FUBARED out!

In Cabo I had some work to do. There is an excellent shipyard there and I was in and out like a yo-yo. I had some issues with Tender 1 motor/fuel supply and so they sorted that out. And we needed a new exhaust bracket and they were all over town looking for the spare part. I am indebted to Lugger Bob and Bill from Thor; we had a wrestling session with Johnny trying to fit a bracket that nearly fitted.....it is just an eighth of an inch that makes all the difference. In the middle of all this Ed and I (the FUBAR band) were settling on the tracks we were going to delight the Fubaristas with............it was a busy time. We took our guitars to the party that night but the band were led by one precious guy who really didn't want his gig hijacked by us.........I know enough band craft to know the negative signals.
We got things fixed/patched up (put the old bracket on!) and headed North with the gang. The scheduled stop was a marina newly built where the fleet was to anchor since the slips are not in yet. Late in the day one of the first boats there was following a panga in and went aground in only 5 feet at mid tide. Whoops........after getting free and clear the messages were resounding around the Fubaristas.....no way were we going in there; most boats were over 6' draft. We pressed on and got into Bahia de los Suenos after dark, some anchoring challenges for us all off the beach there. It is a great anchorage and wonderful beach; the resort is something else.

The next day we scheduled our impromptu guitar
concert. Ed (co-chair of the Fubar) is a great country singer and had also had been corrupted by me to learn some Santana and Eric Clapton. It was quite an afternoon. Black Magic Woman blasting out to the fleet, what fun. No wonder Ed looked worried - but it was absolutely fantastic, what a warm up for the party. We went ashore and to the Train Room at the Gran Sueno Resort - yes - model electric trains......for a truly excellent party and supper.
We moved on eventually and headed for La Paz, Mexico, our final destination, and the capital town of the Baja. What a great marina and what a nice town. The marina complex here has all you need. The town is laid back, quiet, one of those places that has whatever you need but it is not in your face. There is no street hassle; the tourists here are a required commodity and need to be nurtured.

And so we are at the end of the Fubar. A great Thanksgiving Dinner and thank you to Ed and Don, our Co-Chairmen. You did a great job. A thousand miles of new friendships and new horizons, not to be forgotten for many a year. Thank you to our crew, Iain and Sandra. And to the Admiral for putting up with me. And to Barb at Hatton Marine for getting Johnny's new exhaust bracket here in only 48 hours. Wow.

The Fishing Was Good!

Well here is one happy camper! Iain with his first fish. Yes it must be very difficult for a Scotsman to admit that he didn't learn to fly fish for salmon either in Scotland or Canada but it was great to see that ear to ear grin when the flashy dorados started homing in on our lures. We had pulled out of Turtle Bay at a leisurely hour for the 231 mile run south further down the Baja. A beautiful moonlit night and in the morning we were set to traverse The Ridge, a 100-fathom bank where fish congregate. The lures went out soon after dawn and then it got really busy. We had four lines out at one point and then cut down to two because it was hard to keep up. The zipping of those reels sent us into a frenzy of

activity pulling in the other lures while someone took on the next dorado. We had already caught a couple of smaller ones and also bonito but today's harvest was a 5-dorado bonanza including a couple of good bulls. I was trying to remember all the tips for processing these fish; I think the trick is to make a shallow incision around the whole side filet. Then pull the skin off from the head end. It is then easy to cut to the backbone and cut away the filet, with some tidying around the ribcage. I managed to get them prepared pdq on our stern filetting table before we anchored in Bahia Santa Maria for a well deserved night's rest.

The next day we had a short 29 mile run to Bahia Man O'War. There is a small friendly fishing village and they had organised a fish fry for us. Great tacos and plenty of Tecate Light Beer............oh well, you can't have everything. At least there was a lot of fish!

We also had our introduction to a Dinghy Poker Run. Yes, exactly, what is that?? Well it all boils down to running between three designated boats in the anchorage and answering Nautical Trivia questions. It just so turned out that our Number Two tender (aka "Prawnbasher") turned plenty of heads, it is not often you get a Portabote among the Nordhavn planing dinghy-ites. And we were lucky with the Trivia...........and, Iain is an expert poker player! Well, here we are with our winning grins at ending up with a Straight Flush and first prize, thank you to West Marine for the sponsorship. 

The next morning we were on our way again and the lines were out in the late afternoon over another fishing spot in the Baja Fishing Atlas..............this time I chose the biggest lures in the bag, what was going to try to eat these? Within an hour there was a huge zip from the starboard reel. I grabbed the rod and there he was, a long long way behind the boat, my first marlin. He looked big, although he was a way away, and he came again and again out of the water, dancing on his tail, trying to shake off the hook. Eventually I had brought him fairly close to the back of the boat. I had the reel on full drag but he wasn't ready for a clean release, he just dived powerfully right under the boat and was gone. I stowed the rods; we couldn't top that. We had a quiet evening under way. Our night watch routine is now well rehearsed; we leave the Admiral to the owl spot from 9pm to midnight; then me until 3am; Iain takes the watch through dawn until 6am. Through the night the FUBAR fleet of about 30 boats closed on the point at Cabo and we were taking care with speed and heading as the group bunched for the point. At dawn we suddenly met a lot of traffic! Every sportfisher in Cabo was pouring out of the harbour coming straight for us; the marlin rush hour was on. By 0745 we were in our slip moored against a long line of touristy restaurants and bars. Yes, it was time for a leisurely breakfast on the Malecon right behind the boat, followed by a couple of hours sleep.

To Mexico on the FUBAR rally

After two busy days working with our crew, Iain and Sandra, we headed out of San Diego at 0530 underway for Ensenada, Mexico. It was a good trip; the log records 8 blue whales and a dolphin pod. We had already pre-cleared into Mexico and so all we needed to do was moor at our slip and head off for supper. It was great to see friends Kevin and Anna on the next dock with their Nordhavn 62; it was hammering down with rain and Kevin kindly shuttled the six of us to the Brazilian restaurant. A few caipirinhas later everything was looking good!

We took on some fuel at Ensenada since it is cheaper than in the US; the fuel dock gets a truck a day - 5,000 gallons - so they were hard pressed to deal with the thirsty FUBAR boats - 40-odd boats getting a thousand gallons each................anyway, we survived a bit of rationing. There was plenty of time for us to explore the town, and we were pleasantly surprised. Plenty of good restaurants. Very friendly and courteous people. A wonderful famous bar which has been there since 1864. An HSBC Bank. And an internet access SIM card from Telcel which worked first time (ran out pretty quick however).And our first en-route rally function, there was a communal supper so we were able to meet up with the folk who had been to the seminars and find more travelling companions. Probably around a hundred and fifty people in all.

After getting our Mexican paperwork we were underway for the long leg to Turtle Bay, some 290 miles, and the first overnighter. We were sort of travelling in a long convoy so there was plenty of radio chatter through the night. Weather was calm and there were more whales, minke and grey, and the odd turtle. Turtle Bay was quite a sight with the FUBAR rally boats all arriving and getting their anchors down. Actually the village there has seen better times - there used to be a cannery here but of course that went out of action and now the villagers survive on fishing. At this stage of the rally the weather forecast started changing for the worse and captains elected either to run from the storm or go to the beach party at a local bar and ride it out here at anchor. Pangas took us to the shore; the skill of the drivers was pretty impressive since they needed to land us at a rusty old ladder on a fixed pier. After the tacos and margaritas the sea had come up even more and the pangas ferried us back, with great difficulty, it was a major effort getting on board. During the night the storm was relentless; it was reassuring that we had set the anchor hard and laid out a hundred and fifty feet of chain. And in the morning, the storm had passed.

More later...........

Briefly home to Panama and back

We had reached the point that we had cracked most of the preparations for voyaging further South so we booked our flights and went home to Panama. That gave rise to another list of things to do! Honestly life can get so complicated these days. I blame the internet and the technological age. It seems that we are now capable of multi-tasking and constant motion every minute of the day. Or perhaps it's just me?

It was great to see our apartment in such good shape and well looked after by our support team headed by the Thermo Queen herself. And we were curious to see the view from our apartment of the new Luxor Towers building across the street - well here it is. Not too bad! Thankfully our city vista is largely intact, at least until the next thicket of skyscrapers gets built. Panama City had changed even in the six months that we had been away. The diablo rojos are largely gone, and people now wait for a scheduled Metro Bus service from a bus stop! They are already building the Metro (Subway, Underground, Tube). There has been considerable progress to distance Panama from the Third World over the past few years; let us hope that successive governments here will continue the process. The economy has been growing at near nine percent over the last four years but perhaps there will be a slowdown in the growth rate, I am not sure. We seem to be completely insulated from the economic problems around the world; I presume it is the immense demand generated by business migrating away from the neighboring countries with political problems (Venezuela, Mexico).

On the Monday we stepped up the pace and I went off to finalise my Permanent Residency papers. It has only taken three years after all! Then we went to HSBC. While we were away our relationship manager changed - or left - and we were left incommunicado; just one of the pitfalls of itinerant lifestyles - you really do need to be ahead of the game in planning how to organise things from afar. I then went to another of my un-favorite places, yes, the phone company. These companies are the bane of one's life - Cable & Wireless (Panama), AT&T (USA), Rogers (Canada) .............managing our accounts effectively is a trial. (Soon we will be off to Mexico and I will have the pleasure of starting a new relationship with Telcel.) Other visits were the water company (easy) and the car insurance (easy). And then our doctor, and no we do not need any more vaccinations! We also dropped into collect our mail and found the usual bundle of things we had dealt with months ago. But there was the odd little gem in there that had got under the radar. A refund from AT&T, I should get that framed. Unfortunately the admin of one's life is relentless and never seems to get any easier; but at least I can whinge to you all about it!

It was delightful catching up with friends and our timing was brilliant, the annual Felipe Motta wine fair. The ticket is $20. There were about 300 wines on taste from 50 suppliers around the world. Susie and I wrote our tasting notes all over the book (yes the writing did deteriorate over the evening) and the next day used the $15 voucher from the ticket to buy a few bottles of the wine that we had selected for the grand sum of $5 a bottle, the net cost was notalot. The amazing thing is that the wine market in Panama is so young, and so vibrant, and the producers are so keen to get their product in and established. Competition at its best. And there is no excise duty; now that is my kind of shopping. Moving on............I will pass over the Proprietarios Meeting for Edificio Crystal............we went to the Ancon Theatre and saw a hilarious play, great fun. And then off for the weekend to the beach. Plenty of guitar playing and some excellent margaritas.

I was motoring through the emails on Monday morning and found a blog posting from another Nordhavn 55, "Just Believe", who had just arrived at Flamenco and were going to transit soon. I went down to the marina to meet them and see if there was anything we could help with. We ended up going to one of our favorite restaurants, Manolo Caracol, for supper to which we were very kindly treated. Jim and Julie hail from Texas and they have a ranch with zebra, donkey, elk and other critters. Just your ordinary Nordhavn owners then!

So here is today's photo selection from our apartment in Panama and one of Susie's masterpieces 'Canned Heat', which was selected for an exhibition. I am afraid the photo does not do it justice, it is approximately 5' square. Susie seems to be working on quite a number of pieces at the moment.........watch this space.

We are now back in San Diego. "Last Mango" is in the final stages of preparation for our departure to Mexico. We have another week here to get ready and get our crew briefed! Providing they have recovered from Felipe's wine offerings............

A Serendipitous Moment

Happening upon something one does not expect..............


A friend had suggested a Mexican restaurant near San Diego Old Town, El Agave. Guess what it is famous for. We had wandered around the Old Town for a while but then the mission grew strong and we were looking for El Agave. In the end we asked four times for directions and, finally, there it was way out of range several blocks away. Why did we make such an effort to find this place? Going to be worth it? Well, after a good house margarita things started looking up. The menu was looking good.........I strolled around the restaurant in my usual restless way and found a table by the window where we could watch the sunset, getting better with every sip I can assure you.

So there we were. Here was the view to the inside:

   A thousand tequilas........the guy was quite a collector. The restaurant walls were lined with display cabinets, hundreds of bottles everywhere.









We took to our table. And suddenly, the Admiral said: "Oh my God" - or words to that effect. This is what she had seen in the display absolutely right next to our table:

The serendipitous moment. The great mystery is solved. Yes, the name of our wonderful floating home is enshrined as a brand of tequila. And not just any brand, Jimmy Buffett's own developed variety, Margaritaville "Last Mango". After all, he did write a song of the same name and also named one of his boats "Last Mango". And he had a Nordhavn at one time............

So: analysis. Was it fate that led us to find the restaurant and sit at that particular table? What if we had never seen the display? Are there times when one has missed these opportunities and never known how close they were?

Cheers!

San Diego and The List

Since our arrival in San Diego we have been slogging our way through the punch list. Looming departure from the ready availability of everything to do with boats seems to spur one into full preparation mode; I have been living up to my reputation to the Admiral of being "List-Man" numero uno. Within a day or two of our arrival we had lined up our projects and started the plates spinning on their poles.

The generator now has a new starter motor and the old one has been rewound for a spare. I had succeeded in my mission to get the wing up to the 50 hour level and that triggered the "large" service after the run-in period. My escapade with the bow thruster in the 'Charlottes required a review of both thruster drive connections and  replacement of worn parts. The flirtation with varnish for the teak rail around the cockpit has come to an end; that has been stripped and simply sealed; there is just too much fishing activity for pretty varnish finishes to survive in our cockpit. The sub-zero freezer drawer has now been meticulously re-engineered by Eddie and shouldn't ice up like the Antarctic any more. Stanadyne - diesel additive - was found by yours truly at a very reasonable price on the internet and we probably have enough on board to trade our way across the Pacific rather like Captain Cook's beads. Chevron's oil production peaked this month and much is residing as ballast downstairs, along with various other necessary fluids, found at very reasonable prices on the net. We drove up to Irvine and "slept" in the Handcraft Mattress factory; an extended period on board deserves replacement of our current pallet with something really comfy. Talking of Irvine, home of Intellian, we are installing a satellite communications platform so that we can remain in email and voice contact without depending on shore-based systems. Tim at SeaNet Inc is our comms guru and deals so patiently with me as I tiptoe into the 21st century. Chart research has been done and we are on course for Navnet chips; MaxSea downloads, and paper back-ups. Admin has been tackled with my usual gusto; we have our temporary import permit for Mexico; fishing licences; special Mexican insurance, crew list in espanol.......... And on the shore power front, I have decided to go with the ASEA shore power management system. I crunched the math and decided that connecting to alien shore power in a Tahitian marina would beat running the generator every day. What else can I bore you with? Spare parts orders from our internet-based maintenance system run by Wheelhouse Technologies. Watermaker service. AC service. Honda outboard service. Oh yes, and a new bank of starter batteries. Mere detail............

All I can say is thanks to Keith and all the team at Driscolls for their diligence in looking after Last Mango. We do enjoy being here on Shelter Island.
The yard is opposite the Marlin club established back in 1931. They have decades of records on the catches made; unfortunately the one in the picture was not able to be released and it made it to the public weigh station at the Club. We will make every effort to make sure that any sailfish we may hook up are released in good shape. Shelter Island was a mere mud bank in the early 20th century; now it is a haven for every conceivable supplier of yacht services. The harbours are full of ocean going yachts and the serious fishers who migrate south soon when the hurricane season ends.

This home made ravioli was served at Il Fornaio, in Coronado. It received a "Best Ever" Admiral rating, and my scallopine was as good as I have had in Sicily. This part of California has developed so rapidly over the past 150 years; prior to that these lands were explored or annexed by Russians, Portuguese, Spanish, Mexicans.........In the early 19th century the Roman Catholic church owned 90% of settled land in California; after the war with Mexico, California was part of the Mexican Cession transferred to the US. The population of California then was boosted firstly by the Gold Rush and also homesteading Confederate soldiers after the Civil War. Susie and I were desperate to get out of town for a while and so we took to the hills and went to Bed & Breakfast land in historic Julian, a couple of hours away. Up there in the sunshine we walked around this charming little place famous for Mom's apple pie and local cider. In 1860 the town was founded by two cousins who needed to head West to find a home after the war. Even walking round the town today it seemed little had changed, except that the gold has run out.

PMYC Homecoming

Well here we are. We had called ahead and asked if Last Mango would be able to squeeze back into the friendliest slip on the West Coast, and Alan was right there waiting to give us a hand with the lines, thank you Alan. What a trip we have had, nearly 6,500 miles since we left the club in April 2010. This time we knew that we would fit in the slip, thanks to Sparky's "measurements" last year, and so Susie and I were happy to just get right on in there, after all there are those eighteen inches to spare. It was a great homecoming for us and we were able to catch up with the many characters at the club and make more new friends. Our thanks to Mike for introducing us to the club in the first place, and to the current Commodore, (another) Mike and his other half Candy, for being just, well, so wonderfully accommodating.

We are struck by how hard working all of the officers of the club are. The club opens well before we start to emerge and folks are always there until late. Susie and I wanted to make sure we made our small contribution so here we are doing our Officers of the Day. Yacht club pours, Margaritas, Bloody Marys. And that was just the breakfast session! What a great experience for us, we so enjoyed running the bar for most of the day. Alas, we had to move on after the weekend and so I had to run the club gauntlet of whether I could extricate us from the slip without crunching into the neighbouring docks, yachts and tenders. Hopefully the watchers put up the metaphoric "10".
So, I need to report on the FUBAR preparations. We are booked on the rally, leaving for Mexico on 7 November, and we did actually make the two-day prep seminar at the LBYC. This is a very well organised rally and we covered a lot of ground; getting one's vessel ready for travel, first aid and safety, routes, charting and navigation, fishing and regulations, and the Mexican tourist board even attended and cleared us into Mexico. All we need now is a blender and the right ingredients! And of course, our crew, Iain and Sandra. And, importantly, I have teamed up with one of the co-chairs of the rally and we now have our scratch FUBAR 2011 band. Ed has put together the set list and it is going to be fun!

So, back to reality. We departed Los Angeles and headed south, a night in Dana Point, Nordhavn headquarters country. After another day here we are in San Diego, to start our preparation routine for further travels. To put things in perspective, we have allowed ourselves a few weeks here to ensure that we cover as much ground as possible in preparing Last Mango for onward travel and probably a couple of years through and across the Pacific. Electrical power access, usage and generation has been on our minds for the last few weeks. Specifically we are looking at the best way to access and utilize non-60 cycle dock power (outside North America); our house battery bank needs replacement; and our starter motor on the genset needs replacing. We will also work through the extensive shopping list we have put together for maintenance, spares and purchases, improved offshore communications, charts and guides.

The FUBAR rally starts on 7th November and runs to the 22nd November when we should be in La Paz, more or less at the foot of the Baja. We had been thinking of pushing on to Panama for Christmas and then departing across the Pacific via the Marquesas but have changed our minds. Much better to save thousands of miles and have a leisurely cruise around the northern Pacific waters of Mexico including the Sea of Cortez; we can then join the Puddle-Jumpers and depart straight for the Marquesas from, say, Puerto Vallarta in March.