Owen Alexander Agajanian (Nander #2)

Uncle Mark

Uncle Michael

About a week later the countdown began for my first grandchild , and on Dec.13th he arrived!!!! After a while I regained the use of my legs and emotions. Alex and Kaitlyn had produced my grandson, Owen. I'm sure every grandparent feels his or her grandchild is the most wonderfull, but they'd be wrong. MINE IS!!!...LOL

Merry Christmas, Granpa

New Parents!!!

On Dec. 22nd. I flew to Reno to have Christmas with Alex, Kaitlyn and Mr. Owen. What a great time. Ate like a pig, marveled at the new arrival and froze my ass off. But it was all worth it.

On dec. 27th I flew to L.A. to spend some time with my sister and two other sons, Mark and  Michael

Thanksgiving 2011 in La Cruz

We all arrived in La Cruz the week before Thanksgiving and managed to find empty slips on the same dock. Everyone took the rest of the day off to rest and clean up the boats. 


After that , the party was on and every nite we were somewhere listening to music or enjoying the different cuisine. Two people had cars or vans, so we were abole to go into downtonw Puerto Vallarta a few times to enjoy the malecon and sample the nightlife down there.


While we were there, everybody piled aboard Godzilla to take a trip to La Tres Mariettas, a group of small islands in Bandreas Bay


Thanksgiving was spent at Philo's, where we had a great buffett and live music. We also had a BBQ  pot-luck aboard Godzilla, then a dock pot-luck where everybody made something for tacos...!!!!!!


Two weeks after we arrived Wally and I left for Mazatlan. Some of the others stayed in La Cruz while a few prepared to head south towards Manzanillo and Bara de Navidad.

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What a wonderfull way to spend Thanksgiving!!!!

Back in Mazatlan

Same marina, new slip....Way better

Whats that boat in the background....?





When I arrived back in Mazatlan it was sooooooo hot as to be almost unbearable.....Actually it WAS unbearable. The daytime temps were in the 90's with humidity running 85%. Sure glad I had added A/C to the boat. It ran 24/7  for the first two weeks, then just during the daytme after that. I have made the committ, committ, commitment (Tom, that joke is for you) never to return till Oct. 15th or later. 


After the first two weeks I began to venture forth and re-connect with all the people I had met here the season before. Coffee at Calypso, dinners out and even a baseball game to see the local semi-pro team. It was still blazing hot, but mostly bearable.


My friends Wally and Steve talked to me about making a trip south to La Cruz for thanksgiving  and they finally talked me into it. It's an overnight run (24hours) for me so I volunteered to take crew. Wally took Colleen, Steve took Joanne and I took Kathy and her daughter Kathryn who are Canadians who live here full time. Kathy has no seagoing experience, but her daughter has crewed on a large sail boat, so I had deck boss with me on the trip south, plus a very good cook to man the galley. (note to all, Kathy is married and I'm a friend of her husband. Kathryn is 22)

We sailed with the tide on NOv. 18th to find flat seas and no wind. As wally and Steve we on sailboats, I gave them several hours head start as I planned on catching up with them someime at night. As soon as I cleared Deer Island, out went the riggers and in went the lures. After a few hours and two Dorado and two Bonito I reeled up and had the other two boats in sight. Wally , who was in the lead , radioed that he had run accross a long-line, but had cut himself free before he fouled his prop. He radioed his exact location, so Steve and I knew where to cross.


Next morning we all arrived in La Cruz.........

Driving California to Mazatlan

I left Ojai September 30th in my car for Mazatlan early in the morning. I had promised Rick (Mazatlan Yacht Services) I would stop in San DIego and pick up a "few" boxes of parts for him in San Diego.
This turned out to be 12 boxes and about 400 lb. of Zincs, varnish and other assorted things.
The first day I made it all the way to Nogales, Arizona, just accross from the Mexican border. I stayed in a cheap hotel next to a Mexican auto insurance office, where I got my policy.

The next morning I crossed the border and did the usual stop at Km. 21 where I got my car import permit and tourist visa. For some reason I failed to declare the US $3000.oo worth of parts I had aboard. DUH!!!
Mexico has great toll roads. Almost as good as the California "freeways". There are just a lot of toll booths along the way, but it's a lot better than taking the back roads through every little town. After a another day of driving ( you don;t want to drive at night, as cattle can wander onto the highways) I stopped in Los Moiches for the night.

Bright and early next day I set off again heading south only to be pulled over at another toll booth by the local "revenue agents" or customs officials. They happened to see all the boxes in my car and began to tear everything open for a look. They found the reciept for Rick's supplies and I had no proper import permit for all that stuff. NOTE: I DO have an import permit (for 10 years) for misc. stuff for MY boat, but NOT for as much as I was carrying. After they suggested I return to Nogales, Mx to obtain the proper permit, we agreed that 1300 Peso's would smooth the way south for me if I paid them directly.
SO, I paid the bite and took off. Bad news was I paid them almost all the Peso's I had on hand and I had several more toll booth's to cross before Mazatlan.
I scrounged every peso coin I had in the car till I ran out. Then switched to US dollars (which they are NOT supposed to accept) to finish my trip south. It was a bit stressful, but I made it that afternoon...WHEW!!

I don;t have any pictures of my drive south and I'm waiting for some folks to Email me ones of my adventures since I returned. I'm working on that now........

My "Next big thing"

Update 12-13-2010...Owen Alexander was born and now I have a grandson!!!!!!!

2011, another summer of love

Alex and Kaitlyn's new house in Chile Reno

Me, Ron Hungate and Steve Mussio

Michael working on the road crew

I flew back to SoCal mid-June for a family visit, so much needed work ($) and to escape the heat of summer in Mexico. Father's Day was great!!...It also gave my ribs a chance to heal a bit more, although they still remind me from time to time, what happened.

While back in Southern California, I took time to do a road trip and  visit  Alex and Kaitlyn in Reno, Nv.

Father's Day 2011...Missing from poto is #1 Son Mark

They had just bought a new house and are expecting my first grandchild (a boy) in December. After spending a week with them I drove north to Portland to see some friends I had not seen in a good while. I drove to Portland Ore. and saw Ron and Toni Hungate, Steve and Martha Mussio. I had last laid eyes on all of them in 1980. Steve and I had played in a band back in the late 1960's with my cousin Raleigh and both Ron and Steve had worked for me when I was in the trash business. What a trip to get the hang out with them for a while. Also living in Portland was my x business partner and good friend Tom Morton. Tom had helped me deliver my boat from SoCal to Puerto Vallarta late last year.

Lady Stylish (Ronelle)

Most of the rest of the summer I spent working and staying at Ronelle's and my sister's house. I worked some, layed around a lot and entertained Ronelle's friends with my shaving cream routine (Don' ask!)

October 1st rolled around and Mexico began calling. I decided to drive my car back down to Mazatlan.......But that a whole other story, LOL........Stay tuned.............

7 weeks later.........

Chillin at the hospital

Well, it sure went slow, but I'm about 84.273% back to normal. In two weeks I'm flying home for the summer. It was a really slow recovery. I read about 20 books, watched a bunch of videos and went stir crazy. Actually the past few weeks I've been venturing out mornings for the coffee social at Calypso's.

Now  that I'm feeling well enough to have some fun in Mazatlan before I fly home. I have hired an Englishman (Tony) to look after Godzilla while I'm away. He currently has about 55 clients here in Marina Mazatlan, so I feel confident she'll be well taken care of in my absence.

We are comming into rainy season, and that meens tropical storms and hurricanes. I'll be taking most everything off the deck including the dingy and motor, bimini top , canvas dodgers and anything else that can be blown off by high winds. WHen a storm is imminent, Tony's crew doubles everyones dock lines, check fenders, etc. He also comes aboard monthly to run engines, air conditioners, check bilges, etc.

I had planned to haul the boat while I was gone, but I haven't heard a peep from my insurance company about paying my hospital bill, so that may have to wait till fall.

Dinner at a sidewalk cafe

Update 6-8-11....I took some pictures of Old Mazatlan on my last excursion into town and will post them here. Not sure how long I'll be home this summer, but I plan to write about whats going on there after I get settled in there....Also, the first hurricane of the season is on it's way. I can;t think of a better time to head north, LOL

Old Mazatlan

Tony and Mary @ Pedro & Lola's

Old Mazatlan has a colonial feel. Much of it is from the 19th century. The streets are clean and there are lots of sidewalk cafes where, on weekends, live music of all types is playing.

The whole rib story......

Ok, time to write the story of the rib deal and let everyone know the gory details. I was not going to elaborate on the event, but changed my mind. Not sure why, but maybe I'll get a kick out of reading it one day. Just not THIS day

I left my regular boarding steps in Channel Islands Harbor becuase I didn't have room aboard to carry them around. So, I either used the swim step at the stern, or found something to step on over the port gunnel if the boat was tied up bow first. At the time I had been using a half-full 5 gallon bucket of used oil as a step crawled aboard, put things away and lay down. For some reason the pain was bad, but at that time I had no idea of the damage. I actually slept most of the night but woke up the next morning not able to breathe very well. Word gets around the dock pretty fast and several people came by to enquire about me. I knew I had broken some ribs by that time and friends Joe and Joanne took me to a clinic for Xrays.

Xrays confirmed I had broken 4 ribs and the Doctor there prescribed some pain meds and told me to just refrain from any activity for 3-4 weeks and they would heal. At that time there appeared to be no bleeding or punctured organs. Back to the boat I went to do nothing, but the meds she had prescribed did not a bit of good to ease the pain. I started looking on line for information on rib injuries and found that the only treatment was pain managment so that one could breathe normally.

I put out a call to my fellow cruisers for something a bit stronger to ease my suffering and was given some Oxycodone. WOW, it was the 60's all over again, LOL. I took a small amount and began to feel some serious relief. By Friday late afternoon I was feeling much better, but sudenly started to get dizzy. I tried sitting in different positions but kept getting worse. I started to sweat a lot and my vision began to blur. By this time I sensed I was in some serious trouble and got on the raido and called for help. Within what seemed like a minute I had 10 people outside my boat ready to help. One of my dockmates (Rob) was a fireman/paramedic who came aboard and took a look. After about 3 seconds he said it was time to get to the hospital. BY then I could hardly stand and they used a dock cart to wheel me up the ramp to a waiting taxi. Another dockmate Karen took the taxi ride with me to the hospital along with my passport becaue by then I was a little out of it.

At the hospital the Doctors rushed me into the emergency O.R. and stuck a tube into my chest to drain the  blood that had started to pool. ( 1.5 liters by that time) My blood pressure was 40/60 and I think I was circling the drain by then.

6 days later they let me out with a bag and the tube still attached. A week after that they removed the tube. 2 weeks after that Im here writting about all of it. I'm almost back to normal now although I still sleep semi sitting up.

I think the most amazing part of this whole event was the speed and willingness of my fellow cruisers to spring into action. I had so many visitors at the hospital every single day. Even from people I hardly knew. WHen I got back to the boat I was brought food every day. People monitored the radio night and day in case I needed anything. People went shopping for me anytime I needed something. I have no doubt that had nobody asnwered my call for help that Friday nite I wouldn't be writting about this now.
I will never forget that, ever. It;s like a debt I can never repay.

By the way, I ordered a set of compact docksteps...DUH!!!