Adventures with Brent & Molly

Albion Remembered

2009-06-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

After looking through some of the pictures we've taken over the 12 years we've had Albion, I got the idea of selecting a number of representative photos and making a slide show of them on our blog. Please enjoy! [To watch a slideshow with larger photos and slower speed, click on the lower left icon and then "Albion". Then select "slideshow" on the web album page. A photo may be downloaded by right clicking on the photo and selecting "Save photo as".]

Heading back to Oregon the long way home

2009-05-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

The following blog entrys are some emails sent back to family and friends about our trip back from Mesa to Oregon. We decided to take the long way home since we won't be taking the RV back down to Mesa next fall and the fuel prices were very reasonable. We will just be driving the car down and staying in our Park Model.

5/8/09 On The Road Again:
Hi guys;

Cortez, Colorado:

Just a quick update of our travels. We left Mesa last Friday (5/1/09) and didn't go too far for our first RV miles in 7 months. We stayed at a Coast-to-Coast park near Overgaard, AZ. As I was setting up the computer, I realized I didn't have the power cord . We looked at the time and realized we still could make a quick trip back to Mesa (135 miles) in the car to get the power cord. We got back about 8:30 pm.

The next day we visited a good cruising friend in Show Low (Irene Harlander--Hiafin). She recently lost her husband, Lou, and thought we should stop by and spend some time. We had a good visit and then went on to Sun Valley, AZ at the Root 66 RV park (Passport America). And yes, that's how they spell it!!! Since we got there late, we decided to spend two nights there and watch Tiger play his final round on Sunday. It was a time to finally get everything located and unpacked.

We took our time on Monday and headed up to Canyon de Chelly> in NE Arizona. We checked into their campground and made reservations to take the day-long trip down into the canyon. Believe me, it was a trip well worth the jerking and bumping ride, as they say in the canyon, these trips are called "shake & bake". Of course Molly had to buy some of the beautiful <Navaho wares that were displayed at some of the stops.

On Wednesday, it was another short day to Cortez, Colorado. We drove up into the Mesa Verde National Park> to make reservations for a few of the tours to see the cliff dwellings. The tours were at the far end of the park so it was going to be about a 30 mile drive from our park in the morning. We left early Thursday morning and spent the entire day hiking in to some of the ruins and driving to see others. Got pictures--will share!

The weather so far has been just great, in the mid 80's. It's in the low 100's back in Mesa, left just in time again.

Today we head off to Durango, CO (another very short trip) for another couple days so we can take the Durango to Silverton steam train ride again. We took it back in 2000, but decided it was so much fun and such a scenic ride, that we would do it again. This time we would take the train up the canyon, but take the bus back to make it a little shorter day.

Well, that's it for catching up. We will be going on through Colorado (Colorado Springs, Denver, etc.), then up through eastern Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, where we will stop in Pasco and take a look at the "new" Desert Belle that will be heading to Saguaro Lake later this summer. And then we will head back down the Columbia to Portland and Salem where we will probably be staying at the Salem Elks again. We've been out of Mesa now for one week, and the time-line for the rest of the trip is negotiable, but will definitely be back by the first of June.
We had good signal for the internet, so thought we would catch you all up.

Thanks for reading,
Brent & Molly

-----------------------------------
5/15/09 Update of travels home:
Hi again,

Just another update from the last spot in Cortez Colorado on our way home.

5/8/09 Cortez, CO to Durango:

As we left off with our last update, we were heading off for another short trip to Durango, CO. It was in fact a very short trip of only 58 miles and just over an hour. We stayed in a real nice Coast-to-Coast park north of Durango on the Amimas River>. We were going to head back into town to get our steam train tickets to Silverton for the next day, but the park check-in person said she could arrange them for us. So we could just relaxed the rest of the day and read our books. We asked about nearby restaurants and she suggested a great steakhouse just down the road, but the "rare" prime ribs were over-done. But still a nice, unique restaurant.

Next day we headed into Durango very early to get our ticket confirmations at 7:30. We were in one of the nicer cars and got a "free" <Durango to Silverton RR mug. At first we were wondering if we should do this trip again since we did it nine years ago when passing through Colorado. But were pleasantly surprised at the renewed experience. There was much more water in the river and much more snow in the mountains than the August 2000 trip. Anyway, took lots of pictures, had a great lunch in Silverton, bought Molly some more unique ear rings, and enjoyed the bus ride back> through the 13 and 14,000+ foot> mountains to Durango.

We enjoyed the RV park so well, we decided to stay an extra day……just because we could! It allowed us to travel around the town of Durango, go to a local quilting shop for Molly to buy another project, and have dinner in town.

5/11/09 Durango to Blanca:

Yeah, who ever heard of Blanca, Colorado? To drive the 184 miles we had to climb over an 11,000 foot pass that was spectacular with snow all over along side the road. There was a Passport America park in Blanca, and it was just 20 miles from the newest <National Park called the Great Sand Dunes N.P. and Preserve. We drove up and really enjoyed the site of enormous sand dunes (750’ high)> tucked up in the corner of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The prevailing winds blow the sand to the northeast where it is picked up by a stream that transports the sand back to the southwest, perpetual motion!

In the morning after showing, I noticed water running out from beneath the RV. It was coming from the fresh water tank, which seemed to be overflowing, even though the "tank fill" lever was in the off position. Since we had another nearly 10,000 foot pass to go over, we drained most the fresh water tank and would examine the cause of the problem more closely later.

5/12/09 Blanca to Denver:

This was our longest day of travel so far at 220 miles, still not long by our standards, but on this trip we have just been taking it easy. In fact we were going to stop at the Colorado Spring Elks lodge for the night, but we were there by 11:30 and decided another hour or two to the Westminster Elks just north of Denver would be ok. It would still be an easy day and we would be beyond down town Denver to avoid the morning traffic for the next days travel. Another camper at Colorado Springs Elks recommended this lodge. Upon getting to Westminster, we enjoyed another fine prime rib dinner at the lodge and retired for the evening.

5/14/09 Denver to Casper, WY:

We thought we would finally put on some miles today and head for Kaycee, WY (340 mi), but the strong winds today (up to 35 mph) made it a difficult drive and very tiring. Our next option was Casper (only 280 mi) at a Passport America park. The only bright spot today was filling up with fuel. The needle was only on ½ tank, but we had gone 534 miles on that amount giving us 11.0 miles/gal at a price of only $2.18/gal for the diesel.

5/15/09 Casper to Billings, MT:

We were up early today and stopped for breakfast before we even hit the freeway, and were on the road again by 8:20. We thought we would make some miles before the wind started begin. It did, and started raining too, our first rainy day. Probably getting us used to typical Oregon weather again. There just seems to a lot of nothing in Eastern Wyoming, just miles and miles of miles and miles.

We did, however, stop for a short re-visit of the <Little Bighorn Battlefield (Montana). We watched a video and took some pictures in the rain, and then headed up to Billings for an over-night at the local Wal Mart. Today was still a long day making 286 miles and putting up with some head winds. More Montana tomorrow!

Thanks for reading. Keep in touch. More later!
Brent

------------------------
5/20/09 Kennewick—On the Road Home:
Hi everybody;

This will probably be the last update of our travels home. We are presently in Kennewick and heading home tomorrow. Here is a run-down of the past several days.

5/16/09 Billings to Deer Lodge, MT (262 mi):

Yeah, I know, where the hell is Deer Lodge Montana? Well it’s about 40 miles north of Butte and has a Coast-to-Coast Good Neighbor Park here. All freeway today and a beautiful valley drive up the Yellowstone River and the Clarks Fork of the Flathead River. We can’t get over how everything is so GREEN! The snow is still heavy in the adjacent mountains and the rivers are full. We started wondering about the road conditions going over Lolo Pass (5233’) between Missoula, MT and Lewiston, ID, our planned route. But after calling the road condition line, we found it would be clear over the pass. And when we went over the continental divide today at 6453’ it was clear with the snow level several thousand feet higher.

We have seen considerable wildlife on our trip so far. Through Wyoming we saw Pronghorn Antelope around every turn. Today we saw a Turkey along side the freeway shoulder and a moose eating shrubs along side the Yellowstone River as we crossed it. We have seen several herds of mule deer and keep our eyes open to identify the birds as we pass. Today we saw several flocks of White Pelicans, Osprey, and of course Red-tailed Hawks.

5/17/09 Deer Lodge to Kamiah, ID (229 mi)

Today was just a nice drive down the Clark Fork of the Flathead River to Missoula and then a fairly quick trip to the top of Lolo Pass> going into Idaho. This is the same pass that Lewis and Clark traveled over during their journey to and from the Pacific and that Chief Joseph passed over while trying to elude the Calvary on his way to Canada, before he was stopped. There was still snow on the pass, but the road was clear.

The next leg of the trip was down a very curvy road on the Lochsa and Clearwater Rivers. We eventually got to our Coast to Coast park in Kamiah, Idaho and relaxed for the rest of the day and the next. It was a very pleasant little community.

5/19/09 Kamiah to Kennewick, WA (204 mi)

Today we got up early, had breakfast at the park restaurant and hit the road. Last night it thundered, lightninged, and poured down rain. This morning it was fresh and green with some higher fog and a little sprinkle here and there. It was a beautiful trip down the Clearwater to Lewiston, but the wind just kept increasing until it was at least 35 mph. And after we left Lewiston, it was on our side making it a very jerky ride trying to stay in our lane.

Still blowing in Kennewick, we found the Elks lodge where we set up our dry camp in the parking lot and then tried to find the Columbia Voyager (aka the new Desert Belle). After considerable driving around and asking questions we located it in Richland, WA and called Dick Bonney (the other Desert Belle captain) to let him know where it was located. We were going to meet the existing captain and owner tomorrow and go for a test drive. We met Dick and his crewman, Gary, along with their wives, for dinner and to discuss the trip tomorrow.

5/20/09 Kennewick, WA

Today we slept late, then went out to breakfast and met everybody at the dock to discuss the working systems on the boat and take it out for a spin. WOW! What a pleasure. The 150 passenger boat handled great and will be a great asset for Saguaro Lake with dinner and entertainment cruises. We spent three hours going over the boat and took it out for some maneuvering practice in the basin and on the Columbia. We encouraged the captain to visit the boat after they moved it to Saguaro Lake and got it all put back together, and he said he would.

Tomorrow, it’s just a quick trip on down the Columbia to Gresham to get our mail at Jeanette’s and then over to Vancouver to spend a day or two with Tom and Sue at their place to catch up. Then it will be on to the Salem Elks again where we will be hanging it up for the summer.

Keep in touch!
Brent

Albion Sold

2009-01-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

After a long hard decision, Molly & I have decided to make Mesa, Arizona and working on the Desert Belle Paddleboat on Saguaro Lake (www.desertbelle.com), our winter time activity for the foreseeable future. We came here in the fall of 2006 to captain the Desert Belle so I could get the necessary days to renew my captain’s license with the Coast Guard. After that season, we were going to return to Albion the next winter season to continue cruising in Mexico.

However, the owners made it very attractive for me to come again the next season. It was a great opportunity. We liked the area, we liked the RV park we were in, we loved the lake and the vessel, and we liked the opportunity to meet new people every day. So we decided to return to Mesa in the fall of 2007 and let Albion sit in the Mexican sun again in Marina Seca, San Carlos, one more year.

This year (fall, 2008) we returned again to Mesa in the RV and finally bought a comfortable park model with a nice Arizona Room. With that and the decision to make the Desert Belle Paddleboat a long-term prospect, we decided to put Albion up for sale. If she didn’t sell by the end of this tourist season in May 2009, we would take her back to the Northwest waters to use periodically in the San Juans or Canadian Gulf Islands during the summer.

Wouldn’t you know it, shortly after we made that decision, we had an offer and it was finalized by the end of the year. We are now boatless in Mesa…..except for the Desert Belle paddleboat. It was difficult to sell her, but it made sense for what we were doing and what looks to be a long-term situation here.

We are glad Albion went to a couple that appreciates her, will take good care of her and have as many great adventures as we did.

Summer of '08

2008-11-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

As we headed back to Oregon, the fuel prices were at an all time high. We topped off in Mesa, which was the lowest price at $4.65/gal (diesel), and the highest paid was in Pendelton at $4.79/gal. We paid a total of $708 for 149 gallons for 1535 miles, which averaged 10.3 miles per gallon. We traveled the Mesa-Vegas-Salt Lake City-Boise-Portland route. Just before Provo, Utah, we discovered that we had lost our hydraulic fluid reservoir for the jacks. So we couldn’t put the jacks down for the rest of the trip and several weeks while in Salem. When we eventually got it replaced and installed it cost about $700.

We did make it almost home before we stopped in Hillsboro for granddaughter Emily’s graduation party from Art Tech High School in Wilsonville. Then it was on to the Salem Elks for the summer.

In mid June, David Smith (Desert Belle owner) called and asked us to take a trip to Klamath Falls to evaluate a side-paddle boat for sale that they may purchase for Saguaro Lake. We asked Dick and Colleen Bonney (the other captain) to take the trip with us and examine the engine. The boat needed work and we gave David our opinions.

Shortly after that, Molly & I headed down to the South Umpqua Lighthouse at Winchester Bay to visit Nada and Dorsey Hensley. They had volunteered as tour guides and office help for a month. It was a great outing and we stayed in a nice little motel on the Winchester Bay waterfront.

On July 1st, Molly and I took our real vacation and flew to Chicago to visit Dan & Cathy. They picked us up and then drove to their new place in Elkhart, Indiana. We had a book of 1000 things to do before you die, and asked them if they didn’t have any specific agenda, if we could see some of these places. We got to check off: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Shipshewana, Amish Acres in Nappanee, and The 100-mile Heritage Trail. Along the way we also did and saw many other interesting things such as the RV Hall of Fame Museum. We spent the fourth of July out on their pontoon boat watching the fireworks, and also did a poker run on their lake.

The last few days before flying home was spend in Chicago marking off some of the 1000 things there. We stayed in a high rise condo over looking the harbor that we had reserved through a friend of a friend of Cathy’s. Some of the 1000 things included: Viewing Chicago’s Architecture, Chicago’s Comedy Scene at Second City, eating Chicago-Style Pizza at Uno Pizzeria, Millennium Park (which we over-looked from our condo), the Shedd Aquarium, Wrigley Field, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio in Oak Park, and on the way to the airport we stopped at Superdawg for their well known hot dogs. One of the neatest things experienced in the city was their transit system. We bought a two-day pass on the Elevated Railway (the EL) and traveled all over the city by getting on and off where ever we wanted. It was a great time filled with a lot of activities.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Home was one of several of his houses that we have visited now with Cathy. She got us into appreciating his architecture when we were on our Route 66 trip and visited the Dana House in Springfield, IL. When she visited us in Mesa we toured his studio in Phoenix, Taliesin West. So when we got back to Salem, we decided to visit his only house designed in Oregon at the Oregon Gardens. It was called the Gordon House and was an example of his inexpensive production models.

In August, we decided to travel to the Long Beach Peninsula in the RV to visit Pat & Susan Canniff and Tom & Kathy Edward’s RV lots there. We also visited Dick & Colleen Bonney who lived just across the lake. The weather was rainy and blowing during the visit, but we had a good time. Then we three couples with RV’s headed down to Cathlamet, Washington to the Cruiser’s Rendezvous and the annual pot-luck dinner. It was fun reminiscing with the old Mexican Cruisers.

Bud and Lisa Root invited us to stay in their Time-Share in Rockaway Beach on the Oregon coast during early September. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to just kick back and relax for a week. Thank you Bud & Lisa!

In late September, we finally had to say goodbye to Oregon again and head back to Mesa for the winter tourist season on Saguaro Lake. We decided to head down I-5 through California and then over to Mesa on I-10. With careful planning I only had to stop for fuel once in California. The fuel price was less than this spring ranging from $4.02 in Roseburg, Oregon to $3.61 in Quartzite, Arizona. We paid a total of $533 for 139 gallons for 1377 miles, which averaged of 9.9 miles per gallon. This appeared to be a better route even though it was through California.

When we got into our normal space at Apache Wells RV Resort, I gave David a call to let him know we were back in town. He quickly told me I could do a charter the next day if I wanted. The charter, to make a long story short, was less than ideal. Those people will probably not get the same annual charter that they’ve gotten in the past for their Rosh Hashanah holiday.

Molly flew back to Oregon to attend a quilting retreat in the Cascade Mountains with her sister Joann. Molly had left her machine in Oregon so she wouldn’t have to take it on the plane and Tom & Sue Stose had offered to drive her back to Mesa since they were heading down right after the retreat. Molly had a great time and has already signed up for next year.

While they were driving back, a lady we had talked to about buying a Park-Model here in the park last season, stopped by and made us a very reasonable offer. I called Molly, and she said, "Buy It"! So when she and Tom & Sue arrived, they had a nice furnished place to stay for several days while visiting. They like to tell friends that Molly and Brent are really nice, they even bought us a place just to stay while visiting. It was entirely furnished and had a very comfortable Arizona Room attached with it's own bathroom and large closet.

While Molly was still in Oregon, her sister Joann called. They had had so much fun that she treatened that Molly wasn't going to come back to Mesa until I could find her a place that she could have her sewing machine up all the time rather than continually having to put it away after using it in the RV. So we HAD to buy it! Now Molly has her own sewing machine table in the Arizona Room where she can quilt to her hearts content

Jeanette (Molly’s daughter) had previously been arranging with me for a surprise for Molly’s up coming birthday. Jeanette and Lynda (other daughter) were going to fly in and surprise her. Strangely enough, I kept the secret! At about 9:00 pm on October 31, I got up and said I though I would go get her a birthday present. Molly looked very quizitive and unbelieving. We normally go to bed about that time and watch TV in bed. I told her that I would be gone about two hours and that she may want to stay up and get dressed. More quizitive looks! She though maybe someone may be flying in to surprise her, but the airport is only 20 minutes away. After picking up Lynda from the SW terminal, we waited for about 45 minutes for Jeanette to arrive at the Alaska terminal. When we drove in Molly couldn’t believe it and was showing great emotion, seeing both girls together and knowing they loved her enough to travel a great distance to spend a few days with her on her birthday. The stayed for three nights in our "new condo" so they could have some time to themselves as well.

Shortly after that, our Tucson friends Nada and Dorsey came to spend a night in the park model. We had owned it now for three weeks and we hadn’t even spent a night in it ourselves. Although on Sunday 11/9 we had our HD satellite installed, so on Monday the 10th we finally moved into our "new condo".

I’ll stop our "Summer" summary here with this news. I will continue to update this blog as new events unfold or when I get time. Thanks for caring enough to read it.

Brent

Mesa, Arizona '07 - '08

2008-06-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

The last BLOG entry ended with high expectations of getting down to Albion to do some cruising this winter, but those expectations quickly evaporated when time kept slipping away waiting for the fuel tank to be repaired. It was finally late December when we were notified it was fixed. The project that should have taken two weeks, took two months….but then again, it’s Mexico! Molly & I did a whirl-wind trip to San Carlos to close up the boat and move it back to the storage yard. We decided that maybe we would wait now until Spring to put Albion in the water to get it ready for some cruising in May, after the Desert Belle season ended.

The days in Mesa, however, were filled with company and other events. Horst & Bea Eberspaecher, and Will & Joann Gallant came up for the Christmas Light Parade on Saguaro Lake, which the Desert Belle always leads. And it is normally a company party with invited friends. Other friends that came for a complimentary trip this season included Bud & Lisa Root, and their friends Mike & Terry, <Nada & Dorsey Hensley, John & Barb Wilde, Earl & Marta Encell, Cathy Fleming, and Pat & Susan Caniff. Some of the other events we took these guests to included the Arizona Opry, Organ Stop Pizza, drive up the Apache Trail, Olive Mill, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, our favorite restaurant Café Roma>, and the Broadway Palm dinner theater to see Hello Dolly.

<Cathy came from Elkhart, Indiana for a few days and then her, Bea, and Molly took off for L. A., California for Joann Gallant’s daughter Kristen's wedding in the Wayfarers Chapel. They were busy doing a lot of the busy work during the wedding and had a great time calling it this year’s "hen fest". Molly & I also were busy going to several plays and concerts including "Jersey Boys" at the ASU Gammage Auditorium, "SWING" and "Buddy" at the Broadway Palm dinner theater, Smothers Brothers, Bobby Rydell & Lesley Gore at several CalAm RV parks, and Wyatt Earp by Wyatt Earp (a grand nephew of THE Wyatt Earp) at the Palace Saloon>, one of the original saloons on Whiskey Row in Prescott, Arizona. We also made a trip up to Globe, AZ to tour the <Besh-Ba-Gowah Pueblo. It was a fascinating site that has done some reconstructing of some of the ancient indian pueblo buildings so you can go inside and climb around seeing what they were like when in use.

At the end of March, we went to Sunsites, Arizona to stay with Horst & Bea, and were also joined by Will & Joann. We made a trip through <Bisbee viewing the "hole" left from copper mining, and then spent the better part of a day in Tombstone. David Smith (Desert Belle owner) sponsored the Tombstone portion of the trip for extra work I had performed. He told us to have a time fun on him and recommended several sights not to miss. And it was a blast, eating in Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and sitting at the <same table that Wyatt Earp had sat at during his time there. We sent an email postcard back to David thanking him for the trip. But as always, the girls got a little rowdy>!

We spend the next day touring the <Chiricahua N.M. on the East side of the valley from where Horst & Bea live. The rock formations there are something to behold. The next day we made a short trip up in back of Horst & Bea’s home to the Cochise Stronghold, where the great Apache chief was able to avoid discovery and capture. He is buried up there somewhere but the only white man that know where is his friend Tom Jeffords. We hiked around some the short trails and identified some of the plants>. Again, a great time with great friends.

After the Desert Belle peak season ended on May 1st, we headed down to San Carlos and Albion. In March I had gone down and put her in a slip at Marina Real, just north of San Carlos. We put Albion up for sale with the idea of buying a park-model in Apache Wells RV Resort since our Mesa location looked like it was going to be a long-term opportunity on the Desert Belle and we weren’t getting down to the boat during the winter anymore. If the boat didn’t sell by the next Spring we would consider taking it back to the Northwest for periodic summer cruising. The plan was to spend the month of May working on the boat making it pretty and then cruising the Sea of Cortez for a few weeks. However, the following is an email we wrote back to fellow cruisers about what happened during that month.

5/14/08
Albion's near disaster
Howdy fellow cruisers;

Albion is safe in the work yard at Marina Real and Molly & I are back in Tucson to pick up a boat part for Albion.

It all started Saturday. I had spent the day polishing the stainless stanchions, bow pulpit, and lifelines and decided that was enough for the day in the 100 degree heat. While we were sitting in the cockpit relaxing I decided to start the engine and make sure it started and operated properly. We had been on the boat now for a week cleaning and getting things fixed. And Albion had been at the dock in Marina Real> for a month and a half. So it was time to make sure it still ran. It started fine, shifted into forward and reverse just fine, and then I shut it off. As usual, I check the normally dry engine "room" for any leaks. IT WAS FULL OF WATER!!!! And I heard water gushing in from the rear. I tore the bed apart to check the drip-less packing gland under it and the water was running in as though there was no packing gland there. The bellows had torn.

I spent the next hour and a half trying to get enough of the lip on the back portion of the bellows to clamp back onto the shaft boot. I could make the water slow down, but then it would spring eternal. While Molly watched the water run in and the bilge-pump pump it out, I ran over to San Carlos to see if I could get a replacement hose for the bellows. NO! I stopped at the work yard/dry storage at Marina Real to let them know I had an emergency and would have to have the boat hauled immediately. They said to check with the office. Ran to the office, made sure they knew it was an emergency....."the boat is sinking!!!", and they radioed the boys at the yard to get over here ASAP. As I got to the boat, two other dock guys were already there, helped me throw the lines loose and headed over to the ramp. By the time we motored over to the ramp.....bilge running the entire time....the trailer was there, and luckily for us it was near high tide....Albion needs more water for it's winged keel. The movers worked efficiently and in no time Albion was heading down the road to the dry work yard leaving a trail of water from the still running bilge pump!

Mi Casa (Mel & Sherry) graciously loaned us their RV to stay in until Albion is back in the water. The next day, a referred mechanic came by to help remove the shaft and get the drip-less packing gland and torn bellows off the shaft. To get the packing gland off, you first have to remove the coupler that holds the shaft to the transmission. It wouldn't move. He got a unique piece of equipment, something like a wheel puller, but try try try as we might.....it wouldn't come off. After discussing our options, the mechanic said he has never seen a coupler come off a shaft after it had been on as long as ours...about 9 years. He suggested cutting the shaft $$, pulling it out, having a new coupler and shaft made $$$$, and cutting a notch in the rudder $$$ to put the new shaft back in (rather than taking the rudder off). I eventually bowed to his expertise and he gave me the cutting grinder to cut the shaft and said he'd be back in an hour or so. I took the grinder up and took a big swallow....maybe I'll try ONE MORE TIME. I had put a scratch in the shaft when we started working with the puller to see if we were making any progress. As I took a second look, I thought maybe while we were doing all our discussing, the pressure MAY HAVE MOVED the coupler a fraction. I put another block on the propeller so it wouldn't turn, and tried with all my Swedish stubbornness one more time. IT SEEMED TO MOVE!!!! I tried it again, and again, and in about 20 minutes I had the coupler, the packing gland, and bellows off the shaft. YAHOO!!! The mechanic was very surprised when he returned and I was feeling like I won the lottery.

Back to the marine mart to order a new bellows, but they said I would have to order the entire packing gland $$$ and it would take two weeks. Not good enough! I called the manufacturer, PYI Inc., in Bellingham WA, ordered just the bellows $, and had it shipped on two day delivery to friends Nada and Dorsey's in Tucson while we went up there and waited. The part just arrived and is the correct part. Tomorrow we will be heading back to the boat in San Carlos, re-install the gland with the new bellows, put Albion back in the water to finish our work, take it for a sea trial, and put it up for sale (not sail).Just thought I would give our cruising friends a little update. Albion is scheduled for haul-out on May 28 after which we will drive back to Mesa to get the RV and head back to the Northwest for the summer.

[Update after we got back to San Carlos] The bellows went on, no problem and we launched the next day. But there was still a lot of work to do on the boat and by the time we got it pretty well complete, the nice cruising weather ended. We decided to run the boat back to San Carlos, haul out early, and put it back in dry storage in Marina Secca until sold or next Spring.

Summer & Fall '07

2007-11-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

As many of you know Albion didn’t hit the water in the winter of ’06 – ‘07 in Mexico. We wintered in Mesa, Arizona, where Brent was Captain of the Desert Belle Paddleboat on Saguaro Lake.

This summer was a stay at home activity where we reunited with many friends and did a lot of things in Oregon that we had not done before. One of the nearby activities that we have driven by for years, was the < Air Museum in McMinnville. It was truly something to stop and see after all these years. Then there were a couple of Jet Boat trips on the Rogue River>, something that we have always wanted to do but were always too busy. And then we took in a couple of Shakespeare plays in Ashland. That is going to become a regular for us in future summers.

Also this summer we visited <Tom & Sue Stose up at their Detroit Lake campground that they were hosting. We stayed there a few days seeing all the work that is involved with camp hosting (at least all the work that Tom & Sue did) before heading over to Redmond for another FMCA RV Rally. The venders just seem to love to see us come, as described in the last BLOG. This year we decided to take the Crooked River Mystery Train trip>. It included a dinner and a mystery that started before you left the station with someone on the train platform getting shot. WHO DONE IT was the theme during the trip. It was a delight. Others that we met this summer at the Salem Elks included <John & Barb Wilde. They became real good friends as well as the hosts Jimmy and Brenda Holm. It was great to have picnics in the Elks park and help out with some of the chores. As we headed south, we decided to head to Klamath Marsh and visit John Snively’s new cabin> on the marsh. What a great spot to kick back and relax and watch birds right <from the porch.

This winter WAS going to be a return to Albion and do a little cruising before heading back up to Saguaro Lake for their peak season of February, March, and April. HOWEVER, the since the tour boat on the next lake up was going to be out of commission this winter because of a lake draw-down, the owners decided to pick up the slack by increasing our tours. They wanted us back enough to tell us to write any schedule we wanted and they would accept it. So we told them that to get some use of Albion this winter, I would have to have a couple of weeks off at a time to drive down to San Carlos (8 hr drive from Mesa), work on the boat or take a short cruise in the Sea. They agreed, so I’m driving the Desert Belle Paddleboat (http://www.desertbelle.com/) for two weeks and then taking two weeks off.

My first trip to Albion, however, found that it was going to be difficult to find an in-water slip to moor her. I finally located one in Marina Real, but while waiting for the slip to become available, I discovered a leak in the fuel tank. Unable to spend the time to work on it, I asked Jesus at Marina Secca to have his men fix it, and that I would be back in several weeks. That was "several" weeks ago now, and it still isn’t fixed…..Oh yeah, I forgot, IT’S MEXICO!!!
Well, WHEN Albion is fixed and WHEN we locate an empty slip in the San Carlos area, we will start our short limited cruising in the upper Sea of Cortez. In the meantime, if anyone is headed to the Phoenix/Mesa area this winter, be sure to call, stop by, and take a complementary 1 ½ hour narrated paddleboat tour on Saguaro Lake…..and yes I do the narration too! I will have to admit that this is a beautiful 10 mile long lake with canyons and cliffs and Saguaro cacti. It is hard to call it a job!

Living in Mesa, Arizona (Season '06-'07)

2007-06-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

We decided to taking this year off from our boat in Mexico and drive the tour paddleboat Desert Belle to get my days needed to renew my Coast Guard Captain’s license. After searching the web for warm winter locals and sending out several emails, Mesa, Arizona and Saguaro Lake were chosen (or they chose us). The narration in the next Log below is what happens on the Saguaro Lake every day, but during our stay in Mesa, we made a few excursions that broke up the routine. Our first guests to visit were Tom and Sue Stose. They arrived shortly after we got our routine down and were our first complimentary guests on the Desert Belle. While here we showed them some of the area although we weren't that familiar with it ourselves yet. We did, however, do some kayaking on the Salt River below the Stewart Moutain Dam that holds back Saguaro Lake.

In mid December, Molly & I thought we would take several days off and drive to Los Angeles to visit our good friend and cruising/RV buddy Cathy Fleming. We had a great time going and shopping and visiting. It was a great break that we needed.

In January we made a short local trip down to see the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument just south of Phoenix. It was interesting, but not as impressive as we expected. Later that month we had to make a trip to San Carlos, Mexico to get a survey done on Albion. We have to have one done every three years for insurance purposes. We got a local surveyor in Guaymas and he gave it a good bill of health. It was nice to be on the boat again, even though it was still in the storage yard and if only to just check up on it.

Daughter Jeanette came to visit for a week in February. We had many things planned to show her while here. Of course we took her to the Organ Stop Pizza parlor to listen to the world’s largest Wurlitzer Pipe Organ. It is always a great time listening to the many old songs that the organist plays while having a pizza and a beer. We also took the drive up Apache Trail past all the lakes with a stop at Tortilla Flats for their great hamburgers. We also took her to see the play 42nd Street at the Broadway Palms Dinner Theater. We have gone there several times and wanted to show her what we do for fun. And of course we took her out on the Desert Belle to see the beauty of the Arizona desert habitats from the lake.

Later in February, Granddaughter Briana came to stay with us while she had a try-out with the Phoenix Ballet. They actually weren’t hiring apparently, but it was a good try-out and we got to see her and had a great time showing her the area. Oh, yes, we took her to the Organ Stop Pizza parlor as well, and she loved it, even though someone spilled a beer on her while maneuvering to their seat. She liked it so much that when she came back in March for a follow-up try-out with a friend, she asked to go back to Organ Stop to show her friend.

Another little excursion we made was up to Payson, Arizona to see the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. It is the largest travertine natural bridge in the world. It is quite impressive and I walked down the creek under the massive bridge. We stayed the night in Payson and took some Desert Belle brochures up to the Payson Chamber of Commerce. Bud and Lisa Root (more cruising friends) came for a visit also and went out on the lake for a tour and visited Tortilla Flats with us. It was a great time. They were in their RV and stayed in our Apache Wells RV Resort.

In April, Cathy Fleming came to visit for a few days and so we had to take her on the Desert Belle and show her around our area. We got tickets to the Arizona Opry and she thought that was great. That was the second time we had been there. It is not quite what you expect, not quite like the Grande Ole Opry. It is a mixture on all kinds of music and the leader of the program (the guy who sings the high notes in "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") plays every conceivable horn instrument, from the Alpine Horn to the largest tuba in the world. He has about 20 or 30 on stage and plays every one of them before the night is over. Some of them have been given to him by well know artists like Al Hert and others.

All in all, it was a great winter season. Except for not being on our boat in Mexico, it was great. We had a lot of visitors who made the time go faster and more enjoyable. During the last few weeks, the other Captain became unemployed and I was the "only" Captain. Although I had planned only one season here to get the days for my license renewal, the owners made it attractive to return for the next season. Molly liked the area, the park, the people, and got very involved in the quilting group here. I enjoyed the lake tour and meeting new people everyday, so we decided to come back next year if they gave us time to head down to the boat in San Carlos, Mexico for a cruise or two during the season. The die was case!

As we headed home, we decided to stop at a few more attractions along the way. The first was the Verde Canyon Railroad> trip in Cottonwood, Arizona. We stayed close by in a Coast to Coast park. The trip was an all day excursion up the Verde River Valley with great scenery, and a turn-around location at <Perkinsville that was in several movies. It was a great trip that we would highly recommend to everyone.

Then we went on to Fredonia, Arizona again like last year, but this year we waited until May 15th when the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was open. Again, it was quite impressive. We then head home via I-15 through Salt Lake City, Utah and I-84 through Boise, Idaho. Again, we spend the first two weeks back at our "home park" in Neskowin and then headed for the Salem Elks for the summer.

We are now back in Salem after spending about a week in Redmond at the FMCA RV Rally. We kept the vendors happy by leaving a few $$$ with them. Our major purchase was a GPS....we have been checking out the various madels available. The one Brent was interested in was having the ability to utilize nautical charts and at the rally, we found one that already had the charts installed, so that was a definite plus. So now we are just having a good time learning how to use it and maximize all the bells and shistles on it!

At the rally, we went to a seminar on how to create BLOGs. Although this is far from the start of our BLOG listing at "Log 1", this portion of this posing was the first try after the RV Rally. Then we went back and changed all our "Log of Albion (and other travels)" from the Northwest Yacht Delivery web site to be included in this on-line BLOG. Hope you have had fun reading and keeping up with our travels. Stay with us as we continue learn more about this blogging stuff and put our activities out there for you all to keep track of us.

Saguaro Lake Paddleboat Tour--'06-'07

2007-04-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

Saguaro Lake Tour on the Desert Belle

This winter we didn't put our sailboat (Albion) in the water in Mexico. We decided to work in the Phoenix, Arizona area as a tour boat captain, and ticket taker, to get the days needed to renew my captains license. The owners of the Desert Belle Paddleboat asked us to work for them and we accepted. The duration of this position was from October 1, 2006 through May 5th, 2007.

This is a representation of the 90 minute tour on Saguaro Lake, Arizona, aboard the Desert Belle Paddleboat (http://www.desertbelle.com/). Most of these pictures were taken by me (Captain Brent O. Forsberg) and the narration below is basically that given during the cruise about the features on the lake and presented here with photos.

TONTO NATIONAL FOREST;

When you came up to Saguaro Lake today, you entered the Tonto National Forest, about 3 million acres in size, and for perspective, that’s 2 1/2 times the size of the Grand Canyon. The forest has a wide variety of habitat from middle desert to high alpine mountains. And Saguaro Lake also has a wide variety of habitat including the canyon, marshes, and the Sonoran Desert habitat.The Salt River, that you are on, has four lakes on it. They can be remembered by the acronym SCAR for Saguaro, Canyon, Apache, and Roosevelt Lakes. The dam for Roosevelt Lake was dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1911, predating Arizona’s statehood by almost a year.These lakes were created between 1907 and 1930 by the Bureau of Reclamation and a coalition of farmers called the Salt River Project, now a local utility. They were created for the purpose of flood control and agricultural water storage.

STEWARD MOUNTAIN DAM:

Saguaro Lake was the last lake of the chain to be formed in 1930 with the completion of the Stewart Mountain Dam, the concrete structure you see ahead of us and slightly to your right (starboard). The dam is 1260’ long, 207’ high, the current water depth at the dam is about 95’, and there is a small 13,000 kw water turbine in the dam for power generation. Saguaro Lake is 10 miles long, has 22.5 miles of shoreline and has a surface area of about 1200 acres. The maximum depth is 120’ deep, and you are at an elevation of 1526’. The Salt River , as well as over 90% of the land in Arizona, slopes in a SW direction towards Yuma and drains into the Colorado River

FOUR PEAKS:

The first feature I want to call to your attention is the mountain range off to your left (port) that you see in the distance. This is the Mazatzal Mountain range and the four major peaks you see are called the “Four Peaks” and includes a 60,000 acre wilderness area, also called the “Four Peaks” Wilderness Area.Those peaks are about 20 miles away and are at an elevation of 7700’. This is one of the older mountain ranges in the area at 1700 million years. The peaks are made of quartzite and are resting upon granite. The 2nd largest amethyst mine in the US is locate on the mountain between the third and fourth peaks (from the left) and was once owned by the Tiffany Co. of New York City. There is also a large black pear population that lives in the mountain range.

TEDDY BEAR RIDGE:

Speaking of bears, if you’ll look ahead and slightly to your right, you’ll see a rock outcropping on the ridgeline. To some people, it looks a little like the head of a teddy bear. You can see its left ear sticking up, its nose is pointing at us, and there are two slits for eyes. This is called Teddy Bear Ridge. So if we don’t see any other wildlife...that’s probably going to be it!

LAVA CLIFFS:

The cliffs to our right (starboard) are called “The Lava Cliffs”; however, this isn’t lava in the truest form, but a kind of fine grained granite. The predominate geology of the area is volcanic; consisting of lava, volcanic ash, and granite. And granite is intruded Magma, or does not get exposed to air. It slowly cools, partially crystallizes, and then turns quite hard.The black streaks you see on the face of the cliffs are evidence of past water flows. When it rains, which is a relatively rare event here, since we only average 7.5” per year, much of the water is runoff, but some percolates into the ground to leach out minerals such as manganese and iron oxide, which are then deposited as the black streaks. Geologists call this “desert varnish”The green patches you see on the rocks (also yellow or reddish) are a plant called lichen, a combination of algae and fungi living in close association. The organic acids produced by the lichen break down the rock, eventually to soil, so other plants can gain a foothold. This is normally a good thing unless you operate a National Park that depends on the rock formations….like Mt. Rushmore. There, they have to periodically clean the lichen from the rock faces or they will deteriorate faster than normal.

WILDLIFE:

There is considerable wildlife associated with Saguaro Lake. The canyon to our right, Willow Springs Canyon, is a known nesting area for the American Bald Eagle. We normally see some on almost every trip, so you may want to keep a sharp eye, and you may see them sitting on the rock ledges, or flying from ridge to ridge. Other birds we have seen on previous trips include Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, Belted Kingfishers, Osprey, Turkey Vultures, several Grebes, and of course that black bird with a white bill, the American Coot. By the way, the black birds with a brownish head and breast you saw in the ticket area, asking for handouts, were Great-tailed Grackles. I have a bird book with me, so you may want to look up a bird, or you can just ask me and I’ll take a guess at it! That guess, though, comes with a little experience since I spent 30 years with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.Now as we come around this corner, one of the best pictures that you can take (in my humble opinion) is looking up the canyon at the Four Peaks.

SHIP ROCK:

On our left, you can see a rock in the middle of the channel. It is called Ship Rock. To some, this has the appearance of an old sailing ship with all the sails up. But it’s actually the core of an extinct volcano. When it stopped erupting, the lava inside cooled and plugged the opening. Over many years, the softer material surrounding the vent has been slowly eroding away.Today, it’s used as a navigation aid for the boaters. There is a battery powered flashing beacon on top and 2 reflectors down near the water line. When one of those fast, high powered boats come around the corner pulling a skier and not paying attention, they sometimes hit this rock. And at that time we have to temporarily rename the rock “ShipWRECK Rock”.

SAGUAROS ON HILLSIDE:

On the hillside in this cove is a good stand of saguaro cactus, the lake namesake. This is the largest cactus in the US, found only within the Sonoran Desert of the American SW and parts of Mexico. And they are only found below the 3500’ elevation because they are susceptible to freezing. With all that water inside, they will burst open like a frozen pop can and eventually die.It is a very slow growing cactus…only 1 inch per year. And to get started, they need the protection of a “nurse plant” for shade and moisture.They can live more than 250 years and can get as tall as 60’ although the average is 30-40’. After a very wet winter, some of them may weigh as much as 10 tons, soaking up as much as 200 gallons during a storm. They have a shallow root system, but maintain their balance by wrapping their roots around subsurface rocks. They also use their branches, or arms, for balance.They start to form those branches between 65 and 75 years of age and are at least 40 years old before they start producing flowers. The white, waxy flower, which opens between mid April through the end of May, is the state flower of Arizona. The flowers open only at night, remain open through the following afternoon and then close for good. They are pollinated by birds during the day, and by Longnose Bats at night.Sometimes you may see holes in some of the larger saguaros. They were created by woodpeckers and flickers, and then may be used by other birds when abandoned. The temperature inside one of these cavities is normally 15 degrees cooler than the outside temperature. That is quite an advantage on a hot Arizona summer day.

SAGUARO LAKE MARSHES:

Again, Saguaro Lake has a wide variety of habitat. We've gone through the canyon, and now we are entering the marsh habitat. This type of habitat will have a larger variety of waterfowl associated with it. The cove off to our right is a good fishing area protected from fast boat wakes.There are many sport fish in Saguaro lake that include: Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Yellow Bass, Channel Catfish, Walleye Pike, Crappie, Bluegill, Sunfish, Shad, and the Arizona Game & Fish Department stocks Rainbow and Brown Trout during the winter months. I know the fishing is pretty good since I see lots of boats up there, I just don't know how the "catching" is!

BAGLEY FLATS CAMPGROUND:

The boat dock on the right marks the location of Bagley Flats Campground, a facility built and maintained by the US Forest Service for the pleasure of the boating public on Saguaro Lake.The campground includes picnic benches, barbecue pits, rock lined fire pits, a natural com-post-ing restroom, and an emergency telephone system.Camping is permitted along the shores of Saguaro Lake, however, at this campground you have the advantage of boat only campers. There are no roads to this campground. And the dock allows you to tie your boat for the night and have it floating the next morning rather than finding it high and dry at other shoreline locations after they lower the lake level.However, the disadvantages of camping on the lake, even here, include the Diamond-back Rattlesnake and the Bark Scorpion. Two critters you don't want crawling in bed with you!Bagley Flats marks the halfway point of our cruise today. We have gone 5 miles and the lake continues another 5 miles to the Mormon Flats Dam that holds back Canyon Lake. However, due to the narrowness of the canyon and the limited maneuverability of the Desert Belle, the Forest Service requests that we turn around here.

CRESTED SAGUARO:

However, I will go another couple hundred yards, up to that buoy, to show you a very unusual feature here on Saguaro Lake, the Crested Saguaro. Look to your right, about 2:00 when we get up there and you will see a Saguaro with a fan shaped top. It is caused by a damaged growing tip, and rather than forming branches, it forms that crested shape. And that only happens in one out of 200,000 saguaro.

ROCKS OPPOSITE CAMPGROUND:

As we make our slow turn-around, please keep an eye on the rocks across the lake. On previous tours, we have seen Desert Bighorn Sheep on those rocks. Other wildlife we’ve seen at one point or another during our tours include: Mule deer, Javelina, Coyote, Coati, Bobcat, Fox, and Mountain Lions.

SALT RIVER NAME:

You may have wondered how the Salt River got its name since it is fresh water. Well, back in the 16th century, some Spanish explorers were...I guess, exploring...and found salt deposits along the banks. So they called the river Rio Salado, which means “river of salt”.The Salt River has its origin up in the White Mountains on Arizona’s eastern border with New Mexico, and is formed by the joining of the White River and the Black River. Now, call me crazy, but if the White River & Black River came together, I’ld call the resulting stream the “Grey River”! Or at least the “Salt & Pepper River”.

PRICKLY PEAR & CHOLLA CACTUS:

Now we'll head down the Sonoran Desert side of the lake and point out some representative vegetation. Between these large Saguaro cacti, we see a smaller cactus with large flat fleshy pads and large spines. These are Prickly Pear Cacti. There are a dozen varieties of Prickly Pear, and the ones without those large spines are the Beavertail Cactus variety. These varieties are available commercially as jams and jellies, and in restraurant salads.On the open hillside just beyond them you can see another small cactus that is fuzzy-looking. Well, they are anything but fuzzy, although they are called Teddy Bear Cholla. There are 20 species of Cholla and they can be identified their segmented stems and branches, and they all have sheaths over their needles. So if you're carefull, which apparently I wasn't, you can grab one of those needles and pull that sheath off. But you may get stuck by the adjacent spines and when those sheaths break off in your finger, the resulting pain is a lot worse and lasts a lot longer than a normal cactus spine prick.....trust me on that!

SPIDER ROCK:

The rock on the right is known as Spider Rock. If you look on the face of the rock, you’ll see a lacy pattern that looks like cobwebs to some people. It’s actually an example of another type of volcanic formation called "tuff”, which is solidified volcanic ash. This is brecciated ash tuff, meaning the original tuff was broken into angular fragments in a process of folding. Then the fragments were glued together again, over time, as water percolated through the fragments. But you can call them "cobwebs"!The mountains surrounding the lake are called the Gold Mountains. They were the result of volcanic activity from the Superstition Mountains just to the Southwest of here, and are about 15 to 35 million years old. Geologically, that’s a very young formation, since the Four Peaks behind us are 1700 million years old.

BARREL CACTUS:

On the hillside here, you can see a few saguaros and a smaller cactus that looks like a young saguaro. These are actually Barrel Cacti. They can be identified by their cylinder-shaped body, and their reddish hue due to their needles. At a closer look their needles are curved like fish hooks and flat in profile, whereas saguaro needles are straight and round.They are also one of the largest cacti in the Southwest, growing from 5’ to 11’ tall and live up to 130 years. You may see them leaning over and think they are getting heavy or are damaged. But like other plants they grow toward the sun. These cacti, however, always grow toward the south to avoid exposure to the sun, or sunburn. And because of this trait, they are also known as the “compass cactus”.

SAGUARO LAKE TREES;

As we work our way back down the canyon, the lower slope along here, and growing on the rock ahead, you can see a light green shrub with green stems and branches. This is the Palo Verde, or “green stick” in Spanish, and is the Arizona State tree. Yeah, they call those “trees” around here! Since they are drought deciduous, or shed their leaves during extended dry spells, they rely on their green stems and branches to carry on the energy-producing process of photosynthesis. And this tree is also used quite extensively for landscaping and highway beautification projects.There are two other trees I would like to point out along this shoreline. The large tree near the waterline here, is a Mesquite tree. It’s upper branches, or newer growth, are reddish brown in color and have a zigzag pattern. It belongs to the Pea Family, producing long pods, and has a root system that is wide-spreading and deep-reaching, sometimes reaching 150' to 200’ below the surface. The larger tree behind this tree with gray stems & branches, and whose leaves are a darker green with denser foliage, is the Ironwood Tree. This is also a member of the Pea Family. The wood of this tree is very popular for those decorative carvings you see at every wide spot in the road, and is so dense and heavy that if a branch is thrown into the lake, it will sink. These trees are also one the longest lived species in the Sonoran Desert, living up to 1500 years.Now nearly home, we head out of the canyon into the main part of the lake again.

BUTCHER JONES BEACH RECREATION AREA:

Off to the right, up at the end of the cove is the Butcher Jones Beach Recreation Area, a popular day-use-only site built and maintained by the US Forest Service.It has a nice sandy beach for swimming that is protected from boats and a fishing dock that is handicapped accessible. There are also picnic sites with barbecues, about 10 miles of hiking trails, some of which follow the banks of the lake, and 4WD roads which can take suitable vehicles back to beach areas we passed earlier.You can get to this site by taking the road outside our parking area (the Bush Highway), go north about 1 mile, and turn right at the sign.The Butcher Jones Recreation Area was named after Dr. William J. Jones who was a surgeon in the area. Now how he acquired the nickname “Butcher”, we don't know, and we aren't asking!

SUNSET CLIFFS:

The cliffs ahead of us are the Sunset Cliffs, another example of the volcanic formation of tuff. This is called “welded tuff” formed by volcanic ash from the Superstition Mountains that was so hot when it was deposited that it fused together. This example is about 300 feet thick. If you want to know why they call them the Sunset Cliffs, just come down to the Lakeshore Restaurant for dinner, along about sun down, and watch the sun set on those cliffs. With the right atmospheric conditions, the sight is just awesome.The mountain ahead of us and above the restaurant is Stewart Mountain, that the dam was named after. Stewart was a rancher in the area, and as far as we know, he didn't have a nickname.

SAGUARO DEL NORTE RECREATION SITE:

To our right is the Saguaro Del Norte Recreation Site, another site developed by the US Forest Service for public use. This site has 2 boat launching ramps, picnic areas, fishing docks which are handicap accessible, and swimming areas. This area, under the Sunset Cliffs, is all open 24 hours a days, 7 days a week.

EDITORIAL:

Now the bad news! To park here, or the Butcher Jones site, you need a parking permit. They used to sell them at the booth outside our parking area, but now you have to go back into Mesa to a Circle K or Big 5 Sporting Good store, or down the Bee-Line Highway across from the Casino, to purchase your permit. You can tune to the Forest Service information station, 1610 AM, for details, and there is also a small sign by the Forest Service booth with the purchase locations. Just thought I would give you a heads-up before you got here and wanted to park and have a picnic or do some hiking, and then realized you would have to make a long round trip for a parking permit. The buildling with the brown roof in front of the boat is the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office and First Aid Station.On the left is the Saguaro Lake Marina that we passed on the way out. It has slips for 400 boats ranging in length from 24 to 50 feet. And they have a full service machine shop, and ship’s stores for fuel, fishing supplies, and boat rentals.And of course above our dock is the Lakeshore Restaurant, consistently voted one of the best places in the Phoenix area for outside dinning . It’s open 7 days a week for breakfast & lunch, and 5 nights a week (Wed – Sun) for dinner.

SALUTATION:

Well, on behalf of the management of the Desert Belle, I want to thank you all for sailing with us today. We hope you enjoyed the tour. If you did we want you to tell your friends, and if you didn't we'd rather you kept your opinion to yourself! No, actually we want to here that too, so we can improve the trip as much as possible. Remember, the Desert Belle is available for charters, and the Lakeshore Restaurant is available for catering those charters. Just pick up a brochure and visit our web site or give us a call for more information.Make sure you pick all your valuables. Anything you leave, I get to keep! I would appreciate it if everybody would remain seated as we dock the Desert Belle, attach the lines, and put the ramp back to the boat. On occasion, we make a hard landing and we don't want to through anybody overboard.As we make our approach, you can listen to "Arizona" by Rex Allen Jr. which is the Arizona State song.

Thank you again for coming!

Log 12: Route 66 in '06

2006-09-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

Log of Albion (and other travels)

These are e-mails and letters sent back to family and friends from our trip on Route 66 from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA with friends in a two RV's. So it was on to Chicago first!

7/17/06: Our Great American Road Trip

We are embarking on “our great American road trip” heading back to Minnesota before returning west on historic Route 66. We will be keeping our family and friends informed of our whereabouts by sending periodic updates of our travels. We recognize that some of you may not be interested in our journey so if you would prefer not to receive these e-mails, just drop us a reply to this one, and let us know….we won’t bore you with our further updates. It’s now day three of our travels and we have made it all the way to Fort Bridger, Wyoming….having gotten on our way a day ahead of our scheduled departure on Tuesday, 7/10. Rain was predicted for the Portland area later that day and who wants to start an adventure in the rain. A quick stop for breakfast in Cascade Locks served to remind us to check out the parking lot before pulling in. We had to unhook the car to turn around in the limited space! How soon we forget about that tow behind us! Today was what our friends, John and Janet Neal, refer to as a 2 x 2 day---no more than 200 miles and off the road by 2 p.m. We stopped for the day at the casino in Pendleton. Wednesday was an uneventful, but certainly not a 2 x 2 day. Six hours on the road got us to the Wal-Mart in Jerome, Idaho. But today there’s something to write home about! We did leave earlier than Molly usually prefers. Brent has promised me an easy trip and he knows I get cranky when he has the motor running before I have my teeth brushed. But today, we were up and on the road by 7 am. After a fuel stop a few miles down the road in Twin Falls, we continued on and stopped for breakfast just across the Utah border in Snowville. Saw Mollie’s Café and knew we had to try it. It’s quite a colorful spot and so is Mollie herself! It appears Mollie may be spending a good deal of dollars on products to keep her looking as young as she once was, and that may be money spent in vain, but she’s a friendly old gal and serves up pretty good home cooked type meals. Our destination for the day was Fort Bridger, Wyoming. We have no cell phone or internet service at our park here, but needed to make some phone calls for reservations for the next few days, so drove into the next little community of Mt. View. While Brent handled the reservation calls, I browsed the local quilt shop and found some nice projects for Christmas for our girls. Back in Fort Bridger, we toured the historic fort site, well worth the $2/person price of admission. It is well preserved or restored in some cases. It was a major stopping and supply station for most of the covered wagon trails west. We really enjoyed it. In the next week we will be heading towards Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands of South Dakota. We will get this sent once we are in an internet service area sometime tomorrow. Along the way we will send more updates now and then, not every day and hopefully much shorter than this one, but often enough to let you know where we are and how we are doing. Once again, if you aren’t interested, just let us know.

7/18/06: Road Trip part two

There’s just not a lot to write home about crossing Wyoming and the western part of Nebraska. Along the way, we have shared the road with hundreds (maybe thousands) of bikers, many of whom are no doubt en route to the huge annual biker gathering in Sturgis, SD in early August. We’ve gained a lot of respect for our pioneer forefathers who kept going once they got this far. There must have been some really good promises of the green fertile valleys awaiting them across the mountains and plains. In Wyoming we saw lots of antelope, one even right outside our RV in the park in Rawlins. Nebraska’s claim to fame apparently is Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff, two national monuments memorializing the landmarks the pioneers recognized as signposts marking 1/3 of their journey completed and a reminder of the treacherous mountains that lie ahead of them. Since we’ve crossed the Oregon Trail several times now, we purchased a DVD on the historic trail.We camped in a nice economical RV park down by the river in Scottsbluff. We actually met another couple from Oregon in the Wal-mart parking lot and they were heading for this park down by the river. It turned out to be a great alternative to our planned night in the Wal-mart parking lot and allowed us to have air conditioning for some relief from the 100+ degree heat wave sweeping across the mid-west. During the night, we had a terrific windstorm that kept us awake for several hours. We were quite pleased to be in the RV and not at anchor somewhere in our boat!We are now in the Black Hills area of South Dakota near Mt. Rushmore. The area has changed dramatically from what we remember, having been here years ago. At that time, we had made a whirlwind trip here and back to Oregon in a week and didn’t have nearly enough time to see much besides the Presidential Monument. Neither of us remembers there being nearly so much commercial development in the area, but as with everything, things change. There are many caves in the area. Our priority has been to tour the two that are managed by the national park systems Wind Cave and Jewel Cave) rather than the more commercially developed private ones. These are two of the longest and most complex caves in the world. Other than Mt. Rushmore itself, probably the highlight so far has been touring the actual paleontological dig of the recently discovered (1974) Mammoth Site near Hot Springs. Work continues on the carving of the Crazy Horse Monument and perhaps someday it will be completed. There are so many things to see here, we decided to stay in our Coast to Coast membership RV park for 5 nights. Tomorrow we will probably do Deadwood, another site that we visited several years ago and may again be surprised by the changes. We are still on schedule to meet up with cruising/RV friends in upper Minnesota on or about July 26th.More later as we move forward on our road trip.

7/23/06: Mitchell South Dakota

We finally finished touring the Black Hills and have moved on to the Badlands National Park. In addition to the points of interest mentioned in our last update, we toured Deadwood and then spent a day driving through the lower section of the Badlands N.P. to Wounded Knee. We did some study on the internet before our trip because we were aware that not much development has taken place to identify the site. A hand painted sign at the site of the Black Foot massacre and a mass grave at the top of the hill are the only evidence of the American tragedy in December of 1890. It was the last soldier/Indian conflict and ended the traditional Indian lifestyle.Deadwood, as expected, has become a Disneyland of commercialism. Most of the old rebuilt buildings are still there after several fires in the early years, but most are gift shops and casinos. The saloon where Wild Bill Hickock was shot (holding a poker hand of aces and eights) is still there, and has now turned back into a bar. When we were there many years ago it was a studio for old-time dress-up photos.On our way to our park near the Badlands N.P., we were told we HAD to stop at the Wall Drug Store in Wall, S.D. And yes, it was worth the stop. It is an attraction in itself. If you can't find something, you can always find it at the Wall Drug. We spent a couple hours there exploring and had some home-made pie ala mode…..and yes, bought a few gifts. Yesterday, we drove the loop road through the Badlands after watching the obligatory video at the visitor center. This country is a must see for the beautiful sandstone sculptures. Today, we broke camp again and headed East to Mitchell, S.D. After dinner, we went by the Corn Palace and took some more pictures. Now a few more stops and we will be in Winton, MN at our friends Will and Joann’s for a nice visit and the annual Blueberry Festival.

8/2/06: Adult Summer Camp

After the Badlands, we were happy to see the green trees of Minnesota. It started to look a lot more like Oregon, especially when it rained! A terrific thunder and lightning storm moved right over the top of us….we think we know rain in Oregon, but this was something else. It was like adult summer camp once we all got together in Minnesota. Our friends, Dan and Cathy and Horst and Bea were traveling from Wisconsin as we were heading up through Minnesota and we managed to be at our planned meeting place within fifteen minutes of each other. Will and Joann were there to lead us all back into the woods to their summer home on the lake. It was like adult summer camp and I am sure the neighbors thought Will had gone into the RV park business with us all camped in his front yard. The girls did their best to keep the local economy booming with several shopping forays. The big event was the Blueberry Festival and while it was unseasonably hot and crowded, they managed to see it all, twice! The days were filled with lots to eat and drink and great times with good friends. On Sunday, we, along with Dan and Cathy bid the others farewell and headed off towards the Chicago area to start our Route 66 trip. In Wisconsin, we stopped for a night to visit with cruising friends of Dan and Cathy’s. Their air-conditioned home was a welcomed respite from the unseasonably high temperatures we are finding everywhere. We are now in the Chicago area having a chance to meet Cathy’s family and having a guided tour of the windy city. Route 66 starts here. So the adventure begins!

8/8/06: Chicago and beyond......

Chicago….not nearly enough time to do and see everything, even though we tried….guess we will have to come back another time. We toured Chicago via the free trolley that runs during the summer months and spent extra hours visiting the tall ships, Millennium Park, Navy Pier, and the Art Institute. Thanks to my sister JoAnn, I had an idea of some of the highlights in the Institute that we shouldn’t miss in our limited time there. We also had a chance to see parts of Indiana and Michigan for a few days while visiting with some of Cathy’s and Dan’s family.Fortunately, the hot weather has moved on and we have been quite comfortable lately. Not only were we dealing with record high temps in the area, but here in the mid-west, they have this stuff called humidity. Back in the northwest we call that much moisture rain, but umbrellas don't help much here!We drove the first 50 or so miles of Route 66 out of Chicago to our camping spot in Joliet, but today our tour started officially traveling down to Bloomington, IL. We confess to a few wrong turns along the way, but all in all, we are having a great time seeing the old icons of the “Mother Road”. To be continued……………

8/14/06: Branson, Missouri

After traveling across Illinois and most of Missouri, we are taking a few days off with a side trip to Branson, MO. In Bloomington, Illinois, we sampled Beer Nuts at the only place in the world they are made; in Funk's Grove, Gladis Funk saw us coming and opened early so we could try her wonderful maple “sirup” (syrup); and no route 66 trip would be complete in Springfield without Cozy Dog (aka corn dogs) where they were invented. In Springfield, one is hard pressed to find anything not related to Abraham Lincoln. We toured his home and visited the cemetery where he and most of his family is buried. But the real highlight in Springfield was the opportunity to tour a Frank Lloyd Wright house; the unique Dana-Thomas House. Later that day we also toured the now closed Route 66 Chain of Rocks Bridge across the Mississippi River with the distinctive curve halfway across.In St. Louis, it was mandatory that we tour the Anheuser Busch Brewery. Have to say, those Clydesdales have pretty fancy digs and hospitality room is pretty nice too! Later that day we made connections with cruiser/RV friends, Tom and Kathy Edwards, who joined us for a memorable evening at the Luna Cafe, an apparent route 66 icon, once reported to be a hangout for Al Capone and fellow gangsters. Today it is a favorite watering hole of the locals. What they lacked in teeth, they made up for in hospitality. It was “free hot wings” night and then we were foolish enough to take the owners advice and order tacos, which were gigantic. We will never forget our time at the Luna!Coincidentally, the next day we all managed to meet up in town to tour the St. Louis Arch. Tom and Kathy were traveling from the west and we came from the east and we entered the parking garage at exactly the same time! It was a gray morning, so we put off our trip to the top of the arch until after the sun broke through for better viewing. The park has some excellent displays as well as movies on the construction of the arch and Lewis and Clarks’ journey west. It was great to see Tom and Kathy again as we had not seen them since we were in Mazatlan earlier this spring. After lunch, we said goodbye as they were headed to the old courthouse and we were looking for Ulysses S. Grant's home. We were misled to Grant’s Farm which was a rip-off, but we did finally find his hard-to-see home across the street. One more “must do” stop on route 66 was Ted Drew's Frozen Custard. I counted it as dinner and a fine dinner it was--hot fudge raspberry sundae!On our way south and west of St. Louis, we stopped at the Meremec Caverns. They have some of the most impressive formations we have seen in any caves here. At the winery in St. James, we encountered a first. The wine bottles were all lined up and we were told to taste as many as we wanted and pour our own! In Branson, we are taking some time to relax and catch our breath while we take in some shows and exhibits.

8/21/06: Oklahoma City....where the wind comes sweeping down the plain

Branson, Mo afforded lots to do and see, and although we tried, we couldn't do it all. At the new Titanic Museum everyone is given a passport with the name of an actual passenger and you get to find out if you survived or not. Brent, Cathy and I did, but Dan didn't make it. We enjoyed the museum but there is never enough time to read and take in everything. The only show we saw was Jim Stafford who we remember from the old Smothers Brothers Show. Had never heard of most of the others, but then it is the off season, so there aren't too many big names here right now. We tried to see the American Presidents Museum but it has moved several times and didn't seem quite ready for visitors when we finally did find it. Cathy and I did our best to shop ‘til we dropped at all the outlet malls and quilt shops. Five days in Branson was a nice respite with a view from our RV park and not being on the road every day, but finally it was time to move on and get going. Kansas has just a short section of Route 66 crossing the southeast corner of the state. In Baxter Springs, Kansas, we happened upon a nice County Park next to the river to camp in, but nobody ever showed up to collect the night fee so it was quite a bargain. Few of us think of Kansas for its Civil War sites, but apparently there are about 13 sites in this little corner of the state. Or so they say; the locals don't seem to know anything about it. Brent and Dan went looking for a map they had read was available and nobody seemed to know anything about it, not the Chamber of Commerce, not City Hall, and not the local Route 66 icon cafe. Finally someone suggested they check with the police department who also were in the dark about it all, but summoned a lady to come open up the museum and there they finally got the map. Of course, much of it seemed to be in error and they found only some of the sites!Entering Oklahoma, we parked the RVs and drove the car over some of the "ribbon roads” some very narrow original sections (8 feet wide) of the Route 66. We’re glad to have some very good guides advising us not to take the RVs over these sections. The Will Rogers Museum in Claremore was a very impressive display, but again, not nearly enough time to see it all. We would have liked to spend the whole afternoon there.We stopped for the night at the Tulsa Elks Club and were welcomed by a very friendly group preparing a Hawaiian luau for the membership that night. They asked us back later after the sold out event for a free dinner of all the leftovers. Later that night a tremendous thunder and lightning storm roared through the area. Several strikes were very close and must have hit the parking lot we were in because it set off all the car alarms and knocked out one of our air conditioning units. In this 100+ heat, that’s serious. We were lucky to get an appointment at Camping World the next day here in Oklahoma City. There are several things we want to see here so don't mind stopping for a couple days. Again, we're staying at a very friendly Elks club with hookups, right near town....and more thunder & lightning!!!

8/30/06: Half-way and more!

We spent a couple nights at the Oklahoma City Elks to get the RV into Camping world for the A/C repair. The stop allowed for a visit to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and Museum, very impressive. The next day was a mostly freeway day as the actual route 66 is a very narrow frontage road right along side the freeway. We stopped at the General Thomas P. Stafford Air and Space Museum. It is on his old property in Weatherford, OK and we thought it would be a quick look, but it turned out to be a real find. The museum houses much of the memorabilia of his life as a fighter pilot and astronaut as well as lots from the NASA space program. General Stafford’s mother came to Oklahoma in a covered wagon and lived to see her son fly to the moon. The three-time astronaut still lives nearby and frequents the museum often. He had been there only days earlier along with some Russian Cosmonauts he had once flown with.
We were a little disappointed with the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, OK as there wasn’t much actual Route 66 stuff, but the entire Elk City Museum campus was well laid out. We finished the day on the Oklahoma/Texas border in Texola. As we continued on into Texas, it was again mostly a freeway drive as the route follows along on the very narrow frontage roads alongside or is actually Rt 66. Dan and Cathy’s new refrigerator was giving them problems so we stopped in Amarillo at the Elks for two nights for repairs again. We took some time to see the infamous Cadillac Ranch they do strange things here in Texas. Several models of Cadillac buried nose down out in a field become the object of extensive graffiti painting. Finally we reached the halfway point with a lunch stop at the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, TX. This quaint little spot was the inspiration for the café depicted in the recent Disney film Cars. Several of the employees were invited to attend and given the royal red carpet treatment at the premier of the film. We enjoyed hearing all about it from the very informative owner, Fran. We ended the day with a stop at the Tumcumcari Elks enjoying the evening meal there. Our next stop was in Santa Fe, NM. on the old pre-1932 Rt 66 alignment, once again at the Elks. It seems we are making our way across country via the Elks. Many of the clubs have RV facilities for members and we are taking advantage of them whenever possible. Santa Fe is a beautiful town where among the many upscale shopping areas, one can also find the oldest church, oldest Government building, and highest State Capitol in the nation. Leaving there the next day, we encountered problems with our starting batteries. High fuel prices have not been our only major expense of the trip, but we felt fortunate to find a Freightliner shop just down the road from our next stop in Albuquerque. Early the next morning, we got brand new power and were on the road once again. We left Route 66 for a side trip along a scenic route past The Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano, and stopping at El Morro National Monument. Here Inscription Rock is the site of many early travelers leaving their names carved into the sandstone rock monolith. Many dates are from the early 1600’s when the Spaniards occupied the area. After an overnight stop in Gallup, NM we traveled off Route 66 again to the Canyon De Chelly National Monument in Northern Arizona. While the canyons here are not as massive as the Copper Canyon in Mexico, or our own Grand Canyon, the scenery certainly rivals both. There are far fewer tourists here and it makes exploring and seeing the numerous ancient Indian ruins a rewarding experience. Since there was so much to see, we spent another two nights here, and Brent got to hike the 2.5 miles to the bottom of the canyon and back, at one point, to view some of the ruins up close.

9/5/06: Ft. Mojave, AZ; one more state to go!

Highlights of the last few days include the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. Much of the Painted Desert reminded us of areas around the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon. Then we left Route 66 once again to make a side trip to Show Low AZ, to visit cruising friends we had met in Mazatlan, Lou and Irene (Hi-Fin). They are building a house in the area and joined us for a fish fry at the Show Low Elks. The next day we made the “must do” stop in Winslow, Arizona to “take it easy and stand on the corner” as per the Eagles hit song. It is indeed a tourist stop as Dan and Cathy were barely out of their RV when a local cab driver stopped to ask if they needed directions to “the corner.” We spent that evening at Meteor Crater National Landmark—quite a big hole in the ground and an interesting museum. Route 66 leaves 1-40 at Winona and heads to Flagstaff. Although the song says “don’t forget Winona” apparently somewhere along the way someone did, because there’s nothing there to mark the spot other than an old trailer house, or else we missed it. We had lunch in Flagstaff and dessert at the “must stop and see” Snow Cap Drive In in Seligman. Then we drove the longest unbroken portion of Route 66 (Seligman - Kingman) to Peach Spings to finish the day with a tour of the Grand Canyon Caverns and spent the night all by ourselves in the their campground. Temperatures started to warm up as we headed down the valley into Kingman. Our planned stop at the Hackberry General Store (another Rt 66 icon) was thwarted when we found it inundated by a huge group of bikers (motor kind) leaving no room for a couple of RVs with tows to pull over. By the time we reached Laughlin, NV, our destination for the day, the valley was downright hot (106 degrees). Our plan to dry camp in a casino parking area was quickly abandoned for a RV park to plug in and run the A/C and enjoy some cold refreshments. Today we traveled by car back to Kingman to meet more cruising and RV friends, Wayne and Glenda (KIVA) and see the progress on their new home under construction. The trip by car was less of a challenge for the travel over the Sitgreaves Pass from Kingman to Oatman, a very curvy, hilly section of Rt. 66 not recommended for RV passages. We spent some time shopping the tourist traps in Oatman, and cooled off with a cold drink in what appears to be the last remaining liquor establishment where once there were more than twenty along main street. Other cruising/RV friends, Tom and Sue Stose, had taken us to Oatman a couple years ago and it was that trip that first inspired us to make this whole Route 66 trip. We ended our day with a great prime rib dinner back in Laughlin and tomorrow will head for California and the last few days of our trip along historic route 66!

9/8/06: Route 66 Completed!

It took three days to complete the rest of the trip across California to Santa Monica. We started out in 100+ degree heat so didn’t put in long days. Most of the way was on the old National Trails Highway (Route 66). We ended the first day in Newberry Springs at the Twin Lakes RV park. Kind of ironic since there isn’t any “springs” and only two small man-made lakes (ponds) at the park. We ended the day with another thunder and lightning storm and a bit of rain.The last day of RV-ing started out early to avoid over-heating going over the El Cajon pass. We stopped at the Route 66 museum in Barstow to drop off a note from the gift shop attendant at the Joliet Route 66 museum. But the Barstow museum was closed so we just left it in the door jam. We then stopped at the original, very first, McDonalds restaurant. in San Bernardino that is only a museum now. Oh well, lunch later! We, again, stopped at an Elks in Ontario, CA for our last stay.The last segment of the Mother Road was done in the car to avoid the Los Angeles traffic. There were few points of interest on this last leg, and nothing really to stop and tour. The end of Route 66 was located at the end of Santa Monica Blvd. and Ocean Ave. were a plaque commemorates the “Will Roger’s Highway.” Then we celebrated by walking out the Santa Monica Pier and having lunch and a toast to the end of a fine trip. The other un-offical end of Route 66 was supposed to be located at the Olympic Park a few blocks up from the pier, but we could not find any trace of a marker, an “END” banner, or even the park! So we headed back to the RV’s in Ontario and again celebrated by opening a long-chilled bottle of champagne.The trek is complete! We had a great six weeks with several side trips that added some depth to the trip, visited with friends along the way, and met new friends. Thanks for caring enough to read about our great adventure.

Brent

Heading Home from Mexico Season 7--'06

2006-05-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is a summary of our trip heading home from La Paz Mexico before doing our Route 66 trip in the summer of 2006.

After a great time in LaPaz Mexico for the ’05 – ’06 winter season, meeting new friends and visits from other friends and Jeanette, we made our way back up the inside of the Baja to Santa Rosalia. We made several stops for the night at Isla San Francisco, Aqua Verde, Puerto Escondido, and San Juanico. After arriving at Santa Rosalia, we took the bus back to La Paz and brought our car back. On the way back up the Baja with the car, we stopped in Loreto to visit Tom & Sue in their motor home. Molly took the car back Guaymas in the ferry and I sail Albion back to San Carlos. We spent the next week getting Albion put away for the summer and hauled her on March 30.

In Tucson, we got the RV out of storage and then stayed in the Desert Pueblo Mobil Home Park along side of our friend and cruising buddy Cathy Fleming. We stayed there for one month. While in Tucson, we visited with friends Nada and Dorsey and Molly’s classmate and wife Larry and Sheryl Beach. A few of the things we did while there included a guided tour of the Pima Air Museum by Larry (who is a very knowledgeable member there), the county fair, the Botanical Gardens, and Sabino Canyon Park.

When we head North, back to Oregon, we decided to take our time and see a few things along the way. We spent several days camped at the Camp Verde RV park and visited the old mining town of Jerome that is built on the side of a very steep hill and is now an artist colony. It’s a site that should not be missed if you are in the area. At the base of Jerome are several ancient Indian ruins including Tuzigoot National Monument, Montezuma’s Castle National Monument, and Montezuma’s Well National Monument. These are all very close together and well worth the visit.

When we left Camp Verde, we were waiting for Dan Hardwick (Cathy’s significant other) to help deliver a boat through the Miraflores Lock in the Panama Canal. Cathy told us that he would be approaching the lock at a certain time and we were watching a web cam at the lock. Finally we couldn’t wait any longer and started North on the freeway while Molly watched the web cam on the computer. When she saw their boat approaching, we pulled off into a rest area and made several screen saves of the boat’s transit. It was exciting to watch our friend 2500 miles away bring a boat into the Panama Canal.

Then we were off to Fredonia, Arizona where we were going to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon the next day. But we found out it doesn’t open until the 15th, and it was only the 10th. So the next day we drove back down toward Page to check out a steep hill that we bypassed via a northern route, and we got to visit the Vermilion Cliffs, Marble Canyon and the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry. We arrived back in Gresham at Jeanette’s on May 16th.

We spend 10 days at our new Coast to Coast "Home Park" in Neskowin. It is an ok place to get away from the hustle and bustle, but that’s not what we wanted at this time. We’ve already been away for eight months. It’s now time to see friends and family and Neskowin was just too far away. So we moved back to the Salem Elks for a month and a half with a short trip to Albany for the FMCA Northwest Region Rally. There were lots of stuff there to buy and have repaired, as well as learning from many of the seminars.

Log 11 Hawaii & Mexico Season 7--'05-'06

2006-03-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

Log of Albion (and other travels)

These are e-mails and letters or summaries sent back to family and friends from our travels on a Hawaii Vacation and seventh season in Mexico, 2005 -2006

2005 Summer Summary

It's starting to get a little wet in Oregon, so it's time to start heading South again. Therefore, it's also time to write a little about what we did this summer. Well, not much! The fuel prices were so high this summer that we decided to stick pretty close to home. We only made one simi-long trip with the RV up to Dosewallips State Park on the Hood Canal up in Washington. We traveled up there to visit our friends from Tucson, Nada and Dorsey, who were volunteer hosts for the month of August. While there, some other friends from Whidbey Island, came down for a lunch visit. The weather was just wonderful. Our big trip for the summer was a two week trip to the island of Hawaii. Molly had enough air miles to get both of us a free flight and we found a nice Bed & Breakfast right on the water. We spend several months searching the internet for points of interest and activities for the Big Island. We arranged several tours; snorkelling in Kealakekua Bay next to Capt. Cook's Monument, a birding and 4x4 trip to the top of Mauna Kea at 13,800 feet, and a wagontrain trip down into Waipi'o Valley on the Hamakua Coast. Only the wagontrain trip was cancelled because of rain and fog. We did a lot of traveling around the island and probably drove every road. The first three days were tough because of heavy rain. Flood warnings were up on the Hilo side and several roads were closed. Overall, the trip was great. We saw many new birds for our life list, toured many musceums, rain forests, botanical gardens, and beaches. The only mistake we made was staying on the Hilo side (we called it the "dark side") for the full two weeks. It rained at least once every day, and there were several hurricanes in the Eastern Pacific that were influencing the weather and surf. When ever we traveled over to the Kona side, it was sunny and warm. The B&B, however, was nice eventhough it didn't have TV...hurrican Katrina cleanup was on-going at the time and it would have been nice to keep up on the progress....or lack of!Another short trip we made this summer was to Seattle to visit Grand-daughter Brianna. She graduated from high school in Thousand Oaks California and was accepted at the Pacific Northwest Ballet's training program on full scholorship and some living expenses. She played the principal role last year of Swanhilda in Coppelia. This Spring she performed as Giselle in Giselle and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker last winter. Her prospects look good as a professional ballerina.On October 29, we headed south with an unscheduled stop in Reno for minor diesel engine repair (althought the price wasn't minor!). An aclimation stop for a week in Bullhead City was made in conjuction with our RV/ex-cruising buddies Tom & Sue (X-Ta-Sea) being there also. Then it was on to Tucson again for more aclimation, see friends, and Molly's "Hen Fest" with Cathy, Bea, and Joann. We stored the RV with Cathy's, as she head off to Panama, and we headed for San Carlos, Mexico in the car with boat stuff.

12/10/05 Subject: Hola from La Paz

Wanted to let you all know we have arrived in La Paz. We left San Carlos on Thursday (12/1), I took the car on the ferry and Brent made the passage across on Albion. I couldn't imagine why I had to be there 3 hours before sailing time, but then I remembered, it's Mexico! It took a while just to get checked in. I had made my reservations with an English-speaking man and was informed the price for the car included the driver, but when I checked in, the non-English speaking agent seemed to want me to buy a ticket for myself also. My Spanish is limited, but "no" is the same in both languages. We went back and for a while and at one time I think he was trying to sell me a discounted senior citizen fare, but I stood my ground and finally he accepted the price I had originally been quoted. Two other Americans behind me had the same problem, but since I had prevailed, they weren't about to pay the extra either! The ferry is not a very big one and as we all waited we wondered how they intended to get us all on there....there was a semi with a huge load of logs that looked as if it would fill the whole thing up by itself. Finally, they started loading; we all had to back on. I was first and was lucky to have a good spot for the car....I had met a retired cop from San Diego and he ended up right next to the load of logs...he had asked earlier about staying in his vehicle for the trip....was told it would be much too dangerous especially with that load of logs! He worried all night about it, but we all made it fine. They advertise the ferry as being as comfortable as an airplane....probably because they have airline seating! Apparently before they leave the dock, the lights in the restroom don't work. At least it was small like on a plane so was hard to miss and make a mistake! All in all the trip worked out well....Brent had left the marina shortly after I left for the ferry, but I had a long wait until the ferry left, so he had a good head start....we both arrived in Santa Rosalia shortly after dawn. We jumped in the car and drove to La Paz (six hour drive). Tom and Sue, we will be interested to hear what you think of the drive down the Baja....don't know about the northern part, but the southern part, after you leave the coast, is a whole lot of nothing! We got to La Paz in time to arrange with the marina for a parking spot for the car. We found the bus depot and learned there would be a bus heading back in the morning at 7 AM. We found an inexpensive hotel in the same block (except for the fact that the hot water was just not as cold as the cold water, it was okay), we had a quick dinner and went to bed. We had no alarm clock, but managed to wake up about 6:30 and got to the bus in time. We were back to the boat by 3 PM that afternoon. Heavy winds were predicted for several days so we sat it out in Santa Rosalia. I managed to come down with some sort of bug....by Wednesday, the weather had improved and I thought I was feeling better so we left. The winds were down but the seas were still rocky and so was I, so we didn't go as far as planned that day (30mi, to Punto Chivato). Had a nice quiet anchorage and got a good rest that night. The next day was still rougher than we liked so didn't go as far that day either (55mi, to San Juanico). Finally on Friday, it was flat calm and little wind so we planned to make it a long day....I was still not feeling well so spent the entire passage in bed. Brent is a real trooper and since the weather was good, went all night to get us here (160 mi) Saturday morning! Actually we got here so early (still dark) we anchored in a little cove nearby for a few hours rest before we headed into the marina. It is good to be at the dock again and we both slept real good last night (12 hrs) so maybe I am on the mend finally. The check-in/check-out procedures are definitely changed. It's gone from one extreme to the other. Checking out in San Carlos was just a matter of filling out a slip of paper with the boat information on it, crew list and destination and leaving it with the marina. In Santa Rosalia, Brent filled out a similar paper upon arrival and departure. Here in La Paz we just wrote the info in the marina's log book. What a change. Wonder how long it will last? We have WiFi here on the docks and are enjoying being able to connect whenever and best of all, we don't have to pack up the computer and go somewhere just to check e-mails. Brent's priority upon arrival was to get the satellite set up for the TV....and just in time for me to enjoy football today and the Survivor final tonight! We are looking forward to exploring La Paz and the surrounding areas. Hope you will all be enjoying a happy holiday season and staying warm wherever you are. So far, it's pretty comfortable here and not as cold as other cruisers have indicated it would be. Hope the weather holds! Take care.
Molly

12/22/05 Subject: Life in La Paz

I am still not up to par, so taking it pretty easy here in La Paz. There was a nice classical guitar concert last week just across the street from the marina and we also went to an "open mike" session at a local restaurant. A friend of ours was singing, so we went to listen to her. Other than that we have stayed pretty close to the boat and haven't ventured out to try any new restaurants. It is Christmas week and things get pretty crazy so it's best to just stay home. Maybe after Christmas, we may take a trip down to the Los Cabos airport to check it out so when Jeanette comes we don't get too confused. Bought a kilo of shrimp today....will probably be eating shrimp for the next three days! We had our satellite dish on the dock and were waiting for the marina to move us to a permanent slip to put it on a pile, but finally the marina decided we could stay where we were so we bought a mount and now we have it more stabilized on the pile....much better....don't lose the signal every time someone walks down the finger pier! But we were told Direct TV has changed their satellites and so we don't get all the channels we used to.....guess there is no reception change in the states, but here in Mexico (where we really aren't supposed to be getting reception anyway) we aren't getting the New York networks and a lot of the other stations....it's a bummer to have to stay up later to watch the LA networks (we're an hour later than their broadcast)....have started taping any late programs. We only get about a 70% signal strength, so some of channels we like to watch occasionally stop and studder, or are just on in the morning not in the evening.
Molly

1/2/06

I am finally beginning to feel like I may be getting better. We ventured out for dinner on New Years Eve. There's a very nice restaurant right around the corner from the marina. It is overlooking the bay and it was a very nice evening with no wind, so very enjoyable. We had a great dinner. We got back early and have to admit that we didn't stay up to ring in the new year....cruisers midnight seems to come around 9 pm! We drove to Cabo last week just to make sure we would know where the airport is when Jeanette comes. Cabo is bigger and more hectic than it was in 1999 when we came through on the boat! We had a difficult time finding Latitude 22 Road House restaurant for lunch since it burned down after we were here last. The drive along the coast was very pleasant. I did a small quilting project. Hated all the measuring and cutting, but was fun once I got to the sewing part. Think I have a lot to learn about it.
Molly

1/11/06

We started our Spanish class this week and at times it was a little overwhelming. It does feel a bit like having a job, as we have to be up early every day. Class starts at 8:30 and goes til 12:30. It is easier for me since I have had some Spanish classes in the past, but Brent is doing well and studying a lot more than me so it probably won't be long before he passes me up. We will meet Tom and Sue on Monday to get our mail. They will be on their way to Cabo and not stopping in LaPaz with their RV Caravan. We will drive to Todos Santos where they will be staying that night. They wanted us to spend the night with them, but we would hate to miss our class the next morning, so will have to pass on that. We will see more of them when they come back this way later. I am going to a ladies luncheon tomorrow after class. Apparently it used to be just a marina ladies thing, but many of them have sold their boats and now have homes here so it's a mixture of marina and town folks. I had heard of it on the net last month but didn't feel up to going and also didn't want to go alone. One of the ladies in the Spanish class told me about it so will go with her tomorrow. Guess this month it's at Applebee's...can you believe that....come to Mexico and eat at Applebee's!
Molly

2/8/06

We like LaPaz a lot....the weather is just about perfect...not too hot, a little cool at night, but the days are usually sunny and warm. We did have one day of rain a couple of weeks ago. We are planning a ferry trip to Mazatlan where we have more friends and it will be nice to see all of them again. We've had lots of boat projects lately. First the water heater started leaking again...explored getting it replaced. It's $875 not including freight from the east coast and who knows how long it might be in customs here. Carlos, from the shop here at the marina, took it and had a new heat exchanger portal made and rewelded; then after Brent got it back in, the gasket for the heat exchanger insert was leaking, but he was able to replace it without taking the whole thing out again. Of course just getting it out in the first place meant taking the stove out....and when the repair was finally complete, we had a leak in a propane line in the stove! Once again it was Carlos to the rescue. Brent took the copper tube to him and he was back that afternoon with a new one. In the meantime our four house batteries finally turned toes up and we had to replace them. We can't complain as the old ones were the ones we left Portland with in '99. Then we thought we had a leak in the drinking water pump but it seems to have healed itself, so we are just watching it for now. Today we are going to start cleaning and lubricating the winches....what fun! Other than all that, we finished the Spanish class....can't say we are anywhere near fluent for sure, but I think we learned more than we think we did. It was a good review for me, having had it in high school and a couple classes since then. Brent was frustrated most of time, but has worked very hard at it. He's much too studious and typed up his notes every night. Most of the rest of the class got to depending on him to pass those out the next day! We did go to dinner the other night and spoke Spanish through it all. Brent was even able to ask if it was alright that he had parked the car in front of the restaurant next door. She didn't speak English but understood exactly what he said because she went ouside and checked it out, came back and said it was ok where it was. And I learned that a glass of water is not the same as a glass of wine. A glass of water is "vaso" de agua and a glass of wine is "copa" de vino, or stemmed glass. After all that, we decided we needed some time off, so when another cruising couple needed a ride to the Cabo airport, we offered to give them a lift and took the opportunity to spend a few days with our friends Tom and Sue (ex-X-Ta-Sea) who are there in their RV. Had a good visit with them. They are making the most of their time here, spending over a month in the San Jose del Cabo area before heading north. They will be here sometime around the first of March. While we were there we checked out a few hotels so we could spend a day there with Jeanette before she flies back after her visit here in March. Cabo is about two and a half hours from here, so driving down the day of her flight would make a long day for her by the time she got back to Portland. And it will give her a chance to see the Cabo area. Yesterday we bought our tickets to go to Mazatlan next week. I am sure the night passage on the ferry will be better than any we have done on Albion. It's an eighteen hour trip, so we got a cabin for an extra $40....am sure it will be worth it! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there. Art and Rose (Summer Rose) are there this month staying in the same condo as Will and Joann (ex-Tica). We have a reservation there also. Joann and Will have already reserved the place for five months next year and Art is saying maybe they will do two months next year. I think they are enjoying it very much. There is a restaurant at the condo, so Will doesn't ever have to worry about getting something to eat if Joann is off somewhere! Joann also made an appointment with our dentist so we can get our teeth cleaned by someone we know and trust. There is a monthly ladies luncheon here that originally was mostly cruisers but now a lot of them have moved ashore, so it's a mixture of cruisers and landlubbers now. I went last month with one of the ladies from the Spanish class and plan to go again this Thursday to Los Magueyes restaurant. It does give me a chance to find out about some of the local restaurants and make some new friends. This activity has been going on for over ten years I guess.
Molly

2/11/06

Met some nice people in our Spanish class. We visited one couple today, Phil and Yvonne, where they are building their new house. Later we took them for a cruise on Albion We had a really great time. Another lady from the class, Leah, also is building in the same neighborhood so got to see her house also. Then we went to an open house at a new business nearby and ended up going for fish tacos with a group from the neighborhood. It was fun. We really haven't done much socializing here so it was a welcomed change. We also visited another couple from class, Mike and Laurie, camping out at Playa Tecolote in their 5th wheel, nice beach-front property.
Molly

2/24/06

We just got back from a week in Mazatlan seeing friends and all the new building going on around the marina. We stayed in a condo on the beach, but with the average age of most of the folks there and having a restaurant right there, it felt a lot like assisted living! But all in all a good place to stay. We had enough Sauvie Island Yacht Club members there in their boats and just visiting, to hold a meeting. We had pot luck snacks in Art and Rose's room and then all posed for a Yacht Club photo. We took the ferry over and back. It was great, only 16 hours....and the night watches were a piece of cake! The ferry was pretty basic, without any frills, but comfortable. We had a small inside cabina on the way over, so reserved an outside cabina on the way back with a forward facing window....much better! The meals, provided, were also basic....rice, beans, and chicken or shredded beef. Breakfast was potatoes, beans, and eggs or shredded beef. Good enough so that we didn't starve! Met some nice people on the way over and back, a Mexican couple from Mexico City and a couple from Colorado who were renovating a house in Mazatlan. We later bought return ferry tickets and reserved our old cabina for them since they couldn't get them early and they were in Cabo for a wedding.
Brent

3/9/06

Jeanette, our daughter, came for a week long visit and just left. We were looking forward to it for months, and it seems a little depressing now that she's gone. We drove down to San Jose del Cabo to deliver the ferry tickets to Joe and Kerry Haska (the Colorado couple we met on the ferry). Even though we didn't get them our old cabin, we did throw a fit and got them a window cabin (they don't sell outside cabins on the way "to" Mazatlan, only "from" Mazatlan.....no reason....it's just Mexico!). Anyway, after we dropped the tickets off, we headed for the airport to get Jeanette. We got there a few minutes late and waited and waited and waited. I checked with the ticket counter and they said her flight had arrived and departed already. After about an hour, she finally walked through the turn-style. Apparently about 5 planes arrived at the same time and there was quite a line for the customs check-in. During her stay, we did a lot of exploring by driving out to Playa Tecolote, Playa Balandra, the mining town of San Juan de la Costa, snorkeling along a rock outcropping near there, and walking the beach of the Peninsula el Mogote (looking for Nuatilus shells). We also visited some of our friends in the area, went to a local youth musician concert at the Cio Molino restaurant across the street, shopped down town La Paz, toured the aquarium, toured the La Paz malecon monuments, and laid on the beach. Of course we had to take her to several of our favorite restaurants, so she probably ate more than normal. To work that off, she went jogging, walking, or did exercises every morning.We decided to take her to the airport a day early and spend the night in Cabo so it wouldn't be such a long day on her way home. San Jose del Cabo is 2.5 hours from La Paz. On the way, we stopped at the artist community of Totos Santos and browsed the shops. Then it was off to Cabo and fight the crowds from two cruise ships wondering around town. The place we stayed, Marbella Suites, was a very nice with a great view of Cabo's "land's end" and the anchored ships. Jeanette even got to lounge at the pool. The morning of her departure, we drove to San Jose and did some additional shopping along Blvd. Antonio Mijares. WE HAD A GREAT TIME!

Now it's time to get the boat ready for a fast trip back up the Baja and across the Sea to San Carlos for an April 12 scheduled haul-out.

Log 10: Mexico--Season 6--'04-'05

2005-04-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

Log 10 of Albion (and other travels)

These are e-mails and letters sent back to family and friends from our travels to and in Mexico for the fifth cruising season and sixth season in Mexico, 2004 - 2005. This log starts out with a summary of the summer and includes some "other travels" within Mexico.

2004 Summer Summary

We are headed back to Mexico, so thought I would write a summer summary for this Log. As we closed Log 9 last year, we were putting Albion away for the hot summer in Mazatlan and going to leave her in-water for the first time since the summer of 2000. Another Portland Cruising friend (Tom of X-Ta-Sea) and I made a yacht delivery from Mazatlan to Ensenada, Mexico on a 58' power boat. Other that loosing the auto-pilot about three hours out and having to hand steer the entire 900 miles, and spending two days in Magdalena Bay for weather, the trip was fine. After flying to Tucson and picking Molly up, we drove the car back to Mazatlan and put the final touches to Albion. After getting the new RV out of storage at the Tucson Elks, we drove to Thousand Oaks for the purpose of watching our granddaughter's starring performance in the ballet "Coppelia". It was a wonderful performance and we were very impressed with the professionalism of our 16-year-old ballerina. We have showed the DVD to friends and family many times. This was all happening the same weekend our daughter was in the process of moving...a trying time for her.The only downside of the Thousand Oaks trip, was that I contracted "Valley Fever". I had never heard of it and it wasn't diagnosed for several months after we got back to Portland. But apparently it's fairly common in the Southwest states and a fungus in the soil causes it.Once back home, we checked in with family and friends, and was lucky enough to see my dad a couple more times before he died in early June at the age of nearly 93. We didn't do much RVing this summer due to the fuel prices. We made one week long trip to the coast to watch our friends Bud and Lisa fly their competition kites in Seaside, and we spent another week in Redmond at an FMCA RV rally. The RV rally was attended by several of our cruising/RV friends so we had a great time after the seminars and entertainment shows.In July, we teamed up again with Dan & Cathy (Perceptions) in Portland, just in time for Dan and I to make another yacht delivery of a 76' power boat from Ensenada, Mexico to Vancouver, B.C. (I used a photo of it on my Northwest Yacht Delivery introduction page). It was a great trip except for a blowing gale off Point Conception, CA, and a fuel spill in Newport, OR. What made the trip really great was the resident engineer/cook that came with the vessel. What a way to travel!In October, Molly flew to L.A. for a week to have a "hen party" (as Dan called it) with three other cruising women (Cathy-Perceptions, Joann-Tica, and Bea-Seadater). They had a great time shopping, reminiscing, playing cards, and ...oh yeah, shopping. This year, we stayed in the Northwest a little longer than normal to vote. What a frustrating, unbelievable, disappointment!!! We left the country shortly after the results.

11/12/04 Subject: Back in Mexico!

Just wanted to let you all know we are back in Mexico for the winter...had no problems with the trip down and found Albion in good shape....but very dirty with lots of summer Mazatlan dust and grime. Of course we both have our priorities....Molly first wants to know that the head (i.e. toilet for you landlubbers) is working, next she is concerned that the refrigeration will function properly and then she wants hot water.....Brent is more concerned with the engine and the rigging....happy to report we are both satisfied that everything seems to be working fine. It is hot and humid here....the first time we drove into town for dinner, we had to have the windshield wipers going because there was so much moisture in the air! We thought by now it would have cooled a bit down here, but guess we are still too early. As warm as it is, we are glad to be here rather than some of colder climates we encountered on the way down. The motor home decided to act up a bit and we spent three nights in Burely Idaho at 32 degrees....brrr!It is election time here in Mexico and what a difference from the states. Down here, you'd never know there was a opponent, distinguished, heinous or otherwise. The TV ads and campaign literature dwell mostly on how much the candidate loves his family, his home, his children, the land he humbly grew up in, his parents, his wife, her family, your family and everybody's family in general. Policies and plans are vague, but no matter who wins, family love will rule. Another interesting twist is no alcoholic beverages are available anywhere during the entire weekend of the election. Here in Mexico, they take their hard won democracy seriously! We brought our satellite receiver from the RV down this year and bought a larger dish required for viewing US stations in Mexico. So now we will be able to keep up on the news, football, and our favorite shows.We plan to be here in Mazatlan until at least late January with a trip back to Portland in early December for Molly's ex-director's retirement party. Perhaps we will stay here for Carnival which is in early February this year. Then we will head across the Sea to La Paz and spend some time there, before working our way up the Baja side of the Sea and cross back over to San Carlos where we will leave the boat sometime in April. We are planning to house sit (actually dog sit) for some friends in Tucson in early May, then we will be back to Oregon hopefully about the time it stops raining for the summer. All for now from here....hope all is well with each of you. We love to hear from you and get our e-mail on a regular basis, so please keep in touch.
Brent & Molly

11/25/04 Subject: Happy Thanksgiving

Hoping you are enjoying a great day with lots of good things to eat. We are having dinner at the RV park with Tom and Sue and Will and Joann and their daughter Kristen and her boyfriend. [photo of dinner] We opted out of the marina festivities this year. We decided we had done that for several years and they keep raising the price until it is out of sight, $27 US this year, and that's mostly because they insist on doing fireworks, having a big dance band and having a priest come to do mass in the AM. They bill it as a traditional American Thanksgiving celebration. We try to tell them we don't do fireworks, dance, and go to mass on Thanksgiving, but they don't listen...oh well. We will have a good dinner with friends and enjoy that.There are lots of Portland folks here in Marina Mazatlan; Will and Joann (Tica), Art and Rose (Summer Rose), and Tom and Cathy (Awanhee) are all on the same dock. Pat and Susan (Perpetua) are here but staying in their RV at the park until they get their tri-hull back in shape. Tom and Sue (X-Ta-Sea) sold their boat last year but are also here in their RV in the same park as Pat and Susan. They both have VHF radios so we can call each other and they can listen to the morning net. Several other Portland Tomahawk Bay/Sauvie Island Y.C. boaters have arrived (Dream Chaser, Anthea, and Transendence), but we don't know them as well. The marina put in a high speed Internet DSL line, so e-mail has been a lot easier this year. Although Brent still goes into town to the mall where free WIFI is available and he can surf to his hearts content.We have satellite TV on the boat this year. We brought our Direct TV receiver down and acquired a larger dish from a fellow boater (needed for receiving the US signal here). I am enjoying having football on the weekends and Brent is keeping up on the news, although not much of it is good.El Cid had their annual Christmas bazaar which Molly and other cruising ladies attended. It was earlier than usual this year but still had a full crowd. There was one empty seat at our table and that was dedicated to Cathy (Perceptions) who was sailing south to Costa Rica this year. We went out to dinner the other night at a sports bar and they had the OSU/UO game on. It was great! There was a UO guy at the bar and he would yell whenever UO made a good play, and we would yell back whenever OSU made a good play. Eventually he came over and we exchanged pleasantries. We left before the game was over, but when we were well ahead. When we got to the boat, we looked up the channel it was on (FoxNW), and to our surprise, we got the signal and was able to watch the rest of the game here at the boat. We had a hell of storm shortly after we arrived in Mazatlan. We woke up in the middle of night to thunder and lightning very close! Everyone was up getting their electronics unplugged, then the wind blew and it rained really hard. It's like being back home on a stormy night, except we are still in shorts at 80 degrees. The rain lasted a couple of days and made everything very muddy. Things are back to normal now, but the bugs are still bad. I have almost gone through a half a tube of itch cream already and my legs look like a pincushion. The No-See-Ums and mosquitoes don't seem to go after Molly as much. The marina has put in new "security" locks on the gates. They are like hotel room cards, but the locks on our gate only worked for a couple of days. Now it's unlocked all the time. That's okay by us as the cards were a real pain, but we still have to have them in case we want to go to another dock. One weekend the local boy/girl scout troops had a camp out here at the marina. They had a raft construction contest for both small toy-like size and bigger ones that they actually raced. They had some of the marina folk judge them and I was one of the judges. Then the boys and girls raced them across the marina. They had a great time and it was good entertainment for us. We went to the Angela Peralta Theater the other night to hear the Sinoloa Symphony perform. It was a very enjoyable night. We had dinner at a little "hole in the wall" restaurant that Will and Joann knew of where the shrimp were great for only about $9 a dinner. So long for now. Happy Thanksgiving!
Molly

12/17/04 Subject: Back in Mexico, again!

Hi guys! Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. I thought I would try to keep in touch and let you know of our latest travels. We joined Tom and Sue Stose (and their dog, Arvey) for an inland trip to Durango in the state of Durango. Durango is about 200 miles inland, high in the Sierra Madre Mountains. The drive was a real e-ticket trip. It took us seven hours with many photo stops for the spectacular scenery! It is a very narrow, curvy, winding mountain road, called the "Devil's Backbone", and there are lots of trucks going both ways. It is not uncommon to come around a bend and find one heading right for you in your lane! Durango is a town probably about the size of Salem and certainly not a tourist destination. We spend four nights there and never once saw another gringo-looking person the entire time, and met very few that speak English. We found a nice hotel right in the center of town across the street from the main cathedral and town plaza. The location of our hotel made it very convenient to spend time just walking around town, seeing the sights. At one time, Durango was the filming location of many movies, over 200 were filmed there, mostly westerns, and most of those were John Wayne's. If he wasn't shooting a picture in Monument Valley, Utah, he was shooting one here. There are remnants of some of the sets and we visited three of them. One (the set of Fat Man and Little Boy) was almost completely destroyed, but the other two were western town sets that were in a little better shape. It was a great trip!We were back to the boat one day before our scheduled trip back to Portland for an early Christmas with our family and bid my former boss, Robin, a happy retirement. The association put on a gala celebration for her and I really enjoyed seeing a lot of folks I worked with for many years. It was pretty rewarding when they would ask, "Weren't you planning to go off sailing after retirement?" And Molly could answer "Yes, we ARE sailing, and we just flew back from our boat in Mazatlan for this event!" She was also recognized from the podium as one of the distinguished guests here tonight and asked to stand for applause. It was wet and rainy in Portland and makes us appreciate the warmer (albeit humid) weather we have here. The day we returned to Mazatlan, the marina had arranged a traditional Mexican Christmas celebration here. First, one of the local schools presented a play based on the Christmas story. They were terrific. Then we all took part in the Posada, depicting Mary and Joseph's trials trying to find room at the inn. Then it was time for piñatas, one for the children and one for the adults. After all that, we had a meal of tamales, beans, and a Christmas punch, traditionally served in Mexican households for Christmas. Last night we went to the Peralta Theater again, this time for the ballet Nutcracker. We were very impressed by the local performers. We first saw them five years ago and they have come a long way in that time. Last night's performance was truly spectacular. I paid close attention as our granddaughter, Brianna, had danced the Sugarplum Fairy role in her company's production in Thousand Oaks. I will look forward to getting the DVD of that performance. We found a great new restaurant, run by a Canadian woman named Heather, with great home-cooking style meals. We ate there last night. The specials were chicken potpie or pot roast, and they were both great and the lemon meringue pie is to die for. It made us forget we were in Mexico. Each night they have different specials and Brent is ready to go back on Wednesday for the meat loaf!The movies are half price on Wednesday and Sundays. The cost is less than $2 those days and the movies are first run in English with Spanish subtitles. On Wednesdays the cruisers are usually the only ones there and often only two or three of us in the whole theater. And the theater is a brand new multi-plex, as nice as any in the states.We are taking our time doing little jobs on the boat here and there. We have plenty of time before we plan to move on across the Sea to La Paz sometime in February. We are having new canvas done for the dodger and bimini. We brought all the materials down from the states and having the work done here. However, several of the zippers I brought were 4 inches too short. To buy them here would cost about $30 each! Ouch! But Pedro, the upholstery man, is going to the states in January and will get the ones he needs for a lot less. Guess that about brings you up to date on our activities. We hope you are all having a great time and will be with family or friends for the holidays. Enjoy.
Molly

1/1/05 Subject: Happy New Year 2005

OK, I will admit that I'm moving a little slow today. Last night was our New Years Eve party at Chili's Pepper. The food was good and the bar was "open". After dinner, dancing, and the fireworks, we headed back to the boat.On Christmas eve day, I climbed the highest operating lighthouse in the world, 515 ft., at the entrance to the main Mazatlan harbor (the only lighthouse that's higher is Gibraltar, but it is abandoned). It takes about a half-hour to hike to the top and the view is breathtaking. From the top you have a great view of Old Mazatlan, the entire harbor, Stone Island, northward along the peninsula, and, of course, the beautiful Pacific Ocean. Our last trip of the year was December 30 to Teacapan. Ten of us took three cars on the 90-mile drive down the coast to a small pueblo located on a large estuary. It is noted for it's birding and the tour books said that they are considering making the area into a bird sanctuary. We made a brief stop at another small town, Rosario, to view their old church and watch as a double funeral was in progress. At Teacapan, Wil (Tica) contacted the Port Captain to see if we could take a panga ride into the estuary and made arrangements with a local guide. But first, we had lunch in a very modest restaurant. They had great chocolate marble cake, however, that we all had to try. We were made aware of the restaurant and their cakes from a friendly Canadian on the beach while Wil was trying to make tour arrangements.The panga tour was great. We all climbed into the boat and headed up the estuary. The guide didn't speak any English or point out any birds, so I had to tell everybody what we were seeing and why it was the bird we were seeing and not another one. They seemed to enjoy the bird identification instructions. The trip lasted about two hours, and then we all headed back to Mazatlan on our own schedule. Wil and Joann and us stopped at Heather's Restaurant again and had dinner to top off a perfect day.That's it for 2004. We'll be updating later when we decide to leave Mazatlan.
Brent

April 1, 2005 Subject: Mazatlan to San Carlos Summaries

3/5 (Saturday): Mazatlan - Bahia de los Muertos (220 miles)

Finally, we left Mazatlan after four months tied to a dock and enjoying the trips and entertainment Mazatlan has to offer. It was difficult saying "so long" to close friends that we may or may not see again, but we wanted to get Albion north to San Carlos and dry storage for the hot Mexican summer. The passage for the most part was very nice. The stars during the dark of the moon night passage were glorious. You could recognize the constellations very easily by looking in the water. By mid-afternoon on the second day, we realized the computer clock was incorrect and we would not be getting into the La Paz area until well after dark. We therefore, decided to head for Bahia de los Muertos and anchor there by late afternoon and go on into La Paz the next day. The anchorage was rolly and during the night, a strong wind switched 180 degrees putting a dangerous rocky-lee shore behind us. Brent was not happy with the anchor set that we had made and decided to sleep in the cockpit to keep an eye on things. We never moved!

3/7 (Monday): B. Muertos - La Paz (43 mi)

We weighed anchor at 0630, first light, and headed North up San Lorenzo channel. It has a bad reputation for strong winds from the North, so we wanted to hit it early. The channel and the rest of the trip into La Paz was a beautiful, calm, sunny motor-sail. We got into Marina de La Paz at 3:15 pm and checked in. The next week was spent exploring La Paz. We had never stopped there before except to refuel, so it was exciting to see a new port. One day we rented a car just to drive around the city and get a feel where things were. The marina is very new, since it was destroyed during Hurricane Marty two years ago. There is a restaurant at the dock, marine stores very close, and free WIFI on the dock….email from you boat!!! We took some good friends that we hadn't seen in several years, and live on their boat there, to dinner one night to a restaurant a taxi friend of their's suggested. It was off the beaten path, a real find. It was difficult to leave such a fine marina and city, but a possible plan is to make this our home for the majority of next winter's cruising season.

3/14 (Monday): La Paz - El Cardoncita, Isla Partida (24 mi)

After breakfast and refueling, we checked out of La Paz and headed north. Although we did sail for about 2 hours, it was basically a motor-sail day and we anchored for the night in El Cardoncita on Isla Partida. Brent jumped in the water to clean the bottom and check the anchor. In the late afternoon a group of kayakers camped on the beach. This is a beautiful little anchorage with good protection from the north, south, and east, open only to the west. Of course shortly after sunset, a howling westerly blew up and made for a miserable night and with less than 10 feet of water under us.

3/15 (Tuesday): Isla Partida - Isla San Francisco (19 mi)

In the morning the wind had died some, but was still blowing from the west. Once out of the anchorage we headed for the anchorage at San Everesto. Finally the wind died to nothing and we motored along for a while until it switched around from the north. We decided to put up the sails and head instead to Isla San Francisco. It was a beat to weather the last few miles but once inside the anchorage it was calm and protected. We were only the second boat in the anchorage and managed to secure a safe spot in the protected northern area. We were entertained the rest of the afternoon with some interesting anchoring drills. By evening there were ten boats in the anchorage. It was a very comfortable night in flat calm water.

3/16 (Wednesday): Is. San Francisco - Puerto Gato (34 mi)

We rose early and were underway shortly after dawn. The winds had died during the night, but left a heavy sea swell. It wasn't too uncomfortable so we headed for Puerto Gato. About an hour from our anchorage there, the wind filled in from the north again, so the last few miles were again a beat to weather, but not nearly as strong as the previous day. Steve on Seascape, a cruiser Brent had talked with in Isla San Franciso, had left much earlier than us and was already anchored there along with another sailboat. There was a group camped onshore that appeared to be perhaps one of the Eco-Tours that are now so popular in the area. The sea swell refracted a bit into the anchorage making it pretty rocky-and-rolly at times. In the afternoon, a cruise ship anchored nearby and put ashore a large group of kayakers. Brent discovered a leak in a fitting to the hot water heater so our afternoon was spent head-down-butt-up repairing that. Seems like they always put those things in a place that was ever intended to be worked on. Sometime after dark the cruise ship reloaded their passengers and departed.

3/17 (Thursday): Puerto Gato - Puerto Escondido (40 mi)

Again, by the time we were up at dawn, Steve was long gone. We were planning a short day to Agua Verde, but the weather was so good we decided to take advantage of the calm seas and put on some miles. We thought we would head for Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante. Steve was ahead of us and radioed that the depth did not look good there and he was continuing on to Puerto Ballandra on Carmen Island. Shortly, we heard other cruisers talking about a lot of bo-bos , or nay-nays, there (small flies that are a real nuisance). That was all it took for Brent to head anyplace else. After considering several options, we went into Puerto Escondido and anchored outside the inner harbor. It was flat calm providing a very peaceful good nights sleep.

3/18 (Friday): Puerto Escondido - Punta San Antonio (49 mi)

We were away again at dawn heading for San Juanico. The seas were flat and no wind, affording another day for putting on some miles. This is the first time we traveled up the shoreline along here, so we got a good look at Loreto. There was an Alaskan Airlines jet sitting on the runway of the airport. Steve reported that he was making good time and was going to go on to Punta Pulpito, a good anchorage for the northers. That sounded good to us as that would put us a few miles further ahead for tomorrow. At the same time, we were contacted by radio by Linda on Frankie L. They were in Marina Real in San Carlos on the other side of the Sea and were picking us up loud and clear that far away. Later in the day we also talked to Sue Stose in her RV in San Carlos. We were amazed to make such good contact over 100 miles across the Sea. The winds were starting to fill in from the south and Steve reported the anchorage at Pulpito was getting very uncomfortable and looking poor for the evening. We both decided to see if there might be better anchorage one mile north on the other side of the next point. We anchored at Punta San Antonio. Don on Summer Passage, the Amigo Net weatherman, reports that by Sunday we will be experiencing some "honkin' northers" so we are anxious to get into Bahia Concepcion and sit it out until we get a good weather window for crossing to San Carlos.

3/19 (Saturday): Punta San Antonio - Playa Santispac, Bahia Concepcion (45 mi)

The winds blew strong from the south most of the night, but the seas were fairly flat in the anchorage. About 2 am the winds stopped and we got a few hours sleep in a calm anchorage. We arose at 4 am to make an early passage, hoping to get into Bahia Concepcion before the afternoon winds kicked in. We had a very flat calm passage all the way and were rounding Punta Concepcion about 10 am. Brent had experienced some vertigo and dizzy spells when he got up from a nap, and was very happy to have Steve ahead of us to follow down the shoal bay and into Playa Santispac. There were lots of annoying bobo's when we arrived, but they seemed to go away after we were anchored. The wind blew out of the south most of the day and we considered moving to another anchorage. However, this one seemed best suited for the northern winds which were predicted to blow up the next few days.

3/20 (Sunday): Playa Santispac, Bahia Concepcion

We launched the dingy and went exploring around the bay. There are several anchorages to be tried in the future. We went ashore for lunch and met Pat and Susan, aboard Arrabella, and Steve at Anna's Restaurant. Had a great meal there. Learned that we will have to come back another time for coconut shrimp at Ray's, down the beach. He closes during the Semana Santos week. So next year maybe.

3/21 (Monday): Playa Santispac, Bahia Concepcion

The way into Mulege, about 15 miles north, is by hitching a ride with anyone going that way. We walked up to the road and waited while many cars came and went; most were headed south. One had room for only one rider so we told Steve to take it and we would meet him in town, hopefully! There was a group of college freshmen from Colorado who were also looking for a ride into town. They had come by bus and were hitchhiking their way along the Baja beaches. We finally got a ride into town but Steve was nowhere around when we arrived. We toured town a bit and found an internet café and there Steve found us. After we both completed our communications we saw a little more of town and asked a local taxi driver for a good place to eat. He directed us to a local restaurant where we enjoyed a great shrimp lunch. We hired a taxi for the trip back to Playa Santispac. The winds had filled in from the north, but we seemed safe and secure in the anchorage. We had heard many stories of anchors dragging here, but never had a problem while we were there.

3/22 (Tuesday): Playa Santispac, Bahia Concepcion

Don, on Summer Passage, was predicting a short weather window for Wednesday so we started making preparations to leave about mid-day tomorrow. We went ashore for Brent to hike up the road and take some pictures of the area and then met Steve once again at Anna's for lunch. Again, the shrimp dishes were wonderful!

3/23 (Wednesday): Playa Santispac - San Carlos (81 mi)

It was hard waiting until mid-day to leave. It was nice and calm and we wanted to take advantage of the friendly waters before the afternoon winds might kick in. By leaving mid-day, we would still be getting into San Carlos during the night, but the full moon should give sufficient light to get into the harbor anchorage alright. Near the mouth of the bay, the winds were fairly strong from the south, but eased as we got further from shore. We talked with Rick on Glaoch Ne Mara in Santa Rosilia. He was expecting Frankie L to be arriving sometime later that day from San Carlos (actually, they had headed out but turned back because of rough seas). We had fairly calm seas most of the day and were hoping that would last into the night. 'Twas not to be. The evening weather update on the Southbound Net sounded like we could expect some building winds on the mainland side. The winds did pick up from the north and a heavy swell on our beam made the last 25 miles or so, most uncomfortable. It was early morning when we arrived at San Carlos, but the moonlight was bright and we eased our way into the crowded anchorage to find an empty buoy and were safely tied up by 4 am.

3/24 (Thursday) San Carlos

About 7 am we turned loose of the buoy and made our way into the marina to find an available slip. We found one on B dock and attempted to check in with the marina office, but found they had closed for Semana Santos (Easter weekend) until Sunday. We check in on Sunday and were granted the slip until we hauled out to dry storage. Now started the work of cleaning, preparing, and storing everything we had been using for the last five months. Next we will be riding back down to Mazatlan with Horst & Bea, as they head down to check on Seadater, to get our car, drive it back to San Carlos, load it up with stuff to take back to the RV, cross the border, get the RV out of storage and move in. Sounds easy, huh? All this takes about two weeks! Then the other side of our adventures begin.

Log 9: Mexico--Season 5--'03-'04

2004-03-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

Log 9 of Albion (and other travels)

These are e-mails and letters sent back to family and friends from our travels to and in Mexico for the fifth season, 2003-2004, after missing a season of cruising during our RV trip across the nation and only working on Albion in San Carlos.

Oct. 15, 2003 Subject: Tucson, AZ

We are about to cross the border this Friday (Oct 17). We stopped in Las Vegas for a week and saw a show and some movies and just got used to moving again. Then it was on to Tucson, have the RV serviced, and get some last minute supplies. This summer we went looking for new awnings and bought a new (to us) RV. It is a 1999 Tradewinds 37' diesel by National, with one slide out. It drives wonderful! We also had to get a new car, a 2001 Toyota Rav4, after an accident that "totaled" our old Mitsubishi. So we are now set for some long range summer road travel.Since we re-instated our Elks dues, we stayed at Elks lodges on the way down (Provo, UT and North Las Vegas) and here in Tucson at the Tucson Elks......about the cheapest place in Tucson! In fact, we plan to store the RV here for six months when we are in Mexico since they have plenty of room and there is a camp host right next to the storage area to keep an eye on it. It is only $30/month, and that is the same price we stored it last time, but 20 miles out of town. Some other friends from Portland are also here and going to store theirs too. So far our only hard schedule is: - Oct 17th: Leave this Friday for San Carlos and start getting the boat ready for sailing. We have an insurance-required survey scheduled Oct. 27th. - Nov. 20th: Reservations at Marina Mazatlan. The marina has a big American Thanksgiving Fiesta Dinner there for the cruisers. - Dec. 16th: Reservations at Paradise Village Marina & Resort, Nuevo Vallarta. We will be there for Christmas unless we find some reasonable airline tickets home for the holidays. - April 16th: Have to leave Mexico by this date because of our 6 month visa. We will probably be storeing our boat on the hard in San Carlos again because of the safety factor (although it didn't help this year!!!). - Therefore, we will probably aim at being back in Oregon near the first of June again......if the rain has eased up by then!! Will keep in touch!
Brent & Molly

11/10/03 Subject: San Carlos

We are still in San Carlos....many little things on the boat needing attention but we are hoping to sail on Thursday for Mazatlan.Weather has cooled a bit and it is comfortable during the day...much nicer for boat projects. Brent has been working hard....had several leaks in the sewer hose he installed last spring....funny you never know about those leaks in the yard! Water tanks have lots of gummy gunk that keeps fouling the filter....the battery charger went out....bought a used older one to replace until we can get the other one serviced....racor filter leaking...bought a new one here, but the fittings are different sizes.....if it's not one thing it's another....new (used) battery charger quit working, but found it was just the ground wire had come off.....that's the first thing that seemed simple! You know they say cruising is working on your boat in exotic places, except San Carlos has never seemed all that exotic to me!Looking forward to getting on our way again...the weather reports are good and we are planning to take about five days down the mainland side weather permitting and if the anchorage's look okay....in the past we have gone straight away in about three days. Would like to avoid the over-nighter if possible....in cruising there's the saying "It's not the destination, it's the journey." Well for me anyway.....it's the destination!Have weather reports now and then and it looks cold and wet most of the time in the northwest....it made it a bit easier to take the hot humid days we were having here, but like I said, it has cooled a bit now. The evenings are cool and we need a comforter at night where before we were sleeping naked on top of the sheets. Went to a beach party the other night and jeans and sweatshirts were in order. All for now from here....hope you are keeping warm and dry. Keep in touch.
Molly

11/21/03 Subject: In Mazatlan

11-18: Arrived in Mazatlan yesterday afternoon....left San Carlos on the 13th...the first half of the trip was rough and I was ready to give it up...had planned to stop at several possible anchorage's along the way, but the first was not a good anchorage, the next we would have arrived in the middle of the night and we don't go into unknown anchorage's after dark, so we just had to keep going....the seas were rough, but the boat did well...I didn't. Finally the next day about noon we reached our third possible anchorage and it was good...we were there along with about twenty shrimp boats....they only come in and anchor when it gets too rough so if it's too rough for them, it was surely too rough for us! It was fairly calm there and we had a chance to catch our breath and get some rest. Also had to work on the refrigeration pump as it had quit working. Got it going again and spent that night, the next day, and next night, there until the seas had calmed down.....then we continued on. The seas were flat and calm now and except for a lightening storm that night and a heat exchanger end plate coming apart, the rest of the trip was a piece of cake. We are here now along with several other Portland cruisers and it is like old home week. It is hot here, but I guess we will adjust. Will write more later, just wanted to let you know we arrived here okay. We can receive e-mail on our computer here at the marina, but have not been able to send from the computer here...have to go to internet cafe to do that.
Love Molly

11/26/03 Subject: Happy Thanksgiving!

We will have a not so traditional celebration here in Mazatlan. They will have a priest come to do mass in the morning then do a blessing of the fleet (we can use all the help we can get!). Then it is fun and games, dingy races, dominos and such, before dinner in the afternoon....they say we will have real turkey and even cranberry sauce instead of strawberry jam this year! The marina has arranged for an orchestra for entertainment after dinner...they say it is the most popular orchestra in all the state.. we'll see how the gringos like it. In the evening there will be fireworks....no matter what the holiday, Mexicans have to have fireworks! It's still very warm here, but becoming more tolerable. Brent is getting a lot of boat projects completed. We have been into town several times looking for boat parts and such. There are some new additions since we were here last, including a Walmart. Next week we have tickets to a concert at the theater in town....a very popular classical guitarist that we heard a couple years ago in Puerto Vallarta...we are looking forward to that. If all goes well we should be here a couple more weeks and then be heading to Puerto Vallarta for a while. Of course it is even warmer there, so I am in no hurry to head further south.
Brent and Molly

12/20/03 Subject: Paradise Village, Nuevo Vallarta

Ola again from Mexico and Feliz Navidad. This time from Puerto Vallarta. We arrived here on December 16th after a two day trip straight down the 200 miles from Mazatlan. We anchored at a neighboring bay the day we got here because it was a little too late to come into Paradise Village Marina. It is crowded here and we were put on the furthest slips up the estuary from the resort.......we always joke that we are in the next state and need a passport to get from here to the resort. It is about a 15 minute brisk walk down to the pool. We have put our name on the list to be moved down the bay, and were just notified to move from E-58 to E-40!!!!! Big deal! We moved, but are still going to try to get down to A, B, or C dock. Up here it is noisy (we were right under the main bridge into the resort) and there are more bugs up here. Oh well, I guess we are still in Paradise!! Albion must have enjoyed the attention in Mazatlan, because the trip to Puerto Vallarta was a breeze, everything worked fine. We are planning a laid back Christmas here with a few friends, and maybe a trip back home after the holidays if we can find a reasonable flight. Until then, it's a tropical Christmas season for us again, soaking up the sun by the pool, and testing the fine places to eat here. In March we plan to head north again to Mazatlan, get some dental work done, then over to the Baja, and eventually back to San Carlos where we start all over again. Merry Christmas to all, hope it is a wonderful time for everyone.
Brent

1/1/04 Subject: Christmas & New Years

We had a good Christmas and New Years. On Christmas Eve we had dinner on another boat with two other couples...we had a spiral cut ham with all the trimmings....it was a nice evening. The next day we went with the same friends to La Cruz, a small town north of here, to a popular cruiser gathering spot....the restaurant provided turkeys, dressing, and potatoes, and the rest was pot luck....there were about 120 fellow cruisers there. It was a great afternoon. Hardly seemed like it was Christmas, however, as it was warm and sunny all the time. We spent New Years with the same two couples and started with wine and snacks on one of the boats, then we went to dinner at a new restaurant that is near here....just a dinghy ride up the estuary....it was great...Molly & I split a dinner of lobster, shrimp & steak for $17....we returned to the other boat for dessert and after dinner drinks before walking out to the beach to watch the fireworks at midnight....it was warm and muggy even at midnight! Perhaps you will feel better about all that cold weather you had there in Oregon when you learn it's been raining here. We've had thunder and lightning and lots and lots of rain....I do feel sorry for the tourists who only have a week here....they will no doubt be heading home without tans! Haven't been doing much of anything....not even any pool time recently. Weather is supposed to clear up by the weekend. Finally we got a slip on D dock near the ramp and yacht club and a few days later Perceptions got a slip on C dock. The yacht club has good internet access....actually Brent just got a wireless card that he can use there.....we just hope it works as well when we are back in the states. The showers there are better than the ones at the end of E dock also. So we are happy here and don't plan to move any more even though Dick, the harbormaster, did say he had some openings on A dock. Lately we have been going out to eat quite a bit to celebrate birthdays with our good friends Dan & Cathy on Perceptions and Barb & Monte on Reprise. Cathy had a birthday 1/12 so she made reservations at a restaurant in old town Puerto Vallarta that she heard would fix Beef Wellington if asked. They did, it was great, and they treated us like royalty when we arrived, with the owner making sure everything was to order and that we were being taken care of. Then on 1/19 it was Dan's birthday, so we headed over to Bucerias, another nearby town, and had monster shrimp and after dinner dessert coffee's at another restaurant that we like. Then it was my turn on 1/30 to choose where we go!!! With Molly's suggestion we went to a German restaurant that has a special all you can eat and drink Baverian Buffet in old town. There were 11 of us for that dinner including Portland cruisers on X-Ta-Sea and Glaoch Ne Mara.....sure is nice that our friends on Reprise have their van down here to hold us all and drive us around. Molly made a trip back to L.A. for a few days in late January. During all the rain, Perceptions left a port open just above their computer and it got fried. Cathy tried to get one here, but it either had a Spanish keyboard, or an external battery (very unusual), or the cost was outrageously expensive. She said she could probably fly back to the US and still get one cheaper. Molly spoke right up and said she had a $50 companion fare and would be happy to go and keep her company if she wanted.......so off they went! She also carried a list from Dan and I for needed boat items, and also got to see Lynda and the grandkids while there which made it nice for her. So Dan & I batched it for a few days. When they returned, we had more boat projects as a result of the acquired parts.
Brent

3/17/04 Subject: Putting Albion away in Mazatlan

We spent two and a half months in Nuevo Vallarta at Paradise Village and for a change, didn't do anything on the boat. The days were spent playing cards, reading, and hanging out at the pool. Many times it was off to town for dinner with friends, and luckily we had some Portland friends, Monte & Barb on Reprise, that had a van. There were many dock parties and boat parties and meeting new friends that came and went. The hardest thing we did was watch very close friends Dan & Cathy (Perceptions) leave Paradise Village for points South on their way to Panama. We had a great Bon Voyage party to send them off, but it was difficult. We have been keeping in contact with them via SSB radio, but it's not the same as heading down to their boat for a game of cards or kicking back with a beer. We will miss them, but the planned reunion this summer back in the Northwest at the Cathlamet Mexican Cruiser's potluck, will be something to really look forward to. The 200 mile trip up to Mazatlan was done in one leg in 28.5 hours. That's almost a record. The sea was so flat that it almost looked oily. Sea Turtles were everywhere looking much like stones in the road.....in fact we hit one square on the bow. Whales too put on a show near Isla Isabela, and the schools of rays when nearing Mazatlan where very impressive jumping and finning the water. We made the trip with Tica (Will and Brian...from Exodus). Joann and Laury (their wives) made the trip up on the bus. Boy did they miss a fast, flat, trip. Tica had been having over-heating problems for some time, and finally got it fixed so he kept increasing the speed to see if it would heat up. Consequently to keep him on the radar screen, I had to speed up as well, faster than my normal cruising speed. We averaged 7.0 knots, where it would normally be about 6 to 6.5 knots. That may not seem a big difference, but to a motoring sailboater, that's a bunch (up to 5 hours)! Since we've been here in Mazatlan, we have been renewing old acquaintances, making decisions on what to do, and where to keep Albion for the summer and getting our dental work done. The original plan was to take her across the sea, up the inside of the Baja , and then cross again to San Carlos where we have dry-stored her the last several years. But because of a confirmed yacht delivery and a possible future delivery, we decided to make them first and keep the boat here in Mazatlan in-water, like the first year we were in Mexico. So I have been learning the 58' power boat that I will be delivering to Ensenada (900 miles) and starting on the list to put Albion away for the summer. I will be making the delivery during the last two weeks in March, then fly to Tucson where Molly will be waiting at friends Nada & Dorsey's house. Then we will drive our car back to Mazatlan and finalize the storage process and bring some boat stuff back to the states in the car. That is if the other sailboat delivery doesn't materialize from Puerto Vallarta to Ensenada. We then will get the RV out of storage in Tucson and head to Thousand Oaks, CA. in late May for granddaughter Brianna's ballet performance. So this season has not seen the traveling of past years. After the initial maintenance work on Albion during the first two months, we have been taking it pretty easy, just relaxing like retired couples are supposed to do!

Log 8: USA-RV/Copper Canyon--'02-'03

2003-03-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

Log 8 of Albion (and other travels)

This season, 2002-2003, we decided to forgo cruising Mexico and take an extended trip in the RV across the USA. From Oregon we traveled to Maine, down to Florida, took a cruise of the Western Caribbean, then drove back across the southern states to Tucson. Then we decided to drive the RV down to the boat in San Carlos and do some needed maintenance. The following are the emails sent back to family and friends about our travels.

9/8/02: On the Road Again

We are "on the road again" in the RV heading across the USA. We left Portland on August 31. We had a very busy summer around the Northwest, but didn't get by to see everybody as planned and for that, we apologize. This year, rather than heading back to Albion in Mexico, we are going to "see the USA". Our current location is Winton, Minnesota (far Northeast corner) visiting fellow cruisers Will and Joann Gallant of Tica. We came across on the northern route from Hood River to Coeur d'Alene, ID (320 mile day), Bozeman, MT (381 mile day), Miles City, MT (295 mile day), Jamestown, ND (375 mile day), Garrison, MN (282 mile day) and then to Winton (200 miles). It was a relatively quick trip, but we did have time to stop and tour the Lewis and Clark Caverns near Butte and Pompey's Pillar N.M. near Billings. The rest of the trip will be across to New England and down the East Coast, seeing the regular tourist attractions and the Civil War Monuments, to Florida where we will be taking a cruise of the Western Caribbean on our 28th anniversary in November. Then our loose plans will take us back across the Southern States to Tucson and down to Albion in San Carlos by January or February. There we will work on the boat for about a month and spend some time in the Sea of Cortez before heading back to the Northwest in May or June. Just before leaving, we had to purchase a new phone. Technology is great, but as far as our uses are concerned, it just took a giant step backward until sometime in the near future. We used to connect our old cell phone to the computer to send and receive e-mail almost daily. Now we will be e-mail challenged until technology catches up. Therefore, we will be checking e-mail only in city libraries or in RV parks that have modem/phone hookups. So if we don't answer your e-mail right away, have patience, we will get to it on an irregular basis. And in some places, like Winton, we don't even get an AT&T signal, so we can't even make or receive calls......we need patience too!

12/14/02: New Orleans for the Holidays

The last time we let everybody know where we were, we were in Minnesota visiting cruising friends on our way across the country back in September. We are presently in New Orleans and looking forward to the holidays. I will try to make this update brief, but let you know what we've been up to. After visiting cruising friends Will and Joann in Minnesota we traveled on to Niagara Falls, but stopped to see the Shipwreck Museum and Soo Locks in Michigan. Also in Michigan, we got another new phone. The new one we got in Oregon just before leaving did not get a signal after we left. Molly's cheapo phone did, so we got another one just like her's with our old phone number. Isn't the latest technology great *&^%$. We moved on to the Boston area where we learned a lot about the American Revolution and it's characters by doing the Freedom Walk through town. We also saw the Cape Cod area and JFK's Museum in Hyannisport. Then went to a Seafood Festival at Gloucester where we had a clam appetizer and we both got horribly sick that night. Maine was beautiful, but we were just a little early for the fall colors. Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, however, was breathtaking. We had Maine lobster in Bar Harbor and enjoyed a drive down the coast. Our next big stop was in New York. A word of caution here.....if you have an RV, DO NOT drive on a "Parkway". They have low clearance. When we saw the 8'7" sign at the side of an overpass, we took the highest part of the overpass arch and somehow made it (our height is 11'10"). We were then waved and honked off the parkway by passing motorists and were off into some neighborhood where we didn't know which way to go to get to Long Beach and our RV park. New York by train and tour bus, however, was just wonderful. We saw all the sights and loved it. We were then off to Philadelphia, and Gettysburg where we became more familiar with the Civil War and it's battles, including Antietam, Maryland, the bloodiest one day battle in the War. Fredericksburg Virginia was the next major stop. From there we did a lot of driving around the state seeing Montpelier (Madison's home), Monticello (Jefferson's home), Shenandoah N.P. in the Blue Ridge Mtns, Baltimore, Annapolis, and Washington DC. We were also in Fredericksbury when the DC snipers were active and VERY nearby. As soon as we got our mail from home, we headed south. We stopped at Kitty Hawk and the Wright brothers monument, drove down to Cape Hatteras, and did several Civil War and Revolutionary War forts on the way south to the Orlando Florida area. We also took a tour of St Augustine FL, the oldest town in America. In the Orlando area, we spent a day at Cypress Gardens and drove over to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. Then it was on to Miami to pack and get ready for our 28th anniversary cruise of the Western Caribbean (Grand Cayman Is., Roatan Is. Honduras, Belize City Belize, and Cozumel Mexico). It was a great cruise with plenty to keep us busy, but relaxing too. We were lucky enough to get back before all the virus' started infecting the cruise ships. After getting back, we headed down to Key West to visit some cruising friends from Portland, still living on their boat there. Key West was wonderful, wished we could have spent more time there, although we did have our "cheeseburger in paradise" at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. Then it was on to the Everglades N.P. and Naples FL. Naples is a real nice area on the Florida's west coast. In the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, we visited some more recently retired friends from the Portland area that I used to coordinate with. It was good seeing old friends and have them show you around their area. In Pensacola, we visited the Naval Air Museum. Wow....it's a must if you are in the neighborhood. In Biloxi, we went to a "Christmas On Ice" show at one of the casinos. We were going to head to Memphis, TN and Branson, MO, but it was getting cold and it started snowing up there. So we decided to throw out the anchor in New Orleans for the month of December and enjoy the holidays here. We have a Christmas Eve paddlewheeler cruise planned up the Mississippi to watch the levee bonfires, a real tradition here. We also have a city and cemetery tour planned and just a lot of driving around to learn the area and see some of the southern plantation mansions. It is still cool here with bouts of wind and rain coming through from the Gulf (Last night tornado warnings were up near the delta and winds gusts were up to 64 mph on Lake Pontchartrain). From here, we want to visit some classmates in the Houston area, and then on to a Blue Grass Festival in Bythe CA on Jan. 16-18 with some friends from Tucson. After that, I guess we have to get down to Albion in San Carlos Mexico and start some maintenance work. I hope that brings you up to date on our travels. It has just been great traveling the east coast and seeing these things for the first time. Sorry if this was too long for you, but it was difficult glossing over so much.
Brent & Molly, On the Road in New Orleans

1/28/02: Greetings from Mexico

Molly and I are now back in Mexico at San Carlos. The boat over-wintered just fine and we now have it in the work area for about a month or two of work. We are staying in an RV park rather than the boat work area, as planned, because it's a lot less dusty, less noisy, and much more shadier......and it has cable TV, internet connection, and swimming pool! We believe we can still receive messages on the cell phone, then call the caller back the next day when we check for messages. Haven't tried it here yet, but a test seemed to work. Our stay here will be short this year. Nada & Dorsey, our friends in Tucson, have asked us to house-sit (actually dog-sit in their house) while they take a Panama Canal Cruise for two weeks in late April. Therefore, we will not be putting the boat in the water this year and be back in the states (Arizona) in mid April and leaving there sometime in May. We are also planning some recreational travels during our stay down here this year too. We want to do the train trip up the Copper Canyon (a must do that we haven't yet), take a trip to a small colonial village called Alamos, drive down to a coastal village we visited last year in the boat called Altata, and drive down to Mazatlan to visit our other cruising friends that arrived much earlier than we did, and sailed away to the southern, tropical, cruising grounds. So it won't be all work and no play!!! The weather here is in the upper 70's and low 80's right now, a warm spell. But later this season, it should be getting warmer. If it gets too warm, we will just bag it and do the rest when we come back in October or November. Our work plan is: -re-varnish the entire inside of the cabins-replace all the sewer hoses-put in all new hatch screens (in the cabin top hatches) -install new drinking water hoses-install a built-in hot/cold shower in the cockpit and, -sand the entire bottom, for painting when we get back this fall.....and I'm sure we will find other things that need fixing along the way too. Just thought I would give you a quick report on our where-abouts. We will probably be back in the Portland area about late May or early June like last year. See you then!

Brent

March 12 - 18, 2003: Copper Canyon

After having breakfast in San Carlos, we headed south to El Fuerte about 7:30 am. We would be meeting three other couples driving up from Marina Mazatlan, Cathy and Dan on Perceptions, Horst and Bea on Seadater and Will and Joann on Tica. Cathy had made hotel reservations for us and, with the assistance of Sylvia at Marina Mazatlan, had secured some great group rates for us. Cost of the tolls from San Carlos to Los Mochis, where we left the toll roads, was 209 pesos (about $19 US). From Los Mochis, it is about a one hour drive inland to El Fuerte. We arrived in El Fuerte about 12:30 and only had the name of the hotel where we would be staying, but no address or directions. Molly finally gave in and let Brent stop and ask directions and we were close, just a couple blocks away. We drove up a steep rocky street and saw a van with the hotel name on it so we got out and looked for it, but then saw another steep rocky road with a sign pointing up the hill to the hotel.....we wondered what kind of a place we would find, but our concerns were relieved once we stepped inside. It was a quaint little place with a lovely open courtyard overlooking the river (obviously, the hotel name was "Rio Vista"). We had our choice of any of the available rooms; all were clean and comfortable. Our cost here was 350 pesos ($32 US). We made a selection, got checked in and spent some time chatting with another couple who were on a tour staying there. The one negative thing about El Fuerte is the bugs (no see-'ums, but you can)! You want lots of bug spray and even that didn't seem to deter most of them! We decided to walk back down to the town square to meet our friends when they arrived in town. As we were walking to the square, we were stopped by a local man who asked Brent his name. Brent was sure he was going to try to sell him something, but replied that his name was Brent. The man asked "Brent Olaf?" How could he possibly know his middle name?! Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out our passports.....they had apparently fallen out of Molly's backpack when we got out of the car the first time we looked for the hotel! The man had recognized Brent from his passport photo. Can you imagine, our passports were returned before we even missed them. Brent was so happy he hugged the guy and gave him a nice reward! The rest of our group arrived shortly after 2 pm and after relaxing for a bit with some cold drinks we walked into town to explore a bit. The only thing we found of real interest was the ice cream shop! Back at the hotel we enjoyed a happy hour before having dinner in the hotel dining room. Dinner was a tasty local fish, but turned out to be more expensive than we had been told earlier. When they started serving it, the question we all had was "Have we ordered yet"? It was the only thing on the menu! We opted for just coffee and toast the next morning for breakfast. There are two trains daily up and down the canyon. The first is the primero or first class and about an hour later is the economy class at about half the cost of the first. We had planned to take the second as we had heard there was little difference and it was more local people and a lot more fun. The hotel provided transportation to the station and we were able to leave our cars parked near the hotel. When we arrived at the station, the first train was still there so we decided that the economy would be really late and opted to take the primero instead. Primero class one way ticket was 430 pesos (about $40 US) per person The train was very full with several tour groups on board, but we managed to get eight seats together. It's an all day trip up the canyon with the scenery changing many times from the hot dessert cactus country to the high mountainous/canyon terrain full of pine and fir trees. The rail line was begun in the late 19th century, finally finished in 1961 and privatized in 1998, with 39 bridges, 87 tunnels (one over a mile long), a 360 degree loop over itself, and a maximum altitude of 8,056 ft. The Copper Canyon area is apparently about four times larger than the Grand Canyon and about 1000 feet deeper. It is a series of about seven canyons (four of which are deeper than the Grand Canyon). The train travels up the El Fuerte and Unrique river canyons and along the rim of the main Copper Canyon. On the trip to the bottom, to Batopilas, we traveled through four other canyons. The train makes several short stops along the way to Creel, but only the stop at Divisadero allows a few minutes to disembark to get a good look over the canyon rim and grab a quick bite to eat from the local Mexican fast food venders. The chili relenos and tacos were wonderful! Then it was back on the train and on to Creel. At the station, we were pleased to find that a bus from the hotel was there to meet us. But imagine our surprise when after boarding and getting all our bags aboard, we drove out of the parking lot and nearly just across the street to unload at our hotel. Casa Margarita can best be described as a "work in progress." It is both a hostel and hotel, mostly under construction or remodel or demolishment or something. However, the rooms we reserved were clean and comfortable. Our cost here was 250 pesos (about $23 US) per room which included breakfast and dinner. Meals were served in a loud communal dining room, but were tasty and adequate. Although, if you like your meals served hot, it is best to get there early. Here we could make all the arrangements for local tours as well as one down to the bottom of the canyon at Batopilas. The hotel also had accommodations there. Cathy and Bea negotiated some good group rates for a tour the next day of the surrounding area and an overnight trip to Batopilas the following day. Our tour on Friday was a custom combination of three of their tours covering just about everything in the local area. We visited a local mission, a couple of occupied Indian cave dwellings, stopped by a lake, hiked to a waterfall, drove back to Divisadero allowing more time to enjoy the local cuisine and have a few more views of the canyon rim than were allowed with the short train stop there the day before. It was a long day and finally by late in the afternoon we told our driver and guide, "no mas, no mas." It was time to head back to the hotel and rest. Saturday was our day to go to the bottom of the canyon....this was the reason we had come! Our driver, Luis, spoke little or no English, but our guide, Juan, did. He had been working for Casa Margarita for many years and had been involved with building their new hotel at the canyon bottom, so had made many trips up and down and knew the area well. It is about 78 miles down to Batopilas with half of it on paved roads. But once you leave the pavement and start descending into the canyon, you are in for a real ride. In one section, we counted 20 switchbacks. The scenery is spectacular and ever changing as you descend from approximately 7000 feet elevation in Creel to about 500 feet to the canyon floor in Batopilas. It took us six hours, but we did make a few stops along the way. After the long hot dusty trip, we were pleasantly surprised by our accommodations in Batopilas. The hotel had been completed for only about 18 months and just got electricity a couple months ago. The rooms were large and most furnished with lots of antique furniture and brass beds and white eyelet linens. Beautiful Mexican tiles decorated the bathrooms. The cost here was 400 pesos (less than $40 US) per room which included dinner and breakfast. We took a few minutes to refresh ourselves then headed into town with the guide to see the sites. Batopilas is a unique community situated right along the river. The narrow streets were never intended for automobile traffic and certainly not the larger van we were traveling in, so often we had to stop and back up to let oncoming traffic pass. It was one of the cleanest towns we have seen in Mexico, perhaps due to the signs we saw noting fines for littering. Juan showed us around the town noting the first car ever to arrive there...brought down in parts and reassembled there (the road to Batopilas was only completed about 1979) . There is a gold mining operation along the river and several abandoned silver mining tunnels. Juan had just returned from another tour the day before ours and a man in the group had wandered off from the rest and entered an abandoned tunnel without a light. He almost fell into a deep shaft, ended up smashing his face badly and had to be airlifted out. No one in our group was that curious! The Hacienda San Miguel (the original silver foundry) lies in brick ruins across the river from town. Back at the hotel we relaxed with some snacks before dinner. The hotel it seemed was out of beer....bad news to Horst and Dan. Batopilas is supposedly a "dry" town with no liquor sales, but Juan said he knew where to go. He took them to a local senora's house who promptly produced a supply of ale. She is located right next to the police station, but they ignore her sales as she is also their cook and if she's arrested, the cooking may suffer! Only in Mexico! Dinner was truly a treat. The antique dinning table was covered with a hand crocheted and embroidered cloth and matching napkins. The dinnerware was china and then when the waiter offered wine, he poured it in crystal goblets....something we seldom see in Mexico and certainly did not expect here in Batopilas. The meal was delicious as was breakfast the next morning. The tour of Batopilas is not complete without hiring a local guide (Juan and Luis are not permitted to take tourists beyond the city) to see the "lost cathedral" along with some mines and Indian cave dwellings. The local guide was Arturo who provided transportation in the back of his pickup, complete with two auto bench seats. After we paid him for the tour he was able to purchase some fuel to make it.....he stopped at the local fuel depot and got five liters to siphon into his tank. The road was bumpy and dusty...a real adventure. We had visited some of the cave dwellings the day before and while it is interesting, we all felt a bit uncomfortable tramping right up to their homes to have a look see as to the way they live. Time was also a factor so we opted just to make the trip to the nearby community of Stavo to the "lost cathedral" ....which apparently was never "lost" as it is situated on a branch of the Camino Real, Mexico's most well known historical thoroughfare, nor was it ever a cathedral which requires the presence of an archbishop. Exactly when and by whom it was built remains a mystery. It was probably built as a Jesuit mission in the 17th century, but abandoned for whatever reason.....it has been rebuilt several times since being "discovered" and taken over by Franciscans in the 18th century. After exploring the building and surrounding area we piled back in the truck and headed back to town. Soon we were all wondering and beginning to worry about the truck....the sounds coming from below did not sound good....finally Arturo stopped managed to convey his concerns about making it up the next hill....we got out and walked while he and Will tried to diagnose the problem....most likely axles, or wheel bearings or tie rods or something....whatever, it was not good. After walking a while, Arturo finally came along and told us to get back in....we went a while and then we got out and walked some more when he started becoming worried about the steering.....as the road is right along the riverbank, we all felt safer walking! Back in town Arturo assured us that Juan would be there soon to pick us up, but we all felt certain that Juan was expecting us to be returned to the hotel instead of meeting us in town. Oh well, we decided to wait anyway....the only local bar was soon to open and we figured we would have a cold beer while we waited and waited and waited. Finally Brent decided to hoof it to the hotel, but along the way he did run into Juan who had finally gotten the message that we were stranded in town. Back at the hotel, we had only enough time to pack our bags and load into the van for our trip back up the canyon. This trip was shorter in duration as we did not make as many stops as on the way down. The weather had changed and it was quite windy in the canyon and downright cold by the time we reached the top. We were supposed to have had reservations at the other Margarita hotel in town, but found some problems (no reservations!) and ended up staying back at Casa Margarita instead. The train the next day would not leave until about noon so we had some time to spend in town, but the weather was cold and rainy (almost snow) so we stayed at the hotel until almost time to catch the train. Again due to the time, we opted for the primero train as the later economy would put us back into El Fuerte quite late. The trip down the canyon is relaxing and still beautiful, but canyon scenery is best viewed on the trip up the canyon. It was a long day and we were tired and hungry by the time we arrived back in El Fuerte about 7 pm. There was some confusion with the transportation there to meet us....the taxi driver had difficulty convincing us that he was from the hotel, there to meet us, and was not expecting us to pay. Finally back at the hotel, we got our rooms and then walked into town for dinner. We had a great dinner at another hotel near the town square. All that was left the next morning was to say our good-byes to our friends and make the long drive back to San Carlos and complete our work on the boat. It was a great trip....a "must do."

Log 7: Mexico--Season 3--'01-'02

2002-05-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

Log 7 of Albion (and other travels)

For our third season in Mexico, 2001-2002, we wanted to concentrate on seeing some of the inland portions of Mexico. From San Carlos, we sailed to Mazatlan, and then to Puerto Vallarta, our base for the inland travels. The following are the emails sent back to family and friends during our trip.

10/21/01 Subject: Back in Mexico

Yep, we are finally back in San Carlos Mexico where we left the boat last May. We left the RV in Tucson again after nearly a month heading south from Portland via Las Vegas seeing several shows. Crossing the border always seems like an adventure, but perhaps it is the anticipation of it more than anything else. One thing is certain....the lack of consistency. It seems every cruiser has a different experience. Our's was relatively uneventful and we managed to get here with all our parts and supplies. Everything looks great on the boat (in dry storage) except the boat cover we had made split over the cockpit from stern to cabin....but no problem. There were big brown water marks on the boat cover where water had pooled during the summer rainy season before evaporating. Albion is due into the work yard Monday (10/22) where it will get a good sanding and new bottom paint. Then it's back in the water where we put everything back together (sails, lines, clean up, and move aboard). It's great to be back and renew cruising acquaintances again. We had a great dinner last night with about 14 other cruisers we had not seen in a while. It seems we all tend to migrate back here about the same time. This summer was busy with family and friends. The major events were a 7 day cruise to Alaska on Norwegian Cruise Line with friends Bud & Lisa and two other couples we knew. We WILL do that AGAIN! Then we spent a week cruising in Desolation Sound on a friends' power boat where the weather, beauty, and relaxation were supreme! Another highlight was watching grand daughter Brianna practice with the Northwest Ballet Company in Seattle. We had several get togethers with Mexican cruisers, went to the Fred Meyer Challenge (and took grand son Travis one day), went to the Oregon State Fair, to the coast several times, and a nice picnic with Carrie and Emily at Willamette Park on a beautiful warm summer day. Our plans this year for Mexico are to do more inland trips. We plan to use PV as our base camp for the inland trips and stay there in luxury for four months, December through March. We plan to bus back up to San Carlos and drive the car down so we will have better transportation into Puerto Vallarta from Paradise Village. So if anybody is planning a visit this summer, you won't have to run us down, we will be up by the pool! Several have said they missed our occasional updates last year (and we didn't have any this summer either), but we felt we didn't do much other that work on the boat most of the time. We will try to remedy that this year and let friends and family know that we are still alive and living our dream!
Brent & Molly

11/5/01 Subject: San Carlos, Mexico

We have been back in Mexico a little more than two weeks now. The first week was spent in the motel as Albion was still in the yard. Guess we are not "real cruisers" as most of them are okay to live aboard while the boat is in the yard. But it is hot and dirty and very buggy there, so we treat ourselves to an air-conditioned room with a pool. It's clean and we're happy to part with $35/night for a few creature comforts. While we were waiting for space in the work yard, we were able to start the process of renewing our paperwork. The process of getting "legal" here is a lengthy one. Last year we established the FM3 (temporary residency) in Mazatlan so this year we had to change it to San Carlos. We spent several hours at the marina making copies of everything and getting letters and forms from them. Then off to Immigration, where even though we had everything in order, it still took over an hour. They are very nice and patience helps. There are many forms and in many cases they take an old one, make a copy, white out the old info, and start over. It's been years since I have seen white out! It doesn't matter if it is the case or not, but we have to submit a letter stating that I am dependent upon Brent for my support and he is responsible for all my actions! Another cruising couple submitted a letter stating that the wife had the income, and that was just not acceptable! Then it's off to the bank to pay the fees (about $100 per person), back to Immigration with the receipt, then we wait, maybe 10 days or two weeks and go back to get the official okay. Then they tried to give Brent the wrong passport....."That's not me!" he said, pointing to the picture. Next year we may just have to rethink it and maybe plan to spend less than six months. We would only need a tourist VISA if that were the case. Today, (11/5) we picked up the finalized FM3's so we are legal now and can stay a year if we want! Albion went back in the water on Friday 10/26 after getting three new coats of bottom paint. It was good to get back aboard, but then the work began. First order of business was to get the dirt off....six months worth. Then getting all the sails back up proved to be frustrating. I could make a very long story out of it, but will spare you. Just suffice to say, Brent thinks that just taping the messenger lines to the halyards is good enough; Molly thinks they should be sewn first. Molly's tongue is bloodied from biting it trying ever so hard not to say "I told you so!" Three days later, and Brent making many trips up the mast, things are finally back together again and we have sails! Men, if they would only learn!!!! We have decided to let Copper Canyon go for another year, but we are planning a day trip inland to Alamos, an old colonial mining town that is supposed to be very nice. After that, we should be ready to go. We are anxious to get going. Then we will head across the Sea of Cortez and on south. We had planned to stop in Mazatlan, but the marina there is closed, so we will by-pass there and go on to Puerto Vallarta by December 1. The weather has moderated somewhat. It was very hot when we arrived and lots of bugs. But now it has cooled down to the eighties or low nineties most of the time and there are fewer (but not gone) bugs. There is usually a breeze in the afternoon that helps. We continue to get little news from the homefront. We manage to get a USA Today occasionally and can catch CNN at some of the restaurants. The last week was pretty well dominated by the World Series since we are so close to Arizona. I guess if the TV is showing sports, that's good news as there's no urgent breaking news. We keep you all in our thoughts and hope all is well with everyone. We love hearing from you, so keep in touch! And remember, we'll be in PV most of the winter and will be open for visitors! all for now,
Molly

11/15/01 Subject: Back to Mexico AGAIN, finally

Finally the car is fixed and we are back in Mexico after traveling back to Tucson. What we thought would only be a couple of days turned into a week. Guess we bought each other new fuel injectors for our anniversary! They first tried to clean them, but that didn't work, so we had to have new ones. First they ordered them from LA and they only sent one and the rest were ordered from Texas, shipped FedEx which took an extra day because they went through Memphis, twice. The dealership rented a car for us and felt really bad that we had to stay so long. They ordered a dash mat for our car and it is being shipped home to Gresham. We will pick it up in December. We stayed with Nada and Dorsey the first two days, then our friends, who had driven their RV up from San Carlos to store and were planning to ride back with us, arrived. Of course they also had not planned to be there a week. They had only a couple days of clothes and all shorts. Nada and Dorsey also had some other company coming on Sunday. So we borrowed their small RV and camped out at the state park along with our friends. The weather was changing and it was getting cold in Tucson, so we were glad when the parts finally arrived on Wednesday. The four of us left Tucson about 5pm and arrived back at our boats about 11pm last night. It is usually not advisable to drive in Mexico after dark, but we didn't have any problems. Just one close call with cows on the highway! The weather here has gotten cooler also. It is pleasant to work on the boat during the day. Think we will wait until later to come next year. We are planning to fly home for Christmas this year to see the kids and grandkids. While there we will drive to Seattle on Saturday for Chuck Walter's retirement party, a very good friend that Brent used to work with and Best Man at our wedding. Now we are planning to leave here this weekend and sail straight through to Mazatlan (400 miles) to refuel then continue to Puerto Vallarta.

12/18/02 Subject: Inland Travels from Puerto Vallarta

We have just returned from a short vacation from the boat. We made a big circle driving south from Puerto Vallarta to Barra de Navidad and then inland to Colima, Comala, Lake Chapala and Guadalajara and then returning to Puerto Vallarta. When our friends, Tom and Sue, returned from Portland, transporting them back to their boat in Tenacatita was the perfect opportunity for us to take off for an inland trip. After a breakfast get together with several of Tom and Sue's friends, we headed off with some provisioning stops and finally were on the road headed south. After seeing the way they drive here on these hilly curvy mountain roads, one comes to have a real understanding of why there are so many roadside memorials along the way! We passed through many small villages along the way and finally picked one for a late-lunch, early-dinner stop. We stopped at a roadside palapa where a woman was BBQing chicken. She spoke no English and our Spanish is less than mediocre, but we managed to get a great meal and a couple of cervazas for very few pesos and were once again on our way. Tom and Sue graciously offered us a bunk on their boat for the evening, but since we were planning to head off early the next day, we decided we would prefer to stay some place ashore. We stopped and checked out the Blue Bay Resort there at Tenacatita. It was obvious that they don't often get asked for a rate for one night as they had to get out a book, check the computer, and ask about three different people, but finally came up with 780 pesos per person ($86 US). It's an all-inclusive resort which would include all our meals and drinks, but having already had dinner and planning to spend some time drinking beer on Seadater, also anchored in Tenacatita, we decided to pass and look for something on down the road in Melaque or Barra de Navidad. Horst on Seadater met us with his dinghy on the beach at Tenacatita . He made a couple trips getting Tom and Sue with their luggage and provisions back to X-TA-SEA. Then he came back for us and every now and then a dinghy launch through the surf goes wrong. This was one of those times and we got soaked. But after a couple of beers aboard Seadater, we were almost drip-dried and really didn't care. We had a great visit with Horst and Bea and then bid our farewells to them and Tom and Sue and decided it was time to find a place to sleep for the night. We found a place on the beach in Barra, had a shower and got into some dry clothes. It happened to be Carnival time in Barra so we walked through town to see the happenings. We spied Nancy from Sea Tern up at a second level restaurant and headed up to say hello. We found Nancy and Herm there having dinner with Barb and Monte from Reprise. We spent the rest of the evening with them touring the town and taking in the Carnival events. It's always great to catch up with other Portland cruisers and swap stories of how much rain they are getting back in Portland! The next morning we continued south around the bay at Manzanillo and on to Colima. Before Colima, however, we took a side road to some supposed caverns, but it was way off the road (about 18 miles) up a rough, steep, cobblestone hill, and the car was over heating. We turned around without making it to see the caverns....maybe next time! Colima is a colonial city and the capital of the small state of Colima. We found a nice hotel right on the town square convenient to do a walking tour of the city. There is a nice museum right across the square and several nice restaurants. Sunday evening is a big event in the Mexican town and everyone seems to show up at the town square just to be there. There was much activity. There are two volcanoes just north of the city; one is active now and had been spouting steam and ash in recent days. We drove towards the mountains through Comala and on to a small village, San Antonio, located on the lower slopes of the mountain. We couldn't see much of the mountain as it was cloudy and stormy while we were there. Back in Comala we stopped for a beer. The restaurants adjacent to the town square fill you with hors'd overs for the price of the beer. They just keep bringing food and we finally had to say "no mas." Then back to Colima and we searched out two archeological sites. One was closed for the day because no one showed up that day to sell tickets, but we spent some time touring the other site. The cloudy afternoon weather turned dark and menacing towards evening. By night time we had a good thunder, lightning and rain storm. It was a real tropical downpour. The next day, we had planned to go back to the archeological site we missed, but decided not to spend time tromping around the wet grass. So we headed north to Lake Chapala. It was still a rainy dreary day, reminding us much of Oregon. We nearly missed the turn off to Jocotepec and the lake, but finally got turned around and headed in the right direction. Jocotepec is the first town we went through on the lake, a typical Mexican town with ultra narrow streets and very few signs directing you through to the next town. Since it was still rainy and over-cast, we could not see much of the lake, Mexico's largest lake (53 x 18 miles). We opted to go on to Guadalajara and save a visit to the lake for another time. In Guadalajara we encountered heavy afternoon traffic snarled due to the rain, but finally located a hotel in the historic downtown area. We had a late lunch and since the rain had let up, went for a short walk over to the square and plaza. Even though we were on the tenth floor of the hotel, it was very noisy due to the heavy traffic on the street below. So, the next day we found another hotel close by but on a side street that should be a little quieter. It was and closer to the plaza and less expensive! We took a drive over to the town of Tonala and shopped till we dropped. Then we headed over to Tlaquepaque for lunch. We spent most of the afternoon there enjoying a great meal at a restaurant we had found when we were there last month. We made plans to take a town tour the next day. We had been on a bus tour to Guadalajara from Puerto Vallarta last month, but thought perhaps this local tour would give us a little different perspective and perhaps see some other areas. It was exactly that, we saw some of the same areas along with many new areas. Then it ended the afternoon with another visit to Tlaquepaque so we enjoyed another wonderful lunch at our favorite restaurant, Adobe Fonda! The next day it was time to complete our circle and head back to Puerto Vallarta. We considered going to Tepic which would have given us a visit to three state capitals on this trip, but we are planning a tour to the Huichol Indian village later and it will include Tepic so we headed home to the boat in Paradise Village. The distance between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta is only about 300 miles, but because it includes the worst section of roads, it's a long day on the road. We were tired and hungry when we returned to the boat in the afternoon, but would recommend the trip to anyone. It was great to see some different country and see some of Mexico that reminded us of parts of Oregon.

3/23/02 Subject: More Inland Travels

Shortly our time here in Paradise will have come to an end and we will head north into the Sea of Cortez and on to San Carlos where we will store the boat for the summer again. We are happy with the time we have spent traveling and seeing some of the inland sights of Mexico. Two of our recent trips have been the tour to the Huichol Indian village and an overnight trip to San Sebastian. There are about 56 villages of Huichol Indians still living primitively in the Serra Madre Mountains. They are a gentle people who are clinging to the old ways of their ancestors while the world around them struggles to move forward. The trip was a tiring, but very rewarding one. We left here about 8 am and traveled for several hours past Tepic and into the mountains. The village we visited is situated on a lake formed by a hydro electric dam. We took a panga ride up the lake; then it was a short hike up a hill to the village. Although the village is a few miles from the largest hydro electric plant on the west coast of Mexico, they choose to live without electricity. There were some homes with small solar panels, however, and the high school had a satellite dish for classroom use. We were asked not to take pictures of the people. Our guide would tell us when it was okay to photograph the houses. Unfortunately there were those "ugly Americanoes" on the tour who ignored those guidelines and clicked away. The homes are very primitive, made mostly from adobe and thatched roofing. They sleep in a separate open air sleeping loft on poles to keep unwanted animals out. Many of the children in the schools come from outlying areas and are housed in the village during the school week and return to their homes in the hills on the weekends. The children are taught both their native Huichol language and Spanish. At the end of our tour of the village, there was a small market set up where we could purchase small items of their native artwork at a considerable savings from the shops in the city. We returned via boats (very rough ride since the wind came up), to the bus and then back to Tepic where we enjoyed a wonderful meal at a very nice hotel. What a contrast in lifestyles in less than an hour! We had a short time to visit the town square in Tepic as well as a Huichol Indian friend of the tour guide (and his native shop) and then it was back on the bus for the long trip home. We arrived back at Paradise Village about 11 pm. The following week we made reservations at a bed and breakfast in the community of San Sebastian about 45 miles into the mountains east of Puerto Vallarta. San Sebastian was a mining community and at one time was the capital of the state of Jalisco. During the height of the silver mining in the area, the population was about 22,000. Today it is about 400. Until sometime in the 1950's, there was only a mule trail into the community. Today the road is not much better. We chose not to drive our own car and instead rented a four-wheel drive Tracker. Good choice not to take our own car, but bad choice to have gotten an open vehicle. The road is extremely dusty and both the car and we were filthy. It is only about 45 miles from here, but the trip took about three hours. Five to ten miles an hour for the last 25 miles of the trip. We crossed steam beds several times. At one place, there is a toll.....a chain across the road and a man collects 20 pesos and allows you to continue. Apparently the funds are collected for road maintenance and improvements, or at least that's what the receipt says! We were relieved to finally arrive and find our accommodations for the evening. The bed and breakfast is run by Mike and Pauline Hussey, a couple originally from Wales, who have lived in Mexico for eight years and in San Sebastian for the past three. They have a very comfortable inn with two guest rooms, both with private baths. After the rough drive, it was nice to relax on the cool patio and have a beer and glass of wine. Mike is quite a history buff and provides guided tours of the area. Before dinner, he took us on a walk around the town showing us many of the plants that grow there and are found no place else in the world. We also visited the coffee plantation and processing plant. The coffee was delicious, but not sold anywhere but there in San Sebastian. Because the previous weekend had been very busy, the main restaurant in town was closed having to go into PV for supplies. So Pauline prepared a spaghetti meal for us at their place. San Sebastian is located at 4500 feet elevation so the evenings can get pretty cool. But it was a nice evening and we sat out on the patio for a while and watched the stars in the very dark night sky. The next day after a very filling breakfast, Mike again guided us about the area. We visited a moonshine still (actually Ricea, a 100 proof form of Tequila made from the century plant Maguey) and saw the entire process in operation including tasting. Of course, we bought some! Then we climbed up the old mule trail a ways and saw some of the remnants of the old silver mines. We were able to explore a ways into one, complete with bats. The mining in the area came to a halt during the Revolution. Any building materials or scrap metal were hauled away to Guadalajara by the caretakers that were left to watch the mines. Today, there is probably still much ore in the mines, but the price of silver does not make it economical to mine. We wished we had planned to spend two nights as there was still much to see and do, but reluctantly we had to head back down that awful road. We will be here for a few more days, at least through the Easter holiday. Lisa Merino, a long-time friend from Brent's office will be arriving in PV next week so we are looking forward to a visit with her and a chance to show her some of the town. We have truly enjoyed the visits we have had with Al Mirati, Doug Dehart and Katherine Kostow, and Tom Pansky and family when they were lucky enough to escape the northwest winter for a few days. So for now, we are busy with all those little jobs we have been putting off, but now must be done before we head north. We'll be in touch again soon with a report on the sailing trip north to San Carlos. Brent and Molly ForsbergParadise Village, Nuevo Vallarta

4/29/02 Subject: PV to San Carlos

On 4/1, along with Dan and Cathy on Perceptions, we left Paradise Village heading for the anchorage at Punta de Mita. After four months at the dock, we thought it best to spend an evening getting our "sea legs" back before heading for Mazatlan. We headed out from there at daybreak on Tuesday. The trip was fairly uneventful with calm seas and comfortable winds. We sailed for about four hours in the afternoon, but the rest of the trip was a motor sail. We arrived at Mazatlan about mid-day the next day and had to wait for the 2:00 dredge opening to enter the channel to El Cid. We had a bit of a pot-luck reunion with other Portland boaters already in Mazatlan. Tica, Seadater and Xtasea had arrived from the south about a week earlier. Dream Weaver and Perpetua have been there a while and Moonshadow had arrived from the north getting ready to head off across the Pacific shortly. Sea Tern was in transit from PV to the Sea choosing to by-pass Mazatlan this trip. Even Reprise managed to make it by land. They had driven our car to San Carlos for us and picked up their own vehicle to return to Puerto Vallarta. Our stay in Mazatlan was short but we managed to work in a couple of our favorite restaurants and some shopping stops. It was tempting to stay longer, but the winds and seas were favorable so we opted to push on and left Mazatlan on Monday the 8th with Pat & Susan on Pertputua and Earl & Marta on Kelmar. Altata, a little known anchorage on the mainland coast was our first destination. It had been written up in Latitude 38 by other Portlanders, Ron an Linda Caywood on Spindrift. The stop there gives an alternative to the double overnight across the Sea to the Baja. We had probably the best day of sailing in our three years here in Mexico. Although we had only about ten knots of wind, the seas were flat and we moved along at about 5 and half to 6 and half knots all day long! It was wonderful! By nightfall however, the winds died and we were forced to turn to the iron sails for the rest of the trip. We arrived at the entrance buoy to Altata about 8 am. We followed GPS coordinates provided by Ron and found his information to be very accurate. After traversing the channel entrance, you make a very long trip up the lagoon. Ron had reported there would be no problem finding the darker water of the deep channel all the way up, however apparently the light was just right to make it difficult for us. We plodded along at slow bell, Albion leading the way. We did find shallow water and ran aground briefly once and nearly another time, but finally found our way to the small village of Altata. It quickly became apparent that few cruisers come this way as the locals found us something of a novelty. Many pangas made passes by the boats to have a look at the gringo sailors! There are lots of palapa restaurants along the shoreline. After a late breakfast and a nap, we went ashore and were greeted happily by Gustavo at the La Perla restaurant. He promptly produced photographs of his amigos, Ron and Linda, on Spindrift. Gustav speaks no English, but is very helpful and willing to do anything for you. He told us his son, Ceasar speaks good English, but goes to school and works in Culiacan during the week. We enjoyed cold refreshments there at La Perla and stayed for dinner. We had a bit of a problem with the language barrier and Brent and I ended up with two meals each! Oh well, can't complain, we each had garlic shrimp, shrimp ceviche, and shrimp empanadas, with drinks for about $25. It was without a doubt the best shrimp we had eaten in Mexico. Gustavo drove the guys to the Port Captains office, but he was closing for the day, so they agreed to return the next day and Gustavo will also take them to fill the jerry cans with diesel. The next morning another boat, a power boat Lady MJ, arrived and joined us in the anchorage. And word had definitely spread of our arrival. When the guys went to the Port Captains office, they were met by a news reporter and photographer from Culiacan and were interviewed for the newspaper. Gustavo had driven to Culiacan the night before and told his son about us and that he must come to see. Ceasar managed to get the day off work and made it nice for us to have someone who spoke English to help us gringos out. Ceasar and Gustavo came to tour our boats that afternoon. Then we all went to shore again and enjoyed another great meal at La Perla.....only one meal apiece for Brent and I that night! The next morning, along with Perpetua, we weighed anchor and headed across the Sea. Kelmar and Lady MJ opted to spend a couple more days in Altata. The passage across was relatively comfortable except for several hours during the night when some strong westerly winds kicked up right on our nose. We fell off the rum line a bit to get some speed and by late morning the winds and seas had calmed to make the rest of the passage comfortable again. We arrived at Isla San Francisco late in the afternoon. There we found another Portland boat, Walt and Dee on Essence. They had come down on the HaHa this season and spent the winter sailing out of LaPaz. On Sunday we went to shore and explored a bit, swam, and Brent worked at cleaning the boat bottom. On Monday the westerly winds were strong all day and made the anchorage pretty choppy, so we spend most of the day hunkered down in the cockpit catching up on our reading. Kelmar and Lady MJ were making the passage across that day and definitely did not have the comfortable passage we did. Lady MJ arrived late in the day, but Kelmar did not make it in until well after dark. The next day, Albion bid good-bye to the rest of the boats there and headed north. We had an easy day to anchor at Punta Prieta, an anchorage that did not appear to be too protected, but when the winds kicked up during the night, it was very flat and calm at anchor. In the morning, we continued north to Agua Verde, one of our favorite anchorage's from last year. There were several boats in the north and middle anchorage's, but only one in the south cove where we dropped our anchor. We went to shore the next day and found the small tienda where we restocked our fresh fruits and vegetables from the supply that had just arrived that day. That afternoon another cruiser arranged a pot luck on the beach to celebrate her husband's birthday. We met some new cruisers and reacquainted with some we had met along the way. Again the next morning it was time to move on so we continued north to Ballandra Bay on Carman Island. We explored some anchorage's along the way including Candeleros South and Honeymoon Cove near Puerto Escondido. We were the only boat at Ballandra and spent a comfortable night. Since the weather prediction was for strong northerly winds, we left early the next day for the anchorage at San Juanico. By ten o'clock, we had 20+ knots on our nose with a heavy northwest swell. We were glad we had made the headway we had, early in the morning. We made it to the anchorage about noon and were ever so happy to get our anchor down and stuck. We measured 20 to 25 knot winds in the anchorage most of the afternoon, but finally about five it started to die down. At San Juanico there is what is referred to as the "Cruiser's Shrine." It is really a tree on the beach where for several years cruisers have left some kind of memento of their passing that way. It was interesting to visit and see many of the gifts left by cruisers we have come to know along the way. Of course Albion had to leave her mark there also. We stayed another day there until the seas looked to be calming down and finally we moved on north. A pineapple express cloud-cover had been covering the Baja for several days so we had gray looking weather....with the northwest winds on our nose, except for being in shorts and tee shirts, we felt like we are back in the northwest sailing up the coast. We reached Bahia Concepcion and spend one night at anchor just inside the bay and moved on the Santa Rosalia the following morning. Santa Rosalia is unlike any other town we have seen in Mexico. It is mostly wood buildings (a rarity in Mexico) having been settled by the French as a mining town in the 1800's. Wood was imported from the northwest to build the original town. Also imported was the prefabricated steel church designed by Carl Gustav Eiffel. It apparently was originally on display with the his "Eiffel" tower at the Paris Exposition, taken apart, reassembled in Brussels, then again taken apart and reassembled here. Santa Rosalia is also famous for their hot dogs! Go figure. They certainly are different from any others we've ever had, but mmmm good! The museum was most interesting with all the historical items laid out to handle, first hand. The original French hotel was also a museum of such, and we had breakfast there one morning. There is a "French Bakery" but I think the French have been gone too long. The cruiser gathering spot at the marina, the "palapa of knowledge" is gone due to a hurricane, but the office now serves as the cruiser's hangout. Beverages are on the honor system. There is a sheet to mark down any sodas, waters, or beers you drink and you just pay up when you are ready to leave. The weather had been good and we planned to make the 75 mile crossing to San Carlos on Friday night, but Thursday night the wind kicked up and blew about 30+ knots all night and all day Friday. A large power boat left and came back, so we decided we liked it there and would spend a while longer. By midnight Friday, the marina was calm and we were bemoaning the fact we had opted to put the trip off another day, but the next day we learned that three boats at an anchorage just south of us had left about midnight and encountered heavy seas and wind and ended up turning around also. By Saturday the weather had turned around again, so we left that night, along with the three boats that had returned the night before. We had no seas and no wind and ended up motoring all the way across. It seems we sailors are never happy, it's either too much wind or not enough! But it was a most comfortable passage and we arrived at San Carlos about 8 am and managed to finagle our way into a slip. The marina has been full with a waiting list, but Brent just pulled into an empty slip, checked with the office when they opened and got the okay to stay put. It was certainly nice to find our car waiting for us. Monty and Barb on Reprise had driven it up from Puerto Vallarta earlier in the month. What a contrast San Carlos is from Santa Rosalia, just across the Sea. While gringos are the exception in Santa Rosalia, here we are the norm. In about 12 hours, we went from a community speaking hardly any English at all, to one where Spanish is rarely heard. Even when we pay with pesos here, we usually get some US dollars back in change. For today we rest, but tomorrow we start about the job of putting Albion to bed for the long hot summer ahead. She will be hauled on May 6th and if all goes right, we may even be back in Tucson in the RV that night. Then Brent will be flying back to Puerto Vallarta to deliver a boat up the coast to San Diego. We hope to be back in Oregon by early June. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
Brent and Molly Forsberg, San Carlos, Mexico

5/9/02 Subject: Tucson

It has been a real windy year in San Carlos; by mid-morning every day the wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to get much done. But we had some extra days, so we managed to get it all done with some easy days at the end. Albion was scheduled to be hauled at 9 am on Monday, but when we pulled over to the ramp at 8:30, the 10 am boat was already there waiting....claimed he got confused and moved his watch ahead instead of back! The crew hauled him first....a smaller, shallower draft boat needing less water....and by the time they got to Albion, the tide had gone out too much and there wasn't enough water.....you can only imagine the words Brent had about that! They said they thought they would be able to get us out that evening about 6:00pm, but if not, then we would have to wait until Wednesday....more words from Brent! Lucky for them they did get us out that evening, so we were just one day behind and were on our way to Tucson Tuesday am. Wish I could say all went well with getting the RV going, but it took a new battery (actually two trips to get the RIGHT battery and $90 for a road service guy to tell us we had wired it wrong and had the wrong one for a starting battery), but now we are here in Tucson staying in an RV park right in town. Except the park nazi (who makes Donna at El Cid seem like Mother Theresa), it should be an okay place for me to stay while Brent heads back to PV for the delivery. All for now,
Molly

Log 6: Mexico--Season 2--'00-'01

2001-05-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Log 6 of Albion (and other travels)

By our second season cruising Mexico, 2000-2001 , we thought we knew our way around and decided to expand our journeys a little. The primary goal, however, was still to meet old friends and make new ones and have fun. The following is a collection of emails sent back to family and friends to let them know about our travels.

10/22/00 Subject: Back in Oregon

Had thought by now we would be sending news from Mexico, but not so. Made a fast trip down I-5 and met some of the other cruisers in Chula Vista. Had a problem with the jacks on the RV and waited five days there for the "overnight" parts delivery from Portland...then they sent the wrong part! Decided to bag the repair for now and headed for Tucson. Got there on Wednesday and got news from Portland that Brent's mother had failed rapidly after we left and later the same day got word she had indeed passed on. Although we had long ago made all the arrangements for everything, we decided that since we were still in the states it would be easier to get a flight home. We put the RV in storage, spent the night with Nada and Dorsey and caught a plane on Friday. I think Brent's sister was happy to have him back if only for the company. There will be a small memorial service at Elderplace, where she lived, on Monday and we will return to Tucson on Tuesday. Will and Joann on Tica, Monte and Barb on Reprise and Horst and Bea on Seadater were in Tucson with us and headed into Mexico on Friday. We are waiting to hear from them on their border crossing. We don't anticipate a problem, but we are not taking nearly the amount of stuff that they were. They are driving their RV's down to their boats then returning to store them in Tucson and then bus back. Sounds like an ordeal to me. Weather here is feeling very much like fall with a touch of winter in the air. There was frost on the cars last night. Will be touch again once when we are back in Mexico. Keep in touch.
Molly

12/5/00 Subject: Paradise Village, Nuevo Vallarta

Yes, we are now in Paradise again enjoying the sun and tourist activities at the Paradise Village Resort. However, it was a long time getting here. Back in Mazatlan we worked on the boat most of the time or waited for work to be done. The new survey was finally done with the approval of the new insurance broker that an underwater survey was as acceptable as a haul-out inspection. That saved both time and money. The survey did not reveal any traumatic news or requirements. The most noteworthy was that two new motor mounts had to be installed and the engine then realigned. That resulted in more searching, waiting, and frustration with the installer (American not Mexican!). There were some good times too, however, at the Thanksgiving dinner with "real turkey", dancing, drinks, friends, and fun. The cruisers welcome party in November was also a good time with a local restaurant hosting the festivities with food and drink. We had a going-away party for the marina harbormaster, Mario, who has been there for a long time. It was difficult for us to let him go and for him to be leaving the people that he's helped and gotten to know very well over the years....his family! It was nice having a car in Mazatlan. When we needed to provision, it was much easier going to the market and hauling everything back in the car rather than on the bus. It was much more efficient looking for parts by making several stops with the car, rather that waiting for another bus and another 30 pesos for just another mile or two to the next part supply store. It was also much nicer going out to dinner and taking friends along rather than waiting for the dirty old bus. We left the car in Mazatlan, covered and wrapped like a Christmas present in their protected parking lot. It will be there for us when we return in March. Some of the work that we did on the boat included trying to take care of the engine over-heating problem. We had checked several aspects of the problem and finally thought that it must be a clogged heat exchanger. We had the exchanger, the oil cooler, and the exhaust mixing neck cleaned out. We were unable to test it until we put it back together and headed for Nuevo Vallarta. It was still running at about 200 degrees, when it is supposed to run at 180. So we idled or sailed all the way, 200 miles, at 2.2 knots with stops at Chacala and La Cruz. Our friends that left with us stopped at Isla Isabela, but by the time we got there it was after dark of the second night, so we decided to keep on going to Chacala. We therefore, got into Paradise Village a day ahead of the faster boats just by keeping going and they made several more stops. Upon arrival we decided that we, although planning to be here a month, weren't leaving until the over-heating problem was fixed....even if it took all winter! What a place to be marooned!! We are doing some more diagnosis and having a diesel mechanic come by to help. We think it is a barnacle encrusted raw water intake and will find out soon. Meanwhile, it's time to cool off every afternoon up by the pool and visit with old and new friends along the dock. There are several new shops and restaurants in the mall next to the resort. Molly & I just went up to watch Monday Night Football last night at the new Jungle restaurant. There are two internet cafes now, a Domino's Pizza, McDonald's, and much more....even some Mexican restaurants. The only reason we have to leave Paradise Village now is to get away from the American prices.....no real Mexican values here. This year we are at the far end of the marina complex up in the estuary. It's an isolated area without much wind to keep us cool and a long walk to the activities. But two of our Portland boat friends are on either side of us, so that makes it a little more tolerable. We asked to be moved up (or actually down) to the more active part of the marina, but so far other boats that arrive have gotten the closer slips. The other two boats with us now say they are liking it here because it IS quieter, so we may stay here too just for the camaraderie. Things could be worse! So far the weather has been in the high 80's or low 90's. You have to work on the boat early and relax in the afternoons by the pool or boogie boarding in the surf. I guess we will just have to suffer through this fuzzy lifestyle with our margarita friends! Livin' in Paradise;
Brent & Molly

1/2/01 Subject: Merry Christmas

It was cloudy and rainy for three days here. It was quite miserable. But I did manage to clean and grease 6 of my 8 winches, clean the cushions, have the deck and cockpit waxed and polished while Molly was in Portland. The trip back was my Christmas present to her so she could spend it with the kids and grandkids. Actually it was quite lonely here on Christmas day. All of the other Portland cruising friends had family or other activities that kept them busy. Bob Fadhl on Orca (a big power boat) did come over, however, just to chat. A group of us Portland cruisers and friends did have a great Christmas Eve potluck dinner at one of the Paradise palapa's.....minus Molly of course. We would like to get down to Z-town after we leave here (another 200 miles), but I don't think we will have time to make it all the way down there and back to Mazatlan by March. So we will probably just take it easy and stay for awhile in each anchorage on the way down to Manzanillo, stay there awhile, and then head back, stopping here at Paradise again before continuing to Mazatlan. Jeanette, Terry and Travis will join us there for Spring break. After the kids leave, we will probably spend April and May in the Sea and summer the boat in San Carlos. Molly is back now and I'm happy again!!!!!!! She brought back all kinds of goodies for us and neighboring boats....just like Christmas! And she brought back the good weather. We had New Years Eve dinner with a couple we met in Mazatlan (Dan & Cathy on Perceptions) from Long Beach, CA. and watched the fireworks with them out on the beach and around the bay. I'll close now and just say Happy New Year 2001. Stay in touch.
Brent on Albion in Paradise Village

3/19/01 Subject: Mazatlan

Sorry it's been awhile since I've been in contact. We've been on the move and getting things done to the boat....and just kicking back and doing nothing when we can!!! We are presently in Mazatlan again, where we left last November. Except this time we are at the El Cid Resort and Marina rather than Marina Mazatlan. It is much nicer with two pools, hot tub, restaurant, bar and cable TV at the dock. We are staying here because Jeanette, Terry and Travis are coming down this Sunday (3/25/01) for a week. They were going to stay on the boat, but like last year we wanted to get them off the boat for a few days to spread out a bit rather than being cramped up in the V-birth forward. We are used to small places, but thought it would be more like a vacation if they had a real bed to sleep in. Well, we didn't want to get them a room here at El Cid because of the expense ($225/night; we love them a lot but let's get real!). And next door at the Playa Real, they couldn't give us a couple of nights, but they could give us a week at a very special deal ($350 plus tax FOR THE WHOLE WEEK!!) and it's a real nice resort with a much better beach and ocean view than El Cid. They can walk over since it's only a couple hundred yards. And that way they can visit all day and still have their own privacy at night. Molly, of course, wants to use the bath tub in their room. She really misses just soaking. We arrived here in Mazatlan from Puerto Vallarta just before a big storm. We heard about it on the SSB radio nets and decided to hurry up the coast making it one day shorter. And the day after we got here it blew and rained for two days. Some boats behind us, that waited another day at Isabela Island anchorage (20 miles offshore and about 90 miles south of Mazatlan), got the hell beat out of them and lines tangled in their props and then had to beat into the big swell and wind for a day and a half to get to Mazatlan. We had gone south from Puerto Vallarta to Las Hadas (or Manzanillo, about 200 miles) and spent a week there (the resort that we anchored in front of, was a set for the movie "10"), then we sailed to Barra de Navidad. We spend a week there which is a real nice old style Mexican village and anchored in an inner lagoon (a set for the movie McHales Navy). Then we traveled north, anchoring for another week in Bahia Tenacatita, where a lot of our Portland friends were. There is nothing on the beach except a French restaurant that was another set for McHales Navy. Then on to Careyes for a night (big resorts on the beach like Club Med)..... on to Chamela for several days (another very small village on the beach)..... and then an overnight beat back up to Puerto Vallarta. Back in P.V. we FINALLY got our overheating problem solved!!!!!!! We stayed at Paradise Village again, our first dock in a month. That's when we headed north to Mazatlan taking about seven days with a three day stop at a favorite anchorage called Chacala. There we met some people that were on a boat from Corvallis and who were friends with my professor of Aquatic Plants at OSU. We had dinner at a local palapa (open beach restaurant) and talked about things we had in common. Actually that is our favorite thing to do down here, meeting people and sharing experiences. We all have "boat cards" that we exchange and we keep ours in a three ring binder so we can look back at all the people we have met along the way. Some have become very good friends, and it's hard to see them leave when they either head further south and through the canal, or off to the South Pacific islands. We may never see them again. Others hang around and we reacquaint with them at different locations and different times on our own schedules and talk over the latest travels. The paper work down here is mind boggling. Every time you stop, you have to check in and out of the port and pay fees. This year they instituted another fee that costs us $42 for us (based on tonnage) every time we check in to a port with a Port Captain. That's not outrageous, but you have to go to the Port Captain with your papers (crew list, boat documentation, boat insurance, passport, etc.), then go to the bank to pay your fees, then go back to the Port Captain to show you've paid so you can get your exit papers. Without exit papers, you can't enter another port. The "paper shuffle" as it's called, can be quite time consuming if the bank and Port Captain's office are across town from each other. Then if there is an Immigration office in the port, you have to check in there too, before you check back with the Port Captain.......I think? Then you repeat this "shuffle" and fees when you leave the port.This summer, Molly and I are planning to take a "bus-man's holiday", a week-long cruise to Alaska with our friends Bud and Lisa. We are boarding the Norwegian Cruise Line in Seattle and stopping at Juneau, Skagway, Sawyer Glacier, Ketchikan, and Victoria before arriving back in Seattle. It will be a nice change to go cruising and leave the driving to THEM! We don't plan any long range traveling in the RV this summer, but rather stick around the Pacific Northwest. Brianna (Lynda's daughter) will be studying with a ballet troop in Seattle this summer and we plan to go up and see their final performance. This is a real opportunity for her. Well, we will be in touch along the way. So long for now!
Brent & Molly

4/10/01 Subject: Leaving for San Diego!

A short update just to say I'm leaving for San Diego tomorrow Wednesday April 11. No, not Albion, Sashay a Catalina 42 that I'm delivering. My crew will be a friend's son, Patrick, from another Portland boat, Perpetua. We were going to take Albion to La Paz right after Jeanette left, but I decided to stay here, rest and get healthy again for the 1000 mile bash back up the Baja. I will be coming back to Mazatlan via bus or flying back. We will then take Albion across the Sea to La Paz for awhile, cruise up the Baja islands to Santa Rosalia, and then cross back over to San Carlos where we will put Albion away for the summer on the hard. We should be back on the road by the first of June. We have been here in Mazatlan now since March 1. While the kids were here, we went to the theater to see local folk dancing, toured the old town, played all day at a water park with monster slides, and ate out at the very finest Mazatlan had to offer. We celebrated Travis' birthday at Casa Country Restaurant where we all had a great time right up front next to the show. And we still had time to lay by the pool and do some boogie boarding. We were so busy and I worked so hard playing, that I came down with a cold. All for now, just wanted to touch base with everyone to let you know we are still here and having a great time in Mexico. Will try to keep in touch a little more often as we get nearer to our departure from Mexico back to the states for the summer.
Brent

5/16/01 Subject: San Carlos

Hello everybody, we've been away from cyber cafes for some time and haven't sent or received any e-mail. So this is for catch up. The last e-mail sent was about my pending 1000 mile delivery to San Diego. All went well, except I know now way they call it the "Baja Bash". We did have some good days, but were held up for three nights, two days at a little remote island waiting for favorable weather to cross a major depression in the Baja Peninsula. The favorable weather never came so we went anyway. The trip took thirteen days and a day to bus back to Mazatlan. After returning, the weather turned sour again for crossing back AGAIN to the Baja side and Molly then came down with a cold. So we waited several days and were finally getting tired of Mazatlan so we decided to go for it. Some friends, on another Portland boat Tica, were leaving to go back to Portland. They drove our car from Mazatlan to San Carlos so it would be here when we arrived, then they bused to Tucson to their motor home. The crossing was long, 45 hours. The diver never showed up to clean my bottom so I cleaned some of the parts I could reach and slowly took off. It was a fairly smooth crossing and we did a minor bit of sailing, but mostly motor-sailed. Our first stop was into La Paz to top off with fuel because we had used so much pushing that dirty bottom 220 miles. At the gas dock we saw Monte & Barb, Reprise, and renewed some acquaintances with some other friends. Then we went out to Isla Partida and anchored all by ourselves in a small isolated inlet. It was beautiful and quiet. I spent several hours cleaning the bottom. We joined Reprise at Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida the next day.Next day we motored to San Evaristo on the peninsula. We were the fourth boat in the small cove, but by night fall there were thirteen boats with us and the wind blew swinging us around during the night. We were off early the next morning to make a longer day and get up the Baja a little faster. We had a lot of places we wanted to stop, but the more we thought about it, the faster we wanted to get to San Carlos, put the boat to bed, and hit the road home. So we put in about 40 miles up to Bahia Agua Verde, another beautiful anchorage, and met up with another of our Portland boating friends on Seadater. They were on a slow track and we were on the fast track so next morning we went our separate ways. We went on to Puerto Escondido, a very large enclosed anchorage with lots of boats. There again we saw two more Portland boating friends that we had not seen for quite awhile (Jasmine Isle and La Zarder), so they came over to Albion and we talked until 11:00pm. Molly and I had gone into the settlement earlier in the day and picked up some minor provisions and had dinner at the trailer park. Our next stop was only a short 14 miles away so we sailed. The wind picked up to 20 - 25 knots so we reefed all sails and had a great sail. The anchorage was Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen a very protected "U" shaped cove. At just about each anchorage, I've been going ashore and climbing a nearby hill to take a picture. Molly and I went snorkeling here and saw lots of fish. From here we motored to San Juanico Cove and since we have been having southerly winds at night, we went around the corner to the southerly protected anchorage of La Ramada Cove with only one other boat in it. We had told a friend in San Carlos that we would probably be there in a week, but tonight we had informed him that we would be there day after tomorrow. That way they (Richard and Anita on Moonshadow) would still be there before putting their boat on the hard and taking off to Portland. The next day was another long one, bypassing several more wana-stops, and ending up at Los Pilares on Punta Concepcion. There we prepared the boat for the crossing to San Carlos by putting the dinghy away and topping off the fuel tank. We left at 8:00pm expecting to get to San Carlos by mid-next-day. But we caught good wind and a following current and were flying at over seven knots. We were going to be getting to San Carlos just past dawn.......except a boat radioed they had lost their engine and needed a tow into San Carlos. They were eight miles out, so it took us another three hours to tow them into the harbor and we didn't get in until 11:00am. We checked in, got a slip, and started working down our storage checklist. We should be ready for our haul-out by this Saturday (May 19) and probably on the road to Tucson by Sunday if everything goes according to plan. We will be heading to Las Vegas in the RV from there to renew vehicle stuff and then head for home in Portland (actually our home RV park in Salem!!!).
Brent & Molly

Log 5: Rocky Mountain RVing--Aug-Sept '00

2000-09-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

Log 5 of Albion (and other travels)

This is another collection of selected e-mails during our RV trip through the Rocky Mountain States during the summer of 2000. These were sent via our cell phone hooked up to the computer. Again, these have not been completely edited for sentence structure or grammar, but merely relayed here for the convenience of our friends.

7/12/00 Subject: On the Road Again--Wyoming

We've been traveling now for about a week and a half, but it's time to take a bit of a break and keep in touch. Thought we'd never actually get on our way, but finally did get out of town on July 2nd. We stayed long enough to join some of our cruising friends help some other cruisers, Bub and Faye (Okoke Chak Chak), celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary...and what a great party it was! Made it all the way to Hood River the first day where we met my brother and wife for dinner and a nice catch-up visit. Then it was time to get serious and get some miles under us. We headed east to Idaho and then on to Yellowstone. Many years ago we made the trip from Portland to Yellowstone overnight...we took a little longer this time spending a couple of days in Idaho along the way. Then, three days seeing Yellowstone along with all the other hoards of tourists. Once we left Yellowstone, the pace seemed much more relaxed. We spent several days at an RV resort below Jackson Hole (Thayne). We even had time to dust off the golf clubs and play a round at the park we were staying in.... ugh!! Are we ever rusty... actually we both did manage a few good shots, but never put enough together on any one hole...so our scores will remain our secret. We went for a delightful raft trip on the Snake River. It was just us, a river guide and a family from Holland. The three little girls were so much fun...they didn't speak a word of English, but conveyed their excitement and enjoyment of the trip perfectly. Then we headed further south and east into Wyoming, dodging some thunder and lighting storms and exploring areas along the way like, Fossil Butte National Monument. We enjoyed a full day in the Flaming Gorge area of the Green River. I think we really enjoyed it much more than Yellowstone due to the lack of people and the diversity of the geologic areas. We have followed much of the Oregon Trail (going the wrong way, I guess) and have crossed the Continental Divide so many times we have lost track. Today, we spent some time seeing South Pass City where most of the pioneers passed through the Rockies on their way to the Oregon country, the California gold fields, or Utah and the great salt lake. We are still in southeastern Wyoming (Rawlins), but plan to head into Colorado probably tomorrow. There is so much there we want to see and then on to Utah and some of the national parks we got snowed out of last spring. Sure hope the gas prices hurry up and drop a little!!! Well, that's what we are up to, would love to hear from all of you to know what's happening with you. Keep in touch!
Molly

7/22/00 Subject: Colorado Springs

We are in Colorado, right now in Colorado Springs. Had planned to spend about four days here, but have already extended our stay to eight and may stay even longer. We really like it here. It is a beautiful country and lots to do and see. We spent a night in Fort Collins and had dinner with friends from Portland who Brent used to work with, then three days in the Denver area seeing Rocky Mt. National Park. We visited with some cruisers we had met in Puerto Vallarta who have an RV park near the park. Also toured the US Mint...no free samples. Couldn't pass up the Molly Brown House and also the Coors Brewery...free samples there! Here in Colorado Springs, we have been to Garden of the Gods, top of Pikes Peak via the COG Railway, Air Force Academy and had a chuck wagon dinner at Flying W Ranch. We may take in the Renaissance Festival today. Still on our list to see is Cripple Creek, some fossil beds, Seven Falls, Will Roger Memorial, Olympic Center, World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, Cave of the Winds, Manitou Cliff Dwellings, etc, etc, etc, also need to find time to kick back and relax. After we leave here, we will spend a while longer in other areas of Colorado, and then move on to Utah. Weather has been warm...although every afternoon there is a thunder and lightning storm. Had a real good one in Denver. Rained like I have never seen it rain in Oregon. We were in a Wal-Mart lot and it quickly became a lake. There were flash flood warnings everywhere. We were quite happy to be snug in the RV and did not venture out into the storm. We have had storms here every day also, but so far nothing like the one in Denver. There are updates on the TV as to where the severe conditions are, and we grab the map to determine what county we are in. We have so far managed the whole trip in Wal-Mart parking lots, or Coast to Coast parks. We are in a real nice C2C camp now just a few minutes north of Colorado. Springs. It's called Colorado Heights Campground Resort and is an undulating forested park with open areas, swimming pool and hot tub, trout pond, miniature golf, and movies every night at the clubhouse. If you're ever in the area make sure you stay here. So far everything's working great. That's about all the news from here. Keep in touch.
Molly

8/3/00 Subject: Still in Colorado--Montrose

Still in Colorado, spent over a week in Colorado Springs. Really liked it there. Lots of things to do and see... and a beautiful area. We are at least back on the west side of the Rockies now, but not yet out of the every afternoon thunder and lightning storms. Little wonder that the whole western US is mostly ablaze. We get very little rain except up in the mountains, but you can count on a good lightning show every day. It's been hot also. Can't remember a day under 90 degrees. Heading south tomorrow as the fire is finally out in Mesa Verde N.P. and it will be reopening. That was one of our must sees this trip. Not sure what we will get to see in Utah as there are lots of fires there also. Played golf today. Argh!!! Perhaps it was the altitude, but I really don't think that was the problem. Looks like there has been some good weather back in Oregon. I'm feeling the need to get back and get to the coast...there's just not a lot of water here. Spent a couple of nights along the Arkansas River at Texas Creek and that was nice. While staying there we went back into Canon City and took a train up the Royal Gorge along the Arkansas River. Later we went up to the top of the canyon and Brent took an aerial tram across the Gorge, I walked across the bridge! From here we drove up the backbone of the Rockies through Leadville (Molly Brown's stomping grounds) and down through Vale to Glenwood Springs. We made a day trip up to Aspen from there with the car and had lunch. Next day we drove the RV to Grand Junction where we were going to spend the night, but decided to go on south to Montrose. Another car day trip was up Gunnison River to visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison N. P. (just recently named by Clinton). We also made a car trip over the hill to Silverton (an old gold mining town) and really enjoyed it.Guess that should catch your up on us. Keep in touch. Love,
Molly

8/10/00 Subject: Moab, Utah

Finally made it out of Colorado...the "must see" Mesa Verde became a "won't see" at least not this year. The park reopened briefly last Friday. We drove down to the area on Friday...only to notice a big plume of smoke over the park. We drove up to the entrance gate to check it out. The woman there assured us there was nothing to worry about as that fire was outside the park boundary and did not pose a hazard. If anything did happen, she said there would be at least a 24-hour notice to evacuate. She noted there were huge traffic jams as it was the first day they were re-opened and there were no entrance fees. That didn't appeal to us so we opted not to go into the park that day and decided to wait a few days while seeing other things in the area. Fire, it seems, knows no boundaries as that fire did indeed invade the park and they had to evacuate that afternoon. One can only imagine the frustration the firefighters must have had with the roads jammed packed with tourists. We were quite happy not to have been part of the chaos! The park is now closed again until further notice. While there in Durango, however, we decided to take the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge steam train up through the gorge and back. So we got to see Silverton again and a beautiful (albeit sooty) train ride through the San Juan Mountains. We spent the night at an Indian casino RV park and entered Utah the next day with a stop at Four Corners. I got to put my foot on the corner of four states at one time! Utah is much different than we found it last year when it was snowing. We are in Moab right now. This year, it is HOT! We spent a night in Blanding and saw Natural Bridges...no snow this year. We spent the last two days seeing Canyonlands N.P....WOW! So far, this is our favorite place. Every bit as impressive as Grand Canyon, but without the hoards of tourists. From here we will go further west to Capitol Reef, Escalante, Bryce and Zion N.P.'s. Sure have appreciated the geology courses we have taken to have just a tad bit of understanding how this all came to be. Guess we are getting ready to hit the road again. Am told I need to practice driving a bit more and learn to hook up the toad! Gotta go!
Molly

9/5/00 Subject: We're back!

We are finally back in Oregon...spent about a month in Colorado and then another month in Utah and Nevada. We are official residents of Nevada now...hopefully to save some $$$$. Saw most of the national parks we wanted to, except Mesa Verde. It was still on fire. It was probably the one we were most looking forward to seeing, but will have to wait for another trip. We really like Colorado and are looking forward to going back again. Next year, though, I think we may go to Alaska while my niece is still there. Brent has a boat delivery this next week from Bodega Bay to Astoria. He is planning to leave on Thursday AM to drive down and leave there maybe Friday evening. Then it should take three to four days to get back.
Molly

Log 4: Mexico--Season 1--'99-'00

2000-05-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Log 4 of Albion (and other travels)

These are the selected e-mails sent back to family and friends from our sail down the Coast of Baja California and into Mexico. It was our first trip into a third world country by boat and the anxiety ran high.

11/18/99 -- 12/13/99 Subject: Chula Vista to Cabo San Lucas

We're off! Five boats headed out for our adventure down the Baja coast into Mexico. After topping off our fuel tanks and crossing the San Diego bar, we got a call from Jasmine Isle, who left early because of their slower speed. They had engine problems and were going to have to turn back. Since there wasn't any wind, they were just rolling around and couldn't make it back in. So Albion, being the faster cruising boat, took them into tow and would catch up with the rest that night in the Coronado Islands. Jasmine Isle could not get a slip at the police dock, so we had to tow them halfway up the bay to another anchorage. It was determined then, that we would not be able to make it back out to the Coronado's that night and decided to spend another night in San Diego, and catch the rest of the boats in Ensenada the next day. In Ensenada, we all met up again and checked into Mexico. To our surprise, Kim and Chris on Jasmine Isle drove down to Ensenada with another Portland couple. We all had a great reunion and enjoyed the best fish tacos in Mexico. Since Reprise and Seadater had gotten to Ensenada early and checked in, they decided to head south. Tica and Albion had to wait until Monday to check in and then leave. Our first anchorage that night was below Punta Colnett, a very rolly anchorage. The next was after a day trip down to the Bahia San Quintin anchorage. There Molly and I anchored and were waiting for Tica. But they got a lobster pot line in their prop, and we had to go out and tow them into the anchorage. We spent the next day (Thanksgiving) anchored and relaxing and had a great dinner on Albion with Tica. We met another boat (Cyrene) that joined us for the rest of the trip down the Baja. The next anchorages were down to Punta Baja and then an overnight to Turtle Bay. We spent two days in Turtle Bay refueling, eating local foods, and meeting new friends. Then it was off to Punta Asuncion, Bahia San Hipolito, Bahia Abreojos and then another overnighter to Bahia Santa Maria. We spent two nights in Santa Maria, exploring up the lagoon and snorkeling. The next stop was just around the corner into Puerto Magdalena Bay and Man-of-War Cove. There we topped off with fuel again from the Port Captain and chartered several pongas with him to take a bunch of us cruisers up the bay to San Carlos......a real town with phones and ice cream. And we ate more local cuisine (lobsters again!) and had several boat parties with new cruisers. From Mag. Bay, it was another overnighter to the real culture change of Cabo San Lucas; para-sailers, mega-yachts, cruise ships, and big hotels. We took a buoy off the Hacienda Hotel for $10/night and had a great view of the beach and short dinghy ride into the harbor to town. We checked in here, went through immigration, and got our 10 year boat import permit. During that last leg to Cabo, our battery was loosing charge even with the engine running. We concluded, with Jan & Alan's help on Cyrene's , that it was the alternator regulator. We ordered another one from Downwind Marine in San Diego and Jasmine Isle's parents would stop on their way down and pick it up. We would just have to rent a car and drive halfway to La Paz to get it......just another adventure.

12/31/99 Subject: New Years in Cabo!!

Well, we didn't make the weather window in time to head to Mazatlan and we were comfortable here where we knew where things were.....so we decided to have a quiet dinner with friends, go back to the boat, open a bottle of Champagne, and toast the new year in watching the fireworks on the beach from our cockpit. The new alternator regulator is in and working, but the Link10 meter (that reads what is going on with the batteries) has not come up to full charge yet??? And now our engine temperature gage is reading hot??? I've checked all the logical possibilities (good water in, good water out, engine is actually not hot, so we're thinking it's just the gage (we hope). We will know when we start off to Mazatlan!!! Maybe it will be a short trip and we will be back here in Cabo for a little longer. The cruiser personnel are changing around here. That's an indication that we've been here too long (almost three weeks now). Some of the friends that we've made down the Baja coast and camped out here with, have left for other ports and new ones have come in and taken their place, but it's hard to replace "originals". Our typical day here starts with the morning Canadian/Baja SSB net at 7:00am. We listen for weather and check in ourselves...."still here in Cabo". One of the net controllers is another good friend here that we met in Mag. Bay. Then it's breakfast, do the dishes, get the dinghy in the water, and put the motor on the dinghy. By then it's so rocky and rolly because of fishing boats leaving, jet skis buzzing, and ship tenders running past, that we have to head to town to relax. We generally head to the internet cafe to check e-mail and then go to lunch. It's a nice challenge to pick a new place each time, trying something new. We may wander around town looking into shops...not buying of course, no room! We have taken little side trips like driving to Los Brillos for the new alternator regulator, bus trip to San Jose del Cabo, or a day snorkeling at Lovers Beach. But mostly we then head over to the pool at the hotel, lay around reading, swimming or taking a shower in the poolside outside shower. We may have a margarita or two, and then it's about happy hour, so we get dressed, and head for the hotel cocktail lounge where a lot of the cruisers meet just to un-wind and tell of the days activities. After a few more margaritas and chip & salsa, we all head out for dinner....again trying to fine a new place. Then it's late enough that we head back to the boat, take the motor off, lift the dinghy back on the deck, and check in to the evening "Portland" SSB net at 8:00pm. Sometimes (not very often) we get back in time to check in on another frequency at 6:45pm to see if we can reach Summer Rose back at Tomahawk Bay Marina and see how things are going. We have used that avenue to get messages back to the kids on occasion. Well, it's time to head to town.....a new cruise ship has just arrived and we have to get some things at the grocery store for the Sea of Cortez crossing, and of course get this sent! We wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2000!! We will try to keep in touch with our adventures and trials and tribulations (which aren't many), and you try to do the same. When we have access to e-mail, we love hearing from all of you.
Brent & Mollyf rom Cabo Internet Café

January 1, 2000 Subject: Mazatlan

On January 1, 2000, the first day of the new millennium, a beautiful sunrise came up over the Cabo San Lucas arches. It was also the first day of our new adventure across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan, 200 miles. We weighed anchor with Tica and headed East. The motor started running hot, so we slowed down, tried to find out what the matter was, but eventually shut the motor off and sailed with good wind all the way to Mazatlan arriving the next day about 5:30pm. On the way over, we were in contact with Richard and Anita on Moonshadow. They told us that our marina was about 8 miles north of the old harbor, which we were then heading for. As we arrived outside the entrance to the harbor, several dinghies full of Portland cruising friends were there to greet us and show us the way in. Upon docking, it was a welcomed reunion and party! It was like Tomahawk Bay Marina, G-Dock, all over again because 5 of us were all on the same dock again, except Albion which was right behind them all on the next dock.Mazatlan is a great city. It is easy to get around by a very inexpensive bus system, you can find almost any part you need for the boat or they can make it, there are many fine restaurants for dining, and there is a very exotic old town with the Central Market, Cathedral, theater, and many many shops. Another Portland cruising friend knew a doctor here, and every year he has a big BBQ. This year we were all invited out to his place for the pig roast and dancing. The cruisers at Marina Mazatlan also are busy arranging many parties, activities, and trips. One trip we signed up for was a bus trip to El Quelite, a small old town up in the hills behind Mazatlan. They are known for their cheese making and cock farms. While there we also took a house tour with the Mayor, had a great lunch, and watched an ancient Aztec ball game and rodeo. We stayed in Mazatlan until February 16th, then headed South another 200 miles to Puerto Vallarta. As we were making final preparations to leave, a friend of a friend (Miriam) needed a ride down coast to Chacala to help out on a Homes-for-Humanity project so we gave her a lift. Our first destination, however, was a small off shore island called Isla Isabela that is a bird sanctuary with a small scientific crew camped out on it. After an over-night trip, in company with Wes and Karen on Caprice, we anchored off the island and went ashore to explore and take pictures. After spending two days there exploring, snorkeling, and relaxing, we headed back to the mainland to anchor in Bahia Matachen. The next day we went around the corner into the San Blas estuary and anchored. We went ashore, checked in, and met Captain Norm and his wife Jan. They helped us with options for check-in since Miriam was not on our crew list when we left Mazatlan.....no problem!San Blas was one of the first shipping towns in old Mexico and the object of the poem about "The Bells of San Blas". They also have a great Jungle Trip up the estuary. It was one of the best trips we've every taken. Our 4-hour trip lasted 6 hours after the guide found out Molly and I were birders. We added many birds to our life list and the guide even caught a small Crocodile for us to take pictures. At the end of the trip, he came out to our boat. Molly gave him a Spanish Translator, since he was enamored by it during the trip, and he gave Wes and I a Crocodile tooth necklace. We also went on another trip while here to a coffee plantation. San Blas is also well known, however, for their bugs......the "No Seeums" but you can! They are horrible and the bites itch, swell, and last for weeks. Karen really got bit, and we all decided that 4 days was all we could stand. We then headed for Chacala, another small beach village where we were taking Miriam. We anchored there one night and then on to La Cruz in Banderas Bay. While underway, I discovered a leak in a return fuel line. Caprice was several miles ahead of us, but came back to stand by while we made a temporary fix.

February 29, 2000 Subject: Paradise Village Resort

Banderas Bay is a very large bay with several resort communities located around it, including Puerto Vallarta. We were heading for Paradise Village Marina and Resort in Nuevo Vallarta, about 8 miles North of Puerto Vallarta. Paradise Village is, in our opinion, one of the nicest resorts in Mexico for Cruisers. We have access to pools, showers, tennis courts, restaurants, zoo, cable TV at the dock, and a shopping mall. A great place to spend several months! Jeanette, Terry and Travis flew down to spend a week with us and enjoy the Mexican sun after leaving the cold rainy Oregon winter. We went on a tour vessel snorkel trip out of P.V. to Los Arcos and enjoyed watching the boat parade for the Banderas Bay Regatta. They brought several boat parts down from the states, including a new return fuel line. Only a few of the Portland Cruisers came down to P.V.; Moonshadow and Reprise, and of course there was Caprice who we met back in Chula Vista and became very close friends. Two of the great activities at Paradise are Tequila tasting parties on other's boats, and dock potluck parties every Wednesday night. This is great living!!! One of the most notable Tequila parties was on Caprice when about 14 of us cruisers jammed in this small rounded cockpit of their 31 foot boat. There were so many aboard, the bow was out of the water. We made an inland bus trip with Wes and Karen to the town of Tequila where they in fact make Tequila from the Blue Agave. We stopped at an ancient Aztec ruin, a lava field, and toured the Sousa Tequila plantation and distillery. Our friend, Al Mirati an ODFW co-worker, came down to visit us in Paradise. We had a great time showing him around Puerto Vallarta, then he helped us take Albion back up the coast to Mazatlan and flew home from there. We spent almost 6 weeks in Paradise Village and then hopped up the coast returning to La Cruz (had dinner with Portland cruisers Nancy & Herman from Sea Tern), to Chacala (had shrimp & lobster dinner with Monte & Barb from Reprise), to Isla Isabela, and then the over-night sail back to Mazatlan.

April 21, 2000 Subject: Back in Mazatlan

After a few more parties, introducing Al to some more of our cruising friends, he was off to Portland again. During our stay, we took another marina sponsored bus trip to Copala, another small village in the Sierra Madras' behind Mazatlan. We toured the town and all had to sample their famous banana cream pie for lunch. The rest of the time in Mazatlan was spent getting Albion ready for the hot summer storage in the marina. We contracted with another cruiser that lives in the marina and watches boats for the summer. She will wash it, make sure the bottom is cleaned, anti-cockroach stuff is fresh, check the batteries, and disconnect the power if an electrical storm comes through. We also leave extra mooring lines available for an emergency. After a week of preparation, we flew back to Phoenix and picked up our car that Tom and Sue had left for us at the airport and headed for Tucson to visit Nada and Dorsey. Then it was off to Mazatlan again, this time with the car, to bring a bunch of our stuff back to the RV.

5/11/00 Subject: On the Road Again!

Here we are, back in long pants and sweatshirts! Was warm (hot) in Arizona, but now we are in Chula Vista and it's on the cool side. We had a nice visit last night with Portland cruisers Tom and Sue, Earl and Donna, Brian and Laurie, and Fred and Kathy. Also, a couple we cruised the Baja with, Cyrene, are back here now having left their boat in LaPaz for a couple of years while they earn another cruising kitty. Have to go to the fabric place here and get some material for the RV windows and some more for the boat. Then we plan to head up the freeway and spend a few days in Thousand Oaks with Lynda and family. Looks like it is still raining in Portland. Guess we won't be able to avoid that. Driving to Mazatlan and back was no problem. The road is really good..four lanes all the way. We were even understanding most of the road signs by the time we got to Mazatlan. There are several inspection stops along the way for agriculture and drugs....we discovered that as soon as we rolled down the window and found ourselves staring at an army guy holding a semi-automatic weapon, every word of Spanish we ever knew was suddenly erased from our brain! Actually, once they determined we were gringos and couldn't communicate with them, they would wave us on through! The border crossing and customs was not a problem once we finally figured out what we needed to do and where to do it. We had to turn in our car permit and visas, and also we had the Mexican customs officer sign our list of equipment that we were taking off the boat to be returned again this fall. Nancy and Herman told us about that so we would not have a problem next fall and have to pay import tax on any of it. We had a very short visit with Nada and Dorsey as they were in a rush to head back to Portland also. We were loading the RV as they were loading the u-haul with golf cart and stuff. Will be seeing them back at the coast this summer, we hope. We don't know what our plans are yet. Have to check in with the taxman and get that done. It's good to be back in the RV...feels like home. Doing my own laundry will take some getting used to, but I will adjust! All for now,
Molly

Log 3: South to San Diego--Sept-Nov '99

1999-11-18T12:52:00.000-08:00

Log 3 of Albion (and other travels)

These are selected e-mails sent back to family and friends on our trip from Portland to San Diego down the Oregon and California Coast. It all started with a Bon Voyage Party for us with family, friends and co-workers at Albion's home, Tomahawk Bay Marina, on the Columbia River.

Saturday, 9/11/1999; 09:00
Subject: The adventure finally begins!

Albion is finally on her way down river, ready to turn left and head south. We had a few delays along the way, but are taking advice from veteran Mexico cruisers, Ivan and Bev Murphy and Herm and Nancy Ford, and have our schedule and plans firmly carved in Jell-O! The long-term weather forecast looks favorable. It's hard to leave now with the weather so nice here in Portland. Summer may have been a long time coming, but it sure doesn't get much better than what we have now. There is beginning to be just a bit of a nip in the air in the morning...a sure sign that fall is around the corner. We are taking it as a sign that it's time to get the hell out of Dodge! The work in the boat yard took longer than expected, but we are happy that we had her hauled. She has a new bottom, new dripless packing gland, new strut bearing and the rudder is repaired and good as new, they say. It will ease our mind a bit, I'm sure. The boat went back in the water on 8/2 and we spent the following week checking things off THE LIST! Our RV is on it's way to Tucson with friends where it will be waiting for us next spring. It will be nice to have it there so close. Thanks Nada and Dorsey for all your help. Our plans (again, firmly carved in Jell-O) are to go to Astoria today, cross the bar tomorrow and on to Newport. With both of us having lived and worked there years ago, there are lots of people to see. From Newport, we will be out to sea as weather permits, but should the seas become unfriendly we plan to head for port. We would like to take our time once we get below San Francisco. We are very jealous of Tom and Sue and all the ports they have managed to stop and see. For now.... "We're glad to say we're on our way We don't wanna be back for many a day" All for now,
Molly

9/13/99 Subject: In Newport

We had a great trip down the river on Saturday. We traveled most of the way with another boat heading south, a Morgan 44, Goodnight Irene, which had been in the boat yard at the same time with us. They are heading to San Francisco. They followed right on our stern wake through Cathlamet Channel as they had never gone that way. Since the new buoys are there now, it's a piece of cake! I'm sure they would have been more impressed with the "local knowledge" in years past! We both fueled up in Cathlamet and continued on to Astoria arriving there shortly after sundown. Goodnight Irene chose to continue on across the bar, but we opted not to cross on an ebb tide in the dark, and with just two of us aboard, a good nights sleep was important. We left early in the AM with warm sunshine and a light east wind. We crossed on the waning ebb tide. It was a bit rolly, but a very comfortable crossing. We headed south and put up sails and enjoyed a good beam reach off the port side with east winds. The winds were variable, 10 to 25 knots. We reefed and unreefed again and again. Thank you very much Mr. Harken, we do love that roller furling! The warm winds off shore seemed so out of place for the Oregon Coast. We expected to find tee shirt sailing on this trip, but not in Oregon! Finally the winds all but died out and we motor sailed the rest of the day. It was warm and sunny and we traveled right along the coast enjoying the shoreline. At sundown, we were at Lincoln City and anticipating crossing the bar at Newport about 09:00 with a favorable flood tide. But what had just a moment ago been a warm light easterly breeze turned into a mean cold blow right on the nose out of the south. It quickly grew to 25 to 30 knots steady. Where it came from, we do not know, but it was most uncomfortable. Along with it came heavy fog. We plowed our way along, giving up most of our speed. The wind finally began to die down after rounding Cape Foulweather. By the time we did finally reach the Yaquina Bar, about SIX HOURS later, the wind had settled down to about 10 knots, but still from the south. The tide was still flooding, after checking with the Coast Guard we made our way across via radar, GPS, and computer because of the pea-soup fog. Its was a good thing the Coast Guard warned us about construction on the North jetty with big barges and buoys taking up the North half of the narrow entrance. We didn't see them until we were a few boat lengths away. We charted our way up to South Beach Marina by 02:10. When the Coast Guard saw our lights in the harbor, they checked to make sure it was Albion, and we thanked them for the guidance. Then we secured the boat and hit the sack! Well, I guess you can say the weather gods showed us! We had everything from a great warm weather sail (7.5 kts), to flat calm motoring, to pounding into 30 kts at night in the fog. It is still very foggy here this morning. Guess it was 95 here yesterday afternoon and then within minutes, the southerly moved in and it was cold. Will listen to weather report and plan to head south again on Tuesday, weather permitting. After last night, a day of rest is in order and some friends from Brent's office here are coming down for a looked at our boat today. All for now,
Molly

9/15/99 Subject: Winchester Bay

That's right...that's all the farther we got on Tuesday...to Winchester Bay. More about that later. We left Newport early in the AM. Without fog, we could see the barges and marker buoys and realized we really did thread the needle coming in in the fog. The seas were very calm with some fog, but visibility was okay. We were just below Florence when we heard True Companion (fellow Baja Bounders, Fred and Kathy, also from Tomahawk Bay) on the radio with Coast Guard. They were experiencing alternator problems and checking bar conditions to see what would be the best harbor to pull into. We checked their position and they were about 14 miles behind us. We radioed them and decided to slow down and let them catch us and we would both proceed to Coos Bay. We shut the engine down and sailed along at about three knots in very light air. Finally decided to fire up the engine....only it wouldn't! We checked and rechecked everything possible to no avail. Finally, we, the would be rescuers, became the rescuees! The Umpqua River entry was the closest, but we would be entering on a strong ebb. True Companion would not be comfortable towing us across the bar and neither would we. So, we resorted to the ultimate humiliation....called the Coast Guard for a tow! What a blow to Brent! But, what a job the CG does. It was an experience to see them in action. A great crew of very professional people. True Companion and Albion were finally tied up at the guest dock about 19:45 (7:45 pm for you non-mariners). The four of us had a nice dinner ashore and decided to deal with our problems in the AM. The AM, found Fred and Kathy's alternator working just fine. Go figure! But our engine still would not start. Brent replaced the solenoid...nope, that didn't do it. Fred and Brent spent most of the morning with volt meter checking and rechecking power sources and whatever they could think of. Finally gave up, went to town to seek more professional expertise. MAYBE, tomorrow afternoon, there's a guy who might be able to come take a look. .........Brent's report from here........ Well, Molly found a screw laying in the engine room and there was a screw missing in the back of the starting motor....big deal there were still three holding the back plate, but she wanted it put back anyway so we wouldn't loose it. The starting motor, by the way is almost inaccessible, at arm's reach. So I screwed it in and went on reading more in the engine manual. The next sound I heard was the ENGINE STARTING!!!!! What did you do, I asked????? She just wanted do try it after the screw was put in, just in case it had anything to do with it. I couldn't believe it!! We killed the engine and restarted it several times without a hitch. Guess the real test will be in the morning. Next time something doesn't work, I not even going to give it a try....I'll just put Molly on it! We now refer to that screw as the "Molly" screw!So we're ready to head out in the morning (Thursday) with True Companion, but the weather is very marginal...North winds 25, Seas 4' and Swells 5'. The plan is to leave on high slack at about 7:00 and slowly cruise to Coos Bay and cross at low slack about 11:00 and before the afternoon winds kick in. At least we will be getting closer to California inch-by-inch. Bye, for now.
Brent and Molly

Subject: Eureka, CA

9/16/99 Thrusday
As planned, we left over a lumpy bar on the Umpqua and headed for Charleston in Coos Bay at slow bell. The trip went well as did the bar crossing at Coos Bay at about 10:30am. We both tied to the transient dock and had to go up to the Coast Guard to get a weather report. Still marginal and we took care of a few small projects and decided we may stay another day.

9/17/99 Friday:
Wow, beautiful day...sunny and light NW winds. We finally went over to True Companion about 9:30 to discuss the day. It seemed so nice we decided to take off in about a half hour. The worst that was predicted was NW 25 kts. We had already done that....no sweat! Away we went at about 11:00 for Cape Blanco and Crescent City. The wind kept building as we got out there. We both put up our main sails to stabilize and give us a bit of a push. The wind kept building! We finally passed Blanco at 3:45pm. True Companion had to stay on more of a SW tack to keep the sails from jibing and therefore was several miles behind and over the horizon. We had been maintaining a radio check every half hour. The WIND KEPT BUILDING! We were over the 25 knots that was predicted so it couldn't get much more.......but THE WIND KEPT BUILDING!!! The seas also were nearing 20 foot and the sea was turning completely white with foam. Then on a broach, the autopilot locked up. We could not turn the wheel back to head down wave. With great difficulty, I forced the wheel around and headed south again. I thought something had fallen against the autopilot arm below deck so Molly hauled everything out of the lazarette into the cockpit. But it didn't seem anything was wrong. It had just locked up and was VERY DIFFICULT to turn. AND THE WIND WAS NOW OVER 40 KTS!!! The main was still out and would not roll in. Several times we saw the wind gusts exceed 50 Kts. To say the least it was a wild ride. The bow would drop out of sight and we roared down the swells nearly burying the bow....the knot meter reading 12 and 13 knots!! After dark, about 8:00pm, the wind finally started to get into the lower thirties and a few hours later into the mid twenties. By the time we rounded St Georges Reef off Crescent City the wind had switched around to SE 10 kts, but the left over swells were still 10 feet. Fred and Kathy, being quite a few miles behind, decided to make a run for Brookings. He got a bar report that was music to our ears...SE winds 7kts visibility one mile. But we continued on and finally got into Crescent City about 3:30am Saturday morning. And we rested!!! The autopilot problem was diagnosed and a call to Tim Olsen (the friend who put it in) resolved the problem...the arm on the rudder post had slipped and locked the bar from the autopilot motor...never mind, you had to have been down there in the lazarette! We spent the rest of Saturday cleaning up and RESTING.

9/19/99 Sunday:
We talked to Fred and Kathy and they were headed to Crescent City Sunday, so we decided to take another day off and do some small jobs and wait for them. We also both topped off our fuel tanks today.

9/20/99 Monday:
We didn't have a good cell signal in Crescent City so we didn't send this update. We left about 5:30pm. We have a few things to take care of here and plan to spend another day, then make it to Bodega Bay on Wednesday.
Brent

9/24/99 Subject: Half Moon Bay

Wednesday, 9/22
We spent a nice day in Eureka. We walked across the bridge into town, did some provision shopping and visited the Farmers Market. It was warm and sunny and we enjoyed a day of relaxation. Fred and Brent walked over to the NOAA weather office late in the afternoon and got a weather report. It looked like it should be a nice trip the next day to Bodega Bay.

Thursday, 9/23
It was foggy, but fairly good visibility as we left the marina. Just outside, however, the fog increased. We were traveling by instruments and following a fishing boat ahead. At one point we lost the fishing boat. However, another came along and took the lead and we followed it all the way out across the bar. It was a calm sea and the visibility improved somewhat. We rounded Cape Mendocino about 11:30, still with very calm seas. The weather report for the day was variable winds to 10 knots....we can do that, right? About mid-afternoon, the wind started to fill in a bit from the north. It was very light and variable. We finally decided to put up the main for a "little push." As soon as we had it rolled out, the wind started building, and kept building. It was beginning to look a lot like Cape Blanco. We've been there, done that.....so we rolled that sail right back in! Good move. Fred and Kathy opted to leave their sail up for a while, but shortly radioed that their preventer had broken but they had managed to get the main down. Then their jib caught a gust and unfurled....made for a bit of excitement. The winds and seas were not nearly what we had around Blanco, but uncomfortable, at best. We started debating whether to duck into Shelter Cove or continue on to Bodega. We decided to ride it out and get down the coast. We had a radio call from a local fisherman who had overhead the conversation between us and True Companion. The fisherman agreed that continuing on was the best choice. He was sure we were through the worst of it and it would lay down after dark. It did and we were grateful. We had a pretty comfortable ride the rest of the night. The fog lifted a bit and we had an almost full moon to light up the sea. We got into Bodega Bay about noon on Thursday. We had a beer and shared our stories with True Companion. We will probably be parting company soon, as they are planning to go into San Francisco and spend some time. We are continuing on down the coast and will spend some time in Oxnard where we have family. The trip thus far has been challenging. We've come to know our boat intimately...much more so than one does on those weekend cruises to Martin Slough and such. Those folks who say "your boat will take more than you will" know what they are talking about. We have a lot of confidence in her.

Friday, 9/24
We said goodbye to True Companion at Bodega. They are staying for a few days before moving on to San Francisco. We left the marina about 8:30am in light fog. The sea was calm all day, but gray and foggy all the way. We got to Half Moon Bay about 18:30 (6:30 pm). Was nice to have an uneventful day! Will be leaving in the am for Monterey and will be spending a few days there. Still looking for that southern California sunshine!
Molly

9/26/99 Subject: Monterey and SUN Finally SUN!!

After we got to Bodega Bay, all we wanted to do is rest. But we pressed on to Halfmoon Bay and Monterey in two shorter day trips because the weather was right (albeit foggy) and we wanted to rest somewhere where we could play tourist. We do miss the company of True Companion. It was so nice to have another boat out there with us, especially around both the capes when things got tough. Our hourly radio checks with each other were comforting. We look forward to seeing them again either further down the coast or at least when we both reach San Diego. About a mile out of Monterey, we broke out of the fog and found sunshine and warmth. People were walking around in shorts and playing on the beach. We walked up to the marina office and then over to fisherman's wharf to have dinner. We plan to spend at least all day Sunday here, maybe Monday too, before heading on down the coast. It will be a slow day today, a lazy breakfast....as soon as Molly gets up..., a shower, and a walk around town. More later on the way South.

10/3/99 Subject: Southern California

Friday, October 1st
We are at long last in Southern California! Seas are calm and the sun is shinning...yeah! We spent three days in Monterey enjoying some nice warm sunshine on shore. We met up with Jasmine Isle (another boat in our group) and caught up on their trip. They are taking their time and stopping at a lot of anchorage's along the shoreline. As soon as we left the Monterey harbor we were back in the fog again. We anchored one night in San Simeon cove. It was a bit rolly, but a comfortable night. The fog lifted just a bit as we entered the cove, but came right back down and was very foggy the next morning when we continued on to Morro Bay. We managed to find our way through the narrow opening on instruments in the thick fog (1/8 mile) and tied up at the yacht club. We met two boats (both Passport 40's) headed north (north!?!--why?) They were very friendly folks and greeted us at the dock with margaritas. We left Morro Bay, again in heavy fog and started out for our last major obstacle...Pt. Conception...it has a terrible reputation for wind and sea conditions, but once around it, the ocean is a lot more friendly...they say. We had light winds and fairly flat seas, but still heavy fog until we got around Pt. Arguello and finally the fog lifted and we could actually see the shoreline....something we have not seen since we left Oregon. The entire California coastline has been covered with fog. We had 15 to 20 knot NW winds but very little swell. We rounded Pt. Conception and anchored for the night in Cojo Anchorage. It was windy but flat seas, so a comfortable night. It seemed odd this morning not to have to navigate our way out in the fog...it was bright and sunny. Seas are calm and we are headed for Oxnard where we will spend a few days visiting with family and then on to Marina Del Rey where we have more family and friends. LATER: We entered the harbor here at Oxnard about 5 pm. We will spend several days here while we catch up with our grandchildren's dancing and soccer games. We finally found a use for that SSB radio on the boat..enjoyed talking with Art Zehner back in Portland tonight and last night we connected with Lady L at Casselman's in Scappoose.

SAT. 9/2/99
The slip we were assigned was on the fishing docks and the boat next to us had its generator going all night. So today we started exploring for another slip with some of the private moorage's here in the harbor. Now we are in a beautiful marina (Anacapa Isle Marina) with pool, Jacuzzi, weight room, showers, laundry, no sea gull crap on the docks, and a lot better attitude of the marina operators. Very accommodating as opposed to the County Harbormaster. And the price was only $1.50 more!!! We signed up for three more days. Lynda, David, Megan and Jordan came down to the boat and graciously lent us David's car while we are here. That way we can make it into Thousand Oaks and see the grandkids play soccer games and other activities. All for now...more in a few days when we have more tales to tell.
Molly

10/12/99 Subject: San Diego

For the time being, Albion is "at home" here in Chula Vista, south of San Diego. We spent several days in Oxnard. David, our son-in-law, was generous to loan us his car for the duration of our stay there. It was very handy as we ran many errands and accomplished several boat projects. We replaced our engine kill cable which had broken while we were in Crescent City. It took the two of us to kill the engine in a fashion so we would be able to start it the next time. We also replaced the sink facet in the head. We would have liked to have spent more time in Oxnard and had more family time. Since the marina here was holding a slip for us, we had to get on our way. We left Oxnard on Wednesday and spent a long day motoring to Marina Del Rey. We had an extremely calm sea, no wind, but lots of sunshine!!!! This is what we have been looking for....We pulled into Marina Del Rey late in the afternoon. We had dinner that night with our friend, Bill and Marcia's son, Christian. The next day he took us on a long walk to Venice and Santa Monica for lunch where he worked. Friday night we had a great visit with our niece and nephew (Karen & Robert) who live close by. Saturday AM we left early again and had another long motoring day to Dana Point. At Dana Point, we found no room at the inn...the county moorage's were all full and the anchoring areas were crowded also. We contacted Dana Point Yacht Club and found them very hospitable. They had a member's slip available and then insisted we come to the club for their BBQ night, everything from hamburgers to lobsters. So, who could say no? We met a very nice couple from San Diego who have sailed to Mexico twice, once on the HaHa cruise and once on their own. We really enjoyed their insights on the trip. While there, we gave the club a SIYC burgee and got one of theirs. And Molly bought a Dana Point Yacht Club pull-over for $15. They are nice and friendly and made us feel right at home. Early Sunday AM we left Dana Point and headed for our temporary home in Chula Vista. Again, it was a no wind, motor day. The further south we got the warmer it was and the water kept getting more and more blue. We had a call on the radio from Whisper when we were about an hour away and they were headed out to meet us. As we neared the approach for San Diego, we spotted Whisper and they led us in. Brian and Laurie on Exodus and Will and Joann on Tica, who had both just returned from the swap meet in Newport, were there to catch our lines. It was like a homecoming and champagne and margaritas were enjoyed by all! Today, we managed to change our slip assignment to the same dock as Will and Joann. We took it easy today, but have vowed to start on the list of boat projects tomorrow. Brent & Will drove to town looking at watermakers and solar panels, two of the projects we are considering. We expect Perpetua and Dreamweaver to be arriving probably tomorrow and I heard that Mi Casa was due in anytime also. True Companion and Jasmine Isle are both in Santa Barbara, and Sedater and Reprise are still in Channel Island Harbor at Oxnard. IMPORTANT NOTICE!! OUR CELL PHONE IS NEARLY INOPERABLE HERE IN SAN DIEGO!! We called AT&T and they said San Diego was a very poor area for their service. Calling out is a "rare" happening, but we can get messages by via our voice mail, but not talk directly to the caller. We will check voice mail occasionally, just don't expect a response right away to your call. The best way to communicate with us is probably e-mail. We will be using the marina office land line or our friend's land line on TICA and checking it most every day. Feels like we are in an isolated third world country already! Not much hope for Mexico.
Brent & Molly

11/18/99 Subject: Off to Mexico Tomorrow

Hola amigos; Finally tomorrow if the weather looks good, which it does, we will be topping off the fuel and water tanks and heading for the Coronado Islands in MEXICO!!! They are actually only a few miles away, but it will be the first night out and in another country. After anchoring there for the night, we will sail another 47 miles down coast to Ensenada, the only major city we will be stopping at in the 800 miles to Cabo San Lucas, and check into to country officially. There are five boats from our group heading out tomorrow. We have all been busy getting last minute things done to our boats and, although I could use another few days, we decided everything looks good for a go. We have done some major items to the boat while here. To name just a few, we; -installed a new head, -installed new lifelines, -aligned the engine, -straightened the shaft, -installed a new dripless packing gland (the other new one always dripped), -rebuild the keel (after it was damaged during the haulout for the packing gland installation and shaft straightening) -installed a new stereo system (tape and cd), -installed two solar panels (flexible ones), -made shade curtains for the cockpit, ....and a lot of other minor repairs, purchases and provisioning too numerous to mention. We also ran around and got all our paper work done, ie: tourist visa's, fishing licenses (required), Mexican ham license in Tijuana, and Mexican liability for the boat. And we still had time to visit with Lynda and family twice (in Thousand Oaks), and go to Disneyland on Molly's birthday. We have also entertained some friends that visited here, like Rick Kruger (from my ODFW office), Dorsey Hensley (our Tucson friend), and several other cruising friends in the neighborhood. The social climate here at Chula Vista is great. There is usually a dinner or some activity up at the Chula Vista Yacht Club almost every night. We will miss that a lot. We have made many friends here and are leaving some of our Portland group hear for another year or two before they head south. Our loose schedule from here is get down to Cabo San Lucas about the middle of December. Maybe spend Christmas there or maybe head on over to Mazatlan where some of the group is heading for Christmas and New Years. Although we may also go around the corner if the winds aren't too strong and head up to La Paz. From there we will head to Mazatlan and then down to Puerto Vallarta by Spring to meet Jeanette and family for Spring break week. Then it's back up to San Carlos where we will take the boat out of the water in May and go to Tucson where our RV is waiting. Our car is staying here in Chula Vista with friends and will eventually be driven over to Tucson by May, or if not, we will drive the RV back over here and get it. From here, we don't know how often we will have access to e-mail and phone lines. So if you don't hear from us for awhile, don't get worried, we are just enjoying the sun and cruising slow. We will check in with an update whenever possible. We also don't know at this point if our cell-phone will work or if we can get voice mail on it. These are the exciting things about going to a third world country where they don't have the conveniences that you can count on. Until we get to Cabo;
Brent & Molly

Log 2: North to Canada--June-Aug '99

1999-08-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

Log 2 of Albion (and other travels)

These are some selected e-mails sent back to family and friends from our initial shake-down cruise to Desolation Sound before heading to Mexico. Everything wasn't completely ready yet, but it was time to go

6/14/99 Subject: Still here in PDX

We are still here in town, but have now moved onto the boat. The fella that was installing the autopilot finally got it complete last Friday. We tested it out and it didn't work. So while we were out it the river going round and round, he made a call to Raytheon back east and found out he had to switch two wires.....and it worked great!! But now I have another guy working on my anchor chalk on the pointy end of the boat. I wanted to be able to mount two anchors and the one I had only allowed one. Two would allow me to set two in a Bahamian Moor, which is setting the two each at 45 degrees forward of the boat. And I just bought a BIG anchor (capable of holding a 65' boat in high winds) and 200 feet of chain.....most boats only have 20-30 feet. This is my security blanket for those nights that it's blowing a gale in the anchorage.....I want to be able to KNOW that it will hold my boat and I won't drag up on the rocks. The anchor guy said he should have the new chalk completed in time for us to leave this coming weekend. Then we are going to beat feet (maybe fins) up to Desolation Sound (near Campbell River on Vancouver Island). It's time to take Jim & Janice Haas and our friend John Snively cruising for a week in the islands. We have given up on the idea of circumnavigating the Island. We would have to rush too much. We have to be back in town by July 30 for a wedding. This way we can relax and see some places, like Princess Louisa Inlet, that we didn't see on the last trip in our 28 footer several years ago. Here on the boat, we are madly trying to get moved in and get a few other minor things fixed for a more relaxed trip. On the motor home we had nearly a month to find our way around and put things where we wanted them....and then move them again where they belonged. We still had to buy a few more things too.....seems like every trip to West Marine is another $100 or two. Today the jobs are 1) ground the mast to the keel bolts....in case of lightening strikes, and 2) get a cracked lower shroud deck fitting from West Marine (only $93!!!) and re-install it....to keep the mast from coming down in a big blow!!! I am also going to AT&T today to get Canadian authorization on our service so I can keep in touch hopefully. I've heard it doesn't work well, but we'll see. Stay in touch!
Brent

6/20/99 Subject: On our way!!!

Hi everybody; Just a quick note to the kids and our friends that we finally got out of Portland. We wanted to get on our way Saturday, but when the guy showed up to do some final touches to the anchor chalk he had been building for a week, the anchor compartment lid did not close. He had to go back to his shop in Canby and re-fabricate another anchor shaft port into the lid. And then we had to re-tune the rigging. By the time we were done, it was about 7:30pm. So we decided to leave this morning (Sunday). While getting things in the right place, and secured away, I was finally putting the anchor chain back in the locker and finally shut the lid.....ooops, it didn't close again!!!!! Fred, the builder, was there and had to do some final fiberglass grinding to make everything fit and had to take another part off to re-fabricate again. He said he would then send it up with our friend John Snively who is joining us up in Campbell River next weekend. It seems like the project from hell!! But we finally left at about 10:30 and arrived in Astoria about 8:30pm in the drizzling rain, but no wind. The morning flood tide is about 7:00am, but we want to top off our fuel tanks before leaving....they open at 8:00, so we may be a little late for the smoothest crossing. However, the weather report for tomorrow sounds fine: West winds 5-15 knots, Wind waves 1-2 ft, and West swells of 5 ft. If we make a 9 or 10 am crossing, we should be in the Strait of Juan de Fuca 24 hours later and Victoria, BC by Tuesday night. The rest should be just CRUISIN'! Ok, it was more than just a quick note, but thought you all may want to know we ain't there no more!. More later from the Straits!
Brent

6/22/99 Subject: Victoria, BC

To all; We had a later than desired departure from Astoria Monday morning at about 8:30am after refueling. It was already ebbing on the bar by the time we got there at about 9:30. At little lumpy, but nothing breaking, so we headed out between the North Jetty and Buoy 3 across Peacock Spit and slowly came round to 328 degrees for Umatilla Reef 120 miles away. After leaving the influence of the Columbia River, the ocean got down-right nice. There was never any wind over 15 knots and seas over about 4 feet.....that's good stuff! The new autopilot just purred and all we had to do was babysit it for the next 30 hours to Victoria. We rolled out the main sail for some stability and a little push, but finally rolled it back up before dark because the wind had died. We made the turn into Juan de Fuca Strait at 0700 by entering through the "Hole-in-the-Wall" for those who know it and for those that don't, it is a small rock infested passage between Tattosh Island and Cape Flattery. Local knowledge is required to go through because of all the rocks. And conditions have to be just right. We caught a flood tide all the way to Victoria and arrived at the Customs dock at 1530 (3:30pm). Then we proceeded to the dock in front of the Empress Hotel where we backed in to an outside slip, the only one left. A shower was the first order of the day and then a nice dinner over-looking the harbor. After writing this I'm hitting the sack. Tomorrow it's on to Nanaimo, another long day, but we'll be sleeping at a dock again tomorrow and not underway like last night. The weather has been overcast, some rain, but no high winds, although there were Small Craft warnings up on the Strait of Juan de Fuca for this afternoon. We either beat the weather or it never came, we only saw winds to 15-18 knots. It's only 7:45 but I think I'm done!!!!
Brent

6/24/99 Subject: Nanaimo

We pulled into Nanaimo about 6:30 last night. Stayed at city docks. Was a long day from Victoria. But weather was ok. Overcast, but warm. Really enjoyed cruising along the islands. Now I remember what I like about this life. Heading to Comox today then on to Campbell River tomorrow. Should have a day to clean the boat and ourselves before the guests arrive. Keep in touch,
Molly

6/25/99 Subject: In Campbell River

Hi all: Finally arrived at our destination today (Friday) about 1PM. Headed out early from Comox, crossed the reef without any problems, but then encountered some stiff seas and winds from the NW. What we didn't get offshore, we got here. Fortunately, it only lasted a short time and we were back into calmer waters. Except for some adverse currents just south of Campbell River, all was a piece of cake. Tied up to a dock and are just now relaxing with a glass of wine. Looking forward to Jim and Janice's arrival tomorrow and John will arrive on Sunday. That gives us a little time to do some boat cleaning and stowing before they arrive. Not a bad trip, all in all. Some long days, but no real adverse conditions. Left Portland on Sunday and on Friday arrived in Campbell River -- right on Brent's schedule! Weather has been okay, but we're hoping it will improve. Yesterday, rain was predicted. It was our best day. Will take this Canadian rain anytime, if that's what they call it. Planning to spend the next week in Desolation Sound just cruising about. Will perhaps be out of cell range, so if you don't hear from us, don't worry. Probably be just busy having a good time! Will keep in touch as as possible!
Molly

7/2/99 Subject: Back in Campbell River

Hi all; John Snively and Jim and Janice Haas all arrived on schedule last week. We topped off the fuel tank and took off for Grace Harbor, Desolation Sound. The trip down Malaspina Inlet and into Grace Harbor was beautiful. Sighting Bald Eagles, Marbled Muralets, and Bonaparte Gulls were a very common activity during the entire trip. We anchored in Grace Harbor without a stern tie to shore. There were only three other boats in the harbor....nearly empty and very pleasant. The next morning we were awaken to the calls of Common Loons. This was a day of exploring the further reaches of Malaspina Inlet, Mink Island, and eventually into another inner-harbor of Desolation Sound Park in Prideaux Haven called Melanie Cove. Again we were only the third boat and didn't have to stern tie to keep from swinging. Shortly after arriving, we got into the dinghy and explored some of the smaller inlets and coves of Prideaux Haven. They all were pretty excited about the beauty. Next day (Tuesday) was a bummer because it rained alllll day. Nobody got wet however, because of the cockpit canvas. We just had to wipe the windows off occasionally. We went up a mountainous fjord called Hompfray Channel a little ways so they could experience the snow capped mountains coming straight down to the water and the waterfalls. Then we stuck our nose into another small cove, but the tide was too low to enter (Roscoe Bay). Then it was off to Refuge Cove for lunch and a few provisions at the store. Still raining, but we went up to Teakerne Arm to see the waterfall that falls right into the water. The water is deep there so we nosed the boat almost into the falling water. They all took pictures!!! And then it was back to Squirrel Cove for another anchor night out. Wednesday was a better day (no rain). We went to Gorge Harbor to view the pictographs in the narrow gorge entrance. John got almost as excited about the multi-colored starfish on the rocks. That evening, we checked into a marina at Hariot Bay Inn & Marina, had showers, and dinner at the Inn. It was Mexican night, and the meals were great. Jim & Janice had to make an early ferry on Thursday so they could drive all the way back to Wilsonville, so John and I got up at 6:00am and headed out while everybody else caught a few more winks. We made it back to Campbell River and their cars in two hours and they headed off. John was going down-island to visit his sister, Gloria, in Sooke. Molly & I then left the Small Boat harbor and went to the real nice marina at Discovery Harbor. The rest of the day was just a dwaddle day, reading books, re-provisioning, washing cloths, and planning the tides through some rapids on the way to Octopus Islands tomorrow. That evening (July 1) we watched the fireworks from the cockpit for the Canadian Day celebration. This morning will be a late start (about 1200) on our next leg to make an afternoon slack water at Seymour Narrows. We will top off the fuel tank (although we still have nearly 3/4 tank) get some extra oil, fill one of the water tanks, and head North up Johnstone Straight. We haven't been getting a good cell phone signal out in the islands, so I thought I would send this while still in Campbell River. And that's probably why you won't be able to reach us by phone for the next several days if you try! By for now!
Brent

7/8/99 Subject: Princess Louisa, finally!

Hi all: A funny thing happened Monday, the sun woke us up! That's right...SUN. What a beautiful day it was. Made a quick trip to the famous Lund bakery and we were off on our way to Jervis Inlet. It's was a bit of a ways to go but how nice to finally have some warm sunshine to travel in. The cockpit side windows went up and we were soaking up some rays. We passed Albion Point, and you know we had to take some pictures of that! Went to Egmont to spend the night in order to get an early start the next day for Princess Louisa. I thought Egmont was a very quaint little spot. Perhaps having sunshine helped. I'm sure, had it been rainy and miserable, I would have thought it to be the marina from hell. Except for being open to the fast moving current and the wakes of passing boats, it was a comfortable spot. We indulged in a famous Skookumchuck hamburger at the Backeddy Pub. Supposed to be the biggest burger in BC. My guess is probably in North America. We split one and still couldn't eat it all. We needed some exercise after that so we walked to the next marina to get some provisions. There wasn't much available at the store at Egmont. It was a good walk and we enjoyed seeing the area. The next day was sunny and warm again and we got an early start up the inlet to Princess Louisa. We encountered some heavy winds in the first reach out of Egmont and our speed was very slow. We were concerned that if we had these winds all the way, we would not be on schedule and miss the tide at Malibu Rapids. But after we got out of that reach, the waters were calmer and we made decent time. We arrived at the rapids right on schedule, about noon, and could not see any current as we went through. And, WOW, once inside the inlet, it is everything we had heard it to me. Beautiful. I have never seen Yosemite, but I imagine it to be something like this, if you could sail into it. High granite walls coming straight down to the water. With the heavy snowfall this winter and late spring, there is still a lot of water coming off the cliffs. Hundreds of waterfalls. Unbelievable. They should have called it the inlet of 10,000 waterfalls instead of Princess Louisa! Had heard you could count on there being a big power boat anchored right in front of the falls and there was. But also several sailboats were anchored there also. There was still plenty of room at the dock so we tied up there. Chatterbox Falls was beautiful. We could sit in the cockpit and have a beautiful view. We went for the short hike to the falls. With the warm sun today, there is plenty of runoff and the falls are running really full. We lazed around a bit and went for a dinghy ride late in the afternoon. The barometer appeared to be falling a bit, so we thought we best enjoy this day because the weather was probably going to change. And change it did! By late evening we were starting to get some sprinkles of rain, and then it poured all night. When we awoke in the am, we could barely see the surrounding cliffs. Heavy clouds hung over the top everywhere. It rained, and rained, and rained some more. We spent a real lazy day, reading, baking cookies, napping, watching movies. We were glad to have had the day before with the sunshine. Several tour boats came and went during the day. Some were open boats with everyone sitting out in the elements. Was glad I hadn't paid for one of those trips! We kept checking the barometer all day and it was rising again so we were hopeful of a better day tomorrow. The rain finally began to let up by early evening. I don't think it rained at all during the night and the morning brought some mixed clouds with blue skies and sunshine. We had planned to make the 9:05 low slack tide so had some breakfast and started out. Apparently, others had the same plan as there were four sailboats headed out about the same time. We were following another boat and wanted to video tape them going through the rapids. I think he would have preferred someone else to go first, because he really took his time getting there. As it was, we were about twenty minutes late for the tide and it had turned already. We had to power up a bit against it, but didn't have any problems. We are headed out (down) the inlet now. Planning to stay maybe at Garden Bay in Pender Harbor or someplace nearby tonight. Tomorrow, weather permitting we will go back across the straits and head for Nanaimo. Didn't make it to the Dingy Dock Pub when we were there on the way up and we hear it's a place not to miss. Think we will spend a few days in the Gulf Islands and then some in the San Juans or start heading home. Our list of boat projects before Mexico is getting longer and could use some more time in Portland, I think. Should be back in cell range today, so will hopefully get this sent today.
Molly
PS: Made it to Fisherman's Marina in Pender Harbor by 4:00....cocktail hour!!!

7/10/99 Subject: Heading South, slowly

We are back in the Gulf Islands and beginning our trip south, but taking our time. Weather has finally turned good and we have the canvas off the cockpit enjoying the sunshine. After leaving Princess Louisa, we spent a night in Pender Harbor at Fisherman's Marine Resort. A really nice spot. We had a great dinner ashore at the Sundowner Inn. Highly recommend it for anyone coming up this way. Yesterday was sunny and warm and after refueling, we headed across the straits for Nanaimo. We were hoping to do some sailing, and did for a short time, but the wind just didn't materialize. It was just another great day in Paradise. Got into Nanaimo early in the afternoon and anchored off of New Castle Island along with lots of other boats. The warm weather has hit and everyone seemed to be out enjoying it. I understand it is finally warm back in Oregon also. We spent the afternoon lazing about and made a trip to the Dingy Dock Pub at Bud and Lisa's recommendation. What a fun spot. Good food and good drinks. Great view while dining. It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed just sitting on the boat enjoying it. Hated to go to bed. But we had an early tide to make at Dodd Narrows in the morning. We got up early today and made the slack tide at Dodd Narrows about 8:30. We are now headed for brunch at Telegraph Harbor and will spend the day there. Need a catch up day to do laundry, etc. From here we will continue south through the islands and are now planning to be back in Portland sometime the week of the 18th. We seem to be back in cell range pretty much most of the time now, so will try to keep you informed of our location. Hope you are all enjoying the summer sunshine. All for now,
Molly

7/14/99 Subject: Back to the States

Howdy folks, The last update said we were heading for Telegraph Harbor on Thetis Island. They were expecting a large powerboat group in that day, but we were the next to last boat they had room for....and this was 10:00am. We were going to have brunch there, but they only had breakfast rolls and coffee. Still a nice friendly store and marina. Molly did some laundry and later we dinghyed down the bay to Thetis Island Marina and Resort for a late lunch. They also had a large powerboat group in that were all the same make and size. It looked like they had all mated and been reproducing right there in the marina. Sunday the 11th, we left about 10:00am and wasn't going very far over to Montegue Harbor Marine Park so we rolled out the sails. There wasn't much wind, but we weren't in a hurry either! However, about an hour later, we had run out of wind completely so we rolled the sails up and motored the rest of the way. We got there in the early afternoon and some boats were leaving so we picked up a mooring buoy right on the beach and didn't have to anchor. Later we toured the park and dinghyed through the boats in the harbor. There was Reprise (Monte and Barb) from Portland...one of our Baja Bounders. They were not aboard so we left our boat card on their dinghy davits so they would see that we had been by. As we were leaving, however, they showed up in their dinghy and we chatted with them for awhile. THE THING to do at Montegue Harbor on Galiano Island is catch the "Pub Bus" over to the Hummingbird Pub. We had done this in the late 80's when we were here with Jim and Janice Haas and John Snively. The bus was still the same and believe it or not, they still played the same Fats Domino tape (I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill...) on the ride over plus the driver's humor. We met some other great people on the way over too, and had dinner with them. Monday the 12th, there was a good wind so out go the sails and we had a great sail over to Ganges on Saltspring Island. We stopped there for awhile, bought some provisions, had lunch and then headed for Otter Bay Marina on North Pender Island. While we were there, the dock master ("wharfinger" up here) said he had just received a report that the Orcas were coming up the channel. They had a great observation platform and everybody headed up there to watch them go by. They were a long way off, had to use binoculars, and there were a lot of boats around them....but we saw some! Tuesday the 13th, again we tried for about an hour to sail but finally gave up when we were going less than 2 knots. We motored over to Sidney Spit Marine Park. But it was a minus tide and the bottom came up quickly. There were several larger sailboats on mooring buoys so we knew there was enough depth if we could just find a way in. After several tries...and grounding out a few...another sailboat came by that knew the way. We followed him without running aground...but just barely. We tied to a buoy, dinghyed ashore, went for a 2k scenic walk of the spit, had lunch and then decided to go to Port Sidney Marina just across the way. By the time we got there the wind was blowing quite hard (Gale warnings were up on the strait). There was another boat with a roller furling main and it was howling....he didn't put his "flute stopper" up his track. The marina is all they say it is...beautiful! We had an excellent dinner at Newport Restaurant (not the chain!!) and had a walk around town for supplies and a couple of books (we had finished the ones we had!). Back on the boat, we watched a movie and went to bed. Today, Wednesday the 14th, we are still here, but planning on crossing the Haro Strait to the San Juan Islands and check back into the States. Don't know yet where we will end up for the day. It rained a bit last night and the wind is howling out right now. The weather report is for scattered showers, but nice weather is due again by the weekend. Now that we are back in the lower Gulf Islands and the San Juans we will probably be within cell range much more of the time. So it's easier to send these updates.....or GET THEM! Thanks everybody for sending us mail. It's great to get up in the morning and see two or three e-mails from friends and family. Thanks!
Brent

7/17/99 Subject: Port Angeles

Ahoy everybody; We just got to Port Angeles this afternoon (Saturday) after a nice motor sail across the strait. Last Wednesday we headed across Haro Strait from Sidney back to Friday Harbor (USA!). The crossing at times WAS "Haro"ing. There was a strong ebb tide (heading South) and a strong northerly breeze (heading north) which makes for a few lumps (read: white capped swells) where the current really gets going. Anyway we made it to Friday Harbor checked through customs. The agent taught school in West Linn at Bolton Middle school just down the street from where we used to live and where Carrie and Lynda went to school. After check in, and having to pay Reagan's "User" fee of $25 dollars to get back in the states, we went on over to Reid Harbor on Stuart Island and grabbed a buoy. This is the last place Albion anchored when we picked her up three years ago before we headed home. Thursday, the 15th, we fought another strong adverse current up to Friday Harbor. A little more provisions, a few more books, and lunch. Then it was off to Spencer Spit Marine Park on Lopez Island where we picked up another buoy and started reading our new books....getting a lot of reading done on this trip!!We had called for reservations at Rosario Resort for the next night, but they were full. They said we were welcome to pick up a buoy at no charge, but to use the facilities (shower, laundry, pools, sauna, etc) there is a $20 fee. We did that Friday (the 16th) and put our name on the waiting list for a slip at the marina. After our showers and checking out the store, the dock director notified us that we could move into a slip. So we went back out to the boat, and headed in. All of these "strong ebb tides I've been mentioning mean LOWER than LOW tides at the end of those ebbs. The wind was still strong so I was making a wider than normal swing into the slip and a little faster....because we were going to be blown off the slip as soon as we were in the right place. Anyway, BANG!!, we stopped dead aground nearly pitching Molly off the bow. The young lady that was directing us in called for backup help, but with a little maneuvering, I finally backed off and made another approach with no problems. The dock director was over in a motor dinghy in no time and apologizing. I told him I put it aground, you guys didn't! But he insisted that there would be NO FEE for this evenings moorage. At $50/night I didn't fight too hard, but told him I wasn't going to sue anybody. I later put my wet suit on and examined the keel. It had a 3 inch round divot on the bottom of the port wing. I also swam over to look at the rock I had hit and there wasn't any. It just had shallowed out with a hard bottom. After getting the laundry caught up, we enjoyed a nice meal at the mansion and the Christopher Peacock Rosario History show. This morning (Saturday) we left early to have breakfast at Olga. But the Cafe Olga didn't open till 10:00, so we had breakfast rolls and mochas at the Olga Store. Then weighed anchor for Port Angeles. It was a fairly calm crossing with little wind. We sailed for a while, but clearly we were defeating our goal...to get any speed from the sails we had to head in the wrong direction. So, we mostly motor sailed across. So we just fueled up ready to catch the ebb down the Strait of Juan de Fuca first thing in the morning. The ebb is all day long, but we want to miss the strong afternoon westerly winds that are predicted. Next update we will be back across the bar in the Columbia. That, if everything goes fine, will be Tuesday. Cheers!
Brent

7/20/99 Subject: Up the Columbia

Hi all, -- TuesdayWe are back in Oregon and headed up the river. We left Port Angeles early Sunday AM. The forecast was possible strong winds in the strait by afternoon. We wanted to get as far along as possible before the wind came up and we had a good ebb tide to ride all the way out. The winds never materialized and we had a smooth ride all the way. The closer we got to open seas the flatter it got. The weather report, when we got to Neah Bay, was for light NW winds decreasing by evening, light westerly swell, light and variable winds on Monday. Sounded good...so away we went heading south. Rounded Tattosh about 2:45 in the afternoon. The northwesterly wind was very light and not enough to sail by, so we motored along. During the night, the wind increased and we put up a sail to stabilize the effect of the swell which was increasing and becoming a real pain hitting us broadside. With the current and wind pushing us along, we were making much too good of time and it was clear we would be getting to the Col. River bar way ahead of schedule and the favorable tide. We slowed down as much as possible and finally turned off the motor and sailed by the mainsail only. Even at that we were making five knots. Then the fog came in. Thick fog. Long and short of it is when we got to the Columbia, we had heavy swell(20'), strong NW winds (20-25 kts), thick fog (vis. 0.1 mi) and adverse current. Not the conditions we would choose to cross on. Listening to the radio, the Coast Guard was very busy. We heard a call from a 35' Bayliner, out of power and drifting towards the south jetty. He kept calling the Coast Guard asking how much longer before they got there (and the boats name was Getting There), because "that jetty is getting real close!" Finally he put out his anchor and it seemed to hold, because when the Coast Guard helicopter hovered over him, we heard the CG tell him he appeared now to be in no immediate danger and they'd be back later for him. We heard another boater calling for help from "somewhere near buoy 1," he didn't know for sure where he was and wasn't too sure about his fuel supply; could the CG please come and escort him in. Then, we heard a women call for assistance. Her last known position was "somewhere on the bar." When the Coast Guard asked her if she had a GPS aboard and could she give them a lat/long position, she did not respond. I suspect, she didn't know what that was. Clearly, the Coast Guard was too busy with these folks, and we best be making it on our own. Good electronics and Brent knowing the bar well helped. We plotted our course to the buoys. Finally were able to spot Buoy 8 when we were less than 2/10 of mile from it. At buoy 10, the fog began to lift and it was a bright sunny day. And what a beautiful day, we thought. We were happy to see land and know that we could rest in Astoria. We tied up at the marina, had showers and joined our friend Nada for a nice Italian dinner. We hadn't seen Nada since we were in Tucson this spring, so it was nice to catch up. But we made it an early evening and went to bed. Brent had had little rest off shore, so he was ready for a good night's rest! We are now headed upriver and though it will be a long day, we are hoping to make it to Portland tonight. I just talked to Linda at Columbia Crossings and our old slip, G14 is open and she guessed that we probably would be able to find our way there even in the dark! So, Albion and her crew should be feeling really at home tonight! Thanks for all the correspondence along the trip.
Molly

8/23/99 Subject: Good News/Bad News

Hi all; The Good News...... the rudder on Albion does not need to be replaced, just repaired. When we took it out of the water to have the drip-less packing gland put in last week, they found small blisters on the bottom and they recommended that the bottom paint be completely scraped off and new paint put on......ok! Then we got a call that there was serious delamination on the rudder and you better come over right away and take a look. The rudder had some cracks along the leading edge and felt punky in several places. They said they would not know for sure how bad it was until Monday (today) when their rudder man got back from vacation in Hawaii, and that if they needed to replace the rudder (build a new one) it would take a minimum of two weeks. Today's report was that the core material was just fine (and in fact the best foam material that rudders can be made from), had no moisture in it, and that they would just have to cut the delaminated areas away, rebuild those areas and wrap the rebuilt rudder with new fiberglass. The bad news is.....we are still going to be delayed about a week and a half later than our expected departure date of the middle of this week. That means that we will be trying to get out of here on or about September 5th (Labor Day weekend). We still plan to be arriving in San Diego about the first of October. We were planning to harbor hop like everybody else is.....we may just miss a few now, but still plan to have plenty of time to see some sights. Just wanted to let everybody how things were going on Albion and not to have too much fun down there in Chula Vista before we get there. The party sounds fun and we expect a great welcome from everybody upon arrival since we will probably be the last ones to get there. More later!
Brent & Molly

Log 1: RV Trip after Retirement '99

1999-04-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Log 1 of Albion (and other travels)

This, and following pages, are a collection of selected e-mails back to family and friends about our travels. This first Log is about our RV trip through California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada right after Retirement, March 1, 1999. Please excuse grammar and sentence structure, as these were written quickly for a specific audience. The reason for including them here is for a record of our travels for people that were not included in the original correspondence and friends that we've met along the way that want to know what we've been up to. The other "log pages" include our travels in Albion to Canada and Mexico and more RV trips around the USA. Have fun reading them, we had fun making them!

2/27/99

Subject: RETIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES! We are now RETIRED!!!! Last night was a great party. There were about 40 people there and many from past years that returned to say congratulations and well wishes. The Habitat chief made some presentations including the lap charts for Mexico from San Diego to Panama. She also has a Yamhill winery and gave us a couple bottles of her select wine. Also got a $100 gift certificate at Captain's Nautical and my 30 year plaque. Jeanette & Terry gave us a $100 certificate at Camping World. And I got lots of hugs!! Maybe I should do this more often. It was great seeing some of my ex-coworkers again and hearing some of the stories that they told to the group again. Molly also got to see some of our past friends from Newport/Tillamook. And the girls at Molly's office sent her a big bunch of balloons, with a nice card attached, to the party. Didn't get much time to eat or drink....too busy working the room. But a great time was had by all.

Brent & Molly PS: It's RAINING like hell here right now..wish we were GONE!!!!!

3/3/99 Subject: On the Road!

Hi all, We finally got out of town! Didn't make it too far on Tuesday...all the way to Salem! We had several last minute things to do before leaving town...got a new printer for the computer....went to Captain's Nautical to spend Brent's gift certificate...he got me a new pair of binoculars...what a guy!...stopped on the way out of town at Camping World to spend that gift certificate...got a table, extra water filter and sewer support "slinky". Thanks again! Called JoAnn when we got to Salem and took her to dinner. Went to a Mexican place, had a nice visit with her. She and Mary Ann are busy getting wedding plans in order. Think it will be a good time. Today we got up, did some laundry, went to Costco, Thriftway, and K-mart and finally got on the road about 1:30. It was still wet and very windy. Was kind of a wild ride down the freeway. Got to Grants Pass a little after five. I think this is the first night we have had to just kick back, relax and get to enjoy the RV since we moved in! Tomorrow we will head over to the coast and further south. Still looking for dry weather. Would like to spend some time in the wine country, but if it is still raining, may just keep on going! Will keep in touch. We'll try to check the e-mail daily.

Molly

3/6/99 Subject: "Southern California"

Finally got into "Southern" California, but just barely....Morgan Hill just south of San Jose. We are staying at a Thousand Trails camp here. We activated a 30 day free membership that we got when we bought our Bounder. The stay is free but not a great spot, very dusty......and worst of all cell phone signal is a flat line....and satellite TV will not lock on. The antenna does get a few stations so we can watch them instead of talking to each other. Brief Trip Log: Thursday--Left Grants Pass 10:30, headed over to the coast via the Oregon Caves road (down the Smith River) and hit snow on top. Met several semi's on the narrow mountain road, but they stayed on their side and I on mine.....I think! Moseyed on down the coast stopping at Crescent City (sandwiches while watching the boats in the marina) and Trinidad. Finally stopped for the night at Laytonville in a Good Neighbor Park. (283 miles) Friday--I'm sure we hold the record for the LEAST miles traveled in a day....28. We drove down to Willets to a Good Sams Park and set up camp. Then took the car over to the coast for the day. Stopped in Fort Bragg for lunch, drove down highway 1 past the resort where "Same Time Next Year" was filmed (just watched the movie last night!). The park was nice and we were all by ourselves. Stopped at a couple of wineries. Added to our stock. Saturday (today)-- Left 10:30 after washing the RV and car. Stopped at Dry Creek Winery for a couple bottles of wine and wind breakers with sailboats on them of course!! Then on down 101 through San Francisco......DO NOT take 101 through SF!!!! It takes you right through downtown.....and the red lights are on the side-posts, not hanging over the middle of the street. Missed one and nearly got a car in the intersection!!! You know, one good thing was learned, when you stand on the breaks, the rig STOPS!!!! Also, some of the things that have been riding just fine all long, suddenly, aren't! Then on through SF to here, Morgan Hill. We are staying here two nights. Tomorrow we will drive the car around and visit some of the wineries in this area. Will head out Monday for Thousand Oaks to visit Lynda. Then San Diego and then east. We will probably not head up to Death Valley since it's a little far up there to back-track. So will head east to Tucson a little earlier than planned. We still want to stop and see Anza-Borrego State Park and Joshua Tree N.P. on the way over....and who knows what else. We'll keep in touch.....when the signal is strong enough!

Brent..and Molly, too!

3/9/99 Subject: Thousand Oaks, CA

Whoever said "It never rains in Southern California" was WRONG! We woke up this morning in front of our daughter's house here in Thousand Oaks to rain drops on the roof. Yuk! The last few days, however, have been pretty nice. No shorts yet though. We did finally take the sweatshirts off and after looking at the closet, realized that maybe we took too many. We have been keeping in touch with the kids and other friends with e-mail. This cell phone/modem combination is just great. We write the message, que it up, log on, and it is sent instantly. Total airtime is normally less than a minute from start of dialing to disconnect. The only problem we had was at the Thousand Trail camp where it was up in the hills and the signal was flat-lined. We had to drive down the road four miles in the car and then log on.We spent several days at Lynda's seeing the grand kids activities...Brianna at ballet, Megan at jazz dance and Jordan at baseball. We even took in a Lakers game...scanning the crowd for stars was fun!

3/13/99 Subject: Chula Vista

Arrived in Chula Vista Friday afternoon and drove up in the hills to our Thousand Trails camp.....nice but still just a camp! Again, it's up in the hills and we don't "get any dots" on the cell phone so keep it off. Friday night we went to dinner with Will/JoAnn & Brian/Laurie at the Chula Vista Yacht Club. It was St. Patrick's night with corned beef & cabbage. The marina is REAL nice, quiet, and clean. The yacht club is located right on the board walk and the end of Will & JoAnn's dock. We are planning a "dwaddle" day today (Saturday) although we may head in to San Diego to LOOK! Then Sunday morning we are going in to the yacht club and have their Sunday Brunch with the guys again before we head out of town. Since we cannot get cell reception here, Thousand Trails has a phone hookup for computer e-mail. I haven't ever gone on-line at a "modem friendly" campground before and will try to sent this that way. Remember, on a land line for me it is a long distance call back to Portland, although Teleport does have three phone lines in San Diego....don't know if that's long distance from here or not. If that doesn't work I'll add a PS to this note and sent it via cell phone if we get to town today.....or tomorrow. Short term plans are to head East to Anza-Boreggo and Joshua Tree Parks and then on to Tucson by the end of next week. May spend two nights at each location...Anza-Boreggo has a Good Neighbor Park and Indio near Joshua Tree has a Coast to Coast. Still haven't had shorts on, but I have shaved my legs in anticipation [Molly]! Take care and will be seeing you soon we hope.

Brent and Molly

3/16/99 Subject: Indio, CA

Today we are in Indio....just east of Palm Springs in an AT&T area with good strength. It only takes a minute or two to sent and receive messages in this area....probably depends on time of day too. We went for a road tour of Joshua Tree N.P. today after we arrived. Saw some neat cactus plants and got several more lifers....first sightings of birds. We'll be here for two nights kicking back and sight-seeing. We are staying in a true "resort" RV community with swimming pools, tennis courts, shuffle board, horse-shoe pits, rec. rooms, weight rooms, community center, etc., etc., etc. AND it only cost us $6/night because it is one of our Coast-to-Coast RV membership parks. WHAT A WAY TO LIVE! For the last two days (after leaving Chula Vista visiting cruising friends) we spent a day in Ocotello Wells touring and hiking in Anza-Borrego State Park (the nation's second largest state park). The RV park, however, was a wind swept, sand box. It was across the highway from one of California's off-road vehicle areas. At least it was mid-week and not very busy. The first night there was beautiful. No wind, lots of stars, warm, and very quiet. Just what you picture for a fine desert retreat. Getting to Ocotello Wells required coming down a long narrow winding road. Although I was just touching the breaks occasionally, they started getting a bit mushy and starting to smell. I found a place to pull over and they were smoking. We waited a half hour for them to cool, disconnected the car (Molly drove it down the hill the rest of the way), and proceeded to Ocotello Wells. I will be a little more wary next time and disconnect earlier. Thursday we plan to head east to Phoenix, where we will probably meet up with our friends Bud & Lisa. There is some kind of kite festival there this weekend, so we may do that before we then head South to Tucson to see some other sailing friends that live there now. THEN we are on our own and will probably see some of the National Parks to the North. Hope everybody is fine there. I'm starting to actually think that this is NOT JUST A VACATION......and looking forward to more adventures.

Brent

3/23/99 Subject: Tucson Travels

Had time to sit and do some e-mail catching-up of our travels. Better news than the last one! By the way we are in Tucson. We stayed several days with our friends Nada and Dorsey Hensley and then she had other friends coming and "kicked us out". (Actually, she was willing to stay over at the neighbors so we could all stay there, but we opted to move on.) We moved into the same park that Bud and Lisa Root are staying in. We were storing the RV in another park when at Nada's. We will be staying here until Friday. Then we will probably head to Phoenix to watch Lisa compete in a kite competition. And then we don't know where! The weather is unbelievable, mid 80's, and SUN! There is supposed to be a chance of showers on Friday.....but I don't think they know what showers really mean. We have been seeing lots of sights. Friday was Old Tucson Studios, where they have shot several movies and TV series like Gunsmoke and High Chaparral. There were several shows that Nada guided us to. Saturday, Bud & Lisa and we drove almost to Phoenix to go to the Renaissance Fair. A full day of shows and medieval dress and contests....like real jousting. The best show was the "Birds of Prey". The first bird (Zulu) an African eagle, didn't want to cooperate and was flying from roof to roof, and wouldn't come catch the target the trainer was throwing. Finally the bird took off on a thermal, soaring higher and higher.....and never came back!!! Sunday we went to Catalina State Park and did some hiking and birding in the hot desert SUN, and then a great dip in the pool at Nada's development.....then cocktails of course! Monday was a "work" day! We moved the RV to the other park, but also got it lubed & oil changed. We had the car looked at and an appointment made for Wednesday....the air conditioning (YES AIR CONDITIONING!) makes the car stall out when at idle--a problem we hadn't noticed in Oregon! And I took the RV past a roadside window repair vendor (there are several just along side the road) to check if the crack in our windshield could be fixed. It started as a chip and then one day zipped in a nice arc of about 12 inches. He said they could fill it and it would be about 90% better and not split anymore. We will go back on Friday and get it fixed on our way out of town. That should take care of all the maintenance things we needed done. Tuesday (today) is (as Lisa put's it) a "dwaddle day". After we all went out to breakfast, Molly & Lisa went shopping and bought new dishes and.....well a whole bunch of stuff (good stuff!). Costco here has booze!! and gasoline too! Bud & I put a roof vent cover on his motor home, using the new drill that Molly bought me for Christmas. Bud and Lisa are now out flying their kites and Molly is putting things...stuff away....and I'm doing this in the shade of our awning sipping a beer! Hope the weather is getting better there.

Brent

3/29/99 Subject: Williams, AZ

I know, "Where the hell is Williams, Arizona?" Well, it's about 30 miles West of Flagstaff up in the mountains. We are camping at a little over 7,000 ft., a long way from the desert. It looks a lot like Eastern Oregon pine forests here. We spent over a week in Tucson visiting, and seeing the sites. The last place we visited was Biosphere2 where 8 people lived for 2 years in the early 90's in a 3.1 acre glass enclosed environment without any supplies from the outside (well not quite true...they had to import some oxygen when the artificial cement rocks that had been build started using up the oxygen during it's aging process). The Biosphere had 5 different habitats that they maintained and did experiments in (including a 100 million gallon Ocean habitat with an self-sustaining coral reef). The other habitats included a rain forest, desert, savanna, and marsh. They grew all their own food to live on in those two years too. If you're ever in Tucson, make sure you see it. Then we headed to Phoenix with our friends Bud and Lisa Root. Lisa was flying her kite in competition. And she won first place in the mandatory maneuvers and second place in the free-style flight to music, beating out 4 men. We were proud of her and everybody was impressed that she had her own cheering section all the way from Portland. We stayed in Phoenix three nights at a nice RV park and went swimming several times after a day in the hot sun watching kite flying. The temperatures are still in the mid to upper 80's and we're starting to get a little color.....but we're taking it slow! We had some large umbrellas with us and used them to shade us from the sun......something we had never used them for in Portland!!! Today we drove 150 miles North through Flagstaff and then West to Williams. We thought this would be a good staging area for heading North tomorrow to visit the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We've never seen it before and this is one of the MANY first's we expect to see from now on. We still see RAIN fronts coming into the Pacific Northwest on the National weather reports. Therefore, we're not in too much of a hurry to get home and get started working on the boat.....got a friend doing that for us already! We still plan to see many of the Utah National Parks, then head for Las Vegas. Molly's closest friend from high school sent us an e-mail saying she is getting married in Las Vegas on April 14. So we made reservations for the 13th through the 15th at a Coast-to-Coast RV park right near the strip (only $6/night!). After that we will probably head home slowly working our way up through Reno and Northwestern California. Let people at work know that it's not getting boring yet and I'M NOT COMING BACK!

Brent

4/1/99 Subject: Blanding, Utah

Hi! Don't know when we may be able to send this. We are in Monument Valley--"roam and no dots!" on the cell phone. We spent Tuesday (3/30) in the Grand Canyon. We parked the RV in a park just outside the park headquarters and drove into the park in the car. Weather was very windy but comfortably warm. We took the rim tour and hiked back to the village on some of it. They were doing some controlled burning in part of the park so some of the views were a little smokey--made our pictures a little hazy looking. Wednesday we awoke to stronger winds than the previous day and looking like it could get stormy. We drove back into the park but then headed east along hwy 64 along the east rim of the canyon. It was much cooler today and really windy at all the stops we made along the rim to view the canyon. As we left the park and dropped back down to the desert, we encountered very windy conditions from the side. It was more than a little scary at times. Brent had a good workout just keeping the rig on the road and then just being able to see the road at times was a challenge! We had the lights on and at times it was like driving in heavy fog because of the blowing dust. Would have liked to be able to shorten sails--but couldn't find any reef lines! No place looked like a good place to stop, but continuing on at times didn't look like the best option either. At one point, the gusts rattled us so bad that it made the awning latches come loose. We had to stop several times right on the road and finally strapped then up with Velcro and bungee cords. But we continued and finally the wind was at our back and made travel a little more comfortable. We stopped for sandwiches in Kayenta and considered spending the night in a parking lot there, but decided to go on to Monument Valley to a Good Sam park there; it's at the location John Wayne stayed and filmed when here. We haven't been able to see any of the monuments--too much wind and blowing dust. They say they are out there, but can't see anything! We were going to visit the park headquarters, but there was a fee to enter and since we couldn't see anything, decided to wait until tomorrow to see if the visibility is better. The RV park is pretty nice and we were able to pick a good spot where we could orient the rig into the wind and not be broad sided by the gusts. We did enjoy just kicking back for the afternoon. I spent some time learning the scanner and printing some pictures from the camera. I got in a real twit; thought I had lost some pictures I had transferred the other night. They were the ones with Herm and Nancy and also Lisa's kite pictures. Knew I had edited and transferred them from the camera, but they weren't in the Kodak albums where they were supposed to be. I had cleared out the camera to make room for Grand Canyon and beyond. Finally did a search for all my "jpg" files and found them and put them where they belonged! Hate to have the computer get the best of me! It's after dinner now and it seems like maybe the wind has died down a bit--or maybe we are just getting used to it! We are hoping that this will pass by the morning. If it does, we plan to see this area before moving on north to Natural Bridges, Arches, Canyon Lands, etc. Thursday--The wind did stop during the night and in the morning it was .... snowing! Thought at first Brent was playing an April's fools joke! Not snowing hard, but enough to make the ground white. The snow at least settled all the dust from the day before. And, yes...there were monuments out there. See attached picture view from our front window. After breakfast we returned to the park headquarters. It cost $2.50 per person ... and very well worth it ... when you can see something. We took the self-guided drive and I took a lot of pictures. Weather was clearing up so after noon we left for Blanding. Arrived here in early afternoon and spend a "dwaddle" afternoon. Really needed to do some cleaning ... everything had a layer of dust after yesterday's trip. We will spend a couple of nights here (I think!). I have Roam and lots of dots so will send this tonight. We will take a car drive tomorrow to Natural Bridges and Glen Canyon--Lake Powell. On Saturday we want to go on to Moab, where we will stay several days seeing Arches and Canyon Lands National Parks. I say we want to do that on Saturday, but am not sure because it is again snowing here where we are tonight, so all these plans depend on what the weather allows us to do. But the weather reports seem to indicate that the weather will be improving over the weekend, so that's probably what we will do. Will keep you posted.

Molly

4/3/99 Subject: SNOW Bound

Friday... HELP! We thought this was desert country.....and SPRING...not Winter in the mountains. It's been snowing all day! We slept late and finally the snow abated a bit so we decided to drive up to Natural Bridges N.P. about 30 mile away from here (Blanding, UT). We got up there but couldn't see a thing because of the poor/snow visibility. We did walk to one over-look and saw where the natural bridge should be, but good visibility would have been better. The only picture we took was on the way out at the entrance (see picture). We came back to camp and just lazed around (I mean dwaddled!)....watching the snow fall the rest of the day. Right now (6:30 pm) there is about 2-3 inches out there. We made reservation tomorrow in Moab UTAH, but don't know if it will be do-able. Even if we can, I'm not sure we are going to see any arches or canyons! This weekend is an off-road jamboree in Moab, so the Good Neighbor park said they wouldn't honor the reduced rate. We are getting pretty depressed, after all the nice weather we had and now this. But there seems no place to go to get out of this. They had about 3 inches in Phoenix, I hear, and they canceled a Pro Golf Tournament in Scottsdale. I guess we will save some of the sight seeing in this part of the country for "the next time". I guess we can just sit it out, work our way up to I-70, and then head on over to Las Vegas. Apparently I lied to Molly.....I told her she would never see the SNOW again and here we are snow-bound in Blanding....where-ever the hell that is!Saturday am.... I didn't get this sent last night. The connection was acting up. The sky looks a lot better this morning, but it's white outside. The highway looks clear, so we will wait around til late this morning and then take off for Moab. Last night after we went to bed and were watching TV, we heard a knock on the door. It was the park manager saying it was going to get down to 20 degrees tonight and that the water should be unhooked. He said he'ld do it if I wanted, which he did. After awhile, however, I went out and drained and coiled the water hose and put it back in the basement. I also unlocked the car doors and took the emergency break off. I thought I was done will all this winterizing shit! Oh well, hope you're warm.....if you are we may be heading that way sooner than expected!

Brent

4/3/99 Subject: Moab, Utah

Today was a better day!!! Sometime during the night, it stopped snowing....and the skies cleared and in the AM we had sunshine! It is amazing what a difference a little sunshine can do. Yesterday, was gray, gray, gray skies and snowing all day long, I swear. Today, although it was still cold, everything was clear and crisp and bright! We left Blanding mid morning and had about 80 miles to go to Moab. Fortunately we had heard a news report about there being a "Jeep Jamboree" weekend in Moab this weekend and had called ahead for reservations .... there are more jeeps in this small town this weekend than we have seen in a lifetime! Our poor car needed a car wash after being towed on the wet road ... you can imagine the wait at the car wash as all the jeeps were there to wash after being off-roading! There are a lot of RV parks here, but they are all jammed as is every motel. Glad we didn't have to find a place to eat tonight .. am sure every restaurant is packed. We made some sandwiches and then headed out for Arches National Park. So far, this is my favorite place. I felt a little like I did when we went to Glacier Park. When I saw the first glacier, I got so excited ... not knowing there were dozens and dozen more to come. After a while, it was ... "oh, it's another glacier." I am glad we had just taken John's geology class because we were able to look at the formations and identify them and appreciate their formation. Really made a difference. It was a full afternoon in the park. We made a lot of short hikes out to viewpoints and took lots of pictures. Am finally beginning to use the camera efficiently ... I take every picture I see, then come back and review them on the TV, eliminate the ones I don't like, then transfer them to the computer and clear off the camera to be ready for the next day! One of these days, I am going to have to get serious about printing them ... oh well, I have a lot of time. Had an e-mail from Jeanette ... first retirement check arrived. YEAH!! Now it's real!!!!! Don't know what tomorrow's weather will bring. Report is for another storm front to be moving in, but not as strong as the previous. We want to see Canyonlands NP tomorrow, but if the weather is anything like yesterday and Natural Bridges, we may pass and have another "dwaddle" day. They aren't so bad.

Molly

4/5/99 Subject: Moab to Vegas

Didn't get a chance to write anything and sent it off this morning so I am writing this as Molly is driving across Utah at 65 mph. I will try to put an update together by excerpts from other e-mails in the last week. ......... SUNDAY (4/4)... Snow on the ground again today, but decided to go to Canyonlands anyway...about 30 miles from our park. As we entered the park another snowstorm hit and didn't look like it was going to pass anytime soon. Upheaval Dome, which I wanted to see was another 10 miles inside the park. We drove a few more miles and could barely see the sides of the road, so we turned around, went back to Moab and went to a movie, then to dinner. When we got back to the rig, we called our friends Bud & Lisa, who were in Bullhead city in their RV, and asked then how the weather was there....they had sunshine and were still wearing shorts!!! Although we really wanted to do the rest of the National Parks in southern Utah, we decided maybe next time! We told Bud & Lisa we would be heading for Bullhead City tomorrow. Well, that's where we are now....heading for it, that is. We figure we can make Las Vegas late this afternoon and have an easy day tomorrow (Tuesday) to head South to Bullhead City. Actually they are just a little South of that in Fort Mojave. That's as up-to-date as I can make it for now. If I don't get this sent on the road, I will include some pictures and send it tonight. By for now,

Brent

4/12/99 Subject: Las Vegas

We are in Las Vegas (Monday night) but were unable to locate a soccer tournament. We didn't get here til after noon. Checked into a beautiful RV park right near the strip ($6/night as Coast-to-Coast member). Then drove in and toured some of the casinos. We decided to go big pig (whole hog to others) and get tickets to some shows. We got tickets to see Wayne Newton and Crystal Gayle. Lots of shows to see but these were the only ones we had heard of. There is a storm system over LV right now and it did spit some moisture today, but when we were sitting outside watching the wave pool at the Mandalay Bay Casino, we just sat there having a drink and everybody else ran for cover.....they weren't from Oregon! The temp, however, was 67 today. Actually it is thundering and lightening out right now (8:40pm)!!! The eats here are great too. Tomorrow we plan to go to an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for $3.45. In-expensive on the pocket book, but very expensive on the waistline! After L.V. we plan to see Death Valley then on to Reno/Tahoe and then slowly work our way home to Portland by the end of the month. See you then. It seems awful strange now that we have not worked for a month and a half, the longest vacation I've ever had so far, but I'm getting to like it a lot!!!

Brent

4/20/99 Subject: Still in L.V.

Yep, we're still in Las Vegas!! We decided to stay an extra week because we were having so much fun and there are so many sights. We have gone to see three shows and have tickets to see the Righteous Brothers tonight. We have also seen most of the "free" shows and attractions, the best of which is the fountain show in front of the Bellagio that is synchronized with music. Bud and Lisa have been here since last Thursday and we have been going to most of the attractions together. They are leaving today (Tuesday) and we are heading to Death Valley tomorrow. The weather is getting warm!! The pool at our RV park resort has been well used. Yesterday was 93 and it's predicted as 94 today. Death Valley was over 100 yesterday so we may have second thoughts tomorrow if it is staying that high. We're not looking forward to heading home, especially when we see on the national weather map that it's still getting wet up there. But we do have to start getting the boat ready for Vancouver Island in June. The fellow I have working on the electronics is done and only has the new autohelm to put on.

Brent

4/26/99 Subject: Reno

We are leaving Reno this morning in cloudy and predicted windy conditions. Temp today will be 64 and yesterday was in the mid 70's. We did it all in Las Vegas. The last show we saw was the Righteous Brothers, sang all the old songs and it was great. We left L.V. on Wednesday and headed out the back door of Vegas, through Pahrump, Death Valley Junction, and into the Valley from the south. The temp was about 92 when we got there. We drove back down the valley to Badwater (-282' below sea level) and then another 30 miles South to take a picture of a hill that is located right on top of the fault that formed Death Valley. The East and West side of the hill actually slipped North and South of each other. Like splitting an apple and moving each half along the same plane about an inch. We stayed in Furnace Creek campground with no facilities except just a place to call our own. Had dinner at the Furnace Creek Ranch Restaurant and saw some Harley Davidson bikers with "Beaverton Oregon" on their shirts. One asked me if I knew Kay Brown (when he found out I worked for ODFW). I told him of course....she was my new boss (Asst. Dir. of Habitat Division) just before I retired. His name was Rick Williams and is Kay's brother-in-law. So I have to say Hi to Kay from him when I get back! The next day we drove to the North end of the valley to Scotty's Castle and Ubehebe Crater, then up to a very narrow canyon where we took some pictures of the car wedged in some of the corners. The canyon is called Titus Canyon, but some of us in John Snively's Death Valley class (Clackamas Comm. College) several years ago corrupted the name a bit because it was so "tight"! That night we filled the motor home with gas so we wouldn't have to worry during the next long day in the outback. The price....$2.03/gal! The trip, when we left, was up a monstrous hill (the Panament Range) out of the valley and then down the other side. No roller coaster was ever like this, you know the coaster is safe, but if the breaks get too warm coming down this narrow 9% hill for five miles, that's all she wrote!!! Then it was cross the Panament Valley (another one just like Death Valley) and up and over another mountain range. Molly drove the car behind the RV from Death Valley until we got down off the second mountain range, much less to pull up one side and hold back down the other. We were headed for Mono Lake, CA that night, but it was getting very cold and snowing. We drove through snow on the highway over one of the passes (8,000 feet). We were going to stay two nights in Mono Lake (actually Lee Vining) and drive the car over the mountains into Yosemite N.P. the next day, but the pass was closed because of snow. Therefore, we only stayed one night and hoped the pass beyond Mono Lake toward Reno would be ok the next day (8,100 ft). The next day was fine, dry roads. So we are in Reno now in a park (actually in Sparks). There aren't many shows here like LV. We went into town and did some nickel slot machines just to get rid of what we had left from LV. We kept winning more, however, and finally cashed out, then went to the Nugget for dinner. We are heading out today (Monday) toward Susanville-Alturas-Klamath Falls-Bend and over the hill to Portland. At least that's the plan for now. We should be back by the end of the week. Not too rushed but in the right direction! That's it for now. Talk to you when we get back.

Brent