Journal, BLOG, Pics,
San Pedro, CA (Cabrillo Harbor), Catalina Island, CA (Cat Harbor, Avalon), San Diego, CA, (police docks and anchor La Playa), Ensanada ( ), Point Collnet (anchor), Bahia San Quentin (whales, anchor), Isla Cedros, MX (anchorages North and Palms), Turtle Bay, MX (anchor),

San Pedro, CA –
We had many friends there, Mark and Lisley, Tom and Britta, Stan and Heather, Leonard and Beth and many more. Good people we want to keep in touch with.
Charming home town feel, we loved the dollar store, where you could even buy produce and such, but not much in the way of meat or cheese. Great eggs though for $1 a dozen, even brown when they had them. I would do laundry every week, sometimes with Heather and her darling son Josh, we both commiserated on boat life and life in general. Good times. We went surfing with Mark and Lisley and Tom and Britta. We went on great hikes with Mark and Lisley and many outings to arboretums and such, even movies occasionally and great hot wings with beer.

Catalina Island - We went here first from San Pedro, CA with Mark and Lisley on their boat EROS. Enjoyed a great time and learned to like it a lot. Went their later on our own for a few days and then back to Pedro for more BOAT work and fix ups. You can read my account of our first Shakedown voyage to Catalina on which Justin (from West Marine, nice young man) accompanied us. Thank heavens as I was so sea sick it was stupid. Spent other times there and a couple of times Stan and Heather were there.

Last time Tom and Britta were there for Thanksgiving and we all ate a wonderful meal with them and many other newfound friends (longtime friends of theirs) at the local restaurant, and it was awesome. We left Catalina Island for San Diego, CA. Seemed like a huge trip. I have to admit that the overnighters are hard on me (and Scott I’m sure) as you have to be so vigilant and right before we got there early in the morning, we heard someone on the VHF radio saying something about a boat near his fishing nets/cables and to watch out as they spread out over a mile or so off his boat. Finally I asked Scott, do you think he’s talking to us? We got on the radio and sure enough he was, so we steered a good couple of miles off his boat to make sure we didn’t get snagged in his net and cables. Then we had to back off when we went into the San Diego Harbor as a huge ship was making headway and could have overtaken us. Scott said “I still think we would have beat him”. Typical man thinking, beat the big boat who’s going 15 knots and we’re lucky to do 5? Hmmmmm, now let me see……

San Diego, CA
We arrived early at the Police Docks, where the Ocean Police Boats are kept and they rent out cheap slips for $10 a night complete with showers, trash, water, and power etc. We ran lots of errands in San Diego and walked everywhere, it was a truly beautiful harbor and city and coastline, with wonderful coast side fire pits and sandy beaches and benches, walking trails, nice landscaping. Businesses and hotels had great architecture. I loved it there and we had a good time and met new fellow cruisers.
We left for Ensenada Mexico from here and were excited but cautious. Just fixing a fuel line filter and endless other small things. We were wondering how BLISS would fair the next long passage. (at least long to us).

Ensanada, Mexico Juanitos
We arrived at night and quite naively thought we could putter up to some dock and tie on until morning. Well, that wasn’t what happened. All the docks were full and the fuel dock had a huge boat already there taking up the whole thing. It is a confusing snaky path in and we got turned around in the dark and actually slammed the keel into something and had to back off of it. Luckily the inspection of the bilge, performed by myself who was shaking, proved to show no damage nor leaks (at least that we know of yet) knock on WOOD, or fiberglass. Well we were exhausted and tootled ourselves out of there just wanting to sleep. We decided to anchor outside the breakwater and leave our lights on so know one would hit us and sleep on top to watch out in case. We did get some fitful sleep and at daybreak hailed Juanitos for a space at their dock. Luckily he had one as our online request for one at the other one didn’t seem to go through. The boat guys from his place came out to show us the way in and were so helpful in helping us tie up to the dock without incident. We had to go into town right away and get our paperwork done, visas, customs, boat import fee/permit, fishing licenses, tourist card, pay fees etc. etc. It was a lengthy but not bad process and everyone was nice. We had to show them boat information, passports, serial numbers for engines, etc. etc. Then we went back to the boat to rest. This was Christmas Eve for us. We did not exchange gifts but the town put on fireworks and such. Christmas day was busy at the docks and harbor, lots of locals taking Boat Rides. We watch the local fisherman work day and night on their small uncovered boats. They really earn their keep. We took a taxi way across town to Costco to stock up on some stuff. It is interesting conversing with Spanish speaking people. We had a time figuring out the prices, as 1 dollar is worth 12 of their pesos. SO the prices looked enormous but it all worked out. We had some really great fish tacos a couple times for a buck each. We also went to a great Panaderia (bakery) and Scott stocked up on Sweets (his weakness I think). Yummy. We walked every where and it was good to get some exercise for the legs. We got a phone for emergencies here as all we have is our VHF, SSB, Internet when we can find it and get on and Skype if connected to Internet. I felt better after that. We left here for Point Collnet.

Point Collnet was a wall of stone (mountain I guess along the sea) and curved in from the sea so it gave some protection in which to anchor. We stayed there and slept and tried to regain our strength. It is amazing how tired you get, it is work just dealing with the boat rocking. I can say though that I got some new motion sickness pills from Costco and they are great, some Mexican medicine. Better than Dramamine etc. and they don’t make me sleepy. I feel much better able to help Scott than when I was all sleepy and dopy and still half sick. What a great discovery. The moon has been beautiful.
We left here for Bahia San Quentin.

Bahia San Quentin - We thought would be closer to a town, but we anchored out. It was very remote, except for a few fishermen and their boats. The harbor is up a swampy, grassy, bird haven, that get’s shallow and muddy and is wide, like a river. We took our dinghy in and in and in and never made it to the end, we ended up getting stuck in mud.
Scott got out and pushed us out. He also had to go to the bathroom and finally resorted to getting in where the water was waste high and going, he still chuckles about it. Guys and their bathroom stories, hee hee. We saw people digging in muddy banks for clams. Anyway, the cool thing was their were whales in the channel. Cool but scary in case they got frisky and turned us over, they didn’t though and we didn’t see much of their bodies except for their spouting and part of their big backs. It was kind of eerie and the water was muddy like and they couldn’t have been in much water. Scott flew along (what’s new, he loves speed) in the dinghy and I was terrified we would hit a whale. Luckily we didn’t and we saw many spouts during our stay here. It is dry and desert like along this Mexico coast. The people are so kind and so poor. They work hard to make a living or actually just to survive. We spent New Years here and saw wonderful fireworks in the small village inland. Scott called Zac and I called Cameron for New Years wishes and it used up all our phone minutes, it must not have had many. We should have bought more and will when we get to a city of any size.

Isla Cedros, had lots of tiny things floating in the water and we saw some jellyfish, so we didn’t swim there at the first anchorage on the north side. Scott thought they were tiny jellyfish but we weren’t sure.
We took a wild dinghy ride to shore and a big wave swamped us out but we made it to the rocky shore, wet but fine. We lugged the heavy dinghy onto shore so we could hunt for seashells and found many beautiful ones, abalone, clam looking shells of pretty colors and stripes and the same kind of pearl colored ones we had found on Catalina Island. We saw a dead sea lion carcasse and bones and even whale bones. It was interesting.

Isla Cedros the last anchorage Las Palmas area was unique at night because the fish that were attracted to our solar night light on deck attracted the sea lions and the phosphorescence in the water made the sea lions look like ghosts in the water, all white and eerie as they did their underwater ballets chasing the fish for their midnight meal. Magical. We swam shortly (the water’s a bit cold) the next day and Scott looked under the boat to make sure there was no seaweed in the prop. It was good. I talked Scott into letting me give him a pedicure, and I had to take a shot of pomegranate liquor for each toe he said. We hadn’t drank anything for months so it seemed harmless. I ended up pretty relaxed by the end of his 10 toes. We got a little sun for a change and washed the windows on the boat and Scott changed the transmission fluid etc. We always seem to have nice meals together and we often read, listen to music or plan and write. I drive myself crazy with cleaning and decluttering, which is endless. I need to chill out. I was upset also at not having contact with the kids. We found a Ham radio Marine channel net (users group) called the AMIGO net and asked them to email Amanda that we were all right. They said they would but apparently she didn’t receive it or it went to her spam and they were worried. I dreamt of Amanda every night for a long time.

Turtle Bay –MX

It is a huge bay, quite protected from the ocean/sea. Mostly calm although last night 1/8 it was finally windy and we got a bit of rocking but not bad really. It was windy enough to push a big fishing boat around as it was dragging anchor down the bay, luckily not into us. It was funny that Scott had just got up to check everything out (in the night) and happened to witness it. It just missed a really nice big Motor Yacht and the fisherman finally woke up I guess and pulled up anchor, motored back over by us and reanchored again. We have stayed anchored nicely due to our great big anchor that Scott loves (me too), we feel we are getting better and better although yet are to experience anchoring in coral. We are in a sandy bay right now. There are lots of small fish boats and tons of birds, who have taken over abandoned or neglected boats and poop all over them. UGH. They are cute though and I love the Pelicans. There are lots of seals who hone in on the fishermen when they pull in the nets and throw out unwanted fish, the seals eat them up. There are dolphins as well who are playful. The dock is hard to get to unless it is high tide in the morning and we got fuel yesterday morning and took our laundry in to have a senora do it for us. The dock in is wood and wide and quite high, old iron/steel stairs that go up and are bent at the bottom, probably hit at some point. The wooden dock is thick with bird poop and so when you get off you walk on wet sandy beach and clean your shoe bottoms off. Other than that it is quite interesting. The streets are dirt and people actually sweep them I’ve seen. They also throw pots of dirty water out into the streets. I guess it helps keep the dust down and I assume they must not have plumbing pipes. I’ve seen water tanks on stilts. We are getting used to paying in Pesos and trying to communicate with locals. Things are in liters and Kilos, so we are learning how that conversion amounts to what we are used to. It is all different. Very limited in choices as far as stores and what is in them. Like a quaint old western town almost. I went through some stuff and am going to give it to the laundry senora or if she doesn’t need it the local church on the hill ( I assume Catholic). They have so little here, they can probably use anything really. What I’m shocked about is that there are still so many vehicles, nice 4WD ones, not like everyone has one but there are quite a few, in front of little shack like homes even.

We haven’t gotten internet from the boat since the first day here so we are going into town today to send this update and post pics and call if possible etc.

We still need to find a phone card to get minutes added back to our phone, I hope we can find one, otherwise we are in a fix again on communication. Please bear with our naïve little butts. We will get it resolved as soon as possible and get into a town of any size.

Today I’m going to vacuum the boat good, I like to do it at least once a week. It takes a lot of power so I have to do it when the sun is strong, at noon usually. It’s a woman thing. Living on it so much and it being small, we generate a lot of hair and dry skin flakes I guess that make dust. GROSS, I feel so much better when it’s all clean and dusted.

I really miss a hot bath and just soaking and of course I miss family and friends. Lately I seem to get weird cravings for all kinds of foods (banana ice cream or creamies lately). When you have a lot of time when your sailing/motoring, you think of food it seems, or maybe it’s just me. As I leave civilization (hee hee), I seem to miss familiar foods but am trying new things as I go. Mexican food isn’t like American Mexican food, at least so far. The fish tacos are even deep fried. But we’re going to fish again soon and make our own, I just couldn’t find any corn tortillas yet. You’d think here they’d be easy to find. We assume a lot until we learn what is reality here I guess.

We gave some fishermen some beers and they just kind of floated alongside and they didn’t know English, I don’t know if they were wanting to come aboard or what. I felt awkward (former and current cruisers please fill me in on local etiquette). They were catching sardines and didn’t offer us any or offer to sell them so I’m not sure what they wanted. Maybe just to say hi and break the monotony? Nice guys, We did get that 2 of them were brothers but the others just friends. Hard working as we watch them all day on and off working with nets and chumming and then hand pulling the nets up and scooping the fish into the boat, heavy work.

I’m trying to get more pics, but the boat often moves so much they aren’t any good, need advice on that one. But I’m getting lots of movies, and wonder how to post them. Shanny does your blog site let you post movies?

Also, is there a cheap way to mail things home? Ideas anyone. We’ll ask here as well. We have some cool shells but they are really heavy and delicate too.

TURTLE BAY
In Turtle Bay, I gave some young boys in a boat some drinks and pencils and they were so happy. It was fun to make their day. They had come by the boat and asked for AGUA. They were happy with the big cans of Coconut juice I gave them. They drank them down with relish. Their dad came in another boat to fetch them with more kids and I gave them some as well. They were grateful and courteous. I gave some older ladies a bunch of material also so they could sew as I have more than I need on board and was happy to know it would go to good use in such a poor town.

BAHIA ASUNCION

The first night we came in around 8:30 p.m. after a long, rough day at sea, coming from Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay). The swells were big, and we weren’t panicked but it was interesting. We came in without full use of our engine. It has been overheating and we couldn’t get it fixed while in Turtle Bay although we tried everything we could think of. Changed oil, oil filter, cleaned water intake filter, Scott even dove under boat to see if intake was blocked with seaweed Moss but it only has a little. We found some Radiator Fluid Coolant in town and changed that but couldn’t flush the system (will try that in Cabo ) , checked and seems the water pump is working, the impeller is suspect and we thought we had a new one in a package the prior owner left but WOULDN’T you know it, it was an old one in a new package. UGH. We tried running without thermostat and it didn’t help and tested it in hot boiling water and it seems to be working. So we think the radiator system is dirty and full of gunk or possibly the impeller. We couldn’t get any parts in TURTLE BAY which is a little fishing village, like an old Western Town with dirt roads. Very dry, very rugged. Laundry out on lines and people throw dirty washpan water onto the streets, I assume to keep the dust down. It is dry dirt and fine like flour and when the wind blows it’s all over. It must not rain at all that I can see. Limited produce. We were able to buy fuel and some bottled water, as we’re getting low on fresh water. We are now (and should have been prior) using sea water and boiling it and using it to wash the dishes and then rinsing carefully in fresh. Learn as you go. Coming in we were in 20+ knot winds and had a hell of a time getting the Genoa (front sail) to furl and ended up I drove the damn boat in a circle and really messed it up, the wind spun it around. Poor Scott was on front wrestling the sail getting as it was wildly flapping around and had to pull it down onto the deck and tie it down for us to fix later. So without a sail we had to motor in and drift while it cooled and do this over and over until we limped our way in to shallower waters where we could safely anchor. Scott was “THE ROCK”, meaning he never panicked and we were able to make it. He was however and understandably “swearing like a sailor”, but doesn’t he always. Gotta love him. It was unnerving to me but we are good. When we awoke in the morning, we were surrounded by Lobster pots but didn’t get tangled in any of their lines, thank GOD and the Grandmothers (as my cute friend Diane Cohen says). We were blessed. I think Scott has Angels with him and we seem to be watched over so far, I swear. We are doing our best to be smart and safe and are learning more and more as we go. While we were sleeping Scott was on top keeping an eye on our location and to make sure the anchor was holding (it has been great!!!!, we love our anchor). Anyway, he heard a big THUMP on the side of the deck up top. I then, below, starting hearing a flapping sound on and off. I shouted up “Maybe it’s a flying fish Scott” and he looked and I went up and sure enough, there was a long cigar shaped, skinny, flying fish, kind of little. I thought we should eat it but Scott was too tired to clean it or ask if I would and decided to let the lil’ guy live another day in the sea. So back to the ocean he went. We were exhausted after our big seas and anchoring in the dark. Don’t get scared for us, though. We are getting great at anchoring. There have been lots of seals here, not as many dolphins as in Turtle Bay. Plenty of birds. Lots of fishermen.

We met another sailor, Karl, from Minnesota, retired contractor, in Turtle Bay and he also came to BAHIA ASUNCION the local fisherman gave him 4 juicy lobsters which he shared with us for dinner. We only cooked 2 of them, as Scott is allergic and can’t eat them. I melted what I thought was Mexican butter, it was in a cube and yellow, but apparently it must be like lard or something (Crisco maybe), luckily I warned Karl before he dunked all his lobster in it. I noticed the Mexican Mayonnaise is kind of oily and not so good. Oh well. Learn as you go. The lobster was still sweet and delicious. I made a yummy macaroni/pasta salad and some pumpkin bread I made and we baked in the barbecue (our oven hasn’t worked forever), it worked although it was a bit overdone. Now I’m going to make a peach pie, as I opened a HUGE Family Costco size of peaches, so we can use them up and I even gave some to KARL and still have tons. Hope it works, it would be so yummy. In the morning we hear roosters crowing and dogs barking.

I talked to the family today and had the unnerving experience of finding out Mariah had a terribly close call from a sever head injury. This is very emotional for me and I can just say that I am so grateful she is with us. What a precious angel. I can’t wait to visit again with everyone. I am so grateful for internet and emails and pictures. It helps a lot.

Today I sewed the genoa as it got ripped in a few places. We re hung it back up. We are leaving tomorrow and Karl will as well we think.

I make salsa regularly and we use it a lot. We just ran out and I”ll have to wait til we hit a town with good, decently priced tomatoes and peppers and onions and such. But we seem to be eating just fine. Being creative with what we have and also not wasting much food to speak of at all.

I dream of food a lot that I can’t have, like Ice Cream, a Wendy’s Burger, A shake, salad bar, Big Red Cinnamon gum (and I don’t even like to chew gum?!!!), paper towels, Chicken pot pie, Tuna casserole (now I can try to make in the barbeque)., anyway, it’s funny what you miss at sea and in a foreign country. I miss the family and have vivid dreams of them nightly it seems. I miss a washer/dryer and a BATHTUB, water lately. Whine Whine. When I think of all the poor souls suffering in HAITI and around the world, I am a million times blessed. Perspective, sometimes we need it to realize our blessings. I am blessed, by all of you. And Scott is too. WE love and miss you all.

Here we go again, off to BAHIA ABREOJOS…..
Will update as possible
Love you all