Sailing with my dad

Down in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico sailing with my dad. Having a great time and wonderful weather.

I am going Sailing!!

I am excited for Baja. Next week I am going to visit my Bristol 27 in San Carlos, Mexico. Haven't been there in over a year and have been missing the cruising life. I will only be down there for a few days but it will still be glorious.

A few pictures from the last trip to warm things up.

A close reach across the Sea of Cortez to Guaymas and San Carlos.

Steve checking out the entrance to Ensanada Grande.

At anchor in Ensanada Grande.

Baja Sailing 2007

I am giving the blogger video a try with this post from a sailing trip in November 2007. I am headed down to the boat the end of October for a little visit and some sailing with my Dad.

S/V Magstar

It is freezing in NYC and I am dreaming of sailing on Magstar. She is such a simple boat and such a pleasure to sail. I love that we are going on year 10 of sailing her together and she is still a ton of fun. I think one day we will want to trade up to something bigger and nicer especially if we are going to make longer passages. A bit more water, and a better galley will be necessities on long trips, but we both strugle with the fact that this little 27 footer is so comfortable, seaworthy, affordable, and easy to sail that any boat will have a lot to live up to.


Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante.

Sailing: NYC to Chesapeake

Sailed from NYC to the Chesapeake the last few days. Met Incognito and my parents in Great Kills, Staten Island and sailed down around Cape May and up the Delaware River and through the Chesapeake/Delaware Canal. It was special to get to join them for one of their last cruises aboard Incognito. It was a great 36 hour sail. Started with light winds and seas that slowly build to a Force 5 overnight and then moderated down on Tuesday as we made our way up the Delaware River.




I was impressed how well s/v Incognito their Cal 44 sailboat handled. They have been cruising aboard Incognito for the last 11 years and it seems that they may finally be ready to settle down a bit. Their plan is to head down to Annapolis and put the boat on the market. Hopefully someone looking for a cruising boat will be interested and she will soon be off on a new sailing adventure.

Incognito is in town

Incognito my parents Cal 44.
My parent are in town on their boat Incognito. We had a bunch of fun seeing them in NYC. They even took us out for a sail on Saturday. Not much wind but the temperature was perfect.
Sailing down the Upper West Side.
The Ladies eating cheese and pears.
Coast Guard keeping an eye on things.

Old photos from our trip down the coast.

Found these old pictures from 1998/1999 when we sailed the boat to Mexico.


Sailing down the coast of Baja.

March 11, 1999 sailing with s/v Vela between Frailes and Muertos in Baja.


March 17, 1999 Lin and Larry Pardey at our watermelon and wine party on the dock at Marina de La Paz

We had a big party on the dock in Marina de La Paz when we arrived. Lin and Larry Pardee happened to be in town. We recognized them walking down the street and gave them an invitation to our party the next day. They then invited us to dinner that night. We ate Chinese, told dirty jokes, and had a fantastic time.

November trip to La Paz, Baja

I have wanted to go sailing in Baja for a while now so I took two weeks off in November and flew down to La Paz for some sailing with David Reichel.

I flew into San Jose Del Cabo on Monday, Nov 5^th and took the bus to La Paz.

Tuesday: Dave flew in and wished me a happy birthday. We ran some errands, had some dinner and got the boat ready to launch.

Wednesday: We launched the boat with a new outboard and ended up anchored in the middle of the channel when it died 100 yards from the dock. We spent awhile trying to get it started until Dave was smart enough to check the manual and find that we had forgotten to turn on the fuel valve to allow fuel into the carburetor. After opening the valve, the new 6hp four-stroke purred, and we motored over to Marina de La Paz.

Thursday: We were up and headed out the channel. We decided to keep sailing and made it about halfway down Isla Partida before stopping for the night. I chose an anchorage with southerly protection for the nightly Corumel winds but they died after dusk, and instead we bounced all night on chop from the north.

Friday: At dawn, we had nice wind to Los Isolotes and had fantastic snorkeling with the sea lions and a group of Ecology students from University of Denver. After playing with the fish for a couple hours, we headed to Bahia Candelleros for the night. Again, the Corumel wind failed to appear, and instead, after dark, a light chop came in from the north, causing us to bounce around all night. However, as the sun set we had gorgeous calm sunset, and when it was dark were able to spot what looked like a nebula in the eastern sky.

Saturday: Was a mellow sail down along the west side of the island. We went swimming with a giant school of Yellowfin Tuna, were attacked by little flies, saw a bunch of turtles and a couple of dolphins, and were followed by a group of large powerboats who decided that we knew the best spot to anchor. That night, the powerboats came and crowded us until after dark when the Corumel wind finally decided to fill in and threw up a steep onshore chop. The powerboats left for more soporific anchorages, and we spent a restless night bouncing on the big chop.

Sunday: We spent the day at Bahia Ballandra and Palaya Tecolote. At dusk, we sailed around the corner to our favorite anchorage that was glass calm all night and only had one other boat. In the evening, there were thousands of fish jumping all around us, and we were lulled to sleep by the owls calling to each other along the shore.

Monday and Tuesday: We sailed back to La Paz and tried to coordinate getting the boat hauled out. I had contemplated having the boat repainted, but it seemed to be all the local shops could manage just getting an appointment to haul the boat.

I ended up choosing to haul at Berkovich boat yard at the entrance to La Paz, and Wednesday morning I powered over early in the morning. I dropped my stuff ashore then took the boat out to a mooring, cleaned her up, swam ashore, changed, and headed to the bus station. I caught the 12:30 bus to Cabo where I flew to LAX on Alaska Airlines and then caught the red-eye to JFK.

Overall, it was a great week. I had a blast sailing with Dave. He put up with my crap and was always willing to sail even when there was no wind. I can't wait to go back!