Got up at a little before 5:30 today to enjoy a spectacular sunrise as I walked over to a friend's house. We drove out to a residential development that he is doing where we hiked some and rode horses around to enjoy a wonderful morning. Did a little business, which is welcome, but not so much as to detract from the fun.

By 11 I was home, did some yardwork, now we are headed off for a sunset sail/snorkel trip.

So far- a great day!

Labels: Costa Rica, sailing

Another crazy couple is traveling. Like us, they are making it up as they go along. Unlike us, they are doing it by catamaran, and aiming for around the world. The site is a good irreverent read, I strongly recommend it.

They are somewhere near Tahiti right now.

Labels: expedition, sailing, travel

Here's a recap from several months ago (should have been posted end of April, 2008).
As Steve was up in California for a day, Marty suggested we sail (good practice for the BVI trip coming up). We couldn't have asked for better weather in which to go sailing on the Bay. It was one of those days that is so perfect it almost hurts.

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Steve's Maiden Voyage with Marty in SF	Marty at the helm	Sailing under the Golden Gate, a fun first. Note the helicopter which had just flown under the bridge.
Alcatraz Island. Note the guy heeled over in front of it. Pretty decent wind blowing.	Excellent post-sailing margaritas with the family. Delicous meal with great company.	Steve, Austin, Marty

Labels: california, day trip, sailing

I posted some more BVI photos.

One of the very few bummers on our BVI trip was that my Olympus "waterproof" camera died. Again. This is the third time. They've covered it under warranty twice, which is almost fine. But to get warranty coverage is about $20 in postage to send the darn thing back to Olympus (UPS only) and then a 3 to 5 week wait to get it returned. Then of course we have to wait until Bb goes north or someone else comes south in order to get the camera back to us (which isn't Olympus's fault, but annoying just the same).

It appears that this particular camera has some problem with the little door on the bottom where you change out the card & battery. Which is important because sooner or later, you're going to *have* to change the battery! The design on said door doesn't look much like a waterproof seal other than that it has a flimsy gasket. Hopefully they've improved that design on future cameras.

So it leaked and stopped working on day two of a week long "Boy, a waterproof camera sure would be fun on this trip!" trip.

So I had forgotten that we did get a few fun photos.

Hopefully, the extended warranty that I purchased will finally cover the camera- they have a "no-lemon clause" and I hope this qualifies. Which should result in us having a new underwater camera sometime soon.

Labels: photo, sailing, vacation

Some folks have asked us about the BVI trip, those boaters out there all said "What boat did you get?!?!"

We sorta scratched our virtual heads (or looked confused, if in person) and said "Um... It was about 42 feet. A cat."

For those of you who weren't satisfied with the answer, you can now proceed directly to Footloose Charters' web page and see the complete details of our vessel. It was a Moorings 4200.

Apparently it was 41 1/2 feet. For the record. And built in Capetown, South Africa.

Labels: sailing, vacation

Lots of interesting things going on down here in beautiful Tamarindo.

For starters, we've finally posted a bunch of our photos from the British Virgin Islands trip we did earlier this month. We have more (obviously) and might put a few more up online, but these are a good cross-section of the journey.

Our friend Jen Gebbie is visiting right now. We've been having a great time hanging out with her. Last Saturday we all threw a little party to belatedly celebrate Jocelyn's birthday. The weather cooperated and we had a nice bbq with plenty of delicious food, friendly faces, and libations. Steve ignored the early signs of a head cold, had a great time, and has been paying double for it all day Sunday :(.

Regardless of the head cold (and hangover) we did a little road trip to Junquillal to look at some property and see a different beach. Caly was apparently delighted to visit the beach three times in one day (three different beaches, no less). The rest of us enjoyed ourselves too!

Speaking of property- we've finally decided to sell our vacant lot in Tamarindo. We really like it and would enjoy building something on it, but now that we've got a lovely house of our own, the idea of building another one just seems excessive. If you know anyone who would like to get a great deal on a beautiful home lot in Tamarindo, send them our way! The lot is 1/8 acre and has a little bit of an ocean view from the 2nd floor (ok, it has a tiny ocean view from the 1st floor, but to enjoy the view you would want to build a 2nd or even 3rd story patio). We're asking $135,000 but will consider offers. The lot is surrounded by single family homes and is an easy walk to the beach (about 3/4 mile).

Labels: photo, sailing, vacation

Several people have asked "Where did you go in the islands?" and since we did take our own gps along on the ride, I threw together a quick google earth track of our route.

It isn't perfect. That would have required that Steve was on the ball enough to turn the gps on every day before we started sailing and also remember to save our track at the end of the day. But at least we've got a rough indication of where we sailed, which is more fun than trying to describe it.

We do still have pictures on the way. Be patient.

ps: you may or may not have noticed that there are now google adsense links on the left column. If you think that online journals are cheapened by the inclusion of advertising (we do, sorta) then you can block the ads by using Firefox and installing the "Adblock" extension. It is fantastic. With a little training, you can make your browser remove just about every advertisement. Great stuff. Alternately, you may see something that you like on that sidebar, and click through to shopping bliss. Which is profitable to us, which has obvious upsides.

Labels: sailing, vacation

We took a vacation. A real, live, no-computers, no-phone vacation. And we took it in the tropics. The real, warm-water, blue-skies, wear-your-bathing-suit-all-day tropics. "Don't you live in the tropics?", You ask. "Why, yes, now that you mention it, we do.", We reply. "So why on earth would you go on vacation in the tropics?", You ask? And that would be a very good question, and one we asked ourselves countless times as we bloodied our heads banging them against the wall of airline routes out of Costa Rica to other tropical vacation destinations.

We don't live in a place conducive to airport hubs and direct flights to out-of-the-way islands, and this fact was never more apparent than when desiring to travel east a couple thousand miles and having instead to travel north, then south, then east over two days to do so. But, the good news is that we would gladly do it all again to see what we now firmly believe is the most beautiful water in the entire world. Now, we should probably cut the water in the Meditteranean and the water off the coast of Africa, and probably the water somewhere off the coast of South America some slack, as we've never seen it, so we are more than likely under informed judges, but be that as it may, we're in love with the British Virgin Islands (and the American, French and Dutch ones, since really, as far as the islands are concerned, it's really all the same thing.)

We bareboat chartered a 42' Catamaran to more fully indulge in our love affair and spent our days, well, sailing. And eating. And wearing our bathing suits all day. And drinking - rum being the beverage of the BVIs et. al. And really, that's about all I have to tell of our days spent on the boat. We carelessly (and I mean this in the frivolous, worry-free sense, not the thoughtless, mean-spirited sense) whiled away our days with the concerns of sailing, snorkeling, eating and rum drinking. And within that carelessness does not lie much of a story. Which, I suppose is the mark of a truly, deeply and well spent vacation. So I will let our photos tell you what we did. I'm posting only a few here today. As time permits, we will post more than you could possibly want to see!

on the way to Anegada Island

happy jocelyn

Virgin Gorda, The Baths

happy steve

Labels: sailing, vacation

So far our Virgin Islands trip is going fantastic!
We've had good weather, some sun, some clouds, fun snorkeling, beautiful 8 knot sailing with low swell, good food and great company.

Pics to follow, but at $20/hour for super-slow internet, I just can't stomach uploading them yet.

Off to see more beauty!

Labels: sailing, vacation

About two weeks ago we celebrated the 95th birthday of my maternal grandmother.
Ninety five. That's three 32-year old lifetimes (close enough!). Whoa.

It was a beautiful day and nearly everyone in the family was able to attend. I flew up rather last-minute (no minute like that last minute) and am so happy that I was able to attend, see most of my family and enjoy the pleasure on my Grandmother's face. She was delighted at all the attention.

I enjoyed some great spring weather in California, which I surely miss sometimes, and also the company of my family. The visit was too short, as usual, and Jocelyn couldn't break away from work as she had just returned from Atlanta full of jewelry orders.
I spent the day before the birthday sailing on San Francisco Bay in PERFECT conditions with my brother, then enjoyed a great dinner with his family. I also got a chance to visit my sister's place near Reno, Nevada on Sunday night. Then spent the following week wandering around through Utah. I'll post pics shortly, it was a beautiful trip!

Now I'm back safe n sound in Tamarindo, enjoying the beginning of the rainy season and trying to get our yard ready for what promises to be a very wet "winter" indeed.

Labels: california, nevada, sailing, utah, vacation

Since we live in paradise, and a vacation town at that, we often have the opportunity, mid-week, to go for an afternoon catamaran ride. Boy, it's tough, but like they say, "Somebody's got to do it."

That's fine, we volunteer.

Brian's sister Heather had a birthday on Wednesday, so we all got on board a local 40' cat for an afternoon of snorkeling, food, music, drink and good friends. We find ourselves in this situation about once a month, give or take.

Like I said, it's rough.

My favorite spot is on one of the front trampolines where I can sit and enjoy my drink and the view, and lounge about with my friends. I could go into great detail about what we do on the boat, but really, I just did. It's a pretty mellow and enjoyable way to spend four or five hours of your day.

We do end up in the water at some middle point of the afternoon, goofing around, looking at pretty fish, taking silly pictures underwater with the cool housing Steve's got, posing prettily for the camera -- Brian you win this trip's award for best model!

Wave to the camera, Bb!	A blurry sea urchin.	Coral and algae	Blue-shorted Steve-fish. Fairly rare.
Matt's sister, also Heather.	Birthday girl with her parents	The sunset	Bb and Carrie on the Trampoline

We also had the added surprise of a sunset wedding on board! Two days before the boat trip, a couple who had spent the last seven years together decided to tie the knot. How romantic. Her two sons were there to watch and the entire crowd on the boat got teary-eyed. What a great place to get married!

Last trip we embarrassed the heck out of Donnie and Christi's pre-teen and teenage kids and their friends by DANCING -- in PUBLIC no less -- to silly old 70s songs and really getting our groove on. I think perhaps it was even more fun than our usual dancing sprees, knowing that we were the old geezers making fools of ourselves.

Labels: photo, sailing, wedding

Haven't done much worth writing about these last few days... a few trips to Santa Cruz to shop and whatnot, a puppy that keeps growing, good food, good friends, some surfing. That about sums it up. The photo is from a sailing trip a few months ago with our good pals Crisonja from San Diego. Cris just emailed it to us.
It's nice living in paradise.

Had the pleasure of a visit from one of Steve's high-school and college buddies, Ben and his wife Sara	Caly is getting close to three tiles long	Fields and storm clouds near Santa Cruz (20 minutes from our house)
After pulling up some stumps on our lot by hand, we got smart and let Sandy do the work for us		Bb clearing the lot

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, sailing