Pulling into RYC on Saturday 3/23 at 7:30 am

This seasons blog entries began in early October when we packed up the house to head to Mexico for the winter.
The goal was to escape last years torrential rains and only return in 2024 after downpours had stopped.

Just a quick recap of the last few weeks after we took on fuel in Turtle Bay.....
We picked another lucky window for the trip up to Ensenada with hardly a drop of spray on the deck for the whole trip. Spending only one day we managed to get checked in, checked out of the Mexico and enjoy lunch and dinner out.

Leaving Ensenada at first light got us to San Diego late the same day, just in time for dinner at the Southwestern YC that again provided free guest slips and access to their fantastic laundry facilities! JUst a 2 night stop before a windless motor ride for 24 hours to Santa Barbara for fuel, all good so far.

As usual when the horse smells the barn, obstacles seems smaller, and with some new fresh winter storms brewing for what looked like a week or better, we took off on a very narrow transit window.
There are a couple of know windy spots between Southern and Northern CA, namely Point Conception and Pt. Sur.
So our timing worked out good for Conception - we arrived late afternoon and got around in a little to much wind as expected. Windspeeds in the mid 20 knot range but manageble for the 4 hours it lasted until the wind died.

At Point Sur the wind came back up - again as expected - in the 25 knot range, but from behind, so no big deal.
What we did not anticipate ( and what was not in the forecast ) was the pretty aggressive thunder storms with 30 know winds and a windshift that had us going upwind instead of down! Did I mention the driving rain, the swell for North and South, the windwaves from the west and the 40 degree temp?

Scuppers was very unhappy with the conditions, so Judy volunteerd to take her down below and snuggle up in the aft cabin around 10 PM - and as Scuppers kept her there until we got under the Golden Gate at 6 am. Good thing, because the main ship channel into the gate had some very interesting waves that had the boat roll like a SOB and obscure the tall towers of the bridge when down in the troughs.

We mis-timed our return by a few weeks - it is still winter, it is still raining but we are happy to be home.

Diesel fuel run in Turtle Bay

We are now ready to take off for leg 4 of the voyage North from Turtle Bay, roughly 350 NM from the US border.

So far it has been a pretty nice trip, especially because we have learned that patience is an important travel companion.
After hooking up with Ventana at 11 am outside the harbor of Cabo San Lucas we made it to Bahia Santa Maria in good conditions, then holed up on anchor for 3 nights waiting for the next travel window.
So at 03:00 on Saturday morning we motored on for Turtle and got lucky yet again, arriving 40 hours later just in time for Happy Hour. Other than the fact it is getting cold at night we stayed mostly dry, only dipping the entire bow under water once along the way.

We have not been here for 3 days while windy system have been kicking up good size waves between us and Ensenada. We are rafted together on one anchor for easy social interaction and have been enjoying shared meals and even a movie night complete with available popcorn!

Turtle Bay used to have a service where a Panga would come out with diesel fuel from the pier, but allegedly the Cartel moved in and disrupted the program, the operator has been missing for a while.....

So our fueling had to take a different route, getting hold of a local fisherman that took us and our 11 jugs to the beach, loaded on a pickup to the gas station, then back to the boats...we had to do this twice, but now have enough fuel for the 280 NM to Ensenada. We have been to town a couple of times in the dinghy, but the surf is slightly hign and the water getting pretty cold! Anyway, tomorrow the winds will lay down and the seas subside to 7 - 10 feet allowing us got move on.

Loading fuel in San Jose del Cabo

Leg one to San Jose went quickly without hardly any incidents, except miscalculation our fuel consumption and having to throw in a few cans after the engine stopped a few hours before we got here! Hopefully that won't happen again, we just got loaded up with 62 gallons in the tank and 50 gallons on the rail. That should be enough for about 600 NM!

We are buddy boating back to SF with Gary on Ventana. He left Puerto Vallarta yesterday afternoon - we plan to rendezvous with him and his crew ( Mike and Chris ) Tuesday morning in Cabo San Lucas and continue North to Bahia Santa Maria. It will be quite a family affair when we get there and anchor, waiting fo the next weather window.
Mike was on Tivoli about 2 weeks ago, vacationing in Zihuatanejo, Chris was one of our crew coming down on the Bajaha in November! Talk about sharing resources.

Weather looks fine for the 190 Miles to BSM, then maybe Saturday a new opportunity to go North might open up.

Judy's head is bananas

Today we are turning the boat North towards Richmond, some 1800 Nautical Miles away. We figure it will take about a month to get home and that the rain will magically be ended by the time we get there.

Our last couple of days were consumed by hosting a Sunset Cruise for 12 to benefit the Los Ninos charity, have several 'goodbye and see you later' dinners with Mike and Linda and clean up the boat for some off shore upwind sailng and motoring!

We also stocked up on provisions at the colorful market in Z-town - I tried to get a picture of Judy shipping produce, but she repeatedly hid her head behind a bunch of bananas!.

First leg will take us to San Jose del Cabo, 560 NM away on what looks like a good weather window - we shold be there in 4 days.

The 13 person group for the Parade.

Por los Ninos and Sailfest has worked together for over 20 years to build and maintain schools for underpriviliged kids in Zihuatanejo for some 20 years. They also provide scholarships for High School and Collage for students.

It is a 2 week event with music, fundraiser dinners and much more and the cruisers coming here during the season help out both on and off the water. The on the water stuff includes a big Parade ( this year 18 boats ) taking out folks donating 500 pesos each for the ride, so yesterday we had 13 people come out for some hours to Parade and whale watch. A fun group of mostly Canadians here for the winter.
Later in the week we will be hosting a sunset cruise for a similar sized group, all good fun for a good cause.

We are also blessed with Mike and Linda visiting, partly staying on Tivoli and a local hotel. They actually checked in to the hotel a few days early after Linda got a pretty upset tummy. We are not sure if it was caused by some food or a wild night at anchor! 2 nights ago we had a very unusual front come through just after midnight with rain and thunderstorms. it gusted up to almost 30 knots and got quite rocky. And of course the paddleboard broke loose on deck and had to be rescued, the dinghy hanging in straps alongside had to be rescued, halyards secured....good to have Mike help in his wet undies.....

With Kelly and Gary at Hotel Aurora del Mar

Oops, though intentions have been good for keeping the blog updated somehow 6 weeks slipped by! Wonder why that happened, especially since we haven’t moved all that much since New Years in Barra de Navidad. Anyway, here is a short summary of select events.

• It took 5 days of easy sailing for the 200 NM South from Barra to Zihuantanejo with 3 overnight stops including 2 nights in Caleta de Campos. We have stopped here several times in the past, but this was the first time conditions were allowing us to land the dinghy and explore the lovely town

• Rather than catch fish along the way we exchange 200 pesos ( about $ 10 ) for a fresh panga caught tuna and even had the guys fillet it for us.

• Arrived back in our favorite Mexico spot of Zihuantanejo on January 6. We are still here.

• Got off the boat into a hotel suite with Kelly and Gary who flew down to help celebrate a 70th birthday. Loads of fun.

• Judy caught a nasty flu that knocked her completely off her legs, enough that we moved to a Marina for some days to be close to a medical possibilities. She ultimately survived and passed it on to me.

• We rented a car and drove up to the mountains and the City of Patzcuaro. Cool and nice compared to the heat on the coast. We visited the Copper making town of Santa Clara de Cobra and now have reconfigured to boat to carry back copper mirrors, lamps, toilet paper holders and other treasures. The shop we ultimately purchased the loot from was the manufacturer of our Coppertop kitchen nook table in Copperopolis……lots of Copper talk here.

• It used to be – in younger days – that kneeling in front of the toilet for hours meant that you must have had a great night out the day before, Not so this year as it involved taking the aft head and all the associated hoses and connections apart over several days to clear a major blockage. Other maintenance items have included some service to the forward head, fixing some hatch leaks, a re-wire of the freezer connections and running lights.

• We are now again in Ixtapa Marina for some days preparing for friends Linda and Mike to join us in a couple of days. Scuppers likes this Marina. She jumps off the boat and greets everyone that walks by and – not surprisingly – everyone knows her name. Now, if she could only take a swim she would be happy, but we do have crocodiles cruising around the harbor looking for a ‘hot dog’, so we keep her dry!