Feb 12, 2006: Cabo San Lucas

Headline: STILL IN CABO SAN LUCAS

WHAT: Hanging out sailing the tall ship Sunderland

WHY: because I am indeed a bit of a slow learner and just keep going back to sailing ships, despite the lack of pay… still the sailing is a blast…

HOW: not particularly well, given my current state of health… my ankle is not happy, tendonitis(?)… and I slipped with a grinder today and clipped a knuckle, ugh!

WHO: me, the Captain and crew… smiling for the cruise ship folks and taking their money just like the rest of the town….

WHEN: almost daily sailing… been here since mid-Dec and will stay til about May… come visit if you want…

WHERE: check out Google Earth, Cabo is right the bottom of Baja, you can even see the boat at the dock east side just inside the harbor entrance


Community News: If I could find a community I would tell you about it!… weird town… I’m sure back in the burbs where they keep the worker bees that tend the tourists there are probably real people… you know it’s a fun town when people look SO surprised, even excited, when you speak Spanish to them … really its just all about getting the tourists to part with their dollars.

Environmental news: Sad to say there will soon be no whale watching here in town… the little boats (pangas) harass and chase the whales so much that the whale numbers are decreasing more and more… apparently there are thousands of whales just up the coast!… So I have been talking to one of the crew’s girlfriend, Claudia, a Marine Biologist to see if there is some way to re-train HOW they do whale watching here… the whales are tail slapping at the little boats and still they don’t leave them alone…

Apparently last week a grey whale landed on a 27foot power boat off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA!… then smacked them and then stared at them with one eye… that would have freaked me out!… we sent the video of the whale landing on the kayak (I think it happened in BC) to a local tour company here that now seems to have gotten the message!… no big sharks here ... (see photo!) but did see a hammerhead just swimming along beside us one day...

Weather: Sun, sun, sun… oh it did rain last month one day… Sports: Can’t do a bleeding thing.. my ankle is too messed up… there is actually a yoga class here that I had just started going to and I haven’t been in weeks, can’t even walk that far to get to where the class is 10 minutes away… sigh…

Music: Listening/watching a great band. Out of New Zealand, Te Vaka. Introduced to them by my boss here. Fun world beat stuff.

Book reviews: Reading Morgans Run by Colleen McCullough who wrote Thorn Birds… its about the convicts sent to Australia from England, pretty interesting stuff…

Movie Reviews: Saw the Stepford Wives remake… quite different from the book, and they all lived happily ever after, not nearly so sinister… still, I did laugh… but what a horrible thought that husbands would do that to their wives…

Quote of the Week: It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Coming Events: Next long weekend for us is in April. Was supposed to leave town this weekend but didn’t make it. Would love to get up north to see the cave paintings near Santa Rosalita.

This is Laurel Seaborn “reporting” from Cabo San Lucas

Dec 17, 2005 Cabo San Lucas

MADE IT!

From the moment I walked into the bathroom at the little taqueria in San Jose del Cabo, and the smell of poop mixed the pungent scent of bug bomb advertised the huge dead roach in the corner, I knew I was back where I belonged!!... safe and sound to Cabo san Lucas...

the boat is huge and old and smells it, yuck... but it will soon be the smell of home I suppose... the people are great, the rest of the crew are BUFF and tan, I feel completely out of my league.... as one slid down the main halyard to say hello and look at my soft white hands... the relief Captain just smiled...

and they all took me out to dinner at Lattitude 22, now on the outskirts of town... nice slow day today... some sanding, put together a sump pump while the guys pulled out the head (toilet)...

tomorrow is staff Christmas party, and again no sail... maybe sailing monday...

can´t wait to see how it goes...

happy holidays, hugs
Laurel

Dec 4, 2005: California

CALIFORNIA

Thanks friends for all your input.

Friday night was the Kids Lighted Parade (no you don't light your kids on fire to watch them go screaming down the street)... lots of cylume sticks and flashing glow balls and Santa on the Fire truck (just in case a kid did catch fire?)... very family, low key... and then after the street stayed closed for street fair (ie shortbread cookies and applecider or hot chocolate, etc) entertainment, we watched a guy juggle knives with his hands(in gloves) on fire! ...no one in the audience caught fire!


Topics of Interest, for me anyway:
welcome to the season of Christmas parties and "gee I hope my jeans still fit in January"... favorite foods include anything with Chocolate (except the fudge at last nights cocktail party), shortbread, cookies in cute shapes and iced... anyone ever have goose for Xmas dinner?

the University down the way at Santa Cruz has a strange mascot: the banana slug, I almost stepped on one while out hiking the other day... it tucked in his eye stalks and cringed in that way that slugs do!...

did I ever tell you my little sister used to pick them up like "pets" usually on a kleenex or something to avoid the slime... and one day an adult thought the curled up brown slug she offered him was a chocolate.... yuk, guess he needed glasses... wonder if her baby boy will someday have the same affection for them?!...


Checking out the Planet:
yes it a big beautiful planet, and somehow there always seems to be something horrific going on... my sincerest thanks go out to those who continue to do everything then can to help those who need it... and the rest of us I suppose any little bit helps

the earth quake in Pakistan has left a real mess: More than three million people are homeless in the region and some 800,000 are still sleeping in the open. Some 74,000 people have died as a result of the quake and the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy warns that the approaching harsh mountain winter could bring more deaths if there are not more food, medical treatment and supplies made available. feel like being charitable for Christmas?
see U.S. Agency for International Development and the Human Development Foundation of Pakistan.

Environmental news
worried about Global warming? the Kyoto Protocal folks are meeting in Montreal this weekend:
http://indeco.com/kyoto
or there's always the peooples ratification of the treaty: www.kyotoandbeyond.org/petition.html


Sports:
The bike trail that goes from the Pillar Point marina into town is about all that I've done lately, as in ride a bike along it... easier one way than the other due to the winds...


Book reviews:
Couldn't handle the slog through Don Quixote, so got some novels from the library and have finished 2 (one each night): 5 Quarters of the Orange (Joanne Harris author of Chocolat) lovely food, mystery.... and DiscWorld's Moving Pictures (terry Pratchett), humourous a send up of Hollywood... now reading Witches of Eastwick that became the movie with Susan Sarandon, Cher, etc...


Movie Reviews/News:
okay I admit... I watched the Princess Bride again... want me to recite it for you from memory, huh huh, do ya??... "As you wish."


Quotes of the Week: "Anybody want a peanut?".... Inconcievable!"... "Dream of large women"... "Have fun storming the castle boys"... "My Wesley will come for me"..."My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die"... (add you favorites here)

Coming Events:
Christmas... I keep seeing trees tied to the tops of peoples cars... yep it's slamming into full on consumer hype now! ...

Nov 25, 2005

HALF MOON BAY, CA

Protest against Turkey Slaughter Day


…eat a parrot.

First you have to get it away from the pirate who has the stupid squawking thing s(*)itting on his shoulder. Then (if you live through that part), be humane in dispatching it. Drowning is NOT humane... May I suggest Deep Fried, just like mama does in the Deep South?... Or flambe?... anything tastes good with rum...

Seriously though…

This being American Thanksgiving, I expect you all to do the one of the seven deadly sins that suits the day: Gluttony. (What were you thinking?) To me this day just isn’t the same without Granny’s jello with vegetables. Or the deep South’s yams with mini marshmallows on top. But I’ll survive here with the 20 pounds of mashed potatoes and stuff any empty corners with stuffing.

So, eat yourself into oblivion, try not to inhale the pumpkin pie, blame the sleepies on the trypo-fan stuff, and pass out… What other country has a holiday to celebrate pig out, over-eating! (German October Fest is more a beer thing.)

To my Canadian friends my apologies for the US emphasis, but here I am down here.... there a little slow here... and I had the opportunity to do this twice (was still in Vancouver that weekend)... we had pizza...

I am still here in Half Moon Bay, California. Watching time roll by. Spend my days working to restore the deck. Been in the sun almost a week, but the weather just turned back to the cloudy grey. Suppose I should think myself lucky that it’s not snowing, but you know I’d rather a snow storm and that white blinding light than this grey funk! There would have to be a fireplace in there too.

Spend my nights wondering why I decided to come here!... I dislike bedroom communities. They seem dead.

Not a thrilling adventure. Not exciting. Not interesting. But then I guess we al need a rest sometimes. Unfortunately, sometimes that “rest” seems to drag on a bit longer than you planned.I suppose I should be stoked about having such peaceful recuperation. Maybe in hindsight I will.

Hoping to make it to Baja, and it still may happen but not until early Dec. That whole “bribe an official today” campaign, hasn’t managed to actually speed anything up in the third world. But it could be worse. Could be months and months instead of these few weeks.

Anyone ever read Don Quixote? (There's a new translation out) It really is the kind of book that requires a reading group or something. I am still slogging along. Talk about sub-plots. Maybe I should just wait for Terry Gilliam to get his movie finished. Pick up the DVD “Man of La Mancha” and see the hell that is attempting to make the film and they just can’t overcome the bad luck. They even ended up in a flash flood on a Spanish bombing range!

It seems a long way to Hollywood from here despite being in California, but I remain addicted to films. Best I’ve seen lately is called MirrorMask, a world in a dream, animated, circus cast, a dark Queen. A great tale of black and white, good and evil.

Best thing about California so far is the smell of eucalyptus trees! The bike ride into town follows a path along the shore and each ravine is filled with them. Lovely, heady smells. I have pressed the leaves into my journal hoping the smell will stay. This will be the prominent memory of being here. Silly but true. You can keep most of the rest of it: traffic, over-populated, strip malls, the Governor, smog, fog…

Did get to go to a book signing here at the little independent bookstore in the town. Very cool author. If you like epic fantasy in the style of Tolkien, read the Song of Ice and Fire series (starts with Game of Thrones). The author, George RR Martin so looked the part: rotund man with grizzled grey beard.


I hear fireworks outside? Weird, that’s not the usual American thing for this holiday but then any excuse to try to blow off one’s fingers! If you got ‘em, light ‘em up.

Very quiet here without the rest of the crew. I think I need some activity and chaos around me. Think I’ll head out, somewhere.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Laurel