Take to the sea

The (mis)adventures of two dreamers that do

Passage notes: Bahia Tenacatita to Manzanillo

We were originally intending to go to Barra Navidad, on the recommendation of many cruisers (and because there is a french baker who apparently delivers pastries to your boat in the morning!) but we had a solid 12-15 knots of wind coming out of the W, which would make for a nearly perfect day of sailing and covering some miles on our long journey south. These days, with the winds generally being so light and variable, we’ve got to make progress while we can so that we won’t have to rely so heavily on our engine (which can be costly in terms of upkeep and diesel).

Passage notes: Bahia de Banderas (Banderas Bay) to Bahia Tenacatita

If I thought our last passage was slow, then I was in for a bit of a surprise on this passage. We left La Cruz, as intended, on Monday, but rather than going to Bahia Tenacatita, we decided to pull into Nuevo Vallarta for the night. The reason being that as Jeff was filling our water tanks in La Cruz, it came to his attention that one of our water tanks had a hole (thanks to an exposed screw that we should have taken care of when we installed the tanks). It’s amazing how much water can escape through a seemingly small hole.

Passage notes: Isla Isabel to Banderas Bay (Bahia de Banderas)

We actually tried to pull the anchor up at 4:30 when the wind finally arrived…but it was good and stuck on a rock and a shiny new catamaran had essentially parked right on top of it, making it difficult for us to maneuver. You should read Jeff’s recounting of the situation. I have nightmares about losing our Bruce anchor, so I was especially relieved when I heard the sweet clunk of metal hitting our bow roller. I am in love with our Bruce and I never ever want to lose him. 

Amistad

While we were at anchor in Isla San Francisco, we awoke one morning to a new neighbor that must have sought safe harbor in the middle of the night. The large, rusty fishing vessel had a commanding presence in the bay and resembled an angry bug on a leash.

A small cruising sailboat passed by on their way south to inform us that, if we were interested, our new neighbors had sold him some shrimp, 1 kilo for $100 pesos. 

Before our on-shore adventures, I decided to row over to procure some shrimp for dinner, since we had run out of fresh meat. With the wind against me and $100 pesos in my pocket, I approached in slow motion. Four men occasionally peered over the rusted out railing, to mark my forward progress. 

Frugal warriors

Well, our chickens are coming home to roost. Before we left and all along this journey I have been crowing about how cheaply we got out our door. As much as I can, I attribute our success to our frugal product workarounds, Harmony’s brilliant space management purchases, or my financially efficient engineering structures and machines. These are all euphemisms.

Now look where it’s got us.

 

Travel mode

We’re in travel mode again folks…which means that life is just a little bit more full and infinitely more complicated! We’re spending as much time at sea as we’re spending on land and when we get to port we don’t have the luxury of knowing much about it and we can’t stick around long enough to settle in to any real routine. There’s a reason people spend years just cruising around Mexico, it’s a really big country with a whole lot to it! Every day brings new places, new people, new discoveries, new challenges.

Passage notes: Topolobampo to Isla Isabel

After a month of not sailing at all (and one day after Jeff got back, jet lagged, from his trip to the US) we decided to get back in the ring and start our trip south. I’m gonna file that decision in the “brash” category. We were both eager to resume travel and we didn’t really want to pay the marina for one more night. Furthermore, our visas expire on June 6 and that’s when we want to be arriving in El Salvador to dodge the tropical storms and hurricanes that intensify in Mexican waters. Finally, we knew that there was wind…and that the wind wasn’t going to stick around indefinitely.

We left Topolobompo with the full knowledge that we would be riding the leading edge of a Norther that was picking up steam in the center of the Sea of Cortez. As a result, this trip was not a nice, calm reintroduction to sailing, as we had (perhaps foolishly) hoped for. But boy did we haul ass.

April 2013: cruising budget

Another month, another budget! 

One major thing to note about the budget this month is that Jeff went back to the US for a couple of weeks, which isn’t particularly thrifty, but was money well spent. The plane ticket and other transportation to and fro set us back about $950 (filed under Adventure!). Even with his trip to the US, we came in around $2000, meaning we spent around $1100 on other stuff.

While Jeff was out of town I didn’t go out very much and didn’t spend money, except for some groceries and the occasional street food. Jeff was also as frugal as he could be during his trip to the States. Furthermore, we spent a week and a half either at sea or away from civilization, meaning there was nowhere to spend our money (a great way to save!)  

Dirty little deeds

Jeff and I recently changed all of our fuel filters – both of our primary filters on each of our fuel tanks, as well as the secondary filter on our engine. Whenever we handle diesel or oil, we have our diesel rags on hand to mop up any accidental spills. When the job was finished we had a little bucket with our used filters, a small cup of dirty diesel, and some diesel soaked paper towels and rags. Top on my list while Jeff was out of town was to find a place to responsibly dispose of these things.

Extranjeros

I can’t help but feel like a bit of an outsider in Mexico. To which you are likely to respond, ‘no, really Harmony?’ 

Prior to this trip I had only visited Mexican border towns, and usually only for an extended afternoon (eat some street food, politely inspect the trinkets, dispense pesos to those whose eyes and hands are filled with quiet desperation, and return home). I don’t think I learned anything about Mexico in high school. There may have been a call out box of the Mexican-American War in one of our text books, though I seem to recall it being somewhat candy-coated (how gracious of them to sell half of their territory to us!)