Zabels At Sea

I know it has been a long time between blogs, but we haven’t had very good wi-fi until now.  We are sitting at the dock in the Fonatur marina in La Paz.  Our journey from San Diego has been a multitude of experiences.  We picked up a third crew member for the Ha Ha.  His name is Ray.  He is another member of the Oakland Yacht Club. 

We left San Diego with a hundred and sixty other boats from all over.  We had several Canadian boats, one from Hawaii, and one from the Mediterranean.  There was also a boat from Colorado, not to mention all the boats from Northern and Southern  California. 

The first leg was from San Diego to Turtle Bay, about a third of the way down the Baja coast.  It started off with no wind, so we did what you call a rolling start.  That is, we motored until the Grand Poo Bah says it’s time to sail.  It took a while before the wind came up but then we sailed the rest of the way to Turtle Bay.  We were one of the last boats to arrive in Turtle Bay because we went out about 40 miles.  We made it in time for all the festivities.  Drinking at the one and only hotel in town, and the infamous beach party.

This is a picture of Entre Nous at anchor, in Turtle Bay.

This is about half the boats at anchor in Turtle Bay.

The three amigos having a cervesa  at the hotel.

This town really goes all out for the Ha Ha crowd.  They are a little behind on the date.

The Grand Poo Bah mixing with the crowd.

This is one catamaran that anchored a little to close to the beach.  He anchored in six feet of water at high tide.  It’s not six feet any longer.

We left Turtle Bay earlier than the rest of the fleet to, hopefully, get into Bahia Santa Maria at a reasonable time.  On this leg we had wind right on the nose, and quartering seas.  Just a few hours out of Turtle Bay our autopilot went out.  We are now hand steering the rest of the way, until we can get it fixed. 

Here is a picture of Ray at the helm.  We are finally into warm weather.

Ray looks very compfy in his bunk. 

We came into Bahia Santa Maria at night with no moon.  We kept an eye on the radar and used the night vision binoculars and found a suitable spot to anchor for the night. 

We woke up to beautiful scenery and a gorgeous day.  The next thing to do is inflate the dinghy and go ashore. 

Waiting for the crew to get in so we could go ashore.  The epitome of relaxed.

This is where we checked into Mexico and received our visas.

The odd trio.  There is nothing here but four buildings that the fishing fleet use during the season.  The locals from around here come to welcome the Ha Ha boats and fix us a meal, serve us beer, and bring a rock ‘n roll band to entertain us.

Three local kids selling homemade jewelry and painted eggs.

We departed Bahia Santa Maria about midnight so we would arrive in Cabo during the daylight hours.  Our calculations were right on.  We arrived in cabo around noon.

This is a picture of some of the condos at Cabo Falso, the area just before rounding the point to Cabo.

These two pictures are of each side of Cabo point.  This is the famous Cabo arch.

As we were coming into the anchorage we had to dodge many jet skis and pangas, not to mention a huge Disney ship.

The first night in Cabo San Lucas, the Ha Ha group has a ritual party at El Squid Roe. 

This was early in the evening and the girls were already dancing on the tables.

We basically took over the place.

The booze was flowing freely.

The next day we went into the mall next to the marina and found some stores with very interesting things for sale.

We also found a couple of friends for joel.

We left Cabo a day or two later.  heading for La Paz.  Two stops are planned. The first will be a nice anchorage called Los Frailes.  The second stop was Los Muertos.  (the bay of the dead)  There is a nice resort that was built here with an 18 hole golf course, restaurant , and bar, right on the beach. 

We wound up staying at anchor in muertos for three days, waiting for a norther to blow through.  The norther gave us 25 kt. winds in the anchorage.  Just imagine what it was like in the open sea.  The second day after the norther blew through we weighed anchor and headed for La Paz.  12 hours later the anchorage was in sight.  Home at last.

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Sorry for being so late with this blog.  Joel and I have been doing a lot.  This will be a long blog with lots of pictures.

Our crossing to Catalina Island  was very uneventful.  No wind the whole way.  We left Alamitos bay at 9am and arrived at Two Harbors around 2pm.  about a 5 hour motor.  The ferries make it in 1 hour.

We’ve been in Catalina 4 days.  The boat is moored at two harbors.  Being in this moorage can be a bit uncomfortable.  The ferries come in here several times a day without slowing down much.  Their bow wakes hit us on the beam making us role back and forth a lot.

We inflated the dinghy for the first time without any problems and went ashore.  Not a lot to do here except spend money on rental equipment, eat, and swim.  There are some great snorkeling and diving areas around here to explore.  The water is still too cold to go in.

My back has been giving me a little problem the last day or two.  We went online to find a chiropractor and found one in Avalon.  The only problem is getting to Avalon.  It’s 12 miles by boat, or 23 miles by bus.  We checked the schedules for the ferries and buses.  If we went by ferry we would have to spend the night.  They only go one direction a day.  They leave Two Harbors at 1 pm and don’t come back until kthe next day.  The bus goes to Avalon in the morning at 10 and back at 4.  That leaves 4 hours in Avalon.  We decided to go by bus.   I got the appointment for 2pm.   On the way to Avalon we saw some buffalo grazing at the side of the road.

We did take a hike around the northern point to 4th of July cove.  The following pictures were taken during that hike.

The next picture is of Entre Nous on its mooring.

We are above the dinghy in the center of the photo.

While we were in Two Harbors we met Anne and Tim of Spica, a Catalina 36.  They work at Two Harbors and plan to do the Ha Ha. 

We also visited the USC Marine Institute.  The following are some pictures of this visit.

This is a picture of a dancing shark in a petting tank.  Go ahead, pet it.

Joel found his girl friend in Two Harbors.

There was a buffalo chip contest on our last day on  Catalina.  We took some pictures of cute girls picking out their chips.

Our nest port of call is Newport Beach.  This is where we will meet up with my wife, Muggs. 

We left our mooring at 8:21 on Sept. 5, 2011.  We unfurled the jib and flew it because the wind was mostly from the stern.  That added an extra knot to our speed, and arrived in Newport Beach in 5.5 hours.

Muggs showed up the next day.  everyone was a bit tired, so we rested that day.The three of us we to Disneyland for two days and wore ourselves out completely. 

This was a duck in the river that the river boat is in.  Does anyone know what kind it is.

The drawing we are holding was done by Muggs.  We are posing in front of the Hollywood (Haunted) hotel.

On Saturday we drove to Dana Point to see the tall ships.

During this event, Muggs and Joel participated in a seminar on dissecting a squid.

There was also a demonstration on flying a sail of a square rigger.

Sept. 12, 2011  We left Newport Beach at 8:45am heading for Oceanside.  It was very lite air.  Maybe 4 knots.  About half way there I unfurled the jib.  It didn’t help much until we were almost there.  We arrived in Oceanside at 3pm.  about one hour ahead of schedule.  We plan to stay in Oceanside for two days and then we will be off to Sunny San Diego.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog, and I will try make the entries a little closer together.  When we finally get to Mexico the entries should get a lot more fun.  Until next time, enjoy

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The trip to Long Beach was somewhat uneventful.  Lots of radio traffic.  Very hazy conditions with visibility about 1-3 miles. 

We saw a square rigger cut across our path.

After the square rigger passed us, we decided to have lunch.  Peanut butter and Jelly.  Oops, we lost the jelly.  Good thing we had another jar.

To get to the entrance of Alamitos Bay, Where we have a slip reserved at the Long Beach Yacht Club, we had to cross two shipping lanes.  Lots of ship traffic.  No time for pictures.  We arrived at the Long Beach Yacht Club in Alamitos Bay at 4pm.  The clubs are closed on Mondays, so we tied up the boat, explored the island a little, had dinner and hunkered down for the night.

The next day we checked in with the yacht club and took a little tour of the facilities.  This is a very nice yacht club with a pool and three restaurants.  After this we decided to check out the bus system to downtown.  This is where the aquarium is.  We spent the rest of the day at the aquarium and went to the movies.  We saw “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. 

These are a few pics from the aquarium.

We thought this was a very unusual jellyfish.

Joel liked this sculpture so I took his picture with it.  What it has to do with fish, we don’t know.

Now this is a big fish.  Not the one in red.

This was one of the free shows we saw about the rising ocean.

After experiencing the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Aquarium of the Pacific was a little disappointing.  It was small, and most of the few shows they had, cost extra.

When we got back to the boat we found a large sea lion parked on the end of our dock, just behind the boat.He posed well for this picture.

The next day, we took the bus to the Queen Mary, and spent the hole day walking up and down and all around the ship.  We started by taking a haunted tour.  This took us to several areas of the ship that isn’t on the regular tour.  very entertaining.

The following pictures are of the areas on the regular tour.  The haunted tour was too dark to take pictures.

These are pictures on the bow.

This is one of the guns fitted to her during her service in world war II.  She was nick named the grey ghost, because she was painted all grey.

The wheel house with all that brass.

Joel and I found the radio room with volunteer radio operators.  W6RO is their call sign. 

They invited Joel to call someone since he has his ham license.

This is the telephone switch board.  All first class passengers had a telephone in there room.

After touring the Queen Mary we went to the Russian sub, Scorpion.  it’s moored right next to the Queen Mary.  We have a few pictures of the sub.

As you can see, there is not much room to work or live on a sub.

We left the sub and picked up a water taxi back to Alamitos Bay.  Much faster, and more interesting.  We are now planning our trip to Catalina Island.  We leave on Sunday, August 21.  Muggs will be joining us on the 1st.

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We left Channel Island Yacht Club around 11am.  The beginning of the trip was foggy and drizzly.  Still hunting for the sun and summer temps.  The sun finally came out by 2pm.    We finally came across several pods of dolphins.  Unfortunately we were unable to get any good pictures of them.  Maybe next time.  I’m sure we will have plenty more chances to photograph the sea life.  After rounding Pt. Dume we set course for Marina Del Rey.  At 4pm  we came across a 27 ft. sailboat with nobody in the cockpit and the sails flogging.  We altered course to avoid him and passed his stern about 25 yards away.  This is when we saw him pop his head out.  You would think, near a busy port, someone should be in the cockpit to watch for traffic. 

Joel and I arrived at Pacific Mariners Yacht Club at 6pm and, with some dock help, shoehorned the boat into a slip. 

This yacht club is a very social club.  They are really 3 yacht clubs in one.  The morning  drinkers, the afternoon drinkers, and the night drinkers.  The bar makes a good profit.  The morning crowd starts drinking before 8am, and the bar never closes.  This is a 24 hour yacht club.

The next day Joel and I decided to walk down the Venice Beach.  The pier is about a mile from the marina.  Venice Beach is a very eclectic  area.  It is about 5 miles of store fronts meandering walkways and bike paths, many booths are set up where “artists” sell their wears.  Venice Beach has the most medical marijuana stores I have ever seen.

This is a picture of just one of them.  They have a “doctor” on staff that will evaluate you to see if you qualify for treatment.  If you don’t have an ailment, I’m sure they will find one for you.

This is also a great place to people watch. 

These are a couple of pictures of gals at a skateboard park on the beach.  They were pretty good too.

This is a picture is of a carving of, what we think, is Medusa.

I noticed a carnival park a the other end of the beach, so we decided to walk to it.  It was about 5 miles away.  When we go to it we had to take this picture but, now we had to walk back.  By the time we got back, we had no energy left to do anything else.  We got back to the boat, put a DVD in the machine, and crashed for the night.

The next day we went to what they consider a mall.  It was basically three strip malls with not much to them.  The big draw store was a grocery store called the Pavilion.  The good thing we discovered during this trip was the bus system was only 35 cents for seniors  (55+). 

Today Joel is making phone calls to try and get a slip at a yacht club in Long beach.  That is our next stop before we head to Catalina Island.

This is Joel and Larry on Entre Nous signing off for now.

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We are still in Ventura, at the Ventura Yacht Clubs Guest dock.  Joel and I had had to replace the start battery on the boat that Neal at Grand Marina Boat Yard said was practically new.  While we were at it we decided to install a battery combiner as well.  A battery combiner,  for those land lubbers, is an electronic gadget that combines the two banks of batteries while charging and separates them only when one bank is to be used. 

Yesterday we decided to take the day off and go to the fair.  The Ventura County Fair just opened and we thought we needed a corn dog.  The one thing we discovered about Ventura, they don’t have any cattle ranches.  Sheep ranching is very big.

Doesn’t he look cute.

I mean the sheep, not Joel.

After walking all over the fair Joel and I decided to sit at the horse arena and watch some horses and wagons/buggies race an obstacle course.

These are just a few pictures we took of these beautiful horses.

This is the large buckboard wagons with, what they called Unicorns.  What they really are are Clydesdale draft horses.  The gear they wear come up high over the wither bone and looks like a horn.  This is the only thing that we could come up with as an explanation for the name unicorn.  Any horse people out there that knows the real answer let us know. 

On our way out we went by this truck with a bluegrass band playing, so we stop to listen for a while.  They were pretty good.

We are trying to get out of here and go up to Channel Island Yacht club.  We called them to make a reservation at the guest dock.  Guess what.  No room.

We are looking at plan B or C or D…

We should be in Catalina by Labor Day.

This is Joel and Larry on Entre Nous signing off for now.

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This is an addition to the last entry.  I forgot to put the map of where we are and a picture of the yacht club from our boat.  This club has a very active junior sailing program.

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Saturday July 23, 2011

We left Monterey Marina at 11:20am, got to the fuel dock at 11:45.  Unfortunately  they were just going to lunch and would not be back until 1:00pm.  We finally departed from the fuel dock at 13:25 after taking on only 15 gallons of fuel. 

The first part of the trip was just trying to get out of Monterey Bay.  It seemed to take for ever.  Finally around 5:00pm started heading down to coast.  Around 7:30pm the wind died down to about 3 kts.  Larry took the helm at midnight to overcast skies, no moon, no stars, no boat traffic.  All I could see was the traffic headlights from HWY 1.

Sunday July 24, 2011

We arrived at our waypoint outside San Simeon about 5am heading for San Luis Obispo.  Weather is still overcast, foggy, and cold.  We have yet to see any sea life. 

At 12;45PM we spotted a problem with the Main Sheet shackle at the traveler  and had to change it out with main still up.  The problem with the shackle was it came loose and bent.  No problem now.

Larry getting ready to cook dinner.  I got everything out to make scallop potatoes and couldn’t find the potatoes.  Joel and I looked for about an hour until we finally found them.  Dinner was started and the seas started to get a little lumpy.  The swells were 8-10 ft. at 9-10 seconds.  A very bumpy ride.  Dinner was great.  Mixed green salad, three bean salad, scallop potatoes, and kielbasa sausage

Joel got the whale badge.  He spotted a pod of 3 whales off our port bow about 200 yards away.  They were swimming in our direction until they were about 50 yards from us and then dove out of sight.  This was the only picture I got.  If you look in the upper right you should be able to see his dorsal fin.

We reached Pt. Aguerro  around 6pm.  Seas confused, not too bad.  Joel is even doing a Sudoku puzzle.

Four miles from Conception and Joel decided to scare the @#%& out of us by stepping on the kill switch for the engine.  everything is A-OK.

midnight

Going around Conception we experienced very confused and high seas.  Some waves we were surfing down at 12 knots.  For those non sailors reading this blog, 12 knots is twice the speed this boat is supposed to go.

Monday July 25,2011

3am  We are now in the Santa Barbara Channel Trying not to hit any oil platforms.  No traffic has been seen for hours.  We seem to be the only ones out here.

9:42am we arrived at the Ventura Yacht Club.  Total time at sea for this leg was 44 hours 15 minutes.  We tied up at the dock and went to bed.  Nap time over at 3pm.

See you at our next up date.

Joel Tuttle and Larry Zabel

s/v Entre Nous

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July 19, 2011

Monterey

Well, we are finding more things to do while waiting for a good weather window.  Yesterday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  We spent all day there looking at and learning all about the marine life in the Monterey bay.  They still have a great jellyfish exhibit with jellies as small as a pin to ones as large as 16” in diameter and 20’ long.

This is a picture of an electrical jelly.  I can’t remember the exact name. 

The following picture is of several lions mane jellies.

We also got a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium.  We learned how they feed and take care of all the different sea creatures.  One interesting thing we learned about the octopus was they are the smartest of the invertebrates.  They can learn a complex problem by just watching another animal solve it and then solve it in seconds the first time through.  They found that in the octopus tank they had to line it with AstroTurf to keep him in. 

We didn’t get a picture of the octopus but this is a picture of the shark from the top of the tank where the public isn’t normally allowed.

If someone reading this blog is or knows a marine biologist please let me know what this fish is called.  Joel or I didn’t catch what it’s name.  It is an unusually ugly fish.

Today we went to town to find a UPS store.  Joel has to send his flir in for repair.  By the way, for those who are not up on the latest boating electronics, a flir is a night vision camera.  The repair facility is in Santa Barbara and hopefully we will be there next week to pick it up. 

Later today we are going to the farmers market that’s held every Tuesday downtown.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

The farmers market was 4 blocks downtown.  Lots of fruits and vegetables, as well as arts and crafts of all kinds.  Several food booths were there as well.  What amazed joel and me both was the van parked in a stall.  It was an oven truck full of rotisserie chickens and fried potatoes.  This is a picture of the oven part of the van.

While walking the market Joel spotted a Supper Cuts that was open so he decided to get a haircut.  He was actually over due and the stylist agreed. 

After walking a good part of the afternoon, we came back to the boat and I made dinner, and we crashed.

Today, I don’t know what got into us but we decided to rent bikes for the afternoon.  We rode past the Aquarium along the Ocean View to Pacific Grove Lighthouse, around Asilomar to Point Joe, then to bird rock, Up Spyglass Hill to Stevenson.  Then we proceeded to get lost and wound up back at HWY 68 and over to Lighthouse rd. and back to Fisherman’s Wharf.  I think that was about 25 miles.  It took us 3 hours.  Spyglass Hill was very steep.  At several places Joel and I had to get of the bikes and walk them up the hill.  It was a gorgeous ride.

This is a picture of 2 bucks just lounging on the golf course.

We are still planning to leave here on Saturday and arrive in Ventura on Monday.

See you in Ventura.

Larry Zabel

Co-skipper

Entre Nous

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We arrived in Monterey on Wednesday July 14, 2011.  The weather is better here.  Anything is better than foggy, drizzly Half Moon Bay.  We had breakfast at Lulu’s, a little restaurant on the pier. 

Muggs  is coming in on Friday for the weekend.  We are planning to leave after Muggs leaves,

We had a great time this weekend with Muggs.  Yesterday we drove to Seaside to shop for a few odds and ends.  Then we came back to Monterey and walked around downtown.  Muggs found 3 used book stores to spend time and money in.  Later we went to the wharf for dinner.  Joel and I had a half a crab and Muggs had a mixed sea food dish.  It was all delicious.

We just looked at the weather and as usual, the weather is in charge.  It is predicted to blow 15-20kts and wave height to be 10 ft. at 9 seconds. It looks like we will be here at least until Thursday.  I could think of worst places to be stuck.  Half Moon Bay comes to mind. 

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The experiences of Joel Tuttle and Larry Zabel on Entre Nous.  A Tayana 42.

Sunday July 10, 2011

Well, we are sitting in Half Moon Bay waiting for weather.  What else is new.

Our exit from Alameda was very smooth.  Too smooth.  Something has to go wrong.

We didn’t have to wait too long.  The weather predictions were for NW winds10-14 kt, seas 6-8 ft. at 12 seconds.  Not too bad.  Unfortunately, when we got out the gate the winds were SW 14-18 kt winds, and seas 6-8 ft. at 9 seconds.  For those of you who are not sailors, these are pretty uncomfortable conditions.  After we got out there we figured we were in conditions the coast guard would announce as “Small Craft Advisories”.  After we arrived in Half Moon Bay, we got a slip for the night, had dinner, and watched a movie. 

We finally went to bed around midnight and slept until after 9am.

Monday July 11, 2011

We woke up to fog and Small Craft Advisories this morning.  We decided to stay another day or two until we get a better weather window.  We spent the morning walking around town.  If you come to Half Moon Bay during the week, don’t expect to find too much open.  We took a walk over to the mall and walk around for a few minutes around noon, and Exactly one store was opened.  We will spend the rest of the day plotting a course to Monterey, and watching a movie or two.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be nicer.

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