La Paz!

We left for Los Frailles early christmas morning, humpbacks breaching around us.. then a huge christmas dorado! We had a fantastic feast at anchor that evening. We hung out in Los Frailles for 2 more days, just swimming, snorkeling and relaxing on the beach... playing incredible games of Farkle (the dice-rolling, risk-taking game). We bought enough food for 5 people for 6 days, 100 beer and 3 litres of tequila for about $200 US in cabo. We spent a night in Ensenada de Los Muertos, where it rained (the first me and mike had seen in almost a month) but left early in the morning as we wanted to get to La Paz to meet up with Chris' family. We dug out the fenders and dock lines and are currently tied up at marina de La Paz. Theres showers, laundry, wireless, the works here. La Paz itself is cool, relaxed and authentically Mexican, with a huge amount of cruisers both anchored up and at the multiple marinas. The weather forecast looks great, and Brian, Marie and Taleah are here and having us for new years dinner, which is going to be awesome!

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We've made it to Cabo, lost Bob and gained Chris, Justin and Bea. Mag Bay was wonderful, lots of exploring, finally got to swim! Had a good trip into San Carlos with Norm, a very helpful Canadian living there and managing the budding commercial shellfish industry. Good wind and hot weather down to Cabo... arrived in the evening to buzzing jet skis, cruise ships, mega resorts and blasting music.. slight change from mag bay. A bit of a zoo but the weather was great, now that we've got everyone we're heading to Los Frailles christmas morning. Its a very relaxing, almost deserted anchorage 40 miles away, which me and Mike already checked out last week. From there we'll head to Bahia de Los Muertos for a few days and then to La Paz. Great to have everyone aboard and get the heck out of Cabo! Merry Christmas!

Finally cleared in, heading to Mag bay

Since the last post, we made it to within sight of the breakwater at Ensenada, where the engine quit and wouldn't fire back up. We decided to turn around and sail back to San Diego in 0-8 knots of wind, rather than try to deal with a blown injector tip in Mexico. We made it back in a day and managed to get everything fixed with huge credit to Darryl, Rob and Kim Cross for helping with the engine and driving us all over town for a week! We finally left on Thursday and arrived and cleared in to Ensenada yesterday. We spent last night at Baja Naval marina and today we're setting sail for Magdelena bay!(actually). From there we'll head to Cabo where Bob flies home and we meet up with Chris, Justin and Bea. Should be an easy 700 miles!

LEG: San Diego to Cabo via Ensenada, Turtle Bay

Arrived in San Diego Sat morning, passage was great. Had 20 - 25 nw for 3 days, 8 knot average with the Aries vane steering the whole way. Hit the Catalina's and the wind died! flew the chute, making 2 - 4 knots for the last day and arrived at dawn. Beautiful weather in San Diego, relaxing at the police dock for $10 a day! went to the zoo and fixed a few last things on the boat, and heading to Ensenada to clear on Thurs. The plan is to proceed to Cabo with one stop on the way at Turtle Bay. Check out the Flickr slideshow link in the left-hand tool bar for pictures of the passage!

LEG: Frisco to San Diego

Beautiful morning in San Francisco, heading out today for San Diego with Bob and Mike as crew. Hopefully staying ahead of bad weather. ETA is about 4-5 days!

Journey So Far

Reef time!

100 miles out, 2 gales, 7 days and 1000 miles later, were in San Fran!

Had light north west winds for a few days, sunny and relaxed, heading 100 miles out from flattery. Caught 3 coho and 3 tuna! kept a coho and a tuna, and still had too much fish. Wind switched to Light SE for a day then increased to gale. Bucked into it for 2 days! not very enjoyable, couldn't cook or sleep well, and very wet wheel watches! Boat handled great though. Had a day to dry out and relax in the sun as it calmed down and switched to W. Then another gale! from the NW this time though, wing and wing with the 4th reef in and surfing down waves at 14 kts! 4 hours on, 2 hours off watches, tiring as well. Made 180 miles in less than a day! 7 and a half days later, arrived in Sausilito friday night, cleared customs yesterday in Oakland, now tied up downtown San Francisco. Sunny and hot here, excited to explore the city today!

Arrived in Sooke last night, weather looks good, heading offshore tomorrow! Next stop San Francisco.

Leaving Comox today, thanks to everyone that helped us up to this point! PEACE!