October ‘96

*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 10, Thursday

Well, it’s been a while..
Last week, Hurricane Hernan went up the Mexican coast, hitting Acapulco, Zihuatanejo and Manzanillo , dying out just below P.V. I faxed a letter to Rosa at Cruise Quarters in La Cruz. She called to say all was well and they only got a little rain. It was great to hear her voice.
On the 5th Angie and Jo picked me up – we drove to Payson. Daddy and Andy drove up and we all spent the day at [Tonto] Natural Bridge. Picnic and hiking down in. Daddy walks about 3 miles every day and he did better than any of us kids!
Danielle came up for the weekend – it was so good to see her. Her knee is still a little swollen and the cut on the front of her ankle is still healing. She is so lucky to be alive.
Janice called again on Tuesday 8th, all is well in Seattle, WA. They will stay there to work on Renegade.
Sheri, Valiant Lady called, Wednesday the 9th, it was good to talk to her. They had spent 18 months straight on the boat, have been in Albuquerque, NM for several months and are going back to Panama in December.
The other day, Samie said she had an empty feeling about 3” above her stomach! I said me too – it’s called homesick! She says she just feels like she doesn’t belong.
Today a boy at school told her ‘life sucks”, Samie replied – “Same here, but only until the 26th, and then I’ll be fine.” – that’s the day we leave for home!

*I love my response to the kid at school - too cute! But sad that I didn’t feel like I belonged - I guess once you find your people, nothing else ever quite does it.
It really is wild how relatively unscathed Danielle was considering the accident she was in.
Below are photos from Mom’s trip to the natural bridge. The last photo is the same spot around 17 years later, when I went with my friends Katie, Chris and Adam in the summer of 2013. Last is some more info on Hurricane Hernan.

October 11, Friday

Happy B-day Goon! Big 18!

October 25, Friday

Last day of work! This last week has turned really COLD – it even snowed today.
John went to lunch with Dave and Buckwheat. Several of the girls took me to lunch – Shine and Goon even came along.
The last couple of days we’ve stayed up at the cabin – much warmer than the trailer now.

October 26, Saturday

The U-Haul is loaded with all Chelle’s stuff, John drove it down to Mesa, Jacque drove me down in the van – Shine rode down with Chelle. Spent the night at Mom’s – Andy, Janet and kids all came over. Cade is a real cutie – Rendy is finally coming around to being my little friend. She talked more tonight than ever. Even had hugs and kisses.

October 27, Sunday

Drove to John and Maryann’s and spent the night.

October 28, Monday

Left the Muir’s at 7 a.m. and safely arrived home at last at 1:30 pm.
We had talked to Jeff and heard that a month ago he was electrocuted while on our boat – but he is ok.
John has checked everything and finds no problems. It’s a mystery.
We got everything out and on deck so we could move back in.

*That’s wild that Jeff was electrocuted on the boat! I wonder if we ever figured out later what happened? I don’t think it ever happened again to anyone. 🐞

October 29, Tuesday

Got the sails back on and the new head in.
Took 2 days just to get Samie’s room cleaned out and put away.

*That’s because so much of the exterior stuff - sails, extra cushions, ropes and other random items were mostly all moved forward into my bunk for storage. It just took some time to reassemble everything. Also, a reminder for those who don’t know the lingo - head = toilet.

October 31, Thursday

Jim and Kitty Summer Wind were in dry dock painting the boat bottom, but are now beside us again.
New tuner on the HAM works great. Even talked to Roxanne on Palio on Southbound net. Lots of familiar voices.
Big Halloween dock party up by the pool. I dressed like a pirate and Samie was a hippy – she went trick-or-treating with Jeff and some other kids.

*HA! Why am I making such an intense face here?! 😂

November ‘96

*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, Friday

John painted the decks and helped Bill Gibson install his GPS.

November 2, Saturday

A little more of this and that.

November 3, Sunday

We headed out at 8 am on Prime Time with Bill and Trish and Jim and Kitty. Just a couple of miles out, the engines started pumping out black sooty smoke, so we headed back in. After changing fuel filters they figured out it was one of the injections.
Samie stayed at Kitty’s while John and I went to Bill and Linda’s (John and Maryann’s friends) house for a great dinner, along with Steve and Janet from Grey Max and Jerry and Leann on Tumbleweed.
Jeff got the injectors back in and we fired her up!

November 4, Monday

Kitty and I did laundry. 4 loads, 72 pesos.
Joaquin started the stripe on the boat – new color – sea mist, but he needs a sprayer.

November 5, Tuesday

Joaquin got the starboard side painted – out with the brown and in with sea mist. So now we need to figure out a color for the small blue stripes and the now clashing brown toe-rail.
We started school today and after that, Samie spent the day below watching movies. While I, on the other hand, spent as much time as possible in the warm sun. 82° and only a slight breeze – the first really nice day since we arrived.

November 6, Wednesday

Well, President Clinton was re-elected yesterday.
Joaquin started on the port side but had quit when the winds picked up around 9:30 am (early) and are holding at 20-25 knots.
I finished reading Maiden Voyage, about an 18-year-old girl who sets out from New York – on her own – in a 26-foot sloop to go around the world! Very inspiring book.

*Last February, (2023) I had watched True Spirit on Netflix and was compelled to get the book for the full true version. That led me to Lionheart, which lead me to Dove and finally, Maiden Voyage. These are all true stories about solo circumnavigators ages 18 and under! After finishing Maiden Voyage, I was compelled to ask mom for her journals so I could relive our cruising days in more detail. I decided to type them out for her for easy reading, then went a few giant steps further and created this website so we could all experience the Wandrin’ Star together. How cool is it that the last book to inspire what would become this whole web page dedicated to our travels is one of the books that Mom read and I think the only book she happened to mention?! I am smitten with the synchronicities this project has enveloped me in. 🥰 I also obtained but have yet to read Unsinkable, I’ve Been Around, Indigo Blue and One Girl, One Dream, which are based on the same theme. It’s really amazing what any human can do when they want something bad enough - and all the more impressive to take on these incredible feats at such young ages! Their stories are incredibly inspiring. 🐞

*Here’s one of two sections of sailing books in my beloved library. Fun fact: In The Act of Flight is based on a family of 3 with an 8-year-old daughter on a 42-foot sailboat cruising the Mexican coastline and Sea of Cortez about 14 years before we did. The story is from the daughter’s perspective, so of course I HAD to get the book, based on all our similarities - it’s so interesting to read about all the same places and to compare and contrast with my own experiences.

Novemeber 7, Thursday

Joaquin arrived early and got the painting done before the wind started blowing 25-30 again.
We are already doubling up on school – 2 lessons a day.
It was so windy all day again and when the sun starts sinking the wind turns cold coming off the ocean. Otherwise, the daytime temps are around 82°.
The 3 of us (no one else around to join us) went into town to Piccolo’s for a wonderful pasta dinner.

November 8, Friday

Happy B-day Aunt Janice.

We went with Jim and Kitty into Guaymas to take care of the boat bonding (20 years) fishing licenses, paint for the accent color and keys – all total 5.5 hours! Town really wears ya out.
Mom called, worried, I should have called sooner.

November 9, Saturday

The wind blew most of the night, this morning dawned calm and 50°. A little on the cool side, but better than below 0° and snowing!
John and I got busy and finished all the sanding, then he started painting, all the old brown wood is going to be white. He finished half today. I’d help – but I’m a messy klutz with a paint brush in hand.
The warm 88° sun was wonderful today and the nasty ‘ole wind never blew. The soft pink sunset touched the low, wispy clouds on all sides – oh what a beautiful place to be!

*It was always such a treat to be back in these beautiful places!

November 10, Sunday

John finished the white painting today except under the hard dinghy (the garage) and the gallows.
I got my “work” clothes on, my book, and stayed in the once again warm sun.
Samie, Paula and Kitty took the kayaks out, later, John and I went for a ride in the dink out there in the harbor entrance. It felt great to be speeding and bouncing along in the “sports car.”
John and Maryann called to say hi.
The fish were jumping in the calm marina water, dozens at a time.

The gallows typically consist of a piece of teak wood which crosses the width of the cockpit and is carved in such a way as to cradle the main boom at various angles and keep it from flailing all over the place when the boat is rocking. You can see ours in this second picture, behind my silly momma on our first year out.
I loved kayaking with Paula! I don’t remember if I already mentioned it last season - but she and I would always collect any trash we found in the water while we were out. She made me an award once for the most trash collected! 🙃 Gotta look out for nature!

November 11, Monday

We masked off the windows and painted on the lavender color. So far we’re not real sure – but will wait to see once all the blue is gone and lavender in its place?
We met Bill and Trish at Piccolo’s for dinner, then went to Tequila’s; the Mariachis playing for us were wonderful! They played the Macarena, so Sam and I danced.

*Ahhh, yes - the year of the Macarena! I looked up the lyrics to find the chorus in english. You can find them here, if you’re curious too! lol

Novemeber 12, Tuesday

Joaquin has finished taping off all the trim work and letters to be painted in lavender. He is so good at cutting around the letters. She looks prettier now that the blue is gone, so this year we will spend getting used to the new colors.
Today around 5 p.m. it appeared that Summer Wind is sinking.
Following is the poem I wrote for the occasion:

Low Tide

Summer Wind is about to sink,
Or so we think.
Her colors of tan and brown,
Appear to be going down.
We empty the locker of all her chain,
Only an inch, maybe two, did we gain.
The bilge is bone-dry,
What next, should we try?
Now what do you suppose,
Once again, down goes her nose.
To our wonder and surprise,
A smile lights John’s eyes,
Jim and Kitty won’t hear a splash or thud,
Summer Wind is sitting in the mud!

(Marina Real, San Carlos, Mexico)
Now we can laugh.

And so goes this episode of a very exciting evening.

*It would have looked like Summer Wind was sinking because the mud would have held it in place while the tide rose - which means the waterline would keep rising on the boat, rather than the boat rising with the tide. Definitely not funny until we realized what was happening! Most marina’s aren’t very deep, especially the closer in you are. We were typically about halfway up the dock and more shallow than other areas. I love Mom’s poem - she is so cute! She wrote a lot of great stories and poems while we were on the boat. I’ll make sure to add them in along the way.
The lavender we chose that year would ultimately be too faint and hard to read at a distance, so we later chose a darker purple for the trim and repainted the name in white. As far as I know, she’s still sporting those beautiful colors up in Vancouver, where she lives now. Below are some of the last photos we received from the owners who bought her from us. Fast forward a couple of seasons and you’ll see when I painted the dolphins on her keel! The couple who bought her from us have since sold her and we are not in touch with the new owners - but I hope to be one day ‘cause I still carry a dream in my pocket to buy her back! I think that would really be the coolest thing, ever! 😍

November 13, Wednesday

Samie and I have completed 14 lessons of school in just 7 days.
The painting tarp that we used in Lakeside - we made it into a shade trap for the boat. Worked great.
The Wandrin’ Star sure looks pretty. The new white toe rail and hand rails sure do make a smooth difference.

*haha, pretty sure Mom meant ‘tarp’, for ‘shade tarp’ - but ‘shade trap’ actually works great, if you think about it! 😂 Gotta trap that shade any way you can!

November 14, Thursday

I went out with the girls kayaking today – out beyond the entrance. Nice, lazy day, the wind blew from the south at 5k. It went back and forth between cool and almost warm. At 2 pm John and I went into Guaymas with Jim – Samie and Kitty stayed here. We picked up Jim’s dinghy wheels he had made - $400 U.S. We picked up our windvane we had repaired - $50 U.S. We looked for a fabric store and the possibility of having our cushions and Samie’s bed redone. We found nothing – so decided to wait – find the fabric in the States, then I can match it for curtains – geez, never ending.

November 15, Friday

John waxed the boat. A little of this and that. We stopped at Bill and Trish’s on our way to Tequila’s for dinner. Her son Jason and his friend Mike are visiting – they all joined us for dinner. Real nice evening.

*See Dad hard at work below, and Jim being silly while celebrating some great catch for the day! I miss that guy! ❤

November 16, Saturday

Kitty and I went in and did laundry. The rest of the day was a lazy one spent under clouds and a cool breeze. Heard it’s snowing up on the mountain.
The boat is all put together; Manuel cleaned the bottom. So if tomorrow is nice, we’ll take Bill, Trish and the boys out for a sail.

November 17, Sunday

The morning was calm, so Bill, Trish and the boys came over at 9 am – 9:30 we are out of the marina and underway! All the sails are up, we have 10k. The wind was perfect, so we shut down the engine for about 15 minutes and we’re gliding along at 3k when Mike, Jason’s friend, gets sea sick. Poor thing. So we turned her around and headed back – he puked all the way back in. We never had a bite on the line, but we saw a pod of dolphins come along side. Beautiful sight – spectacular day. It felt so, so good to be out on open waters!
We were back in the marina around noon – 3.5 hours.
We stopped by the Gibson’s tonight, then got chicken, beans and tortillas take out – yummy.

*I’m so glad none of us ever really got sea sick! I would get queasy sometimes, but I would just stick my head out into the fresh air and watch the horizon to make it better. Mom got sea sick once, but she also had a migraine while underway, and those already tend to make a person want to throw up. I can’t imagine having a penchant for sailing but also getting bad motion sickness!

November 18, Monday

John’s doing all the little odd jobs that need to be done.
Tonight, after delicious BBQ pork ribs, we took our video of last season over to Bill and Trish’s to show them some of what cruising is about.
Trish is ready to take to the water and do it – Bill is hesitant.
We got a few more “happenings” in the on-going episodes of the “Gibson Calamities.” Bill’s jeep broke when he was working on it, one of their Ski-Dos sprung a leak and sunk, he has sat down in 2 different chairs, they both broke, the problems on Prime Time keep escalating, and now something is wrong with Prime Time Chico! (Their dinghy). Oh, he also broke the electric window button on a friend’s truck.
Goon and Danielle both called tonight.

*Ooof! Rough run of luck for the Gibsons! It makes sense that he was hesitant to go cruising with us! But they always managed to be in good spirits as far as I could tell.

November 19, Tuesday

The weather report said it was snowing in Seattle today – poor Janice must be freezing.
John finally fixed the fresh water leak we have had since we bought the boat. We had tried to fix it in Ensenada, but it was in an unreachable spot. Well, it has gotten so bad that it dripped enough to fill the bilge every day. Not sure why we didn’t think of it before - he bypassed it and ran a new flex hose. Voila – no more drip!
Don and Sherry on Luna finally made it in today. They brought a new motor, so they might actually go out this year.
We had the zippers replaced on 4 of the cockpit canvases, also the side panel isinglass.
Finished my third book since being here 3 weeks.

*Our cockpit canvases helped keep us fully enclosed, warm and dry inside the cockpit - a true luxury out at sea! They had isinglass window panes so we still had a clear view of our surroundings.
Below, I am donning the Hawaiian lei Janice sent me from Hawaii! I still have it! (Of course I do! Here’s proof!) 🐞

November 20, Wednesday

Samie went into San Carlos with Jim and Kitty to a Revolution Day celebration. There was supposed to be dancing that they wanted to see – but it never happened.
John polished all the turn buckles. Once it gets down to polishing the brass – it’s time to get moving.
I put lemon oil on all the interior wood.
Bill and Trish stopped by so we all had BBQ shrimp and visited. Now Bill is even talking about 6 months next year and traveling down the coast with us on their boat.

November 21, Thursday

Samie is studying hard for her test tomorrow.
We went into Ley’s with Jim and Kitty. We spent $1,115 pesos ($150 U.S.). The 40 beers were 100 pesos ($17 U.S.), 12 pork chops, 6 steaks, 2 kilos of bacon, 3 kilos of burger, 2 bags of ice, 1 loaf of bread, $348 pesos ($45 U.S.). I don’t even want to think what it all would have cost in the U.S.
We stopped by Bill and Trisha’s for a while this evening – it sure has been nice having them here while we’re here.

*Fun fact that I actually just learned this past year - Mom and Trisha went to school together. They weren’t in the same circle, but knew each other. I had always thought they met because Dad and Bill knew each other.

November 22, Friday

John and Jim checked us all out through the San Carlos Marina.
Samie passed her first test with flying colors – an A!
Bill’s turbo for the boat got here today. Cecil, Joann, her parents and another couple brought it down from Pinetop. We all went to the palapa at the Best Western, followed by Tequila’s – great time. Samie stayed with Kitty.
Earlier tonight, still daylight, the nearly full moon was coming up just to the side of Goat Tit mountain. Beautiful. Samie said how Peggy would love it and then added that she’s sure she was also seeing the very same moon tonight.

*Jim and Kitty were so sweet to spend so much time with me! I remember we had some really great times and lots of laughs. We lost touch with them over the years, and I often wonder about them and how they’re doing. I’m not sure what was the last we heard of them.
At the time it was popular to imagine someone you loved who was far away was looking up at the moon when you were. It was comforting that you could both be looking at one same thing while being separated by so much space and somehow that made the distance more bearable.
This is a photo from another night, but this was our view of good ‘ole Goat Tit (😅) in Marina Real, towering above the condos where the pool was that we would use. I used to wander all over those condo stairwells, walkways and halls, chasing boredom away. I think I might have even gone up to the roof, the way I’m remembering those satellite discs.
Oh wow, this photo just brought back memories of the coyotes you could hear howling at night - it was beautiful and haunting at the same time, the way their howls cut sharply through the crisp, quiet, night air. I’d listen to them while reading myself to sleep - my huge hatch above me would catch their calls and slide them down to me and my imagination would go wild. They sounded so close and on the prowl, like they might climb on board and stare down at me from the hatch above, drooling and ready for a snack! Everything else was so quiet - it felt like the only beings awake at that hour were me and the coyotes. 🐺

November 23, Saturday

Happy B-day Debby Maul.

A low, thick fog sat on top of the mountain early this morning.
John dropped Kitty, Samie and I off at the laundromat while he ran into Guaymas to get propane.
By the time we got back to the marina (2.5 hours later) the wind was blowing 25 knots and already kicked up quite a chop out in the bay. It continued to blow like this all day. Miserable, especially after such nice, warm, calm days.
Most everyone stays inside on such terrible days and Samie and I are both bored stiff.
Time to get moving on – as soon as the wind stops whippen it up out there!

November 24, Sunday

Samie and I decided to enjoy the morning’s warm sunshine and do school when the wind kicks up. Well, we never did get it done, it was nice until 3:30 – oh well.
John installed a new head on Prime Time and I visted with Trisha.
Samie stayed with Kitty again while John and I had dinner on Tumbleweed.

November 25, Monday

Hal from Angela came into San Carlos last night. He came down to paint the bottom and sail down to Mazatlan. But for now, he is alone, the rest of the family may come in March.
Jeff got the new turbo in Bill’s boat, but there is still a problem.
The wind has kicked up again today – it’s getting old.
Ourselves, Jim, Kitty, Hal and Alaskan Poor Boy’s Mike all went to Tequila’s for dinner.

November 26, Tuesday

The north wind was supposed to really blow today, so we didn’t leave. Well, guess what? No big blow, only 8 knots out of the SSW.
Kitty has borrowed the sewing machine to put together a dinghy cover. Doing a good job, too!
Our power went out today around noon. John worked on the problem until 4 pm. He changed out a corroded outlet where the shore power plugs into the boat. He also changed out the switch on the panel for going between ship and shore power. That made no difference and he put the old one back in. Ends up I think being a short in the dock cord and/or the dock box. Once we plugged into another box – all is ok.
Frustration makes for a long day.
Goon called, her and Shine plan to spend Thanksgiving with Chelle and Danielle.

*I’m perpetually in awe of how capable Dad was/is at fixing things and finding solutions. As an engineer, that totally makes sense, of course - but man did that help save us a lot of time and money over the years! Both on the boat and in the houses we would rent - he would fix up the houses we rented in exchange for cheaper rent. Mom and Dad have both always left a place in better shape than they found it, which taught me a lot about respecting and taking care of things I own/borrow/rent, etc. 🐞

November 27, Wednesday

Jeff finished working on Bill’s boat yesterday. Bill, Trish and John took it out for a little bit – ran great. Now Bill is dancing a happy little jig!
Kitty borrowed my sewing machine to make their dinghy cover and she’s done a great job of putting one together out of scraps.
Samie washed Jim’s van today, using the long-handled deck brush. She also used the shammy and newspaper on the windows. They tried to pay her more, but she only took 20 pesos – she enjoyed doing it.

*It’s so satisfying to help the people you love, and I sure loved Jim and Kitty. 🥰

November 28, Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving

Shine called late last night to say they weren’t going down to Danielle’s after all.
We skipped school – it’s a holiday, after all!
John ran Hal into Leys this a.m.
We’re all stocked up and ready to go, but now the north wind is kicken it up. So we’ll see.
Jim and Kitty came over with potato salad, we BBQed ribs and I had made beans. Not your traditional turkey, but great none the less.
Danielle called as did Goon and Shine.
On the southbound net, Running Free came up. They are on the east side of Mexico in British Honduras. What a surprise! Too much noise to talk much, but great to hear their voice.

*I hardly remember any traditional Thanksgiving dinners, which means the traditional turkey spread has always seemed odd to me, funny enough. In fact, Mom confirmed my memories of steak and shrimp being the usual go-to for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yum! 🐞

November 29, Friday

The departure was postponed again, another windy day. So we fiddle-farted around, all on pins and needles, anxious to be underway.

*Another lesson of patience in the cruising world! You don’t get to simply choose a date and time to leave - you have to respect the weather, lest you find yourself in a real pickle of a situation out at sea! Sometimes you’re ready for weeks before you can leave - and other times you realize you have to cut your time short so you can catch a weather window while it’s good! The weather can be your greatest ally or your gnarliest foe - you really have to respect the conditions of each passage.

November 30, Saturday

Weather reports look like it may be good enough to go – or so John and Jim thought. Kitty and I didn’t agree – but at 1:30 pm - out we went. It was blowen 10 knots out of the North with gusts to 18 when we left the marina. About an hour out, we had 20 out of the west. We decided to continue on in the swelly and somewhat lumpy seas. Right at 5 pm, as the sun was setting, we hear a grinding noise and feel a vibration. John finds that the cutlass bearing is breaking away and we are trickling some water. Not good. So at 5:30 pm, we come about and head back to San Carlos. Now, we have 25 to 30 knots on our nose as we plow through very rough seas – here we go again. We could only run the engine at 1200 rpms, which gave us little or no forward motion into the wind and rough seas. Too bad it was dark, or I could have gotten some great video. Summer Wind was wonderful, they also turned back to make sure we got back ok. It’s pretty scary when you’re taking on water, even if it’s only a trickle.
Sherry on Luna and Randy on Abientot knew of our situation and radioed out every hour or two to check on us. They were also on the dock to take our lines when we made it in at 3:30 am. So the 26 miles out took 3.5 hours and the returning 26 miles took 10 hours!
By 4 am John was asleep; Samie, who had been asleep since 10 pm was awake and hungry. She was back in bed at 4:30 and me too.
The water-maker motor mounts broke loose and the membrane fell off on one side during all the bouncing around.
Oh yeah, the last 2 hours in the wind dropped off to 20k – big difference and was only blowing 10k in the marina.

*The cutlass bearing is a fluted rubber tube that holds your propeller shaft in place, and keeps it spinning smoothly. I remember the grinding and having to stop and figure out what was going on - such a terrifying realization, especially when making a longer crossing! It would have been one thing with favorable winds to help us along, but to have to grind along, beating against the wind and seas knowing what was happening and that we were taking on water in any capacity - yikes! And here we have another shining example of the comradery of cruising buddies - we stick together and ensure safe arrival! Jim and Kitty were so great to come back with us for the 10-hour return trip, and it’s so amazing to have people up at all hours of the night, keeping track of updates and being ready and willing to come help you dock safely. I was so blessed to be surrounded by such constant, shining examples of humanity and community! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am forever grateful!! 🥰🐞
Mom pointed out that Jim and Kitty came back with us, beating into all that nonsense despite having no canvas or enclosure to protect them from the elements like we did. To me that makes it all the more amazing that they stuck it out with us, wow! They’re amazing!

December ‘96

*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, Sunday

We only slept until 7 am.
John went in to get the van – found the coupler we need right here in San Carlos, $95 U.S. and we get hauled out tomorrow at 7 am.
I washed down the boat which was coated in salt.
John fixed the water maker.
Samie met 2 girls, 11 and 13 years on the boat Companion. They are from Vancouver, Canada and will head down to La Paz.
Tom from Island Trader stopped by, he made it back late Friday. Jim, Kitty, Tom and the 3 of us all went to Tequila’s for dinner and to visit.
We put all our meats from our freezer in Trisha’s freezer for while we are on the hard.
Sore and achey muscles, tired bones and minds today.
Goodnight.
Chilly 58° tonight at 9:30.

Deccember 2-4, Monday-Wednesday

We left the marina before the sun was even up – 6:15 am. Made it around and hauled out at 7:15. They put us up in the yard right next to the Marina San Carlos, next to Island Trader.
Bill is letting us stay in his mom’s house, just down the road from them while we are hauled out. Beautiful big house. Samie enjoyed the satellite T.V. The weather channel is showing a huge storm in Washington and Oregon. Looks like Vancouver also got hit. Rain, snow and 20-foot seas to hit the coastline.
John changed the cutlass bearing and cleaned out the elbow on the exhaust manifold, which is why the cutlass was not getting any water. All went smooth.

*I loved staying in that house, it was very pretty and I remember there was a spiral staircase that led to the roof and I was obsessed with it! I would go up there pretending I was some sort of princess in a beautiful castle. I remember being confused how there could be so many channels on satellite TV, yet relatively so little to watch!

December 5, Thursday

We went back in the water at 8 am. Had to adjust the packing gland, it is supposed to leak just a bit, but was letting in too much. We are back in Marina Real at 9:30 or so. It was swelly and rough coming around. Prime Time came out and met us half way.
John helped Jim put his heat exchange back in. It was a good thing they came back in with us Sunday because they had a big leak to fix on their raw water pump to their engine.
Got all the food back in the freezer.
The bilge went off on its own today – so we started looking for a leak! Now what!? When they hauled us out, they got the lift pad on the transducer for the depth sounder. It must have loosened it and broke the seal; it does still work. John tightened it up as much as he dared and put on some 5200, which helped. But guess what – we haul out AGAIN at 8 am tomorrow! Hopefully he can just fix it while we are on the trailer and be back in the water in an hour.
Oh, Goon called this morning and there was also 5 calls showing on the phone, so John called Danielle; Jacque and Schyler were in a little wreck, no one hurt, thank goodness. Danielle is having surgery on her leg on Dec 13.

December 6, Friday

We hauled out at 8 am. John dropped out the depth sounder and reattached it solid with 5200. We let it dry and we were back in the water at 12:30 pm.
While we were hauling out, two guys asked permission to take pictures for a Mexico travel magazine to show this facility that the marinas have. So our dear Wandrin’ Star will be featured in the travel guide! Pretty cool!
We stopped and got 200 pesos, 90 liters of fuel. The return to Marina Real was the smoothest, calmest I’ve seen the water since getting here in October. No wind and smooth as far as the eye could see. This would have been the day to leave. Oh well.
John helped Jim put in his raw water pump, but it leaks even worse. So it’s back to the drawing board.
We met Bill’s mom, Velma and her 4 friends that drove down with her from Mesa. We all went to the Palapa and on to Tequila’s for dinner. Nice evening. We even met Bobby Unser, the race car driver. He was there with some other friends of Bill’s.
It's cold!

*You can bet your butt I searched a few times for our feature in this travel magazine/brochure, but without more detail, I was unable to find it - HOWEVER, I did come across some other cool stuff, including this photo of our boat when she was previously Temanu! The site is for Scanmar, a windvane manufacturing company and they had come across this photo of Temanu’s windvane as an example of some kind. That was surely something I didn’t expect to come across! I also found some aerial photos of Marina Real (pronounced Ree-Al, by the way - I believe it translates to Royal Marina) and San Carlos Bay, which I posted below. Marina Real and San Carlos Bay/Marina are on either side of Goat Tit Mountain. I labeled where the Star was always docked and circled the pillar behind which I’d had my very first kiss the year before, lol. Sometimes I have dreams about Marina Real, always on this same dock.
I also found some other cruiser’s (SV Calou) YouTube page with footage from some of their sailing adventures, including this one in some of our favorite Baja haunts. The boat name sounds familiar, but I don’t think we ever met them, and I’m not sure what years they were there. I’m wondering if any of our cruising friends reading this knew them?
I also found the diaries I was writing at this time, they’re cute. When I transcribed them, I kept all the spelling and grammatical errors, as I find them more amusing that way. 🙃 I have clearly always been animated, even in my writing and there were ever-present smiley and frownie faces, hearts and the like, just in case my diary wasn’t sure how I felt about something. This quirk has certainly not gone away, as is evident in my notes here - some things don’t change!

*Mom and I “bickering” in the video cracks me up. 😅

December 7, Saturday

Happy B-day Sandie.

We broke loose the 2 front stanchions and re-gooped them. Hopefully it will stop the leaking when – IF – we take water over again. Samie’s clothes were sopped again.
Samie went out with Companion to play volleyball in San Carlos.
Bill and Trish came by to say goodbye. They are leaving in the morning at 6 am. Neither of them want to go back at all. After the Christmas parties etc. at Charlie Clarks they may be back down here. It was so nice having them around!
Jim got his water pump on the engine back on, it only drips a little. John says it’s ok.
Today was a beautiful day. Warm and for the most part calm. However, it’s now 9 pm and starting to blow out of the north. Backstreets left today.

December 8, Sunday

Sunny this morning – cloudy and cool all afternoon. Wind blew 15-20 out of the west for a couple hours is all. Sunset reflected in shades of pink on the clouds all the way around us. Beautiful!
Jeff and John aligned the shaft today. Went pretty smooth, it was about ¼ inch off.
Bob and Cynthia came back in to Miss Teak II today from Colorado. Surprised to see us still here.
I put up the Christmas lights inside today and Samie put up the other decorations. Now we are getting into the spirit of the season.

December 9, Monday

Another beautiful day. It was a gorgeous 86° by 10 am! We should be out there tonight, but we’re waiting for Summer Wind. Mañana.
Luna took their boat out after 1.5 years in the slip. They now have a new motor and all is well.
Samie went with Emily on Companion to play volleyball again in San Carlos.
Kitty went into Leys today and picked up a new blow dryer for me – to replace the one John burned up when he was drying out the 5200 on the transponder! His bad luck with blow dryers!
Summer Wind is sitting so low in the mud today. Their rudder is even out of the water as she sits forward on the hump below.

*It’s funny the random details that are baked into my brain - reading about my foam football, I can still feel the seam along the center and see where it was peeling from wear and tear. It was most likely a Nerf like this one, but I remember mine being blue and white. Kitty was such a trooper, helping keep me entertained.

December 10, Tuesday

Emily from Companion came over at 9:30 am and the girls had a good time until noon when John took her back to San Carlos Marina. He treated Samie to one last ice cream for a while. We left the van at Gibson’s – so did Jim – for the next few months.
1 pm and we both leave Marina Real behind. Beautiful, flat seas, calm 5-10 knots out of the SSE. The skies are cloudy as we motor sail to Isla Carmen.
The cutlass bearing has a little clanging noise to it, but John thinks it just needs to settle in. No moon on this passage, but millions of stars peak through the dark clouds. The “sparklies” or phosphorescence are glowing in the wake as we gently glide over the glassy sea.

 *Ahh, stamping! Back when scrapbooks were all the rage, stamps were quite popular. As kids, we didn’t always have a scrapbook we were putting together, but that didn’t stop us from stamping the crap out of a piece of paper or a letter to a friend, decorating notebooks and folders, etc. Some people had quite a collection of stamps, anything from “Thank You” stamps, animal stamps, decorative detail stamps, flowers, fireworks, automobiles, books, people, hearts, whatever you could think of. Stamps were like the bedazzlers of the paper realm. I never had a huge collection, but maybe just a handful.

December 11, Wednesday

The breeze switched around to the SSW but is still only 5 to 10. We are just off of San Juanico at sunrise. The seas have now picked up a bit, coming from the NNE, along with a 12k breeze. A tad rolly, but not bad, and almost there. Summer Wind has been 2 miles behind all night and all is well with them also.
9:30 am – We made it at last! Anchored in Ballandra, Isla Carmen. The weather this a.m. said the Northers will be filling in again this afternoon – boy am I thankful we made it out when we did.
We had to re-anchor, there was a real shallow spot to the back of us.
Samie went kayaking with Paula from Backstreets.
Miss Teak II left today at noon – at 5 pm they have 18k.
BBQ steak and baked potato tonight wonderful. It’s blow’en 10k out of the north here at anchor. It’s about 10 degrees warmer here than in San Carlos.

*My spelling of Steve is cracking me up here - as is my comment about my “no-good mud-ball.” I vaguely remember chasing the dolphins, that would have been really neat to be in the middle of!

December 12, Thursday

The morning started out beautiful, by 11 am it started blow’en and by 5 pm it had been hitting 25 and 30 knots steady. It did finally lay down to 10-15k. We had a good size swell roll’en in from outside. We all went to the beach for a while this a.m. About 2:30 the dolphins were in the anchorage so we all jumped in the dink to chase them around. They headed right back out of the bay – we got pretty close a couple of times. But it was choppy and swelly and blow’en about 20k at the time.
Jim and Kitty came over for happy hour. We talked to Randy on Abientot in San Carlos she talked to Tom, Island Trader, he was 30 miles out at 5:30 and the wind was blow’en like snot.

December 13, Friday

Happy Birthday Colleen.

It finally calmed down and was flat and peaceful this a.m., so we left at 8:00, nice smooth ride into the ‘waiting room’. Big swells, but we were going with them. Made it in at 11 am – 3 hours. Anchored next to Miss Teak II. John went in for ice. Samie went to Palio and helped Roxanne made Christmas cookies. We all went to a pot-luck on the beach. Samie met Jenna (11) from Joan-D IV. Palio has Christmas lights all over the outside of the boat and they’re play’en music – it’s starting to feel more like the holiday.

*Too funny, I don’t remember this at all, about the yellow jacket/wasp and Roxanne throwing her shirt off. 😂 I don’t blame her! I definitely remember our beloved Kitty from Summer Wind being wildly afraid of bees, maybe she was allergic. The photo of the Star above is us leaving Ballandra that morning.
This entry made me think of a book that our friend Jinx wrote - I don’t think we’ve met her yet in this part of our adventures, but she is the author of the Hetta Coffey Mystery Series, about a sassy, globe-trotting Texan who typically finds herself in Mexican waters and has a penchant for getting into trouble. A good majority of Hetta’s shenanigans take place in the Sea of Cortez and it’s so fun to read her stories, knowing exactly where she is writing about and being able to picture it from memory. Last year, in 2023 she released Just Like That, which features a small “cameo” with yours truly, The Stars! Hetta is in Escondido when she mentions us, the Chabasco net and in the book I go hang out with this other girl I meet there - so this particular journal entry made me think of the book! I encourage you to check out Jinxie’s award-winning series, which is available on Kindle, Audible or good, old-fashioned paperback!

December 14, Saturday

Peaceful night, it was as calm as any marina this a.m.
Summer Wind left Ballandra at 5 am and we headed out of the waiting room at 7 am. Calm motor on in to Agua Verde anchoring at 11:30 am. Miss Teak II went on to San Evaristo, they picked up 15 k from the North.
We all went to the beach, Samie and I kayaked in. Jim and John went fishing – no luck!

December 15, Sunday

John fixed the fresh water foot-pump, it had sprung a leak on the way into Agua Verde.
John and Jim went fishing – bingo! John caught 7 or 8 trigger fish, Jim - zero. We all had a fish fry up on the beach.
The wind blew 10-15k inside here and from the white caps outside it looked like 20-25k.
It’s 6:30 pm now and still blow’en.

*This video brings me great joy! 🥰 Jim’s enthusiasm for dinner and remembering when he slid right off his seat while he was rowing makes me laugh! And of course our beautiful Wandrin’ Star! 😍 I’m not sure why, but I particularly love the memories of coming home to the Star in the dinghy, always to the starboard side; cruising up to her from these angles and lining up just right so we could climb up the ladder. I can hear the water slapping at the back of the hull and can still feel the rungs of the ladder under my feet, sometimes they were finicky and you had to make sure you had a good hold, lest they slide around mid-step.

December 16, Monday

I was up until 2:30 am – the wind was blow’en 15-20k out of the north and still is now at 9:30 am. John took the watch at 3:00 am. Around 11 am it finally settled down to 10-15k in here, but reports of 30 on the outside. The generator quit while the water maker was running. It was the flicker resistor again. John moved it over a notch and ran again. I took a nap while everyone else went to the beach.
The phone came up so we called Danielle, she has out-patient surgery on her leg tomorrow. While talking to her, she told us that Cassie drowned yesterday (the 15th) in their swimming pool. She was about 13 years old – at least we had her for the summer this last year. Samie and I had our own little memorial and threw our bacon (she loved bacon) into the bay at Agua Verde.

*My dad had four cocker spaniels that he’d had since they were pups - Bud, Max, Cassie & Kansey. Bud & Max had already passed when we moved on the boat, but Cass (the tan one) and Kans (aka Fatso) were still around and went with my sisters when we left. They were sweet girls; this was definitely a sad day. 💔

December 17, Tuesday

Last night was calm and peaceful. However, a little boat anchored next to us on a rope rode, therefore he swung all around. At 10:30 pm after the 5th time he swung within inches of our bow, I tapped on his railing with a stick and woke them up. Boy where they surprised! They re-anchored at a safer distance.
We left Agua Verde at 7:30 am. The sea was lumpy to begin with, but smoothed out once we started running with it.
John caught 2 fish – Jim caught his first dorado.
We saw 1 medium size manta ray jump and a pod of dolphins jumping and play’en. Samie got them on video. The north wind picked up about 1.5 hours from San Evaristo at 10-15 knots. When rounding the point into the bay the wind is always 15-20k – today it peaked at 30. Glad the sail was down at that point. There were two other boats already in here, so Summer Wind anchored in the wide open south bay.
Talked to Leo on ham – he called Chelle and all went well with Danielle’s leg surgery, she was in recovery and should be home at 7 pm. Also talked to Steve.
The wind blew 15-30k and gusts higher all night. Sitting in this canyon, the swirly winds pushing us all around. At 4 am, the snubber slides up on the chain with a big clank and scared the crap out of me. It’s a good thing our first year out wasn’t like this, because I would NOT have come back!

*Rope rhode has a lot more give than chain, so we were always wary of nearby boats who used rhode when anchoring. Can you imagine waking up to a tapping on deck, only to find yourselves inches away from another boat in the harbor?! I’m grateful Mom was awake and aware so we didn’t end up playing bumper boats!
A snubber consists of a length of rope that was cleated to the boat and then attached to the anchor chain. You then let the anchor chain out till the rope is taught and allows the first 6’ or so of chain to slack. This prevents the chain from rubbing and chafing along the bowsprit or wherever your chain is released from. The snubber sliding up the chain would be quite startling, as it would be carrying all the weight of the load against that wind. I bet it scared the bejeezus out of me, too, since I was in the fore cabin, where I heard a lot of the anchor chain groaning from tension and whatnot, especially when the anchorages were turbulent.

December 18, Wednesday

Happy B-day Amber

The nasty ‘ole wind blew all day and getting worse. It blew a steady 20-25 with constant gust in the 30s. John even saw 38k a couple times. He dinghied over to Summer Wind and was afraid of the dinghy flipping on the way back. While it was tied off to the side, it flew up out of the water – even with the motor on it. The kayaks were also tied along side and flying up over the life lines.
The boat, Argonaut, next to us is in an even gustier spot. One time it swung sideways and healed way over. Scary! We have out a 10 to 1 scope on the anchor. 5 to 1 is normal.
Samie and I played games – skipped school – trying to keep our minds off of the wind.
We’re gonna scoot into La Paz first chance, spend Christmas there and get on across to the mainland ASAP. Hope we see Nanamuk before then, but we’re not gonna wait for them. The mainland is not having all this wind! We have been trying to find a Canadian phone patch – no luck.
Oh, I forgot – this a.m. Samie shut our bedroom door so I could sleep and I was stuck in there, John had to take the whole knob off, climb through our hatch and work from that side to pry out the innards. The process took about 20 minutes. Would not be good in an emergency situation. Needless to say, we left out the innards!

*Those dinghies are not light - so it was pretty wild to see the whole thing, motor and all, come flying out of the water! Those Northerlies in Baja are no joke! I can vaguely recall our two inflatable kayaks flinging up almost level with the stanchions of the boat, which is pretty crazy! 😅
So, where we normally let out 100 ft of anchor to 20 ft, we would have let out 200 in this case. Essentially you want to give your chain as much room for movement as possible when the anchorage is rough. As waters rise and fall, the boat’s distance from the bottom can fluctuate wildly and you don’t want the chain to pull too tight and uproot the anchor. You also have to make sure you don’t let out too much to interfere with other boaters. Typically the boats all swing in the same direction, based on the tide, but heavy, conflicting winds can change all that!
I forgot about the door incident! We almost never used it, which probably adds to why it wasn’t working. I was just trying to help Mom be able to sleep in! 😅

December 19, Thursday

The wind continued to blow 20k all last night – but I did manage to get some sleep in the cockpit.
Well, it’s still blow’en 20k with gusts at 25k – this is getting real old! We managed to get school done. Kitty came over for a while.  John went fishing. Around 2 pm it started calming down some. By 5 pm it was down to 5k.
Tom on Island Trader came over for happy hour. Tom brought clams from San Juanico – he had stories of his wild ride down. He also had some great tales of when he first bought the boat and sailed to Catalina Island off of California.
It's 7:30 pm and the wind is starting to pick up again – shit! It ended up pretty calm all night. Slept like a baby!

*You really have to be ready for anything on a boat - even at anchor. Mom was often up the latest and most alert and aware of how things were progressing through the night. I am grateful for her diligence, but her poor nerves were often shot after some of these nights - I don’t know how she did it!
Happy Hour was always great for hearing everyone’s crazy tales from the high seas or life before sailing.

December 20, Friday

We left San Evaristo in 5k and calm bay. Once outside, we picked up a good size swell from the last 3 days of Northerlies. We had lumpy seas, some 6–7-foot swells that we’d roll on over and surf down at 8.3k. It was only 64° and the wind was so cold – I was wearing a t-shirt, sweatshirt, sweater and windbreaker – COLD!
15-20k of NNW wind until we passed the La Paz end of Partita the wind shift to the ENE at 15-20k and we were doing 9.9k for a while. We saw several rays jumping and John caught and released 2 dorados.  We FINALLY made it into La Paz at 2:30 pm. Great sail! It was still blow’en 15 when we anchored. Took a nice, hot, refreshing shower and then the 6 of us, Summer Wind, Island Trader, all went into The Dock for a celebration dinner! Later picked up some ice and fresh bread.
At 8:30 pm a parade of 6 boats all decked out in the Christmas lights went through the anchorage – beautiful!!
Called Danielle to see how she was doing with her leg – ok I guess, she was out.
Talked to Chelle, all is well. Goon called.

December 21, Saturday

Samie and I did school while John gave the top sides a good scrubbing to get off all that dirt from the howling wind.
Samie did a “kids net” this a.m. and found 4 other kids here. She met with 2 of them on the dock for a couple hours. I visited with Bob and Cynthia Miss Teak II, and met their daughter, Lisa.
Only 5k of wind all day and it warmed up to a nice 74°. Talked to Mom and Daddy – everyone else was there and having their Christmas dinner. Talked to Shine. Tomorrow everyone is going to Janice and Gary’s for the Jones’ dinner.
We walked through town tonight with Tom, they have several streets blocked off for a big Bazaar. Lots of little shops selling most everything.
Samie and I bought 2 little Christmas decorations – a Santa’s boot and a life-ring to hang on the tree.
We called Nanamuk at Grace’s mom’s – they will be there tomorrow. They won’t fly out here till January 2nd and John says we’re not staying to wait. Damn!

*I think La Paz was the only place that had a kids net after the regular morning net - at least as far as I remember. I think this might have been when I met my friend Tarn, from Samara I. I love how ready and willing we always were to meet other kids - sometimes it was like finding water in the desert!

This is one of my all-time favorite photos from our trips because it’s attached to my memories of walking back along the malecon after having dinner in town. We would always stop for ice cream at the place with the polka-dot tree! If you look closely behind The Star (third boat from the left, most in the forefront) you can see a trail behind us - that is from the tide current which was always strong in this channel. I always loved seeing the Wandrin’ Star out there, happily waiting for our return. 🥰

December 22, Sunday

Samie is studying for a test mañana. The day warmed up beautifully!! We walked into town, but being the Sunday before Christmas – everyone was out shopping so we made our way back to The Dock, where we met Bob and Cynthia, Miss Teak II, and Lisa and John, Jazz. We all went to a sidewalk café, Mexico style for a HUGE shrimp-stuffed baked papa – wonderful, but I am so totally stuffed myself!
Seven boats were in the light parade tonight, it’s so pretty and Christmasy.

December 23, November

John did the check-in process. Samie and I had to get new VISA’s – our own – because when we came in at Nogales, they would only give us the 1 for all 3. Samie passed another test! Neal came over and helped John get the alignment on the motor just right. They had to slide the engine over just a tad.
Samie played in at The Dock. 
Danielle called – all is well.
I have finally decided we might as well sail out to the Socorro Islands and then to Manzanillo. John really wants to go and it’s the only way we can stay here long enough to see Nanamuk. Oh well, it will be a new adventure.

Miss Teak II and some other boats were planning to head out to the Socorro Islands, about 240 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas. It was the farthest we ever went from the mainland.

Devember 24, Tuesday

Samie rode Tom’s little bicycle again today while he jogged. We went into town and finished up our Christmas shopping. Hung out at Miss Teak II and on the dock. Samie has the tree on the table with all the presents, looks pretty. She opened one gift from Sam and Rane, Hocus Pocus, so we watched it.

I December 25, Wednesday
Happy Ho-Ho!
We were up and having our Christmas at 7 am. Not to mention the regulars – all her “adoptive grandparents” gave her a little something – Kitty, Cynthia, Paula and Emma. Jim and Kitty came over for coffee. Then we all went into town – AGAIN – to walk around and waste time, I guess. Samie spent some time at Samara I with Tarn. We went to the Los Arcos Hotel for dinner along with Jim, Kitty and Tom.
Called all the kids. Maryann called, Bill and Trisha called. Samie tried Sam and Rane, but they weren’t home.

*I was so loved and spoiled by all my adoptive grandparents! 🥰 I’m not certain, but I think my actual grandparents got me the National Geographic whale book. It was an absolute favorite which I used as a reference all the time while spotting whales and dolphins. And yes, of course I still have it!
Tarn and I are still in touch, thanks to Facebook! He lives up in Clearwater, B.C. He, Janelle (Nanamuk) and I were in touch when Janelle came to visit last year and we are thinking it would be so much fun for us girls to go visit him someday. That would be a really cool reunion after all these years!
*Side note for those in-the-know: you can spot Herkimer above me, next to the snake plant! 🙃

December 26, Thursday

We pulled anchor at 10:30 or there-abouts and went into Marina de La Paz; an end slip, nice and easy, in and out. We’ll be here for a week. Summer Wind and Island Trader also came in.
Samie watched Flipper here with Tarn, then they went up to the little park. Tom came over for dinner, then he took the bus to San Diego for a couple of weeks.

*Below we have the daytime view from the malecon, a friendly visit with a local and his cockatoo, a jellyfish in the marina and more incredible sunset views.

December 27, Friday

Back to school after a 3-day Christmas break.
John changed the oil in the engine, filled the diesel tanks: 60 gallons. We are using 8 gallons of diesel per hour this year.
Tarn came over and they watched Homeward Bound II and played at the park.
I faxed a letter to Colleen. Picked up the laundry – 3 loads, 67 pesos.
John rebuilt a bilge pump for Jim today.
Jim and Kitty came over for a while, they plan to leave tomorrow.

*I remember being pretty fascinated and perhaps a little perplexed about faxes and how we could send/receive these things relatively instantly from so far away! Imagine if I could have seen what we would be capable of doing on our phones in the future! 🤯

December 28, Saturday

Jim and Kitty did leave this morning and are anchored around the point at Ballandra, leaving for Los Muertos in the morning.
Tonight we went up to The Dock Café to hear Peppy and Sue from Melissa sing and play. Samie was a guest and helped sing Jimmy Buffett’s Volcano – she did a good job! The girl is far from shy.

*Below, our sweet, beloved Jim and Kitty! ❤
I remember singing with Sue and Peppy, mostly thanks to the photos. I do remember my shaky little voice and getting some of the lyrics mixed up but that everyone was really nice and cheered me on even when I did get a little shy when I messed up some words, lol.

December 29, Sunday

Just a laid back day; school and a couple of movies. Samie called Sam and Rane.
The wind blew 10-15k today, which made for a rock’en marina tonight, with creaking and dock lines.

 *Rockin’ and rollin’ in a marina is quite different from in the bay - like Mom mentioned with the creaking of dock lines and then the dock itself is moving up and down with the waves - it can get a bit chaotic with everything moving and bouncing around separately while tied together. But the marina was always a treat because you could wander around or up to shore whenever you wanted and most of the time we had power and/or water, too, so we didn’t have to run the generator twice a day or wait till the generator was on for power. We also didn’t have to be quite so sparing with when it came to water usage.

December 30, Monday

We skipped school and went into CCC to stock up - $200 U.S., but this will have to hold us until we get to Manzanillo, about 3 weeks away.
I’m sending out letters with Miss Teak’s company. Janice, Janell, Bonnie, True Blue, Mac and Kay Eddy, Ken Boltz, Grandma Margaret, and Bob and Lillian.
Samie has also been busy writing to everyone in her class – 21 plus 3 other letters.

*We had to seize our opportunities to write and send letters along with people who were headed to the States!

December 31, Tuesday

John helped Bob, Miss Teak II, clean out the flush lines to both their heads.
Lazy day - at 7 pm, we went over to Miss Teak II for a New Year’s Eve dinner. Lisa and John, Jazz, Lee and Glo, Papagayo, and Chris and Barbara, Machen. We all managed to stay up and see in the year 1997. Very enjoyable evening.

*We wouldn’t have been watching it, but here’s what the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve ball drop looked like in 1997, which was apparently ushered in by Dick Clark, Weird Al Yankovic and Kiss!

January ‘97

*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, 1997, Wednesday

We got a ride down to Marina Palmyra and left a note for Nanamuk. We met a friend of theirs, Dick from Because. He had driven down and brought some batteries and other stuff for Rob. He gave us a ride back to our marina.
Watched the Rose Bowl – Arizona State vs. Ohio took it back – 20 to 17.

January 2, Thursday

The wait is on – Nanamuk will be in tonight around 8 pm. It cost $20 U.S. for a taxi – so we’ve decided not to do that.
It was a busy morning getting all the last-minute stuff done. We even tried to fit in some school, but gave it up.
We got a fax from Colleen – no gossip to pass on.
Rob and Grace gave us a call on VHF at 9:45 pm, they were at Marina Palmyra and saw the other Wandrin’ Star. So we got racing up to the gate – no Nanamuk – oh well at least they’re here safely.

*Awe, our little hearts must have been so jazzed, running up to see them! We must have all been so excited to see each other that it didn’t register to them that the other Star didn’t look like ours (we are the only Islander Freeport I’ve seen with an added hard dodger) or that we knew they were in Marina Palmira, not Marina de La Paz. Too funny.

January 3, Friday

Miss Teak II, and Jazz left this morning. We’ll catch up. Got a ride to Palmyra and spent the day catching up with Rob, Grace, Alan and Jelly. They had 3.5 foot of snow and had a hell of a time getting out of Canada. It was so good to see them again. They’ll be in La Paz for quite a while working on the boat before they get to P.V.
We called Danielle for her B-day (on the 8th) all is well.

*I’m surprised I don’t remember more about seeing Nanamuk, maybe because it was such a short visit. I think we went out to eat and apparently they came with us to our boat for a bit. I think this would come to be one of the last times we really got to hang out with each other before they headed out to the Marquesas for their circumnavigation. Behind me in the last photo are what would become the infamous leaky cabinets, with the loose stanchions on the deck above. The cabinet between us is where all the anchor chain was stored.

January 4, Saturday

We left La Paz at 7 am heading for Los Muertos. I think we had most every wind direction except north. Leaving La Paz was 15 to 20 knots once we rounded out into the channel it was either flat calm or 5-10k  on our nose. I had to avoid a fishing buoy at the last minute – (20k), then we caught the fishing line on it. Away went the line until it finally broke. Thought we had a huge one there for a minute.
We were anchored at 5 pm – there are 12 other botas in here. Jazz is still here, but Miss Teak II went on down to Los Frailes.
We just met Tom and Pam from Imagine, they came by, they are also going to the Socorros.
Lisa came over for a while to visit while John got his weather faxes. Nice peaceful night.

*Ok so I asked Mom how the weather faxes worked. She checked with Dad who explained they were sent from a weather forecasting group called NOAA, who sent the info through the HAM radio and it was able to show on our DOS computer system. I assume it was translated through morse code and Dad was able to see how the winds were shaping up in the areas around us or where we were headed. They looked like this.

January 5, Sunday

We talked to Jim, Summer Wind in Mazatlan. They have to fix their transmission.
We left Los Muertos at 7 am, motor-sailed with 0-10k all day. The mountains are a pretty green. It is finally getting warm – I’m in shorts and a t-shirt rather than sweats! We made it into Los Frailes at 3:30 and are anchored next to Miss Teak II. This is a big open bay – no town or anything except a lot of fishing pangas.

January 6, Monday

School – John went diving on Lee’s hookah, along with Bob and Charlie. Some pretty little fish, but not much else.
We moved up a little and re-anchored to get a better spot. The north wind is blowing 10-12k with a possibility of becoming stronger.
John took apart his reel on the big rod and cleaned it for the “big ones” to come.
Samie made a Wandrin’ Star flag and hung it out on the line with the radar reflector which John went up the mast and fixed this morning.
Spent some time at Miss Teak II.

*There’s a chance I made more than one WRS flag over the years, but the flag I am recalling was cut from some pink fabric I had and I think I drew a picture of the Wandrin’Star on it, but I’m really not sure.

January 7, Tuesday

We left Los Frailes at 6:45 am with 10k out of the north and a little lumpy to begin with. Soon enough, it smoothed out with a light breeze which held nicely for the first 4 hours. The next hour it died out altogether, but low and behold the last 3 hours when we came up on the point the wind line could be seen from a ways back.  Imagine was ahead and radioed back to be ready! Sure enough, 20-25k we went from 0-20 in 2 seconds flat. We had taken the sails down in preparation – thank goodness, because it was a steady 20-25k with gusts 30-36k for the next 3 hours. At least the swell is not so bad down here, closer to the Pacific – out of those square waves in the Sea of Cortez. We did have some splash, but not like has happened before. Anyway, we finally made it into Cabo and anchored at 2:45 pm. 7 hours - 47 miles.
We are anchored in 17 feet of water just off the beach.
I had forgotten how this bay goes from 100 feet to 50 feet and climbs real fast to 20. It was between 15-20k when we dropped the hook.
The last time we were here was November 1994 and I remember it being a much prettier white beach. But I guess since then we have seen even more spectacular spots. Besides, I was deathly ill last time in Cabo.
There have been some big thunder clouds all day – hope they disappear!
John and Samie went into the marina area to cambio [change] money and came back with a great Pizza Hut pizza!
I talked to the guys on Leo’s net, but Leo was not around.
8 pm the wind has calmed down to 5k – let’s hope it stays there for the night. I’m beat!

*Leo Paquette was Steve Paquette’s dad, both of whom we spoke with frequently on the HAM radio. I believe they were from the same area as us in Arizona. Leo is actually the one who did the phone patch for us when we got the news of Schyler’s birth in May of 95.
Ahh, yes, the wind lines on the water were something you learned to keep an eye out for. It’s crazy how the wind can go from non-existent to 25-30k like that.
After our video of the Cabo shoreline in January 1997, I added a video of the same shoreline posted on October 1, 2023 - 26 years later. You can see it’s almost all resorts, now. Blah! Random fact: I tried Cookie Crisps for my first time here, and now they’re one of the few things that make me think of Cabo San Lucas.

January 8, Wednesday

Happy B-day Danielle – 21!

It took Samie forever to get school done today. John did the fuel process by jerry jug. He also got more ice and a few other things at the market.
We are talking to the boat Blue Chablis out at Clairion Island, the furthest south of the Socorros – they have had 30 plus knots out there. Also, looking at our weather fax it doesn’t look too good – so we’re waiting here.
The gang of boats all went over to Imagine for happy hour. Boy is that ever a beautiful boat – 51 feet, huge living area.

*Jerry jugging consisted of Dad dinghying in to the marina, filling up the jerry jugs at the fuel dock, bringing them back out to the boat and emptying them into the tanks. I’m not sure how many trips it took on average, but what a process! Sometimes that was easier than bringing the boat in to the fuel dock.
Some days were harder than others to get through school - as with most things. Mom has noted before that I tended to get it done faster when I had something to look forward to after school, like going to play with other kids. History was one subject that bogged me down, because I didn’t really understand why I needed to remember all these detailed things from soooo long ago. It wasn’t until I gained more context and comparisons in life that I started to appreciate and show interest in history, especially family history as well as American history within the last 300 years.

January 9, Thursday

Talked to Blue Chablis again, still blowing 30k out there. We did half of school, then went into town and met the gang at Broken Surfboard for lunch. Puttered around and got back to the boat at 4 pm to finish school.
Last time we were here, we put out a stern anchor. This time we haven’t bothered – gee is it ever rolly! Samie and I have named the anchorage “Cabo Wobble!”

January 10, Friday

Talked to Goon a bit this morning – all is well. She said it snowed a bunch Monday and school was cancelled Tuesday and it’s COLD! I guess the 50° we have here is not so bad after all.
The weather fax all looks good for the next 96 hours, 10 to 20 knots expected.
We pulled up the anchor at 8:30 am and headed out on our way, 218 miles to San Benedicto. The 7-8 foot swell wrapping around the point up close together and very rolly. We’re not having fun yet. About 10 miles out, we altered our course from 183° to 203° so it is smoothing out some.
About 3 miles out, a big cruise ship crossed in front of us on their way to CA.
Until sunset we came within 3 miles of 4 other tankers – all of whom turned to avoid us. By that point, we were out of the shipping lanes – thank god!
The wind was steady - flukey all night. 5 to 12 out of the west all night, sometimes a swirley. The seas have smoothed out a whole lot. Motor-sailed all night.

*Shipping lanes are notoriously stressful for boaters, especially at night. You don’t want to mess with tankers, freighters, cruise ships and the like! It’s interesting to me that these guys turned to avoid us, since the rule of thumb is that the smaller vessel always gives way, and generally stay WELL out of their way. The larger your boat, the harder it is to “stop” or change course, and a smaller boat would barely stand a chance of “outrunning” such a ship, or getting out of the way last minute, should they have somehow gotten too close.

January 11, Saturday

The stars last night were totally amazing. There’s no moon and the stars were shining down so very brightly.
There were some huge fluffy clouds from the Pineapple Express moving on over this morning and the sun rising through in a brilliant red-orange.
We have turned off the motor (9:30 am) and are sailing in those same, light, flukey winds doing around 3k. That should put us at the island in the early morning – in daylight.
Bob had a flying fish fly into their cockpit and hit him in the head last night. We found one on deck.

- 89.28 miles to go.
- 9:20 am coordinates:
-20-47-30N
-110-28-22W

Little to no wind until 2:30 pm, so we ran the engine at 1000 rpm just to give us a forward motion.
John was taking a nap when the wind decided to fill in and believe it or not, I turned off the engine and was under sail only! 8-10k out of the west and we’re moving at around 4k, nice and smooth – until the wind does a quick swirl and we roll over a small swell.
Starting to see lots of birds.
64 miles to go.
Around 11:30 a.m. we crossed the position 107-37-00 N / 20-25-50 W that Arne and Janice on Renegade crossed on 3/8/96 on their passage from P.V. to Hawaii – pretty cool!
Imagine left Cabo at 5 pm last night and just passed us under sail at 4:30 pm – fast boat.

*Too funny, I don’t remember the story about Bob getting smacked in the head by a flying fish! I remember finding plenty of them on deck in the mornings when we did overnight crossings. It remember seeing them jumping in schools sometimes, skirting over the surface in smooth, quick bursts. It was cool to see! They were able to get some pretty good air, as our deck was probably anywhere from 5’-6’ above the waterline. Here is a great video about them and the dorado (mahi-mahi) we caught so much of while cruising! They truly are magnificent fish.
Below are photos of the sunrise that morning and Imagine catching up to us that afternoon.

January 12, Sunday

Last night was another calm, beautiful starlit night. At somewhere around 2 or 4 am (I was asleep) – we spotted the island on radar. The sun didn’t scatter its light across the sky until 6:30 am – so we circled around for a while, wanting to approach in the daylight. Last year when Miss Teak II was here, it was much greener, this year however, Isla San Benedicto is wearing a browner shade – oh well. We all chose the northeast anchorage – more room for all 4 of us.
We were all anchored at 8:30 am – 48 hours from anchor in Cabo to anchor here – 218 miles.
John and Bob took the dink out off-shore fishing – they saw mantas, 3 humpback whales, one was a calf, though still not small.
John and Samie went fishing and she caught 10 fish, all sea bass. The other 3 guys brought back 12 or 13 lobsters!
We had steak, lobster and bass for dinner and we all were sound asleep by 8 pm.
Got up to 90° today.

*“The sun didn’t scatter its light across the sky until 6:30” - I love the way Mom describes that! I love the poetic side of her that the oceanic beauty brought out. 🥰
What a rich haul we brought back for dinner - plenty for the whole lot of us! I’m surprised I don’t remember catching all these fish. I know Dad did all the work when it came to taking out the hook and filleting them.

January 13, Monday

Weather fax still looks good. Although it is cloudy – Pineapple Express I guess, looks like it may clear out. We all put out a stern anchor – much better. The 4 guys went diving with the hookahs, said it was amazing. Just like swimming in a fresh water tank. Every color of fish in the rainbow and then some. John brought home dinner again. It was cloudy all day – no wind to speak of until the 5k came in around 4 pm. The swell is rolling in from the SE about 2-3 foot long and smooth, but it refracting back from the beach and making it a little sloppy but not bad.
We all went over to Miss Teak II for happy hour.

*What a treat to have this video! This was pretty spankin’ new technology at the time, kids! It was still a whole new level to be able to capture under water photos and videos. I know these colors hardly do it justice, but it’s great to watch either way! You can see Bob in the frame a few times, and Dad with a lobster.

January 14, Tuesday

Last night the wind picked up out of the east just enough to make the NE anchorage uncomfortable and unsafe – so at 1st light, 6:30 am, we pulled up all the stern anchors first then the main anchors and headed to the SE anchorage which is more protected, although we still have some good-sized swells wrapping around both points. On the south point HUGE breakers are tumbling over the reef. Beautiful, but also frighteningly powerful.
John did “boaty things”, I finally took a nap. Bob and Lee went diving and later the gang met on Papago to view the underwater video. Talked to Leo Paquette on the ham.
During the night, the daily 10k wind died and we were all doing the waltz at slack tide. What a night – at least the sun was out today!

January 15, Wednesday

Talked to Rob, Nanamuk, they just got back in the water yesterday. Samie and I are finally doing school – haven’t done any since Cabo. I’ve been too uptight. Miss Teak II and Papagayo both re-anchored, maybe tonight will be better. Happy hour was on our boat tonight.
It was cloudy all day, more like winter weather clouds than Pineapple Express, on top of that, we have really rolled side-to-side bad all today. For the most part, it has been in the 80s and stays around 70 all night. At last, we are out of the cold.
Wind blew again 10-15k out of the NE. We are all starting a rotated anchor watch between the 4 boats for the nights.

*Mom wasn’t big on the idea of being so far off-shore in the first place, and these anchorages weren’t the most protected. They were wide open to everywhere the wind and weather seemed to be coming from, which kept us on the alert. If someone were to drag anchor, they could be run ashore. Even after moving to the south anchorage, the swell was bad and the breakers quite threatening. The photos and video hardly do it justice.

January 16, Thursday

It finally smoothed out some last night and the watch system went well. John talked to Jim on Summer Wind this a.m. Yesterday, as they were going into Marina Mazatlan from the anchorage, just as they came into the breakwater at the entrance, their transmission took a complete dump. Another boat came out and towed them on in. He said thank God John had given him the tide schedule and it was slack tide!
We all took the 4 dinks around to the NE point where the guys dove the other day, but the water wasn’t nearly as clear. Samie and I did get in, but never saw too much.
It’s cloudy again and blow’en 10k. When we got back to the boats, there was a 10-foot manta ray swimming around Miss Teak II so Bob dove in and got a little ride. He didn’t have his wetsuit on, so he has a rash on his belly from the rough skin on the manta – but he loved it. Later, I saw a manta surface and make a small splash 15 feet from the side of our boat. At first I thought it was a whale until its wings came up. He swam around, but never surfaced again. With no sunshine, it’s hard to see down in the water real good. The wind calmed down a little sooner today, so maybe tomorrow will be even calmer seas.
Oh, I forgot on Tuesday the 14th, the long-range power boat, Somar from Cabo was anchored out here. They spent the night chumming for sharks and had the paying passengers out in the shark cages. They make this trip out here about every week.
Tom on Island Trader is back in La Paz and was supposed to start making his way out here.
Bob wants to stay here another 2 or 3 days before heading on over to Socorro – I’m ready to go now.
We may all go nuts if the sun doesn’t start shining and brighten up our moods and attitudes. Talked to Sherry on Luna, their company that we met in San Carlos, Susan and Bill, had to go home, her dad passed away unexpectedly. So sad.
We have already over-filled one bag of garbage – nowhere to dump or burn it, bread is running low, and some is starting to mold. John thinks it will be possibly another 2 weeks before we head to the mainland. I’m not quite so uptight now, but I don’t feel comfortable out here. I’m doing the best I can so John can have a good time, because I’ll never venture out this far offshore again.

*I vaguely remember getting in the water and checking out the fish at Benedicto. I still got pretty nervous about venturing around under the surface, so I wonder if Mom and I stayed mostly at the surface for this one, which could be why we didn’t see too much.
I remember trolling around in the dinghies watching the giant manta rays. Dad wanted to get in and take a ride, too, but didn’t get a good chance.
I remember the day Somar came out - they warned us they would be chumming and to be sure to stay out of the water.
This island was different from the other islands we’d been to, since it’s still volcanic and undeveloped. I don’t remember ever going ashore, since there wasn’t much of one, anyhow. The swelly conditions don’t sound too bad until you consider this means your entire home is constantly bouncing two-and-fro all day and night long. I’m glad we had a whole crew of people on watch during the night - I think that helped Mom feel better.
For me, funnily enough, what I remember most was that Lee and Glo had a Game Boy they let me use. I remember mostly the game Paper Boy and I think they had Zelda, too. Here I was, sitting atop these beautiful blue waters next to a volcanic island teeming with mantas and fish and sharks (oh, my!) and all I wanted to do was get to the next level of Paper Boy! For me though, the technology was the rarity, not the ocean and all it’s many beauties. Funny how that was.

*Lol, Dad out there trying to usher the manta ray closer to the boats. He reminds me of Scallywag in this video - another cruiser who would always tool around in his dinghy standing up like this. He’d jet through the bay like some kind of dinghy-surfer over the water. We saw him mostly in La Paz. If you know, you know!
The noise you can hear in the background of the second half of the video is the generator running! We ran it twice a day for an hour or so to charge up all the batteries and electronics and whatnot.

January 17, Friday

Our night watch system is working out good. My watch was 10 to 12 midnight and I slowly watched the wind trying to shift around to the east. By 4 am, it was a defiant east wind – not good for this anchorage. After all four boats talking it over, we decided to stick it out here, thank goodness it never got over 10-15k. It made for a very uncomfortable day, though, with the big swell and chop coming in right at us.
Around 7 pm, the squalls started, we did get some rain, but for the most part, they went around us about 2 miles off. Thank goodness, too, because those were full of lightening! So from 7 pm until 6:30 am, the sky was alight with the cloud to cloud lightening show. It was just as bright as day time! The wind finally laid down to 5-10k and smoothed out quite a bit. That lightening was totally amazing!

*I will never forget this lightning storm! The video doesn’t do it justice, but the horizon was filled with strike after strike, and like Mom says, sometimes it lit up the whole sky and you could see all the other boats, the island, everything clear as day. I even hear Bob say the same thing over the radio in the background of the video. Side note - I love when the radio is going in the background of our videos! I actually miss hearing people hailing each other throughout the day, hearing your boat name come up and going to answer, or sometimes being nosy and following someone else’s conversation to another channel because you know what they’re discussing and are curious of the outcome of whatever event.

January 18, Saturday

We all decided it was time to move over the 40 miles to Socorro Island where we have choices of anchorage for the different winds. So at 7:30 am, all anchors are up and away we go. Ok, great, wind is coming straight out of the south – another “noserly” – you got it, we’re headed south. It built all day to 25k, the only anchorage that is safe is where the Navy is. So after 8 hours of pure slop, we were finally anchored at 3:30 pm. The island is a beautiful green with red rock, however after yesterday’s downpour of rain, ruddy color – different and far from pretty clear water. Coming across, one of the stanchion bolts was leaking in Samie’s starboard closet and everything is sopped again. It was at this point I went from being flustered, bored or even tired to totally PISSED OFF. This has not been the great adventure that anyone expected – what with all this crappy weather. The hot shower I took felt wonderful, but when I started going through all Samie’s wet clothes and things, I lost it; just sat there and cried.
The Mexican Navy came out to check our paperwork, very nice guys, The weather fax looks good and everything should be mellowing out. Thank god! The low that went through there last night and brought the squalls is bringing us SW winds for now, so we are sitting with our sterns pointed out to sea – yeah! And the wind is coming out of the west at 5-10k. I’m so tired, I’ll sleep like a baby!

*I remember the Naval officers coming out to us in their boats. It was always a bit intimidating to have the authorities approach our boat - at least to me, seeing them in all their gear and whatnot. But they were always super nice that I remember.
Poor Momma! It astounds me that I don’t even remember how many times the stanchions leaked and all my things were sopped! I really only remember the first time - but maybe it’s that I mostly had clothes in there and Mom would wash them for me? I don’t know if anything was ruined beyond repair, maybe just the first time and after that I avoided storing anything but clothes on that side? I don’t know, but I feel for Mom here, especially knowing what was to come on our trip back to the mainland!

January 19, Sunday

The breeze held perfect all night and we all slept like babies. The Navy still says we have to leave, so we pulled in our anchors at 10 am and are underway with 8-10 k out of the NE. Let’s hope it holds just like this all the way – 364 miles! We had a somewhat confused sea for a while. A swell from the north and one from the east – but not too bad. The night smoothed out, we reefed the main and dropped the mizzen. The wind slowly shifted more to the east and stayed there at 8-10k until 11:00 am.

*I’m grateful everyone got a good night’s sleep before the 3-day trip back to the mainland.

January 20, Monday

Happy B-day Janelle

Not good reception on the ham or weather fax. When we shut down the engine to check the oil and all else, John found a hose on the radiator leaking which ended up blow’en out. So we shut everything down while he changed it. Miss Teak II got about 4.5 miles ahead, but once all was well, we cranked it up to 1600 rpms and caught up in a half hour – then low and behold the gen-set quit, possibly overheated.
John will check that out after his nap. It’s noon now and we are flying all 4 sails, wind is NE at 10-12 again, with the motor at 1400 rpms to keep up with Miss Teak II. I’m writing this underway, what a sloppy mess. We have 245 miles to go – looks like it will be 3 nights out here – yuk!
Oh what a day, it’s 11:30 pm and I’m writing this with the help of a flash light.
John woke up from his nap with the flu, so the gen-set didn’t get fixed yet. The wind has been blow’en 15-20 all afternoon. Normally it dies down at night – no such luck tonight. I made John drop the mizzen at 4:30 and reef the main at 5:30, then he really got sick.
Right now the wind has been shifting to the WNW and is still blow’en 13 to 18k.
Miss Teak II shot out ahead and then rolls in their jib to slow down while I catch up. The wind is picking up again, John is so sick, fever, chills and totally out of it and to be honest, I’m really scared. I’m so tired, I’m afraid of doing something wrong or just too much wind coming up. I’m going cross-eyed.

*I’m getting emotional, going through this part of the story! Mom had already been uneasy for the majority of the trip - offshore sailing was never something she was interested in - and what with the weather been less than ideal, my cabinets leaking again and not being able to stay and recoup longer at Socorro Island, she was already exhausted from the previous ten days. Now we find ourselves in the middle of the longest crossing we would ever take, and Dad is essentially incapacitated. It’s a good thing they reefed and brought the mizzen sail down when they did, seeing as he got worse with time. I can only imagine the worries Mom had running through her thoughts - not knowing why Dad was so sick, being out in the middle of nowhere with at least 150 miles of ocean between us and any other land, and all in sloppy, windy conditions. But she really did great! It was so great that that Miss Teak II hung back with us, Cynthia was there for Mom, helping her keep calm with talks over the VHF radio. Another great reason to “buddy boat” with other cruisers.

January 21, Friday

It’s the first chance I’ve had to catch up on this journal so I’ll have to think back.

John was sick all night, so I was on watch all night. Samie watched movies almost the entire trip. At 5 am on January 21, Tuesday I had to close my eyes for at least 15 minutes. So we both sat down on the floor in the cockpit while she watched all the gauges and I slept 10 or 15 minutes. Miss Teak II, was right beside us and that helped. Just that much (or little) sleep helped a lot.
Oh yeah, the first day out, Papago headed off for P.V. and saw orcas. Samie was so upset that she didn’t see them, she was in tears and had a good cry.
We see birds way out here offshore, which seems so strange. We saw a pod of dolphins today out in all this slop. I think today we had a steady 15 to 25k. The nights cool off to 74° but once the sun is out, it’s between 80° and 90°.
We are taking a wave over the bow and of course getting water running down in the forward closets AGAIN. Only this time it’s finding it’s way on down to come up under the floorboards, too.
One thing about off-shore sailing is the wind is pretty steady from one direction, so you set the sails and just go without having to change the sail points, which was a damn good thing with John sick. Also, there’s no other traffic to constantly look out for. Those may be good points but off-shore cruising is NOT for me. 
The wind died just a bit for a couple hours, long enough to smooth out the seas for a few hours.
John felt awful still, but was able to give me a couple hours of sleep – one at a time.
Tonight the wind is from our port stern (20-25) with a 4-6 foot swell. We dip down in a big one once in a while and really throw everything around. Poor John, I know he feels like dying. Just before dark, we started to get phone service and I got silly with excitement! I have only gotten about 8 hours of sleep in the last 4 days. But being so close, yet still 60 miles – 12 hours – away, I’m wide awake. We only had one container ship ever show up on the radar and they went by at 3 miles away just after sunset. So we lucked out there! We surfed on over and down in the swell at 8 knots sometimes.

*Dad would have been on the settee the whole time so that he and Mom could communicate. I’m not sure how cognizant he was while sick - I can’t imagine having to get up on deck the day before to lower the sails while being so sick and out of it. Reading this, I feel bad I watched movies the whole time and Mom was alone in the cockpit! On one hand, I was blissfully ignorant and always felt safe, even on our worst crossings. Also it probably helped her to know I was safe down below where she didn’t feel like she had to keep an eye on me for any reason and she could focus on getting us through this - especially running off only 8 hours of sleep in 4 days! 😩 I’m glad I could at least help her while she closed her eyes for a few minutes; I remember the dark, slightly cold cockpit in the dark of night (no sun coming up yet). I remember her resting her head next to me on the seat of the cockpit as we sat in the companionway. I can feel the boat moving over the waves and I can hear the wind and water moving outside the cockpit - I am still grateful for the canvas enclosures that kept us sheltered and feeling safe. I don’t remember what was going through my mind, other than maybe feeling proud to help and keeping my eyes glued to the radar so I didn’t miss anything. I can still see the bright neon green on the radar, watching that invisible line go round-and-round, constantly refreshing our surroundings - or rather, the lack there of.
I had forgotten about finding the water on the floorboards, but Mom and I were talking about it and it all came back - there was definitely a moment of panic, wondering WHERE was this water coming from when we are so far off shore!? I seem to recall Dad managing to come forward to the v-birth to figure it out.
I also didn’t remember hearing about the orcas until I read this. Mom laughed and said I had a whole temper tantrum when Mom and Dad wouldn’t go off-course to chase them (this happened before Dad got sick). Logically, I should have understood they were far off enough that there was no chance we could have even caught up to them, but I was young and wanted to see them SO badly that logic was no consolation at the time. They always seemed so close, yet so far.

January 22, Wednesday

As the sun starts to come up, we are maybe 10 miles away. What a beautiful sight – land! John managed to get the sails down and we anchored. Manzanillo is a lot greener this year than last. We all crashed for a while, then John took Samie to the pool for a while and I slept for four hours. But even after a shower, I still feel like walking dead.
John is running a high fever again, we put cool towels on him and brought it down some. I had broke our thermometer, so Cynthia, Miss Teak II, brought one over – his temp at this time was 102.1. It took ice on his wrist and 4 Buffrin to get it down to 100.1. Finally, it came down to 99 and he slept most of the night.

*Mom says that Bob was offering to dinghy out to us once they had anchored so he could help us take the main sail down and anchor the boat, but that Dad mustered up the energy to do it himself. I’m surprised he felt well enough to go ashore later - or maybe he thought he’d feel better once he did? Unfortunately that was not the case, poor guy.

January 23, Thursday

We checked in at the marina this morning and now John is down again. I have him taking Septrin F in hopes it kills this bug. He slept most of the day. His temp went up again tonight and I was up until midnight sitting by him.

*What a rough week for my parents! 😩 I don’t remember a lot of specifics here, other than poor Dad being sicker than I’ve ever seen him. Mom said in the last video that he was hallucinating, I wonder what he was seeing - none of us remember that. I’m amazed he still managed to do as much as he did while he was so sick! Kudos to both my parents for getting us through that trip! Shnikies!

January 24, Friday

We went into the doctor this morning – had to wait 2 hours before he even got there. He thinks John has a bacterial infection with only the fever – no other problems other than stomach cramps. He pressed around on his stomach and it’s tender – anyway, he gave me a prescription – Ciproxina 500 mg (1 every 8 hours for 3 to 5 days) for the infection. And Neo-Melubrina (1 every 6 hours) for the fever. The fever medication doesn’t seem to help, his temp is back up to the 102.3 tonight. I feel so bad for him, I hope the new medicine kills this bug fast.
Samie and I went into town with Bob and Cynthia to Juannita’s for burgers, got an ice cream and went to Commercial to pick up a few fresh things like bread – we’ve been out for 2 days now – eggs, milk and John’s meds. $N393 pesos for the meds - $N25 pesos for the doc or $55 U.S. for both – still cheaper than in the States.
Oh, let’s see – Peggy, Danielle and Mom have all called and all is well. The girls and Shine are gonna try to fly to P.V. around the first of March. Hope so!
There is a bit of swell roll’en in here tonight probably from all those nasty storms they’ve had up north in the States. I remember last year, we had 12-foot swells roll’en in here. Even so, it’s wonderfully calm compaired to San Benedicto.
I think I’m all caught up – oh no – I finally had time this a.m. to air out all of Samie’s closets and mattresses. Now, we have got to get back to school, we’ve only done 1 day in the last 3.5 weeks.

*$N stands for nuevo peso, (new peso), which was the new currency which was introduced on January 1, 1993. 1 peso was equivalent of 1,000 of the obsolete pesos. The exchange rate at this time would have been 7.6 pesos to the dollar.

Moonrise in Manzanillo.

January 25, Saturday

Happy B-day Grace.

John’s fever was up to 102.3 again last night and is 99.5 now at 7:30 am. He is finally eating something, but not much.
The days here are warm and beautiful about 85°, but once the sun sets it’s really cool with the sea breeze and only 63° in the a.m.
We talked to Jim on Summer Wind, they were ready to leave Mazatlan yesterday and their transmission is completely gone now. What an awful time they’re having!
I took Samie to the pool again today and when we got back, John had taken a shower. He thinks maybe the medicine is starting to kick in, his temp is normal. Let’s hope so. He has been so sick now for 6 days. He did throw up some Gatorade this afternoon, it’s now 9 pm and he has been awake for about 5 hours – a record. He’s really weak, though. Right now his temp is 99.1 – a big improvement.
It was smoggy today from the power plant across the bay that you couldn’t even see half way across. Some of it was settling on this side.
Mom called this a.m. to see how John was doing. She said Peggy was down there at Danielle’s today.

January 26, Sunday

John threw up again in the night and morning, his temp seems to be staying down around 100°, but he is dehydrated.
Blue Chablis, Barb, is leaving Isla Clarion today. I think they have been out there 4 weeks now. They are in a 27-foot boat and have about 580 miles to go east to P.V. with a NE wind. They have more guts than me! John had a better night, but still not great. Oh, watched Super Bowl on the boat – Greenbay 35 / New England 21.

*I caught up with Barb last month - they still make it out to Clarion once a year with some sports fishing group!

January 27, Monday

This is the 3rd day that the pollution has been really bad. John ate some oatmeal and is feeling better, still sleeps a lot which is good. I have never felt so helpless in my life, just watching him being so sick.
Took Samie to the pool, got a message to Grace’s sister, Dot, to bring her mail to the marina or at least I hope she gets the message.
Bob and Cynthia have been a wonderful help just being there. Today they went golfing. I’m finally starting to get the inside of the boat cleaned up. Now to tackle the crusted salt on the outside.

January 28, Tuesday

We got John back in to the doctor. As soon as he saw the color of his urine and his yellow eyes, he knew he had hepatitis. He said once the jaundice appears, it lasts about 3 to 4 weeks more, but the worst has passed. Now LOTS of rest, no fatty foods or booze.
I took Samie into the pool again today.
Talked to Danielle and Goon, they found a flight February 21 into P.V. for $260 U.S., but have to buy the tickets tomorrow (29th), Peggy doesn’t know if she can borrow the money to go ahead and get the ticket. Shine wants to come, too. I hope John is strong enough to make the trip around Cabo Corrientes and on into La Cruz that soon. Talked to Barb on Blue Chablis they are doing fine out there and for the most part, only have 5 to 15k.
Sure wish we could get a clear copy to talk to Nanamuk.

*HA, the part of Dad’s story that we still chuckle about was the moment the doctor figured out it was hepatitis (A) - he said with a touch of excitement and relief - “Ahhh, hepa-tee-tees! Hepa-tee-tees!” Like, ok, now we know what it is, how to properly prescribe, and that the worst is over. Looking back, my parents deduced that it was from some Christmas dinner we’d had back in La Paz, as a few other boaters who were there had come down with it as well.

January 29, Wednesday

John helped Bob fix his generator, then we melted the wire on the main switch on ours. So once it cools down in there John will fix that. He made it through the night without throwing up; that’s great. He’s taken one nap already today. Gen-set is fixed. Cynthia and I took a taxi to and from Commercial and did the shopping $400 pesos. Bob spent the day with Samie at the pool. She is getting nice and tan. John was at the pool for a while and had a sprite which wiped him out with heartburn. Samie and I had tacos, John didn’t feel like anything.

*'I’m surprised I don’t remember more of being at the pool this year. I’m sure all of us were stoked to be able to get off the boat and wander around anywhere after being mostly cooped up at the islands and underway. It’s funny looking through photos of Las Hadas and suddenly remembering certain areas around the place, like these paths we must have taken up to the pool.

January 30, Thursday

John woke up so miserable, but found some relief, ate some salad and feels so much better now.
We headed over to Manzanillo fuel dock at 9:30 or so, it takes about an hour. There was a huge power boat, Lady Wanda which took 2 hours to fuel, so we and Miss Teak II dropped anchor to wait. Oh – when we left Las Hadas, Bob cranked in the anchor for us. John showed me how to let it out and Samie and I brought it in to go get the fuel. $N847 pesos – 110 gallons. By the time we headed back at 2 pm the wind was blow’en 20k with a good swell and wind chop – sloppy. We re-anchored and John went in to check out and Samie swam for a little while.
John did much better today.
Talked to Tom, Island Trader, he is in La Paz still and will try to leave in 2.5 weeks for San Benedicto. Hal on Angela is going to La Cruz tomorrow don’t know if their family is with him or not (Tom was relaying).

January 31, Friday

Bob came over and cranked in our anchor again – bless him – at 7 am and we were underway to Navidad. We weren’t even going to mess with sails, so it was real nice that it was only 5-10k all the way with a long swell, pretty comfortable motoring. Miss Teak II went on to Tenacatita to meet Jazz. We only had to go through 1 long fishing net. Saw a finback whale and a few dolphins. We made it in to the marina at Navidad around 11:30 am. Last year there were no docks and we bow-and-stern anchored. This year there are a lot of docks,  but no power or water. Oh well, at least we’re tied up and can get better rest and some much needed cleaning done. Samie noticed that it was also this day Jan 31 that we left Manzanillo for Navidad last year. What a coincidence.
The mosquitos of last year are still hanging around.
John BBQed some chicken tonight, he is actually able to eat again. He made it through the day in wonderful shape. It is like music to my heart to have him feeling good again. Tom and Pam from Imagine are in here, too.
Jim and Kitty, Summer Wind, are taking the bus to Tucson to get a new clutch plate for their transmission, be back by Tuesday. They have had the worst luck with that this year.
We will be so glad to have our mail catch up to us, Jazz has it right now. I sure hope there is a letter from Janice.

*Holy Smokes! A bus ride from Mazatlan to Tucson - that’s a long trip on public transit! Poor Jim and Kitty really had a rough go of it that year!
Below: Barra de Navidad with its new docks. For comparison, the last photo is from the year before, when we all anchored in the area that would come to be a marina.

February ‘97

*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, Saturday

John washed down the boat real good – I defrosted the fridge/freezer. Talked to Jazz and Miss Teak II, they are in Tenacatita. It sprinkled last night. Today has been cloudy with a nice breeze, really nice (80°), put me in the mood to bake oatmeal cookies. Yum.
Today’s atmosphere is one of vacation to me. After worrying about John out on the anchor, this marina is very restful, even if we have to run the gen-set. John and Samie went into town while I had quiet-time; that’s something of a first this year.
We turned on the Southbound Net (4051) at 7:30 pm and listened while Jambalaya in El Salvador, and Ray of Hope, 35 miles from the s/v Dragon Wind, near the Panama, were trying to get coast guard help Dragon Wind, 2 people aboard. They were at 07° N - 80° W on the rocks and breaking up. Around 8:30, their batteries went dead and Ray of Hope no longer had contact. It took 2.5 hours before a US Embassy in Panama got a helicopter on its way. Also, about the same time, a Panama Coast Guard was on its way, boat or helicopter, not known. At 10:45 pm, they relayed that no helicopter was sent out, but a cruise ship, Radison Diamond with life boats. I finally went to bed at 11 pm.
At some point in the night, they were rescued, thank god!

*I seem to remember a little bit of this night and hearing about Dragon Wind, I can sense a bit of the tension that would have been in the air while listening for updates on the HAM radio and praying for their safe rescue. I absolutely cannot and don’t want to imagine such a scenario - having your beautiful boat beat to a pulp on the rocks and not knowing if you’ll make it out alive. I pulled up a rough idea of the coordinates - there are these two small islands of sorts that are off of Calabacito and I wonder if that’s what they’d come up against. Otherwise it looks like they’d have been pushed way in towards shore, maybe closer to Guanico Abajo where there are some rocks jutting up along the coast. I think it’s cool that the last boat they were in contact with was Ray of Hope. ❤ From the perspective of the cruise ship - that would have been a wild detour as a passenger (any that were awake, at least), to witness such a rescue.

February 2, Sunday

No clouds and no breeze and it’s warm at 86°. It did cloud up and kick up a breeze later.
Samie met Alex, 10, from Julie Marie II and they hit it off real good. John took ‘em to the pool. Everyone pitched in their hoses and ran fresh water to the dock. The men were all like little boys washing down the boats. The Wandrin’ Star is all clean and white, free of the black soot from Manzanillo.
We took a walk around the hotel pool area. The hotel itself is amazing, but the pool and landscaping are spectacular! We hear there is 2 million invested in the project and a normal suite goes for $200 U.S. per night.

*I don’t remember the hose scenario, but it makes me laugh to think of now - I wonder how many hoses they connected to reach down the dock?! I’ll bet the guys were excited to wash down the boats and get them shiny again.
Fun fact: 8 years later I happened to be watching Real World Road Rules Season 10, Inferno II (a reality show where a bunch of 20-somethings compete for their share of $50k) when I recognized the resort they were staying at. For one of the challenges, they were on the first dock below the resort and the cameras were looking at the exact slip we had stayed in, where I had celebrated by 10th birthday. I couldn’t believe it and thought it was SO cool that we had been there when the whole place was being built and had gotten to stay in the marina for free as well as having limited access to the resort pool and some other outside areas. It was just wild to see one of our beloved cruising haunts on this crazy show almost a decade later. Here’s a video of what the resort looks like. You’ll see a few clips of the marina, too. For comparison of the cost of a basic suite, that would be close to $400/night nowadays.

Below that are some comparison photos - our view in ‘97 passing a little cove before the marina with a beautiful view of the resort vs a professional photo from some much more recent year.

February 3, Monday

Our mail has arrived – one packet, anyway. There should be 2 more in La Cruz. Samie stayed on the boat reading it while John and I walked around town. We met Lorrie (FUW) and her husband, Chris tonight over at Star Song with Molly and Steve.

February 4, Tuesday

John is back to normal and is busy polishing, waxing and shining the boat. He took Samie and Alex up to the pool here at the hotel. They are now letting us use it if we buy a drink. Beer, 20 pesos, Coke, 12, and lemonade, 18 pesos. The fridge and freezer are sitting on the sunny side of the boat and won’t stay chilled down. So we hung a white tarp over the side – made a 10° difference!
Samie is doing part of tomorrow’s school tonight so that she’ll have more time to play tomorrow. She is really tired tonight after swimming for 2 or 3 hours today.

*This photo is from some other time and place, but it shows the tarp we would use to help keep the fridge cooled down - and of course Dad polishing something!

February 5, Wednesday

John fixed the broken BBQ – very important! He also finished waxing the boat. He played horseshoe with Steve and the guys while I took Samie and Alex to the pool at the Sands Hotel. A Mexican power boat came in last night, she’s the sister of the guy building this place – anyway, they had caught a 10’ marlin and gave us a chunk that we got 5 steaks off of – had some tonight – wonderful!
Goon tried calling, but she couldn’t hear me. Poop!

*The Sands Hotel was across the bay - we would dinghy over and tie up at this spot and were allowed to use the pool. I remember going there often and had the most fun when John and Lisa from Jazz would join us, because John had this fun trick where he would submerge and balance my feet in his hands, then push up from the bottom of the pool real fast which would propel me up out of the water like a little rocket. I couldn’t get enough, it was so much fun. He even signed a postcard once as “The Rocket-Launcher” - too cute.
Here’s a rough idea of the size of that 10’ marlin based on the 8’5” sailfish we caught back in January 1995.

February 6, Thursday

Happy B-day Mom

We had to move to the other dock this a.m. so that they can work on those docks, putting in the dock boxes and such. John took Samie and Alex swimming and I lemon-oiled the inside wood.
There was a big dock party, probably 16 to 18 boats. Great food. I called Mom for her birthday – all is well.

*I had forgotten about the traveling mariachi band that trolled around the in their dinghy to the docks! Love it!

February 7, Friday

We have been getting after school every day – so today we skipped it. John shined the windows and really gooped the stanchion screws in Samie’s cupboards – hoping they won’t leak anymore.
I planted myself in the sun with a book. We went into town for dinner at a new Italian place. Ok, but there was hot dogs in the lasagna and the linguine tasted like it came from a box mix.

*Let’s hope that goop holds on those dang stanchions!
Dinner sounds rough! Hot dogs in the lasagna, huh?! Too funny. 😅

February 8, Saturday

Talked to Jazz, they and Miss Teak II will be over here on Monday.
Samie and Alex went swimming here at this hotel pool.
Talked to Danielle, all is set with her plane ticket. Still don’t know if the other two will be coming or not.
Shine and Goon called, we told them to try and come after Danielle.

February 9, Sunday

Happy B-day Regan and Steve K.

Samie called her Jones family, Regan is sick today – poor girl.
The boat Amity came in today, they have a 10-year-old daughter, Leah and 15-year-old Jenny. Samie and Leah hit it off great. Those 2 and Alex watched movies on Amity until around 11 pm. John and I borrowed The American President with Michael Douglas and Michael J. Fox – very good, comical drama!

*Poor Regan, being sick on her 4th birthday! At least she was probably too young to even remember!
It’s funny, I don’t even remember Leah having an older sister - I wonder how she entertained herself without any kids her age in the area at the time.

February 10, Monday

I gave us (mostly me) the day off school. So Samie only had to clean her room and then she was off to play. I got to wander the docks and visit like everyone else.
Still no Summer Wind on the radio – hope they’re ok.
Miss Teak II, and Jazz came in today around noon. Nice to see them all again.

February 11, Tuesday

After school, we took Leah into town with us. The girls were gonna swim, but the pool was crappy. So we got some lunch and a few groceries. Leah watched Greedy with us, (Michael J. Fox, Kurt Douglas), good movie.
Shine called, him and Goon will fly into P.V. on March 2nd, the same plane Danielle will return on. So there might be 20 minutes we can all have a soda for my birthday. What a great present!!

February 13, Thursday

Well, I fractured my wrist yesterday. So this is a “lefty” mess. We, along with about 25 others, went to Hiolani, Chris and Lorrie’s, for a BBQ. Bringing the dink up on the ramp, I slipped on the moss. Went down on my butt and my right hand. Pop! goes the wrist, both bones. I went into shock for about an hour, in and out. After seeing a doctor here, Steve from Star Song drove me and John into Manzanillo for x-rays. An hour later and only $81 U.S. I have a pink cast up above my elbow.
Samie was spending the night with Leah on Amity.
Jim and Kitty are finally back! It’s been 2 weeks with no beer truck and today it’s a big run on the dock for everyone.
The most memorable thing of breaking my wrist was when I was lying on the ground and Cynthia was leaning over and laughing!! It’s been such a strange year – with the cutlass bearing – depth sounder – Socorros – John’s hepatitis and now this!

*I remember being with Leah on Amity and being worried about Mom. They must have radioed us to let us know what was going on, otherwise I wouldn’t have had any reason to be worried. I remember them not getting back till real late (felt like midnight to me!), but Mom said they had to be sure to get back before dark - apparently the main road in and out of Barra had a problem with banditos - no joke -scary! So they probably got back to Chris and Lorrie’s before dark, but still would have had to dinghy back over across the bay from there, likely getting to the boat around or after dark. Mom said she slept in my room that night cause it hurt so bad she was in tears, trying to sleep. 😭
Below: Mom being carried by Steve and John either inside or to the car on their way to see the doctor. How lucky that someone there had a vehicle! I’m guessing she was still in shock at this point, and not feeling any pain - plus Cynthia was there to help lighten the mood! Mom said it definitely helped her feel better about the whole thing - she can still vividly remember Cynthia bent over laughing, like, “what are we going to do with you and this year of mishaps?!”.
Next is a view from the inlet/waterway where Chris and Lorrie’s house was. The last photos are of the gang waiting at the top of the dock for the beer truck to come in. Down there it was customary to save your bottles and trade them in when you got more beer (or soda) and they would reuse the bottles. If memory serves, that’s why people always wiped the mouth of their bottle before they started drinking from it. I wonder if that’s still how they do it.

February 14, Friday

Happy Valentines Day

My arm still aches, but at least I slept good last night. Lisa, Jazz, made us some cookies and Samie made everyone a Valentine’s card. We haven’t got much school done with Leah here, but all the kids are leaving soon, so I’ve let it slide. I always wanted to be a “lefty” – maybe at the end of this 6 weeks my writing will be readable.
We stayed home for dinner, John BBQed chicken, while Miss Teak II and Jazz went to the fancy hotel restaurant and had quite a comical experience.
Navidad has flying crickets that get in the boats – GOT HIM!
Taking a shower today was quite a trick. Samie had to hold the shower head while I washed my hair and she tried to shave under my left arm. We were laughing so hard!

*I bet Mom would have told us what the comical experience was at dinner, had she not been writing with her left hand. She doesn’t remember what it was.
HA, I don’t remember trying to help Mom shave, but kudos to her for trusting me - I wasn’t shaving yet and had no experience with a razor. I remember when Danielle got there, she helped Mom with that left underarm, haha.

February 15, Saturday

The docks are really filling up - so many kids and dogs. John equalized the batteries today. Arm is feeling better, weather is perfect, warm days, cool nights.
Samie stayed with Leah again.
I had a real bad headache all day and ran a 99.8 fever in the afternoon.

*I wonder if Mom caught something or if it could have been her body reacting to her broken wrist? I also wonder if this was a migraine she had - she didn’t start calling them that for a couple years, maybe she didn’t realize what they were at first. I can’t imagine a migraine, a fever AND a fractured wrist - oh man! 😩
Below are photos of friends around the docks - there was a little girl named Coral who I had fun entertaining, me with Alex and Leah, Alex, and another kid, Brian, from the boat Cabaret. Last is Steve and Molly from Star Song. They had a cute little black poodle named Fiji, she was so cute.

February 16, Sunday

Amity left this a.m. but we will meet up again.
Samie, John, Bob, Lisa and John all went to the beach.

February 17, Monday

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet Samantha Rachelle! #10

Samie played with Alex and the 2 boys off Delphis this a.m. We had spaghetti dinner on the dock with Miss Teak II, Jazz, Star Song, Moonshadow, Hiolani and Calypso. She made a haul on gifts – the best was the blow-up orca. It’s even bigger than she is and was from Cynthia, Lisa and Lorrie. She named it B.S. – Birthday Surprise.
Goon, Mom, Sam and Rane called.
This is the 3rd day now that I’ve run a low-grade fever – 99 & 100°.

*Wow, B.S. - what a name! I bet the adults had a good laugh at that. “Thanks guys, this gift is B.S.!!” 😅 Funny, I don’t think we ever took a single photo with it, but this is what it was. We also had this ski bob and could pull both behind the dinghy. Anyway, Mom made me a great sign and decorated the bow of the boat - I felt so special! This was a great birthday celebration and I loved spending time with everyone on the dock. We were sure to get photos with me and Alex, Frasier and Tristen and of the evening’s shenanigans. I think it’s cute we waited ‘till dark to bring out the cake and candles. Don’t miss my only other Dear Diary entry from that year, complete with tales of my latest crush and all the fun things I got for my birthday.

February 18, Tuesday

Will this writing ever improve?
John took Samie to the beach and the pool.
Shine called Samie for her B-day.

*Looking back, I’m super grateful for how often my parents took me out and up to the pool and whatnot!
I screen shot this image of the marina and found which spots a few of our boats were in, as best I can tell from memory and from the photos. The following two screen clippings are from the MTV show I mentioned earlier. You can watch the challenge here if you are at all interested, it starts at 8:35 into the video.

February 19, Wednesday

Not much happening today, John used Bob’s hookah to clean the prop and bottom, although he could only see about 6” – dirty water.
The guy on Prologue is a doctor and he doesn’t think what John had was hepatitis ‘cause that takes months to recover from. So maybe the dark urine and jaundice was a reaction from the Septrin Z he was taking. Who knows what he had, then. He’ll get a blood test and see if it was hepatitis.

*We did confirm later that year via blood work that it was, in fact, Hepatitis A, from something Dad ate in December.

February 20, Thursday

Samie stayed with Lisa while John and I took the 8:40 bus into Manzanillo for x-rays on my wrist – all is well. We stopped at Juanita’s for lunch and a vacationing E.R. doctor looked at the x-ray and agreed. We were back home at 1 pm. Samie had made a chocolate cake and cookies with Lisa.
The generator quit so John put in a new resistor.

*It’s a wonder I’m not more into baking, as much practice as I got with fellow cruisers! I’m sure I mostly had fun mixing things and eating the batter!
Mom doesn’t mention it, but at some point we found this baby sea turtle in the marina. I remember being enamored with it - I thought that was just the coolest thing, and so, so tiny!

February 21, Friday

I took John into the dinghy dock so he could catch the 9 am bus to P.V. Danielle flies in at 4:45 pm. Samie and I did school and watched a couple of movies.

*I have to mention in here somewhere about a memory that came back to me randomly a couple years ago. The couple aboard one of the boats next to us, Calypso, were very nice and entertained me often when we were in Barra. I noted in my diary that they gave me a fortune teller on my birthday (yes, I still have it!) and I think Sonia would doodle/draw with me sometimes. At one point or other, I remember her showing me this video they had on their computer about a bird and a fish being in love. It was fairly new digital animation at the time and I really liked the video and its story. Something made me think of it a couple years ago and thanks to YouTube - I was able to find it! It’s so funny knowing how far animation has come!

February 22, Saturday

John and Danielle got here about 11 am – it was a 3.5-hour bus ride. We hung around here for a while then went into town. It is so good to have her here!

February 23, Sunday

Talked to Nanamuk, they are in Chacala and promised to see us in P.V. – looking forward to that.
The guys all ran the connected hoses to do the wash-down again and blew up another hose – that makes about 4 in the 3 weeks we’ve been here. Summer Wind is still working on their transmission – poor guys.
It got up to 100° today! Kids went to the pool – John and I provisioned. They have wonderful meat here. The girls stayed at the pool until 6 pm. Danielle got a little red yesterday on her shoulders and today she got her traditional all-over burn!

February 24, Monday

John checked out first thing and we were underway at 9:30 am. We saw finback whales. 3 hours later we were anchored next to Miss Teak II. There were dolphins in the bay rubbing on the anchor chain and swimming all around. John and the girls went to the river and to the restaurant that was built for the movie McHale’s Navy. I took a nap, I’m running a 100° fever again. Miss Teak II came over to say goodbye, they will go back to Barra so their company can fly out, then they are sailing straight up to Mazatlan. They’ll leave the boat there this year. Cynthia will go to Denver and Bob will sail to the South Pacific on Jazz with Lisa and John. I will really miss them.

*Below, are photos of us waving goodbye to Lisa on our way out of Navidad, then Princess Erika and some bottlenose dolphins in Tenacatita, the crew of Princess Erika headed over to say hello, and a glimpse of the movie-set-turned-restaurant.

*Ok, I have a fun memory and this seems like a good spot to include it. The beach in our anchorage (where the movie set is) often got hammered by the waves and was often tough for dinghy landings. The bay was deep and shallowed up real fast coming into the beach, providing less room for the waves to dissipate and meant this beach often had some of the biggest waves we’d see all year. We had some questionable ventures through those waves - even in Princess Erika’s giant red dinghy! I don’t remember what year it was, but I seem to recall nearly being launched from their dinghy one time, coming back out into the bay with them! See, there are several stages of dinghy landings/departures. The first either way is timing and reading the wave sets. For departure, you find your window and then hustle, hustle, hustle! Start pushing the dinghy out as a team and quickly start hopping in once she’s afloat. The last person to jump in is at the very back and gives one last good shove from the beach. Quick! Drop the engine in the water and get that motor started (this is the worst time to stall out)! One, two, three pulls - VROOOM! Ok, now everyone’s facing forward and at least one person heads to the front to keep the bow down. You have to get through the smaller incoming waves before the next big set hits, and it helps to have weight in the bow, especially if it’s windy and the waves are big - you could flip the whole boat, end over end! Anyhow, I seem to recall one such scramble with Princess Erika where probably Cara and I jumped up front in time for one such wave and I have a flashing image/feeling of being suspended in the air after the front of the dinghy met with the crest of a wave and everything kind of shot straight up for a half second before crashing back down on the other side of the wave. WAHOO!! We made it and no one got hurt! Now gun it, before we get caught by another one! 😅
Good times!

February 25, Tuesday

We all went up the river to the outer beach where the girls rode the boogie board. Back at the boat, John and Danielle paddled around in the kayaks. Then we went into the bar, they built for the movie. It will be neat to see the movie.

*Lots of fun here! We would often opt to venture up the river to the other beach which was calmer. It was always fun going up the river, seeing egrets and herons, watching for iguanas and other such creatures hidden in the trees and mangroves. Below you can see photos from the trip as well as the movie set - I see all the stuff written along the walls - I wonder if that was all from the cast and crew? Mom and I figure some cruisers started adding their tags as well, since so many places had ‘cruiser’s walls’ where we added our names. I added a little clip from the movie that shows the barracks and the tree fort we posed in front of. If you look closely, you can tell they flipped the imagery of the landscape for whatever reason, so the entrance to the river goes in the opposite direction in our photos vs the video. It’s crazy to me how identifiable that small bluff still is in the background!
I had to put some random music in the background to keep from getting tagged for copyrights.

February 26, Wednesday

2 weeks with this cast now and it’s getting old, 4 more to go.
We pulled anchor at 7 am and headed out for Chamela. An hour out, just off the point it goes from 5k to 20k – right on our nose. The seas are 5-6 feet and close with white caps. At 8 am the day can only get worse – so we turn back for Tenacatita – where it has been calm all day except for a small swell. The barometer has been rising and falling 4 points at a time for the last few days – who knows what’s going on.

February 27, Thursday

The girls rode on the ski-bob today – otherwise it was a lazy day.

February 28, Friday

We left Tenacatita at 7 am headed for Barra. Still some lumpy swells out there, but not much wind that early. We were dock side again at 10 am and shortly after, the wind kicked up to 10-15k until around 7 pm. We went into Banana’s for a wonderful dinner with Bob and Cynthia, Miss Teak II and John and Lisa, Jazz. Cynthia (Mom) and Lisa had a slice of chocolate mousse with a candle brought to me and everyone sang Happy Birthday. Great night.

March ‘97

*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, Saturday

We took the bus to Melaque and did the “tourist thing” – shop. Danielle got several goodies. I asked one little fellow how much a basket was - $110 pesos, I said “No thanks.” – He followed us four blocks and kept bringing down his price, each time I say no. Until he got down to $60 pesos and looks so desperate for a sale that I buy the pretty basket. Now that’s the easy way to haggle over price!
The wind blew again all day – 25k outside. Cloud Nine finally made it around Cabo Corrientes and into P.V.
Chelle wants to come down the first week of April. Shine said there was a foot of snow when they left Show Low yesterday and still snowing. Brrr!
It’s Danielle’s last day, it’s been fun with her here and I’ll miss her!

*I loved these cruiser’s walls (below) - there was always a handful of boat names we recognized. Some people were so clever and great with their designs!
I spy Mom’s new basket in the second photo below! She still has it - it’s faded, but still in great shape, although it does look like it’s lost it’s handles. I found a photo of some basket sellers in Jalisco - I remember them carrying huge loads of baskets which I think were usually strung along sturdy rods or poles which they would sling across their shoulders and carry along the beach.

March 2, Sunday

Happy B-day to me!

It was freezing this a.m. when we all caught the 9 am bus into P.V. The ride wasn’t so bad cause they played the movie, Maverick. Danielle got carsick, though. We took a taxi to the marina, had lunch and visited Nanamuk. They plan to leave on Wednesday. We sure have missed being with them this season. Well, we picked up Michael and Peggy and 15 minutes later put Danielle on the same plane to go home.
We got rooms at the Hotel Marlin, walked around and had dinner.

*Looking back, our visit with Nanamuk was all too short for the fact that it would be the last time we saw them for who knows how long. I can’t imagine knowing it’s your last few days on shore around any other people for the next 20-30 days before you cross the enormous expansion of open blue ocean that lies between you and the other side of this beautiful world! Hats off to all the cruisers and sailors who’ve heeded their call to cross the Pacific (or any ocean) to make such a journey! I’m not sure I would do it, myself, but I know I sure would love to visit those islands and experience that whole slice of life! Maybe one day I will crew with some hearty sea captain, who knows?!

March 3, Monday

Had breakfast and got the 8 am bus back to Barra. No movie this time, so it went slower – or so it seemed (4 hours).
Hit all the tiendas to stock up. Girls went swimming. We had Chris and Lorrie over for a spaghetti dinner – they brought a cake  - so I’ve had a b-day celebration for 3 days now.

*Awe, my sweet Momma is so loved! 3 days of birthday celebrations! ❤

March 4, Monday

John and I took the bus into Manzanillo and got my cast removed and a short one put on. Oh boy, does my elbow hurt and my upper arm is a soft, mushy bunch of flab. My wrist is still swollen and looks deformed – still hurts too, but the doc says normal. We took a taxi back so the kids wouldn’t be getting bored. John took them in to the pool. Miss Teak II had to turn back 80 miles and get back to Punta Mita because of a fuel pump problem.

March 5, Wednesday

We talked to Miss Teak II, they thought they fixed the problem – got 15 miles out and had to turn back and dropped the hook in La Cruz at 4 am. On Happy Hour they told us they had found the problem. Something to do with air in the fuel line.
We left Barra at 7:30 am and had a smooth 3-hour ride in to Tenacatita. John took the kids on a short ride up the river and later he and Shine went fishing and came back with 2 snook.
Michael and Peggy are both queasy tonight – bummer.

*Happy Hour was one of the evening HAM radio nets. Sounds like a long couple of days for Bob and Cynthia! First an 80-mile turn-around and then a 15! I’ll bet there were stoked to finally get that fixed.
Bummer that Peg and Mike were both queasy! 😩I hope it didn’t take too much fun out of their trip.

March 6, Thursday

The morning started nice, warm and calm. But at 10:30 just as we were gonna head up the river, the wind all of a sudden kicked up to 15k out of the south, which immediately brought in a swell and a surf too big to make it safely through the entrance. So they got out the kayaks instead. It was a pretty boring day.  
Star Song made it into La Cruz this morning. Miss Teak II got everything fixed and fueled up and were 8 miles from Chacala at 5 pm. They will anchor there tonight. That’s where Summer Wind is, too.
I’m getting really tired of this cast and writing this sloppy mess as a lefty.
Talked to Chelle and she’s gonna wait to come out till next October.
At 5:30, Nanamuk was underway just off of Cabo Corrientes on their way to the South Pacific. They are really doing it and plan to be gone for 3 years.

*That’s a bummer we didn’t get to go up the river again with Mike and Peggy! Like I said, the waves in that bay could get pretty gnarly. I’m not sure why we never anchored in the other bay with the beach that the river led to. Maybe this anchorage was less crowded - ah, yes - the map reminds me that it was more protected. We still had fun in the kayaks and tooling around the bay. Mom seems to remember Mike was queasy a lot of the time, poor brother!

*Yay, in the video below, you can get a good idea of what my giant hatch was like in my room! I basically had a huge sunroof right above my bed! I loved when it was fully open, cause I could pop my head out just like Peg does here, to see what was going on outside. Once I got tall enough, I could climb in and out straight through the hatch! At night it was so great to be able to watch the stars if I wanted to. What a lucky little duck I was, and I really had no idea. ❤

*I’ve included a map for an idea of how far of a trip Nanamuk was in for. I can’t help but wonder what shenanigans we’d have gotten into if we’d had more time with them that year! The hardest part about cruising life was parting ways and not knowing if you’d ever see your friends again. Thankfully for us, Nanamuk would be one of the most lasting friendships we were able to maintain after our travels! We went to visit them in B.C. in the early 2000s and Mom and Dad got to spend plenty of time with Rob and Grace when they took the boat up to La Conner, WA from 2005-2008. And then just this last October, Janelle came to visit me here in Phoenix and we had the most delightful 5-day adventure! 🥰 We went horseback riding, hiking, and paddle boarding, we checked out old monuments, museums and the meteor crater. We enjoyed beautiful sights all the way from Sedona to Greer, and made sure to leave room for a good ‘ole western ghost town (Tortilla Flat). There was so much to catch up on that we pretty much had a solid stream of conversation going from sunup to sundown for 6 days straight! It was the best! I think it goes to show that there are some people we meet in this life who we just connect with and will always get along with. The type of relationships where time and distance are of little consequence and you can just pick up from where you left off! 🥰
After the map showing the trip they were embarking on, I added a photo of Nanamuk surrounded by all that pretty blue ocean; I believe she was around 36’. Next is when we went to visit them in 2004, 7 years later: Jelly and I getting ready for a little horseback ride, Dad with Grace and Rob, and a little photo recreation with us kids. The last three are Jelly and I on our grand Arizona adventure!

March 7, Friday

We left Tenacatita at 7 am. There was a small swell from the north and south, wind 5-8k from the south, fairly south-going. Talked to Nanamuk, they were at ?N 106.24 W with 8 knots out of the NW = all is well. Miss Teak II was 83 miles south of Mazatlan at 5pm. Oh – the current coming into the marina in Barra today was so strong going out (against) that John had 1800 rpms on the engine and we were barely going forward.
It hit 100° again for a while until the breeze picked up. Tonight it’s cloudy and muggy, there’s lightning off over the mountains.

*Below is a rough idea of Nanamuk’s whererabouts at the time.

March 8, Saturday

The girls went to the pool for 3 hours or so - sunburned. We all took the bus into Melaque and did the tourist thing again. It was 90° and so humid that my arm got sweaty and sticky in the cast and it felt like it was on fire. So we came back early. I’m so exhausted. Had a quiet evening on the boat. I managed to write out 8 sloppy post cards and finally got to bed at 11 pm.

*Peg and I had fun at the Sands Pool! I feel like most of the time, we basically had this place to ourselves. Maybe everyone else was busy swimming in the ocean?
On Melaque beach, someone had flower sticks that I’d been learning to play with - I was determined to master some tricks!

March 9, Sunday

We got the kids on the 9 am bus to P.V. - 72 pesos each. John figures we spent $400 U.S. while the kids were here. Between busses, hotels, food, etc.
Mom called at 2:45 pm to say they made it to the P.V. airport ok.
Samie and I both took an hour nap this a.m. Love the kids to pieces, but it’s so nice to have our boat back to ourselves. Steve from Star Song came by – he took the bus down from P.V. to get his van.

*It was always great to have company, but a 41’ boat can get cramped pretty fast!

March 10, Monday

The fridge quit this morning. Kirby from Luna is a reefer guy and put some more freon in the refrigerator. It’s been 2.5 years since it was checked, we also had a bad breaker. He has it set now, to shut down on its own at the right time. We went in to Chris and Lorrie’s for a great dinner.

March 11, Tuesday

Happy B-day Cammie.

We were gonna leave today, but want to make sure the fridge is ok first.
John and Lisa on Jazz left today for Las Hadas for a few days on the hook. Then they’ll come back here to pick up Bob and leave from here on the 20th for the South Pacific.
We talked to Don on Luna, heard him calling Las Hadas. Anyway, they were heading north from Z-juat and wrapped a jib line around the prop and pulled the shaft out! They got the leak stopped and Jermane had been towing them for the last 125 miles. They made it in and several dinghies helped them anchor. Hope they can fix it without hauling out – there are no haul-outs until P.V.

😧 Oh man! That’s terrifying about Luna’s jib line getting wrapped around the prop! Thank goodness they were able to stop the leak and had plenty of help to bring them in and anchor. Sheesh!

March 12, Wednesday

We decided to go out and anchor at Melaque to wait for weather. When we got back out there in the open, it was blow’en from the west with a good swell. We continued on to the anchorage, but decided to come on back to the marina. We would have had to put out a stern anchor and the beach landing is even more difficult than normal, all too much for this one-handed girl. So we’re back in Barra waiting for a south wind.
Hot Toddy was out there and followed us in.

*The entrance to Barra could be quite tricky. It had some real shallow spots which resulted in us kissing the bottom once. Thankfully it was a very sandy bottom and no damage was done, but we were in it enough that we did require some help from our fellow sailors in their dinghies to pull us off that spot.
I remember one time when we were leaving Barra, there were thousands of jellyfish everywhere - must have been mating season!

March 13, Thursday

Slow day – John finished waxing the boat. The wind is starting to shift around to the south.
Samie and John went swimming.

March 14, Friday

I forget what happened today.

*Mom must have been playing catch up in her journal here. It’s crazy how easy it can be to forget what happened just a few days ago!

March 15, Saturday

We finally left Barra today at 8:30 am. It was lumpy, but calm until 2 pm when the NW wind kicked in at 15k and built to 20k right on our nose. We were making no headway – so we ducked in at Chamela for a restful night.

March 16, Sunday

We left Chamela at 7 am – calm wind and flat seas until 2 pm again, so we went on in to Ipala at 3:30, got showers and dinner. Amity was coming up from Tenacatita and said it had died down to 13k. So at 6:30 pm, we headed out again to go on around Corrientes. We had 20k on our nose all the way around but flat enough seas – not bad at all. We finally anchored in La Cruz at 3 am.

March 17, Monday

Jim and Kitty, Summer Wind came over first thing this morning – sure good to see them. John and Jim went into Nuevo Vallarta to check-in. Leah, Amity spent the day here. We all went into Cruise Quarters for a while. Saw Blair, but Rosa is in Israel and won’t be back till Friday.

March 18, Tuesday

We left La Cruz at 7:30 am and got into P.V. at 9:30 – our old slip, A-11. I defrosted the freezer and vacuumed, John washed down the boat and cleaned the water maker and started the fuel run. Samie spent the day on Amity, who also came in.

March 19, Wednesday

One more week with this cast. Yeah!
John finished the fuel – cleaned the water maker – changed the oil and all filters.
The kids – about 12 of them – all went to the water park, but all 4 slides were shut down for work. So they all went to the Nautilus to go swimming. We went to Angela’s restaurant for dinner, then to Comercial and spent $600 pesos. Oh, we talked to Angie and Hal on Angela, they are in Nuevo Vallarta, so is Island Trader. 7 rolls of 24 film is $320 pesos.

*Back when we couldn’t instantly see our photos - it was like Christmas when we finally got them printed! Especially seven rolls of film?! Oh goodie, I know I was chomping at the bit to go through them and see how everything turned out!

Monday 20, Thursday

We made it out of the slip ok and back to La Cruz at 11:30 am. We anchored next to Summer Wind in the normal 20k of wind.
Ourselves, Jim and Kitty went in to Dos Felipes to meet Tom, who took a bus over and had a nice visit. Jim and Kitty came over and we BBQed burgers.

March 21, Friday

We woke up to rain, lightning and thunder. It was cloudy all day, the winds are flukey. The first race in the Regata went well. Around 4 pm, it started raining buckets and blowing from the north. A local boat started dragging. There has been no one aboard and it’s drug before. Several guys got on board and let out more scope, no help. So, as it continued to drag, the dinghies, 6 or 7 of them, pushed it to keep it from hitting other boats. It finally drug far enough out and around 10 pm, the Navy rescued it and took it into P.V. It rained hard and blew 25-30k for an hour or so. We were gonna go in to see Rosa, who just got back after being gone a month – 2 weeks in Canada and 2 weeks in Israel.

*I remember one or two rescues in this anchorage, but I’m surprised I don’t immediately remember this one in such terrible weather! What great guys, out there in the wind and snot in their dinghies doing everything they could to rescue someone else’s boat and keep it from hitting or dragging others along with it. Some of those boats in that bay were always empty and had collected barnacles 5” thick on the hull. It was hard to imagine the last time those poor vessels had been out for a sail. Sounds like we didn’t make it in to see Rosa that day, what with the snotty weather and all.

March 22, Saturday

Happy B-day Delores.

It cleared off and was warm today. We spent a couple hours at Cruise Quarters – then went back for Blair’s wonderful ribs.

*Mom loved those ribs!
I’m willing to bet I stayed on shore with Jena while Mom and Dad went back to the boat for a bit. She and I would have had fun either swimming in her pool, making lunch or watching TV. We regularly had Cup o’ Noodles for lunch, and I remember Jena liked to warm up Parmesan cheese on tostada shells, lol. We would watch Nickelodeon on her TV - I remember a lot of Rocko’s Modern Life and she also had a Barenstein Bears game that we would play - I liked that game! (For those who are familiar, do you remember it being Barenstein or Barenstain?! iykyk). I think this might also have been the year that she had a cool new animation program on her computer where you could design sets and characters and make a little short film - kind of like the bird and the fish animation I shared in February ‘97. It was so cool and fun to design, despite being quite time-consuming. Sometimes I would also “do” her homework with her; I liked seeing how it was different from my Calvert Schooling, and trying to read Spanish.

March 23, Sunday

The Regata race went again today – Star Song took first in their class, Angela took first and Island Trader second in their class. We went into Cruise Quarters and watched U of A beat Providene in OT.
Oh, we finally talked to Nanamuk at 8 pm on 14.313. They were at 02°N / 124° W on the 22nd – have only had 10-15k and a great time. They were so glad to hear our voices. Not a good copy tonight, but heard they were at 01° N in 5k.
I watched the lunar eclipse – pretty cool, 98% of the moon was shadowed and had a red glow to it. Pretty.

*Below you can see all the sails up across Banderas Bay during the Regata, a photo of La Cruz Bay, and finally, Nanamuk’s position just north of the equator.

March 24, Monday

We sure have a swell coming in and are rolling around.
Talked to Bob and Lisa on Jazz, they are at Isla Benedicto – in flat seas, no wind! Lisa even saw an Orca!
Spent the afternoon at Cruise Quarters.
Talked to Nanamuk, they crossed the equator at 4 pm. They all celebrated by taking a swim! At 8 pm, they were at 00°, 06 S / 126° 25 W!

*When crossing the equator, sailors love to pay homage to Poseidon or King Neptune and the great wide ocean, thanking them for a safe passage. People can get very creative! Many will go swimming for the ceremony - it breaks my brain a little to think of swimming in the actual middle of the ocean like that with all those miles and miles and miles of water and who-knows-what underneath you!

March 25, Tuesday

Jazz is 75 miles SW of Benedicto, doing great. John polished the brass in the engine room – the other day he changed 15 hose clamps. He’s been working in there for 3 days now. Nanamuk at 0300 Z was at 01° 19 S / 127° 25 W, with 8k. Today they got enough wind to make 5k boat speed. They figure 8 or 9 more days.

*“Z” = Zulu time, known as military time, or also UTC, Coordinated Universal Time.

March 26, Wednesday

We took a 9 am bus into P.V., Jim and Kitty came along. Went to one place to get an x-ray and took a taxi to old town to CMQ to have the cast removed. The doctor cutting off the cast was not very gentle and the saw nicked my skin. It was $150 pesos to cut the cast off. Manzanillo is cheaper than P.V. I’m still using my left hand until I can get the use back in my right wrist. P.V. was packed, Easter week and all. One bus we took was so crowded, there were more people standing than sitting. We even had a guitar and violin players serenade us! We stopped at Cruise Quarters for a nice, cold beer.
Nanamuk is at 02° 52 S / 129° 08 W – 12k and made 140 miles today. They had rolley seas and when Rob was carrying his dinner and drink up to the cockpit, he almost fell overboard, but made a dive down and spilt his drink and dinner on Grace. She lovingly gave up her dinner to Rob, who had spent an hour cooking.

March 27, Thursday

My wrist is slowly limbering up. I can at least hold this pen although it hurts and is sloppy.
Hal, Angie and little Hal on Angela came in and anchored today. This was the first time we saw Angie this year. Spent our usual time at Cruise Quarters while Samie and Tarn and Mia went swimming.
Nanamuk is at 04° 28 S / 123° 33 W, 15k wind, 6k boat speed. 550 miles to go, they made their second sail change of the trip. The sun goes down there around 8 pm.

March 28, Friday

Samie did test lesson #100 – 3 more to go. We enjoyed another afternoon at Rosa’s.
I sent a fax to Bill and Trish.
At 0300 Z, Nanamuk was at 05° 43 S / 132° 36 W, 12k wind – 5.5 boat speed. All is well and they think 4 or 5 more days!

March 29, Saturday

Samie went to Samara I and decorated cupcakes with Tarn and Mia. Then they all went to Imoni to do eggs. We all – the group – went into Cruise Quarters to watch U of A beat North Carolina. Good game – had dinner, fun night.
Coming back out, the fish were lit up with phosphorescence and jumping all around the dink.
Nanamuk is at 07° 03 S / 132° 21 W.

*Apparently that game got U of A into the national championships that year - I bet Dad was real excited.
Mia must have been from Imoni - I don’t remember a lot about her. I think I remember this day, though - I remember I tried to close Tarn’s knife on someone else’s boat, and I almost sliced my finger when it snapped shut. To this day, I get sketched out closing a folding knife!

March 30, Sunday

Happy Easter

Another slow, lazy morning. I baked a cake, John and Samie went into Cruise Quarters.  Tom, Island Trader and Jim and Kitty, Summer Wind came over for Easter dinner. Pork roast, potatoes, gravy, stuffing and salad. Great meal and great company.
My wrist is still stiff and the skin real tender, but improves a little every day.
The clouds over the P.V. mountains were so pretty today, with different shades of pastel blue and soft to brilliant whites.
Dan on Hot Toddy came in tonight. He decided not to go on south and is going back north.
Nanamuk is at 08° S / 165° W – I think, poor copy and Peg called just then, crying. Her dad told her not to go to the lake and she did. So now she’s in trouble.

*Ooooh, Peg was getting herself into some trouble! Oh, to be a teenager!

March 31, Monday

We went in to Cruise Quarters to watch U of A beat Kentucky in overtime, 82-79! John has waited 48 years for this and thoroughly enjoyed himself. Unfortunately, the game was a late one and we missed talking to Nanamuk. It is Jelly’s birthday and they may have made that landfall.

What a great birthday gift for Jelly, to make landfall after 25 days at sea!
I remember this U of A game at Cruise Quarters ‘cause they (probably Dad) got the room chanting “U of A! U of A!” and I remember being really excited even if I didn’t have a clue about what was happening in the game. I can still remember Dad’s giddy face, cheering his team on.

April ‘97

*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, Tuesday

John and Jim went to check out today. Brent from Alpine got me on the HAM to let us know to call Navopache. So we talked to Tim – he wants John back as soon as possible. Gary has me in for June through September. So now we’ll head on up faster and try to  be in Arizona by the 2nd week in May! That’s only 4 more weeks – sad!
Eagle’s Pride had left for Cabo 2 or 3 days ago – but limped back in today. Their anchor broke loose, falling and breaking the bob-stay, they tore a sail and their fuel is bad, so no motor. It took them 19 hours to come in from Punta de Mita to La Cruz. Not much wind. In fact, the last 4 or 5 days have been very unusual for Banderas Bay.
Tarn, Samara I, spent the morning over here. We went in to Cruise Quarters for an early rib dinner and said goodbye to Blair and Rosa.
I haven’t worn the wrap on my wrist for two days now and it’s tender and sore tonight.
KC7MAT (Joyce) just relayed to us that Nanamuk expected to make landfall today and drop the hook at Hiva Oa around noon today. How wonderful for them!

*That is insane how long it took Eagle’s Pride to get into La Cruz from the Punta de Mita area - Mom wasn’t kidding when she said they limped in - that trip would normally take us around 2-3 hours, I believe. If they were a sloop, that would mean they had only one sail left to work with and no wind to fill it! The lack of afternoon wind was definitely unusual for Banderas Bay, and I’ll bet the 3-4 days of that trip felt like a lifetime to them - especially once they were so close to their destination, but had no wind or engine power to actually GET there. I’m just glad they got there safe and I hope they were able to fix everything.
Hooray for Nanamuk making landfall! I’ll bet land never looks more beautiful than after such a stint at sea - especially the luscious green islands of the Marquesas! I found this video, it’s about sailing the Marquesas from SV Julia, if you’ve got some extra time and want to daydream about sailing out to sea! 🐞

April 2, Wednesday

We left La Cruz at 6:30 am, heading for Chacala. Flat seas – hazy horizons. Once we rounded Punta de Mita, the breeze filled in at a nice 10-12k, 40° off and we had a beautiful motor-sail on up. 7.5 hours later, at 2 pm, we dropped anchor. Summer Wind was about a half hour behind.
Angela, Hal and Angie are still here and they came by for a bit. We did not bother to put out a stern anchor and it’s pretty rolly. Still nothing compared to the 3 or 4 days at San Benedicto!
I forgot to mention the pelican we had in La Cruz that slept every night on the connecting bars from the wind vane to the boat. We think he had a bad wing because he never flew off, only floated away.
Danielle called to tell us that Jason Fish was learning to walk again. He could go about 20 feet with his walker, but he fell and broke the back bones where they had put the metal plates in last year in February. So now he’s gonna have to start all over with the pain and therapy. Terrible news.
Goon called – 2 minutes after Danielle hung up.

*Poor Jason, I can’t imagine making all that progress and having to start all over again! 😩
Below, Jim and I having a little dinghy race in Chacala.

*I love hearing the local net on the radio in this video!

April 3, Thursday

We spent a rolly night in Chacala, awaking at 5 am and weighing anchor at 6:00 as the size of incoming swell was increasing. Once our anchor was up, we circled back to tell the boat Bivowak (SP) that they were dragging. He didn’t think they were, but it sure looked like it to us – oh well. In the meantime, Summer Wind got ahead of us. It was quite rolly with some big swells out of the bay for about a mile or two. Then, it smoothed out some. Then, wind filled in offshore at 10k and out went the sails.
Land was extra pretty with the haze hovering and the sun trying to find its way through the thick clouds above. As the land rose from the beach and to each mountain behind, they reached higher above the one in front, each taking on its own shade of blue-grey in the early morning misty dawn.
In the distance, we watched as a mother and calf whale frolicked in play, oblivious to the 20k of wind and building seas.
We had pulled alongside Summer Wind and were in the process of taking pictures of the boats undersail when John noticed that Jim’s jib had no sheet line attached! We’re hollering and pointing to the flapping jib – Kitty thinks we’re saying to wave for the picture. Jim finally sees the jib and can’t believe it. He tied the knot in the wrong end of the line!! We all had a good laugh over that one and it’s on film, too!!
Two miles out of San Blas, the wind died off to 10k and we came on in to the estuary which has now been dredged. We are tied up to the Navy pier – something new that Norm has arranged.
It's odd, the tide goes up and down, the boat goes up and down, but the concrete stays put. So, to get on and off, you either have a good-sized leap down or a big step up. I also feel like I’m in a fish-bowl with all the locals coming down and looking. They can see right down inside.
John and Jim went to check in.
It's raining now. We all went in to see Jan and Norm and then to Macdonald’s for dinner. John couldn’t find any rum-rasin ice cream.
It’s still raining at 7:30 pm and the wind is blowing 10k and pushing us away from the pier – I hope we hold!

*What an eventful, beautiful day at sea! Seems there was rarely a dull moment when we were with Jim and Kitty!
The Navy Pier was not our favorite spot, mostly to do with the looky-loos, like Mom said, but it wasn’t a requirement and we never stayed there long.

April 4, Friday

Samie and I managed to get some school in. It had drizzled rain most of the night and was cloudy all day again.
Amity is out in Matanchen Bay, they dinghied in today.
After all that rain yesterday, we checked Samie’s closets and sure enough, rain worked its way in and her clothes are wet again - something happened in La Cruz with that downpour. John finally found a loose bolt in that area. Hopefully, that is it – NO more wet clothes!!
John gave several little wooden toy airplanes to the little kids down here with families looking at our boat.
We bought some new bug netting to hang around the cockpit. The stuff we bought here 3 years ago is junk now.
Jim and Kitty came over for dinner, then we all went in to the Plaza. I bought one of those little Mexican puppets ($25p) and Samie was entertaining a group of little tiny kids. It was so cute, they were so fascinated. Especially a little boy about 1.5 years. I had to laugh – he was so cute!
We visted with Jan and Norm, then came on home.
Oh – Samie made bread at Kitty’s today. She was so excited with her surprise – she even wrapped it up as a present. She let it slip though, that she was making bread and her eyes got huge and her hand flew to her mouth. It was priceless!
The carnival is in full force and volume just a couple hundred feet from the boat. Music, loud music, which will probably go on until midnight or so.
My wrist is slowly improving, some days better than others. Writing this much all at once makes it ache, though. So, goodnight!

*Oh, no! Return of the leaky stanchion!! 😩 I believe I have come to understand the source of my lingering anxiety about making sure my things are kept safe from random mishaps! It’s funny that I only remember the first leak out of all of them - probably due to the 8-hour storm that caused it. I’m sure after the second or third leak we stopped putting anything that couldn’t be washed in those cupboards. Mom was certainly the most affected in the moment, since she washed everything for me - which, mind you, was all hand-washing unless we happened to have the luxury of taking our laundry to shore at the time.
I remember the little toy airplanes Dad had for such occasions! We would sometimes include pencils and paper, I think. I seem to remember something like these two kinds of airplanes, maybe we had both at some point, idk.
We loved going to the Plaza! It was a nice little walk into town, music was likely being played, and people were out enjoying the evening. I will always remember the most delicious churro I’ve ever had being served from a cart right outside the Plaza. So fresh, tasty and warm! Can’t beat it. Mom still has the puppet we bought, we named him Cerveza. I remember the kids being real cute with the puppet; I’ve always enjoyed entertaining the little ones and seeing the awe and excitement in their eyes. 🐞

April 5, Saturday

About 10 am we made the “journey” from the pier to the anchorage – five minutes later, the hook is secure. John and Samie headed back to the pier in the dink, then off to town and a hike to the old fort with the gang on Amity. John said it was pretty neat and the old church still had some of the carvings. Samie liked the cannons. It was all built by the Spanish 400 years ago.
I stayed on the boat and enjoyed a quiet day.
We ate dinner at Summer Wind.
The carnival is going again.

*Funny, before I read the above entry in it’s entirety, I went to look up the fort and was thinking it was a bummer I don’t remember more about it, as the building and it’s surroundings are stunningly beautiful. As I went through the photos on Google Maps, I seemed to recall the cannons specifically… only to continue reading Mom’s entry and find that apparently, the cannons are what stuck out to me (ha! No pun intended). I remember taking in the view of all that pretty blue ocean just beyond the thick jungle greens of San Blas. I’m surprised I didn’t take photos! 🐞

*The last photo here must have been when I was baking bread. All I remember is that I spilled water or some liquid on the floor and decided to get crafty while cleaning up. I taped paper towels around my feet and shuffled around the floor. 😅 Practical? Not at all. Fun? Heck yeah! haha. Side note, but Mom and I were talking about my time spent with Jim and Kitty and she seems to remember Kitty and I playing Go Fish using sign language. I remember we also played a lot of Gin Rummy. I always enjoyed myself.
Yay - I’ve been excited to share this next memory! I used to record anything and everything with my handy-dandy tape-recorder, and Jim was nice enough to sing Summer Wind for me once! 🥰 I was so happy when I found the cassette tape - I absolutely treasure this and am so glad I still have it! Jim and Kitty were some of the nicest, funniest and most pure humans I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and I’m so grateful for the times we got to share with them. ❤ I tried to add the audio alone, but it wouldn’t post, so I paired it with this video of Summer Wind from earlier in the season. Enjoy!

April 6, Sunday

No one slept too good last night – the nasty little biting bugs were active. So Samie fell asleep twice while trying to do math today. We’re all ready to get out of San Blas – so the day drug by.
Summer Wind was gonna stay until next Saturday or so – but the bugs have eaten Jim up, so they’re out of here with us mañana. John is calling Jim “grumpy when he get bumpy” (his bites really swell up).
Ourselves, Summer Wind, and Angela all went in to MacDonalds for dinner and a walkabout.
We have been trying to reach Nanamuk on the HAM, but since they have made landfall they’re never on the radio – poop!

*Oooh! Just imagine all the fun Nanamuk was having - exploring, learning, meeting new people and likely stuffing every ounce of sightseeing they could into each 24 hours! 😍 I got to hear some of their tales when Janelle came to visit me last year. What an incredible journey with some wild ups and downs, for sure!

April 7, Monday

John checked out of the bug-infested San Blas and we were underway at 8 am. The winds were light out until we rounded the white rock about 20 miles out, then the wind picked up and was right on our nose for the next 27 hours! Every time we altered our course to get off the wind and swell a bit, the “Noserly” followed! The normal 21 to 24-hour trip took 31 hours. At times, we were only moving 1 to 3k. It was the most uncomfortable trip I can remember having. Of course, we were taking sea water over the bow and Samie’s room got it AGAIN! I tell ya, it’s getting so old that it puts me and her on the verge of tears. It was a long night.

*Oy vay - this is at least the 6th time, if not the tenth! We must have been on the verge of never using those cupboards again! 🐞

April 8, Tuesday

The wind calmed down to 10k this a.m. and the sea had smoothed out some. We were able to put the jib out and motor-sail at 30° off the wind and finally make some headway. Summer Wind went on into the anchorage. We came into the marina by going between the islands and the beach. It got down to 15 feet – too shallow for my comfort. We had the main sail up and it’s blow’en 15 to 20k and some bozo in a panga pull’en a parasail cuts right in front of us – sees how close he’s gonna come, slows down and the poor guy starts descending, so he gasses it on in front of us! John “swerves” to keep from catching the parasail line in the mast and we go into 12 feet of water! The swell is roll’en in and looks like it’s real close to where it’s breaking on the beach.
I got a little tense, John got pissed! Coming in to the breakwater with the swell was a little nerve-wracking, too. Oh well, we made it fine. We’re on a dock with water, but no power. Oh – as we were out in the 18 feet of water, the generator quit. John thinks it’s a fuel pump or filter.
We’re docked next to Neil and Maryanne on Carousel. Samie went to Moonshadow for a while. What a long, rough trip!!

*Those parasail drivers sure do like to give their parasailors a story to tell (not to mention a tight sphincter)! Seems like this was something we dealt with every time we passed between the island and the beach - I can’t remember why we didn’t resort to going around the outside.
The breakwater going into Marina Mazatlan was always nerve-wracking. Swells sometimes ushered themselves in through the narrow corridor and made for an interesting ride in. Pair that with a bit of wind and things could get real tricky. There was always a bit of tension getting in and out of here, but we made sure to go during slack tide and were very careful. 🐞

April 9, Wednesday

John washed down the boat and I cleaned up inside. Jim and Kitty took the bus over here, picked up the van and we cambioed money AGAIN – we seem to do that a lot – then we got some lunch. Samie stayed on the boat. She is growing up so fast. Sometimes I try to remember her at 7 when we first moved on the Wandrin’ Star. She’s so independent now. Her and Leah got together for a while.
I got a kick out of the way they water the grounds here at the marina – they have a big hose on a water truck and drive around spraying the trees and such.
The Niña, one of the replicas of the Columbus ships, is here in the marina. Wayne and Leslie from another Wandrin’ Star take it out in the bay for tours.
Saw Lee from Papagayo and Samie went to visit Glo. We’re still really tired tonight.

I feel terrible that I really only remember Leah in Barra! Maybe partly because those are the only pictures I took! I have certainly noticed that the richness and in-depth nature of my early sailing memories start to give way around this age. Maybe it has to do with this no longer being the first time seeing these places and things, or being more invested in what’s going on with myself internally while learning more about interacting with others and carrying on my own, rather than being like some sort of extra appendage of my parents’. Whatever it was that sparked the change of memory intake, I would love to unlearn it! I have recently been practicing going backward, if you will, beyond that past horizon in order to better see things the way I used to. I want to see again how I used to and soak up the awesome, new potential of things - before my brain was packed with all sorts of context, opinion, labels, ideas and information (both the necessary and entirely opposite of). It’s tough to do, finding a way to resist the barrage of input that ignites in my thoughts when one topic or other comes up. There’s so much noise around so many things now that my perception is imbued with distortion and I am no longer so easily able to see such a thing as it simply is. In recounting my childlike perceptions, I have revisited my old pair of rose-colored glasses and am practicing seeing new and current things from that same youthful perspective, which was blessed with naivete and excited optimism.
I’m surprised we didn’t go for a ride on The Nina - at least, not that I recall.
I remember the trucks going around and watering the trees - they also sprayed water on the dirt to help keep the dust down on windy days - there wasn’t a lot of grass or foliage around the marina - it was mostly dirt lots at the time. 🐞

April 10, Thursday

Busy day. John got 5 jerry jugs at the fuel dock, then 5 more in town – way out, the other side of town. Jim and Kitty drove us there, also to immigration to get our VISA extended. We stopped for lunch and shopped at the comercial. I’m doing our laundry here at the marina – that’s a first this year, other than in San Carlos. It’s easier and cheaper to send it out! 🐞

April 11, Friday

John put 15 more gallons of diesel in – it’s finally full. The fuel was $800p – the slip was $263p for 4 days. Jim and Kitty took us back to get the VISA with the 60-day extension. Jim also took us to his favorite (and he’s tried out a lot of them) taco stand.
Riding around with Jim is quite frightening and comical. Driving in Mexico is a scary thing, but Jim makes me laugh! He takes a wrong turn or misses it and has to double back. And all the while, he is pointing out this place or that.
Hal and Angie, Angela, came by, they will leave the boat here for the summer.
John washed down the dink and stowed it on deck. We’ll head out early in the morning.
Samie had dinner and watched movies on Amity – they’re also leaving for La Paz tomorrow.
Called Chelle for her B-day on the 14th in case the phone doesn’t work then. Schyler got on the phone and said “Hi, I love you.” So cute and so great to hear his little voice. Danielle was in Pinetop.

April 12, Saturday

We left Marina Mazatlan at 5:30 am under cloudy skies. The breakwater entrance – or exit, in this case – was swelly and surgy as the tide was flowing in. Made getting out a little tricky and one swell caught us and we read a depth of only 3 feet. Too close for my comfort. The first 15 miles or so were slightly confused – no wind. Next came a 10k noserly out of the west, but not bad. Next, a 10k southerly, which lasted until sunlight.
Papagayo left ahead of us and called back to let us know of the 10-mile radius of fishing trollers out in the middle. So, forewarned, we headed a little more north and went around them. We approached just at sunset and finally made it by at 11:30 pm, or thereabouts. I counted 20 lights in the fleet, all lit up in yellow and white out on their fishing apparatus – they looked like a fleet of space crafts! It was a chilly, but very calm, pleasant night. Clouds even cleared out some and we could see the comet (Hale-Bopp) on this, the brightest night.

*Below: me in my favorite spot - the best spot! Looking forward from the edge of the bowsprit gave me a sensation like I was a bird flying over the water. I could watch the water for hours and be content as each ripple appears and disappears to and from the endless watery landscape.

April 13, Sunday

This morning, the wind shifted to the north, but was only a light 10k – wonderful! We saw 2 finback whales, John caught a good-size dorado, but he broke the lure just before he got the net under him.
Oh – yesterday, for 3 or 4 hours, we had a little tiny green and yellow bird as a passenger. The little bird walked all around the deck in circles from forward to aft several times. He even got up on the edge of the cockpit next to my arm a couple of times. He was so cute, but everytime I got the camera, he’d take off and run.
We were anchored at 4:30 pm. It was a peaceful, calm, flat 36 hours of motoring and not enough wind to add much speed.
Papagayo and Chances Are left with us from Mazatlan and are here in Los Muertos also.
Amity left this a.m. We talked to Tom on Island Trader, he’s still in P.V., he’s really going to the South Pacific. He has a crew member and plans to leave on Wednesday.
The water here in Los Muertos is a pretty, clear turquoise like the first year we came in. The gentle “rock-a-bye” will have me asleep in nothing flat.

April 14, Monday

Happy Birthday, Chelle.

Slept like a baby! John woke me up at 6 am, I sure didn’t want to crawl out of my nice, warm bed. We were underway from Muertos to La Paz at 6:30. Nice motor-sail all the way with 10k – variable until in the main channel where it kicked up to 15k and with the incoming tide, it got sloppy. It was actually the roughest part of the whole trip from Mazatlan. We saw lots of small mantas jumping and flipping all around. The GPS flipped out coming through the shallow Lorenzo Channel by the buoy, just like it always does. Must be a “black hole” through there. We were anchored at 3:15 pm. Lots of boats in here waiting for race week.
We went to the Dock Café for dinner.

April 15, Tuesday

We heard on 3.838 that Jazz made Hiva Oa, but 150 miles out, they lost their rudder – gone to the depths! Somehow, they must have rigged something up to make it on in, but we have no details yet.
John jerry jugged 55 gallons of diesel. We stocked up the boat for the next 2 weeks into San Carlos.
Happy Hour on Tweed.

*Mom doesn’t remember if they figured out why the rudder fell off, but she says she remembers they rigged it up somehow, she thinks it was with a hatch or something like that, maybe an extra that was on the boat. Lisa’s Dad, Bob, from Miss Teak II was with them, and we’re sure he was a big help with figuring that out after all his years of cruising. I still can’t get over the idea of the rudder just falling off to be lost to the depths of the ocean! There’s always some kind of surprise when it comes to boats!
Just a reminder, whenever Dad “jerry jugs” it means that instead of having the boat at a fuel dock where we can fill the diesel fuel straight into the tank, Dad had to take the jerry jugs to the fuel dock, fill them up, dinghy them out to the boat and empty them into the tank. Lather, rinse, repeat until the tanks are full.

April 16, Wednesday

We left La Paz at 6:30 am, it takes forever to get out of that channel. Once we were out of the harbor channel, we of course encountered the ferry coming in from Mazatlan – 2 ferrys, in fact. For the next 7 hours to Isla San Francisco we had zero wind and glassy seas, cloudy skies which burned off and the sun came out at around noon. It surprised us that we only saw 1 manta and 1 sea lion on such a peaceful day.
John shined brass and cleaned the life lines while we were under way.
Lee and Glo on Papagayo left from the east side of Isla Partida where they saw mantas and 1 orca yesterday. The orcas have been spotted several times in the sea this season. Now if only Samie could see them. Jim and Vivian on Sparkler are here, we haven’t seen them since Barra in Feb. They came by for a bit – then we went over to Papagayo.  The generator quit again, so John changed the fuel and oil filters, he also found the main engine fuel filter needed changed.

*Ooof - I bet I was peeved about missing those Orcas again! Always so close, yet so far!!

April 17, Thursday

John cleaned the hull of the boat. The wind started a breeze last night, 5-10k from the south that continued most of the day. Beautiful, warm, calm day – spent an hour or so on the beach. Sparkler, Jim and Vivian – Papagayo, Lee and Glo all came over for happy hour.

April 18, Friday

The wind blew again at 1:30 am last night, 12k and it got a little bumpy, but it kept me awake.
We left Isla San Francisco at 6:30 am and made the smooth ride in 2 hours to San Evaristo. Because the wind has been out of the south the last 2 nights, we anchored in the south anchorage and of course there are 8 other boats here now and at 6:30 pm the wind is out of the north – go figure.
John and Lee went diving on the hookah, then John cleaned the boat bottom.
Royal Venture came in today, haven’t seen them since December.

April 19, Saturday

Ourselves, Papagayo and Sparkler all went to the beach for lions paw shells, among others. John and Lee went diving on the hookah again. John says he’s getting one for next year.
Visited with Lee and Glo, we won’t see them until next fall. Dinner was shrimp, fresh scallops and sea bass – yum, yum!

April 20, Sunday

We left 6 am San Evaristo, had a smooth ride up to Agua Verde and were anchored at 2 pm. Sparkler was behind us, their motor quit coming into the anchorage, but they dropped the anchor, got it going again and came over here in the north anchorage.
Samie has been rowing around in the dink entertaining herself.
It’s been such a cold winter and the last week or so has been 90° and warm.
I forgot the most exciting part of the day – we had a big pod of bottlenose dolphins under the bow and got some great film. Then there was a pod of common dolphins for a while. 2 other pods swam by at a distance. We love the dolphins dancing in peaceful harmony with the ocean. 🐞

April 21, Monday

We called Bill and Trish Gibson in Lakeside last night, we’re trying to talk them into coming down to San Carlos the first of May.
We left Agua Verde this a.m. at 6:15, made a smooth passage to the “waiting room” in Escondido. Only saw a few mantas jumping and jelly fish floating by. We were pleasantly surprised to find Daryl from Princess Erika here. Linda and the girls were only here in February and he’s driving back in a couple days. He came over for dinner.
Don and Sherry from Luna came by for a bit, they spent the year in the sea.

April 22, Tuesday

What a slow day. John scrubbed the water line and cleaned all his tools. I cleaned out 4 of the food bins. 92° today and no breeze – until around 4 pm when it kicked up 10-12k out of the west. The barometer is down 4 points.
We went into the trailer park restaurant for dinner with Don and Sherry from Luna – very enjoyable evening.
We helped the boat Quest II get a phone call through on “Leo’s net” – the Arizona gang. Quest II had received a message to call home ASAP – thank goodness it was no emergency, but it’s amazing what HAM radio can do for us all out here.

April 23, Wednesday

We were gonna leave this a.m. but Samie was sick last night and I’m kinda down today. So we hung around in this 100° heat, every once in a while a breeze would float in.
John changed the zinc; the old one fell apart in his hand.
Samie took a test – good – only 40 more lessons to go – we’ll never make it before we get back to the States.
The barometer is down another 5 points, that’s a total of 10 points since yesterday. We figure it’s like a thermal low or something!
The water was so clear we could see the bottom, no fish of any kind, only star fish. Samie went for a short swim, she also kayaked again.

*I think I remember being sick that night - it was from a very greasy burger I’d eaten the night before. It was mostly from the bun and however they had toasted it - I can still remember the last bite being like a mouthful of grease. Not entirely sure why I finished it, unless I just didn’t want to be rude, or it wasn’t bad till that last bite. Anyhow, I at least made it to the boat before I got sick, I was appreciative of that.

*I know these photos are all essentially the same, but she’s just so beautiful! I couldn’t choose and I like seeing the other boats in the bay.

April 24, Thursday

We left Escondido at 7 am knowing that a front would be going through, but thought we could beat it to San Juanico. Well, we got out 15 miles and looking ahead we could see it already white-capping so we headed back. Ahead it was blow’en out of the NW – turn around and we have 15k on our nose from the south – go figure! Oh well, at 9:45 am we were re-anchored.
Samie went for a hike with Sherry and Don, Luna, and came back pooped. I went through a couple shelves and drawers getting ready to go back to the dreaded States.
The wind finally picked up in here around 2 pm – 15-25k and it pushed us up close to the mountain. It calmed down around 7 pm – I think, we can hope it stays calm for the night.
The barometer dropped again, another 5 points today.
We are talking to Running Free, Gill and Eileen, they are in Honduras in the Yucatan.
When the wind was calmer, we had a medium sized manta ray right beside the boat flapping one wing on the water surface, just like a whale slaps his fin. Of course, as soon as I got the camera, he dove. He did swim around for a couple minutes, then off he went.
It's 9 pm now and the wind is bouncing around between 5 and 15k.

*Below, Honduras, where Running Free was. 🐞

April 25, Friday

It remained calm all night and we left Escondido at 8 am, it was a little rolly, but not bad at all. Light wind, a few jelly fish and some sea lions floating on their backs, sunning their bellies. We made it to San Juanico at 2:15 pm.

*Sea lions are funny to spot out at sea, because you typically can’t tell what they are until you get much closer. They are small and unobtrusive on the surface, easy to be confused with a runaway tree branch from shore, some sort of trash, or a wayward buoy.

April 26, Saturday

They were talking a big northerly today, so we stayed put. We had 15 NE for only a short while in here, so we’ll probably leave tomorrow. It’s to the point that we’re just ready to be in San Carlos and get the summer over with.
The water is cold and green, so diving is no good.
We went over to the Cruiser’s Shrine to leave our 96-97 shell – we were disappointed to find that the cross-stitch Samie made last year and varnished into a shell was gone! The only thing left was the one with our boat card – someone, it appears, took the cross-stitch! Unreal – I hope they feel awful and return it!
We talked to Tom again on Island Trader. He and his crew, Carl, are about 400 miles out. They have been motoring for the last day and a half.
John and I sat out on deck around 10 pm and watched the “sparkly” fish dart around in the dark waters beside the boat and the graceful rays gliding across the bottom. The moon doesn’t come up until around 11 pm tonight, which was a beautiful, soft orange 3/4 ball on the horizon. We will really miss looking out at the millions of glittering stars all around and unobstructed by pine trees or city lights and smog.

*We were bummed and confused to find my cross-stitch gone. They had gone through the trouble of detaching the bottom half and leaving that part at the shrine - which almost makes less sense to me than taking someone else’s shrine offering all together. It’s like they had a guilty conscience, but were still committed to taking the artwork. 🤔 I added a photo below from the previous year when we had just hung it up in the shrine. Oh well - I wonder what ever happened to it?

April 27, Sunday

Well, they are predicting 15-25k NE all through the sea, so we’re here again today. I’m ready to cross and get it over with – but – I’m enjoying these last days on the hook!
We walked up one of the little mountain ledges that are over the bay and got some pretty film of the tidal pools at low water.
At noon the winds are still non-existent so we pulled out of San Juanico at 12:30 pm.
Beautiful sail on over the 95 miles to San Carlos! Until around 4 pm – 5k of wind from the east, then for a couple hours 10k from the south. We saw dolphins – whales – both sperm and maybe false killer whales! The sperm whale was right beside us when he looked right at us and then went behind. I got it on film – too cool!
Around 6 pm or so, the wind shifted to the west at 10k and we had a beautiful ride!
John slept while I took the normal first watch. It was so wonderful that I didn’t want to sleep and miss this last night at sea. The breeze wasn’t too cool, so we didn’t have the side canvas up and I even rolled back the top canvas to see more of the stars. I watched the moon come up through the binoculars at 11:40 pm, a spectacular 3/4 ball of orange fire! The tears came as I thought of leaving our ocean home for the next 4 months. Around 3 am, the wind shifted again to the NE at 10k. The trip covered every direction of wind there is, all at or under 10k. We came all the way from Mazatlan without getting the decks sprayed with salt water!!

*The incident with the sperm whales is something I’ll never forget! We passed the mother and calf first, and then spotted the male. We were approaching each other’s path at a 90° angle and were nervous that we might collide since there was no way to stop our boat in time or turn quickly enough to get out of the way. Suddenly, the whale stopped dead in the water and let us pass. As soon as we were out of his path, he went on his way. It was so cool and I remember running up and down along the decks like an overexcited dog while we watched the moment unfold.
Those night crossings really hit different - there’s just something about the darkness and open ocean surrounding you. Some nights were absolute magic with the moon shining down brightly, reflecting off the calm water, and the stars! Sometimes they were lit up brighter than a Lite-Brite! I wish there were a way for this current version of myself to be there with my mom in that moment. It would be so cool to experience her and that night through these adult eyes of mine. 🐞

April 28, Monday

We made it in to Marina Real just as the sun was lighting the eastern sky at 5:30 am – 17-hour trip.
Oh, I called Daddy last night from out in the middle and Goon called later.
John got right to work – I, on the other hand, took a nap and ate some lunch first.
We went to Tequila’s for dinner. We’re watching Son-in-Law, one of my all-time favorites.

*Dad really enjoyed this movie, too. It’s one of the two movies I’ve ever seen him really get a kick out of.

April 29, Tuesday

Long, busy day! John got the stay-sail and mizzen sail down today, among many other things. We emptied out the chain locker and under Samie’s bed and we sprayed it all out. Trying to go through Samie’s stuff is a big job – give aways, condense and keep.
The daytime temps are nice and warm, 80°s with a cool breeze. The nights are cool, this a.m. it was 67°.

April 30, Wednesday

John got the jib and main washed down and we got them folded up. The Wandrin’ Star is looking naked. John works hard all day out in the beautiful sunshine.
Samie and I finally finished her room. We’ve got a big pile of toys, books and clothes to give to Jeff’s kids. We went up to Dario and Emma’s condo for a couple hours for a nice visit.

Summer ‘97

*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, Thursday

John pickled the water maker.
I think – I hope – we found that leak that always gets the cupboards in Samie’s room wet! I emptied everything and watched while John sprayed it with the hose. The caulking around the cap-rail is old and cracked, so that MUST be where the water sneaks in. So we scraped it all out with a small screwdriver. Not an easy job. John stuck the screw driver in his hand twice. I scraped my knuckles, have a blister on my left hand and my right wrist really hurts from the little twisting and pushing I did with it.
Barely heard Tom, Island Trader on the 4.015 net – he is 1,000 miles out.

🐞

May 2, Friday

Today was the caulking job, replacing the old stuff that we pulled out yesterday. John did all of that, but I taped it off. Samie went up to Emma’s condo for an art lesson in water colors and learned a few tricks of the trade. We went to Manuel’s Chicken for dinner, then stopped of at Jeff and Hilda’s for a visit and to drop off the toys and clothes, etc.  

*Yay, Emma! She invited me over for all kinds of lessons! Watercolor painting, synchronized swimming, and one day we made fresh, homemade pasta! I think it was lasagna. Mom remembers them being from Austria, I remember something about Brazil… Maybe Dario was from Brazil and Emma from Austria? Either way, we really enjoyed their company. I think Dario was in charge of the condos there in the marina, were they lived.

May 3, Friday

Happy B-day Janet.

John waxed and polished the boat and equalized the batteries. The wind was calm today, so we took the boat over and got fuel. There’s still a lot to do – but the time here in Mexico is all too fast coming to a close and it’s so depressing.

May 4, Sunday

John sanded down and re-teaked all the wood floor grates. Then he changed the oil in the gen-set and shut it all down. It may seem like I don’t do much of the work around here – but Samie and I are getting as much school done as we can and I do all the little things inside getting ready to go.
Jeff, Hilda and the kids came over for a BBQ rib dinner – nice evening.

May 5, Monday

Happy B-day #2 Schyler!

Our day wasn’t a real smooth one today, especially for John. He was changing the transmission oil and the end of the funnel hose fell off in the transmission. We tried everything to fish it out, but it was impossible. At first he thought we’d have to pull it out and disassemble it, which would mean taking the lid out of the cockpit, lifting the engine to get to the transmission – major 3-day project. After looking at the manuals and talking to a couple of mechanics, it’s probably ok and won’t hurt anything. Then he cleaned the exhaust and when replacing the gaskets, he cut 2 extra holes, therefore all the antifreeze and water drained out of the radiator when we ran the engine – at one point it wouldn’t even turn over; acted like it was froze up! It was a bitch of a day!
Lee and Glo, Papagayo, came across from Concepcion last night, they anchored in the main bay for now. They drove over to check prices out here and came by.
We called Schyler for his birthday, he is so cute on the phone with his “I love you.” Danielle starts her new job at Bank One in 2 weeks.
Today was 90° by 8 am, then the breeze picked up and it dropped to 80°.

*I believe the marina prices were usually cheaper out in Marina Real than San Carlos Marina, and only 10 minutes away and less crowded/busy. Better conditions when you’re about to leave the boat at dock for a few months.

May 6, Tuesday

Brent – OAH – in Alpine said it was 78° there and the lows are still in the chilly 40s.
Today went smoother than yesterday. John changed those gaskets and all is well. He scrubbed down the engine room – spick and span shiny. We deflated the kayak. That doesn’t sound like much, but it was a busy day.
We drove over to San Carlos Marina and went to dinner at Tequila’s with Lee and Glo.

May 7, Wednesday

Samie and I were both awake and up at 4 am – the pits. Samie had a nap, but not me, I drug on through.
John and Lee went into Guaymas to get the air conditioning fixed. He tried to do a compression check on the engine, but the part was the wrong size, so that was a no-go. We’re getting close to being done – bummer.
Jeff just called, he was flying with Ed Grossman in Ed’s plane – they lost the engine and they had a cross-wind. The plane dropped about 150 feet. They are ok, but have real sore backs and Jeff can’t see out of one eye. I’ll bet Hilda doesn’t let him buy a plane now!

*Oh wow, I don’t remember this story about the plane! How scary - I’m glad they were ok and wonder if Jeff’s eye went back to normal??

May 8, Thursday

Another busy, busy, hot, humid day. Took the dink apart, defrosted the fridge/freezer and so much more. First thing this a.m. John and Lee went diving. John is really into the hookah, so we’ll have one next year. Talked to Jim on Summer Wind in Mazatlan. We should see them in Az, also Steve and Molly from Star Song.
We went to Piccolo’s for dinner with Lee and Glo.
We are so tired and depressed.

*Yeah, what a quick transition for us that year! Usually we would be in San Carlos a bit longer before heading to Az, but this year we sure were on a bee-line to the States. Handling it quick like a band-aid, I suppose.

May 9, Friday

We got busy early and finally finished everything up and pulled away from Marina San Carlos at noon. Unfortunately, we left in the van and not on the boat. Every year it’s just as hard to leave as the year before. We stopped at Hilda’s to say goodbye – down the road just a bit, the police pulled us over and hassled us over the car tag for Mexico being expired. John finally got across that the customs people had said as long as our VISAs are still good, so is the car. He said to meet him at the police station in an hour! John says – just let me pay you the fine so we could be on our way – ok, $100 pesos – the cop kept it as a “speeding ticket” since the tags were ok! Mexico!
Then we stopped at the work yard to see Jeff and our battery was dead! Jeff jumped it and we let it run while we had lunch at Rosa’s. It was 2:15 pm before we ever got out of San Carlos. It was a pleasant ride, but long. At the border, we had to stop for a quick “look-see” but no problem.
It was 8 pm when we got to John and Maryann’s. Then we drove into Green Valley to Pizza Hut for dinner. I hadn’t slept very well for the last 3 or 4 days – but slept like a baby tonight.

*What a day for heading home! I’ll bet we all slept well that night. John and Maryann’s was always quite cozy, as I recall. They have a beautiful dome home which I always liked.

May 10, Saturday

We left Maryann’s at 8 am, stopped for something to eat at a Carl’s Jr - $12 bucks – unreal! Anyway, we got to Jacque and Danielle’s and visited. We can stay in the trailer again. Samie stayed with Danielle when we went to Mom’s. They came over later with Mother’s Day cards and gifts. Danielle brought me a bouquet of flowers and my own “sailing mug.” Samie got me a cute little treasure box of sorts. They also picked up something for Grandma and Rane.
Danielle stayed for dinner – Janet, Andy and kids came over. Cade is 8 months and the cutest thing.
Oh, around 5 pm, we watched as a dust storm appeared. It was an amazing wall of brown dust that you could see moving, but we had no wind until the dust was on us. It was pretty weird to watch.

*Well, there’s some inflation for ya! That $12 was for all three of us and definitely included at least one drink and one or two orders of fries. For reference - a basic, single-patty burger, fries and drink combo from Carl’s Jr. now costs $10.79 as of Sept, 2024. I think I even remember this stop, maybe because Carl’s Jr. wasn’t a normal stop for us. It’s funny what randomly sticks in the memory.
Danielle and I had been driving when that dust storm (a.k.a. haboob) came through - it was bad enough we had to pull over. Just last week I got a cool 360° video of one that came through from the southeast. The south, west and north skylines were bright blue with brilliant, fluffy white clouds and then the southeast was this ominous, miles-wide cloud of dust and wind. There have been some pretty epic videos of monsoons in Az - check out this timelapse compilation from an especially massive one back in 2018. 🐞

May 11, Sunday

We left Mom’s at 7 am and made it to the mountain at 10 am. Michael came over at 10:30. John got the leak in the trailer fixed and we moved back in. Chelle and Schyler came over. Schyler has grown and is such a cutie! Goon came over – Faron showed up for a while – Steven was here; Sam, Rane and the kids came by.
Shine brought elk steaks and the kids all ate with us for Mother’s Day.

*Side note for the grand kids reading - the trailer we stayed in was Grandma Jacque’s! Not the same trailer, but right there on that lot, long before Ben and Danielle built their house.

May 12, Monday

We went up to work – John starts tomorrow, I’ll probably start next Monday. Chelle and Schyler stayed up here today. Samie went to Rane’s and they brought her home at 7 pm – Rane was in labor, about 12 minutes apart.
We registered Samie in school again. She’ll start tomorrow for the last 4 weeks.

May 13, Tuesday

Chelle and Schyler left at 7 am.
John went to WORK  - yuk! He says it’s all the same ‘old crap – only it gets harder to take every year. They called him on the radio in Whiteriver to get back and get a physical. They were afraid he was contagious if he did have hepatitis.
We stayed busy all morning, but the afternoon was boring. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent my days alone. Samie went to school and was treated like a celebrity. She said while they were finding a desk for her she said “just let me get comfy on the couch and I’ll be fine!”
Goon and her friend Jacque came by. Sam came to take Samie to the hospital to see Rane and her new half-sister. They haven’t named her yet, she was born at 10:30 am at 7lb, 10oz. Samie says she’s so cute.
We drove up to Bill and Thrisha Gibson’s for a couple hours. They are going to San Carlos tomorrow for a week – I’m jealous!

*In regard to the discomfort of going back to work - I can attest to how much harder it is to go back when you’ve been living for 7 months with an entirely different set of priorities. I know my parents both enjoyed their jobs and working at Navopache Electric - but of course there are always politics and bits of drama at every job, which just seems all the more petty and unnecessary after getting away from it almost entirely. Hell, I have a hard time going back to work after 7 days, let alone 7 months! It was an adjustment for me each year, too, but as I got older I was always chomping at the bit to see my friends, so that always helped ease the transition back. I didn’t remember going back to class before summer let out - usually we weren’t back early enough. I think this was the only year we did that and I know there would have been lots of excited questions and stories to tell. I vaguely remember all the hub-bub that first day when I came back.
Sam and Rane named the baby Jazmin! She is their third child and second daughter. She was a super cute newborn!
Somewhere here in May was Peggy’s graduation. I remember being teary-eyed, thinking I wasn’t going to see my sister as often anymore, and was happy when that wasn’t the case. Below are some prom and graduation photos with her best friend at the time, Jackie Thompson. ❤

May 16, Friday

What a bore this is. I’ve been raking pine needles to stay busy.
There’s absolutely nothing on T.V.

*That would have been weird for Mom, having all day to herself while waiting to go back to work. Very different from the normal boat days and always having someone there and something to do.

May 17, Saturday

We moved the travel trailer and were re-leveling it when John dropped the floor jack on his big toe and broke it. We got it all set up.
Sunday, he ran the sewer pipe and tied it in to ours. Poor John is so sore and his foot hurts like hell.
Chelle and Schyler came up and brought a few of their things. Goon, Shine and Todd also came by for a while.

*OUCH! Poor Dad, that sounds terrible! 😩

May 19, Monday

Chelle and Schyler stayed until 4 pm, then went back to the valley until Friday.

May 25, Sunday

John found out from his blood test he did have hepatitis. He must be so healthy otherwise that he re-couped so fast! His blood pressure is on the verge of being high, so he’s taking Accupril 10mg (Qumapril HC1) for a couple weeks.
I finally started work on Friday the 23rd.
Danielle came up last Tuesday and Wednesday and left Thursday.
Chelle and Schyler moved up on the 23rd .

May 30, Friday

Jim and Kitty, Summer Wind, came up last night. Sure is great to see them – but strange away from the ocean. We all – John and Maryann too – went to Charlie Clark’s for dinner. Samie stayed home alone.
Jim has his ham radio in the van and tonight we talked to Rob on Nanamuk. It was hard to hear, we’ll rig a better antenna tomorrow. Talk about a great feeling, but also made me really sad – lonely and homesick. The “net” said Jazz was last heard in Papeete.
Steve and Molly, Star Song will be here tomorrow.

*I know how excited I was to get to be able to stay home alone, to have the place to myself and feel like I had this new-found freedom. It’s funny looking back, though, and wishing I’d still have gone to more of those dinners with friends. It could partly be because I find myself wishing I could join them now and catch up! Oh, how cool it would be to be able to visit loved ones from your childhood as the adults we’ve grown into. I think of all the things I would know better to ask about, things I’d want to learn about these treasured friends and the lives they lived - questions which I never would have been inspired to ask as a child.

June 5, Thursday

Well, it’s been a long week.
Saturday we were wall to wall people. Danielle and Aura Lee, Steve, Molly, Jim, Kitty, Shine and Todd.
Sunday the cruising gang went up to Reservation Lake – Steve caught 6 fish – everyone else, zip. Everyone played horse shoes and we BBQed at the house.
Monday Star Song left for the mountain to camp out for the week.
Jim and Kitty slept at the cabin, but were down here for meals.
Wednesday night they took us out for dinner at La Casita.
Thursday morning they left for Texas.
Steve and Molly stopped back by for one night, then headed to California.
Steve and Brenda Paquette came up camping on Green’s Peak over July 4 and stayed here a couple nights, which was nice.
Chelle and Schyler moved back to Mesa where she’ll be manager of the OTC drugs in a Walmart Pharmacy (on July 12th).
John has been down at Barb and Richard’s helping with their addition and remodel nearly every day.

*It is becoming quite clear that Dad’s constant helping of others with these types of things is why I find myself practically daydreaming about helping friends and neighbors with random stuff like this. Like, who offers to help weed yards ‘cause it sounds like fun? I have! I’m not as knowledgeable in so many technical and mechanical areas like my dad, but I’m excited to help with the skills I do have and am willing to learn new skills! I love making recommendations and helping people find what they need through avenues they may not have considered. So, here’s a thanks to Dad for being a positive influence in that willingness to help! 🐞

August 3, Sunday

Michael is buying Jacque’s little travel trailer (our guest house – bummer). He’s paying $2,800. They are moving out to Clay Springs today.
I’ve been writing letters to some of the “cruising gang.” We have our old computer back, so Samie is on it with the print shop and I can type. We’ve gotten a letter and beautiful postcard from Jazz in Bora Bora. I typed a story I wrote for the family history Mom wanted for the McLellan’s. It is far from a “history” more of a story about the life we are living aboard the Wandrin’ Star.

*I just read Mom’s story for the first time as an adult - it is so perfect! Well written, Mom! ❤ 🐞

August 25, Monday

Yes – we’re getting there!
We have heard from Tom, Island Trader, he’s having a good time. The card came from Bora Bora. Nanamuk also mailed from Bora Bora. Having a great time, but missing us!
Steve and Molly, Star Song called a while back. They hate it in California.
I mailed Jim and Kitty the pictures of Summer Wind under sail with their flapping jib. I also wrote a little poem for Jim. They mailed us pictures of Wandrin’ Star under sail. They are also counting days to get out of Texas and back to Mexico.
I called Cynthia, Miss Teak II, in Colorado. They have big plans. They’ll go check on the boat in Mazatlan in Septemer. Then, October 14 they are flying to Fiji to crew on Jazz to New Zealand, then fly home and be in Mazatlan by Christmas they hope. She is really getting brave! It was really good to hear her voice.
We went to Angie’s for dinner – Mom was there, too.
It has been raining here like crazy every afternoon!

*Dang! The whole gang was in Bora-Bora! We knew them all separately - I wonder if any of them knew each other or ran into each other out there. Postcards below - as well as a photo of Steve and Laura from that summer (they were some of the very first friends we made, back in San Diego).
I was surprised to read that Cynthia was planning to sail with them to New Zealand! So cool. Awe - I had forgotten about Tom’s nickname for me: Roger-Roger. I don’t remember why exactly, other than "“roger” or “roger that” being common lingo for “I understand” or “agreed” or “copy that.” Maybe it was reference for me always being up for an outing or an adventure or to help out with something, or just that it was cute the way I said it on the radio. Who knows!

August 30, Saturday

Princess Diana of Whales was killed in a car accident in Paris tonight. They have run a lot of news specials on her life, which has been very interesting.

*I remember watching her funeral live - it was a five-hour broadcast. The whole thing was very sad.

September 6, Friday

Mother Theresa died today of a heart attack, another great woman.

*What a devastating time for the world, grieving together. Two of the most renowned and inspirational women of the time taken from us within a week.

September 7, Sunday

Barb and Richard have been at Lake Powell all week – so it’s been boring around here. I am catching up on letters today.

September 16, Tuesday

Last week we watched as Hurricane Linda developed to 185 mph winds – the strongest ever in the East Pacific. It was far enough off the coast of Mexico, they only got high swell – we heard 10 foot – not much wind. Brent gave us a report that there were 17 Mexican Navy guys on Socorro Island – which the hurricane went right over. No word as to how they survived. It was far enough from Cabo and finally turned west around Mag. Bay, Baja.
Now we’re watching to see what Nora does. She’s developing around Manzanillo and closer to the shoreline.

🐞

September 25, Thursday

Hurricane Nora’s rain and waves hit the Baja – bad. After sitting for 3 days SW off Manzanillo and spinning at 105 mph – all the major ports down to Acapulco and up the coast were closed. Rosa faxed from La Cruz – its not too bad there. Chris and Lorry faxed from Barra – it got heavy surf and rain. The road along the beach was partly washed out and some of the restaurants – the far end where Phil’s is was ok.
The news showed Cabo and La Paz with rain and floods and heavy surf. This a.m. Nora crossed the Baja at Turtle Bay and hit Rocky Point with 60k winds and 12-foot surf. San Carlos had 20k of breeze and 2” of rain. Escaped another one.
Steve and Molly are in Alpine for a week until they head to Mazatlan.
Janice called today; they made it into San Francisco a couple days ago. She was glad, that’s a rough coast to sail.
We were supposed to get heavy rain from Nora – 8 pm only 2 minutes of light stuff.
Talked to Cynthia, Miss Teak II, they were in Mazatlan checking on their boat and Nora was moving on by – we had 42k here and heavy rain – all is well.
They are looking forward to the Fiji to New Zealand trip.

*Too cute! The post card below was signed by Lisa and The Rocket Monster, which was my nickname for John because he used to do that fun trick, launching me out of the water at the pool in Barra de Navidad. Love it!