Hurricane Norbert Update or As They Say on The News with Excitement on Their Faces and Glee in Their Voices : "Hurricane Norbert Storm Watch 2008!!!"

Oh yipee crap.
Norbert is now a category 4 hurricane.
Heading to Southern Baja.Possibly hitting the West coast of Baja as a category 2.So, now if you could all join us and:
Hope for cold water.
Hope Norbert sits for days over the cold water.
Hope Norbert proves all the forecasters wrong and heads due West.

We Refuse to Get Our Asses Kicked by a "Norbert"

I stole that line from Kellie.
She doesn't know I stole it yet.
But look what is headed our way... A category 3 that is supposed to turn into a category 4.
Then downgrade to a 2 when it hits Baja.
We are hoping it stays to the North of us instead of hitting us directly.
The land between La Paz and the Todos Santos region does not have any mountains to slow or knock this thing down, so if it crosses to the South of the current "guess" we could get hit pretty hard.

"Meerkat" is sitting in the boatyard at the moment.
We may be able to be put back in the water on Friday.
But if we can't get into the inner harbor at Costa Baja, would we be safer just staying in the boatyard???
We are within 3" of the boat next to us and 2' of the one on the other side.

Hmmmmmmmmm...
I guess we will just have to keep checking weather every 5 seconds every few hours.

On a Rail, In the Yard

All good.
Jim pulled up to the rickety pier slash rock wall oh crap, we have to pull our boat alongside that rock wall with dinghy fenders out? Why do they not have canvas covered tires alongside the rock wall? Oh yeah, that is right, we are in Mexico. and slowly, slowly, slowly with two divers, yes, Abel being one of them, putting small chunks of wood under the whatever parts of my boat they are choosing to block, Abel wearing his water jeans, water socks and bottom paint covered t-shirt, and oh boy, Kellie and I are on the boat and Dave and Jim are now on land. Hmmmmmmmmm..... This story will follow with pictures...
Dave and Kellie's boat for the night.
Again, all good.

Go West Young Man!

Yes, you Norbert!
Go WEST!
Do NOT go North.
Stay away from the black line.
Follow the red line.Please.
Thank you.
Good boy.

Boatyard Blues...

We are scheduled to haul the boat tomorrow morning.
Oh yipee.
Hopefully only on the hard 3 days.
Could be 5 days.
Could be more if it rains.
For once, I wish for NO rain.
And of course we have Tropical Storm Norbert, who is supposed to be Hurricane Norbert by tomorrow morning slowly sliding up the coast of Mexico...

This will be the first time to be hauled on a rail, not by a travel-lift.
Should be interesting...

Here we are getting put back in the water on our last haul-out.I always made sure I had to be at work when the boat was lifted or put back in.
Too scary for me.
Just not natural.
But I don't really have a job...
Sssooooooooo I will have to be there.
And help.
Yikes.

Things? We Miss From "Home"

I should say people.
People we miss.
But we miss watching them do things, so that would be a thing.
One thing is watching Evann play soccer!


Well we miss her too...
Why only post pics of Evann and not Caitlin?
Gotta post the ones that get emailed to me!!!!!!

Lulu's Law School Graduation Fiesta!

Our friend Ricardo's sister, Maria de la Luz or "Lulu" as everyone calls her, graduated from law school!
She had such high grades, that she didn't have to take the test to become a lawyer.
A good reason to have a party!
And we were invited.

Last night ~ 9 pm.
They start their parties late here and with the heat, we now understand why.

Lots of family!
They all were introduced to us, however trying to keep their names straight?
And yes, John, Jim and I were the only gringos there.
What fun!

Ricardo, his cousin and cousin's daughter.The kids were the entertainment for me!
They all played together, invented games and watched out for the little ones.
They had a confetti fight, with one bag of confetti being tossed up into the ceiling fan and going everywhere.
Then they had to get more ammo by scooping the confetti off of the floor...
They also played "spin-the-bottle" ~ uh oh.
Isn't that a kissing game?
Luckily to them it was a "now you have to do something silly that I tell you" game.
Three girls with intricate hairdo's pulled up chairs to sort of be the judges.
The little boy in plaid wanted the baby.
He followed her around and even planted a big wet kiss on her lips.
Very funny and very entertaining.
















The flirting, kissing boy even came to me a few times.Must have been the fact that I had chips at my table...

Dinner, drinks, dancing!
And Lulu looking fabulous!We stayed until 12:30, as we had an arrangement with a taxi.
I'm sure the fiesta continued until 2:00 am...

Congratulations Lulu!

La Paz Gold Cup Marlin Tournament

We decided next year to be the only sailboat in the La Paz Gold Cup Marlin Tournament.
Wouldn't that be funny if we won?
And caught the winning marlin on a Snoopy fishing pole?
That is our plan.

For something to do yesterday we joined the tournament festivities at Costa Baja.
After going to the boatyard and scheduling our haulout for Monday.
Ick.
Then a float in the pool to cool off.
Then we joined the festivities.

We watched the weigh-in of the only "keeper" fish, who turned out to be about 50 pounds underweight...
I guess it wasn't a "keeper" after all.
He (she? I didn't check) weighed just over 147 lbs and to qualify the fish has to weigh 200 lbs.
Any underweight fish brought in costs the fisherman $50 US per pound underweight.
This fish cost the fisherman about $2,500.Ouch.
All the money goes to charity, so sometimes an underweight fish is a good thing.I think the fish goes to charity too.

We watched the Tecate chicks pose for pics.
Watched this little kid watch me making faces at him.





Watched Dave buy a t-shirt.




Watched the flags blow in the breeze.Watched all the fish-less boats come in.Ate hot dogs and bratwurst.
Watched Dave & Kellie's neighbors come in marlin-less, but dorado-full.
Which they shared with us - thank you!
Watched them wash the boat and asked the Dad if he would send the boys over to our boat after they were done.
He said no...Quite the quiver.
Quiver of fishing poles with expensive reels!
Watched them wash their lures.Can't have those lures tasting like salt water now!
We should take some cleaning lessons from these guys ~ they were good.

Then watched the Polynesian dance show.






This little girl was stunning.















Then explored.
Found our new beds.
Beds on the beach with a breeze.



I wonder if Costa Baja would mind us all sleeping out there...

Can't Recognize Our Dinghy!

We finally got around to having a dinghy cover made for gooey kablooey.
This was not a project I wanted to attempt...
Inside window coverings, yes.
Sunshades, yes.
Pillows, yes.
Dinghy cover, no.And since Lucy sold her machine and lives far far and away in Texas, we had Danny of "Pacific Threads" make it.
Good price and quick service.
Hmmmmmm... now to remember we have a gray dinghy instead of a white one...

Mega Yacht Window Washing

This looks like fun!One more reason to have a perfectly normal boat instead of one of those average mega yachts that are a dime a dozen...

Someone Tried to Break Into My Car and Crap We Are Going To Haul Out Soon and Start of Big Bucks Fishing Tournament

Big day.
Lots of goings on.
First, tried to drive to the local grocery store, "CCC", pronounced "Say Say Say" and couldn't reach the gas, clutch or brake pedals.
Hmmmmmmm...
Bro-in-law drove my car last, why can I not move the seat up?
Cause he had the car cleaned inside and out, so now the seat won't move up.
Ok, take Jim's truck and leave mine for him to fix.
Which he did - coins stuck in runners...
Fixed seats.
But he noticed someone had pried off quite a bit of the rubber seal around the passenger side window.
An attempt to most likely steal my "only new car I have ever had in my life" yes, I know the truck is almost 8 years old, but it's still new to me.
Later I noticed two windows had been struck with a hard, sharp object (hammer, winch handle?) in an attempt to break the windows - luckily they didn't break, but they are chipped and scratched pretty good.
So now I am paying another $22 / month to park my car inside the lot at the marina.
I hate you people who try to steal other people's property and/or have no respect for other people's property.

Then we went out to the boatyard that gave us a lifetime savings decent quote to haul last November.
Yes, I do understand it is now pretty much a year later... however???
And got a price to haul.
We have no bottom paint.
Yuk.
I hate being in the boatyard.
It will be hot. Dirty. Sticky.
But they do have two cool junkyard boatyard dogs there.
Yes, they are pitbulls, but are suckers if you even glance at them.
Give them water and they are your's for life.
So, we will be hauling within the next couple of weeks ~ hopefully.
Get that over with. Ick.

Then to Costa Baja where the start of a gazillion dollar marlin fishing tournament is starting tonight.
Lots of people around.
Fancy fishing boats.
Lots of shiny, shiny reels and expensive fishing poles.
Lots of fishing stories...
Probably too many fishing stories.
Tecate babes.
Tecate beers.
Chevrolet trucks on display.
So tomorrow we are going to go hang out there and watch the weigh ins and listen to the fishing stories.
And have a few Tecate babes beers!
We will leave the babes to the fishing dudes...

Mmmmmmmm ~ Afternoon Thunderstorm...

Oh yeah!
This nice big afternoon chubasco that came through helped cool us and the boat off today.
Stupid rotten no good lazy crappy piece of shit air conditioners that don't work when you need them.We'll take the cooling down any way we can get it at this point...

It was a ssslloooooooowwww moving storm that took over an hour to reach us.
But when it reached us it was one to enjoy!
Huge, HUGE rain drops!My hands are small, but not that small!

Loud, LOUD rain drops!
Loud enough that we thought it was hail!
Hundreds of lightning strikes and loud thunder following.
What fun!
Fun, because the lightning was never too close.












Fun, because it cooled us off.
Fun, because it washes the rigging (but dumps the dirt all over the deck).
Fun, because it is different.
Fun, because it is nature at her worst best.
Fun, because we had nothing else to do.