February 21, 2019
By friend Bill some how managed to talk his wife into letting him play hookie from school (he is a high school physics teacher) and come down for a visit. It was going to be an action packed trip as I wanted to give him the full Barra area experience. What better way to start than to watch the sunset…
January 28, 2019
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…
December 15, 2018
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…
December 4, 2018
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…
December 3, 2018
I love when a plan comes together…Puerto Escondido will let you tie up to the dock for an hour or two if you are renting a mooring ball (nice chance to wash the boat when needed). It made picking up Jean really easy, from getting out of the taxi to being off the dock was less than 15 minutes. Which…
December 1, 2018
So with Jean missing her flight I needed a pick me up, the $20/night for a mooring ball at Puerto Escondido ensured this included heading out to an anchorage. Honeymoon cove, just four miles away would be a perfect fit (so long as it wasn’t packed with boats…). After the net I cast off the mooring line and headed over.…
November 27, 2018
Our timing was pretty good but not perfect as we were just beat by Stargo (whom we had met in San Juanico) into the anchorage. We brought the total to four boats, which meant we still had a good spot to anchor. Through the early afternoon three more boats pulled in and I was taught that I should have pulled…
November 27, 2018
**First an important note – There IS bighorn sheep hunting that takes place on the island so consider than before heading off on this hike and if you do proceed wear brightly colored clothes** Red route is my best guess, based on our hike and looking at satellite imagery. The Blue route spur is where we lost the trail and…
November 25, 2018
Looking at the forecast, the day after Thanksgiving was the only possible day to sail south so off sailing we went. From the anchorage the sea looked calm, not the 13-15 knots forecast. But once out of the protection of the bay we found it truly was blowing. We had a sporty sail south to Isla Coronado moving along at…
November 22, 2018
I love when a plan comes together. Often times when there is calm weather a west wind will form overnight and then dissipate a few hours after sunrise. We took advantage of this phenomenon and sailed north to San Juanico. Well at least half the way. Which in the Sea of Cortez, when on a schedule, is unusual. Feeling the…
November 18, 2018
The winds toyed with us, what started as a day motoring turned into motorsailing then the winds reach just high enough for us to shut off the engine. Slipping through the water a 3.5 knots we didn’t have a care in the world. For five minutes. The winds promptly dropped and along with it our speed – 3 knots, 2.5…
November 17, 2018
After five nights and four days I was feeling like a charlatan, seeing as Julia came all the way from Germany to go sailing and thus far has been stuck on a mooring ball. The weather system gone, it was our chance to bug out of Puerto Escondido. Many of my friends had planned to head Isla Monserrate but Agua…