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

Monday, May 31, 2010

One Sick Puppy

Rudy began acting extremely well-behaved around the time that Grammy and Grandpa left on the 20th. He would walk next to us off leash and not run away even with other dogs around, and he stopped begging for food. Patrick and I had a couple conversations about how grown up Rudy was becoming. Then we began to suspect his sudden good behavior was due more to the fact that he was too sick to steal food and misbehave, than a sudden maturity of mind. We didn't suspect he was ill at first since he was still eating and drinking, and his only symptom was that he was just very subdued. The clincher was when we had dinner with Pam and Neil on our boat, and he didn't even try to steal anything!

The next morning, his illness was becoming even more apparent. We thought he was obviously in discomfort and maybe had a fever. We brought Rudy into the local vet in Loreto and found out that he had a very high fever. The vet thought that Rudy had an infection and so he gave him some shots for the fever and infection and sent us home with more antibiotics. Unfortunately, there is no laboratory available for vets in Loreto, so the vet can only use his best guess to figure out an animal's illness.

Rudy seemed to get better over the next day or two, but soon it was obvious that his fever had returned (106.7) and that he was feeling very poorly again. We returned to the vet and got more shots and more meds to take care of the diarrhea that had begun. Again, he got better, his fever went away for a day, but once again this morning it had returned.

So early this morning, we rushed in to Puerto Escondido, Patrick rented a car and he and Rudy are now driving down to La Paz to get to a veterinarian who has access to a laboratory to figure out what is really wrong with Rudy. It is a four hour drive and Patrick will have just enough time to get there and be seen. As you can imagine, we are worried sick. It is scary to be so far away from the medical care that we are used to accessing so easily.

Please say a prayer for Rudy's quick recovery.
Laura

Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Love Boat




Welcome Aboard! We are currently accepting passengers for the Spring Cruising Season of the Sea of Cortez. Our first passengers are my parents, Grammy and Grandpa. They arrived in Loreto on May 11, and stayed through May 20th. During our time together, we anchored at several different anchorages on three different islands. The days went quickly since they were filled with kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, long talks and scrabble.


After Grammy and Grandpa's visit, we had three days to clean, rest and re-provision. Tomorrow, Patrick's brother and wife show up for a week long cruise with us around the Loreto area. There are numerous islands, lots of sea life, and spectacular scenery that make this area a great place to visit, especially on a boat. There are so many great anchorages, that we probably won't even revisit any of the places we saw with Grammy and Grandpa. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. We are looking forward to seeing Neil and Pam!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Almost a Hero, and Almost Dead

Our time in Mazatlan was as short as we could make it. We stayed just long enough to enjoy a couple of get-togethers with Third Day and Hotspur, do a final provision for the Sea since food in Mazatlan is so much cheaper than food on the Baja, and do a final boat wash down with a water hose for the next couple months.

With those objectives accomplished, we were gone on a straight shot to Baja California's Loreto, a trip of 306 nautical miles. The winds for much of it were a mild 5 knots, or nothing, so it was mostly a motorboat ride in calm seas. On one engine (for fuel conservation) we were making about 5 knots most of the way with a little help from the wind, which was mostly abeam of us. All factors adding up to ideal conditions for an uneventful passage - yet it was not quite uneventful.

We left Mazatlan just before dawn, and almost immediately ran into two fishing nets in the darkness. After a quick dip to make sure our props were not entangled, we managed to pull off both of them easily - but it set the tone for the rest of the trip. The next three days and two nights had more surprises in store. We continued motoring through the first day on a rhumb line to Loreto.

At 2 a.m. that first night, we ran into ANOTHER net in the pitch black of the moonless night. It was a very long one, and illegal. We were 36 miles off the mainland coast around the Altata area. Right next to us, trapped in the net was a large sea turtle, flapping ineffectively to free itself. My first reaction was to jump immediately into the water to try to free it, but Patrick restrained me. There was no moon, the boat was perched over the top of the cork line, and the wind was pushing us quickly away from the turtle. Patrick wisely pointed out that I would be lost if I jumped over right then and that our first priority was freeing the boat.

After Patrick's quick dip to ensure the props were free, we backed off and then began searching for the turtle so we could free him. We drove slowly up the net, far enough away to stay clear, but close enough to see it clearly in our spotlight. We could find no sign of the turtle. Hopefully, as we were getting ourselves out of the net we moved it around enough for the turtle to get free too. That is my greatest hope. It is so sad to see first hand the devastation that illegal nets wreak on marine wildlife. That image will stay with me forever.

In a TV show I would have been able to jump overboard, save the turtle and be drying off in time for a commercial break. However, in real life the facts are this - if you are separated from your boat in the middle of the night miles from land, it is very probable that you will die before you are found. I was only close to the turtle for a few seconds before our boat was blown away from it. I had no life jacket on, no line tying me to the boat, no knife to cut the net and no way to make sure that I would not become trapped in the net myself. And there was no time to assemble those items before the turtle was lost from sight. I wish I had a better ending to that story, but this is real life.

After that emotional experience, the trip continued on uneventfully through the next day. We break our watches on JaM up in the following manner. During the day time, we all three do stints at the helm, but not adhering to a strict schedule. Then at 8 p.m. four hour watches start for the nighttime. Patrick takes 8 to midnight, I do midnight to 4 a.m. and then Patrick is back on from 4 am through 8 am.

On the second night, I woke up just before midnight in the first nightmare I have had in years. It was all about alien abduction, and I was screaming in my dream, trying to keep them away from Jack. It was a truly terrifying dream. And then I got to wake up and go sit out in the endless deep black night with nothing around and wait for the little aliens to find me! Boy do you feel isolated and all alone when you are floating around in your boat, out of sight of land and everyone near you sleeping. I was definitely unsettled. And then in the midst of that nothingness, a meteor comes flaming down from the sky aimed right at JaM. I just about had a heart attack. I have never experienced a meteor coming toward my position on Earth, and it is very strange looking. It gave me that feeling of hopelessness like when I was a kid in a baseball game and the pop fly was coming down near me. What am I supposed to do??? It must have landed within ten miles of our position. That would have made an interesting blog post - boat sunk by meteor.

So all and all, a very strange passage. Through the rest of that night and the following day, little else happened except sightings of hundreds of dolphins, of many different types. We saw some amazing jumps taking them completely out of the water. Few bothered to come and play in our bow wake (probably since we were going so slowly) but there were times when they surrounded our boat. Dolphins are always a treat to see, up close or far away.

Now we are back in the Sea, and it feels like home. We are currently anchored off of Loreto and happily awaiting the arrival of my parents who are coming for a visit.
Laura

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Reunion with Windfall and Third Day

Our time with Ocean Watch came to an end too quickly for us - we hadn't finished asking them questions! We did manage to get a lot of good information from them all, so we are now better, safer sailors for sure. It is amazing to be able to ask such seasoned sailors questions like, "What's the best safety product to use in a big blow at sea - a sea anchor or a drogue?" and get back an answer that you can trust. Curious? David T's reply was that he once comfortably sat out 80 knots of wind off of Cape Horn with 30 foot seas by simply heaving-to. I didn't realize that heaving-to would work in such heavy weather. When a guy cites experience like that - you know you can trust his input!

Anyway, Ocean Watch had a publicity event to attend in the States, so they left for the final leg of their amazing circumnavigation of North and South America. With our friends on Ocean Watch gone, it was time for us to start our migration north. Our first stop was Isla Isabella to meet up with our friends on Third Day. After two nights there, we both pulled anchor and headed to Mazatlan to meet up with the crew of Hotspur (formerly the crew of Windfall).

Yesterday, the kid boat "trifecta" of the Summer in the Sea '09 reunited for an all day fest of food, fun and gabbing. Despite everyone keeping tabs on each other through our blogs, there were still too many stories to tell. It was wonderful to be back with our boating "family." Somehow, over that summer together and especially during the run from Hurricane Jimena, we three boats became more than friends. We are all eagerly looking forward to the next summer together in the Sea.