We’ve been hanging out in the bay by Punta Chivato for about 9 days now.

We started out anchored by the old hotel which is the typical anchorage spot here — it’s been one of our favorites since we first sailed up here in 2010.

At that time the big hotel was a going concern and we enjoyed going in and having a buffet breakfast and drinks by the pool. Since then the hotel closed and has fallen into disrepair and has a creepy air about it now — so we call it “The Shining” referencing the old Jack Nicolson film based on the novel by Steven King.

A few days ago we moved our anchorage spot over off of Shell Beach and the casa we’ve done some house sitting for a few months the last two summers. Our friends are here right now so anchored here we can easily visit them and get out for walks on that amazing beach.

With some windy afternoons we have spent a lot of time in the boat, as well, taking care of the never ending boat projects. But what a lovely place to be doing it!

It looks like the weather is shaping up for us to be able to start a leisurely trip south back to the Loreto area in a few days.

Going south in the winter is a whole different ball game than going north so we’re looking forward to some nice downwind sailing and exploring the anchorages along the way.

So all is well with the Cetus Crew and we’re enjoying being out and about in the Sea of Cortez.

We left Puerto Escondido November 11th and motored up to San Juanico where we spent a little over a week waiting for the Northers to die down so we could move on.

Heading north in the Sea of Cortez in the winter months is a waiting game since the strong north winds blow resulting in steep seas that aren’t conducive to travel north. So you wait out the blow then give it another day for the seas to settle down then you motor as far as you can before the next norther kicks in.

With a short one night stop at Punta Púlpito we finally reached our goal of Punta Chivato on November 24th.

It was a great trip and we’ve been enjoying it here for a week now — more on that tomorrow.

The Cetus Crew is happy to be out in the Sea again!

Our leisurely drive from Tacoma back to Cetus in Baja went extremely well. We kept drive time to 4 or 5 hours a day so we could stop often (about once an hour) to get out and walk and stretch for the sake of Terry's new knee. That combined with avoiding I-5 and taking backroads like 101 and 395 made for a pretty nice 2,100 mile drive.

The big highlight was getting to stop at our friends casa in Punta Chivato to rest up and chill out for a couple days before continuing down to Puerto Escondido and the work needed to put Cetus back together again.

She was at the dock in Marina Chica which made the work of putting sails on and unloading the car much easier.

After a week there we were ready to go leaving some projects to finish up when we get out to the anchorages.

Today we took the intermediary step and moved out to a buoy in the mooring field. A great place to enjoy a relaxing Sunday 🤩

We will be here a few days while the next Norther passes and we continue to take care of miscellaneous projects, visit some friends and provision up to get out and enjoy the Sea!

There's no place like home ❤️

We got up to Tacoma on August 11th and it's been pretty non stop since that day, first with lots of Dr apts leading up to Terry's knee surgery on August 27th.

Then September was filled with more routine Dr apts as well as Physical Therapy 2 days a week and daily home PT exercises. Never a dull moment!

We managed to squeeze some visits with family and friends in as Terry got more mobile but still didn't see everyone we'd hoped to.

A highlight was going up to Carly & Adam's to critter sit our grand doggies and kitties for about 5 days on the 10th of October - it was like a mini vacation being away from the busy appointment schedule we'd had for those 1st 2 months.

After that the focus changed on getting ready to head home to Cetus!

We were able to get together with family one last time and while packing the car and a few last Dr apts till finally it's here! Leave Eve 🤩

We'll take a fairly leisurely drive down as not to aggravate Terry's knee and the plan has us arriving in Puerto Escondido on November 3rd.

Hoping the weather stays good for our planned drive down the 395 -- our favorite route.

Can't wait to go swimming! The best therapy ever! For body and mind ❤️

It's now been a full week since Terry's total knee replacement surgery and everything is going good 👍

He's diligent about doing his exercises, keeping moving and elevating and icing and it's paying off. He's keeping his eye on the prize: to get back down to Cetus in The Sea of Cortez hopefully in October.

He had his 2nd PT apt today and tomorrow is his Post Op with the surgeon. We're really looking forward to that one -- a real milestone.

He's also looking forward to transitioning to the cane from the walker this next week. Good goal.

Despite the occasional discomfort — and sometimes pain — Terry is doing a fantastic job keeping moving and doing sets of exercises.

They told him to get up and move at least once an hour and he’s really mastering the walker and says it feels good to walk around. The exercises are tough and they say to push through the pain — which he’s doing with a smile on his face. Oh, I guess that’s a grimace 😬

Tomorrow will bring a big change to our routine as he has his first PT apt at St Anthony’s in Gig Harbor. So we’ll go out on a big adventure as well as getting a whole new set of exercises.

so on it goes…..

The early morning knee replacement surgery went real well yesterday -- it was a success!

Our departure from the hospital was delayed a bit so we didn't end up leaving until about 5 in the afternoon which made for a long 12 hour day. But it was so great to go "home" instead of spending a night in the hospital.

He did have more pain after surgery than expected as the spinal wore off exceptionally fast before the other pain meds had a chance to kick in. That combined with some nausea made for a tough few hours and then the pharmacy was slow in getting his prescriptions ready, thus the delayed discharge.

But all's well that ends well and we got into a good routine when we got settled in and both managed to get some sleep last night.

Today has gone well with adding in his PT exercises and getting him up and moving once an hour and keeping him iced whenever he's not moving.

Tomorrow will be more of this same schedule as today and then Friday he has his first PT apt so we'll have an outing to Gig Harbor and then he'll have a new schedule of exercises to keep him busy. 🤩

Go Terry!

We reached Tacoma 2 weeks ago and have been busy getting settled in while doing lots of Dr apts preparing for Terry's knee surgery.

And tomorrow is The Day!

We've been amazed at all the improvements that have been made since I had my left knee replaced in 2017. Biggest difference is they expect it to be day surgery so he should be released tomorrow afternoon!

Part of what makes that possible is they won't be using general anesthesia -- instead it'll be a spinal block and some light sedation -- they said he can even watch! As long as he has jokes to keep them entertained 😂.

I'll be posting in the following days about how the surgery goes and the postoperative physical therapy which is scheduled out till the end of September.

As the month goes on and the wound heals we're looking forward to getting out and about and visiting friends and family that we've been missing for a long time 😍

Go Terry!

It’s August already so it’s time to pack up and leave this sweet little casa on Shell Beach in Punta Chivato.

It’s bittersweet to leave this quite, remote spot but the weather turned warm today when the winds died down which makes it a little easier to say Adios 🤩

Tomorrow we start the big drive to Washington where we will get settled in and ready for Terry’s knee replacement surgery at the end of the month.

It was great to have a couple months of R&R here getting ready for the busy times ahead.

As always time flies by so quickly it makes me dizzy 🤣

June has been a wonderful month here at the cute casa on Shell Beach in Punta Chivato. Very relaxing with plenty of time to read, play cards and simply enjoy the view in addition to beach walks and star gazing.

As we discovered last summer this is an ideal spot to watch rocket launches out of Vandenberg AFB — they appear to fly right over the top of us!

And Rosie is enjoying her summer vacation, too, since she loves the freedom of being able to walk around the enclosed back yard when we are out. Always plenty of birds and occasional lizards to get her attention as well as the local cat that we’ve dubbed Simon is coming around every few days to visit just like last year.

Life is good for the Cetus Crew.

After a very busy 2 months (April and May) in Washington doing all of our routine doctor appointments as well as a bunch of extras as Terry gears up for knee replacement surgery in August and I continued to fight an ear infection -- we were happy to escape the hectic pace and return to Baja for some R&R.

We've been enjoying the quiet relaxation of beach life here in our friends casa on Shell Beach in Punta Chivato for 5 days now and just loving it.

The view is amazing and the wildlife plentiful -- birds flocking, Rays jumping, rabbits hopping and road runners beeping 😍

We'll be here house sitting till the end of July when we'll pack up and head north to prepare for Terry's big surgery.

More posts to come now that I have a lot more free time 🤩

We enjoyed the first few days of March at one of our favorite anchorages: Bahia Marquer on Isla Carmen -- it was wonderful.

We headed back in to port to greet friends George & Barbara when they arrived after the long drive down from Washington. Terry had made plans with them to help George sail their boat DreamCatcher back to Puerto Escondido from where it was moored in Mazatlán.
A few days after George & Barbra got to PE we put the boys on a bus to La Paz where they would fly over to Mazatlán.
After a couple days in Mazatlán to get the boat ready and do some provisioning they set sail for what was anticipated to be a 3 day passage. They arrived in PE a week later. 🤩

It was a change in weather that made it prudent to duck into La Paz for a couple days to wait it out and allow the seas to settle back down to continue the journey. They were 2 happy guys to step on to the dock on March 20th.

Then the work began! The purpose of bringing DreamCatcher back to PE was so Terry and George could install new water tanks. With noses to the grindstone they removed the old tank (which involved cutting out part of the flooring and then cutting the old aluminum tank to get it out chunk by chunk). Luckily installing the new plastic tanks and repairing the floor was a bit easier.

With that behind us Terry & I got busy preparing for our drive north to Washington in April.

We stripped Cetus down removing sails, dodger, wind generator etc so she'd be safe no matter what weather should come her way.

It was a busy winter and it flew by quickly!

February became the month of whales beginning when Terry treated me to a great whale watching tour for my 70th birthday. Located near Guerrero Negro on the Baja Pacific coast Ojo de Liebre is a favorite mating and breeding bay for the Gray Whales that make the long trek down from their home waters far north near Alaska. It was a great, well run tour and we enjoyed two days of observing them spy hopping, breaching and even petting the ones that would come right up to the panga boat!

When we returned to Puerto Escondido whales had come to that area too! Every time we headed out to an anchorage we were treated to seeing Blue whales and Humpbacks spouting and fluking. How exciting!

I've been remiss in posting for a few months so it's time to catch up on the goings on of the Cetus Crew 🤩

We've been "home basing" on a mooring in the main harbor of Marina Puerto Escondido since our return to Cetus in October while getting out to the islands as much as we can. It's been a great winter filled with fantastic sunrises and sunsets, full moons, shooting stars and missile launches lighting up the night sky.

We even managed to get a nice swim in last time we got out to Bahia Marquer! The water is too chilly for some at around 67-69 degrees but we were comfortable enough to do several laps around the boat in the clear turquoise water.

We've been hiking and beach combing and just enjoying everything Mother Nature has to offer as well as doing plenty of boat projects.

Terry's installed new batteries and worked on the many systems aboard Cetus, as well as doing the routine polishing and cleaning of the stainless and brass. He's also gotten all the teak freshly treated so Cetus is sparkling once again.

My big project this year is replacing and repairing nearly every cover on the boat from hatch covers to the Bimini, indoor and outdoor cushions etc etc. It seems like the years of salt and sun has everything wearing out at the same time.

My first one to tackle is to patch up the dinghy chaps to get them through at least a few more months till we can find a good place to get some made. Making all new dinghy chaps is beyond me -- repairing is tough enough in the limited work space on the boat. You'd need a place to spread out for all that cutting and sewing. My other projects will be much easier.

So we will continue on with all of our boat projects while enjoying the great outdoors here in the Sea of Cortez.

And Rosie is doing real well for an old girl of 13 😻. She especially enjoys spending time in the cockpit laying in the sun and watching the birds fly by.

All's well aboard Cetus. 😍

The latest issue of Good Old Boat magazine is out and available in newsstands and online.

Pick one up and check out Terry’s article “Counter Revival” detailing one of our recent projects replacing the galley countertop in Cetus — our good old boat 🤩

Sunday October 15th we finally locked up the casa on Shell Beach, Punta Chivato, loaded up the car and drove south — back to Cetus.

Terry had driven down a few days earlier and did all the hard work of putting her together again after being in hurricane prep storage mode for a few months. He got the sails on and the dodger up among lots of other projects so she was all ready for us to move aboard when we got there.
We would normally need to stay in nearby Hotel Tripui for a day or two while we did the work because with all that outside stuff stored below there just wouldn’t be room for us. It was so nice to move right in! Way to go Terry!

We spent two nights at the dock in Marina Chica while we unloaded the car and put everything away as well as getting groceries. Then we were ready to go!

Wednesday morning we were off shortly after sunrise and dropped anchor at one of our old favorites — Isla Coronados.

It’s been heavenly swimming in the clear, warm water and watching the stars at night. There’s just no place like home.

We've been house sitting in this charming casa on Shell Beach in Punta Chivato for over 2 months now. Boy does time fly!

Now that it's Fall the temperatures are dropping and the days are getting shorter and the owners will be returning in a couple weeks. We are excited to be getting back to Cetus soon to get out and enjoy the anchorages around Loreto.

So we are now counting down the days till we get back home again. 🤩

One of the biggest differences we’ve found living at the casa compared to the boat is all the critters, big and small, that pop up everyday.

First there are the little creepy crawly things like centipedes, scorpion and spiders. Then there are the fairly harmless field mice and the occasional hermit crab that waddles up from the beach providing entertainment for all — especially Rosie.

But the creepiest and scariest of all was the rattlesnake that came into the yard from the beach one evening! That got everybody’s attention too but not in a good way.

We’ve come to realize we are sort of shielded from all these critters when we’re on the boat since we have a water barricade all around us — unwanted guests just can’t get to us.

We also have noticed that that same water barrier makes for less work on cleaning day aboard the boat than in a casa on the beach where sand and everything is constantly being blown on to the patios and windows and finding its way into the house. Especially after a hurricane!

So there are pros and cons for life on land vs life on the sea and it’s quite the adventure discovering something new everyday.

PS very happy to report the rattler hasn’t made a return appearance for a couple weeks. Maybe Rosie’s presence has discouraged the field mice enough he found better hunting grounds. 🤞

In mid July when we prepared Cetus for hurricane season and tucked her safely away in Marina Chica, loaded up the car with everything we could imagine needing and drove north to Punta Chivato we weren't exactly sure what to expect or what life would be like spending the summer in the Sea of Cortez in a beach house instead of on board Cetus. We knew it would be an adventure!

We had only been in this cute little casa a couple times as guests but we have visited Punta Chivato many many times beginning in 2010. It has always been a favorite anchorage of ours when we traveled north in the Sea in the fall and winter months. Those months it is the perfect protection from the prevailing north winds but summer winds are different and blow predominantly from the south.

We knew all the houses here were "off grid" operating on solar power and generators. We are definitely used to "off grid" life so that wouldn't be too challenging but would there be any air conditioning for the hot summer nights?

There isn't ac so we keep cool just as we do on the boat with good fans and fresh sea breezes. So most of the time we can stay pretty comfortable sitting out on the big patio overlooking the water, but it can get pretty warm in the night when the breezes die down or some humidity sets in. That's the downside of life on Shell Beach in the summer but there are plenty of upsides to offset that. After all it's hot everywhere in the Sea this time of year.

One of the best things are early morning walks on the seemingly endless beach. Everyday we see something new and everyday the beach seems to be sculpted in a different pattern -- a result of the waves and tide.

One thing I miss most about not being on Cetus is the swimming. Sure, we can and do swim here but it's just not as easy as swimming off the boat. Here you have to go in and out very carefully shuffling along the way as to avoid a sting from the large skate population. Terry got hit one time despite our careful shuffling and that's a pain you don't want to experience. Luckily the treatment is soaking it in hot water for a couple hours -- you can actually see the venom drain out -- and then the pain is gone.

So we don't swim as often as we would on the boat but taking a shower is much easier here so we rinse off several times a day. Not as nice as a swim, but refreshing all the same.

Tomorrow I'll post about another big difference being on land instead of the water -- all the critters big and small!

Everyday brings a new adventure.

A week has passed since Hurricane Hilary blew through Baja and life is back to normal. In fact the weather has been better (cooler) than our 1st month here on Shell Beach in Punta Chivato.

The hard rains did some damage to the yard creating a big wash out under the stairway to the beach which has kept Terry busy stabilizing the wall and top step so the big hole can all be filled in again.

Luckily that was the only damage here at the house and we quickly got word from Javier at Puerto Escondido that Cetus was safe and sound in her slip in Marina Chica — he even sent pics so we could see for ourselves. Cetus has now survived 4 hurricanes in the Sea.