November 1, 2019
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…
October 31, 2019
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.…
October 30, 2019
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…
October 29, 2019
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…
October 28, 2019
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…
October 19, 2019
The season had the best start ever with my friends CJ and Jack picking me up from the airport in Phoenix. That made the three hour trip to Puerto Pensaco so so much easier than the 11 hour bus ride to Guaymas like the previous two season kick offs. Damn, commissioning a boat in the desert is tough work. Dreaming…
July 13, 2019
Today’s plan had been for a 19km hike that went up 500 meters into the hills surrounding St. Remy. The forecast was for 35 degrees (95 degrees F) and lots of sun. The heat and past two days convinced us to dial it back and instead explore St. Remy and follow along the Van Gogh trail. The city has a…
July 12, 2019
Day two brought an easy 11km downhill to Collias on the Gardon river where we exchanged our bicycles for a two-person kayak. This leg would give us 8km of paddling, taking us under the Pont du Gard annd over a few minor rapids. Initially we planned to eat at Pont du Gard but since that would be a repeat of…
July 11, 2019
So the plan was hatched, a few days in Paris, a high speed train down to Avignon where we would pick up bicycles and explore the country-side. I love it, perfect! Since it was our first time on a cycling trip we opted to work with a company to organize everything. We knew we didn’t want a group ride, preferring…
June 30, 2019
Strikhedonia resting down in Puerto Penasco meant it was time for a bit of fun on two wheels. My buddy Mike’s birthday was coming up and it didn’t take much convincing to put together a weekend of dirt bike riding and boating. I loaded up my toy and after work made way for the Black Hills of South Dakota. It…
May 31, 2019
Work continued and the day before our haul out we moved to a motel for the last two nights. Ah showers and air conditioning. Funny story – Jack and I had checked out a couple places and actually had reserved one that looked okay. Later that day Jack found a better spot and canceled the first motel and while there…
May 29, 2019
The passage past smoothly and come daylight we could see the finish line, Puerto Penasco. We even managed some motorsailing with the engines pulled way back. An attempt was made at sailing but as per usual this only lasted a short time. All in all, a nice way to close out the season. Huge tidal swings occur in Penasco so…