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A Change of Plans

4/27/2014

Libby expresses the sheer joy of living

The best laid plans . . .

Things have changed for us. I’ve written about my knee surgery. I can walk now with hardly any limp at all and get around OK, but I still have a tremendous amount of pain.

I had my final appointment with the surgeon yesterday. He said that there is nothing more he can do for me. I need knee replacement surgery.

I also mentioned that Dawn hurt her back lifting Odin onto the boat. She wasn’t getting any better, so we took her to the doctor. He did X-rays and discovered that she needs surgery. He also said that we should take her back to the States for the treatment.

So, we have changed our plans.

Now, I am planning on taking the Victory north to San Diego in June. I have to beat the hurricane season. If I don’t get the boat north now, I’ll have to wait until next spring. I don’t want to take the boat up in the fall into the fall and winter northers.

The really great news is that Sam and KC are going to fly down and crew for me. I couldn’t be more excited. Sam is my brother-in-law (Connie’s sister Marti’s husband). He and Marti were our sailing buddies in Seattle for years.

KC is a young friend that I met through Sam. He is a USCG captain and cruised Mexico on his own boat for three years. He has done several deliveries bashing boats north from La Paz so his presence will be greatly appreciated. Besides, they’re both great fun to sail with.

I’m trying to recruit Ben to complete our crew. Ben crewed for me on the way down. This would complete his round-trip.

Dawn will remain in La Paz with Odin at Casa Mary Lou. She can’t be sailing the boat now with her back hurting. I’ll leave the boat in San Diego under the care of a good friend and fly back to La Paz for the summer. In the fall, we’ll drive back up and start the medical treatments.

I don’t know what the future will bring. We’re keeping our options open. We may be able to take the Victory south again if we can get our medical problems straightened out. I will probably have to get a job (isn’t that a 4-letter word?) so I can get health insurance. I doubt if Dawn can work right now with her back, but she is insistent that she can.

If we can get ourselves well, we may be able to get our charter business going again in San Diego. Only time will tell.

Whatever happens, I will continue to write. I have the cover for Hacker for Hire ready. I’ll reveal it to you next week. I’m just about through with the edits on Hacker for Hire and will move right into the next book as soon as it is done.

I don’t have a title for the third book in the Ted Higuera Series yet. Ted and Chris are drawn to Mexico where they get involved in the drug wars. I won’t say more than that for now, because I don’t want to give away any of the events in Hacker for Hire that presage these happenings.

I have a short story about one of the new leading characters in the Ted and Chris stories that I will publish after Hacker for Hire. It will give you more insight into what makes this exciting new character tick.

I also have a big announcement to make about The Inside Passage, but that will have to wait for next week as well.

So, y’all come back now, heah . . .

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Cabo 2014 - Part 2

4/21/2014

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Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a nice Easter holiday. Here in Mexico it’s a big deal. It isn’t a public holiday like Dia de los Muertos or Christmas, but the whole country takes the week before Easter off to spend time with their families.

During Semana Santa (Holly Week) most businesses and government offices close. Only tourist-oriented businesses and grocery stores are open. No business is transacted this week.

I wanted to make a traditional ham dinner for Easter. Try finding a ham in La Paz. I was at Costco in Cabo after dropping the girls off at the airport, but stupidly didn’t buy a ham. They were too big for two people and I thought I could pick up a smaller one at Mega.

So, I went in search of a ham yesterday. It didn’t happen. There was not one to be found in La Paz. Fortunately, I bought some Kirkland ham slices at Costco. They were a poor substitute for a nice spiral-cut ham, but they were better than nothing.

So, I ended up making a pineapple glaze for my ham slices, baking sweet potatoes and serving it with some nice broccoli. It wasn’t a big American-style Easter feast, but it was a nice dinner.

Now, back to Katie and Libby’s visit.

Katie and Libby frolic in the sea.

Tuesday was supposed to be a kayak trip to Los Arcos, the rock formation at the end of the Baja peninsula. It was not to be. We couldn’t find any place that would rent kayaks to us. It is Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Mexico and most everything is closed (except for those businesses catering to American tourists). Why the kayak places were closed with all of the other tourist dollar grabbers were open, I don’t know.

To mask our disappointment, we went to the beach. And wonder of wonders, we had our best day of the visit.

The water was warm, there was a gentle swell and the sun was hot. It was a perfect day.

They have water jet packs here and they look like so much fun. These are like something out of a James Bond movie. You either strap them on your back, or in the case of the one we saw, you stand on them, and a couple of jets of water lift you out of the water and you can actually fly. There is a long hose attached to the pump on a trailing boat that lets you get about one hundred feet away from the boat and up into the air.

It was hilarious watching a guy trying to stay on top of one of those things. He’d get twenty or thirty feet out of the water, then lose his balance and go tumbling in. It looks like a blast.

After our prolonged march to the beach and the death march back home (remember, I’m gimping around on a bum knee) we headed to the pool for Margaritas, reading and napping.

I felt like having a steak for dinner, so Libby asked at the front desk. She was directed to El Patagonia, an Argentine steak house about three block s from the hotel.

Walking on normal, American sidewalks would be a challenge for gimpy here, but in Mexico, the sidewalks are not exactly what you would call level. It seems that every few feet, the builders decided to either go up or down. The steps are anything but standard. Sometimes they have tiny risers, sometimes you need a fork lift to get up them.

Then there are the obstacles. The builders think nothing of building the sidewalks around a tree or telephone pole, so you have to go into the street to get by. Remember, you probably have to jump down a foot or so into the street, then climb back up to get on the sidewalk on the other side of the tree.

Then there are the obstacles that are put in after the sidewalk is built. These include overhanging dangers that the girls and most Mexicans can ignore, but that smack me squarely in the head. My favorite was a spiral staircase coming down from a second story balcony right into the sidewalk. There was no way to get around it, so you had to jump down about 18 inches into the street, walk around it, then climb back up.

The girls loved El Patagonia. I thought it was so-so. The décor was great, open aired with lots of tropical plants, but the tables and chairs were just pedestrian. Libby had the Argentine equivalent of an arrancherra steak and loved it. It was much more tender than the Mexican version and more flavorful. Katie had a fillet in mushroom sauce and sucked it up. She’s usually not a steak person, but she did back flips for her dinner.

I had a fillet in a peppercorn sauce and thought it was just average. I thought that they gave too few potatoes and it could have used a vegetable.

Libby tosses back her tequila shooter

After dinner our waiter brought us complementary shots of tequila. Libby is not a drinker. Alcohol makes her turn flaming red and embarrasses her very much. I was shocked when she popped her shot, licked the salt off of her wrist and squeezed a lime down her throat.

Katie took hers in two gulps. I am more of a sipper. I wasn’t going to drink it at all because I had a Margarita at the pool and wine with dinner, but what the hell. I wasn’t driving and my daughters were showing me up.

Los Arcos, at the very tip of the Pennisula

Wednesday was a highlight, but still a disappointment. One of the “activities” salesmen on the marina dock sold us a snorkeling cruise on the EcoBaja catamaran. He told us that they had kayaks on board and do a barbeque after the snorkeling.

“What do they serve?” I asked. “Hot dogs?”

“On no,” he replied. “They do BBQ ribs and potato salad and stuff.”

He was lying in his teeth.

The trip started out fine. We cruised by Los Arcos on an overcrowded boat and got some great pictures.

The salesman said “There will only be 30 to 50 people on the boat. They have room for over a hundred, but never fill it more than half full so you have lots of room to move around.”

Once again, he was lying. There must have been more than a hundred people on the boat.

A humpie leaps from the water

On the way to Chileana Bay to go snorkeling, we saw a humpback whale. He put on a dazzling display of jumping, flapping his fins and pounding his tail. We got some of the best whale pictures I’ve ever taken.

Katie was just complaining that she had never seen a whale, when I saw him jump.

“Whale ho!” I shouted and pointed at the expanding ring of white water. The whale must have been two miles off, but the captain immediately changed course and headed for Jumbo.

For at least half an hour, he jumped and cavorted as we got ever closer. Finally, we were maybe twenty yards away while he frolicked in the sea.

Then we got to the reef at Chileana Bay and the disappointment began. The wind and current were so strong that the captain couldn’t get the boat close enough to the reef for us to go snorkeling. Most of the passengers put on their snorkeling gear and went over the stern, but I don’t think anyone got even close to the reef.

This was a severe disappointment. I realize that the company can’t control the weather, but I think that they should have warned us beforehand and given us the option to come back on another day. But they have to make their bucks.

Then came lunch. The famous BBQ. It was dried up hamburgers on cold buns, tasteless potato salad and insipid spaghetti. Not an inspiring meal and definitely not something that would make me want to come back.

When we got back to the dock, I talked to the owner about it. To his credit, he gave us a voucher for another trip to make up for my discontent. Libby still wasn’t satisfied. She wanted our money back and a pound of flesh.

Lunch in San Jose del Cabo

For dinner we went to a seafood restaurant that Katie found on-line. Las Mariscadas was highly rated in Trip Adviser.

Katie had a lobster burrito with chipotle mayonnaise dressing which she liked. I decided to be adventurous and was very disappointed. Instead of ordering something with which I was familiar, I went with blackened filet of fish. I don’t remember what kind of fish it was, but it was soft and tasteless.

I will say that when the waiter picked up the plates he asked me why I didn’t eat my meal. When I explained that I didn’t like it, he took it off the bill. I told him he really didn’t have to, I made the decision to order it, but he was insistent.

Libby was the big winner. She ordered camarones al mojo de ajo (prawns in garlic) and they were great. Not only did they look fabulous and taste awesome, she had more than she could possible eat. Katie and I gladly took a prawn or two off of her hands.

Thursday was our last day together. The girls had to catch their flight back to the States at 2:50 pm. We got up, wandered down to a coffee shop for coffee and a pastry, then headed into San Jose del Cabo where the airport is.

Libby finally found her perfect carne asada

I was really impressed with San Jose. Dawn had been there with her mother last fall and gave good reviews. I like it so much I’ve decided that we have to go stay a few days and explore the town.

It has that “Old Mexico” feel. The buildings are all Spanish Colonial, the zocalo (town square) is gorgeous with a magnificent cathedral on one side and the government palace on the other. Of course, it’s a tourist town and everything is geared towards separating the gringos from their dollars, but the sheer beauty and location won me over.

We shopped until I dropped. Libby has an insatiable urge to shop. If the vendor won’t meet her price, she just turns and walks out. It’s amazing how often this works. Often the vendor chases her out into the street and accepts her offer.

In this particular case, she was looking for a silver necklace. We must have hit a dozen (no, maybe twenty) silver shops. I finally gave up and found a park bench in the zocalo while Katie and Libby trudged on.

We had a great lunch in a beautiful restaurant whose name escapes me. It was just off the zocalo and we entered through a long hallway, then down a staircase into an outdoor garden. The food was good and the atmosphere exceptional. All that was missing were a few chickens roaming around in the garden.

Unfortunately, it all came to an end too soon. Before we knew it, it was time to head for the airport. I dropped the girls off, dried my eyes and headed back to La Paz.

I've managed to get all the way through this narrative without mentioning my new book. For those of you who haven't read The Inside Passage yet, you can buy it at Amazon.com by clicking here.

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CABO 2014 - Part 1

4/19/2014

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First of all, I want to give you a gentle nudge. Of the many people who downloaded The Inside Passage for free, I have only received one review.

Please, take five minutes to write a quick review for me. Reviews are the life-blood of independent authors.

If you haven't gotten your copy yet, click here.

And thank you to all of you who have bought this book. I hope you're looking forward to the sequel, because I'm hard at work on Hacker for Hire.

I expect to have the cover ready by next week. Stand by for a first peek.

Mi Hijas Come to Visit

My first Margarita of the week

I just had four days with my darling daughters Katie and Libby. When I took off on this mad adventure of mine, the hardest thing was leaving the girls behind. I got to see them last summer when I went north on my book tour. This time, they flew down to Cabo to see me.

I hate to say this, but they don’t like Dawn. Dawn, to her everlasting credit, insisted that I meet the girls in Cabo and she would stay on the boat.

They flew in on Sunday afternoon. I picked them up, we checked into the hotel, then went in search of a taqueria. None of us had had lunch yet.

As luck would have it, there was a wonderful taqueria about a block from the hotel. With my knee still in bad shape, walking was hard for me, but the lure of tacos al pastor was strong.

We started with Margaritas, then Katie wanted guacamole. I am not really an avocado fan, but I have to say, they had the best guacamole I’ve had in Mexico. It tasted just like Mama used to make.

Tacos al Pastor on a Trompo

Then came the tacos. Heaven in a tortilla.

For those of you not familiar with tacos al pastor, they are cooked on a vertical spit called a “trompo (like a toy top, because that’s what they look like).” The meat is marinated in an adobado sauce, then added to the spit in layers, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. Then it is cooked in front of a gas fire where the heat is spread by fire bricks. It takes hours for the meat to cook, but the chef stands by with a sharp knife and as the outer layer gets charred and beautiful, he trims it off. The pieces fall into a tray at the bottom and stay warm from the fire.

These little pieces of pork are then wrapped in a tortilla with chopped onion and cilantro. You can add salsa and lime (I always do) and guacamole if you like. They are the best thing in the world.

We did ourselves proud at the taqueria, then headed to the pool.

The Hotel Mar de Cortez looking back at the pool bar

We stayed in the Hotel Mar de Cortez, right in downtown Cabo. We were about three blocks from the water and steps from good restaurants and the hot night spots.

Our hotel is Spanish Colonial architecture, with arcades and lots of Mexican tile work. Colors that we wouldn’t think of using in the US somehow all blend together and work in Mexico. I guess it’s the tropics.

There is a bar just off the pool and we took advantage of the happy hour every day. They also had the best Nachos I have had in Mexico. Nachos are an American creation and not many restaurants in Mexico get them right. For the most part, they use tortillas that are too thick for the chips and cooked in heavy old oil, then the cheese just doesn’t compare with a good cheddar.

These Nachos had a mix of manchego and cheddar cheeses along with a liberal sprinkling of jalapeños slices and carne asada.

I might as well tell you right now that Libby was on a quest to find the perfect carne asada in Cabo. Everywhere we went, she ordered it. I don’t think there’s a cow left alive in the whole country.

On Sunday evening, we ate dinner at the hotel. Their Sunday Special was surf and turf, a filet mignon, prawn brochette and lobster tail. A very American meal, but Katie and Libby couldn’t pass up the lobster (the price was $250 pesos, about $20 US) so they split one. There was more than enough food for both of them.

To my disappointment, the restaurant in our hotel didn’t serve much in the way of Mexican food, so I had penne pasta with Italian sausage. It is almost impossible to get good sausage of any kind in Mexico, so I was very happy with my meal.

Lunch at El Fuente

Monday morning we got up, had a leisurely breakfast and drove up to Todos Santos. If you haven’t read my blog about Todos Santos, it’s one of my favorite towns.

It is an artist community in the transition zone between ocean and dessert. It is right on the Tropic of Cancer and there are steams and springs that allow tropic vegetation. It is an oasis of green in a world of sand and cactus.

The town looks very colonial with old-style buildings. Their major industry is tourism so everything is dedicated to siphoning off as many gringo dollars as they can get. Of course we shopped through many of the stores and picked up a trinket or two. Did I mention that my knee was killing me. I gulped pain killers all week.

We had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, El Fuente. El Fuente is right across the street from a nice park and is under a palapa. I’ve described it here before. The giant palapa (palm thatched roof) is held up by logs about six inches in diameter. The kitchen is back in the building next to the palapa, but the tables are under the thatched roof.

Katie wanted to sit in the sun, so we sat in the garden rather than under the palapa. One of the nicest things about this restaurant is the grounds. There are actually grass lawns, lots of flowers and tropical plants, not to mention the obligatory coconut palms.

We returned to our hotel in time to catch the happy hour at the pool and get a little reading in.

For dinner we returned to our favorite little taqueria.

You have no idea how thrilling it is to walk into a book store and find one of your books on the shelf.

That's enough for today. I'll fill you in on the last part of our visit next week. Stay tuned . . .

In the meantime, buy your copy of The Inside Passage today.

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April Doings

4/7/2014

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Writing News:

The Inside Passage is currently #4 on the Amazon.com Best Seller list for Hispanic American literature. It’s #29 on the Thriller list. Thank you.

You can still download The Inside Passage for free today and tomorrow from Amazon.com. Don’t miss your chance. Let’s push it to #1 on the Amazon list. Click here to download.

By the way, for all of you who downloaded it for free, I expect that you will post a review on either Amazon.com or GoodReads for me. I don't think that's too much to ask for giving you a free book. That is, if you liked the book. You know what my mother said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

I’m getting lots of positive comments on the book, but I have to share the one negative comment I got. It went something like this “I didn’t like Ted and thought that Chris was gay. This whole Meagan thing is just a cover so that he can stay in the closet.”

GAY?? It never entered my mind. Of course, I’m pretty naive about such things. However, there is a locker room scene in Hacker for Hire. Hmmmm . . .

Hacker for Hire is coming along. I’m going to be working on the cover this week. It should be ready for publication by early June.

I also have another special treat in the wings. Mirror Image is a Catrina Flaherty short story.

Cat Flaherty is Ted Higuera’s new boss in Hacker or Hire. In Mirror Image we see one of her early cases. This one has a surprise ending you won’t guess, unless you read the newspapers. This is also from a true story. If you like strong female leads, you’re going to love Cat Flaherty. Look for the Mirror Image this summer.

Now On To Other News:

Dawn is on the upswing. She was down for nearly two weeks with one of the worst cases of flu I have ever seen in my life. Every boat on our dock had at least one person catch this bug. It was really nasty.

Maybe the strangest symptom was the nightmares. Dawn had such realistic nightmares that she thought they were true. I think they were more like hallucinations than nightmares.

She asked me, “Who was that woman you were having breakfast with?”

“What woman?” I responded.

“The one with the little girl.”

She was absolutely convinced that we had guests on board.

MAN OVERBOARD!

On Friday I asked Rhonda, a nurse on the Swan, to come over and look at Dawn. She said Dawn needed to be in the hospital. Dawn refused.

I called Dr. Diaz and he said that he would meet us at the hospital in half an hour. I didn’t give Dawn any choice. We physically lifted her off the boat and took her to the hospital. Dr. Diaz admitted her over night.

She was severely dehydrated and her blood counts were all messed up. He got her stabilized and sent her home the next day. She is pretty well recovered now, but she put her back out. When she was lifting Odin (her 170 pound Great Dane), she twisted wrong and out it went. Now she’s shuffling around like an old lady.

As for me, I wore myself out taking care of her. Trips for grocery shopping, doing the laundry, cooking, etc. really put a strain on my knee. I’m getting around much better these days, but man, does it hurt.

We have guests galore the next couple of months. Mark from the Witch of Endor stayed with us a couple of days this week. He’s on his way back up to San Diego to get parts for his boat. You know what they say, “Cruising is doing maintenance on your boat in exotic ports.”

My lovely and talented daughters, Katie and Libby, will be down to see me the middle of April and my brother Jim will be here in late May.

On May 1st we’re moving ashore for the summer. We’ll be house sitting in a really nice Mexican Villa with a lovely garden and pool. Odin will have plenty of room and I expect to write like a demon. You can expect to find me in the pool every afternoon.

We landed a big one.

We just wrapped up Bay Fest 2014. Bay Fest is a kind of cruisers’ convention held here in La Paz every spring. I attended several seminars, Dawn and I went out on a GulfStar 50 for man over board drills and I watched the blindfolded dinghy races.

While we were practicing man overboard drills, a pod of dolphin swept past the boat. I will have to say, to my amazement, most of the crew kept their attention on the poor soul in the water and ignored the dolphin. Way to go. By the way, we managed to recover all of the men overboard yesterday.

The blindfolded dinghy races were a hoot. The person rowing the dinghy has a blindfold over their eyes. The “spotter” in the dinghy gives them directions on where to row. There were a couple of really accomplished couples, but for the most part, the race consisted of numerous collisions.

There were two pre-teen boys in one dinghy. The spotter gave good directions. The only problem was that he told the rower what direction to go after they collided with something. Fortunately most of the dinghies were inflatable rubber boats so no permanent damage was done.

It was kinda like playing bumper boats.

We have nothing big on the horizon for the next week. I would love to take the Victory out for a few days, but Dawn’s back is in no condition for sea faring. Then Katie and Libby get here on the 13th. After they leave on the 17th, I hope to do some cruising.

Download The Inside Passage for free.

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It's Finally Here!

4/1/2014

4 Comments

The Inside Passage

It’s here at last!

After months of anticipation, The Inside Passage is finally available as an eBook from Amazon.com.

Be the first kid on your block to read this exciting thriller that takes place on Canada’s Inside Passage.

If you are a sailor, this is a must read. There are lots of nautical hijinks, sailing action and sex. Not to mention a few life-threatening encounters with al-Queda. If you’ve sailed the Inside Passage you’ll recognize the setting. If you haven’t, you’ll want to go there.

Somewhere on Canada’s Inside Passage, terrorists plot to destroy a cruise ship filled with celebrities and VIP’s.

Ted Higuera, the son of Mexican immigrants, grew up in East LA. An unlikely football scholarship was his ticket out of the barrio. Chris Hardwick was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The two become college roommates and best friends.

As a graduation present, Chris’ father offers the boys the use of his sailboat for a summer cruise up the Inside Passage. Chris brings his girlfriend, Meagan O’Donnell along for the trip. Ted can’t stand Meagan; he thinks she’s just interested in Chris for his money.

The three have a series of adventures until they stumble upon an al-Qaeda plot to blow up a cruise ship, then the clock starts ticking.

The terrorist must eliminate the witnesses before they can report the plot to the authorities. Ted, Chris and Meagan must prevent the attack on the cruise ship with Chris’ father and his new bride aboard. But what can three unarmed kids to do prevent the terrorist assault?

Read The Inside Passage. If you like the thriller genre, you’ll like it. There’s lots of action and suspense, but it also spends a lot of time developing the characters. Like the old TV commercial said, “Try it, you’ll like it.”

The Inside Passage is available as an eBook only at this time.

Buy the book

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A Change of Plans

Cabo 2014 - Part 2

CABO 2014 - Part 1

Mi Hijas Come to Visit

April Doings

Writing News:

Now On To Other News:

It's Finally Here!

The Inside Passage

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