It is now late January and I am just getting around to writing some notes about our travels this cruising season. Someday I hope to go back and chronicle, in a brief way, our adventures on the Katie G leading up our arrival in Mexico but for now let me put down what I can recall from the first part of this season.
We arrived at the boat on about the 7th of November 2013 which was stored in the Sonoran desert over the summer. We had flown to Phoenix, AZ and then taken the midnight Executivo bus to Guaymus. With four bags, each 50 pounds, mostly boat parts, we were so glad to be met by friends, Theo and Marion. The boat was transferred to the work area where we started the process of undoing the many storage tasks done the previous spring. I won´t go into the details but in general the boat fared better being left on the hard especially since we left it for only 5 months rather than 9 months the previous season. We have concluded that boats like ours are meant to be lived on and used, not stored! While we got the boat ready we were lucky enough to stay at those friends, Theo and Marion, who are also cruisers but just bought their new home in San Carlos. We rode our bikes daily to the yard but didn’t need to stay on board in all the chaos associated with getting everything out and into position for sailing. Thanks so much Theo and Marion for the hospitality (and the regular Sunday afternoon parties they put on for the cruisers in the area). We made the trip down the road to the marina on the 21st of

November and were splashed into Bahia San Carlos to continuing to work on preparing the boat while at anchor. I guess we left the yard at the right time because a couple of days later federal officials showed up at ten marinas including ours, and started inspecting paperwork and impounding boats, about 380 boats in total. That fiasco is still affecting cruisers at this time.
The winter “northers” started to blow and the water and air temperatures were cooling so we set off to cross the Sea of Cortez to the Baja on the 2nd of December at 3 in the afternoon. Seas were initially confused where they reflect off the land and the wind was brisk but in the right direction. We had a fast crossing spending most of the night trying to slow the boat down so as to arrive on the Baja after daybreak. It was however a cold crossing and any longing I had for the fabulous sailing in the Pacific NW at home was quickly dissipated. As forecast, the winds switched from NW to SW when we were just off Bahia Conception and we motored into the bay to a little cove called El Burro Cove.

That is where the fellow, Geary, has been broadcasting daily weather forecasts for cruisers via SSB (single side band) radio. He has lived there for 18 years. We enjoyed a couple of days there at anchor but quickly realised that we wanted more heat.
Our plan had been to hop down the chain of beautiful islands and anchorages in the Sea but plans changed due to the cool weather and so we hopped on the back end of one of those Northers and sailed downwind, mostly wing on wing, and arrived at Bahia San Gabriel on Espiritu Santo which is an island in a National Park. That took 2 days to get there and the following day we had a nice beam reach sail into La Paz which is a great city for cruisers just north of the tip of the Baja and Cabo San Lucas. That was our first time in La Paz and we enjoyed getting to know the city (and the marine chandleries of course) when the northerly winds died down enough so that we could get ashore (staying reasonably dry) from the bay where we were anchored. We had cruising friends, Ian and Diane from Vancouver Island, who were in town and showed us the best places to spend money on boat parts which we really enjoyed.

Well we enjoyed La Paz but still too cold for us and so we hopped on the back side of the next Norther when the seas weren’t too lumpy and we had a great sail for three days. We initially had the GPS chart plotter dialed up for Barra de Navidad with intentions of attending the cruisers Christmas dinner (we later heard there were 80 in attendance) and to see a good friend from Canmore, Dana, who was in Mexico for the first time. Well, after 2 days running wing on wing we were up to the bow to make a sail change and realized that the genoa was in need of repair. Initially, we were thinking of hand stitching a repair but when we saw the extent of the wear we decided to bag that sail and head for La Cruz in Banderas Bay (the bay where Puerto Vallarta is located). We had already been in contact with the sail maker regarding repairs to our main sail. We raised the stay sail and altered course to La Cruz then about 90 nautical miles away. Next we dug the working jib out of the forward cabin (commonly referred to as the garage) and hung that as well. We had a beautiful sail on a beam reach riding over the sizeable but mellow swells coming down from the north from all the northerly winds. The norther was blow out and the winds were light but it was an amazingly beautiful ride into Banderas Bay. I didn’t mention it before but those three days were the peaking of the full moon which is our favorite time to do night passages. So we got the hook down in the bay off La Cruz (400 nautical miles (nm) later) at 7am on the morning of the 19th of December. Plans had changed and it would be Christmas in La Cruz. No hardship there! We love that town as evidenced by the fact we had been stuck in the “La Cruz vortex” for 3months a couple of cruising seasons ago. And we had found some of that warmth we were looking for.