Tag Archives: cruisingkids

Refill the kitty in 3 months!

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After 10 months of sailing around, it was time to refill the cruising kitty. We spent over our $12,000/year budget in unexpected, yet typical, repairs and replacements. Since we were so close to the US and easy  access to work, we decided to take the hottest time in Mexico (July, August, September) off of the boat and head to The States to refill our hungry cruising kitty.

If you haven’t read the “about me” part of our blog, then you may need to be informed of my profession. I’m a Registered Nurse, specifically a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse. If you’re saying to yourself “what’s that?”, I take care of premature and very sick babies. I’ve been doing this for over 12 years now and I still haven’t lost my passion for it. In fact, it was actually hard to put in my notice at UCSF 11 months ago so that we could sail away.

In mid May, of this year,when I was able to check my email from La Paz, I found out that my old Unit at UCSF was hiring Travel Nurses for June 28 start date. I checked in with the management team and they said that they would love to have me return for a 13 week assignment! It was too good to be true! June 28 was a little sooner than we wanted, and 13 weeks was a little longer then we wanted, but really, its perfect.

We made it to San Carlos, Mexico, by June 14th with plenty time to put away the boat in Marina Real for a 3 months detour to the US. It took about 3 full days to complete the check list of things to do. This included, but not limited to:

  • pickling the water maker
  • fresh water flush through the engine
  • taking down the sails and stowing them down below
  • Putting up the sun shades
  • Cleaning and leaving the heads (toilets) filled with fresh water and vinegar
  • fresh water washing as much salt waterlogged gear as we could
  • laundry and getting rid of clothes
  • eating and cleaning out the perishable food (we did leave cans of tomato sauce, so hopefully we don’t arrive back to the boat with exploded cans of tomato everywhere. Apparently this happens when it gets too hot.)
  • Placing Bay Leaves in almost all of our bulk food containers. Apparently the Bay Leaf helps keep the Weevils at bay (no pun intended). Thanks Deb on SV Coastal Drifter for that tip.
  • Packing clothes (REAL shoes, socks, pants AND A BELT, sweaters, and WORK CLOTHES!) , oops I forgot a beanie!
  • And a couple more odds and ends stuff.

Our pile of stuff to bring back to the US was huge. Mostly because we had to pack for 3 months of on the road adventures. I say “we” but I really mean Christian and the kids. My list of things to bring was small: work clothes, 2 pairs of pants, 2 shorts, and one “nice outfit”, flip flops and my work shoes. Oh and my awesome Brompton folding bike, that we store in our aft shower, for my San Francisco commuting, yay!

Our 10 hour bus ride on the Tufesa bus line ended up being more like 11 hours, but it still wasn’t bad. Reclining seats, AC, 2 bathrooms, 1 check point and 1 border check, and 5 movies  later(3 of them, very inappropriate for kids), we made it to Phoenix, AZ for a nominal $80 fee.


After a few days at Christian’s sister’s house in Phoenix, I flew off to start my 3 months of work, leaving behind the family to road trip their way around The States visiting friends and family.

“Was it hard to leave?”, you ask.

EXTREMELY !!!  After being so close with each other the last 10 months I’m finding myself really missing their company. But I also know it’s only a short time in the grand sceme of things and totally worth it !

So now I’m here in San Francisco. Christian is on super land nomad dad duty. Boat school is out for summer break and we’ll be doing this up through late September. After all is said and done, we should have overfilled (wishful thinking) our cruising kitty with enough $$$ to get us to New Zealand by our (Northern hemisphere) fall 2017. But you know how cruising works… “We’ll see as we go”!


Yummy grub next to (Cerca de) the bus station in Guaymas. Missing me some good Mexican food !
Christian visits the Grand Canyon while I meet Travel Nurses


Then use my trusty Brompton Folding bike to get to work. Here my “brommie” is sitting pretty on the Bay Area CalTrain. 

Banderas Bay

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We are having too much fun in Banderas Bay! Between Punta de Mita and La Cruz, there is no lack of entertainment. To make things even better, there is currently more than 20 boat kids here and activities for them everyday. Our kids are in heaven! Christian and I have also been able to get away a couple of time without kids! We actually got to surf together and go to the movies one night! (Star Wars 3D =$2.00 each). Everyone is so awesome and willing to help watch the kids. What a fantastic community.  Some of the Kid Boats here: Sangvind, Wild Rumpus, Pesto, Sarita, Kenta Anae, Mango Mango, Coastal Drifter, Agamére, Alert and Enough.

We have been in this area from the 11th of December. I think we will be leaving on the 27th to head south for a bit.

Again, I’ll let the picture do the talking:




Crazy science day with the Kenta Anae family.

Nina’s birthday cake!


Visit with Lisa

The Men from Resolute, Shawnigan,  and Sangvind went surfing.
Event at Los Arroyos Verdes
 Potato launch beach potluck
 Gingerbread house making


Dressing up for Christmas potluck

Santa Cruz Island and Santa Catalina Island

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Sunday, October 11, we sailed out to Pelican Bay on Santa Cruz Island. Along the sail we spotted a Mola Mola leaping out of the water. It was amazing! When we first arrived at Pelican, there were 7 other boats.  A little crowded, but manageable with bow and stern anchor. It was Colombus Day on Monday, so everyone left by the next afternoon.  In the mean time, we boatschooled, snorkeled, boatschooled, and norkeled more. We were on Island time now!

Much to our surprise our new sailing family friends, SV Agamére, on our big sister boat (Stevens 47), arrived that Monday afternoon. The kids were so excited to be reunited with their buddies that they had met in Morro Bay.  We were also excited to have other adults to converse with. 

     
   
We basically just boatschooled, snorkeled and practiced our free diving. The water temp was near 70-72 while we were there. A perfect environment for the kids to get comfortable in the water again.  Nina’s PR last year was 23 feet, she set a new PR of 32 feet! Ellamae is now diving down around 10 feet as well. Taj hasn’t braved the water yet, but he loves paddling around in his kayak. We anchor the kayak near were we snorkel, giving him a little freedom to paddle around. 

From Pelican, we buddy boated with Agamére over to Little Scorpion Anchorage, where we ended up having a potluck together, cooking five fish that we collectively caught that day for fish tacos. It was a fish medley; 1 Kelp Bass, 1 Black Rock Cod, 2 Tree Fish Cod, and 1 Sierra. Christian caught the Bass and one Tree Fish with his spear gun. I caught one tree fish and the Black Rock Cod with a pole spear. The Sierra was caught by SV Agamére. Needless to say, dinner was amazing and we managed to fit all 10 of us comfortably on their boat. 

The next day after snorkeling with seals and many other fish in Scorpion Bay, we sailed over to Smugglers Cove for even more snorkeling in 40+ visability!

On Thursday we sailed to Lovers Cove on Catalina, also know as Isthmus or Two Harbors.  We anchored in 60 feet of water and again the visability was about 40 feet and water temp about 73F . The Marine Science Center on the Island reported temps getting up to 80F!  

Friday’s field trip for boatshooling included a hike to USC’s Wrigly Marine Science Center for a tour of the fish tanks and detailed talk on all the sea creatures of Catalina.