Gearing Up

I'm Gnashing my teeth and going sailing almost every day, getting the boat ready for the trip across to Hawaii. I hope for a good wind on the 30th, just 10 days away!
Yesterday I went out sailing and chasing another boat, Shamaness. I got some pictures of them, and they got some shots of me! I had just cleaned the bottom, so I was super fast and smooth sailing, and LaFawnda is working awesome with the clean bottom! She is still a bit too powerful, so in these shots you can see the vane is not up to "full power" position, and when the wind came up a bit more she was getting a bit twitchy, maybe more than I would like. So I will "dumb down" the system a little bit to make the motion more in a straight line. Its nice to have a wind vane that is too sensitive, rather than not enough.
For example, I was motoring a few days ago and LaFawnda was steering the boat while motoring in very close to no wind at all. I think 2 knots or less. So the sensitivity is awesome!
Other than that, I just bought a bunch of food. I'll go and buy more in a few more days, and then probably one more big stock-up the day before I leave. And I need to get a little more water.
Then the day I leave, I scrub the bottom again, and off into the blue!
There will be a quiz for you all on the departure day, which is a guessing game. When, to the day, hour and minute, will I arrive? The definition of arrival is the turning around Hilo bay breakwater....
Here are some constants to consider...
Altair is 20 ft, 6 inches at the waterline. The bottom paint is 6 months old. The mainsail has 4 patches in it. The spinnaker is torn, but I hope to repair it before I leave. I can hold 15 gallons of Diesel. Light travels at a constant rate in a vacuum. I will leave on April 30, and the distance is something you can look up.
Be sure to have the guess in by May 20 in order to qualify for the prize. The Prize!
The shots of Altair are from Shamaness. I took the others.

Guns, Germs, and other things

Last night I was over on another boat and we got into a most interesting conversation, that I would like to share some of the things I learned... Unfortunately it is of a political nature. I must be growing more conservative in my old age, so here I am writing about politics.
Its about guns.
Some of the fellow sailors down here are Canadian, so they come from a land with different rules, and the whole "right to bear arms" leads to contention. But I am beginning to understand why the USA started up that amendment, and why it was near the top of the list. It is important. In a society there are many things that drive the balances of power, such as money, or food, or strength of arm (like a big dude at school), or strength of arms (the guns). In a place such as China, where the general public is not allowed to have guns, then that kind of power is very highly concentrated in the military, which is controlled by the leaders. Supposing the leaders are unpopular, they have the upper hand, whereas in another country (say that this country exists, just pretend) where the power of armament is more spread out, if the leaders are unpopular, they can be replaced.
But at the same time, I think that there are many things that can force the balance of power, and in the USA only the guns have a nice amendment to try and diversify. There isn't much about spreading money around, (Socialist!!) and for certain, money is effective in keeping the leaders in office, with the whole lobby thing.
So I am more understanding about the second amendment, but I don't think I agree to it that much anymore, since the "powers that be" are still much stronger than me no matter how many guns I have.
As for life on an island, having a gun is a tremendous balance shifter. If I were to have a gun on my boat and a pirate comes along without one, I have the huge upper hand.
Actually, a lot of this thinking came about when I was watching "Lost" the TV series, over the last few weeks. Its a dumb part of the show that comes up quite often, that someone has a gun and the other does not, and you get to watch the drama that comes from a power shift.
If you look at the picture very carefully, you will see a joke.
I also am starting another course of antibiotics, in order to try and cure the infection in my toe, where I kicked a sea urchin a long time ago. This is the third try, and it is tenacious. So watch out for urchins. I got a double course of antibiotics, so I can have an extra set if something happens while on the way to Hawaii.
And lastly, I plotted out the course of the sun through the year in Longitude shift. So if you look out every day at the same time (say noon) and watch the sun, it should move west and east over the year in this pattern...

Tumbleweed

Actually, the boat is called Great Bear, or will be. But it still says Tumbleweed on the sides, and I like that name better.
So a while ago I was walking along the marina here and I saw a nice looking ketch sitting there with a young dude working on it. Then again, later, I saw the same dude working on the boat again. And again. He was always working on the boat. Sanding and painting and such. Eventually I met him and found out he is a cool guy, despite being a Canadian, and he is also a surfer. So we went surfing once at a place I hadn't been before, since you have to drive there. I had been trying to convince him that he should untie the boat from the dock since the moment I met him, and take it for a ride, but he is a diligent worker, and does a quality job of things, which takes time. I, on the other hand, do poor work and make things that just barely hold together and need repairs often, but for some reason I get the job done very quickly and then go sailing a lot.
Finally we went out sailing in his boat yesterday. It was the first time I had sailed a ketch, though I had been aboard two masted boats before. I got to play with the balance of the boat and it was very nicely balanced. And I made a movie of it.
The boat balances so well, I am reasoning, because it has two masts, which are like two feet to stand on. The single masted boats have a more tricky balance by using the main and jib to push against each other, but when you have two jibs and two mains you can balance the smaller ones and then use the bigger ones for power. And that is what we did.
I love a mizzen mast now. But I also don't want to have one on a boat. Sadly, the wonderful balancing act of the boat (going upwind) isn't worth the nuisance of having the mast in the way over the cockpit, the hassle of an extra sail, and how that sail blocks having a rack and shade over the cockpit. So I won't have one. And, since mostly boats that cruise are looking to go downwind, a boat that balances still needs to balance downwind, and the mizzen was all tied up and not in use for that direction. So I vote it off the island, sadly. I like it and don't want it on my boat.

A restless night

So last night was a very eventful night. The swell has been really big lately, so I sailed out to go surfing at Burros, and after a killer evening session, I was paddling back to the boat in the dark. The sunset was really nice, but someone had said that they had seen a shark swim by, so I was a bit nervous, but I made it home safely. Since my feet had still been hurting I was really tired and fell asleep quickly.
Sometime in the night I had some weird dreams about the boat crashing into rocks, and I woke up to find everything rocking around a lot. My heart rate shot up of course, since I figured the anchor had slipped, but then I heard something hit the side and I realized it was a boat. Someone had pulled up alongside and a couple people had got on board! They weren't making any sounds, but the boat was moving all over the place from the waves and the extra weight all at once, and I didn't think they were going to be friendly, so I grabbed for my big flashlight that I keep under the steps and for my kukri (a big knife that my brother gave me) . One of the guys came around the corner of the dodger and I blasted him in the face with the light, and then ran up to push him overboard. I got him into the water, but he grabbed onto me so I just went in with him. As I fell I could see there was another guy onboard in the front, and it looked like they were trying to cut the anchor loose. So they were going to try to steal the boat!
I hit the water wrestling with this guy and tried to drag him down to the bottom, but he let go of me and I went under the keel and then popped up the other side to get up the ladder. Thats when I saw the dorsal fin slide past me and then I heard the other guy start screaming. So there was a shark!
I managed to get back aboard Altair, and then got the light which I dropped in the cockpit and blasted the guy in the front (they were looking at the guy in the water getting eaten) and started yelling my head off.
Maybe he figured it wasn't worth it, because he jumped back into the panga and pushed away, while trying to get the motor running.
Anyways, after that it was a quiet night. And since it is April first, I hope you were fooled.

Under the sun

Well, I am not quite there yet... When will the sun be directly overhead? the answer is May 20, for PV.
Its a sine curve, with the equation
Lattitude = 23.5 x Sine (theta)

But theta is an angle, and you have to make it a percentage of the 92 day season between March 21 and June 21.

So here is a picture of the idea. Now, Hilo is 19.75 degrees north, so the date of overheadness is May 17, and if I leave on July 9, I will be crossing the sun's path again at 22 degrees north.

Spring

Well, it has already sprung, I guess, but still, there she is. It is now springtime, and I am much relieved to have shaken off winter. Not as much as you folks up in the white north, most likely, but relieved enough. Maybe I am destined to die in wintertime, because I feel it weakening me every year. Maybe it is the connection with my jungle ancestors (oh wait, they don't know wintertime in the jungle) or with my acer macrophyllum relatives. (who knows what that means, without having to look it up, besides my brother?) But that is over now. Soon it will be summer. I am really interested in watching the sun rise higher and higher each day, arcing overhead with the joy of a pollo. Oh, not a chicken! I mean Apollo! Does chicken (pollo) and Apollo have anything to do with each other?
So I am watching the sun and waiting for the light to come from overhead. Since I am at 20 degrees 45 minutes, that shouldn't be long. Here is a quiz. If the sun works in a sinusoidal curve from equator to tropic to equator to other tropic, based on the revolution around the sun (which we would assume is circular, but really it isn't) then what day does the sun reside directly over 20.75 degrees north lattitude?
You should note that the sun is directly over the equator on the equinoxes.
Except that all of that is not really true. It would be nice if it was, and that is what I base the quiz on, but the truth is more complicated, like leapyears and such. The earth doesn't go around in a circle, so the sun spends more time over the northern part of the sine curve than the southern (hence the colder south pole) (well, the fact that land is on the south pole also has something to do with that) So if you want to be exact, you need the almanac. But that's just the way it is. Part of the trick with Celestial navigation. But you can do all right with the navigation with a sine curve.
Ok, back to business. Hawaii is about the same lattitude (just a little south), so if I leave April 30, and get in before June 1, will I see the sun directly over my head during the passage?
I don't think it will be that impressive, but I've never seen a directly overhead sun. The closest I've come was probably in Vietnam last June, when I was about 10 degrees north, and the sun was still to the north of me.
Or in Costa Rica in March a few years ago, I was at 8 degrees, and the sun was at 0. Close, but not perfect.
So I am happy with the returnation of the sun to the northern lands (sorry for you folks down under).

March blues

The sun rises alone today. Much like the other days of the year. Yesterday some people told me that I was so lucky, to be able to wander off whenever I choose and to sit outside the surf break and come surf when I want. They have a point, I am lucky to be able to do it, but at the same time, they have something that I do not, and something I am increasingly missing. An anchor. I have 6 on board, but that's not what I mean. Something that keeps them here. I am only where I am at the moment, and soon enough, that moment will end. What I really mean is that I'm starting to feel lonely. Starting. Its been building since I was four years old, and sometimes I can ignore it, while other times I am drowning. Everyone is moving back to the summer spawning grounds, the northern nests, and the tourists here all have families or at least lovers. I have Altair, but she doesn't breathe or have heartbeat to listen to in the night, just creaking bones and assorted metal pieces clanking around. The life that comes to me comes from other people, and they are far away.

There are some beautiful things I get to see, but they lack the meaning without getting to share them with someone. I can try to share with you, faithful blog reader, but that isn't quite the same, I am sorry to say. Anyways, I am coming home, not because the money is really running out, but because I lack the enthusiasm to go on alone.

The surf shot is from Kemi Vernon

Off to the Races!

There is a big regatta going on in the bay right now, with a lot of J-24s, some large boats, and some BIG BOATS. They've been zipping around the anchorage and yearning for speed, and contesting each other in the water every afternoon. A few days ago I managed to get myself mixed up in two races at once. One was against Stefan's brand new bottom paint (and his Triton) and the other was the big boat races that happened to be running across our course. But we were nice and gave them the right of way.
There have been a few other boats that haven't been racing (as far as I can see). A big trimaran and a big sloop, both showed up here and then left again, without partaking in the races. I hear there is some long distance race that they might have just finished here, and now are going home. So on the homeward bound leg, I caught up with this super fast trimaran and got some pictures before I left him in my wake...
Anyways the wind is good and the races are fun to sail around and watch. El Presidente de Mexico was here to watch the race, so I got close to him, but didn't see him in person. Too bad. I've seen the prez of Panama and China, why not one more?
Here are some pictures from the racing...
And a helicopter for someone to identify.

Future Unfolds

There hasn't been much of a change in my state of being over the last few months, so I'm running out of things to write about. Soon, I will be going to new places and then I'll have more stuff to write about, but not quite yet. Well, there are some things. A lot of the people that I have met over the last year, and some that I have met last year, and even a couple that I met longer ago than that, up in Bellingham, well, they are working their way back. Back to Home, back to the north, back to the future... But they come and go, and the closer I come to going the more I feel that little sad and happy feeling you get when you realize that someone means something to you. That you'll miss them when you don't see them ever again. Well, maybe not never, but who knows? I'm hungry right now and I just got a plate of food in front of me, and the feeling is similar I think, where you are happy to be a little sad. I am hungry, but holding it off a little longer...
Ok, enough of that. I just took a bite. I'm not going to be ruined by this parting of friends (sorry to those of you reading) but I will remember.
Anyhow, this catamaran is Cat 2 Fold, a cool looking thing that is heading back north right now, with a friendly couple that I met back in Cabo in November. Also, my friend Stefan, the German guy who I've been surfing with and playing chess against, he is heading to the south, to Costa Rica, in a few weeks. And the "fleet" of people crossing the pacific will depart soon.
My departure date is still up in the air, but I am really leaning towards April 30.
Also, for those of you reading and writing comments, I really appreciate the commenting, but I am unable to respond to any comments or questions unless you make sure I know your email address. Feel free to send me an email using christian.d.lloyd@gmail.com, or let me know in the comment who you are, so I can find your email in my files.
Here is another shot of Altair with the new solar panels and the racing Genoa up (in place of the cruising-beat up-rusty jib)
Unfortunately I lost this race as well, since I went to the wrong mark.
But I am undefeated in the downwind spinnaker runs.

The dog days of winter

The time seems to run by so quickly, and it is almost march now. A lot of people are leaving for other places and I am facing the long passage to Hawaii. Both looking forward to it and fearing it.
I've been surfing at Burrows a lot still, and racing Stefan, the German guy who also has a boat there. So I have a few more racing pictures.
I also have a new video.

Burrows

I've been staying a lot in Burrows, which is a surfing spot in between Punta Mita and La Cruz, in Bandaras Bay, which is also home to Puerto Vallarta. The surfing is pretty good even when it is too small other places (like at Punta Mita) and there are no sea urchins, for which I am very glad. I have several small puncture wounds that still are adamantly refusing to heal in my feet and hands from the little spiky bastards.
This new place came about when I was at Punta Mita and decided to paddle over to another boat that looked like a Pierson Triton, so I went over to ask. In fact, it was. The owner, Stefan, was cleaning the bottom and then invited me over for a visit when he was done. It might be that he is from Germany, so I get to practice mien Deutsch, but we've become friends. He lives at Burrows, anchored out, and working at a resort that sits right next to it. Anyways, we've been playing chess, and I understand the saying in The Matrix, "You never truly know someone until you fight them." Anyways, playing chess against him is a good game, because if I play the best of my abilities, I can win, but I have to be on my toes. So the score is 4-3, in his favor right now.
I went and anchored out in Burrows after that, and I've been surfing there mostly ever since. And the surfing has been pretty good.
A few days ago we had a race. He is very competitive, and the boats are about the same size (the triton is 28.5 ft long, and my boat is either 27 or 34 ft long, depending on what you count. Another contest of wills. Actually, the first one wasn't a race, but a rally of sorts, where we sail alongside and get pictures of each other's boats, but anytime that two boats are sharing a direction and the wind it seems to turn into a race.
But what is this? He is very protective of his rig, and refused to fly all the canvas he could, so, despite his shiny clean bottom, (mine is covered in crap right now) I was pulling ahead!
Then at the corner he put up his mainsail and got to the anchor first. But that wasn't a race, because we hadn't agreed on it beforehand. So the next day we sailed back, and this time we laid down the terms.
Foolishly, though, he traded me a spinnaker in the night. So now I have a spinnaker again.
And when dawn broke and the wind blew feebly across the waters, I put up all that I could and pulled ahead for a victory. So the sailing is 1-1 or 1-0 depending on how you count it.
He's sailing to Costa Rica in a month, and I will probably stick around here for a little longer and then go to Hawaii.
In this second picture I am flying the spinnaker and the jib at the same time, of which I am very proud. This new kite is nicely star spangled, and I guess it is fitting that it will take me and Altair back to the USA.
As for the surfing, Burrows is a point, mostly a right, but there are lefts to be had as well. It is warm enough right now to go without a wetsuit, but I usually stay in the water for 4 hours or so, and for that amount of time I need to use my suit. It has been pretty small the last week, and of course when it is big I didn't bring my camera ashore to take any pictures, but here is a decent shot of one of the guys I met in the water hanging five. I like that you can't see the board.
I've been working on a new video, but I'll have to post it when I am completely done, which is not quite yet. As a result, I am burning through lots of electrical power, and its been cloudy lately, so I need to get a wind generator, I think. Also it will help on the trip over to HI and back. I hope. There has been some fun clouds and some rain, and I got this morning shot a few days ago when the sun beamed through. Unfortunately it didn't turn out like I wanted it to.
And here are some shorebirds, I am not sure the species.

Another video

I made this when I was at Isabella the last time a few weeks ago. I've always thought of it as Jurassic Park, so this is a primitive attempt.
Unfortunately, I can't upload the video into the blog direct, so I have to go throught YouTube, and damn them, they put an ad in my last one! I bet this one as well. Sorry about that. I am always trying to keep this blog as advertisement free as possible.

Surfing Video

So GoPro videos are probably way overdone, and I found that this one video has burnt me out on the video for surfing. But I did one. I'm sorry if it isn't any good. The waves were fun to play in, and I have been surfing sometimes twice a day. The most I have surfed in the last couple days was an 8 hour day once, a dawn patrol session for 4.5 hours and an evening session for 3.5. So much surfing!
So I am still in the Puerto Vallarta area, and I'll probably stay here if the waves stay good, but sometimes I am thinking about going back to Tenacatita and some of the places I saw last year.

Back on the mainland

I made it into Puerto Vallarta again. The wind wasn't really there for the crossing, and I just got in after 12 days. But I spent 4 days at Isabella, so it wasn't too bad. The water has really warmed up since I've come over this way. In La Paz it was cold enough to get you even though you were wearing a wetsuit, and the visibility wasn't great. At Isabella, I noticed the warmer water a little bit, but since I was diving, I still got cold. Then yesterday I got to Punta Mita and went surfing and it was fantastic! I was so warm I had to pump cool water through my suit in order to maintain my "cool". Of course it is easy, when you're a surfer, to be cool. Even if you catch a wave and promptly wipe out crazy style. I had some really nice wipe outs, because I was by myself out on the waves and I wanted to try some new things. I have a decent bottom turn and I can keep speed up with it, but my top turn isn't as fast and snappy as I'd like. So I was trying to do a big snap on the top, but the waves are small and that isn't easy. I did do a nice rail slide on the top once, and there is a place where the wave speeds up and I really like it there, since I can't usually make the section, but I have to try and go as fast as I can. If the swell picks up a little, that spot will be a barrel.
For a lot of the trip across there wasn't any wind. Often the wind would come up until midnight and then die, and I had a few nice sunrises with lots of things in the water at the surface-little wormy things that wiggle in the water and eat plankton or something. On such a morning I had a nice little (well, not so little) visitor who swam along with a dorsal fin out of the water and a tail swishing gently. He (sharks are always he) came sneaking along up to the back of the boat and then looked at my rudder. I think he was going to bite it or something (a sea-lion bit it once, just for fun) and I could see the cold calculating (or not) eye looking at me through the water. I am not sure if it was a Mako or not, because I didn't see the teeth. But it was smooth and graceful until it saw my fishing lure and then darted away.
I arrived at Isabella in the night, at around 1 am. There are a lot of Humpback whales lurking around the island, so I had to try and dodge them in the moonlight, but I couldn't see them and then suddenly I would hear the breathing so close and it was quite scary. But I made it without bruising the beasties, and then got some sleep. The time at the island was great, as always. I love that place. I shot a really big barracuda, one of the biggest I have seen, and a few Pargo, or sea-basses. The water was really murky and I was feeling sick so I only dove twice. The first time I had a blockage in my nose somewhere, so I kept on having a funny and then not funny pain in the nose as I dove down and then came up with a weird noise. Then it started to bleed and it wasn't funny. The snot is crazy colored when it is bloody and you are seeing it in front of your mask with a blue watery background.
So the nose thing was painful and I pushed it way too far, but I think its over now. I left and had a simple one night overnighter to get to PV, which was good, except I came very close to another boat in the morning when I was taking a nap. After sunrise, I figure, the other guys can look out for themselves, but this guy wanted a closer look. I woke up after about an hour (or maybe only 45 minutes) but the little tiny sail in the distance was suddenly just past me, and it looked like it might have been close. I hate doing that. I feel so irresponsible when I sleep for a little bit (and there isn't much wind) and the boats come close. But it is hard with the coastal sailing, and being alone. Its easier if you are farther away from land and therefore the other boats. So I'll probably not do many more of these close to the land passages anymore.
Anyways, I'll be in Puerto Vallarta for a while, I think, since the waves are great and I need to surf as much as I can.

Another year on water

Happy New Year! I got back to Mexico safely and soundly, but I think I managed to pick up some sort of bug on the plane so I am taking it easy right now. I went out to see the Whale Sharks again yesterday, but didn't get any pictures. The weather in La Paz is the best I've seen it, with warm days and a light wind. Usually it is too much wind or nothing.
Before I left to go to California, I managed to lose my sailors hat. It was one of those stupid things that I really like, despite that it's dirty and kind of broken. I still love it. The departure was a mystery, since I couldn't figure out how it managed to escape, but I searched everywhere.
Well, not exactly everywhere. I just found it! And amazingly, I feel much better, like my sickness is lifted. So I just climbed the mast (twice, since I forgot something the first time) and did some wiring work I was putting off for a long time, and I'm also working on a backup for some of the shrouds (that hold up the mast).
Altair is feeling her age, and I noticed something that needs some love in the not so distant future, while up on the top. I think it will last for a while, but I need to keep my eye on it.
In a few days I will sail on over to the mainland and then surf some more and the work on going to Hawaii. I don't exactly have a plan yet, but I'll work on it, now that I've got my thinking cap back.
This is always a hard time of year for me, with the sun being so far away, and I'm starting to get lonely again, but I think the trip across will do me good, and maybe I can spear a big wahoo or something at Isabella.

Another trip out to the islands

I will be returning to the USA for Christmas, but only for a week, and then I'll leave the Sea of Cortez again. This visit I really noticed how cold it is when the northerlies blow. It is nothing to the cold of the north, and I am going to have to try and figure out how to get used to it up there again, but the warmth of the mainland is not present here.
La Paz stays the nice little town that I like, unlike most of the other cities in Mexico. Most of the cities in the world, in fact, make me weary and keep me wishing for the peace of the ocean.
Last winter the winds were not as strong, I feel, and the cold was not as biting, but this time I am weakened by my time in Puerto Vallarta in September. I have become accustomed to the warm, to the crazy hot of the tropical sun. So these winds get into my bones.
I took the above shot at Punta Evaristo, and I really like it. I like the place, I like the water there, the fish, and the desert. But I'll be heading towards the greener hillsides of the mainland soon.
Christmas first, then next year, I'll get moving again.