This is our snow-person in the front yard. Keep Portland weird!!

Portland January 2017

Woo Hoo!!!

12 inches of snow this morning in Portland!

Here are a couple of views from our front porch, back porch, street and nearby park where there's a sledding hill for the kids and kids-at-heart!

It won't stay around long, so we are enjoying it while we can!

Odyssey is for sale

The rumors are true we are selling Odyssey. You can check out the new blog http://kp44-odyssey-forsale.blogspot.com/ with a complete listing of equipment and upgrades.

Hiking in La Paz

One of our last days in La Paz, we walked a few miles from the marina to climb Cerro Atravesado, a little hill on the northeast edge of town that we've visited several times before.

It gives us the classic panoramic view of the city and the bay, as well as a chance to stretch the legs a little on a short, rocky trail.

Marv thinks his "Geezer" walking group in Portland would enjoy the climb!

View from the top. Check it out.

Community Gardens in La Paz

Just a week before we left La Paz, our friends Kay and Steve Terzian (Sea Lady) introduced us to some Bend, Oregon friends who are working and living here. Bill works with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on issues of sustainable development. He and his wife, Terry, in turn introduced us to the La Paz community gardens project. Home gardens have a long, rich history in Mexico and the community gardens project (Sam and Alfredo coordinating it) hopes to reacquaint people with the earth... demonstrating how easy, inexpensive, and healthy it can be to raise some of their own food.

The first garden was developed in November, 2011. It's located at the corner of Manuel Encinas and Guillermo Prieto and has dozens of little garden plots allocated to various individuals or families. Herbs, chard, spinach, lettuce, corn, beans, flowers, tomatoes, beets, onions, and a variety of other fruits and vegetables bring color and texture to the sandy brown soil. Check it out at: jardinencinas

A second garden, Sabores de la Tierra, is located at the end of Nayarit (#41), on the edge of the bay. It shares a space with two large, abandoned cement storage towers and a couple acres of undeveloped land. The plots in this garden seem to belong more to whomever works them...I planted seeds one day, helped with equipment another day and was able to take home an armload of produce.


On Sunday, April 15th, there was a tree-planting event at the third garden, Guamuchil, located on Colegio Militar between Altamirano and Ramirez. This was the first planting, so the dry, dry ground looks so barren compared to what will be coming.

Cactus Sanctuary

On the road south from La Paz, headed toward Los Cabos, there are several old silver and gold mining towns. On the outskirts of one, El Rosario, is a cactus garden/reserve that's worth a visit.

Sponsored by a non-profit, private organization, the garden is an effort to demonstrate what the desert would look like without the assault of development...cattle, goats, and other domesticated animals that destroy the undergrowth and eat cactus.

There has been little intervention, simply fencing off the area has allowed nature to take its course.

Banderas Bay Regatta

She's a beautiful boat, Talion. Ready to take on all challengers in the three day Bay of Banderas Regatta, 2012.

We sailed well, and were in first place for our class as the second day finished.

Overall, at the end of racing, there was a three-way tie for first place, and when the scores were broken down (how many first place finishes, etc.), we were low boat on the totem pole. So Patsy ended up with a third place trophy to add to her collection.

Fishing in Chamela

The sun rises early, the fishermen show up to net bait fish. The bait fish like to gather beneath sailboat hulls.

More than a dozen pangas troll slowly among the anchored boats in Chamela, the Spanish chatter rousing us from sleep.

Humpback Whales in Tenacatita

On Monday, March 5th, 2012, we took the MAX to the airport and flew to La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico. A week later, we were sailing north from Barra de Navidad (having crossed the Sea of Cortez aboard our friend, Patsy Verhoeven's boat, Talion). The evening we stopped in the bay of Tenacatita, I kayaked around the fleet that was anchored there and was blown away by the antics of a mother whale and her baby playing just outside the anchorage. Jeff on Journey shared the photos he took with the rest of us.

The whales spent more than half an hour, slowing making their way from the inner bay out to sea, breaching all the way!

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.

Wow! It did get better...smelling the roses in the light dusting of snow!

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.

Steinbeck Canyon Hike

Oh, man! This is one of our favorite hikes on the Baja, and we were so looking forward to sharing it with Cathie and Terry.

And then a big-horn sheep just walked right into our path and elevated the hike beyond anything we could have ever planned or imagined! It was stunning!

She smelled us before she saw us (the wind was to our back), but she had no where to go but up...which she tried to do several times, finding footholds on the edge of sheer walls, sending scree shattering below, and scaring us all that she would tumble down herself...it seems as if there was no place to go! We backed down the trail, giving her the space to traverse the wall above us and skirt over the slight dip at the top.

After a couple of hot hours of some serious bouldering, we were rewarded with the cool spring at the top.

Next time, Marv vows to climb further and explore what is higher in the canyon! But we were all satisfied with the hike, and it was a fitting finish to Terry and Cathie's visit. We already miss them!