October 31 - November 17, 2006

October 31, 2006
As we wave goodbye to the condo, we leave her in a state of ‘ready’ for anyone who may be planning a trip to the West Coast. It’s a crisp and sunny day. The cars on the road have a fine layer of frost and we’re headed to Sidney to enjoy a bon voyage breakfast with Barbershop singing friend, Roland before heading to the Washington State Ferry to Anacortes and our new adventure.
Roland and Brenda live in a grand house that has a view of James Island out the backside of the house. At the end of the property there is a great old pine tree, not a beautiful tree full and lush, but one that has been topped at some time in its life and has branches running at odd angles. It is the kind of tree Bald Eagles commandeer and use for nesting and as a look out. There is always activity in and around the tree. In the spring there is a new brood to watch being raised until they are big enough to fend for themselves. Today we watch as one of the adults defends the homestead, and feasts on some freshly caught (I think) salmon.
It was great to see Roland and we are planning a get together with he and Brenda in Newport Beach around the 11th of the month.
We met up with Glen and Helen at the Ferry Terminal, Glen had prepared a couple of tapes for our journey and Helen procured cookies. It’s cool and windy so our farewells are brief.
A sunny 2 ½ hr. ferry trip to Anacortes, with only one stop at Friday Harbour. We arrive at friends, Carl and Linda who host our stay. I was anxious to see the neighborhood kids in their costumes and I was fortunate to get the opportunity to help hand out the goodies to the little and not so little goblins, second thought I didn’t see one goblin but plenty of witches and other costumes of characters I didn’t recognize (a definite indicator of aging).
November 1, 2006
We were able to talk Carl into rearranging his work schedule so he and Linda could join us on a day trip down Whidbey Island. Whidbey Island is the largest island in Puget Sound. A quick stop in Coupeville, one of the oldest communities on the Island before taking the ferry across to Victorian Port Townsend. Port Townsend has hosted the Wooden Boat Festival in September, since 1977.
We ended our day in a great spot in Discovery Bay. It was a glorious sunny clear day. What an advantage, having a local "buddy car" with us, as we were able to travel some back roads instead of traveling the main highway. We took some time to lurk around a marina in Hadlock, a 10 minute drive from Port Townsend, looking at a potential new boat for Carl and Linda (a 36’ Beneteau). It looks like it might be the ‘one’ that will replace Sorcha, a 50’ Columbia. As you can imagine it wasn’t a hardship for us to be walking the docks. We missed having Blue at home with us for the summer and would take any opportunity to poke around a marina.
We spent the evening exploring Sequim, (what a great name for a town) one of the locally recommended restaurants, and back to the timeshare, to play Mexican Train Dominoes.
November 2, 2006
We say goodbye to Linda and Carl as they return North to Anacortes and their daily routine as we continue our journey South. It’s overcast and looks like rain.
We stopped in Port Angeles, and retraced our steps and lookouts from last year. Though, on a clear day you can see Vancouver Island today is not one of those days. There is much activity in the Harbour, freighters are loading and unloading their wares and some wait at anchor for their turn at the dock. We head out knowing we are planning a long car ride.
We drive into the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, and the rain starts. We’ve decided to drive down the more scenic and historic West Coast Highway 101. We drove through the Olympic National Park with plans of taking advantage of some of the 600 miles of park trails of old growth trees. The winding highway took us into the temperate rain forest, and it lived up to its reputation and I think half of the annual rain of 135 inches was unleashed and was dumped, this day. We declined the side trip to Hurricane Ridge as the panoramic view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca wasn’t in the cards as the rain and fog settled in.
It was a really long day and the noise of the rain was relentless. It wasn’t that misty soft kind of rain we experience in Victoria, it was the kind of rain that fell as if a full bucket was being dumped or like when you go through the car wash. I didn’t see the humour in the signs posted for "Car Wash" available at the next exit. That rain kept up all day, lightening briefly when we stopped in Gray’s Harbour for a bite of lunch. .
There are a few comparisons as we try to replicate our previous passage and I haven’t been disappointed, as it had been suggested, on our new experience. I don’t know if it’s because we are taking this leisurely pace to our destination, as most of our cruiser friends do this trip in 3 days. We plan to take about 3 weeks. The similarities between driving versus cruising the coast is evident in the fog. The difference though is the rate. At 5 knots you can creep up on the elusive marker buoys only visible on radar or sometimes when you’re really close you can hear the bells tolling. At 55 miles per hour not being able to see the lines on the road either, is anxiety provoking. The coastline is still rugged and is spotted with outcroppings, however, the differences are the twisting and winding of the road with the knowledge of a shear drop off onto the rugged shoreline.
Though, we planned to take the tour of the Tillamook Cheese factory, we drive on as it is dark, foggy and raining. We arrived in Depoe Bay late and it continued to pour through the night! Still we were very happy to arrive at our abode du jour.

November 3, 2006
What a beautiful view we have from our suite. The Oregon coastline is rugged and seeing the surf pound on the outcrops with the whitewash of spray is a reminder of just how powerful the sea is.
Disappointingly, I have my first car ding. While driving through Newport, OR a car driving northbound sent a stone hurling across the highway and I now have a stone chip in the passenger side of the windshield. Hopefully, it won’t spider to the driver’s side.
Day 2 of relentless rain, fog, winding roads and logging trucks that have no interest in following the suggested/posted speed limits. It’s the kind of day you don’t want to stop and get out of the car, because it’s just not fun! We do though, at a viewpoint to look out and are reminded of our experience from last year, as we crossed the bar at Winchester Bay. It looks pretty benign today; we wouldn’t be tossed around like the bath toy we felt we were last year.
We stop for a late lunch in Port Orford. The rain has let up a bit, though it is predicted that this weather will continue till next Tuesday. Not the kind of endorsement to encourage us to hang around longer than it will take me to eat my blueberry pancake.

November 4, 2006
Overcast as we leave Brookings. As we drive about 25 miles we enter California and the sun comes out. We stopped for brunch in Crescent City, CA another city we truly enjoyed last year and realize how much of the city we missed last year because we were limited to the area around the marina.
We took the 31 mile scenic drive down the Avenue of the Giants, paralleling Freeway 101 and checked out some of the 500 mile redwood belt, stopping for photo opts at the Immortal Tree and the Shrine Drive Thru Tree.
After a short day we are feeling fortunate to find a vacancy at the Sherwood Forest motel in Garberville about 45 miles from Shelter Cove. There is a Rap concert in town tonight and the town is filling up rapidly.
November 5-8, 2006
Sunshine for our car ride today, we’re headed to Windsor, which is about 10 miles north of Santa Rosa. We are headed down the coast as far as Fort Brag and then took the back roads through the lesser-known Alexander Valley, stopping at the occasional winery and vineyard on the way to Windsor. We even bought wine and wineglasses, though the farm gate prices are really high. Talked to many folks who are living their dream running a cottage winery.
We continue south to the town of Windsor where we will stop for a few days. Windsor got its name in 1855 from a pony express rider who thought the area looked like the grounds surrounding Windsor Castle in his native England. The community’s roots are in agriculture, mostly of interest to us was the ‘vineyards’.

A tour of some of the wineries in the area revealed that some of the big names have prices higher than you can buy the same wines in the local Safeway. They have all spent a great deal of money building an architectural marvel as a showroom and tasting counter for the tourists.
We did find a quaint old winery called Foppiano. It is now a 5th generation family business started by Italian immigrants in the 1890’s. They had a fabulous self guided walking tour through the vineyards and showed us the differences between elevations and soil types, between different cultivation styles, and between the age and type of vines. A lot of technical detail to go with tasting the grapes remaining on the vines and detecting the differences in the flavours. Back at the old showroom we had a chat with the manager who told us more of the history of the vineyard and the region. He also told us that the economics of the business are such that a vineyard producing less that 5000 cases annually is really just a tax write off. They bill themselves as a small to midsize producer making about 100,000 cases annually. By the way their wines are really very good (Petite Sirah, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon).
The last evening Dick spent singing with the local Barbershop chorous called the Wine Country Troubadors. Some fine singers who regularly go to District competition.
November 8-9, 2006
We head to Redwood City, after a lurk through Pete’s Harbour Marina. A brief visit with our friend Rick and we drive on to Hollister, driving around Los Angeles to visit with friends Duey and Nan of the Catalina 400 ‘The Great Escape’ and whom we last saw in April in San Carlos. (TGE is now sold and Nan and Duey are on to their next great adventure.) They have a huge very lovely home and showed us some great California hospitality including a tour of the local industry and the airport where he keeps a Cessna. Also visited some of Duey's air racing buddies and their planes and their toyboxes.
November 10-11
On to Huntington Beach, and a sleep over with Nancy and Terry at their wonderful condo, with their boat Nancy J moored out the front door. How fun is that! 4 seconds from front door to boat.
They introduce us to their yacht club, a bite of dinner at one of their local haunts.
We head out for a day trip reacquaint ourselves with Newport Beach, which includes a trip to Minney’s Yacht Surplus or what I would describe as your typical nautical recycle junk shop that another salty dog will spend hours digging through bin after bin looking for that exact treasure that another salty dog has parted with..
We tried in vane to hook up with Roland and Brenda, who were staying in town for a conference. To date we had been peaking early, alas not this time, they had checked out of their hotel on the 9th.
November 12-14, 2006
We’re in Oceanside, CA where a group of Franciscan friars arrived in the late 1700’s to found a mission. A strong Spanish influence remains, and the Mission San Lius Rey de Francia, we visited last year is only four miles east of our abode du jour. We’re a mere 30 min drive to San Diego unless of course you plan poorly and hit rush hour. Day one into San Diego goes well both in and out on the freeway, visiting with the ‘Police Dock’ marina and making new acquaintances with the folks waiting to make the leap out of the US and into Mexico. They like us a year ago wait for the weather window on the Police Dock doing the last (or at least what they think are the last of the preparations) before heading to Ensenada.
A trip to the notoriously well know, to boaters, Downwind Marine, and of course we found some things we absolutely needed to have, ching, ching!
Day 2, Dick hops the local rapid transit, and eliminates the freeway experience completely to go pick up the latest boat jewelry ordered from Downwind. .
Day 3, ok, not so smart we peak early and hit the morning rush hour. The trip that we had done previously in 30 min. was now the better part of an hour.
We arrive in Tucson after a long day driving. Another first, as we are looking for a hotel a vehicle pulling a heavily laden trailer had a blow out and bits of tire were flying in all directions. Exciting, and probably a little harrowing for the driver.
November 15-16, 2006
We do some provisioning, picking up some last minute goodies from the local Costco, Home Depot and groceries.
November 17, 2006
We drive from Tucson to Nogales. I’m anxious, as we’ve heard so many horror stories about crossing the border. The first bridge we cross going into Mexico is called "Bridge of Dreams" that translates for those coming from the North to ‘paradise’ and those going North, I can only assume as a chance at fame and fortune, or maybe just a better life for their families.
So far, I’m impressed with the ease in navigating my way through the Mexican Highway signage. Though my reading of Spanish is slow, the way in which the signs are marked have made this task much simpler. Only one wrong turn, which landed us in a lane for ‘a voluntary declaration’. When the customs agent looked in the back of the car which by now was bulging, asked what we had to declare, we said ‘nothing’ he wondered why we had chosen him, but declined to go any farther and told us to ‘go’!

November 17 - December 9, 2006

We arrive in San Carlos, and there is a holiday on Monday and where we were planning on staying is not available. We hustle around and find a place to stay "Gringo Pete’s", Let’s just say that a lot of cruisers stay here as it is close to the dry storage. The units are large, and they have a kitchen and shower. The camaraderie is what keeps you staying there, it is definitely not the accommodations or the maintenance, or the road you need a 4x4 to traverse.

We take time to check that Blue has ‘weathered’ the summer and all seems well, only a wee ‘innesttation’. As most of you know, I’m not really good with critters, the smaller the harder for me so finding the only type of infestation we had was a wee nest in the anchor roller and empty roach traps made this a very positive experience for me.

One of the messenger lines for a halyard was tangled up in the rigging so a trip up the mast was in order. I can’t believe I’m actually OK with going up in the bosun chair. I even took pictures.

We’re invited to an American Thanksgiving Potluck, so we call an early end to our workday on the hard. Not, a hardship as we’re not ready to launch.
We’ve decided rotisserie chicken is an acceptable alternative to turkey. Turkey served with homemade cranberry sauce, from a cruiser back in Victoria, (Thanks BJ), the requisite mashed potatoes, stove top stuffing, and tamales carne, with chips and salsa as an appetizer and freshly baked brownies, thanks to Betsy from Quayak, for dessert, completes this less than traditional festive meal. There was much appreciation for the delicacy.
Mike and Mary just one of the guests here at Gringo Pete’s has been here for 6 weeks, their boat a catamaran was hauled out in Guymas and broken. So they have been under major reconstruction. We originally met Mike and Mary in Morro Bay on last year’s trip down.

November 24 – December 6

We decide enough of Gringo Pete’s and move onto Blue, which was moved into the work yard a couple days ago. We have had the opportunity to clear the cabin out and make space for us to sleep so we can get on with some of the major and many minor jobs we have planned.

They include some welding to repair dents in the keel replacing rudder bushings, (Thanks Peter, they were perfect), painting and cleaning, and many many minor tasks. The camaraderie in the yard is amazing and we make a number of new friends.

Our launch is delayed as the weather is nasty, (40+ knots) and there are no slips in San Carlos Marina, and there are a number of Mexican holidays. We need to find a Mexican calendar so we can get track of all the festivities.

Finally we splash on the 6th and get fuel before we head over to Marina Real about 7 miles north. Although we start early, by the time we get there the wind and waves have become ‘interesting’. Blue performs in her usual fine form. There is a reason they call the first passage the shake down cruise. Things that are going to shake down do! So another trip up the mast is in order as the main halyard decided on a new route, not effective or efficient for the operating of the main sail. OH Goody! not so much as this time up the mast in the bosun (boatswain) chair will be a swaying in the breeze or if Dick decides to move even one muscle I’ll be like a puppet on a string.

December 6 - 9

We are met at the dock by friends Paul and Kristy of Beneteau 35 Shearwater X that we first met in Coos Bay last year. Much socializing along with trips to Guaymas and shopping and eating and internet excursions. We end up storing our vehicles at the same place and getting a ride back to Marina Real together.

Hanging out in San Carlos waiting for a weather window.

December 9 - 12, 2006

We depart at ohdarkthirty (before dawn) heading on a direct route to Mazatlan 384 nautical miles on a bearing of 135 degrees. A gorgeous sunrise, and hot and sunny weather. Reading in the cockpit, with cocktails, yahoo! We actually have to steer a bit to the west to get around the headland of Topolabampo and to stay out of the shipping lanes and shrimp fleets, as this is a major Mexican port. The first 36 hours we motorsail in light and variable winds and average about 5 knots. At sunset two brown footed boobies via for a position atop the mast for an evening trip to ???? Dick's concern about the size of these guys sitting up there potentially damaging the aerial, my concern is more basic than that big birds = big poop. So, no damage to the aerial and no big poop, however, one of the big guys fell from his perch landing on the side deck, where Dick was dozing on watch and was startled by the thump of our passenger. Needless to say, he was wide awake for the rest of his 9-midnight watch.

The second day once again provided us with another spectacular sunset, and suggested another gorgeous day, not so, the wind and waves start to pick up and we hoist the ¾ jib to maintain speed and cut the engine to idle as we are using autopilot and radar and want to keep the batteries right up. Although we got a little sleep the first night, the second night it was only possible to get a little rest on the cabin sole. Next day continued as boisterously as the previous night and continued until late in the day.

We made good progress under sail alone. Conditions started to moderate after sunset the third day and as we closed with the shore the waves eased as well and the swell became more regular. Still not much sleeping going on and so by the time we were 10 miles out of Mazatlan, navigation became somewhat challenging. While we knew precisely where we were, (in the cockpit) the location of the marina entrance was somewhat elusive. We had a little man overboard drill as we lost a fender. Dick could do the math for a reciprocal course but just barely.

Another gorgeous sunrise as we approach Mazatlan

December 12-24 2006

We finally arrived and headed for the fuel dock at Marina El Cid. Conditions at Marina Mazatlan where we had such a good time last year, seem to have deteriorated under new ownership. We are now at B 13 (if you look closely, Blue is tucked in there) in El Cid and enjoying the many facilities. Numerous pools and a hot tub, many local restaurants and shopping and of course meeting lots of people including new friends and old. Activities are planned as quoted by one of our cruising buddies, Eleanor off Red Pepper, between breakfast, bingo and Mexican Train.
Boat jobs take up the early part of each day and then there is the inevitable game of Mexican train, local Christmas pageants, and pot luck dinners. Major jobs include dinghy repair and found an additional 100 litre fuel tank so no more jerry jugs on deck.
Temperatures have been cooler the last couple of days. Mid 70’s and down to 55ish at night. We even have had a couple of rainstorms, which we have never seen before in Mexico.
We're getting the final bits gathered together for the grand Canadian Potluck Xmas Dinner (About 40 Canucks plus a few invited Gringos). I've been assigned veggies (there are advantages to being one of the smallest yachts in the fleet, no expectation of turkey cooking capabilities. Wish Lane was here to make her famous cheese sauce for the broccoli, cauliflower and carrots combo I have in mind.I've got the 18" tree up and decorated, it is secured to the compression post (the post that supports the mast in the salon) with string and our magnetic Santa and Santa's helper mounted atop the Xmas tree sort of like a tree top decoration. The lights we had around the window in the La Penita, hotel room last year are strung around the canopy and hard top in competition with the other vessels who have busily strung lights from every forestay, backstay and any other surface they can find. It actually looks very lovely and being dwarfed in our attempts by the neighbors is just fine.
I'm going to get Dick a wax and polish of the hull for Xmas. Anyway, there won't be a lot of paper to pick up and recycle this year after the gifts are unwrapped. As Dick is getting me a 'serious radio' which will arrive on Jan. 4th with Keith from (Victoria Dos) is returning from Alberta.
In the meantime there is a lot of caroling (glad I brought my pitchpipe) and eggnog to spare.

Feliz Navidad Prospero ano y felicdad, to all.