Well we are waiting for a weather window to go to the Bahamas. We have been in Riviera Beach for about the past two weeks waiting for favorable weather to go to the southern part of the Bahamas this time, and the weather gods have not been smiling on us. (At least the traveling weather gods are not smiling, the weather here has been gorgeous. )  Riviera Beach is on the east coast of Florida about half way between Miami and Cape Canaveral. The Bahamas are south and east of here. The Gulf Stream flows from south to north and is between us and the Bahamas and therefore has to be crossed in order to get there. The winds have been blowing a lot from the east (just where we want to go) or from the north which makes them blowing against the Gulf Stream resulting in BIG  square waves which makes for very uncomfortable sailing. ( As I write this I see that the wind is blowing 33 knots  from the north :).)

We spent the holidays in Fort Myers (west coast of Florida) with my mom and the planned to sail to the Bahamas in January but life intervened. The boat had “issues”. Unfortunately the problem with our DC  generator never got fixed so in Florida we decided to get an AC generator. Not so easy. We tried to get some estimates but I guess our project was too small (it is high season for the marinas right now and we are little fish in an ocean of whales, you should see the size of some of these boats! ). By now it was February and so it was on to option three, solar panels. You see in a sailboat you need power to run the refrigerator, make hot water , charge your cellphone, run the navigational instruments etc. and that means the batteries need to be charged. The engine ( if you are running it) or the generator, (DC or AC ), or solar panels can do that. Thanks to Amazon, we went on line and ordered solar panels, Hartley being a whiz at electrical stuff wired everything and we hired a guy whose business was called Headless Parrot Welding, (I was a little nervous with that name) who did  a great job welding the frames for the panels and voila: power!!!

In addition to all that my oldest brother Iain decided to get married. It was a great wedding and all got together and had a fabulous time.

 

It involved some logistics as my youngest brother is a quadriplegic . My Mom had been thinking of remodeling her bathroom but with Keith coming she decided to do it and right away and make it wheel chair accessible. She and I had fun designing and decorating the bathroom. It got finished just in time to celebrate her 92nd birthday.

Part of the party included a champagne toast with 25 people in the bathroom.

Life is never dull with my Mom.

So now we have the major projects done and we have some time to play. We get up every morning and check the weather forecast for the next few days and for a week out (that far out is science fiction as Hartley says). Then we get on with pretending we are not waiting but just enjoying being on the water in Riviera Beach. We got new folding bikes and they ride like a dream compared to our old ones so we have gone on a few good bike rides. One of them was down in West Palm Beach ( the town just south of us where Trump has his southern White House).  As you can imagine the homes there are incredible and the  bike path goes  right by them. Not by Trump’s, MaraLago is very secluded. We don’t have a car so we ride our bikes to the grocery store and sometimes out to dinner. I filled the freezer with food but buy new food while we are here as that was/is intended for the Bahamas. (See I told you we are pretending not to wait.)

We also have put our kayaks to use. Right across from the marina is Peanut Island. It gives a great place to kayak around and sometimes we even stop and have a picnic lunch.  One of my goals that I haven’t done yet is practice getting back in the kayak if it tips over. I keep saving that for a really hot, humid day, but the days here have been so beautiful mid seventies and not all that humid that I haven’t gotten myself that ambitious yet.

We also have been doing some walking and running. There is a place called Manatee Park about a mile away where Florida Light and Power spills warm water from their electric plant into the ocean. When it is cold the manatee gather there to enjoy the warm water. They also have a big pavilion with information about the manatee. Right now the ocean water is warm enough that there are rarely any manatee there but I have a few pictures from January when there were several.

On the way to the park as you cross the bridge you can see the yard where they move all the cargo to go to the Bahamas. It is fascinating to watch the trucks lift these huge containers and move them around the yard with seeming purpose.

Next comes the Florida Sugar and Molasses company.

Diet is impossible as you smell the molasses waft through the air. A replica of one of Columbus’s boats just floated by.

And then there is always the possibility of a rainbow.

Well on with pretending we are not waiting. Today is Wednesday and the predictions are that maybe Sunday we might get to go. All we can do is keep having fun and go when the going is good.

 

 

 

It’s raining and cold (at least pretty cool). What an opportunity! You may think me crazy but we have had a great summer weather and all I have been looking for a chance to bake with the new Omnia oven my mother gave me for Christmas. It is a stove top oven which I need as my regular oven isn’t working well. ( It takes 45 minutes to preheat and then doesn’t hold a constant temperature. )

Well this is a story about what it is like to do something different on a boat.

The first thing is always “Where is the oven?” Of course it is packed away somewhere. On a boat you can’t leave things out, so where is it? We have an ipad on which we have an inventory program with lists of  lots of things, but without fail the thing you are looking for you forgot to add to the list. Who could misplace an oven?

I decided I would bake something and that would be good to eat and warm up the boat as well. It took 2 hours and rearranging all my storage to find it. I tried to look on the bright side  thinking that my storage area was much neater now. (I often try to trick myself that way.)

Okay so on to what to bake. I wanted chocolate chip cookies but we didn’t have any chocolate chips. So no dice there. Next on to the packaged cakes etc. I found a pumpkin bread mix (dated 8/2017, only a year old, not bad) but it required eggs and I had just used my last one two days ago. Look in more places for mixes etc., but I didn’t find anything else interesting and certainly nothing else that did not require eggs. I know I saw in a cookbook a section on substitutions when you are out of an ingredient. Figured it had to be in “Joy of Cooking” but I couldn’t find it there. Then I looked in a couple of other books, no luck. We were fortunately in a good area for Verizon and I had 3 bars of LTE, score. I looked it up there and it gave two choices. 1.  2 tablespoons water (I had that), 1 teaspoon oil (good), and 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. 2.  1/4 cup mashed banana.  I had baking soda but powder, now where might that be ( if I had any). Now all my spices and baking supplies have been successfully rearranged too. I finally found a small round box still sealed with plastic in the area where I keep our hot sauces. In big letters it said REXAL doble accion. I wasn’t sure if that could be baking powder or maybe a laxative?? In little letters , requiring reading glasses, I found polvo para hornear.

Went back to my phone and asked for a translation and got baking powder, YEAH. I also had a little piece of banana so I decided to use both choice 1 and 2. (Two eggs were required).

Next step was to locate the mixing bowl (collapsible), measuring cups and spoon (collapsible). I knew where they were, just had to dig them out. To get to the bowl I had to remove both the bowl, the lettuce spinner and the strainer. The measuring instruments were in the bottom storage area by the stove which has 3 plastic boxes stacked, (measuring cups and spoons in bottom box). I had just put the three boxes back ( on my knees), when Hartley said I need a funnel do you know where they are? I knew well as I had just been there ( the third plastic box down) so I triumphantly got that out too.

So anyhow I now had what I needed to bake.I mixed up the pumpkin bread and decided to read the instructions for the oven. I remembered the little instruction book had gotten wet when we took a wave over the bow and it came into the forward stateroom and that I had put it somewhere to dry…. Oh well the phone still worked and I looked up the instructions there.

The instructions for baking things are to use the time as stated on the package. Well the choices were for muffins (15 minutes), or for a bread loaf (50 minutes). Well the Omnia oven makes an a ring so I figured 30 minutes??? Well I am learning, 30 minutes was too long or the heat was too high . It got royally burned to the pan. I had to chip it out. The top portion wasn’t burned and tasted pretty good too.

The good thing on a boat when you burn something to pan you just tie rope on the pan, throw it overboard and in the morning it is clean. No scrubbing involved!! (At least I hope it works).

The crabs must be slow or not very hungry around here,the pan is on it’s second day and only half cleaned.) Oh by the way I just ordered on Amazon the newly available silicon liner for the oven, it keeps things from sticking too much. I can’t be the only one who sticks (and burns) stuff to my oven.!!!

 

CLICK ON THE LITTLE PICTURES AND THEY WILL BECOME BIG AND CLEAR USE BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO TEXT

As usual, behind again but I want to write about the last couple of months before we take off out of Florida and head north and we should be doing that is a few days if the weather gods agree.

After leaving Deb and Tim we continued a little further south along Great Abaco Island and explored that area. We spent about a week in Boat Harbor, just the other side of the peninsula from Marsh Harbor, one of the bigger towns in the Bahamas. As usual we didn’t plan to spend so long there but there was just one storm front after the other and it was nice and protected so we stayed. The boating community there is very nice and welcoming. They gather together most nights for cocktails and twice a week have an appetizer potluck as well.  I was able to do yoga with them almost every day and enjoyed that as the opportunity does not often present itself. There were 3 different instructors, one was a lady who did it as her business. Then there was Susan (who lived on a beautiful power boat just up from ours with 3 decks), she was very relaxed and gave a great class. The other person was an older gentleman. He was not very limber but knew all the moves. It was great working with him as you realized any one of an ability can do yoga.  We were there when they did their Margarita Madness beach party and joined right in. We helped set up and decorate and then of course we partied.They even got Hartley to dance!

They have this traditional race called the sand ski race where 5 ladies line up on two long  skis with rope tied to the bottom and must move in unison across the sand. We came in second!!

We left there and went to Mermaid Reef, just a tiny reef, but protected and we got in some snorkeling and saw some nice fish. We then went into Marsh Harbor  and met up with Tim and Deb for an evening. It was very tricky getting in and out of the harbor as it was very shallow, we had to watch the depth gauge all the time and it read mostly 0.1 feet below the keel.

We then started our trip back staying at some of the places we had been to on the way down and at least one new place, Spanish Cay.

It is a private island that has some vacation homes, some condos for rent and a small hotel and of course a restaurant and bar. On the ocean side of the island they built a wooden wall with a concrete base I guess to keep the waves back from the island. You can tell who won in the picture above, all there is left is the cement base. Mother Nature always wins. There are only two full time residents of the island, the lady who runs the marina desk and her husband who does everything else. She also is the waitress at the restaurant. I think they bring in a cook for the day. The island also has its own airstrip and that is how it gets its supplies. The islands are small and while we were there Bobbi showed up. He is a captain and one of the things he does is sail  with people who have just bought a boat but have little experience and need some coaching before their insurance will let them solo with their new boat. We had met him in West End the first days we were in the Bahamas as he coached a couple on a very big catamaran. So fun to run into people you know.

We eventually made if back to West End and crossed the Gulf Stream back to Riviera Beach.
Riviera Beach is a small town on the east coast of Florida , just north of West Palm Beach. (West Palm Beach is where President Trump spends a lot of his weekends but we haven’t been invited to the Florida Whitehouse yet!) The marina is brand new having been finished in 2015, I think. The docks are floating docks with nice edging to keep the boat from scraping as we dock. The cleats that we tie the boat to are all metal and smooth. (As you can tell from my great excitement some marinas do not have floating docks, but fixed docks, some have jagged docks with nails sticking out ready to grab your boat and some have rusted cleats that eat your dock lines!!)

Right across from the marina is Peanut Island.

It is actually a man made island from the sand that has been dredged out of the bay. It was supposed to have a peanut oil factory built on it but a hurricane and the depression came and that ended that idea, but the name persists. We took a ferry ride out to the island and took the tour.

There is an old Coast Guard station

with a small museum but the most interesting thing there is the nuclear bomb shelter that was built for JFK when he was president and had a home nearby. Apparently they were worried if Washington D.C. was bombed the radiation might get here. Two guys built the facility in 10 days and buried it in sand. All very hush hush. Pretty basic, JFK was glad not to have to use it from many points of view.
The other great thing about Peanut Island is that it is just across the way and we can easily kayak to it and around it. Hartley’s kayak got kicked by a manatee just off shore from the island. He thought he was paddling over a rock but in fact it was a live “rock” and let him know it.
Riviera Beach also has an active port where they load the ships,especially the ones that take supplies to the Bahama islands. It is quite an operation. The trailer trucks pull in, line up perfectly in their little marked spot, a special kind of crane like vehicle slides over the trailer part of the truck, lifts it with big magnets and takes it away. As soon as the truck has had its load removed it drives away. Most of the trucks only spend 5 to 10 minutes in the yard. Amazing. A railroad track also goes into the yard and a different kind of crane unloads it again using magnets to lift the trailers. We often go for a walk in the morning and fall into the trap of watching the goings on in the yard as we cross the bridge that goes over the yard.

Further along on the other side of the bridge is Manatee Lagoon. It was built by Florida Light and Power.

They have a big power plant there and the warm water that it puts out is very attractive to the Manatee. Right now the Manatee don’t care as all the water is warm, but in the winter they tend to congregate there when the water is cold.

Now for the other half of the story. We spent about 3 weeks in Fort Myers which is on the west coast of Florida. It takes about 3 hours to drive there, a little better than 4-5 days to sail there. If we were to sail to Fort Myers there isn’t much choice of where to stay as most of the marinas either require you to go through a bridge that is only 65 feet high (our mast is 68 feet tall) or are for boats that draw less than 6 feet. We draw 6 feet. (means we need a little more than 6 feet of water to float. )We stayed with my Mom and enjoyed the visit. I always get more exercise in when I am there as she keeps me moving. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday there is an hour of water aerobics and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday she runs (so I run!).  Since Mom will be going to the Senior Games in Birmingham, AL in June to run the 5 K race we had to do some hill running. Birmingham apparently has hills and there are none in Fort Myers, FL or in Florida period, so we had to run the bridges to simulate hills! We also walk the beach (extra).

My brother also lives there and we got to visit him and his girl friend Patti. They are in the midst of redoing their kitchen, the granite is beautiful, can’t wait to see it in the fall.

I addition to  that we did the doctor visit thing. We are using Fort Myers as our home base for medical issues. I am doing fine but Hartley has a few things that need attention. Fortunately nothing urgent so he will get that done in the fall (ears, thumb etc.).

Oh I almost forgot the most exciting part, my birthday party. Mom threw a party with a combo theme of my birthday and Cinco de Mayo. We had lots of fun.

Oh, oh ! also Mom’s picture was in the June issue of Runner’s World.

Our boat needs some attention too. We have two 90 gallon   stainless steel water tanks than are under the floor in the main salon and one ruptured.

As Hartley says the tanks were put in and the boat built around them so to replace them is no easy job. They will have to cut up the floor, lift it,  and then destroy the tanks in place. Then we have to replace the tanks with something else. We could put in aluminum, fiberglass (built in place),  or plastic molded tanks. They will have to be smaller so that they will fit down the companionway hatch. We have a watermaker so a little less water capacity is fine. We will probably end up with 3 or 4 smaller tanks which actually is great as if one tank goes bad we still have the others. Anyway part of the point of the trip this summer is to find a good place to have this done at the best price. We have had some recommendations from sailors we have met along the way and are stopping at several of them to get quotes and a feel for who we think might do the best job. Well just about ready to go. Will update soon.

Time is much slower on the boat and in the Bahamas.
We left Riviera Beach Florida at about 3 PM planning to leave when the current in the marina was slack as we had watched many boats coming and going and getting swept into the boats docked across the way as the current can be very strong on the incoming or out going tide. We got out of our slip in the marina with no problem and as is usual in the boating community had some help from one of our neighboring boats to make sure we got clear. Of course our major concern was the current and we hadn’t really considered this was low tide slack and the depths might be kind of shallow. Oops, we hit bottom just was we were clearing the marina, fortunately just sand and a little redirection of the boat fixed that. As per our plan we anchored out in the little bay near the marina to wait until 11PM. We figured the crossing would take about 12 hours and we wanted to arrive in daylight at the other side.
The crossing was uneventful, smooth water and no big wind. We had to motor the whole way but it wasn’t bad. It is only 60 miles from Riviera Beach to West End Bahama and all things being equal we should have made it a bit faster but between here and there is the GULF STREAM. It moves fast and you can’t just point straight across or you might end up in Bermuda instead of the Bahamas! We had to angle almost 45 degrees south to end straight across from where we started. We just kind of slid across sideways.
West End (Old Bahama Bay Marina) is a nice little marina with fixed docks so the boat goes up and down with the tides but the dock does not. The deck of the boat is either about even with the dock or way down low making getting on and off interesting.
The hurricane Matthew took a toll on the Bahamas in general and did a lot of damage in West End. The docks stayed intact but the electricity was destroyed so there was no electricity at the docks. They had managed to get electricity to the bungalows and the marina office. The town (very loosely a town, one small grocery store, a grill/bar/cafe, 3 churches ,a police station, school, and the remnants of a hotel.) There were houses too, some with no windows, some with no roofs or windows and a few intact, kind of sad but the people seemed happy.
We met a bunch of people there at the marina.

 

The weather was not cooperating and so our two day stay extended to 5 days as we sat out a cold front that brought lots of wind and waves. No one minded it was island time. We went out to dinner at the little restaurant at the marina , about 8 of us and just shortly after we sat down the lights went out, no electricity. We had candles and flashlights and it worked. While we waited one of the waiters came and sang us a song. Great voice and accapella too. The dinner took about 3 hours (island time). We could have anything fried as the only thing that worked was the the propane fryer.
Another day we had conch salad. One of the locals on the dock offered to make it for us and even made it to our specifications , not too much onion. It was fresh and very good.
The bikes at the marina were free to use so we rode them to town and also down to the beach to collect sea glass. I am going to have to watch what I collect or the boat won’t float.
Once the wind dropped everyone left and headed on their way.
We crossed Indian Rock Cut which is a very shallow shortcut. We timed it so we would cross just before high tide. It got very shallow, the closest we got to the bottom was 0.2 feet but that was close enough. Pucker power.
We went to Great Sale Cay and met up with a few other boats from West End. Two of them were catamarans and so could leave earlier than us as they could pass the Cut at lower water. We spent the night and then went on to Fox Town the next day.
We had thought about staying and visiting town but it was Sunday, so not much open and oh by the way another windy storm was due. It wasn’t expected to be too big but the wind was going to change direction and we needed a place with protection for a NNE wind.

Off we took from there to Manjack Cay (pronounced Munjack) where the protection was better. We had met another sailboat, Kintala with Deb and TJ. They have sailed the islands before so we appreciated their advice about where to go.

While in Manjack we took a dinghy ride up a little river that went into the mangroves. We came upon one spot where we saw about 20 turtles. Some were dinner plate size but others were huge , about 18-20 inches in diameter.
We then stopped at a little beach to look for some shells and found wild pig (really feral pig). There was one big one who looked very thin and about 9 of her piglets. I was worried she might be aggressive as she had the babies but she seemed okay. She sniffed at me and then walked back to see T.J. and I thought she was gone but all of a sudden I felt something touch my leg and I jumped straight up.

So much for moving quietly and not startling the pig. Also saw a crab swimming, weird, never had seen one swim before, just walk.

Onward and upward, another storm is due, so time to find a place with Green Turtle Cay Marina. Again the approach has to be at high tide as there isn’t much water. We felt our way along and made it in with no touching but did see a 0.8 below the keel.The dock is an interesting place. The fingers for the dock are very short so the area where we have a gate in a lifelines does not come close to where we can get on to the dock. We have to climb over the lifeline and then jump over to the dock as the boat is not close to the dock but kind of suspended between pilings.

Very interesting.

Much more interesting than at West End . Even more interesting we unloaded our bikes, that was a bit tricky.

I rode my bike into town in the morning as the big rain storm was expected in the afternoon. I am not the best with a map and just listened to Hartley who said, just follow the road it will go right into town. Not quite so. I made a wrong turn and ended up on the “Beach Road”. It was very nice as far a scenery but it was very sandy, deep sand, so I had to walk quite a bit as the sand was too deep to ride in.

It took half an hour to get to town. This one is called New Plymouth and is much bigger than West End. It has a couple of grocery stores, just a little bigger than a Seven-Eleven, several restaurants and some craft stores plus a bakery. I stopped in one of the grocery stores and she told me the supply boat comes on Thursday (this was Wednesday) and the boat with fresh produce and milk comes on Friday. Oh well I guess I’ll need to come back another day. On to the bakery!!! “Do you have any coconut bread?” I innocently asked. No not yet, we will have it in two hours. (Coconut bread tastes like white bread but the coconut makes it keep longer. )Oh well. The good news is I went the right way home and the road although not paved most of the way was packed sand and I could ride my bike. In addition the route was much shorter. I was not planning on going back in 2 hours but since the trip had been so much better going home I decided after I would give it a try. So two hours later I show up at the bakery. “Do you have any coconut bread?. No. They were just ready to put it in to bake. Ohhhhhhhhhh. (Island time) But the white bread was just about ready to come out of the oven. So I had an ice cream cone while I waited for the the bread and then put the warm bread in my backpack and and rode home.

I am very proud of myself as I did not eat the bread on the way home even though I could smell it tempting me whenever the wind blew from behind me.
As soon as I got home Hartley and I cut two big pieces of bread and added some butter and it was good. Guess no dinner tonight!

Today was clean the boat day as we have electricity and can run the vacuum. Tomorrow we leave about 7:45 AM to catch the high tide and then on to somewhere else, not quite sure where yet.

We got to Florida and Lake Worth just before Thanksgiving. We left the boat in a nice secure marina at Lake Worth on the East Coast of Florida just north of West Palm Beach and drove to Fort Myers where my mother and oldest brother live.

We needed to get all the usual doctoring things done, dermatologist, dentist, cardiologist, urologist and of course my visit with Dr Reeves about my ITP which is stable and doing well. Hartley also has been doing physical therapy for his thumb injury and is slowly getting it to move again.

It has been great getting to see some of my family again. My Mom will be 90 in February and is still going very strong. We ran the Turkey Trot, a 5K race , on Thanksgiving and she did very well. The age group was 75 and above and she came in 3rd at almost 90 and the two ladies who beat her were under 78! I was impressed with myself as I managed to run ( no walking) the whole thing.

 

Being on land has really shown me how lazy I have become and that I really need to get back with it. Running is an easy thing to do, no equipment necessary, so that looks like one of the activities I will have to keep up. It has become quite a family affair as Lya and Ariel in Phoenix, our two daughters, have started running and are doing very well.

Keeping up with my Mom is always a challenge. Her usual routine, and therefore mine when I visit, is water aerobics for an hour, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and running Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Also we go see her trainer at the gym for weight work once a week. My cardiologist said I didn’t need a stress test this year as he thinks I do enough that it is a self test. He also says he wants to meet my mother!

Mom and I drove up to Clearwater, Florida the second weekend in December so she could run in the state games so she could qualify for the National Senior Games in Alabama this summer. She didn’t have any competition as she was the oldest one who ran period and the only one in her category (85-89).

My brother Iain has been very busy this visit. He sold his old house and bought a new one just after we arrived. He was kind of sad as he had done a lot of work on his old house and had it the way he wanted. But the new house is right on the water and is beautiful. With a bit of work he will make it his own. He and his partner Patti are thoroughly enjoying it.

He has a dock at the back of the house where he can go fishing. He keeps his motor boat and PWC there as well.

The newest addition is standup paddle boards. I tried it when we were over on Christmas day. I did pretty good, only one face plant. The area near his house has some shallow spots and I got the fin of the paddle board stuck in the mud. I thought I had it freed but not really and when I gave a big push I went forward and the board did not!!.

While we were In Fort Myers we had parties.

We watched the boat parade with our fancy hats and in general had a great time.

 

Hartley had been running back and forth from Fort Myers to Lake Worth (about a 3 hour drive) to get some work done on the boat. I finally came out this week to get things ready for our next off shore adventure. I am busy, once again, redoing how things are stored in the port side bunk. Oh well maybe this time will  be the last. Ha Ha!

Cruising is more than a travel log. It has been a year and 3 months since we left San Francisco. My ideas about cruising have changed. I think I figured that my days would be filled with one exciting adventure after the other with little down time for other things.

I would say that cruising is more like “regular life” with a few amazing things thrown in. Last Wednesday and Thursday we had some truly amazing and beautiful things happen. We were sailing from Charleston, South Carolina to Brunswick, Georgia a distance of about  130 nm. Our previous sail had been from Beaufort, North Carolina to Charleston and had been pretty miserable. We left about midnight as the weather predictions said the wind would start off light and southwest but in 24 hours the wind would change to northwest and build to 15 – 20 knots. The trip is a long one, about 200 nm, (38 hours). Well the wind indeed did pickup but did not change directions. So instead of a nice following wind we had a wind right on the nose. The weather report did get one thing right, the wind speed picked up and was 20-30 knots. The sea was very choppy and we bashed in to the waves. Atsa was under power and not making good head way against the wind. We were going at most 5 knots. But as we bashed into the waves our speed would slow to 2 knots, sometimes 1 knot! I was sure we were never going to get there. I was seasick the first 24 hours which didn’t help things. If any of you have ever experienced the mal de mer, all you want to do is get off the boat. Make it stop . Fortunately for me I only get seasick now when the sea is rough and even then it only lasts 24 hours (the world’s longest 24 hours). Finally we got to Charleston and visited that beautiful city.

Ohhh, I started out talking about amazing and beautiful. Well the next trip, which I anticipated with great trepidation was from Charleston to Brunswick. The wind was northeast, so it was behind us,already an improvement. It was a pretty good wind too, averaging about 12-15  knots from early morning (we left at 7:30m AM ) until we were almost there and then picked up to 20 knots. About noon we really new things were going right. Four beautiful dolphins came and swam in the bow wave for over 20 minutes. Both Hartley and I stood on the bow and played with them. We waved our arms and the dolphins would turn on their side and look at us waving our arms. I am sure they knew we were crazy.

That night was beautiful and clear. The stars were sharp and twinkling. My favorite constellation, Orion, was sparkling. ( Orion is one of the few constellations I know, I am working on more). The moon was just a sliver as it was just starting its new cycle. The water was incredible. It had  what looked like balls of light. As the boat went through the water it must have disturbed these sea creatures and they lit up like Christmas lights. You could see 6 or 10 of them together one after the other and then there would be a break and then you could see some more. They weren’t little like Christmas lights though, they seemed to be about baseball to softball size. When one went off it started a chain reaction a bunch more would light up. I don’t really know what they were but I think they were ctenophores which  are kind of like jellyfish. There are many different kinds of ctenophores and we couldn’t see anything but the lights, but that is my best guess.

Since I am talking about trips maybe you wonder why we leave at midnight , 7:30 AM , 11AM etc. It all has to do with when you want to get where you are going. The rule of thumb is never go into an unfamilar port in the dark if you can help it. Navigational aids are red and green. Some are lit up at night and others are not. In general when you enter a port the red ones are kept to your right (starboard) and the green ones to your left (port). So at night if they are lit you have a chance of seeing them, but also you have a chance of seeing lots of other things too, like red and green traffic lights. Nothing is more frustrating and scary than to be focused on the red light ahead, feeling confident you are going the right way when all of a sudden it turns to green and you realize it is a city stop light! More commonly though as you turn into a busy city port it is just a maze of lights and there is little hope of picking out your red and green from the sea of all the other lights. Thank god for GPS.

Well we are almost ready to take a little break for the holidays.  We are currently in Port Canaveral and will leave tomorrow for Lake Worth,  which is on the east coast of Florida, where we will leave the boat for about 6 weeks.

We will go by car to Fort Myers on the  west coast of Florida and visit my mother and brother. We need to do our yearly doctor visits , see the dentist and get Hartley started on physical therapy for his thumb.He had an injury to his thumb up in Connecticut and now it should be healed enough to get it moving again.

 

We left Mexico and the Sea of Cortez at the end of April. I went to Fort Myers to visit my mother and try a new medication for my ITP.
Hartley flew to Phoenix to see about his ears and balance problems. We are so lucky to have great docs in Phoenix. Dr. Bowey arranged a visit with Dr. Patterson on short notice. Basically his balance issue was from a viral infection of his inner ear and will gradually—-get better,maybe all the way,  and actually recently has been much better. He also had a sinus/ear infection for which she gave him antibiotics and that resolved too.
He then flew back to Mazatlan and put the boat on a ship which went through the Panama canal to Texas and then to Fort Lauderdale. It took about 3 weeks to make the transit. ( We decided not to sail down and go through the canal as the trip from the east end of the Panama Canal up to Fort Lauderdale is against the current and the wind and is supposed to be a miserable trip.( Miserable on purpose did not fit our plans. )

In the mean time I met a new hematologist in Fort Myers who graciously agreed to assume my care from where Dr Paul in Phoenix left off. He tried 4 weeks of Retuxin ( a weekly infusion) which was the next step in trying to fix my platelet count. It did not make any difference to my platelets.! So after that glorious failure of my body to respond he started a new treatment with a daily pill , Promacta which seems to be working.
The best part about being in Florida for almost 8 weeks was staying with my Mom. She is 89 years old but doesn’t act a day over 70!

I got to meet her friends and do lots of fun stuff. Being on the boat it seems like the timing is never right to got to a play, concert etc. In Fort Myers we went to 3 plays! We also went to lunch with her friends several times and of course water aerobics 3 x a week. I now have a new skill to add to my resume, water aerobics instructor! A few times the regular instructor couldn’t make it so I some how got volunteered to teach!!
Mom got an infection in her leg from a cut shortly after I arrived so wasn’t able to keep up her running for the first month. But after the first couple of weeks we did go walking. By the end of the first month, if we got up very early and the humidity was down, we did manage to get in some running.
Hartley flew from Mazatlan to Fort Myers, after successfully loading Atsa on the ship.
We enjoyed our time together in Fort Myers. He was able to take some good pictures, some including my brother, Iain , who showed off his kite sailing abilities.

Iain up in the air
Hartley and Iain went to Fort Lauderdale to pick up Atsa as she was off loaded from the ship and checked her out. She did very well on the transport. One of the scuppers got a little scrunched from where the sling squeezed it and we will need to get that fixed eventually
The big thing was the refrigerator/freezer died. It actually had been showing signs of a few problems before but after getting to Fort Lauderdale it quit. We think maybe the seals on the compressor dried out or something- but in any case it didn’t work any more. We got a refurbished one sent from San Diego and after waiting for a week ( in the very hot and sticky weather) we finally got someone to work on our boat. (They usually work on Mega yachts and ours was a little below them, i.e. they wouldn’t make as much money.) Once fixed we left to go north and hopefully out of the heat. (90 degrees and 85% humidity was the norm).
We decided that we had no desire to stop until we were at least somewhat north so we sailed for 3 days 3 nights to get to Beaufort (pronounced Bofort) North Carolina. We traveled in the Gulf Stream, amazing. We sometimes reached 12 knots as the stream added 3-4 knots to our speed.

How do you know you are in the Gulf Stream? Your speed and Sargasso weed. Sargasso weed is a seaweed that floats along in the stream.

Well the first day in Beaufort was beautiful, warm (not hot ) and dry. But the next day it was back to hot and sticky and it was time to move on. Before we got a chance to leave there was a thunderstorm in the night. We heard one extremely loud thunder clap and got up and closed all the hatches. In the morning we found out why the clap was so loud. The boat right beside ours ( 15 feet away ) was struck by lightening. All there electronics were knocked out. We felt so bad for them and so glad for us as we did not have any damage. (Their mast was about 2 feet higher than ours so maybe that is what saved us. )
We then left and sailed 2 days and one night to get to Hampton, Virginia.  Our great entertainment on the trip was killing the man eating flies. They could bit you through your clothes. We unearthed a fly swatter that had something written in braille on the handle. We wondered how a blind person could swat flies.

On the way into the marina as we approached the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel we ran into a big thunderstorm. We had dodged a few but this one we just couldn’t miss. Winds got up to forty knots but Atsa handled it well.

Hampton is a nice little town with a pretty beach. We spent the Fourth of July and watched the fireworks. The private fireworks were more interesting than the town provided display.  We had a great visit with some of Hartley’s CAP friends. Mark and Mary took us to Busch Garden’s in Williamsburg.

We had a great time. The heat refused to leave us alone so onward and northward.
We went to the inner harbor in Baltimore.  It was a great place as far as convenience was concerned. West Marine, Safeway, ACE Hardware , all just across the street. The harbor though is incredibly filthy with garbage floating in the water and a horrible oily slime that made the sides of the boat yellow.
We were able to meet friends and family while we were there. Tara, Hartley’s niece and her wife Jen came by for a visit and lunch on Sunday. Monday, Andy Greenberg and his wife came by and took us to dinner. Andy and I went to medical school in Belgium together and haven’t seen each other since then, more than 35 years ago. It was a great reunion. On Monday one of my old patient’s from Phoenix, Blaise Hazelwood , who now lives in the Washington D.C. area stopped by with one of her little girls (who I delivered) . So much fun. I appreciate the effort everyone took to come and visit as the traffic in the area is horrendous and all had to drive an hour or more to get home.
It was still hot and sticky and we planned to leave on Wednesday – but I was waiting for a delivery of my medication. We waited all day and nothing came. The delivery was supposed to happen between 7 am to 8pm. The marina office closed at 5 pm and I guessed that the FedEx guy wouldn’t stop as he would know the office was closed. There was a pick up box though for FedEx and I figured he would stop there so I stationed myself at the box reading my kindle, waiting. About 5:12 I noticed a noise that sounded like a diesel truck and looked up.( There are two parking lots an outer one, and then an inner one which is where the marina is located with a gated entrance. ) It was indeed the FedEx truck and it didn’t even come in the inner parking lot!!! I was not about to wait another day for my medication. (It was still hot and sticky in Baltimore.) I ran as fast as I could laughing all the while at how crazy I must look chasing the FedEx truck. Fortunately he had to stop for a red light to get out of the parking lot. I ran right up to him and told him I wanted my package. He looked kind of startled but after I glared at him he stopped his truck and got it for me. I am sure he didn’t want to have to deal with that crazy lady. It just shows what the hot and sticky will do to you. Ah, heading north on Thursday and plan to leave the hot and sticky ( we hope.)

After about 10 weeks of not sailing we left La Paz on 2/27/2016 and headed to Muertos and then to Mazatlan. We were worried about how Hartley would do with his inner ear problem. The vestibular neuritis never seemed to go completely away and he still gets dizzy if he turns his head too fast, and he has a fairly constant background balance irritation. Fortunately being on the ocean didn’t seem to bother him any more than being on land. The sea was kind to us as well and was very flat.
I had been in the States for almost 3 weeks dealing with my thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) and was given some medication that is supposed to last on average 45 days but sometimes more and sometimes less. I was very glad to get back to Hartley, home , and the ocean. We were ready to move on.
As I said the sail was very quiet. We left La Paz about 9 am and arrived in Meurtos about 5 pm. We motorsailed (that means we used the sail and the motor as there was not enough wind to move us along at a reasonable speed but the addition of the sail stabilized the boat and added a little to the speed.) In Meurtos there is a nice little cafe sitting at one side of the bay called the 1535 restaurant. We were too lazy to put the motor on the dingy so Hartley rowed over. In any case we had bought new oars and hadn’t tried them out yet, they work good. We had been there before when we sailed up to La Paz and again enjoyed the food and the beautiful view.
We left for Mazatlan the next morning at about 7 am and had a nice uneventful sail over to Mazatlan arriving about noon 29 hours later. I was really glad of the quiet trip as some friends of ours on Southern Star had done the same trip a few weeks earlier and got caught in some unexpected bad weather. Their autopilot quit working and they had to hand steer , a very tiring thing to do for 30 hours Turned out they really dodged the bullet. The cable had come loose and caught on something and that was all that saved them from losing all their steering.

While in Mazatlan we decided to do some touring. We went up into the mountains on a tequila tour. Learned all about how to grow blue agave , harvest and make tequila.

The next tour we did was the Copala tour. We stopped at Copala and a couple of other small towns to get the feel of the area. Copala is a tiny town near the beginnings of the Sierra Madre mountains. They make miniature wooden carvings of the town and sell them to the tourists. Despite my vow not to buy things I had to buy one. One of the other stops, actually both days, was at a bakery. They have an oven which they heat ( in days past with wood) now with propane, put the dough in, close the door and bake the bread. No need to keep adding heat once the stones of the oven are hot, they just keep the heat perfect until the bread is done. The bakery goods did not fall under the category of “I don’t need more things on the boat” as they did not take up room for long, at least  not on the boat. They were delicious.

Another town was Malpica where they made floor tiles (and bread!!!).

The houses were brightly colored.

 

The third trip was to the the old city of Mazatlan where they have a big market. The variety of food was amazing.

They also had all sorts of souvenirs to buy. I found a good excuse to buy a couple of Mexican baby dresses as Dr Gibson was due any day and obviously needed them. They also have cliff diving and Hartley got a great shot.

We were very lucky to meet up with some friends from the Baja Ha Ha, Kris and Alex from Full Glass. They had been traveling further south and were full of great stories. Now they are heading back to the States and will put their boat on a transport ship back up to Victoria on Vancouver island.

Then after our travels I got my blood drawn and found out my platelets were low again, necessitating another quick trip to Phoenix. While there I got to see both my daughters as Lya lives there and  Ariel was on spring break. Ariel and I stayed at our friend’s Jacque’s house and the four of us had a great time. Lya unfortunately had to work so she didn’t get to do some of the “stuff”. . On Monday night we went to a introductory pole dancing class that lasted almost 2 hours and had a blast. After that we went out to eat (at 9:30 pm) to an Ethiopian restaurant, just because none of us had ever eaten Ethiopian food. Really good.On Tuesday I had to go to the dentist but they went to the science museum and had fun. That evening we had a picnic dinner at Hole in the Rock which is a park with a rock with a big hole which overlooks the zoo and a big pond with lots of ducks. I should have timed my trip better as I had to leave on Wednesday, but they went to the zoo, Thursday they had massages and their nails done. On Friday, Lya , our oldest daughter, had the day off so they went to Sedona and did a Pink Jeep tour and went to Slide Rock, a stream with slippery rocks you can slide on.  On Saturday they went to the Renaissance Festival

and that night Ariel flew back to Arkansas . End of spring camp!

In the  middle of all this we stopped by to look at our old house in Phoenix and saw that they finally had a bunch of big equipment there, acting like they might start some work on the property.

A couple of days later we looked again and they were knocking down the old house. We explained to the man in charge who we were (former owners for 25 + years) and he let us stay and watch for awhile.

I just had to add this picture of the note Lya wrote on the living room wall.

As for me I flew back to Mazatlan on Wednesday and on Thursday we left about mid day and did an over night trip to Isla Isabel. We had some really good wind the first 6 hours and flew along. A nice sail but that meant we got to Isla Isabel before dawn and had to sail around the island for about an hour until it was light enough to see where to anchor. There is mostly rocks and so you have to be able to see the sandy spots to drop the anchor. The water is beautifully clear..

We spent the day hiking around the island. There were only 5 boats there and only one crew besides us were ashore that day so we had it pretty much to ourselves. The only other people there were a group of scientists who monitor  the wild life and a bunch of fishermen who have fishing shacks set up on the beach.
The island is like a mini Galapagos. It is very isolated. The animals are protected and are not afraid of humans.  The only predators are black ship rats that were introduced to the island many years ago and are trapped as much as possible. The  trees are very short, just a bit bigger than you would consider brush, and are loaded with frigate birds, I mean hundreds of them.

They were nesting and hatching their eggs at this time of year. We got to see a few new born goslings. There also were lots of blue footed boobies.  They nest on the ground,really no nest at all they just sit on the ground and keep their egg warm with their feet. Their feet are very blue!

There are lots of other birds too, just incredible. On the ground and some in the trees were many , many iguanas.

They, too were not afraid and just sat there as you walked by.
After a full day there on the island we left to sail overnight to Nuevo Vallarta. The reason for the overnight trips was that the timing was important. The first overnight was so we could spend the day at the island but not overnight as the holding for the anchor is poor and if the wind changes direction you are in trouble. The second was to be sure to be at the marina before 2 pm as it closes then and we would have to wait another day to be allowed in. That’s all for now, more later.

 

 

Just got back from the Copper Canyon. It was a nice trip. The ferry ride started in the typical Mexican way with a two hour delay and no explanation or any notification about when we really might leave. We arrived in Topolobampo about 12:30 am and then a 1/2 hour ride to the hotel in Los Mochis where we had to be ready to go to the train by 5 am. The train ride is long and slow (20-25 miles per hour). Once you get to El Fuerte the scenery starts to get interesting.

There are lots of deep canyons and large rivers and lakes. Very different in appearance from the Grand Canyon. The canyons are covered with greenery, so there isn’t the dramatic reds of the canyon. At first I spent my time thinking how it wasn’t like the Grand Canyon and not really appreciating it for what it was, but after awhile you begin to see the enormity of the area and the drama of the scenery. We spent a night in Creel, which seems to be just a little tourist town.

We went on a tour the next morning and stopped at various unusual rock formations and then it was off to the train again and back down the to Barrancas the jewel of the area. We stayed at the Mansion Tarahumara hotel, the competition to The Mirador. For some reason we had the best ( at least from the point of view of having the best view) room in the place. The hotel is located at 8000 feet and after having spent so much time a sea level we really noticed it. The leg muscles worked well but we really had to pace the breathing. We got there just at 2 pm and the lady who owned the place suggested that we go right in and eat and then they would take us to our room ( as that might take awhile). It seemed kind of strange but we had lunch and then Victor came in a truck and took us up the hill. The road was “paved rock” , i.e. very bouncy. We climbed up the hill, pretty straight up and then came to a corner where he backed up part of the road and then stopped. From there we still had a bunch of steps to climb, again going straight up. We finally reached the top which had a balcony that hung right on the edge of the cliff with our room with a big glass sliding door looking out.

Later that day we went on a little walking tour along the edge of the canyon near the hotel and visited a Tarahumara home.The Tarahumara are the indigenous tribe that lives in the area. They call themselves Raramuri and speak their own language. They had water that seeped out of the cliff which was stored in a natural rock cistern. (They also had a solar panel which Victor said they used for things like charging their cell phones. )  The area is used by the Tarahumara people. They have homes all over the canyons and terrace the ground to cultivate what they can for subsistence farming. They are even able to grow a few apple and peach trees. It is great that the Grand Canyon is preserved and a park but there is something very vibrant about seeing the area used for living. There are three major canyons that intersect in Barrancas. In total the canyons are 370miles long, they are deeper and longer than the Grand Canyon. I wish we had had the time the ability to go exploring them more. Apparently right now they are not doing major tours really down in the depths of the canyons. The drug wars are a problem especially with the recent capture of El Chapo at the beginning of January in Los Mochis which I guess is good but has led to some destabilization.
The next day I went on the zip lines and suspension bridges. Wow it was great. You really get to fly over the canyons . There were 7 zip lines and 2 suspension bridges. The longest zipline is 1113 meters or 3561 feet and you go as fast as 48 miles/hour. The zip lines definitely were more fun than the bridges, in fact the bridges were just plain scary even though you were clipped on. I had to tell myself just keep going, don’t think about it just move,in order to get across.The scenery was incredible with deep gorges and rivers in the depths and all sorts of cliffs etc. Hartley’s balance still isn’t quite good enough for him to try the zip lines and especially the suspension bridges so he took the Teleferique, the tram, down and then got some pictures of me on the last zip.

He got to spend time with our guide as they waited for the rest of the group and found out some interesting things about the Tarahumara .Apparently the only hair they have on their bodies is the hair on their heads (which of course is thick and black) but they have no pubic hair, axillary hair etc.
We then all got on the Teleferique for a nice gentle ride back up to the top of the canyon.

Then it was off to the train for the ride back down to Los Mochis. This takes about 7 hours. The train bounces and grinds a lot but is actually fairly comfortable . It has a dining car so you can eat or have a beer to while away the time. I actually had a great time watching the scenery on the way down as I was no longer trying to make it into the Grand Canyon and just appreciated the rocks , canyons rivers and lakes.

We arrived in Los Mochis about 8 pm and then went to the ferry (which left only an hour late). At midnight they fed you dinner and then off to bed ( a small private cabin that sleeps up to four people ) for a nice nights sleep, arriving in Pinchilingue about 8 this am. Nice trip, well worth it. Hartley says he still spins a little but states he gets a a tiny bit better each day and should be off his steroids in two more days!!!
Now for part two The Whales!
Well we got back as I said early Saturday morning and then went on an all day trip to see the whales on Sunday, January 24. We were picked up by the van at 6 am and started driving to Bahia Magdelena, or Mag Bay as most people call it. This is where the gray whales come to have their babies. It is early in the season. Only a few of the the whales have had babies this early in the season, but we planned to leave La Paz in a few days so it was the only time we had.
As we drove over to Mag Bay we stopped along the way to have breakfast. Timing is critical, we wanted to spend as much time as possible with the whales, so the tour operator asks you what you want  for breakfast and calls the restaurant about 10 minutes out so they have everything ready when you arrive. We traveled with a van of 8 people who were all very nice.
When we arrived at Mag Bay, Daniel our tour guide arranged for us to get on a boat, a panga, and go out and see the whales. At first we saw them spout and surface far away and was disappointed,  I thought to myself that we had seen the whales from our boat as close if not closer. Then we started to approach the whales and we got close!

The boat captains were very good, approaching a whale for a little while and then not wanting to annoy her they left and went to find another whale and her baby. We were told as the baby whales got older the mother whales felt more comfortable about having their babies approach the boats but as we were so early in the season they probably would not let the babies get too close to us. There was one whale though who seemed to thoroughly enjoy showing off her baby to us. While the other whales would let the boats watch for a little while and then dive and disappear, this whale kept coming up near the pangas ( open fishing boats about 22 feet long) and pushed her baby towards us so we could admire it. I’m sure she thought hers was the most beautiful of all the new baby whales. They were close enough so that when they would breath we would get wet from the water they spouted. Apparently while we were there they figured there were about 18 baby/ mom pairs but at high season there are lots more. February and March is the really busy season and by May they are all gone, heading north. The boats that carry the tourists are regulated by the Mexican government and can only approach a whale for a limited time and can’t harass them. Our guide told us a story about a whale taking things in her own had last year. Apparently a panga kept following this particular whale, was very close to her and rather than letting her go when she dove, kept after her. After a little while the whale had had enough. She surfaced and wacked the boat with her tail. The boat actually cracked. It is not nice to fool with mother nature (nor mother whale).
After our great encounter with the whales and excellent commentary by our guide, we stopped at another restaurant, where again we had pre-ordered our meals and had lunch and then it was back in the van for a 3 hour ride back to La Paz. Along the way we could see eagles’ nests. The government built long posts, like telephone poles but with platforms and you could see the eagles perched there on their nests.
A great day!

For the holidays we were really fortunate that my Mom, Doreen Johnstone, and our youngest daughter, Ariel , were able to come to visit. Ariel arrived late on the Dec 20th. She flew into the La Paz airport which is about 1/2 hour away from the marina. I was asking at the marina office about the best way to get to the airport as her flight arrived at 11:20 pm and I was worried a taxi might be difficult at that time. The people here are so friendly.  One of the nice ladies who works in the office immediately offered to take me to the airport. She gets off at 9 pm and lives over that way so she just dropped me off at the airport, very nice. Ariel arrived no problem but we had to kind of break into the marina as the gate was closed when we arrived back well after midnight.
I am very used to decorating like crazy for Christmas and I found that a bit different on the boat as all I had were 4 Christmas placemats and 4 Christmas pillowcases!!
Ariel and I did some shopping and exploring around town before Christmas but she got a 48 hour viral illness that was going around and spent a couple of days in bed.

With everyone being in town we decided to rent a car for a week. That was an experience. Stop signs here are a suggestion, not a rule. Actually it seems to work well. Most intersections have 4 way stop signs but almost all the roads are one way so you really only have to deal with the traffic coming from one direction. As you approach an intersection you slow down and look. If no one is coming you just keep going, none of this “wasting effort” to come to a stop. If someone else is coming you treat it like a stop sign with the closest one continuing and the other stopping. On a couple of the more major streets there are signals but about 80% of those don’t work and so are treated like stop signs.
Pedestrians are treated very well. Don’t stand at a corner as everyone will stop for you. On the Malecon there are many pedestrian crosswalks and a single foot out into traffic brings all the cars to a halt.
Mom’s flight arrived in San Jose del Cabo on Dec 25. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from here. (That piece of information took about 5 hours of computer research as there was a strong rumor that there was a new better road to take but finding it other than just a mention that it was ready to open (where, how do you get to it?) was nigh on impossible.
The flight arrived on time and after about 2 hours getting through the long lines in customs she was out the gate and ready to head to La Paz. Of course we had a time constraint. A bunch of cruisers got together and arranged with the local restaurant to cook Christmas dinner. The dinner started at 4pm and Mom and I were San Jose del Cabo at about 2:30 Of course I had found the short cut on the way to the airport but somehow the signs were lacking on the way back so we had to drive through the center of town and eventually , after a few wrong turns made it to road to La Paz. Christmas is a great day to drive really fast:). There was no traffic and no policemen so I drove fast. We made it to the dinner at 4:30, pretty good. A great time was had by all including my first taste of straight tequila. It had never appealed to me before but someone bought one for Mom as they felt she deserved it as she had left Fort Myers at 3:30am and it was now 4:30 pm , plus 3 hours. We split it and decided it was pretty good!
We did the typical OB GYN Christmas which means Christmas is celebrated on whatever day you are not on call. So since we were all there on December 26 it was treated that like Christmas morning and we did the whole thing with stockings and presents and all.
Unfortunately this is where Hartley’s saga starts. He woke with severe dizziness and nausea. As it turned out he has vestibular neuritis, which is a viral inner ear infection that affects your balance control center. He was so bad we had one of the local family medicine doctors come out to the boat and check him out. They gave him a lot of motion sickness medicine but it really didn’t help much. Our lovely primary care doc in Phoenix, Dr Claire Bowey, called me back while she was on vacation and gave me some insight into the problem and helped calm us a little. Thank you.
By the 30th of December he was still feeling pretty bad, so we found a sailor who had seen an ENT here. Appointments here with doctors are fast. We got in that evening and she confirmed the diagnosis and suggested some prednisone to help with the symptoms. Hartley is gradually recovering but we haven’t even thought about taking the boat out yet. He is to the point where he is starting to do some balance and eye exercises to challenge his vestibular system and retrain it.
I got to try out the local medical system as well. I developed thrombocytopenia, which is a low platelet count resulting in lots of bruising. Again the doctors were very responsive and moved me efficiently from the internal medicine doctor to an appointment the next day with the hemotologist. Again I need to thank another doctor in Phoenix, Dr Jeffery Isaacs who also called me back while he was on vacation to review my results and tell me what to expect and how to deal with this disease process. I have been very fortunate as it turns out our boat neighbors are both recently retired hematologists and have helped me follow my test results and given me the latest greatest theories about the disease process. This is usually a self limiting disease and I have great hopes it will soon be gone.
Ok enough of that, just needed to record it as hopefully it will all be a distant memory in a week or two.
Since we couldn’t go anywhere on the boat Hartley and have been exploring the city. We decided to take some Spanish classes. I have got to figure out away to speak more as I find when I push myself I can actually communicate. One of my techniques for practicing is to always ask for something when I am at the store and then I get taken around and shown all the possibilities to fulfill my requests. Hartley is just starting on his vocabulary and is enjoying figuring out new words.
Well Hartley was pretty incapacitated for the time Mom and Ariel were here so I am afraid we went off and did our own thing.
We drove to Todos Santos which is an artsy little town about an hour away. We wondered around town stopping in all the little shops. Of course we had to stop for a lovely lunch at one of the restaurants in town. Nice and relaxing.

We also stopped by the beach and enjoyed the crashing waves.

There are very few signs (none) to get you where you want to go. Asking how to get to the beach results in a general hand wave in that direction. As you can see we made it.

Another day we drove to a different beach near Pichilingue. (pee-chee-LING-way).

Of course we had to try something a little daring while they were here. We decided to go swim with the whale sharks. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the greatest. The wind was blowing at about 12 knots making the sea pretty lumpy and it was cool. I did have a wet suit for each of us we kept us from freezing. We went out on this little panga ( a panga is a  little fishing boat ) and found the whale sharks.You have to flip yourself off the panga and into the deep water and swim along trying to keep up with the sharks. The big trick is getting back on the panga as the waves are bouncing the boat up and down. You should have seen the lovely bruises we got.  The whale sharks  are huge. The ones we saw were young ones, only about 14  -20 feet long. They can get up to 40 feet long.  ( I assure plenty big when you are swimming along following one and you turn around and there is one close enough to touch , right there with its great big mouth wide open.

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(from TOMAS posted on Bajainsider.com)

This picture I had to borrow from the Internet but it just how they look.