PARIS PROLOGUE

My travels didn’t begin when I began this blog. Even before I retired and began to document my travels here, I had already completed several lengthy sojourns abroad. These travels did not go undocumented. I took photos and kept journals. Sometimes, I wrote emails home from internet cafés.

In 2000, my friend, Deanna Sclar, her Teddy bear, Jake, and I spent three months in France and Turkey. Deanna, an automotive journalist, took extensive video and we always planned to produce a video of our travels. The video camera got dropped along the way and eventually stopped working. We were never able to review the 10 MiniDV cassettes of footage she recorded. Deanna kept the tapes for over a decade and, then, gave them to me. She hoped I would be able to do something with them, as I had a dear friend who was a video editor. I had already started cruising, by then, and didn’t get around to the project, right away. My video editor friend died, unexpectedly. I bought a MiniDV deck, thinking I would edit the footage, myself. By this time, I was spending most of my time in Mexico or on sailboats and didn’t get around to it. Finally, in 2021, when I bought my condo in La Cruz and was emptying out my house in California, I decided to digitize the tapes so that I wouldn’t have to drag the MiniDV deck to Mexico. The tapes were all but useless. Nothing had been recorded after the camera was dropped and the couple of tapes that could be viewed had such short clips that they couldn’t have been edited into anything usable. The video project was a bust.

Jakey Bear in Paris

Still, I wanted to do something to share our remarkable journey through parts of Turkey where most people will never go, many of which have been permanently altered by the Second Gulf War. Since I now have this blog and usually do not write when I am not traveling, I decided to take my readers on a journey back to Paris and Turkey in the year 2000. 

After all these years, it is funny to look at these photos taken with disposable cameras.  There are so few of them compared to what I would have taken with a digital camera or smartphone.  As it was, I filled fifteen cameras and spent a small fortune on developing.  Fortunately, they were also provided to me in a digital format.  The quality is frustratingly poor.

Sept. 6, 2000
Acacias Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France

After spending the Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles, Deanna and I boarded a United flight from LAX to Paris at 16:15. We spent a very uncomfortable night on the plane and arrived in Paris at 11:15. We dragged our baggage clear across the Charles de Gaulle Airport to get cash from an ATM and then got a cab to our hotel.

The hotel was nothing to write home about but it was in a great location, close to the Seine and Notre Dame. We paid FF620 per night for a small room with three twin beds and no view. It was a very old building but clean and at least not dark.

Notre Dame and the Seine

We slept until 21:00 when we got up and went out for dinner. We ate at a small crêperie near the hotel (Acacias Hôtel de Ville, 20 Rue du Temple.) The meal was tasty and we ate in an ancient, arched, crypt-like basement below street level.

After dinner, we strolled up to the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) and admired the sculptures and then across the plaza to the Seine. We crossed the river and were surprised to discover that Notre Dame was right there. We spent awhile contemplating the gargoyles on Notre Dame and then walked around the block, across the Seine, and back to our hotel.

Sept. 7, 2000
Acacias Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France

We were not terribly motivated, today, but we did get a few things accomplished. We didn’t get up until 9:00 and then we stopped for breakfast in a café before we went anywhere. We went looking for a better hotel but everyplace was fully booked. We had to keep looking because our hotel did not have room for us on Saturday night. We looked all over the Marais with no luck. We found a travel agency and managed to purchase tickets to Istanbul. If we had flown directly to Istanbul from Los Angeles, it would have cost $1500. We got round trip tickets to Paris for $600 and, with seven days advance purchase, tickets from Paris to Istanbul for $200. The $700 we saved paid for our hotel in Paris for the week. We were fine with that. We couldn’t get tickets with a changeable return, so we bought the cheapest 30-day tickets we could find and figured we’d buy other tickets to get back if we wanted to stay past October 13^th.

After we bought the tickets, we crossed the Seine and looked at hotels in the Latin Quarter. All of these hotels were full, too, but we finally managed to talk the manager at the Royal Cardinal Hotel into giving us a room for six nights beginning Saturday. We wouldn’t have to sleep on the street.

We ate lunch at the Biere Academie where I had a croque dripping with melted Camembert and a glass of cider. We then headed back to our hotel to tell the manager to hold our room until Saturday morning. We stopped in to see the inside of Notre Dame (not as impressive as the outside), but the line to climb the tower was so long that we decided to come back in the morning.

We went back to the hotel where I napped while Deanna got her hair done. We got up around 19:00 and walked across the Île de la Cité to the quai where we picked up a tour boat and took a sunset cruise along the Seine. After the cruise, we wandered through a fascinating restaurant district in the Latin Quarter and ate dinner at a Thai restaurant, which was just what I needed as an antidote to the Camembert from lunch. We then ambled around the Latin Quarter for quite awhile until we noticed some sort of art party happening on a footbridge near the Louvre. We walked over to see what was happening and met two friendly gentlemen with whom we talked for some time. Then, we continued our walk along the Rive Gauche to the Pont Neuf and along the right bank of the Île de la Cité until we spied the Tour St. Jacques, which we had noticed earlier. We walked over to see that and then headed for the hotel, after buying bottled water in an Asian grocery.

Sept. 8, 2000
Acacias Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France

Arch de Triomphe

While we did not get an early start, we did cover a lot of ground. After grabbing breakfast near the hotel (This was always a process because I generally eat carbs in the morning and Deanna eats only protein, which is generally not part of a French petit dejeuner.), we took the Metro to L’Arc du Triomphe. We took a look at the arch and then walked down the Champs Elysées to the Place de la Concorde where we saw the obelisk from Luxor and looked down towards the Ferris wheel near the Louvre. We rode the Ferris wheel and got a nice view of Paris. The Grand Palais, Petit Palais, and Orangerie were all closed for restoration, so we walked through the Tuilleries Gardens and stopped for lunch at a kiosk there. After a nice lunch, we continued on to the Louvre.

The Louvre is really amazing. Not only is the original building huge, but the new, subterranean entrance plaza and attached shopping mall are also immense. It is all constructed of similar materials and blends very nicely with the original structures.

The Louvre

We toured the section of Italian paintings and saw the Winged Victory and Mona Lisa. We hurried through the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities and took a look at the Venus de Milo. We got a little bit confused looking for the Levantine antiquities and ended up in the new exhibit of the medieval Louvre. While excavating for the shopping center, they discovered the walls of the moat that surrounded the original Louvre (the four buildings surrounding the rear courtyard.) The moat has been excavated and you can walk around the foundations of the medieval fortress. It looks like something out of Sleeping Beauty.

We did finally get to the Egyptian and Levantine pieces. There were lots of glazed tiles and the piece that Deanna and I both liked best was a capital from the temple of Darius I featuring the heads of two bulls. You could see where the rafters once rested.

After the antiquities, we wandered through French objets d’ art and visited Napoleon’s apartments. He had a grand salon and a dining room that seated forty two at table.

By the time we had spent three hours in the Louvre, our feet had had it. We limped to the Metro through the underground mall and came back to the hotel for a nap. We were lying on our backs with our feet vertical against the wall and we both fell asleep that way. It was a wonder we didn’t topple off the twin beds.

After our naps, we dressed for dinner and hurried out to meet Deanna’s friend, Jeanne, at a place in her neighborhood called Rendezvous des Chauffeurs. We had sea snails, roast pork with spinach and crème caramel for dessert. Jeanne’s friend, Anne, joined us for dinner. After dinner, Anne drove us up to Montmartre, where we got a lovely view of Sacre Coeur all lit up and could see the lighted Eiffel Tower and a wonderful view of Paris. Montmartre was a happening place. Anne dropped us at the Gare du Nord Metro station on her way home and we took the Metro home.

Sept. 10, 2000
Train from Giverny to Paris, France

Yesterday, we were wiped out from our day of walking on Friday. We didn’t wake up until 9:00. Once we determined that there was no fountain show at Versailles, we decided to postpone our trip so we didn’t need to rush back for dinner.

We checked out of our hotel and took a cab to our new hotel, the Royal Cardinal, on the left bank. We checked in, dumped out stuff, and then went out for lunch. We had quiche and salad at a bistro across the street and then climbed up the hill to the Pantheon. The sun had finally come out for the first time since we arrived in Paris.

The Pantheon

The Pantheon is a huge and wonderful building erected as a monument to the great men of France. Many famous people are buried in the crypt. We saw the tombs of Voltaire and Rousseau, Zola and Victor Hugo, among others. The dome was crumbling, so the central portion of the building was closed off and there were nets just below the ceiling level over the arcade. In the center, there was a replica of Foucault’s pendulum.

After the Pantheon, we wandered down the Rue Soufflot to the Luxembourg Gardens. By this time, it was very hot and we wanted to lie on the grass. I had brought some painting supplies and I wanted to paint. When we got to the gardens, everyone was sitting on chairs or benches. I couldn’t find a scene I thought I could paint well. We sat in the shade for a while and finally mustered enough energy to continue around the gardens. Almost immediately, we came upon a lawn where people WERE sitting on the grass. We lay down and slept for an hour until it cooled off a bit. After our naps, we continued our circuit of the garden and inspected a lovely series of aerial photographs mounted on the fence. We located the place we were to meet for dinner with the help of three national policemen, bought some water and a bottle of wine, and headed back to our hotel.

We relaxed with a glass of wine and then dressed for dinner. The restaurant, Les Fêtes Galants, was not far from the hotel.  We walked there and had an aperitif while we waited for Jeanne and her friend, Margaret. We ate a delicious three-course meal. I had shrimp salad, veal in a scrumptious sauce, and an apple tart for dessert.

The hotel room was extremely noisy with the windows open and too hot with them shut. The café downstairs was noisy until two or three in the morning and traffic, sirens, and car radios continued the racket until dawn. We shut the window about 4:00.

Today, we got up early because we planned to go to Giverny with Jeanne. The hotel staff brought our breakfast to our room, so we had a relaxed morning getting ready. Deanna gave her Teddy bear, Jake, a bath. We left about 9:30 and walked down to the Seine to catch the bus to Gare St. Lazare. The bus did not run on Sunday. We walked to the Hôtel de Ville Metro station and took the Metro. We had agreed to meet Jeanne at the bus stop, but we were late and didn’t come in that way. By the time we found her and bought tickets, we had to run to the train.  Fortunately, it was on a nearby track.

The train ride to Vernon was pretty, but uneventful. We arrived in Vernon and immediately boarded a bus to Giverny.

Giverny

Giverny was gorgeous! There were aisles of flowers everywhere and a beautiful waterway surrounding the property, lined with bamboo and weeping willows. The lily pond was just like the pictures, although the Japanese bridge was surmounted by a wisteria arbor and painted an obnoxious Kelly green. Monet’s house was simple, but lovely. Inside, it was painted in bright yellows and blues and the walls were covered with Japanese prints. There were big, open windows in all of the rooms. It commanded a panoramic view of the flower garden.

Giverny

The town of Giverny was very quaint and picturesque. We ate lunch in a grove of trees by a stream. The waiter was merely a friend helping out the owner and he made up for being slow by being very friendly.

After lunch, we explored several art galleries and an old Romanesque church. I fell in love with a picture in a gallery, but the gallery was closed. I was about to go back and buy another painting I had seen when the bus came and Jeanne and Deanna rushed to climb aboard. We took the bus back to Vernon and caught the 17:38 train to Paris.

Sept. 12, 2000
Hôtel au Royal Cardinal, Paris, France

On Sunday, we returned from Vernon on the local train which took 45 minutes longer (1:15) than the express. We got back to our hotel about 19:30. We took a two hour nap but still didn’t feel like dinner. We stayed in and tried to sleep. The hotel was very noisy and just got progressively noisier all night.

I got up fairly early on Monday because I couldn’t sleep, anyway. Deanna had put in her earplugs early that morning and was dead to the world. She slept through the alarm, maid knocking on the door with breakfast, and the telephone. I had to get up out of the tub to collect our tray which arrived fifteen minutes early.

Pumpkins on a Tripod

Deanna finally got up when the coffee came, but she needed a couple of hours to bathe and wash clothes.  I went out for a bit. I had felt like a walk since the night before and was going stir crazy. I walked over to the botanical gardens. The flowers there were beautiful. They had a large selection of morning glory vines growing on tripods of re-bar or bamboo. I inspected them carefully because I planned to plant some on my back fence, and I wanted to choose a variety. I decided on “The Star of Yalta” (fuchsia) and another one with a dark purple flower. The “Himmelblau” were nice, too, with very large, blue flowers. They were also growing squash vines on these tripods, which I thought was a great idea, since I had one gourd plant that took up half my back garden. Even pumpkins were growing on tripods and I had to take a picture of the large, orange pumpkins hanging in mid-air. There were a lot of art students from the college across the street sketching in the garden.

The greenhouse and the maze were closed, so I stepped over towards St. Etienne de Mont and passed the Roman amphitheatre along my way. I continued up to St. Etienne du Mont which had been closed when we went to the Pantheon. The church was unusual in that the arcades were almost as tall as the nave and the main course of clerestory windows were actually in the arcades, which made for a very light church.

I came back to the hotel after two hours and Deanna was ready. We boarded the Metro and got off at Cité. We walked to Sainte Chapelle, which is surrounded on all four sides by a palace and, unfortunately, not visible from afar. Sainte Chapelle is an amazing place. It is completely polychromed and the ceilings are blue with gold stars. The lower chapel is beautiful, but the upper one is fantastic. Being a chapel, rather than a cathedral, the whole thing is one elongated stained-glass apse. It is quite tall, with slender ribs and well-restored windows. The effect is stunning. We lingered, trying to drink it all in. The glass and the polychroming were so rich in detail that it was impossible to absorb everything.

Stained Glass at Sainte Chapelle

St. Denis

After Sainte Chapelle, we took the Metro out to the village of St. Denis. St, Denis was a pleasant village despite some rather unfortunate, modern architecture. We went there to see the Basilique St. Denis, which was the earliest example of Gothic architecture. It contains the first rose window and is quite stunning. The portals are almost Romanesque. The church contains elements which date back to the fourth century. St. Denis is buried there, as are all the French kings. We saw the tombs of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. There is an impressive collection of funerary sculpture displayed there, as well. The crypt contains remnants of the older churches. The graves were desecrated during the revolution but there were some sarcophagi dating back to the fourth century church.

Sacre Coeur

Upon leaving St. Denis, we got back on the Metro and took it to Montmartre. We got off at Abbesses and strolled over to the Funiculaire, It was getting close to 18:00, so we hurried into Sacre Coeur. The inside was rather unimpressive because they were working on the central dome and had most of the mosaics covered with bubble wrap. Sacre Coeur was not built until 1876 and so is quite clean and modern and does not contain much history. It is very beautiful on the exterior, however, and occupies a fabulous site. It is dramatically lighted at night. I wanted to take a photo at night, so we had a drink on the Place du Tertre and waited for dark. There are many artists painting on Montmartre, but most of the paintings were not very good. I still regretted that closed gallery in Giverny.

The food on the Place de Tertre is expensive and mediocre, so we walked down to the base of Montmartre and had soupe l’oignon and a glass of wine in a café with a lovely view of Sacre Coeur. Once I took my photos, we headed towards the Metro and stopped in a bistro where Deanna had a lamb chop and I had a crêpe for dessert. When the cigarette smoke grew overwhelming, we continued to the Metro and came home.

That night, we decided to try sleeping with the windows closed. It was much quieter and not too stuffy.

Sept. 12, 2000
Hôtel au Royal Cardinal, Paris, France

Today, we took the RER train to Versailles. While the weather was okay in Paris, it was sprinkling when we got to Versailles. We ducked into an Italian restaurant and I ate pizza until it abated a bit. We then walked on to the palace of Versailles. Versailles is a truly amazing display of wealth, although it does not compare to the Russian palaces. Much of the marble in the king’s apartments is faux painting. The palace is quite large and the grounds are extensive. Unfortunately, much of the garden is not maintained. I found the pathways too wide, so that when you looked at a large expanse, all you saw was decomposed granite pathways crisscrossed with ruts. The formal gardens that were planted in flowers were exquisite on a small scale, however.

The Palace at Versailles

After touring the palace of Versailles, we walked through the gardens to the Petit Trianon and the Grand Trianon. The Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette’s hideaway, was lovely and rather modest. The Grand Trianon was more lavish, and the pink marble and formal gardens were impressive.

The Grand Trianon

After inspecting the Trianons, we stopped for a snack and Deanna ordered a hot dog. What arrived was an entire baguette, containing two hot dogs and smothered in cheese. For FF32, we got dinner for two. We walked back through the gardens to the palace and on to the train station. On the train, we had a nice conversation with a black couple from Dallas. Neither of us were hungry after the hot dog, so we came back to the (noisy) room.

              The Gardens at Versailles

Sept. 14, 2000
Hôtel au Royal Cardinal, Paris, France

The Musée D’Orsay

Yesterday, we got up fairly early so that we could go to the cybercafé but, when we got there, they were closed. We continued on to the St. Michel RER station and took the RER to the Musée D’Orsay. The Musée D’Orsay is really a delight. They have converted an old railway station into a museum. Somehow, they managed to add several levels of galleries without obscuring the wonderful, open architecture of the original building, with its unique dome of plaster roses. There is a large collection of impressionist paintings, including one entire room of Van Goghs. I was able to renew my acquaintance with Caillebotte. There was a marvelous, large painting of three men stripping a hardwood floor. We wandered around in the museum for hours until we just couldn’t take it any more and then we discovered the collection of art nouveau furnishings. All of the items were delicious, but there was one entire room taken from a chateau somewhere that was just fantastic. All four walls featured graceful art nouveau paneling and willowy built-in cabinets and free-standing furniture.

The Eiffel Tower

We didn’t get to the Eiffel Tower until 14:00. We wanted to eat lunch on the deuxième étage but they were only open for lunch from 12:15 to 13:45. We were unable to get a reservation for the première étage, either. By this time, Deanna was ready to throw a tantrum if we didn’t eat, so we walked down to the Seine and ate lunch at a boat that had been converted to a cafeteria.

After lunch, we waited in line for 40 minutes to get on the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the very top and could see all of Paris spread out before us. While it had seemed like we had crawled all over Paris, it quickly became apparent that we had visited only a small portion of it. They displayed a very useful series of photographs with a legend identifying all of the major attractions and another series showing which direction to look towards the capitols of all the world’s nations.

View from the Eiffel Tower

I was pretty beat when we returned to ground level but we got back on the RER and went two stops to les Invalides to see the tomb of Napoleon. Unfortunately, the les Invalides RER station is almost a mile from les Invalides and they were closing by the time we got there. We did manage to see the tomb and the domed building housing it, but we missed the museum.

By this time, I was so exhausted that I managed to lose our money bag, containing FF400 and some Metro tickets, in the RER station on the way home. We had agreed to meet Jeanne at 20:00 for dinner so, although the restaurant was rather close, we took a cab. My feet were so battered that I would have cried had we had to walk.

We had dinner at a Tibetan restaurant with Jeanne and her friends, Andi and Iris. The food was a kind of cross between Chinese and Indian and was a welcome change from French cuisine. I was deliriously hungry, having had a small lunch, and would have eaten anything.

After dinner, we went to the cybercafé, which was only a few blocks from the restaurant. I managed to send my email and write a newsletter, although the computer crashed when I sent the message. It appeared to have gone, though Deanna was not so lucky. Her messages kept disappearing. AOL.com did not function, but Juno webmail seemed to be fine. We didn’t get home until after midnight and slept like rocks.

THE 2024 BAJA BASH

June 12-13, 2024

Dawn in the Cabo San Lucas Anchorage

The plan was to get up at 5:00 and leave ASAP. When I got up, I discovered that something Brad had dug out of the refrigerator the day before had given him food poisoning. He wasn’t as sick as I’d been but was still pretty wrecked. I was in similar shape. Somehow, we managed to get the hook up and depart. Progress One had left an hour or so before us.

I took the first watch from 6:00 to 10:00 so that Brad could sleep. We had up to 15 knots of wind rounding Cabo Falso, but the seas were gentle and we were able to proceed at 6 knots. It was the easiest cape rounding any of us had ever seen. We caught up to Progress One during Brad’s watch from 10:00 to 14:00. I was still not able to eat much and just wanted to sleep, so I stayed below.

Passing the Cabo Arch

We ploughed along all day, making better than 5 knots. Progress One was struggling to make 5 knots in the big seas. The wind dropped to almost nothing. I took the watch from 14:00 to 18:00 and then went below to make macaroni and cheese with hamburger mixed in. It wasn’t haute cuisine, but we were both able to stomach a small bowl for dinner. I tried to sleep after dinner, but we had started slamming and I was unable to sleep.

When I came back on watch at 22:00, Brad had hardly hit the bunk before he requested that we slow down a little to stop the slamming. It was more comfortable, after that. It was a cold, dark night. There was only a quarter moon and it set around midnight. Still the wind was light, and the swells were large, but well-spaced.

Brad took the watch from 2:00 to 6:00 and I slept like a baby. We were both starting to feel better, although it was a slow process. It was hard to tell if I was queasy from food poisoning or seasickness. Maybe it was seasickness brought on by the food poisoning. Whatever it was, it wasn’t bad. I just didn’t want to eat.

Glassy Seas on the Way to Mag Bay

The seas were glassy when I came on watch at 6:00 on Thursday morning. I counted my blessings and chatted with Chuck on Land for Sail who had left that morning. He commented that, “Good things come to those who wait.” I spotted land before 7:00.

By the time I got off watch at 10:00, I was ravenous. I ate two bowls of mac and cheese and went back to bed. We were almost to Bahia Santa Maria by the time I got up at 14:00. The land surrounding most of Bahia Santa Maria is so low that it is difficult to tell exactly where everything is until you get quite close. The most sheltered anchorage is behind the hills on the north side of the entrance. While it is tempting to tuck into the northeastern part of the bay when you look at the chart, the low sand spit, there, offers no protection from wind.

Sunset in Bahia Santa Maria

We dropped the hook in 26 feet of water in the lee of the hills at 15:45. Progress One pulled in just as we were contemplating dinner at 18:00. We had pork chops and leftover mac and cheese for dinner. I picked the mango and jicama out of the salad I had made before I got sick and fed the limp lettuce to the fishes. We both retired early.

June 14, 2024

We had no reason to get up early on Friday morning. I woke up at 5:30, as usual, but soon went back to sleep until 7:20. The sun was up by then and the cockpit looked more inviting than it had in the early morning gloom. We drank coffee and Brad made smoothies. He transferred fuel from the jerry cans into the tanks and checked the engine fluids. I did dishes and worked on my blog. It was a day of rest between legs.

Panorama of Bahia Santa Maria

Boats began arriving in the early afternoon. Soon, Triumph, Anna Maria, Motu, Land for Sail, and another boat had joined us in Bahia Santa Maria. The weather predicted for Sunday had deteriorated a bit, so we decided to leave around midnight to try to make it to Asuncion before the wind kicked up. It got quite windy as the afternoon progressed and it didn’t stop when the sun went down.

Land for Sail in Bahia Santa Maria

I made salmon, potatoes, and salad for dinner and then lay down to try to sleep. The wind was howling. I started to have doubts about leaving that night, but knew it was our only window to get across for at least a week.

June 15-16, 2024

The wind had finally begun to abate by the time we got up at 23:30. Progress One was already pulling up their anchor and Land for Sail had their lights on. We paraded out of Bahia Santa Maria and turned north. It sucked. Brad took the first watch and I tried to sleep. Usually, it’s the creaking of the bulkheads that keeps me awake on White Wind. I couldn’t even hear that noise over the waves slamming into the bow. The seas were so rough that we would launch off a wave and then slam back into the water, the whole boat shuddering. The forward cabin was uninhabitable. Even in the main salon, I had trouble staying in my bunk. It was impossible to sleep.

Land for Sail at Dawn

I took over the helm at 4:00. The sky quickly began to lighten. I passed Progress One early in my watch. Land for Sail was close off my starboard beam. The clouds turned purple at dawn, but it was too cloudy to see the sun. Dolphins came to greet us. They came leaping out of the sides of swells. Their antics were quite acrobatic. The wind had only increased overnight. Most of the night it had blown a steady fifteen knots on the nose. By 6:00, it had increased to twenty. It was cold, but dry.

Our Dolphin Escort

I huddled below from 8:00 to noon when my next watch began. The sun finally came out about 13:00. The wind had dropped back to about fifteen knots, but the swells never abated. We continued to slam. Brad had slowed us down to 4 knots to prevent us from launching off waves quite so often, but we seemed to slam just about every time I started to relax.

My watch ended at 16:00 and I went below to huddle under blankets and try to warm my hands and feet. It was cold even in the cabin. I baked cornbread to serve with canned chili for dinner. The oven warmed the cabin, and I could finally take off my hat and coat. It was still very rough. When I tried to check the cornbread for doneness, the pot leapt out of the oven. I caught it with the door, but the cornbread, which wasn’t done, slumped to one side. Fortunately, it still tasted delicious.

I was back on from 20:00 to midnight. A fog had risen, and it was very damp. By the end of my watch, water was dripping from the canvas. My gloves were quickly soaked. We had left Progress One and Land for Sail seven or eight miles behind us. We had lost Starlink and were flying blind, weatherwise. Our experience did not correspond with the last models we had seen. Blair reached out to land-based friends via InReach for weather updates. They didn’t help much. It should have been more pleasant than it was.

The seas finally began to abate after Brad took over at midnight. The wind continued to blow at fifteen knots. I drank a cup of hot tea to warm my core and then collapsed into my bunk and slept like a rock, swaddled in three layers of blankets, until my alarm went off at 3:45.

Fog off Abreojos

All day, we had debated whether to try to reach Asuncion or just settle for Abreojos. Wherever we landed, we were likely to be stuck there for a week. Brad was miserable and just wanted to put the hook down and have it be over. Blair and I were unexcited about spending a week at Abreojos. As the seas flattened out and fishing boats began materializing out of the thick fog, the matter came to a head. White Wind had to turn if we were going to Asuncion. We conferred via the radio. Brad, who had thawed out and slept some, agreed to go along with whatever we decided. We restarted Starlink and looked at the weather. The forecast showed calm conditions all morning, increasing gradually in the afternoon to 15, gusting to 20, by early evening. White Wind would probably be anchored by then, but Progress One was two hours behind. Still, the day’s peace was all we could see for the next week. That fact, combined with the fog, inclined us to stay offshore and head for Asuncion. I made the turn. We were committed, but it looked like we could avoid the worst of the wind by staying close to shore and could always bail out at Bahia Hipolito if things got too bad. My watch ended at 8:00 and I went below to drink hot liquid and write before crawling back under my blankets.

Arriving in Asuncion

It stayed foggy all morning, but wind and seas remained calm. We were able to roll out the headsail and made great time. I slept through my downtime and came back on deck at noon. It was still foggy. By this time. We were only a few miles offshore but couldn’t see anything but fog. Fishing pangas would suddenly materialize out of the murk. Going as fast as we were, it was disconcerting. Fortunately, we were able to see the shore just as we neared the anchorage in Asuncion. Usually, we anchor to the right of the pier but, as we entered the bay, I saw numerous fishing floats marking nets strung in that area. By 14:30, we had the hook down near Moon Nah Mah Na and Anna Maria.

We relaxed for the rest of the day.

June 17-18, 2024

By the time we got up on Monday morning, some of the other boats had already arranged for Fernandito (Lery Espinoza’s substitute) to bring them fuel. We decided it would be better to get our fuel in the morning when it was calm, so we arranged to do so on Tuesday morning.

We hung at anchor all day. It was windy and the boat was sailing around its anchor. I took the opportunity to make spaghetti sauce with the hot Italian sausage I had found at Walmart. My stomach was already a little iffy, but I still enjoyed my dinner. Not for long, however. Shortly after I went to bed early, I was up again to vomit. The rocking was quite pronounced in my forward cabin, and I was seasick. I vomited until the coffee I had drunk for breakfast came back up. It wasn’t until 2:30 that I was able to go to sleep. The lack of exercise was playing havoc with my digestion.

I slept until 8:20. Fernandito was supposed to fuel Progress One at 7:30 and get to us at 9:00. No sooner had I gotten up and dressed than Fernandito arrived at our boat. I threw some shoes in a dry bag and hopped in his boat, forgetting to bring my phone which was still tangled in my unmade bed.

Getting ashore was uneventful. Fernandito drove his launch up onto the sand and we hopped out between waves. Then he hitched his boat to his truck with a line and hauled it above the waterline. Brad and Darren from Land for Sail set off with Fernandito to the Pemex station. I was shaky and ravenous and set off in search of food.

After walking a little way towards where I thought there might be a restaurant, I realized that I wasn’t in any shape to be walking. I retraced my steps to the market near our landing and bought some electrolytes and cinnamon rolls. I sat in the sun and nibbled at my breakfast. A local dog joined me and snuggled up to me. His warmth was welcome.

The original plan had been for me to wait ashore until Blair and Doctor Mike arrived and then walk around Asuncion. I quickly realized that I needed to rest. When Fernandito and the guys returned, I decided to go back to the boat with them. Getting the boat back into the water with fifty gallons of fuel and four people turned out to be a challenge. Fernandito did a mighty job of keeping us from turning sideways and rolling over, but we still got swamped by a big wave. We were soaked to the skin. That was the last thing I needed in my condition. I spent the rest of the day huddled under blankets, trying to get warm.

The Lights of Asuncion

I didn’t want to eat anything that might plug up my system, again. It was dinnertime before I dared to eat some jicama and mango salad and a kiwifruit. A little later, I heated up some beans and those hit the spot for both of us. They were warm and filling.

We planned to make the jump to Turtle Bay later that night. I sat down to write a bit before trying to catch another forty winks.

The wind died down, nicely. Seas were flat. We pulled up the hook at 23:00 and headed out of the bay. Land for Sail was right behind us and Progress One soon followed suit. Eventually, Moon Nah Mah Na joined the parade. I wondered what the residents of Asuncion thought of the fleets of sailboats that mysteriously appeared and disappeared in the middle of the night.

June 19, 2024

Land for Sail in the Moonlight

There was a bright moon and we had good visibility. Land for Sail stayed nearby all night. Progress One quickly fell behind and was passed by Moon Nah Mah Na. I had the first watch until 3:00. While we started off making good time with calm seas and barely ten knots of wind on our nose, we soon ran into adverse current and slowed to three knots. Blair on Progress One was the voice of gloom and doom, certain that he would get stuck in the following afternoon’s blow before reaching Turtle Bay. Moon Nah Mah Na passed us just before the end of my shift.

Brad took the watch from 3:00 to 7:00. He increased the engine RPMs and headed closer to shore and managed to shake the current. Soon, we were making five knots, again. I was able to sleep during my off time. By the time I woke up, it was clear that we would make Turtle Bay long before the wind kicked up.

I took the watch, again, at 7:00. We passed Land for Sail as we made the turn to head into Turtle Bay. We stayed fairly close to shore, although I headed slightly away from shore to avoid the kelp that grew at that latitude. It wasn’t foggy or particularly windy, but it was still chilly. Brad came on deck as we passed the reef, and we took in the mainsail as we crossed the bay. We anchored under the cliffs to the left of town at 10:25. Progress One arrived about noon.

At Anchor in Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay)

We were immediately accosted by a panguero offering to supply us with fuel. We didn’t need any but did ask him to come back the next morning to take us into town. Once the boat was settled, I took a long nap.

By 16:00, I just couldn’t sleep any more. I got up and spent the afternoon reading and writing. It grew windy in the afternoon, but calmed once the sun went down.

June 20-21, 2024

Turtle Bay Pier

It was calm and sunny when we got up on Thursday morning. I drank my cocoa in the sun and warmed up for the first time in days. Ernesto, the panguero, came to get us at 9:30. He didn’t like where we were anchored, although he relaxed once we told him we had 200 feet of chain out. The issue was that, had we drug, there was a reef behind us.

We went ashore, visited the grocery store, and dropped off our laundry for Ernesto’s wife, Dolores, to do. They had a litter of very cute puppies for us to play with. Blair and Doctor Mike set off to explore the town, but Brad had become concerned about our anchor. We headed back out to the boat and moved closer to Progress One.

Party on Land for Sail

We lounged around the boat until 16:00 when we all went over to Land for Sail for happy hour. The crews of Juliet, Triumph, White Wind, and Progress One were all in attendance. We had quite a spread of appetizers and Joseph from Triumph brought his rum keg. I was still babying my stomach, so didn’t imbibe, but Doctor Mike brought me some antibiotics that he hoped would clear up my digestive woes. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours putting faces to the names on our What’s App group and voices on the radio. We exchanged gossip about mutual acquaintances, and I received a tip about a boat that might need crew to go to the South Pacific in 2025.

I was, however, glad to get back to our boat where I was able to make something to eat and drink that wouldn’t upset my stomach. I was ravenous after not having eaten much for three days. Thursday was supposed to have been the windiest day and the forecast for outside the bay looked horrendous. It was a little breezy inside the bay but had calmed down by 18:00 when Charles from Juliet ferried us back to our boat. We passed a calm night.

Turtle Bay in the Morning

Friday morning was much quieter in our new spot where the fishing pangas weren’t racing around us at the crack of dawn. It was more overcast than the day before, so I didn’t venture outside until the sun came out around 8:30. Once again, Ernesto picked Blair, Doctor Mike, and us around 9:30 and took us to shore.

Johana's Restaurant

We walked up to the top of the town and then stopped into Johana’s restaurant near the big cell towers. She made us a delicious and hearty breakfast. It was the first real meal I had eaten in days. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but I couldn’t resist the huevos rancheros, although I resisted part of the crispy, fried tortillas. She had two cute chihuahua mix dogs and some adorable kitties to play with. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and chatted with a gringo motorcyclist who happened by. Johanna commented that all her customers were Americans. We were glad to see that at least some business came by land, since sailors all tended to arrive in clusters.

Baseball Field in Turtle Bay

After brunch, we strolled past the baseball stadium (Baseball is HUGE in Turtle Bay.) and checked out the soccer stadium under construction. Then I guided everyone down to the beach to see the plaza which none of the others had seen before. After we checked out the plaza and the Bahia Tortugas sign, we walked back to the small park near our laundry and stopped to sit in the shade while Blair made friends with the local dogs. Brad and I wandered up to the church, which I had never seen, and then continued on to check out the fishing co-op’s boat yard and very steep launch ramp. The operation was quite impressive. We discovered a boat parts store and a fuel station over there.

The Bahia Tortugas Sign

Blair and His Friend

Brad in the Fishing Co-op's Yard

After our walk, we picked up our laundry and caught the family in the middle of their dinner. Ernesto and his teenage helper finished their meal and then met us at the pier to take us back to White Wind. Blair and Doctor Mike had wandered off and we had to round them up to catch the panga ride. We said goodbye to them at Progress One because we would not see them again once we left Bahia Tortugas. They were not stopping in Ensenada to check out as I was required to do as a legal resident. We never knew when we would see each other again.

Back at the boat, Brad put some raisin bread in the oven, cleaned out the engine strainer, and checked the fluids. I put away my laundry and sat down to write and swat the annoying but slow flies that tormented us. I soon dispatched them all. Then, it was naptime.

Sunset in Turtle Bay

June 22-24, 2024

Progress One Leaving Turtle Bay

The whole fleet left Turtle Bay on Saturday morning. Moon Nah Mah Na was first out of the bay. They went outside of Cedros, and we never saw them again, although we did hear them on the radio when we reached the top of Cedros. Progress One, ever the early risers, were next. Juliet followed. They sailed fast and we never saw them again, although we talked to them the whole way. They kept us apprised of what to expect. Land for Sail and White Wind left about the same time. Triumph brought up the rear. They also went outside of Cedros. That turned out to be the slower option.

We left at 6:00. As usual, I took the first watch. We followed the coast and then turned north inside of Isla Natividad. By 8:30, we were able to sail for a while. We passed Natividad sometime after 9:00. We saw a barge delivering kelp harvested at the island to Turtle Bay where it is used to make gelatine. We could see quite a village on the island but didn’t get close enough to discern details. I hadn’t taken the inside route since 2001 and must have been off watch when we passed that way as I had no recollection of having seen the island before. It was interesting. 

White Wind's Path North

Unfortunately, I slept through most of Brad’s watch from 10:00 to 14:00, so I didn’t see much of Cedros. By the time I got up, we were sailing well east of the island and couldn’t see details on shore. We had stayed within sight of Land for Sail and Progress One, although Progress One was falling behind. The seas were fairly large, but all coming from the same direction. Things wandered around the cabin and I found our mermaid figurine cozied up to the banquette in the dinette.

Brad Passing Cedros

I came back on watch at 14:00. It took another couple of hours to pass Cedros and start out across Vizcaino Bay. We had worried that it might be rough at the top of Cedros, but it wasn’t too bad. We had been tacking up the channel, “like an Americas Cup boat, “ according to Progress One. At the top of Cedros, we tacked west, following Juliet.

Brad took the helm at 18:00. It was just rough enough that neither of us felt like cooking or eating much. We grazed for dinner. Brad took in sail before it got dark and gave up on the sailing thing to make a beeline for Ensenada. We lost Progress One but remained close to Land for Sail.

There was a lovely full moon when I came back on at 22:00. It was a perfect evening and not too cold or damp. Perversely, it seemed to get warmer as we traveled north. Brad took over at 2:00 and the seas had calmed enough that I slept peacefully until 5:45.

Full Moon Over Vizcaino  Bay

The sun was just rising when I came back on at 6:00 on Sunday morning. While Saturday had been pleasant enough, we had seen more wind, all day, than the model had predicted. Sunday dawned just as calm as foreseen. The surface of the water looked almost oily. We motored north all day, keeping within sight of Land for Sail. Eventually, we lost radio contact with Progress One. A humpback whale surfaced between us and Land for Sail but he didn’t hang around.

It was nearly the longest day of the year and the sun didn’t set until 20:30. I made arrachera fajitas because we didn’t want to have to dispose of the arrachera at the border. Hamburger, we could toss, if necessary, but the arrachera was precious. Brad wouldn’t see any more until he returned to Mexico.

The sunset looked especially spectacular through the porthole in the main salon. The reality was disappointing when I popped my head outside to take a picture. I was off watch until 22:00 but there was a SpaceX launch scheduled for 20:45 and I didn’t want to miss it. I bundled up and went outside to watch it with Brad.

Sunset Through the Porthole

      It wasn’t fully dark when the rocket launched. We saw the streak of light as the rocket ascended from the horizon into the cloud cover. We could see a bright spot passing behind the clouds until it finally broke out of the band of clouds and gave us a spectacular show. The moisture in the air reflected the light from the rocket like a massive veil. We had definitely been in the right place at the right time to witness that launch.

I came back on watch at 22:00. It was colder and damper than the previous night, but still not unpleasant. Wind and seas were calm and we continued north along the rhumb line. The full moon rose just as my watch began and I had plenty of light to see. Land for Sail stayed just off our starboard bow most of the night. I went below at the end of my watch and slept soundly until 5:45. I had not napped the previous afternoon and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Morning Fog

It was very foggy when I got up on Monday morning. The fog lifted a bit by 7:00 and we were visited by a pod of dolphins. It warmed up quickly but visibility remained poor. By 8:15, I could see the rocks on the south side of the entrance to Bahia Todos Santos clearly, but still couldn’t see Isla Todos Santos.

Entering Bahia Todos Santos

Finally, the island loomed out of the murk and I made the turn into Bahia Todos Santos and headed for the Cruiseport Marina. Brad came on deck just before my watch would have ended at 10:00. He took the helm while I readied the dock lines and hung out fenders. We nosed into our slip just after 10:00, right on schedule.

Approaching Ensenada

First order of business was a shower. By the time I got my things together and came up the ramp, Brad had already checked in and was ready to go to the port captain. It would have been disrespectful to arrive at the port captain’s in my current state, so I insisted on a quick shower and a change of clothes before we left. We ended up having to wait for the crews of two other boats, anyway.

We were at the port captain’s by 11:30. It didn’t take long to clear through immigration, but we waited for nearly two hours before we could complete our arrival and departure paperwork with the port captain. Having only slept for about three and a half hours the night before and not having had breakfast, Brad had to poke me to keep me from dozing off and falling out of my chair. It was after 13:30 before we returned to the boat. The marina would take care of cancelling White Wind’s temporary import permit (TIP) after we departed. The TIP was due to expire and needed to be cancelled in case Brad were to want to sell the boat. He could apply for a new one if he returned to Mexico in the future.

Back at the boat, I made an omelette out of leftover sausage and cheese and then almost immediately passed out. Brad stayed awake and puttered around the boat all afternoon, transferring the fuel in the jerry cans into our tanks and cleaning the cockpit. I slept through it all and didn’t awaken until nearly 19:00. Even then, I wasn’t hungry. Brad made a quesadilla and I polished off the leftover mango and jicama salad. We shared the last packet of oreos. Brad retired early and I sat down to write until I could think about going back to sleep.

June 25-26, 2024

Waiting for a Cruise Ship to Manuever

We pulled out of the Cruiseport Marina at 7:00. It was cold and overcast. A huge cruise ship was turning around to back into the dock and we had to wait for him to manuever before we could pass. Brad took the first watch for a change. We put up the mainsail and motored across Bahia Todos Santos. I ate some leftover arrachera and a couple of eggs and tried to nap.

Brad called me up about 9:30 because a large pod of humpback whales were swimming parallel to us. They weren’t cavorting much but they blew constantly and we saw their backs and an occasional tail as one sounded. They kept pace with us until we put up a headsail and increased speed. The whales were making about 5 knots.

I took the helm from 11:00 to 15:00. Just before 14:00, we passed six tankers anchored off Rosarito. Marathon Oil (Arco) has built a fuel storage and transfer facility there which has increased the number of tankers visiting the port.

Brad took over at 15:00 and I went below to sleep. We approached the border about 17:00 and Brad began the process of clearing us into the United States using the CBP Roam application. It took some time and we had begun to think we might have to stop in San Diego before we finally received our clearance.

Sunset Passing San Diego

I took over at 19:00. The sun set at 20:00. There wasn’t a lot of wind, but the seas were rough and neither of us really felt like dinner. It wasn’t cold or damp, so I spent a fairly pleasant watch despite flailing all over the place. I watched the fireworks as we passed Seaworld. Brad tried to sleep.

I was just getting cold when Brad took over at 23:00. I made myself a hot chocolate and went straight to bed. It was hard to sleep. We were jerking around so much that I dreamt we were in a high speed chase while towing White Wind on a trailer. The moon finally came up during Brad’s watch.

It was colder and damper by the time I came back on watch at 3:00. We were off the coast of Orange County. The moon was hidden in the cloud cover but at least it was lighter. In the distance, I could see a cruise ship headed to Catalina. It started to get light about 4:30 but the sun didn’t climb above the marine layer until after 6:00.

The Sun Climbing Above the Clouds

Brad took over at 7:00. By that time, we were in the lee of Catalina and the seas had calmed down. I slept until 10:00 and then got up and made a grilled cheese and arrachera sandwich. We both stayed on deck as we passed Palos Verdes and sailed across Santa Monica Bay. We pulled into our slip in Marina Del Rey by 14:00. We were done with the bash!

The Breakwater at Marina Del Rey