Web Log of Liberty Call II

This is the web log of Anita Giani and Ron Feldman, crew of Liberty Call II. LCII is a Hunter Legend 37.5 which recently sold in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. The crew is now boatless are land-based in Pass Christian, Miss.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Final entry

Herein lies the final entry into the weblog of Liberty Call II. We have posted almost 390 entries during our four years of cruising the Pacific Coast, but now the deal is done, Liberty Call II has new owner, and we are settling into our new home. The house will keep us busy through the winter, after which time we will resume some traveling. We already have made our reservations to go to Antiqua, Guatemala, with Dave and Merry of AirOps and Gary and Judiee of Reverie during Semana Santa (Holy Week) next April. I may start a new blog once we start traveling again, but for now, I don't think the ventures of fixing up our home will be of much interest to anyone but us.

The final leg of our journey home was tough. We stayed on I-10 all the way from Phoenix here. We drove more than 600 miles the first day and stopped in Van Horn, Texas, home of Chuy's Restaurant which John Madden has made famous. The football announcer is famous for not taking planes and only driving between games on his bus. He first stopped at Chuy's in 1988, had the pollo picado (chicken cooked with onions, tomatoes and peppers) and loved it. (I tried the dish but thought that Ron's chicken enchiladas were much better, more flavorful.)

Our second day was more interesting as we had already gone another 600 miles around Houston when I started looking for hotels. None were to be found. All were booked with people who had been displaced by hurricane Ike. I must have called more than 25 hotels between Houston and Beaumont and could find nothing. (By the way, my source of hotels was our little Garmin Nuvi 200, which provides names, addresses and, most importantly, phone numbers of the nearest hotels. Bless that little device.) We finally found the Crown Motel, which was likely built sometime in the 1930s or 1940s on the side of the old Highway 90. We paid $45 (cash only) and knew it would be an interesting place when we saw a couple of pickup trucks with guys hanging out in the courtyard. Our next door neighbor wore the shortest, tightest blue jean shorts I've ever seen and silver 4-inch round earrings. Someone on her cell phone was yelling at her.

When we got into our room, we were struck by the smell of stale smoke. An awful, horrible stench. We didn't dare walk with bare feet on the stained rug. We just fell into bed, very tired after almost 800 miles on the road. I put some scented hand lotion on and held my hand close to my nose to help abate the smell. We got up early and left. There was no coffee pot, and the refrigerator had been stolen. The cleanliness of the McDonald's was welcome.

The third day found us home and unloading all our belongings that had been on Liberty Call II and in storage units. We think we see a garage sale in our near future.

We are so fortunate to have had our time on the water. We had some great times and made some wonderful friends. LCII is also fortunate is have found such good owners. They are really excited about owning her and plan to take very good care of her.

So if you ever find yourself in Pass Christian, Miss, about an hour east of New Orleans on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, stop by 129 Elva Drive. Our home should be ready for visitors sometime in November.

Life is good. Very, very good, indeed.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

LCII has new owners


We got lucky. Not only did we sell the boat fairly quickly during a time of economic weakness, but even better, the new owners are excited about the boat and intend to take care of her in the manner in which she's accustomed. Jim and Mara Hart are real estate brokers (Vantage Realty) who live in San Jose del Cabo, called the South East Cape Area and just east of the better-known (but a lot more touristy) Cabo San Lucas. They plan to take her to her home in the new marina there in mid-November. These happy people have a home on the marina so they'll be able to see the boat. Cool.

We had a fun, albeit VERY hot, three days with them and all went well all through the survey and sea trial, which could not have been better. We sailed back and forth for an hour or so under sweet westerly winds. The only hiccup was that those winds which are so sweet on the outside funnel through the anchorage and get pretty interesting. We had to go into a downwind slip (with the wind behind us) and turn quickly around a big power boat in order to get into our temporary slip. Unfortunately, we didn't turn fast enough and the winds pushed us into the dock. Ouch! The good news is that the damage on the boat wasn't too bad. The yard manager said we hit in the strongest part of the boat. The bad news is that it cost us a little extra money.

We were fortunate to be dealing with good people who really wanted the boat and to have a good boat agent, Mike Rickman of La Paz Yachts. We were also fortunate to have a good friend Mark of Sol Mate who was there waiting for us and who then helped us deal with the bump. Mark went and found the duck tape and Mike jumped into the water and worked to cover up the hole to make sure water would not get into it. They all did much more: they all helped lift our sagging spirits. We are very grateful.

We are now in Phoenix and will start in the early morning for our last leg home, a journey of more than 1,800 miles in a rental truck with no cruise control. Oh, joy.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

One last time

Okay, so it seems as if we can't stay put in one place for too long before we have to take a trip, but this time it's different. The trip we are on now is not our usual, take-our-time and meander trip. This time we are closing down our cruising life. We are emptying storage units in San Diego and San Carlos, and we are going to finalize the sale of the boat -- if all goes according to plan.

Our first leg started on Monday evening -- after Ike blew through -- when we flew to San Diego. Tuesday morning found us at Budget renting a mini-truck. We then went to our storage unit, found stuff we had forgotten we had, and loaded it onto the truck. We visited with Ron's son Ryan and daughter Vanessa, did some shopping at Trader Joe's (several cases of wine) and Costco (we went there for vitamins and wound up buying towels, pillows, robes and other stuff) and then headed to Phoenix.

At Phoenix (actually Fountain Hills), we unloaded all our stuff into the garage of our wonderful friends Bobbie and Robert, then borrowed their van and headed to San Carlos, which is due south of Tuscon. (You can't take rental trucks into Mexico so we are very grateful for generous friends.)

We are in San Carlos now. We'll meet the surveyor for the boat this morning and start working on preparing the boat for the buyer to see it. The buyer and our agent fly in from La Paz on Monday. The sale is pending the survey and sea trial, so by Wednesday or Thursday, we should be done.

We will clear out our storage unit here and the head back to Phoenix where we'll get another Budget truck and fill it with stuff (and I mean some of it is just stuff) from both units and head back to Mississippi. I do not look forward to that last leg. I did not know that rental trucks do not have cruise control nor do they have tape decks or CD players. It's going to be one long, long, long trip home.

So far, we have not had any serious pangs of remorse (just some little nibbles) over selling LCII. We have had some wonderful years with her and made some great friends along the way. Life is so good.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Ike's Beach 091208

Even though we are more than 200 miles away from its center, hurricane Ike came in and took over our beach which had already been closed due to Gustav. The white sand normally stretches out a couple of hundred feet from the seawall. This morning the waves had smothered the beach and were hitting the low sea wall, splashing over onto the highway. Winds gusts were easily over 40mph.

We watched a pelican flying low over the raging waters. A large wave reached up and pulled him into the water. We did not see what happened to him after. Ron said he was likely okay as pelicans are strong swimmers. I hope so.

Here is a video clip of our morning walk. You can see the pier that was first wrecked by Katrina in the background. video

If it's like this here, I hate to think what it's like on the Louisiana and Texas coasts. It's going to be a very long day.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Catching up on photos

It's been a while since we have posted any photos. For that matter, it's been a while since I even took them off my camera but that's a different issue. Anyway, here are a few photos from our recent travels and time in Pass Christian.

We visited the home of Doug and Elizabeth, whom we played golf with for years at Deep Cliff in Cupertino, California, before we went to Peoria and then Lake of the Ozarks. I met Elizabeth back in 1989 when I was transferred to Santa Clara by Northern Telecome. I just like some of these photos. The Outer Banks are very photogenic.The Outer Banks

This web album is from our visit with Dick and Pam, cruising buddies formerly of Lady Pamela who now live in a wonderful home on the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We were able to spend a few days with them in late July. DickandPam

Here are some photos taken of the beach close to our home. We often walk there, morning and evening. Our Beach

And lastly, some photos of our home. Our House.

Enjoy.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Thanks

One of the nice things to come out of Gustav was that many of our friends, including quite a few from the cruising community, contacted us to see how we were doing. It is very nice to know that so many people cared. Thank you. Thank you.

Our home and neighborhood fared very well. Remember that even though we are near the beach, the elevation of our home is 31 feet. Gustav's storm surge was 10-11 feet which made a mess of the beach, highway 90 and harbor, but did not touch many homes. It would take one hell of a surge to hit our house.

Now the wind is a different issue. We boarded up all our windows to protect them from flying debris. We are going to have some large branches near the roof cut back. The worst thing that could happen is that we get hit by one of the many tornadoes that spin out of hurricanes. There is little we can do to protect ourselves from those other than just not be here. We are fortunate to have a 'hurricane hole' in Natchez and another in Atlanta.

Most of the windows are still boarded up and will stay that way for a few more weeks. The plywood covers are a pain to put up and take down.

Anyway, many thanks again for your care and concern.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Our hurricane hole

The home of Tina and Frank D'Antoni is a wonderful place to hang out while hurricanes hit the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts. We have been here since Saturday and every night since Sunday, we have had dinner with at least 10 and sometime 22 people. Tonight we will have pot roast with 14 friends and family followed by a game of Catch Phrase.

Part of the reason is that we've had to eat us food that was thawing quickly. We were without power for over a day. The 7 lb. roast is a casualty of the storm, so Tina invited a crew over. The table is already set and the pot roasting is simmering stove pot. She has this amazing ability to serve large gatherings on a whim.

We had thought we'd return today (Wednesday) but decided to wait another day because when we woke this morning, the skies were still stormy and very wet. All is well and life is good.

Now we wait for the next hurricane.