#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!