Catching up with ourselves... 2010 already?!

Post yoga bliss at Just A Taste Ithaca, NY

January 6, 2010; As Tao bobbed around her mooring in the sunshine of Puerto Escondito, in Baja Mexico patiently waiting, all 3 of her crew members (including the feline cohort) sat in the Ithaca, NY airport looking out the windows at the winter scene of snow falling and blowing amidst a blinding white layer of frozen land. Another delayed flight through Philly, surprisingly reminiscent of our reuniting there and being delayed overnight on the way to the east coast for the holidays. But there’s a lot to catch up on that got us here we should back up…

Shawn started teacher training (TT) October 4th after Chris drove her and all of her gear to Las Vegas. Chris returned to his dad's in Palos Verdes to collect equipment for Tao. He purchased and serviced the new-to-us 2006 4-person canister Avon life raft, AIS (thank you Jane!), auto pilot, 200’ of chain, tricolor masthead light, redesigned the head system, visited Minnie’s twice and West Marine 3 times (thanks to Scheherazade!). All the while Chris did PT and rehabilitation for his shoulder and spent time with Dave and Anette as they remodeled the interior of their new home into which they moved in early December. Chris also notably had a reunion with Santa Monica high school friends at the Bagel Nosh a classic high school brunch hangover hangout and on to a BBQ at Ari’s house. Halloween weekend Chris visited Shawn in Vegas.

In November Shawn continued with TT in the crazy yoga-bubble life in Las Vegas taking two yoga classes a day plus lectures and Mahabharat until the wee hours of the morning. Chris, on the other hand, was moving. From the 4-12th he and Pepe were in Mexico at the boatyard in San Carlos for 10 long sweaty dusty days to recommission Tao. When he got there, the deep sump and bilge had over topped with water up to the sole from Hurricane Jimena. The key issue is the lazarette locker leak for which we’ll continue to search for yet another “fix”. A few achievements:
· Our close up job was bomber and Chris undid all that work and is still trying to get adhesive off from duct tape.
· We had a bottom job done and last moment had to re do the boot stripe.
· Customized our head system (this is the fifth upgrade) by installing a MarkV Whale sanitation pump to replace our Headmate hand pump, which failed early in our voyages, for a final product of a half Lavac and half Thetford Headmate system. Works great so far!
· Improved and rust-proofed our original (1979) stove by reshaping currently made burners to fit our stove.
· After filling our dried out port tank and disinfecting our starboard tank that had a bit of algal growth in the bleach water that we had left in the tank, Chris installed an in-line filter between our freshwater tanks and our galley hand pump.

The 14-22nd Chris came back to the states. First to Flagstaff, AZ for WFR recertification through NOLS (unfortunately the first day was spent fighting montezumas revenge, gracias Mexico). He then made his way to Vegas for one last visit to Shawn at TT and on the 22nd headed back to Mexico via Tufesa bus, leaving Pepe with Shawn. November 24th Tao splashed after nearly 6 months on the hard. Thankfully Pisces was there to assist Chris anchoring in the harbor (with our new system 200-ft of ¼ inch high test 7800-lb breaking strength). Chris then readied Tao for her first passage of the season. Rewired switches for electrical panel, climbed the mast several times, ran rigging, bent sails, installed a new masthead light (after luckily and thankfully finding an extra available wire), installed a new VHF for the sweet new AIS system. Buffed topsides. Pumped Eeyore and got the Seahor running (although she’s begging for a spark plug replacement). Reinstalling Moni and our boom alone were feats of great magnitude. Thanksgiving was bittersweet spent apart- Shawn in Vegas with yoga family and Chris with sailing family Pisces in San Carlos.

December we finally got back together! On the 20th both of us flew east, Shawn from SFO, Chris from LAX. We met in Philly for a snowstorm that delayed all flights, stayed there for a night, and arrived in Ithaca 24 hours later than expected, but all luggage intact and ecstatic to be together. A very nice homecoming, we spent Christmas proper with Shawn’s entire little family based at her Mum, Judy’s, holiday decorated moose-laden home. Shawn’s Dad, Ken, as well as her brother, Chuck, sister-in-law Maura, nephew Liam and twin nieces, Campbell and Ainsley came to visit, exchange gifts, and have a lovely holiday ham dinner together. This is the first time in a decade that Shawn has been home for the holidays, thanks to Bamp for bringing us all together! We miss her very much. After a quick trip to Kingston, Ontario to say goodbye, we returned to Ithaca, spent a lovely evening with Shawn’s best friend from high school, Leah and her partner Gretchen and then 3 days straight of teaching/taking classes at David Corson’s Bikram studio in Ithaca, we rung 2010 in mellow-style in Ithaca after a nice hike then early dinner with Shawn’s parents (Judy’s cooking = YUM!).

2010 already?! January 1-2nd we headed north in Leah’s Honda Civic (same era as Pepe) who did very well in the winter wonderland of upstate NY. We had a very nice visit with both Chuck & Maura and our nearly walking nieces Ainsley and Campbell (10 months) and rambunctious nephew Liam (3). We are amazed at how smoothly they are handling having three little kids!!! We also managed to have a fun snowmobile and dinner with Aunt Barbie, Uncle B and Cousin Daniel too! Back in Ithaca, the 4th was a momentous day in which Shawn taught a 25 person class with 3 beginners one of which was her father!!

And that brings us back to the airport as we traveled away from the winter wonderland of Ithaca; all three of us together flying across the country to SFO spending our last moments for the next few months together. Chris continued on to LA for his final shoulder rehab check for “full duty work release” (aka 100% recovery) then back to Mexico and Tao. Shawn and Grizzly went north to Petaluma to take advantage of all her hard work at TT by gaining experience actually teaching as well as taking advantage of a tremendous opportunity to work with Lynn Whitlow. 2009 passed by like a whirlwind. Some of our last year’s resolutions came to be, while others were swept away in the constant swirl of life’s turbulent flow. We entered 2009 together and focused; we enter 2010 separate and scattered. Again we will be apart for the coming months, but we know that it will bring us closer together for a better-quality future. Welcome to the next chapter in our story…

December 5th-20th, 2009; Back to Baja!

Many important changes have passed since our last entry. First, Shawn successfully graduated from Bikram’s Teacher Training in Las Vegas on December 5, 2009. Congratulations! In addition to her certification, she received the great honor of being one of 36 selected by Bikram for the final yoga demonstration where she performed the entire 26 posture series, including several advanced postures, to an audience of many friends, parents, and fellow graduates. A day later, Shawn drove north to Clear Lake to begin teaching under direction and tutelage of Lynn Whitlow. We met Lynn in 2004, while practicing yoga at the Funky Door studio in Berkeley, and agree that she is one of the most inspirational Bikram’s Yoga instructors we’ve met. We promise to fill you in more on Shawn’s yoga experiences as things move forward.

While Shawn was demonstrating Full Cobra on stage at the Las Vegas Hilton, Chris was down on Tao in San Carlos, Sonora. Now that she was afloat, Tao finally began to feel like the home he remembered. They were both happy to be rid of the constant attack of dirt, dust, and the suite of toxic aerosols that life “on the hard” brings. Apart from the normal pre-sail preparations (running rigging, sails, water and fuel, etc), Chris spent his time working on several other “need to do” projects. Yes, like most boat owners, we have an exhaustive list of maintenance tasks and improvements that keeps us busy while we’re cruising. We have found that as long as we are living and sailing, we can effectively keep enough momentum to slowly make improvements. Yet, on the other hand, if we take time away from Tao, her upkeep is difficult to maintain.

Mercifully sparing our blog readers the torture of a true project list, here is a brief list of what was completed the day that Shawn graduated:
· Installed new AquaSignal 40 masthead light with tri-color, anchor light, and strobe functions. Of course this required several trips to the top of the mast and some luck. The new unit required two more wires and more footprint space than the nearly useless 1970’s antique it replaced. Luckily Chris found the end of an old triplex encased within the remains what appeared to be the previous owner’s wind instrumentation “tower” during the initial top-of-mast recon mission so no longer had to worry about worst case scenario of “pulling the stick” to rewire. A voltmeter quickly identified the three wires exiting just above the mast step on the keel. Unfortunately, the wires were little more than nubs protruding at the top, so Chris spent a good hour with a hacksaw blade cutting the pipe surrounding the wire careful not to lose what did exist. Then to make space for the unit Chris spent the rest of the afternoon discovering why it’s probably not a good idea to wield a hammer and impact driver at the top of the mast while the wakes from the continuous stream of fishing boat traffic roll under the boat. (Thankfully, he did not put a hole in the deck with either of these heavy metal items). The effort yielded a spare aluminum masthead plate, 4 badly beaten up stainless steel machine bolts, and enough space for the new masthead light. With the wiring and placement woes behind him, Chris drilled and tapped new mounting holes, connected a few wires, and installed the light.
· Other top-of-the-mast jobs: While up there, Chris also replaced windex wind indicator, untangled a jammed sheave, ran a new halyard, applied lanacote to all dissimilar metal contacts, and put sail tape on spreader boots.
· Back down in the cabin, Chris led a new set of wires between the electrical bus at the base of the mast and the 12v panel, amidships over the engine. Although the entire electrical panel and rats nest of wires behind it have to be dealt with during a future campaign, Chris was able to locate a logical set of switches, providing power and ground to the different functions of the new masthead light. He is proud to say that Tao’s anchor light now looks like a bright light, not just a distant star bobbing around in dark space. Now if he can only figure out how to keep the lights from interfering with the masthead VHF signal…

On December 6, Noah Peffer boarded an overnight ferry from Santa Rosalia to Guaymas to help Chris sail Tao south across the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Escondido. Noah and his girlfriend, Alex, are good friends that we met last year in La Paz while they were completing a new dodger for their boat Scheherazade, a Yamaha 33. Noah is currently working and writing about his epic struggle to repower on the hard in Fonatur Singlar’s yard in Escondido (http://spotscheherazade.blogspot.com/). During their last two days in San Carlos before heading across, Chris and Noah finished installing teak chocks for the new liferaft, tuned the standing rigging, and spent the requisite afternoon at the fuel dock filling water and diesel while using a few wrenches on the persnickety Yanmar 2QM20. They did not forget to spend some quality time socializing with the local riff-raff; of course, topping this list were Jacob and Julia from s/v Pisces and Adam and Kris from s/v Estrella.

It was a “gentleman’s” start on Wednesday morning, December 9, for Noah and Chris. Waking up at around 7:30 AM, they were able to listen to the morning weather on the Sonrisa and Amigo nets, have a civilized breakfast, and even take the last bits of trash off the boat and shower before sailing off the anchor in San Carlos harbor at around 11:30 AM. Tao’s main came up first, followed by the 100% working jib after Noah stowed the anchor. We made course heading 184 degrees, almost directly south, for the opening between Islas Coronado and Carmen near Loreto, Baja California Sur. In total, the journey to Puerto Escondido was a little over 140 nautical miles. Wind conditions began with steady 10-15 knots from the northwest off the starboard quarter, with a 1-3 foot short period wind swell from the same direction. Although they had a slight roll, it was a relatively comfortable downwind run so far and the boat was gliding along at a respectable clip of 6 knots. Conditions remained the same during a beautiful sunset, and apart from a few fishing boats, we sailed alone in the moonless dark with low-level stratus clouds obscuring the horizon, and amazing views of the star-filled Milky Way above us as we zipped downwind through the night.

Dawn broke to the sight of the large volcanic mound of Isla Coronado off the starboard bow. Isla Carmen looked like a low lying landform directly ahead. We entered the passage between Loreto and Isla Carmen at around 9 AM, and completed our journey to the south end of Isla Carmen where it gives way to Isla Danzante. We were within a few miles of the entrance to the Puerto Escondido harbor at around 11 AM when we decided to sail into picturesque Honeymoon Cove, a well protected anchorage on Isla Danzante. We then tacked on beam reach toward the Puerto Escondido entrance, started Yannie, the engine, and pulled up to mooring ball 85 in the primary harbor. This has been Tao’s home since then. Overall we made the run in about 24 hours, with an average speed of just under 6 knots!

Upon landfall in Puerto Escondido, Noah showed Chris his work progress on Scheherazade; impressive, to say the least. Two days later, Jacob and Julia from Pisces motored into Puerto Escondido having spent a night layover at Isla Carmen on their way down from San Carlos. This visit was a surprise, as they had not originally planned to stop on the Baja Peninsula on their way south to the Mexican Riviera (Mazatlan and points south). Any questions Chris had about their intentions were immediately cleared up, when they approached in their dinghy, Pesky, and stated, “We can’t miss Noah’s famous hot dog crawl in Loreto.” Yes, you read it right, a celebration of Loreto’s secret food delicacy, an epicurean delight, the hotdog. Noah had been talking about his favorite Loreto hotdog joint ever since he arrived in San Carlos. His obsession obviously had an effect; now people were changing their cruising plans to make it to his favorite Saturday night activity. And yes, indeed, the hotdogs did not disappoint. We went out along with Noah’s local friend Wade to the king of hotdog stands (Incidentally, Wade also built Nor’West boats in the mid-70s in Alameda, CA. He did not build Tao, hull #10, which was after his time). This particular stand was family run, only open during the weekends, and located in their two car garage. For 15 pesos, what came out was not just a hot dog with ketchup and mustard, but a work of art. The hot dog and bun were just the foundation for a mountain of additional ingredients, including a number of grilled veggies, a special mayo sauce, bacon, and salsa. Yum. Following this event in Puerto Escondito, Jacob and Julia christened the first annual hot dog crawl in La Paz (http://svpisces.blogspot.com/). Their final report states that La Paz may give the Loreto hot dog a run for its money.

On December 13, Chris sadly left Tao on her mooring, and caught a bus from Loreto heading south for Cabo San Lucas for holiday visiting with his family at his mother’s annual time share. Flying in from Los Angeles, CA, and Juneau, AK, were his mother (Jane) and stepfather (Abe) and his sister (Sarah) and brother-in-law (Jimmy), respectively. Chris spent one night in La Paz before heading down to the San Jose del Cabo airport to pick up the rental car and Sarah and Jimmy, at around 3 PM. All three of them drove down to Cabo San Lucas proper to rendezvous with Jane and Abe at the Pueblo Bonito Blanco resort. (Coincidentally, the magnificent and well manicured Pueblo Bonito property faced directly out to the yacht anchorage in which Tao had been anchored just one year before). Time for some R&R. Over the next 5 days, Chris savored visiting with his close relatives while enjoying the royal treatment that he could only observe from his rolling cockpit during his last visit. His daily routine at the time-share included a morning workout in the on-site gym followed by a long trip to the spa, where he enjoyed the soothing effects water in the shower, hot tub, steam room, Swedish shower, and cold water plunge pool. The whole family enjoyed sun time by the pool, in the ocean, and going out on the town for several dinners. Everyone wished Shawn were there (most notably Shawn), but she was riding the post-teacher-training wave teaching her first 6 classes during that time.

The view of the sun setting during the evening flight from Cabo to Los Angeles was memorable. The next morning, December 20, Both Chris and Shawn were rudely awakened in LA and San Francisco respectively by alarm clocks indicating early flights bound for snowy Ithaca, NY and the beginning of another adventure: the first time to spend our holidays with Shawn’s family in New England.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

A quick shout of thanks out to all of you, our extended family. So many things to give thanks for every day; daily recognizing that we have a choice and we choose to enjoy every moment. This holiday finds all of us apart in space but together in our hearts. Grizzly is still at Shangrila-de-Judy in Ithaca. She has no idea that sailing is again near on her horizon.



Shawn is based at the Las Vegas Hilton, just about to enter week-9, the final week, of Bikram Yoga Teacher Training. So much more to follow soon about this topic.







Chris and Tao just splashed this past Tuesday and are anchored in Bahia San Carlos getting reacquainted. Project lists have grown and Chris is single-handedly preparing the boat for ocean crossings. We all look forward to being reunited soon for the holidays and details about recent adventures will be posted then.

Refuel in New England

Chris was feeling blue in the days following surgery…drifting in and out of a haze probably caused by painkillers, lack of exercise, and much more TV than he was used to. A change of scene was the remedy, and in this case the scene was New England in early fall. Upon reflection, this turned out well for two very good reasons. First, a major change of environment provided much-needed relief from the incessant nagging from two opposing agendas: to remain immobile and heal from surgery per doctors orders, and the need to efficiently buy items for Tao’s “high-priority” upgrades and get down to Mexico as quickly as possible. Second, although unaware of this himself, the human care and companionship he received while visiting both family and friends during the early weeks of his recovery turned out to be the critical elements he needed to regain his capacity to enjoy life in the moment.

Chris’s first stop on the way East was in Denver, CO, to visit his good buddy from graduate school, Monte Lunacek (giving one of his better Zoolander "Blue Steel" impressions, photo right) . Monte is a different man from the one he new at Colorado State University, only a few years back (OK, maybe 8). He has forsaken his “dirt-bag climber” lifestyle (at least for the moment) and is currently working as a post-doc with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, home of Coors now turned hip Denver border town. Incredibly, Monte no longer lives out of his car. He just finished purchasing his first home, a spacious condominium only a few minutes from downtown Golden. In addition to good dialogue and some local hiking, Chris and Monte were able to catch up with another Colorado State University classmate and good friend, Melody Bourret, who is now living and working in Boulder, CO.

From Denver, Chris flew to Boston and caught a bus up to Bangor, ME, where he met his father, Dave, for a ten-day visit to beautiful family property in Penobscot Bay. He has fond memories of summers spent with his father and sister, Sarah, in a small, undeveloped wooden cabin overlooking the water along Eggemoggin Reach on Little Deer Isle. The water, beach and roughly 30 acres of dense forest were great for exploring, hiking, clamming, canoeing, windsurfing, sailing, and just about anything else a couple of kids could imagine. This year, highlights included a 3-day sailing cruise around the islands of Penobscot aboard his father’s boat Mouette, a 31 foot Dufour (furry first-mate, photo right); spending calm evenings watching sunsets on the north porch; putting together puzzles with his stepmother, Anette; taking long walks in the forest; and watching boats navigate down the reach each day.

Leaving Maine, Chris traveled south towards West Barnstable, MA. There, he visited his mother, Jane, and stepfather, Abe, at their house on Cape Cod. While there, he enjoyed neighborhood walks and lengthy discussions with his mother; going out to favorite eateries and watching Red Sox games on TV together; and wholeheartedly enjoying the rare opportunity to spend time with his globetrotting mother and stepfather. Crisp, clear weather foreshadowed the changing seasons, and provided a good reason to cozy up to fires in the Franklin stove. Last, but certainly not least, he also made it to two Red Sox games at Fenway Park in Boston, taking him back to memories of ballgames with his stepfather as a young kid. Amazingly, the Red Sox won both games, but not without some of the good drama you would expect.

Chris spent the final few days of his East Coast trip at a wedding on Long Island, NY, with friends from Occidental College. While at Oxy, he enjoyed surfing with the groom, Jason Graetz, and another close friend in attendance, Matt Gehrke, at various California and Baja Norte breaks. Jason was married to his beautiful bride, Rania, out in the fields behind a cleverly restored barn near Riverhead, Long Island. Following the reception, Chris traveled with Matt down to his newly purchased townhouse in Wilmington, DE. Although the visit was short, it was good to finally see Matt settling into a good groove at work and home.

At the end of a month in New England, Chris was revitalized and his injury was well on its way to full recovery. He was finally prepared to get back to the West Coast and tackle the work ahead; work that he hopes will eventually lead to a life together with his greatest loves: Shawn, Grizzly, and Tao. After a long day of air travel, he couldn’t have been any happier to see Shawn at the airport when he arrived in San Francisco on September 23rd.

Summer in Idaho

"Whatever I feel like I want to do. Gosh!" Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

Chris’s primary motivation for leaving TAO on the hard this summer was to work with his close friends at Canyons, Inc., the Idaho river company he has been an integral part of since 1999. The river has always been a part of Chris’s life, beginning with day trips on the Kern River in California, and multi-day private trips with his family on the San Juan River in Utah as early as 1978. Chris started guiding professionally in 1994 and, to this day, still soaks in the revitalizing energy of the river on every trip. As river seasons in Idaho go, 2009 was a relatively wet year and Chris saw rain on most of his trips, sometimes with only one day of sun over the course of a six-day float.The additional water kept rivers up, the hills green, and also provided excellent kayak surf conditions on his days off. Chris and his friends spent many blissful hours surfing in the perfect white pile of Gold Hole at 10,000 cfs, located in the very last rapid of the 6-day Main Salmon River run.

Apart from fun on the river, there were a couple of hallmark events worth mentioning. First, his dear friend and coworker, Greg McFadden (flexing some serious muscles in pic below), has made a successful bid to buy Canyons, Inc., from employers, Les and Susan Bechdel. The Bechdels have captained the Canyons ship from day one almost 25 years ago, building the company into one of the premier river companies to offer multi-day trips down the Middle Fork and Main Salmon Rivers.Chris and the rest of the Canyons crew have full faith that Greg will continue the tradition of exceptional river running in the largest and one of the most spectacular wilderness areas in the lower 48 states (www.canyonsinc.com).

Finally, the event that capped off Chris’s summer was a little more painful, to say the least. On another rainy day 3 at Big Mallard camp on the Main Salmon, Chris slipped and fell between two rafts while unloading gear. He quickly caught himself by grabbing two shipped oars, one on each raft, but was caught suspended between the two boats slowly drifting apart. While lowering himself to the ground, he suddenly heard a distinct popping sound in his shoulder and felt searing pain. He hobbled out of the water and immediately saw the left side of his chest swell into a B-cup “man-boob.” Pain management and stabilization were the immediate chores on order; nothing that a few painkillers, ice, sling and swathe couldn’t solve. His injury was monitored for any signs of change, major hemorrhaging, or loss of feeling in his left hand. Despite several hope-filled dreams that symptoms had disappeared over night, morning came and he knew there was absolutely no chance he’d be able to row the last few days of the trip. Twenty-four hours and several satellite phone conversations later, Chris was flown off the river from a short, steeply angled dirt runway with a harrowing, over the river take-off.

After medical evaluation, Chris was told that he had most likely torn the better part of his left pectoralis major muscle off of the upper humerus where it normally attaches. He needed surgery to gain back what he had lost. He had open surgery on August 17 and the surgeon indeed found that he had a “complete avulsion of the pec major tendon from the insertion point on the humerus.” They drilled ten “bone tunnels” into his humerus and used “baseball/whip/locking stitches” and four knots to reattach his pec and reestablish his “native anatomy.” He is still recovering from this setback, with physical therapy and, eventually, muscle rehabilitation. It’ll be a 5-6 month process but, luckily, he and his surgeon expect a 100% recovery. Special thanks go to Drs. Patrick Knibbe and Michael Curtin, as well as the entire Canyons, Inc., team for making Chris’ journey to recovery as smooth as possible.

Logical path?

It’s amazing how quickly time flows by. This summer found Shawn in California, Chris in Idaho, Grizzly in upstate NY, and Tao in Sonora, Mexico. Our family could hardly have been further apart, but absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Chris was guiding and making money on the wilds of the Salmon River, Shawn was negotiating the city jungle housesitting and doing preparatory yoga in Berkeley, Grizzly was enjoying non moving space at Shangrila-de-Judy in Ithaca, and Tao was fairing well through Chubascos in San Carlos. To most people this might not seem logical with our purported goal of sailing across oceans this coming spring but we like to think it all makes “perfect” sense. We are still focused on sailing, but at the same time are trying to balance many additional variables in our lives. Our crazy schedules this hurricane season are allowing us to visit family and friends reinvigorating relationships as well as providing us with time to provision and outfit once again from the states while also cultivating other life ideas for future tending and adding more skills to our traveling tool box.

August presented more twists and turns in our lives. On Chris’ final river trip of the season down the Main Salmon River, he had an unlucky incident in which he disconnected the pectoral muscle from his shoulder. He was evacuated the next evening and started the slow path (6 months) toward 100% recovery. Surgery was scheduled and right before it we managed a well timed rendezvous at Copper Mountain in Colorado for a Agnes and Jared’s wedding and spent time with the much missed Fun Zone crew from graduate school (yes that includes you too Terra!).

We parted ways again, Chris to Boise for surgery and Shawn to Berkeley for more yoga. Chris’ tendon was surgically reattached and he had a painful first week of recovery staying with raft-guide-turned-lawyer Jim Vogt to whom we owe huge thanks! From there he began his trans-continental physical therapy visiting family along the way. He’s now had sessions in Boise Idaho, Blue Hill Maine, Hyannis Massachusetts, and Palos Verdes CA. While Chris has been recovering, Shawn has been in Clear Lake, CA getting some pre-Bikram-teacher-training training from Lynn Whitlow, Jeff Renfro, Margery Bailey, several traveling teachers, a pack full of dogs and puppies, a wake surfing machine, and the Lake County community at large. There’s so much more to it than you’d ever imagine and she is very fortunate to have had so much help already on the path to her goal of becoming a great teacher.

September has been quite rough for all of us. Shawn’s grandmother “Bamp” finally got her way and passed on after nearly 94 amazing years. She was feisty until the end, will be sorely missed, and Shawn plans to carry on her adventurous spirit. As Shawn’s Mum spent much of her summer up in Kingston, Grizzly is ecstatic to now have her back in Ithaca. Concurrently, hurricane Jimena tracked right over Tao in San Carlos. We wonder if this was a goodbye from Jay a sailing friend from Outkast who lost his life this summer in a swollen Alaskan river. After much worry from the States, we were reassured by several friends in Mexico who took time to check on our dry-stored-home. Thanks especially to Chuck of Pura Vida, Adam and Kris of Estrella, and Marina Seca who very professionally dealt with the massive damages to infrastructure that 25-inches of rain in 24-hours and flooding arroyos creates.


The 23rd of September was a momentous day as we finally came back together for 10 jam-packed days! Shawn drove down from Clear Lake to pick Chris up at SFO and we drove on to Palo Alto where Julia and Jacob from Pisces have been staying this summer with Jacob’s family. Much thanks to the Wenegrats as we spent several nice days there enjoying whiling away hours talking about future life plans, sailing in the upcoming season, and of course what to eat next (with refrigeration and warm running water the options really are endless). We’ve just made it all the way down to Chris’ dad’s in Rancho Palos Verdes in Pepe-the-wonder-car/truck (who is sporting a new muffler that Shawn replaced during her 3-day WFR recert) filled to the gills with sailboat gear. We plan to spend a few much needed days together here as well as prepare and organize for sailing and yoga apart over the next couple months. Shawn’s 9-week Bikram yoga teacher training, based in Las Vegas, starts October 4th during which time Chris will be chipping away at our never ending list of boat projects down in Mexico and vigilantly doing PT. Keep in touch and we promise to be better with blog postings.