Asunto
Our life afloat on a boat
Sailing Trips
Sailing, sailing, sailing That’s why we live the life we do, so that we can untie the lines and explore the world in our own backyard. From Sept 2015-October 2016 we sailed with a 2 year old and a baby from Vancouver to Mexico, across to Hawaii, across to Alaska and then down, Read More
The crossing to Mazatlan from La Paz was brutal. We motored for 20 hours in flat seas and the predicted wind just never came.
Lazy dayz
Well in fact we did find out later that a good 20 knots of wind was out there, just 12 hours behind us. Damn. We had picked up a hitchhiker in La Paz – Semi from Barcelona, who was riding his bike from Alaska to Panama. He didn’t say a whole lot but probably found the crossing a bit dull too.
Semi – our cool hitchiker
We anchored in the harbour in Mazatlan the first night and quickly realized that wasn’t going to work for us. There was nowhere to take Kyber to shore, except the breakwater, the water was too murky and gross for swimming and the sewage treatment plant was stinking up the water. We did however feel like we had been transported to a different country. Gone were the desert hills and cacti that we had come to know and in there place were palm trees and humidity. The smells were different too – the smell of big cities mixed with wood burning fires. We ended up heading to the Marinas, 8 miles north and planted ourselves at the Marina/Resort El Cid.
Like a bird… on a wire
Oh my…
So much has changed on this trip. And now I feel like it is almost over and I am having a really hard time with that. When I look back to how I felt in October, and all the struggles we experienced, it feels like a lifetime ago. We have so much fun now together as a family. Everyday is something great, and the hard parts are fewer and farther between. I fly home on March 23 while Kolby sails Asunto to Hawaii with some friends. March 23 feels like the end of the trip. And while going home to have a baby is a new adventure in itself, I certainly am not sure what the trip will be like anymore. It’s like now that we are finally in our groove we are going to shake it up and start from scratch. Which probably means a trip to those dark hard days and sorting out all the kinks again. I can only hope that it is a little smoother this time.
(curious about those dark times? You can have a peak here)
I think my favourite part of cruising is how time is very different for me.
At home time is structured – everything has an allotted time – wake up to the alarm, start work, have lunch, go home and so on. The weekdays are hectic and busy and then the weekend would roll around and it was equally hectic – as we tried to make the most of every free second before the weekdays came back. Everything had to be efficient, effective and planned out. There was no time to waste time.
Now time is fluid. Time is not measured so much by the actual number, but by our relationship to the day itself. Time to go to shore, time to go home, time to get off the boat, time to eat dinner, time to fall asleep. Time to relax, time to work. Having a toddler we still have some sort of fixed schedule – mostly around dinner time and bed time, but mainly our time is flexible.
Take this for example. We are waiting in La Paz for some wind to come, so we can make our crossing to Mazatland. It has been so windy forever we can’t believe that there is almost no wind in the forecast. The irony is incredible, especially considering that we don’t particularly like La Paz, or want to be stuck there. Anyway here we are waiting. The first day is a Monday. We snuggled in bed and watched a movie, hung out a the playground then spent the afternoon walking around looking for a new bucket. We literally spent an hour and and a half to purchase a $5 plastic bucket. And that was just fine. The next day was Tuesday, market day. After that was laundry and chatting to fellow boaters. We invited a young sailing family from Seattle to stop by on their way home that afternoon. And when their day got sidetracked and they didn’t show up till 5:30 that didn’t matter – we had them over for dinner. We planned to leave Wednesday morning, but decided last minute to offer a ride to a biker looking to get to Mazatland. He would be ready by 1:30 and we needed more groceries. So we left Wednesday afternoon instead. And it didn’t really matter much at all.
I’m sure I will adapt to the life of schedules and efficiency again, as I will need to. But I also hope that I will remember to let go a bit more and just let time flow.
Recent Comments