Sunset on Hollywood Beach

 

Hollywood Beach at Sunset

Who puts cumin in their Green Chili!?

The other day while we were sitting in the Metro Diner in Culver City waiting for our truck to get fixed, I was reading a column, in I think was the LA Times, by a food critic about his latest trip to New Mexico, he said he had spent a week there and had only eaten 21 meals that contained green chillies. Wow, someone who misses green chili as much as I do. He commented about how it was now possible to get real fresh roasted New Mexican green chillies in some parts of Southern California now and how the Northern New Mexican cuisine has really started to infiltrate other areas of the nation, which I think is great. Then at the end of the article he prints a recipe for a green chili sauce that includes cumin, that's where he lost me.

So we arrive in Mesa, AZ yesterday and we're pretty hungry after the long drive from South Pasadena and we decide to go have lunch at a place that our friends recommended called the Blue Adobe Grill. The Blue Adobe calls themselves a Santa Fe New Mexican restaurant and has all sorts of 'New Mexican' offerings grilled over pecan wood. We're on our way to Taos, we can really wait until we get there to eat some real Taos cooking and so we opt for something simple, the 'Green Chili Cheese Burger' grilled over pecan wood and served with fries. Having spent some time in California and having already had the experience of someone messing up something as simple as adding whole roasted or diced green chillies to a burger, which I don't even care if it's the canned Ortega chillies when I'm that far away from home,
I asked the guy, "what is in the green chili?"
"Oh" he says "just basically a green chili sauce"
well that sends up a red flag, I should of known, there is no 'sauce' involved when all you're doing is adding diced chillies to a cheese burger.
So I ask specifically, "is there any cumin in the sauce?"
"Oh no" he says. "It's just green chillies and a little flour to thicken it."
So the burger comes and yes there is cumin in the sauce! There's no mistaking it, it's a very distinctive taste! Maybe it's just me, I don't care for the taste of cumin, people tend to add too much and it just ruins the taste of the dish. I don't add it to my green chili and I don't remember ever having it made with cumin by anyone else in New Mexico that wasn't a TexMex type place. This is something that's been introduced by who? I don't know, my friend Pollen blames it on the hippies, I think it was Texans. Oh and by the way, it's also more commonly pronounced koom'in instead of Q'min as these waiters like to say, so stop correcting me!

What I really hate is when people put something on their menu and call it say 'Buffalo Chicken Wings' If that chef has never been to Buffalo and has never had real authentic Buffalo Chicken Wings and he's not going to follow the original recipe to the T and he's comes up with his own recipe that includes teriyaki or BBQ sauce or some other thing and serve it with ranch dressing instead of blue cheese then call it something else.

Costly Adventures

After spending several glorious days and the Labor Day holiday enjoying the sunshine and warm water out at Santa Cruz Island we decided to return to Oxnard and the Channel Islands Harbor. Initially we came back to get the laundry done and restock, but ended up deciding that this is where we're going to stay for awhile after weighing our options. We need to get some work done on the boat, replace the goose-neck which fractured on the way down the coast, replace the self-steering gear which proved to be the wrong installation for this boat and get the mainsail repaired and we needed a place to leave the boat while we take a road trip out to NM so Jim can get some hunting in. We now have a slip at Vintage Marina, which at $200+ more than we were paying the bay, was the least expensive one we could fine between here and San Diego.

We rented a car and took a trip back up to Emeryville in order to pick up the truck and while we were there got to spend some time visiting with quite a few, but not all, of our friends, which I really miss. It was a good time although too short.

Waterfront at Emeryville Marina

So we get back to Oxnard with the truck, spend a couple days sanding, grinding and repainting several of the worst rust spots on the hull and deck where the paint had cracked, chipped or was scrapped off by metal bolts sticking out of the side of a work dock that we were trying to tie up to. Then the fire season started right on cue, Santa Ana winds make a little brush fire turn into a big, huge brush fire. We, being down wind, found ourselves in a snowfall of ash and really bad air quality and so decided it would be a good day to make the drive down to Costa Mesa and Minnie's Yacht Surplus to see if we could find a replacement part for the goose-neck amongst all the bins of crap.

We jump in the truck and head down the 101 in just horrible traffic, it would of been more pleasant to spend the 2 days it would take to sail down there. 1st stop we make in Costa Mesa is one of our old favorites, El Toro Bravo, about 1lb of carnitas, 1/2doz tortillas, beans, rice, salsa, pico and a coke for 7.99, more than feeds 2 people. We get to Minnie's and find the part we needed and also finally found a steel boat compass, for which we had been searching for ages. Then we drove around looking to see if we could find some of the people we used to know while we were living down there, 1st we found Jeff, then Fred and finally Mike.

Fred and Jeff are a couple of the last boat builders left in Costa Mesa, which was once the boat building capital of the US. Jeff was and still is the same yard we built our boat in, and the last boat still in that yard. He's been working on his boat for 10+ years, maybe closer to 20, anyway, he's retired now and says he's been working on it full time getting it ready to launch, although it didn't appear as though he's gotten any further along on the project than he was last time we saw him 5 years ago. Jeff is very meticulous and a perfectionist, what he's building is a work of art, be interesting to see if he ever gets it done and what happens when he rubs up against that dock with the bolts sticking out of it. Fred also has been building a boat and has been since sometime before we 1st met him 6 years ago. The boatyard he had been in was closed down in order to make room for new condo's which were never built, and so had to find another yard to keep his boat and one that would also let him live on it. Fred's been living on a shoestring, works when he can get it varnishing other peoples boats and has had some health problems but doesn't suffer from having to get everything perfect. He has been hammering away at it, each time we see him, he has just that much more done and is just a little bit closer to finishing. Also, it would be nice to see his boat floating in water someday. Mike is a collector of boats (he owned up to 16 boats at one time and has 6 for sale right now) and other boat related parts among other things. He has an aversion to sunlight, which makes him appear ghostly white, after experiencing a bought with skin cancer. He's a very interesting guy, very generous and always in the middle of something, he's quite the character.

After taking Fred out to our favorite sushi restaurant, which we were happy to see was still in business and it was still as awesome as always, and then later meeting Mike and some of his friends for drinks at the Yard House, we finally decided that we had probably given the traffic enough time to thin out and it was time to head back to the boat. This is where it really starts to get expensive...

The truck decides it's not going to run any further, somewhere, while climbing a hill, on the 405 just north of LA. We end up having to call a tow truck as Jim doesn't even have a flashlight in the truck anymore much less any tools. After about 45mins the tow truck shows up and takes us back to Culver City, drops us and the truck off at a mechanic shop and we walk across the street to the Half Moon Hotel, which actually turned out to be both cheaper than I though it would be, also cleaner and slightly more comfortable than I would expect, but I wasn't expecting much. It was long night of listening to the sounds of the city, yelling, car alarms, couples in the throws of ecstasy, flushing toilets, police sirens, helicopters, street racers, and garbage trucks, how does anyone get any sleep, is this why city people are so irritable? Anyway, the mechanic says he can get to our vehicle first thing, it was determined to be a bad fuel pump, expensive to replace but we really didn't have much choice, we just bought new tires for the thing and it's supposed to make at least one more trip out to NM. We went and had a pretty decent breakfast at the Metro Diner, and about 11am this morning the truck was ready, we paid the guy, thanked him for getting to it so quickly. We start heading down the street and well, the truck is not wanting to shift gears, head back to the mechanic, where it was determined that the transmission was destroyed by it not having been in neutral during the tow. So we had to pay for a rental, transfer all our stuff out of the truck and head back to the boat to feed our starving cat, who was actually fine and incredibly happy to see us, well, until we fed him and then he really didn't care.

So now what? Old junk truck is not worth spending the money for a new transmission, but we just spent $500 getting the fuel pump replaced and another when we replaced the bald tires. Jim still wants to go hunting and we still haven't found a resonable priced place to stay. and then there's still the purchase of a new self steering unit.

More Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/ArcticTern2003/SanFranciscoToOxnard?authkey=Gv1sRgCLXCg77EmL-AIQ&feat=directlink

Warmer Waters

The light house on Point Conception

We rounded Point Conception with a good wind and calm seas, left the fog behind us and looked forward to warmer weather. This is where we saw our 1st seamonster, a dead giant squid floated by with tenacles that must of been 6-8 feet long. Spent what started out as a peaceful night at the Cojo anchorage. We were woken up about 2am by a 35knot wind which swung around and started blowing out of the east putting us on a lee shore. We were surfing 6' breaking waves in the anchorage which caused our snubber to snap, sounding like a gun shot going off. Kind of made it hard to get any sleep after that, the guys on the 120' oil platform tender didn't get much sleep either. It eventually calmed down and we did sleep for a couple hours, woke up to perfectly flat calm waters, with no evidence of went on the night before.

Pelican Bay on Santa Cruz Island

This is where 'Diary of a Sea Captain's Wife' took place, from about 1908 until the 1930's, they had a camp here where they catered to wealthy Easterners and the Hollywood studios filmed many movies near here .

They say that as soon as you pass Point Conception, you can take off the wool sweaters and breakout the swim suits, well not exactly it turns out. We sailed next to Santa Rosa Island, saw a couple male humpbacks about halfway there, compeating for best tail and fin slap and highest breach, quite amazing. When we got there around 4pm it was nice, sunny and warm, and we thought, we're here, we've made it. But, it was not to last long, wind picked up during the night and blew a steady 25+knots for 2 days straight. We decided to give up on Santa Rosa and headed for Santa Cruz, put down an anchor in Pelican Bay, and finally found what we had been hoping for, we'd still be there to but as we were running low on fresh water, propane, fresh food and been completely out of beer for several days, we decided we better make a run in for civilization, go find a grocery store, and let people know that we were still alive.

We headed for Ventura Harbor, passing 100s a dolphin along the way, large pods were congregating coming into one area from several different directions, it was quite a sight. We went into Ventura, called the marina at Ventura Isle for a slip, pulled in, met some cool people and then found out that they wanted $75/night. That sounded a little pricey just for access to a hot shower and so we headed down to Oxnard Harbor, about 8 miles away, and got a slip from the Harbormaster for $40. We found ourselves in the mist of a West Wight Potter's club, a group of people who get together with their trailerable 24' boats at different locations, do a little sailing and a lot of partying. Anyway, they invited us over for a bit of pizza, beer and Jim got to tell everyone how great he is.

We spent the day doing the laundry, restocking the frig, filling the water and propane tanks and topped it off with a nice hot and spicy dinner at a Thai restaurant. We'll probably head out in the morning for one of the islands, either back to Santa Cruz to check out some of the other anchorages or maybe Santa Barbara. With all the smoke in the air, I don't know that we want to go into Newport Harbor just yet. I remember what it was like during the fires when we lived in Costa Mesa a few years ago, the air in the LA basin is bad enough without adding wildfire smoke to it.

The fires around the LA area are turning the skies gray.
The plume from one of the largest fires looks like a volcanic eruption, it's gotten a lot bigger since taking this photo.

Avila Beach

I'm writing this from the anchorage in front of Avila Beach, which is near San Luis Obisbo. We pulled in yesterday after spending the day motoring from our last port, San Simeon, didn't have a drop wind during the whole seven hours it took us here.

This place is full of sea lions, must have over 100 swimming around the boat feeding and playing

Zero likes watching the sea lions.

We sailed out of Pebble Beach last Wednesday and had a pretty rough couple days getting to Point Lopez. No Small Craft Advisory had been issued, yet we found ourselves in 6-10' seas at about 3-4 seconds apart coming from 2 different directions. We spent an extra day hanging out waiting for the seas to lay down and recovering from the trip. On Sat we could no longer see white caps or rolling breakers out there and so decided to move on despite the Small Craft Warning that had been issued and found ourselves in flat calm, smooth as glass seas and no wind as we headed into San Simeon. Guess you can't trust the weather reports, just got to go out there and see what's going on for yourself and be prepared for anything.

Small Craft Warning for this day called for 25 knot winds and 6-8 foot seas at 4-5 seconds.

We liked the little bay there, well protected from the N and NW swells, neat little general store there that serves lunch. We took a hike out on to the peninsula there, awesome views from the point there and it was amazing feeling the waves coming from the north crash under you and emerge with some force through the network of caves on the other side.

Hearst Castle sits on top of the hill overlooking San Simeon Bay

We took a side trip up to see Hearst Castle, pretty amazing the time, money and workmanship that went into building that place. The architect was a woman, Julia Morgan, which I thought was pretty amazing for the time.




We've spent the day here in Avila Beach getting the laundry done, taking a real, long, hot, shower for the 1st time in a few days and did a little grocery shopping at the local market. Unfortunately, all the real supermarkets are up in San Luis Obisbo or over in Arroyo Grande and there's no public transportation out of this place except on weekends. We have enough food on this boat to last us a good year, but it's nice to stock up on fresh meat and veggies when you get the chance, guess that will have to wait.

This kinda makes doing the laundry and grocery shopping a bit more adventurous than it needs to be.

Tomorrow we will be filling the water tanks before taking off for Point Sal, where we'll stay just long enough to make sure we have good weather to get around Point Conception. Then we're off to spend a few days exploring Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands.

Pebble Beach

Sitting here in the fog at Stillwater Cove in front of the Pebble Beach Resort waiting for an old friend from back home to stop by, she lives in Monteray now. Haven't seen her in what, must be over 20 years, got in touch again after all this time on facebook.

Nice anchorage here, glad we didn't skip it. Several people told us that it's a dangerous one to go into and don't do it if you've never been there before, Charlie's Charts doesn't even mention it, so we elicited the help of Google Earth. Wonderful thing Google Earth has been for us, we take advantage of Internet connections while we have them and save images of all the anchorages we plan to go into.

As you can see from the picture, the kelp lines and rocks are clearly visible and it gives you a good idea of what the land marks you are looking for actually look like. And as an added bonus it also provides the Lat and Lon.

We took a walk out on the golf course a couple days ago, after the last rounds had been played, beautiful green grass everywhere, nice views of Carmel Bay, surrounded by multi-million dollar mansions. Went around to check out the shops and restaurants to see if there was anything that looked good and in our price range, decided to skip it when the appetizers on the menu started at $25, so we opted for a couple cold beers from the Gen Store. We were making our way back to the beach when a security guard offered us a ride off the premises, guess it was obvious we didn't belong there. Nice that they've been providing us with free Internet though.

Monteray

Sea lions on the breakwater of Monteray Harbor

When we got into Monteray we decided to get a slip for the night for a couple reasons, one was so Jim could change the oil, another was so we could get some sleep and of course hot showers are always nice.
This one of the many jellyfish that seem to have infested the harbor, this one was particularly large when compared to the rest, maybe like 16" in dia. I missed getting a photo of an even larger one that was of another species, it had bright purple spots and was even cooler looking than this one. After missing that photo opp, I decided that I wasn't going to leave the boat without my camera, that's when I came across the sea otters.


One of our neighbors on the dock at Breakwater Cove Marina was this sea otter and her pup. They had their own film crew that followed them around all day.

She was a very attentive mother.

And with the orange, purple and pink starfish on the rocks all around the marina, we decided that we really wouldn't mind if we skipped going to the Monteray Aquarium, besides, isn't it better to experience nature in a more natural settings with out all the screeming children?


This really doesn't look comfortable, do you think harbor seals get bad backs?

San Francisco to Monteray

Well, we did it! We have finally graduated from live-a-boards to cruisers! It all happened on Aug 1st. We were even able to get a few people to come out to see us off, they really weren't sure if they believed us when we said we were actually leaving now and they better come out and say goodbye.

Our 1st day out was spent getting reacquainted with our boat since it had been quite some time since we had actually sailed her. It was a windy day, we had 20+ knot winds which made for a fast and exciting ride. We soon reached our destination, Paradise Cove, didn't want to overdo it on the 1st day. We spent the evening sitting on the hook in 40+ knot winds and visiting with a wee little Irish man who told us grand stories of sailing in the English Channel.

The following morning, after visiting with Simon, Lenard and Wilma, who came out to see us off, we hauled anchor and set off for Half Moon Bay. I was beginning to think that the day would never come, that we would pass under the Golden Gate and leave the bay behind.

Had nice sail down the coast, winds were much lighter once we got outside the gate. We arrived in Half Moon Bay amidst a feeding frenzy, the sardines had come into the harbor, followed by the seals, sea lions and pelicans. It was amazing to watch, the sea lions would bring the fish to the surface, the pelicans would dive down and scoop them up just as the sea lion would breach the surface, sometimes with a fish in his mouth and sometimes I think the pelican got to it first.

How many pelicans are in this picture?

The next morning we got the dinghy out and went to see what there was to see. Met a couple guys, Tim and Las Vegas Mike, who had boats there at the marina. They were nice enough to offer us a ride into town so we could do some shopping and lend us their shower key. We later treated them to beers at the local brewery.

One of the people we met at Pillar Point Marina was Jerry, he's a retired aerospace engineer, who wants to be the 1st person to sail to the North Pole. He's made several attempts so far and has almost died trying. The contraption in the rigging is part of a wind generator that he invented that will give him the power he'll need to help keep him warm and alive on his next attempt.

We met another couple who spent 29 years building a Gloucester schooner in their back yard. It was beautiful inside and out, an amazing work of craftsmanship. They hope to begin cruising sometime next year.

At one point there were a couple hundred pelicans surrounding our boat.

The next leg of the journey bought us to Soquel Cove at the North end of Monterey Bay. We anchored off the Capitola Pier. Here again we found ourselves in the middle of a wildlife park. We had prime viewing of sea lions, harbor seal, cormorants, pelicans and dolphin, who had all come into feed on the sardines. We even had a sea otter feeding under the boat, he would surface every few minutes with a shellfish in his hands, eat it and then dive back down for another, he hung out with us for several hours.

The anchorage itself was very uncomfortable, a large swell was coming in, between that and the wind it made it hard to sleep and even just to move around on the boat, we were bouncing all over the place. We took the dinghy over to the dock, just about had to crawl on hands and knees to get over to the stairs leading up to the pier, the whole thing was bouncing up and down like a floor at an amusement park fun house. Took a walk around town, it smelled like they were having a problem with backed-up sewage, the whole town stunk, we didn't stay long. We didn't want to leave our pour dinghy at that dock for too long either, it was getting beat to death between the dock and the other dinghies.

As soon as we decided that we had enough, the swell stopped, the wind stopped blowing and sea was calm and looked like glass. We had to motor all the way across the bay to Monteray.

We're Off! Finally!

Rainbow during a rare July rainstorm

I am getting pretty tired of making plans to leave only to have them delayed once again, I bet you all are getting pretty tired of hearing that we were leaving only to find that we hadn't gone anywhere. I have decided that since almost everyone that spends time on boats and works on boats is mostly living in the land of manana, for most boat projects, take the estimated time and multiply that by at least 4, so the next time someone tells you that it should only take 2 weeks, think 2 months and so on.

At long last we are finally underway. After all the delays caused by missing parts, trying to located parts, replacing things that either didn't work out as planned or didn't work at all, adding new systems we had originally decided to go without, and working the bugs out. Then the rest of the delays caused by the procrastination, lack of motivation and the frustration caused by all of the previous reasons. Of course there were also the delays caused by the time well spent at, and recovering from, all the bonfires, dock parties, dinner parties and various other social events that seem to be constant and unescapable around here. And looking back, it was time well spent. We made some good friends and had a great time doing it.

Now, on to the next adventure....well, as soon as we locate the cat and get him secured onboard.

Zero hiding out on the neighbor's boat, he knows something is up

End of an Era

As we get ready to sail off and say our finaly goodbyes, I'm thinking of all the good friends I have made since we 1st arrived in California almost 8 years ago. We've lived in at least a half dozen different places since then and have met some wonderful people along the way. The last year and a half that we've spent here at the Emeryville Marina has been more fun than any one person should have. We're really going to miss this place and all the people that we have met here and especially those who have become close friends. We hope that you all keep in touch and that our paths will cross again.

Too many people to picture them all here. These are just a few.

Scenes from around the marina.

Click on images to view full size.

Cool Tatoos

I got this friend who has a cock that hangs 12 inches below his knee.........

He wins lots of bar bets

1st stop, Emeryville Marina!

Did I say Wednesday, maybe I meant Sunday. Still working on getting out of here. Jim's been deconstructing and reconstructing and finishing up a lot of little projects that we had intended to put off while we wait for a good weather window.

Earthquakes and Zero our Hero?

We are making the final preparations for setting sail and none too soon as far as I'm concerned because the longer we stay, the more intense my irrational fear of earthquakes develops. I don't know why, living on a boat you don't feel the earthquakes, and our home moves around quite a bit with the wind and waves anyway. The one earthquake that I did feel here, was while I was at work and it shook hard enough to move the biological safety cabinet which is heavy enough that one could not even budge it with all their effort. Anyway, I don't want to be here when the next big one hits.

We were watching Nature on KQED last night and they had a show on about how animals may have the ability to detect electromagnetic impulses prior to an actual earthquake. There are accounts of animals behaving strangely prior to an earthquake and if we could learn to recognize this strange behavior we could be forewarned of the impending doom. One researcher has shown that there is a dramatic increase in the number of missing pet adds just prior to a major quake. Of course most of these accounts are in hind site, people look back on how their pet was acting in the days and hours before the earthquake and make some sort of correlation. At the time, they had no idea why their pets were acting weird. Which brings me to our cat Zero, would we be able to tell that he was behaving strangely? He's a strange cat and does weird things all the time, like today when I observed him hanging from his back legs from the side of the dock so he could put his front paws in the water. We think this is how he manages to catch fish (wouldn't that be cool to get on film). He brings fish home all the time and has finally figured out that they are edible, which is good because we don't like stepping on cold, wet, dead fish first thing in the morning. And if he did try to warn us, would we know why? Up until now, the only thing his 'wake up, come quickly, Timmy has fallen in the well' routine has yielded was an empty or only half full food dish, except for the one time when he alerted me to the raccoon that was trying to break into his cat food canister.

So hopefully, there won't be a major quake anytime between now and early Wednesday morning when we plan to finally sail out of the bay by the light of the full moon.

4 Sunsets and a Black-Crowned Night-Heron

Click on photos to view on full screen.

Knot Work

 

 

 

Photos of the netting I made for the bowsprit and the new solar panels. 420 watts of power!

When are you leaving?

People keep asking us when we are leaving, or they say "I thought you said you were leaving" or "Are you still planning on leaving?". Some of the people who have already sailed away ask "When are you going to get here? Join us, the weather's nice" Others who are planning on leaving too say "Hey, maybe you should wait for us and we can all sail down together". Trouble is, is that we like it here, this is a really nice marina, it's well protected and has an awesome harbor master. We've found an excellent community of people and have many friends here. I guess we're just not in that big a hurry, we want to be ready when we do finally go, but believe me, we do want to get out of here, because who wants to spend another summer in the bay? I want to go somewhere warm, I want to be able to go for a morning swim in crystal clear water, I want to learn how to cook fresh fish.

Summer in San Francisco


I've gone from saying we'll probably leave next month sometime to maybe we'll leave in the next couple weeks. We're currently paid up through April 15th, so that's our new deadline, whether we are actually ready to leave by then or even do remains to be seen. Eventually we will have to go, we can't afford to stay here much longer and there is no work to be had here anyway, so going somewhere where we can make our dollars last a bit longer and wait out the current recession/depression only makes sense.

Anyway, I'll let you know when we finally cut those dock lines, head out under the Golden Gate Bridge and turn left.

New Sail

 

 

We got our new sail last week

 

Jim installing the new radar dome