Dad you were first!!

This is some Mexican Mayan art we bought in Cabos, the black and white one is of the Mayan Calendar - great isn't it. and I just love my colour blue that's why we bought this one.
Here is a picture of my beaded bag I am currently making......
Well done dad, but what about the whale? Where was the picture taken. So we are just by the topic ofCancer and in the Sea of Cortez , although my dad gave the actually names of the bay, check in the comment section of last posting.
we are up early to scrub the boat and put some more bar rust 235 on. then epoxy filler and I hope that's the end of the two spots that keep coming back!! There is a cruiser club house at the top of the marina, book exchange and such. Still waiting for a package that downwind marine's supposed to forward - yes Annette the cables, aren't here yet, welcome to mail and parcels in Mexico...hopefully they will arrive soon.
There is a cruisers morning gathering every morning here at the club house, social hour- right close to the laundry room, good for me.... feels like home here given all the boats we know. Was a little chilly this morning, have to wear long pants right now, oh ya, you guys have snow...... cheaky, cheaky,
Trivia time again......
A) what does La Paz mean in Spanish?
B) What year did the first Spaniards visit La Paz?
B) When was the first permanent settlement established in La Paz?

have fun learning... look forward to your answers - and remember now is your chance to beat Dana as she is not back from Las Vegas until tomorrow.

at the dock in La Paz

we are on the dock here for 4 days, have great internet and it cost us $40 less here for 4 days than one in Cabos!! Steve is already helping out fellow cruisers and has managed to get enough to cover our moorage and then some. not bad. Sorry you all have such cold weather. I'll try to send some sun. We will be hanging out with lots of fellow cruisers here, feels like home cause there are so many boats that we know. Even have Steve's first sailboat "Reflections" moored right in front of us.... small world.

Can't wait to hose off all the salt- Steve also has started the process of installing the solar panels. We will be here in La Paz for about a week give or take a day , you can all email us on our orca3@thegarage.ca - we would love to hear from everyone.
Trivia question:
Oh where oh where is King Orca in the picture ?
What body of water are we currently cruising in and what is the name of the line of latitude we are closest too?
have fun, the picture is of the sunrise leaving Los Muertos!! I tried to post this first thing in the morning to be a smart ass, but Steve pulled the anchore before I could load it.Beauty isn't it!?

We are in La Paz!

We are in La Paz!

Had a great calm motoring day yesterday, no wind and flat ftat calm! We did boat chores, showers, beading ( I mad a necklace and worked on yet another beaded bag) reading, ect. Saw more dolphins , different kind this time – they were black. And jumping and flipping about 5ft out of the water!! Amazing, Maya took some photos so will put some on the block – if you look closely at the kids hanging in the bolsuns chair at the bow on the previous postings you can see dolphins just below them in the water. ( that’s for you mom, I took lots of pictures last time just couldn’t get any decent ones with the digital camera, took some with the 35mm one,just have to get the film developed)

We arrived in La Paz around 4:30pm – and found our buds on Malachi – Jay, Marg, Jocelyn,Jenny. Ended up knowning a few boats here, so had many a drop in before we had a chance to scoot over to Malachi. Had a great visit with them and they came back to Orca III for and early night – tired we were!
There are a lot of Canadians around here too!! Internet is tough as everyone is secured but I will find one too use soon enough.

Steve painted the cockpit while in Los Frailes

Doesn't the paint job look good with you teak floor Brian ( Hot Rum)?!!!




hey thought you'd like this, not bad ,eh?!!!!

Los Muertos here we are!!

Well we made it here all in one piece. Had about 15 knts of wind on our face and had to power into it. It picked up to 20. Not a problem, just no sailing for us. Emma got a bit sea sick at first. went for a great dinner at the restaurant - "Giggling Marlin' had my first Margarita since being in Mexico !! Can you believe it. the food was great, check out the pictures.
yesterday we went to shore in Los Frailes with a 3 other cruising boats. Hiked up to the campground where we found "little Canada" on one side and "little USA" on the other. most of the canadians were from BC- guess all that snow and cold weather drove them here!! Met a man and his 14 daughter who were from Powell River - he's the fruit man that sells peaches ect. to all the boaters going to Desolation Sound, told us to come and see him when we get back, cool,. We had heard there was a palapa bar close by,yeah right, quited the walk but the mexican's pointed us in the right direction. Once we got there, not a soul in sight - just a cooler full of cervas ( beer) and pop. we all had one and left the empties on the counter with money . I couldn't believe no one came to make sure we paid...... nice place though. had a great pot luck onboard the Orca III and us and 2 other boats left early am to Los Muertos.

update of Orca III

Hey all,
we tried to leave Los Frailes last night but turned around, it was way to rough and bouncy, felt sick as soon as we turned the corner. the wind is doing strange things at this end. we will try to leave again tonight and go straight to La Paz. We are listening to weather on the ham am and pm, and checking the grib files. It is subsiding and already this morning's wind is way less then yesterdays. I think we will go ashore today to burn some energy.

Steve has painted the entire cockpit and it looks good, have pictures and will post them when i can.

just caught up on all the comments on the blog

hey all finally had a chance to read all the comments - they are great, Karen King Richard Orca is still with us!! NOt going anywhere soon. He now does night watches when we are at anchor!! very good at it too. Happy Birthday to Freddie, Merrick, Aunty Sandy and almost my Dad!!!!!

hope you liked all the photos, will post more

In Cabos!!

Well we made it here yesterday (Sunday) at noon, checked in to a marina. It cost us $185 for one night!! Yikes.......... so we are at the dock until 3:00 pm them we will go and anchor out. Found a big store equivalent to Costco called City Club, so we stocked up, went for a swim and did laundry. We are using our $185 wisely!! . loading all the garbage we can off the boat and washing her down.

Great here in Cabos!! We had a nice run coming down, saw 10-12 grey whales in the entrance to Magadellina Bay as we left on Saturday. Then had hundreds and hundreds of dolphins playing all around our boat, jumping six in a row even. Tried to get photos but they don't do it justice. Even hung the kids down the side of the boat in the bolsons chair at the bow. Kyle managed to touch a dolphin, sure did scare the poor thing. We motor sailed all the way as there was very little wind. We will stay on the hook here in Cabos tonight and then head to Les Frailes and then on to La Paz. We are all doing well, and enjoying the Mexican Baja. look forward to going to Puerto Vallarta to the jungle side of things.
We had a lot of tears when we left Mag Bay - have made some good friends there, fellow cruisers we will seen again, but the village people we probably won't. The girl Alondra was really sad to see us go. We went with them on a hike to the outside of the pennisula ( see the photos) and the group one of us is with the family we know well in the village. The older girl, Lapita, quite likes Kyle. Enjoy the photos and will update ASAP

We are still anchored in Mag bay

We are still anchored in Mag bay in front of the sand dunes at 24* 38.246'N 112* 68.214W

Steve and Robert are still working on the other boats engine. had a few glitches, the new water pump they bought exploded in to pieces so between our boat and Roberts boat they have enough spare parts to build one for them. Steve even has gasket material here to make a gasket. Thank god Steve and Robert are so mechanical. They should be done today. I say that Free Style ( the boat getting fixed ) is so lucky to have met us and Robert.
It has been foggy here the last two mornings and lots of dew. I go and wipe down the boat with free water. We had a great pot luck dinner last night here on Orca III , we have been the galley and head for the Free Style Crew and the other mechanic. We've Free Style to us to make things easier. For the first 3 night they had to sleep on our boat also. We are now called Casa de Orca - ( hotel Orca- maybe we should write a song about that...hmmmm....)

have been going to the beach everyday while the boys work away, we've got both dingys in the water along with the kyack and the hammock is up. Life is good. Have baked up a storm and this time I put a bunch in the freezer, we make water 2times a day and yesterday and today I have hand washed more laundry. Oh how the hell did they do that in the olden days I'll never know!! It is hard work ringing out those clothes. And we have been wearing them for about 4 days!!

The kids are having a great time, Kyle does a lot of fishing and they have all been building quite the coolest sand cities, we saw a dead sting ray on the beach and you should see the shells the girls have collected. We have 4 huge abolone shells !!

We are hoping to leave on Tuesday to head towards Cabos. It's about a 24hr run depending on the wind.... I will hopefully be able to update the blog then.
take care and love to all

Update from Orca3...

Steve is getting that engine job done . It's going well. The kids stayed back yesterday with our buddy Robert and he took them to the mangroves. they had a great time. Kyle caught some weird fish, and the girls found some more shells. Boy have we got shells, cool ones. We still have Free Style rafted to us to finish the engine job. The kids, Rose, Jenna and I will be going to the mangroves today with the kyack and dingies. Maybe Kyle will catch some halibut. they are smaller than ours at home,
but I understand they taste great!!

Thought I'd give a little look into our daily life : every morning we start the engine to make water ( between 7-10 gallons) that's we can make until Steve adds a cooler for the hydrolics. they are over heating so we can only run the water maker for 25 min. in the morning, then again in the evening for around the same amount of time. sometimes just 15 mins. Steve checks the temperature and then shuts off the watermaker. We will be looking for some fittings and hydrolic hose in La Paz, there were
none in San Carlos. After the big market shop, I have to wash all my fresh fruits and veggies in a bleach bath solution for about 10-15 minutes. and then lay everything out on the deck to completely dry before we can eat any of it. This is to help us not get sick from any bad water they may have grown in. I do a lot of baking , just to keep us fed. way to expensive to buy all that junk cookies ect. lots of muffins and banana bread. Will be baking my own bread too soon, as they don't have nay good
high fiber stuff here. Everyone loves my baking !! They are starting to hang around until it comes out of the oven, nice and hot. I love it.!! Good thing I like to cook, cause I sure do a lot of that. Maya has also been baking and she is very good at it. Emma helps a lot, she really likes to serve the food. quite cute.
I also wipe the boat down every morning that there was dew in it. Free water and it's good to get the salt off. We are getting lots of boat projects down. I have found a new scrabble junkie!! Rose plays just like me - for the points so it makes for a great game. I will be teaching her how to play parquacky- cause she loves timed word games. She has never heard of this game, can you believe it DAna,DAnny Lou, Mom and Auntie SAndy? anyway I am excited about that!!
Well time is up on the computer , we are leaving for the mangroves, will take lots of pictures.

Market day in san carlos

well STeve and I came without the kids to market by panga, bought all kinds of good fruit and veggies real cheap. 20lbs for 350 pesos ($3.50usd) good deal, eh! we are now anchored of the sand dunes, and Steve and Robert has started the engine job. Us women and the kids hiked on the beach yesterday and Maya found a big sand dollar. we gathered what wood we could find - kyle is good at that and tonight we plan on having a bon fire, gonna roast some wiennies and marshmellows. I think we will be here until Monday and then head towards Coba San Lucas. Here are some more photos of where we are anchored and us getting diesel fuel on the boat by panga, the port captain brought it for us. very clean fuel, but we still used our Baja filter . We had a little bit of rain the other morning. a welcome as it helps get the salt off the boat. Don´t have much time on this computer. will send a bigger update via mom. take care all. enjoy the photos. We had 3 of the village girls come aboard our boat for a visit. they are the poorest family in mag bay and our kids have become very good friends. they have never been on a boat before and boy did they love it. never saw a keyboard either and had a blast playing it. the older girl Lapunita quite likes Kyle . they are the same age! it was very cute!! Emma gave the youngest, Mahia (2yrs old) 2 of here dolls and she loved them, she didn´t comea aboard and cried cause she could. too small. very cute. Maya gave away about 10 stuffies to all the kids and they loved them!! I am very proud of my children for sharing their stuff. Kyle donated alot of things to the school.

Shopping day in San Carlos

Hola, everone! the kids and I came in to town by panga with our friends to get groceries and check out the town.Steve stayed back on the boat but will come on wed its market day!! quite the ride on that panga! the girls wre very scared,but all was okay.
well Am sitting in an internet cafe which is quite fun trying to get the keyboard to work right. they have different ways to get the @ sign. Anyway, the boat is in Mag Bay we arrived here 2days ago. It is a very poor fishing village. not a lot here, (except garbage) but the people are excellent. we had a blast playing on the beach with the local children. Kyle, Maya,Emma have managed to make friends despite the lack of Spanish we speak. We brought lots of canadian souveniors and toys and puzzles to the kids. it was a hit! we are still with our buddies Tillicum and Free Style, will be here for a week or so. Steve is helping to fix an engine, and then we will head for Cabos San Lucas and seee our friend Paul from The Garage. Hey Paul looking forward to the drinks!! ths is a quick one as i have to shre the computer with my buds, there are only 3 here. enjoy the photos.
love Dionne