< Index For This Issue >< Submit An Article >< Contact The Editor ><Link to Previous Page>

13 Feb 06  Good Gear... ...always going thru my stuff...what do I need?  really need...what can i get rid of?  Took back many things on trip to the US last month.  Brought back mostly boat hardware and books.  My belongings divide roughly between four categories: Clothes, Tools, Gear, and Books.  Less and less clothes...same pairs of shorts..a few t-shirts.  Many days we'll never even put on a shirt...or shoes.  no socks or underwear anymore...or sweaters..or jackets.  sometimes a baseball hat or my Kiwi cowboy hat.  Shoes are a big deal to me.  Flip flops are the norm.  Usually, just leave them in the dinghy or strapped to the kayak.  And, as needed...sport sandals, canvas sneakers, running shoes, light reef shoes, and the coolest:  full-sole water shoes by Teva.  Designed as 'paddle shoes', I can scramble up a cliff, run roads or trails, and wander sharp tidal areas with these shoes.  My invincible shoes...makes you feel like Spiderman just wearing them.  Tools are my department.  In my room, I keep the cordless and other drills, grinders, heat gun, jig saw, sanders, and a full assortment of hand tools for normal and specific tasks.  Files, scrapers, chisels, and even nice Japanese pull saws...in case we have no power..or for careful finishing work.  I brought fiberglass tools, resin, matting, hole saws, heavy-duty adhesives and tape, rivets and gun, soldering irons, a leather punch, and several clear plastic boxes of stainless steel hardware.  I spray the metal tools with WD-40 to keep moisture off, and wrap the power tools in plastic bags with silicon water absorbers.  So far so good.  Gear is the most interesting category.  Too much to list...from kayaks and climbing equipment to LED headlamps and GPS units.... and computer and camera accessories.   But the latest is the machete I bought in Zihuatenejo.  Gotta have one!  For cutting open coconuts...hacking thru brush...waving at pirates..or mutiny.  Then I bought a scrap of leather and made a case for it...much cooler than the fancy ones in the market.  Soaked it, pressed it, stitched it,...with a shoulder strap from a climbing rope.  Taped to my wall are two lists to check before i go ashore.  Primary:  money, key, sunglasses, shoes, sunscreen.  Secondary: camera, water, radio, light, ....and now MACHETE!  cool.  BOAT LIFE - cooking and food. FEB 2006  When I visited Bobby the first time in 1993, his fridge held little more than a huge container of French's yellow mustard and some Budweiser. Since I'd be staying there a week, I did the dishes and introduced coffee to the house. How little has changed since.  Back in December 2005, when we left San Diego, we started off taking turns cooking. Bob suggested that the cook should also do the dishes...to discourage making too big a mess. That's great if your idea of cooking is mustard laced sandwiches, instant noodles, or sugar frosted flakes. Bob even bought a pressure cooker thinking it would be faster to just dump all the ingredients inside and blast them into something edible....using just one pot. In my opinion, the thing melts vegetables and doesn't allow time for spices or juices to work into meats. Might as well grind everything in a blender...then microwave it. So far, he's made about three meals that he's called 'goulash'.  Ryan will probably be a good cook someday, he has patience and attention to detail, but now he avoids cooking by simply eating sweet breakfast cereal or plain tortillas...then, of course, he's not really hungry enough to cook. However, if someone else cooks, he's interested to eat. I keep a secret stash of cereal in my room, and maybe soon tortillas. I like to cook because I like to eat. Nothing fancy, but playing with ingredients and trying to recreate things I've eaten elsewhere is fun. Travel makes you a better cook as you discover new foods, and because you miss certain foods from home which you try and make with local ingredients. I like to talk with the women who run the fresh produce markets...asking questions about weird things I've never seen and how to cook them. So many peppers and chiles...green, yellow, red, purple. Because I can usually whip up a variety of meals with a minimum of effort and resources, I've become the de facto cook. What's so difficult about dicing a few veggies and scrambling them with eggs, cheese, thyme, pepper, garlic? Then rolling it into warm tortillas with a piece of fruit on the side...nada. But even if I left the ingredients on the counter, they'd reach past it to the cereal. Sometimes, I wait until they've gorged themselves on frosted sugar pops...then I make a couple quick seared fish tacos with sliced avocados and tomatoes...and watch their faces drop.  Living in Italy left me with a decent grasp of pasta sauces, so I often go that route and add local peppers and chiles. Quick and filling. Currently, I'm into baked pasta dishes with layers of low fat fresh local cheese, veggies, and meat. The other day, with almost no food on the boat, I made a pasta sauce that brought good crew reviews....with only half an onion, two cans of V8, a handful of antique ground beef, and spices. Tonight was one of the better: a Thai-inspired beef dish with a peanut ginger coconut milk sauce...with zucchini, onions, peppers...over butterfly pasta. Followed by sweet chilled coconut rice for desert.  This morning, I saw freshly caught swordfish on the beach and followed as a man dragged one to a rough wooden table. The Mexicans normally cut everything, beef or fish, into thin slices for frying...but if you go early, you can buy big fat chunks of fish before they slice them. Swordfish, dorado, snapper, and many smaller varieties I don't recognize. I bought a kilo (2.2 lbs) of fresh swordfish for five US dollars. I did the same thing two days ago in Puerto Escondido and simply seared it with garlic and onions...slightly pink inside...delicious...with curry rice and Mexican beer.  I think Mexico invented corn, no? Then why can't I find decent polenta? Maybe, like excellent coffee which also grows here, the Italians do it best.

Hitching A Ride To A Surf Beach Total Azul . The Portable Professional - Earn A Living Worldwide - It is now possible to make a living from anywhere you can log on.  The technology is there and the opportunities are there.  Mark McMahon has written an eye-opening report on how to make a living worldwide.  Earn US Dollars and/or EUROS from wherever you are on the planet.  The options are limitless and the time is now.  Learn more about how to break free - learn how you can live your life like it belongs to you - Live Where You Want To Live! ~ Live How You Want To Live! ~ And Make Money Doing It! - . Real Estate In South America See Current Real Estate Listings In South America -  Now In Our Real Estate Marketplace - Numerous real estate listings for Australia & New Zealand  with color photos - Beachfront bargains, Farms, Islands, Enclaves, Coast Property, Sale by Owner, Current Listings 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Also see Real Estate in Central America & Mexico Sell Your Property In South America ....

Motoring a couple hours past dark....we decided to stop at Puerto Angelita...instead of arriving at our original destination at 2am. We're headed to the Bays of Huatulco. Roughly fifteen miles of rugged coast and small bays located 70 miles south of Puerto Escondido. And the last stop before the challenging crossing of the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Puerto Angelito sounded convenient as we could get a decent night's sleep at anchor, check out another town, then arrive in the first of Huatulco's bays in daylight. Not a fun place to negotiate at night...few lights and many rocks.

Suddenly, out of the black of the moonless night, a large unlit vessel crossed our path...very close off the bow... and blasted us with a search light. Our VHF radio crackled with an announcement by the Mexican Navy....in garbled Spanish, then English. They made a wide circle around us as we tried to communicate, but our radio may have been overwhelmed by too much power at close range.

The Navy boat pulled alongside....probably 50 feet long, sleek, and grey. This is a significant drug smuggling region and we expected to be boarded and searched. We were ready for it...make tea, maybe put the bible out in view, get the necessary documents ready. Finally, we managed to communicate...no search...they just wanted us to know they were out there...and if we needed anything to call them. Sure, guys...muchas gracias. The boat sped forward, again cutting close across our bow and giving us their wake waves...then zoomed back into the night ....totally black. 

... amazing what a uniform, a gun, or a speed boat can do to the sense of self-importance and attitude of small Latin men...when in doubt, go macho! 

02-26 
Morning Paddle - coffee, chasing whales. 

FULL DAY...went to bed at 2:30am after writing and reading...woke up at 7:30am...filled a thermos with coffee and paddled off to take photos and play around rocks. We're in an empty little bay at the beginning of a string of bays that make up Las Bahias de Huatulco. Seems like another kayak playground with clusters of offshore rocks, crashing waves, and tight passages to dare to shoot thru....carefully time the swells...only fall out three times with minor scrapes....good shoes save the day...land on an empty beach...follow animal footprints...and hundreds of large hermit crabs clattering over rocks...return to take nap on fine white sand....slightly sunburn stomach. Later, while paddling back, spot a whale breaching about a mile away...paddle hard to intercept...bob around in small waves nervously knowing a huge beast may surface anywhere near you...watch 8-10 full body breachings and numerous fluke waves from two whales....closest at about 30 yards...fail to time any photos to catch the best moments....paddle one more rocky channel and take a wave in the face....but remain in kayak...then head back to sailboat for late breakfast of seared fresh swordfish tacos...spend rest of day snorkeling coral reefs and napping. 

02-26 
Turtle Poachers.... 

Beautiful little anchorage. One of our best...dramatic rock clusters offshore with colonies of frigate birds and boobies swarming about...idyllic little beach deep into the cove...coral reefs here and there...sandy bottom anchorage. But difficult to identify from our charts, even at close range. We had multiple GPS units confirming our location and big binoculars searching for specific landmarks, but we didn't see it until we were almost on top of it.

With less than two hours of sunlight left, we all jumped into some activity to explore the area. Ryan and I dropped the kayaks in and headed off to explore the offshore rocks, while Bob and Megan swam to the beach. From the seat of a kayak, I could see colorful reef fish and cream colored coral heads below...should be good snorkeling tomorrow. We managed a few 'gauntlet' runs thru narrow rock passes... riding on the wave surges...nicely scratching my kayaks. I fell out once but stayed off the rocks. The goal is to be the first one to navigate a new run...then you get to name it. I launched myself into one we later called the 'washing machine'...twice i made it thru just before a big wave sucked out the water revealing walls of barnacles and urchins...then crashed in with a foaming white surge...shooting me out the other side. Afterwards, we circled the bird colony and headed for a small beach. 

Only about 200 yards wide, the beach was strewn with tons of small coral pieces. Hundreds of sizable hermit crabs wandered about, snapping into their shells as we got near. Looking around, we found them wandering into the bushes and high up on dry rocks, making tiny rustling sounds as they walked over leaves or dragged their shells across the stone. A single cluster of about 200-300 scattered from the carcass of a small fish when we approached. 

12:45am...up late writing...everyone else asleep...walk on deck to stretch my back and look at the stars. In the water around the boat I see flashes of light... phosphorescent algae...twinkling like stars. Fish below the boat dart about leaving lighted trails like muted sparklers...amazing. I watched for a few minutes until I heard the sound of a boat motor approaching. Weird so late...and running with no lights....hmmm. Getting closer...are they coming for us? Officials?...probably not. Thieves?...hope not.           I watched the small boat's bow waves and wake glow from the phosphorescence and trace its path about 20 yards off our port side. They zoom past us and up to the beach, avoiding the rocks and wide reef...as if they'd maybe done this before. Turtle poachers. I can see their lights sweeping the beach. This explains the two large shells from recently killed turtles we found earlier...and the digging we saw. They probably check this beach and others regularly for turtles and eggs. I hate that...what can I do?...at this moment? I think about sneaking up on the beach by kayak and scaring the hell out of them...but the possibility of the situation going badly out weighs my anger to act. Besides, I'd just be slightly postponing what will eventually happen again soon...on every beach along the coast. damn. .
.

Don't Miss Next Months Letters From The Blue Water

Get a Job on a Luxury Cruise Ship - Quickly & Easily! - "Discover how you can Travel to the World's Most Exotic Places...having the Best Time of Your Life...and Get Paid for it!" - “Now is the best time in history to get a job on a cruise ship” - Get Paid to Travel the World Having the Best Time of Your Life! - “It’s almost the perfect job!” -  Get a Cruise Ship Job! - Click Here Careers In Yachting - A Unique Lifestyle Career - A Special Report -  How To Get A Yachting Job - Where to go to look for a yachting job. • Who to talk to get it. • Where to stay while searching for employment. • How to make ends meet until you find a job. • About and how to deal with crew agencies. • Extremely effective means of obtaining employment outside of agencies. • The ins and outs of interviewing. • The pros and cons of working on a charter yacht versus a private yacht. • Crewing as a couple. • Vital tips that will put you ahead of the pack. • Crucial mistakes not to make and much, much more.  . Driving the Pan-American Highway to Mexico and Central America - Driving the Pan-American Highway to Mexico and Central America  - The Only Guide Book on the Subject - Exclusive - This Updated Version - 2004 - of Driving the Pan-American Highway that is available on this website is an EscapeArtist.com exclusive available only here and only in eBook - The updated eBook version of this guide is the must have guide for anyone who is thinking of driving through Mexico to Central America."  eBooks for Expats - International Relocation Reports - Offshore Investment Reports - Reports On Offshore Real Estate, Moving Overseas,  and a wide range of subjects for those seeking to restart their lives overseas.  eBooks are a great idea.  Consider This: If, for example, you are trying to figure out how to move to Bolivia, buy a ranch, get residency and a passport; you won't find a standard book on how to go about accomplishing those ends at your local library.  You will here.  We have hundreds of great eBooks lined up and coming your way.  Diamond mining in Africa, play the European lottery, where the odds are ten times better than the USA, Homestead in Belize, Moving to Thailand, Working Worldwide from a lap...  our list of titles is growing daily.