Cassiopeia, Tenacatita Bay, 12/15/03 Hi everyone, Last night we pulled into Tenacatita and are very happy to be here. The place is as beautiful & low key as always. On our trip down we were suprised to have a south east wind blowing at about 15 knots, so even heading south, the wind was on our nose. We did get to sail into Tenacatita, though, which we usually don't get to do because of lack of wind. We passed one of Greg's favorite anchorages, Careyes, and took a peek in to check it out. It's really pretty with phenomenal homes (mansions) & a fancy hotel on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. We were heading into the anchorage slowly (avoiding rocks, etc.) when a couple of humpbacks surfaced right off our bow. We quickly put ourselves in neutral and watched them, and ended up having to turn around to avoid them. We were all very excited, the whales continued to stay on the surface and we were able to watch them for awhile. When we were in Careyes, there was one large motoryacht there that called us on the radio and asked about our boat & it's history. The captain of the motoryacht turned out to be the full time captain of our boat about 15 years ago. The captain told us Cassiopeia had spent lots of time anchored at Careyes in the old days. It was funny running into him, we had seen his name on lots of paperwork on the boat, and even tried to look him up at one point. To randomly talk to him while cruising thru an anchorage was a nice suprise. We will be hooking up with him later in Barra de Navidad. As an aside, we found out that while he was anchored in Careyes years ago on Cassiopeia, he met the daughter of one of the owners of a ranch along the beach there. She is now his wife. Today our plans are for a walk up the beach & a little dinghy tour. It looks to be a good day. Love, Anne & Rennie p.s. weather: today at 10:30 am it's 76 F, 65% humidity, not bad at all.... The high should be around 83 F. Perfect. Merry Christmas! Hi everyone!, 12/20/03 Rennie & I just wanted to wish everyone a big Merry Christmas! We are in Barra de Navidad now and will be going back and forth between the marina here, and the anchorage at Tenacatita for the next few weeks. Christmas is a little surreal here, it is in the low 80's (which is perfect), but you sit by the beautiful pool (not roughing it even remotely) and listen to cheesy recorded Christmas music until the band starts up. Just remember, by no means does that mean they stop the recorded music, it just means the band competes. The band is supposed to be of the calypso variety, but it sounds more like a slightly out of tune xylophone & a very well played kazoo. They play a wide variety of traditional Mexico music with a steel drum flavor. Greg points out that some of the bars on the xylophone resonate in an "off" manner. Keep in mind though, this is in an absolutely beautiful setting complete with big fluffy towels & fancy foo foo drinks delivered to your lounge chair. Did I mention that I love it here? Dustin left again yesterday and headed up to Puerto Vallarta where his family, their boat & girlfriend Jean will be. They will be all heading south for the holidays so hopefully we will cross paths again. Greg will be leaving shortly and will be headed up to Los Mochis where he will catch a train into Copper Canyon, which is supposed to not only rival the Grand Canyon, but surpass it. We will miss him, but imagine he will have a great time...though I wonder how he will feel about snow? We were complaining about being cold last night and it must have gotten down to 72 F. At night we've been heading into town and usually stop at this cool little rooftop palapa. It's funny, the place plays mostly gangsta rap music, and is a pretty young crowd, but we like it. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! Love, Anne & Rennie New Year's celebration Hi everyone, I hope everyone had a good New Year's celebration. Our friends Greg & Trish, friends since the first Baja HaHa we did, came down and joined us and we all spent the night at a cool hotel overlooking Tenacatita. At midnight on New Years we were in a jacuzzi halfway down a cliff, overlooking the bay & the fireworks from the large hotel below were at eye level. It was nice. The only trouble we had was that the hotel was very overbooked. We had reserved (and prepaid) for a 2 bedroom villa, they gave us one room in the villa, the other went to a honeymooning couple from Italy. We all shared the villa, with the 4 of us sharing a room. Hmmm, not very romantic, and no discount. If we had turned it down, there were 6 couples waiting to be upgraded to the room. We took the room & still had a good time, just not quite what we planned...though I still liked having a full shower in my room! Now we are anchored in Tenacatita and will just be hanging out & relaxing in the area until Jan. 6th. Last night was pretty fun, we had a dinghy raft up party. One dinghy dropped an anchor and about 12-15 dinghies tied up to him. We all brought appetizers and passed them around, and I "dinghy-hopped" over a few boats to get my dog fix, there was a terrier named Bailey that needed my attention. We knew a bunch of the boaters & met a few more. It was also Greg's birthday, but he forbade us to announce that piece of information to the group, so we went back to Cassiopeia and sang for him and Trish had baked him a cake. All in all, it's been a good new year so far. Also, Cherie has updated her website again, with even more pic's from Mexico (www.wherescherie.com). Tonight's big event...we're going to watch Pirates of the Carribean. Happy New Year! Love, Anne & Rennie Cassiopeia is headed back to San Diego Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I've written and now Cassiopeia is headed back to San Diego. Rennie, Dustin & I left Barra de Navidad on Feb. 5th and made the crossing to Cabo in a little rougher than normal conditions. We arrived in Cabo on the afternoon of the 7th wet and tired. We went in for shrimp at the "Shrimp Bucket" and came back to the boat early. We were all asleep by 8:30 pm, I don't think we could have done a trip to Squid Row if we tried. At about 3:30 am I thought I heard a cry for "Help!". I jumped out of my bunk when I then heard more yelling and ran up on deck. I couldn't see anything so I yelled if someone needed help. I heard a "Yes" but I saw no problem. By now Dustin & Rennie can hear me yelling and have joined me. After pinpointing that the voice was from a nearby sailboat, we got the now obviously drunk, upset man to admit the only help he really needed was a ride to shore, since he and the owner of the boat were not getting along. Hmmm, welcome back to Cabo. On Sunday our newest crewmember, Jeff, flew down from the bay area to join us for the bash north. He caught a water taxi out to our boat and we spent a nice evening aboard, due to a severe lack of water taxis to take us back ashore (our dinghy is stowed for the trip north). Jeff is joining Dustin & I for the trip back up the coast. Unfortunately for us, Rennie had to fly back to California the next morning & work. Now it's Monday evening and so far (knock on wood!) this is not bash. The ocean is like glass & there is very little wind. Jeff, Dustin & I are joking that we're getting jaded about the whale sightings. We've had over 40, from at least 10 whales. The whales are moving real slow and hanging near the surface. We've seen dozens of manta rays jumping & flipping. We've seen a few porpoises & a wahoo. The one sighting that shocked us was a fin that we thought was a manta ray and turned out to be a small hammerhead shark that swam right up to the boat! That got a big "WooHoo" (after my screech...Dustin's word) from me. Tonight our big challenge is to weave thru the miscellaneous radar targets that we've yet to spot visually (probably unlit panga's) that are out in force taking advantage of the great conditions. I hope everybody is doing well. Love, Anne Turtle Bay Hi everyone!, 2/12/04 Thursday, 5:00 p.m. Dustin, Jeff and I have left Turtle Bay this afternoon after a nice peaceful night at anchor. When we came into Turtle Bay last night at about 9:00 pm we had to take our time since there were tons of fishing pots dotting the entrance to the bay. There were a few boats anchored there, about 5 sailboats, a little sportsfisher, and a couple of big Mexican fishing boats. We were lucky, the winds & seas stayed calm for us all the way to Turtle Bay. Still, we all enjoyed a nice quiet evening without watchstanding...even if Dustin did make us watch a cheesy movie called Baseketball, that I'm ashamed that Jeff & I enjoyed. On our way into Turtle Bay, Ernesto (the local fuel delivery, water taxi, trash removal, you name it) guy came racing out to greet us and ask if we needed fuel. We were still about 15 minutes away from dropping the anchor, so we said we could wait until morning. Besides, Ernesto was pretty trashed. I see why he's on the ball though, his competition came out first thing in the morning (about 2 minutes before my appointment w/Ernesto) and tried to sell us fuel. Ernesto raced out to make sure we would use him, I don't know if he remembered his appointment or not. He hasn't changed since we met him 4 years ago. The whole time he fuels the boat (with a small hand pump...his electric one was taken by "bandidos") he yells & talks mainly to himself. My Spanish swear word vocabulary was tested, though I'm pleased to say I understood most of his friendly rant. He remembered Dustin and I, and asked about Rennie. Later he asked about Dustin's girlfriend Jean in a flattering way....Jean, you have a fan. We also got to know the scoop on who are cheap boaters & who don't pay...and whose wives yell and don't respect Ernesto. Last night after we anchored, Turtle Bay had a power outage & the power was still off when we left today. The bay looks completely different at night without any lights, and you get suprised when you can see boats anchored near you that weren't visible against the city lights. The sky was awesome last night and the amount of stars you could see was incredible. Venus was so bright it cast a beam across the water. As of today, we are trying to go straight through now to San Diego, and with any luck will be there by Saturday afternoon, or Sunday morning. The weather forecast calls for continuing mild conditions & all of us are crossing our fingers that this is true. On the way out of Turtle Bay we had a dolphin escort, which was Jeff's first. We are still having regular whale sightings, though Jeff has noticed that as soon as you pull out a camera to record it, they make themselves scarce. Dustin & I experience a similar phenomenom. Talk to you all soon! Love, Anne p.s. Rennie, Hope your trip is going well, Ernesto was impressed that you were in Japan. Colleen...where is the longer letter to follow! I'll call you this weekend. Al & Dona, I knew you were teasing, I'm having fun.