Just another relaxing day on the boat.

I had a newsletter to 100,000 people I had to get sent out, and I had a deadline of 4 pm to get it done. I had been working on the email for three days. It was 3:45 and I was almost done when I realized I had made a mistake and had to go back into the email system to change it.

We were anchored off the city of La Paz in southern Baja and the wind was picking up. They had forecast thunderstorms, and the clouds were building up large in the sky, dwarfing the city and the mountains behind it. We were in the very same place that only four months earlier a hurricane had come through. You could still see the wrecked boats on the beach a few metres away from us, and the crooked masts sticking out of the water just down the channel where three people had lost their lives.

If the impending storm brought with it wind and waves, at least it was daylight, and if our anchor dragged, at least we could motor away from the beach.

Kai and Liam had gone to shore in the dinghy to get a cheap lunch at the Oxxo - the equivalent of a 7/11. That was fine, it gave me a bit of space to finish off the email. They were suppose to bring back some water for our tanks on their return.

It was 3:50 and I was rushing to finalize the email as the boat started to heal over as the waves built up. I heard the sound of the dinghy engine approaching and voices mixed in with the wind. No worries, I had it all under control I thought. In a few moments I would be finished, I could then go attend to the gathering storm and assure that the boat was OK.

“What do I do with the water” Liam called out as they climbed aboard from the dinghy. “Put it into the water tank through the side deck” I said half listening. Kai came below and flopped onto his bunk. “Can we go to shore please” he said, “I don’t want to be on the boat if it gets hit by lightning”. I wasn’t really listening. You could hear the thunder in the distance. Just then the radio crackled to life: “22 knots in the anchorage” someone on one of the other seventy odd boats announced. The wind was building and the storm was not yet even upon us. Just then Liam poked his head through the companion way hatch: “I have some bad news” he said, and in an instant I new what had happened…

“No! Don’t tell me you put the water in the fuel tank!?!” I said. “Sorry” he said. And then I lost it. With water in the fuel tank we could not start the engine. I had five minutes to get the email finished, the wind was picking up, and now we would have no way to motor to safety if the storm pushed us to shore.

What to do - first, freak out. Not at Liam as it was an honest mistake, but at least to send home the message that we could have a serious problem. And even if the storm blew over, it may cost money and time and a lot of hassle to get someone to remove the water from the tank.

I sat down to finish the email. Now however I was somewhat distracted. I did not know if I fixed the problem with the email I had been working on, and then I saw another one. More thunder, and the boat started to buck up to the waves as if to add to the urgency.

Ugh. That is it. I have to send out the email. Hopefully it all works. A hundred-thousand people getting an email with links to buy something only to find that the links do not work is not a good way to run a business, but my time was up. I hit the send button.

The water in the tank - what to do. I got on the radio; “Attention the fleet, attention the fleet. My son accidentally poured water into our diesel tank. If anyone has advice on what to do I would greatly appreciate it”. Most people were tending to their boats in the storm. No doubt my call made them think “geez, bad timing, thank god that is not me…’. I got a number of responses, the most useful being to drain the water out of the bottom of the tank if I can. The least useful being “Oh Outrider, why did you not tell me you were in town. So naughty of you” - apparently there was another Outrider out there that someone was missing. When I told her that we were someone different, she still wanted to chat.

Liam stuck his head below, “it looks like the storm is passing” he said. I looked out the hatch. Large clouds had obscured most of the sky and the mountains beyond were gone. But he was right, it seemed the clouds were moving in a different direction.

On to the water in the fuel. Liam and I pulled the fuel line from the bottom of the tank, got a jug and a small pump I use for oil changes, and pumped. Water and diesel and all kinds of gooey crap came out of the bottom of the fuel tank. We pumped until it looked like most of the water was out, put it all back together, started the engine, and watched the fuel filter to see what came through. Water, mostly water, and then diesel.

Storm passing, engine working. Back to my email. I tried to log onto the Internet to see if the email went out, but got a message that my monthly Internet account had expired. The email had been sent just in time, but now I had no way of knowing what came of it.

“Can we get off the boat now” Kai asked. “Yes” I said. Off to Kai’s ‘welcome to the boat’ dinner at the restaurant on shore. Two margaritas for me.

It Was Huge!

We arrived in the Loreto Bay area after two days at san Juanico. We did a 4 hour passage through the whales and dolphins over to Isla Coronados and stayed for the night, the next morning we got up and head over to Puerto Escondido to pick up friends that we have from Toronto that will be staying with us for the next few days.

Due to a northerly coming through that week, we will only be able to stay in one anchorage for the time due to the weather conditions. We headed over to an anchorage called Puerto Ballandra which is on an island across from Loreto, just north of Puerto Escondido. We bashed into 15 knots of wind and 4 foot waves for three hours in order to get to the bay on the north end of the island.

We finally made it, and when we arrived we anchored and tucked in as well as we could to protect from the swell wrapping around. A couple hours after we arrived, a big catamaran pulled in front of us to get tucked in, at first it seemed fine but they were a bit close to us, they then circled around in front of us again to find a spot, but on their way around they came really close to the front of our boat, at this point we were in the dinghy, me my dad and our friends, and we were on our way to the beach, we looked back at what they were doing and realised that when they came close to our boat, there anchor had clipped our anchor chain because they left their anchor dragging along the surface of the water.

Next thing we new this big catamaran was dragging our boat with them without them aware of the situation, because it was a catamaran they have a much lower draft then our keel, so if they were going forward onto shallow water, our boat would get pulled right into the shallow rocks. My dad just started yelling at the people, and he told me to head to the boat at full speed from the dinghy. We circled the boat and saw our chain wrapped around their anchor, the two kids got off the dinghy onto the boat because it was safer, I was at the wheel of our boat, and then my dad and the dad of our friends went off in the dinghy to free the chain. Because the anchor of the other boat was already down, they had to pull theirs up, but they couldn’t because of our chain, so the wind ended up blowing them against us, and there were a few minor collisions.

Finally my dad got the chain off and they were able to go somewhere else, about 10 minutes after the dilemma, another catamaran by the same manufacturer came and tried to anchor in the same spot, my dad just went to the front of the boat and stood looking pissed, sure enough it worked. The next day we went for a hike up the mountain, it was a couple hours, and at the top we had a perfect view of the boat and the whole bay, after the hike we went dinghy trolling.

One of our friends said don’t return until you catch a big enough fish, we ended up with a fish too big that we couldn’t return. We were in the dinghy and my rod started buzzing as the line was pulled out, I fought the fish for about 30 minutes, it was the hardest fight I had ever had, finally it got to the surface and it was a massive yellowtail. There was no way we would have fit it in the dinghy, we didn’t know what to do, luckily the people in the catamaran that caught our anchor were now anchored next to where we caught the fish, they called us over because they had a net, they got it out of the water and the owner of the boat Brian even cleaned it for us, we became very good friends with their boat. After it was cleaned we took the fillets of the 50 pound, 4.2 foot yellowtail back to our boat, it was delicious, even after the twentieth meal.

The next day we returned to Porto Escondido to drop off our friends after a bit less than a week, and we are now on our way to La Paz.

Losing Liam and Fishing In Mexico - Peter

I thought I was going to loose Liam. When I looked down through the companionway he was unconscious and shaking. I can’t begin to describe the feelings of panic and fear I felt in an instant.

We were anchored in San Juanico. A beautiful, secluded anchorage miles from anywhere. We had arrived the day before and planed on staying for a couple of days. This was one of those ‘no internet access’ anchorages. Internet is available wherever there is cell phone access, and that is pretty hit and miss in anchorages on the Baja peninsula. In order to get work done, I need internet, so I try to space these anchorages so we are not more than a couple of days without it.

The weather was due to turn windy, so we were going to whole up here until it blew over. Mr. Liam likes to watch his movie in his bunk at night, and then get up pretty lazily in the morning, usually a few hours after I have put in work. This morning was no exception. I was in the cockpit having a coffee listening to Liam laying in his bunk blabbing on about planes as he usualy does. After an hour or so of this he got up and climbed the companionway steps to look at a plane that was passing over. I followed his gaze up.

The next thing I new I heard a loud crash and Liam was gone from the steps. I jumped up and found him laying in the galley on his back, shaking. ‘Liam, Liam’, I shouted. He stopped shaking and opened his eyes. He did not know where he was and what was going on.

We checked to make sure nothing was broken. However, he fell from two steps up and into a small, confined area. He had a large scrape on his back. He acted groggy and had pain in his neck and his back.
We concluded that he had been pretty lazy and got up to fast, and immediately looked up. He then just passed out and fell. It was not the passing out that worried me, but the fall.

The rest of the day he was tired, groggy, and in some pain around his neck and his lower back. I suspect he had minor shock. The neck pain was in the muscle, and so it seemed that there was nothing broken. And I was in a bit of shock too. I don’t think I will ever get the image of seeing him passed out and shaking out of my head.

We went for a walk on the beach a later, but he was tired and so we did not push it. Later in the day Liam wanted to go dinghy trolling to catch a fish for our dinner. So we got the dinghy all set and went out. I was not really expecting to catch anything, but on our way back after an hour, low and behold Liam caught a nice big fish for our dinner.

We brought it back and he cleaned it and I fried it up. It was a good way to end the day.

The next morning we headed off to our next destination, Isla Coronados. We stayed in the lee of the island for the night and had dolphins and whales around us.

We heard on the radio that there was a whale tangled in fishing line just a few miles away from us. It was getting dark and no one could do anything to help, at least not until the next day. We listened on the radio. I thought of the whale and how people were powerless to help, and how sometimes things happen we have no control over.

Night at Sea- Liam

We have finally left the Guaymas area after two weeks of preparing for the crossing, our plan was to pull out of San Carlos just after noon, and arrive the next day in Bahia Concepcion at sunrise. Once everything was ship shape, we left. The seas were very calm and we had around 12 knots of wind, it couldn't have got much better. One of the greatest things about the Sea of Cortez is the sunsets out at sea, and that night we got it. Once it got dark we were cruising comfortably with both sails up, no engine at seven knots.

 My first shift was 4:30 to 6:30 PM, then we had dinner and after I slept from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, once I got up my shift was 9 PM to 3 AM, so I had a long night ahead, the way I like to spend my crossings is get food and blast Coldplay all night, this is how I make some of my best memories from our trips. At one point the win died so I had to start up the engine, but once it picked up again I adjusted the sails, killed the engine and we went flying over 7 knots. Where ever you are in the Sea of Cortez, once night comes the sea fills with phosphorescent, these are a very small plant or algae that when disturbed lights up in a green turquoise colour, if you have seen Life of Pi you would know what it is like, when the whale breaks through the surface. But it is much cooler in person then through a TV, especially when there is something in the water.

 During the crossing at around 1 in the morning we were joined by a group of dolphins, by this time the phosphorescent were very strong, so the dolphins swimming next to us were not grey or blue, they were green. It looked like something from a dream, these green dolphins just swimming next to the boat, it is something you really can't picture as impressive as it really was. The boat would also pass through the occasional school of fish, but it wasn't only the water being lit up that night, all around us there was lightning the whole night coming from different places every hour. We ended up arriving ahead of schedule when it was still dark so we had to sit outside the bay for a while until the sun rose. We anchored in Santo Domingo in Bahia Concepcion, from the boat the area didn't look like much but the sunset again was incredible.

 I decided to go see how the beach was, and it was definitely not what I was expecting. The beach was wide and long white sand, the water was crystal clear and warm, it was definitely not what we thought it would be like from the boat. That night we had a fire on the beach with the two other boats there, Harmony and Rosalita, we cooked food on a grill and then ate as we talked with sunset. The next morning we set off for our next destination further south, San Juanico.

 We rounded the point of the bay and started heading south. I was making some noodles down below, my dad was also down below so I stuck my head up to look around and make sure everything was ok, but when I looked up I caught a glimpse of something. I continued to look and then I saw it again, and we were heading straight for a blue whale. 

We put the boat into neutral and slowly drifted to where it had just been, after a while we realised that the whale was circling us, we put the boat back into forward and eventually it took off, throughout the trip we saw the occasional blue whale, and then a pod of pilot whales. We arrived at the next anchorage 8 hours later, I went for a kayak ride, went fishing and caught a puffer fish, ate dinner (not the puffer fish,) then sat down and rote this blog, now I have to go do the dishes so bye.

Rain in Paradise - Peter

It rained here last night. Like ‘really’ rained. That is unusual when you are in a desert. The boat was dirty; full of dust from the dirt-yard marina it had been in for the last ten months.

I could draw a metaphor about how the rain washes the past away and leaves a clean surface to begin anew. However, this is not a tropical garden, and the sun did not come out after the rain. This is a desert, and the rain feels out of place here. The sky is grey and sullen, and it makes the desert below seem little more than mud.

The boat did get washed, but the funny thing about boats is they leak, not from the water pushing up underneath, but from the water washing over the deck. There are many more holes on the surface of a boat than there are underneath, and the water on the deck finds ways of getting in - in through the old windows with the dried-out seems, in from the miss-fitting hatch over my bunk. We are litteraly sinking from above.

We left the Singlar Marina, the main marina in Guaymas, and headed out to the ‘Almost Free Marina’ (thirty pesos a day, about $3 Canadian). It is nice there because it is behind a mountain from Guaymas, so even though it is only thirty minutes away, it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere.

Liam wanted to get off the boat and take pictures, which we did. From the top of the mountain by the marina you can see the Sea of Cortez, and Liam started pining for heading out to sea. But before we could do that there were a number of projects that needed taking care of on the boat.

So we hoisted the sails, did an oil change, as well as a number of other jobs. Liam’s job was to try to catch fish from the dock with the new line and lure we got in town.

There were only two other boats here. I recognized them both from the previous year. Both are Canadian, and they winter in Mexico at this marina every year. “I just go back up to Canada in the summer to get by asshole fixed, I get it fixed every year” - so said the fellow on one of the boats who came over to talk to us while we were putting our sails up. Liam looked at him out of the corner of his eye. In the course of the couple of visits to us while we were working he told us he hated Leach and McBride - the folks that made the sails for our boat, he hated Mitsubishi - the maker of our engine, and finally “You guys are pretty small, that is too bad, sorry to see that”. Liam later commented that he was “not too sure about that guy…”.

The Almost Free Marina was nice, but after a day it felt like we had seen it, so Liam pushed me to make the passage to San Carlos, about 3 hours away. I was a bit nervous as the boat was not really ready, and you could see the storm clouds heading towards us from the south. But we had not been to SC before. In the end the passage was good, and it was nice to finally be out at sea.

And we arrived just in time. We picked up a mooring buoy, and within ten minutes the rain began. Liam made dinner, then made popcorn and watched a movie. I spent the evening I staring at my computer screen, listening to the rain, wondering if the boat, and I, would be washed clean.

In the water - Liam

After about ten days of getting the boat ready we are finally in the water, getting the boat ready the last night was mayhem, but we got it done. The next morning I was dragged out of my bed by my dad at 8 in the morning to help him get the boat ready... again. Getting the boat put in the water is pretty stressful, you can always tell that their machine hasn't been updated in a few years, and the fact that they are lifting your boat with all your personal belongings in it is not very reassuring.

 Ever since our trips began, my brother and I have taken advantage of not having to get up early for school, so we have always gotten up around 10:30-11. Even tho my brother is not here I have continued to take advantage of this. The only problem is my dad thinks I should be getting up much earlier, so he has always come up with ways to get me out of bed, or at least to wake me up, while being innocent. Some of his methods are knocking on the side of the boat, doing the dishes, or putting the stereo on full volume while the morning cruisers net is on. He also sometimes complains that there is too much stuff on the stairs, and he cant get out, he does similar acts to get me out of my bed. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if he starts getting coffee beans instead of grindings so that he can grind them next to my bed every
morning.

Even though the passage from the yard to the singlar marina was only 20 minutes, it felt really good to finally be back on the  water. Even in a garbage filled bay we still saw a sea lion, and lots of different birds, we docked at the singlar and got straight to work on getting final provisions and laundry and anything that couldn't get done once we leave.

That night we went out for tacos and ended up eating a meal we didn't know what it was, it was a hard shell filled with some type of meat and salad. They never tell you what kind of meat you are eating, and according to my dad "were in mexico, for all we know it could be dog." Today was the same, getting the last things we would need. We went to a fishing store to get some lures and line, it was a very strange place, first of all it was in the middle of the slums, and the building obviously did not belong in the area, secondly the people working in the store seemed that they couldnt care less whether we bought anything or not, these people were definetly not being paid based on what they sold. Everything was done incredibly slow, they did not try to make us feel welcome at all, and we had to wait for around ten minutes for god knows what to actually buy the stuff. Tomorrow we are leaving to go to an anchorage on the other side of the mountain, although it is still in Guaymas, you wouldn't notice because of the mountain blocking you from society. Once the weather is good, we will leave Guaymas and cross the sea, this is where our trip really begins.

Doing Time in the Yard - Peter

Liam and I have been at the boat for a week today. We are still 'on the hard'. That is, we are still a boat on stilts in a dirt yard. 

What is wrong with me that I cannot remember people's names. I tried the trick of repeating a name back to the person after I have been introduced, but it does not help. Hi, I am Bob. Nice to meet you Bob, etc. etc. I can talk to someone day in and day out and not remember their name. Liam remembers - "were you talking to Frank?". Who is Frank I ask. "Oh my god, you talk to him every day, I remind you of his name everyday". It is difficult holding a conversation with someone that you have spoken to for days and in the back of your mind know that you have no clue what their name is. 

There are some people here in the yard that I can remember their names, but not many. There is George. George is a nice old timer. He lives on his tiny sailboat, and as far as I know he has never had the boat in the water and does not have any plans to. He comes down every year and spends the winter on his boat, on stilts. He knows everyone, and everything that is going on in the yard. 

There is Minnesota. I remember his name because Liam heard that he was from Minnesota and so we call him that. Don't know what his real name is, but I don't have a problem remembering him as Minnesota.

Ted (his real name) I have met every time I have been down here. He is working on his 50 foot wooden boat. It actually looks like it is coming along. Unlike a number of other boats here that have been worked on for years, if not decades. 

We have been here too long, in the boatyard. I am feeling the inertia settling in. A couple came down the other day, a day after us, and have already launched their boat and are gone. That is the fastest I have seen anyone launch. The couple on the boat behind us came down mid December. They tried to fix one thing, then they would find something else that needed fixing. They have to be home by April 1st. They are not sure yet if they will launch at all this season now. 

Still, it is better than many. When I stick my head out of the hatch in the morning there are a number of silent sentinels perched around us like vacant ghosts of someone's abandoned dream. Boats that have not moved since I first came here what, over five years ago now. They have been packed away, as though left for the season. The owners went off and have not come back. The boats are now soulless avatars perched on stilts like heads on a stick to warn off other would-be dreamers. 

When we arrived back at the boat we went to sleep at night hearing the dogs having their barking session, or as George said, having their "dog wars". In the morning it is the roosters screaming out as though they know today is the day they are getting their necks wrung. "The dogs have been attacking the baby sheep" George said. I have not heard them in the last couple of days I said. "Oh, they put out poison the other night to get rid of them. Just as well, they were starving anyway". 

Minnesota likes his beer. I am not sure what he does. He is relatively young - 38 - for the marina. At that age most guys here are just passing through. Minnesota isn't going anywhere soon I don't think. "Hey, you should come over for a few beers" he said. "We are going to get a drunk on n' go carousing". Carousing I said, where are you going to do that around here? "Oh, I don't know, maybe some of the old guys will let their wives off their boats tonight...". 

I had to change the transmission. If there is anything I have put into this boat to ensure that I do not have to worry about it, then I can feel pretty confident it is going to break. The engine, three times, the rudder, twice. Now the transmission. It was new five years ago. They are suppose to last for decades. In any event, I had to put a rebuilt one in. I thought it would take me days. I was pretty impressed with myself when I had the old one out, and the new one in within six hours, though it is pretty much just a heavy Lego job.

Later I climbed down the ladder to do an inspection thinking we could get the boat in the water in a couple of days, I found a problem with the rudder. It was full of water and had delaminated. The rudder I had made five years ago. Three years ago it had fallen off the boat. Now it needs fixing again. It is either time or money, or just something to try to forget. "Oh, just F&*king go sailing" said Dustin. Dustin is the guy two boats over - at least that is what Liam and I call him. "Just call him Dustin, Dada, he looks like Dustin Hoffman". OK, I said. And of course I remember that. 

Maybe we'll just go sailing with the rudder as it is. Last year was the windlass, this year the transmission. Next year can be the rudder. Hopefully it won't break. That sounds fair to me. Liam wants to get going. He has his heart set on running along the beach in Punta Chivato. A beautiful deserted anchorage we were at last year.

Liam and I watched the Shawshank Redemption on the computer the other night. Good movie. Tim Robbins goes to prison for a crime he did not commit. He just wants to run off to Mexico, but spends over 20 years in Jail, walking around 'the yard'. I bumped into Minnesota at the washroom this morning. "Hey, if your kid is getting board just have him swing by my boat. I have a bunch of porno mags he can borrow...". 

Hopefully we will make our break before we give everyone in the yard a name I can remember.

Finally home-Liam

After ten months were finally back on the boat, or as I would say finally home. The trip down was great but long. We had to get up at 5:30 to catch a bus to Buffalo, followed by a day of flying to Tucson, with connections in Philadelphia and Phoenix.

After a night in Tucson was another 8 hour bus ride to Guaymas, which is where our boat is kept. We arrived at the boat around 4:30, the rest of the night we just relaxed and were glad to finally be on the boat. 

The next morning was a late start for me getting up at around 11:30, but the rest of the day was work. For the past couple days I have been working on the boat and school work, my dad would disagree with that because he’s always too busy drinking his beer and relaxing.

It was really nice to finally be back by the ocean, and especially Guaymas because it is one of my favourite cities in Mexico. Now I’m just looking forward to getting the work done, and putting the boat in the water. 

Another great part of finally being back in Mexico is the food, after ten months of being in Canada and eating the same food over and over again, eating tacos off the street is a huge privilege. Every time we come to Guaymas we go to a restaurant that sells stuffed potatoes, they are filled with cheese cream beef corn and peppers, and they are absolutely delicious! 

But Guaymas is one of my favourite cities because it has the ocean the mountains and the people. Everyone is Guaymas is really friendly and even if you don’t speak Spanish they will help you out. 

Now I am just excited to get the boat in the water and cross the sea as soon as possible, but for the most part I'm just happy to be back on the boat even if it means lots of work.

 

Traveling to Mexico by bus

I am sitting in the salon of Outrider, 8:30 PM Monday, February 2. The end of mine and Liam’s first full day back at the boat. Earlier we were invited to a boater’s potluck. After dinner I played the guitar while Liam marveled at what his photo’s look like on the laptop. I am trying to relax, but the past month has been a blur without much time to stop. It seemed that there was so much to do in order to get here. Rent the apartment, do the boat-show talks, get caught up with work, clean and clear the apartment, get Kai’s submission for art school in, get boat parts, get passports. Then get the bus, get across the border into the US, get the planes, get another bus, get across the Mexican border, get to the boat.

It is warm and sunny here. We heard there is a snowstorm back in Toronto. It seems so far away already.

Saturday morning we had to get up before the sun came up in order to make it to the bus that would take us to the Buffalo airport. Elisabeth drove us and dropped us off for the 7 AM ride. It was good to finally get going, but not nice to leave Kai and Elisabeth.

The bus ride was to Buffalo uneventful. The US boarder was the usual questions. I recognized the boarder guard from last year when we crossed. ‘Why was Liam out of school’ she wanted to know. She had the same look of suspicion and dissatisfaction with my answers to her questions as she had the previous year.

We got to the airport and had to wait for four hours for our first flight. Liam busied himself taking pictures of planes with his new camera and texting friends on his phone. He had an app that told him about the flights. “Our flight has been delayed” he said. I did some work on my laptop. The time for our departure came and went. I asked Liam how much longer the delay was and suddenly realized that his answer was a bit obscure. I got up and quickly went over to the departure board and was shocked to see that the status of our flight was ‘on time’ and was suppose to have just left two minutes ago. I yelled to Liam and we ran across the terminal to our gate. The plane was boarded and we were the last of a couple of people to rush on. We had almost missed our flight…

As we boarded the plane I asked the stewardess if they ever allow kids to check out the cockpit anymore. She went to the Captain and Liam was immediately invited to go to the cockpit and chat with the pilots. When the plane landed they let him sit in the captain’s chair.

From Buffalo we flew to Philadelphia, from Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Phoenix to Tucson. We arrived in Tucson close to midnight and walked the half a kilometer to our hotel. All the boat parts I had ordered, including a rebuilt transmission from the UK, were waiting for us there.

The next morning we got the bus that would take us across the border and into Nogalas, Mexico. Crossing the Mexican border by bus is a crap shoot. This would be our third time doing it, and each time was different. The first time the US side had asked the kids if they were being taken across the border against their will. The second time the bus did not stop at customs and immigration on the Mexican side (it was closed that day…) and so we were barreling into Mexico without a tourist visa before I realized what was going on. This time around I had this 30 pound boat transmission, and this time Mexican customs decided to go through our stuff. And the fellow who went through our stuff was not happy. I thought he was going to confiscate the transmission. In the end he got his supervisor who casually said “is no problem” and waved us on. Un-happy customs guy looked even less happy, but we were through.

Next it was on to immigration down the hall. We were the only non-Mexicans on the bus. Our visa’s were $28 US each. No problem, except they only took cash and we only had $48. I had to run around Nogalas, Mexico looking for an ATM that would take my bank card while a bus full of people waited for us back at the boarder. It was Sunday,and the bank machine the immigration guy sent me to six blocks away was, not surprisingly, out of service. Miraculously there was one a few blocks further that was working and gave me cash. I ran back to the border, out of breath. “Only exact change”. It was 640 pesos for the visas. “It is OK”, the nice immigration guy said, “I take 700, it no problem”.

Boarding the bus and have it pull into Mexico was a massive relief - we had made it over the last major hurdle. Liam was sleeping as the bus pulled into Guaymas at 4:30 PM. I woke him and we got a taxi to the boat. It was still light out when we climbed aboard. All was as we had left it almost 11 months earlier.

Liam’s excitement at being back at the boat is palpable. It is to be back at the boat, it comes as the cost of leaving people we care about behind.

The End - Liam

Our trip has come to an end back on the hard in Guaymas. Forcing ourselves
to bring it back up instead of taking it to Central America due to lack of
time was hard, but like we’ve said every trip, "next time." Leaving the boat
means big work time, so that we can get it ready for us to return to Canada,
but also keep it in shape for when we return next trip. Getting the boat
ready doesn’t only mean full clean up, but put everything away including
kayaks and dinghy. Once the trip is over you start to really appreciate
everything that has just happened, for example I will be returning to a
minus thirty climate after being in above thirty for two months. One of the
main highlights for me was the fishing, although I was only able to catch
two edible fish, the time spent was worth all of the fun. We will be back in
Toronto next Thursday, goodbye and farewell fellow followers.

Kai's blog

Blog
Its been a while since i've done the blog, so i cant remember the details of everything. I'll start in Isla San Francisco, which is an anchorage that we had been looking forwards to. It's very protected and very large. While we were there, we got of the boat and went for a hike. We went up a mountain and had a very nice view of the ocean. We stayed there for two days and one night, and then went to La Paz. The main reason that we were going to La Paz was to pick up our friends. There names were Brian, Sussana, Sebastian, and Savannah. We stayed in the anchorage there at first, and then headed into the marina before they arrived. We did tons of boat work before they arrived, such as polishing the metals, getting rid of stains on the boat, sanding and gripping the steps, and some other things. Four people arrived at the boat, the parents and two kids. We spent the day playing with kids while the parents did the groceries. After wards we all went to a restaurant that we had gone to a couple of years before. It was very good, and I had burritos. The next day we all set of to the islands. Our first stop was Balandra. We took them there because it's a very good place for snorkeling, and it has lots of long, white beaches. The two kids had never snorckeled before, and that was the first place that Liam and I ever snorkeled at too. After the snorkeling, we went to the beach. We spent a couple of hours there, and it was very fun, however,  just as we were leaving, we saw a huge Electric Ray, right were we had been swimming. That night, we all sat in the cockpit and had our drinks as the sun set, and after wards, all the kids played a card game called Malarky. The only problem with that anchorage is that it's very unprotected, and that night, it became very very windy. I slept through it, but apparently the winds were about thirty knots.
The next morning, we sailed over to the anchorage were we are now. It started of a bit rocky, but then got better. As soon as we arrived, we all went for a swim, and then had dinner. That night the kids all watched Mr. Beans holiday and then one episode of Fawlty Towers. They were both very funny. That night, the wind came again, but there were also waves this time. Luckily the anchor didn't drag, and the clothes that we drying on deck survived the night. This morning the kids did home-schooling, and now we are going to Isla San Francisco.
Bye

Random pics from the past week - Peter

I don't know what to write - Liam

We have finaly gotten to the beaches and the little villages, which is what I call the real Mexico, mainly because of the little villages though.So the past few days have been really relaxing, I just finished my school work for the month so I got a little break for a couple days, but now I'm starting my Febuary work.We have been alone in the last couple anchorages so we have just really not done much. Except for the anchorage we are curently in, Puerto Balandra, we have been doing a lot. We went for a hike, because in our chart book it says there is a tienda and a little town across the island, so we set off at around two o'clock, at around four we checked the time and found out we had gone about a fifth of the distance we needed to, so we just headed back. Also this morning my brother and I went kyaking throughout the bay for a couple hours, then we were practicly starving to death so we went back to our boat. The last thing we did was go for another hike through the hills, the only difference is this time we actualy got where we were heading, the top of the mountain, which had a great view, then we went back to our boat and Kai made tacos/fajitas.So now I'm going to go watch my second favourite movie: Catch me if you can, with Leonardo Decaprio and Tom Hanks.

Steak - Kai

                Hello everyone.

                We left Santa Rosalia about three days ago to contiue south. I'm not sure if I liked the town much, because I spent most of the time in the bathroom. I'm not sure where it was that I got sick from, but I think that it was from a taco stand that we went to with a another couple. I thought the Tacos were very good, however, the next morning, I began to feel a bit strange, and it wasn't just me. My dad got something too, but he reacted a bit differently then me. My brother also got it, but not as bad as me. Also, the couple who we'd gone with for tacos felt sick, and the wife got very sick, just as sick as me, if not worse. So this lasted for about one week, and I even through up at one point. The wierd thing was, that during the whole thing, all that I could think about was food, eventhough I barely ate anything at all. I was craving a big steack, garlic bread, and then a huge bowl of pop corn. I was also craving dumplings and sushi.

                After a week, I finally began to feel better, so we were ready to leave Santa Rosalia. As my dad was getting the boat all ready, Liam and I went into town to get some food. We got stuff to make garlic bread, and five steaks, although we weren't sure that thats what kind of meat it actually was.

                So we left Santa Rosalia and went to Punta Chivato. I slept the whole way there. The anchorage was huge, but we were the only ones there. There didn't seem to be much there, expept a landing strip, a lot of half finished buildings, and a hotel. We got of the boat to look around, but there wasn't really anything there, except thousands of washed up shells. One night while we were there, we dicided to have the big meal. I was in charge of the garlic bread, and my dad was grilling the meat on the barbeque. It turned out amazing, and we even had some steak sauce to use. I ate two steaks, and a few peices of garlic bread. I was stuffed. We decided to eat the popcorn the next night, since we were too full.

                After about two days there, we decided to continue south, however, we wanted to try to just use the sails, no engine, even while getting the anchor up. It actually worked, and in no time, we were wizzing along with just the wind. It was pretty nice. We arrived in a large bay called Bahia Concepcion, which has about a dozen anchorages in it. The first one we stopped at was called Santis Pac, and it was pretty big, we were also pretty surprised to see a bunch of RV's on the shore. We got of the boat and looked around, but there wasnt't anything there, and we needed some fresh water. We also realized that my dad could not connect to the internet, so we decided to try another anchorage in the bay. So right now we are in Coyote Beach, and there are still many RV's. Once we arrived, a man swam up  to our boat and invited us to come eat dinner at some restaurant where they would also be showing a movie afterwards, so we went and ordered some fish and then watched the movie.  The fish was really good. Afterwards, we got a ride home with some nice people and then went to sleep.

Bye

Sick in Sant Rosalia - Peter

So we crossed over the Sea of Cortez. We left late in the afternoon so that we would arrive to the other side during daylight. A night passage. In a switch, Kai got seasick and Liam didn’t. It was a windy passage, with the wind almost on the nose. Kai and Liam were suppose to be on watch until midnight, but becuae Kai was seasick he had to go below to lie down.   Liam insisted on sitting out in the cockpit, but I could not leave him alone. It was nice to have his company, but it meant a long night for me. Because of the wind we arrived early and had to sit off Isla San Marcos for an hour until the sun came up. We anchored early in the morning, but what a desolate island. I had work to do and after finding out that there was no Internet connection, we decided to head over the Santa Rosalia where we have been for the last week. Unfortunately the three of us, and half of the other cruisers on the dock we are on have been sick for most of the time we have been here. Santa Rosalia is one of the nicest towns we have been to. We’ll probably only remember that we were all sick. In any event, everything is going well and we are having a good time. We’ll be leaving here within the next day or so to some deserted anchorage. Kai is doing the dishes while Liam is curled up in my bunk watching a movie on the computer. As Liam just said, ‘this is the life’…

Resturant Drama - Liam

Since the last blog I posted, the highlight for me has been crossing the Sea of Cortez. Although my brother got sea sick so it was a completely different story for him. For me that passage was what I came to Mexico for, sitting out in the cockpit with the wind blowing in my face as Coldplay blasted through the speakers looking at the stars, I could go on about it but I’d probably bore you guys. After the passage we got up early in the morning to anchor at Isla San Marcos, but we left a couple hours later to go to Santa Rosalia, which is where we have been for the last few days. It’s a nice town, not one of my favourites but still fun to be in (mainly because of the food). There are a few other cruisers here which we have been going out for dinner with, one of the nights we got meter long pizzas at a restaurant. Because of all this unhealthy food I have been going for runs in the morning on the malacon, which is very exciting because I get to run next to the sea lions and dolphins. The other night when we were at the restaurant eating meter long pizzas, my dad went to the bathroom and was taking a long while so I began to get worried, so my brother and I went to check up on him. Through the glass door we could vaguely see him on the floor, so we just thought he had probably eaten to much or got food poisoning, so we told the other cruisers. A while later he came out and told us that he was stomach sick, but hadn’t thrown up, the main problem was that when he got in the bathroom he passed out. We then told him that there was a cut and a bump on his forehead that he wasn’t aware of, that he must have got from hitting the floor. We are still completely clueless of how it happened, but he feels better. So that’s basically it everyone, stay tuned for next time.

Liam

Being Seasick - Kai

Hello everyone
So we finally left Guaymas, and puttered over to a small marina, about forty minutes from the city. The sailors call it the "Almost free marina" since it costs about three dollars a night. We stayed there for a few nights, doing school work and boat work. We also had to hike to the top of a nearby hill to get internet.
While we were there, my brother and I decided to pump up the dinghy, and ride it around the bay. It was alot of fun, and never got boring. Besides that, there wasn't really anything to do there, as it was pretty much away from anything, except for a fish factory which was on the other side of the hill.
After a few days, we decided that we were ready to cross the sea of cortez to the other side. We also dicided that we would do it in the company of one of our new friends, a couple on a boat called Kashmira. So we left at about four thirty PM, and the seas were perfect at first, but as soon as we passed the point, the waves and the wind became stronger, and I quickly began to feel seasick. It was horrible. Been seasick is probably one of the most horrible feelings in the world. You feel tired, and you want to just sleep, but the second you take your eyes of off the horizon, you begin to feel as if your going to barf. You also lose your appitite, so you have no interest in eating, and you don't feel like talking. You just sit there shivering, with a head ache, trying to keep down your lunch. Luckily, I did not barf, but I almost did. My dad kindly let me go lie in bed for the rest of the night, instead of staying on watch till twelve. However, being in bed didn't really help much either, because even thought I did fall asleep at first, when I woke up, I felt almost as worse as before. All night long, I would go in and out of sleep. I thought I would definitly barf before the morning but I didn't.
The next morning, we arrived in Isla San Marcos, a small anchorage. Even though there was the slightest bit of waves in the anchorage, I still felt pretty seasick from the night before. My dad was unable to connect to the internet, so we dicided to just come over to Santa Rosalia, which took about two hours. On the way we saw our first dolphins, seals, manta rays, and whales of the trip. I was so happy when we arrived here because there is a beakwater, so there are absolutly no waves at all. It took a few days, but thankfully, I feel much better.
This was our first time in Santa Rosalia, and so far we really like it hear. This town was originally a mining town, and still is. It was set up by the french in the 1800's, and Gustof Eiffel (the man who designed the eiffel tower) even designed a church here. If you look around, lots of the old buildings that were used for mining are still around, but falling apart. It looks really cool. So today we spent the day being tourists, and for dinner, we went to an amazing taco place with Kashmira. It was some of the best tacos i've had all trip.A
Bye

Maiden Voyage

I may aswell just say that all of my blog posts are going to be rather short, one of the reasons is because I would much rather be watching a movie right now, unless of course I was getting paid for this which I am not, another reason is because, well there arent really any other reasons. The next day after my last post, we decided to go walk around the sports track where I joined a soccer team two years ago, hoping that we might find them. We didnt, but as we were walking off four kids my age called me over to play with them, so I did. I played for about an hour with the locals, which was really fun, but then we left and went back to the boat. The most exciting part of the trip so far happened last night, we were put into the water!! After ten days of hard work on the boat, it was finaly a real floating boat. The bad part though was that it was the first day of a very bad windstorm, which is currently still happening as I type this, it was fine though. This morning we did our first passage which was just twenty minutes long across the bay to a marina. Since then not much has happened besides groceries, and my brother and I skateboarded with some locals, but other then that not much. I am going to go watch a movie now, I think Ill watch Run Fat Boy Run.




Bye, Liam.

Last Day On The Hard- Kai

Hi everyone. Nothing too interesting happened today. So we woke up very early this morning, much earlier then i was ready for, and began our homeschooling, however i was not able to do much since the internet was not working, but I did my art and read a bit of Romeo and Juliet for english, which was torture. I highly recommend not reading it, since it's not very good. I also don't recommend watching the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, since it is equally as bad.
So after that work, my father demanded that we scrub the boat down in the sweltering heat. I also had to do a bit of work with my dad on the anchor chain.
Unfortunatly, no skateboarding was allowed that day, so nothing very fun happened, except for our farewell to the little puppy, Peanut. We were very sad to say bye, and i'm sure she felt the same way about us leaving. I believe I heard a soft cry of sadness come from her as we left.
So once all the work was done, the big machine came, picked us up, and put us in the water. It definitly feels a lot nicer to be floating in the water, instead of in the smelly yard. For dinner, we had some pasta, and then I was told to do the dishes. Tonight i'll be watching a movie on my computer but im not sure what yet. Bye.

A Week on the hard - Peter

We have been here a week. The  first few days were a blur while we adjusted to being back at the boat. There were a couple of other boaters in the yard that we knew when we arrived, but in the days since we have got to know just about everybody here. New people are arriving at their boats daily, and everone goes out for tacos at the roadside taco stand up the road in the evening. Everyone is getting ready to put their boats in the water and we are all heading the same in the same direction. Once we sail out we will probably bump into people we have met here in anchorages all the way down the Baja.

Kai and Liam are both doing well with their home schooling. They both got into the routine almost immediately. Their days are spent doing their school work, skate boarding, and making meals. They get their own breakfasts, their own lunches, and since we have been here they have taken turns making dinner. And every now and then they help with with boat jobs. Four days of work and we now have a working windlass once again. That was my job and it took all my time, as well as help from half a dozen other boaters over the last few days. Not sure what I would have done without the help of the community here.

Liam sanded the prop on his birthday, and Kai scraped the hull. Tonight Kai is making dinner, and tomorrow they will wash the boat down. At the end of the day the boat will get put in the water, and we will be a floating boat once again. Then everything changes again.

And for the record, the ungodly hour that Kai and Liam are forced to get up is asfter the morning cruisers’ net at 8:30. And the “big tip” I gave the taxi driver amounted to $1.50 Canadian…