OUR EIGHT YEAR ANNIVERSARY CRUISING

Today marks our eighth year of cruising. We can still remember like it was yesterday all the people waving us a good-bye from our dock in Richmond, California, 1999. Our granddaughter was only two weeks old and our friends thought we were nuts. We'd planned, worked and saved for 10 years to realize our goal. We said we were not going to squander our youth on saving money. I was just short of 53, had a great job that I loved and Jean was 55 and also had a great job. We sold our comfortable home, gave a bunch of useless materialistic things away, kissed our family and friends good-bye and sailed off into the proverbial sunset. One of our most memorable moments was crossing the breaking bar at Bahia Del Sol in El Salvador. We anchored outside the bar entrance for three days waiting for the surf to subside along with 3 other boats. You have to have a pilot guide you over the bar and through the surf so when our turn came they called us on the radio and talked us through the whole process. We were picked up by I don't know how big surf, three times. Let me tell you that it is very exciting to surf a 23,000 pound, 37-foot boat for the first time. It was over so quick we never had a chance to be scared. We've had so many unforgettable experiences that it is hard to decide which ones to highlight. We've made the passage from Hawaii to the mainland three times. We always spent at least few days totally becalmed. The sea is like Saran wrap and the sun is brilliant in the sky. One time we watched a Mahi swim circles around the boat for a whole day while we just drifted with the current. Another time we jumped off the boat and went for a swim, and once we caught a 20-foot, 4-inch diameter line in the prop and spent an hour cutting it away. Of course, we made a lot of friends and especially enjoyed all the children we've met. Kids are the same everywhere, fun loving and curious. Not only the local children but, also the kids aboard cruising boats. We tend to make all the kids our temporary grandkids. So, do we regret anything? Only that we should have done this 5 years earlier. We have yet to met anyone who said that they wished they would have worked a little longer before setting out cruising. So, after eight years, tens of thousands of miles sailing, uncountable anchorages and having more friends than any normal person is allowed, we are happy and have never given a thought as to how long we will be doing this. We hope all of you take this as some inspiration to get out and enjoy life now because, life is truely.....SHORT.

YES, WE HAVE SEAFOOD!

Oh yes! We've caught a lot of seafood in what will be our eight years of cruising on October 26. There is nothing like eating minutes-from-the-ocean fresh tuna or mahi-mahi. On one of our five trips down the Baja we hooked a 50 pound albacore tuna on our boat pole. It took and hour and a half to land it on the side deck. The girth was 26 inches. Boy, we had enough tuna to last for months however, we only have a two cubic foot refrigerator. Luckily, that day we arrived in Bahia Santa Maria and there were 4 power boats anchored there. These guys always have big freezers so we distributed most of the fish to these folks. We usually eat our tuna sashami style and the flavor cannot be met by even the best sushi restaurant. We will also quickly sear a nice chunk in a super hot pan so it remains raw in the middle then, slice it and serve it on a bed of cabbage (which all cruisers have) and top it with onions and sesame seeds followed by a drizzle of sesame oil and soy sauce. Man, I'm getting hungry now!!

We always catch Mahi-Mahi, (called Dorado in Mexico) on our crossings. We caught a four-footer along the inside of the Baja one time and it feed ten people some pretty hefty portions with plenty left over. When we catch fish I fillet them right away on the side deck then Jean washes the fillets in fresh water, dries them with paper towels and leaves them out on the counter to air dry. Then, she puts them in a ziploc bag with more paper towels and into the refrigerator they go. It's important to keep the fish dry because moisture will accelerate deterioration.

We've had Mahi many different ways, fried, bbq'ed, chowder, raw, steamed, you name it. One thing that adds a small measure of taste is we catch all of our fish on home-made lures. For Mahi I take a 3/4 inch diameter wood dowel about 5 inches long and drill a hole through the center. Then I taper the ends and paint it blue and yellow, the color of a Mahi. The I put a good size double hook on a strong leader and thread it through the hole in the center of the painted dowel. Costs about 75 cents and catches a fortune in Mahi. For tuna I take a couple of 2 inch squid skirts that you can buy at any Kmart, shove one inside the other and just run a line through them with a hook attached. We caught our 50 pound tuna on just such a lure. There is no need for one of those expensive squid skirt/lead head combinations or any need for anything larger than say, 4 inches.

By far, the best of the seafood are the lobsters along the Baja. You can usually buy them pretty cheap from the local trappers or trade something for them. We once traded 2 gallons of diesel fuel for 4 lobsters and one other time we gave a fisherman a couple dozen fishing hooks and he returned later with 6 lobsters! We've searched for lobster now and then but, they are hard to find and it's really hard to judge their size under water. My first lobster was like, 6 inches long! So, it's easier to just trade for them. We've also purchased large shrimp from fishermen for $12 a kilo and many cruisers tell stories about getting buckets full of shrimp for next to nothing. Yes, there is a lot of seafood in the Pacific and we've had a lot of it and looking forward to catching much more. I hope my brother Richard, whom I've fished with most of my life, is just a little bit jealous.

ONE OF OUR FAVORITE ANCHORAGES

Last month we sailed north out of Santa Rosalia with an ultimate destination of Gonzaga Bay. We managed to harbor-hop with long day sails and enjoyed a lot of private anchorages. Private because the "fleet" of cruising boats were two to three weeks ahead of us so we never saw any other boats until we arrived in Bahia Los Angeles, commonly referred to as "BLA". BLA is a little dusty town that has a few small stores and minimal services. The town caters to trailer-boating sport fishermen. We spent a few days there visiting our friends on other boats and doing a little provisioning. We did manage to get our laundry done for $12. From BLA we day sailed the 80 or so miles to the north end of of the uninhabited Isla Angel de la Guarda where the pictured anchorage of Refuigo lies. If you look real close at the picture you will see two blue dots near left of center. We anchored for a week on the lower dot. The reef fishing was fantastic! We caught all the Trigger fish we could eat and dived for rock scallops. This is the first time I've seen rock scallops. They look just like rocks stuck on the side of larger rocks and they are most tasty! You dive down 15 to 20 feet and stick a knife blade into the opening and cut the abductor muscle(the part that you eat) from the lower shell then, you bring up the top half with everything and clean it in the dinghy.

The island in the upper middle of the photo is Isla Granita which is home to a sea lion colony. We motored the two miles over and anchored there for the day. We launched the dinghy and as we motored around a group of the sea lions followed us jumping and barking. We spent the whole day fishing and watching the antics of the sea lions. Refugio is one of those anchorages that typifies the perfect Baja anchorage. We could easily spend a month there and eat fresh seafood the entire time. We met some other cruising folks one the boat Lightheart who invited us ashore for a game of Bacchi ball. We played amongst the sand dunes so it was like motocross Bacchi ball! Anyway, we had a great time and played until sunset. We had forgotten about the 12 foot tides there and had to carry our dinghy a long way back to the water. We spent a lovely eight days in the area before departing for Gonzaga Bay, 50 miles farther north and our northern most destination.

FRONT ROW SEAT FOR EXCITEMENT

A few months ago we were at the new Singlar Marina in Santa Rosalia. Santa Rosalia is home to hundreds of squid fishing boats and one Mexican Navy boat. Moored at the ferry dock about 100 feet behind where we were docked sat a big old Navy launch which the pelicans used as a roosting place. It was obvious that the launch hadn't been used in a long time however, it had three 225 horsepower Yamaha outboards attached to the back that looked fairly new. One day we saw a few navy folks cleaning the launch and working on the engines. After a couple of days they had it pretty well cleaned up and they got the motors running. One fine morning the navy folks came down to take the launch on a little run around the harbor. I was down below and Jean was in the cockpit reading. Jean yelled "fire!!" and I jumped up into the cockpit and saw smoke and orange flames leaping out of the launch. A bunch of folks came running down with those little red fire extinguishers, you know like the ones we all have on our boats. They were pretty much useless. A few buckets of water were tossed with no affect. Finally, a guy wheeled down what looked like a 25 gallon dry fire extinguisher and that did the trick. There was this big WOOSH and the fire went out. Surprisingly, the engines were not harmed and they had them running the next day however, the burned portions of the boat haven't been fixed since so the launch still sits there with the pelicans very happy to have their roost back.

ARE ALL CRUISERS RED-NECKS?

Well, Jeff Foxworthy says your a red-neck if you work on your engine in the living-room. Whose engine is not in the living room, or at least, right next to it? Every time we need to change engine oil or do any kind of maintenance on the old Perkins it's up with the $300 wool carpet, move all sorts of stuff into the galley and tie up the cat so he doesn't start exploring the bilges. Recently, the engine started running hotter than usual so I decided to look at the raw water pump. I discovered that two of the impeller vanes were missing and three were torn half-way. The impeller was one of those expensive Nitrile ones and it lasted four years. In fact, it was still doing a good job of cooling the engine and it may have gone another 500 hours. After fixing the pump I decided to also change the engine oil. Over the past 10 years I dreaded changing the engine oil because I had to get the oil good and hot then suck it out with one of those brass Beckson hand pumps. You begin the whole process by first uncoiling the little plastic suction and discharge hoses (which only want to coil) and attach them to the pump body. Next, insert one end into the dipstick hole and the other end into an old oil jug which is used to catch the used oil. Remember to put one foot on the oil jug because the uncoiled discharge hose wants to recoil along with the empty jug. Now, grab the pump with one hand and pull the plunger all the way out and hold it at full stroke. It takes a fare amount of effort to hold the plunger out. There are two ways you know the pump is working, one: the brass pump body gets as hot as the engine oil and two: the pump starts to leak unremovable black oil (into the living room). It takes 15 or so strokes to pull all the oil out of the engine, much of which has dripped down your leg and arm and some of which has magically escaped to other parts of the boat. Then you pull the hose out of the dipstick hole and it flings a few more drops of oil that you don't find until you sit down wearing your clean shorts. Well that was the hard part. Pouring the new oil back in is not nearly as exciting.

When we were in Hawaii earlier this year, I bought one of those vacuum cans where, with just a few easy strokes, you pump a vacuum and the oil dances up the suction hose into the two-gallon pump can while you have a nice cold one. No swearing. No drips. No oil in the living room. Yeah, we might be red-necks, but we're a little cleaner now.

This is all new to us.

I mean this blogging thing is new to us. We've been sailing around the Pacific since 1999 aboard our 1980 Irwin 37 sail boat. We started from San Francisco, California and visited Baja and the Sea of Cortez. We've made 3 round trip crossings from Mexico to Hawaii and back and made one trip south to El Salvador. We recently sailed from Hawaii to La Paz, Baja Mexico and spent the last 4 months in the Northern reaches of the Sea of Cortez . We've always had plans to reach Ecuador but but family issues, like new granddaughters, keep pulling us back. However, this time we are determined to make it there before we get too darn old. Later, we will tell you about our boat and about our cruising experiences. We are now in Santa Rosalia, Baja Mx. Jean had to fly back to the states because her mother just passed away. That leaves me and the cat to do all the maintenance that we avoided because it's been just too darn hot here.

When Jean returns we have to decide where to go next. See, this cruising life style is just full of difficulties just like this. It's just not that easy to decide weather to go to a local island, a far away bay, some small Mexican village or to a large city. Yeah, it's tough out here. We will, however, be in La Cruz this winter for a few months. La Cruz is a small town north of Puerto Vallarta on the Mexican mainland but, as to where to be in the mean time is up for grabs.