Kayo, Ramon and Roger, from the branch, came out with the Panga and a "hooka" rig to dive our bottom.

Tap Tapley, who founded the NOLS Mexico Branch in 1970, is still having fun in Baja!!

Jerrod, our friend Cassandra's AWESOME brother, drove a whole bunch of gear down for us. We borrowed a car and met up with him and his buddy, Sam, in Ciudad Insurgentes before they continued on to catch some waves in Todos Santos.

As seen from the Baja highway:

One of the many military checkpoints along the road.

Erin, who runs the NOLS Mexico rations room, paddled by this morning with her visiting parents.

Projects, projects, projects... Jaclyn and Leigh, lovely NOLS grads who are interning at the branch, came out to help us spruce up the brightwork!



Reinstalling a water tank:

Since the only constant in life is change, and because whenever you make a plan you have to always be ready to throw it out the window, well… our plan is changing.

It turns out that I (DD) need to get shoulder surgery. Wishful thinking thought we’d be able to put it off until after sailing “around” the world, but alas this is not the case. Sooner is better than later. So we will be back in San Francisco by late September. We are not disappointed – just ready to embrace the new plan – as we know that we will definitely (!) go cruising again and pick up where we left off.

The new rough itinerary is as follows:

April 3 – depart La Paz, Mexico
April 20-24 – arrive Marquesas
May 1-9 cruise Tuamotu Islands
May 11 – arrive Papeete, Tahiti
May 21-June 6 cruise Society Islands (Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Bora Bora)
June 10 – arrive Raratonga (Cook Islands)
June 19 – arrive Suwarrow Island
June 28 – arrive Niue Island
July 4 – arrive American Samoa (Pago Pago)
July 14 – depart Pago Pago
July 24 – arrive Line Islands (maybe)
August 1 – arrive Hawaii (big island)
August – cruise Hawaiian Islands
Early Sept – depart Kauai
Late Sept – arrive San Francisco

On our way to a dinner party on board Tranquila. Deviled eggs are the not the world's easiest thing to transport in a dinghy - slippery little buggers! - but they made it safely aboard.

Fun in the sun on a Laser! Our friends Arista and Jaclyn.

A couple of NOLS Drascombe Longboats out for a sail.

The sun has been shining strong the last few days, so showers in the cockpit with the sunshower are AWESOME after a jump off the stern.

While we wait for our engine part we're getting lots done, like servicing our winches. The weather has been calm and hot the last few days, and the water is **trying** to warm up. It's still pretty chilly, though, when you jump in.



Kayo, who works at the NOLS Branch part time, is helping us with some bright- and wood work. The sun has taken quite a toll on all our exposed wood.

Our friend Dave Kallgren got his Norsea 26, Beagle, out for a sail after a few years on the mooring (surviving all the hurricanes though!).

Late in the night, after our windy sail, Liz’s mischievous little blue kayak decided to separate from Tranquila and take its own little ride down the Bay. Waking to the surprise of being stranded on her boat, Liz got the NOLS “panga” (Mexican motor skiff) launched and headed out to find her kayak (barefoot, since her shoes were in the kayak). Nestled in its own little cove about a mile away, the boat, and all four shoes floating nearby, were successfully recovered.

A few days ago we took advantage of a good Norte and went out in sustained 32-knots of wind to try out some of our smaller sail configurations. The triple-reefed main worked great with the storm jib (retrofitted to slide over our roller-furled genoa), and we were still able to go 6-knots to weather in choppy seas (8.5-knots downwind)! We were taking waves over the entire cockpit but everyone aboard loved it, epecially since we were all recovering from the "Pachanga" the night before to celebrate Dave Lee passing on the NOLS Mexico leadership to Liz.

Not surprisingly, our Volvo engine part got sent to the wrong address. So we have another week to wait for it to arrive with a friend's brother (thankfully!) driving down. In the meantime, we are getting good practice sailing on and off our mooring, waiting only for heavy wind to go sailing (so we know we can get back!).

The "Passing of the Torch" party for Dave and Liz. Who is that sexy woman in the middle??

Our engine is the one thing on the boat that keeps giving us trouble, and Dan has become quite the mechanic! We are keeping our fingers crossed that a part bring brought down for us next week will solve all our problems (or at least all our engine problems!).

What does good crew do when a "Two of Diamonds" flies off the boat during a cribbage game? She strips down to her underwear and in the flash of a second dives 10-feet down to recover the errant card! That's Rylin LaPlante, who will be joining us for our passage south.





A home-built wood catamaran row/sailed into our anchorage. They sailed this thing down the outside from Port Townsend, WA!



Dan picked up Liz from her boat, "Tranquila," to come over for Sunday brunch.