May 23, 2016 - La Paz Mexico. Last Port in Mexico

It is Monday morning, May 23, 2016.  This is our last day in La Paz, and our last time onboard our boat in Mexico.  At 9:00AM this morning Adagio is scheduled to be lifted onto the ship that will bring her home for us.  This is a bittersweet day for us.  We are so sad that this adventure is now over.  Yet we are excited to be headed home, and for all that life has in front of us.  But, to be sure, these past two years will definitely stand out as "the big event" in our lifetimes.  We have traveled over 5300 miles by water over 440 days in 21 months time.  We will miss the sea and all of the people we have met along the way.  Fair winds and calm seas to all of you out there, we will be keeping in touch.  

Now to the last 5 days in Mexico and a picture and video of us getting Adagio to the ship.


The past week or so in La Paz has been great.  We reconnected with old friends on s/v Coastal Drifter, and met several new cruising families.  Two families are beginning their adventures as we finish ours.

Cruiser Kids in La Paz.  

Kathy returns from the final trip to the grocery store to get just enough food to last
us for our few remaining days onboard Adagio in Mexico.

Pillow fight!  Ethan (sv Coastal Drifter, Kevin, and Andrew (s/v Spanish Stroll).
We had a sleep over a few nights ago.  Andrew's sister Ariana also spent the night.

Cindy (with Zappa), Kevin, Ethan (sv Coastal Drifter), and Kathy in the waiting
room at the Veterinarian.  Zappa has to get the OK from a vet before he can fly
back to the US.  

Zappa about to get his checkup from the Vet.

Mexico is a very pretty country

We watched the Lone Ranger the other night.  I think it gave Cindy an idea.

Cruiser's pot-luck dinner in La Paz

End of the season pot-luck dinner in La Paz, at Club Cruceros.

The adults and one child:  Kim (s/v Spanish Stroll), Monica (s/v Luminesce),
Debra (s/v Coastal Drifter), Kathy and Steve (us m/v Adagio),
Phil (s/v Coastal Drifter), and Jeff (s/v Luminesce).
Photo courtesy of Debra from s/v Coastal Drifter

Guess where we stopped for some ice cream treats?

We have rented a car and left it in Marina Costa Baja near the ship.  Karen and Jerome from m/v Daybreak (moored in Marina Costa Baja) were kind enough to let us keep it there in the very secure marina parking lot. it does have some of our belongings for the flight home.  We spent a nice afternoon with them, swam in the pool, and visited on their boat.  We wished we spent a few days in the beautiful marina/resort of Marina Costa Baja.

Frederic and Janet's boat Kyrnos gets lifted onto the ship.  Sunday afternoon.
We watched this from the swimming pool at the Costa Baja resort.

Watching yachts being loaded, while playing in the Marina Costa Baja pool.
Photo courtesy of Karen on m/v Daybreak

You need to watch this short movie of us as we approach the ship and get ready for it to be lifted...........

We had rented a car and left it at Marina Costa Baja so once we left our boat at the ship we were ready for the several hour drive south.  Thanks to directions from Karen and Jerome we headed south based on memory of some left and right turns since there are no signs to help out!  The tourist map has a road along the coast and we decided to take the second part of one.  Well, dirt soon replaced pavement and we had several hours of bumpy road.  We kept stopping cars coming our way asking how far to San Jose Del Cabo as our gas gauge was getting low and no towns of any size or people were around.  By the time we were within an hour, the gas gauge was on empty, we had windows open, air conditioning off, and were really hot just in hopes of not running out of gas before San Jose del Cabo.  YOLO (You only live once).  We made it, barely!  It was a tense few hours wondering if we were going to run out of gas in the boonies of  Mexico.

These goats were running down the road

May 25, 2016 - quick update

We are back home now.  Everything is just fine at home and we are getting our cars running again, getting our mail, activating some temporary internet access, etc.

Our boat got loaded onto the ship with no drama.  It is a well run operation.  We left our spot tracker turned on, but it only tracks for 24 hours before it stops and you have to press a button to restart it.  So, it stopped tracking just after the ship passed Cabo San Lucas.

We will post a few more final blog entries of our last few days in Mexico within the next few days....

May 22, 2016 - Boat shipping update

The ship has arrived!  It is anchored just outside of La Paz.  It arrived around 2:00AM this morning (Sun May 22).  They will unload 6 boats today, the largest one being a 92' motor yacht.  This afternoon they will load 3 or 4 boats and then stop for the night.  Tomorrow morning 3 more boats will be loaded, and one of them is ours!  Then the ship leaves in the afternoon and steams north toward Victoria BC where we will be reunited with our boat in about a week.

When we first started to seriously consider shipping Adagio home, this ship was supposed to arrive in La Paz at the end of April.  That was going to give us plenty of time to get home and take care of some business, work on the boat, and possibly head to Alaska for the summer.  The schedule has been slipping ever since with the ship arriving later and later.  Now it is here, 3 weeks behind schedule.  Our summer trip to Alaska has been seriously cut into, time-wise.  If we decide to go north this summer we are going to have to literally race through Canada to arrive in Alaska with enough time left to really experience the wonderful scenery, wildlife, and villages.  It can still be done, but it's not how we envisioned it when we though we would be home in early May.  There are also some new opportunities that could change the trip to Alaska, but that is for another blog, if they do indeed pan out and change our original Alaska plans....

After our boat is loaded on the ship at 9:00AM Monday May 23, we are driving our rental car down to San Jose Del Cabo where we will check into a hotel.  Then we will drive around the area a bit to explore.  Tuesday around noon we fly out of San Jose Del Cabo and will be back in our home Tuesday night.

It is quite a strange feeling to know that we will not be boating and living in Mexico anymore.  This has been such a WONDERFUL family experience.  Memories, adventures, and a deep exposure to another culture that will certainly be with our kids for the rest of their lives.  It took 5 long years of planning, preparation, sacrifice, and commitment for this trip to become reality.  Kathy and I are so happy that we made that tough decision years ago, to "take a break from normal life" for two years with our children.  We wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

We are finally nearing the end of of our Mexican adventure......   ;-(

We will be seeing our friends and family soon.....    :-)

May 15, 2016 - Candeleros

Agua Verde to Candeleros, Day 1 southbound to La Paz, was a nice calm start to four day trip when we left at sunrise.  See below a couple pictures of dolphins riding our bow wake.  Make sure to look at the videos as it is neat in the clear and calm water to watch.  We will definitely miss this sight!

Clear, calm water!  Dolphins are very fun to watch

Coming up for air

Dolphins playing in our bow wake

Another dolphin video

As we passed by Puerto Escondido, the hurricane hole, the winds picked up in the channel and as we anchored it was blowing 20knots.  We had been here before and knew it can get windy.  m/v Delta Swizzler hailed us and said that it had been blowing all day.

Small playground at Agua Verde, next to the school.

Day 2 was Candeleros to Agua Verde, only 18nm, and we left in blowing conditions about 25-30 knots.  When comparing to forecasts, local conditions can really differ.  We needed to stop there to drop items for the school children.  Some we brought and others came from donations at Loretofest.

forecast, so we expected smooth seas, NOT!

Actual true wind speed!

Day 3 was Agua Verde to Isla San Francisco.  Another rough day of traveling.  It is a favorite anchorage and we had hoped to get in there but winds were in the 20 knot range and the seas headed directly into the anchorage so we chose the north anchorage (north side of the island).  Seas were calm in there and we were happy to see m/v Daybreak with Jerome and Karen come in.  Steve and I went over and enjoyed some appetizers and visiting with them and some company they had onboard.

Day 4 we left at sunrise and planned to make it all the way down to La Paz.  The winds were not kind to us the entire trip of approximately 44nm with waves coming directly at us.  See the video attached for a summary of the conditions!  

May 12, 2016 - San Juanico

Our last "fun stop" for a few days was planned to be San Juanico.  We have been here twice before and it is always absolutely beautiful.  Our friends Jack and Alice from s/v Puffin were there and we had planned at least one card night.  They are social coordinators as well, so one afternoon they planned a bocce ball tournament on shore and I believe every vessel in the anchorage attended.  After that it was a pot luck dinner and great conversation and stories once again of travels and lives of cruisers in the Sea, and beyond. We have met many interesting people down here, living extraordinary lives.

The great white sand beach.  The water is very shallow in this bay and the water
is very warm at times.  Perhaps in the mid 80's

A colorful sunset

Dinghies heading back to their boats after the pot-luck dinner on the beach

Kathy takes a selfie

Diving - could be our last time down here.

Wonderful colors

Alice and Cruiser from s/v Puffin stop by to say 'hi"

Kevin goofing around

He had a long ride standing up and needed a break.  He didn't want to stop riding.

Barefoot waterskiing?  I think we are going to need a faster dinghy.

Kevin finally lets go of the rope.

Waiting for us to return to get him

Get Ready

Get Set

FUN!

Hiking around the shoreline

Cindy goes wide.  Adagio at anchor.

Kevin telling us to slow down a bit

Kevin showing a little style

Fun times in the warm Mexican waters

The kids go for a sail

There is lots of fun to be had down here in Mexico

Time for some swimming and showing off.

Cindy jumping in from the boat deck.  No, not onto that surfboard

A marsh located just behind the beach line

Making cookies in the morning.  It's too hot later in the day to run the oven
inside the the boat.  How you cook starts to become an issue down here in the
heat.  We BBQ quite a bit because it is outside and won't make the interior
unbearable.

Exploring a distant shore in San Juanico

Who was closest?  Bacci Ball fun on the beach with other cruisers

The impromptu pot luck dinner on the beach.  

We were excited one afternoon to see s/v Terrapin come in.  We would get to see them one last day and a half. Also s/v Tappan Zee appeared in the bay so we were lucky enough to have everyone over for dinner our last night before heading south.

The kids in our walker bay sailing dinghy and Emma and Jessica from s/v Terrapin
are in their walker bay sailing dinghy (blue sail).  s/v Tappan Zee is in the background.

Cindy playing with Emma and Jessica from s/v Terrapin