"When are you doing another blog?!" Well, for better or worse, here goes:
Our last blog ended in Galapagos, that magical place, where we spent three short weeks. We departed in the middle of March 2018 and sailed north nonstop for about 1300 n miles with lovely conditions either running or reaching. until we got to the latitude of Manzanillo when we promptly
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| Las Hadas |
were headed. We looked at each other and quickly put the wind on the beam toward Las Hadas, the location of the beautiful hotel in the Moorish style, made somewhat famous by Bo Derek in the movie "10".
The Las Hadas was still well maintained and was crowded with guests, mainly Mexican. Boats were only welcome from the anchorage if they paid $10 a day to land dinghy at dock. We paid and proceeded to go through a rather complex dance to get checked into Mexico since we lacked a Temporary Import Permit (called TIP by yachts) and had to go across the bay from Las Hadas to the large commercial port in Manzanillo. The Government offices were all over the place and so we eventually hired an agent for $350 and paid another $135 in government fees. It did remind us though, that 40 plus years ago when we sailed around the world for seven and half years on our 27 ft Cal, Twiga, our total government fees came to about $140. The agent we hired in Manzanillo did the driving over several days and smoothed out a lot of bureaucratic chuckholes; proceedings were further delayed due to it being Semana Santa - Easter Week - when many offices, banks and other businesses close for the holiday.
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| Malecon, Puerta Vallarta |
After a little over a week anchored off Las Hadas, we were underway and sailed straight in light airs, with mist, to La Cruz inside Banderas Bay, where Puerto Vallarta is located at its head. It was wonderful to see La Cruz again after 18 years, but what a surprise. The last time we were there, it was a small fishing village where if you wanted tacos and a beer, you needed to speak Spanish. Now, if you want tacos and a beer, you need to speak English. Also, there is now a large marina, restaurants, holiday homes and condos in the hills. It is still a lovely, low key place with friendly locals.
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| El Cid Resort and Marina |
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| Old Town, Mazatlan |
Our time in the marina went by quickly and soon we headed for Mazatlan and ended up in the El Cid marina. Now this marina is truly fancy, with its beautiful grounds and numerous pools and beaches, but we were more interested in seeing the city of Mazatlan. Enjoyed meeting up with Canadian friends Richard and Sue on Sine Timore again for explorations of the city. We had avoided Mazatlan after a couple times over the years thinking it was a little bit on the dangerous side and run down. Times change. We were impressed by the newly completed Malecon that went for miles and enjoyed the wonderful old colonial town, and a great hike to the lighthouse. The restaurants were plentiful and cheap. After a little over two weeks we took off for San Jose del Cabo, which is roughly at the southeast tip of Baja.
Unfortunately, Marja became very sick there with an electrolyte imbalance caused by two medicines she was taking to control blood pressure. She spent a week in intensive care with absolutely first class care at the Hospiten hospital in San Jose del Cabo. She dodged the bullet.
However, her doctor, refused to allow her to make the trip north in the schooner so we flew to Phoenix where Marja stayed with her college roommate, Denise Blommel and her husband Don Dorres. Stephen returned to Mexico and an old sailing friend of ours, Dave Wyman, kindly offered to help me take the boat to Ventura, California.
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| Motu charging north |
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| The Captain AND Cook |
The trip north was mainly a motorsail punctuated by Stephen having to put on his thick wetsuit and free the prop on two occasions of fishing boat line and plastic. This seems to be the way of the people who make their living from small fishing boats. Just toss everything in the ocean and don't worry about it. We saw this all along the coast of Mexico, Central America, and south America all the way to Cape Horn. Discouraging.
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| Captain America |
We finally ended up in Ventura West Marina, a welcoming and friendly Southern California fishing harbor with many wonderful sailing friends, new and old.
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| Ventura West Marina |
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| Ventura |
It was Stephen's turn this time to grace the inside walls of a hospital after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had his prostate removed by robotic surgery at the City of Hope. The recovery took longer than expected but lots of people never failed to point out that the old boy wasn't a teenager any longer. We also were able to make visits to Marja's 92-year-old mom in Phoenix, Arizona during this time, staying with our most wonderful and excellent friends, Don and Denise.
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| Falmouth, UK |
During the spring of 2019, our good friends John and Christine, of SV Patriot, a 58-foot Chuck Paine design, talked to us about joining them to sail aboard Patriot in the British Isles. We jumped at the chance, and in July flew LAX to Heathrow and then train to Falmouth, and on to a trip of a lifetime. From Land's End, to the Scilly Isles, Ireland, Isle of Man and SCOTLAND!!!!
We fell in love with the land, sea and people, and had an amazing and wonderful time with John and Christine, turning what was to be two weeks into five!! So glad they could put up with us for so long!!
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| Tobermory, Isle of Mull |
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| Patriot in Tinker's Hole, Isle of Mull |
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| Yes, this really is the Outer hebrides, Scotland! |
We sailed up the West Coast stopping at many wonderful islands, including the treeless Outer Hebrides, and made the 65 mile journey from Isle of Barra out to the World Heritage site of St. Kilda. WOW!!
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| Alone in St. Kilda |
What an amazing place. Unfortunately we were a week too late and all the puffins had migrated elsewhere. From there back to the Outer Hebrides and the Isles of Harris and Lewis, then across the top of Scotland and to the Northeast coast through the dreaded Pentland Firth and bashed our way through wind against tide waves to finally pop out and around Duncansby Head south along the East Coast of Scotland to Inverness. More sightseeing and great times before transiting the Caledonian Canal for five days and leaving Patriot and John and Christine in Oban, Scotland.
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| Patriot battling the Pentland Firth |
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| The wonderful Captain John and First Mate Christine |
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| McCreag Tower, Oban, Scotland |
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| Cruising the Burgundy |
Another train ride to
Glasgow and then back to London for two days. From there we took a train to Dijon, France and joined our good friends Tom and Lisa, for a week aboard their magnificent barge, Rabelo, eating and wining our way slowly and majestically along the Burgundy canal.
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| Moonrise over Port Grimaud |
Parted with them and boarded yet another train to St. Raphael, on the southern coast of France, and on to Port Grimaud, where we found sailing friends Geoff and Geraldine and stayed with them for almost a week in their beautiful penthouse apartment over looking the Port and the French Riviera. We also were able to meet up with friends we met in Chile, Dominique and Carole from SV Hippos Camp. A quick rendezvous and a visit to the Cannes Boatshow, and then back on the train north to Paris. At the Gare de Lyon we were met by Monique and Bernard, old sailing friends we met in California when we were in Alameda in the Bay Area in 1987. They sailed into the Bay in their gorgeous Garcia aluminum boat, Passion, and we became fast friends. Later saw them in the Caribbean and in New Zealand in 1994, and twenty-five years later, visited them in and around Paris for two weeks. Our sailing life is about our friends all over the world.
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| Christmas in Ventura |
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| Heading south again |
Back in the US, we were finally able to get underway again on Motu after a year and a half of being dock-bound. Departed Ventura right after the Christmas holidays, and headed to Mexico again. First a stop in San Diego where we were able to visit with Stephen's cousin's son, Glen, who is in the US Navy, and met up with our friend Karen Stromme and her partner Mike on SV Somehow.
The trip south was fine after waiting to sail into Ensenada - a BIG northerly swell had closed the port for two days! One night stay and off we went, so happy to be underway until we ended up a couple of days later in a garbage, kelp, and plastic gyre well offshore in the middle of the night. We worked almost to total exhaustion to clear ourselves and limped into Turtle Bay, about half way down Baja, a day and a half later, where we hired a diver to completely clear the prop. We were joined in that anchorage by other vessels, including Jim and Joy on Kelaerin. Those two have been cruising since the 70s as well, although our paths had not crossed until this winter, and it was great to meet them.
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| Cabo |
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| Sunrise over La Cruz Anchorage |
Sailed into several other anchorages down the Baja Coast before landing in San Jose del Cabo in a raging northerly wind, and meeting up again with friends on Thylacine, Noah, Alex, Hank and Walt. Hank and Walt are four-legged. Several days later we sailed on to La Cruz, again in more of the lumpy, windy/no wind sloshy conditions we experienced during the entire trip south.
La Cruz was crowded when we arrived, with over 60 boats out at anchor and almost all the slips (other than the 70-100 footers) occupied. We signed up for a month, initially, since we wanted to relax and do boat projects. Met more wonderful boats and crews - Sapphire and Lorien to name a few - and Somehow again and Valkyrie, last seen in Chile. Had a surprise visit from Bay Area resident Bob Riksheim and his wife Irene. He is like a fifth Vance son.
Marja loved prowling the Sunday market at La Cruz, and we discovered the gourmet delights in the village. A wonderful event took place when 24 young artists painted murals throughout the village.
We did make a trip north via American Airlines to visit Marja's Mom and for Medical Tests for Stephen, before returning to La Cruz.
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| La Cruz, its people, and murals |
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| This Mural depicted the couple sitting in front of their house |
And that's when we discovered a new surprise, called Covid19. This is like throwing your biggest drogue overboard in a flat calm sea. As we all know the world has come to a screeching halt. We are still in La Cruz, hunkered down, distancing, ordering supplies that are delivered, and only walking around the marina while trying to understand what is happening.
We are struggling to decide whether to return to the US, or spend the summer here and see what transpires.
What we thought would be a cruise all about the people we were meeting and the places visited, turned into a time of isolation, and yes, some fear. The journey does continue. In a very very different way.
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