Bill Kohut

Bonjour from Alsace. How timely and professional the Alsace posts are. We are at the Hubert’s ghost house and will soon visit Colmar. Bill and Annie

Chers Oncle Bill et Tante Annie,

You two are so busy running around Alsace, it’s amazing you had a moment to take time to read our Alsatian posts. However, I thought you two might enjoy them considering you’re in Alsace right now seeing all the lovely people we so happily visited last July! Our Alsace memories are still very clear and I am enjoying catching a few moments of your family fun there as displayed on your Facebook account.

The Hubert’s ghost isn’t bothering you, is it? hehe When we were there, I was quietly resting upstairs, stretched out on the modern Ikea bed, and I felt the sheet over me jostle abruptly. I strongly felt a presence and spoke out loud to it that I knew it was there and to go away. Unbeknownst to me, at nighttime, Bryce was in the upstairs bathroom video chatting with a friend, and the lights went out; the switch actually turned-off. Bryce got up and turned the light switch back on, then sat back down on the closed toilet. The light switch turned off again. To his friend Cory, he said “Hey dude, I think there’s an actual ghost here!” Bryce got up and turned the lights on a second time – this time they stayed on. After those two incidents, the subject of a ghost haunting the house was brought up to Brigitte – she confirmed that there have been many such incidents and that the house has a ghost. Neither Bryce nor I were aware of this history before the two incidents happened, so we weren’t inclined to fabricate weird tales. Thinking maybe it was all in my head, I didn’t think much of my incident until Bryce mentioned his. Funny business!

Presently, we are precariously anchored in Playa Escondido’s very deep fishing port which is located next to some of the best surf in the country, hence the reason why we’re here. The entire port is filled with a minimum 100 colorful fishing pangas attached to moorings or beached…this makes it very difficult for boats like 20-ton Kandu, which normally put out a safe 5 to 1 scope, to anchor without actually being caught in the active surf break and hitting the smaller boats on much shorter leashes.

Anchored on the outside of the small port, our forward anchor is at a depth of 85 feet. These last two mornings we had to readjust our aft anchor to keep us pointing into the swell as that anchor is slowly slipping due to the sharp beach drop-off and the substantial current and wave action. Fortunately, our forward anchor is holding fine. Of course, we are not complaining, simply explaining. Such is a small price to pay for being in an active, very pretty place – a local’s hangout.

We much prefer this type of atmosphere for any length of time to a beautiful solitary bay. City people to the core, hearing blaring emergency vehicles at the wee hours of the morning doesn’t bother us. At seven in the morning, listening to happy voices enjoying the beach surf mixed with the raucous sounds of wild birds waking up, is an absolute pleasure.

Bryce is headed-off for the day to the southern end of the long beach, two-mile walk, to catch the best surf at the point. Turns out there are numerous international surfers here, about 20 competing for the best waves. Yesterday, Bryce said he was the most advanced surfer except for one guy.

We are looking forward to having Trent with us starting Monday through the following Monday. Bryce has been pining for his best friend, so we decided to celebrate Easter all-together here in Puerto Escondido. Nice!

Kandu’s Yanmar engine has been running ever so faithfully. Eric and Bryce painstakingly polished all the diesel in the tanks before departing Chiapas Marina on the border of Mexico and Guatemala because while arriving there, the engine started to struggle due to dirty fuel. The fuel polisher you assembled for us in Raiatea functioned perfectly.

Thank goodness because we will be running the engine from here on out – all the way home preferably when there is no wind and ducking into bays when there is.

As you know, the prevailing wind and current is southerly – we’re bashing back to California. So far, so good though. Eric and a good friend of ours acting as our weather guru, have been studiously following the wind. Since departing Panama, we’ve mostly avoided contrary weather, making for generally smooth motoring. We want to avoid beating as much for our health as the health of the boat. Don’t need to be dealing with lengthy expensive repairs at the end of our adventure.

So glad you all are having a fabulous time together in picturesque Alsace…albeit you’re feeling a bit colder than when we were there last July!

Big hugs,

Leslie