Windy sailing the Portland Pudgy through the mooring field in front of Morro Rock. At only 581 feet, it may be an unfair comparison, but I think of this as the Gibraltar of the West Coast.
We were interlopers, seeking to join a flock not so that we could join their social order, but so that we could fly their burgee and reap the benefits of affiliation. What was I thinking?
Southern California sailors are fortunate to have several mostly uninhabited islands, featuring beautiful and superb anchorages, just 15 to 30 miles offshore. Here we are enjoying French Toast in Smugglers Cove on Santa Cruz Island.
Everything changes now. It’s colder. The water is rougher. The weather can be more severe and change quickly.
This is our new mainsail, designed, built, and delivered to us in Mexico by Dave Benjamin of Island Planet Sails. My biggest concern ordering this new sail was that it wouldn't solve any of the poor sailing experiences I was attributing to our old mainsail, that my lack of knowledge about sail trim was the real culprit. So I was very pleased when we sailed with this for the first time and realized a HUGE improvement. We have about 1,500 miles on this sail so far and it is doing well.
How many cruising dreams are cast aside when the sailing reality seems too overwhelming?
This is my dentist in La Paz, Dra. Elvia Patricia Navarro Trejo. She gave me a crown, filling the hole left after I had a tooth removed in the U.S. before we departed. And she has a sense of humor too; it was her idea to hold the pliers for our picture.
When one of the girls needs a doctor while cruising in Mexico, the differences in health care systems becomes apparent.
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