Warren Peace

Mazatlan March 1 2011

2011-03-01T16:38:00.003-07:00

March 1 2011

And here we sit in the Marina in Mazatlan. It is now well into happy hour so this is where we say good by for a while. As soon as we get a weather window we will cross the Sea of Cortez 200 to 250 miles, where we will spend the next 2 or 3 months. Not much internet there so next blog entry might be a little while, hope fully not as long as in the last year

Steve & Linda
s/v Warren Peace

Mexico City tour feb 2011

2011-03-01T13:29:00.023-07:00

Feb 20, 2011. We are all on the bus at 6:00 PM for a 16 hour ride to Mexico City. Mexico City is the 3rd largest city in the world, some where around 25 to 30 million people. Our first stop was the pyramids just outside of Mexico City also the 3rd largest in the world.

We stopped at the Pyramids on Sunday which is the only day of the week that the national people get free entrance to the park.

Only 10% of the area has been excavated.

This is the pyramid of the moon, smallest of the two pyramids.

And of course this is the largest pyramid of the sun.

Feb 21, 2011

A trip to Coyocan which means coyotes in spanish.

Mexico City was founded in the bottom of a valley. Originally it was an island in the middle of the lake. As populations grew they filled in the lake and drained the water. This area with the canels is in Coyocan.

One of the reseans Mexico City has so much trouble is the soil at the bottom of the lake is unstable and the as water is drained out it creates voids. Lots of older churchs are leaning several feet out of square.

Like anywhere in Mexico you can buy music, food, plants etc. on the channels.

canals in the Xochimilco area

Feb 22, 201

Look close at the building and you will see how much they are out of line.

Lots of catherdrales

Square in behind our hotel.

Palacio de Bellas Artes. Opera house

Feb 23 201

This was a bonus day. We did a tour of the Cacahuamipia caves 30 miniutes out of Taxco.

2 kilometer walkway through the caves. Heights were up to 80'. Great day, well worth the trip.

Side streets of Taxco

Cacahuamipla Caves

Our group heading into the caves

Linda and Lynn Greentree

Feb 24 2011

Street entertainment

Top of the Latin American building

city smog

Opera House from high up on the Latin American building. 37th floor

Anthropology museum in Mexico city

Some Artifacts you back to 2000BC.

Feb 25 2011

Pope visited in 1985

Basilica di Guadalupe

Look carefully at the church it is leaning out by several feet.

You can see the wall seperate but if you look at the right side of the picture part of the wall is leaning in by several feet.

Mazatlan - Salvation army kids

2011-03-01T11:56:00.004-07:00

Febuary 18th 2011

Mazatlan - Salvation army kids. These kids put on shows throughout the year to raise money so that they can eat. Apparently no monies come from the government. Also they do several show throughout the Xmas season also. Lots of fun and entertainment.
This year was the largest fund raiser yet by the cruising community.

Machette Dance

Spring 2010 road trip home

2011-03-01T11:43:00.002-07:00

Southern USA on the road home.

2009-2010 sailing season

2011-03-01T10:09:00.011-07:00

NOV. 2009 TO MAY 2010

Same old same old, we had planned on doing pretty much what we did last year. Of course plans and actual events are some times very different.

We arrived in San Carlos in mid Nov. We launched our boat an then decided to run over to Guymas, pull our mast and boom, strip all of the gear off of them, strip all of the paint and then had Franscico do a paint job. That took us until the 19th of Dec. We sailed south to Mazatlan and had Xmas with our friends. From there down to Manzanillo for a few months of R&R. Sailed up to Bandaras Bay (Puerto Vallarta) to sail with our good friends Pam and Steve on Full Quiver and did the regatta. 3 days of practice and 3 days of racing pretty much exhausted all of us. Mid march we sailed north to San Blas and then across the Sea of Cortez to go to our nephew's wedding. Below are a few pictures of the wedding and some of the sites that we had on our way north.

Day of sailing with the family

Beautiful bride Cyrstal

finally a day of rest !!!!!

Puerto Esconditio, Whale shark is about 14 feet long swimming off of the bow of our boat.

Punta Chivato on the Baja. Last night before we crossed over to San Carlos

Thailand trip - Chang Mai and Puket

2010-02-02T15:17:00.034-07:00

We were in Asia from the 15 of Sept 2010 to Oct 16. To save repeating myself all of Asia was fantastic. We spent 6 days in Hong Kong, then on to Bejing, - floating markets, budda's, then on too Xian with all of the terra cotta warriers, several large buildings keep the weather off of the clay soldiers. Vast areas in Xian need to have more excavating done. Thousands of years of history. From Xian we went to Shanghai, with only 3 days there we would go back again. From there we flew back to Hong Kong and separated from the 21 people in our group and headed off to Thailand.
Bankok was our first stop, looked at lots of Budda's and temples, then flew into Chang Mai, did a tour of the elephants and tigers, orchids out in the country side. From there to Puket and after a month just sat and relaxed.

Buildings in Hong Kong

Hong Kong skyline

living scaffold - bamboo

jet boat to island of Macaw to do a little gambling

imperial palace

fantastic jade carvings

Ready for a little walk on the great wall

Terra Cotta warriers in Xian. Thousands of clay statues.

15 course dumpling meal

Gardens in the middle of the city

unique buildings in Shanghai

Shanghai skyline

snake handlers left me with Fred

water lily

Today we went through 2 villages, both small plots of land,refuges from Burma which is only a few miles away.

This lady is from the village

of the longneck tribe. We toured the village, looked in the huts and bought some crafts from them.

White palace 3 hours north of Chang Mai. This is all done with donations, no government help. Long process to build, they will be many years but very beautiful

Riding the elehants on a safari outside of Chang Mai.

We are about 8 to 10 feet off of the ground. Increadibily intelligent animals.

They wanted 350 boht to take pictures of tigers, so we said okay. We go down by the tiger pens give him our ticket and he opens up the cage and says come on in!!!!

Wow!!

These tigers are almost full grown and are 18 months old

Orchids and butterflys outside of Chang Mai

Biker bar where we eat several times in Puket. This bike was built in Puket for one of the white bikers. Cost 1,000,000.00 boht.

Heading north

2010-01-01T15:41:00.007-07:00

After Islla Isabella we sailed to Mazatlan. One of our friends lost all of his electrical power on the boat, so they could not use radar (which was needed as there was lots of fog) or there radios, chart plotter except a small portable. After a couple of hours we helped them into the El Cid Marina.

Feb 26, Steve's birthday, which means dock party. Pam's present to help me with my direction finding.

Everyone had fun. Lots of people, and best of all 3 yes 3 cakes. I had to eat cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All of the people eat cake for days.

As you can see the party went well into the night, and if I remember we all went to Fat Fish for a plate of those monster ribs for 80 pescos each. Beer for 10 p. each Good time had by all.

We lost one of our renters and decided to bee line to San Carlos, 400 miles north as the crow flies, too bad a boat does not go where the crow goes so and at least another 100 kn miles to that.

Isla Isabella

2010-01-01T15:16:00.006-07:00

On our way north we decided that we would try and visit Isla Isabella - called the Galapagos of the north. We stopped in before but were chased out with a forecast of 30 knot winds in an open anchorage. There were 3 boats travelling together, but one of the boats decided to carry on as they were having troubles with there windlass. The day we travelled there were whales surfacing and breaching all around us. We had to divert course several times as the whales were getting too close to us. Two of our friends boats were hit by whales this year, luckly no damage.

It takes many shots to get a whale breaching , here is one in the distance.

The island is covered with low scrub trees and lots of frigate birds, and several kinds of boobies live and breed on the island.

This was one of the lucky frigates that had two ladies under his wings. These are skim feeders. One of the fastest birds in the world, they weight 2 to 3 lbs, wing spans in the 6 to 7 foot range.

These unusual creatures the blue footed boobie nest on the ground. We could get within 1 or 2 feet of them with no problem. They dive after there fish, and some times get caught on our lures.

As you can see the birds nest at eye level and are not afraid of people.

San Blas heading north

2010-01-01T14:49:00.005-07:00

Shrimp boat anchored. The shrimp fleet was bought out by the Mexican government, that way they would have some control over the depleting stocks of shrimp. You can by a kilo of shrimp in Mexico for around 80 to 120 pecos, about $7 to $10.

Just went into our blog and can not believe it has been almost a year since we posted anything.

This is one of our favorite fish, mahi mahi, dolpin fish, dorado all the same. Mmmm very good tasting. This one is about 8 lbs.

Morelia

2009-01-23T14:59:00.006-07:00

After visiting Guadalajara we took another 3.5 hr. bus ride to Morelia, another UNESCO Heritage Site. Most of the buildings date back to the 16th & 17th century. Here is one of the beautiful statues in the centre of a large park. In the background is the aquaduct that was built in the 1600`s.

Amongst the beautiful old buildings, the city remains busy with cars and tourists. Part of the old - a cowboy from the outlying ranch area, with his two horses and bags of goods for the city.

One of the beautiful courtyards in the interior of all the buildings. The arches are a common theme throughout.

Another area with incredible domes.

The main cathedral is the most significant part of the old town. It`s twin spires are visible from every direction. It covers a city block and took over 100 years to complete.

One of the remodeled hotels.

trip to Guadalajara

2009-01-23T14:37:00.003-07:00

After many nights on the boat, we took a 5 day trip inland with our friends Bill and Janet from Optical Illusion. Here we are on a double decker bus doing a city tour.

Guadalajara is one of the UNESCO sights. This is one of several cathedrals.

This is the old university and cathedral. There is currently a debate about building sky scrapers down town. The cathedral is 65 metres high. As the city is preparing for the 2011 Panamerican games building will be erected up to 20 stories.

hanging out in Barra

2009-01-23T14:27:00.002-07:00

Here is Steve and couple of his friends hanging out in Barra-de-navidad lagoon.

note Steve's new home made stabilizer

08/09 cruising expenditures

2009-01-23T13:34:00.002-07:00

Expenses below are only related to boating.

---------------Nov 08-----Dec 08
provisions---264.83-------731.80
fuel----------122.00-------92.80
boat---------713.53-------------
Mic-----------50.00-------------
travel ins.----45.00--------45.00
boat insuran 208.00------208.00
entertainment 150.--------41.00
skype/cell
marina--------------------310.80

Total--------1553.36-----1429.40

07/08 crusing budget

2009-01-23T13:11:00.002-07:00

Crusing expenses from the time we left in 07 until we hauled our boat in April 08

Total money spent for the season $14848.37, which puts us at an average of $1856.04/month.

Break down of the main expenditures as follows:

Boat -----1807.47-------12%
Fuel------1070.20-------7%
Moorage--3017.62------20%
entertain--1252.75------8.4%
Boat ins---2740.00------18.4%--yearly cost
Medical Ins 1135.50-----17.3%-- yearly cost

We will see how 08/09 cruising season works out.

Barra-de-Navidad- getting ready for Xmas 08

2009-01-02T14:55:00.003-07:00

Following another boat into the lagoon. 3 boats went aground the day before. Narrow entrance and shallow bay - 8 to 12 feet of water.

Some of the boats in the lagoon. This year at Xmas there were 23, last year between 60 to 80. Finacial crisis hits us all. We are lucky to be here.

One of the many visitors in the bay

Santa comes to Barra for all good boys and girls. Don Julio if you have been nice. What a great way to spend Christmas. The cruisers had a Christmas party at the Sands Hotel - turkey, ham and all the trimmings. Over 50 people from boats in the lagoon came in for the festivities. What great fun it was. The Sands encourages cruisers to dingy in and use their pool and showers. Happy hour is from 2 - 6 so it is a hang out spot for all of us.

New Years Eve. We had leg of lamb and shrimp appys on Optical Illusion (Jackson`s boat). Played Mexican Train and managed against all odds to stay up to bring the New Year in. The Grande Bay Resort put on an excellent fire works display.

Steve and I are now off to enjoy the pool and have a cervesa. The very best of wishes to you all for 2009.

Tenacatita Bay Dec 15 to 21-08

2009-01-02T14:32:00.003-07:00

Going on a jungle tour with 6 other boats, to Tenacatita

As you can see the mangro overgrow the river very fast. This is one of the areas that the panga`s do their jungle tour out of the Blue Bay resort.

Snake crocs and crabs are in the mangrov.

He is only about 2 ft. but they are there and hard to spot.

We came out of the swamp into Tenacatita, over the hill to the aquirium and there are canadians camped everywhere. We are with our friends, Janet and Bill jackson from White Rock.

San Carlos to Barra-de-Navidad

2009-01-02T14:05:00.003-07:00

As you can see the weather was cool. The captain refused to wear jeans, but did admit that some long underwear was in order. The winds were about 20 - 23 kt for about 400 miles.

This is the nook that we anchored behind in Topolobombo after running about 200 miles. We were in here with a couple shrimp boats. It was very rolly, but we did get some rest and set off again in the morning heading directly to Mazatlan. The winds continued.

Here we are in Mazatlan at the El Cid Resort. It felt like coming home. We stayed for a week, had dinner at Fat Fish and did some provisioning before setting out again for Isla Isabella which was 85 miles, an easy overnight sail.

Fishing off Cabo Corrientas. Steve caught this guy. He thinks it weighed about 15 lbs. It gave him a good fight for 20 minutes. It was not great eating - the meat was dark red and quite dense.

We anchored in a small bay at Ipala. Kids were asking for donations for thier school, which we provided.

San Carlos -getting ready to go 2008

2009-01-02T13:27:00.005-07:00

San Carlos Bay

Our boat is being shipped down the highway to the marina. We are riding along.

In an effort to provide a bit more insight from the co-captian of ourboat, I will try and add some info to the messages we send out.How are we doing? After a couple weeks of work on the boat we areboth feeling happy and are trying to relax now that we are in thewater. San Carlos is a nice little town, primarily owned by Americansout of Tuson. It is warm here - usually 80's in the day and 60's atnight and the sun shines every day. There are good restaurants, myfavorite is the Palapa on the beach where they serve fresh fish, Greekfood (yes Greek) and Mexican. We have gone a couple nights for dinnerand looked at the stars and listened to the surf.
Right now we are on a mooring ball in the bay. It is busy because ofthe fishermen. The Humbolt (Giant) squid are running right now andthere are Sienna and Tuna. There was a fellow just cleaning aboutten tuna on the dock (I'm doing laundry at the little restaurant).The wind picks up in the afternoon, but the mornings and evenings arecalm and beautiful.

Aqua Verde

2008-07-04T11:02:00.001-06:00

Aqua Verde very protected achorage. Diving was good, water visibility not great 10 to 15 feet.

Bahia Tambibiche / Bahia Los Gatos

2008-07-04T10:51:00.005-06:00

Warm water, sunny skies every day. Exploring the beaches and country side.

Isla San Francisco

2008-07-03T12:05:00.004-06:00

Beautiful Baja. Images say it all. Rugged, isolated, desert landscape. After crossing the sea of cortez for 220 miles we came around the corner to Isla San Francisco. Many small and large boats were anchored here for the weekend, most came from La Paz approx. 50 miles south for the weekend.

Trip to Copala

2008-07-03T11:35:00.003-06:00

Trip to Copala. Making 1 to 2000 bricks a day. Church at Copala.
80 km drive into the hills on a narrow highway

xmas & New years 2007

2008-02-13T14:23:00.013-07:00

Christmas with our good friends from Malachi

We are spending the holidays and most of January in Mazatlan. Lots of family and new friends joined us in the celebrations

A little golfing on the El Cid course.

New years with Ray, Deb, Barb and John

January the 2nd, we celibrated both Linda's and Jay's birthday.

My sister Terry celebrated her 50th birthday in sunny Mazatlan with Jerry and a few of the people from A dock.

Hiking to the light house.

Cabo San Lucas to Mazatlan

2007-12-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Dec. 4 to 8th we spend in Cabo the 8th we head for Punta Los Frailes, we spend a couple of days here with the gang, beach party, snorkling, diving fishing, you know same old, same old.

Depart Los Frailes on the 10th headed for Mazatlan. Mazatlan 168 miles, we leave at 16:00 sail that night, next day and arrive at the old Hbr and drop hook at 03:00.

We anchor a little close to the entrance as the harbour is crowded and wake up at dawn to see cruise ship go by.

Mazatlan - pool side visitor

Myah and Steve trying to converse in Spanish. Neither one of us is doing well.

Steve & Linda relaxing after 2700 nautical miles.

End of another day!

Last leg to Cabo San Lucas

2007-12-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Dec 3 2007 - I think a couple of us are leaving today to Cabo San Lucas 160 miles away. I slowly start raising the anchor gazing at all of the stars just after 5:00, what a gorgeous night, stars are out in full force, sliver of a moon, all of the boats with ther anchor lights on. We motor out of the bay, I look behind me and there are nav. lights on all over. Looks like everyone is on the move.

Fishing boats in Bahia Magdalena. Start of a beautiful day.

By the time we leave the bay there 10 boats doing the last leg. "My Wind Song" - cs33-Nanaimo,"Paesano"- catalina 38-Nanaimo "Misty Michael" - custom power boat 48', Nanaimo,"Tender Spirit"-34' westsail -Alaska these boats all have 2 people aboard around our age.

"Malachi" - 48' Tayana-Maple Ridge, "Shambala" steel boat about 40'-Australia, "Hannah"- 43' Mason-Seattle, "Maryke Violet"- 40' wood schooner-Powell River,"Aquarelle"-35' Niagra - Nanaimo, these boats all have kids on board that range in age from 8 yrs to 16 yrs old

Shambala flying her spinnaker beside us. Shambala is from Australia, 3 yrs into their trip. This year they have sailed from Japan to Alaska and down the coast to sail with us. We flew our spinnaker from 10:00 to 20:30 hrs.

Landscape in the back ground has been the same all the way from Ensenada.

Dec 4 2007 - Cabo San Lucas, we made it.

Lovers beach, Cabo in the background. We anchor between the shore and two cruise ships.

Bahia Santa Maria & Bahia Magdalena

2007-12-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

Nov 28 2007 - after sailing all day and night we arrive in Bahia Santa Maria. This picture is outside of the bay.

We spend a couple of days here. The ham weather guru is forcasting a small tropical depression heading our way so we decide to move to man-o-war cove in Bahia Magdalena, about 20 miles away. On the way over I catch a couple of tuna. Everyone is tired of tuna, can not even give them away any more, so I let them go.

We are saftly anchored and carry on with beach parties, exploring the lagoon, diving, snorkling etc. Storm is forecast for two days away.

Bahia Santa Maria very large bay with mexican navy at the south end. We anchor in the north end. Some of the girls take a panga ride into town with the port captain, they love it. We have 12 to 14 boats in this anchorage with us.

The storm finally arrives Nov.30 winds hit 30 knots in the bay with 4 to 5 foot waves rolling in. Well anchored 250' chain in 30' of water but not nice. Some boats take waves over there bow in the anchorage. The night is pitch black ( town shuts generator off ) and there is a mayday call on the VHF. 32' motor boat ran aground about 12 miles from us. After many hours on the radio for the people off of "Paesano" the navy pulls the people off of the rocks late in the night. Both people are all right but the boat is lost.

This picture was taken a couple of days later as we are headed out of Bahia Magdalena. The power boat is still on the visible on the rocks from a mile away.

Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria

2007-12-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

We stayed in Turtle bay for a couple of days. Turtle bay was a small run down fishing village. The bay had red tide so we did not swim there. Topped up our fuel and we raised anchor on the Nov. 23.

Bahia Asuncion was our next stop, the water was clean and the town was nice. Stayed here a couple of days and then headed south to Punta Abreojos. This is the area were all the whales come to have their calves. We are hoping to go on a tour of Laguna Ignacio to check out the whales.

Punta Abreojos has a reef and lots of rocks around it so we ( at this point there are 5 boats in our group) all navigate carefully. Most of us have different chart plotters which show or do not show all of the rocks. Some boats go wide and some don't. We also have to negotiate lobster traps. Next morning a panga is going around selling lobster. In our mixed spanish he asks for smokes, sorry and then asks for candy. We put 3 handful's of candy and a couple of bars and pass them over. Grande, grande they say with a smile and they hand us a bag of lobster, and they are off.

We open the bag and there are 5 lobster inside. They were good!!!

We were anchored a mile from town were we would catch a panga ride to the whale grounds we all raised anchor and moved. There was 15 knots of wind and we ended up drifting onto a lobster trap. Dropped the hook again, freed ourselves and we were off. Coming around the corner to the town an other boat is leaving. We learn that there are no whales down yet and no tours. What to do??? There is wind and time is a ticking so we all turn and head to Bahia Santa Maria, 132 miles away. So much for rest.

Ensenada to Turle Bay

2007-12-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Malachi heading south. Nov. 17 2007 we anchor behind Punta Colnett. Anchorage is open to the south and west, some swell but not too bad.

Nov. 18 we anchor in San Quintin Bay. Heavy swell 15 + knots of wind in the early evening.
Two nights earlier there were two Canadian boats anchored in the bay. As the story goes a whale started to rub up against the first boat, a large power boat called "Misty Michael". Then the whale goes over to the sail boat "Paesano" and rubs up against it, then it swims away. Later on in the night the whale comes back to Paesano and starts rubbing again harder this time. Now the boat is rocking back and forth the whale is moving closer to the rudder so they start the motor thinking that might scare it away. No luck, so they get out a spot light and shine it on the whale, no luck there either. Now they are starting to get pretty scared, as they are only anchored in 14' of water and did not want the whale to get tangled in the anchor chain or cause damage. Next they tried hitting the water with a paddle, ah ah that seems to work the whale swims away, but turns around and charges the boat at full speed, stops short of the boat and then swims away. Holy $%@# is that close.
We leave San Quintin at 07:00 am heading for a long leg to Turtle Bay 135 nm away.
We motor and sail that day/night and through the next day, passing Cedros Island in the afternoon. We are hoping to arrive in Turtle bay before dark but no luck, we anchor in the dark at 19:00 hrs. That ends that day.

East side of Cedros Island. Desert landscape. Cedros ships sea salt throughout the world.

Nov. 15 3:15 am - Leave San Diego for MEXICO!!!!

2007-12-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

We untie our lines and are heading south to Mexico with our good friends on Malachi - Tayana 48. Linda at Ensenada Mexico. Some of the many dolphins that we see along the way.

2:15 - Ensenada, we hurry up to the immigration to clear in. Everything is in one office, and both of us clear in under 2 hours. Some of the cruisers have taken over 6 hours to clear in.

We stay for 2 days, christmas is around the corner and we still have 1000+ miles to go.

We leave on Nov. 17th

Ventura to San Diego

2007-12-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

Nov. 7 we leave Ventura in the night after staying at a great Yacht club. Very nice people, make you feel at home. One night free moorage and the rest at a good rate.
Had a great visit with Patty, we went out to the stables and seen all the preperation for the horse show. If you think boating is expensive take a look at horse shows. Need to spend more time with Patty touring the shows.
We are off to Avalon on Santa Catalina island. The navy is out playing "war games - this is warship 083 ", give me a break, as we shake our heads. We tie up to a mooring ball in Avalon, which costs us more than any place else we have been at. Toured the town the next day, everything is closing up, the tourists are going.
Nov 9 depart Avalon and heading for our last stop in the US. - San Diego. Decide to anchor in Mission bay 20 miles north of San Diego. Very nice bay, just like being at home, no swell.
Nov 10 arrive at San Diego at the municipal docks. This is were all the Canadians are, flags all over the place. We meet lots of people that we have been crossing paths with down the coast.
The next few days are busy preparing the boat for the crossing into Mexico. Food, fuel, fishing licence clearance papers etc. We are ready for MEXICO!!!!!

San Luis Obispo Bay to Ventura Yacht Club

2007-12-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

We arrive in San Luis Obispo with 20 to 25 knots on our stern. Pull in and anchor for the night. We decide to leave early the next mornig so we can get to Santa Barbara ( 90 miles ) to see our daughter. At 1;13 we lift the anchor, and head out the forecast is for 20 to 25 knots with 4 to 6 foot seas. The first hour there is no wind but the seas are lousy, 4 to 6 foot at 4 seconds on the beam. We start to pickup the wind a little later and keep telling ourselves only 40 miles to go to Point Conception ( the most feared cape of them all ) Commen sense prevales and after a while we turn around and are anchored back in San Luis before day light.
We have a relaxing day, the weather is moderating and we head out the next mourning under heavy fog visibility 400 feet. A couple of hours out we pickup a non paying passenger a beautiful little neon bird with blue irradenesence wing tips, okay it was a brown chick a dee, but he was still lost in the fog. By early afternoon we have seen dophins and over 20 blue whales, very rare for this area. We have had our radar and chart plotter on all day and pick up a sail boat off our starboard side. We motor along until the wind picks up to 15 and we have a beautiful sail to Coho Bay. We invite the young couple over to our boat for happy hour ( we meet them at San Simeon ). And that ends another day.
Next morning we are off to Santa Barbara in the fog. Oil wells in the channel with lots of oil leaking all over. The water is flat calm and you can see our trail in the oil slicks, discusting.
We anchor outside of Santa Barbara, at least that is what our chart plotter says. Have not seen land for 4 days.
Pickup anchor and decide to head to Ventura for a couple of days and see if I can find my sister Patty. Missed my daughter by 2 days. Arrive at Ventura Yacht club at 14:00, very nice people helping us dock.

Heading south Oct 28 & 29 2007

2007-12-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

We only stop in Half Moon bay and Monterey for one night, we need to make miles before the weather changes. Next stop is at San Simeon Bay ( home of the Hearst castle). We arrive late at night a drop the hook at midnight. Next day we are off to San Luis Obispo Bay.

Top picure is San Simeon Bay( Hearst Castle on top of the hill

Close up of the Hearst castle

Leaving San Francisco and heading south Oct 27

2007-12-26T17:11:00.000-07:00

Oct 27 2007 - after nearly 2 months in the bay area we are ready to head south to San Diego. Zoe and Lucas are home a weather window has opened up and we need to meet my daughter Tammy and my sister Patty in the Los Angeles area. We motor out early heading to Half Moon Bay, and then on to Monterey.

Oct 2007 - a great week with Zoe & Lucas

2007-12-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

Zoe and Luca visiting us in San Francisco for a week. Fun had by all.

A day sail to Angel Island Lucas was navigator when we went out sailing.

New Engine installed - Sept & Oct 2007

2007-12-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

After a week in South Beach Hbr we thought it was time to anchor out at Sausalito to check out the sites. As we were motoring out of the Harbour our engine started making sounds that no engine should make. We had a couple of mechanics check it out and the long and short of it was that a new motor was needed.

We installed a Yanmar 54 hp with transmission, exhaust hose, shifter and control cables. Now almost everthing in the boat is new. We were lucky that the motor packed it in at San Francisco and not some deserted beach on our trip south. Ouch ! as Al Oliver would say that takes a few dollars out of the crusing budget.

Before I carry on with our trip the month that we spent in Sausalito we ran into a few interesting people. First off the crew at List Marine took us under there wing, ( the wives of the mechanics would ask how those Canadians were doing and would drop off treats ) The owner Tom took us to his home for food and drinks with his friend Vicky and Tom's wife Suzanne.

One of the characters that we meet was Suzie, mid 40's, she would row in every day and dock here dingy to go varnishing. One night after a few rums she was telling us that she had been anchored in the bay for 27 years ( no that is not a mis typing ). Although she said it was not all on the same boat.

Time is a ticking and we needed to be underway. So after a month in the yard we are ready to head out the gate. We stock the boat take her out for a few hours of running around the bay to make sure every thing is working. At the end of the day we notice a small amount of oil in the bilge, so the next day we take it back to the yard. After a few hours, we get the word that the oil leak is fixed, but there is a fuel leak ( a defective part). Unfortunately the only part is in the eastern US, and between not shipping it out on time and then sending it to the wrong side of the states we are in the yard for another week.

Now our daughter - in -law had to rebook her tickets from San Diego to San Francisco.

Sept 2007

2007-12-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

We toured San Francisco with the crew for a few days and then they returned home. We relaxed at the South Beach Harbour and enjoyed their yacht club. We all enjoyed the sites, sounds and food that San Francisco has to offer.

Sept 4 - after the bridge

2007-11-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

What do you do now? The sun is a shinning, the wind is a blowing, the crew wants to tour San Francisco, what better way then to sail around the city and Alcatraz Island. What a finish to a great trip.

For all the you wanting to know, really how was the trip? I can't say enough about the crew, they were great. Sailing with my lovely wife, my brother Ray and Jennifer and Mac is one of the trips never to be forgotten. Linda's comment was I have to sail with 4 Warren's, ( apparently 1 is more then enough for most.) Disappointments, well the auto pilot needs a little more work but the wind vane performed great. Biggest surprise, for me it was my idea of down wind sails changed totally. I though that our spinnaker and genoa would be the main force. Problem with both of them is they were too heavy. With the swells and waves hitting you from the back corner every 3 or 4 waves the boat would rock, this would spill the air out of the sail, colapse, bang and refill. After a while you try all types of configurations. Day 2 we tried putting up the small yankee jib. Well what a difference, the sail could move through a change of wind angle of 30 to 40 degrees or more on each side. Rarely colapse not bang around, and we were pointing almost dead down wind. On day 3 to 5 when the winds were up we tried the yankee stay sail and it was the same, easy to ride and look after.

Golden Gate Bridge

2007-11-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here we are sailing under the Golden Gate bridge. 25 + knots of wind ( usual San Francisco day not like sailing in White rock ) stay sail set doing 6 to 8 knots.

Day 6 Golden Gate bridge - Tues. Sept 4 2007

2007-11-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

We motored around Cape Mendocino in absolutely flat calm water for many hours. The next day winds picked up to 30 knots out of the NW. We flew the stay sail all day and night. Next day as we were closing in on the coast ( we were out 86 miles ) the wind was still blowing 30 but in was foggy. Visibility was less then 1/2 mile most of the time so used our radar. We decided to anchor in Drakes bay on Monday the 3. As you can see by the photo the weather cleared as a very happy crew sailed under the Golden Gate bridge on the 4th of September.

Mac's Tuna - Aug. 30 2007

2007-11-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a happy camper. Mac reeled in this monster Tuna up to the boat, closely followed by a shark so I grabbed the line and flipped the tuna into the cockpit, this started a chorus of screaming because Jennifer was also in the cockpit steering. After much to do and a lot of cleaning up blood all over we enjoyed tuna steaks that night, and celebrated Linda and Steve's 10th anniversary. As you can see in the picture skies were clear, winds were light in the early morning ( motor sailing ) but would pickup in the afternoon to about 15 knots so we had some great sailing .

Aug 28 2007 Neah Bay

2007-11-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

After leaving Port Angeles on the 28th Linda and I took the first shift and we were lucky enough to watch the full Lunar eclipse. We had a good push of current to Neah Bay and arrived there at 9:30 am. Here we are finishing the last of the preparations before we head out into the Pacific.

Aug 27 2007 - Port Angeles Washington

2007-11-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

Dennis and Brenda pushed us off of the Blaine docks at 2:30 am on Aug. 27 2007. We motor sailed to Friday Hbr. to pick up our cruising permit which took 6 hours to procure. After several hours of fighting the current we arrive at Port Angeles in the early evening.

Technical - Boat Equipment

2007-10-26T13:33:00.002-06:00

BOAT EQUIPMENT:

1976 Tayana 37' cutter rigged fiberglass boat built at the Ta-Yang Yacht Building Ltd in Kaohsiung Taiwan

Length 37 feet Overall lenght 40' 6"

Beam 10' 6"

Draft 5' 6"

Net tonnage is 22,500 lbs.

Sail area 870 square feet. We carry 9 sails 2 - mains , genoa -yankee jib, staysail - yankee stay-storm stay, tri sail and a spinnaker with a pole.

Engine: It was a perkins 4-108 50 hp. Now it is a 54 horsepower Yanmar 4JH4SE with a KM35PS 2.36:1 ratio transmission.

Fuel capacity: We have 4 tanks, main tank - aluminium 52 gal., 2 aux. plastic @ 18 gal. each and 1 aux. aluminium @ 15 gal. giving us a total of 103 gallons.

Speed & Range: Unknow at this point but figures indicate that at 2500 rpm we consume 1 gallon/hr. At this rpm we would cruise at 6 - 6.5 knots giving us a range of over 600 miles. Maximum rpm is 3000, which gives us a max. speed of 7.25 knots.
Jan 2008 update. figures indicate that at 2000 rpm we consume about .6 to .7 gals / hour which gives us a range between 825 to 925 miles.

Galley: I redid the galley installing a 6 gallon water heater run off of the engine. A new single bowl deep stainless steel sink. We have 3 access doors in the counter with locking clasps giving us ample storage. All new plumbing, taps throughout. The Nova Cool fridge freezer was moved to the starboard side of boat by the previous owner and is well insulated.

Navigation: chart plotter - Lowrance LCX 110c - love my chart plotter. Navionics gold chips with charts from Alaska to Panama. Also have a Lawrence H2O hand held plotter that can use the same chips. Sitex hand held GPS - 11 yrs old
Furono radar - 11 yrs old but still works good. You will use radar a fair amount.
Sea data depth & speed ( back up to plotter )
Simrad tiller pilot - works off the wind vane, this still needs lots of work yet.
Standard Horizon VHF - GX3000s - works good, you will need a good VHF you use it all the time at the anchorages.
Uniden hand held, we actually have 3 hand helds, have not used them very much.
Icom 706 ham radio - works good, we have over 260' of copper ground. You should use this lots so make sure you have a good set up. Also have a pactor modem.
Cape Horn self steering. works well with head sail but takes practice with both sails up.

Anchor:we have 3 anchors main anchor is a 45lb manson supreme with 400' of 5/16 grade 40 chain. A 45lb CQR with 100' of chain and 300' of 3/4" rode, stern anchor - 45 lb CQR with 50'chain and 250' 5/8 rode.
Simpson Lawrence manual windless. You will get your exercise with this.
400' of 5/8" spare line that we will use with the drogue and para anchor when we get one.

Mics:Little wonder LWM 160 water maker just started to use this north of Cabo. Rated at 7 gals. /hr. we were getting just over 8. Less than 20 hrs on Machine.
Viking life rafe valise model. zero hrs on this and we hope to keep it that way.
Satellite 2 406 epirb and an older epirb.
Toshiba satellite computer. Get a good compter
Older sony radio with satelite radio ( still working in Mazatlan)

Power: We carry 3 solar panels with 230 watts of power.
4 - 6 volt golf cart batteries new. Total amp. 500. We do not carry a separate start battery
Trace 1500 watt inverter.

Dingy:We now have a 9' Caribe with large pontoons and a 9.8 hp Tahatsu outboard. Dingy has wheel away wheels ( you will need these )

Boat Budget - what it really costs to boat?

Boat cost $100,000.00
cost to get boat ready for journey $ 41,000.00
Total $ 141,000.00

Monthly budget

-----------------sept 07----oct 07----nov 07 ---dec 07 -----Jan 08
boat ------------265.53----646.71 ---112.26 ---------- ------385.00
fuel -------------222.92----351.77 ---527.50 --------- -------------
office ------------70.96-----59.65 -------- ------------ -------------
moorage --------360.00-----328.00---256.00 ----437.00 --713.00
first aid ---------227.26------------------ ------------ ------25.80
wifi/cell/skype--108.96----236.00------ --------199.60 ----10.00
entertainment --190.00-----556.00---136.00 ----115.00---484.00
provisions ------184.20----573.56---643.00 ----332.43 ----452.20
travel insur -----141.94----141.94---141.94 ---141.94 ------141.94
boat insur ------228.33----228.33---228.33 ----228.33 ----228.33
mexico license & clearing in----------623.39
mic---------------------------------------------157.00

Total----------2000.10--3113.96---2429.73---1611.30-----2065.27

-------------------feb 08-----march 08-----april 08
provisions-------182.25-------195.74---------------
boat-------------147.20-------250.77--------311.20
entertainment---40.00--------137.75--------150.00
skype/cell--------43.00--------20.30---------20.00
moorage---------667.00------275.62----------------
fuel----------------------------76.37----------------
travel ins.-------141.94--------141.94--------141.94
boat insurance--228.33--------228.33--------228.33

Total-----------1449.72-------1326.82-------851.47

yearly total $14848.37 ---- $1856.04/month