Northern Ranger - A New Adventure

November 29
We are all slumped over, fast asleep or just in a somnolent daze, waiting at the Los Cabos airport for our flight back home to Richmond. I cannot believe it is over: I said to the gang ( down to six, all of us heading back to YVR, the rest either still happily chilling on their boats or flying to other parts of the country)..
that I felt it was anticlimactic, and is this it? We conquered our fears and the Pacific Ocean and made our way over 1000 miles to the tip of the Baja, unscathed and still friends…
and all we have to say is pass the hot sauce and can I have another cervesa? and I wonder if I should buy some vanilla and tequila to take home for the kids?

Sheesh.
And to top it off we don’t even know when we will be going back. How about the day after Christmas? wouldn’t that be nice!
SO
two years of dreaming, one year of spending, and a month of doing - all over! The boat is now sitting in La Paz, hopefully safe and sound. There was a lot of discussion about the best place for wintering a boat, hurricanes not being the issue over winter but then… who knew? Hurricane Sandra appeared out of nowhere. Gave us all a scare but luckily slid down and away from us and all we got was wet and wind. But still….
We are five hours away from Northern Ranger, not to mention the cost of suddenly booking a flight to head down there in case of emergency. This feels weird! Does not feel right, but it is where we want to try cruising for a while and the only way to do it is to bite the bullet and leave her down there.
Lots and lots ( and lots!) of people do it. Some more successfully than others. There are actually at least three derelicts in the marina, taking up space and not making any money, and leaking fuel into the water while they are at it.
Others take the boat to Puerto Vallarta, and then during the hurricane season move themselves back up to somewhere like Ensenada, or even San Diego. There are other reasons for going back into the states and then back down to Mexico, income taxes and medical insurance the usual ones.
We aren’t keen to do the Baha Bash (moving UP the Baja peninsula) too soon - unless we had lots of time to really make a holiday of it and explore all the places we cruised by on our way down. But time is not something we have yet, so we have to parcel what we do have and use it for exploring the Sea of Cortez and maybe places further south.

My problem will be how we approach this cruising south business. Up to now we have been doing the big stuff in groups… packs of friendlies who make getting there a lot of fun.
But our schedules and their schedules may not overlap, so cruising may become a little different from now on! Although I would love to meet up with our new and old cruising buddies as we explore, I think sometime we will cut the cord and, dare we say, do our own thing. That’s something I have to get used to!
Taking our family down for visits and cruises would be lovely too, and hopefully that will happen over the next year. And I am thinking about just going down on my own and hanging around.. doing some painting…learning some spanish… it all sounds wonderful.

Meanwhile..we are home. It is bloody cold outside, I almost froze on my Monday morning walk with Kona and my friend Laura… now I am sitting here with the fireplace on looking out at the frosty back yard and the leaves strewn everywhere. Lawrence is making jokes to the rest of the gang about cheap flights to La Paz and let’s just pack up and head back down there… only it doesn't feel funny!!!!
however it is Christmas soon and that will be wonderful - hard to believe it’s coming up. After that… start dreaming again and hopefully, soon, we will be back to doing!

November 29
We are all slumped over, fast asleep or just in a somnolent daze, waiting at the Los Cabos airport for our flight back home to Richmond. I cannot believe it is over: I said to the gang ( down to six, all of us heading back to YVR, the rest either still happily chilling on their boats or flying to other parts of the country)..
that I felt it was anticlimactic, and is this it? We conquered our fears and the Pacific Ocean and made our way over 1000 miles to the tip of the Baja, unscathed and still friends…
and all we have to say is pass the hot sauce and can I have another cervesa? and I wonder if I should buy some vanilla and tequila to take home for the kids?

Sheesh.
And to top it off we don’t even know when we will be going back. How about the day after Christmas? wouldn’t that be nice!
SO
two years of dreaming, one year of spending, and a month of doing - all over! The boat is now sitting in La Paz, hopefully safe and sound. There was a lot of discussion about the best place for wintering a boat, hurricanes not being the issue over winter but then… who knew? Hurricane Sandra appeared out of nowhere. Gave us all a scare but luckily slid down and away from us and all we got was wet and wind. But still….
We are five hours away from Northern Ranger, not to mention the cost of suddenly booking a flight to head down there in case of emergency. This feels weird! Does not feel right, but it is where we want to try cruising for a while and the only way to do it is to bite the bullet and leave her down there.
Lots and lots ( and lots!) of people do it. Some more successfully than others. There are actually at least three derelicts in the marina, taking up space and not making any money, and leaking fuel into the water while they are at it.
Others take the boat to Puerto Vallarta, and then during the hurricane season move themselves back up to somewhere like Ensenada, or even San Diego. There are other reasons for going back into the states and then back down to Mexico, income taxes and medical insurance the usual ones.
We aren’t keen to do the Baha Bash (moving UP the Baja peninsula) too soon - unless we had lots of time to really make a holiday of it and explore all the places we cruised by on our way down. But time is not something we have yet, so we have to parcel what we do have and use it for exploring the Sea of Cortez and maybe places further south.

My problem will be how we approach this cruising south business. Up to now we have been doing the big stuff in groups… packs of friendlies who make getting there a lot of fun.
But our schedules and their schedules may not overlap, so cruising may become a little different from now on! Although I would love to meet up with our new and old cruising buddies as we explore, I think sometime we will cut the cord and, dare we say, do our own thing. That’s something I have to get used to!
Taking our family down for visits and cruises would be lovely too, and hopefully that will happen over the next year. And I am thinking about just going down on my own and hanging around.. doing some painting…learning some spanish… it all sounds wonderful.

Meanwhile..we are home. It is bloody cold outside, I almost froze on my Monday morning walk with Kona and my friend Laura… now I am sitting here with the fireplace on looking out at the frosty back yard and the leaves strewn everywhere. Lawrence is making jokes to the rest of the gang about cheap flights to La Paz and let’s just pack up and head back down there… only it doesn't feel funny!!!!
however it is Christmas soon and that will be wonderful - hard to believe it’s coming up. After that… start dreaming again and hopefully, soon, we will be back to doing!

Christopher gives a toast.. again... because it's all about the toasts... sniff sniff... we don't want to leave!!!!

great minds at work... figuring out the bill

Ken and Christie off of Varnebaank, great boat, great crew, great new friends... hope to see them again real soon!!!!

Cam ( Sea Level) and Ron ( Duet)...