December 21, 2015

Hello all... I know its been awhile, but we have been on pause mode here in Oxnard, CA. Visiting with old and new friends and family! So we did do a run to Mexico (Tijuana and Rosarito Beach) last Wednesday (Dec 16) with Bobby & Ronnette Cortez who continue to tirelessly and generously give of their time, resources, finances and love! I am going to attempt to post pictures...We met with a wonderful couple in service to the Lord.. Pastors Leo & Gloria Nevarez and we were invited to help them on their weekly Wednesday afternoon ministering to homeless in Tijuana. We received donations of jackets and blankets (from wonderful friends here in CA) to pass out that day and then after Pastor Leo ministered, we were honored to help feed the people who showed up. What a blessing for us and the gratitude of the people there who have so little; it was awesome!! We HAVE to learn Spanish!!!!
On the way back, we spent the night with Harvey & Connie Brate, who live in San Diego now and Ernie attended Harvey's men's bible study early Thursday morning and met some more mighty men of God! We will be coming alongside of Harvey's church in helping refit a new home for the orphanage they work with in Tijuana. Keep this in your prayers that the closing of the home goes swiftly and smoothly.
Finally we stopped by Minney's in Costa Mesa (our favorite place for boat stuff) and got replacement rigging, a demonstration of splicing and other boat goodies! Missed seeing Sherry, wonderful sister in the Lord we met last month at Minney's when we trekked down south with Nancy before she jumped ship to return to better weather (just kidding!)...This time we ran into Jason & his lovely girlfriend there from the big sailboat we first met in Santa Barbara, Halcyon I think is her name..ugh memory not so good all the time...anyway, these kids are braving all kinds of things out there on the water.. keep them in your prayers for smoother sailing from here on out!
We have also met a great young couple aboard their sailboat, Shameless, that would be Ron & Bridgett from northern CA who are probably spending Christmas in Oxnard due to tranny issues...they got waylaid in Monterey, CA where we met them due to engine problems. Love their enthusiasm and spending time getting to know them! Its fun hearing sailing stories from them!
Next up will be December 26, we will be heading south again to Los Angeles to feed homeless there with Brother Gary & the Servants of the Father of Mercy. I just love this retirement thing!!

This is the schedule to feed the homeless in Tijuana, Mexico at the place we went.

Cindy with Pastor's wife, Gloria to my right and two of the church ladies who volunteer on Wednesdays to feed homeless in Tijuana.

Ernie & Cindy in Rosarito Beach, Mexico.

Liberator II in our old slip in Channel Islands Harbor, CA

Minney's in Costa Mesa, CA

Nancy, Ernie & Sherry (sister in the Lord, from Minney's)

Harvey & Connie Brate in San Diego, CA.

Pastor Leo Nevarez, Ronnette & Bobby Cortez and Ernie in front of Pastor Leo's church in Rosarito Beach, Mexico.

More pics!

 One of our crew relaxing!

Here is Liberator II in Santa Barbara Harbor

Crew leaving San Francisco

Ok.. here is  pic of us leaving San Francisco, CA.

Newcomers to blogspot..our website

Hi there, just wanted to let any newcomers know about our old website that we still have until Spring of 2016.
Check out: www.liberator-mission.org
This will give you some background on who we are and what we are doing!
Plan as of today...
We leave Santa Barbara Harbor on Weds the 18th; we will go south to Oxnard and be berthed in our old slip (unbelievable, huh?).. at PYA (Peninsula Yacht Anchorage) for a month, waiting on Steve and Antonia to get here!
Meanwhile I am trying to learn more about this blogging.. want to learn how to add pics and a link to our location for while we are gone so you all can follow along where we are!
Also busy cleaning boat, visiting family and friends, figuring out this "retirement lifestyle" Gonna start working on Spanish soon, planning our next few stops after first two orphanages..

November 10, 2015

Ok, so we are finally here in Santa Barbara, CA..we got here just as it was getting dark Sunday the 8th..took about 30 hours or so...we averaged 7 knots an hour motoring. They caught a bigger tuna this time. We had beautiful calm seas the whole way...barely even noticed Pt Conception!! Have been visiting with friends and family and enjoying the change in weather! Jeff will take the train home tomorrow...he has been a real blessing to have on this long leg of our journey...he has definitely left his mark on our boat and in our hearts!! So the plan is to spend about a week or so here, then head more south to Ventura/Oxnard where we are going to haul Liberator II out of the water and fix the center board that cable broke from so we won't be drafting 9 feet all the tine!! So looking forward to some Seattle friends to come visit...we will be in this area until a day or two after Christmas...

November 6, 2015

Hi all... well.. we had a wonderful visit in San Francisco... did a touristy tour on the double decker bus, walked across the Golden Gate and had great Chinese food (Ernie & the crew that is, no.. I haven't changed!).. Then on our last night there, we had a great visit with Kit, Naomi & Yvonne (good friends of Dr. Nick...from PES!).. we were desperately in search of some help with our SSB Radio... its all installed, but we couldn't make heads or tails of how to use it... waiting on "elmer" contacts from the local Ham radio club..when Dr. Nick gave me Kit's contact info...and guess what..! another "God Shot" as Jeff would say... Kit has the SAME exact SSB radio on his boat!! No way, right? Wow! So we got lessons, ideas, and a great time of fellowship with them.. heard of his adventures of sailing to Hawaii three times already! and lots of San Francisco sailing stories too... so fun!
So then we left early Thursday morning, bound for Monterey... went out at the right time even! Ernie was able to deposit the ashes of his dad and John under the Golden Gate (for more details... you just gotta ask him....and that's all I'm gonna say on that)..then around noon, Ernie caught his first fish in 30 years! He snagged a tuna, the second catch of the day.. the first one that made it on board! Guess we will be grilling it tonight, when we get back from the new James Bond movie we just gotta go see this afternoon...
Plan is to leave outta here by 9ish tomorrow, bound for Santa Barbara... the next leg of the trip. Jeff will be heading back to Everett soon.. we are gonna keep Nancy as long as Morgan (her adult daughter in Everett) will keep indulging us..

October 26, 2015

Well, hello all .... We are still in Oregon... But we have made it to Coos Bay... charming little town... Charleston marina... We have been here a week now... Hope to leave daylight Thursday morning... We should have a great run straight down to Santa Barbara....yay... We will be running for about 4 days around the clock... The fellows will be doing the night watches...unless things are really smooth... By the way, all three cats are doing fine... Ernie and Jeff are working almost non stop on projects... We will be in great shape when we get to CA... ! All the work Ernie had no time for is finally getting done...we got the missing power cord for the outside garmin...so we now have chart plotter outside...yay... can't wait to use it!  We still have wonderful food for plenty of meals... Freezer has been awesome! We visited a cool little church on Sunday that was built from salvaged wood load from a beached ship in the 1940's (by women..cuz the men were still at war)...And we are working our way through a study of Jude, thanks to Bible College tapes from Dr. Welch.. So, that's all that's been going on with us...

November 1, 2015

Happy November all!! Well, the update is...we were in Coos Bay, Oregon from October 20 to the 29th! We all got a little stir crazy... we were waiting on a 24 hour solid weather window.. finally got one..so the 59 hour adventure began on thurs at 1010am... we left under beautiful skies... nice bar crossing... life was good! Underway... we all took our daytime shifts just fine... with the men planning to stay up all night and run. We had little wind...enough to put up mizzen sail and small head sail... still had to motor though.. first day out, we saw at least three whales.. spouts and tails! Jeff got some pics.. first night was great! Next day.. tired fellows, but all in all.. fine. Then came the fog... I got fog on both of my 3 hour watches... 9a to 12 noon and 3p to 6p.. then... very confused seas and cross currents as we passed points... ugh.. happy to turn over wheel and know I didn't have to go at it again until 9am Sat!! Nancy maintained quite a while in the dark, but even she had to relinquish early on Friday eve to Cap'n Ernie... Then after a very rough night... dawn broke, Sat am... things stayed rough until about 10am... then the fog came back... yay... NOT. But we all knew we were going to come in to San Francisco...
Now.. Charlie's Charts advises of the only times to come in to San Francisco... so we being the rule followers that we are...
We found ourselves disobeying every last precaution Charlie put out there! It was at the end of the day.. tide coming out and serious fog!! We had wonderful guidance from VTS (Vessel Transit Service) per radio that let us use the big shipping lanes... saved at least an hour or more and was Heaven sent! Some big vessels crossed our path... we didn't even see them until they were upon us.. we got heads up about every one! Then as we were traversing the precaution circle (where incoming and outgoing vessels decide which turn they are taking)...the fog thickened even more... We could barely see past the bow..we needed to find the 4 red bouys hailing the entrance to the main ship channel to go in to the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge...At the point of almost turning around (Cap'n tells us later!)... there one was sighted by "eagle eye Nancy"... whew... we think it was the 2nd one... but it was the only one we saw... we had to navigate in by latitude and longitude trusting the GPS and plotting every 3 to 4 minutes on the paper chart.. (Entrance to San Francisco)..from 1615 (4:15pm) to 1935 (7:35pm)... at that point... the fog broke enough to see that we were almost underneath the bridge... right on target ... thanks to Cap'n Ernie's skill at the wheel...wow!! Ernie says "we passed another test tonight" as we were reviewing our Kamakaze entrance to the bay over our meal once safely berthed at dock. Nancy brought us in across SF bay like an expert! Jeff encouraged us all along the way with his happy spirit and expertise at the wheel... he loves driving from outside steering station by GPS (God's Positioning System) as he calls it.."the stars." 
Ernie says he was praying about whether to turn around (rough seas, hard to handle the boat and more shallow water according to the depth meter only he seemed to be watching)...he says he was asking God if he should turn around or stay the course...because it was getting too dangerous...then we got the answer...Nancy called out...there's a bouy... we got our answer (and for those who know about 'red right returning' you can guess which side of the bouy we were on when it appeared!!
THANK YOU, LORD!
Then this morning after an extra hour of needed sleep, I might add...(daylight savings..)..when we went to check in at the Harbor office (South Beach Harbor).. Misa told us the only reason we were able to dock here last night was because they got a cancellation yesterday...otherwise there would not have been room! Now, on Friday when we were miles away... Ernie picked this harbor out of the book (Charlies Charts) of where to head to stay!!
Can everyone agree that God is guiding us every step of the way!! Thank you again all for supporting us, loving us and most of all praying for us! We are a bit dismayed that it is taking so long to get to Santa Barbara area... but we know God is in charge.. and everything is going as planned on other levels that we don't even see...
Will catch you up as things happen!!
please comment as you read... we love to hear from you all!!
With love,
the crew of Liberator II

october 18

Hi all...well, we made it to CA...before you get too excited for us.. We made it by car, thank you to Katrin & Jessica...who came far enough west from Interstate 5 to pick us up in Newport, Oregon..to "get us to the wedding on time"...so to catch everyone up...the steering issue got resolved, turned out to be possibly an air pocket...but whatever it was....its fine now..then after waiting out yucky weather, we got underway last Tues morning...after much rocking and rolling...we made it out of the channel and on the way. Had a beautiful day at sea after we picked our way through all the stuff that was shaken loose from its resting spot on all the shelves of the boat (we have a lot more securing to do...inside the boat!)
So, moving along....we ended up discovering that the female crew members are not as talented at steering at night as the men...so in the interest of time and crew relations..our captain decided to have us run in to Newport marina instead of push on to our planned destination of Coos Bay....God even sent us a fishing boat escort into the unfamiliar marina!..Newport is nice..and ended up being close enough to freeway that we were able to time our meet up perfectly! Now, wedding was beautiful...family & friends visiting great...and so fast...we are on the drive back to Oregon. Next stop, back aboard Liberator II and get back to our voyage. Life is good, God's in charge and we are now officially "off the clock"  No more deadlines, ever!!

Weds, Oct 7, 2015. Well, hello all...Liberator II is moored in Westport Marina .. Grays Harbor...yes, we are still in WA...so, the update is.. We left Sequim on a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning after nice dinner and fellowship with the Aronsons Sat night...went around Cape Flattery about 2200...which was the wrong tide timing as it took hours to round the cape...never the less...we accomplished it..then motoring down coast..one big detour around some navy exercise area that we found out may have been inaccurate info for 2015....our charts are old...but, anyway...on Monday, we enjoyed another beautiful day at sea, each crew doing motoring helm duties...we even sailed very briefly (no wind)....motor sailed about 2 hours....which was nice cuz the rocking motion was nicely calmed!  Then about 2030 Monday eve we had our first mechanical failure of the trip...the inside steering went out...necessitating detour back northeast 4 plus hours to grays harbor..steering from outside wheel. Cool thing...when we got to the marina...there was Windrush II.... Good friends...Rob & Sonja...so here we are .. Waiting on guy to come in from port townsend today to hopefully rebuild pump...and we also found out (God's hand continues to guide us)...there is nasty storm out there..so we will be here in safe haven waiting that out!!  Already reassured Sarah (Ernie's daughter with upcoming nuptials) that we will be there for her father to officiate at the wedding even if we have to come by vehicle!!  So, all is well....we are on God's timing..as always...this is our life now!!  Hope all our friends and family are well....we are absolutely happy and grateful for our awesome crew, Nancy and Jeff...it really took all four of us working together calmly and efficiently to safely make it in to tricky harbor in the dark! ps.. All three feline crew members are taking it all in stride...no one wants to "get voted off" the boat!

Day 1....Leaving Everett...

Hello..All...Well, we finally got on the water this morning at 11:20am..yay!  Some 35 nautical miles and 6 hours later, we are berthed for the night in Port Townsend...I know, not very far...however, circumstances beyond our control (Ernie's crazy schedule and finishing things) necessitated us leaving with our decks covered with stuff....however, with expert wheel handling by the female crew...the male counterparts were able to get Liberator II shipshape....so we will be rearing to go in the a.m.  Next stop, Sequim...to fellowship with Bert and Sandy Aronson! Our only mishap was Ernie getting scraped by a wire in his eye...he seems to be recovering nicely. Please keep this and our journey in your prayers! Thank you all for the well wishes and support and to the ones who hung around for hours this morning to see us off. We will update soon! Nite, nite (from Cap'n Ernie, Cindy, Nancy & Jeff...the crew)

9-8-15
The time has come to start our journey for the Lord, (already been quite a journey!).. we are excited to see where the Lord leads; we have an orphanage already waiting for our arrival in Rosarito Mexico. Our first step will be Santa Barbara, CA to spend Thanksgiving with our kids and friends (after Ernie officiates at middle daughter Sarah & Taylor's wedding mid October)... then make our way to San Diego to visit Cindy's former boss, Doug & wife Cathy.. then connect with Harvey & Connie to make our game plan for Mexico work...
So, stay tuned and let's see what God has up His sleeve!
Blessings,
Ernie & Cindy
Liberator II Mission
9-11-15
So we have a little over 2 weeks to get everything done.. Cindy's coworkers have blessed us with an AED for the trip!! And many others have been contributing all along (check out our website for all the blessings we have received)  We have a couple of parties before we go. Hope to see our HMC friends at Tasha's party in Kirkland on the 19th & then the rest of our friends & marina family on the 26th in Everett. It will be hard to leave all the good people we have met here, but we know we will meet again some day! And we hope that some of you come find us along the way! We will be updating this blog at least weekly.. our old website will go away once the goDaddy contract is up spring of 2016.. this one is free!! I am not sure of all the internet stuff in other countries, but we will figure it out! I just joined What'sapp... hope to have free texting on phone.. will still keep ernie's number 425-405-8740.