Boat Projects and Birthdays

Things have been crazy, and ever so slowly over the past 3 weeks since splashing, we have been chipping away at our to-do-before-leaving list as the huge Hawaiian green sea turtles swim around our boat and cheer us on. First, we reinstalled the deck hardware and running rigging, installed the refurbished engine temperature gauge, and closed off the old water tank access hatches (the ones that we found leaking just before our passage to Hawaii). Then we moved on to the following larger boat projects:

HAM exam: After way more hours of study than necessary, we are proud to report that Shawn passed both her Technician and General HAM exams and is now anxiously awaiting a call sign so we can get a new batch of boat cards printed (can you believe we are out of our original ones?!). After 2-weeks waiting, her call sign is just up on the FCC website, welcome WH6DYA (in other words Whiskey-Hotel-six-Delta-Yankee-Alpha)!

Solar Farm: Step one to getting Tao reorganized for sailing was to get the solar panels back in action to support daily power usage. This would have been quick except we decided to enlarge our solar farm. We now have 80-watt Big Daddy and 85-watt Hit Girl (if you’ve ever seen the hilarious movie KickAss you’ll understand those names) attached to the stern arch and our original Sunny (50-watts) has a new space on top of the dodger. Post wiring, we are power rich! Now we have plenty of energy for our newly wired Waeco refrigerator and integrated VHS/AIS systems to run as much as we would like. That is if we hadn’t crossed a wire and blown a 5 amp fuse (which needed to be upgraded to 20 amps anyway) or if our solar regulator hadn’t decided to quit. Right now we have our 10 amp max back up installed and a sweet replacement is headed our way via Priority Mail.

Sewing projects: Several sewing projects are lingering around the boat including, courtesy flags, a hanging bin in the reorganized refrigerator compartment (complete with the original teak door that had been removed for Grizzly’s litter box to fit), and additional flaps for the dodger in two areas that water can get through. However, our sewing machine, Elna 5000, had different plans. After the beginning of the work, she suddenly refused to pick up stitches anymore without a visit to the doctor’s office. After calling all available sewing machine repair numbers around the Big Island we now know that every technician on the island lives in Hilo (the other side) and the only two shops that offer repairs Kona side send the sewing machines to Hilo weekly or have a technician visit once a month. Luckily, the technician was scheduled to visit a week later and his diagnosis was a huge relief. Elna just needed cleaning and retiming, though he did chastise us (which we deserved since we hadn’t had her serviced since we purchased her in 2004) that she needed to be serviced more than twice a year if living in the salty environment of a sailboat (sorry, not gonna happen). We are grateful to have her back in service and Shawn is slowly moving forward with these projects.

Q: What is missing?
A: Starboard upper!!

Standing Rigging: Tao’s standing rigging was replaced by her previous owner in 2000, and in 2004 we replaced her backstay in order to insulate it for use with our HF radio. It is generally recommended to change rigging every 10 years or so, but some people claim that properly cared for rigging can last more like 20 years. Our 12-yr old rig was solid for our sail across to Hawaii, and upon examination it looked to be in great condition. However, problem areas don’t tend to be easily visible. To allay our worries, we decided to re-rig before heading out again. For the past week, Chris has been methodically climbing the mast and removing then replacing one stay at a time with only one minor puncture wound inflicted in his left knuckle and only one stainless piece requiring rescuing after being dropped into the water. We are happy to report that the old rigging, once removed, has no visible problems, and the new rigging, solid and shiny, just awaits tuning.

As if that wasn’t enough to keep us busy… Shawn has been teaching two yoga classes a week at Bikram Yoga Kona and we have been trying to practice 4 times a week- not such an easy feat without a vehicle. Chris finally went to see a doctor about his right ear (which has been bothering him since his last dive just before we hauled out). It turns out that, likely due to Chris’ growing up surfing and kayaking in cold waters, his ear canals are very constricted- no problem for hearing, but increasing his risk of ear infections. So, 2 weeks of strong antibiotics and steroid drips and two more appointments later, we await a special ear plug delivery before pushing off. In addition (yes, there is more), we have been spending numerous hours working via Skype with a wedding planner in Mexico in an attempt to make that event happen before another 10-years pass us by (more details to come on that once decisions have been made). Oh, and we took a day off from “working” to celebrate Shawn’s birthday by taking a yoga class, then hiking to a beautiful white sand beach called Makalawena (from Kua Bay side), stuffing ourselves with delicious Kenichi sushi rolls- rolled by Kenichi himself, and ending the celebration by turning a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream into a decadent milk shake. Over the next week we will chip away at the remaining items to move our way toward our ultimate improved sailing machine for the next leg of our journey. And then comes provisioning…

Holy Shark(s) and Chris' Birthday too!

Our last day at Los Coronados was a full one. We had a mega-snorkel day with Scheherezade in their speedy 5-hp dinghy. We started at the western point where large rocks, deep water and strong currents rushed around the point. There were a wide variety of fish but the high point (especially for Shawn) of this site was the little diving duck. At every anchorage for over the past month we've seen huge "schools" of these baby diving ducks. They are so adorable; one dives and they all dive, and all pop up 100 or so yards away only to move a few more yards and dive again. Well, at this snorkel site, there was one little duck putting all of its schooling to work swimming around the waters edge, diving down for food around the rocks, swimming underwater, and resurfacing. This little guy let us follow him a foot or so away while he went about his business. We could see the interesting "feathered" feet and got to watch him dive right toward us, wildlife moment for sure! Then we moved our party to the little Coronado. While Noah and Chris fantasized about anchoring our boats there in a norther (c'mon guys, we don't draw much but it was only about 6 ft!), Alex and Shawn searched for the rays that were supposed to be mating. And we all found them, another nature moment indeed! We followed all of this with a pre-Chris'-birthday pizza and cookie dough party.

The next morning (Tuesday April 28th) we said goodbye to Scheherezade and sailed north in light to calm winds. A full day of very light wind sailing ensued, and 10.5 hrs (2 of which were engine hours) and approximately 19 nm later we found ourselves comfortably anchored next to Pisces a little past sunset in Caleta Ramada just north of San Juanico. Here we spent 3 days with Pisces and La Querencia, searching for obsidian, seeing eels and rays while snorkeling in San Juanico, balancing rocks at the "cruisers shrine" (very similar to the shoe tree for you Echoites), doing yoga, swimming with whales in La Ramada, and celebrating Chris' 35th by sailing Pesky and having a sushi blow out with crab, salmon, sake and all (Kampai Pisces!). Saturday May 2nd, winds started filling in from the north and we sailed the 8 nm northward to Punta Pulpito over 5.25 hours. Just before sunset, Chris' rod went off, "Fish on!" He reeled it in with excitement as it has been a while since we've had fresh fish. As it got closer, though, its swimming pattern revealed that it wasn't a dorado or even a bonito, it was a shark! Chris tried to get it to spit the hook and when that failed, he reeled it in and with gloves and needlenose pliers extracted the feather and let the shark get back to looking for dinner. Punta Pulpito was a lovely solitary anchorage from which we hiked to the peak overlooking the Vermillion Sea (a line of red water), snorkeled nearby reefs, and made our newest priority list of items still required before any ocean crossing.

When the south winds started to fill in as the stars faded and sun began to rise on Cinco de Mayo, we sailed out and again headed up the Sea with the winds lightly at our backs. We spent the day slowly sailing/drifting north practicing our zen as sailboat after sailboat, unwilling to wait out the calms, motored by. Early afternoon, winds filled in from the NE quadrant and we had to change our drifter for our 100% to make more way upwind. With a beautifully blazing red sky over the Baja peninsula we were 3 nm from the entrance to Bahia Concepcion as the sun dipped out of view. Our original plan was to stand off outside the bay, but as the near full moon came up, visibility and winds were good, and we were so close, we continued on. Around 11:30 pm we were 0.3 nm off of Santa Domingo anchorage in which we could see friends anchored. But the wind vanished and the tide was headed out taking us the wrong direction. So close, but yet so far, we tacked away from land and settled in for a full night at sea. We rode currents and very light breezes all the way into Coyote Bay and set the hook next to Pisces (who had been the the bay for 2 days already) in Posada Concepcion around 11 am ending our 29 hour and approximately 53 nm passage.

Conception Bay is another world. We haven't yet figured out the weather in the Sea and it is totally different here. It is an all-weather-anchoring-area, safe from most weather in the sea, but noteably, the water temperature is in the mid-80s! And the air temperatures are nearing the century mark. As it is quite hot, Grizzly is not enamored with this stop, but she's putting up with us and finding all the coolest spots on board. She prefers the floor of the head (bathroom for you non-mariners) which has a floor grate allowing for ventilation, and a new favorite spot of ours is our hammock on the foredeck, especially from sunset to 10 pm when the temperatures are divine! The day after our arrival we packed it in touring the closest bays in Eeyore with Pisces; snorkeling at the reef we had so diligently avoided upon entry, gathering clams (everyone but Shawn) for dinner, and even had a surprising swim with a whale shark! It was HUGE, we guesstimate around 25-ft long (over twice the size of our dinghy) and not at all interested in us as it feed on phytoplankton. We got a good closeup picture of its head with symbiotic fish riding on its back, so check back for it later! We had a clam bake that evening with pasta and sundried tomato alfredo sauce as well as some fruity New Zealand wine, magical! Our third day in the bay Shawn, Chris and Jacob caught a ride with a very nice and information filled woman from Canada into Mulege while Julia dutifully stayed to keep an eye on the boats. With the Santa Rosalia River running through it, Mulege was a palm tree and flower filled haven (surprising in the desert) in what appeared to us half Mexican and half gringo population. We found all the most important things of course; fresh water, fresh food, a restaurant and some ice cream! We toured the towns original mission and then caught a ride back to Santispac with a doctor who runs tests for the worrisome Swine Flu. He assured us that to date there have been exactly zero confirmed cases of the flu on the Baja peninsula; very reassuring for our current travels. We ended the evening with a soak in the natural hotsprings that are cooled down as high tide waves of the bay roll gently into shore 200 yards from our boat.

As Conception Bay has a well established gringo cohort on shore, yesterday (Saturday May 9th) we decided to head in search of a bit more solitude. We first sailed to Isla Coyote to a very romantic anchorage- unfortunately it was 50-ft deep until 20-ft from shore. Next we checked Playa El Burro which houses Geary, the weatherman that we listen to religiously every morning on the Sonrisa Net; but it was a bit of a lee shore with the nice ESE that had filled in. So we continued on to Coyote Bay that houses NOLS, rumored to be closed for the season, but still a lee shore and next to the highway, we finally found the perfect spot in Playa Santa Barbara and set the hook before Chris could have a tacking duel with Pesky, Pisces' sailing dinghy. We awoke this morning to fog in Conception Bay, what?! It soon dissipated to a haze here, but we could still see the thick bank outside Conception Bay. Geary can't see the fog on his imagery and Don (the other weather guru on the Amigo Net) said (today of all days) that the Sea doesn't ever get fog... So we're currently enjoying this anchorage, doing laundry (by hand with salt water), baking garlic-saltwater-pressure cooker bread, hiding from the bees and trying to figure out when we can next make passage north with favorable winds and no fog.