S/V Adventurer

As I sit and type this in our cozy little floating home, Brenda is outside on watch. She just took over and has 3 more hours to go before it will be my turn to take over. We are currently motoring our way north into the Sea of Cortez with 18-20 knots of breeze directly on the nose and a steep 4-5 foot chop. We are punching through some taller waves which send spray and foam running down the decks, and with some waves it feels like we catch air as we drop off the crest and crash into the next oncoming wave. Other than the occasional feeling of dropping, we are surprisingly comfortable. The wind and the seas are forecast to die down tonight which should eventually give us a smooth ride to our next destination. Normally, we would sit and wait for things to die down before making our way into a headwind, but this is really the calm before the storm. We've got 2 days to make it to Isla Espiritu Santo before the wind and sea gets really crazy and pins us down for the next we...

I guess the big news is that we have officially made it to Cabo San Lucas and have completed our trek down Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The majority of sailors who tackle this coast do the trip in 7-10 days, making one or two big hops down the coast. It took us 6 weeks because we stopped at nearly every place possible. But because of either weather or swell, we unfortunately had to skip a few places that we had hoped to stop at along the way. Oh well, we put in a pretty good effort to see everything, but everything just isn't possible. I've been trying to piece together what I think about making it to Cabo. Part of me feels like it's a big accomplishment for us to get all the way here from Seattle, but a bigger part of me feels a bit disappointed. Not disappointed in any way with our time in Mexico, but disappointed that the Pacific side of the Baja is now behind us. I don't think I'm quite ready for it to end. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time worki...

There are some days and some places that make us feel like we are living in a dream. Not because we don't have to go through the mundane day to day of normal life, staring at 4 walls of a cubicle, but because we are actually living the dream we set out to live. This place is exactly one of those places and these last few days have been just those days. We are currently anchored in Bahia Santa Maria on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. It's a beautiful bay with towering mountains on it's western shore which protect us from the wind and swell off of the mighty Pacific ocean. Once you round the point and make your way into the bay, the motion of the ocean almost stops. It's comparatively calm and peaceful, especially since we just sailed through Hell on the high seas to get here. At the head of the bay, there is an estuary lined by mangrove trees that is perfect for exploring by dinghy. It has the feel of a National Geographic magazine article, straight from ...

A Rough Ride I know there are sailors reading this and I also know there are non sailors reading it too.  Normally I try to not use sailing lingo so you land lubbers can follow along.  Not today.  Sorry.  If you can't follow some of the terminology, give Google a try to help you out.  Today I don't have the time or patience to explain everything because I've got myself wedged in a corner of our dinette attempting to write this bit of nonsense as the boat is thrashing around.  To say that the seas are angry today is a bit of an understatement. We left Abreojos this morning with a forecast of 18-22 knots of breeze and 9-12 foot seas and a destination of Bahia Santa Maria.  It's a roughly 36 hour run for us under normal conditions.  Unfortunately, these aren't normal conditions and the forecast is a bit off. It's currently blowing 34 knots directly on our stern with gusts going higher.  There is a steep and lumpy 15-18 foot swell with occa...

A couple of days ago, Brenda and I had one of those talks.  You know the talks I'm speaking of – the ones where you get to talk about your feelings.  Ugh.  Only this talk wasn't about the normal things that get brought up in one of those discussions.  There was no mention of a toilet seat left up, no caps left off the toothpaste, and nothing said about me not noticing a new haircut.  Why you ask?  Well, it's because I'm obviously a perfect husband and there would be no reason to bring any of that up. What was discussed was the fact that we have been racing down the Baja Peninsula for no good reason.  We have no place to be and no time we need to be there.  This is realistically the only time in our lives when we are going to be sailing this coastline, so why on earth would we miss anything?  The big talk was purely about slowing down.  Phew.  No hurt feelers mentioned and no tears shed anywhere, and even better yet, we were both i...

I'm not exactly sure what to talk about today. All that I know is that I was awake for most of the night with my head spinning on a whole lot more topics than it should have been. We've been in Mexico for two weeks now, and it seems that almost every day there is something exciting that should be shared. We are in new and exciting places with new and exciting people and we are doing new and exciting things. The problem I'm having though, is that the election still has me reeling. Just like half of our country and the majority of the world, it has me in knots. When I started this blog a couple of years ago, it was more than anything a way for us to bring our family and friends along on our journey. My intention was to share our experiences, maybe a few photos, and my thoughts on the places we were visiting. What I've found along the way is that I really enjoy writing this blog. It's given me a voice that I didn't know I had. At the beginning, I though...

I have quite a bit to cover today, so let's get right into this. First of all, I had started writing a blog post last night that covered our last week of adventure. You know, the same old usual stuff. But this morning we woke to a changed world and it doesn't seem like my usual rambling is important right now. If you want to hear about what we've been doing and not how I'm feeling this morning about our election, just feel free to skip down a few paragraphs and read on. I'm sure you are aware that we are not in the United States and we just had what could be the most important election of my lifetime. Actually, if I'm going to be honest, each election I have had the privilege of voting in has felt pretty important to me. But before you get too worried, I'm not going to go on a big political rant here. I've done my best to keep my political views out of this rambling, and more than anything, my views are mine, and the fact that I think a ce...

I can't honestly remember the last time I've been this excited. I'm generally a low key, pretty mellow fellow, but today, I'm abuzz. We just checked in to Ensenada and have our 6 month visas in hand. We are free to roam the country, eat as many tacos as possible, and butcher the Spanish language until April 30 th of 2017, at which time we can either move on to another country, or extend our stay for another 6 months. It's thrilling. Our trip from San Diego to Ensenada was almost as exciting as actually getting here. We didn't have big seas or big winds, but the fact that we crossed the shared border of the US and Mexico while at sea, and I could see that imaginary line on our computer screen as we sailed over it, made me let out a huge “Woo Hoo!!!” for the whole ocean to hear. And the fact that we caught our first Mexican fish just after we crossed the border, well, that wasn't too shabby either. When we left San Diego, we almost felt like...

I've always been a goal oriented kind of guy. I seem to have a need to be working towards something. If I don't, I feel stagnate. I've had lots of little insignificant goals over the years, but the major goal of getting us to Mexico on our boat is about complete. On Sunday, we are leaving San Diego, crossing the border on our little floating home, and then we should be checking into Ensenada, Mexico sometime on Monday morning. Major life goal...check. Yesterday, Brenda asked, “what is your goal now that we've basically made it to Mexico?” It's an interesting question that has sort of thrown me for a loop. Since I've always had some major goal that I've been striving to achieve, and my goal of the last 20 years is basically done, what now? I hadn't thought about it until Brenda brought it up, but now my peaceful and zen state of mind is going berserk. I've been thinking that I could have a new goal of getting us to a specifi...

For the last week, we've been tied to the municipal dock at Shelter Island in San Diego. As glamorous as it sounds to be tied up at the municipal dock, trust me, it isn't as glamorous as it may seem. There has been a steady stream of vagrants, drug deals, thefts, and police busts during our week long stay. Last night, Brenda and I were going for our nightly stroll and ran into one of our “neighbors” being handcuffed and carted away (I use the term neighbor loosely. He happens to be living on a boat that doesn't run, barely floats, and is full of stolen goods that has been tied up at the dock close to us) Yeah, glamorous isn't the word I would use to describe this place. When we first pulled in to the municipal dock, there were a few cruisers that are on their way to Mexico, but the vast majority of the boats here are what we would call derelicts. I've done my best to keep my social and political views off of this blog and today is going to be no different...

I hope you have some time today, because I can tell you right now, this is going to be a long bit of rambling. We set sail from Oceanside, California this morning and have made it to San Diego, which is about as far south as we can go before we get to Mexico. It's kind of a big deal. It's such a big deal that I'm feeling a bit emotional about the whole thing (yes it's true, tough guys have feelings too). If you've been following along, you can probably do the math and figure out that we left our home waters about 2 ½ months ago. You may be thinking that 2 ½ months is a long time to sail the coast of the US and get to Mexico, but really it's not. I've been dreaming about this trip for nearly 20 years, so 2 ½ months compared to my 20 years of dreaming seems like the blink of an eye. I have told people for years that I was going to sail around the world someday. The dream started shortly after I bought my first sailboat in my very early 20...