The Further Adventures of Fly Aweigh (II)

Back on a boat after a 10-year working break, we're off on another adventure! This time, with two hulls, no timeline, and no particular agenda. And sometimes, I’ll use this forum for non-sailing adventures.

06 February 2025 | Punta Tosca, Isla Socorro
26 January 2025 | South Anchorage, Isla San Benedicto
18 January 2025 | South of Cabo
10 January 2025
02 January 2025 | La Ventana, Baja California
18 December 2024 | Los Frailes
07 December 2024 | South of Ensenada, México
12 November 2024 | Baja Naval Boat Yard, Ensenada
28 October 2024 | Baja Naval Boat Yard, Ensenada
15 October 2024 | Catalina Island
04 September 2024 | Santa Cruz Island
31 May 2023 | France
24 May 2023 | Tunis Medina, Tunisia
20 May 2023 | Bizerte, Tunisia
18 May 2023 | Carthage
16 May 2023 | Tunis, Tunisia
14 May 2023 | Tunis, Tunisia
05 February 2023 | Barra de Navidad, Mexico
31 January 2023 | Tenacatita, Mexico
29 January 2023 | Ipala, Mexico

Leaving Ensenada

07 December 2024 | South of Ensenada, México
Alison Gabel
We've left Ensenada, México and are southbound at last, and now the cruising season officially starts for Fly Aweigh. She's been scrubbed and spruced by the capable team at Baja Naval Boat Yard in Ensenada, with touched-up CopperCoat on the bottom, newly re-bedded windows all around the main cabin, fresh black paint on the outside of those windows, and a shiny, polished hull. The engines and saildrives have been serviced, the props painted with Prop Speed, a few chunks of missing fiberglass repaired, anchor chain inspected and re-marked, and the inside cleaned with vinegar water from top to toe. Allan installed a new starter motor on the port engine, and replaced the inverter-charger and control panel with newfangled stuff that gets the whole system talking better. And the new control panel is slick, although Allan points out that the old one was easier to read - the new one has smaller letters! We blame GenZ, but we're glad to have the cool tech. We were in the yard a total of 6 weeks with a few days in the marina after we splashed last Tuesday, but spent 10 of those days in Southern California for the Thanksgiving holiday.

I have to admit, I like being in the boat yard. I enjoy the challenge of everyday life (up to a point) and adore hearing all the whistles and whoops the guys give each other, the banter, the volleyball game at lunch. I like waking up on the boat and hearing the sound of early projects getting underway. I enjoy meeting other people also stuck "on the hard" while their boats get spruced, and the camaraderie we all develop in our common plights. I enjoy finding fun little places to eat locally since cooking and doing dishes aboard gets tiring with no easy way to dump the water. But all of that is good for about the 6 weeks we had, and then it's time to go, and thank all the folks at the yard for their help. I can only imagine how good, and weird, it must have felt for our friends Behan and Jamie on s/v Totem after their total refit, during Covid, for years. Right now, I'm doing a little dance for them as they continue across the Pacific, facing new challenges that only being on a voyage can present.

Our day so far: we had a similar start leaving Ensenada this morning as we did leaving Oxnard a few months back - a thick fog has been dominating the early mornings for the last few days and we were ready to plow through a damp morning today, but awoke to a gorgeous, clear day, with calm seas, no wind. So we're motoring along placidly, in the company of another boat, s/v Eos. At 49 feet, she's got a longer water line than Fly Aweigh does, which directly translates to more speed (but I bet we'd catch her with our sails up!), so she's blasted on ahead of us. We plan to catch up to them in Bahia Asunción Monday evening, unless they choose to peel off sooner and explore another anchorage.

We left the dock at 6am, with mugs of tea/coffee and nibbles of a South African biscotti sort of thing that Louise on Eos made, delicious! At 8am we had a Face Time call with our Canadian friends Michael and Gloria, who's boat, Paikea Mist, is currently in Valencia, Spain. It was perfect to start this day with them, as our early cruising days in 2010 were spent in their company as we crossed the Pacific Ocean, and we've shared many adventures with them on Paikea Mist in the last 15 years. Breakfast was the usual - big bowls of Allan's special oatmeal, laden with fruit and flax and walnuts and cinnamon.

Then I took a nap. Why not? We have another 48 hours to go, and there's not much happening. Our biggest task is to avoid the bull kelp and those diabolical long lines the Mexican fisherman tend to set. We've seen lots of kelp, but so far no lines. So I settled into a nice nap while the boat slid over the calm sea, the engine murmuring gently. Just as I was starting to wake up I heard the unmistakable sound of our prop getting jammed. Rope? Kelp? I leapt out of bed to help Allan in the next step, something we've done many times in our cruising years - suit up and jump into the water to clear the prop. It's almost a right of passage, so quite fitting it happened on the first day out.

He pulled on his brand-new wet suit and I grabbed the mask, fins and snorkel and down he went into the chilly water, he was back on board in a few seconds, the big ball of kelp floating away from the boat. We're keeping our eye out for more - next time it'll be my turn to jump in, so I'm waiting on my shower a little bit longer just in case.

Later, for dinner, I've defrosted the tomato sauce my friend Joy made a few months back and plan to make a veggie pasta with a little salad. Then we move into our night watch schedule, which we revise all the time, trying to find the perfect rhythm. This time of year at this latitude, the night is almost 13 hours long, so with 3-hour watches we divide the dark into 2 watches each. We try to match our natural biorhythms, which used to be me for the 9pm-midnight and then the 3am-6am watch, but as we age our patterns are changing, and lately I'm up until 1 or 2 and he's awake early, so we're trading. We'll see how that goes - it's never perfect.

Too bad the wind has decided to sleep this day out, but it looks like she'll be here tomorrow afternoon and then we'll get a good offshore kick on Monday. This calm start to our trip is appreciated, actually, a nice way to get back into movement on the water without too much drama. The kelp jam was just enough drama to remind us we're out on the planet's biggest ocean and we'd best be on our toes.

¡Ándele sur!

Cut and paste this link to track, and enjoy more cool tech:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_FlyAweigh/

Cut and paste this link for the latest photos in the Photo Gallery:
https://www.sailblogs.com/member/flyaweigh/gallery/46385/
Comments
Vessel Name: Fly Aweigh II
Vessel Make/Model: Seawind 1160 Deluxe
Hailing Port: Channel Islands, California
Crew: Allan and Alison Gabel
About:
Retired airline pilots exploring the world at a slower pace. in 2009 we took two-year leaves of absence from our jobs and sailed across the Pacific on a Catalina Morgan 440, which we sold in Australia so we could go back to work. [...]
Fly Aweigh II's Photos - Main
25 Photos
Created 10 January 2025
From Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas
14 Photos
Created 18 December 2024
Plus a few pics from Thanksgiving!
19 Photos
Created 7 December 2024
Random Pictures from Our First Month
23 Photos
Created 12 November 2024
Our trip to Tunisia to join friends Michael and Gloria on their Beneteau Custom 50 sailboat for a trip to Menorca, Spain. And then - a visit to see my brother Chris and his wife Sophie in France!
71 Photos
Created 9 June 2023
7 Photos
Created 14 January 2023
Pictures of our trip northbound from Cabo San Lucas to Ensenada
9 Photos
Created 19 June 2022
From Santa Rosalia south.
16 Photos
Created 4 June 2022
From Puerto Escondido to Santa Rosalia - May 2022
22 Photos
Created 24 May 2022
7 Photos
Created 13 May 2022
From La Paz to Puerto Escondido in the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California)
17 Photos
Created 27 April 2022
13 Photos
Created 17 April 2022
14 Photos
Created 25 March 2022
Life in Barra and environs in the month of February.
18 Photos
Created 27 February 2022
9 Photos
Created 17 February 2022
14 Photos
Created 2 February 2022
Week 2 of our time in Ensenada and the Baja Naval Boatyard.
9 Photos
Created 20 December 2021
Our first week in the Baja Naval Boatyard
12 Photos
Created 11 December 2021
The last, last minute things and our final departure for San Diego.
4 Photos
Created 1 December 2021
Stuff we're doing in the prepping-to-go-sailing phase of our lives.
5 Photos
Created 20 November 2021
21 Photos
Created 9 March 2011
22 Photos
Created 9 March 2011
24 Photos
Created 9 March 2011
49 Photos
Created 24 February 2011
30 Photos | 1 Sub-Album
Created 24 February 2011
29 Photos
Created 15 January 2011
51 Photos
Created 15 January 2011
20 Photos
Created 16 October 2010
28 Photos
Created 16 September 2010
20 Photos
Created 31 August 2010
23 Photos
Created 16 August 2010
29 Photos
Created 1 August 2010
21 Photos
Created 8 July 2010
And other things ...
25 Photos
Created 25 June 2010
28 Photos
Created 11 June 2010
34 Photos
Created 21 May 2010
34 Photos
Created 3 May 2010
28 Photos
Created 17 April 2010
39 Photos
Created 19 January 2010
Train trip to Mexico's Copper Canyon in Chihuahua.
11 Photos | 1 Sub-Album
Created 28 December 2009
28 Photos
Created 16 December 2009
Visit with Grant & Phyllis Gabel; Fly Aweigh's Christmas decorations
13 Photos
Created 12 December 2009
15 Photos
Created 7 December 2009
8 Photos
Created 6 December 2009
11 Photos
Created 22 November 2009
The 11-day adventure from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas
12 Photos
Created 7 November 2009
Pre-Ha-Ha days in San Deigo harbor
No Photos
Created 25 October 2009
10 Photos
Created 14 October 2009
Commissioning and Provisioning in Marina del rey
9 Photos
Created 8 September 2009