The Beautiful Baja Coast

January 24, 2023sailingsolsticetide 5 Comments

Sorry guys, this is a long one!!!

When we arrived in Ensenada and began to plan the next leg of our trip to Cabo San Lucas, we were somewhat surprised to realize how long the Baja coast is (probably something one would have expected us to know already but honestly, to that point, we had been so focused on getting to Mexico, we hadn’t really considered what we would do when we got here!)!!! We began to look at the stops we wanted to make and had quite a list – sadly we didn’t manage to hit every one of them but the places we did stop did not disappoint!

We left Ensenada mid-day, planning an overnight stop at Todos Santos – we knew that there was some fish farming activity – what we did not realize was that every inch of the protected side of the island is now crowded with fish farms. Sadly, we had to give it a miss and headed out of the bay headed for San Quintin, about a 150 miles south.

We sailed out of the bay in very light wind and it did not really increase for the first day. We had some humpback whales arrive during our first day but I think that they thought we were going too slow and didn’t hang around! Sometime on day 2 we received a message on our zoleo from Dorothy to point out that we had made 36 miles in 26 hours – were we okay??? We knew we were going slow but that reminder was a bit of a gut-punch!!! We finally fired up the motor for a bit to both charge the batteries and to get us a little further along the coast. The wind did finally pick up a bit and then died again. Luckily, our friends on Lunar Bird had messaged to assure us that the entrance into San Quintin was wide open and, as they were leaving that day, they sent us the GPS coordinates for the spot they had been anchored so that we could proceed to that spot if we came in after dark. We finally made it to San Quintin about 11pm and very slowly motored into the bay, using the gps and radar and a spotlight to get us in and drop the hook in about 20 feet of water. There was one other boat in the bay but we knew we were at least a half mile from them so were able to enjoy a peaceful night at anchor!

On waking up the next morning, we were able to see that we had little to worry about with this bay – it is HUGE!!! We received an email on our blog from SV Trouble to let us know that they were the other boat anchored in the bay and to welcome us to the bay! They also let us know that there was a restaurant at the hotel on the beach that served great tacos and deadly margaritas. They sadly left later that afternoon before we had a chance to meet them, but another couple of boats came in during the day. The waves break pretty hard on the beach in San Quintin and we were strongly debating whether great margaritas were worth the probable soaking. There is a more protected inner estuary, but the entrance to it proved to also have breaking waves over it. Abandoning a trip to the restaurant, we tried for a short beach visit in the dinghy but by the time we abandoned an attempt to get into the estuary, the waves were breaking hard on the beach that had earlier seemed to be calmer – should have gone at a higher tide I guess!!!

We spent the next day trying to get some rust spots on our hull touched up and primed but the sea state was pretty high and we were only able to hit those spots that were further out of the water (and I am pretty sure that even a couple of those got a bit of a dousing!!!) It is a bit disheartening to see so much rust on the hull that was so nicely freshly painted this summer (that haul out story is a blog post I still plan to do – just haven’t quite recovered from the trauma!).

After a couple of peaceful days in San Quintin, we left to head to Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay), about 300 miles further south. Tortugas is considered to be one of the only truly protected harbours on the Baja Coast and we were looking forward to exploring the town. We motored out of San Quintin, putting the sails up immediately but ran the engine a bit to charge batteries. We had great wind and sailed at an average of 4-5 knots – except for a torturous 3 hour shift for Owen, where he made only 3 knots to the good in the middle of the night! We did over 100 knots in the first 24 hours which was a bit of a record for us!!! Wind continued all through the second day – the sea state was a bit rolly and it was hard to move around below deck, but it was beautiful sailing and we were gratefully enjoying it!! We woke up the second morning to a message from Lunar Bird that they had found a bunch of dead squid on their deck and sure enough, we discovered 5 or 6 on our deck as well. We would later hear that nearly everyone passing near Cedros Island had squid on deck – we would be really curious to discover why!!!

We sailed into Turtle Bay around 3:30 pm (actually 4:30 as we were now in a new time zone!), setting the hook in about 30 feet of water and enjoyed a relaxing, still, evening on the boat!

The next morning, we headed into shore to explore – we beached the dinghy and wandered around (after being assured by the local who was working just above the beach where we had landed that the dinghy would be safe). We had tacos at one of the local restaurants where we visited with the owner (both of us using translation apps on our phone to make it easier!) and Owen was befriended by her little chihuahua Bridgit – who would smile/growl at her mamma when it was suggested that Owen might not actually want her in his lap!!! It was hilarious.

We managed to grab a few groceries and then headed back to the dinghy to go back to the boat – let’s say the dinghy launch did not go smoothly!!! We loaded everything into the dinghy and pushed it out a bit, and jumped in – before Owen had a chance to drop the motor, a wave came pushing us back to the beach, followed quickly by a wave that, on hitting our now stationary dinghy crashed over the back drenching us, the groceries and my purse!!! I jumped out for a second try – I had hoped that by pushing the boat out a bit further, we might have better luck – Owen ended up in a bit of a trough putting the water to mid-thigh and when he jumped back, another wave came in, pushing the dinghy over me – I ended up on my butt with the dinghy on top of me – thoroughly soaked to mid chest and covered in sand!!! We finally managed to get ourselves in the dinghy and the dinghy off the beach and made it back to the boat – where I very elegantly hung from the ladder trying to get at least some of the sand from my clothes!!!

We decided that putting the dinghy wheels on the transom would be a good priority the next morning and finally had that long-delayed job completed. We once again headed into shore, this time landing at a different beach where a local, Pedro, requested (demanded) money to watch our dinghy. We couldn’t quite figure out how much he was looking for and as he just kept saying more, more, more I got a bit frustrated and left Owen to deal with it. That finally being dealt with, we wandered around town a bit more – sadly we had managed to hit town at siesta time and most of what is actually there was closed! We had much more successful dinghy launch (those wheels are awesome!).

We had been told we should check out Rojalio’s little beach bar so the next day we again went into the same beach (and again dealt with Pedro). Rojalio and his family own several properties right at the beach and he has turned one of them into a little beach bar / cruiser’s gathering spot. One of the other boats was making good use of his kindness, having set up a table inside and storing her sewing machine at the bar so that she could work on a dinghy chap project without having to drag her machine in every day. We were able to visit with a few of the other cruisers and had a lovely conversation with Rojalio. He told us he had spent time in Mexico City but after Covid, he decided to move home – he loves to tell visitors about his town and is working to ensure the beaches and the town are kept clean – it was so nice to speak with someone so obviously proud of his home and to be the benefit of his hospitality.

We headed out the next day, after having installed a cleat for our furling line (always happy to have knocked one of the many items off the still very long to-do list!). We had a lovely overnight sail, downwind in about 15 knots. The winds were a bit fluky early in the morning but we made Bahia Asuncion by about 8:30 in the morning. We fired up the engine to enter the bay and set the anchor and again had “tiny bubbles” causing the motor to suddenly die just as we were heading in to anchor – I did another loop away from the anchored boats while Owen bled the air out of the system and then tried again – and again we were hit by tiny bubbles!!! The third time was lucky and we finally got set!

The water in Asuncion was crystal clear – we could see our anchor in 30 feet of water!!! After nice hot showers, we launched the dinghy and headed into town. Town was pretty quiet but Sunset Mary’s was open and we headed up there for delicious hand-pressed burgers. We had been invited to Trouble for a visit – having finally ended up in the same bay for a bit, and enjoyed a nice visit in their cockpit. Rebekah and Madison had told us about the playful junior sea-lions and we got a first hand experience of just how playful they were as they chased us back to our boat, coming up the side of the dinghy, jumping along-side – we were alternately terrified they were going to jump right in to the dinghy and laughing our asses off at their antics!! Owen was even awoken by tapping on the hull in the middle of the night – apparently, they figured it was time to play!

The next morning, we walked out to the Bufadora Hotel, a lovely little spot owned by an ex-pat Canadian. We had been told that Sherri was the person to talk to to find out about the town – I asked about where we could do laundry and she invited us to come to do laundry at the hotel!!! After gratefully arranging to do so the next morning, we headed off through a bit more residential area to get back to town – we ran into a bunch of dogs, all of whom seemed friendly enough so we just calmly moved through them and continued on – suddenly we realized that we had actually picked up a 3 dog entourage – we tried to largely ignore them and figured they would get bored and head back “home” – instead, they followed us all through town – waiting while we went into stores, taking off for a little run down the beach but catching up with us again shortly thereafter – they literally followed us from one end of town to the other – I am sure we were a bit of a sight – the 2 pasty gringos with their little trail of dogs!!! We finally went to launch off the beach and one of them actually swam out after us – it was heartbreaking – especially as she was clearly not a stray dog (we later heard that locals figure she may have been left behind by a camper or a cruiser) and I would have happily taken her home if we actually had room for a pup on board!!!

We took advantage of Sherri’s kindness and spent the next morning doing laundry at the hotel, hanging it to dry on her lines. We were also able to log into her wi-fi and enjoyed visits with some of the hotel guests. After dropping the laundry at the boat, we went back to shore intending to go to a palapa restaurant that a couple of the boaters had told us about but found the restaurant closed – we wandered around and found what appeared to be a little sit-down restaurant – only to discover that we were actually having dinner at a hot dog stand – pretty gourmet by our standards, but a hot dog stand all the same!!! I had a chilihate – I thought it was a chili stuffed with cheese and found it a bit strange when she put it on a hot dog bun, but understood pretty quickly when I bit into it – it was stuffed with a hot-dog!!! Owen just had a couple of hot dogs – but those were wrapped in bacon so pretty good!!!

The next day one of the other boaters called to suggest going back to Sunset Mary’s for lunch – by the time we hit the beach, nearly every boat in the anchorage joined us!!! We had a fantastic lunch and an even better visit with the other boaters!

As much as we were enjoying Asuncion, it finally felt like it was probably time to move along. The next morning, we made quick trips around to tour Cosmic Debris and Tardis, and then headed to town to pick up the eggs that we had not been able to grab the day before because we had forgotten our egg crates (eggs are never refrigerated here and are often just set out in 36 egg crates flats – you need to bring your own crate if you want less than 3 dozen eggs! Luckily we have a couple of the camping types and try to remember to bring them when shopping at smaller stores.) We were ready to head out by early afternoon but when Owen went to raise the anchor, the fob would not work – we changed the battery and again couldn’t raise the anchor. When the anchor windlass was installed, we had not put the foot switches in on the deck because we didn’t want more holes in the deck – we had instead installed a remote system and use a fob to raise the anchor. After Owen pulled apart the main part of the unit, finding no issues with the system but still not able to raise the anchor, we decided it was finally time to install the back up switch for the windlass (we intend to put it on the binnacle if that project ever happens but put it in a temporary spot inside for now). By the time that was done it was already 3:30 so we decided to hold off on leaving for one more night. The crew of Cosmic Debris ended up coming by for a reciprocal boat tour at about 5:30 and before we knew it, it was 10:30 at night – what a great visit!!! The next morning, Owen realized that the red light was not coming on on the windlass fob – he changed the batteries again and suddenly the fob worked – it would seem the “new” battery that we put in the day before was not actually new!!!

We were finally able to get away about 10:30 am – we motor-sailed for a couple of hours until the wind filled in and then had a great sail throughout the afternoon and into the evening. The wind did lighten a few times through the night but we kept moving along, slower than we liked a few times – but moving. We finally came into Bahia Santa Maria on a screaming reach late morning. The wind was howling through the anchorage so we delayed putting the dinghy in the water. Santa Maria is truly just a small fishing village with a few shacks on the shore but we were eager to get ashore to explore! Unfortunately, the wind kept up all through the next day – even the fishermen had anchored in the bay (and their chatter on the radio was pretty entertaining!). I managed to get my first load of “bucket” laundry done, doing a few towels that I had not done at Sherri’s, and then spent the afternoon resecuring clothespins to ensure they stayed on the lifelines in the 20 knots of wind blowing through the anchorage!!!

We had really hoped to pop into Magdalena Bay as we had heard that the humpback whales had already arrived, but there was a favorable forecast for the push to Cabo, with a really light forecast following immediately thereafter. Not wanting to motor all the way to Cabo, we decided head out – along with Turtle and Lillypad. We motored for the first couple of hours to recharge and then sailed wing on wing for a bit – Owen set up the pole and put a preventer on the main (none of which were accessible from the cockpit) and then headed off to sleep – unfortunately the wind chose that time to completely change direction and we spent the next 3 hours driving out to sea!!!! When Owen finally came on deck we got the sail reset and headed back on track. I woke up the next morning to find us hard on the wind, and we stayed that way for about 40 miles!!!! This was not the wind direction advertised in the brochure!!! The wind finally started to back late afternoon, getting very light in the process. Just as the sun was going down, a family of brown footed boobies came to visit, 6 of them setting themselves on our pulpit and not at all interested in my suggestions that they should move along!!! They stayed there all night, tucking their beaks under their wing and holding on – didn’t move when we furled or tacked. We finally approached Cabo san Lucas as the sun was rising, dodging the outgoing fishing fleet and an incoming cruise ship and dropped anchor in front of the Riu Santa Fe. Owen needed to dislodge the boobies from the pulpit and they were none too impressed to be awakened so early!!!

After a couple of hours sleep and quick showers, the crew of Trouble contacted us to ask if we wanted to go to town to do some exploring – we had planned a day of errands but of course that sounded more fun!!! After a heart stopping trip through the anchorage with pangas and jet skis flying by, we managed to make our way into the dinghy dock without getting run down. We found a great little restaurant a few blocks away from the very commercial marina area and had a wonderful lunch. The four of us then wandered off to the Port Captain office to check in – being about 3:30 on a Friday, the process was quick and painless (pretty sure he locked the door behind us!). We set out in different directions at that point and Owen and I made what I consider to be an obligatory visit to the Cabo Wabo Cantina for waboritas.

We were lucky enough to connect with Gary and Nicki, C dock neighbors who live in Cabo half of the year, the next day and met up with them, as well as Warren and Nancy (other C dockers), back at the marina area. We had a great lunch and an even better visit!!! After a bit more of a wander around Cabo and quick stop for groceries, we headed back to the boat, intending to head out for La Paz the next morning to hopefully beat the next set of northers. We were treated to the Christmas boat parade – though there was some decidedly un-Christmas like music coming from some of the party boats!!

I have to say, I love Cabo as a place to hang out at an all-inclusive, go to town to hit some clubs and get away from winter weather, but after a couple of weeks of sleepy fishing villages, it was a bit much!!!

Time to head a bit further up the inside of the Baja coast (going North again?!) – next stop La Paz!

Entering Mexico – Ensenada

January 3, 2023sailingsolsticetide 2 Comments

We left San Diego and motored out to head south to Mexico – hoping to be able to sail the entire way. Instead, we motored, and motored – for the first 6 hours, there was not even enough wind to put out the headsail. Finally, at about 10pm we were able to put out the headsail to give us a little assist, motor sailing through the night. At about 4am the wind started to build – and build!!! Suddenly I was completely overpowered – I couldn’t release the main sheet and had to call Owen up on deck to help out. Once we had the mainsail eased and the headsail furled in a bit, he tried to head down again to sleep for another hour – it was not too be – almost immediately I was again fighting the boat rounding up – the wind was building and the sea state was even worse!!! We had to tack to head towards Ensenada and that put us dead into the waves – waves were crashing over the deck, drenching us and everything else!!! We finally fired up the engine again to motor sail at a better angle. The wind finally settled just as we were approaching the harbour and we were able to motor in and get the main down in the relative calm.

We radioed the Cruiseport Marina to confirm our arrival and had a tense few moments while we waited for them to confirm our slip assignment – we had had a bit of difficulty reaching them to book a slip and had to delay our reservations because of the delayed part in San Diego so we were a tad apprehensive that we were going to be told we didn’t have a slip!! Luckily, the worrying was for nothing and they came back to confirm our slip and to let us know they were waiting for us. We got tied up and were told to come on up to the office whenever we were ready and they would assist with everything else.

The marina staff truly could not have been better – Octavio got us checked into the marina and then finalized our check in paper work. He then had another staff member, Oswald, drive us to the Port Captain’s office, where he walked us around to the various departments, filling in the paperwork for us, telling us to read this, sign here, pay her… After about an hour, we were all checked into Mexico with 180 day visas, the boat was issued a 10 year TIP and we were ready to explore!!!

We went for a short walk around the marina area that afternoon, stopped at an Italian restaurant for dinner (I know, I know – but I was dead on my feet and wanted my first Mexican taco of this trip to be one I would actually remember eating!!) We did manage to find a Churro cart on the way home and even though we were stuffed from dinner, couldn’t resist the temptation! We were back on the boat fairly early and both asleep by 8pm!

We spent our first morning in Mexico hosing down the boat – it was covered in a thick crust of salt thanks to the early morning surprise we had while coming into Ensenada!! After that we had to head out to get phones set up – I had bought a phone in the US and set up a (thankfully) pay as you go phone plan that guaranteed unlimited calling, text and data in the US, Mexico and Canada. Once we arrived in Mexico, I discovered that my phone would not connect to the local network. I had to on-line chat with US Cellular using the marina wi-fi to try to figure it out (because of course I couldn’t call or use data!) and was informed that while my plan was good in Mexico, the phone they sold me, knowing I was headed to Mexico, was not considered a “global phone” by them and would therefore not work. I asked if I could put the SIM card in my old Samsung (that she had already confirmed was a “global phone”) and have them activate that and was told that they would not activate a phone that they had not sold me – awesome – so I had a phone, but no way to use it. We headed to a Telcel location where we were lucky enough to find someone to assist us in English. She was able to confirm that my phone would work just fine with their sim card (as would Owens) and after a short while we both had Mexican phone numbers and what we hoped would be enough data (maybe not?) – all for less that the cost of the one phone number in the US!

We then wandered around a bit more, found a boat store and Walmart. We started to get stocked up on groceries, having let the boat go nearly empty in anticipation of an inspection when we came in to Mexico (they never came near the boat!), and headed back to the boat for another early night!

In our wandering, we were able to get a grasp of the size of the city – while not huge, it is a bustling city – with almost no crossing lights!!! With the exception of a few major intersections, there are a bunch of stop signs – if we were lucky, they were 4 way, giving us a chance to dash across the street at the same time as a car going that way – most of the time they were only 2 way and we just had to wait for a break in traffic and make a run for it!!! The city appears to spread out quite a way and as we would see later in the week, a new area has built up that could be in any Canadian or American City – a complex with a movie theatre, Home Depot, Walmart, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, Costco… definitely not the sleepy Mexican village we are looking for – but a great stop to be able to restock the boat and get ready for the far more desolate Baja coast.

Neither of us had any idea what a busy cruise port Ensenda is (I guess the name of our marina should have tipped us off). On all but one of the days that we were there, there was at least one, and usually 2 cruise ships in. As a result, there were always booths set up on the Melacon selling all manner of touristy trinkets and always someone calling to you to come and buy here, check out my store, see what we are selling. You had to just push through, politely saying no, gracias, and move along…

When we were going to the Port Captains office on the first day, Owen was excited to see signs announcing the start of the Baja 1000 – and lucky me, the start was on Friday. I will let you google what the Baja 1000 is – but suffice it to say that it is a long, mostly off-road race that includes all manner of vehicles from modified motorbikes, atvs and dune-buggies to souped up vw bugs, trucks and suv’s. Friday morning, we headed over to join the crowds lined up to watch the start, and were lucky enough to see vehicles start from several of the classes – they are LOUD! Owen was thrilled and I have to admit to being pretty entertained!

When we initially checked in to the country, we had been unable to complete the final step with the Port Captain as his system was down. As we were now intending to check out on Sunday, we took advantage of being able to check in and out at the same time. Again, the marina prepared the paper work and drove us over. An hour later the process was again complete – we had another 48 hours and then needed to check out of the Ensenada port.

We then had some more shopping to do – lucky us. We had a cab called to take us to Home Depot and then walked over to the Costco. After completing our restock of the boat, we asked them to call a cab to take us back to the marina. We waited outside for quite some time when, finally, someone came out of the store to tell us that there was not a cab available. Umm – problem – we were 5km from the marina and had a cart load of groceries and it was now dark!!! We were quite panicked!! I called the marina and explained our dilemma and they shortly had a cab on their way to us (did I mention that they were amazing there!?)

The next morning, I pulled Owen up the mast so that he could install the new windvane, and while he was up there, he resecured the spreader boots and installed new Dyneema running backstays. We ran around to find the final fruits and veggies that would get us through our next passage and went back to the marina to do laundry.

Sunday morning was our last day – we went on a mission to find my lime Fritos (need to get stocked up on those!), ended up wandering all over Ensenada again, found ourselves at a Revolution Day Parade and finally made it back to the boat with sore feet! We filled up the water in the boat, grabbed last showers and headed out to start to explore Mexico!

San Diego – our last United States port!

November 19, 2022sailingsolsticetide 1 Comment

And what a port it was!!! We thoroughly enjoyed our time in San Diego – even though it was a bit longer than anticipated.

Having left Avalon mid-day, we sailed through the night in very light winds – every once in a while we would get a teaser of a wind increase, the boat would take off and almost immediately we would sail out of the wind! We were finally approaching San Diego early morning and mistakenly came in fairly close to shore – in the midst of the thickest seaweed we had ever seen (the nice stringy stuff that might as well be ropes!) and a field of crab traps. Navigating through the traps literally required me calling instructions for Owen to go left and right at very quick intervals. Once we made it through that, we made our way to the Harbour Police Dock where were required to have our boat inspected prior to being permitted to anchor in the A9 anchorage.

This is the odd thing about San Diego – there are very few anchorages and the ones that are there are very regulated – some can only be occupied on weekends, most are for only 3 nights. The A9 anchorage is restricted to boats that are from out of town and prior to being granted a permit, you must have the boat inspected, which included verifying that we had life jackets, adequate ground tackle and our bilge was clean. Once the very nice (and oh so young) officers finished their inspection, they granted us a permit good for 30 days (that could have been extended a further 60 days!) and we were off to the anchorage.

The A9 anchorage is located immediately in front of the runway for the international airport and close to downtown. We were a bit worried that the constant noise from planes was going to be an issue but we really did not find it was so – after the first evening, we hardly noticed them.

Our second day in San Diego saw the weather that we had been running from fully materialize – it was windy and grey and a little rainy (not our idea of perfect So Cal weather!). We hunkered down on the boat, got a few projects done and caught up on sleep. We were entertained with a fireworks show later that evening – it appeared to have been put on for a cruise ship leaving port, but we like to think it was a welcome to San Diego gift to us!!

Our second day we dinghied over to Shelter Island where there are a multitude of boat yards, marinas, marine supply stores, etc. We managed to find an amazing hole-in-the-wall Mexican spot for lunch and great maritime book store. Of course, with the days being shorter, we ended up dinghying back at sunset – and what a sunset it was!!!

Our next day saw us begin our tourism spree!!! Our first stop in San Diego was the USS Midway Museum – a decommissioned aircraft carrier and pretty much the coolest way to spend a day. We headed over around noon thinking that if we didn’t stay there too long, we might also check out the Maritime Museum – yeah – no – we were pretty much chased off the ship when they closed at 5 – having still not seen several of the display areas and probably 2/3 of the planes on the deck!!! The ship is literally a small, floating city that would have housed about 4000 people. We wandered into the sleeping quarters, the mess area (where they may also have assembled a bomb if space was needed), the galleys, the hospital, dentist, brig, post office, bank, NCIS office, officers quarters, captain quarters, the engine room – it went on and on!!! We finished up our tour with a trip to the bridge – truly its own aircraft tower! We could have easily spent another hour or two there and it is something that we would (and did) recommend to everyone! We finished the day up with a stop for tacos (and craft beer) and a wander through the Seaport Village – a collection of stores, restaurants and an old carousel near the waterfront.

After such a busy day of being tourists, we followed up the next day with – being tourists! This time we checked out the Maritime Museum – a collection of several ships, including an old steam ferry, a submarine, a gentleman’s steam powered fishing yacht (which was incidentally restored in BC), a tall ship, a spanish galleon and the oldest iron hulled sailing ship still in operation (the Star of India), along with a number of displays. We were lucky enough to attract the attention of one of the docents – an elderly veteran of the Second World War and Korea. He took us all through the engine room of the Steam Ferry – firing this and that up (I truly had no idea what I was seeing but it was cool!) and talking our ear off about a bit of everything for an hour or so!!

The next day, not to be outdone by our two previous days of being tourists, we again put our feet to the streets and headed to Old Town – a collection of buildings remaining from the early 1900’s which have now been turned into stores, restaurants, etc. We did of course manage to hunt down a fantastic Mexican restaurant before beginning our exploration. Once we finished there we took ourselves further afield, stopping in at a few bigger stores (Joann’s fabric, Home Depot, Dicks and Target) before finally calling for a Lyft to get home – it was only as the driver was heading onto the freeway that we realized how far we had gone – turned out we had put about 6 miles on our tired tootsies!!!

Perhaps it was a good thing after three days of non-stop walking and exploring, but the next day unfortunately had a bad weather surprise for us – blowing 18, full on waves in the anchorage and raining. We again had a “stay on the boat” day – accomplishing a whole lot of nothing (which was actually quite needed!) The next day was still a bit rough and we again spent much of the day on board before heading in about 4pm to get our Covid boosters (can’t be too safe) and taking a short stroll through Little Italy – good thing we already had dinner pulled out because there were so many good restaurants there I could never have chosen!!!

One of the reasons that we had stuck around San Diego so long (other than that we were loving it) was that we were waiting for the replacement for our windvane. As the replacement vane was to be delivered to a shop on Shelter Island on Thursday, we dinghied over in the morning to get a few more errands done and to wait to pick up the part. We took a Lyft back up to Target to pick up a printer that I had ordered (and had lunch at a fantastic old style diner) and then took a Lyft back to be back in time to pick up the parcel. Unfortunately, when we got it back to the boat we realized that they had sent the vane back, but had not returned the control cable, rendering the item unusable. Friday morning Owen was back on the phone with B&G and thankfully they agreed to ship the new cable overnight (after first hinting that it could be another 7 to 10 days to get it!).

Because we had not been to a dock since Santa Barbara and had not been plugged in since Alameda (and our water and power situation were becoming a bit dicey), we had decided to take a slip at the Harbour Police guest dock on Shelter Island for a night. We moved the boat over mid-day and after a bit of futzing and visiting with other dock-mates, we headed out to do laundry (a 1.5 mile trip with our little buggy full of laundry bags – I felt like a homeless person!!!). It was (of course!) dark by the time we got back to the boat but I reveled in turning on the heat (because I didn’t need to worry about conserving power!) and curled up to enjoy a quiet night on the boat.

Saturday morning we filled the boat with water and were off the dock shortly after 11. We needed to move back to A9 anchorage and then dinghy back to Shelter Island to pick up our cable that was to be delivered by noon. Originally, the tracking indicated it was on the truck for noon delivery – and then it was updated to “end of day” – uh oh!! We held off as long as we could and then wandered over the mailbox place in hopes we would get there the same time as the part – no such luck. As chance would have it, the mailbox place is directly next door to the first fantastic Mexican spot that we had found, so we stopped in for a taco and were excited to see the Fed Ex truck arrive while we were eating – less excited when told nothing had been dropped off. Finally, after a trip to West Marine and a final hopeful check at store, we headed back to the boat fairly frustrated by the lack of success. We had actually hoped to check out of the country on Sunday and head out for Ensenada Sunday afternoon but we were now stuck waiting – again!!!!

On Monday we were again waiting for our part – the tracking kept indicating that no delivery date was available and Fedex had not gotten back to us in response to our request for a trace. We were again stuck on the boat, waiting… and I was none to happy about it!!! Sometime in the mid-afternoon Owen sent a text to the person who had let us use their mailbox to let him know about the lost part and to ask him to please leave it at the mailbox store if it ever appeared. He shortly thereafter texted back to say that he had it – he had just picked it up and hadn’t realized that it was Owen’s until he opened it – and still the tracking said it was lost!!! I have a sneaking suspicion that the part was actually there on Saturday but had sadly not been scanned when it was delivered. Unfortunately, the part was not now at Shelter Island but was instead at Dana Landing on Mission Beach – we decided that, rather than waiting for him to take it to Shelter Island in the morning, we would head over to Dana Landing and again called a Lyft (thank heavens for that service!). We managed to connect to pick up the part and then decided that, as we were so close, we should go and check out Mission Beach. I had somehow not realized that Belmont Park was at Mission Beach – along with the wooden roller coaster that my sister had insisted I had to ride. I had previously demurred because we had already decided that we had touristed ourselves out and we weren’t going to head to anymore spots in San Diego. But here we were – and the roller coaster really didn’t look too bad when watching it from the front, in the semi-dark… so we decided to go for it. Oy vey!!! Turns out we are way to OLD for roller coasters – I alternately screamed and swore for nearly 2 minutes, getting whiplash at every corner!!! It was fun and terrifying and I will NEVER do it again!!! lol We finally made it back to the boat quite late (thanks again Lyft). It was finally time to get the boat buttoned up – tomorrow we would be leaving.

Tuesday morning we were up and headed for the airport to check out by mid-morning. Thankfully that process was quick and painless and an hour later we were back at the boat to finish up the last minute to-do’s. The jacklines were put back on, the outboard and dinghy brought back up and everything that might fly around the cabin tucked away (we thought!). We made a last stop for water and fuel and at about 4pm, as dark fell (ugh – why is it so dark so early!) we headed back out San Diego Harbour – next stop Mexico!!!!!

Exploring California – Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina

November 3, 2022sailingsolsticetide Leave a comment

Sunset on transit from San Francisco to Santa Cruz

That is a lot of Santas! We continued our exploration of the California Coast, stopping first at Santa Cruz. We had intended a short stop over at Half Moon Bay after leaving San Francisco, but the sailing was great and we decided to push onto Santa Cruz instead. We arrived mid-day on October 18 and anchored in front of the amusement park and just off of the pier. Rolling a bit in the constant pounding surf, we were constantly serenaded by the hundreds of Sea Lions that live under the wharf – they are a raucous bunch!! We dinghied over to the landing at the pier (a beach landing is not even a possibility in that surf!), and wandered around – this is definitely a beach town and other than the pier and amusement park (which was closed), didn’t seem to have a lot of activity. We could see how spending a few days here in the summer, hanging out at the beach and trying out the multitude of restaurants could be appealing. If you are a surfer, it is likely a great destination – those waves which are so intimidating for us with our dinghy are likely great fun on a surf board!

October 19 we were under way again – after a very long wait for fuel (the power boat putting 400 gallons of fuel in ahead of us took a while – sure glad we weren’t paying his bill!) we headed out across Monterey Bay and had a beautiful slow sail all afternoon. We moved very slowly all through that night and the next day (having flashbacks to our departure from Eureka!) We knew that we had weather marching down on us but it sure wasn’t reaching us!! Our original plan on leaving Santa Cruz was to go directly to Catalina Island. However, after so many days of slow sailing, we were quickly realizing that we were not going to make it ahead of the weather – instead, we determined to head to Santa Barbara. I don’t know why, but I had not wanted to go to Santa Barbara at all – some review I had read had put me off and I was quite upset that we were going to have to detour there. The wind filled and died all through the night on the 21st – this was our first experience with offshore oil platforms and trying to maintain a course clear of them and the traffic lane, while trying to make sense of the crazy lights on shore (it was a highway – the crazy lights were vehicles – took waaay too long to get that straight!) made for a long night. The next morning, as we ghosted along to Santa Barbara, both of us exhausted from too little sleep, Owen glanced around and was horrified to realize that the water was full of oil – we were about to call in and report a spill when Owen did a bit of googling and discovered that Santa Barbara has always had an issue with oil bubbling up from underground reservoirs – a problem that seems worse now as decommissioned offshore sites were not capped properly and the natural fissures are leaking more oil because there are fewer rigs drawing it up. Whatever the reasoning it was sad to see (and smell) and certainly did not make us want to go swimming!

As it turned out, we LOVED Santa Barbara – it is a pretty, warm city with palm trees and Spanish style architecture. We found the BEST mercado where I was actually able to buy my lime fritos (I have been anxiously awaiting our arrival in Mexico so that I could get my hands on them!). We spent our first night there wandering on Stearn’s Wharf and then off to a great local restaurant for dinner. We weren’t entirely clear on the why, but there was a group of people dressed up as zombies performing the Thriller dance all over town – we had caught the show on the pier and then had the fun of them dancing all around us in the restaurant!! Day 2 saw us again putting the miles on our feet as we sought out the Precidio – a Spanish Military base built in the 1700’s as well as enjoying State Street – which is shut off to traffic and packed with restaurants, shops and bars. We were sad to leave Santa Barbara but excited to head out for Catalina Island finally!

Owen was coveting this little boat! A business idea for when we get home??!!

We timed our departure from Santa Barbara mid-afternoon so that we would arrive at Catalina Island in daylight – we opted to head first to Catalina Harbour as we were confident we could anchor there. It is so sparse – like the surface of the moon. We walked over the isthmus to check out Two Harbours and can’t claim to be at all impressed. It is small “village” that seems to have been built in the 70’s or so and not maintained since then. Apparently this end of the Island is more geared to camping, hiking and water sports so other than a restaurant/ bar, small store and shower/laundry, there is not much here. If you are so inclined you can spend $175 to have a palapa or $25 for a chair on the sandy beach – otherwise there is a small strip of rocky beach to access. The store is insanely overpriced and the washrooms are dated. We hung out at Cat Harbour for a couple more days, getting some boat projects done and generally just enjoying some down time.

The barren coast of Santa Catalina Island

We finally headed off to Avalon with mixed emotions – we had heard so many good things about it but I was worried it was just a money-grab – nearly every inch of every harbour in the vicinity of Avalon is choked with mooring balls (at $50 a night) – the only anchorage area is very exposed and apparently in 150 feet of water!!! Additionally, the mooring balls are packed in super close and are a bow/stern set up – something we have never seen before. Owen made sure to watch the “how to” video and we headed in. Our first pleasant surprise came when they let us know that their “winter rates” were in effect and once we paid for the mandatory 2 nights on the mooring ball, we were entitled to stay an additional 5 nights free. The harbour patrol boat gave us our mooring assignment and sent us on our way into the packed harbour. Thankfully, he must have sensed we really had no idea what we were doing and followed us in – the current of course managed to take our stern around while Owen was trying to wrestle up the bow line and get the “sand line” in hand – the harbour boat was there to give us a little nudge and get us back inline with the stern line – finally, with a lot of sand and muck on the boat, and Owen, we were able to get ourselves secured fore and aft and take a look around. It would seem that Avalon is where all the water on the island is funneled – there were lush plants and palm trees climbing up the hill. The actual town is just one square mile with some houses built up the hills surrounding the town. It was pretty and warm and just about the picture perfect town we had envisioned! I was sitting in the cockpit just enjoying the show of boats coming and going when the chimes rung to signify 5pm – followed by nearly every other vessel in the harbour blowing their horns – apparently this is to signify the 5pm happy hour and who am I to disregard such an edict?!

After a couple of hours of entertaining ourselves with the harbour comings and goings, we headed into the pier – the boardwalk was crawling with people – I had expected it might be a bit more quiet so late in October but obviously the weekend traffic is still high as is the energy! We had dinner at Luau Larry’s – complete with tiki hut tables – in a front row booth giving us a perfect spot to people watch and boat watch.

Sunday we went back in and walked pretty much every inch of the town – from the Ferry Pier right around to the Casino. The Casino – ahhh – that had been one of my sticking points about going to Avalon – I didn’t want to go somewhere that was geared to rich guys bringing their big boats over to gamble for the weekend. Turns out casino means “meeting place” in Italian and it is not in fact a “casino” but instead a building with an old Art Deco theatre on the main floor and a circular ballroom on the third. Sadly it was not open for us to take a look around in but just a peek of the murals outside and the crazy beautiful box-office was a good glimpse.

Monday we got a mandatory laundry day in, shipped our non-functioning wind sensor back to B & G, and then spent most of the day at the boat. We were planning to spend another few days here – with Dias de Las Muertes events occurring on Tuesday (including a free tequila tasting!) we had wanted to stick around. Our original plan had been to leave sometime on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, we were chatting with some other boats and they mentioned a fairly big change in the weather was incoming – with winds expected to start to build on Wednesday night and those winds to be hitting the 30’s on Thursday morning, we realized that we either needed to get out of there on Tuesday, or we would be stuck until at least Friday – while we thoroughly enjoyed Avalon, we didn’t think there was enough to hold our interest for another week (especially as we noted it was much, much quieter during the week). All things considered, we made the decision to leave late morning on Tuesday and head to San Diego — this will be our last stop in the States and then it is onto Mexico!!!

Exploring California – San Francisco

October 28, 2022sailingsolsticetide 2 Comments

We left Eureka, California at about 4pm on September 30 – bad timing on our part as it meant that we passed over the Humbold Bay Bar on an ebb tide – making for huge standing waves against us as we passed out – it was a bit scary and more that a couple of times I suggested that perhaps we should turn around and try again the next day, but after 5 days in Eureka, we were more than ready to get on our way. We held on for dear life, with the boat completely battened down and finally made it over the bar and out into a messy sea state. The holding on for dear life was just starting! Sitting up in the cockpit required holding onto a winch to be sure you weren’t flung onto the floor every time the boat pitched and rolled. There was virtually no wind to help us make our way through the waves and everything was very, very uncomfortable – not a promising start to this next leg of our trip!

October 1 continued with light wind, overcast skies and cold temperatures requiring us to do just 2 hour shifts. I was down making dinner and warming up when Owen shouted for me to come up on deck – 3 grey whales were headed right for our bow – we were finally sailing at this point, but still slowly – Owen was concerned that if he tried to turn away from them, they would run right into the side of our hull so he held course and hoped they would move away – just at the last second, two of then dove right in front of the boat and the third continued along the side of us, his tail was meters from the boat when he finally dove!!! (of course neither of us thought to grab a camera in that moment!)

October 2 continued the light wind theme, requiring us to motor for a few hours, both to charge the batteries that were fast being depleted as we had not seen the sun in days, and also to get us moving – we had thought we would make the run from Eureka to San Francisco in a couple of days and here we were bobbing along making almost no progress!!!

The wind finally began to build on the evening of October 3 and by 2 am we were running ahead of 20 knots of wind in very sloppy seas. It was a wild, cold night but we made amazing progress!!! We had thought we might duck in behind Point Reyes to regroup before continuing onto San Francisco but come morning, as we were rounding the point, we realized that continuing on would put us at the bridge at nearly the perfect time to cross the bar so we continued on – slowly as of course the wind had died as fast as it built the night before!!

Finally, at about 4pm on October 4, 2022 we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge – what a feeling! For years, this was the “moment” that I had dreamed about and in my mind it marked the end of the delivery and the beginning of the adventuring! We made our way through crazy afternoon water traffic – boats, ferries, wind surfers, kite surfers – everywhere you looked someone was enjoying some part of the bay!!!

We anchored in Aquatic Park – an amazing little protected anchorage that does not allow power boats!!! The Park is used by open water swimmers as a training ground and as such, you are allowed only to motor to set your anchor and dinghies are not permitted to use anything bigger than a 5hp outboard – we loved it!!!! Coming into the anchorage I commented to Owen that we needed to keep a sharp eye out for swimmers – his response was that there was no way anyone was swimming – after all, he was wearing 2 toques! As it turned out, there were 50 or more swimmers in the water that evening – none of them wearing wetsuits!!! The Park is in an ideal location – out the entrance we were staring at Alcatraz and on shore, Ghirardelli Square.

For the next couple of days, we rowed into shore, stashing our dinghy up on the beach (no dinghy dock here!) and explored the City. We checked out Ghirardelli Square (mmmm – hot fudge sundaes!), Fisherman’s Wharf, and Pier 39. While the Wharf and Pier are really just a collection of restaurants and shopping, it was a fun energy and as a bonus, the Blue Angels were in town for an Airshow that weekend and were practicing overheard all day.

We took Friday to visit Alcatraz – what a place!!! It is eerie and disturbing – knowing that not only the convicts – who in most cases earned their way there with their behavior in other prisons – lived there but also the guards and their families was hard to believe. The island has a sinister feeling to it – the jail is cold and foreboding and at the same time, the prisoners would have been able to see and hear San Francisco so close. I had not realized the Island was originally a military prison and only learned of the Indian Occupation that occurred in the 70’s while touring the Island. To top off our visit, the first of the weekend’s airshows started as we were exploring the Island and continued while we took the ferry back to San Francisco.

Saturday we had planned to do some more exploring until we realized how crazy the anchorage was going to get!! By about 11am boats were descending on the anchorage in order to watch that day’s airshow – in an anchorage designed for 14 boats, we were suddenly seeing three times that number of boats and it was very clear that many of those boaters didn’t usually leave the docks – finally with 2 boats anchored within meters of our bow (and surely over our anchor) and another just off our stern, we decided the wiser course of action would be to hang out and watch the airshow so that we were there to take action if our anchor was taken up when the boats tried to leave. As it turned out the bigger show was in watching these inexperience sailors coming in and out of the anchorage all day, as well as watching the harbor patrol chasing out any power boat that tried to come in – the actual airshow was sadly lost in the day’s low lying cloud cover. We spoke to a local a few days later who confirmed that for many Bay Area boaters, there are only 3 days of the year that they might anchor – the opening of the season, July 4 and the annual Fleet Week Airshow.

As we were only permitted to be in the Park for 5 days, we decided to head over the Alameda on the Sunday – we spent 2 nights at a marina and another 3 in an old fish packer’s basin, waiting for some mail to arrive at the UPS store and getting a few jobs done. One of the items we were waiting on, and one of the jobs to be done, was parts for our diesel heater – unfortunately we had not remembered to plug the exhaust when we left and somewhere in the crazy weather we experience before Eureka we had drowned the blower motor for the heater. Owen had tried to fix it but everything was so corroded we had no choice but to order a new blower motor – luckily Planar had them in stock and were able to immediately ship one to us. Lesson learned!!!

We spent a day wandering all over Alameda – while there are not many attractions in Alameda, they do have a beautiful waterfront walkway, meandering between marinas and housing complexes. One of the marinas had a really cool houseboat village. They also have possibly the largest chandlery we have ever seen – Svendson’s had at least one of everything you could ever require for your boat!! It also appeared that they stocked the entire Harken catalogue! We finished up our day of exploring with a turkey dinner on the boat to mark Canadian Thanksgiving.

Once all our mail had arrived we contacted the Aquatic Park Harbour Master to request permission to go back to the Park, even though we had not yet passed our required 7 days out of the Park – he consented and we immediately headed over to San Francisco again.

One of the gripes we had had in San Francisco was the weather – it had been fairly consistently cool, overcast and very windy and cold in the afternoons. The weather at home meanwhile was georgous – high twenties and all sunshine!!! During our stint in Alameda we had experienced some much nicer weather so, as we headed back across the bay and the clouds descended, the wind built and the temperature dropped we did wonder why we were moving!!!

Back in San Francisco we were able to get another day of exploring in, finally getting in a Cable Car ride, a visit to a fantastic local bookstore (Russian Hill Bookstore – so awesome!), a very uphill wander to to the top of Lombard Street (the steepest street in San Francisco) and another steep walk to Coit Tower (where the elevator was out of order, requiring us to climb 13 flights of stairs!!). We were definitely walked out by the end of that day!

Lombard Street – the steepest street in San Francisco

Aquatic Park from Coit Tower – Solstice Tide is anchored at the right of the picture

Resting up before heading back to the boat!

Our final day in San Francisco saw us doing those mundane errands that sadly don’t go away just because we are adventuring! – laundry and groceries and getting everything battened down for our next leg.

Our First Passage

September 29, 2022sailingsolsticetide 2 Comments

When we left Esquimalt on the afternoon of September 18, I think we were both experiencing nearly every emotion possible – stress (so much stress!), excitement, anticipation, anxiousness, probably a little fear. This was to be our first overnight passage with just the two of us and we both wondered how we would handle the lack of sleep, worried that one or both of us would get sea-sick and of course feared bad weather or gear failure that could put us in danger.

We were so not ready, truthfully the boat was so not ready (reef lines? Oh yeah, those were in the v-berth!). We pointed out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca determined to handle whatever was thrown at us, ready for a great sail (I mean we hadn’t actually even had the mainsail up this summer – we were READY to sail!) and psyching ourselves up for the first night…. and we found NO wind… not even a bit. So we motored, for hours. Finally, as dark fell, we found the slightest bit of breeze and were able to ghost along with only the jib out, doing about 2.5 knots.

Owen took the first shift on deck and I tried quite unsuccessfully to sleep – finally I took my first shift at about 11pm – almost from the first moment, I could hear them… a little whoosh off to starboard, and then another behind me and then another to port – whales…. sleeping? A pod of whales had nearly surrounded the boat and stayed with us all night. Through the night you could hear the occasional exhale, reminding you that they were RIGHT THERE.

As the sun began to rise we would make them out, and finally, as they and we woke up, they started to move away from us, rolling on their side, “waving”, one was working off some excess energy having moved a bit closer to shore and we could see him jumping and flopping in the distance – after about a 1/2 hour of this show they moved away and we continued on – slowly!!! It was surreal to have these beasts floating along with us all night!

Finally, at about 11am on day 2, we cleared the point of Cape Flattery and were out in the Pacific Ocean – again with hardly any wind. We kept the main down (so we didn’t need to listen to it flog) and tried to coax whatever movement we could out of the little wind we had. Thankfully, as we rolled and bobbed in the swell, we discovered that the Meclazine was doing its job and neither of us got sea-sick.

The wind did finally fill in a bit, of course on the nose! (did we mention that EVERY model indicated that we would have wind only from the North for the first week or so?). Luckily the sea state had settled out a bit so that even upwind, it was not too uncomfortable. We did keep hoping for that promised northerly that would give us a sleigh ride to California.

^{This little bird arrived on our boat about 30 miles from shore – presumably blown out with the morning’s wind – and hung out for a couple of hours. He was quite cheeky – crawling on my blanket – at one point I was leaning out moving the block on the sail track and he waddled right under my arm with no fear of me!}

We got into a good routine with our shifts – we gave ourselves a 3 hour sleep timer when we managed to crawl into bed – the 10 minutes or so for the person who was last sleeping to get up, dressed and on deck and the 10 minutes to get out of gear and crawl into bed were not factored in – when you crawled into bed you set the timer for 3 hours …. it meant that you might actually be on shift for 3 1/2 hours, but I think this worked best for us as it guaranteed us the chance at 3 whole hours of sleep.

We managed to eat really well most days – chicken pot pie, corn chowder, souvlaki pork chops, pasta, tacos – although cooking (and eating!) underway could sometimes prove a bit challenging – thank heavens for a gimbled stove!

Night shifts were interesting as we moved down the coast – suddenly you would see a fleet of lights on the horizon – no targets on AIS but you knew you were headed for a fishing fleet and would try to drive up or down a bit to avoid them best you can. Then there were the freighters, tankers and small cities (cruise ships). Being able to see those on AIS gave you the comfort of knowing that they were in fact usually not going to come within more than a couple of miles of you.

We did encounter one ship off the Oregon coast that had us scratching our heads – we could see the lights on the horizon but could not clearly determine what direction they were going – they were only occasionally coming up on AIS and when they did, only their AIS number would show. Being a bit concerned that he couldn’t determine if they were a threat, Owen tried several times to hail them, using their AIS number and their location, with no reply. Finally, as we got closer their AIS info filled in and we realized that they were a freighter headed for Vancouver BC, drifting 90 miles off the Oregon coastline, doing around at 2 knots in the middle of the night. Seemingly they had just turned on every light and all went to bed! You know the port situation in Vancouver is bad when they were just parking out at sea off the Oregon coast to avoid arriving too soon.

Finally, on September 23rd, the wind first died, leaving us driving in circles and then started to fill from the North. And boy did it fill – by 9:30pm the wind was 18, gusting 25 – by 2am we were seeing steady 22, gusting 30. By that time we had dropped the main and were surfing with a 2/3rd reefed headsail, doing 8 knots down the waves. It was about a 30 hour blow – we took a ton of water in the cockpit (usually on my head!) and the movement was wild and unpredictable. We could only manage about 2 hours on deck before we were frozen and could only sleep on the settee (in the middle of the chaos that had erupted when EVERYTHING came off the back of the shelves on the port side and dumped out on the floor). Our great record of well-planned and executed meals was lost to a handful of granola bars.

The wind began to die off in the early morning hours of the 25th, leaving a terrible sea state behind – possibly more uncomfortable than when it had been blowing. We were rewarded for our hard work in getting through the blow by dozens of dolphins playing in the surf around our boat, three or four at a time swimming right at the hull and then diverting off towards the bow, surfing in the giant waves that had been left behind.

It felt like we made virtually no progress that day, tacking back and forth at the whim of the wind and trying to find an angle to take the waves at that would make the boat more comfortable. As evening fell that night, so too did the fog – at times we could barely see the bow of the boat and it was so thick it felt like rain. Sometime in the middle of that night I literally spent an hour going in circles as the wind changed directions and died, picked up a bit, died again.

The morning of the 26th Owen was reviewing the weather and realized that we were headed into yet another blow, though this one we would see in the middle of the night, somewhere off the coast of Cape Mendecino (in the fog presumably) – at that point he figured that we just didn’t need to push ourselves to make San Francisco. Luckily we had preregistered with the Roam app and, with the help of the Humbolt Sector Coast Guard, we were able to deal with checking into the US via the app and email and we were able to secure a slip at the Eureka Public Marina – once we knew we could in fact go to Eureka, we made a quick detour and headed that way – finally arriving on the docks a little after 7pm that night – 8 days after we left Esquimalt.

We didn’t quite make it to our goal destination but we did make California! We proved to ourselves that we (and the boat) are capable of handling big wind, little wind and fog. We figured out what needs to be better stored. We have spent the last few days cleaning up, clearing a few things off the boat, trying to dry everything out (still not quite accomplished!).

We did manage to explore town a little bit, making it feel like we were finally getting into cruising mode – we even found our cruising trifecta (bakery, used bookstore(s) and ice cream shop).

The engine oil has been changed, we will get water on board in the morning and tomorrow (barring any big weather changes) we will head out to make San Francisco.

And We’re Off!

September 17, 2022sailingsolsticetide 1 Comment

There has been much to write about this summer and no time to do so – and those posts will wait for another day. Right now, as we sit at anchor in Esquimalt Harbour, readying ourselves to head offshore, it seems more timely to jump ahead to now, the last few days, the next couple of weeks.

The last couple of weeks the question of our departure date hung heavy over us – whenever we were asked when we were going our only reply was a hopeful soon – and as people stood there looking at the deck strewn with tools, boat parts, hardware, paint and the dreaded sicaflex, they would just raise an eyebrow and remind us we were beginning to get late in the season to leave.

We knew, we know – our big plans to get all of our projects done in the first 6 weeks after leaving our jobs and then head out around the island seemed comical at that point. Our initial planned departure date of around August 15?! Ha! As August came to an end and September marched along, the pressure to get things done and get off the dock became almost too much to bear up under. We sold my car (but what if we don’t actually make it off the dock?!), the tenants were scheduled to move in September 15 (so now we really are homeless!) and the jobs on the boat and the house continued.

Our amazing C Dock neighbors gave us a gift to remember during an impromptu pizza party (well now we really have to make it off the dock!) and reminded us yet again what a wonderful environment we were leaving (why do we want to do this again – I am so tired!). We have been lucky to have such wonderful neighbors in our little corner of the marina and boy are we going to miss everyone!

water jugs that will always remind us of our wonderful neighbors!

We finally mopped our way out of the house on about the 11th of September – with outside jobs still to be done and finally felt like maybe we could move along to the boat!!!

In a matter of days, the toerails were finally installed (goodbye to the old worn out rails that threatened to give out at the slightest pressure), the solar arch was finished up, polished and, under cover of darkness and with the help of some of those amazing neighbors put on the boat (not actually installed mind you!). The big dodger project shrunk from a fully fiberglassed and painted finish to “put it together and slap some primer on it – the fiberglassing will get done somewhere” – and so it too was put on the boat (again not so much installed).

Is today the day we asked ourselves for several days in a row and quickly the answer was nope – let’s try for tomorrow. And then, finally, it was time – the jobs weren’t done, we weren’t necessarily ready, but we were going. I sent out a message to a few people, Owen started sending texts and just like that, we were leaving. We got the solar arch installed – all of the other jobs that were “must do’s” before we left would have to wait! At about 4pm on the 14th, we threw the remainder of the stuff that had been accumulating on the dock onto the boat and moved her over to the visitor’s dock. Owen gathered up as much as he could find and fired it down below. As friends and family started to arrive, Owen, with the help of yet another amazing dock neighbor, got the name on the boat finally (Solstice Tide had looked so naked since her name was removed for painting in May), I filled water jugs and water tanks and tried to clean up the deck as much as possible.

At 6:30, having given hugs to friends, family and our favorite puppies, we tossed off the dock lines and headed out of the marina, sent off to a cacophony of horns – even a conch horn – grinning from ear to ear (and maybe crying a little as well).

We went as far as Preedy Harbour on Thetis Island, dropping the hook just as the sun went down and nearly collapsed. It was really happening – there was so much still to do but we have finally taken that big step. We were off our dock.

The next couple of days found us doing a few jobs in the morning and then moving along in the afternoon – first to Musgrave Landing and then to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club (what a mecca of sailing!) and now, tonight, Esquimalt Harbour.

On the dock at Musgrave Landing – a little progress everyday!

Tomorrow we will head out the Juan de Fuca and if everything goes well, we will enter open ocean and make the big left turn tomorrow. It looks like we will have good winds on our stern for at least the first few days, perhaps a couple of light days in there – we don’t know when we will make it to San Francisco but our best guess is between 6 and 10 days.

For now we will try to put away the last of the chaos below deck, try to get a good sleep and look forward to this next adventure.

Us looking more relaxed than we felt a couple of weeks ago!

Here we go….

March 13, 2017sailingsolsticetide 1 Comment

A date has been picked – May of 2021 we are out of here!! No really – we have said for years that we were going to take off and sail to ports unknown – well now we have put a deadline on that.

May of 2021 we are going to cut the docklines, heading out firstly on a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island – call it our shakedown cruise though we certainly don’t intend to stay tied to the dock for the next 4 years.

Once we have made our way around the Island (slowly), we will point the boat south with stops in San Francisco (because who doesn’t want to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge!?) and then on the San Diego where we will wait for the start of the Baja Haha.

On arrival in Baja, we intend to spend about 14 months in the Sea of Cortez – after that the plans are a bit more loose – probably the Marquesas, French Polynesia and then perhaps onto New Zealand before heading home via Hawaii. We may also spend time in Central America before jumping the pond – who knows?

How long will we be gone? Well I guess that will depend on a few factors – how long the money lasts, are there still places to explore on our route, are we still having fun?

We will now spend the next few years tearing the boat apart, putting her back together and still trying to save money and pay off all bills. While we are doing that we will still get her out on weekend cruises and for summer holidays – she won’t be stuck at the dock all this time!

We have started the demolition – but more on that on another post.

tjsailing

Follow us as we prepare to cut the dock lines

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