kids on boats | A Family Afloat

Off the grid and enjoying the cruiser’s life.

We left La Paz under sail May 16th and had, yet another, beautiful downwind run to Isla Espiritu Santo. We anchored in Caleta Partida with SV Tango, SV Shadowfax, and SV Nimue (see previous post). The westerlies left little to be desired for staying there longer than one night. Hopefully we get better weather on our way back down in the fall.

(Above: our Mantus anchor sitting pretty)

We wanted to stop at Los Islotes to dive with the Sea Lions, but again, the wind was in the wrong direction for that. So we shot for Isla San Francisco. We were able to tuck in on the south west anchorage for enough protection from the south westerly winds. With a few other boats there, we were exposed a bit to the swell that rapped in, so our first night was a little rolly, but not bad. We met up with Bob and Kali on SV Airie. We originally met Bob in Barra, then again in La Cruz with his daughter Kali. We hiked with them and did some spear fishing. The water was still cold, 68 F, but we caught some trigger fish for some yummy Ceviche. We stayed in Isla San Francisco for two nights before sailing off the hook toward San Everisto.

San Everisto was magical. We hiked over to the salt ponds to the north and the next day, we hiked up the arroyo to the south. We found tons of geode rocks and beautiful pieces of Quartz along the way. We were out hiking for five hours exploring, it was so much fun! We ate dinner at the famous Lupe Sierra’s and Maggie Mae’s restarante. Our good sailing buddy On SV Mango Mango had told us to go there. Lupe and his son remembered Mango Mango well, maybe that accounts for the special treatment? We later found out that they are always that awesome to everyone! The restaurant is decorated with all the shells other cruisers paint during their visit. It was fun for the girls to see all the other kid boats that had stopped in San Everisto. The food was good, the most expensive meal yet, but the atmosphere and the company was worth it. Nina painted a rock with our boat name and two sticks, one looking like a Coral Snake, and the other, a Great Snowy Egret.

After a few nights there, we continued north to Los Gatos. Another amazing place surrounded by beautiful red sandstone. We put in a few more hikes and more spear fishing adventures. We are loving having more fish in our diet again. Christian speared a couple nice size Grouper to last us a few days. We also enjoyed fresh scallops!

Next, we stopped at San Marte. We only stayed here for a night. Snorkeling at the point was fun. Taj is really getting comfortable in the water.

Agua Verde captured us and thankfully slowed us down a bit. Our friends on SV Cielo Grande were not far behind us and trying to catch up. We hadn’t seen them since La Cruz, so we wanted to wait for them. Agua Verde ended being the perfect spot for that. The first day we had a quick snorkel, a nap and a trip to the east side of “town”. We didn’t see much of the town that day. The next day we took a few hour hike past the cemetery to the Cave Paintings.

On our way back, just as we crested the last hill, we saw our friends on Cielo Grande sailing in! Yay, a kid boat! The kids were so excited, as were we, to have our friends back with us.

The next day we did some spear fishing and snorkeling, and our friends on SV Alert arrived. Another kid boat. Then, we got a tour of the town by a cruiser that basically spends most of their time in Agua Verde. We discovered the larger tienda, the local spring water hose, the police and jail (with not a soul around it), and Ramona, the lady who makes goat cheese and milk. I got a pint of fresh goat milk for 10 pesos (that’s less than $ 0.60 USD) and a kilo of cheese for 60 pesos. Amazing! The kids got to play with the goats and see pigs and such.

(Above: Taj loves the fresh, still warm, goat milk, from Ramona)

(Above: 1 kilo of goat cheese = 60 pesos)

The next day we stalked up on as much fruit and vegetables the tienda had to offer. We were enjoying our time there, but needed to make our way north the next day. We treated ourselves to a dinner out at the only restaurant open on the beach. Actually I had to walk to the tienda to ask if they could let the restaurant owners know that we would like to eat there. I guess my broken Spanish worked enough. They showed up at 6 to open up and served 11 of us crazy cruisers. All that was on the menu was fish tacos or quesadillas. It was delicious!
The sail up to Candaleros was slow and beautiful. Cielo Grande not far from us, we both sailed the 18 ish miles which took us 8.5 hours. We sailed off the hook, sailed with the asymmetrical, drifted a bit and sailed again. We finally started the engine just before 6pm for 30 minutes to get us through the point and the island and into the anchorage before dark. We were greeted by many boats that we’ve met along the way. The best part is that Taj was on the deck, naked, shouting out to everyone, “Kini Popo!”, “Hotel California!” and many more.

In Bahia Candaleros we spent time at the beach in front of the resort. I used the internet to get some online tests done for work this summer, while the kids played. We did find time for more snorkeling and found it quite amazing! Christian and I had Dolphins swimming right under us! And schools of rays! The water seems to be warming up a little too. We are looking forward to warmer water again.

Taj and Josie admiring Christian’s catch of the day

A day or week on Shawnigan with all its shenanigans anchored in Bahia Tenacatita:

We usually wake up with the sun, which lately occurs around 7:30 am. We seem to drag getting out of bed until 8:00 am. Tenacatita is a great anchorage for swimming, so I’ve been going for a swim first thing. Christian is left in charge of breakfast, coffee and getting the kids started with boat school.

I hop in the water with just my suit and a rash guard to keep the jelly stings to a minimum. Lately I’ve been using my mask and snorkel instead of cap and goggles in order to admire the underwater scene more as I swim along and keep and eye out for sharks. I also enjoy being able to get my heart rate up and breath whenever I want. Sometimes I prefer cap and goggles to get me into a more meditative swim. I notice that when I swim with cap and goggles I hold my breath with a meditative rhythm, with obvious benifits as well. Yesterday, I swam over a school of 9 Southern Stingrays as well as multiple large Jacks and various other beautiful colored fish. My morning swim averages about 45 minutes.

I make sure to return to the boat in time to catch “the net”. The Net is the morning VHF radio check in that occurs in popular cruising ports. Six days a week people alternate who takes the Net Controller roll. The last 5 days that we spent in Tenacatita the Net Controller position has been filled by various kids on boats. Nina did it twice! The Net is usually over by 9:30 and the kids are well into boat school. If there are other kid boats around like Tenacatita has been, our girls like to start school early, before Christian and I are out of bed, so that they can be ready to play by lunch time. Math and English and art are in the daily lesson plan. Science, history, foreign language and music are placed in on different days during the week. We have the kids alternate weeks on helping cook meals and they each have various boat cleaning duties that are completed before play time with other boat kids.

Christian gets out for his time alone/exercise sometime after his coffee and breakfast. Tenacatita is lacking in surfing opportunities, so he’s been going free diving and spear fishing. One day he helped lead a class on knots for a group boat schooling lesson. He’s also been our coconut retriever. Coco frio is a favorite on our boat, especially a fresh picked one on a hot sunny day on the beach. What a rough life.

We anchored in Tenacatita a few weeks ago, went to Barra Navidad for a week then returned to Tenacatita after hearing about all the kid boats that were reportedly anchored. Sure enough there were four other kid boats when we arrived and at one point a total of 13 kids! We also had a day were we counted 46 boats in the anchorage. Fun times! And thanks to the Mayor and his wife (Robert and Virginia Gleser), there are activities and raft ups to bring the boating community together.

We met many wonderful sailors and a few that have already circumnavigated the world. One in particular just finished a 25 year circumnavigation, a couple named Doreen and Michael Ferguson on SV St. Leger. Another couple, Monica and Jack, on junk rigged SV Bella Via turned out to know Christian’s dad Gene Lauducci. Gene had repaired their sails about 30 years ago when they sailed through Sausalito. They had so many great stories to share about Christian’s dad. I mentioned before “The Mayor” Robert and Virginia Gleser. They also have a interesting story and a few books written (Harmony on the High Seas, and Tie-dye!, the How to Book)I was happy to have an extensive conversation with Virginia about “The Farm“, with which they helped form and worked closely with Ina May Gaskin, the midwife guru! Virginia wrote books about the farm as well as sailing. The couple also make beautiful tie-dyed pieces that they sell. One day, Virginia had a tie-dye workshop on the beach. The kids loved it. The sailing community can make the world seem small sometimes. We met a John and Donna on SV Carmanah (aka “The Tin Man). Turns out that he was the swim coach in Bainbridge Island and remembers my older cousin Joy Archer in the swim team. He also know Joy’s daughter Shayla, as she is quite a swimmer as well. Upon making the connection, John stated, “I see family resemblance! And watching you swim out in the anchorage, swimming must run in the family genes as well!” Small world!

Other than that, we made daily trips to the beach and dinghy rides up the mangroves and a group trip to La Manzanilla to re-provision and hike to a water hole. That pretty much sums up our time in Bahia Tenacatita. We’re now back in Barra de Navidad, where wifi is more abundant and street tamales and tacos are amazing. Hopefully we can add a little more surf activity to our agenda.

Tie Dye with Virginia Gleser