Sailing on Starshine

Vessel Name: Starshine
Vessel Make/Model: Outbound 44
Hailing Port: San Francisco, CA
Crew: Pat and Melodie Williams
About: We have been "working the plan" since 2004 when Pat began taking sailing lessons. That lead to a few sailing vacations on sailboats. Melodie took some classes too. We purchased our boat in 2011.
27 February 2019 | Alameda California
26 February 2019 | Mazatlan to San Francisco
26 February 2019 | Mazatlan Sinaloa Mexico
01 May 2018 | El Cid - Mazatlan
09 April 2018 | Marina Mazatlan
07 March 2018 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
23 January 2018 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
04 December 2017 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
24 October 2017 | Oakland, CA
04 September 2017 | South Lake Tahoe CA
04 September 2017 | Culver OR
04 September 2017 | Culver OR
04 September 2017 | Redmond Oregon
17 July 2017 | Polson Montana
31 May 2017 | Our new Camper in Ira Texas
04 May 2017 | Nuevo Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit Mexico
04 April 2017 | La Cruz Anchorage
12 March 2017 | Chamela Bay
12 March 2017 | Tenicatita Bay
18 February 2017 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
Recent Blog Posts
27 February 2019 | Alameda California

Goodbye Starshine

Melodie and I have accepted an offer on Starshine. We close escrow on March 8, 2019.

26 February 2019 | Mazatlan to San Francisco

The Baja Bash

Preparing for the Baja Bash (the trip north from Mexico to California). They call it “The Bash” because the prevailing winds and waves are from the northwest. So you are basically going uphill (if that makes any sense).

26 February 2019 | Mazatlan Sinaloa Mexico

Summer 2018

As many of you who have followed our blog over the last four years you’ll note that I have not given it any attention since last spring. So let me fill in the blanks.

01 May 2018 | El Cid - Mazatlan

Marina El Cid - Mazatlan

Today is Tuesday May 1, 2018.

09 April 2018 | Marina Mazatlan

Marina Mazatlan

Today is Monday April 9, 2018.

07 March 2018 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

Leaving Banderas Bay

Today is Wednesday March 7, 2018.

The Baja Bash

26 February 2019 | Mazatlan to San Francisco
Pat Williams | Windy
Preparing for the Baja Bash (the trip north from Mexico to California). They call it “The Bash” because the prevailing winds and waves are from the northwest. So you are basically going uphill (if that makes any sense).

We contracted with my friend Arnstein Mustad, who runs his own boat delivery business Mustad Marine, to get the boat north. There were some schedules to juggle. We first thought we would set sail to CA in late October. This ended up changing to mid-November. I took this time to finally fix our fuel issue by changing all the copper tubing supply lines over to rubber. Problem solved. We had a few other things fixed in preparation for her sale once we got back to the USA.

It had always been in our plan that once we were done cruising, Melodie would not be on board for the bash and I would use crew to get the boat north. Starshine made it to the San Francisco Bay area covering 1400 NM in 15 days! Melodie flew out of MZT to visit her sister in NC on Nov 16. She said goodbye to the warm MX weather and hello to the cool US weather.

Arnstein and one crew (Dennis) arrived in MZT on Nov 18. We squared things away and departed MZT on Tuesday Nov 20, 2018.

We had a great sail over to Cabo San Lucas, sailing 23 of the 25 hours at over 8 kts. We spent Thanksgiving in Cabo. Starshine is really in her element with wind in the high teens off the starboard beam.

The sail to Cabo was the last sail of the trip, we motored or motor sailed the rest of the way (190 hours on the engine). We made stops in Man o' War Cove in Mag Bay to rest up. We were only in Turtle Bay for two hours, just long enough to buy 200 liters of diesel from Enrique. I really freaked out about how much fuel we needed and how many pesos to have onboard. Our fuel was fine and I had way too many Mexican pesos.

We stopped for two days in Ensenada to cancel our TIP and check out. The Port Captain had closed the port to small vessels. Arnstein believed the weather was going to be fine and the wave height and period would be very manageable. We submitted a letter to the Ensenada Port Captain (in Spanish) requesting permission to leave. Basically it said, “We wanna leave and any problems we encounter are on us.” Permission was granted and we left at midnight that night.

We were only one day in San Diego to check in. After checking in at the Police Dock we were only at Shelter Island for 25 hours. We stopped for 20 min in Santa Barbara to refuel and we arrived under the Golden Gate Bridge at 2100 on Tuesday Dec 4, 2018. Our rounding of Point Conception was a non-event. We got to see a rocket launch from Vandenberg AFB

We had southerlies and following seas passing Point Sur. The highest speed we saw was 11.8 surfing down a wave. We had just the genoa out and were making good time.

Our crew Dennis was a really great guy and had some skill in the galley. We ate pretty well. We experienced a few failures, the anemometer showed 250 kts crossing to Cabo before all the electronics went dark. We took the wind sensor out of the circuit and the electronics worked fine the rest of the trip. We went to start the engine in Ensenada.......nothing. Not even a click. I tried to jump the solenoid with a screwdriver, but the motor just spun, it wasn't engaging the flywheel. I keep a spare starter onboard and I had it replaced in 30 minutes.

On our way to Marina Coral in Ensenada to get fuel we saw a panga overturn as we exited CruisePort Marina. One guy swam ashore, but the second guy was clinging to the bow like a wet rat. We performed a rescue using the life sling and brought him safely to shore on Starshine. Pretty exciting, as this occurred less than 50 feet from the large rock jetty. We got fuel ok, but because of the starter and the rescue, we did not beat the rain storm and got soaked returning to the dock.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We kept the ‘petal to the metal’ and beat the weather we were trying to avoid getting to San Francisco.

So what’s next you may ask? Well were doing some final touch ups to get ready to put Starshine on the market. This included moving all our stuff off the boat. She’s been our home for over 5 years. Plus Melodie and I admit to being pack rats of a sort. Our last big project was to get all the beautiful woodwork down below some touch up so she looks ship shape.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed sharing in this adventure of ours. We plan to continue to tour the USA in our truck camper until we decide where we will finally land for good. Arizona is in contention, but we are considering other spots too.

We are so fortunate to have been able to experience this lifestyle for the last four years. We’ve met so many great people and made some friends who I am sure we will continue to share our lives with.

Fair winds and following seas to you all.
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