Author Archives: mapachecaptain

We did it.  We made it to our third country by boat.  When we crossed into our first foreign country—Mexico—we did not expect to be there for over four years.  But Mexico took us in and gave us delicious food, lifelong friendships, and fantastic adventures.  It is hard to let go of something so good.  Still, last cruising season wasContinue reading “Multinational”

It was half-way through the cruising season when we finally returned Mapache to the water and moved back aboard.  In February, we filled our luggage with boat parts and adjusted our mental states from the routine of land-life to the unpredictability of boat-life.   Since Rob had to be land-based for his cancer treatment, we spent theContinue reading “Back to the Chaos”

We named our boat log Leaky Little Boat, because the lyrics to that song (by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers) align well with this adventure of ours.  The experience of floating around on a leaky little boat is both our reality (living on a sailboat that, like all boats, requires continual repair and maintenance) and aContinue reading “And the Tide Come In, And the Tide Go Out…”

In 2022, one month after we left Huatulco in the original Mapache to return north and switch boats, a category-2 hurricane struck the area, causing massive damage.  Now, two years later, the scars of Hurricane Agatha remain in the marina as broken docks and pilings, disabled electrical systems, and extra-shallow water (caused by the sand pushedContinue reading “Catch-Up, Part 2.0”

After departing La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Bahía de Banderas, we got back into the swing of cruising—spending quality time with nature, sharing food and stories with other sailors, adventuring for groceries, repairing the boat on-the-go, and getting acquainted with the unique culture of each place we dropped anchor.  The passages became easier as I found theContinue reading “Catch-Up, Part I”

After spending a few weeks getting reacquainted with friends in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, we took a vacation from the boat.  We flew to Mexico City and rented a car to drive to the UNESCO Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.   The 560-square-kilometer area of protected land is the destination of millions of Monarch butterflies every November-through-March.  Each year,Continue reading “Ghosts”

We finally got back to sailing.  We started out crisscrossed in more ways than one, but headed in the right direction (south to new countries and the Panama Canal).   We splashed the boat (put it back in the water), checked all the thru-hulls, tightened the new packing gland seal (where the propeller shaft enters the boat),Continue reading “Crisscrossed in the Right Direction “

We have been spending quality time with Mapache 2.0, going over her every inch, from the bottom of her keel to the top of her mast.  We do this every year before returning to the water for the cruising season.  For some context, our list of completed jobs on Mapache 2.0 in the last couple of monthsContinue reading “What’s Taking So Long?”

We wrote our last boat log about the friends we meet, and we raised a glass to one we lost, Dan.  We wrote too soon.   We lost another very good friend a few days ago.  This one is a comrade from Puerto Peñasco.  He and Rob became good friends through the jiu jitsu gym that Rob attends andContinue reading “Too Soon”

All too often, we are reminded of how short human lives are.  And we are forced to accept that the best people don’t always get an adequate amount of time.  But rather than dwell on how much that sucks or how that meets our human concept of unfair, we try to adjust.  Instead, we set our focus onContinue reading “Friends in All Places”