here we go again. we are leaving our beautiful marina in about a week, if everything goes well. we were suppose to leave on the 15th but we decided to put in a new alternator, as the one that was in was old and not too powerful. (men, more power). shouldn´t take too long. ha ha. after a couple of days of struggling we got the old one off. another couple of days to put the new one on. what a pain. then we had to wait for ralph, on naner moon, to get back from texas to wire it on. got that done, but had a short some where and darn near burned the boat up. started just a small electrical fire. lots of smoke, no damage. luckily. now we have that all fixed and running smoothly but need to go to san diego and get a new raw water pump as the old one is leaking.....does it ever end? it´s like peeling and onion, just layer after layer. lol so now our departure date is around the 28th or so (mom´s 92nd birthday, happy birthday, mom). keep your fingers crossed, we actually may get to la paz after all.
we are off to our favorite restaurant tonight for prime rib and lobster. jerry tries to keep us happy and fat. he likes to put on private parties for us so he comes up with favorite foods, and everybody comes. it´s cool, he makes money, we eat good. win, win. also he has made a craps table in the back room and is teaching some of his local friends how to play, so before long jerry´s casino will be up and running, under cover of night of course. no money exchange, just for fun.
we will really miss it here, but are planning on coming back up in may to spend the summer and ride out the hurricane season. it gets really hot in la paz and further south in the summer so we figured we´d come back this year. in november or so we will head south again and bypass la paz and the sea of cortez and go down to mazatlan and puerto vallarta and get to zewantenero(however its spelled). then to panama for a few months before going thru the canal. so that´s the agenda for now, of course it is subject to change daily. ha. hope this finds all of you healthy and happy. stay warm. hugs and kisses, rain and dan

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.