Turtle Bay - Bahia Tortugas or Bahia San Bartolome Sun 10/29 11:05 AM central time (Ginger)

We're just 7 miles from our first anchorage in Mexico. We left San Diego Thursday afternoon at 4:45P and have sailed and motored on and off since then. Just south of Ensenada there were fires which we watched all night. It looked as if they were very close to homes. There were beautiful sun sets and sun rises as a result of all the smoke. We flew the spinnaker all day yesterday and have (mostly) had great downwind/down swell sailing conditions. The new mast step is doing it's job beautifully and the boat has performed well. During a sail change last night Peter put his hand on something slimy in the dark. Turns out it was a small squid. Upon further inspection in the light of day there were a number of squid on the deck. Being sleepy and still steeped in NW culture, at first Peter thought he had encountered a fishy slug. We caught a small striped bonito this morning and shortly after that were visited by dolphins. Saw several flying fish, though none of those came aboard. We have ditched the ski hats and gloves and are warm with just a foul weather jacket at night. Nice change from wearing the full foul weather get-up. It's overcast and 73 balmy degrees right now and we're already enjoying the warmer climate. We're looking forward to our anchorage in Turtle Bay and hopefully some lobster from the local fishermen.

Good bye San Diego (Peter)

As we write this, we are preparing to leave San Diego. It is time to head south, the hurricanes seem to have stopped and it is downright cold at night here. Other boats from the Northwest have collected in San Diego. Some we know well, some we are meeting for the first time. A lot of them are to leave on the HaHa in a couple of days, and of course some are "independents" heading south soon like us.

Here are Susan and Daryl, whom we first met a couple of years ago on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Both boats were sailing with an eye to testing systems for heading south to Mexico. We had enjoyed a dinner together, sharing plans, and we remember wondering what the chances actually were that we would really head down the coast. Now as we sat down below on "Wiz" it seemed hard to believe, but we felt grateful and lucky to be on the water in San Diego.

We've also seen and chatted with Shilshole K dockers "Yohelah" “Baloo”and "Kinship." "Masquerade" and "Argonaut" will arrive soon. Also here from Shilshole is “Rocinante.”

We have some relatives in San Diego, here are Mel, Melissa (niece), Miles, and Melina. We also had dinner with Dom (nephew) and his wife Tasha but weren't quick enough with the camera.

Ginger’s sister Edie and mom Sara (with her friend Jim) came to visit for a couple of days.

Edie’s actress friends Heidi and Meeghan came aboard for a dinner.

The new mast step that Shelter Island Boatyard fabricated is beautiful.

Here is Wayne, the boatyard boss.

We especially enjoyed the A9 cruiser’s anchorage with the great views of the city

and the variety of ships and boats passing by.

Though the anchorage was rough at times!

Here's my favorite dinghy at the downtown dinghy dock.

We’ve sewn new curtains to keep out all that sun, done the grocery shopping, and the laundry, picked up some pesos, gotten our visas and other paperwork in order, checked email, stowed the gear, topped off fuel, folded up the dinghy, plotted a course, run new rigging, tied up the lee cloth, and now we’re ready to go!

Getting ready for the next hop (10/25, 3:55P - Ginger)

We've turned off the cell phones, shopped and put away the food so we're almost ready to leave. One more trip to Downwind Marine, fuel dock, pump out and maybe even the grocery store and we'll be on our way. We hope the last storm of the season was Paul. Living in the calm water of San Diego for the last month means we have to look around the boat carefully for potential projectiles and put things away. Peter is making new lazy jacks to catch the sail when we lower it. The boat list never ends but we can move to warmer weather to work on more projects. We went to a party Monday night organized by Kinship and saw many of our Seattle neighbors as well as other cruisers heading south. I'm sad to think about our old neighborhood splitting up at Shilshole.
My focus now is lobster. I've heard there are fishermen who will sell lobsters on the way down the coast and I'm looking forward to that first dinner. The lobster only live south of Santa Barbara and north of Cabo so sea queasiness aside I'm planning a few lobster dinners before we're out of that zone.
Cheers!

Back afloat in San Diego (Ginger)

Friday the 13th was a great day for Marcy and crew. The morning started with a little rain, the deck got painted anyway and the boat was launched early afternoon. It was a great end to a busy week of projects and errands. We saw our nephew and his wife Tasha Tuesday. We toured the Midway aircraft carrier museum, finished making curtains for all the ports, got all the land projects wrapped up on the boat and numerous trips to the marine stores completed. We had a plan to see the Imax film "The Coral Reef" Friday night and were able to enjoy a leisurely bike ride there, watch the movie and an adventure ride home in the dark. Saturday began with a huge rain storm that flooded parts of the boat yard for a few hours and cleaned the sidewalks nicely. It was great to finally see our first rain since leaving Seattle at the beginning of August. We decided that's a record for us to go over 2.5 months without seeing a drop of rain. Saturday afternoon we had a visit from our niece Melissa, her husband Mel and their kids Miles (favorite phrase "excuse me") and Melina. Miles couldn't get enough of the boat and Melina even warmed up to it after she got aboard. Today was a day to wrap up mast touch up paint and get ready for stepping the mast Monday or Tuesday. After that a trip to Costco and some stowing and we'll be ready to head south.

San Diego Layover 10/7/06 (Peter)

Our time in San Diego is centered on doing what we can to make Marcy ready for further adventures, using what we’ve learned on the trip south to improve things. Of course the major project, in the able hands of Shelter Island Boatyard, is to replace the mast step. It showed signs of weakness on the trip down – not in the stormy times but in light airs and big swell.

First the rig had to come out. This will be a good opportunity to install that new LED masthead light and add a cleat.

The rigger, John had the rig out in no time.

Here is the old step – wood, glass, aluminum, and stainless. The new will be all glass.

Here I am watching the yard foreman, Scott, and the fiberglasser, Alex, formulating the plan.

The boat had to be hauled for the glass work. More opportunity to replace zincs, maintain the prop, and check out the bottom. We were pleased that the work we did a year ago on fairing and sealing the keel has held up nicely.

This zinc is definitely due to be replaced!

Of course the daily chores never stop:

Laundry,

grocery shopping,

and searching for the best happy hour. We’ve also visited the Mexican Consulate to get our visas, and we have become very familiar with the various marine supply stores.

Also, we must keep the holding tank pumped out – before we were to be hauled out we made a mastless dash for the police dock to pump out. We were rewarded with the sight of the “Californian”

and the Liberty ship “Jeremiah O’Brien” heading out to sea. We had been on board her a few days previously, as well a Victory ship. It is wonderful to tour these moving, functional historical vessels. The engine room on the O’Brien was still hot, and the engineer was maintaining steam pressure for auxiliary equipment when we visited.

As we motored back to the yard, we had one of those oops moments….check out how close Marcy’s wake is to the bouy, we really didn’t deserve to miss it. Nailing such a bouy dead on at 6 kts would be a very nasty thing! I think I was too busy ogling the schooner….

Life in the yard, Shelter Island Boat Yard, SD (Ginger)

We've been at the boatyard for over a week now and we were hauled on schedule first thing yesterday morning. Everyone in the yard has been great and we are happy to report that work is proceeding at a quick pace. Alex, the fiberglass artist, made a tent over the boat to keep off the morning dew that leaves everything soaking wet and any rain, though we haven't seen a drop since Seattle. He's been working hard all day and it's been hot here in the yard. Peter spent all day yesterday polishing the propellor and it looks like new. I got out my calendar from last year and we hauled our boat last September 24. In the water for almost exactly a year and all the hard work grinding the keel and re-sealing it paid off. It looks great. We went to Downwind Marine several times today for various items and Peter greased the prop. Our touch-up/polish jobs are almost done so we'll be ready whenever they're ready to put the boat back in the water. Last night Peter and I went to Old Town to meet Kathy (my former boss) for dinner. We had a really nice dinner with Kathy catching up on news and it was great to see so many Casey people including my Office Administrators and lots of HQ folks. I got no sympathy for my tales of how tough life as a vagabond is, and I can't say I miss the office.. but I sure miss my Casey friends!
About San Diego, I was told by a local to say nice things about this city..it would be hard to say anything but nice things. It's a great city for a boat. It's relatively small (compared to Seattle) and people are very friendly here. We have met really nice people everywhere we've gone. And the weather; there was an article in the paper that it might rain soon but we've seen nothing but blue skies. Great city planning located Balboa Park in the heart of the city, and there are 3 light rail lines. The public transportation involves a bit of walking or bus transfers but the systems are in place and we're excited to have our first ride on the light rail some time soon.
It's hard to cook in the boat yard with no water etc. so we took advantage of Taco Tuesday at the Brigantine down the street. Always looking for good happy hour appetizers. Tomorrow might be my day to make mosquito screens. We'll see if I'm able to create something that keeps out the bugs and stays up on the ports!