Swimming by choice…finally!
I swear that I wrote this post three times over in my head, but it didn’t actually make it out of my head onto my computer until just now…and we’re already half way through January! Agh!!!! December was a pretty incredible month. We finally crossed the border into Mexican waters after many months of prep work, travel, boat work, so on and so forth. It was a rewarding moment to wake up and hear Spanish as the dominant language streaming over the VHF, to raise the Mexican flag, to introduce homemade tortillas into our daily diet.
A bit weary from all of the work of travel we vowed to take it a bit slower down the Mexican coast, enjoy the scenery, sail as much as we could, stay put long enough in a place to get to know it, if only a little bit. We felt like we were way behind the rest of the pack, but the other travelers we encountered in December were on an even more relaxed timeline…indicating that we were still perhaps hurtling too quickly towards some undefinable goal. We made it to the madhouse that is Cabo by Christmas and plodded along to Bahia Frailes where we celebrated six years together on the first day of the New Year. Much to be thankful for, much to look forward to.
Here are the highlights:
906 … nautical miles traveled
7 … nights spent at sea
4 … nights spent on a mooring ball
17 … nights spent on the hook
3 … nights at a dock
94 … hours logged on the engine
49° F … temperature of water off of the Oregon Coast during winter
70° F … temperatures in Mag Bay where we first went swimming
79° F … temperature of water in Cabo San Lucas on Christmas
0 … number of miles trolled for fish (we didn’t have a big enough hook the whole way down the coast – oops!)
4 … number of puffer fish caught and released in Bahia Frailes (too bad you can’t eat puffer fish)
1 … number of dinghies lost
1 … number of dinghies purchased
63.5 … percent chance that you will stay dry in our new dinghy (based on rigorous scientific testing under various environmental conditions…)
$75 … cost of Christmas dinner in Cabo San Lucas (includes a bottle of wine – ouch!)
3 … number of real showers (all within the first week of the month)
35 … highest speed of wind (in knots) that we clocked en route to Turtle Bay
2 … maximum days that Harmony has successfully gone between injuries
168 … Jeff’s high score on Ascension (any challengers?)
57 … gallons stored in our flexible water tanks
21 … the minimum number of days we can last with our water tanks (we didn’t actually run out…but I think we were getting close)
2.25 … estimated average daily consumption of water in gallons
6 … the number of years we’ve been together, as of Jan 1