Welcome to my blog!
Back at the end of 2013 I decided (apropos of nothing) that I wanted to live on a sailboat. Armed with only a copy of This Old Boat and my blissful ignorance of anything to do with boats, sailing or handiwork I bought the first boat I looked at, a mere 3 hours drive + 2 hours ferry ride away. What a great idea!
Luckily the boat (a Cherubini designed Hunter 36) turned out not to have anything too disastrously wrong with it, so with a lot of time, money and reading I managed to get it into a livable condition. And then I discovered I liked sailing and decided to sail around the world.
Well, I got as far as Mexico before firstly Brexit and then Covid scuttled my plans. So I sold Gudgeon, the Hunter 36, down in Mexico and am now back in BC with a second boat, a Rafiki 37 called Sooner.
Deciding what to do next
Well, since my plans to cross to French Polynesia are basically not happening this year (their borders are closed, along with almost every other country in the south pacific) the thing now is to decide what to do next (lots of time to do that while self-isolating on...
Clearing out of Mexico…. briefly
So I got most of the boat projects knocked off, Liz came down and was ready to cross with me (I decided I did not like solo passages) and we did a huge provisioning run, getting two months worth of tinned food We did this by moving the boat to a marina near a costco -...
Preparing to cross to French Polynesia
This post is pretty delayed in me posting it as I got pretty busy, so... yeah. Most of it was written a couple of weeks ago but time to catch up! After returning to Bandaras Bay and having Emma leave, it was time to get serious about leaving. My plan was to leave at...
Bandaras Bay, Chacala and Isla Isabel
After arriving in San Blas (and having a sleep), Boomerang and I went to Chacala, a small Mexico beach town. It's great here, but the swell rolls into the bay and so a stern anchor is needed to avoid being rolled to death once the wind switches....
Heading south from Loreto and crossing the Gulf of California (again)
After dropping off Liz at Loreto (the furthest North I got), I returned back to Coronado Island and met my BBF (best boat friends forever) Jo and Barry on Boomarang and their friends on Hajime. However, not much socialising was done as 30 knot winds swept through the...
San Evaristo and Loreto national park
After leaving Isla Espirito we headed North, to a small fishing village called San Evaristo. This is on a small, picturesque bay with a small shop and restaurant. We anchored to the North of the village, behind a big ol' hill as strong southern winds were expected for...
Isla Espirito Santo and heading North
After leaving Lobos Rock we heading to Espirito Santa which is an island 15 miles North of La Paz. It is a park and so has limitations on commercial fishing, tourism etc. Side note - it really feels like Mexico manages their fisheries a LOT better than Canada does -...
New Dodger
Bit late on this, but while I was in Mazatlan this October I got a dodger (sprayhood for UK sailors, the 'windshield bit at the front' for everyone else) built! I haven't had a dodger since the ratty one that came with the boat, that didn't let the main be sheeted...
La Paz, Lobos Rock and Tropical Storm Raymond
Sorry about the long gap - there is basically zero connectivity in the sea of cortez. I've queued up a few updates over the next few days however! After finally getting into La Paz after a week and a half of misadventure, we were ready for a rest. The plan was to get...
Mazatlan to La Paz, Part 2
Frailes to Muertos Part 1 I woke up from an exhausted sleep at around 4am, and then I remembered - we had no engine. Boo. The problem was that the hole the fuel return screw tightened into the fuel filter (the one half in shown below) had completely stripped...
