The Baja Ha-Ha and Beyond

10/30/2005

Our costume theme for Meralee was Cast Away. We four crew donned the full attire: dirty, ripped shirts and pants, sisal rope belts, tied on rag shoes, and broken straw hats. We even had "Wilson," a blue beach ball with a smudged hand print face drawn on with permanent marker.

Since we had no car, we opted to take the bus to the party. Once on shore with the Hobie, we observed that our bus had just driven by. We waited half an hour for the next bus. We amused ourselves by rubbing dirt clods on our clothes to make them stained and talking to Wilson. I'm sorry, Wilson! During our wait we attracted strange glances and laughs from passing cyclists and motorists.

The bus ride and waits took 2 hours. Two transfers and an hour of walking later, we finally got to the party. Once there, we stood in line for another hour waiting for food. We ate on a grassy part of the grounds.

The costumes were rather strange. 5/6 of the people were dressed up as pirates, although I saw a certain person walking around with a sign that read, "Three Hour Tours" and the rest of his crew were dressed up as Ginger, Mary-Ann, and the Professor.

The people on Tenacious offered us a ride on their boat back to ours. Subsequently we agreed. Their boat was so roomy compared to ours, and had such ammenneties as a microwave, shower, two heads, and a huge honking galley. Of course, their boat is 12 feet longer than ours, so that's expected.

When we got back to our boat, I took their son, Justin, out on Tsunami. They gave my mom a ride to the grocery store so we had enough food for the trip. We spent many hours trying to get the spinnaker to work and putting finnishing touches on getting the boat ready to leave on our adventure in the morning.

10/31/2005

Today was the day that were going to leave! We pulled up anchor and left Glorietta Bay. While we were motoring to the fuel dock, we found a 4x4 floating in the green bay water. We attempted to rescue it, and almost ran it over! Luckily, we had the boat hook to grab it and pull it up onto the boat. This was our first MOB (Man Overboard) rescue!

Once at the fuel dock, we filled up all the gas tanks and water jugs. My mom made Patrick and me take out the trash.

We sailed out to the starting line, and saw over a hundred boats there! We motored around for a while, waiting, and heard the cannon fire. We shot up our spinnaker and zoomed on (5 knots).

The wind was great all day, but unfortunately we were left behind anyway. The winds died down at night so we had to motor. That motor is so loud!

This was the first day of the first leg of our first Ha-Ha! I hope the rest of the Ha-Ha is fun!

11/01/2005

Today we motored all day. I feel as though a drill is drilling into my skull. Our first series of unfortunate events occurred today, as did some amusing animal events.

Our tow whip broke, meaning the Hobie can now smash up against the boat. It did. When it did, it broke our wind steering vane, which cost $2000. It also means we have to hand steer, because our autotiller stopped working as well.

Seals are hysterical! I have two stories about seals we encountered today, one of which my mom told me.

My mom had seen two decaying marine mammal bodies that morning. She observed a third body bobbing in the distance. The supposedly bloated body was floating aimlessly to starboard...

She told my dad to turn so that we were heading closer to it, for the purpose of identification. My mom recognized it as a seal. It was passing by on the port side when all of a sudden it opened it's eyes in shock, dove down, resurfaced by the Hobie we had in tow, and gave my parents a look of pure indignation!

The next story is about a crazy seal. It leaped up out of the water towards our Hobie. It continued leaping for approximately 10 minutes. We thought it was trying to leap up onto our "seal condo", but an interesting theory roused our attention. Patrick thought it might be chasing us out of it's territory!

Later in the day, our radar quit working. Subsequently, this was the only day that had fog. We were stuck in the middle of heavy fog with no radar or radar deflector.

Today wasn't the best of days. We won't be able to get anything fixed until Turtle Bay. In Cabo, we might be able to fix the radar.

11/02/2005

The winds were great for sailing today. We stopped at Isla Cedros to work on the motor and eat dinner.

Cedros was a beautiful place! It had white sandy beaches and high jagged rocks. It held high mountains and low peaks. It looked like a perfect place to live, other than the ripping winds.

2 hours later, the motor was working fine. The winds and seas whipped up. I went to sleep, but soon woke up.

The Hobie had flipped over in the eight foot seas. We had been dragging the Hobie for over 6 hours.

We thought up a new cruise, named the Baja Boo-Hoo. When we finally got into Turtle Bay, we were ecstatic.

11/03/2005

When I woke up two fishermen had just righted our sideways Hobie. In return, we gave them $5 and some Kit-Kat bars. My parents thanked them profusely.

We arrived in Turtle Bay at about 0900. My dad set the sails on the Hobie. I rode off with him to Godspeed, which was a boat that had a bolt that would fix our windvane. I took one of the crew on a Hobie ride while my dad talked with the other crew. We were on a close-hulled reach, so we were making about 13 knots (that's fast)!

When business was done, I sailed back and picked my dad up. We went to shore and filled up the diesel jugs. I sailed back to deliver them to our boat. Patrick emptied them into the tank, gave them back to me, and Patrick and I sailed back to shore. When we got back, my dad was missing. We spent hours waiting for my dad to get back.

To pass the time, we gave a Mexican kid a dollar to watch the Hobie while we were gone. We walked up to the little restaurant and pigged out on 6 fish tacos. They were breaded and Sweet 'N' Soured. Those tacos were the best tacos I have tasted in my nearly 13 years of existence.

Finally, my dad showed up in a truck with two Mexican guys. He told us that he had walked all over town looking for someone to fix our bolt, when the same two people offered him a ride. He asked them where a metalworker could be found, and they took him there.

My dad refilled the diesel jugs and we sailed back to an empty boat. We dropped Patrick off and grabbed a few lifejackets. We then sailed off to the Ha-Ha beach party potluck.

At the party, we met with my mom. My dad ate about 3 plates brimming with food! I saw some narrow cliffs and decided to see if I could get up to the top.

I quickly found a stable path up to the peak. I slowly walked towards the largest point in the path. Then I started dancing like crazy.

I rolled back down and sailed back to MeraLee with mom and dad in tow. We got soaked during the trip because of panga wakes. We played cards and got sleepy.

11/04/2005

Due to our bad experiences with towing the Hobie, we decided to dismantle it and lash it to the deck of MeraLee. The process took about 2 hours.

We left two hours after the rest of the fleet, but the sailing was exquisite. We had smooth winds all day.

To amuse ourselves, Patrick and I played War with cards for most of the day. It was the strangest deck! It had 6 kings, 3 aces, 5 jacks, and various assortments of other cards. I recall it had 3 eights of clubs.

There wasn't too much of interest that happened today. Hopefully tomorrow will be a more exciting day.

11/05/2005

I was sitting on the deck, incredibly bored, when I saw a tangled dockline hanging from the top lifeline. I accidentally used the lifeline as a handhold, when I spotted some movement that quickly dissapeared. I turned back to go into the cabin, when it happened again! This time I noticed the dockline was quivering.

I tweaked the loops of the line slightly to give it a more humanlike appearance. I then called my parents out and made the dockline dance to the tune of the Mexican Hat Dance.

Cheat is a card game in which you lay down cards in ascending value. It it is better played with more than two players.

There were many sightings of whales being reported on the VHF by Ha-Ha boats, so my parents decided to get the video camera out to tape any whales we may see. Lo an behold, we saw about 7 whales that day, a seal, and some dolphins.

11/06/2005

This morning there were no wind ripples, and the water was smooth as blown glass. It looked like a psychedelic oil slick. My mom calls it a lava lamp.

Because it was so calm, there wasn't a lot of work to do in sailing the boat, so we spent a lot of time watching for animals.

We saw a pod of Commerson dolphins playing in our bow wake. I learned about Commersons at Sea World Adventure camp. Commersons are the smallest species of dolphin. They are black and white and marked similar to orcas.

We also saw some more whales off of a point. They swam underneath the boat quite a few times. I also saw a huge sea turtle in a grassy bed of kelp. It was swimming sideways.

Later in the day the wind picked up, and our downwind cruising was quite smooth.

11/07/2005

This morning was lava lampish again. We saw no animals. As the hour grew later, more wind picked up until it was too much. We then motored. The autotiller had broken again, but luckily my dad fixed it before my mom's night watch.

We hand steered for hours, while being thrown about by higher waves and winds. Many things inside had slid off onto the floor, so the floor was littered with various objects that had not been bolted or tied down.

While it was calm, I had practiced knot tying. Today I also learned how to plot our location on a chart using latitude and longitude coordinates from our GPS.

It was a very trying day, and Patrick was ready to commit mutiny. He decided that if he lived through the night, he would become a better man.

11/08/2005

This is probably one of the most urgent and puzzling questions that has crossed the minds of man: what the heck am I getting for my birthday? As I am typing, everyone is sleeping. You cannot imagine my anguish, for I can't open the present untill everyone is awake!

My only hints are these: It's mideavil, it shoots things, and I can only restock ammo on land. I have imagined myself in the Hobie, sailing around and whacking unsuspecting bystanders with whatever it shoots!

At the party tonight, I will single out Richard and climb up to the cliffs. There I will...WHACK!!!, and Richard won't be so forgiving. -Insert evil Dracula laugh and creepy organ music here-

Concerning the problem that everyone need be awake, I hold a signaling horn in my hand, and I slowly put it up to my mouth, I realize that this is not the best way to wake people up.

My mom says that I may not have my present until after breakfast, which reminds me of a dream I had last night.

The events of my dream were situated in the boat at around 6:00 AM. My mom was standing in the galley with a HUMONGOUS pot of stale cheerios, saying, "Now Ryan, you know you can't have your present until you eat at least 30 breakfasts."

At that my hands shot into the air and I shouted a reverberating, "NOOO!" After all the echoes were finished howling their complaint, my mom was laughing as hard as she could. Only afterwards did I find out that she was kidding! I'm so glad it was just an evil dream, however humorous my mom thinks it.

I'm sure I will have many, many, MANY laughs and evil cackles with this new...thing...thrust into my world of innocence.

11/09/2005

Today was my birthday! Unfortunately this was the day we left Bahia Santa Maria, so I didn't have much of a party. I did get my birthday waffle with peanut butter, Snickers bits, syrup, and butter. Yum!

My presents were a new camera, batteries, an ocarina, two books, a battery charger, $45, and two GameBoy games. My favorite present was my ocarina. It is a replica of the Ocarina of Time from the computer game of the same name.

We were going to tow our Hobie Wave to Cabo San Lucas, but after we had sailed about an hour out, the captain decided that it was a bad idea and headed back to Bahia Santa Maria dismantle it. That day we wasted about 4 hours.

I then found out that the photos I took with my camera couldn't be viewed! I was rather sad about that.

Overall it was a great day, except for the dissapointment about the photos not working. That night, my dad fixed the pictures, and now I can use my camera's photos anytime I want!

11/10/2005

The sea can be dangerous sailing across shipping lanes, especially at night. There are a lot of cruise ships motoring up and down taking people to places like Puerta Vallarta or Cabo San Lucas. These cruise ships weigh over a thousand tons, and can run you down within 15 minutes of first sight. This is why it is important to keep a good watch day and night.

This particular morning, a cruise ship was approaching astern on a constant bearing. This means that without evasive action, it would hit us. Vessels under sail are supposed to have the right of way, but who is going to argue with a boat that big? Then a funny thing happened. We had just altered course to avoid a collision, and the cruise ship was rapidly passing us to starboard, when one of our crew make an obscene gesture at the cruise ship. It was not the finger, and it can be seen from a long distance. He called it the International Distance Sign Language character for "What you did was displeasing to me."

We are not worried about repercussions. We were in international waters, so no one has jurisdiction over us! WAHAHAHAHA!

We had steady light winds almost all day. Unfortunately there were 5 foot seas, but we were able to sail without using the motor. In fact, we sailed nonstop from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo.

That night we crossed the Ha-Ha finish line at about 2200. It was almost midnight when we got in to Cabo San Lucas and anchored for the night. I was incredibly sleepy, so I played my ocarina for a bit and went to sleep. I had a strange dream. It involved cow gods, Hoofageddon, and great flaming cow pies falling from the sky.

11/12/2005

Today was a good day for presents. When everyone sailed to shore, except my mom, we pulled the Hobie up higher on shore so as to protect it from the incoming tide.

We walked down to the mall, where I got my mom a present, a colorful blanket, and I got Patrick a present. His was large, round, and a hat. Yeah, you guessed it, it's an authentic high-class sombrero! It was bright red with silver inlay designs.

My dad left us for a few hours, while we walked around and waited. Finally it was sundown, so we walked to the Ha-Ha awards ceremony, where we found my parents. We got third place in our class. However, everyone who didn't get 1st or 2nd got a 3rd, so I guess it's not much to brag about.

We walked around for a while, then sailed back and went to sleep. Once again, I sleepwalked.

11/15/2005

After a quick Hobie ride, we went to the mall. We got Athena a tiny little sombrero, and saw The Legend of Zorro with Spanish subtitles.

We did the whole port captain thing, with the bank, and the bills, and the emailing. We found an internet cafe to use, and my dad and I left my mom paying bills.

We walked down to a fishing store, where we got a wooden lure, and a spool. I even got a free squid lure! We thanked the owner and left.

We got back and went to sleep. The huge rollers didn't help.

11/16/2005

Today we loaded up the Hobie with beach junk and sailed to a small cove named Lovers Beach. We stayed there half the day, swimming, snorkeling, and body surfing. The beach goes back about 100 feet, and is covered by a HUGE rock face.

My parents left me on the boat to go see Squid Roe. That's where they ate for her birthday.

We dismantled the Hobie in record time, and lashed it to the deck of MeraLee. We left at 2300.

11/17/2005

We set sail for Frailes last night. We sailed out into the channel, and bobbed around for 6 hours. We returned to CSL at around 1200, filled up on diesel and water, and left again. I rode the bow on high wakes.

We had a rough sail all night. Hang on! My parents were awake all night, and I know what that means. Long watch for me tomorrow.

11/18/2005

Today when I woke up my parents were exhausted. My mom flopped down the steps and went to sleep. My dad stayed out for several more hours, but soon followed.

It was my watch then. It took most of the day to get to Frailes. We were towing our dragline in an attempt to catch a Dorado.

We anchored at Frailes about 1600, ate dinner, and went to bed early, exhausted.

11/19/2005

I went to the beach with my dad in our kayak. We flew kites for a long time, but the wind was too squirelly. We soon gave up and decided to walk down the beach.

I heard a shout of, "Hey! Aren't you the person with the Hobie?"

"Yes," I replied.

"I have a 12 year old son. He's right over there," she said, "why don't you go meet him? His name is Franck."

"Sure!" I said.

I walked over to him and we talked for a while. I yelled to my dad that we were going swimming.

While I was swimming, he introduced me to his two friends, Claire and Jackie. I said hi and resumed swimming. We swam/walked all the way to the point, and turned around. Franck got his snorkel and we went back.

It was getting near potluck time, so we turned back. The spaghetti was delicious! Mmmm!

We paddled back and watched a movie. We then enjoyed the absence of waves.

11/20/2005

I complained about doing school today because it was Sunday. Later I found the other kids had to do school as well! O, the injustice!

I was invited to go snorkeling, and I agreed. They picked me up, and I left with them. I suited up and snorkeled for about an hour. Then my hands started swelling up because of the ones of tens of jellyfish stings. I went back to their boat and ate lunch.

They brought me back, and I watched yet another movie. Then I went to sleep really early.

11/21/2005

I looked out the hatch and found that all of my friends had left for Muertos! I was incredibly dissapointed.

My parents paddled ashore and got fried fish and veggies. They got it from a produce truck behind the fishing camp.

I flew my kite from the boat that day. It took about 20 minutes to reel it back in!

My parents came back, and we watched a movie. I stole Athena from my parents and went to bed.

11/22/2005

I had an idea to get a jerkline today. We took a beer and went to shore. I bargained with the fisherman and recieved 5 hooks and a weight. I snorkeled for a few hours but didn't catch anything.

We left at 2000 hours, which was a mistake because there were heavy seas. A big wave crashed over the hatch and soaked my bunk. I had to go sleep in the cabin then.

I hung on to Athena for dear life when I woke up. I ended up puting a blanket in the v berth and laying on that.

11/23/2005

This morning, although we were anchored in over 20 feet of water, I could see the bottom perfectly. I saw about 50 incredibly fat fish that looked really meaty, so I got a jerkline and some cheese. That morning, I caught my first ocean fish! Of course, it just had to be an inedible puffer fish. It was puffing up more and more as I pulled it in. I put it in a bucket for my

parents to come see. We got some video of it and the hook fell out, which was great because I was wondering how to get it out. The puffer fish got poured back into the water, which made it deflate. All the little puffer fish that I had mistaken for tasty fish came to greet it.

Afterwards my parents got the Hobie Wave, named Tsunami, put together. They piled all of our beach junk into the kayak and towed me along to shore. When I was safely close, they untied me and threw me the painter. Athena didn't like that much, so she expressed her displeasure by jumping up and down, barking, and crying. My mom egged her on to jump in to get to me. Guess what? She did! This was the most shocking event that has happened on the Ha-Ha. Athena hates the water and has never jumped into the water for anyone, anything, or any reason.

When I got to shore, Franck, Claire, and Nellie the Weimerainer were awaiting me. I had planned to go sailing, but my greedy parents stole the hobie to go sail around. In that time, my friends and I

sat under an umbrella on a beautiful sandy beach, eating Jolly Ranchers, and watching the dogs play.

When my parents came back, all of us kids piled on Tsunami to go sailing. We sailed here, and we sailed there, until Franck and I had an idea to tip it over. Unfortunately, Claire didn't quite warm up to that. So we sailed past everyones boat, got Francks wetsuit and lifejacket, my fishing spool and bait, and we zoomed past Claire's boat, just slow enough to yell a few words. We all sailed back to our parents on the beach, and dropped Claire off. I got permission from my dad to tip Tsunami over, and Franck and I pushed it out. We found a good spot and hiked out on the wrong side. It took about 5 seconds to tip it over. It made a big splash when the mast hit the water. We righted it quickly and went back to shore.

Shortly afterwards we went snorkeling. We didn't see much, so we came back to shore and met Patricia. She's 10 and wanted to go snorkeling with us, but was too shy to ask. Her parents were talking to mine, and my parents invited her to come. So we went snorkeling again, but farther out. I got a humongous jellyfish sting and had to swim back to shore to sit it out. It hurt so badly. Welt type protrusions were jutting out of my wrist about 1/4 of an inch out. After they went away it felt like I had slept on them. They constricted blood flow. Note to self: Never like jellyfish again.

We met a Mexican girl named Angelica. I invited her to go sailing with us. So we went out once more, with 5 people in tow. There wasn't much wind so we went pretty slow. We had to turn around and go back.

Everyone walked down to The Giggling Marling (a restauraunt) and had dinner. I had a chicken burrito and lemonade. I smothered the burrito with rice, beans, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream. All the other kids were jealous because their parents only got them drinks. We agreed there should be a kid's table as well.

My parents had still not finished their dinner so I got a dinghy ride back to my boat from Franck. It was getting dark and late but my parents still had not arrived. I was getting very worried when they sailed up and told me they had decided to watch the sunset.

I watched Hidalgo with my mom.

Hidalgo is a movie about Frank T. Hopkins and the Ocean of Fire (a horse race). This was one of the busiest days of the Ha-Ha.

11/24/2005

Happy Thanksgiving! Today's breakfast was corn fritters (fried Jiffy cornbread mix), applesauce, and Double

Chocolate Meltdown hot chocolate.

My friends and I sailed on the Hobie for hours, and made stops at different boats to get snacks to take to shore. We

towed the Sea Ya! people on their dinghy to their boat so they wouldn't have to row against the wind. Poor Tsunami was probably panting when we finally sailed her back to shore. Then my friends and I walked to the Giggling Marlin where I met up with my parents and tried to call my grandparents again to wish them a happy Thanksgiving, but no one answered.

Lunch at the Giggling Marlin was nachos with guacamole. As we were walking back to the Hobie we saw some fisherman cutting small fish for bait. They weren't using the fish tails, and I saw there was some meat in them I could use as bait for fishing.

I pointed to the fish tails and asked them, "Puedo tener una de esta?", which means, "Can I have one of those?"

They said yes, so I picked up a juicy fish tail and then helped push Tsunami out past the breaking waves, so we could get back to the boat. I baited and hooked up my jerkline to the Hobie and towed a piece of fish meat on the hook until we got to Meralee. Once aboard I just jerklined normally.

I dropped the baited hook into the water. I waited expectantly for a fat, juicy, scrumptious fish. O, Hallelujah! I observed that a feast worthy school of fish had suddenly decided to investigate my baited hook. I anticipated shouting in joy to my hungry mom, "I CAUGHT DINNER!" CURSES! A kiniving puffer fish had just appeared. With an imaginairy sneer, it threateningly began to inflate as it rushed toward the school of fish. It's sharp quills began to rise as it scared the hungry fish away. It triumphantly began to feast on my bait, but the joke was on it. I jerked the line, and brought it up to the surface. My second ocean catch: another inedible fish! I reluctanly released this heathen of the ocean world.

Dinner was fried SPAM (R) and potatoes, with carrots. Dessert was a whole package of dried cookie mix with some water added to it. It was one of the best things I have ever tasted!

We watched The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh until our DVD cut out on us. I guess it had a scratch.

While we watched the movie, we heard ominous howling. This strange noise was from the 15 knots of wind that was currently whipping up. I had seen stormclouds earlier that day, but they didn't look so bad. My dad leapt up to take the sail down on the Hobie. This was no ordinary storm, it was a Chubasco. Chubascos are localized, terrible storms. Their winds can be 50 to 60 knots. In other words, they are localized tropical storms than can become quite severe. There were several lightning strikes a second. My parents had to do night watches until 2:00 at night. At daybreak they could still see thunderheads. What a Thanksgiving!

11/25/05

Today, as I looked around the anchorage, I found that all of my friends who had been in the anchorage had left for La Paz. I was incredibly dissapointed. My parents decided to go to a cove that my dad had seen yesterday.

We sailed over on Tsunami and set up camp. The beach was mostly rocky, but had a nice sandy spot. There were bands of shore white with coral fragments. My dad and I quickly cleared a sandy area of rocks on which to spread out our beach mat. We searched for seashells and pieces of coral. My dad walked off without a word, and took my mom's dog with him. After sitting there for waiting for an hour for his return, my mom got angry and stalked off in the opposite direction because he didn't tell her where he was going. We found a long spine, 4 giant seashells, a tent spot, and a salt deposit.

I then found a huge piece of coral! It was about the size of a basketball and a half. I brought it back with us. About that time my dad came back. We walked back to meet him.

Then my mom and I walked some more to some tide pools. We had to wade out to them. Athena tried to follow, but didn't want her feet to get wet. We called and called to her, and I finally had to go get her and set her down on some rocks that were near the tide pools. She walked though the water over rocks to get to us. We didn't see anything interesting.

We left Athena on the rock, so she had to swim back to us. She ran and found a dead puffer fish to play with. She would run towards it, run back, growl at it, bark at it, and be hysterical.

My dad and I went snorkeling, but I saw jellyfish so I went back. We went sailing back to the normal beach, where we saw another Hobie Wave.

Back at the cove, I saw some goats, but not before Athena had barked at them. There were at least 14 goats walking around in the middle of the desert. We sailed back to shore and had dinner at the Giggling Marlin. I had a cheeseburger (imagine!).

We had a very slow sail back to the boat. It took 15 minutes to get a quarter mile. Back on the boat we made more plans about Spam. I then went to bed and snuggled Athena until the thieving rascal climbed out of bed and hopped in my moms bunk.

11/26/2005

Today was an unfortunate event. I caught a third puffer, dropped our magnet overboard, a mug fell on my moms foot, and my finger got smushed.

We left an hour late, and trolled for lunch. We had french fries and Stag chili.

The waves began to grow rapidly so everything was everywhere. Things slid off of the nav station and the dinner table. I found a knot book and decided to learn splicing techniques. Unfortunately, we had no lines that needed splicing or could withstand a practice session.

I started working on my mom's Christmas present. I won't say what it is, because my mom will be reading this paper.

I went to sleep, but got splashed when a big wave splashed over the bow and buried the hatch. The hatch leaks, so I got really wet. I tried to sleep in the cabin, but I kept getting woken up.

I went back into the v-berth, and put a blanket over the wet spot. Somewhere around that time we anchored. Tomorrow we will leave for La Paz, which is only 10 miles away now!

11/27/2005

Today I woke up in Bandra Bay, a small bay that we anchored in, on the east side of the Baja penninsula. There were a fishing boat and another sailboat in the anchorage with us. I had noticed the rocky areas where there were bound to be fish, and there were several small colorful reefs as well. It looked like it was a perfect place to snorkel. We knew rough weather was coming, so we had to leave for the more sheltered anchorage of La Paz.

I then realized that I was very hungry, so I made a breakfast of 3 packets of oatmeal and a container of mixed fruit. After chowing down on that, I ate the rest of the cream of wheat that my parents had made, then gulped down a serving of applesauce.

I looked around and saw a rock on a 3 foot tall 4 inch wide pedestal. The rock was shaped like a funnel. I read in the guidebook that it's name is "Mushroom Rock", and that it was formed by the soil eroding from a lava flow. It is the landmark of Bandra Bay. Vandals have pushed it over several times, but someone keeps cementing it back into place.

We motored for about an hour and a half to La Paz. The water grew progressively greener. When we finally got into the bay, I couldn't even see 10 feet down past the muck. I don't think this is a good place to snorkel, or even fish. We anchored, unanchored, reanchored, reunanchored, and finally rereanchored, all because of other boats.

Someone in a power dinghy came and told us his son was a 13 year old boy, and that he was on his boat. We anchored close to them. I'm wondering if I can meet him.

Lunch was Shrimp Ramen and 3 bowls of soup. I was almost full at the end of eating, but nothing was left! Unfortunately, that's the state we'll be in if we don't go shopping for food. We almost have completely run out.

We heard our friend "Sea Ya" calling us on the radio. I tried to hail them, but our radio was too weak to transmit that far, so I soon gave up. Around dusk we hailed them one last time with no response then turned our radio off for the night to conserve battery life.

My mom and I played a funny trivia game until the computer battery cut out on us. Then we listened to a related CD of collected "commercials" that were cleverly written.

I changed out the CD that I had been listening to for the last 5 nights for another one, "Blake Sheltons Barn and Grill", which is a country artist track. I like all but one of the songs.

I hope that tommorow we will get the Air-X wind generator assembled and mounted, because there are 40-knot winds expected, and all of that power will sure help charge the batteries.

I will search for a Taco Bell tomorrow if we go to shore. But for now, I'll go to sleep.

11/28/2005

Today was one of the windiest days I have ever seen. The wind was a steady 35 knots gusting up to 45. Breaking waves were everywhere. Conditions were so severe that the port captain closed the port of La Paz to entry and exit of boats less than 500 tons. The ocean looked so frothy!

We found out that Sea Ya had run aground in the night. He lost his keel and rudder in the sand. They were attempting to rescue his belongings from his boat. I'm incredibly sorry for them. I'm releived that he and his crew are safe.

This was a good day to get our Air X wind generator up, because of the wind. I collected all the components, and my dad started wiring and assembling. This took most of the day.

While he was working on that, my mom and I did the food inventory and subued our fears that we were all going to die of starvation before the winds let up and we were able to go shopping.

Hallelujah! My dad had finally gotten the Air X up! In these winds, it's sure to create more than enough power to have the computer, all the lights, the SSB, the VHF, our radio, and have the battery charging all at the same time. I'll also be able to use my computer at night, which I wasn't able to do before because the solar panels can't charge the batteries at night.

The Air X will provide power at night if there is enough wind to turn the blades. If there isn't, my parents suggested that I stand by the Air X and turn the blades by hand. I didn't warm up to that idea.

My mom and I played several games of the funny trivia computer game. She won every time! I have faster fingers, but she knows more. If we played as a team against my dad, we'd win for sure. My dad and I played one game, which he won. So much for encouragement by success. I dislike losing, but this game is so much fun that I keep coming back for more punishment.

11/29/2005

Today I wrote papers. All day. How enjoyable. Anyway, when my parents came back, they told me that they had met up with Sea Ya and helped them organize their stuff that had been salvaged from the wreck.

We played another few games of the trivia game, which I lost. We switched player numbers, and I won! I think that Player 1 is rigged.

We watched yet another movie before we went to bed. I can't quite remember it's name.

11/29/2005

Today, I went to shore with my parents. We went to help Sea Ya sort more salvage.

11/30/2005

Today my parents planned to go to shore. We spent hours looking for things to take. The plan was to return at 3:00, because of the current. I stayed behind to work on journal entries.

I wrote the entries, washed the dishes, and played games till my parents got back. They helped Sea Ya organize things salvaged from his boat for an auction.

They brought back some of his movies to copy, which I did. We watched The Time Machine, and went to sleep.

12/01/2005

Welcome to December! Today was a busy day. I sorted through stuff, moved stuff, walked for ages, and carried heavy things.

We all sailed to shore in the Hobie. We went to help Sea Ya with their auction.

Once we got there, they had already gotten everything out of the garage. We started getting things to wash.

After that was all done, we had to sort through things for ever. That took all day.

Once we were done, we had to put it back into the garage for the night. We sailed back to the boat and copied movies for a few hours.

12/02/2005

Today I stayed on the boat to finish my journal, and copy DVD's. I did that for a few hours, when my dad sailed up on the Hobie! He said to clear the deck and start hauling up the anchor, because we were going to a marina!

I followed orders, and rode on the towed Hobie for most of the journey. I uncliped the Hobie and paddled over to the docks and tied it up.

I waited for my dad to pull in, and when he did, I had a field day exploring. I must have searched for hours! I met several of my friends that day.

12/03/2005

My parents bought stuff at the Sea Ya sale, while I played games all day. After the sale, Axel announced he was taking us to dinner in celebration.

Once there and halfway through the meal, we all started singing to a majorly drunk Axel. He got all surprised when the restauraunt gave him a free custard pie.

That night, we tried sending my journals again with negative results. We then listened to music to fall asleep.

12/04/2005

My parents went to a Subasta at Marina La Paz early. I tried sending my papers for a loooong time. Finally I gave up and decided to lay in the hammock.

It soon got too windy for that, so I walked around for a while, when Franck spotted me and walked over to me. We started jogging down the sidewalk until we met with Justin and Hiedie. Joseph ran up to tell us the pool hall was still closed.

We waited at the benches, until I looked up and saw the pool place was open! We all ran over and started a game. After a few hours, my parents came back. We ate dinner at the Dinghy Dock, and I then played 2 games of pool with her. She said she met someone who owned "Catch me if you can", and he would let me borrow it. I did, and I had my dad copy it. We later watched it and fell asleep.

12/05/2005

Today I tried to send papers. That sucked up most of my day.

I tried sending the papers through CA webmail, but it just sat there. I emailed my teacher about her real email so I could attach it like that. That didn't work. I tried to go into the tienda and use their computer, but it didn't recognize my USB thumbdrive where I had stored my journal. I finally G-Mailed it to myself, and finally got it sent off.

That day was almost over, so I played pool with my friends untill 9:30. Then I walked over to the boat and fell asleep listening to "Red Dirt Road".

12/06/2005

Today I did four major things. I got up and did school, I played games, I played po

ol, and then I watched a movie.

As you can tell from the previous paragraph, I didn't do much of anything today. The most I can say about it was that it took up my time.

12/07/2005

This morning I ate at the tiny little tienda on the way to the marina office. I had eggs, ham, and salad with tortillas. Then my mom bought a large treat that consisted of a chocolate chip cake, chocolate icing, and M & M type candies sprinkled on top. It was delicious!

I did school late, played computer games, played pool, and watched a movie. I fell asleep listening to a hacksaw.

12/08/2005

same as 06

+ copied DVD's

12/09/2005

Today I did school as usual, but unusually only an hour of it. After that hour was done, I had to come back to help get ready to leave. We got all done, untied the docklines, and motored to Cosa Baja. We filled up the gas tanks and learned about the marina. It sounds so awesome! We got into our slip and marveled at the friendliness of the people there. We bought some popcorn and put it on top of the microwave in the lounge for the nice people who helped us.

12/10/2005

I grabbed my already packed computer and did school untill noon. I played computer games for a while, watched a movie, and played more computer games.

It was a pretty boring and uneventful day, but a part of the movie was funny. I met some more people as well.

12/11/2005

I waited for someone to let me in to the lounge. I got in and did technology. My mom came in and stole the computer to write emails. I watched a movie during this time. She played spider for a bit, and gave me the computer back. I did a little more school, but yet again she stole it!

After she was done, we played ping pong. I got beat down. We played pool. She got beat down. We played a ping pong tournament with my dad. He won. I watched Jurrassic Park: The Lost World, because I had never seen it before. I packed up and went back to the boat to get to sleep.

12/12/2005

This morning, I did my school. I complained to my dad after my mom stole the computer about her using it before I'm done with school.

I did the last week's worth of journal entries, and went back to the boat. We watched Mr. Deeds. We were about to leave when Athena fell into the water! I scooped her up as fast as I could and dried her with a towel. I then walked her up to the tables where my mom and dad were sitting.

We played a pool tournament, which I won, 2 to 1 to 1. We all walked back and fell asleep.

12/13/2005

I did school as usual, but this time with books. I finished up, and my mom left with Champagne to go shopping!

I took Athena for a walk, trying to find the pool, but unsuccesfully did not. We walked down the beach, where Athena spotted and ate a poor little crab.

At around 9 my mom came back with two roast chickens, a pack of tortillas, and a Tres Leches cake. We ate chicken tortillas and tried to watch a movie. Unfortunately, the movies always messed up and started sticking.

I went back to the boat, and my mom had already stolen Athena! So I didn't get Athena that night.

 

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