Banshees, The Friars, and the Bay of the Dead

Banshees, The Friars, and the Bay of the Dead

Fan belts and Banshees That took twice the effort it should have. Our first attempt to get to Los Frailes was scuppered by a broken fan belt 4 hours into our trip. Thanks to an alarm screeching like a banshee in our earholes, we found the problem quickly enough. But,...
Bienvenido a México

Bienvenido a México

Winners Winners Chicken Dinners Who’d have thought it, eh? We won first prize in our class in the Baja Haha rally, despite being a week late and having motored more time than we had sailed. In a typical sailing regatta, we would have been thrown out of the...
Idiots, Mavericks, Pelicans and Randolph Hearst

Idiots, Mavericks, Pelicans and Randolph Hearst

What rhymes with tanker?  Someone needs to go back to commercial vessel driving school. As we passed underneath the Bay Bridge, a cargo ship, whose AIS vector showed that he was passing to our stern, decided he wasn’t going to pass behind us anymore. He changed...
A month in Alameda

A month in Alameda

What do you do with a month in Alameda? Install Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries, that’s what. It took a long time to plan, but they are in, and the old lead-acid batteries are out. The previous Trojan batteries may have a good reputation, but we never liked...
Michael Fish was our weatherman

Michael Fish was our weatherman

It could have been worse “There is no hurricane coming, but it will be very windy in Spain.” I think Michael Fish, the weatherman, said on television before the October 1987 storm.  The forecast models predicted maximum wind speeds of 22 knots approaching...