Lindor headed south

Sister ship

Our friend Lindor has headed south from Ensenada bound for LaPaz.  She picked up a crew position on Stargazer, a Rawson 30, a very sturdy William Garden design sloop. 

We wish her a safe and fun trip down the coast.

Sailing out to Isla Todo Santos

We made another trip to Ensenada for boat chores and some sailing. January 7, 2012.  It takes a day to get to the boat and another day to clean the boat and stock provisions.  Sandy grit covered the topsides.  A few mooring lines had parted and the good people at Baja Naval had re-tied the boat for us, knotting together the shredded pieces.  Of five fenders, two were completely destroyed, shards of plastic hanging useless from the stanchion bases.  The next day we went to Agencia Arjona on Blvd. Teniente Azueta and got a very good price on a hundred feet of 3/4 inch three strand mooring line and two 15 inch round fenders.

Master of Electronics

Our stereo had its CD changer had gone on the fritz so we had brought a new one from Seattle and brought it across the boarder.  Connie proceeded to rip out the old stereo and install the new one.  Lots of little wires and lots of little connections. Doesn't she look like a little elf with her glasses and pointy chin?

Isla Todo Santos on the horizon

We next went to the Senora Leather shop on the corner of  Macheros and Adolfo Lopez Mateos and bought some leather scrap and a metal leather punch from the very nice proprietor there.  He helped us later with his good english/spanish translation skills to find other merchants in the area.

My brother Bernie arrived along with our friend Lindor and Bernie set about splicing loops in the new mooring lines while I whipped the ends and Connie created chafe gear out of the leather.  After a couple of days work we had new or repaired mooring lines, all with chafing gear.

We set out for  Isla Todos Santos wanting to anchor for the night. On the way out of the marina we had some circus moments as I managed to swing a couple of 360s inside the fairway and scare the hell out of other boat owners clustered on their stern decks ready to fend off the 34K monster. That boat will not ever back straight.. never.  So I really do need to plan on backing to starboard in every docking situation.

Catching some wind about a mile out, we kept the full genoa and main.  Eventually she heeled over, got in the groove and made an astonishing 6.9 knots in about 10 knots of wind. 


Napping on the port side settee, I awoke to a commotion as we neared Isla Todo Santos.  Up on deck I saw we were about to sail into a field of fishing floats just off the shoreside of the island.  We tacked about and cruised around the fish farm pens and floats looking for depths of less than 80 feet.  Nothing to be found.

Isla Todo Santos Fish Farms

The sun was about two hours off the horizon so with no place better to go we turned tail and headed back the ten nautical miles back to the harbor.  The wind died and with Bernie at the helm we ran the diesel back across the bay.  I went below to start charting just in case the darkness caught us before we gained the harbor entrance.

Dolphins played on our bow wave as Lindor washed clothes and hung them on the lifelines for drying.  Down below I found that not only one but two GPS units had failed.  Both Garmin handhelds would boot, look for satellites, then lock up.  I charted our location on the paper chart in case we needed to dead reckon back but we arrived in the harbor just as darkness fell and I was able to dock the boat without incident.

All in all, a good day's outing on the boat.  Now where's that bottle of 7 year old Havana Club?

Thoughts on flying home

Along with getting rid of more tangible assets there are digital assets to be dealt with.  I found this little composition on my jump drive from 2009.

I’m coming down from the sky to the flats of Colorado, miles and miles outside of Denver.  The airport here is way out in the flats, away from the mountains.  The terminals are huge and lonely, separated by acres of pavement. Most people here are on their way to somewhere else. Denver is a convenient hub for flights crossing the continent. Once in the airport I ride the motorized walkways not because the distances are too far but just for the novelty of it all. Walking briskly on the walkway moves you along at the speed of a run. I use the layover to explore both ends of the terminal and to get some exercise.  Back at the gate, all the humans queue up in an orderly fashion assisted by the sign posts with groupings and numbers so there is no dispute about who goes first. We all stand around and check our voice mail and email as if something of import must have happened in the two and a half hours we were in flight, disconnected from our worlds.

Then later, on the plane over Kansas, headed to Tennessee, I have a gin and tonic in a little plastic cup with a little plastic stir stick.  This is not my drink but is my father’s drink and I celebrate his passing when I ride on airplanes.  I munch on nuts and read Ernest Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast” and get all nostalgic about Paris. As he’s all about writing and what it takes to write well and as the gin and tonic and the altitude is having its affect I decide to write, and to write in the style of Hemingway.

Because of the gin and the writing I get a little sad. When I think of all the miles I’ve traveled, all the places I’ve been, and all the people I’ve known I realize I’ve made and lost many connections.  Yet one connection that survives is the family, the ever shrinking family. That one thing stays a constant in my life. No matter what I do or where I go or what’s happening in my world I always go back to visit the family.  Every year or year and a half there is that one short trip, usually a long weekend where I go to first sit across a restaurant table from my brother then later sit on my mother’s couch and hear how everyone’s lives are going.

We are everyday strangers who know each other too well.  Our common bonds are of blood, not of the mind.  I cannot sit still that long when visiting at home and even though I try to be patient I just have to get out and walk sometimes. The lack of stimulus puts me in a coma of sorts and I feel that someone is trying to draw me back into a world I left years ago.

My ears just popped so that means we are descending now. The plane is bouncing around a little bit as we move through the cloud layer.  We’re about 45 minutes out.  I’ve got the cell and my brother has his cell and he will take pride in timing his arrival at the baggage claim at the exact right time factoring in the arrival time and how long he estimates it will take me to walk through the concourse to the pick up. And that will be one focus of our conversation as we glide into the night towards his house. We will take pride in our timing and bring it up later at Mom’s when she asks about the flight.

I’ll sleep in a strange bed and the sun will rise two hours too early. When I visit Mom’s on Saturday she will have a bottle of red wine waiting and I will praise her purchase no matter what she has for me. She’ll have her Bloody Mary at 1:00 PM and maybe a glass of something with dinner then everyone will go to bed early and I’ll stay up and read in the guest room because of the time difference.  I’ll probably knock the Hemmingway out this weekend then resort to whatever I can get my hands on. I’ll eat too much, sit too much, and have a tearful hug goodbye.  When I think about it, with all this time in between us, I said goodbye years ago.

Goodbye, Hello

From this

Goodbye to yard work

Goodbye to water and gas bills

I’ll miss the hot tub

I’ll miss the big kitchen

Goodbye cleaning the gutters

Goodbye weeding and pruning

I’ll miss having a guest room

I’ll miss parking in the driveway

Goodbye big mortgage
Goodbye debt
Hello monthly rent

To this

Hello freedom

Hello a major milestone on the path to live aboard.

To this

Offer made, offer accepted

We had the realtor office open on Wednesday, had about 8 realtors show the house over the next 3 days then we had a well attended open house on Sunday between 1:00 and 4:00. That afternoon an offer came through with a time limit of 9:00 PM. I accepted the offer and on Monday we have signed papers.

Next steps include the inspection and appraisal and if all goes well we'll be out of the house on December 6th. It's happening fast and that's a very good thing.

Presently looking for a nice place to rent for a year or two, wanting to stay in the neighborhood so as to be close to friends.

Wonderful Cape Cod for sale in Victory Heights.

Wonderful Cape Cod in on quiet street near Victory Heights Park. Charming updated home with fabulous NW gardens. LR with gleaming hardwood floors, coved ceilings, & fireplace opens to generous DR. A great updated cooks kitchen. Three main floor bedroom. Newer 3/4 bath and updated full bath. Generous family room adjoining kitchen. Patio & storage. Newer roof, new paint inside & out, refinished floors, updated plumbing, gas furnace & more. Quiet neighborhood minutes to park & amenities.

We take off our shoes at the door, hang up our clothes, hide everything in closets and drawers. This place looks like nobody lives here... and I feel like I don't live here. It's a hotel. It's a model home. It's a glossy page in an architectural magazine. Open up one of the two back yard sheds and it's a different story. Junk piled floor to ceiling and musky, dusty smell. Our smells have been condensed and crammed into two little sheds.

Living sparsely is good practice for when we live on Traveler. I'm learning how to put things back as soon as I've finished with them. I'm learning to have less of everything, less socks, less shirts, less pots and pans.

Less is good and it's good to have less.

Get over here and buy this house right now!

Time out for Traveler

Two big chores:
1. The fitting out of the boat
2. Dissolving possessions ashore

I'm been concentrating on chore #1 because that's the one I'm most interested in. But I sure can't enjoy the fruits of #1 until #2 is completed and #2 is a bear.

Last fall I had a new roof and gutters installed on the house. Then in the spring, we re-landscaped the yard. In July and August I had the foresight to paint the exterior of the house. So at the end of August (and the start of the rain) the house has that street appeal thing going big time.

Other important tasks are accomplished like getting the crawl spaced cleaned and re-insulated and having the old underground oil tank decommissioned.

Turning now to the interior, the nest is in a constant state of upheaval. Move everything out of one room. Paint that room. Rip up the carpet. Then go on to the next room. This week the painting should be just about wrapped up and we'll be ready for the floor guy to refinish all those scuffed up and newly exposed fir and oak flooring. There is nothing like moving everything you possess to tell you how much stuff you still have crammed into a house. But, we push forward and know that it's got to go somewhere. We hope to have the house on the market before the day of the dead.

Having the house on the market will be a minimalist adventure as we fill up some driveway storage PODs and try to live with as little as possible inside the house. After all, the goal is to have perspective buyers come inside and imagine all their stuff there.. not my stuff. Our realtor friend, Peggy Smith with Lake Realty has been so very helpful with suggestions for colors and vendors. If there were only more hours in the day and I had the energy to keep working through them then we'd be on the market sooner.

It's like pushing a giant ball up a hill. You just keep the pressure on and take it one step at a time. Getting out of this house will be a huge milestone. Just as getting Traveler purchased and fitted out is a milestone. No house means no yard to maintain and no house payments to make. We'll be happy renters for a while until we can move to the boat. The idea of downsizing is very appealing.

San Ysidro border crossing closed

After securing Traveler the best we could, with canvass in place and docking lines doubled we grabbed a taxi to the Autobus station and took the ABC bus to Tijuana.  There we found that the San Ysidro border was closed!

Border closed?  How can that be?  Terrorist plot? Are we at war with Mexico?  Maybe a drug cartel his holding the immigration officers hostage.  Nope. A wooden overhead canopy collapsed onto several vehicles at the crossing, sending 11 people to hospitals and creating a traffic nightmare as thousands of border crossers were diverted to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. That would be us.

In the pandemonium we found an official looking cab driver who took us on a wild ride to the Otay Mesa crossing.  $15 each for a 15 minute carnival ride weaving in and out of traffic lanes.  We hopped into the dusty queue not knowing that it would take us three hours to get to the revolving gates.  Three hours in the hot sun. Three hours without sustenance.  Three hours without a pee break. 

Then to the MTS #905 bus to the Iris Trolley stop.  The driver, off her shift, called her supervisor and got permission to take a bus load of stranded riders to the Trolley.  We all rode for free, chanting and cheering.

By that time Alaska flight 885 had left San Diego without us.

Hours later, ensconced in the Vagabond Hotel at Shelter Island, I convinced the Alaska supervisor to cut us a deal on return flights early the next morning to Seattle.  Crack of dawn flight home and so tired that I napped away the day, calling in sick to work. 

I'm miles away from my boat.

Checking in at Ensenada

Monday morning we called the dockmaster Rogelio Gregg on VHF 77 and he walked down to meet us.  A little paperwork and we were all set with gate keys and directions to the Centro Integral de Servidios (CIS) to check into the port.

After breakfast and a nap we all walked over to CIS and began the check in procedure.  The operating hours are 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM.  It took us 1.5 hours to complete, this with no lines.  The next time I'd leave myself about 2.5 hours just in case there are other boats checking in at the same time.

Immigration: All crew got tourist cards. Filled out forms and submitted to Immigration officer. He processed these and sent us across the room to the bank where we paid $262 pesos each. Then we brought our stamped receipt back to Immigration for our cards.

Port Captain:  Same building, same room. Here I used my Visa card to pay the arrival tax for the boat of $306 pesos.  We had to present our tourist cards, crew list, and boat documents. We went outside and made a couple of needed copies of documents.

Bank:  I took the packed from the Port Captain to the bank and here I paid for a temporary import permit at $49.50 dollars on my Visa.  The permit is a very pretty document and sticker that you put in the window of the boat and it allows you to keep the boat in Mexico 10 years.

Customs: I went to customs (same place) and listed all the gear on the boat.  I then pushed the button and got a green light and we were done.  What happens if you get a red light? Possibly someone comes to the boat and does an inspection.

Cantina:  We had to then report to a cantina for the obligatory fish tacos and cervezas.

Marina:  Back at the marina Rogelio made copies of my documents and we were done for the day.

Offshore

We headed offshore about 5 nautical miles and sailed down the coast with a 10 knot breeze pushing us at about 5 knots.  Wonderful sunset at the Coronado Islands then on into the darkness.  We swapped one hour watches until 21:00 then switched to two hour watches in teams of two.  So Connie and I took the 22:00 to 02:00 shift and Chris and Keith took the graveyard shift from 02:00 to 06:00.

We had to slow the boat down so as not to enter the Bahia Todos Santos til daybreak.  Chris had concerns because he could not see both lights on Islas Todos Santos but later found that our chart was old and the newer chart showed one light inactive.  I took my shift at 06:00 and took us into the bay (Bahia) and around the breakwater at Ensenada harbor.  We went straight to the dock without a problem as I had previously identified Baja Naval marina on Google Earth.

Lessons learned: Since we'd figured that the trip would take about 14 to 16 hours we decided to travel through the night as to arrive early in the morning to approach the harbor in daylight. In retrospect we could have left Mission Bay early in the morning, say at about 04:00 and got in just at sundown. Then we'd just tie up at the marina and wait till the morning to check in. Thus we'd avoid having our sleep patterns disturbed.