Clearly that was far too easy!!!

okay you smartie pants!! I think between Dana ( who emailed me claiming to be first)Danny Lou and Annette you named them all!!! Except no Ma Baker cause Alcatraz was only for the boys!! No women prisoner was ever locked up in Alcatraz. So..... now we need a harder question:

trivia #4A What kind of fruit is this? hint "they dined on Mints and plentiful ........ which they ate with a runsiple spoon"
#4B what song is this?

ha ha have fun!! Pot luck time now on Orca III with fellow cruisers! look forward to your answers, we are working on prizes. Danny Lou for baggy eyes ooops i mean winkles, and still thinking on Alcatraz. How come you guys no all the criminals? What have you been up too?........

Pier 39/Alcatraz

We took the bus from Sausilito over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. We went to Pier 39 and looked around, quite cool there. All kinds of neat shops and everything- They are decorating for Christmas - it looks beautiful except for the huge tree that they cut down to put in the center. Don't know why they just can't grow one there. They did the same thing at Jack London Square....

Went to Alcatraz in the afternoon. Very neat, I wouldn't want to have been there though. The cells are small, (bigger than our staterooms however) The audio tour was fantastic, very informative and sometimes too graffic for Emma ( she didn't like the guns and knife sounds from the inmates trying to escape or fighting) I sound like you were really there when it was happening.

The gardens are beautiful and all kinds of birds. It's a national park now and both Maya and Emma became junior park rangers!! Quite the history this island has - military prison, federal prison, indian's trying to take back the land to a national park. We saw the video there about all. Well worth going to when you are in San Francisco. Steve even bought himself an Alcatraz harmonica!! There were a few attempts to escape but all but 3 were recaptured. However, it is believed the last three drowned but no one knows for sure. their bodies never were found and nothing was heard of them.

Trivia question #3 Name one famous criminal who was at Alcatraz?

back in Sausilito again!!

hey we came back - Steve ploayed blues again last night and there was another harmonica player (who's in a touring band) he was awesome. Steve and he clicked! We are taking the bus over the golden gate bridge to San Fran and then off to Alcatraz today. The place we wanted to anchor in San Fran is all blocked off cause of the oil spill. Marinas want $1.5-$20/foot. ouch!! Bus thanks!! It's a beautiful day here, no storm like I understand his happened in vancouver. We will be heading south soon . It's Maya's birthday next (Nov 19) wow!!

Oakland

still here. waiting to see if we can take the boat to San Fransisco as there has been quite the oil spill here. I'm sure you've all heard. They were not letting boats come to the docks and shore. Got the deck painted yesterday YEH! and went to the farmers market they have here. Great!! I found quince! never new what it looked like check out the picture on the right. also checked out the "Last chance Saloon" totally cool. It was built in 1883 and is still standing and operational. It is slanted from the 1906 earthquake and totally stable. Also have the sod house of Jack London here. quite neat.
Not sure of our next plan of action. still want to go to Alcatraz but it's booked out today. will keep you posted. Apparenlty the last big oil spill here was in 1976 or so.
So far we have not found any hurt birds. thank god!!
having toubles loading pictures so stay tuned.
Maya has been having fun with the digital camera !!

Kyles 13 th Birthday

First off you all made us have a great laugh!! It sure is fun playing the trivia game with you all. Now we don't even know if they are baggy WRinkles or Winkles anymore. But I gotta give the prize to Danielle for creativity or honesty !!! And the rest of you get bonus points for having the right answer and Tim you gave a great full report!! Maya is quite impressed!!
We had Annette and Lincoln come down for Kyle's birthday. did a sing song and cake. They stayed the night and Annette and I went to Emeryville to do some shopping. But first we almost didn't get back to Jack London Square. Let me tell you our next great adventure. we anchored out in a small bay area, just off the Oakland side - (as the Alemeda marina were all full)we got our anchor in good and tight!! Big THUNK! sat there for 3 days, didn't move,except the anchor line kept getting shorter. You guessed it !! we could NOT pull up our anchor. It was very stuck, turns out there is a bunch of junk (old pier, old boats ect.) had to get a diver down to unravel the anchor. it was wound around a piling about 8 times and then caught on some other junk. but he got it off in a very short time and only charged us $40 bucks!! great guy and great deal!! We got to the dock just in time for Annette and Lincoln.Kyle and Lincoln played alot of Dungeons and Dragons!! had a great time!!
Hey Kevin did you notice the "friend" Kyle had at his birthday party?!!

I'm so very IMPRESSED!!

Well done all of you who answered! Jack London was indeed an author who wrote "CALL of the Wild" , "White Fang" (these two were made into Walt Disney moveis) he wrote alot more- died just before his 40th birthday, grew up very poor,leaving school at the age of 12 to help support his mom, dad took off before he was born .Jack was born in th late 1800's. He lived in Alemeda ( at that time Alemeda was a dry town so they had to go across to Oakland to get their drink) "The last chance bar" is still in Oakland!!
All this is from my memory after a couple of locals told us he was an icon. There is a great bookstore here in Oakland "Barney and NOble" kinda like a chapters. anyway thanks for playing!!

Kyle really enjoyed all the birthday greetings!! Thank you all, you made me cry! Great card mom, the kids ( including steve) laughed and love it!!

Trivia #2 (from maya) the kids have been making "baggy winkles" for our boat. Maya wants to know what are baggy winkles? She would like a full report.

look forward to your answers, once again a prize

cause you were first Dana prize to follow - Wayne and Elly and Auntie Sandy good information prize to follow for you as well.

love you all , thanks for having fun with us!!

Well we went to a blues night at the Sausilito Cruising Club on Monday night and Steve was up on stage playing his harmonica. Boy he sounded great!! Emma was dancing "all night long!" she was the bopping queen! wonder where she gets that?! Kyle was listening to all the musicians. they even had 2 sax players, Maya also did her fair share of bopp'n. we had a great time. Have made many friends there!! Left the next morning to cross the bay and are in Oakland right now. We spent Tuesday night tied to the public dock right in Jack London Square.
trivia question- Who is Jack London and what is he famous for? prize for the right answer.
Tomorrow is Kyle's 13th Birthday!! oh my god, I have a teenager on a 46ft boat!! what am i going to do? haha.
Just stocking up ( groceries, water,little bit of fuel- expensive!! and some more fittings for that watermaker.) We are going to hit Alcatraz this weekend and start planning to head out to the open ocean again further down south. It's getting cold here for me!!
answer to the question on the next posting - look forward to your answers!

Sunny and Hot in Sausilito

Well we've had a quiet lazy day today. stayed on board all day. HOt out!! we watched all the boats going by us. The kids we swinging in the bolsuns chair and everyone who went by thought that was neat. We will be moving over to the Oakland/Alemda side either Sunday/Monday. need to get some more fittings so we can make the watermaker work. Also time to go sightseeing ( Alcatraz) May have to change the head gasket!! bummer! Steve is trying to diagose that right now. Dam jellyfish!! this is our friend seagull. seems to like our dingy!!

Halloween in Sausilito

we did the trick or treating thing with the kids in Sausilito. They do a parade and all the stores down the main street give out candy. The rec center has all kinds of tables set up in the basketball courts with candy, glow sticks galore, books and toys for the kids treat bags. They also did a haunted house. that was quite cool. Even saw some people who we met the previous day at the park. There are NO fireworks, strange not to hear all that banging. We also walked to a few houses. The streets here have very steep hills!! All in all it was a good time. We over heated the engine the other night. Got a jellyfish stuck in the intake and it caused us a muffler. Steve has patched it for now and we have one waiting for us in Hunting Beach ( close to LA) There's $300 we didn't want to spend. Oh well, at least the engine is Okay. It is quite foggy this morning - eerie . usually the fog burns off by mid day, however this one is thicker than the others have been.

Sausilito

Well we are sitting here on the hook in Sausilito. great place!! have already hooked up with the co-op marina here.They have all kinds of funky house boats and boats with house tops on them. Met a very nice couple (Vern & Cina)who invited us in for dinner. Steve helped cut a piece of wood for him. Nice people here!! Annette has our children until Sunday. I'm sure they are having a blast. We are doing boat projects - Steve wants to get the watermaker working.

Golden Gate Bridge - we made it!!!

Had a great sail out of Cresent City. sunny and windy - sailed the boat at 7.5-8 knots and had sea swells of 15ft. The seas calmed down around Cape Mendencino (usually they are more and windier there) had dolphins playing in our bow wake!! two different kinds of dolphin pods for about 3\4 of hour, this was on mine and Maya's watch right a sunrise. Kyle and I heard a whale but only saw his blow but he sure came up big on the radar!! It was dark out at the time. We motored on nearly flat ocean all day and night Monday until Drakes Bay where the wind came up about 15-20knots. We came under the golden Gate Bridge at sunrise this morning. Wow. we are now in Sausilito, anchored out. Steve's sister Annette and her boys will come out tomorrow and see us. have met up with Ian and Wendy of Earthlink ( they are from Bluewater Cruising Ass.) Enjoy the pictures of the Orca III going under the bridge.

More Redwood Forest

the redwoods were so great i thought i'd put somemore pictures on!! the weather has imporved a great deal and the sun is even trying to shine! we sure love to read all of your comments! thanks. Have been hanging out with our new buds everyday - today i did a pancake breakfast for them all. one of the guys is a kiwi (24yr) Kyle has really clicked with him - the sailboat we are buddy boating down with have a great bunch of crew!! here's a photo of them. Although i miss you all sure am having a grand time. We will be seeing Annette (Steve's sister) and family when we get to San Fransisco. My kids are so excited about that. So am I - I need another woman around, Annette!! haha . we hope to go and hike out to the lighthouse tomorrow, will put a photo up of that after.

The Redwood Forest

Well the trees are big in this forest!! had a great walk, have met two other boats that we have been hanging out with, one is a tuna fishboat from Granville Island!! we have had Albacore Tuna fresh bbqed and even raw!! totally awesome. We hope to leave here on Sunday and head for San Fransico. It was (and still is) very windy last night !!

Cresent City California

well we have made it to California !! Cresent City is about 8 hrs from Eureka. we needed to get more fuel as we have motored the whole way. had the jib and staysail up for a bit, but not enough wind to make the weather window. We were also travelling with a fisherman down the coast. It was great to have someone to talk to on the VHF. he was travellling alone,so very much appreciated the company ( and extra lookout)Had great weather, all sun except for the last morning where we had fog til about 10am. Then back to sun. saw 7 pelicans, albatross, dolphins played in our bow wake and Steve and kids saw a couple of whale tails- humbacks they think! I missed it! bummer!!! If we stay here a couple of days, we will be going to the redwood forest.

Well we have our weather window and will be leaving tonight to head south. We are heading to Eureka California. We have been checking in with a weather guy and he has given us this window. Send good energy for a nice trip down for us first timers!! Sorry we won't see you John and Cheryl in San Diego. Bummer!! Look forward to some hot weather!! Emma misses Maggie. So does Maya and also Kyle.

Well we had quite the windy and rainy day yesterday. We played boardgames all day.Kyle bought this new one called Jumbo jet - combination of cash flow and monopoly. The sun is out and all is calm here now. Looks like we have a window - Thurs/Friday . Emma took this picture of us all by herself

just hanging around

still out on the hook- so I went crazy taking some photos. Thanks mom, and my false creek School mom's for the digital camera !! The lovely sign was giving to us by my sister Danielle ( aka Danny Lou !!! l love ya) and her Troup - Andrew, Merrick,& Erryn

Wating for the Weather!!!

Well looks like there is quite a storm coming through, so we will wait out the weather. Steve is going to keep working on the boat, doing all the little things we were going to do later, may as well. Today was a beautiful day in Port Angelos, I wore SHORTS!!! Emma got her first lesson on how to start the outboard - right from pumping the gas ball to the choke. she couldn't quite start it , so Maya gave it a pull and first time start!!! Kyle has finished Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets today . Read it in one day!!! ( this is his 4rd time around) It's about 9pm and so calm, it's like glass on the water. Will check the weather tomorrow and see how it is, first break and we are gone.

going out ot anchor in Port Angelos

hi all, we will be leaving the dock to day to anchor out- gets to expensive staying on the dock!!
we also want to try out the ham radio. there are to many power lines running down the dock and interfering with our backstay . don't know if i will have email access out there. Looks like we will try to leave for Neah Bay on Friday, that's when the weather is supposed to be better. Maya has now finished all the Harry Potter books!! good for her, although she's disappointed that they are done. Kyle has read the series twice since we have left Vancouver!! and Emma is writing her own songs, maybe we'll publish her song book! Thanks to everyone who has left comments on here , please comment, we love to read them and it makes us feel connected to you. The boat is looking good!! and things are getting done, Hugs to everyone!!

Dionne

Haven't moved yet

we are still working on the ham radio. Steve thinks it works but just needing to set it up. Ron Kolody set it up for us before, so we are learning. I went to buy us some toques ( known as stocking hats here, they laugh at me when i say toque) and some gloves. We are getting more and more done on the boat. Have played a few games of Chess , I am good!!! Beat Steve in about 8 moves - check out the checkmate with the white horse on black king, good eh?! Just to show that!

Kyle , Maya, and Emma are doing great. Right now the girls are studying rocks, Kyle of course is reading something!! Have made a few friends on the dock here. Hope to go leave tomorrow if the weather is right. Steve went and watched a blues band the other night and quite enjoyed them. Will update when I can.