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La Gringa

August 19-22, 2013

La Gringa and the Full Moon Floatie Contest party. Need I say more? OK, I will. La Gringa is the beach on the north end of Bahia de Los Angeles. There is an estuary and at the extreme tides around the full moon you can ride the current in and out. Not exactly rapids, but a lot of fun all the same. There was a floatie contest with 3 categories: 1) Best Store-bought Floatie (which went to Gravel on SV True Companion for his beer can floatie throne), 2) Best Floatie made of Noodles (which went to Craig & LeAnn of True Blue V for their Floatie Chairs that could have qualified for any category, but hey they had noodles on them), and 3) Best Floatie made of anything you can find in your bilge or anywhere else on your boat (this prestigious award went to Lady Carolina). Sue (Mai Tai Roa), Trish (Interabang), and I were the contest judges, and the best bribes we got were from Joel of Lady Carolina which included cookies and hugs, but I’m pretty sure they would have won the contest anyway.

BLA to La Gringa
La Gringa is at the very far north end of Bahia de Los Angeles (BLA)

Logbook – August 19, 2013 (BLA Village to La Gringa)

Passage Log Highlights

    • 0940 Depart BLA Village
    • 1119 Arrive La Gringa

Daily Notes

    • Whales on passage
    • Alex rescued the compost bucket
    • D/T paddleboard into the estuary
    • Dorado and “Costa Rica” rice on Exodus
    • Chubasco chance – whales in the bay when we were securing the deck
    • Tide delta is now 10 ft
La Gringa
The Geography of La Gringa

Logbook – August 20, 2013 (La Gringa)

Daily Notes

    • Boys rode their surfboards in the current at the opening of the estuary
    • Whale sharks in the bay – B & T swim with them
    • Diagrammed the SeaTalk network
    • Played in the rapids at the estuary
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Swimming with a whale shark
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Pelican in flight

Email to family and friends dated August 20, 2013

Subject: La Gringa

We left BLA Village yesterday and moved about 6nmi North to Ensenada La Gringa. Tomorrow is the full moon cruisers party here, and we are helping to organize. There’s about a 10 ft tide swing and a small estuary, so we are going to have a floating party around high tide where we first get sucked into the estuary, then pushed back out. There are prizes for best floaties, so you can believe Tim’s already got diagrams drawn up for the plans for the Exodus floatie. Alex had a good idea of using empty 5 gallon water jerry cans. I’m one of the judges, and yes, I will take bribes, especially if anyone has any CA Chardonnay. 🙂
I’m not sure the inReach acquired GPS signal yesterday when we moved, so I’m not sure the map shows us in the right spot, but we are not too far away from the village, just a little ways North.
Yesterday, we had some excitement on passage… I was rinsing the veggie compost container, and I dropped it overboard. We circled back to get it, and when we spotted it, without hesitation, Alex dove into the water off the port bow. He retrieved it, but then missed the back step as we circled around. Then it was like a man overboard drill… Brenden grabbed the pole and we pulled him in. I promise, grandparents, that at no time during this exercise was Alex in any danger. It was good fun, and Alex got to be the hero. Of course, he said next time it’s my turn, but he always says that.
I heard there was lots of lightning up in the bay area last night… we didn’t have much action here, thank goodness.
Love and miss you all,
-D.

Logbook – August 21, 2013 (La Gringa)

Daily Notes

    • D – long paddleboard, prep for potluck (oreos & beer bread)
    • T – spearfish w/ (sentence abruptly ended… assume he went with Steve)
    • Boys make a raft, whale shark right by our boat
    • Full Moon Party at the estuary and potluck on the beach
    • B – sick (vomiting) in the middle of the night

Edit: At the potluck Brenden came to me and told me how someone brought the best bread ever, it was the greatest bread he’s ever had and he had 4 pieces of it.  I asked, Brenden, do you mean the pineapple cake?

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D out for a morning paddle (photo courtesy of True Blue V)
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This is the floatie the boys made on their own. It’s made of two large water jugs, two fenders, and a thermarest chair 
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Welcome to La Gringa
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Tim made some modifications to the floatie the boys made so that they could have three of them. So each one has one water jug, one fender, and a thermarest chair.
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They had a lot of fun with the project
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Alex took these great photos of a whale shark was swimming under Exodus.  As it came out the other side Alex got this shot over the side. 
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Whale shark swimming near Exodus
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The floatie contest begins
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Benjamin from SV Let It Go. We actually made up a category on the fly of Best Floatie with a costume, just for him!
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The beer can throne
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Craig and Leanne of True Blue V and their floatiie chairs with noodles
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Brenden screamin down the rapids
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Alex, playing it cool
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Trish and Derek of SV Interabang
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Photo courtesy of True Blue V
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Natalie from True Companion
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Back to the basics – two boys on boogie boards
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SV Sea Note who came in a close second for best store bought floatie. 
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Team Canada (Kyle and Joel from Lady Carolina), what an awesome raft. That’s their wind scoop being used as a sail.
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Tim doesn’t mind that our floaties our really lame
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Looks like Team Exodus is trying to hijack the raft. No, that’s not beer the kids are drinking, but they did tip and Alex fell off, and he kept his drink above water and dry. Impressive!
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Left to Right: Natalie (True Companion), Pit (Karma Seas), Judy (Code Blue), Sue (Mai Tai Roa), Kevin (Entre Nous), Gravel (True Companion), Alex (Mai Tai Roa). Out here you hardly ever know anyone’s last name, you know people by their boat name.
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Can’t really see faces, but left to right: Steve (Lady Carolina), Steve (Code Blue), Tim (Exodus, duh), and Derek (Interabang) 
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The kids tried to sail the raft from the estuary back to the boat. They actually made it pretty far. Tough to do without a keel, but luckily the wind was in the right direction.
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The orange shirt marks the potluck spot. No tables for a potluck? No problem, just use surfboards resting on water jugs.
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The whole anchorage
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The view up the beach to the west
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Lady Carolina and Exodus at anchor
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No kids? I wonder what’s in there?
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Dinghys coming to shore for the potluck
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Awesome beach potluck, except about half the dishes were desserts. Mmmmmm
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The whole full moon party gang
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Awards ceremony for the floatie contest. Team Canada (aka Lady Carolina) took first place and Joel is proudly accepting the prize (a water gun). Yes, I was one of the judges, and yes I took bribes.

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