Author Archives : Chris French

Wild Bill comes to Barra


By friend Bill some how managed to talk his wife into letting him play hookie from school (he is a high school physics teacher) and come down for a visit. It was going to be an action packed trip as I wanted to give him the full Barra area experience. What better way to start than to watch the sunset…

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Let the good life in Barra begin!


Sailing into the Barra area I see what looks like a Seawind so out comes the binoculars. Sure enough it is! Hmm who could it be, as they get closer I can see the SkyPond logo. Carl and I have been exchanging emails for a couple years and we just keep missing each other by a day or two. Looks…

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Adult Playtime in Tenacatita


Not one to mess around I was moving as the sun was rising over the hills. It was a mellow day on the water with a following long period swell. I was teased into raising the main and jib for a sprightly 7.3 knot sail. Which lasted until the end of the bay. Blerg. It was fun while it lasted.…

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Solo sailing down to Perula


Up at midnight and under way with only stars and GPS to guide me. This would be a solo 100nm passage down to Perula in Chamela bay. The passage was pretty easy with some wind early on and some continuous waves slap on the bridgedeck for the first half of the passage. I was running the radar to look for…

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Cruiser’s mecca and saying good bye


It was with a heavy heart that we departed Chacala, knowing the Nora’s time on Strikhedonia was coming to an end. She absolutely fell in love with the cruising lifestyle and sucked that she was only able to spend one week visiting. But we rallied to go out with flair! So long Chacala The trip to La Cruz was the…

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Swimming with the Crocs in Matanchen


Crawling out of my hatch to watch the sunrise I found Nora already up and ready with her camera. It was spectacular watching the sun peak over the horizon and light up the rocks protecting the bay. We both were ready to get moving so we jumped into action raising the anchor and off we went into the rising sun…

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Nora’s big adventure, first stop Isla Isabel


My eyes opened at 8:30pm and rather than kill time I decided it was go time. I had prep’d the boat in the afternoon so I jumped right to firing up the port engine and raising the anchor. Minutes later we were navigating out of the anchorage mostly by instruments since the moon hadn’t risen yet. Understanding physics we adjusted…

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Hurry up it’s time to leave Mazatlan!


After drama the day before when the travellift operator accidentally scratched Strikhedonia I was ready to hit the seas and hopefully a chance to unwind. But not before a bit more work. To start the day, filling the jerry cans and waiting for Rick to come finish the non-skid installation on the swim step. The night before I had noticed…

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2018, it’s a wrap!


It was a good year (queue the broken record), getting further south into Mexico brought some wonderful new experiences, including having fireworks shot at us (St. Patrick’s day festival) and doing some inland travel (Durango). The beauty and kindness of the Mexican people continues to amaze. This year set a few records; most miles in a year and most crew…

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