Hello!

Welcome to our mid-life crisis! These are the chronicles of Laura and Patrick, their young son Jack, and their goofball Labrador Retriever named Evinrude (Rudy), as they travelled the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific coast of mainland Mexico in their catamaran. We went cruising in search of a change of pace, a closer knit family, and peace of mind. We found all three and more. The fun all started in October, 2008 and nearly four years later the Mexican adventure came to an end August 3rd, 2012. With our mid-life crisis cured in Mexico, we are excited to start a new adventure - life back in America.

Candeleros Chico

Candeleros Chico
Just another beautiful day at anchor on the Baja. 2010

Dolphins at play in the bow wake 2011

Dolphins at play in the bow wake  2011

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Leaving El Cid

It is hard to leave such a comfortable, friendly, beautiful marina, but the time has come. Our sister in law Pam is comfortably settled in her new home, an amazing amount of upgrades and maintenance work has been completed on Just a Minute, and we are mostly recovered from a bout of flu that struck Patrick and myself this last week. Of course, there is word of a storm hitting California that may make the seas a bit lumpy, so we will make our first stop just to Stone Island, an anchorage at the south end of Mazatlan, to visit with Pam in her new home. After the storm blows over, we hope to be quickly heading south to the Banderas Bay area near Puerto Vallarta. New adventures await! We have heard wonderful things about La Cruz and we are excited to find out for ourselves.

We will be leaving Windfall here in Mazatlan. After a year of cruising on their 35 foot Cal, they have decided their family of four and dog need a little more room. So they bought a bigger boat here in Mazatlan and are currently working hard to get it ready for cruising and to get Windfall ready to be sold. They plan to be finished in time to cruise in the north Sea of Cortez over hurricane season. However, our friends Third Day and Totem are further south and we are looking forward to reuniting with them. In this new life, we have met so many wonderful people that where ever we end up, we always have friends waiting.
Cheers,
Laura

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Hanging on the Beach

Our boat projects continue on, often interrupted by lots of diversions. All of the stainless on the boat has been polished and waxed (me), upgraded engine alternators installed (Patrick and Juniata's Dave), plastic windows polished and waxed inside and out (me), WA state required testing for homeschooling completed (Jack), and provisioning (Patrick and me). Of course there has also been lots of boogie boarding (Jack), relaxing in the hot tub (me), laying on the beach (Pam), playing with Rudy on the beach (Patrick), and socializing with friends and family (everyone).

Our To Do List is much smaller but still includes installing a transducer for a secondary sonar unit, more provisioning, moving Pam into her new home, and washing the rigging. We have stayed longer than anticipated, but are trying to keep moving forward. We have accomplished so much already, but the pull to start moving is getting strong.