Anatomy of an Overnight Passage
This is a play-by-play account of our short overnight passage from Tenacatita to Banderas Bay. It seems like blogs are always about destinations so I thought I would share real-time how we spend 30 hours at sea. This passage was a bit tricky as it involved the rounding of a cape - Cabo Corrientes at the south end of Banderas Bay. All weather forecasts suggested [...]
Bahia Tenacatita
After reading and hearing about a 2.5 mile water-trail through the mangroves in Bahia Tenacatita in this cruising guide we could not wait to go. Especially since there were supposed to be excellent snorkeling and great tacos at the end. We first tried tackling the trail near low water but soon found that we would need a machete or saw to make it through. So we waited a couple of days until [...]
Whale Tails… or is it Tales?
After nearly six month of waiting out hurricane season, we are finally on the move again. We had planned on leaving just after the new year, but weather and a cold delayed us until now. Yesterday we made the short 15 mile hop over to Punta de Mita to get back into the groove of being away from the dock. Banderas Bay is teeming with [...]
Pink and Blue Jobs Aboard
Pink's Point of View Our division of chores hasn't changed much since moving aboard. Mike used to drive us to work (we worked for the same company) and now he mostly drives the boat - he is a much better boat-handler anyway. I've always been the organizer and cleaner. Mike's used to fiddle with things in the garage, now he fiddles out in the cockpit. We [...]
Well that just flew by – a year in review
After buying and moving aboard Camille Thanksgiving 2011 we set sail for Ensenada, Mexico just a short week later. With Ensenada being just a couple of hours from the border we were able to head back to California to easily buy gear we wanted to add to Camille. January we celebrated Mike's birthday, continued installing gear like solar panels and watermaker, got a new dinghy, [...]
S.P.A.C.E.
I am a bit obsessed with organizing. I drive Mike nuts because I'm always "organizing his stuff away". I try to go through one area of the boat at least once a week, reorganizing and tossing things we no longer need. On a boat there is not much space for any unimportant items.Our "garage" is the guest bed, there are boxes of tools in our bedroom, and food and spare parts [...]
VIDEO | It’s not all palmtrees and sunshine
Kids receiving school supplies We now have a SHOP on our website. I know, I know, not another blog with a store... Please watch the video below to understand what drove us to create this store. The video was created by my dad for the "Vacation with a Purpose" section of Travel Secrets Mexico. Seven years ago a small group of Americans and Canadians went to Puerto Vallarta's city garbage dump and discovered [...]
SUPer
After our walk on the beach this morning we passed by the Vallarta Yacht Club and noticed a bit of commotion. We went in to investigate and next thing I knew Mike was signed up for the Crocodile Classic SUP Races.It's named the Crocodile Classic after the crocs that live in the estuary where the races are held - also our current home: Paradise Village [...]
Video | Dual Use Foot Pump
When we first moved aboard Camille, we added a freshwater foot-pump to our galley sink so we would have a backup if our pressure waterpump failed. The foot-pump also helps us conserve water and electricity while at anchor. But we haven't used it much. A cardinal rule of living aboard is that everything needs to serve at least two functions, so our foot-pump needed to become more useful. What we needed was [...]
Ring around the tub
Our current marina is located inside of an estuary. Filled with mangroves and even some crocodiles, the water has a visibility of about zero. It's muddy and coconuts and other debris float by with the tide. Sometimes the coconuts knock against the hull and more than once have we thought somebody was coming to visit. Camille gets pretty bad "ring around the tub" - what we call [...]
The big stink and boat-brain
View from our mast top For a couple of weeks now there has been a peculiar smell every time I open the cabinet under the galley sink. At first I didn't think much of it and tried to remedy it by getting rid of an old sponge and looking for a leak for possible mildew. Everything was dry and clean. Odd. Yesterday I decided to investigate further. [...]
An un-traditional Thanksgiving
Since it's just plain too hot to bake anything onboard we decided to have a decidedly un-traditional Thanksgiving. Not to mention I had no clue where to buy a whole turkey. We headed to the beach at Punta de Mita with the SUP. On the way we stopped off at our favorite taco place in La Cruz to have our "Thanksgiving Dinner". Total cost: 12 bucks! This [...]
One Year Cruise-iversary
One year ago today we finalized the purchase of Camille and moved aboard in San Diego. Thanksgiving 2011 was the first time we woke up aboard. A week later we sailed our boat into Mexico where we have been living and exploring ever since. We are about to celebrate our first Thanksgiving in Mexico and feel more grateful than ever. Many people worry that they [...]
Captain’s License Renewal
Verena said that I had too much time on my hands this summer and it must have been true. I was actually perusing the internet and found a job that sounded like the perfect fit. I believe a lot of the interest was due to the job being located in Hawaii. The small problem was that I needed a “bigger ticket", i.e. I needed to [...]
Provisioning and Lessons Learned
Before heading further south into Mexico we spent three months in Ensenada (60 miles south of the border) getting Camille ready and driving across the border to San Diego once a week to buy parts and gear. During this time I was learning what types of food are available at Mexican grocery stores but we had a hard time weaning ourselves from what's familiar. So [...]
Shade at last
After a year of shading our cockpit with a white, rectangular sheet of canvas (photo above) we are finally getting a real "insert" - the part between the solar panels and the dodger. The twists snaps are in place and today the pattern was taken. Check back to see the final product next week... we're doing something pretty innovative!While we were in California last month [...]
Interviewing the Bums
After nearly three months in the same marina we finally got around to interviewing Pat and Ali Schulte of Bumfuzzle fame for the Travel Secrets TV series (aka my dad's retirement project). This awesome young couple from Minnesota sailed around the world aboard a 35 foot catamaran and later drove a 1958 VW bus from Alaska to Argentina. They have "driven nearly every road in Mexico" and [...]
Free drinks
After finally making it over to Home Depot today and replacing the leaky faucet we walked up to the resort to enjoy the weekly festivities put on for the newly arrived turistas. Free drinks, snacks and a show. It's good to be home after a month in California.
Entropy
en·tro·py (ˈɛntrəpɪ) : noun1. lack of pattern or organization; disorder; chaos 2. order leading to disorder Why is it that every time I get the boat spic-and-span something breaks? It's usually just some seemingly small issue... such as the galley faucet that started leaking today. But since we live in a boat-shaped 38' by 12' space total entropy ensues - in a matter of minutes. To get to the faucet the entire under-sink-cabinet [...]
California
After spending the entire month of October in California we are finally on our way back to Camille in Mexico. We made the trip up to renew our captain's licenses and while waiting for Mike to be able to take his sailing endorsement test we took a bit of a tour of California. Even though I lived in California on and off for over 15 years there [...]
