June ‘94

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

June 8, 1994
We finally made it to San Diego, California and moved on to the boat.
We have done a lot of cleaning, painted the deck and wood work. John has cleaned the engine room, changed the oil and lots of other work projects to get ready to go.

*This is where it all began! Mom and Dad bought the boat here, and after selling our house and most everything we owned, we packed up the rest and fit it into our 1980 Islander Freeport 41. I still remember my first time stepping aboard and exploring all her nooks and crannies. I remember running back and forth from the cockpit to my room and back again. I will forever remember every detail of her interior. ❤
I will clear up the details with Mom, but I remember the most previous owners’ plans had not panned out and they had to sell. Bummer for them but lucky for us! She touted a very seventies color scheme with brown, tans, burnt orange and gold accenting everything. She was named Te Manu at the time, which Google tells me is Maori for The Bird. I love it! I have never really thought about our vessel’s life before us, which is wild because she had a very full one! I do know that she had been around the world twice before we called her home. What I would give to see her ship-logs and learn about the beautiful, exotic places she’d been! Maybe one day I can still get my hands on them - I believe I’ll see her again one day and I trust she’ll be as beautiful as ever! Here are photos of her interior when we got her, as well as photos of the haul out and inspection for purchase.

This became my little hang-out spot right away when we first moved on the boat. That’s my trusty cassette player I had which was, at this time, regularly blasting Salt 'n’ Peppa’s Very Necessary album, which one of my sisters had sent down with me along with an assortment of others. This absolutely cracks me up, especially to think of little me memorizing every line, whether I understood it or not. 😅 I had also just gotten into Pogs; although I don’t remember how. I just suddenly had a bunch! I didn’t even understand how to play, I just loved all the designs and artwork! Of course I did.
All the bench seats around me have mostly food storage, and even behind the back-rests. The toolbox definitely did not stay there long, and the clock-looking pieces on the wall are gauges to help us monitor the weather. One is the barometer and I’ll have to be reminded what the other is. Momma, what is it?! There were three, right, barometer, clock and ___? 🐞

June 10, 1994
We took Samie to Sea World; she said “It was the best day of her life.”

*I remember this day! My parents told me we were going swimming and the next thing I know, we’re pulling into Sea World. I was obsessed with Orcas after Free Willy had come out the year previous. I was over the moon to see Shamu and everything else Sea World had to offer. I started a scrapbook at this time with all the brochures from Sea World. I spent hours cutting out photos and writing about things we saw and did there. It seems I’m still into the same kind of nonsense!🙃  

June 11, 1994
Finally got all our stuff put away so that we could take our bout out for the 1st time. We went out to bouy 1 and played around for a while, but there was no wind. The house finally closed escrow today.

Happy Birthday John #46.

*I think it’s so awesome that our first sail together on the Star was on Dad’s birthday. What a wonderful birthday treat!

*Dad’s 19’ sailboat which he had on our pond and would take out to one of the many lakes nearby where we lived, in Lakeside, Az. They’re all dressed up for my sister’s wedding. The one of them on the grass was our beautiful front yard was on their wedding day, and it was the first photo I ever took! To note: Dad has always had the most beautiful yard on the block; he’s as fantastic with grass yards and garden flowers as he is with engines and electronics. I had to add my photo from that day because of course I dressed like a pirate on my parent’s wedding day. 😉 Then you’ve got the Bon Voyage week at Navopache Electric, where my parents had put in their two weeks’ notice and were about to venture off into the wild blue. Dad’s white legs make me chuckle every time. And you can bet you’re booty you’ll find ‘before-and-after sailling’ photos of my parents at some point. 😎

July ‘94

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

July 1st, 1994

I have not been good about starting this journal so I’m trying to go back and remember.
John, Alice, Mandy, Little John, Maxine and her boyfriend Steve all drove over from Phoenix, Az. Little John had BMX bike races, which we went to one, he took 3rd place. They stayed with us on the boat and we took them sailing. They went home on July 4th.

July 7th, 1994

We had 3 days to get more work done. John and Maryann flew in today.

July 9, 1994

We all sailed up to Oceanside which was a 6 or 7 hour sail. We rented a slip for the night.

July 10, 1994

We left Oceanside and headed for Catalina Island. We motor-sailed all the way because there was not much wind, taking about 6 hours. On the way we saw a couple pods of dolphins, they swam around the boat and under the pulpit, this was really exciting. We also saw a whale in the distance and a couple of sharks.
We got a mooring in Avalon that night.

July 11

Got an early start, we bailed around to the other side of the island and anchored at the “Little Harbor.” This being our first anchor, we didn’t sleep much, wanting to make sure the anchors were all set good. Samie got to play on her first beach- after we finally got the dinghy rowed over to it. Rowing back against the waves was even more fun!

*First, Avalon (I found myself back here for probably my favorite birthday ever about 2 decades later). I have vague recollections of this first beach visit, seems it was quite small (Google Maps confirms this). I remember some story about dad losing an anchor from the dinghy this night, but I will have to ask Mom n Dad. Here we have me jumping off the boat for the first time - pretty sure I was in the throws of uncertain panic at the moment this was taken, lol.

July 12

Sailed back to Mission Bay, saw more dolphins and a whale. Rented a slip and stayed here tonight. The trip from the far side of Catalina was 10 hours. There was not much wind today, either.

July 13

Sailed back to San Diego, John and Maryann took us to Price club and we got $1,193.00 worth of supplies for our boat trip. There are still a few things to get, but this really filled most of the storage space- it was a lot.
John and Maryann flew back to Tucson at 6:00 tonight.

July 14

We “stowed” the supplies and re-stowed the supplies trying to get the boat to level out, it was very lop-sided.

July 14

Steve, Brenda and Lori flew in tonight at 10:15 so we all stayed up until about midnight.

July 15

We took Steve, Brenda and Lori for a sail a few miles out and back.

July 16

Sailed up to Mission Bay and rented the same slip as before.

July 17

Sailed back to San Diego, Marina Cortez, took a night time cruise through the harbor to see the lights.
Janell drove with her son over from Show Low, Az. He will be stationed in the Navy here. She came by for about 1.5 hours- it was a real nice surprise.

July 18

Steve and Brenda wanted to go see the Marine Base MCRD- Steve was also in the Marines. So we spent some time watching some boot camp Marines march. Took them to the airport at noon.

July 19

John got a lot of parts as spares to have with us. He signed up and started scuba classes tonight.

July 20, 1994

Got more supplies, Samie and John’s wetsuits, fins, and snorkel gear.

*Ah, the trips to West Marine! What a weird wonderland of new smells and strange equipment! Snorkels, buoys, kayaks, wetsuits and anchors. Chains, fishing lures, life jackets, boat engines and more. The aisles went on and on of all these curious items I’d never seen before.

July 21

I made covers for our bed. John did little fix-its and he showed Samie how to snorkel in the pool.

July 22

John and Steve fixed the roller-furler and put up the lighter-air front sail.

July 23

Called Michael to wish him Happy 20th, but of course he wasn’t home. Talked to Peg for a while- can’t wait till she gets here. Talked to Danielle, too. John took Samie up to the pool so she could snorkel.

 July 24

Took the boat out in the bay to motor around and let it run a while.
Bought a used Avon dinghy for $750.

July 25

John painted and put a non-skid on the floor of the dinghy. I patched one of the sail covers. The sun has been out for the last 2 days now, great.

What the heck is a dinghy, you ask?

A dinghy is a small boat typically used by cruisers to get from the boat to land, an vice versa. Where the boat is home, the dinghy is basically our car. This Avon dinghy we bought was a real trooper and hung with us through our entire time at Baja. We did get a canvas cover made to fit over it, which helped keep our limbs safe from the hot rubber sides. We started out with this itty-bitty 2HP Suzuki for our motor, and of course had oars for back-up. I always enjoyed rowing; it’s such a great workout. Later on this year, we upgraded to our 10HP Mariner, which was a really great motor which served me a lot of really fun joy rides!

July 26, Tuesday

We pumped out and flushed out the head holding tank and we have learned – DO NOT EVER put toilet paper in the head. Also cleaned and washed out the bilge. Boat sure smells nice now.
John had scuba class tonight. Steve and Laura came over and Steve made up the “gates”.

*I missed an opportunity to explain some boat-y terms here, such as the head and the bilge. So the head is what sailors call the the toilet, which apparently used to be standard at the bow/front/head of the ship. Ha! I’m just learning this, take a look! Apparently you went up front on the foredeck, just wide out in the open and shat down a shaft that let loose your sewage to the water as the ship parts through it and the wake helps wash out the grime. Pretty smart, actually, but wow! This very much explains a scene in some sailing movie where I absolutely spotted a man sitting at the head of the ship with his pants down wondering what the hell that was supposed to be about. The more you know (cue Reading Rainbow music). Now, for our predicament here, the toilet paper clogged up the holding tank and I don’t even want to know what they had to do to clean it. Thusly, we learned to always throw away the toilet paper, instead.
Next, the bilge. Essentially this is the very bottom of the boat, which can collect water over time. We are able to pump that water out with the bilge system and keep everything “hunky-dory” as Dad would say.
Lastly, neither Mom or myself have any recollection of what the “gates” were or are referring to, which is probably going to bug me, lol.

July 27, Wed

We put netting around the pulpit.
Had Tony from Shelter Island Yacht Sales over for dinner.

*The netting was to help keep my 7-year-old tiny self from accidentally falling through the lifelines which run along the side of the boat and keep us all aboard.

July 28, Thursday

John started putting the water-maker in.

*This water-maker was a true luxury on the boat, as we were able to pull in ocean water and purify it for drinking, showering and washing dishes. The alternative looks more like hauling jerry jugs of fresh water from town out to the boat in order to fill the water tanks, which would require many trips. It would have also meant most showers would be taken in the ocean, only using fresh water for rinsing. Dad really did his research to make sure that we would be mostly self-sufficient and well taken care of while cruising.

July 29, Friday

Cleaned the boat really well, worked on the water-maker installation.
Picked Daddy, Mom, Andy and Peggy up at the airport at 1:00 pm. So good to see them, especially Peg. We checked the oil before starting the boat to take it out and there was water in the oil, so we didn’t dare start it up. After doing some checking we figured it must have gotten in there when we sprayed out the bilge real good. So we ordered pizza and hung around.

July 30, Sat

John went to scuba class and then changed the oil and sure enough nothing major wrong. Went out for a sail but only got a little ways out of the harbor, the swells were about 1 or 2 feet and Mom started feeling sick, so we came back in.
Tonight we did take the “twilight” tour and everyone enjoyed it.

July 31, Sunday

Mom doesn’t want to try and go out again, so John worked on the water-maker and the rest of us went to Point Loma. Came back, got John and went to eat at Point Loma Seafood Fish Market. John stayed on the boat while the rest of us went to the zoo.
I’m so glad Peg is here.

August ‘94

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

August 1st, Monday

We all just took it easy this morning. Peg took Samie swimming again. John BBQ’d burgers and then it was time for them to fly home - bummer! They flew out at 3:00 pm and Peg called at 6:00 to say they were at Grandma’s and her and Danielle will be driving back over on Thursday.

August 2, Tuesday

John finished installing the water-marker and it is now making water. He is working on odds & ends, I laid in the sun while Samie swam.
John went to scuba class.

*I think this is a good time to mention a funny story which was definitely also a catalyst to my learning to swim:
Dad was hosing off the deck of the boat and I was, as always, looking for ways to help. I decided that feeding the hose was surely the way to do this, unbeknownst to my dad, who yanked the hose for more while I had a hold of it and in I went off the side of the dock! There I was, probably doggy-paddling my little heart out and all I can remember worrying about was if a seagull was going to poop on my head. Now, why this is what I was worried about or why I only considered at this precise time and no other- I couldn’t begin to tell you! But that is what I remember, and really nothing else. I don’t remember being scared or getting fished out of the water, but I do remember it became quite important that I learn to swim and get acquainted with the water as soon as possible. We’ve been best friends ever since. ☺️

August 3, Wed

John took the oven apart and tracked down all the new parts to make it like new; we even got it all back together and it works great. Much better than buying a new one at $450.

August 4, Thursday

Danielle called, her car has a dead battery – Michael jumped it, but she needs a new one, and gas, she was on empty. They didn’t leave Phoenix until 7:30 pm to come on over.
We worked on odds and ends around the boat.
The girls and Andy W, a friend that drove over with them, got here at 1:30 am.

August 5, Friday

The oil had water in it again. So John went through that process again and then the starter blew. While John worked on this, the kids and I all went shopping and to the beach.
Bob W. picked up the starter to fix.

Aug 6, Saturday

More work on the motor. Kids went back to the beach. Called Angie for her Birthday.

Aug 7, Sunday

Got the new starter on and found the real problem, the exhaust manifold was all plugged up. Bob W. took this to be cleaned and fixed.
The girls took Samie to the beach.
We had a “dock party” at the pool area, out first. Real nice.

Aug 9, Tuesday

Got the boat all put back together – runs great, better than ever. Went for a sail, Danielle got sick.

 August 10, Wed

The kids all left for the drive home at 8:00 am. Danielle called from Mesa at 7:30, she had stopped in Yuma and registered for school at Arizona Western College.

August 11, Thursday

We did a lot of runn’en around trying to get ready to leave Sunday morning. Dewey from Shelter Island Yacht Sales went out for a sail with us and showed us a few tricks with the sails.

*I remember this specific sail, and so did Mom when I mentioned it to her. I remember spending pretty much the entire trip watching the water and the waves through my starboard side porthole up in the front birth. I was just fascinated with it.

August 12, Friday

More last-minute runn’en. Jerry, on the dock here, manages the “Bali Hai’ restaurant and treated us to a really nice dinner.

August 13, Sat.

We sold the blazer for $1,550 and 20 fishing lure plugs (worth $20 each). At least we don’t have to worry about that anymore.
Stephen from Bacchus and Laura invited us over to her apartment for a steak BBQ, which was very nice. They are planning a trip to Hawaii and then on to New Zealand – very nice people.

Fun facts about Stephen and Laura:

Steven once (I think twice, actually) took a swim off the side of his boat while single-handing and the boat got away from him! I don’t remember how he got back aboard; I’ll have to ask mom. Maybe Laura was napping on board or something…
Also, about Laura; her brother and sister were both actors who had small roles in some of our favorite movies! I have seen her brother pop up in a number of movies and he always makes me smile.
Lastly, there was this really random toy, the head of some creature-thing that they called Oogly Smoogly. I have no recollection of the backstory or why he is thusly named - but I still have him and it always makes me laugh when I find him. 🐞

August 14, Sunday

Left Marina Cortez at 5:37 am headed for Ensenada, Baja California. The adventure begins! Beautiful day- but not much wind and what there was, was right on our nose. Sailed right along- auto pilot works wonderful! We moored just in the harbor, next to Baja Naval, tomorrow we may get a slip, but I like it out here better. We arrived at 5:30 pm, the trip was 12 hours.

August 15, Monday

We went into town – checked in with immigration and the port captain; this took about 30 minutes. We walked around, had a fish taco and found the supermercado.
We hooked up the wind scoop and filled [aired] up the Avon dinghy. While we were lifting it into the water, the wench handle slipped and hit me in the lip. Black and blue fat lip – not a pretty sight.
We are just going to stay moored out here this – this mooring costs $150 per month, but I think if you just anchor it’s free. We were going to go anchor at Todos Santos but heard on the VHF that there was a storm with 20-foot swells. We are glad that we came in yesterday.
Whoops – that was one of those rumors. The guy that anchored at Todos Santos didn’t set out enough anchor and he was washed up on the rocks when 6-foot waves came in the anchorage.

August 16, Tuesday

We did odds and ends on the boat. Met a family from South Africa, they have two daughters – Susan, 14 and Mary, 11; they came over for a while, then Samie went to their boat.

*I remember these girls, they were very proficient with origami, and I remember them teaching me some of the easier folds. There’s a decent chance I’ve still got one of the ones I came home with that day. 🤔

August 17, Wednesday

We left Ensenada at 8:00 am and headed to Todos Santos Island. The wind, of course, was right on our nose again. We were checking out the anchorage and saw the wrecked boat. We didn’t catch any fish – came back into the harbor at 2:00 pm. Went into town later. Called the kids – all is well, Peg likes high school.

August 18, Thursday

We were going to go back out to Todos Santos and anchor for a few days but the refrigerator for the ice box won’t cycle on. It was 1:00 pm before anyone came out to look at it. He said it needs freon and he would be back at 3:30 to fix it, but he never made it, so we put ice in to try to keep it cold; so far it’s holding at 40°.
John found a little water in the oil again, so he changed the anti-siphon valve so that it can’t run back through.
Talked to John R. and he did get the mail that we sent.
I started Samie’s school today, she wanted to go right on to lesson 2, but we’ll wait.  
🐞

August 19, Friday

About 11:30 am, someone finally came out to fix the ice box. Apparently, it was never set right. He put freon in it and adjusted the temp. It was about 3:30 when he left – the charge was $100.
We went in to town for a little while, bought postcards and beer.
John tried to get Steve P. on the ham, but no success.

August 20, Saturday

We left the harbor this morning about 8:30 for Todos Santos; we are going to anchor out this time.
We reached the island at 11:30 but just circled around while a couple of small fishing boats pulled up the motor from that wrecked boat; there’s still a lot of debris on the rocks.
I don’t recall the time that we first tried to set anchor, but we dropped the wrong one (the longer, full chain) and had to haul it all in.
Made the loop around again and dropped anchor. Ready, set, drop stern anchor – whoops, not tied off – lost that one. John can dive tomorrow and find it.
Next, we took a line off the stern over to the rocks behind us – not as easy as it sounds. Finally got the back end of the boat in the right direction – mission accomplished. When John tried to re-tie the splice in the line, it slipped and we had to start this procedure over again. Anchoring is NOT my favorite thing to do!
Finally, 6:30 pm we seem to be anchored and tied off securely. THANK GOODNESS.
Samie caught a small calico bass – which we ate, very good. John caught a scorpion fish, throw that one back – poison.

*I very much remember this night. I don’t actually remember catching the fish or having dinner, but I remember fishing with Dad. I remember how calm the water was and how cozy the anchorage was. I remember learning how to toss the line out and bring it back in, not letting it sit too long, but keeping things moving. I must have listened well, based on my catching of the evening’s dinner! How cool, I bet I was quite proud! I remember looking up fish in our guidebooks all the time. I also remember being very nervous about the wreck in the cove. It felt quite ominous.

The Star in Todos Santos with all her anchors out, and the flopper-stopper hanging from the main boom.
(The boom is attached to the mast and is where all the sail material is bundled, waiting to be raised. We would swing it out to the side, as you can see here, and hung the flopper-stopper from it. You’ll learn about the flopper-stopper in just a little bit here.)

August 21, Sunday

I was awake most of the night, we have only set anchor once before and until I’m more comfortable with it I won’t sleep too well the first night. But lucky us, everything held and we’re still here.
John went diving and found the stern anchored, tied a line to it, but in trying to haul it up, it grabbed. So we’ll just have to pull it up when we leave.
We all went snorkeling – well, Samie didn’t stay in, her wetsuit is short sleeve and short legs so she got cold.
This was my first time to snorkel. We also took the dinghy around to a pebble-beach or dinghy-landing and hiked up a small edge to get on top of the island. Looking out over the coves out to the ocean – beautiful!
No luck catching fish today, so we BBQed pork chops.
Samie is enjoying school – so far.
The boat sure rocks when the tide is coming in this small cove. John hooked up and set the flopper stopper and it does help with the side-to-side rocking.

*I remember this day! lol I was so scared of this mysterious ‘Jumping Cactus’ I’d been warned about. I was mystified - how could a cactus jump at someone? I knew not to get too close - but what exactly was too close? Some of the trails were a little tight and I remember it feeling like some semi-perilous journey I was on with my parents in this strange, new land. Also, that flopper-stopper was an absolute luxury in rolly anchorages! When your entire home is rocking from side to side all day, one tends to go a bit mad. The flopper-stopper really delivered and balanced out the boat quite tremendously!

August 22, Monday

When we woke up this morning, the wind was coming out of the south, which is not good in that cove, so we headed out. By the time we got both anchors up, it was 11:00 am. When we pulled up the front anchor, somehow it had grabbed the other anchor and they came up together – one in a million.
We still haven’t caught any eatable fish. We had dinner with Precious Metal tonight.
Danielle called, she doesn’t like college and is going to stay. Danielle called back, now she is on the softball team and they are paying some of the semester and most of the next – so she’s gonna stay.

*I love this about the anchors! That’s so awesome - it seems we had a lot of happy accidents like this over the years.

*Photos above: Postcard from Ensenada, and photos from Todos Santos. The Star with all the anchors out, the flopper-stopper, and on laundry day! Can you spot little me on deck behind all the netting and clothes? lol

August 23, Tuesday

Precious Metal headed out this morning for San Fransisco. They have been sailing for 15 years, from Japan, Guam, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, all of Mexico and points in between. They will be in San Francisco area for a while.
John varnished all the wood in the cockpit area – pretty!
We went out along the coast sailing today, we had 15 to 18 knots of wind. Made enough water to fill the tank. The fish we caught weren’t very big, so John went in and bough a yellow-tail tuna. Good.

August 25, Thursday

We changed the jib and put the smaller one back up.
We went into town, found a jeweler to fix John’s gold chain.

August 26, Friday

John polished the boat and cleaned the outside of the boat in this water.
Picked up the chain, $6.00 U.S. Got an air tank filled.
Called Donna J, they still haven’t gotten the original documentation papers back in the mail, she said to give it another month before requesting another one.
Since we already used the phone, I called Peg, she likes her school schedule ok, she has gotten both letters I mailed – took maybe 3 days. She said she writes in her journal every night to me – I told her to write a letter to me!
I baked a cinnamon swirl cake today – it actually turned out good.

August 27, Saturday

Went out for a sail – made 47.5 gallons of water. Also found 2 water leaks.
John quit smoking 1 week ago – he’s doing great!

August 28, Sunday

John fixed the 1 water leak, which was a hot water heater relief valve. Made arrangements to talk to Steve P. on the ham radio, but we can’t make contact.

August 29, Monday

We walked maybe 5 miles in town today, it’s easy to do when you’re looking for something. One store doesn’t have it, so off you go, down 3 blocks and over 4 blocks, and so on.
We did make contact with Steve and Brenda at noon and set up our own channel and will try again at 5:30 because they had to go back to work- poor souls! Ok, Brenda says Danielle is moving into a dorm with the softball team and really likes it. I gave Brenda Peg’s phone # so she could call her for our address.

August 30, Tuesday

We sailed along the coast today, made about 80 gallons of water and did laundry.
Samie finished reading a 155-page paperback book. Through the whole book she would ask me words and what they meant. I thought she did a wonderful job and she is gonna write a small “book report” for me.
She is writing little notes and pictures to Angie and Jo’s kids.
We have had no luck getting Steve on the ham radio since Monday at noon, and then only for a minute, too much noise.

*I wonder what the book was! I’ll have to keep an eye out for my little book report. We definitely kept a lot of my stuff, so it might be in there!

August 31, Wednesday

John found a saber-saw to borrow and cut the hole so he could fix the other water leak – but neither of us could fit back into the small space. So now he doesn’t know what he’ll do – maybe take the batteries out and climb back in there.
We went into a pay phone and called John R. and Brenda P. about ham radio frequencies, and I finally got to talk to Peggy. She is 1 point away from an A in typing – has a B in journalism, which she says she gets to go in the dark room and is working on the yearbook! She has a new boyfriend – Jay, but I don’t remember his last name.

September ‘94

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

September 1, Thursday

We called Phyllis and Marian at Navopache. Phyllis is planning on being over here somewhere between Oct. 7 & 13th. And Marian didn’t know when they would make it. We did make contact on 7.2000 with Steve, but it was real light and noisy. We will try again Friday at 5pm. A man made a phone call to Mom in Mesa and let them know that we are all fine. It will be good when Steve gets his phone patch connected.

 *I like these reminder of just how easy it is to keep in touch these days. When we were sailing, making contact with loved ones was always a big to-do. You’ll read about our mail packages which consisted of all the letters our friends and family sent to my grandmother, who then sent them collectively to whichever designated address we had given her where we would be able to scoop them up and open them like Christmas presents. My classmates would write me letters and ask questions about the boat, and of course all our family would too.
These phone patches that have been mentioned are a way of making phone calls through the ham radio. What is a ham radio? Think like a walkie talkie which can reach cities all over the planet the planet via airwaves. No internet required -in fact, the world wide web was only about a year old at this time. The only phone we had was a ‘bag phone’ and was wildly expensive, so when we could, we would do these phone patches with our friend who’s radio set up was able to connect to his phone and he would call up our friends and family for us. We would agree on times and frequencies to meet and when the signal was good, we’d be able to make the phone patch. There was always an obligatory training session with those on the phone, explaining some of the radio etiquette like having to say “over” when they are done speaking so that we wouldn’t talk over them unknowingly. I wonder how different it was for them on their end. 🤔

September 2, Friday

We sailed out to Todos Santos Island and were all anchored and set by 2pm. Everything went right the 1st time. At 5pm we made a pretty good connection with Steve. Samie even talked to Lori. John and Samie are catching lots of ‘bait’ fish. John caught a scorpion fish and an eel – yuk!

September 3, Saturday

They caught enough Calico Bass and half-moon fish for dinner tonight – good. It was cloudy and cool until 5pm and then the sun came out. I did laundry again. Talked to Steve again. Blue Ridge won the football game last night. They said it rained for the first, second and third quarters.

September 4, Sunday

The generator would not start this morning, so we came back in to Ensenada. John ‘charged’ the battery and thinks it was just a loose connection and a dirty post. Works ok tonight.
Talked to Steve on the radio and Peggy was there, too! Talked to her, but Michael had to work and when Steve tried the phone patch, he was busy and couldn’t come to the phone. Danielle had gone back to Yuma.
Brenda saw her at the game Friday night and she- Danielle- is moving again. She’s in the same dorm, but a different room.
Peg usually stays with her when she’s up, but she was already staying with her friend Tiffany.

September 5, Monday

The generator wouldn’t start again – so John bought a new battery. So far, so good.
We went to the store. I’m baking a chicken.
Steve called on the radio about 4:40, lots of noise, hard to hear. He’s gonna see if 6:00am is better.
We seem to get a better connection away from town.
The way the boat swings around on the mooring – it’s odd because the sun shines in the windows on one side of the boat when the sun sets and the same windows when the sun rises – if we have swung around.
There are these little grey birds, maybe a type of seagull, it makes this sound just like someone laughing. Sometimes if they do it long enough, it makes us laugh.

September 6, Tuesday

John is painting the blue stripes on the side of the boat. Looks nice. Danielle called from Yuma. She is sharing a room; ball practice starts soon – I think. She’s going to JC Penny’s to see when she starts work. I hate not being able to talk long enough to find out what’s what.

September 7, Wednesday

John is still painting the blue. Went into town and mailed more letters.
I sweep up more junk on this floor than I did in the house with 5 people and 2 dogs! Where in the hell does it come from?!

We swapped the gold trim and red keel for blue and blue against the brown hull stripe, which matched the sail covers.

September 8, Thursday

Went in to town to see if Neal had brought back any mail, but he is still gone.
We have not been able to make contact with Steve and Brenda since Monday night. Tony from Shelter Island Yacht Sales called, someone stole the suburban today.

*I have no idea what suburban she is referencing here, nor does she seem to when I asked her about it. I just love that she’s so nonchalant about it here. 🐞

September 9, Friday

We left the harbor at 9am and sailed out to Todos Santos.
John caught the traditional scorpion fish and this time an octopus!

September 10, Saturday

John scrubbed the outside of the boat. I laid in the sun and enjoyed a nice quiet day.
No fish – burgers were for dinner.

*One of the most frequently asked questions was what we ate and that always made me laugh a little. We were typically always close enough to some sort of market for fresh veggies, meats and dairies and whatnot. And obviously there was typically an option for fresh seafood. I remember ice was like gold, especially in the warmer months.

September 11, Sunday

Married 1 year today, lobster was for dinner.
Made contact with Steve, although not real clear.

September 12, Monday

John is always cleaning and polishing on the boat. The water tank is full, full.
We all hiked to the top of the island, you can see forever.
A kelp boat needed to anchor in the cove so we had to leave. We didn’t even put up the sails. There was 15 to 18 knots of wind and maybe 4 foot swells. We got to Ensenada at 5:30.
Still no Neal, hopefully he will have mail tomorrow.

*Especially as I get older, I have such a growing appreciation of my father and all his hard work on the boat. I always attributed it to his time as a Marine, and maybe just boredom. While those both definitely contributed, I understand now that he’s just really smart and also very dedicated to the things he loves. The better you take care of something, the longer it will last. He learned something new every time something broke and logged all the details into the ‘ole noggin and he would make notes of whatever type of maintenance would help prevent breakage or reduce wear and tear. With an engineer’s mind, he could fix damn near anything, and that which left him dumbfounded would surely be answered by a fellow cruiser! The cruising community is always willing to help each other out and it is something I will never forget - being backed by sometimes complete strangers who understand and maybe have had the same predicament. I know Dad was also always happy to help others and that it was greatly appreciated, as we were absolutely never shy of help in any way. Even with a helpful community, I know that there were some things people did which went to extra lengths to help us out and I attribute that to Dad’s friendly, helpful and cheerful self and his positive affect on fellow cruisers. I’ve been able to understand that more as I’ve gotten older.

September 13, Sunday

Neal came back, but still no mail.
Steve stayed home sick today and we made a really good connection on the ham radio. Talked maybe 45 minutes. He made phone patches to Michelle, Michael and Phyllis. It was 8:30am, so Peggy was in school.
‘Chelle & Faron can’t come down at Christmas. Faron is out of vacation – so we will see if all the kids can come the first week of January.
The wind in the harbor was blowing 20 knots – must be really whoop’en it up out in the open.
We could not even make any contact on the radio with Steve tonight.

 *Weather has a big effect on the ham radio signals.

September 14, Wednesday

We walked about 3 miles to the Big Gigante Store and McDonald’s (nice treat) and another 3 or 4 miles back – long walk.

 *I remember this trip! Well, I remember Mickey D’s and seeing those golden arches was like a mirage in the desert and I was over the moon about my Happy Meal toy score which was a Magic School Bus with story cards inside.

September 15, Thursday

John waxed on the boat. Forgot what else ‘cuz I got behind with this.

September 16, Friday

We went in to the parade – today is Mexico’s Independence Day. Then we walked for a while, got an ice cream cone and came back to the boat. We went back in tonight, called John R. to tell him not to mail the documentation yet – Donna J. did get the original back and had mailed it to him. Talked to Peggy for a minute.

*Pretty sure this is where I took my second photo ever; there was a real pretty lady on a horse in the parade.

September 17, Saturday

We went out to Todos Santos, but could not anchor; there were two boats already in the cove. So we slowly sailed around for 3 hours and got the water tank almost full. Got back to the harbor at 3:30pm.

September 18, Sunday

We left the harbor at 7:15 am to get out far enough away to be able to get Steve on the radio, which we couldn’t hear him too well at all. He was at his dad’s in Tempe.
While we were out there a spring broke on the governor of the generator – so we could not make any water to finish filling the tank.
We came back in to the harbor at 5:00 pm. We pulled up next to Bandito’s dock so that we could have power to chill the fridge way down.
George and Lisa from the boat Candide came over and we visited until 10:30pm. They are heading down to Cabo now.
We finally got mail – 1 from Peg, 2 from Mom, Colleen, what a treat!

September 19, Monday

They lifted the boat out of the water, the process started at 8:30 am, by 10:00 am we were sprayed off and sitting up on blocks. They will have to sand it all the way down before putting on the new paint.
They also took off the rudder, which is under our bed. This means taking apart and putting it together again every day as they work.
The dust from the sanding on all the boats here in this yard is worse than living on a dirt road in Lakeside, Arizona in August!!
Neal, from the boat Carousel came over for dinner. He gave us some ideas on planning our trip. He says don’t go to Mazatlan, there is too much crime and filth; try a place called Zihuatanejo, which is where most of the cruisers spend Christmas. John remembers that Don B. goes there.
We called John and Alice R, they may fly down to Cabo if we are there by November 11 – the plane tickets are only $100 -round trip- wow!

 *I remember this day and being in awe of seeing the whole boat out of the water, it was wild!

September 20, Tuesday

Samie took her first school test and missed only 1 question having to do with vowel sounds. Now we mail it in to the advisory teacher for Calvert Schools.
The guys came to look at the rudder and what needs to be done is a bracket build and more or less some major work costing around $2,000 -wow! We were not expecting that. We knew the paint job would be around $1,000, but this other is a big surprise!
I don’t like being on dry dock! I’m sick from the lack of motion, besides, it feels like we’re in an elevator waiting to “hit” the bottom floor.
Monday I was close to puk’en and had a terrible headache. Today we all just feel like we are at an odd angle.
Found out later the rudder might be only $800 – hope so.

*I can remember this feeling, thinking about it!
🐞

September 21, Wednesday

We left Ensenada with Neal at 7:00 am headed for San Diego, by car. We got to Tony’s office on Shelter Island at 9:20 am, not a bad ride. Tony let us use his truck to go to the bank, Target and to Marina Cortez to see how all the boaters are doing there and when they are heading this way.
We also went to say hi to Steven and checked the mail at Downwind Marine. Samie had a package from Sam and Rane and I, a letter from Jo.
We caught the trolly to Tijuana – about an hour, walked across the border, caught a bus back to Ensenada; in about 2 hours’ time we walked from the station to the boat. The trolly was $1.75 each, the bus $5.00 each.
The bottom of the boat was blue when we got here – at 8:00 pm. Looks great.

September 22, Thursday

John waxed the boat, the guys are still working on the rudder. Samie and I wrote letters all day.

September 23, Friday

They finished up on the rudder and we were back in the water at 1:00 pm. We fueled the tanks – now to clean up all the filth – dust everywhere.
The paint job, rudder and fuel totaled $1,800. Better than we thought!

September 24, Saturday

John and Steve tried to find the dinghy, but no luck. When Neal got back, they went to get it, but it won’t be ready until Monday pm.
Steve and Sheri from the Valiant Lady came over for dinner.
Pretty sunset tonight.

September 25, Sunday

We bug-bombed the boat so we had to spend the morning in town.
Saturday Danielle and Michael called from Steve and Brenda’s – could not get through on the ham.

September 26, Mondy

Sherry from Valiant Lady took me to a REAL laundry mat today. Man was that a nice treat. I think it was about $10 to wash 3 loads and dry, but you have to split it up to dry, so there were 5 loads to dry.
John helped her husband Steve with some jobs on the boat.
John got our fuel tanks all the way full. We figured 85 gallons is what we’ve used since we left San Diego – August 14th.

September 27, Tuesday

We got our dinghy back with the side covers – nice $130. We left the harbor at 1:30 for Todos Santos, no wind, warm sunshine. 45 minutes out and we have 20 knots of wind -another 30 minutes and we have 30 knots with gusts to 35. This is the most wind we have been in. Had a fish on the line, splashes coming up over the bow and the dodger and Danielle calls on the phone. * We made it in to the cove and were anchored by 4:00pm. The wind is from the West, straight behind us (that’s good), but it’s still blowing 10 to 15 knots over the top of us and it’s causing a lot of surge in the cove.
We left the harbor with Valiant Lady, but they had some problems and went back to the harbor. Luckily, they got everything fixed and were out here and anchored by 6:30pm.
We ate the bonita we caught on the way out.

*”It’s a helluva day at sea, Sir!”
-Name that movie!
🐞

Dad and I putsin’ around the bay in Ensenada; we would do this regularly. You can see the new canvas cover here, which was a real treat for us to keep from burning ourselves on the hot rubber as well as protecting the rubber from the sun. Like I said, Dad’s a smart man! My dinghy rides with Dad are some of my favorite memories - we would wander around new anchorages and see what its shores held in store for us. Things were especially fun once we got the 10HP Mariner; we’d go fast over the white-caps on a windy day, he taught me to drive it (this was basically my first car), and we would also go fishing. As is pretty typical in the family dynamic, Mom was the rule-maker and Dad was more likely the rule-breaker. 🙃 While I wouldn’t say we broke too many rules, we’ve always fun given’ it some gas and “opening her up” on the open road/ocean. Our more recent rides have been in the hot-rod he built; a 1927 Ford model T two-door roadster passenger. I’m telling you, the man can do anything!

September 28, Wednesday

I was awake until 11:30 pm last night. It’s hard for me to sleep the first night at anchor, which is ok since we have TV here.
Sunrise was beautiful this morning.
I did a small batch of laundry. John, Samie and Steve hiked on the mountain. Sherry and I laid in the sun.
We made around 120 gallons of water today- it ran for 8.5 hours.

September 29, Thursday

A very relaxing day. John, Samie and Steve hiked up the mountain. Sherry and I were lazy and laid in the sun. Steve and Sherry came over for dinner.
John had to clean the connections on the fresh water pressure pump, it was not working.
Made faint contact with Steve P. in Lakeside, Az.

September 30, Friday

Another lazy morning, we left the anchorage around 11:00 am and were back in the harbor around 1:00 pm. Had pizza out with Steve and Sherry.

October ‘94

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

 October 1, Saturday

We got mail and John bought me 9 red roses.
John did odds and ends and fix-its on the boat. He fixed the deck wash pump, so now he can hook the hose up and really wash the deck much easier. He changed the oil in the gen-set at 785 hours, and also installed a new impeller in the macerator pump.
We went into town tonight; John and Samie got an ice cream cone.
Blew a fuse on the sump-pump.

 *Ice cream after dinner has definitely always been one of Dad’s favorite treats and I was always more than happy to partake in the tradition! If I’m remembering correctly, Dad would typically get rum-raisin and mom would get pistachio. Funnily enough, I don’t remember what I would get, which leads me to believe my parent’s always got the same thing, whereas I mixed it up each time. Maybe chocolate this time and cookie dough the next, or maybe sherbet or chocolate chip or neopolitan?! Impossible choices for a seven-year-old; I’m sure I simply wanted them all!

October 2, Sunday

We Went to the mercado and got a few things.
Neal came by to figure out where we will put the computer we are buying from him.
Our generator was running and just up and quit, it won’t start again.
We went into Bandito’s dock for the night so we could plug into shore power. When we were backing in the front port station was broken loose, bent and pulled right off the deck when it hit another docked boat (which was not hurt at all).

October 3, Monday

We took the stanchion off and Baja Naval will make a new one. We will have to tape up one of the life-lines which was badly scraped. We can save the netting and re-thread the stanchion by working from the ends and turn buckles.
John got a hold of Sal and it turns out the only thing wrong with the generator is that it lost its ground. Lucked out again.
I wrote a note to ADOT saying that I live in Mexico but she does have my permission to get her driver’s permit.
Steve P. called on the phone with a new frequency.
Danielle called, she might quit school and go to Mesa and work for a year.
Talked to Michelle - she found out today that she is pregnant! How exciting! She would be due the middle of April – but she doesn’t have her first doctor’s appointment until the 20th of this month.
In all the phone calls today, I think we used 70 minutes’ air time, which would be 77 cents per minute, totaling $54 or there-abouts, plus the $2.20 day charge for any long-distance. It will be interesting to see what the whole thing comes to. It’s so ridiculous! But I’m so glad it’s there!

*Communications were really just so different at the time! Internet was still pretty new and not readily available to everyone, cell phones didn’t have screens, let alone cameras (the average person would have probably laughed at the idea), and it was all wildly expensive, as noted here. And if it weren’t for these fairly regular check-ins and calls we were able to make and receive, our family really wouldn’t know where we were. We sent mail out whenever we could, but that was only efficient if we were close to a town. If we needed to get mail off to someone while we were, say, in Baja, we would have to sent the letters along with other cruisers who were headed to port and trust they’d get it in to town and mailed off for us. I’m grateful our family and friends didn’t have to wonder too often where we were or if we were safe.

October 4, Tuesday

John started working on the generator and battery system trying to figure out the problems. He cleaned all the grounding connections on the generator but it still isn’t right.
About 11:00am Steve and Sherry called from San Diego to say they are coming back a day early because Japan had an earthquake which was causing a tsunami or tidal wave to come in on the west coast, due around 5:30pm.
We had heard no warnings here, but the harbor in San Diego was telling everyone to evacuate.
John quit working on the generator and batteries and installed the new station which Baja Naval made (cost $122.50, wow) while we waited to see if we were gonna have to take the boat out in the open water to avoid the tsunami.
The reports we were hearing from Hawaii was that it wasn’t anything much at all – and the warning was cancelled.
We finally got a letter from Mom that she mailed on September 2nd – one month to find us, but it was because the way it was addressed.

*How scary this must have been! I don’t remember it, I probably wouldn’t have understood exactly what a tsunami was; I’m not sure I could have comprehended its massiveness. Luckily it is a pretty easy fix in a boat, as long as you can get out of port and out to sea!

October 5, Wednesday

While we were at the dock, the Port Captain’s Office had gone out into the harbor and cut all the unused mooring lines. Since ours was unused at the time, ours was cut and we lost our little red anchor buoy. Tino, the owner of Bandito’s was able to give us another one, thank goodness. This one is even closer to all the docks.
John is over-charging all the batteries today and bringing them all up where they should be. I guess we should be doing this once a month, anyway.
We need to talk to Sal before we continue working on the generator -but John has rigged it to run for now.
Steve and Sherry’s daughter and son-in-law arrived today from Salt Lake. Marci and Todd are really nice; we visited at their boat for a few hours.
Still no word back from Danielle about school.
We finished building the stands for the computer and it’s all set up and working. Neal will bring the computer and Steve P. is sending an old printer over with Phyllis. So we will be all set for weather and fax and Samie is having fun with the games.
It rained this morning for about 10 minutes, nice, but not long enough.

*It was such a luxury to have this computer on our boat! I don’t remember anything about weather faxes - all I remember are my games, teaching myself to type, and designing various cards and banners to be printed out with one of those late 80s dot matrix printers which simultaneously serenaded you with that god-awful cacophony of doom. As far as games, I believe there were some card games and general solitaire type, but what I remember playing and enjoying the most was Wheel of Fortune in all its pixelated glory. Over the years, technology kept growing (weird) and other boaters were quite generous with this bored only child floating out in the ocean with mostly only my own imagination to entertain myself. I borrowed Game Boys on which I played Zelda and Paper Boy, most notably. I believe people even loaned us their computers a time or two and I remember being taught random games. There some cat and mouse maze/puzzle games that I was enthralled with and have since looked for, but haven’t found. —-> Look, I found it! It was called Rodent’s Revenge!

October 5, Thursday

John helped Steve hook up his deck wash pump and a couple other things while Sherry, Marci, Samie and I went to the laundry and to the store.
We had dinner on the Valiant Lady tonight.

October 7, Friday

John cleaned the water filters.
We went out in the bay for 2 hours and made about 35 gallons of water. Timo is afraid that if we are gone too long, they will cut this mooning also, or that another boat will take it. There are a bunch of boats coming in from San Diego for a race on Sunday.
The moorings that were cut on Wednesday are all being reconnected for the boats coming in for the race. It’s crazy, quite funny to watch.

October 8, Saturday

It’s getting cold, time to start building fires! Ha! It was 58° yesterday morning at 7am and 62° today. We hear on the ham radio that it is in the 80s on down the mainland coast, even the water temp is in the 80s!
There must be 70 to 80 boats in this harbor.
We made contact with Steve and did phone patches to Michelle and Danielle and Michael – Peg was not home. All the kids sound good. Michael has the last week of December and first week of January off – so he can come down.
I defrosted the freezer and cleaned the fridge – ice box is more like it.
Stayed home tonight.

October 9, Sunday

John crewed on Valiant Lady today in a 12-mile race. There were 7 boats entered, they took 4th place. Samie and I stayed on our boat to keep an eye on the mooring. The winds normally blow out of the southwest and today they are blowing 15 to 20 knots out of the east. So the boat has blown around and the mooring line has turned and we are way out of sync; John says Tino uses an anchor for the mooring and it drug and reset with the winds. It makes me uncomfortable!
There was a small BBQ and awards for the race.
It is surprising how much the temperature changed with the winds from the east. It was quite cool the last week or so – but today it was 102° in the shade on our boat. At 8:00pm it was 80°.
There were fires burning on the mountains all around – looks bad, but I think they were out before they reached any homes.

October 10 – Monday

We left the harbor at 1:30pm with Valiant Lady headed for Todos Santos. The winds today are out of the WSW and only around 7 to 10 knots. None of those Santa Annas today.
We had to anchor at the mouth of the cove and wait for 2 boats to leave – then we came around and tied off to the back rock like always. Valiant Lady stayed out where they were. We had dinner with them.
The sail out was beautiful and warm – not any real wind.
Called Mom – the tickets from Phoenix to San Diego are $25 each, but must be purchased before the 13th – so she’s gonna get two for me and Samie; we will ride to Arizona with Phyllis and Mike on the 15th and fly back on the 24th.

*So I asked Mom about this and she’s not too sure, but this entry had me wondering what was involved in planning trips, airline tickets and hotel lodgings at the time. I seem to always remember people talking about travel agents and what kind of deals they were able to get them. It’s really so crazy how much easier it is to do things ourselves now.

October 11, Tuesday

Happy Sweet 16 to Peggy!

I arranged for Debby at Navopache to deliver a card that I’d mailed and a rose to Peggy at school today, which she said (when I called her tonight) made her whole day and I told her we were coming for a week!
I made an applesauce cake and Samie made a poster * which we had for Peg’s B-day, even though we’re not together!
We woke up this morning to Steve on Valiant Lady blowing the fog horn at 4:30am! He had woke up because the wind shifted and his dinghy was bumping the boat. Since we had such bad Santa Annas 2 days ago, he was concerned that we be ready if it got bad and we had to pull out real fast. Which it didn’t – the wind shifted to the southwest and it was a real nice day.
We did watch the sun come up, got the laundry done early, boat washed down, school done and “played” the rest of the day! What a rough life!
The switch on the fresh water pump went on the fritz again – we should have had one picked up and brought down.
I called Mom ‘cause we haven’t heard Steve on the radio for 3 days now – she got our tickets for the 24th and 11:45.
The sky is so beautiful with all the stars – thousands!

*Cue printer “music” with the poster-making comment! You know that sucker was at least four pages long!

October 12- Wednesday

We lazed around this morning and got back to the harbor around 3pm. Steve and Sherry let us use their truck, so we went to the store and tried to get all the propane tanks filled, but the place was closed.

October 13- Thursday

John got the propane tanks filled. Mike and Phyllis got lost for a couple of hours trying to find the harbor – it was 11:30 before they got out to the boat. It was blowing 10 to 15 knots inside the harbor, so we waited until it died down a little. It was 1:00 when we headed out to Todos Santos. Not a lot of wind – but 4-5 foot swells, we anchored about 3:30. BBQed some delicious steaks that Mike and Phyllis had brought from San Diego.
They brought lots of letters and goodies from home. It was so good to see them again.

October 14, Friday

John helped Steve on his boat. We sure “rocked and rolled” all night, it even rained real good for an hour or so. About 4:30am the wind shifted to the ESE, where it stayed at about 8 to 12 knots all day. We finally gave up and headed to Ensenada at 2:30pm. It was a nice sail back.
John hurt his back somehow yesterday and it’s still bad.

October 15, Saturday

Samie and I left with Mike and Phyllis this morning at 6:30am, headed for Arizona. It had rained again in the night and it was still cloudy when we left.
We ate lunch in Yuma at 12:30. It rained off and on all the way, when we left Mesa at 4:30 after stopping at Mom’s for a while; then it rained the rest of the way to the other side of the canyon and it started snowing. Yuk! We got to Michael and Peggy’s at 8:00pm, Peg was already at Jo’s, so Shine drove us down. Andy, Janet and kids, Angie and family were all there, waiting – but the kids were all so surprised. Samie and I stayed at Angie’s house.
Dan and Melissa gave Peg a 1983 Honda Accord for her birthday; nice little first car.

*I feel the need to point out here that at the time, the Honda was only 11 years old!

October 16, Sunday

Samie went to church with everyone – Peg and I stayed here, nice. We all had lunch at Jo’s; Andy and Janet left at 3:30 for home. It is snowing and sticking – stayed at Angie’s.

October 17, Monday

Peg, Samie and I drove to Show Low this morning, took Samie by to see Rane; she stayed there while Michael, Peggy and I went up to Navopache Electric and to Pat’s for lunch. Peg’s car may need a new alternator, it keeps dying. The kids brought me back to Jo’s house – Samie and I stayed here tonight.

*Who remembers Pat’s Place?! An old familiar staple of days gone past in Show Low! My brother worked there for years and we would often go for some delicious pizza and of course I’d wander off to play the arcade games in the other room! Hey, Mom! I need more quarters!

October 18, Tuesday

Spent the day with Jo, then went back to Angie’s for the night.

October 19, Wednesday

Angie and Jo drove Samie and I to Show Low, we got Peg and took her car and dropped Samie off at Rane’s. Peg and I went to Pat’s Pizza and Shine bought us dinner! What a sweetie! We went to Steve and Brenda’s but couldn’t hear John on the radio good enough so I just called on the phone.
I took Peg home and took her car out to Janelle’s to spend the night. Peg’s car just had a loose spark plug – but it needs some transmission work.

October 20, Thursday

I picked Goon up at her house at 6:30am so that she could drive to school, then I had her car till I went back to get her at 10:45 – she has a half day today and Friday. She took me to meet her boyfriend, Jay – nice, cute guy!
Then we rented a movie, My Father, the Hero and got some chips and dip and went to her room to watch ‘em and pig out! Nice day.
Later, I went to Colleen’s to spend the night and Marian came over to catch me up on all the gossip!

October 21, Friday

I picked Goon up again so she could drive to school, then I went by Navopache again for a while. At 9:30 I picked up Samie and Michael and we spent an hour together before he had to go to work and Samie and I went to get Peg. Then we hung out at her house until Angie picked us up at 2:00pm. Then we left Taylor at 3:00 and met Mom and Marie in Payson – ate at Taco Bell and came on down to Mesa. Stopped to see Grandpa and Margaret, getting to the house about 7:30pm.

October 22, Saturday

Samie and I spent the morning at Chelle’s and Danielle was there, she had cut her hair to her shoulders – it’s cute. Faron came home for lunch. It feels so good to be with the girls, I miss ‘em so much. Danielle is trying to get hired at WalMart. Chelle is starting to show a little, she goes in on Thursday the 27th for a sonagram to see exactly how far along she is.
Danielle left for Lakeside at 2:30 – Peg will be so glad to see her! Chelle brought us back to Mom’s at 3:30. Her and Faron have tickets to the Cardinals vs. Cowboys game tomorrow.
Mom and Daddy took us out to eat with Pat and Jack Miller.
We called Rane to see what her sonagram showed – no twins, just 1 boy!
We also talked to John on the phone.

October 23, Sunday

Chelle came by this morning for a couple hours before she went to work.
We just hung around Mom’s – Andy, Janet and kids came over for dinner. Rendy finally warmed up to me enough to play. John called.

October 24, Monday

Time to go home. Mom took us to the airport and we flew out at 11:45am. Samie’s first time on an elevator, escalator, airplane and taxi – all in one day! She really liked the plane, pointing out things the whole time. When we landed, we found John and took a taxi to the trolly station, then the bus home. We got to the boat about 4:30 or 5:00pm.
Good to be home.

*I definitely remember this flight and being so excited next to the window, watching this giant, huge earth pass beneath the wings of our jet plane. I remember being fascinated by the crops and fields, all different colors. I must’ve asked a million questions - which was not at all out of the norm, so can you imaging how many I asked about all the new things!? Oy vay! Maybe this was the trip when Mom started to my “why this, why that” questions with “So you would have something to ask about!”. 😂

<— Look what I found while scanning photos; a napkin was from my first flight. What a nerd. 🙃❤ 

October 25, Tuesday

While we were gone, John bought $700 in parts, $400 in labor on the generator and $400 for a gas generator for back-up if this one ever quits again. He finally had to pull in at Baja Naval so he could plug in on Friday and came back out to the mooring Sunday night. He said his week was not good at all!
Today we walked to the store. John bought several more parts for the generator for $100.
The wind is gusting 10-20 knots today.

October 26, Wednesday

Started school again – John “cooked” the batteries and mounted the gas generator on the back above our cabin.
Samie is drawing all kinds of Halloween stuff and taping it around, such as bats, ghosts, spider webs and spiders – it looks real spooky!

October 27, Thursday

We found a place to have film developed in 2 hours for $9 – single prints. One other place took 2 weeks!
Did odds and ends on the boat.

October 28, Friday

We had Tino call the laundry mat to come pick us up - a service they offer. After 3 hours of waiting, we gave up!
Steve and Sherry got back from Salt Lake around 3pm, we had them over for a fish dinner.

October 29, Saturday

John is cleaning and checking out everything in prep for Thursday the third’s departure! Steve (Valiant Lady) climbed the mast and put on the new spreader boots for us (he used to be a mountain climber).

October 30, Sunday

Samie took her second test; missed 2 science questions. John “puttered”, and we went out to Alfonzo’s for Pizza.

October 31, Monday

Happy Halloween!

Sherry, Samie and I did one last hurrah of laundry and Smart & Final shopping. Samie dressed up like a clown - Rane had sent clown makeup – she looked real cute. I dressed up like a pirate and we went around to a few boats and over to Tino’s (Bandito’s). She had a good time.

November ‘94

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

November 1, Tuesday

More prep.

November 2, Wednesday

Along with Steve and Sherry we caught the noon bus to San Diego, checked into the Travel Lodge on N Harbor and Scott. Steve and Sherry hailed a taxi – New York style, and we went to Southwestern Yacht Club for the Baja HaHa meeting. Samie met a 9-year-old girl named Tameron on the boat True Blue – finally a friend for her.
We called Chelle, she’s due May 22nd, talked to Mom, Peg and Michael.

November 3, Thursday

Oh what a way to begin the day! Hot shower – LOTS of water – maybe we were even a little wasteful – what a joy! We ate breakfast at Denny’s – took a taxi back to the border and caught the 8:30am bus to Ensenada.
The Port Captain would not clear us until 3:00pm, so we will wait till morning to leave. Talked to Steve and Brenda for 20 minutes.

*We were lucky to have a shower on board, but we still had to be mindful of how much we used. There’d definitely be some hollerin’ from my parents if I ran the water too long. And the water wasn’t running the whole time - there was a nozzle for the sprayer so you sprayed down at intervals and to finish up. After the shower, you ran the sump pump, which would pump the collected shower water out into the ocean. That’s when you could really tell how much water you used. I remember getting some head shakes while I stood there, waiting to hear the change in tone which let me know all the water was out. I found this photo from a sister ship which is up for sale (I don’t know that we ever took a photo of ‘the head’ as sailors refer to the bathroom). Ours was a bit different in the details, but was absolutely this same size and shape. The door, which this boat may not actually have, would have swung inward toward the toilet. You would shimmy kind of along the wall here on the right/front and shut the door once you were in. We had a shower nozzle hung up where those hooks are, straight ahead and there was a drain in the floor. The toilet was operated with a hand pump for flushing.

Fun fact: in front of that little window (porthole) is a raised seat in the cockpit where Dad would often set his coffee mug in the morning while he read or reviewed charts of the area we were in. I occasionally delighted in the opportunity to scare the bejesus out of him by waiting 'till he went to grab his mug and I’d reach out of that porthole and grab his hand out of nowhere. 🤣 Even thinking about it now, I can’t stop laughing! What a little shit! 🤪

November 4, Friday!!

The day the adventure really begins! Up at 5:30am, off the mooring and underway at 7:15am. As we did our check-in with the net of the Baja Ha-Ha, we find Synergy is on the way to Ensenada for repairs with a collision in the night with Equity, who has to go back to San Diego for major repairs.
We traveled with Valiant Lady and Wind Gypsy, who, at one point headed out to some island. Not much wind, only 5 to 7 knots- motored all day and night.
The first night out in all this darkness went ok – thank god for radar.
John and I took turns sleeping, one or both of us always on watch. We had put the canvas covers all the way around the cockpit so we are closed in and a lot of warmer than otherwise. I’m still cold.

November 5, Saturday

Nice day – still only 2-5 knots of wind at 9am. It was cold this morning, but at 1pm I was laying in the warm sun. Samie and I both caught yellowtail tuna, mine 21” and Samie’s 22”, about 8-10 pounds. Good eating!
Let me say this much – I DO NOT LIKE WIND AT NIGHT!!
One more behind us.

November 6, Sunday

I got maybe 3.5-4 hours sleep, John 1 or 1.5, poor guy.
The dolphins were “dancing” this morning, everywhere swimming, jumping and playing – it is spectacular to watch. One whale was spotted by the Valiant Lady.
Talked to Steve in Lakeside on the ham radio.
Samie and I watched 2 dolphins “dancing” with us for about 15 minutes, but they disappeared when I got the camera, shy, I guess.
After 3 days and 2 nights, a total of 57 hours- we were anchored in Turtle Bay at 4:30pm. The bed sure will feel good tonight.

November 7, Monday

Coming into the bay yesterday, one fishing line got tangled around the prop, so John will have to go for a swim and get it off. The potluck beach party was nice today, great people. Samie and Tameron are getting along great – it’s so nice for both the girls. Tameron spent a couple hours on our boat.

November 8, Tuesday

Samie spent an hour at True Blue with Tameron while John and I “went to town”.
We pulled anchor and the race was on at noon. I think there are 39 boats in the Baja Ha-Ha.
The autopilot was acting up again – but we think we have the rudder response adjusted now – let’s hope!! The night held with 10-knot winds, we reefed the main and dropped the mizzen and scooted on through the night. 10 hours of darkness is too much!
Talked to Steve P. on the ham radio at his dad’s in Tempe.
🐞

November 9, Wednesday

John caught a dolphin fish, good size, maybe 15-20 pounds, but it slipped from the hook just as he was bringing it aboard.
Made water today.
Well – I caught a 35” dolphin fish, 10-15 pounds. It was a long night.

*As Mom noted in the comments for this month, dolphin fish is another name for Dorado or Mahi-Mahi. They are a fish of many names; of which, I’m not sure why one of them is ‘dolphin fish’ because nothing about them resembles a dolphin in any way. lol 🐞

November 10, Thursday

Two days with no sleep is too much. For some reason I can’t sleep out here. We motored all last night so we could get into the anchorage earlier today. It was 12-12:30 when we were anchored. John lost 3 squid lures today. Once we hooked a small marlin, but it broke the line. Don’t know what the other two were that took the hooks.
We were all in bed and out of it by 7:00-8:00.
That dolphin fish was so good.

November 11, Friday

Cloudy and cool today, rained lightly off and on so we never did go ashore in Bahia Santa Maria. About 1 am I woke up to 15-20 knots of wind whistling in the rigging and pouring down rain, which passed by dawn. We had seen this storm on the weather fax with another one building below Cabo.

November 12, Saturday

Happy Birthday Faron.

The rest of the Baja Ha-Ha’s left at 9 am – there was I think 6 of us that chose to wait for the storms to clear out: ourselves and Valiant Lady included. At noon, us, Cascade and Candide went around the “corner” (4 hours) from Santa Maria to Mag Bay; we anchored here at Punta Belcher for the night.

November 13, Sunday

We raised anchor at 8 am and headed inside the bay more, to San Carlos. This is a narrow passage with shoals on either side which is marked with buoys. It took 3 hours to make 20 miles, we anchored AGAIN. John made 7 trips in the dink with three 5-gallon jugs. Luckily on the dock he found a guy who spoke English. He drove him to the fuel, they charged $2.06 per gallon (U.S. - $1.03 pesos/liter). We anchored in Man-o-War cove for tonight. Heard on the ham that the Baja Ha-Haers did get into some wind and rain – glad we waited!

November 14, Monday

3:30 am, brought up the anchor and were out of the mouth of the bay at 6:15 am. 8:30 am we have 15-20 knots, gusts to 25 knots out of the NE; we are scooting along at 4.5, 5 knots, which only lasted about 1 hour, then maybe 5 knots from directly behind until sunset – then 20-25 knots out of the east – all the way into Cabo.
We kept the motor on at 1200 RPM and kept it at 5.5 to 6 knots speed. The sea was confused and swells would put the rail in the water once in a while.
The moon was full and pretty – it was great.

November 15, Tuesday

We made it to Cabo and were on a mooring (yay, no anchor) at 10am.
It is beautiful here.
We did over 700 miles.
Finally, the fun – beautiful part begins.

*I still remember rounding that corner and seeing that infamous arch for the first time.

November 16, Wednesday

We found a supermercado, expensive.
The beach party was fun, Samie won a fish trophy for the kid’s group that caught the biggest fish! Cool!

*The Haha'ers threw a great party on the beach to celebrate our successful group trip to Cabo San Lucas. I definitely still have this award, it' is a green, wooden carved fish on a purple string to hang around the neck. I’ll definitely take a photo when I find it.

November 17, Thursday

I borrowed Sherry’s key and did laundry, the marina and facilities are very nice.
Happy B-day Grandpa Jones, 83. Called Peg, Faron, others not home.

*The use of actual washing machines and dryers was always a treat on the boat. Otherwise things were washed in buckets and scrubbed by hand, then hung over the railing along the outside of the boat to dry. It was definitely a process! Kudos to all the boat moms washing laundry for 3+!!

November 18, Friday

About midnight I got really sick – come to find out half or ¾ of the Baja Ha-Ha fleet got it from the party food, we guess. Severe diarrhea, vomiting, headache and 103.6 fever. So I laid in bed wanting to die for 2 days. John got it a little on Saturday, but not bad. We are taking ampicillin, 500mg, 4 times a day.

*My poor Mom got this the worst of my parents because she not only ate her own helping of ceviche, she also had all of mine and some of my Dad’s, as I remember hearing it. Ooof! Her and I have definitely kept our distance since! Ha, I almost forgot about the day Dad made me Mac n’ Cheese while Mom was sick, and skimped out on either the milk or butter and it was the weirdest serving of cheesy pasta I ever had. lol 🐞
I would also like to note that, while I may have missed on some/a lot of bemoaning from the adults, I don’t remember any mass finger-pointing or huge ruckus after so many people got sick. My only reason for pointing this out, is that the energy I remember about the situation was more like, “oof - let’s be A LOT more careful with the ceviche next time, guys!” rather than trying to take down the entirety something while throwing out intense accusations of carelessness and ill-will like you see these days. My point being, people weren’t such assholes. Yes, it’s serious business - but it obviously wasn’t intentional and no one would have been better off for having barked their balls off at whoever helped with the food, you know?

November 19, Saturday

No one felt too good – not much got done.

November 20, Sunday

Wow, I am gonna live!
There is such a south swell coming in to the bay that the surf is even breaking on the beach, it’s never done that before. Some tropical storm is supposed to be headed this way and this mooring may not be safe, so we moved in to the dock: F14. The mooring was $8 per day and the slip is half price this week, so it’s $18.
It's been since August 14th that we’ve been at a dock. Really, I like the mooring on the beach better, but it’s better to be safe.
Samie went swimming with Tameron from True Blue and the folks from Cascade took all the kids out to eat dinner. I feel really good tonight, like normal again.
Tameron spent the night.

November 19, Saturday

Well, that didn’t last. I’m sick again with diarrhea and Samie has 102 fever, diarrhea and the pukes. I don’t know what it is, but I’m tired of it.
John worked on reinforcing the autopilot and the SSB.

November 20, Sunday

More work on the SSB – Samie and I still sick. Where are the days going, I’m missing all the fun.

*Neither Mom or I even noticed this little glitch in dates, lol. We figure she was sick and overlooked her previous entries and thought she was catching up. I’ll tell you I thought I was glitching out when I noticed it. Too funny.

November 21, Monday

Mom and Daddy had thought some of flying out here this week, but are not since they just saw us not too long ago.
Samie and I still have The Crud.

November 22, Tuesday

I managed to do some laundry, we moved out of the harbor and out on anchor. Samie is some better, not me.

November 23, Wednesday

I have such a rash from the ampicillin, I look awful; they are little blisters. I slept most of the day; John worked on this and that.

November 24, Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving.

We talked to Steve and Brenda on the cell phone – still trying to fix the SSB. Talked to Peggy and Michael, they are driving to Mesa to have Thanksgiving with my Mom and Dad and then back home.
Samie went swimming and to a big Thanksgiving dinner with Tameron on True Blue.

November 25, Friday

I’m feeling much better, just really weak. John put 55 or 60 gallons of fuel in the tanks.
We cooked ham, potatoes and yams for our Thanksgiving dinner tonight.

November 26, Saturday

Making water. I’m feeling better still. We went snorkeling and out for pizza.

November 27, Sunday

John made a 20-meter dipole for the SSB and we did make good contact with Steve in Lakeside, but it will only work while we are in port or anchored. He thinks there is a tuner problem.
Did laundry. Steve and Sherry had us over for fresh Dorado.

November 28, Monday

John put in the second reef in the main sail and one reef in the mizzen.

November 29, Monday

Did the food shopping – Steve and Sherry, Valiant Lady, moved from the marina to the anchorage, next to us. They came over to the boat for burgers.
I called Peggy, she got the post card today (5 days) and she says all her friends are lying to her – so she’s ready to come for the summer and stay a year. Yeah! – But I’ll bet she doesn’t.

November 30, Wednesday

We checked out in all the proper little offices. When we got back to our boat -the generator will not start; it keeps blowing fuses. So we ran the gas generator a couple hours to chill down the fridge. We pulled anchors at 3:30pm and were underway at 4pm. We had a peaceful night with 10-15 knots out of the NE.

December ‘94

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

December 1, Thursday

I can’t believe it’s already December! It was 74° this morning at 8 am – we are 100 miles east of Cabo with 134 to go to Isla Isabella. Beautiful day for sailing – 12 to 15 knots out of the north all day. At one point, John said it was 19,000 feet deep. Whooo!
Another peaceful night. Passed a few other sail boats, but not closer than 5 miles – not too bad.

*It’s so funny to me how you can ride in a car going 65+ miles per hour on the freeway, literally inches from cars on either side of you - but then you step on a boat and anything within even a few miles of you is something to keep your eye on. A lot of it is the unknown below in more shallow areas, but also because boats do not maneuver like a car in any way. You can’t exactly just “hit the breaks” or make sharp turns. There are features now, like thrusters, which greatly help a boat’s maneuverability, but in general, boats need wide berths and room for slowing/stopping. When I think about multiple sailors being alerted to something on the horizon, the image is like gophers popping up out of their holes to scope out their surroundings.

December 2, Friday

We were anchored at Isla Isabella at 10:30 am. At 8:30 am we had caught 3' dorado. 36” and 43” – one got off the hook when we had him beside the boat. One broke a hole in the net after he was on board – so we had a “run away” fish flopping around for a while.
We had Valiant Lady and Helena Christina over for dinner.
Eric from Helena Christina jiggled and wiggled a few wires on the generator and wow! It works again. We made water for 2 hours at 20 gallons per hour. I’ll be glad to get the tank full and reset the gauge so we know how much.
Samie went swimming right next to the boat for 45 minutes or so. This water is not as warm as in Cabo. We have about 200 feet of chain anchor.

*Mom’s wording here cracks me up every time I read it: jiggled and wiggled. The classic fix-it-all: “Just jiggle it!”
Also, I have a hard time believing I was swimming alone here as it almost sounds - in fact, I was surprised to read this because I remember always being so scared swimming in water more than 10 ft deep. Our average anchoring depth was 20ft and while the water was clear, with your head above water you can’t exactly see what’s under you. My imagination would absolutely get the best of me, wondering what could be swimming up to me without my knowing! I’m sure Dad was in the water, too - that was the only way I felt even a slight bit safe was if others were with me.

December 3, Saturday

No luck getting Steve P. in Lakeside on the SSB.
John worked on the outboard motor with no luck – he thinks it’s an intermittent electrical problem.
John and Samie went for a swim.
We made 60 gallons of water today in 3 hours – 40 yesterday, with whatever was already in the tank; it should be almost full.
There are 8 boats in this anchorage tonight – 5 of us from the Baja HaHa.

December 4, Sunday

Still no Steve on the SSB. We hiked up and around to the other side of the island. There are thousands of birds. The male frigate has a red pouch under his beak that he puffs out full. We also saw yellow, blue and green-footed booby birds.
A hurricane came through here last September and wiped out the banana trees and up-rooted many, many other trees.
We went back to the side of the island later in the dinghies and snorkeled – beautiful. John even saw a sting ray.
We hear it snowed big-time in Flagstaff – wonder if Lakeside is cold? It's 90° here!
Made 40 gallons of water today.
We saw humpback whales playing and breaking a few miles out, watched for about half an hour – cool.

*Our first booby bird sightings! Such a bizarre creature to come across!
The photo of the three of us where Dad is cut off - 😅 Remember when you couldn’t review the photo to make sure you got “the shot?!”

December 5, Monday

Gee – another work day!
Pulled anchor at 9 am and were underway at 9:30. We caught a 61”, 35 lb dorado, but let him go. Saw more humpback whales off in the distance.
Only 0-5 knots of wind, mostly on our nose. Made 45 gallons of water – tanks are full.
We had our anchor set at 5:45 pm in Matanchen Bay; just to the left, San Blas.
Steve and Sherry came over for dinner.

December 6, Tuesday

The bay is pretty, dolphins were swimming and jumping in here this morning.
We are definitely in the tropics, it was 92° at 9 am. The land and mountains are all covered, jungle-like, with banana and coconut trees and many shades of green.
John, Steve and Sherry went to check-in while Samie and I did school. The Port Captain said come back tomorrow at 9am. So I will go in also, I like seein’ the new towns.
John got the dinghy motor running – let’s see if it holds. Nope!
The sunset tonight was one of those beautiful ones that you think it can’t get better than this – and IT DOES!
The generator sprung a salt water leak, which John fixed, but the spray got the main engine relay wet and until it dried out, we couldn’t start the boat.

*Momma sure did love her sunsets out there. ❤ I can’t blame her, it’s like a free show in your back yard almost every night! I have come to realize how spoiled I was in that way and why I’m less likely to get out to explore these days - it feels like so much “work” and time required to make plans and set dates, to travel to wherever when I grew up already being out there! We did 2-3 hours of school in the morning and then did whatever we wanted, for the most part. Dad and I might go for a hike, or maybe we all went in to town or dinghied around the anchorage to explore and go snorkeling. And if you got bored someplace, you simply hauled anchor and set a course for somewhere out yonder!  

December 7, Wednesday

John rode in with Steve and Samie and I rode in (to town) with Eric and Tammy from Helena Christina – it is a 45-minute ride from here to the town. We all did our check-in and check-out at the same time. Then we walked to a little restaurant called McDonald’s – good – got some pork chops at the market and dinghied back.
True Blue got here today.
John had a guy in town work on our dinghy motor – but no luck – we need parts in P.V.

December 8, Thursday

A group of 11 of us from the boats anchored here in Matanchen Bay hired 2 guides and 2 pangas to take us on the “Jungle Trip”. We went up the fresh-water river – which originally, a path was cut through the swamp-like jungle so that there was a path up to the natural spring that the Spaniards could get water for the return trip to Spain.
Our day began at 6:30 with everyone meeting on the beach – walked to the ‘bus stop’, rode the bus to the pangas, where our 4 hour trip began. The pangas make their way through the winding jungle – so cool – up to a fresh-water crocodile farm where they breed and release in the wild the crocks. The green, over-grown vegetation is like a jungle with birds and iguanas and turtles along the way. We came back down to the natural spring and snorkeled in a pool of sorts. There was a small café where we ate lunch. It was a really neat and pretty spot.
An incredible day!

*Ok, are you wondering right now, “wtf is a panga?” - ok, good, cause I have a fun story to go with the explanation. Pangas are typically fishing boats, around 20’ long with a fiberglass hull. They handle well in choppy waters and were/are simply everywhere in Mexico; definitely a main form of transportation on the water. Now the fun part of the story is that we met the creator of the panga while we were traveling. I’ll be honest that a part of me always wondered if it was one of those tall tales, but I looked up the history of the panga online, and whadd’ya know - Mac Shroyer’s story is one of the first to come up! I love it! Mac owns Marina de La Paz, a place we were at a lot, and one of my favorite places growing up. I am a bit surprised, but happy to remember his face - I instantly remember warmth and kindness. That’s the good stuff. ❤
As for this jungle trip, I wish I remembered more of it! I do vaguely remember some swimming and I feel like there was some nervous laughter about swimming near a crocodile farm; but I think mostly I remember not being able to spot all the iguanas in the mangroves! lol Everyone would excitedly point “it’s right there!” and I was apparently following some other sight-line cause I got nuthin’.

December 9, Friday

December – NO WAY! It’s 90° and I wear a swimming suit all day.
John went in to town and Samie spent the day with Tameron on True Blue and ended up spending the night. I had the whole day to myself – wonderful!
I did the laundry, laid in the sun and other odds and ends.

December 10, Saturday

We went in to town and spent the day doing this and that.

December 11, Sunday

We made contact with Steve P. in Lakeside on the SSB, 20 meters 14.211.0. I did get to talk to Peggy on the phone patch, but it was real bad.
The group of us in Matanchen Bay had a panga come out to the bay and pick us up and drive us all in to town – a Water Taxi. This was 10 pesos per person, round trip. We were all too late for the parade, which we hear was wonderful and very colorful.
We called kids from a phone in town. Peggy was the only one home, she says she wants to spend next school year with us. We’ll see if she still does after the summer – I hope so. She had taken Dan J. (last year’s boyfriend) to MORP the night before- but said it was boring.
Also talked to John R.

December 12, Monday

We had bought some mosquito netting and rigged it to go around the cockpit – so we are pretty much bug-free, great!
We hitched a dinghy ride to the beach and walked to catch a bus in to town. Again, we missed the parade, so we had lunch and hung around a while and headed back to the boat.

December 13, Tuesday

We pulled up the anchor at 5:45 and left Matanchen Bay and went in to the estuary, which is close enough to town that we can row the dinghy to the dock. No more bumming rides and making 45-minute trips. Although I’d rather be out in the bay.
We, along with the gang from True Blue walked along the beach to the Huichol artist’s house where we bought some bead-work for Christmas gifts to send home. The girls necklaces, Mom and Andy a beaded bowl and Jo and Angie beaded eggs. Later we got T-shirts for Faron and Shine.
We called from town and talked to Faron – he will have Chelle and maybe Danielle home tomorrow night at 7:00 so we can talk to them. Also let Samie talk to Sam and Rane.

*The Huichol (wē-ˈchōl) Indians’ bead-work is breath-taking and I remember being awed by the whole as much as the detailing. Especially to be surrounded in a shop of the artwork, with so much color and life, so much time and craftsmanship - it would be hard not to be inspired!
Below are photos from the estuary, which was thick with mangroves, palm trees, birds, and the ever-present mosquitos. We almost always had a row of little birdies along the triatic stay, and there were plenty of pelicans hanging around for scraps off the fishing boats. Finally, the last two photos - a whole new meaning to a two-horse powered “engine.” It was the strangest thing to see them mosey back and forth from either side of the estuary. It made me laugh when I looked up the lighthouse on Google Maps, it shows a “road” cutting through the estuary - I’d be willing to bet it’s the same path these guys always took!
Side note: when I looked up the triatic stay to make sure what it was called, I remembered that not only does the line run from masthead to masthead, but that it’s cleated off at the base of each, as well. It reminded me of this clanging that was forever the background noise of our rocking boat — there was a loose cable inside the mast that would sway with every rock and every roll… all just a mere 3 or 4 feet from my slumbering little self. It’s a wonder how I ever slept! But also, I think after prolonged exposure, we mostly didn’t hear it. I seem to remember there being a joke with Rob from Nanamuk that he didn’t like anchoring too close to us because the clangs carried over the water a little too well at night. lol Anyway, I’ll have to ask which cord it was - could it have been the triatic stay!? The forum Q&A I found with the info on triatic stays says they aren’t necessary, but that if you’re set up with one, you can’t exactly change it - which is true, you have to disassemble the entire mast! 🐞

December 14, Wednesday

John and Ken -from True Blue- took the SSB tuner apart and cleaned the circuit board with rubbing alcohol; it had somehow gotten salt water on it. Now it works! Yes! We are in business again.
We went in to town and dropped off 2 rolls of film – tried to mail the package of gifts home to the States, but we have to wrap it (the box) in paper and string because customs in the U.S. will open it and have to re-wrap it.
Went back in to town at 7:00 pm and called Chelle, but Danielle was not there. Chelle is feeling tired a lot – part of being pregnant. John put up 2 strings of Christmas lights outside and I put up inside. Looks like Christmas – nice.

December 15, Thursday

I cut 6” off of Samie’s hair, it’s just below her shoulders now. It will be cooler and easier to wash.
John spent the morning trying to find parts of the dinghy motor here in town or have them shipped – no luck.
Tameron and Matt stayed here and we watched a movie while they all went in to town for a get-together.

December 16, Friday

John, Steve and Sherry went in to talk to the Huichol guy about sending some of the masks to Mac in Tucson.
We went in to town this evening.

*I believe this photo of Tameron and myself was taken at ‘MacDonald’s’, right by the plaza. We loved this place. I probably always had my favorite - hamburguesa con queso y papas!

December 17, Saturday

Talked to Michael on the SSB, he was at Steve P.’s in Lakeside. He has the 25th of December to the 9th of January off and wants to fly out, hopefully Danielle would come at the same time. Peg would be back in school if they came Jan 1st and probably won’t come – Chelle and Faron can’t come either. Michael was gonna have Jo’s friend in Taylor (Mark D.) with the SSB make a connection – but no luck. Darn, my whole family is there at Jo’s for a family Christmas.
Steve P. did get the job in Phoenix he was tryin’ for, but he hasn’t turned in his notice yet and Brenda got Nancy Martin’s job in the office.
John took Samie in to town to a piñata party – she had a good time – I stayed home. Samie is getting eaten up by the no-see-ems.

*No-see-ems are teeny-tiny little bugs that could even be mistaken for a grain of dirt. I think they were even small enough to get through some mosquito netting. The estuary we were in was an absolute breeding ground for no-see-ems and mosquitos and I was eventually covered from head-to-toe. Mom said I looked like I had the measles and the chicken pox at the same time, and I remember counting the bites on one leg once - I lost count around 70.

December 16, Sunday

John and Steve (Valiant Lady) went sport fishing with Norman and Janet Goldie this morning. They got back at 5:00 pm and had gone about 45 miles out, past Isabella – long way out in a panga! They caught 11 dorado – but no sail or sword fish. The trip was $100 each – Merry Christmas, John. Norm had one of the restaurants fix the dorado and several of us went in for dinner – they breaded it and it was good.
Samie and I had spent a nice day on the boat. Called Mom from town tonight.
True Blue’s dinghy and 2-horse motor was stolen last night.

*I can still taste the perfectly cooked Dorado we had for dinner that night. The light breading over the perfectly flaky, perfectly warm, most delicious mahi-mahi I’ve ever had in my life. I tend to think about that dinner whenever I order mahi today, which is rare and always considered a treat!
So just a little search online for ole’ Captain’ Norm and I am flooded with memories. We spent a lot of time with Norm and Jan the first year, but I remember Dad wanting to keep a bit more distant in our later visits. It seems Norm became quite controversial over the years; even Latitude 38, a popular sailing magazine, published a few articles about the Captain and his disagreements with some of the cruisers. He was very proud of his position and ability to help cruisers navigate the estuary as well as the town, but it sounds like he eventually took that role to heart and was disgruntled by those who didn’t take his advice. I am grateful that we were there for some of his less-overbearing times, as I have all good memories with maybe the random eye-roll added in when Norm would chime in unasked or go on long radio rants - which I’d forgotten about, but wouldn’t you know someone uploaded a clip of one of the rants! Yup, he sounds exactly the same! I heard that voice probably every day on the VHF radio while we were in San Blas. His wife Jan was kind, gentle, beautiful and a wonderful artist. They had all kinds of parrots in their yard, my favorite of which was named Orca, he was a beautiful Macaw. I had feather souvenirs from here for the longest time. In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s still some taped in a scrapbook somewhere…
Despite his controversies, I have good memories about Norm (and Jan) and appreciate the kindness they bestowed us.
I did come across an obituary for Captain Norm. R.I.P.

December 19, Monday

Leo P., Steve’s Dad, got us on the SSB and told us that yesterday, Don B., who we worked with at Navopache Electric, had a heart attack and died yesterday.
We took the boat over to the dinghy dock and ran a water hose and filled the tank – took 50 minutes to fill 200 gallons. Also, put in 40 gallons of diesel, which was $2.00 per gallon.
We anchored out again. John and Samie went in to town tonight. I enjoy the time alone.

December 20, Thursday

John and Samie took a hike to the beach that runs along the open ocean and went clamming, but came back empty-handed. But they enjoyed the walk. I did the laundry – oh what fun! Ha.
We went in to the plaza tonight.

*I think I remember this trip to the beach. At least, I remember Dad teaching me how to spot the clams. You look for these kind of pock-marks in the sand which is actually a trail left behind the clam from the water and sand it shoots out from behind it when it propels itself forward, deeper into the sand for protection.

December 21, Wednesday

Don B’s funeral was this morning in Lakeside.
Jan Goldie cut about 5 inches off my hair, nice.
We spent a couple hours in town.
John sprayed the boat with some heavy-duty bug juice to try and get the no-see-‘ems out – Samie is a spotted mess. He also did some odd fix-its aboard.
True Blue left today for P.V.
Samie got a card from Grandma Jones with $20 for Christmas.

December 22, Thursday

Got a card from Mom.
We hiked over to the light house beach – very nice beach, had it all to ourselves. I wrote all the kid’s names in the sand – John and Samie built a (snow) sand man and we sang Christmas carols.
We took Samie’s third test. (#60)

*I don’t remember this trip to the beach, but this story is absolutely adorable and I love it. ❤

December 23, Friday

I washed all the bedding; quite a chore.
Spent some time in town and went in again to call kids – no one home except John R.

*You know when you have to do laundry and you don’t want to do laundry? Imagine hand-washing all your laundry (in this case, all the bedding, at that!) in buckets in the cockpit of a boat! I’m assuming that’s where Mom usually did it - I will have to ask her. But the cockpit has drainage in the floor, so splashing and slop are fine while scrubbing and sorting - then you throw the dirty water overboard and rinse with fresh water. Finally, you take everything on deck to hang on the lifelines to dry. So many kudos to Mom for all that hand-washing! I can imagine what a treat it was when we did get to go to an actual laundromat! 🐞

December 24, Saturday

Talked to Steve and Brenda on SSB – made phone patches to Chelle and my Mom and Dad. They really seemed to like that and said in March maybe they could get their license.
Steve P. turned his notice in at NEC, has this week vacation, works 2 days and is out!
We went back to the dinghy dock to fill up with water again.
John brought me and Samie some flowers for Feliz Navidad.
We went to dinner at Tony’s with Norman, Jan and several other yachties. I think that is the best food we have had in a very long time – excellent!
I talked to Peg, she spent most of this last week at Cammie’s and Angie’s. Michael was not there and he hasn’t decided if he’s coming out. I miss all the kids, this is our first Christmas apart.
Talked to Andy and Janet. Mom wasn’t there yet, but she did get the package we sent and Chelle and Faron took all the gifts up to Lakeside. So everyone WILL have their gifts for Christmas.

December 25, Sunday

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad

We had our gifts early and at 8:30, two little girls whom Samie has made friends with came over. Enedina, 12, and Marlen, 11. We had pancakes and Samie gave them each a hair bow. They played and watched Aladdin on TV. They do not speak English, but they all manage and get along beautifully – super sweet girls.
Did a phone patch to Danielle; she and Jason F. might fly out Jan 11th.
At 2 pm there was a party in town at the local Cantina for the yachties that are here – there were 24 of us. Norman and Janet had picked up chickens from a BBQ place (excellent) and the rest was potluck. It was a wonderful meal and a great day. Samie made out with gifts from a lot of the “boats” she has made friends with – being the only child around, she is getting spoiled. After dinner, we went to the plaza and hung out until 9 pm.
Christmas was very nice in San Blas.

*Oooh, check out the new Tevas! Those shoes really were the best, especially on the boat. I should still have that Huichol necklace somewhere. The girls and I watched Aladdin, like Mom said, but to shake things up, I decided to do my own live-action take on what was happening in the movie, while watching the movie. It made them laugh, so I was all about it - now I can’t help but wonder if they thought I was losing it! Lol 🤷‍♀️
This stands as my favorite Christmas. We were in this beautiful new world, meeting all these lovely, kind, helpful people and making all kinds of amazing friends. Everything was warm and happy and my world was growing so big, yet my developing awareness was still so small. I think the novelty of youth lies in the ignorance of all life’s weighted details.

December 26, Monday

John, Steve and Sherry went to try and get things roll’en with the Indian stuff to send to Mac in Tucson.
John and Samie went in to town to pick up the arts so that we can mail them.

December 27, Tuesday

A relaxing, lazy day. John fixed the waterline that had come off the intake line, which is why the bilge was always full and why the tank was empty so fast.
We went in to town this evening.
Rained most of last night an all morning - feels like fall.

December 28, Wednesday

John left at 8:30 on a bus with Dan from Absolute, [headed] for Tepic to mail the box to Mac.
Leo did a phone patch with Danielle, her plans are to fly out Jan 15-22. But we will call on a land-line tonight to get things figured out.
Talked to Danielle, she will fly PHX to PV on Jan 12, 15 or 17 for a week, not sure yet.
Talked to Michael – he is finally moving out on his own, to the little house of Bob and Nell’s right next door to the one he has been living in with his dad – he said it will be $200 a month rent. He also said Dan, Melissa and Peg are moving to Ruby’s house in Clay Springs and Peg will finish this school year in Snowflake. That’s where Cammie and Brent go – so she should like that ok – she was not there to talk to, so I don’t really know how she feels.

December 29, Thursday

Michelle had a sonagram and IT’S A BOY!

John re-built the motor on the fridge unit. We went in to town this evening.

December 30, Friday

More or less a quiet day; a little of this, but not a lot of that. Jason from Absolute (down the Baja) had taken a bus from P.V. to here (he is now on Trade Winds) and is staying on our boat for a couple of days. Stayed home tonight.

December 31, Saturday

Valiant Lady came in to the estuary this a.m., there are now 7 boats in here. Magic Carpet, who was in San Diego with us at Marina Cortez, also came in Friday. 20 or so “yachties” went to Tony’s restaurant for New Year’s Eve dinner – very nice. Stayed in the plaza until midnight and came home.
🐞

January ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

January 1, 1995 – Sunday

Happy times and wonderful anchorages ahead!
We pulled up to the dinghy dock to take on water again. While John was away from the boat, a panga full of kids dumped a huge spray on us and the inside was almost swimming with water. Norm came down with the police and hopefully nothing like that will happen again.
I can’t remember the last time I was that mad.
We stayed on board tonight.

*If I remember correctly, this photo was taken not long before the boat got doused. It definitely dampened the mood - pun intended. I don’t visually remember how bad it was, but I think they came from the side which would’ve sent water into the cockpit and Mom and Dad’s hatch over their bed. I remember being quite confused and I think a little hurt, not understanding why someone would do that - now, being older and hearing it was a panga full of kids - it makes sense. 🤷‍♀️

January 2, Monday

Talked to Steve in Lakeside via SSB, but was not clear enough to do a phone patch. I’ve got he head cold that’s been going around and I’m totally out of it.

January 3, Tuesday

We had dinner at McDonald’s in town with Steve & Sherry, Norm & Jan, and Tim & Sarah from Nixie.

January 4, Wednesday

Pulled up to the dinghy dock, filled the fuel tanks with 172 liters at N$229 pesos. Fuel and water tanks are full. Jan and Norm came over for dinner and we watched Captain Ron.
We stayed at the dock tonight. The Onan generator quit again.

January 5, Thursday

John made contact with Mac in Tucson and he wants us to ship 2 more of the Huichol masks. We left the estuary – along with Valiant Lady at 11am and went back to Matanchen Bay.
The crew of Absolute – Dan, Garth and Joanne came over for dinner. We went in to land and called Danielle and Peggy – they are both flying out the 16th for a week. The tickets are only $181 each.
This a.m. I had talked to Steve in Lakeside for quite a while – at that time, they had 14” of snow. When I talked to Peg at 7:00pm, it was still snowing. Lakeside had 2 feet and Show Low 16 inches.

January 6, Friday

Samie went in to town with the crew of Absolute to a performance at a school. I stayed here with John to work on the generator. We can’t fix the generator until we get a solenoid shipped down to P.V.

 *I remember this performance; I remember watching the beautiful dress patterns and colors swirling and turning, so beautiful and bright. I remember it being outside the school, and I remember it being quite like this.

*I’m nearly certain this was taken after the dances - I remember being silly with Garth and Joanne when we took this photo of me posing as Cousin It from Adams Family. 🙃

January 7, Saturday

John and Steve “jerry-jugged” water and filled the tanks.
We all dinghied in to town (except Sherry, she’s not feeling well), did some last-minute stuff, said our goodbyes to Jan and Norm.
I called Mom and Dad – Michael has been staying there since Wednesday night and he’s headed back up the mountain tomorrow. Mom has got Peg’s airplane ticket, so we’re all set!

January 8, Sunday

Happy Birthday #19, Danielle!

When we got here to San Blas on December 5th, we only planned to stay about 3 or 4 days – now, 5 weeks later, we are under sail again – feels great. We weighed anchor at 11 am, along with Valiant Lady and Absolute. What a beautiful day – only 3 to 4 knots of wind – so we motor-sailed down to Chacala, which is 2-3 miles south of San Blas. It was 5 hours from weighing anchor to setting anchor – we were all set at 4pm. This is a beautiful, “picture perfect” anchorage. We had caught a 35” yellow tail tuna and a good size Bonita on the way, so Absolute and Valiant Lady came over for dinner.

January 9, Monday

What a way to start the “work week”! A beautiful anchorage all around. John scrubbed the barnacles from the bottom of the boat, which took about an hour. Samie swam beside the boat for ½ an hour or so. We went ashore and checked out the beach and little village. After playing in the surf we had dinner, along with Valiant Lady’s Steve and Sherry and Absolute’s Dan, Garth and Joanna. At the palapa where we were eating there was a guy traveling from Minnesota who had been to Snowflake, Arizona – small world.
Chacala sure was a pretty anchorage.

January 10, Tuesday

We weighed anchor at 8:00 am – headed for Punta de Mita. We had a beautiful motor sail, taking about 8 hours. On the way we saw 3 different sets of humpback whales a short distance off. We rounded the point with plenty of time to make La Cruz anchorage, where we had the hook all set by 4:30 pm. Valiant Lady and Absolute stopped and anchored at Jalotembra to go snorkeling – but it was not good so they headed on down here. Valiant Lady stopping at Punta de Mita and Absolute here in La Cruz.
🐞

January 11, Wednesday

This is a crowded spot – with 32 boats. John left at 9:00 am to take a bus into P.V.
Samie and I did 2 lessons in school. John got back at 3:30 – no part for the generator at DHL yet. He found a slip at the Marina Vallarta – so we are going in tomorrow. We had yellow tail tuna on Valiant Lady.

January 12, Thursday

We left La Cruz at 8 am and were in the slip at Marina Vallarta at noon. Garth and Joanne helped us get in and I did laundry, what a treat!

January 13, Friday

I called Mom last night, the girl’s flight changed to the 15th at 1:20 pm. It was a major wash down on the boat. John did the check-in bit. He also took Samie swimming. Nice place.

*I have been trying to track down a specific pool where I always remember Dad taking me; the sides and bottom were scenic with beautiful, tiny royal blue tiles and mosaics throughout. I remember some sort of pass-through you could take underwater and I remember mosaics of turtles and maybe a dolphin or mermaid. I loved swimming there, and have always wanted to design my future bathroom with those tiles and recreate that magical feeling I always loved in that pool.

January 14, Saturday

We hit the store for fresh supplies – nice shopping area. We bought a new 10hp Mariner for n$753.00 or $1,436.00.

 *This dinghy motor was the BEST! It got us up to some great, fun speeds and really helped us get around over the years. I loved tooling around in the dinghy, especially once we got the Mariner. For me this was like getting to go joy-ride in the car at a young age.

January 15, Sunday

Did some this and that’s around this morning – picked the girls up at the airport at 1:20 pm. It was a 2.5 hour flight – so good to have them here!! Today they just looked around the marina and stayed on the boat.

January 16, Monday

We all headed into town – old- town – took the bus – did some shopping and lots of looking. Peggy and Danielle had their whole head of hair braided in the corn-rows and Samie had the top front done. They did this on a bench on the boardwalk on the beach (about 2 hours). Looks great. Garth and Joanne came by the boat tonight.

January 17, Tuesday

Stayed aboard (kids went swimming) until 5:00 pm and then went into town with Garth and Joanne – Steve and Sherry met us later. Samie had a babysitter, Amy from Princess Erika – what a treat for me – we hit several bars along the boardwalk, had dinner and danced a few. Fun time. Got home at 1:00 am.

January 18, Wednesday

Got the boat ready and left the marina at 2:00 pm for a sail. We sailed out to Punta de Mita, 10 knots most of the way, but picked up to 22 knots. We anchored just before sunset.

January 19, Thursday

We sailed mid-morning over to Los Tres Marietas Islands, anchored and took the dinghy to a small beach and surf. We sailed back to La Cruz and anchored here tonight. Peggy was quite sick all day.

January 20, Friday

Happy B-day Janell.

We weighed anchor and set sail heading for Los Arcos. Half way, middle of the bay, John hooked a sail fish. I stopped the motor and brought in the jib and kept the boat headed in the right direction, while John untangled the line. It took 30 to 40 minutes to bring him up to the boat. We drowned him with rum and hooked him with the halyard to haul him on board. Bringing on a sail fish is not an easy task- but we did it! We came back into the slip- he measured 8’5” about 90 to 100lbs. A restaurant filleted him and BBQ’d him for us and Valiant Lady and Nixie at 15 pesos a plate, which included rice. Very good fish!
Absolute left today for Chamela.

January 21, Saturday

We all went to the beach so Danielle could parasail- but no wind- so we went to the shopping center and John and Danielle went back to the beach and she got to parasail- she loved it! We had dinner and took the bus into old town to get all this film developed. We all got some great photos and wonderful memories.

*This was quite the day out, and it sounds like we didn’t plan to be out that long, which finally explains to me some of the grumpier faces in the group photos, lol! There’s one I took of everyone where I specifically remember taking far too long to take the photo - always the perfectionist!
After seeing Danielle’s aerial photo of the marina entrance, of course I HAD to look up a current satellite photo to see the differences now. Her perspective would have been from roughly where “Google” is in the satellite photo. You can see there is an entire hotel and pool now where that empty lot was.

January 22, Sunday

We all just puttered around the boat, had breakfast at one of the boardwalk cafés. The girls had to catch the plane at 2:20 pm. BUMMER. I called Mom at 8:00, they (Peg and Danielle) had left her house at 7 pm for Show Low.

January 23, Monday

Back to school. Cleaning and getting back in to our routine. Had pizza out with Steve and Sherry.

January 24, Tuesday

Arnie and Janice on Renegade came in last night – we haven’t seen them since San Diego, so we spent the afternoon and evening with them. We were gonna leave today – but there was 10 to 20 knots of wind in the harbor and reports of 35 with gusts of 50 and 60 in the bay – so we stayed put.

January 25, Wednesday

Took it easy getting ready to pull out – left the break water at 12:30 pm. The boat Princess Erika is traveling with us.
I talked to Goon this a.m. - she has been staying at Angie’s since she got back ‘cause Dan and Melissa were in St. George. She will register in Snowflake today.
We left the marina and harbor for about an hour with no wind, then it kicked in at 15 to 20 knots. We dropped the mizzen to round the point – where 2 currents meet, it can get hairy at times. We rolled from side to side in the currents. Then, just as we made it around and the sun was set and darkness was creeping in – low and behold, the wind does its usual and blows 25 to 30 knots – all night – out of the North. We were doing 9.6 knots – a record. In our efforts to lower the main (it was already reefed) and haul in the jib, we do our usual 360°! Although, this time it was only part of trying to bring the nose into the wind -which I never could fully do. Those were some STRONG winds and high swells – which lasted all night. Neither of us got any real sleep, only little cat-naps and Samie even slept in the cockpit. This was the first time we had stuff flying through the air. The radar reflector was even blown from the spreader. It was dangling from its small line along the side of the boat in the water. John made a daring rescue.

*I labeled the mizzen, main and jib for those who aren’t aware. The Wandrin’ Star is a ketch, which means she has two masts, which are what we raise our sails with. The sails are bundled and secured on the boom while not being used. The jib is at the very front of the ship, and we sometimes call it the roller-furling, because the sail is wound around itself and rolled ‘open’ and ‘closed’. The jib was my favorite, probably because it was the prettiest. Also, it was the easiest to put up and take down and one of our most used.

January 26, Thursday

It was still dark when we reached the mouth of Chamela. The 20-hour trip only took 15, we were scooting along at 6+ knots most of the way. Surfing down the waves. So, we by-passed it and sailed on 15 miles to Careyes, which, on the cover of the charts looks beautiful. NOT. What a disappointment. Oh well – on to Tenacatita, another 15 miles. Since the sun came out, we have had basically no wind and much calmer seas. Right out of Careyes we hooked a BIG something. I slowed the boat and tried to reel it in – but it was still taking the line out. Turned this one over to John. After 15 minutes, he gets it in close enough to see – WOW – a mako shark. He doesn’t want to lose his $25 lure, so he brings him in close enough, holds the line under the lure, I cut the line and saved the lure – John ties him to the rail, wishing we knew how to kill him (good eat’en). John says he weighed more than the sailfish; probably 5 feet long. I got some good pictures over the rail. John was trying to hold him out of the water to kill him and he broke away. Oh well – he was beautiful – but all those teeth, awesome! I liked that better than the sailfish!
We made it to Tenacatita and were anchored next to Absolute at 2pm or so.
What a long day – not the best sail we’ve had.
We were all crashed by 8:30pm.
🐞

January 27, Friday

Back to normal – finally in an anchorage and not a marina. It’s beautiful here and hot. The water is clear. John got a Bob Ski in P.V. from someone, he patched a small hole and is pulling Samie behind the dink. She loved it – looks pretty fun. We also pulled Garth on his surf board. Cool. Joanne and I took turns with Samie on the Bob Ski. Later, we all went over to the beach and had Garth’s B-day (24) cake with several yachties. Today was – other than school and cleaning the bottom of the boat – was a fun water day – the water is clean and clear; warm and nice swimming.

January 28, Saturday

Samie and I did 1.5 lessons in school, which is too much for one day. Around 1pm we, in our dink, along with Princess Erika in their dink, went up the river to the other beach. Had some drinks under a palapa. Nice day. Samie swam by the boat for a while.

January 29, Sunday

The generator died again – it was the resistor again, which is what happened in October while Samie and I were in Az. John and Dan from Absolute wrapped the broken spot with some copper and it works again.
Cooled down the fridge and filled the water tank.
Joanne and Garth came over again. Oh – we went in to the little town across the bay – this 10HP dink motor sure is nice.

January 30, Monday

John and Daryl, Amy and Kara from Princess Erika tried snorkeling around the rocks, but it was too surgey and murky. Samie spent the afternoon in the water with Kara and later they watched Free Willy over here. The generator died again – same thing.

January 31, Tuesday

Absolute left today- we may not see them again; they are headed for Florida.
John got the generator running again – for half an hour.

February ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

February 1, Wednesday

Another day of working on the generator, had it running 2 hours – long enough to chill the fridge and fill the water tanks, which only took 1 hour @ 18 gallons per hour, which is not bad since it was full last on Sunday morning. 18 to 20 gallons in 3 days is good. He also charged the batteries ½ hour. AND THEN – it quit again. BUT now he figures it’s the points that are closing up and over-heating the relays. But that will have to wait till night time when it cools off some in there; it must be 110° in the engine room.
Leo passed a short message on the ham – that they will meet us at 1 pm Sunday on 14.211.0 – Good, I’ve missed our home base contact.

February 2, Thursday

John put in the new points and put the generator all back together and so far, so good. It ran an hour in the morning and a half hour in the p.m. – whoops – this is starting to get comical in an awful way! Now the muffler came off and water is spraying all over the engine room. Shut it down, mop it up and start over!

February 3, Friday

John had all the parts but one to fix the muffler and he picked that one up in the little village – so by noon, it’s back in action. We ran the fridge for an hour – but when he turned the water maker on – it blew the resistor again. The water maker motor had gotten all wet in yesterday’s muffler mishap. So we are gonna head back to P.V. and get this all fixed.

*This is definitely the year I retained 90% of my expletive vocabulary; streaming from the engine room during weeks like this. 🙃
I think this is also a great time to go into some more detail about how the water maker works while also introducing you to the crew of SV Delos!

February 4, Saturday

We weighed anchor and were underway at 10:00 am with 10 knots out of the south – on our tail – the first half and then it picked up to 20 knots out of the south. We anchored at Chamela at 4:00pm – but there is a lot of swell and roll’en.

February 5, Sunday

We pulled anchor at Chamela at 4:00am and were underway, headed for P.V. We had 10 knots most of the way. We saw a manta ray swim by the boat. At the point we picked up 15 to 20 knots out of the north all day. Just around the point we caught a good size dorado. We made it in to the marina at 10pm – into the same slip (I-1) as before. It took 18 hours to come north – only 15 to go south to Chamela, but we had all that wind and current pushing all the way down.

February 6, Monday

Happy B-day, Mom!

John filled our water tank and it took 120 liters. It was last full on Wednesday, so when we conserve, we only used 31 gallons of water in 5 days – NOT BAD. We washed down the boat and all the sails. We had Arne and Janice of Renegade over for the dorado – yum!

February 7, Tuesday

Samie was up bright and early to watch CARTOONS! She will be a T.V. addict before we leave.
I am enjoying the HBO to catch up on movies – if I ever have time!
John went to check-in again.

 *I remember these mornings! Marina Vallarta was always a treat because we had power, water and TV hookups. How does it get better? I’ll tell you: most channels were also in English! Extra bonus when you can understand what’s being said; although it is also quite entertaining to watch Full House in Spanish - especially the voice dubs when you know what their real voices sound like.

February 8, Wednesday

Samie stayed with Janice on Renegade this a.m. while John and I went to listen to a time-share presentation. Got my hair all cut off – short! It feels great.
For going to the presentation, we get a free Jeep tomorrow.

 *Mom said when Dad came to meet her after her haircut that he didn’t even recognize her!

February 9, Tuesday

We picked up the jeep and along with Arne and Janice, we went to Mismaloy and El Eden – neat place. We had lunch by a waterfall and rock slide. Nice and cool up in the mountain a-ways. Stopped to swim at the beach on the way home.

Happy B-day Regan.

February 10, Friday

A little of this and that today – nothing special.

February 11, Saturday

John rebuilt the head pump today – works great and doesn’t spray ya. We went to town with Arne and Janice and had dinner – good. Amy stayed with Samie.

February 12, Sunday

Nice, quiet day.

February 13, Monday

We went sailing on Renegade – well, actually, we went out to catch fish – no luck – but a very nice day.
Had dinner with Steve and Sherry. I called Shine, he is thinking of going to Tennessee in June to a tech school. He sounded good and happy.

February 14, Tuesday

Happy Valentine’s Day!

John added 59 gallons of fuel to top off the tanks. He figures just over 1 gallon an hour is what we burn.
Goon called, she’s do’en great. Mom called, she was trying to fax a letter to the phone #, funny – but we got it straight.

February 15, Wednesday

John equalized the batteries today.

February 16, Thursday

Generator part came in, so John put in the new resistor. Seems to be A-OK. But we can only run 1 thing at a time – we were over-loading the gen-set before, that’s what the problem was. Sent a fax to Navopache.

February 17, Friday

Happy Birthday, Samantha! Big #8!

She got a boogie board, movie (Snow White), a camera that Garth and Joanne gave her in Tenacatita before they headed south on Absölute – among other small things. Kara from Princess Erika gave her her killer whale shirt, which she loves!  We took her, along with Kara, Arne and Janice to the water slide park which was a lot of fun, even for the adults. Came back for cake and Arne and Janice stayed for spaghetti.

*My first birthday on the boat, and one for the books! I remember being SO excited about my beautiful new boogie board, Mom and Dad snuck behind me while my back was turned the other way. I turned around and bumped into it and went bonkers about it. I still remember the feel and texture of it. I was equally excited about the Orca (killer whale) shirt, funnily enough. You see, Free Willy had come out just before we came sailing, and I was obsessed. I still remember the credits rolling in the theater, while Michael Jackson’s ‘Will You Be There’ video struck my little 6-year-old little heart with awe and it became my absolute mission to see an orca while we were at sea. While I never did have that moment while on The Star, any and all of our cruising friends who did were sure to send me photos and notes of encouragement that I’d see them one day! I still have faith. ANYWAY, the day we met Princess Erika in Chamela, Kara was wearing this orca shirt, and I loved it so much I just stared at it/her. Kids are so awkward, lol. I was so happy when she gifted it to me and I’m sure I wore it thin before finally relinquishing it.
The water slide park was the best! I remember we could see the big, tall slides on our way in and out of the marina and I, of course, always wanted to go. So it was THE BEST surprise when we all went. There was one huge tall one that we loved and a lazy river you could float in. I loved it so much.
Wow, I almost didn’t remember this camera gift! I thought my first camera was a yellow one that I got for Christmas later that year. I found this one in a photo, it was red. That’s super sweet of them, and I like that my first of many cameras and the start of one of my favorite talents would be a gift from cruising friends. Garth and Joanne were a young Australian couple crewing aboard Absölute. We kept in touch with Joanna, who wrote to us from Australia later on. Her and Garth separated ways at some point, but I’m not sure we ever heard from him again. They’ll always have a place in my heart! 

February 18, Saturday

Basically a this and that day.
Goon called – Danielle was going up and her, Goon and Shine were all going out.

February 19, Sunday

Got ready to leave the slip.

February 20, Monday

We had a guy come and adjust the valves on the main engine.
Made contact with Steve and Brenda on the ham 14.211.
We left slip #I-1 of Marina Vallarta at 12:00 noon headed for La Cruz. We had moderate winds at 5-6 knots out of the west; with the motor also humming, we made it and had the anchor set at 1:30pm. Feels good to have the rocking motion under our feet again. The time changed back to “American Time” as Samie put it. We are the same time as Arizona again.
When I talked to Mom on Saturday, she said Grandpa Jones isn’t doing so good. His lungs keep filling with fluid and he can’t make his feet move where he wants them to move. She was gonna go and read him my last letter about the shark and the latest adventures.
Nice and quiet out in the “country” – not “city life” to keep us awake.

February 21, Tuesday

Water tank took 1 hour to fill, water maker running at 18-20 gallons per day on average.
Samie and John went to the beach for a while.
John scraped the boat bottom. Got a fax from Mom.

*We were able to receive faxes from a restaurant in town, which you are about to get more info on soon! 

February 23, Thursday

John polished the port side of the boat – I polished all the wood inside.

February 24, Friday

We all took the bus in to P.V. to do the check-out thing.
Riding the bus here can be quite an experience. We had ‘sales persons’ come on board standing in the aisle, rattling on in rapid Spanish about whatever they are selling. The children and even adults are selling Chiclets gum. One night a couple came on – the guy playing the guitar and both of them singing – it was neat!
The sights are interesting also. The little villages we pass through, stopping every few minutes to pick up or let off passengers. The beautiful, green jungle-like hills, flowers on the vines that weave their way around whatever may be in their path. The ocean peeking through in the background always brings a peaceful and warm feeling.
Mexico is a beautiful place with friendly people and smiling faces. An easier way of life – I think a better way of life. Yes, I’m comfortable on our sailboat, our little mini-city with all the necessities of a comfortable, happy life. It really is amazing to think that you really don’t NEED all the THINGS that you left behind. Sometimes there is something I wish I could do, but it passes when I see the sun setting in its many shades of pink and I know that tomorrow as the sun rises that our “8 to 5” will always be to have an adventure, an experience with nature.
I guess the hardest part is not being able to fully share it with those you love that are not with us – for pictures and words can never capture the true depth of feelings; the natural beauty of the sweet and simple life.

 *I cannot describe how much I love reading my mom’s descriptions and notes like this about the details of the places we are seeing. I love everything about this entry and what she encapsulated about this magical place we were witness to. The juxtaposition of timing, technology and tourism were a particularly fun alignment which allowed us plenty comfort while traveling, but also the ability to still witness some of these beautiful areas before they were overrun by condominiums and hotels, marinas and the like. And of what was being built at the time, cruisers often lucked out and were allowed use of the marina and facilities for cheap, if not for free once or twice, if I’m remembering correctly. I specifically remember these bus rides. They were quite long, but as Mom explains, never dull and full of all kinds of friendly characters. Where in America these days, it seems so many people are avoiding eye contact, the world I grew up in was full of it! There were always waves hello to passing strangers, offering seats or to help carry something. You may not have conversations, but they often weren’t even needed. Genuine kindness is a universal language.🐞

February 24, Friday

I do school and John is in charge of recess. He took Samie to the beach and in to the La Cruz Cruise Crew’s Quarters to play with a friend while I laid in the sun and read – so lazy!

*YAY! This marks the first official mention of the OG Crew’s Quarters, of which the title this little adventure page is a tribute to! La Cruz Cruise Crew’s Quarters was a two-story bar and restaurant that was located right off the beach, a couple buidlings down from Dos Felipe’s, which will also be mentioned. The restaurant was ran by Blair and Rosa, whom had a daughter my age, Jena. We immediately became friends and are still relatively in touch via social media. Their house was attached to the restaurant, in a separate area off to the left. In thinking of how to describe the place, I remember this funny set-up almost like a small aquarium into the wall with a fake scuba diver inside and bubbles coming from him “breathing”. It was kind of below the tv which they had mounted in the left corner in the bar, which is where Mom and I would catch up on all the latest movies. I remember watching Empire Records there - possibly even in this year, as it was released in 95. Downstairs was a bar and lounge, and I always remember rejoicing in the cooler temperatures inside, in the shade and probably the magic of AC. Upstairs was the kitchen and restaurant with an open patio-like view open to the street. There were palm trees and I think a small building across the way, but you could see the ocean peaking through, being just a few hundred feet away. Here is where the infamous “Cruiser’s Wall” was - at least I think that’s what they called it.🤔Every season, cruisers would sharpie their little hearts out on this wall, making a lovely collective mural of seafaring families, single-handers, young and old couples alike. All of us drawn together at some time or other via the deep blue sea and a thirst for the unknown. You’d see friend’s names and sometimes recognize names who’d heard on the radio or heard about from other cruisers. Also every season, they’d take photos of the mural and print it onto an annual t-shirt for that cruising season. I remember the staff being small and friendly. They had a pool on the house side which with a window in it where you could see whoever was swimming, and vice versa. Sometimes we would run errands to the store and get food/items for the restaurant. I can still feel the cobble stone streets under my feet.
Crew’s Quarters truly became a home for us, full of new friends and fellow cruisers. There was a sense of consistency here, which is really grounding and necessary sometimes, even amongst nomads. Mom gained a lifelong friend in Rosa and I in Jena. Oh my goodness, the shenanigans we got into, I love it. Sometimes we’d come to shore before she was home from school, so I’d wait impatiently for her return. I remember trying to read her homework and see what I could make sense of (since it was in Spanish). They also had ginormous satellite TV, which was a total jackpot for me - our little TV screen on the boat being a mere 13” and only having whatever movies we owned for entertainment (but still, all those things were still considered luxuries on a boat at this time). Jena’s Dad, Blair, could be very serious, but also very fun and I loved his and Jena’s relationship, especially when they were silly. He lovingly called me Boat Brat, and once even signed a borrowed cake pan with “Hi, Boat Brat” and a smiley face in permanent marker, a pan which I’m pretty sure Mom or I still have, just for that note! There was always so much love there. Thusly, Crew’s Quarters was “our place,” which made La Cruz feel like our home. We always looked forward to reuniting with our friends and shared birthdays and even weddings together. The Crew’s Quarters Crew will forever be treasured. ❤🐞

February 25, Saturday

John polished the floor today – looks great! Last time he did this, it was with wax and we were slipp’en and slid’en for a week.
Renegade got in to La Cruz today. Stewart and Tracy on Endless Summer, whom we met in San Diego at Marina Cortez and Meika, John and Kelly, also from Marina Cortez are all here in La Cruz.
There is some sort of celebration going on this week – it’s 12 midnight and the band over on the beach is still at it and very loud.

February 26, Sunday

After doing laundry it took 3 hours to refill the water tank. We rode the bus in to P.V. airport – this time we had to all get off the bus, stand on the side of the road and wait while he refueled the bus. We reloaded and were off again. Picked up John and Maryann at 1:30 pm and took a taxi back to La Cruz. We, along with Meika and Renegade ate dinner ashore – yum!
I talked to Peg.

February 27, Monday

We left La Cruz at 9 am and anchored at Tres Marietas for a couple of hours. Spent some time on the beach and anchored at Punta de Mita for the night. We had 25 knots out of the north from the island to the point.

February 28, Tuesday

We weighed anchor at 7:30 am and headed for Chacala, with 10 to 20 knots all day. We had some good-sized swell and wind waves all the way. No fish, but just outside the anchorage, we saw several humpback whales – real close. At one point, they surfaced on the starboard bow and then went under and resurfaced on the port stern. Wow – that’s the closest we have come – hope the pictures come out good.
We were anchored at 4:00 pm. We ate at the El Amigo – this time I ordered shrimp – NO HEADS.

*Starboard = Right
Port = Left
Bow = The front of the ship
Stern/Aft = The rear of the boat
🐞

March ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

March 1, Wednesday

We all headed in to town, had a little lunch at a palapa on the beach – John and Arne did some body surfing and on the boogie board.
Once we were back on the boat, the owner of the restaurant, Las Brisas – Piedra – swam out to the boat to say hello – she likes practicing her English. Maryann told her tomorrow is my birthday, so Piedra is gonna make a cake for me.
We stayed on board tonight.

*I love this! I remember the cake being made, but I forgot that the owner swam out to meet us. It makes me so happy to think about - the total kindness and openness of strangers who were just so happy to welcome newcomers and passers by. I understand how lucky we were that this was the norm for us during our adventures. I am grateful that this is the human behavior I learned about first. ❤ 

March 2, Thursday

Happy Birthday to me #40!

Nice relaxing day. Samie and Maryann swam off the side of the boat again.
We all went in to eat – sunset was beautiful. Lobster was great and the cake was fantastic, we shared with everyone there. Wonderful people.
What a way to spend a 40th birthday – great friends, new and old, beautiful sunset on the ocean.

*My sweet Momma was only 4 years older than I am now, and that’s just so wild to me! I love seeing all this from her perspective, and while I have read these journals before - it’s a whole new bag this time around, due to life context, time and age. I can appreciate it all from a whole new perspective.

March 3, Friday

6:45 am – anchor up and underway. Still NO fish today. We had a beautiful sail back to P.V., 10 knots out of the SW down to the point, around that and we have 15 to 20 out of the west. We saw a small humpback breaching for about 10 minutes – cool!
We went in to the P.V. Marina at 4pm, slip A-12 this time, much better.
Peg called.

March 4, Saturday

We cleaned the boat and John and Maryann paid to fuel it up – they also paid for the slip. We all took a taxi in to old town, walked around some, and had lunch. I bought a shorts outfit with the $20 Mom sent me.
We went for pizza tonight and I got a cute summer dress for my birthday. The peso is $5.75 exchange today.

March 5, Sunday

Very lazy morning, we all went out for breakfast.
Samie had the “trots”, so we didn’t go to the airport to see them off. They flew out at 2:20 pm. I talked to Dan, and Peg called. Also talked to Marion G. and Danielle and Chelle – she said the baby is kicke'n like crazy – neat!

March 6, Monday

We left the marina at 9:30 am and were anchored in La Cruz at noon.
Gosh it’s hot at 98° - that’s about the hottest I can remember it getting.

-Cardon J. Born!

March 7, Tuesday

John shined the windless – wow – pretty. It’s really rock’en and roll’en today.
Kimberly from Nordic Beauty came over for several hours and then Samie went over there. They are leaving tomorrow – but we’ll see them in the sea.

March 8, Wednesday

John rode the bus in to P.V. to have the cellphone reconnected – you have to pay in advance. He called the Norwest to see if this year’s (95-96) credit card had been mailed. Not yet and in the conversation found out the account # had been changed. After an hour on the phone between the bank and Homestead it’s all fixed.

March 9, Thursday

John took the bus back to P.V. to mail federal express to Homestead.
The wind picks up about 11 am every day and blows between 20 or 30 knots – really rocks the boat around, then dies down around 3:30 pm.
I’ve read 3 books in the last 2.5 weeks – if anyone cares?! 

*Lol her book statement here makes me laugh! I do miss all the time we had for reading! When I read for long periods of time these days, I feel like maybe I’m somehow being lazy? But on the boat, it was a necessary time-filler!

March 10, Friday

John put another coat of varnish in the cockpit.
Samie played with Jena at Cruise Quarters.
True Blue came in to P.V. anchorage – so mañana we will go in. We ate BBQ ribs at Dos Felipe’s tonight. Yum!

March 11, Saturday

Happy B-day Cammie!

We took a taxi van, along with several others, in to Marina Vallarta and saw the True Blue gang for a while. Also saw Bud and Gloria on Unity, they are leaving for the South Pacific – bummer!
Garth from Absölute called from P.V. on Pacific Vision to say he was making his way back to the states via bus, and then on to Australia. Said Joann had flown from Acapulco back to Australia and Elizabeth had made it back aboard Absölute.
Tried to use the phone it doesn’t work again.

March 12, Sunday

Samie spent most of the day ashore with Jenna. John painted all the floor cubby holes white. Between Samie and I, we mailed 14 letters and post cards.

March 13, Monday

John took the bus in to have the phone connected again. Samie did test #100 – she only missed 1 math problem. Great!
The last 3 days, every time the water maker runs and gets full, the fresh water foot pump leaks and runs all over the floor – that’s tomorrow’s fix.
Goon called, she got the pictures that Maryann mailed for us. Talked to Renegade on 6 alpha – Arne’s B-day, they are in Z-huat.

March 14, Tuesday

John is painting the brown on the cap-rail. At noon, I noticed we were dragging anchor, the wind was blowing its usual 15 to 20 knots, but we had never drug before. We reset and reset – it took 7 times and a new spot and all the chain anchor before it finally set.
So from noon till 3:00 we had “anchoring 101”. Now – we’re tired!!
We went in to Cruise Quarters for dinner with Tropic Tramp and Avenger II. We picked up mail from Mom, Ang, Jo and Goon all came at the same time.
Rane called, she had Cardon on the 6th ; he weighed 8lb 1oz. Cardon was Sam’s dad’s middle name.

March 15, Wednesday

John tried to fix the fresh water foot pump, but it was the wrong kit – so he traded with the salt water pump – fresh water works – but no salt water, that’s ok.
The swell that comes in to La Cruz lately is a big one, which might be why so many boats are dragging anchor. It’s bring’en a big surf in to the beach, which makes landing and take offs a bit tricky.

*Our kitchen sink had foot pumps we could use instead of nozzles for drawing water into the sink. I would actually love one in my house now, because it’s so much better for water conservation! There was one you could use to draw fresh salt water straight up through the keel, but we never used it, which resulted in a rotten egg smell coming from the faucet if you ever accidentally hit the left foot pump instead of the right! lol I remember we’d curse ourselves once we realized our mistake, or tease each other when that smell would waft to our noses: “Wrong pump!!”

March 16, Thursday

John and Samie went to the airport to pick up Bob and Jan – I stayed on the boat to make sure it didn’t drag – all is well. They dinghied out and got soaked, it was still blow’en and real choppy. We went ashore and ate at Dos Felipes. It was a rolly night, they both puked once.
I called Shine for a few seconds, he was busy.
Bud and Gloria on Unity got as far as the point on their way to the South Pacific and the motor just stopped with a bang. So they came back in to figure it out.

* I’m a bit blown away by how many visitors we had the first year! We enjoyed having friends and family out, but obviously the space is a bit cramped, so especially after the first year, it seems we laid back on the visitors, lol. The majority of the time, company meant the guests stayed in my room and I was booted to the couch for a few days. No biggie for me, really, just the way it was. What makes me laugh here, though, is that the only bathroom was back, basically in my parents bedroom, so I wonder if they felt awkward having to vomit right outside their hosts’ bedroom in the middle of the night, lol. When you gotta, you gotta!
Also, this is totally a boat thing - to be about to embark somewhere epic, only to have some major component of your vessel throw you a curve ball and stop working just as you’re getting out of the harbor. Sometimes it’s a huge fix, sometimes it’s minor, but it all keeps you on your toes! And of course, better to happen before you’re in the middle of nowhere! So, while frustrating, these things are definitely blessings in disguise!

March 17, Friday

Weighed anchor about 8 am and slow-poked in to the marina. We saw 2 meiki whales and a manta ray.  We made it in before the wind really picked up. Slip A12 again. BBQ chicken on board tonight.
Unity did get the motor started last night and motored back in, but they need to dig down in and find the problem – maybe transmission.

*I’m pretty sure Mom meant a minke whale here… I always loved running to get my identification books whenever we saw dolphins and whales. I was Johnny-on-it and would immediately be looking for specific marks, coloring and whatnot to discern what fantastic breed of creature we were experiencing! 🐞

March 18, Saturday

Bob and Jan took a cab in to town. Samie and I did school. John took the stanchion on the starboard side gate off to be welded where it snapped when he was climbing over from the dink last night. He almost fell in the water, but he was able to hang on. Stanchion is fixed and back on. We went out to eat.

*I don’t remember this happening, but it makes me laugh to picture my dad scrambling to keep from falling in. My imagination has him dangling off the side of the boat, but I don’t think it was that dramatic, lol. 🙃

March 19, Sunday

We all met True Blue at the pool for a couple hours – ate out again. Peg called. Danielle called, she is trading in her car for a mini blazer. They gave her $2,000 trade-in and her payments are $232 a month.

March 20, Monday

Left the marina at 10:30 am or so, had a nice sail until the wind picked up to 25 knots. We were anchored at 3pm – all chain out again, it sure is rolly. Bob was sleeping in the fore-cabin when we picked up the 25 knots headed in to the wind and waves – he got so sick, poor guy. We BBQed hamburgers and stayed on board tonight.

*The fore-cabin is also known as the v-berth, seeing as the mattresses are together at the bow and split off to on each side of the boat in a v-shape. Much like the front seat of a roller-coaster, the bow does tend to be the wildest ride on the boat, taking the brunt of the waves and motion especially when pointed into the wind. 

March 21, Tuesday

Everyone except me went to the beach and to Cruise Quarters for most of the day. Another day of 20-25 knots here in La Cruz.

March 22, Wednesday

Happy B-day Delores.

We left La Cruz about 8:30 am headed for Tres Marietas. We anchored there until 2 pm. It was to surfy to go to the beach, but John, Samie and Jan swam by the boat. Samie had on her wetsuit and no life jacket, her first in the ocean.
We saw 2 whales, a sea turtle and 2 manta rays today. We talked to Renegade on SSB. We anchored in La Cruz again and went to Dos Felipe’s for dinner.

March 23, Thursday

Relaxed this morning on the boat, went in to La Cruz and put Bob and Jan in a taxi for the airport; they flew back to Phoenix, Az at 2:20 pm.
Bud and Gloria on Unity anchored at La Cruz tonight, so we took them in to Cruise Quarters for ribs. They are leaving for the South Pacific in the morning. They never did find anything wrong with the boat last time – they tried to leave and the motor quit.

*Too funny that nothing ended up being wrong with the engine. Sometimes it works out that way! It can be frustrating, but who knows? Maybe they missed some crazy storm all because they werer delayed a week. Sometimes it’s good to trust that what comes up is going to help things work out for the better, even if it seems to set you back at first. 🐞

March 24, Friday

John went ashore to have the diesel cans filled and while he was gone, the boat drug anchor again. I started the engine and was able to keep it from dragging in to an old, wrecked boat that is sunk with only part of it out of the water. I think that at one time I was over it because the depth showed 5 feet. It’s not real easy to stay forward far enough and still not foul the anchor chain in the prop. People in dinghies from 2 other boats came out to help, but John was on his way by then. We re-set the anchor and now have out about 300 feet of chain. Keep your fingers crossed.
Samie and I went in to Cruise Quarters while John stayed on the boat. Samie played with Jena and I watched a movie – nice break.
We got a letter from Michael and a fax from Mom. Janet’s dad had a heart attack and a triple bypass – ok so far. Ben L., Melissa’s dad, died on the 21st. He had been sick for a while. Michael will be one of the pallbearers.

*Ok, now seems as good a time as any to talk about anchoring! You can tell we’ve had quite a go of it our first year, which is expected. It sounds like a simple, basic tasks - but especially when still new to all the technical details of boat life, a “small” mistake can truly turn into a life and death situation if a storm comes in. If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, this video is a very thorough tutorial on all the important aspects of anchoring. Also, they are in the beautiful Sea of Cortez in the video - bonus!
As the years went on and we gained experience, we went from being the noobs in the anchorage to being the veterans, eyeballing the green sailors coming in, anchoring too close or not letting out enough chain… There’d be lots of “What the hell are they thinking?!” and “Don’t you dare drop that anchor right there!” mumbles amongst the crews of already anchored boats. Occasionally there might be an altercation with some cocky combo of noob vs. vet, but it wasn’t a regular occurrence. The worst of cases left an un-manned vessel dragging through an anchorage - this puts everyone else at risk of the boat dragging into them or dragging over other anchors, causing others to drag with them. I remember at least one time, several other boaters having to “commandeer” a runaway vessel to keep it from running ashore or into other vessels. That’s one thing about the sea, it’s all fun and games until it’s not. The heart of sailing is serious business and one must always be prepared for anything. This year was definitely a learning curve of do’s and don’ts. We were so lucky that Mom stayed on the boat this day; I can’t imagine what could have happened. And actually, as I’m thinking about this, I do remember being inland with Jena at the time, and I think I remember Dad scrambling out to the boat and watching some of the chaos from the Crew’s Quarters upstairs balcony. He would have heard a call on the radio and got out there asap. Poor Momma must have been so scared! Kudos to her for keeping her cool and keeping our boat safe. ❤🐞

March 25, Saturday

The wind wasn’t quite so bad today, but now that we have drug anchor twice, I sometimes get paranoid. Samie played most of the day at Jena’s, John puttered around on the boat, and I took a nap; I didn’t feel too good. John got some fresh shrimp and we made scampi – best shrimp I’ve had since we left home. I don’t care for it the way it’s fixed here.
True Blue anchored here tonight.
We have been talking to Renegade every day at 3 pm. They are on their way back up here.

March 26, Sunday

Tameron came over for a while this morning and then True Blue headed on up to San Blas. The wind blew 20-25 knots for about 2 hours. John waxed the sides of the boat and I did some varnishing.

March 27, Monday

Today was a lazy, cloudy day weather wise. John sanded down and put a primer coat on the floor in the head. We went in to town for a while after the wind stopped blowing.
Unity = 16 – 28N / 110 – 33W  
Pacific Visions = 10 – 52N / 120 – 06 W

March 28, Tuesday

Talked to Unity this morning again, they have not had much wind at all yet.
John varnished again and painted the head floor blue, I think it will look nicer than the white.
The wind wasn’t quite so bad today. John and Samie went in for a while. We all went in for dinner and to watch My Girl II – good.
Unity = 15 – 44N / 111 – 40W 8K N/E

March 29, Wednesday

John painted under our bed today. Samie’s writing little story things on the computer. Talked to Renegade, they probably won’t get here until the 5th.
Unity = 14-43N / 113 – 08W KN N/E

 *Lol, I knew exactly what she was talking about when she mentioned these! I remember loving the Babysitter’s Club books and wanting to be a part of clubs and groups, which was unfortunately hard to come by in the capacity for which I was looking. What I didn’t know at the time, was that I was becoming part of one of the coolest clubs known to mankind: the Cruiser’s Club. ❤

March 30, Thursday

Happy B-day Sherry on Valiant Lady.

John equalized the batteries. We called Peg, Chelle and Danielle. Chelle and Faron moved in with Jacque and Danielle. All is well.
Unity = 13 – 26N / 114 – 40S 10K N/E   -Cloudy
Pacific Visions = 05 – 55N / 122 – 34W 10K N/E  -3 hours of rain squall in the night

March 31, Friday

John put a second coat of paint under our bed and painted inside the medicine chest. He took an 8:30 bus in to P.V. to get more pesos, since we still don’t have the new VISAs yet. It was cloudy and looked like rain all morning – but only ended up being real muggy and hot. Last night was real windy, 20 knots from the north at one point.
Talked to Shine, he’s doing ok. Goon called.

April ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

April 1, Saturday

Happy April Fool’s.

Talked to Unity, it’s Bud and Gloria’s anniversary. They were in a rain squall, so they took a shower in the cockpit. John painted under Samie’s bed today.
We went to Cruise Quarters to watch the NCAA playoffs, UCLA/Oklahoma State & Arkansas / NC and had dinner.
Unity = 10-07N / 117-46W 10K N/E -lumpy and rain squall
Pacific Visions = 03-31N / 124-28W 8K S/E
Talked to Leo P. today – set up 6pm on 7294.0 to talk to Steve.

April 2, Sunday

John fixed the aqua/water and oil alarm. Samie went in to play with Jena. No contact with Renegade or Steve P.
Unity = 08-17N / 119-22W 8-10K E/N/E -off and on rain squalls, 100% cloudy.
Pacific Visions = 02-33N / 125-32W 10-12K S/E  -40% cloudy

April 3, Monday

John and Samie went to the beach to clean the dink bottom. He paid her 10 pesos for her good help. John went back in to watch UCLA and Arkansas. UCLA won. Samie and I stayed onboard.
Talked to Steve P. in Phoenix, they bought a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage and pool. They should be able to start moving in the end of April and then get all moved in June.
No position on Unity.

April 4, Tuesday

Samie played at Cruise Quarters with Jena. John and I did little things – he was pretty hung over.
We talked to Renegade off and on – they ran out of fuel and in getting to the bottom of the tank, they stirred up the gunk, so the fuel line is plugged. Every time they added fuel, they had to prime the lines – or something like that. They did make it all the way in to La Cruz at 10:30 pm or so. At one point, we thought we would have to tow them. It was such an odd day in the Banderas Bay – NO WIND! The normal 20-25 knots out of the S/W were 5 knots from the north! So, no wind made it a real slow trip for them. But they anchored along side of us safely! So good to have them back!
Unity= 05/46N / 121-20W 10K W -Rough night, squalls, 100% cloudy

April 5, Wednesday

We pulled anchor along with Renegade and went in to the marina. They stalled again just outside the breakwater – but they got her running again.
We pulled in to N4 and they are in N5 – neighbors!
We cleaned her (The Star) up and I defrosted the fridge/freezer while we are here with shore power.
John pulled the battery charger out and put in a new fuse holder, that seemed to be the only problem.
We all went to dinner at Angela’s.

*Angela’s was a restaurant we went to quite often in Marina Vallarta. It’s no longer there, but I believe this was the location, it was a real nice restaurant right there in the marina, pretty much in our back yard. I remember once accidentally taking a gulp of my mom’s Corona here. The evening lights gave off a yellow glow and I thought I was taking a drink of her water - big surprise for me! Arne and Janice were with us and Janice said she saw me take the swig and thought “ok, wow, maybe they let her have a sip every now and then” - yeah, no. My face was probably hysterical when I realized it definitely wasn’t water and I froze, cheeks bulging with the beer I didn’t want to swallow. The taste was terrible and the adults were getting a kick out of it, saying just swallow it, it’s ok! Meanwhile, I was desperate to spit it out, but where?! I think I contemplated running over to some nearby bushes, but I’m sure I gave in and gulped it down and undoubtedly followed it with actual water afterward. lol

April 6, Thursday

John filled the fuel tanks and waxed the sides of the boat.
Samie watched Anne of Green Gables – again – Janice let her borrow it while her, me, Tracy Endless Summer, and Kerry Meika, all went to town for a girl’s day. We had some lunch and looked around; real nice day.
Samie has been practicing her rowing here in the slip alleys – she’s good. We went out with Arne and Janice for pizza and pasta – I sure enjoy their company.

*I fell in LOVE with Anne of Green Gables this year and still have a soft spot for the series. I related so much to some of Anne’s outlooks and confusion about people and their behaviors toward each other, and I loved getting lost in those movies whenever I could borrow them!
You can also see here that boat names were used in lieu of last names, which always makes me smile now.

April 7, Friday

Nice, quiet day, kind of a lazy one. We dinghied out to the turning basin where the cruise ships all dock – there is a replica of Columbus’ Santa Maria ship from back in 1492. We were able to take a quick 10-minute tour, only of the eating-living area below and the center deck – in the rear at the wheel house. It was so cool! Some of the windows were stain glass; the rudder is huge! It would have been so fascinating to take a tour of the whole ship and see everything! The windows were actually with the panes and opened out, swung out, all wood frame, of course.
Arne and Janice’s friends on Sea Crane, Rick and Carol, came in to N-dock; they hadn’t seen them for a year. We BBQed burgers ourselves and watched Pretty Woman - Janice let me borrow.

*Fun fact: a lot of cruisers had lists of their movie inventories, which friends would peek at and request to borrow from. Everything was VHS at the time, and we’d just swap tapes with each other like little community movie rentals.
Also, I remember this tour, and that this was the only time I ever felt sea sick, even though the boat was docked. It’s due to being so high out of the water - the movement is totally different than what we felt on our boat, where I never got more than queasy on rolly days. I didn’t realize how short our tour was and I don’t know why we couldn’t do the full tour, but my parents have said a few times that we did get to see a lot of cool “extra” things because people are always excited to share fun stuff with kids and see those excited little faces full of awe. I imagine that was part of the pull with this tour and another one we got to take on a Canadian Navy ship, the Winnipeg, where I got to sit in the Captain’s Seat! It looks like it would have been on February 9th, when we went to Mismaloy and had a big day out in general. Mom forgot to mention it, I bet she was exhausted after spending all day out and about! So I’ll give you the deets and photos here: The internet tells me that the HMCS Winnipeg was delivered to the Navy on October 11, 1994 and left Halifax, Nova Scotia on January 16, 1995, headed for Esquimalt, B.C. where she was commissioned on June 23, 1995. So we were able to get a tour while she was on her long voyage down the East Coast, past the Bahamas and the Caribbean, in through the Panama Canal and out the other side to head up the Mexican Coast, past Baja, California and finally through the notoriously crummy seas headed up the West Coast to Washington and finally, Canada. Ironically, Esquimalt is right by Victoria, B.C., where my parents and I visited several times after they relocated The Star to the PNW. There’s a decent chance we were in her vicinity again, about 10-12 years later, provided she wasn’t in service at the time. 🐞

April 8, Saturday

We had breakfast at Time Changer’s with Rick, Carol, Arne and Janice. When we pulled out of the slip to leave – of course the wind was blowing 10 knots and we were pushed sideways against finger ends – but we did manage to get out with only John’s knee bruised. Once we rounded the breakwater, we had 15 knots out of the WSW, right on our beam and had a very nice sail into La Cruz and were anchored at 2 pm or so.
BBQed some pretty good steaks and corn on the cob.

*Check the photo below for an idea of what we’re talking about with slips and fingers and all that. Some slips are wide enough for two boats, others for one. The fingers are set perpendicular to the dock, both creating structure for each slip and allowing the boaters easier access on and off the dock. When pulling out of a slip, you’d back out like any other parking spot, except that backing up in a boat is not quite as simple as a car. Our boat didn’t have any thrusters (do you remember what thrusters are?!), which makes it really difficult to make tight turns or to simply turn away from something when the wind is blowing you towards it. I’m guessing Dad was either fending off the fingers and dock poles from off the side of the boat, or maybe even had to jump off to push the boat away from the dock finger. Not to infer that we were doing this alone - dock arrivals and departures tended to be a friendly affair, with fellow cruisers offering to help and to either greet you or bid you farewell and safe travels. It makes me feel happy and loved just to think about - really, so much of this lifestyle filled me up with more love than I could have ever imagined growing up in the States, I truly believe that. It was enough love to carry me through the last 26 years, and it’s still running through me, strong and full and bright as ever. I have so much more hope for humanity, having been witness to the best of it. I know it exists and I know it will persist. I didn’t need church or religion to show me love and to make me feel safe; I had the cruising community. 🥰 I also had the kindness of locals and strangers in simple places, in simpler times. People would sometimes ask my parents if we felt safe in Mexico - I can tell you I’ve experienced more warmth and kindness from absolute strangers in small villages in Mexico than I have from some of my own family members - no joke. Kindness is everywhere - just as much as hatred or greed. You know, it’s funny how so many of us like to believe we’re safer sticking close to our own back yard. I am not exaggerating when I say that this experience with my parents on the Wandrin’ Star is the best thing I’ve yet experienced, and was at such a perfectly influential time in my life, and the things I learned out there have absolutely been my foundation and helped me keep my head straight when life starts spinning out. I will never be able to thank my parents enough, or explain how truly, deeply and madly* grateful I am for that life choice they made. Putting this all together is the closest I think I can get to honoring it all, collectively. It’s a hats off to my dad following a dream and going after what he wanted, for being smart and prepared and consistently on task, and to my mom for trusting that dream and being willing to live a life wildly outside the world she grew up in, and brave enough to take her daughter with her. It’s also a tribute to our beautiful, sturdy, cozy vessel, the Wandrin’ Star. A boat digs into your heart so much differently than a house does. She protects you, transports you, carries you over wild, open seas, sometimes with nothing solid around your for hundreds miles. She takes care of you - as long as you take care of her. There is nothing passive about boating; it requires a symbiotic balance, and you better believe a boat will tell you when things are off! We loved the Star and took care of her, and she reciprocated magnificently. After every rough passage, we’d pat her and say “Thanks, girl!” ❤
Ok, now that I’m a blubbering mess, back to the story! lol
*Also, I couldn’t resist sharing this for those who caught it. 😅

April 9, Sunday

John put on his dive tank and really cleaned the bottom of the boat good. The rudder was encrusted, no wonder we were only doing 3 knots speed at 1600 rpms.
Samie played in at La Cruz Cruise Crew’s Quarters one last day before we leave. We all went in to dinner for one last plate of good ribs. We bought Samie a ‘We visited La Cruz Cruise Crew’s Quarters’ t-shirt and had the gang sign it for her. They were all such nice people. Sometimes it’s hard to leave these neat places and wonderful people.
Unity = 22-22S / 127-56W  15 K S/E
Pacific Visions = 06-37S / 134-51W – clear, 12K E

 *This would be my aggressively happy face, lol. I’m not sure if I was really just that excited about the shirt, or just how much I loved this crew!

April 10, Monday

Weighed anchor at 7:15 am, leaving La Cruz for Chacala. We had only 0 knots until we rounded Punta de Mita! Then we picked up 5-10 knots for most of the way. No fish again, but a nice motor-sail. We were anchored in Chacala by 4 pm.
John and Samie went ashore for ice. While they were gone, the boat that anchored too close to us in the first place was now dangerously close as we began to swing on the hook. I had our motor running to avoid a collision, should it get that close (and it did). They were not even aboard their boat – John made it back and we took up some slack on our rode and set a stern hook - twice before it held. Once they made it back they re-anchored at a much safer distance. So we were all able to sleep.

April 11, Tuesday

I just had to go back to April 4th in my entries, seems the time goes by so fast that I still thought it was March! *
Yesterday, Samie drew the game board for Chutes and Ladders, a game she played with Jena.
We hoisted anchor at 7:30 am, headed for San Blas, Matanchen Bay. We only had 5 to 6 knots and had to leave the motor on all the way -again. But it was a beautiful day. We reached Matanchen Bay, along with 7 or 8 other boats also leaving Chacala, and were anchored around 2:30 pm.
I thawed out dorado – no luck fishing on this trip either – and put the mosquito netting all around the cockpit – we are San Blas bug-proof!

*It’s fun to see this happen a couple times in her journal, where a few days in to a new month, she reverts back to the previous month and catches it about a week later. Time really is a strange concept when you’re out on the ocean and not following the whole Monday through Friday nine-to-five mumbo jumbo. Days and dates don’t matter so much as weather windows and basing your plans around nature, not the other way around. 🐞

April 12, Wednesday

John cleaned the outside of the boat while us girls did school. We headed in the dink all the way around in to San Blas, did the check-in and out thing, saw jan and Norm, lunch at McDonald’s, tried to fill the diesel jugs – but no diesel in town – and headed back to the boat.
The trip in was smooth and a fast ‘plane’ all the way in – the big motor is great – but the return trip was not fun. I was just hoping to stay in the dink, but John did such a good job that we didn’t even get wet.
The pitfalls of long nails: In the States when I had to WORK (bad word), I had to keep my nails short in order to hit the right keys on the typewriter and now I have to keep them short or they dig into my palms when I’m hoisting up or hauling in lines. I tell ya, this is a hard life. Ha!
This afternoon from the boat, we watched 2 frigate birds fighting over a fish. The first bird, while in flight, dropped and retrieved the fish several times before he fell into the water, where another bird joined in the rescue efforts. This went back and forth between the 2 birds for quite a while before a third, fourth, and soon fifth and sixth joined in. It was quite a show with the free-flight fight of one lone fish – who was, by this time, some 10 minutes later, just wishing someone, anyone, would “just eat me!”

*I love this story from Mom about the birds! I found this video which shows us a little of what that might have looked like! Apparently frigates often try to steal fish from other birds, so it sounds like this moment would be pretty common for the species. I like Mom’s thoughts for the fish! Can you imagine that POV?!
As for the dinghy ride, on a real windy day the water gets choppy and makes things more difficult in the small inflatable boats. You have to try and steer mostly in to the wind to avoid waves breaking and splashing into the dinghy and when you do have to go sideways to the waves, you just try your best to read the waves and time it right. And while we’re discussing dinghy tactics, let’s talk about beach landings! Heading in to shore is typically the easiest, as long as the swell is low and waves are reasonable. It’s essentially the same concept as surfing in that it’s all about reading the waves and learning the timing; the main difference is we are avoiding the big waves. Sets tend to come in 3s and 4s and you learn to read the larger crests vs the ones that will be more likely to peter out - those are the ones you want in a dinghy. You find the friendliest one you can for your boat size and you gun the engine to catch it and coast in to shore. You hop out once the water is about ankle-deep, pull the engine prop out of the water and haul the dinghy up on to the beach, easy peasy. Don’t forget to account for the tide and how long you will be gone - you don’t want to come back only to find the dinghy has floated off to sea! Now, heading back out is a similar premise with timing; you are watching for the break between sets, where there is a lull that gives you the time you need to scuttle out past the surf. You have to wait outside of the dinghy until you see your window, then hustle to shove off, jump in, drop the engine, start it, and open her up to get out before the next set comes in. Most trips in and out were fine, but some days there were added challenges, like on grocery days when we also have bags of perishables and other things we’re trying to keep dry. It weighs the boat down and makes the whole process a little more sluggish. Or if the waves are choppy or you miss the break, you then have to race into the waves, trying to pass over them before they crest! This has resulted in some WILD rides back to the boat, especially in anchorages like Tenacatita, where they had nutoriously large surf. Say you’re headed into a larger wave that’s about to crest - for starters, someone needs to be in the bow of the boat to keep you from flipping over backwards and capsizing. By now, you best be gunning that engine in order to beat the crest and you hold on to whatever you can, cause even if the boat stays upright, the top of that crest might cause you to buck right out of the boat! 😅 It sure was a pain in the ass some days, but man there’s some fun/funny memories there! Oh! And it was a total bragging point if you made a gnarly landing without getting “dinghy butt” which just meant your ass was wet from water splashing into the boat or having to wade out father for whatever reason. Oh man, good times! 🐞

April 13, Thursday

We weighed anchor at 8:00 am and are underway – 2 minutes out and it’s the last minute, oh shit – there’s a fish net strung in the path – hard to the port and around just barely!
When we arrived at Matanchen Bay, there were 14 or so boats, as we leave, there are only 2 remaining.
For about the first 4 hours, we were beating in to a good size swell and chop, not too comfortable. Slowly, the wind shifted around and we had 10 to 15 knots out of the N/W, but we still had the motor on. The wind died down to 5 knots and held there all night with smooth seas.
John is bringing in a good-size amber jack, not good eating, so back he goes. While I’m watching the sunset and I saw the green flash that I’ve heard so much about. Really neat, just as the last of the sun slips away for the night, it flashes green for 2-3 seconds!
We talked to Meika, who was at Punta de Mita and Endless Summer who was underway, starting their journey to the South Pacific. Good propagation for VHF.
This was one of our better night passages, full moon and calm seas. We both got about 3 hours sleep and no big ships tried to “run us down”!

*Another helluva day at sea! If you didn’t catch why the fishing net was such a big deal, it’s because we were motoring out of the anchorage and can’t risk the net getting caught up in the propeller, which would be a nightmare to untangle and cut loose! Also, the ships ‘running us down’ comment is, I believe, in reference to when we were headed south towards Tenacatita a couple months back, in February. I don’t see that she mentioned it originally in her journal - let’s see if she can tell us about it now!🐞

April 14, Friday

Happy B-day, Chelle!

The full moon setting on the ocean is equally as awesome as a sunset. To our port, the full moon slips out of sight and to starboard, the many shades of sunrise color the low band of clouds that blanket the horizon. Every time we think it doesn’t get any better than this – it does.
We passed through hundreds of small manta rays. Some floating and basking in the warmth of the morning sun, while others were jumping out to greet it. This was quite a spectacular show that lasted for a good half hour. I only hope the pictures I took capture at least a part of the beauty!
We came on in to Mazatlan and were anchored (mud bottom) by 10:30 am – a long 26-hour trip. John and Samie went for 60 gallons of diesel, by way of dink and jerry jugs and will make 2 more trips tomorrow. I took a nap after cleaning up, it sure gets cluttered being underway. We all wanted to order pizza to be delivered, I wish, but we settled for taking a bus in to town and did find a good pizza.
Too bad we won’t be here longer to explore the town, it looks really neat!
It's 7:30 and John is fast asleep. I can hear the snappy Mexican music from the shore; this is the way to live – always on holiday!

 *I know these photos don’t do it justice, but they are still quite magical and do show the colors growing on the horizon like Mom said! You can kind of make out one manta ray totally out of the water - you can also tell how far photography has come since 1995! Next, is the anchorage at Mazatlan, where we also saw boat, O-B-Gone, who’s mast had broke in half! I don’t remember it at all, or how the mast snapped, but my guess would involve some very rough weather at sea. 😬 Finally, there’s the moonrise that night behind the Wandrin’ Star. We probably realized the photo opportunity on our way back from pizza - I’ll bet Mom or Dad grabbed the camera and went tooling around to get some photos. You can see me on deck, excited to be in the photo. One of my most favorite memories was cruising back up to the Star in the dinghy, especially on nights like this. Something about approaching our floating home, always from the starboard aft because we kept the ladder on the right side for entrance since the cockpit was easier to get into on that side and the boat was slightly lower on the right, due to the weight of storage and canned goods under the settee.* I can still hear the dinghy motor slowing to a putter before being shut off all together. But my favorite part, for whatever reason, was the sound of the water slapping on the back of the hull as the Star rose and fell in the water. I loved watching her swish and sway, while we lined ourselves up just right to come alongside, climb up the side of the boat and worked together to tie up the dinghy and hand in any treats we were bringing back from whatever new shore we’d just visited. ❤
*The settee had storage behind and under it, where most of our dry food and canned goods were stored. There is storage space built into practically every nook and cranny on a sailboat. I have spent the rest of my life wondering why every home and piece of furniture isn’t built this way, lol. Seems like a waste of space, haha

April 15, Saturday

John finished filling the fuel tanks and we have 10 extra gallons. I did laundry and while it was “in the dryer”, we took a bus to town, had a Mexican lunch, very good, and checked out the old open market. You can find anything from clothes, shoes, toys, fruits, veggies, canned goods, meat, fish, chicken, most anything! There were whole skinned pigs and cows waiting to be cut, or maybe you could purchase the whole side. It was fascinating to look around and follow your nose to the next fragrance, maybe it’s fish, cheese, or one of the many restaurants on the top floor. You could easily spend the day in this huge building that takes up one whole block.
We heard this morning that Unity and Pacific Visions made it to the Marquesas – way to go!!
We called Chelle for her B-day yesterday. She’s ready to have the baby – tired of being pregnant. Danielle is moving back to Lakeside next weekend. She’ll live in her mom’s trailer with a girl, Amy, from Mesa. She’s gonna try and work at Walmart and maybe one of the vet offices. She wants to get in to marine biology – that would be great!
Sitting on the boat, we are anchored near the harbor entrance, we watched a dozen or so shrimp boats going out. Each one making a full circle to starboard in the turning basin before they went out. I don’t know the meaning behind it, maybe it brings good luck.

 *Check it out! The market literally takes up a whole city block. I do remember being wowed by everything going on in this market!

April 16, Sunday

Happy Easter

We hauled in the anchor at 8 am and are underway to La Paz.
Noon: We had had 5 knots S/W, the seas are beautiful, blue and calm, there is no swell from the Pacific. John put out our mizzen staysail, really pretty red, white and blue. This is the first we’ve ever flown it. Again, no fish. The day went smooth. John slept from 7:30 pm to 11:30 – good thing, because around 3 am the wind shifted around to the NN/W and shot up to 30 and 35 knots!

*Ok, let’s talk knots! So knots are how we measure speed across nautical miles, which are different from land miles/measurements. One knot is equivalent to one nautical mile per hour, or roughly 1.15 statute mph. If you are interested in how nautical miles work vs miles/kilometers, check out this video! I don’t think I ever fully comprehended how they measured the distance, so that was fun for me to learn! I remember helping chart out our courses sometimes, but this was extraneous detail for me at the time.

April 17, Monday

9:30 am and it’s still blow’en 25-30 knots with 5-to-6-foot swell, or wind chop, not all that pleasant. Thank goodness for the hard dodger and canvas that we have all the way around. If not, we would be drowned rats by now, and so would this book. We’re very lucky! (Thank you, Tony).
As the day progressed, the winds increased to a steady 30-35 knots with gusts up to 42 (the other boats with us saw gusts to 51-wow!).
The seas became a whopping 15-18 feet, breaking and raging as far as the tired eyes could see.
Samie says King Neptune is real mad – I say he’s super pissed off!
By 3 pm, a full 12 hours of this plowing, slicing, slip-slop, splish and splashing through the seas, we’re tired and have had enough! Samie went below around noon and watched movies for the next 8 hours, she fell asleep just before we anchored and never woke up until 3 am – starving! To make our way around below – safely – crawling on the floor was the best option. The new bumps and bruises to our bodies are too numerous to count.
We had 3 or 4 huge waves break sideways, clear over the dodger. The boat was never really healed over because of the wind in the sails, but the swell would rock us down in the deep cradle, causing the port side cap-rail to swim in the foam as we rolled across the waves.
No matter how water-tight a boat is, all the twisting and bouncing can jar loose numerous stanchion screws. After 20 hours of a little drip here and a drop there, all the inside starboard closets and half of the port side were sopped, not damp, but dripping salt water wet! All of Samie’s clothes, bedding and school papers had to be hung out to dry. This summer we will re-caulk every possible pinhole! The vent in the “shed” (old head) needs a plug, water was pouring through with each and every wave that jumped up to say hello. At one point, John had to go forward on deck to tie the dinghy down again, it was sliding around. The mizzen sail blew a seam just as the sun came up this morning, so John had to go out and take it down in a blistery 25 or 30 knots. The rest of the day was spent under reefed main and partial jib with 1600 rpms on the motor, giving us between 5.5 to 7 knots boat speed. We made our way in to Los Muertos Bay to get out of this SHIT! La Paz can wait till the sea is a peaceful, sleeping beauty again.
We were anchored, wet and cold, but in calm water by 8 pm – THANK GOD!
There were 2 other boats with us, Running Free and Anastasia, they later had their autopilot go out, causing their steering to fail just as they came into the anchorage.  Luckily, they had a clear path and dropped the hook and settled back in safely. We were lucky to have all the wind and waves and a good N/W angle and not beating directly into it which is even harder on the boat, not to mention the crew. We made the trip from Mazatlan in 36 hours. A boat the day before had to beat straight into that hell and took 50 hours.
The Wandrin’ Star is a wonderful boat and we love her! She took all the bouncing and beating for a full 20 hours and held together (in spite of the leaking, which in reality is minor) and got us to safety! We have now experienced what is un-affectionately called the Northers!
Even in the anxious hours of watching the waves rage so high and fierce, there is still a beauty to be seen in the deep blues and rich coral colors breaking in brilliant white contrast in every direction for miles. It’s a beauty I’ll never forget and one I hope I NEVER SEE AGAIN!

*This was the biggest storm we encountered during our sailing. From what I understand, we hesitated to leave when we did, but another boater who we were crossing with encouraged us that it would be fine to go on ahead with them. Needless to say, things didn’t go as planned! But we made it through to tell the tale, and I will say that of all the sailing stories I’ve ever read that involve big storms with these giant, threatening, cresting waves always includes these notes of beauty in the chaos. And it’s great, because you almost don’t have time to be scared, because all your energy is focused on staying alert and aware for anything and everything that needs tending to in order to keep your boat afloat, upright, and with as many pieces still attached as possible.
Two notes on words and terms: When Mom talks about the “cradle” of the wave, she is referring to the low point between two waves. A really wild experience is seeing another boat disappear almost completely down the other side of a large wave, into a deep cradle. I tried to find a decent video example and found this example (forward to 12:10 in the video until 13:50). This should be about what it looked like in the beginning of the storm, and I believe we were headed more into the swell, which would eventually more than double in size.
I missed out on most of this because I absolutely laid down in front of the TV and proceeded to get lost in movies for the rest of the time. It was probably too rough to sleep, which explains why I crashed once we were anchoring - the boat would have finally stopped bucking all over the place. I do remember having to go to the bathroom, which meant crawling along the floor past the cockpit, the galley and the engine room before figuring out the mechanics of peeing into a bucking bronco! 😅 Ok, that’s maybe a little dramatic, but not altogether untrue! Anyway. Mom shoo’ed me away (understandably!) when I woke her up at 3 am asking for food. 🙃 I think I made myself some cereal and went back to bed.

April 18, Tuesday

We slept like babies last night, both of us only getting 3 hours in the last 36. Waking up in Muertos Bay is beautiful, a big bay with white sandy beaches and the prettiest turquoise, clear water. We are sitting in about 15 feet of water so clear we can see the anchor resting peacefully on the bottom. We spent the day in bits and pieces as energy was not in abundance today; drying out and cleaning up. The life lines draped with all the drenched clothing, bedding and other items. There are two American couples on the beach that have a small restaurant, so we went in for pizza! It’s amazing what you can find in paradise when there is no town in sight. As the sun was setting tonight, it cast a glow on the sandy beach and hill that looked much like it was covered in snow. The nights have been real cool for the last week or two. At first it felt good to cuddle up, down under a quilt on the bed, reminding you that it is, indeed winter and not summer – but that’s enough of that memory, even though in another month we’ll a be dripping in sticky sweat and want a cool night again.

The next morning definitely sucked with everything sopped and smelly from the salt water. Takes awhile to for things to really feel clean after being doused in all that dried, cake-y salt. But then again, how bad can it be with a view like this to ease the pain?! Also, there is nothing like the peace that comes after reaching your destination and turning off the engine. The constant vibration and rumble of the engine over time wears at you, so that first slice of silence and stillness (especially in a really calm anchorage) is like a wall of peace hitting you, and your body almost melts suddenly into it.

April 19, Wednesday

Running Free and Anastasia left for La Paz this morning at 5 am. We were gonna go also, but the wind was blowing 15-20 and had been most of the night, so we opted to wait one more day. John dinghied over to the pizza place and happened to get a ride in to a small town 6 miles and get some ice and cigs. The pizza place is called Sourdoughs and he also bakes bread, which he picked some up – yum!
We met the crew of Nanamuk on the beach and let the kids run around and use up some of their never-ending energy. They have a boy, Alan, 8 and a girl, Janelle, 7.
John BBQed some wonderful chuletas de cerdo, or more commonly known as pork chops. Samie was asking me how do you know if a boy likes you? She thinks Alan is cute and maybe she likes him.

*Awe! This was the day we met our beloved friends on Nanamuk. ❤ Jelly, Alan and I were nearly inseparable when together, and yes, I definitely maybe kinda liked Alan. 🙃 We remained friends and kept in touch - we even went to visit them nearly a decade later at their home in B.C. during a road trip we took in the motor home my parents bought. By that time they had gone and circumnavigated the globe! So awesome. It has since been nearly another two decades since we’ve gotten together, but we are still friends with them and remain in touch to this day, thanks to good ole’ Facebook. Janelle and I are actually planning a couple trips together in the next year - including a trip to our old stomping grounds in La Paz, a place you will read about next! It’s crazy cause I know that when we get together, the last 26-odd years are going to melt away and it’ll be like a day hasn’t passed! 🥰

April 20, Thursday

We weighed anchor at 6 am and had a very pleasant, calm trip on up to La Paz. The winds only made their way up to 15 knots – what a perfect day. Just as we were ready to start into the channel to the anchorage, John hooked a small dorado, enough for 2 meals – which is what we had for dinner tonight, wonderful. We dinghied to the dock and walked in to town with Rob, Grace, Janelle and Alan, the crew of Nanamuk. Got some fresh veggies.
La Paz looks like a neat place – big and pretty modern. Sitting on the boat, we can watch the cars going up and down the beach front street, looks kinda odd, actually.
Coming in to the bay today, we have the desert mountain background rising in the sky with palm trees and palapa-covered beaches; quite a contrast.

*As you will come to find, La Paz is one of my favorite places we went. La Paz and La Cruz were good home bases for us - there was always someone we knew there and we tended to stay for longer periods of time. Marina de La Paz is where we spent most of our time - if we weren’t docked there, then we dinghied in damn near every day. The Marina grounds were so much fun to wander and run around, and was an excellent place for us kids to let out all the extra energy and movement that we seemed excessively fueled with. There was a book exchange place which was one of the first places I went when we got to port. The books were always free because you just brought in your old books and took whatever caught your interest. I’m nearly certain this is where I obtained my first Sue Grafton novel, G is for Gumshoe. I have loved reading my Kinsey Millhone stories ever since!

April 21, Friday

John and Rob went in to do the check-in, check-out routine. While the guys filled the boats with fuel via – 3 dinghy runs and the kids all ran around on shore – they’ll sleep good tonight. Grace and I did a big shop at a market – American style – and took a taxi back to the dock.
True Blue came in today. It took 52 gallons to come up from Mazatlan – powering through the storm included!
We did 4 loads of laundry – only a start on everything that got sopped.

April 22, Saturday

John ran water through the water maker so that it can sit, we can’t make water in here. He charged the engine and gen-set.
Samie ran around on shore again, there are a dozen or so kids there. I was mostly lazy and typed my storm story to mail home.
The crew of Nanamuk came over for a while.

*It may not sound like it, but a dozen boater kids in one place was a total jack pot! And the great thing about cruising life is that age wasn’t as much of a factor and we all just kinda got together and hung out. This was also why I enjoyed La Paz so much, there were usually at least a few other kid boats around, which meant lots more fun!
Also, we couldn’t make water here due to a combination of strong tides, heavy currents and crazy winds that would always buck up muck and sand from the heavy shoals throughout the canal. This combo of elements also creates what is notoriously known as the La Paz Waltz! It’s a pain in the ass, is what it is! So, when it comes to anchoring, typically boats are going to swing on their anchors in the same direction, due to the tides flowing in and out of the bay, ok? When anchoring you need to give enough space for the boats to drift randomly during slack tide and not risk turning into bumper boats. Otherwise, the boats will always swing together based on those incoming and outgoing tides. In the La Paz Canal, however, tides often conflict with currents, pushing boats in random directions. The afternoon winds that funnel through the channel cause even more of a ruckus, blowing the boats around as much as they are being pushed by the conflicting currents. I remember there being some close-calls with boats who anchored too close to each other - which is why cruisers were especially on alert for newcomers here in La Paz. As you may have ascertained from our anchoring woes, it has a learning curve, and you never know how green a new arrival is until you see them anchor. 😅 In open anchorages with lots of space, you might be inclined to get out the popcorn and watch the “show,” but in La Paz, you are at attention in case you need to hail them on the radio and offer tips and guidance, or even tell them off from dropping anchor too close.

April 23, Sunday

Samie took another test today and got a 100%!
We moved the boat into the marina for a couple of days. Gave the Wandrin’ Star a much-needed fresh water bath.
Called Mom, Peg was not home, poop! Oh – we put the mizzen back up, it was $20 or $N120 pesos.

* What the heck is $N pesos, you ask? I’ll tell you, as per Wikipedia:
”On January 1, 1993, the Bank of Mexico introduced a new currency, the nuevo peso ("new peso", or MXN), written "N$" followed by the numerical amount.[9] One new peso, or N$1.00, was equal to 1,000 of the obsolete MXP pesos.”
At the time, the exchange rate was apparently at around 6.42, and now is at 17.60, meaning that this same purchase would now only cost us $7 U.S. That’s wild!

April 24, Monday

Happy B-day Grandma Davis.

John swapped the anchors around to make it easier to use the all chain, which is the only one we use now that all the anchorages are all so full (there is less swing). I did another 3 loads of laundry, that takes care of all the salt water wash down. We watched the America’s Cup races from the comfort of our own sailing vessel today – Young Americans beat the Stars & Stripes in San Diego.

*Wow, I haven’t watched those types of races before, that was an intense 9 minutes!!! If nothing else, check out the near misses at 5:40 and 6:30. 😧

April 25, Tuesday

We had to move out of the slip we were in today. It was quite a long ways to back straight out, and a slight turn on out to the outside end of a dock. No mishaps, no close calls, nice and easy for a change. John took apart the head and got it to pump a little more water as you flush. We called Roach, they had lost the address to send mail; so he will do that tomorrow. Also got to talk to Peg.

April 26, Wednesday

We paid for this dock through Thursday night. Might as well stay here since we can’t make water in the anchorage. Besides the cable TV is nice, we have been in Marinas so often lately, we (especially Sam) are getting caught up on all missed flicks in the last year. The last couple of days have been HOT, reaching around 90°! But the nights are still cooling down, this morning it was only 58° - too bad it can’t stay somewhere in the middle morning, noon and night.

Although for the most part of my journal I only write of the daily routine of shipboard life, which in itself is an easy, relaxed, yet exciting and enjoyable way to spend our days and hopefully many years to come. Yet there are awe inspiring moments like… sitting on the deck of the Wandrin’ Star tonight, the feeling is so peaceful as I listen to the water quietly slap against the hull of our floating home and watch yet another breathtaking sunset. Tonight, the pink colors range from brilliant to pastels as they weave their way between the deep blues and soft white clouds resting low on the horizon. The night air grows cool as the breeze lightly touches my skin and ruffles my hair, but it’s hard to pull myself away to the warmth of the cabin below, so I sit and watch. Slowly, yet ever-changing are the colors and shapes of the cottony clouds that are there for anyone who takes the time – not only to notice – but to absorb the beauty and peaceful feelings that one can find within your heart. With the lack of all the daily rushing from here to there, time schedules and worries of the everyday life that we have gladly left far behind this is such a wonderous space in time and I feel so fortunate to be here and be a part of it all. As my thoughts run wild and free the colors have once again sadly slipped out of sight, leaving only the scattered twinkling of the anchor lights in the darkness with the distant ringing of a church bell. Although tomorrows colors may be different, they will still be the same and I will be there to feel their warmth in the cool night air all over again and again!

 *Literally me, reading this. ❤

April 27, Thursday

John took a swim to clean out the thru-hull to the refrigeration which had grown shut with barnacles – all is working again. Still no mail.
Samie has become addicted to TV again out of boredom, all the other kids are gone. She is also writing a journal of her own – I hope she keeps it up.

*I didn’t keep up the journaling too well, but I do have the entries from this one which she’s talking about and I do plan to share them in here too!

April 28, Friday

Finally, mail! John found that the main engine batteries are not so good. He bought two new ones and we’ll find the better of the original four and replace the two that are worse off. We ate dinner up at The Dock. We are “in training” for the hot summer to come in San Carlos. Today was another 94° day!

*The Dock Café was the best! It was literally right above the dinghy dock and was basically a hub in the center of the Marina lot, by the office where our friend Mac Shroyer ran and operated the Marina. You might remember his name from back in December ‘94 when I explained what a panga is and who designed them! This is where we knew him from.

April 29, Saturday

John switched batteries, only one was bad, so he tossed the old spare and kept one of these as spare. I vacuumed up all the dust and sand that accumulates, John cleaned the dink. We ate out again – True Blue came back in.

April 30, Sunday

Sprayed the boat down again. Tameron came by for about an hour this a.m. We left the dock at slack tide (10:00 am). For the first couple hours we had 15 to 20 knots – on the nose, of course! Nice, uneventful motor for the 5 hours it took to get to Isla Partida. Anchored in 20 feet of fairly clear water, with the water turning to a pretty turquoise along the beach. We did not make it to the beach, though. The fridge didn’t want to work so John dove down and cleaned the thru-hull again, to no avail. Next, he took off the inside part of the thru-hull that brings the water into the pump and removed an offensive 7 inch piece of seaweed. Problem solved; fridge works wonderful!

May ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

May 1, Monday

Where oh where does the time go?!
Being on the east side of the Baja is mountainous desert. It looks like Phoenix – except that we are floating on by rather than being confined in a car surrounded with all the blaring horns and far too much traffic. The transportation of a slow sail, opposed to a speeding car lets us enjoy the scenery. When I woke up this morning and came out on deck, the sun was shining on the mountain face, giving the small caves that are scattered about the appearance of many faces with the different lights and shadows.
We hauled in the ‘ole anchor at 8 am and headed for Isla San Francisco. Dead flat seas with only a small floating ripple and the clouds reflecting in its peacefulness – like silk, Samie says. Absolutely no wind, only an occasional whisper of a faint breeze. Spotting a few fish jumping here and there, but not a one hungry enough to take the lines we had out. Just before reaching our destination to the starboard, we spy a huge whale about 4-5 hundred yards away. John says Blue, Samie says humpback – I’m staying out of this one!
Once again we find ourselves anchored (noon) in a tranquil little bay with all the usual: beautiful beach and clear, clean liquid all around. North Wind and Nanamuck are also here, so after a little lunch we all head to the beach. While the kids swim and burn up some energy the adults swim and go in search of Puka shells to make necklaces. What a totally enjoyable day!!
Tonight John and I were sitting on deck listening to the dolphins swim around and come up for air, unfortunately we never saw them in the darkness. The stars were out in the millions!

*Mom is absolutely right! I have thought before when hiking the San Tan Mountains, that if you filled everything up with turquoise water, it would look like Baja. Isla San Francisco really is a beautiful anchorage, with a long, stretching white sand beach. I think we heard dolphins and whales in this anchorage a few times; they must have had some favorite spots around that area. I believe this is the anchorage where I would eventually write a story called “A Day as Sweet as Candy.” 🐞

 1-3 - Fun in the sun at Isla San Francisco!
4 - The silky waters of Baja.

May 2, Tuesday

We left Isla San Francisco at 7am along with Nanamuck and North Wind. There was not even a breath of air, 92° and high humidity – all of this works together to give the water ahead and behind a look that was one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen. It was as if an artist had drawn a line in the water and put a mirror down in front of the mountains. All that was beyond, including the clouds, reflected down on that “mirror”. I suppose much like a mirage – I couldn’t take my eyes from it.
We also had little dolphins performing as we passed through a pod. Jumping and flipping just like Sea World – only free! Once we anchored we all went for a swim to cool down!
We are anchored in only 10 feet (at low tide) – that’s not enough, I want to move in the morning.
We all had fresh scallops over at North Wind – a big power boat – yum!
A year ago I could never have imagined that I would fall so deeply in love with this never-ending awesome world of water and all the beauty that surrounds it and lives within it!! Hell – a year ago I was scared to death.

*These days of breathtaking calm were not entirely infrequent in the Sea, and we loved them. They were a nice reprieve from the afternoon winds that are regular in the afternoons. At night, this mirrored effect made it feel like you were actually hanging in outer space with the stars above reflecting immaculately into the water and shining just as bright from below as from above. With zero light pollution, you already can not believe how bright the stars are and how many are there, let alone to be doubled in this reflection. Mom’s little moments of awe for our surroundings increase here as we get further into the Sea and all it’s magic. This place really does cast a spell on you, I don’t know how to explain it. I love telling people about it, but I also feel protective of it. I pray that it and its many treasures hold steady into the future. This is actually about the point in reading my mom’s journals that I decided to type them out for her, for easier access in the future. As I got into it, I decided to make it sharable to the family and that is how I got here with this page and all its extra doo-dads, links, photos and whatnot. 🥰
Baja’s magic holds no boundaries. ❤
This painting is called Hiraeth and was created in 2019 while daydreaming of these nights in Escondido, a place you’ll learn about soon!

May 3, Wednesday

Happy B-day Janet!
John cleaned the boat bottom while the girls did school – I’m trying to double up on lessons in an effort to finish before we go to Arizona. It will be close at best.
We did move anchoring spots this morning, now we’re sitting in 18 feet rather than the 8’ this am at low tide. Another gorgeous day at the beach, the kids are all having a ball together. John caught a trigger fish, but turned him back and bought a sea bass from on of the fisherman here – absolutely wonderful, I fried it this time rather than BBQ.

*I realize here that Mom never said where we anchored, but I according to our photo albums, I see it was Los Gatos. I loved the orange/red rocks here, they were so much fun to climb and explore. And we could take a short trip around the corner to the north to see the tide pools covered in sea urchins.

 *Los Gatos and the dolphins on our way there.

May 4, Thursday

We hauled in the anchor around 8 am and headed for Agua Verde, only 10 knots, so it was another motor sail – but nice and beautiful day. The anchor set by 1pm – along with Nanamuck and North Wind.
We all spent the afternoon at the beach. It’s such a beautiful habit we have gotten into! True Blue pulled in just before dark.

*Oooh! I can feel the excitement of 8-year-old me, hearing that True Blue had just arrived! I would have already been stoked with the other two kid boats, but add two more “already friends” to the mix - wahoo! I’ll bet I went to bed dreaming about all the fun we’d have the next day. I remember I used to review my day before I went to bed, playing it out from start to finish. Maybe that’s how I remember so much, so clearly. Did I somehow know how important it was to keep these memories and hold them tight? I never thought of that before. ❤ …And now I’m crying again. I cry a lot when I talk about the boat - happy, grateful, still-in-awe-of-the-magic tears. Anyway, after logging my day for future recall, I would then dream up all the fun to be had the next day, especially on nights like these, going to bed thinking, “I get to see Tameron tomorrow!” and wondering what all us goobers could get into on the beach. What worlds would we make up and what new things would we see and learn? Between the sun and sand, the clear waters and our imaginations, the possibilities were endless. 🥰

May 5, Friday

Happy Birthday Schyler H! Born at 12:20 pm, 7lb 2oz, 19”, black hair and beautiful!

John shined the boat up and once again we all – after school – headed for the beach!

Yesterday we talked to Danielle and my Mom on phone patch through Leo P. Danielle told us that they were gonna induce Chelle’s labor next Tuesday, because the little squirt was getting so big. Sitting in the sun on the beach I was telling the other girls that now she’ll go ahead and have him on her own first. John had a feeling that we needed to be by the radio tonight just in case they called. We had set up a schedule with Leo for 5 pm every night- just in case. Sure enough! Schyler was born today. We talked to Danielle and Michelle in her hospital room! Here we are in a small cove on a sail boat – no phone – yet we were able to talk to her. I miss not being there today, but she sounded real good – HAPPY – and no worse for the wear. “Grandpa John” is in heaven and so happy – we all are!

We all had happy hour over on North Wind and broke out the bottle of Champagne that Kenny B. gave us before we left and said save it for a special occasion This was it!!

*I remember crowding around the radio, excited to talk to the girls and get all the details about their first grand baby and my first nephew! Mom would have been ready with pen and paper, taking down the time and weight and all. I can see Dad’s huge smile - he has this particular smile that doesn’t come out often, but when it does, it lights up the whole room! He definitely had that smile on this day, being his first day as ‘Papa’. I know Mom really wished she could have been there for support and to hold sweet little newborn Schyler and welcome him to the world.
With the times and technology having come so far, it sounds a little funny now how in awe Mom is of being able to talk to them from a tiny anchorage without phone service. These days there’s a million ways to connect and it’s so easy to take it all for granted. If this were in 2023, rather than one phone call afterward with all the details, we would have had regular updates, almost to the minute. We’d probably also have been able to facetime and see the baby right away. Instead, I don’t think we even saw a picture of him until after we met him a month or so later. It has been a good reminder for me to think about these days when we were just left to wonder so much of the time. It’d be months before hearing from friends and family who weren’t on the priority list for the high-priced phone calls or third-party phone patches through the ham-radio. There were no daily check-ins on social media or anything like that, and while it might feel like there was a lot to miss out on, I think it also gave you a good idea who really thought about you and cared enough to take the time to write and keep in touch. It may seem small, but it makes a big difference. I also think you were more free to enjoy all the things you were doing because you couldn’t see what everyone else was up to.

May 6, Saturday

I didn’t get much sleep last night; I was avoiding another boat – bumper boats. All the boats – except one – were on chain lines and he kept swinging way around. By moving our boat forward and back we avoided him 3 times. Once his dink, trailing behind, got caught on our anchor chain. After shining a light in his window, he finally woke up and took in enough of his line so that I could go to sleep – at 5 am!

We all left Agua Verde at 7:30 am headed for Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante. I was too tired to put up with the 20-25 knots of NNW winds that we had for the 1st couple of hours before calming right back down to 10 knots SW. North Wind- being a power boat- leaves last and arrives first, when we came around the point of the island the sight that was waiting was so picturesque. North Wind was resting peacefully in the most pristine turquoise and blue blends of silent water I have ever seen. The sunshine reflecting back on the white hull, causing her to look just a shade lighter than the water itself.

We anchored next to them, both having out stern anchors. It’s such a small cove, Nanamuck anchored out in 58’ - more in the open. I took a much needed siesta while the rest of the gang went to the beach – only 100 or so feet away – I can wait till mañana to snorkel in this haven.

The only thing that could have gone wrong in this ideal hideaway - did. A SW windy little breeze came up and within 5 minutes was puffing in at 20-25 knots, which was putting us and even Nanamuck far too close to the rocks. The sun has gone down and darkness is settling in while we let the stern anchor go (we’ll get it later), haul in the main anchor and shoot on out of there! Nanamuck following behind – North Wind remaining (they are slightly more protected). As we make our way across to Escondido we have white caps surrounding us and spray-washing down the top sides. It only takes an hour and we are anchored in the “Waiting Room” at Escondido. The wind has stopped blowing, but I will sleep much better knowing the rocks aren’t so, so close if it should come up again.

*More technicalities of anchoring! Rope has a lot more give than chain does, which is why this one boat was swinging wider and differently from the other boats. We’re lucky Mom was up to notice the situation before anything happened, as it sounds like we would have easily hit each other at some point. Such is life on a boat - always keeping you on your toes!
The Waiting Room is an anchorage just south and outside the main harbor. I don’t remember why we wouldn’t just mosey on in to the anchorage, but my guess would have to do with tides and entering through the more narrow entrance or maybe securing a mooring.

 1 - Picturesque moments in Honeymoon Cove.
2 - Nanamuk heading over in their dinghy.

May 7, Sunday

After a peaceful night’s rest we, along with Nanamuck head back out to Honeymoon Cove, where we anchor for the day. While the kids all play in the water along the beach the adults take turns snorkeling with the beautiful butterfly fish, puffers and a few sting rays below are some of the inhabitants in this underwater world.

After lunch, we headed back into Escondido, but all the way inside the harbor. The entrance is only a small 65 feet wide and at low tide can be shallow – 6’ for us!

*A-ha! I was right about low tide being why there’s a “waiting room”! Gold star for me! 🌠

Monday, May 8

North Wind came on in to the harbor today, but not soon enough to go into Loredo with ourselves and Nanamuck. We hiked up the desert road only a couple of hot and dry miles before an American who lives here picked us up, all of us, we rode in the camper shell on his truck for the 30 miles into Loredo. We were able to renew our Visas for 60 days, they had ran out on the 3rd. All check-in procedures done, we happened by the same fellow and he gave us a ride back to the dock in Escondido. What are the chances of that happening?!

*Mom and I were laughing about this recently - what a long way to start hiking and hope for the best! I’m sure we had no other option, or limited options, as both places were smaller and quite remote; I doubt there was any kind of taxi or bus service. I think it was smart to trek the whole crew and not just send the dads, as we were way more likely to catch a ride when viewed as a family which someone would be inclined to help and not just three random dudes. It’s awesome that we were able to catch the same ride back! I seem to remember stopping off at his house? Maybe to drop off his groceries and have a bathroom break, idk. Photos found! We did, indeed stop by his place for a moment. What a gorgeous place to live, as long as you don’t mind slight desolation. 🙃

 *Majestic views in Escondido! The boat in the first photo here was called Island Woman, and we would go on to make good friends with her Captain, Bert. When we took a tour of Island Woman, I fell so in love with her I made Bert swear up and down that when he was ready to sell her, he would contact me so that one day I could be her Captain. I loved the interior design of the ship that felt less modern and more “pirate shippy” with beautiful wood interiors, cozy berths and lots of aesthetics as I recall. The sunset photo is the view looking to the northeast of the bay, a view which would come to inspire my Hiraeth painting. 🥰 Finally, the friendly local’s house and our eventual returning to the dinghy dock where we had “parked” our dinghies.

May 9, Tuesday

All 3 boats headed for Isla Carmen and Ballandra Bay, arriving around noon sometime.
- Another paradise –
Happy Hour was on our boat tonight.
We found out Renegade is only just now leaving P.V. Hurry up!

May 10, Wednesday

School, beach, ski-bob and all forms of fun in the sun!

May 11, Thursday

John waxed the boat. He took Samie to the beach, while I stayed home for quiet time. All the kids had a sleep over at North Wind, dinner and movies. Samie and Alan stayed up until 3 am watching a movie and holding hands. It must be love! At 8 years old?! My 1st love was at 13 years.

*Awe, of course I remember this night. We were all watching movies and slowly the younger kids kept falling asleep, but Alan and I were wide awake - both soaking up the fun of being off our own boats and doing something different while also being excited about getting so much time with our crush. I remember feeling so “grown up,” being the two oldest, awake later than the rest and holding hands “like grown ups do.” It was sweet. Side note - I think, I think the movie we were watching was Beethoven, but that thought just popped up randomly, so I could be making it up, haha.

*Nanamuk’s silhouette at sunset in Ballandra, as well as waking up to a cruise ship hovering over us in the morning!
North Wind and crew, Ballandra landscapes and being able to see our anchor chain through the clear waters all the way to the bottom!

May 12, Friday

Another of the usual. Southeast wind all day, calming down around 4 pm and the swell refracting around the point, causing us to roll and bounce most of the night.

May 13, Saturday

Nanamuck and ourselves left the beauty of Ballandra heading for San Juanico while North Wind headed south – they have to go back around and up to California. Poor Souls!
WE had 5 knots ESE all the way to Juanico when it picked up to 20 knots. This anchorage looks beautiful but not good for this wind, so we head up and around the corner and drop the hook in Caleta Ramada. A very small bay with 2 other boats already here. The wind kept its gusty breezes blowen 10 to 20  ESE until 7 pm before it calmed down, but came right back up at 8pm to 10-20 out of the west off and on all night.

May 14, Sunday

Happy Mother’s Day
Happy B-Day Dad Spear

We weighed anchors at 6 am and are under way to Bahia Concepcion with a soft 10 knot breeze WNW. As John was putting up the main, it blew an inside lower seam! All seams on all sails will be resewn this summer. The winds were real fluky off to either side, but on our nose for the most part. We made a phone patch to Mom and Chelle (through Leo) for Mother’s Day, tried Goon, but no one was home. When we turned the corner to come into the channel of Concepcion the winds picked up to 15-18 out of the NNW, right on our stern so John put up the mizzen staysail. We breezed on in under red, white and blue. We set the anchor in a good size cove behind Isla Bargo.

Ok – right after the sail blew a seam the generator quit while we were making water – great!
-Tomorrow’s project! –

I sat and watched the moon rising for at least an hour, so spectacular! Coming up over the horizon, floating through the tender, whispy clouds, the ball of dusky pink reaches until it has conquered its majestic beauty in full brightness and brilliance of a white crystal reflecting its warm glow on the still water below.

Good night and sweet dreams.

*Isla Bargo must have had a name change over the years, as it pulls up now as Coyote Island. Our main reference while cruising was our 5th edition copy of Charlie’s Charts, published in 1994. It was a constant go-to when coming into new territory, especially. Charlie’s charts help show where shoals are, or where it gets especially shallow, it notes various tips and tricks to remember in the area, even where the good fishing spots or where you can find lots of scallops. Over time, we added some of our own notes, as well.

May 15, Monday

John replaced every part possible on the gen-set and no luck, it keeps blowing a fuse. We moved to Santispac anchorage so he can hitch a ride into Mulege to get 10 gallons of diesel. He did it – took only 1.5 hours to get a ride in and get back. We added 5 gallons in tanks and left 5 in the jerry jug.

We weighed the ‘ole anchor again and headed out to the channel on our way to San Carlos. (5pm) Coming out and rounding the point, the sun set in another spectacular array of oranges, looking as if the mountains are on fire. Streaks of deep orange and reds finger their way through the darkening clouds. Deeper and deeper grow the flames of the glowing horizon until darkness overtakes it all.*

Within an hour the full moon is overhead, casting bright light patterns on the rippling ocean. It can be quite startling when you are looking out to the dark side of the boat and turn to have the brilliant light of the shining moon on the other side. We were not too far away from land when we see a moving blip on the radar, but no lights on the horizon. Unbelievably, a sailboat passed within ¼ mile to starboard with no lights on, crazy! The rest of the night was peaceful and uneventful, both of us getting about 3.5 hours sleep. Samie watched a couple movies before she fell asleep. The winds were 10-20 knots filling the sails and pushing us right along. The summer season is approaching and the sun is coming up as early 4:30 am in the shades of pink against a partly cloudy sky. We have just enough light to see a pod of dolphins greeting us and swimming right alongside the boat for 15 or 20 minutes. I could never get bored or tired of watching the graceful dolphins as they so effortlessly move through the blue waters. It’s now 5:30 am and the winds are out of the north picking up to 25 and 30 knots, which also brings the sloppy, rolly 5’ to 6’ swells and chop – NOT AGAIN! But thankfully it’s daylight and we can’t see land. Only 4 hours to go. We made our way into San Carlos and set our anchor, which is not an easy task. The bottom here is “shingles” (whatever that is) but it’s hard and doesn’t grab and hold too great. The wind continues to whip around gusting up to 20 & 25 knots. We know that we won’t get any sleep worrying about dragging anchor – so we pull up and hook on to a mooring line. As I was trying to hold the line and get it to where I could cleat it off, I not only broke a nail, but I bruised my arm and bent one of the forward starboard stanchions – woo, such strength! It bent at the base where it is attached to the deck. One more thing to fix. But we did get a good night’s sleep.

*While I was transcribing this entry, I happened to be enjoying my own sunset! The colors that night were a combination of pastel blues and peaches. 
It sounds a little funny, to be startled by the moon - but when you are out in all that darkness, with nothing but solitude for miles, and you turn around to see this giant, rising full moon watching over you - it might catch you off guard for a second. 🙃
😅Mom made me laugh with the “woo, such strength!” comment! So strong, Momma! It was weird when we would take a stanchion down for repair, because the lines would be totally slack and it felt really weird on deck, as though I were liable to just fly off the totally calm deck just because there were no lifelines. 🐞

May 17, Wenesday

We motored over the 6 miles to Marina Real through a good size swell left over from yesterday. Not knowing the marina, John hopped in the dink and went to check it out as I circled in the bay waiting to make our landing. Ok, it will be so simple – if we don’t scrape bottom going through the entrance at the breakwater with low tide and all that, but we made it with maybe a foot to spare. The lowest the depth meter has ever read – 4 feet! Once inside it’s an easy wide turn into #31. 1st on the list is to plug in to shore power and chill down the fridge. John’s at it already meeting the “neighbors”, like Harry M., from Tubac, Az -where John and Maryann live – he runs the little country store there – what a small world it can be. After a fast wash-down on the boat he gave us a ride into San Carlos where we caught a bus into Guaymas to get the cell phone connected, or at least tried to. US West no longer has any service that is compatible with the Mexican systems and in order to get a Mexican # we have to have proof of an address here – long story – very long day. There are no busses going all the way to Marina Real so from San Carlos we have to take a taxi, $40 pesos for 3 miles! We bought some great veggies and fresh orange juice, also delicious shrimp (no heads) from a “traveling salesman”. He comes by everyday and will bring ice or anything else you request.
The breeze is still blowen 15 to 20 knots and pretty cold so we have the canvas up around the cockpit to keep the chill out. Too bad we don’t have air conditioning for the hot days and nights that are only around the corner.

*If I am correct, this “traveling salesman” Mom speaks of was named Alejandro, and it was so funny because he would announce his arrival to the marina with his “la cucaracha” car horn. 😂 His little truck was decked out with a canopy over the back and all the fruits and veggies tucked under the shade. I remember Mom bragging about the size of avocados he sold for probably half the price they cost in the sates. To this day I rarely purchase avocadoes now without thinking about Alejandro and “la cucaracha”. 🥑🪳😅

*Ah, Marina Real! We almost always had this same slip for the next 7 years! The circled area highlights the condominiums where I would go expend my energy, running up and down the stairs, swimming in the pool, and riding my bike all over the place. Eventually, my adult friends Jinxie and Mad Dog would be docked on the south side of the marina and I’d bike over to pester her or pick her brain about probably anything and everything.

May 18, Thursday

At least I think that’s the right day, it’s so easy to lose track.
John went into Guaymas again, this time he did get the phone hooked up but when he got back out here the signal is too weak to use it. Shit. We made a phone patch through Leo to John R. and Mom. I did manage to get a good enough signal to call Mom by standing on top of the dodger, but not great.
There are houses along the edge of the marina where we can hear the hum of lawn mowers, dogs barking and traffic passing by. It seems like a world of foreign noises long ago left behind for the peaceful silence of the ocean anchorages except for the small breaking waves on the beaches nearby.

*I absolutely love reading these sweet observations from my Momma. 🥰

May 19, Friday

Roach said he faxed the required statement of American Express so that we could get the phone hooked up with the other company, hoping for a better signal, but the guy never came out. We went into town with Keith, who has a van here. We had dinner, John real Mexican food, me a delicious steak, Samie a cheeseburger and fries that she said was the best ever!

*I’d be willing to bet this was our first dinner at Tequila’s! We loved this restaurant which is located just up the street the San Carlos Marina, it was one of our most frequented stops in town, and I always got my favorite, the hamburguesa con queso y papas! The staff was always friendly and kind, remembering us through the years. It’s always nice to have little hubs of familiarity when living a nomadic lifestyle. ❤🐞

May 20, Saturday

John has been cleaning on the boat non-stop and it’s looking like new.
Bill and Trish G. from Lakeside (Charlie Clark’s) are down here staying in their house. We got a ride over there, beautiful house! It is Trish’s B-day, 40 – like me, we both graduated from Snowflake in 1973.
The sunsets are still beautiful trying to peak through the houses that block them from our view, that’s the bad thing about marinas, no great views. Talked to Peg and John and Maryann.

*Mom just showed me these yearbook photos from their graduation in ‘73! We were looking through them after celebrating two new graduations in the family. I had never realized they went to school together!

May 21, Sunday

John buffed out and waxed the hull of the boat – shiny! I did laundry and scrubbed so hard I wore the skin off 2 knuckles, ouch! But compared to all of John’s cuts and scrapes, it’s minor.
Ok we will be here in this area for about 3 months. We will take short trips to anchor and spend a few days in the beautiful coves nearby – but basically we, or at least I feel like I’m “home” for awhile. After being on the move every 2 or 3 days for the last month or so I was feeling like a beach-front transient. Which in reality is not a bad way to spend our days and I love every minute of it! But maybe at a slower pace. Anyhow, when I have the steps, a “door”mat (dockmat), shore power (full time 120v) and local mailing address and a phone (total luxury), it feels like home.
John and Samie went out along the beach and caught a red snapper.

*Dad always had a smattering of cuts and scrapes - half the time he didn’t even know he had them until Mom or I pointed it out or he left a smear against something he’d rubbed up against. lol They were mostly minor, but every now and again he’d get a “good one.” Speaking of, some of the worse beatings my dad got on the boat had to do with the dodger! The dodger is the fiberglass structure with windows which was built up, over and partially around the cockpit, protecting us from sea spray, winds, and tall waves. The underside of the roof had several half-inch wide fiberglass slats which came down, perpendicular from the roof - I assume some sort of support for the dodger, which was solid and sturdy enough to walk on. Anyway, Dad had a real bad habit of coming up the companionway stairs and forgetting to duck, as the dodger overhung the companionway. This resulted in many gnargly bumps, bruises and bleeds from cracking his head on these slats! 😬I can still hear the strange, sharp thud that was specific to that particular event, along with the string of curse words that would inevitably follow. 😅 Our attempt at literally softening the blow for Dad’s poor skull was to super glue long strips of wetsuit fabric, which is cushy, kind of like a gym or yoga mat. This definitely made a difference while Dad’s muscle memory improved! I’m not sure Mom ever hit her head on it, and I certainly never had that issue - one the perks of being short! Here’s a photo of the dodger (also, naptime!) and of the steps Mom’s talking about . Since our deck is quite a bit higher than dock-level, we had these heavy-duty plastic steps with grip-tape that you’d set on the dock, next to your entry way. Getting into a marina after a few months always felt like checking in to the Ritz Carlton or something.

1 - Here you can see the underside of the dodger and the slats we cushioned. The bottom right corner is our compass at the helm, and tucked away next to me you can see the radar (covered for protection from the sun) and the VHF radio. The VHF is essentially a Walkie Talkie, reaching much shorter distances than the HAM radio. There were main, public frequencies for different areas and all the boaters would be tuned into that station. You would hail whomever [Nanamuk, Nanamuk, this is Wandrin’ Star, come in? …. Wandrin’ Star, calling Nanamuk, over.] and once they responded, you’d designate another frequency for your conversation and then return to the main frequency when finished. [Wandrin’ Star, out.]
2 - Our steps! We eventually got a dock mat to put under them, because sometimes the lack of traction underneath sent them sliding out from under you as you stepped off them. Whoopsie-daisy!

May 22, Monday

Nanamuk made it in this morning. On their way in from Concepcion, as the sun was coming up they ran right up to and over a whale sleeping on the surface. It jarred their boat, no damage, and he floated on by.
They are in the slip next to us and the kids are runn’en and have’n a ball.
John added 62 gallons of diesel by way of jerry jugs and dink. He figures we used 1  2/3 gallons per hour including the gen-set, since leaving La Paz.
Dark clouds overhead look threatening but we only got a few sprinkles. Just enough to tease us. They did carry with them some lightning that brightened the sky through the night.

*This was one of the wildest stories I remember hearing! Rob was on watch at the time and everyone else was asleep. The way I remember hearing it, Rob was quite sleepy and perhaps dozing off a little when suddenly startled by the boat lifting up and out of the water while being pushed off course some 45° or more. The whale was not disturbed, thankfully - who knows what reaction it may have had if startled!

May 23, Tuesday

Just another normal day. A little of this and that.

May 24, Wednesday

Alan and Janelle stayed here while Grace and Rob went in to do laundry and such. The kids watched movie after movie. We all had a ‘dock party’. BBQ’d red snaper – scallops (hot dogs for the kids). Yum! Very enjoyable evening – as they all are.

*Dock parties were great! Basically just happy hour on your dock with whichever neighbors wanted to join in. Marina Real was definitely host to the most regularly held dock parties. There always seemed to be someone playing guitar and people would bring their snacks and drinks and post up in a deck chair or on a dock box. What the heck is a dock box? It’s a storage box alloted to each slip which is really helpful for having your hose, power cords and other such tools handy. Fun fact: There’s a really silly song I learned from one such of these parties which was written down for me and I memorized and can randomly spit out to this day if I give my brain a second to pluck it out of the ether. It’s called the Moose Gooser’s Song and it still makes me laugh.

 1- Dock party with crew from Nanamuck, Scallywag, Miss Teak II and others.
2 - Some questionably-framed family photos of Nanamuk - and their stow-away.
3 - Finally, the little trio that was us. 🥰

May 25, Thursday

John and I got a ride into San Carlos while Samie stayed with Nanamuk. We did laundry and bedding and towels and checked on some boat insurance. The kids with their usual endless energy played all day. I called Goon, she’s still coming back with us for about a month. John called John M. – he will pick us up in Nogales on Tuesday the 30th when Bob and Cynthia from Miss Teak II drop us off there.

May 26, Friday

We took the main sail down and got it all folded and in its bag to take to Arizona to have all the seams restitched. We had another dock party tonight. Grace and I walked with the kids down to the beach, but as far as we could walk it was all covered with sea weed as well as the surf so no one went swimming.

May 27, Saturday

I’m a few days behind – so I don’t remember what happened today, but nothing unusual.

May 28, Sunday

Everyone on the dock is busy getting ready to leave either for a few weeks or the whole summer.
I called Gary A. to wish him a Happy B-day. He was quite surprised.

May 29, Monday

Happy Anniversary Chelle and Faron

Nanamuk left this morning to be hauled out for the summer. They have to go home to Canada to work for a while. Bummer! 
John got a local guy over here to work out the gen-set. He does all the maintenance work for the Shrimpers. He found the problem and fixed it for $N300 pesos. When John replaced all the parts trying to find the problem, the solenoid he put in (brand new) was no good. Put the old one in – presto! It must have just been hung up to begin with. You know – a good kick was all it needed!
The night before Nanamuk left Samie finally got the kiss she had been waiting for. Her and Alan were behind the pillar at the end of the dock and for at least 10 minutes I could hear them saying  “do you want to?” “yes” “no” back and forth until finally they kissed twice! It was so cute, they both came out of there wiping their mouths off, saying “I never should have done that.”
Samie came straight down and brushed her teeth. It was so cute and so funny!

*Ah yes, my first kiss. They were leaving the next morning, so he and I went behind the pillar for “privacy” to say goodbye before we had to go inside for the night. I do remember the “do you want to?” hesitations before going for it. I only remember one peck on the lips, but maybe there were two short ones. I definitely remember bouncing out of there like “yech!” and running to brush my teeth, wondering why kissing was such a big deal. 😅 Thankfully, we weren’t ready for that!

May 30, Tuesday

We closed up the boat for our trip to Arizona. Leaving the boat is much more difficult than leaving a house. We are traveling with Bob & Cynthia Smith from Miss Teak II who are on their way to Denver, CO for the summer. We ate breakfast in San Carlos and were on our way by 9 am. Nice easy trip in to Nogalas, where we had a good inspection at the border. The mini van was way crammed and completely full, but at least we didn’t have to empty it out. Welcome back to the U.S.!
John M. was waiting there for us and we stayed at their house tonight. Good food and company.

1 - Morning of departure, we still had the wind scoop up that morning; it was a life-saver and helped funnel any kind of a breeze down my hatch, into the vessel. I had a GIANT hatch up front, which was like having a sun-roof in my bedroom and also meant I had the most temperature-controlled room. 😎
2 - Everything’s taken down, tucked away, and ready to hunker down and wait for our return. 

May 31, Wednesday

John is letting us borrow his pickup, we stopped at Mac’s Indian Jewelry and came on into Mesa. Chelle, Schlyer and Danielle came over and we did a bunch of errands, saw Danielle’s apartment. Schyler is the cutest kid I’ve ever seen! John was so cute – proud Grandpa!

Meeting baby Schyler for the first time and being silly with my sister, Danielle. ❤

June ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

June 1, Thursday

John dropped the main sail off to be fixed and picked up the generator parts. Chelle and Schyler spent the morning over here with Samie and I. He was wide awake and so alert today. I even got a couple of smiles out of him. I could hold him all day!
John and I drove over to Mesa Lutheran Hospital to see my Grandpa Jones. Janice was there. Grandpa was sitting up in a wheel chair, he doesn’t look very good- so pale and thin, but he was very alert like always. He has had congestive heart failure for the last couple of years and his kidneys are only at 30%. Tomorrow he will be moved and start physical therapy. I’m so thankful I got to see him again. Andy and Janet and kids came over to visit.

June 2, Friday

We left Mom’s at 8 am for Show Low and dropped Samie off at Sam and Rane’s- first thing. A few days alone will be nice. We took our pictures to Navopache and visited there for 4 hours. The place hasn’t changed at all. We spent the evening at Barbara and Richards; Dwayne and Susan stopped by.

June 3, Saturday

I’m ready to go home- we both are! Saw Helkemeyer and Tim today. Jo, Angie and kids came over (Samie was here) and Janell and Jim. It was so good to see Janell and everyone. Shine, Paul and Sue, Mike and Myrte, also came by. It’s freezing up here!

June 4, Sunday

Up to Barb’s and Richards while John changed the oil in Muir’s truck. Stopped at Hesingers, Garsha’s and Phyllis’. I get really tired of answering the same questions over and over. The time here in the states I have realized I don’t ever want to come back to live here! Peg and Billy were here, she wanted to spend the night. I was “mean” and told her no, I’m enjoying the time with only John. We got Chinese take out and came home for a nice quiet evening.  

June 5, Monday

We went back into Nav-a-patch for another couple of hours. Kent even told John that they might call if they need summer help, and will, I’m sure.
We bought some steaks for dinner, Shine ate with us at the cabin. He looks good, his house is clean and he likes his new job which he is learning to lay tile and carpet. I think it’s great. Peg went off with Billy. Bonnie and Kelly and Colleen came by.

June 6, Tuesday

I washed all the sheets and towels and left everything clean at the cabin. It was so nice to have a place to stay by ourselves and not be company. Weird though, with so much of their things being stuff they had bought from us. Just like being “home” again.
We left the mountain around 9 am and spent the afternoon at Mom’s. Chelle and Schyler were there. Drove out to Roach’s, did taxes. Spent the night here.

June 7, Wednesday

Went out for breakfast with Alice, stopped to see Brenda P., they have a nice house and like being away from NEC. We were sorry to miss seeing Steve but have run out of time. Picked up the main sail, only $50 to have it fixed.
We talked to Jacque and stopped to see Grandpa. Had a BBQ at Danielle’s.

June 8, Thursday

Mom did my perm this am before she went to work. Chelle and Schyler spent the morning with us and Danielle came by when she got off work at 2:00 pm. We left for Tucson around 3:30. Today was kinda cool so the ride was nice. Had a nice evening with John and Maryann.

June 9, Friday

John and Maryann left for the cabin and we left with Keith (their neighbor) for San Carlos at noon. He has a boat down here also. We really lucked out with rides back and forth.
Finally we’re home – everything was fine on the boat. I know we need the money but I don’t even want to live in the states for a couple of months. We have lived on the boat for 1 year now and I don’t ever want to go back!

June 10, Saturday

John hooked up the air conditioner that Keith is letting us use. The back is freezing but it does help the rest of the boat stay cool.
The cell phone we bought is not any better, we need to put the antenna up higher on the mast.
Keith came over for dinner. It’s great having Goon here- but she says it’s weird without Danielle.

June 11, Sunday

Happy 47th birthday, John!

Back to school!
Running Free came in today. Made John a cake – it’s hot below now!!

June 12, Monday

We all went into San Carlos- got insurance on the boat and took a bus into Guaymas. Did a little shopping with Goon and got pictures developed.

June 13, Tuesday

The girls walk to the beach most every day for a while.
Mom called- I knew I should have called her when we got here. First American Title also called, the deposit was made from the 2nd on the house. Mom said she took Grandpa home last Friday, he stays in bed mostly but feels better because he is home!
We went snorkeling.

*Ha, I can’t believe Mom forgot to call Grandma for 5 days to let her know we got there! It was a bigger deal then - you couldn’t just hop online and more or less deduce that your loved ones were ok!

June 14, Wednesday

We took the girls for a ride on the “Bob Ski”- the water sure is warm.

June 15, Thursday

My Grandpa Jones passed away this morning around 3:30 am in the night. Margaret had called Marie, who called Mom. I’m not sure if they got there (to the house) before he died or not. But mom said she had spent an hour with him the night before.
I knew at the hospital and so did Grandpa, that I was saying goodbye for the last time. He was 83 years ‘young’ but his health had failed after many years and numerous experiences in his long and happy life. I’m sure it’s very hard to be so alert but unable to move about freely and with ease like he always had.
Some highlights he mentioned when we saw him last were about his last hike from the North rim to South rim of the Grand Canyon when he was 75, having 2 artificial knees and an artificial hip. Quite an accomplishment!! At 71 he hiked the Himalayas in Nepal, his trip through the Panama Canal on a cruise ship.
I have a book of Grandpa’s life history, which is very interesting reading of the many hardships of one’s life, being born in 1912 and the years that followed. Also great are the accomplishments.
I will miss you, Grandpa, I truly wish you had been able to sail with us one day.

We left the marina and motor sailed out the 10 miles to San Pedro. It does feel good to move again- PEG DOES NOT AGREE. We anchored, kids swam and gathered shells. The boat was cross-ways to the swell all night so it was rocky.

*I LOVE when things are timed JUST RIGHT! So, I took a break from posting these while I was fervently typing up our second and third seasons - I seriously couldn’t stop, I was on a roll! But today I’m back here and ready to edit and add links, photos and extra details, right? My mom notes my Great Grandpa Jones passing away - I check the date out of curiosity, and lo-and-behold, it 28 years ago today! I will absolutely take this as a little wave hello from my great grandpa, who was a most incredible and inspiring man who left a deep mark of love on those around him. I was only 7 when I last saw him, and quite confused (and maybe a little scared) of his old age - I had no comprehension of death and didn’t understand the energy of being on that cusp. How cool it would be now, to ask him questions or be able to visit with him as the adult I am today! I related so much to my mother, reading this, the basking in the reflections of our grandfather’s legacies and appreciating all that they brought to our world. ❤ After my own grandpa passed away in 2017, I ended up getting really deep into his stories and our family history and have had the best time learning all these things I never knew which really blew open a whole new world for me - like finding out that not only has my family been part of my same community in Arizona for 145 years, but that my fourth great grandfather was actually one of the four founders! 🤯 I’m really proud of my family lineage (both sides) and all the amazing, inspiring things they accomplished in their lives. I am proud to share their genealogy.

June 16, Friday

We didn’t find out until today about Grandpa. Brent got us on the Chabasco net. Mom said she tried to call several times with no luck. We came back into the marina after anchoring outside the break-water while John cleaned the boat bottom. I finally talked to Mom.
On our sail back in- I know that Grandpa was with us enjoying the breeze as we splashed through the beautiful sea. I left very close to him and I know that he is now with Grandma and no longer in any pain.

*Again, I resonate with my mom here, feeling the presence of our grandpas after their passing. 🥰
I was able to find the cloud photos Mom mentioned in the comments.🐞

June 17, Saturday

I’m glad we did come in yesterday- it’s pretty breezy. A couple boats were headed out and came back in- I guess it’s 20-25 knots out there. NO THANKS!
The hurricane ‘Adolph’ is at 15° 8N and 106° 8W moving NNW at 6 mph. Currently blowing between 80 and 103 mph.

June 18, Sunday

Happy Father’s Day

Just another day, still pretty breezy.
Talked to Chelle and Danielle.

June 19, Monday

Around 10:30 we headed out of the marina for Martini Cove, which is just around the corner from San Carlos main anchorage. We had to anchor 3 times before we got it right. Far enough away from the rocks and the other boat in this all too small cove. John and the girls went snorkeling. I let Goon call Billy, now she wants to go home- poop!

June 20, Tuesday

John and the girls went around the corner to San Carlos Marina to use the pool. I stayed on the boat- party pooper that I am! They went snorkeling when they got back. Samie got stung by a jellyfish on the face by her mouth and Peg got one on her arm. I heard the screams, John said he was underwater and heard it. Samie panicked and they had a hard time getting her back to the boat. They held cloths on it, but it still burned for about an hour. Samie says she’s never swimming in the ocean again! We’ll see. We all dinghied into town for dinner.
Back aboard, Goon and I had another nice long talk, I’m sure enjoying having her here- except the consistent bickering that her and Sam do!

*Ahh, yes, the infamous jellyfish event! Personally, I don’t even remember ever seeing the thing, which is wild - but also makes sense, as it was apparently on my face! I remember swimming alongside my sister and her getting a confused look on her face before realizing what she was seeing. I don’t remember when the pain kicked in, but I panicked either at it or at the idea of a jellyfish on my face and I started screaming bloody murder. Dad was snorkeling along the bottom, heard, and, as I remember hearing it, thought there might be a shark in the water. Meanwhile, Peg was panicking in her oversized tank-top, worried the jellyfish would get stuck between her and the shirt and sting her all over. I guess we got the jelly off or it floated away and they scuttled me into the dinghy. I sort of remember getting back to the boat and Mom applying vinegar to my face for the sting. It was totally fine by the time we got home from dinner. I always remember the story being that it was a Portuguese Man-of-War, the ones with the wind sack, but those are supposed to be real bad and this seemed to have turned out pretty mild, so who knows. 🤷‍♀️*As I just added the link for the Man of War, I learned that they are actually not jellyfish, but a siphonophore, which is closely related. Also, while their venom will pack a punch for smaller sea life, it looks like they are rarely deadly to humans. So I probably got a “light dose” as it was floating by. I still don’t get how I didn’t see it! — Also, lol to the “consistent bickering.” 🙃🐞

June 21, Wednesday

John dinghied in to get ice, then we headed back into Marina Real. It is 10° hotter in the marina than in Martini Cove.

June 22, Thursday

John got a ride to the airport to pick up the Roach’s. Peg and Sam slept in the cockpit, Mandy and John slept on the dodger- what a crew.

June 23, Friday

We headed out for San Pedro and anchored for the night. Bought some lobster and red snapper for dinner.

June 24, Saturday

Today was Grandpa’s funeral.

We weighed anchor and sailed around to Martini Cove and saw 2 blue whales on the way. Everyone, but me, went in to San Carlos- the kiddos went for a swim. Snorkeling was the Roach’s afternoon adventure. When the sun went down the wind shifted to a land breeze that felt as if it was being blown from a furnace- hot! It never cooled off until early morning.
I have slept in the cockpit the last two nights- it’s so hot.

 *Sadly, I do not remember seeing blue whales! I remember speculating a time or two, but I don’t remember being overcome by size, which I feel would be an appropriate sensation to experience in the sight of the largest mammal on earth… lol. Albeit, it’s hard to tell just how massive whales are when you’re alongside them and they’re sort of “hiding” under the surface. 🐞

June 25, Sunday

The wind picked up and was bringing in a good swell, bouncing the boat so we motored around into San Carlos and tied to a mooring for the afternoon. Girls went swimming and adults and “little” John all rode the bus into Guaymas- had some lunch, walked around in Ley’s and headed back to the bus- too damn HOT!!
We sailed back to Marina Real.

*It’s funny, I remember so much of the first year in detail, but pretty much this entire trip seems to have been lifted from my memory. I don’t remember my sister being with us for a whole month, I barely remember having so many people on the boat at once, and I don’t remember the plan ever not being to go back north for the summers. Lol It’s a good reminder for me that my memory may not be the most accurate source of information! 

June 26, Monday

Happy B-day Andy

We got a ride to the airport, bought Peg a ticket. A one-way ‘walk on’ was $119!! Compared to round trip advance $139! I should have made her stay here!
She called from Grandma’s around 5:30 - safe and sound, she’s riding home with Jo in the morning. Warren is doing fine after his surgery last Wednesday (21st) to loosen the tendons in his legs. He is in 2 full length leg casts.

June 27, Tuesday

We borrowed Harry’s van and went in to do laundry. John called Navopache and found out that Chuck M. had a heart attack walking home from lunch, they did revive him but broke a few ribs in doing so. So far he’s ok and in Show Low Hospital.
Kent did offer John a job for the summer. So now it’s work, work to be ready to leave the boat on Sunday.

June 28, Wednesday

John painted the brown on the cap rail. We took down all the sails. Had a swim to cool off. Samie stayed with Stephanie from another boat (?) while we went to dinner with Don and Sherry on Luna and Arnie and Jean on Maiden Voyage. Real nice steak house in Guaymas.

June 29, Thursday

I put tin foil on all the windows and the temperature was immediately cooler inside the boat. But not cool enough!
Stacking- storing- scrubbing! Took a break and went for a swim.

June 30, Friday

Happy B-day Bonnie

Another CALIENTE day! 95° and high humidity.
The boat is almost ready to leave, although we really don’t want to. We’re both getting real melancholy.
Leaving the house wasn’t as hard as leaving the boat! It’s home now and I don’t want to leave!!
We heard they had an earthquake on Isla Ceralvo by La Paz- 6.6 or something and it was felt in La Paz.

Summer ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

July 1, 1995 Saturday

Another day of getting the boat ready to leave for the summer.

July 2, Sunday

We finally got to talk to Arnie and Janice this morning. They were anchored in San Francisco and plan to be in San Carlos around the 15th of July. Then they will spend 6 weeks in the States, San Francisco.
We left around 9:30 am and headed for the States with Harry and family. We got to Tubac and they bought us lunch at their restaurant. They’ve got a real nice place and tourist shop.
John and Maryann picked us up there and we stayed at their house.

July 3, Monday

We went to Green Valley but no luck finding a car. So they are letting us drive the truck up to the mountain, they drive up Friday night with Maryann’s mom and take the truck back.

July 4, Tuesday

We left around 6 am so that the ride is cool enough for Falstaff and to miss the 4th traffic. We made it to the cabin around 10:30. Samie spent the day and night with Sam and Rane, had a picnic and went to the fireworks. We had a BBQ at Barb and Richard’s and shot off a few fireworks of our own- no cops!
Staying at the cabin.
🐞

July 5, Wednesday

John went to work- yuk!

July 6, Thursday

We found a car, it’s Liz’s from work, an ’86 Chevy Cavalier, paid $1,500. Seems to run real good.
The “Big Guys” at NEC decided I could go back to work also, at least temporary- 3 weeks at first- hopefully all summer. I’m even gonna be up helping at the customer desk like before- at the same pay as when we left! Wow!

July 7, Friday

I thought I had blocked it all out but it was already coming back by the end of the day. Theresa was on vacation and will be back Monday, so I’ll be helping her and training Michelle who will be up there full time.
Danielle drove up tonight. We stayed at Larry L.’s until Monday.

July 8, Saturday

We talked to Melanie’s mom, Shirley and we can move into her house in PTCC on the 23rd or so. We will fix up the yard and paint the outside for staying there. It will be good to be on our own and able to hang up our clothes. Only a week and I’m sick of living out of a bag. John helped seal the road back into the cabin.
Peg had a guy run into the rear driver’s side of her car in Snowflake last night. She’s ok and the other guy got the ticket. I haven’t seen the car but it’s not drivable.
Her and Billy stayed here tonight.

July 9, Sunday

John has waxed the car twice and shined the inside- looks pretty good.
Billy and Goon left to go to Clay Springs and he left his wallet here.

July 10, Monday

Ok- Monday morning - I had forgotten how awful they can be!
Moved in with Colleen.

July 11, Tuesday

Same ‘ole- same ‘ole!

July 12, Wednesday

Happy B-day Daddy!

July 13, Tuesday

It’s nice here at Colleen’s, good friend, nice company. Samie stays with Rane while we are at work. Today they all went to St. George, Uthah for a Jones family reunion.

*Sam is my biological father and Rane is my step mom - For the first few years, I would stay with them on summer weekdays while Mom and Dad were at work. Regan was 2 and Cardon was just a few months old at this time, so I was experiencing the new world of being a big sister. My cousins and grandma lived right down the street, so I’d usually be playing over there in the afternoon until about the time Mom and Dad came to pick me up.

July 14, Friday

Well, at least 4:00 pm on Fridays is nice.
It’s “scary” how much of work I remembered. I thought I had blocked it all out.

July 15, Sunday

We moved our few possessions up to PTLCC in Melanie’s house. It is nice to be on our own and not in on someone.
We are going to paint the outside of the house in place of rent.

August 10, Thursday

There is really not much to write here on land!

I worked at my old job in customer service for 4 weeks and then went to the mail room, for 3 weeks that I know of so far.
Sat, Aug 5, I went to Travis S.’s wedding. Got to see a lot of the family that I hadn’t seen for years. Dave was there, it’s been 15 or 16 years since I saw him last.
I also went to Janell’s wedding. She finally married Jim after 8 years. I got to meet her friend Barbara after hearing about her for 14 years.
Schyler is 3 months old and so cute. He’s trying to roll over, he laughs a lot.
Danielle is trying to go back to school and play softball.
We watch the weather and right now tropical depression “Flossy” is moving NNW from P.V. to Cabo, but should- hopefully- start moving more west.
Janice & Arnie called from San Diego, they might come up here in Sept. I hope so.
I miss our boat & Mexico- life in the States sucks!!
Hurricane Flossie is 125 miles south of Cabo, winds 75 mph, but moving mostly west and out to sea. Cabo may get winds 40 to 70 mph.

August 28, Monday

I’m still working in the mail room and other odds and ends. Hopefully it will last as long as possible.
Even Samie is ready to go home. She said that when she gets real bored she starts thinking of the boat and what we would be doing there. She also said that a little humidity would be nice, cause it’s a bit cold here!!
On Friday 8-25-95 Samie got her ears pierced- she’s doing good with ‘em.
Danielle got a promotion at Walmart- she is the department head of furniture. At 19 she’s the youngest to ever be a department head.
On Saturday, 8-26-95 we drove to Alpine to meet Brent B. from the Chubasco net on the ham radio. It’s nice to have a face to go with the voice. It was a nice ride, it rained off and on both ways. It’s really green and pretty, we saw a few deer and antelope.
Janice and Arne called, they are in Alameda, California headed to Washington and don’t know if or when they’ll get out here to Arizona.
The cap that fell off my tooth would have cost too much to replace so I just had him (Dr. Boyd) put a filling in it.
Six or seven weeks to go- and counting!!

Sept 9, Saturday

The other night we watched Cal Ripkin break Lou Gehrig’s record from 1939 of 2,131 games played on the baseball field consecutively.
Chelle and Faron and Schyler came up over Labor Day weekend. I had been so sick that I didn’t even hold Schyler. John and Maryann also came up.
Hurricane Henerrita hit Cabo on Sept 3rd or 4th and then veered off to the west. Never heard just how much damage was done, but with 100 mile an hour winds I can imagine.
John is so bored he’s helping to neighbor paint his house.
Oh-on Sept 1st I got a sailboat and a star tattooed on my right ankle- for the Wand’rin’ Star!

*Holy smokes! I pulled up the video of Cal Ripkin breaking that record and it’s a legit 19 minutes of solid cheering and support from the entire stadium. No pyrotechnics, no lights and dancing or anything flying overhead. Not even commentary of any sort! Just a 19 minute standing ovation - can you imagine how that would feel to receive?! You can see on his face over and over how blown away he is! It’s pretty cool. Also, I love spotting signs of the technology at the time - big bulky recorders and all the flash photography in the stands making the stadium look almost shimmery.
I don’t remember a lot of specifics about this summer, I spent the days while Mom and Dad were at work at Rane and Sam’s and spent a lot of time with my cousin Ariann. Once school started, I was always enrolled for the first 9 weeks until we left. This way, I maintained a bit of a social connection at school and it was always so fun to come back and see all my friends again and probably answer questions about the boat. During I think 3rd-5th grades, the whole class would write me letters and I would respond back to everyone. Mrs. Grave’s class, 3rd grade, even went so far as to make a little book for me that everyone drew in and signed. They also gave me a Doodle Bear which I’m sure everyone signed, and I remember them singing “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow” on my last day, lol. I remember watching Baywatch most nights when I got home, while Dad was painting and Mom was getting dinner ready. Mom and I were also avid fans of Home Improvement and would watch that together regularly.

Sept 14, 1995, Thursday

We been watching Hurricane Ishmael head straight up the Sea of Cortez. It’s blowing 85 mph and at 3:30 they put out a hurricane warning all the way up to Guaymas. We came home and packed a bag and headed down to the Wand’rin’Star. We took some clothes to Samie at Rane’s and Jo will pick her up on Friday and keep her till we get back.
We made it to John and Maryann’s at 10 pm and stayed there for the night.

*I had forgotten about this, but I remember it vaguely now; Mom says I was pissed I didn’t get the choice to go with them to watch out for the boat, but as an adult now, I absolutely would have made the same decision!

Sept 15, Friday

We left at 6 am and got down to San Carlos about 1 pm. We had seen on TV at Maryann’s that Ishmael had gone inland at Los Moshi’s about 120 miles south of Guaymas, but decided to go on down.
The boat was floating in her slip just as beautiful as anything could be. Jeff had gone over and secured her with some extra lines- thank god they weren’t needed.
She’s not growing too much funk on her bottom, either.
We spent the night sleeping in the cockpit looking up at the stars and listening to the beautiful music of the rigging slap against the mast!
It got down to 80° in the early morning but was still 100° and 90% humidity in the day.
There are a few - very few - yachties sticking it out for the summer down there. They said all they got out of the hurricane was 20 knots of wind and a few sprinkles.

Sept 16, Saturday

We are breakfast at “Rosa’s” then went by the dry storage- and guess who was back from the States painting the bottom of -- True Blue, so we visited the gang for awhile and headed out. We went on in to Tucson and stayed in a motel which was extra nice.

Sept 17, Sunday

We left Tucson and got home at 10:30 am- 4 days on the road, a total of 1200 long miles. Peg brought Samie home and she stayed here tonight.

Sept 20, Wednesday

We went to Pat’s for pizza tonight- Shine was working. He’s on full time there again.
Danielle came up and stayed here.

Sept 30, Saturday

Peg and Billy are staying here this weekend.
I took Peg to get her tattoo on her right ankle. She got a crescent moon and 3 stars. Cute. I hope her dad doesn’t flip out. Billy tested for and got his blue striped belt in taekwondo.