Thanksgiving 2011

What a great time! Family, friends, cool, crisp weather with just the right mix of rain and sunshine! And the food! amazing... There were 20 around the table for dinner, 11 people staying at the house, primo among them the grandchildren, Miles (4) and Claire (2). We are truly blessed with the right kind of richness.

Today...I'm posting this December 13th...it is 26 degrees and sunny in Portland. Feels like an early midwest spring day, say late March...can't get much better than this.

Adventures continue

It's 63 degrees and cloudy in Portland, Oregon tonight. We moved back into the house in June and enjoyed a cool, (relatively) wet summer. The harvests are delayed at least two weeks this year, so blueberries were still around in September and tomatoes hang fat and green on the vines into late October. Vintners are concerned about losing some of their crop if cool rains bring virus or mold before the grapes fully ripen. We learned it as children: farmers are willing to take their chances. Committed to putting seeds in the earth and working with nature to foster the miracle of new life, they know that their crops are extremely fragile, vulnerable to natural forces that both support and threaten. But they also know that the miracle is worth all the risks.

The house is in good shape, but nine years of rental leaves its mark, and we are playing "catch-up" on painting, heavy yard work, leaking eaves, and a moss-covered roof. Every day brings new discoveries with boxes to open, repairs to make, projects to start and finish. We've found The Rebuilding Center and The Restore to be good spots to find used-house parts for shelves and counters (Marv has set up a brewing center in the basement), and Ardy is perfecting the process of "dumpster-diving" for lumber to be used in the outbuildings she is putting up to store tools and wood.

Remodeling the garden is a delight, planning paths, moving shrubs, refurbishing the compost pile...spring will a pleasure there.

It is good to be home.

Starting the move north

No photos with this one...we'll post them after we get back to San Diego.

Marv and his crew of two, Steve Terzian and Joe Ellerston (Bend and Portland, respectively), leave this afternoon on the first leg of their trip aboard Odyssey enroute to San Diego.

They hope to anchor tonight in Bahia Los Lobos, just 10 miles or so out of La Paz and make Cabo San Lucas by Monday morning.

Along with a number of other boats, sail and motor, they will be beating into a north-north-west wind along the Pacific coast of the Baja. Depending on the weather, they should make San Diego in 8 to 10 days.

Ardy will be driving the car, accompanied by Reginald. Tonight she will bunk with Merry and Dave Wallace in Puerto Escondido and she should be in San Diego by the 1st at the latest.

Saying goodbye to the crew here at Marina de La Paz has been bittersweet...they are phenomenal and have made our stay very pleasant. We look forward to getting re-acquainted next spring when we may come down for a visit aboard Talion. Odyssey will stay in San Diego, resting up for the trip north to Portland and (it is hoped) points further north...Canada...Alaska...

The end of one leg of our odyssey...

The little orphan house finch

In late April, the Loreto Fest finished and, on May 3rd, a group of 10 boats set sail for La Paz, beginning the Sea of Cortez Sailing Week. Among them was the catamaran, Rot Kat, and aboard were the owners, Arjan and Debra, crew, Larry, and a new addition, orphan house finch, Reginald.

Arjan and Debbie had discovered a nest that finches had built in the boom while the boat sat empty for a month or so attached to a mooring ball in Puerto Escondido. In it was this little bird, still alive and yammering for something to eat.

They fed him, kept him warm, named him Reginald (pending gender identification) and otherwise nurtured him in his early days.

He, in turn, grew, and grew, and grew.

After arriving in La Paz, Arjan and Debbie needed to return to the United States, so looked for a new home for Reginald. We've had the privilege of helping him grow even more, as these two YouTube clips show.

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Dockwise Loading

Last week, our friends, Marika and Karen, from another Peterson 44, Quoddy's Run, out of Nova Scotia, put their boat on Dockwise enroute to Nanaimo, British Columbia.

They asked us to help with the lines as they negotiated her into the tight space along with a couple dozen other boats. It was an incredible learning experience and a real pleasure to give them a hand.

The Dockwise transport pumps water into itself and sinks down into the water. Loading boats motor in (we did it [sort of] backwards), are tied to the sides of the barge and each other, and put on jack-stands under water.

Divers from La Paz go underwater to put the jack-stands in place and weld them to the deck of the boat.

Then the transport pumps the water out, rises to its full free-board, and begins its journey.

Quoddy's Run, Marika, and Karen will be living and working in British Columbia for a time, and we hope to visit them there.

Sea of Cortez Sailing Week

We really enjoyed Loreto Fest at Puerto Escondido (April 28-May 1). The volunteers from the Hidden Port Yacht Club put on a fantastic event, and the Fonatur staff from the marina (moorage field) were exceptional...ferrying cruisers from boat to docks in 25-30 knot winds, helping untie recalcitrant knots, rescuing dinghies (and their occupants) that had flipped, chasing down boats that were slipping their anchors, and carrying on the more mundane business of checking cruisers in and making sure the washing machines worked! Gracias a Constancia y su equipo!

But even though we were delayed in Puerto Escondido with a brisk north wind, it was soon time to return to La Paz, this time with a fleet of about 10 boats participating in the Sea of Cortez Sailing Week. Here we have Bill on Moontide, checking in as one of the fastest multihulls.

And Odyssey, one of the middle-fast monohulls.

We were small enough to share potlucks every night, from hors d'oeuvres on Talion to dinner on a four-catamaran-raft-up!

Nopolo Globe

Nopolo Sur is a small fishing village accessible only by sea (there is a foot-path up and across the mountains to the village of San Evaristo). Nopolo is actually three lobes in a bay that has a curved hook on the north, protecting the people who live here from severe northerly weather. The northern-most is called Alta, the center is Las Cuevas, and the far south is known as Nopolo Sur. There are two elementary schools, one in La Alta (with 6 students), one in Las Cuevas (with 5 students).

Last time we visited here, Carlos suggested the school might be able to use a globe. So we found one in San Diego and brought it down with us.

Mexico is a very small spot on the face of the earth. The Baja is even tinier.

Making it all the more important that we understand how essential the fishing families in Nopolo Sur are to the life of this world we share.