TivoliCruise

25 March 2022 | SF Bay
19 March 2022 | Santa Barbara, CA
06 March 2022 | Magdalena Bay, Baja Sur
22 February 2022 | Chamale, MX
15 February 2022 | Zihuatanejo
12 February 2022 | Pacific Ocean S of Acapulco
08 February 2022 | Marina Chiapas, Mexico
29 January 2022 | Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica
22 January 2022 | Miguel Pedro Locks
21 January 2022 | The Flats
16 January 2022 | Shelter Bay Marina, Panama
07 January 2022 | Georgetown, Bahamas
31 December 2021 | Calabash Bay, Long Island, Bahamas
26 December 2021 | Georgetown, Bahamas
11 December 2021 | Black Point, Exumas
02 December 2021 | Harbor Club, Nassau Bahamas
25 November 2021 | Great Harbor Cay
21 November 2021 | Sunrise Bay, Ft. Lauderdale
15 November 2021 | Ft. Lauderdale FL
04 November 2021 | Charleston S.C.

Golden Gate Bridge

25 March 2022 | SF Bay
Torben & Judy Bentsen | Sunny!
Scuppers showing the way.

We made it under the Golden Gate Bridge at 12:01 today and are now just 5 NM from RYC.
The last leg up from Santa Barbara was classic March stuff – cold, NW winds in the 15 – 20 range with the occasional puff to 30 and wet and damp. We stopped for the night in Santa Cruz and left under radar in 200 feet visibility, then another stop in Half Moon Bay for Fish & Chips with Barb and Clark.
We have now put 8,000 NM on our new Tivoli, the last 3,500 mostly motor sailing upwind from Panama in 2 months.. Not that there were not some days of nice brisk sailing, beautiful stars and great stops along the way, but we are looking forward to being home for a while and not have to get up at 11 PM and then again 04 AM for another night watch after putting on thermo undies and foulies. Scuppers says she is looking forward to chasing some rabbits out of the back yard.

Familiar Friends

19 March 2022 | Santa Barbara, CA
Torben & Judy Bentsen | Cloudy
Dolphins greeting us near Santa Barbara

Oops, it's been 2 weeks and 800 Miles since the last update, time flies when you are going upwind! And that's all we have done, interrupted only by a fuel stop in Turtle Bay, a checkout of Mexico stop in Ensenada and a rest stop in San Diego.

Overall, we timed most of the trip pretty well around weather and only had some 8 or 10 hours of 'this is really uncomfortable and slow' kind of conditions.....or maybe we are already suppressing memories of how cold and bumpy a few nights were?

We are now a few miles from Santa Barbara where we will tuck in for a couple of days, waiting for some gale conditions on the Central Coast to move out. From there it is only 275 NM or 48 hours to San Francisco Bay if we go non-stop.





FIAT

06 March 2022 | Magdalena Bay, Baja Sur
Torben & Judy Bentsen | WINDY
Fix it again, Tony!

Having spent 5 nights in La Cruz (Puerto Vallarta area) on near social overload, we left about a week ago for Magdalena Bay or Turtle Bay. La Cruz was a lot of fun, hanging our with cruising friends from over 10 years ago that happened to be in the area. Seem like some of us never stop. Howard and Lynn of Swift Current, Carrie and Tom of Dragons Toy, Cindy and Ed of Cool Change were some of them.

We had a smooth 280 NM ride to Cabo San Lucas where we spent 15 minutes, just enough time to get fuel, before continuing to Mag Bay. The forecast for the rest of the Northbound trip turned windy, so we have now been hanging here on anchor for 3 nights so far, waiting for the 25 knot winds to calm down on the outside. While this is the prime season to watch whales ( there are 2 National Explorer Adventure Cruise ships here ), the conditions have been to rough to do anything like whale watching.

Instead, we have been going down to the regular routine...FIAT combined with organizing, cooking for another several nigh passages, stainless maintenance etc.
It is now the 4th time we have attacked the same stupid leak under the kitchen sink caused by not having quite the right fittings, fixing the same stupid running light that keep being intermittent and some new stupid blockages in the fresh water system. We have also been hunkered down below with the heater on, watching movies and strategizing about how to stretch the last bag of dogfood and dwindling supply of eggs!

Maybe Tuesday morning we can move on!

Should I stay or should I go?

22 February 2022 | Chamale, MX
Torben & Judy Bentsen | a bit to windy to move on
Approaching Zihuatanejo.

We find ourselves in Bahia Chamela tonight, 40 nm N of Barra de Navidad, 100 NM S of Puerto Vallarta.

The last 10 days have been busy and a lot of fun. We have not only been hanging out with Sis Connie and Steve, but also Darlene and Steve from Copper and Mike of Shenanigans from RYC. Dinners out, impromptu barbeques on the boats, some sailing and last night a fabulous evening in Barra de Navidad with great music and outdoor dining.

We are kinda the odd couple out as we are on a self-imposed schedule to get back to home. We have been gone mostly since June of last year and have some commitments to be home at the end of March. We also are starting to feel the need to reconnect with our house and folks at home. A couple of days ago someone put a note on our front door, asking who did our landscaping because it looked very nice. We are wondering how it looks as well!

So we left Zihuatanejo for Barra de Navidad and spend a few days there. This morning week took off for PV on a reasonable forecast, but - as it turned out - it got a little windy and late afternoon we pulled into Chamela to wait it out. We will dine, sleep and then move on at midnight when the wind hopefully might die down a bit.

We still have about 1,700 NM to Richmond, most of which will be upwind. We are trying to combine patience for good conditions with a need to keep moving. We are also trying to enjoy destinations and friends along the way. With some luck we will make it to PV tomorrow and reconnect with Howard and Lynn, cruising friends from Vancouver that we met over 10 years ago. They have a condo on the beach for the month of February with a washer and dryer, no way we will miss that opportunity!

Another BD in Zihuatanejo

15 February 2022 | Zihuatanejo
Torben & Judy Bentsen | Nice
Celebrating with a game of pickleball at 9 in the morning .

2004 - Torben's 50th birthday
2011 - Judy's 50th birthday big bash
2020 - Torben's 66
2022 - Judy's 61st

Seems we have had more celebrations here than most other spots. We got here after 98 hours from Chiapas and were greeted at the entrance to the Bay by sister Connie/Steve and Kitchi arriving from Ixtapa on their Beneteau 49 Soiree.

Tonight we will celebrate with Connie and Steve and also our next door neighbors from Copper, Darlene and Steve.




A foot on the beach part 2

12 February 2022 | Pacific Ocean S of Acapulco
Torben & Judy Bentsen | Looking funny, like rain?
20 NM South of Acapulco Sat Night

Short update......we did keep the foot on the beach until 15 NM from Salina Cruz at the 'bottom' of Tehuantepec Bay. We got in some decent sailing combined with motor sailing prior to making the turn for Huatulco. For about 3-4 hours we were deep reaching in 20 knots of breeze, gusting to 30, so not a big deal and it put some diesel free miles under the keel too!

We are now on Saturday at dust 20 NM S of Acapulco and 120 NM S of Zihuatanejo. We have gotten in enough sailing that we have fuel to get us all the way without having to stop in Acapulco - should be coming in Sunday late afternoon after what we think is the longest double handed leg we have done in years, almost 600 NM.
Vessel Name: Tivoli
Vessel Make/Model: Beneteau Oceanis 50
Hailing Port: San Francisco, CA
Crew: Scuppers, Judy & Torben Bentsen
About:
On September 11, 2010 we cast off the dock lines from our home port of Richmond Yacht Club, California with an agenda of a multi year cruise. Season 1 took us down the coast of Mexico and we ended the season in Bahia del Sol, El Salvador. [...]
Extra:
Tivoli is a 2014 Beneteau Oceanis 50. We purchased her in Grenada in January 2021, did a refit in Charleston SC and cruised her on the East Coast the summer of 2021. By the spring of 2022 she will be back at Richmond YC in California so we can start contemplating our next adventures. TIVOLI was [...]
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Tivoli's Photos - Main
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Created 5 February 2020
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62 Photos
Created 28 May 2019
44 Photos
Created 23 December 2016
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Created 31 August 2015
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Created 4 August 2015
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Created 24 November 2013
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Created 8 November 2012
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Created 8 November 2012
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Created 8 November 2012
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Created 10 October 2012
From Bequia to Trinidad to San Francisco with a stop in Nova Scotia
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Created 21 June 2012
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Created 21 May 2012
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Created 15 May 2012
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Created 1 March 2012
19 Photos
Created 25 December 2011
Shelter Bay, a short stop in San Blas and then 600 NM North to Gand Cayman
28 Photos
Created 18 December 2011
Final outing with Connie and Steve to the Spanish Fort guarding the mouth of the Chargres River.
20 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Cap't Steve ready to drive the ferry across the Canal.
20 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Party on, mangofish
20 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Going to Thanksgiving at Betsy's in Pedesi
29 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Visit to the old transfer city of stolen gold and silver
35 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Getting a few projects done.
19 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
If I hold the lobster, will you shoot it Steve?
46 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Sun, Blue Water, Double solitaire!
71 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Hello CARIBBEAN SEA
17 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Gatun Locks
37 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
San Miguel Locks
15 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Miraflores locks
47 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Connie and Steve arrives, Betsy and Stu joins.
14 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
Shots from Amador and Las Perlas Islands
16 Photos
Created 3 December 2011
29 Photos
Created 21 October 2011
Coming back to El Salvadoe
10 Photos
Created 18 September 2011
26 Photos
Created 27 May 2011
16 Photos
Created 8 May 2011
59 Photos
Created 8 May 2011
31 Photos
Created 8 May 2011
58 Photos
Created 8 May 2011
24 Photos
Created 8 May 2011
Acapulco to El Salvador with stops in Huatulco and Puerto Chiapas.
75 Photos
Created 17 April 2011
55 Photos
Created 29 March 2011
31 Photos
Created 28 March 2011
20 Photos
Created 11 February 2011
37 Photos
Created 28 January 2011
18 Photos
Created 27 January 2011
Barra Birthday, Santiago Bay, Los Hadas and Manzanillo
51 Photos
Created 19 January 2011
37 Photos
Created 11 January 2011
Christmas time in La Cruz.
34 Photos
Created 6 January 2011
Random shots from Torben's trip to SF, Ricky visiting prior to Christmas, will he change his shirt before going back?
52 Photos
Created 19 December 2010
San Blas & Chacala
50 Photos
Created 10 December 2010
Pictures from Thanksgiving in Los Frailes and from 5 days in Mazatlan
47 Photos
Created 1 December 2010
The solitude of Espiritu Santo and the metropolis of La Paz.
40 Photos
Created 23 November 2010
18 Photos
Created 20 November 2010
No Photos
Created 20 November 2010
12 Photos
Created 17 November 2010
18 Photos
Created 10 November 2010
26 Photos
Created 6 November 2010
Ensenada to Quintin
12 Photos
Created 30 October 2010
18 Photos
Created 28 October 2010
Random shots from the last days in San Diego, including provisioning at the farmers market and finding a spot for it all
10 Photos
Created 28 October 2010
From J's trip to celebrate Connnie and make some bucks at the school.
9 Photos
Created 27 October 2010
25 Photos
Created 17 October 2010
7 Photos
Created 22 September 2010
18 Photos
Created 22 September 2010
52 Photos
Created 19 September 2010