It all started with an expiring Alaska Airlines companion fare ...

Turks & Caicos - NW of Puerto Rico

Early in the summer, we had a companion fare on Alaska Airlines that would soon expire. That prompted discussions about possible destinations – how far does Alaska fly? The answer was Miami, so we set a course for the Turks & Caicos islands southeast of Florida for September. We hadn’t dove there since 2005 and it’s an amazing SCUBA destination. Yes, we realized it would be hurricane season, but we figured the odds were in our favor (?), took our chances and booked travel. The sisters who own the bungalow we’d stayed at on Grand Turk welcomed us back with a 10% discount and we would once again dive with Oasis Divers.

First things first - trimming branches on the shore
with neighbor Scott, before Mike heads out

That having been established, we started our work schedules which entailed Mike spending the great majority of July and August in the San Juan Islands teaching sailing with Passion Yachts. I remained in Portland working multiple jobs including with my long-term marketing clients.

My sister and I celebrated our Virgo birthdays
for several days - she's 9/5 and I'm 9/7

Welcome to Wisconsin!

We reconvened in early September and headed to Wisconsin to unite with my siblings after a long time (Covid separation like everyone!). My oldest sister planned an excellent getaway for us all at a really great log home in eastern Wisconsin near tourist attractions, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen and the House on the Rock. Both were amazing experiences, and we had a lovely time together being tourists.

Player piano at
House on the Rock

All of us at Taliesen

Frank Lloyd Wright living room-incredible designs

Then it was back to Portland to pack up for our highly anticipated dive trip. Hurricane Fiona beat us to Grand Turk, wreaking havoc and shutting down the island literally the day before our planned departure from Portland to Miami followed by two short flights to that Caye / key. We canceled that part of our trip and decided to fly to Florida, thinking – in our brilliance – the tropical depression that followed on the heels of Fiona wouldn’t turn into a full-blown hurricane. Bad call on our part. By the time we arrived the next night in Miami, Hurricane Ian had been named and was definitely alive and increasing in strength with each passing hour, turning from tropical depression to tropical storm to hurricane over a several hour period.

Power cat ready to roll

Ibis in the lagoon at Biscayne Bay National Park

Our trip was exciting, short lived and full of changes. We flew back 4 days into the trip, thankful Alaska allowed us to make changes twice on our return travel. On the day the hurricane was making landfall over Florida, we flew anxiously out of Miami directly south then east to avoid the fray taking place all around us. Probably 85% of flights were understandably canceled, ours was not. After a rough take off, we were on our way and all parties happy to arrive safely to our destinations. We had a great time, as we tend to do, just not what we'd expected!

We managed to explore Key Biscayne by car and did a full day excursion via power cat in Biscayne Bay National Park. As the only customers, we had a great time with our captain. We learned great stories of the park, snorkeled and paddleboarded around the mangroves, and watched the storm approach. It was time to call it a day. We literally got to the dock and into our rental car when the rains and winds came with a vengeance, signaling the end of our trip.

When in Rome... appropriate to enjoy a Hurricane
as we escaped from the torrential rains! We got soaked
walking the 1/2 block - first door we could tuck into

Welcomed with his new 
concoction - had to try
one

Support Global Cooling!

The next flight we could catch was the following night, so we headed to Miami Beach for some adventure and exploring. The best part – we were but a handful of tourists on the beach and walking the city streets so that made Miami Beach much more palatable than if it was full-on tourist time! We got sandblasted walking the promenade and headed to Wet Willie’s to get out of the winds and rain.

We are very sorry for the incredible damage and devastation so many people are dealing with there, and consider ourselves fortunate to get in and out without issue.

We’ve just rebooked our travels to next June to use our credits. This is supposedly a calm time in the Turks & Caicos. Time will tell.

We are starting our journey to Mexico tomorrow, seeing family and friends along the way to Guaymas. We are anxious to see the work done on Pura Vida by our great vendors there, who we know and trust. And as we always know, time will tell what adventures await us south of the border.

Painting the cockpit, new companionway door, etc!

The Mexican Navy and a loose screw

 

Anchored at La Ramada Cove

Greetings from Nogales, Arizona. We crossed the border yesterday, thankfully without incident, on our way north to work this summer. We’re stopping along the way to explore, visit our friend in Las Vegas and spend Mike’s 65^th birthday in Reno!

Gotta include photos of happy dolphins!

Can you say Nachos?

After our unintended, lengthy stay in La Paz, we escaped marina life in late April to explore anchorages on our way north. We arranged to meet various friends in peaceful anchorages which brought us great joy. We enjoyed the colorful rock formations of the Baja peninsula, the hues of blues and greens of the shallow waters, the sea life and so much more.  In light of all the adventures, we are thankful for every day.

We chose to cross the Sea to the mainland from La Ramada Cove, just north of San Juanico. Zooming along at 5 knots per hour, the 100-mile, 20 hour crossing brought us to Guaymas in the early morning. Our crossing featured lighter winds out of the east, then southeast to help push us north. With our main sail and jib - and the help of our engine - we chugged along the choppy seas, as often happens on the narrow Sea of Cortez. 

Sunset over the Baja

Sunrise on the mainland

With my choice of first and last shifts, I experienced the sunset and the sunrise, so pretty cool.

With the ‘washing machine’ motion of the sea, we faithfully adhere to the ‘one hand on the boat’ rule, a good practice since every single thing that could shifted in transit. In a momentary lapse in the early morning hours, I mistakenly opened a cabinet and a glass bottle of vinegar crashed to the floor. Truly, a stinking mess. Another lesson learned.

Scoping out our anchoring spot at Isla Coronados

MEXICAN NAVY ENCOUNTER

I was midway on my 7 to midnight shift at the helm. As a reward for achieving the 9:30 milestone, I was ready for my long-anticipated treats of Diet Coke, carrot sticks and chips. Hey, you have to look forward to something when your eyes are staring into the darkness for an extended period, looking for anything weird.

I went below to gather my goodies and came up to the helm to see a green navigation light, indicating a vessel would shortly be crossing my port bow. I checked the chartplotter and sure enough, the CPA (closest point of approach) of that vessel was very close indeed. I had the Right of Way, but in the darkness, you can’t assume, well, anything. So I awkwardly called on the VHF, ‘boat to my port side heading east, what is your intent?’ to know if I needed to ‘fall off’ or if they would.

The response came from the Mexican Navy, announcing their search for a vessel that had made an SOS call. They flashed their searchlight, asked our boat name, how many souls on board and whether we had seen any vessels. I responded that we hadn’t seen another vessel since starting at 2PM. As you can imagine, it was quite unnerving, staring into the blackness and wondering how close I might be to another vessel that perhaps had no lights. They turned off their spotlight and after a few more minutes, sped away. The next half hour for me was rather unsettling.

We were traveling on a waning moon, so the moonrise didn’t happen until Mike’s shift, about 12:30 or 1. At least he would have moonlight for a short time to help illuminate the night. To be clear, the bountiful stars provide some pretty amazing ambient light, but you can’t see very much.

Colorful rock formations abound

Full moon eclipse

A SCREW LOOSE

Part of our spring and fall deal when we reach Guaymas is visiting Family Dental, with brothers Gustavo and Octavio following in their father’s footsteps as dentists. Dental cleaning and inspections are $35 and the experiences are always pleasant. Upon completion of my cleaning, suddenly there was a small screw on my tongue. Dr. Gustavo and I were both perplexed! How was that possible, where did it come from? Of course, I laughed, stating that I always knew I had a screw loose (couldn’t pass that up and not sure with his English that he got my joke).

Since the screw was about the size from sunglasses, I checked my Maui Jims, adding quickly that I don’t put my sunglasses in my mouth, but hey, we were on a mission. He checked all of his equipment and we parted ways still wondering. About an hour later, his WhatsApp message advised he’d found the source of the missing screw. Another life mystery, solved.

And now, we’ve put the boat to rest for the hot summer and hurricane season. Safely, we believe, on the concrete at the Fonatur Marina. Thankful to escape the summer heat already settling in.

Crown of Thorns

Flower pot made from
a palm tree round

The mission at Loreto

Loreto Mission

Pescaderos killing lots of rays

Solar powered tortilleria in Agua Verde

 

Haul out at Fonatur

A Change in Plans, with a Twist of Lemon

 

The Virgen de Guadalupe
is omnipresent, guarding us all;
this was at the entrance to
yesterday's lunch at
Super Burrito, signaling it
was OK for us to depart

As the saying goes about life handing you lemons, let’s just say we made some lemonade this winter.

In February, our inaugural journey from Guaymas direct to La Paz was not the smoothest we’ve had but you get what you get once you leave the dock, even when you check every source for wind, water and weather conditions on your path. We were anxious to get out on the water, away from the dock and start exploring. In that vein, we put up with some unpleasant moments as we made our way south.

Bike and hike to the vista with Trisha! Great view

While en route, we noticed our rigging was suffering from the bashing and immediately scheduled Luis the rigger in La Paz to inspect our rigging. The prognosis? The rigging itself was fine but the support structures of both of our masts (main and mizzen as we are a ketch rig) was compromised and needed what we’ll call ‘immediate attention’. That lead to Arturo and Carlos coming on board to inspect the supports and issue a report. The news wasn’t good. As you might imagine, safe rigging on a sailing vessel is right up there, at the top of the “features” of importance.

Beautiful La Paz harbor facing north

These guys are good at what they do, and of course they were very busy at that juncture. We got on their waiting list which dragged from three weeks into four. Patience was running low and we were making decisions to limp our way north back to Guaymas where our local vendors – the ones who had just built our dodger – agreed they could do the work. Once we declared our intent to cancel the work in La Paz, the local crew suddenly became available and thus we extended our stay in La Paz for a second month.

View from our front window

"Senor Bullhorn" barked names of the next patient

We rented an apartment for 30 days, on the high end of the estimated time of completion, which is directly across the street from the IMSS Urgencias – Social Security/Medicare urgent care facility for this region. It’s a busy place pretty much all day and night and thankfully, the ambulances almost always turned their sirens off on our block. Anxious, waiting families dotted the area at all hours, making this a truly humbling place to reside. You might ask why we picked that apartment – but that’s a story in itself, and as with many of our stories, better told over a beer to share the humor of it all.

Arturo & Carlos inspecting,
view from the cockpit

For those who dare or care, here are the photos of the project. The structure was in our galley, blocking access to the forward berth and the bathroom/head as well. The whole process was pretty amazing.  

Building layers of fiberglass posts

The new support posts for the mizzen
mast, installed in the engine room

Ouch! Compromised old steel supports removed, 
not so great for holding up our 55' main mast

Setup for hoisting and 
holding the rigging

A welcome sight - Sergio
tuning our rigging, post-project

Expensive new sculptures?
How about 2 sets of new fiberglass
compression post bases, ready to install

The apartment was a lovely 2-bedroom setup, with washer and dryer, a land-based shower (meaning big flow with plenty of hot water) and a flushing toilet. Hey, as boaters know, those are game changers. Bigger than our floating home on the river in Portland, we settled into a meagerly outfitted kitchen and made it our own. The 25 minute walk to the marina to check on boat repairs offered plenty of interesting routes which we traversed daily.

Celebrating our move
back on board, with
incredible
Chateaubriand

Since we were ‘stuck’ in paradise for this extended period, and Mike’s L knee was bothering him – extensive kneeling with installation of the windlass, inverter and ongoing engine room projects – we thought of the orthopedic surgeon who inspected my back two years ago with the cyst issue. (Side note, that cyst remains although it shrunk and I am so glad I didn’t have invasive back surgery.)

Mike had arthroscopic knee surgery on March 7^th. All went smoothly with Dr. de la Toba (ortho) and Dr. Perla (physical therapy) and Mike just completed his weeks of physical therapy. He’s doing great! Rafael and the PT crew were helpful and challenged his repair capabilities, in a good way.

We moved back on board on Tuesday 4/26 and watched as they finished the job. Our rental was up and we needed to move. That day, Arturo and Carlos completed the repair work, which entailed several steps: removed the inside setup they installed to lift the masts and access the repair areas, built new structures from layers of fiberglass, reinstalled the two large sections of floor they removed and cleaned up the fiberglass residue as much as possible. We had the rigging tuned, all good. We also had our jib repaired and Mike put that up yesterday in the light morning breeze.

We are ready to depart La Paz and have an expedited trip north to Guaymas, Sonora, once again crossing the Sea of Cortez to store Pura Vida in the yard and head back to work in Portland by early June.

There are many amazing murals throughout La Paz

Happily afloat on arrival in La Paz. Nice dodger!

Trimming bouganvilla in the hot afternoon sun

Statuary in el centro, La Paz

Spring flowers abound

While this wasn’t what we’d expected from our ‘winter getaway’ we can’t say enough how thankful we are for everything. We have been blessed with professional repair staff, friends who we visited with on their way through town, the many nice people at the marina and places we visited, all within walking or a short Didi/Uber ride away. As time went on, Mike could join in the walking, dropping one then the second crutch as PT strengthened his leg.

We experienced so much more about Mexican culture and local traditions by living in a busy neighborhood and becoming part of their community. These weeks brought us closer to the realities the locals face.

I made several visits to
the cathedral along the
daily walks, plenty
 to be thankful for

Always fresh,
beautiful flowers

Youth group outside the cathedral on Easter

Earth Day commemoration on the malecon

Our tri-color heron

View from the stern of our boat to the marina