The Trip East

6-16-13 – Broadview Heights, OH, USA

Yes, the “OH” above stands for Ohio.  For the enlightenment of the friends we have met on the West coast and in Mexico: Ohio is a smaller state in the Mid-West (actually Mid-East, not really sure why they call it the Mid-West) of the country.  It is a place where rivers are actually rivers, think a mile wide, not creeks like most of the “rivers” in the West are, where there is an overabundance of green grass, so much so that you can’t kill it and most people don’t need to water their lawns because…..it rains all the time.  

Ohio river in Evansville.

I will say my risk of sunburn has been reduced significantly since being in Ohio.  There are churches here in place of the bars in Reno.  The sweeping vistas of Mexico and the Western US are replaced by rainforest like foliage and corn fields as far as the eye can see.  It’s hard to explain how small the cultivated areas of the West seem when driving thru Nebraska and the other states here.  Oh yea, here in Ohio there is also all of my family with Elizabeth’s family just to the southwest in Indiana.  So now we are in Ohio.  Like so many things in our lives right now, getting here has been an adventure and now that all the top secret BS of changing jobs has been completed, I am happy to say I am looking forward to living here.

1st sighting of snow this year!

While it’s all a blur of driving, gas stations and really bad fast food; I’ll give you the recap on the trip East.  The plan was to drive East, get a job, settle down and then retrieve all of our stuff, now scattered around the country.  That had the potential to take some time so everything needed for the next few months had to fit into the little Volvo.  Not an easy task, but after living on the boat for a year we figured it out.  After leaving Reno we still didn’t have a destination or a job back East, so we took our time and drove US50 out to Great Basin National Park.  It’s one of those places we always wanted to visit, but had never made it.  There I saw my first and only snow of the 2012/13 ski season at 10,000 feet.  That stuff is cold, I think I remember why people spend winter in Mexico now.  

Camping outside of Ely, NV.
Everyone has an inverter and air pump in their car, right?

We camped at the KOA outside of Ely, NV (yes the tent and sleeping bags made the cut as essential gear).  Just like in Mexico I was trying to taste the local foods so I had a chicken fried something or other at a little local dinner.  From there we took I70 thru Utah, Colorado and Kansas.  The views from I70 in Eastern Utah are amazing and absolutely worth detouring down to I70 for the Utah crossing.  Two days later we had made our way to Chicago to visit family and scope out a potential job opportunity.  That city is chaos, even the suburbs are crazy, especially for two people from Reno, NV who just spent a year at the speed of boat in Mexico.  It was a little overwhelming.  It was then on to Cleveland Ohio, but just for a couple of days.  First a fight to Chicago again to interview, then a 4 day road trip to Baltimore, MD for another interview.  The people in Baltimore played to my weaknesses and put me up in the Four Seasons, overlooking the inner harbor and a branch of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Baltimore inner harbor

It was hard to think that a week earlier I had said goodbye to AW in San Diego on the Pacific Ocean, and here I was overlooking the Atlantic.  Meanwhile back in Ohio I was offered an opportunity that sounded great so I took it.  I think back to that day in Punta Mita at the coffee shop writing my resume, sitting outside in my flip flops struggling to make it sound professional, then refining it after a review (thanks Rob) thinking maybe I should just stay in Mexico and not get a job.  The effort was worth it, even if I had to miss a few Pacificos on the beach. Job in hand we took a little 8 hour road trip to Evansville, IN to visit with Elizabeth’s family.  Evansville is a good place to remember what a real river looks like, with tugs pushing barges hundreds of feel long up and down the river.  Back in Cleveland I bought a car so I could go to work.  Hard to believe but after being unemployed for a year and technically still being unemployed, not having a permanent address, having a Nevada drivers license with a Indiana address and registering the car to an Ohio address…..they still gave me a loan!  And you wonder how people get in trouble with credit?  Now like all good grown up adults, I am living with mom.  I guess that’s why you come to a place you know people.

Sunset over Lake Erie.  Not too bad.

Having not worn much except flip flops and shorts for the last year and only having 2 bags of select clothes in the car I had to break down and buy clothes to go to work in yesterday.  I hope hey are ok with me wearing the same two pairs of pants and 4 shirts for a while.  While the moving across the country part of our adventure is still far from complete, I officially start work tomorrow and for the first time in over a year will have to pretend to be responsible.  Which seems funny, since I guess we sailed up and down the coast of Mexico and the US for a year, drove across the country at least twice and never got in trouble, so I guess that shows some level of responsibility, or does it?  I can say that this phase of the adventure is just starting.

Thankfully the air mattress made the cut.  Where
will we be sleeping next?

1000 miles to windward, and that's just a start

5-20-13 – Reno, NV, USA

So it seems I’ve been slacking off on my blog duties, and a lot has happened lately.  Maybe it’s because a lot has been happening that I’ve been slacking off.  For everyone with a short attention span I will give the quick version first. 

 We are back in the States, actually all the way back to Reno, NV at this moment; who knows where we will be in the next moment; certainly not me.  I left from La Paz on June 1^st with Mike and Linda, while Elizabeth flew back to Ohio to retrieve our car.  The Autumn Wind crew overnighted to Cabo where we spent 2 hours on the fuel dock, took on fuel and had an ice cream before being told that the slip was reserved for a “big” boat that was on its way.  Ie. get off the dock and pay for a slip, no hanging out here. 

Mike & Linda on the pier at Turtle Bay

M & L enjoying ice cream at Turtle Bay

Almost exactly 4 days later we pulled into Turtle Bay and dropped the hook.  Ernesto came out in his panga and we took on fuel before he gave us a ride into the pier.  There, Mike and Linda treated me to a shower and lunch, and then we had an ice cream.  12 hours later we left Turtle Bay and 3.5 days later we tied up to the customs dock at San Diego, right at shift change and I was told “we don’t have the money to pay for overtime so it will be a few hours.”  So maybe it wasn't 1000 miles, only 958, and all but about 5 minutes was to windward.  The D sail got a workout on this passage.   In the mean time I spied the M/Y Sense that my old friend Mike was working on.  (Google it, this isn’t some little trawler!)  A few hours later Autumn Wind was tied up at the dock at Harbor Island West.

Last night watch on Autumn Wind

Sun going down somewhere off the coast of Baja

AW at the customs dock in San Diego

  We made it!  A day later Elizabeth showed up after driving across the country from Indiana.  Also the first time we had not been together since the day we got married!  Our SPOT stopped working somewhere 50 miles offshore out of Cabo, causing a fair amount of stress for the people following it.  E did a good job containing the panic and no one called the Coast Guard or did anything rash.  Now it was mother’s day, and my friend Mike invited us to join them for a mother’s Day brunch at the Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island.  There were no mothers present, but we all had a great time at the super nice, champagne and lobster leg included brunch overlooking the ocean.  After that it was a day of general tourism stuff and bar hopping before the diesel powered jet boat tender ride back to Shelter Island.  They call them “tenders” on boats this big, not dinghies.  Especially when your tender can carry 12 people at 35 knots!  Not a bad way to travel around San Diego Bay.

The crew at brunch at the Hotel del Coronado

  After that it was all about work.  Getting the boat ready to sell, selling stuff off the boat and generally throwing a ton of stuff away.  We had to dispose of 12 jerry cans that no one wanted.  Sold 4 and gave 8 away.  We basically had to move out of a two bedroom apartment and everything we wanted to keep had to fit into the back of a tiny sedan.  Needless to say we threw a lot of stuff away, or left a lot of stuff on the boat. 

Our storage unit (hotel room), trying to figure out how to
get all this stuff into the car

It was hard to see every little piece of gear we had put so much thought into buying a year ago, just get thrown away or left behind.  But we knew this would happen.  5 days later we were living in a hotel, the boat is immaculate and there is no sign that we ever spent the last 11 months living on it.  Depressing and happy all at the same time.  I gave her one last kiss goodbye and we were off to Reno.  We had to plan our departure around the Portuguese Festa parade where they closed the road in front of the hotel, but at least we had some Malasadas for desert one day as a result of this Festa.  10 hours after departure we had stopped in LA at a random gas station with an ornery attendant who made us buy a water before letting us use the bathroom,  to sell our liferaft to a nice couple who want to head South next year, gotten stuck in crappy California highway traffic, bailed off the freeway and took HWY 395 from LA to Reno, thru some of the greatest desert and mountain scenery one could ask for, before landing in Reno at 11PM.  Now we are here, in Reno.  When we figure out what’s next we’ll let you know.  I think we’ll drive to Ohio tomorrow.  Why not?

That’s the short version.  The long version is worthy of its own feature length film, Lots of stories, lots of staring at the ocean, going 3 knots, good food, hard decisions and coming to terms with the end of the sailboat adventure.  (At least for now I say)  I am willing to say that the adventure has just begun.

A quickie

Hola all!  We made it to San Diego!  After 2 hours waiting for customs at the police dock, where Linda Strategically cooked up all of our remaining chorizo and bacon, yum, we are now snugly docked at Harbor Island West Marina.  Thanks for all the good wishes, more to come soon!!

Turtle Bay Arrival

Guest author here again.  Brian, Mike and Linda have safely arrived in Turtle Bay.  Sounds like they have had a great trip so far, are eating lots of good food and we only have a "few small things" to fix so far.

They weren't aware that the SPOT wasn't recording their path so they will try to fix.  As I have been reminded, it is just a tool and a real emergency would be handled with an EPIRB which is on board Autumn Wind.

We will keep the blog posted and look forward to getting Autumn Wind to San Diego.

Sorry, no pictures yet but will add some later.

Away they go......

Elizabeth is a guest author today as this morning Autumn Wind left Marina Palmira in La Paz, MX destination San Diego, CA.  Brian along with crew Mike and Linda are looking forward to a great passage and hope to be in San Diego in 10-12 days, weather permitting.  They have 1000 mostly upwind miles ahead of them.  If you get the chance leave a comment for them on the blog.  They should have the ability to check in Cabo tomorrow and Turtle Bay about halfway through their trip.  I am sure they would love to hear from you!

The Crew

Autumn Wind and Brian waving good-bye

"Stuck" in Puerto Escondido

4-20-13 – Puerto Escondido, Baja California Sur, Mexico

AW patiently waiting at the fuel dockl

I guess the idea of being stuck in Puerto Escondido isn’t that bad, and like all things having to do with cruising and Mexico, you have to be prepared to change you plans; sometimes daily.  Really the title could be the Great Puerto Escondido bottom paint adventure, since that’s all that’s really happened since the last post.  Each aspect of this adventure could warrant its own post as everything is an experience of some sort or another.  I will say it is a good thing we have been fully acclimated to the Mexican way of doing things before this operation.  From tying up to the fuel dock a day early to ensure you actually get pulled out (this is the fuel dock that regularly runs out of fuel, but a really nice big clean Pemex tank and an attendant that is there daily just in case the fuel does show up) to getting the paint and then not getting splashed when you want to.  It’s all an adventure here.

Unlike our past experiences in the States where the entire operation is controlled by one entity, here the travel lift is run thru the marina who rents yard space to Elvin who actually does the work on the boat.  You also need to show up with your own bottom paint for them to apply to your boat.  So you pay the marina for the travel lift, you pay for the application of the paint to another guy and you buy the paint from another store in town.  Thankfully part of the upside of the world down here is willingness of people to give you a ride or help each other out.  So Elvin’s partner Dave gave Elizabeth a ride into Loreto to buy the paint and had checked on its availability the previous day.  Seems odd, as in, why didn’t he just buy it and charge us for it, even upcharge us for the delivery?  I’m not quite sure, maybe because it’s a lot of money to be out and it’s not like we signed any contract or anything to guarantee we would show up on our haul out date.  If fact except for the 25 page, not kidding, contract we signed with the marina (can you guess it is run by the government with a contract like that) we never saw anything resembling a contract and actually have a handwritten receipt.  I’m not sure if any of this is good or bad, it’s just a thing you don’t think twice about after being in Mexico for a while.

Gentle, that's my house!

So Dave gives Elizabeth a ride to Loreto to get paint in his early 90s Jeep with Sarah the dog.  Elizabeth is very excited as it takes her back to the days of her Jeep.  They stop by the bank so she can pay for the paint and Elvin’s services (remember “no cash no splash”) and then stop by the ferreteria (hardware store) where she picks up their two cans of West Marine blue bottom paint.  So I guess we didn’t get the high toxicity paint, but oh well.  On the way back Dave decides they will run out of gas.  Apparently his gas gauge sticks and it’s hard to tell how much gas you really have.  So they pull over at the last stop, a little restaurant,  before a long hill and luckily still have cell service for Dave to call his wife to bring him some gas.  An hour later a pickup truck with Nevada plates has pulled in, had lunch and is now leaving so Elizabeth jumps in with them.  They will give her a ride out to Puerto Escondido.  They just need to stop of in Juncalito, a little beach side palapa community just South of PE, to drop off some propane and wood.  No worries it’s on the way.  Come to find out, these people own a house in Golden Valley, NV just across the road from where we lived.  We actually used to run past their house and they spend winters in Juncalito and summers in Nevada.  Very small world.  In Juncalito Elizabeth runs into Elvin, the guy who runs the boat yard so she figures she’ll just catch a ride with him so the Nevada people don’t need to go out of their way.  No problem, Elvin is moving and all he needs to do is finish loading up his car drop if off at the new place and then they will grab some gas for Dave from his place and be on their way.  Elizabeth proceeds to help Elvin and his wife move for an hour or so and then they go to Dave’s and find his shed locked so they give up on that and just head back to PE.  Along the way they pass Dave, who has since Elizabeth left, had a beer at the restaurant, his wife arrived with some gas, been back to the boatyard and is now going home.  Meanwhile, I have been on the boat at the fuel dock, borrowed a crew member from another boat to handle some lines and had the boat pulled out.  Now hours later I’m getting a little worried that my wife disappeared with a guy we barely know to drive 15 miles each way to buy 2 gallons of paint, how long could that really take, but it’s Mexico so I will not get that worried until the sun goes down, these things happen when the national motto is Manana.   Needless to say it all worked out and we now have our paint and the boat on the hard.

Our new home for the next week

The actual painting of the boat went as expected and took three days as planned.  Unfortunately, the weather picked up on our launch date, Friday, and with 20 knot sustained and gusts to 30 for two days straight, the marina didn’t want to pick our boat to re-launch, very understandable.  The crane guy doesn’t work on Saturday so now it looks like Sunday is our splash date.  We had two days to kill with our boat on the hard so why not wax the hull?  Now Autumn Wind has the full paint and wax and looks great.  Any buyers out there?

View of the anchorage from our tree house

AW on the hard

Wax on

Wax off

View from our patio at the Tripui Hotel

Living on a boat that’s not in the water is a whole new experience in itself.  We’ve been pretending it’s our grown up tree house.   Climbing up and down the ladder and looking out over the anchorage from high above has been interesting, fun may not be the word.  Boat systems are made to be used in the water so doing your daily things and washing dishes are a little challenging but we seem to be making it.  We even treated ourselves to a night in the Tripui hotel up the road.  A nice little hotel, a little spooky that we were the only people there, but we had some good food and relaxed on the patio overlooking the pool and slept in a bed twice as big as the V-berth on Autumn Wind.  It was weird not fighting for foot space at the peak of the bead.

The layup in Puerto Escondido has been fun all around.  We have met many nice people, hung out in front of Pedro’s little store at the marina, socializing and having a cerveza and run into old friends from past anchorages.  You can’t walk the ½ mile to the Modelorama without someone offering you a ride and the same on the way back with groceries.  It’s been a good time but we are now excited to splash and get back to La Paz.  Let’s hope all goes well today!

Sunrise on the  mountains from our tree house

Boat Drinks

4-14-13 – Isla Coronados, Bahia California Sur, Mexico 

E finding some shade on our motor to Isla Coronado

Back to Isla Coronados again.  Yes, it’s hard to believe we are back to a place we left yesterday, but we are.  A quick overnighter up to San Juanico and here we are again.  I have a feeling we are getting anxious as the deadlines approach.  At least we made it to San Juanico to place our momento with all the others at the cruisers tree.  

Momentos left at the cruisers tree in San Juanico

Our contribution to the cruisers tree

A fitting gesture to conclude our Northbound journey in the Sea of Cortez.  Somehow, since we have nothing else to worry about right now, we have decided to haul the boat and have the bottom painted in Puerto Escondido.  The price seems right, Mexican bottom paint seems more toxic than what’s found in the States, and Autumn Wind could use some love.  I also figure a clean bottom might give us an extra ¼ to ½ knot on the trip north.  It may not seem like much, but that equates to 15 to 30 hours less, which means 7 to 15 gallons of diesel less, not to mention the almost 1 day of motoring less.  So we have a lot going on for people with no house, kids or job; trying to squeeze the last few days out of our cruising adventures and planning for the trip North.

Elizabeth has pointed out that we have a lot of pictures of Autumn Wind sitting pretty in a beautiful anchorage with turquoise water and a perfect crescent shaped sand beach.  So I will not bore you with any more of that nonsense.  Yeah, it’s pretty, the water is clear, you can take endless pictures of your boat in such places, and it’s impossible to describe what it’s like until you are here; and all that nonsense.  Now let’s get down to what counts.

AW at Honeymoon Cove - Isla Dazante

AW is the left boat in the triangle - from the top of Isla Coronado

(OK I lied, there are a couple more pics.  Like pictures of babies, the people you show them to may not care but we love 'em)

Everyone knows that the most important part of any day on a boat it the cocktail hour/sunset drink/anchor down.  (as you can tell, us boater/yachtista types can come up with a reason for a cocktail for just about anything)  What most non-cruiser folks don’t understand is what this cocktail really entails and what it really means, at least for people of moderate boat size. 

For a proper cocktail you need ice.  Having ice is in itself a whole set of decisions one made months ago having to do with refrigeration, cold plates, power to keep said things cold and sources to store said power.  Autumn Wind came equipped with a cocktail ice maker and all we had to do was add 170 watts of solar panels and $400 dollars worth of batteries to make sure it was always functioning.  So now you have power to keep things cold.  Now you need to realize that unless the thing you want to freeze is actually touching the cold plate that all that power is keeping cold, it will only make very cold water in little cubes.  

Our freezer - Ice trays on the bottom

Yes our “freezer” is about ½ the size of your microwave and everything in it must stack vertically.  Now following the logic, cocktails are the only reason we really have boats, cocktails must have ice, to make ice the water must be touching the cold plate, our freezer stacks vertically; you come to the conclusion that the ice trays must be on the bottom.  Underneath anything else you may want to keep more than averagely cold/frozen.  We procured our little red Teflon ice trays in Petaluma from a designer hardware store for a price that seemed huge at the time, but they work, and remember you can’t put a price on ice in your cocktails.  We didn’t have room for a sledge hammer so the big metal vertical trays are stowed somewhere out of sight. (if you have these things you know what I mean)  We can make two mini trays of ice per day, just enough for two cocktails.  Good planning if you ask me since there are two of us.  So now you have ice.

Can you believe all that stuff has to come out of the freezer
just to get to the ice trays.  That's dedication!

Next you need booze.  Booze comes in glass bottles.  Glass breaks, sailboats tip a lot, you can see where I’m going with this.  A “real” yacht would have a nice booze cabinet with little circles cut out of some plywood to set their various bottles in to keep them upright and from rolling around.  Instead of all that silliness we bought a 48 pack of white tube socks.  Each bottle gets a sock.  Then they can roll around all they want and not clank or break.  You can only hope to run out of socks before you run out of wine and booze bottles to put in them!  So now you have found yourself in Mexico with something other than a good Tequila (which there are many of), it isn’t broken and after searching thru your sock inventory you find what you want.

Look what I found in this sock!

If you need some fruit to ward off scurvy, I suggest a little Mexican lime, aptly called a limon in Mexico.  Why Mexican limes are 1/3 the size of limes in the US is beyond me.  But they all are.   Now we use our cutting board that covers the stove when not in use, or generally rolls around the floor when the stove is in use to cut this little thing in half.  Just perfect for 2 cocktails, I’m sure this is why they have genetically engineered these limes, called limons, to be so small.  Washing the cutting board would be a waste of water so just be careful not to make a mess when cutting your fruit.  Then put the cutting board back on the floor where you found it.

Frankly if you made it that far I would be happy.  Add anything you have to whatever booze you have; or don’t.  You have ice, booze and a garnish, what else do you need?  Sit in the cockpit and enjoy the scenery or watch the sunset; this is what it’s all about.  Just don’t forget to refill those ice trays or you will be very disappointed tomorrow!

The most important job of the day