Take to the sea

The (mis)adventures of two dreamers that do

November 2012: month in review

Memorable evening. We’ve come a long way, but we still have quite a ways to go. It’s hard to believe that we’ll be crossing into Mexican waters tomorrow night. I […]

November 2012: cruising budget

I get really excited about transitioning from one month to the next because it means that I get to reset the budget. Looking at November’s budget was beginning to stress me out, namely because we spent quite a bit more than anticipated.

The biggest expense by far was purchasing any last minute necessities and luxuries. Jeff and I don’t exactly see eye to eye on what items fit in those respective categories.

 

Passage notes: Marina del Rey to Newport Beach

We intended (and by we, I mean Jeff) to wake up at 5am and leave port by 6:30am or so…but someone (and by someone I mean me) stayed up WAY too late the night prior. I knew we had a 50 mile day ahead of us, but we were plugged into shore power (meaning we can be energy hogs) and I was busy scanning important documents, purchasing Mexican liability insurance, sending long overdue emails and researching all there was to research about Mexico and the waters beyond (Jeff introduced me to noonsite.com, which is a great jumping off point). As tends to happen with the internet, I went down the rabbit hole and wasn’t able to wrench myself free of the grip of the ever fascinating interwebs until a woman started yelling at me at 2am. In a previous post I mentioned that Chace park was lovely…it is lovely indeed, but it also attracts some interesting characters.

International kitty

We took Tack to the vet today to get his International Health Certificate. This is something we tried to do in Portland, not realizing that you have to do it a short time before you travel. This led to two unnecessarily traumatic experiences for Tack in Portland (lots of poky things stuck in uncomfortable places). Fortunately, the Portland vet, realizing the IHC would no longer be effective by the time we reached the Mexican border (seeing as we travel really slowly), gave us a refund and offered us a bilingual health certificate instead.

Passage notes: Oxnard to Marina del Rey

We left in the fog and arrived in the fog. Far from patchy, it was quite dense and prolific. There was no wind for most of the trip, though we were getting 0-5 knots from the West by the time we were arriving in Marina del Rey. We wanted to get to port before dark, so there was no sailing for us. The day, however, was far from uneventful.

Passage notes: Santa Barbara to Oxnard

You’ve probably already noticed that I don’t have the typical sunset picture to dazzle you with…that’s because we were both preoccupied for the second half of this (what we thought would be a cake walk but wasn’t) journey. The first four hours were largely uneventful, what little wind we had was right on our nose so we motored (getting a bit tired of motoring everywhere).

Having rounded Point Conception we were looking forward to smooth sailing from here on out, with calm seas and warm winds. The winds were certainly warmer, but the seas…well, the seas were larger than expected.

Passage notes: Morro Bay to Santa Barbara

Leaving Morro Bay. Log Book Port of departure: Morro Bay, CA Departure time: 11:15am on Monday, November 19 Port of arrival: Santa Barbara, CA Arrival time: 1:15pm on Tuesday, November […]

The tabby’s den

Now for a topic that’s been top in the minds of friends and family when I’ve called home lately. “Yes, yes,” they say, “We already read Harmony’s account of your […]

Passage notes: Santa Cruz to Morro Bay

Log Book   Port of departure: Santa Cruz, CA Departure date and time: 9:00am on Wednesday, November 14 Port of arrival: Morro Bay, CA Arrival date and time: 11:00pm on […]