Things about the "cruising lifestyle"

Things about the "cruising lifestyle"

Okay, so here we are, old salts now that we have been sailing and cruising for a whole 4 months. We truly have a shit ton to learn but we have made some observations about this life and the people (us included) that live it.

Although the places that we have seen, the outstanding wildlife, and getting to spend every waking moment together have been great, the best part has been the people we have met. We have been asked, in person, e-mail, and on Facebook, what it's like, living on a sailboat sailing around from one place to the next.

If I were to describe it for us it would be this - our house is on the water, it's a lot like full time RV'ing, except for the fact that it's much more isolated. If you break down you can't just call a tow truck or a friend to come get you. This means the maintenance and project take on a new meaning. Like keeping water out of the boat, making sure all the navigation lights work, batteries are charged, do we have enough drinking water, fuel, propane, is the beer cold, do we have enough ice, etc. living on a sailboat is cool as shit! But it has been a HUGE change for us, but certainly for the better.

I don't think I have worn real shoes in 4 months, you can't just do laundry whenever so you wear the same clothes a lot or none at all. You can't or don't take a shower every day. We've seen and enjoyed more sunrises and sunsets then ever before. We sleep when we want or need, although, like I said, we see a lot of sunrises. We drink more, I know, for some of you, that is hard to believe. We choose to go North, or South, or East, or West and when. We fish for food. We walk almost everywhere. Our "car" is a little dingy with a 5hp motor. We talk, read, and learn music. We meet people that are just like us and at the same time completely different. It is a freedom that is hard to describe, except, I think, by telling you about the people we have met. Not by name or by boat but by who they are. I think you will get a taste of the cruising life style that way.

We have met couples and single guys but no single sailing women yet. Most are retirement age (60 plus) but some are younger then us, we seem to be an oddity. We've met lawyers, engineers (1 used to work in the space programs for NASA and has amazing stories), architects and every other professional type you can think of. Retired military and military contractors, welders, plumbers, and other tradesmen. We've met people that have only ever lived on a boat and people that were given the boat they are on. Old run down boats, new fancy boats, sailboats, motor sailors, trollers, monohulls, and mutil-hulls all with different types of people. Some people we have met are what I would call high end cruisers, docking their $300k+ boat every night in the best marinas and low end cruisers (that sounds bad, how about thrifty), searching for the free anchorage and cheap tacos and beer. The funny thing is, you wouldn't really be able to tell one from the other by their former vocation or "place in society". They each have chosen the way they want to live this life style just as we have chosen how we want to live it.

The cool part is, we all have cruising in common. We have literally sat around with all these types at once, passing a bottle one way and "Willie Nelson" the other. All probably, as stated above, in the same clothes they have worn for days and probably days from their last shower. All having fun, all getting along, all sharing stories of the worst storm, the longest passage, the worst mistake, the funniest mistake they saw "someone else" do, the best anchorage, place for cheap tacos. If you were wondering, there have been the occasional drum or guitar in the circle. All of this with no real agendas, politics, or bias towards each other outside of the rivalries between boat types or manufacturer and apart from the fact that when 2 or more sailboat are going in the same direction they ARE RACING no matter what anybody thinks.

Sound kind of hippyish? What with drum circles, barefoot people and all. Yes it does! But it's not really. It's diversity at its best. It has a community feel of what I think it must have been like post WW II, when people would sit on the stoop or porch, knew the people in the neighborhood and the names of all the kids. Helped each other when needed and even when not needed. Maybe that's a little too "Norman Rockwell" but that's what it's like, cruising. Professionals, tradesmen, vagabonds, and hippies all living this wanderlust way of life. It's a strange community, traveling the same direction or the opposite but it is the tightest most helpful and honest community I have ever been apart of. It has been written that to test this, pull into an anchorage or slip and look up at the mast or down in the engine bay with a scratch of the head and a confused look, 3 people will ask if they can help (with tools already in hand) and 2 of them will already be bringing cold beers as well.

Now that's a great way of life, don'tchya think?

 

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Chacala then La Cruz

Chacala then La Cruz

 

The quintessential Mexican Riviera anchorage. Small town, a little rolly of an anchorage if you don't use a stern anchor, music playing from palapas, cheap fish tacos and cervezas and great people to meet.

 

Here we met Rob and Lynn on Aldebaran, a large ketch they have been sailing for quite a while, so we got some great pointers on ketch sailing. We also met Johnny and Jen on Summer, they, as well as Rob and Lynn and others, are the ones that convinced us to spend the summer in the Sea (of Cortez). We would have missed some of the best cruising ground in the world. We have read, on more then one occasion, that people that have done both the Caribbean and the Sea, that the Sea is better and not to be skipped. We have also read about the differences, the Sea is cheaper, mostly calmer weather, more laid back, and a little older crowd. We have met another couple (in La Paz) that are spending the summer in the Sea too and know Summer. We hope to spend some time with both of them and learn some secrets to living off the bounty of the sea.

 

While sitting up in our cockpit having drinks (this is a common evening pastime) with Rob, Lynn, Johnny, and Jen, we spot a boat that we have seen at our last few anchorages. I told Becky earlier, "if we see that boat again, we have to invite them for drinks". They loaded up their dingy (3 of them) and headed into shore for dinner. As they past us Becky yelled for them to come over, they did of course. They were all from Germany and there is no way I could remember their names (partially because I suck at names anyway and these were not as simple as Rob, John, Lynn, Jen, Bob, Sue, etc and partially because I am writing this a month later) sorry. Anyway, they stayed and chatted for one drink (one of Becky's drinks so you know how that goes) and then left for dinner, we haven't ran into them after that.

 

The people that we have met have been the best part of cruising life style. I WILL be writing a post just that and other things about this new life we are living very soon.

 

From Chacala we headed for La Cruz for three weeks, what a three weeks! Way too much to write in detail about but here is the short of it - we finally hung out (on purpose) with other cruisers and met tons of great people and made some good friends that I know we will keep in touch with. One couple, Steve "Wiki" and Nikki on Penn Station left La Cruz the day before we did but are headed to French Polynesia. We talk on HF just about every day while they are making the "20 plus" day sail. They are out in the middle of the pacific by themselves, they've got guts that Becky and I don't have yet, good on them. We found a "cruisers" bar/restaurant (Gecko Rojos) that by the second time there it was almost as if we had walked into SANGA, just further south. I found myself playing darts every Monday and Thursday, Becky help the bar tenders learn some new drinks and they taught us more Spanish. They wouldn't let me order any drink or food in English even they that spoke great English, it was very cool. We got the stainless work done that we wanted, new lifeline railing, seats on the stern, and davits, now we're style'n and it's a lot easier to launch and recover the dingy (we still have not named our damn dingy), we also got and installed a new autopilot (keeping the old one so I can still fix it and have a backup) that we have named Ray. Ray is one hell of a crew mate/helmsman. After La Cruz we kind of just trucked it back towards Baja for La Paz stopping over night at Chacala and Mazatlan where we ran into Mike and Nia on Azul, who we first met in La Cruz and are friends of Summer and Penn Station and will be spending the summer in the Sea as well.

 

We are not sure how long we will be in La Paz, but heading up into the Sea of Cortez excites us and we can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings.

 

 

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San Blas and beyond

San Blas and beyond.

 

The weather was beautiful leaving Isla Isabel on the way to San Blas. The sail was peaceful and relaxing all the way to just before we went through the breakwater of San Blas harbor. This is a small, very small harbor up a natural estuary (river). It is shallow and the entrance is a bar crossing that has breaking waves even at high tide. On top of that, the sand bar shifts and it is recommended to anyone that is not familiar to call the Capitania de Puerto and ask for a local guide as they know the depth and location of the channel.

 

Well, guess what, it was a holiday, our Spanish still is not the greatest, people line the beach, breakwater, river banks, etc and the wind is now at about 15 knots on our port beam, the wind and chop are shoving us a round pretty bad. It's at the bottom of low tide, and you could surf the breaking waves over that sand bar at the entrance. We have never been here before, never came through such a small breakwater entrance, can't raise anybody on the radio for a guide, so we decide to...wait for it...that's right, we decide to just go for it. This is supposed to be a great place, it'll be worth it.

 

We head for the entrance, the wind and chop pushing us side ways, breakers just off our port and a breakwater just off our starboard. I was so close to the breakwater that a guy with a fishing pole started reeling in so I wouldn't run over his line. People are staring at us, I'm watching everything (my neck hurt afterwards) and I look down at the death meter and see 7ft, holy shit, I start doing redneck math (I had my shoes off), our depth transducer is about 18 inches below the waterline, maybe a little more, that makes it about 5 and a half foot deep. Our draft is 5 and a half foot, SHIT! Not much else to do then keep going right? Right, we never ran aground but shit I was nervous, but hey, never let'm see you sweat, right. We head up the river a couple miles (while watching the depth meter show 7-9-13-10-8-7-CRAP) to where the cruising books show a marina with and anchorage area dredged out. We round the slight bend, see a few sailboats to the right (nice little Marina, about 15 or so slips and boat yard area). Right near the entrance we see birds on the water, wait, their not on the water, their in the water, as in standing on a sand bar and I can see their legs. Ok, not going in there, we take quick look around and the river current (about 2 knots) pushes back down river a bit. We got it figured out and anchored in a low tide depth of 7 feet with enough room to swing so we don't wind up on the sand bar or the mangrove trees when the tide changes and the water starts to flow up river.

Now for the bugs, every thing we read said the bugs, mostly Mosquitos and Hey hey nays (I think that's how you spell it, also know as no-see-ums), were prolific around sunset and sunrise. No problem, Becky had bought some screen net material and elastic to make bug screens so we were prepared. Plus we had a few kinds of repellant. WE GOT EATEN ALIVE, even me who rarely gets a bug bite, it looked like we had chickenpox.

 

 

We did walk into town and look for the Capitania's office, it was closed. We also went by the local cultural center and the church of the famed bells of San Blas. We were told that this is the best place to find beadwork done by the local Indians so we went in search for the market area. Small market no where near the size of the one in Mazatlan but neither is the town. Speaking of the town, it is quaint and has hotels and shops. What we saw was mostly Mexicans on vacation, and I think we were 2 of maybe 10 gringos in the town. There are also jungle tours you can take up the rivers here to see the wildlife, like crocodiles, but we chose not to, we were bitten enough and left after a couple days. All that said, San Blas is worth the stop and the marina, although small, was nice and there is another spot to anchor outside the harbor if the swell is right (it wasn't for us). So, for us, been there, got the bug bites, we will be bypassing San Blas next time.

 

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Boobies!

Boobies!

 

Yea, gotchya, although this is a life of less or no clothes while sailing, this is about Isla Isabel, an island off the coast of Mexico. After we left La Paz we went to Mazatlan for a few days. We anchored in the harbor off old Mazatlan. It was nice there except for the smell, there is a shit treatment plant right by the anchorage and when the wind is right (and it usually is) the smell will sour your stomach. While there we met John on TACMAN, while on the walk into town. He joined us and showed us around a bit and we had breakfast while he gave us the low down on the place. John was a great guy with quite a few stories over drinks the next couple of days.

 

After leaving Mazatlan, we headed to Isla Isabel, an island off the coast that is known as the golpogose of Mexico. Here there are iguanas, friget birds, and many other birds I don't know what to call...oh, and boobies. Brown boogie and the blue footed boogie. We had a few boobies hitch a ride with us along the way, they were brown boobies I think. I've never said boobies or seen so many boobies outside of the occasional strip club (picture me giggling like a 12 year old boy when I say boobies).

 

 

We stayed here a few days, it's kind of a tough anchorage and if the weather changes on you there can be some exciting times. While the weather was good, we didn't want to push our luck and we wanted to get to a place that a few people raved about as being the hidden gem of mainland Mexico, San Blas, as in the poem The Bells of San Blas.

 

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