My earlier post on "The Long Passage" previewed the 850 nm passage from Ensenada to La Paz, which S/V Ubiquity's crew has now completed. For us that was a long passage because it was longer than any of our prior passages.

So for many cruisers the experience of cruising involves new challenges that push you further than before.

The above graphic shows another long passage, not one S/V Ubiquity is currently doing, but rather a passage that friends, fellow cruisers, are currently doing. The left side of that graphic shows the progress of S/V Leigh Ann, an Alajuela 38 crewed by Doug and Sandra Asbe.

Doug and Sandra were on the same dock as S/V Ubiquity in La Paz, and we shared conversations and a dinner with them. They sailed down the coast from Seattle in 2016 and did the Baja Haha cruise in November, about the time that we were bunkered down in Newport, Oregon, waiting out gales.

For Doug and Sandra S/V Leigh Ann was a new boat for them and their prior sailing background was focused on racing, not cruising. So they took extra crew with them for help sailing down the west coast. Then they spent months sailing the Sea of Cortez. When we met Doug and Sandra they had decided they wanted to sail back to the Seattle region.

Once you have sailed your boat down the west coast to the Sea of Cortez, there are four main options for getting your boat back to the Pacific Northwest: 1) Motor-sail along the coast northbound against the prevailing winds (often called the "Baja Bash"), 2) Sail via Hawaii, 3) Sail via the "Clipper Route" (a far off-shore passage used by the Clipper Ships but seldom done anymore), 4) Ship your boat back via a cargo ship.

By the time we had met Doug and Sandra their confidence in their boat and themselves had grown so that they now felt confident to sail by themselves via route 2), the return via Hawaii. So they now are partway on their Hawaii passage (at the time I write this they are a little further along than shown in the graphic above). So Doug and Sandra are embracing a new challenge, part of the cruising lifestyle for many cruisers.

Looking at the graphic above, you will see to the right of the graphic showing Doug and Sandra's progress a graphic I captured recently showing the wind patterns for the passage. Looking at that graphic shows why it is easier to sail to Hawaii than sail up the west coast: you can sail with the winds rather than against the winds.

The right side of the graphic above is from a web site, Windytv.com, that shows weather forecasts in an intuitive graphic format, and that some of you might enjoy exploring.

The modern electronic tools we have to access current weather information gives modern cruisers an advantage compared to our predecessors. However, long-term cruise planning still depends on information compiled in pilot charts about seasonal weather patterns, which goes back to the work in the mid-1800's of Matthew Fontaine Maury in the U.S. Navy's Depot of Charts and Instruments.*

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*For anyone interested, Chapter 15 in Hal Roth's book "Handling Storms at Sea" has a discussion of the development of pilot charts.