atlastrekker.com

I’ve been having a bit of trouble getting my computer to connect to the internet, the system was down for a day, but we are back up and running now. Sorry for the day off!

Yesterday we cruised up into the Sea of Cortez all day, untill noon where we stopped at Half Moon Bay, one of the most scenic beaches in the area. Very white sand and clear water. An awesome place for a kayak trip or snorkeling. We actually got to go to the beach after dinner and take a swim in the moon light. There is no accurate way to describe how good it feels to take a swim in the ocean after a day of sweating in a Galley all day long. Especially on a day like today when virtually every person on the boat has a post La Paz hangover. Luckily I wasn’t one of them, but I had to deal with it. Either way I feel pretty good today.

Life on the boat is pretty good. I’ve been having a pretty good time watching the way that people deal with life on the boat. It’s interesting to see the way that people adapt. I’d guess that it’s the same as any other stressful work atmosphere, but it’s highlighted by the fact that you see the same people all the time no matter what. There is no place to hide on the boat, so the real you will come out sooner or later. I’m glad that I have nothing to hide and am very open.

Late last night I got a wake up from a deck hand that ended up being one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. There is algae in the ocean, simple little plant life that turn the water green, well apparently there is a certain type of algae that will light up if there is enough friction caused by something pushing it out of the way. There are a couple of things that can cause this, but the coolest way to see it, I got a chance to see last night. A dolphin riding a bow wave is a pretty amazing thing to see, they are having so much fun, because it’s the equivalent of surfing for us. It’s even more amazing when they are doing it at night, and as they cut along the water they light up the night with all of the biomass that they heat up. It looks like trails of light they leave behind as they cut through the water, like a tracer. It’s so insane to see, there is really no better way to describe it than the Mexico version of Aurora Borealis. It’s called biolumenesence. This trip just keeps getting better and better.

As for my day in La Paz, I ended up having to work most of the day, from 5 am until 8 pm, so I was a little sad. Virtually every one else on the boat had most of the day to go out and play, but my schedule just didn’t allow for it. My boss was in the same jam so he decided he would at least make the effort to give us something cool out of the deal. It ended up being that the boat wasn’t going to leave port untill midnight, so a plan was quickly mapped out as to what we were going to do. After a little bit of talk with the people that work the dock we found out that the best taco restaurant in baja was only a 5 minute walk from where we were, and being cooks and lovers of food that we were we decided that was the place to be. After we got off the boat we walked down the main drag to the restaurant, and just from the look of it I knew it was going to be good. There was two big flat grills out front where they cooked all of the meat for the tacos, you could smell it 1/2 mile away and it sure did smell great. 90 percent of the seating was outside either on a little patio or right on the sidewalk, which is where we sat at a big family style table where a single man just so happened to be seated. We figured it would be cool to chat it up with him so we had a seat. The menu for the restaurant was painted on the wall, they had tacos with about 10 different meat ingredients and a daily special that happened to be chipotle meatballs while we were there. Hah, no veg options! I was in love. I ordered two carne asada and two chorizo tacos and a dos xx cerveza, and I have to say that they did not disappoint. The meat was perfect and they have all the toppings on the table family style so you can put what you want on there. It was simply the best tacos I had ever had in my life.

The old man that we were sitting next to actually ended up to be pretty cool and a fluent english speaker. He was just up in La Paz for the day, he told us all about his new business that he rents out and provides tours in baja 1000 type buggies that would race in the world famous race. He gives tours of the area in these amazing vehicles as well as offers a package that pretty much allows a person to pay his fee, hop in a buggy and actually race the real race. Very cool I plan on checking it out when I come back to the area in the future.

One other cool thing happened today, I was cooking dinner and I looked out the window for absolutely no reason, then one second later a humpback whale jumped completely out of the water and made a splash 20 feet into the air. It was insane. Then to top it off I realized what was actually going on was that there were dolphins AND sea lions all playing with the whale. There were about 20 sea lions riding on the whale and a bunch of curious dolphins checking out the scene. Everyone on the boat just stood there in awe at what was happening, realizing how cool it really was.

Today we spent the whole day in La Paz. It’s been a huge day off for the most part, very very good for my morale. I did still cook all day, but I got a good bit of time both before and after dinner to cruise town. I said it before and I will say it again, I love La Paz. I will live here some day. The feel and the look is just so cool to me, I love the people and the way the whole town is. It’s very much my kind of place. Someday. We ran into a guy at dinner tonight in town ( the BEST taco’s ever!) that has a pretty cool deal going. I’ll talk to you more about this tomorrow.

The great thing is that I also got to spend a bit of time talking to both my wife and my daughter today, and I needed that as well. The whole family is doing well, and that makes me feel much better, it also is good to know that my time here may be longer lived than I thought it might be. I’m not totally counting on it, but things seem to be going well. Mia is holding up pretty good, my big 5 year old girl. I love her so much. I guess that she is all about Hanna Montana all of the sudden, so I think I’ll find her some stuff to spoil her after I’m done writing. Sonya seems to be holding up well, too. She’s got so much on her hands, I greatfully respect her for what she does every day, hopefully someday I can show her the best places that I see and spoil her the way that she deserves in the process.

Today starts the next journey for the boat, we sail at midnight north from La Paz spending the whole week long trip in the northern Sea of Cortez. I’m kinda glad, because there is so much that I didn’t really get to see this last go around, I hope to get a chance this time. This is our last week in Baja, so I have to make the most of it. After this we reposition up to Alaska for all kinds of new fun and excitement. Woo hoo…. This is shaping up to be a great year for doing the things on my life list. I’m very pleased.

Today is the last day of a two week trip and it’s been a pretty good one. The only thing is that we are getting pretty inventive with what we have left for food. This is actually a good thing, because it really makes you think about not only what you are doing, but what you are doing later as well. It’s good to be two steps ahead of yourself, especially in these conditions. I’m starting to get pretty used to fact that what we have is what we have for days at a time, there is no nightly produce orders or quick trips to the store. I’m sure it will make me a better cook, pretty sure anyways.

I’m still not too sure about my future here. I really like it, and they really like me, but I worry about my kids back home a lot. I can’t really see how they are handling all this, and also I can’t see how well they are being taken care of. I know that raising children is difficult, and I am truly blessed to be able to do the things I do, but I worry a bit about their needs. In the end I will have to wait and see what things are like when I get back home, if it’s bad I’ll just have to find other work and stick around, if not then I will come back. I hope I can come back, but if not this has been a pretty good time and I will appreciate what I got to do.

It ended up being a pretty late night, we had to go through our weekly cleaning of the galley tonight. It’s great, every one on the boat says how old and out dated the galley is, but the thing is cleaner and newer than any kitchen I’ve worked in for quite a while now. I guess this one is scheduled to be updated here pretty soon, and the one on the Sea Bird was done a while ago. That’s cool, I like working in a clean kitchen, that’s for sure.

Today we made it back down to Loreto for stores and things, unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see the town itself at all. The way that the dock is set up is kind of interesting. The actual town of Loreto is not really on the water, it’s on the other side of some small but jagged mountains about a mile away from the port. I hear it’s nice, but seeing it will have to wait for another day.

Life on the boat is pretty crazy. The rooms are so small that if one person is in the room standing up the other can not stand up as well. You walk in the door and there is one bed at chest level to the right, with storage underneath for clothes and personal items. Then there is the bathroom to the left, which is a shower stall with a toilet and a sink in it and a shower curtain that keeps everyone from seeing you shower through the door, luckily no one hangs out in their room. Straight ahead when you walk in the door past the first bed and the bathroom is the second bed which is perpendicular to the other bed and right up against the bottom of the boat. This is where my bed is, in the aft most cabin on the port side of the boat on the bottom level. It’s interesting to be laying in bed hearing the water slosh around a foot away from your head.

The boat itself has 5 levels. The lowest is the 900 deck, where the engines, fuel and water tanks and most of the staff reside. Next level up is the 300 deck, where there is the galley, the staff break room, and the dry storage making up the back 1/4, then the dining room in the second 1/4, 6 guest rooms, and then the front quarter is the guest lounge, the bar and the pursers office. The third level (200 deck) is all guest cabins, and the deck on the bow where people look over to see dolphins or whale watch. The fourth level, 100 deck, is the bridge, the captains quarters and the rest of the guest cabins. On the very top of the boat, the Lido deck is the roof and where the zodiacs and kayaks live. It’s also the best place to watch the stars and get a little alone time at night.

Next time I’ll talk a little bit about the trips that we do and what they are like so you can know all about that too.

All through the night and all through the day has been just the opposite of what we have seen much of the last week here in the Sea of Cortez. The water has been rough. So rough that we couldn’t even do a zodiac cruise this morning, because the guests would get drenched. Today started at Isla San Pedro Martir, which is the most remote island in the Sea of Cortez. It’s also a nesting habitat for blue footed and brown boobies as well as brown pelicans, and I would have to say that there seemed to be millions of them. It was complete craziness how many birds that there was flying around this Island. So many that it was completely white from all the bird doo. We are headed back south now, towards Loreto again for another refill of fuel, water and stores.

More talk of getting aboard the National Geographic Explorer today, it looks as if all positions are filled for the first rotation, but I have my bosses good word towards a cook position for the second rotation. I really think that if I were going to get work aboard a boat and stick with it, this would be the one. I like the boat that I am on now, but it’s not all that “extreme” and pretty much just goes a handful of places all the time. The Explorer is going to be in different places all the time, so that would be far more entertaining. I have been getting a bit of pressure to take one of the jobs that is opening up as chef of a rotation on the boats that I work on now, but I don’t think that I really want to go there. Really I would like to take a step back for a while now and try not to get too involved in the management part of work, I’d like to try and focus on the food for a while. I really feel the need to spend some time at this point in my career to get into why I love this job so much. Good food.

Today we headed north much of the day, the final destination being the Island of San Marcos. This is a pretty crazy island that is all volcanic rocks, with some great snorkeling as well. The water has been very smooth so far, not like any other part of the trip before this. There has also been quite a few dolphins and we even saw a fin whale, one of the biggest on the planet.

I haven’t talked too much about the staff that I am working with very much so I thought that I would take a little time to do that today. The staff on the boat is split into three parts, the hotel crew. the expedition crew and the boat crew. The hotel crew is cooks for the galley and stewards that are both wait staff and housekeeping for the rooms. In the Galley the line up is the Chef, the Sous Chef, a pantry and one Steward rotates in to help out and do dishes every week. As far as the rest of the hotel staff, there is the Hotel Manager who is the Food and Beverage as well as house keeping manager, the senior steward is basically the floor manager, a bartender and 6 stewards. So there are about 12 people in the hotel staff.

The boat staff consists of the Captain, his first mate, second mate, third mate, bosun, who is in charge of the zodiacs and kayaks, two engineers, and 4 deck hands. The captain, the first mate and second mate all drive the boat, and the third mate is in training, while all four handle handle paper work and safety/training as well. The engineers are the ones that make everything run and are generally miracle men, fixing everything seemingly out of fresh air, I have much respect for them and their work. Deck hands are the general handyman types who take care of all the little jobs around the boat like clean up and smaller maintenance issues. There is also the Purser, who is the ships accountant and in charge of money on the boat. The boat crew is 11 on this boat.

The last group is the expedition crew and naturalists. The Expedition Leader is in charge of the itinerary in with comments from the Captain, then we have a photographer that is in charge of documenting each trip for the guests, and is generally in charge of all snorkeling and scuba trips. From there we have between two and six people on board that are either naturalists/geologists or photographers from National Geographic magazine who both give lectures and also are in charge of guiding the guests on mini excursions. Right now we have six on board, because this is a two week photo expedition so we have 8 on the expedition staff.

I’m not sure what the staff to guest ratio usually is on these type of boats, but 31 staff with 54 guests on the boat right now is pretty amazing. The guests are getting pretty good treatment from what I’ve seen. More about life on the boat tomorrow….

Today we woke up in a cove that was full of dolphins and amazingly beautiful. These common dolphins were quite a bit bigger and there were quite a bit fewer than the previous. We hung out there all morning and led some hikes around the Island for those that cared to go. Really just the same kind of cool stuff we’ve been doing a ton of, nothing too out of control though. I’m glad that I have been seeing so many amazing things that I’m getting spoiled by it, in some ways it’s bad though. When I talk to the people that have been on this boat for years, they are like “dolphins, whales, bah!” I hope that I NEVER feel that way about doing this kind of thing, I don’t think that I will.

The second half of the day we headed up towards Loreto and found a nice little cove to have a beach BBQ, and it went fairly well except for I mad one fatal mistake. I started my mashed potatoes and they were just about done when I got another chore to do, I didn’t want my potatoes to get cold so I put them into the oven to hold them….BIG mistake! It basically made potato chips out of them that would never get back to the stage of ready for mashing. No matter what I did I couldn’t get them back, it was like a bad dream. I won’t ever do that again. Luckily we had plenty of food other than that anyways, and no one really missed it.

At the time I’m writing this we are waiting on our arrival at the town of Loreto, this is where we will get fuel and water as well as supplies for the galley. We hope to be in port around 11 pm or so, with an hour or more of loading the boat, and then I have to be up at 5:30 am cooking breakfast….tomorrow is going to be a long day. I seem to be getting used to it, so that’s good. 2 weeks on board now and all is well.

Today I saw a sight that I never imagined I would see. I thought that coming down here to Baja and cruising around on a boat would be interesting, but this is out of control. Here we are cruising through some of the most scenic vistas I have ever seen and I look out over the water ahead of us to see a ton of birds flying and the water almost looking like it’s boiling. A couple minutes later we finally get up to it and what actually was happening was that there was a couple HUNDRED dolphins swimming the water all around the ship. It was simply amazing. The grace and the style of these animals in the wild is simply something that can not be described with words. I did end up getting a few good video clips of the whole thing, so stay tuned for that. Where we saw the white sided dolphins was called the San Jose Channel, the channel between Isla San Jose and Baja.

We woke up this morning in this little cove that reminded me very much of the area around Price, Utah called Half Moon Bay, on Isla San Francisco. The rocks were very sandy and layers of colors that intrigue your eye and show the years of erosion that they have weathered. The beaches here are amazing. I did a little research and found out that if you want to fly or drive to La Paz there is a company called Baja Expeditions there that will take you to these Islands to explore. I would definitely recommend putting this one on the life’s list of places to see. I’ve been trying to soak it all in while I can, we are only going to be in Baja for another 2 weeks, so I hope to get in as much as I can. I know that I am very lucky, though, because most only get a week’s vacation to see the places that I am over a month period. It’s crazy.

I’ve been talking to my chef about the possibility of a transfer to the National Geographic Explorer in the future, it seems like such and amazing opportunity. I think that I’m going to put in for an entry level position and see what happens, you never know. It’s kind of an interesting deal. There are the usual pro’s and con’s with switching over to that boat. The pro being that it goes to amazing places, Antarctica to the Arctic circle in Europe, and the con being that I would lose my benefits. Also rather than an 8 week on 4 week of schedule, they rotate 3 months on 3 months off. This could be cool, but if your three months off are during the time when they are at each pole and you only ride the boat in between it may not be such a cool thing anyways. Like I said before, we will have to see. Also it’s been brought to my attention that there is a Chef position opening on one of the rotations opposite of mine, so I may put in for that as well. I’m not too sure that I’m ready for that just yet, but by the time it rolls around I’m sure I could be.

Today we woke up in a little bay of the Isle Espiritu Santo and it was about as picture perfect as Baja Beaches go. The place is just simply amazing. Our location is just south of Los Islotes in the Sea of Cortez, north east of La Paz. When I come back to this area with the family later, this is a place that we will go to, with out a doubt. It’s by far the best camping spot that I have seen so far on this trip. The trip from Cabo to here was a bit rocky, but not too bad, and at least most of the bigger waves happened after dinner. Trying to cook while “surfing” slows down the process considerably.

After lunch we headed over to Los Islotes to set up some snorkeling and diving for everyone, the sea lions were friendly as usual. I’m really bummed that I can’t upload pictures for you all, my words can not even begin to describe the things that I see every day. The east side of Baja reminds me of Arizona and Utah, there are some amazing rock formations and quite a few cacti. There are no trees what so ever, and everything is very dry. The west side of Baja is quite a bit different, much more green, with plant life in many locations. Not quite as rugged, but still very sparse. I will put up some pictures as soon as I can in my photo album so that you can see some of the amazing things I have been seeing.

I’ve been thinking more and more about getting a satellite phone, just to have for in case situations. I’ll keep looking around on ebay and what not, but they are still pretty pricey. Other than that, I did a good job of bringing everything I need. Some things I would bring next time would be convertible pants (with zip off legs) instead of pants and shorts, and about 10 more pairs of socks, because I stand and sweat so much it would be nice to have two pairs a day for a week at least. Nothing too crazy, but just notes for the future. I’m getting a little more used to my camera now, it’s not so bad, but I still would like to have something a little bit better. I’m sure I’ll get over it, though.

Today we started the day out with a beautiful sunrise in Cabo San Lucas. It was one of the coolest sunrises that I have had the privilege of seeing in my lifetime. We came around the corner to see the city at just the right time in the sunrise, where all of the lights were still slightly shining but the sun was just coming up on the horizon. It was totally inspiring, so inspiring in fact that I completely zoned out on it and didn’t get a picture. DOH!! After we got into the harbor in Cabo we spent the first half of the day resupplying the boat, and it was my opportunity to make some much needed phone calls to family back in the States. It felt nice to hear some familiar voices and know that everyone is holding up ok while I’m out here having a good old time in Baja. Every one is doing great, of course, so I feel much better know.

After lunch we were on our way north up into the Sea of Cortez, it’s going to be our last trip here for the season, but we are going to be spending quite a bit of time exploring all the little things that are amazing about the area. I can’t wait to see some more of Baja, everything that I have seen to this point has been totally amazing. Everything.

In the Galley I had an interesting experience with flan, this being my first attempt at it, plus my first attempt at cooking a custard in a water bath while cruising down the ocean. Let’s just say that it’s going to take a little practice, and that even though it wasn’t just as I had hoped, it was still pretty good. This whole thing is so new and crazy, it’s definitely going to be strange when I am done hear to go back and work in a “normal” kitchen, but I’m sure that the things I learn here will serve me well in some capacity or another.

I got to chat with Mia for a little bit, and I am happy to report that she had a great birthday. I guess she has been introduced to karaoke, so that is what she did on her birthday. Fun was had and my little girl was happy, so that’s all I could ask for.

I also had a few minutes with my wife, Sonya and have the great news that she is pregnant! Again! Oh boy, now we need a school bus for every one, I think that they have those on ebay?!?!? Anyways…like all things in life, it’s not planned, but we are both excited and ready to tackle the next few months. She is convinced it will be a girl, so I’ll put it down on record saying that anyways.