In La Paz getting ready

We are in La Paz getting the boat ready to head off to the Marquesas. Departure planned for 14^th Feb. Lots of small boat jobs that I had put off until I couldn't any longer.

Chainplates

Rig check

Reinforcement for inner forestay

Kid Life

 Two kids in dinghy

 Four boys in a dinghy

Swiss kids. (Though most people down here think they are some kind of First Aiders!)

Christmas with my sister

My sister Izi joined us for Christmas and we had a lovely time with her. Sadly failed to catch any nice fish which just reinforces my lack of ability.

We had caught a nice Dorado immediately before she came though

Trying to catch up the blog - December

We hauled the boat in Perto Escondido, fixed a rudder bearing problem and painted the bottom.

All went very smoothly thanks to Alvin.

Puerto Escondido

Steinbeck Canyon our best hike in Mexico so far - truly spectacular.

Dad went to Switzerland again, and Chris is getting closer to his goal of wearing the same T shirt every day. Tough on his sister who rarely gets to wear hers! Gets a lot of comments, more who think he is some kind of first aid gurru than think he is Swiss.

It's Mid October!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well time is sure flying by, but we are still having fun.

We are back in Santa Rosalia, a small French colonial town on the Baja side of the sea of Cortez. It boasts a prefabricated steel framed church by Monsieur Eiffel. Also renowned among cruisers for its bacon wrapped hot dogs, but the satnd is shut every time we go by. Pepe makes great shrimp tacos though.

We have spent the last month in some remote Islands, really fabulous and getting cooler. We feel chilly snorkelling n 85° water after the summer 95°.

Done a lot of spear fishing, mostly for grouper which are fabulous eating. Since we don't have any refrigeration we like the medium sized ones which feed us all well for two meals. Steff got a recipe for fish sausage which makes a really good spicy pasta sauce!

The nice thing about the cooler weather is that it is fun to go hiking again, and we don't spend the whole day feeling whacked.

We had a break in Ontario for Steff's parents 50th wedding anniversary ( a little early) and Charlie went to Switzerland for a meeting. Welcome injection of green scenery, the desert burns your eyes after a while.Steffs parents enjoyed all eight grandchildren together for the first time. It was fun.

It is dry, hot and barren here but spectacular.

More soon, Charlie Steff and the teen monsters

In the Far North

Well it is  a while since our last entry.....

We are in San Felipe, close to the mouth of the Colorado and convenient fro San Diego, as Charlie is off to Suisse for a few days for the launch of the Sochi winter Games project.

The recent highlight was definitely swimming with this guy and his two buddies. They were really babies at 12-14ft (Whale sharks can reach 60ft) but still pretty impressive as they come out of the gloom. They circled the boat for about two hours until a nice man on a jetski scared them off.

It is hot, about 100°F/38°C most days and our comfort depends on the presence of a breeze. It sure encourages swimming which we do a lot of, snorkelling and spearfishing.

Heres Bill from Iron Maiden with his grandson Billy, with one of two Yellowtails they caught














And heres ours- but bigger than it looks and plenty of delicious eating for the four of us. We don't have any refrigeration so can't keep fish for more than a few hours.