November already (Are you kidding me??)

Hi all...absolutely unbelievable that it IS mid November...well.. alot has transpired. I write this entry from the Extended Stay Hotel in Tigard, Oregon..so, we reviewed our finances the end of September and realized that we had spent our entire 2 year budget plus.. in the one year we have been gone from Everett, WA..but we know, God's in charge, not us! So, rolling up our sleeves, we are back to work. Ernie has been commuting to CA from Ensenada to do paying mechanic work. All I can do for $ is be a nurse..and the only RN license I have current is Oregon. So I am on a travel nurse assignment in Oregon. Will be here till January 9, 2017. I have reinstated my CA RN license, so am praying for next assignment in southern CA!! Ernie is still commuting back and forth to keep cats fed & watered & boat afloat in the marina in Ensenada. We have awesome neighbors who are helping us immensely! Thank you, thank you..Angie & Ralph (SV Nanner Moon, Marshall (SV Tenacity), Jan & Chuck (SV Windwatcher) and those who have sailed away..Jules & Jeff (SV El Gato).
Meanwhile, orphanage maintenance & mechanic projects continue in Tijuana & Rosarito. And Ernie has an awesome God opportunity to drive & codrive (navigate) in the Baja 1000 2016. A special thank you to Art & Ruth of MOOCH racing for believing in Ernie & welcoming him into their fold! Any of you who know Ernie at all, know that he is a total gearhead and desert rat! He is having such an experience. He says he is using all the skills he has to do this! And its just pre running right now. Please, please all of you, keep him in your prayers, for his and all others involved (spectators and participants at all levels) for their safety and enjoyment, no hurt, harm or danger to come to ANY of them, in Jesus' mighty name! Amen.
And my laptop hard drive died...hope I got all my pics & docs saved, but I am on a loaner from my mom (thanks, mom!)..so I have no idea how to send any pics...sorry.. will promise next post will have pics! ok?
Thank you all for your continued prayers, kind thoughts and gifts of support & encouragement. Love you guys!!

#3 for July 21, 2016... be sure to read em all...

Now for "Captain's note" from Ernie:
     Wow, can't believe its been 9 months already since we left Everett. I must first give thanks to God for the Awesome journey so far, and second-awesome praise to my wonderful wife for keeping us organized and on the ball. Many sailors (men) are envious of me cuz I have a wife "totally into the boat life" well what can I say but Cindy is awesome and I could not do all this without her!! Love you sweetie!! (Geez, he made me copy it word for word)...
Thanks to ALL for all the prayers and support over the years to get us to this point. Its awesome to be a part of God's plan to spread His love to all we come across; to Him be the Glory now and forever!!
Give em Heaven!
E.

And now, some thoughts on the mission. We have been gone almost 10 months and we budgeted only for 24 months..so upon reflection, it looks like we are going to have to change some of our plans. The most logical is to not venture as far south as we had previously planned. So as of now, we are thinking we will go as far south as Puerta Villarta area, then when ready, do the Pacific Puddle Jump from there. There are classes to prep for the ocean crossing that we want to take that start every January. So we will prepare to "jump" either April, May, or June of 2017 or 2018. Mission work we involve ourselves in further south will determine our plans of course. Please keep this mission voyage in your prayers.

July 21, 2016...continues

So, we do want to share a scary incident that happened one week after we got to Ensenada. As most of you know, we bought an awesome old beater car (La Bamba, 1995 Buick Regal) for transportation to and from Mexico when we were still in San Diego. Well, the second Sunday we were driving home from church and fellowship with Pastor Leo & Gloria on the libre (free) back mountain road to Ensenada and when coming around a blind hairpin curve/turn in the road, La Bamba was hit on the driver's side by a riderless Harley Davidson motorcycle. Really! Turns out, Raul & his amor dumped the bike on a curve, fell off and the bike righted itself to continue on and hit us...God is in charge as always and He worked everything for good. No major injuries to anyone. No one went to jail... we just saw the movie "Get the Gringo".. Whew! Raul honorably paid for car repairs and we made two more friends here in Mexico!

Ernie always lookin for another buggy! This is the best vehicle for here, for sure! But don't tell La Bamba! No worry, its way not in our budget!!

Finally, this week...construction work begins on the nueva casa para huerfanos (the new home for Casa Hogar, Ninos de Fe orphanage in Baja Malibu), working with Coastline Church of Carlsbad, CA. What a blessing to the children, caretakers (Victor & Gabi) & community Coastline Church has been and is being--really unbelievable!

We have also met a lot of wonderful & welcoming cruisers and office personnel here in Cruiseport Marina in Ensenada. All of our documentation paperwork is now in order and we feel so much more secure here!! We have been making time for Mexican Train dominoes once a week. Also blessed to have la leccion en Espaniol cada miercoles (Spanish lessons every Weds) right here in the marina, Gracias, Senora Alejandra!!

July 21, 2016

Hola, Amigos.. we are really feeling like honorary Mexicans now! We are starting our 3rd month in Ensenada!! What a wonderful time here. In between trips up to Estados Unidos (U.S. in Espaniol)!

Trying to get a good picture of the huge beautiful Mexican flag is difficult!

Meanwhile, Ernie is busy, busy, busy...his gifts and talents are of great service here. He has done lots of mechanic stuff..maintenance and vehicle fixes. And last week, he was wearing his electrician's hat;

revitalizing electricity to the caretaker home for Pastor Leo & Gloria's church in Rosarito, Lo Mejor del Trigo.
We also reunited with some sailors from CA that we met in Monterrey, Ronald & Bridgett, who came down to visit their sailboat, Shameless. While they were here, they introduced us to the BEST pizza in Mexico we believe! Ochento's..hidden in the wine country near Ensenada. We met the family owners and hope they take some time off and come down to the marina to go sailing before we leave here in November!
When we were up north, visiting family and friends, we got the chance to reconnect with David & Danielle, missionaries we met years ago in Santa Barbara through Tristan Harvey. We haven't seen David & Danielle in at least 7 years-- David just finished training as a pilot and mechanic! to be a missionary bush pilot--we saw them just before they headed north somewhere for official training for that kind of mission! Wow!! So we got together for coffee with Tristan too!

Tristan & his family have been in Bali, Indonesia for the past year.. to return in the next week or so--who knows when we will see them again!

May 20, 2016

Hi all...well, I know its been awhile since I posted...alot has been going on. We were in San Diego the full 3 months to avail ourselves of free cruisers anchorage! Had a few visitors from north of San Diego...got more acclimated to life on the hook...made weekly trips to Mexico. Ernie is doing maintenance mechanical work on lots of orphanage & church vehicles. We have met several awesome cruisers along the way. Carol & Craig (windcutter), Neal, Tally, & Jan (raven), Marshall (tenacity), Jim (bruyere), Jim (double angel)...to name a few. We have now also made the move south to Ensenada Mexico...leaving behind lots of San Diego sailors/friends...Vanessa, Norbert, Lester, Justin, Jason, Ed the rigger & Ed from the wall...Getting to know lots of folks here at Cruiseport marina...they have a cruisers website & vhf net. Very helpful! Once we get our bearings, will resume ministry work...orphanage new home sale is still pending, so we can't start work on remodel til all the legal stuff is done, but always vehicle work and homeless ministry work to do!.. We are a bit dismayed that we had to rent a slip here cuz we can't anchor in the bay here...and there are lots of $$ fees when you exchange $$ and unexpected boat/old car expenses/printer replacement/cell phone replacement/vessel documentation name change fees (who knew ernie & cindy weren't our legal names!!?).. But we are still learning alot! We have come to the conclusion that when we use up all our $$...if God doesn't need us to continue this mission trip by providing more resources...we will know its time to go home...wherever that will be!! We are planning to reroute trip at this point to only go as far south as Puerta Vallarta...then do pacific puddle jump from there! Keep us in your prayers!

May 20, 2016...pics

 Working on Casa Hogar...Ninos de fe orphanage van.

 Tiny perra..in Rosarito.

 Ernie working on Pastor Leo's church van.

 Nautical clock from ebay seller, Beckie who gave us a great deal for the mission trip! Thank you!!

 Ernie raising Mexico flag & Q flag as we are approaching Ensenada Mexico!

 Jim..friend & crew from San Diego...up mizzen mast replacing anchor light..and smiling for camera! Thank you Jim for all your help!

Pic out window of car...somewhere in Ensenada!

March 2016 visitors!

We have had visits from Seattle! and crazy, but we have met cruisers here...from Seattle too..

                           Full raft of folks...Tasha, David, Anna Nina, Nina and Aunt Leila..

                                                         Tasha and David of course!

                                                                                    Kristie made the trek down too!

 Jim of Sailing Vessel, "Double Angel", headed for the Marquesas next month!!

Marshall of Sailing Vessel, "Tenacity" who took us sailing yesterday around the bay and also crewed with us to sail a bit with Tasha and family when they were here! Marshall is bound for La Paz, leaving in the next couple of days!!

And finally, our first Bible study participants from the A9 anchorage here in San Diego, Joel and Coronado and little Taffy... who are headed back east to home after their adventure of life on the water here for the past 6 months or so. Our prayers and love go with them, such a neat young couple!!

Well, that's it for now... hope I spelled everyone's name correctly..my apologies if I didn't. Will make my best effort to blog once a month... plan for now is to be in San Diego, free anchorage until middle of May... then hopefully, crew will be joining us to head to Ensenada, Mexico!!!

Thank you all for remembering us and keep those prayers going up to the Lord for us. We are just here in the bay, but our boat is on the hook (at anchor), so its fun and different, but a bit nervewracking at times too. We have had a couple of incidents of boats dragging their anchors, towards us! And its very different getting used to swinging around and around all the time! Our precious gatos are doing great!

More March 2016...

 Here is Ernie walking in to Mexico...

                                                                         Gato who comes to visit our corner in Tijuana!

We met up with Miracle Center outreach a couple of weeks ago to minister with them (did some health screening activities, led by Sister Kimberly McCowan).

Great seeing sisters and brothers again and the people in Mexico are so grateful for any little thing you do for them.

March 19, 2016

Hello all! Wow, time flies... we are still in San Diego, CA, awaiting crew, Steve and Antonia (hurry up already! geez!!) But we are making good use of our time. We got a beater La Bamba car for the Mexico and Carlsbad commute.

We have been going to Mexico to serve the homeless in Tijuana with Pastor Leo & his lovely wife Gloria. Gloria and I are teaching each other our native languages! She is better at English than I am at Spanish, but its cool trying to communicate! We took sleeping bags from Valley Iranian Christian Church donations (Connie & Saied took us to their wonderful church in Chattsworth where we met Pastor Johnson & Klara and their awesome congregation!!)

Ernie loading up sleeping bags from big boat to raft to take to Mexico!!

Pastor Johnson and his wife Klara at Valley Iranian Church in Chattsworth, CA.

Members of Valley Iranian Church after Thursday night Bible Study. They blessed our mission with bedding, sleeping bags and love gift for Mexico!!

Some pics CA February 2016

        

Cap'n Ernie with San Diego cityline in background.

 Here we are in Marina Del Rey... I think!

 Chart pic of Shelter Island, San Diego, CA

See if you can spot the dolphin...coming down the coast of CA

Here is Ernie with Brother Gary in Oxnard, CA..Servants of the Father of Mercy.."This Bible Talks"

 Pastor Dan & Shelly from Calvary Chapel in Ojai, CA

Coastline Church in San Diego, CA..Harvey's church we are working on first orphanage with!

This is Ben, our Ham Radio "Elmer" in Oxnard, CA..he came aboard and helped us figure out the SSB...yay!! Thank you so much for all your time and patience, Ben and his son Jonathan.

Pastors Dan & Ernie on Liberator II

Our awesome friends Ronnette & Bobby... thank you for all of your guidance, love and support!!

Another awesome couple, Diann & Royal.. our Ojai connection!

Pat & Cap'n Ernie, leaving Oxnard, CA for parts south!!

Marina Del Rey guest dock February 2016

February 17, 2016

Hello All... from San Diego, CA.... finally this far! We broke free of Oxnard...had a false start on Tues Feb 9... had to come back to harbor because our old wood girl (Liberator II) had dried out so much in the CA sunshine and Santa Ana winds heat that she took on toooo much water for Cap'n Ernie's liking. So, after one more night in the old slip and a lot of goop on seams inside and out and a diver to check her bottom (nice underwater video from Chris, Green Clean Diving)...we were on our way again! Left for good on Wed Feb 10 with honorary crew Pat Mosier (thank you heaps, Pat!!) headed south. First stop was Marina Del Rey.. very nice harbor, for one night. Boat did great, incoming water slowed way down... happy Captain! Next stop was Newport Beach...whew, that was interesting! We moored on bow and stern mooring balls...with no rope attached to the ball...so happy we had Pat in the dinghy for me to toss line to and get threaded...being the prudent sailor I am... I had harbor patrol standing by! If no Pat in the dinghy..I am sure the nice officer would have threaded the ball(s) for us...beautiful harbor. Met some fellow Christians in a restaurant that evening.. then off in the am. Friday, we surfed in to Oceanside, CA...on a big surf swell...would have been way more fun if there wouldn't have been two surfing kayakers on the crest right in front of us!! Our stay in Oceanside was longer than expected due to high surf advisory for San Diego that went through Sunday evening. So long that Pat had to go home and back to his life. So now we are doing this just us two until Steve and Antonia get here!! In Oceanside, we met a few very nice people and at least one adventurous soul that we may even see again, Evie..who is retiring next month! We are keeping in touch with her; she sent us to the Calvary Chapel in Oceanside...wonderful Valentine's Day message about "real love" Then on down the coast on another beautiful Southern California day..Monday, Feb 15. We were ushered in to San Diego bay by a grey whale that they had been talking about on the VHF for about an hour before we got in..and as we were turning for our run in to the channel...there she was! Awesome. Of course, we had plenty of Dolphin escorts along the way to keep us entertained! Got to the municipal dock here on Shelter Island and met two great guys who helped us dock against very high winds trying to blow us off the dock! Thank you to Norbert & Xavier. A lot of local knowledge was shared.. we are already making friends here. Met up a couple of times with "little Bobby" son of our dear friends in Camarillo...Bobby & Ronnette. Little Bobby heads off for Japan in a couple of days..he's in the Navy reserves! And finally, this morning, we got our A9 cruiser's anchorage permit from the harbor police...we are ready to go anchor...probably tomorrow! So I am going to try to post pics with this (as requested by some followers!) And if you are reading..try to become a follower (I don't know how to tell you how to do it..but would welcome anyone to comment with instructions...) so that you will be notified when we update! Love you guys out there back in WA and Santa Barbara & Ventura.. thank you for all of your love, encouragement and support! AND finally... we have the delorme hooked up...check out
https://share.delorme.com/ERNIEMOQUIN
This link should show were Liberator II is all the time and our route when we are underway in real time!! (Thanks, Pat for setting this up for us!)
I am still learning pics! Ugh.. gonna publish this now.. come back and work on pics later after I've calmed down from agitation of trying to figure it out!