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| Coyote Beach on the bay of conception. Our new old Tor |
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| Boojum trees in Catavina |
Leaving the Northwest the last week of October and heading south as the winter closed in behind us, we were on our way to Baja and a rondevouz with some adventure. We had turned in our Tortuga transportation from last year to go lighter and meaner in our old Tortuga 2 (our 40 year old camper on our Toyota truck) Taking three days to get to the Mexico border and three more down Baja 101
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Camping near Loreto. Could this be Hawaii?
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brought us to LaPaz, where we boarded a small plane and crossed the Sea of Cortez, to Matzatlan on the mainland. As we flew over looking down into the blue waters we realized that we would be backtracking our way in few weeks on a very slow and different vehicle.
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| Klickatat II in Matzalan |
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| Katy and Fred find some night life. Cheers! |
We met up with Admiral Katy and Capitan Bill McKinney at the Matzalan marina and were introduced to the Klickatat II, their new boat and our home for the next two and a half weeks. After our third crew member, Fred Paxon, showed up, we spent the week shopping, sightseeing, paddle boarding and night lifeing around Matzalan before heading out across the open sea toward Baja.
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| Captain Bill at the helm |
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| Jan gets her sea legs, (finally). Ol' Tom the Sailor man |
The crossing was a first for all of us, and as we saw the land slip away from behind us and choppy seas and headwind meet in front of us, we watched as the sun set, the full moon rose and put a lot of faith in the navigation and auto pilot system.
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| The crew enjoying fresh Dorado Fish Tacos |
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| Katy doing her job cleaning out the composting pooper (they didn't make the crew do it) |
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| Tom Driving through large swells |
Jan was the only seasick casualty and she fed the fishes for about the first 12 hours, after which she gained her sea legs for the rest of the trip. It took 32 hours to cross the sea and we were all happy when the sun came up and we could see the distant shoreline ahead. The next 10 days were spent in and out of bays, sailing north along the East Cape, exploring the land on our way back to LaPaz. We had some high adventure with large swells, testing out the boat, and figuring out a few problems on the way, but had a very fun time with our friends and the boating life.
Our friends Gail and Lee from Trout Lake arrived just before Thanksgiving to take our places as crew members. Bidding the admiral and captain bien viaje and heading south, we traveled again in our camper for a week of camping on the beach in the little fishing village of Los Fraliles about 100 miles to the south.
We spent Thanksgiving with a large community of gringos who had befriended us on the beach and invited us to a feast put on at a local ranchero.
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Parade in LaPaz
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They had been wintering down in Los Fralies for 20 years camping and fishing every winter without electricity or conveniences of stores or civilization. We had a wonderful meal and got to peek into the world of Mexican ranch life.
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| Water in the desert! Ah! |
We spent another several days in an oasis like canyon in the mountains before making our way north again.
It took three days to get back to the border and another two visiting my Aunt Marg in Palm Springs before heading up through the Sacramento Valley and then along through the redwoods. The weather started to chill down about mid way up the Baja and we spent several nights shivering in the back of our heat-less camper on our way up through California and Oregon.
But the redwoods were as spectacular as ever, and the southern coast amazing. We traveled up the Oregon Coast to get home around the 10th of December to see Jan's folks and spend a month at home checking out the rain and staying warm by the fire.
So that was our adventure for the fall. Check back in a while to see where we are off to next. Got to get out and go while we still can!
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Awesome road near Jedd Smith Redwood Park
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