Staying Fit while Cruising

When I realized that our cruising plans would have us spending over a month in La Paz, I was a bit nervous that I would get restless. I absolutely love La Paz, but I always prefer quiet anchorages to cities. Part of what I love most about cruising is the constant exploring. What a feeling to turn the corner into a new anchorage and be stunned by the beauty of your new home just waiting to be explored.

Thanks to some great sailing ladies, I found some really fun ways to stay fit (and not feel restless) in La Paz. Sarah (S/V Hydroquest) and Lisa (S/V Molly J) introduced me to Zumba, a type of dance/fitness class. I thought it was going to be touristy, but it's all locals and all in Spanish. I'll never be able to wiggle my boobies or bootie like the women in this class, but I had lots of fun trying. One of the best parts is that it costs 70 pesos (~5.50 USD) for a week of classes!

Stephanie (S/V Le Letty) has been keeping us fit by teaching us aerial acrobatics on her boat. It's an amazing core and upper body work out. We always come back to Starship sore and happy. Stephanie is such a patient, calm and enthusiastic teacher. Thank you for the lessons! Here are some of Chris and my more graceful moves:

Here are some pictures of the pro (Stephanie) at work:

To see some of our less graceful acrobatic moves and see what else we've been up to, check out these pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/chris.foxxxy/LaPazNovDec2012

We look forward to having my parents visit in a few days and spending Christmas with them and my brother in Mexico! We then look forward to exploring the mainland of Mexico (Puerto Vallarta area) with Herb and Michelle in the New Year. Then.....it's Puddle Jump Time :D !!!

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Location:

La Paz

Latitude:

24.160317

Longitude:

-110.33405

Thank You Perla Moon!

Starship has had a oil leak in the old iron jenny for most of the past year. She probably had it long before that also, but just wasn't getting enough use for the leak to be noticed.

Hard to see oil leak between water pump and front plate

Evidence of the leak is apparent below main pulley

One day last March when we were at the islands near La Paz, we met a boat named Perla Moon, with Fred & Linda aboard.

Perla Moon at anchor on Isla Espiritu Santos

Fred is a retired diesel mechanic, and was very eager to come over and take a look at our engine problem. He gave us some helpful tips about resolving some issues with the way our engine was mounted, and walked us through what might be involved in repairing our leak.

At that time, we were still trying to get a handle on how bad the leak was, and whether we could just live with it or not. Fred was the only person we met who considered an oil leak a problem. Most other people would just say "diesel's leak, carry extra oil", but Fred is a professional and doesn't put up with leaks.

Over the course of last year, as we monitored the leak and noticed it was getting worse, we decided we definitely wanted to fix it. We got a hold of Fred who was back in the San Francisco Bay area and asked if he would be willing to consult with us on the repair over the phone and skype. Fred was very enthusiastic about the prospect of helping us out over the phone, and we were very grateful for his advice! Linda also played a very important role in the process, acting as the technology advisor for Fred. Linda would get skype working and download PDF manuals of our engine for Fred to review.

After about five days of speaking to Fred for about an hour each day, the engine was disassembled and reassembled! AND it doesn't leak!! ... at least not from the repaired area...

The gears which needed to come off to replace the front plate (grey)

One can see where the leak was at the bottom of the water pump bearing housing above

Anne-Marie and I both gained a lot of valuable knowledge and confidence in our engine over the five days. We ended up having to take a part more systems of the engine than we initially thought, and have a much better idea of how all these systems work together.

Our leak free engine with a touched up paint job!

One valuable lesson I learned is to not worry so much about taking apart parts of the engine to gain better access to the area you need to work on. The extra work space is worth the time of taking off and reassembling some parts.

Thanks a lot Fred & Linda! We look forward to meeting up with you in Puerto Vallarta so you can redeem your kitesurfing lesson vouchers :)

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Location:

La Paz

Latitude:

24.160317

Longitude:

-110.33405

Mandy and Kevin Visit Starship

Mandy and Kevin recently came to visit for a few days. We showed them around La Paz and the nearby Islands. Swam with sea lions and a whale shark! Saw dolphins at the bow of Starship and Twinkle. It was quite an action packed trip!

They take very nice photos so we thought we would just share a few of them on the blog, as well as a video of the whale shark and sea lions.

Enjoy...

NOTE: Video's only available on the blog, not in the email.

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Location:

La Paz

Latitude:

24.160317

Longitude:

-110.33405

Leaving La Paz for a bit and new videos

We're just about to leave La Paz for a week or two to explore the islands of Espiritu Santo and Partida. We've had a great time in La Paz filled with a lot of kitesurfing, skurfing (pulling a surfboard behind a dingy) and exploring with Twinkle. Here are a few pics:

We've also added a few videos from our recent (and not so recent) adventures.

http://www.youtube.com/user/svstarship?feature=mhee

If you only have time to watch one video, the dolphin one ("Dolphins Play with Twinkle") is the best.

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Location:

La Paz

Latitude:

24.159750

Longitude:

-110.333110

Loving La Paz

We’ve been anchored outside of the city of La Paz for about a week and we’re really loving it. La Paz seems to us to be the complete opposite of Cabo San Lucas.  La Paz is very non-touristy, the prices are amazing, the people are super friendly, there’s an amazing cruising community, the food is delicious....the list goes on. We feel really comfortable and content here.  An advantage of being in a non-touristy city is that we have to use Spanish almost daily to get by. We’re learning a lot and also laughing at our selves for the funny things we say accidently.

Here are a few pictures to illustrate how much we love La Paz…

Super yummy 13 pesos (=1USD) hot dogs

Beautiful waterfront that stretches on for miles (great for runs)

People are super friendly (and not just when it’s Carnaval)

The wind was howling today, so we broke out the kitesurfing gear. The conditions we found were the best ever…. a consistent 15 knot side/onshore breeze (perfect 12 m kite weather), an endless beach and warm water.  On top of all that, I had one of my most memorable sessions ever because I kitesurfed with a pod of dolpins. It was amazing to be so close to the “most excellent creatures” again.  I was just kiting along and looked to the left and saw a dolphin and then looked to the right and saw a dolphin. And this happened for a few tacks.  I pretty much couldn’t stop smiling. It was one of the most breath-taking moments of my life :)

We’ve met an awesome cruising couple (Drew & Shelly s/v Born Free) who have kite gear and some limited kiting knowledge and are eager to learn more. Here’s a picture of instructor Chris in action.

In other news… we’ve decided to spend a year in Mexico and do the puddle jump in 2013. On day 2 of our journey from San Diego to Cabo, we were sitting in the cockpit together. As I watched the water go by, I realized that I was absolutely and completely content with my life at that moment. I didn’t want the trip to end and I was already looking 12 months ahead. Without thinking, I blurted out to Chris “why are we only doing this sailing thing for a year?”. Without thinking he responded, “because you want to have a baby”. “Oh yeah…” I thought… I enjoy plans and sticking to them, so I was hesitant to follow my gut feeling of staying in Mexico for a year, but I’m so glad that we will be.  After all of the money and time we put into getting Starship ready, I’m happy that we’ll have another year to enjoy her.  Also, the more I cruise Mexico, the more I love it here.  The Sea of Cortez is a wonderfully isolated place that is brimming with sea life (and the kiting is amazing). I’m also happy to have an extra year of sailing experience before we cross the world’s largest ocean.

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Location:

La Paz

Latitude:

24.15975

Longitude:

-110.33311