S/V Andalucia

The Andalucia Trip to La Cruz

2011-11-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

The S/V Andalucia, with 3 other boats moved from Marina Mazatlan to Marina La Cruz in Nayarit (near Puerto Vallarta), Mexico and as you can see by the track below it was a straight motor sail all the way. If you play with the map you can zoom way in, look at pictures taken along the way and even some of the bars we hit right off the boat.

The Andalucia Trip to La Cruz

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Ana Banana is right up there with Philos for entertainment, some good and some even great. But, the big thing to do is post your boat's name on the wall. See if you can find it.

When Mary arrived for Thanksgiving she got to add her name to mine,,,, kind of romantic I thought as she was crew, for 6 days. She got to take a day trip to the Tres Marieta Islands which I will post some pictures of later. But the track was added to the map above.
I love this village of LA Cruz, it kind of grows on you. When we arrived the music venues were just starting to open and bands were just hooking up but open mike nights were a major crap shoot. Jeeeeez some nights were really bad. But, last Saturday night was a spectacular night at Philo's and Sunday nights tribute to a harp player that had passed away, at Ana Bananas, was another night to remember for the hundreds of people that showed up.
The trip to the Tres Marietas will follow next, hang in there.

A rhetorical Question - Where is Steve?

2010-11-15T12:11:00.000-08:00

I know I have lost a lot of readers of my blog due to my inattentiveness. I lost my wife and best crew in August after a 6 month, 24x7 battle with Hodgkin’s disease. So many neighbors, friends and family helped me along the way, bringing dinners, bringing in the mail, watching Edie while I went to doctor’s visits for myself and in a million other ways. I can't say thanks enough, and still do. No way could I have gone it alone but there were many nights alone sleeping by her bed on the floor.

She has been gone now over 3 months, though I have been grieving a lot longer. As she slowly got weaker, I slowly came to the realization that we were loosing this battle. These last 3 months I have spent with family and friends, seeing the country and trying to find a level place for my mind.

I decided to take a crew position in October with dear friends Patsy and Walt on their Wind Rose, a fantastic Cabo Rico 40 sailboat. They were doing the Baja Ha-Ha for the first time and needed experienced crew (well I have done 1 and 1/3 trip). They had no idea how cathartic it would be for me. As I was crew on someone else’s boat, standing watches on starry nights, alone with my thoughts, I came to realize not only was I helping them out, I was returning to the Andalucía and my home away from home for 33 years. Even though I was returning home, alone, I was getting some piece and closing the loop.

It took another week before the final epiphany and I wanted to share it with anyone that is still out there wondering how Steve is doing.

What happened last night in the life of Steve Hollen on the Andalucía, alone, in Mazatlan? No different than I/you would have expected. Brother and I went with another cruiser to a favorite outdoor BBQ place for Mojitos (sp?) which are boiling hot lava rock bowls, full of shrimp/beef/chicken (take your pick). Since they don’t have a liquor license you go across the street to the Mega supermarket and buy your bottle of wine or beer,,,, only on Sunday you cannot buy alcohol in Mexico, except in a bar,,,, so we just drank cokes, the food was wonderful and the night sky was full of stars and music. When we were done it was time to get a bus back to the boat. On the way though the Gold Zone I noticed a cover band we know playing at the Gus & Gus bar (an outdoor place)! They play at the marina also (60’ from the boat) but were playing here for Sunday night. Stop the bus! Steve is getting off. The band plays a great bunch of music from the Beatles to ZZ Top, just as they were played originally. Absolutely fantastic. I get to know the bar fly guy next to me and we talk between songs about music, women, life, and living alone in Mazatlan. Guess what happens next (good guess), a “BEUTIFULL” blond sits down between us! Yes, the same lady you knew from high school that you never could get close to (and can’t now either,,,,). So, sure enough she sells boats, wants’ to sell mine, wants my card, etc (they never change and now with lots more cleavage showing). The second set ends, the girl leaves alone (nothing different from high school, right) and the guy next to me (now with the empty chair between us) says, are you ready to go? He gives me a ride to the boat, it is a warm clear starry night, god it is nice, and guess what his name is? Timothy Patrick (same as my son’s)… A typical, wonderful night in Mazatlan and loving every bit of it. Finally some piece.

Where have you been Andalucia?

2010-02-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

Cliff Divers Point

One thing we have learned is if a Blogger doesn’t post for more than a month, most people delete their blog and move on, so we are hoping we haven’t lost everyone.

It has been a long month of nothing to report. The first thing that happened when we got home from Mazatlan, January 11th to get boat parts, was I caught a cold and promptly gave it to Edie. I kept saying, “well you are only two days behind me so it will be over soon”. Well, after two weeks of a bad cough, Edie went to the doctor and got some antibiotics and a pat on the head. One week later, we were back insisting on more than a pat on the head and got some stronger pills. Finally, after 4 weeks of coughing it was decided she was getting better, so off to Mazatlan we go Sunday afternoon Feb.14th. We found an Ayres Hotel in Alpine around 9:00pm and after some Chinese food crashed. Up early Monday with some residual coughing, we were off for the border. I made the bad choice of crossing at Yuma. Why? Even at 75mph, it is a long way south of the border to get over to Mexican Hwy15 in Santa Ana. Next time, we will cross again at Sonoita (great place you found Dean) even though you spend more time in the US, but faster in the long run. We found another great hotel with a suite for $40US in Santa Ana. Up early and off to Mazatlan arriving about 9:30pm. Yes, we have heard the horror stories of driving at night in Mexico. We saw many cows on the side of the road (some with feet in the air) traveling 85-90 during the daylight, so we slowed down to 75-80 in the dark. Mazatlan is such a business orientated town, everyone is in bed early for the next day’s work, so there is never anyone during week days on the road and it proved itself again.

The new domestic water pump has been installed….the food and clothing put away….working on the steering cables and have settled into the Marina Mazatlan lifestyle (muy tranquillo).

Part of gangway conversations usually gets around to asking when you’re heading out. I can easily say “this season we’re not”. If you follow any of the other blogs of boats in Mexico, you will quickly learn that most are either already back here, heading up into the Sea of Cortez or trying to catch weather windows to get back at least to Mazatlan. El Niño has been wreaking havoc in most of the anchorages/towns up and down the Mexican coast….from rain to freak winds to tornados. So Velcro harbor has once again trapped another cruiser for the season… This little guy forgot to get out of the wind in time.....

Sooo, it is time to head home and wait for the next cruising season to begin. We can only hope El Nino is gone and the weather in Mexico is back to normal.

Wasting Away In Mazatlan!

2010-01-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

Just a few pictures we took today while having a late lunch/early dinner on the malecon. It was just beautiful and even the locals were clapping when the sun finally set!

We left for Isla Isabella on Monday night @11:30pm and while rounding the first island off Mazatlan (Deer Island) we realized that "Hal" our autopilot wasn't holding a steady course. With 85+ miles ahead of us, we felt it was safer to turn around instead of hand steering that far. We're not sure whether it's a problem with "Hal" or the steering cable I fixed. Tomo we plan on doing 360's in the harbor to try and re-orient the electronic compass to see if that will correct the problem.....so we're safe in our "Velcro-harbor" for now...obviously not wanting for anything from food to entertainment to local gossip!

New Years Eve in Mazatlan

2010-01-01T22:29:00.000-08:00

New Year’s Eve in Mazatlan is just one big party! We were invited to join a large group of cruisers from the Marina to celebrate at a restaurant right on the beach called Chilli’s Pepper (not like Chili Pepper at home). The fun started at 8:30pm with the choice of either shrimp or steak, which included a salad and dessert. We didn’t know it until we ordered our first round of Pacificos, that all you can drink was also INCLUDED!! At first we thought it was just beer and wine, but as is so Mexico, mixed drinks were also on the menu with no extra charge. The waiters kept coming by wanting to know why we weren’t drinking more…..but visions of our first few days here kept flashing in our minds. We just kept saying “we’re fine for now” and they would just walk away shaking their heads. By the end of the evening, which we thought would end shortly after midnight for us, turned into 1:30am. We were watching fireworks displays all up and down the beach and even some at the next bonfire over from where we were. The whole evening (including entertainment) came to less than $37 US$. We ended up driving two gals (Donna & Judy) back to the marina with us. …..they could barely walk let alone hail a taxi. We’re not sure if they’ll even remember the last part of the evening, but we felt better knowing we got them home safely.

The end of the bonfire and a wonderful evening making new friends in Mazatlan.

Steve's Birthday To Remember!

2009-12-31T20:36:00.000-08:00

You know, when it’s your birthday, you want the WHOLE day to be about you. But when you’re trying to leave to head south out of the Velcro harbor called Marina Mazatlan, you’re motivated to do just about anything on any day. That was the story with Steve’s birthday on Dec. 30th. He was able to fix the steering cable the night before, but didn’t want to try installing it while he was tired and now dark. So, after most of the day was spent installing his newly fixed cable that everyone around town said couldn’t be done without a new cable from the states, he felt really good about his accomplishment. So, to celebrate, I had planned on taking him down into the old historical district to eat at a restaurant that everyone in the marina was raving about called “Il Mosto”. It was magical by the time we got there with all the trees & plaza gazebo lit up to celebrate the holidays. Families were sitting on the benches enjoying the music, eating and drinking at the many bars & restaurants along the perimeter.

The waiter made our Caesar salads tableside and the main course is a dish called the “black burro”. It is a filet mignon rolled and sautéed in brown butter served with handmade pasta and vegetables. If that wasn’t enough, and of course it wasn’t since it was such a special night, we had the mango flambé dessert that was a work of art just watching it being made for our complete enjoyment.

It was by far one of Steve's (and my) best birthday celebrations and I’m glad I could come along for the experience!!

It's FIXED!

2009-12-30T13:14:00.000-08:00

As the new cruising season gets into gear, more and more people ask you the question, ‘when are you leaving to go south?’. Lets face it, if you are still north of Mazatlan in January, you either aren’t leaving or you are having problems. This is also a leading question because, if you are asking it, it’s because you haven’t left yourself and you have a great story to tell as to why.

Our case in point: As the boys and I were delivering Andalucia to Mazatlan across from Cabo after the Baja HA-HA, I noticed a lot of play in the steering. Most cruisers use their autopilot 99.9% of the time and hand steer only as you leave or enter a port. But, when we were 10 miles off Mazatlan, Mike yelled “STOP THE BOAT”! Off came the autopilot and I hand steered, hard left, hard right, hard left, hard right….7 or 8 times to steer clear of long line fishermens gear that would have surly fouled our prop. It was then I noticed a bit of play (1/8 – ¼ turn) in the wheel. There is an adjustment screw way in the back of boat, under the master bed & air conditioner that is very hard to get at, so I put off fixing it until Edie & I returned from the states.

Thus started our week of discovery. While searching the route of the steering cables (very similar to a bike brake cable but a lot bigger) I found what is shown in the picture below. Not good, as this cable is as old as the boat. That’s 32 years old and it’s life was obviously up. It took almost 3 hours to get it out of the boat and into the car (dirty and oily doesn’t describe how it was). Then our real search for a repair or replacment began.

As we keep saying to ourselves “we are sure glad we came by car” as we searched for 2 days to find help. We were told by cruisers that you would have to order it from the states and it would take 2-3 weeks (there goes our cruising season), and by boat repair shops that the old one couldn’t be fixed and we had to order a new one (same result). Finally, someone on the morning radio net said we should try to find a store called FerraMar somewhere in the old industrial park, Parque Bonfil, near the old port and fishing fleet as they may have the parts needed to repair it. So the search continued, but we did find the fishing fleet and asked a few captains if they knew a place that could fix it. Well, as is so Mexico, they scratched their heads and told us where FerraMar was, but it was closed. So we drove around and asked a few machine shops what we could do. Everyone just kept saying we needed to go to FerraMar. The good news was they were not closed for the holidays, only for siesta and would be back at 3pm, whew! Progress.

Sure enough they opened at 3pm and the owner spent a lot of time in broken English, my broken Spanish and help from a customer, to tell me they had the wire, clamps and thimbles but no sheath (the part that was rusted through). So I bought the SS clamps and thimbles and went looking for some recommended machine shops to ask for help putting it back together. A great thing about most people of the world is if you have a problem and they can’t help you, they will give you ways to fix it yourself. Soooo, it was off to Home Depot (yes even in Mexico) for some copper tubing and back to the boat.

The next day (my birthday) brought hope and progress. I cut off the end loop of the inner cable, cut out the bad section of the outer shield, slid on the copper tubing as a splice, reinserted the inner cable, made a new loop with the clamps, installed the whole thing, stretched out the cable 4 times and we are FIXED! Of course, in all the excitement, I forgot to get a picture of the fixed cable. So now we are ready to head south sometime early Monday/Tuesday.

Back to Mazatlan at last

2009-12-27T21:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, we finally made it back to Mazatlan, Sunday Dec. 20th around 5pm, just before sunset. As usual, this Christmas getaway has had its highs and lows.

First, was the three days it took us to get us here; 90% of the scenery is similar to the area around Tucson (boring, but we had a John Grisham book to listen to in the CD player, thanks to Larry Scott) and the last 5-10% was more tropical. So we decided to celebrate our arrival at the Gus&Gus Restaurant/Bar in the marina. Edie & I proceeded to devour 5 schooner sized margaritas and the next two days were a fog....the boat was full of bags that weren't unpacked until Wednesday and we never made it to the marina office until Christmas Eve.

If cruising is "fixing your boat in exotic places" we must be cruising. We haven't stopped fixing since we got here. The boat was a mess with 6 wks of rain, wind, dust and a dock cat that quickly became Edie's nemesis for wanting to use our boat for its sleeping place. The main water pump on the boat needs to be fixed and the DirecTV satellite dish doesn't work ( Mucho $$$). The steering cable is worn through (requiring the removal of our bed and air conditioner to reach) and needs to be replaced or repaired before we can head south, so we’re not sure how long that will take. We might be here through New Years.

Christmas Eve was our first opportunity to enjoy the sites of Mazatlan outside of the marina with trips to stores for parts and provisioning. We were invited to dinner at a restaurant called Heather's on the main drag that is run by a Canadian named Heather (pretty simple). We saw a Tina Turner impersonator (from Canada) that was pretty good. Here’s Edie’s blackmail picture to prove it!

Christmas day Heathers was having a buffet, so we went back with a group of cruisers for turkey and all the fixings. Heather had some great chorale singers from the opera house (one tenor and 2 sopranos) that sang Christmas songs along with some Puccini thrown in (well, his music) as well. It really made our day and we met some new friends as well.

We hope all the repairs will be completed by the first week in Jan. so we can start our trek south. Tentative plans are Mazatlan to Isla Isabella to San Blas to La Cruz (Google them). After that, we shall see.... You know, all the cruisers say you should never have a "schedule" so as of now that's all the plans. You can always follow us on this blog which we hope to keep more up to date.

Having our car here has made our seeing the sights soooo much easier, here are a few pictures we took of Mazatlan during the holidays. Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral is located and as you can see in the close up, it’s made entirely of clear colored water bottles.

Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Local taxis called Pulmonias

The central Market in downtown Mazatlan has everything you need in one square city block.

This small square with little places to eat and drink around the edges was perfect.

We truly hope all of your holidays were with family and friends.

Cabo San Lucas to Mazatlan

2009-11-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

To simply say the 30 hour, 190 mile trip from Cabo to Mazatlan was boring doesn't quite do the trip justice. At least 24 hours before we left Cabo, we had numerous discussions with other boats; about the weather for a crossing, how the weather in So Cal might affect our weather, historical crossings by others and where to hold up before the crossing when it gets bad. We could have stayed in Cabo forever wondering about our future weather. As it was, I had downloaded every wind model on the net and none of them predicted bad weather. Would I believe my own weather forecast, of course not. So we set off for the infamous Frailes anchorage about 50 miles to the east (and about 20 out of our way) to wait out the imagined bad weather everyone gets on this crossing. About 20 miles east of Cabo we were in a bathtub, with the only wind what we had created from our boat moving forward.

This is our first view of Mazatlan from about 7 miles off. It should have taken us about an hour more to get in. All of the sudden Mike yells, "Stop the boat"! Full reverse and we stopped just short of a mile long fishing jig. It seems the flag we saw about 100 yards to our right was connected to the Panga fishermen about a mile off to our left. So we dodged to the right to clear that one and we were soon dodging 4 more, adding about a hour to our trip into the harbor. Thank God we did this during the day, in calm weather, as we would still be out there untangling lines and hooks if it was at night.

Our arrival in Marina Mazatlan was a bit anti-climatic after that. Edie and I had flown down 4 weeks earlier to view the harbor and pick a marina, so getting in was easy. The problem was the marina office was on siesta, so in about 1/2 hour three employees came down, showed us to our slip, took our lines and welcomed us to Mazatlan.

What a great place to put your boat. The first thing the owners of the boat next to us did was invite us to the Gangway 6 dock party at 4:00. It is really not a party, but more of a great discussion by 30 or so boaters on what they did today, problems getting things done, directions on how to get them done and what everyone had planned to do tomorrow.

I can't imagine a better way to welcome new people to Gangway 6 in Marina Mazatlan.

Baja HA HA Leg 3

2009-11-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

After 3 wonderful days of hiking and partying it was time to leave, but leaving Bahia Santa Maria was bittersweet. We all wondered if we had had any impact on the well being of the wonderful people of Lopez Mateos that made our stay so welcome.

We had hardly left the bay when we snagged a crab pot that we couldn't shake. Over the side went Captain Steve with a knife and made short work of the float. Then another passed between him and the boat and then another,,,, "we have to get out of here!" Finally we got offshore enough to leave the great bay far behind. The weather was soon cooperating and a fine warm breeze coming from behind, started pushing us towards Cabo San Lucas.

It was an easy trip with a dramatic landfall. Never having been to Cabo myself, having Mike on board, made it so easy. You can have all the waypoints you want but never having been to a destination before can be daunting. There were three cruise ships, a fleet of sportsfishers heading out for a tournament and tour boats everywhere, all in our way to the marina.

Cabo is a glorious place from the water but from land it is everything you have heard and more. There were bars on every corner, restaurants, more bars, huge yachts, bars and oh, did I say, more bars. Every corner had at least one and sometimes 3 or 4 between. We went to them all (Dan Daly gave us 20, for research).
Luckily the Baja HA HA headquarters were at the Baja Cantina, just up the dock. The food was great and reasonably priced (Mike was there every morning when they opened at 7:00am).

Our time was pretty occupied as there were scheduled parties to go to, broken parts to buy for the boat, food to eat and places to see. The Grand Finale was the Awards Presentation Saturday night. Chairs for 450 were filled to capacity and the party was on. Presentations of winning place awards were made and as hard as it is to believe, we won a 3rd place award. True confession here; if you were not 1st or 2nd, you were a 3rd place finisher. This made it clear to everyone that this was and event for fun and not a race for a trophy. Our prize was a beautiful hand painted clay fish the Andalucia will treasure forever. Much too soon it was time to leave and that is where I experienced the term "Velcro Harbor", first hand. Why we HAD to get more boat parts, electronic stuff, fuel, boat cards exchanged, destinations to discuss and weather to the next one, debated. Cabo is a hard place to leave, but leave we did Sunday morning for the 180 mile run for Mazatlan Mexico.

Baja Ha-Ha 2009, Leg 2

2009-11-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

So it was the 6-9 night watch and every other boat on watch was bored, so someone asked for any boat to tell us why their boat was named what it was.
After about 10 pretty lame boat names one guy told us he was traveling on a long flight to Eastern Europe and had started a conversation with the lady next to him on her way to Germany. Things led to things and they both became very smitten with each other, but there were places to go and jobs to do. They did keep in touch by e-mail but after a few months it was obvious to him that something had to give because he wanted to go to the next level, whatever that was, but he wasn't sure what she wanted to do next. Then he got an e-mail from her, labeled "Proximity". The gist of it was she wanted to get to closer "proximity" to him. They were married 7 years ago and guess what they named their boat; Proximity! Oh, you should have heard all the women on the radio go Ahhhhhhh, well,,, a few men too. Anyway, it is great out here, even on those long watches.

We finally got into Bahia Santa Maria after a 30 hour overnight sail in absolutely gorgeous weather. It was stuff that would make anyone love to sail to Mexico in the fall. Dolphins jumping, whales spouting, fish a catching and a bay so big and calm you could put 500 boats in it with room to spare. Oh, and not a person lives there. But, every November the Baja HA-HA arrives with 650 people looking to have a good time. From somewhere a few trucks arrive and the party begins.

Lots of food and fun were had by all.

Baja Ha-Ha 2009, Leg 1

2009-10-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

The testosterone cruise to Cabo on the Andalucía, otherwise known as the Baja HA-HA Cruisers Rally, started with great fanfare in San Diego harbor with a 180+ boat parade proceeded by the fire and press boats. It was great fun with video by the local NBC affiliate. http://www.nbcsandiego.com/around-town/events/Baja-Ha-Ha-Sets-Sail.html -town/events/Baja-Ha-Ha-Sets-Sail.html . The Andalucía is about 5 minutes into the video but the official start of the Rally was off the Hotel Del Coronado at 11:00am.

It was a great start with perfect weather that unfortunately turned ugly 2 days later. The first leg of the Rally is a 350 mile, 50 hour ordeal to the sleepy village of Bahia Tortugas. The weather got so bad about 40 hours into this leg the Grand Poobah of the rally diverted to an anchorage called San Quintin. Then all hell broke out on a sailboat J-World. With any great story with bad communications, rumors were rampant, but the bottom line was J-World was sunk by a whale! I will leave the telling of the tail to others more qualified so please read the link for the whole story: http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2009-11-09&dayid=349#Story4 38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2009-11-09&dayid=349#Story4

We on the Andalucía had a very rough time of it but it seemed pale by comparison to the tails others told of the first leg.

Likely we were a little ahead of the storm and approached the notorious Vizcaino channel early on the final morning at sea to a lumpy sea of crab pots. We safely made our way through them and arrived relatively unscathed in Turtle Bay.

The parties started, provisions bought, fuel and water brought on board and we were ready for Leg 2.

The best way to use our Andalucia

2009-07-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about owning a sailboat is sharing the fun with others. Finally having the boat back in our home waters and repaired, reminded us of this as we took our grandkids ‘down to the boat’. As Grandparents, you are always a little apprehensive about whether kids will like it or not. Take a look at their faces and we shouldn’t have worried.
Just look at the fear on Tommy and Nathan faces while at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Memorial weekend.

Tommy facing his “fears” Nathan never smiles!!

And of course, Morgan is always a big smile when being allowed “junk” food by Mom & Dad (aka Michele and Tom)

The first actual sailing adventure took place mid June with Son Tim and his wife Barbara with grandchildren Madison, Conner and Andrew in tow. As you can see, they were holding on for dear life while on the high seas.

Look out for that little boat out there!

I know Andrew had a good time and learned a few knots as well.

Even Tim with over 30 years knowing the Andalucía was in wonder on how much it has changed. Even the smile on his face hasn’t changed much from the first time he went up the old mast in 1978.

On both occasions, it let us know fixing the Andalucía was not an option as you can see we would have disappointed more than just us.

We are home-well kind of

2009-04-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all. We are finally in our new home, kind of.

It took us 3 long days to get to Long Beach from San Diego where the Andalucia had been getting repairs done for the last 5 months. The new masts, sails and gear looks so great you can almost forget what it took to get from Baja to Long Beach. The last 3 days (the worst was from Dana Point to Alamitos Bay) were a grind but had to be done so we could enjoy the boat traveling to Catalina and elsewhere in the next 6 months.

Back in September 1990, when we brought the Andalucia to the City of Long Beach from Ventura (another long story), they measured the boat at 44'-10" long. That let us go into a 40' slip (they allow a 4'10" overhang). When we arrived on the 21st of April 2009, they measured us at 45'-8". We grew (I don't think so)? You really can't fight city hall. The long answer is we are now, temporarily, on an end tie until the first of May when we move to a 45' slip on D dock (for $100 per month more!). In any case, we now have a permanent home. Now I have at least 6 months to tinker with all the little fix-it projects until our next adventure.

Ready to head north

2009-04-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

At long last the list has grown short enough to head north. The mast's wiring, the surveyors required repairs (small really), jib sheets, sails, and a general cleanup means the Andalucia is ready to head north to Long Beach's Downtown Marina.

There is a bit of a holdup with insurance but we are sure to be able to leave by Saturday morning. We have a "must make" appointment with the City of Long Beach on Tuesday afternoon (after the Gran Prix). My next picture will be without the dodger cover).

Finally Progress

2009-04-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Yes this curious picture is what ancient mariners (I am beginning to feel like one) used to do when they put a new mast in a boat. They used to place a coin at the foot of the mast. Well after 5 months in the yard on April 3rd, the masts are finally up! What an experience and well worth the wait and angst. She sure looks great! The sails went on Friday and Monday and I expect to have the electrics and miscellaneous things done by Thursday to head north this weekend.

The masts getting installed

2009-04-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

This is a bit loud but well worth a view.

From start to finish it took the whole day, April 3rd, to rig the two masts for the Andalucia. There are a lot of pieces required to install the masts; the standing rigging (the wire to keep the masts up) and the running rigging (the ropes that operate the sails). The crane was only used for 2 hours but the rest of the time there was whole lot of effort on the part of Fritz and his team at Pacific Offshore Rigging to get the job done in one day.

Now the wiring, sails and final survey. We sure hope to be able to move the boat up to Long Beach (downtown marina) mid month.

2009-03-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes in life things are not two steps forward and one step back. Sometimes it's five steps back!

Last week our masts arrived. While the mast steps were being installed, the Rigger noticed the deck was spungie. The boat had to come back out of the water (another week delay) and the old deck ground out and repaired. Then, we looked at our beautiful new masts and they were "appliance white" not the oyster white we ordered. Back to the mast maker and another week delay. The used sails we bought are too big for the new masts, so another $1,000 to fix them and another week delay. When we filled the water tank, it leaks like a sprinkler and the refrigerator doesn't work either.

Yes, sometimes things move slowly, but the final product looks sooooo good. All the people involved promise the Andalucia will be ready for Catalina Island by Easter. We can only hope, and we do.

Quick Update

2009-03-13T18:36:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick update of where the Andalucia is on repairs. Things are finally looking up. The chain plates are installed and the inside of the boat looks as if nothing happened. As for the deck; the teak cap rails look great and Suzie the varnisher has done a great job making all the teak this boat has look great again. Look at the picture and you can see the results. The mast steps are here as well as the baskets (a plate underneath) and were being installed today. These the masts will set on. And more good news; the masts will arrive from LeFiell on Monday! The rigging will take about 10 days so the masts should be installed the week of the 23rd. It should take about two weeks more for the sails to be fitted, so we are now into the second week of April :-(

It looks as though our first trial sail will be to 4th of July Yacht Club on Catalina Island for Seal Beach Yacht Clubs annual Easter Cruise. Sounds a little like two years ago when the Easter cruise was a trial cruise for our rebuilt transmission. We hope all goes as well. More to come next week!

The Incident

2009-01-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful day it was; the sun was shining brightly, motor sailing in very light wind, heading south with the main up for stability in the very confused 4’ seas. As the wind started to freshen I decided to raise our cruising spinnaker (over 1000 sq. ft!) and do some sailing. Well, about two hours later the wind really started gusting, so now was the time to bring her down. As we turned into the wind to collapse the big boy, the boat was hit by a huge gust and the boat broached putting all sails and my feet on the rail, in the water. When the boat righted, that big spinnaker came out of the water and filled with wind and with a huge bang, exploded over the side and the entire rig followed her in. In a flash, or should I say shadow everything went over my head including the main mast, sail, starboard chain plates, Mizzen mast (with radar!), sail (new!), Jib, roller furling, inner forestay and all Standing and running rigging. The only thing hurt at that point was my pride, so I started the generator and proceeded to cut away all the standing rigging with my trusty Makita grinder. Brother Marc, was busy cutting away the running rigging (rope, to you power boaters) and in no time the main mast foot was no longer staring up at me and was now headed for Davy Jones. So,,, now we were a power boat with a long slog north to San Diego.

As of today the boat is safely in the boatyard getting new cap rails, chain plates and rigging with hopes for a sail north to Long Beach near the end of March.

Back to Dana Point

2008-07-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

Sadly we are on our way home. Dana point was very empty when we anchored, very unusual for a summer day. Maybe fuel prices?

Mission Bay

2008-07-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

An overnight stop, lasted two overnights to try to resolve an issue, but a beautiful sunset made our stay much more enjoyable. We will head for SDYC on the 12th to stay in the USA and see if the problem resolves itself.

Trial run to Mexico 7-9-2008

2008-07-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

First stop on our trip to Ensenada was Dana Point due to our late start from Alamitos Bay. Got a slip from the County because the rest of the fleet was also running into problems. Great night except for a few problems.....

The beginning

2008-06-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

We, of the Sailing Vessel Andalucia, are starting out on a new adventure, or a continuation of the dream we have had for over 30 years.