Here is a bunch of new pictures... I'm currently sitting in a coffeeshop waiting for a Skype call and Leonard is out surfing - his new favorite thing!
Hope you'll enjoy our new batch of pictures.
Showing posts with label Adventures at Sea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adventures at Sea. Show all posts
Whales in the Hood
At the fuel dock where we picked up our friend, I was elegantly dressed in typical fuel dock attire: shorts and a bikini top. Which is a lie of course only on account that I'm too ashamed to admit it was a bra. A cute bra with pink and white flowers. From afar it looks like a bikini, but close up when the fuel dude is standing but 2 feet away from me I felt naked. And rightfully so.
Anyways, the friend who is a true friend and honest tells me after glancing at my belly "What happened to your 6-pack?" "It's wrapped up in a burrito" I answered in enough shame to let her know I knew but that I didn't like knowing. To which I immediately made a promise to myself to start working out again asap.
This morning I was getting my board ready to stick to that promise because let's face it, what good is a 6-pack when it's wrapped in a burrito? Leo was standing by me ready to help me drop the board in the water.
First we heard them. Like a loud splooshing and a puffing of air sound. Then we looked around us. Three whales swimming rather close by. We're anchored in a bay, not out in the open. And there are three whales nearby. I mentioned this before, but I never ran down to get my camera since I'd rather watch and not miss them than run away to grab proof of their visit.
Ever wonder why Big Bird never got a good picture of Mr Snuffaluffagus?
I took some pictures but realized my camera was too slow and the click always occurred after the splash so I switched to video mode. By then they were further away, and this was the last sighting in the video.
I dropped my paddleboard into the water, assuming they were gone, and went out for a paddle. Then I heard the splooshing sound again. So I did what any sane woman my age would do:
I paddled towards the three large animals big enough to squash a house.
It's daunting. I'm standing on a flimsy foam board watching whales. And I got close. Too close for comfort. It was exciting, intimidating and inspiring. And as tears of profound joy rolled down my cheeks I just stood there and witnessed some of the greatest creatures on earth. And now I want to eat a tuna sandwich... just because.
Killer Day!
Topped that one today I tell ya... *shivers* Today was so friggin scary I actually did utter the magic words "Oh God, please let us survive this!" Yup. I prayed. I openly and out loud prayed. Maybe more than once too. Not sure. But I did in fact pray to the baby Jesus and begged him to let me see the full moon tonight.
We sailed our spinnaker sail. For the third time today ever, we sailed it. And for the third time I thought I would die behind it. Or get hurt. Or break something. Like a bone, a neck or maybe our boat.
It started perfectly well. It was in fact sublime. We had a wind, dead behind us, and our sails were useless. Lee said "Let's try the spinnaker!"
"Uh oh." I was still shaking from our 2 previous attempts. And up he comes the staircase dragging that pretty thing of death.
Suddenly (after nearly 3 hours of nose bleeding speeds of 8-10 knots) the wind picked up. It PICKED UP! Mega schmega style! And this beautiful butterfly turned on us and went à-la Hitchcock and yanked the boat to one side dipping in the water then boom yanked it to the other side, tipping so far over I stood STOOD on the SIDE of the bench 0_o and this went on and on and ohmygodIwilldieinthisfrigginboat on.
- Would not care.
- Would not believe me.
- Would be too scared to sleep tonight.
- Would ask to see my I.D. (in case you work for for the DMV or the INS or the FDA or the CIA or the KKK)
Why the heck would I ever think of adding those last 3 hateful letters???
We freaked out. Needless to say. We tried loosening both sides. The sail only parachuted more and created a bigger bubble. We lowered the lanyard holding the death bitch up. Bigger bubble. We loosened the sides again. Big bubble. Words were said. Maybe yelled. Prayers were mumbled. Then spoken more clearly. Bits of flesh were lost on the quickly and harshly tugging lines. Rope burns. They suck.
Finally we tossed the coin: it's us and the boat or that beautiful flapping butterfly. We won. Thank god. And we released first one side then the other. I'm at 530 words and by now the true story has taken over 60 minutes, has brought my heart rate way up and ...I don't know... I realized I had more of a belly than I did last year. Yeah, as I jumped from one side to the next I looked down and saw the bulge. What can I say, I love hot pastrami sandwiches!
Yeah. So long story short (too late) we let go both sides, watched it flop all over the place, then finally let it out the top so much it came down to the water, we motored up to it scooped it up and allowed twentyfivethousand gallons of salt water into our cockpit (hee hee I said cock). Oh yeah, and with all this tipping dreadfully from one side to the other a jug of fuel spilled over. Fun! We not only had the threat of laying the boat on its side but now we faced the thought of explosion!
Killer day I tell ya, killer day! Oh and my belly - have I mentioned my belly and how my legs need a waxing?
Ohmygodthedayhascome!
The day has finally come… We have set sail for a new adventure. The coolest part of true adventures is how you don’t really know for sure where the journey will take you. We have ideas, plans, and have been doing major name droppings *cough-tahiti-cough* but in reality:
WE HAVE NO IDEA WHERE WE’LL END UP!
And that’s the most exciting part. It reminds me of those game shows prompting you to pick door number one, door number two or door number three. The surprise is such a big part of the prize! Actually, the word should technically be spelled out S-U-R-P-R-I-Z-E!
People often ask “Wow, did you win the lottery or something?” and the funny thing is: its the stellar opposite and they think we’re mad when we answer “No, its because we are broke that we need to leave!” “I wish I were broke” is the common answer. Food in California is insanely high ($6 for a pound of ground beef? Are you kidding me???) and then there is the fuel, the eventual nights out with friends at $10 a drink, etc. Mexico offers us absolutely free living expenses (no cost to drop the anchor) and much more reasonably priced fuel and groceries.
Plus the water is invitingly warm… Dippity doo-dah! Too hot and sweaty? Jump in the water. Bored and need something to do? Jump in the water. Need exercise? Jump in the water. Hungry? Jump in the water. Heh heh heh.
But what will you do after?
We really don’t know. Not a clue. Not an inkling of an idea. Scary? Yes, of course. Exciting? You betcha! And the biggest part of the fear factor is that when we’ll come back to live and settle here we’ll be even more broke than we are now. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Most likely we’ll be walking across that bridge because we won’t be able to put fuel in the car.
Life’s too short. I plan on squeezing every last morsel out of it like a hawk pecking away at a bunny rabbit. A cute little fury white bunny rabbit minding its own business eating a carrot as it was planning his next adventure.
And I just compared life to a bloody dead bunny. What is wrong with me?
Stop and Smell the Roses...
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| What a show-off! This young whale was putting on quite a display! |
Since the beginning of our journey, we'd barely seen any whales at all. Which is atypical of this area... Normally they're spotted daily. When chatting with other travelers we discover we aren't alone in this world of no-whale spotting.
And then...
Dolphin Fiesta!
This was beyond cool!
Sailing from La Paz to Cabo to hook up with friends from Sioux Falls we encountered a crazy dolphin crossing. They don't really show up in the distance in this video plus there was well over a thousand of them swimming around us, jumping and doing their world famous dolphin dives and their daredevil antics of jumping across the bow of our boat.
An Interesting Week
As we read other people's blogs on their travels, we notice one major difference between our experience and theirs: they're socializing, connecting and making friends. And us? We're naming seals (which by the way are SEA LIONS and not as we guessed SEALS how do we know it? Our NEW FRIENDS told us!!!)
Yes! We made contact! I now have a sense of what it will be like the first time people on earth come into communication with space-peeps! Giddy! We've been chillin' with our peeps & going out! GOING OUT! Two nights in a row at that. Late. Very late. Friday night we (finally) went to a really great local concert. And she sang in Spanish!
My ongoing joke has been "I don't want to go and listen to some old white fat dude belting it out to Hotel California." But long story short...
We made friends! Yes! Indeed we did! And they joined us on a trip! Yes they did! And oh they were prepared... They showed up with a canoe (like a funky fold up kind), fishing equipment (and a SPEARGUN), food, booze, spices (SPICES!), musical instruments (A BANJO - Ayyeee!), snorkeling equipment and stories galore to keep us fully animated til we couldn't keep our eyes open!
Scott (the Outward Bound type of dude) and Kay (who grew up in a commune - how cool is that?) joined us for one full week touring Espiritu Santos and Los Islotes. During this trip we met Damon and Desiree from the Gaya (Gaïa?) and their uber cool steel boat with the funky red sails pictured above. These guys have been living aboard their boat for 9 years. NINE YEARS! They've sailed to Hawaii and the Ecuador making us look like stay-at-home scaredycats!
So... today we hugged and waved them goodbye as they left for their long journey back home to San Fran. And we are now faced with so much space on our small boat! And wondering: could we ever again host people on our boat? It's really not an easy thing to do to bring OTHERS aboard! Even Desiree who's been doing this for 9 years mentioned how they rarely ever do this...
Oh and shall I mention where we're at in repairs?
- Fuel injector lift pump (or something like that, as if I know what I'm talking about!) in our motor - broken.
- High pressure hose for water maker - tore.
- Bird poop on deck - yes. A lot!
- Headache - now on day 3. Ugh.
- That's it. For now. Knock on wood (ouch that hurt my head).
Hasta luego mi amigos y amigas!
The Perfect Storm - La tempesta perfecta
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| This is an artist's rendering of what happened. Notice the clothes in the front window? |
They say when you go South down the Baja it's downhill, but heading northbound is like going uphill. The current, the wind and mankind's basic natural instinct all take you towards the South and warmer climates!
Going North? You've got a headwind and find yourself slamming against the current. Waves hit the front of your boat nonstop - this is what they call the Baja Bash!
Leave it to US to go uphill even if we're headed South. It's now our own little inside joke that if we want the wind to change direction all we need to do is go sailing with it on our side, it won't be long before it changes direction!
Our boat holds 55 gallons of diesel, plus we always carry two 5-gallon fuel jugs just in case... Diesel fuel goes a long way in a sailboat when the sail's natural fuel is on your side!
Almost halfway between San Diego and Cabo San Lucas is Cedros Island. The Northern crossing to Cedros is Baja's own little Bermuda triangle. If anything is to go wrong on the Baja journey - THAT is where you can expect it to happen. And happen it did, indeed! But that's not all that happened in this portion...
• Broken fan belt... check!
• 30-mile hour winds... check!
• In our faces of course... check!
• Waves over 6 feet high... check!
• Hitting us from all sides... check!
• Fuel: empty... check!
• Vomit... of course!
At one point, I'm down below lying on the bed trying to control my fears (yes, fearS as in multiple amount of fears) and suddenly the Captain decides to jib or tack or whatever its called and turns into the wind, or tries to do some kind of a turn and Mr Thirty-Mile-An-Hour-Wind is pissed off at us for our utter lack of respect. The boat tilts. A lot. Like "wholly-fuck-my-cabinets-are-throwing-all-my-clothes-out" kinda tilt.
Yeah. I was in the middle of a scene taken directly out of a horror movie when some unknown and invisible beast decides to throw all contents from the interior cabinets into the air to freak the occupants way the fuck out! Lying on the bed I suddenly found myself kinda standing upright. I immediately grabbed my iPod and turned on my funky little level app to see what kind of angle our jangle was taking. The iPod was slammed against the ceiling in a "landscape" format and suddenly it changed its degree to "portrait". That's how far we were leaning. And this was after the mega tilt!
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Editor's note: In case you, the reader, don't know what I'm talking about, it's when the apparatus believes you want to look at it upright rather than on its side. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!
And then, the Captain announces he needs me up above to help him reef the sail so less of it is exposed to the elements from hell. I avoided looking at the waves at all cost. This was some serious freaky scary shit man! Once we secured the sail, we climbed back down. Soaking wet the only thing we wanted to do was make our way towards the toilets. Some serious deposits were needed pronto!
Are you jealous of me now?
Smoke On The Water
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| Not Us! But... thankfully the flames stayed away! |
2 hours of motoring later (because, of course once again the winds were working against us) the motor started spinning madly out of control. And the smoke! Oh, the smoke coming out from under the boat! Lucky for us, the Captain was an engine builder. His instinct was immediate as he quickly turned the key and ordered me to pull on the kill engine plug.
Unluckily for us, that was useless. The smoke was increasing. The motor's screams were blaring and it sounded like something was going to blow. Or as we say in racing "the thing kicked a rod" We did not want THAT to happen.
He pulled off the cover to unveil even more screams since the walls were no longer acting as muffler to the motor's complaints. Everything he pulled, shoved, and attempted had zero results. It kept screaming and spinning wildly out of control. And the smoke! Have I mentioned the smoke?
I was getting constant commands "Keep an eye out for rocks and other boats!" as we were drifting out of control and "Pull the kill engine switch again!"
Then the light came on and he remembered on old Volkswagen he once owned that needed to be stalled. The situation was very reminiscent of this one. Only problem is - how do you stall a boat without jumping underneath it to stop the prop without it chopping your head off? Or worse yet, your johnson? He grabbed a rag and shoved it in the air intake, and finally part of the nightmare was over. SIlence. Smoke and nasty burned motor smell, but silence.
He dumped quarts and quarts of oil in the motor and it fired up. Normally. But that thing puked up so much oil as it was trying to destroy itself and it all ended up in our bilge pump on the verge of being pumped out in the sea. I had images of my beloved Squeaky (our adopted seal pup) and could not let that happened.
I scavenged the boat for any empty container I could find (sacrificed myself in finishing off whatever was nearly empty: orange juice, water, wine I drank everything and anything!) and filled every container I had. I gathered as much as 3 gallons of oil mixed with diesel mixed with water! Some traces were left, but very little oil remained.
Squeaky can live happily ever after...
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