Wishing you..................

Merry Christmas from Scott and Sue

Puerto Vallarta Photos

Some art along the beach in downtown Puerto Vallarta

Sand art on the beach

John and Rosie and a tall Margarita

Sue ate the whole thing!

Some Older Photos

This is Shanna, our crew for the San Diego to Cabo run. She was a great help, especially those long nights as we sailed 24 hours a day! Prior to San Diego and since Cabo Sue and I have sailed "Suebee" alone.

This was us leaving San Diego on October 27th.

Chili Cook Off

As you can see, were having fun. We participated in the annual Chili Cook Off at the Vallarta Yacht Club. This is a fund raiser for the children of the dump. Yes, families actually live and survive living at the dump here in Puerta Vallarta. The fund raiser was a success and the team we helped won 2nd place! We were called "Chili of the Gods".

The booth next to us was a "Chopper" group and Sue and our friend Rosie wandered over for a photo op with the Canadian Mounty.

Just Hangin' in PV

So, here we are, still in Puerta Vallarta. Wonderful weather every day. We have not done anything extrodinary lately but relax. We are planning our sail south for early January. We will sail back north mid February and make many anchorages along the way with our destination to be La Paz in late March. We will then sail the Sea of Cortez for a couple of months before heading home.

The very unflattering picture of Scott is in La Pinita on a very dark night, just minutes after falling face first in the "creek". Fortunately, as a result of my Fire Department days, I have had my Hepititas shots, and, I am still here!

Puerto Vallarta

Lots of time has passed since our last update. The new pictures here are from Turtle Bay and Cabo. More photos soon.

We left Cabo two weeks ago and headed for an anchorage called los Frailes. After beating our way up the coast for 5 hours, Eager Dreamer, Andazas and us (Suebee) decided to turn right and commit to a 23 hour sail to Mazatla. For 14 1/2 hours we had a wonderful "beam reach" sail without the sound of our engine. We were averaging 7 1/2 knots the entire time. Around 4:30 AM, the wind had picked up to around 25 knots and becoming a bit uncomfortable, wishing we had reefed about an hour earlier. As it was too late for that, we reefed under less than ideal conditions and sailed on.

Our arrival to the Mazatlan Jetty entrance to the marinas was not for the faint of heart. As we arrived at low tide the water was shallow and the surf was up. Bottom line, we made it but hindsight says we should not have tried. All three boats concur!

Our stop in Mazatlan was short, more for R & R for 2 nights as we will visit here again for a longer stay early next year on our way up to the Sea of Cortez.

As we become smarter, we left Mazatlan at high tide and slack current. We motor sailed with Eager Dreamer for 30+ hours to Puerta Vallarta. Not much sea life except for what seemed like 100 fishing boats around mid night. We weaved our way through and on to PV.

The arrival here was less eventful. That is a good thing. We have a slip here at Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta. A 5 Star resort area, the amenities are many. We must admit, this is not the "real" Mexico we love so much. We have made many friends at the Vallarta Yacht Club and made many side trips. Lunch in the mountain area called La Estancia in San Sebas---Tian, another lunch at the cute little town of La Cruz and yet another lunch in the town of Bucerias (real Mexico), Home Depot, Sam's Club and bought a fresh cooked chicken on the walkway.

We went to the movies and saw the new James Bond film. I hated it, Sue liked it. We are participating in the annual Chili Cook Off on December 6th. More about that later.

Thanksgiving was a unique and fun experience back in the town of La Cruz. We joined John and Rosie from Eager Dreamer and Hank and Betsy from Equinox at a restaurant there called Philos. They cook the turkey and gravy, everyone brings a large side dish and all Phillo wants, and gets, is for us to buy lots of drinks! Philo, a real person from Canada, has a small band with a terrific Sax player that provided live entertainment and they were really good. Of course, after dinner we walked down to the La Cruz Yacht Club for after dinner drinks.

Our next adventure will be a day in Bucerias and then Monday, John, Rosie, Sue and I are off to La Pinita for a stay at our favorite B & B, Casa De Los Amigos for a boat break and a real bed. The owner of the B & B is Rosalie Hope, from the Hope Bosworth Inn in Geyserville, near where we live. This will be our (Sue and Scott) 4th visit and where we honeymooned a few years back.

We will get back to serious cruising in January, heading south. Our friends on Kat Den Rie and Di's Dream should be here any day.

Cabo

We sailed into to Cabo last Thursday to sunny skies and warm weather. We have had limited access to the internet so we will update in detail soon. We are sailing to Mazatlan starting tommorrow.

San Diego and Off to Cabo

We have spent several days here in San Diego enjoying the weather and sights. Most days were spent "boat related" in preparation for our voyage to Cabo. The day has finally arrived and we will be sailing out at 8AM Monday, October 27th.

Today we attended the kick off cosume party for the Baha Ha Ha.. We went as Bees and hung out with the Blues Brothers, a Nun, Popeye and Olive Oil and many other creatures and people.

We will be limited for a bit in our ability to update the blog but we will do it when possible.

San Diego has much to offer with a world class zoo, Balboa Park, many museums, Old Town, the Gaslight District, waterfront parks and the beautiful Coronado Island. All of this plus every marine/boat supply store in the world!

Baha Ha Ha Countdown

Well here we are, in San Diego. Our adventure down to Cabo starts in 10 days, on Monday, October 27th.

We have been busy doing boat projects and we should be ready to go. Michael and Judy Stouffer will be here Friday the 24th and we will do our last provisioning and attend a few parties. Our costumes are ready for the Halloween Event the day before we leave.

Next week we will be tourists and see the sights in San Diego.

Dana Point

We arrived in Dana Point safely, after a bumpy ride the first two hours from Catalina. It looks like we picked a good time to leave Catalina as the Santa Ana winds picked up significantly after we left, and it was not nice then!

Dana Point is a nice spot for a break for a couple of days. Our friends on Kat Den Rie were already there as they met one of Jay's lifetime friends there, Tom. He took us all to breakfast Monday morning in San Clemente. You don't have to love Richard Nixon to love this town.

Tuesday morning, early, off to San Diego. We will be there as you read this, so more later.

Catalina Island

What a great few days we had on Catalina Island. We moored in the "Fourth of July Cove". It was peaceful and private. The first three days the weather was perfect, the last two were not. Big winds and big swells. After two sleepless nights constantly checking on what needed to be tied down and the many usual checks of making sure we were staying put, we decided to move on to Dana Point for a restful day or two. We did not leave too soon as our friends on "Eager Dreamer", John and Rosie, called us. They are still there, enduring 30+ knot winds. Hopefully they can get out tomorrow (Tuesday) and catch up to us.

After the first sleepless night, we boarded our dingy to go to shore (coffee of course, our new pot broke) only to find a 14' dinghy and it's 50 HP outboard sitting ON the dock. Another was totally upside down, propeller standing tall. We were greeted by the Harbor Patrol asking, "how was your night". They were out patrolling all night. They were kind enough to stand by our boat when we were leaving as another boat was moored close to our Starboard side.

Oxnard and Beyond

So, we had a nice 10 hour motor/sail to Oxnard from Santa Barbara. We stayed there for 4 days, relaxed, re provisioned, walked the beach and went to their Farmers Market. Not much else to say about Oxnard. Beautiful new marina and Vons was a scenic 30 minute dinghy ride.

We are off to Catalina Island for a few days starting October 6th. That will be fun.

Santa Barbara

Today is October 1st and our last day in Santa Barbara. It has been a wonderful layover and we were going to leave 2 days ago but, that nasty water leak showed up again. I finally have it under control. Not to panic, it is a fresh water leak so we are not sinking. New parts await us in San Diego so I can make a permanent fix before we are off to Mexico.

Our new friends from Monterey, Richard and Marci, "dropped by" for a surprise visit a couple of days ago. What a great surprise. They even drove Sue and Katherine to Ralph's for provisions!

It has been warm here and we have done plenty of walking. No Peet's coffee but the Santa Barbara Roasting Company is great.

This evening we went to the Santa Barbara Yacht Club for a glass of wine and a beer. They had their Wednesday evening races and it was fun to see all those spinnakers out there.

Off tomorrow to Santa Cruz Island, specifically Smugglers Cove where we will meet up again with Jay, Katherine and Kensey on "Kat Den Rie".

Coho

Coho was a pleasant surprise after an easy 11 hour sail, except for 1/8 mile visibility most of the day.

We arrived at the Coho anchorage around 5 or so PM to sunny skies. Our expectations were low for this anchorage but to our delight it was quite pleasant with a beauty of it's own. Not unlike some of the Baha Coast in Mexico. Anyway, we dropped anchor, had an early dinner and relaxed to a beautiful sunset.

The evening was full of surge, so we rocked and rolled most of the night. As our sleep was interrupted, we made frequent checks to see if we were holding anchor. We were (whew).

Up in the morning and off to Santa Barbara.

Morro Bay

We woke early at our anchorage in San Simeon in thick fog. We watched Jay, Katherine and Kensey take their kayaks to shore. Jay took a shallow dip in the surf and not to be outdone, Kathrine threw her whole body in!

Our motor sail to Morro bay was an easy passage even though we had thick fog and little visibility most of the day. We were rewarded with clear skies and an easy entrace to Morro Bay. We rafted up at the Morro Bay Yacht Club dock. They are very accommodating.

After "Docktails" with the Watt's and our new friends, Scott and Debbie, from Seattle on their boat "Viva", we all went to dinner and back to the boat. We will depart Thursday at 7 AM as we will have a 10-12 hour sail to the Coho Anchorage, our last stop before Santa Barbara.

San Simeon

What a beautiful spot to drop anchor. We arrived under sunny skies and an easy sail. We toasted the Watt's across the water, fired up the BBQ and had a relaxing evening and an early to bed. It would have been wonderful to spend an entire day here but based on our "weather window" it is prudent that we keep moving south.

Our next destination is Morro Bay, always a port to be anticipated with mixed emotions. Often it is so foggy you have to feel your way in. At least we have the comfort of our helpers, "Otto", "Ray", "Radar" and "Chip". They will work 24/7 without food, shelter or sleep!

Stillwater Cove

Well, we finally left Monterey and sailed to Stillwater Cove and anchored for the night. We were just off the 17th green at Pebble Beach! Wonderful weather, views peace and, what a sunset. The other thing about the day was that we finally had some decent sailing for a good part of the way.

Sailed off this morning during a beautiful sunrise with our destination being San Simeon.

All That Jazz etc.

We are still in Monterey but not for long. Our friends Jay, Katherine and their daughter Kensey have joined us on their boat Kat Den Rie. You may follow their blog at www.katdenrie.blogspot.com also. It shares more information on our journey.

We will sail out tomorrow, Monday around noon and go to Stillwater Cove and drop anchor for the evening, then off to San Simeon.

Yesterday we all went to the Monterey Jazz Festival. Without elaborating, we were all disappointed.

We think we have covered all our friends recommendations for dining (including San Dabs) out here in Monterey so for the foreseeable future we will eat well on board. Jay has promised fresh clams this evening on their boat.

We are fueled up, pumped out and provisioned well. The blog should get progressively more interesting as we sail on. Pictures are coming as soon as Kensey shows me how to download.

Monterey

We have come very close to overstaying our welcome here in Monterey. It seems that we attract fog and the word is getting out!

We have done all the tourist stuff. 17 Mile Drive (not in the boat), Carmel and all the coffee places within walking distance. We went to the Monterey Aquarium the other day and it was fantastic. The rest of Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf we shall leave to the "real" tourists. Much like San Francisco and Pier 39. We also visited the Monterey Bay Maritime Museum. Sure is a lot of history here.

We also went south a bit to see the Stillwater Cove anchorage. Lots of kelp but a great view of Pebble Beach.

Katherine and Jay sailed out the Gate this morning and we look forward to their arrival this Thursday. We should sail south late this week. Katherine and Jay are bringing our precious cargo, the "Suebee I Pod", courtesy of Michael and Judy Stouffer.

Dinghy and Movie Review

Hi all. Yesterday we woke up so, therefore, off to a new coffee house. Why change a routine that works so well? We are getting a bit anxious to move Southerly, probably late next week after our friends Jay and Katherine Watt arrive in their Catalina 42.

Spent some time launching our new dinghy and rowing around the marina. Great little boat, a Walker Bay Inflatable. We shall try the motor on it in the next day or so.

Our daughter Katy and Craig came to visit so we did the liquid refreshment and some wonderful Calamari thing.

Today was cool and foggy, so off to the movies to see "Bottle Shock", a must for wine lovers, it is based on a true story. This one gets 3 Sails out of 4.

Work Day!

Started today at Peet's Coffee, that was good. Came back to are beloved Suebee and noticed the bilge pump was busy doing its job. A quick taste test told us it was fresh water, not sea water. After many paper towels and sponge wringing we traced the leak to the shower and a loose fitting. Easy fix, hard to find. Sue was delighted that the bilge got an extra special cleaning in the process.

Finally aired up the dinghy so we can play around the harbor.

Weather has been great but foggy in the AM. Off to Cannery Row for the evening.

Cheers.

Monterey

We arrived in Monterey last evening to beautiful weather. The sail (motor too) from Half Moon Bay to Monterey was extremely "rolly" with 9' seas every 9 seconds and little wind. We did some exploring here today, found Peet's Coffee, Trader Joe's and a wash and fold! Suebee is all cleaned up and ready for the next "leg", probably to San Simeon.

Friday is the start of the annual Cherry Festival so we will check that out.

We made it out!

It's official, were gone! Sailed under the Golden Gate yesterday at 12:30 PM in wonderful sunshine only to hit the fog with 1/4 mile visibility for the entire sail to Half Moon Bay. Seas were at 7' but gentle rollers. Found our slip, relaxed and went to dinner.

It is now Saturday at 12;20 and the sun is shining. We will stay here until the weather looks good for our sail to Santa Cruz/Monterey.

Stay in touch for more exciting news.

Scott and Sue

almost gone

August 26th: Last of the packing! We will leave for Sausalito Wednesday the 27th. Not so exciting yet but we shall pass under the Golden Gate Friday around 12:30 Pm, accompanying our Catalina 42 will be our friends sailing a Catalina 34 and a Catalina 380 .

"We won't know where were going till we get there" is our motto. Actually our first stop will be Half Moon Bay.

Scott and Sue