Raptor Dance - Bill Finkelstein and Mary Mack's Blog

Chicken & Chickpea Tagine

2015-01-10T09:58:00.002-08:00

A very tasty dish from North Africa. It’s a braise, cooked with low moist heat. The name comes from the pot it’s traditionally cooked in, but a Dutch Oven or other heavy pot with lid works fine.

You can up the spice level to your liking, or reduce (or omit) the Cayenne pepper to make it milder.

Makes 4 servings.

8 Chicken thighs
Salt & fresh ground pepper
2 T Olive oil
2 T Butter
1 Large onion, thinly sliced
4 Minced garlic cloves
½ tsp Grated nutmeg
½ tsp Ground cinnamon
1 tsp Ground ginger
1 tsp Ground cumin
1 tsp Ground coriander
½ tsp Ground black pepper
½ tsp Cayenne
2 C Chopped tomatoes, with their liquid
4 C Chickpeas (drained and rinsed if using canned)
½ C Raisins
½ C Chopped dates
½ C Pine nuts (don’t toast them)
1 Vanilla bean (slit, strip, & add the seeds or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
Chiffonade mint, cilantro, or parsley for garnish

Season the Chicken with Salt & Pepper
Heat oil over medium high heat. Brown the chicken, 4 to 5 minutes per side until nicely browned. Remove
Add butter, onions, and a pinch of salt. Sweat the onions over reduced (medium low) heat until soft (5 to 10 minute)
Add garlic and spices. Cook, stirring for 30 seconds.
Add tomatoes, chickpeas, raisins, and vanilla and bring to boil. Add more water if dry, and salt to taste.
Nestle the chicken back into the sauce.
Cover and adjust the heat in 5 minutes so the mixture simmers steadily. Cook until chicken is very tender, 45 min – 1 hour.
Taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve over Couscous and garnish.

Variations: Omit the chicken to make the dish vegan. Sweat the onion in vegetable broth to make the dish added fat free.

This is the recipe that Bill prepared on his 2007 Audition for Next Food Network Star. This is before we went to a Plant Based diet.

Bill & Mary's Oatty Bar Recipe

2012-10-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

We developed this recipe as a great snack (or even meal) while riding our bikes or hiking. They're simple and easy to make, taste great, and they follow our lifestyle diet. They're Whole Food, Plant Based, with no added fat or sweeteners.

Ingredients:

4 - Ripe Bananas - mashed
1 Cup - Fruit Puree - e.g. mashed ripe pears, Unsweetened Apple Sauce, etc. your choice.
2 Cups - Blueberries - frozen is fine.
1 Cup - Chopped, Toasted Raw Almonds
1+ T - Vanilla Extract
1+ T - Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp - Ground Nutmeg
½ tsp - Kosher Salt (optional for hot days)
6 Cups - "Old Fashioned Oatmeal" - the 5 minute kind, NOT instant.
¾ to 1½ - Cup Water (optional if mix is too dry)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F
Combine bananas and fruit puree and mix to combine. You can use a potato masher if starting with whole ripe fruit.
Add the Blueberries, Almonds, and Seasonings and mix to combine.
Add the Oatmeal and mix to combine.
At this point the mixture should be very moist, but not wet. If too dry, add water and continue mixing.
Pour mixture into an 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking dish lined with Parchment paper We don't use any oil or spray - you don't need to do anything fancy with the parchment, a wrinkle won't hurt, we just push it down into the pan, make sure that the parchment extends above all 4 sides of the pan. You can use a bigger baking disk if you like a thinner, chewier bar.
Distribute the mixture to an even thickness and smooth the top.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 350 F. It's done when the center of the pan is firm.
Remove from the oven and cool completely. We generally leave the pan on a cooling rack for about half an hour, then lift the contents out by the parchment and place on a cooling rack. After another hour or so, we flip the bars onto the other side and peel off the parchment.
When cooled to room temperature, you can cut the bars with a sharp knife. We generally cut in half and then in half again, each way to make 16 bars. If the middle four are still too moist to hold together, pop those back in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes at 350.

Troubleshooting:

Too Dry - next time add more fruit puree and/or cut down baking time (but don't go under 30 minutes)
Too Wet - pop back in the oven at 350 F. Next time, increase cooking time or cut down on fruit puree and/or water.
Think it needs something else? Try a little ground clove or other spices. This also pretty much works with any ripe fruit or fruit puree.

Let us know what you think and if these work for you!

Cheers,

Bill and Mary

Memo’s (Bill’s) Pancakes

2012-06-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

We developed this recipe a few years back when we changed our lifestyle diet (see: Our Lifestyle Diet). It was so good, we got it on the menu at that Vallarta Yacht Club. It has no added fat or sweetener and no artificial ingredients.

This recipe can be used to make either Waffles or pancakes can be frozen and reheated in the oven, microwave, or toaster. When used for pancakes, it is especially tasty when you add small berries (blueberries, Marionberries, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, etc.) to the mix.

Ingredients:

1 - Very ripe Pear, Peach or Banana, mashed (or about 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce if you don't have ripe fruit)
2 Cup - Water
½ Cup - Uncooked Rolled Oats (5 minute Oatmeal, not instant)
1½ Cup - Whole wheat flour
2 tsp - Baking powder
1 tsp - Cinnamon
1 tsp - Nutmeg
½ tsp - Vanilla extract to taste (optional)

Method:

Mix together the mashed fruit and water. Add dry ingredients and mix, leaving lumps in the batter.

Waffles:

Cook on a waffle iron, according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Pancakes:

Pour ½ Cup of batter into a hot, nonstick pan (you may need a quick shot of a nonstick on the pan spray).

When bubbles rise through the middle of the pancake and break on the top, flip the pancake and cook until browned underneath. (Note: Test the pan before cooking the pancakes by throwing a few drops of water onto it. If the water jumps around and then disappears, the pan is at the correct temperature.)

Top with more fruit, or preserves.

We warm some blueberries (frozen is ok) in a pot and make a quick compote. Great with coffee.

This recipe takes less than five minutes to prepare, not including cooking time.
Notes:

You must leave lumps in the batter. Waffle or pancake batter which is too smooth will spread out very thin on the waffle iron or pan, and the result will be a rubbery, tough cake as you will have mixed enough to develop the Gluten in the flour.

The batter doesn't freeze well but can be refrigerated for a short time. Waffles can be made in large quantities and frozen for future use; this is a good option if your waffle iron is small!

Pancake suggestion: Put small slices of Pear, Apple or banana onto the top of each pancake before flipping, and dribble a small amount of batter onto the pieces of fruit. Finish cooking the pancake according to the recipe.

As shown, recipe makes roughly four waffles; the number of pancakes will vary according to size.

Annoying Malware Infecting Yahoo, AOL, & Microsoft Email Accounts

2012-06-11T15:13:00.001-07:00

There's an annoying bit of Malware that's been going around for over a year now that affects Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft email accounts. If you get a very short email from someone only a link and possibly a bit of text saying something like "Wow, you've got to see this". When you get such a message - DON'T CLICK THE LINK!

It is a nasty bit of Malware - apparently built into a bit of Javascript - that sends messages to everyone in your online address book to propagate itself by sending out the infection email to your contacts. It also affects folks on Service Providers that use Yahoo as their infrastructure: e.g. sbcglobal, att, etc.

I receive dozens of these emails (from different people) a week. Basically, I recommend that the infected parties:

Change their email password
Do a deep anti-virus/malware scan of the computer you were on when you clicked this link. If you don't have a good anti-virus scanner, I recommend the free version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. It's available at: http://filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/
Clean out your browser cache, cookies, and history. The easiest way to do that on an ongoing basis is to use CCleaner on a regular basis. It's free and available at: http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
Don't click on any links like this in the future. Beware of any message that doesn't contain some personalization to convince you that it actually came from a real person and not a Malware robot. To be extra safe, I recommend that you install "Web of Trust". It's free and available at: http://www.mywot.com - It's no substitute though for "safe surfing" practices - avoid promiscuous link clicking and attachment opening!
(Optional, but nice) Send an apology to the folks in your address book.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Switch to a safer email provider. I recommend Google's Gmail. AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and their supported domains are highly insecure and are prone to break-ins. Gmail is a lot more secure, faster, safer, and still free. Easy to switch to and use, but has a lot more features. You can set a "Forward" in your old account's options so all your new mail will be forwarded - so you can take your time letting your contacts know about your new email address.

If you'd like more info, let me know :-)
Regards,
Bill

New Sandy Bridge PC

2011-01-30T13:54:00.002-08:00

*Update* (9 Mar 11) OK, Well that went faster than I thought. On Friday I got the notice about the replacement motherboards being available. Filled in the Paperwork, the replacement was shipped on Monday, got it at 1 PM on Tuesday and did the transplant. It only took about 2 1/2 hours. Computer fired back up with no problems. Packed up the old board and got it to our local UPS store in time for the 4:30 PM Pickup. Newegg.com (our board vendor) rocks! Total cost to us, $0 (not counting 7 miles worth of gas to get to the UPS store)!
I've also updated our Bill of Materials to show our system as it now is. Click Here to see the "As Built" Bill of Materials

*Update* (1 Feb 11) Well it seems that Intel has a bug in their P67 & H67 "Cougar Point" Chipsets for their new line of "Sandy Bridge" series CPUs Click here for the Geeky Details. As a result, all boards with these chips are being recalled and replaced. Also, all the distributors have stopped shipment of new motherboards containing these chips. So the system I'm building is basically unaffected as I ordered everything before the shipping halt. I did however upgrade to the ASUS Maximus IV Board, which is a slightly higher priced "Enthusiast" Board, but has sufficient SATA III and non-Intel SATA II ports to meet our needs now and in the foreseeable future. The vendors have also promised to exchange the motherboard with an upgraded one when Intel ships the "fixed" chip in about the April or May timeframe. So it will cause me some extra work to swap MOBOs, when the new ones are available.

It seems that around $2,000 is a sweet spot for "Non-Extravagant", "Enthusiast" PC builds.
Back in 2009 when I built our prior PC (see our July 2009 Core i7-920 SFF PC Build article), the entire build totaled $2,208.70
The parts we ordered for this build totalled $2,295.89 (if we bought everything from Newegg.com, our favorite vendor). We didn't though, we bought some parts on Amazon.com (click here to see their prices on our build parts). It turns out that we can buy from Amazon using our Prime account, get two day free shipping. Note that not all the parts are currently available on Amazon - so I've made some substitutions.
Prices on Amazon were lower for some items and Newegg's were lower for some others, so we bought each part where the net cost to us was lower. Another useful thing about Amazon is that you can now use American Express Membership Rewards Points to buy items, since we had a pile of those, this PC only cost us a few hundred dollars. If we paid for everything (no points) we would have saved about $200 by buying some parts at Amazon.
If you do buy any of these parts from Amazon, please use our link above - then Mary and I will earn a few bucks commission (thank you!).

In our June 2009 PC, the CPU we used was the Core i7-920 Nehalem 2.66 Ghz processor which cost $280. At the same time, the absolute top of the line was an i7-9xx (I forget the xx number, Intel changed that part soon after) and it cost just over $1,000. In early January 2011, Intel launched the "Sandy Bridge" family of processors and now the top of the line i7-9600k can be purchased for $330.
Today (Jan 30, 2011), the top of the line i7 Gulftown Part is the i7- 980x and cost $999.99 - it has a Passmark CPU Mark rating of 10,466. The i7-9600k's rating is 9,331. Not bad for a part that's 1/3rd the cost! Just for comparison, the 2009 i7-920 has a CPU Mark rating of 5,554. Moore's Law Rocks!
Video cards have come a long way too. The Radeon HD 4890 card from 2009 cost $215 and has a Passmark G3D Mark rating of 1,941. Our new Radeon HD 6950 cost $290 (Amazon) and has a G3D Mark rating of 3,038.
Hard drives improved too! Our storage drive is now 3 TB (instead of 1.5) and instead of a fast hard drive, we've moved (in speed, not size) up to a 120 GB Solid State Drive for our boot device. The OCX Vertex 2 120 GB SSD drive is really fast. Our Western Digital 300 GB VelociRaptor drive in our 2009 system has a Passmark Disk Mark rating of 758, our new SSD Drive's rating is 1,712, Wow!
Click Here to see the Bill of Materials for the parts that we're using to build our new PC. Drop me a note if you have any questions or see me on Facebook!

Notes:

The Zalman CPU Cooler is not currently available on Amazon, so I've substituted the Cooler Master Hyper 212+. It performs nearly as well, is less expensive, and would have been our backup choice. We looked at water cooling, but (in my opinion) it wasn't worth the expense or bother for the incremental cooling it provides.
I've used the Passmark Ratings for speed comparisons above. There are lots of measures of performance, different benchmarks can report different results (your mileage may vary!). I've used them solely for rough comparative purposes. You can access all their benchmarks at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
Building your own PC isn't too difficult, but if you're a N00B, you should review the outstanding resources online on how to do it before you proceed.

Product Recommendations

2010-08-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

Mary and I have added a site with the products that we use and recommend. Follow this link to get there.

We will only be posting those items here that 1) we recommend and 2) we can refer get you a discount on through Amazon.com.

Where Have We Been? Check us out on Facebook!

2010-04-22T09:31:00.001-07:00

OK, so Mary and I aren't posting that frequently on our website anymore. It's because most of our activity these days is on Facebook! We will still post new interesting items here too, particularly the longer posts. But for more frequent updates - check us out on Facebook! See the links below.

Just make sure that you also send us an email or include information on who you are in the Facebook request as well, particularly if we're not really close friends, so we are reminded who you are and how we know you!

Find Bill on Facebook.

Find Mary on Facebook.

Happy Thanksgiving from Sunny Mexico

2009-11-26T09:58:00.005-08:00

So why aren't you all down here visiting?
Warmest wishes for a Happy Holiday Season from Mary Mack & Bill Finkelstein on Raptor Dance.

Picture taken in Tenacatita Bay, by our very good friends Karen & Bill on the Moody 44, Miela

Our Tasty Multigrain Bread

2009-09-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

Our Finished Loaf

We love multigrain bread. Unfortunately, our local bakery stopped making our favorite bread.

So we started to play around with a substitute recipe using the ingredients on the label and came up with this great tasting, low salt, no fat bread. It tastes great and is good for you too!

We make it in our Zojirushi BCC X20 bread machine on it's basic Wheat Bread setting. This is a 2 pound machine and this loaf weighs just over 2 pounds.

You could also make this machine by hand, but our bread machine does such a great job we let it do it's thing.

You really need to use a scale to measure most of the dry ingredients as volumetric measurement of flour is too imprecise.

If you don't create a perfect loaf, refer to the troubleshooting guide in your bread machine manual. Since we don't use salt, the ratio of wet ingredients, dry ingredients and yeast needs to be pretty precise.

To start, add to your bread machine:

6 T - Unsweetened Apple Sauce (this substitutes for fat)
2 T - Malt Extract (mainly for flavor, we buy it at a home brewers supply store)
1 - 12 Oz Beer (we use Negra Modello)
1 T Lecithin
¼ tsp Ascorbic Acid (the Gluten, Lecithin and Ascorbic Acid reinforce the structure of the bread)
½ tsp - Salt (controls yeast raise)
1½ tsp - Active Dry Yeast

Next add the dry ingredients:

230 Grams - Whole Wheat Flour
230 Grams - Dark Rye Flour
60 Grams - Millet Flour
60 Grams - Vital Wheat Gluten

Start up the machine and when the bread machine indicates it's time for add ins, we lightly toast these ahead of time on the stovetop in a dry skillet:

2 heaping T Caraway Seeds
3 heaping T Flax Seeds
3 heaping T Millet Seeds
3 heaping T Sunflower Seeds

We like this bread in sandwiches or just toasted. Enjoy!

Barra de Navidad

2009-01-03T08:22:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone!

We arrived in Barra de Navidad New Years Eve and had a great celebration.

After checking in at the Marina and Hotel, we spent a little time at the pool and then went out with our friends Ed and Cornelia Gould from SV Acapella. Our first stop was the roof top bar at the Alondra hotel for a great view of the sunset. Then off to restaurant, Mexico Lindo. They have great Mexican food at very reasonable prices. Later we went to the hotel Disco but turned in early. The midnight fireworks woke us up - so we wished each other a Happy New Year and then promptly went back to sleep.

Our favorite Barra de Navidad restaurant was closed for New Years, but we did get there on Friday night. Profumo di Sole is run by a great young Italian couple and they make great food.

We'll work on taking more pictures and getting them up on the website soon!

We're back on our regular emails, but Internet is expensive here, so we're only on about 1 hour per day.

We want to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Warmest Regards,

Bill & Mary

Tenacatita

2008-12-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks!

We want to wish you all a very Happy New Year Tomorrow!

We had an uneventful passage around Cabo Corrientes on Saturday, had dinner and spent the night in Ipala.

Ipala is one of our favorite anchorages. Not because it's such a beautiful anchorage - which is is. And not because it's a great anchorage - it's pretty marginal. But because they have 3 beach Palapas and serve the best Lobsters in Mexico (at least that we've run across so far).

We each had a plate of Langostas con Mojo de Ajo (grilled lobster with Garlic). We each got 3 large lobsters halves - we think over a kilo total. Absolutely, fantastic! And only 240 pesos per plate (about $19 US).

OK, lobster is not on our diet. But remember - it's a lifestyle diet we're on, not a religion! We do stick to the diet most days - but when the opportunity presents itself for a truly wonderful meal - we have no qualms whatsoever and go for it!

Saturday night wasn't a great sleep night as our anchor chain was grinding away on some rocks on the bottom of Ipala bay. All the noise of the chain grinding on the bottom is transmitted up to our cabin in the forward section of the boat. Also, as the chain caught on the rocks it was pretty jerky. Oh bother.

The next morning (Sunday), we were up at first light (7 am) and continued on to Chamela.

Chamela was crowded with many Mexican Families in for the holiday weekend. We were thrilled as a few of the Palapas again had live music. It was much more lively than last year.

On Monday, we walked the beach and had lunch at Manualita's Restaurant. We stopped at the tortilla factory in town and bought a kilo of fresh corn tortillas for 10 pesos ($0.80 US).

Monday afternoon it blew about 25 knots in the anchorage from the South. So it was pretty lumpy until late in the afternoon when the wind died and was dead flat calm all night.

This morning, Tuesday, we were off again for Tenacatita. We motored in continued calm seas with only a few knots of land breeze and arrived at 1130AM.

Only about a dozen boats in here so far, down from the thirty or so here last year.

Tomorrow we head into Barra de Navidad for New Years.

That's the latest from Raptor Dance.

Warmest Regards,
Bill & Mary

We're on the go!

2008-12-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

We are enroute to one of our favorite anchorages, Ipala. We left Paradise Village at 7AM (Central) this morning to a beautiful sunrise.

As we are going to be on the go and anchoring out until New Years Eve - please use our Winlink address (the one this message is coming from) to reach us.

Remember if you use it:

1) Put the characters: //WK2K in the message subject. Winlink has a new Spam filter and you need to put that in the subject for your message to get through

2) Only send us messages you type - it's a very low speed radio link - no attachments, pictures, jokes, etc.

3) DO NOT REPLY to this message. Send us a new one. If you reply, you will likely send a copy of our message back to us. Bad news bears!
-----
We got our engine heat exchanger on Tuesday, the 23rd. "Teapot Tony" the Mechanic, put it in the morning of the 24th. We did a test run and the engine was working great again.

Later in the day we went to a lovely Christmas Eve dinner at the Vallarta Yacht Club and had a very relaxing 25th.

Sunday, we did all the important provisioning. First the Chocolate ladies at Xocodiva in downtown PV. We picked up 2 kilos of 70% dark (should last us a few weeks). Then for groceries, we went to Mega Commercial and Costco. Getting back to the boat, we stowed everything, got the boat ready to depart, made dinner, watched a few DVDs and turned in. This morning, off we went!

We left a bit later than we originally planned due to the engine problems, but we still intend to stop at Ipala and Chamela before arriving in Barra de Navidad on New Years Eve. We'll continue on to many of our other favorite places: Santiago Bay and Tenacatita at the end of January.

Happy Holidays to you all!
Bill & Mary
SV Raptor Dance
20 34 N
105 28 W

Veggie Raptor Chili Wins in Puerto Vallarta!

2008-12-23T16:01:00.009-08:00

Our Team - Jamie, Linda, Mary, Bill, & Ed

Our low-fat vegan chili won the 9th Annual Cruisers Chili Cook Off in Puerto Vallarta on December 6, 2008, our 4th win in a row!

We really never thought we had a chance this year. After 3 consecutive wins out of 3 total entries, we decided to go Vegan! Who would have thought a Vegan recipe could compete against the other all meat entrants, but we did! Why, because it tastes so darned fantastic!

The recipe was invented by executive chefs Bill & Mary with assistance in the prep and serving by sous chefs Ed, Linda, & Jamie.

Here are our prior 3 wins with the links to the 2 that are available online.

"Raptor Red" Chili - Vallarta Yacht Club Chili Cookoff - December 2007
"Raptor Red, Top of the Food Chain" Chili - Sailfest, Zihuatanejo Chili Cookoff - February 2007
Queen Anne's Revenge Chili - Vallarta Yacht Club Chili Cookoff - December 2006

We have reduced this recipe to a more manageable size for you all, rather than the amount we made for the Chili Cook Off (5+ Gallons). We have given approximate amounts as there is no exact recipe – judge by sight, tasting along the way. We didn't follow anyone else's recipe but created this between us. This should make just over a gallon of Chili.

With the vegetables (corn, carrots, onions, garlic), plantains and beans judge by sight what ratio looks best – the finished product should have a pleasing appearance as well as taste.

When you are all done the flavor component contributors are: the green sauce and limes for brightness; the plantain, garlic and onion, for sweetness; and the chilies, por su puesto (of course), for heat.

The basic outline is:

1. Cook the beans separately,
2. Mix the green sauce ahead or while the vegetables are cooking,
3. Sauté the base vegetable group,
4. Add the tomatoes,
5. Add the beans, more vegetables and seasonings and cook to blend the flavors,
6. Taste and add the green sauce,
7. Taste and add plantain,
8. Taste and adjust balance and seasoning as necessary.

Green sauce: This is a good sauce on it's own too.

• Tomatillos - 2 cups+ rough cut
• Cilantro - 1 bunch remove any tough stems
• Garlic - 1 clove
• Jalapeño – 1 rough cut

Process tomatillos in a blender, add the remaining ingredients and blend. Taste. If the tomatillos are older, you may need to add some lime juice.

Beans:

• black beans - 2 cups dry (makes 2 quarts)
• dried pasilla pepper - 1

Soak he beans overnight - 4 to 8 hours in cold water.
Remove the seeds from the pasilla pepper and lightly toast in a dry pan.

Cook the pepper and beans, in sufficient water in a pressure cooker 10 minutes on second ring or simmer on top of the stove in a regular pot, checking for doneness, for up to an hour.
Be careful not to overcook the beans so they do not fall apart in the chili.

Before draining the beans, taste the cooking water. It should have a nice flavor. If it is, save some to add at any point that you need water or need to thin the chili.

Chili:

• chopped onions - 4 cups, +1/2 cup reserved for garnish
• diced carrots - 2 cups, +1 cup reserved
• diced celery - 1 cup
• garlic, whole cloves - 10-20, +10 coarse chopped reserved
• tomatoes - 2 16oz cans chopped or whole tomatoes chopped
• tomato paste - 1 can
• cumin - 1+ teaspoon
• coriander - 1+ teaspoon
• jalapeños - 2+ as desired
• poblanos - 2+ as desired
• dried pasilla - 1+ as desired, seeds removed
• chipotle powder - 3/4-1 tablespoon or more. This is another thing to judge by taste. Add more as needed rather than too much to start with.
• árbol chilies - as many as necessary to bring it to the heat level that you want
• corn - 2 cups
• very ripe (black) plantains - 3 diced

The Process:

• Cook the black beans and make the green sauce as described above.
• In a pot that will hold at least 6 quarts, Sauté the onion, carrots and celery in a small amount of water (just enough water to keep the vegetables from sticking in the beginning).
• During the cooking process if your batch gets too thick, thin with bean cooking liquid or water.
• When this softens add the whole garlic cloves.
• Cook to soften the garlic.
• Remove seeds from pasilla, toast the pasilla lightly in a dry pan.
• Now either puree in a blender with some of the tomatoes or chop.
• Add pasillas and the additional tomatoes, diced carrots and corn.
• Sauté the tomato paste until a rust color in a pan with a little water, add to the vegetables.
• Now add the beans, jalapeños, poblanos, reserved chopped garlic, coriander, pasilla, cumin and chipotle.
• Simmer to blend the seasonings and cook the carrots – about 20 minutes
• Taste for balance and heat. Add additional seasonings as needed.
• Add the green sauce.
• Taste. You may be happy with it right here and just need to balance the flavors. Or continue and add the chopped plantain.
• Taste and adjust for heat and acidity. Add lime juice to make the taste brighter.
• Serve with your choice of toppings, we like chopped raw white onions and chopped jalapeños.

Raptor Dance Update - Since Summer Started

2008-12-20T14:49:00.014-08:00

Greetings and Happy Holidays to everyone.
(See all our pictures at http://raptordance.com)

Yes, it has been a long time since we posted an update. We are fine and frisky. We just got caught up in the local action when we returned to Mexico.

We had a great time being back in California for the summer. One of the best times was with Mary's family in Pennsylvania for a celebration party for her parents with a big crowd of friends and family, mainly coming from different parts of the east coast. We children wanted to give this party while they could still kick up their heels and have a ball. There was eating and drinking, music and dancing, and laughing and hugging. Mom and Dad loved it.

We also purchased an elliptical trainer and set it up in our garage gym, this helped us get in better shape. We still watch Food Network on the Tivo while exercising as motivation – but the recipes have lost a lot of their appeal due to our new diet.

In July, we went in for checkups and Bill's Dr. wanted him to increase his medication for blood pressure and cholesterol. That was the last straw! He did a lot of research and as a result we switch to a new lifestyle diet. As a result of that diet, he's now off all medications. Since we returned home from Mexico in late May, Bill lost 30 pounds and Mary 20. From our peak weight on July 1, 2005, Bill is down a total of 70 pounds and Mary's off 55. You can see Bill's "before" picture here: http://raptordance.com/Jul05/pages/DSCN0019_edited-1.html

If you are interested in our diet, it's no added fat, sweetener, salt Vegan (just because it is a healthier diet). If you are interested in the details, you can find out more at http://www.webmd.com/diet/ornish-diet-what-it-is and http://www.drmcdougall.com/free.html

Note, this is a lifestyle diet, not a religion. We are free to eat whatever we want, just not every day.

Another most interesting time during the summer was an adventurous caving excursion at California Caverns. http://www.caverntours.com/CalifRt.htm Looking for the most exciting time, we took the Middle Earth Tour. It is the most extensive and extreme caving experience available to non pros. http://www.caverntours.com/CCMiddleEarth.htm

It certainly was an experience. In that moment some spots were "not fun". That would be sliding through the dark (headlights only) tunnel being able to propel ourselves only by our elbows. It was so narrow and low that we had to be on our bellies in the wet mud for too long of a passage. It was interesting and beautiful in spots. That made up somewhat for the drop into cold muddy water and the caked on mud. We went in looking dorky with the overalls, kneepads, gloves helmets and headlights, and just came out as a complete muddy mess…not a spa treatment.

Ah, the things we do for fun. I might recommend the walking tour. That is unless you really like squeezing through a passage too small for an inflated basket ball! It's a good thing we lost most of our weight by then.

Another highlight was Bill's surprise birthday party. That is a long story on it's own. I'll just say it is not an easy thing to pull off when the person is present during preparation time. Luckily Bill was focused on other things, so he misread the splattered cake icing as a failed attempt to make something else and missed the smell of chocolate cake when he exited the shower (open windows helped).

The cake was in the shape of a duck which was a bit hit. As many of you know Bill grew up on a farm with a pet duck, named Ritz Quackers. Bill thinks the duck imprinted on him. Mary thinks Bill imprinted on the duck!

Mary's series of lame excuses for strange culinary behavior had Bill thinking that Mary might be getting Alzheimer's! Fortunately, it was a ploy.

A fun time was had by all!

Over the summer Bill handled his chores as Treasurer for the Vallarta Yacht Club remotely via the Internet. Bill is also the entire Information Technology Department for the Yacht Club, including Webmaster, see: http://vallartayachtclub.org He also did a number of websites for other folks, including one for Mary's Jewelry endeavor, see: http://marymackdesigns.com For the complete list of websites see: http://williamfinkelstein.com/

Before we knew it the summer was over and we were on our way to Puerto Vallarta in the Jeep (loaded). The first stop was southern California to visit with Bill's family and continue his BD celebration. From there we had a smooth journey and arrived well rested on the third day (one night in Nogales AZ and one in Navajoa in Sonora, Mexico). It's about 1,600 miles from LA to PV.

Since we got here, we've been involved in the usual social whirlwind, twice a week Spanish Class and a pile of boat chores, more on those later.

December 3, 4, 5 was the Banderas Bay Blast (no pictures of us, but see: http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2008-12-08&dayid=2040 ).

This fun event featured a cruisers rally from our home Marina, to Marina La Cruz – about 7 nautical miles away. We spent the first night at La Cruz Marina, where the Marina provided free slips to the participants.

This is a new marina and the work is still in progress but the slips are in as well as the very nice shower facilities, restaurant and Sky Bar. The view from the Sky Bar is great, looking out over the breakwater to the water. This evening it was also used for a perverted game of dodge ball, Instead of avoiding the ball, the aim was to catch the water filled balloons (that's Bill waiting to try to catch the Balloon). Very tough. But everyone was in great spirits and willing to give it a try. Few, very few succeeded. After everyone dried off we had a fun party at the local cruisers' hangout: Philo's Bar.

The 4th featured an upwind race to Punta de Mita. Upwind on our boat is fine as long as you don't have to tack too much… Guess what we did – oh, bother. Our friend Linda (Leendah) joined us for this mucho tacking leg.

At Punta de Mita, we anchored out and took a panga (Mexican 27 foot fiberglass launch) ashore for the party at "Margarita's Restaurant". The panga ride was especially important going back to the boat. The swell was up. We would have had a difficult time getting out in our dingy. We would have been, at least, drenched.

The final day, the 5th, featured a Spinnaker run and another party (are you detecting a theme here?) at the Vallarta Yacht Club. Our friends Pat & Bob from Berkeley were staying in PV and they had an interesting bus ride to Punta de Mita to join us for this leg.

December 6th was the 9th annual charity Chili Cookoff here at the Vallarta Yacht Club. We thought we would retire undefeated after our last two wins here and the one at Sail Fest in Zihuatanejo, but we got seduced into entering again. With our new diet, we devised a batch of Very Low Fat, Salt, unsweetened Vegan Chili.

We figured we didn't have a chance. After all, Vegetarian Chili is an oxymoron! Real chili has only meat, chilies and a few vegetables (onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes, etc). But we won 1st place in the Cruisers Division yet again! That's 4 for 4 for team Raptor!

We'll post the recipe soon (after we figure out what we did!). A lot of people thought our secret ingredient was Mangos, but in reality it was very ripe (i.e. very black) Plantains.

Reader warning – Geeky boat content follows:

Dear Raptor Dance had an early encounter with bees in June after we left and a second close encounter not long before we arrived in October. Bees like to make hives inside boat masts. We thought our mast was safe because we have internal halyards rattling around inside the mast. They entered the openings low in the mast, below the internal halyards, and flew down into the bilge. From there they came up through a grate into the saloon. Luckily a dock mate and our boat minder saw the swam and alerted us. We had hired a boat minder for while we were away. That was good. He was able to bring in a "Bee Man" and cleaners to rid us of our new friends. The October encounter didn't result in a hive, just a swarm around the top of the mast.

Next year we're going to try the preventative technique of moth balls inside the mast.

After we got to PV on October 29th we had a lot of boat chores to do this year. The first was thing was cleaning and gathering any bees that escaped detection. We were worried that we would need to wash everything inside the boat but no insecticide needed to be used inside. We also thought we would find bees scattered throughout the boat but there was only a handful mainly at the base of the mast and some bee mummies inside lockers (the cleaners did a great job).

All summer we had run one of our Air Conditioners in "dehumidify" mode. Basically, it came on once every 8 hours and ran for an hour to remove the moisture from the air. We did this in past years and it worked great. This year it did too, but when we got here we noticed that we had a lot of marine growth in the raw water system and that particular unit seem to have lost it's mojo (it wasn't cooling as well as it used to).

After a visit from the local refrigeration guy who put more gas in our system – it's efficiency was back to normal… But only for a month. Turns out our air handler had a medium gas leak. So we ordered a new one and had it flown in and installed.

The marine growth was ultimately solved with a muriatic acid soak. We then discovered a great trick. We get 3 inch pool chlorine tablets at the local PV Home Depot, divide them in quarters and put a chunk into the raw water strainer every 7 to 10 days. Since we started doing that, no growth!

During normal engine service, we discovered a heat exchanger leak and we started losing coolant overboard (your exhaust water turns green!). A marine engine's heat exchanger is basically like a car radiator. Except instead of dumping the excess engine heat to the air, it transfers it into sea water that's pumped through it. The whole assembly is about 18 inches long and 4 inches in diameter. It's not too hard to change, but once it leaks it's impossible to fix.

Oh bother. At this moment we are waiting for the new heat exchange to be flown in to fix that. Hopefully we can get it installed before Christmas so we can leave for our cruise down to Manzanillo. We had expected to be in Chamela for Christmas. Right now it is anyone's guess where we will be. We will be fine wherever we are.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!
Happy Hanukkah!
And a Happy New Year!

End of the 2007-2008 Season

2008-05-05T18:28:00.012-07:00

When you last heard from us it was February and we were anchored in Tenacatita on our way north to Puerto Vallarta.

After a couple of days catching up with sailing friends who were in Tenacatita we left for Chamela. What a great trip that was! We saw whales, dolphins, turtles and lots of feeding birds and fish. Unfortunately I did not have any of our hand lines out to catch any of those fish. The truth is that we had not been catching many fish which lead to less fishing. In fact we sold our (like new) fishing polls and gear when we were in Barra. Our friends, who are much better fisherman catch way more fish than they can use – so we've still been enjoying frequent, fresh, free seafood! Real fisherman have a variety of techniques that they use, including kites on helium balloons to keep the bail lightly on the surface. Who knew!

Chamela was very quiet at this time. There were only a dozen boats in the anchorage. It seems that Barra was the favorite place to be for cruisers this season. Some mornings there would be as many as 70 boats sign in on the Barra morning net. We were on a roll so the next morning at first light we raised anchor and headed to Ipala.

Many people don't bother going into Ipala because it is a small cove which is partly taken up with the local fishing pangas and a few fishing pens and the town is small, very small. BUT, we have had the best lobster dinners there. We like it. In fact, as we pulled in I think our mouths were already watering for some yummy lobster. We invited the other couple of boats to go with us and we headed to shore.

Hopes dashed! They did not have any lobster but we did have a great Huachinango (whole red snapper), a good time and made new friends. As long as boats anchor in a reasonable fashion (not anchoring right in the middle) there is room for at least 6 boats inside. More can anchor a little further out but it is not quite as protected.

We left early the next morning and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise as we rounded Cabo Corrientes. The wind was blowing 20 knots but as soon as we rounded we were in flat seas and virtually no wind. We still had whales breaching around us as we crossed the bay. By early afternoon we were back and tied up in paradise Marina. We feel like we have so many homes now. It felt just like coming home when we pulled in, as it does when we go to Barra or back to Santa Rosa.

This year the weather was much cooler. I often needed a light wrap in the evening. Right now it is perfect weather for me but a little warm for Bill. It's in the 80's during the day and high 70's in the evening. We received reports that in March there were days of fog in the Barra area. That was a first. We have never seen fog. Plus there was a serious red tide around the same time. It's only now in May that the temperatures are approaching normal. It will be interesting to see what the weather is like in the Sea of Cortez this year.

Here in Nuevo Vallarta we saw, for a day or two at the end of April, what looks like lots of soap suds piling up on the beach. The locals say this is caused by warm and cold water meeting. Actually we think it is the protein by-product of the red tide organisms dying out at sea. Not a normal occurrence around here.

It was good being back in Paradise. We were able to visit and celebrate my birthday with Cindy and Scott on SV Beach House, a Switch 51' catamaran. Then we were able to spend time and celebrate my birthday with Linda of condo fame and our friends, Carl, Yvette, Joel and Kyle from SV Liberty before they made the "puddle jump" to the Marquesas and South Pacific. What!? Yes. We do believe in the two party system. And Liberty has arrived and is already enjoying the islands. It was good getting reconnected with our buddies here.

Then family, my brother Joe, his wife Ginny, son Rob with his wife Sue, plus their children Andrea and Eric arrived in style on a cruise ship. It was our good fortune that they had a long shore time. We were able do a bit of exploring in Puerto Vallarta with them and show them what life is like in Nuevo Vallarta.

Later that evening, we went to the Puerto Vallarta Botanical Gardens for their members' appreciation dinner, we had a great time with food, drink and fantastic fireworks right overhead. The Botanical Gardens is a great non-profit that also supports the local school system. We also visited the gardens again later with our friends Scott and Cindy.

On February 19th the new board was elected for the Vallarta Yacht Club. Bill had agreed and was elected Treasurer. The committee knew they were getting a good man but never did they expect what was coming. Every day, except during the Banderas Bay Regatta and a few odd days, Bill has spent in the yacht club and on the computer either there or on the boat totally revising the club. He has gone through all the documents, files, accounts, accounting systems and procedures, computing systems, ISP relationships, WiFi and bank accounts since it's inception. He has revised procedures, simplifying and improving them; implemented a budget (something new); instituted cash controls; done a complete audit; changed banks; changed web hosting providers and totally redid the website.

He has been working with the managers and staff every step of the way so they know how to follow through. You know Bill, he has totally redone the yacht club website and continues to improve it. Enough said…the list would go on and on. This did limit our activities greatly but Bill really enjoyed doing it. It makes me think that maybe he would enjoy getting back into business (comment from Bill: "NOT!"). You can see the results of the website rebuild at http://vallartayachtclub.org

While Bill was spending time at the yacht club, I used some of that time to take over the boat and spread out all the pearls, gems and jewelry making paraphernalia. I love the creative aspect, designing pieces that are unique. The logistics of taking a piece in my imagination to its end is sometimes a challenge but always fun. They all become one of a kind pieces. I have also been able to help other women with jewelry problems and teach techniques.

In between all that we had some boating fun. Vallarta Race Week in Banderas Bay was a little different this year. It was composed of The San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race, The Mexorc Race, The Governor's Cup and The Banderas Bay Regatta (BBR). There was a lot going on!

We hosted 2 boats from the San Diego to PV Race, Holua and Beowulf, both from the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey. This amounted to greeting them with buckets of beer, tequila and anything else we could think of and helping them in any way we could. The finish line was at Punta Mita at the north end of the bay. That gave us a little notice of the approximate time they would arrive. Plus we (and anyone) could track the boats on their route down the coast on-line. Only one boat did not show up on-line…something about their transponder not working. We were lucky. Our boats arrived during daylight.

Mexorc was mainly Mexican boats. The BBR overlapped the Mexorc races. Each one of these events had evening activities planned. There was no lack of sailors, family and friends enjoying the music, food, drink and sailing stories.

We had planned to race Raptor Dance and our friends Lani and June (our ringers) came down to enjoy and help us. But we do need 7 or even 8 crew to race. The two of us are fine cruising but racing is a different animal. Actions need to happen fast and sometimes in tight quarters. Finding additional crew was difficult. There are fewer sail boats and fewer sailors in Paradise. Many of the slips are filled with powerboats or by commuter cruisers. A friend of a friend on Huma Huma, a catamaran, was also having the same difficulty. If we had the courage to wait until two days before the race, we would have had crew. Some sailing friends, who would be crew, arrived at the last minute. Before that time came though we had decided to crew on Huma Huma with the plan that if anything broke (or whatever) on Huma Huma, we would continue on Raptor Dance. We were already registered.

It was interesting and quite different racing on a catamaran. The feel is totally different. Instead of healing (leaning) the cat runs along flat. It doesn't give the same sense of speed even though we were going 20+ knots at times – about 2 1/2 times our normal speed on Raptor Dance. It actually made us love our boat all the more, no offense to Huma Huma. Tacking may be easier on this Cat but preparing and popping the spinnaker is a breeze on ours. The boat did very well. The majority of the crew were experienced racers and all were captains. You should have seen those "meetings"! We came in first in our class. It was a great team effort. A few of the crew may be on our boat next year. We'll plan further ahead for next year.

While Lani and June were here, we took time for a road trip! We ventured inland to the little towns of San Sebastian de Oeste and Mascota. Until the last year, these towns were only reachable over a dirt road. You also had to ford a river. Recently a new bridge was built and the paved road was finished. Now you can drive all the way from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara on this new mountain road. It's very scenic and the villages are still pretty much untouched. This is a major historic silver mining area and there is a lot of history here.

It's now early May and Bill is pretty much finished with all the projects at the yacht club. We are completing a few boat chores to do in preparation for the summer. We are again leaving the boat in Paradise Marina, the safest place in case of any storms. Banderas Bay has never had a hurricane.

We did take time out on Saturday to do another Canopy Tour. So far, we've counted at least 5 different Canopy Tour operators here in Banderas Bay. Each has it's own character. This one, Canopy La Vista, is not as long, fast or exciting as El Eden or Los Veranos, but it has great views of Banderas Bay – hence the name. It also uses a different pulley technology. With their system, you use a glove with a thick pad to both steer and brake – very interesting and quite different. It actually has a number of advantages in that you are more stable around the vertical axis with this system so you have more opportunity to look around.

Particularly noticeable during the canopy tour is how dry it currently is. We're just at the end of the dry season. The mountains in particular are as dry and brown as California. In June the summer rains start again. When they do, look out! It's normal here to get many inches of rain per hour during a summer thunder storm. When we arrived back in October, the last storm of the season dropped 2 inches of rain in half an hour. Don, the weather guru, calls Puerto Vallarta in Summer "web foot city" and for good reason.

Thursday, we will begin our drive north to Santa Rosa, plant some tomatoes and drink some good Sonoma County wine.

We hope you all are well and enjoying this Spring. We love hearing from you.

On the Mexican Riviera

2008-02-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

We raised anchor at the Las Hadas anchorage at 930 AM this morning, starting our journey back up to Puerto Vallarta, with planned stops in Tenacatita, Chamela and Ipala.

This was our Southern most destination this year.

On our way South, we stopped at Bahia de Chamela for Christmas. We had a lovely time again with very few cruisers and mostly local families. Only 3 boats were anchored in the bay on Christmas day. Festivities were more subdued than last year as the economy in Mexico, as in the US is in a bit of a slump. No live Mariachi bands this year, just recorded music.

Coming down from PV to Chamela, we were a little concerned as our speed was about 3/4 knot slower than expected. We thought it might be due to an adverse current, which it partially was, but when I (Bill) dove in the boat I saw that the bottom was quite dirty and needed cleaning.

Before we left Puerto Vallarta, we asked Guillermo the Diver clean bottom, but this time, his sons did it - he's breaking them into the business. His kids only cleaned the first 3 feet down! The keel, especially the bottom, looked like a forest!

I started cleaning, free diving. One hour into it, I felt a Jellyfish sting on my arm. Ouch! I knocked off for the day. The next day I continued with my thin 1 MM dive skin on. No more problems. The third day, I continued working on the bottom with SCUBA and got the keel, the bottom of the keep and prop clean, the way we like them!

Interestingly, we just had the bottom done in October, but the water down here is so warm that the sea life grows really fast! Even with new bottom paint.

After a few days in Chamela of work and play, we continued on to Tenacatita Bay.

This is another lovely anchorage that's a favorite of many of the cruisers here in Mexico. Some folks stay for months!

Chris and Heather Stockard of SV Legacy ( http://legacysailing.com ) had just left to head South to Central America with their two Portuguese Water Dogs, Kira and Minnow. Chris and Heather as you may remember, served as "Mayor" and "First Lady" of Tenacatita for the last two years, organizing the daily swim to the beach, Bocci Ball, Dominoes, Volleyball and the weekly dingy raft up/cocktail party. With the loss of leadership, the anchorage was very mellow and quiet.

It wasn't until after we left that things got organized again. We're heading back today to Tenacatita, so we'll report on how it is. At it's peak, a few years ago, some called it "Camp Tenacatita" because of it's activities and organization. Hopefully, it remains mellower than that.

On New Years eve, we pulled into Isla Navidad Marina, where we stayed until Feb 2nd. We had a delightful stay re-exploring one of our favorite areas. A new Italian Restaurant, "Profumo di Sole", opened up run by a delightful couple from Bolonia, Italy. The Pasta is all made in the restaurant and everything is fantastic! The prices are also quite reasonable, especially considering the quality.

They have prosciutto on the menu, but we couldn't have it the first few times we visited since their slicer was broken. Mary, Carl (from SV Liberty) and I spent a couple of hours one afternoon fixing it, so we could enjoy their lovely appetizer with great local melon!.

The start of the month of January seemed to drag slowly by as we didn't get into the rhythm and we didn't have enough friends in town to socialize with. The end of the month flew by however as more and more people arrived. The second week of January was the low with only a dozen boats in the Marina and Lagoon. By the end of the month, there were over 60. I think we'll come down a touch later next year.

Back in Puerto Vallarta in December, Mary took and passed her amateur radio Extra Class License exam and also the test to become a Volunteer Examiner. In January, Dean of Emily B, Mary and I held a ham exam aboard Emily B in the Barra Lagoon. 5 folks showed up and 4 passed their exams. A very successful session. We think this was the first session held afloat in the Barra Lagoon. "The French Baker" catered the continental breakfast we had available for everyone.

On Feb 2nd, we left Barra to visit the Manzanillo area. We spent a night in Santiago Bay, having dinner with our friends Patti and Frosty from SV Angelfish; a night anchored in Ensenada Carrizal and two nights in the Las Hadas anchorage.

In Las Hadas, we visited Stan and MJ formerly of the Valiant 40, Sol Mate, who sold their boat and bought a "fixer upper" near the town of Santiago. Gosh, they've already done a lot, but have a ways to go on their lovely home.

As I type this, we're just off the coast about a mile, about halfway between Manzanillo and Tenacatita...

Later, we dropped anchor this afternoon in Tenacatita at 2:30 PM CST.

That's the news from Raptor Dance!

Warmest Regards,
Bill & Mary

Santiago Bay

2008-02-05T17:05:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that we're having such a fun time down here that we've fallen a little behind posting our pictures and stories.

We'll try to catch up soon.

In highlight (details later):

We had a great Christmas in Chamela, then moved on to Tenacatita Bay.

On New Years eve, we pulled into the Isla Navidad Marina, next the the Wyndham Grand Bay Hotel (winner of a number of award for "The Best Resort in Mexico").

A month of helping the local school, socializing, dining and just sitting by the pool ensued.

We spent the month of January there and left yesterday Feb 2 to anchor out.

We're now in Santiago Bay near Manzanillo and are planning to move later this morning to anchor in Ensenada Carazal just around the corner.

You can keep an eye on our current location on our website (Last 90D link).

We'll be on this, our winlink address for the next two weeks until we get back to Paradise Village. Just remember, no replies or forwards!

Warmest Wishes to all for a happy and healthy new year!

Bill & Mary

Escape from Paradise

2007-12-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

We did it.

We actually cast off our lines and headed out at 4AM yesterday, Dec 23rd. Leaving our home slip in Paradise Village until our planned return on Feb 15th.

We rounded Cabo Corrientes at 9 am with light wind and lumpy seas and motored all the way down to Bahia de Chamela. The seas continued lumpy, with 6-8 foot swells, mainly from behind. Their period was pretty short, so we could only make about 6 knots.

Further dampening our spirits, it was overcast with a light fog, so visibility was only about 4 miles. Cool too, courtesy of a "Pineapple Express": high level clouds that blow up from the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the ICTZ. So we were sitting there grumbling all day in light jackets. Granted in was still in the 60s and low 70s, but hey, this is Mexico, not Canada!

We arrived in Chamela just after dark and anchored 350 yards offshore in 25 feet of water (at low tide). This morning in Chamela, the clouds have parted and are making their exit. It's warming up too, in the 70s already at 830 AM (CST).

Chamela is on of our favorite anchorages, especially for Christmas Day. Hundreds of Mexican families descend on the bay for the week, with their kids, grandparents... sisters and their cousins, who they recon up by dozens, and their aunts (with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan)...

Many of the palapa restaurants on the beach have Mariachis. Cart vendors are on the beach too selling everything from beach toys, we especially like the cocodrilo (inflatable crocodile) to elote (corn on the cob on a stick).

Right now, there are only 4 boats in this anchorage that could easily hold 50 or more.

We find it hard to understand why most of our cruising friends try to get to a port with a major gathering of boaters to go to a Christmas potluck with other (mostly) Canadians and Americans - when they could experience this fantastic cultural fiesta!

You can see our pictures from past years (2004 and 2006) on our website at http://raptordance.com

You can also get our current position and our track for the last 90 days on our site too, click on the "Position" and "Last 90d" links on the menu bar just below our homepage pictures to pull these up.

We're away from the Internet until we get to our next port (Barra de Navidad), just after New Years - so our Winlink or Sailmail addresses are the best way to reach us for the next week or so.

I'm sending this from my Winlink address which is slow speed radio email so PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE AND SEND OUR MESSAGE BACK TO US. Either send us a new message or delete the text of our message in your reply.

We love hearing from you all, so don't hesitate to drop us a note, but just send us what you personally type. No photos, other attachments and no forwards please!

Warmest Regards and Happy Holidays!
Bill and Mary

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-20T18:52:00.001-08:00

We have had a good year, complete with family visits, sailing, traveling to new areas, gardening and nesting at home and meeting many new and old friends.

We wish you all the best that the Holidays can be.

May the New Year bring all you wish for.

Since we got back to Puerto Vallarta we've been busy with boat projects and the social scene. We did have a chance to do a land trip which we shared with you.

Having a car in Mexico has made it a lot easier to get around. Just last Sunday, we took the car to a lovely village "La Disembocada" and hiked up the Rio Mascota a few miles to a natural hot springs. Very relaxing!

We getting ready to head off this weekend to spend the 25th anchored out in Chamela Bay.

We'll continue to share our more interesting adventures with you via our Friends and Family list.

Warmest Regards,
Bill & Mary

Raptor Red Chili - Version 2.0 - The Winner in Paradise

2007-12-03T15:18:00.000-08:00

This recipe won at the December 1, 2007 Charity Chili Cook Off at the Vallarta Yacht Club in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico.

So far, we've entered three Chili Cook Offs in the last year and won all three!

This recipe is an update of our winner from Zihuatanejo (see that recipe). We lightened the chili up a bit and adapted to the greater volume (5 gal) needed for this competition.

This recipe is fairly complex and should be prepared at least a day ahead to allow the flavors to blend. It freezes and reheats well. Serve with a dollop of Toasted Cumin Crema (recipe below).

You will need to do a lot of tasting as you go along to get the best results.

The pot is important. It should be big enough to hold the whole batch. The pot should also have a thick bottom to spread the heat so the chili doesn't burn.

We don't have a big pot on board, so we used one supplied by the Yacht Club. That pot was non-reactive stainless steel (it's important to not use uncoated aluminum). It had a capacity of nearly 6 gallons, but it was thin metal and had a warped bottom and would not heat properly on the stove. We mitigated the issue by heating the whole put in the oven at just over 325° F, stirring at least every hour.

On the day of the contest, we put the pot over 3 concrete blocks and used Sterno to keep it hot - then stirring every few minutes while we dished out the samples.

The following makes approximately 5 gallons of Chili.

-----

Preparation:

The Meat:

The meat is very important. You want a flavorful cut of beef with some connective tissue. We prefer skirt steak or flank steak. We used 7.5+ Kilos (about 16 pounds) of un-marinated Arrachara, Mexican skirt steak.

Cut the meat into cubes (do not use ground meat). For meal or side dish sized servings, cut into 1/2 inch cubes. For competition sized (tiny) servings, cut into 3/8 inch cubes. Season the beef with salt and pepper.

The Chili Molé (gravy):

We selected a variety of dried and fresh chilies at the local market. If you're not familiar with the chilies, you should taste a sliver of each (after toasting and rehydration of the dried ones) to help you balance the flavor. You may need to use more or less of each based on their size and flavor.

A good guide to identifying chilies can be found on the web at http://www.chillisgalore.co.uk/pages/varietys1.html

You can also substitute canned chipotlés in adobo sauce for the dried. Just skip the soaking and skinning step and include the adobo with the chipotlés in the blender, more chipotlés will yield a smokier product.

Dried Chilies (possibly more of each if small, buy extras):
4 Chipotlé
6 Ancho
8 Pasilla
5 Cascabel
8 New Mexican
6 Guajillo

Remove the seeds and stems from the dried chilies. Then toast the dried chilies (except the chipotlés) in a dry pan until fragrant, be careful not to burn.

Pour boiling water over the toasted chilies and allow to rehydrate 30 minutes.

Scrape the meat off the skin of the chipotlés and cascabeles (or any other thick skinned chilies) and put in a blender. Do not use their skins. Thin skin chilies can be added directly to the blender.

Add water to the blender to cover. Taste the chili soaking water and use it if not bitter. Blend until smooth.

Strain through a sieve to produce around 2 liters of a very thick sauce.

The Aromatics:

8 Poblano chilies, seeded and diced
10 Jalapeño chilies, seeded and diced
9 Large Red and/or White Onions, finely diced
1 1/2 cup of chopped garlic

Other Ingredients:

* Olive Oil
6 bottles of dark beer, we used Indio
1 bottle red wine (750ml)
3 Oz Mexican Hot Chocolate (they come in pucks about an oz. each) chopped
8 14 1/2 oz cans of chopped tomatoes
2 6 oz can of tomato paste
8 14 1/2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
8 Tbsp ground cumin (or more to taste)
3 Tbsp ground arbol chilies (more for hotter chili)
6 Tbsp ground ancho chilies
6 Tbsp ground pasilla chilies

Ingredients to balance taste and consistency:

* Beef Broth (we used concentrated bullion and added the equivalent of 1 liter without the liquid)
* Fresh lime juice (we added the juice of 6 large limes)
* Salt and pepper
* Additional ground chilies (or your favorite chili powder)
* Hot Sauce or Salsa
* Thickener as needed - we used 1 part corn starch to 2 parts water. You could also use Masa or even crushed tortilla chips.

-----

Cooking:

Add approximately 1 Tsp Olive Oil in your frying pan (we had 2 pans going at the same time) and brown the beef in small batches.

Do not crowd the pan. You want to brown the beef not steam it, do not burn the beef. When the surface of the beef cubes has a deep brown color, Add the batch of beef to your pot.

Between batches, deglaze the frying pan with some of the beer, reduce slightly and add to the pot.

When all the beef is done, sweat the aromatics in batches. For each batch add 1 Tsp of olive oil to the pan and season each with salt. Add each to the pot when done.

Sweat the fresh chilies, sweat 3 or 4 minutes until fragrant (be careful of the fumes).

Sweat the onions 4 to 6 minutes until translucent.

Sweat the garlic for 1 minute.

Add a little olive oil to your empty fry pan and add the can of tomato paste. Cook, stirring frequently until the paste takes on a rust color (1 to 2 minutes). Add to the pot, use beer to get all the tomato paste out of the pan and add to the pot.

Now add the chili molé, chocolate, chopped tomatoes, remaining beer, wine, ground cumin, other ground chilies and black beans to the pot.

Note - REAL Chili does not have beans in it! You can omit them and have a heartier chili. We added them to extend the recipe for the contest and because we like the taste.

If cooking on a stove top, bring the pot up to a gentle simmer, uncovered. Stir frequently to prevent burning and to blend completely. Simmer at least 3 hours until the meat is tender, but still has a little bite to it.

If you cook the chili in a covered pot in a 325°F oven (as we did), it will need to cook at least 4 to 6 hours. Stir at least hourly. The liquid will not reduce as much in the covered pot in the oven as it does uncovered on the stove top, so you will need to use a thickener.

During the cooking, you should taste the chili and add the following ingredients if needed:

* Beef Broth - if needed to reduce thickness
* Thickener - if using corn starch you must bring the chili back to a boil to activate the thickener
* Sweetener (maple syrup, honey or Agave nectar) - if needed to balance the flavor
* Additional chili powder or cayenne to increase flavor and/or heat
* Salt and pepper - to taste
* Hot Sauce or Salsa to increase heat
* Fresh lime juice - at the end of cooking as needed to increase the brightness of the chili

When plating, add a dollop of Toasted Cumin Crema to each serving.

-----

Toasted Cumin Crema (also prepare a day ahead to meld flavors):

1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 Cup Mexican crema or creme fraiche
* salt and pepper to taste

Place the cumin seeds in a dry sauté or fry pan over medium heat. Toast until lightly golden brown and fragrant, do not burn.

Place in a small bowl, stir in the crema and season with salt and pepper to taste. To dispense, put in a squeeze bottle with a big enough nozzle to not clog with the seeds.

Using Wireless Internet - WiFi - While Cruising - Update

2007-11-27T08:44:00.005-08:00

Summary of Current Recommendations:
October 20, 2009 (scroll down for earlier postings)

Technology continues to advance. We now recommend the ALFA AWUS050NH is an updated 500 MW model which supports all the WiFi protocols 802.11 a/b/g/n. This can give you a much faster and longer range connection for those hotspots that support the newer "n" protocol or the dual band "a" and "n" protocols. It's available for around $70 US at http://netgate.com

If you are staying in one particular country for a while, and they have reasonably good 3G cell phone coverage (surprise! the coverage is much better in Mexico than in the US!), you might also consider a cellular modem. These can run a good high speed connection (often faster than WiFi), at anchorages and miles offshore. You can get a pay-as-you-go monthly plan (with no cancellation fees) for about $50US/ Month (plus or minus) in many countries. The adapter itself hooks up via USB (I recommend USB over PC Card) and costs between $100 and $200 US.

If you do move to another country and you get an unlocked USB adapter, you can just buy a plan in your new country and swap SIM cards. SIM cards are unique to the carrier.

Interestingly ALFA is claiming that my prior recommendation, the AWUS036H, now is rated at 1000 MW (which is 1 watt). Others have tested this and say they only improved the output around 7%. In any case the increase from 500 MW to 1000 MW in my opinion is diminishing returns and not worth the bother. Remember too that your power is only half the puzzle, you have to have the receiver sensitivity to hear the WiFi access point. It doesn't help if the access point can hear you, but you can't hear them!

Also, Vista SP 2 and Windows 7 appear to now have built in drivers for the Alfa models which work fine. You no longer have to worry about downloading special drivers.

Note, Netgate no longer appears to carry the AWUS036H model. I now recommend the one above instead

We are also playing around with client bridges and found that the Ubiquiti NanoStation models seem to overcome many of the earlier drawbacks of this technology. You still need to be at least a "geek in training" (but at least not an "alpha geek") to get it working, however. They come with a standard directional antenna - which works best in marinas and not on the hook.

We have ours hooked up to the Power over Ethernet Injector, on to an Ethernet hub and then our multiple computers are connected to the hub.

January 1, 2009 (scroll down for earlier postings)

We have update our current recommendation to the ALFA AWUS036H. It sells at Netgate for $54.95. See http://www.netgate.com

Netgate also has 7db and 9db RP-SMA antennas for under $20.

You may also want to pick up a USB extension cable if you don't already have one.

This unit has higher power and greater range than our prior Engenius pick. It also has an Apple MacIntosh driver.

December 20, 2007 update (scroll down for earlier postings)

Engenius EUB 362-EXT High power USB adapter, available as a kit with a high gain antenna from Netgate. See: http://www.netgate.com

We suggest the "Standard RV Kit PLUS" if you already have a USB extension cable or the "Extended RV Kit PLUS" if you don't.

Be sure to download the updated drivers - see below.

As we continue cruising, helping folks, experimenting and the as technology evolves - our recommendations evolve.

After our last articles were published in the SSCA bulletin and Latitude 38, we were contacted by Bill Hallett of Netgate and who sent us a case of EUB-362 EXTs with their 7 db high gain omni-directional antenna. These units have been working great for the cruisers down here in Mexico.

We're now thinking that this unit, plus an additional antenna or two, such as a directional antenna for use in radio packed marinas, would eliminate the need for a separate unit (such as the Hawkings) for such purposes. Directional antennas are available from Netgate and other sources.

You can even make one yourself if you're feeling adventurous. You can Google "making WiFi antenna" for a great list of all kinds of antennas made from discarded Pringle's and soup cans, a Wok Spider (that's the large screened spoon used to fish out tempura) and other odds and ends.
Some of the more interesting ones are:

Using a recycled tin can http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html
Using a Wok Skimmer (Spider) http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/usbscoop.jpg

The Microsoft Vista Operating System is proving to be a bit of a challenge. If you have an EUB-362 and Vista, you will need the Vista driver at: http://www.netgate.com/info/NUB362/EUB_1_5_0_102.zip and there are instructions at: http://www.engeniustech.com/datacom/products/resources.aspx?faq=8&ID=154

Also, there is a new driver for windows XP. You can download it at:
http://www.netgate.com/info/NUB362/EUB862_362_XPV21.zip

If you're using the server (64bit) version of Vista, or Windows 98/ME, you'll need to go to the Engenius website to download those drivers:
http://www.engeniustech.com/datacom/products/resources.aspx?id=154&cat=6

April 21, 2007 update

Since we went cruising, we've seen all kinds of WiFi set ups on board cruising boats. We help fix many of them.

In my opinion, some people have been seduced into spending a lot more money on equipment that they're not able to keep running once they're away from the geek who set it up for them.

My recommendation is to keep things very simple. We now have and use both of the following (we also have our original HWU54D which still works fine. We're keeping it for backup. This model is no longer manufactured).

The Hawking Technologies, $60, HWU8DD see http://www.hawkingtech.com/ It comes with a 6 foot USB cable. I recommend getting a 10 foot extension cable, putting it in a zip lock baggie and put it on top of your cabin or better yet, on top of your boom. If it's windy, put a soft SCUBA weight (or something similar) in the baggie to keep it from blowing around. Also, take the unit in when you're not using it and over night to keep it out of the dew.

If you're going to be at anchor a lot, consider the Netgate's: $200, EUB-362-EXT Marine Kit http://www.netgate.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_42&products_id=328 this comes with a higher power (200mw) USB adapter, USB Cable, Coax Cable and an omni-directional external marine antenna. With this set up, you can run the antenna outside and keep the adapter down below out of the elements. You can mount the antenna permanently if you want, but we just run ours up a halyard when we're at anchor. We used this set up when we were anchored in Tenacatita and we could occasionally hit an open access point in La Manzanita about 4 miles away.

We found the combination of the two adapters works best in the variety of circumstances we've seen. We have yet to find a place where a permanent installation with a client bridge works and either the Hawking or Netgate doesn't. In San Diego, for instance, there were too many access points around Shelter Island for the omni-directional Netgate setup to work. We saw over 40 access points online, half were on WiFi channel 6! We had to use the Hawking and aim it at the access point we were using to have any success at all. At anchor away from it all, however, where we're swinging around, the Netgate works great and the Hawking is troublesome as it won't stay aimed in the right direction.

By the way, I don't own stock or have any interest in any of the companies mentioned.

One attractive option that has seduced some is a unit called a client bridge. This unit would let you network all the computers on your boat, either via Ethernet or WiFi. So if you have more than one computer, you could use them all at the same time and ideally share files and peripherals (like printers and scanners). My advise is that unless you're a geek, forget it!

I've seen quite a few boats with permanent installations with Ethernet client bridges that just plain don't work in the real world of cruising. Remember that you will be moving from place to place. You will need to be able to connect to a wide range of shore WiFi access points - all set up differently! This also means a dealing with a wide range of methods used to control access.

Most client bridges have problems with some or all of the access control methods, some also just plain don't play well with strange access points. Remember that every time you change locations, you will probably have to reconfigure the unit to roam to the new service provider's access point(s). There are a few totally open and free access points, but not enough to rely on. I would go so far to say that of all the client bridge installations I've seen, most don't work (anecdotal evidence only)!

Some examples of the wide range of access control methods:

The Vallarta Yacht Club in Paradise Village Nuevo Vallarta uses the MAC address of the WiFi adapter as it's access control method (this is the hardware address unique to every WiFi adapter made. The easiest way to get it right is to look at the printed sticker on the adapter - folks who try to look it up on the computer often give the club the wrong address!. This same approach is used by Rick's Bar in Zihuatanejo.
At the Isla Navidad Marina in Barra de Navidad, you get a "ticket" with a secret code at the concierge desk at the Grand Bay Hotel. These tickets are good for a specific time frame like 1 hour, 24 hours, or a full month - from the time you first connect. This requires that you go through a curious logon process with your computer. Similar techniques were used at Marina Palmyra in La Paz last time we visited.
Other locations use secret encryption keys that you need to set in your WiFi adapter's configuration.

I strongly recommend avoiding the investment in a boat wide Internet access Ethernet client bridge and other complex gear - unless you're geek enough to thoroughly understand it, reconfigure it, figure out how to connect to strange access points and generally keep it running. This gear can also cost quite a lot. I've seen installations cost well over $1,000.

Original Posting
October 10, 2005

Wireless Internet "WiFi" - is becoming available in more and more marinas and anchorages, worldwide. WiFi adapters are now also a standard feature in many computers.

WiFi can be used not just for email and web surfing, but also for very inexpensive telephone service, using a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service like Skype http://www.skype.com (which we love and highly recommend).

In many of the Marinas we've been in, the service is free. In most, though, you'll need to sign up for the service or pay on a daily basis. We're currently cruising the Pacific Northwest and up here a company, Broad Band Express http://www.bbxpress.net/ has wired many of the marinas and anchorages. So it made sense for us to sign up for their annual plan.

Hawking HWU54DThe biggest challenge to successfully using the service has been getting good reception. WiFi uses radio communications at 2.4 gigahertz, which is quite finicky. We've had little luck using the WiFi adapters built into our PCs, so we've found a good solution in a combination WiFi adapter and antenna from Hawking Technology http://www.hawkingtech.com/ their HWU54D. This unit attaches to your PC via a serial USB cable, which also supplies it's power.

We bought ours online at http://www.ecost.com for $50 US.

There are also WiFi antennas on the market that you could try, but there are a couple of issues with external antennas:

1. Most computers have no antenna jack to connect the antenna to, and

2. The cable loss at WiFi frequencies (2.4 Giga Hertz) is so high that the cable loses a lot of power.

You could also buy a marine grade external antenna and a high power PC Card, but this costs a lot more money (well over $100 US).

All our PCs have a built-in WiFi adapter. We don't use the built-ins when we using the Hawking HWU54D.

It's easy to disable the built-in adapter. Just right click on "My Network Neighborhood" (in Windows XP), select properties. All your network adapters will pop up in a window. Right click on the built-in adapter and select "Disable". When the adapter is disabled, this menu will allow you to "Enable" it - for when you take your laptop to a hotspot.

When we use the HWU54D, we run in with a 10 foot USB extension cable and put it on top of our boom. I use a high tech enclosure to weather proof it.... A zip lock baggie ;-}

I use another baggie and twist tie to weather proof the connection between the two USB cables.

If you need more than 16 feet USB cable length, You'll need to buy an "Active" USB extension cable. These amplify the USB signal and will let you cascade cables to extend a greater distance.

Hawking HWU8DDRecently, Hawking has announced a new unit, the HWU8DD. It looks interesting and I'll have to give it a try. It's listed for around $60 US.

This unit uses a small dish, and is advertised as having an 8 decibel gain vs. the HWU54D's 6 decibel gain, which should yield slightly better performance.

Keep in mind, however that generally the more gain an antenna provides, the more "directional" it is. That means that you must aim the antenna at the access point you are trying to hit to maximize your performance. It also means that if you are swinging at anchor, your signal may drop out if the swing is enough to aim your antenna away from the access point.

One particularly blustery day, that happened to us in Gorge Harbour on Cortez Island in British Columbia.

Copper Canyon - Barranca del Cobre

2007-11-03T10:39:00.004-07:00

Hi Everyone!

We got safely back to Raptor Dance on Oct 13th and We've been swept up in boat maintenance and the social life here since. So we're just getting to our much delayed report on Copper Canyon. Accompanying pictures are on our website at http://raptordance.com

The Copper Canyon (Spanish: Barranca del Cobre) is a group of canyons consisting of 6 distinct canyons in the Sierra Tarahumara in the southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua in Mexico.

The overall canyon system is about 6 times larger and half again deeper than the Grand Canyon. Copper Canyon also straddles the continental divide, so the rivers flow out to either the Pacific (Sea of Cortez) or Atlantic.

The canyon system is transversed by the Chihuahua al Pacífico railroad, known by the nickname "Chepe". It is both an important transportation system for locals as well as tourists. The train runs from Topolobampo on the Sea of Cortez to Chihuahua. The train took 90 years to build because of the extremely rugged terrain, which also results in great sightseeing from the train. see http://www.chepe.com.mx/ing_html/index.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chepe

We started our visit at the Hotel Posada del Hidalgo, a beautiful restored colonial mansion, built in 1890 by the Mayor of the town. Part of the original structure was the original home of Don Diego de la Vega, origin of the Zorro legend and the hotel has a fun appearance by El Zorro at the bar's happy hour with musicians. see http://www.hotelposadadelhidalgo.com/

Since we were traveling on our own and not in a group, we got to know the hotel staff pretty well and had a great time joking around with them during our visit. We had a great time and highly recommend the hotel.

The hotel also had some of the best food we had during the trip, especially the Huevos Rancheros at breakfast and they langostinas (crayfish) and shrimp at dinner.

After a two nights stay (Oct 3 & 4) we caught the train to Creel - 8 hours up the line. The train goes very slow as the engineer has to keep an eye out for rocks, cattle and other stuff on the tracks. The scenery was every bit as fantastic as advertised.

At Creel we stayed at the Sierra Lodge just outside of town. Early October (Oct 5) is just before the start of the high season and we were the only guests in the 22 room lodge.

Sierra Lodge is very rustic with no electricity - only kerosene lamps. Great hiking in the area - we did a great 4 mile round trip hike to Cuzarare Falls. The food in the lodge was very tasty.

We recommend the Sierra Lodge particularly for the hiking. It's at 7,000 feet and we didn't have any problems at that altitude. later at Posada Barranca, we were at 8,000 feet and noticed a quite a difference.

That night we were treated to a great light show as a thunderstorm passed through dropping probably an inch or two of rain.

The next morning, our guide for the next 3 days, Pedro picked us up in his Chevy Sierra to take us down to the silver mining town of Batopilas at the bottom of the canyon. The trip took 7 hours: 75 km on paved roads and the last 65 km on dirt roads. At the end of the rainy season there were lots of rocks on the road and near washouts. The prior nights rain also fortunately kept the dust down. It was an exciting trip. The last 40 km we rode on top of the Sierra in seats welded to a strong framework with full harness/seat belts to keep us on board - it was breathtaking and exciting. The scenery was fantastic.

Batopilas was founded by the Spanish in 1632, but the road was only finished to in 1977. Before that the only way in and out was via burro or hiking. Still it was a very interesting town. It was the second town in Mexico (after Mexico City) to be wired for electricity due to its mining wealth. Today the town is quieter, with the economy based primarily on agriculture, tourism and some residual mining.

We spent 2 nights (Oct 6 & 7) in the Riverside Lodge, a beautifully restored silver barons town residence. It took up a rambling city block in downtown Batopilas. The town itself is only about 3 blocks wide but over 1 mile long, alongside the Batopilas river at the bottom of Batopilas Canyon. Our room was very comfortable, but quite funky with the main entrance through the bath.

We toured the town on our day in Batopilas and hiked the 4 miles to the Satevo mission, now in the process of restoration. Pedro picked us up in the Sierra at the mission and we rode back to town, touring the castle-like home that Alexander Robey Shepherd, the last governor of Washington, D.C., built after leaving the United States in 1875. It stands across the river from the center of the village and has long been in ruins. A new small hotel building is almost complete in the midst of the ruins.

The food we had in Batopilas was basic rustic. OK, not fantastic. An area specialty is a preserved dried meat - Machaca - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machaca. We didn't find it as flavorful as many of the dishes we enjoyed throughout Mexico.

The two restaurants we experienced in Batopilas were Dona Micas and Restaurant Carolinas. Dona Micas has no sign but it's just across a small plaza from Carolinas. Dona serves a dish of the day. When we visited she served a nice Chicken Mole. Carolinas as a more extensive menu with Machaca specialties as well as a selection of other dishes.

After breakfast on Oct 8th Pedro picked us up at the Lodge to head back up to Creel. We gave a lift to a Tarahumara friend of Pedros who rode most of the way back on top of the Sierra. We rode inside. In contrast to the ride down, the ride up was quite dusty and we were glad to be in the car.

On our way back we were delayed about an hour as the bridge across the Batopilas River was blocked about 15 KM up from Batopilas by a fellow who had too much tequila and drove his truck into the side of the bridge. We worked with some other folks who were also stuck to push the truck over enough to get by. We heard that an Army truck got there a few hours later and towed the truck off the bridge.

Once back up the canyon, we toured another village and a Tarahumara cave home. Once our eyes got used to the dark, it was quite interesting with a number of room areas with furniture a kitchen area with ladies cooking. A very rustic way to live.

That night (Oct 8) we stayed at the Best Western Lodge in Creel. We walked around the town and would suggest giving it a pass - if we were to do the trip over, we'd go directly from Batopilas to our next stop, the Hotel Mirador at Posada Barranca.

We took the train from Creel, a few stops down the line to Posada Barranca, but you could just as well take the road this short distance. You would miss the Divisidero stop on this part of the trip, but we stopped there on the train on the way up. It's fantastic with a great overlook of the canyon so you should plan on stopping there sometime on your trip.

Divisidero also has a number of very interesting Tarahumara craft and food stalls.

We highly recommend the Hotel Mirador see: http://mirador.mexicoscoppercanyon.com/. It's perched right on the edge of a spectacular part of the canyon. The balcony of our room was right on the edge with a fantastic view. As the sunlight changes throughout the day the colors in the canyon morph through a series of fantastic colors. The hotel faces the South East and the sunrise over the canyon was truly majestic (It was still daylight savings time, so sunrise wasn't too early).

That afternoon, Oct 10th, we caught the train to head back down to El Fuerte. The Canyon was just as amazing heading down, with different views as we were headed in the opposite direction and the afternoon light dramatized the colors of the canyon.

We again stayed in the Posada Hidalgo hotel for the next two nights before heading down to Mazatlan for the night (Oct 12th) then back to Raptor Dance in Paradise Village, Nuevo Vallarta.

We especially want to thank Sue Stilwell, the owner of S & S Tours who arranged our independent tour of the canyon. Reservations are vital in this area as accommodations and guides are limited and often booked in advance by tour groups. We also needed to make sure that we had a safe place to leave our car while we were off on this side trip. We recommend her services. See: http://www.ss-tours.com

On the Road Again!

2007-10-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone -

Just want to give you all a quick update. We're on our way back to Raptor Dance.

We left our vacation home in Sonoma County on the 24th - visited Bill's Dad and Brother in Northridge, CA for a few days, then cousins Helene and Frank in San Diego.

We just checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Nogales, AZ for the night and will cross the border into Mexico tomorrow morning.

After stopping at the checkpoint at KM 21 to get the Import Permit for our car, we'll continue on down to San Carlos for the night.

Then on Wednesday the 3rd we'll drive to Los Moches to start our tour of Copper Canyon. We'll leave the car at the Hotel Posada Hidalgo and continue on by train on the 5th.

The Itinerary for this trip is:

Oct. 3, 4— El Fuerte
Oct. 5— Creel
Oct. 6, 7— Batopilas (the remote town at the bottom of Copper Canyon)
Oct. 8— Creel
Oct. 9— Hotel Mirador on the Rim
Oct. 10, 11— El Fuerte

On Oct. 12 We'll Depart El Fuerte for Mazatlan for the night then arriving in Puerto Vallarta on the 13th.

We'll prepare the boat on the 14th and haul in PV on the 15th to get our bottom painted.

We'll update you all as soon as the dust settles in PV - post pictures and stories.

I don't think we'll have much connectivity between now and our arrival in PV - so you may not be able to reach us during this period.

We arrange our trip through S&S Tours and so far they've done a fine job. We'll give you a full review after.

You can see pictures and info on where we're going on their website at http://www.ss-tours.com/copperc.html

Hope you all have a great October!

Warmest Regards,
Bill & Mary

Tips for Getting Ready to Ha-Ha, 2007 - Cruising to Mexico and Beyond

2007-09-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

There have been a lot of changes in Mexico in the last three years, so an update to our article in Latitude 38 in 2006 is in order.

We've been actively cruising on our Valiant 50, Raptor Dance, since we headed out the Golden Gate and turned left in Sept 2004. We'd like to share with you some of our more offbeat observations and recommendations on from the Ha-Ha's XI and XIII We would like to stress that these are our opinions, based on what we've learned along the way. Your mileage may vary!

Whether your just doing the Ha-Ha as a vacation experience or as the start of long term cruising, we hope you find this information useful. You can find more information about some of these topics on the links in the article or on our website at http://raptordance.com.

There's lots of information out there on how to prepare for the Baja Ha-Ha and your escape to the cruising life . One of the best is Latitude 38's own "First Timer's Guide To Mexico" - available online at the Baja Ha-Ha website: http://www.baja-Ha-Ha.com/Guide/index.html.

What's New: Provisioning in Mexico is even easier!
Many of the Super Mercados have a much greater range of ingredients than before. We've even found previously hard to find ingredients such as high quality Washington State Apples, good quality lamb, Balsamic vinegar, Asian sesame oil and chop sticks. US products and brands are available, but may be a tad more expensive. Some markets such as Commercial, Soriana and
Gigante have displays of goods from Costco!

Crackers, other than the basic saltines and Ritz, are still very expensive if you can find them at all. US cereal brands are available, but pricey.

Provisioning is a challenge up in the Sea of Cortez, so be sure to stock up in La Paz or Mazatlan before heading up.

Don't overlook the local markets! You'll find both weekly markets, such as the Tuesday market in Jarretaderas (near Nuevo Vallarta) to the huge public markets open daily in Mazatlan, La Paz and other cities these offer interesting and sometimes exotic foods at low prices.

Great wine is still hard to find, so bring it with you, enjoy the "drinkable" Mexican or Chilean wines – they're still much better than $2 you-know-who or better yet, enjoy the beer and margaritas!

Entering Mexico
In 2006, only frozen Beef was confiscated in Cabo. In 2004 chicken and fresh eggs were also taken. This mainly only happened to boats who pulled into the Marina – sometimes just to get fuel. To be safe, all beef should be gone from your freezer before arriving in Cabo. We don't have any reports of food being confiscated in Ensenada - but enforcement varies widely in Mexico.

Mexican Charts are way off
Both paper and electronic charts of Mexico are unreliable. They're generally at least 1 to 3 miles off - except in busy harbors, where they're pretty accurate. We recommend relying on the wisdom in Raines Cruising Guides or the Cunningham Guides to the Sea of Cortez. Charlie's Charts are a good supplement to the above, but a little dated.

What is pretty good and free of charge is Google Earth! http://earth.google.com. We often download and print a chart of a new anchorage with the lat/lon grid turned on for a spot-on aerial chart of the area. Google Earth is so good, you can use it to plot the narrow channel into the Lagoon at Barra de Navidad. We posted the Google Earth channel boundaries, course in and anchorage boundaries for the Barra Lagoon from SV Legacy on our website at: http://raptordance.com/KMZ/BarraLagoonWaypoints.kmz See their website at http://www.legacysailing.com/local_knowledge/tenacatita_and_barra.htm for other waypoints and a writeup on the area. All the usual disclaimers apply, not for navigation - if you run aground it's your own fault, etc...

Maps of Mexico are also improving. In mid-September 2007, Google added free street maps for 54 countries, among them Mexico! http://maps.google.com

"Boat Cards" are a great idea!
When you meet all your new friends on the Ha-Ha and later while cruising, you will want to exchange contact information. You'll make so many new friends that you'll wish everyone put their pictures on their cards rather than a picture of their boat!

A few weeks after meeting a bunch of new friends, the pictures are extremely valuable in remembering who's who.

Boat cards are like business cards and should supply information about you, your boat and contact info, We suggest including your picture, name(s), boat name, boat type, email addresses (Sailmail, Winlink, etc.), mailing address, cell/sat phone, and any other information you'd like to share that fits on the card.

You can print your cards yourself on your computer printer using business card paper from an office supply store or you can use a commercial printer. We've found that some of the Internet printing companies do a really great job at a fairly low cost. We use Vistaprint they have great service, low prices, high quality and rapid turn around.

Buy an appetizer/potluck cookbook and use it!
You will be going to a lot of cruisers potlucks in Mexico. Your first will likely be during the Ha-ha at Turtle Bay.

After awhile, you will get very tired of the same old contributions. Come on folks, bring something more than chips and dip or a bag of carrots!

It's not very hard to make very tasty finger foods or even entrees! Fresh ingredients are very little trouble to find and use in Mexico – so let your tastes run wild!

Enjoy the Local Culture
You are in a fascinating country with a rich family oriented culture full of great traditions, music, dance and interesting quirks. Lot's of cruisers never get away from the cruisers' culture (yes, we have one) to sample what our great host country has in store. It will also help you learn Spanish.

Look around, enjoy what the locals enjoy! For example, on a local Puerto Vallarta bus last year we saw a poster (in Spanish) for a match at the local Lucha Libre school gymnasium. We went, it was so much fun, we took some other cruisers to a larger match later in the season – everyone had a fantastic time.

Radios are your lifeline
Marine VHF and SSB are the primary means of communicating in Mexico and beyond. Make sure your radios work and you know how to use them. Check them out completely before you leave!

If you have a Uniden VHF, see the August 2007 issue of Latitude for information. You'll probably have to send it in to be updated to not have problems in Mexico or elsewhere in the world. Most Uniden VHF radios are not set up to function outside the US. Send me an email if you want more information.

Marine SSB is highly recommended
Yes, you can do the Ha-Ha and cruise with just a Marine VHF radio, but in Mexico and the South Pacific, Marine SSB and Ham Radio are the only way you can keep in touch with the cruisers' radio networks. These nets are a valuable source of weather and current destination information. You can also use them to keep in touch with the many new friends you will make along the way.

Marine VHF is uses radio frequencies that only work over the "line of sight" between the antennas at each end of the conversation, so it's rare that it will work over more than about 20 miles for a mast head antenna, 5 miles or so for handhelds.

Marine SSB uses radio frequencies that can, on the lower frequencies, refract a little around the curvature of the earth and, on the higher frequencies, bounce off the ionosphere. So you can reliably communicate over distances of hundreds or thousands of miles. If you pick the right frequency for the time of day, season, weather on the Sun, and a few other factors. Fortunately, there's a computer program that's available for free that figures this all out for you (ICEPAC – see below).

ICOM makes the most reliable Marine SSB radios. We have the 710RT, they're stable and rock solid. The newer ICOM-802 model has had some problems but they're fixed on new radios – check with your supplier to make sure. If you have an older ICOM-802, make sure you don't have the "clipping" problem that would require sending the radio back to ICOM for updating. You can also refer to the Technical Note from ICOM which includes a contact phone number and email address for questions.

Test the radio by setting up a contact with another boat or one of the radio nets and making sure your audio quality is up to snuff. Don't just talk to someone nearby, try making a contact at least a few hundred miles away.

In addition to the radio, you will need a Marine Pleasure Vessel license. These are available from your government (here in the US, the FCC) for a small fee. No test is required.

We highly recommend also getting an Amateur Radio (Ham) license. This requires study, but almost anyone with the determination to get one can learn what's needed. There are many courses that can tutor you through the whole process. Morse code is no longer required so getting your license is much easier than in the past.

Marine and Ham can both use the same equipment. Marine Radios are allowed to be sold that can transmit and receive on the Ham bands – but not vice versa. Both Marine and Ham use Single Sideband (SSB) transmission in the radio High Frequency (HF) range – between 2 and 30 Megahertz – the difference is in the particular frequency ranges (bands) assigned to each service. Cruisers jargon is a bit sloppy however: SSB is usually used to refer just to Marine HF SSB communication.

Wireless Internet (WiFi) is almost everywhere
We've even hit an open access point in the from La Manzanilla in the Tenacatita anchorage. The regular adapter on your computer just won't cut it though for access from your boat. You'll need a better WiFi adapter or antenna of some sort.

Our recommendation is to keep things very simple. Remember, you'll be in Mexico and unless you run across a cruising computer geek, you'll need to do your own tech support. See our article on
Using WiFi While Cruising" for more details.

Sailmail and/or Winlink are the way to go for email.
Wireless Internet is now found in many places in the world, but not everywhere and not at sea. If you need to keep in touch with your family or work, you may need a satellite phone. For those of us who are full time cruisers, Sailmail (http://www.sailmail.com) and Winlink (http://www.winlink.org) provide reliable, low cost text only email.

These services also let you file position reports so your family and friends can see where you are. This is especially nice on long passages. See my writeup on "Position Reporting and how we do it" for more info.

Sailmail is a non-profit operation, it's annual fee of $250 goes to support the station network. For this fee, you can send and receive 90 minutes of email per week. This is enough for most folks to keep in touch with work, friends and family. You will need a standard pleasure vessel ("PL") Marine license from the FCC (or your country's government if not the US).

Winlink, on the other hand, uses amateur (Ham) radio, so you will need a Ham radio "General" class license or above.

We highly recommend the SCS PTC-II Pro or USB radio modems. Lower cost units just aren't as reliable or fast. The optional extra Pactor III Permit is recommended if you have more than a couple of emails a day. Pactor III increases the effective speed of the radio link.

Also, make sure your modem can and you've got the cables to have your radio modem command your radio to change frequencies. You will do a lot of frequency changes on your radio, it's much more convenient to be able to drive everything from your PC.

Jim Corenman's Airmail program is available for free and supports both email services, see http://www.airmail2000.com. Be sure to also download and install the free propagation program "ICEPAC". This is the magic program that helps you figure out the best frequency to use. It integrates seamlessly into Airmail and is very easy to use. You must make sure that your computer clock is set properly and your location is also entered correctly – the later is real easy if you have a GPS hooked up to your computer.

Make sure you get everything hooked up and try sending and receiving email before you leave. This is very important as forgotten parts are hard to come in Mexico.

Also, check to see if you have interference when transmitting email in your other systems. If you do – either solve the problem before you leave or learn to live with it. It's not uncommon for your transmissions to light the pilot lights on your power panel on some or all of the "off" circuit breaker, cause your autopilot to do strange things (ours "snake wakes") or even crash your PC.

We once spent 2 days exploring radio stores in La Paz looking for parts to help another cruiser out. When transmitting on some radio frequencies their radio caused their computer keyboard and mouse to act like a chimpanzee was trying to write Shakespeare. We ultimately gave up trying to find the ferrite filters to put on their keyboard and mouse cable in Mexico. They just avoided the problematic frequencies until they could get and install the filters.

Cell and Satellite Phones
Cellular coverage is surprisingly good in Mexico. Coming down on the Ha-ha XIII we found we had coverage with AT&T (Cingular) in Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria. On New Years Day 2007, the new cell tower in Tenacatita came online, so it's getting even harder to escape.

However, unless you do your homework and get the right cellular rate plan, the per minutes prices can be pretty horrendous.

The different cell phone providers keep altering what plans they offer, so you'll need to check. If you have Verizon, look into their "North America Choice" plan. If you have AT&T Cingular, you may be able to get their "North America" plan. These plans let you use your US base minutes to, from, and in Canada and Mexico with no long distance or roaming charges.

If you're not able to get such a rate plan, consider getting a "Prepaid" phone in Mexico They're readily available.

Warning! If you have an iPhone - make sure you turn off it's data features. There are no good data plans available in Mexico and folks have racked up huge bills without warning, since the iPhone love to chat with the servers back home to see if you have any mail or other messages.

Our Iridium Satellite phone is often less expensive per minute than roaming with a cell phone. We found a store that sells prepaid Iridium time for $1/minute. Also, you have 1 year to use the minutes and if you renew, unused minutes roll over. You can also use your Iridium for email and data, but very slowly – it runs much slower than dialup, only 2400 bits per second (dialup typically runs up to 56,000 bits per second).

On the other hand, you might just do without a cell phone all together (don't forget you're cruising!) and use Skype when you have Internet connectivity.

Spares
It's likely that parts for your boat and boat systems will be hard to get in Mexico You can get parts for some brands pretty easily e.g. Mercury outboards, Yanmar Diesels. Others, like our Westerbeke engine and Nissan outboard are much more difficult. We'd recommend taking lots of spares – particularly consumables like oil filters, fuel filters, belts, raw water impellers, etc. Motor oil is readily available so that's not a problem.

Bottom paint is twice the price, so bring enough along if you're going to repaint in Mexico

Spares can be shipped into Mexico with a bit of effort. When you're in San Diego, stop in and open an account at the Ha-ha sponsors: Downwind Marine and West Marine. Many of the San Diego chandleries can have parts walked across the boarder and put on in-country transit to get it to you. Downwind can also sometimes find other cruisers who will bring parts to you on their way South.

In conclusion:
The Ha-ha is a great way to meet your fellow cruisers and have a fun time heading down to Mexico. Mexico is a blast! We hope to see you down here.

Both our "Next Food Network Star" Videos are online!

2007-07-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Mary decided to go for it too! Check out her video.

We both had a blast shooting these videos.

We both now have videos posted. The links are:

Mary's Audition Video for the Food Network Show: "Next Food Network Star"

The Miso Salmon Recipe from Mary's Video

The Edamame Puree Recipe from Mary's Video

Bill's Audition Video for the Food Network Show: "Next Food Network Star"

The Tagine Recipe from Bill's Video

Warmest Regards to all,

Mary & Bill