Christmas at Sea!

Sat. Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, 2011

We had a lovely day today, and I got to do what I love best…BAKING!!  Especially for the holidays, I just love it! The Club Crucero’s  have a wonderful pot luck appetizer, dessert party for Christmas Eve, and so I needed to get busy for that.  I made pecan pralines, fudge, and my friend Teri donated some English toffee too.  Neil made some very yummy stuffed mushrooms.  He stuffed them with cheddar and chorizo, and they were delicious!

We arrived at the party, with goodies in tow, and we all got right to work on that delicious buffet.  It was really nice.  That was pretty much it for today....getting ready for the fat man on the sleigh now…night night!

Caroll from "Esrellita" (on the left) and Dave from "Kievit"

(from left to right) Carolyn and Cathy from "Shannon"

Neil and I

Teri and Ed from "SeaMoore"

Sun. Dec. 25, Christmas Day, 2011

We woke early, so we wouldn’t miss calling the kids on Skype, Travis and his family first, as they’re earlier risers, then Amanda and her family.  Believe it or not…we actually had to wake up our son and his family??  Crazy!  Felt kinda bad for that, but then again, not really…haha!

We had a lovely time with them, via the wonderful world of cyberspace!  It’s a beautiful thing when you can be thousands of miles away, and still spend quality, virtual face to face, time with your family.  It was so fun watching the kids get so excited over this and that, and just being with them.  We miss our family so much, and especially during the Holidays, it’s hard to be away…but, once again, the internet is a LIFE SAVER!!

After Christmas with our son’s family, we got to spend time with Amanda and her family, and even our youngest, Karli Bug!!  She had stayed overnight at Amanda’s to celebrate Christmas with them, so that was a nice bonus!  Once again, it was so nice being able to be part of the joy of Christmas, while being miles and miles from home.  It’s pretty hard too though, I’m not going to lie, there were many teary eyed moments, but all in all, it was such an amazing experience!

Once we had said our goodbye’s, we pretty much just lounged for a bit, then I got to baking my famous crescent rolls (thank you Elsie Howard for that recipe, many years ago!) for the Christmas day pot luck at the Shack, a local burger/pizza joint here in town, owned by a man from the states.  Every Christmas he roasts a whole pig for the cruisers, and then we cruisers just bring all the sides to share. 

Once our vittles were ready, we headed over to the shack, along with our cruising buddies…”SeaMoore”, “Shannon”, “Esrellita”, and “Eagle.”  This was mine and Neil’s first time at the Shack, although we had heard much praise about it from many of the cruisers.  What a cute and fun place!  LOTS of personality! The owner, Travis from Texas and his wife Rosie, a local girl, put so much love into this place.  They had provided live entertainment, as well as a fun, relaxed, “touch of home” kind of feeling for us.  This was just what the doctor ordered, at least for me, because I was having a pretty hard time of being away from my kids and grandchildren.  This is the first time that we had ever been away from them during Christmas…and yes…I know they’re all grown up now, and on their own, but it was still hard. lol

At any rate, dinner at the Shack was great, and the company even greater!  They have this fun tradition at the Shack too.  All the cruisers get to write on the walls!  Yep…modern décor…haha.  Really though, you write a little something, then leave the name of your boat and year…pretty fun huh?! 

After dinner, and hanging out, we decided it was time to head back to the boat, and get some much needed shut eye.  We hope you all had a wonderful, and very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

the beginnings of my crescent rolls

enough goodies??

MMmmm!!!

at "The Shack"  a great little place

many of the gang

everything's "manana" in Mexico...LOL

Good stuff!

This kid was a fabulous classical guitarist!  Really good!

Mon. Dec. 26, 2011

Didn’t do much today, just vegged.  At two o’clock we got together with some of the other cruisers to play “Farkle” it’s a fun dice game, and to make it more challenging…Tom and Jeanne, on “Eagle” throw in a red and green dice, that either adds to, or subtracts your points, depending on how they land….let’s just say I did a lot of “subtracting” ….boo!!  It was really fun though, and I’m totally NOT a sore loser!  Ha ha!

Tues. Dec. 27, 2011

Today, Neil and I went for a walk around town with the gals from “Shannon” (Cathy, and Carolyn) We were on a quest to find the BEST SHRIMP AND FISH TACOS IN LA PAZ!  Some friends of ours had told us where to find them, so we were on a mission to do so! 

Find them, we did, too!  And yes, they were delicious!  And very, very inexpensive, which totally makes them even better.  Only 70 pesos total, for 2 shrimp tacos, 2 fish tacos, and a soda pop! That’s only like $5 U.S. dollars!  Score!!!

After our wonderful lunch, we strolled around town a bit, and came upon this awesome hotel.  It’s called the “Hotel de Arte” (Hotel of Art)  And well…you just have to see it to believe it…so here are some fun photos we thought you might enjoy.

F.Y.I. : All the art is available for you to take, at your leisure…the only rule is…if you take something, you must leave something in it’s place.  Too funny huh?

Thurs. Dec. 29, 2011

We’re getting ready to be heading out to the island “Espiritu Santo” on Saturday.  We plan to stay out there for about 2-3 weeks and do some exploring.  Just doing routine maintenance, checking water, and fuel levels, cleaning, provisioning, etc.  

We won’t be back into “internet land” until we get back, so this will be the last post until we return, but we’ll have plenty to share with you all, when we do.  We are planning on swimming with the whale sharks, doing a lot of snorkeling, hiking and relaxing.  Apparently the water out there at the island is a beautiful blue, akin to the Caribbean….we shall see!!

Stay tuned…..

La Paz...finally!

Tues Dec. 13, 2011

We left this morning, right on schedule, at around 5 am.  We were going to leave at 2 am, but decided that we didn’t want to try to travel around the outside island in the dark, and we were only planning on getting as far as Espiritu Santo today (unless we made really good time, and could get all the way into La Paz.)

Which…WE DID!  Man! We were sailing with a nice broad reach all day, doing at least 6.5 to 7 knots the whole way!  It was an awesome sail!  We had our fishing line out too, hoping to catch a big one, and that, ALMOST happened.  Yep, once again, we hooked something big.  It just so happens, that it happened while I was at the bow of the boat, and Neil with the wheel, we were trying to get the roller furling for the jib sail untangled, and then all of a sudden, Neil yells “Kris!  Hurry up…I’ve got something on the line!”  By the time I got there, he said that whatever it was, had taken out nearly all of the line on the reel, so at least 200 yards more than what we had out, already.  He told me to grab the pole, but to be careful, because it was really fighting.  He wasn’t kidding!!  I couldn’t even get the pole out of the holder!  So, while Neil slowed the boat down, I tried my best to keep the fish from taking out more line, but still giving him enough play to keep the line from breaking.  He was a real fighter!  I could barely, off and on begin to reel in some of the line.  My pole was nearly bent completely in half…we were so afraid it was going to break.  I told Neil “I don’t know if I even want whatever this is!?”  We assume it wasn’t a bill fish, since it wasn’t jumping, it was diving, which usually meant a big ol tuna.  I don’t know how big it was though, because…just as I thought about trying to reel it in some more…the line just SNAPPED!  Dang it!!  I guess we’ll never know what it was?  Kind of glad though, because honestly, we don’t know what we would have done with something that big?  It made the other day’s dorado, look and feel like “child’s play!”  Oh well, no more fishing for us today, because that darn fish took our only cedar plug we had. 

Luckily for us, the sailing was amazing today!  It was beautiful weather, and though a little cloudy, it was nice and warm.  We ended up making such good time too.  We were just outside the island of Espiritu Santo at around noon, which still left us plenty of time to get to La Paz, because it was only another 15-20 miles from there.  So we decided to go right in.

We arrived safe and sound into La Paz around 2:30.  I can’t believe what great time we made today.  We never sailed under 6.5 knots, all day!  We were doing 7.1- 7.5 the whole way into La Paz, from Espiritu Santo, and because the wind was “with” us, it didn’t even feel like it, which is odd, because when you are traveling 7 knots on a sailboat, you usually KNOW it. 

Once we anchored up, I took some pictures, and we decided to take a little rest.  It was a great day!

passing Punta Balandra, just outside of La Paz

the anchorage

some of the city scape

Wed. Dec. 14, 2011

We had our first “Club Crucero’s” meeting.  There is a very large cruiser community here in La Paz, and they have a nonprofit organization called Club Crucero.  You can find them online at www.clubcrucero.org.  It’s a really nice organization, they do a morning net every day except Sundays, which tells us about weather, mail call, any troubles or accidents, local assistance, arrivals and departures, things for sale or trade, etc.  They do coffee/tea every morning at 9:30 to 10:30, and the club house is stocked with tons of books, movies, and information.  It’s really great!  After our meeting everyone, we did just a little exploring in town. It was a lovely day, sunny and so pretty!  La Paz is a very nice city, and we can’t wait to explore some more!

1 of the many sculptures on the malacon (boardwalk)

"Last Resort" on the beach, all she needs now is an umbrella drink!

Fri. Dec. 16, 2011

We got an ice maker today!  We seriously needed it…it’s expensive to keep having to buy ice every day.  That’s pretty much it for today.

Sat. Dec. 17, 2011

We finally got switched over to propane today!!!  This is VERY exciting, because we’ve been without a stove or oven since Turtle Bay!  Our boat was originally rigged for CNG (compressed natural gas) and though it’s a bit safer than propane, it’s impossible to get filled anywhere in Mexico.  So, we had to make the switch.  Neil and the propane technician had it all done in just over an hour, great work guys!  I CAN COOK AGAIN!!! WAHOOO!!!! 

Sun. Dec. 18, 2011

Went to church today, the first time in an actual church building since we left.  It was nice, although a very long walk. It was a total of just under six miles there and back, and to boot, we hardly understood anything of what was said…ha ha!  I thought I was learning Spanish so well, too,  I learned today, that I don’t know squat!!  It was nice though, and the members were so friendly.  Next week, I’ll have to really work on my Spanish, so when we go again next Sunday, we might have a better chance at understanding a little bit more.

After church, we walked along the town and the malacon (which means boardwalk)  I got a photo of this really great mural on the side of a building, along with a beautiful sculpture and a couple of other shots. Once we got back to the marina, we got together with some of our boat neighbors, and had a dock party pot luck.  It was nice, and delicious!  Everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. Just one more week til Christmas, I can’t believe it.  That means we’ve been out almost two months now?  Time sure does fly!

the little ice cream shop, LOVE the tree!

an old bull fighting ring

Tues. Dec. 20, 2011

Today was a stay inside day, and bake and cook. So that’s exactly what we did!  I made my traditional Russian teacakes, and Italian knot cookies,

and Neil made a wonderful new chicken dish he made up.  He named it Pollo La Paz, it was DELICIOUS!  Recipe is below…enjoy!

Pollo La Paz

Combining “Old World” flavors with “New World” flare!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (pounded thin)

1 link pork chorizo

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

Salt & pepper, to taste

Remove the skin from the chorizo, then place into a hot skillet with a little bit of oil, add the onions, carrots, and celery, and sauté until the veggies are tender.  Add the garlic, and sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes.  Remove from the heat, and set aside.

Pound the chicken breasts until they are about ¼ inch thick, all the way thru.  Sprinkle salt and pepper to each side of the pounded chicken.  Spread and even layer of the chorizo mixture onto each breast, making sure to leave the edges clean.  Now, roll each chicken breast, loosely, then secure with a toothpick or butchers twine.   Wrap in cellophane, and place into a refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. (These can be made the day before, and stored in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours)

Sauce

2 Pasilla chilis, roasted

4C. chicken stock

Salt as needed

Roast the chilies on an open fire, we use our BBQ grill.  Be sure to blacken all the sides of the chilies.  Place the roasted chilies into a plastic bag, and seal the bag, to allow the chilies to steam for at least 30 minutes.

Remove the chilies from the bag, remove the skins, then cut the top off, and remove seeds. Dice the chillies, then place into a saucepan, along with the chicken stock, on medium high heat, and reduce by half.  Use a wand mixer to emulsify the sauce, until smooth and thickened.

(you may use a blender to emulsify, but you must wait until the sauce is to room temperature before placing into the blender. CAUTION: placing hot food into a blender, will cause the food to splatter all over, and may cause serious burns)

Finishing

 Remove the cellophane from the chicken breasts, then place onto a hot grill, and cook on medium high heat on all sides until chicken is cooked through.  (internal temperature should be at 180◦) 

Place onto a serving dish, and pour the sauce over each breast, and serve.

 Fri. Dec. 23, 2011

Well, we got a big storm in early this morning, and it’s supposed to last for a good couple of days.  The winds are blowing from the north, at around 25-35 knots, which in “boat speak” is pretty gnarly! The port captain already called on the radio this morning, to announce that the port will be closed today.  Wow!!  That means NO BOAT TRAFFIC today, in or out! One boat that was at anchor, broke loose sometime early this morning, and was set adrift.  They found it, and were able to secure it once again.  Luckily we’re at a dock, but the anchorage is sure nasty looking, and though we’re securely fastened to the dock, it’s pretty bouncy.  We got some good footage of the docks, and waves, and also a boat that washed up on shore…BUMMER!  Luckily, no one was in it…which is probably how it ended up on shore.  So, today is a stay inside day, and bake some more…sounds good to me!  Have a great day everyone!

waves INSIDE the docks

boat washed ashore

usually these chairs are at least 40 feet or more from the water line!