Author Archives : Chris French

Work stoppage in Santa Rosalia


Anchor was up just before 6:00pm and our night passage was under way. I finished up cooking some pulled pork for sandwiches with lots of veggies plus a salad. The downside of not having first watch was a shitty of a watch schedule with really only 3 hours during the night to sleep. Still compared to our bash up to…

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Stocking the freezer!


We will not be defeated by injury! After breakfast it was time to show that we can fish and remain injury free. Jack’s now favorite lure (the one that got him yesterday) was repaired and first to hit the water. Right out of the gate I had a fish on the line. A good fight convinced me it was a…

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How about some hiking and some fish, OUCH!


Ready, set, hike! Before the sunrise we watched Pura Vida motor off to the north and we headed in to the beach. It was good to see that is was much cleaner than in the spring when we hauled forty pounds of trash to Bahia LA. Much cleaner does not mean clean, so we packed up another tub of garbage…

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Pulling into San Francisquito


Up before the sun and underway just after 6:00am, we headed for San Francisquito. Visions of stocking the freezer with fish filled out heads and we motorsailed 40 aught miles south. Mellow day on the water with not much wind and calm seas. Only drawback at one point was a 1.3 knot current against us. Thankfully it only lasted an…

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Taking in the bounty of Alacran


I woke up early and paddled in for a sunrise beach walk. One of the pups from the Eco whale shark camp joined me. He has beautiful eyes and was a good companion. Reaching the end we doubled back to the opposite side I plopped down to relax and take in all this spot offers. Soon a few hours had…

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A touch of civilization before returning to Alacran


Up before sunrise, we got underway. The plan was for a late lunch of hamburgers (for Jack) and Wifi at Guillermo’s in Bahia LA. We were treated to flat seas and good speed on the passage south. Hopefully getting out of the northern part of the sea will bring us less massive winds and mellower passages – time will tell.…

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Clean Up, Isle Guarda


A spectacular sunrise began the day. Life is good. The blow in Gonzaga left a film of fine dust over the boat and the first order of business was a good cleaning. We might have gone overboard and used over 250 liters of water but it felt good to walk on the clean decks. Jack took it a step further…

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Tiptoeing To Refugio


We woke to a mill pond, overnight it was perfectly smooth with no wind. What a change from the previous few days. The plan, if the seas had settled, had been to head for Refugio (a 50 nm passage). Looking out with the binoculars it still looked quite rough so rather than make a decision we broke down the emergency…

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Happy Halloween!


Groundhog day and/or Halloween? The wind picked up around 2:30am back into the mid to upper 30s just like yesterday. With 24 hours of continuous wind my confidence in our anchor holding let me sleep until 6:00am. The sunrise is getting later with a 6:50 rise over the horizon. The waves outside of the bay looked frightening with huge breakers.…

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Windy day in Gonzaga bay


The day started early, 3:00am actually, as the wind picked up and turned us to point north. It was a relief having the anchor well set and watching on the anchor alarm that we were not moving. Over the next few hours we saw a peak gust of 39 knots and steady upper twenties to low thirties. Ugh, this could…

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Gonzaga bay, a new anchorage to start the season


With Migel’s help pulling on dock lines we squeezed between a few boats on our zigzag course to the center of the alleyway. Then a one eighty spin got us pointed towards the mouth of the harbor. Everything was looking good as we slowly motored along watching the depth, as it can be tricky getting to open water. However, with…

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Waiting on a weather window


Once in a slip it was time to find a weather window. This ended up being three days on the dock, but it allowed us some fun with friends. Cabrales’s yard has a Friday night bonfire/BBQ, which was a great chance to meet some other cruisers. Sandra hollered out, “Hi Strikhedonia” as I arrived and after chatting with Salish Dragon…

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