Thursday, December 29, 2011

Fuller brush man Friends of Mexico.

Every Year the Salvation Army Orphanage brings kids into town so they can dance and sing this helps raise money for the kids over the year.  This year on December 27th late in the evening, they were robbed of a good portion of the donations that they had raised.  We guess even the bad guys do not think that children should have food and clothing for the year. How very sad.


We were off to Office Depot and Home Depot and here was the fuller brush man selling his wares on the street (no Swiffers here).

Dolphin Tales leave the Dock and Christmas

This is slip B20 and Dolphin Tales has left the dock.
The Nutcracker


December 12th the Feast of Guadeloupe





Poncho Villa

Marathon and Villa Union

According to the locals, this restaurant in Villa Union is the place to go to eat fish.

Dave did not leave much on his plate.

The Mazatlan Marathon.



more boat projects

Installing our new port covers.
Getting new hatch screens made.

Late Nov to the aquarium, visitors

A night at the Aquarium. Swimming with the sharks and newly hatched turtles.
A visit with the local polica. They were very interested in how we felt about the safety of Mazatlan.

The green visitor to our dingy.

Nov boat bottom fishing derby

Dolphin Tales gets a new bottom job. We started having issues with the paint coming off, so had all the paint stripped off and an new epoxy barrier coat applied. It seems like the when the boat was commissioned they may have not put the first coat of paint on it time as it was not stuck to the epoxy.


The El Cid had a one day dorado shot out with the first prize a brand new Ford Ranger truck. And if you can believe it a fish weighing just 26 lbs was the catch of the day.


The sword fish was not part of the derby.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Getting The Boat Back Together

We are getting stuff done, but takes a little longer when you only work 8 am to Noon. Don't you like those hours but is too hot and humid to do
much in the afternoon. So far all seems to be in good shape, engine started first turn after sitting for 6 months. We now have most of the stuff out of the cabin, just the dingy to move from under the table. On the fun side we went to one baseball game , Mazatlan lost but beer is still cheap.  
 
Attended a third birthday party for the 3 year grandson of some Mexican friends. Had to be 70 or more kids at this party.
It was held at a play area that is set up for kids events, very little parent supervision  and we never heard a single kid cry for the 2 hours we
were there.
 
And Beer and Beans has started again.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Back On The Boat

Arrived back in Mazatlan Saturday PM . First order of business 12 Pacifico,  and a glass of water. Still hot and humid but good to be back.
All seems ok so far with Dolphin Tales. Nice and clean topsides, stainless was all polished and the bottom cleaned, so we are now
working on the inside. Sun shades are back up, and the pool is great. Gotta run it's happy hour.......

Thursday, September 15, 2011

WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR SUMMER VACATION?






If you can believe it Debbie volunteered us to help friends get their boat to San Francisco. She must have a short memory, as she seems to have forgotten her first trip down the coast when  she told Lynn,  what he could do with the S/V Dolphin Tales when they arrived in Newport Oregon. Well on August 29 we left Vancouver on the SV Navigo a Beneteau 42 center cockpit with Bob and Camelia for San Francisco via the offshore route.

After clearing customs in Port Angeles a final check of the weather shows 15-20 knots of wind, with the wind and seas building later on in the week to 30 knots off Northern California we headed out the strait and made the turn at Neah Bay. A couple of hours motoring and we are soon under sail.

Once under sail, one soon finds all the noises generated by dishes, pots, etc. as you try to sleep. Padding and stuffing dish towels in cupboards becomes a hobby, with each trip down below.





Similar to Dolphin Tales the best place to sleep was the sea berth in the salon just aft of the mast, and sometimes it can even hold two people when the forward and aft cabins become unliveable.



As the trip progresses we did find the forecast winds of 30 knots building to 40 knots and seas building to 15 ft plus or so, but it is hard to gage sea height. We are running down wind with a very small foresail out at about 6 knots and higher as you surf some waves. We did have waves breaking on the aft deck of the boat and only the enclosure and Lynn’s back prevented more water coming into the cockpit when one broke on his watch. This was after his getting wet earlier when one very large one came in the starboard side enclosure opening. The Gale might have blown hard for 48 hours but for some on board it felt like it was 5 days in a washing machine with no springs on a 7 day cycle.

During the gale the US Coast Guard rescued two people and a dog off a 50 ft boat that was taking on water and sank. Another vessel was then turned out to sea, when three people where taken off that vessel. We had heard that all where dehydrated and could not control the boat. We also heard the Coast Guard talking to another boat that had someone on board with broken ribs and they were trying to get to Coos Bay. We learned after from another sailboat that they were advised by the Coast Guard that the wave height would be increased and become dangerous by a large tropical storm some place in the South Pacific.


Once the winds started to drop, the seas very quickly flattened out and the last day and a half turned into a motor boat ride to San Francisco and the Sausalito Yacht Club.

Navigo has an AIS transponder on board with a display a little larger than an IPOD Touch. Well imagine trying to move cross hairs over a target that is moving all over the screen, as the screen itself is moving around with the movement of the boat. Once you get the cross hairs on the target click a button and very small print gives you information on the target. To get more information or remove the target, center the target with the cross hairs and click a button. Are you sea sick yet? Off the coast of Oregon, Debbie and Camelia had a target approaching from seaward, after identifying the target Debbie hailed the ship and had them adjust coarse to pass astern of us. Must have been the woman’s touch, as there was no issue in having them adjust course. Technology can make ship contact less stressful but remember pleasure craft carry a different class transponder and not all commercial vessels may to be monitoring this class.

Debbie did discover that sea sickness does not go away after a few days but she did stand her watches and kept her bucket close by. Lynn suffered for a half a day or so. Camelia used the closest bucket. Bob was close to needing a bucket when he was below for a while at the navigation station or trying to match the cross hairs on the AIS to a target. Needless to say not a lot food was consumed on the passage. Our position was logged every 3 hours and the plan was to place these on a chart. Upon arrival in San Francisco the chart was as clean as when it was purchased.

By the way, Debbie says she will not volunteer to make this trip again and the next time she sees this part of the coast will be on a vessel no smaller than a cruise ship.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Debbie and Lynn have made it to San Fransisco after weathering a storm that pushed them there faster than they had anticipated. Now its time for the vacation to start up!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Lynn and Debbie on way to San Francisco

Dolphin Tales is still in Mexico, but Lynn and Debbie are on their way to San Francisco if you can believe it. Never thought Debbie would volunteer to do the trip again after she told me what to do with the boat when we did the trip the last time. 
 We are crewing on the SV Navigo a Beneteau 42 with our friends Bob and Camellia. Leaving Vancouver Sunday Aug 28th or so and heading to Port Angeles and then out the strait.  The plans are to do a no stop voyage but cruising is always subject to change.
The vessel is probably one of the best equipped Beneteau 42 you will find.  Not much equipment available that is not installed on the boat.
Will post again once we get to San Francisco and have Internet access.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Blue Water Rendezvous

ATTENDING THE BLUE WATER RENDEVOUS AT BEDWELL HARBOUR MADE POSSIBLE BY  SOME VERY NICE FOLKS
Even with Dolphin Tales tucked away for the summer we managed to attend the get together at Bedwell Harbour. It only took one ship and two sailboats to make the round trip from Victoria. BC Ferry to Vancouver were we joined Bob and Camelia on the SV Navigo for a very enjoyable trip from Shelter Island Marina to Bedwell.
The rendevous was a great success and provided an opportunity to meet old friends and make some new ones.  Was also nice to meet some of the crews leaving this fall for warmer Southern waters. Maybe we will meet again in Mexico.
The return transportation was provided by the nice crew of SV Freja, Barb and Bjarne. In spite of light airs we did manage to sail most of the trip back and got in before dark.    
Thanks to all who made it a great weekend.
 

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Back In Victoria

Arrived back in Victoria and immediately fired up the wood stove. We complained about it being cool/ cold in Mexico this winter but it beats being home from the sounds of it and seeing the amount of moss on stuff.

Well summer is on the way and have already cut the lawn and making a list of house and yard chores to be done.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

New Posts That You Will FInd If You Click Older Posts

We just posted more posts about Mexico City. To see these you will need to click older posts.

Monday, March 28, 2011

We belong to a group called Friends of Mexico the supply school supplies to numerous schools through out Mazatlan and Mexico. For $250.00 Canadian you can suppy a scholarship for a student who is heading into grades 7 and up. The group meets once a month and has speakers or groups come in and give us information about Mexico. The last meeting we had a group of Fire Dancers appear, they were promoting their Town of El Quelite


Carnaval Extras

I was invited to the crowning of the Flower Queen by friends off of the SV Taya. Here we enjoyed songs from the Beatles played by the Sinalo Symphony Orchestra.

I was surprised to see the same statues in the parade as we saw in the show.
Paulette Myself and Rosie went to watch the children's costume Ball. It was to start at 10:00am but things did not get rolling till a little after 11:00. We figured there had to be over 200 kids at the function and seating was hard to come by.This little lady threw out candy, she was the winner in her age group. It was really more of showing off your dancing skills then a costume ball