Ruby Slippers

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.

Check out the media gallery for new photos!

Just a very quick note (since I am on someone else’s computer and it is costing $$$$…..)

We are in Turtle Bay, just having finished our first leg of the Baja Ha Ha. It was a great downwind sail here – 3,164 minutes of racing, according to Molly and Jessie. It is not quite as warm here as we imagined, but the water is 78 degrees, so we might need to go swimming in the morning. The next leg starts at 8:00 AM Nov 4th. In the near future, you will hear from Molly and Jessie about their tour of an aircraft carrier in San Diego, and their adventures underwater as they got thier scuba diving certification. They will also tell you about Mexico, I’m sure. Thanks to all who sent e birthday greetings – I can’t think of a better way to spend my —– birthday than to sail to Mexico! Talk to you soon – Jeanna

Today we’re headed for Catalina Island. We had Sunday brunch at the yacht club, and set off. About half an hour after we headed out, a little bird streaked over and landed on the boat. We were a ways off shore, though still in sight of land, and we wondered why such a small bird would land on a moving boat. It was really cute and fuzzy, and we decided to name him Sailor. At one point, Sailor flew off, and we thought he was gone, but he came back and landed really close to us under the dodger. I think he must have been cold, because when I was standing in the companionway, he hopped over as if he wanted to go inside. He came so close that he touched my arm! We sort of hoped that he would stay with us and become a pet, but he flew off as we were nearing our destination of Avalon Harbor. I was sad that he had to go, but I really enjoyed watching him.

Sailor was really cute.

We’re finally coming to San Diego tonight, and it seems like we’re being escorted. A bit after we lost sight of land, a prehistoric-looking bird came over to investigate the boat. It circled us about six times, then, on the second try, landed on our radar! It started to preen itself, and stayed for most of the day. A while later, as we were watching the strange bird Mom saw some disturbances on the water in the distance, like a bunch of little splashes. As we came closer, we saw the cause: dolphins, leaping out of the water! (I was pretty sure that they were White-sided Dolphins, but they could have been skinny porpoises or something.) There must have been hundreds of them, and a couple came over and started playing by our bow! It was so cool to watch them jump beside the boat, and I loved being able to see them while they were underwater. Sometimes other dolphins would join us, and at one point there were probably six of them. Even after we could see the pod no more, our little (not really) bird friend was still with us. I climbed up by the radar pole, and Dad took some pictures of Birdie and me. I got so close that I touched one of his tail feathers, but he got sort of mad at me for invading “his territory”. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted it to be my territory; there were bird droppings all over (no thanks to him). We didn’t want splat all over everything, so a while later Dad pushed him off with the boat hook, and he flew away.

Looking at this picture, you’re probably thinking, “He got sort of angry?! He looks like he’s about to peck your head off!” Hey, I had no idea what was going on until I saw this photo.

We have been in Cabo for a few days now. We just had the awards ceremony for the race. Ruby Slippers won 1st place in the “Jalapeno” division, thank you very much! A lot of boats motored at some point in the race, just because it is a pretty low-key race and sometimes the wind was light, but we didn’t motor at all – only sailed, which gave us a lot of extra points, I guess.

Cabo San Lucas is a lot like Las Vegas – with people speaking like Cheech and Chong. There is loud music, lots of bars, people pushing necklaces and whistles in your face to see if you want to make a deal… It will be nice to get to a more peaceful place. On the other hand, there are a thousand restaurants, warm water, pools and laundry, and a “fifties” diner with American hamburgers and milkshakes. So, I guess I won’t complain.

We had the best crew members with us from San Diego to here. Dan is from Kirkland, and has sailed all his life. He was so helpful and fun. He played games with the girls tirelessly, and mostly let them win. Chris is from Maryland – he is a rep from the Jeanneau America office, so he knows a lot about our boat and how it is built and put together. He is funny and a great cook. We all had a lot of fun together, and caught some fish – dorado, tuna, sea bass, and a rubber-lipped something. Molly and Jessie enjoyed dissecting the eyeballs on one of the fish (I don’t know why, either). They are constantly looking up fish, birds and stars in their various reference books, and are learning a lot. It’s a good thing, since I have discovered that I am not a very consistent school teacher. We have had school about 7 times since we left Anacortes one month ago. Ahhh, confession is good for my soul. I promise I will do better, Mr. Principal of Haller Middle School… When we do have school, we all enjoy it, and it goes very well. It’s just that there are so many things to do: swim, cook, read, catch fish, win races, play checkers – busy, busy busy.

We are leaving for LaPaz tomorrow. It is up north in the Sea of Cortez, on the east side of the Baja Peninsula. It is supposed to be a true Mexican town – not so touristy. It is the Capital city of Baja, and sounds very peaceful. It might be a little cold this time of year for diving, but I think we will try. Since Molly and Jessie have been certified for scuba diving, they are itching to explore the under-world. Maybe they will find a “school” down there that will be more consistent in their teaching.

Even though I dislike entering new anchorages at night, the ones we have conquered have been beautiful at night. San Francisco looked like a string of pearls, worthy of Barbara Bush’s neck, while the lights of Cabo were from houses built into the rocks, and looked like a palace stairway. The anchorages of Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria were very dark, but the anchor lights from all the boats in there lit the bay like a city. The last couple of nights of sailing, we had a bright orange full moon to help us find our way. There was no need for radar, because we could see across the flat ocean for miles and miles. I actually felt lucky to have the 8 to 10 PM watch, for the sunset, and the 4 to 6AM watch for the sunrise. The rest of the day, however, I was not quite as chipper as I sound right now.

Jessie has posted some notes (see below) from a while back when we were still in California. I think she posted some new pictures, too, so check the media gallery. Molly is working on her update, so keep checking! We miss you all and hope to see some of you in these warm, peaceful lower latitudes… Jeanna

We are now in San Diego, readying ourselves for the Baja Ha-Ha. We are installing the freezer, saying hi to friends, and getting our fishing licenses for Mexico. We went out to breakfast with Bill and Susan Wall, and they gave Jessie and me a lot of cool books. Then they took us on a little tour of San Diego while Mom and Dad worked on the boat. First, we went to Ocean Beach, and Jessie and I chased the waves. After that we went to a fun little shop that was owned by Susan’s friend. One of the things sold there were cute wooden ducks, each having a name tag. Susan arranged for us to get haircuts, which was really nice of her!

We had some time before the appointment, so they took us to see the USS Midway, a giant aircraft carrier that was turned in to a museum. Bill is a pilot, with many years of experience, so he showed us around the huge ship. The crew’s quarters are really cramped, and the bunks are tiny. On the hangar deck, we saw some cool fighter jets. There was a simulator for a Wildcat airplane, and we got to go into it. Bill was steering, and he did barrel rolls and flips! It was fun to go upside down! After our simulated adventure, we went up to the flight deck where the planes and helicopters land and take off from the carrier. We went inside a big helicopter, and there were an amazing amount of gauges, knobs, and levers. It must be really hard to drive one of those. Bill showed us all the types of planes he had flown that were on the ship, including this one that looks like a shark.

After seeing the aircraft carrier, we went to a salon called Vanilla to get haircuts. It is owned by a lady named Gina, and I thought it was cool that she had the same name as Mom, even though it is spelled differently. She was really nice, and so was another lady there who sold jewelry. It was great to get my hair trimmed. We had lunch, and went to meet Mom and Dad at a dive shop. When we got there, Jessie and I were whisked away to try on scuba gear. The next thing we knew, Jessie and I were filling out forms and Mom was explaining to us that we were going to get our open water dives to finish our scuba certification. Over the next 2 days, we took four dives in the ocean at La Jolla, about 20 minutes north of San Diego. Our instructor, Colby, was great, and we saw a lot of amazing sea life! Take a peek at Jessie’s page for the scoop on what went on below the surface.

I came into contact with yet another bird by while we were resting between dives. It was an immature seagull. He had been hanging around for a while, so we started feeding him. He ate a piece of cheese from my hand, and seemed to love it. We nick-named him Cheese, since that was his favorite food. He started to peck at our dive gear, and we tried to shoo him away, but he just thought we were feeding him. He must have been hungry, because he was pecking at everything, even my toes – and it hurt! When I was hunched over trying to keep my feet safe, “Cheese” flapped his wings and landed on my back! It was cool that he got so close to me, but I was so startled that I jumped involuntarily and scared him off. I never imagined that I would feed a seagull cheese!

The Baja Ha-Ha was definitely named that for a reason. We have been having loads of fun and made 4 new friends at our stop in Turtle Bay: Ayla, Robin, Danielle and Darby. Ayla and Robin came by our boat in Ayla’s kayak, asking, “Do you have kids on board?” Danielle and Darby are sisters, age 11 and 10, and are really fun to hang out with.

We finally swam in the ocean in Mexico! When I jumped off the boat for the first time, the water felt sooo good, and now we seem to be always in the water. In Bahia Santa Maria, we went to the beach with Danielle and Darby, and had a great time. I even saw some sort of stingray. Our crew members, Dan and Chris, were paddling our kayaks around, and Dan decided to ride back to the boat in the dinghy with us. We tied the kayak behind the dinghy, and when we shoved off from the beach, two huge waves came at us. I don’t know about Dad and Dan, but Jessie, Danielle, Darby, and I all held on for dear life! Going over both waves, we went nearly vertical, and I almost flew out of the dinghy! It was scary, but I’m thankful no one got hurt, and that we didn’t flip the dinghy over. Later that afternoon, Danielle and Darby and their parents came over in their dinghy and asked if we wanted to go for a hike in the hills above the beach. Jessie was tired, but I went. We found some huge tide pools, and in one of them we found a curiously tiny brown fish. It was cute, and looked like a bit of leaf floating in the pool. It was a little bigger than my thumbnail. We played with him for a long time, picking him up with a shell and moving him to different pools, watching him swim and explore. I found 4 pretty Cowry shells, and when we returned to the boat, I traded one of them for a pretty shell Chris had found. We didn’t have any trouble getting the dinghy off the beach that time.

The next morning, we got up early and set off on the last leg of the Ha-Ha, from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo San Lucas. We had school, and baked delicious banana muffins for home-ec. We nearly caught two huge Dorado, but they both got off the hook. I wonder what’s for dinner…

I got up at midnight and helped with a watch last night. The moon was really bright, and we saw a planet that flashed red, blue, green and yellow. I also picked out the Orion constellation. We sailed across the finish line at about 5:00 P.M., after a long day of not catching fish, and went out to dinner as soon as we tied up in our slip. The next day, I went swimming with Ayla and Abby, another girl that was on the Ha-Ha. We went to a tiny beach around the corner from the marina. The water was at least as warm as a swimming pool, and it felt good to cool off in the waves. We met Danielle and Darby at Senor Sweets, a little dessert shop in town. We had some yummy gelato, and then swam again at the hotel pool nearby. After dinner that night, Danielle and Darby slept over on our boat. We watched the movie “Duma”, and we all slept out in the cockpit. We had a lot of fun!

We won first place in our division in the Ha-Ha, and we left Cabo the day after the awards ceremony. We traveled to La Paz, and made two stops on the way. We went snorkeling in both bays that we spent the night in, and saw lots of colorful fish, including the Cortez Wrasse and the Guineafowl Puffer. I haven’t really seen La Paz yet, but it looks pretty nice. The water temperature is 90 degrees, and I saw a nice beach….