Cinnabarbarians on Wheels

Tom and I left Cupertino on October 1st and spent the entire month on a most enjoyable journey. The goal was to visit friends in Colorado and New Mexico, stop in San Diego to take care of some business, and just spend some time enjoying the beautiful southwest.

We loved driving along US Route 50, "The loneliest highway in America". Nevada's roads and historic markers are excellent, and we enjoyed traveling this famous road that somewhat follows the Pony Express route, and reading all about Nevada history along the way. 

Miles and miles of this.

You never know what you'll see on the Loneliest Highway.

Welcome to beautiful Colorado!

We eventually made our way to beautiful Clifton, CO, to visit our friends the McGuires who own the lovely Casa de los Suenos in Bahia Concepcion. What with visiting them in CO we managed to mooch off of them at all their properties this year, Bahia Concepcion, Gualala CA, and Clifton CO. They are all very scenic places with excellent views, so hooray for us!!

While in Clifton we enjoyed some hiking, biking, wine tasting, beer tasting, visiting friends and TONS of eating great food.

Downtown Grand Junction had lots of art.

Quiche made using the McGuire's fresh eggs and Kelston's elk sausage.

Mike and Kelston had just returned home from a California lobster trip, and our first night was a surf and turf of Elk filet (shot by Kelston) and lobster. Then Mike and I bought some freshly roasted peppers and made lots of elk and lobster chili rellenos. Sorry, no pics of those rellenos; all the evidence was eaten immediately.


The weather was gorgeous so we spent lots of time outdoors. 

Ten Mile hike to Independence Monument

After inflicting ourselves on the McGuires for 1.5 weeks we left Colorado and headed south to Taos, to visit the infamous Joe and Kitty with whom we had rendezvoused in Bahia Concepcion in April. We checked the freecampsites.net website and found some great, FREE, BLM campgrounds, and spent a pleasant (but kind of chilly) night along the Million Dollar Highway on our way to Taos.

Tom makes a "hobo dinner" of chili and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at Lower Hermosa Campground, Durango CO.

Kitty and Joe live in a fabulous place in Arroyo Seco near Taos, with fantastic views in every direction. 

They even have a cute rental on their property,  Kitty's Casita that they rent out via VRBO and Air B&B. It's a terrific place!

It was great fun to enjoy the wonderful Taos climate, which was sunny and warm most days, although we did get hail one day.

Joe and Tom cycle the Rio Grande Gorge Canyon Rim trail

Kitty and I couldn't resist this HUGE Kohlrabi at the farmer's market

Taos is fascinating and filled with artists. We went to one of the best museum exhibits I've ever seen, "The Kings and Queens of Cool, Lowbrow Art", which was modern, colorful and mind-blowing. 

"The Birth of Ginger". Gilligan's Isand...Oh hell yes!

My personal favorite - "Carne de Amore", babe reclining on a taco. Who wouldn't love that?

After leaving Taos we made our way to San Diego via more beautiful and free campsites. 

Stunning view from El Malpais campground.

The dramatic gorges of New Mexico

Camping in the Sonoran Desert.

We camped at Sweetwater Regional Park in the city of San Diego for three nights. After a couple of days of "taking care of business" in SD, we drove up to Seal Beach to rendezvous with Kitty and Joe, and Nick from Iolanthe for a reunion of the old Bahia Concepcion gang. 

Nick sailed over from Catalina.

We even managed to rendezvous with Jake in Santa Monica one night.

The gang is reunited!

It was the first time since 2013 that we were all together again. Kitty and Joe were nice enough to let us sleep on their boat, which was super comfortable. It felt GREAT to be sleeping on board once again, but it made us miss Cinnabar even more. The weather was fantastic, but alas, we needed to be home by Halloween to keep a Trick-or-Treating date with some special little goblins. So we left at 5:30 a.m on Halloween day and arrived back in Cupertino around noon.

We're taking care of some last-minute things and then we hope to head back down to La Paz very soon. We miss Cinnabar and can't wait to check her out to see how she survived Hurrican Odile. We heard she is fine with no damage, but we still want to see for ourselves.

I tried to map our route on Google Maps, but they have "improved" Maps to the point where it is ridiculously complicated and unmanageable and I finally gave up in a fit of pique. Harrumph!! 
UPDATE: Tom mapped our route!! Thanks Tom. Here it is: Tundra Road Trip Western States

Or here is a picture of the route:

CA to NV to UT to CO to NM to AZ to CA

The entire PICTURE ALBUM of our trip is HERE. 

Stats:
Six states - CA, NV, UT, CO, NM, AZ
Miles - 4, 075
Beds - 8 (including a boat and the Toyota)
Campgrounds- 
1) Lower Hermosa, Durango CO - FREE BLM land 1 night
2) Joe Skeen/El Malpais, Grant, CO - FREE BLM land 1 night
3) Buckeye Regional Park, Buckeye, AZ - FREE BLM land 1 night
4) Sweetwater Regional Park, San Diego, CA - $29/night 2 nights, 1 night FREE (couldn't find anyone willing to take the fee)
Straight days spent above 4,000 ft. altitude - 24 days

Our trusty Toyota Tundra that took us everywhere we wanted to go.

Oops, He Did It Again! Tom Sails To Hawaii

A gray dawn at the Pacific Cup Village, Richmond Yacht Club

Tuesday, July 8 08:00, Pacific Cup Village, Richmond Yacht Club - One of the reasons we returned to the SF Bay Area was so that I could plunge into my duties as the Pacific Cup Yacht Club’s Rear Commodore and Chief Inspector.  I am part of a team of 17 inspectors here on the mainland that has been actively assisting/advising (and sometimes annoying) nearly 60 boats that have been working feverishly to satisfy the numerous gear and safety requirements for this 2,000 mile race. It is a long distance and boats must be able to take care of themselves not only with normal day-to-day functions (like sailing and eating), but they also must be prepared to independently cope with all manner of problems, be it a cut finger to catastrophic rudder failure or worse.

Moore 24 Absinthe showing off her emergency rudder. 

The culmination of all this preparation is…wait for it…The Inspection. The inspector shows up at the boat with clipboard, checklist (long), measuring tape and calipers and proceeds to go through the boat from stem to stern making sure each boat has her storm sails, liferaft, first aid kit, spares, personal safety gear, etc.,  and so on. And on. And ON! 

Absinthe's anchor and personal safety gear displayed on the dock. These guys passed in less than an hour with a perfect inspection!!

Inspections typically take 1-2 hours, depending upon how well a boat has laid out their gear for the inspector.  Inspections are fun because we get to see some really cool boats that have been prepared in some very clever ways. I started inspecting my assigned boats as soon as I got home, and Tom joined me so he could view and take pictures. I should have known then that “the bug” would bite him.

Well Hello There Sailor - During one of the many social events preceding the race, one of the other inspectors mentioned that one of his boats, a nicely-outfitted Jeanneau (Sun Odyssey) 49’ named Venture, was looking to add a crew member because one of their key crew had become seriously ill and could not do the race. I threw Tom’s name into the hat, half-joking. Or not. 

This boat was in the Cruising Division (not eligible for racing tophies), and Tom is a racer, so I doubted he would be interested.  Shortly thereafter,  the skipper of the Jeanneau, Michael,  came by to introduce himself. He seemed like a great guy, he and Tom hit it off, and one bottle of Dry Creek Fume Blanc and several beers later Tom decided to check out the boat the next day. This was Thursday night and the Jeanneau was scheduled to set sail Sunday morning. IN THREE DAYS! 

From the Pac Cup Website - Venture's boat profile picture. Nice!!

On Friday Tom checked out the boat and met some of the other crew. On Saturday he spent the entire day putting together his sailing kit using some of what he had (most of his good stuff is on Cinnabar in Mexico), plus borrowing and buying to fill out the rest. 

Tom missed the pig roast on Saturday. I ate a pig foot for him.

On Saturday night we sorted through all the gear to consolidate what would go into his sea bag, and we finally hit the sack a little after midnight. 

Early the next morning we drove to Sausalito where I met the rest of the crew and their families, the crew did their final preparations, and the boat cast off the dock at 09:00, right on schedule.

Team Venture at attention and ready to cast off.

And They’re Off! - I drove to the St. Francis YC, took my place on the race deck, and was pleased to see Venture sailing toward us from Sausalito. The warning gun was at 10:30 and of the five boats in this Cruising division, Venture and two others jockeyed for position on the starting line just like real racers. The starting gun was fired and Venture was the second boat over the line by just a few seconds. She quickly passed the boat that had crossed the line first and was the first boat to exit SF Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Thursday, July 10, Hey, Aren’t You Cruisers? - Four days later Venture is still in the lead, although I expect the “real racers” to catch up to her in within a day or so. We (the Race Committee) have been starting boats every day, with the slower boats starting first and the fastest boats starting last, (last start with the racing sleds is tomorrow), with the idea being the most of the boats will end up arriving in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, around the same time. It’s become a bit of a laugh on the race deck, that most of the boats in the “Cruising”, aka “Holo Holo” Division (Hawaiian slang for “just walking around and having fun”), are not going low and slow as expected, but are obviously sailing as fast as they can!

Venture is in the lead (even though, technically, they aren't racing) and over a quarter of the way to Oahu!!

I haven’t heard anything from Tom, nor do I expect to until they arrive in Kaneohe, but the boat has a transponder aboard and I can follow Venture’s progress HERE.

So now the big questions is…will Tom and Venture arrive in Hawaii before I arrive there on July 17^th? Traditionally, the Kaneohe Yacht Club has Mai Tais waiting for all the new arrivals. If Tom arrives before I do then he’ll have to have a Mai Tai waiting for me instead of the other way around!

The Press Release describing the Holo Holo (Cruising) start is HERE.

Pictures of the Holo Holo start are HERE. Venture is sail# 28641.

Skipper Michael’s 17 yr. old son is Venture’s official blogger and his blog is HERE.

Thank you!!
1) Huge thanks to my friends Synthia, Mary and Lou who let Tom and me use Eyrie for a week and a half as our "salty motel" at the Richmond YC Harbor during the Pac Cup festivities.

Synthia's race 'do. She's racing on the Hobie 33 Aero which left on Tuesday. Good luck Girlfriend!!

2) Huge thanks and a big "Whew!" to Sonja and Erik for helping me deliver Eyrie back to South Beach. It was a challenging sail in high winds and nasty swells and wind chop but we got Eyrie home safe and sound. 

Next Stop - Kaneohe Yacht Club!!

Memories of Mexico

Oh the shame of it all! We have been home nearly a month, a month I tell you (!), and are finally now getting around to updating our final days in Mexico. We could do what some of our friends have done, i.e. hang out with others and then link to THEIR blog post and photos instead of doing one of our own. (Props to Tivoli for teaching us that nifty move.) Nah! That would be way too clever for the Cinnabarbarians. So, urged by some phone calls from worried friends (“Are you guys home? Are you OK? Why no updates?”) we are pulling ourselves away from all the busy-ness that has forced us to be delinquent and are forging ahead with some pictures and words of our Last Days In Mexico.

We spent our final days in Bahia Concepcion getting to know some of the locals who live in the area. They are VERY interesting as you might expect. 

Jerry used to play piano in honky tonk bars. Here he serenades local windsurfing legend Ramona.

It takes a certain kind of person to choose to live in the desert in a foreign country with no electricity or municipal plumbing. All power is via solar panels and generators and the water is delivered into a communal tank by truck. The water is non-potable so all purified drinking water must be purchased in the nearby town of Mulege.

Two nights before we left Concepcion we went over to Armando’s restaurant and bar on nearby Santispac beach for DJ night. 

I take a break from Rob's birthday to drink a Margarita for my friend Dina's birthday.

Nancy from sv Shindig got the place rocking and Tom and Nancy dazzled the crowd with their dance moves. 

Tom and Nancy rock the house.

Tom was very impressive when he started busting out his Michael Jackson moves. The locals now call him “Michael”.

We were going to have a beach cook-out for Rob’s actual, real birth day (If you recall we celebrated Shindig Rob’s birthday for several days!) , but we managed to convince neighbor Jerry to host us one final time. Rob and Nancy (sv Shindig) dove for clams that day and hauled the fixins for clam pasta up to Jerry’s house. Friends of theirs on the boat Lanikai sailed into Concepcion just in time for the party.

Very fresh clam pasta for Rob's actual birthday.

Host Jerry with Sylvia, Nancy and Leilani from sv Lanikai

May 18 -The next morning, as Cinnabar, Shindig and Lanikai left Bahia Concepcion, we got numerous radio calls from the neighbors with whom we had partied at Armando's, wishing us all a bon voyage and hoping to see us next year. Clearly Tom and Nancy had made an impression.

Shindig and Cinnabar buddy-boated south toward the beautiful bay of San Juanico, but we decided to anchor just north of there at La Ramada, an anchorage we had never been to before. It was HOT when we dropped the anchor and I immediately went in for a snorkel to cool off. Shortly after that, Rob and Nancy launched their dinghy and came over for an impromptu gathering of cold drinks and snacks. 

Trying to look cool, but feeling REALLY hot!

Rob and the "Tequila Lover's Guide" doing a better job of looking cool.

We heard on the radio that the cruisers in nearby San Juanico were going to gather on the beach for happy hour, BYOB, so we decided to dinghy over to our beach and hike over the hill to join them. Rob and Nancy met some of their old friends and Tom and I got to meet some cruisers we had only known by radio contact.

The proper collective noun...a Convocation of Cruisers?

The next day Tom and I left for our next leg of the journey, La Ramada to Bahia Candeleros. (The resort at Candeleros has good wifi access and I wanted to Skype into a Pacific Cup board meeting that night.)

After a pleasant night in Candeleros we left early the next morning with San Evaristo or Isla San Francisco being our destination. Speaking of San Francisco, as we left Candeleros a fog bank settled over us, making us feel like we were back in our own San Francisco!

San Francisco or Baja?

The fog wasn’t cold but it did cool things off and soaked the rigging causing big dirty, wet blobs to fall down on us and all over the deck, which made for a good excuse to give Cinnabar a wipe-down.

That day no matter where we went it seemed the wind was going in the wrong direction. It had been southerly on the nose all day but as we approached the north anchorage of Evaristo, the wind shifted and became a northerly, with wind and chop blowing into the anchorage. Not good! So we headed over to Isla San Francisco because an island SHOULD have a lee side, right? But no matter where we motored looking for a calm spot the wind seemed to blow us into the island. 

We decided to finally drop the hook in the NE anchorage which seemed pretty calm once we got inside, although we could see numerous boats in the more popular western anchorage. 

Isla SF, NE anchorage, SW anchorage in the background.

Who was right? We were hoping that if the Coromuel winds piped up that night (strong SW or W winds - cooling to people on land, annoying and potentially dangerous to sailors) that we would be in the good spot. At any rate, the snorkeling turned out to be phenomenal, the anchor had a great set, and the anchorage was only slightly rolly that night.

The next day, May 21^st, we got an early start with a stupendous sunrise but no wind...

My watch says 6:57 a.m.

...and we motored all the way to La Paz. We got there so early that we motored into the city along the Malecon for a new perspective of the city.

Motoring in La Paz, the Malecon as seen from the water.

Once in La Paz we got busy starting to decommission the boat for her summer storage. I had a ticket to fly home in 9 days so time was of the essence! We had a long spreadsheet of all the things we needed to do to store the boat for the summer, including getting her “hurricane ready” by removing all the sails and canvas on deck so, in case of a big blow, they didn't fly off the boat taking bits of boat with them.

Dropping and folding our jib on deck.

Of course we also made some time to hang with friends!

We reconnected with Leif and Lisa from SV Finisterra, here at Harker Board

One day Tom even helped out with delivering a boat to a freighter anchored off La Paz. Tom and others prepared the boat for shipping... 

Hired divers preparing the lifting straps.

...before it was hoisted aboard the freighter which had been contracted to transport a boatload of sail and powerboats from La Paz up to British Columbia.

SV Indigo gets lifted onto the freighter which is already full of boats.

Our album of last days in Bahia Concepcion and La Paz is HERE. Tom’s version of Bailando con las Estrellas (Dancing with the Stars) is a must-see.

The weather in La Paz was becoming oppressively hot.  I left on May 30^th and Tom followed about a week later after tying up some loose ends in La Paz.

Since arriving home we have been LOVING the temperate climate of the SF Bay Area. We’ve been hanging out at my sister’s place and for one week we had a great house-sitting gig and all we had to do was feed the cute kitties and water the plants. (Thanks Deniz and Lissa!)

Tom has been busy and I have been fully occupied inspecting boats doing my part in helping to get the Pacific Cup fleet ready for the big race across the Pacific Ocean from SF to Oahu. 

Inspecting Scarlet Runner from Melbourne, Australia, just arrived by way of the Caribbean race circuit, Cape Town to Rio (de Janeiro) race and Sydney to Hobart race. Boat not shipped but sailed everywhere for deliveries!!

So I am still immersed in all things boat, just can’t get away from it! Boats are arriving from out of town from as far away as Australia, there is the big push to make sure all boats get inspected for safety gear, and the Pac Cup festivities start raging next week. We had an exciting and busy summer last year and it looks like this summer might be just as crazy.

Adios Bahia Concepcion!!

We have been in Bahia Concepcion so long that people are accusing us of "parking", not cruising. It will be interesting to see what our anchor looks like tomorrow morning, or what might be living on it, when we finally hoist it to leave one of our favorite places.

Just one of the many reasons why we love Bahia Concepcion - world class sunsets and sunrises...

Sunrise in the La Posada anchorage.

We have spent the past couple of weeks relaxing, getting to know some of the local characters, and helping out with a few tasks...

Doing a few final tasks before we leave.

We heard our friends on Shindig were in Punto Chivato so we call Rob on the VHF radio. Tom had to climb the hill on the Mulege lighthouse to reach him.

A lesson in VHF radio propagation

A couple of days later Shindig arrived in the Concepcion anchorage.

Shindig arrives on a very windy day.

That night Shindig joined us at Casa de los Suenos for some BBQ Cabrilla (grouper fish).

Tom, Nancy and Sylvia. It's great to see our friends again!

Turns out it was Rob's birthday...or would be in a few days.

Happy Birthday Rob, day #1, the Tequila Tutorial

Tom and Rob went kiteboarding! 

Happy Birthday Rob, day #2 - kiteboarding back to the boats

Tom and Rob had a great day! Boats in the background.

Next day Tom and Rob attacked one of Mike's Top Secret projects...

Mystery Mission Accomplished.

There is more to tell, but we are getting ready for Rob's big birthday bash on the beach tonight. Yes it finally really IS his birthday. Tomorrow we are heading back to La Paz via a few beautiful anchorages and (hopefully) pleasant nights on the hook. More news and pictures will follow in a few days...