Cinco de Mayo

What!, you say, it’s almost June why are we talking about Cinco de Mayo?  Well to tell you the truth, the other half partner in this blog site was supposed to post this, but to keep marital bliss, let’s just say we are never "breaking news" on this blog site but more a historical log. 

So as many of you know, Pauline is a Cinco de Mayo baby and this year being her half century celebration we thought we would make it a party.  We no longer have the funding to put on quite the affair we did for her 40^th but figured a joint party with the Marianas Yacht Club would be good as most of the people we know on Guam are from there anyway and the few outsiders we could certainly invite separately.  

Anyway, as there was nothing on at the club, we got with a few other senior members of the club and suggested we organize something.  So it was a potluck of bring your favourite Mexican dish to pass and I will put on a keg of Dos Equis and make sure there are the fixings for enough margaritas that we were sure to believe we were in Mexico. One member brought all of his Mexican music and tied it into the sound system.  We also filled up a piñata to keep the younger people interested with enough tooth rot (or I mean candy) to get the kids feeling as high as the adults.  In honor of Pauline’s 50^th we considered anyone 49 and under kids and they were allowed to whack the piñata.  In truth we had so much fun with the youngest two 9 and 12 that we forgot to let the older ones get a chance.  Sorry Jeff and Liz!  One of the downsides of the MYC clubhouse has to do with the uninvited six legged winged guests.  So we got all the tiki torches going and a few coils and no one complained of any mozzies.  Of course that could have been due to the great food everyone prepared or the fair amount of beer which we didn’t finish or the Margaritas which we came close to finishing.  But I think all in all everyone had a good time.  The pictures below are all pre-party as we didn’t want any real photographic evidence once we were in full swing.

The next delayed post we will write is on the Rota Race which we just got back from.  We are waiting on results for that race but we didn’t do too badly and burned no diesel during either leg except to perform an emergency rescue to some disabled jet skiers, so watch this space.

The Beer

The Margaritas in raw form

This Year's Pinata

The Cake

"But I am not Old Yet!"

The Early Guests/ helpers

Sorry there are no pictures of the excellent spread, must have been too much booze by then.

Tropical Storm Sanvu

Well that storm we told you about did develop into a full tropical storm and missed us by about 60 miles.  Needless to say we were a bit on edge as we didn't know the state of our mooring.  Here is a picture of it now.  Pauline has one of it earlier so hope to add it later. 

The weather is still very sloppy here but I am sure it will drop to nothing for the race to Rota on Friday.  Too bad because conditions other than wet and miserable are perfect for a run up there.  By the way I passed my USCG exams.  Except now I found out I should have a sail endorsement.  Oh Joy 2 more exams.

No Longer a River Skow

Hey we finally took Sari Timur out of the Harbour of Refuge yesterday.  Went for a test sail out of the main harbour and headed north toward Rota to see what kind of angles we could make.  Got all excited because Sari T was performing great.  Came back in and plopped on a yacht club mooring until next week's Rota Race.  Got to the yacht club and found out there is a low heading our way with a 40% chance according to one website of becoming a typhoon.  Talk about timing.  Anyway most of the other models have it just sloppy weather up to 35 knots so we will be uncomfortable for a day or two but nothing severe.  Anyway after it passes the wind will die and we will probably end up motoring during the race.  That sounds typical for us.  Anyway no seasickness to worry about.

Friend at the Gate

As most of you know we are in the Harbour of Refuge.  This is much more convenient for a lot of reasons.  One of the things is it is gated off at night, which means we have to get out, open and close the gate to get the truck through.  Half of Pauline’s work schedule is the night shift and she gets off at 23:15.  We have two stray dogs that act as yard dogs that have befriended us and we usually have a happy greeting when we come home at night.  Last night as usual the dogs came up and greeted Pauline as she was opening the gate and she was not concentrating on the gate.  Quickly crawling way from her working his way through the chain link fence was a brown tree snake.  Anyway I guess we will pay more attention now when we are traveling around at night on foot.  These guys can’t really hurt you much but are known to be aggressive and bite if they feel cornered.

Sorry no pic as I didn't have the camera.

Our Thousand Dollar Clock

Let’s begin by saying we think our clock has a very storied past and we have only been the keepers for the last 10 or so years.  Hopefully one day we will find more about it but for now we are content to wind it every Sunday and display it in Sari Timur’s main salon.

The clock was given to us for Christmas one year by Chis Nunns, the current caretaker of a beautiful Phillip Rhodes Offshore 40 built in the early 60s called Valera Linda.  He inherited the clock when he bought the boat.  When we were in Changi our two boats were the classic looking ones and we always competed and helped each other with regards to keeping the yachts up to scratch.  His was always faster but ours was prettier (sorry Chris had to get that in).  Anyway one day we were on his boat and he said in frustration it was a funny clock and he was going to be rid of it.  I told him no it was a classic and belonged on a boat of our types.  He took my advice for another couple of years but then decided to pass the clock on to us as a Christmas present.  I do not know when the clock got on board Valera Linda or if she was the first vessel it was on.  It is a 24 hour navy clock.  It takes a little getting used to telling time with it but is quite accurate at keeping it.  The hour hand makes one trip around every 24 hours and the minute and second hands work as normal.  The large numbers are the hours, the small numbers on the outside of the dial are in 5 minute graduations and the inner ring is 0-60 seconds.  It is really not difficult to use and the picture below shows the time at just after 10:15 in the morning.

Anyway, after having the clock for many years it decided to quit.  I took it to clock workers in various places and found out it had a broken spring and needed a major service which they couldn’t do.  So in frustration I looked up Chelsea Clock out of Boston and found they still exist and repair these time pieces but advertise that they do not do it quickly.  Ours took 8 weeks to get repaired!  Anyway after I sent it I got the estimate for repair back at just over $400.  I gulped but said go ahead.  By the way what is it worth?  They replied they just sold a similar one with a white face at $875 and ours having a black face was worth at least $975.  I bet you are sorry you gave it away now aren’t you Chris?  Of course you saved the repair bill.  Anyway the repairers say that it will last a long  long time and guarantee it as new.  As we are now in our fifties it is nice to know some old machinery is still capable of running well

Just past 10:15 in the morning

And they are all Gone

One of the toughest parts of cruising is everyone goes their own way at their own pace.  This means saying a lot of goodbyes.  Since coming to Guam we have met 6 cruising boats passing through Guam.  We have decided to stay until 2013 to see if Guam has more to offer than a transient stop.  Anyway over the last few weeks we have seen all of the cruisers leave.  It is rough being left behind and we keep trying to second guess if we made the right decision.  Guess only time will tell that!

Jim & Tori Yacht Elanya and Rick Yacht Freestyle

Easter at the Club

Easter was at the club this year.  Another potluck affair but a great turnout.  The kids enjoyed the Easter Egg Hunt, the adults the food and beer!  And all enjoyed the egg toss.

Kids getting the goodies

Beginning the egg toss

Farewell Tie Dye Party

Lots of people are giving us grief for not updating the blog.  We had originally thought of this as more of a sailing blog.  But many point out that it should be of Sari Timur, us and our travels.  Well as Sari Timur and travels aren’t happening the pages have been rather blank.  But that doesn’t mean that we have dropped off the planet.  Far from it.  So we are going to add bits of what is going on until we finally get the chance to get up and sail again.

First entry is an activity at the club.  A family is leaving Guam after several years here, and the family has been very prominent in the Yacht Club.  The Moritz clan is moving back to the mainland.  They are famous for many things mostly their smiles and positive attitude.  But they are also famous for their tie dyes.  So what better way to send them off, than a tie dye party.  Besides they were sponsoring the dyes!!!

A great turn out.  I am sure more for the chance to get together one last time.  But the tie dyes turned out neat too.

So we hope to add some smaller entries but still entries pretty regularly so please keep watching.

Some Samples of what to do

Pauline dying to get it right!

Our dish to pass

Blog Update (Life is getting in the way of cruising)

Hey blog watchers!  It looks like we have dropped off the planet by the entries into our blog.  This isn’t true just been getting on with the mundane.  Pauline is working on average 6 days a week and Mark has been doing seven days a week on Sari Timur.  The varnishing is almost back up to scratch.  The storm windows are in and only some painting required to finish off that major project.

Last week a yacht that was supposedly stolen from the Marshall Islands and sailed here was located in a pretty remote bay here on Guam.  We say supposedly because the owner is not pressing charges but did have the Coast Guard remove the guy from the boat.  So they contacted a skipper to bring the boat around to a safer anchorage.  Mark got the call to assist and may also get the call to move it again to the Philippines.  We will see and will keep you all posted if that happens.

Sunday was Blues on the Bay.  An event run by the local yacht club to get more members and money for the club.  It was great fun and good music.  The tail end of the evening was a bit blurry for Mark!

The generator is playing up again.  We have sent an email to the expert and asked for his assistance.  This is supposedly one of the best generators for boats but we sure seem to have our share of problems with it.

Anyway do keep in touch and check us out from time to time.

We Passed!

The blog has been sitting pretty dormant for a while.  Pauline has found a job working with high end luxury brands.  Mark passed his STCW and got his Captains License revalidated and today we finally passed our road test and now have USA driving licenses again.  For most of you who have USA driver's licenses, this probably does not seem like much but it has been four months of jumping through hoops here to get them so we are relieved and pleased.