Author Archives : Chris French

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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Adventures in Mazatlan


The advantage of leaving the Baja earlier than planned was plenty of time to explore Mazatlan, and as a bonus take a side trip to Durango (separate post). I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but it should be clear that a great time was had. Our first night we anchored out and had a chance to enjoy Isla Pierda…

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Off on an inland adventure to Durango!


With arriving early into Mazatlan, hustling to get the critical boat projects knocked off, and confirming the haul out at the Fonatur it left us with time for an inland trip to Durango. Our friends on Moon Drifter (Helen and Ralph) visited last year and absolutely loved it. We were excited to visit a city that doesn’t get so many…

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Small weather window for a crossing to Mazatlan


There was a 36-48 hour window to sneak across the sea before the next blow. Seeing as the coming wind was forecast to last nine days we needed this window to work. Originally the plan was to stay one night in Playa Bonanza and then scoot down to Bahia Muertos, but with the wind in the low twenties the Ceralvo…

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Boisterous Playa Bonanza on Isla Espiritu


We knew the waves and wind would make for a fun passage from Isla San Francisco to Playa Bonanza, so there wasn’t much of surprise as we got out of the wind shadow and into the full force of the boisterous conditions. I’d call it 6-8 foot tightly packed seas but hey at least they were somewhat following. We were…

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