The tale of the cursed rudder.

The next morning we got up and got ready to leave to leave to Nuevo Vallarta because friends from British Columbia are going there so we went to visit , we got the main sale set up so we could use it during the passage.  

Once we left to head  we put both sales up, but after a while the wind changed, and it wasn’t fast enough jiving back and forth, so we just turned on the engine.

During the passage there were lots of whales around us, and you could see the other boats circling around them to watch.

An hour and a half later we were entering the brake water, with swells that would collapse inside. At one point my dad told me to turn away from the rocks, so I tried, but nothing happened, I turned the wheel all the way, but we just kept getting closer to the rocks. By now it was five and a half feet deep, we were a couple meters away from the rocks, and are steering had failed. Finally, my dad remembered we had a wind vain, so he steered us out with that.

When we were finally docked, we realised something was strange, so we felt for the rudder and it was gone. My brother and my dad got on a boat to see if they would find it floating around, and somehow they did. After, we waited for my friends at the dock. They came about half an hour later, and we decided to go to the beach for the day. At the beach we went swimming in the big waves, and had a sand ball fight.

Later in the day they went back to their resort, and we went to a restaurant for dinner. After we got back to our boat we watched a movie then went to bed.

The next morning we just hung around the boat and did some homeschooling, then in the afternoon my brother and I went to the beach while my dad worked on the boat. We stayed there for a while and then came back to the boat, and then we all went out for dinner. That night we watched the rest of das boot.

The next morning we got up late, and took a bus to the market in La Cruz. On the way, the bus broke down, so we had to get the next bus. It took quite a while to get there, but we had fun looking around, while my dad talked to the people on Jacaranda, my brother and I went to look at the fish.

After the market we went to the resort where my friends were staying, and stayed there the day. First we went swimming at the beach, then went into the pool, had a couple drinks, then kept swimming. When it was dinner time we went back to our boat and had pizza, then we watched a movie. Then when the movie was done we went to bed.

Now go mind your own business, your taking up my sun bathing time.

Liam

Kids

Hello

                I have an awful lot to talk about, so let’s get started! I’m going to start at the morning we left Chacala.

                This morning was a rather an unhappy morning because I was O-so-Happy in my O-so-cozy bed and I had to get up. Plus it was O-so-early. Liam and I got up, ate break and then went out to help get the heavy anchor up. I went to the front and operated the Windless, the whole time being careful not to let it near my beautiful toes. While the anchor chain was coming up, I noticed a tiny weird gooey thing with a big head. An octopus! I called my brother and my dad up to see it. After a while of staring at it, I decided to toss it into the water to let it go home. Strangely some dumb fish ate it on its way down. Liam was not very happy with me.

                Once were out of the safety of the anchorage (not that there was any) we began to notice giant swells beating into the starboard side of the boat. After complaining about the big waves for about ten minutes, we became accustomed to the swaying of our vessel and Liam put out his fishing line while I went back in to take a nap. A little while later, Liam got some pulls on the line, but when we reeled it in, there was nothing there. We started putting it back out and he got another tug! It was a small Bonita, so we let it out again. Bonita are bad because they’re real bloody and meaty. Liam caught one more fish after that, but it was too small to eat. Then I decided to put out my line but I didn’t get anything. Although, I did get a bite and I saw a fish jump, but it escaped.

                The entire trip was six hours and I really do not remember what the heck we did that whole time. I do remember that we sailed part of the way, and on our way into Bandera’s Bay (this is where La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta are) we started noticing a ton whales, and whale watching boats! At one point one swam really close to us, but it was pretty exciting.

                Once in La Cruz, we had to stop at a the fuel dock to fill the gas tanks. Then we went and docked at the marina. Right when we got off, a kid walked by and he sure didn’t look happy to see us. After we were done tying up the boat, we decided to go to a restaurant called “Anna Banana’s,” which had live music. On our way there, we noticed that the entire town square had been ripped up. This was sad, because it was where we used to go hang out and play soccer. We later realized though, that they were just re-doing the roads and they wanted to replace the rocks with brick. Once we arrived at the restaurant, we found out that it was now a Mexican place that nobody cared about. Although, right across the street, there was another place filled with gringos! So we checked it out. The prices weren’t that bad, but it turns out it was buffet time or something and it was more expensive. We decided to go to another place that we knew about. My dad and I got tacos and my brother got quesadillas. After a while my dad wanted beer, but they didn’t sell it there, so me and my brother offered to buy it from a corner store. My dad didn’t think they would, but he let us try surprisingly, all I had to do was buy it and the women sold it to me. So I gave it to my dad.

                That night we watched Charlie Chaplin’s, “Modern Times”. It was interesting to see how all the movies used to be silent movies. It was actually pretty funny. The next day, a man named Mr. Byron came by with his adorable pug to say hi. He was from a red sailboat just across the dock named “Boomer.” He said that we could come over to his boat and watch some movies. Later that day the kid that we had seen came by and said hi. He said his name was Leo and that he was from a catamaran named Popoki. Apparently his mom had sent him over to say hi. Our dad kicked us off the boat and told us to go hang out with him, so we walked into town. We came to a comfortable spot under a tree and talked a bit there. Eventually we got board and went to the cruisers lounge at the marina. There we met two more kids from a boat named Jase. Their names were J.P. and Mickey. They said they were going to the restaurant that we almost went to the day before, so we tagged along, but Leo didn’t come. After a while Leo came by and said that we were going to be watching a movie on Boomer’s boat. I quickly made some pasta and me, Liam, Leo, and his sister headed over. We first watched Rio and then How to train your dragon, the whole time eating popcorn and drinking Pepsi. We then thanked him and went back to our boat.

                The next day was all about work. The two main things we had to do was groceries and laundry. We decided to do groceries at a place that we had done them last trip. We also left the laundry at a women in town who would have the clean load ready for us the next day. We dropped the laundry first and went to the groceries after. We got the eggs juice, tortillas, vegetables, and of course, desserts! We didn’t get everything that day because we decided to come again the day after. We then hauled the heavy bags back to our floating home.

                After all this exhausting work, we decided to go hang out with Popoki. We went on to their boat and played a bit of UNO before all heading over to the restaurant that we almost went to the other day. Liam and I had hamburgers, and then we went over to Boomer’s boat again to watch a movie called Super 8. I had already seen it about four times, but it is my favourite movie so I wanted to see it again. After the movie we went back to Popoki and played UNO while we listened to my I pod. Later the parents got back so we went to our boat and went to bed.

                The next day we had to go back into town to pick up the laundry and get some more groceries. We were supposed to be leaving that day instead we decided to leave the day after that. When we returned we put away the groceries and then went to play a game of ours called Malarkey on Popoki. We spent the rest of our day the there, and the girl even made us soup for dinner. After the meal, we borrowed a movie from Boomer called The Core, and watched it on Popoki’s TV. About halfway through, the girl began to get a headache, so the three of us went over and finished it on Boomer, which was pretty nice of him. My dad came by to see us, but went back to the boat after. Later we went back to and went to sleep.

                  The next morning I had to do some homeschooling. I had to finish a project for school and then send it to my teacher. We also needed to clean up the boat and fill the water tanks. I then took a shower, and Liam and I then went around to the people we knew and gave them our boat cards. We then departed. We left the marina and headed over to a anchorage called Punta Mita. We were really surprised to see an old friend from the last few trips there. Jacaranda! We called them and said hi. They said that they would be coming over to anchor closer to us and that we could get together the next day. That night, Liam made the dinner. He was going to make me quesadillas, and him and my dad; pizza. It took him about two hours, but it was pretty good.

                The next day I made bacon, my dad made eggs, and my brother made beans. It was delicious. Especially the bacon. Later we heard somebody calling “Outrider! Outrider!” We went outside and saw Jacaranda going right passed us on their boat. They anchored to our starboard and we went over later. We were in their boat for most of the afternoon, just talking in their cockpit. She made us some cookies and gave us a pack of cranberries to eat. Then we went back home. For dinner we all made our meals, and I’m doing the blog now. So BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KAI kaikaiKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKAIKA     

Mazatlan - Chacala

Mazatlan.

The first morning in Mazatlan we got up and did home schooling LLLLL, and then had breakfastJJJJJ, later that day we decided to go into town. On the way we decided to say hi to other cruisers on a 64 foot boat, that the guy made out of only wood, from his back yard. We ended up getting a tour of the boat, with 19 bunks, 2 washrooms, and 2 masts, and also had a wheel from a world war two destroyer, and a steering mechanism from a dump truck.

After we left their boat we went to catch a bus to the city center, and got some popsicles and ice cream. Then we walked to the old part of town, and my brother and I played soccer. While we were playing, some Mexican girl that must have been around five years old came over and saying some strange stuff that we weren’t able to make out, but it must have been something pretty weird, because afterwards she went over to my brother and started hitting him. Once she was done her attack, we went to get dinner.

Although it took quite a long time for it to be made, I definitely thought my steak tacos were worth it, but my dad regret getting what he got, I’m not sure about my brother though. After that we went back to our boat and watched “Das Boot”,( which means “the boat” in German) which is a German movie about a u boat in world war two. Then we went to bed.

The next morning we got up and left right away to get to a place called Chacala. When we left I put a fishing line out, and a couple hours later I got a foot and a half skip jack, which are basically the worst fish you can catch due to their bloody meat, so we let it go.

Outside the harbour there was a variety of sea life, which included manta rays, dolphins, whales, and birds.

My brother and I stayed on watch till 9:00 pm, and then we switched with my dad for the night.

When we got up 7:00 to take over, after that, there were whales all over the place, and at one point they came to and uncomfortable range, that you could hear them blow. Sometimes they would fully jump out, and other times they just flop over.

When we were almost in the bay, there was a couple of psycho whales, that when I counted, they smacked there fins down fourteen times.

When we got there after one and a half days, it turns out that the swells come right into the anchorage, which meant we had to put out a stern anchor.

When we were anchored we went for a swim, we got our kayaks pumped up, then went to the port captain, after we did that we went to the beach that is lined with palm trees, then we decided walk through town, which took about five minutes at a slow pace. Then we went back to the beach and played volleyball, then we went in the waves, after we were done at the beach we went to a restaurant for dinner, and then we went back to our boat to watch a Monty paithon episode.

The next morning we got up and did some homeschooling, and then went to the beach, we were playing on the beach most of the time, and then we went for a walk to the end of it. We found a stream in the sand coming from some source of water, going into the ocean. After we played there for a while, we went back and had pizza at a restaurant. After that we went back to our boat for the night.

The next morning we grabbed our stuff, and did homeschooling at the restaurant with breakfast. The rest of the day we just hung out at the beach until sunset, and then came back to the boat, I made fajitas for dinner, and then we went to bed.

The end. So now you are wasting my time at the beach, so go mind your own business. 

Work, Work, Work

               Wednesday started just like any other day. Sleeping in. Even though this really isn’t part of our daily boating routine, we all usually try to dodge getting up early and doing our homeschooling, cleaning, or daily errands. Eventually we left the comforts of our warm bunks and began to eat breakfast. My dad at his chart table, and Liam and I at the dining table, usually reading some book at the same time.  After our crunchy apple cheerio’s, we began our exhausting school work.

                This didn’t last long, because my brother and I soon realized that there were some Mexicans from a power boat catching fish from the dock. All they did was get a line and put a treble hook on it. They would then let it sink into the murky marina waters and then quickly pull the lines through the water. At first Liam and I were unaware of there doing and thought that they were crazy Mexicans, but to our surprise, they would pull up fish that had normally been hooked in the belly! They would then place the flopping fish into a bucket filled with other ones, and barely any water. Liam and I thought that this would be a fun and an easy way to catch fish, but to our disappointment, we did not have any of the right hooks aboard. I gave up pretty quickly, but my brother tried tying two normal hooks to each other. It seemed like a fine idea until he caught himself instead of the fish. (Right in the finger) Liam did not keep fishing after that.

                After sitting around the boat, my dad kicked us of and told us to do something. We took a few pesos, (Mexican money) and went to the top of the marina. Liam and I each got a Pepsi and bag of chips and sat at a table, the whole time having a dog at our feet gazing longingly at our food. My dad headed into town at one point with a young man who helped run the marina. He needed some diesel for the boat, but apparently, they weren’t allowed to give service to anyone before one o’clock. This got the man who accompanied my dad especially mad, which led him to exclaiming; “Stupid Mexicans” even though he was Mexican. My dad soon returned but later had to go out yet again to purchase diesel. The rest of the day was slow and mostly relaxing, just until the fisherman catching the marina fish came by and offered to give us a whole bag full of about a dozen fish. We quickly agreed and took the bag. When we returned to the boat, we weren’t really sure what we were going to do with so many fish.  Before we did anything, we emptied the bag into a bucket of seawater. I offered to clean them, and it was surprisingly easy, considering I hadn’t cleaned a fish in over a year. In the end I cleaned eight fish. Seven for eating, and one for bait while fishing. My dad cooked them up over the stove and we ate them like fish tacos. My dad took a ferocious bite, and realized that there were numerous amounts of bones in it. I was sure it was just a bad piece, but mine was the same. Liam didn’t even bother trying it. We sadly threw them out, and my dad quickly made us a delicious sandwich each. MMMMmmmmm!!!!!

                That night we watched an interesting movie about sailors in the 1800’s called: Master and Commander. It was pretty good even though there were lots of boats been blown to bits, we still enjoyed it.

                The next day was a work day. We ate breakfast and then left the boat for groceries and maybe something to eat, which means no school! (Yay! J) We went to the local groceries, which was very small, but thankfully met all of our needs. Liam and I both bought a bag of chips and my dad got some Pringles. These were all for the upcoming passage. We hauled our bags around the quite neighbourhood, and surprisingly found a taco stand on the curb. We sat at a little table, and I ordered three taco’s each. They were decent, although my third one pretty much fell apart.

                Once we were done with our meals, we trudged along the lonely streets with our grocery bags. One of the first things we had noticed about Topolobampo, was the large amount of garbage throughout the city. My dad had mentioned that it could be built into a great place if the locals really wanted to see some change. Sadly that had not happened. Our walk back was quite interesting to see so many roosters roaming the trash filled fields. It really is a wonder of how so many came to be. Once back on our boat, we quickly put the newly purchased groceries in their spots. We then began to clean. Liam and I took turns hosing and scrubbing the boat while somebody would tidy up below deck. The job was soon done and we bid our farewells to Topolobampo, (Not that we really liked it) and then pulled out of the dock. We had to get out of the harbour first, so my dad gave me the wheel while he prepared the lines. Just as I began to start turning, and unpleasant BUMP was heard from the hull of our boat. It only took us a second to realize that we had run aground, and right away my brother began to say; “Kai!” I couldn’t help but agree that it was my fault. It turns out I was a bit of course. After sitting around, some local fishermen came by with their pangas and tried to help us. They took our line and began to pull us sideways. It took about ten minutes, but eventually we were out of the mud. The only thing is, when they were moving us, there was a lowed bang. We weren’t sure what it was, but it freaked us out. Just before one of the pangas left, one of the men asked to borrow some gasoline. After helping us like that, my dad gladly gave them the container to fill up. Also, one of the boats offered to sell us a kilo of fresh caught shrimp for seven bucks. We accepted. Just before we continued on our way, we noticed that the other panga was gone. And with them our gasoline jug! There was really nothing that could be done, so we went on with our trip. After a little longer, my dad was very curious as to what that bang was. We stopped the boat and put the anchor down. My dad put on his wetsuit and dove under the boat to take a look at our prop. Nothing wrong, so we continued on our passage.

                Night fell quickly and the waves grew. We began to have second thoughts about going south and wondered if we should just go across the sea to La Paz. Eventually we decided that we would do two nights, and then stop at Mazatlan, and then keep going. My brother and I then went to sleep.

                                                                                               

***

                    I awoke the next morning at seven o’clock to find my dad trying to get me out of bed so he could sleep. He had just been out for twelve hours and he was exhausted. Liam and I had our breakfast and then went on watch for most of the day while my dad slept. One of the only times he did get up, was when we surprisingly got engulfed with fog, which at that point we were relying on our radar. The fog stayed for at least forty minutes before we escaped back to the sun. Later that night I cooked the shrimp that we had bought. They were delicious, but a real pain to get all the shells off. My brother was only able to eat four, because apparently, the intestines and guts were going to make him sick. That night my brother and I stayed out till 9:40 listening to music through the speakers. It became dark very fast, but it was fun to find constellations’ and shooting stars in the night sky. When it was time, my dad came back out for a long night, while I happily jumped into my pre-heated bed.

***

                I woke the same way the next morning and quickly ate breakfast and then headed for the cockpit. As the day got to about the afternoon, it began to get hotter than it had been before, so I removed my socks and jacket, and got into a t-shirt and shorts. At about three, Mazatlan was spotted. It was still another hour before we got to the anchorage, but the whole time we got a great view of the city and the rugged cliffs. Eventually we got to the anchorage where I took the wheel and my dad put down the anchor. We then sat in the cockpit where my dad drank a cold beer and Liam and I ate some chips. It was officially the longest passage we had ever done, and we were out of the Sea of Cortez.

                Later on, after Liam and I did the dishes, and my dad made some tacos. I then began to do the blog which I am doing now, and I think I am done.

Kai

                Kai

The intercepted passage

I’m not sure what the date is, so I will just put it as march,21, 3072

In the marina that we just arrived in, we were getting ready to go on a five day passage without going to land, far down south. One of the days we  were there we went to another one of my games with the natives, and won 7-0.

After we were all ready we left the marina on Sunday, accompanied by another sail boat, named princess Edvana, or so we thought. We left the bay with them and could see them until a couple hours before night fall, when they got too far off and starting heading in a different course to where they were going.

The seas where calm the first day at a height of one to two feet, and the night was calm with the same. My brother and I would do the day watches while my dad slept, because he would stay up all night to watch. The second day the seas were calm, but it wasn’t smooth sailing until the news came in, that the seas were going to be rough the next couple days, which meant that we had to pull into Topolobampo to wait for the weather to get better so we could go.

We decided to put out some fishing lines for the last few hours, but were unfortunate, and got only bites from birds, but luckily were not hooked on.

When we were pulling into the bay of Topolobampo it got pretty rocky with waves three to five feet but we got in, unharmed. That day we just pulled in, and continued sink the Bismarck, zat iz good.

The next day, which is today to the day I am writing this, we went into town to explore. The guy that works in the marina gave us a lift into town on his truck, and when I say on, I literally mean on. We went to a fishing store, and I got some line, and some leaders. Then we went grocery shopping, and carried the groceries back to the boat.

For dinner we had tacos that my dad made, then, lucky you, I sat down, being forced to do the blog, and my intelligent brain wrote this amazing blog.

So now could you just go mind your own business, and go let me watch a movie.

Liam.      

Our First Passage

                Hello. How are you. Today is Wednesday day and we are finally in the water at a marina across the bay. We left the other marina this morning and we are now at a proper dock. We were put in the water at 3 pm yesterday, and then tied the boat of at this little dock thing for the night. There had been much preparation that day to make the boat ship-shape. We needed to take out the garbage, hose down the boat, charge the batteries, fill up the water tanks, and put away anything lying around above and below deck. After we done all the jobs that needed doing, a large crane/car came and lifted up our boat. It carried it down to the water and then gently put it in. after that a man offered to drive us to Liam’s soccer practise even though it had started about an hour ago. We went anyways. 

                Not much had the days before that, but I will inform you anyways.

                I woke up Monday morning in the front bunk with two blankets and four pillows, not because I’m greedy, but the last few nights have been surprisingly cold! A couple nights ago I was forced to wear jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and my wooly socks, and I was still cold. Although the blankets kept me warm all night long. Anyways, when I woke, I decided to read some of  my novel. I ate breakfast and then did some school work. We had to scan all the work I had done so far and then send it to my teachers so that they could grade it.

                After we did some homeschooling my dad got a ride with someone going into town so that he could do some errands. While he was gone, me and my brother noticed another kid in the yard. A girl, so we decided to spy on her. Eventually my dad got back so we got off the boat and kept spying. Eventually we got bored so we gave up. Later on we went to Liam’s soccer practice which lasted a couple of hours. After that we caught the bus back and had a very very very very very very very very very cozy cold night.

                Bye!      

 Kai

Soccer with the 'natives'

 We got up 2012-01-07, and did homeschooling, so nothing interesting.

 

Later that day I built buildings out of paper, and my brother drew my detailed childhood from age one to twenty.

After that, we helped my dad try out the engine and put the sails up to make sure they are ok.

We didn’t do very much that day, mainly because we were working on parts of the boat, and doing the same things all day.

The next morning we got up and had pancakes for breakfast, then we went to my soccer game to play with the natives.

On our way to the game, we say a stray native, hunting for her daily meal.

When we got there, everyone came up to great me, and then we started practicing for the game.

The first half I got to see how good the other kids really were, some of them you could see needed improvement, and others could score from a volley, and then  down and in off the crossbar.

At half time one of the natives decided to spend it staring at my brother and dad, while he drank his water.

At the end we lost, and didn’t get what we were hoping for, but at least I scored a goal.

Later that day we went to have lunch, and then we got haircuts, oh yeah, and then we got some groceries, and somehow, just somehow, that one tiny speck was right, the speck of the percentage of us getting the same taxi driver back to our boat somehow won.

Later that day I made hotdogs with melted cheese for dinner, and then I had to sit down, and spend my time getting my mind together, just so I could right this blog, so all you people out there reading this, you should be grateful I have done this.

And there, just like that, all that thinking I put into this is now done and turned into this masterpiece, so can you just go mind your own business while I put another one together.