12/13/2011 - This one's for Raoul

Since no one came to my defense after Raoul hassled me about being a little tiny bit behind in blogging, maybe it's time to write something. You've got to remember that, when we aren't going anywhere, life just sort of moves on day by day with very little to write about. Just like your lives at home. But, I'll give it a shot anyway.

It's been cool down here lately. No so cool that I have to wear socks but, when the wind is blowing, long pants and a sweatshirt can feel pretty good. It's probably in the high 60s to low 70s during the day and down to the low 60s with an occasional dip into the 50s at night. Yeah, yeah, I know. You really feel sorry for us. During the day, once you get away from the waterfront where you can't feel the wind, it's still pretty darn warm most of the time.

The social whirl has eased up some since our friends Aimee, Frank, and Rudi flew off to explore the mainland for a couple of weeks. However, our new friend John, an Australian bloke aboard m/v Storm Bay, had a little gathering Friday night. He's getting ready to put the boat in storage and fly home for the winter (well, it'll be summer for him once he gets there) so he had a bunch of folks over to his made-for-entertaining boat. Finger food, beer, margaritas, etc. We had a good time. However, we didn't eat before we went and, unless you really make a pig of yourself, finger food doesn't really fill you up, so we stopped at Bandido's for a couple burgers on the way home. Eating dinner at 10 PM, just like real Mexicans.

Tonight we're going back over to Casa Buena. We're having a pre-Christmas dinner sort of like the pre-Thanksgiving one we had there when Cody & Scott visited. Our friends Zac &
Susi (s/v Wendy Ellen) are hosting. Zac's folks are visiting from the Reno area. We're taking a Chinese tofu salad with spicy peanut dressing. It was supposed to be Chinese chicken salad but Susi's a vegetarian.

You might think that finding tofu in Mexico would be impossible. And it probably would be in Loreto or someplace else smaller than La Paz. But, here we only had to look in 2 stores. Found it in a display of "exotic" stuff (Italian salami, American all-beef weiners, etc.) at the new Mega store. Things that seemed to us to be considerably less exotic than tofu proved almost, almost impossible to find. We haven't seen ricotta cheese in the stores. However, I happened across a recipe online for making your own. Looked pretty easy so Lulu jumped at the chance to try it out. She mainly needed it for some bruschetta she was making for a going away get-together on s/v Island Seeker last week. Anyway, there was a lot of it left and what do you do with ricotta? Well, you make lasagna of course. Okay, off to the store to get lasagna noodles as well as some ingredients for the salad.

We managed to get almost everything we needed either at Mega or Chedraui. However, a few key things were missing: dried basil, lasagna noodles, fresh ginger, and beef base. Oh and we were also looking for a large (1 liter) bottle of Microdyne. In the produce section of most of the stores they sell these little bottles of a bactericide called Microdyne. A few drops in a gallon of water makes a disinfecting solution to wash vegetables with. We also use a little in our water tank when taking on dock water, just in case. It's either iodine or bromine based. Chlorine isn't good for aluminum water tanks. Anyway, we wanted to find a larger bottle than the little bitty ones. We'd been told they sell it at City Club but that's way the hell and gone the other side of town. Oh, we've walked there and probably will again, but, it'd be nice to find it a bit closer.

Anyway, couldn't find lasagna noodles, beef base or basil. They had every other kind of pasta you can imagine, but no lasagna. We got some egg noodles and figured we'd make a lasagna-like casserole. However, once we got back to the boat, we discovered that we still had just enough lasagna noodles left for one batch. But beef base? Forget it. If I wanted chicken base I could have my pick of about a thousand different packages made by about 3 different manufacturers. But beef? No dice. Fortunately, Lulu had just opened our last jar so we're not in dire need yet. Basil, however, we couldn't find. But you want oregano? You can find bags and bags and bags of oregano. Pretty easy to find thyme. Rosemary is a little more elusive. We even found fennel. But basil just wasn't to be found. Lulu found something called "Pesto Seasoning" which was mostly basil so she used that and her meat sauce suffered not one bit as a result.

Yesterday, we were downtown and stopped in at the Aramburo market. This is a much smaller grocery store but is reasonably well-stocked. Guess what we found. That's right, lasagna noodles, fresh ginger root, beef bullion, and big bottles of Microdyne. You just never know. Simple shopping is always an adventure down here. We finally found basil at a little organic shop downtown (El Sabor de Baja).

Finally, here's a shot of my new favorite taco stand:

So far all I've had are the cerdo de chile morita tacos but I've felt no need to branch out. These are tacos filled with pork cooked in a spicy sauce, a lot like chile colorado. Dress them up with a little cilantro and you're good to go. Sunday, I introduced Lulu to these gems. In the little condiment bins there was something that looked like very finely chopped onion mixed with extremely finely chopped carrots or not-quite-ripe tomatoes. Lulu piled some on her taco and I followed suit. As I was adding a second small scoop, the proprietor looked alarmed and told me that was "Habanera!" Ohhhh. Well, not one to back down from a chile challenge, I resisted the urge to scrape any of the habaneras off. They were plenty hot but the only time I was uncomfortable was once when I inhaled through my nose while I had a mouthful of taco. The habanera fumes almost melted my sinuses! But, within a few seconds, the toxic fumes had passed and I was back to enjoying a nice mellow burn. These are excellent tacos with or without the habaneras.

Okay, that's going to have to be it for today. Happy now, Raoul?

12/8/2011 - Getting ready to go

Our moorage at Marina del Palmar is up on December 18. That means we have up to 10 days left to get our various dockside-type projects done. However, we don't have that many left to do. We finished one of the most important ones today.

When we were sailing across from Isla San Francisco to San Evaristo last spring, we hit a patch where we were taking a fair bit of water over the bow. Didn't think much about it since that's certainly happened many times before. However, that time, when we got ready to crawl into bed for the night, we found the bedding was wet. All we could figure is that the caulking between the caprail and the hull was pretty much worn out and ineffective. Water got in under the caprail, ran down the inside of the hull and, as some of it seeped between the ceiling boards in the v-berth, the bedding just proceeded to wick the moisture on out. So, a priority job has been to remove the old caulking and recaulk. Didn't need to bother during the summer since it was always hot and dry and the seas were never big when we were sailing on them. But, we're likely to get some seas on our upcoming crossing to Mazatlan so it was definitely time to do the job.

Removing the old caulk went pretty fast with a screwdriver drug along the crack. There were a lot of big dry chunks that came out. Behind that, in most places, I could feel that the old caulking was still somewhat pliant. Dug out as much as we could, then Lulu wiped the whole area to be caulked down with acetone to make sure there were no oily residues to screw up the job.

We started with the port side day before yesterday. I squeezed the caulk in and Lulu came behind and smoothed it out and wiped up the excess. One side was plenty for one day. That squeeze handle gets very hard to squeeze after awhile and the boat yoga positions are nothing short of tiring. We finished the starboard side today.

Armed with only a broken popsicle stick and a rag, Lulu managed to make my sometimes considerably less than stellar job look downright neat.

Other jobs include epoxying a couple of unneeded screw holes in the tiller and the caprail, change the engine oil, finish varnishing the bowsprit (another couple of coats should do it), fill the diesel jugs, and clean the bottom of the dinghy prior to stowing it on deck. There are a couple of minor jobs as well but none that would keep us here.

The crossing to Mazatlan is about 240 miles from La Paz. We need to grab a weather window between northers. Once a norther calms down, they say you need to wait another day until the seas calm down unless you like a really bumpy ride. Then it's time to go if another isn't predicted immediately following. The last few northers we've had have lasted a long time and were spaced very close together and there's another coming this weekend. With that in mind, we're trying to get our stuff done so we can split as soon as we get a good window, whether our moorage is up or not.

So, a couple projects to go and we are outa here.

12/7/2011 - Anniversary

It was one year ago today that Lulu and I arrived in La Paz. Seems like a good time to review the year and see just how long we sat in any one place, how often we were in a marina vs. anchored, etc.

12/7/2010-12/13/2010: Arrived in La Paz and dropped the hook at the "Virtual Marina". This is, in fact, simply anchoring in a area that costs money. In return we received dinghy dock privileges, and access to garbage, showers and bathrooms.

At anchor: 7 days

12/14/2010- 1/13/2011: Tied to the dock at Marina Costa Baja.

Marina: 30 days

1/14/2011 - 2/8/2011: At anchor off the malecón, La Paz. Enduring norther after norther, possibly dragging anchor, and working on my transmission.

At anchor: 26 days

2/9/2011 - 4/8/2011: Tied to the dock at Marina del Palmar, La Paz doing a bunch of maintenance chores.

Marina: 59 days

4/9/2011- 4/19/2011: Anchored off the malecón, La Paz

At anchor: 11 days
In La Paz: 133 days

4/20/2011 - 5/15/2011: Cruising "the islands". During this time we anchored every night. We spent time at Bahía Falsa (2 nights), Bahía San Gabriel (2 nights), Ensenada Grande (5 nights), Isla San Francisco (4 nights), San Evaristo (4 nights), Timbabiche (4 nights), Punta San Telmo (1 night). At this point the exhaust mixing elbow on the engine crapped out and we had to return to La Paz to make repairs and await a new mixing elbow. On the way back we hit: San Evaristo (1 night), and Ensenada Grande (1 night).

At anchor: 26 nights

5/16/2011 - 6/2/2011: Anchored La Paz.

At anchor: 18 days

6/3/2011 - 6/14/2011: Cruising the islands again. Anchorages: Puerta Balandra (1 night), Ensenada Grande (1 night), San Evaristo (5 nights), Puerto Los Gatos (1 night), and Bahía Agua Verde (4 nights)

At anchor: 12 nights

6/15/2011-8/21/2011: Moored at Puerto Escondido. Mooring is slightly different than anchoring in that we use someone else's "anchor" instead of our own. However, since it's completely different than being tied to a dock and no services are available, I'm counting it the same as anchoring. During this period, we returned to Oregon for 3 weeks but we were gone from the boat a total of 4 weeks.

At anchor: 68 days

8/22/2011 - 9/3/2011: Moored in the "Waiting Room" at Puerto Escondido.

At anchor: 13 days

9/4/2011 - 10/5/2011: Anchored at Ensenada Blanca, also known as Bahía Candaleros.

At anchor: 32 days

10/6/2011 - 10/13/2011: Anchored in "The Ellipse", Puerto Escondido

At anchor: 8 days

10/14/2011: Anchored at Ensenada Blanca on our way back to La Paz.

At anchor: 1 day

10/15/2011: Enroute to La Paz, starting with an overnight run.

10/16/2011: Anchored at Ensenada Grande

At anchor: 1 night

10/17/2011: Anchored off the end of Marina del Palmar, La Paz.

At anchor: 1 night

10/18/2011 - 12/6/2011: Tied to the dock at Marina del Palmar, La Paz

Marina: 50 days
La Paz this time: 51 days

Totals:

Tied to a dock: 139 days (38% of the year)
At anchor: 224 days (61% of the year)
Underway: 1 day
And one day is lost somewhere.

Total days in La Paz: 184 days (50% of the year)
Longest period away from a dock: 191 days (52% of the year)

And there you have it.

12/5/2011 - Impromptu get-togethers

It's impossible to make any kind of firm plans in cruising communities, at least in the communities we've been in.

Thursday afternoon was wearing down and Lulu and I didn't really have any particular plans for the evening. Kind of planned to make a pizza and watch a couple DVDs and then turn in. Just a normal quiet evening. However, it pays to not get too invested in plans.

Somewhere around four or four thirty, Aimee, our Aussie friend, stopped by to get some more pointers from Lulu about crocheting beer can cozies. We sat and had a couple beers and visited. A little while later, the big power boat moored next to us, Dee Jay, came back in from a 2-day dive trip. After she was all tied up, Frank from s/v Island Time, who had been on the trip, stopped by our cockpit for a visit. A few minutes later, Benny (m/v Lucia Celeste) brought over some huge fish filets that were apparently part of Frank's booty from the dive trip. We stashed them in our reefer since Frank didn't think his was working too well.

After watching the sun go down, the breeze continued to be shot. With all the beer that was being consumed, it was pretty clear that we all should probably eat something. No way did we have enough pizza fixings for everyone so I went below and fried up some spuds (with onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and rosemary) and, with Frank's OK, fried up about half of the fish that Benny had brought over. We sat in the cockpit and had fish, spuds and sliced tomatoes to take the edge off the alcohol.

After dinner Benny returned and the visiting continued. But, eventually things began to break up as first Benny, then Frank and then Aimee headed back to their boats. Lulu cleaned things up below, I cleaned up the cockpit and we settled in for an episode of Northern Exposure before retiring for the night.

Not every afternoon and evening goes like that but a lot do and you never know when they will happen. More of them happen since Lulu made lots of new friends while I was helping Keith bring s/v Chamisa down from Long Beach. We always enjoy these unplanned get-togethers.

Saturday was another example. In this case, Aimee, Susi and Maia, along with 14 month old Ronin, came by for a bread-making lesson. Lulu had decided to make cookies for the fund-raising bake sale at Subasta on Sunday so, since the oven was hot anyway, she figured now was a good time to give her baking lesson. At first, Siempre Sabado seems a poor choice for a group cooking lesson. After all, she's small. But, as this photo attests, there's room for all (well, except for me). Sorry for cutting off Lulu's head but taking a photo down through the companionway and trying to get everyone in the shot presents some challenges. Sorry, too, about the glare but it was pretty darn sunny Saturday afternoon.

The lesson was over and the bread was baked by early evening. By that time we had been joined by Frank (s/v Island Seeker) and Zak (s/v Wendy Ellen, husband of Susi and father of Ronin, oh and brother of Maia). The guys were in the cockpit and the girls were down below. Ronin spent equal time in both places. Eventually, once again, alcohol consumption and the time of day dictated that food should be eaten. We still had the smaller half of Frank's fish and Lulu had put together a zucchini souffle earlier. So, although it was probably only enough for 4 hungry people, Lulu stretched it to feed seven by adding sliced tomatoes and feeding us lots of fresh-baked bread. After dinner, Benny (m/v Lucia Celeste) showed up. He has a knack for not being here when food is being served. Poor guy. We all sat and drank and visited for another several hours before people started getting tired and/or cold and decided to call it a night.

It's 2:20 PM right now and I honestly can't say what we will be doing 4 hours from now.


PS: I mentioned Subasta earlier and should probably explain. Every year FANLAP (Fundación por la Ayuda de los Niños de La Paz), an organization that helps the underprivileged kids in La Paz, holds a big auction ("subasta" en español) as a fundraiser. All year long various organizations including Club Cruceros, gather donations. Some stuff just goes directly to the as-is sale table and some is reserved for the auction. Local businesses also donate goods and services for a raffle. It's an all-day affair and is attended by the cruisers as well as tons of locals. There are some really good bargains to be had, especially on the clothing table. We donated some things to Subasta this year to make some room on our boat and, I'm proud to say, we managed to spend the whole day there without buying anything that we couldn't consume. Well, except for that pair of earrings Lulu bought herself, but they're small so it's OK.

12/2/2011 - Ads revisited

I've had a change of heart about displaying ads on my blog. I've removed them. Let me know if they still show up on your computer because I'm not entirely sure how this stuff works. However, I decided that I couldn't, in good conscience, rant on about runaway consumerism and then turn around and help the very forces of evil that promote this consumerism. Could some ads be helpful to readers? Maybe, if I knew how to manipulate and control the ads better. But the fact is that I can simply embed a link to some product that I particularly like and, if I don't, I know you are all smart enough to use Google to find stuff yourself.

I'd supposedly already made $42.00 from people clicking on my ads (although I'm not sure where that money is) so it's not just a case of sour grapes. I just started feeling very hypocritical. This is not meant to cast aspersions on anyone who does choose to display ads
and thereby tap into the fat cats' purses, I just choose not to.

11/29/2011 - A little help from our friends

It's not often that Lulu and I hire someone to do any work for us. Matter of fact I can count the times we have without using any fingers at all. But, we decided to bite the bullet this time.

The Cetol on our caprails and the side trim was looking pretty funky. The rest of the wood looked good enough to just scuff it up and re-apply a coat but the caprails, bowsprit and side trim really needed to be stripped. YUCK! After watching a fellow boater have some local guys do his woodwork we decided to take that route as well.

We hired Luis and his helper Pelé to strip and sand these areas. They worked at it more or less steadily for 4 days, just finishing up today. Was it a bargain? Depends on what you compare it to. We ended up paying $3500 pesos (~$254.00 US) for the job. We provided everything except the scrapers: heat gun, extension cords, masking tape, sandpaper, and sander. Considering the hours they worked and the fact that Luis was gone a lot of the time and only Pelé was working, I figure we paid them about $7.81 (US) per hour. Probably a pretty decent wage down here. So, it certainly wasn't a steal but at least it wasn't a rip-off nor as much as we'd have to pay in the States. Was it easy? It was for us, can't speak for Luis and Pelé. Would we do it again. More than likely.

Luis

Pelé

We've decided to take the path of least resistance strategy for teak care this time around. Basically you just leave it alone. Give it an occasional scrubbing and maybe wipe on a little oil from time to time to make ourselves feel better, but that's it. Bare teak can take care of itself very well, being a naturally oily wood. It'll turn gray like our decks (which have never had any finish on them) but, considering the lack of work involved, we can learn to love gray. That's how the boat was when we bought her. We will still have to apply Cetol to the bowsprit since it's Douglas fir and to the rudder cheeks since they're something else which isn't teak. We've also decided to keep the hatches and other inboard wood, be it teak or not, Cetoled. It doesn't get near the wear that the caprails and rubrail get and the finish seems to be holding up very well.

11/28/2011 - Just trying to be courteous

It's a requirement in Mexico, and probably every other country, for visiting vessels to fly the flag of the host country. This is called a "courtesy flag" and is a sign of respect. You fly your own country's flag as well but the courtesy flag should be higher and at least as large as your own ensign.

Now, it's not much of a sign of respect if the courtesy flag is all tattered and faded and that's something that doesn't take long in this climate. Constant exposure to the UV rays of the sun combined with flapping against shrouds in the wind, and flags get beat up pretty fast. We've already worn out two. And they're fairly expensive. A decent one can run you $15-$20 US or more, depending on size.

We think we've come up with a viable solution. You sort of need a sewing machine to make it work, though.

We were having lunch at The Shack one afternoon when we noticed a piece of fabric flying from the rafters. It was about 5' wide and maybe 6' long and sported 6 Mexican flag prints in that area. All you'd need to do to make flags would be to cut the fabric into flag-size pieces, hem it, add a couple grommets and you'd be good to go.

We managed eventually to find the right fabric store and bought enough fabric for 10 flags. Total cost: $5.00 USD.

Our old flag:

And that was after Lulu had repaired it once.

A couple hours of cutting, ironing, pinning, sewing, and grommeting and this is one of our 10 new flags:

They won't last a real long time, being fairly lightweight, but, at fifty cents each, we can live with that.