Down Time

Ahhhh, there's nothing like finding a passion, giving it everything you've got, and then enjoying the benefits of your hard work. That's exactly what I'm doing, here in beautiful.....San Diego. Oh, sweet San Diego. I relish the moments I've spent at your Police Dock, the miles I've walked over and over again from the remote location of the Public Dock to the nearest bus stop, and your complete lack of accessible, affordable marinas. I'll cherish these days forever.
Anybody want to live on a boat for 4-6 months? All you have to pay is the slip fee, which in San Diego, is reasonably priced at just %150 more than the slips in the Bay Area! What a deal? Ok, so maybe my tone is a bit sarcastic. Frankly, I'm a just a wee bit frustrated with the boating facilities in San Diego. Since Brady decided to move on from the sailing profession, and since I didn't have any luck finding a replacement (honestly, who could?) I've decided to put the boat in storage for the remainder of my travel time. I seriously considered sailing solo around the tip of Baja and up into the Sea of Cortez, but it's a pretty long journey (twice the distance we already covered) and there are virtually no facilities between Ensenada and Los Cabos, nor is there a reliable Mexican rescue fleet, nor are there reliable weather reports on the VHF (you need a single side band receiver to get good weather reports). All things considered, I decided against risking my life in Mexican waters. Another note, I really like my boat, and I wouldn't be able to sail it back to the US from the Sea of Cortez in time to be home for summer. If I did make it to the Sea of Cortez, I'd most likely be leaving my boat there in Guaymas, where you can dry dock it for about $100 a month, an amazing deal. But then, I wouldn't have access to my boat back in SF, and I'd really like to live on it when I get home. So, I'm looking for an affordable marina in which to keep the boat for a few months. It's looking like I'm going to have to single-handle the boat back up north a ways, maybe to Ventura, where there are some affordable slips.
Once the boat is safe and sound, I think I'll probably head to Mexico City, maybe on a flight, maybe on a bus, and get to Guadalajara where I've heard about a good language school. I think I'd really like to do a language program. What better way to get to know a place, and really be able to interact with the people? The program has a home-stay option, which could be pretty epic, too. One of the reasons I decided to go to on this adventure was to learn Spanish. My Spanish has improved quite a bit since getting to Mexico, but I still can't really have a real conversation with people. I can get around and get what I need, but true communication is still pretty difficult. So, if anyone has any suggestions for other language schools, send them my way.
So, that's the logistics update. What have Brady and I been up to, you may ask? We toured all over Baja with Liam and Kristen, stopping off on both coasts--the Sea of Cortez for beauty and tranquility, and the Pacific side for surfing and ocean grandeur. We had an amazing time. Baja is truly gorgeous. Sadly, it is in the throws of being discovered and exploited by the affluent population of the good ole US of A. Land everywhere is being sold to gringos, and new developments are springing up like crazy. We passed several sleepy little towns, as Liam and Brady remember them from years past, that now have a full fledged paved road, complete with street lights and roundabouts, running along side new sub-divided lots with sidewalks and driveways and nothing else, just ready for a new summer home. It's pretty crazy. Now is the time to invest in Baja property, that's for sure.
When Liam and Kristin were ready to head back up north, Brady and I stayed on in La Paz at a nice little hostel called Pension California, $23/night for a double with your own bathroom/shower. Not bad. Certainly luxurious after sleeping on the beach for a couple of weeks. La Paz is a really nice city. The people don't seem jaded by too many gringos (yet) and everyone was very nice to us. Actually, we kind of felt like celebrities. At least I did. We met some other travelers at the hostel, and we went out on the town for a couple of nights to party like rock stars. We went to this one place called "The Jungle," which is a great spot to go to if you like to stand shoulder to shoulder with a lot of groups of friends and listen to loud music with no dance floor. Sadly, that's not exactly what Brady and I were looking for, so we wandered around a bit and met some Mexican girls who took us to the legit place. This place was awesome! There was confetti all over the floor, and an 8-piece Mexican band with an awesome horn section and your typical wailing singer. Everybody was doing the Mexico two-step, and Brady and I were promptly snatched up by some girls and we spent the next 4 hours or so dancing the night away with the local ladies. Great night. Brady left a little before me, and when I finally came back to the hostel he was sleeping on the couch in the lobby(I had our only key. Sorry Brady).
From La Paz, we started hitch hiking rides back north to get back to the boat. Getting a ride out of La Paz was a snap, and this nice kid who was working on a sport fishing boat gave us a ride north about 200 miles to Villa Insurgentes where his mom made us all sandwiches. Then, he decided to keep on going north to Loreto to "get some supplies," but I think he was really just helping us out. Thanks, Chris. What a guy.
If you're ever in Baja, avoid Loreto like the plague. It's filled with criminals and cops. At first glance, it looks like a lovely little town, but we got ripped off 3 times in one night, and the next day when we tried to get a ride out of town, we spent 12 hours on the freeway with not a single ride. Then, a drunk guy tried to pick a fight with us and threatened to call up his buddies in the Mexican military (the Federales) and tell them to come mess with us. Finally, we walked back into town and caught a bus to Mulege, my personal favorite town in Baja. We enjoyed Mulege for a night and a day, and then caught a bus to Ensenada where we runited with Emilio, the friendly Mexican fisherman who was watching my boat for me. I don't think I've mentioned Emilio in the blog yet, have I? Oh, Emilio. I could go on about Emilio for hours.
We first met Emilio when we anchored for the first time off of Punta Banda. We were lounging on deck, soaking up the sun, when Emilio "rowed" by. I use the term "rowed" loosely, because Emilio's oars were about the most pathetic boat propulsion devices imaginable. Brady wants to put them in a museum. He and Brady chatted for a bit, and then Emilio slowly rowed off to catch some fish. The next time we met Emilio was on Christmas morning. The swell had picked up, and where the boat was anchored was a bit too close for the surf zone, so we went down to the place where all the local fishermen, or "Pangas," anchor their dingies to see if we could get a ride to the boat. The surf was too big for our little dinghy. Being Christmas morning, there was no one around to ask for a ride--no one, that is, but Emilio and his brother. And they were piss drunk at about 10am. I can't really repeat what he may have been saying to us, because I couldn't understand a word of it, but Brady surmised that he had a friend who could maybe take us, so he got in the car with us to direct us to his friend's house and immediately passed out. Every 5 minutes or so we'd nudge him and he'd just say, "derecho, derecho," which means "straight, straight." Eventually, we turned off the road onto a ridiculously steep dirt road that went up the hillside, and after making 8 or 9 turns (I swear we went in a circle at least once), we drove by a house that looked empty and Emilio told us that his friend wasn't there. By this time, I was getting pretty nervous about my boat, since the tide was going out and the surf was getting closer to the boat. We took Emilio home and went back to the Casa McAuliffe, and Brady and I put on wetsuits and decided to try to paddle the two kayaks at the house through the surf zone. Liam later told us that he would have bet 100 bucks that we wouldn't get out. But we had to get out. No one was going to give us a ride, and the boat was going to get tossed on the beach by waves. So, we tackled the mighty surf, and after getting completely tossed and washed all the way back to shore, we finally made it out, paddling like mad to make it past that last wall of water before it broke on our heads, and moving the boat safely to a better anchorage.
The third time we saw Emilio was when Brady and I took some of Liam's family out for a pleasure/fishing cruise. We went back down to the same little Panga area, where Emilio lives in a little yellow house with his aging mother and his brother, found Emilio, and asked him to give us a ride to our boat. He told us that he'd be happy to, but that his friend had taken his gas tank so he'd have to row us out there. Well, sure, ok. We all pile in this old wooden boat that looks as though it was raised from the deep and fiberglass-patched to help it hold together a bit better, and Emilio proceeds to row us the 1/2 mile out to the bobbing boat. He just stood there facing forward, quietly and patiently rowing us all out to the boat. After a day of sailing and fishing, we came back and anchored, and there was Emilio, rowing out to us to pick us up. That man is so kind and patient and humble, I really have to respect him for that. He was always so good natured and eager to help us out. Of course, we gave him some money for his services.
When we decided to anchor the boat and go on the road trip, we anchored it right in front of Emilio's house (the best anchorage in the area), and waited for the pre-arranged ride back to the shore. And waited. And waited. The wind had picked up quite a bit, and the swell had built as well. We waited. Brady started inching towards his favorite corner of the boat, where he spends most of his time when things are getting rough. No Emilio. Liam showed up in his car, ready to pick us up for the road trip, and talked to Emilio. Waves too big. Can't pick us up. So sorry, so sorry. Sigh. So, we pumped up our little inflatable (the one that leaks air and takes on water) and battened down the hatches, lashed our bags in the boat, and set off with our little plastic oars to tackle the surf, again. The wind was blowing, and the swell was big, but we felt pretty secure in our dinghy. Granted, we pretty much knew from the start that, once we got into the surf zone, we were going over. But we were ready for that. Everything was lashed into the boat, and our valuables were in the dry bag. Here comes the surf. We're gonna go over, Brady. Yeah, I know Glenn. Here it comes! Keep the boat straight! We're riding it, we're riding it....we're turning sideways, we're turning sideways....Whoa!! (Splash). Flip the boat back over! Flip the boat back over! Where are the oars?! We got them both? Ok, let's get to shore! No, no, don't get back in the boat, the water's only up to our chests. Hey, what's this in my pocket? Oh, it's my cell phone. Oops. And what's this? Ah, of course, my camera. Why didn't I put those in the dry bag? Oh yeah, mind clouded by adrenaline. Sigh. Hi, Liam. Yeah, we're ready, let's go. Slosh, squish, slosh, squish....
We left the dingy with Emilio, and paid him some money to keep his eye on the boat. There was another boat anchored in the same area, actually, but Emilio didn't know whose it was. Well, it turns out that whosever it was, they weren't very good seamen, because when Brady and I returned 3 weeks later and saw that our boat was in the exact same place we left it, but the other one was gone, Emilio let us know (faithful Emilio, who had watched our boat bob through 3 days of stormy wind and waves) that the other boat had dragged anchor and beached on shore, where it was promptly raided of all valuables and scrapped. Ouch. I don't envy that boat owner.
Emilio had guarded our dinghy for us for 3 weeks, and kept watch over our boat during the rough weather. He rowed us out to our boat many times, and he made us welcome in his meager home whenever we may return. Thanks for everything, Emilio. Best wishes.
So, after parting ways with Emilio for the last time, we sailed the boat to Ensenada, cleared out of Mexico, and split for San Diego, all in the same day. After a day in San Diego, Brady had finalized his plans for his 3 week stint to Argentina, where warmer weather and a beautiful women await him, and he flew out the next day. Thus ends the misadventures of Captain Howe and First Mate Brady Lang. May they have many more adventures in the future. Perhaps the Sea of Cortez is in our future in the next year or two, who can tell?
And now I sit in an internet Cafe in San Diego, awaiting emails from harbors and marinas, trying to find a home for Kalakas for the next few months. I met a couple of kids in the harbor the other day, and we've been hanging out. Two guys. Just bought a boat together. Getting ready to sail to Mexico. No sailing experience. Life is funny like that, eh? The march of the adventurous, clueless spirit goes on indefinitely. I gave them all the advice I could, from the weeks of working on the boat to the weeks of planning to the weeks of sailing. I even lent them some of my boating guides, since they didn't have any. Keep them in your thoughts, they'll need all the positive energy we can muster. I daresay they're even more clueless than Brady and I were, if that's possible. They didn't hesitate to tell me that my story gives them much hope for their own success. I told them to stop by and tell Emilio I said hello.
So there, I updated the blog. Whew. Sorry for the long delay. I'll keep everyone posted on whatever comes my way. If anyone wants to sail from San Diego to Ventura, that may be happening. If anyone wants to live on my boat for a half a year and pay the slip fees, that's an option, too. My cell phone took a nice 3 week break from functionality after it's salt water bath, then enjoyed a 3 day period of rejuvenation, and now it seems to be sick again. So, if anyone wants to get in touch with me, email continues to be the best option. All my love to all my dear friends and family!