The outcome of our trip has for both of us been a very positive one. Being out there enabled us to see with clarity that sailing to Hawaii this summer is not what we want to be doing, and we wrestled mightily before leaving to try and find some insight about what was the right decision for us.

Being unable to find the decision that sat right with us, we resorted to hashing out the pros and cons in order to find the most “logical” decision about how to get us, and Pisces, up to Seattle this fall. I looked with envy at other cruisers who made decisive decisions about their plans for the summer and moved forward with shipping or trucking, or bashing up the coast or heading offshore, while we walked endlessly around La Cruz, trying to figure out the path that was right for us.

So we headed offshore in order to save money, get offshore experience, and to add a large notch to our sailing experience. It seemed logical, but neither of us were particularly excited about the trip, it just seemed like the rational next step in our cruising experience. Once offshore a few things became starkly obvious; most importantly was that we were keen to do an offshore trip at some point in our lives, but this summer wasn't the right time and our reasons for undertaking the trip weren't the right ones to get us through the passage. Finally having clarity about what we wanted was fantastic! Suddenly we were able to commit to shipping with confidence, with no lingering doubts about making the right decision.

I am sure that an offshore passage will be in our future at some point and when it is, we will both be 100% enthusiastic about making it, and we will both know the time is right for the trip. Until then, sailing will continue to be a large part of who we are and what we like to do, and we will explore and sail together wherever we are.

Back in Banderas Bay it's taken a few days to get everything organized and ready to move towards the new plan, but I am optimistic that as of today we are back in the country legally, have everything lined up for Pisces to be loaded on a freighter via YachtPath in late May/early June from La Paz to Victoria BC, and even have a liveaboard slip waiting for us at Shilshole Marina in Seattle! Completing these administrative tasks has involved many cruising adventures such as frantically catching a water-taxi to the nearest bank to slip in just before closing time, and rowing Pesky through a surf break to find the elusive internet cafe in Punta Minta that has a working fax machine.


















Our new drifter, doing it's job perfectly as we drift along.



Lat 20 46' N, Long 105 31' W

Alternate Blog Title: 'I've made a huge mistake.' - GOB BLUTH

If you are a fan of Arrested Development you know just the voice to read the above line in, as sun sets on our third day out, and we finally look at each other and break down how we've each been feeling inside. The realization we've come to is that this is not the time or the place for us to try our hand at long distance passagemaking. Acceptance of this reality is how we find ourselves here at 4:15AM, doing about 4.2kts (close hauled as we have been the last 70 something hours) headed back towards Mexico.

Let me start by saying that we are both really happy, and this decision sits much better than any of the quasi-decisions we've kicked around over the last month or so. Pisces is sailing great, we are having a great time, and are looking forward to the several days it will take for us to close back with land. So this is certainly not a story of regret, we are feeling great!

Unless you happen to have been in the La Cruz area over the last several weeks, we realize that you probably have no background on our thought process, so I'll try to give you the extremely brief synopsis of many a long evening spent walking around the marina and town trying to reason out what we should do. Essentially our options fell into two main camps: 1) Offshore to Hawaii and back or 2) Ship/Truck. The offshore route had several big things going for it, including (apparent lack of) cost, the opportunity to gain experience at offshore cruising, and the general bad-ass factor of pulling into the Puget Sound after 6000 something offshore miles. The shipping method had its own advantages, including the fact that it maximizes the fun value for our last several months, allowing us time to go back into the Sea of Cortez and then spend some additional time exploring the NW before starting 'real life.' There were many nuances to the arguments but essentially that is how it broke down, do we do the thing that is way out of our comfort zone but a major achievement, or do the thing that we know we enjoy?

Looking back at it, I think we both wanted to do the shipping option, but felt we ought to do the offshore option. The boat is ready, we have the time, and it's the right time of year to do it...sounds like the perfect combination right? Actually wrong. One of the lessons we've learned is that its not enough for the external factors alone to be in line, all the internal factors have to be there too. Are you excited about your destination? Do you feel 100% committed to the passage? Questions like that need to be discussed in a completely honest manner, because they are critical to the success of your passage.

As the first several days of our passage progressed, we both indepently and then jointly came to the conclusion that our own answers to the internal questions were frequently 'no.' What we really wanted was to get a bit of offshore time (say 10-14 days ideally) so that we'd have a sense of whether it was something we would want to do more of later down the line, and then to spend the rest of our summer exploring, hiking, snorkeling, etc.

Another important turning point for us was a day or two in when we realized that there was no way in hell...and I repeat, no way in hell, we were going to sail to Hawaii and then turn around in one months time and sail back to Seattle. We know people who have done this passage, and another of our friends perfectly sums them up as being 'total Vikings.' Since we were sure we would not be doing the return trip the financial picture of the different options changed, with Hawaii becoming the most expensive of all the options (due to the need to hire a delivery skipper or ship from Hawaii to Seattle). Not to mention how strange it would feel to hand over the keys to your home, vehicle, family member, etc to three random people to go bash through the North Pacific for a month...

As we closed with the Socorros Islands we knew it was really decision time, given the way the winds shift, and the distances involved, we would soon be passing a point of no return, where it just would not be that feasible to get back to Mexico without battling contrary winds the whole way. Together we came to the conclusion that we could be totally happy with the 5 days to a week that this shakedown sail will give us, combined with the shipping option. We've had the opportunity to get back out into bluewater with Pisces, shake her and us down again, and yet we still get to do the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Northwest, it feels ideal.

So, in a nutshell that's the story of how we find ourselves doing either the world's shortest passage to Hawaii or the world's longest passage between La Cruz and Punta de Mita (depends on your perspective):) Currently we are aiming as far North as the winds will allow, which at times is Mazatlan, and at times Banderas Bay. No matter where we make landfall we will most likely try to make it over to Baja relatively quickly, as we want to revisit some of our favorite anchorages before our time in Mexico is up.

Lat 19 46' N, Long 108 11' W

24-hr Distance: 73 NM
Wind: 15-25 NW
Seas: 6-10 NW
Sky: Partially cloudy
Distance To Go: 2654 NM
Position: Lat 19 27' N, Long 108 03' W

Well, we didn't have the best 24-hr run yesterday, primarily because we ended up heaving to (stopping the boat) for most of the night. We've been beating in to a pretty fresh breeze, and seas that are being churned up by weather systems to the North of us. Morale is a bit low on board today. It's not easy going.

We ended up hove to last night because we were both having a bit of a re-evaluation as in 'why are we out here doing this?' We did decide to no matter what try and give it the full 4 days that people say it takes to fully adjust. Heaving to made it much easier for us both to recover some sleep with a highly improved motion. We are reserving the right to make this trip into a circumnavigation of the Socorros, followed by turning tail and running back to good old Mexico!

Really at this point I think our mood's are highly weather dependent. If the sailing gets easier, we'll undoubtedly become more cheery. As it is right now that, it's all we can do to keep down some water and a minimum of food. Currently we spend a good bit of time lying horizontal staring at the ceiling or trying to sleep. The most valuable things aboard (aside from sailing gear) are our earplugs and sleeping eye mask to block out light.

In good news however we are more or less headed due West now under jib alone, and we are hoping that the wind continues to clock so we can start easing the sheets a bit to ease our motion and the nerves.

Tons of dead flying fish on deck today. However too windy/rolly to attempt a clean up, so we continue on like some sort of fish funeral barge.

You may have noticed that our blog has been a bit neglected over the past month or so. It's not that things haven't been happening, it's that we have been deep in the throes of trying to decide how to get Pisces from La Cruz Mexico to Seattle USA. The primary options we were considering were shipping (expensive but easy and fast), bashing up the coast (cheap but hard), and sailing out to Hawaii first (cheap but scary).

It was an extremely hard decision, and we're still trying to take deep breaths and convince ourselves that this was the best choice, but we decided to give the offshore route a try. Primary considerations for us are that Pisces is totally ready for it, and when else will we have the boat, the time, and the desire to do something like this?

So here we are, sailing to Hawaii!! Last night we saw what is likely to be our last sight of land until we have reached Hawaii, a trip of about 2800 nautical miles!

So here it is: Day 1!

24-hr Distance: 104 NM
Wind: 10-20 W
Seas: 3-8 WNW
Sky: Overcast
Distance To Go: 2717 NM

We have been close hauled since leaving Banderas Bay, sailing at a decent clip with the Jib, Staysail, and one reef in the main. Our course has been towards the SW, and we are hoping that in the next day or so the wind will start to clock around, lifting us towards the direct route, and then allowing us to actually start the fabled downwind sailing! In the meantime things are good aboard, we are trying hard to just live in this moment, and certainly not think about how early in this long trip we are! Stomachs are also a bit on edge, so we'll keep this blog and computer time short.

We've got some dead squid and flying fish on deck, but we can't be bothered to clean them up in the current conditions. Pisces though is doing great, sailing along in the groove with Brutus (the Monitor windvane) firmly in control of the helm.

Drop us an email, we've got some..ahem...time on our hands and would love to hear from you.