For those of you who are just joining us... welcome. You may want to take a little time and read through the record of our first season (August 2011 to April 2012) during which we sailed our little ship down the coast of North America to Mexico and the Sea of Cortez. For those of you who are returning... welcome back and thanks for your continuing support. It's October 19, 2012 and we're about to begin the second season of this wonderful adventure - so thanks for joining us and hopefully enjoying our stories as we continue to weave our way through the pathways ahead of us. Here we go...
Who knew a summer could fly by so fast? I know we've all said that before, but honestly folks... this has been the shortest and fastest passage of 5 months I've ever experienced. Don't get me wrong, we had a good summer... we did a little camping (in the rain and lightning storms), we did a little sailing (thank you so much Penny & Jo for loaning us the wonderful ship Kermode), and we spent quite a bit of time with our families. We didn't have near enough time to visit with our friends properly... we must trust in their patience with us and hope they'll be willing to see us more next summer :-). So, here we are... it's Friday and phase II of our adventure begins tomorrow.
We've all had our haircuts... Sophie too, and the truck is packed... well... actually, it's stuffed full with all kinds of things we didn't realize we'd want to have down there... Much of it will come back with us as it's tools and equipment for the repairs, maintenance and upgrades we intend to do (like bottom painting, hull waxing, deck repairs, dinghy davits, and a new bimini). And some of it will stay and be used up.. things you can't get in Mexico and that we love. You know, things like Tim Horton coffee :-)... Oh yeah, we have a case of that stuff, having worked out that we go through one can every two weeks. PS: What do you folks do who don't drive back and forth.. with respect to bottom painting equipment and things like that? I'd like to know as we may think about flying down next year.
Our loose plan (made somewhat firm with the addition of several hotel reservations) is to leave Victoria tomorrow morning on the Blackball Ferry to Port Angeles. Once clear of customs we will head south on the fastest route possible. Our goal is to overnight in Springfield, Oregon so we'll have to 'make tracks' to do that. We'll then continue on down the highway and, we hope, get to San Diego a couple of days later. After two days in San Diego we'll cross the border into Mexico and head down the Baja. Our stops will include San Quintin, Ignacio Springs and Loreto before we arrive in La Paz (we hope on Oct. 28th). This is an optimistic plan but we are optimistic folks and we'll do our best.
So, with that little intro I'll bid you adieu for now. We should have reasonably good internet connections as we travel south and we look forward to staying in touch with you as we travel. Until the next time... take good care.. Adios. Carolyn
