Half a century. The number of states in the USofA. 3.57 stone. The square root of 2500. The length of the Fox plus 10 feet. The height of the Fox’s mast minus 8 feet. I’m feelin’ it, but in a good way. Left the dock at Shilshole exactly one year ago today. Health could be…
A full sail inventory for a 40-foot boat like the Fox is awkward to stow below decks, what with people actually living aboard 24/7/365. What to do? Most cruisers store at least some of the sails on deck, hopefully well covered. We chose that route for the staysail that hanks-on to our inner Solent stay,…
After four days in Guadalajara we traveled a few miles south to Lake Chapala by rental car. At the time it seemed logical to rent a car, not knowing the lay of the land and all, but the next time we make this trip (and it’s likely there will be a next time) we’ll study…
Guadalajara is too big to see in the few days we’d alloted. But, when we took the bus there from Mazatlan we concentrated on the central Historic District for 4 days so got an idea of what the the city might have been like, from the pre-columbian era to the Spanish conquest to the Industrial…
When the Fox is in port for a while (like now), GB and I like to sniff around inland. After all, the cruising lifestyle isn’t only about what you see on the water. We studied a little bit and decided to see Guadalajara – Mexico’s second-largest city at between 5 and 7 million inhabitants, depending…
The cruising life is challenging. So many things demand one’s time: procuring fuel takes longer than simply sidling up to a fuel dock; doing laundry is more complicated*; getting groceries and seeing a doctor require negotiating buses and taxis and speaking in a foreign language in addition to just buying the groceries or walking into…
We already had lots of boat canvas to shade the Fox in sunny climes – an arrowhead-shaped foredeck cover, a mid-deck ShadeTree arched cover, and a cockpit cover; but it was not until we arrived in Mexico that we heard tell of necessaries heretofore unknown to us. Such as chaps to cover our dinghy’s pontoons…
Mazatlan has a tropical climate. For the likes of me, even in December (winter, here) it’s been in the 80s (F), with 70% humidity, man. I get sweaty, sticky, and short of breath. Also? I got attacked by a gang of no-see-ums, the likes I haven’t seen since BC. Check this out: Insects love to…
Some cruisers leave Mazatlan for points south or north but return, sooner or later. Others never leave. I understand why. There’s a lot going on here, and it’s easy to get around. The name "Mazatlan" means "the place of the deer" in Nahuatl. With all the construction going on, I’m not sure whether any of…
Boy, howdy. All it takes is one Ensenada Santa Ana wind with 3 days of wildfires, ashes, and ochre dust as finely-ground as Dutch cocoa, to make GB want to protect the Fox’s precious ropes ‘n’ strings from further onslaught. That, and 3 days of washing everything on the boat – including all the Fox’s…