Thedarlinchronicles's Weblog

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thedarlinchronicles — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:07:19 +0000

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Planning Trip to Alaska – Spring 2011, Crew Needed

thedarlinchronicles — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:30:52 +0000

I plan to cruise Darlin up the inside passage to Ketchikan next May. The boat will be moored in Craig, with access to the famous offshore fishing near Waterfall Resort. We will cruise south in July on the outside of Vancouver Island and visit remote Nooksak Sound and Barkley sound before returning in September. If you would like participate in this adventure please contact me: korbey@mvdarlin.com.

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Back in Seattle

thedarlinchronicles — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:21:15 +0000

After a five week hard cruise up the coast Darlin is now safely moored on an end tie at Ballard with a great view of the shipping activity. With many restaurants and shops within walking distance, and all the marine support in the area, this is the perfect place to spend the winter.

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Weather Hold – Santa Barbara

thedarlinchronicles — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:24:02 +0000

We pulled into Santaa Barbara harbor at about 0900 Thursday and got a slip, $45 per night. It was a good call, the small craft advisory changed to gale warnings and held until Monday morning. It was a day by day delay, with close monitoring of the weather reports, hoping for a break. The weather in Santa Barbara has been great, but just afew miles north the seas were boiling and wind howling. Jeff and I played tourist, completed some more projects on the boat and did a general consolidation. I managed to empty about four bins to free up storage. We unpacked the fold up bikes and took a trip down the beach. We made a beer stop at Trader Joes for Jeff and picked up a few groceries as well.

Jeff needed to refresh his beer suppy, so we unpacked the bikes.

We found some reasonable quick eat local places over the next few days and ate a burger at the yacht club one night, as well as thier happy hour snacks.

Encinal Yacht Club Coastal Sail Race

The Encinal Yacht Club had a week-end coastal race in progress when the gale warnings went up. One boat was demasted and another rolled over in heavy seas. No one was hurt but many of the cruisers left their boats in Santa Barbara for the week an drove home instead of cruising back.

It is now Monday, we plan to cruise to Coho anchorage today and spend the night, athis will put us close to Pt Conception for an early morning crossing on Tuesday. Next stop is Half Moon Bay, hopefully.

We did enjoy the weather and scenery.

And sampled some of the local quisine.

Relaxing with a cold one on the aft deck.

And enjoyed a few libations.

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San Diego To Half Moon Bay – No Joy!

thedarlinchronicles — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:52:50 +0000

We spent an extra day in San Diego to resolve the oil pressure problem. We called a mechanic and soon determined that the oil pressure sending unit was bad. Our good friend Gavin Morris, the broker who had handled Darlin’s sale ten years before lives in San Diego, we have maintained contact, he is a Kiwi, and wrote and iteresting book about his life at sea “ Before I Forget, My First Seventy Years”, worth reading. He met us at the Blue Wave Bar and Grill, we had a libation and discussed old times, then dropped him at his house, and had the use of his car for a day. We had a great prime rib sandwhich, accompanied by a small earthquake at the Fiddler’s Green restaurant. Valerie, the bartender is a great host, she remembered us from the trip south when we spent a week at the Shelter Island boatyard. The next morning we got the replacement oil sending unti and a few groceries. When installed the new oil sensor worked perfectly. Gavin picked up the car at 9pm, we went to bed early.

Wenesday Departure 0700

All systems nominal. We planned to run a straight course west by northwest, splittting San Clemete and Catalina Islands – to a point about thirty miles offshore and then turn north to Pt. Conception. As we crossed between the islands the winds and seas began to build. We held our course, running for almost 18 hours and the seas and winds worsened. There is a ships bell on the aft deck, it clangs occasionally in moderate seas when the wave sets hit an especially rocky cycle. It was claning constantly! We were now north west of St Nicholas island, about thirty miles away from our turn point. We had been beaten up for the last ten hours and the weather forecsast had worsensed – with small craft advisories in effect. We decided to turn nroth east to the duck behind Snata Cruz Island and head to Santa Barbara.

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CBP – Welcome to America

thedarlinchronicles — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:17:57 +0000

Customs and Border Patrol arrived about 30 minutes after we called from the Police Dock in San Diego. There were two in the team, as seasoned officer and a rather large woman that seemded most interested in her cell phone calls. We had given away all the fresh fruits, meats, dairy and vegetables and the mostly empty liqour bottles to our neighbors in Ensenada before leaving, all but one full bottle of Mexican Contory and a partial bottle of Almond Tequila. When asked if we had anything to declare I advised we had a few cases of wine on board, mostly purchased in the US and brought south. After looking in all the lockers and opening a few suitcases, and confirming we had no illegal immigrantts stored in the large deck cooler the fun began. We had to line-up all thirty wine bottles and sort by country of origin. The US items were ok, but those from other countries were suspect “because we did not have receipts”, even though purchased in the US. I offered to pay whatever duty applied. We had seven bottles of Mexican wine with Mexican tax stamps.. The allowance is only one per person – of any alcohol. The “duty” calcualtion would be quite complex, since each foreign wine had a different fee associated with it. Stephanie had left a package of unmarked diet supplement pills in the refer that were also an items of concern. And we had a thorough review of the frozen package of ham slices, turned out it was packaged in the US and not opened so it was ok. Eventually the more seasoned officer convinced the woman that it would be a lengthly task to calcualte all the various applicable duites and they waived any duty fee and only $27.50 (processing fee) and sixty minutes after arrival we cleared customs.

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Santa Barbara: Weathered in

stephaniebreslin — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:26:25 +0000

A quick post for you die-hard Darlin fans Korbey and his close, childhood friend, Geoff Harrison are bringing the boat to Seattle. Currently, they are “stuck” in Santa Barbara due to bad weather on the California coast. The plan is to leave Santa Barbara, tomorrow, Monday, June 21st and be in Half Moon Bay sometime mid to late week – weather permitting of course! In HMB there will be a change of crew. Korbey will be join by Phillip Shaw and Jim Severns. Geoff will have to depart for Seattle. I’ll pop down for a visit since it will have been nearly a month since Korbey and I last saw each other. It will also be a great time for me to catch up with all my friends in Half Moon Bay and see some clients in San Francisco! Hopefully, the guys will post some pictures soon but this is latest news from Darlin and her crew! Stay tuned for more adventures!

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Crossing into the US

thedarlinchronicles — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:48:41 +0000

We finally left Ensenada at 0700 on Monday, June 14th. It was a fine day. But not without its challenges. As we approached the border a Mexican twin engine aircraft buzzed us twice. We thought for sure we would see a high speed patrol boat approaching soon to board us – but nothing happended. About ten miles form the border the starboard engine oil guage starting showing low pressure, only tweny one pounds, normally it runs at forty. I had replaced the guage sensor before leaving San Diego because of high pressure reading error, now low pressure. Our eyes were glued to the guage, we planned to shut it down if it dropped below twenty pounds. As we approached the final few hundred yards to the border a Navy helo buzzed us twice and then hovered about a mile off our port beam. We were convinced the the Mexica plane that buzzed us earlier had called the Navy, and now they were waiting for us to cross before sending the US patrol boat for us. But again nothing happended, it was only our active imagination at work.

We crossed without incident and headed for the the Police Dock to clear customs and immigration. We arrived at 16:00, walked up the dock and called for inspection on the courtesy phone. They advised they would arrive in about thirty minutes. The oil guage never dropped below twenty pounds.

What a complex bundle of wires! Glad Edwin knew what they all did.

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Marathon Part 2 – November 3, 2009

stephaniebreslin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:16:15 +0000

Where does the time go? We arrived in Ensenada nearly 2 months ago and I haven’t posted a blog since we got here…I am going to hammer out a couple of posts to get us all up to date…for all my wine loving friends, there is a great Sangria recipe in this one so don’t skip ahead!

It was a locals’ scene in the lobby bar at the Red Lion in Medford. Everyone in the joint was seated at the bar, having dinner. The man we sat next to was feasting on a plate of greasing pork with equally as greasy looking mashed potatoes. I averted my eyes from the plates of the other patrons but I saw Korbey’s eyes light up…fortunately he knew I wouldn’t be dining in the bar at the Red Lion in Medford…we settled on a couple of drinks and politely declined the dinner menu when the waitress offered. Korbey explained that we were only in town for the evening and we looking for somewhere interesting within walking distance to the hotel. Everyone at the bar piped up with an opinion but I heard two words that stop me, “tapas bar” – Korbey and I knew where we were having dinner. The fatty food locals gave it a rave review, but we were going for it anyway!

Elements has a warm, comfortable, the service congenial in a “we are here when you want us but not if you don’t” sort of way. Their tag line “Call your friends. Have a drink. Share your food.” says it all. The evening we were there Chad was in the kitchen and Kris was behind the bar.

Korbey pointed out some wine specials he saw on the board as we walked in and I glanced over the menu. They had Sangria on the menu, which is always a favorite of mine, though I am usually disappointed, I figured I’d give it a try. It was DELISH. I was so impressed I asked for the recipe. It is super simple.

Elements House Sangria

1 bottle of inexpensive Tempanrillo
¼ of a bottle of Potter’s Brandy (any modestly priced brandy will do)
3 shots of Triple Sec
2 – 3 apples
3 oranges
3 cinnamon sticks

Combine the ingredients and infuse for 4 days

Serve over ice topped with champagne

This recipe makes about 4 servings…but a word to the wise make twice as much as you think you’ll need, not only will you drink more than you anticipate, but friends will suddenly show up at your door. Hopefully, with snacks in hand…

After a couple glasses of this which went down way too fast, I moved on to a lovely local Grenache made by Soloro Vineyard.

We started off with a classic assortment of Spanish Olives, followed by the Tortilla Espanola a traditional Spanish omelet with farm fresh eggs, potato, onion, spinach, and Manchego Cheese. I had a Roasted Beet Salad, a favorite dish of mine, Elements version made with Herb Roasted Red Beets, Humboldt Fog Chevre, Fresh Grated Horseradish, Balsamic Reduction and Olive Oil did not disappoint.

At this point the food began to flow, perfectly timed between dishes to allow us to enjoy what was in front of us and linger in between plates anticipating the next. Some of the dishes we had included:

Cinnamon Cherry Duck breasts which were pan seared and glazed with a cherry and thyme port gastrique with braised greens
Patatas a la Riojana which are Basque style potatoes, Spanish chorizo, garlic, and onion spiced with Spanish smoked sweet paprika
Lemon Pepper Calamari; the calamari was lightly dusted and flash fried, served with a smoked paprika alioli and
Green Beans and Marcona Almonds sea salt roasted almonds sautéed with fresh green beans and pea shoots

There was more but I am getting hungry just reminiscing about this wonderful meal! We left fat and happy, strolled back to our hotel, where we slept very well.

Wednesday, we were off to Portland to stay with my dear pal Ernest Cooper and his partner Scott and see David Gray in concert – who says all the excitement happens on the water?

Posted in Food, Not Quite Yachting, Restaurant Rants, Wine Tagged: Elements Restaurant, Medford OR, Solora Vineyard, Soloro Grenache 2007, Stephanie Breslin

Life in Ensenada

thedarlinchronicles — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:03:21 +0000

We are working on our second month here and plan to stay at least a few weeks more. We have made many friends and are steadily improving the boat. There are many advangtages at this location; for almost 1/2 of what we paid in San Francisco we have moorage with cable tv / HBO, wifi, and a resort facility for our use. The weather is quite pleasant, now running in the 70* range and sunny daily, though cool at night.

We hosted some guests on the boat last night and cooked 3 kilos, about 6.5 lbs of fresh shrimp on the bbq, and had salad and rice and fresh guacamole to go with it. It was a great evening and everyone had their fill of shrimp. We will be flying to Seattle tomorrow, Monday the 4th for a week to catch -up on mail and other items. We are not looking forward to the cold. When we return we should have our steering parts ready for pick-up in San Diego. The boat should then be ready to cruise in a week, but we are looking at some addtional upgrades that may keep us here a bit longer, though I expect at some point we will get antsy to continue our adventure south.

I hope all had a safe and joyous holiday, Felitz Nuevo Anno.

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