Author Archives : Chris French

El Alacran Eco Whale Watching Resort


After a relaxing crossing, we settled in at El Alacran for an peaceful nights sleep that was nearly devoid of wind or waves. A perfect way to catch up on sleep and get reacquainted with the Baja. It is magical to watch the sunrise while staring out at the sea while on the Baja, it simply never gets old. Once…

Read More »

What do you know about anchoring?


This is going to be a big season with a lot of friends scheduled to visit Strikhedonia. I try to put together guides to help visitors learn about sailing and to give them an idea of what they are in for… Anchoring is probably the most important part of sailing, at least if you want to sleep at night, yet…

Read More »

Decommissioning for Hurricane Season Checklist and Time Estimate


Whew, shutting down the boat was a significant block of work.  Guaymas is a working port, no doubt about that, and between the seafood processing and industry there are a lot of smells and particulates in the air.  I won’t say it was miserable but it was uncomfortable.  But let me back up… Pulling into Guaymas harbor We pulled into…

Read More »

Crossing the sea to Guaymas


Mother nature is the boss. Always. The Seawind rally was in full swing and we went to bed planning on a couple more days of rallying with our friends. The morning weather check caused a change of plans… we had a good weather window with south winds that would push us directly to Guaymas rather than the more typical crossing…

Read More »

Anchor Alarms for Android


So I had a shitty experience one night in San Evaristo. Whether it was the Coromuel or the Elephante winds it does not really matter, the result was the same – a long night. Starting just after 9:00 the wind kicked up, just as it had a few nights earlier when my Mantus anchor held like a rock, I diligently…

Read More »

Abandoned Pearl Fields in Bahia San Gabriel


Just a short hop from La Paz on the Southern end of Isla Espirito Santos is Bahia San Gabriel. A large bay that in years past produced black pearls. Stumbling around the channels and piles of discard shells it was an interesting place to explore and picture the enormous number of hours it took to construct the infrastructure. Looks like…

Read More »

Bushwacking in San Evaristo


Our guide book mentioned hiking in the hills surrounding San Evaristo along with a lack of established trails. I took this as a fun challenge to bushwack up to the various peaks 750 feet above the bay. Starting from the beach up the dirt road to the school where I veered off towards a promising looking gully that had hike-able…

Read More »