La Paz- Our Home Port?

We just keep coming back to Marina Costa Baja in La Paz, shown above. When we did not receive the depth sounder in a timely manner, we decided it would be better to return to the Baja and do some other refits as well before taking on the major venture of traveling to Central America. So after 12 days in Manzanillo we turned Grey Wolf north again and retraced our steps to Banderas Bay, then 45 hours across the ocean to Los Frailles and Los Muertos. We arrived in La Paz on January 17 and plan to be here three days before taking about a week to move north to Santa Rosalia where we will leave the boat. We will do our taxes and purchase needed supplies and equipment before returning. Bill's brother, Barry, has decided to pull out of San Carlos on his boat this February and hopes to meet up with us for a while in the Sea of Cortez. We have not seen him for the better part of a year now, so that will be fun.

On Hold In Manzanillo

This seems to be our time to have problems with our equipment! When we arrived in Puerto Vallarta our depth sounder was acting up. Now it will only stay on for five minutes and then it cuts out. SO, arriving here in Manzanillo we were forced to anchor deep- turned out to be in 41 feet of water. We like 25 feet but did not dare move in toward shore without a working depth sounder. Bill has ordered a new one through a dealer in San Diego and it will arrive some time after January 8, we hope! We have been hanging out on the boat~ watching TV, working on the computer, sewing, and reading. This bay is popular and feels like a mini-Cabo. There are jet skiers, wakeboarders, banana boaters, kayakers, etc. aplenty every afternoon. Of course, this is still vacation time down here, so by next week it will probably quiet down! The above photo shows Playa Miramar- our view from the boat when pointing west... The top photo is Marina Las Hadas and the surrounding community where we went to land our dinghy and catch a bus into town~ so white and so pretty! Note boats in the lower right-hand corner behind the seawall.

Kaeli VS Santa

Well, the jury is still out on this one! I'd say that Santa has the upper hand, but Kaeli is putting up the fight of her little life~ Arlene and Eric just sent us this classic photo. I am sure it is NOT what they had hoped for, but it is a typical reaction of a one year-old to an old man in a red suit with a white beard!! Where has she ever seen that before?? May next year be better... we think she will still get a stocking full of goodies this Christmas!

Something is Fishy!

We did not know how important the fishing industry is to lives of many Mexicans until we started traveling. We have done our share of fishing, too, but wherever we are we catch interesting glimpses of pesca en Mexico! Above, left, are baby yellowtails swimming in a school at the back of our boat... maybe 6-8 inches long. The photo at right is huge red snappers on ice waiting one last trip~ to the market in La Cruz!

Biding Our Time in Banderas Bay

We have been in Banderas Bay for two weeks now. At first we thought it would be a quick stop on our way south. Then the weather held us up. THEN the generator broke! The gen is our power supply source, in addition to solar panels, but we have too many appliances on board to do without it. So Bill tore into it and found a broken part which had to be custom-made at a local machine shop. In the meantime, we have been able to do some exploring and getting to know the area better. The Bay itself is about 25 miles in diameter, with communities all around the edge. We have anchored just off La Cruz, a quiet little town of cobblestone streets, peppered with lovely restaurants! Last Fri. night friends Bill and Jean treated us to dinner at the Black Forest German Restaurant, complete with flamenco/gypsy guitar entertainment! Alice attended church in downtown Puerto Vallarta Sunday and then wandered Old Town and the Malecon where there are dozens of beautiful statues, as shown above. She also saw our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral, above. The area is a dichotomy of old and new, wih the beginnings of tropical Mexico and high humidity. Thankfully, it is cool right now! With the gen again purring, we will soon head south to Manzanillo, but know we will return to Bahia de Banderas some day.

Our Year In Review ~ 2007

Jan.1, 2007 found Alice on the road back to Indio in preparation for her visit to Alison and Rod's to help with baby John David, #9, who arrived Jan.12. Bill was a bachelor for about six weeks during which time he and Barry moved the boats back to La Paz from San Carlos. Cousin Gloria came from Arkansas to make the crossing with Barry, cooking great meals and enjoying Mexico. Alice returned just before she left.

By April we headed to Santa Rosalia, where we left Grey Wolf for the next 6 months. We hurried home to get ready for Jeff and Margaret's wedding May 19. We sure appreciated all the help of family and friends. It was a beautiful wedding and reception. All of their siblings and parents were there. Welcome to the family, Jeff and son Andrew!

By late May we drove our truck down to Santa Rosalia and relaxed on the boat a while, returning to San Diego in June to work on selling our older boat. Thankfully, Bill did succeed in finding a buyer! Then we took off on our 7,000 mile road trip, visiting family and friends, covering 19 states in 4 weeks...

We again drove down Baja in August to check on the boat, since there had been a brush from Hurricane Henriette. We fared well, only losing the contents of freezer and refrigerator when shore power was turned off by the marina...

While home in Sept. we bought the eqpt for satellite TV on the boat. It took until the end of Nov. to get it working, and now we love watching the news, sports, and movies through SKY Mexico.

We've had several visitors this year. Dorothy Mathews was with us in Sept., our daughter Melinda (celebrating completion of cosmetology school) in October, and Ted and Carolyn Burrage in Nov. Who is next?

Bill was a proud grandpa at grandson J.D. and lovely Michelle's wedding in Sept. in Laguna. Then in October we made a weekend visit to Arizona to see Robin, Kelly, Tracy and their families. We got to meet three new great grandchildren, too! We also saw Alison's family in Clovis and then had early Christmas with Owen, Melinda, Justin, Eric, Arlene and baby Kaeli in San Diego where we also celebrated Kaeli's first birthday a little early! What a cutie!

As you've read our blog you have learned of the ups and downs of our life in Mexico. We have read books, made quilts and jewelry, and taken tons of photos. We look forward to continuing south, anticipating arrival in Central America sometime in early 2008. We hope to travel as far as Panama, at least.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALICE!

We were SO tired by the time we arrived that we had no interest in going ashore to celebrate Alice's birthday that day. The following day, Dec. 8, we went out to dinner with our friends Bill and Jean from the sailing vessel Mita Kuuluu. They know this area well, and after a leisurely walk of a few blocks we arrived at La Cascada, a lovely restaurant with a nice patio and a waterfall nearby! We had a wonderful meal, and Alice was treated to a slice of chocolate cheesecake complete with a birthday serenade by the lady in the accompanying photo. Never mind that we were entertained by three sleek cats while the resident dog slept on a pillow. Alice felt well-celebrated for her 64th!

Now THAT'S a Crossing!

Well, now, our crossing to Puerto Vallarta was MUCH better than the last time! We inched our way down from La Paz and finally jumped off at Frailes on Dec. 5, headed for Isla Isabela and the frigate bird sanctuary. We watched playful, huge dolphins off our bow, and a beautiful sunset and sunrise.By 2 PM Dec. 6 we pulled near the small bay and saw SIX boats already anchored, with breakers on the east side and shallows on the west side. SO, Alice took photos of the island and the zillions of birds flying about and then we headed south, promising to try a visit sometime in the future... Only one problem: if we continued to travel at the same rate we would arrive at Banderas Bay, home of PV, in the middle of the night! Captain Bill made some speed and navigational adjustments and we poked along, arriving at Bahia de Banderas about 9 AM. We called our friends who were already there and followed their directions across this huge bay, seeing spouting whales in the process. After 50 hours of straight travel we were safely anchored!

THE UGLIEST TRIP EVER !!!

Well, now we know what CAN happen in the Sea of Cortez! We left Mazatlan on Nov. 23 under fair skies and began our trip back to La Paz to complete some repairs we had started earlier. The first twelve hours were great- lost THREE fishing lures, which was really weird, but that was nothing compared to what lay ahead! Twelve hours into the trip the sea began to whip up with a strong south wind blowing. The internet weather had said there would be a west wind. As night came on and all through the night Bill battled waves which slowed us to 3-4 knots, rather than our usual 7. We hoped for calmer water at daybreak, but all we got was a better look at the raging sea with whitecaps everywhere! At one point I counted 15 waves in 1 minute- and they were 6-10 feet high. We both fell and scraped ourselves trying to take care of the essentials, which was the only reason we would even leave our seats. Just 15 miles before the end of our 190 mile trip the sea finally calmed down... Everything fell that could fall; one porthole had not been tightened down (Alice's error) and now the carpet in the stateroom is slowly drying out- two days later! 4 miles from our anchorage the engine began to choke and Bill had to turn it off and go below to troubleshoot, finding a clogged fuel filter! We certainly were blessed with the Lord's protection and guidance, for if the filter had clogged in high seas, who knows what would have happened to us! (Photo at top shows a saltwater shower over the bow after we hit one wave)

Homer the Hitchhiker

The day we traveled from Muertos to the mid-point of the Sea of Cortez was a quiet one, with little to entertain us other than some flying fish which really are amazing.(The day before we'd seen whales, dolphins, sea lions, and manta rays.) Then all of a sudden, from out of nowhere, a small white and black bird began circling Grey Wolf. It finally landed on our anchor, of all places! It sat there for a while, too tired to do anything but hang on. Then he began preening his feathers and looking around. Alice was able to walk within 5 feet of it and got some cool shots. About a half hour later we crossed the path of a flotilla of brown birds floating in the water and flying about. Poor Homer got so distracted that he flew away. He did not give him much hope of making it back to shore.