10/2/2010 - Oh yeah... we are a sailboat.

There are three kinds of sailors here in the Sea of Cortez.  Those that motor everywhere they go regardless of the weather, those that sail everywhere they go (usually at the mercy of their diesel capacity), meaning, they wait on the weather no matter the time, and finally, those that try to sail as much as they can but motor when necessary to meet their needs (we like to sail, but we like to get where we’re going) 

We fall into the last category.  What that means is that due to the “flat calm” conditions in the Sea of Cortez during the summer, we have spent a lot of it motoring, not sailing.  But that all changed yesterday. 

We left Isla Tiburon motoring as usual, hoping for wind.  I spent almost an hour listening to the various weather nets on the SSB trying to find any kind of weather that may be in our favor. About 1:00 yesterday afternoon, we finally got wind.  We sailed for the remainder of the afternoon into a little cove called Las Cocinas.  After a rolly night, we woke up this morning and sailed THE ENTIRE DAY to Las Algodones…about 4-6 miles out from San Carlos.  To sail all day is pretty cool for us.  We have been trying to do this since we got up here in the Sea…so needless to say we had a great day (well, no motors running means no power which means no movies for Jake, so the coolness of it is all relative.). A nice lazy sail at 4-6 knots….

About 2:30 today we pulled into a little cove covered with hotels and a promising bar called Soggy Pesos (for whatever reason, I can’t help but call it Soggy Paws?).  We have arrived on the mainland. There are trees.  There are tourists.  There are palapas, and fancy hotels.  As we beached our dinghy and found our seat at the crowded restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised as our waiter not only introduced himself but asked our names as well.  We have arrived. J

 Tomorrow we will head the 6 miles south to San Carlos.  Our new friends from Bahia LA have offered the use of their mooring until they arrive around the 15^th so we will take advantage of that before checking out the marina and other amenities.  We are looking forward to giving the boat a good wash down (it’s filthy) and I for one am excited about eating at the local McDonalds (It’s a rumor but I’m thinking positively) and shopping at the large grocery stores here.  We’ve heard the criticisms of eating at the local McDonalds….”that’s not Mexican!”  But we hold to the philosophy I read on someone else’s blog describing the clientele in the South Pacific.  “If all the locals are eating there…its local food.”

We should have Internet for at least a week or two so I’ll try to keep the posts coming.  Any comments or questions are always welcome.  For our immediate families…the first thing I’m shopping for is a phone cardanswer all calls from funky numbers J.

5/8/10 - Asuncion

It was a nice day sail down to Asuncion from Bahia Totuga.   This is the next little cove for hopping our way down the Baja.  It’s not as protected as Turtle Bay, but it’s listed in a few of the guides as a place worth stopping.  Along the way, we got our fishing lines tangled up around the prop (my fault, but since I write the blog, I reserve the right to edit as I choose).  It’s worth mentioning  because of what happened afterwards.  Andy cut the line and jumped in to get the remaining line out of the prop.  After piecing the line back together, he threw it back in the water and caught a huge Bonito.  We’re estimating 15 lbs or bigger.  At this rate, you guys are going to get tired of seeing pictures of Andy with a big fish.  I’m also thinking my brother is getting more jealous every time he reads this seeing as he loves fishing.

By the time we anchored and our friends Terri and Scott anchored, we had a nice feast all prepared to share.  It was a rocky ride into the actual anchorage so this was a perfect way to settle in and relax.

The town in Asuncion is similar to Turtle Bay.  It’s dusty and small with a bit more vegetation.  The opinions of the personalities of the locals  varied among our group but I didn’t see a big difference in the ones we met earlier in the week.  Very friendly, a little reserved, but helpful. 

We met another American, Shari who has settled down here and opened a camping ground complete with laundry services and wifi.  It’s named after her daughter, Serina.  She was very helpful in filling us in on some of the local places and directing us to a place called Juanita’s for lunch.   One of the cool things about the places we’ve been to is that we get to practice our Spanish for real now.  When we lived in Puerto Rico, there were always people who spoke English so we really never had to learn.  Even if we tried, we decided either their desire to practice their English was greater than our desire to practice Spanish or our pronunciation was so bad they couldn’t tell what language we were speaking.  But I can honestly say, we’re making progress!  In Juanita’s, not only did we get what we ordered but managed to find their bathroom and have a short conversation with our waitress about Jake.  I was able to practice a little more when we went into a pharmacy.  I didn’t know how to say “sea sick” in Spanish so I acted it out while explaining we were on a velero (sailboat).  They chuckled at me, but understood.  I still didn’t get the medicine I wanted but it boosted my confidence in being able to communicate.

After a very tricky dinghy exit at the beach (I’m going to dedicate a whole post to this soon) we got back to our boat, changed into warm, dry clothes and settled down for a lazy afternoon.  Tomorrow we’ll be heading off to Magdelena Bay.  It’s about a 2 day/night sail from here but is supposed to be very protected.  We think it might be a good place for some kayaking and pictures by the look of the charts.  Time to get a good night’s rest.

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…..