Plans

Brenda and I have booked passage on the ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan.  The ferry will depart on Thursday 3 March at 7 PM and will arrive in Mazatlan about 14 hours later.  The booking includes a cabin for two with an en suite.  The total cost was 2550 pesos, or about $210.  Our luggage will consist of one back pack each, which will be a challenge but will render us very mobile during our tour.  We expect to return to La Paz in the first week of April on the ferry from Topolobampo from the mainland near Los Mochis.

 On a more strategic level I have reverted to one of my earlier plans for sailing round the Horn.  Instead of making for Ecuador this May ahead of the hurricane season I plan to stay in La Paz until after the hurricane season and leave in early November to make directly for the Horn.

This change of thinking came from watching Jeanne Socrate's progress from Victoria, BC for the Horn aboard her yacht Nereida.  My calculations last year indicated that leaving La Paz after the hurricane season would put me at the Horn too late to make the favorable Dec-Jan window.  As usual in my calculations my assumptions regarding speed and distance covered were very conservative.  However, I noted that Jeanne was off Cape Mendacino California on 4 Nov, 725 miles NW of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula on 13 Nov, and was set to round the Horn in early January, until she was knocked down.  Based on her performance I figured that I should be able to comfortably make the Horn in the Dec-Jan window if I leave La Paz in early November.  Jeanne has validated my thoughts with her following opinion in a recent email to me: "If you plan to leave La Paz at beginning of November, that will put you near the Horn much earlier than I was - I left Victoria on 25th October so your plan puts you about three weeks ahead of my timing (I just checked my log!) - maybe more, since I was unable to motor through the calms."

For me there are big advantages to spending another summer in La Paz rather than sailing to Ecuador.  Above all, I like La Paz and life here at the Marina de La Paz.  Also, another summer here will allow me to do more work on (1) the boat's electrical wiring (2) locating and stopping water leaks through the deck (3) installing new tracks for the staysail (4) sprucing up the interior of the boat with yet more paint work.

There has also been another very favorable development.  Jak Mang, whom I met in Port Townsend in September 2009 through his association with his  friends John and Priscilla McKay of San Diego, who had just purchased their Sparkman and Stephens 43 "Rebecca", plans to accompany me on the sail from La Paz to round the Horn.  Jak is an experienced blue water sailor who like me enjoys life far over the horizon.  I offered to drop him off at the Falkland islands but he replied that he wasn't interested in the Falklands and elected to sail on to Cape Town.

Jak will bring valuable skills to the Horn endeavor and I am looking forward to sharing the adventure with him.