Final Preparations for the Big Crossings

The big day is fast approaching….

We’ve been at the marina in the lovely community of Huatulco for the past week. We had a rather exciting evening with a major thunder/lightning storm with lots of flooding. There was a lightning strike about 10 feet from the boat, which was pretty freaky. That is one of the major concerns on a boat, because a direct strike could result in losing all of our electronics. The next day the water in the marina was full of debris, including a dead cat and in the canal, a dead body…..truly.

We have met a very nice Canadian couple, Gerry and Chris who live and travel on their custom built powerboat, Misty Michael. I’m grateful for Gerry for taking me to her Yoga class, where I had the honour of meeting the instructor Susan. She is truly a gift and I’ve enjoyed the four classes I was able to participate in while I’ve been here.

Susan...a very special Yoga instructor

Our Yoga class...notice the little white Poodle doing downward facing dog!

The last couple of days I did manage to talk Peter in to coming to join us for “coffee” after my Yoga class and he really enjoyed meeting the locals…and of course drinking Mescal and cervaza’s at 9:30 in the morning. One of the Yoga participants, Salvadore owns an outdoor coffee shop and he treated all of us to fresh sushi along with the Mexican libations today!

Miguel...kindly cutting the Sushi up for all of us.

Our generous host Salvador giving instructions

What a spread...cervasa's, Mescale and Sushi

Earlier this week, we went shopping for some silver jewellery and I could barely drag Peter out of the store, since the owners sat down and had four beers with him. He said it was his best shopping experience ever!

Apart from these great experiences and a few Happy Hours, our entire week has been spent getting ready for our two big trips.

Dinghy tied down on deck, extra fuel cans on either side

On Sunday, May 31st Don Hall, Peter’s high school friend (I can’t say they grew up together, since I’m not sure either of them have grown up yet) will be flying in. (This is assuming that the youths who are currently closing the highway with a road blockade from the airport will be dispersed by then – I’m not kidding on this either!). Weather permitting, government officials willing – they will cast off the dock lines and head across the wild blue yonder for 1,000 miles to the Galapagos Islands.

It is expected to take them anywhere from 8 to 10 days of sailing 24 hours a day. They'll do three hours on shift/three hours off, weather and energy levels permitting.

Even more fuel lashed to the swim platform.

Peter has ensured that he has enough fuel if they have to motor the entire way, which is a very real possibility since they are crossing the “doldrums”. Having sufficient fuel is very important since just a couple of weeks ago a fellow cruiser ran out of fuel when almost at the Galapagos, and because he was bucking a 2 knot current he had to go out of his way and land at Easter Island…total time at sea 30 days – plus he then had another 6 to come back to the Galapagos once he got fuel.

When Don is flying in, Diana will be flying out to South America to meet up with her dear friend Martha (and Don’s wife) where they will spend 10 days together hiking to Manchu Picchu and then flying to the Galapagos to rendezvous with the guys for a further 10 days together in the Islands.

So the organization and planning for two separate, large trips has been rather daunting and has taken over six months, but that is half the fun! You can see from the following photos, that Peter ensued there was enough beer, wine and rum for the duration (including our longer crossing in early July).

Delivered right to the dock.

He's still wondering "is this going to be enough???"

On Monday, June 1st, Don becomes the “official communicator” for the blog and he will be reporting daily with position, wind and sea conditions, etc. – assuming they are able to get out on the Ham radio to post. We have added a “position reporter” on the sidebar called “Where the heck is QuickStar now?”. You can click on this at anytime to see visually where QuickStar is….we are currently working out some bugs and it is hard to test in the marina, but hopefully it will be fully functional once we are at sea. So, if you are interested in open ocean sailing, you can check in on this blog each day to see where the guys are at and how things are going out at sea.

You’ll hear from me again with reports on Manchu Picchu once we are in the Galapagos Islands….
P.S. Glad to know that Kylie survived being evacuated from her home in Australia during the floods.

Until the next time……………..sow seeds of kindness.

We've arrived!

Hola.....We are now snug as a bug in Huatulco - at the marina. This is our final Mexican destination and these 10 days will be spent in preparation for QuickStar's offshore journey with Peter and Don Hall, leaving on June 1st to the Galapagos. I will be flying out on May 31st to meet Martha Hall for our 10 day trip and hike to Manchu Picchu (then joining the guys in the Galapagos). Just over a week to go now...we are stoked!!!!!!!



Thanks Stu for sending this Google Earth photo of where we are.

Our original 3 days in Puerto Angel turned in to 5 days because we fell in love with this little fishing village. While we were there we met two nice young couples...one from Poland (not sure if they are relatives of yours, Countess Krys, ha,ha) and one from Wales. We spent quite a bit of time with them, including a day out snorkelling, cliff diving and scuba diving. It was so awesome to be diving again (saw a couple of moray eels, the very dangerous Scorpian Fish, some poisonous sea snakes, and a huge variety of fish).

Di accepting the dare to cliff dive.

QuickStar - the only sailboat amongst all the fishing pangas.

We were the only sailboat in the bay, so we were quite the novelty. We got to know lots of the locals well and felt like we were part of the community. Really enjoyed seeing all the kids playing on the beach - reminiscent of the old days of our youth.

Are these kids not too adorable?? They loved to play in our dinghy.

From here we went to anchor in an amazing bay called La India (national park), which we had all to ourselves for snorkelling and an incredible evening, complete with dancing in the galley...enroute we saw dolphins and lots of jumping rays. Will be a while until we are in a remote bay again, so we savoured the experience.

Snorkelling at La India

While here in Huatulco, we are working our way through off our long boat project to-do list. We have met another Canadian couple here in the marina, Chris and Gerry, and we had a nice visit with them on their boat last evening. Also, took time out this morning to go with Gerry to a local Yoga class. What a great experience, and I was thrilled to discover that all my daily Spanish lessons are starting to pay off! We then enjoyed a coffee in the square with the locals. How lucky am I?????

Typical dinner fare at my favourite kind of restaurant...barefoot and on the beach.

So all is going well here...except that both Peter and I have ear infections. Peter says it doesn't hurt, he just can't hear me and he says that is just fine! I think he'll milk this one for awhile. I did get a great suggestion from my Vernon naturalpath, Dr. Entner who suggested sauteing garlic in olive oil, straining it and then inserting a few drops in the ear for a few hours. Sounds like a great idea and I'll give it a try. As I mentioned, I don't think Peter wants to be cured!

Although all is pretty serene here for us, there is lots of excitment with our kids. Danny took one of his best friends to the hospital last weekend after he had a bad accident/fall riding a bucking bronco (I'm quite sure it was really a bull, but everyone is quite Mum on the subject). Anyway, they were exposed to a family that was in there with the "piggy flu" and yesterday Danny spent the night "puking his guts out" - a direct quote from his older brother Ryan where he is currently staying to finish his apprenticeship school component. He graduated yesterday and is headed to another rodeo this weekend. (Did I mention I absolutely must have dropped him on his head when he was a baby???)

Danny preparing to come out of the shooting on his bucking bronco.

On the other side of the world....Kylie has been evacuated from her house in Lismore, Australia, where over 5,300 have been ordered out.. There is severe flooding and winds up to 125 kilometres an hour. We have yet to be able to get through to her, but know via Facebook that she and her roommates are safe staying up on the hill at the university, which is the official evacuation site. So, we'll just keep posted to the news and hope for the best.

Photos of Lismore by Sam Johnson - Kylie's roommate

So, Ryan and Tara, stay safe this weekend, so we only have to worry about two out of four!

Until next Friday's update.....live your dreams!

Life Explained!

Thanks to Diane Parkinson for sending me this....

TWO WOLVES

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Hola from Puerto Angel

Hola from Puerto Angel - sent via Ham Radio

This stretch of the Mexican coast (known as Costa del Sur) is not often used as a cruising ground, but rather as a means to an end...i.e. enroute to Central America, or in our case as the jumping off point for the South Pacific. The reason for this is that there are limited anchorages and they are all far apart, which makes for a bit of a slog as well as being more dangerous in the event of bad weather. Additionally at this time of year, the wind is predominantly south, and the majority of the anchorages are unprotected from the south.

As a general rule, QuickStar motors at 6 knots per hour and sails anywhere between 4 and 8 knots (below 4 knots, we motor sail, so that we can maintain 6 knots on average) - above 8 knots we reef the sails so that she isn't overpowered).

We departed Zihuatanejo at dawn and motored 37 miles to Papanoa, a remote, but comfortable breakwater enclosed harbour. The next morning we left at 4:00 to Acapulco (73 miles). We were originally going to give it a miss, but we discovered a lovely anchorage off of one of the out islands called Isla Roqueta, so we were able to avoid the major city and an extra overnight leg.

The next day we up anchored at noon and did an overnight sail to Punta Galera. (123 miles). This is a popular surf destination at this time of year and we enjoyed watching the surfers, even though we were bashing around in the sea while at anchor. During the crossing we encountered our first rain, lightening and thunder, but it was pretty mild and scattered. It was an uneventful crossing except for hitting our second turtle. They are very plentiful and we are saddened when we hit one. So far, though, it is QuickStar 2 - turtles 0.

After another 4:00 a.m. departure, we continued to Puerto Angel, where we were able to sail a great deal of the way. We are the only sailboat here and we are surrounded by local pangas who leave early to fish and return to fish in this cozy bay at dusk. As we were sitting in the cockpit watching all the activity last evening Peter said "I like it here - there is a very warm feeling". If Bucky were here, he would say "very serene". We will stay here for 3 days to explore the tiny community before making our way to our final Mexican destination of Huatulco.

Until next time..Good try Canucks..looking forward to cheering you on again next year.

Manzanillo to Zihuatanejo

Hola. We are happy that the swine flu hysteria seems to be dying down. Sorry though that the only reason appears to be that the media has bumped it to focus on the Middle East. The good thing about it though is….our plans look like they will be able to go ahead as scheduled. Yahoo….South Pacific here we come.

After leaving Bahia Navidad, we spent three nights in Las Hadas, Manzanillo in the anchorage. Not too many sailboats, but because the bay was open, there were a ton of water skiers and jet skiers, which didn’t make it too comfortable to be there. We met three very nice young guys (mid-20’s) who are sailing down to Costa Rica. Unfortunately, after they left the anchorage about two miles out their engine quit on them and they had to sail back at about 1 knot an hour. They will be laid up for about two weeks to get their parts and make the repairs, so hopefully we’ll run in to them again in Huatulco and that they make it before the hurricanes arrive anytime after June 1st.

Local Painter in Manzanillo

While in Manzanillo we were on a mission and we spent two full days and two full taxi’s getting provisions for our upcoming crossings. We spent over $1,500 on just canned goods, dry food, etc…(in addition to all the supplies we already had onboard!) but we’ve managed to fill every nook and cranny onboard. In our final destination of Huatulco we’ll finish provisioning with beverages, fresh fruits/vegetables and meat and that should then do us until hopefully near the end of July when we will be in the South Pacific.

From Manzanillo we had a good 30-hour overnight motorsail to Las Hadas, Manzanillo. Peter was disappointed that we didn’t get to sail, but I sure loved the flat seas. I’m getting less nervous about this and actually let Peter sleep in the cabin (rather than beside me in the cockpit) during my 4 hour watch from midnight to 4:00 a.m. We had an amazing experience at daybreak with over 100 bottle nosed dolphins surrounding the boat and playing in our bow wake. We were mesmerized with them and entertained for over 45 minutes. I did manage to refrain from taking a video though, so I’m keeping my promise so far not to take anymore (for a while anyway!). Just at sunset, we were again joined by a pod of smaller dolphins. They splashed and jumped and carried on like kids in a playground. From now on whenever I have another fabulous day, I’ll call it a dolphin day!

We spent a lovely two nights at the remote anchorage at Isla Ixtapa and enjoyed snorkelling and wandering the beaches. During the day it was full of local tourists, but that just added to the atmosphere and then we had the whole anchorage to ourselves after 4:00 p.m.

We have spent the past two days anchored in Zihuatanejo, staying on the boat and catching up on emails, phone calls and the internet. We got some sad news about one of our fellow puddle jumpers (that’s one of the other 40 boats that are crossing to the South Pacific this year). He is a 64-year-old single sailor and they have found his boat holed and sunk in the Marquessa Islands. They currently have a massive search out to find him, but it doesn’t look promising. Another puddle jumper left from Mazatlan to go the Galapagos (similar to our route). At this time of the year, it is very light winds and he ended up motoring most of the way. He ran out of fuel and with a 2 knot current going against him, he was forced to change course and ended up after 30 DAYS AT SEA at another island called Cocos Island. His crew now has another 10 day crossing from there to get to the Galapagos, which was the original destination. What was frustrating for him was that he said if he had of had just 20 litres more fuel he could’ve made it. We’ve run out of fuel twice before, but were able to sail to destination. We’re hoping we’ve calculated correctly with the extra fuel we are taking for this crossing!

We will be leaving tomorrow at dawn, heading down the rest of the coast towards Huatulco, our final Mexican destination and the hopping off point for the Galapagos. We’ll spend the next two weeks making final preparations.

Here’s a map of Mexico.

To give you a visual glimpse at our itinerary…..In late 2007 we came down the outside coast from San Fran to Cabo San Lucas and then wintered the boat in Mazatlan (on the mainland). The 2008 season we spent inside the Sea of Cortez and then wintered the boat again in Mazatlan. This spring we have been coming south down the coast of Mazatlan (currently in Zihuatanejo).

Until next time…..Have a wonderful 21st birthday today Kylie. So glad we got to talk to you in Australia. You are our sunshine xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox.

A special Happy Mother's Day to Lisa (Peter's Mom) and Liz (my Step-Mom) and to all the other wonderful mothers out there!

Anniversary Week

Swine Flu Update

This week the swine flu was moved up to the the highest worldwide threat level. It is devastating to watch how it is impacting Mexico, with an already fragile economy. While in Bahia Navidad all bars were ordered to be closed and locked up. Restuarants remain open, but we were the only ones in ours. Similarily having been in La Hadas, Manzanillo for the past few days, it is like a ghost town. This is their annual celebration week, but no bars are open. The locals are shutting themselves up at home, while the government and the media scare everyone almost senseless. For the past two nights at dinner, we were again the lone diners and the wait staff were wearing face masks. It is almost surreal.

Our concern now is on the future of our cruising plans....leaving Mexico on June 1st to the Galapagos and then onward to the South Pacific. We have a friend from Ottawa flying in to do the Galapagos crossing (if flights are still flying which many of them aren't now) with Peter. I'm intending on flying out on May 31st to hike Manchu Pichu (if they'll let me out of the country). The huge concern is whether the boat will be allowed in to the Galapagos....yesterday there was a small Pacific Island ,Pictarin, that has just closed down to any visiting boats. We are hoping this is not the beginning of further closed borders. We are also worried about Doug and Shelby who are flying in to the Galapagos to do the next crossing with us. We are hopeful our boat will indeed by there waiting for them. We are keeping our fingers crossed for everyone.

We appreciate all the emails and concern over us staying healthy. We'll be careful. We'll keep the blog updated every week and hopefully this flu scare will blow over soon.

Thanks to Marlene, our good friend and my fellow Scrabble club member, who kindly made our new mosquito netting. It is just perfect!

Anniversay Week - 31 wonderful years!

Peter & I have just had a fabulous anniversary week. Since it was our 31st, we figured we'd celebrate for a whole week instead of a day.

We couldn't have had a more spectacular start...just before leaving Bahia Tenacitita we were surrounded by bottle-nosed dolphins. I hopped in the water and got to swim and play with them. Too incredible for words...check out the short video on the April 28th update.

The next few days were spent in charming Bahia Navidad for our actual anniversary dinner.

Anniversary Dinner in Bahia Navidad

It's not all play...however, doing laundry while in the middle of paradise isn't very hard work either!

Until next time.....Wishing our pride and joy - Kylie - a very happy 21st birthday in Australia. May you continue to share your magic with the world. Miss you. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox