hi all, just an update on what is happening in ensenada. we are still securely tied to the dock at cruiseport village marina. we are having a great time here. we started the Crusty Cruisers Coffee Club and meet up at the bbq/palapa every morning, cept sunday, for coffee and goodies. just about all the liveaboards here come up and exchange ideas, trivia, etc. it is a great way to meet fellow cruisers here. we were up on the hard (out of the water) for 19 days and stayed in a hotel just up the street and we could watch the coffee club from our patio. we had the bottom cleaned and painted, fixed the cracks in the keel, had a line cutter installed, painted a new water line, and cleaned and polished the sides. looks good.
we lost our thursday night cruisers happy hour, the lady that owned it, katrina, sold it and they closed it for remodeling. we have been hanging out at a restaurant called the cafe orleans and got to know the owner, jerry, really well and he offered his place for our happy hour. he doesn´t have a liquor license, but gets a private party license and we can bring our own bottle. we buy our mixer from him and he cooks for us. he made up a bar menu for us and we all meet there on thursday at 5 or so. we named ourselves the ensenada cruisers yacht club. nothing official, just for fun. we started out with about 8 members and in 3 weeks, have about 48 members. i'm sure you can imagine how much fun it is. dan, suzanne, rick and i went across the river and watched the baja 1000 leave ensenada last thursday. this year they went to la paz, last year they did a loop and came back to ensenada. it isn't as exciting when they don't come back, but alot of the sponsors are still here and the town is still partying. hope you all have a great thanksgiving, i will miss all the family, but we will be having turkey and all the fixings and will be thinking of all of you. hope this catches you all well and happy, as we are. will update again soon, take care. hugs and kisses to all.

hi all, just another day in beautiful, sunny ensenada. we are staying at the hotel corona while the boat is on the hard at baja naval boat yard. we are having the bottom painted and we found some cracks in the keel, so they are going to repair it and raise the water line with a new red stripe. also having a line cutter installed on the prop. almost a necessity when cruising in warmer water. it will cut any kelp or crab pot lines we might encounter while at sea. should be back in the water about friday, i hope. it is very boring living in a hotel when we are so used to being on the boat. we do have tv here tho and we bought the entire series of the tv show 24 and are dilligently watching jack bauer get out of all his messes. quite interesting. sure glad we didn't watch it when it was on tv, i couldn't have waited a whole week for the next segment. i'm just not that patient. we are really enjoying it now tho, cuz we can watch a whole months worth in one night. not too much more happening here. had a couple of days of rain early in the week but it has cleared up and the streets once more are dry. they don't have much rain here and the streets really flood, like little lakes. quite interesting trying to get around them. we bought a new lap top as this one needs a little repair work, so i get this one now. once i get the picture up, it works ok, so i'm happy. we have a few more projects to finish on the boat and then we will be heading south, maybe in december. not sure where we will end up yet, but i will be updating the blog more often, and you will be able to follow us on our journey. hope this finds everyone happy and healthy. write again soon. hugs to all

hi, well i had a wonderful time up in washington for 3 weeks. visited with friends and family and of course went girls camping for 5 days on the cle elm river. the weather cooperated most of the time and we got to spend a good deal of time in the river getting tan. we did some upper body painting this year that was gorgeous, thanks to both our artists. they did a great job. i didn´t know we had such talent among us. did some beading and arlyss brought her beautiful hand made jewelry. a great time was had by all. hopefully i´ll be there next year, but too soon to tell where i´ll be. had a nice get together with my family at lake tapps. too bad kathy and ross couldn´t be there, but the rest of the family made it including my adopted sons, aaron, nate, troy and brandi and chris. mom is sure looking good for 91, i can only hope to follow in her footsteps, she is absolutely beautiful, bless her heart. stayed with fred and cindy for a couple of nights and had a bbq on sunday with all my lake buddies. that was lots of fun too. good to see bev and mike, patti and dan, heidi and gabe and boys. they had all gotten so big, it is hard to believe they can grow that much in just a year. charlene and brandon are still cute as ever and doing so good. i´m so proud of my family, it´s just such a great feeling. who knew they´d all turn out so good, being related to me!

stayed with sue and scott most of the time, as lori had to work, but did get to stay with her a couple of nights. got my spike fix for the time being. that should last another week at the most. she took me to the airport and i cried for the next ten minutes. so hard to leave your good friends behind. wish i could have packed them all in my suitcase and brought them home with me.

one of the highlights of my trip was meeting the 2 youngest of my great grandkids. nathaniel is almost 2 and isabella is 8 months. they are so beautiful, of course. bella is a little chunk with big blue eyes and a wonderful smiling face, and she is always smiling. happy little kids. nathaniel is going to be a handful, since he has a little devilish side, but they are so adorable, can´t seem to get too mad at him. he fell in love with sue and scott has a new angel in bella. dayle is cute as ever and a great mom. i´m a happy woman.

the pups missed me as much as i missed them and now maggie is mad cuz i´ve taken my side of the bed back, but oh well, she´s back at the top of my pillow. we are moving from this marina to cruiseport which is closer to town, the first of september. just a change of pace and it is closer to baja naval (where the boat yard is) and we are having the boat hauled oct. 18. we will be having the boat bottom cleaned and repainted, getting ready for the trip south in november. should be leaving the ensenada area around the middle of november and be in la paz by the end. hurricane season will be over and the weather should be cooler (perfect in other words),

we took our salon cushions in to be upholstered and dan just brought them back. they are cocoa brown and a suede material. they are so nice. enough for today. thanks for reading this long winded note. be back soon take care, stay healthy and love to all. hugs

howdy all my faithful followers, just an update. not too much happening, cept the weather has gotten much better. warm, not too much wind and beautiful sunshine every day. had my eyes checked the other day and got some new glasses. bifocals, of course, i am old. had the ¨change in the sun¨ lens put in so i don't have to change to sunglasses every time i go outside. just getting lazy i guess. we started taking our laundry into town, cuz they wash, dry and fold it for you and it doesn't cost much more than doing it myself. last week we went to pick our laundry up and guess what, it wasn't our laundry in our bag. someone else got ours and theirs was in our bag. what a hassle. they said they gave it to a man that looked like dan, so we figured it was bob on E dock, so we drove back to the marina and checked with bob, but he hadn't picked his up yet. only one other person that resembles dan here, lyle. thought we'd check with him. as we were driving out of the parking lot, lyle was getting out of his vehicle with a black plastic bag over his shoulder. asked him if he picked up his laundry and he said yep, just got it and they charged him 250 pesos. he was surprised that it cost so much, since he thought he only had one load. asked him if he looked in the bag, but of course not, so we asked him to open his bag and let us check it out. yup, you guessed it, our laundry. we all went back to the laundry place and he got his {in our bag} and we paid him 250 pesos, he paid his 150 and we all had a great laugh, but i'm back to doing the laundry here. just don't trust them any more.
we had a guy come down today to repair the zipper on the bimini. he can also put a window in the top so we can see the mast while we are sailing and make removeable sides for it. what a score. he said he can also make us some stainless rails for the sides, so if we need to hang on, we can do it without banging into the bimini. sometimes after happy hour in town, we really need to hang on to something. lol
planning on going up to washington july 26, for a couple of weeks and go girls camping. it's an annual thing, so much fun, that i just don't want to miss it. be back aug. 13, so don't panic if you don't see anything on the blog for a while. i'll have plenty to write after i get back.. take care, stay healthy and keep smiling.. love to all rain

andy. i don't have tim's phone number , but his company is called oceanautics inc. and his last name is sawyer. i hope this helps. did you make it to la paz for your vacation and how did you like it. i actually like ensenada better, but i did like la paz a lot. its kinda pricey and not too much to do. lots more to see and do here. take care, miss you guys rain

hi everyone, we are back from LaPaz. we had a great trip and it is really beautiful there. the sea of cortez is wonderfully warm and you can see all the way to the bottom, it is so clear. the malecon there wanders for a couple of miles along the waterfront. the trip down was a thrill a minute crisscrossing the mountains. the road is two lane and has no shoulder and just a few guard rails. alice on our dock said it was a spiritual drive and we had to agree. we prayed all the way that we wouldn't run out of gas, have a flat tire or any car problems, and had plenty of toilet paper with us. but the scenery was awesome. i didn't know there were so many types of cactus. one of which is like a tree and only grows in baja sur. it was in full bloom and the whole trunk was flowering . all of the cacti were in bloom and it's amazing how colorful they are. we did check out the marina's and found out that we have paid for a month from last year. we didn't make it with the baja ha ha cuz i ended up in the hospital and i had already made our reservations at palmera marina- i had called and told them we wouldn't be there and figured we had just lost the deposit. wow, what a bonus so we will be staying there for the first month, november, i hope. After the first month, we are not sure where we will be. maybe at marina de la paz or maybe just anchored in one of the beautiful coves we saw on our trip. secluded, white sandy beaches, sounds like a dream, huh. we stayed in some really nice hotels and a couple of over priced ones, but managed to enjoy ourselves in the pool, laying in the sun and eating really good food. i had a margarita night, oops. was swimming in the hot sun and drinking margaritas in fish bowls enjoying myself a lot. we decided to go to a gringo bar down the river and i of course had a couple more margaritas there. did a little pirouete off the bar stool and landed on my head, ow. a little later, i was exiting the bano and fell and hit the other side of my head on the cement step, put a little gash that bled like a sunny gun. the bartender got dan and luckily there was a doctor there, a vet, but still a dr of sorts and he stopped the bleeding and put a couple of bandaids on it. what a dodo. for anyone that cares, i have given up margaritas, which makes dan happy. he's tired of me being the entertainment. lol we got back last monday and have finally rested up. the trip itself was very tiring. too much time in a car, even tho we stopped as often as possible. it was over 800 miles each way and lyle is a good driver, but my body is getting too old for that kind of traveling. we went with lyle and karoline from there motor vessel, oasis, in their van. lyle drove and dan was the navigator. karoline and i sat in the back seats and took pictures. as soon as i figure out how to post them, i will put them up. lots more to write, but this feels pretty windy so i am signing off for tonight. love and hugs to all till next time.

RETIREMENT

sorry i haven´t updated for so long, but we´ve been doing a lot of things, and nothing really worth posting. we did go up to chatsworth to my nephew´s and dropped off the dogs for a mini vacation to vegas. we stayed for 4 nights and had a really good time. the dogs got along pretty well with david´s four dogs but maggie stayed under his truck for the first day and night. finally she decided to join in the fun and got back to her normal friendly self. i think she thought we had abandoned her. david said one of his dogs mothered them all, so she must have felt safe.



we are planning a trip to La Paz around may 10th. a bunch of us are going to caravan down in the cars and take our time, probably 3 days down and stay for 3 days then head back up to ensendada. we want to check out the marinas there to see which one we want to stay at when we take the boats down in october. some of the cruisers who have driven down say it´s a wonderful drive and the country is beautiful. i can hardly wait. we will be going with Lyle and Karoline from ¨Oasis¨ and Paul and Rebecca from ¨Rendezvous¨ and hopefully, Beth and Gary from ¨Fun in the sun¨. i wish you all could meet these people, they are so great and so much fun to be with.



I´ve had a bout of ¨Moctezuma´s Revenge for the last few days and haven´t ventured too far from the bano, but things are looking better today. i have been getting my vegetables fresh from the vegetable lady at la vendemia every thursday night and i forgot to wash them in microdyne before i ate them and i think that´s what got me. we need to soak all our fresh vegetables and most of the fruit in this stuff because they don´t have the department of agriculture to make sure everything is without germs. they use a different kind of fertilizer [probably straight from the cow!]. any way things are solidifying today and i feel much better.



we got a new anchor for the boat and it arrived today, so we are going to put it on and take the old one off and use it for a spare. the new one is heavier and will hold the boat at anchor a lot better than the smaller one and we won´t drift. it´s just safer. any way that´s what we are up to today.



guess that´s about all that´s new with us. most days it´s just sameo sameo, but definitely not boring. if we get tired of the boat, we just jump in the car and go somewhere. we went to la bufadora [the blow hole]. it´s a local tourist trap with the ocean spray shooting up to 60 feet or more. you can get pretty wet, but it is awesome to see. the power of the ocean is so phenomenal, you don´t really realize it until you see something like that. amazing!



that´s it for today, i´ll try harder to update more often, but you know retirement is just so busy! love to you all, think of us when you are cold. hugs

hi all, well, we made it thru the tsunami threat yesterday safe and sound. we went up to the hotel to wait it out, but we had nothing to speak of. thank god for small favors. it did give us all a good scare tho. every one was either securing their boats or heading out to deeper water. quite a few left the marina, but most stayed and prayed nothing would happen. we met up on the second floor of the hotel and watched the ocean for about and hour or so, then came back to the boat. life is good. excitement keeps us young.

we bought the car and went up to san diego to transfer the title. we had to have u.s. insurance to transfer the title, so we now have u.s. and mexican insurance. we can go anywhere we want to. we have some new people in the marina from canada. bob and jane on "beautiful butterfly".
they needed to go to town for groceries and a tv, so we took them in to costco, wal mart and home depot. then we came back to town later for happy hour at la vendemia (cruisers happy hour is every thursday from 4pm to whenever). la vendemia use to be the ensenada yacht club, but is now an italian restaurant. we have a lot of fun and get to meet cruisers from the 3 other marinas in town. we have a media consultant that comes in and sells dvd's for 2 pesos each so we bought Avatar and ordered a few more that we will pick up next Thursday night. pretty good prices, eh?

Dan and I are taking spanish lessons every wednesday morning after the cruisers breakfast. our professora is alejandra. she lives just up the beach from the hotel, so we walk up. there are 7 of us taking lessons at the same time. we have Mark (from Groovy), Mike (from Defiant), Suzanne (kickin it), Beth and Gary (fun in the sun) and dan & I. it is hard, but lots of fun and we all practice on each other when we can, especially on the walk to class. we have had two lessons so far and she has us practicing sentences already. She is a slave driver. and we are expected to do home work!! and know what we learned last week. wow. the phrasing is the hardest part. very different from english. but we are enjoying it and some day, maybe, i will be able to carry on a conversation in spanish.

guess i had better end this weeks blog, running out of things to say. ha ha. so take care, stay healthy and be happy. love to all hugs

well, here i am again, in beautiful ensenada. looks as though we are going to stay until hurricane season is over....after september anyway. we are in the process of buying a car from some fellow cruisers that are planning on leaving in a few weeks to a month. they are heading south and hope to land in chile eventually. that's a long cruise, but like us, they have time and can see some really different and beautiful places along the way. we wish them fair winds and following seas. they are Bob and Jean from "Flewzy Coup". the car is a Ford Contour, 1996.
We will now be able to go places and do things more often and not have to rely on friends with vehicles or take the bus or a cab, altho, there will be times we will still need the local mode of transportation. Like happy hour nights in town!!

it is Carnivale time here and the town is packed with people celebrating. Singing and dancing in the streets, very much the same as Mardi Gras. i think we will be going in tomorrow for the parade and saturday night festivities. should be lots of fun.

We have some new neighbors on D Dock. They are Mark and Emily on the s/v Groovy. She just had a birthday and we helped her celebrate it with Beth and Gary from the s/v Fun in the Sun on Wednesday. had a few beers, a shot of Don Peron tequila and some good snacks. was quite enjoyable and didn't have to walk far to get back home. Speaking of birthday's, i have to wish my very good friend LORI a great happy birthday and wish i had been there to help her celebrate another year. i haven't missed one for a long time, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LORI.

We did go into TJ's for Super Bowl and had a really fun time. and of course, the best team won!!! We aren't big football fans but we had to root for someone, so we picked the underdog. Who knew.? After the game ended we walked over to La Vendemia, which has happy hour for cruisers on thursday night, to see if we won anything in the superbowl pools, but of course, we didn't. had a couple of margaritas there, then went home. super day, superbowl!

can't think of much more that's interesting from this point of view, cept that the weather is getting warmer and the sun is lasting longer in the day. that's the way i like it, uh huh, uh huh.
so with that i'll close with the normal "i love and miss you all. hasta luego mi amigos

hi everyone. greetings again from ensenada. yup, we're still here. andy, i think we are going to watch super bowl at TJ's here in ensenada. doesn't look like we will be in LaPaz for at least another month or so. we have a few more things to do to the boat before we leave and dan has to go to san diego to west marine for parts. betty, was good to hear from you. sorry we didn't get to see you before we left, but things were very hectic for the last couple of days. keep in touch and we'll do the same.

dan and i went into town last sunday for a few groceries and stopped at TJ's for a couple of Bufadora beers. i had a cold and after a couple of beers, decided to take a couple of cold tablets with a shot of Don Peron tequila then a couple more beers. Bufadora is 7.9 alcohol so is very potent. i woke up Monday morning with a black eye and a big lump on my forehead. when i went to the bathroom, the floor came up to say hi to my face. now i have two black eyes and a bruised nose, but it's not so purple any more and it doesn't hurt to look in the mirror. everyone in the marina thinks it's pretty funny so i have managed to make a lot of people laugh. seems like everyone has done the same thing at one time or another. lol

our neighbor, terry on the s/v Sunnyside, is helping dan run the wires for the SSB and the internet connection today. it will be nice to have internet when we are away from the dock or in a cove that doesn't have i-net connection. our weather has turned sunny and warm again. we have had more rain in the last month then they have had in years down here and being from washington, you know who they are blaming. lol

ok, i guess that's enough for today. be safe, stay healthy and have fun. love to all hugs

buenos tardes mi amigos.

not much different happening here. we are having a cold front coming in, so the weather is not doing it's usual sun shine thing. we are just hanging out on the good ship Raindancer and watching tv. i had my first massage today. omg, what have i been missing all my life? my advise to any one who has never had one, go now, don't wait. it is the most relaxing thing i have ever done. i could get very, very used to this. the cost was $36.00 for a full body massage that lasted about 30 wonderful minutes. after she was done, she said to lay there and relax for 5 minutes and i fell asleep for 10. lol

we are going into town one of these days to the movies to see Avatar. everyone says it is so good, we have to see for ourselves. victor and andre' went to see it first in english, but not in 3D, so they went again to see it in spanish and 3D. we found a theater that is playing it in english and 3D so we are going there. it is way out of town by the big box stores and will probably cost $10 for the cab ride, but oh well, i want the full meal deal!

we are still planning on leaving ensenada in the near future, but right now we are waiting for a good weather window. so far the prediction is wet and windy for the next week. high wind waves are not in our favor, so we will wait it out. we are paid up here thru the 10th of feb., but plan on leaving before then. we are both anxious to get back out on the water and get south before spring, so we can acclimatize before the summer heat in LaPaz. plus we are looking forward to seeing Andy and Candy from Chinook Landing Marina in Tacoma, in Feb. hi guys.

Dan says he can't think of anything else to add so i'll close this for today and end with the usual, take care, stay healthy and love to all. hugs

happy 2010 everyone. hope your new years eve was happy and everyone was safe. we had a little get together at the end of our dock and had a nice time with fireworks and the whole schmere. had a good time and was home by 10:30. time has a different meaning here. we went into town and walked about 5 or 6 miles all over the downtown area and out towards the big box stores. we are doing a lot of walking and it is really helping the lax muscles we have developed over the last 5 years of setting around the house. it feels really good. town here is much different than up in the states and you must watch your footing very carefully, but it is interesting and very colorful. the street vendors are everywhere and bug you to buy their wares, but are not too obnoxious about it. the restaurants are inexpensive and the food is awesome.

As soon as Dan has the SSB radio all hooked up, i think we will be heading south. we are getting anxious to get along with our voyage. it is so beautiful here, it is hard to leave, but time moves on and so should we. the dogs are doing well and we take them down to the beach for a run and a swim. its amazing that they like to swim here, but hated it at home. maybe the water temperature has something to do with that, but they love the water now.

Not much else to report. hope you like some of the pictures i have posted. oh yeah, itś the first of january and i am wearing a tank top and shorts. the weather is absolutely gorgeous and about 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and itś suppose to be like this for a least another week. love to all hugs