Still in Turtle Bay 1.15.08

OK, so we changed our minds - hey, we have that right…we're cruisers now! Haha… Yesterday as Chad was fishing & I was writing the slog update…another boat from Channel Islands Harbor pulled in - and we know them very well! It was Bob & Louise on Easy Lady - a Morgan 41 Outislander ketch sailboat. We've also met several other boats & cruisers in the bay. We met Bill on Someday, Mike on Halua, Grady on Mahalo (from Santa Barbara), & two students from Boston who are here learning how this fishing
village handles it's coop fishing for lobsters and is able to sustain the species as well.

We went in town yesterday with Bob & Louise once they got settled & went to the internet café, but it was closed. Then we walked the entire town looking for a restaurant the students had told Rene about - La Trinidad….it wasn't open so I asked a local girl, in my broken Spanish, where to find a good restaurant. She sent us back downtown and we ate a FABULOUS meal. We came back to the boat, listened to the Southbound net for weather updates & watched a movie. A 'net' is a meeting place where cruisers
get together on a specific frequency, at a specific time, for a specific purpose. Some nets are just for boat to boat traffic, while others offer weather, traffic, and safety, and others are just weather. Traffic simply means boat to boat contact on the SSB radio. If someone has traffic waiting for them, it means there's someone on the frequency who wants to get ahold of them. All you crazy HAM's out there, if you want to can try to tune in. The Southbound net is at 1230 (or maybe 1245) UTC
(UTC = Greenwich Mean Time….so…Pacific Standard Time is UTC minus 8 hours, or 4:45pm Pacific time, I think. This whole time change has screwed us up. We moved into Mountain time, and then are translating into UTC time (we actually have two clocks aboard that are set at UTC time, so it's easier…) OK…so back to the info…The Southbound Net is on frequency/kHz 6516 at 1245 UTC. The other net that tried to listen to was the Amigo net, at 1415 UTC (o-dark-thirty for us!) on frequency 8122, however
we were not getting a clear copy on the net & missed most of what was said.

Speaking of Bob & Louise, they had some funny, tall tales from the sea to share. They left Channel Islands Harbor about 2 weeks before we did. The went over to Catalina, then down to San Diego for Christmas. They we coming into the harbor at night and had a small navy boat come up beside them and tell them that they had a submarine about 200 yards behind them! Louise was supposed to be on watch and when Bob asked her how she missed it, she said "Subs go up, Subs go down!"….hahaha…. They continued
to pull into the harbor and were remarking how beautifully everyone had their boats lit up for Christmas….then realized they were passing through the Parade of Lights! Doh!! We laughed with them telling them our stories of woe, and them telling us theirs for several hours. Their trip down the coast hasn't been without problems and it made our trip seem like a breeze!

Since we had some friends from the harbor come into the harbor and they weren't quite ready to leave this morning (their last trip was a hellacious one and they hadn't slept in two days) we decided to hang out one more day and leave tomorrow for Bahia de Asuncion. Today was a nice relaxing day…we woke up for the morning net, which we couldn't hear most of, and decided to just stay up. I made a magnificent broccoli frittata and toast for breakfast and Chad fished, catching a little bonita, and releasing
it. Michael fiddled around with the watermaker, changing out a pump head that went bad. After breakfast, Chad headed over to Easy Lady as they had lots of projects for him! They had a problem with their davit system and ended up dropping & dragging their dinghy, motor attached, so he went over and worked on both the engine, getting that up & running, the davit system, getting the dinghy back up where it should be, & released a float they had run over that snagged around their rudder. Louise said
they hadn't seen people they could 'talk' to in 6 days and were dying to chat!! Michael & I stayed at the boat, Michael was reading & Rene was fishing (gasp!)…with no luck….the fish only played with the lure (you could see them just under the surface watching).

After Chad returned from his good-deeds at Easy Lady we all headed into town for some internet time & grocery shopping. Michael & Chad got on an internet station first, checking e-mail & weather for our passing tomorrow. Then I got to get on & they all went to the grocery store. I tried uploading photos and was able to get about 5 uploaded and was told the internet café was closing! NOOOOO!!! Haha…I begged for 5 more minutes (cinco minutes mas, por favor!) and he begrudgingly agreed….I started
uploading photos like crazy to my Dad, who will post them when he gets a chance. After my 5 minutes, I begged again for 5 more minutes and luckily, distracted him by showing him our website & the photos I had just uploaded…which gave me 5 more mintues. So you should see some photos on the website….a few from San Diego, a few from Ensenada, & some from Turtle Bay. So check them out when you get a chance.

Bob & Louise stayed in town for dinner & we headed back to the boat for dinner…Michael's cooking tonight, whew!

So…we're headed out to Bahia Asuncion tomorrow, a quick 50 mile trip down the coast. I'll post a position report when we arrive. We're leaving around 6:30 and it should put us in at 2pm or so.

More to follow…
Rene