (David and Candy)
Esmeralda (Jim and Sandy)
Java (John and Mary)
Joyeux (Rob and Sue)
Liberty (Larry and Jackie)
Maitairoa (Alex and Sue)
Milagro (Lance and Jo)
Nakia (John and Linda)
Nuestra Isla (Bob and Jennifer)
OverHeated (Darrell and Rita)
Que Tal (Dave and Carolyn)
Rhythmic Breeze (Kalen, Mimi, and six month old baby boy Taave)
SolMate (Stan and MJ)
Soul Searcher (Ray and Peggy)
Trick (John and Patricia)
V'ger (Casey and Ann)

Linda and John

Winding Down Summer

12 September 2006
BLA Village

After spending six nights in Puerto Don Juan waiting for hurricane -> tropical storm -> tropical depression John we were all a little stir crazy and ready to get out of there. There was a mass exodus on September 5 with most boats opting for a supply run to the village, but a few headed straight for other anchorages and a handfull actually stayed on in PDJ. We enjoyed an evening out with Ceilidh, Milagro, and SolMate at Costa del Sol for margaritas and botanas. Costa del Sol is still my favorite place in the village to enjoy a very nice, though spendy, meal, and it's perfect for celebrating special occasions.

We got an early start the next morning for La Gringa. It's only six miles from the village but we decided to motor there in the cool of the morning. Most of the fleet (15 boats!) went to La Mona for the full moon jacuzzi tides, but we decided to avoid the crowd this time. Along with four other boats we played in the runoff from a lagoon to the east of the anchorage. This lagoon is much bigger than the one at La Mona so the current is very strong. It's not as laid back as the La Mona jacuzzi since it's more like one of those "river" water attractions. We had fun floating down it until it got too shallow to keep us off the stony bottom, and then we just sat in the shallows out of the current and relaxed.

We hung out there for four nights before returning to the village for fuel and water. I love the easy living here - 10 peso tacos, internet, groceries - and I also like the sand spit. It's a good destination for a swim from the boat, and once there it's a nice walk for shelling too.

This has been an excellent summer so far! The weather has been mostly pleasant and we've seen more rain than ever before (the ocatillo are even leafed out now). It's been fun, and we hate to have to think about leaving for San Carlos and boat projects at the end of the month.

Linda and John

Nada from John

4 September 2006
Puerto Don Juan
8:00 AM PDT

Just a quick update to let everyone know that we got nothing but a little rain from John. Yesterday was breezy, but only 15-20k with gusts to 25. We could have gone about as if it were a normal day, but most everyone had their outboards off their dinghies (or dinghies stowed away) and so everyone was stuck on boats. John and I even managed our late afternoon swim, although there was an uncomfortable (for swimming) chop in the anchorage.

Last night it rained, but I don't think it was even an inch if that, and I didn't wake up to any strong winds.

Sad report from Mulege this morning. They had extreme flooding along the river and in the streets in town. Some people had to swim from their homes to reach higher ground. Although no deaths have been reported, there are still some people missing. There was major damage to property on or near the river. A large camper was seen floating down the river. There's no power, no gas, and no water. After people were able to return to their homes, they found the looters had been there before them.

Linda and John

Latest on John

3 September 2006
Puerto Don Juan
7:00 AM PDT update

La Paz: (report from Reflections) 20k winds today and some blue sky appearing; storm abating; 10' seas out in bay at height of storm.

Puerto Escondido: (reports from Cat's Meow and Blew Moon) at height of impact sustained winds up to 40k with gusts 55 (Cocktail Cove) to 80k (the Waiting Room); 31" of hard, horizontal rain over 24 hour period; today 20k S/SE; road to Loreto is washed out; Tortuga broke loose from her mooring and is in the mangroves.

Bahia Concepcion: (report from Etosha) 40-50k yesterday; 23" of rain over 24 hour period; today S/SE 20k with higher gusts.

Magdalena Bay area (report from Nostalgia): yesterday 30-40k with higher gusts; 15-30k last night; 15-20k today; 2-3" of rain total.

Puerto Don Juan: yesterday SE 15-20k; overnight light and variable; this morning NW 5k and overcast to the S.

San Carlos (mainland MX; report from Selah): 20k NE and rain this morning.

1200 GMT position of tropical storm John: 26.8N 112.4W; eye is 25m W/SW of Mulege; moving NW at 9mph; 35-45k winds from eye out to 60 miles; rain 100-150 miles out from center; 995mb; forecast to move NW at 7k.

Forecast for Sea of Cortez: Today - S/SE 20-50; 40k in northern crossing area up to Isla Tiburon (25-29 degrees N); this afternoon in far north (Isla Angel de la Guardia and Isla Tiburon to Puerto Penasco) E/SE 30-45k, then veer counter clockwise S 25-35k by Monday morning; Monday afternoon S/SE 10-20 for entire Sea of Cortez.

All is well with us, just waiting to see what's going to happen.

Linda and John

Dress Rehearsal

2 September 2006
Puerto Don Juan
8:00 AM PDT

Yesterday was mostly clear and calm, just like the day before, with enough breeze to keep things cooled off. We've really been enjoying the low humidity after a period of cloudy, muggy weather earlier in the week. We continued prepping Nakia for the potential effects of hurricane John, and went for our usual late afternoon swim. It was another peaceful evening after sunset with little to no convection on the horizon (although this is difficult to judge accurately since we are mostly surrounded by high hills).

After listening to my John moving around on deck for awhile I got out of bed when the wind started to build at midnight. By 12:30 AM it was probably in the 20-25 knot range and everyone was up taking down sun awnings, checking anchors, and clearing the decks. Fortunately, we go to bed pretty well prepared now, and there wasn't much to worry about except for other boats.

It didn't take long for a trimaran to start dragging anchor. This was kind of ironic since their crew had already been up working on hurricane prep. It didn't help that they had two anchors out either. It's tough to get one anchor back on board while dragging/motoring through an anchorage, let alone two. So they dragged the length of the anchorage before it looked like they reset (or at least regrouped) long enough to get control. But then they came motoring through the field of 19 other boats, and it was a good thing Dave and Candy on Endeavor had pulled almost everyone's anchor buoys yesterday afternoon, or the tri could have hooked one of those.

Instead they hooked SolMate's bow. It looked like they were connected pretty well before finally separating, but Stan reported no damage or injuries this morning - yay! We were feeling awful about it since we were the ones who directed them to that particular spot when they came in to anchor yesterday. John had scoped it out earlier with the GPS and it looked like a nice hole to drop in - who knew.

No other excitement to report from here. Highest gusts reported were 46-48 knots. No rain. Lightning was off in the distance. No thunder. Lots of dirt on everything this morning.

La Paz was in the path of John with winds 50-60 knots and gusts to 78. No reports of anything other than light damage to boats, but we've only heard from a couple of people in the area and that was too early this morning to expect complete coverage of the event. Things are expected to heat up here in about 24 hours, but by then the forecast is for John to have cut across to the Pacific at Guerrero Negro, and be downgraded to a tropical depression. [0900 update: Latest forecast is for John to be a remnant low by the time it gets up this far.]

Three more boats should be arriving today, and everyone is busy completing their preparations for more high winds. Our dress rehearsal last night was good practice, and now we have a better idea of where our weaknesses are, and of who the scene stealers are likely to be!

Linda and John