Sailing Adventures on the S/V Bella Marina

Monterey to San Francisco

2011-09-06T13:35:00.001-05:00

Monterey is a cute place to stay, but weather conditions were ideal for a Saturday through Sunday departure. This time, hopefully, the forecast would be a little more accurate. To meet favorable current in San Francisco, I had to leave, so after coffee and a French croissant on Saturday morning, I left just a few minutes before. I didn't fill any of my tanks as this was the last leg, and I was in sprint mode.

With little seas and a light boat, I had a good start and immediately set a pace at 6 knots. In the beginning I motorsailed, but eventually the wind died as predicted and I took the sails down and powered on with my trusty Yanmar. This leg went exactly as planned, and by 3 am I passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and a few hours later made it to Westpoint Harbor Marina, our new home.

Location:San Francisco, CA, United States

Morro Bay to Monterey

2011-09-06T13:34:00.001-05:00

Originally, I expected to be in Morro Bay until Sunday, but the forecast had changed, predicting winds of less than 10 knots for Thursday evening and night. I saw an opportunity to get away from Point Conception and the Santa Barbara channel, where there's 30+ winds predicted for at least a week. Morro Bay is close enough to get some of these winds and Friday was not a good day for Morro.

Thus, when I woke up 6 am on Thursday morning and was met with calm winds and waves and favorable forecast for the remaining day, I got the boat ready. It took me a good hour to transfer fuel from my new auxiliary tank to the main tank. My brand new pump was broke, so I came up with a MacGyver solution to manually pump it into a 6 gallon jerry can, and the siphon it back in the main tank. Success, and by 9:30 I was underway.

My first two hours were quite nice, but then the winds picked up and so did the waves. For 2 hours I tried to sail, to ease the ponding into the waves, but wasn't making much progress so I finally gave up. As the night approached, the winds and waves continued to pick up and by the time it was dark, I was pounding into wave after wave with massive force and noise. This forced me to slow down, although the waves and currents against me had already slowed me considerably. At throttle speeds, when I usually make 5 knots through the water, I was now making less than 3 and effectively 2 knots overground.

My bashing continued through the entire night and made for a miserable passage. Finally, after sunrise, the winds and waves calmed down and I picked up speed. I was now just passed Carmel and was instead seeing large swells as a consequence of a Tsunami from an earthquake in Japan. I finally arrived in Monterey around 1 pm, well after the Tsunami had hit ravaged through the west coast marinas. Luckily Monterey had no damages from the Tsunami. Santa Cruz on the north side of the bay was not so lucky.

It was foggy as I left Morro Bay.

Just passed Carmel. Monterey is just around the corner. Nice sunny day, and I even spotted dolphins (too far away for a picture).

The point south of Monterey Bay. Te large swells don't show up on camera, but you can see the spray as the swells hit the rocks.

Finally safely moored in Monterey harbor. It was still surging from the Tsunami.

Location:Monterey, CA, United States

Santa Barbara, Point Conception and Morro Bay

2011-03-26T01:40:00.001-06:00

After riding out the storm in Ventura, Bella Marina was covered in sand and I gave her a quick wash. It was very satisfying to see a brown boat turn to pearl white. The same morning I took off for Santa Barbara, my last stop before rounding Point Conception. The best time to round Point Conception is during the night, as the weather is often calmer at that time. Thus, my plan was to go to Santa Barbara in the morning, get a few hours of sleep and then leave for the Point right after sunset, for an early morning arrival at Point Conception.

Like they say in A-Team: I love it, when a plan comes together. I got my few hours of sleep and left Santa Barbara around 19:30. The ride to Point Conception was almost glass smooth (as predicted by the grib files) and I rounded Point Conception with favorable conditions.

However, after rounding point Conception, unlike the predicted light winds coming into Morro Bay, I was instead hit with heavy winds on the nose and accompanying waves that Bella Marina was bashing against. I eventually arrived in Morro a few hours later than expected and very tired from bashing against waves all morning long. I was surprised after having such a smooth ride around Point Conception only to be met with strong headwinds, currents and cold weather. I guess that's the wakeup call telling me I'm no longer in Southern California.

There are lots of oil rigs in the Santa Barbara channel.

Santa Barbara harbor is small and cute packed with boats, but I had no time to explore, I had to focus on my mission.

It's comforting to know that the Coast Guard is ready to come rescue you, if things go wrong. I always carry a personal EPIRB, when I'm single handling. If I push the button, these guys will show up within hours (hopefully less, if they have a helicopter ready).

More oil rigs. It's important not to hit these guys, but they are lit like Christmas trees and not to hard to spot. These guys might be using more energy than they produce...

It's a little hard to see, but those are whales only a few hundred feet from my boat. I couldn't tell what kind, since they barely breached the surface.

Finally arriving in Morro Bay. That's Morro Rock, marking the entrance to the harbor.

A closeup of Morro Rock after entering the harbor. The harbor is calm, even though it's blowing 15+ outside.

Morro Bay Yacht Club. I was the only boat at the guest dock. Last time coming south, the dock was full with boats rafted two wide.

A Sea Otter was hanging out in the harbor working on cracking a shell.

Boats moored inside the harbor.

Location:Morro Bay, CA, United States

Marina del Rey to Ventura

2011-03-05T15:47:00.000-06:00

Marina del Rey reminds me of Lake Union in Seattle. It's the largest man-made marina on this coast and is located right next to Venice Beach and is a short cab ride away from LAX. Marina del Rey is possibly my new favorite place on this coast, and I would love to live here for a longer period.

During my stay, I had a chance to rollerblade all the way to Santa Monica Pier. I kept a keen outlook for Pamela Anderson or any baywatch lifeguards, but alas, no luck. I also had the opportunity to visit some friends in the marina (after fixing my outboard) and had a great time here. But the goal presses on, Point Conception is waiting, so early Saturday morning I made my passage to Ventura, to be just a little closer to round Point Conception.

The trip to Ventura was fast and easy. I even got to sail the last hour, before arriving in Ventura. Ventura is a very quiet place, well protected and I was very warmly received by members of Ventura Yacht Club. I had dinner and drinks at the club with yacht club members and I think Ventura Yacht Club might just be the friendliest yacht club on this coast. I stayed here for 3 days, while waiting for a gale to blow through.

Santa Monica. That's the Santa Monica pier in the background. Always a very crowded place, but it was impossible to rollerblade on the pier (it's made of large wooden boards).

Santa Monica's version of Venice' Muscle Beach. This is more of the yoga/Thai chi crowd. Is that Pamela Anderson's watchtower I see in the background :).

More Santa Monica Beach. They also had a gymnast wanna-bees section. I'm not impressed, because I'm married to a Romanian :)

Leaving Marina del Rey, the sun had just come up. Like I said, my new favorite spot on the West Coast.

Rowing teams practicing in the morning. Brings back memories of being young and physically capable. Also reminds me of Newport.

Definitively a cute place.

According to Wikipedia (the world's most trusted source...) there are 19 marinas here with a total capacity of 5300 boats.

Underway, I pass by Malibu. I tried to spot Charlie Sheen's house (Two and a half men), but I have no idea what it looks like or if it even exists....

You can see the Channel Islands in the distance. If you look closely, you can also see the outlines of an oil rig.

Yes, I actually got to sail my sailboat for about 1 hour before arriving in Ventura.

A cute model of the Channel Islands that was on display in Ventura.

From a watch tower in Ventura I had a pretty good view of the harbor.

Here's a view of the Ventura breakwater from the same tower.

Location:Ventura, CA, United States

San Diego to Marina del Rey

2011-03-03T21:49:00.001-06:00

It's the final chapter of Bella Marina's adventures.... Volume one.

I left San Diego three days ago. My mission: to bring Bella Marina to our new home in San Francisco.

After more than a year of cruising and having fun, Octavia and I are returning to normal life (aka the Rat Race). We wanted to switch it up a little, so we ended up settling on San Francisco. It's warmer than Seattle and quite frankly after 1 year south, we can no longer handle cold weather.

For the time being, we live in temporary housing courtesy of Microsoft. For a while, it was a nice change to live in a house, but it didn't take us long to miss life aboard. The plan was always to live on the boat, so while Octavia is on a business trip in chilly Seattle, I'm tasked with bringing Bella Marina to her new slip in Redwood City. Thank you Paul and Kathleen for helping us secure a spot :)

Coming to San Diego to pick up the boat was like going on vacation. Sunny, a pool and a jacuzzi, Octavia and I had a blast on our little mini vacation. Then Octavia left and I took Bella to the yard and work began. After a 7 day week of hard work and project after project, I was exhausted. However, I got a lot of work done, and the boat was ready to go just in time for the planned February 28th departure.

It had been such a long time since I last sailed that on my first leg to Newport Beach, I almost got a little seasick from the unruly seas. Luckily, as predicted, the seas calmed down a few hours after midnight, resulting in a smooth sail with arrival in Newport Beach at sunrise.

After one night in Newport Beach and some much needed sleep (Redbull really does give you wings, but you still can't fly), I left for Marina del Rey at dawn and had an even smoother sail, arriving well ahead of schedule. I was well received at California Yacht Club, and even more so at Pacific Mariners Yacht Club, that I moved to the following day.

With spare time I decided to walk to Venice Beach for a cup of coffee, which turned into a proper 3 mile walk along the Beach. On my way back, I stopped by the Chart House restaurant and had a beer, while chatting with the locals at the bar. Turns out everyone there had something to do with boats. Either they owned one, or they worked on one. Good times!

A weather front is coming down and it looks like I might be stuck here for a while. Weather permitting, I will try to make it to Ventura on Saturday morning and hold out there until the gale passes by, hopefully before end of next week.

Here are some pictures of the trip up here.

The windlass had rusted really badly due to water making it into the ball bearing in the middle. The old ball bearings were gone and I had to have a machine shop in Shelter Island drill out the rusted shell. Now it has a new ball bearing, which should hopefully give it another 5 years of life. Btw, even though our boat is only 5 years old, this windlass and the maker has long been discontinued. :(

Bella Marina on the hard after a fresh layer of ablative paint. She looks good, no?

Our 4k prop looks rather dull after 2 years of use, but she still does the job of both powering and gliding through the water. That's right, she feathers and you can see the blades are lined up to give as little resistance as possible. It doesn't really make her faster as her limiting factor is the hull speed of about 8.6 knots (according to on-the-water tests), but it does allow her to come to speed faster, and since the shaft isn't spinning, it makes for a smoother and quieter sail.

Back to the water again. It's a little strange seeing your boat fly instead of float.

Home sweet home. Our niece made this plaque for us. Indeed, the boat is our home.

Our marina in San Diego is right next to the naval yards.

Bye, bye San Diego

Bye bye, convention center.

This one turned out quite nice for a one-handed shot, while steering with the other hand. Did I mention I took it from a moving boat? :) Whatever, I'm not planning on quitting my day job. I already did that long time ago...

Bye, bye Midway museum (which by the way was an awesome tour). If I reincarnate (after a magnificent death in either an epic sail or motorcycle accident), I think I'll become the Captain on an aircraft carrier.

Two-foot-itus. There's always someone with a bigger boat, but really c'mon!!! I think their dinghy might bee longer than Bella Marina.

There's always action in San Diego. It's almost as if you're living on the set of Top Gun, sans Tom Cruise (or at least I didn't spot him at my 6 ft + level...)

Point Loma. Last piece of land, before leaving the San Diego channel.

Arriving in Newport Beach. This is possibly the cutest place on the US Pacific coast.

Yes, there's definitively something charming about Newport.

Safely on a mooing ball after a while night of sailing. The lines to the mooring ball had 2 inches of nasty muddy growth on them and made for quite a mess. I should have anchored. Incidentally I had the same conclusion coming down here more than a year ago, but forgot to blog about it, and history repeats itself....

When leaving Newport Beach, I was followed by several Crew team practicing rowing in the morning. Of course, I wasn't awake enough to remember to take a photo, so instead I'm showing you this boring picture of a dolphin, who was among many escorting me towards Marina del Rey in the morning.

LA has smog because everyone drives an SUV... Also, it was slightly overcast.

Arriving in Marina del Rey, the stench from the bird droppings was almost unbearable. That says a lot, since years of allergy medicine has made my nose less sensitive to smells. Comes in handy, when doing certain type of boat maintenance tasks.

I wanted to top off the tank to be ready for the next leg, and was reminded why I have a sailboat. The next few legs better have a lot more actual sailing in them.

Unless this one passed me in the dark of night, Californians seems to have a liking to very expensive boats fro Italian designer Perrini Navi. Again, just a few feet longer than my boat.... :)

Safely in a slip in Marina del Rey. So far, so good.

Location:Panay Way,Marina del Rey,United States

Snapshots of California

2010-12-15T02:11:00.001-06:00

Over the last couple of months we’ve been doing a lot of travelling between San Diego and Seattle and trying to enjoy playing tourist as much as possible before going back to work. We had fun entertaining family and friends visiting us on Bella Marina, went camping in the Olympics, enjoyed the delights of Napa Valley, immersed ourselves in the black hole of communication and pastry heaven called San Francisco, and played beach bums in San Diego.

Another beautiful summer, errr, I mean winter evening in San Diego. This is the view from Pier 32, where Bella Marina is berthed.

The Coronados in the distance. Yep, that’s Mexico folks.

USS Midway

Lots and lots of cars and traffic everywhere

San Diego is a sailors town

Yep, it’s apparently that simple…

View from the upper deck of USS Midway

Getting ready for the XMass boat parade

Ok, technically, this picture is in Seattle…

Napa yumm yumm. Or rather glug glug…

San Diego to Seattle and back

2010-09-07T17:50:00.001-05:00

The month of August found us winding our way up from Southern California to Seattle along scenic Highway 1. We were looking forward to hanging out with our friends in Seattle again. If it’s one thing we really missed during our travels was the awesome people back home.

The drive was as spectacular as ever, despite the rolls of thick fog that kept rolling in from the cold Pacific Ocean. The sun would peak every hour through the clouds and haze just for long enough for us to enjoy the scenic lookouts. We’ve been having troubles adjusting to driving at highway speeds again, and one month in the South Pacific undid all the ‘training’ we had gained in our first drive from Seattle to California. So we sat back and enjoyed the ride while driving the Californian commuters crazy I am sure. Lots of little houses on the hillsides and big SUV’s to go with them.

Colorful SoCal:

Canon Beach:

The most spectacular drive was the one from Canon Beach to San Francisco and along the Big Sur. It was really cool to drive up right along the same coast we had spent almost a month sailing down almost exactly a year before. This time it went a bit faster…

One thing about driving up the coast is that you really start noticing the temperature difference as you head North. First we thought we were cold in San Diego. Can you really blame us after getting used to the balmy weather of Tahiti? Then we realized how foolish we were. Canon Beach was actually colder. Oh no wait Pfeiffer Beach is the coldest. By the time we got to Seattle we had all our fleece and cashmere layered on.

Pfeiffer Beach off the coast of Big Sur:

Poor Alf was the only one to still have his South Pacific outfit on:

Cabo Shmabo… Try walking through these arches…

Once we got to Seattle we had a 5 day stretch of hot and sunny weather. We loved it and we were so excited we immediately hopped on the 999 and headed for the Olympic peninsula. We had great fun camping out with friends at Lake Crescent and riding every day. Of course we couldn’t miss Forks or La Push and we even got all the way to Cape Flattery, the most northwest point in continental US and the entrance to the Straits of San Juan de Fuca. It was really cool to look over to the lighthouse and reminisce about the moment when Bella Marina ‘turned left’ last year in search of warmer latitudes.

Our baby looking pretty. I think that Ford truck was hitting on her…

We spent the rest of our time in Seattle hanging out with friends, dodging the rain that of course came back, doing some boating on big and small boats alike, and generally having a great time.

We are now back on Bella Marina after a long drive that we decided to do in one shot just to see if we could… 1300 miles, 22 hours and 3 Red Bulls later we pulled into the Pier 32 parking lot and declared success. We are planning to spend the month of September doing some cruising and surfing in Southern California, so stay tuned for that!

Another day, another baguette…

2010-08-11T02:53:00.001-05:00

Glimpses in the cruising life in le Pacifique de Sud in no particular order, hoo hooo hooo, Foux de Fa Faa…

Under the Sea in FP

2010-08-10T03:48:00.001-05:00

We’ve been back from French Polynesia (FP) for a couple of weeks now, but we’re still dreaming of the gorgeous blue water and lush landscapes. Of course no experience in the Society Islands is complete without exploring the underwater world. Everybody on Delos snorkeled and/or dove every day we were anchored in a beautiful anchorage with clear water under the keel. Which was pretty much every day we were there :)

Highlights include snorkeling with the sting rays in Moorea, diving the Tiki garden, not finding the dive spot outside the pass and snorkeling with the mantas again, diving with reef sharks, hunting for the yellow plastic fuel cap next to a beautiful Motu in Bora Bora (we found it on the beach!), snorkeling in the “Aquarium” in Bora Bora, feeding the fish old baguettes (they go crazy!!!), and actually finding the dive spot outside the Bora Bora reef entrance and diving/snorkeling with black tip sharks and lemon sharks. Although most reefs in French Polynesia were damaged by pollution in general and last year’s cyclones in particular, some are starting to recover and we were happy to find some beautiful spots with healthy ecosystems.

Sting Rays on Moorea:

Petter chasing a ray:

And a shark…

Where did it go?

The Rays were really friendly and liked to give full body hugs especially if you happened to have sardines in your hand :) They are very soft and silky and feel quite nice.

Reef patrol:

Is that a shark behind me?

Snorkeling in the Aquarium, one of Bora Bora’s most spectacular reefs:

These little guys went crazy over old baguettes:

Sooo … many …

The reef was beautiful and teeming with life:

Ready for the photo shoot:

Butterfly fish have a fake black ‘eye’ on their dorsal to trick potential predators:

We even found an irate eel:

We went to find the sharks outside the reef pass in Bora Bora:

We found about 12 black tips…

… and at least 3 lemon sharks cruising down below at about 40-60 feet…

Lots and lots of other fish…

who liked the bubbles on Petter’s tank…

…and more sharks…

Back in SoCal

2010-07-25T18:36:00.001-05:00

We’re back in San Diego on Bella Marina after an amazing 3 weeks spent in French Polynesia aboard S/V Delos hanging out with Erin, Brian, Brady and many old and new cruiser friends. Stay tuned for more stories and pictures as we sort through about 15 GB of images and videos :)

South Pacific Blues by Octavia from S/V Delos’ blog

2010-07-24T02:27:00.002-05:00

This post was originally published by Octavia for S/V Delos. Reposting it for all the Bella Marina fans out there!
Cheers,
Octavia
After spending three amazing weeks cruising the Society Islands in French Polynesia aboard Delos, I am at a loss for words to describe all the beautiful shades of blue of the South Pacific. I think I need at least three languages to name them! Gin water blue, pale blue, azzure, turquiose, teal, bleumarine… Pictures are probably better :)
Petter and I arrived in Baie Oponahu in Moorea after an 8 hour flight from LA to Papeete, Tahiti and a quick ferry ride followed by a cab tour of the Island. In front of us was the most beautiful bay, the stuff of dreams of the South Pacific and Landfalls in Paradise where Delos laid at anchor. Team Bella Marina joins Team Delos! As Brian was rushing over in his dingy to pick us up we wasted no time in getting outfitted for joining up the floatie party behind Delos (read changed into our swimming suits right there on the beach). The rest is kind of fuzzy, as the hostess with the mostess, Erin, was waiting for us with beaucoup de drinkies!
Oponahu Bay Blues:

It’s raining but it’s OK because there’s a beautiful rainbow blues:

Mishka blues (because we took over her V-Berth which she sometimes lends to Brady):

Stingray blues:

Trying to fit into Jay’s BC blues (it happened):

Kytesurfing awesomeness blues:

Tropical Rain blues:

Brady’s deep blue sea’s fishing blues (the ONE that got away…):

Soon we were off to Tahiti for a taste of the PARTY (see Brian’s Party On in Tahiti post!)
America Day blues:

While on Tahiti we rented a car and drove around the island, taking in the volcanic black sand beaches, the surf breaks and the amazing vistas on Belvedere Point at sunset:

Moorea view from Tahiti:

We arrived in Huahine after a boisterous overnight passage and dropped anchor in another gorgeous bay. We spent the days snorkeling, exploring the island and its old South Seas vibe, learning how to fly a kyte (thanks Jay!), playing beach cricket and watching the solar eclipse which reached 98% at our location.
Huahine blues:

98% Solar Eclipse blues:

Ancient Polynesian marae blues:

After a short stint in Raiatea and Tahaa, we were off to famous Bora Bora, the jewel of the Society Islands. It’s an absolutely spectacular island surrounded by the most beautiful blue lagoon. We spent our time between the main town anchorage that allowed us to attend all the Heiva activities that kept the locals busy and a gorgeous isolated anchorage that came with its own private motu (a small sandy island fringed with palm trees).
Surf blues:

Sailing to Bora Bora blues:

Inspired by the island’s jagged silhouette, Erin and I decided to have a supermodel shoot, complete with 80’s hair.
Vahine’s Secret blues:

Brady couldn’t help it…

Classic Bora Bora blues:

Anchorage blues:

Our own private Motu blues:

Bierre blues:

Bromance blues:

Into the blue(s):

Hinano blues:

Sunset over a South Pacific Island blues:

And finally, Blue Steel from Alf:

Heiva i Bora Bora

2010-07-14T16:38:00.000-05:00

Heiva, Fête, Party, Celebration. Bora Bora celebrates July 14 or Bastille Day as part of the Society Island’s month long summer celebrations or Heiva in July that include dancing and athletic competitions, canoe races, and a big colorful parade. It’s interesting to see the islands celebrate a date that is not at all significant locally. Bastille, Paris and the French Revolution are rather remote but at least the locals definitely put a Polynesian spin on the celebration. Any reason to party is a good reason! My favorite was the “Fruit Running” competitions where athletes run with big logs with bunches of bananas, breadfruit, pineapple and flowers secured at each end.

Running with fruit:

Bora Bora Yacht Club and the cruisers were well represented in the parade:

Bora Bora

2010-07-14T03:31:00.001-05:00

We have arrived in Bora Bora a couple of days ago, after sailing over from Tahiti via Huahine and Raiatea. All gorgeous anchorages with lots of fun stuff to do: exploring the islands by land, snorkeling, wreck diving, swimming. Bora Bora’s ragged peaks and gorgeous azure lagoon welcomed us after a short downwind sail from Raiatea. The Island is as spectacularly beautiful as it is hyped up to be, and to top it all we arrived at the peak of the Heiva celebrations that last through the month of July: we already attended the finale of the traditional Polynesian dancing competition and we’re gearing up for the Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow. More pictures and stories to follow!

SMS from 881632511323@msg.iridium.com

2010-07-11T14:39:00.001-05:00

solar eclipse in the south pacific! sweet!

Tahiti

2010-07-07T22:14:00.001-05:00

Happy 4th of July! The extended crew of Delos celebrated Independence Day by throwing a proper pool party on the dock in Papeete. We were joined by the crews of Ghost, Bubbles, Capaz, and many others. Lots of fun and beer was had, and the night culminated with the showing of Team America on Delos’ outdoors projector screen, aka a white sheet that hangs from the arch.

The next day we all rented a minivan and drove around the island taking in all the sites and more beer. Thank you Carrefour!

Ready for the party:

America, Yeah!

Beer Bongs!

Yep, that’s an American flag speedo…

Road trip!

Lunch on Maui Beach. Baguettes, hohoho.

View from Bellevedere:

Point Venus where Captain James Cook took his sightings of Venus:

Reunions in the South Pacific

2010-07-03T03:45:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Tahiti a couple of days ago and immediately got on a Ferry to Moorea to rendezvous with our friends Erin and Brian on Delos. We are fortunate enough to be able to stay and sail with them on their boat for 3 weeks while exploring the islands of Tahiti, Moorea, Rauiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora. It was as if we never left them three months ago in Mexico when they turned West to sail into the sunset and towards the South Pacific and we went North to bash our way back to San Diego. We fell right into our old routines of lounging around and swimming and snorkeling and diving – and it was all spectacular! One of the books I read a while ago said something along the lines of ‘You’ve never seen BLUE until you’ve been to the South Pacific’ and now I truly believe it. The shades of blue here are amazing and vary from gin light turquoise water in the sandy shallows to light green and deep blue-purple in the deep ocean.

Beach potluck parties, an SYC reunion with pictures to prove it, new friends and snorkeling with mantas and black tip sharks occupied the rest of the days we had on Moorea. It’s on to Tahiti next for a proper celebration for the 4th of July where allegedly there will be Bud Light beer and fireworks. America, Yeah!

Anchored in Paradise:

Alf found happiness in the South Pacific:

Snorkeling with Mantas and Sharks:

Sometimes it rains in Paradise, but the pay off is a gorgeous rainbow:

SMS from 881632511323@msg.iridium.com

2010-06-30T12:16:00.001-05:00

We arrived safely in Tahiti. Beautiful!

East Coast, West Coast

2010-06-29T21:17:00.001-05:00

For the past 3 weeks or so we’ve been travelling up and down the US coasts – both of them, mostly by land but also sneaking in some boating and sailing here in there :) First, it was Seattle, where we attended the fun SYC Powerboat Rendezvous. That’s right, the dark side of boating… mighty nice in the Northwest weather if you ask me :) Then we drove our newly acquired 4Runner back to Southern California just in time to catch a flight to Boston and hop in a rental to drive to DC. After a lovely week spent with friends and family we drove some more back to Mass. Oh, did I mention we got to sail in Annapolis for the weekend with a good friend of ours who was able to secure a J boat for a couple of days? It was HOT HOT HOT and humid and it was wonderful to be on the water to cool off! We swam and dodged the shallows of the Chesapeake, not necessarily in that order :)

Back in Western Mass we attended Tara and Matt’s wedding at the lovely Dreamaway Lodge in Becket. Congratulations Tara and Matt! Then we packed up and more family time was in order in Boston.

Now we’re back in LA for a brief 12 hours while waiting for our flight to Papeete. So we’ll be writing hopefully with lots of amazing stories and pictures from the South Pacific at some point in the Future. Whenever we get internet… We’re ready for Island time again!!!

Home Sweet Home!

2010-05-18T19:27:00.001-05:00

We’re back in home waters! We just finished checking into the country and are currently enjoying the hospitality of San Diego Yacht Club. It’s been a long and tiring trip up the coast, so a visit to the hot tub and pool is in order :)

Off to San Diego

2010-05-18T07:29:00.001-05:00

Leaving Ensenada (at the crack of dawn! gasp!) to make San Diego in time to clear customs before they close.

In Ensenada!

2010-05-16T17:46:00.001-05:00

We finally made it to Ensenada after 54 hours of motoring from Turtle Bay! I can’t believe I used to complain about how far away the San Juans are from Seattle :) The weather was pretty mild, but we had a mean 1.5 to 3 knot current against us the whole time. This is our last Mexican stop before San Diego. We’ll be checking out of Mexico tomorrow at the Port Captain’s in Ensenada. Almost home!

SMS from 881632511323@msg.iridium.com

2010-05-15T13:04:00.001-05:00

Passing San Carlos. Going str8 to Ensenada.

Off to Ensenada!

2010-05-14T09:54:00.001-05:00

We’re leaving Turtle bay and hoping to reach Ensenada in the next 2 or 3 days, depending on if we stop in San Carlos or not.

Weather bound in Turtle Bay

2010-05-10T13:47:00.001-05:00

We’re safely anchored in Turtle Bay waiting for a large system to blow itself out on the coast. This morning we woke up to 25kts winds in the anchorage. I can only imagine how hard it’s blowing outside! It looks like it won’t calm down enough until Friday, so we’re getting comfy in our spot.

Yesterday it was a big day in Turtle Bay – the inauguration of their brand new baseball stadium. We joined the local sport enthusiasts in cheering for the home team, the Pescadores who were playing against Asuncion. Most fun baseball game I’ve even been to! We had super yummy hot dogs (with Bacon!) and beer and mingled with some of our newfound friends. Petter even got compliments on his Spanish!

Weather bound in Turtle Bay

2010-05-10T13:02:00.001-05:00

Sweet, sweet Internets

2010-05-08T10:58:00.002-05:00

It’s still amazing to me that during this whole trip exploring some of the most remote coastal areas of Mexico, from the desert of Baja California to the lush jungles of the Gold Coast, we’ve had internet during the most time on the boat as long as we were within site of land. This technological luxury comes compliments of Telcel, the biggest cell phone service provider in Mexico and most of Central America. One of the first things we did in Ensenada, our first Mexican stop 70 miles south of the border, was to buy two Telcel GSM chips and a prepaid data plan and pop them into our phones and wireless data cards. Bella Marina and all its seven computers are now always connected through a 3G enabled hotspot to the rest of the world. The price is definitely affordable, about $50US for a monthly plan.
Dealing with the various hoops and lack of customer service or protection for services here is not for the faint of heart, but it’s definitely worth the fight in order to get that sweet, sweet internet in the most remote anchorages. First, you have to do your negotiations at the Telcel office in Spanish. Very few people not employed by the tourist industry speak enough English to help. Then, there was the cryptic “National Registry” message we got every time we tried to use the phone in the beginning. Turns out that the government requires every phone number to be registered in a national database, but since we didn’t have Mexican social security numbers, our phones got rejected the first couple of times. It took 3 calls to customer service, one on Spanish and two in English to finally get past that. Then rules change all the time here, and nobody has to tell you they did, so one day Telcel decided to change the data plan agreement and start charging by the kilobyte after we had reached the maximum limit of data, as opposed to just downgrading the service to Edge as they had done before: $50 later, empty account, lesson learned. At least we didn’t have a lot of extra money in the account.
So why would anyone need internet when cruising in Paradise, one could ask? For one, this is how we stay connected to family and friends. It’s actually a really good feeling to know that you’re reachable or that you can reach out in case of emergencies. This blog post is coming to you compliments of the mighty Telcel tower in Turtle Bay, Caja California Sur, population 2500 fishermen. Oh yeah. I just Bing’ed that. How about the stress of always being connected? Well, it turns out that with no jobs to stress about, all email and communication is welcome. There is no information overload anymore, and we have adopted a remote attitude towards most news that come to us compliments of the online newspapers and news agencies. Probably because we are so remote. And then, there’s the practicalities of voyaging on a sailboat. We can easily download weather reports, GRIB files (these nifty files that display pressure systems, winds, precipitation up to 7 days out), and communicate with other cruisers that “have been there before” via newsgroups and blogposts. Sometimes we can even find Web pages with relevant information about the places we want to visit, although we have found that to be true exclusively of touristy or resorty-type areas.
From all the places we have been, we’ve had internet in most anchorages. We get 3G or 3.5G in bigger cities and towns, and Edge or even GPRS in remote anchorages or on passages. Turtle Bay, Mag Bay, Los Cabos, Los Muertos anchorage, La Paz, just outside Espiritu Santos, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and the whole length of the Gold Coast, including Tenacatita and Barra. The only places we got nada were the anchorages at Los Frailes and Calleta Partida on Espiritu Santos.
Cell phone tower in the remote fishing town of Turtle Bay, Baja California Sur. Whoever said the infrastructure in Mexico is not developed has not met Mr. Telcel Phone Service:

Turtle Bay – more than half way!

2010-05-07T14:52:00.001-05:00

We’re currently anchored in Turtle Bay after two days of travel from Mag Bay/Santa Maria Cove. The weather window stayed opened a couple of more days, so we decided to sail on after a brief stop. 450 nautical miles done, 350 to go! We are now past latitude 27 degrees North, which is officially outside the hurricane zone with almost one month to spare until the season starts. This also means much cooler water. Cool green water with seals frolicking in kelp have replaced the warm bright blues of the southern latitudes.

Turtle Bay is a very protected bay where we can wait at anchor for the next round of light NW winds and get some well deserved rest. It looks like we’ll be here for at least 4 or 5 days. It’s also a popular fueling and rest stop for boats bound both southbound (lucky ones!) and northbound. The coast of Baja so far has been spectacular. Miles and miles of jugged desert mountains shooting skywards from the sea alternate with miles of wind and surf swept white sand beaches.

The rest of the trip will be split in 4 or 5 day segments all the way to Ensenada, where we will check out of the country and get the boat zarpe (Mexican exit papers) in preparation of entering San Diego.

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in… Socks?

2010-05-05T18:22:00.001-05:00

Here we are in Santa Maria Bay, a nice small protected harbor just north of Magdalena Bay and two degrees North of Cabo and our attire just went from swimming suits to sweaters and socks. Last night was Fo-ggy and wet, although not visibly raining, with the main dripping water on our heads when we furled it. Cold water! I am not used to this anymore Toto! Our only consolation is that soon it will be summer in California, and hopefully the heat will return :) I already miss the tropical silky warm air of the nights on mainland Mexico…

Passing Magdalena Bay

2010-05-05T12:53:00.001-05:00

We’re passing Magdalena Bay, a huge protected harbor about 160 nm NW of Cabo San Lucas. We’ve decided to press on to Santa Maria Bay just 20 miles North of here. It’s supposed to have better protection from the prevailing NW winds. Waiting for a good weather window paid off as we did very little, if none bashing on this first leg of the Baja Bash. We passed Cabo Falso early morning and we were out of its convergence zone by mid-morning for a comfortable ride up the coast of Baja.

Passing Cabo San Lucas

2010-05-04T11:23:00.001-05:00

Off to Magdalena Bay

2010-05-04T07:52:00.001-05:00

The NW winds have died down today and we have a 3 day weather window to make some progress up the Baja coast. We’re off to Magdalena Bay this morning!

Sunrise over the marina at Los Cabos:

Back in Baja

2010-05-02T22:26:00.001-05:00

We arrived on the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez yesterday after a bouncy ride from Mazatlan. We anchored in Los Frailes, our first Mexican anchorage after our trip down Baja in November. We had almost forgotten how beautiful and striking the desert is set against the blues and teals of the anchorages up here. While the mainland anchorages are majestic with the tall, lush Sierras covered in jungle always in the background, the Baja ones have a special lunar beauty about them. The light has a special quality here. The water was warm once again since summer is quickly approaching. We swam and dove on the boat and enjoyed the pristine clear blue waters.

Today we moved to Puerto Los Cabos, one of the new marinas in San Jose del Cabo. This was we’ll be closer to Cabo Falso, the first major headland we have to round. We’ve been watching the weather really carefully and it looks like we’ll have favorable conditions in a couple of days.

Sunset over Puerto Los Cabos:

SMS from 881632511323@msg.iridium.com

2010-05-01T19:30:00.001-05:00

We're back in Los Frailes on the Baja side anchored safely. Los Cabos tommorow.

Mazatlan to Cabo

2010-04-30T13:56:00.000-05:00

On our way to Cabo. We'll probably make landfall tomorrow evening
either in Los Frailes or San Jose de Cabo. Right now, we're making 6-7
knots sailing against 6 ft waves.

Sent from my iPod

In Mazatlan

2010-04-29T11:53:00.001-05:00

We arrived in Mazatlan this morning after an overnight passage and we’re chilling at the El Cid marina.

San Blas to Mazatlan

2010-04-28T09:17:00.001-05:00

Departing San Blas, and heading for Mazatlan.

Sent from my iPod

San Blas

2010-04-27T21:26:00.001-05:00

Anchored in San Blas for the night. It's a pretty rolly anchorage and
hopefully we'll continue to Mazatlan tomorrow.

Sent from my iPod

In San Blas, Nayarit

2010-04-27T21:01:00.001-05:00

We have arrived in San Blas after an easy motor-sail with dolphins and turtles keeping us company.

Adios Banderas Bay!

2010-04-27T11:55:00.001-05:00

And we’re off! The plan is to hop up the coast to San Blas, Mazatlan, then cross over to the Sea of Cortez and wait for a weather window to start going up the Baja coast to Ensenada.

SMS from 881632511323@msg.iridium.com

2010-04-27T07:36:00.001-05:00

Departing Paradise Village, PV

They call it the Banderas Bay vortex

2010-04-20T21:38:00.001-05:00

And it managed to suck us in for another month after coming back up the Gold Coast. We’ve been spending a lot of lazy quality time at Paradise Village Marina again, and it’s suiting us just fine. We had a couple of ‘adventure side trips’ to La Cruz and Bucerias, and might even drive inland for a day or two to explore the jungle covered mountains that frame Banderas Bay. All this while hanging out with friends and waiting for a good weather window to cross to the Baja side and start our trek back to San Diego :)

Finding bliss in Bucerias. Yes, it’s a Rum AND Coke can!

Having fun at El Taco Stand in Bucerias:

Boogying at The Shamrock to the sounds of Guarana:

Bucerias:

One of many shots of Petter’s Corona Male Model portofolio:

Colorful Rio Cuale in old PV:

Sailing on Banderas Bay:

80’s is the new 70’s

2010-04-11T12:18:00.001-05:00

It’s been getting pretty hot down here in Banderas Bay. The days are longer and hotter and the nights are staying warm and humid. Thankfully we are getting acclimatized, so 80’s feels more like 70’s and 90’s feels more like 80’s…

Don’t feed the happy crocodiles at Paradise Village marina:

We’ve been in Paradise Village marina for a week now, after sending off our friends on Delos, Capaz and Totem from La Cruz. They are all on their way to the South Pacific, racing each other, obviously, to the Marquesas. We’ve been having lots of fun plotting their positions on the map and keeping up with their daily progress.

Saying goodbye to Delos:

We’re also been enjoying Leslie’s visit, our good friend from Seattle. It’s good to just lounge by the pool again after a couple of months of ‘heavy’ cruising :)

In La Cruz

2010-03-23T03:05:00.001-06:00

We’re back in Banderas Bay, anchored in La Cruz for the night. We had a great trip with good winds and favorable currents the whole way. Now time to catch some zzzz’s…

Welcoming party in Banderas Bay:

Leaving the Gold Coast

2010-03-22T08:47:00.001-06:00

And we’re off! After two wonderful weeks in Tenacatita, and a month cruising the Gold Coast south of Cabo Corrientes we raised anchor this morning and we are heading back to Banderas Bay. We truly enjoyed this part of Pacific Mexico and we’ll miss it until we come back next time!

Leaving Tenacatita

Swimming with Dolphins

2010-03-18T22:02:00.001-06:00

Pelicans in Trees

2010-03-18T08:59:00.001-06:00

We have had the most amazing wild life display in Tenacatita Bay the past couple of days. The dolphins came back and woke us up the other morning by surfacing and breathing right next to our bedroom window. Of course I jumped in and I actually got to swim with them! Well, mostly they got to swim around me… I could hear their echo-location clicks as they were approaching, it was the coolest thing! Then, a whale came and proceeded to jump out of the water right in between two sailboats anchored right next to us.

So we decided to take nature-matters into our hands and try the “Tenacatita Jungle Tour” again with our dingy. The tour goes through a mangrove-lined channel all the way on the other side of the outer bay, where you can cross by foot to the Palapa lined beach and go snorkeling in the “Aquarium”, so dubbed by our friends for the amazing coral reef and fishes you can find there. The trip was tons of fun, we saw lots of birds and even a baby crocodile at the end of the channel. The most amazing thing were all the pelicans hanging out in trees. Seeing these huge birds doing a balancing act in the small branches lining the shores was pretty eerie – like they didn’t really belong there and they got pasted into the picture by mistake. Once we got to the outer bay we snorkeled our fins out, had the most amazing plate of ceviche at one of the Palapa restaurants and made new friends with some local dogs. We even had some excitement on our way back when the tide was getting pretty low, but eventually everyone had a successful re-launch through the surf!

On an unrelated matter, it also seems that we have spent enough time in Mexico now that I started drinking beer and we both started tolerating spicy food!

Bella Marina at anchor in Tenacatita Bay. It’s one of the only places in Mexico where it’s so green it reminds us of the Pacific Northwest:

More dolphins:

Entrance to the Jungle Tour behind the jaggedy rocks:

Pelicans in trees:

Various other birds in trees:

Driving through the mangroves tunnel:

Rush hour in the Jungle:

Mini Croc with Coca Cola bottle:

Snorkeling in The Aquarium:

Sampling the local ceviche with friends:

Debbi and Bill making friends with locals while we were waiting for gasolina to be delivered from somebody’s back yard… Aaaah, adventure.

Pacifico taking the trip back through the jungle:

Made it over the sand bar and through the surf:

Pelicans in Trees

2010-03-18T00:08:00.001-06:00

On an unrelated matter, it also seems that we have spent enough time in Mexico now that I started drinking beer and we both started tolerating spicy food!

Bella Marina at anchor in Tenacatita Bay. It’s one of the only places in Mexico where it’s so green it reminds us of the Pacific Northwest:

More dolphins:

Entrance to the Jungle Tour behind the jaggedy rocks:

Pelicans in trees:

Various other birds in trees:

Driving through the mangroves tunnel:

Rush hour in the Jungle:

Mini Croc with Coca Cola bottle:

Snorkeling in The Aquarium:

Sampling the local ceviche with friends:

Debbi and Bill making friends with locals while we were waiting for gasolina to be delivered from somebody’s back yard… Aaaah, adventure.

Pacifico taking the trip back through the jungle:

Made it over the sand bar and through the surf:

Cruisin’ in Tenacatita

2010-03-15T20:16:00.001-06:00

Much has been written about the buckets of fun in the sun one can have in Tenacatita Bay. Brian’s blog Summer Camp in Tenacatita describes all the different ways one can have fun with other cruisers on the shores and watery ways of the bay.

The last couple of days were quiet in comparison in Tenacatita. More and more boats leave every day heading back North taking advantage of the weather window that just opened up and of the lull in the Northwesterly winds. Some of them are even heading South, back to Barra, Manzanillo and beyond to Central America. After the crazy antics of the numerous charter power boats and their afferent jet skis that poured into the bay just for the weekend the silence is more than welcome.

I don’t know if it was because of that or because it was a mostly overcast day, but we were regaled with the most amazing wild life spectacle today. There were numerous schools of mantas circling our boat, and a small pod of dolphins cruised in frolicked around the boats for hours. I actually jumped in and tried to swim with them, but they were gone by the time I got close. Most probably they were embarrassed out of their tails to be seen with such an ungraceful swimmer trashing around in the water… :P So I had to content myself to swim with the small mantas. And a puffer fish. :P

Mantas circling our boat:

Dolphins cruising in the bay:

Trying to catch up with the dolphins:

Swimming with the mantas:

Le French Baker

2010-03-07T15:23:00.001-06:00

No comment :)

Where the streets have no name

2010-03-05T00:16:00.001-06:00

We’re in Barra de Navidad, safely anchored in the calmest and most quiet anchorage south of Poulsbo, WA… The anchorage is in a lagoon protected from the constant Pacific swell by two breakwaters and a sand bar. Which makes it tricky to find your way in without running aground, but super flat and quiet once you’ve made it… Thankfully we arrived here following in Delos’ experienced wake – literally, about 10 feet behind.

We arrived here after our trip South from Banderas Bay, with brief stops in Ipala, Chamela, and longer stops in Tenacatita and Melaque, right before getting to Barra. Tenacatita was awesome and we’re looking forward to spending a couple of weeks there on the way back North. We even watched Norway win the 50 Km cross-country ski race in the Olympics from a sports bar under the shade of palm trees… Go Petter!

We’re getting ready to go check out the town we’ve heard so much about. According to the morning VHF radio net, where local cruisers converge on the radio waves to share information about the weather, currents, arrivals and departures, and local info, a lot of the streets of Barra have no names once you get out of the central 3 by 4 blocks, so most directions are given in a “take a left at the big palm tree” fashion. Aaaaah, the South Seas… :)

The colorful town of La Barra de Navidad:

Following Delos into the Lagoon:

In order to avoid running into this:

Melaque anchorage, barely protected from the swell by a rock reef:

Leaving Seattle:

In Tenacatita

2010-02-27T18:38:00.001-06:00

We’re back in Mexico! And the Tsunami came and went, it was only about 2 feet… thanks everyone for your concern :) All good in sunny land!

We are the Champions!

2010-02-16T14:01:00.001-06:00

Last weekend we held our own speed cross-country Bergman Olympics…

Norwegian Post

2010-02-16T12:48:00.001-06:00

Some days ago we had dinner at aunt Grete and uncle Bjorn’s place, and got to play in their Igloo that uncle Bjorn built out on the patio. Apparently this is a pretty popular past time in Norway :) Uncle Bjorn was going to send us the pictures through email, but then he decided to just drive over and drop them off. Efficient Norwegian Post :D

Another type of Cyclone

2010-02-10T14:05:00.000-06:00

There's a big mean Mediterranean Cyclone blowing over Romania right now and bringing blizzard conditions over the Southern part (that's where I am). Winds are clocking at 80 mph and it's snowing frozen cats and dogs...

Not to worry though, we have plenty of provisions ;)

Breakfast of Champions

2010-02-08T12:29:00.001-06:00

Glogg for breakfast:

Training for the Olympics. I unfortunately forgot my skis in Norway…

Meatatarians unite. This somehow reminds me of Portugal…

More breakfast foods, by the barrel:

Changes in latitude – 59 degrees

2010-02-06T14:33:00.001-06:00

We’ve been travelling through Europe for about two weeks now, missing all the ‘fun’ weather back in PV with the 80 knots winds and all the torrential rain…

Non-tropical winter weather was a bit of a shock in the beginning, but we got used to the cold after a couple of days and took full advantage of the snow to do some skiing, igloo building and good old fashioned snowball fighting.

Cream Birthday Cake for Petter – Yumm yumm

Boats frozen in in the Sandefjord Fjord. One of the coldest winters in recorded history…

Sunny day after mucho snowing in Predeal, Romania:

A palapa in Yelapa

2010-01-05T15:45:00.001-06:00

We’ve been looking forward to visiting Yelapa ever since our dear friend from Seattle, Katarina, cut out a travel magazine article and brought it over during one of the colder spells of last year’s winter.

So here we are, taking the trip across Banderas Bay to check the place out. We stopped by Punta Mita, which has become one of our favorite places in the Bay to pick Kim and Pat up and we were on our way, with promises of spinnaker runs across the calm waters of the bay. Alas, the winds in Banderas Bay are more fickle than even in Seattle, and the wind changed first from NW to SE, then it died completely. We motor-sailed most of the way, but on the plus side we saw lots of whales, a couple breaching completely out of the water, dolphins, and a jumping school of tunas.

The southern shore is impressive, with majestic, deep green, jungle covered mountains lining the Bay and the Sierra Madres outlined in the distance. Yelapa is on a small bay tucked into the steep hills that run all the way to the water. When the cruising guides say that the bay is really deep and the anchoring shelf is really narrow and close to the beach, they weren’t kidding. Our sonar didn’t even register a depth until really close to the beach, and the boats anchored there were not more that one or two boat lengths away from the breaking surf. We opted for the safer option of picking up a mooring ball and got a ride into ‘town’ in a panga boat that was obviously more fit to deal with the breaking waves than our small dingy :)

We had a lovely lunch of fresh seafood and strolled on the beach checking out the palapas and the local ‘taxis’ – saddled up horses ready to take you to the little houses scattered up the hill or to the deep jungle and waterfalls behind. There are no cars in Yelapa, and the only access is by boat or horse to the next town inland.

The wind finally filled in and we ended the day with the sail back to La Cruz and a yummy dinner.

Bella Marina rolling at anchor in Yelapa. Yes, it was super rolly.

Pangas landing in the surf

The locals welcomed us :)

The rugged shore

More palapas in Yelapa

Money rules, even in this South Seas piece of paradise

Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-02T20:34:00.001-06:00

New Year in Punta Mita, Banderas Bay:

Activities, activities!

2009-12-29T21:36:00.001-06:00

Life at a resort is pretty sweet. We wake up around noon PV time, which is really 11 local time, so we don’t feel quite as bad, go for a swim in the lap pool to exercise all the previous day’s Pina Colada’s off, then ‘move’ to the lounging pool for some sunning, tanning and more floating around. Sometimes we throw in some body surfing at the beach for extra flavor, then it’s happy hour again.

Every day we pass by the Starbucks (yes, they have a Starbucks and a Wallmart and a Costco here) there is a guy who always tries to sell us activities. It’s funny, because we say no every day, so that makes about 14 rejections so far, but he’s relentless. “Amigos, want to go dive? Want to go surf? Zipline? Golf?” Which brings me to the Activities we’ve been doing on our own.

First, it was the dive we did with Erin, Brian, and Brady (Brian’s brother). If you don’t know who Erin and Brian are, you need to catch up on some blog reading :) We all went on Delos to Las Tres Marietas, a national park and one of the best diving sites in Banderas Bay. We had an awesome dive, saw lots of reef fishes and urchins and sea stars, and even a couple of eels. We got there just in time to get one dive in before the big Vallarta Adventures boat landed in the anchorage spilling about a hundred pink tourists into the bay, neon green floaties and snorkels included. So we decided to take a break, have lunch and watch the show. Which was highly entertaining, especially after the mooring ball started drifting to sea with the boat still tied to it. We had a relaxing sail back home after another dive, and we ended the day with a yummy dinner and drinks.

Then, it was the night out in Bucerias with our friends. Fried bananas on the street, cola in a bag, and an awesome brazilo-latino-afro-fusion band playing at the Shamrock, a tiny Irish bar in the middle of a Mexican town. Awesome!

And last but not least, we connected with our friends from Seattle and SYC for a day of surfing and fun in the sun in Punta de Mita where they have this gorgeous villa right on the beach, within a stone’s throw of a pretty good break. Thanks Kim and Pat for a gorgeous day! And thanks Gina and Kit for making sure we got in touch!

Las Tres Marietas:

Crazy rock formations and caves at the Marietas:

Brady diving down the anchor chain:

Colorful reef fish:

We found Rudolf at the marina!

Iguana visiting with us at the pool:

Chillin’ at the resort:

Surfing in style in Punta de Mita:

Surfer dudes recovering after a hard day’s work:

Feliz Navidad! Craciun Fericit! Merry Christmas! God Jul!

2009-12-23T12:53:00.001-06:00

Wishing you all the best for the Holyday season this year!

PV

2009-12-19T13:16:00.001-06:00

We have arrived at Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta four days ago and have been enjoying the resort with all its pools, hot tubs, restaurants and beautiful beach. We even started exercising again swimming in their lap pool! The resort is huge, with many hotel buildings and private villas and even its own shopping mall!

Yesterday we decided to check out Puerto Vallarta, or PV as the expats call it, and here are some pictures from our trip.

Christmas Tree / Pom de Craciun, tropical style

Modern art on the Malecon:

Fun with friends:

Los Hermanos…

Jesus and his mighty bottle of Tequilla:

Local bus in PV. A totally different Jesus…

La Cruz, Nayarit

2009-12-13T17:56:00.001-06:00

We have arrived in Banderas Bay after a fantastic trip, punctuated by whales, dolphins, a marlin, and catching a tuna. Banderas Bay is Pacific Mexico’s largest protected bay, about 20 miles across, and our first stop is in La Cruz. We’ll be anchored in La Cruz for 2 days, after which we’ll head over to Paradise Village Marina in Nueva Vallarta where we will spend the holydays.

Cheerios!

Time is fluid in Chacala

2009-12-12T20:22:00.001-06:00

Days seem to flow into each other in this little corner of paradise. We suddenly realized we’ve been here for 5 days, not that we’re counting… :) This is the first anchorage that looks and feels truly tropical, and it’s pulling us in.

Days blend into each other…

Bella Marina at anchor off the beach:

We swam or paddled our surf boards to the beach every day for Pina Coladas:

Chacala, Nayarit

2009-12-10T13:08:00.001-06:00

We arrived yesterday in Chacala, a charming bay with a beautiful fine sand beach lined with coconut trees, cute colorful houses and palapa restaurants. The anchoring here requires a stern anchor to keep the boat pointed into the swells. That’s a second anchor you drop off the back of the boat so that it stays pointed in a certain direction for all you non-boaters out there:) The rocking from the swell is pretty gentle if you tuck in behind the land point that protects the bay.

The mainland is lush and tropical:

Hammock Fest 2009:

San Blas, Nayarit

2009-12-08T14:21:00.001-06:00

We had a gorgeous sail out of Mazatlan, with perfect conditions, good winds and flat seas. As we progressed south we started seeing squalls on the radar that quickly caught up with us. Finally, a fresh water rinse for the boat that we didn’t have to work for! Fortunately the winds stayed constant through the squalls too so there wasn’t really a lot to do than dodge under the bimini to avoid getting wet… We also caught a tuna that made some very yummy steaks for dinner last night. We were planning to stop by Isla Isabella to check out the wildlife there, mainly birds, but the anchorage looked very rolly and uncomfortable and the maps did not match the actual location, so we played it safe and continued on to San Blas.

We arrived to the anchorage yesterday evening right after sunset, with just enough light to get through the entrance of Mantanchen Bay and find a good anchoring spot right next to Brian and Erin on Delos, who had been here for a day already. Our friends from Capaz were also there. We saw and heard on VHF a lot of boats from La Paz, so I guess the party just keeps on going south.

San Blas is known for its former fame and glory as a military and maritime center for the Spanish rule in Mexico, the silent bells of the old Nuestro Senora del Rosario church that inspired Henry Longfellow’s very last poem “The Bells of San Blas”, and for the pesky ‘jejenes’ or ‘no-see-ums’ biting gnats that come out at sunset. Some even argue the jejenes were the main reason for the fall of the city from its former glory, and after having some encounters with them last evening I tend to agree…

We’re planning to hang out here for a day or two, then continue on down the coast towards PV. Cheerios!

Mazatlan

2009-12-06T15:13:00.001-06:00

We had a fast and fun crossing to Mazatlan that culminated with an acrobatics show put up by a team of dolphins playing in our bow wake as we approached the entrance to the marina yesterday morning. We decided to splurge on the El Cid marina, complete with a resort and pools with swim-up bar and a cool grotto you can swim in. After catching up on some rest, we hit the pool and hot tub for a well deserved soak after the overnight passage. Mazatlan is a party town on Saturdays, and we were serenaded by mariachis late into the evening from across the disco water. Disco disco!

We are off to Isla Isabella soon, but in the meantime here are some more pictures:

Sunrise over the mainland:

Welcome party to Mazatlan:

Chillin’ by the pool:

Wheeee!

El Grotto:

Off to Mazatlan!

2009-12-04T12:34:00.001-06:00

ANd we’re off to the mainland… The wind is taking us to Mazatlan, so I guess that’s where we’ll stop first :)But before we hot the Gold Coast, some more pictures from our last anchorage in Baja.

The sun setting over a good glass of Pinot:

Our baby from underwater. The water was pool clear! You could see schools of fish swarming the waters, and we swam with a school of huge tunas… Unfortunately we didn’t have a spear gun.

Bella Marina at anchor:

With Brian and Erin at the Gigglin’ Marlin:

Still no dingy wheels…

No comment :D

Full Moon over Baja

2009-12-02T20:20:00.001-06:00

Us sailors are always in tune with the Moon. It controls the tides and the currents. It can transform the black night ocean into a shimmery liquid silver sea. Tonight is a Full Moon – the first Blue Full Moon of the month, a rare occurrence in the celestial calendar.

Espiritu Santos, Part Deux

2009-11-30T18:06:00.001-06:00

Fish on!

Dingy wheels would be handy right about now…

Our anchorage in Calleta Partida viewed from the hiking trail:

Desert and more desert:

Apparently this is what they make Tequila out of:

Petter in search of Internet on top of the island:

It’s still surreal for temperate me to be in the desert. Under a fig tree… :)

Thanksgiving feast with Erin and Brian on S/V Delos:

Amazing sunsets:

A cloudy day in Mexico

2009-11-25T16:32:00.000-06:00

Today we woke up to clouds and a chilly wind in our anchorage in Calleta Partida in Isla Espiritu Santo. The same Pineapple Express that’s dumping tons of rain over the Northwest is sending wisps of clouds thick enough to block the sun over the Sea. There is a bizarre attitude inversion regarding the weather since we turned the corner at Cabo san Lucas. Although it’s only been a couple of weeks since we reached the Sea of Cortez, sunny and warm has become the norm, so a cloudy, cool day is a fleeting event. Much like a sunny day in Seattle is a rare occurrence during the winter and not to be missed.

So what does one do with such a day? It’s perfect for running errands, everything from running the generator to recharge our battery bank to making water to cleaning the boat and doing laundry… in our washing machine of course since the generator is running anyway :)

Tomorrow will be a new sunny day, I’m sure!

Islas Espiritu Santos

2009-11-23T22:54:00.001-06:00

After a week in La Paz we headed over to some of the Islands North in the Sea of Cortez: Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida. Our friend Gil was visiting from Seattle so we decided to run from civilization for a couple of days and go diving and fishing in the islands. Calleta Partida, the anchorage we stopped in was gorgeous. The water is aqua marine, green and gin blue depending on the depth and how much sand is on the bottom. We anchored in aqua marine and swam and dingied to the light blue gin.

The anchorage is surrounded by red stone desert high cliffs, dotted with green for the cacti and white for the sand.

We found some great spots for snorkeling and diving and we will surely be back for more!

We’re now back in La Paz for a day to run some errands, and we’ll be back in the islands next week. Will probably trade some fish for the traditional Turkey for Thanksgiving :)

La Paz:

Ensenada to La Paz

2009-11-15T16:53:00.001-06:00

We spent 5 days coming down the Baja California coast from Ensenada past Los Cabos. We had pretty decent winds, sailing about two thirds of the way. The rest was motoring – after all, we were eager to get there :) The weather was getting noticeably warmer as we got closer and closer to Cabo San Lucas, on the Southermost tip of Baja California Sur. We decided to bypass the crazy party that is usually Los Cabos and continued on to an anchorage in Los Frailes, about 40 miles farther into the Sea of Cortez.

Sunrise towards Cabo. One day to go!

We dropped hook in 40 feet of the most beautiful aqua marine water I’ve seen since Hawaii. The temperature was to match – 28C (that’s 82F). We spent a couple of days exploring the beach, swimming off the boat, snorkeling and diving under the boat where a whole ecosystem had formed within a couple of hours of our arrival. It was like having our own private aquarium, right off the swim step! We got to try our SeaBreathe diving system and it rocks!

Bella Marina at anchor in Los Frailes:

Our own private aquarium:

We also spent some wonderful evenings hanging out with pour friends on Delos, Erin and Brian and trading stories from our passage. Since we left right after the Baja HA HA, a cruiser rally that goes from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Erin came up with the name of Baja HI HI for our own mini-rally. We ended up having only 3 boats, so it became the Wee HI HI.

We left bound for La Paz after a couple of days and decided to take a spot at Marina Palmira. It was pretty cool arriving here as this was the second time visiting the spot, this time with our own boat! The first time was last year during our Cabo vacation when we rented a jeep and drove around Baja. Something I would totally recommend, by the way :)

The Sea of Cortez. It’s like the Grand Canyon, but filled with water :)

The boat was so salty the task of getting rid of all the salt icicles forming on the lifelines seemed too much to take on, so Petter and I decided to help the local economy by hiring somebody to wash the boat for us while we had lunch at a wonderful seafood restaurant. Best decision ever! :D

La Paz is a lovely Mexican seaside city with a lively Malecon (seaside promenade) and many restaurants, bars and coffee shops. We spent last evening exploring it all, but I think there is some left for tomorrow too :)

Cheerios!

San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico

2009-11-04T23:20:00.001-06:00

We had a rather windless day today, motoring all the way from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico. We left San Diego early in the morning and worked our way through layers of fog until the sun cleared it all away. Our arrival into Mexico was welcomed by a pair of blue whales, some grey whales, and dolphins. Pictures tomorrow!

Leaving San Diego

2009-11-04T01:30:00.001-06:00

This is it, folks! Last night in San Diego. The fog has rolled in this evening, telling us it’s time we head South to warmer weather.

We are leaving tomorrow morning, first thing in thing in the morning, and planning to check into Ensenada.

Cheerios!

San Diego

2009-10-29T23:57:00.001-06:00

We’ve been in San Diego for five days now, sampling some of the Yacht Clubs on Shelter Island. We’ve been running errands – not too many- while trying to still have some fun, or at least purchase the tools to have fun with later. Our most exciting recent investment was an AirLine hookah, an engine/compressor gizmo that allows us to both dive up to 60 feet with no tanks. We’re planning to stop in a lot of spots in Baja and try it out :D.

Shelter Island in San Diego is perfectly located right next to tons of marine stores and services, which makes working on last minute projects pretty easy and convenient. A lot of stuff is getting done on the boat, but we’re starting to lose that eternal vacation feeling we started getting in Newport, so we’ll escape to Coronado for the weekend. Then it’s off to Mexico and Baja California sometimes next week! We’re planning to split the passage in day trips and stay in anchorages down the way, after checking in in Ensenada. And we’ll be getting a Mexico cell phone data card, so the blogs will keep on coming.

Oh, we’ve weathered a ‘winter storm’ while at dock here. We had some wind, nothing like we haven’t seen in the PNW, and the sky *gasp* covered in clouds for a day. All the locals were complaining about how cold it got: 20 degrees C. That’s about 68 for you Fahrenheit addicts. Pretty close to Seattle summer, if you ask me :)

We’ll write again before we take off to Mexico. Cheerios and Hasta la Vista!

The surf is always up in Newport Beach

2009-10-25T21:52:00.001-06:00

We arrived in Newport Beach at the beginning of the week and instantly fell in love with the place. Newport Harbor is a former lagoon that was opened to the sea, dredged and developed into one of the most charming small boat harbors we have ever seen. Picture perfect houses line the waterfront of Corona del Mar, Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, Balboa Island and Lido Island, each sporting beautiful docks with cute electric boats and their bigger sisters. There are also several well organized anchorages in the Harbor, marinas and thankfully numerous yacht clubs. We enjoyed the hospitality of Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club and Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

The Girl from Ipanema, Newport Harbor version:

The dingy ride to the public pier closest to the Beach took a good 30 minutes, but you can’t beat Rush Hour traffic at sunset in Newport Beach:

That’s our friends Erin and Brian, who convinced us to rent some surfboards with them and give them a try on the beautiful beach in Newport. And so we became hooked… and proceeded to buy our own boards the next day from this totally awesome shop, Russell Surfboards. We rode them at sunset the same day.

The week just flew by, and it finally felt like a vacation. Can’t wait for even warmer places! Despite the fact that we were totally enchanted with Newport it was time to head South. We’re currently anchored in Mission Bay, just a couple of miles away from San Diego, after a windless motor trip.

Here are some more pictures from Newport:

Wish we could afford that….

Sunset over the anchorage:

Petter trying out my board…

Green Flash

2009-10-21T01:39:00.001-05:00

Today I saw my first Green Flash. Green Flashes are an optical phenomenon caused by the refraction of light during sunset and they appear, as the name suggests, as a green light right after the sun’s disk has disappeared over the horizon. They usually appear over a flat, unobstructed horizon, like the ocean, which is why they are highly sought after by sailors and cruisers. If you see enough sunsets at sea, you’re bound to see the elusive green flash once or twice...

It was the perfect compliment to a great day of sailing from Marina del Rey to Newport Beach, where we are securely tied up at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. We’ll spend at least a couple of days here exploring the harbor and enjoying the sun.

Cheerios!

Marina del Rey, California

2009-10-19T14:48:00.001-05:00

We’ve been staying at Marina del Rey for 5 days now – this place is huge! Imagine a small city on the water, surrounded by more city blocks on the surrounding land and in between the peers. It’s the largest man-made small craft yacht harbor in the world, berthing more than 5000 yachts. It’s probably at least four times larger than Lake Union, our former home, and it has its own traffic lanes in the water, divided by a central ‘sailing only’ waterway.

We’ve stayed at a couple of Yacht Clubs while at the marina– Pacific Mariners YC and California YC. The friendliness of the people here is humbling. There were always friendly hands helping us on and off the dock, we got rides to the grocery store, and were invited for cocktails and dinner aboard our newly found friends boats. We’ve been having a wonderful time!

We also went to check out Venice Beach, with its famous Muscle Beach and Boardwalk and the Santa Monica Pier. We have a couple of theories about Muscle Beach, and currently the most popular one is ‘You must be this big to enter’. We only saw super buff people working out, and we’re wondering if they don’t allow normal people like us to enter.

Well, the sun is out, so I’m off for a dip in the pool :) Cheerios!

King Harbor, Redondo Beach

2009-10-14T23:09:00.001-05:00

It’s been a couple of rainy days as a big storm system is blowing through. It made for a pretty rolley anchorage for a couple of hours last night in Avalon Harbor. You know it’s Southern California though when despite the rain and drizzle, it’s still a balmy 20 degrees C.

Today we did the crossing from Catalina Island to Redondo Beach on the ‘mainland’. We saw some huge swells, but no wind, so it was motoring all the way. Oh well. The pelicans kept us company, but we didn’t see any of the other usual sea life.

We’re docked at King Harbor Yacht Club, right behind the breakwater. The high surf, leftover from the storm, is crashing over from time to time with a thunder-like sound. It’s a pretty cool spectacle, and we have front row seats.

Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands

2009-10-13T03:31:00.001-05:00

We left Morro Bay after a couple of days at anchor and arrived at Santa Cruz Island on Saturday morning. We spent the day at Fry’s anchorage, then decided to head further South to Catalina Island. So far the Channel Islands have been rugged and desert-like, although the waters are teaming with sea life! In Santa Cruz we were basically anchored on top of a huge school of fish, and on the passage from Santa Cruz to Catalina we saw tons of dolphins. The waters here are bioluminescent, and the dolphins swimming off the bow at night are like a private fireworks display, their torpedo-like contours lit up by microorganisms in the water. It’s one of the coolest things we’re ever seen!

We decided to give civilization a try on the Islands and we are currently on a mooring in Avalon Harbor, one of the busiest tourist and boating destinations in Southern Cali. The season is winding down, and it’s actually pretty quiet. Tomorrow we’ll explore the town and hopefully get some diving gear :D

Monterey to Morro Bay

2009-10-07T21:11:00.001-05:00

We started our trip from Monterey a couple of days ago with a short trip to Pebble Beach and spent the night anchored in Stillwater cove, right next to the golf course. It was fun to come in from the Sea, after having been there just the day before by car. We enjoyed a spectacular sunset and an almost as spectacular steak :)

Carmel Beach:

At anchor in Stillwater Cove, overlooking the Pacific Ocean:

Monterey was a lot of fun, but it was time to get South. We spent almost a week there, enjoyed our time visiting the city and surroundings, and attended a friend’s beautiful wedding in Menlo Park. Congratulations Sonya and Erik!

After Pebble Beach we headed towards Morro Bay. We decided to get away from the lee of the land and headed away to sea to be able to get some wind and sailing in. We sailed most of the way, with the moon and stars shining over our path. We arrived in Morro Bay right after sunrise, with dolphins playing in our wake.

Sunset over the Pacific:

And sunrise :)

The famous Morro Rock:

2009-10-01T23:16:00.001-05:00

Finding Nemo

2009-10-01T23:04:00.001-05:00

We spent the whole day at the Monterey Aquarium today. They have some amazing exhibitions, including a young great white shark and a huge kelp forest.

Santa Cruz to Monterey

2009-09-30T22:50:00.001-05:00

We are slowly making it down the California coast. Today there was a gale warning offshore, which gave us great sailing conditions in the Monterey bay, with 15-20kts winds. We had an awesome downwind sail from Santa Cruz to Monterey and got a slip at the marina here. We even found the Trader Joe’s right away!

Santa Cruz was a quiet, cute, beach town, although it totally empties put during the week. Here are some pictures we took:

Seals hanging out by the wharf:

Lazy or Narcissistic?

And of course the ‘Tsunami’ waves, which fortunately were only about a foot, registered by our electronics. The Tsunami was caused by an underwater earthquake all the way by Samoa in the South Pacific. Fortunately they have pretty fancy alert systems in place, and they were able to tell it was going to be only a minor surge on the California coast.

So this is what they mean by an open roadstead anchorage…

2009-09-28T12:37:00.001-05:00

We spent the night at anchor off the Municipal Pier in Santa Cruz. Remember Captain Ron’s first depiction of the sailboat rocking at the dock? That was pretty much us all night, dock not included :) I think today we’ll go into the harbor and get a slip :D

Leaving San Francisco

2009-09-26T19:30:00.000-05:00

We had a glorious sail through the Golden Bridge this morning. The fog lifted completely for the first time in two weeks just for our departure. There was a Saint Francis sailboat race getting ready to start on in the Bay, and some boats tried to catch up with us, but turned back disappointed after we passed under the bridge. I guess they wanted to play :)

We are now anchored in Half Moon Bay, listening to the Fog Horn, although technically there is no fog.

Last night in San Francisco Bay

2009-09-26T00:30:00.000-05:00

We had a gorgeous sunset in Sausalito. Tomorrow we are off to Half Moon Bay. The Bay is fun to sail around in, but we’re ready to head South. We’ll be back in the Bay area in a week, this time by car, to attend our friend’s wedding.

San Francisco Skyline at night:

Sailing into the fog…

2009-09-25T16:32:00.001-05:00

Downtown San Francisco

2009-09-25T16:29:00.001-05:00

Alcatraz

2009-09-25T16:27:00.001-05:00

Golden Gate from Sausalito

2009-09-25T16:25:00.001-05:00

Quintessential San Francisco

2009-09-22T19:41:00.001-05:00

The Golden Gate bridge from the top of Angel Island, all fogged up.

Angel Island

2009-09-21T23:06:00.000-05:00

We left San Rafael today to explore the Bay a little bit more. We decided to anchor at Angel Island, which is the closest San Francisco bay will come to 'gunkholing'. Excluding the Delta, of course. China Cove is a pretty small and open anchorage by PNW standards, but it's protecting us from the preveiling Westerlies. It's still really rolly though - it seems to be a theme with anchorages around here...

We spent three awesome days at Marin Yacht Club in San Rafael. Super accomodating staff, great facilities, and got fed margaritas by the pool by friendly members. We spend the time cleaning the boat in the morning and hanging out by the pool in the afternoons... or just hanging out by the pool. The marina staff seemed to be obsessed with helping us get rid of the yellow spots on the white boot strap next to our waterline. Really, by my standards, it's pretty clean... you can barely see the Lake Union stains. Not clean enough for California standards though, apparently.

On Wednesday we'll head over to South Bay, where we finally found a marina with deep enough water to accomodate our draft. So much water, yet so shallow... It takes some mental adjusting. I never had to consider before a marina would not be deep enough!

We were thinking about heading up the river to explore the Sacramento Delta, but again it looks shallow and I heard the mosquitos are fierce up there. Maybe next time...

Sausalito to San Rafael

2009-09-18T20:57:00.000-05:00

We spent one night at anchor in Sausalito and headed over to San Mateo to check out Marin Yacht Club. They have a pool and hot tub :D
San Francisco Bay has proven to be a bit of a dissapointment for me... It's shallow in a lot of places, silty, and very very rolly from the big tankers coming in and out all the time.
Napa river doesn't seem too exciting either, but we might give it a try next week. We're running out of things to do... but we'll hang out here for a little bit more to meet with our friends Erik and Sonya.
Well, at least it's tanning time tomorrow :)

Octavia has landed!

2009-09-17T02:02:00.000-05:00

I just landed in San Francisco! We're staying at Pier 39 for the night - rolly and sealy... I think we'll head over to Sausalito or Tiburon tomorrow.

2009-09-16T00:51:00.000-05:00

2009-09-16T00:48:00.000-05:00

2009-09-15T19:44:00.000-05:00

The Gate not so Golden

2009-09-15T11:55:00.000-05:00

After 6 days at sea, we finally sailed under the Golden Gate bridge this morning at 7 am. It was after a long night of slow sailing and some crazy weaving between large boats in dark and dense fog before arriving under the bridge. In fact, it was so foggy, that the bridge pillar was the first sign of land we saw since we left Cape Flattery. Needless to say, we're both a little sleep deprived (I think we've averaged 4 hours of sleep a night for the last 6 days), so we're probably going to crash and catch up on some z's.

Ocean Swells

2009-09-14T11:21:00.000-05:00

It's 9 am on Monday morning and it’s been 8 days since we left Shilshole Marina in Seattle. Currently S/V Bella Marina is passing Point Arena south of Cape Mendocino and just short of 100 miles steaming distance from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This is just the beginning of Bella Marina’s cruising adventures. Our plans are for my wife Octavia and me to sail down to the end of Mexico and back, stopping and enjoying adventures on the way.

The first step was to get our boat S/V Bella Marina from the cold waters of Puget Sound to the foggy waters of San Francisco. Every cruiser knows that there is a weather window for such an undertaking and that this window starts closing by the end of September. This complicated things a bit, and I was lucky to have my friend Mike help me take our vessel down the first leg to San Francisco.

The three of us left Shilshole Sunday September 6 on Labor Day weekend. We stopped for a little R&R in Roche Harbor, where Octavia stepped off the boat on Monday and got a ride back to Shilshole from friends we met up with in Roche Harbor. Mike and I started our journey towards San Francisco.

With only 55 gallons of fuel in the tank and 15 gallons in jugs strapped to the back swim step, Mike and I immediately set sail in hopes of being able to sail 50% or more as our fuel would not take us all the way to our destination. After a full day of sailing up the Straits of Juan de Fuca, we connect with Octavia who is on our way back to Seattle on another boat. She’s been analyzing the weather GRIBs and advises us to wait in Neah Bay until Wednesday. We do as the Admiral advises and spend Tuesday watching movies at anchor in Neah Bay.

On Wednesday morning we top off with fuel in Neah Bay, before heading out to round Cape Flattery. It’s foggy, but soon the wind kicks up, the fog clears and we set sails. We’re almost sailing northwest to get out and past the cape before tacking back south. Soon after our tack, we lose winds and start motor sailing.

Our first problem arrives. The burrito Mike and I had for lunch was bad and we both have food poisoning. We’re both feeling ill the rest of the day. Luckily we only had half each, and come sunset we start feeling like we’re on the path to recovery. As the sun sets we watch as a passenger on a nearby cruise ship Sea Princess is airlifted by a Coast Guard helicopter. He’s having a worse day than us. Still, we wow never to eat a burrito again! Before midnight we set the sails. I take the first shift, admiring the well lit sky and the full moon.

Thursday the windows are light and we set the spinnaker. The rest of the day is spent trying to sail in light winds, while staying out of the way of fishing boats. Mike sets a lure so we can catch our own.

Friday morning I’m happy to observe that there’s no fog on the dodger windows. It’s both warmer and dryer. We set more lures. In the afternoon, the winds get stronger and we swap the spinnaker for a main and jib. We tack towards the shore. We start getting into routine. We pump out the holding tank, charge batteries using the portable generator and watch a movie downstairs.

Saturday morning is a fun day. I set a new record getting out of bed quickly, when Mike started yelling. He was just excited that we had fish on the hook. We pull a decent size yellow fin Tuna and spend the rest of the morning rinsing it. We had Tuna for Lunch. In the afternoon a pod of Orcas appear twice to play with our bow wake. The second time, they stay so long I get bored watching them and don’t even notice them leaving. I did snap a few hundred shots though; maybe one of them will turn out decent. The boat is flying down the swell behind the spinnaker. We made some changes to the spinnaker setup during the day and it’s paying off. I’m in my element.

Sunday morning we finally get to Cape Mendocino. We’re still pretty far off shore and the seas and winds are building. We have one reef in our main. Later in the day we’re still at Cape Mendocino, this is turning out to take a good time to pass. The seas build and south of the cape it gets really rough. We spend the rest of the day reefing sails and tacking back and forth in pounding waves. We didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before and we’re both tired. It’s hard to get any sleep below with all the noise, so we end up watching several movies. By evening the weather finally subsides and we’re both mentally exhausted.

Monday night is calm and we both catch up on some hard needed sleep. In the morning, I check for cell signal and am happy to finally get a signal. I download the weather GRIBs and catch up on some blogging, while S/V Bella Marina is riding down the ocean swells.