Category: Blog Post

Isla Coronados has one of the best running beaches in terms of sand consistency and slope, but it’s relatively short, which means lots of laps, and it is also fraught with danger (exaggeration alert.) The first time I kayaked over to it in order to check it out, I was in a nice peaceful mental place, listening to my iPod, and enjoying the solitude. As I pulled up to the edge of the beach, just as I was about to step out, I was attacked and I yelled in the most dramatic fashion. A medium to large-sized dog had jumped into the kayak with me and was stepping all over me and the kayak (which is a blowup kayak after all). The owner ran over, called the dog out, and apologized. And after I got up and brushed myself off, I also apologized for my overdramatic response, it’s just that I was so lost in thought it had totally caught me off guard. I stood there and talked with her for a few minutes, and it turned out to be a fruitful experience because that’s how I learned about the Sunday Farmers Market in Loreto.

Having Tim’s parents on board was a lot of fun, and I’m not just saying that. Think about the small living space that is our boat and realize how difficult it could be having guests aboard. There is a saying, “If you’re in the boat, you’re in the way,” and it’s true on our boat even with only four of us, so I was expecting 6 people to be a bit challenging. However, Gary and Marsha were very easy to have on board. While we get to go to remote anchorages and experience picturesque scenery, life on the sailboat isn’t exactly luxurious. We have to be careful about conserving just about everything (water, propane, electricity, trash, etc.) and not to mention how hot it is. But there was never a peep of a complaint or even a hint of being uncomfortable (although we did go through ice cubes and a very fast pace).

Sure, it was their vacation, but that didn’t stop Tim from putting his mom to work. In addition to bringing us the wind scoop that she made while still at home, Marsha sewed us a huge sunshade for our foredeck while she was here. It makes a huge difference when the afternoon sun is on the bow. It was quite comical too, while in San Juanico with 20 kt afternoon winds Tim wanted to test the sunshade and everyone was out on deck trying to put up the sunshade without getting wiped with an end or a bungee cord. Marsha was actually hand stitching the sunshade when Kim from Star Passage came over and offered to loan us her sewing machine. What a difference, except Marsha is a night owl like Tim, and one night I woke to a noise that sounded like a freight train running through the boat. It was Marsha cranking away on the sewing machine and hanging out with Tim into the wee hours of the night. Kim also loaned us a grommet gun, which also made the job easier, and cut down on the noise of Tim’s mallet pounding trying to get the grommets in place. Marsha also hand sewed our mainsail stack pack which had torn almost along the whole length of the zipper. If you haven’t read Marsha’s recap of the trip, you should check it out, because it actually sounded like she had fun, not like we put her in a sweatshop and made her sew all day long. Gary helped Tim with a few projects too, and it was especially nice to have his help when Tim went up the mast to check on our VHF antenna connection and clean the mast track.

Swimming, snorkeling, and eating actually took up most of our time while Gary and Marsha were here, so maybe it was a vacation for them after all. I just asked the boys what their favorite memories are, and Brenden said spearfishing with Grandpa and Alex said playing games with Grandma. It was a really important visit for the boys because they miss home and family so much, and they loved sharing part of our new life with their grandparents.

By Marsha (Tim’s Mom)

Mexico trip May 2013

Landed in Loreto about 1pmTim met us. So good to see him!  Taxi to dock. Dinghy to boat with Alex, wow the boys are so big and so tan!  It’s so wonderful to see everyone!. On to Isla Coronados for the night.  Deanne made fish tacos with the huge Gold grouper Tim speared last week!  It was wonderful! Sat out under the stars and talked to the boys about all the things they’ve experienced!  Beautiful night!  To bed early!

Wednesday, May 22

Got up to bees all over the deck!  They love the freshwater dew early in the morning!  Had breakfast and the boys took off to hooka with one of the other kid boats, Dee went snorkeling and running and I relaxed on the boat…a little swimming, a little reading, a lot of unwinding! I swam and snorkeled around the boat.  Saw lots of pufferfish and a manta ray!  Took off in the afternoon for San Juanico about 10 miles away.  Tied up in a beautiful little bay…no one else there.  The boys went spearfishing and I tagged along snorkeling.  It was great.  They got two fish and we ate them for dinner! Alex couldn’t wait to spear his first fish!  Slept great!

Thurs. May 23

Got up and went for a snorkel first thing!  It was so wonderful!  Like swimming thru a huge aquarium!  Saw a Balloonfish (so cute!), lobster, Seargent majors, Hogfish, pencil fish, rays and so many others!  Loved it!  Swam back to the boat for Dee’s great pancakes and the guys were off for another spearfishing adventure!  This time Alex got one!  He was so excited! And Brenden was excited for him! They all took off for a little get together on the beach with the other kid boats and G and I stayed on board for a little downtime!

Friday, May 24.

Brenden speared his first fish!  He was so proud and Alex got one big enough to eat!

Sat May 25

Absolutely breathtaking full moon last night!  Gods wonders! I can’t keep up with my entries!  I brought some ripstop material with me so Tim and I made a shade out of it for up in front of the boat (fore, I think!). I think it’s going to be ok for up to 10 knot winds. We tried to put it up in 20 knots and the boys almost sailed up in the air with it!!  Thanks to the Johnson’s, Kim and Peter, for the loan of their sewing machine!  They have a boat with 2 kids so we’ve been spending time with them, snorkeling, spearfishing and having dinner here and on their boat. Today we are sailing from San Juanico to bay of Salinas.  There we will dive on a sunken fishing vessel !It’s a beautiful day!!  The water is like glass and only about 80•. Love it! Arrived in Salinas Bay about 5, after a lovely sail and catching 4 fish on the way!  Three Bonitas and a long skinny prehistoric-looking one! I Could not resist the temptation to go over to the beach with Alex and Brenden.  Swam in warm water and watched the boys boogie board til sunset!  It was great!  Delicious fish for dinner!

May 27, 2013, Mon

Snorkeled at the sunken ship (a 120 ft tuna boat that sunk there in 1981).  It was amazing!  The bottom is in 30 ft of water and part of it sticks up out of the water so you don’t even need diving equipment, you can see everything with just a snorkel!  Incredible amt of fish, all sizes and shapes!  Wow! Now taking off for Aqua Verde, about a 6 hr sail…rest and recoup time!  What a trip this has been! Arrived at Agua Verde about 6 at a nice anchorage. Saw whales on the way here and lots of dolphins.  Beautiful place, nice weather after the sun goes behind the mountain!  Goats on the hills, beautiful fish in the water, nice breeze!

May 28. Tuesday

Put up our sunshade…nice!  Hot in the sun – nice in the shade!  Went snorkeling/spearfishing a little ways from the boat.  Lots of swells but ok as long as you kept your head down!  Brenden got two fish including. Cabria (very good eating!), Alex got one and Tim got one!  I saw lots of fish!  Love this!

Weds. May 29

Swam to a little bay to snorkel, not too clear but nice anyway!  Lots of rocks tho, hard on the feet!  Met another family who is staying here for the summer..that will be nice for the boys.  They have boys, 8 and 12. Most people are going home for the summer.  Can’t believe we only have one full day left!  Had a combo fish dinner..delicious!  Oh and right after dinner a call went out over the radio that someone needed help here in the cove..on shore somewhere..everyone immediately jumped in their dinghy s and headed there to help.  As it turned out everything was fine, but the response was amazing!  The cruising community is pretty amazing.

Thursday. May 30

The boys went spearfishing on Roca Solataria (solitary rock) early this morning.  I’m working on trying to get the sail holder sewn up a little!  Nice day!  Boys came back with a beautiful big Cabria fish..yum!  Now we are underway and actually under sail!  We’ve had to motor so far cause not enough wind going our way.  So nice to sail!  On our way to Honeymoon Cove for the night!  Cabria tacos for lunch!!  Deanne does an amazing job feeding all of us!!  We’ve had lots of fish and its been delicious!

Friday. May 31

Took off early for Loreto  Lots of sad goodbyes for me and the boys but after lots of hugs and kisses and vowing to come back before too long, Tim took us to the wharf in the dinghy and we were off to the airport and home. Thank you to Tim and Deanne for the trip of a lifetime!  If it weren’t for you, we never would have seen all those wonders!

Out of Gas in Agua Verde?

To get to the tienda at Agua Verde you land on the beach (kayak or dinghy, doesn’t much matter) and then walk a short distance. One morning, Brenden and I took the dinghy to shore, and this was probably the first time we had done a beach landing in the dinghy just the two of us. Brenden isn’t as keen to driving the dinghy as Alex is. In fact, he’s admitted he doesn’t like driving because he doesn’t like landing it because he’s worried if he does it wrong, dad will yell at him.

So, that morning, maybe because it was just me, he agreed to be the chauffeur and take me to shore and we landed the dinghy without incident and made our shopping run. So far so good.  Then, when we got back to the dinghy, we pushed off from shore, and here’s where the fun started. It wouldn’t start. We both tried a couple times without success. So, I checked the gas can. Light and empty. I was mad. No, I was absolutely fuming. I could not believe we were out of gas! I radioed to let Tim know but he was unavailable so I talked to Marsha, and I’m sure she could even feel the daggers coming out of my eyes through the radio. Brenden knew right away how to get the oars in the water, but we were heading upwind and it would have been a very long row. Tim radioed back when there was still smoke coming out of my ears and asked if we were sure we were out of gas, because it feels empty when it’s not quite empty. OK, now I feel small. We tried a few more times to start it, and, of course, it started. So, we weren’t really out of gas, and all of my anger was mostly misplaced. However, I never take the dinghy anywhere on my own without checking the gas level myself anymore, so I learned that lesson almost the hard way.

This kid boat flotilla that we were fortunate to be a part of was our first experiment with the dynamics of making cruising friends.   Generally, the boys didn’t have any trouble and seemed to fit in with whatever combination of kids they were with, although Brenden had a few difficulties at the very beginning.  To give some background: At home, we always thought of Brenden as the most social of the family.  He had a lot of friends as well as a small group of really good buddies.  He was at ease in groups and really liked being around people.  Our first night with the other families at The Shack in La Paz all the kids had gone outside while the adults were finishing meals and drinks.  Brenden came back in looking very sullen and told me, “the other kids won’t play with me.”  In order to avoid dealing with this in real-time since we were with a group of people I didn’t really know and I didn’t immediately want to accuse their kids of being mean (which I was pretty sure they weren’t being) I just suggested to Brenden that he play with the little boy whose dad owned and operated The Shack.  (Brief aside: Brenden played playdough with Cam all evening, and when I bought him his own Playdough a few days later he set some aside to take back to Cam.  We never did make it back to the Shack, though, and Brenden was very disappointed.)

Later, before I talked to Brenden about it, I decided to ask Alex if the other kids were being mean to Brenden, and Alex validated my intuition that no one was being mean to Brenden.  So, I asked Brenden about it and he also said no one was being mean, but no one was playing with him and it made him sad.  Then I realized what was probably going on.  Brenden was very popular at home, and when he was with a group of kids he was probably pretty used to people paying attention to him.  And since he had been with the same kids at the same elementary school since forever, he had never really developed the social skills needed for his current situation.  Interestingly, this is when Alex jumped in and told Brenden what he did.  He said he just paid attention to what the other kids were doing.  He saw one boy lightly shove one of the other boys and then the other boy chased him around a bit.  So, he did the same thing and that’s how he joined in the impromptu chase each other around game.  So, the less social, less outgoing one used his observation and cognitive skills to assess the situation and figure out how to fit in.  Of course, it didn’t take Brenden long to fit in as well.  And while Alex tended to gravitate to the older boys, Brenden did pretty well fitting in with the older boys as well as playing with the younger kids.  Perhaps it’s all the legos in his cabin and his playful nature that gives him a stronger connection to the younger ones.

With such a large crowd of kids, there was constant concern over fostering inclusion.  Our first experience with this was the day in La Paz at Costa Baja with the Star Passage crew.  They have 2 kids:  a boy, age 11 and a girl, age 8.  The boys bonded rather quickly, especially once they discovered their shared love of the computer game, Minecraft.  However, Sophia was a bit left out.  They didn’t intentionally exclude her, but they didn’t intentionally include her either.  That evening we had the first of what would become somewhat of a recurring conversation with the boys.  Tim emphasized that since there aren’t that many kids out here cruising they need to make an effort to include everyone.  All ages.  Boys and girls.  Brenden ended up somewhat embracing this role.  He would sometimes pick up on a situation himself and notice someone might be feeling a little excluded, and even if he needed to be reminded he quickly jumped it to try to do his part.  It’s a tricky thing, though, because we didn’t want to force the issue of inclusion so much that we stifled the development of special friendships.   We needed to let it be OK for some of the kids to do things together sometimes without forcing them to include everyone and without feeling slighted for not being included.  So, we have tried to teach the boys balance.  A very constructive and positive thing that one of the other boats did was start up the “kid boat radio net” every morning.  This provided a consistent and totally inclusive way to coordinate any activities for the day and it helped us not inadvertently exclude anyone when planning an activity that didn’t need to be with just the smaller group you felt closest to.  Independent of the inclusion/exclusion issue it was also nice because it just made coordinating that much easier.

Any amount of effort would have made it hard to break the boy-girl division.  Each of the other families had one boy and one girl, but we broke the pattern and tipped the score in favor of the boys, 6-4.   At the group level they did a few things all together like Capture the Flag and building bonfires.  One night all the kids went over to Northern Passage for movie night.  This was no ordinary movie night.  They raised a sheet on deck and used a projector to get that big-screen effect.  Alex and Brenden loved it.

Our last night at Isla Coronados there was no end to the fun of feeding hot dogs to a Moray Eel.  Seriously, the eel swam up close to shore, and I’m not sure which one of them thought of feeding it hot dogs first, but I’m pretty sure they all took a turn.  I couldn’t watch!  Not because I was worried the eel could hurt them but because I was grossed out that it was eating hot dogs!  The group of six boys had so much fun together.   They played football on the beach and the older boys taught the younger ones how to skim board and dinghy surf.  It seems like most afternoons wound down with swimming at Exodus.  The boys liked to jump off the bows and try to stand up on boogie boards holding on to the anchor chain.  I didn’t have as much insight into how the girls spent their days, but I was invited to the girls’ spa day when we were at Puerto Los Gatos.  They dressed up, had tea and baked goodies, and the moms gave manicures and pedicures.  I didn’t have any little girl nails to paint, but it was fun just to hang out and eat the yummy snacks.

There was a whole lot of grown up fun too!  We had several pot lucks both at the beach and here on Exodus.  When we were at Puerto Los Gatos Don Pedro ordered a bunch of Lobsters from guys in one of the Pangas and they went out and caught them and brought them back we had a big Lobster feast on Exodus.  We had to look up in a cookbook how to prepare them and how to make “drawn butter.”  There were enough for two lobsters per family, and my joy was obvious when our boys had filled up on chicken and sausages and didn’t want any lobster.  It was absolutely delicious.   On Isla San Francisco we went for a “kid-free” hike up the crest to a peak and then down to the other side of the island.  It was nice getting to know each other independent of our role as kid boat parents.  We had drinks and socializing evenings on all the different boats.  And I’ll insert an observation here that there seems to be an unspoken rule that you don’t use the bathroom on another person’s boat, the obvious reasons being limited water and tank capacity.  We noticed this because when we first started giving tours on Exodus we would point out the bathrooms, “that they were welcome to use.”  No one used them, no matter how long the evening went.  And when we went to other boats, the offer of using the bathroom was never granted.  I almost exploded on a couple occasions.  I just can’t hold it that long!  Anyway, I never really got to know anyone well enough to ask about the unspoken rule, but maybe I’ll get a little bolder as time goes on.

With all this socializing going on, I valued my down time that much more.  I’m trying to run as much as I can, and I’ve developed a routine I call the “new triathlon.”  Rather than swim, bike, run, it’s kayak, run, swim.  I Kayak from Exodus to a nice running beach, run laps on the beach until I reach 3 miles or run out of water, whichever comes first, then throw on my snorkel gear and go for a swim.   I still miss really long runs, especially with Jen, but I’m not really in shape for that anymore anyway.  I’ve also been spending a lot of my free time trying to learn Spanish.  When I realized I didn’t know as much Spanish as I thought I did early on in the trip I somewhat shut down and was reluctant to even try.  Then one afternoon when we were in Agua Verde I ventured into town with a couple of the other moms to find the tienda.  One of them had mentioned to me before that she spoke Spanish.  Along the way we found the restaurant and arranged dinner for our group that evening, ordered tortillas for pick up the next day, and found not one but 4 tiendas in town.  The thing was, I understood most of the conversations.  I wouldn’t necessarily have been able to come up with the right words myself, but I was close.  Also, her accent and pronunciation were marginal at best, and they still understood her and she was able to communicate, no problem.  What I learned that day were 2 things: 1) my Spanish was better than I thought it was and 2) my Spanish doesn’t have to be perfect to adequately communicate.  So, now I pour over the phrase book almost every day and I’m also using the book of verbs, pocket grammar guide, and Spanish-English dictionary I still have because Andrew took 4 years of Spanish in school.

We had such a great time with the kid boat flotilla, but that chapter in our cruising book is now closed.  We are looking forward to meeting many other kid cruising boats, but I suspect five boats together for that long has got to be kind of rare.  The companionship for the boys was invaluable.  I said once that I really wish we had ordered our new anchor the first time we were in La Paz so we wouldn’t have been stuck there so long, but Alex countered that he was glad.  He said, “Then we might have left before meeting the kid boats”.  I conceded that it was indeed worth it.  I really hope we have the opportunity to meet up with some or all of them again, especially since some have plans to cross the Pacific about the time when we plan to.  Of course, we only fessed up about the radio lurking (stalking?) to one of the other boats, so it’s possible we will be avoided in the future if anyone actually reads this.

We’ve had a few more boat issues along the way, but nothing of the magnitude of the inadequate anchor we experienced early in the trip.  The biggest issue has had to be the starboard engine.  For a while, we had been experiencing that intermittently the starboard engine wouldn’t engage in reverse (to be more specific, the saildrive was not engaging the propeller).  Tim was pretty sure he knew what it was and how to fix it (he actually found a blog post by another sailor explaining how to fix it), but he didn’t have the right tools,  and he was waiting for when Gary and Marsha were coming to visit so they could bring them down.  It was an issue when anchoring so we sometimes found ourselves having to spin an extra circle because starboard reverse wouldn’t work right when you needed it to.  We started assuming it wouldn’t work and never planned an approach near land that depended on it.  Then during one passage when we were motoring (when the engines were in forward gear, obviously) Tim asked me if I had shut down the starboard engine and when I answered no he asked me if the two engines were at the same RPM.  He was asking me this because he was observing that the wakes of the two propellers in the water looked differently.   So, we figured out that the starboard side wasn’t working in forward, and Tim decided we should shut it down and not use it until he was able to get it fixed.  When we went into Puerto Escondido we decided to anchor rather than pick up a mooring ball, because anchoring with one engine would be much easier.  He went to the boatyard in Puerto Escondido to see if they had the tool he needed socket, and they didn’t, but they tried another approach that initially seemed not to work until Tim came back to the boat and re-read the blog post and realized that the whole time they were tightening what they wanted to loosen.  He went back to the boatyard and they tried again and this time it worked.  Success seemed to be near but sometimes it can be so elusive.  When he was back at the boat he realized he had put the assembly back together wrong.  The boys and I were at the restaurant at this time enjoying wifi while the laundry was finishing, but I’m pretty sure we faintly heard the expletives emanating from Exodus by one frustrated Captain.  So, he went back to the boatyard a third time, and this time success really was near and even with all the back and forth, Tim fixed the problem in under a day, and we were back to a fully operational, two engine, catamaran.

Another issue that came up is the fuse would sometimes blow when trying to empty the head (specifically the waste holding tank) in Brenden’s room.  (“Brenden’s head is empty!”  Yeah, there’s no end to the amusement that joke brings.)  Replacing the fuse was a quick fix, but eventually the root cause had to be found.  Turns out the macerator at the exit of the holding tank was jammed with a small piece of plastic (not a lego, I feel obligated to point out).  OK, problem fixed.  Well, not quite.  Something must have gone wrong reinstalling the macerator because soon the odor in the bilge made it clear that Brenden’s holding tank was leaking.  So, that mess had to be cleaned up (not by me!) and Brenden’s head was out of commission until that could be dealt with.  It turned out that the macerator had a paper gasket that tore during the reinstallation, so Tim was able to borrow some liquid gasket from one of the other boats, and we were back to a fully functioning, three head, catamaran.  So, those of you who judge by the photos I post that the life of a cruising boat captain is all swimming, eating, and lounging around should know it takes al of hard work keeping this boat livable and sea-worthy.

We’ve also had a lot of fun tracking down some SSB radio noise sources.  I figured out early on that our fridge is the source of the very large chirping noise in the 6-8 MHz frequencies.  When using sailmail the instructions say over and over that you need to listen before transmitting because digital noise on the channel means someone else is using it and if you transmit you will step on them and neither one of you will be able to get your email.  So, the first few times I mistook the fridge chirping for digital noise, and I was baffled how the 7 MHz channel at the San Diego station was ALWAYS in use.  Anyway, although I was able to do digital transmissions through sailmail, it took a while before we found all the noise sources that were rendering voice communications all but impossible.  The obvious ones after the fridge were the inverter and the navigation equipment.  Then in La Paz, another cruiser said it could be the solar charge controller, so we shut that down too, and still couldn’t hear anything on the nets.  Then, one morning when I was straining to pick out Gary’s weather forecast out of the noise floor on the morning Sonrisa net Tim flipped off power to the water maker, and it was like the sky cleared and the sun broke through.  We could hear Gary loud and clear, and I was able to hear everyone on the Amigo net that morning for the first time.  The water maker wasn’t actually running at the time, but there are telemetry display electronics that are always on, so by cutting the power it shut those off.  I would never have predicted that would be such a huge noise source.  Getting rid of that has now uncovered a really loud hum at the 4 MHz frequency band.  I can still usually pick out the voice traffic, but it’s really annoying, so we still have to figure that one out.   When I listen to the Amigo net, some mornings there’s not much noise and some mornings it sounds like a train is driving by in the background.  So, I started thinking about what could be different from day to day that I could control.  I knew it was possible it was just varying propagation, but I wanted to at least try something.  The only thing I could come up with was the solar array orientation.  Some mornings I forget to point the solar arrays at the sun, and even when I do it’s not always the same direction since our heading could be different.  So, on a morning when the train was particularly loud I asked Tim to humor me and vary the solar array angle.  Aha!  Another mystery solved.   Our noise source investigations are still ongoing since we still seem to not have as good reception as some boats.  Of course, it could just be our antenna size.  Most monohulls put isolators at the top and bottom of their backstays and use that for the antenna.  We don’t have a backstay, so we have installed a 23’ whip antenna on our aft deck (right next to the solar array, incidentally) which is smaller than most backstays.

All in all, these issues have been manageable, and if you find all of it quite boring, I apologize, but I also feel compelled to write about the total cruising lifestyle, not just the turquoise water and happy hours.  However, we are more than happy to endure the difficult and the mundane in order to enjoy all of the amazing.

Fortunately, we haven’t dragged since getting our new anchor, but we were witness to another boat dragging that could have ended up much worse than it did.  To add a little context, there aren’t that many charter boats here in the Sea of Cortez when compared to places like the Caribbean or the Med, but there are a few, and cruisers quickly learn to keep their distance because the experience level of charter sailors varies widely and the quality of charter vessels and equipment does as well.  While staying at the North anchorage in Isla San Francisco we five kid boats had a perfectly spaced, staggered, anchoring constellation when a Moorings boat plopped right between us and Star Passage, a little too close for comfort.   Don Pedro actually politely suggested they move just a bit, which they agreeably did, and by the way, they were a very nice couple from Switzerland that we enjoyed getting to know at our potluck that evening.  Well, when I got up the next morning and was enjoying my coffee at the salon table I saw the Moorings boat’s stern aft of our port stern.  That wasn’t where I would expect to see it given where they had anchored.  So, I went out and looked around and watched them, and sure enough, they were dragging.  I tried multiple times to hail them on VHF Channels 16 and 22 with no response.  Even if they had their radio on I wondered if they would recognize their boat name since it wasn’t their boat.  I certainly don’t remember the names of the boats we chartered all those times to Catalina.  So, at this point, I woke Tim and he went outside and started yelling to try to wake them up.  Still nothing so he was getting ready to paddleboard over to their boat when we hear Max from Fluenta on what sounds like a bull horn trying to rouse the people on the dragging boat.  He had heard Tim yelling and took a personal interest since if they kept dragging Fluenta was right on their probable path.  This worked!  They came out and reset the anchor, and all was good.  In hindsight, the bull horn part was pretty comical, and it turns out it’s not a bullhorn but a PA system they have on their boat.  We’ve gotta get one of those.

I am writing this on April 17, 2020, 7 years after we made this decision.  But I’ve gone through my notes, logbooks, emails, and blog posts, and there’s nothing in there documenting our thought process and decision making, which is super surprising since it was such a big decision

When we left San Diego we actually thought we would zip down south all the way to Panama then jump to The Galapagos then cross The Pacific and be in New Zealand by November.  Keep in mind that we didn’t leave San Diego until THE END OF FEBRUARY.  In cruising, weather drives everything, and the South Pacific Cruising Season goes roughly from April to November in order to avoid Cyclone season.  In hindsight, we were crazy or more accurately we were simply ill-informed.  I remember when we were in Cabo San Lucas I had gone to the Port Captain’s office (I don’t remember why; I think I was trying to find out how we get permission to anchor in the bay) and there were people there clearing out to head to The Marquesas.  We struck up some small talk and I said we’d be right behind them, first we were going to Central America and then the Galapagos and then The Marquesas.  He said something like, “Wow, that’s a lot.”  I wasn’t phased at that point.

Then we got to La Paz area and our anchor dragged and we settled in a bit waiting for our new anchor to arrive.  We spent time at the islands near La Paz, and they were AMAZING.  I had a thought worm that was small at first and wouldn’t go away, “what’s the hurry?” it kept saying.

Well, the hurry was that there was that we couldn’t just stay in Mexico indefinitely because of hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere.   We needed to get below the hurricane belt before May or so (which was also a stipulation in our boat insurance policy).

There aren’t hurricanes near the equator, so we researched just staying in Central America for the summer.  We had honeymooned on Costa Rica, so we had a fondness for that country in particular, so we started leaning that way.  Except.  Except it would still mean getting the heck out of Mexico pretty quickly and covering a lot of miles and missing out on The Sea of Cortez, and also we were reading that the summer near the equator brings other risks and challenges, like lightning.  Lots of lightning.

Then we learned that people actually stay in The Sea of Cortez for the summer.   Actually, lots of people do, because lots of people have different risk tolerances than we do when it comes to hurricanes.  But we learned a small group of cruisers every year spend the summer up north in The Sea of Cortez near Bahia de Los Angeles (aka BLA).  The village of BLA provides a home base with provisioning, and there is beautiful cruising nearby, AND there a hurricane hole called Puerto Don Juan.  A few years back a hurricane had gone all the way up there and several boats who had strayed further away from BLA had been destroyed, but the boats who had holed up at Puerto Don Juan were unscathed.  After talking to Derek and Trish from s/v Interabang (Derek is one half of the team that beat Tim and Alex in the Bocce Ball championship) we were sold.

We were staying in The Sea for the summer.  We just hoped there would be a kid boat or two who would join us.

(Forshadow… LADY CAROLINA!)

In hindsight, this was THE BEST DECISION.  We learned how to cruise where it was easy (relatively speaking).  We were able to make not one, but two trips North across the border to see friends and family and load up on provisions and supplies.  Not to mention, we made lifelong friends.  We would have missed so much had we rushed along and not to mention that we, quite frankly, would have been ill-prepared for South Pacific cruising.  It is harsher and less forgiving, and in The Sea we built a foundation of cruising skills that we needed to successfully cross The Pacific.

This lifestyle is a major change from life back home, and we are all having to make adjustments.

Being underway for more than a day early in the trip was certainly a big adjustment, but it was a very manageable one.  It was quite different than when we did the Baja Ha-Ha.  On that trip, we had six adults standing watch so we each had two, two-hour shifts each 24 hour period.  Now we are what is commonly referred to as “cruising short-handed.”    We settled on six-hour shifts.  Tim had 10:00 to 4:00 and I had 4:00 to 10:00 (am and pm).  This seemed to work OK, but we were pretty well wiped out by the 3rd day.  I enjoyed my morning shifts and then I was able to do some school with the boys before I needed to lay down for a quick nap around 12 or 1.  My evening shift was the real trying one for me.  After about 8:00 Tim would go lay down to get some sleep before his watch would start, and that’s right when I would start to fade too.  I would sit in the salon with the boys with my timer set for every 12 minutes.  When the timer went off I would go up to the helm, do a visual sweep, and then to a radar sweep to watch for other vessels.   Thankfully, there was rarely a need to make any drastic sail changes.  One time I thought I would need to reef the main, but the wind never went over threshold, so I didn’t have to do that.  So, I have yet to reef the main on my own, but I think I could do it since I’ve done it with Tim a few times.

My first watch was between Marina del Rey and San Diego, and it was a morning watch so it was still dark out.  I was fresh from sleep, but I was a bit jittery after Tim went back to bed.  The wind was dying so I had to make the decision whether to keep sailing or fire up an engine.  The decision was easy, since we wanted to get to San Diego in the early afternoon, and we would never get there at under 2 knots.  So, I needed to furl the Genoa, but it occurred to me Tim usually takes the roller furler while I tail out the sheets.  The first watch jitters were still with me, so I had to give myself a pep talk.  I put on my harness and clipped on while I stood on the side deck and rolled it up.  Once complete it was like a burden lifted.  It was such a simple task, but completing it on my own cured my jitters, and my self-confidence has (mostly) been with me the rest of the way.  However, I did get a little spooked during my morning watch between Bahia Los Frailes and Bahia de Los Muertos.   I was sitting at the helm when I heard strange splashing sounds traveling across the water.  It clearly wasn’t dolphins or the jumping Manta Rays we had been seeing.   I would look but I couldn’t see anything.   It was driving me crazy such that I wouldn’t sit outside for a while.  Then I got out the spotlight and was determined to see what was stalking me.  It turned out to be schools of fish that would, as a group, repeatedly jump out of the water.  Later in the watch, I experienced the sensation of heading straight towards land without being able to see it except on the electronic chart.  It was pretty unnerving.  There was a single lighthouse to the right of where we were heading so that at least provided one real-life data point to compare with the chart.  I slowed the boat down so we wouldn’t arrive while it was still dark and the sunset that morning was most welcome and most amazing.

One thing about being underway that I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer workout it is keeping balance, moving around, doing chores, cooking, etc. while the boat is rocking and rolling underneath us.  One evening while brushing my teeth I stood in the bathroom without holding on and just observed how many of my leg and core muscles were engaged while I stood there.  So, while I actually quite like the routine that a multi-day passage provides, I am not yet in shape for a longer passage, like the 2 or 3 weeks it will take when we eventually cross the Pacific.

The entire trip has been one big learning process, and we’ve had a few mishaps keeping us humble and reminding us how much we still have to learn.    By far the biggest issue we’ve had is the anchor dragging, which caught us totally off guard and could have been a real disaster.  We have an iDevice app called Drag Queen (yeah, seriously) that uses GPS to alert you if you might be dragging.  You set the position where you drop the anchor and depending on how much scope you put out and how deep the water is, you set an appropriate distance for the alarm to go off.  We had used it a few times at Catalina Island, but we hadn’t been using it on this trip so far.  I can still recall in one anchorage Tim saying, “this baby will hold up to 50 knots.”  Well, our first night at Puerto Balandra we were anchored in shallow water, approximately 10 ft, near one side of the bay.  About 10pm that night, after I had gone to bed, I hear the engines turn on and the kids yelling to me that our anchor is dragging.  Tim was still up and he said all of a sudden he noticed we were close to the opposite side of the bay.  Luckily it was a large bay and luckily it happened while everyone else was still up or we might have woken up to crashing against the rocks.  It was our first experience with the “Coromuels”.  Basically, when there are heavy winds out of the north on the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula coupled with a pressure gradient between the two sides, winds kick up hard out of the South on the Sea of Cortez side.  That night we went from leisurely winds out of the N-NW to 20-25 knots out of the South, so we swiveled hard on our anchor and it likely ended up on its back so it didn’t reset.   We have dragged a couple times after that, but we’ve been on our guard, using the anchor alarm and watching for the Coromuels.  We have a new, larger anchor now, and its design is such that it is more likely to reset when the boat spins around it.  We should sleep better at anchor from now on.

Another incident we had ended up having a comical aspect to it.  At least I thought so.   To set the stage a little bit, our anchor bridle hooks don’t stay on the anchor chain real well, so we rig it so the bridle line wraps around the hook to hold it in place.  This creates a bit of knot that sticks out from the anchor chain.  We were dropping anchor in La Paz, and Tim was at the helm and one of the boys was on the anchor and I was on the deck as well.   The anchor was down and the bridle hooks were attached ready to be dropped down.  Tim had backed down so the chain was sticking out in front and he called to us to drop the anchor.  I saw what was about to happen before it happened but it was quick and my reaction was slow, so I wasn’t able to stop it.  The knots around the bridle hooks caught on the cable attached to the bowsprit and ripped it right from the deck so it was dangling, and something, we didn’t know what at the time, ended up in the water.   Tim jumped in to retrieve what was in the water, and it ended up being our navigation light.  The current in the La Paz channel is pretty strong so at this point, Tim is a fair distance from the boat and making very little progress getting back to the boat, so he yells at us to drop the dinghy and go get him.  Anticipating it could take us a few pulls to get the outboard started, he yelled for Alex to just row out there, so in our haste, we forgot something very important.  Alex rows over and retrieves Tim, and then Tim starts rowing back.  He’s rowing and rowing, and, again, making very little progress.  I yell to him to just start the engine, and he yells back, “we don’t have the dinghy key!”  So, I look at Brenden and he actually starts crying because he doesn’t want to get in the cold water, but he quickly sucks it up, jumps in, and swims to them with the dinghy key.  At this point, I’m pretty much cracking up, but they were all still raw, so they didn’t see the humor yet.  They all agreed that next time something falls in I have to jump in to get it.  That has not happened yet.

We’ve had a few other more minor mishaps (e.g., starboard reverse not always engaging, torn spinnaker, mixing up the +1 deg and the +10 deg button on the autopilot) as well as some lessons learned.  Our first anchoring experience in La Paz had us scratching our heads.  While making our way down the long channel we noticed the boats in the anchorage were all laying differently.  We thought at first maybe they had two anchors set, but as we got in closer we could see this wasn’t the case.   We found a decent spot and dropped our anchor and it ended up behind us.  This is not typical anchoring; normally the wind pushes you away from your anchor with your bow pointed towards the anchor.  Tim watched for a while to figure out how the boat was going to move before we shut down the engines.  It turns out that when the current is going opposite the wind, that’s when the boats behave differently.  A heavy keel monohull will point at the current regardless of the wind.  Our catamaran with small keels and large windage is much more affected by the wind direction.  Anyway, we talked to some other cruisers, and this is affectionately referred to as the “La Paz Waltz.”

I’ve also learned not to head out on any errand or an activity trusting just the information in the guidebook.  The biggest example of this is when I went to get our national park permits in La Paz and told the Taxi driver the address and when we got there it was an empty office building.  What should have been a 20-30 minute errand turned into about 2.5 hours.

There have been several more mundane, everyday living type adjustments we are making.  One of the big ones for me is cooking/preparing 3 meals a day for 4 people.   At home, the only meal I had to prepare on a regular basis for all of us was dinner, but even then there was always the option of ordering out if I was tired or there was something more fun to do than cooking.  That’s not an option anymore for most meals.  The boys don’t complain too much, so I guess I’m doing OK so far.  I’m learning to use the pressure cooker and I made a beef stew one night that was really easy and both boys said it was the best meal on the trip so far.  Hmmm, really?  Beef stew?  I am having to take a totally different approach to meal planning and shopping than I did at home.  I have always planned a menu, shopped for that menu, and then prepared that menu with little deviation aside from switching days around if I felt like eating out, as mentioned above.  I was able to shop every few days with ease so veggies and meats were usually fresh and I seldom had a need to use the freezer.  Now, it is all about provisioning to minimize the number of times needed to go to the store.  Even being in La Paz for so long with plenty of shopping resources available, it was still considerable effort to get to the store.  It would either involve a Taxi ride or a long walk with a backpacking backpack full of groceries.  So, now I just keep a list of all basic ingredients I like to keep on board, prepare meals from that, and reprovision as necessary.  I check produce onboard daily and incorporate whatever looks like it won’t last much longer into that night’s dinner.  I don’t use nearly as many recipes as I did at home or if I do I have to alter them somewhat to accommodate the ingredients I have on board.  I have made my own sour cream and refried beans, and I plan to learn to make my own yogurt and yeast bread when I get desperate enough.   Milk is one of the harder things to keep on board because we go through it so quickly.  I’ve started making a batch of powdered milk and keeping that in the fridge to use for coffee, oatmeal, and baking.  We basically just use the fresh milk now for cereal and drinking.

Personal hygiene is something else that’s very different on the boat.  Long gone are the days of leisurely hot showers.  We do have a water heater on board that we can run off the starboard engine directly or off of battery power, but even when we have hot water it takes a while for the hot water to reach the shower so you end up wasting it or collecting it in a bucket while you wait for the water to get hot.  Plus, you use a lot of water for the shower itself even if you hurry and turn the water off when you soap up since the flow rate is relatively high.  So, we’ve taken to using the solar shower bags for our primary source of hot water while showering.  One of them has a shower hose long enough that we can lay the bag on the deck and run the spout through the hatch into the master bathroom shower.  So, at least we get to shower in the shower and not on the deck!  Well, the boys often shower on the swim steps soaping up and rinsing off after snorkeling or swimming.  I must admit I also now shave my legs with seawater sitting on the lowest swim step.  Conservation of resources is something we are all very conscious of now.  We have a large battery bank that can be charged by the engines or the solar arrays, and we have a water maker that runs off of the battery bank.  We have found we are pretty much energy neutral using the solar arrays alone without running the engines if we make an effort to conserve.   Next to showers, dishes are probably the biggest consumer of water, so I fill the sink pretty low for washing and rinse with a garden sprayer which has a much lower flow rate than the sink faucet itself.  It works pretty well and definitely uses less water.  However, it takes longer.  In fact, most things just take longer on the boat.

This lifestyle requires a significant amount of flexibility and adaptability since you never know what each day will bring.  Having a plan is great, but I have to be much more prepared to alter the plan as things come up than I did at home.   Those that know me know that I am a planner and I like routines, so I’ve still got a ways to go up the learning curve in this area, but I like to think I’m doing pretty well.  The other day our “plan” was to finish chores, run some errands, then hit The Shack for an early dinner.  Tim and Brenden were working on fixing toilets and I had emptied all the stuff we keep in the cockpit into the salon so that I could wash down the cockpit (it’s amazing how quickly dirt, dust, and hair collects in all the nooks and crannies of the boat).  All of a sudden Brenden comes out totally distressed saying there’s poo all over his bathroom and Dad says we need to go out in the bay and dump the heads right away!   Yes, things like that happen on a boat.  In fact, I bet most cruisers have a good head explosion story to tell if you only ask and aren’t too grossed out.  In a situation like that, there was no time to think about what I had been doing or whatever plans we might have had.  Alex and I raised anchor quickly and within a few minutes, we were heading down the channel out to the bay.  Tim was able to fix the head (and take a much earned hot shower NOT with the solar bag), and although I didn’t get to do as good a job on the cleaning as I would have liked and there was no time for errands, we did make it to dinner at The Shack, and the $1 draft Negro Modelos tasted a little better than usual.  We also had to make a quick change of plans the morning they freed the beached whale off of the sandbar in the La Paz channel.  Schoolwork becomes less important when there’s a real-life amazing event like that to witness.

The boys are doing amazingly well.  They miss school and they miss their friends, but they are adapting and enjoy taking on more and more responsibility.  In fact, there have been several occasions when they have had to show me how to do something since dad had already shown them.  I joke with them that I’m never going to have to learn to raise, lower, and drive the dinghy since I have my own private chauffeurs.  They can also man the helm, stand a short watch, and raise and lower the anchor.  The other day we even let them take the dinghy to the beach by themselves to play.  They aren’t exactly thrilled with homeschooling, but they don’t complain too much and we are getting more and more efficient at getting everything done.   I’m also trying to give them a few more “fun” assignments associated with their school work and trying to tie in what they’ve learned in their school work with other things we are doing so the lines are not so clearly drawn between “boring school” and “fun after school.”   I can’t say it’s ideal yet by any means, but I listen to them about what they like and don’t like and I’m trying to adapt the lesson plans, at least a little bit.  Up until just recently, other kids have been very scarce.  However, we have now hooked up with a group of kid boats, so the boys are getting to play a little more with other kids, not just each other.   Coincidentally, these are most of the kid boats that did the Baja Ha-Ha last year.  Most spent the fall/winter down the coast of mainland Mexico and are now back up the Sea of Cortez either planning to stay the summer like us or go home soon.  Apparently, the typical cruising behavior is to spend some time together, then go separate ways, and then hook up later.  The boys are very happy to have other kids to play with for a while.

I anticipate a common question that people might ask me is what my favorite thing is so far, and I wouldn’t have to think about it too long to say the time spent with my family.  At home, especially while I was still working, there was so little time, and quality time was just a fraction of that.  Now we are getting to interact with and enjoy each other on a whole new level.   Of course, we do get on each other’s nerves at times, but the boat is spacious enough that there’s room to retreat and regroup when that happens.  In addition to that, there are so many little priceless moments that I have tucked away in my memory so far.  As much as I enjoy the time with the family, I have also cherished my early morning watches when I would greet the sunrise alone.  An especially memorable morning was when I could hear a pod of dolphins accompanying me in the darkness, not being able to see them but hearing their breathing and splashing, then greeting them when the sun came up and saying good-bye to them not long after that.  In fact, all of the marine life we have observed has been amazing: dolphins, whales, sea lions, manta rays, sharks, and fish fish fish.  The snorkeling here is as good if not better than the Cayman Islands, except that the water temperature is a bit cooler.

We are just at the infancy stage of our journey.  We have seen and experience so little of what will eventually be in store for us.  But it is a memorable time because everything is so new; the destination and the lifestyle.  I resolved to not form an opinion until we are six months into the trip.  That’s how long I’ve read most people need to really get into the swing of things, so I will not go on and on how this is the best decision we’ve ever made.  At least not yet.