Zabels At Sea

Hello, everyone.  I know it’s been a while.  We have been busy with lots of different land-based activities.  I will share some of that with you.  Then we have to finish our preparations to leave La Paz and head up into the Sea of Cortez for a real cruising adventure (we hope!)

We actually did go spend one night in a cove called Ensenada Grande.  The west wind, which comes at night around here fairly predictably, blew hard all night, but we didn’t budge.  Great anchoring by Larry!!  I do the driving when we anchor, but Larry set the anchor hard.  You could tell it wasn’t moving.

The Clampetts go to sea!

We watched a cruise ship go into the next cove and bring their passengers onto the beach of our cove by small boat:

Travelogue pics:

  A close-up of the cruise ship as we left.

Before BayFest, as part of his careful preparation, Larry got a massage on the beach!

The masseuse is a wonderful gal named Daniella.  She brings her table and assorted stuff to the beach, and gives massages – what a life!!

I wandered around, read my book, looked at shells on the beach, and studied the birds.

La Paz BayFest 2010 kept us busy for at least two weeks, probably more.  We brought the boat into Marina de La Paz in order to simplify everything.  There has been a lot of backing-and-forthing to and from the boat in making this happen.

First, there was the Art Show and Wine Tasting day.  Muggs has been painting here, mostly on Wednesdays with a small group of fellow painters.  Most of the others are much more experienced.  Roger on Avalon did the lighthouses.  You can’t see the detail, but they are very fine paintings.  You can probably tell which of these paintings are mine – they have lighter colors and are much less bold.  I am working on attitude!  I have six paintings here.  Left to right, the blue flowers, blue heron, blue parrot (is there a theme here), butterfly, blue flower vase, and seaside building above the rocks.  The lady pictured here is Ramona of Jatimo.  She worked at MJC, so if you recognize her, there is a reason.

Larry taught a knot-tying seminar that was better attended than we expected.  He put together a curriculum (a list of knots to teach) and made up this board for illustration.  Then he prepared 20 lines, each about 10 feet long.  These were for the students to use for practice, and there was some sharing going on.  But think about that – 200 feet or so of miscellaneous extra lines sitting around on this boat somewhere.  No wonder we can’t find room to store everything!

Cool classroom, don’t you agree!

The photographs which appear slightly fuzzy were copied from the Club Cruceros web page.  Something in the copying caused the fuzziness.  If you are interested in the better quality pics, just go to www.clubcruceros.org and take a look at the pictures behind the Bayfest 2010 link at the top of the page.

We participated in a blind-folded dinghy race and came in third.   Not too bad among 7 or 8 boats.  Here we are with Muggs telling Larry where to go:

We are in front here.  Larry is using his T-shirt as a blindfold.  (The pictures really are VERY sharp if you access the originals.)

I helped sell raffle prizes and was a cheerleader for the volleyball team.  Unfortunately, the volleyball team got whumped by the Mexican Navy, but not for lack of practice and great team spirit!  Larry played Bocce Ball later in the day, but there are no pictures to prove it.  Just as well as they were defeated three times.

The Club Cruceros volleyball cheerleaders:

Larry volunteered to be the Man Overboard for a hands-on practice, and as a prize he was awarded a life jacket and a bottle of red wine!  A friend of ours has said she has a video of this.  If we receive a copy from her as planned, we will be sure to get it posted right away.

For the knot-tying seminar, he got a bottle of red wine.  And for just being all-around helpful, we won a bottle of good-quality tequila.  The whole thing was almost profitable for us!  LOL!!

Along with fun and games, there has been some work on the boat.  We re-organized some major storage.  Here is Larry inspecting the really hard-to-get-to spots before  installing hooks for bungee cord hold-backs under our berth:

I don’t even remember taking these pictures, but they do capture some of the beauty and specialness of this city:

Well, that is all for now.  Off to Puerto Escondido for LoretoFest 2010 (don’t ask – we’re not sure we understand, either!  Puerto Escondido and Loreto are about 14 miles apart.)