katie

Update from Ensenada Grande

We have finally left La Paz and are now anchored in a gorgeous spot called Ensenada Grande. The water is flat calm, the boat is anchored in about 20 feet of water and we are surrounded by beautiful red rock rising out of the sea. The water is about 77 degrees which is perfect for cooling off in the heat of the day.

We have spent one full day here and we spent it by first sleeping in mainly because we were tired. The night before was a bit restless because we had a power boat come in late at night and anchor uncomfortably close to us especially when the wind picked up at around midnight. We have an Ipad application called Anchor Watch that sounds an alarm when the GPS location of our boat moves out of an identified boundary. Well the alarm went off at about 1 am indicating that the wind had shifted causing our anchor to drag a bit and then re-set itself. As a result we were now only about 100 feet away from this power boat and the wind was still blowing around 17 to 20 knots. The anchor was holding so I re-set the boundary for 50 feet and then went back to bed but didn’t sleep much. Not much fun but all part of the adventure. In the end the anchor held and we enjoyed a great day in this beautiful spot.

After getting a late start because of sleeping in we decide to just spend most of the day lounging in the cockpit reading and relaxing. I did a little bit of work cleaning the water line and the propeller and a few barnacles that had attached themselves to the hull.

It was so nice to spend a day relaxing after all of the work that we did for the past six weeks in La Paz upgrading the boat. Here is a list of the things we accomplished while we were there.

–Installed the new water maker
–Installed a 37 gallon fuel bladder that will allow us to carry more diesel fuel and extend our motoring range without having to store jugs of fuel on the deck of the boat.
–Made new screens for the opening ports and companionway to keep the bugs out and allow the breeze to blow through.
–Installed dinghy wheels that will make it easier to haul the dinghy up the beach when exploring new beaches.
–Re-plumbed the electric and manual bilge pumps and added a secondary backup electric bilge pump.
–Added new custom swim ladder. We paid someone to do this one for us and it turned out great.
–Fixed the SSB radio that I reported earlier had smoke coming out of it when I turned it on. Turns out the remote power switch was the
culprit so the technician just bypassed it. Now it turns on immediately when we turn on the switch at the electrical panel.
–Waxed the hull above the water line.
–Applied a fresh coat of water sealant to all of our external teak.
–Installed a new bilge alarm
–Installed new cabin fans in our cabin and the forward cabin.
–Fixed the boom vang mount that broke on our way down to Cabo from Newport Beach.
–Fixed the roller furling for our yankee jib by drilling and tapping some new holes and adding new screws.
–Added new shelves in one of our hanging lockers and the battery compartment.

So as you can tell we were very busy in La Paz much like we were in San Jose.

Working every day on boat projects is definitely not what we came here for. However, there are some pluses to time spent on boat projects. Self sufficiency
o There is for me a great deal of satisfaction and peace of mind that comes with the work it takes to know your ship and all its systems
Learning opportunities
o There is always something new to learn. This then gives you the ability to help someone else later on and pass on your knowledge.
Attitude check
o The work isn’t always fun when you’re in the middle of it. There is a saying that is actually on the back of my t-shirt as I
sit here writing this (“Attitude” the difference between an Ordeal and an Adventure).

When I look at the above list of projects, it seems like we should have been able to get these things done in just a couple of weeks. I am reminded though that some of the time was spent waiting for parts to arrive and finding a custom stainless steel fabricator that could make some of the parts we needed. I should also say that we did have lots of help finding what we needed from a couple (Tom and Jeanne Brown) that run La Paz Cruisers Supply (http://www.bigleftturn.com/lapazcruiserssupply) right here in Marina Palmira. If you are a cruiser stopping in La Paz they can direct you to anything cruising related that you might need. Without their help we would have probably spent even more time trying to accomplish these projects.

Now I am very happy to say that all of the major projects are done and we are ready for some serious exploring.

La Paz wasn’t all work. We met some cool new people on the docks and we enjoyed some wonderful meals and drinks with them either on our boat or on theirs. Sometimes we had to pay the price for that fun the next day resulting from a bit too much wine or rum the night before. But it sure was fun. One couple performed for us by playing the accordion and singing. Good times.

Tom and Jeanne Brown were nice enough to share their experiences with us of the cruising areas we were planning to see as we travel north into the Sea Of Cortez. It helped us to decide on some places we definitely wanted to see and also about how long it would take to see them.

Now that I’m not so focused on working on boat projects every day I hope to be updating the blog more regularly to keep everyone more informed on the details of our adventure.

Time for another margarita.

As they say in Mexico “Vaya con dios”.

Mike

Minimalism on a Boat

I was reading a blog about living a more minimalist life and realized that a lot of the writer’s ideas about minimalism overlapped with our goals in taking this journey on our sailboat. That got me to thinking about putting down in writing what some the goals were and what I have learned so far. Traveling and seeing the world by boat might sound like it would be the sole reason for doing this, but we actually came up with quite a few other things that we think will make this adventure, and our lives, more meaningful. So, here goes…

Getting rid of all our “stuff.”

Do you know how much “stuff” you have? Downsizing from a house to a 41 foot boat will be a wake up call for how much “stuff” you have that you really don’t need. Mike had already decluttered his stuff years ago when he moved onto Adagio. He literally moved into my house several years later with just one bag of clothes.

But, I’m the one who had to seriously purge my stuff last fall. It was a fascinating exercise in having to decide exactly what was necessary or important to me. I actually found boxes in my garage that hadn’t been opened since I moved into the house seven years earlier. I found files with old bank statements from the 90’s. WTF? Why was I holding onto that junk? There were other things that I know I had thought were important at one time, but when you really think about it, do you NEED it?

I think getting rid of my stuff has been one of the most freeing things I have ever done. And the thing is, there is nothing that I miss! I don’t have any regrets of selling or donating any of the items I got rid of. Even if you don’t get rid of all of your belongings like we did, the next time you are out shopping ask yourself if it is really something you need before you buy it. I wish I had done more of that when we were land based. The consumerism mentality in our country just wants you to SPEND. But, think about what else you could do with that money – send your kids to college, go on an exciting adventure, donate to a worthwhile charity… You get the picture. You really don’t need all that STUFF!

Be less busy and more purposeful

How busy are you, really? Between working full time jobs, hobbies, social commitments, etc. (and those of you with kids have even more commitments), how busy is your life? I think we all get over scheduled. It is so easy to do! Do you ever have that feeling that time is flying by? That would always happen to me. I swear every year at Christmas I would think, how is it Christmas again already?? I think when we are too busy, sometimes the world just flies by us.

When you live on a boat and are out at sea, things just slow down. You can’t be in a hurry. And, you can’t do things on a whim. Little tasks take much longer to do. Getting anywhere takes much longer when you only go 5-6 knots. Even when we are in port (with no car), things take longer. A trip to the grocery store on the bikes can take a couple of hours.

But, the upside in everything being slower is that we really have to think about what we need or want to do. We don’t just go on autopilot; we have to be purposeful in choosing what to do each day. As a consequence of that, I think we get more out the experience, whether it is a menial chore like grocery shopping or something fun like diving. And, you know what, things are not flying by! We left California almost four months ago, but that seems like it was a year ago!

Experience nature and be environmentally conscious

If you live in a city and spend most of your day inside an air conditioned building with artificial lights, you are really missing out on nature. I think it is easy to also roll your eyes at news reports on climate change or pollution or damage to some ecosystem when you never get out and see it. If it doesn’t directly impact your life, why should you care?

Ok, I know a lot of you do care, and so do we! We live on a big planet, and most of that planet is ocean. We wanted to get out and see it all. There are so many beautiful places that are still raw and untouched by humans, and many that you can only get to by boat. We’re just starting this journey, but hopefully we’ll get to see much more than we ever imagined. We’re also having to learn a lot about weather systems, the wind, the ocean, tides, currents, etc. It is actually really fascinating.

One of our goals is to be as self-sufficient as possible. That is the best part of a sailboat – it is powered by wind! We also have solar panels and a wind generator on board to power our electrical equipment. Of course, we do have a diesel engine in the boat, but we’re trying to use it only when necessary. That means that sometimes when the wind dies down, we’ll just bop around not going anywhere until the wind picks back up again (see above re not being in a hurry). We’re trying to use as much renewable energy as possible rather than rely on fossil fuels.

We’re also having to learn to really conserve water. We carry 80-100 gallons of water on board. Do you know how much water you use? I don’t think I paid that much attention to water usage on land. But you know what, you can really conserve water if you want to. Mike and I have estimated that together we can get down to four gallons of fresh water a day. Of course, that means washing a lot of things (including ourselves) in salt water. (I’ll let Mike post later about our water maker…)

Be healthy

We tried to eat healthy and work out regularly before we left. But, one of our goals was to have a really healthy lifestyle on the boat. We occasionally eat out to experience the local cuisine, but most of the time we cook on board. When you are busy (see above) it is sometimes difficult to always prepare a healthy meal at home, but we have more time to think about that now. We don’t eat processed foods and try not to eat anything artificial. We also stay away from a lot of unnecessary starches and breads. Fresh home cooked food really is the best!

We are also a lot more active on the boat. Even if you go to the gym an hour a day, most people spend 8-10 hours sitting at a desk and are very sedentary. Pretty much everything we do now has some activity, even if it is just walking or biking into town. Sailing, swimming, hiking, diving, paddle boarding, biking, boat projects, cleaning the boat, etc. have added much more activity to our daily routine. I think overall this lifestyle is healthier than the one we had back at home.

Minimizing screen time

How many hours a day do you watch TV or play on the internet? It was funny to me how many people asked me if we would have cable TV when I moved onto the boat (uh, no.) We do actually have a TV that we can use to play movies, and we do occasionally but not that often.

I can remember watching TV my entire life. (I was a big Scooby Doo fan as a kid.) It was really exciting when we first got cable TV and all of the sudden had more than four or five channels to watch. But you know what, I don’t miss it. AT ALL. Why the heck I ever spent hours watching TV instead of getting outdoors or even reading a book is really beyond me.

Right now, in La Paz, is the most internet that we have had since we left California. (I’m on the internet right now in the Cruiser’s Lounge while I’m waiting for my laundry to be done.) But, I’m ready to be free of the internet again.

It is great to stay in touch with friends and family and keep up with what is going on in the world, but it will suck you in! We read a blog recently that talked about getting the “clicks.” You know what I mean…when you start to click on things on the internet with no real purpose and then you realize a couple of hours just went by. Yeah, we’re trying not to do that. I admit that it is a bit of a challenge.

We were biking back to the marina last night around 9:00 pm, and I commented to Mike that I was surprised at all of the people out. The malecon was full of people out for a jog, riding a bike, or just strolling along the waterfront. Young people, old people, families with kids, it seemed like the whole town was out on a Monday evening. It just seemed so different, and Mike commented that it was different from back home because they all weren’t at home watching TV.

Learn something

This journey is about learning. We want to experience different countries and cultures, read some good books, learn a new language, meet new people that come from different backgrounds, learn about nature, perfect our sailing skills, and ultimately come back enriched by the whole experience.

Share our experience with others

That is the purpose of this blog! We know not everyone can (or wants to) do what we are doing. But, we hope to share our experiences with everyone else. We don’t just want it to be a travel blog, but a blog of our experiences, thoughts and feelings along the way. I’m still trying to figure out what to include on the blog, so I would love feedback from everyone who reads this (all three of you??). Let us know what you would like to see on the blog.

We also want to share this experience by inviting friends to join us for a leg or two of our journey. So, give us a shout if that is something you are interested in.

We’re leaving La Paz today and will be out of WiFi range for a while, but we hope to have lots of pictures and video to share with you of our exploration of the islands when we get back into WiFi range.

~katie

Video: Diving Cabo Pulmo

So… I finally found fast enough WiFi to upload this video! It only took 2.5 hours to upload! This is my first underwater video, so hopefully they will get better. After we took this I got some dive filters for my GoPro. That should improve the color for future videos. We’ve been told that as the water starts to warm up in the Sea this summer, we will have even better visibility. Anyway, here is the video from our Cabo Pulmo dive in May. I hope you enjoy!

Hot Hot Hot

Yesterday and today we are getting a serious taste of Summer in the Sea of Cortez. It has reached 104 both days, and staying cool is definitely a challenge. Unfortunately, because we are in a marina, we can’t just jump over the side of the boat to cool off. But, we are doing our best to stay down below with the fans going during the afternoon. And, yesterday we found a coffee shop with AIR CONDITIONING!

There are a few boats here in the marina that have air conditioning, but that’s pretty rare. A lot of people cover the entire boat in canvas tarps to try and keep the inside a little cooler. When Mike redid the headliner a couple of years ago, he put insulation in, which really helps us stay at least 10-15 degrees cooler than outside (at 104 that’s still pretty warm). I think a lot of boats just bake from the sun hitting the decks.

104 is officially too hot to move…

Other than the heat the last couple of days, we are really enjoying our time here in La Paz. We have met a lot of great people here in the marina who have given us all kinds of tips for cruising Mexico and the South Pacific.

La Paz is a lovely town, which may be big for Baja, but compared to Southern California is really quite small. We’re able to ride our bikes from the marina into town along the beautiful Malecon and have found all kinds of shops, restaurants, bars, etc. Two days a week, there is a street market with all kinds of goodies. Today we got some home baked peasant bread, chimichurri sauce, pate, dried mango and mezcal. We ran out of pesos, or we definitely would have bought more!

We’re also getting some serious stuff done on the boat. We took the fried SSB into a local electronics guy and we’re hoping that it is going to work. We were dreading having to put out the money for a new system, so we’ll see. Mike found a guy who does custom stainless steel work who is going to help him with the installation of the fuel bladder. This is going to allow us to carry about another 30 gallons of diesel, which will be huge when we do a long passage.

We’ve also been making screen enclosures for everywhere on the boat that will allow us to let the air in and keep the bugs out. We haven’t had too much of a problem with mosquitoes here, like we did in San Jose. But, we have had the occasional one find us at night. The other night one apparently bit me on my eyelid and I woke up with my eye practically swollen shut. I looked like I had entered the boxing ring in my sleep!

Well, that’s about all the news for now. I’m off to go try and take a really cold shower and cool off!

~katie

Bahia Los Frailes to La Paz

We had a fabulous time in Bahia Los Frailes. The water was warm and it was nice and sunny. The bay is a wide open bay with white sand beaches. Around one side are rock faces where you can snorkel and there is a sea lion colony around the point. We anchored in about 30 feet of water along with several other boats. We got a chance to meet some other cruisers who are headed up along the same path as us, so I’m sure we’ll run into them this summer in the Sea!

After Mike’s crab incident (see his post below) we blew up the paddle boards and headed to shore to check out the beach. It really is great getting around on the paddle boards (and lots of fun too!). They are much easier to get in the water than launching the dinghy, and as we were just playing around in the bay and going to shore there was no need to have an engine to get around.

The only challenge to the paddle boards is when there is a strong wind or swell, which takes some balance practice and perhaps some strong paddle strokes. And, when there is some surf that you have to negotiate when landing the boards on the beach. I only dumped the board once when I mistimed a landing. Oh well.

There were some really cool rock formations right on the beach that we climbed to snap some pictures. Then we decided to hike up to Cerro Los Frailes, which is a scramble up 750 ft. It was a little challenging at times, but the view from the top was an absolutely fantastic 360 view of the bay, the mountains and Cabo Pulmo on the other side of the point.

After a few days playing around at Bahia Los Frailes, we decided to head up farther north toward La Paz. Our next stop was Ensenada de los Muertos. We were able so sail most of the way on the 46 mile trek north until the wind died out an hour or so before our arrival. Unfortunately we had a bit of a difficult time anchoring, because our anchor chain had toppled over onto itself, which did not allow me to drop the anchor with the windlass. Mike had to crawl into the anchor locker and literally move 300 feet of chain to untangle it. Ugh! We got it straightened out and dropped anchor before we lost the daylight.

We weren’t too impressed with Ensenada de Los Muertos, so we decided to pick up the anchor the next morning and keep moving north. We had really light winds from the wrong direction, so we ended up motoring most of the day to make it up to Puerto Balandra.

Puerto Balandra is beautiful! There are multiple sand beaches and several different anchorages. We had to anchor quite a way from the beaches as it is mostly shallow shoal. You can probably walk out at least a quarter mile from the beach and still only be in waist deep water.

When we first arrived in the late afternoon, we dropped the hook in the anchorage where the wind was blowing us off of the beach. We took a quick dip in the water and realized it was about 10 degrees warmer than Los Frailes! Quite a surprise. We were greeted by a large manta ray that swam up to the boat, which was pretty cool.

The anchorage really calmed down just before sunset, and the water was completely flat. However, right after the sun sank over the horizon, the winds started blowing from the complete opposite direction. Within minutes, we had 15-18 knot winds that would have blown us into the rock face if our anchor dragged. So, we quickly pulled up the anchor and scooted over to the anchorage on the other side of the bay which would not put us in a lee shore situation. This was our first experience with the cormwell winds that blow in the La Paz area at night.

The next morning we pulled out the paddle boards again to explore the bay. The shallow water over sand gave the impression of a giant swimming pool!

It really was a beautiful anchorage, and I hope we make it back there sometime soon! But, it was time to move on again, so today we took off for La Paz. We’ll be here at Marina Palmira in La Paz for the next few weeks. Hoping to get the end of our projects done so that we can spend the rest of the summer checking out the local islands.

~katie

Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes

05/18/2016

Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes

Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I took some time to sit and write a post. At the moment we are sitting at anchor in a beautiful spot called Bahia Los Frailes. This is our second day here and we’ll probably spend a couple more days here.

What a relief to finally be away from Marina Puerto Los Cabos near San Jose Del Cabo where we spent the last month. It was nice to explore the town there, meet some cool new people, complete some boat projects, and celebrate Katie’s 40th birthday with her parents but it was definitely time to move on. Two good reasons for getting out of there were getting away from the mosquitos (we couldn’t enjoy sitting outside at night because of them) and getting out of the heat. It was getting so that it was difficult to sleep comfortably because it was so hot even at night. So we cast off the dock lines and headed for Bahia Los Frailes.

Here is a list of the stuff we worked on while we were there.
Project Status
1 Varnish wood in galley Complete
2 Install fresh and salt water foot pumps Complete
3 Install top opening hatch screens Complete
4 Apply fresh coat of Semco to exterior teak Complete
5 Fix fan in cabin Complete
6 Seal inside top of fridge and freezer Complete
7 Fix light in batter locker Complete
8 Trouble shoot fridge compressor overheat issue Complete
9 Purchase and add additional refrigerant to fridge compressor Complete 10 Fix issue with head stay roller furling Complete
11 Re-bed glass in portlights Complete
12 Painting the anchor chain Complete

The trip from Marina Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes was approximately 28 nautical miles. Normally this would have been about a 5 hour trip but the wind didn’t want to cooperate that day and blew straight out of the direction we needed to go. Since we can’t sail directly into the wind we had to tack and head offshore several miles a couple of times to get an angle on the wind that would allow us to sail toward our destination. This turned a 5 hour trip into a 7 hour trip instead. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except that it changed our arrival time from 7pm to after 9pm which meant we would have to approach the bay and drop the anchor at night. I don’t normally like to approach an unknown bay/anchorage at night, but we reviewed the cruising guides we had and determined that the risk was low so we went for it. When we arrived there were already three other boats in the anchorage so we picked a spot a safe distance away in about 40 feet of water and dropped the hook.

The next morning we noticed that a large power boat that was here when we arrived the night before had left. So we pulled up the anchor and moved the boat in closer which gave us better protection from the wind and swell. It was a beautiful day and we decided to just relax and enjoy the scenery around us from the boat for the day.

Today we woke up, ate breakfast and decided to jump in the water to do some cleaning of the hull to keep the marine growth from damaging our paint. During this exercise I noticed a couple of tiny crabs that had taken up residence on the attachment point for our Hydrovane rudder. I brushed them away and didn’t think much of it as I finished the job. About thirty minutes after I got out of the water I was feeling what felt like water draining from my left ear but each time I checked I didn’t see or feel any water. This kept happening for about another 30 minutes and then it dawned on me that maybe one of those tiny crabs decided that my left ear was a good new home after I evicted it from the Hydrovane. To see if my hunch was correct I asked Katie to put some rubbing alcohol in my ear thinking that if the crab was in there it may flush it out. After the rubbing alcohol was in my left ear I started hearing a gurgling noise thinking that this was just the alcohol making its way into my ear. To be sure I turned onto my left side to let it drain out. Once I did this I heard the gurgling again and then checked to see if the alcohol had drained. When I looked down I was staring directly at the culprit. A tiny little crab that was most likely wondering what that nasty substance was that we had just doused it with. My reaction was to simply pick it up and toss it overboard not surprised that I was right once again. Katie’s reaction was something like, “what the ##??!!, that would totally freak me out”. Now I guess I can say that our boat has a clean bottom and I found the cure for getting crab (singular) in Bahia Los Frailes ha ha.

Well that’s enough for now. Time to blow up the inflatable paddle boards and head over to explore the beautiful white sand beach that lines the shore of this beautiful place. We’ll post some pictures once we get to La Paz in the next couple of weeks where we can get a good WiFi connection.

Peace

Captain Mike.

Adventures with the Parents!

My parents came in town last week to celebrate my 40th birthday. They stayed at a fabulous resort called Cabo Azul on the Malecon in San Jose. It was quite damaged by the hurricane and they had to close down for 8 months, but it is reopened and beautiful. They are still trying to get people to come down now that they are reopened, so they got a really good deal on the room. It has numerous pools and and a swim up bar all overlooking the ocean. I highly recommend it if you are thinking of coming down to the Cabo area.

We took a cab down to Cabo San Lucas on Wednesday and hopped on a glass bottom boat to check out the rock formations and beaches. The water was so clear and we could see tons of fish right under the boat!

The next day we decided to take Adagio out for a sail. We had some lovely wind that let us sail for a bit up the coastline and enjoy the beautiful scenery!

On Friday we decided just to hang out at the resort and enjoy relaxing in the gorgeous pools (and 2 for 1 margaritas at happy hour)! But before we did that, Mom and I walked across the street from the resort for “Fish Therapy!” This was one of the funniest things I have ever done. It is a “pedicure” by fish! You stick your feet in a tank of water where these little fish with suckers on them literally suck the dead skin off your feet. Mom and I were giggling so much because it was so ticklish!

We had a lovely birthday dinner that night there are the resort. I ordered the Red Snapper having no idea what I was getting myself into! The waiter came back over after I ordered and said that it was a rather large fish and really for two people. So, my mom, who had ordered a different fish, said she would change her order and split it with me. Well, the fish was HUGE! I think it could have fed the whole table. They brought out the entire fish, head and all, to the table. We didn’t finish it, but it was delicious!

Overall, it was a fantastic birthday and a great end to our stay here in San Jose del Cabo. We are getting ready to head north. Our first stop will be Los Frailes. We’ll keep you all updated on our next adventure!

~katie

Answers to Joy’s Questions

My sister Joy asked me to do a blog post responding to her questions about our adventure. So, here goes…

Q: Once you slay the fish, how do you get all the guts off the boat so that your “home” doesn’t smell like dead fish? Or do things always smell like fish because you’re on a boat?

Katie: Our boat does NOT smell like fish! Mike fillets the fish out on the deck. Then fillets go into ziplock bags and into the fridge and freezer. The rest of the carcass is fish food and goes back in the ocean. We scrub down the deck with bleach to clean it.

Mike: Ditto. It is quite an arduous task and can take several hours if it is a big fish. It also makes you not want to catch another fish for a few days!

Q: Does Katie have dreds yet? Not a bad idea. Just sayin.

Katie: Nope. No dreds. I do wear my hair in braids a lot though. It gets really knotted and tangled, especially if I’ve been swimming in the ocean. I have to spend a lot of time with the conditioner and a brush in the shower to get them out!

Mike: No, not yet. But, I’m threatening to grow my hair long enough to wear a man bun.

Q: Exactly how dark is it when you’re out at sea in the middle of the nite? I’m scared of the dark.

Katie: It depends on whether the moon is out. The moon can be pretty bright. It might sound scary, but seeing all of the stars out at sea is pretty amazing.

Mike: It is extremely dark until the moon comes out. If there is no moon, the amazing stars make up for the darkness. You should read a book called “Learning to Walk in the Dark.”

Q: I’m also claustrophobic (as we know) are you guys yet?

Katie: Not claustrophobic on the boat at all! It is cozy!

Mike: Nope.

Q: How much wine do you keep on that boat?

Katie: We had a lot of wine when we moved onto the boat, but we drank it all! Well, we had to because the heat and motion of sailing the boat in Mexico were going to make it all go bad anyway. Now we just drink rum. Arrgh!

Mike: None, it goes bad in the heat.

Q: Do you have a schedule or is Katie finally living her lifelong dream of sleeping until “whenever she wants”?

Katie: Very funny. We actually get up at a reasonable time each day, but we rarely set an alarm. THAT is pretty nice!

Mike: It takes some prodding to get her out of the bed in the morning, but she gets up at a reasonable time.

Q: How is Katie keeping up her Mensa certification?

Katie: This is a long standing joke. I am not, nor have I ever been, in Mensa. I think I’d rather hang out with the salty sailors, divers, surfers and sea gypsies than join a group for “smart” people. Besides, I’ve met a lot of intelligent people who were complete idiots!

Mike: Katie is so smart that they gave her a lifetime membership.

Q: What are you going to do w/ the parents in Mexico?

Katie: Yeah! My parents are coming to visit this week to help us celebrate my 40th birthday! I see a lot of pina coladas in our future! Stay tuned for pictures!

What questions to you all have for us about our adventure? Leave the questions in the comments on the blog or on our Facebook page. I’ll do another blog post later responding to questions.

~katie

Diving Cabo Pulmo

Yesterday we got to dive at Cabo Pulmo! If you’ve been reading this blog, you remember that I just got my Open Water certification in February. So, I was a little nervous (and excited) for my first dive since taking the class.

Cabo Pulmo is about 60 miles from where we currently are in San Jose. Because Cabo Pulmo is Baja’s only coral reef and is a national protected marine park, you cannot anchor there. So, really the only way to dive it is to go through a local dive shop. We found the Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort which would actually pick us up in San Jose and take us to Cabo Pulmo.

We got picked up at 7:30 a.m. for the 90 minute ride through winding roads in the mountains. The last six miles are really rough dirt roads that take you back to the Coast. So, I’m really glad we didn’t have to drive it!

The dive resort is a really nice facility with a restaurant, pool, dive shop, etc. There are even bungalows where you can stay. When we got there we met our dive master Roy and boat captain Jose. There were five of us diving with Roy. He got us outfitted with any additional gear we needed, and we put everything in the panga. This was a two tank dive, and they really took care of getting all of the gear in order for the dive.

We walked over to the beach where the panga, on a trailer, met us. The trailer was backed up on a gravel path to the beach and we hopped in. The truck literally just backed the trailer through the surf and off we went!

After a short boat ride, we got to our first dive site, Las Casitas. We got on our rigs and did the backward roll off the boat – my first time! I was a bit nervous on the first descent, about 30-40 feet down, but Roy got my down there. Once I was down there, it was great!

Las Casitas is some giant boulders with coral growing on them. We saw schools of fish everywhere. Some of the divers even dove under and through the large boulders. So fun!

At the end of the first dive, we got back in boat and headed to the second dive spot, the pinnacle. Here, the star of the show was the bull sharks!

We descended down the pinnacle, which is a large triangular rock formation that sticks up out of the water. Around the side of the rock formation, about 60 feet down, there is a long sandy bottom. We all got down on our knees in a tight group and waited, scanning the sand at the edge of visibility, waiting for the elusive sharks.

Finally, Roy made the sign for shark and pointed off to the right. Sure enough, we could just make out the shadow of a large shark. He moved out of viewing range, but a minute later he returned and a second shark appeared. The sharks were probably 6-7 feet long. They just skimmed the bottom, cruising maybe 6 inches off the sand.

Neither of the sharks came closer than 10 yards away from us, but they were amazing! I thought I would be scared or nervous to see the sharks, but I wasn’t at all. I felt like I was in the middle of a Discovery Channel show.

We then headed up to check out the rest of the pinnacle, where we saw turtles, rays, lots of schools of fish and moray eels! I was seriously on cloud nine after the dive and can’t wait to go again!

Running away?

Yesterday I had the brief thought that we had run away from home. Of course, we brought our home with us, so maybe we just ran away. Instead of getting up in the morning and putting on “grown-up clothes” to go to an office and deal with client demands, we had a pleasant breakfast on the boat while listening to the fishermen laugh outside on the dock next to us as they got ready to head out for their daily catch.

We put on our “boat clothes” of shorts and t-shirts (why bother wearing shoes!) and starting working on our chores. Mike headed off on the bike in search of some refrigerant to add to our refrigerator, and I started scrubbing down the sand and dust that had accumulated on the deck in the last week before starting pretty much an all day project of polishing the stainless steel on the boat. Nothing looks better on a boat than lots of shiny things!

I once heard someone refer to cruising as doing boat work in exotic locations, which is partially true. Of course we are traveling to explore new places, learn some new things and have fabulous adventures. But, in order to do that, there is always going to be some hard work keeping the boat maintained.

Mike came back to help me finish polishing the stainless, and then we sat in the cockpit with cold beer and some chips and guacamole later that afternoon. It was here that I had the thought that we had run away. As we sat quietly watching the sun dip closer to the horizon as pelicans and frigate birds circled over the harbor looking for a meal, it was then that I realized that today my cell phone didn’t ring, I didn’t receive any texts, there were no emails to respond to, I hadn’t been on the internet all day and there was no TV to distract me. It was nice.

Our friends and family back home were probably just winding down the work day, but here we were sitting on the back of a boat in Mexico. So, maybe we did run away, but I’m ok with that!

~katie