November ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

November 1, Wednesday

Clouds are moving off this morning, so it’s a go! Bill and Trisha come down to see us off.
We release the dock lines at 10 am and are headed out --- whoops, our main GPS is hung up and won’t work, so John pulls out the back up one. Now the video camera won’t work, what the heck! We get out around the point and hail Nanamuk who is out from the main anchorage a ways- and they say they are going back due to the main engine is over heating by 20°. So we head back in also - oh well, it’s really rolly out here with this west swell, which we would be cross-ways with on the most part.
Ok, Samie and I go ahead and do school when we get back in at noon. John takes the GPS in to Guaymas to see if he can get it fixed- no luck. We will have Bill and Trisha take it back to Arizona and John Muir can send it off to the factory and bring it when they fly into La Paz.
We went into dinner, saw Rob and Grace, they got their problem fixed. Back on the boat - GPS works now- so what do we do, hope it keeps working or go ahead and send it back?

November 2, Thursday

John took the car into the Gibson’s, they are letting us park it there while we are cruising this winter. Not too many clouds hovering above today- 8:30 am and we leave Marina Real.

John goes below to check the engine room - whoops, I had opened the sea cocks instead of closing them and we have salt water squirting all over the engine room.
It’s real rolly out here with the westerly swell, not much wind, when I spot a whale swim across our bow and John spots a manta ray jump to the port.
We are about an hour out when Nanamuk reports a plugged fuel filter. They have to turn off the engine to make the change and they are really bobbing up, down and all over the place. We head in their direction and in 20 minutes they are underway again. Five minutes later fuel filter plugs, this time they rig a line into a jerry jug of new fuel and decide it’s best to head back and clean out all the fuel. We see that they are ok and will make it back, but head on across. By now it’s 12:30 pm.
That 2nd time we were waiting we spotted a 6 or 7 foot shark, we more or less chased him down while I videoed him swimming on the surface.
John caught a medium size Bonito, which we returned to the Sea God.
The sea has calmed down and we have 5 to 10 knots SW, very pleasant. As the sun is setting we can already see the mountains on the Baja.
There was a three-quarter moon shining from above, light winds and calm seas took us into Ballandra Bay on the NW side of Isla Carmen at 8:30 am.

November 3, Friday

True Blue is here waiting for us. The 1st go at anchoring we dropped down on a rock and decided to move back a bit, that’s better.
Ken and Tameron came over, Tam stayed, I took a much needed nap, John and Ken went snorkeling and brought back a few scallops.
We had all of True Blue over for happy hour, we are all so glad to be back on the water.
We are all beat and in bed by 7:30.

November 4, Saturday

It was one year ago today that we left to come down the Baja west coast with the “ha ha”. We are no longer freshman and I can sure feel the difference in myself. I have realized just how much more I would rather be here on our home afloat than anywhere else! I am so much more relaxed than even at the end of last season. The anchorage is so peaceful and this is such a wonderful life! I’m so lucky!
This morning there was a pod of dolphins swimming back and forth across the mouth of the bay.
School was a challenge this morning and Samie decided right off that she wasn’t going to be able to learn how to count out change. A lot of patience and it finally started to sink in.
Samie played at the beach and on True Blue, while I took yet another nap and the guys went off [to get] more scallops trying to make a full meal. We ended up with 10 or 12 only along with some wonderful shrimp we had bought in San Carlos.
Avenger II, Gary and Louise came in and anchored today.

*Many, many kudos to my mom for her patience in teaching me! We had many remarks from my teachers throughout the years about what a great job she was doing. Yes, we had the help of our curriculum through Calvert Homeschooling, but Mom really kept us up with everything and worked well with me to keep me focused and get school done so we could enjoy the rest of the day and play. Calvert Homeschool was a great choice for us. At the time, they operated out of Baltimore, MA and they mailed us all the curriculum we needed for the year, then Mom would periodically mail back tests and whatnot for a teacher to review and verify how we were doing. I remember getting the big boxes of new, shiny books, pencils, and paper - I was always so excited to learn… I still am! At the time, Calvert only went to the 8th grade, which is part of why we came back to the States permanently when I was of age for high school, but also, my parents figured it would be good for me to be around more kids my age and do the whole high school thing.

November 5, Sunday

Nanamuk finally left San Carlos today, in the rain and had that and about 10-12 knots of wind most of the way.
Here in Ballandra it drizzled a soft rain all day.
Maiden Voyage and Ananda came in and anchored this afternoon.

November 6, Monday

True Blue, Maiden Voyage and Ananda all left this am for Escondido. Nanamuk came in around noon. We all spent some time on the beach. We got a small hole in the dink it seems because no one wore shoes and it was too rocky to walk the dink out so we were riding a little low.
The mountains of Escondido have been hidden in thick, dark clouds for days now and it’s even darker tonight- we found out they had a downpour.

November 7, Tuesday

We left Ballandra Bay, Isla Carmen around 9:30 am, headed for Escondido. We had 10-25 knots out of the North all the way in. About an hour out we spotted the dolphins that swim the bay each a.m. I got out the video camera and got some great pictures, even though it may make the viewer a bit dizzy. There were also several pilot whales. We watched for the Sea’s pod of Orcas that True Blue had seen, but no luck. It was spectacular!
Tam and Matt played here and Samie went with them into land for dinner.
We made contact with Steve and Brenda on the ham.
We have heard through the different grape vines that Endless Summer is in the Pacific somewhere and out of money. Magic Carpet is in Tonga. Wish I knew where Unity and Valiant Lady were.

November 8, Wednesday

Happy B-day Janice

We cranked in the muddy anchor, Samie was forward hosing it down as it came in, leaving Escondido at around 8:30 am. So we have ourselves, True Blue, Maiden Voyage, Ananda and Nanamuk all headed for Auga Verde with the promise of 15 to 20 knots out of the north; should be a pleasant down wind sail. NOT, instead we had very light and variables, oh well. True Blue, Nanamuk and Maiden Voyage are all trying to fly the brightly colored spinnakers.
We anchored in Agua Verde around 2 pm, this is where we were on May 5th when Schyler was born.
Most of the crews took a swim, the sun came out for a very few minutes. Mostly we have had another drizzly afternoon which went on through the night.
Before I hit the feathers, the moon was playing peek-a-boo behind thick, fluffy clouds. As I watched, it floated behind a funnel-looking break in the cloud cover, at this point there was a red ring around the moon which made the clouds look a pretty light shade of pink.

*This photo is from a couple years later, but it’s a good example. Some anchorages are muddier than others and we would opt to hose down the chain while we haul it in. This helps keep the anchor locker (which was basically a cupboard at the head of my bedroom) from getting all gunked-up and smelly. I was more than happy to help! On that note, I was almost always up front helping Dad haul in the anchor, anyway. I enjoyed the workout, and it helped go faster when we would take turns. Nowadays most boats have electric windlasses which allow them to haul in the anchor at the push of a button. We had a manual crank we used. Back and forth, back and forth, a few chain links at a time and typically about 20-30ft worth of chain.
I found this video that best demonstrates what we were working with. You can see the main difference is that our anchor locker didn’t open from the top like this, it was funneled straight down through part of the windlass itself.

November 9, Thursday

The sty John got has turned out to be some kind of infection moving across his eye lid. Rob gave him some eye drops -sodium sulamyd- and over the next few days it cleared up. He has had quite a few stys out here in the salt water.
It was another drizzly kind of day which made me feel like baking cookies. Rainy or snowy weather usually does that to me.
All three girls played over here again today.
Talked to Steve on ham.

November 10, Friday

The sun broke out today so I did some laundry, it took all day to dry as it was not real warm.
Several of us dinghied across the bay to a small village that sits inland just a bit. There were the prettiest baby goats and piglets walking around and a small playground. John had taken in some candy to give out to kids.
Around 4:30 us and 3 boats –“kid boats”- all got together on the beach for a weenie and marshmallow roast at the “Agua Verde Yacht Club”. The girls had worn skirts and hats for the occasion, they all played tag and football catch. A good, no, great time was had by all!!
Tonight as the moon came up it was surrounded by a huge ring- beautiful, along with a thousand stars.

*It was not abnormal to take some treats in to the kids on the beaches, we had a little stash of things, including some little wooden toy airplanes, pencils, paper and maybe some bouncey balls or something like that. Sometimes even people would come out to the boat to say hello and Dad would hand some things out while we said hello and made friends. I feel like this happened more in the first years than the latter.
Agua Verde was one of our favorite places, although the protection was limited and weather tended to be a hit-or-miss most of the time. This was a fun night at the beach with all our friends. It’s always a lovely feeling, traveling with people you actively choose to be around, that you get along with and whom you enjoy adventuring with. What a treat, truly!

November 11, Saturday

Well John forgot this anniversary too!! 6 years! We left Augua Verde this morning around 8:30 and all headed for Los Gatos. It was another downwind sail, arriving at 12:00 noon or there abouts.
Ananda and Maiden Voyage are here. After hiking for awhile on the beautiful red sandstone rocks and tidal pools, everyone got together on the beach for happy hour.
The friends we have met here in the cruising world are as wonderful as the places and things we have seen!
The north wind really kicked up a stormy sea and it’s rolling its way right on on here and rocking the 5 boats every which way. Rock and Roll night. And last May it was so calm.

*I LOVED climbing and exploring all over these rocks in Los Gatos! They were red/orange and rounded and so different from the typical landscape. It’s not listed as we know it on Google Maps, so I always have to spot it with my eyes based of rough distance between known anchorages and, like I said, the color.

November 12, Sunday

Happy B-day Faron!

Nanamuk left the anchorage at 7 am trying to “beat” the rest of us to San Evaristo. We left at 8:00 am or so. The trip started out real rolly with the north swell, we did manage to keep some breeze in the sails today and the sea did calm down a bit.

At 5 to 6 knots boat speed it took us 6.5 hours to travel 27 miles, but wow it’s spectacular here. As we were putting around finding out “spot” there were 6 to 12 small bat rays “flying” across the bay, it was sooo cool- unfortunately I could not get to the video camera to record it. I only hope they do a repeat performance tomorrow.
Tonight we had BBQ lobster tails and scallops in paradise.
Oh- Samie lost one of her 8-year-old molars.
Peg called, talked to Mom and Chelle and Faron. Danielle was not home, she has moved back in with Jacque.

*I did a little reference check and that 27 miles would normally be about a 30-minute drive. Seems crazy, but half the fun is being out on the water and enjoying the scenery!

November 13, Monday

After school we all went into shore and walked up to the little tienda, picked up some eggs, cigs and juice, no bread or butter. We spend the afternoon snorkeling. What a way to live!
Samantha and Janelle spent the night with Tameron on True Blue while Matt stayed on Nanamuk with Alan.

November 14, Tuesday

Cheryl wanted Samie to do school on their boat (being a teacher and all). She said it went real well and gave Samie high marks on her reading abilities.
Since we have been out for nearly 2 weeks now we are nearly out of bread- I baked a loaf. It didn’t rise too well, but it’s eatable.
John rigged the spinnaker pole so the kids could swing out from the pulpit and drop into the water. They had a blast.
The way the wind comes down in the cove from the surrounding mountains at different angles makes all the boats “dance” around to different tunes - one swings this way, while another swings that way.

November 15, Wednesday

I was up at 4 am thanks to a shrimp boat anchoring near us. They run their engines all night long and I could not go back to sleep.
We left the beauty of San Evaristo behind in search of Isla San Francisco just 2 hours southeast. We dropped the hook at 10 am and did school before spending the rest of the day on the beach. Not too many puka shells left, but I picked up lots of others to take home to the nieces and nephews.
Tonight we saw the planets, Jupiter, Mars and Venus in the western sky just after sunset. They are all lining up. Sometime soon the moon is supposed to line up with them.

November 16, Thursday

Ourselves and True Blue left today for Isla Partida. We had a nice 10 knot north wind, taking us about 5 hours. Spent the afternoon on the beach.
Samie and I finally started on Spanish.

November 17, Friday

After school, about 10:30 ourselves and True Blue headed for La Paz, city life! ICE! After anchoring and getting cleaned up we went into shore to eat.
We are just off a beach and Marina de La Paz. On the beach there was a band playing with an occasionally English tune, that floated over to the boat. Pretty!

*lol, ice was like GOLD down there!

November 18, Saturday

We got a ride into CCC, the big market, from Jerry who was in Ensenada when we were. Hung around the ‘Dock’ for awhile and back to the boat.
Shine called tonight, all is well.

*I’m uncertain, but if this isn’t what we knew as CCC, it would have been something similar to this.

November 19, Sunday

John could only find one battery, so he replaced the 2 bad ones and hopefully he can find one more in P.V.
We walked into town down to DAX and Mos, 2 big department stores. They were all decorated with Xmas decorations, even Christmas trees. But somehow it’s hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it’s 80 degrees outside.
Tameron spent the afternoon and night with us. The girls sure did have fun, they were singing and dancing along to the Ray Stevens tape, I even joined in.
We got a letter today from Laura and Steven from our dock in San Diego. It was really quite amazing that we got it, it was addressed only to our name, boat name, Mexico. Another boat had brought it down from Downwind in San Diego and only in a month’s time it found us.

*This was the biggest department store I’d ever been in at the time! I remember the escalators and being so wowed by it all. Especially being used to the smaller village towns, and coming from a small town myself, it was all pretty new to me. I most loved trips here, though, ‘cause it meant we were getting our film developed! Back when you had 24 chances for the perfect “Kodak Moment” per roll of film, and then you had to wait days, weeks, or in our case, even months to take them in for developing and see what came out! Imagine finding out the“perfect shot” you got had a finger in front of the lens, you cut a whole half a person out of the photo, or the flash hadn’t gone off. Maybe it was way under exposed and you couldn’t make one thing out from the other. Oh, the suspense! Kids these days will never know!
Also, I absolutely love this story about the letter from Laura and Steven finding us with such little information. It makes my heart happy. 🥰

November 20, Monday

The VCR has been messed up since we got back, the power won’t stay on and it won’t insert or eject tapes properly - so John took it in to be repaired.
I did 3 loads of laundry - in machines!
We went to the ‘Dock’ and watched Monday night football along with True Blue.

*I found this video of how a VCR works… No wonder these things were always getting gobbled up and tangled!

November 21, Tuesday

Arne and Janice, Renegade came in this afternoon and went straight to the marina. We all went out for a bite to eat.

November 22, Wednesday

Samie had her 1st test of the 3rd grade. Out of 10 pages she only missed 3 questions. Great! 😊 She -actually WE- are also doing pretty good at El Espanol, it’s different and fun! We called the kids, all is well, Chelle and Faron are going to be moving into a house on their own. Schyler is rolling over, scooting around and trying to crawl.
Peggy has worked at Kmart 2 days now and so far does not like it, but that’s normal. She will probably go to Billy’s for Thanksgiving dinner. Her Dad and Melissa went to St. George. So did my Mom and Dad. Shine will probably eat at Travis’s.
Danielle is still gonna try to come out to Zihuatanejo in Jan.

November 23, Thursday

Happy Turkey Day
Happy B-day Debby M & Kenny B

For the most part we all took the day off.
Around 2 pm we went into shore, hung around until 3:30 and headed for the cruiser’s Thanksgiving get together dinner. The food was great and we were with our little ocean family, Nanamuk, True Blue and Renegade among others.

November 24, Friday

Finally got checked in.
Nanamuk and True Blue departed this afternoon heading for P.V. via stops along the way.
Tonight the moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter all lined up on the horizon.

November 25, Saturday

John took the dink in to the dock by Renegade to finally fix the small leak we had acquired somehow in Ballandra at Isla Carmen. Turned out it was the inside and not on the bottom as thought.
While I lemon-oiled all the interior wood, Samie made up her own little board game. She gets very creative with the lack of T.V.
Arne and Janice of Renegade came over for a chicken BBQ and we enjoyed a very nice evening.
Just before the sliver of the moon set on the horizon it was a beautiful dark pinkish-red color.
Janice let us read the letters they have gotten from Stuart and Tracy on Endless Summer who crossed to the South Pacific last April. He is quite a storyteller in his writing about their adventures. Very good and most interesting.

November 26, Sunday

Today in school Samie wrote a wonderful composition about being an Orca for a couple of days. She did an excellent job.
Janice, Samie and myself spent the day walking to the east end of town and did some window shopping. The guys joined us and we all had a pretty good pizza.
The last week here in the La Paz anchorage has been one of extra strong tides and currents along with a 10-20 knot wind. The days are spent facing the SW as the tide goes out and a north wind blows at our stern, making for a rocky and very choppy day. The sea breeze can be somewhat chilly even though the temp. is in the low 80s. Getting to the dock in the dink is not so bad but the return trip is always a wet one as we must go through and into the wind chop.
This morning proved to be very flat and calm day, better enjoy it while we can, it probably won’t last.
Oh, Mom called today, they returned from St. George last night.

November 17, Monday

Today was just a quiet day. We spent some time at Renegade. Talked to True Blue who was half way to Isla Isabella, they have sailed some and had to motor some. Nanamuk is still waiting for the right wind before leaving Los Muertos. Here in La Paz we had another calm day with a light breeze out of the SE. The evenings and mornings are really chilling down.

November 28, Tuesday

About 2 am this morning the wind shifted back to the north and kicked up to 15 to 20 knots and that’s where it stayed all day. We stayed on the boat all day rather than leave her in the strong winds. Which made for a rather long, boring day, John started and finished a whole book, with the lack of anything more interesting or exciting. Samie stayed pretty busy, she is making Christmas cards.
Talked to Steve on the radio. Goon called and we called the Roach’s.

November 29, Wednesday

Spent the day doing a little of this and that on the boat. John “whipped” all the reefing ties on the sails. We went over to Renegade for a nice dinner. Samie called Sam and Rane.

November 30, Thursday

Well, November has slipped on by and it’s starting to feel like winter is slipping in- such as winters are here in the tropics. It was 68° this a.m. at 6:30, but it warmed up to 82° in the afternoon which isn’t bad unless the cool sea breeze is blowing.
Samie and I did laundry this a.m. while John walked down to pick up the VCR. Then we all walked to the other end of town and got some film developed, ate lunch out and generally walked our legs off.
Danielle called tonight, her dog, Sadie has some disease.