Moving on

Looks like the weather is good for departure from Bahia Tortugas tomorrow. It will be likely be a two night passage to Bahia Santa Maria, but that remains to be seen. I wanted to make a quick post while I have wifi on shore, more definite plans will be made later :). Keep an eye on our Farkwar site to see where we are. Cell service/ wifi will likely remain unavailable til we get to La Paz mid December. We are still having a great time!

Good shell and beach glass collecting on shore at Bahia Tortugas!

Thanksgiving in Bahia Tortugas

We arrived in Bahia Tortugas or Turtle Bay a few days ago. Given the tropical storm/ hurricane bearing down on Cabo San Lucas, we have stayed for awhile and will continue to do so until the coast is clear. It's much more comfortable to be in a well protected anchorage a few hundred miles north of Cabo! There are several boats anchored with us that we've met along the way. That means a Thanksgiving celebration! We will have a potluck ashore and though we don't have any turkey (pavo), we thought a chicken pot pie would be festive. We are also bringing pumpkin pie squares, mashed sweet potatoes and a purple cabbage coleslaw with cranberries. It has smelled very good aboard Yare today!

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for all of our family and friends...we are also thankful to be on this adventure with our family. We are having a great time!

Tor makes the best crusts!

View of the bay from Maria's restaurant. Maria graciously hosted our potluck and it was lovely!

Several desserts and a twice baked potato. Yum!

Leaving Ensenada

We had a wonderful time in Ensenada, what a great city! We stayed longer than intended because big wind blew in, then when we went to leave yesterday, Tor dropped his prescription sunglasses overboard. He attempted to dive in the water with a mask to find them, but ended up perforating his eardrum. Between his ear, lack of visibility, and just yuck(!) swimming in a marina, we called it a loss. Fortunately he has a back up pair. It would be hard to get along down here without some. After the sunglasses excitement, we held off leaving until this morning. I'm glad we did, that meant there was time to head to the tortilleria this morning for a kilo of fresh hot tortillas to have with breakfast. Muy delicioso!

We are off to San Quintin for another overnight trip since it is about 110 miles away. Look for our position update on our Farkwar site sometime tomorrow.

The GIANT Mexican flag had to come down during the wind storm for repairs. It wasn't flying yet when we left, but when the boys and I walked by this morning there were big military trucks all around the base of the flagpole. Maybe it will be flying soon.

Haircuts for all 3 guys. Lars and Odin even got gel in their hair, very stylish! Also very affordable. Yay, one less task for Mama!

The failed sunglasses retrieval attempt.

Estamos en Mexico!

We made it to Ensenada this morning. The passage last night was good, we were able to sail until around 1:00 am when the wind totally died, so we turned on the motor. I crawled into bed with the boys around 7:30, so by 1:00 when Tor turned the engine on, I was sort of rested so I took over. First time I've been responsible for the boat in the dark. The stars were amazing, I saw at least 6 meteorites, and there was phosphorescence in our wake. Gorgeous. My goal was to be up for the sunrise, but I missed it by about 30 minutes. By 5:45 I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I woke Tor and crawled between two deliciously warm little boys and got another hour of sleep. Tor definitely got the lousy end of the sleep equation last night, but we will get this figured out.

Once we got into Ensenada, we checked us and our boat into the country. It was relatively painless, because all of the offices needed were in the same building, including the bank where you need to pay the various fees. However it wasn't without some frustration at our lack of ability to communicate and understand Spanish.

For more fun chores, we went to try and get a new SIM card for my phone. I was expecting a hassle, but was pleasantly surprised with how helpful everyone was, and how they genuinely wanted to communicate with me. So I'm all set for Internet, yay for blogging!

More chores including a fruitless walk all over town searching for diesel to fill our Jerry jug showed us a really great town. If weather causes us to stay put for a few days, I'm sure we won't be complaining.

The best ceviche I've had in my life from a street stand just up the street from our marina sealed the deal. They even shared the chocolate clams on the half shell with a lime chile salsa while we were waiting for our ceviche tostadas. Never had a raw clam before, but I could eat copious quantities. And the mixed seafood ceviche? With mussels, octopus, blood clams and the usual suspects of fish and shrimp? THE BEST!

Sunset at sea

In case there was any doubt as to where we were, there is the Mexican flag just steps from our boat. For scale, that sailboat mast in the boatyard? At least 60ft off the ground. No wonder there is a sign on the flag pole warning you to maintain a distance of at keast 15m in the event of rain or a lightening storm. 

Ceviche for supper. Odin and Lars had the pescado (fish) y camorones (shrimp)

The mixta supreme plate. AMAZING! Not pictured are the 3 chocolate clams I got to 'sample' because they are in my tummy.

This is the place to be. On Alvarez and Ave Lopez Mateos. The woman behind it started it in the 60s and the family is still going strong. I heard about it on my favorite nerdy food podcast "Good Eats," and for $20 USD, it can't be beat.

Vamos a Mexico!

Here we go! The weather window looks good, and we have chores mostly finished. Must be time to leave San Diego. Next stop Ensenada!

It's a pretty long trip to Ensenada. We will go through the night tonight so we can get there in the morning and have time to check into the country.

Night time passages will likely be more common as we head down Baja, so we figured we would try one tonight. Kind of an adventure :). Lars is already asleep from his Dramamine, and we haven't even left the dock!

Yare is ready to go! 

Blogging will continue, but I don't know what the Internet access situation will be for us in Mexico. Please bear with any prolonged silences while we are getting it all figured out. We are thinking of and sending love all of our friends and family, thanks for following us on our adventure!

New toy

I've been wanting a stand up paddle board (SUP) for quite awhile. I've been hemming and hawing and trying to decide if it made any sense at all. I finally decided that an inflatable SUP could be made to fit on this small boat of ours. Once we were in San Diego, we started to really look for one and Tor started applying gentle pressure on me so I would actually pull the trigger and buy one. Between Tor's pressure and Odin and Lars' excitement my desire got the best of me and we bought one. I'm so pleased! We tried it out yesterday and it's going to be so great!

Pumping it up, capitalizing on the boys' excitement

All aboard!

Standing up even!

The boys spent hours playing here even though it was in the 60s and we had a rain squall. Fun for the whole family!

A Surprise for Odin and Lars

Yep, we went meet Mickey Mouse!

Still taking in the surprise

Proof of a successful day at the park!

We took advantage of our strategic location in Long Beach, a mere 30 minute drive to Anaheim to surprise the boys with a daY at Disneyland! Jim and Anita generously loaned us their van, and ensured we had booster seats for both boys, and shared their local knowledge as long time Disneyland annual pass owners.

We had a wonderful time! We were there from opening to almost closing. The parade was cancelled due to rain, but it was good timing for us, we had two very tired boys.

Lars' favorite part was meeting Mickey Mouse and driving a car in Autopia. Odin loved driving a car in Autopia, the paddle wheeler ship Mark Twain, the steam train and Tarzan's treehouse. Tor and I most enjoyed watching Odin and Lars take it all in with delight. 5 1/2 is the perfect age to experience Disneyland! Best of all Odin was healthy and no 9 day hospital stay afterwards!!

Lars' reaction to the talking posts in The Tiki Room about summed it up "those talking posts are just magical!"

Next day we took on crew and sailed to Dana Point. Jim loves to sail and we had a great sail down, then Anita drive down to pick him up and we all enjoyed a lovely dinner together. It was a fantastic cap to our wonderful time in Long Beach.