G Dock Has Gone South...

Well a few members of the famous G Dock went to Ohio.
A couple went to Texas.
Some went to Bakersfield.
Bakersfield?
But the majority of G Dock has gone South.
Literally.
"Eyes of The Squirrels World" is in Puerto Vallarta.
"Andanzas" is in Mazatlan.
We are somewhere.
And "Passage II" is here in San Diego!
And so is John Howard!
So a typical G Dock festivity had to be planned and partook partaken partooked in executed.
In "Meerkat" fashion, that meant burgers on the BBQ.



Jim C., Lucy, John and me.



Switch me with Jim.






And how many of you can say you had John Howard create his famous Thai chicken pizza in your galley?













So to thank Jesse and Shanna for arranging this sardine slip we actually shared it with them last night!

Typical G Dock ~ food and friends!

No, No, No, No, No.

Part of our culture shock here in San Diego is the mass quantity of signs that say "No".
There just aren't that many signs that say "No" in Mexico.
They let you figure it out on your own there.
Here it is:
No parking.
No standing.
No stopping.
No skateboarding.
No bike riding.
No roller skating.
No enjoying.
No fishing.

We are curious, however as to how the languages on this particular sign were selected...Did they do a survey to find out just who fishes off public docks in San Diego?
Do they now ask for your first language when you buy a fishing license?
Shouldn't they just go ahead and list this particular "No" in all languages?
What about French?
If I was French, I would be insulted that they forgot me.
How about German?
Or Gujarati?
Now there is a wide-spoken language in San Diego.
Or Yoruba?
Or Igbo?
Come on, there are 18 million people who speak Igbo!

Lots to think about here in the City of No Signs fine City of San Diego!

Shoe-Horn Marina

And we are not kidding.
I even asked a guy if he had a shoe-horn as we squeezed past his boat...
Well thanks to new friends, Jesse and Shanna (friends of Doug and Carla on "Moondance") we were able to find a slip if you could call it that in San Diego, so we could stay here a little longer.
We still need to work on the refer system.
We? Did I say we?
We still need to change the oil in the engines.
There is that "we" again...
We still need to visit a few people.
And we still need to figure out where to next.
Slips are hard to find here and when you find them they are kind of expensive.
So, we were lucky enough to get in to the small Koehler Kraft (look them up - beautiful wooden boat builder) Boatyard Marina.
And lucky enough to have Jesse offer to go with us to help park.
And lucky enough to have John Howard here visiting to go with us to park!
First we had to back down one fairway, turn 90 degrees to port, back down another very narrow fairway with boats sidetied to each side, then turn 90 degrees to starboard and back down a small channel with 1-2' on each side, then squeeze between Jesse's anchor and another boat and not hit anything including the boat behind us.
Ummm... pictures would show this better.






Jim did an awesome job!

Impressed the boatyard workers.
Impressed me.
Probably impressed John Howard and Jesse.
We are thinking we will head out when Jesse and Shanna are at Catalina Island this weekend...
One less boat to hit.
Less squeezing.
Less scary.
Less chances of me needing to take a valium.

"God's Grace", "God's Grace" This is "Thistle" "Meerkat"!

It is so amazing to re-connect with cruising friends from "the old days"!
It is like no time has passed.
Except their kids have grown up taller.
The conversations are picked up right where they were left.

Well, thanks to facebook, we found the boys from "God's Grace"!
And once we found the boys, we found the mommy and daddy!

And as our luck would have it, they were having a pool party & BBQ yesterday.
I guess they figured cruising friends wouldn't embarrass them too much, as we were invited.
And the last to leave...

First let's see what we looked like way back then.
The little boys, Rudy and Ryan, who were 10 and 13 at the time.
And sandy.All of us.
So young…And now!
Not so young…But still fun!
And better guitarists.
And taller but not me.




Rudy and Ryan





Heather and Kathy




Princess Kathy, me, Gina and Kelly (new best girlfriends for the day)Ryan, Jim, Rudy and MikeLots of laughter.
Loads of stories.
Fun pictures from The Sea of Cortez and Zihua!
Awesome time.
All of us!I love our friends!

Happy Face Fourth of July!

What a great day!
Marc and Kelly and dog, Stinker Tinkerbell showed up in their dinghy.
We played with them for most of the afternoon.
Then arranged dinner on "Meerkat" with them.
Jim had made his potato salad and I had several fresh ears of corn.
Marc and Kelly were bringing fish.
Uh fish?
Jim wanted to know who eats fish on 4th of July...
What about the hamburgers?
Or even hot dogs?
Fish?
Well with their excellent marinade on those giant chunks of tuna and some smoked fish on the side, we now eat fish on 4th of July!
My cousin, Julianne came for the night and Monte of "Heavenly Star" did a driveby came for dinner, but didn't want to get stuck in the traffic, so bailed on us headed out early.
We piled into two dinghies and went out into the bay.
We could see five firework shows!
Four were on barges in the bay ~ all synchronized!


It was amazing!

And happy faces!
How do they make those?
Too cool.

Another One for Doug & Carla on "Moondance"!

Oh yea!
Another small world story from our small, little sheltered lives!
I had met Shanna at West Marine as she used to work with Chris on "Vela".
So she came by with her hubby, Jesse (who it turned out reads this blog!) for a visit.
And it turned out they used to be on the same dock as "Moondance" up in the Bay area!If they have a reasonably priced slip at their marina, we just might be on the same dock for a bit...

Thanks Be to Net Controllers and Weathermen!

A giant THANKS to all the net controllers on Sonrisa Net!
And to Geary the wonderful and funny and tie dyed weatherman!
I wish we were at his palapa in El Burro Cove today, because he throws the best 4th of July party around!

A giant THANKS to all the net controllers on the Amigo Net!
And Don Anderson the weather guru who gets up at some strange hour lightyears before the rest of us to research, then give the most detailed and in depth weather around!
I love when he explains and educates us on the whys and hows of weather.
We will see him soon when we get back to the Ventura / Channel Islands area to give him thanks in person.

A giant THANKS to all the net controllers on the Southbond Net!
And again to Don when he gives his weather updates and chubasco forecasts!

I wish I would have written down all the names of the net controllers...
Hmmmmm... let's see.
Lovely Reta. Curare. Jake. Two Pieces of Eight. Masquerade. Galliant Fox. Harmony. Jacaranda. SolMate. Juniata. Serenity. Mija. Lion's Paw. I am cheating a little because I am looking on websites... Maitairoa. Sweet Lorraine. Journey. Mandan. Who did I forget????

Thank you all from "Meerkat"!
You are the best!

They Just Keep Coming!

San Diego is an amazing place.
Either half of the world is here or we just know a lot of people in San Diego.

First my wonderful cousin, Julianne came for a visit.
She has been storing Jim's truck for the last few days and gets it back when we head further North in the boat.
She brought us cookies, wine and beer and then took us to dinner!

We heard a "Hey Meerkat" and it was Monte from "Heavenly Star"!
Last seen by us in San Blas when he was preparing his boat to haul out.

Then Jim C. and Little Lovely Lucy Lowe of "Passage II" (used to be on our dock in Ventura) came.
They drove us around a little and let us use Jim C.'s truck to go get Jim D.'s truck.
It's a good thing the Jim's last names start with a different letter or we would never know which one is which.

Then some guy we had never seen in person came knocking.
It was Markitos ~ fellow blogger!Turned out his boat was about 4 boats down the dock...

Then we heard a laugh we will never forget.
He didn't even need to knock on the boat, just laugh.
Marc Hall of "Crazy Fish"!And Kelly, Kelley or Kellie.
One of those names.
We cruised with Marc back in 1998-2000.
The last time we had seen him was at the Long Beach Boat Show in 2000, where we lost him.
Apparently he was not lost after all, just down a different aisle.

The amazing part?
We have no phone yet, so have been connecting through this blog, facebook and skype.

So now we hope to connect with Dione, Ralph, Mike, Kathy, Ryan, Rudy, Doug, Brock, Melissa, John and Fay and I am probably forgetting someone.

Stan & Heather's "Museum Quality Flag Restoration"

With the recession that the US politicians won't admit in the US and our lack of signing a contract with a Corporate Sponser, we have to go back to work.
Yipee.
Hmmmmm... what to do?
I think I am too old to be the chick on the Travel Channel saying, "Come along with me today as we explore Machu Piccu! And tomorrow, we're off to the Great Wall of China!"
So I thought I would explore a few other options before I head back into the exciting world of Commercial Insurance!
Can't you just hear the guy on daytime TV, saying, "You too can learn to work in the exciting and valuable field of Commercial Insurance.
Just send us $99.95 for your training course.
Visa, Mastercard, Diner's Club, American Express, Cashier's Checks and Money Orders accepted".

Hmmmmm... what to do?
There has to be a market in Mexico restoring the cheap flags we all are required to display, considering our's had only lasted since January...
I had done a "Museum Quality Restoration" on it before the boys arrived.
Notice the sail tape with the expert coloring of red Sharpie that pretty much makes up the majority of the red section.Well, my restoration portion was hanging in there (get it?) just fine.
The original portion of the flag, however was not.
So I joined forces with Stan who is quite capable with a sewing needle and formed our new business.
We both attacked the sad excuse for a flag with sail tape, a red Sharpie marker and orange UV protection thread.Looks brand new doesn't it?

Remember, we only had 4 or 5 more days to be in the Country...

And 4 or 5 days later?
The only thing holding it together was our sail tape and orange UV protection thread...

"Pepina Rae", "Pepina Rae" Oops, I Mean "Grace" This is "Meerkat"

Everyone ready for another "Jim and Heather Small World Story"?
I had briefly talked to a couple of guys in Ensenada at the marina, then recognized them here in San Diego.
They were at the Customs Dock just before us and then we were docked right behind them for a couple of days.
So I chatted with the owner, Donn who said he did a straight-shot from Puerto Vallarta to Ensenada.
Ick.
I asked him how long he had the boat and why he did a straight-shot blah, blah, blah.
Then something clicked and I got goosebumps.
Then I asked him if the boat used to be named "Pepina Rae" and he said yes!
Well, our really, really good friends Ray and Lucy used to have "Pepina Rae" parked 3' away from our prior boat, "Thistle" back in the old days in Ventura.
Back in 1993.
1994.
1995.
Then we cruised Mexico with them from 1997 to 2000.
So after I figured this out, I yelled for Jim!
We were both pretty amazed to have our boat parked once again with "Pepina Rae".
Sorry, Donn, she will always be "Pepina Rae" to us...So Donn let me go inside and visit her.
Have a little chat with her.
Pat her.
He let us help him turn the boat around when he was getting to leave.
And asked that I let him know when I put this on my blog...

Back in the USA!

Well I have to tell you, it was pretty emotional to check in the last time from Mexico on the Amigo Net and to cross that invisible line in the sea.And a lot of "What are we doing? We are going to freeze? We can't afford to live in the US? AAAGGHHHH! Turn the boat around!" kind of thoughts.
And then the "Uh, we have no money, need to go back to work" kind of thoughts took over and won...

So here we are at the cheap seats slips in San Diego.
But how fun was it to have Wayne of "Capricorn Cat" standing on the dock to grab our lines and to have a dock party already in the planning stages!

But first, the US Customs check in.
"Vela" got searched pretty good and had to throw pretty much all of his vegetables and fruit away, including his potatoes and they made him throw away his frozen chicken!


"Capricorn Cat" got searched in detail, including under Eric's bunk gee, Eric, does it have anything to do with your hair, beard and kilt? and had to throw away most of their vegetables and fruit and the customs guy wouldn't let Carol eat the last grapefruit.

"Meerkat", possibly because we had a couple of geezers on board, barely got searched, they let the eaters Tim and Stan eat the last grapefruit and only took our lone remaining unripe avocado.
They were even going to let us keep our limes, but Jim tossed them.
And we got to keep our potatoes.
And we got to keep our frozen chicken.
And they never asked how many 12 packs of Tecate we had left...
And

A lovely dock party was thrown together, with help from Tom and Helen of "Catatude" (their boat is in La Paz).
Richard and Dona of "Latitude 38 Magazine" joined us, along with "Worldwind" who had come up a few days prior to our clan.
We were missing "Bristol Blue" and "Allegria", as they were still in Ensenada...
But loads of fun was had, loads of snacks and drinks were consumed and loads of stories told.

I amazingly enough had saved the wonderful bottle of chardonnay that Pam sent down with the guys for this celebration.We also took loads of pictures...

The "clan" ~ Tim, Stan, Me, Jim of "Meerkat", with Eric the Great reclining in his kilt, Wayne & Carol of "Capricorn Cat" and standing Aaron, Heidi and Chris of "Vela".And I miss my GF Carol already...And the next day?
A sad goodbye to the world's most awesome, wonderful, incredible crew!
Laundry.
Von's for complete culture and sticker price shock with Chris.
And we stopped for an Arby's sandwich, dut don't tell anyone!
Visit from my cousin Julianne.
Visit from Jim and Lucy of "Passage II".
Sleep.

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation Bash...

We looked at the arch at Cabo San Pucas Lucas as we motorsailed past.

Stan ate weird food combinations...Chili peanuts and peanut butter on crappy Bimbo bread yum, yum!

Jim and the eaters Tim and Stan posed like elves...Remember, this is a long trip and boredom does come easily!

We read books, did sudoku and I "wore pajamas in the daytime".We figured out why we weren't going as fast as we wanted to.Jim had 5 billion pounds a lot of fishing gear on board.

We motorsailed alongside of "Capricorn Cat".The guys posed like dorks on the pier at Turtle Bay.We had an early dinner and a few beers at Cafe Morocco in Turtle Bay with some of our "clan".Tim, Jim, Me, Kristen & Ned of "Bristol Blue" and Alicia and Tom of "Allegria".
Stan-the-man was taking the picture...

We watched dolphins leap.





We took naps and lost Jim under a bunch of pillows.We dodged whales.The guys topped off fuel in the cold wind at dusk.We ate fruit.We watched pretty birds.We motorsailed a long, long way.And are SO very happy it went so well!
The boat and crew were both awesome.
The "bash" is all listening to weather, picking your windows and timing it right!