After the week in the Bahamas and a day long layover in Houston, Eitan and I returned back to SV Sierra Wind in Puerto Vallarta to prepare for the longest ocean crossing in the world without intermediate landfall options. While we were in the Bahamas, our new crew stayed onboard, getting used to boat life. …
After my diving experience in Tulum during the week before Eitan’s arrival with his parents, Eitan was cautiously looking forward to doing a couple of cenote dives with me, and I was incredibly excited to show him this new world. As I’m sure that anyone who has been reading this blog over the past year …
After a couple of days in Valladolid and a week in the Yucatan Peninsula, it was finally time to meet up with Eitan and his parents in Playa del Carmen. After a two-hour bus ride, I arrived at the station then took a taxi to the Airbnb. I had already met Eitan’s parents after they …
After recovering from the stomach flu in Bacalar, I was ready to move on to a new city, so I hopped on the bus to Valladolid, located in the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula. It took a couple of hours to get there and make my way to the hostel. After checking in, I decided …
On my last morning in Tulum, I woke up feeling quite hungover. Although I wasn’t planning on going out the night before, I was coaxed into it by some of my new hostel friends and was now regretting the free tequila shots at the bar. I ate breakfast then went back to sleep for a …
After a chaotic and fun night out in Tulum, I woke up feeling surprisingly well and headed down to grab some free breakfast. The hostel’s name is Mama’s House because there is a woman that comes every morning and evening to cook a home-style breakfast and dinner for everyone. So, staying here and eating a …
With SV Sierra Wind safely tucked away in a slip at the marina, Eitan and I packed our bags, preparing to be off the boat for two to three months. Eitan’s parents booked an Airbnb in Playa del Carmen for the holidays and I had a little over a week before I would need to …
Despite having just splashed S/V Sierra Wind in September, it seems she was going to be back on the hard again very soon. While we were away for the summer, Eitan had contracted Marina Puerto Escondido to redo the boat’s bottom paint. Once back in the water and after a couple of routine bottom cleanings, …
Eitan’s friends were due to arrive in a few days, so we pulled anchor and started heading south from Bahia Concepcion. We made a couple of nice stops along the way. The first was at an anchorage called San Juanico, which is a beautiful bay hosting a few other cruisers and a handful of car …
After crossing the Sea of Cortez for the fourth time, we were back in Baja, at the northern mouth of Bahia Concepcion. We planned to spend a week or so in the bay exploring the area since it had been way too hot for us when we were here in September. Just as we were …
Since we left San Diego and started cruising in Mexico a year ago, Eitan and I decided our favorite places had been along the eastern shore of the Baja peninsula, from Bahia Conception to La Paz. We decided we wanted to spend November and December enjoying more time in these areas before the new year …
66. Another Uncomfortable Sea of Cortez Crossing Read More »
While in San Carlos we had a special guest come to visit, S/V Sierra Wind’s previous owner, Jim. One afternoon, we heard a small plane buzzing overhead and didn’t think much of it until I realized there are no airports nearby. Jim had flown his private plane down from Los Angeles and agreed to deliver …
I arrived back from Mexico City and Eitan from California after our week apart and were ready to get back onboard. Eitan worked to install the first solar panel with the new welding modifications to the davit while I unpacked and began taking inventory of galley supplies and preparing a list for reprovisioning. Our second …
Being in Mexico City for Dia de los Muertos and Halloween also meant it was my one-year anniversary since hopping aboard S/V Sierra Wind in San Diego on October 31, 2020. It’s been interesting for me to read back through some of my earlier blog posts, reflecting on my early expectations of this adventure and …
After touring the Teotihuacan pyramids, we arrived back in Mexico City by the afternoon. Some of the group decided to go try a local drink called pulque, which is a slimy, slightly alcoholic drink made of fermented agave. It comes in a variety of flavors, so I tried a couple different types and settled on …
One of Eitan’s close friends was getting married at the end of October and there would be a week of downtime on the boat with him gone. It didn’t seem like enough time to fly home and Guaymas didn’t offer much in the way of tourism activities, so I decided to fly to Mexico City …
We were only in San Carlos for a couple of days before having to heading to Guaymas to put the boat in a marina and catch some flights. The distance between the two towns is only about 15 miles, but Eitan wanted to split it up and stop for the night at a bay between …
We were finally back to mainland Mexico and heading south toward San Carlos. Although Eitan had planned a couple weeks for us to get from Bahia de los Angeles to San Carlos/Guaymas, there seemed to be a lack of decent anchorages with protection from northerly and westerly swells along the route. The land on this …
After our mildly stressful departure from Isla Salsepuedes, we headed east across the Sea of Cortez to a much larger island off the mainland called Isla Tiburon. I was thankful that it turned out to be a relatively calm day and we motored for most of the trip, only sailing for the last couple of …
After swimming with the whale shark in Bahia de los Angeles, it seemed our only bucket list item for here had been checked off. And, believe it or not, it was actually starting to get cold. We couldn’t believe it, considering that just a couple of weeks ago we were debating putting the boat back …
After bailing on the plans to find whale sharks in La Gringa, we turned to head back south to an anchorage called Pescador. Despite having 25 knots of wind on the nose while heading to La Gringa, the winds quickly calmed down to 6 knots the farther south we got. In Bahia de Los Angeles, …
After a late night move to anchor in the much calmer Don Juan cove, we woke up to serene conditions once again. While we were excited to see the anchor lights of a couple boats in the anchorage when we arrived in the middle of the night, we were disappointed to wake up to an …
After our sleepless night of the Chubasco, Eitan was exhausted. But, after seeing our first whale shark, I was keen on getting to Bahia de Los Angeles ASAP and agreed to spend most of the day at the helm as we headed north, so Eitan could get some much-needed rest. It seemed the wind from …
After a week or so exploring the area north of Loreto, Eitan and I were back in civilization at Marina Santa Rosalia. We needed to do a little provisioning, but most importantly, Eitan needed to find the right parts and fittings to be able to install the new water maker. As we pulled in, we …
Eitan and I continued to travel north from Loreto toward Bahia de Los Angeles in an attempt to escape the incessant heat. We decided to pull into Bahia Concepcion for a couple of nights, since some of the reviews of the anchorages mentioned whale shark sightings, which I was keen to experience myself. With some …
After our week-long charter with Eitan’s parents, it was time to turn our attention back to S/V Sierra Wind and get her back in the water. Eitan scheduled the splash for the next day and luckily the charter company let us stay on the catamaran with air conditioning for another night. Although the boat was …
After leaving New England, Eitan and I headed back to California for a couple weeks to recoup before going back to Mexico. Eitan stayed in San Diego to work, while I headed back to northern California to see family and friends and get caught up on my routine doctor and dental appointments. The time flew …
With only a couple of jerrycans of water left from Agua Verde, we needed to fill up our water tank and fuel tank in order to enjoy our last week at sea before hauling the boat out. We pulled into Marina Puerto Escondido for about an hour to fill up with water and fuel, give …
After searching for the drone in the freezing water for another 30 minutes the following day, we left Punta San Telmo, drone-less. We had about a 3-hour sail to the next town, Agua Verde. Although we were hugging the coast, the wind turned out to be extremely variable, ranging from 2 to 20 knots in …
We departed Santa Barista and headed north to an anchorage known as Bahia El Gato or El Toro, depending on which bay you ended up in. Once we dropped anchor we looked up to take in the beautiful landscape. And just like one of the reviews had described, it was just like Zion National Park. …
After two nights at anchor in Isla Partida, we continued north to Isla San Jose. The island was stunning with more turquoise waters, mangrove estuaries, sandy shoals, and a thick cactus forest with dramatic hills for a backdrop. After checking the date, I realized it had officially been 6 months since my last day at …
We arrived in Mazatlán in the early evening after three perfect days of sailing. As we pulled into the old harbor area, we were greeted by a familiar aroma that I hadn’t smelled since working in Los Angeles: the unmistakable fragrance of a wastewater treatment plant. The anchorage is located right next to the treatment …
After an amazing week relaxing and socializing in Paradise Village Marina, we once again had places to be and flights to catch. The owner of the new boat that we’re moving onto had booked our flights to leave from Loreto in about 4 weeks, meaning we needed to cover about 1,000 nautical miles and cross …
Marleen was on her way to join up with SV Volare and Eitan and I were on our way back into Banderas Bay. Eitan decided we needed a couple more small modifications to the steering system and a few more parts fabricated before leaving the Puerto Vallarta area, so having spent a week in the …
After almost a week in Tenacatita, and nearly recovered from the tequila tasting, it was time to keep heading north since there was to be a break in the northerly winds. Our first stop was in Playa Rosa, a small bay in front of a luxury resort. Having been kicked out of several beach clubs …
With anchorage in La Manzanilla being unprotected from the northerly swell, we decided to cut across the bay to Tenacatita. We had visited the anchorage once before with the German couple and found it to be much less crowded than before, with only about 10 boats at anchor. Being such a popular spot for cruisers, …
While we were still in Manzanillo, I received a Facebook message from a girl named Marleen. She was several weeks late in replying to my Facebook advertisement looking for crew to cross the Pacific. She decided to send me a message anyway, since she was already in Mexico, on the off chance that we hadn’t …
After our late-night arrival in Manzanillo, Eitan and I got some much-needed sleep. After waking, we went to shore to dropped off our laundry and then started on a new and different kind of boat project: creating a YouTube channel called “Safety 4 Cruisers”. With Eitan being so safety obsessed and bringing a unique perspective …
With Philipp and Jessica (the German couple) having departed, it was back to just Eitan and me on SV Sierra Wind. We spent the day motoring up the coast to Caleta de Campos, which reminded me of the coast of Northern California, with houses on steep cliffs and rocks rising out of the sea. Apart …
Finally hearing back from American Samoa, they confirmed Eitan’s suspicions that they were closed to inbound pleasure vessels, meaning we had nowhere to go after French Polynesia. This was a huge disappointment and officially ended our plans of crossing the Pacific Ocean this year. While this news was a real bummer for the entire crew, …
Once we were settled in at the marina in Ixtapa, Eitan and I flew back to California for a week to visit our families one last time before leaving to cross the pacific. Unfortunately, my time at home was primarily spent resting on the couch as I fell ill almost immediately after arriving. After some …
Leaving Banderas Bay, we began heading south along the western coast of Mexico towards Zihuantanejo. With the new couple onboard, we were ready to cross the Pacific Ocean once the right weather window presented itself. Because French Polynesia closed to tourism, Eitan had to file special paperwork for a provisional exemption to allow for the …
Eitan and I headed back to our favorite croc-filled marina to pick up our two new crew members! Phillip (35) and Jessica (33) are a couple from Germany who had been sailing on a friend’s boat in La Paz. Since their previous boat changed plans and were no longer crossing the Pacific, they were still …
With Connor and Abbey leaving the boat, it was down to just Eitan and me, and we were stuck at the Puerto Vallarta marina until we finished the hydraulic steering conversion. Unfortunately, filling the hoses with hydraulic oil was not as easy and straight forward as Eitan had expected. Since SV Sierra Wind has a …
Slowly recovering from our bouts of Norovirus, we (and by we, I mean Eitan) decided the boat work must go on! We needed to modify the existing binnacle, where the wheel attaches to the helm, to accommodate the future hydraulic steering system. Since La Cruz is on the outskirts of the Puerto Vallarta area, the …
We arrived at Marina Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, or La Cruz for short, on December 22, 2020, and Eitan was scheduled to fly back to California the next day. Given the cost of the trip thus far, Eitan decided to fly back to San Diego for Christmas and New Year to pick …
The next morning we pulled anchor and headed on our way to San Blas. We arrived about an hour before sunset and pulled into the shallow channel with caution since it was shallow enough to run aground in certain areas and it was not well marked or mapped. We anchored and headed into town, but …
After our 60-hour passage from La Paz, we arrived in Isla Isabella just as the sun was rising. Isla Isabella is a national park and refuge for sea birds. The birds circle the island and give it the strong organic aroma of guano. The landscape is a lush green compared to the desert of Baja …
With our much-awaited package in hand, we prepared to depart that night for the 60-hour passage across the Sea of Cortez. Given the current weather window, Eitan wanted to leave right away because we would only have wind for about the first half of the trip. We departed La Paz around 8 pm that night. …
We arrived back in La Paz on December 10, 2020. Just as we entered the long approach to the marina, the autopilot bolt sheared off again while I was at the helm, just as before. Luckily, hand steering with minimal wind, swell, and current made for a much less stressful situation this time around. Arriving …
We provisioned fresh goods and took off from La Paz and back to Espiritu Santo. After a few hours of motor sailing, we arrived in time to see the moon rise in a new bay with boat buddies SV Atalaya and SV Solamar. The following morning, we woke up to SV Atalaya calling us on …
We arrived in La Paz and began the normal marina routine of collecting trash, cleaning the boat inside-out and topping off the water tank. Luckily, at Marina de La Paz, we can rent a dock slip for a few hours to clean the boat and avoid paying the full daily fee. Once the boat was …
Los Friles was historically a fishing town turned marine reserve where there has been a lot of work to restore the reef in an attempt to attract tourism. Their efforts seem to be working as we experienced a variety of fish and sea life while snorkeling. Eitan and I teamed up with SV Kismet, also …
We spent a few nights anchored in Cabo amongst the other sailboats and superyachts. To be honest, I’m not really sure how many nights and realize it’s easy to lose track of time with this lifestyle. I find it almost impossible to remember the days of the week and find it such a contrast to …
The next day in Bahia Santa Maria, we got ready to pull the anchor for the short sail into Bahia Magdalena, just next door. Eitan called us to standby as he discovered one of the steering cables connecting the steering wheel to the rudder was frayed and the rudder position was no longer registering with …
After our two nights in Bahia Tortugas, it was time to set sail south for another 48-hour passage to Bahia Magdalena. Although I had a few days of sailing under my belt, I could not shake the stress of the constant sailing and new environment. While I was working, I invested a lot of time …
On October 31st we moved onto the boat and at 5:00 am the next morning we cast off the dock lines and set sail for Ensenada, Mexico. Unfortunately, instead of setting sail we just motored for 8 hours but it gave us the opportunity to start the safety briefings and discuss the ground rules and …
So, I quit my job… now what? I had about two weeks between my last day at work and my first day at sea. This time was spent on my long to-do list and saying goodbyes to friends and family. Needless to say, the two weeks went by fast and on October 31 my dad …
