March 2008 postings

March 16, 2008 - A Dedication
A week ago my long time friend, Steve Haltom's Dad passed away. I knew him as the "Colonel". It was during my years in high school the Colonel was sort like a second father. During that time Steve and I did everything we could to give our parents reason to disown us. Colonel Haltom persevered through all our foolishness and even though he was a tough Marine he was always fair. His favorite saying to Steve and I was always " Fun and games spin those wheels". He was exactly right; it was all a big party back then and we were always out in our cars going somewhere and usually getting in trouble . I really didn't have much time to spend with the Colonel after high school but he left an impression to this day. Colonel Haltom was buried in Arlington on March the 11th with full military honors. He was a great warrior a great dad and friend, whom I wish I had gotten to know better. Semper Fi.

March 15, 2008
Spent 2 days in Cabo and if I were 35 years younger it would have been a dream come true. Spring break, the beach, Mexico, college days, and no worries, Mom and Dad will take care of it. Barb and I were wondering where these kids get the money? Cabo is not cheap. Probably the most expensive place in Mexico I have been to.

We had plans to stay in a marina while we were there but that didn't happen. Every slip was taken so we stayed out of the harbor on the anchor. When we went into town we took the dinghy to the the middle of town tied it up and gave them $3 dollars. Needed a part for the boat and because it was an item you would usually find on a sail boat no one carried the part. Cabo is strictly motor yachts.
No tears were shed on leaving this morning. Checked with the weather people last night and we should have an easy crossing to Mazatlan, about 200 miles due east. If you are watching the national news there are gale force winds off the coast of California and down the Baja peninsula. Where we are it is almost a dead calm.

We caught our first fish today or better stated our first shark. It was exciting until we saw it was a shark and then we said "now what do we do". I tried to get him up the side of the boat so I could knock it out but the line broke. Oh well we proved we could catch something. Most upsetting was he took my lure. That was an expensive non catch. Pictures are in our Picture This! section.

We continue to enjoy our new life style. The boat is everything they said it would be and more. Barb and I are doing very well. Feel great and just loving life. From 23.00 north and 109.02 west so long until we visit again.

March 11, 2008
We had an easy sail to our next stop , Bahia de Santa Maria. I will not go into too much detail about our 2 days in this bay because I am sure Barbara will go into great detail. Suffice it to say it was a grand 2 days. We had this whole bay to ourselves. What more could one ask for, temp in the 70's, blue skies , white sand beach and sand dollars for as far as the eye could see.

Ok I have now been retired about month and a half. how am I doing? If I was any better it would be illegal. I miss my friends and the great agents and people at State Farm but the job is pretty easy to put out of mind. I do need to challenge myself mentally because it is very easy to sit on the back of the boat and do or think about nothing. To keep busy I try to study one little part of the boat each day. There is still a lot I don't know but am slowly picking it up. Now I know you are probably thinking how is this guy going sail around the world if he doesn't know how to operate the boat. The answer is I know the important stuff and need to learn the things that will make us better. And by the way, after I learn it I teach Barbara.

My First mate is doing an outstanding job standing watch and helping to run the boat. One little example. when we came into Bahia Santa Maria it was almost midnight it was foggy and you could hardly see the length of the boat. We were strictly using our GPS to guide us. When we got to where we thought would be a good place to drop the anchor Barbara needed to go forward and lower the anchor and get it set so we wouldn't go any further and run up on the shore. This would be a daunting task under the best of conditions. She never wavered she dropped the anchor and set it with out any hesitation or complaint. She's quite the sailor.

I'll wrap this up. The boat is doing great and we are too. Tomorrow we head to Cabo which will take us about 36 hours. That will end our stay on the Baja.

March 7,2008
Well I'm doing better only a week has passed since my last up date. I am not sure one person should have this much fun.

We left San Diego to start our journey to the South Pacific on Feb 29. If we had a schedule that was an important date because that was the date we had set to get going. It is real easy to keep saying I need this and that and the list never stops growing. I think we could have stayed in San Diego another 2 weeks and we would have kept adding items to the things to do list. Off we sailed or motored. Not much wind in that area. out of a 10 hour trip the sails were only up about 2 hours. We got into Ensenada about 8pm. The great sailor I am missed the harbor entrance and went into a work area. I thought it looked strange who knew maybe they were doing work in the harbor. Barbara came up and helped me get back on track. Might have destroyed some of her confidence in me being able to get her ,us, around the world.

Ensenada was a blur. Got our fishing license and bought fishing gear , up dated our web site and paid some bills. Starbucks has a great wi-fi site., might be the best place in town to sit and do nothing. Did paper work to continue cruising Mexico, I hope. Every Port Captain seems to have their own rules.
March 1 we left Ensenada and again headed south. I thought we would have better winds a little further off shore. About 80 miles off shore we found all the wind could ever want. We also found 15 foot seas and a very confused sea. I can only describe it as being in a washing machine. So for the next 55 hours we persevered. About half way through the first day and half of that we decided to head closer to shore. When I made the turn to again start heading south the Santa Anna winds started. straight out of the East they roared. Great wind direction if you are going south but not at 35 kts. Our goal for this leg was Cedros Island but all the anchorages for this island were on the East side of the island the same side as where all the wind was coming from. NOT GOOD. Made an easy decision to head to Bahia de Tortuga . This the most protected harbor on the whole west coast of the Baja. Even in this protected bay we were dealing with winds over 30 kts. I chickened out on anchoring in all that wind and ask one of the fuel operators to take one of his moorings. He helped us get the mooring line on the cleat and we were home.

Turtle Bay is not any where near what you would call a garden spot. There are no paved roads, and the village is occupied by about 1000 people. Mostly fishing and taking care of cruisers, like us. We stayed for 3 nights and did a lot of repacking of the boat. We discovered that where we put stuff when we first brought it aboard made for a great launching pad for those items in rough seas. The inside of the boat looked like some one came aboard and threw stuff every where. This is, by the way about the third time we have changed things around. We are getting better.

Yesterday we sailed about 56 miles south of Turtle Bay to a little fishing village, Bah ia de Acuncion. Great sail. Saw a pod of whales and it was just generally a great day. Weather is getting warmer as we get further south. We are actually sitting out in shorts and tee shirts today. Don't want to forget some moments from yesterday. Flew the genniker and sailed about 2 hours with it up, this is the large sail in the front of the boat looks like a big parachute, sailed wing and wind for about 2 hours ( main sail on one side of the boat and the genoa on the other side wind directly behind us) , and anchored. Barbara was impressed that we could do all that. She has more confidence in me and maybe we can make it around the world. That's all for today. Happy birthday Rick Rentschler (March 5th) and Happy Birthday Scott Morlan (March 9th).