Blog Archives
Cliffs, Caves and Waterfalls ~ 16 Miles of Coastline Beauty.
The Nā Pali Coast, found on the northwest side of Kauai, stretches for 16 miles. Pali means cliffs in Hawaiian and with some cliffs rising 4,000 feet out of the water, the area is aptly named.
It is impossible to put into words how beautiful this coast line is with verdant cliffs rising dramatically from intensly blue water and waterfalls cascading periodically through the deep green foliage. Instead I will include photographs that only partially capture the beauty.
Early one morning we upped anchor in Hanalei Bay and chose a course close to the coastline. The wind was pretty light and the sea state calm so we motored at a casual pace which allowed us to enjoy the views.
Higher and higher cliffs.
In addition to the waterfalls and cliffs, the coast has several sea caves. After spotting a few interesting looking caves, we found a shallow spot to anchor Ticket to Ride and launched the dinghy for a closer look.
The caves were not particularly deep and certainly were not at all similar to Painted Cave in the Channel Islands of California, but it was still fun to pretend we were intrepid adventurers scouting out unexplored places.
After re-boarding TTR and traveling another 30 minutes, we arrived at the iconic Honopū Valley where we again dropped anchor.
TTR anchored off of Honopū Beach.
Stretching up to 90 feet, Honopū Arch is the largest natural arch in all of Hawaii. A must see in our opinion.
We swam from TTR to shore and were dazzled by the dark rock arch rising from the creamy white beach. Honopū Beach is isolated and no boats or aircraft are allowed to land in Honopū Valley which gives the area an unspoiled and somewhat sacred ambiance.
We walked to the nearby waterfall and Frank and I cooled off in its fresh water before walking back to salt water and swimming to Ticket to Ride.
One of the most spectacular caves along the coast is Open Ceiling Cave; just a short dinghy ride from Honopū Beach. Like other caves, we slowly dinghied into the arched opening. The unusual part is that once inside, the cave is filled with light because the ceiling fell down into the water.
Now sunlight streams into the circular cave and illuminates the walls as well as the fallen ceiling which can be seen underwater marking the center of the cave.
Open Ceiling Cave is a huge contrast to Painted Cave on Santa Cruz Island, CA. This one reveals all of its beauty and secrets in the sunlight while Painted Cave is deep and pitch black as you go blindly into its depths.
After returning to Ticket to Ride, we spent a bit more time motoring along the coast. Soon it was time to turn around and point TTR back to Hanalei Bay. Since the coast line is an exposed area, we preferred to spend the night back in Hanalei where we are in protected water.
On the trip back we raised the main sail and genoa, then threw out a couple of fishing lines to see what might bite. We managed to snag a skipjack tuna but chose to release him. Although the fishing wasn’t successful, the sail was very pleasant and exploring the beauty of the Nā Pali Coast was a wonderful way to spend the day.
Thanks for visiting our blog. We hope seeing the beauty of the Nā Pali coast brings a bright spot to your day. As the virus cases rise in Hawaii, we are doing our best to stay healthy and restrict our interaction with others. We hope all of you are staying healthy and sane too. All the best from us to you.
Day Tripper Video ~ Possible With A Little Help From Our Friends
We have had several people send us photos and videos of Ticket to Ride and we are always very appreciative of the effort they make to reach out to us.
Recently, Tim sent us a video he had taken of TTR as we were sailing out of Kaneohe Bay. The video was great and we definitely wanted to share his excellent video, so we asked Mae and Tommy to help us. Fortunately they were willing to teach us about editing video and contribute some of their own shots.
The resulting video if a compilation of Tim’s video, Mae’s videos, Tommy’s videos and maybe just a tiny bit of our own.
I hope you enjoyed seeing this glimpse of life aboard TTR. Our normal, non-COVID travel locations limit our uploading ability so we rarely share video. We would like to hear what you think of this one.
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Dodging A Hurricane ~ Good Riddance Douglas!
I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and I never thought about hurricanes. Tornadoes, yes. Hurricanes? I hardly even knew what they were.
Now we live on a boat and hurricanes are a determining factor in where we want to be at different times of the year and thus have a major influence on our lives. In 2020, we had planned to avoid the hurricane season by sailing to French Polynesia in March. The plan was to stay for a while in the Marquesas Islands where hurricanes are virtually unheard of.
But like every other person in the world, our 2020 plans have changed and we are spending this hurricane season in Hawaii.
Pretty views in Hanalei Bay, Kauai
Fortunately, Hawaii rarely suffers from hurricanes, but recently Hurricane Douglas developed and decided to head toward these beautiful islands.
Randy and Shellie pulling Frank on the foil board.
We were happily anchored in Hanalei Bay, Kauai when Douglas began swishing about in the Pacific and heading this direction. Between swims, foiling practice and visits with other boaters, we began exploring our hurricane options.
Most of the local boaters were taking the hurricane threat fairly lightly but since Frank and I experienced running away from Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria hit, and we saw friends who remained suffer severe damage, we tend to err on the side of caution.
That little green dot represents TTR in Hanalei Bay.
Folks who have permanent marina slips for their boats already know they are going to ride out any storm in the marina and thus go through some lengthy steps to prepare:
- remove sails and canvas
- remove any loose objects
- tie down anything that remains on deck
- tie, cross tie and reinforce all of the lines that keep the boat in the dock
- pray
Since we do not have a permanent marina home, our options vary depending on our location. Here in Hawaii, we had contacted a couple of marinas and they either did not have room for us or only had an end tie available. The issue with an end tie is that we can only secure TTR from one side so we have no way to secure her in the middle of a slip to prevent her from banging against the peer when winds push her in all directions. That was not a good option as we had visions of Ticket to Ride surging and smashing against the dock.
When we were in the Caribbean, it was possible to find mangrove holes where one could anchor and secure the boat and the roots and trunks of the mangroves absorbed much of the storm, thus offering a viable hiding place during a storm.
We are not aware of such places in Hawaii.
Much like when we were in Puerto Rico and sailed away from Hurricane Maria, we believed our best option was also to sail away and avoid the storm altogether. The difference this time was that we didn’t have a destination to sail to; instead we were just sailing out of harms way and would be bobbing about until it was safe to return to land.
There were a few other boats anchored in Hanalei Bay who had the same plan, so several of us left the Bay on Saturday, 48 hours ahead of when the storm was expected to reach Kauai.
When deciding where to run from Douglas, we originally considered sailing north because forecasts showed a chance of the hurricane passing Kauai on its’ south side. But as the storm tracks were updated, it became more likely that Douglas was going to pass over Hanalei Bay or on the northerly side.
After much discussion between us and with other sailors, we decided a better plan was to sail south, thus keeping the Hawaiian Islands between TTR and Hurricane Douglas. The plan was to sail our way south on the western side of the islands while Douglas stormed north on the eastern side of the islands.
TTR sailing w R1 in the main and the self-tacking jib.
Fortunately this plan worked well and TTR encountered very little of Hurricane Douglas’ effects. The highest true wind speeds we encountered was 31 knots and the highest seas we saw were probably 8-10 feet.
We saw no rain and the seas were reasonable.
Frank did an amazing job of reviewing the weather reports, analyzing the wind predictions and guiding us toward the lighter wind spots. In fact, after the storm passed us on Sunday, we saw a long stretch of very flat seas and only 6 knots of wind!
When we sailed out of Hanalei Bay, we had the genoa and self-tacking jib up as foresails. We did find we used the self-taker most often and we had one reef in the main at all times.
All told, we were only out sailing about 48 hours. We left Hanalei around 9 am Saturday and we dropped anchor off of Maui at 8 am Monday.
Things I learned:
- TTR is a sturdy, well designed and well fabricated sailboat. She can handle much more than I can. (Ok, I already knew that.)
- I love how quiet the rigging is on this HH55!
- Frank has a higher tolerance for speed and bumpiness than I do.
- Self-tackers are especially nice when short handing in rough seas.
If I were to change anything about how we handled this sail, I would have put a second reef in the main after we were behind Oahu and had a little distance between where we started and where the eye was predicted to hit Kauai. While a second reef wasn’t necessary and we were completely safe, I would have been more comfortable since we didn’t exactly know how windy it might become; especially at night when I am alone on watch.
I would like to express our appreciation to the many friends who reached out to wish us well and who followed our track as we were avoiding the storm. I appreciated the prayers and the messages we received. It is comforting to know others are looking out for us when we are out of communication and guessing our best course.
Kuddos and big thanks to Frank for handling the lions share of the decision making. He is very good at analyzing the weather and I am often only able to listen as he tells me what is happening so I don’t get sea sick. I’m fortunate that he is so capable and that he doesn’t get sea sick!
This is a very simplified version of the decisions that must go into how to handle an upcoming hurricane. There are so many facets and it takes hours of weather watching and option assessment to come to a conclusion. Each boater must consider the capabilities of his own boat. How prepared is the boat and can it be moved right now? What does your insurance mandate? Have you filed a hurricane plan with your insurance company that must be followed or can it be changed? How much time is available to get into a safe zone before the weather affects sea conditions? How healthy and how capable is the crew? What “outs” are available if the plan isn’t working? Are communication systems up and functioning on the boat? Do you have people in place to communicate in case your weather information fails? Who knows where you are and can keep up with your location in case a problem arises? How much fuel, food and water are on board? These are a few of the factors that must be considered.
At this time, it is very important that we recognize and thank Tommy Henshaw for his incredible help during Hurricane Douglas. Tommy is the young man with whom we became friends in Kaneohe Bay. I think he is our living guardian angel. Tommy was in communication with us several times a day during our Hurricane Douglas sail. Tommy watched our tracks, looked at weather and sent us the latest information based on images we are unable to get while at sea. He sent us messages just to let us knowhe was keeping an eye out for us. Tommy has shared local knowledge and offered information and advice that has been invaluable! Many thanks, Tommy!!
As always, thank you for visiting our blog. We would love to hear your thoughts using the comments below. If you want to hear from us more often, please look for us on FB or Instagram (hh55ttr).
Kaneohe Bay And The History Of He’eia Fishpond
Currently Ticket to Ride is anchored in Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu, HI.
Choosing to anchor where we did was random, but we have found that sometimes random anchor spots allow us to stumble upon something. Similar to an unexpected find on Martinique way back when, we love it when we happen upon an interesting place that we probably would not have heard about in a guide book. It is sort of like cruising lagniappe! (Lagniappe: something given as a bonus or extra gift.)
Photo credit: Google Maps satellite images
Located on the windward (east) side of Oahu, Kaneohe is the largest estuary in Hawaii and covers about 11,000 acres. Although the opening of Kaneohe is more than 4.5 miles wide, outside of the bay lies the only barrier reef in Hawaii which breaks the ocean swell and provides protection in the bay. Even when the trade winds are blowing outside the bay, the anchorages are very calm, especially in the southern part of the bay. This is particularly nice for us on TTR because the breeze keeps us cool but the boat has very little motion at anchor.
It’s interesting to SUP along the coral that rings the sandy areas.
Meandering through the long channel to get to our anchor spot, we passed several shallow areas of sand and coral. These shallow areas are often right next to the channel and the depth on the reef is ankle deep at low tide, but where the outer coral ring ends the depth immediately drops to 30+ feet.
“The Sandbar” is very popular for family gatherings, kiting and fishing.
Boaters often motor right up onto this sandbar then lay a stern anchor. Unwilling to nose TTR onto the sandbar, we chose to drop anchor a bit off of the bar and SUP to get to the shallows. We were only able to stay at this spot for a night or two.
I read that the Kaneohe area was the most heavily populated part of Oahu during the “pre-contact” era of Hawaii. (Research indicates that pre-contact is considered to be prior to the arrival of Captain James Cook sometime around 1778.)
The fact that Kaneohe is an estuary, which means that one or more fresh water streams or rivers mix into the seawater, is important and was influential in the lives of these Hawaiians.
The mixing of fresh water and seawater creates a brackish water that is perfect for growing algae that nurtures fish. As many as 600 – 800 years ago, native Hawaiians recognized that value of this brackish water and put it to use for loko iʻa kuapā; walled coastal ponds. Below is a picture of the He’eia Fishpond that encloses 88 acres of brackish water.
Photo credit School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology, HI
The He’eia Fishpond wall is about 1.3 miles long and has seven gates; four along the seaward wall and three along the He’eia stream, which allows for controlled mixing of the salt and fresh water to create this brackish enclosure.
One of the seaward gates.
Trapping fish in this brackish enclosure allowed Hawaiians to supplement their food source in an area that naturally developed food for the fish and eliminated the need for a caregiver to feed the fish.
“Ocean fishing is dependent, to a great extent, upon conditions of the ocean and weather. High surf, storms, and other associated weather phenomenon influence and interrupt most fishing practices. Therefore, fishponds provided Hawaiians with a regular supply of fish when ocean fishing was not possible or did not yield sufficient supply (Kelly, 1976),” per the Paepae o Heeia website.
It is amazing to me that hundreds of years ago, these Hawaiians had a back up plan for days when traditional fishing methods did not provide enough food for their people.
A portion of the He’eia Fishpond wall.
As you can see in the picture above, this pond is not built with one wall but two. Each wall is constructed of basalt (volcanic) rock and they are 12 to 15 feet apart. The section between the two walls is filled mostly with coral but also with dirt. The purpose of the two walls is to slow the flow of water and create a base level of water in the pond so that even at low tide there is sufficient water for the fish.
Looking over the wall toward shore where early Hawaiians probably lived.
It is estimated that building this loko iʻa kuapā took two or three years of dedicated work by hundreds or even thousands of residents who passed and stacked rock and coral.
Another example of the seaward gates.
In May 1965 a flood ruined a 200 foot section of the He’eia Fishpond and it went unused until 1988 when Mark Brooks began repairing the wall. In 2001, Paepae o Heeia, a non-profit organization, was established with the express purpose of restoring and caring for the He’eia Fishpond.
Today this historic and innovative walled pond is fully restored and in excellent condition. TTR is anchored about 300 yards from the Fishpond and on calm days we can paddle along the wall and see the waters entering or leaving the gates depending on the tide.
Shallow sand and coral just off the Fishpond wall.
Kaneohe Bay is so large that there are many areas to explore, but until our two week, inter island quarantine is finished, we have to remain anchored here, so we haven’t had a chance to see as much as we would like.
But the Q will end soon and we have no complaints about our location. The views are stunning, the temperatures are very comfortable and in addition to learning about He’eia Fishpond, we are taking care of routine maintenance on TTR.
As always, thank you for stopping by to read our blog. I posted a video of the He’eia Fishpond on our FB page, so be sure to head over there if you want to see the video or hear from us more often.
Searching For Calm Anchorages and Old Petroglyphs
After a couple of weeks in Honolua Bay, we decided to change locations on Maui. First we stopped at Mala Wharf but the north winds made the anchorage pretty bumpy. So after just two nights, we moved to Olowalu which is a few miles south of Lahaina.
Mala Wharf anchorage is quite pretty.
The water in Olowalu is beautiful and we dropped anchor in a large sandy area for excellent holding. However, we noticed the wind was shifting throughout the day and we were concerned the anchor chain could become fouled in rocks or worse damage coral. While we were swimming we had located a mooring ball nearby, so we decided to up anchor and tie to the mooring ball instead .
We had quite a time of moving just a few feet away as the wind shifted direction and velocity incredibly fast in Olowalu. When we upped anchor, the winds were about 10 knots. However as we were maneuvering and tying up to the mooring ball, the wind significantly changed directions twice and I saw the wind speed vary between 12 and 30 knots!
TTR has a decent amount of windage, but thankfully with two engines we are able to control her well. Soon we were securely tied to the mooring ball and we celebrated our successful mooring and coral saving maneuver with sundown cocktails.
Sunset at Olowalu.
The next day we decided to take a short walk in search of the petroglyphs reported to be near Olowalu. Frank and I have a history of very little luck finding cave paintings in a variety of locations. While in the Sea of Cortez, we took a dinghy trip and a loooong walk looking for cave paintings near Bahia de Conception. We spent a good two hours traveling to and searching for the caves without any success.
So when Frank suggested we head off in search of the Olowalu petroglyphs, I was a bit skeptical. But hey, it has been forever since we have had a walkabout so I was in.
Here are a few pictures from our walk.
Once we were on this old road, traffic noise receded and bird song could be heard.
After a quick quarter mile walk from the beach, we turned onto this old road and walked about half a mile before we were side tracked by a beautiful spring.
The fresh water was clear and cool.
We couldn’t resist sitting here for a few minutes to watch the water flow and listen to the birds twittering and fluttering nearby. Before long though we continued our search for the drawings.
Happily, we quickly found the old, out of commission pump house which is the marker for the beginning of the petroglyphs.
Clearly that old pump house is out of use.
According to the information we read, the images we saw are known as Ki’i Pohaku which means “rock pictures or images.” The Ki’i Pohaku date back 200-300 years to an era which was referred to as “pre-contact” Hawaii. I thought the drawings would be older than they are but without any protection from the elements they could be erased in time so I guess “younger” is better in this instance.
A portion of the smooth wall where the petroglyphs are located.
The guide we read suggested bringing binoculars and that was well worth the effort. We sat in the shade and spied all kinds of drawings – people, families, a sailing vessel, a dog, etc.
Can you find the sailboat?
The theory is that this area was along a trail between Ioa Valley and Olowalu Valley and that travelers would rest in the shelter of this rock wall. I can almost imagine some mom telling her child to stop drawing and come on along. 😉 However the drawings are chiseled into the rock so I imagine adults made these depictions.
Here is a photo take through the binoculars.
It is kind of interesting how similar looking cave drawings are from different areas of the world. Those we have seen all tend to have triangular upper bodies and stick-like arms and legs. It is probably challenging to make even a crude drawing into rock using hand tools.
The temperatures have been great in Maui and it was a perfect day for stretching our legs and seeing tiny bits of land but pretty soon we strolled back to Ticket to Ride.
The little used, older road along the coast.
Maui is so lush that even walking along the old road adjacent to the new, well traveled road is quite pretty with huge trees and flowers.
TTR bobbing in those gorgeous waters.
Every time I return to an anchorage where we left TTR, I am happy to see her floating there, waiting to welcome us home.
Thanks for stopping in to read this post. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to explore other areas and share that with you. Wishing you all health and comfort during these trying times.
Floating In an Aquarium During COVID-19 Isolation.
This point can kick up great surf waves.
Honolua Bay, located on the northwest side of Maui, is a very popular stop for local day cruise boats. I have learned that four boats carrying 25-50 people each are often moored here for the day to allow their passengers to swim and snorkel.
“Our anchorage” as seen from the road.
The Coronavirus has changed all of that. Instead TTR is sharing this beautiful bay with three other cruising boats who have also sailed to Hawaii for refuge during this pandemic. A local couple escapes here on their monohull as well.
A variety of fish anywhere we look.
Although our plan to sail to French Polynesia is on hold until boarders begin to reopen, we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to spend our isolation in Honolua Bay.
A school of Convict Surgeonfish.
Nearly every day we snorkel or swim and every time it feels as if I have jumped into an aquarium. The water is chilly enough to warrant a rash guard or a light wet suit for longer water sessions.
I love those eyes!
The visibility in the water depends on the surf but usually it is very clear.
A Wedgetail Triggerfish – love those lips!
I am amazed by the variety of fish we see and how wide the range of colors, markings, shapes and sizes.
A pretty Pinktail Triggerfish.
I wonder if there are more varieties of fish than any other species…. no, probably insects have even more varieties.
I’ve seen a trumpetfish as long as I am tall!
Still, each time I snorkel I realize how few fish I can name and that I will never know them all.
What kind of fish is this? Part bird? Part dolphin?
Here are a few more photos taken while swimming in our Honolua Bay aquarium.
The turtle is unfazed by Shellie and Randy of s/v Moondance.
The brightly marked Moorish Idol.
Of course there are a few maintenance items we have to take care of because we do live on a boat! However, with so much time on our hands and restricted movement, these projects are pretty easy to accomplish – as long as we don’t need parts or supplies!
Frank inspecting the anchor light on TTR.
They say timing is everything and that is proven true in the above picture. We have a few college friends who live on Maui and Dave and Nikki happened to drive by the bay while Frank was at the top of the mast. They snapped this photo and sent it to us. It’s fun to see this perspective, so thanks guys!
That’s a peak into life aboard TTR while we are restricted to one location. Hopefully the pictures will brighten your day and offer a slightly different view than one from land. If you are a cruiser who was caught away from his floating home when the pandemic hit, or someone hoping to become a live aboard, maybe these will remind you of what awaits.
We on TTR hope that anyone who reads this is staying well and safe during this crisis. Remember to be especially cautious when restrictions begin to lift. This pandemic has certainly proven that we all share this world, so let’s do our best to be patient and help one another. Wishing each person health, safety and comfort during this challenging time.
2800+ Nautical Miles ~ Sailing To Hawaii
Warning: A very long post!
So what is it like to sail almost 3,000 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean?
Itemizing the ditch bag in case we have to abandon the boat while at sea.
Honestly, the preparation is a whole lot of work!
All aspects of the boat and sails must be in good working condition and spare parts for repairs need to be on board. Planning meals and buying enough food for the passage plus extras in case we encounter delays, or restricted land access (thank you Coronavirus) requires organization, many trips to the grocery and time finding and recording storage locations on the boat.
A pretty sunset prior to leaving the dock at Paradise Village.
However, the real answer to the actual passage experience depends on your vessel, the weather and sea conditions you encounter and the crew on board.
We were confident that our crew was excellent and experienced and that our HH55 Catamaran is strong, fast and comfortable. Our variable would be the weather.
The unique circumstances created by COVID-19 made us especially cautious about our health once we left mainland Mexico. As a precaution, we sailed from Puerto Vallarta to San Benedicto Island, part of the Revillagigedo Islands, about 320 nm off of mainland Mexico. We spent six days in this completely uninhabited marine park waiting for a good weather window and insuring that none of us had any symptoms of the virus.
Revillagigedo Island with buddy boat Kalewa at anchor. (Photo by C. Stich)
While anchored at San Benedicto, we once again enjoyed some excellent scuba diving and relished the opportunity to see the giant manta rays again. It was fun to share this special place with Clayton and Connor.
Mary Grace swimming with giant mantas. (Photo credit s/v Migration.)
This time we saw more sharks at San Benedicto and perhaps because there weren’t any dive boats, they seemed to hang around TTR more than the last time. Surprisingly the sharks swarmed when I dropped some lettuce off the back of the boat. Perhaps these were vegetarian sharks??
That’s close enough, Mr. Shark. (Photo by C. Stich)
Once we were confident we all felt well and we saw predictions for good weather and wind, we upped anchor and departed for the remainder of our 2660 nm adventure across the Pacific Ocean.
We are often asked if we stop at night during passages and the answer is no. We are always moving and we must have someone on watch 24 hours every day. We settled into a pattern of 3 hour watches per person when the weather was good. If we anticipated big seas, winds or storms, we had two people up for six hour watches with a ‘primary’ watch person at the helm for 3 hours while the alternate slept in the salon. For the last three hours, the twosome would switch roles.
All in all, the watch schedule worked well and the vast majority of the time we only needed one person awake. I had the easiest watch schedule of 7-10 am and pm. I think they gave me the easy watch because I planned the food and we ate very well.
Clayton cutting the dessert pizza.
Clayton and Connor made a dessert pizza with a layer of Nutella on the bottom, then half of it was topped with cinnamon-apple and half was blueberry pie topping. Delish!
We are also asked what we DO ALL DAY while “stuck” on a boat, but the days go surprisingly fast. One reason the days go quickly is that being constantly in motion is tiring physically and mentally and all of us rest, if not sleep, more while underway than when at anchor.
There are duties that must be accomplished often:
- enter the log: lat/long position, boat speed, wind speed, wind direction, state of battery charge, water levels, etc (every two hours)
- check the bilges of the boat and make sure they are all dry
- run new weather reports (think slower than dial up data speeds)
- manage water levels
- manage boat energy levels
- take watch
- prepare meals
- watch the skies and seas in case unusual weather develops
- check the sails, lines and attachments
But what do we do for fun? In addition to reading, watching movies, playing games, listening to books or podcasts, how about a little fishing?
Connor has something on that line.
A small Mahi but enough for dinner and sashimi.
Connor created a pistachio crusted Mahi! YUM
He who catches, gets to cook the fish and Connor did an amazing job after Frank expertly filleted it! Many thanks to those back home who helped with the recipe because it was fab. I told you we ate well! Farm to table right there.
When surrounded by water with no land in sight, watching the nature that surfaces or flies into view is interesting.
Clayton caught this Booby as it dove for a fish!
Dolphins always bring a smile and everyone awake goes outside to watch them.
This pod of about 10 dolphins stayed with us for 20 minutes. (Photo by C. Stich)
This trip we were absolutely blessed with excellent conditions. We had manageable winds with only one night of rain with winds gusting up in the high 20s. For the majority of our passage, the wind was between 11 and 22 knots. We did have several days of cloud cover which made for cool days. At night it was cold enough to require long pants and a jacket and that was excellent for sleeping when off watch.
The moon was waxing and became full during our passage.
I seemed to have the luck of catching some spikes in the wind during my evening shift and at one point as we surfed down a wave and I saw 17.9 knots of boat speed! You’ll have to trust me on that as everyone else was asleep. (25k wind, R1 main, genoa)
Interesting shot of TTR blazing along. (Photo by C. Stich.)
We had engaged the services of Bruce, a weather router, for our planned trip to French Polynesia, so instead he helped us with the trip to Hawaii. We think having Bruce advise us was helpful to anticipate weather troughs that were not predicted through our PredictWind weather service.
Based on Bruce’s forecast of squalls and unstable, increasing winds, we had our main sail reefed for about 30% of our trip. In actuality, we missed the unstable weather and in hindsight the reefs were mostly unnecessary. But better to be prepared than caught overpowered.
Sunrise is welcome and beautiful when on watch. (Photo by C. Stich)
Even with our conservative sail plan, the whole trip took a total of 14 days and we averaged 8.2 knots. Pretty impressive considering we want for nothing and were able to cook meals every night.
Since Hawaii was an unexpected destination, I was trying to read a book our friends Katie and Kevin of s/v Kalewa had lent us when we were at the Rev Islands. Trying to figure out where to go on each island was slightly overwhelming. Also, we were concerned we might be restricted to one island once we arrived and we wanted to choose a good place to hang out for an extended stay.
Frank studying sunset from the galley. (Photo by C. Stich)
I suggested we each take a Hawaiian Island and give a presentation on that island. This idea quickly became a competition of who could best “sell” his island to the others on board.
Clayton and Connor delved into their personal skills. Clayton drummed up some long forgotten high school expertise and made a power point presentation about O’Ahu. Connor was very secretive about his presentation for Molokai and I knew I needed to step up my game…. I have NO computer skills, so I thought I would draw pictures of rainbows, waterfalls and unicorns to demonstrate how wonderful Kauai is. BUT I have no drawing skills either, so I quit after drawing the rainbow and instead tried to paint with words! Frank was the straight man and his presentation about Maui was filled with facts and persuasive reasons to make Maui our island of choice.
Clayton hammed up his PowerPoint presentation!
Turns out Connor had written a poem about Molokai which I have copied and put at the end of this blog post. I’m sure a compendium of Connor’s poetry will soon be available on Amazon!
Lest you think life on a passage is all rainbows and unicorns, like on Kauai, I will tell you we did have one rather interesting event. Prior to leaving, we had tried to determine why our steering system was making a noise that was continuing to grow louder.
Frank testing and retesting the steering system.
Frank was in touch with the maker of the steering system and several other experts. After trouble shooting and trying the suggestions, the noise remained, but thankfully no one thought this would create an issue…. other than making it hard to sleep on the port side where the master cabin bed is. Imagine having Chewbacca mouthing off every 5 seconds behind your headboard while trying to sleep and you will understand what we heard when resting. Thank goodness for earplugs to dampen the sound!
One clear afternoon about 10 days into our trip, Frank was on watch and Clayton and I were chatting when the boat suddenly rounded up toward the wind. Clayton looked up and said, “Where ya going dad?” Frank’s unhappy response was, “I don’t know!”
We had lost all steering!
Talk about all hands on deck! We quickly rolled in the genoa and centered the main. I took the helm, started the engines and kept us into the wind. Clayton opened the port engine compartment and Frank and Connor took the starboard, all trying to diagnose the issue. Somehow the bolt of the steering rod on the starboard side had completely backed out and we had no steering!
Frank and Connor after replacing the steering bolt.
Fortunately the bolt, washers and nut were found in the engine compartment and within 15 minutes we had steering again! At least now I know what happens when we loose our steering while under sail!
This issue was completely independent of the Chewbacca noise which stayed with us the whole trip. (Now we think this is an issue with the roller bearings but we probably need to have TTR out of the water to attempt this fix.)
Frank on the foredeck at sunset. (Photo by C. Stich)
We expected to have unstable conditions as we approached Hawaii, but instead the wind died, the sea flattened out and we had enough of a rain shower to wash the topside of Ticket to Ride! Except for when we were fixing the steering, we only used the engines for the last portion of our trip – about 16 hours of our 2600 nm trip.
The verdant hillside of Hawaii was a welcome sight.
Even though we had a great trip, land was a welcome sight. Knowing we would be back on U.S. soil during these turbulent COVID-19 times was an added benefit.
A quiet and relaxing view in Radio Bay, Hilo.
This trip was exceptionally easy especially for two weeks of ocean travel. We could not have asked for better weather, wind or sea conditions. The crew was pretty special too!
When we arrived at the seawall in Radio Bay, s/v Moondance and s/v Kalewa were there to grab our lines and secure Ticket to Ride to her check in space. While we couldn’t greet our friends with hugs or touch of any kind, seeing their smiling faces was joyous.
Surprisingly, what I most enjoyed about coming to rest was not the lack of motion, but the quiet. My ears tend to be sensitive and two weeks of noise from the rushing of water and the wake created by TTR was very tiring for me. I ended up wearing noise cancelling headphones at times during the passage to give my senses a rest. The hush of Hilo was magical.
During our trip, several friends reached out via IridiumGo to say hello and let us know they were watching our progress. I found great pleasure in these short messages and looked forward to the little “pings” announcing a new message. Thank you so much for keeping me company as we traveled and for having us in your thoughts and prayers. Your messages warmed my heart and added a lift to my days! A special thank you to Laura who made a concerted effort to contact me every other day with newsy notes that were entertaining and more welcome than she realizes.
Summary:
- Banderas Bay, MX to San Benedicto: 320 nm, average speed: 9.2 knots or 10.6 mph
- Total time from Banderas Bay to San Benedicto: 1 day 10 hours
- San Benedicto to Hilo, HI: 2500 nm, average speed: 8.2 knots or 9.4 mph
- Total time from San Benedicto to Hilo: 13 days, 2 hours
- Total distance Banderas Bay to Hilo, HI: 2820 nm or 3,245 miles
- Total under engine for both segments: 16 hours
- Highest SOG to Hawaii: 17.9 knots or 20.6 mph
A special thank you to Clayton Stich for most of these great photos!
Molokai*
By Connor Jackson
*This poem includes some inside TTR passage jokes and might be confusing.
WOW, if you made it through this looong blog, thank you. We appreciate you taking the time to share our journey. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out or add them to the comments below. Stay safe out there!
Jumping The Puddle ~ Our Longest Passage Ever.
Suppose you were going to take a three week trip and while you were on that trip, you were going to be completely self sufficient. You wouldn’t stop for any reason: not for any supplies or for directions, regardless of the weather or how tired you were or even if you were sick. On this trip you do not expect to see any people other than those with you and your path is unmarked and without signage. Oh, and if you have any problems, you must fix them yourself using only the supplies you have on hand.
Welcome to sailing across the Pacific Ocean!
This description sounds really dramatic but it is actually pretty accurate.
Of course, we do have electronic charts on board Ticket to Ride to help with directions. We do have a satellite phone system (IridiumGo) that allows us to get weather updates or place emergency phone calls. We have safety equipment and emergency medical supplies. We are well informed and have taken classes to improve our knowledge (100 ton Captain’s licenses and Safety at Sea courses). We will have two extra crew members on board to help us with this trip.
We have done our best to prepare but the truth is, once we shove off, we are on our own for 3000 nautical miles until we reach Nuka Hiva, Marquesas.
So, although we have been having a fabulous time here in Mexico, much of our time and energy is being invested in preparing to leave Puerto Vallarta and sail to the Marquesas Islands.
The trip of about 3000 nm is probably the longest passage we will complete as sailors. TTR is a pretty fast boat and, if the weather cooperates, we hope to complete our trip in just 16 days!
On average, most sailboats take three weeks or more to complete this crossing. When considering passage time, we are fortunate!
We are not alone in our preparations as many other sailors are planning to sail to French Polynesia right now as spring is the best weather window for the trip. Unlike a road trip, we cannot stop along the way if the weather gets bad, so departure timing is important.
Drama aside, this is a big passage and preparation is essential. Fortunately I married an eagle scout who truly embraces the “Be Prepared” motto. Together we are tackling our To Do Lists and getting Ticket to Ride in prime condition.
If you are interested, here are a few of the items we have been and continue to address:
Long Stay Visas for French Polynesia. As non EU citizens, we are allowed to enter FP and stay for 90 days. However, we would like to be able to stay longer, so we have applied to the French Consulate for a LSV which would allow us to stay for one year. Applying for the LSV meant gathering a mound of paperwork, including a police report stating that we are citizens of good standing, financial information, proof of health and boat insurance… well just a bunch of things. Then we had to travel to Mexico City to visit the French Consulate and apply in person. We completed that appointment on January 29, 2020 and anticipate the response this coming week – about a six weeks processing period.
Crew: although Frank and I originally planned on making this passage alone, we decided that having crew would make the passage safer, faster and more fun. To our delight, our youngest son, Clayton, is joining us for this passage! Clayton has plenty of sailing and water experience, plus he is a mechanical engineer and will be very helpful in case of any issues. Our second crew member is Connor Jackson. Connor is a friend of Clayton’s and a very experienced sailor who crossed the Pacific two years ago in his 31’ Hunter sailboat. Connor’s experience and knowledge are valuable additions.
By adding Clayton and Connor to the crew, we have lowered that average age on board TTR by 1/3 and I imaging the energy level will increase by an equal amount.
Every sailboat is like a tiny city that must produce its own power, refrigeration, water etc, so it is essential that all parts are working consistently and reliably for our passage.
For example, we have a water-maker aboard TTR and we rely on this for our drinking water. Frank has checked and triple checked the system to make certain it is working well and we won’t be thirsty while offshore. (We will bring some bottled water in case of a system breakdown.)
Rigging/sail inspection: inspecting our rigging and sails is very important since we are relying on them to propel us across the ocean. In addition to making sure the sails are holding up well, Frank has cleaned and waxed the mast, inspected the rigging and connections, oiled the sail tracks, greased winches, inspected blocks and made adjustments to lines and sheets. (I just had to hoist him up and down the mast.)
Spare parts: Walmart cannot be reached! TTR is full of spare parts and tools to insure (hopefully) that we can repair any issues we find.
Reviewing and changing boat insurance to cover us while in the South Pacific. Because insurance companies suffered huge losses during hurricanes these last few years, obtaining insurance is more difficult than one would expect.
Reviewing medical insurance: international travel requires special insurance and our LSV requires us to have coverage in place for the duration of our visas.
Route Planning: gathering information about the best route to take, where it is best to cross the ITCZ, weather patterns on both sides of the equator, determining how/if we can stay in touch with other boats who are crossing, etc.
Navigating in French Polynesia: more and more sailors are relying on electronic chats and imaging as aids to navigation, especially in areas where the charts are not current and where Google images can be overlaid on charts. Fortunately, Connor has used many of the electronic charts and has graciously shared his knowledge with us and friends who are also heading across the Pacific Ocean.
Food Planning: so this could take a whole post unto itself. But the short story is that we have to have enough food on board for 1.5X our planned passage time. In addition to planning and buying the food, I need to have several precooked, frozen meals available in case we aren’t feeling well or the conditions are rough and cooking from scratch is not possible. Three meals a day, plus snacks and considering that at least one person is up and on watch 24 hours a day…. a lot of food and snacks are required.
Favorite foods: traveling to other countries means we get to try foods that are unique to those countries and are unfamiliar to us. That is a fun aspect of travel. However, when this is your full time lifestyle, you begin to miss foods you cannot find away from home. So, we are trying to stock up on a few special items that probably won’t be available after leaving Mexico.
Expensive/hard to find supplies: along the same lines of favorite foods, there are some items that are reasonably priced and easy to find in one place but cost and arm and a leg or can’t be found in other places. We are trying to flush out this information and stock up on some of those items. This can be as varied as motor oil and canned tomatoes or self-rising flour and alcohol.
Storage: once buying food and spares and tools is complete, we have to find places to store all of our extras. We are very fortunate that TTR has many convenient storage areas, but for long term trips like this one, we have to get creative. Often this means opening up the beds, the floors and the seating areas to store things below them. Pretty much wherever we can find safe and open spaces could be used for storage.
PPJ Meetings: Puerto Vallarta is a popular jumping off spot for sailboats making the Pacific Puddle Jump. As a result, there are many formal meetings where speakers present topics of interest: reading weather files, how to avoid storms, provisioning for long passages, medical emergencies, communication at sea, etc. Frank and I have attended several meetings and enjoy the information and getting to know others who are in the throws of preparing to jump.
Clean your bottom: boat bottom that is! Sailboats routinely need to have the bottom cleaned to prevent soft and hard growth from accumulating. Not only is the growth unsightly, it slows the boat’s progress through the water. Although we have an excellent bottom paint on TTR, growth still occurs and we will make certain her bottom is clean and smooth before we leave for the Marquesas.
Corona Virus: A unique aspect to our trip in 2020 is the unexpected and very fluid requirements and restrictions pertaining to the Corona Virus. In the past week the requirements for entering French Polynesia have changed depending on how you are arriving. Needless to say, we are staying informed about this and we are preparing to get additional health certificates as the requirements change.
So there you have it, a glimpse into our preparation for sailing across the Pacific Ocean. Needless to say, good preparation is essential and we are doing our best to be very well prepared. Frank and I are thankful that Ticket to Ride is a strong, fast and reliable sailboat. We look forward to completing the preparations and actually beginning this voyage since it has been part of our distant plans for years!
Our goal is to depart within the next two weeks depending on finalizing some last items, completing our provisioning and finding the proper weather window.
If you would like to follow our progress, you can look for our location on this blog page: look on the right hand column for our location.
Thanks for reading our blog. If you have any comments, we would love to hear from you. We will try to figure out how to send an update or two as we are crossing the Pacific, but no promises at this point.
Christmas, Family, Sharks and Kites
Having the kids home for Christmas is a wish come true, so Frank and I were thrilled when Hunter and Clayton decided to spend the Holidays with us on TTR.
Having a real Christmas tree is unrealistic on Ticket to Ride, but Frank’s mom, Jackie, made us a festive and pretty lighted Christmas tree mural that we hung up in the salon of TTR. Although Jackie hasn’t been to this boat yet, she managed to make the tree the perfect size – and it’s easy to roll up and store!
The Christmas tree Jackie made for us is perfect!
Initially we thought the kids might enjoy being in La Paz where they would have access to local restaurants, the Malecón and nightlife, but we were mistaken. The focus of the trip would be sailing, sports and family time…. the usual Stich agenda!
Just one area of many festive decorations on the Malecón La Paz
Although we consider ourselves to be fairly energetic people, the activity level increased significantly with everyone on board; and it was a blast.
We toured the local farmer markets in La Paz for some fresh food and dinghied to Magote for a kiteboarding session. We also strolled along the Malecón and had a delicious dinner at Mesquite Grill.
But then it was time to get active.
Between us and the gear, the rental car was packed!
Kiteboarding is always a focus on TTR especially for Frank and Hunter, but Clayton is an avid surfer so we wanted to find a few good waves. Since the wind did not look promising for kiting, we rented a VRBO in Todo Santos and drove there for a bit of surfing and boogie boarding.
This Toto Santos beach was pretty and had good waves!
Toto Santos is a charming little town and the surf beach is really pretty! We spent two days and one night in Toto Santos enjoying the surprisingly warm surf. In fact, the water in Todo Santos was a good 10 degrees warmer than it was in La Paz.
My handsome Clayton waiting for breakfast at La Esquina in Toto Santos.
There is a turtle sanctuary in Toto Santos and every day in December they release hatchlings at sunset. I was excited to see the little turtles crawl to freedom and all my guys were surprisingly interested as well. Apparently many other people wanted to watch the turtle release too as there were about 50 people mulling about!
A little glimpse into the incubation tent.
The turtles are hatched in a large incubated tent monitored mostly by volunteers. Just after sunset eight plastic containers holding a total of about 100 hatchlings were released near the surf.
I had no idea that only one in 100 turtles survive to adulthood! Thinking about it though, I can understand why – there are predators at every step of the turtles birth.
Look how small and cute these little babies are!
First the egg has to hatch before some animal steals into the nest and eats it.
Next the hatchling has to walk from the relatively protected grass across the open sand to the ocean surf, and it is exposed and defenseless to prey during that slow, awkward crawl.
Driven by instinct, turtles scrabble toward the light of the setting sun they see over the ocean waves. However, these days the artificial lights used by humans can disorient the baby turtles causing them to go away from the ocean instead of towards it, creating another obstacle to survival. For this reason, flash photography and flashlights were not allowed.
That is a long, dangerous crawl for these hatchlings to the ocean.
Once the hatchling reaches the ocean, it must swim for three days without food and catch a specific ocean current that will carry it on its first journey. And of course, many sea animals think baby turtles make a delicious snack, so again the little things are in danger!
IF the turtle manages to reach the current without being killed, it can relax and eat the plentiful food also drifting on the current.
I also learned that sea turtles ‘imprint’ the beach where they hatch and will return every year to the same location to lay their eggs. Researchers do not know how the turtles record their particular beach or how they navigate back to the same spot.
After catching waves in Santos, we headed back to Ticket to Ride in La Paz and planned on sailing to some local anchorages, initially Colita Partida. We set out one calm morning before the wind had filled in. The sea surface was a flat, mirror of steel gray as we slowly motored away from La Paz.
How beautiful is this giant creature?
But very shortly, the smooth surface was broken by whale sharks!!
Clayton is a fraction of the size of this whale shark!
We shut down TTR’s engines and grabbed snorkeling gear. Since Frank and I have already had the whale shark experience, we stayed on board while the kids jumped into the water.
We launched the dinghy so Frank could get close to the whale sharks to let the swimmers jump in, but we found the whales didn’t much care for the engine noise. So we dropped the paddle boards and the guys were able to paddle right up to the sharks without disturbing them.
They swam SO close to TTR!
Even though I stayed on Ticket to Ride, I had a perfect view. You can see from this video I took from the deck of TTR that the whale sharks swam very close to our drifting boat.
Seeing and swimming with these whale sharks was a rare gift!
Their markings are distinctive and stunning.
It’s pretty hard to beat the excitement of seeing those whale sharks, but the weather decided to show her stuff and prove that she is worth respecting. Nothing bad happened, but the day was interesting. The weather changed from flat calm to breezy, then to about 28 knots of wind and dark clouds. We quickly realized that anchoring in our original destination of Colita Partida was not going to be comfortable and we set our sights on Isla San Francisco or San Evaristo.
A very vivid double rainbow one rainy afternoon.
After about 25 minutes the wind dropped off and the clouds drifted away. But an hour or two later, more clouds developed and another wind system blew through. The wind shifted about 40 degrees in the blink of an eye and we decided the all around protection of San Evaristo would be a good choice in the shifty conditions. Plus the wind was expected to be from the north for the remainder of the week and we could sail our way south as anchorages opened up.
Hunter pulls Clayton for a foiling session.
San Evaristo is a quiet anchorage with a quaint and usually active fishing village that was inactive due to the Christmas Holiday. But we managed to enjoy ourselves with a mixture of foil boarding behind the dinghy, SUPing and snorkeling.
And we celebrated Christmas by exchanging gifts and giving thanks for our blessings.
I love how Clayton is cheering for Frank’s successful foiling!
The wind forecast was showing excellent possibilities for some good kiting in La Ventana, a well known kite hangout around the corner from La Paz. Although a good place for kiting, La Ventana is not an ideal anchorage. Instead we wanted to anchor TTR in Muertos and use a car to drive between Muertos and La Ventana.
So we sailed back to La Paz and dropped off half the crew who rented a car and drove to Muertos, while the other half sailed Ticket to Ride to Muertos. We spent the next several days anchored in Muertos and split our time between Muertos and La Ventana.
Clayton checking out the mainsail and Hunter kiting in the background.
The days were filled again with kiteboarding, swimming, snorkeling, foiling behind the dinghy, bits of boat maintenance and having shore time at the only Muertos restaurant, Cafe 1535.
Hunter kite foiling in Muertos
New Year’s was a WILD night…. exhausted from another active day in the water and wind, we sipped champagne at dinner time and went to bed by cruisers midnight – 9 pm!
Once in a while there was some rest time.
All too soon vacation time was over and we had to sail back to La Paz. All of us were surprised how quickly the two weeks passed!
In concluding this post, I must be honest and admit that saying goodbye to my kids is hard for me. Sometimes I long for the more ‘traditional’ lifestyles my friends have back in Texas, where their families live nearby and they see each other on a routine basis. I miss the traditions we had with friends and neighbors at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years – sharing meals and parties – but especially spending time reminiscing about our histories together and creating new ones for later.
But then I have to be realistic…. if we lived in Texas, Hunter and Clayton would still live in California and we would see them less often than we do now. It is much more interesting for them to come see us in unusual places on the boat than it would be to visit in Dallas. Over the last few years we have spent Christmas together in Bonaire, the Turks and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands, etc. All of these places add a uniqueness to our celebration and because we don’t see each other very often, we relish and appreciate the time we do spend together.
Just one of the gorgeous sunsets in Muertos.
So when those days pop up and I miss seeing family and friends on a regular basis, I stop those thoughts and remind myself that this opportunity to travel with Frank on TTR brings blessings of its own. We love exploring both well known and more remote places on this planet and we get to meet new friends with whom we also create histories. And hopefully our long time friends will find time to come visit us on TTR.
We hope your Holiday Season was filled with the love of family and blessings from above. As always, thank you for stopping to read our blog. If you have comments, we would love to hear from you. And if you would like a more regular glimpse into what we see, please check out our FB page.
2019 Baja HaHa Rally ~ The Long, Stormy Conclusion
We departed Turtle Cove early in the morning for our sail to Bahia Santa Maria, a journey of slightly more than 220 nautical miles. At the beginning of this leg we jibed several times because the wind was directly behind us, but a few hours into the sail, the wind shifted and we were able to take a tack about 15 degrees off of our rhumb line and slightly out to sea. The result was a very comfortable and pretty quick run down to Bahia Santa Maria.
s/v Ravenswing flying her kite.
Three boats arrived in Santa Maria before TTR: a J122 named Day Dream, s/v Ravenswing which is a Farrier 36’ trimaran and s/v Kalewa, a 50’ custom catamaran that is light and built for racing. Kalewa was the fastest boat in the HaHa fleet and owners Kevin and Katie are as much fun is Kalewa was fast.
As soon as we dropped anchor, we hailed the crew on s/v Day Dream and invited them over for celebratory cocktails. Day Dream had four gents aboard and no dinghy, so Frank picked them up in Day Tripper and brought them over. Needless to say, the guys were very happy to see iced drinks because, though they were comfortable and fast on Day Dream, some of the luxuries aboard TTR were not available on their boat.
Several boats from the HaHa fleet spoke of a storm that brought rain and reports of wind up to 37 knots but none of the early boats, including TTR, saw any of that rain or wind.
The HaHa Fleet anchored under a full moon in Bahia Santa Maria.
According to Charlie’s Charts, Bahia Santa Maria is four miles wide and 11 miles long, and this small anchorage offered us a range of fun activities. Mindy, Ron, Frank and I spent a quiet morning exploring the sand dunes a few miles from where we were anchored.
Sand strewn with shells and dollars.
The shore is fine sand littered with sand dollars beyond which are mounds of wind swept dunes.
Quatro amigos.
The four of us spent a couple of hours looking at little creatures in the sand and climbing the sand dunes.
Frank was a spec on a distant sand dune.
I like the sharp sand edges created by the wind.
Landing and launching the dinghy can be challenging in Santa Maria and on our way off the beach we managed to take a decent wave over the front of Day Tripper. No injuries or problems occurred, but we did take on an unexpected guest.
This little black bird was swept into our dinghy with the waves ~ notice his duck-like feet!
We gently captured “Nevermore” from the water sloshing in the dinghy and gave him time to dry out as we motored back toward TTR. By the time we were ready to vacate the dinghy, Nevermore was also ready and he flew off to rejoin his friends.
One of the very first songs played at the Beach Party!
The HaHa Rock n Roll Beach Party at Santa Maria included plenty of food, beverages and live music. It was fun to mix and mingle, dance in the sand and hang out on shore with the other boaters.
As usual, Mindy is having a terrible time.
HaHa-ers finding shade on the stoop of a local’s home.
Santa Maria has a long, shallow sandy bottom that becomes visible at low tide. In the two pictures below, the tide is already low and you can see how much of the sand is revealed as the tide continued to go out.
Notice the wave breaking midway out in this photo.
Now sand is revealed all the way to that wave break.
This shallow area also creates some fun, small waves before the tide gets really low. Frank, Ron and I took advantage of the smooth floor and soft waves for SUP surfing and body surfing. We, along with a few other HaHa cruisers, delayed our departure from Santa Maria to spend some extra time playing in the waves.
We really didn’t want to leave Bahia Santa Maria, but the HaHa had a schedule and we were expected at the next stop, Man-o-War Cove, just 27 nm down the peninsula.
I’m pretty certain TTR was the last boat to leave Santa Maria, because you know, we couldn’t stop surfing just to arrive early at the next stop! Still, we arrived and anchored in Man-o-War just prior to sunset and in time for the Great Raft-Up held behind the Grand Poobah’s boat s/v Profligate.
We quickly dropped anchor, gathered beverages and a sharable appetizer, launched Day Tripper and motored over to the Raft-Up. We tied up to the gaggle of about 40 dinghies and enjoyed the musicians and dancers showing their talents on Profligate’s beamy transom.
We hung out until the raft-up ended about and hour later. By then we had met our neighboring dinghies, shared food and swapped stories about our travels thus far.
As is the case with sailing, we are captives of the weather and although the HaHa had a schedule, mother nature decided to make us stand up and pay attention. A tropical depression was developing south of Cabo San Lucas and the Grand Poobah was concerned for the safety of his 153 boats.
Many of the HaHa boats had made marina reservations in Cabo, but since we prefer anchorages, we did not have a reservation in a marina. The storm was forecast to hit Cabo from the south and the Cabo anchorage does not have any protection. We decided to stay in Magdalena Bay and see how the storm developed rather than face an undetermined storm in an open anchorage.
The majority of the fleet left but about 20 boats decided to stay in Man-o-War and see how the storm developed before leaving Magdalena Bay. In the end, the Tropical Storm Raymond moved much more slowly than originally forecast and mostly dissipated before arriving in Cabo. However, the port captain did close the Cabo anchorage and we would have had to quickly sail north toward La Paz had we moved to Cabo as planned.
Our gathering spot in Man-o-War Cove.
The 20 HaHa boats who remained in Man-o-War dubbed themselves the HaHa Hijos (HaHa children) and made the best of the situation. There is one restaurant in Man-o-War and we used it as a gathering spot. Some folks took pangas (small local fishing boats) to the nearby city of San Carlos where they shopped or dropped off crew who had schedules to meet.
We explored Man-o-War on foot and quickly covered the town.
Ye old lighthouse is a bit worse for the wear.
A hike to the cross.
Man-o-War from the anchorage ~ notice the lack of green vegetation.
The exterior of the church.
The interior…
People often ask what we do all day on a boat. Our time in Magdalena Bay is a great example of how we spend idle time since Tropical Storm Raymond delayed our departure by five days. The account of our days while watching Raymond will give you an idea…
Chart from “Charlie’s Charts Mexico,” 13th Edition.
Unlike the other HaHa Hijos boats, we decided to move TTR out of the relatively open Man-o-War anchorage and seek shelter from the anticipated winds in another part of Magdalena Bay. After consulting the weather forecasts and scanning the charts, we moved TTR south and east toward “Sector Navy” or the Navy Base.
Motoring past Sector Navy before we were chased out of the basin.
We poked TTR into the basin just south of the Naval Base and very soon three men in a Navy inflatable came roaring out to us and made sure we weren’t planning on anchoring in the basin. We had considered it, but the guns they were carrying convinced us we weren’t welcome.
So we motored TTR to a secluded spot away from the Navy Base where we would be protected from both wind and waves.
The rain set in and we spent the days playing games, evaluating the weather, observing nature, exploring nearby points and wondering how our friends were fairing in Cabo.
We ended up spending four nights in the SE part of Magdalena Bay and changed anchor spots three times in response to the revised forecasts. These moves weren’t strictly necessary, but they allowed us to see other parts of the Bay. And let’s face it, we weren’t very busy.
We kept in VHF contact with the other HaHa Hijos boats in the bay and, as we expected, the long fetch into Man-o-War anchorage allowed a good bit of chop to build up. Those sailors had a couple of unpleasant days/nights at anchor so we were very happy we had moved and had such a calm place to wait out Tropical Storm Raymond.
Ron made the official toast to Neptune.
Adult beverages were a bit low on TTR so we created a rum punch concoction that left much to be desired. Since it wasn’t going to be drunk, we made an event out of a sacrificial offering to Neptune and asked for protection and safe travels. (But I also made sure God knew it was all in fun!)
Hoping our offering would bring fair winds.
One day we dropped Day Tripper to explore our surroundings and went to visit the fishing village of Alcatraz. Fortunately we were not incarcerated but were allowed to freely walk the streets.
Alcatraz is one of the most primitive towns we have explored. Mindy’s Spanish was the best of the bunch and she spoke with a local lady to determine there is not a restaurant in Alcatraz. There was a small tienda, the size of the cockpit on TTR or maybe smaller. We didn’t buy anything because we didn’t want to take goods the locals might really need. Having struck out on a restaurant and tienda, we asked about a place to buy cervesas.
I’m not sure what Jose was running for, but he probably won.
“Oh yes, go down this road until you get to the horse. Turn left at the horse and follow that road. Soon you will see the blue house where you can buy a beer.”
I have to admit, that is the first time a horse has been my cue to make a turn!
A successful quest for cervesas.
We found the beer which was sold from a man’s home. It wasn’t particularly cold, but it was a novel place to buy a beer!
A pretty place to sit and swap stories and plans.
Other things we did to keep busy while on the boat with almost nowhere to go? Sat on the trampoline and enjoyed our surroundings, took care of a bit of laundry, cleaned a bit, made some soft shackles, baked bread and generally enjoyed the company of good friends and a safe, beautiful place to wait out a storm.
The Baja wears green after it rains!
Remember the picture of those dry brown hills from earlier? Well look how green things became after the rain! The landscape popped into a lush green almost overnight after the rain of TS Raymond!
Sunset after the rain.
TTR and the other HaHa Hijos boats left for Cabo five days after the main HaHa fleet. Tropical Storm Raymond turned out to be all thread and no punch; which is exactly how I like my storms! Cabo had a lot of rain and some wind. The ports in Cabo and La Paz ware closed and apparently there was some sewage spillover (yuck) in Cabo, but no damage to speak of.
Magdalena Bay had even fewer effects from the storm. However, I think we made the prudent decision based on the weather information we had. Raymond moved much more slowly than originally predicted and caused us to remain in Magdalena longer than expected. If we had known Raymond would fizzle out, we would have made a run for La Paz or Jose del Cabo so that Mindy and Ron would have had more time in the Sea of Cortez before they returned to Guatemala.
But those thoughts are based on hindsight. I believe our cautious decision was a smart choice.
We arrived in Cabo around 4:30 am and spent the day re-provisioning, getting a sense of the touristy areas as well as parts that felt more authentically Mexican.
We found some very authentic food in a back street of Cabo.
We met up with the Grand Poobah aboard Profligate where the stragglers were given awards form completing the HaHa. This is the first time the HaHa has faced a tropical storm so I’m sure it will be a memorable one for Richard.
HaHa Hijos group aboard Profligate.
We celebrated with others from the Haha, then happily returned to Ticket to Ride, ready to get a good night of sleep after our 4:30 arrival.
HaHa members celebrating their arrival in Cabo.
The end of the 2019 Baja HaHa concluded our second ever sailing rally. Our first was the 2016 Sail to the Sun Rally aboard our first sailboat, Let It Be. The two Rallies were incredibly different!
Baja HaHa completion… not sure what our 3rd place was for.
The Sail to the Sun Rally is an eight week journey down the Intracoastal Waterway in the company of 20 boats and every night we stopped in the same marina or anchorage with the other boats. None of the sailors knew each other before beginning the 2016 STTS Rally. In two months we had plenty of time to cement friendships with every boater on the trip. After the STTS Rally ended, we continued to travel with about seven of those rally boats for several weeks. We traveled with Laurie and Ken of s/v Mauna Kia for six months before Mauna Kia was tragically lost in Hurricane Irma because she had engine trouble and couldn’t escape that terrible storm.
By comparison, the Baja HaHa is a quick event of less than two weeks and included 153 boats this year! There are a few events before the start of the HaHa, a concluding event or two at the end and three stops along the journey. Although I do not have the numbers, it seemed that many of the boats hailed from the same marina or sailing club and knew each other before beginning the HaHa. The number of boats, the fact that many folks knew each other already and the short duration of the HaHa made it difficult to get to know many people during the HaHa.
For us, the true value of the HaHa is meeting sailors whose travel plans are similar to ours. We think the HaHa is actually more valuable after its conclusion because as we come across other sailors who were part of the Haha, we have an “excuse” to introduce ourselves to them. In fact, in less than a month since the conclusion of the HaHa, we have met people from a dozen HaHa boats in anchorages along the Sea of Cortez.
This is not to say one Rally is better than the other. We had and excellent time on both rallies but they felt radically different.
Both the Sail to the Sun Rally and the Baja HaHa Rally can be seen as a safety net for folks who don’t have a lot of offshore experience and the rally give them confidence to cut the lines and go. The rallies also act as deadlines for some sailors who might continue to put off departure unless they had a specific date they had to meet.
We have only good things to say about the HaHa and our experience. We are very glad we participated and having Mindy and Ron share the HaHa made it even better.
Adios Cabo
Mindy and Ron had very little time left in Mexico, so we yanked up the anchor after only 24 hours in Cabo and headed into the Sea of Cortez to give them a glimpse of the wonders it holds.
Fin whale?!
An hour into our trip we spotted a few whales! So hopefully the SOC will share some of its unique beauty before Mindy and Ron have to fly away to Guatemala where s/v Follow Me is patiently awaiting their return.
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