Booyah!?

Live from Nicaragua, and it took long enough right? Here it is amazing, and I will catch you all up on how we managed to get the coolest job, place and new group of friends here once you know what we had to go through.

Antigua is a place I, KatherineEFB, will never feel a desire to visit again unless I have my own boat and possibly then I still might skip it. There was what felt like an ever-growing clash between all the rich tourists and poorer locals. My job for the Italians was a bit unreal for the lack of time the owners would actually be there, but I got to learn some tastey dishes. So I gave my two weeks notice after receiving a few stamps in my passport of places I felt like I had never really been to (because I was scrubbin toilets on-board.) Matt left for Nicaragua 1 week before I would be done with my job and travel to Georgetown, Bahamas to visit my dad, Heather (god bless her) and 3 sassy brothers. Within that last week in Antigua, a captain was shot by a robber not more then 1/4mile from where I slept and ate and hung out in Antigua. It was one of the saddest stories and exemplified why I was truly ready to leave and possibly never come back. Look it up if you desire, most people in the sailing community know what I am referring to, so ask a friend.


Since leaving Antigua our lives have gotten better and better. I spent two weeks trying to understand two teenage brothers of mine, Max(15) and Kace(13), and had a blast with Adam who is only 8. Heather is one of the most amazing women alive and gave me an incredible and complicated recipe for chili with cocoa and coffee in it. I will post recipes, Italian and otherwise, later. Outside of my family, there was a huge cruising community in Georgetown who were retired mostly and traveling about. I could see why most of them stay there in the Bahamas because of how incredibly beautiful it is. Bright clear water that you can see down 40feet or so, amazing snorkeling, beach volleyball and flat desolate islands. There were some sharks. I never saw any of the huge ones that some spoke of, but some sand sharks, and dolphins and sea stars and manta rays small and large, barracuda and coral reefs that blew me away. Antigua had some nice beaches and snorkeling, but a lot of waste water pollution. If I could have my way, Matt and all our friends and family and I would just cruise around the Bahamas with that amazing wind.

Little did I know of the amazing wind to be blowin it up in Nicaragua. In fact the week before I arrived it was 80-100mi. per hour and some friends of ours on the sailing vessel Banyan got swept out to sea for a week, hove to and still blew all their electronics and made it to Costa Rica with a hand held GPS, only to experience “death rolls” at anchor where the winds are so strong you get your mast blown into the water. People didn’t go sailing much, but Matt hooked up with a new group of friends who were putting together the Pitaya Music Festival. Locals were celebrated with amazing local music and vendors and the money raised was given to the community to help sponsor something called an Earthship. This term refers to houses built largely of recycled material and are sustainable and energy efficient homes. The stage of the festival was just opposite a completed Earthship and it was SO cool. People were hangin out in it for the coolness from the days heat. Sunshine still pours in from the stained glass walls and ceilings made from glass and plastic soda bottles. Parts of the foundation made from dirt packed tires covered in cement were visible from the outside of the house, but was very complimentary to the shape or the structure. They are planning on making an eco hostel and organic garden; so all of those out there without any job or with any remote desire to help, are welcomed appreciated here. Nicaragua has been affectionately referred to as the new Wild Wild West, and all avenues for entrepreneurial desires are welcomed. This has led Matt and I to chartering a Newport 30 for local surfers and visitors who just wanna check out the coast line and swim a bit. We have seen spotted dolphins and sea turtles and more hermit crabs then I ever thought I could see fit onto one beach. Matt has seen whales and howling monkeys and crazy bugs. We’ve seen moths the size of a bat, and the bats here are the size of eagles. The landscape here was not what I expected, it has surpassed the dreams of what any paradise expectations I have ever had. The sailing is exciting and the breeze is pretty consistant. The sun shines and is bareable with a little bit of sunscreen and shade.

The first week that Matt was here one of the other charter sailboats in town broke its mast in half. Since then they have approached us and we have taken over their charter reservations until they get their boat fixed. The coolest part about it is they are a big resort and so they have a full staff that comes on the boat with us and cooks and serves the guests while we sail the boat. They even treat us like guests. On the way down to the beach we get to eat guacamole and chips. And then at the beach they feed us Mahi-mahi seviche, and the best chicken lunch ever, and then cookies and fruit on the way home. All we do is sail the boat, and we get paid for it. It’s quite possibly the best job ever.

We are finally getting settled into town. We have a little green Nica house in a little Nica neighborhood with our roommates Justin, who owns the boat is a sustainable civil engineer and is a super cool dude, and Ben who is a real estate agent and another very cool friend. We live right behind the harbor so it’s a short walk to work. And we have a big kitchen and some very friendly neighbors. We are slowly but surely learning to surf and speak Spanish. San Juan Del Sur is a very relaxed little town with a lot to offer and a lot of opportunity.

We have a lot more to tell and will keep writing and posting while we are here. Antigua was a huge bust and we didn’t have much to say about that place, and since we’ve been here it has been a rush of fun and activity. Including Katy getting her wisdom teeth out. So keep checking with us because more is coming. Until then we love and miss you all.

oh and check out a lot more pics @ http://flickr.com/photos/61797927@N00/?saved=1

You wouldn't believe it if you saw it.

Friends and Family, We're sorry that it's been too long since we last spoke. There have been many many very special events going on in our lives over the past weeks that have completely changed our perspective on the life we've been leading and looking forward to... Not in a bad way, and not necessarily in a good way, but lots of changes nonetheless.  Lets start at the beginning.

First of all we have to give a gigantic "Thank you" to our good friend Billy.  Our surf/ski bum house mate from Homer, AK who let us stay with him in Sayulita.  He was a great guy to get to know and hang out with, always introducing us to new people, and giving us a roof over our heads.  Thanks for being so cool Billy, we hope to see you again soon.

The beach in Sayulita was our favorite place to hang out, learn to surf, get to know the locals, and Katy especially loved to play with these two.  One of which she had a dream about one night and from then on was affectionately called Richard.  All of the dogs in Sayulita were so friendly that it was hard not to bring one with us.  

My favorite brother came to Sayulita for a week.  He became a lot better surfer than both Katy and I put together in just five days.  We went snorkeling and even got to go spearfishing with our friend Borego.  None of us speared? a fish but Borego did, so he gave them to us and we cooked up the parrot fish on the beach, it was really fun....and delicious.

Nearing the end of our stay in Mexico, Katy and I decided to make our way to Yalapa.  Yalapa is on the south side of the Bahia de Banderas.  It is only accessible by panga, which is a Mexican water taxi.  We left Sayulita on a Friday morning taking the bus from Sayulita to Puerto Vallarta.  We asked around and found out that to get to Yalapa you have to take another bus to a town called Boca de Tomatlan where you jump on the Panga, and this bus says BOCA on the window.  So of course we jumped on the first bus that says Boca on it and somehow end up north of Puerto Vallarta only to find out that there are 2 Bocas around PV so we jump back on the same bus and go back into town.  Then we jump on the other bus that says Boca and finally make our way South.  And then on the Panga ride, which was an experience in itself, we saw a school of jumping/flying rays.  It was crazy, we tried to get a video and I'll post it when I can.  

Yalapa was an amazing place with no cars, lots of good food, camping on the beach, a beautiful bay, and a sweet hike through the jungle up to a waterfall.  If any of you ever go, make sure that you stop at the small cafe about two miles up the trail and tell Christina hello for us.

We left Sayulita on the First of December, exactly 2 months after leaving Portland, to make our way to Mexico City.  We stopped in PV again to buy some nice clothes for job hunting in the Caribbean, and jumped on a very cold, but plush, bus headed for Mexico City.  The next morning (on Katy's 25th Birthday) we watched the third biggest city in the world come into view.  The place is gigantic!  Sorry I didn't get any pictures of it, but to be honest it wasn't really that pretty and we only stayed for a day.  The next morning we got our plane ticket situation figured out to make it to Antigua.  A lesson learned:  Don't ever count on the Mexican postal service to deliver any mail in under a month.

2 days later, after a night in North Carolina, we're in Antigua, of Antigua and Barbuda, in the West Indies of the Leeward Islands.  On the first morning on the Island we met up with a contact that we had gotten from our good friend Richard, whom we sailed with from Cabo, named Joe.  Joe was great in that he introduced us to all kinds of people including Loren, who has been so gracious as to let us live with him and his new puppy Napoleon.

Now we haven't seen much of Antigua (pronounced ant-tee-ga) except for a couple very beautiful beaches, and Falmouth Harbor and English Harbor.  This is all on the south end of the island where all of the yachting takes place.  Which is why we came.  

It's hard to explain because we don't know that much about it quite yet but here is mostly what is going on here:  A lot of the biggest and most luxurious super yachts in the world come here to English and Falmouth Harbor during the winter as a home base for either their charter operations or for their private owners.  Then kids like us come along and are the crew/cooks/stewards/stewardess'/engineers/etc. for these yachts.  

Antigua is a hub for sailing enthusiasts and the extremely rich.  For example, the Maltese Falcon, which is the largest privately owned sailing yacht in the world as well as the most innovative, is based here for the winter.  And Mom and Zach, you will especially appreciate that today I saw Neal Peterson very briefly at the dinghy dock.  Neal was the first black person to ever race around the world single handed, and wrote one of my favorite books, Journey of a Hope Merchant.  A great book for anyone who likes to be inspired.

So with our new clean clothes and my nice new haircut we ventured out onto the docks looking for a sweet new job.  And within a couple days, Katy had gotten a bite.  She'll share her job stories with ya'll soon.

Now we've been here for more than 3 weeks, and I'm beginning to get a little discouraged about not having found a job yet.  There are a couple of big problems.  First: When the economy goes awry, the first to go are the luxuries.  Therefore the traffic is not as heavy around here as it usually is.  Second: I don't have a lot of the qualifications/licenses/certifications that most of these kids around me do.  Third:  It's all about connections and who you know.  I'm supposed to be out making friends with all these people all the time, but anybody who knows me well knows I'm not a social butterfly.  Nonetheless, I'm still working at it.  

My biggest problem is I've sailed once since we got off the catamaran in Mexico well over a month ago. I got to do a race last week that was really fun.  It's driving me up the wall that I can't go more because there is a constant steady breeze all day, all night, every single day.  But soon I'll get something going. 

We'll be in touch with what's going on around here.  We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have some very fun and very safe holidays.  We love you all.

Bad news bears

Well all, I´ve got some not good news to share in that my computer seems to have bit the dust. I can´t be for sure yet, but thats what it looks like right now.

I need some advice if any of you know anything about macs and might have a clue about what I should do. Here´s the dilemma: when I turn my computer on, it makes the usual whizzing noise of the hard drive, but then about 5-10 seconds into it it makes three low beeps, and then stops. The light on the screen release button stays on but blinks about every 15 seconds. The screen never comes on, nothin´, it just stops.

So anyway we can still post the goings on from wherever we are from internet cafe´s or whatever but the pictures, the really cool parts, are m.i.a. for the time being.

Right now we are still in Sayulita but on the countdown for when we leave. The plan thus far is this: on thursday we are going to go have Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of gringo cruisers at a bar/music studio/restaurant/community center in a town south of here called La Cruz. The place is called Philo´s and we got to meet Philo through Richard and Doña the other morning at breakfast.

From there we are going to go to Jillapa which is on the south side of the bay from Puerto Vallarta. Jillapa is this sweet jungle town with sweet waterfalls and animal watching and lots of hiking. They also teach para sailing in Jillapa. We plan on being there until Sunday, and then go back up to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate Katy´s birthday on the 2nd and also we have to buy some nice shirts so we can look good when we are looking for a job in Antigua.

Then we are taking a bus to Mexico city to jump on a plane on the 3rd. Our trip is: Mexico City to Cancun, Cancun to Miami, Miami to Kingston, Jamaica where we layover for 18 hrs, then straight to Antigua from there. We are going to this huge yacht show there where we are going to find jobs, and most likely spend the rest of the winter and spring (at least until Antigua race week in April).

This is all contingent on the fact that we have to wait here in Sayulita for our ?paper plane tickets¿ to arrive from Katy´s awesome mom who sent them to us. Nonetheless we have a full schedule awaiting us.

Lately all we´ve been doing is surfing, eating, reading, and meeting a lot of really cool people. Yesterday we met a guy down on the beach who is from Naniamo BC who has a little laser sailboat that we get to use. We talked sailing with him for a long time which was really fun.

Sayulita has been a haven and made us restless for more on-the-water time. We try to surf or boogie board everyday but the holiday season has got this place bumpin with the latest swimsuit and territorial surfer trends. We have eaten almost a million tacos del pastor with so many onions soaked in habaneros that we are ensured to forever remember this place. Taking advantage of undetected deals we have been eating real churros from the back of a truck, purchase six get the seventh cerveza free at the bodega, choco bananas with coconut granola and hand made totillas with anything you order. Locals try hard with our broken spanish and their conversational english to be as helpful an silly as possible, dogs that have party play time down at the beach all day long are never mean, and so much lazy sun we keep learning to just chill out. We can´t wait to get back out on the water and start sailing again! Asta Mañana Amigas and Amigos, we love you all and are super thankful for having you read our chatter.

The smooth journey ch. I

Sorry it's been a while since we've been in touch with you all. We ended up in this beautiful little surf town called Sayulita. And since this is the first time that we have not had any kind of boat responsibilities and we're finally on our own time, we're taking advantage and not doing anything. And I can't express enough how wonderful it's been.

We left off in San Diego which I know was a really long time ago, but here's Katy's take on the journey from there:

Leaving San Diego was so amazing. Boats everywhere, supposedly there were 180 boats signed up but 140 actually made it out there. Then on the way down to Tortuga (Turtle) Bay the numbers dropped again. One boat was said to be so seasick they just turned around and went back. Anyhow, two hours or so from San Diego and we were in Mexico, within two days we were in Tortuga Bay. Not known for turtles any more but incredibly beautiful, ravaged by the hurricane at the end of the summer, the houses were just skeletons… the all cement tourist bar was still standing, alongside some houses and the grocery store. Mexico has been an interesting example of putting tourism before so much else, but more about that later. So we spent a night there drinkin cheap beer, tequila and buying every type and color of pepper at the grocery store. Then we sailed south to Bahia Santa Maria, one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen in our lives. Unfortunately we left the camera on board, something we will be kickin ourselves for along time. The bay looks large yet there are these massive rocks that lay just under the water line. The rocks that poke outta the water are great swimming and fishing spots, crab, lobster and birds everywhere. Dolphins were swimming and jumping in the wake of our dinghy and this was the closest we got to actually touching one. On the trip down the entire coast all different types of porpoises would come out and swim just under and around our boat, but it wasn’t until Mexico that three would show up and then their whole family and friends would come and flirt and play with us. One night they came up to the boat and it looked like dolphins in space with the phosphorescence trails behind them as they jumped, spun and guided us into the harbor.



In Bahia Santa Maria we camped on the beach in a mangrove forest that had the tiniest seashells and sand dollars everywhere. This was after we hiked a peak that looked out over the peak that protected the harbor where numerous sunken ships lay, sand dunes for a few miles that lead to a bay on the other side of a small peninsula, and a mangrove forest next to the loveliest and most desolate beach we had seen. It was amazing, some friends of ours told us that on another point they found a can where a spam and egg sandwich was advertised on the front. The can also said that the sammy was so easy to eat, like on a scale of 1 being watching TV and a 10 making a TV it was like a 2. These guys were on the boat Gypsy and were totally rad, Justin the captain was a young guy going to Nicaragua to be an engineer and wanted us to charter his boat, a Newport 30. Chad and Eddie were his buds and super skiers from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Anyhow, on the way down from the peak we saw numerous cacti in bloom, colors and textures unknown to our imaginations till then. Then we almost walked right into this CRAZY spider web with the coolest spider ever! Its body was like 1.5cm wide and 2.5cm long and with it’s legs was at least 2 or so inches wide. The belly was like a zebra, white with black stripes and this pattern followed its legs, but the back was like a white turtle shell with a crazy black transformersesque design, so totally RAD! We kicked it on the beach and drank brews and held foot races with another sweet crew from the boat Banyon. This is another young guy who has toured the world surfing and water poloing and sells film footage of all kinds of things to major TV corporations. His two super cool dude friends and finally Kim, a super badass rad chick. They surfed everywhere and had cameras all over their boat.



Sailed down to Cabo San Lucas where the coastline is beautiful, so much of the Baja coast is really dessert like and dry rocky mountains. The hurricane dropped off a ton of water but you only really notice tiny cacti and trees when you’re hiking around. The rocks outside of Cabo are stunning, big arches and then there is this booming city/suburbia sprawl all around it. Cabo was madness, super Americanized and blatant plagiarism of everything we were trying to get away from. Super expensive glow-in-the-dark drinks that make cotton tops dance on tables and playing the worst radio jams with neon spider mans staring you down next to the cardboard cut out Hulk. LAME SAUCE, so we wandered the street with the Gypsy boys and drank tequila and found a mall with the entire upstairs floor undeveloped. So much of Cabo was store fronts with nothing behind it, and the biggest cockroaches, and fruit cups with spicy sauce on it (extra tasty) for $1 and the list goes on. We couldn’t wait to leave and the LunaSea was heading north to tour the Sea of Cortez. I am sure that Las Paz and that sea is incredible, but we lucked out and got on a 64ft. catamaran Profligate. This boat is owned by Richard and Dona, he started Latitude 38 and is one of the coolest dudes ever. Loves to surf, chill, write and sail spinnakers that made the boat go 12knots in 3.5knot wind

I have to go meet Katy on la playa por un margarita. Mas mañana. Hasta luego.

So we've finally made it to San Diego.  This last sail from SF was a lot less stressful than the our first leg from the Columbia.  The weather(and the water) has gotten warmer and warmer as we sailed south and the seas have been a lot kinder.  

From SF we had a two day cruise which at times scared the newbie crew but was otherwise uneventful.  

Until we made it to Santa Cruz. This place was awesome, friendly people, easy to walk around. We never did find the school, but during the day we found amazing mexican food and new swim trunks for Matt. Everyone is beach blond and in hot pants, a little pricey in places but cool music venues (didn't make it into the tech9 show) and a sweet night life. Characters everywhere and one guy told us we smelled like hippies. He had it all wrong, we stink of salt water sailors. Speaking of... a little story. So we were anchored out in the bay just in front of the rollercoasters cuz our boat was too big for the harbor or something.. anyhow, we had to dinghy to the pier and lockit to one of two docks. One dock was completely taken over by sea lions, our constant friends on this journey, and it wasn't until the evening that we ever have problems with these guys. When the sunlight goes down, the sea lions like to take over all surface areas and this can mean trying to beach themselves on your dighy.  Before we even got to that problem, we realized they wouldn't even let us near the dock, so we had to make a beach landing. This was all great and good, surf and fairly decent wave onto the beach, hop out and run the dighy ashore. No issues there, we locked it up and went out on the town. The whole crew can get pretty wild and it has been so fun to go out in an entourage most times, our captain likes to spoil us with the first few rounds and then its all about him finding the only Big Buck Hunter video game in the entire town. He is addicted to this game. Anyhow, we are all a bit giddy and swaying back to the dock with our crew, and now we have to make it to the boat. Not really thought of as a hard task until we were DENIED the first attempt back out. Matt kinda watched the whole thing cuz he was in the back, but basically we ranranran the boat out, jumped in, just to get slammed nose into the air and everybody spilled outta the boat. All cameras, phones, shades, hats and clothes were either destoryed, lost or permanently crusty. Now we scan beaches for the best entrance spot and time sessions of waves for the right window. Amazing the learning curve on this wild water stuff. 

Since then the boat has been called the "whatever" cruise because Matt and Capt. Dave are the only ones with working cell phones, leaving everyone pretty blase about their land lives. So, we cruised on to Santa Rosa Island and then to Catalina Island eating peanut butter and jelly sammies and trying to brush our teeth everyday. Snorkeled a bit on both islands and sleep as much as we can, we are loving this trip more and more. The Santa Anna winds kinda blow all the smoke from the mainland fires and smog our way which is kinda lame, but the sun is a ripe 85 degrees everyday and we are gettin pretty tan. Matt works on knitting and I've finished Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" which was amazing and we have a lot of work here in San Diego gettin ready for the next leg of the trip. 

Yesterday we saw the brand new BMW/Oracle Americas cup contender boat (DoGZilla) going out to for some more seatrials.  That thing is incredible. Then last night I met a guy who knows one of the carbon fiber masons on the boat and said I might be able to catch a ride sometime this weekend.  I'm definitely not going to hold my breath but that would be amazing if it worked out.  We'll get some pics of it soon.  

Costume party tomorrow and a prize if you wear it on the first day of the rally. There are Baja-Ha-Ha boats everywhere and people are friendly about making the trek south. Captain Dave is ready to start mooning the other sailiors for the trip, but we told him it would be bad form until we are finally underway. So Monday should be exciting as we set sail for wonderful Mexico. 

Hope you are all well and let us know what is new when you can.

Much love from,

Katy and Matt

Riders On The Storm

So we're already almost three weeks into this adventure, and a lot has gone on over these past weeks.  The best parts to share have been the past week, but we will start from the beginning.  

For those of you who don't know what we're up to, Katy and my's goal is to sail to New Zealand any which way we can.  We started our adventure in Portland, and all options are on the table as far as our route, how long we stay, and who we sail with.  That being said, we first had to meet the Daves. One Dave being the owner of a Hudson Force 50 and his accomplice Dave who is a sassy big guy who spent 20 years fishing out of Dutch Harbor in Alaska. There is no substantial evidence that Capt. Dave is as ready for this trip, but he made it through bringing this boat up from Cali. Anyhow, workworkwork on the boat and a few nights of sweet partyin in Portland and we are on our way. 

Oct.1st we left Pirates Cove Marina and motored to St. Helens where a week was spent finding more and more problems. We began to think we might just fly to New Zealand. We were also graced with the presence of another friend of the Daves. Don is the coolest electronics guy we've ever come across and he is into sailing this vessel (which had never been sailed before.) So finally after almost a week of stormy weather in St. Helens OR, we got to leave the dock and head for Rainier and the best crab louie on the Columbia River (according to Big Dave).  A day and a half later we had made it to Astoria and our last stop before setting sail for San Francisco.

The sail to San Fran was AMAZZING and was heavenly dreamy with large waves rolling alongside us, carrying us South. Porpoises came outta nowhere and just before things got a bit hairy. See the first day out, we had to cross the Colombia Bar, which is notorious for claiming vessels, but everything went very well. Winds started to pick up and the swell was getting a bit bigger, rollers were coming up alongside the boat. The first night was great, the next night Matt and I had to sail through some almost gnarly squalls, but the third night was unlike any sailing/boating/surfing experience. The third day started casually, everyone was up, sails were full and merriment all around. We were taking notice of the larger rollers we were surfing and then realized we had missed the last chance to turn to land and wait for some weather to pass by. We expected 20 knot winds from the north, fluctuating between NE and NW, but consistently with us, except that as we rounded Cape Mendecino there were 25-30 knot gusts expected. As the evening progressed, and everyone got tucked in for the midnight shift, Matt and I sailed though some of the biggest cresting waves we have ever seen. I couldn't man the wheel for the response time had to be quick and strong. I sat backwards and read the waves to Matt, what direction, how big and Matt bobsledded this tank of a boat down each hill of water until it was time to rest. At this point we had experienced up to 40 knot gusts and had surfed the boat up to 19.1 knots in speed, no sails up anymore, all motor. As we turned the helm over, Big Dave set it to auto helm and that boat was a rockin and rollin all night. Waves crashin over and I personally thought that was it for us. We finally slept and were relieved upon waking that everything was gonna be great, we'd made it around the Cape, and it was only a few hours till Bodega Bay. 

Since then life is sunny and wonderful!! We arrived under the Golden Gate bridge two nights ago, and the city came to life and the dusky night fell upon a wealth of lights. We anchored right in front of Ghiradelli chocolate factory and then we saw Angel Island go up in a forest fire started by some campers. Now we are in San Fran now cruising the streets and visited a friend and some family while our boat waits for more crew. We have no idea where they will sleep on this already filled boat, but we look forward to more sun, great sailing, and good eats.  

More soon from more California

pictures are coming