The Best Laid Plans of Men and Mice and BOATERS!

Our first Xmas in our home was  gift enough for Will and I. We decided not to exchange gifts this year. It really was not a Charlie Brown Christmas event. Ok, ok, ok...I hear your thoughts and concerns from across the waves of computerland...."What about NIKKI LONGSTOCKING she deserved something?" Nikki received gifts that she took upon herself to open, at her discretion, when she thought nobody was watching.  Her 2 sided stocking (one side says "Nice" and the other says "Naughty") was flipped to remain on NAUGHTY after she pulled it down from the wall to remove 2 new balls from Santa Paws.

Aunt Linda's gift....a jingle bell necklace. I loved it and Nikki tolerated it. (That's another gift she tore into at her leisure because there was a bone attached to the necklace...she thought she was being punished.)

 

 

 

This is the view from our lanai.(This is where I am sitting now.)  We were thrilled to have an extremely well decorated boat parade come literally right in front of our window.  We elected to go out to the pool with other neighbors and share drinks and appetizers.  We were SHOCKED and AMAZED at how well the boats were decorated. We have viewed boat shows in Long Beach for many years and thought this would not compare to California.  WHOA ...once again we were wrong.  It looked as if these boats were professionally decorated....a mini Macy Day Boat Parade with about 50 or so boats. (We love being Floridians!!)

As it stands we have tentative plans to head back to Mexico in January and are still seeking confirmation that the ship will pick Perseverance up around the 22nd.

 

We do have some decorations to take down and figure out where to store.  Will and I wish all of you a Merry late Christmas and the happiest, healthiest of New Years for 2013.  Please remember to include the families of all these SENSELESS MURDERS that have happened from Connecticut to New York in your thoughts and prayers. Christmas will never be the same for them. Count your blessings....LATERS!!!

Buenos Diaz

In case any inquiring minds really wanted to know if the world is flat and ends at the California Borders....the answer is 'El No!!  There is a whole other world just and hour and a half south of San Diego, Ca.  Access to WI FI and then actually getting a signal is a challenge.  I could have kissed the dock literally when Will and I arrived in Ensenada on Tuesday afternoon.  We had decided not to try and leave San Diego in the dark on Monday morning the 10th because of the lobster pots and kelp and thought we would stop in Marina Puerto Salina a seven hour cruise verses the 12 -13 to Ensenada. Wow are pictures on the website ever deceiving for Puerto Salina.  We had the port captain tells us to come in at "high tide" he said however, you will be okay if your boat only draws 4' 6" which is the depth our keel will hit bottom.  Yes that is pretty fat for a Catamaran...our Cat is not quite the norm and we personally measured this when we hauled out for the water leak in Long Beach.  When we found the entrance to this marina waves were breaking at the entrance.  Boaters you KNOW this is NOT GOOD. (This can acclerate the boat and you can become caputured in a spin cycle like a washing machine.)
Crap,... Will and I were counting ...hmmm almost a minute apart.  We really did not have much choice at this point so we threw the throttles down and went for it.  In my life of lives I have never seen to 2 waves only 2 feet apart and yes they were chasing our boat.  I am yelling "faster, faster there are 2 breakers on our A**." Just as we turn our heads from looking at the stern of the boat in front of us are breaking waves on a sand bar inside the jetty. Will throws the boat into neutral and we are like OMG we can not go forward and we can not go backward.  Two guys working a crane to our far left pointed to some posts in the water telling us to go as close to the poles as possible.  We were had just enough room to enter a VERY disappointing marina.  Sad is a better word.  There were sunken boats and derelict boats mostly. I thought
wow how very sad.  There was a high rise condomium at the harbor master's office that was empty.  The high rise was about 7 levels  with a pool (not in use) and a hot tub questionable if it was sanitary.  The marina apparently has been under construction for 10 years and never completed.  Will and I had a slip with no shore power across from a 48 ' Catch that had sunk about a month ago the locals said.  There was a large boat sunken up front that had caught on fire that had Avalon, CA as its hailing port.  The story is Mr. Wrigley (the mega millionaire whom owned Avalon at one time) had bought this boat for his wife.  Sad broken down marina in need of money renovation to the docks and removal of trash boats.  We decided one night would be plenty and headed to Ensenada as soon as the sun popped out the next morning and YEAH it was high tide when we left.  Thank you God!

 These dolphins stayed quite awhile with us.  I was just a couple a feet above them and they would turn sideways and look at me with their sweet little eyes.

 

 

When we arrived in Cruiseport, Ensenada the boats were beautiful and the Mexican Flag was HUGE and flying proudly over its city of close to 500,000 in population. (According to the marina office.)  The boats in the marina looked great in addition to a couple of mega yachts. Most of the boaters are Americans living there or in route to Southern Mexico. I actually fell in love with this group of boaters and the guard gated marina.  Everyone is so very nice.  On Channel 69 every morning at 8 am the boaters from a few of the marinas sign on and offer salutations to new arrivals, departures, boaters with boat projects that need help,  some have cars offering rides for provisions needed at the store....heavy items like water and propane especially.  The dogs run free on the dock and  in the marina and our 'lil Swab Nikki Longstocking is in heaven. When we got here we heard endless tales of "Yachtpath's punctuality" or thus the lack of it...leaving people stranded over 30 days at a time in foreign countries. So here we sit with no answers except today we got an email from Yachtpath and they have a ship coming into Ensenada on January 22nd.   YES I SAID JANUARY.  We are extremely disappointed, shocked and still now sure what is going to happen at this point. We are going to try and get confirmation that we are to be definitly scheduled for this boat. If that is the case we are going to fly to our home in Punta Gorda, Florida and then fly back here in January.  We are comfortable with this marina, the security and the community to leave Perseverance here while we got take care of getting things set up in Florida...after all our cars are there.  We knew the ship was late last year in December for weather by about 2 weeks.  As a ship brokerage (Yachtpath) they find available ships that are able to transport yachts. Yachtpath does not own ships and that is the complexity.  They state the economy has caused less availabilty for ships. 

And here we are in Cruisport, Ensenada

 

We will continue to update this blog as soon as we have more information.  It rained all day thus far, first rain and grey skies since we arrived actually.  The cruisers are getting together at a place called TJ's for happy hour and if it quits raining we are going to attend. Hey "2 for 1 drafts and football"  they said....I do not know what football games occur on a Thursday night (reruns maybe??) but after a draft or two who cares.  LATERS!!

 

 

 

 

Firstmate's Log Friday 12-7-12

To start this day let us all take a moment to remember the Veteran’s we lost in Pearl Harbor 70 years ago.  It is easy for us to scurry about in our daily routines without much thought to the freedoms we have due to our fearless men and women serving in our Armed Forces.  If our veterans were income driven instead of dedicated to protecting our country the United States of America would be just another third world country.  My father  (Riley) served in the Army twenty years and Will’s father was a pilot in the Air Force over 15 years fulltime and 10 years part time in the Guard.  Both our fathers were in Korea for the Korean War and Will’s father  (John) also flew in the Vietnam War.  Neither parents worried about owning mansions and BMWs they worried about their protecting their  country and their families.  Again, we should all take a moment to include our Veterans and their families in our prayers  regularly and especially today.  Will and I  passed a battleship as it practiced maneuvers 2 days ago. It was interesting  to say the least,  watching  helicopters fly to the ship and depart with equipment attached to the dangling line.  It is required that you maintain a distance of 3 nautical miles from these ships.  The radio on your boat is set on Channel 16 at all times generally to monitor incoming alerts and should you be within the Three Mile Zone -  you will receive a Security Alert.

Yesterday was one of our Navy Veterans birthday…Happy Birthday Linc of the Downtown Marina . Linc and GiGi have “served voluntarily” as our best friends for several years. They also live aboard their boat Passage on the same dock in Long Beach. Gigi (lovingly referred to as Moma Gi to our Swab Nikki) has dog sat endlessly over the last few months while we had contractors servicing our boat engines and installing equipment. Linc and Gigi also hosted our Bon Voyage Party on 11/3 which was quite the party. Our Nikki is enamored with their pit bull Pirro and they have been quite the odd couple for years. Thank you Linc and Gigi for everything! We love ya!!!

 

 

 

We arrived in North San Diego yesterday and opted to anchor in Mission Bay in lieu of paying $100 for the night at the Hyatt Mission Bay Marina. We headed out this morning to Shelter Island located inside the bay of San Diego this morning.  This minor two and a  half hour sail was the only challenge we have faced since leaving the dock.  It is lobster season and there are endless lobster pots floating throughout the waters from Long Beach thus far to San Diego and some are located  in the wildest of locations…ie… the entrance into the marinas. (No joke.)   It seems it should be against the law however, it is boat at your own risk and good luck.  What makes it such a challenge in this San Diego area is the amount of kelp growing everywhere.  So not only do you have the possibility of wrapping kelp around your props you have the worse of the two evils available… the dreaded  lobster line wrapping around your props.  We had  larger swells  today  and hitting us on the beam this morning …..swoosh….boom….up down  and whoa …. there is a lobster pot quickly to your port whoosh slide over and there are 2 more to the starbird side.  It was a complete obstacle course today.   Hooray to my fearless Captain whom successfully navigated through this barrage of endless  crustacean  traps and miles of kelp.

 

Prior to last night we spent two nights at the Oceanside Yacht Club’s guest dock. It was grey and cloudy again. The sun did not come out until  3:30 (this is not a typo) and lasted until about 4:20.  Will and I discussed how we cannot wait to have the sunny mornings in Florida.   California provides an extraordinary coastline and with it comes a perpetual marine layer that often does not breakup until about noon.  We did as I mentioned previously  meet a couple whom has been cruising 8 years now.  As hoped for we met for drinks at 7 pm the night before our departure.  They were hanging out longer because they had a lobster pot  line wrapped around one of their props and needed better weather to get under the boat and remove it properly.  (Not joking.) Holly and Denis (pronounced De NEE he is French from Ontario, Canada) have the 43 foot Perry Catamaran with the 22 foot beam named Tango. We discussed different ports from California to the South Pacific, what it was like to be at sea over 2 weeks with no land in sight, tsunamis, rogue waves and storms.  Yes, what great cocktail conversations,  it was better than watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.  We had our own opportunity to interview the subjects on the Discovery Channel.  (AWESOME)  The one story they told us that was surprising to say the least to me was when we  were talking about Mexico and how a lot of people are apprehensive about going to the Mexican Marinas.  They told us they have ONLY been afraid one time in a marina.  Here is what surprised me. “We were in a marina in the back bay of San Francisco on the east side.  We were instructed NOT TO EVER leave the marina and turn left and DO NOT leave the marina at night.”  Interesting I thought for a couple that had gone all the way to the south end of Mexico over to the Marquesas’ Islands to Hawaii and up to Alaska this was the only time they felt fearful about their surroundings.

Will and I are now guests of the Southwestern Yacht Club in San Diego and it is NICE!! We will be here until Monday.  I will keep you posted on our adventures.   LATERS!

 

 

 

December 4, 2012

Sun, some wind and heading south to Oceanside Marina

After we tied up in Dana Point on Saturday the window of sunshine diminished and the next two days were rainy, grey and foggy.  As expected the last part of the northwestern storm was coming in on Sunday through Monday.  Dana Point is a nice small boat marina with not alot of slips for boats over the size of  30 feet.  We did secure a guest side tie in front of a 47 ' Norhavn and behind a 45 ft sport fisher.  This location was next to the bridge so there was alot of foot traffic.  Everyone who walked over the bridge or through the marina had a dog.  It was like we landed in some crazy dog fantasy land. 
Our Swab Nikki was thrilled with the scenery. She could not count all the new friends and I was unable to count the number of Mercedes.  I had forgotten what life in the southern part of the OC was like. (Orange County not Long Beach) We finished our trip by having dinner with some old friends Connie and Dale at Harpoon Henrys. It was fun laughing about alot of the old times Connie and I had working together in the OC and how different life was today.  I was working with Connie when Will and I bought our home in Punta Gorda.  She knew the game plan we had for 2012/2013 and was happy to know we stuck to our goals. (Thanks Connie and Dale we had a great time and when you visit with us in Florida we will do Harpoon Harrys which is close by our home.)

The sun was shining this morning as we headed south to Oceanside Marina. There was huge pod of dolphins (not familiar with name of this breed but they had the smaller tales) When we arrived inside the marina 3 hours or so later we found we were sharing an end tie with a 43 foot catamaran Tango.  The couple we met (Holly and Denny)have been cruising for 8 years fulltime. Hopefully we will have more time to chat with them. They have been as far north as Alaska and west to Hawaii and south to the southern point of Mexico.  They said they want to go to Hawaii to live and wished us luck with the hot weather and sun that wreaks havoc on boats in Florida. Denny said his sister lives in Port Charlotte and he is familiar with the area. I thought hmmm....Hawaii...Florida....Hawaii...Florida oh hell....I think Florida is perfect for us.

 

We took out our bikes and went exploring to see what the locals were up to.  It was 2:30 and we decided  that pizza and beer would be perfect. These bikes are awesome they fold up and can be stored on the boat.  We put Nikki in the basket on the front of Will's bike and away we go.

 

Perseverance

Our family and friends gathered at 8:30 am yesterday morning to wish us smooth sailing.  IT IS FINALLY our day to leave the dock we have been on for 5 years and leave our favorite end tie J101 in the Long Beach Downtown Marina in California. We have lived aboard Perseverance, our 35' Island Packet Cat, since August 2002. Will, the boat's captain, has been sailing since 1978 and used to race.  Will won several regattas
on his 22' Catalina. He has had a long time dream of retiring from his job at the City of Santa Ana at the age of 55 and go cruising. However, his plans changed quite a bit when I became his First Mate. (Women...we will do that!!!) His idea of cruising 10 years and then selling the boat to buy a camper for 10 more years after that are history. Having been in the mortgage industry over 20+ years I knew we would be better off owning real estate. My thoughts were boats, campers and cars all depreciate. Who knew the real estate market would take the greatest nose dive in American History and actually depreciate in value worse than most boats. We had to decide where we wanted to purchase property and after deciding that Long Beach did not offer the kind of cruising we had envisioned we began to think of Florida. Will had been looking at advertisements at the back of Crusing World Magazine. "Boaters Paradise- SW Florida- Charlotte Harbor." It was Punta Gorda Florida Ads we kept seeing. We booked airline tickets for June 2004 (it was March) thinking this would be a nice little summer vacation and an opportunity to see the area. Little did we know this would be how our adventure got started.

We bought an end unit in one of the many canal properties listed. We would have our own boat dock outside our bedroom window, a swimming pool at the end of our driveway and water surrounding this one street community. AWESOME!! We would have to wait over 8 1/2 years to move to this boaters paradise and alot of decisions along with priorities would have to be made to successfully meet this goal of living in Florida. We knew our catamaran Perseverance would be perfect for the shallow waters of Florida and the Carribean however, how are we going to get her to Florida. We had no desire to sail from the Los Angeles Harbor area to the Southwest Florida Gulf Coast. With our maximum speed of 6 knots that would take us well over a year with hurricane season etc. If we trucked her it would require special permits from coast to coast due to our beam being 15'  in width. We decided to have the boat loaded onto a cargo ship that would not even require we demast the boat. The ship will take her through the Panama Canal and to the east side of Florida- Ft. Lauderdale. Henceforth, our journey begins.

Will and I had been told our cars and our 18' boat (our smaller boat) would be picked up on Monday 11-19-12 and we planned to head to Ensenada, Mexico the next day. The cars were not picked up until Friday after Thanksgiving. This was our first delay. Yachtpath our shipping transport broker said not to look for 12/1/12 pickup more so between 12-6-12 through 12-12-12.

I would like to give a special thanks to our friend Linda in Punta Gorda. Linda accepted the delivery of our blood splashed vehicles the following Tuesday. A deer had been hit by a neighboring car and it happened to splat on our cars when they were being transported across country. I had told Linda a couple of nice Cuban fellows from Miami were delivering the cars. She said "Good Luck Diana!" Many moments of panic haunted me. The price for this multi-vehicle delivery was pretty reasonable.....hhmmmmm...had we not only help load up the vehicles, we had given these guys our keys. GREAT. However, to our delight the cars arrived on Tuesday four days later. The driver was nice and he went with Linda to the dry storage lot for our boat and parked it for her. Whew...I could smile again and actually laughed and cringed when Linda said "I'll wash Bambi off your cars." (I call Linda-- Will's wife #2 and his better half.... hahaha...Linda is so much more handier than I am...she changes out garbage disposals, knocks out walls to put in french doors, installs flooring and paints...she is every mans dream wife.)
Linda, and Nick her husband, are long time friends and also bought a home in Punta Gorda in 2004.

After the Tuesday arrival of our cars on the east coast we had the arrival of a huge northwestern storm that would take place in 4 storm bands in a 5 day period. Will and I delayed our departure again because of the rain, fog an extra large ocean swells. So Saturday 12-1-12 would be our departure day....also, we had to be out of our slip. As friends and family gathered Will literally "cut" our last line attaching our boat to the dock....an old sailors tradition....creating the terminology..."cutting all ties." It was foggy however, we were seeing sunshine for the first time in days. It was foggy however, the sun was peaking through......aahhhh....Poseiden and Neptune must be sleeping in...TIME FOR US TO GO!!!
It gave us a chance to see how our new Ray Marine Radar worked when we only had a quarter of a mile visability. It worked well identifying all obstacles that were in our path and allowing us ample time to steer accordingly.

We had an amazing sail from 8:40 am to 2:00 pm. Calm seas, sunshine and just a few 5 foot swells as well as a few dolphins along the way. We are in the Dana Point Marina on Dock A in the East Side Basin until Monday morning and then we will head to Oceanside or San Diego for a day or two prior to heading to Cruise Port, Ensenada, Mexico. The water turns a prettier shade of teal green around Dana Point verses the blue brown color in Long Beach. We plan to take out our foldable bikes today and explore the area. Our Swab Nikki Longstocking is pacing the decks warding off other dogs nearing the boat. More photos to come and less chat.  LATERS!

 

From the First Mates Deck