Our Maiden Voyage

This the first of many posts to document our voyages.  We thought our first trip to Mexico would be a good place to start.  As expected, we've had trouble with connecting to the internet (and telephones for that matter) so you'll see a couple of days all posted together here.  I'll try to update regularly, but can't make any promises.

9/5/09

Here we are, fishing off the side of the boat after a long day of getting ready to go to Mexico for our 2 week vacation!   This is our first practice cruise before we head for our long term cruise to everywhere.  We (i.e. Andy) have spent a good month getting the boat ready but today was down to the wire….$360 at the grocery store, hours of vacuuming, storing drinks and beer, last minute trips to Walmart…now we’re ready.

After being delayed a day or two due to Hurricane Jimeca, we’ll leave tomorrow at 5:00 am, head out past Point Loma, then go south to Puerto Salina.  Our neighbors Amanda and Alicia are going with us to help with the sailing and assist with the check in.  Amanda speaks fluent Spanish so hopefully it will make our Customs experience a breeze.

So…what led up to today…Andy’s been working on the boat for pretty much the whole of a month and a half.  In true McKaskle style, he ripped out the entire Salon and reconfigured the seating area.  It looks fabulous!  We don’t have our cushions yet, but they should be done when we get back.  I’ve resurrected the sewing machine (that I used once 4 years ago) to practice making curtains (before I buy the really expensive fabric and have my mom make them).

Jake LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the boat.  We spend the night about once a week or more.  He has his own cabin and sleeps better in it than in any bed he’s ever had.  Today, he was the perfect helper, sorting the drinks, vacuuming, fabreezing, changing the sheets, you name it.

If I could freeze a day and bottle it, today would be the day.

p.s.  Jake caught a Shark

9/6/09

Underway 0500 with Andy, Jake, Amanda and Alicia.  We saw seals off of Point Loma.  Jake and I get “sleepy” (i.e. sea sick) around the Coronado Islands.  Not much help to Andy…thank goodness for Amanda.  I manage to sleep for an hour, Jake for four hours. We saw dolphins off of our stern early on, then later, we saw dolphins off of the bow swimming around the boat and then going under it in the opposite direction.  Very cool.  As we were pulling into the Marina around 5:00, people finally waved to Jake…”Mommy, I’m ready to start making friends”.  We hit the cantina at 5:05.   Is there anything wrong with letting your 4 year old son play in a Mexican playground (i.e. sandbox) while you drink cervesas and Margaritas?   Wooden seesaw, slide, airplane swings (way too small for Jake but that doesn't stop him from trying)…while watching the sun set over the Pacific.

His favorite thing today was “Sailing” and the “Binoculars”.  Very impressed with my kid spending 12 hours on a boat (albeit 5 asleep), with only a few stuffed animals, and a pair of old binoculars….no complaints, only smiles.

Just as mommy guilt was at it’s highest at the cantina, I asked Jake if he was ready to go and he gave me a big loud NOOOO……and I got my answer to my previous question, no, it’s not bad…he’s as happy as he’s been in ages…

Got back to the boat and hosed Jake down on the back of the boat…”we can shower here every night mommy”…later, I hosed down on the back of the boat, in the dark, bent over so no one can see (but I did shave my legs).  Wine with Amanda and Ali, planning both of our sailing trips around the world over our world map on the salon table... off to bed for check in to customs in the a.m.

9/7

OK.  So today was one of those days that starts off with you wanting to poke your eyeballs out with a stick and ends with you wanting to buy land in Mexico and never go home….

We woke up, had breakfast and were ready for Ali and Amanda when they showed up about 9 to go to “check in” in Ensanada….about 10:00 we all piled into a little bitty golf cart driven by the dude here at the marina and made our way to the “clubhouse”…it’s very nice with a pool, spa, tennis courts, volleyball courts and Juanita…the cook, waitress, bus boy/girl, you name it.  After breakfast, we piled into Ali’s LandRover, courtesy of Patty, from C Dock in Chula Vista…..and headed towards Ensanada.  Evidently, Andy made a great impression with the Customs folks being a very prepared US Navy guy and we go through in some sort of record time….3 ½ hours.  Ever tried to entertain a 4 year old in a 200 sq foot room for 3 ½ hours?    J  Seriously, I’m not sure how easy this would have been if it hadn’t have been for Amanda and her fluent Spanish helping us through the whole thing.  Go to window 1 and show your papers, pay in window 2, go back to window 1 to get your stamp, go back to window 2 to get your papers and pay some more…go to window 3….go to window 4 to push the button, red or green, boat inspected or not….you get the picture.

We came back to the Marina and had a few beers, watched Jake scuba dive in the cockpit and decided it was time to let the kid do something really fun instead of pretending to be fun.   We stopped by the Cantina up the road to see if Amanda was ready to make on her promise to Jake of finding sand crabs on the beach at sunset.  Luckily, she was up for it….  While we saw very few sand crabs, we found tons of mussels, sea anenomes, and even a few sea shells J.

After another hour or so we decided to go back to the boat and cook our steak dinner we’d planned for two days.  Invited Ali, Amanda and Patty but they didn’t sound too interested….Steak, mashed potatoes, snap peas and flat bread…right before Andy puts the steaks on, we are pleasantly surprised by the three ladies taking us up on our offer.  They stay for dinner and drinks and we all have a great time telling and listening to stories.  Jake goes to bed and we say a very reluctant good bye while they head back to California with a promise to come back next weekend for Jake’s 4^th birthday party.  I was very touched by these two people….Jake took to them like I’ve never seen and even more importantly, they took to him too.  Amanda sat at breakfast this morning and listened to him jabber for at least half an hour about Volcanoes and who knows what else, then took the time to teach him about earthquakes….the little sponge he is, he was teaching me by 1:00. 

I know it won’t be this great all of the time, but we are off to a perfectly good start.  We even have someone who already offered to take us to the “market” Monday…it’s like they saw us coming J

9/8

I’m guessing everyone will get tired of my play by play eventually, but here it goes again… we woke up this morning and got in the dinghy and went fishing….Jake was a freak….no fish though….after that, we got all set up and went sailing…great day.  Pilot whales off the bow (huge, I've never seen anything like it)…hot dogs for lunch, nap for Jake, fishing lines all tangled, yellow fin watching and laughing as we untangled….great day.  When we go back, we went to the Cantina for a few Margharitas and for Jake to play in the playground again (seriously, it’s right outside the bar.)  We came home via the beach walk,…and ended with dinner of tuna sashimi (andy and jake got a few filets the night before from the fishing boat across the pier)….Jake eats way too much tuna…tried to fill him up on PB&J…didn’t work.  Another great day…..