March Madness?

Bremerton to LaConner

Distance traveled:  72.6 statute miles

Travel Time: 9 hrs, 16 minutes

In keeping with our theme of researching whether this new boat makes us happy to cruise all year instead of treating November to April as the off-season, we planned a 7-10 day trip to begin March 6. Among boaters there's a saying that the most dangerous thing on a boat is "a schedule"; so when Thursday dawned with  heavy wind and rain we decided to postpone a day. That's why we scheduled 7-10 days! The silver lining was that allowed us to use this "found" day in our schedule to tackle some projects around the house.  

Friday was much better: cloudy and chilly, but no rain and most importantly, light wind. Having slept on-board the prior night, we rose early and headed north at 7:15 a.m., after our first cup of coffee, but before breakfast. We had a long day planned.

As we cruised up the west side of Bainbridge Island, passing friends Rick and Linda's waterfront home, we called their phone number to see if they were home. We chatted (now really, do you think "WE" chatted?)  for almost an hour, and they both walked to the beach so Linda could wave their yellow kayak in the air to aid us in spotting them from the distance.

The sky was menacing most of the day, but the only waves higher than 1 foot were those of passing ferries or whale-watching boats. Bob's sister Lynn tells us there's a pod of Grey Whales that comes to feed near Everett for 3 months every spring ,and they arrived recently, but we didn't see them.

This part of the State is big on farming and logging, and evidence of both is seen from the water.

Late in the afternoon we turned into Skagit Bay and then Swinomish Channel where the water isn't more than 10-12 feet deep, considered "way deep" back east on the Intra-Coastal Waterway, but the kind of depth that gives Pacific Northwest boaters heart palpitations, accustomed as we are to 100, or 400 and sometimes 1,000 feet of water beneath our hulls.

 

Finally passing beneath the Rainbow Bridge in La Connor, we tied up at the Swinomish Yacht Club reciprocal dock and took advantage of our first free night of docking, a nice bonus to having joined Bremerton Yacht Club last November.

An hour later a sailboat pulled in to tie up behind us, and we dashed out to help the single-handing Captain by catching his lines. Guess who? Captain Jeff is a fellow member of the Bremerton Yacht Club who'd spent the previous night at Kingston and is also headed north in his 27-foot sailboat. We invited him for a beer later, and the three of us talked boating, mountain climbing, children (we each have 3, though his are young while ours are all grown (we dare not say "old") for several hours.

Usually Cathryn is the one who "talks with her hands" but last night Bob was gesticulating, or was he dancing with an invisible partner while sitting down? Who knows: it was late and the wine had all been poured? This trip is off to a good start.

Bremerton Bombshell Babes

What is this about being a Co-Captain?

During the year we traveled the Great Loop around the eastern third of the U.S., Cathryn worked to meet Bob's requirement that she become Co-Captain in exchange for his agreement to make the journey. Within 3 months, she'd become a confident driver and docker of the Loop boat, and continued gaining other skills (navigating, cruise planning, using electronics, performing oil changes) throughout the trip, but never "got there" in terms of electrical, mechanical and break-down/problem-solving skills. Bob remained significantly more proficient in those areas. During the year, we met five women (among the 150 or so boats underway on the Loop) who were Captains of their Loop boats: Charlotte, Ginny, Janet, Betsy and Susan. All had spouses/partners with strong navigation, mechanical and problem-solving skills. Seeing these women inspired Cathryn to someday go on a "Women's Cruise", ideally with multiple boats, all Captained by women, and all female crew, just for the fun of it, and maybe a tiny bit to do something mildly subversive in the male-dominated world of boating, being a firm believer that "women can do this too".




                     (L to R) Lee Ann, Cathryn, Deana and Jean Marie, ready to depart

After we returned from our Loop last April, Cathryn signed up for the "Engine Maintenance" class through the Power Squadron . . . for a second time. When we bought our new Next To Me, a 40' Ocean Alexander, in September and joined the Bremerton Yacht Club in November 2013, she went on the hunt for women who might participate in a Women's Cruise. What she found was no other women yet willing to take their own boats for various reasons, but 3 smart, experienced boaters, all members of both the yacht club and the Power Squadron, who were happy to go along as crew. Woo hoo, great start!

                 "Next to Me" underway, passing Orchard Point on the way to Blake Island,

              photo courtesy of Bob onshore, unbeknownst to the boaters

Preparation for the trip included Bob encouraging Cathryn to do all the docking of our new-to-us-boat for a couple weeks, as she's still far from confident in docking a single screw boat. He prepared Checklists for her to use in managing the pre-departure Engine Room/Fluid Checks and connecting/disconnecting the electrical power cords, switches on the electrical panel and the inverter, all tasks he routinely performs.

So Cathryn, Deana (former owner for 9 years, with her husband, of our new boat, so intimately familiar with it), Jean Marie (current Commander of the Bremerton Power Squadron and full-time live-aboard on a 45-foot trawler with Kevin) and Lee Ann (retired rocket scientist and recent purchaser of her own first boat) planned a 3-day, 2-night journey to Blake Island on "Next To Me" with Cathryn at the helm and this fabulous group for crew.

                             Next To Me" happily, safely tied up in the marina on Blake Island, 

                             with only two other boats on this beautiful but chilly February day.

Taking advantage of the sunny afternoon the first day, the four of us hiked a trail across the island and took a break on the beach at the turnaround point. 

                                 We enjoyed fabulous meals, played "Mexican Train", a dominoes game, and talked and laughed late into the night.

Jean Marie reigned as the dominant winner at Mexican Train, a game which combines luck in drawing tiles with smart strategy and playing skills, as in all card games.

The second night, crew from a 50-foot boat "Plowman", a farmer couple and two kids from Sumner docked one slip over, joined us on our boat for a bottle of wine, Bombshell Red. After hearing our story of why four women were camped on the boat for the weekend, they dubbed us the Bremerton Bombshell Babes, a name which stuck. What a fun weekend, and the crew came home interested in working on their boat driving and docking skills to eventually feel comfortable taking their own boats out!

Thank you Bob, for having the confidence in me that I didn't have, and supporting and encouraging this trip! 

4 of the 70+ types of birds at the lagoon

Heron, Pelican, Magnificent Frigatebird, Magpie

Manieltepec Lagoon

Local fisherman in his panga; a rookery and nest; the river connected to the lagoon; our lunch spot on a sandbar adjacent to the Pacific Ocean.

Puerto Escondido scenery

The view from the cliffs above the beach, a gorgeous sunset during drinks and dinner Wednesday, and a spectacular sunrise Thursday as we head out for birdwatching on Manieltepec Lagoon. They speak for themselves, no?

Check-in message from SPOT

Latitude:15.86066
Longitude:-97.08118
GPS location Date/Time:01/28/2014 15:01:54 PST


Click the link below to see where we are located.
http://fms.ws/FOzOk/15.86066N/97.08118W

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Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido

The alarm sounded at 4:30am, and an hour later Juan the taxi driver whisked us off to the Oaxaca airport where we boarded a 14-passenger prop plane, an Aero Tucan Flight. We traveled across the Central Valley, over the mountains ringing the city, through the sunrise and a mountain pass and the clouds to the south, finally coming to rest on the tarmac at the tiny Puerto Escondido airport on the Pacific Ocean, 45 minutes later. Another 10-minute taxi ride, then we alit at Quinta Lili where we have 2 of the 5 available rooms for the next 3 nights. This beautiful place is run by a bi-lingual Mexican woman who was an electrical engineer in Mexico City for 10 years, then moved to Puerto Escondido to help her parents run their two lovely B&Bs. It's hotter and humid here, so we're reading books in the shade, jumping into the swimming pool to cool off every hour.

Tlacolula Market

Sunday we took a taxi to the Colectivo Station, a form of shared-ride taxi in small, old cars. The price, 20 pesos (about $1.50) per person, is based on 5 passengers and traveling non-stop to a common destination. Bob always sits in the front with the driver because he has more leg room and David, Lynn and Cathryn fit better in the back seat. This time a 5th passenger, a young Mexican woman, jumped in beside Bob, and he ended up squished in the middle front seat on the bump.
The Sunday Market at Tlacolula is enormous, sells everything from food to clothes, furniture and animals, and we spent 4 hours wandering and eating. The first photo is not a joke: a device to contain a chicken while you remove its' head. The second photo shows double-yoked "trees" to pair and guide oxen while plowing, and the third a typical vegetable stand. The last photo shows two indigenous women (there are 16 indigenous populations in the State of Oaxaca) in traditional attire, something the women still routinely wear today.

Ethno-Botanical Garden

Friday we took a 2-hour tour of the Ethno-Botanical Garden in Oaxaca. Focusing as much on the history, cultural uses and significance of trees and plants as their biological names and characteristics, we found it interesting. The Pipe Organ Cactus grows so rapidly as to serve as fences and walls in many places. Pear, Barrel, Ocotillo and many more were present, all native to the Central Valley of this area, and creating a lush Cactus Museum here.

Teotitlan, in and around

The village of Teotitlan (see previous post) is in the mountains an hour from Oaxaca, with lovely views. Its' roads are cobblestone and often very steep. The village is clean and tidy, and the residents exhibit a strong sense of community and industry, many working 12-15 hour days, 6 or 7 days each week.

Rug-making in Teotitlan

Friday we went on a tour of 6 micro-financed businesses sponsored by the Cultural Institute of Oaxaca. All loan recipients are women living in the mountain village of Teotitlan an hour from Oaxaca. Teresa and her sister run a small restaurant and sell rugs after cleaning and carding the raw wool, then spinning and dying the thread before weaving the rugs on a loom in their 4-family home. Their mother Donna makes and sells chocolate. This particular business was featured in the Travel section of the Seattle Times in October 2013. "En Via" is the micro-finance arm of the Cultural Institute which also engages in community development and education, teaching Spanish to non-Mexicans and business classes to micro-finance loan recipients.

Oaxaca Market

Thursday we wandered the largest market in Oaxaca offering everything imaginable including foods on both a retail and wholesale level. Always surprising to us is the number of live animals for sale in such markets, including parakeets, rabbits, chicks, roosters, turkeys, puppies and more. There were very creative uses of flowers. We bought only bananas, onions and peppers but enjoyed the people watching and cultural observations.

Protests

We'd planned to tour the Botanical Gardens today, but on arrival found the entrance blocked by guards allowing in only some people, men in suits and their wives (legislators, we think), carefully screened as they entered the gate. Outside hundreds of trucks and moto-taxis lined the nearby streets, with people and police milling around, marking another day of protests. The sign says "In Support of the Legislative Work of the Senator". No clue to which Senator they refer. Streets were back to normal 3 hours later.

Arrazola y San Bartolo

Tuesday we took a day-long van tour (Monte Alban addressed in prior post) with a small group of Mexican tourists to a studio of alebrijes, a form of wood-carved, painted figurines famous for their colorful, detailed work; and a second studio in San Bartolo Coyotepec to see unique black pottery. The man in the third photo is 80 years old, the president of his village and highly skilled in making ceramics.