ET

No, not extra terrestrial, it stands for Elizabeth Taylor.  We've been watching some of her old movies and really enjoying them:  Sandpiper, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butterfield 8, Father of the Bride.  How days (and movies) have changed!

Last night we were at Islas Coronados and are currently heading toward Loreto where we'll anchor off the edge of town, dinghy in, and pick up some produce.  Plan is to head over to Carment (Puerto Ballandra) and if that anchorage is too crowded return to Islas Coronados for the next 3-4 days while strong north winds blow down our way.

Roy is enjoying The Log of the Sea of Cortez by Steinbeck.  Marlene is reading Jack Kennedy by Chris Matthews -- both "great reads."

Weather has been quite nice: high 70s during the day, mostly sunny (although it's overcast presently), cool to cold (low 60s) at night.  However we warm up the salon with cooking dinner and around 9 or 9:30 after the movie we head down to our bunk and stay warm all night with flannel sheets and comforter.

~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~

track our route:

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=kg6uhl

Caleta San Juaniico

We are in beautiful San Joanico, with no wind and calm water. The last time we were here was on Jellybean in 2006! We haven't yet visited the cruiser shrine where we left a little bottle of Pusser's Rum with "Jellybean" written on the label. We'll let you know if it's still there! We'll stay here today, maybe more -- it's so difficult to make a decision these days since we are totally free to do whatever we want, whenever we want. We do have to consider the weather, though. Yesterday the afternoon winds came up with such an intensity that our last 2 hours were almost the same as being on a monohull. Everything on the galley counters slid to the floor, books on the nav table did the same. After stashing everything in the 2 sinks or on the seat, all was better inside,but with Damiana pitching from side to side for over an hour, we've had second thoughts about heading north in 17 kt winds!

Marlene & Roy
sv Damiana
currently in Caleta San Juanico, Baja Sud

Leaving Puerto Escondido

We arrived at P.E. around noon on Tuesday.  After a quick lunch we dinghied to shore, took a cab ride into Loreto and explored the town.  We discovered a new grocery, up by the Pemex at the entrance to town where we bought some fresh veggies.  We must be well provisioned since when we went to Dali, the "gourmet" shop, we found only some sliced cheese to add to our larder.  Len and Norma left yesterday around 11:30 a.m., flew home from the Loreto airport.  We spent the early afternoon doing laundry in the machines at the Fonatur marina, and then returned home to Damiana for a while before heading back to the marina store to pick up a few items.

Today we leave for Isla Carmen, will try Bahia Ballandra and hope the bees don't chase us out of there!

~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~

track our route:

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=kg6uhl

Agua Verde

After spending our first night at Isla San Francisco, we ventured north. Seas the first day out of La Paz were very lumpy so we thought we might give up and either return to La Paz or stay close enough so Len and Norma could take a bus up to Loreto. However, when we took off, the seas were much more comfortable -- even though the wind velocity was as much as 15 kts on the nose. We motored all the way up to Agua Verde, 50 miles, and dropped anchor in 10 feet of beautiful aqua water. Today we accomplished quite a few things. Roy, Len and Norma took a dinghy ride to town, Norma cleaned our plastic windows and the decks. Roy, Len and Norma worked on marking our halyards for the reef points. At one point Roy said it was quite nice to just sit out in the cockpit and watch the air. We all got a big laugh out of this. Marlene cooked three meals and baked brownies. So, all in all, we had a productive day. We head up to Puerto Escondido tomorrow, expecting to go into Loreto for a walk, dinner and a little provisioning.

Prop is fixed...

Our friends, Len and Norma, arrived on Wednesday in Loreto.  Since we're still in La Paz and they brought down the propeller blades that we need in order to move the boat, we drove up there to pick them up.  The desert was greener than most times and quite beautiful, especially in the valleys and mountains.  It took us 4.5 hours to get there and arrived just a few minutes before their plane.  After they cleared customs it was 2:30 pm and all of us wanted lunch; that stop consumed another hour. so it was about 8 pm when we arrived back at Damiana.  Yesterday the diver came and installed the new blades, afterwards we drove around town for a quick tour of downtown La Paz, then came back "home" and I baked a cake for Norma's birthday which is today.  We plan to leave today for the islands and if weather is favorable, to get up to Loreto by next Wednesday when they leave.  We'll give it a try, but since the winds are coming from the direction we're heading, we'll return if it's too uncomfortable.

~~~ Marlene ~~_/) ~~

track our route:

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=kg6uhl

Finally....

After several days of bad weather we are finally taking off from La Paz!  We spent a few days getting a good start on making a new set of dinghy chaps, did a little more shopping, ate at a few more restaurants -- but now, all is set for take off mid-morning.

~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~

track our route:

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=kg6uhl

another tracker - input KG6UHL and choose 30 days:

http://www.shiptrak.org/

Happy Holidays

A few days before Christmas we drove down to Costco in Cabo via Todos Santos, a lovely town on the Pacific side of Baja California.  We ate lunch at Hotel California in Todos Santos before our big shopping expedition at Costco.  Having looked at the map which shows a possible round trip by heading down the Pacific side and returning to La Paz on Hwy 1 on the Sea of Cortez side, we set off on Hwy 1 at 3:30, hoping to arrive in La Paz by 5:30.  The road is a mountain road (not clearly identified as such on the map) with slow trucks, motor bikers, and sharp curves.  We arrived at "home" ar 7:30!  The scenery was beautiful, however!

Christmas came and went.  We had a nice breakfast aboard Damiana with Sue and Alex of Maitairoa and Lynda and Bob of Tahoma.  We served Roy's Kringle with, OJ, scrambled eggs, fruit and coffee.  We also had fresh fruit from Maitairoa, included fresh strawberries!  A little later in the day, about 17 people from 9 boats showed up for a potluck that we organized here at our marina which is quite distant from town.  We served the turkey mentioned in an earlier posting along with cranberry sauce, potatoes and carrots.  Roy made turkey broth, currently frozen in cup portions in our freezer.

Since Christmas we've shopped even more in town, including gifts for Cambria's birthday on January 20.  After driving around for 30 minutes we finally located UPS.  They couldn't take the package until we had it cleared through Mexico customs.  So we went to customs and realized that we needed to have a shipping box (we thought UPS would have sold us one) so we went to a shipping box store, bought the box and went back to customs around 4 pm -- closed! Back to customs the next morning, then to UPS and finally got it shipped off.

Yesterday we went to the marina office to pay our last bill (planning to leave early Monday morning), made arrangements to park our car near their office and Lupita suggested that we have a cover for it.  So, off on another adventure trying to locate Auto Zone.  Roy had a recollection of seeing one in recent history, and thought it was on the way out of town on Hwy 1.  After driving for a few miles past the commercial area we realized it wasn't there -- so on the way back into town we stopped and asked someone.  He shook his head, knowing what we wanted but couldn't tell us in Spanish that we understood -- we just headed back into town.  Lo and behold, Auto Zone is right next door to UPS!  No wonder it's image was stuck in Roy's head!

We're so glad to have our car here so we can have all these fun adventures.  Tomorrow we leave, heading north toward Loreto where we'll pick up Len and Norma on January 16.  It's raining today, we expect mild (10-15 kt) north winds for the next several days, but we'll take it slow and easy.....

~~~ Marlene & Roy ~~_/) ~~

track our route:

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=kg6uhl

another tracker - input KG6UHL and choose 30 days:

http://www.shiptrak.org/