March 18, 2018
Insanity, that is the best word I can use to describe St. Patrick’s day in St. Patricio. How else can one describe a crowded town square with everyone chasing bottle rockets, spinning balls of flames, and toros? This was my kind of celebration. The trip to St. Patricio (neighbor to Melaque and a few miles from Barra de Navidad) began…
March 17, 2018
It was a bit like being a kid getting to summer camp, excited to catch up with your friends. Arriving in Barra my crew probably had a good laugh at me excitedly pointing out cruising friends as we came into the lagoon. Truth be told, I felt guilty because it would be a few days until I could make the…
March 6, 2018
After a month in Puerto Vallarta, I was ready for new scenery and exploring new places. My friend Harrison, his mom, and Stumbles (her AT trail name) flew in for the trip south to Barra de Navidad. A bit less time to explore due to Harrison’s schedule and my parents visiting Barra, but we still managed to squeeze an incredible…
February 27, 2018
Admittedly I have a habit of making things a bigger challenge than necessary. This carried over into flying four of my employees and their spouses down to visit the boat. Rather than give myself a few days in between guests I booked them back to back and even overlapping. So February was a bit of a blur. It was interesting…
January 18, 2018
They say standing rigging has a 10 year life expectancy. I thought bah humbug, it should last much longer. Well I was wrong. Strikhedonia has two sister ships in Mexico, we are all 2008 models and last spring one of them, Moon Drifter, found a crack in a swage. This led to the replacement of their standing rigging and brought…
January 4, 2018
Really? For awhile the back light on our chart plotter had been flickering when dimmed for night passages. And after crossing to Mazatlan I found that it had completely died. Turns out from a bit of internet searching this is a common failure due to a poorly designed high voltage power supply circuit for the florescent back light lamps (called…
January 1, 2018
Whew looking back at 2017 was a another year of firsts; Farthest North in the Sea (Bahia Los Angeles), Sail plan for downwind sailing (Double headsails), Thanksgiving away from home (La Paz), Visit to the Southern mainland (Mazatlán and others), Teeth cleaned in a foreign country, and many more. We just keep finding more things that we love about Mexico.…
December 23, 2017
Something I had been looking forward to all season was my daughter Anna and her friend coming to visit. Anna spent two years in West Virginia and became good friends with Ande before moving to Montana. A trip to Mexico was a perfect way for them to reconnect and enjoy the warm sun/ocean, in addition to blowing off some steam…
December 22, 2017
I shake my head at the vast number of cleaning products we have on board. And I’m speaking of just for the outside of the boat. It seems really fucking ridiculous but it is what it is, and it takes what it takes. Schedule: Washing/Cleaning/Metal polish – When out cruising it is often 3 – 4 weeks since we are…
December 19, 2017
It could be part of getting older. It could be having kids. Or it could be a bit of both. But time slips by so fast, shockingly so sometimes. In April of 2008, our family went to Puerto Vallarta for spring break. Being crazy travelers, we decided one day to take the bus to Bucerías. Insane, I know. Actually I…
December 16, 2017
We had heard rumblings of a second waterfall in Yelapa and after doing some Googling we had some rough directions. While they did get us to the destination, they still left something to be desired, so here are hopefully very clear and easy to follow directions for anyone else hoping to enjoy swimming and playing in more gorgeous of the…
December 15, 2017
The rumor mill was packed with things about Yelapa but we tried to come into it without expectations or reservations. Straight out of the gate it got interesting. About a mile out a panga came to meet us and introduces himself as “Bule Bule” and says follow me to a mooring ball. Good start. About half way back another panga…