You're probably all smart enough to figure this out on your own (unless you're reading this from an RSS reader - and come to think about it, why aren't you?) but in case you didn't notice, the new paint and wallpaper is up on the blog.
Which also means the website is finally (finally) done. We didn't get all the pages up that we wanted to so that means we'll be adding more pages down the line when we get around to it. And you all know how fast that happens.
Have a look see for yourself:
www.svhelloworld.com
S/V Hello World's Travel Log
lipstick on a pig
So now, we're just about ready to roll out our website - today or tomorrow. Along with rolling out our website, we're putting some lipstick on this here bloggity blog. Keep an eye out for changes coming.
bahia de los muertos
After three or four days, the norther blew itself out and we weighed anchor. We made north for Bahia de los Muertos to meet up with the whacky kids from s/v Stepping Stone. On the run north, we put out two hand lines in hopes of hooking some mahi mahi and whipping up some sushi. All we ended up with was two 1/2 pound bonitas (which we totally kept and barbeque'd because hey - we're not proud).
There's a beautiful (BEAUTIFUL) resort in the bay here called GranSueno which happens to be almost completely empty. So for the price of a cold Pacifico, 30 pesos, we were welcome to use their facilities. Including their waterslide, infinity pool, swim-up bar, beach, freshwater showers, pool table, and fantastic bar.
We hung out at the resort for a couple days, went for a hike, and snorkeled. We've spent some time at the local palapa bar, El Cardon, eating the galaxy's best nachos ever. This is the third anchorage in a row that we've got wifi.
This anchorage was also Kristin and Colin's jumping off point. They are headed to the windsurfing Mecca of La Ventana so they jumped ship here and muled all their stuff up the road in search of a ride. We loved having them on board, they were super fun. We can't wait to hear about their travels. Their blog is here:
Colin and Kristin's blog
Fair winds, guys!
Kristin and Colin walking the white sand beach of GranSueno Resort.
One of the private pools at the resort.
Sarah lining out Kristin and Colin about the trains in the bar.
The bar at GranSueno.
Christy reading in the bar's pool.
Kristin, Colin, Christy and Sarah at the top of the hill on our hike.
Chillin' at the palapa bar.
Taking Kristin and Colin and their camping gear and kite surfing gear into shore and onto their shoreside adventures.
There's a beautiful (BEAUTIFUL) resort in the bay here called GranSueno which happens to be almost completely empty. So for the price of a cold Pacifico, 30 pesos, we were welcome to use their facilities. Including their waterslide, infinity pool, swim-up bar, beach, freshwater showers, pool table, and fantastic bar.
We hung out at the resort for a couple days, went for a hike, and snorkeled. We've spent some time at the local palapa bar, El Cardon, eating the galaxy's best nachos ever. This is the third anchorage in a row that we've got wifi.
This anchorage was also Kristin and Colin's jumping off point. They are headed to the windsurfing Mecca of La Ventana so they jumped ship here and muled all their stuff up the road in search of a ride. We loved having them on board, they were super fun. We can't wait to hear about their travels. Their blog is here:
Colin and Kristin's blog
Fair winds, guys!
Kristin and Colin walking the white sand beach of GranSueno Resort.
One of the private pools at the resort.
Sarah lining out Kristin and Colin about the trains in the bar.
The bar at GranSueno.
Christy reading in the bar's pool.
Kristin, Colin, Christy and Sarah at the top of the hill on our hike.
Chillin' at the palapa bar.
Taking Kristin and Colin and their camping gear and kite surfing gear into shore and onto their shoreside adventures.
23°59'36.27"N 109°49'37.65"W
los frailes
We got Kim offloaded to the airport to catch her flight back to the States and were happy to put Cabo to our backsides. Colin, Kristin, Christy and I made a 4AM exit in hopes of avoiding the afternoon sea breeze out of the north. We had an uneventful motorsail to north to Los Frailes. We saw a bit of wind in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 knots but nothing too terrible. Colin trolled a line in hopes of catching some more tuna or dorado. We were all craving some sushimi and ceveche but no joy. Our Mexican Flag squiddie proved no temptation to the local fish population. We did catch a plastic bag with it so the day wasn't a total loss.
We anchored in Los Frailes with a significant part of the remaining Baja Ha Ha fleet. Watching the weather, we learned of an impending "norther" in the next few days. As we don't really know how serious these northers are, we chose to stay put in Los Frailes rather than try to run to anchorages further north. During our stay here, the four of us have partook in several beach fires, snorkeling off the boat, spear fishing, laying about in the sun and all sorts of typical lay-about laziness.
At one of the bonfires, we caught rumour of a palapa bar ashore. Since we aren't using refrigeration on board, the idea of cold beer was too much to resist and we organized a shore party the next afternoon to seek out said palapa bar. We joined forces with Megan and Luke from s/v Sapphire and Amber and Jeff from s/v Rock Star in search of frio cervezas. After walking through the village and over a road and stopping a gringo who gave us vague directions, we ran across a shaky sign that promised cold beer, just a mere 600 meters to the right. In the back of a man's house, about a half mile off the beach was a fantastic little palapa with room for three or four tables, a beer cooler, and a grill. A couple old Mexican guys sat in the corner nursing Pacificos. This finally feels like Mexico. Compared to the excessive neon, expense and glitz of Cabo, the dirt roads, remoteness, and 15 peso ($1.15) beer of Los Frailes is heaven.
We had the crew of s/v Sapphire over for drinks and a friendly game of Rage. Mostly because we really like them but also because they have an icemaker (ice is the new currency amongst Mexican cruising boats). While they were over, we pulled out miracle fruit tablets that supposedly turn sour food into sweet that Casey gave us when she visited us in Catalina. We set up a smorgasbord of limes, onions, chocolate chips, tequilas, and rum & juice to taste test the power of miracle fruit. Here's the results:
Limes: taste like candy. I could have eaten limes all night.
Onions: taste like onions. Not good.
Chocolate chips: taste like chocolate chips.
Tequila: taste less like tequila but enough that it still sucks.
Rum & juice: WAY too sweet to finish, sadly.
The anchorage of Los Frailes. If you look at the beach in the foreground, you can see Colin's kite.
Colin busily updating Facebook whilst poaching wifi in Los Muertos.
Kristin studying Spanish.
Christy chillaxin' after taking a dip in the water.
Luke and Megan from s/v Sapphire hanging out in the palapa bar.
Enjoying some cold Pacificos.
Luke partaking of a Pacifico Ballena (whale size). Yum.
Eating limes like they were candy.
Uh, Megan? You have something in your teeth.
23°22.749'N 109°25.551'W
photos
I updated the last few posts of the Baja Ha Ha and San Diego with some photo goodness.
You're welcome.
baja ha ha XVI in the bag
Our third and final leg of the Baja Ha Ha took us from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo San Lucas. We had a great sail the first day and all night long. We had winds from 8 knots all the way up to 18 knots. Once the morning came around, the wind died and we flipped on the engine.
Christy caught yet another tasty fish, this one was either a yellowtail or yellowfin. Somehow, there's yellow involved in this fish's extremities. Whether yellow in the tail or fin, he tasted awesome. Kim put a call out on the Baja Ha Ha VHF net for a good ceviche recipe. The poobah's boat came back with a spectacular recipe that Kim whipped up. Yum.
On the second day after the wind died, we started hearing calls on the radio about 3 different boats that lost their engines and were bobbing around in the wind. We heard a 32 foot boat with a 22 horsepower engine offering to tow a Fuji 45 in our vicinity. Since we were close, Christy got on the horn and offered to pick up the tow.
We made our way over to s/v Peregrine about 10 miles to the west. Once their we took up the tow and hauled her about 25 miles into Cabo San Lucas, through the anchorage to a spot where we Peregrine could set her anchor. We called out to the Baja Ha Ha fleet for some assistance from someone with a 15HP engine on their dinghy. Somebody volunteered (of course, someone always volunteers in this community of boats) and came out to help Peregrine get her anchor set.
Once in Cabo, we headed into town for the annual We Cheated Death Again party at Squid Roe. Here's a tip: DON'T GO TO SQUID ROE. Ugh. It's everything you don't like about Las Vegas bottled up into a poorly translated, obnoxious Mexican night club. At one point, the waitress came by with a tray of jello shots and one by one would walk up to each person in our group, shove a jello shot down their throat, blow a whistle, tweak their nipples and slap their butt. At the end of this little show, she looked at us and said "Seventy dollars." We just got mugged by a cute little Mexican waitress wielding jello shots and a whistle.
We're not big fans of Cabo San Lucas in general. It's a party town accustomed to loads and loads of gringo money. A slip in the marina would have cost us $120USD. Per night. Everyone on the streets accosts us trying to sell us some crap. We got totally grifted by the immigration officer. If you want the Vegas experience, come to Cabo. But if you're looking for Mexico, I'd go elsewhere.
The Baja Ha Ha wrapped up with an awards ceremony which most notably had coolers and coolers of free beer. Our kind of party! They announced the results of each of the 14 divisions in the race. We got third place*!
People, Hello World is an ass-kicker and world beater.
We are offloading Kim on Tuesday to catch a flight back to the States. It's been so great having her on board. In hopes of possibly replacing her, we're bringing Colin and Kristin on board to crew with us up to La Paz. Colin and Kristin crewed aboard the Ingrid 38 s/v Allymar during the Ha Ha and are jumping on board Hello World for a week or so to get up to some kiteboarding hotspot near La Paz.
s/v Teal Sea, a CT54, broad reaching under all sorts of sails.
Sushi!!!
After hearing that a 32 foot boat was offering to tow a 45 foot boat into port, Christy got on the horn and offered the towing services of Hello World.
s/v Peregrine under tow.
Much better after we lengthened the tow line.
Coming around the cape into Bahia San Lucas.
At anchor in Cabo San Lucas.
22°53.367N 109°53.820W
* As it turns out, the other 15 boats in our division also got third place except the two boats that got first and second place.
Christy caught yet another tasty fish, this one was either a yellowtail or yellowfin. Somehow, there's yellow involved in this fish's extremities. Whether yellow in the tail or fin, he tasted awesome. Kim put a call out on the Baja Ha Ha VHF net for a good ceviche recipe. The poobah's boat came back with a spectacular recipe that Kim whipped up. Yum.
On the second day after the wind died, we started hearing calls on the radio about 3 different boats that lost their engines and were bobbing around in the wind. We heard a 32 foot boat with a 22 horsepower engine offering to tow a Fuji 45 in our vicinity. Since we were close, Christy got on the horn and offered to pick up the tow.
We made our way over to s/v Peregrine about 10 miles to the west. Once their we took up the tow and hauled her about 25 miles into Cabo San Lucas, through the anchorage to a spot where we Peregrine could set her anchor. We called out to the Baja Ha Ha fleet for some assistance from someone with a 15HP engine on their dinghy. Somebody volunteered (of course, someone always volunteers in this community of boats) and came out to help Peregrine get her anchor set.
Once in Cabo, we headed into town for the annual We Cheated Death Again party at Squid Roe. Here's a tip: DON'T GO TO SQUID ROE. Ugh. It's everything you don't like about Las Vegas bottled up into a poorly translated, obnoxious Mexican night club. At one point, the waitress came by with a tray of jello shots and one by one would walk up to each person in our group, shove a jello shot down their throat, blow a whistle, tweak their nipples and slap their butt. At the end of this little show, she looked at us and said "Seventy dollars." We just got mugged by a cute little Mexican waitress wielding jello shots and a whistle.
We're not big fans of Cabo San Lucas in general. It's a party town accustomed to loads and loads of gringo money. A slip in the marina would have cost us $120USD. Per night. Everyone on the streets accosts us trying to sell us some crap. We got totally grifted by the immigration officer. If you want the Vegas experience, come to Cabo. But if you're looking for Mexico, I'd go elsewhere.
The Baja Ha Ha wrapped up with an awards ceremony which most notably had coolers and coolers of free beer. Our kind of party! They announced the results of each of the 14 divisions in the race. We got third place*!
People, Hello World is an ass-kicker and world beater.
We are offloading Kim on Tuesday to catch a flight back to the States. It's been so great having her on board. In hopes of possibly replacing her, we're bringing Colin and Kristin on board to crew with us up to La Paz. Colin and Kristin crewed aboard the Ingrid 38 s/v Allymar during the Ha Ha and are jumping on board Hello World for a week or so to get up to some kiteboarding hotspot near La Paz.
s/v Teal Sea, a CT54, broad reaching under all sorts of sails.
Sushi!!!
After hearing that a 32 foot boat was offering to tow a 45 foot boat into port, Christy got on the horn and offered the towing services of Hello World.
s/v Peregrine under tow.
Much better after we lengthened the tow line.
Coming around the cape into Bahia San Lucas.
At anchor in Cabo San Lucas.
22°53.367N 109°53.820W
* As it turns out, the other 15 boats in our division also got third place except the two boats that got first and second place.
bahia santa maria
[11/7/2009: updated with photos]
Baja Ha Ha Leg 2: from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria
Baja Ha Ha Leg 2: from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria
This leg was a *much* easier run than the previous leg. Only two nights at sea and the weather has been great. We left Turtle Bay under spinnaker. No - we hadn't fixed the spinnaker halyard. We tried, unsuccessfully, but left the jib piled in a heap on deck and used the jib halyard to hoist the spinnaker. Hello World really hauls ass under spinnaker. In fact, perhaps a bit too much. We let the wind build a bit too high before dousing and had... let's say an exciting douse. Too much wind to put the jib back up so we sailed under mainsail alone for the rest of the evening before starting the engine.
Day 2's big excitement was landing Hello World's first fish! You may recall Christy caught a couple salmon on the west coast of Vancouver Island but both fish shook off the line before we could land them. This beautiful little dorado was not so lucky. We ate very well that day. Thai satay dorado for lunch and teriyaki dorado steaks for dinner. Burp.
At dawn after the second night out, the sun rose behind Mt. San Lazaro in what had to be the most incredible landfall we've made yet. With the rest of the Baja peninsula hidden behind haze, Cabo San Lorenzo towered up like it's own island. It looked and felt like we were sailing into a south Pacific volcanic island. The terrain here is still green after hurricane Jimena blasted the area with rain a month ago.
No sooner did our anchor hit bottom in Bahia Santa Maria than we were shucking off clothes and hucking ourselves into the 80 degree water. Heaven. We anchored next to the ever kooky gang aboard s/v Stepping Stone so we swam over and invited ourselves onboard their great Maple Leaf 42 (hey Scottie and Kelly - we can't seem to escape the Maple Leaf 42's!). The crew of Stepping Stone are great at catching fish and Sarah has worked in a sushi bar for years so we hung out on their boat while they fed us dorado, big eye tuna, and yellowfin tuna in all sorts of ridonculously great concoctions.
Today, we made a shore landing and hiked perhaps not Mt. San Lorenzo itself but one of it's very high cousins. The three of us sweated and grunted and heaved ourselves to the top along with Sarah from s/v Stepping Stone and Kristin from s/v Allymar. We soaked up incredible views of the 170 boats at anchor below us to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Tomorrow we leave at 0600 (I guess that's AM?) for Cabo San Lucas and what should be our last overnight run. I'm sure you'll hear me say this again but it's been so great having Kim on board. Having someone crew that you trust to run the boat safely is such a luxury. Christy and I would be absolutely ragged without her. Thanks, Kim!!!
The first fish we've brought aboard Hello World.
Thai satay dorado. Yum!
Kim in her Spongebob Squarepants unsinkable shirt.
Making landfall in Bahia Santa Maria.
Hanging out with hilarious crew of s/v Stepping Stone. Stepping Stone's skipper, Elias, would randomly get on the VHF and pronounce "Those tacos sure felt better going in than coming out!"
Christy climbing up the mast again to reave a new spinnaker halyard.
Our group climbing up to the ridgetop at Bahia Santa Maria.
The Baja Ha Ha fleet at anchor in Bahia Santa Maria.
Kim, Jason, Christy, Sarah from s/v Stepping Stone and Kristin from s/v Stepping Stone at the top of the ridge.
Kristin catching some air.
24 46.680N 112 15.037W
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