Monday, February 27, 2006

Track Maggie Drum using Yotreps Reporting

I just added a link to the left at the top of the blog called "Track WCZ6559". WCZ6559 is our ship´s radio callsign and is how the different vessels tracked by Yotreps (no clue where that name came from) which is at www.pangolin.co.nz if you want to see the home site.

If you click on the link "Track WCZ6559" it will take you to a Yotreps webpage with a list of many vessels around the world who report in to the service. We send our position reports when we do email with our high frequency single-side-band radio so we can do it while we are underway anywhere. We will try to update it often but no guarantees. NOTE: don´t assume we have had a problem if you don´t see an update everyday or every week.

When you pick the link, you can pick whether you want to see just the last two weeks reports (the default) or you can select 4 weeks, 6 months, or a year. We only have the one report right now so it does not matter now but will later as we go. Then scroll down the list until you get to "WCZ6559" near the bottom (long list). Select "track" where you see "WCZ6559 Maggie Drum" and it will bring up a world map showing where we are (last dot and line) and where we have been. The length of the line is supposed to indicate our speed - the longer the line the faster we have gone over the period. We are slow so don´t expect long lines! We may give you some other vessel ID´s of friends near us so you can look to see where they are too if you care. The site is not terribly user-friendly but it´s free.

Right now we are the single red dot without a speed line since we are anchored at Zihuatanejo, Mexico. In three weeks or so we be headed west and you can follow along.

If you have any problems email us and we will try to help or fix the problem. I am not sure why the link is a lighter color font than the other links?!

Another great service brought to you by Joe & Cindy.

Preparing for South Pacific Passage in Zihuatanejo

Can't believe how much time as passed since our last update. We are now in Zihuatanejo, after a two day passage with one overnight from Santiago Bay next door to Manzanillo. Santiago Bay is the bay just north of the peninsula of Las Hadas where the movie "10" was filmed with Bo Derek running on the beach in her skimpy swim suit with the braids with music from Bolero running in the background. Now most red-blooded American males associate the music solely with her and her see-through outfit eventhough that was several decades ago.

Our arrival in Zihua was exactly one year ago to the day from when we left last season. We anchored at almost the exact same spot we spent two and a half months at last year. It has stayed much the same except this year only 45 cruise ships are scheduled to arrive, down from last year's 89. We dislike the cruise ships because they anchor out in the bay across from the pier and use their big launches to take passengers to shore and back all day long. This really chops up the water and makes the anchorage extremely rolly and dinghy rides to shore a very wet affair. Oh well, a small problem.

We went to our first South Pacific Puddle Jump meeting last Tuesday and met the other people who are leaving from Zihua for the Marquesas and beyond this year. So far, there are 14 boats leaving from here and more on the way. There is a similar group organized in PV as well. We get together and organize radio nets, share information, copy charts and guidebooks and get to know each other in advance of of our departures. Everyone plans to leave mid to late March when the wind forecast is favorable for getting out of the wind shadow of Mexico this far east on the Pacific coast.

It actually is much easier to do the Jump much farther north of here, like PV or Mazatlan, because the coast goes more and more east the farther south you go. The NorthEast tradewinds blow off the coast of the US and down the Mexican Baja then go west and so you don't get favorable winds in the south until you are several hundreds of miles offshore. For us, it will be at least 400-600 nm of light, unfavorable winds before we hit the trades. So, you wait for a favorable wind forecast with winds which will make that westing as easy as possible.

We already know some of the boats that are going from the Baja HaHa last year or from meetings elsewhere, including Endeavour, Ranger and Oz. The others we have met have been very simpatico so far so it will be a good group.

You have to make a beach landing here, as you do in so many other anchorages, so you put the dinghy wheels on the transom of the dink and head to the beach area set aside for the cruisers. There is a local indio named Ney who helps get you in and out of the water and watches the dinks which you usually don't have anywhere else we have been. Unfortunately there was minor thefts and vandalism of the dinks here so Rick's Bar "hired" this great little guy who stays on the beach about 16 hours everyday except Sundays and watches the boats. Everyone tips him and he actually makes a really good income, but of course, only for the cruising season. Ney is both smart and strong and is learning English from the cruisers and we are all very attached to him. He looks out for us and takes his job very seriously.

Our list of projects to get ready will keep us very busy until we leave. We have to get enough provisions to last at least a couple of months. The trip to the next landfall takes at least 4 weeks and you need at least two weeks in reserve, then some more to be able to get to a better reprovisioning place in Tahiti. Some items, like paper products (toilet tissue, napkins, paper towels, etc) are hard to find and very expensive when you do find them, so you stock up. Meats, vegetables, wine and beer are also very expensive so you save by buying here if you have room as well. Room is a problem as the boat is already overstuffed to the gunnels. We will also need to fill our diesel, gasoline, propane and water tanks. Lists of radio frequencies and weather information all need to be collected along with charts and guidebooks. Then we need to fix or upgrade a few things on the boat. Busy, busy.

Our friends Buzz and Lynn from Anacortes are coming in to Zihua tonight and we are looking forward to visiting and playing with them. Unfortunately for them, they offered to bring a "few" things from the states for us and we have added one thing after the other of items that are impossible to get here. They have to bring those on the plane after they ran around and found them at Sears or hardware stores or wherever, except for the dozen items we had shipped to their house from internet vendors. One of the items is a French language translation chip for our Franklin electronic translator. Neither of us knows a word of French except for oui and the first three island groups all have French as the official language.

It is really feeling real now. We have planned this for the last nine years and it is finally happening. Sort of scary and sort of not. The boat is ready enough even though something will break along the way - it always does. We are ready enough even though we don't know every thing we probably need or want to know. It will be an adventure for sure. We will post a note when we leave via radio to the blog site and will try to update it as we go. We will also send out latitude and longitude position to a vessel reporting system called Yotreps on the internet so that any of you can see exactly where our last reported position was on a world map with the date and time. We will provide a link on our blog site and information on how to find us on the Yotreps position reporting system next time. If you are familiar with Yotreps at www.pangolin.co.nz you can find us by entering our vessel ID as "wcz6559" and look at our track. WCZ6559 is our ship radio call sign. But I will put a specific link on the blog so you can get there easier.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006

SuperBowl and Projects in Barra

We are still at Barra de Navidad. Cindy is totally happy here as there is a French Baker who comes out to the laguna anchorage every morning with fresh baquettes, croissants, pastries and individual pies. These are to die for and Cindy just wants to eat those and stay here forever.

We saw the SuperBowl on Sunday in a small palapa bar with about 80 other gringos and locals. The place was packed as was any other place in town with a TV with English announcing. It was a shame the Seahawks did not win but it was a good game any way. We had nachos along with our cervezas then went out for tacos on the street afterward and then motored back to our boats via Nakia's dinghy. Our dinghy had a hole in the side so I spent a morning putting on a patch and so far it has held up but John on Nakia thinks it won't last long since I did not clamp it. We'll see.

Today is laundry day so we are in town again (after getting almond croissants from the French Baker off of his panga) and doing internet. Yesterday was ice day and small projects on Maggie Drum. Tomorrow I get to go up the main mast to unjam our roll up mainsail. It jammed on the way down to Tenacatita but I did not want to work on it there because to the rolling from the swells. It is hard enough to do without the mast swinging around like crazy and me trying to climb up, work and hold on at the same time. I'm just hoping I never have to do it in the ocean!

We plan to stay here a few more days then it will be off farther south to Santiago Bay at Manzanillo. Any one who has seen the movie "10" with Bo Derek has seen Manzanillo since the hotel was there at Las Hadas which is on a peninsula separating the bay. From there it is a long passage to Zihuatanejo where we will stay for a few weeks visiting and preparing for our departure for the South Pacific. The plan is still to push off mid-March depending on weather, provisioning and projects.

There is a group of people who have organized to share information about the trip to the South Pacific and to set up radio nets where every one will check in daily and in case of emergencies or problems. It is a real safety cushion to have contact with other boats headed in the same direction and who may be able to help if there is a need. I was the net control for the local cruiser net this morning on the VHF short distance radio. We take names, note arrivals and departures, and share info on weather, services available or needed in town, etc. The VHF is our local "telephone" but is a party line as every one can listen in, and they often do. You call someone on channel 22 then change to another channel to talk in "private" but lots of people like to snoop. The long range HF radio is used on the high seas or for long range traffic and weather on the Mexican coast. It is really handy to have.

Have to go have lunch and visit with friends. Hello to all our friends back home.

A special thanks to Terry, Diane and Brian at Anacortes Marine Electronics who helped me long distance in getting my new radar, chartplotter, autopilot and wind instrument up and running via email, which is a hard thing to do. They are great people and I highly recommend them if any of you boaters need electronics or service.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Arriving at Barra de Navidad

We are approaching the harbor and laguna at Barra de Navidad which is just south of the small town of Melaque. We spent the last two days at Bahia Tenacatita in the company of about 17 boats which changed often as boats came and went. Tenacatita is one of the favorite anchorages for cruisers in Mexico and some spend most of the winter season just hanging out here with occasional trips to Barra for provisions, fuel, water and anything else they need, or for just a change of pace. Tenacatita is home to the famous jungle river ride which we did last year with Megabyte. We only stayed a couple of nights there this time and went to the beach yesterday afternoon and played the card game "Oh Hell" with our friends John and Linda on Nakia and we also invited Dennis and John from the S/V Shilling from England to play. There is a rundown palapa restaurant there and we had cervezas or limonadas while laughing and playing under the palm-thatched palapa roof on the sand.

We left Chamela with heavy hearts as it was one of our most favorite spots from last year. We stayed a long time there with Nakia, Megabyte (Dave & Debbie) and many other friends from the Baja Ha-Ha group. We walked in to the little village and got provisions while reminiscing about when we were there before. We really like the peace and quiet of the bay and usually there aren't many rollers to rock you around but this time we had them. Sometimes you feel like you are going to be thrown out of your bunk when the boat rolls heavily. Nakia wanted to try anchoring out at the little islands in the middle of the big bay so we pulled up anchor and went out there. The islands are bird sanctuaries and there are hundreds and hundreds of gulls, boobies, pelicans and frigate birds nesting in the cactus and spiny trees there. We took a dinghy ride over to Isla Colorado and checked out the baby pelicans in the trees just in from a small beach. They were funny and loud, calling for their meals from the parents who would go out fishing and then bring in the fish pieces in their big pouches which the babies would pick out, none to gently but the parents were patient with their kiddies. There were also many buzzards hanging out near all the pelicans and if a baby were to drop out of a nest I am sure they would be recycled pretty quick.

Unfortunately it was even rollier in the islands so we left and headed for Tenacatita under sail. It was a great downwind run and we poled out our jib for the very first time which is quite a feat for us novice sailors. This is called going "wing-on-wing" for you landlubbers because you have your mainsail out on its boom on one side (port say) and you force the jib out on the other side (starboard if the main is to port) so you have a sail winged out on each side. It is the best way to sail straight downwind as the boat more or less steers itself although it will roll from side to side. It can be hazardous when the wind strengthens though, which it did. So then the next trick was to take the pole down which we finally did after some trial and error. John on Nakia shared some pointers later and it turns out we did it more or less the right way.

Last night we had a spaghetti feed with John and Linda on Maggie Drum and then taught them how to play Pinocle cards. It was a lot of fun but around nine we all got tired (cruisers go to be early) and so retired. Today is sunny and calm and we are looking forward to Barra which is another favorite haunt of sailors. Many boats left Tenacatita like we did to go to Barra to be able to go in to town and watch the Superbowl on Sunday - go Seahawks!! We also have more old friends there to look up which is always fun.

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