Finally a day with no worldly obligations. Yesterday we took Edward Blair out to sea with our friends Mack and Lisa. No plan and no need for one. We didn't even know if we were going to head south or north while exiting the marina. Who cares.
I made the decision to sail south away from the wind for a relaxing morning and a more exciting trip of beating into the wind it for the return later in the day.
Over the holidays Katy and I flew from Mexico to San Francisco. There was a car waiting and an itinerary planned.
Spend a little time in San Francisco, eat good food, tour the coast, drink House of Shields dry. I wasn't able to empty all the bar of its bottles, but it put me in a way after drinking back a handful of the best sazeracs and an old fashioned or two you could hope to have.
Welcome to a pile of random images, in no particular order or fashion, that just never made it into a post anywhere.
They are from our recent crossing.
Bridges on the Intracoastal Waterway, sunsets along a coast, cats on islands and abandoned forts in the middle of nowhere...
This weekend we spent two days in Puerto Aventuras and along the coast of the Mayan Riviera. This time on our friend's yacht, Piratas de Tejas which runs charters under the name h2oh Sun Cruises. One day full of clouds, the other with sun.
The 72' yacht, Piratas de Tejas of h2oh Sun Cruises.
Their tours include a pretty amazing list of activities like game fishing, snorkelling with sea turtles and the thousands of reef fish you'll encounter, karaoke at sea, open bar, a boat tour through the beautiful, private marina in Puerto Aventuras and a bunch more.
We'll be writing a bit more about the tours in the near future since we'll be working with them on some projects coming up.
It doesn't look like it in this shot, but at one point out in the Yucatan Channel in front of Puerto Aventuras, we were in 8'-10' seas with short periods and high winds. It was supposed to be a mellow Sunday with our friends Miguel, Susana and their two year old daughter, Uma.
Then the bow of Edward Blair dug into, and submerged through one of the largest waves we were confronted with, breaking out the other side. While all the adults aboard were wondering if the conditions would ease up or not, Uma took a nap. Uma doesn't worry about big waves and poor conditions.
After only an hour at sea on a no-destination Sunday Sail with friends, we grew tired of getting tossed around, making between 1.5 and 4 knots, depending which side of a wave we were on, and headed back to the marina for a better idea. Barbecue and beer.
Sure, it's damned fun to watch as the bow of your boat goes straight into the ocean and comes back up, blowing through the waves in front of you, but with a two year old aboard and a full cockpit with no real destination it was time to avoid the, "This could get worse..." possibilities and head on in.
Later in the day around 5pm the winds calmed down and so did the seas. Our friends Mack and Lisa came over to our slip in their 26' zodiac and its 250hp outboard. They picked us up and whipped out across the bay, airing off the tops of the longer, rolling waves into a protected caleta where cenote water comes out from under the seabed.
When the cenote water merges with the ocean water, it makes a cold mix of salt water and fresh water that will redeem the day and cool everyone down in this Caribbean heat.
All photos by our good friend, Susana Hidalgo.
