Sailing the Sea of Cortez, January 9th-12th

Back in November, Davina (one of my closest friends) told me she had a companion fare on Alaska Airlines that she needed to use before it expired. “We should go to the tropics somewhere!” Between looking at airline prices and considering our activity options, one thing turned into another and within a few days we were inviting friends along and talking to charter companies about our bareboat options.

After a few false starts and some last-minute “oh crap, we can’t actually go on this” cancellations, we firmed up our crew list (me, Davina, Emily, Ben, Diana, and Shawna) and found a boat at a cheap price: a 41′ Morgan “Out Island” ketch. It was an older boat, mid-70s (1976 I think), but the price was right and the charter company was happy to help us with transportation to and from the airport. Within a few more days we’d all purchased our tickets to San Jose del Cabo and arranged our ride from the SJD airport up to La Paz, a beautiful coastal city where the sailboat resided in one of La Paz’ marinas.

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Coming soon…

I’ll be making more regular updates in the coming months, but recently have been busy getting caught up and settled in with my new job at Tableau Software, and have been prevented from doing much in the way of bird photography by all the gray, rainy weather we’ve been having.I know, I never did write an entry for the Texas birding trip, and I may try to do that in the next few days.

But, coming soon:

  • Sailing in Mexico! Some friends and I set up a somewhat last-minute sailing trip to La Paz, Mexico (same place I got my ASA104/114 certifications) from January 9th-12th and I’ll be skippering a 41ft (12.5m) Morgan ‘Out Island’ Ketch. I’ll be buying a full GoPro Hero4 Silver bundle before the trip and will be compiling lots of footage into a video to go onto the upcoming Wing on Wing YouTube channel (along with learning to use Adobe Premier)
  • I’ve got tentative plans with another friend to head down to Costa Rica for a long weekend in late March or early April as well for several days of surfing, lounging, and birding (the birding in Costa Rica should be amazing)
  • And of course, more bird photography from the Seattle area (once the weather gives me a break!)

Lots of adventures coming in 2016!

Aside

Sailing video series on YouTube to follow

One of the great things about the internet is how easy it is to share our lives and experiences with others, whether through blog form like this, social media, or videos on YouTube (or Vimeo, or others). I’ve been watching a lot of these over the past few months and have even become a patron on Patreon for several as well. I’ll list the best ones I’ve found here for you to check out and enjoy.

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Sailing in the San Juan Islands: Labor Day Weekend, 2015

As discussed in previous posts (primarily the route plan), this past weekend I took nine of my friends with me on a sailing charter trip in the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle. I’d lived on Orcas Island from 1990-1992 as a child while my dad was the pastor of Orcas Island Community Church, and hadn’t been back since. But let’s back up a bit to the beginning of the trip and talk about the yacht.

s/v Christelle

The yacht we’d chartered was the s/v Christelle, a 2001 Beneteau Oceanis 50 (yes, a 50 footer!) out of Anacortes, WA. She was clean and fairly well equipped, with four cabins (two doubles and two twins) as well as a two-bunk crew cabin in the bow (with the windlass controls inside). While not a very good layout for a live-aboard cruiser (too many cabins, too little non-cabin space), she was ideal for a short charter, and was very easy to sail and motor around the islands.

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