Sail from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

Sail to the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia (2011)

One of our Longest Ocean Passages of approx. 3,000 miles

Captain’s Log (recorded at 8 p.m. daily Puerto Vallarta time)

Date	Latitude	Longitude	Wind	COG	SOG	Barometric	Wave Ht	Comments
Mar 12	20.40 N	105.25 W	11 kt W	230 W	5.6 knots	1016	1 – 2 ft
Mar 13	19.24 N	107.42 W	18 kt NW	230 W	6.9 knots	1016	2 – 4 ft
Mar 14	18.27 N	110.02 W	14 kt NW	250 W	5.5 knots	1016	5 – 7 ft
Mar 15	18.11 N	112.15 W	5 kt NW	257 W	5.3 knots	1016	3 – 6 ft	Motor sailed
Mar 16	17.48 N	114.25 W	3- 5 kt NE	250 W	6.0 knots	1018	5 – 7 ft	Motor sailed
Mar 17	17.13 N	116.40 W	12 kt NW	245 W	6.5 knots	1019	8 ft	Saved boat hook; tanker siting at 3:00 a.m.
Mar 18	16.45 N	119.06 W	10-12 NW	235 W	6.2 knots	1019	8 ft	Shackle repair
Mar 19	15.45 N	121.08 W	12-14 NE	185 S	6.2 knots	1017	6 ft	Jibed south; turtle siting
Mar 20	14.12 N	122.13 W	8-10 kt N	228 SW	5.4 knots	1016	6-7 ft	Motor sailed until 4:00 p.m
Mar 21	13.19 N	112.53 W	15 kt NE	250 W	6.4 knots	1015	4 – 8 ft
Mar 22	11.30 N	125.53 W	8-18 kt NE	200 SW	6.2 knots	1013	10 ft	Whale siting
Mar 23	07.15 N	127.28 W	20–30 kt N	230 SW	6.5 knots	1012	6 ft	A.M.  Fishing boat siting P.M. Squalls – Thunder, Lightning, Rain, Double reefed main
Mar 24	07.15 N	127.28W	20 kt N	230 SW	6.5 knots	1012	6 ft
Mar 25	06.11 N	129.21 W	13 kt N	235 SW	5 knots	1012	6-8 ft	Sun and Squalls
Mar 26	04.49 N	130.34 W	12 kt N	185 S	5.5 knots	1012	7 ft	Sun, Squalls, 90 degrees; Water temp 79 degrees
Mar 27	02.43 N	131.30 W	11 kt NE	240 SW	6.0 knots	1012	4-6 ft	Squalls, Mo to r sailed
Mar 28	00.48 N	132.03 W	5 kt N	170 S	5.8 knots	1011	3-4 ft	More squalls, hot and humid; Motoring
Mar 29	01.27 S	132.04 W	10 kt E	171 S	6.0 knots	1014	2-3 ft	Crossed equator, Dry weather, Motoring, Mast repair, MLM hand injury
Mar 30	03.27 S	132.42 W	15kt  E	214 SW	5.8 knots	1012	3-4 ft	Flying during night– hit 9.0 knots
Mar 31	05.45 S	134.17 W	16 kt SE	220 SW	7.5 knots	1012	5 ft	Continue to fly at high speeds; Inbound -  made final course adjustment early in morning to head to Hiva Oa
Apr 1	07.08 S	136.03 W	11 kt E	215 SW	6.0 knots	1012	3-4 ft	Sailed the good wind and motored the light wind
Apr 2	08.47 S	137.50 W	16 knt SE	214 SW	6.0 knots	1013	3-4 ft
Apr 3	09.48 S	139.02 W	-------	--------	----------	----------	-----	YEAH – We arrived at Hiva Oa!

Dennis Millard (captain), MaryLee Millard, fantastic crewmates RB Ward, Krista Beckley

Week 1(Saturday, March 12)

We set sail from Puerto Vallarta (PV), Mexico to the Marquesas on Saturday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m. after waiting out the tsunami warning the day before in Banderas Bay.  As we were checking out of Mexico in the Port Captain’s office that Friday, we heard about the devastating 8.9 and 7.9 earthquakes that hit Japan.  There were tsunami warnings from Alaska clear down to the coast of Mexico.  After hearing this, it didn’t take too long for us to figure out that the safest location for us was to head out to the deep waters of Banderas Bay.  We ended up going to anchor off La Cruz (North side of Bandaras Bay) where we had spent several days previously on the hook.  There are normally 30-40 sailboats on the hook off La Cruz.  This night there were 155 boats in the anchorage.  All ports were closed to boats coming in, so we joined everybody else that got caught out sailing when the tsunami hit.  We waited out the warning until early the next morning when the port captains re-opened all the harbors.  Fortunately we had plenty of food on board.  Some of the boats didn’t have anchors or food because they were racing in the Bandaras Bay Regatta.  Our first stop that morning was to La Cruz Marina to fuel up; it was there that we witnessed the destruction of docks 9 and 11 – these slips were totaled.  We were glad that we didn’t risk staying in the marina.

After fueling up, we had to race back to our slip at the Nuevo Vallarta Marina. We immediately checked in with our weather forecaster, which we had been doing all week long, and he said that we needed to go that day instead of Sunday if we want to catch the ‘westerlies’.  After missing the previous day due to the tsunami, we had to scramble around last minute with provisioning and other chores before taking off on our 3,000 mile trip to the Marquesas.  By 6:30 that evening, we were done and as ready as we possibly could be.  We headed out to sea to be greeted with some great winds for the next few days.  Our strategy was to head out west to catch the northeast trade winds.  Our forecaster, along with our own review of grib files from NOAA, had indicated that we would have great winds for the first few days of sailing (ranged from 10 to 25 knots); then we had a lull where we experienced very light winds for several days.  A little more than we anticipated, so we motored through them.  Made us a little edgy to use that iron wind so early on, but our prayers were answered by Poseidon who gave us more wind.

Fortunately, my timing for catching the flu bug was timed right for the light winds.  Before we left dock, Krista Beckley, RB Ward and Dennis were all hit with the stomach bug which they blamed on food poisoning.  However, I kept saying that it was the flu and watch me get hit with it three days out to sea.  It was miserable – severe vomiting and diarrhea – which I got over in a day and a half.  Poor RB and Dennis – they were still fighting this bug the day we took off.  Everybody on board were real troopers as they covered my watches and chores.

It didn’t take long before we found ourselves isolated from civilization.  A few tankers the first few nights and then that was it.  Fortunately, we’ve been escorted by an occasional whale, dolphins, marlins, sunfish, turtles – but these guys even seem to disappear after about 500 miles.  Now it’s only flying fish, small black/brownish birds and the boobie that keep us company on this long ocean voyage.  When that boobie comes swirling around our boat, it’s such a welcoming sight to have his company.

Each night, we look forward to listening to the Puddle Jump net on our single side band radio – our only link to civilization and other cruisers crossing this huge vast ocean.  We eagerly wait for our roll call to hear reports from those cruisers about a week or so ahead of us.

 We’re eating well the first week – plenty of food and liquids.  We ate mostly cereal and juicy Mexican oranges for breakfast; sandwiches for lunch; and a hot cooked meal for dinner each night.  The only fresh meat we brought on board was chicken which Krista used for a delightful chicken curry dish.  Amazing that we’ve been eating so well – quiche, shepard’s pie for St. Patrick’s day, pasta with sautéed tomatoes, onions and zucchini, southwest tuna casserole, and homemade pizza!  Krista has also baked bread – she’s quite talented with kneading bread while doing a jibe!

We packed lots of fresh produce for this trip – including oranges, limes, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, mango, avocado’s, onions, garlic.  Plenty of fruit drinks, carton milk, nuts, soups, pasta, split pea and lentil beans,  and array of canned items including chicken, salmon, tuna, vegetables and fruits.  Pretty sure that we’ll be ok with the food but know that we will run out of bottle watered.  Counting on that water maker to work and enough diesel to run it!

Settled into our watch routine with two people on deck at all times.  During the day, we each got six hours in the cabin to catch up with sleep and to get a break from the strong sun.  At night we alternated 3 hours on and 3 hours off.  So far Dennis and I are settling into the watch routine and adjusting to the disrupted sleep schedule but RB and Krista are struggling a bit with it.  With all of this constant motion, we’re all experiencing strange dreams at night as well.  We reversed this routine during week two so that we could get six hours sleep at night.  We eventually went to 3 hour watches near the end the trip.

As we keep heading out further, we’re starting to feel connected with this vast wide Pacific Ocean.  It’s such an incredibly peaceful feeling to be surrounded by all of this wild untamed blue water and the evening galaxies at night.  It’s a true marvel that the force of the wind over all this blue water will blow Lardo across 3,000 miles of open ocean.

During the days/nights, we let the monitor wind vane do all of the steering so all we had to do was just trim the sails, make boat repairs – such as fixing shackles, perform daily chores – washing clothes and cleaning the boat and of course lots of reading.  Although not much to do, when you’re constantly fighting the motion of the water, it takes a lot out of you – even the simple task of bathing can be trying as you fight the constant wave motion and try to maintain your balance with these rollers.  By now, both Krista and I have a pretty good set of bumps and bruises.  During 2011 the trades were rather bumpy, with a lack of big swells with 15 second intervals.  Instead there were big swells, one right after another, maybe on 6 second intervals.  We sometimes caught up with the swells in front of us, with a resultant confused sea.

Week 2 (Sunday, March 20)

At the beginning of week two, we’re about 1000 miles offshore (or about a third of the way to the Marquesas).  Our latitude is 14 degrees north and our longitude is 122 degrees west.

For the most part, we’ve had pretty good wind the first week with about 2 motoring days.  Today, March 20^th, the start of week two, we found ourselves motoring until about 4:00 p.m., each silently praying to Poseidon for more winds. Our goal is to get to the Marquesas in 21 days.   Without the wind, it’s also a lot warmer on deck and we’re all feeling a bit lethargic and probably a little tired from lack of sleep due to very roiling seas on Friday evening.  Still pretty choppy and we’re wishing for those smooth long high rollers known to these seas.  It might be La Nina or weather fronts way up front that’s causing these disturbed confused seas.

The lack of wind always makes me a little edgy and the “what ifs” start creeping into my thoughts.  Fortunately, no one else on board seems too worried or they are doing just a better job at concealing their nerves.  I’m pretty confident that we have an ample supply of food on-board; it’s the diesel and water supplies that worry me.  When the wind does pick up, then this nagging worry seems to go away.  And about when the wind does pick up, which it does big time, then I grow weary of everything going flying around the cabin – like the broken raw eggs that Krista found in her bed this morning.  Since Sunday, the wind has been very steady and our boat is hauling ass through the Pacific!  Our Cal 39 is a wonderful sailor!

At the beginning of week two, we decided to reverse our shifts so that we do three on/off during the day and 6 on/off during the night.  Hopefully, everyone will start getting more night time sleep as no one seems to get enough during the day.  Anyway, if this doesn’t work, then we will try something else.

About Wednesday, when I was convinced that we were so far away from everything, we had a mink whale siting.  A mink whale is sleek and fast.  They look like a miniature humpback without the big fins the humpback has.   It was magnificent to see this pod of whales about 1500 miles in the middle of the ocean.  They were quite curious and played with our boat for several hours.  And we were quite thrilled to watch them surf through the waves.

Later that night, we were nailed with several squalls on RB’s and Krista’s shift – they kept us on course while dodging the squalls.  The squalls, thunder, lightning, and rain, came back later in the next day with winds topping at 30 knots – we double-reefed the main and comfortably sailed through the dark night at about 5 to 6 knots.

The next day, we sited a mystery boat.  Our guess was that it was a rusty old Korean long-liner fishing vessel, but it sure looked like something out of “Mad Max”.  It made us a little nervous to see this boat, especially when it crossed our bow at a good rate of speed and looked us over. Fortunately it kept its course which was opposite of our direction and it continued to go past us.  Once the fishing boat hit the horizon, we all breathed a sigh of relief that they had no interest in Lardo.

At the end of week two, we’re heading west to take advantage of the wind direction and getting daily squalls.  Our biggest question is what kind of wind will greet us in the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone).

Then, on Saturday March 26^th we lost our westerly wind so we started heading more in a south-southwest direction.   From our grib sheets and reports from sailing vessel SongLine, it looks like the wind will die soon and that we may have to go several days through the doldrums without much wind.  We shall have to wait and see.

Week 3 (Sunday, March 27)

At the start of week three, we are so happy that we still have wind at latitude 3 degrees north and longitude 131 degrees west.  The question of when the wind will die continues to haunts us. We are catching the vessel Songline…..they are becalmed.   We’re noticing that the weather is quite warm and humid in the equator zone; we experience daily showers and squalls.  The water temperature is 79 degrees - can hardly wait to jump into this warm water.

On Sunday afternoon, we fortunately decided to run the water-maker.  When turning on the engine, we discovered that our throttle was frozen.  By now, I have realized that any significant ocean passage is 10% sailing skills and the other 90% are “fix-it” skills constantly needed to repair the breaks – hey a good sailing day is when you have more “fixes” than “breaks”.  Fortunately, both Dennis and RB are very mechanically inclined and resourceful when it comes to fixing things on the boat.  Good to have sailors that don’t panic when stuff breaks.  Who would have ever guessed that an ice-pick from my galley would be used to replace the throttle lever! 

The wind didn’t last long before we realized that we were in the “doldrums” (ITC zone).  It was about late Sunday evening/early Monday morning that we were hit by a series of squalls plus we lost our wind.  Fortunately, we were in touch with SongLine who was a little ahead us - we were able to benefit from their experience.  SongLine had headed south too soon at 129 degrees and was be-calmed for three days – they agreed that we should continue west for a bit longer.  Hence, we waited until we got to longitude 132 degrees before we headed south to motor sail through the doldrums.  Fortunately, we were able to find some wind before long – motored quite a bit on Monday and Tuesday.  Late Tuesday afternoon, we found some wind which kept us sailing for most of the night and most of Wednesday.

We crossed the equator early morning on Tuesday, March 29^th during Krista and RB’s shift.  Dennis and MaryLee were sawing logs and missed out on the while Equator party occurring on the deck.  Fortunately, Krista and RB contained their party and celebrated by taking pictures – they were too chicken to jump off deck into the darkness of the ocean – good call on their part.

Once we crossed into the southern hemisphere – we found the Southern Cross.  Also, we found the seas to be much calmer and going in a different direction.  After a little more than two weeks of battling roily high seas, it was a blessing to have calmer seas and to be able to move about the boat a little more easily.  So far, no major injuries other than MaryLee managing to smash both her hands.  Both hands have recovered nicely and are ready to pull in the main and jib sheets.

By mid week knowing that we were low on fuel, we continued to hope for those wonderful trade winds to show up.  On Wednesday afternoon, as we were pondering our course (approximately 500 miles remaining) after looking at the grim “grib” files which had indicated a big hole in the ITCZ with very little wind, a strong weather front blew in.  Initially we thought we could ride out this front to the south for a few hours and with a little bit of luck the front would take us to those trade winds.  To our surprise, this front packed quite a punch and we were able to sail south at speeds reaching 8 to 9 knots.  This strong front took us right to the trade winds and we were able to make a course adjustment early Thursday morning to head directly inbound to Hiva Oa. It is a great feeling to know that you are “inbound”, meaning no more course corrections to arrive at your destination.   This wind continued strong through Thursday evening so we reefed in the main and pulled in the jib to sail at 7 to 7.5 knots per hour – we were truckin!  By Friday, we decided to slow the boat to 6.0 knots per hour so that we could guarantee an arrival on Sunday in the daylight plus do a little fishing.   We hooked several fish, and managed to lose them all!  Got spooled a couple of times by really big fish, and lost all the line on the reels and the lures to boot.   Now we “go to battle” when we fish and try to have the heaviest gear possible.  We had pretty good wind for the remainder of the trip coupled with some light wind where we motored.

Our first siting of land was early, before dawn, on Sunday morning April 3^rd.  What a beautiful site that was to see the outline of the island.  We reached Hiva Oa on Sunday, April 3^rd – it took us 21 and a half days to reach our final destination.  We were quite pleased with our time as the average for the 2010 puddle jump was 23 to24 days, with the average boat length 42 feet.  So Lardo at 39 feet, and even though she had to motorsail about 700 miles to catch the trades off Mexico, still put in a fast time!

Ah Land Sweet Land!  Time to allow all of our bumps and bruises to heal after fighting the ocean swells on a keeled over sailboat.  It has truly been quite an odyssey that I marvel at how well we all managed to survive the confinement of the passage for three weeks on our 39 foot sailboat.  Kudo’s to Captain Dennis for an excellent job in preparing our boat for this passage as well to the crew on board Lardo for their excellent sailing!  To navigate our way across the Pacific Ocean and to make the right decisions on chasing and finding the wind, is no small feat and quite an accomplishment; everyone on board should feel proud of themselves for contributing to this journey.  RB Ward was a great help in interpreting grib files and providing his help in sailing and navigating.

This concludes our chapter on our passage to the Marquesas Islands.  We will explore the islands for the next few weeks and I’ll continue to update our blog as we explore these wonderful islands.  All is well on board sailing vessel Lardo.

Provisioning/Storage

I have gotten so many questions on this subject that I decided to include a section about how we managed the storage of our food supplies on Lardo.  Of course, I provisioned for the 3 to 4 weeks at sea, but I also had to provision as much as possible for the 90 days that we will spend in French Polynesia.  I’ve been told that everything must be shipped to these islands; hence food cost is extremely expensive in French Polynesia – for example, a watermelon might run about $30 (USD). 

One cruiser friend told me that he resorted to using his machete for cutting banana’s and sneaking into watermelon patches at night to steal watermelon.  Another cruiser, who has spent 14 years in French Polynesia, said that it’s very difficult to find stores in the Marquesas along with finding a store that might even have produce.  For example, you might think that tropical fruits would be supplied abundantly in the local store, but in reality you will find that you will need to barter from a local homeowner for your fruits and vegetables.  So keeping all of this in mind, we’re planning on eating lots of fish that Dennis will catch along with all of our canned/dried items that I squeezed into every nook and cranny of our Cal 39.  When we left Mexico, Lardo was bursting at its seams.   Our next big provisioning stock up will either be Figi or New Zealand where we will once again find more affordable supplies.

With having mentioned all of the above, I will share with you in the following few paragraphs where I found storage space on Lardo.  Starting in the V-berth, you will find a flat of eggs on my bookshelf which will remain there until used; we found out through the school of hard knocks that the kitchen counter was not a good storage location as the eggs were catapulted into Krista’s berth. 

My V-berth clothes closet contains a large sack of oranges and limes along with about 50 rolls of toilet paper.  Continuing through the cabin, you will find an ample supply of paper towels, trash bags and other bags and wraps containers in Dennis clothes closet.  Supplies are crammed so tight into the closet, that I’m sure months from now that we’ll discover some extra stuff that we forgot all about. 

My “office” cabinet has our supplies of potatoes and onions which worked great until some moisture seeped in and it started to smell.  About the time that I noticed this, I was able to find room in the cooler for these items.  Wanted to have a food hammock but ran out of time and wasn’t able to get one – this would have been nice for storing onions, oranges, etc.  When we get to New Zealand, perhaps I’ll be able to find a hammock.

Fortunately, Dennis had the foresight to build cabinets into the dead space behind our sofa’s which has worked out great for storing all of the drinks, canned and dried foods – but watch out when opening when the boat is keeled over as cans will literally come flying out at you.  Each day is a constant juggle to take supplies out of the cabinets and put into the plastic box containers under the table for easy access.  Also, my food items are competing for space with of all of our very necessary boat supplies, spare parts and Dennis’ fishing gear.

Under our table is where I store “easy” access items in plastic storage containers.  Such items include drinks, baking provisions and other dry items.  The unfortunate part of this arrangement is that depending on which side the sails are on, I have to constantly re-arrange to keep these containers out of everyone’s way.

On the kitchen counter are two plastic boxes with items that we use every day, stored in OXO plastic containers.  Such items are cereal, coffee, dried fruit, nuts, etc.  This arrangement works great and I love it.  In the galley, I have a microwave which I can’t use while underway so I use that as a storage spot for soups and crackers.  The oven is used for storage of a poupouri of items.

Then of course, I have two refrigerator storage units.  One side I keep the temperature up for all of the produce and on the other side, the freezer, I keep the temperature up and use this side for perishables.  It’s always a game of hide and seek when you need to pull something out of the refrigeration units but it all works.

What patience you learn on a sailboat!

Latitude 20 degrees

Ha Ha to San Jose Del Cabo (10/25/10 to 11/4/10)  written by D. Millard

Dick and Jan Lipinski joined us in San Diego to act as our “crew” all the way to Cabo.  They are from Anchorage, Alaska, and this was to be their first experience in a sailboat.  After attending several of the Ha Ha meetings it was time to leave on October 25….first stop Turtle Bay about 2 days sail to the south!  We had asked Jan and Dick if they ever got seasick , they both said no, but we found out later that Jan’s  experience had been on large cruise ships.  We left San Diego with the  seas quite large( 12-15 feet), and rather lumpy !  This leg of the Ha Ha was an overnight passage, with huge following seas, and the wind right at our backs. During the night passage, we soon learned not to look back at the waves coming from behind us.  It seemed like there was a 12 foot wall of black water coming right at you (which there was), but the stern of “Lardo” always rose to meet them.  What a boat!  The most exciting part of the leg was when Dennis decided to put a reef in the main going downwind at night in 14’ seas with the wind blowing 20 knots.  Never could get it reefed due to too much wind, and decided to just drop the main instead.  During this melee the mast mainsail winch got popped of the mast, and was fixed later in La Paz.  Lucky for us we have winches on both sides of the mast so we could raise the main with the other winch when needed.  Dick did his first watch at night during this night passage.  Dennis told him that he would be in the cockpit with him, and brought a bedroll up and proceeded to go to sleep in it.  Dick said “you can’t do this to me, I am a novice!”   Ha!  He found out how to do a night watch….Dennis told him ”just don’t run into anything” and went to sleep.

 Jan was very seasick and remained that way all the way to Turtle Bay.  She was a trooper and stuck it out…..when we got to Turtle Bay Jan announced that she was cured and shouldn’t  have any more problems.  Needless to say everyone made sure she took her pills before we left Turtle Bay!  Turtle Bay itself is a fishing community of around 3,000 people.  A beautiful bay, and a nice Mexican town full of nice people!  We had to enter Turtle Bay at night, and vowed never to come into a harbor at night again…..too dangerous.

Our next stop was Bahia Santa Maria, about 240 miles below Turtle Bay.   In order to arrive during daylight hours we left Turtle Bay at about 10PM.  We again had lumpy seas.  The seas came from a storm originating near Hawaii.  It carried quite a punch and manifested itself in the large confused seas we were experiencing.  Mary Lee, Dick, and Dennis alternated time at the wheel to get us down the coast to Santa Maria.  Santa Maria is a wild, wind swept Bay with a very small Mexican fish camp population.  It had a gorgeous lagoon and we used our zodiac dinghy to get to and explore.   With about 150 boats anchored in the bay, many people “lost their boats” in trying to get back to them in the dark.  After we finally found Lardo we set outside and laughed at all the other boaters in dinghys searching for their boats!  After spending 1 ½ days there it was time to take off for Cabo.

In keeping with our plan to arrive at our next landfall during the day we left Bahia Santa Maria about 10PM.  It was really foggy at the time, and ghosting our way out of the bay was quite stressful due the fear of running into another anchored boat.  The seas were again confused with cross seas and wind right on the stern.  We motor sailed all the way to Cabo, and caught Dorado, Yellowtail, and Sierra on the way down.  Everyone were pretty much “old salts” by this time.  The night skies were amazing, and we got to reacquaint ourselves with some of our old friends in the heavens.  When we rounded the corner of Cabo Falso we were hit with pretty good seas and strong winds right on the nose.  Due to very limited slip space in Cabo we decided to continue on to San Jose Del Cabo.  It was a good decision.  This beautiful little port had available slips, which became a home base for exploring San Jose del Cabo.

Sailor Teri  (11/6/10 to 12/6/10)  written by M. Millard

I received that dreaded phone call from my sister Cathy in Bahia Santa Maria that my sisterTeri had been admitted into emergency.  To help you understand where I was at the time, Bahia Santa Maria was at least consecutive two sailing days from San Jose del Cabo (with no stops along the way).  The only other alternative to get back to civilization was to crawl over a long dirt road to La Paz which may have taken at least several days as well.

At that time we really didn’t quite understand what was happening.  From the time that Teri was admitted on Tuesday, 11/2 (oddly enough, the 20^th anniversary of my Dad’s passing) to  the time that I flew out on Saturday, 11/6, the diagnosis went from one year to six months to get your but up here.  When Teri visited me one month prior in San Diego, she complained of digestion problems, little did I know that she ultimately had a very fast growing aggressive cancer complicated with kidney/ liver failure,  pneumonia and spiraling out of control diabetes.

The day that I flew out, Dennis and the Lipinski’s brought the boat up to La Paz as I went ahead and flew out of San Jose Del Cabo, in a daze and still not understanding the serious of Teri’s health issues.  It was one of the most stressful days in my entire life trying to get out of Mexico, but everything went like clockwork and I think that my guardian angel was watching out for me.  The customs agent very nicely drove me20 miles to the airport (as I didn’t quite have enough pesos on me).  From there, I flew to SFO and easily made all of my connections to Kaiser Oakland.  

Fortunately, I made it in time to see my sister Teri before she passed on Tuesday, November 9^th ( my mom’s 85^th birthday).  It was very difficult to see her in the hospital room but I am so grateful that all of our family, cousins, and friends were with Teri until her passing and that I was able to tell my sister in person that I love her and that I got to spend the night with her before she passed.  I stayed on for her funeral on November 15^th, Teri’s 60^th birthday and Dennis too was able to join us.  I remained on to help with settling Teri’s affairs and for Thanksgiving with my mom, sister Cathy and nephew Sean.

On a positive note, Teri had listed on her driver’s license that she wanted to donate her eyes.  Shortly after her passing, our family was notified that the transplant surgery was successful and that some lucky individual this Christmas holiday has the gift of sight.  It is such a comfort to know that a little of Teri remains with us physically on this planet.

I returned to Mexico on December 6^th and still grieve the loss of my sister.  Fortunately I have Dennis with me to gently move me forward.  Teri loved sailing and hence her computer ID name was “Sailor Teri”.  She will be with us in spirit as we continue our world wide navigation; and each morning I greet the day saying Hi to Teri, looking at a cute picture of us sailing together, and knowing that she’ll be watching over us on our travels.  As my wise 12 year old grandaughter, Maddie reminds me,  “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Cruising the Sea of Cortez (MaryLee and Dennis Millard) - LaPaz (BCS), Caleta Partida (BCS), Punta Evaristo (BCS), Bahia Agua Verde (BCS), Topolobampo (Sinoloa)

After enjoying the quaint historical city of La Paz with a beautiful malecon (waterfront) and our stay at the Marina de Palmira with  a spacious harbor including great amenities such as a tennis court and swimming pool at Marina Palmira Hotel plus a nearby swimming beach; we took off North to cruise the Sea of Cortez for about a week.  December has great weather in the high 70s and low 80s – perfect for cruising as long as you can time your cruise to avoid those nasty northerlies.  Fortunately, we got a great weather report so off we went.

First stop was Isla (Caleta) Partida – about 4 hours from La Paz- and enough time to kayak to shore for a little exploring.  It was absolutely beautiful – tucked into a little cove with crystal clear blue-green water.  Caleta Partida is a breached volcanic crater that separates two islands – Islas Espiritu and Partida – high desert cliffs eroded into colorful formations.   Just a few cruisers and a few fish camps in this cozy cove.  The island just to the south of Partida (Ispiritu) is separated only by about 30 feet of water.   Espiritu  also has large deep coves.  We didn’t anchor in any of these because  high winds  called “corumels” sometimes visit them at night, and you can find yourself anchored on a lee shore with 6 foot waves and 35 mile an hour winds coming at you.  Partida, conversely, is safe and secure with none of this danger.

Pulled anchor the next morning and headed on north to Punta Evaristo (about 6 hours of easy cruising in very light winds).  We’re rediscovering that every where in the Sea of Cortez, where the desert meets the sea, is absolutely stunning!  We got one large Bonito, and fortunately were able to unhook him and let him go.  Not our best choice for dinner!

Punta Evarista has an excellent anchorage with a circular cove, high colored cliffs dropping into the cove and a nice beach.  Quaint fishing village with a road that leads up to a village .  We kayaked to shore to check out the town which included a small market, school and salt flats.  From our boat we loved watching the fishermen catching bait using throw nets,  and the pelicans (plus one boobie bird) diving endlessly in this little cove filled with fish.

Next moring we departed early for Bahia Agua Verde.  Still warm temp’s that made it so nice for cruising and swimming in the Sea of Cortez.  To get to Agua Verde, we passed a sucession of steep rocky bluffs broken by arroyo’s that break through to the shore.  The colors of the rocks and the brilliant light gives this desert a stark and dramatic beauty similar to the Arizona Grand Canyon. Dennis caught fish a Dorado along the way.  Arrived about 4:30.

Spent almost two days in Bahia Agua Verde which was super cool as we got to get a nice flavor of the town and speak to the locals in our very broken Spanish.  During our first evening there at anchor, along about sundown, we heard these cries in the steep hills near us sounding like “Chaw! Oui! Oui!” over and over.  We looked up and saw a large herd of goats run around the steep hill, headed for the village.  Then a few minutes later, as it was getting dark, a slender girl in a bright yellow shirt came around the steep hill.  She had been sent out to round up the herd and get them back before dark.  We sat and watched her and the goats for several minutes.  It was almost surreal, observing this slice of village life in such a beautiful setting.

 We also spent an evening chatting with some very friendly American cruisers, Brian and Dot (WA) and Kim and Jane (Texas).   They did the Baja HaHa several years ago and left their boats in the Sea of Cortez.  They get back as often as possible and are working their way South to Puerta Vallarta.

We kayaked to town and were greeted by a very friendly seven year old boy who was more than happy to be our host.  He showed us the schools, churches and the small tienda store.  I’m sure that he knew everyone in this community of about 200 to 300 fisherman and their families.

Met four 13 year old boys at the store, and Dennis proceeded to eat 2 very large and hot jalapeno’s….….boys were in stiches.  They kept staring at Dennis with a serious clinical expectation of what would happen to him.  Their eyes were like saucers! 

Also, met a Czech at the store who recommended that we alter our cruising route and head to Topolobampo instead of San Carlos, as we had originally planned.  We decided to take his advice because the logistics of getting to the Copper Canyon were easier if one used Topolobampo as a starting point rather than San Carlos.

Easy over night to Topolobampo except for that damn winding and shallow channel that we went aground.  Fortunately, Dennis very quickly put us in reverse and we got off the shoal very quickly.  This has been our only situation so far where our RayMarine chart plotter failed us.  The locals indicated that there was a storm several months ago and perhaps our navionics have not been updated to reflect that.  A little harrowing for cruisers.

Topolobampo, Copper Canyon, El Fuerte (MaryLee and Dennis)

After our all nighter and hair rising experience entering the Topolobampo port, we crashed the next day to rest up for our trip to the Copper Canyon.   We wandered around town and found a great restaurant that served an excellent garlic camarone dish and a fantastic road side stand that served the best fish soup loaded with camarones, squid, octopus and sierra fish that would put Tadich Restaurant in SF to shame.  Topolobampo is predominately a shrimping community – with many shrimp boats filling this scenic bay.  Please no English is spoken here,  fresh produce comes once week to the farmer’s market on Thursday’s,  and no llavanteria’s (laundromat’s) either (our’s was the only boat in the marina with undies hanging over the lines versus Christmas lights).

On Monday, Dec 20^th, we got up at 3:30 a.m. to catch the 6:00 a.m. train in Los Mochis to the Copper Canyon (Mexico’s equivalent of the Arizona Grand Canyon).  Excellent scenic ride through the Copper Canyon.  Dividesero was the mid-point, with stunning views of very large Grand Canyon like vistas.    We arrived in Creel about 4:30 p.m. and easily found a lovely hotel in Creel – beautiful Mexican/Spanish style architecture with breakfast and dinner included in the prices (USD 38 per night).  The family style meals were regional dishes that included several servings.  Creel is tucked away high up in the mountains with an indigenous Indian population that still have preserved their culture and dress in traditional Indian clothing.  The next day we toured the area and met a Dutch couple (Ruude and Sonja) and an Italian honeymoon couple (Ricardo and Claudia).  Scenery was fantastic!

After Creel, we took the train back with a stop in El Fuerte.  Again we were snagged at train station and got to stay at the lovely Hotel del Posado for 500 pesos/night (as opposed to 1400 pesos/night).  El Fuerte is a lovely Spanish/Mexican colonial town established in 1564.  We toured this lovely historic town plus rented bikes.  We easily mountain biked  along the river up to Don Juan’s home to see the Petroglyphs and do a little bird watching.   Don Juan is an elderly gentleman that very nicely allowed us on his property plus guarded our bikes.

Cruise from Topolobampo to Mazatlan to Isla Isabella to San Blas to Chacala to Puerto Vallarta (MaryLee Millard)

On the first day of this leg (Topolobampo to Mazatlan – approximately a two day sail), we sat around the Topolobampo marina most of the day waiting for our departure time of 3 p.m.  We had calculated a late start in order to arrive at the next stop during daylight hours….no more landfalls at night if we can avoid it!   Fortunately, the marina owner sent over two trays of oysters on the half shell right before our take off – he must of known that we were getting a bit ancy for our start time – this very nicely took the edge off.

We had a terrific sail from Topolobampo all the way to Puerto Vallarta.  For the most part we had great weather and good wind along the way plus some motoring days as well.  We were so happy that we had our friends Bob Scholl and RB Ward join us – fantastic sailors with lots of blue water and SF bay area sailing experience.  Bob had previously sailed the Baja Ha Ha and RB has sailed to Hawaii six times; RB will also join us for the Marquesas run.

Along with our crew, we also had two uninvited guests join us from Topolobampo to Mazatlan – two frigate birds joined us for the night sail and roosted on top of the mast.  As soon as we got to Mazatlan, Bob hoisted Dennis up the mast to repair some minor damage that the birds made.  Next time this happens, we will be prepared as Dennis managed to negotiate the purchase of a slingshot from a 10 year old boy in San Blas.  But I need to add that this kid was pretty saavy – the starting price somehow went from 5 pesos up to 20 pesos – this kid was pretty darn sharp!

Our first stop of interest was Isla Isabela, an uninhabited island except for the game warden’s residence who overseas this magnificent bird sanctuary, home for the frigate and boobie birds along with iguana’s.  Great cove for diving with an occasional whale that might visit too.

After Isla Isabela, we headed to San Blas and Mantanchen Bay.  San Blas was once a major center of Spanish domination of the west coast of the Americas.  Now it is a delightful town with a wonderful colorful and historic past.  This town has fantastic outdoor markets with plenty of fruits and vegetables, the overgrown ruins of a large fort, and an historic cathedral.  There are also many nearby banana plantations so we treated ourselves to some tasty banana bread.  Unfortunately, we missed out on some great lobster which we discovered shortly after lunch – as you leave town towards Mantanchen Bay – the streets are lined with grills loaded with lobsters!  Well worth a stop to get the flavor of Mexican life with relatively few tourists.

Next destination, was Chacala.  This cove hosts a beautiful little beach lined with palapa restaurants, coconut palms, and a small American community of about 20 who fell in love with this small charming Mexican town relatively undiscovered.  Although the anchorage was a little roily, it didn’t take long for some of the gringo’s to swim out to our boat and invite us to a  birthday party.  Just about all the Americans who lived in this small village showed up!  Then it was time to head for PV.

We all caught fish along the way, including dorado which fed us for several meals and the trophy 50 pound Rooster fish that RB caught – not bad for beginner’s luck!  

As I’m sitting here in Puerto Vallarta updating our blog, Dennis slaves away doing routine engine and boat maintenance.  Right now everything is pretty much all over the boat with just a little tiny room for me to work on the computer.  Every now and then he pokes his head out of the lazaret (the gateway to the engine), asking for the WD40, a flashlight or some other thing-a-ma-jig; and even once in a while a minor curse word comes out of his mouth.  This is just a part of the “behind the scenes” work that goes on to keep the boat in ship shape condition.  I must add that at least this work is being done in heavenly weather in PV and I sure don’t miss that Northern California winter.  Of course I did my share today too – I had to pedal on a loaner bike to the American consulate (to find out about French Visa requirements) and the grocery store.

After our crew left, we remained in Puerto Vallarta to continue exploring delightful little communities such as La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Yelapa.  Yelapa was well worth seeing as it’s only assessable via sea or over a long cobblestone trail that follows a river for many miles before it reaches any main roads to civilization.  This scenic cove is pretty roily and the best bet into town is via water taxi to avoid a surf landing; but beware, you need to leave town before 6:00 p.m. as the town rolls up its carpets promptly at sunset.  We found out the hard way because we got back to the beach about 7:00 p.m. only to find out that our water taxi guy deserted us.  Dennis saved the day and knocked on the door of every home along the beach front to search for a willing soul to give is a ride back to the boat.  Fortunately a bilingual Mexican man from Guadalajara aided Dennis in his search.  About an hour later, Dennis returned with Wilbur who very nicely took us back to our boat for 600 pesos which was totally worth the price as poor Wilbur had to guide his kayak in the dark night through the surf to get to his ponga and then pick us up off a very steep pier.  Yelapa is truly a beautiful place…..it seemed that every other home had horses, and a lot of people  got around on horseback.   The village has a river running through it, and one can walk behind the village upriver on paths.   We had our first sighting of an Elegant Trogen  Glossy Ibis, and Guan, a chicken/turkey like wild bird. 

We found that PV was great for shopping and provisioning but we were totally surprised by the amazing growth and higher cost of living since our last visit 25 years ago.

Well this ends our Mexico chapter and early March we will set sail to the Marquesas islands, first group of islands in French Polynesia.  A special thanks to our grand-daughter Madison Millard for all of her help with this blog.

Hasta la vista for now.