We have now completed the first stage of our journey, and so far, so good. It was hard saying good-bye to friends in Port Townsend, and this process was made more difficult the longer we stayed. I kept running into people who would ask: "Haven't you left yet?" As one friend said, "How can we miss you if you won't leave?" So we finally left Port Townsend on August 9 with Fort Flagler, just across the bay, as our first port of call. Everyone says the hardest part is leaving your home port, and we didn't actually leave the boat haven until after 5:00 PM, but we did leave, so that was good. The next morning we had a small run-in with the edge of the channel on an ebb tide, so we didn't get quite the prompt start we had hoped for. But we made it to Dungeness Spit, and then to Neah Bay the following day. We stayed 2 nights in Neah Bay, finishing a couple projects, waiting for a weather window, and generally psyching ourselves up for our first ocean passage.

On August 11, at 2:00 PM, we left Neah Bay and made the big left turn into the Pacific Ocean. We have sailed on the ocean before, but this was our first passage on our own boat longer than one night, and this was the infamous Washington/Oregon coast. Our first passage was from Neah Bay to Newport, OR. We rested a couple days there, then sailed another 2 days to Humboldt Bay, CA. Each of those passages took about 40 hours. The weather pattern was similar both times: we started in light winds with a bit of fog, we had periods of very thick fog when we relied on our radar and GPS, and periods of heavy wind and seas. The heavy wind wasn't quite heavy enough to be scary (it was 35 - 45 kts) because our boat is very solid and stable. Vienna and Rhiannon both get a bit queasy when we set out. Vienna often goes to sleep. Rhiannon throws up, then goes to sleep. By the second day they are both fine.

While we are underway, Michael and I trade times on watch. He tends to take more watch times during the day, and I fix meals and read aloud to the kids. He takes the first night watch, and I go to bed shortly after Vienna and Rhiannon. At sea, we all sleep in the main cabin, where the movement of the boat is less than in the V-berth, where the girls usually sleep. After a few hours, Michael wakes me up to take a turn on watch. After I got over the anxiety of being in charge of a boat on the ocean in the dark, I actually found the night watch rather peaceful. There is not a lot going on out there. Then, of course, the concern becomes feeling too at peace and going to sleep while on watch. When I start feeling really sleepy, I wake Michael up. The night watches tend to be about 3 hours, but we are flexible about it.

After Humboldt Bay, we sailed overnight to Bodega Bay, where we left the boat for a week. We rented a car and drove to Santa Cruz for Michael's 20th high school reunion. Amazingly enough, there was someone else from my (upstate New York) high school there! His wife had been a friend of Michael's in high school, so we sat together at dinner. Joel and I quietly compared notes on our high school acquaintances, while the Santa Cruz High group enjoyed catching up with old friends.

After the reunion interlude, we went back to the boat for what finally felt like cruising. We went from Bodega Bay just south to Tomales Bay. (We are still north of San Francisco Bay, for those of you who have their atlases out.) Tomales is a long, skinny bay, quite shallow at the entrance. I'm not sure we would have gone in there with just paper charts. We have computer charts now, which talk to the GPS. We plotted all our waypoints, then I sat down below at the computer telling Michael up above exactly what the course should be and when to alter course. Once into the deeper part of the bay, it was quite beautiful - lots of birds, elk on the hills, nice beach for playing. We were playing football there one day, and I've been nursing a sore elbow ever since. Hmm....

On September 1, we sailed from Tomales Bay into San Francisco Bay. What a feeling, sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. We even saw our first dolphins that day. We anchored at Aquatic Park that evening, with the lights of Ghirardelli Square shining down on us. The next 2 1/2 weeks we spent in the San Francisco area. We left the boat for a while and stayed with some friends in SF for a week, drove down to Santa Cruz again, went over to Berkeley for a couple days, back to SF, got chocolate at Ghirardelli, rode a cable car.... It was very fun. At the South Beach Marina, just down the street from Pac Bell Park, we met some cruisers from Japan. We all went out for dinner together. Their English was certainly better than our Japanese, but we ended up drawing a lot of pictures on the (paper) tablecloth. The following week, we were invited to their boat for a home cooked sushi dinner!

After San Francisco, we stopped in Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz and Monterey. We had met several other cruising boats by this time, and had heard of several with kids that we hadn't met yet. In Monterey we met up with our friends on Catitude, a family we had met earlier in the summer when they started their cruise in Port Townsend. Eric and Lisa, and their kids Jack, Max and Tally, are most recently from Santa Barbara, but they chose to start their cruise in Puget Sound rather than in Southern CA. It was great to see them again! We stayed in Monterey a day longer then planned because of the weather, but if you have to be stuck somewhere, Monterey is a fine place. Next we went to the Channel Islands for several days, then Santa Barbara. We had arrived in Southern California.

The passage to the Channel Islands resulted in the first use of our large, well-stocked medical kit. Towards the end of my early morning watch, I decided the wind had come up enough to put up the genoa and really sail, rather than motor sailing. While I was hauling out the sail, the wind decided to start gusting up to about 25 knots, rather than the nice 15 it had been when I made that decision. So the sail came out with a rush, and I held on to the jib sheet against a lot of pressure. Rather than just letting it go, I wrestled it onto the winch, loosing a lot of skin off 3 fingers in the process. Since I was then wearing bandages for almost a week, I got out of a lot of dish washing duty! It took over a week to heal, but now all fingers are fine.

The big excitement in Santa Barbara was paragliding. Lisa and Eric took this up at couple years ago and persuaded us to give it a try. Back in their hometown, they knew where to go and whom to call. They set us up with an instructor and even watched the girls for us during our lesson. We started on a field below a small hill, and gradually worked our way up the hill, getting in longer and longer flights. It was great! Even Vienna and Rhiannon got to try. They each went on a tandem flight with an instructor. They loved it so much they begged to go again. The instructor was thrilled that they were so excited about it, and he ended up taking each of them for 3 flights. They got more air time than Michael and I did because by this time the afternoon winds had come up, and it was too strong for us beginners.

While in Santa Barbara, we finally met 2 other boats with kids that we had heard about. Unfortunately, one of them was leaving that evening, and we were leaving the next day. But at least we have met each other, and I'm sure we'll find each other again. We were then off to Catalina Island, another overnight passage. We arrived there just in time for Cruiser's Weekend - seminars on paperwork requirements for Mexico, a swap meet, equipment vendors, and a beach BBQ. Hardly the quiet spot we had imagined, but we picked up some valuable information and saw again a family we had met in Monterey.

On Sunday, October 13, we sailed from Catalina to Oceanside. Michael's parents were there to greet us as we sailed in to the harber. The next day we packed up to leave the boat for a couple weeks. Michael and I flew back up to the SF Bay area for my 15th reunion at Stanford, while Vienna and Rhiannon got lots of time to play with their grandparents and cousins. After living the soft life for a couple weeks (car, shower every morning, grocery store down the street, someone else fixing most of the meals...), we moved back to Atalanta the week after Halloween. We have now mostly finished restocking the boat with groceries and spare parts. By next week, we hope to be on our way to Mexico! Anticipated first stop: Isla Guadalupe.

 

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But now, we have made it to Mexico!  We left San Diego on December 1, about 3:00 in the afternoon, in company with Tioga.  Tioga is a Canadian boat with Chris and Sheila, and their 2 boys Joel and Garrett.  We sailed for 3 days, arriving at Isla San Benitos mid-morning on December 4.  We had heard that the charts tend to be less accurate in Mexico and South America than in the US and Canada, and on our first landfall in Mexico, we found this to be true! We were very careful when entering the pass between 2 of the islands because our computer chart was telling us we were heading straight for the rocks, despite what our eyes were telling us. We ignored the computer chart in favor of our eyes for awhile because next, according to the computer, it appeared that we were anchoring on land.  We successfully anchored (in plenty of water) and Tioga soon joined us there.

There is a very small village there, which, we discovered through our limited Spanish, is a temporary fishing village.  This is abalone season.  We had several offers to sell us abalone but we didn't buy any.  Our first day there we took a short walk around the village, and the next day we took a longer walk up the hill to see the view.  It was very dry with aggressive little cacti whose thorns were capable of imbedding themselves at least a 1/4 inch into the rubber of my hiking boots. We met a little girl named Alejandra, age 4, who spoke lots of Spanish to us despite the fact that we couldn't say much in return. The highlight of our walk (for the kids) was feeding carrots to the burros.

We left the San Benitos at about 9 PM on Dec 5, and we arrived in Turtle Bay about 9:00 the next morning.  The Tiogans are here as well.  It has been fun buddy-boating with them.  Michael and Rhiannon tried going in for a little snorkel, but Rhiannon was disappointed that the water was still quite cold. I think she was counting on warm water as soon as we got to Mexico.  We have really enjoyed our expeditions into town.  People are quite friendly and willing to try and understand our very limited Spanish.

We left Turtle Bay yesterday for Punta Abreojos, arriving early afternoon today, Dec. 10.  We've heard that from here it is possible to go with a naturalist into Laguna San Ignacio, a protected whale calving area, so I hope we can do that tomorrow.  After that, we need to plan another multi-day passage in order to make it to La Paz by Christmas.

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Feliz Navidad from La Paz! Several packages with presents arrived here a few days before Christmas, so Vienna and Rhiannon were well supplied with presents.  Thank you for the magazine subscription and the book. I'm almost done with the magazine and will pass it along to another boat when we are done. The book looks very good, as does Vienna's book, which I think I'll read as well. We are using the mail forwarding service available through Downwind Marine, a marine store in San Diego that provides lots of gear, information and services for cruisers.  Pam and Roger periodically take packages to Downwind Marine, and cruisers leaving San Diego take mail with them, by boat, airplane or car.  We periodically let Downwind Marine know where we are, and it somehow seems to work out.  Lots of mail goes back and forth with cruisers flying home or coming back to their boats. We're going back to San Diego (and then on to Hawaii) in February for Pam and Roger's 40th wedding anniversary celebration, so we'll take a load of mail with us then.

I think the last you heard from me, we were hoping to go see the whales in Bahia Balllena. Unfortunately that didn't work out.  We knew that the "season" for whale viewing is Dec 15 - Feb 15, but were hoping that we would still see them a few days early.  Michael and Chris, from Tioga, went into the village to try to arrange a visit, but it was not possible until the 15th.  We were speculating that maybe people aren't allowed in earlier because the whales are still calving or the calves are too young, but we don't really know.  Our Spanish is not up to the task of explaining that idea or understanding an answer.  So we spent the day on the beach instead and left early the next morning (Dec 12) for Bahia Santa Maria, just north of the entrance to Magdalena Bay, again in company with Tioga. We arrived about 10 AM, and rafted to Tioga. (This means that Tioga put down an anchor, and we tied up to Tioga like tying up to a dock.) We set out in the dinghies hoping to put ashore at the mangrove grove, but decided the surf was too big for a safe landing.  So we returned to the boats, Rhiannon, Michael and Sheila went swimming, and the kids spent the afternoon hopping back and forth between the boats.  We all had dinner together on Tioga (they have a bigger table than we do), then the kids watched a Christmas special while the adults went next door to Atalanta.  Over wine and cookies, we discussed the weather and our plans. The forecasters were anticipating increasing ocean swells due to some storms farther north but not much increase in wind speed down here. We decided to head into Magdalena Bay to sit out the increased swells before heading farther south.

However, the weather forecast the next morning put the increasing swells an additional day away, so we decided to leave right away, Atalanta heading for Los Frailes, around the corner from Cabo San Lucas, and Tioga continuing on to the mainland.  We left around noon and sailed together for a day and a half.  Michael and Vienna were on watch together the following night when we rounded Cabo Falso and said good-bye (via radio) to Tioga as we headed northeast past Cabo San Lucas and they continued southeast to Puerto Vallarta.  After 2 weeks of buddy boating, we were sorry to see them go, but we hope to see them again come spring when they come north to the Sea of Cortez.

We continued north to Los Frailes, arriving about 9:30 the next morning. What a beautiful anchorage.  There seemed to be lots of activity on the beach, so we went ashore for a picnic lunch.  The girls splashed around in the waves, and Michael and I lay in the sand, reading and napping, making up for sleep missed during 2 nights at sea.  The next day (Dec 17) we went ashore again, and this time we walked down the beach to see what all the activity was about.  There is a sizable community of snowbirds there in their RV's, and also a sizable camp of Mexican fishermen.  We had noticed a lot of bones and whole skeletons on the beach the day before (much to the girls' delight), and now, as we watched a fisherman filet his catch and toss the carcass down on the sand, we realized why.

On the other side of the bone-ridden fish camp is a beautiful white sand beach. We were enjoying a quiet walk around the bay when a woman zipped up on an ATV and asked if we wanted to pet a baby sea turtle! Sure enough, she had one in her hand! She had been walking on the beach that morning when she saw a nest full of baby turtles hatching and heading for the water.  Since she had spent some time volunteering with a turtle recovery program, she knew a bit about sea turtles. She watched them for a while, even helping (throwing!) some into the water who were headed in the wrong direction.  She had taken this one back to the house she was renting to look up what kind of turtle this was (a loggerback, she thought) and was now returning it to the beach. It was very dark grey in color, and looked just like a tiny sea turtle.  We then started looking for turtles ourselves.  We saw lots of turtle tracks on the sand, and found what we think was the nest, but didn't find any turtles ourselves.  A man we met farther along the beach had found a turtle, so he let Vienna and Rhiannon hold it for a few minutes and then set it free.  Vienna put it down right at the edge of the water but it kept getting washed back ashore by the waves.  In the end Michael threw it out past the surf line.  We like to think that our turtle is now swimming happily somewhere, but in truth very few babies from a nest survive to adulthood.

We stayed at Los Frailes a few days longer than intended because of strong winds from the north, but we did go snorkeling on the coral reef and saw  our first tropical fish. As the days past, more and more boats kept arriving at this sheltered anchorage.  Finally, on Dec 20, we thought the winds were moderating a bit, and another sailboat pulled out heading north.  We gave them a bit of a head start, then hailed them on the VHF to see how they were doing.  Another boat in the anchorage also chimed in on this radio conversation.  We decided to just bite the bullet and head upwind for a bit, or we could be there another 4 days waiting for the wind to die down.  So we set off, and it was bumpy but not unmanageable. We ended up motoring most of the way as we were headed directly upwind. As we went farther north, the chop died down, and eventually the wind died down as well. By 10:30 the following morning, we were anchored in La Paz.

We stayed in the anchoage for a couple days and then moved over to Marina La Paz.  We are enjoying walking up the docks rather than facing a wet dinghy ride whenever we want to go somewhere. We did many loads of laundry and have taken hot showers. Ahh...

We celebrated Christmas just the 4 of us.  We opened stockings and some presents in the morning, then went to the Club Cruceros Christmas tree downtown.  Club Cruceros is a volunteer organization of cruisers in La Paz that provides services to cruisers in the area but also sponsors a children's Christmas tree every year and takes donations to a local orphanage. The Christmas tree was in a plaza near the wharf. There was a large tent set up with all the toys to be given out, as well as oranges, cans of soda and chocolate lollipops. There were so many people there, it was overwhelming.  One of the organizers told me they were expecting over 2000 children.  The previous week, several of the organizers had gone out to the surrounding poorer neighborhoods to tell parents about the Christmas tree and give out tickets for the children.  So people had to have a ticket to get in line to go through the tent to get a toy.  Vienna and I helped with the distribution for a while, but Rhiannon was overwhelmed by the whole scene and just wanted to go home.

I thought a lot about this as Vienna and I walked back to the boat later.  I want my kids to realize how lucky we are as Americans, and to want to help people who have less than we do, but how is the question.  One way, of course, is giving money to charities like Habitat for Humanity or Heifer Project International, that help people help themselves.  That's not very easy to understand for a 6 year old though. But the wealthy gringos can't just show up and pass out toys and money. That's not the answer either. Somewhere in here is a search for a purpose to this trip. I think my Protestant work ethic is rearing its head here, but there needs to be some purpose to prevent a descent into mere self-indulgence. I'm sure this topic will continue to come up over the next many months, so I'll let you know if I get it figured out.