A Quick Note

Since my last post from almost a month ago, my laptop died, I arrived in Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta), caught a flight to Hermosillo, Picked up the VW Westy in San Carlos and took the 1st Mate and dogs to Errorzona and back to San Carlos. I'm now using the 1st Mate's laptop to try and catch up. The plan is to leave on Saturday, arrive in PV Sunday with the whole famn damily. So we're busy getting ready...

Solo Flight - Part Dos- Christmas Day

The calm waters of Balandra Cove just 14 miles northeast of Puerto Escondido. Permission is required to land here, since it is a wildlife preserve now.

Spent Christmas Day sailing from Pta. Pulpito to Balandra. Had the sails up for about 2 hours before the wind quit. Dolphins were spotted here and there and rumors of whale sightings made their way onto the morning cruiser net in Escondido. But I didn't see any whales during my 10 hour journey.

The skies are getting overcast due to an incoming "Pineapple Express." So named because these long (1,000 miles or more) weather systems bring tropical moisture into the desert regions of Mexico and the US from the equator. Sometimes the rain can be intense from these formations; there's always lots of cloudiness and humidity when an Express shows up.

The Escapist- Part Uno

On the 23rd of December, 2008, I hauled up the anchor (actually, I unhooked from the mooring) at around 2 am and with old friend G. onboard and his 25 foot panga in tow, set off for the Baja and points south.

There's not much in the way of internet connections on the open seas (although I've heard of blogging through email over the ham radio) so I'm kinda' catching up in a patchwork fashion.

December 23rd-25th

The winds were light and variable with a 2 to 3 foot southerly swell out to midway across the Sea of Cortez. We're on a westerly course to the town of Mulege, near the mouth of Bahia Conception. Halfway across the swell switches to northwest so we adjust our course for the most comfortable ride. We're running on diesel power since there's no wind.

We put into a small anchorage near Bahia Conception in the dark after 21 hours, and sleep. The next morning, G. gets on his panga and drives over to Mulege. Loaded down with presents, it's a modern day Santa and his sleigh.

I hauled up the anchor and started working my way down the inside coast of Baja. The 1st Mate and the dogs remained back in San Carlos... I hadn't solo-sailed in years and really wanted some time alone out on the sea. For me it's a great place to sort out my life and thoughts, free of minor distractions and noise.

The weather was mild- warm sun during the day and chilly at night. Spent the next night, Christmas Eve, at El Pulpito. I had this little bay all to myself and the stars above.

Mulligan Approved Music™ and Damn Purists

The 1st Mate and I played the Captain's Club on Sunday night, using our new equipment and song list. I recognized Mark Mulligan (markmulligan.net) sitting at the bar with a couple of friends. We were between sets and I stopped to say hello on my way to the head. Mark thought my "guitar work" was really good. He stopped at the 1st Mate's table and gave her a compliment on his way out the door. Nice man. 1st Mate didn't know who he was.

I think the voice harmonizer is a great device, and gives us a lot of optional songs we couldn't do without it... but the one piece we did that didn't use any effects, drum machine, or synthesizers (T. Monk's 'Round Midnight) got the greatest response from the audience. Damn purists.

Back on the Mooring, Back on the Books

The BLISS boat is back on the mooring after a month of dockside work. I left the camera on the boat for some reason, but maybe will pick it up later today. The outboard really needs some attention and I have a bunch of paperwork to do (ugh!) because of the !$%# business. Also, the generator has finally arrived from Michigan via Nogales and I will need to find a spot for it out at the rancho. Did I mention that it's huge? Weighing in about 1,000 pounds, it takes up most of the space in my pickup. I'm going to have to hire a crane to put it in the boat, but the little crane I installed on the pickup does a good job of what I have to do with it now. The genset came with meters, filters, spares, but I haven't seen a technical manual for it yet. I was able to download a users' manual from the Westerbeke website, though.

I may have to get a liter of coconut ice cream to get me through this. That and my camera.

Still comfortable temperatures in San Carlos, thank God. How I despise being cold.

Foot Fetish

What you see before you is Santa's early delivery of foot operated music controllers. The two on the right are brand new- I just returned from Errorzona with these in the Westy, and that's why I haven't blogged for awhile.

From left to right are:

The Roland GR-1 Guitar Synthesizer. The red guitar sports a digital pickup that generates two discrete digital signals per string for this black box. It contains 244 different musical instruments that can be played by picking and strumming the red guitar. You can mix different voices together to get something totally original. It will generate full orchestral effects or a simple tin flute... plus some really weird sounds that sonic engineers/rock musicians dream up during the intake of recreational chemicals. It has four foot pedals and various switches on the guitar and on the box itself. This was made decades ago and it's still way cool.

Numbah Two is a BOSS RC-50 Loop Station. Not long ago, BOSS bought Roland (or vice versa) and released this red and black 7 pedal device in 2005. It allows instantaneous recording of any sound plugged into it. It can instantly play back the track (called a phrase) and permits you to layer more sounds on top of the previous track. By switching the pedals on the Synth (above), I can lay down a bass track, then a rhythm track, a lead track, a vocal track and still have room to create two more full phrases. It has around 250 built-in drum styles and you can adjust the tempo to suit your song. It even has a USB port for downloading phrases created on the computer by yourself or maniacs on the internet. It's designed to create a full and complex sound during a live performance or allow total creative control if you want to try your hand (or foot) at composing.

Numero Tres is the sexy little black and silver Digitech Vocalist Live 4. This sound processor is designed to take your voice and adds effects. It basically creates a variety of voices that harmonize with you, taking its cues from whatever chords it hears from your guitar or keyboard (or synthesizer). It will add up to four additional voices plus your own for five. Choose between male and female singers, and some really strange presets like GIANT or ELF or BORG... You can sound like the Four Freshmen or Bob Dylan, too.

When they're all wired together you have access to just about any sound or effect you can dream up. They also all have MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) ports as another option for designing music. Later down the road , when I've assimilated all the manuals, I'll create a new YouTube musical encounter (of the Third Kind) and you can hear for yourself the beginnings of a New Age of Music... (did I really say New Age?)

Time is running out...

The First Mate always points out that in every movie ever made, that phrase, or one very much like it, is part of the dialog. Amazing, huh?

This photo shows the point I have arrived in the reconstruction of the head (bathroom) on BLISS the boat. The walls still need some light sanding and varnish, the tile will need grout (I will probably use white silicon), the lights need to be mounted where those wires protrude, and the door for the cabinet needs to be finished. Those are all things that appear in just this photo- there's a lot more than that.

I did, however, do some things you can't see, such as replacing the water pump with a new top-of -the-line unit, and some rewiring and re-plumbing under the sink.

BLISS is currently in a slip in the marina, which is a good place to do this job, because I'm constantly running out for materials and tools and Coca-Cola. My slip rent is expensive if I don't have a deal, (see prior post), so I have to have this all finished by the end of the month when the boat is due to go back out to the mooring, or cough up some big bucks to stay.