March 31, 2008
You may have noticed that we had a fairly up to date web site until recently, and then something was out of whack. Well, we have had a few glitches that caused us to lose most of our March content. Without going into great detail, our Firewall was causing problems communicating with the server. Bottom line - We will do our best to paraphrase and to recapture the events of the past 24 days, and will then just move on from there.
This will take a few days because we are on the move again in the morning from our current location at the breathtaking Isla Navidad Grand Bay Resort Marina in Bahia Navidad to Manzanillo. We do not know for certain whether we will have internet access there but are hopeful.
I did manage to save a file from Puerto Vallarta, which was an entry written by our friend Jeri Lyn. It is as follows:
Happy Easter from Puerto Vallarta! This is Jeri Lyn and I'm beyond delighted to be sitting in an internet cafe with Barb as my husband, Jeff sits across the way having beers with Frank! Destiny sits just beyond the boys - she is majestic in her own right and has brought our friends safely through their journey! Jeff and I have been here anxiously awaiting their arrival and the opportunity for me to hug Barb - she and I haven't missed a beat since our reunion and as always, I'm continually blessed by her and the incredible outlook she has on life and their adventures! We are living vicariously through she and Frank - and trust me, they are living life to it's fullest - we should all learn from them! I'll turn this over to my dear friend and let you continue to be jealous that I have been gifted with this visit!!! Jeri Lyn
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
March 2008 postings
March 7
Did laundry after Frank tutored me in the Navy method. We are going to go to shore and try out the internet cafe here, hoping to get this posted. Wish us luck!
March 6
We awoke at 4:30 AM, and are are cruising along in another beautiful, cloudless day. The air is warming and the water is a teal green, but the wind is nuts! I've decided to cal this Gemini wind conditions. First we are sailing along fine, then the wind whips up to 20 knots and then dies to .05. It comes from the port beam, then the back, then off starboard. The sails fill then flog. We have sailed with the genniker, the then used the whisker pole to sail wing and wing, then with just the main, then with the genoa and the main, then no sails... I am a Gemini and was told long ago that our motto is: "I'm schizophrenic and so am I". This is why I call this Gemini conditions. Just a few minutes ago we sacrificed a brush broom to the sea gods. This is not our first casualty - the other day it was a Galleyware coffee cup and nearly a lounge seat. These won't be the last either. Frank has worked himself to exhaustion, yet is still smiling. We are learning a lot and feel as though these are good opportunities to learn before the big jump westward in a couple of months. This is my boot camp for sure. We are nearing Bahia Asuncion and are spotting whale spouts. I'm sitting here thinking of our friends back in Denver enduring snowfall and 17 degree temps while we are having an "ah" moment in the sun, having just finished lunch we are watching for whales listening to Bob Dylan. As Lee Baumann says,"I love this job!".It is 1:40 and we just spotted 2 whales off the starboard bow! What a thrill! Now Frank is sitting on deck perched hopefully like a little boy with the camera and binoculars awaiting another sighting. This is a happy man! As I write this a colony of sea lions is playing leap frog off the port bow. My my.
March 5
We awoke to clear skies, still waters and about 1000 flies in and around the cockpit! I quickly slammed shut the hatch and told Frank that breakfast would be indoors because we were in a hostage situation. We stayed in and I resumed tidying while Frank continued to work on getting our HAM radio transmission to work. We have not been able to send or receive successfully, nor to post our position on the website. By afternoon we decided to run the gauntlet and dinghy over to the village for a recon. Waves were crashing onto shore so we could not land the dinghy. Instead we opted for what looked like a floating dinghy dock. It was only about 30 inches wide, covered in birds and in - you guessed it - bird poop! We managed to get a local fuel ponga to take us to the rickety pier, which held a slimy barnacle encrusted ladder as the only way up. My heart literally fluttered as I tried to time the waves, the swooping up and down of the fuel boat with the upswing of the ladder. I looked at Frank and I swear he did not think I could manage this. When we did, we sent up a prayer of thanks and set off to explore the village. We had lunch at a place that was part restaurant, part hotel lobby and part someone's living room. A woman was sitting watching Mexican soaps, feeding her toddler and getting up to wait tables. The walls held lobster shells, whale bones, family photos, Blessed Virgin decor and beer cans. We downed our lunch and were ready to high tail it back to the comfort and safety of Destiny. Back at the pier, the wind had picked up and was howling. I nearly lost my lunch contemplating going back down that ladder, but we did, and when we got to the dinghy dock as I was stepping out of the fuel boat I slipped on slimy bird poop and hit my very sore knees, nearly losing my balance and going off the other side. Franks's eyes got as big as saucers watching me. I think he worries about me sometimes. Finally back at Destiny, we swatted our way back through the flies, closed ourselves in and I sang, "God Bless America" and baked some chocolate chip cookies for comfort. Frank talked to Tom and Mary on the Sat phone, and it looks like they will meet us in PV after Easter instead of Cabo. Tomorrow we depart for Bahia Asuncion, about 50 miles south of here. Gotta get out of Fly City!
March 3 & 4
I was just in my last overnight watch, 4 - 8 AM, when a little before 6 AM I saw some lights that weren't stars or another boat. I kept straining my eyes until I could make out the outline of a big hill. The instruments told me we were just off the Island of Cedros - Hallelujah! It was soon light and I awoke Frank to tell him the good news. He took the helm and attempted to get us to a safe anchorage, but at the many suggested areas (ref. Charlie's Charts), the waves were crashing to the shore and tossing us around like mad. Everything in and outside the boat that hadn't yet come loose was now tossing around from side to side. I was running around the interior trying to secure things while others would come flying. During this, Frank mentioned to me that a cup of coffee sure would be nice. Ha ha - are you kidding me? No, he wasn't. So after many failed attempts at hot coffee, resulting in brown water all over the galley, I threw some instant in a lidded cup with hot tap water and handed it up to him. He thought it was wonderful. Did I marry the right guy, or what? Finally, by 9 AM, we gave up on any hope of landfall at Cedros and headed back out toward the next scheduled port called Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay).
This stretch was even stranger than the previous. The skies were beautifully clear blue, the water a clear green but churning up white caps. The apparent wind gusted up to 40 knots at times. These conditions endured for the entire 6-hour journey to Bahia Tortuga, yet Destiny continued to make us proud cutting through the water like a knife not once heeling over more than 5 degrees, while most other boast we've sailed would have been rails to the water. Entering the bay the easterly winds were hitting us head-on so hard that we had the engine at 2500 RPM and were barely going 2.5 knots. We prayed for an opportunity to anchor here, otherwise it was going to be another 50 miles out at sea before the next stop. We were rewarded in the form of an angel named Ruben who waved us over to a mooring and helped secure us. We decided to take a couple of days rest here and get ourselves and the boat back in order. The interior looked like a twister had ripped through, with spillage and debris all over, yet miraculously nothing was broken. We looked at this as a great learning opportunity and set about to rearrange and re secure our belongings. Our bodies had taken a beating as well. We hurt in places we didn't know we had muscles. my back and knees hurt. Frank's fingers hurt and he has cuts all over them, but you cannot wipe the smile off of his face! We figure we are paying forward some rough stuff and wonderful days lie ahead. We heard from another sailor that Santa Ana type conditions had kicked up unexpectedly and that was the reason for our difficulties the past few days. We had a nice dinner and spent the next day working around the boat.
March 2
We made it through the first night pretty happy and impressed with our Destiny, as she endured the previous night like a tank. The skies began to clear by afternoon, we were still bundled up like Eskimos, and by evening the skies had cleared and a million stars danced in the night as we continued to rock and roll in 15 ft rollers with 25 knot winds gusting to 30+, with the main reefed in about half-way. We continued to average 8 - 10 knots of speed and to don more clothes. I was up to a t-shirt, two sweatshirts, and 2 pair of pants under my bibs and jacket. We just could not get warm. Amazingly, Destiny kept us dry and no waves had breached the cockpit.
March 1
We left Ensenada around 9:00 AM with our next scheduled stop at Cedros Island. Frank took us offshore (way offshore) thinking that's where the good winds would be. Little did he know there would definitely be winds! The daytime sailing was great, but cold. We bundled up and wore our foul weather gear which are like ski bibs and jacket, but with reflective strips all over. We donned our PDF's (personal flotation devices) and tethered ourselves into the cockpit. For the better part of the day we had good winds, were averaging a speed of about 8.5 knots, and then by late afternoon 10 ft. swells developed and wind speed picked up. Some dolphins played along in our bow wake, and although we'd seen whale spouts en route to Ensenada from San Diego there were none to be seen this day.As evening approached the sea temp dropped to about 40 degrees and it felt as though the air temp dropped to 30; the rollers increased as did the wind and the cloud cover completely blotted out all stars. We donned more clothes and sailed along in pitch darkness. Our routine for the next 2.5 days was taking shifts of 4 hours on/off. Grabbing sleep and nourishment on your off period. This was my first 24/7 experience at sea, and to me it was fascinating and a little thrilling. My only fear was that Frank would go overboard and I would not be able to find him, in spite of all precautions we were taking I just could not "let go and let God" this first time. So on my first few shifts of 4-off, I didn't sleep a wink. That first night the wind and rollers had increased to the point that we felt like we were riding the Tilt-a-Whirl at the county fair, and for the first time in my life I was feeling the onset of sea sickness. I took Dramamine, but a little too late to have much affect. The redeeming benefit of the pitch black night was watching the explosions of phosphorescence in the bow wake, created by disturbing the little creatures below as we plowed through the water; they would emit firefly-like glows in the water. It was like watching sea sparklers pulsate off the sides of Destiny's hull. This caused me to appreciate God's playful nature and desire to bring us joy under any condition. Each watch, our only job was to stay awake and vigilant for sightings of other sea craft - particularly large vessels that may not see us. The cloud cover continued to hover like a heavy blanket, and we were rocking and rolling in the ocean while we sat and contemplated our dear friend Rick's surprise 50th birthday party going full swing back in Denver. He could not possibly be having more fun than us!
Did laundry after Frank tutored me in the Navy method. We are going to go to shore and try out the internet cafe here, hoping to get this posted. Wish us luck!
March 6
We awoke at 4:30 AM, and are are cruising along in another beautiful, cloudless day. The air is warming and the water is a teal green, but the wind is nuts! I've decided to cal this Gemini wind conditions. First we are sailing along fine, then the wind whips up to 20 knots and then dies to .05. It comes from the port beam, then the back, then off starboard. The sails fill then flog. We have sailed with the genniker, the then used the whisker pole to sail wing and wing, then with just the main, then with the genoa and the main, then no sails... I am a Gemini and was told long ago that our motto is: "I'm schizophrenic and so am I". This is why I call this Gemini conditions. Just a few minutes ago we sacrificed a brush broom to the sea gods. This is not our first casualty - the other day it was a Galleyware coffee cup and nearly a lounge seat. These won't be the last either. Frank has worked himself to exhaustion, yet is still smiling. We are learning a lot and feel as though these are good opportunities to learn before the big jump westward in a couple of months. This is my boot camp for sure. We are nearing Bahia Asuncion and are spotting whale spouts. I'm sitting here thinking of our friends back in Denver enduring snowfall and 17 degree temps while we are having an "ah" moment in the sun, having just finished lunch we are watching for whales listening to Bob Dylan. As Lee Baumann says,"I love this job!".It is 1:40 and we just spotted 2 whales off the starboard bow! What a thrill! Now Frank is sitting on deck perched hopefully like a little boy with the camera and binoculars awaiting another sighting. This is a happy man! As I write this a colony of sea lions is playing leap frog off the port bow. My my.
March 5
We awoke to clear skies, still waters and about 1000 flies in and around the cockpit! I quickly slammed shut the hatch and told Frank that breakfast would be indoors because we were in a hostage situation. We stayed in and I resumed tidying while Frank continued to work on getting our HAM radio transmission to work. We have not been able to send or receive successfully, nor to post our position on the website. By afternoon we decided to run the gauntlet and dinghy over to the village for a recon. Waves were crashing onto shore so we could not land the dinghy. Instead we opted for what looked like a floating dinghy dock. It was only about 30 inches wide, covered in birds and in - you guessed it - bird poop! We managed to get a local fuel ponga to take us to the rickety pier, which held a slimy barnacle encrusted ladder as the only way up. My heart literally fluttered as I tried to time the waves, the swooping up and down of the fuel boat with the upswing of the ladder. I looked at Frank and I swear he did not think I could manage this. When we did, we sent up a prayer of thanks and set off to explore the village. We had lunch at a place that was part restaurant, part hotel lobby and part someone's living room. A woman was sitting watching Mexican soaps, feeding her toddler and getting up to wait tables. The walls held lobster shells, whale bones, family photos, Blessed Virgin decor and beer cans. We downed our lunch and were ready to high tail it back to the comfort and safety of Destiny. Back at the pier, the wind had picked up and was howling. I nearly lost my lunch contemplating going back down that ladder, but we did, and when we got to the dinghy dock as I was stepping out of the fuel boat I slipped on slimy bird poop and hit my very sore knees, nearly losing my balance and going off the other side. Franks's eyes got as big as saucers watching me. I think he worries about me sometimes. Finally back at Destiny, we swatted our way back through the flies, closed ourselves in and I sang, "God Bless America" and baked some chocolate chip cookies for comfort. Frank talked to Tom and Mary on the Sat phone, and it looks like they will meet us in PV after Easter instead of Cabo. Tomorrow we depart for Bahia Asuncion, about 50 miles south of here. Gotta get out of Fly City!
March 3 & 4
I was just in my last overnight watch, 4 - 8 AM, when a little before 6 AM I saw some lights that weren't stars or another boat. I kept straining my eyes until I could make out the outline of a big hill. The instruments told me we were just off the Island of Cedros - Hallelujah! It was soon light and I awoke Frank to tell him the good news. He took the helm and attempted to get us to a safe anchorage, but at the many suggested areas (ref. Charlie's Charts), the waves were crashing to the shore and tossing us around like mad. Everything in and outside the boat that hadn't yet come loose was now tossing around from side to side. I was running around the interior trying to secure things while others would come flying. During this, Frank mentioned to me that a cup of coffee sure would be nice. Ha ha - are you kidding me? No, he wasn't. So after many failed attempts at hot coffee, resulting in brown water all over the galley, I threw some instant in a lidded cup with hot tap water and handed it up to him. He thought it was wonderful. Did I marry the right guy, or what? Finally, by 9 AM, we gave up on any hope of landfall at Cedros and headed back out toward the next scheduled port called Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay).
This stretch was even stranger than the previous. The skies were beautifully clear blue, the water a clear green but churning up white caps. The apparent wind gusted up to 40 knots at times. These conditions endured for the entire 6-hour journey to Bahia Tortuga, yet Destiny continued to make us proud cutting through the water like a knife not once heeling over more than 5 degrees, while most other boast we've sailed would have been rails to the water. Entering the bay the easterly winds were hitting us head-on so hard that we had the engine at 2500 RPM and were barely going 2.5 knots. We prayed for an opportunity to anchor here, otherwise it was going to be another 50 miles out at sea before the next stop. We were rewarded in the form of an angel named Ruben who waved us over to a mooring and helped secure us. We decided to take a couple of days rest here and get ourselves and the boat back in order. The interior looked like a twister had ripped through, with spillage and debris all over, yet miraculously nothing was broken. We looked at this as a great learning opportunity and set about to rearrange and re secure our belongings. Our bodies had taken a beating as well. We hurt in places we didn't know we had muscles. my back and knees hurt. Frank's fingers hurt and he has cuts all over them, but you cannot wipe the smile off of his face! We figure we are paying forward some rough stuff and wonderful days lie ahead. We heard from another sailor that Santa Ana type conditions had kicked up unexpectedly and that was the reason for our difficulties the past few days. We had a nice dinner and spent the next day working around the boat.
March 2
We made it through the first night pretty happy and impressed with our Destiny, as she endured the previous night like a tank. The skies began to clear by afternoon, we were still bundled up like Eskimos, and by evening the skies had cleared and a million stars danced in the night as we continued to rock and roll in 15 ft rollers with 25 knot winds gusting to 30+, with the main reefed in about half-way. We continued to average 8 - 10 knots of speed and to don more clothes. I was up to a t-shirt, two sweatshirts, and 2 pair of pants under my bibs and jacket. We just could not get warm. Amazingly, Destiny kept us dry and no waves had breached the cockpit.
March 1
We left Ensenada around 9:00 AM with our next scheduled stop at Cedros Island. Frank took us offshore (way offshore) thinking that's where the good winds would be. Little did he know there would definitely be winds! The daytime sailing was great, but cold. We bundled up and wore our foul weather gear which are like ski bibs and jacket, but with reflective strips all over. We donned our PDF's (personal flotation devices) and tethered ourselves into the cockpit. For the better part of the day we had good winds, were averaging a speed of about 8.5 knots, and then by late afternoon 10 ft. swells developed and wind speed picked up. Some dolphins played along in our bow wake, and although we'd seen whale spouts en route to Ensenada from San Diego there were none to be seen this day.As evening approached the sea temp dropped to about 40 degrees and it felt as though the air temp dropped to 30; the rollers increased as did the wind and the cloud cover completely blotted out all stars. We donned more clothes and sailed along in pitch darkness. Our routine for the next 2.5 days was taking shifts of 4 hours on/off. Grabbing sleep and nourishment on your off period. This was my first 24/7 experience at sea, and to me it was fascinating and a little thrilling. My only fear was that Frank would go overboard and I would not be able to find him, in spite of all precautions we were taking I just could not "let go and let God" this first time. So on my first few shifts of 4-off, I didn't sleep a wink. That first night the wind and rollers had increased to the point that we felt like we were riding the Tilt-a-Whirl at the county fair, and for the first time in my life I was feeling the onset of sea sickness. I took Dramamine, but a little too late to have much affect. The redeeming benefit of the pitch black night was watching the explosions of phosphorescence in the bow wake, created by disturbing the little creatures below as we plowed through the water; they would emit firefly-like glows in the water. It was like watching sea sparklers pulsate off the sides of Destiny's hull. This caused me to appreciate God's playful nature and desire to bring us joy under any condition. Each watch, our only job was to stay awake and vigilant for sightings of other sea craft - particularly large vessels that may not see us. The cloud cover continued to hover like a heavy blanket, and we were rocking and rolling in the ocean while we sat and contemplated our dear friend Rick's surprise 50th birthday party going full swing back in Denver. He could not possibly be having more fun than us!
Friday, February 29, 2008
February 2008 postings
February 29, 2008
This week has been another whirlwind for us. We hit the ground running upon our return to San Diego. We thought that we would just kick back and enjoy the city - no stress - no business to attend to, and head to Ensenada by Wednesday, but realized we really should quit thinking! As Frank says, it was a blur. We were determined, however, to set some time aside to visit one of Frank's dear old friends, Harry Parmenter. As always, God stepped in and delayed our departure by a day so that we had that chance. On Wednesday, amidst the hustle bustle of our crazy schedule we went to visit Harry at his retirement village in Spring Valley, just south of San Diego. Harry was a State Farm agent in Denver for 37 years, working with Frank. I'd been hearing about Harry for years but had not met him before now. What a dear and gentle soul he is. Harry lost his wife, Betty Ann, 3 years ago, yet he still hands out business cards with both their names on them. She was his love, his life partner and his best friend. Harry is one of those special people who touch you forever, and who made us promise to send him post cards from exotic places so that he can join us on our journey, in mind and spirit. As we drove away I told Frank that Harry left an imprint upon my heart. Very few people touch me in that way, yet Harry did.
Before we left VA, Mary loaned me a couple of books to read. One was by Allison Dubois, who is the feature character in the TV show, Medium. Then I saw the show Wed. night on TV. It was kind of weird, watching the show and comparing Patricia Arquette to the real Allison. I like the real one better. The other book, The Secret Life of Bees, is wonderful! I should be reading more "how-to" books, but I get so bored and distracted that I have to alternate between reality and fiction.
This is the last land-lubber type writing from me for a while. Hopefully the next time I get a chance to write there will be at least one wonderful sea-faring story for you to read.
A thought to leave you with...if you are bored and your life is lacking adventure - use the mind the good Lord gave you and create something!
February 26, 2008
We returned from our trip to Virginia on Sunday night. The flight was late getting into San Diego and we arrived but not my luggage. This is the second time in a row that United sent me one direction and my bag another! But that didn't ruin our spirits. What a great trip! Staying at Tom and Mary's home is like being in a resort. It is so beautiful and comfortable that we get spoiled each time we go. Clint, my Godson, is their only dependent child still living at home. I'll bet he hates to be called that! Clint, you forgive me I know. He is a senior in high school and will be soaring out of the nest soon. Sarah is away at school in Utah, Samantha is away at college and the rest are living on their own now. We had a fabulous breakfast with Ma, Frank's mom and some of her good friends the first morning. She lives at The Virginian a rather upscale retirement community that provides 1st Class meals. After breakfast she took us up to the computer room where we got a chance to show Ma our website and how to reach us on-line. She has been practicing diligently so that she can keep up with us. We tried to spend as much time with her and the rest of the family as possible, knowing that it will be nearly a year before we will get back there. We had the opportunity to see Mitch and Ashley's new home and to get over to Jeff and Erin's new home for a big family "make your own pizza" dinner on Sat. night. Tom, Mary, Ma, Frank and I rode over together. Kevin and his soon to be bride, Carly were there. Samantha came home for the weekend and brought her beau, Mark. Mitch was there, sans Ashley - she is a nurse and was working that night. Clint had other plans and couldn't make it over. We had a ball, eating pizza and watching them all do battle with "Guitar Hero".
Sunday was bitter-sweet. Frank and I were anxious to get back to Destiny, and to the final tasks at hand, yet it was hard to leave our beloved family. Ma rode with us to the airport and that was a difficult good-bye.
During the plane ride from Dulles to San Diego I finished reading a beautiful novel that Susie Thompson had given to me before we left Denver; Redeeming Love is a heart moving story based on the book Hosea from the Bible. Susie, I do not have an email address to write to you, so if you are reading this please accept my thanks to you for the book and for the lovely note you wrote to me in the front cover. I enjoyed the book very much - it evoked so many emotions! Beautiful - thank you. You are a dear friend and I look forward to sharing Faith adventures with you and my other Christian friends.
Feb 16, 2008
There's not much new since our last update, except that the weather turned bitterly cold on the 13th, then on the 14th the wind kicked up singing and blowing like crazy causing the boat to rock and roll in its slip and the rain to blow sideways most of the day. Cold and blustery comes to mind! And this was the designated laundry day so I literally hauled it all up to the marina laundry-mat and camped out with a book for a couple of hours. Our friends Jeff and Jeri Lyn Martin drove over from Phoenix in the completely unexpected and unbelievable blizzard that rocked the western US on the 14th. They reported that cars and semi's were skidding all over Imperial Pass and that strong Faith and continuous prayer got them through. It is literally a miracle that they were able to keep driving, snaking around vehicles that had slid off the road or were completely undrivable due to the road conditions. We all agreed that they have a heck of a guardian angel watching over them. They may have been the last vehicle to get through before the roads were completely shut down. They arrived in time to spend Valentine's dinner with us and to give us a much needed break yesterday: Jeff and Frank set out to golf while JL and I spent the day at Sea World. The weather had cleared and the day was absolutely perfect. Today it is back to the grindstone and tasks at hand. I'm making our provisions list for food and dry goods, and scratching my head, asking myself where on Earth will we stow our 90-day supply of goods. Some rearranging must be done.We are waiting for Robert, the canvas guy to return with our bimini and dodger so that we can put our windshield back on. Unfortunately, we've still not heard from some of the people who are to install and move electronics, and Doctor Electron can't get back to finish his work on the Pactor Modem until we've already left for VA. We would have liked to be here when most of these things are done but that's not in the cards. So, once again we take it in stride and keep doing what we can in the meantime, trusting the process and the people. Gotta run, Frank is needing my expert skills elsewhere! TTFN!
Feb 13, 2008
Ahoy, Mates! We've been a little bit slammed since getting to San Diego. Each day we get up early and don't stop until around 9 or 10 PM, and then we literally fall into bed and sleep like babies in the womb. We've much to do here with little time to get it all done. Let's see if I can give the Reader's Digest version...we are still stowing supplies, provisions and general items that we brought to the boat on the drive down. This requires lots of placing, moving, stowing, re-placing, re-moving, re-stowing. Then there are people to meet with: our maritime attorney, the documentation folks, the Island Packet guy, the electrician for one thing, the electrician for another thing, the boat washer/waxer woman, the hull cleaner guy,the canvas guy, and I can't even remember who else. Then it's multiple trips to West Marine, Costco, Walmart, Target, West Marine, the dive shop to order our scuba tanks and drop off our gear for maintenance and inspection, the Chandlery, West Marine, the Life Boat/EPRIB shop, the hardware store, Home Depot, and did I mention West Marine? Then there are appointments with folks on the boat to do various installations. And in the middle of it all, we both had quasi-emergency visits to the dentist. Thank God for good referrals from the yachting world. What a wonderful network of people we've found in this community.
And by the way, what happened to that big container I packed with boat things, and why on Earth do we have this one marked "Storage"? You get the picture, right? Thank goodness some friends of ours from Denver will be in San Diego this week and can bring us a few things. In spite of the seeming helter skelter, we are in Heaven and wouldn't change a thing right now. We are thanking God for each day and for they way this is all working out and the timing of unexpected occurrences. Speaking of time...our time here in San Diego is so limited that we are working like mad to get everything done before we head out. We are flying to Virginia, Feb 19 - 24th, and then would like to sail out of here by the 26th if the work gets done in time. Since we are paying February slip fees in both San Diego and in Ensenada, we'd like to get back into Mexico before the end of the month and spend a couple of days In Ensenada before heading down the Baja coast. Of course, our timing and God's may differ so we're trying to stay loose and flexible, while crossing our fingers fiercely!
February 1, - February 9, 2008...
Welcome to our new world! Frank retired yesterday after 30 years of loyal service to one company - amazing in this age and time. Now "homeless", we spent Thursday night with our friend Larry Hill, and then caught an early morning flight to Houston, TX and headed straight to the Texas DMV, where we stood in line for literally hours for our new driver's licenses. We decided that being retired we can now do these things that would formerly eat up the productive hours of one's day and cause needless anxiety to the working class. After establishing our Texas Citizenry we headed south for La Porte, TX, checked into the Houston Yacht Club - hereafter referred to as HYC - and readied ourselves for the new member reception, joined by our lovely Jennifer. Amazingly, Jen knew more members of HYC than we did.
On Saturday we picked up Trace, our grandson, and spent the day with him while Jen worked. Frank took his General license exam and of course passed with flying colors. We had a lot of fun with Trace. Frank took him out to look at all of the big boats in the HYC marina. That evening we met up with Jen and a couple of her friends for dinner at the Outrigger located on Clear Lake and watched Yachty Gras. This is Clear Lake's version of the parade; however, it is done on the water... sailing and motor vessels decorate to the hilt much as a float in the parade in New Orleans. The boaters dress in theme attire and toss dozens of beads to the onlookers in the waterside restaurants and bars. I'm so happy that Frank had the opportunity to be there and of course Trace walked away looking like Mr T with so many beads around his little 4-year old neck!
Sunday, Jen and Trace joined us as we took Mom and Dad out to the Aquarium for their respective birthdays. Monday morning we drove to Dallas and had the opportunity to spend another birthday with our nephew Tre. My gosh that was a great time! We hit Trulucks for all U can eat stone crab claws - we were all in Heaven!
Tuesday we flew back to Denver, retrieved our Tahoe from Larry's garage, and spent the night with our friend Sheri. We got a quick visit in with Jeri Lyn and Jeff before hooking up the trailer we'd left at their garage. My gosh - do we sound like vagabonds or what? By noon we were on the road to Ensenada. We drove straight through - Frank only let me drive 5 of the 25 hours - I gave him a gentle and lovingly hard time about needing to be in control, and what on Earth is he going to do when we sail places!?!?!? He admitted he needs to work on that (duh!), but says he will trust me more on the boat (right!). Have you ever driven to San Diego, via Phoenix? I was entranced by the landscapes en route. The gigantic rock piles along the way just went on for miles, and left me wondering if giants hadn't formerly inhabited this Earth and their young children made sand piles everywhere while playing, yet they are huge boulders to us (kind of like the Whos in Whoville). There is no way to articulate a description of that. So cool! Then we turned into Mexico at Tecate. What a beautiful drive through the green mountains, yet the roadways were literally defiled by garbage all along the route, and we never saw so many crosses along the road - there must have been a few hundred people die on that road due to traffic accidents.
We arrived safely in Ensenada and got the boat unloaded by 4 PM on Thursday. We rode to the local weekly yachters happy hour with Joe and Peggy at La Vendiamia (our neighbors on Crazy Notion), and by 7:30 Frank and I were bobbing our heads to stay awake. Club soda with lime just doesn't pep me up! We slept like babies Thursday night and awoke at 8:00 AM Friday - it felt so good! We spent Friday getting our papers in order at the immigration office in Ensenada - what a joke! - unpacked as much as possible and stowed stuff about the boat. Then we were up at 4:30 this morning to get underway to San Diego. We left the dock at 5:00 AM and arrived at the SD harbor Police dock at around 3:00 this afternoon. As soon as we got to the Shelter Island Cove Marina and tied Destiny snugly into her slip, Frank took off to catch a taxi to begin the journey back to Ensenada to retrieve the car and trailer. What a superman I married! I'll be lucky to see him by midnight. Now, I'm off to take a long hot shower. Good night my friends.
This week has been another whirlwind for us. We hit the ground running upon our return to San Diego. We thought that we would just kick back and enjoy the city - no stress - no business to attend to, and head to Ensenada by Wednesday, but realized we really should quit thinking! As Frank says, it was a blur. We were determined, however, to set some time aside to visit one of Frank's dear old friends, Harry Parmenter. As always, God stepped in and delayed our departure by a day so that we had that chance. On Wednesday, amidst the hustle bustle of our crazy schedule we went to visit Harry at his retirement village in Spring Valley, just south of San Diego. Harry was a State Farm agent in Denver for 37 years, working with Frank. I'd been hearing about Harry for years but had not met him before now. What a dear and gentle soul he is. Harry lost his wife, Betty Ann, 3 years ago, yet he still hands out business cards with both their names on them. She was his love, his life partner and his best friend. Harry is one of those special people who touch you forever, and who made us promise to send him post cards from exotic places so that he can join us on our journey, in mind and spirit. As we drove away I told Frank that Harry left an imprint upon my heart. Very few people touch me in that way, yet Harry did.
Before we left VA, Mary loaned me a couple of books to read. One was by Allison Dubois, who is the feature character in the TV show, Medium. Then I saw the show Wed. night on TV. It was kind of weird, watching the show and comparing Patricia Arquette to the real Allison. I like the real one better. The other book, The Secret Life of Bees, is wonderful! I should be reading more "how-to" books, but I get so bored and distracted that I have to alternate between reality and fiction.
This is the last land-lubber type writing from me for a while. Hopefully the next time I get a chance to write there will be at least one wonderful sea-faring story for you to read.
A thought to leave you with...if you are bored and your life is lacking adventure - use the mind the good Lord gave you and create something!
February 26, 2008
We returned from our trip to Virginia on Sunday night. The flight was late getting into San Diego and we arrived but not my luggage. This is the second time in a row that United sent me one direction and my bag another! But that didn't ruin our spirits. What a great trip! Staying at Tom and Mary's home is like being in a resort. It is so beautiful and comfortable that we get spoiled each time we go. Clint, my Godson, is their only dependent child still living at home. I'll bet he hates to be called that! Clint, you forgive me I know. He is a senior in high school and will be soaring out of the nest soon. Sarah is away at school in Utah, Samantha is away at college and the rest are living on their own now. We had a fabulous breakfast with Ma, Frank's mom and some of her good friends the first morning. She lives at The Virginian a rather upscale retirement community that provides 1st Class meals. After breakfast she took us up to the computer room where we got a chance to show Ma our website and how to reach us on-line. She has been practicing diligently so that she can keep up with us. We tried to spend as much time with her and the rest of the family as possible, knowing that it will be nearly a year before we will get back there. We had the opportunity to see Mitch and Ashley's new home and to get over to Jeff and Erin's new home for a big family "make your own pizza" dinner on Sat. night. Tom, Mary, Ma, Frank and I rode over together. Kevin and his soon to be bride, Carly were there. Samantha came home for the weekend and brought her beau, Mark. Mitch was there, sans Ashley - she is a nurse and was working that night. Clint had other plans and couldn't make it over. We had a ball, eating pizza and watching them all do battle with "Guitar Hero".
Sunday was bitter-sweet. Frank and I were anxious to get back to Destiny, and to the final tasks at hand, yet it was hard to leave our beloved family. Ma rode with us to the airport and that was a difficult good-bye.
During the plane ride from Dulles to San Diego I finished reading a beautiful novel that Susie Thompson had given to me before we left Denver; Redeeming Love is a heart moving story based on the book Hosea from the Bible. Susie, I do not have an email address to write to you, so if you are reading this please accept my thanks to you for the book and for the lovely note you wrote to me in the front cover. I enjoyed the book very much - it evoked so many emotions! Beautiful - thank you. You are a dear friend and I look forward to sharing Faith adventures with you and my other Christian friends.
Feb 16, 2008
There's not much new since our last update, except that the weather turned bitterly cold on the 13th, then on the 14th the wind kicked up singing and blowing like crazy causing the boat to rock and roll in its slip and the rain to blow sideways most of the day. Cold and blustery comes to mind! And this was the designated laundry day so I literally hauled it all up to the marina laundry-mat and camped out with a book for a couple of hours. Our friends Jeff and Jeri Lyn Martin drove over from Phoenix in the completely unexpected and unbelievable blizzard that rocked the western US on the 14th. They reported that cars and semi's were skidding all over Imperial Pass and that strong Faith and continuous prayer got them through. It is literally a miracle that they were able to keep driving, snaking around vehicles that had slid off the road or were completely undrivable due to the road conditions. We all agreed that they have a heck of a guardian angel watching over them. They may have been the last vehicle to get through before the roads were completely shut down. They arrived in time to spend Valentine's dinner with us and to give us a much needed break yesterday: Jeff and Frank set out to golf while JL and I spent the day at Sea World. The weather had cleared and the day was absolutely perfect. Today it is back to the grindstone and tasks at hand. I'm making our provisions list for food and dry goods, and scratching my head, asking myself where on Earth will we stow our 90-day supply of goods. Some rearranging must be done.We are waiting for Robert, the canvas guy to return with our bimini and dodger so that we can put our windshield back on. Unfortunately, we've still not heard from some of the people who are to install and move electronics, and Doctor Electron can't get back to finish his work on the Pactor Modem until we've already left for VA. We would have liked to be here when most of these things are done but that's not in the cards. So, once again we take it in stride and keep doing what we can in the meantime, trusting the process and the people. Gotta run, Frank is needing my expert skills elsewhere! TTFN!
Feb 13, 2008
Ahoy, Mates! We've been a little bit slammed since getting to San Diego. Each day we get up early and don't stop until around 9 or 10 PM, and then we literally fall into bed and sleep like babies in the womb. We've much to do here with little time to get it all done. Let's see if I can give the Reader's Digest version...we are still stowing supplies, provisions and general items that we brought to the boat on the drive down. This requires lots of placing, moving, stowing, re-placing, re-moving, re-stowing. Then there are people to meet with: our maritime attorney, the documentation folks, the Island Packet guy, the electrician for one thing, the electrician for another thing, the boat washer/waxer woman, the hull cleaner guy,the canvas guy, and I can't even remember who else. Then it's multiple trips to West Marine, Costco, Walmart, Target, West Marine, the dive shop to order our scuba tanks and drop off our gear for maintenance and inspection, the Chandlery, West Marine, the Life Boat/EPRIB shop, the hardware store, Home Depot, and did I mention West Marine? Then there are appointments with folks on the boat to do various installations. And in the middle of it all, we both had quasi-emergency visits to the dentist. Thank God for good referrals from the yachting world. What a wonderful network of people we've found in this community.
And by the way, what happened to that big container I packed with boat things, and why on Earth do we have this one marked "Storage"? You get the picture, right? Thank goodness some friends of ours from Denver will be in San Diego this week and can bring us a few things. In spite of the seeming helter skelter, we are in Heaven and wouldn't change a thing right now. We are thanking God for each day and for they way this is all working out and the timing of unexpected occurrences. Speaking of time...our time here in San Diego is so limited that we are working like mad to get everything done before we head out. We are flying to Virginia, Feb 19 - 24th, and then would like to sail out of here by the 26th if the work gets done in time. Since we are paying February slip fees in both San Diego and in Ensenada, we'd like to get back into Mexico before the end of the month and spend a couple of days In Ensenada before heading down the Baja coast. Of course, our timing and God's may differ so we're trying to stay loose and flexible, while crossing our fingers fiercely!
February 1, - February 9, 2008...
Welcome to our new world! Frank retired yesterday after 30 years of loyal service to one company - amazing in this age and time. Now "homeless", we spent Thursday night with our friend Larry Hill, and then caught an early morning flight to Houston, TX and headed straight to the Texas DMV, where we stood in line for literally hours for our new driver's licenses. We decided that being retired we can now do these things that would formerly eat up the productive hours of one's day and cause needless anxiety to the working class. After establishing our Texas Citizenry we headed south for La Porte, TX, checked into the Houston Yacht Club - hereafter referred to as HYC - and readied ourselves for the new member reception, joined by our lovely Jennifer. Amazingly, Jen knew more members of HYC than we did.
On Saturday we picked up Trace, our grandson, and spent the day with him while Jen worked. Frank took his General license exam and of course passed with flying colors. We had a lot of fun with Trace. Frank took him out to look at all of the big boats in the HYC marina. That evening we met up with Jen and a couple of her friends for dinner at the Outrigger located on Clear Lake and watched Yachty Gras. This is Clear Lake's version of the parade; however, it is done on the water... sailing and motor vessels decorate to the hilt much as a float in the parade in New Orleans. The boaters dress in theme attire and toss dozens of beads to the onlookers in the waterside restaurants and bars. I'm so happy that Frank had the opportunity to be there and of course Trace walked away looking like Mr T with so many beads around his little 4-year old neck!
Sunday, Jen and Trace joined us as we took Mom and Dad out to the Aquarium for their respective birthdays. Monday morning we drove to Dallas and had the opportunity to spend another birthday with our nephew Tre. My gosh that was a great time! We hit Trulucks for all U can eat stone crab claws - we were all in Heaven!
Tuesday we flew back to Denver, retrieved our Tahoe from Larry's garage, and spent the night with our friend Sheri. We got a quick visit in with Jeri Lyn and Jeff before hooking up the trailer we'd left at their garage. My gosh - do we sound like vagabonds or what? By noon we were on the road to Ensenada. We drove straight through - Frank only let me drive 5 of the 25 hours - I gave him a gentle and lovingly hard time about needing to be in control, and what on Earth is he going to do when we sail places!?!?!? He admitted he needs to work on that (duh!), but says he will trust me more on the boat (right!). Have you ever driven to San Diego, via Phoenix? I was entranced by the landscapes en route. The gigantic rock piles along the way just went on for miles, and left me wondering if giants hadn't formerly inhabited this Earth and their young children made sand piles everywhere while playing, yet they are huge boulders to us (kind of like the Whos in Whoville). There is no way to articulate a description of that. So cool! Then we turned into Mexico at Tecate. What a beautiful drive through the green mountains, yet the roadways were literally defiled by garbage all along the route, and we never saw so many crosses along the road - there must have been a few hundred people die on that road due to traffic accidents.
We arrived safely in Ensenada and got the boat unloaded by 4 PM on Thursday. We rode to the local weekly yachters happy hour with Joe and Peggy at La Vendiamia (our neighbors on Crazy Notion), and by 7:30 Frank and I were bobbing our heads to stay awake. Club soda with lime just doesn't pep me up! We slept like babies Thursday night and awoke at 8:00 AM Friday - it felt so good! We spent Friday getting our papers in order at the immigration office in Ensenada - what a joke! - unpacked as much as possible and stowed stuff about the boat. Then we were up at 4:30 this morning to get underway to San Diego. We left the dock at 5:00 AM and arrived at the SD harbor Police dock at around 3:00 this afternoon. As soon as we got to the Shelter Island Cove Marina and tied Destiny snugly into her slip, Frank took off to catch a taxi to begin the journey back to Ensenada to retrieve the car and trailer. What a superman I married! I'll be lucky to see him by midnight. Now, I'm off to take a long hot shower. Good night my friends.
Monday, January 28, 2008
January 2008 postings
January 28
Frank's company retirement party was held at the JW Marriott in Denver's Cherry Creek area on Saturday night. The theme was Island Casual of course! It was attended by close to 200 of his colleagues, former colleagues and friends. Folks flew in from all over the country. Two of his long time pals were there, Steve Haltom, from high school days, and Randy Holloway from the Navy years- the 70's - also flew in with his wife Judy. Four of my girlfriends came from out of town; Maureen, Marianne and Sally from Houston, and Sharon from Reno - Tom and Mary made the trip, via a ski trip to Utah and the CO Rockies, and my daughter surprised me by flying in on Friday with her beau, Paul. We had such a great weekend! We stayed down at the Marriott in order to spend more time with our out of town friends. Frank arranged a special mixer on Friday evening for just that group of guests, knowing that we would not get much time, if any, with them at the party. And as predicted, we did not get to connect with at least half of those in attendance at the party. Frank's colleagues and bosses present and former made some very dear comments to and about Frank. He was well loved and will be missed - at least as much as anyone is missed these days when they retire.
This is our last night in the condo. Tomorrow all furniture will be gone. All of our personal effects will either be going to storage or to Destiny. We will spend Tuesday and Wednesday night at the Martin's home, I'll pick Frank up from work on the 31st, we will take the Tahoe to Larry Hill's house and park it while we're in Houston, spend the night with him and then hopefully get on the 6 AM flight to Houston. Wish us luck!
January 1, 2008 - Happy New Year!
My sister Beverly flew in from TX and went to Ensenada with me on New Year's Day. Frank is not taking any time off since he is retiring at the end of the month, so Beverly and my brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Mary and I planned to go and to enjoy some long overdue bonding . Tom and Mary were flying in from VA; however, they got to the airport to find that their flight was canceled and were unable to get another flight. We were more than a little disappointed because we had all been looking forward to this for a long time. So Bev and I made the trip solo, meeting in San Diego and then taking the usual jaunt down to Ensenada. She is not only my sister but probably my very best friend. Easy going and such a great traveling buddy, Bev was like a wide-eyed child during the excursion. She certainly had some great stories to impart to friends and family when she returned home.
The weather was cold! I was accused by our neighbors on Crazy Notion of bringing Colorado with me. Laurie and Bryan were still around (staying with Joe and Peggy on Crazy Notion), and Bev really enjoyed meeting them all. We had a New Year's Day"eat the leftovers from the New Year's Party" get-together with them the first evening and that took care of our dinner.
The next day we set out to do our grocery shopping and to familiarize Bev with Ensenada. I introduced her to fish tacos at the little street-side eateries - they are lined up and down the streets over by the fish market behind Baja Naval. This has become the standard "tour de Ensenada" that Sheri and Tammi both enjoyed when they came to visit. Our favorite spot charges only 80 cents for a fish taco, but $1 for agua mineral. We had a shrimp cocktail that probably had 15-20 large size shrimp in it for about $7. Over the course of our stay we returned a couple of times and Bev sampled ceviche and I don't remember what else. Of course we hit the fish market and bought a kg of shrimp that fed us for about three meals.
We couldn't get the internet to work on the new Gladney laptop, so we used it instead to watch movies. During the day we ventured out and then in the evenings we either watched movies or played Mad Gab. What a goofy but fun game. We spent our last full day ticking Honey-do's off the list Frank had sent with me. One of them was to measure the floor in the saloon and in the galley for carpeting - not fun! I won't go into it, but we will never do this again unless we are well paid. (See photos from Bev's visit to get a visual idea.) If someone was watching us they would have sworn were were Lucy and Ethel! By the time we finished we just sent up a prayer that the custom carpet bears some resemblance to the intended form of the sole (floor).
All in all we had a great time, but felt the tinge of sadness that Tom and Mary couldn't have made it down with us. They did cal us a few times and ask us; "What would we be doing now? This very moment...", and we would convey to them the amazing and exciting things that we were doing - hee hee. We figured in the grand scheme this was what was meant to be, and that there will be other opportunities in the future.
That's it for now, at least until Frank and I return. Then it will be the real thing - retirement dreams coming to full fruition. Until then, my very best to you all.
Frank's company retirement party was held at the JW Marriott in Denver's Cherry Creek area on Saturday night. The theme was Island Casual of course! It was attended by close to 200 of his colleagues, former colleagues and friends. Folks flew in from all over the country. Two of his long time pals were there, Steve Haltom, from high school days, and Randy Holloway from the Navy years- the 70's - also flew in with his wife Judy. Four of my girlfriends came from out of town; Maureen, Marianne and Sally from Houston, and Sharon from Reno - Tom and Mary made the trip, via a ski trip to Utah and the CO Rockies, and my daughter surprised me by flying in on Friday with her beau, Paul. We had such a great weekend! We stayed down at the Marriott in order to spend more time with our out of town friends. Frank arranged a special mixer on Friday evening for just that group of guests, knowing that we would not get much time, if any, with them at the party. And as predicted, we did not get to connect with at least half of those in attendance at the party. Frank's colleagues and bosses present and former made some very dear comments to and about Frank. He was well loved and will be missed - at least as much as anyone is missed these days when they retire.
This is our last night in the condo. Tomorrow all furniture will be gone. All of our personal effects will either be going to storage or to Destiny. We will spend Tuesday and Wednesday night at the Martin's home, I'll pick Frank up from work on the 31st, we will take the Tahoe to Larry Hill's house and park it while we're in Houston, spend the night with him and then hopefully get on the 6 AM flight to Houston. Wish us luck!
January 1, 2008 - Happy New Year!
My sister Beverly flew in from TX and went to Ensenada with me on New Year's Day. Frank is not taking any time off since he is retiring at the end of the month, so Beverly and my brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Mary and I planned to go and to enjoy some long overdue bonding . Tom and Mary were flying in from VA; however, they got to the airport to find that their flight was canceled and were unable to get another flight. We were more than a little disappointed because we had all been looking forward to this for a long time. So Bev and I made the trip solo, meeting in San Diego and then taking the usual jaunt down to Ensenada. She is not only my sister but probably my very best friend. Easy going and such a great traveling buddy, Bev was like a wide-eyed child during the excursion. She certainly had some great stories to impart to friends and family when she returned home.
The weather was cold! I was accused by our neighbors on Crazy Notion of bringing Colorado with me. Laurie and Bryan were still around (staying with Joe and Peggy on Crazy Notion), and Bev really enjoyed meeting them all. We had a New Year's Day"eat the leftovers from the New Year's Party" get-together with them the first evening and that took care of our dinner.
The next day we set out to do our grocery shopping and to familiarize Bev with Ensenada. I introduced her to fish tacos at the little street-side eateries - they are lined up and down the streets over by the fish market behind Baja Naval. This has become the standard "tour de Ensenada" that Sheri and Tammi both enjoyed when they came to visit. Our favorite spot charges only 80 cents for a fish taco, but $1 for agua mineral. We had a shrimp cocktail that probably had 15-20 large size shrimp in it for about $7. Over the course of our stay we returned a couple of times and Bev sampled ceviche and I don't remember what else. Of course we hit the fish market and bought a kg of shrimp that fed us for about three meals.
We couldn't get the internet to work on the new Gladney laptop, so we used it instead to watch movies. During the day we ventured out and then in the evenings we either watched movies or played Mad Gab. What a goofy but fun game. We spent our last full day ticking Honey-do's off the list Frank had sent with me. One of them was to measure the floor in the saloon and in the galley for carpeting - not fun! I won't go into it, but we will never do this again unless we are well paid. (See photos from Bev's visit to get a visual idea.) If someone was watching us they would have sworn were were Lucy and Ethel! By the time we finished we just sent up a prayer that the custom carpet bears some resemblance to the intended form of the sole (floor).
All in all we had a great time, but felt the tinge of sadness that Tom and Mary couldn't have made it down with us. They did cal us a few times and ask us; "What would we be doing now? This very moment...", and we would convey to them the amazing and exciting things that we were doing - hee hee. We figured in the grand scheme this was what was meant to be, and that there will be other opportunities in the future.
That's it for now, at least until Frank and I return. Then it will be the real thing - retirement dreams coming to full fruition. Until then, my very best to you all.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
2007 postings
December 18, 2007
We're continuing to downsize and get things packed up for either storage, Goodwill, or to take to the boat. This is very emotional for me. Not so for Frank. If it was up to him we'd get rid of everything and start over in the future anew. Is that a Man Rule?
I didn't even do Christmas cards this year. I've quit all of my volunteer jobs, gotten off of every board I've been serving on and still feel my plate is full. We're now planning our last week in the Denver area; trying to orchestrate the timing of tying up all loose ends so we can leave Colorado by 1/31/08. It looks like we will fly straight to Houston, take care of yacht club and residence business, celebrate my Mom's birthday, see my daughter and our grandson, then drive to Dallas. We'll spend a couple of days there with my Sis and her family, then fly back to Denver to pick up the Tahoe (which will be loaded with our personal effects to take to the boat), then drive to Ensenada on Feb. 7th. We plan to sail up to San Diego, leave the boat at the IPY dealership there for upgrades, then go back to Ensenada for the Tahoe. We and Destiny will stay in San Diego while the workers work around us. We'll get provisioned and organized, try to fly to VA to see Ma, Tom and Mary some time during February, then be ready to head out (hopefully) by March 1. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Don't you wish you were us?
December 14, 2007
Frank and I spent time with our web designer, Erik. Now we know more about updating and managing our website, but also feel that we may not know enough to keep us out of trouble - yikes!!!!
November 26, 2007
We're back from our trip to Ensenada, and I realized I owe some more answers to peoples' questions... On what will we do for food, water, etc. We have an onboard reverse osmosis water maker. Our system converts sea water to very tasty, consumable drinking, bathing, etc, water (we secretly think this is where some bottled waters probably really come from). Destiny's water tank capacity is 300 gallons and can be replenished as needed. However, the majority of our life will be spent in fairly civilized localities, so we will go shopping for our grocery and other supplies. I think some folks think we will be living in the middle of the ocean! We will be able to stay in touch via email and our web site, conducting most personal transactions online. We will carry a satellite phone but won't use that as our primary mode of communication. We'll also be able to make phone calls via the Ham radio, and a service called "Skype". My sister and Brother-in-law in Texas have been kind enough to allow us the use of their home address for "snail mail" and bulk items. Well, that should do it for now on the Q & A front. Stay tuned ...
November 21, 2007
It is the day before Thanksgiving and we are on our way to Ensenada. This is our last trip down together before Frank’s retirement. We’re pretty excited…he has been packed for nearly 3 weeks. So far this has been the easiest Thanksgiving holiday travel we have ever experienced. DIA was not crowded at all and we found no lines – anywhere in the airport. We should arrive in San Diego by 4:30, and hope to arrive at the marina in Ensenada by 8:00 PM. This will be our first Thanksgiving on Destiny. We are going down alone as our family members all had otherwise plans for the holiday. We’ve not seen turkeys in the grocery stores down there so we’ll be happy and give thanks for our many blessings over whatever delectable culinary treasures we are able to muster up. Probably fish tacos.
Well fate was at work as we traveled again. Timing is everything when coming to Ensenada. We landed in San Diego on time; we only waited 10 minutes for our luggage and another 10, for the bus which takes us to the trolley stop. We got off the bus as the trolley was pulling into the station. We rode the trolley to the border – and as always I spent the ride wondering why we are usually the only people with luggage, are among the minority of English speaking passengers, and who look like we actually paid for the ride…things that make you say, “Hmmm”. This time the walk across the border was crowded with folks headed south. Many of them carried garbage bags for luggage, and were in a rush. We arrived at the bus depot as the ABC bus was loading up. Frank and I purchased the last two tickets to ride. We made it to the marina by 8:40. Not bad, not bad at all. When we arrived, Laurie and Brian Anderson who are boat sitting Crazy Notion greeted us and gave us the good news that they had washed Destiny down for us as a homecoming gift, AND that they had bought a turkey and invited us for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Life is good.
11/22/07Happy Thanksgiving!
And Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad! Frank and I got some chores done and headed out for some sailing. He is teaching me things, like what buttons to push to raise and lower sails, and to set the auto-pilot and to change the direction of the boat when we are about to run over things like big fishing buoys. I also pushed the button to make water, and flipped switches to turn on the generator and switch from shore power. It was fun. It was cool out, then came the sun and it got hot out, then the clouds came out and I had to put on my jacket again. After making sandwiches for lunch I was so worn out I had to take a nap.
We spent a very nice Thanksgiving dinner with Laurie and Brian. They cracked us up telling us how they went shopping with a measuring tape and got strange looks from other shoppers as they measured turkeys in order to find one that would fit into the yacht's oven. I felt badly that I had nothing to contribute because we had not yet been to the grocery store. So I took over some packets of cherry flavored instant green tea for a beverage and a bag of Hershey’s (new!) Hot Cocoa kisses. The meal was so good, as was the hospitality and warmth of our neighbors. We have once again been blessed to meet two more wonderful fellow yachties in Brian and Laurie. We love this life.
November 7, 2007
People ask us questions like, "Do you know how to sail?", "Aren't you scared of being out in the middle of the ocean?", "What do your children and family think about this?", “What will you do for food, water, Coors Light - this to Frank of course (big smile there)?", "How will you get mail, watch TV, stay in touch...", and so on... We get kind of tickled over some of them because, after all, we aren't leaving the planet. So, for my part, I’ll try to answer these questions as they come up, or as thoughts come. If you have questions you’d like to ask us, please send them to us on our web site “Hailing Destiny”, and we will post the questions and answers for all to see.
In answer to the "fear" questions, I suppose we could be as fearful on our boat as we would be flying or driving, skiing or scuba diving. We would be insane if we didn't feel some element of fear; however, we are not embarking on this endeavor unprepared. Anyone who knows Frank knows that he has got every aspect covered, studied, investigated, and referenced. I'm pretty intense as well whenever necessary. We both also have tremendous faith in each other, our intellect, our skills, our training and in God. There will be times that we will wonder what on Earth we were thinking, but I've done that with jobs, friends, hobbies and even a new pair of jeans!
As for skill, Frank is an accomplished sailor and I am learning. I can't think of anything in my life I've done that required that I be completely versed in all aspects and nuances before moving forward. Learning is part of the process, and not knowing everything is probably going to keep us from becoming overconfident and cavalier about the whole thing.
Kids and family...well that is a bag of mixed nuts. Jennifer, my daughter, thinks it is cool that she will now have the means to get away to exotic and beautiful places. Jen loves the water and is a beach bum at heart. She has gotten used to my not being around much since my move to CO from TX, but we have always been close and this will not change that. Karen, Frank's daughter, is thrilled and is very excited for us and for the opportunities for travel for herself as well, in spite of the fact that she suffers terribly from sea sickness; she is an adventurer and ready for anything. Bill, Frank's son, isn't so enamored with this whole idea. I think he thinks we are crazy, but he supports his Dad and we know he'll come around and will definitely come to visit. As for the rest of our family, they all know we are but a plane ride away, and an email away.
I think that’s enough for today, I’ll answer the food, water, and other questions next time. Until then, keep dreaming and so shall we.
October 26, 2007
Shortly after we purchased our boat, we moved her down to Cruiseport Village Marina, in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. We have grown very fond of the other boat owners and of others we’ve met down there. When we got settled in we found that Destiny’s next door neighbor, Crazy Notion, is owned by a couple named Joe and Peggy Shafer who happen to be fellow Colorado neighbors from Aurora. We are constantly amazed at what some folks would call coincidental happenings in our life. Frank and I just smile and say, “Yep, that’s destiny at work again!” Joe and Peggy were a huge part of our official de naming/renaming ceremony over Labor Day weekend, and they have been like guardian angels watching over Destiny for us during our long absences. We feel we have found life-long friends in those two.
We try to get to Ensenada as often as possible to check on the boat and to move things down bit by bit. If all goes well we hope to move her up to San Diego by the second week of February for some outfitting before the official “bon voyage!” Our plan is to head south from San Diego by March 1, 2008.
We're continuing to downsize and get things packed up for either storage, Goodwill, or to take to the boat. This is very emotional for me. Not so for Frank. If it was up to him we'd get rid of everything and start over in the future anew. Is that a Man Rule?
I didn't even do Christmas cards this year. I've quit all of my volunteer jobs, gotten off of every board I've been serving on and still feel my plate is full. We're now planning our last week in the Denver area; trying to orchestrate the timing of tying up all loose ends so we can leave Colorado by 1/31/08. It looks like we will fly straight to Houston, take care of yacht club and residence business, celebrate my Mom's birthday, see my daughter and our grandson, then drive to Dallas. We'll spend a couple of days there with my Sis and her family, then fly back to Denver to pick up the Tahoe (which will be loaded with our personal effects to take to the boat), then drive to Ensenada on Feb. 7th. We plan to sail up to San Diego, leave the boat at the IPY dealership there for upgrades, then go back to Ensenada for the Tahoe. We and Destiny will stay in San Diego while the workers work around us. We'll get provisioned and organized, try to fly to VA to see Ma, Tom and Mary some time during February, then be ready to head out (hopefully) by March 1. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Don't you wish you were us?
December 14, 2007
Frank and I spent time with our web designer, Erik. Now we know more about updating and managing our website, but also feel that we may not know enough to keep us out of trouble - yikes!!!!
November 26, 2007
We're back from our trip to Ensenada, and I realized I owe some more answers to peoples' questions... On what will we do for food, water, etc. We have an onboard reverse osmosis water maker. Our system converts sea water to very tasty, consumable drinking, bathing, etc, water (we secretly think this is where some bottled waters probably really come from). Destiny's water tank capacity is 300 gallons and can be replenished as needed. However, the majority of our life will be spent in fairly civilized localities, so we will go shopping for our grocery and other supplies. I think some folks think we will be living in the middle of the ocean! We will be able to stay in touch via email and our web site, conducting most personal transactions online. We will carry a satellite phone but won't use that as our primary mode of communication. We'll also be able to make phone calls via the Ham radio, and a service called "Skype". My sister and Brother-in-law in Texas have been kind enough to allow us the use of their home address for "snail mail" and bulk items. Well, that should do it for now on the Q & A front. Stay tuned ...
November 21, 2007
It is the day before Thanksgiving and we are on our way to Ensenada. This is our last trip down together before Frank’s retirement. We’re pretty excited…he has been packed for nearly 3 weeks. So far this has been the easiest Thanksgiving holiday travel we have ever experienced. DIA was not crowded at all and we found no lines – anywhere in the airport. We should arrive in San Diego by 4:30, and hope to arrive at the marina in Ensenada by 8:00 PM. This will be our first Thanksgiving on Destiny. We are going down alone as our family members all had otherwise plans for the holiday. We’ve not seen turkeys in the grocery stores down there so we’ll be happy and give thanks for our many blessings over whatever delectable culinary treasures we are able to muster up. Probably fish tacos.
Well fate was at work as we traveled again. Timing is everything when coming to Ensenada. We landed in San Diego on time; we only waited 10 minutes for our luggage and another 10, for the bus which takes us to the trolley stop. We got off the bus as the trolley was pulling into the station. We rode the trolley to the border – and as always I spent the ride wondering why we are usually the only people with luggage, are among the minority of English speaking passengers, and who look like we actually paid for the ride…things that make you say, “Hmmm”. This time the walk across the border was crowded with folks headed south. Many of them carried garbage bags for luggage, and were in a rush. We arrived at the bus depot as the ABC bus was loading up. Frank and I purchased the last two tickets to ride. We made it to the marina by 8:40. Not bad, not bad at all. When we arrived, Laurie and Brian Anderson who are boat sitting Crazy Notion greeted us and gave us the good news that they had washed Destiny down for us as a homecoming gift, AND that they had bought a turkey and invited us for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Life is good.
11/22/07Happy Thanksgiving!
And Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad! Frank and I got some chores done and headed out for some sailing. He is teaching me things, like what buttons to push to raise and lower sails, and to set the auto-pilot and to change the direction of the boat when we are about to run over things like big fishing buoys. I also pushed the button to make water, and flipped switches to turn on the generator and switch from shore power. It was fun. It was cool out, then came the sun and it got hot out, then the clouds came out and I had to put on my jacket again. After making sandwiches for lunch I was so worn out I had to take a nap.
We spent a very nice Thanksgiving dinner with Laurie and Brian. They cracked us up telling us how they went shopping with a measuring tape and got strange looks from other shoppers as they measured turkeys in order to find one that would fit into the yacht's oven. I felt badly that I had nothing to contribute because we had not yet been to the grocery store. So I took over some packets of cherry flavored instant green tea for a beverage and a bag of Hershey’s (new!) Hot Cocoa kisses. The meal was so good, as was the hospitality and warmth of our neighbors. We have once again been blessed to meet two more wonderful fellow yachties in Brian and Laurie. We love this life.
November 7, 2007
People ask us questions like, "Do you know how to sail?", "Aren't you scared of being out in the middle of the ocean?", "What do your children and family think about this?", “What will you do for food, water, Coors Light - this to Frank of course (big smile there)?", "How will you get mail, watch TV, stay in touch...", and so on... We get kind of tickled over some of them because, after all, we aren't leaving the planet. So, for my part, I’ll try to answer these questions as they come up, or as thoughts come. If you have questions you’d like to ask us, please send them to us on our web site “Hailing Destiny”, and we will post the questions and answers for all to see.
In answer to the "fear" questions, I suppose we could be as fearful on our boat as we would be flying or driving, skiing or scuba diving. We would be insane if we didn't feel some element of fear; however, we are not embarking on this endeavor unprepared. Anyone who knows Frank knows that he has got every aspect covered, studied, investigated, and referenced. I'm pretty intense as well whenever necessary. We both also have tremendous faith in each other, our intellect, our skills, our training and in God. There will be times that we will wonder what on Earth we were thinking, but I've done that with jobs, friends, hobbies and even a new pair of jeans!
As for skill, Frank is an accomplished sailor and I am learning. I can't think of anything in my life I've done that required that I be completely versed in all aspects and nuances before moving forward. Learning is part of the process, and not knowing everything is probably going to keep us from becoming overconfident and cavalier about the whole thing.
Kids and family...well that is a bag of mixed nuts. Jennifer, my daughter, thinks it is cool that she will now have the means to get away to exotic and beautiful places. Jen loves the water and is a beach bum at heart. She has gotten used to my not being around much since my move to CO from TX, but we have always been close and this will not change that. Karen, Frank's daughter, is thrilled and is very excited for us and for the opportunities for travel for herself as well, in spite of the fact that she suffers terribly from sea sickness; she is an adventurer and ready for anything. Bill, Frank's son, isn't so enamored with this whole idea. I think he thinks we are crazy, but he supports his Dad and we know he'll come around and will definitely come to visit. As for the rest of our family, they all know we are but a plane ride away, and an email away.
I think that’s enough for today, I’ll answer the food, water, and other questions next time. Until then, keep dreaming and so shall we.
October 26, 2007
Shortly after we purchased our boat, we moved her down to Cruiseport Village Marina, in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. We have grown very fond of the other boat owners and of others we’ve met down there. When we got settled in we found that Destiny’s next door neighbor, Crazy Notion, is owned by a couple named Joe and Peggy Shafer who happen to be fellow Colorado neighbors from Aurora. We are constantly amazed at what some folks would call coincidental happenings in our life. Frank and I just smile and say, “Yep, that’s destiny at work again!” Joe and Peggy were a huge part of our official de naming/renaming ceremony over Labor Day weekend, and they have been like guardian angels watching over Destiny for us during our long absences. We feel we have found life-long friends in those two.
We try to get to Ensenada as often as possible to check on the boat and to move things down bit by bit. If all goes well we hope to move her up to San Diego by the second week of February for some outfitting before the official “bon voyage!” Our plan is to head south from San Diego by March 1, 2008.
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