Beer. Tortilla press. Lime juicer. (Cerveza. Prensa de tortillas. Exprimidor de limones.) All can be purchased at any Mexican city’s grocery store for a fraction (US $12 for the press, US $5 for the juicer) of what one would pay in US stores or by ordering these items online. The lime juicer must be seen…
The Propane Chef owns and uses many knives. Underway, they can lose their edge rumbling around assorted drawers and are unacceptably dangerous if left out in the open as the Fox rocks to and fro. Therefore, one of my earliest sewing projects was one of the smallest: fabricating two knife bags out of scrap Cordura…
I sew. And I don’t just sew occasionally; I sew poorly. Vodka has little to do with it, I swear. I’m in charge of most of the fabric repair and construction projects on this here boat, but do not be deceived: GB is very good at both needle-and-thread work and sewing machine work, especially if…
We give thanks for getting the hell here…….. Rounding Cape Mendocino After the UPS medication delivery fiasco we were stuck in Eureka. The weather deteriorated significantly, with high seas warnings to 30 feet and wind in in the 30 knot range. We watched the weather each day looking for a break – on Wednesday we…
Seems like the best time to see ocean critters is when there’s no wind and the seas are flat clam. Ocean sunfish (the little ones, it turns out) drift along the surface of a calm daytime sea. The big ones – 10 feet or so, like what the Monterey Bay Aquarium has in their Big…
California, that is. We arrived in Monterey in the early evening of August 28, 2007, and we plan to head further south on Saturday, September 1, as early as possible. Fog permitting. Har. We scored a great slip at the Municipal Marina (sorta tight entrance fairway, boys!) but found we had arrived at precisely the…
Along the West Coast of the US, warm summer air moving over cooler ocean water produces fog. In the usual summertime pattern, fog develops offshore, moves inland overnight, and lifts or dissipates the next morning. The fog can be light or heavy, localized or widespread, short-lived or lingering. Whether it’s characterized as marine fog, radiation…
We departed Barkley Sound at 0600 amid a fleet of sportboats leaving Bamfield. The fog was thick, with visibility of about 200 feet. The boats were anxious to get to the salmon hunting grounds but held an orderly distance until outside the mouth of the inlet, where they roared off at 25 knots to the…
After an 80 mile motor down the coast, inside the so called crap pot lane (Not!) we arrived at Eureka. We originally intended to stay here about four days – rent a car, see a few sights and then move south – the next jump to Drake‘s Bay is about 210 miles. Also – we…
…or is it a figurehead? Meet the sailing ketch "Desperado" berthed in Newport, Oregon. She hasn’t sailed much recently, judging from her rig, but looky here: (For lubbers, a dolphinspike is that rod that goes underneath the bow to the chain running from the hull to the far end of the bowsprit, basically to create…