Saturday, September 5, 2015
Saturday, May 31, 2014
End of Season
We had a wonderful time with Amber, sailing from Loreto to La Paz, stopping at Agua Verde for her to see an authentic fishing village and goat herd, then on to Puerto Los Gatos to photograph the colorful boulders, on to Bahia Salinas on Isla San Jose to see the remains of a salt mine, on to Isla San Francisco to walk across the island over the salt flat, and ultimately to La Paz. Since here we've gone out to dinner ourselves and with Sue and Alex on Maitairoa and Bernard from Simple Pleasures, drove to Todos Santos to see the artist community on the Pacific Ocean. Today is the last day of putting Damiana away for 6 months. We plan to start our 4-day journey up the Baja tomorrow.
~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~
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Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Amber on board!
The big excitement aboard Damiana is Amber's arrival yesterday! She arrived at the Loreto airport, the most beautiful young woman ever wearing her wide brimmed hat with bright eyes and a huge smile! Our friend, John, drove us there in his car to pick up Amber and then drove us to the small marina where our dinghy was parked after a brief stop to introduce Amber to Patricia. We left the Loreto roadstead with enough wind to sail almost all the way to Isla Coronado before the wind died and we motored the rest of the way into the anchorage. After we were anchored Amber asked if we could go to the beach, white sand and turquoise water luring her toward it. We lowered the dinghy and en route stopped by Interlude to introduce Amber to Peggy and Don. Peggy joined us for a nice beach walk, finding a few more treasures along the way.
Back at the boat with Peggy and Don, preparing pizzas for dinner, Diane and Bill from True Love came by and we all visited for about half an hour while I made the dough. After Diane and Bill left we made three grill-size pizzas, had margaritas and peach dump cake for dessert. Conversation non-stop until about 9 pm until all of us agreed it was time to quit, get some rest to get ready for the next day when bocce ball and crafts were among the activities.
A quick note to mention that the restaurant we went to last Friday with Interlude and Far Country was La Picazon, the best restaurant we've ever been to in Loreto -- maybe we'll go there with John and Patricia on our drive home. We spent Saturday and Sunday at anchor with Far Country and Interlude. Far Country is now headed north toward San Carlos after hugs and hopes for visits before next season -- but surely next season if not before! Today may be the last day we share an anchorage with Interlude, all these farewells indicate the season is ending and it's time to start heading toward home -- Damiana's home in La Paz, that is.
~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~
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Thursday, May 15, 2014
Mother's Day 2014
Too Much Fun...
The title above pretty much describes why it has taken us a month to post another entry on this Blog.As planned, we did transit to Santa Domingo, met Patty and Terry from Mystique and Karen and Roger from Meridien, had Patty's birthday party, met all the folks on Wendaway, Airops, Far Country among others and were swept up into a run of beach walks, shelling and even a fun evening beach party. Wendy from Wendaway gave us a huge collection of shells to give to Amber as souvenirs since she won't have a chance to visit the beaches where shells are in abundance. Vlasta from Far Country met us on the beach one morning and gave us Jingle shells for Amber, along with some other treasures.Mystique and Meridien went up to Santa Rosalia and we followed a day later for more provisions and to spend a last day with good old friends. While there I (Marlene) got a pretty good haircut and hope we have time to stop on our way home for a trim. We said "haste luego" to the two M boats as they crossed the Sea to San Carlos to put their boats away until next season.We continued on to Isla San Marcos where we met up with Airops, Far Country and Wendaway. Dave and Merry from Airops came over one evening for a potluck and brought me two pair of beautiful shell earrings that Merry made -- for pierced ears. Now I just have to go and get it done -- after years of procrastinating -- I just love these earrings -- so I will do it! Thanks to Merry for the incentive! We had several evening get-togethers, getting to know each other, sharing life stories and current passions. One passion shared by many of us is "weather." Mark from Wendaway has a contact at NOAA who is developing a newer, better, weather forecasting system for the Eastern Pacific. Mark got us in touch with him and now lots of conversation, email and radio time is spent analyzing and talking about weather.All four boats made it back to either Punta Chivato or Santo Domingo for more beach walks, shelling, and parties. Roy has perfected his Margaritas, and we all enjoyed them on several occasions. We still drink lots of fizzy mineral water as well, needing to keep well hydrated in this dry climate. From there we migrated to San Juanico for only one night since strong winds were predicted and we needed to get to better protection. We separated from the group and sailed in very brisk 15-20 winds to Punta Colorada for a few nights and then we went Puerto Escondido for Loreto Fest where Roy conducted a seminar on Medicine for Cruisers.We returned to Isla Coronados (our home away from home), and the parties resumed! An extended Happy Hour on Wendaway on Sunday, a superb spaghetti dinner hosted by Clarence and Sharon on Lotus on Monday. We invited Wendy and Mark and Vlasta and Gordo and Merry and Dave for a bagel breakfast on Tuesday morning (I made them on Monday) -- a thank you to all of them for welcoming us into their lives, for sharing their love of shelling and giving us so many wonderful mementos and memories. Alas, time came for Wendaway and Airops to head toward home -- we look forward to seeing them next season.The next day, we took Damiana over to Loreto for provisions and invited Vlasta and Gordo (Far Country) to join us. As it turns out, Peggy and Don from Interlude finally arrived from the mainland -- we met at the roadstead, shopped, had lunch and then all came back to Isla Coronados. For several days in a row we had gorgeous beach weather, even played Bocce Ball. Gordo taught me some techniques so that I was finally able to score some points. We, of course, had evening get-togethers, dinner on Damiana on Thursday, dinner aboard Far Country last Friday, and then on Saturday we had craft day aboard Damiana followed by an informal potluck. On Sunday, while playing Bocce Ball some Mexicans joined us -- apparently never having played it and they did very well!Today is Wednesday, day three of a "wind event" here in the Sea of Cortez, winds in excess of 20 kts, but we expect high winds again tomorrow. On Monday we moved to the south side of the island which has better protection from north winds. We hiked from this beach to the other side Monday morning and again on Tuesday morning, before the winds picked up around 11 a.m. We finally were in the same anchorage as Spirit Quest; Kathy and Doug invited us over for a delicious fish dinner on Monday -- was nice to visit and spend time with them on their beautiful boat.With winds expected to lay down tomorrow evening, we have plans to go to a nearby restaurant on the beach on Friday.Just like we said, TOO MUCH FUN!!!!~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Bahia Concepcion
More than two weeks since our last post -- consider us lucky to be busy with sailing, social life, and of course, the myriad of chores we do every day!
After our chicken kabob dinner on Warren Peace, John and Sharon left the following morning to head over to San Carlos and put their boat away for the rest of the year. We spent a few more days in Santa Rosalia, hung out with Bill and Vicki from MaToWi: provisioning, dinners together, playing games. All of us left at the same time, heading for Punta Chivato before heading down into Bahia Concepcion. Jupiter's Smile was here in Concepcion. All of us met on MaToWi to share potluck dinner and play Mexican Train. The next day all of us rode together on Damiana to a restaurant, Buena Ventura, further south in Bahia Concepcion for lunch. The following day Bill and Vicki came over to Damiana to learn how to play Baja Rummy -- they liked it! The four of us went to Anna's for dinner that night. The next morning while taking our morning walk along the beach with Bill and Vicki we saw a panga parked with fresh catch! We purchased a kilo of fresh scallops which we enjoyed over at MaToWi. More dinners, more walks, more games, and finally Bill and Vicki said it was time for them to head over to San Carlos to pick up friends flying into Hermosillo. They plan to return to the Baja side next month for more fun in the sun.
We returned to Santa Rosalia a week after we left for more provisions -- our California style of eating requires fresh fruit and veggies, most of which don't last on board for more than a week. Jupiter's Smile was in the slip next to us, so we had a chance to hang out with Jay and Barb for a few days. Another chance for calamari dip, Chuy's hotdog, and even a paleta after dinner. The next day I decided to make another batch of bagels instead of bread. Barb came over to watch and copied the recipe. Since Jay likes having a bagel every morning, I suspect Barb will soon be baking them regularly. That night we had dinner with them at El Muelle, one of our favorites. After 2 nights in Santa Rosalia, we left to return to Bahia Concepcion. We are currently anchored in Posada Concepcion. We took a long dinghy ride today to El Burro Cove and visited with Geary, our weather guru, for a few minutes. Just about every square foot of beach was populated with hundreds of local families camping, all having wonderful times, lots of kids, lots of music -- not too loud -- and lots of happy smiles. This is Semana Santa (Easter week) and families in Mexico typically take vacation -- a very nice tradition!
Sometime in the next day or two we'll head up to Ste. Domingo, hoping to meet up with Patty and Terry for a night or two before returning to Santa Rosalia for one more time before heading south toward Loreto -- with a few stops along the way.
This post will be sent as soon as we have internet connection.
~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~
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Saturday, March 29, 2014
Santa Rosalia 2
Oops, no silver, but lots of other minerals in the local mine. Here's a link to Wikipedia which gives a synopsis of the history of the town and the many attempts at mining.
~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~
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