Author Archives: mapachecaptain

This boat log takes us forward, tracking the first part of our trip from Ensenada to La Paz, Baja, Mexico. We left Ensenada after declaring it our new home.  Over a barbeque of carne asada, quesadillas, and light beer, one of the coaches at the MMA gym, where Rob had been training, suggested that Rob stayContinue reading “Neptune’s Cat”

Passage: Florence, Oregon, to Eureka, California  (including stops in Port Orford, Oregon, Hunter’s Cove, Oregon, and Crescent City, California) (Reminder: We are still working to catch up on previous parts of our adventure. This is a description of part of our U.S.-coast passage, which took place this past fall.) After Florence, Oregon, we sailed overnightContinue reading “Double Takes”

We have been living in Ensenada on Mapache for three months.  We really love it here.  We feel at home, have made good friends, and have become regulars at our favorite restaurants, coffee shops and breweries.  But we have to continue on our journey.  Tomorrow, we untie the dock lines and head out on the next leg of ourContinue reading “Heading: Baja Sur”

Passage: Newport to Florence, Oregon Upon arriving at each port, Rob and I plan our next passage.  We research possible destinations, their distances from us, and their entrance geography.  We estimate how long the passage will take, check weather forecasts, determine the accessibility of their marinas or anchorages, study potential hazards, and review any other information thatContinue reading “Whale Wakes”

Storm Delay in Newport, Oregon Traveling by sailboat is necessarily a transient lifestyle.  Rob and I now do things that many associate with the homeless population, and it is an ongoing social experiment to see how people treat us when they assume we do not have a home.  Many are kind, some overtly avoid interaction, and aContinue reading “The Transient Life”

Passage: Columbia River Bar to Newport, Oregon Lord Horatio Nelson, famed British admiral, wrote, “I am ill every time it blows hard and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.”  Lord Nelson served in the British Navy from 1771 to 1805, when he was killed by gunfire in battle.  DuringContinue reading “The Seasickness Struggle”

If you have been following along, you know it has been a struggle for us to get down the western U.S. coast.  We made a lot of mechanical repairs, battled seasickness, waited in ports for rough weather to pass, cursed the lack of wind on days we felt comfortable going out, and rescued several disoriented/smoke-sick birds.  AndContinue reading “¡Bienvenidos a Mexico!”

A childhood diet of superheroes, Nancy Drew, and Harrison Ford (he played Han Solo and Indiana Jones) instilled a dream of invincibility in young me.  It wasn’t until this adventure that I thought about what invincibility really means.  It is not an innate characteristic that ensures you are bulletproof or will never lose.  It is something that is grown fromContinue reading “How to be Invincible”

One of the best things to come out of our journey so far is consistent evidence that people are good.  We have experienced unsolicited kindness in every place that we have stopped.  Complete strangers have loaned us their marina keys until we were able to attain our own, offered use of their vehicles, helped push us offContinue reading “Assholes and Elbows”

A friend of mine told me a story about her friend, an experienced river rafter, taking another friend out on a particularly rough river.  At one point in the trip, the seasoned boater asked the friend, “Are you having fun?”  His response was, “No, but I’m making memories.”   That statement is universally applicable.  It is the hard timesContinue reading “Making Memories”