Cleared for takeoff

The Baja Bash just isn't fun.  You know it will be a long boring and at times loud trip, so all you can do is do it and get it over with.  This year, it was over in 102 hours, 7 hours faster than last year, and with less wreckage than before.  The experience quickly fades as you enjoy the time to reunite with family and friends....

...which is what Deb did.






Deb loves her girls!

But for John, a few days after getting Moonshadow situated in a slip in a San Diego marina, he was on his way back to Oregon to help brothers Steve and Bill with our Dad's 93 year accumulation of really good stuff.  

The first clue of what we were about to encounter was the discovery that our Dad had ordered the smallest trash you can get... and arranged pickups every other week. 

See, Dad just never threw anything away.  This is easy to do when you own a 6,000 square foot home with a 2400 square foot garage/shop building

After three weeks in Oregon, John came home for the Fourth of July weekend aboard Moonshadow anchored in La Playa.

A Fourth of July tradition at San Diego Yacht Club is the annual bocci ball tournament.  Those old farts on the right went on so long through the brackets, they almost missed the Cocktail Bingo game. Those young studs on the left? Ahem, not so much....  but they did the right thing and saved us seats for Bingo.

We both got time to enjoy our grandchildren at the club.

Team-levitating over the water.

 Natalie being adorable in a sabot.

John teaching Brandon about paddle boarding... or is the other way 'round?

 Brandon, trying to be taller than Gramma.

Natalie being adorable.

They are growing up so fast!

Then it was back to Oregon where the three brothers all worked long days, perfected our Margarita recipe, and ate very well.  For us, in a situation where the opportunity for conflict lurks around every decision, we all managed to accomplish a huge job with never an angry word or anything short of total cooperation.  We all had fun reconnecting, rediscovering what amazing brothers we have, and in a month of miracles, had the house empty and SOLD! 

And that changed everything!  It meant Moonshadow could return to Mexico with the Baja Ha-Ha fleet in the fall, then proceed with our cruise in 2016.  But first, we had to enjoy just a bit of San Diego's fabulous weather.

And time with family!

Then it was time to get to all the jobs waiting for us aboard Moonshadow.  Having repaired just about everything that had worn out or broken during the last 3.5 years of continuous cruising, it was time to get ahead of the curve by dealing with things that had not broken.  Yet.  And we went after it full bore.  A significant milestone was the realization that suddenly the fine folks at San Diego Marine Exchange on Shelter Island started greeting John at the door saying "HI JOHN!!" and later presented him  with San Diego Marine Exchange crew shirt.  

We have accomplished an impressive amount of tasks which we feel will significantly reduce the "oh shit" moments that can interfere with the fun we're after.  A short list of things we've done includes:

• New alternators
• New engine mounts
• Rebuilt injector pump
• Rebuilt injectors
• Rebuilt heat exchanger
• Overhauled exhaust manifold
• Overhauled oil cooler
• New Raw water pump
• New coolant pump
• New engine fan belts
• New engine hoses
• New raw water supply hoses
• New refrigerator compressor
• Overhauled air conditioners
• New forward throttle control in mid cockpit
• New water maker membranes
• New water maker lift pump
• New water maker pressure pump
• New aluminum AB 10 dinghy
• New Iridium Sat Phone
• Rebuilt hydraulic ram for auto pilot
• Rebuilt electric motors for hydraulic auto pilot pumps (2)
• Rebuilt hydraulic backstay adjuster
• Rebuilt hydraulic staysail stay adjuster
• Rebuilt Reckmann genoa furler
• Complete rigging survey
• New spinnaker halyard
• New outhaul
• New blocks and line for spinnaker pole lift
• Mainsail repairs and strengthening
• New Garmin VHF radio
• New Garmin 12" chart plotter
• New stereo
• New stereo amplifier
• New stereo speakers (4)
• New hoses for toilets and sink drains
• New depth sounder transducer
• New Aqua Drive shaft coupling
• New Garmin charts to Thailand
• New paper charts to New Zealand

          Whew!

We've learned the hard way that extensive refitting requires a shake-down cruise.  Well that was our excuse to take Moonshadow up to beautiful Howlands Landing in Catalina for a week of relaxing, reading, napping, and ukulele playing.  It was the most beautiful weather we can remember in 20 or more years of going there, with seawater temperatures never below 75 degrees.

(click picture for full size)

Oops, left out the best part:  Buffalo Milk!!! 

Another milestone was the moment we found ourselves renting a Rug Doctor machine to touch up the area carpets.  That must mean we're nearly finished!  Well, we better be!  As of this writing there are exactly two weeks until we cast off for Mexico!

Which gives us a bit of time to reflect once again on just exactly why we're doing what we are doing:  In the last five months, we have lost five important people in our lives...

John's Dad

Bill Rogers

San Diego Yacht Club, friend, and fellow Mexico cruiser 

Rob Britton

Rob Britton's last dinner ashore in San Evaristo with wife Lynn 

Deb's cousin 

Jan Pluim

A new friend we met just last year, but whose contagious energy while battling cancer made an unforgettable impression 

Mark Sciarretta

Mark Sciarretta receiving his initiation swats for a lifetime membership into the Punta Mita Yacht and Surf Club, administered by Commadorable Deb Rogers

And a legend among cruisers, musicians, and Mexicans

Philo Hayward

Philo Hayward on right jamming with Oscar Fuentes at Philo's Bar, La Cruz Mexico

All these people gone from our lives in such short order reminds us of one of Philo's lines:

Dream as if you'll live forever

But live as if you'll die today

So as we close this blog, here's the next segment of our dream:  

Winter in Mexico.  

Summer in the South Pacific.  

Winter in New Zealand (where it will be Summer!).  

Then?  

 Well, that's a few moons off.  Stay tuned!

Memorial Day

Between rushing home to San Diego to be with our son in the hospital with a broken neck and then racing to Oregon to be with John's Dad, we found some time to visit Luscomb's Point, a surf break on Sunset Cliffs where 5 years ago we scattered our son's ashes.  If you're ever near here, walk out to the end of the cliff and toss a penny in the water.

John's Dad's passing wasn't unexpected but such events never happen without some profound impact on those around, not the least of whom being Dad's beautiful companion Frieda, who seems to wonder what's going on and, more importantly, who among the three brothers the new Alpha Dog is going to be.  

When John's brothers left Oregon, John and Frieda stayed behind in Dad's big riverfront home, attending to the mountain of affairs associated with his estate.  Frieda was never far, usually preferring the risk of getting stepped on to being left alone.  After three weeks John's watch in Oregon came to an end and his brother Steve took over.  For the day overlap when both brothers were in the house, it became obvious who Frieda's new Alpha Dog would be:  Steve!

Just two days later, it was quite a change to find ourselves thousands of miles away from all the recent events and anchored here in Ensenada del Candelero on Esla Espiritu Santo, about 20 miles north of La Paz.  John calls it Candlestick Park.

The place gets it's name from this rock in the middle of the bay, which reminded it's discoverer of a candle.

We didn't mind the overcast day which provided some relief from the heat we remembered from last year.

But later, as the sun neared the horizon, Baja's magic came to life

The colors seem to change by the minute and the rocks appear to radiate light.  

That old candle changed from this...

... to this in a matter of minutes.

We had to remind ourselves to look away from the sun to enjoy the magic all around us...

...everywhere we looked the colorful views were breathtaking.

Someone? Please cue the pelican for the sunset picture!!

The sunsets were like this each night we were here.

We needed to start our journey north along the outside of Baja's long peninsula for our summer aboard Moonshadow in San Diego, but convinced ourselves we deserved just a couple days in the small cove and fishing village of San Evaristo, where the sunset colors work their own magic on the rolling hills and rugged Sierra de la Gigantic along the spine of the Baja peninsula.

We found a lovely spot in a cove just the right size for Moonshadow. 

Then we headed ashore for lunch and some cervezas at Lupe's restaurant.  Here, you'll find Charlotte and Steve Baker, who sailed their Catalina 27 "Willful Simplicity" to Mexico back in 2009; fell in love with San Evaristo and settled here where they help with Lupe's restaurant as well as helping the little community here.

While our lunch was being prepared, Charlotte gave us a box of paints, brushes and a shell so we could create moonshadow's part in the memory tree out front.

Later our dear friends from San Diego Yacht Club, Lynne and Rob Britton arrived aboard their ketch Aldebaran.  Sadly, Rob never left San Evaristo.  We learned by email from Lynne while on our Baja Bash north to San Diego that Rob passed away aboard his lovely ketch in this beautiful bay just two days after we'd had dinner together at Lupe's.

On Memorial Day.  

Rob Britton kept his boat Aldebaran on H dock at San Diego Yacht Club, just down from our boat Legacy.  He and his wife Lynne, and their dog Ruby began cruising Mexico several years ago and we've run into them in several anchorages since we arrived here last year.  Rob was a big man.  If you looked straight ahead, all you saw was neck.  So you had to look up to Rob, but not just because of his stature.  He was a smart guy, having worked on aspects of the Apollo mission among many other things.  He was funny and a great story teller.  You could always tell it was time to sit back and listen when Rob would say "Well:..." then take in a great deep breath.  Rob and John had lots of things to talk about; flying airplanes, racing midget ocean racers, cruising offshore, troubleshooting and fixing boat parts.  Now, there's a big hole in our lives where Rob used to be.  

 We are once again reminded we must live every day to it's fullest. 

 Like it's our last.  That's what Rob did.

Our trip around the East Cape and under the south end of the Baja Peninsula was easy, followed by a day of running around Cabo San Lucas getting our clearance out of Mexico.  Yes, RUNNING.  This year, the port captain insisted on seeing a paid receipt from the marina so he could rest assured we we not going to skip out on the tab.  Hey, do we look like those kind of people?  Anyway, we learned of this new requirement 15 minutes before the government office closed at 2:00 PM.  Needless to say, we RAN, and made it to the marina and back in time to finish our paperwork so we could leave the next day.

Besides the usual crash-bang that goes along with any 750 mile passage directly upwind, our Bash was uneventful.  We'd prefer not to have an eventful Baja Bash, so we're quite happy with that.  At just a tad over 100 hours underway, we never had wind more than 10 degrees from straight ahead, but we were happy.  Happy it was over!

We did however have some visitors.

For some reason, Moonshadow seems to attract birds.  Then we look at them and they give us back this look that says "Whada YOU looking at?"

But this dove paid it forward, taking a turn standing watch, steering Moonshadow, and keeping a beady eye on things.  Being the bird of peace, we were happy to have him along, and hope his visit signals the onset of more peaceful times ahead.

For a review of other freeloaders, check out our Stowaways page.

Discovering Mazatlan

World navigators possess amazing skills to find their way not just at sea but also ashore.  We, on the other hand, found ourselves utterly lost in Mazatlan.  Well OK, technically we weren't lost, but after we could not find the Colonial District of Mazatlan, we returned to Moonshadow to regroup where we turned to our FWC. 

Friends With Cars.

Ed and Connie showed us around and took us to the Freeman Hotel for drinks on the roof-top pool and bar.  On the way up in the elevator, we felt a sharp bump, which kind of made sense after we inspected the vintage lifting mechanism. 

All was forgotten when we stepped out onto the roof with it's panoramic view of old Mazatlan.  From here, we could see that when we were "lost" our position was actually just two blocks from the Colonial District we'd sought!

But when we left, we rode the elevator down from the roof.  It stopped between floors.  For a minute we looked at each other and thought "How fun...we're stuck in an elevator".  This snapshot is about five minutes into one of those stuck in a tiny, hot elevator with no margaritas kind of situations.  We were all smiling and having fun but quietly thinking GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!

We survived.  

On another trip to town we finally toured the Colonial District which has some well restored vintage buildings.

The streets are narrow and the building facades are captivating. 

We learned you never know what you'll find behind these beautifully preserved exteriors.

Behind one, you'll find parking...

...another door opens to an open air restaurant.

There's a thriving art community here where you can discover some really unique things.

Just down the street is the old opera house.  It has been restored from the days when rain poured in through the roof and trees grew inside.

Nowadays they're back to performing here.

We hadn't planned to visit Mazatlan at all, but friends said we should and now we're glad we did.  Still, we were itching to return to the Sea of Cortez and some of the beautiful isolated Baja anchorages we'd seen last year.  So we set off, sailing west-northwest chasing the sun.

After 30 hours we dropped anchor in Ensenada Grande, took a swim in the clear water and sat back to watch the sandstone faces taking shape as the sun got lower.

But this sunset turned out to be the only one we would see from Baja this time. First, we discovered that some minor refrigeration maintenance we had done in Mazatlan resulted in a cracked freon pipe, so the next morning we made for La Paz, about 25 miles to the south.

We quickly found someone to repair our refrigeration and were preparing to sail back north when we got the call that our son Ryan had broken his neck in a motorcycle accident.  It's amazing how fast you can run through the check-list to prepare a boat like Moonshadow for a prolonged absence.  The next morning we were at the airport waiting for our flight to San Diego.

We arrived at the hospital as Ryan was wheeled back from 4 hours of spinal surgery to fuse several vertebra where we learned he is expected to have a full recovery and he will have no paralysis.

 Thank God!

Then came the next call.  John's father was failing fast so John was on a plane to Oregon to be with his brothers and Dad.  

William Rogers - February 10, 1922 - April 25, 2015

Their dad hated hospitals so the three brothers promised he could stay in his home till the end.  With help from some angels from the local hospice organization, he remained at home with his sons and his beloved shepherd Freida.  When a guy makes it to 93 and retains his wits and humor till the end, we rationalize this is no tragedy.  

Frieda isn't so sure.