Tsunami Tswirling Waters in Ventura

Tso by now everyone has heard of the huge 8.8 earthquake in Chile that tsent out tscares all over the Pacific Ocean, including here in Ventura, roughly 6000 miles away from the epicenter.

To tshow how tsunamis affect places far, far and away, I tried tstealing a video from Mr. Tucker's blog.
And tsince tstealing is bad... thought I would just link it instead.

Here is another one tstolen from taken by tsomeone over in Ventura Isle, across the harbor.

There was nothing I could do other than make tsure the boat was tied tspider web tstyle to the dock.
Tso after doing that I left for a few hours to watch Carly compete in Irish Tstep Dancing.
I would put pictures here, however tsome tsick **** took pics of the girls when they were doing kicks and posted them on the internet to tshow their bloomers.
Tso now the Irish Tstep Dancing Federation or God or the King of Ireland won't allow pics to be taken while they are competing.
Um, hello?
Is there not enough porn on the internet that you have to take pics of 10 and 11 year old girls who are talented dancers?
Ick. Tsick.

Tso after Carly danced and placed 2nd in one dance and 3rd in another YAY CARLY I checked voicemail and tstarted getting the reports of the tsurge and tswirling waters.
And arrived back in the harbor to witness two-thirds of it.

Remember pictures do not do moving waters justice...
First, tswirling waters behind the boat.Tsecond, watch the 5 knot buoy as it tsails past our boat at (luckily for it) tslightly less than it's own 5 knot rule!



The tsecond picture was taken right after the first one.



I also watched one of the red channel markers go on it's own exploration of the harbor, ending up behind the cat that is in our ex-tslip.
Bang, bang, bang into the boat!
And watched the harbor patrol arrest rescue it later and tie it to the National Park dock.



The water would flow out of the harbor and 10 minutes later flow back in.

People estimate a 3-5 foot tide tswing.

The tswirls, whirlpools, tsplashes, tsuction, movement, tsounds and tsurge was amazing.

I can only imagine it to be tsimilar to a huge tidal change in a narrow estuary entrance.

On top of all of this, we had wind, rain and huge tsurf!And a few enjoyable calms between the tsurges.
One tstrange day.

Today I...

drank Jim's coffee, because he is currently in Oregon with my mom.
My mom's sister is not doing well and is home from the hospital to live out her final days. I didn't feel right about taking off a week of work while being short-staffed and at the beginning of the month, so my awesome husband offered to take my mom up to see her sister one last time. So being that he is gone, I drank his coffee. On top of mine... Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Will let you know after I do it again tomorrow. Caffeine is good right?

had a good day at work.
I didn't evict anyone today, yell or smash the computer. That is all good right?

washed the top of my desk at the boatyard and found out it was brown.
Ugh. Boatyard dirt is everywhere. On the keyboard, calculator, each and every paperclip, me, the files, pens, work orders, Andy, daily calendar, phones, tape dispenser, Tina, did I mention me?

enjoyed a lunch at the Marina Operators Association meeting.
Pizza & salad supplied by Scott the harborale king, good info, awesome hard-working people and I knew most of them either directly, indirectly or in some weird small world way, like the guy sitting next to me happened to be the broker on the sale of our ex-boat "Thistle".

stopped while picking up my mail wasted trip, where the hell is that registration sticker for the truck aaaagggh... it's expiring on Sunday, good thing I walk to work for a few minutes to enjoy a beautiful cloud formation over the islands and ocean.
A beautiful cloud formation behind incredible trees. A beautiful view most people probably took for granted today or didn't take the time to stop even just for a moment.Reminds me of when our friend Chris was showing some people about a bazillion sunset pics on his computer and the people said something stupid like "Wow dude you sure have a lot of sunset pics" and Chris replied "And just how many sunsets have you seen this year?" Shut the people right up.

had to break a $100 bill so went to Trader Joe's before hitting the dollar store.
Ok, this does not happen often. Usually it's a $5 bill I am trying to break. So a few bottles of Old Moon Zin, gum, peanut butter cups and vitamins. All I need to sustain life.

saw a Pepto Bismol pink Corvette.
Seriously. This is not a joke. It was in front of me while turning into Trader Joe's. Then I saw it parked and the creature driver behind the wheel. While checking out at TJ's I saw the creature from the black lagoon no, the hooker lady? I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS!! Micro mini skirt with loads of pink and bright colors, way high shoes, bleached blonde strange curls with neon pink bows, jewelry over the top and Pepto Bismol pink eyeshadow for 2" over each eye. Was this a joke? Where is the candid camera? She was so absolutely 100% over the top made up and dressed so far out there I along with the rest of the TJ shoppers was in shock. I couldn't get myself together enough to get a picture with my phone and didn't feel quite right about taking a picture of her car. I mean to each his own right? But really, Pepto Bismol pink? What a way to ruin a good Corvette. Ugh. I needed Pepto Bismol after witnessing this... I still am getting the heebie jeebies.

had leftover spaghetti squash for dinner.
The one thing good about my husband being gone is that I can eat whatever I want for dinner! No Irish dinners! No meat! No potatoes! Popcorn! Pasta salad! Ice cream! Grilled veggies only! Wine and chocolate! Whatever!

was happy it is not going to rain until tomorrow after work.
Ok, this is just plain weird. I have never had a job that I wanted it to rain on the weekend instead of during the week. Hard to paint boat butts bottoms while it is raining. And I so want business to be good right now!

watched a tiny bit of Olympics (more in a few minutes when I climb in bed), listened to my music and had a glass of Old Moon Zinfandel.

looked forward to a Friday night home alone.
Rain. Wind. Red wine. My music. A book. Ooohhh... let's not forget A BATH! Knowing that I can sleep in Saturday morning. Knowing my husband is doing a wonderful thing. Looking forward to having his coffee on top of mine on Saturday morning... Coming full circle.

Something's Missing...

"Meerkat" bimini-less.Looks weird.
Really weird.
Extremely weird.
And of course it is raining...
In the almost six years of owning this boat we have never seen it without the bimini.
The original one that came with the boat was torn while going thru a minor hurricane on the freighter.
So we had one made in Ensenada.
But the Ensenada canvas guy did not use UV protected thread or real Sunbrella for that matter.
It lasted us for over five years, so it's ok.
But I'm thinking I might need to go win the lottery or rob a bank to pay for the new one...
A lot of the cost is in labor as they have to match up the enclosure.
And we did step up in the quality of fabric...
Vinyl on the underneath side, so no more mildew, no more leaking.
It's all good.
Just not that it is raining...

Vacation All I Ever Wanted... Vacation Had to Get Away!

So between ending job #2 and going back to job #1, it was time for a 5 day / 4 night get-away.
Jim wanted to go someplace warm (South) and I wanted to go someplace lazy (North).
Due to job #1 being short-staffed we couldn't take a whole week off, so a quick trip North it was.
First day ~ Santa Ynez for meeting up with Mike & BBB for wine-tasting.
And finding a few geocaches.
Mike was the DD and somehow got the three of us to five wineries, with stops at their two rental houses for picking out carpet and showing one of the houses.
Amazing we crammed that all into one afternoon...
Not really any pics to show.


Except Danny Thomas the pig enjoying himself.
And wine.
He liked the wine.

So way too much fun on Saturday and Saturday night.
A hike was in order the next morning to wear off the alcohol enjoy the beautiful day!Good thing it was a flat road...
Explored a cool old cemetary and found a few more geocaches.


Always weird to see your birthday listed on a headstone...
Not the year ~ just the day!



Back to the house for a killer frittata made by Mike and trying to get Jesse the dog to show us her ugly teeth...




Over-stayed our welcome and got kicked out of their house.

Had a blast and were invited back anytime!

Next stop, Pismo Beach!
Took the two lane highway from Los Alamos to Pismo and stopped at the Monarch Butterfly party place.
But only saw a few butterflys...
Did see some flooded picnic areas though!And duck butts...

Stayed at The Dolphin Cove Motel again.
We had stayed here a few years back for my birthday.
Teeny tiny little rooms with miniture showers.
Cheap.
Totally unpretentious.
Awesome view of the water.
Perfect!Hit a bbq place we had eaten at a few years back too.
Danny Thomas got nervous...
Too much pork on the menu.













Walked the pier the next day and poked around.
Ugh... pigeons...


Now you see why we like this motel?








Then to Avila Beach for breakfast and a few wineries on the way to Cayucos.




Kelsey See.
Rotta.
Four Vines.
Harmony Cellars.













Found a really cool motel (cheap again!) with each room having it's own theme.
We got the "Get your kicks on Route 66" room.

Loved it.
Enjoyed dinner at a full-on diner.
Yum.
A piece of pie the size of Texas.
Kinda gross now that I think about it.
Sleep.
Broke the blinds in the bathroom trying to shut the window.
Shower the size of a throw pillow.
Still good though.
Rain day.
Rain, rain, rain the next day.
Took a drive to Morro Bay and watched the surf.
And wet kids on a field trip.Watched the history channel.
Walked the town of Cayucos.
Walked on the pier.Watched surfers jump off of the pier.
Had a beer in the tavern.
Yes, it is an actual tavern.
Checked out the antique crap shops.
Jim got a haircut.
Shared a bottle of wine in the room.
Had an awesome dinner in town.
Jim had Hearst beef (from Hearst free range castle cattle) and I had a really spicy buffalo chicken salad.
More sleep.
Left money to buy new blinds in the motel room.
Drove home.
Sad.
Wanted to stay for about a month a few more days.
Back to the grind.
Boatyard grind...

Vietnamese Wedding Receptions ROCK!

If you get invited to one ~ go!
Seriously.
You may eat a bunch of un-named weird rubbery fishy things, but you will have a good time.
Guaranteed.
Un-named weird rubbery fishy things called food and all.

But first if you are a female, you should probably go to the bridal shower party dinner thing.
At least go for the wine and cool wine glass.
So for a co-worker at job #2, I went.
Cool wine glass.
Great food!
But it always is at Ventura's Cafe Fiore.
Butternut squash ravioli... mmmmm.....!

And now for the other un-named weird rubbery fishy stuff food:Yeah, whatever.
The food was served family style with the courses that just kept coming.
Way fun!
Cool decorations!











Beautiful flowers!
Shark fin soup with crab or oily something.
Beautiful bride!
Nice groom (what do you expect me to say - it was the first time I had met him, and it was for all of 5.2 seconds).
Awesome pickled something or other.

And the nicest most friendly people I had shared a room with in ages!
Everyone was fun.
Friendly.
Happy.
Full of life.
The young Vietnamese and Korean gang members kids at the table next to us shared their cognac, toasts, stories and laughter with us gringos, wait, what do they call us anyway? and seemed to enjoy us.
I think they were drunk.
I think they were tolerating us having as much fun with us as we were having with them!
Wine.
Steamed bun things.
Beer.
Lobster with about 950 cloves of garlic.
Wine.
More weird food.
Cognac.
Another course of squid or something.
Champagne.
Octopus or something.
Rice dessert with brown goo on top.
Green cake that I still am not sure how to describe.
Not that it mattered, as I was full from 27 courses of food.
The best party time in eons.
Seriously.
We had a blast.
Vietnamese wedding receptions rock!

The Week of Waking Up at 3 am

Ugh.
We may have well been getting up to do night watches and have gone somewhere.
All to watch this:kick Alighi's butts.
Thank you BMW ORACLE!
It started Monday morning a week ago.
Monday? Sunday? Maybe. I don't know some morning.
Up at 1:00 am to catch the start of the America's Cup being played out in Valencia, Spain.
I hate time differences.
Unless they are in my favor and I get an extra hour of vacation.
Up at 1:00 am to hear they delaying due to too much wind.
Jim stayed up til 5 am when they finally postponed period.
Fast forward to two mornings later.
Up at 3:00 am as they posted a delay the night before.
Thank you.
3 is not quite so horrifying as 1.
Unless you are talking about rats or cockroaches.
Postponement due to not enough wind.
Wimps ~ get out there and sail!
A few mornings later up at 3 am again.
And sat.
Waited.
Sat.
Waited.
Finally the race started with hardly any wind.
But enough wind for these boats to do 15-20 knots!
And for USA / BMW Oracle to take race 1!
YAY!
Worth getting up for now!

Ok two more mornings later.
Can't remember if it was getting easier or getting worse at this point...
Up again 3 am, but they don't start the race until about 7 am our time anyway!
AAAGGGHHH!
Once again, hardly any wind, but enough for Alinghi's catamaran and Oracle's trimaran to do speeds of 15-20, 20 and OVER 30 knots!
Absolutely amazing.
Best part?
BMW ORACLE TAKES RACE TWO!Which means the America's Cup is coming back to America!
Way happy!
Way excited!
Way great way to start our Valentine's Day morning!
CONGRATULATIONS BMW ORACLE!!!

Ok, but now my rant.
After all of the spending, research, technology, designing, building, sail making, crew training, not to mention the court bullshit, flights, boats being carried across the Alps via helicopter they have a TWO OUT OF THREE REGATTA?
Seriously, two out of three?
Why not three out of five?
Five out of seven?

Oh, but then I would probably still be having to get up at 3 am...
Nevermind.

Make It Happen!

One of our favorite sayings is: "MAKE IT HAPPEN!"
Courtesy of Alan on "Toshal" and the new "Make it Happen" boat "Toshalito".
Long story, but he helped us make our dream come true in getting this catamaran and we kept on him about making his dream come true by getting his F trimaran.
Anyway it's a good one.



Here is Dad.
And me.
I was little.
He was cool.

My dad had a lifelong dream of going through the Panama Canal.
Not sure how he never got there early on in life as he went a gazillion other places.
Alaska, Thailand, Japan, Hawaii, Scotland, Germany, Holland etc...
But he didn't.
So later in life being the casual guy he was, he arranged to be a passenger on a freighter trip.
Not a cruise ship, but on an actual working freighter.
Some of these freighters will take on 5 to 8 paying passengers who will eat with the crew, not have to dress for dinner, not have to endure bluehairs, not have to go to the midnight buffet, can wear jeans the whole time, blah, blah, blah.
He had done one up the Western US Coast and had loved it.
So he had booked one through the Canal, then what I would consider to be a disaster struck.
Heart attack.
Triple bypass.
The beginning of the end.
He was never fully "Dad" after that.
So they wouldn't let him on the ship.

Several years later he passed away.
The worst part?
9 1/2 weeks after my sister...
It really should have been the other way around.

So anyway, after I had my breakdown of sorts I kind of took control of Dad's ashes.


Scattered some in the Santa Barbara Channel.



Took him (and Mom) on a roadtrip down Baja.That is him in the peanut butter jar kicking back in the hammock.
He always did like a good hammock!

Scattered him all over the Baja peninsula.That is him in the middle - the lighter color...
I think he would have liked what we did so far.
I hope...

Some of dad's ashes rode on Ariel's boat from here to Costa Rica, but when Jim got off the boat in CR, so did Dad...
Didn't make it to the Canal once again.

The Panama Canal thing has been sitting in the back of my head for four years.
How can I make this happen?

So when my favorite cousin Carolyn emailed she and her awesome hubby, Bergie were going though the Canal, I knew I could make it happen!
The cool part?
They were going on the National Geographic Sea Lion.
Remember it from when we were up in the mangrove canals in Magdalena Bay almost two years ago?And then we met the captain in La Paz?
I love my small world!!

So I packaged some of Dad up and mailed him to Illinois.
He road on a plane to Costa Rica.
Whoa ~ deja vu ~ now he's been to CR twice!
And CJ and Bergie took him to the Canal.And scattered him in Gatun Lake.Off of a boat we know.And waved bye bye to their Uncle Bob.