Well over a year has passed since you last heard from us via blog post – sorry about that! We completed our amazing Alaskan and Canadian adventure in late October 2018 and settled down in the Seattle area. Since it was already quite chilly in the Pacific Northwest, we moved off the boat and rented a furnished basement apartment in Bellevue and I (Colleen) began work as an oncology nurse at Overlake Hospital. I learned an incredible amount at Overlake, and the staff and coworkers were beyond wonderful. What a great team!
We were located only a couple of hours away from multiple ski resorts, and made lots of day trips to our favorite, Stevens Pass. Mike and I brushed up on our boarding and skiing skills over the season and had a blast doing it. I really thought we would both lose weight with all that activity, but alas, the Pacific Northwest is blessed with more breweries than we could manage to check out. The winter pounds crept on as we were enjoying comfort food and trying out lots of the local tasty brews. Thankfully we worked most of those extra LBs off this spring and summer.
Spring brought lots of boat projects, including new rigging, countertops, fridges and a new watermaker. When summer finally arrived – which in the Seattle area is along about the 4thof July – we moved back on the boat and enjoyed being back out in the sunshine. We had originally planned to stay much longer in Seattle, but decided it was time to move on, and began making plans to join the annual Baja-Haha sailing rally, a group of about 150 boats that sail together from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, with several stops along the way. This, of course, meant more maintenance projects on the boat. Oh – and in the midst of all this – we purchased a home in Hollywood, Maryland, which we are super excited to enjoy after the 2019-20 sailing season.
So now you are caught up to the present. We recently completed the Baja-Haha rally, which was an absolute hoot! Of the 150 boats registered, the final boat count is 117 with 464 crew. Our first group stop was in Turtle Bay on the Northwestern coast of Baja California, Mexico. The highlight of that stop was definitely the baseball game with the local kids. This was my kind of game, where it was impossible to strike out and the outfielders were intentionally fairly fumble-fingered. Yours truly was even able to score a run! The local people were incredibly friendly and very gracious hosts. There were pop-up type cantinas and restaurants that served delicious fish and carne asada tacos on fresh homemade tortillas. There were also men on small fishing boats (pangas) that delivered diesel fuel to any boat that needed it.
Our first leg of the trip was spent mostly motoring, as the wind was extremely light. We got lucky, though, and sailed all 36 hours of the second leg (except for about 30 minutes while we were trying to unwrap a tangled spinnaker from the forestay). We caught a small yellow-fin tuna, which provided us with a couple of delicious meals. I also was reminded on this leg why it is important to wear gloves while handling lines. I had a spinnaker sheet get away from me and experienced a good bit of rope burn – ouch. Gloves are my new best friend! All in all, though, a fantastic sail on to our next stop, which was Bahia Santa Maria. We hiked up to the tallest peak on the island, where the views were absolutely magnificent. The following morning we had the beach to ourselves and had a lovely walk amongst hundreds of pristine sand dollars – something I hadn’t seen in the natural since I was a kid. The best part of this stop was the totally surreal beach party up on a bluff in the middle of nowhere, with a live rock band, food, ice-cold cervezas and a bunch of crazy old farts dancing like we were all back in college. So. Much. Fun!!!
The following day was a short trip around to another bay, where it was like attack of the tiny flies. Poor Henry is stilled traumatized from all the fly swatting. The flies must go to bed when it gets dark, so we got a much needed reprieve. This evening was spent rafted up with about 20 other dinghys behind the lead boat singing along to all the classics. I love this life!
From there, headed to Cabo San Lucas, which was the last official stop of the Baja-Haha, though many boats will be heading on up to La Paz and various other parts of the Sea of Cortez for the winter, as we plan to do. We hadn’t been underway long, when I heard Cap’n Mike yelling “fish on!” We slowed the boat and the cap’n started reeling – and the reel broke right off the rod. Not to worry, the seasoned fisherman just took the line hand over hand and worked it for quite a while. When that sucker got close to the boat, guess what we saw? A big, beautiful marlin!!! That was some serious excitement. We will be eating and sharing marlin for quite some time!
Unfortunately, foul weather resulted in cancellation of the remaining official Baja-Haha events. But where there are a group of cruisers, there will be a good party going on no matter the weather, and a good time was had by all!
We hope you are all doing well and having a great Fall. We plan to be in Mexico until May, so if you want to come visit, just give us a shout! Until next time…live the adventure!
Nice update! I was surprised about Maryland, but I assume there’s a reason to settle there.
How awesome. Thanks for the update and post. So glad to see y’all are doing well. Happy Holidays and have a Merry Christmas.