Plans may change, but the adventure goes on

    

     I'll admit it--I've been feeling bereft lately. This whole Covid thing has changed the entire face of our cruising plans, and completely altered my dream of what I thought cruising with my family was going to be like. But you know something I've started to realize and maybe finally accept? What we're doing isn't all that different from what I really wanted to do. I'll try to explain...    

    When Joe and I decided we wanted to take our family out of our normal world and go cruising, there were a few overall goals, no matter where we went. After all our time exploring Southeast Alaska, we knew we loved going to remote anchorages, being the only boat, or at least one of just a few, in some secluded little nook, enjoying whatever sights and experiences that spot had to offer. That was high on the list, naturally, but even more important, especially in terms of traveling with our children, was experiencing the different cultures and people this world has to offer. 

    I've found myself grumbling at the amount of the time we have spent at a dock during this journey so far. I love the times out at anchor, when we can jump off of Kyrie, swim around and chase the fish, explore the beaches, etc. Even though there have been good reasons we've spent dock time--a broken outdrive, a pandemic lockdown, respite from heat and humidity, and now, a damaged sail--I've still felt somehow we weren't spending our time the "right" way and were somehow missing out on something. I mean, it was a bit jealousy-inducing to see photos from friends in the Bay of Los Angeles with whale sharks and beach bonfires and hikes with other friends. 

    However, I have to stop and reel my thoughts back in. Those times we had to stay at the dock have had their moments. La Cruz was full of meeting new friends and realizing just how many cruising families there are out there. San Blas let us really to get to know another family as we created our own little bubble to survive the lockdown, as well as see how a small town could shut itself off from the rest of the world to try to keep their people safe and still be welcoming to those outsiders who were stuck there. San Carlos gave us a front-row seat as a community crawled back to life after the shutdown. We got to see how locals and ex-pats reacted to everything reopening, for better or for worse. It also gave us a bunch of chances to explore some other communities, with friends, or just ourselves. 

    And now, Santa Rosalia. This is the kind of town we wanted to spend some time in. It really isn't touristy, or at least not foreign-touristy. The history of this town is incredible. It is a town built by mining, started by the French. The architecture is completely different from other places we've seen in Mexico, and the ruins from the foundry and other mining paraphernalia make me think of towns in the California foothills, like Angel's Camp or Grass Valley. We've wandered around town a fair bit already, and have had a lovely time eating tacos (which we think are the best we've had in Mexico yet!) and trying to remember our Spanish so we can converse with the locals. As usual, a lot of them speak better English than we speak Spanish!

    Joe and I went out on a mini-date this afternoon to find Pan de Muerto, but also to find yet another place to eat tacos. We talked about how nice the weather was--it's finally cooled down and the norther that was blasting through here has eased--and how lovely it was to be able to leave the kids for a little while and enjoy some time just the two of us. That was when I was at last able to articulate these thoughts. I told Joe that this--wandering around a town, enjoying the scenery and the food--was one of the reasons we went on this adventure. We've been mourning the loss of something (I'm still not absolutely sure what we're mourning. Perhaps just the freedom to be able to move around as we please?) and forgetting about the rest of the experiences we're having and the memories we're making. Paul said it best, and someday we will learn this valuable lesson: "... I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances..." Cruising during this time of Covid may not be what we thought our cruising experience would be, but maybe, just maybe, we can still have an amazing time and make incredible memories.

 

An unintended hiatus

Well hello again! We never intended to be silent this whole summer, but somehow, that's what happened. Kyrie hung out at the dock in San Carlos from July 1 to October 11, and while it was a good thing because we would have gone stark raving mad from the heat, I think the entire crew is glad to be done. We got A LOT done in San Carlos, I'm grateful to say. 

Here's the list: re-galvanized all our anchor chain; had new cockpit cushions made, recovered all our dinette cushions, and got new foam for Levi's bed; had an emergency tiller made; designed and installed stainless steel braceplates for the bulkhead between the dinette and our room; fiberglass repair in the head where bulkhead tabbing cracked on the way down the coast; a full Sunbrella cover for the deck and coach roof; Sunbrella covers for the foam on the dinghy, since it was beginning to disintegrate in the sun; and Kyrie's outside was cleaned top to bottom, including stainless and rigging. Whew, I think that covers everything we had done. 

In addition, we took on a new crew member in July. In a somewhat, but not really, spur-of-the-moment decision, we adopted a former street dog in Guaymas. He had been tossed in someone's front yard and she took him to the vet because he was in rough shape--an eye infection, fleas, ticks, worms, etc. A week later, the little guy was ready for a home, just in time for us to meet and fall in love with him! Joe and I had been out running errands and brought the puppy home, much to our kids' shock and delight. We've talked about a dog ever since our old dog Bandit died, before we even bought Kyrie. Rio has been a welcome addition to the Kyrie crew, although he had a bit of a rough time on our crossing back to Baja!

Much to our delight, our friends from SV Arena arrived in San Carlos in mid-August and life got much more interesting. They have four kids--the oldest two girls are Levi's age, the next girl is Rachael's age, and their son is Megan's age, so suddenly, everyone had someone to "play" with, even the adults! It was nice, even with being cautious about distancing from others, to have another couple to visit with, to later on go to Happy Hours with, and just have fun!

Road trips! We actually took a couple of road trips during our time in San Carlos, although they weren't exactly for fun. The first one was in September, up to Hermosillo. I had been worrying the entire time we were in San Carlos because the kids' passports expired the end of September and I didn't know how we were going to get them new ones. Passport offices were just starting to reopen in the States and there was a huge backlog. The Consulate offices' websites wouldn't let you make an appointment for new passports until they expired and it became an emergency. What to do?! I finally called the embassy in Mexico City and explained our predicament--that our kids' passports would be expiring, that we weren't planning on returning to the States any time soon and were frankly afraid of getting stuck there when our boat and home was in Mexico. I was told to email the consulate in Hermosillo, telling them exactly what I had just said. I did so, and half an hour later, we had an appointment scheduled for the following week! Car rented--check. Hotel reserved--check. Rio staying with Arena--check. Off we went! It was such an easy, uneventful experience! Not only did the kids get new passports, but Joe and I were also able to renew ours at the same time. Best of all? We picked up all five new passports in Guaymas two weeks later! What a relief!

11 happy people with new
Mexican tourist visas!

Next road trip was just a couple weeks ago. The Arena crew decided to make the drive to KM 21, which is where new FMMs (tourist visas) can be obtained. Ours still had another month to go, but we were in a fairly convenient place to get new ones, whereas in a month, we didn't know where we would be. Cars rented, hotel rooms secured, pet sitter for Rio engaged--we were ready to go! The Kyrie crew ended up with a minivan and nearly all the kids (did I mention there were seven kids altogether on this trip?) enjoyed the mobile movie theater at one time or another on the trip. There were a few crazy moments, like when the car rental company gave Arena a car, instead of the van they reserved for the six of them--good thing we had the van--or when we overshot the office for our visas by about 40 kilometers, and had to turn around and retrace our steps! 945 kilometers driven in two days, all for eleven pieces of paper that made us all legal tourists in Mexico for another 180 days!

Even the statues in
Hermosillo wore their masks!

 With all our tasks completed (for now, at least) it was time to get moving again. We had cabin fever something fierce and couldn't wait to start cruising again. October 11, we pulled out of the marina and used a friend's mooring ball out in the bay. A weather window would allow us to sail across the Sea of Cortez to Isla San Marcos, as long as we left around 4:00 the next morning, and we didn't want to be leaving the marina in the dark. 

[Updated since I apparently left this hanging!] As happens so often, the weather report was not correct! We were able to sail all the way across to Isla San Marcos, but where the report called for 15-20 knot winds with a 2-3 foot sea, we experienced 20-25 knot winds, with gusts up to 30, and 6-foot seas on our beam! It made for a fast, but somewhat uncomfortable trip across. The cockpit got washed by waves multiple times--an unusual experience for a cat!--and our poor puppy had an unhappy time for his first sail. After getting sick three times, Rio was clipped to a jackline and banished to the back deck. We also experienced some damage to our genoa. All the reefing caused some flapping and unfortunately some of the stitching broke around the clew on the genoa. Thankfully (?) there was enough wind that we could completely furl the genoa and just use the main and yankee. At last, we dropped anchor at the sound end of Isla San Marcos. It was so nice to be calm and still for a while! The water was cool and felt lovely to jump into. No surprise though, that we were all tired after the early morning and crazy trip across, so it was early to bed for the Kyrie crew. The next morning, the wind had shifted to the south and was pushing up the waves into our anchorage, so it was time to move on a bit. We motored up to Sweet Pea Cove, as that would be protected from any seas still kicked up from the prior day. Once again, the water was so nice, although there were a fair bit of little jellyfish. Joe even got one down the back of his rash guard. Ouch! The snorkeling was great and Joe and Levi tried to spearfish, but no luck. Hogfish, parrotfish, Sargeant Majors, I even saw a big eel! Rachael and I challenged ourselves to dive down to the bottom to collect a couple of sand dollars. Only when we got back up to the surface did we realize the bottom was farther away than we realized and we had just free dove to about 15 or 18 feet. We were both rather proud of ourselves! Once again, the weather decided to shift on us. The wind switched to an easterly, but there were still waves coming from a different direction. The wind was going to hold us beam to the waves, and none of us liked the idea of spending a night that way. Been there, done that too many times. So Joe called the marina in Santa Rosalia to see if there was room. There was, so we got the spinnaker ready to slowly sail to Santa Rosalia!