October 23, 2006

201

TA-DA! We are in San Diego! It’s been about 3 weeks since we left, and I always heard that San Diego was an 8-day trip in a boat our size… think of all the fun we would have missed if we marched straight down here, though – Tiburon, Marina Del Rey, the Channel Islands, all those meals ashore…

Today we saw about 200 dolphins, jumping and twisting out of the water. Some of them played in the bow wake of our boat for a long time, but most of them seemed to be feeding on something yummy in the ocean. The ones by our boat acted like they were as interested in us as we were in them. They would turn sideways and look up at us with their kind eyes, and say to each other,” Look how funny their noses look! I wonder how they breathe… and their fins are so loose and sloppy! How do they ever swim fast?”

I had a little panic attack the other day about coming back home in a couple of years, and knowing that everything will be changed. All Molly and Jessie’s friends will have grown in different ways than they have, and life will have just been moving along for our family and friends without us. It would be nice to think that time is standing still, and we will be able to burst back on to the scene and pick up where we all left off, but it’s simply not going to be that way. Although, when our friends the Ghirardos went to Japan for a few years, it was kind of like a puzzle sitting on the dining room table for a long time. It looked pretty good, but it wasn’t quite finished. Then, when they returned, it was as if we fished around in the shag carpet, found the missing piece, plopped it into the empty spot in the puzzle, and there was the whole picture! So, maybe I should just stop fretting.

We are at the Marriott Hotel Marina, at a hundred bucks a night. Ouch. I think we will be finding cheaper moorage tomorrow. This hotel has one of those Hawaii-type swimming pools, with waterfalls and palm trees and tiki huts – the girls could hardly wait for us to tie the boat up so they could check everything out. Jim is trying out the “hydro-therapy pool” – at a less expensive hotel, it would be called a hot tub.

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Molly’s Journal

Well, we’re off! We’re finally starting our big adventure! I can’t wait to get to the tropical islands of the South Pacific, but the west coast of the U.S. can be exciting, too.
This is probably my first time in the ocean, and I need to get used to it. At about 6:00 A.M., we got out into the open ocean and the waves started to get bigger and longer. I wasn’t used to swells like this, and I got queasy and lost my breakfast. I really hope that I get over being seasick.
Our first stop was Grays Harbor. We went out to dinner there, and took a much needed rest after two days in the ocean. There were a lot of fishing boats, and the smell was horrible.
When we came into Newport, Oregon at about 9:00 A.M., our grandparents, who live in Sutherlin, came to visit us, and they took Jessie and me around town. We had pizza for lunch, and then we went to a really cool aquarium that had aquatic life that was native to Newport bay. There were two or three wolf eels, a lot of fish and crabs, and a couple of small, shark-like sturgeons. They were all in one huge enclosure, and they seemed to get along just fine. Outside of the aquarium, we saw a bunch of enormous seals sitting on a dock. They seemed to get more attention than the fish in the aquarium!
We arrived in Crescent City at about 3:00 P.M. At first we had trouble finding the right slip, but a couple of guys came over and helped us. After we got tied up, I went with Dad to a boating store and we bought a boat hook, some cushions for the cockpit, and a scrub brush, among other things. When we came back to the boat, we met one of our Uncle Larry’s friends. After he left, we walked to town and ate at a restaurant called The Apple Peddler.
The entrance to Bodega Bay is pretty scary~ especially at 9:00 at night. The channel is narrow and shallow, and not all of the buoys are lighted. To top it off, we almost went on the wrong side of the breakwater because it was so dark. We finally made it safely to our slip, and the next morning we had pancakes.
San Francisco was really fun. We went under the golden gate bridge when it was almost dark, and seeing it all lit up was cool. Our friend Nicole came to see us, and her grandmother showed us around Sausalito. We had a great time!
On the way from San Francisco to Morro Bay, we caught our first tuna!!! We had been dragging a line behind the boat, but we thought we were too close to shore to catch anything. Dad woke us up saying, “Molly! Jessie! We caught a tuna! ” It was flopping around like crazy, even after it was dead. There was blood everywhere! It finally stopped moving, and Dad filleted it. About fifteen minutes later, we caught another one, and went through the whole process again!
In Morro Bay, we tied up to a mooring buoy for the first time. The wind was blowing really hard, and it took a couple tries, but we did it. The next morning, we saw an empty slip, so we pulled into it for a couple minutes and bought doughnuts before we left.
We anchored in Cuyler Harbor on San Miguel Island in the evening. The next morning, we inflated our dinghy motored it to the island. There were at least forty huge seals sitting on the beach, making enough noise to drown out a dinosaur! We ate a picnic breakfast and played in the sand for a while, then went back to the boat and had school. A little while later, we left for Santa Cruz Island.
To me, Santa Cruz looks sort of barren, but it’s pretty cool. We took the dinghy to a little rock beach and explored a shallow cave there. In the morning we were going to explore Painted Cave, an enormous sea cave named for the colorful lichen growing on its walls, but it got so rough that we had to pull up the anchor and leave at 4:00 in the morning.
We came into Marina del Rey, Los Angeles, at 1:00 in the afternoon. The yacht club has an outdoor pool, and we get to use it. The store manager of H&S Yacht Sales (the Jeanneau dealer for California), Steve Curran, visited us, and brought a customer to see the boat. Mr. Curran’s daughter, her husband, and their four-month old baby came to see us, too. After that, we went to Venice Beach. There were a lot of street vendors and weird shops. We saw a magician do some really cool tricks, and we saw an eleven year old boy and his dad doing balancing acts. It was a lot of fun!

October 20th, 2006

I could tell we were getting close to Los Angeles; the pelicans were all wearing bling, and the mother seals were carrying their pups in little pink plaid purses…

We arrived in Marina Del Rey yesterday, and are feeling very yachty here. It’s about 80 degrees and it feels so good! We have had a few days of great sailing. We got to fly our new spinnaker, and we were flying downwind at about 12 knots! That doesn’t seem like a lot to you car drivers, but when you are on a box in the middle of the ocean, it feels fast!

We spent a couple nights anchoring in the Channel Islands, Southern California’s answer to the San Juans. We who live in the Pacific Northwest are very fortunate to have the San Juan Islands, the Gulf Islands, and southeast Alaska as cruising grounds. Apologies to all our California boating friends, but the Channel Islands look like big piles of dryer lint sitting out in the middle of the ocean. There is not a tree in sight, and the anchorages are woefully inadequate. Maybe it’s just the wrong time of year to be visiting the islands, but we found ourselves missing the green Northwest immensely! We did, however, find some very friendly seals on the beach at San Miguel Island.

I have been thinking a lot about prudent sailing. We have done a few very prudent things, like changing to our smaller headsail while we were still at the dock, in anticipation of heavier winds. We were very glad we did that, when it was blowing 25-30 knots through the night watches on our way down here. We have also done a few un-prudent things, like entering moorages and anchorages after dark. It was scary trying to anchor in Cuyler Harbor on San Miguel Island in the dead of night – no lights, shallow water, and the beach was looming dangerously close ahead of us. Jessie was on the GPS, calling out, “More to starboard, Dad; stay in the middle of the channel”. Molly was calling out the depth’ “12 feet, 11 feet…” – we draw 8 feet! I was shining the flashlight on the rocks and the beach, and Jim was calmly driving to the right spot. It all worked out, and it was a nice spot to anchor, but we are learning lessons about timing and entering places with some daylight left. Our girls make great crew members. They are very comfortable with the boat lingo, and are good on the navigation equipment.

We finally have started school on a pretty regular basis. There is one historical fiction book that we read out loud each week, and one that the girls read on their own. Then we have math, history, grammar and spelling, and a Bible class. It seems like a nice full curriculum. We also have science and a navigation DVD that we haven’t dug into yet. I feel like we are a little shy on art and music, but I think being in the South Pacific Islands will take care of that. Phys. Ed takes the form of swinging from the dodger, driving the boat, and playing on the beach whenever they get off the boat.

Things I miss: church, friends, weekends, family, work, and Butch.

Things I don’t miss: traffic, television, school pressures, feeding chickens, and rain

Molly and Jessie are writing journals to post to this site – they will finish soon! Happy Halloween – we’ll talk again from San Diego!

10/15/2006

Going under the Golden Gate Bridge late at night was a gorgeous site. It took forever to get through the channel, because the current was against us. We tied up in front of the San Francisco Bay Yacht Club in Tiburon. Moorage has doubled from Crescent City to here. I hear it is even more expensive in San Diego. We are about 50 hours from San Diego – about 2 days of sailing. Our pattern so far has been to be “out there” for about a day and a half, then find some harbour to duck into to get some actual sleep. Thankfully, the weather has allowed us to be flexible. We’ve not had much wind, so have had to motor more than we like. Some days and nights, the waves have been huge. The boat bucks and leaps, twists and jives through the waves. When you are lying in your bunk, it feels like you are in the back of a race car gone out of control. The motor is roaring, and the car is swerving and weaving like there is a mad drunk at the wheel. It’s a lot less extreme when you are out on deck. The motor isn’t so loud, and you can see how the boat is negotiating its way through the seas.

The nights on the ocean are achingly beautiful. The sunsets are unobstructed by buildings, and the stars are out in abundance. The other night, they were so close, I was sure the big dipper was going to tip and pour chocolate sauce into the bowl of ice cream I wish I had in my hand…

Molly and Jessie have been begging to start school. Now that I am no longer leaning over the side of the boat every couple of hours, school sounds like a good idea. Jessie, of course, has read the entire teacher’s manual and knows exactly what we should be doing at all times. That girl loves schedules…

Yesterday we went to a lookout point above the Golden Gate Bridge and saw the entire area – what a beautiful site! We went to Sausalito and wandered around the shops a little bit, then had a great dinner. It was nice to be a tourist for a little while, but there were a lot of people. It was nice to come home to our quiet little boat, rocking gently in its slip…

We are leaving today, determined to get to San Diego. We aren’t quite sure how to prepare – I guess we just untie and go. We’ve got food, clothes and our sea legs – what more would we need?

We are learning a lot about the limitations of our communication systems. It has been very difficult to receive e-mails and update our website. I think we are getting some of the bugs worked out, but be patient with us. We love to hear from you, and will respond as soon as we are able. I think we will be able to post some pictures, so check out the gallery section of the website. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers and e-mails. We think about all of you A LOT! Jeanna

October 9, 2006

This is the song that has been running through my head, over and over:

She sailed away on a bright and sunny day on the back of a crocodile.
You see, said she, he’s as tame as he can be; I’ll ride him down the Nile.
Well, the croc winked his eye as she waved her friends goodbye, wearing a great big smile.
At the end of the ride, the lady was inside, and the smile was on the croc-o-diiile!

I think it is the “waved her friends goodbye” part that has put this song in my head. It was so nice of everyone to come see us off, and to ride out on Mark’s boat to gives us a final “love push” out into the ocean. You looked like a bunch of Vietnamese boat people, escaping to a brave new land, except none of you look very Asian… We felt a lot of love, prayers, and good wishes come from that boat – thank you!

This first week has had its ups and downs – just ask my stomach. Molly and I have had a little trouble finding our sea legs, while Jessie and Jim have been singing sea shanties and talking about all the meals they would eat, if only someone was in the mood to cook… I have spent many hours staring into the pewter-colored sea, trying to find ways to calm my stomach.

Night watches are an interesting phenomenon. Jim and I take turns standing watch every 3 hours through the night. The problem is, when I am supposed to be sleeping, I am terrified that Jim has been yanked off the boat by some invisible force, so I am up checking on him every half hour or so. Then when it’s my turn, I am sure that some huge ship will come careening towards us through the fog, and I won’t be able to get out of its way fast enough. Jim says it will be nice when my confidence level rises…

Last night, the wind was blowing about 25 knots from behind us, and we were flying through the water at about 11 knots, under mainsail only, in pea soup-thick fog. I was praying about the radar, and the fact that it really needed to work well. Our ship is truly small, and the ocean is truly vast. God has given us little gifts along the way; the stars, pelicans, and one whale. We have some lovely notes, books and gifts from our friends and family.

Right now, we are in Crescent City, getting some much needed sleep and clean-up time. We have made it past two states; I know California is a long one, but it feels good to know we have come this far. I know, I know – we could have driven here in about 10 hours, but how fun would it be to brag about that????

We received a lovely surprise gift from a band of our friends and family, led by Mark Schrader. It is a great big spinnaker, all white with a beautiful pair of ruby slippers right in the middle of it! A spinnaker is a sail used for the most fun point of sail: downwind. We hope to have many wonderful days of flying our Ruby Slippers spinnaker in warm, tropical waters. Thank you so much for the useful reminder of all the people we love so much!

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We should be south of San Francisco sometime late tomorrow. That’s when our little adventure really begins – this first week has been a test, only a test… Jeanna

Scuba
                The day after Bill and Susan took us to the aircraft carrier (check out molly’s journal for more details) we had to get up at 5:00!  That day we were going to La Jolla Beach to do our first two scuba certification dives and the next day we would do the last two.  Our dive instructor’s name was Colby and he was really nice!  As I said, we got up at 5:00 in the morning and drove to La Jolla Shores beach.  It was really hard to get there because w did not understand the directions given to us.  After we got there we had to unload all of our gear and equipment.  The day before we had gone to the Dive California scuba shop and gotten fitted for all of the equipment we needed to rent.  That included smaller (kid-sized) scuba tanks and heavier wet suits that were seven millimeters thick.  (We only have three millimeter wet suits for warm tropical water.)  After we unloaded all of our gear (which took a while because all of our bags, and especially our tanks, were very heavy) we spread it out on a blanket on the ground and Colby showed us some books that had pictures of the sea life that we could see under water.  There was one other team of divers that were participating in a class also; they were getting their “deep dive” certification so they could dive up to 150 feet deep!  After Colby told us what we could be seeing and what we would be doing under water we set to work preparing our equipment for use, which includes securing your B.C.D. (buoyancy control device) to your tank, attaching your regulator and octopus (the things you breathe from) to your tank along with all of the necessary gauges (depth, air pressure, and compass).  After we did that we had to put on all of the gear (swimsuit, wetsuit, boots, hood, gloves, and then the scuba unit which enables you to breathe under water and your mask and snorkel).  All of the gears weight put together are so heavy that I have to sit down and then have someone help me put it on.  After that it is a struggle to stand up; also when I finally stand up I feel like a seal out or the water, no, I feel more like a beached whale!  Then I was finally on my way: slow and sluggish, trying to stand up straight, and inching and shuffling my way to the ocean. 
The Next Day’s
Adventures
10-23-06
                We were all sad to see our little stowaway go yesterday, but this morning we got another surprise.  It was just another normal day… or so we thought.  We got up, had breakfast, and lounged around reading up on deck.  After a while Molly and I went down below and it was almost time to start thinking about lunch when dad called us back up on deck.  When we came up we saw a huge, ugly, dinosaur-looking bird sitting atop the radar pole on the dome.  He looked like he was half dinosaur half bird, so I guess he was a birdosaur.  I called him Dodo, Molly called him Toto, but we mostly just called him Birdie.  We just sat there and watched him for a long, long time.  Birdie just sat there preening his feathers and watching us for a long, long time.  After a while we got hungry enough to go make lunch, but Birdie was just so funny to watch!  A little while after we ate lunch in the cock pit we saw a huge pod of dolphins speeding our way. They seemed to de saying “yay, a boat yay, come on I’ll race you to the boat!”  It was so wonderful; there were about 200 of them!  Molly and I quickly raced up to the bow and sat there watching them for about an hour!  The dolphins were so cute; jumping all the way out of the water at times and then back in with a splash or a belly flop.  There were some playing by our bow and a lot more way out away from us, jumping and rolling and just plain showing off!  After a while I decided to crawl up on the boom with a pillow and watch Birdie again, he was still there preening away.  So far he had sprayed the deck twice, so we had a little scrubbing to do.  Molly also climbed, but she climbed up the radar pole that Birdie was sitting on.  When she said hi to him he pecked at her, (the ungrateful little thing!) and when she was not looking… well you will just have to see for yourself!  After that Birdie got very annoying, spraying the deck and making strange sounds.  We finally decided that he had to leave, so Mom got the boat hook and pushed him off and we finally said goodbye to our second stowaway!  

Stowaway
10-21-06
            That same day, (before MOB) I was sitting in the cockpit crocheting a hat when a small yellow bird flew onto the boat and skittered beside the dinghy. (The same one in the story below.)  Molly and I went to the foredeck to take pictures of him.  (MOB happened when we were walking back to the cock pit.)  After the MOB, our little friend was still sitting beside the dinghy. We thought he had flown all the way from an island near L.A., was tired and needed a rest.  He was so fat and fluffy!  After a while he probably got colder because we were going faster and he explored the deck until he found out that he could go under the dinghy and that it was quite a bit warmer under there. By that time we had thought of a name for him.  We named him Sailor because he was as cute and friendly and curious as a dog that we met with the same name.  Mom came back outside with some crumbled corn chips.  She lay down on her stomach and scooted the chips as close as she could get them to Sailor.  He barely even flinched!  Sailor just looked at Mom with that funny little tilt of his head, looked at the chips, took a step closer and repeated the process about five times.  Sailor wanted to know what in the world the little yellow crumbs were.  After Sailor had moved onto the hatch and we had watched his fuzzy little behind from down below for a while, he decided that if there was land close by he was going to find it and end his free ride.  As he flew off, Dad called us and we sadly watched him fly over the horizon.  We returned to what we were doing.  We had been trying to have school, and it was being interrupted by new opportunities to take pictures of Sailor.  We had also thought he would stay longer, or maybe even become our pet, but that would never happen.  When Dad called to us again we were so happy!  He saw Sailor who, having explored thoroughly and found no land he could fly to, came back and took advantage of the free ride again.  This time though, he landed inside the dodger and wandered around there.  We sat in the companion way watching Sailor and taking his picture, he seemed to be posing for everyone.   221           233  224We gave him more crumbled chips, but all he did was use them as carpet; they probably felt like sand.  Once, he got so close to Molly’s arm because he felt how warm it was by us. He almost went down below into the boat.  After that, we just left him alone and got all of our work done.  I worked on my hat some more.  When we got close to Catalina Island, Mom was sitting right beside Sailor and she reached out her finger and pet him!  All he did was hop sideways, but when he saw the land, he flew off.  We were sad to see him go, but it was exciting that Mom got to pet him!  When we got to Catalina Island, we had to tie up to a mooring bouy.  After that was done I finished my hat! 245

 

MOB
Drill
10-21-06
           About a half an hour after leaving L.A., we quickly executed a near perfect MOB (Man Over-board) drill.  I had been working on crocheting a hat for myself out of some light blue yarn (of course), when a small yellow bird flew on deck and scuttled beside the dinghy.  Molly and I went to investigate and take pictures.  Mom and Dad watched it for a little while and then went down below.  When I was walking back to the cockpit (with my paper still in my hand) the wind tore it away from me and it blew out to sea!  Swiftly, I ran down below and screamed to Dad that I had lost my crocheting instructions paper, it was way back behind the boat!  Dad followed me up the companionway, put the boat on standby, and turned it around while I grabbed the boat-hook.  I handed it to him just as we reached the paper, and he scooped it up and handed to me. The paper was sopping wet and ripped where he had skewered it with the boat hook, but I could still read it, and the rip was not on the words, so I carried it to the galley and set it gently on the counter to dry.  I worked on my hat the rest of the day.  That night when we got to Catalina Island I finished it!

Bon Voyage
10-21-06
           On our departure date, all of our friends congregated on the Anacortes fuel dock at 5:00 to wave us good-bye.  Before we left, we took all of our friends up on the boom and zipped our selves into the mainsail cover.  Also, (to our good friend Mark Schrader’s dismay) we happened upon piles of colorful confetti hidden in the folds of the main sail!  Upon our return to the ground (and after a few pictures), everyone went aboard Mark’s boat, Dancing Bear, to escort us out of the marina.  When we raised our sail, what should come out but loads of confetti!  (What a surprise!)  That first night Dad took most of the night’s watches because Mom, Molly, and I were too tired.
            That was about two weeks ago.  Now we are in Avalon Bay on Catalina Island, and are heading to San Diego for the start of the Baja Ha-Ha race (it starts on the 30^th, yikes!).  We have had one MOB (man overboard drill) to retrieve a piece of paper.  Dad and I are the only ones that have not gotten seasick yet, but I was really queasy on land once.  I really like being on the water, but it still sort of seems like we are going to go home soon, just like one of our Alaska vacations.  I am doing well and am eager to start the race, but I do miss my friends, a lot!  I will try to start an online journal for the race, and then my next website project will be finding a map for the site to chart our course on. I hope everyone is enjoying the site!