Greetings from Hello World!

We live a hard life. Let us tell you about it:
We are currently relaxing on a new boat we have joined, Hello World, owned by our friends Christi and Jason, along with Kim, all hailing from Seattle. This morning we awoke with the sunrise and went kayaking to Lover's Beach, where we frolicked in the sand and realized it was the first earth we had set foot on in two days. As the sun rose, we watched the surf crash upon the magnificent granite pillars as the herd of local fishing boats headed out to catch their fill of tuna.

Now to rewind: Our time in San Diego was wonderful. It was a week of respite from being on the Allymar, having our freedom beyond a 38 ft. space, and best of all, seeing friends and family. Thank you to Grandma, Aunt Susie and Uncle Mark, surfer John, and Michelle and housemates. You all allowed us to have an extremely rich week in SD.

We left San Diego in high spirits with a fleet of 200 other sailboats; a mass exodus south. There we three legs of the Haha: the first was SD to Bahia de Tortuga, a three day/2 night endeavor. The seas were big and the winds strong: 20-30 knot winds and 10 - 20 ft. seas. There was one moment that Colin thinks was just so darn hysterical: first of all, both of us were deathly sea sick, puking every 10 minutes off the side of the boat. As I was sitting in the cockpit, reveling in my discomfort, I looked over the side of the boat and instantly my jaw dropped, as a huge wave crested over the side of the Allymar, continued over my head, and crashed right on top of me. Dead on. Colin instantly started laughing uncontrollably, as he had been protected by the plastic dodger. Real funny.

Our first stop at Turtle Bay was short and sweet. We all gathered for a beach party, drank ice cold Pacifico and played bocce ball. The second leg was to Bahia Santa Maria, a gorgeous bay with no real town, and complete with hills to hike, waves to surf, and lobster to catch. One night there we enjoyed dinner with our good friends on Stepping Stone: pasta with cream sauce and fresh lobster. LOTS of lobster. Twenty tails or so. Colin and I ate so much lobster that we had the runs that night. Between raw yellow tail, seared derado, and those lobsters, we haven't been eating too bad. Colin surfed all day at Santa Maria with our friend Elias, and returned with scratches, bruises, lobster, and bright eyes, telling me how it was his best day of surfing, ever.

The last leg was a shorty: one night, two days. We arrived in Cabo with a sense of relief and accomplishment... only to be welcomed by what looked like Mexican Las Vegas. We joined the official shore party at a local rowdy bar, Squid Row, only to be strangely amused and disgusted. We were force fed jello shots and charged $5/beer. Don't worry, after a group protest, we did not pay $70 USD for all those jello shots.

Colin and I decided to hop onto this new boat for our trip north to La Ventana, and we are extremely happy and excited to be on a boat with new young folks and all possibilities ahead of us. We hope all you family and friends are doing well and enjoying the changing seasons. Take care and enjoy every moment, and thanks for checking out the blog!

Much Love,
Colin and Kristin

Thank you, Grandma, for the tickets to the zoo. It certainly was a highlight.

These tortoises were huge.

Monkey child!

Haha boats.

Bocce ball at Turtle Bay.

Allymar.

This tuna was the winner of a local contest: over 300 pounds! Almost a world record. Too bad it sat in the sun all day and went to waste.

I'm on a boat! Our new home on Hello World.

Rope swinging off the main halyard.

Morning kayak to Lover's Beach.

Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.

---Mark Twain---

After three weeks on the boat we are enjoying the wonderful comforts of Grandma's house! We just had a wonderful breakfast of fruit (including fresh picked oranges) and homemade muffins with a cup of joe. It feels so great to be in San Diego with loving family on solid ground.

We have been out of computer zone for the past almost three weeks. We have tons of stories, photos and memories to share. We will see how long this coffee buzz lasts...

We last wrote from Morro Bay. Since then we have been mostly in the Channel Islands and a little on the mainland coast. Our first stop was at San Louis where we hitch hiked into San Louis Obisbo, a neat central California coastal college town. It was amazing to be on the water and in pants and a sweatshirt and then going 5 miles inland and be sweating in shorts and a tee shirt! Our first ride was with a very kind man in an old VW bus. A little trip down memory lane.

Next we straight lined it to San Miguel island, the first in the chain of 8 islands. We pulled into Cuyler Harbor at about noon and the wind started to freshen a little. By the evening time when we were about to go to be we had sustained 30knot winds. They lasted all night long. Sleeping on a sailboat with 30 knot winds is quite difficult. Well, not really for me. But for the owner of the boat I can imagine it is quite difficult. You hear every little creak and movement of the boat. After a certain number of hours the sounds turn start to fall into rhythm. Your mind has all the different sounds categorized and what they mean in relation to the boat. Which ones are okay and which ones mean something not so okay. I had anchor checks at 12pm and 3am, at 3am I sleepily made my way up to the bow and checked the anchor rode, okay, the snubber, okay, the second anchor, okay...but what's this...sleepy foggy brain...that looks like a boat resting against our boat...sure enough, I should probably shine my light in his window... I did... and the captain quickly awoke and realized what had happened and drove off. He must have drug his anchor. No harm done to either boat.
The next morning the prediction was for the wind to continue so we split to Santa Rosa Island.
To break up the boring writing here a couple shots of Santa Rosa:

We hiked around the island for a little bit, saw the Torrey Pines (which grow only on the island and La Jolla California) and then we found this amazing little cove. We saw it from afar and thought "man, if only we could get down into that cove..." Then we found this little dodgy rope leading down into it! Perfect.

The sweet little cove. (above)

A couple more photos of Santa Rosa.

We left Santa Rosa pretty quick as well because over half the island was closed to public because of "the hunt." These islands have been privately owned and ranched since the early 1900s and the family which owns Santa Rosa stocks it with deer and elk so they can hunt them. This is beyond me.

Next stop Santa Cruz:

We spent a good two weeks at Santa Cruz and it was our favorite, by far. See for yourself.

Coches Prietos anchorage.

Scorpian anchorage.

We have been taking jumpy photos eveywhere we go. The new thing is for me to have a stoic look and Kristin to have an excited face. See for yourself.

While on Santa Cruz we were in the water as much as possible. We have been spearing fish, swimming with seals and sharks, and seeing all kinds of other sea life. The snorkeling has been the highlight thus far.
Crazy trippy looking sea anemone.
Garibaldi with tons of sea urchins. The rocks are like purple carpet. Does anyone know if you can eat those little buddies and if so are they good?
Another vicious sea creature I saw.

The same creature can walk on land too!

Our last stop was Catalina island where we spent just a few short days. We were in Cat Harbor on the more mellow side of the island.
Notice the excitement of Kristin?

Allymar under four sails with fresh winds from the beam. Notice the straight horizon and the heel of the boat? Yeah sailing in getting into our blood.

This is the inside of the boat. It looks a little more roomy than it really is. Think VW bus x 1 1/2.

We are looking forward to the next week spent here in San Diego. Grandma just gave us tickets to the San Diego Zoo!

Alright the coffee buzz is pretty much gone. We'll see if Kristin has anything to add.

Still alive!

We are still alive and quite well. We have been in the Channel Islands for the past three weeks and this is the first time we have been on the internet and I forgot the camera to post photos. San Diego is the next stop and we will work on getting a good amount of stories. There are some to share.

Abre tus ojos!

Abre tus ojos!

Open your eyes. That is the message I just received from an old canvas coffee sack in the bathroom here at Top Dog coffee shop in Morro Bay. Once again we have arrived at another neat central California coastal town to be greeted by a festival. This time it was an avacado and margharita festival. The Saturday market was even more refreshing and interesting. I love to see the change in latitude through the foods (fruits mostly) which are sold at the farmers market. Not nearly as many apples and berries as back home but more raisins, dates, and mexican food.

Sailing into San Simeon

Before Morro Bay we had an easy 30 hour sail from San Francisco to San Simeon. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the beatiful bay of San Simeon. The life beneath the surface of the water must be vibrant because the species that feed on them are abounding. Pelicans, sea otters, seals, shearwaters, porpuses, etc. We witnessed a rare (at least special) moment in bird migration. We were sitting out on the deck on a foggy evening doing some reading when we started to hear a sound like lots and lots of babies crying. Through the thick fog we started to make out hundreds of birds sitting on the surface of the water making these baby-like noises. We watched as the hundreds turned to thousands right off the bow of the boat. The fog was giving birth to more and more of these Sooty Shearwaters. We later learned that these birds migrate from New Zealand and Australia all the way to Alaska! We were witnessing a flock of these guys coming into the bay to feed and rest along their incredible journey. A small sample below. The sound was the best part. We were laughing out loud at how much they sounded like thousands of babies crying.

We were able to get off the boat for a night and put our tent to use in an illegal camping spot right on the point (Casa Blancas, I think) near San Simeon. We had a beautiful overlook over kelp beds right off the point. Guess what!? Like Homer Simpson's incessent draw to donuts so is poison oaks' draw to me. I have been bestowed with a little devil dust which has turned into itchy poison oak on my skin. O joy. Of course it is all the plants fault not mine.

Yet another cheesy "look at us having fun" couple shot, that's our skipper Ken in the background. (it's not a skirt it's a towel.)

Now we are in Morro Bay where we just enjoyed the best maple bar donut we have ever had. Next stop San Louis Obispo, then the Channel Islands.

.Hope you all are well.

.Much love all around.

Written by Colin, approved by Kirstin.

San Francisco!

Let the worried souls rest assured! Moms you can sleep sound tonight; we are alive and well in the vibrant city of San Francisco! We are experiencing a little bit of culture shock as we have been surrounded by nothing but the deep blue for almost a week prior to arriving here. The day after we arrived we read in the San Fran newspaper that the Power to the Peaceful festival was happening in Golden Gate Park for free!

60,000 people, music, speakers, loud noises= culture shock.

Speaking of arriving. Our sail into the city was beautiful. The morning fog parted and we were greeted by the Golden Gate Bridge shining in full sun!

However, the sail from Br(rrrr)ookings was not all sunshine and rainbows. The day we left we were under the forcasted impression that the winds would be 10-15 out of the north; which they were for about 12 hours. At about 2am the winds started picking up a bit and we lowered one of the downwind sails, another 3 hours passed and the wind continued to build to about 25 knots.

(For those who aren't so nautically savvy 1 knot =1.15mph) At that point I, Colin, stumbled out of my sound sleep to help Kristin and Ken lower the second (and last) sail. This took us to sailing under "bare poles" (No sails up) and still moving at about 6.5 knots! Our average sailing speed under full sails! Morning broke, we sailed under bare poles for about 4 hours with winds at about 30-35 knots and swell at 8 feet plus 6-7 of wind waves (not so savvy folks again, FIFTEEN FOOT WAVES!). Finally the decision was made to heave to (bobbing like a cork). We were hove to for about 20 hours and when we awoke the next morning the wind had died down and we sailed under 15 knot winds and lived happily ever after.

Now for some photos.

Drying out our clothes in Drakes Bay after the big winds and wet night of heaving to.

Next stop: San Simeon (we hear mysterious rumors of whales diving under boats, thousands of pelicans diving, and pirate treasure chests... Stay tuned.

However we are not sure the next place we will have internet access.

Photos!

Waiting, Waiting.

We have arrived on the beautiful Oregon coast where we are aboard the wonderous Allymar. We thought we were going to be leaving tomorrow morning but the winds have changed and it is looking like we will be leaving more like Friday. So we are waiting for the wind to blow in the direction we want it to. Poo.

Once again thanks to everyone who is supporting and has supported us. We appreciate every bit of it.