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…
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 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…
December 5, 2017
We heard horror stories about the jejenes (little biting bugs) so while in Mazatlán we bought some black veil material and Vicki slaved over needle and thread to fashion us bug screens for the large saloon windows. And yes we absolutely needed them. But let me back up a bit. Matanchén beach from Strikhedonia We arrived in the afternoon from…
December 4, 2017
We departed Mazatlán around 6:30pm for our 100nm overnight passage to Isla Isabel, which has been called the Galapagos of Mexico. The passage was mostly motorsailing, which isn’t a bad thing since visiting Isla Isabel is only suitable in calm weather due to poor holding over a rocking bottom with patches of sand. We did manage a few hours with…
December 2, 2017
There is something meditative about climbing up a hill for me. So every place we stop, I look for places to go hiking. The lighthouse (Faro) in Mazatlán is a famous spot to capture pictures of the city from above. Easy to access from the centro district, it takes maybe twenty minutes to walk to the base of the hill.…
November 20, 2017
First we had to get to Isla San Francisco from Los Gatos, just a 38 mile run. With the majority of the trip in the channel between Isla San Jose and the Baja, I knew the winds can blow through here and we happily accepted that they did! We saw our fastest speeds of the trip with the GPS recording…
November 13, 2017
Leaving Santa Domingo for San Juanico we realized that the quiet anchorages we had been enjoying the past few weeks was likely coming to an end. But San Juanico is well worth more crowds and definitely ranks in our top 5 places in the Sea of Cortez. This fifty mile hop was more downwind double headsail cruising – I live…
November 10, 2017
With the prospect of the port closing again we got an early start before the winds picked up. This wasn’t a bad thing since we also 53 miles to cover which would take eight plus hours and approaching the winter solstice the days are getting shorter. Dawn departure from Santa Rosalia In hanging out with Jolly Dogs we had talked…