FAMILY REUNION OREGON 2010

My brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews met in Oregon at Detroit Lake for a campout. What fun!!! I have a pretty crazy family--a real group of mixed nuts!! I got to see the newest addition to the family, Wyatt, 4 months old. What a doll.

Summer Fun

We are enjoying the rest of the summer at our friend's home on the Napa River. They are in San Carlos on their sailboat Aquadesiac enduring the scorching heat this summer while we are drinking wine from their deck right on the river in Napa.

Texas Visit

Tubing with the grandkids! What a blast!

The view from my front porch in Texas is awesome. Lots of wildlife and so much fun with the family waterskiing, wake boarding, tubing, bbqing and enjoying the morning with a cup of coffee, watching gorgeous sunsets and beautiful moon rises. It is a magical place.

The Summer of 2010

We left San Carlos mid June traveling first to San Diego then to Texas to my house on the lake. We spent about 4 weeks working on the house and playing with my grandkids. They have all grown so big!! I have 5 of the most adorable grandkids a nana could wish for :)

We visited Carlsbad Caverns, the Grand Canyon, Roswell, New Mexico, Tucson, AZ, New Braunfels, Tx where we stayed in a haunted old hotel, the Alamo in San Antonio and stayed with good friends Teri and Tim Burrows.

San Carlos/Guaymas

We left Santa Rosalia at 10 pm and sailed all night arriving in San Carlos at the Marina Real where we have a slip rented for the summer. We had an uneventful, mostly motoring night but had some beautiful starlit skys. We had an extra passenger, Ted. He was going to take the ferry back to San Carlos but heard we were headed that way and asked for a ride. It was nice to have another sailor onboard to help with the watches and sails. He was a great help.

Another rough passage!

Our favorite hangout

Santa Rosalia

We anchored in Santa Rosalia harbor for 3 days. It is an old copper mining town with lots of dust, dirt and not a lot of charm. The best part was the hot dogs wrapped in bacon and deep fried--an artery clogger for sure. Robert spent a lot of time working on the alternator, our main head is not pumping out and all of a sudden we are having some electrical problems. Ah the crusing life. We were ready to leave this anchorage asap!

Punta Chivato

On our way to Santa Rosalia we stopped at Punta Chivato. We were surprized to find a large community there, mostly ex-pats with house that lined a dirt airfield. Evidently they fly down in the Winter and sometimes for a long weekend. Right next to this anchorage was this beautiful resort, Bahia de la Flores. We went ashore several times for cocktails and on A Sat. night we stayed in one of their beautiful rooms.......a nice break from the boat as we approaching almost a month on this part of the trip from Puerto Escandido to San Carlos. We met a couple from Palo Alto that we shared some pool time with...have met and made some great friends during this trip.

We stayed there in Punta Chivato for several days, I did some kyacking and Kathy went snorking and "shelling"! This beach had more shells then we had seen anywhere else. The weather here was great and it was a pleasant anchorage to spend some time in.

Robert training for the Furnace Creek 508 bicycle race in October. I wonder how many other cruisers have a bicycle trainer onboard? What dedication!

A Video Clip of El Burro beach

Baking cinnamon rolls

Amazing what you can cook up in a itty bitty kitchen and an itty bitty oven! I made homemade bread also as we haven't been near a store in a couple of weeks and ran out of bread.

Lazy days at Conception Bay

Our friend from SV Aquadesiac enjoying life at Geary's unofficial yacht club on El Burro beach.

The rays love to play

Lazy day at Isla Coronados

View from our boat this morning. It was a truly magical morning with the rays jumping out of the water and doing belly flops with loud splashes just in front of the boat. Large bait balls of fish went by the boat. A floating armada of tiny fish. A mother whale and juvenile gave us a show with tails slapping the water, fins splashing the water and water spouts!!! The north wind came in strong and it is too rough to really leave the boat so this was a day of reading, internet (only 7 miles from Loreto), eating and sleeping--another rough day. If anyone wants to see where we are on google earth we are at Lat 26 degrees 06 minutes and 41.50 seconds, Long 111 degrees, 17 min, 02.23 seconds.

Another beautiful sunset.

Dolphins visiting us

Loretofest and Puerto Escandido May 1st

Kathy and her new "bottom fishing rig"...caught 5 small fish yesterday.
Some friend came to visit....Larry, Arlean and Steve,,,,aboard the Perigrine, one of our buddy boats. We always have at lleast one get-together once we arrive at a new anchorage. This is in Puerto Escandido.
During our visit to the Loretofest we took a taxi into Loreto and spent one night in a bed that didn't move. Great treat. this is one of the town squares in the historic part of the City. Found a good coffee place....of course.
Some kaycking was done......
So here is the "Dolphin" in calm waters off of Puerto Escandido during Loretofest....a 3 day "cruise-in" with 124 boats from all over the Sea of Cortez and the Mexican Mainland. Spent a week there enjoying the festivities. Kathy went to a few fishing lectures, me, I played bocce ball and cam in third with my friend steve from UBUNTU, one of our "buddy boats.

Sailing the Sea of Cortez

The shark got most of the fish! Oscar and Erica worked hard to get this fish aboard. He was big! We think it is a Bonita. No fish tonight

We look like true cruisers with stuff stacked everywhere on the boat. The beaches are beautiful, the water warm, the snorkeling and diving fun. We are buddy boating with 3 other boats--Ubuntu with Steve and Arleen, Perigrin with Mugs and Larry, and Aquadesiac with Doug and Linda.

Erica and Oscar were our crew for our trip to Loreto Fest. They are originally from Columbia, moved to Alaska and are currently on a bicycle trip that originated in Port Townsend, Washington. We met them in La Paz and they stayed on our roof top along with 3 other bicyclists for a couple of weeks.

They are brother and sister and we really enjoyed their company, enthusiasm and all the help they gave us sailing from La Paz to Loreto. They enjoyed the adventure of learning to sail and all the work it entails. We will miss them tremendously. I feel so lucky to meet them and hope we get to see them again some day.

Back in the water at last

After 2 months the boat bottom is complete with 12 coats of assorted epoxies, primer a

nd bottom paint. We flew to San Diego and brought special paint and expoxies back with us across the Mexico border and down to La Paz taking 6 days and having lots of fun visiting the coastal towns along the way. It was a beautiful drive with no problems or hassels along the way. I really don't know why people are so reluctant to drive here in Mexico. It isn't the US for sure but overall the roads weren't that bad and we never drove at night so we wouldn't hit a cow in the road. The hotels averaged $25 a night and dinners $10 for the both of us. There are some gorgeous bays along the way we hope to visit with the boat.

A great trip back to La Paz

Our trip back to La Paz was wonderful. We saw so much sea life. While at anchor in Los Muertos we had our own Sea World Dolphin show. The dolphins were really showing off, leaping through the air sometimes two at a time in a synchronized show. We clapped and hooted and hollered giving them a "10" . Wow, I have never seen anything like it.

We are back in La Paz now and will leave for San Diego in a couple of days so Robert can have his second carpel tunnel surgery. We are hoping to have the boat back in the water early April so we can sail the Sea of Cortez. Next season we hope to make it to El Salvador to wait out the hurricane season.
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Mazatlan and Carnival

Wow! Lots to see and do in Mazatlin....Carnival was interesting and fun was had by all. Spent time with our buddy boat yatistas, Jessies Girl and Leo and Larry on Chaz de Mar. We stayed at the El Cid Marina, a bit on the "Spendy" side for us "budget" crusiers but we enjoyed the jacuzzi and swimming pool a bunch. I have managed to get some good bike riding in although did suffer some bad road rash after a crash on the way out to a cool coffee shop in the Cerrito area, Looney Beans!!

Will post some photos soon.......meanwhile waiting for the "Norther" to blow itself out so we can head back to La Paz as we are leaving for San Diego on the 2nd of March. Can't wait to get the Blue Dolphin back in the water!!

Ciao for now!!

Lovin Mazatlan

La Paz to Mazatlan back to La Paz

This is the view from the restaurant having a "cuba libre" or rum and coke, where we are waiting for better weather to finish our sail back to La Paz from Mazatlan. We have had a great 3 weeks sailing on our friend's boat while ours is getting a new bottom job in La Paz. We had a lot of fun at the carnival celebration, relaxing in the sun at El Cid Marina resort at their pool and hot tub and enjoying visiting Mazatlan. Thought I would include some photos. kathy

Life in La Paz

A beautiful La Paz chuch under renovation. I love listening to the church bells every morning at 7 and 8 AM. A nice way to wake up.

La Paz's version of Macys

Yummy red snapper for dinner

I think I will pass on the pork!

Food carts are very common on the streets. My favorite is the Carne Asada tacos and the shrimp tacos. I haven't gotten sick yet! And the best is that they are only $1.00

Another beautiful sunset in La Paz.