We get to Cabo in plenty of time, but we can't keep track of time

Huge thanks to Tom for continuing the blog posts while we were underway, using SailMail and SSB radio waves! How cool is that?

You already know that much as we adored Ensenada it was time for us to depart. Tom wanted to stay a bit longer but I was ready to leave, so we had a democratic vote. The girls, Cinnabar and I, won and so we left on our weather window of three lovely days, begining 16 Feb, and a slight threat of getting pasted on day 4.

Sylvia and Cinnabar win the vote and leave Ensenada.

Warning: If you are a sailor you might want to skip this next part in orange because you already know how this all works.
Some people have asked us what it's like to do a 4-day sail, aka a "passage". What do we do all day? Do we stop at night? Here are the basics of how we made the passage...
1) Standing Watches - someone has to be up all the time, 24/7, to monitor navigation and keep an eye out for other vessels, whales, kelp rafts, etc. During the day we mostly did 4-hour watches. Tom would be up for 4 hours while I napped/slept/rested, then I would be up and he would go down to rest, and so on. At night we found our watches had to be slightly shorter, and 3-hour watches were better for us. The On watch would keep an eye on things as mentioned. The Off watch would rest, check navigation, rest, prepare meals, rest, read, etc. And rest. During my On watch I would do the following every 30 minutes - stand up and do a visual 360, turn on the radar and check for boats or anything else that might be in the vicinity, check the GPS and paper charts to confirm we were where we wanted to be and going where we wanted to go, if the engine was running check the oil pressure and temp, check the battery voltage to see if we need to recharge via engine or genset. Additionally, we always kept an ear open to listen for any new sounds that might indicate a problem somewhere. Tom allowed me to have the sunrise watch, my favorite!

Sunrise Day #3

Every morning after sunrise I would do a walk/crawl-around to make sure everything looked OK, no loose screws or pins on deck (!!!) and to toss the occasional suicidal squid back into the water. Tom spent a good deal of his off-time inspecting equipment and performing minor repairs.

One morning we gybed into about 50 whales, mostly mothers and calves, that we swear had not been there minutes before. We had to thread our way through the pod so as not to endanger them or ourselves.


Tom threading the whale pod needle. Wish we had pics of the whales!

So yes, you have to pay attention all the time.
 
2) Steering - We mostly steered by setting a course and letting our W-H Autopilot (Wil Hamm) handle the driving. Sometimes we would put the autopilot on standby and hand steer just to amuse ourselves. On the last day our autopilot couldn't handle the higher winds and steep, lumpy wind chop and Tom hand-steered for the last few hours. Using the Autopilot allows us to hunker down under the dodger to stay out of the wind and nighttime/morning dew. We can control the Autopilot from this position with a remote control.
 
3) Food - Even though we waited for our calm weather window you never know if things will get lopsided due to unexpected winds or lumpy seas. To prepare for this I made a big pot of tasty meat and bean chili. (Thanks for the recipe Dina!) Night #1 was Chili Mexican style, with salsa, cilantro, cotija cheese, tortillas. Night #2 was Chili American style, with grilled cheese sandwiches. Night #3 was pasta tossed in a chili-like bolognese. Night #4 was a suspiciously-chili-like curry soup. Thank goodness there was no more Chili left after that. We also keep a big bowl of healthy and not-so-healthy snacks handy. Lunches are usually some sort of sandwich, sometimes cold and sometimes grilled. Breakfast is usually cereal, instant oatmeal, fried egg sandwiches, and/or fruit.
 
4) Drinks - We drink plenty of water, juice, and the occasional soda. We usually don't drink alcohol on passages, but since the weather was so calm we treated ourselves to a Tecate with dinner each night.

Ooh, I feel so naughty!

Hot drinks are a luxury, no, a MUST during night watches. Years ago I bought a restaurant style pump thermos that keeps water hot all night long. We heat the water and fill it up at sunset. That way we can have hot cocoa, tea, cider, whatever we want, during our night watches.
 
5) Showers - Sorry, we are sailors and can't always manage to shower every day. That said, nobody likes to share a boat with smelly sailors, so we have lots of baby-wipes that do the trick for a few days at least. Cinnabar has a shower so after we dropped the hook in Cabo we treated ourselves to our well-deserved HOT water showers. Heaven!!

I think that's it for the sailing questions. Please feel free to send any more queries our way.

So far we love Cabo San Lucas. Like Ensenada it has terrific food and wonderfully friendly people. And the air and water temps are much warmer. We finally feel like we are on vacation.

We discover Cabo's only brewpub, Baja Brewing Co.

Just In Time: We had a rather weird first day, however. It seemed that wherever we went businesses were closing early, happy hours ended early, everyone in the marina office left early. We even went to a movie and the ticket vendor tried to talk me out of purchasing tickets because the movie had already started. I tried to explain to him (in my bad Spanish), that the previews were always at least 10 minutes and it was only 10 minutes after the hour, now sell me the tickets! He shrugged and did so. Well, Tom and I were somewhat baffled by the movie, how could we have missed so much in just the first ten minutes? This sad tale of confusion continued the rest of the night but I think you get the idea.

The next morning we got up early because we had agreed to visit our waiter's English class as his "Show and Tell" gringos who would converse with the class. We dutifully showed up precisely at 08:00 only to meet him coming out of the classroom with a shocked look on his face. He told us it was 09:00, not 08:00, and class was over! We howled with laughter as we realized we had failed to turn our watches ahead 1 hour. We were in a different time zone! Stupid gringos!! We took Simon out for coffee and had a good time getting to know him better.

Simon forgave us for missing his class.

In Which I Become Familiar With the Mexican Medical System: Due to a (now I know minor) health issue that I needed to address we have stayed in Cabo a bit longer than intended. It's always scary to get sick in a foreign country, but the up side is that I have gotten a first hand education about the Mexican medical system. I am even more convinced that the medical insurance system in the U.S. is horribly broken. My first medical visit in Cabo was to the public clinic in town for a "consultation". For the high price of about $12.00 I got my numbered ticket and sat down with the rest of the unfortunates, most of them  children and pregnant ladies. From talking to some of the other women I found out that the Mexican government offers free health care to children up to 4 yrs of age, all pregnant women, and people over 60 yrs of age. There were also other tiers of free medical for those with chronic problems such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, etc.

There were two very young doctors assigned to consult with the patients. At first I was impressed by the one I was waiting for because he seemed to spend so much time with each patient. Then I started doing the math. After about 5 hours people were starting to get irate and the children were beginning to self-destruct. I ended up being there for SEVEN HOURS (until 7:00 p.m.)!


My view for 7 hours at the Cabo Public Health Clinic

I even got to try my hand at having a hissy fit in Spanish to the clinic administrator, for all the good it did me. I might have been there longer because some man without a ticket tried to push his way in before me but the nice lady next to me (who actually had the number before mine but let me go first because she had three kids) pushed me into the room in front of the interloper. Gracias Senora!! After all that the whippersnapper of a doctor told me I had to see a specialist. Lesson learned: if you can afford it avoid the public clinics. Try to go to a hospital or clinic with specialists if possible.

The only good thing about this is that we had walked by an intriguing restaurant once or twice that morning and ended up going there for dinner. Alcaravea Gourmet is now my new favorite restaurant. In the world. Our waiter recommended the fresh fish, Lenguado (Halibut), and his two favorite preparations.

Seared Lenguado in salsa of mushroom and fresh herbs, pesto and sundried tomato crusted Lenguado on fettucine.

Tom and I went for one of each and savored every bite. Our other waiter, Kevin, turned out to be one of the owners, the son of the chef. After such a screwed up day this delicious meal was a lifesaver. The wine was divine and the mixed drinks coming out of the bar looked amazing too. If we go there again I'm going to order one of their splendid-looking mojitos.

The next day we went to the marina office (5 minutes before closing), Maria the customer service rep found a specialist for me and I had an appointment just a few hours later with an Otorrinolaringologo (say that a few times!). Very clean, upscale clinic, super nice and competent doctor, high tech equipment, I was in and out in less than an hour. The doc even talked to Tom about what causes Surfer's Ear and how to avoid it. Cost for this extremely helpful visit was about $50.00. Well worth the money. Even with insurance I would have paid more in the U.S. If anyone needs an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist in Cabo be sure to visit Dr. Juan Portillo at the BlueMedicalNet Hospital and Clinic.

Four thumbs up to Maria at Marina Cabo San Lucas for helping me get medical help!
Four thumbs up to Dr. Juan Portillo, Otorrino/ENT specialist. You rock doc!


The Marina Cabo San Lucas is surrounded by nightclubs, bars, restaurants and party action that goes full force until about 5:00 a.m. Every night. There seems to be a bar for everyone. Last Sunday night Tom went on a mission and found a restaurant/bar that agreed to turn on the Academy Awards so I could get my annual fix. I was thrilled not to have to miss all the glam. When we got to Desperados Cantina they already knew Tom and ushered us upstairs and plopped us down onto a comfy sofa in front of a big flat screen TV. Blue Margaritas soon followed and I was in heaven. Poor Tom was nodding off near the end but he knows how much I love the Oscars. Thanks for taking one for the team Tom!

The marina is a trip. It's very deluxe and packed with fishing boats. Everyone stops to talk to us because with our tall mast and bright red hull we stick out like a sore thumb.

Cinnabar has a red power boat friend two slips down.

We have already been here long enough to make a few friends and run into people we know on the docks, along the Malecon or in bars.

You can see more pics of our trip down and first week in Cabo HERE.

I wish we could afford to stay longer. We are trying to decide whether to head up into the Sea of Cortez or blast across to the Mexican mainland. Stay tuned...

Another day in paradise.

Blown Into Cabo

Cinnabar is comfortably anchored in Bahia Cabo San Lucas after a 701 nm, 4 day/97 hour non-stop passage from Ensenada. Surprisingly  we are one of only about three boats lying at anchor in this entire large and calm bay. Mild weather, small seas, and no gear problems made for a good journey here, although the final couple of hours was a bit challenging; with 30 kt winds and large wind waves on the quarter, Cinnabar forgot she was cruising and thought she was back in the Pacific Cup Race again ("Express 52" mode). For the final 3 hours rounding the cape, she surfed her way to the finish at impressive speeds (10-15 kts continuous, 20.3 max). Even with reefed sails, the boat was really flying along, but the helm remained balanced and responsive so that, thankfully, we never 'crashed out'.

--TC <via SSB>

Tired but happy sailors in Cabo

"Express 52" on the hook in the lee of  the famous Lands End Arch Rocks

GoPro Kelp and Sealife Detector

Bottom view at 8 kts looking forward from the stern. Hitchhiking kelp on the rudder.

Tom here...Hola from Cinnabar on the high seas, 150 nm S of Ensenada Mexico.

On the passage to Cabo, I stuck the GoPro Hero3 action camera (thanks Tim G!) in the water at the stern of the boat whilst sailing along at 9 kts. I was hoping to see some dorado or tuna shadowing us underneath. Did not see any fish, but there was lots of other stuff to see! See picture. From L to R, we have the engine exhaust cowling making some air bubbles (drag! should've cut it off!). Next is the bulb keel, far forward, showing our slight heel to port. Then we have the shaft and Max Prop, nicely feathered. Next is the slim rudder, looking all sleek, except for....What the ??....kelp, yes KELP! No wonder our speed was down by half a knot! Later on we slowed the boat down to let the kelp drop off. Finally, to the far right, we have a small breaking swell (roiling white water). The seawater, about 300' deep and 60 deg F, looks very turquoise, clear, and inviting. Well, besides the slippery new bottom paint, that completes the tour of CINNABAR's undercarriage for today.

Not sure why, but viewing the undersides of the boat while underway is intriguing. It would be deluxe to have a constant real-time cam/display always available (with auto 'critter' detection notice!). Will consider adding this to the list of Gucci accessories for the ship.

Carnaval, Name On, We Splash, We're Outta Here


We wanted to do some sort of Ensenada retrospective but of course we are busily getting ready to set sail early tomorrow and have run out of time. So here is a quick mashup of the past week:

Carnaval - well there's nothing quite like being right in the friggin' middle of it all. The entire spectacle was right under our noses.




The crowd loved La Catrina

Convenient for watching people and parades, not so great because they had about 20 stages all playing at FULL VOLUME competing with each other until 2:00 a.m. every morning.

The funny thing is that the music always stopped at 2:00 during Carnaval, but for the next two days and nights the cleanup crew played their music full blast 24/7. It was annoying as hell but I found it completely amusing that the cleanup crew had no noise curfew.

Cinnabar got her name applied and I must say Edgar the graphics guy waited until the last minute. Our Project Manager Mario made him show up at 6:00 a.m. the morning we got splashed. Served him right! But the name came out beautifully as you can see.

 

The big entertainment was that we got to ride aboard Cinnabar while the Travelift carried her out of the boatyard, across the malecon and then over the water. What a trip! But the guys did a super job of handling the lines and then we med-tied to the end of the dock so as not to smudge our brand new paint job. We're incredibly happy with the job that Baja Naval did on Cinnabar. Yay Mario!

 

We've spent this past week re-visiting our favorite haunts and restaurants. Oh, and we found a great Mexican rum that sells for 69 pesos per liter. That's like, um, $5.75. Yes you heard me right!!



The crew at La Taberna sportsbar

We can understand why so many Americans decide to live in Ensenada. It's very pleasant, there's lots to do, the cuisine is terrific, and if you need a fix of U.S.A. it is a short and scenic drive to San Diego.

Baja Naval - Four thumbs up!
Ensenada - Four thumbs up!

Dinner with Mario and girlfriend Sondra at Wendlandt

Today was warm and perfect and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset as we readied Cinnabar for her journey tomorrow. Our plan is to leave at the crack of dawn. We expect to hit Cabo San Lucas in about four days.

More pictures of Carnaval and our last week HERE.



Proud at last!!

Sprit to Spit - We rent a car and drive around.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind this past week. The boat work is nearly done, the bowsprit got reattached, bottom got painted.

Now we just need to get Cinnabar's name applied and we should be ready to go back into the water. Thursday is our estimated splash date and then departure on Friday or Saturday.

We had a box of parts sent down to San Diego so we drove up there last week to retrieve it and to do some boat shopping stateside.

 

Art on the border fence at Tecate

 Our agent was Tom's friend's daughter Lisa who works in San Diego. I could kick myself for not getting a picture of her because she's absolutely adorable, not to mention the huge favor she did by receiving our box for us. So thank you Lisa! You rock!!

The biggest West Marine on the west coast is in San Diego. They even have shopping carts!

Tom was in heaven and it was all I could do to keep him to his list instead of stopping every two feet to ogle the wares. It was a constant battle to keep him from purchasing every "gimmicky" item he could get his hands on. (UPDATE: I made Tom put a boat squeegee back on the shelf. Imagine the look on his face today when the boatyard guys cleaned our boat and promptly whipped out a big squeegee just like the one he wanted to buy to clean the water off our hull! I really had to eat crow on that one.)

Of course we didn't get everything we needed so we ended up spending the night and continuing our shopping spree the next day. San Diego is amazingly geared toward the boating community and everything you could possibly need is at your fingertips. We ended our first day there by finding a restaurant with 100 beers on tap. Tom had his choice of good craft beers and I had a big glass of wine which I desperately needed. (I'm not the world's best shopper.)

Bartender Dave pours Tom's beer.

The next day was gloomy and rainy, we had a long wait at the border due to a manhunt, then the gray, wet drive home along the coast, and I was cranky because we were too late to go through the wine country. When we finally got back to Ensenada Tom suggested we go to Manzanilla for dinner and no way was I going to say "No" to that. It is one of Ensenada's most celebrated restaurants and the food was incredible. 

Seafood Risotto and seared Yellowtail

It's amazing how a great meal and a couple of glasses of good wine can fix a bad attitude almost immediately.

Happy again with a local white

I was not to be denied. The next day we were going to visit the wine country or else!! The Valle de Guadalupe is not at all like any of the wine regions back in California. There are a few well-established and fairly commercial wineries, but most of them are very quirky, definitely off the beaten path and they seem to require long drives along rutted, dirt (or in our case "mud") roads. Claire, whom we had met at La Taberna sportsbar, runs the garden at one of the wineries and told us about a few that are her favorites.

The first stop was at Tres Mujeres winery, run by, you guessed it, Three Women. It was very odd to drive up into a small farm with nobody around and just a sweet doggie and a sign that says "Ring the bell". Uh, OK.



Ring the bell

Maria poured our wine

A few moments later a warm and friendly woman named Maria appeared and coaxed us into the cellar. She told us all about the winery, that everything was done by hand, the grapes never touch metal, the wines are aged in barrels and everything is organic. Maria didn't speak English and my telenovela Spanish came in very handy.

Tres Mujeres

Tom even sweet-talked Maria out of some of her homemade oatmeal raisin cookies.

The next winery was just up the road. El Mogor has been growing wine grapes since the 1940s but have only been making their own wine since the 1990s. It's great that the wineries decided to start making their own wines instead of just selling grapes because some terrific wine is coming out of this region. Upon arriving at El Mogor we went to their farmer's market where they sell produce from their organic garden, plus preserves, olives, salsas and sauces all made on site by the family. We purchased some fresh cheese and olive bread for later.

Tom makes some friends

After Tom communed with the fauna we headed back up to the wine cellars where we would enjoy a new varietal I had never heard of. They are the only ones in the valley who grow the Swiss Chasselas grape (the owners are Swiss and French) which makes a light and dry but fragrant white wine, absolutely perfect with the local oysters and ceviche.

There was a group of four young people with us during the wine tasting who were having a great time. Since I am a shameless eavesdropper I overheard one of the guys asking about making a future reservation for a large group under "Life & Food". That really perked my ears up because ever since we got to Ensenada Tom wanted to know how I knew about all about the best places to eat. Well theirs is one of the blogs I had been reading! So I sidled up to the guy Antonio and sure enough he and his wife Kristin are the blog authors. They couldn't have been nicer and I was able to thank them for all their helpful articles and blog posts.

Our wine hostess herded us down into the cava to taste their most famous red, an excellent Bordeaux-style blend.

My sister would love this!

No, we didn't spit the good stuff!

We had only visited two wineries and it was already mid-afternoon! We really wanted to see Claire's farm and the stunning La Villa del Valle B&B and its famous restaurant Corazon de Tierra. We were warned it was several miles along a dirt/mud road but we got into our tiny rental car anyway and headed into the hills. There were twists and turns and side-roads and we would surely have gotten lost if they didn't have a sign at every opportunity pointing us in the right direction. We finally arrived at La Villa de Valle, surrounded by the lavender bushes for which they are famous.

B&B and Lavender

Corazon de Tierra restaurant sits on the other side of the garden from the B&B and is constructed completely of recycled materials such as old railroad bridges, quail coveys, random containers, etc.



View of the restaurant across the garden

The winery is also constructed of recycled materials including upside-down sardine boats. It is all very funky but it works.

Recycled boats, bottles and wood.

We ended our day with yet another LOOOOOONG drive along a dirt and mud road, this time to the alleged best pizza in Ensenada at Ochento's Pizzarustica in the small town of San Antonio de las Minas.



Signs everywhere or we would still be out there looking for it

Once again all I can say is thank goodness for all those handmade road signs or we never would have found the place at the end of the road and perched high upon a hillside overlooking the Valle. Even though Ochento's seemed far off the beaten path to us, it was bustling and packed with large, noisy parties celebrating birthdays and other occasions. The pizza was as delicious as promised and so tasty that Tom didn't even complain (too loudly) when they told us they don't serve beer.

We had purchased a bottle of Bon Voyage wine for our friends on Windjammer but they had left before we were able to give it to them. As bad luck would have it, they had to return to Ensenada to fix an engine problem, so they would be stuck in Ensenada for another day and night while they sorted things out. At least we were able to show up with our wine and beer for an impromptu happy hour.

These guys really know how to roll with the punches

 

More pictures of the past week plus some random favorite restaurant shots can be found HERE.  

 

We managed to barely survive Carnaval and I'll post some pictures about that later. The next few days will be full of final boat projects as we prepare to splash Cinnabar and head south for warmer weather. Can't wait!

 



Check Out That Red Boat!!

The good news is that we are feeling a lot better and the boat looks absolutely fabulous! The bad news is that we've been horribly sick and the Forty Niners lost. Gah!!!

Even though Tom and I were very careful to avoid shaking hands, getting too close to people, and took our antiseptic gel with us everywhere, we managed to contract the dreadful cold and/or flu that seems to have afflicted everyone at the boatyard. So we've been kind of out of it for the past couple of weeks. I even got a hotel room for a couple of days so I could be alone, drink lots of water, access the bathroom without having to climb down a ladder, and watch soccer, Fernando Colunga's new telenovela, and Mexican Iron Chef 24/7. Just what the doctor ordered.

Apparently we are the poster child for a beautiful paint job, and rightly so. The guys did an amazing job. After the first coat of red they carefully sanded and prepped for the second round.

Jorge mixes the paint

Four guys got started early in the morning, uh...6:00 a.m., before the wind came up and they were done before noon.

 

 

After the Second Coat

 

 

After a day or so of drying they masked the boat off for the gold accents. These guys are true artists and did a perfect job of masking and painting.

 b

After the boat was done everybody was impressed that Cinnabar sports the Forty-Niner colors. Funny, we never noticed before.

More pictures of the painting job here.

Even though I was ill I managed to celebrate Australia Day with our neighbors Ashley, Kathy and Maggie and friends. (Poor Tom was too sick.) We had beer, vegemite, lots of delicious meaty things, and lambingtons. I loved it. We reciprocated by treating them to an All-American Super Bowl party at La Taberna Sports Bar. Our new friend Claire from Ville de Valle organic garden joined us and except for the fact that WE LOST, we had a great time.

A couple of days ago Tom and I were finally feeling well enough for a mini excursion so we caught the local bus up the road to the deluxe Hotel Coral and Marina to see if we might want to go there after we get out of the boatyard.

Marina Coral

It's probably too shallow for us but it's a beautiful marina, and if you stay there you have full access to the hotel grounds, pool, spa, etc. Very tempting. They gave us complimentary drink tickets and we enjoyed some of the best Margaritas we've ever had.

Best Margaritas ever!

Things seem to be winding down here (hopefully) so we are super busy getting our bottom job, scheduling our splash, watching the weather and preparing our departure. We are very keen to get back onto the ocean and head south to warmer weather. Lots of stuff happening. More later...