Fav Sea Places ~ Yellowstone, Isla Monserrate

This is always a favorite stop!
We stayed here on "Thistle".
We visited again a year later on Janis & Greg's boat, "Gitana".
And this time we had the place to ourselves!Which means a lot of things.
No wild socializing or staying up with the neighbors until midnight.
Finding all the lobster moults.Finding shell fossils sticking out of the sandstone.No one posing on the stairs.Enjoying the peace and quiet as you check out the bright yellow cliffs.














A beautiful sunset all to ourselves!

Favorite Sea Places ~ Punta San Telmo

We missed Los Gatos this trip, but enjoyed some time at Punta San Telmo.

San Telmo is just a little North of Los Gatos and amazingly enough, looks a lot like Los Gatos!The weather was perfectly calm when we were there.
None of this surf stuff showing up in the Google Earth pics...
The pink rocks were amazing!





This one looked like a foot to us...

"Kid Boats" or as Jimmy Buffett Would Say, "We All Got 'Em, We All Want 'Em, What Do We Do With 'Em?"

Well, we here on "Meerkat" search them out.
They are cheap entertainment.
You do not need TV or books when kid boats are around.
In fact when the kids are climbing all over your boat, you wouldn't be able to watch TV or read anyway...We spent some quality time with the girls from "Don Quixote".
"Quality time" equaled "slumber party" on "Meerkat"...
In other words, they came over with their parents for one of those Happy Hours Throw Together Dinner things and didn't want to leave.
So Mom and Dad had to dinghy back at 10:30 at night to get jammies, blankies (baba's in "Don Quixote" language) and toothbrushes (my request).
One jammie was forgotten, so Mera slept in a t-shirt of Jim's.
We played games and had hot chocolate until midnight.
Celebrated Mera's recent birthday by wearing things on our heads.We aren't sure why Jaime (a 13 year old), Mera (11 years) and Aeron (8 years) would want to hang out with a couple of "old people", but they did!

A sad "adios" the next day, as "Don Quixote" was heading North and we were heading South...

No TV reception in The Sea?
Book getting to a boring part?
Need more entertainment?
Find another kid boat.

We found "Totem".Three more kids to entertain us!
And cheaply too!
For the cost of a half box of pineapple juice we were entertained for hours.
Mairen, 7 years old was about to lose a tooth!
Niall, 10 years old has his own blog, wants to be an icthyologist and can tell you the exact differences between a needle fish and a trumpet fish (and he did).
Siobhan, 5 years old seemed to be the go between.
I think the older kids put her up to it.
During one of those Happy Hours on "Meerkat", she came to me to ask if they could play on the trampolines.
Then she came to me to ask if they could play on the kayaks.
Then she came to me to ask something or other, so I asked her if she even knew my name.
No.
So I told her and then she climbed into the backseat of Mairen's plane and took off.Another "adios" the next day.
Again kind of sad.
We don't know them that well, but remember cheap entertainment!
As we motored out of Agua Verde, this tiny little girl voice came on the vhf calling "Meerkat, Meerkat, this is Totem".
Oh yea ~ more entertainment!
So I answered and after a few "hi, how are yous" was told by Mairen that the tooth fairy had found her!
And she found 15 pesos under her pillow!
So how many of you can say a 7 year old took the time out of her busy day to call you on vhf to tell you her tooth came out?
Apparently the fact that I had kept threatening to tie the dinghy to that tooth and have Jim take off full speed had sunk in with her...
Remember, cheap entertainment!

Socializing in The Sea... It Happens

The dolphins do it.And we do it.
Sometimes it's planned.
Sometimes it just happens.
Sometimes it is dinner.
And many times it is a 4 hour Happy Hour.

Here is an example of a Happy Hours.
Hours plural.
Meaning Bob called and said come over!
And we are were there all night...Yes, the husbands were invited and were there, but we had to do a "chick" picture with singlehander Bob.
Joanne of "Corazon", Kent of "Sea Level", Moi, Bob of "Pantera", Ardy of "Odyssey" and Patsy of "Talion".
Needless to say, Bob loved this!

And here is an example of a planned daytime social Sea gathering.
Sitting in a foot and a half of water at Isla Coronados.Jeff & Dori of "Journey" (from Ventura), Barbara & John of "Naida", Rick & Karen of "Eyes of the Squirrels World" (also from Ventura!), and Greg & Deb of "Lion's Paw".
Moi?
Duh! Taking the picture.

And an unplanned dinner!
This usually happens when the Happy Hours start too early and then you throw dinner together on someone's boat.In this case we hadn't seen Mike & Wendy of "Bodhisattva" (from Channel Islands) since our going away party!
So the Happy Hours meant lots of catching up.
Happy Hours turned into dinner at 9 pm and more catching up until midnight...

There are reasons we don't see too many sunrises...

"Anchorages to Ourselves" or "Off The Beaten Path"

It happens ~ we often get anchorages to ourselves!
It happened several times in The Sea.
At Yellowstone.
Which meant we had beachcombing and posing on the carved stairs all to ourselves!



At La Ramada.



On Isla San Jose.At Ensenada La Ballena.
At 8:30 Cove.We could tell you where 8:30 Cove is, but then we would have to shoot you.
Because Ray on "Adios" would shoot us.
At Mechudo Cove.
Anchorages to ourselves means bathingsuits optional...

Sea Stories ~ "Shamaness"

Oh boy ~ it's really, really fun to run into people you met ten or eleven years ago.
Like running into Dennis of "Shamaness" not that he remembered us from back then.
Ray and Lucy ~ remember the singing Christmas Tree in Tenacatita on Christmas Eve 1998?Well that was Dennis on the left laughing his ass off, as wet as it was.
And here is Dennis eleven years later, sharing a pot of lobster tails!We had briefly ran into him in La Cruz, but didn't have much time together there.
Oh, but in the Sea of Cortez...
We shared anchorages a few times.
And shared a lot, and I mean a lot of laughs.
His friends Margie and Scott fit right in.
I take that back.
Scott didn't really fit in.
Not wearing cowboy boots and jeans during beach launchings...Actually he was quite good at jumping into the dinghy without getting his boots wet.
And he was good for laughs!

Sea Stories ~ "Lisa Marie"

Oh yipee!
We ran into Mark and Kathy of "Lisa Marie" (who we had met ten years ago when we cruised Mexico on "Thistle") off of Loreto and arranged to meet up in a few days at Candeleros.
Yeah, right a "meet up", like that's going to happen.
Well amazingly enough it did happen!
We were very happy to see their boat come around the corner into the anchorage, so immediately (well after they anchored) called them on vhf.
They invited us over for a cocktail.
Ok, that worked for us, as who knew when we would see them again.
Then I was down in one of the hulls and Mark calls us back on vhf.
This is what I heard:
"Hey Jim, you guys want to come over for dinner too? We got some nice cabrilla in Agua Verde."
Jim checked with me and replied:
"Sure ~ sounds great! We will bring a salad and some white wine to go with the cabrilla."
So we dinghy over and get treated to an awesome huge plate of yellowtail sushi prepared by their son, Chris.YUM!
And Mark is back by the bbq saying it's going to take another 45 minutes to cook the cabrilla.
45 minutes to cook fish?
So then we figured out Mark was saying "cabrita".
Ok, this is cabrilla:And this is cabrita:Yep, little dead baby goat.
Obviously Mark and Kathy didn't know I had a pet goat growing up...
Reminded me of the Southpark episode where the kids want veal to be re-named as "little dead baby cow".
So I'm thinking they should name little dead baby goat something that doesn't sound like a fish name.
Maybe instead of cabrita, a name like "little dead baby goat".
Everyone else agree?
So we ate, drank and told stories until midnight.
This is not the best picture of Kathy, but in the next picture Mark's eyes weren't even open...
But what fun we had little dead baby goat and all!

Sea Stories ~ One Member Fan Club!

So I was chatting with a couple at Loreto Fest and this man walked up to me and said, "I'm a stalker fan!"
Talk about confused.
A fan?
Of what?
Me?
How?
Why?
Then he explained he has been reading this blog for a year or more.
So he stalked me found me at Loreto Fest!He is the one on the left ~ Steve of the motor vessel "Pacific".
The person on the right is perfectly normal and has a life his nice wife, Susan.

We luckily met up with Steve and Susan a few other times and found out he is normal.
We enjoyed a lovely afternoon on the beach in Agua Verde, along with most of the rest of the anchorage.

Back in La Paz!

After 4 1/2 weeks we have returned to La Paz and are tied up, once again with the big boys.
You know, the mega yachts...
We so do not fit in.

The Sea was awesome.
I have loads of pictures.
But loads of items on my project list as well...

So here is one to tide you over!

More Awesome Sea of Cortez

We are still loving and enjoying The Sea of Cortez!
It's just too bad we don't have satellite internet...
Although then we would miss out on things like hiking, swimming, beach combing, snorkeling, socializing, sailing motoring, dolphins leaping, rays jumping and all the other incredible things The Sea has to offer as we would be sitting in front of the computer uploading pictures of sunsets instead of enjoying the sunsets...

Sea of Cortez

This place is beautiful!
Now I remember why I loved cruising it before...
Dolphins.
Whales.

Salt mine ghost towns to explore.

Funny things on beaches to amuse us.





Abandoned salt flats.



Abandoned tractors without engines.White sand beaches.
Anchorages to yourself.
Beautiful cliffs and rock formations.
Fish.
78 to 80 degree water.


Lobster.


Clear water.
We can often see our anchor on the bottom.
Sunsets.



Old buildings.

Cows.
Beaches to ourselves.
Goats.
Swine flu.
Friends on other boats.
Four day party at Loreto Fest.
More sunsets.
More white sand beaches.Pink sandstone cliffs and rock formations.
More beautiful clear clean water.
Skinny dipping.
Shelling.
Lobster moults.
Yellow cliffs.
More pics to come!
Because I don't have the patience to sit here in the cruiser's lounge listening to this silly lady babytalking to some baby via skype...
When I could be getting ready for the "make your own paper seminar!