| Welcome: Dreams do come true! After many years of planning, rudder slop, three trips to the yard in one month and "doing everything twice" - we are ready to take off on our two year journey to Mexico. We have created this site to share our experiences as we travel Mexico. We cannot thank everyone enough for all the support throughout the last few months. We truly appreciate everything and we will miss all of you very much. Ventura - October 30, 2006: At 6:05 am Sweet Lorraine pulled out of her slip (B64) to begin her travels to Mexico. John and Bridget emerged from neighboring "Sailsoon" with camera in hand. Just in time to see David and me get rather emotional as we pulled away from the dock. Annie from "Allure" greeted us with best wishes as the tears kept coming. About a quarter mile out of the harbor, we noticed a Harbor Patrol boat speeding toward us. It was Jon Freeman - an old friend who wanted to wish us well. The adventure had begun. Jon Freeman - Harbor Patrol We arrived in Avalon around 9:45 pm. The engine overheated about one mile outside Avalon. David handled the situation and we moored. We opened a bottle of champagne (thanks Harry and Elizabeth) checked in with a few folks and called it day. Avalon - October 31, 2006: After a quick breakfast with our friend (Avalon resident) Ab Gordon, we headed toward Alamitos Bay in Seal Beach. It took us about four hours to get there - sailing most of the way. We had a great dinner with friend and Uncle Jerry's trusted mechanic, Rick. Alamitos Bay (Seal Beach) - November 1, 2006: Uncle Jerry "requested" that Rick look over the recently overheated engine. He just gave us a clean bill of health and we should be off tomorrow. Our plan is to stop by Dana Point and then on to San Diego Bay. There, Jim Donnell will join us and we head off to Mexico. San Diego Bay - November 5, 2006: Jim joined us yesterday and today we are doing last minute chores and enjoying brief visits with Dmitri and his new bride, Elena, Kevin Hopkins and Becky and two of her children (Emily and Stephen). Eddy and Denise Garratt took us out to dinner on Saturday night and brought over a bunch of tee shirts and ball caps. Very nice. We will leave San Diego at 10:30 pm and head to Ensenada, Mexico. A special thanks to John and Fay Huff who were so helpful since we pulled into San Diego on Friday. Fay drove us around to take care of last minute details. Jim's Birthday Cake - San Diego Bay Ensenada, Mexico - November 6, 2006: We arrived at Coral Marina @ 11:00 am. We met Dan and David (off Mascarade) who joined as we were driven into town to get our paperwork done. Everything is in one office - which was not the case even a few years ago. Apparently, immigration used to be down the street from the bank which was down the street from the fishing license place. So we considered ourselves lucky to have all departments under one roof. The whole process took less than two hours. Kevin Hopkins met us at the Marina. He had brought all our fishing tackle down from San Diego. We could not get fishing licenses in SD - so we were told that no fishing tackle of any kind could be on the boat without licenses. Kevin kindly agreed to keep the tackle until we had proper licenses. And proper licenses included one for the boat, one for the dinghy and one for each crew member - regardless if they had planned on fishing or not. Back to the marina where we hung out with the other cruisers - including the Russian (Issac) who took a liking to his new friends Dave and Jim. Might have been the shot of Tequila? Issac was followed by three guys who called themselves his "handlers." I didn't ask for further explanation. We left about 5:00 am Tuesday morning. Headed for Bahia San Barlolome or "Turtle Bay" which is 367 miles south of Ensendada. The trip will take two days and two nights. During this leg of the trip, we learned that we have temperamental electronics. The huge autopilot we had put on for the trip just started to freak out and the radar went out. We later decided the autopilot did not like us tuning or speaking on the SSB. It did begin to work again and we learned to turn it off when speaking on the am SSB net. This is an important net as it gives cruisers daily weather. The weather report is delivered by Don off Summer Passage. He's a Britsh gentlemen who is a character. But he knows his stuff. He quickly became very important to our trip. Cabo San Quintin - November 7, 2006 The fog rolled in about 9:00 pm. Jim and David held watch with no radar. They were visited by some local bats. I woke up about 12:30 am and stood watch with Jim as David got some sleep. We decided two people on deck was prudent with no radar. David woke up around 2:30 am and we went past the dreaded Sacramento reef about 3:30 am. The fog cleared after the reef. Bahia San Barlolome (Turtle Bay) - November 9, 2006 Finally we arrive at our destination at first daylight. Dolphins follow us in. They would jump in the air - turn and slap their tails on the water. Really cool. The bay was FULL of all sorts of sea creatures - dolphins, seals and birds. It was an all-you-could eat for these guys - bait everywhere. It was incredible, you could hear the dolphins and seals breathing. Awesome. Turtle Bay Ernesto Right away Ernesto approaches in his panga offering to bring us fuel. Peter and Tracy had asked us to deliver a special package to locals Carlos and Mercedes. Which we had full intentions of personally delivering. But Don off Summer Passage had indicated that there was some heavy wind expected on our path to "Mag Bay." So we decided it was time to head on out. We waited for Ernesto to return with the fuel and decided that we should take a chance on him. We entrusted him with the care package. We had heard that Ernesto enjoys his adult beverages so we gave him some beer and hoped for the best. Jim's Catch of the day - underway Bahia de la Asuncion - November 9, 2006 We had not planned on stopping here, but the seas started building around 6:00 pm and Jim thought it was prudent to head for shelter. His fear is that the waves would start breaking in the cockpit. We headed to Asuncion with the boat being jostled the entire time - about two hours. As we head into the anchorage, David decides to turn on the radar and guess what it's working! We anchor and enjoy the fact we don't have to do any night watches. We pull in about 3:30, anchor, jump in the water with the shampoo and enjoy the rest of the day. Before pulling into the anchorage we spotted a 60 foot whale not 30 yards off our port. OH MY GOD. We had to keep an eye open to stay clear of these guys. We spotted two behind us - incredible! Sunset Bahia Magdalena (Mag Bay) - November 12, 2006 We were going to pass by Mag Bay and keep going but there was some questionable weather concerning a tropical storm and a tropical depression. We decided to just hang out in Mag Bay for the night. It was truly a vacation day as there was only a voyage of about 4 hours and no night watches. Cabo San Lucas - November 14, 2006 We arrive about 10:00 am and decided to get a slip. We had some interesting news about a new tropical storm that has been named "Sergio." Sergio is well on his way to becoming a hurricane. And, at this point we aren't sure where he will decide to land. We discuss all options which include staying in Cabo for a couple of days, we even discuss that Sweet Lorraine may have to be put on the "hard" if things get too bad. Don gives us a favorable weather report on the Wednesday am net and we decide to shoot for La Paz as planned. La Paz - November 17 -19, 2006 We got in about 8:30 am and got a slip at Marina La Paz. Really nice little Marina - full of cruisers. We were all very tired because the trip from Cabo took 24 hours and we were beating into the seas for almost the whole time. A lot of channel navigation was needed in the middle of night - thanks Jimmie! But we are here and very glad to be here. Jim's brother, John, lives in La Paz and met us at the Marina. He took us to this great restaurant. We had this mouth watering steak, tortillas, red onions, salsa, chilis and cucumbers. Dinner for 4 $25! Heather got into town after a rather lengthy plane trip. It was really good to see her. We went out to this bar on the Malecon Saturday night. Very busy. The Baja 1000 race just finished and there was much celebrating. Sounds like a grueling adventure. We met a guy that was in the crew car for a couple of racers. His dad was a cruiser and lived out of Ventura for awhile. La Paz is a cool little town. David and I have been exploring the neighborhoods. We are finding interesting little restaurants. We found this cool little hotel pretty close to the Marina. We met the owners Ricardo and Mary. They also run these kayak tours that sound really cool. See web site under favorite sites. We are getting used to the heat and the laid back lifestyle. Laundry will have to wait until it gets cooler - or maybe tomorrow. All the fans are going and it's about 80 in the cabin. We are meeting new folks. Brad gave us a ride to the supermarket yesterday. And there were a bunch of folks (owner's son) visiting the huge fishing boat across from us. So we had a cockpit full of folks already! We have not had a lot of success with the Internet here, so we don't really know what's going on in the world. David found a "Gringo Times" and he just informed me that the Democrats have control of both houses and Rumsfeld is leaving! Who knew! Tonight, dinner with Ray and Jayne (neighbors from C dock) who have in Mexico about two years. La Paz - November, 28, 2006 First, let us apologize for not communicating with those who have emailed. Our Internet connection is awful here. I have been able to read one email at a time - before I am kicked out. Pete and Tracy - I am dying to read your email, but can't. Anyway, we do appreciate the communication and hope to get back to you all soon. And, we will be adding photos. Life in Mexico has been interesting. The Marina is full of gringos - but just several yards away you know you are in a different country. We had lunch for $2.00 total yesterday. But Jim was charged $5.00 for a cup of coffee. We went to the Islands the day before Thanksgiving with Jim and Heather. Beautiful anchorages with turquoise water. We anchored at Ensendada Grande. We pulled into the anchorage to see a power boat complete with it's own helicopter. We saw it take off and land - with not much room to spare. The following morning Jim and David went fishing and Heather and I jumped in the water for aqua aerobics. I didn't really think much of the little zapping stings I was experiencing until we finally got out of the water and my stings started to welt up. Apparently, I had got gotten my first jelly fish sting. We tried vinegar but what really seemed to help was Heather's suggestion of lime juice. Anyway, I guess the lesson here is - get out of the water when you feel a sting. La Paz - November 30, 2006 Don off Summer Passage has been talking about these "Northerly Winds" on the am Amigo Net all week. Well, now we understand what he has been talking about. The wind picked up a little after dark last night. And, as of 6:00 pm (Thursday) it's still blowing. David was told there were gusts of up to 40 mph. There was a boat on the rocks this morning. What appeared be the Mexican Navy in a panga helped rescue the boat and it was tied up to Marina and pumped out. There is less than one mile from Marina de La Paz to the El Mogote - which is a sand spit with mangroves. Many boats anchor in these waters and they were looking pretty rough this morning. It seems these winds will last through Friday pm. Right now, they don't seem so bad - maybe we are just getting used to them. El Mogote Bay Sunset Marina de La Paz La Paz, December 4, 2006 Everything is going well. We are still in Marina de la Paz for several reasons. First, we are waiting for a part for the radar which will hopefully work. Secondly, the northers are still in force. I understand the same system that causes Santa Anas causes these Northern winds. So I feel sorry for everyone back home. We hope to visit the nearby Isla Espirtu Santo and Isla Partida, but will wait for the winds to mellow out. The Marina hosted a fund raiser yesterday called "Subasta.". It was pretty fun. The boaters donated "treasures" which were auctioned off. David enjoyed inflating the bids. There was also a bake sale and live music. It was odd to see young Mexican kids performing Beatles and Eagle tunes. They were pretty good though. We also witnessed our first rescue. This guy single handling his boat in El Mogote got tripped up in his line while anchoring and ended up breaking his leg and spraining his ankle. Everyone monitors channel 22 on the VHS radio, and quickly responded to his call for help. Turns out one of our neighbors, Beth, is a doctor so David drove her to the scene in our dinghy. An ambulance was called and he was carried by panga to the dinghy dock. The panga full of guys quickly returned to his boat to secure it. This all happened in about 20 minutes. Pretty impressive. We are spending a couple hours a day exploring the town, mainly looking for food and wine. It really fun though. We are planning a big trip to Soirinos (similar to WalMart) this week. We are getting our news updates from XM radio and a newspaper out of Cabo San Lucas that costs 6 pesos or $.60. It's pretty well written actually. La Paz - December 14, 2006 We are still in La Paz. Marina de la Paz could no longer accommodate us - too full. So we moved to Costa Baja Marina. A new set of Northers is predicted and we were reluctant to anchor out in the winds. We also got a pretty good deal. It's like night and day. Costa Baja is a full blown resort that opened last fall. It's very nice, but far away from town. There's a shuttle that will take you to town, but we miss being close to the action. However, high speed Internet and cable TV are featured here. David was so happy when we found Two and a Half Men. We hope to go to the Islands next week and back to Marina de La Paz for Christmas. ........................................ Costa Baja Marina |
