Today I got my wish (Tim) to have an authentic Mexican cultural experience. Pictures and videos below. 
Last week we had a group of amazing guys wash and polish our boat. Ricardo was the lead guy of the three. He spoke some English and helped me with my Spanish. Ricardo came by the boat a couple weeks ago and told me about what they can do and for how much. He built rapport and I was sold. So we had them come out and go bow to stern. The wind was blowing pretty hard the day they were cleaning the boat, so at the end of the day we were gathering the canvas hatch covers and discovered one was missing. I thought it was blown away, so I went in the dingy to search all over the marina. It was gone. 
I called the office and said, they lost the canvas hatch cover. A few days later, Ricardo came and apologized and said he will have a company make a new one. (He had to pay for the replacement cost) However, Lynette kept saying that it must have sunk to the bottom, it's only 9-12 feet, so let's get someone to dive for it. 
We decided, it's time to get a diver to clean our hull below the waterline. So I asked Ricardo if he knew anyone, and he immediately said Kiko, he's older and the best in all of La Paz. So I hired him through Ricardo as the the translator, and asked him to tell him to look for the cover under the docks. 
The fun thing was after the hull was cleaned, Kiko came up with the canvas hatch cover. Yay! So I called Ricardo and told him we found it. He was so relieved, it was going to cost him $50 personally, which is a big portion of his monthly income. He was so happy, mucho gusto! He said, Tim, you're a good man, you're my new friend. So he was over the moon and excited to be released from the burden. 
Then on Christmas Eve, he called over to me from another boat he was working on, I invited him over as Lynette was baking cookies for the many workers around the Costabaja and gave him some all packaged for him. Then he came back and said, "I know of this great place to get a cerveza, I get off at 12:30, so I'll pick you up at 1 on my motorcycle." So true to form, we ask, "Why not?" and there was no good reason not to go. 
His motorcycle is really a Vespa scooter and he had one helmet, which he made me wear. 
So off we went to El Centro La Paz on a scooter that can be filled for 70 pesos. We got to the place, Ricardo told me to let him do the talking, let him pay, because once they see the gringo, the price goes up. We ordered a cerveza oscula (dark beer) and started talking. We talked about family and I shared my pictures of my children and he talked about his 18 year old son Diego who is in university now. We ordered an amazing dish that was served in a lava bowl that was muy caliente. It had cactus, shrimp, a spicy tomato base, onions, chirozo,  cheese and avocado. So amazing, I wish I knew the name. Then, we took off on the scooter to head down towards the end of the bay, Ricardo pulled off on a side road and found a stand on the side of the road, with a BBQ, a cart with two flat tires, and lots of flies. The food is called Almejas, the family will go fishing and clamming then serve up the best seafood the authentic Mexican way. Truly tasty, the spices and freshness was the opposite of what I was observing in a potentially dirty place. I said in Spanish, that this was excellent authentic Mexiacan food, Ricardo relayed my pleasure to the proprieter and they both lit up and I think gave us a great deal. All for less than $5. 

Some say this is the definition of cruising: repairing your boat in exotic places. Yes, it's somewhat true, but boats that sit in the marina rarely break. As we mentioned before, our autopilot (Otto) smoked about 2 hours after leaving Bahia Magdalena in large quartering seas. (When the wind is over your right shoulder and it rolls you, the boat wants to turn up into the wind.) Otto had to work really hard to keep us on course and that was too much to ask, I quite often reach down to feel the temp of the servo motor and most of the time it's pretty cool, that day I almost burned my hand. Then the smoke leaked out and it was over; the smell was ghastly. The remaining time we had to hand-steer or use our Monitor wind-vane, Claude. (Named after Claude Monet, the famous impressionistic French artist. We chose that name because the Monitor is much less accurate than Otto, who is very accurate and particular about the course, Claude is free-flowing and generally steers the course +/- 10 degrees) So when there is wind, the wind-vane works well, when we're motoring with a tail wind, it's not so much fun. Lynette and I had to do 2 hour watches because it was so tedious. 
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I was not able to find a Raymarine autopilot motor in Cabo San Lucas or in La Paz, both places boast really good marine supply and boat yards, but I could not find one. So I called Seattle Fisheries Supply and they had access to them. I paid extra freight and bought two motors. Our friends Kurt & Katie said, if one part breaks, buy two. Then I had to coordinate the parts delivery with our friends son, Peter, in Gig Harbor since they were coming down to Costa Baja for Christmas. It all worked well, Fisheries Supply delivered the parts and Peter threw them in his suitcase, I'm so grateful for friends. 
Along the same line, my phone decided to do a forced update between San Diego and Ensenada, which required the phone to activate with a Verizon cell tower, which there was a sever lack of in the ocean or in MX. After about 4 hours of calls with Verizon, Apple and everyone in between, I had to resort to sending my phone back to San Diego where my daughter Danielle could activate it. So we journeyed into town found DHL and a $50 bill to send it out of La Paz. It arrived a day early and missed my daughter, then she coordinated with DHL to deliver the next day and she took the day to work from home, but the delivery guy found it too hard to get into her apartment complex and did not deliver it. Finally the next day it was delivered. She activated it, then coordinated to have our same friends daughter who lives in San Diego to pick it up to take down for the Christmas in La Paz. So from Nov 18th till the 14th of Dec I've been without a phone. No texts, calls or all my cool apps. I struggled along with my iPad and Macbook but it was not very fun. (I know, first-world problems!) 
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I love getting things done, repairing things that have been broken for years, there is something about redeeming things and restoring them that is satisfying. 

This time I'll take the opportunity to share what I've been experiencing and learning along the way. You have a lot of time to think when you're sailing 1,000 miles. 
First, this is a dream come true, the lifestyle of a sailor has always intrigued and inspired me. I've always talked about going out and hanging a left when I lived in the Seattle area. I love losing sight of land, to see 360 degrees surrounded by expanse. The sense of freedom and wonder is powerful. There were a few days when we were in 3 to 5,000 feet of water offshore, in deep inky blue water with no land in sight at the furthest point over 60 miles out. I spoke with a lifelong commercial fisherman in Oceanside and he said, "So this sailing thing, is it a hobby?" I explained it was a lifestyle. Which took him off guard, "What do you mean a lifestyle?" I said, "When you're sailing you have the freedom of going over the horizon, if you're patient you'll reach a distant shore like Hawaii, Tahiti or New Zealand. Sailboats have unlimited range, while large fishing boats have about 1,000nm range which is only half way to HI." Sailing is the greenest sport out there, you have to take what you get and roll with it. (Sometimes literally rolling for days, rolling and rolling.) But the point being, you don't get stressed about things that happen, or at least you're not supposed to, you just accept and adjust. I love the minimalistic approach to life, what's the minimum power consumption? What's the optimum course to sail? How much water per day do we need? The connection and dependence on the weather. I love it all. 

All the romance aside, it's also very hard at times. When yet another system breaks, you discover a leak, the roller furler gets jammed at night while things are blowing all over the place. I'm up on the bow bouncing in the waves trying to figure out what is happening 45' up at the top of the mast. You're running on 2 hours of sleep in 24 and have to make key decisions. My humanity starts showing! I need to keep my wife safe. Years ago I've been to my limits, I've done a 54 hour day, and multiple 30+ hour days. I've hallucinated due to lack of sleep. Where even the most basic choice is too hard. Once you know your limits, you're not as afraid of breaking and you can go through more. Though it's hard, I still love it all. 

It's not the happy days of sailing on a beam reach at 7+ knots where everything is perfectly balanced that shows you where you need to grow, it's the times where you've reached the end of yourself, the end of where you've been before that matters. The sea is ruthless in its persistence, to press, stretch and test you.

But let's talk about bungee cords and cleats. Really, how do they do it? You can organize a half dozen bungee cords, neatly arranged in a locker, everything in order. Close the door and they start to coil around each other like snakes as soon as the human eye is off them. Reach in for one in a hurry and you will extract every single thing in that locker you never wanted or even knew was in there. Really?!? Then at the moment of frustration, the bungee lets go so rap you in the face or knuckles. Owwieee! Or if you walk backwards with a line in your hand, watching it as it travels over the deck, it will run fairly with nary a tangle. If you dare to turn your back on the same line, it will grab a cleat or anything at all the resembles a cleat and stop you every time. A cleat is a t-shaped device that is genius in its simplicity but really, anything can become a cleat with holds a line with ferocious force at the wrong time. Cleats are much better at night, in fact I feel like I have a 100% increase in cleats on deck once the sun goes down. Our dorade vent is a cleat mostly at night, but really, most of the time it will reach out during a tack and stop the boat. We've learned to just unscrew it when we're sailing to prevent the crisis of a mid tack impingement.

I wonder about entropy when I'm sailing, defined: Lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder. So we're constantly dealing with the thermodynamic law of disorder, I can see the poster with Isaac Newton's face on it "Entropy, it's not just a good idea, it's the law!" Will we have this decline into disorder in Heaven? It feels like 80% of our time is in the process of preventing (really just delaying) things from going wrong, breaking, leaking or otherwise failing. Constant invisible forces are at work on a boat in the ocean. The galvanic series of metals, where in seawater aluminum turns to powder if it's in the water with bronze or stainless steel. The insidious corrosion can sink a boat. Our friends discovered that several bronze through-hull fittings all had a similar corrosion happening and the were very brittle and broke off with little effort. Fortunately they found the issue when the boat was in the yards for maintenance. That is pretty scary. The constant motion creates cyclical loading that causes wear and tear, being aware of chafe or bending is really important. 

For the most part, I feel like a toddler in my life. As we get older we discover we really don't know anything. When we're teenagers, to our parents chagrin, we know everything. I told a couple of my kids, "Write your book now, since you know everything." I've spoken with elderly, wise men and women they conclude the older they get the more they realize what they don't know. I've talked with PhD professors that say, "The more letters after my name the less I know." It's really hard to build your confidence when every day, many times per day you're proven wrong in your assumptions. You need to hold things loosely and have an open childlike mind, where the joy of discovery remains. It's really hard as I am the skipper of this little world we have, my decisions can have a big impact on our safety, being too confident or cavellier will spell trouble or worse, tragedy. Fortunately I have the most amazing wife and partner in this adventure. She is fully enganged and challenges my decisions regularly, mostly with laser-focused penetrating questions, which highlights my poor assumptions. Generally I feel dumb all the time, perhaps that is my new modus operandi. There is a saying, "You can learn something new every day if you start out stupid enough" well, I'm overqualified in that department. 'Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.' So the choice to be humble is mine to make or be humiliated. 

We met a man at church here in La Paz named Milton, who is a very gregarious guy who loves to talk and just may be a genius. He was telling me, "Sailing is fun, but adventure changes you, fun will never change your character or make you grow, adventure will." Then I told him the name of our boat. Adventure defined: a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome. 

Here's to New Adventures! 

Sea Day 28-29 12/01-12/02/2016 Cabo San Lucas to La Paz, Mexico​

We went for a swim after arriving yesterday, then we went into Cabo for drinks and dinner. Steve and Janny were our taxi via dinghy and our tour guides. Cabo San Lucas is very tourist centered. There were crazy party boats all lit up cruising the bay all evening into the night. Little businesses lining the beach played music all day and late into the night, every area playing different music. The dominant music we heard was based on which way the wind was blowing us at anchor. In the morning we went to the Arcos and took a ton of pictures and video. Tim and Steve went into town and purchased good bottom paint for the boats and Tim was not able to find any sort of access to the autopilot motor. We had to make a choice at this point because weather conditions were favorable for travel around the bottom of the Baja and then north into the Sea of Cortez to get to La Paz. The winds were due to make the Sea calm. It is a flat out motor sail and at least a 24 hour run time. The next good window would be in 4 days’ time, did we want to just stay in Cabo San Lucas for 4 days or head out with Steve and Janny, knowing we would have to hand steer? We only had one night’s sleep from our run down to Cabo.

We decided to leave Cabo and head to La Paz where we would be in a marina and could relax. The seas were pretty rough as we left out about 1230 after filling our fuel tank with our jerry cans, we had one 6 gallon can left in case we needed some more during our travels. The current was also very strong and travel was slow for about 4 hours. Tim and I employed our 2 hour sleep shifts again. We are pretty tired.

We tried sailing a few times as the wind picked up so we could use Claude the wind vane. Sailing worked but our speed was so slow meaning the trip would take 2 nights instead of one. We kept on motoring. As we approached Isla Espiritu Santo we had a very tight transit through the Canal de San Lorenzo where there are reefs on both sides and there is danger of running aground. I cut my sleep schedule short so that Tim’s sleep time would have him up about 30 minutes from our arrival at the canal. Tim was up and moving, preparing to come up about 1030. Our next task was to dip the tank to see how much fuel was left as we had been motoring about 22 hours. We know we burn 0.6 to 1 gallon an hour depending on the sea state and current. Tim stepped into the head, and suddenly the motor cut out. Yep, the tank was empty! We should have checked before we switched sifts. There was wind, so I unfurled the jib and began sailing at 3 knots, while Tim finished getting ready to come up and after dipping the tank to see it was indeed empty.

We then heaved-to (that method of “stopping”), filled the tank with our last jerry can of 6 gallons. Tim primed the lift pump to get the engine restarted and it sputtered back to life. The wind was not good for sailing as it was on our nose now, being very shifty. We furled the jib and returned to slow motor sailing to conserve our fuel. We did not know if the 6 gallons would be enough to get us all the way to La Paz. Steve and Janny had told us to stop in Ballandra Bay in the morning because they wanted to snorkel there. We used our Delorme In Reach Satellite device to text them to see if they would wait for us in Ballandra Bay so we could get some more fuel. They texted back to say they were already in La Paz because the wind was up and it just pushed them in. We realized that La Paz wasn’t as far as we thought once we cleared San Lorenzo Canal. 

We pulled into the gas dock at Costabaja Marina to check into the marina about 1530. We attempted to get fuel but the nozzle was too large for out tank opening and the wind was an abnormal wind from an unfavorable direction, rocking our boat hard against the dock. We ended up having the fuel guys just fill our jerry cans and then we will put it in the tank on our own later in our slip. 

We are moored opposite Steve and Janny (whom we have to thank for bringing us into this beatiful place) and the community here in the marina is nice. We are so glad to now just stop for a while. Tank up on sleep and relax for a period of time. We also have to get the new motor for Otto and then see what other things we need to add to our boat like solar. Maybe now after 6 very intense months of learning and preparation and traveling down the coast we will actually vacation or recreate and rest. Now to work on learning Spanish! Hello La Paz!

The people here in La Paz are so nice, they are gracious and are very willing to engage in mutual language exchange. Most of them are learning English and  "yo practico Español" so they help us along. There are some really nice restaurants here at the Costa Baja resort, Italian, Sushi and others. 

Sea Days 26-27 11/29-11/30/2016 Bahia Magdalena to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico​

We were so relieved to have a couple days at anchor in Mag Bay. The rest was greatly needed from the incredibly confused seas. When the waves are coming from what feels like every direction and the boat is relentlessly rocking in all directions, pure fatigue from simple movements becomes an issue. A simple potty break can top 20 minutes if you have to remove outer weather clothing and replace it after using the head. Cooking can be nearly impossible. We figured out that sleeping across the V-berth was the best way to go and we were able to get better rest.

The seas coming out of Mag Bay were still pretty confused, but once beyond the shores a ways it was much smoother sailing. Several hours out, glad to be moving towards our meeting point again, Otto had trouble and flashed an error message. Then Tim noticed that Otto’s motor was super hot to touch. Uh oh…that error message meant complete drive failure, Otto was dead. Our options: Claude, the windvane as long as the wind held, or hand steering. We used both methods. Hand steering is very tiring because every wave can take you off course. We had Claude working for us and Tim and I strategized on how we were going to get through the night. We sure hope we can get a replacement in Cabo San Lucas, but chances are slim.

Our strategy was to start resting right away, we would get in the v-berth ready to sleep and set the timer for 2 hours, then get up and put ourselves back together for our next shift. That would have us each on the helm for about 2.5 hours before we had relief, but at the same time we were able to sleep in good chunks. We were still motor sailing for most of this trip.

Tim was pretty tired on the night shift around 0100 so he set up our Watch Commander that alarms every 12 minutes to help you stay awake. (Thanks to Kurt & Katie for telling us about this in Morro Bay.) Tim carries a pretty big load when these kinds of things happen. I don’t have the kind of endurance that he has, but he was on the edge with this run. I was down for a morning sleep between 0800-1000. I awoke to the funniest sight ever of which no pictures exist except the ones in my mind. I thought Tim had totally lost it, or he was desperate for his shift to end…the sight of Tim moving around in the cockpit, stripped down to his underwear happy as a lark, as Claude steered the boat, made me laugh pretty hard. (Tim did have his lifevest and harness on.) The truth was he started the watch in cold weather gear, now it was about 85 degrees!

As we rounded the corner of Cabo Falso and began to see the rocks of Cabo San Lucas, we got camera happy. It put new wind into our physical bodies. The color of the water was amazing! We came into the bay and anchored near Steve and Janny who had already been in Cabo for a whole day plus. We were so very glad to be at anchor again so we could get some real sleep. We could see our anchor on the bottom 18 feet below as the water was so clear! This is quite the place! Cabo baby!

There is a saying, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for tomorrow." So the plan was to go from Turtle Bay to Cabo San Lucas. The first morning was beautiful smooth sea, no wind and visits from pods of dolphin. We had our coffee on the bow, enjoyed the sunrise, it was very pleasant. 

Later in the day when Lynette was sleeping while off-watch, I saw a flash from a flying fish and then noticed more flashes underwater. What unfolded was pretty astounding, we had dorado, tuna and other fish all swimming with the boat. Hundreds of them on each side. You could see them over 100' out on the port with polarized lenses. We got our fishing licenses, but Lynette was sleeping and I did not know where my lures were packed away. I went down below to see how sound asleep Lynette was, and she did no budge. So I decided to just enjoy the moment. The fish stayed with us for over an hour and when Lynette got up, I asked her to just look out over the rail on the port side. Hundreds of fish swimming with us. So I got all I had which was a couple of pink spoons from catching salmon in WA. 5 seconds after it hit the water, fish on! Out goes my line and snap! I have a deep sea rod and reel with 30 lb test line. Wow, those are big fish. I heard they liked big flies, so I had the biggest fly from my river fishing gear. 5 seconds in the water and boom! Fish on! I fought this one longer with a lot less drag. It went on for about 15 minutes when the line went slack and when I reeled in the hook was straightened out. OK, last pink spoon with a big hook and a few minutes later, fish on! I fought it for about 20 minutes and had Lynette slow the boat down by trimming in the main sail. She got the net and we landed an 8 lbs Frigate Tuna. See the pictures for details. 

We knew the sunrise would be a sign of degrading weather, and it did. The wind picked up and clouds rolled in by nightfall. After 12-14 hours of constant rolling, with the wind behind and large quartering seas, rolling of 15-20 degrees each way gets exhausting. A moment came at 3am when Lynette was on watch, the winds were shifting quite a bit. The autopilot was set to adjust to the shifts. We had the jib poled out and a preventer on the main to ensure we did not have an accidental jibe, which can be very dangerous. Tim was sleeping down below when the boat came off a wave and spun around 180 degrees, The combination of the wind shift and large waves got Lynette totally spun around and disoriented. So we got it back on course but quickly realized the increasing winds and confused seas were going to put us in for a very long sail. We decided to head for Magdalena Bay to hide from the wind, get some fuel and sleep. That was about 7 hours away. Then our autopilot did a few crazy things where it lost course. We knew there was something strange at about 127 degrees magnetic and had planned to recalibrate the compass before we left San Diego, we decided that it was fine and continued on; that was a bad decision since the course to Magdalena Bay was about 127 degrees. We had to hand-steer in very rolling conditions for about 3 hours. We have a video here to show you what we were dealing with. We were able to get the autopilot into the wind-steering mode and leveraged the wind to keep us on course; what a relief. ​

We ended up getting in as the wind was really building. We read in Charlie's Charts about the bay. "It's well protected from all wind directions except SW" Well, update Charlie! We were getting pounded with a Northerly trying to get to the "protected" anchorage, it was a 5 mile stretch of open water which allowed about 2 foot, steep waves to build, at times stopping us down to 3 knots. Finally we got to Man-O-War cove and anchored there with very windy conditions. We were fried and ready to sleep. 257 NM in the books for the last 48 hours. 

After a whirlwind day in Ensenada where we pulled in about 0700 and were at the marina office to start the immigration process, the marina provided a guide and translator who took us from one window to another, we had all of our documentation together thanks to our friends. We had the port authority to pay for entry, the government, then our boat had to get registered to import goods, called a TIP, then we got our Visa's and paid for some more fees. Then we were done but needed to get our fishing license. The way it works if you have fishing gear on the boat then you need a license for each person on board. Finally done by 1pm. We took a short nap (I think) and then it was off to get fuel for the next leg. We grabbed several jerry cans and carts from the marina, we were told it was only a few blocks away, we got to the Pemex and they did not have diesel, the guy said it was five lights down the main street. That was over a mile up and over curbs on dirt sidewalks and past a horseback riding stable. Then that station did not have diesel either, but for sure the few more blocks they have it. So now loaded with 15 gallons of fuel we head back to the boat, over curbs and holes etc.

We set off about 1630 with our friends headed South. This leg was over 290 NM down the North end of the coast of Baja to a quaint little town of Turtle Bay. We made pretty good time of 2 days and 2 hours, averaging about 5.8 knots. This was our first multi-day journey, we were on 3-hour shifts starting at 1900-2200 with Lynette on the helm, then Tim would take over till 0100. Once you get into the rhythm it works really well. 
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We arrived after dark in Turtle Bay, we had two choices, have Steve and Janny guide us in or keep going to the next bay 40 miles down. (You never want to enter an unfamiliar port after dark.We heard a story of someone losing their boat and everytihng on it a few weeks prior in this very bay by coming in after dark.) Steve's VHF radio failed on the first night and we lost contact with them. We hailed them many many times with no avail. Thankfully, we did have our Delorme InReach explorer satellite tracker that we could send text messages to their phones, but there was no service for the majority of the two days. Finally we got a response back from them that they were anchored in Turtle Bay and for us to proceed. When we got within 2 miles, we were able to get them on their handheld radio and they guided an exhausted couple to raft up with them on Thanksgiving night. We had a brief meal of Turkey and stuffing and crashed by 2200. 

The next morning was glorious and the bay was teeming with action, shouts of joy from a distant fishing boat hauling in their nets for a big catch, the pelicans came to their aid. We needed to get fuel and a little project of getting the AIS installed. We purchased a colision avoidance system called AIS, but did not have a chance to install it before we left San Diego. So Steve came to Tim's aid in wiring the system up with a temporary solution. The system broadcasts our boats location, speed and direction as well as receives other ships information to us. We can then hail them by name to discuss the crossing situation. By the end of the afternoon, we had victory. So with that, we set off at about 1600 for Cabo San Lucas. We decided to just get into the groove and do the 600 miles all at once in about 4 days. The wind was predicted to be a brisk 17-20kts from the North, so a straight shot down the coast with the wind at our stern.