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Preparation for Sailing with Cats to French Polynesia

Guard Cat “Happy” from Panama

Guard Cat “Swat” from Puerto Rico

Spring weather is an ideal time to sail from the US/Mexico Pacific Coast to the South Pacific. After a three-year delay due to the COVID pandemic, we are finally preparing to set sail for the South Pacific. Hopefully, it won’t be much longer.

We have two cats on board, Swat and Happy. John decided to keep Swat, who was born in 2013 in Puerto Rico, and Happy, who was born in 2020 in Panama. He loves cats more than anything. As for me, I think sailing around the world with pets is a bit nonsensical,

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Phone-Free Sundays


View of Ensenada Port between Trees, Baja California, Mexico

Somehow, I caught a cold before Christmas last year. That made my new year’s resolution a bit delayed. My list goes like “Laugh 10 times and find a joke each day”. It sounds simple but I have to work hard making jokes if I can.

A friend mentioned to me about “Phone-Free Sundays”. It is also my resolution this year. Living on a sailboat, we don’t usually have this problem. This changed last July when we arrived at Marina Coral Ensenada, Mexico. As we decided to stay here for eight months,

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Happy New Year 2023!

It rained all day. It is a very good thing. Boat got cleaned with fresh rainwater from the top of the mast. Rainwater is my favorite! It says Ensenada gets about 10” to 12” of rainfall annually, a lot more than I expected.

Bad Bunny on New Year’s Day in Marina Coral in Ensenada, Mexico

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Movie from the Sea of Cortez

Puerto Refugio is my most favorite place in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. The video was taken at sunrise in April, 2022.

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Crossing the Land Border from Tijuana to San Diego

Vehicle Border Crossing from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

We have been in Ensenada Mexico for more than two months. We like the weather here. We love everything in Marina Coral. We decided to stay here until the weather allows us to sail directly to the South Pacific, most likely March 2023. I learned bad weather makes us cranky. Thus, when I am ready to live on land, I will consider a place with “good weather and good water” not just location location location.

Being so close to the USA, I visited San Diego twice by land from Tijuana the last two months.

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Baja Bash by Bad Bunny

Fiesta Time!!! Whole Lamb Roasting on Wood-Fire. Weekend Brunch Buffet Food in Hotel Coral and Marina, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

At San Lucas, the Land’s End of Baja California, we couldn’t make a decision where we want to go: South or North? Depending on when our friends asked a question, we answered to some friends, South and others North. That explains how equally our choices were measured. The sure thing was that (1) we wanted to get out of the hurricane zone, (2) we don’t like the extreme hot weather (Going South), and (3) we read a lot about the difficulties of “Baja Bash” (Going North).

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San Lucas, Arch Rock Place, the Most Southern Point of Baja

Arch Rock, Land Mark of San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico

(June 13 to 17, 2022) It looks to me Cabo San Lucas is like a small mixed city of Key West, Miami, Las Vegas, and New Orleans. Day starts very early here though. Tons of sport fishing boats (mostly charter yachts) all go out before sunrise, around 6am. Many are lined up at the marina fuel station prior to heading out to the sea. Most of them come back mid afternoon. 

Late afternoon, a different kind of boat with tons of tourists goes out for a sunset cruise.

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Pictures from Cabo San Lucas Anchorage

Sunset View of Hotel from the Cabo San Lucas Anchorage, Baja California South, Mexico

(June 14, 2022) We haven’t decided where exactly we will take the boat for this summer: (1) South to Puerto Vallarta/La Cruz (Pacific Mainland Mexico, hot and humid) or (2) Ensenada (Northern Baja California, challenging to sail/motor to get there). For either way, it is better to arrive at this location, the Southern Tip of the Baja California Peninsula. We have been monitoring the weather including the tropical storm “Blas”. Coming down from the last anchorage, Los Frailes, we had strong headwinds against us. It continuously blew hard but it was calm at the anchorage,

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Mining Town Santa Rosalia

Old Printing Device in Mining Museum Boleo, Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, Mexico

(April 26 to May 17, 2022) Santa Rosalia is a small mining town. “The city was founded as a company town by the French Compagnie du Boleo in 1884, which established the local copper mines. Today the city is a popular tourist destination.” (Description from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosal%C3%ADa%2C_Baja_California_Sur)

We stayed here longer than we planned because John needed time to recover from his overboard incident and I liked the Santa Rosalia Marina Fonatur and people.

***The day before our arrival,

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John goes Overboard but is Rescued at the Sea of Cortez

(April 25, 2022) I thankfully rescued John from the sea. Thinking about this accident, I feel luckier than John because it didn’t end in a tragedy. How could I live the rest of my life if I failed to rescue him?

At 8 am on that day, we left the Punta Trinidad anchorage in the Sea of Cortez. We were enjoying beautiful surfing kind downwind sailing, with 20 to 25 knots winds from North. Early afternoon, the wind angle started to change directly coming from behind of us flipping the boom/mainsail from left to right. We dropped the mainsail and started motoring.

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