Or, The Top Fifteen Essential Nonessentials for Sailing in Mexico Oleada has now sailed over 2100 nautical miles, and Josh and I were talking about the things that have made our lives infinitely better along the way. Not the obvious stuff (good sails, reliable rigging and engine,) but more like the things we didn’t realize […]
Guaymas, Mexico, is an industrial and shrimp-fishing port in the desert state of Sonora. Giant cargo ships nose past steep, uninhabited islands in the bay crowded with saguaro cacti. This is one of our first stops on the mainland side of Mexico (the sail over from Baja deserves its own post, coming soon.) Guaymas is […]
There’s a fin at the surface of the water. Coffee in hand, I run to the bow, because I can’t believe it: the largest shark in the world is circling our sailboat! Although whale sharks are the biggest fish on earth, their only real threat is to the plankton in the bay. The can […]
“You can sit on di beach, but you can’t stop di tide.” So said a thoughtful Caribbean man to Josh when he was delivering boats in the islands. This phrase came back to Josh as we pushed further north into the Sea of Cortez and discovered what happens when a sailboat meets the water from […]
“At night, it looked like another city,” Isabel tells me as she gestures out her office window toward the sea. “There were hundreds of lights. But now, what do you see?” she asks me. “Nada,” I reply. Isabel Soto Gonzalez runs the daily operations at the marina in Santa Rosalía. She tells me […]
On the surface, Santa Rosalía is a rundown mining town with no pretty shoreline and no quaint fish shacks. Why did Josh and I love it so much? Santa Rosalía is a brilliantly incongruous place. The red roofs and clapboard of French architecture give way to steep desert mesas which give way to burgundy tailings […]
In Moab, I worked with a fantastic bike guide, Scott Escott, who shared these wise words: “I hate the wind because it blows the personal space away from my FACE.” At this moment, amid copious tears, I hate the wind. We have just anchored at Isla Carmen after five and a half hours of tacking […]
While sailing from Los Gatos to Agua Verde, a small pod of pilot whales joined us. Here’s the video, complete with geeky narration so you can learn a little bit about these graceful cetaceans: Pilot whales are more closely related to dolphins than whales, and they are a cousin to killer whales. They are […]
A close friend described Agua Verde as her favorite place on the Baja coast, and she infused it with a sense of magic and belonging for me before I even arrive. As we sail into the bay, dodging a hundred-plus foot pinnacle sticking out of the sea, we find the calmest water we have seen. […]
We’re tired. The wind has been unpredictably swirling around at night, sometimes bringing a 2am thunderstorm to sit on top of us for an hour–which also means Uly sits on top of us for an hour. In these storms, Josh keeps and eye on the GPS to watch if the anchor drags, I just worry […]
