One challenge of cruising and living aboard a sailboat in a hot climate, is how to secure yourself and the boat's contents from uninvited visitors* while still keeping the boat well ventilated. * "Uninvited visitors" = your boat might one day be boarded by strangers who intend to steal items of value – or worse.…
Sometimes it's economical to hire a professional for boat canvas work. For example, certain projects are too large and complicated to be done well by one person using a small sewing machine on a boat's deck or down below at the salon table. A cockpit's spray shield, aka dodger, is one such project. As Karen…
"Woof. Is that you?" "What?" "That hobo smell. You reek. When was the last time you made contact with some soap?" [Sniff. Sniff. Snniiiiiiifffff.] "It's not me. I'm innocent." "Well, then, what…smells…hey, wait a minute. The wind's coming in from the cockpit. What's aft of our boat?" "Just that derelict with all the pelicans on…
There are worse places to anchor than off of the city of La Paz, Baja California Sur. It is one of the places in which a cruising boat can anchor comfortably, dinghy ashore, tie up at a friendly marina's dock, and get all kinds of work and provisioning done without once having to pay for…
I suppose that cruising is the kind of activity in which people make friends quickly because it's so obvious from the first encounter that boaters share common interests, and have gone through similar experiences to all get to the same place. Perhaps the longer you cruise, the more your values become in common with those…
In Mexico duck is called pato. You only find it at European style restaurants. It is also very expensive. In La Paz or La Cruz we pay about 240 peso, about $18-20 usd, for an imported duck. I have not seen any Mexican ducks in any of the markets. Probably because I only shop for…
its been along time since I wrote anything on the blog. A lot of things have happened in 2009, including: Marianne’s Mom dieing – which caused me to spend the month of April alone in Guaymas. I delivered a Bayliner 40 with George from Mazatlan to Oxnard. This delivery was so fraught with calamities, breakdowns,…
If you go fishing in the Sea of Cortez – whether by dinghy, snorkeling with a speargun,or via the mother ship, chances are you will catch some kind of critter and it'll most likely be yummy. Here's how GB typically processes his catch, using the broad flat space of our forward bow. We have for…
Every so often while beachcombing in the intertidal zone in firm sand, I see deep tubular holes of about 1-2 inches diameter clustered near each other, with odd slash-type tracks radiating out from them. I've seen similar holes (minus any tracks of course) while snorkeling in about 6-12 feet depths. I'd assumed the underwater holes…