San Carlos to Isla San Francisco

Chris and I have made it back to La Paz! We had a great 2 day sail from San Carlos to San Francisco island. Here are some highlights from the sail:

November 6, 2012 - DAY 1
Day 1 was fast, fun and wet. We were on a beam/broad reach and averaging 5 - 5.5 knots. My stomach felt a bit uneasy, but I was holding down my food. We had 2 bites on our lines, but didn't catch anything.

We were doing 3 hour shifts and Chris was on night watch. I was merrily dreaming away about all the food I would cook/eat when my stomach settled down when I awoke to water being dumped on my head. My first thoughts were, "where am? what's happening?"  Then "crash", another wave hit and my head was further soaked. I quickly realized where I was…..in a wet and rocking boat. Ooops, I guess I should have closed that hatch above the settee before going to bed.

Chris yelled down below if I was ok.

"Yes, just wet"

"Sorry, the wind picked up. I'm going on deck to reef the main"

I really didn't want another splash to the face, so I stumbled quickly off of the settee and fumbled around until all of the hatches were closed. In order to reef the main, Chris headed into the wind on a close reach, which intensified the waves pounding into Starship and the queasiness in my tummy. Just get into the cockpit and you'll feel better I kept telling myself. I finally found my glasses, foul weather gear and and life jacket and made it into the cockpit.

Besides that excitement, we both had good night watches. We saw numerous shooting stars and Chris even found a guest squid on deck. Can we eat these little guys?

November 7, 2012 - DAY 2
This passage is definitely what I needed to get back into the cruising spirit.

We've had a truly magical evening. The wind had died down, but we didn't want to turn on the engine, so we were just drifting along at 1-2 knots with the tide while enjoying the sunset. Then we both heard a big "splash". DOLPHINS!!! We excitedly went to the bow hoping for a show and we were not disappointed. We didn't think the dolphins would stay long because we were moving so slowly, but we were sure wrong. We've never had dolphins swim so slowly to stay with Starship and they seemed in an extra playful mood. They would routinely jump and twirl out out of the water like acrobats. I was so amused and excited that I'd cheer and clap for each stunt. It seemed like the more I cheered, the more they would leap out of the water or continuously splash their tails.  "Maybe these dolphins were released from Sea World", Chris exclaimed. We were too excited to run and grab the camera, but here's a picture taken of the sunset right before the dolphins came.

A few hours later on my night watch, I was treated to another spectacular show. I thought I heard breathing in the ocean, but I wasn't sure if I was just hearing things in the darkness and going crazy. Then I heard breathing again and the outline of a dolphin framed by bioluminescence. It was eerie and beautiful to see the dolphin's silhouettes glowing with yellow/green sparkles. They would leave a bright trail every time they zoomed by. I wondered if these were the same dolphins that visited us a few hours earlier. How truly fortunate we feel to experience these wonders of our world aboard Starship.

ISLA SAN FRANCISCO
At Isla San Francisco, we were treated to the best water visibility (40 - 50 ft) that we've experienced. It made for some great snorkeling and playing around Starship.

We also went on a beautiful hike along the ridge of the island.

Thank you Earl and Louise for having us aboard Serenity and all of your generous gifts. Visits on your air conditioned and spacious motorboat were highly luxurious for Chris and me. We've already caught a fish with your lure! We're just hoping for a different species of fish next time!

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Location:

La Paz

Latitude:

24.160317

Longitude:

-110.33405

A Tribute to my Enthusiastic Parents

When we arrived in the boat yard Starship was in great shape, just dirty. We worked our butts off for a week putting her back together and installing new equipment.







We're most excited about our new Hydrovane wind vane. A wind vane is a self steering device the requires no electrical power. It steers based on a relative wind angle (perfect for steady trade wind sailing like the puddle jump). It can also be used as a emergency rudder if something happens to the main rudder.

Once Starship was back together, my parents came for a 10 day visit. Since we had cut the timing a little bit too close, my parents arrived to a boat with no food. Ooops. I felt pretty bad about this, but they seemed to be genuinely excited to go grocery shopping with us and get the full cruising experience.  "It'll be an adventure" my Mom said. My Mom helped me go down every aisle to find the cheapest and best products. My Dad was a supper grocery packer and carrier. We walked to the grocery store and took a bus back to the marina with all of our goods. It's amazing how much stuff 4 people can carry! I was glad that Twinkle was up to the task too.

 

A few days later we were ready to go to Algodones, an anchorage that's known to have a beautiful white sand beach and good wind for kitesurfing. For whatever reason, Chris was determined to sail out of the San Carlos anchorage. We were going so slowly that we weren't even sure if we were going backwards or forwards at times. I pleaded with Chris to turn the engine on and not waste my parent's time. Not being able to control my frustration or Chris, I  went down below to read so that I wouldn't tear Chris' head off. My parents stayed in the cockpit with Chris. "We're up to 0.3 knots Chris," my Dad would proclaim. "Great!", Chris would reply. This sort of conversation kept going on back and forth with the speed very slowly but very steadily increasing.  What felt like an hour later we were out of the channel and sailing at a decent speed. Here's a picture of the enthusiastic light wind crew:

After a vigorous upwind bash to Algodones we were all excited by the anchorage. There was a beautiful beach, a stunning mountain backdrop, good wind, flat water and a cool beach bar/restaurant.

We spent the next 5 days kitesurfing, beach walking, hiking, snorkeling, skurfing and eating great meals. Kitesurfing at Algodones was different from what we are used to, since you could only go a couple hundred meters before having to turn around (compared to miles at some spots). As a result everyone got a lot of practice doing transitions (changing directions). 

We also went to bed really early each night. 

Before Chris and I were even out of bed one morning, my parents came zooming back with a fish they had caught. They just wanted to make sure that it was edible and get fish cleaning instructions. The sierra mackerel made for delicious fish tacos.

I feel like the luckiest girl to have parents that are so excited and enthusiastic about our life on board Starship. Dad, I love how interested you are in all things boat related. You have great questions, useful ideas and are such helpful crew. Mom, thanks for always inspiring me in the galley and bringing/making so many treats on board. You make me feel like I'm doing a great job even if I can never get all of the sand out of Starship or keep her as organized as I would like. You guys are the best and I love you!

Here are a few more pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/chris.foxxxy/KevinAndAnnetteVisitSanCarlos

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Location:

San Carlos

Latitude:

27.9431

Longitude:

-111.063033333

Legal Aliens

We've been back in Mexico for almost 3 weeks now and it's been a whirlwind!

We managed to bring in over 250lbs worth of equipment/gear on the bus with us from Phoenix to Guaymas. Katrina and Brian, thank you again so much for receiving dozens of packages for us. I have no idea how we would have done it without you. Also a random thanks to the guy who weighed our luggage but didn't charge us extra.

We arrived at the Mexican border at 2 am. I was awoken to a Mexican official coming on to the bus, speaking quickly and then leaving. Chris and I looked at each confused. We didn't understand a word. Everybody else got off the bus…so we figured we'd follow. At Mexican customs you line up with all your luggage and press a button. RED = luggage search; GREEN = go through. I was sweating buckets and hoping with all my might the we'd get the green light. Chris and I both got the green light and were so relieved :) Our luggage had made it in successfully.

We figured that the next stop would be immigration. The bus started to drive but a few minutes later we saw Mexican convenience stores and shops. Hmmm….were we in Mexico already? At the next stop Chris confirmed with the bus driver that we were indeed in Mexico and had somehow skipped immigration. How is it possible that you can get into a foreign country without even showing any form of ID? It was so weird. Apparently you have to request to go to immigration. What? Who would ever request to go to immigration? How were we going to get our tourist visas? Our only options were to take a taxi back to border with our ridiculous luggage at 2:30 am and somehow catch another bus into Mexico or continue on our way and figure it out in Guaymas. We decided to continue on our way. The figuring it out in Guaymas part did not go so well.

We spoke to a lot of people in Guaymas and and got a lot of opinions: 

….you don't "really" need a tourist visa in Mexico as long as you keep a low profile

….just go the police and tell them you lost your visa to get a new one

….just go the airport and they'll issue you one (but they could also fine you…)

….if the navy stops you without a tourist visa, they'll fine you and impound your boat

…go back to the border and get a tourist visa

We did a lot of thinking, but all options besides going back to the border just seemed too sketchy for us. I was pretty annoyed that we'd be making the trip again because of the cost and just the principle of it,  but that was really the only option we felt comfortable with. Sooo…. 18 hours and $150 later we have our tourist visas and are legal aliens of Mexico! Yipee!

Moral of the story: If you are taking a bus into Mexico, remember to request a stop at immigration to get your tourist visa.

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Location:

San Carlos

Latitude:

27.9431

Longitude:

-111.063033333

What I Appreciate About Living on Land

My Mum treated us to a very nice lunch yesterday, which was only a short walk from our house in Toronto. As we were finishing I expressed how grateful I was for the lunch. The food and company were of course amazing (as is the food and company in Mexico usually). What I appreciated the most was that we could just walk out of our front door and arrive at the restaurant 5 minutes later in the same state as leaving the house. During boat life, we often arrive wetter, sandier and much sweatier by the time we get to the actual restaurant. The dingy ride from the boat to shore can often be a wet and wild one. I usually relish in that adventure of our boat life, but when we decide we are going to splurge and go out for dinner…it just detracts from the experience if I’m sitting down to eat with wet clothes on from our exciting dingy ride/landing into town. After I expressed how grateful I was for the ease of going out to eat when you live on dry land, my Mum suggested that I make the comment on the blog to give a more well rounded picture of our actual life while sailing. There are a lot of pictures of bright blue skies and smiling faces on the blog. The reason I don’t write more about our boating annoyances/hardships is that I hate complaining. And really how much sympathy am I going to get about eating lunch with soggy clothes on while living our dream aboard Starship ;) ?

I’ve often heard the sailing life referred to as "simple, but not easy". It’s very true! Compared to living on land, our life is much simpler on the boat…but keeping it that way is not easy. For example,the boat’s water, sanitation and electrical systems are much simpler than what you’d find in your house. But having the knowledge, patience and resolution to maintain these systems by our self is not easy. I’m always a bit nervous when something breaks when we’re at a remote anchorage because I know it’s just up to the 2 of us to fix it. There’s no plumber or electrician to call, even if we did have a cell phone. Luckily Chris and I make a very good team solving problems on the boat, with our very different/complimentary approaches. I usually run in a panic to frantically start reading the troubleshooting section of the equipment manual. At which time, Chris calmly comes up with some crazy creative solution off the top of his head. After some discussing, the actual resolution usually lies somewhere in between our two approaches.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t like dwelling on the "not easy" part because I don’t like complaining. We feel so grateful to be on this wonderful adventure together and that’s what we want to focus on. So instead of having a list of "boating life complaints", here’s my list of  "land life appreciations":

I’M LOVING…

• Sleeping well. Going to bed at night with the peace of mind that your whole home will not move or somebody else’s home will not crash into yours. With high winds, anchors that are not properly set can drag, resulting in a few stressful experiences while aboard Starship.

• High speed Internet. I’ve downloaded over 27 days worth of podcasts to keep us entertained during night watches.

• Phones. What an absolute luxury to be able to call and receive calls from family and friends to “just say hi” and catch up.

• Flat spaces that don’t rock. Doing standing yoga poses on the boat can be quite terrifying unless we’re in the calmest of calm anchorages. I’m so enjoying doing standing yoga poses and single leg squats without the fear of falling overboard.

• Space in general. It really is amazing how much space houses have. After living on Starship, every house and apartment feels like a mansion.

• Swimming in FRESH water lakes. So much more refreshing than salt water!
  

And what I definitely love the most is:

• Family and friends. Getting a hug and kiss from my parents every day and being surrounded by the friends and family that I love

Be prepared for a post about what I appreciate about living on boat in October/November!

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Location:

Toronto, ON

Latitude:

43.728037

Longi tude:

-79.404738

Starship at Rest in Guaymas

Right after Clayton left San Carlos via taxi for the airport, Anne-Marie and I hauled up the anchor to take Starship to Marina Seca Guaymas. It was good to know we could still manage to operate Starship without Clayton's assistance.

The bay and city of Guaymas is very interesting, it is very industrial with the major industry being fish and shrimp processing. There is no tourism industry what so ever, since San Carlos is much nicer and just 20 miles north. The down side of the lack of tourism and the industrial nature of the town was that the bay water was disgusting. The water was brown, and the terrible smell of shrimp boats passing up wind could be smelled a quarter mile away. We heard from one cruiser in the area that a few weeks before we arrived, there was a problem at a fish processing plant and they dumped all their fish into the bay. They said you could practically walk across the bay on top of the fish and the smell was terrible.

Luckily we only spent a couple of days in the bay before being hauled out at Marina Seca Guaymas.

Note to cruisers hauling at Marina Seca Guaymas: Bring your own paper roll and painting tape to cover the travel lift slings, or you will have stripes of bottom paint up your hull!

We decided to put Starship on the hard in Marina Seca Guaymas, the least expensive dry storage yard in Mexico, to escape the summer heat and hurricanes. The restrooms and showers at the yard were surprisingly nice and well cleaned. Gabriel, the owner and manager of the yard, was very nice and helpful. He even arranged for a super long extension cord so a welder could do some work on our boat.
It took us 4 days to decommission Starship, and it was terrible! So exhausting in the 110+ deg heat and humidity, at times we felt on the brink of collapse. Boy were we glad when we got on the air conditioned bus to Phoenix!

In Phoenix we met up with Anne-Marie's best friend Katrina and boyfriend Brian. It was great to see them and go on a trip to Flag Staff and The Grand Canyon. We had lots of great meals and enjoyed driving around in her new car (nacho). P.S. Freeways are terrifying compared to sailing.

When we got back to my home town of Harrow Ontario, my Dad Herb immediately put us to work on a deck he was working on by Lake Erie. It was really nice to spend some time by the water again, but Herb was working us pretty hard. Anne-Marie really enjoyed learning about deck construction and how to use some new tools like a miter saw. After a week of grueling labor the deck was complete!

Now we are in Toronto for a couple of weeks. It is great to have a break from deck building, and to see Anne-Marie's family. We will be bouncing around between Harrow and Toronto for the next month and half until we return to Starship on October 10th. So that is us signing off until the next Mexico cruising season begins in October. Enjoy the remainder of the summer and fall!

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Location:

Guaymas

Latitude:

27.9191

Longitude:

-110.8858