Looking for a Catamaran Cruising Blog?

If you found this blog via a link from a cruising site ~ we did cruise Mexico on our Ocean 49 cat for a season. See the first text box on the right for links to our preparations, trip down Baja, life in Mexico, cruising and trip back up to SoCal. Unfortunately we are back to the grind in the USA...

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Happy Birthday to my sister Elizabeth!

Happy "WTF Birthday" Liz-Beth!

All my favorite
pictures of you
are from awhile ago...













And I know this one is one of your favorites! With Dad and Donna, who have been hanging in heaven together since last year.
Hope your birthday was great!

Tropical Weather

The tropical weather has been giving us some beautiful sunrises and sunsets!
This is a sunset from the back of our boat.
It's been amazing here in the harbor!
We even had thunder and lightning one morning.
And a rainbow at 6:30 in the morning!

Tacos y Tequila - Muelle H

Time for a tequila & taco night (or so Pamela & Marsha decided)!
Somehow this idea came up after our Friday night yoga class - must have had something to do with the after yoga red wine we were enjoying...

Marsha and Jenny supplied the nice tequilas~~~ Marsha actually broke out her "Reserva de la Familia"!
A super special tequila Jose Cuervo puts out that Jim & I saw when we toured the Jose Cuervo distillery in Tequila, Mexico!











Marsha supplied the great tacos and I supplied the stuffed jalapenos!










The jalapenos were hot to Jenny!
Pam had water with her tequila...








We had tastes of some fine tequilas! We were missing three spouses though, John, Deborah and Roger - next time!

We finished off with Marsha's excellent pineapple upside down cake, tiramisu ice cream and Patron's coffee tequila!
Quite the Saturday night feast on "Night Hawk"!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Zaca Fire Sunrise

We have been watching the Zaca Fire burn since the 4th of July.
Not good... but makes for great sunsets and this sunrise this morning!

Sunday Sunset Beach Walk

We are lucky to have this directly across the street from our boat! Models: Davey Boy & Cherryl Wilene-Holien

Happy Birthday Fay!

We were happy and lucky to be able to attend a birthday party for Fay Huff on August 18th (Happy Birthday to Renee too!)!
It was a "big number" birthday, but I won't reveal the number here...
And John was smart enough to not reveal it on the cake either!




It was great to see John and Fay and spend a few hours with them. You may remember these were the incredible people who put together and served the food for my sister's memorial. They are amazing and wonderful friends!! Hope your birthday was as lovely as you are Fay!

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Three Day Island Trip with the Cousins! Friday Aug 10th - Sunday Aug 12th, 2007

My cousins Carolyn (all the way from Illinois) and Julianne (all the way from San Diego) came up for three and a half days and spent three days at Santa Cruz Island with us!

We left Friday morning and motored out through the fog. We had only one "ship traffic", a N/B tug and tow to deal with, but crossed his bow with a mile to spare.

We saw lots of seals and even a flying fish. We motored up to Willows and found a spot not totally engulfed in kelp to anchor.

Jim went fishing and the females sat and talked, read and napped (Julianne).

Then we piled into the dinghy and headed to the beach. It was the worst dinghy landing we have ever had - took a few waves over the back. We had the new outboard on and it changed everything!! Wet butts and a lot of laughter and we were all ok!
Julianne took off up the hill.
Jim sat on the beach with a Sierra Nevada and CJ & I met up with Julianne as she was coming down the hill. We played on the beach, explored, had a little wine and met a man with his twin boys.








There always seems to be some sort of driftwood sculpture on this beach.
We only found a shell collection, so we made this sculpture.








Back in the dinghy to the boat!




Made a great dinner of shrimp-k-bobs, veggie-k-babs, king crab legs and corn. We watched the stars for awhile then off to bed.


Saturday we all got up late and had our caffeine of our choice - coffee, tea or Diet Pepsi...

Julianne made eggs and soyrizo (chorizo made out of soy) burritos for us. CJ cleaned up and Jim went halibut fishing. We did the reading, talking and relaxing thing again. Juli made herself a nice nest in the net up forward and read. CJ and I talked for hours.

We put the kayaks in the water and CJ & I went first. Jim went snorkling and we kayaked through the kelp and over to the beach. CJ made her first ocean beach kayak landing - perfectly too! Then Juli and I kayaked for awhile. I found a large orange snail on a kelp leaf and brought it back to the boat so show Carolyn. She asked me it's name and I said, "Carol Jo"... It was absolutely beautiful out!


John & Lourdes from "Reliant" came over for a visit and told us the next day was their 12 year anniversary! They had dinner guests coming over so only visited for awhile.

The water was warm enough to swim so I swam around under the boat for awhile & poked Juli with the floaty through the net.

Turkey tacos for dinner then the chocolate tasting between three different levels of cocoa. And a little raspberry dessert wine to go with the chocolate!



We put blankets in the nets and all laid up there and watched shooting stars! It was amazing. And so amazing to Jim, he spent the entire night up there!




Up late again on Sunday morning. Did the morning caffeine of your choice thing and relaxed for awhile. Jim had to jump in the water to de-kelp our rudders and props. As soon as he got back on the boat and rinsed off, more kelp came...

We headed out to the mako fishing grounds on the backside of the island, but didn't catch anything. We did see lots of dolphins and a couple of either swordfish or marlins.



Motorsailed back home (the weatherman told us 10 kts or less, but we ended up having about 20 kts, but too late to pull up the mainsail...) and had lots of neighbors to greet us and grab the docklines. Enjoyed Jim's bbq'd hamburgers and sent the cousins off with an invitation to return ANY time! It was really great to have them for some quality time!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Mike & Cyndi move to Ohio (yikes!)

So they sold their boat and headed off to Ohio - why, you ask?
We are still trying to figure out the answer to that one!

They spent two nights with us (had to get a few last nights of sleeping on a boat before turning into landlubbers).

Here are the sad faces on the last morning, about to say "bye"... And here we are with our wine-tasting & geocaching buddies attempting to smile and act like living a zillion miles apart will be ok (Ohio is a zillion miles from California, isn't it?)... Cyndi called today and they made it safely to Ohio, with only a few problems.

I can't wait to hear all their stories of 6 days of driving in an un-airconditioned Jeep in 100 plus degrees with a cat!

Miss you two already...

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Ventura County Fair 2007!

Hot Dog! It's the Ventura County Fair! We hadn't been for a few years so talked John, Jennifer, Dan & Marsha into going. We took the school bus shuttle from the harbor (it was John & Jenny's first time on a school bus - guess they don't have school buses in England or Poland).

Checked out the sheep and goats first.
And the landscaping and flowers.


Had corn dogs (one for Kellie), beers, corn on the cob, Pink's hot dogs and popcorn.
Found ourselves in the genealogy area and came across three entries that belonged to my Mom! She won a First Place and two Second Places!








Went to Uncle Leo's Children's' Barn to see the baby pigs. I had a two-year old little girl who thought the donkey was "Donkey" from Shrek. Every time I touched the donkey she would pull my hand away and push me away from the donkey. So I kept touching the donkey and she kept pulling my hand away. That entertained me for about 10 minutes.

Then this thing entertained us all for another 10 minutes!
Dan & Marsha




Jennifer & John



Heather & Jim



Wandered around some more and then headed to the grandstand to listen to REO Speedwagon - an actual "Geezer Concert"! The average age of concert-goer must have been 50 - took us back a few years... We had a friendly policeman take this picture of us. I told John that was probably better than the last time a policeman took a picture of him... (ask him about Avalon)!

Then back to the bus, where John & Jenny got to go for their second school bus ride of their lives!