Greetings from beautiful Baja!

We are slowly settling into life in Mexico, and realizing we never want to leave. The wind finally started to blow, and we are meeting wonderful folks. Here is a preview of our past few weeks. We hope you all are well!
Much Love,
Colin and Kristin

The new addition to our family! ...only for one day. We adopted this adorable little 7 week old puppy, who we dubbed Oso (bear, en espanol). After one sleepless night and a reality check, we returned him and he found another loving (and permanent) home that same day. But what a cutie!

Our kite launch beach, a hundred feet north of our camp.

Colin dancing!

Local kiter.

Our friends Sal and Hannah, on her first launch lesson.

Us!

Standup paddling on a glassy calm morning.

Hannah and Kristin.

Hannah, practicing her paddleboard yoga.

The new Foote rep.

Lovely morning on the water.

Thank you to our photographer friend, Vik, supplying us with these spectacular pics.

Hello everybody!
Hope you all are doing well. We are sitting at a little restaurant, doing all our internet chores, and awaiting the wind. Everything is great here, except the wind. We have only had a few windy days so far, but it should be picking up. Colin taught me to fly my kite for the first time yesterday, and it was loads of fun. Pictures will tell more than I can, so here you go. Also, they are in opposite chronological order, and I do not have the patience to fix it, so start at the bottom.
Much love to all!
Colin and Kristin

Colin, chillaxin on the beach at La Ventana.

Huge margharitas, just across the street from our camp, for $2. A bit pricy, but darn good.

The view from our home. Those are others camped in the secret free arroyo.


Our beautiful home!

Leaving the boating world, trying to hitch a ride on this bustling road... kite gear and all.

Our friends Luke and Megan off their sailboat, Sapphire, and Christy and Jason off Hello World.

Notice we are sucking on limes... and they taste like sugar! Incredible.

This stuff is crazy. It is a fruit, which you eat in concentrated form, and it makes anything sour into the sweetest thing you have ever tasted. How? I do not know. But we tried it, and it was crazy.

Our dear lady friends, Sarah from Stepping Stone, and Christy from Hello World. Unfortunately we only have a photo of Sarah, but Elias, Kimberly, and Boo, we are thinking of you too. Thank you all for a truly awesome experience.

Jason and Christy

One last jumpy before we leave the boating world. La Ventana in the background.

Land!

We made it! We are camping in La Ventana, Colin is kiting to his little heart's content, and I am learning. Life is beautiful... and cheap... and all is well. Pictures soon!
Hope y'all are well, much love,
Colin and Kristin

Greetings from Hello World!

We live a hard life.
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 fish to catch. Between raw yellow tail, seared dorado, and many other fish, we haven't been eating too bad. Colin surfed all day at Santa Maria with our friend Elias, and returned with scratches, bruises, fish, 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.