Our World Adventure

We motored/sailed/ bashed (sailing directly into the wind, and maybe big swell, is called bashing) with a few other cruisers from Cabo North to a little bay called Frailes, then continued our way North to Bahia de Muertos (cute bay with 1 restaurant and 1 fun resort). Kathy took a 3 hour paddle board adventure along a white coral beach. This plus our fun friends, baby turtles, snorkeling and views were the highlights.

We then spent few days of R&R and grocery shopping at the markets in La Paz. Our goal was to sail up to the GORGEOUS Isla Pardita North of La Paz. VERY Amazing water, hiking, paddle boarding and excellent snorkeling.

Woke up last week and noticed the water was only 79.9 degrees so for sure time to head south. We sailed 50 miles back south to Muertos and watched the weather closely. The winds were coming from the north and held nicely for our overnight Sea of Cortez crossing Thursday/ Friday, headed for Mazatlan.

Plans for Dec, Jan, and Feb: We will be combing the mainland coast, North and South with the winds from Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Barra De Navidad. Our adult children and parents will join us for a warm winter vacation as well.. We of course will stay in our honeymoon spot anchored in Zihuatanejo. There is an International Guitar Festival which is full of culture and live music. Come join us for this week of fun if its your thing!

We sailed south from Ensenada to Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortuga) at
17-25 knots with large swells keeping us on our toes. We threw out our lines and must have sailed through a 1 mile long school of Bonita- catching and releasing 46, 12 to 14 inch fish. These are not very tasty so we don’t keep them. I am happy to see them wildly swim off.
The next leg we sailed south 230 miles to Bahia de Santa Maria . The water is just getting warmer and sweat shirts have been packed away. Caught one small tuna and a 3 and 1/2 foot Yellow Tail Tuna! Now this made for some very delicious sushi meals!

For our final leg of the BajaHaha Rally we had 3-4 fishing lines out all day, about 9 hours. A few little hits but nothing to reel in,because “fishing isn’t always catching!”

We nights sailed right into the large, crowded bay of Cabo San Lucas.
Resting and recouping was much needed with friends and a few margaritas. We are still pinching ourselves that we’re here and floating in (very salty) 85 degree water. The sights are amazing and the nightlife is endless.

Night Sailing; what a trippy and spooky new experience for us. All of our senses are hightened to the fullest, because it’s damn dark out here! Every little noise keeps us on our toes: waves, hull splashes, wind in our sails, rigging, water foaming at our stern, the creaking of drawyers and hinges in the galley, or a random hallyard clanging the mast. We also hear various ships using the VHF radio. San Diego had many military announcements round the clock. Ensenada had shrimp boaters and fisherman rambling quickly in Spanish. When in Bahia de Santa Maria we primarily heard our new sailing friends chattering about where they will anchor or what’s cooking for breakfast. We hail nearby sailing vessels that we know, asking if they have reefed their main, put away the whisker pole and/or furled their jib. “Sea Bella, Sea Bella, Sea Bella calling Reverence, over”… “change to channel 62”. One night, we discussed the waxing sliver of orange moon setting on the horizon. I have never seen such brilliant stars, millions of stars just above brightening the pitch black sky. The biggest challenge of night sailing for me is sleeping. We rotate night watches every few hours, while the others try to sleep down below (the various sounds and rock n rolling is much less though if you sleep outdoors in the cockpit). The person on ‘the watch’ glances at the chart plotter screen for navigation. Always checking waypoints and rum lines. We look for other boats, weather and/or objects on our radar. We regularly peek at the wind direction and speed indicator, as accurate sailing is very important for boat speed and maintaining full sails. Watching depth wasn’t critical on this leg, as it is extremely deep 20 miles off the Baja coast, averaging hundreds of fathoms, I guess. We have had fun watching one nautical guage monitoring the water temperature as we were sailing down the coast. The temperature in Morro Bay when we left was 59 degrees and Cabo San Lucas just turned 84! Since we were Hobie racers for so long, watching boat speed is habit. We get a thrill when Sea Bella reaches 10 knots on a downwind sail, surfing the 10 foot waves! We also like to log our latitude and longitude every hour, and it was exciting to close in and cross the Tropic of Capricorn. But, the biggest mystery is to see how many squid have jumped up on deck by first light, Andrew and Jane Weeks counted about 19. Other friends collected squid and fried them up for a sunrise breakfast!

Tonga is so different! So many caves!
The first video below shows us snorkeling in Swallows Cave and then diving in Shark Tooth Cave which we we entered 40 feet down. We were back in the cave about 100 yards and Kathy finally pulled on Scotts fin and motioned to she didn’t want to go back any further. Agreed, as it was getting a bit tight and our lights weren’t near good enough for how dark it was. 🙂
We had wet suits on, but it’s more for the protection against the walls vs the sea temperature.

Camp fires, friends and exploration are the daily fix. We even snapped a shot of Patrick Star from Sponge Bob in the wild for our kids.

Back to town in the next few days to get ready for our guests Denny and Susan Osburn. Mixing our old friends with our new friends in these exotic locations is just so cool!

These last few weeks have been busy with more boat prep, planning, socializing, halloween’ing, and of course more eating!! We also squeezed in a flight to El Paso, Texas to visit Scott’s family. We became official residents there as well, complete with new driver’s licenses. Monday, 11/1, we will head South, 750 nautical miles to Cabo San Lucas, stopping 2-3 times along the way for the night. We will sail with the BajaHaha Rally with 190 other sailboats. Each boat has 3-8 excited sailors anxiously waiting to depart. Our Hobie friends Andrew and Jane will join us for this fun adventure. After that, we may head up to La Paz or cross to Mazatlan or Puerta Vallarta (depending on the wind) then on South to Barra Navidad. Our kids and Kathy’s parents will fly down to visit us. Our playground will be the beautiful waters and anchorages of Mexico for a year or two.

“What have we been up to these last 2 weeks?” Pictures tell it all! Mainly eating well, enjoying retirement, sailing, eating well, hanging with new friends, fishing, eating well, boat projects, and loving life on the water.

“What have we been up to these last 2 weeks?” Pictures tell it all! Mainly eating well, enjoying retirement, sailing, eating well, hanging with new friends, fishing, eating well, boat projects, and loving life on the water.

This beach, which is 30 miles south of Ensenada, MX, has natural hot springs that boil up in the sand at low tide!!!
You dig a hole at low tide and it fills in with super hot water. So hot in fact that you can’t dig too deep or it scalds your feet….quickly. The trick was to dig close to the surf so that the incidental wave would cool your watering hole. Geology at it’s finest.

This group of folks is very quickly becoming a tight group of sailors. All attending the Baja-Haha Rally to Cabo! Friends, families and crew are preparing and waiting for November 1st. Never a dull moment. The kids sure bring the energy to the group.

We also had a random glider come by and give Mike and Leah a thrilling lift. A young Vaquero rode by and observed our fun.

Who let the dogs out…
We are out of the water this week at La Costa Boat Yard. The bottom is getting painted as well as a few other improvements and maintenance items.
Staying on the boat “on the hard” (that’s a boaters way of saying there’s no water beneath us) is a different experience for sure.
We were walking back to the yard Saturday night, just to find two very spry German Shepard’s protecting the yard (thank goodness Poco was there). We are making friends…..slowly…..with BBQ Salmon and crackers…..tossed from up high.

Living above dirt, wrapped in plastic is more like camping in a tent. All our sinks typically drain out to sea, but since there are men painting under us, we dare not use them. We wash hands with baby wipes. I do do dishes in soapy dish pans, afterwards dump it all in a bucket, and carry it down a 15 foot ladder (ducking under plastic), and toss the dirty water out in the side yard. Scott and our buddy Rhet will be mounting the new whisker pole track on front of the mast Friday and then back in the water Saturday! Phew!!