Year: 2019

 June 2018

Angelique left the Columbia River Yacht Club for her multiple year voyage.

I will answer the 4 of most popular questions we get from others

Give you a 1 year review with Pictures… Isn’t a picture are worth a 1000 words?

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Question: Tell me about your worst weather event? 

Surprisingly this happened while anchored not moving. Mainly because we try and watch the weather as close as we can before leaving…not to say it won’t happen in the future.

Wind Storm – Cabo San Lucas – On Wednesday afternoon of Nov 14th around 11 am we left the safety of the Marina Cabo San Lucas and anchored just outside the marina in the bay. When we anchored it was a beautiful quiet day and calm. So Calm Dan was going to go swimming. By 1pm the winds started picking up and getting tossed around. t around 3 pm the decision was made, pull the anchor. We had no place to go, but friends Dean and Roxanne found a place for us at San Jose del Cabo. We headed for safety and realized we had the worst (to date) beating of this trip. More info in Original Blog story = Picking up Pieces in Puerto Los Cabos, Whale Sharks & Thanksgiving in La Paz….#20

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Question: What about Pirates?

Yes, this is a concern in certain parts of the world, but our worst event happened in California USA.

Scariest Event – Unauthorized boarding of Angelique – We had just come from a private island resort at Tinsley Island (sponsored by Jaren Leet ) an outstation of St Francis Yacht club in San Francisco.  We stopped in Antioch Marina. At 3am I heard a noise that seemed like someone walking on the back deck. Dan got up to investigate and sure enough a 30-ish lady sitting in our chair on the back deck. When Dan asked her to get off, she didn’t. It took 15 mins or so to get her off. She also decided to show up again the next morning during daylight and ask again if she could come aboard. Both times the police were called. The second time we got good pictures of her. We think she was on some type of drugs. More info in Original Blog Story = Private Island Resort, Public Docks & “Repel Boarders @ 4 am”….#16 

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Question: Are you afraid of being boarded by officials?

We’ve been boarded twice, once in Canada by customs and once in Neah Bay by Coast Guard.

Canada Customs boarding, Training event  – After arriving at our very first port from our Portland departure, we landed in Ucluelet BC Canada. We had to wait for the customs & board control to arrive, staying on our boat for over an hour. Once they arrived we were instructed to stay in one place and allow them to do their work. It took a couple hours for them to complete their search and seizure procedures. The two hardest parts were when they found Dans Grandfathers small hunting knife with butterfly handles and said it was illegal to have, confiscated it and charged him $500 dollars. The other event was when they thought Ken Williams had a warrant out for his arrest? Sorry no Pictures on this one. We were detained for a couple hours and then released to go ashore. No love for the Canadian officials.

Official Business – US Coast Guard -We were greeted by the US Coast Guard @ Neah Bay on August 6th. We had Evan Tozier with us and had just cruised from the Puget Sound area to anchor overnight in the bay before heading down south to Ilwaco WA.

We had a great experience with seeing the Navy on our way up. Now the Coast Guard wanted to board us and check out all our safety items. I call Dan “Mr. Safety”, so we had no problems at all, other than getting them on and off the boat. The Winds and waves were pretty bad that day and we had a hard time getting them on/off. They were very nice and had everything checked out in 20 mins and let us go. Original blog story = US Coast Guard & Navy interactions with Angelique….#10

 

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Question: It must be nice to always be on Vacation?

We live on our boat, yes we are in nice places but we are always doing boat maintenance.  Repairs, cleaning, maintenance, sewing, and basically fixing anything and everything is a daily event. We say….

“We get to do repairs/maintenance in exotic places”

Dan is monitoring, fixing and maintaining the engines on a constant schedule with lists of stuff to improve on always. Plus we did a huge list of repairs in the Shipyard at Opequimar in Puerto Vallarta. Original blog post = A SHIPYARD STORY –> What it Takes to Keep a Big Hatteras Going….#24  (I should do a blog on just his improvements/repairs…would you all like to see that??)  

Biggest Unexpected Replacement – While we were North in the San Juan Islands we had stopped at a dinghy dock to get some coffee. It happened to be really rough, so Dan stayed put while I ran up for important provisions. On our way back to the boat we noticed one of the tubes was a bit low on air. When we got back, we found a 2+ inch hole on the bottom. After multiple repairs and months of success and then disappointments with the fix we finally had to call it quits and file a claim with our insurance. The inspector came and said that Dan did a great job patching,  but the dinghy was totalled. We decided on a shorter, lighter weight & overall smaller dinghy. We got lemonade from our lemons … We had multiple write ups on this topic… Multiple original blogs = A Dinghy Saga, lemons in paradise….#8 & Girls In-Charge when Storm hits & Our Dinghy’s Final Resting Spot…#17

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 ~~~~~ Now Enjoy Our Pictures ~~~~~~

Wildlife on and around Angelique

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Beautiful Places

Friends and Family

 

Highlights of the multiple teams that worked on our boat in Opequimar Shipyard

Best part is the People, those friends and family that have joined us and those that we have meet along with way.

Living on your yacht is always an adventure!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Shipyard work was done, what was our next adventure?

We had to change our original plans, which was to head south to Panama after our shipyard time. The shipyard work took longer than expected, so we decided to spend the summer up north in Sea of  Cortez. Our considerations for changing our plans was the time of year. Leaving Puerto Vallarta in early May would give us less than 2 months to get through the Panama Canal and push to get out of the way on the east side before the pending hurricane season started. We had also heard that the heat, humidity and bugs were unbearable in summer in Panama.

“Leave in Winter we were told”

We didn’t want to hurry through either side of Panama. So our decision was made, postpone our voyage south and go North for the summer.

We would plan for an October time frame for our southbound voyage to Panama. This would give us 7 -8 months to get to Panama and through the canal before hurricanes hit. We will even be able to enjoy a few months in the Caribbean sea/islands before needing to head north again.

“When plans don’t work out, Invite friends”

So we invited our friends Ken and Cheryl to come play in Puerto Vallarta, Paradise Village. The boys wanted/needed to accomplish a bit of testing on some of the boatyard work that was done. So they spent most of their time checking and working on stuff.  We did make the boys do some fun stuff too.

 

We went to a dinner show “Rhythm of the Night – SAVIA” which was deep in the heart of the steamy tropical rainforest at Las Caletas. The show was written and directed by Gilles Ste Croix, co-creator of Cirque du Soleil. We had a sunset cruise, dinner and a show.

The show was breathtaking and very much like a Cirque du Soleil show. Then dinner was fabulous, it was a buffet with lots of choices and very high quality food.

I would recommend it highly if you are in PV and want something fun to do. We also had entertainment while we were eating.

Another fun thing to do is rent a car and drive to Sayulita. We spent the day rambling around the town. We ran into some friends from Portland, Doug and Michelle, spent some time with them while their family was on spring break.  I also recommend taking the time to drive to this cute town. Lots of shops and food locations to pick from, beach is wonderful and surf-able for those that know how.

While we were in Paradise Village resort and Marina we ran into friends from when my daughter Kylie was in Volleyball. Kristin and Emily Rubalcava. I haven’t seen them in over 10 years. So it was fun to get caught up and visit.

 

As Ken and Cheryl head back to Portland, Dan and I start to put together our plans to backtrack to La Paz and Sea of Cortez. Dan and I didn’t expect to be traveling this direction again. We have learned to always be flexible, to consider all options, don’t be so stubborn to not accept any change in plans. We look at it as an opportunity to discover different areas.

So in early April we had our friends Kirk and Tiffany Lance and their baby daughter London join us.

We cruised from PV to Isla Isabela and anchored for 2 nights, then to Mazatlan for a couple nights in El Cid Marina, then we anchored at Balandra Bay for one night, then into La Paz, landing in a different marina for us, Costa Baja Resort and Marina. Kirk was on the bow checking to see if Dan was heading the right direction! Kirk and Tiffany were such a great help with our cruise back to La Paz. We enjoyed their help and company! 

Costa Baja is a very nice resort with pool and restaurants and shuttle into town.  The Marina is a bit more expensive but you get more amenities and security. We enjoy this marnia, even with its location a ways away from town. We always feel so blessed when our friends come join us.

 

Tiffany, Kirk, Dan and I meet up with friends that live in La Paz part time, Bob and Deborah. All of which belong to our network of friends from Columbia River Yacht Club. We enjoyed dinner at La Baraccia Italian Restaurant in Costa Baja Marina.

We stayed in La Paz for one month and had many dinners and events with friends, along with meeting new ones too. We had dinner at El Mezquite Grill with Sutherlands, Cottingames, Rogers & Sandyens. 

 

Again we thank our ever growing boating family, current and new friends for their support and knowledge. We enjoy spending time with you all and look forward to all the next adventures!

 

OFF to the Sea of Cortez with not much cell service or internet. Lots of books and quiet time ahead.

When you chose to put your boat in a Shipyard, it is stressful and expensive! Sometimes you don’t have a choice, something goes wrong and you have to get it in for some work. A few tip on “How to be successful in a Boatyard” even if it is in a foreign country.

Things to pay attention to:

1. List of items you want/need fixed?
   • Keep track of what you want done
   • Get good solid bids
   • Understand yard cost for haul out and the skills of contractors by seeing prior work and quotes. Look for discounts
   • Track what else they find while doing the required work
   • Will the yard allow you to work on stuff DIY? (some yards don’t)
2. Plan for additional time and cost in yard
   • They will find other items and you will have to make a decision
   • Plan for 25 – 50% more, depending on age of your boat
   • Choices to make, Do you fix now or later?
   • Can you fix yourself?
3. Haul-out Cost Money & Time
   • Having your boat leak or break costs more money than preventive work
   • You will have to pay again later if you wait and it fails

Ways to Help Them Help YOU:

1. Be on-site every day
   • This helps you monitor what they are doing
   • You can review what they find, right then and there
   • Keeps them honest and actively working
   • Do you have to rent a place nearby? Do it
2. Reduce your cost
   • Make sure you have a project manager overseeing everything, all contractors, his workers and others.
   • Can you stay on board? Most shipyards allow for this with afterhours water usage
   • Can you do work yourself, are there any restrictions?
   • Bring your buddies to help you out
   • If it can wait, and be done in the water, wait.
3. Have a good relationship with workers and Project Manager
   • US or Mexico, you get more done with sugar than vinegar!
   • Try and understand both sides of a story
   • Mexicans are much more relationship based than US
   • Be nice and grateful for their hard work
   • Mexicans work 6 or 7 days a week
   • They only make 1000-1500 pesos a day = to $5.00 to $7.50 a day
   • They work hard and have great skills

Recap of Our Mexican Boat Haul-out Event:

• 8 different suppliers working on our yacht
• 60 Days on hard
• 82 Overhaul days (22 in water)
• 8 New pieces of “Boat jewelry”, e.g.; shiny expensive metal parts for boat
• 3 Non -boat Adventure days while being overhauled
• 5 days off for Dan/Angela
• 250  1+ mile Bike rides (rode bicycles everywhere)
• 9 Repeat restaurants
• 51 breakfasts at shipyard “yacht club” restaurant. It was great!
•  2 Restaurants with 5-star quality
• 7 Ice cream store visits
• 5 Malecon vendor buys
• 240 dirty/grey ankles, washing needed (ours)
• 2 pair of destroyed shoes (1 each)
• 20 lbs of cardboard floor covering
• 3 bottles of bug spray
• 2 bottles of sunscreen
• 2 tired boat owners
• 1 shiny gorgeous boat

Review of work done @ A SHIPYARD STORY ….#24

FYI – Video of boatyard lift and splash, may take a bit to load. Also few more photos below!

 

 

 

Next Up…. more adventures on the water, with our pretty new boat!