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

Friday, August 9, 2013

Stats and Facts from Our Adventure

Here's some stats and facts.  If you see a highlighted-underlined text, it's a link to that blog post story.
  
Number of nautical miles covered:  12,252 nautical miles since we left San Francisco, CA in Oct, 2008
Fastest speed seen motoring: 13.9 knots, surfing down a wave entering the Barra de Navidad entrance
Fastest speed under sail alone: 12 knots, sustained
Total number of anchorages stayed in: 144
Longest time spent in one place: 2 1/2 months at El Cid, Mazatlan when we were broken down, waiting for parts, Yanmar picked up the marina bill - thank you very much Total Yacht Works
Longest time period spent off the boat in four years:  1 month
Number of times we crossed the Sea of Cortez: 10 times
Number of hours put on engines: 1,819
Most Dangerous ExperienceThe Weather Bomb in La Cruz, February, 2010
Scariest ExperienceRunning from Hurricane Jimena with one engine not working.

Laura's Favorites:
Anchorage: Islotes in Animas Bay near Bahia de Los Angeles
Seafood to catch: Snorkeling for scallops
Experience: Being in a pod of 100+ sperm whales
Town to visit: Zihuatanejo
Beach combing find: Perfect Sea Lion Skull
Best Hiking Find:  Ancient stone hand-tool
Seafood Street Taco Stand: Tacos Estadio in La Paz
Meat Street Taco Stand: Don Julio in Manzanillo - the tongue taco is a life changing experience
Restaurant: El Montaleyo in Mazatlan - lamb tacos
Most amazing thing I saw: Blue whale
Thing I will miss the most: Dolphins playing in my bow wake

Patrick's Favorites:
Anchorage: Caleta Pulpito, backside of  Isla Angel de la Guarda
Seafood to catch: Spearfishing for anything
Experience: Flying the spinnaker
Town to visit: La Paz
Beach combing find: Huge turtle skull found in Conception Bay
Best Hiking find:  Fossilized Shark teeth and a primitive bone spear head
Seafood Street Taco Stand: Tacos Estadio in La Paz,
Meat Street Taco Stand - Rico's in Santa Rosalia - pastor taco
Restaurant:  Can't pick just one 
Most amazing thing I saw: Great White shark
Thing I will miss the most: Good tortillas and no alarm clock

Jack's Favorites:
Anchorage: Not telling, he doesn't want it ruined by the time he gets back
Seafood to catch:  Shooting Barred Pargo spear fishing
Experience:  Swimming with manta rays - pretty big ones
Town to visit:  La Paz
Beach combing find:  A total of 46 rapala fishing lures
Seafood Street Taco Stand: Tacos Estadio, La Paz
Meat Street Taco Stand: Taco Loco, Mazatlan  - arrachera tacos
Restaurant: Lupe's Paradise Resort, Santispac beach Conception Bay - chile rellenos
Most amazing thing I saw:  Bobcat scaling a 70 ft sheer cliff in less than 10 seconds
Thing I will miss the most: Everything - Mexico, living on a boat, snorkeling

Rudy's Favorites:  (Rudy is one of those dogs that speak in exclamations!)
Anchorage:  The Magote in La Paz - great beach!
Seafood to catch:  Blue crabs!
Experience:  Alone in the pontoon with the food bin - three different times!
Town to visit: Zihuatanejo - They loved me there!  They fed me crackers and I was the star of a street show!
Beach combing find:  A total of 1,462 dead fish, lots of crunchy bird carcasses, and a still-meaty dead whale!
Seafood Street Taco Stand: Love em all!
Meat Street Taco Stand: Even better!
Restaurant: Alone in the pontoon with the food bin!  Self-serve!
Most amazing thing I saw:  A swimming dog that kept following me around the boat!
Thing I will miss the most: Swimming every day and watching dolphins!

And the Least Favorites
Laura's
Worst Injury/Illness:  Falling through the hatch during our race in LA Bay
Thing I won't miss at all:  Trying to keep everything clean and smelling good (including myself) with limited water, no constant running hot water, and no convenience machines that do that for you at home -dishwasher, dryer, washing machine....
Patrick's
Worst Injury/Illness:  Putting my head in a spinning metal wind generator
Thing I won't miss at all:  The sun
Jack's
Worst/Illness/Injury: Dengue Fever
Thing I won't miss at all:  Wet dinghy rides
Rudy's
Worst Illness/Injury: Anaplasmosis infection from a tick!
Thing I won't miss at all: Hotpots - bacterial skin infections caused by my thick coat, humidity and heat!