Memorial Day Weekend 2013

It was a 4-day weekend for us and we had decided to make it a full on work weekend.  But, by the time we got everything packed up, to the boat, unloaded and put away it was already mid-afternoon.  With Jason’s birthday being later this week, we decided to start the celebration early and headed to happy hour.  Needless to say, there was no work done this day.

We got up early on Saturday and Jason headed over to his Dad’s boat to help install stereo speakers before starting on our own projects.  I set out for a walk with Maya and when I returned, resumed my teak scraping project from several weeks ago. 
Five hours of scraping and all I managed to get done was the top of the toe rail.  Jason seemed to think I was working harder than I needed to and decided to show me how it was done.  After about 10 minutes he stated that maybe this was a project we were better off hiring out so our time could be spent more effectively.  I will get bids and then we’ll see.


While I was outside scraping Jason finished wiring the new chart plotter, mounted the new autopilot display, removed the defunct rudder sensor, ran some tests to identify our electrical leak, rewired the inside front stereo speakers, fixed the regulator on the barbecue  and rigged the hammock. Obviously his time was better spent.

Sunday we slept in.  No work this morning as we prepped for company.  We had friends to the boat for sailing and barbecuing.  It was another beautiful day on the water with 12-15 knot winds.  And with a crew of our most experienced cruising/racing friends, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to try out our cruising chute. We need to fine tune the rigging, but she flies beautifully.

We returned to the dock and barbecued  on our very recently repaired grill, and enjoyed the evening with good food, good friends and dark and stormy’s.

The last day of our long weekend brought a little work and a little rest.  Jason got the cleaning bug and decided to remove and reorganize everything in the forward cabin.  Being the organized clean freak that I am this made me very happy to see piles of stuff that was designated to the remove from boat pile.  This project turned out to be more beneficial than either of us realized it would be when Jason discovered salty water in the forward bilge.  Now we have a new project on the list – find source of water, fix wood rot and epoxy bilge. And after all that digging around, we were ready for a cold beer and a dinghy float.

We never made it to our big project for the weekend – rewiring the battery switch panel.  But, there’s always next weekend….

A good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours. John B. Priestly

San Diego Land Cruise

We took a break from our boat this weekend and headed to San Diego to stay with our friends on their Amel 53’ Super Maramu.  They had gone down a few weekends before and were surprised to find a hummingbird nest with two babies in their mizzen traveler line.  Research revealed that hummingbirds leave the next after 21 days, but when we arrived they were still there.  There seemed to be a female and a male; with the female being bigger and stronger and leaving the next for several hours at a time. The male could only fly a couple of feet and mama would come every 20 minutes to feed him.  They were close enough to touch and so sweet to watch.

 We were all looking forward to getting their boat out of the slip for a day sail, but knew we couldn’t take the chance of disrupting nature.  Instead, we took in some local sites and had our first real downtime in several months.  After all, there is plenty of time for sailing.

Cruisers toast:
Endless summer. Forever young.  Only the strong survive.

Mother's Day 2013

Since we spend every weekend on the boat, we figured that was the perfect place to celebrate Mother’s Day with our mom’s.  We served brunch – baked sausage, cheese and mushroom pan omelet, fried potatoes, assorted muffins and breads, strawberries and mimosas.  It was quite the feast and very impressive for our first formal boat meal.

After brunch we headed out for a sail.  It was a beautiful day on the water with 12-15 knot winds.  Everyone had a great time and we have some special memories.

A man's work is from sun to sun, but a mother's work is never done. Author Unknown

Impromptu Cocktail Party

It all started innocently enough with a few dinghy’s rafted up enjoying an afternoon cocktail.  Eventually we had to split up to return to our respective boats to replenish cocktails.  Being at the upwind end of the channel everyone naturally came our way to regroup.  A few people came aboard to wait for others to return to the raft up, and then a few more, and a few more…well you know how that goes.  Pretty soon we were overflowing the boat onto the dock. 

Sometimes the impromptu party is more fun than those you plan. Carpe diem!










Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.  Anne Dillard

Racing Instead of Cruising

Last weekend we took a break from Volaré to crew on our friend Bruce’s Catalina 34 in the Newport to Ensenada race.  We left the dock in Long Beach at 7:15 Friday morning and motored to the start line off Newport Beach.  We arrived a little after 10:00, which gave us time for a snack and some crew practice before our 11:00 start time. We all identified our positions, took our places and watched the clock. 

 If you've never participated in a race of this magnitude, it’s hard to describe the frenzy of 200 boats motoring and/or sailing up and down the start line, depending on their start time. With multiple classes starting at any given time, the line can get a bit crowded.  But, it is a beautiful sight to see and definitely the most exciting part of the race. After all, once you’re about 10 miles into a 125 mile race, the pack starts to spread out, often times with no other boats in sight.  At that point, the race is all in your head.

This particular race is known for being one with little to no wind.  So, we opted for the outside course hoping to get more wind then those that were following the rhumb line.  This year the winds were in our favor and we had a steady 10-15 knots the entire trip.  We arrived at 12:45, with an elapsed time of 25:47, placing us 7 out of 15.  Although I prefer to be first, as long as we’re not last I’m happy.

Eloté - corn smeared with mayo, cheese,
 hot sauce and a little lime juice. Yummy!

We enjoyed the weekend in Ensenada; eating eloté, visiting the fish market for fresh fish tacos, and a bit of bar hopping.  Town was clean, people were friendly and we felt very safe and welcome.









"My goal in sailing isn't to be brilliant or flashy in individual races, 
just to be consistent over the long run."  Dennis Connor