... and Alice was traveling, too!

  When it was time to travel north to meet up with Bill in Tacoma, Alice planned a four day trip to break up the 1300 miles she would have to drive.  First she stopped in Clovis to visit daughter Alison and her family.  Although it was just for an overnight, she was able to see Alison and Rod and all nine of their children.  James, now 21, will leave for BYU in August.  Blake, now 19, will leave June 22 for a church mission to Peru.  The day after Alice left, their family flew to Hawaii for a weeklong family vacation- probably the last for a long time!
 Then Alice drove to Central Point, Oregon and stayed the night with her high school friend Shirley.  We talked, and ate, and walked, and talked some more, especially about our upcoming 50th high school reunion.  The next day she drove on the Eugene, where she had lunch with her college roommate, Susan, who took her to a Naked Lady Party... well, a clothes exchange- what fun! 
  Driving on the Portland, Alice followed her GPS directions and Stephanie's as well via phone, to find her at her apartment.  We spent a fun night of talking, eating, and even the traditional backscratch!
The next day we did some shopping and then drove to the Portland LDS Temple in Lake Oswego. Although it was misty, Alice took quite a few photos, including the above photo of Steplanie. It was so good to see her again, since the last visit was in 2008.   By that night she was in Tacoma and back on good old Grey Wolf with her honey hubby!  Whew!

  This snowy scene is of the Wasatch Mountain Range in central Utah, where Alice traveled for ten days following Bill's departure from San Diego. She saw six different families and even spent an evening with Justin's friend Ruxandra who was in Salt Lake City on business that week!  The weather was bad all but one day, actually the day she took this photo...  Regardless, it was a wonderful trip down memory lane, visiting families she knew in Fresno and Indio who have relocated to Utah.

   It was tulip time in Utah and, in spite of the inclement weather, they were in their full glory.  It seemed like everywhere she went, Alice saw tulips! From front yards to shopping centers, to temple grounds, they were outdoing themselves.
   Having never stopped to visit Thanksgiving Point, a tourist hotspot just north of Provo, Alice was thrilled to be able to meander around the complex with her good friend Margo who now lives in Lehi, Utah with her family.

THE REST OF THE STORY...

Part way up the coast of the United States, Douglas had a close encounter of the wicked kind, falling and cutting a pretty good gash on his nose.  His Aunt Dorothy was quick to the rescue and applied her nursing skills to fix him up.

Bill also took a bad fall and gored himself in the chest on a sharp corner of the helm.  As he lay writhing on the pilot house floor, Dorothy thought he was having a heart attack...  No, he just managed to pop a rib.  He is still holding his chest when he sneezes, but is mending nicely now that he is here and safe in Tacoma!

Between cooking, washing, cleaning,  nursing, and helping stand watch, Dorothy managed to keep a journal of the trip north.  Alice asked her for a copy of it and that is how she found out what REALLY happened on the wild ride north.

Even though she was assured that the seas were "not that bad" and "nothing we haven't already be through", she found out that it was way worse than anything she and Bill had experienced in Latin America...  Now she knows why her first reaction to traveling north was the right reaction:  "What a great idea:  I will meet you there!"  Regardless of the frightful times, both Douglas and Dorothy have volunteered to take the boat SOUTH if we ever do!

Rub-a-Dub-Dub: Three in a Tub!

Douglas De Fluter, Dorothy Mathews, and Captain Bill Johnson

On the calm morning of May 10, 2011, Captain Bill and his crew of two,  friends Douglas and Dorothy from Oklahoma, set out on an amazing journey to Puget Sound, Washington.  Alice waved them off and then rushed to the end of Harbor Island to capture their departure on her camera.  Seventeen days later they arrived at Chinook Landing Marina, Tacoma, Washington!  The guide book we'd purchased said that it would take a month if one traveled each day and rested each night.... that was certainly not the case for Grey Wolf.  She took on three Pacific storms, getting damaged all three times, and the crew sought shelter three times on the way north:  Morro Bay, Eureka, and Crescent City.  Otherwise, they traveled day and night.  Now, Captain Bill does not get seasick, and Dorothy had her home remedy of ginger juice to get her through the rough spots, but poor Douglas really felt the effects of being on the water even when it was SMOOTH.
We had been warned that it would be very cold, and indeed, it was even cold coming north from Cabo to San Diego.  What we didn't realize was how cold it would get:  49 degrees in the cabin as they approached the Strait of Juan de Fuca and turned east to meet the waters of Puget Sound!  Dorothy was very grateful she had packed thermal underwear and Bill just kept reporting to Alice that he was COLD~  his thin "Mexican" blood will thicken in time...  Now it is time for Alice to drive the Prius north and meet up with her awesome husband, Captain Bill, who now has another notch in his belt~ having conquered the wicked Alaska current in the Pacific Ocean.  He reported swells way above the height of Grey Wolf and even tried to photograph them, unsuccessfully.  That give him another mental memory, as we call it, for those times when one sees something so stunning that there is not time to capture it on camera.

Leaving San Diego, with Point Loma in the background.

GREY WOLF RETURNS TO SAN DIEGO!

On  Sunday, March 27, 2011 Grey Wolf left her anchorage near Marina de la Paz and ventured out through the San Lorenzo Channel and south to the anchorages of Los Suenos and Los Frailles in preparation for the journey around Cabo San Lucas and north to San Diego.  Just an hour out of La Paz we spotted this large humbpack putting on a show for a whale-watching boat!

Our first stop after rounding Cabo and getting the stuffin's knocked out of us was in calm Bahia Santa Maria, where we anchored for eight hours.  We had no more than dropped our anchor when two fishermen approached with lobsters for sale!  50 pesos ($4 and four AA batteries is what we paid for these four beauties.  Bill did emergency repairs on a water leak, Alice fixed a good HOT lunch (we were freezing) and then Bill rested before traveling on.

The reason Santa Maria was so calm is this headland pictured above that protects the bay from the ocean currents.  As the morning turned into afternoon the fog began to creep up and over the mountain and towards us, much like the fog that invades San Francisco 'on little cat feet'- this, however, was rolling and soon covered the entire headland.  Thankfully, it had dissipated by the time we left.

As the sun set over the Pacific Ocean this night, we were digging in for yet another overnighter. Five of the seven days  from Los Frailles to San Diego involved all night travel.  Alice got plenty of sleep and Bill very little, as the water was rough most of the way and the captain did not want the first mate to get hurt!  We were very happy to find Judy, a friend of brother Barry's, waiting for us at the Customs Dock in San Diego. She helped us tie down and got information regarding the Police Dock which has courtesy slips for just such folks as us, arriving from the great beyond~  At $10.50 a day it was a great place to begin our month of repairs and provisioning for the big ride north to Seattle...

NOT ALL IS PLEASANT ON GREY WOLF...

While we were in Santa Rosalia, Bill discovered our 50 amp power plug had burned and was fused to the outlet at our dock!  Try as he could he could not pull it out.  After reporting the mishap to the marina office, someone came to disassemble the outlet involved, eventually extricating the damaged plug... This is not the first time we have had power problems in in Mexico.  Unfortunately, these big boys are not cheap to replace!










The next pesky problem has been termites!  A few years ago Alice noticed droppings that tipped us off to their presence, but it wasn't until this past winter that we had sporadic incidents of the little devils in their winged state... we read about them, we sprayed them, we even found new droppings under the stateroom bed.  We cleaned them up and then they would reappear... ugh. Alice grew up in an old frame farmhouse that was infested yet still stands in San Diego County, so we don't anticipate that Grey Wolf will sink any time soon--- well, not at ALL, as it has a fiberglass hull.  We just wish we knew where their nest is...

Sunrise~ Sunset~

Our friend Jim on Sun Hunter met up with us while we were on anchor in Bahia Concepcion, off the beach at Posada.  Bill snapped this early morning sunrise over Jim's boat and Alice caught the moonrise over Sun Hunter one early evening. We will miss the spectacular shows the sun has provided for us the past 5 1/2 years, as we have never seen the blazing colors of Mexico back in the U.S..  Nevertheless, we are on track to trek north to San Diego in April and on to Seattle by summer!  A new adventure awaits us...

THE RUNNING OF THE PIGS!

The 26th annual Pig Races were held on February 13, 2001 in the little town of Mulege, Baja California South.  Although we have been in the area many times before, we had never attended, so it was a first for us!  It was a first, and probably only, experience for these little piggies, too.

Since we were anchored out near Playa Santispac we had no transportation.  But sailors are resourceful, and a bunch of us hooked up with visiting Canadians camping on shore and rode in with them- the Baja Boys,shown above, are from four different American boats.

The races pitted three little piggies against each other.  Each was anchored to a guide wire that ran down the track.  #6 was having none of it, as you can see.  Some took off like they were pros!  Some of the spectators bet on the four races, with profits of this event going to the local Rotary Club's charitable organizations.

SUPER MAN!

Can he fix it? Yes, he can!
That's why he's my Super Man~
Computer down?  Not for long,
Toilet leak? He knows what's wrong!
Generator sat too long?
Now it's singing its old song~
Too much water in the bilge:
Can he fix it?  Yes, he will.
Vacuum broke- give it to Bill-
Takes it apart, finds what's ill!
WD40 may
Often help him save the day.
But when it comes down to it,
No matter what he uses,
The reason things get fixed here:
Is SUPER MAN, Bill, my dear!
 by Alice, Posada Anchorage

Baja California  February 2011

Fun With Friends in Santa Rosalia

We've had a great time hanging out with friends this past month.  The above shot was taken one evening as seven of us headed uptown to have World Famous Hot Dogs! Deb and Dave on Wave Sweeper, Alice (and Bill behind the camera) on Grey Wolf, Alan and Barbara on Native Son, and Jim on Sun Hunter all enjoyed the great hot dogs- 15 pesos each,  and then trekked across the street to our favorite Neveria for one or two scoops of ice cream for a mere 12-20 pesos~ (12 pesos to the U.S. dollar these days)

Grey Wolf Gets A New Door!

Our main door, at right,  had become a source of difficulty, with the high rolling track beginning to deteriorate, making the door VERY hold to slide.  Bill had taken it apart and lubricated it before, and it had begun acting up again.  When he told a boating friend about it, he suggested Bill go to a local glass store and see if they could make a replacement door! 

Not only did they make a new door, but it came with a screen and was very skillfully installed on our deck by a couple of young men!  No more heavy steel door with a little window in it:  now we feel like we are in a fish bowl, so to speak...  Actually, it is a lovely door that slides easily and gives us better protection from the cold winter winds that have been whipping around us the last two months!  All that for $250 American!  Wow!!



Oh, and speaking of WIND, here is a very windy photo of Alice beside the new decals we have applied to each side of the pilot house and even a smaller version in the center of our new door, so no one will accidentally bounce off of it, thinking it is open when it is closed.  (Actually, it will be a miracle if Alice can keep it clean enough for that to even happen! )  Some people have a hard time seeing our name written on the stern of the boat.  Now it will be easy to identify us...