It’s been a long time since our last blog post! We weren’t able to post during our 23-days at sea—for some reason the way we used to do it while under-way no longer worked. Our DeLorme tracking device worked well—it uses Iridium satellites to track our boat position and shows up on our blog under the “Follow Our Boat” link at the top. Our 10 days so far in the Marquesas has been on islands with small villages where there was either no wifi available or it was down. During our days at sea between Puerto Vallarta, MX and the Marquesas, we used the HF SSB radio to send email to our family. SSB uses a program called Sailmail for sending text-only (no pics).
Leaving Mexico and Friends-
We’ve had such a pleasant stay in Mexico that it was sad to have the immigration and customs officials come to our boat to check us out of the country. We got our “zarpe” which is the official document. Without this we’ve heard that it can tie your boat up with red tape at the next port of call in the next country.
We’ve made many friends and had to say goodbye to some of them as our paths separate. We hope to meet up with them someday, at sea or on land. Flying Squirrel’s Dave & Amy and their kids Matthew & Morgan, who played minecraft with Jacintha are heading back up north doing the “Baja Bash” (sailing north up the Baja coast). We’ve had a few meals with Tom & Kelly and Sofie from Stochastic at the Vallarta yacht club (think cheese stuffed chicken wrapped with bacon) and for steaks at Sonora el Sur. They are also heading north. Yolo had Presley & Colton aboard and they had a few playdates with Jacintha. They are heading up the Sea of Cortez for the summer. Hannah on Ohanna is adventuring further south with her family towards Panama. Pelagic with Anna, Xander and Porter are currently in Panama awaiting their turn to transit the canal. We miss Billy and Gracie from Seahorse V and Bucket from Velvet Sky, they are south in El Salvador. We’re excited that Family Circus are also doing the Pacific Puddle Jump since Jacintha has so much fun playing with Amaia and Alina. They’re leaving a day later than us but will probably pass us along the way as their boat is faster – the advantages of having 2 hulls (catamaran). Korbut Rose will be crossing in April, we wish them good winds and hope to catch up with them in French Polynesia. Other boats we know on the puddle jump are Scintilla, Astrea, Lorien, Daybreak, Sarita and Aussie Rules!
