PacificSailors

Feliz Dia Del Amor

2012-02-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

This is the view we had over dinner the night before Valentines Day. We went out the night before to avoid the crowds and our cunning plan was a complete success.

Some people (the two people that actually follow this blog) have been wondering where we've been? Here is what we've been up to.

The Mexico-USA border fence. This is the old fence at Tecate. In Tijuana there is also the new fence. Both have an excellent view of the United States and la migra on the other side. We have been driving to San Diego to buy more parts pretty much every weekend.

The United States seen from the other side.

While waiting for three hours to get back to the States you can buy everything from tiny guitars to bobble head chihuahuas. Oh, and fresh churros! Yum!

We had a frame made for the solar panels and are now producing our own electricity!

Lo and behold the stand up paddle board fit right under the solar panels! Almost like we planned it!

Gena tried to teach me how to cook real mexican food!

The captain's birthday celebration

Celebrations

2012-02-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

Some days ago Mike had yet another birthday. We hadn't really been out to a fancy dinner since leaving Portland and were happy to have an excuse to dine in style. Punta Morro Resort, just outside of town, has a fabulous restaurant over the ocean. When the seas are big, waves splash onto the windows just beyond the tables. Since the sun has been setting around 5pm here, we arrived after sunset and instead were treated to the moon setting into the pacific ocean.

Vaka Visit

2012-01-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

Seven beautiful vakas (traditional polynesian voyaging canoes) pulled into our marina today. They are on their way to the South Pacific via the Galapagos while filming a documentary on preserving the oceans. More about their journey...

Today was Australia Day and since we have a few boats from Australia here, we had a bit of a celebration and potluck. Mike and I even had our first taste of Vegemite - not bad!
Not having a lot of time between boat projects I threw together a quick pasta salad. The recipe is on GalleySwap.

Ensenada, Mexico

2012-01-15T21:28:00.000-08:00

This morning we headed out looking for a fast internet connection to place some orders and call family. The connection at the marina can get a bit sluggish especially when the cruise ships come in.

When we got into town the first thing we noticed is that it was eerily quiet and everything was closed - including our favorite coffee shop. Everyone must have been sleeping in or at church. Luckily, Starbucks doesn't seem to follow local custom and we got a great connection for the price of a cup of coffee.

By the time we left at lunch time it was time to head to our favorite taco shop which was jam packed. We were serenaded by mariachi (actually it's banda around here) bands and watched the commotion at the fish market. The fish scale is always entertaining as there is usually a group of men trying to pack as many slippery fish as possible onto a flat surface.

By the time we got back to the boat there was just enough time to pull Mike up the mast to replace our anchor light with a new LED light, attach some spreader boots, and add reflective tape to the top of the mast. We hope the reflective tape will help us find our boat in a dark anchorage. The concept being that rather than shine our flashlight into the other boats' windows, we shine the flashlight up high and our unique markings will guide us home.

Coffee and Culture

2012-01-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

Ensenada's Cultural Center is just across the street form the marina. They have a cozy little coffee shop with free WiFi so we head over there to make phone calls once in a while since the WiFi in the marina is not fast enough to use Skype.

Full moon

2012-01-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

Beautiful full moon here in Ensenada. The Santa Anas have been blowing all day so we don't even need to turn on the heater tonight.

We had another whirlwind weekend in California. Dropped off a bunch more things at our storage trailer. Spent many hours at West Marine and hardware stores. Took our biennial First Aid/CPR class to keep our captains licenses up to date. And even had some time to visit with friends and family.

Now we're just waiting on the life-raft, Froli bed springs, head spares kit, spare autopilot and few parts to finish the watermaker install. Meanwhile we are busy installing and/or finding room for all the things we have bought...

A Successful Day

2012-01-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

Our current home port - CruisePort Marina in Ensenada

The view up our dock

Most things on a boat take at least twice as long, cost twice as much, and are three times as difficult as anticipated. But today we had two projects that took hardly any time and cost us nothing at all!

The fridge had been running a bit too often. Not a problem here at the dock but very costly (in energy) at sea or on the hook. We have a freezer that chills the fridge via a small computer fan. It seemed like the fan was not working, so I removed the fan cover and pulled it out gently to get its info to purchase a new one. While I was doing that the fan started up! Turns out it was installed backwards and has been blowing warm fridge air into the freezer (for the past ten years I'm guessing). Problem solved!

Our windlass (the winch that pulls up the anchor) was working intermittently. Again, not a problem here at the dock but a huge problem at anchor. Today it wasn't working so we started pulling things apart to figure out what was going on. After about an hour of going back and forth between breakers and wires and switches and miscellaneous buttons Mike took another look at the wiring behind the electrical panel. We only had our house battery turned on but the windlass was wired into the starter battery. We turned on the starter battery and voilà! Problem solved!

A good day. So we had to go out to drinks and dinner with a boat-neighbor to celebrate. We only wish all projects could be this simple.

A New Year

2012-01-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

A great start to a new year because we're finally doing what has been in planning stages for years. We're living on our boat and traveling the world at five miles per hour!

We've slowly been getting tasks checked off the list. Watermaker install is nearly complete, liferaft and new (smaller) dinghy are on order. It's getting a bit chilly here in Ensenada so we hope to be ready to leave in a couple of weeks.

Passion

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

I love Passion Tea Lemonade from Starbucks. Unfortunately, it's just not in our budget for daily consumption, so I was really excited when my dear friend gave me a box of Passion tea from Tazo, along with a handwritten recipe card, as a going-away present. It was not only a great gift because I love the tea so much, but because Tazo's headquarters in Portland, Oregon - where we'd been living the past five years.

Incidentally, here in Mexico it's called Hibiscus Tea Lemonade since that is actually the main ingredient in the tea. The first time I tried to order it I got blank stares until I realized my mistake.

Making Passion Tea Lemonade is easy. Simply brew up the tea using the teabags, let it cool and mix with lemonade to your liking. I like to brew the tea sun-tea style by leaving it outside to steep all day. By not boiling water you keep the boat cool and save gas. You can also add extra sugar but it's great as is.

If you don't have lemonade on hand, one of our GalleySwap members submitted this great recipe, for making lemonade from scratch.

Fire Safety

2011-12-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

On a boat you can't simply step outside and call the fire department if something catches on fire - unless of course you happen to be in a marina. We're planning on spending a lot of time at anchor, so being ready for a potential fire is important. While working aboard ships, we both attended several days of shipboard fire-fighting classes, both in classrooms and fighting "fake" fires aboard old ships. Even with the fake fires my adrenalin got pumping pretty good so I can only imagine how scary a real fire would be.

The standard fire extinguishers that most people carry on their boats really don't last very long and barely put a dent in a good sized fire. Not to mention they make a huge mess. So we've beefed up the standard two fire extinguishers required by the US Coast Guard by adding more ABC extinguishers as well as two fire blankets. Our fire-fighting arsenal has been placed strategically all over the boat including the cockpit.

Yachting Monthly Magazine has made an excellent video on the different options you have in fighting onboard fires by setting fire to their crash test boat.

Space Saving Ideas

2011-12-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

Storage on a boat is at a premium. Since we first started talking about preparing to move onto a boat we have been getting rid of bulky stuff and buying tiny versions of everything we wanted or needed. But being tiny isn't the only requirement to make it aboard. Serving double-duty is another. Hardly anything on our boat serves just one function. Tables make into beds, couches and beds cover electronics and tanks, refrigerator doors serve as counter space.

Extra linens are huge space-hogs, so to be sure we have spare sheets for our guests, I stuff decorative pillowcases with towels and blankets rather than actual pillows. This way they can still be used as pillows but serve double-duty as storage.

My favorite "pillow" cover (pictured above) I made from a mola my parents and I picked up on our trip from Germany to California. I used sunbrella fabric for the back and sewed in a heavy-duty plastic zipper. This pillowcase alone has five extra towels and one small quilt hidden inside.

Shopping... again

2011-12-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

Friday morning we drove to San Diego for another mega shopping-spree at West Marine and to pick up our new watermaker... but not before getting one more taco near the local fish market.

We're back on the boat now putting away and installing our new acquisitions.

Going aloft

2011-12-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

Mike took a quick trip up the mast to figure out what types of bulbs need to be replaced with LED.

Introducing Camille | The Head

2011-12-13T22:18:00.000-08:00

We love Camille's huge head - that's the bathroom for you landlubbers. It has two separate areas, a shower/toilet area and the vanity/sink area. It can be entered either from the master stateroom (aft cabin) and from the saloon (and yes, that is saloon with two Os). Excellent ventilation with four opening ports and two large drains in the floor make for easy maintenance and cleaning. Last but not least we have a fresh-water VacuFlush head (toilet) which is the only head that I know of that doesn't smell, aside from the composting head we had on our previous boat. Read more about Camille...

Water

2011-12-10T19:35:00.001-08:00

We've already been in Mexico for over a week and our water tank was starting to near the empty mark. It was time to get it filled so we could continue doing the dishes, flushing the toilet, brushing our teeth, etc. In Mexico that is a bit tricky as the water here is not of very high quality and can make you pretty sick. We would like to keep our tanks clean until we install our watermaker so we had to get drinking water delivered in 5 gallon jugs.

In the afternoon we went to the opening of a new orphanage near Ensenada. It's an orphanage for special needs children and the first orphan arrived today.

It was an amazing full moon tonight rising over Ensenada.

Shopping

2011-12-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

We rode our bikes into town today to do a little grocery shopping. After looking over the receipt I realized that avocados cost us a tenth of the price of what we pay in the US. We also bought fresh eggs that were unrefrigerated, which means they won't have to use up precious fridge space on the boat. For other great galley tips and onboard recipes check out our free sister-site GalleySwap.

Mike installed our 27" computer monitor at the nav station. It fits perfectly and we plan on using it to do some serious route planning. Also tested out an anchor our dock neighbor is trying to sell. Looks like it will fit. We just need to get some better shackles and finally pick up our 200' of chain.

Introducing Camille | The Saloon

2011-12-06T15:32:00.001-08:00

The saloon is the main living area on a boat. On our little boat this includes the living room, dining room, galley, and navigation station. Under all the built in furniture are water tanks, fuel tanks, batteries, an inverter, a battery charger, food, gear, water and head pumps, a refrigerator compressor and countless other things to keep a boat as self-sufficient as possible. Today we took measurements to squeeze in a watermaker which will allow us make freshwater from seawater making us even more self-sufficient. For a list of gear we have added or plan to add see our Finances page. Read more about Camille...

Border Crossings

2011-12-05T18:44:00.001-08:00

We are getting settled in Ensenada. Our goal for the next month is to outfit the boat so that we will be able to make fresh water and have enough battery power to run all the systems that are onboard Camille. This weekend we took the bus back to the border to pick up our van from the US. We don't want to stray too far from the boating supply center of SoCal just yet. See the Finances page for our list of gear complete with prices.

Today we drove the dinghy around the bay to test out our new outboard and visit with the sea lions at the cruise ship dock.

Arrival in Mexico!

2011-11-30T18:12:00.001-08:00

November went by fast! Portland one week and Mexico the next.

After (finally!) finding a boat which suited boh of our needs, we jet-setted down to San Diego for survey and sea trial in early November. After given the all-clear from the surveyor we only had 14 days to finalize the sale, put our jobs on hold, move out of our house, sell all the big things and move the rest into our cargo trailer and 1-ton passenger van.

Thanksgiving week we left the freezing temps of Portland and drove south. As the scenery rolled by at 60mph it just kept getting warmer. Thanksgiving morning we had a lot to be thankful for as we woke up on Camille for the first time!

Over the past five days we have dropped our waterline by several inches and got ready for our first overnight passage aboard Camille. Last night was filled with shooting stars, whales and dolphins playing in the bioluminescence . At times we encountered patches of fog in which the front of the boat was not visible. Never have I appreciated a piece of electronic equipment more than our radar.

While Mike was sleeping blissfully after his watch, the sun rose over Ensenada as we sailed along in the company of dolphins.

Introducing Camille | Guest Bedroom aka V-berth

2011-11-26T07:25:00.001-08:00

We are slowly getting moved aboard and it is amazing just how much stuff a little boat can swallow up. The weather has been San-Diego-perfect and after the freezing temps we were experiencing in Portland we feel like we have found paradise already! Read more about Camille...

Coronado Bridge

Downtown San Diego

Camille's V-berth (guest bedroom) looking forward

Camille's V-berth (guest bedroom) looking aft

s/v Camille - Our First Home

2011-11-24T08:34:00.001-08:00

We spent our first night aboard Camille last night as her new owners. We are very thankful this Thanksgiving.

After our last day at work in Portland, we had less than a day to finish packing the van and trailer in order to make it to San Diego by Tuesday, as Wednesday was to be the big day for the offshore delivery. We had been planning for this day for years by reducing our belongings and selling off furniture - yet in the end we still ended up with too much stuff and the trailer and van were filled to the brim. Here is the story (in pictures) of our trip south.

Our Champagne celebration three miles offshore was a giant step we worked very hard to get to. Thank you Gregg and Charlotte for the sweetest drink we have ever had!

Why is Camille called She?

A ship is called 'she' because there is always a great deal of bustle around her; there is usually a gang of men about, she has a waist and stays; it takes a lot of paint to keep her good looking; it is not the initial expense that breaks you, it is the upkeep; she can be all decked out; it takes an experienced man to handle her correctly; and without a man at the helm, she is absolutely uncontrollable. She shows her topsides, hides her bottom and when coming into port, always heads for the buoys.

Drying Fruit

2011-11-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

Down the street from our house is an empty property that once must have had a grand house on it. What's left is a beautiful garden complete with fruit trees. A few weeks ago we harvested several bags full of fruit from the pear trees that adorn the circular driveway. They finally finished ripening and we are drying and vacuum-sealing the pears after giving the sliced fruit a bath in citrus water, which should keep them from getting brown.

For great on-board recipes check out our sister site GalleySwap!

Food Preservation

2011-10-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

With summer and the growing season clearly coming to an end, we've been canning beets, beef, salmon and today peaches. We've also been drying all of our favorite fruit. Yesterday we had a fun time with our neighbors making sauerkraut from scratch which should be ready to can in a few weeks. We are using the Blue Book by Ball which has easy to follow instructions. You can find an introduction to canning on their website.

For more great on-board recipes check out our sister site GalleySwap!

Beets about to be pressure-cooked.

US States Visited Summer 2011

2011-09-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Now that summer is almost over and we have no set plans for further travels I am taking stock of all the places we visited this summer. We really got around! Here is a map of all the states we visited together with the exception of Hawai'i, which is where Mike sailed to while I was in Mexico. We made a "circumnavigation" of the west and took a quick jaunt to Florida while working in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Map made with http://www.visitedstatesmap.com/

Florida's Panhandle

2011-09-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

While working in Biloxi, Missippippi we were able to take a few days to get away from our floating cubicles during tropical storm Lee. The weather wasn't much nicer in Florida but the rain was warm and the Gulf was even warmer.