Update from the Captaims Log Sunday April 27 2008l

We are into our 10th day out here and I am happy to report I haven't had to go back up the mast since I last talked to you. Lets hope that only happens once in a retirement. You will be interested to know that someone passed my story on to The Flying Wallenda's
and they are interested in talking to me when I am done with this trip.

We are just about to complete the north leg of the passage. The next leg of the trip is very interesting. We will be traveling through the area known as the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This is an area that is always changing in size and position and is somewhat important to one sailing from the northern hemisphere to the southern. Most people think of this area as the doldrums and in some respect that is correct but there is more to it than that. Sailing through this area you can encounter
severe thunderstorms or dead calm seas. What ever the case you want to minimize the time you spend going through this zone. So, before we left Manzanillo we contacted a weather service that provides routing for mariners, and especially in this area of the world. They give us the coordinates to sail to and what kind of wind and seas we should expect as we make the passage. Tomorrow afternoon we will reach the position to turn south and head through the ITCZ. It leaves us pretty excited and anxious
at the same time. When we make our left turn tomorrow we have a very narrow window to sail south through. What ever we encounter we would be remiss if we didn't stop at the Equator and celebrate, which is customary and quite ceremonious, after all how many people get to sail across the equator. With all that build up I need to let you know this doesn't happen quickly. It will take almost all week for us to get to the other side of the zone. As we sail south trough the zone, we will be watching
for the wind to shift around and we then pick up the trade winds from the Southeast. When that happens we will have started the final leg of the passage to the Marguesas. This is also suppose to be the best sailing because the SE trades are very reliable. Keep watching and we will keep you updated as to what's happening.

Well there you go a science lesson right here in Frank's Notes. Will sign off now until the next update.

Life at Sea, Update April 22,2008

We are into our 6th day at sea. You could almost rubber stamp the last 3. We start in the morning with a nice breeze blowing from the north or northeast. as the day progresses the seas get bigger (10-12 ft) and the wind builds to about 23 kts. This will continue until about 2am and then everything gets mixed up and it is as if we were in a washing machine . Waves coming at all directions, the wind shifting from one direction to another and we are very uncomfortable. Someone of a low disposition
more toward motion sickness would probably be quite ill at this time and would have thoughts of jumping overboard or putting a gun to their head. So it is about this time we turn the engine on and head any direction that will get the boat a little smoother - doesn't always work. For some good reason God made Barbara and I where we don't get sea sick. I guess that's why we like doing this so much. So, continuing at about 6 or 6:30 am we start the process all over again.

On a boat this size things can break, come apart, or just stop working. There is no West Marine or Home Depot so you have to figure it out yourself. I have discovered that when an item breaks or needs fixing what ever amount of time you thought it would take you can usually multiply that many times. The next thing you find is the item you are working on is so hidden away that Harry Houdini would have a problem getting to it. We call fixing things the Yachty Pilates. The builder of the boat must have
derived great pleasure putting equipment where he knew it would be very difficult to find and fix.

Speaking of fixing things 2 or 3 days ago the topping lift on the boom let go. The topping lift supports the boom which holds the main sail to the mast. It is a line from the end of the boom to the top of the mast. Without that line attached you could never take the main sail in because the boom would come down into the cockpit. We were lucky to be able to save the piece of hardware that attaches the line to the boom otherwise I would have had to improvise with something else. Our next issue was
to retrieve the line attached to the top of the mast which has a pulley on the end so we could attach a line and put the topping lift back together. Here comes the fun part. The line that I needed to retrieve was a quarter the way up the mast and the only way to get it was go up there. It is scary going up the mast in port not to mention doing it in open water with rolling seas. We had no other choice. We waited until the seas were fairly calm which is very relative out here . I hooked up and Barbara
winched me up the mast. Everything went pretty smoothly in fact I was thinking that was pretty easy. We tied a line around the piece so we could walk it back to the end of the boom. Barbara let me down without incident and we went to put it all together. As I was piecing everything together the boat rolled and the line went flying out of my hand. I was very sad. This meant I had to go back up the mast. This time it was a little different because when I was going up I lost my grip, and off I swung
which would normally be alot of fun except on the way out I hit the wires holding the mast up and on the swing back in I slammed into the main sail. One time was not good enough I got to repeat this high wire act about 3 times. Please do not try this at home. In fact don't do this anywhere. Long story short we got the end of the line and successfully attached it to the boom. Back in business. Barb let me have a beer as a reward (which by our rules is forbidden at sea) and she cleaned and doctored
all my wounds. Just another day at sea.

They are not all that exciting in fact most of the time you don't feel like doing anything. Standing watches at night sort of takes a toll on you during the day. We end up taking a lot of naps. We have been experimenting with different watch schedules for the time between 9pm and 8am. We started with 4 hours on watch and 4 off. We then went to 3 on 3 off. Tonight we are going to try 3-4-3. No easy way to make this nice at night, one of us needs to be on deck at all the times and this gets very
boring and tiring.

A couple of other things about our life. We love to get your emails (kd0cff@winlink.org) that is a zero not an oh. We never get tired of watching another sunset or another sunrise. Life is good but we can't wait to get this part of the journey done. Until next time this is Destiny returning to 16, over.

Captain Frank is again a happy sailkor - UPDATE FOR APRIL 18, 2008

On Monday I was not going to be denied. I was going to see to it that I get my window from customs. I started the day by going down to DHL (package delivery service) and telling them I don't speak Mexican and I want to get my window. PLEASE HELP. Since they were only the people that deliver the packages they had nothing to do with getting stuff through customs. They did get me in touch with someone at the customs office who spoke English. She said that I needed to go to the bank and pay the import
fee and then send a copy of the recite to her by 2:30pm and she would release the package back to DHL. Seems simple enough but just that little bit took 2 hours. It was now 11:00 and I was worried that 31/2 hours was not enough time and I would have to start all over again on Tuesday. I then took a cab to the bank she told me to go to and my heart sank when I saw the line to get in the bank was out the door. I decided to just get in the bank and start crying and maybe someone would take pity on
me. Not exactly. I did go in and find the first person at a desk and told him my story. He took pity on me and started trying to help. Two more hours and we were almost there. He took my money gave me a voucher and then said I would have to go down the street and find a fax machine to send to customs because their machine was broke. Bottom line is I Got it done with hardly a minute to spare. Ok that was step one window could now be delivered. Step 2 I needed to get the people at DHL to deliver
the package as soon as possible and they did it was in my hands Tuesday afternoon. Step 3 get the old window out and the new one in. For that the dock master called someone. Larry, Curly,and Moe showed up ready to smash and thrash. They would take no prisoners. Glass went everywhere. I sent Barbara up to the hotel to do email so she couldn't see the mess. Long story short we got the new glass in. When they were done the work area around the window looked like someone had been murdered. There
was blood and black sealer and glass everywhere. These guys didn't believe in gloves. They grabbed glass with their bare hands and tore it away from the window. When we got done I told them I would clean up just tell me what I owe. One of them had a phone and made a call then all 3 just left. The next day I found out what I owed and left it with the dock master.

Thursday we topped off the fuel tank and by 1 pm we were on our way. What an ordeal. This was all a blessing in disguise because it gave us a chance to slow down and enjoy our new life style. As I stated earlier it wasn't a bad place to be stranded.

We are now about 170 miles off the west coast of Mexico heading sort of SW. I say sort of because at this stage of the game we just need to generally follow the wind. We have a long way to go. The weather is perfect but we could use a little more wind. There is no other boat traffic in this area which makes it nice to not have to watching out for the big ships all the time. We have seen no other vessels since last night at 11.

That is pretty much from here. Just a reminder I will update our position on the web site about every 6 hours and if you want to send us an email do so at kd0cff@winlink.org.

April 11, 2008 Latest news from the Captain's Chair

We are now going into our second week in beautiful Manzanillo,Mx. I guess if you have to be delayed some where this is not a bad place to have that happen. To catch some of you up we are waiting for a replacement windshield to arrive. The glass is in Mexico but for the last 3 days Customs has delayed it reaching us at the marina. Not much else we can do but wait and try to comply with any rules they have. The problem is they have a hard time telling you what the rules are this week.

We are very anxious to get started across the Pacific. The boat is ready and our supplies are on board ready to go.

April 6, Update

APRIL 6, 2008
How time flies. I can't believe I let this much time go by since making an input. I will try to catch up. I will also try to explain a few of our contact issues.
I last updated this page when we were about to go into Mazatlan. We had a great stop over there and stayed at the Mazatlan Marina. I would highly recommend this for cruisers looking to rest up for a while. A lot of Americans were here most of the cruisers were here waiting to go north into the Sea of Cortes for the summer. After 3 days here we again headed out. We are trying to get to Puerto Vallarta by Friday March 22.
Out of Mazatlan we made one stop at San Blas a little fishing village on the coast. Nothing of real note here except for the fact we took a jungle cruise. If you have seen one jungle you have seen them all. I did like the fact that on the way back our guide stopped and bought me some cervaza's for the return to the dock. Out of San Blas we sailed a little south to another bay where we overnighted and then headed into PV.
On our way to PV we would have got in earlier except I turned into the wrong entrance and missed the port entrance we were suppose to go to. All looks the same on the map. If you have been reading my notes and you are keeping track that is #2. Anyway we turned around and went 3 miles south to where we were suppose to be. It is Saturday the day before Easter and at the Marina no one is there. The rule is you take an open slip and wait till Monday and settle up. This is Easter weekend and the place is very crowded so we took the best place we could find. As my friend Dick Miller says, "if you are going to take someone's seat take the best you can find". Your probably way ahead of me on this, we got in tied the boat up and then the security guards came and told us we had to move. I really didn't want to move because this was really a great slip for us and the boat. After buying some time I ended up telling the guard I wanted to talk to his boss because I was told I had a reservation. He wanted no part in calling his boss over the weekend so he finally left us alone. My Spanish American is better than I thought.
A great time was had by all in PV. We met up with friends from Denver, Jeri Lynn and Jeff, who were there on business. On Monday my sister, Mary and B-I-L, Tom. came into town to spend the next week sailing with us to Manzanillo.
Mechanical problems are a fact of life on any boat especially one that is in salt water. Tuesday after Tom and Mary arrived I turned on the generator to charge the batteries and it would not stay running. I changed the fuel filter , checked the coolant, air filter, and basically everything you can do get it going. Nothing worked. I got with Paul on Pencoya to see what advice he might offer and both of us worked on it all day. He finally called a mechanic friend, Teacup, to take a look at it. He looked around opened the breaker box and found that a 10 cent piece of plastic had broke which caused the engine to fail. No substitute for experience. A 10 cent part added up to a bottle of Scotch for Paul and a hourly rate to Teacup for finding and fixing the problem.
Wednesday we are off for a a few stop overs and then into Manzanillo. Our first stop was Bahia de Ipala and very small village with a very small bay. Mistake on Captain Frank's part #3. We should have left and gone on down the coast. This anchorage was very rolly and there were other boats there so you didn't have room to maneuver. Short version of the stay here. we drug the anchor and went into some buoys with a bunch of rope tying them together, pulled up anchor to leave at 5am and got the prop caught in the ropes, deployed anchor again to keep us from going ashore , pulled anchor back aboard and had a fishing boat from village pull us out of harms way away from the rocks on shore, put dive gear on and went under boat to free prop and cut ropes. In this process somewhere we broke the windshield on the boat. We have had better nights.
That was enough excitement for this trip so with another stop and then into Bahia Navidad we seem to finally get into the flow. We stayed 2 nights at anchor in the lagoon and then moved to the Marina for 2 days. Very nice stay because we got to enjoy the amenities of the resort. This became one of our best stops to date.
After 2 days we came into Manzanillo where we currently sit in the Marina at Las Hadas Resort. This is the resort they used in the movie "10" with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek. We patiently wait for the front windshield to be shipped to us so we can continue the journey. Mary and Tom left yesterday after spending a few days at an all inclusive resort just down the beach from our Marina. As our first sailing guest aboard Destiny I hope we didn't scare them too much and hopefully they give us their blessing to continue the trip.
It is now Sunday morning the weather is the same as it has been everyday since leaving Ensenada the first of March. Blue skies and a light sea breeze with the temp in the 80's and humidity in the 90's. Hopefully we get the window installed this week and as soon as it is in we are off for the Marquises. Until next time happy sailing to all.

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).

February 2008 postings

February 27 ,2008
A lot has happened since the last update. I want to fill you in on everything but will try to hit the high lights.

The Party on January 26th was something I will never forget. Special thanks to Michelle Boley, Scott Morlan, Rick Rentschler, Patti Wagner, Lee Baumann, and I know some others. It was a special night, my only regret was that I couldn't spend more time with each of you who attended. It was especially great to see Steve Haltom a long time friend from high school, Randy and Judy Holloway in from Idaho, John and Thyel Turner who were there all the way from North Carolina, Tami Melindez from Florida, my girls from Houston Sharon, Mo Sally, Marianne and Jennifer I really could go on all night. Of course I don't want to forget all the agents , AFO staff and my peers I have worked with over the last 30 years who were there. Someone asked me What I will miss the most and without hesitation I said the people. I thought about that later and should have added the experiences we have all shared together is really what I will miss. So many memories, I have really been blessed to have known and be associated with such great people.

The month of February has really been a blur. On the 1st we flew to Houston to get our Texas Driver's licenses, see Jennifer and Trace and spend time with Doris and Scott Barb's Mom and Dad. We then drove to Dallas to spend a day with Beverly, D and Tre. Flew back to Denver and turned right around and drove to Ensenada to start moving aboard the boat. One day there and we sailed up the coast to San Diego to have some work done on the boat. Real important to have a third TV on board. During the first week here in San Diego we did a lot of shopping. We would fill the car up with stuff go back to the boat and put it in places. Everyday more stuff and every day the boat swallowed it up. Its hard to believe the boat is still floating. The next issue we face is where is all that stuff. If you can imagine we have enough food on board for 2 us to eat every meal for 90 days. Not only have we bought food for us but we have extra stuff to use for trading. The islanders love Spam. I hope we can find it before we reach the islands.

On the 19th we flew back to Virginia to see my Mom, Sister and brother in law; Mary and Tom. It was a great stay and was a lot of fun hanging out with my Mom and all her wonderful friends at the Virginian. We also got to spend time with my nieces and nephews their wives and future brides, significant others, and their cats and many dogs. Good to see everyone but Barbara and I were both anxious to get back to the boat and buy more stuff.

It is now the eve of our departure from the US. Tomorrow starts the journey we have been pointing to for the last 8 years. Can not tell you how excited we both are. We could easily stay another week and buy more stuff but we are going to give our credit card a break. Besides, we are running out of room.

That's it for now but I promise I will do better in the future keeping you posted on what we are doing. Got to get to bed because tomorrow we sail.