Month: December 2017

It’s been a journey so far, with lots of new impressions. We have made this clip before our departure and I must say, it ain’t bad where we sailed from. Isn’t it? 🙂

What keeps us going? Us? You? New places? Adventure?

THE UNKNOWN!

 

Have a very happy new year!

Yours

TO SAIL OR NOT TO BE

We left Los Muertos early in the morning and sailed towards the Island across from La Ventana. This was our second try, the day before we had to turn around as we started to have too much head wind, which would have made the not perfect protected anchorage a bit uncomfortable. But this time, it was perfect. We arrived and found a good spot and our Kruiser immediately dug out the spear gun, which he hadn’t used yet. He jumped in the water, while the rest of us cleaned up the boat and got things ready for a later island visit.

Kruiser came back with a very pretty grouper. He prepared it right away and made some yummy seared fish, which we than enjoyed with freshly baked bread. Yupp, I finally got around to use our OMNIA oven and made whole wheat bread. It was YUMMY!

With new strength we set up the dinghy and the family went to shore, while our man Kruiser jumped off the boat to catch some more fish for dinner. We explored the island, Noah was happy to cruise around a bit, we went for a swim and found out, that we weren’t the first visitors.

The Sunset, Pelicans hunting and the bonfire by the big cactus, where we cooked the other two fish Kruiser caught for us, will be in our memories as an unforgettable one! What a great day.

Our families and friends are far away while we are on our adventure sailing trip. Either in Germany, Canada or elsewhere. So, so good to be able to talk to the family from a restaurant of a cute resort, where we took our dinghy this morning. Mats just opened his presents and is happily playing away.

Thanks for reading and following our journey and we hope, you are all having a Merry Christmas/Frohe Weihnachten! 🙂

To Sail or Not To Be

It seems so long ago. Here is a movie clip about our 2nd stop in Monterey, fixing things and other animals…

More about our stop in Monterey you can find under this link or click on Monterey:

https://wordpress.com/post/tosailornottobe.com/1777

The Captain was a little nervous, as we had tried now for so many times and put hours and hours into getting the motor back in shape. There was really not much wrong with it, but once it is loosing it’s prime, and there only needs to be a small leak somewhere which lets air in, it is just a big hassle and everyone hopes, it was the right spot and is now absolutely airtight.

But the motor held up and we motor sailed to San Jose del Cabo and got a nice spot at the Marina, next to our friends from SV Lea Scotia. The first Marina since San Diego! The boat got a well deserved fresh water wash and we enjoyed the warm showers!

The cute little downtown area has a bit more charm than Cabo San Lucas.

Mats has a buddy on SV Lea Scotia, the boat to the left of us and it’s always great when the kids have someone to play with. We have met the family with a almost 3yr old and a 7 months baby in San Diego and we kept contact along the way, until we found another again in Cabo and travelled together for a bit on our Journeys. A great family! 🙂

Our Kruiser came back from Chihuahua the next day and we prepared the boat for the next leg, towards Los Frailes

I know the magazine’s of Latitude 38 quite well, since our Captain picks up a new issue as soon as it’s published. I would then spot them in our live- aboard in Sausalito, on the couch table , in the car, or even bedroom as night time lecture. 🙂

So I am way excited , that “To Sail or Not To Be” was mentioned in there December issue in the Changes Section.

Click here if you are interested to see or just look at the Screenshots below.

🤗

Klick Here to watch Youtube movie “When cruising in Cabo gets ugly”

After leaving the boat to escape very uncomfortable conditions in the anchorage, we came back the next day and were hoping that everything was well aboard Alsager. And the good old lady was just fine, no other boats had broken loose and the Captain did well with setting the second anchor and preparing her the best he could.

We stored away what we had bought to stock up on food and left for one last supper at our favorite BLUE THAI restaurant by the Marina, which is run and Co owned by Amanda (left in photo), a cool British Rockstar-like Power Woman, who we had met together with some other sweet new friends a few days earlier. If we go to Cabo again, we will definitely stop by for some yummy Thai Pho Soup and to enjoy her company.

The night on Alsager was still accompanied by swell, which we hoped would be better in the morning to pack up our dinghy and pull up the anchors. Our buddy Kruiser was still visiting his Cousin in Chihuahua, so it was just the Captain, myself, Mats and dog Noah.

It was still rolly and we made a little video clip to show you, if we have left Cabo….. or not?

KLICK HERE TO FIND OUT

We have been on our sailboat for the past 7 weeks. Cabo is a good spot to fill up on fuel. The Yacht of the delivery the Captain had just been involved with, offered that we could fill up on drinking water off their boat, since the water in Cabo is not drinkable. The Yacht has a water maker. A great luxury and we were thankful. When we were about to dock close to the Yacht so we could run a hose to our tank, we got into an argument with the security people. Even with our Kruiser on board, who tried to calm them in sweet Spanish, they absolutely did not let us get the drinking water. It did not matter to them that we wanted to get fuel afterwards, where they alone charge a docking fee. It also did not matter to know that we are friends of a yacht in there Marina who spends a fair amount of cash every day. Buying jugs from the Marina would be peanuts in comparison.

The security guard said to the Captain, that he is a bad father and husband, because he has a family and no water maker on board. Are you freaking kidding me mentioning that when you can’t drink your own tab water? The Captain ask him, if he owns a boat, to get an idea if he knew what he was talking about. But he didn’t and just for info, it is a luxury on a boat and needs quite some space. Believe me, I would love to have one!  It is odd for us too, that we have to deal with non drinkable tab water and are not happy when our son or anybody else is suffering diarrhea and stomach aches and we don’t know, where it’s coming from. But that is a different story.

With no other choice and a bit upset, we went to the fuel dock and filled up very slowly. During the process, Kruiser carried a jug of 5 Gallons at a time from the yacht to our sailboat back and forth. I tried it once and barely made it. Kruiser is a strong man! He did that about 8 times, sweat dripping, right passed the security people and had the “you dare stop me” look in his face.

We managed to fill up our water tanks almost completely and will certainly value each drop of it. We did not leave that Marina with much positive vibes that day.

It was definitely not the approach we had experienced so far in Mexico.

What a fantastic first day of the Extreme Sailing Series in Cabo. Being able to watch the show close from our anchorage or even use our dinghy to get closer, so enjoyable. Thanks to all those great sailors out there, it was really fun to watch! And great to see SAP is sponsoring such an awesome event.

 

What is it with Cabo? First we could not get there fast enough, so the Captain could take on another job and then, it would not let us go again. We tried several times. Twice we were all ready to go, thought we had the motor fixed, and twice the motor failed on us. Each time it caused a couple days delay, as it was always right in time for the weekend with no mechanics in sight.

And now the weather doesn’t play well, which made things quite difficult for everyone in the anchorage. It started with swell followed by strong winds and being on the boat felt like being inside a washing machine. The constant rolling and up and down made Mats and myself feel motion sick. After a night of no sleep, the Captain packed us up, drove us to shore with the dinghy for an egg breakfast and found a great hotel right by the Marina. And he did that right in time as things got worse. Here a little clip when things were a little bit more mellow again, to give you and idea.

His attempt going back to Alsager almost ended in a disaster and us losing our dinghy. When he tried getting into the channel, a big wave threw the bow upwards and water rushed over the stern into the dinghy. The Captain had to throw himself forward to prevent the dinghy from swamping. He shuffled the water out as best as possible and made a second attempt. He made it to Alsager and while the waves threw the dinghy against the side of the boat, he tried to hold on and find a moment to get onto our sailing vessel. I wasn’t there, but we have done it with a kid and dog on board and even when the situation is not so intense, it is always a moment of adrenaline rush to get everyone from one boat to the other safely. So, very glad he made it ok!

He noticed, that boats around him had all kind of problems, but since he was by himself, he had to attend to the safety of ours first. He immediately started the motor to make sure, he could hold Alsager in place, in case the Anchor would start dragging. Than he got a second anchor out and with the help of a nice neighbor, who assisted in his dinghy, they were able to set a second anchor.

He stayed most of the day on the boat while Mats had fun at the pool and both of our bellies started feeling better. Poor Captain. When he felt good enough about leaving the boat and things around him, he came back and managed to also have a nice spot for Noah in the Hotel. I ordered a well deserved Hamburger and Margarita for him and we all passed out quite early that night. Let’s see, if we make it out of Cabo! 🙂