Pangaea Survives Hurricane Odile!!

As most of you know, we are back in Denver.  Mike is finishing up the last of his contracts with Lockhead Martin and I am teaching and doing voice pathology work through Vocal Essentials, my business.  

It is always hard to be away from Pangaea, but especially hard when you see a hurricane path projectory of exactly where we left her....La Paz, MX.

Well, the hurricane hit and winds were clocked at 100 mph in the marina.  Yikes!  I remember last fall riding out a strong "norther" at the marina, and we were running around making sure all the boats were ok.  There was minor damage to a few boats during that storm, and we had to keep re-tying dock lines.  That was 18 mph.  I can't even fathom 100.  

We will be forever grateful for our boat managers....Susan and Dennis Ross.  They checked on Pangaea diligently, and because of that, she suffered only minor injuries.  We lost our VHF antennae on the back of the boat.  It fell off into the windvane, so we need to replace our blades.  We also had some cleat and cap-rail damage from rolling in the slip.  Our interior has yet to be assessed, but we are keeping our fingers crossed!

We are really sad about the damage to the city of La Paz.  We wish we could be there to help with the cleanup. We are also sad to hear that 20 boats anchored in the Magote near downtown La Paz were beached and 3 people (at least) are missing from the sailing community.

We are sending love and light to everyone who is impacted by Odile. 

Huge Hurricane Hugs,

First Mate Kate

Colorado Rocky Mountain High

It has been way too long since my last blog post.  My sincere apologies.  We are back in Colorado and taking in as much as we can while we are both back at work.  Mike is back at the rocket shop a.k.a. Lockheed Martin and I am back in a rented studio with Vocal Essentials.  

We both celebrated birthdays since we've been back.  Mike turned the big 5-0 and I turned 47.  We know that 50 is the new 30 but we are both feeling like the numbers are a bit unfathomable.  When did we get "old"-er?  I remind myself that at 30 I was undergoing treatment for breast cancer and not even sure I would see 40.  From that perspective, 47 looks damn good.

We are fortunate enough to be staying at Mike's dad's house and are enjoying him and his dog Yeti.  I look forward to a 2-mile walk with her every morning.  It is absolutely beautiful here.

I spent a week in Philadelphia when we got back for The Voice Foundation Symposium:  Care of the  Professional Voice.  It is always great to go back to where my career began and be a part of the Voice World and family again.  Denyce Graves gave an inspiring masterclass.  Great to see my mentor Robert T. Sataloff, M.D., DMA and Deborah Feijo.

I took a quick trip to San Diego with one of my voice students at the end of June.  Beautifully, our friends Nancy and Rob from Shindig were also in town celebrating Nancy's birthday, along eith Wendy on Willow.  We had a great birthday lunch all together at The Cove in La Jolla.

We have been riding a littlle every week.  I am working my way back to climbing mountain passes, but with a torn labrum, it hurts too much.  Yes, my fall in March resulted in a hip injury and the hip specialist is recommending surgery.  Thus, our fall plans to return to La Paz will depend on how all that goes.

I had the pleasure of singing Beethoven's 9th with the Colorado Symphony Chorus up in Vail, CO with the Dallas Symphony.  It was a fantastic concert.  We will do it again in August at the Aspen Music Festival with Robert Spano directing.  Here I am with my friend Anne Maupin who sang with me.

We spent the 4th of July up in Dillon, CO with Mike's dad Al at his girlfriend Paula's condo.  We biked 75 miles that weekend, 35 miles from Dillon to Copper Mountain and 40 miles from Dillon to Breckenridge.

We are in Santa Fe, NM this weekend with our friend Kathryn and Marc.  We spent this evening at the Santa Fe Opera.  What a great night!  We saw two one-act operas, The Impressario by Mozart and  Il Rossignol by Stravinsky.  

We drove Mike's dad's Porsche 968 down here, and half-way down it started surging and losing power.  It wasn't idling well when we got into town and barely got it parked.  Now it looks like we will have to stay another night here to get the car running.  Thank you, La Fonda, for giving us a break on our room rate and two cold bottles of water on our way to the car mechanics.  Thank you Executive Auto repair for looking at the car right away.  It seems to be the mass air flow sensor.  Thank you Duel Brewing for giving us a place to sit...and drink delicious beer while we wait for the car repair.

On the sailing news front, Pangaea has a new watermaker.  We bought a Spectra and it was installed this week.  Now we can go anywhere and not worry about our sources of fresh water (assuming it keeps working)!  We miss Pangaea but know she is being well taken care of by Dennis and Susan Ross.  We are very lucky to have them manage her along with our summer boat projects!!

Back to La Paz- Marina Palmira

5-17-14

24 deg 18'10.1"N 110 deg 20'14.2"W

Lobos-Marina Palmira, La Paz

Alas, it is time for our journey on the Sea of Cortez to end.  We made our last leg of the trip this morning without even putting the sails up.  It was 7 nm of motoring; we had no wind. That is ideal for docking, so I am a happy skipper.  For some reason, docking is the part of the sailing world that still terrifies me.

We had a picture perfect docking at the fuel dock and back into our slip thanks to no wind and our friends Carlos and Felippe.  And, of course, the crew on Pangaea.

It was forecasted to be 101 here in La Paz today, so we promptly headed for the marina pool for lunch and a little cool down.

That was all good until a man in heavy protective gear...a full jumpsuit, gloves, hat and gasmask...came out to spray the trees.  Mike looked at me and we both grabbed our things and headed for the marina bar inside.

We had the boat washed and we organized.  It was hot and we were moving slowly.  Before we knew it, it was 6 pm and shower time.  I havent looked that forward to a cold shower in I dont know how long.

The evening was perfect and complete with a trip to Calypso for margaritas and a calamari appetizer and dinner at Koi Sushi.  YUM!

I'm still moving,

First Mate Kate

Caleta Lobos

5-16-14

Caleta Partida-Caleta Lobos

24 deg 31'98.3"N 110 deg 22'88.8"W

24 deg 18'10.1"N 110 deg 20'14.2"W

Wispy clouds

Sunny

Flat seas

Light winds

9:30-2:30

Engine hours 160-164.2

We awoke to another calm morning in the anchorage.  The water was glass-like and you could see the anchor on the bottom.  We made the decision to sail on to Lobos which is only about an hour or so motor/sail or sail to La Paz in the morning.  The winds are supposed to stay calm which is perfect for docking.

We had a little bit of wind as we left Caleta Partida, and that turned to none.  In an hour and a half we had gone pretty much nowhere.  We had a couple dolphins come and swim at our bow for a few minutes, but we were going too slow for them to stay interested.  So, we broke down and motor sailed to Lobos.

On the way there we caught a little bonita to make our afternoon interesting.  That and I made pizza dough.

We arrived in Lobos and the wind picked up.  We had 12 knots of wind out of the north.  Now it comes.  We were surprised at how hot it was and decided pretty quickly to go for a swim.  The wind and the current made it challenging, but we managed to do laps around the boat.  

It is still 90 degrees in our cabin, which is the hottest it has been on the trip. We are waiting until the sun goes down to cook the pizza, and are going to try cooking it on the grill.  I hope it works!  I don't really want it hotter in here.

Well, it worked and was fabulous.  

Iron chef wanna be,

First Mate Kate

Caleta Partida

5-14-14

Isla San Francisco-Caleta Partida

24 deg 49'20.8"N 110 deg 34'03.9"W

24 deg 31'98.3"N 110 deg 22'88.8"W

Winds out of the N, NW 15-24

Seas 5-7' at 3-4 secs

Sunny

9:30 am- 3:30 pm

Engine hours 158.6-160

We wanted a sporty sail for our last big sail and we got it!  We had 20+ knots of downwind sailing to Caleta Partida.  The seas were a bit choppy so we were rocking and rolling a bit, but it was fun!

That is, until we decided to go wing-on-wing to pursue a more downwind point of sail.  The other day when we used that sail configuration I found that I had to really pinch past running to keep the headsail full.  The difference was that we were in calmer seas and lighter winds. So, when I steered the boat to fill the headsail this time, I gybed.  Accidentally.  Yep. No longer a virgin to that experience.  

Unfortunately, even with a preventer set, that baby (the boom) swung around hard, taking out the preventer line (snap!) and port side dorade (it flew into the water) and bending a clip on the boom.  Hard lesson learned.

The positive side to the story is that when we gybed we actually ended up moving from being parallel to our destination to right on the rhumb line or the exact course we needed to get there.

We saw some dolphins performing arial  jumps in perfect formation near Isla Espiritu Santo.  Just beautiful.

An interesting sighting came a little closer to the island.  We were looking at the different anchorages along the north side of the island and noticed a few very large private yachts in Ensenada Grande. Then we noticed this really strange and fast boat. All dark navy or black.  Very stealth.  I think it came out from Ensenada Grande and it looked like it was going somewhere in a hurry.  Shortly afterward, all the private yachts left and went inside different anchorages.  At the same time.  Weird.

My overactive imagination decided that it was the drug cartel in the stealth boat making a delivery to the yachts or having a meeting with the Jeffe.  After the business was completed, the yachts all left at the same time from the "meeting point" and on to anchorages. What do you think?

We arrived in Caleta Partida and found a great spot in the north end of the shallows.  I went to drop the anchor and it wouldn't drop!  The anchor chain was stuck!  So...I quickly got myself back to the helm and told Mike the situation. I took Pangaea on a little tour around the anchorage while he rearranged the anchor chain in the locker.  Then we gave it another go. Stuck!  Again!  I switched places with Mike again and he was able to get the chain to release.  A successful anchor! Phew!

We were greeted by Steve and Gertie from dock 3 at Marina Palmira.  Gertie was excited to see us and tried to get on our boat.  We opened the gate and sat on the edge of the boat to give her plentiful scratches, rubs and a little dose of love.

We grilled up the last steak we got from Dali in Loreto along with our last baked potatoes.  We had a beautiful dinner with a nice reserve cab we bought in Santa Rosalia.  Mike toasted to eating steak and drinking wine on our yacht in paradise.

Spoiled and sleepy,

First Mate Kate

5-15-14

Day 2

We got up this am and the anchorage was calm and the sea turtles were checking us out.  It was a perfect morning for a paddle.  We hopped on our SUPs and took a little lagoon like passage to the other side of the island.  It's about an hour paddle each way.  The wind picked up as we got going so we got a little extra workout.  On our way we saw a couple from a catamaran in the anchorage on paddle boards heading the same way and one had a dog riding with him.  I wish I had my camera with me.  It was pretty darn cute.

We got back to the boat ready for lunch and then took a little reading break.  It was getting hot so we took a swim and hung out on the SUPs to dry.  The wind picked up and the guy on the cat either had a windsurfing rig or some kind of setup for his SUP but he was out killing it on his board.  It was pretty impressive!

We decided to paddle around the anchorage before sunset and caught the wind at the right angle to push us back to the boat.  We somehow both decided to paddle together and rode the waves back side by side.  We had a little audience from a Turkish ketch tour boat who seemed to appreciate our fun.

We made dinner and had a quiet evening.  It was nice to just relax.

Winding down,

First Mate Kate

Isla San Francisco

5-13-14

Mangle Solo- Bahia Amortajada-Isla San Francisco

25 deg 01'09.6"N 110 deg 41'06.1"W

24 deg 53'21.5"N 110 deg 34'67.8"W

24 deg 49'20.8"N 110 deg 34'03.9"W

9:30-12:30 4-6:00 pm

Winds out of the NW, 9-15

Seas 4'

Sunny and less hazy

Engine hours 156.8-158.6

It was so great to see dolphins again!  We haven't seen them in a while and it always makes me feel better when we do.  There were 6 or 7 along the way, which isn't many, but I will take it!

We had a really easy downwind sail again.  We even were able to sail wing-on-wing for some of it.  We have been extremely lucky to have such consistent north winds, as generally the winds switch to the south about now.

We arrived at Amortajada mid-day, and the winds were mild-moderate.  The water and surroundings were in full sun display and looking quite glorious!  The water shoals off pretty quickly at this anchorage and the color change is quite dramatically beautiful.

We paddled into shore where there is an entrance to a mangrove tour.  It was a bit of a struggle to get into the the lagoon as the current was really strong and the winds were blowing against us.  The lagoon courses east toward the backside of Isla San Francisco, and in the middle of the trip offers a stunning view of the island and surrounding water.

It was about half-way through that I questioned the wisdom of doing the whole distance, as I was pretty certain the wind was going to come up and be blowing against us as we head back to the boat.  Mike agreed.  And we paddled on, totally ignoring our own best advice.

Just as predicted, the wind came up and right out of the north which was the direction we had to paddle to the boat.  It was so strong that we had to sit down on our SUPs and paddle them like kayaks to make any progress.

If the wind wasn't enough of a mental and physical challenge (we had about an hour left in our journey) the hornets were out with a vengeance and were terrorizing us as we battled the wind.  In the end, because we didn't put up a fight, they left us alone.  

As we left the lagoon and entered the sea we found ourselves heading right into 2-3 foot surf about 3-4 seconds apart.  Not huge but consistent and we were getting pretty exhausted.

We made it back to the boat and decided to head straight to Isla San Francisco, as it was almost 4 pm.

We had a fun downwind sail right into our anchorage.  There were 5 boats already anchored, including a really beautiful 75-foot sloop, navy and white.  It looked like something out of a Nautica or Ralph Lauren ad. Complete with pretty people.

We were hot and tired, but the water looked refreshing, so we jumped in.  It was cool but it felt perfect for the sore and tired body.

We were thankful for leftovers for dinner.  We were pooped!

All paddled out,

First Mate Kate

Mangle Solo

5-12-14

Los Gatos -Timbabiche -Mangle Solo

3 nm, 18 nm

25 deg 17'94.4"N 110 deg 56' 69.0"W

25 deg 16'29.7"N 110 deg 56'40.4"W

25 deg 01'09.6"N 110 deg 41'06.1"W

Engine hours 154.6-155.6-156.8

6:30-7:30, 9:00-2:30

Winds calm- seas 3-4' chop (initially)

Winds 6-12 from the N 3-4' swells

Sunny but a weird haze over the whole sea

Well rock'n roll we did last night, which makes two nights of not great sleeping for both of us.  Thankfully we had nice, downwind sailing.  We took advantage of the rough seas and winds to practice using our windvane with which to steer.

The sea was churning for most of the day and we had absolutely zero marine life sightings. Sad.  

We arrived at our anchorage in good time; we were blessed with speed today.  I am happy to report that it is just lovely and calm.  A perfect recipe for a good nights sleep!

Sleepy in the Sea of Cortez,

First Mate Kate