Costa Baja –La Paz Outskirts Nov. 25-27

Yea we made it! It was a choppy ride, just like an afternoon on the bay, but 6 hours long. This is the final destination point for FUBAR and we are all happy to have completed the FUBAR adventure. We have traveled 970 nautical miles or 1055 land miles at 7.5 knots at 8.6 miles per hour, which translates into 123 hours on the ocean. We have seen some magical things. The stars brilliantly bright on dark night with no moon light, shooting stars too many to count, fish Dorado and Tuna both beautiful and tasty and dolphins and whales, the true owners of the ocean. We have met some wonderful people, the folks Tim, Pat, Jerry and Mike on Bodacious, Margit and her husband Bill on Dauntless, Irv and LaVon on “Da Fever”, John and Jan on Dos Abogados, Bob and Darcy on Enterprise who we run into everywhere, Bill and his wife on Inamorata, Brian on Furthur, Abodoulay and Peter on Kumba Bang, Bill and Debbie on Moana Hale, Val and Stan on Pax Nautica, Neil and Tim and their wives on Sanjero, Tom and Anita on Valkyrie, Bill and Linda who we met before on Wayward Wind, and all the others that with such a large fleet we did not get to spend a great deal of time with. Congrats to all of us. Costa Baja is a resort and the crew is making use of the showers, pool, beach and restaurants. Tonight is the traditional turkey, stuffing, potatoes and pumpkin pie Thanksgiving dinner. It is appropriate as we give thanks for a safe trip and good company. Rachel will head out in a couple of days, bound for Seattle and MK and then on to Denver and their new home.

San Jose del Cabo Nov 23-24, 2009

We all relaxed and spent time exploring the town of San Jose del Cabo. It really is a pretty little town and since I was out of perfume, we made a purchase.
We fueled at the dock and just spent time around the dock today. Tomorrow we move to our final anchorage, Bahia De Los Muertos and we have about a 6 hour cruise to get there. We will round the point and will be officially in the Sea of Cortez. Who knows, maybe the fishing will be good!

Man of war Cove to Cabo San Jose Nov. 22, 2009

We are up again at first light. Today the seas have settled 2-4 foot swells and the wind is only about 3 to 4 knots. We are on our 185 nm leg which will take us about 26 hours. We dropped three lines in the water as we were leaving Magdalena Bay. As we left the mouth of the bay you could see fish jumping out of the water, then all of a sudden, “zzzzzzz”, all three lines hit and Loe, Rachel and I are reeling in fish. They look like bonita, not the best eating, but I grab our fish book and they have spots on their belly and are Mexican Bonita which are good eating. We bring all three fish aboard and it is calm enough for us go to the front deck, clean, fillet the fish and hose the deck using the deck wash. The fillets are in zip lock bags in the fridge. Yea! We caught fish. The lines go back in the water. In the next 4 hours we caught approximately 8 Dorado, of which we kept one that was 36 inches long. Dorado are really beautiful fish, emerald green, speckled with dark blue and fins that are yellow. Dorado are almost to pretty to eat…well almost.

We all caught fish except Lori, she did not want to, and since we had more than enough we were releasing all the small Dorado. I was showing Alexus how to play out the lure and set the reel for a strike when boom, she had a fish on. It was a Dorado and she decided to release it so we did. As she went through playing out the lure and setting the reel, just she was placing the rod in the holder, boom another strike and another Dorado. Fishing was really hot in that area. Since the seas were still calm, we had a fantastic lunch of fried perch and bass, Bonita Sushi and sautéed Mahi Mahi- (Dorado) in olive oil and garlic and dill with mashed potatoes and a caprese salad. Lunch is the only time we are all awake so it was a good meal. Loe now had the fishing fever though, any time there was a slight “zzzzzz” sound on the boat her eyes would light up.

The rest of our last overnight trip was also uneventful, thank you sea goddess! We were rounding Cabo San Lucas around 5:30am, not quite light enough to see much of Cabo San Lucas as we made our way to Cabo San Jose. We are all excited to be in port in a slip and not moving or anchored for the next two nights. Everyone is looking forward to a good nights rest. We arrive in San Jose at the Marina Puerto Los Cabos around 1:30pm we are all happy to be in a slip, take showers, plan a walk the town and enjoy being ashore. Tonight there is a spectacular dinner planned and we need to take on fuel here.

Santa Maria Bay to Magdalena Bay, Man of War Cove Nov. 21, 2009

Well we are all glad it was a shorter day to Man O' War Cove in Magdalena Bay, only 32 nautical miles and 4or 5 hours. The seas were more active, swells were probably 5-8 feet from the NW and the winds was a constant 10 -15 knots from the north. The ride was a little rougher and we did not fish much on the way into Mag Bay. We anchored and has another panga ride adventure into Mag Bay and Man of War Cove. It was another taco night, SURPRIZE! But the small village had a grocery store, ok it had a small 10 X 10 foot building for simple provisions. Since we needed bread again, we got bread and cookies and of course chocolate chips cookies…see we are spoiled. At the party we won an award as the fish we caught previously was a perch and we won third prize for the smallest fish. Lori now has a 12 inch working rod and real. It might be able to bring in a fingering and that would be a good fight. We still had not landed any decent fish, tuna, Dorado-(Mahi Mahi) or otherwise. Back in the panga and back to the boat. Another early night, we have our last overnight, 185 nautical miles another 25 hour day for us.

Turtle Bay to Santa Maria Bay Nov. 19th & 20th 2009

First light is between 5:45am and 6:30am so everyone is up by 5:15am we have 228 nautical miles to go from Turtle Bay to Santa Maria Bay. Not many of us are excited about another overnight, not because of fear, mostly the lack of good sleep and confinement on the boat for that many hours. I must note that NuMoon is running well and just purring along. Although noisy, all her engine temps are consistent. Alexus and I are extremely pleased as NuMoon has never run this many hours continuously. Seas are a little bigger today 5-8 foot swells and the wind is sill out of the north at about 10-15 knots. There are parts of the ride where we have some “quartering” and it makes the boat roll more than our last run. We are running about 2000 rpm to reduce fuel burn. We plan to average 7.5 knots and it looks like we will.

Through out the day we mostly snack and eat simply, peanut butter and toast, cereal, and sandwiches for lunch. With everyone taking on their shift it makes meal planning a challenge, but no one is starving. Tonight is not as dark or as clear. We seem to have a little marine layer and the moon is a small sliver that will be around until 10:45pm. The seas calm down later at night and the hours seem long and boring, which is what we like. Watching the radar for fishing boats, pangas and other fleet members is the only pastime when on watch. Sometime around 2:30am a cruise ship seemed to be moving in close to the fleet. We were only about 10miles from the coast and the fleet that was out 15 miles had to manage around the cruise ship. The communications officer on the ship was extremely unprofessional and claimed that the fleet was under the influence of alcohol, and the cruise ship would not provide a bearing or intention of how they would pass the fleet. I noted the MMSI number, hailing identification, date, time, and the lat. and long. All 43 vessels agreed to file a complaint with Princess Cruises regarding the response from the Sapphire Princess. Other than that, the time passed and we arrived at Santa Maria Bay around 3:30pm and dropped anchor.

It was another panga adventure and another taco night. I think we are all tired of tacos. Lori stayed aboard and had hot dogs, actually a good choice. The panga here will take us in as running to shore is a challenge with the surf are skilled boat handlers and they make their way up the channel were the lagoon runs out into Santa Maria Bay. The panga drivers are local fishermen and they are very skilled and we are able to disembark from the panga off the side on a raised sand bank. Lori was right, tacos again, oh boy! The village is very small and mostly made up of fish camps. After a short period we head back to the pangas and head for the boat. Speaking of fish, we have been trolling and not caught a thing. Lori has been giving me a hard time as I promised we would catch fish. Oh well maybe next leg of the trip. Tomorrow is a short day from Santa Maria Bay to Magdalena Bay and Man of War Cove, only 30 nautical miles, the crew is happy about the shorter run tomorrow.

Ensenada to Turtle Bay Mexico Nov 16-17th, 2009

November 16, 17, 18th, 2009

We left at midnight of November 16^th for our first overnight run. It was approximately 282 miles from Ensenada to Turtle Bay and we would run continuously for about 36 hours to arrive in Turtle Bay by 4pm on the 17^th so we could anchor in the day light.

We all had trepidation about traveling overnight and besides that it was a new moon so it would be as Alexus said “ as dark as the inside of a cow”. Not sure how she knows how dark an inside of a cow is. Nevertheless, we created overlapping shifts of 4 hours on and four off. Loe, Rachael and Lori took four hours and Alexus and I took 4 hours overlapping their shifts. In this way we always had two people on watch and either Alexus or I with each of them as we were more familiar with the boat.

Well here is what I know. I would cruise overnight anytime over cruising in fog! The seas were calm, 3-4 foot swells and winds less than 10 knots. The sky was completely dark and the stars twinkled off the ocean as there was no moon. We all saw numerous shooting stars and there was one that looked like it was done by Disney. It went straight across the horizon with a long sparkling tail and everything!!!. The dolphins that play in the boats bow wake during the day, at night created phosphorus jet trails as a mark of their presence. And it was comforting to see the distant running lights of the fleet spread out over 10 to 15 miles and on the radar screen for those within 3-6 miles. My shifts were from 6pm to 10pm and 2am to 6am, so I had plenty of company for the first few hours and saw sunset and sunrise for two days running. Was it difficult? The motion and noise of the engines running made for difficult sleeping for all. However, we all were good cruisers and managed our shifts and 2 hour engine room checks with as much attention and good humor as fits of sleep allow. The confinement to the boat for 36 hours straight is also a challenge, but we all adjusted to it the best we could.

We arrived in Turtle Bay and gratefully dropped anchor. Our next adventure would be a Panga ride to shore for the first taco dinner of the event. Panga’s are small fishing skiffs and are working boats, so we shared space with fish guts and whole tuna. Bravely, we all went ashore amid the chaos of about 180 people swarming a small fishing village. The next day, Nov. 18^th we waited all day for fuel. How did we get fuel? Well a bigger panga comes out with a large 1000 gallon tank, ties up next to your boat and fuels you up. Over all, the fuel in Turtle Bay was about $2.79 per gallon and appeared to be clean. Now we are set for our next run of 228 miles or about 32 hours of straight running as we head to Santa Maria Bay. While we were waiting to fuel, Loe and Rachael took the dinghy and represented NuMoon in the dinghy poker run. Rachel taught the boaters a new knot, a Falconry Knot. Lori spent her time exploring the village and looking for “pan”, bread.. We seem to eat a lot of bread, sandwiches, toast you name it. Early night for all again, as we will leave at first light, which is about 6:00am.

Ensenada Mexico Nov. 14-15, 2009

It is a 9 to 10 hour ride for us to Ensenada, so we were up at first light. We left the police dock in San Diego and were out of the harbor early. All was good as we made our way south and east to Ensenada. Not much excitement, we had lures in the water all day, but did not get a bite. We saw a few dolphins and that was about it. The seas were good, 5-8 foot swells and a northwest wind from 10 to 15 knots and clear skies. We arrived in Ensenada at about 3:30pm and spent a good hour at the Cruise Port Marina looking for a slip that had power. Alexus went and grabbed her tester, and we tried a number of slips, the harbor master came down and helped, but we ended up moving from A dock to B dock for the night. Lori did some exploring of the town, but all in all it was an early night.

November 15, 2009

Well today was our turn to fuel. We needed about 200 gallons to top off the tanks. Cruise Port does not really have a fuel dock. They use a long side tie dock and then a truck comes to the other side of the tie. They pass the capped hose from the truck, through the water, and up on to the side tie dock. Luckily we were not the first ones to get fuel. While we were waiting Alexus had sent Ken and Robin an e-mail hoping they might be on line. What a wonderfully pleasant sight it was to see Ken and Robin walking down the dock towards the boat. We had lunch at a place they recommended and then got a chance to see their sail boat Pioniero. What a beautiful sailboat and lots of space in the salon and galley, great job of décor by Robin and lots of hard work by both of them along with Baja Naval and she is ready for sailing. We left Ken and Robin and headed back to NuMoon for an early departure.

San Diego Nov 11-13th , 2009

We picked Lori up at the airport and returned to the boat. As she got settled we checked out the boat to see what provisioning we would need for the next two weeks. We heard that we could not take beef or fresh vegetables into Mexico, so we decided to bring everything else and we could pick up beef and veggies in Ensenada. After we provisioned the boat, we still wanted some minor boat things, numbers for dinghy, and a few odds and ends so off we went to West Marine, Marine Exchange and Walgreens!

Alexus had Captain meetings at the San Diego Yacht Club to work on immigration, passports, visas and other administrative items. She will have another Captain’s meeting tomorrow concerning route, communications, and other critical planning issues. Rachel arrived at 2:30pm that day and it was wonderful to have a car and be able to pick her up at the airport. We were all smiles when we saw her. It had been a year and a half since we had last been in Washington and got to spend time with her and MK. So off we went back to the boat so Rachel could stow her things and meet Lori and renew her acquaintance with Loe. Tonight is the big send off dinner. Mexican food of course. After a few hours we returned to the boat. Tomorrow Friday was the last day to get all odds and ends done before we leave. It was a fairly early night for all of us.

Well Friday the 13^th was not our lucky day. Lori and Alexus woke up with a touch of food poisoning or a 24 hour bug. So the crew had a lazy off day, which was a good thing. It would be bad to start with a couple of sick folks. As the day progressed they both seemed to improve and by evening seemed to be better and well enough to start out tomorrow.

San Diego November 9th - 10th 2009

We arrived in San Diego and stayed one night at the San Diego Yacht Club. Alexus and I took off on our bikes to go to Ace Hardware store and after we left we spilt up to maximizes our shopping trips. In the parking lot my bike experienced a catastrophic failure. The derailleur bracket broke, the chain caught and bent links, the derailleur went in to the spokes and broke two spokes. I was going slow uphill slow, so no injury, but I walked my bike 4 miles to the nearest bike shop in hope they could fix it before we left for Ensenada.

We decided to rent a car since we had folks coming and going and needed to provision the boat. We took Bruce to the airport in the morning as he was headed back to Boulder Colorado. We had a great time with Bruce and enjoyed his company, humor and singing! We, Loe, Alexus and I took a day to be tourists. We went to Old Town San Diego and had Mexican food, found fudge and candy, but most importantly, Loe found serving ware that matched the pattern and style she collects. It was an early night as the next day Lori would arrive.

Catalina to Mission Bay

On November 3 we left Catalina headed to Mission Bay and were about 30 miles out to sea so we were able to discharge the holding tank and use the Purisan while underway. After a long day of about 8 hours we arrived in Mission Bay. The weather and seas were still great with winds NW 5-10 knots and seas at 2-3 feet at 11 seconds and air temperature about 68 to 70 degrees.

However....when we were about an hour from the breakwater the fog set in thick as pea soup. We could hear the Navy warships report visibility of a 100 to 700 yards. We had visibility of about 75 yards. All eyes were forward as we got closer to the breakwater. It was rather challenging as there were small craft, jet skis, small fishing skiffs, paddle boarders, sailboats and a barge and crane all at the entrance and along the channel. At that time visibility got down to about 50 yards. We made it into the marina and pulled up at the Mission Bay Yacht Club dock around 4pm it was cool, foggy and we were all ready to be safely tied up at the dock. We will stay here for two days and we will head to San Diego Yacht Club on Thursday, 11/5. The weather has been warm during the day around 68 , but drops quickly after the sunsets and the fog comes in.

Down the Coast and Catalina October 2009

We have had great cruising since we left Alameda on Oct. 15th. Bruce, Alexus and I left for Half Moon Bay and had great weather. We left there and went to Monterey where Loe' joined the trip. Off we went the next day to San Simeon and the next on to Port San Luis. While rounding Pt Sur, we had some following seas that pushed the stern around, but nothing dangerous. From Port San Luis, we awoke at 4:30am to make our way around Point Conception before the afternoon winds kicked up. And as planned, by leaving in the dark we had a great cruise around the Point.

We had just rounded Point Conception when the fishing reel made that "ZZZZZZZ" sound meaning fish on. Yep, the little pink feathered lure had got another small skip jack tuna. Otherwise, after a 12 hour cruise we arrived in Santa Barbara....tired and hungry. So some of us ate the freshly-caught tuna as sashimi and others had theirs seared for dinner that night.We stayed in Santa Barbara for two days as we had traveled every day since leaving Alameda so a brief rest was well-deserved.

From Santa Barbara we went to Oxnard and the Channel Island harbor. We stayed at the Pacific Corinthian Yacht club and enjoyed their restaurant, pool and hot tub. We left the next day for Marina Del Rey Yacht Club where we spent four days and time with Nikki and Erika.

After fours day in Marina Del Rey we headed for Los Angeles harbor and fueled up at Jankovich and Sons fuel dock, then on to the Long Beach Yacht Club in Alamitos Bay. There we did have to wait out a gale for three days, as the winds were forecast to kick up to 35 to 40 knots. So we stayed there for three days before heading to Catalina.

Erika joined us at the Long Beach YC and cruised with us over to Catalina. On the way over Loe' had the lines in the water and sure enough, the little pink lure did its thing again. We caught another small skip jack who was on the lunch menu when we got to Catalina. We stayed in Catalina from Thursday until Sunday. Fortunately, since Loe' and Erika had never been to Catalina before, we had great weather, fishing and the only concern was the volume five people could create for the holding tank. Waste disposal is a little tougher in no-discharge harbors. Even with the Coast Guard approved Purasan we still had to watch the volume. We made it through the four days by following the old water conservation trick of "if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down. (yes I know, too much information) On Sunday afternoon, Erika took the high-speed ferry back to Marina Del Rey...an hour cruise as compared to our NuMoon 3.5 hour ride.