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

San Carlos - A Pleasant Surprise

When we left Santa Rosalia, we headed eighty miles north to San Francisquito. The first day of the trip consisted of calm winds so we motored all the way to Punta Trinidad (about half way). During this leg of the trip we had more fishing action than the rest of our 5 months combined. Someone had thrown the "switch" we had been hearing about to start the good fishing season apparently.

First Dorado

We caught a 32" Dorado, which was quite exciting to real in compared to our previous skip jacks. Somehow Anne-Marie convinced me that we should put the lures back in, since we could handle one more fish. Despite my better judgement I agreed and we reset the reel and hand line. Thirty minutes later we had two more Dorado on the line simultaneously! One on the reel and one on the hand line. Catching two at the same time hadn't even occurred to me, since our usual problem was never catching anything!

Second Dorado!

The Dorado on the hand line was even bigger, at 36"! Clay pulled it in with ease on the 200lb test hand line. The one on the reel was another story. It was whipping the line off the reel even at maximum resistance. It took all we had to make any progress against it. "Luckily", it solved our problem of too much fish by breaking the line and escaping. It must of been massive, as novice fishermen we should have let it get more exhausted before reeling it in so aggressively... you live you learn you loose lures.

From Punta Trinidad to San Francisquito was uneventful, and we enjoyed a couple days there waiting for a weather window to cross the Sea of Cortez (approximately 80 miles). There are a lot of thunder storms this time of year on the mainland side, and it is best to avoid them while crossing. One day we got up at midnight to inspect the thunder bumper situation, that is what Geary the local weather man calls thunder storms, and it looked relatively calm. We took off into the night at about 1:30AM and had a 16 hour crossing to the mainland. The weather forecast was a bit off unfortunately, and we ended up pounding into the waves all the way there on a close haul (30 degrees off the wind), as opposed to the more comfortable close reach (45-50 degrees off the wind) which was forecast.

Hiking at San Francisquito

The poor weather forecast may have actually been to our benefit though, as we may not have visited some really amazing anchorages north of San Carlos if the wind hadn't blown us more north. Most of the people we have spoken to during our time cruising have told us that there is not much happening on the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez (from Mazatlan north). Which is certainly true when one just looks at the number of anchorages on the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez, but the two anchorages we visited were right up there with the best the Baja peninsula has to offer.

The anchorages we went to were Las Cocinas, and San Pedro. Both had the best water visibility we had seen in the Sea of Cortez so far, and had beautiful red rock formations along the shore. We look forward to sharing this area with Anne-Marie's parents when they come to visit in October.

Las Cocinas 

Sea Caves at Bahia San Pedro

Red rocks at sunset Bahia San Pedro

Sunset Bahia San Pedro

Clay and Starship

Right now we are in San Carlos doing boat projects and preparing to put Starship to bed for the summer. We are getting out just in time (perhaps a little too late!), as the heat is getting excruciating. Even the simplest of boat projects results in sweat streaming off your body. The other day I was just unscrewing our SSB (4 screws), and I was soaked in sweat! That was at 7:30AM... we took the rest of the day off.

Opie enjoys San Carlos! 

We look forward to spending a couple of months back in Canada visiting family and friends. That way we will miss the worst of the hurricane season, and the best of summer/fall in Canada. In mid October the journey will continue, as we explore the Pacific coast of mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatanejo, etc...) before jumping the puddle.

For more pictures of our trip to San Carlos, checkout the Picasa album (click picture or link below):

Santa Rosalia to San Carlos

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Location:

San Carlos, Mexico

Latitude:

27.9426

Longitude:

-111.0637