We promised a report on the BC Wineries and Vancouver Island sights, but it's been a while - so we'll also fill you in on what we've been up to the last two weeks.
Delightfully, There are some nice wines up here. They are lighter than the wines back in Sonoma. A bit pricey, due to the Canadian taxes - both for local as well as imported wines (e.g. a $7.00 US bottle of Ravenswood Vintner's Reserve for $47 CDN, that's $37.60 US).
The best of the local bunch we've found in Canada (besides Ken and Shirley's home brew) is the Chalet Syrah at $25 CDN - see http://www.chaletestatevineyard.ca/ and the Marley Farms Pinot Noir at $14 CDN (not listed on the website) - see http://www.marleyfarm.ca/. There are also a number places up here specializing in Cider and Mead (Honey Wine) - which we didn't stop at. Many of the wineries also have fruit wines (no comment) and interesting varietals that we don't see in California.
Generally, British Columbia is not yet a threat to the Russian River Valley, the Willamette Valley (OR) or Burgundy for that matter. For our non-wine geek friends - those are the regions that grow the Pinot Noir grape - generally cool areas which those grapes love. We refer you to the movie "Sideways" for more laughs and background.
There's a loophole in the Canada tax law: home vintners and brewers can make wine and beer (basically) tax free. So every hardware store has wine and beer kits. Every community we visited had shops specializing in helping you make wine or beer. Basically these stores took care of pretty much everything, but you were responsible for pitching (adding) the yeast and bottling the results. One shop we visited even had a value added barrel aging service in French Oak!
OK, now the skinny on the sights.
Butchart Gardens http://www.butchartgardens.com/ was simply lovely. Depending on what season you go it's always different, with a constantly changing scene as the different plants come into bloom. Our favorite was the sunken gardens. The Japanese Garden looked to us to be basically a pacific northwest scene with some oriental features. Some of the other areas were not at their prime this time of the year. The biggest disappointment was that the specially designed duck pond had no ducks! Humpf!
What we liked even more than the Gardens was the Victoria Butterfly Garden http://www.butterflygardens.com/. It was surprisingly interesting, with many different colorful butterflies, plus other critters. Plus the orchids and bromeliads added a depth of color not found in the Gardens. Plus other outrageous, rare, in-your-face, colorful tropical and semi-tropical plants. Not to mention the China Quail, especially imported for "ant" patrol, the pink Flamingos, Parrots, Cockatoos and they even had ducks (the smaller Teals).
Oh, I forgot to mention all the butterflies flitting around. We went on a rainy day - and there was still lots of action. On a sunny day, it's even more fantastic as the butterflies are more active.
On June 10th, we moved from the lovely B&B (see our last message) to the Marriott Inner Harbour in Victoria - aren't frequent flyer miles great when you get to use them!
The next 5 days we spent exploring Victoria and environs. We visited the BC Museum http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/, the Maritime Museum http://mmbc.bc.ca/, the Swan Brew Pub and Restaurant http://www.swanshotel.com/pub.html, Chinatown, a harbour tour and lot's of other sight seeing. Highly recommended. Lot's of fun and great food.
We also drove out to Sooke one day and out to Tofino for an overnight trip.
Now in the realm of "What a small world this is!" we had several interesting times:
We visited Rob and Shannon Reiner of MV Sea Bull (who we met in Mexico) at there water front home in Crofton. It turned out that they were related to Ken and Shirley Moncur, our B&B hosts.
Then at the Swan Pub, the couple at the next table turned and said to us, "Aren't you from Raptor Dance". They had been on the Baja HaHa with us, but we had never met before. We had a great chat.
Roland van Rijn, who owns the Valiant 50 Engelenbak (as seen on our web site - http://raptordance.us/valiant1.htm - that's the boat we sailed on back in 1999 on Lake Texoma). He's from Ohio, and friend Laura Gongos took the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria to get together with us.
In Canoe Cove, we stayed in the slip normally occupied by Coyote Moon, Valiant 40 179, owned by Jim and Marilyn Ming - who are off on a 6 week circumnavigation of Vancouver Island.
British Columbia place names are really interesting. Most of them are from the original inhabitants - called the "First Nation" up here. It seems that BC got all the vowels - unlike the Welsh, who don't have any. I'm sure that Vanna White could establish a vowel mine up here to gather the raw materials for the Wheel of Fortune.
After all our wanderings Raptor Dance went back in the water, last Friday the 17th. We stayed in Canoe Cove for two more nights to get things shipshape before setting off for a night in Friday Harbor then over to Bellingham, WA where we are now.
I highly recommend the gang at Canoe Cove http://www.canoecovemarina.com/ and Black Line Marine http://www.blacklinemarine.com/ for work that you may need done to your boat (if you have one). They do great work. We had our bottom done, bow thruster cleaned, a new through hull put in, rig work done, our bi-annual survey performed all done - very high quality.
When in Friday Harbor, we had dinner and visited with a friend from high school - Candy Lowry (now Candy Bowers), who just happened to be living locally. She saw a reference to our website, noted we were in Sidney and sent us a note. We had a great time after a short break of 39 years!
The runs between Sidney, Friday Harbor and Bellingham highlighted the difference between cruising in Mexico and up here in the Northwest. When we left Canoe Cove, Mary was up on the bow as we threaded our way out of the marina - seeing the bottom shallows with Sea Anemones on the shallow rocky bottom on our right and left (but, thankfully not in the deeper water in front of us).
The voyage to Friday Harbor (where the spell it Harbor and not Harbour) only took 3 hours with the current at near slack. Today, we had current pushing our normal 7 knot speed to almost 10 at some points and down to 4 at other times. It took us 4 hours to go the 26 miles to Bellingham from Friday Harbor.
Anyway, this message is getting pretty long and Mary say's "enough already". So
I'm going to sign off for now.
Warmest Regards to all,
Bill and Mary
Bill Finkelstein & Mary Mack's Blog
June 20, 2005
June 8, 2005
Canoe Cove - Sidney, Vancouver Island
On Saturday, June 4th, 2005, we departed Coal Harbour Marina at 10:00 AM for our passage over to Vancouver Island. We arrived in Canoe Cove at 6:15 PM. Our position report page on http://raptordance.com/ shows our new position.
After stopping at the ESSO fuel barge, we passed under the Lion’s Gate bridge at First Narrows at 11:00AM, with a 1 Knot Ebb helping us along.
Fuel is way more expensive than in Mexico and a just a bit higher than the US. We paid $ 0.91 CAN/Liter – $ 2.75 US/Gal.
The tides and currents here in the North West are something to be reckoned with. With a tidal range of 20+ feet in many places, the current can really get moving. In narrow passes, it can actual cause rapids. Good scheduling is vital to make sure you hit the tricky spots at slack water – between the tidal ebbs and floods.
We had to contend with two challenging passes: First Narrows, the Vancouver Harbour entrance and Active Pass, an entrance into the Gulf Islands from The Straights of Georgia. The Straights of Georgia can also be a challenge as it’s a major shipping channel and winds that funnel in much faster than the surrounding areas.
Our departure was timed to hit just before slack water at both passes. As it was, we were fine at both.
First Narrows was clear with no shipping traffic coming or going when we went through. All the Major ocean going vessels coming and going to Vancouver transit this very narrow harbor entrance.
Active pass is Z shaped and when the currents flow major whirlpools, rips and eddies form. It’s also used by the very large BC Ferry boats and when the currents are high, they skid around the corners. At the narrowest, Active pass is only 0.2 nm wide and you don’t want to meet a ferry during your transit.
Up here, the best way to avoid the big traffic is to listen to the Marine VHF Vessel Traffic Service. Vancouver Traffic is on VHF 12 and the Straights of Georgia and the Gulf Island Area is Victoria Traffic on VHF 11. By monitoring those channels you can hear when the cargo ships, ferries and other large vessels are transiting the passes.
As it was, two ferries passed through Active Pass right before us and we were able to adjust our passage time to let them through first. We came through Active Pass safely just before slack water and then proceeded down to Canoe Cove, here on Vancouver Island. The Pass was actually very beautiful, with homes nestled in the hills.
The Marina here is very rustic and scenic. The only downside is all the boat houses! It makes half the marina look like a storage facility. Surprisingly, people actually come down and spend time on their boat in the boat house. It seems to us like living in your RV in your garage!
Naturally, with all this lovely moisture, the landscape is very green. As we sat in the pub’s dining room last evening, overlooking the garden, we noticed how the plants were the same we have in Santa Rosa. The bad part of that is Bill’s allergies really flare up in Santa Rosa at this time of year. And so they are the same here too. Hopefully it will be better as we go north. And there will need to be “pre medication” for Bill when we go to Butchart Gardens.
Sunday we rented a car and drove around the Sidney area. It’s quite lovely with lots of little shops, bookstores (didn’t see many of those in Mexico!), coffee houses and cafes. Sidney has a lot of retirees, there are many senior living facilities around town and stores that cater to their needs. Many restaurants advertise “early bird specials” for seniors. To be a senior here, though, you need to be 65 – none of this wimpy US, you’re a senior if over 50 stuff
;-}
We had Raptor Dance hauled out on Monday to get our bottom re-painted and accomplish some other tasks. It’s always nerve racking to see our floating home up on a Travel Lift moving across the parking lot! Also, this Travel Lift was smaller than the last one, but still ample to hold Raptor Dance’s 37,000 pounds – it’s capacity is 60,000 pounds. So we had to pull the Clevis Pins at the bottom of the Genoa and Staysail roller furlers to get the head stays clear of the Travel Lift’s cross beam. All went well and Raptor Dance is now safely on stands in boat yard.
Our prior bottom paint, Petit Trinidad SR, was applied last July and it just didn’t do a good job in Mexico. We’ve heard that nothing really does – except the old Tin based paints that are now illegal since their so toxic they kill stuff on the bottom of the bay and not just the bottom of the boat!
We’re switching to a paint formulated for up here – an ablative paint, Petit Horizon – that wears away as your moving, exposing new copper (that’s the biocide in the paint) and takes the marine growth with it.
Also on Monday we checked into the B&B. We’re staying at the Amity Guest Retreat, just South of Sidney. It’s a very lovely place, run by a friendly couple: Shirley and Ken Moncur, see: http://www.guestretreatbb.com/ The bad news: they have two cats! The good news: the guest rooms are separate from the main area and the cats don’t get to the rooms. The good news: they have Internet, the bad news: their computer/office with the connection is the cat’s room! So, It’s Allegra time! Actually, I have to take it anyway due to the other pollen – so no problem.
Another great place for connectivity is the Rum Runner Pub http://www.emenus.ca/rumrunner/info.htm on the waterfront in Sidney. Free Internet and good beer!
That’s the news as of Tuesday, June 7th
In our next report, we’ll fill you in on what we’re finding regarding the wineries here on Vancouver Island, plus a report on Butchart Gardens http://www.butchartgardens.com/ and the Victoria Butterfly Gardens http://www.butterflygardens.com/
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
After stopping at the ESSO fuel barge, we passed under the Lion’s Gate bridge at First Narrows at 11:00AM, with a 1 Knot Ebb helping us along.
Fuel is way more expensive than in Mexico and a just a bit higher than the US. We paid $ 0.91 CAN/Liter – $ 2.75 US/Gal.
The tides and currents here in the North West are something to be reckoned with. With a tidal range of 20+ feet in many places, the current can really get moving. In narrow passes, it can actual cause rapids. Good scheduling is vital to make sure you hit the tricky spots at slack water – between the tidal ebbs and floods.
We had to contend with two challenging passes: First Narrows, the Vancouver Harbour entrance and Active Pass, an entrance into the Gulf Islands from The Straights of Georgia. The Straights of Georgia can also be a challenge as it’s a major shipping channel and winds that funnel in much faster than the surrounding areas.
Our departure was timed to hit just before slack water at both passes. As it was, we were fine at both.
First Narrows was clear with no shipping traffic coming or going when we went through. All the Major ocean going vessels coming and going to Vancouver transit this very narrow harbor entrance.
Active pass is Z shaped and when the currents flow major whirlpools, rips and eddies form. It’s also used by the very large BC Ferry boats and when the currents are high, they skid around the corners. At the narrowest, Active pass is only 0.2 nm wide and you don’t want to meet a ferry during your transit.
Up here, the best way to avoid the big traffic is to listen to the Marine VHF Vessel Traffic Service. Vancouver Traffic is on VHF 12 and the Straights of Georgia and the Gulf Island Area is Victoria Traffic on VHF 11. By monitoring those channels you can hear when the cargo ships, ferries and other large vessels are transiting the passes.
As it was, two ferries passed through Active Pass right before us and we were able to adjust our passage time to let them through first. We came through Active Pass safely just before slack water and then proceeded down to Canoe Cove, here on Vancouver Island. The Pass was actually very beautiful, with homes nestled in the hills.
The Marina here is very rustic and scenic. The only downside is all the boat houses! It makes half the marina look like a storage facility. Surprisingly, people actually come down and spend time on their boat in the boat house. It seems to us like living in your RV in your garage!
Naturally, with all this lovely moisture, the landscape is very green. As we sat in the pub’s dining room last evening, overlooking the garden, we noticed how the plants were the same we have in Santa Rosa. The bad part of that is Bill’s allergies really flare up in Santa Rosa at this time of year. And so they are the same here too. Hopefully it will be better as we go north. And there will need to be “pre medication” for Bill when we go to Butchart Gardens.
Sunday we rented a car and drove around the Sidney area. It’s quite lovely with lots of little shops, bookstores (didn’t see many of those in Mexico!), coffee houses and cafes. Sidney has a lot of retirees, there are many senior living facilities around town and stores that cater to their needs. Many restaurants advertise “early bird specials” for seniors. To be a senior here, though, you need to be 65 – none of this wimpy US, you’re a senior if over 50 stuff
;-}
We had Raptor Dance hauled out on Monday to get our bottom re-painted and accomplish some other tasks. It’s always nerve racking to see our floating home up on a Travel Lift moving across the parking lot! Also, this Travel Lift was smaller than the last one, but still ample to hold Raptor Dance’s 37,000 pounds – it’s capacity is 60,000 pounds. So we had to pull the Clevis Pins at the bottom of the Genoa and Staysail roller furlers to get the head stays clear of the Travel Lift’s cross beam. All went well and Raptor Dance is now safely on stands in boat yard.
Our prior bottom paint, Petit Trinidad SR, was applied last July and it just didn’t do a good job in Mexico. We’ve heard that nothing really does – except the old Tin based paints that are now illegal since their so toxic they kill stuff on the bottom of the bay and not just the bottom of the boat!
We’re switching to a paint formulated for up here – an ablative paint, Petit Horizon – that wears away as your moving, exposing new copper (that’s the biocide in the paint) and takes the marine growth with it.
Also on Monday we checked into the B&B. We’re staying at the Amity Guest Retreat, just South of Sidney. It’s a very lovely place, run by a friendly couple: Shirley and Ken Moncur, see: http://www.guestretreatbb.com/ The bad news: they have two cats! The good news: the guest rooms are separate from the main area and the cats don’t get to the rooms. The good news: they have Internet, the bad news: their computer/office with the connection is the cat’s room! So, It’s Allegra time! Actually, I have to take it anyway due to the other pollen – so no problem.
Another great place for connectivity is the Rum Runner Pub http://www.emenus.ca/rumrunner/info.htm on the waterfront in Sidney. Free Internet and good beer!
That’s the news as of Tuesday, June 7th
In our next report, we’ll fill you in on what we’re finding regarding the wineries here on Vancouver Island, plus a report on Butchart Gardens http://www.butchartgardens.com/ and the Victoria Butterfly Gardens http://www.butterflygardens.com/
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
June 2, 2005
Vancouver!
It’s been a busy few weeks – But I’ve updated and simplified the look and feel of our Website - http://raptordance.com/, posted our latest pictures and updated our log http://raptordance.blogspot.com/. You can also see our index of past log postings at http://raptordance.us/TOC.html.
We’re now in Vancouver, safe and sound. We’re back on board Raptor Dance in Slip C18 in Coal Harbour Marina in Vancouver. See: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=WB6JAO&units=nautical (our current position) and http://www.coalharbourmarina.com/.
We’re planning on being here until Saturday, before we head over to Sidney on Vancouver Island.
After loading onto Dockwise and saying good bye to Mexico, we flew back to the States on Aero California. Stopped in Los Angeles to visit the family and then flew back to the SF Bay area on South West.
A very busy week ensued as we made arrangements for our haul out in Canada to work on Raptor Dance’s bottom (new paint, an additional through hull and strainer, bow thruster cleaning and misc. other chores).
We’ll be hauled out in Sidney at Canoe Cove on Vancouver Island see: http://www.canoecovemarina.com/ and a lot of the work will be done by Black Line Marine: http://www.blacklinemarine.com/ . These folks come highly recommended.
While we’re out of the water, From June 6th to June 17th, we’ll rent a car and explore Vancouver Island, Victoria and environs. We’re planning to stay in a number of B&Bs during our trip and will report on what we find.
We flew up to Vancouver on Sunday the 29th and unloaded from Dockwise on Monday. We’ve posted pictures of the loading and unloading process on our website http://raptordance.com/.
Interestingly, unloading took longer than loading as Dockwise had us inspect Raptor Dance for any problems before they flooded the boat. Once the boats were floating, divers had to remove the remaining stands so we could exit. Also, about half a dozen boats were continuing on Dockwise up to their next stop in Alaska and some of them had to be towed out to make room for us to exit. On the following day, another group of boats was scheduled to be loaded, some headed as far as Port Everglades in Florida. Stops after Vancouver for DE 12 include: Alaska, Lazaro Cardenas (Mexico), Gulfito (Costa Rica) and Port Everglades, FL.
After we finally unloaded, we headed over to the marina (only about 30 minutes away), docked, checked in and cleaned up the boat.
We also called Canadian Customs to make sure our check-in was in order. The Dockwise agent arranged for a CANPASS for us. This lets us check in and out of Canada by phone (with a Customs official visit only occasionally at their option). A short phone call was all it took.
Tuesday and Wednesday we spent sight seeing, going to China Town, the Aquarium, The Granville Island Market and generally playing tourist. Vancouver is a wonderful city – with lots to do and see. Lot’s of good food too! It’s generally priced around the same as the US, with some things higher and a few lower. We did buy 1 pound of Morel mushrooms at the Granville Market for $12 CAN! (at $0.80 US per $ 1.00 CAN that’s less than $10 US!).
Today we’re caching up on chores, updating the web and generally doing boat chores for our departure on Saturday for Sidney. We also have route planning, weather checking and orienting to do.
That’s the update from Raptor Dance.
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
We’re now in Vancouver, safe and sound. We’re back on board Raptor Dance in Slip C18 in Coal Harbour Marina in Vancouver. See: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=WB6JAO&units=nautical (our current position) and http://www.coalharbourmarina.com/.
We’re planning on being here until Saturday, before we head over to Sidney on Vancouver Island.
After loading onto Dockwise and saying good bye to Mexico, we flew back to the States on Aero California. Stopped in Los Angeles to visit the family and then flew back to the SF Bay area on South West.
A very busy week ensued as we made arrangements for our haul out in Canada to work on Raptor Dance’s bottom (new paint, an additional through hull and strainer, bow thruster cleaning and misc. other chores).
We’ll be hauled out in Sidney at Canoe Cove on Vancouver Island see: http://www.canoecovemarina.com/ and a lot of the work will be done by Black Line Marine: http://www.blacklinemarine.com/ . These folks come highly recommended.
While we’re out of the water, From June 6th to June 17th, we’ll rent a car and explore Vancouver Island, Victoria and environs. We’re planning to stay in a number of B&Bs during our trip and will report on what we find.
We flew up to Vancouver on Sunday the 29th and unloaded from Dockwise on Monday. We’ve posted pictures of the loading and unloading process on our website http://raptordance.com/.
Interestingly, unloading took longer than loading as Dockwise had us inspect Raptor Dance for any problems before they flooded the boat. Once the boats were floating, divers had to remove the remaining stands so we could exit. Also, about half a dozen boats were continuing on Dockwise up to their next stop in Alaska and some of them had to be towed out to make room for us to exit. On the following day, another group of boats was scheduled to be loaded, some headed as far as Port Everglades in Florida. Stops after Vancouver for DE 12 include: Alaska, Lazaro Cardenas (Mexico), Gulfito (Costa Rica) and Port Everglades, FL.
After we finally unloaded, we headed over to the marina (only about 30 minutes away), docked, checked in and cleaned up the boat.
We also called Canadian Customs to make sure our check-in was in order. The Dockwise agent arranged for a CANPASS for us. This lets us check in and out of Canada by phone (with a Customs official visit only occasionally at their option). A short phone call was all it took.
Tuesday and Wednesday we spent sight seeing, going to China Town, the Aquarium, The Granville Island Market and generally playing tourist. Vancouver is a wonderful city – with lots to do and see. Lot’s of good food too! It’s generally priced around the same as the US, with some things higher and a few lower. We did buy 1 pound of Morel mushrooms at the Granville Market for $12 CAN! (at $0.80 US per $ 1.00 CAN that’s less than $10 US!).
Today we’re caching up on chores, updating the web and generally doing boat chores for our departure on Saturday for Sidney. We also have route planning, weather checking and orienting to do.
That’s the update from Raptor Dance.
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
May 17, 2005
Getting Ready for Dockwise
Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 18th) at 7:00 AM we leave Marina Palmira to head up to Pichilingue to load Raptor Dance on Dockwise Express 12.
Dockwise asked that we be alongside by 8:00 AM for instructions. Loading begins at 9:00 AM and is scheduled to be completed by 1:00 PM. 28 boats will be loaded tomorrow and we're in the middle of the pack on the starboard side of the ship. Since POSH means Port Out, Starboard Home, Raptor Dance will be treated right!
Driving into the Dockwise ship has been compared to going into a very crowded shipping lock. This should be very interesting and we're planning to take lots of stills and video.
Our friend John Semon from Semonship will be joining us as an additional line handler and the extra help is greatly appreciated.
The Dockwise schedule has us back to Marina Palmira in the early afternoon. We'll then check into the hotel for some pool time before our Thursday AM flight.
Gosh, we've got a lot done in the last few days:
- We stowed everything below for the trip,
- Emptied and defrosted the fridge (it will be off for the 9 day passage),
- Took down and stowed the Bimini, lashed down the Genoa and Staysail roller furlers (they can stay up, but for safety we lashed them down so they can't unroll),
- Inflated and made ready our extra 5 fenders,
- Removed the Monitor wind vane from the stern and lashed it on deck. The wind vane adds an extra foot of length to the boat. Dockwise really packs them in and we would be over our measured length if we left it on,
- Packed up a lot of clothes we never wore to take home
- Backed up all the computers onto my 200 GB portable USB hard drive
to have backup at home.
We also had many friends over to help us empty the fridge and finish the last of the wine and other drinks. One of the items Mary perfected was her Tamarind Marguerite recipe. Ever since we had them in Guadalajara, Mary's been perfecting her recipe ever since.
The key ingredient is tamarind pulp. Here in Mexico, you can find 1 liter bottles of the thick liquid "Pulpa de Tamarindo" in the grocery stores. It's a drink concentrate that normally makes 20 Liters. You may be able to find something similar locally where you are.
Mary's Tamarind Marguerites:
2 parts Tequila
2 parts Pulpa de Tamarindo
1 part Triple Sec
1 part Jarabe (pre-mixed simple syrup)
Lots of ice
Blend until smooth
We're both very sad to leave Mexico, it's been a wonderful season down here. Just so very short! But we're excited to start on the next adventure in the Pacific Northwest.
That's all for now from Raptor Dance!
Warmest Regards,
Bill Finkelstein and Mary Mack
May 12, 2005
La Paz
Hello Everyone!
Here we are back in La Paz getting ready to load up on May 18th.
When we got back into the Marina at Noon on Monday we took a cab into town to get our plane tickets on Aero California from La Paz to LAX. Aero California flies DC-9s, but still uses paper tickets, so we had to go to one of their ticket offices instead of doing everything on the web. The rest of our travel plans were done online.
Our itinerary:
May 18th - Load on Dockwise. We need to be alongside the Dockwise vessel in La Paz's commercial port in Pichilingue - about 30 minutes from Marina Palmira - at 7am. After we load, Dockwise will take us back by panga to the marina. We'll then stay the night in the nice, Hotel Marina http://www.hotelmarina.com.mx. This is the hotel at the top of our dock with the pool we've been using during our stay.
May 19th - Fly Aero California 142 from La Paz to LAX - leave 820 AM, Arrive 1030 AM. We'll then rent a car and visit with the family in Northridge. That night we'll be staying in the Sheraton Pasadena Hotel (using our large pile of Starwood points).
May 20th - Fly South West 2338 from Hollywood Burbank to Oakland - leave 1110 AM, arrive 1220 PM. We'll rent a car and drive back to the our "Vacation Home" in Sonoma.
May 26th - Fly UA 8636 from SFO to Vancouver - leave 240 PM, arrive 450 PM. We'll be staying at the Westin Bayshore.
May 27th - Meet the Dockwise vessel and unload.
We hope to visit with some of you all along the way.
We will then be in the Coal Harbour Marina in Vancouver for about a week while we get organized.
We're then planning to cross to Sydney on Vancouver Island to get hauled for our Bi-Annual Valiant warranty survey and some maintenance.
After all that's done, we planning to start with Victoria and the Gulf Islands.
Here in La Paz, we've got chores to wrap up before loading.
Monday, we made our travel plans.
Tuesday we had the boat washed, got rid of our email backlog and went shopping in town for some groceries to last us until we load.
Yesterday, we washed and scrubbed the dingy and put it back in the lazerette (it's been in the water or on deck for the last three months) and removed and stowed the servo blade from the Monitor wind vane. It's amazing how things have grown to not fit anymore! Then we visited with friends.
Today, Mary is doing canvas work and I'm working on the computer.
Not too much left to do before we load, mainly stow things, finish up what's in the fridge and freezer (it will be off during the voyage), pickle the water maker, stow the Bimini (the sun cover over the cockpit) and prep the boat for having the power and water off for 10 days. I'll also put safety lines around our roller furling sails to prevent them from accidentally unrolling if the furling line parts during the voyage (we'll leave them up).
Friday night, we're going into town to a night club - La Cabaña - reported to have a clientele of folks in our age group. We'll report back later on this one.
That's the news from Raptor Dance!
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
May 8, 2005
Back to Partida
Hello Everyone!
With the sounds of Earth, Wind and Fire's 1976 track "Get Away" playing on the boat stereo from Sirius satellite radio's Totally 70's channel... We're on our way back to Partida from Bahia Agua Verde. We've got the "meat line" out attached to the electric winch. That is our heavy hand line. We have the fishing rod out with lighter line trailing further behind also. Just looking for dinner!
Well, we still didn't find any Lobster. We did however visit the tiny tienda in the village and buy some local goat cheese. It's "squeaky" cheese (i.e. it squeaks when you bite into it) not the crumbly fresh goat cheese we get up in Sonoma. Very tasty though!
The village was real interesting. We had a long conversation in Spanish with the local goat herd (Mary led the conversation, her Spanish is much better than mine). He has a herd of over 110 goats and some cows and pigs with a free range all over the area. I got a picture of "Mary and the kids", that I'll post on the web site later. He also talked about the medicinal herbs in the area for all kinds of ailments. He must guide other gringos to collect them in the mountains. A very nice guy, he walked us across the village to the tienda, pointing out the goat cheese maker's house, etc.
The tienda was pretty tiny and the selection was slim (that's shorthand for no potato chips!, bread, beer, etc.). Two houses over, a lady has a sign up that says "tortillas for sale". If you want to buy some, she makes them to order while you have a nice sit in the shade at the side of her house. It takes about 5 minutes, but gosh are they great tasting!
Another two houses down the dirt road is the "Aqua Verde Restaurant", a single table in the shade in front of the families house. We stopped their with 6 other cruisers for a snack and a beer (Corona is the ONLY thing that have to drink) and we had some quesadillas (pretty skimpy ones, with just a little cheese). Not exactly Zagat's quality cuisine :-{
Last night we got together with some of the other cruisers for a pot luck and bon fire on the beach... It was a great beach party! Everyone brought better food than we've had at any Mexico cruisers pot luck so far. Doug from Kanaloa brought over his big amplifier and IPod. Another cruiser brought a small genset, so we had music until 11 with dancing on the beach! The most fun we've ever had at a pot luck!
About an hour out we came across a pod of hundreds of dolphins. As we were all headed in the same direction, they cavorted around the boat for about half an hour. I think Mary got some great footage on the video cam.
We should get into Partida around 7pm to anchor for the night.
That's the news from Raptor Dance.
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
With the sounds of Earth, Wind and Fire's 1976 track "Get Away" playing on the boat stereo from Sirius satellite radio's Totally 70's channel... We're on our way back to Partida from Bahia Agua Verde. We've got the "meat line" out attached to the electric winch. That is our heavy hand line. We have the fishing rod out with lighter line trailing further behind also. Just looking for dinner!
Well, we still didn't find any Lobster. We did however visit the tiny tienda in the village and buy some local goat cheese. It's "squeaky" cheese (i.e. it squeaks when you bite into it) not the crumbly fresh goat cheese we get up in Sonoma. Very tasty though!
The village was real interesting. We had a long conversation in Spanish with the local goat herd (Mary led the conversation, her Spanish is much better than mine). He has a herd of over 110 goats and some cows and pigs with a free range all over the area. I got a picture of "Mary and the kids", that I'll post on the web site later. He also talked about the medicinal herbs in the area for all kinds of ailments. He must guide other gringos to collect them in the mountains. A very nice guy, he walked us across the village to the tienda, pointing out the goat cheese maker's house, etc.
The tienda was pretty tiny and the selection was slim (that's shorthand for no potato chips!, bread, beer, etc.). Two houses over, a lady has a sign up that says "tortillas for sale". If you want to buy some, she makes them to order while you have a nice sit in the shade at the side of her house. It takes about 5 minutes, but gosh are they great tasting!
Another two houses down the dirt road is the "Aqua Verde Restaurant", a single table in the shade in front of the families house. We stopped their with 6 other cruisers for a snack and a beer (Corona is the ONLY thing that have to drink) and we had some quesadillas (pretty skimpy ones, with just a little cheese). Not exactly Zagat's quality cuisine :-{
Last night we got together with some of the other cruisers for a pot luck and bon fire on the beach... It was a great beach party! Everyone brought better food than we've had at any Mexico cruisers pot luck so far. Doug from Kanaloa brought over his big amplifier and IPod. Another cruiser brought a small genset, so we had music until 11 with dancing on the beach! The most fun we've ever had at a pot luck!
About an hour out we came across a pod of hundreds of dolphins. As we were all headed in the same direction, they cavorted around the boat for about half an hour. I think Mary got some great footage on the video cam.
We should get into Partida around 7pm to anchor for the night.
That's the news from Raptor Dance.
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
May 7, 2005
Bahia Agua Verde
Hello Everyone.
Fantastic! We actually were able to SAIL from Puerto El Gato the 20 NMs up here to Bahia Agua Verde! We had a light 6 to 9 knots of wind from the North East for a pleasant close reach up the coast. Great scenery along the coast with a totally lovely experience. It's why we have a sailboat instead of a powerboat.
We left Gato and came up to Agua Verde as the little wind we had in the afternoons (12 Kts. max.) was blowing straight into the bay, making it uncomfortably rolly.
We'll stay here until Sunday when we need to start heading down to La Paz for our Dockwise voyage up to Vancouver. The season in Mexico has been just too short ;-{
Bahia Agua Verde is a large bay with 3 lobes. The east and west lobes are very small with only room for a few boats. The central lobe is much larger with room for dozens of boats. Each has features of interest.
Here in the west lobe there's great snorkeling.
There's a small village in the central lobe with a small tienda (store) and a very small, occasionally opened restaurant (actually a table in front of a home). The village has large flocks of goats and is noted for it's goat cheese. We'll report later on how it compares to ours from home if we can locate some.
The West lobe is the smallest, but is the most protected. We're not expecting any significant weather for the next few days, so we're fine where we are.
Unfortunately, when we were in Puerto El Gato, Manuel, the Fish and Lobster guy never came by, so we'll be checking out the fisherman here at the village to see if we can score some langosta (lobsters).
Agua Verde and Puerto El Gato are the kinds of places that you see in the brochures about cruising. Both have striking (but different) scenery, pleasant water (though a bit cold this early in the season, only around 74 F), lot's of fish, great snorkeling, etc. But, the sky's have been crystal clear so the sunsets are not very dramatic - but everything else is nearly perfect.
That's the news from Raptor Dance.
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
Fantastic! We actually were able to SAIL from Puerto El Gato the 20 NMs up here to Bahia Agua Verde! We had a light 6 to 9 knots of wind from the North East for a pleasant close reach up the coast. Great scenery along the coast with a totally lovely experience. It's why we have a sailboat instead of a powerboat.
We left Gato and came up to Agua Verde as the little wind we had in the afternoons (12 Kts. max.) was blowing straight into the bay, making it uncomfortably rolly.
We'll stay here until Sunday when we need to start heading down to La Paz for our Dockwise voyage up to Vancouver. The season in Mexico has been just too short ;-{
Bahia Agua Verde is a large bay with 3 lobes. The east and west lobes are very small with only room for a few boats. The central lobe is much larger with room for dozens of boats. Each has features of interest.
Here in the west lobe there's great snorkeling.
There's a small village in the central lobe with a small tienda (store) and a very small, occasionally opened restaurant (actually a table in front of a home). The village has large flocks of goats and is noted for it's goat cheese. We'll report later on how it compares to ours from home if we can locate some.
The West lobe is the smallest, but is the most protected. We're not expecting any significant weather for the next few days, so we're fine where we are.
Unfortunately, when we were in Puerto El Gato, Manuel, the Fish and Lobster guy never came by, so we'll be checking out the fisherman here at the village to see if we can score some langosta (lobsters).
Agua Verde and Puerto El Gato are the kinds of places that you see in the brochures about cruising. Both have striking (but different) scenery, pleasant water (though a bit cold this early in the season, only around 74 F), lot's of fish, great snorkeling, etc. But, the sky's have been crystal clear so the sunsets are not very dramatic - but everything else is nearly perfect.
That's the news from Raptor Dance.
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
May 4, 2005
We're here in El Gato!
Haven't seen the Cat yet ;-}
Hello everyone!
What a lovely place! When we arrived, just before 2 PM, we were the only boat here. A small but picturesque bay with no development, buildings, fishing shacks, trash... Nada! Just lovely scenery, lot's of fish, great geology (fantastic rock formations, etc.), sandy beach, colorful, great snorkeling (haven't been in yet, but we can see the bottom from the surface).
We scouted out lunch for tomorrow... We just need to dive down and pick it up (maybe chase it a little).
Around 4 PM, three other boats arrived and anchored. We know them all and they're nice folks, but it's not as magical as it was before.
All is well here in Puerto El Gato (where's the cat?).
We also heard from another boat that we're in an article in the May issue of Latitude 38. We haven't seen it yet - if one of our friends who gets the publication could tell us what it's about - that would be great!
Before finishing this email, we heard from Last Resort (anchored about 100 yards off our starboard side) that an enormous pod of hundreds! of Dolphins was transiting south, just outside the bay. We grabbed both sets of binoculars and ran up to watch. Lot's of leaping and cavorting... A much finer rush hour than I used to deal with.
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
Hello everyone!
What a lovely place! When we arrived, just before 2 PM, we were the only boat here. A small but picturesque bay with no development, buildings, fishing shacks, trash... Nada! Just lovely scenery, lot's of fish, great geology (fantastic rock formations, etc.), sandy beach, colorful, great snorkeling (haven't been in yet, but we can see the bottom from the surface).
We scouted out lunch for tomorrow... We just need to dive down and pick it up (maybe chase it a little).
Around 4 PM, three other boats arrived and anchored. We know them all and they're nice folks, but it's not as magical as it was before.
All is well here in Puerto El Gato (where's the cat?).
We also heard from another boat that we're in an article in the May issue of Latitude 38. We haven't seen it yet - if one of our friends who gets the publication could tell us what it's about - that would be great!
Before finishing this email, we heard from Last Resort (anchored about 100 yards off our starboard side) that an enormous pod of hundreds! of Dolphins was transiting south, just outside the bay. We grabbed both sets of binoculars and ran up to watch. Lot's of leaping and cavorting... A much finer rush hour than I used to deal with.
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
El Gato Bound
Hello Everyone -
In our last episode, Raptor Dance was snugly anchored in the middle cove of Ensenada Grande. Sunday night, May 1st, the first Coromuel wind woke us up at about 2 AM. There was no danger, but the swells were very uncomfortable, so we didn't sleep much the rest of the night.
Coromuel winds are specific to the La Paz area and blow as far north as Isla San Francisco. These come up in the La Paz area as early as sunset and work their way North. The problem is that these winds come from the southwest and blow directly into most of the anchorages on Isla Espiritu Santo and Partida. We were blocked from the wind in Ensenada Grande's middle anchorage, but the waves (short, steep chop actually) refracted around the point and into our anchorage.
So we left later that morning after the morning radio net. We had a nice motor up to Isla San Francisco, but as it was also exposed to the Coromuels, we continued on to the anchorage just south of Punta Evaristo off the tiny village of San Evaristo, only a few miles further up the Baja.
The Isla San Francisco bay is gorgeous! Big white sand beach, clear water (only 75 Degrees F though) and great rock formations. The anchorage itself is formed by a hook shaped landmass at the southern end of the island. Looks quite inviting. Except for the risk of Coromuels...
San Evaristo has only a few families and one Tienda (store), no Palapas (Restaurants). It's primarily a fishing village with salt pans a few hundred yards over the ridge to the North. We stopped in the Tienda and bought a ripe avocado and a bag of potato chips. We also bought a large pargo (around 4 lbs.) from the local fisherman for 30 pesos ($2.70 US). Mary filleted it and we had it for lunch, lightly sautéed in butter, Yum!
Ah the joys of cruising. Yesterday morning, I fired up the water maker and noticed a bit of oil in the bilge. Hmmm, where did that come from. It had the purple color of synthetic oil. Now what uses that... More brain wheels turning. Oh oh! The only equipment that uses that is the high pressure pump on the water maker. Feeling under the HP pump, OIL! I quickly shut the water maker down. Looks like we'll need to get the pump serviced, I don't want to tackle this
one myself. Fortunately, there are factory trained service folks up in the Seattle/Vancouver area, where we'll be by early June. In the meantime, I'll top the pump up with oil and monitor the leak. If it gets really bad, I'll flush the water maker and keep it offline until we can get her fixed. We have more than enough water to last us until our planned return to La Paz early next week.
Geeky details: Our water maker is a Village Marine MPW 400, running on 115VAC (meaning we need to run the gen set to make water). It can produce about 16 gph (gallons per hour), which is about all we use in a day - so 1 or 2 hours per day is all we need to run it (hey, we take long showers, wash wet suits, do hand wash, and the dishes - all with fresh water). We probably have 170 Gal. of our 215 Gal. capacity left.
Also, I got to get rid of this genetic? conditioned? habit of waking up at 2 AM worrying about stuff. The Water Maker was the latest episode of my life time effort to get rid of this non-productive behaviour. Now that we're retired, it happens a LOT less often, but it's still annoying. Mary is very understanding ;-}
We stayed in Evaristo until this morning, Wednesday, Mar 3rd, catching up on sleep, hiking and chatting with the other cruisers and a couple of kayakers from the Canadian Yukon, who are padding their way south from Loreto to near La Paz.
Now we're off on a short motor (still not enough wind to sail only 6 knots, right on the nose) of about 4 hours up to Puerto El Gato. In spite of the "Puerto" in the name, it's just a small bay with no port, or anything else for that matter, except some fisherman. One is reported to sell huge langosta (lobsters) for very little money. We'll report what we find.
That's the news from Raptor Dance!
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
In our last episode, Raptor Dance was snugly anchored in the middle cove of Ensenada Grande. Sunday night, May 1st, the first Coromuel wind woke us up at about 2 AM. There was no danger, but the swells were very uncomfortable, so we didn't sleep much the rest of the night.
Coromuel winds are specific to the La Paz area and blow as far north as Isla San Francisco. These come up in the La Paz area as early as sunset and work their way North. The problem is that these winds come from the southwest and blow directly into most of the anchorages on Isla Espiritu Santo and Partida. We were blocked from the wind in Ensenada Grande's middle anchorage, but the waves (short, steep chop actually) refracted around the point and into our anchorage.
So we left later that morning after the morning radio net. We had a nice motor up to Isla San Francisco, but as it was also exposed to the Coromuels, we continued on to the anchorage just south of Punta Evaristo off the tiny village of San Evaristo, only a few miles further up the Baja.
The Isla San Francisco bay is gorgeous! Big white sand beach, clear water (only 75 Degrees F though) and great rock formations. The anchorage itself is formed by a hook shaped landmass at the southern end of the island. Looks quite inviting. Except for the risk of Coromuels...
San Evaristo has only a few families and one Tienda (store), no Palapas (Restaurants). It's primarily a fishing village with salt pans a few hundred yards over the ridge to the North. We stopped in the Tienda and bought a ripe avocado and a bag of potato chips. We also bought a large pargo (around 4 lbs.) from the local fisherman for 30 pesos ($2.70 US). Mary filleted it and we had it for lunch, lightly sautéed in butter, Yum!
Ah the joys of cruising. Yesterday morning, I fired up the water maker and noticed a bit of oil in the bilge. Hmmm, where did that come from. It had the purple color of synthetic oil. Now what uses that... More brain wheels turning. Oh oh! The only equipment that uses that is the high pressure pump on the water maker. Feeling under the HP pump, OIL! I quickly shut the water maker down. Looks like we'll need to get the pump serviced, I don't want to tackle this
one myself. Fortunately, there are factory trained service folks up in the Seattle/Vancouver area, where we'll be by early June. In the meantime, I'll top the pump up with oil and monitor the leak. If it gets really bad, I'll flush the water maker and keep it offline until we can get her fixed. We have more than enough water to last us until our planned return to La Paz early next week.
Geeky details: Our water maker is a Village Marine MPW 400, running on 115VAC (meaning we need to run the gen set to make water). It can produce about 16 gph (gallons per hour), which is about all we use in a day - so 1 or 2 hours per day is all we need to run it (hey, we take long showers, wash wet suits, do hand wash, and the dishes - all with fresh water). We probably have 170 Gal. of our 215 Gal. capacity left.
Also, I got to get rid of this genetic? conditioned? habit of waking up at 2 AM worrying about stuff. The Water Maker was the latest episode of my life time effort to get rid of this non-productive behaviour. Now that we're retired, it happens a LOT less often, but it's still annoying. Mary is very understanding ;-}
We stayed in Evaristo until this morning, Wednesday, Mar 3rd, catching up on sleep, hiking and chatting with the other cruisers and a couple of kayakers from the Canadian Yukon, who are padding their way south from Loreto to near La Paz.
Now we're off on a short motor (still not enough wind to sail only 6 knots, right on the nose) of about 4 hours up to Puerto El Gato. In spite of the "Puerto" in the name, it's just a small bay with no port, or anything else for that matter, except some fisherman. One is reported to sell huge langosta (lobsters) for very little money. We'll report what we find.
That's the news from Raptor Dance!
Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary
April 30, 2005
Ensenada Grande
Greetings from Ensenada Grande at Isla Partida.
I was sad to leave the beautiful Partida Cove but this is even more beautiful. The water is crystal clear, ranging from the beautiful light turquoise blue near the beach, then several shades of deeper blue, all the way to deep sapphire blue. I love this!
The water is warming up but still a little to cool to go without a wet suit for very long. It's 74 degrees, 2 degrees warmer than the last cove.
The main sea life we've seen is puffer fish, that seem to be nesting in groups on the sand bottom. There are a few other small species (sergeant majors, coronet fish, stingrays) but nothing we'd call lunch.
Our main excursion for today was to follow the trail to the top of this rocky island for a view to the east and all the way to Baja to the west…and to see our boat in these setting in these waters. It was an interesting trek among a variety of cactus and lizards. Not many people would call this a path past the first 50 feet. For today we had to call it quits when our "trail" turned in a mass of rocks and boulders to climb over.
Since everything is working well now, and nothing is broken, we have ample time for diversions lie backgammon, reading, visiting with the other boaters and just plain kicking back. Needless to say, we are enjoying this immensely.
We'll probably stay here for another day or two before moving on to Isla San Francisco.
Warmest Regards,
Mary and Bill
I was sad to leave the beautiful Partida Cove but this is even more beautiful. The water is crystal clear, ranging from the beautiful light turquoise blue near the beach, then several shades of deeper blue, all the way to deep sapphire blue. I love this!
The water is warming up but still a little to cool to go without a wet suit for very long. It's 74 degrees, 2 degrees warmer than the last cove.
The main sea life we've seen is puffer fish, that seem to be nesting in groups on the sand bottom. There are a few other small species (sergeant majors, coronet fish, stingrays) but nothing we'd call lunch.
Our main excursion for today was to follow the trail to the top of this rocky island for a view to the east and all the way to Baja to the west…and to see our boat in these setting in these waters. It was an interesting trek among a variety of cactus and lizards. Not many people would call this a path past the first 50 feet. For today we had to call it quits when our "trail" turned in a mass of rocks and boulders to climb over.
Since everything is working well now, and nothing is broken, we have ample time for diversions lie backgammon, reading, visiting with the other boaters and just plain kicking back. Needless to say, we are enjoying this immensely.
We'll probably stay here for another day or two before moving on to Isla San Francisco.
Warmest Regards,
Mary and Bill
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