Kaukoe has a crew of four now. Mark and Nancy stowed their gear yesterday morning and reported for duty. Heavy winds from the north prevented them from sailing yesterday so they read, got supplies, and caught up on each other's recent activities. They plan to sail 10-20 miles today and spend the night, returning Wednesday afternoon to La Paz as Mark and Nancy have an early morning flight on Thursday.
We ran a phone patch to Mark's parents and they were glad to be able to say hello to each other. Tom and Tracy will again sail north on Thursday hitting ports such as Santa Cruz, Aqua Verde, Puerto Escondido, and Conception Bay.
Starting Fridaym my Amigo Bob, N6DUR will take over for the daily contacts; many thanks to him for his assistance! Patty & I will be in Oregon for a week, returning on the 9th. I will check for email at my brother in law's house, Mike, (egan.m@juno.com). We will continue contacts @1500Z on 14.220.
Kaukoe is 2-3 hours from La Paz. The trip started at 3AM Tuesday morning so total sailing time will be about 56 hours, nonstop. Believe me, they are ready to stop! Yesterday they had good winds until about 1300 (1PM), when it completely died out until 2100(9PM). Then, strong winds came up from the SW and it's been pretty rough going ever since; I presume that meant 15-25 knot winds, although they didn't say. Just in the last hour 1400(6AM) the winds have calmed a bit. They have rounded the islands that border La Paz's entrance and should anchor by 11AM, their time. Sleep will be their first priority. Their watches are typically 2 on, 2 off so it's hard to get quality sleep in between, fix meals, and tend to things.
Kate Godfrey also echoed her approval of Agua Verde saying she had been there 10ish years ago for 10ish days. It's a beautiful area with excellent diving and very friendly local fisher-folk who happily trade for the colorful parrot fish that they can't net. Kaukoe may stop there northbound as well as southbound.
Favorite one-liner from Ron Faulkner: "He's one pea short of a full casserole!"
Kaukoe is still in the channel between Mazatlán and the Baja California peninsula. They are heading to La Paz to meet Mark Rashid and Nancy who are arriving by air on Friday at 7:40PM. Kaukoe departed Mazatlán at about 3AM Tuesday morning and was 20 miles out to sea when we spoke yesterday. Winds were unexpectedly from the east, and were light at that. Since that time, they've had winds from the south, the east, and the west making sailing difficult. The winds have been moderate and most importantly, the seas calm. They have been under sail the entire time.
Presently they are about 100+ miles from Mazatlán with a position of 24d 07'N and 108d 32'W. They expect to make land tomorrow sometime and anchor in La Paz. They are planning to try and meet Mark and Nancy at the aeropuerto.
A new food has been discovered; Campbell's tortilla soup mix. Just throw in some old, broken tortillas and presto - a gourmet meal! Kate has identified the herb, epazote, which gives tortilla soup it's traditional taste. Seeds are ordered and plants will be flourishing at home, upon Kaukoe's return.
Allen and Sally Wellington sent a note for Tracy & Tom to check out Agua Verde, a small harbor between La Paz and Loreto. Once there, boaters sign a rock or leave a momento and then can climb the nearby hills to see grazing goats and the village below.
Kaukoe will not depart Mazatlán today. The bit of Santa Ana we're experiencing in San Diegh has produced strong northerly winds in the sea of Cortez. They will listen to reports today on the radio, possibly leaving tomorrow. San Diego is expecting rain possibly beginning on Wednesday; that should break the pattern for them.
They spent yesterday having a big breakfast in town, sightseeing, and looking for surf (which they did not find!). They bought provisions and the pantry is now more full than at any prior time on the trip. They did this so as to limit what they would need once they arrive at La Paz.
They're looking forward to Mark and Nancy's arrival next weekend. Once aboard, the four of them will sail as far north as Loreto, where Mark and Nancy will catch a bus back to La Paz for their flight home.
The headline story in the San Diego paper today showed the complete sand removal at beaches like Solana Beach where there is nothing but cobblestone as far as the eye can see. Officials are considering buying sand to refill the beach as dredging and pumping would take too long to complete.
Kaukoe left Isla Isabel on Thursday at about 8AM. The winds were out of the west, which was ideal. Using the advantage of already being 60 miles offshore along with the westerly winds, they sailed almost 10 hours on one tack. As nighttime approached, they fired up the engine and continued on until the wind once again picked up. They arrived in Mazatlán at about 7 AM Friday morning, feeling well, but tired.
They found their friends from "Makai" and a bunch of them went into town for dinner. Not ones to patronize the usual place for dinner, they happened upon a location that is a car wash by day and a taco stand at night. They're still alive so it must have been okay. The beer-buy planned for today is off - it is a holiday in honor of Benito Juarez and no liquor is sold on holiday.
They plan to make the crossing on Monday and, rather than sail directly to Cabo, will aim north and anchor south of La Paz at some nearby islands. We made an excellent phone patch connection with Pat and Gary and Tracy's grandfather, Art, in Forsythe, Montana this morning. I finally installed the Kenwood phone patch that I have on loan and it worked very well. Tracy talked to all three for 45 minutes and it was 99% clear copy.
Tom and Tracy worked on the house as planned yesterday. Tom mixed cement and wheel barreled it up a steep ramp to the second floor and Tracy put it down and finished it. They then sailed until 8pm, made a very dark approach, and anchored in San Blas for the night. This morning they are using the engine, as there is no wind. It is with some sadness that they look off the stern to see the coast disappearing behind them, wondering when they will see that beautiful coastline again. Weather is warm and sunny with small swells. They will make Isla Isabel today, as it is about 40 miles from San Blas.
Kaukoe's near term destination is, of course, Mazatlán (another 100 miles North). Once there they will prepare for the big crossing to Cabo San Lucas and wait for good weather. Housesitter Kate was here yesterday to talk to Tracy. She made a supreme sacrifice by bouncing out of bed at the ungoddessly hour of 6AM to drive the 2 miles to get here and be ready to talk at 7AM. She and Tracy found plenty to chat about (as usual!) and got caught up on a variety of subjects.
Updates will be coming every other day, as the trip is somewhat repetitive going back to familiar ports.
¡Feliz día de San Patricio!
The construction crew accomplished a lot yesterday. Tom and another worker hauled material (including sand) up to the second floor. They mixed cement there and Tracy and a professional put down the base for the tile bathroom. They're not working today. Instead, they'll take a bus to Las Varas for part of the day, returning to Kaukoe for the 2:00 radio schedule with Pat and Gary. They plan to work on the house Monday morning and then leave for San Blas in the afternoon.
Kaukoe moved anchor yesterday to the prime spot in bay. Well protected, calm and only 73 strokes from shore. They are anchored with only 4 other vessels today. They went ashore and talked to other gringos and locals about the construction of a house. They are now leaving to go ashore and begin work on the upstairs bathroom.
Their plans are to stay until Monday or Tuesday when they'll sail on to San Blas or Isla Isabel. When they reach San Blas, they will have sailed over 1300 miles since their 21 December 1997 departure. They have once again scheduled a call via Denis on Sunday; 21.300Mhz at 2PM MST. Anyone wanting to talk to them on 15M, jump in.
Kaukoe arrived in the bay around 5PM after a great sail of 34 miles from Punta de Mita. Here, the coast cuts in to the northeast, so they sailed on a port tack most of the way with winds from the northwest at 8-12 knots. The bay was choppy so they didn't go ashore last night, but plan to this morning. Their position is 21d 10'N and 105d 16'W.
As they look towards shore, there are cliffs on the left, the small town with 7 or so palapa roofed (palm frond) huts and to the right, and coconut palms growing right down to the beach. They hope to be able to help with some construction of homes while there; Habitat for Humanity is active in this area. Hopefully they will be able to make a contribution to the building of some shelters for the people of Chacala.
They have no definite plans regarding their length of stay here in Chacala. They are now back on Mountain Standard Time, having crossed a time zone at the north end of Banderas Bay, near the town of La Cruz. The state they're in now is Nayarit, north of Jalisco (where Puerto Vallarta is) and north of Colima (where Manzanillo is located).
Bill, K6DQ, from Coronado, joined us on one of his rare days when he's not playing an early morning game of tennis. Bill sailed this area in 1974 aboard a Columbia 35 and remembers this part of the coast well. We brain stormed more on the frequency-shift problems of Kaukoe's transmitter and Bill contributed a few ideas to try and solve the problem. Hopefully, one will be the key to solving the intermittent problem that has been going on since the start of the trip.
Gary in Grand Junction sent email stating that signals were so good yesterday that he held the phone to the speaker and called Pat at the office so she could listen in.
Kaukoe is bobbing around, having spent yesterday at Tres Marietas. They left Punta de Mita about 9:30 and sailed to the islands just in time to see a boatload of tourists being dumped into the water to snorkel. They opted to go ashore and avoid the crowd.
There, they saw plenty of yellow and blue footed Boobie birds, hiked all over the Island - through caves and tall grass as high as Tracy's nose! She said that sometimes the limestone sounded hollow under their feet. Some of the chambers (caves) went all of the way through and you could see out the opposite side. After the crowds left, T&T snorkeled and headed back to Punta de Mita. Hearing music and noise, they rowed ashore to find a festival of sorts and a local rodeo that was under way. They stayed for the fun and finally headed back to Kaukoe to get some sleep.
We got a roll of pictures yesterday from our visit to Puerta Vallarta. Dave Green gets the one with OTL (over the line) T shirts displayed by the crew. We took some good shots on board, including yours truly landing my monstrous blue fin tuna and then celebrating with a Pacifico cerveza to regain my strength. Tracy handled the net and the size and strength of my fish required most all her strength.
A big Kaukoe welcome to 2 new subscribers; Carol Doty & Lisa (Doty) Patrie. Lisa is a programmer at Mammoth mountain and Carol (I think) is going to school as well as working. They and their parents (Dr. Howard & Claree Doty) have been good friends for 30 years and Lisa and Tom attended CU together. The medical profession lost an outstanding ENT when Howard retired to devote all his energy to biking, surfing, and tennis. Check out the other happy land crew members and you'll likely recognize some names. (Mark Rashid...Tom Johnson...Dave Green)
Today Kaukoe is sailing towards Chacala and expects to arrive mid-afternoon. Distance is 34 miles. I received email from one happy Darlo Clemens after he installed the Opera browser. He notes that it's noticeably faster than AOL @56kbps, and he's using a 33.6 modem on a laptop.
Adios para este dia.
As planned, Kaukoe's heading for Tres Marietas this morning. They left about 11AM yesterday and encountered very tricky wind conditions, possibly from the Pineapple Express. One minute they were under full sail, the next they were running the engine. Winds were not excessive, just changing. Tom got some surfing in yesterday and finished at dusk (he was the only one out) and ended up hitching a ride from another boater in their dinghy back to Kaukoe where Tracy was waiting. The lucky lure I caught my Blue fin on is gone. They got a strike and as Tom was working the fish, lost him suddenly. The swivel catch had opened and the lure was gone. Apparently, the enormous size of my fish was too much strain on the Swivel.
They'll probably return to Punta de Mita this evening and head for town.
I found a real nice web browser from some folks in Oslo, Norway. It's called Opera and is small (1.2MB), fast, and friendly. A regular writer in PC Magazine raved about it. If you're tired of the size and slow speed of Internet Explorer or Netscape, give this a try. For some reason, it doesn't work with America On Line, so only try it if you have an ISP. The Opera site address is www.operasoftware.com. It comes with hundreds of built-in sites and automatically imports all your favorites from Internet Explorer and/or Netscape.
Hola Amigos! Kaukoe is preparing to leave later this morning for Punta de Mita. Tracy has been reshaping the vane on the autopilot. She gave it one coat of fiberglass yesterday and is getting ready for the second coat this morning. This new shape (less symmetrical) should give more stable steerage.
They hunted far and wide yesterday for stove alcohol and ended up buying more from the pharmacy. They tested it for a clean burn in a tablespoon and found that it left no residue, so they will use that for now. We probably went to 8 stores looking for stove grade, high purity alcohol while we were there. It just isn't available. I suggested burning the Tequila but that idea was not considered acceptable. They bought supplies and Tracy said they have more food now than when they started out.
Our trip was perfect in all respects. They both look healthy, tan, and very happy. They had a wonderful dinner ready for us on Wednesday night starting with chips, homemade salsa, guacamole and cerveza in the aft cockpit. The main course was then served at the table down below. Thursday was a quiet day planning our next few days, swimming in front of our hotel with dinner south of town at El Set, a restaurant we have been to many times. The name came when the movie Night of the Iguana was filmed at nearby La Jolla Mismaloya with Richard Burton. They will sail to Tres Marietas on Wednesday, possibly returning to Punta de Mita before continuing north.
Kaukoe is still at anchor in Banderas Bay. They will be sailing to the Marina today to secure a slip. Yesterday Tom and Tracy both took a bus ride out to La Meta, a surfing area, and took turns riding some decent waves. When they started walking to the beach they attracted a small brown dog that stayed with them all day, even after they finished and were having chips, salsa and beer.
A sad note; the Ham radio operator at Downwind Marine, the local store that Tom and Tracy like so much, died. I was talking to him just last week when I was there. In Ham talk, he becomes a silent key. He was nicknamed "Radio Mike" because of his obvious love of the hobby. He was on the Mañana net daily, helping boaters as well land based stations.
Thanks for the tremendous response to my call for notes and letters for Tom and Tracy. My printer has been smoking with your replies. Not since Patty was cranking out her thesis has the Laserjet been so active. There's still plenty of paper, so if you haven't written, send them a line.
We (I) found the problem as to our poor radio contact yesterday. It was directly attributed to operator error. I had turned the antenna away from Mexico to a bearing of 60°. Mexico is 135 degrees just almost 90° away. These antennas called yagi (after the Japanese engineer that invented it) are very directional and do not work at all off the ends so today our contact went very smoothly with Tom's signal peaking S9+10 at times. We do not plan to talk tomorrow so the relays will resume next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Bill K6DQ and others: We plan to be on 14.220 at 1400Z and 0100Z for contacts to San Diego. Drop in and say HOLA!
¡Hastá La Vista!
Kaukoe is in La Cruz, an area in Banderas Bay. Apparently it was a long sail from Chamela. Band conditions were very poor. We could barely hear each other and signed off at 1515Z. We'll try again tomorrow. Patty & I leave San Diego Wednesday for Puerta Vallarta @ 12:25 PST.
If anyone would like to send Tom and Tracy a message, via email, now's your chance. Address it to them, send it to tompastore@juno.com; I'll print it out and take it with me so they can read it. I think they would like to hear from as many friends as possible, so if you have a chance, please drop a quick note to them. We will also be taking spare oil, gas, and air filters for the diesel, a seal kit for the water maker, a hand bilge pump and spare bilge screen for the automatic system.
Hasta luego.
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Last changed on 16 July 98