How to describe what we do? For the past few weeks, I’ve tackled that question with this video we produced for the Institute of Current World Affairs–that ended up showing the heart of our research adventure. Extra special thanks to Jon on SV Prism for all of his time, footage, skills, and teaching […]
Rising Waters, Fewer Fish: A Local Change
‘Its beauty has been compared with the Greek isles,’ the guidebook waxed—followed by the incongruous statement that Topolobampo is primarily a cargo port. “Sounds good to me,” Jon said with a grin as we sat around the table on Oleada, discussing our trip through 400-plus nautical miles of coastline mostly unexplored by sailors. Beginning from […]
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The Storm That Caught Us on a Changing Sea
We are the only isolated object for 40 miles, and lightning surrounds us. It’s eleven a.m., and we are sailing over twenty miles from shore. I have been awake since three a.m., and this is not typical thunderstorm weather. Thin and high clouds filter the sunlight with wisps of virga, rain that trails from the […]
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Feliz Navidad from Josh and Jess
For the past couple of years, Josh and I have made an impromptu video for our Christmas card, and this year we shot it (with the iPhone onboard in Guaymas.) And it was so fun I had to share with you all! I know this is a little late, but the holiday season here in […]
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Fifteen Items that Make Sailing in Mexico Better
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 […]
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What Paris and Guaymas Have in Common
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 […]
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Swimming with the Largest Sharks in the World: Video!
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 […]
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Seekers of the Sea
Something happened to us in Bahía de Los Ángeles that may never happen to us for the rest of our sailing trip: we were briefly part of a tribe of young sailors. So what are they like, these young people who turn to the sea? We hoped that our friend Scott, the young singlehander aboard […]
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Fighting the Tide
“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 […]
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The Pernicious Effects of Warm Water
“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 […]