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...