Take to the sea

The (mis)adventures of two dreamers that do

Passage notes: Puerto Escondido to Topolobampo

This was a great passage. It was calm and it was beautiful and, dare I say it, it was relatively relaxing and restorative. The wind was not as strong or consistent as we would have liked, but we were both extremely laid back and didn’t feel at all rushed by the weather or by or schedule. We were content to sit and wait while the wind figured out if it wanted to blow from the north, or the west, or the northwest, or the south, or the southeast, or the southwest, or all of the above in 15 minute increments.

{gasp} . . Shade!

So we’re sitting at Isla Isabel
on our fifth day at anchor. Isabel is a small island about 20 miles off
the mainland, a peaceful kingdom of many races of birds and iguanas that
has remained largely unmolested by man. It’s called the Galapagos of
Mexico. Everywhere around us is a
majesty of calm, open space.

Except
this morning out of nowhere there is also now a large shiny catamaran
with its ass right in our grille. I could spit downwind and hit it.
Guess I’d better put some pants on.

 

Puerto Escondido

Puerto Escondido was a bit…underwhelming. Like La Paz, it’s a cruiser hotspot; many cruisers keep their boats moored here during hurricane season given the good protection from most directions. There’s a cruiser’s club and a morning radio net and many cruisers remain fiercely loyal to PE. Unlike La Paz, however, there doesn’t appear to be much going on. There’s a very small marina, mooring balls throughout the bay, a few little tiendas that are fairly well stocked (for their size) with american goodies (they know their audience and price their goods accordingly), showers, laundry, and a restaurant with internet. Guess where we spent most of our time? It’s a solid 14 miles to the bustling town of Loreto (you can nab a taxi or hitch a ride into town).

Passage notes: Bahia Agua Verde to Puerto Escondido

This was supposed to be an uneventful day of motoring given the weather forecast, but I’m beginning to think that as soon as you start expecting an uneventful day, the likelihood of it turning out that way diminishes greatly. For starters, there were a lot of reefs and islands to be aware of (ie. not run into). Furthermore, as we approached these many reefs and islands, the wind started blowing at about 20 knots (having built relatively quickly) and, of course, it was accompanied by uncomfortable waves. 

Isla Isabel

Birds swarm in the sky

Dot the ground, feather the trees

Raising families.

Las cucarachas

It’s all fun and games until Harmony hears secondhand that cockroaches bite people in their sleep. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, we spotted a multi-legged visitor while cruising around the Sea of Cortez. I picked up some cockroach traps in Los Mochis a couple weeks back and thought they were working (they use pheromones to attract the cockroaches, then kill them with poison). Unfortunately, while washing dishes the other night, I saw several of them just hanging out (the cockroaches here seem so nonchalant, no sense of urgency). THEN when I told someone at the marina about it, he informed me that they have been known to bite people while they’re sleeping. I don’t know if this is true, but I’m not planning any scientific experiments, and I’m certainly not going to wait around to find out. It’s clearly time for our uninvited guests to leave.

The cure for cabin fever

You know you have cabin fever when you decide that it’s a good idea to hike 20 miles (round trip) in the desert to a hot springs. You know your husband loves you when he not only agrees to this plan, but does not once utter a complaint during its execution, however psychotic the plan might be.

I love water-based travel, but I was a backpacker before I was a sailor. I enjoy carrying my shelter and my sustenance on my back. I enjoy pushing myself through the point of exhaustion to a plateau of euphoria. I enjoy when life is forced to the apex of simplicity, where you are grateful for and proud of each individual step forward. Where your mind cannot be bothered with anything other than that next step. There are some similarities between backpacking and sailing…but they’re at there core very very different.

Back to the sea

Jeff arrived on time and as planned last night after a long day in airports and airplanes. I’m pretty glad to have him home and he’s pretty glad to be home. Two and a half weeks doesn’t seem like a lot until you’re a week in and you’re not even half way through it and you feel like it’s been forever (probably because you’ve grown moderately codependent after spending every waking hour with your spouse for seven months).

We will most likely take off today – bound for either Mazatlan or Isla Isabel, depending on how the weather shapes up. A blow is supposed to consume the center of the sea sometime late Thursday night, and we’re hoping to get ahead of it, because after the blow there appears to be NO WIND in sight for a couple of days… 

 

My morning run

Ever since reading Born to Run on our passage between Puerto Escondido and Topolobampo, I’ve wanted to excavate my running shoes from the bottom of the shoe bin, lace them up, and kick up my heels. Since we’re staying put (at a marina no less), this was the perfect time for me to take up running, even if I might not be able to make a permanent habit of it.

I love rediscovering things that I used to love; things that at some point in the past couldn’t elbow their way into my life, despite the fact that they make me supremely happy. Fortunately there are a lot of things that make me really happy and it wasn’t like there was some cavernous, depressing void when I stopped running regularly. But still…

The great migration

If all things are working as expected you should be looking at a new web page! I have slowly been migrating our content from Blogger over to Squarespace and we’ll see how it goes. At this point Squarespace offers us a lot more versatility and flexibility with respect to design, widgets and plug-ins. We’ll probably be dabbling for awhile and going over our old posts to make sure that the information transferred correctly. We also have to update all of the pictures on our pages. In other words, please be patient with us as we transition!