The Cruise of Jubilee
Background
The
Wheelers were active members of Fleet 9 for several years. In the fall
of 1999 they did what many of us dream of doing—they went cruising on their
Catalina 36, Jubilee—first down
the California coast, and then to Mexico. To help
picture part of their cruise you can click on the map thumbnail to see a larger map of northwestern Mexico. The arrows
on the map indicate some of the places they visited. From north to south these are: San
Carlos, Loreto, La Paz, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.
Click on year
2000, 2001,
or
2002
to go directly to cruising for those years; otherwise, just scroll down this page. The
narration begins in December 1999. Their Email address is jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Date:
December 1999
This is a condensed version of Linda's Wheeler's
description of their trip down the Baja Coast and then to Mazatlan.
Jubilee stayed in San
Diego for two weeks at the Police Dock, then the Silver Gate YC, and the South
West YC. We have nothing but good things to say about Downwind Marine Chandlery.
They provide all kinds of information and help for cruisers.
We left San Diego on
December 14 for Ensenada, 63 miles away, where we stayed through Christmas and
into the New Year. On January 5 we sailed for San Quintin. The coast here is
rugged, mountainous and stark. Not a tree or blade of grass in sight. From San
Quintin we had an exhilarating sail to Bahia Rosaria, spent the night there, and
then sailed overnight to Turtle Bay, 150 miles south. This is a small community
dependent on fishing and servicing visiting boats, and one of only two fuel
stops along the coast.
On January 11 we left
Turtle Bay for Bahia Asuncion where we spent the night. Winds were brisk and we
moved along at seven knots. The next day we left for Bahia de Ballenas-another
one day cruise. That was a fantastic day. We went through schools and schools of
fish and at one time we counted 12 whales. One broke the water only 50 feet from
Jubilee.
Our next leg was
overnight to Santa Maria where we spent two days. Next we moved 30 miles
further south to Puerta Magdalena where we saw many more whales. Eleven other
boats were anchored here, including one we had met in Ensenada. This was a three
day stopover before sailing overnight to Cabo San Lucas. As we approached the
Cape a giant sea turtle swam along side the boat for a few minutes, then a huge
manta ray rose out of the water and seemed to fly before sinking gracefully back
into the sea.
Cabo is a resort area,
with mostly huge powerboats and cruise ships. It's noisy, touristy, and
expensive. The slip fee was $53 a night. We stayed only five days, catching up
on email, calling our families, and resupplying the boat.
On January 25th we left
for Mazatlan, 200 miles across the Gulf. We saw one ferry boat, no other boats
and no wildlife. We arrived the following evening. We now have a berth at Marina
El Cid. The associated hotel is part of the vast El Cid complex and boaters at
the marina can use the hotel facilities. There are large grocery stores near by.
There's even a Sam's Club in town. Mazatlan is in a beautiful setting and a nice
city. Our plan is to stay here into April. We have had an enjoyable trip and met
many really great people.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Wed, 12 Jul 2000
From:
Linda Wheeler jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Subject: Jubilee calling
Hello everyone:
We're in San Carlos
Mexico, which is on the Mexican mainland about 250 miles south of Tucson.
It's been about 6 weeks
since we left La Paz and we have had some terrific experiences. The highlight
has to be observing a giant turtle laying eggs, covering them and then slowly
crawling back to the sea.
But to begin—we took our
time cove hopping after leaving La Paz. All the time the weather was calm,
benign and not much sailing, mostly motoring. We did short hops usually 6 - 15
mile days, nothing too tiring. One of the places we anchored was Isla Coronado
about 4 miles north east of Loreto. Couldn't wait to go ashore and after getting
the dinghy in the water we headed for the sandy beaches. However, a huge sign
said "no landing without permits" it was a protected wildlife refuge so we got
back in the dinghy and went snorkeling and clamming. Two other boats were buddy
boating with us. Alii Kai and Sun Dazzler. Between the boats we
gathered 40 plus giant clams and after waiting a day for them to purge the sand,
we steamed them, chopped the meat, added herbs, onions, cheese and bits and
pieces, put them back in the shells, wrapped them in foil and BBD'd them.
Delicious. The same night was a spectacular sunset. Just magic. Then when it got
dark we three couples got in our dinghies and went giant squid catching. These
monsters range in size from 15 to 80 lbs. You put a jig in the water (on a
fishing rod), it has a fluorescent lure on the end that attracts the male squid
and he gloms onto it. He thinks it is a female squid. Well, the joke's on him.
Within about 4 seconds our dinghy was being towed by a 35 lb squid. It was so
much fun. They squirt you with 5 gallons of water, cause they are ticked off.
They can also ink you if you're not careful.
All 3 dinghies latched
onto the squid. We let them all go except one which Dennis and Jude handled
while I kept their cigars lit and the flashlight aimed. We cut up this one for
calamari steaks. Another cruiser told us that these giant squid only come up
from the deep depths every 7 years. They mate then they die. So it looks like we
were in the right place at the right time.
On one of the islands a
few nights later we saw about 100 lighted pangas all lined up catching the
squid. Each panga hauls in 600 lbs a night and they get paid 7 cents a pound by
the Koreans. Not much money for all that work.
We were anchored in Caleta
Ramada cove, which is about 50 miles south of Loreto. About 7.a.m. we were
sitting in the cockpit watching the morning arrive. I saw two large tracks
heading up from the water to the sand dunes. Jude got the binoculars and we saw
a giant sea turtle (her head was about the size of a soccer ball), sitting on a
nest flipping sand with her flipper. She had laid her eggs and was covering
them. We watched her finish covering them then slowly crawl back down to the
water. Not wishing to disturb her we waited about an hour before going into the
beach and checking out the nest. We saw 3 other nests nearby. Then we
obliterated her tracks in the hopes that the nests wouldn't be disturbed or
molested. Apparently turtle eggs are a delicacy even though they are protected.
It was truly awesome to witness such a wonderful act of nature.
Jude caught a 39 inch 15lb
dorado. Actually it's a mahi mahi. We got it aboard, and put it in a plastic
garbage bag until we got to the anchorage to deal with filleting it. Of course
we ate it two nights in a row. Just yummy. Did I mention that we ate it raw one
night. The trick is to eat it very cold, then dip it in soy sauce, wasabi paste
and pickled ginger. It is really good.
I suffered a slight mishap
while we were rounding Pt. Chivato. We were trying to furl the headsail and head
further out from the coast due to reefs and sudden wind changes. Well the
headsail got stuck. Jude went up front to the bow and was not able to get it
unjammed. In the meantime, I was at the wheel and holding the headsail line. The
wind suddenly whipped it out of my hand before I could get it wrapped around the
drum, resulting in a nasty rope burn to my 4 fingers and palm. I held on to an
endless pack of ice til we got to the anchorage and then our friends on Sun
Dazzler came to the rescue with a burn kit. It contained a gooey type
dressing that is friendly to the burn area, cold packs and bandages. After a few
extra strength Motrin, and 8 hours later the intense pain subsided a bit. It
took 2 weeks for the hand to heal enough to remove the bandages. Lesson learned,
let the sails go in future. No way you can hold back a 9 ton boat when the wind
is in charge.
We like San Carlos. It's
very pretty and a good place to wait out the hurricane season. We will be here
for a couple of months most likely, and will be heading back to the States for a
few weeks in August/September.
We are enjoying the
cruising life and hope to continue it. We will keep in touch. Adios amigos.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Fri, 28 Jul 2000
From: Linda Wheeler jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Subject: Mexican Bus
Greetings Amigos, Linda and Jude here....
We have the boat in a
marina in San Carlos, (15 miles north of Guayamas) Mexico, which is about 250
miles south of Tucson on the Mexican Mainland. After the temps soared to 110
with 90% humidity, we decided not to wait out the hurricane season in San
Carlos. We closed up the boat and headed back to the U.S. for a couple of
months.
This involved closing up
and securing the boat against possible Chubascos, which are a fast, nasty type
of wind and rain storm. We stowed everything (including the head sail) below in
the cabin, put extra dock lines out and tied and retied everything.
Then we got Primero classe
(first class) tickets on a bus from Guayamas to Tijuana - an expected 15 hour
ride. We left the bus station at 3:45 p.m. on the 3:00 bus (first clue), heading
north. The bus originated in Mexico City (700 miles further south) and you can
imagine the debris etc. that was already on the bus. It made several stops along
the way at various bus stations picking up and dropping passengers off, with no
attempts to clean the bus.
Sometime around 1:00 a.m.
we felt the bus stop. We awakened to find traffic whizzing by on the wrong side
of the bus. The bus had stopped on the left hand side of the road out in the
middle of nowhere with a ¾ moon hiding behind dark clouds - pitch black. The bus
was disabled. The bus driver didn't even have a flashlight let alone a tool kit.
The relief bus driver was asleep underneath the bus in the baggage compartment,
which couldn't be opened due to the lack of air pressure produced by the bus
engine. We supposed he could eventually get real uncomfortable in there because
the 110 temps had lowered to only 99. I offered my Mini Maglite, which provided
enough light for Jude and the bus driver and a caballero passenger (who weighed
about 100 lbs, wore a cowboy hat and a belt buckle the size of a small suitcase)
to diagnose the problem: a busted radiator hose which caused the bus to
overheat. The cowboy seemed to know something about diesel engines, which was
good because the bus driver was hopeless. We had in our luggage a piece of hose,
but the luggage compartment couldn't be accessed. The bus driver began looking
around the roadside for repair material. This involved cutting off a tree
branch, and testing rocks for size for the purpose of blocking off the hose. He
had a cell phone, but didn't call for help. While about 8 men were discussing
the problem, one of the passengers decided to light a bonfire, I suppose to
provide some light. However, since it was about 200 feet away from the bus it
didn't make much sense. The bonfire soon got out of hand and developed into a
kind of mini forest fire. The cowboy went over to supervise getting that under
control. With the help of other passengers, the area was cleared and dirt thrown
on the fire. Of course there was no water available. Four other buses stopped
but provided no assistance; one did offer a jug of anti freeze and some water.
The roadside now resembled a bus station with all the buses stopped; the relief
bus driver slept through the commotion. Amazing. Jude and the cowboy tried to
show the bus driver how to cut the hose, with the help of Jude's Leatherman tool
(which was the only tool available) and pull it over the broken part. He didn't
get it. He did start the bus again and got enough air pressure to allow opening
of the luggage compartment and the relief driver's sleeping compartment. He
didn't get out, just kept sleeping on! Jude got the hose out of our luggage. The
cowboy found a half used tube of silicone caulking that he used to plug the
abandoned hose. It turned out to be a heater hose that wasn't needed. Then all
the passengers gave up their bottles of drinking water to put in the radiator.
With that the bus started
and after 2 hours we were on our way. We still had 350 miles to go to Tijuana.
We stopped at 5 other bus stations but the bus driver didn't do anything about
getting a better repair job. Amazingly enough the bus made it to Tijuana about 8
hours later. The repair held. We have to wonder if he even got it repaired then,
or just started back on the return journey to Mexico City.
At the Tijuana Bus
Terminal we transferred to a Greyhound Bus for the trip across the border into
San Diego. The Bus Driver was new, and she had her 8 year old granddaughter
aboard. It was her first trip into Tijuana and she didn't know how to get out of
the city. We tried to help her with coaching on backing up the bus, because we
had gone around and around the city roundabouts several times and were still not
headed in the right direction toward the border crossing. The only way to get
going in the right direction was to back the bus up. Jude of course, was just
itching to take over the controls and back the darn thing up. Eventually she
managed to back up the bus and 1 hour later we made it to the inspection
station. It should have been a 15 minute trip. We waited another hour before
they allowed the passengers off and to go through customs where we boarded the
bus again and finally made it into San Diego. A 15 hour bus ride turned into a
24 hour journey.
We are now in San Diego
and will be heading to Florida in a few days, then back to the S.F.Bay area
first of September for a month. We expect to return to Mexico first part of
October. We hope we can use some other form of transportation to return to San
Carlos than the buses. Perhaps a rental car…
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30
Oct 2000
From: Linda Wheeler jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Subject: Leaving San Carlos
Hello friends. We are still in San
Carlos and about to head out back across the Sea of Cortez to the Baja side of
Mexico making a southerly path towards La Paz, then over to Mazatlan where we
expect to stay for Christmas, then on to P.Vallarta, and then south towards
Costa Rica and Panama.
We spent the summer in
Florida and California. My father became gravely ill and I flew home to Adelaide
Australia on 9-24. He died 9-26 I think he waited for me to get there. I stayed
another month to keep my mother company and also to help out with the many
things that need to be done at such a time. After seeing my father’s condition I
prayed for God to take him. It was heartbreaking to see my kind and gentle
father in such discomfort. He was 81 years old.
Thank goodness the
Olympics were on during this sad and difficult time. It gave us something to do
and something to watch. The whole country was alive with excitement and good
feelings. It was a nice place to be. I think they did a really good job of
hosting the Olympics. One of my friends went to the closing ceremonies. She said
that there were 1.5 million people lined along the shores of Sydney Harbor to
watch the fireworks. Only 4 arrests for hooliganism. Simply amazing. The crowds
of people behaved themselves.
I brought back a huge
flag, it’s the Battle Flag of Australia. It is the normal Australian flag with a
brown kangaroo with red boxing gloves superimposed on it. Really great looking
flag. Jude put it up on the boat and already it has generated a lot of interest
from other cruisers.
We are looking forward to
getting out on the water again. Happy Halloween.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Fri, 22 Dec 2000
From: Linda Wheeler jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Subject: Holiday Greetings from Mazatlan, Mexico
Hola Amigos and Feliz Navidad:
We hope you have a lovely
peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year.
We are in Mazatlan, Mexico
and enjoying warm balmy tropical weather during the day and cool evenings and
cool nights. Absolutely perfect weather.
We expect to stay here
thru mid January and then head south for Puerta Vallarta.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Wed, 2 May 2001
From:
Linda Wheeler jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Subject: Jubilee calling
We currently have
the boat in Mazatlan and have delayed our plans to head further south towards
the canal due to wanting to spend another year in the Sea of Cortez. Also my
father died (in Australia) and a few other family personal matters added to our
decision not to go further south at this time.
We still love the
cruising life in case you are wondering. We are presently in Florida on our
annual visit back to do taxes and check on the business. We are returning to
Mazatlan on May 7th and will head over to La Paz for the cruising season around
mid May.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Mon, 19 Feb 2001
From:
Linda Wheeler jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Subject: jubilee update
Dear Friends and Family:
Hello and greetings. We
are about to leave Mazatlan and head for Puerto Vallarta this morning. Mazatlan
is one of our favorite cities and it becomes very difficult to leave.
During the time here we
have been able to participate in quite a few activities, including Mexican horse
racing, a baseball game, a Ballet production, and we also went fishing. I caught
a 10 lb yellowtail tuna. After filleting it, we chilled it, sliced it real thin
and ate it raw with soy sauce and wasabi paste. Muy delicioso... We have become
accustomed to eating it raw although I was a bit apprehensive the first time.
The baseball game was a
local game between Mazatlan team and Mochos Ochis team. Very hard played and
professional. At one point the bases were loaded and the count was 3 - 2 when
play stopped suddenly and the players took a break. Several people in the stands
decided to dance and sing and the players waited about 10 minutes and watched
the audience then resumed the play. We couldn’t begin to imagine what it would
do to their concentration. The game took about 4 hrs to play with several breaks
along the way. Quite an experience. It cost $4.50 for seats behind home plate.
We learned that the players are paid $3.50 a game.
The ballet was in two
parts. It was held in the old Theatre in downtown Mazatlan. It has been totally
restored and is very impressive. The performance was Cri Cri, which is a kind of
rendition of Mexican Nursery Rhymes, and danced by children who were extremely
good ballet dancers. The second half was the Nutcracker Suite, which was
performed by the National Mexican Ballet Company—very professional and very
good. Seats cost $5.00 whether you sat in the middle or in the boxes. There were
huge red velvet curtains draping the stage.
The Mexican Horse racing
was held in a field about 3 miles from the marina. They were quarter horses—fast
and powerful. Two to a race. Betting was done individually amongst the crowd. I
won $10.00 and Jude lost $10.00. We happened to sit next to a rancher from Utah
who brings his horses down to sell at the races. He explained the proceedings
and pointed out several of the main people including the track owner. There was
a circle of men down near the finish line, where the serious betting is done,
about $1,000 per race. He told us that there is going to be a derby race in
March with the purse being $80,000 dollars. There were tents set up with food
and drink and the toilets were actually flush toilets. We were impressed. There
weren’t many gringos there.
This past weekend we
rented a 700 cc Honda motorcycle and took off onto the back roads surrounding
Mazatlan and visited villages. I think the people in the villages were as
interested in us as we were in them. The weather was great for bike riding. The
bike ran well but didn’t have a windshield, so we got quite a bit of wind action
and bugs of course. I took a direct hit from a butterfly that got all mushed up
on my face. Charming...
Well that’s about all for
now. We expect to be in P.V. area for about a month then head back to Mazatlan
where we will leave the boat for a month or so and head to Florida. We are doing
just fine, eating a lot of fish and learning Mexican culture and foods. This is
a fascinating country.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Thurs, 7 July 2001
From:
Linda Wheeler jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Subject: jubilee update
Dear Friends and Family:
Hello and greetings. We
thought it was time to let you know what we are up to.
We are just fine and the
boat is in good shape. We have been spending the past few months cruising the
Sea of Cortez and enjoying the many anchorages and life along the Baja
peninsular. We have been buddy boating with another couple Ron and Karen on
Aegean Odyssey.
A normal day if there is
such a thing consists of exploring the area that we have anchored in. Sometimes
this means walking along the beach and finding exotic shells (even a huge turtle
shell that the owner no longer needed). We were sorely tempted to take it aboard
and polish it and keep it, but we put it back where we found it. Other times, we
hitch a ride into the nearest village or town and see what the stores have
available. Generally most villages have tiendas (convenience stores) that sell
the basic groceries such as eggs, powdered milk, potatoes, tortillas and canned
goods. In one tiny store in a village we actually found cans of root beer.
Simply amazing. And yet other times we simply stay on the boat and enjoy the
surrounding scenery. Getting together with other cruisers for pot lucks on the
beach or roasting marsh mellows is also a favorite pastime.
We have found that the
Mexican people are most likely to pick us up when hitchhiking into town and give
us a ride. U.S. citizens or gringos do not. One such ride recently was in a
very, rusty old van that was piled high with clothes inside. The owner Adolfo
was a beach vendor. The driver's seat was held together with wire coat hangars
extending from the inside door casing to the back of the (frame only) seat. The
dashboard was absolutely gutted, the windshield cracked and broken and no seats
to speak of. We sat on tires and boxes for the 11 mile journey into town, the
temperature soaring to 106. Adolfo arranged for one of his cousins to take us
back to the anchorage. He stopped by his cousins small shack and got him out of
bed at 11.a.m on a Monday morning (too much cerveza the night before) Then he
stopped at a gas station and ice store so that we could get supplies. We gave
him some money for his trouble and his kindness.
In another bay we dinghied
ashore and asked the palapa (beach cafe) owner Carlos if we could leave our
dinghies in front of his place while we caught a bus into La Paz. Of course came
the reply. And then he asked us to do some shopping for him since we were going
into town anyway. We took his list and brought back his supplies. Everyone helps
everyone in Mexico. We never did catch the bus because yet another Mexican
citizen stopped and offered us a ride.
Most evenings we sit on the
bow of the boat and watch the spectacular sunsets with a cup of coffee. While
doing this in Sweet Pea Cove on San Marcos island, we were watching an awesome
sunset when 3 whales slowly glided in front of the boat with their unmistakable
whooshing sound. They moved in slow tandem together and we were just mesmerized
by the sight. Then as the sunset disappeared about 60 pangas (fishing
boats)lined up with their night lights to catch squid. It is squid season. They
catch about 400 kilos at a time per boat. Very tough hard work. All of it is
sold to a co-op and then it goes to Korea.
Jude has been successful
catching fish. dorado, tuna, triggerfish, and my favorite, cabria. One morning
he went fishing in the dinghy with a friend Ron from another sailboat. They
caught several triggerfish. Back on the boat Ron was filleting the fish. One in
particular was filleted on both sides and the guts kind of hanging out, one
would think that the fish was definitely dead. Not so. It suddenly jerked and
bit Ron on the finger. It was totally unexpected and sure surprised the heck out
of him. Jude of course saw the humor in that and just howled laughing, before
offering to get a Bandaid. That fish was ticked!!! We fried him up that night,
but he was kind of tough and chewy.
One
day we were proceeding north on an as usual slow pace, destination Aqua Verde
cove. Looking ahead we saw a lot of black shapes in the water directly in our
path. Turned out to be a pod of pilot whales. These are about the size of a
dolphin but they have snubby snouts and a kind of deformed fin. They just slowly
glided around the boat blowing air out of their blow holes. We estimated about
200 of them all around us.
A real privilege to watch this fabulous scene.
We don't really have any
solid plans to go anywhere else yet. We are enjoying Mexico so very much. We
will keep in touch from time to time and let you know where we are and what we
are doing. My Spanish is definitely improving and I can communicate a whole lot
more than when we first arrived almost 2 years ago.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Fri, 2 November 2001
From:
Linda Wheeler jubileesailing@yahoo.com
Subject: jubilee update
Dear friends and family:
Hello from Mazatlan, Mexico. We arrived here a couple of days ago after a 3 day
3 night trip down the Mexican mainland coast from Guaymas (San Carlos), Mexico.
We had beautiful calm weather a gentle breeze and following seas. Almost
perfect. Even a bright orange moon to guide us. It was a very smooth trip with
the only excitement being a middle of the night visit from a Mexican Navy patrol
boat.
It came alongside us
suddenly out of the darkness and shone bright lights on Jubilee. We watched them
from the cockpit. They stayed alongside about 5 minutes which seemed like an
hour and then they sped off. We watched them on the radar screen as they
approached several other shrimp boats that were within an 8 mile radius of us. I
suppose it was some kind of training excercise.
We found that 6 hour
watches work best for us. Jude takes the 6.p.m. to midnight shift while I sleep,
then I take the midnight to dawn shift while Jude sleeps. The time passes
quickly and there is no way you can accidentally fall asleep because you are too
alert watching the radar screen and picking your way through 30 or so shrimp
boats. It's the fishing nets that we worry mostly about, so we give them a wide
berth.
We pass the time, reading
or doing chores or watching the myriad of marine life. Several times we were
visited by pods of dolphins and it is always exciting to watch them tear back
and forth around and under the boat. Fun for us and fun for them. We picked up a
tiny hitchiker this time. It was a little bird no bigger than a sparrow. He
dropped exhausted on the deck and rested about 15 minutes before getting the
strength to work his way up the lines to a spot underneath the mainsail where he
snuggled in for the night. In the morning he was up and around and walking
around on the deck eating bugs and breadcrumbs that we put out for him. About an
hour later he flew away and we wondered where he was going and where he came
from because we were at that point about 30 miles out from the coast.
It is nice being back here
in Mazatlan, we really like this city and also renewing friendships with other
cruisers and also Mexican friends.
We expect to stay here thru
January 2002 and then start heading south to Costa Rica. We will be going to
Australia for Christmas and to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday.
That's all for
now. Hope all is well with you.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Thurs, 14 February 2002
We are in Puerta Vallarta and at
long last starting to head south towards Panama. We spent 6 weeks in Australia
over Dec. and Jan. After getting back to Mazatlan mid January we finally got away
from the dock at El Cid...
We arrived here about a week ago
after sailing down from Mazatlan. The trip down was smooth and
uneventful and we timed it right just between two rather nasty weather systems.
Our journey was sunny with a following sea. We were treated to the sight of 6
whales around the boat as well as two schools of dolphins zooming around
Jubilee. They sure like doing that. We watch their faces as they race by and I
swear they are smiling at us.
Right now we are docked in a
swanky place called Paradise Village in Puerta Vallarta. It is an enormous
resort that even has lions, tigers (with 3 newborn cubs), deer, emus, numerous
exotic birds and a caiman thrown in for good measure. We have enjoyed meeting
up with other cruiser friends and comparing stories. Jim and Judy Murphy
on Great Escape [long time Fleet 9 members] arrived here 2 days ago and we ran
into them at a dock party. Pretty amazing. I expect we will be here
about a week then we will start going further south towards the main target
PANAMA CANAL. The boat is in excellent shape
due to Jude's ongoing maintenance!
We are truly enjoying this lifestyle and will write again when we have more
interesting news.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Thurs, 27 June 2002
We thought perhaps it was time to say hello and let you
know where we are and what we have been up to.
We traveled as far south as Ixtapa Mexico (April 02) which
is about 140 miles north of Acapulco. Then we had to make a decision on where we
wanted to be during hurricane season. We definitely did not want to race through
El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua in order to get to Costa Rica before June
1st. Costa Rica is considered to be out of the hurricane area. Other than Puerta
Vallarta there is no safe hurricane hole along that part of the Mexican Coast.
So it was either return to P.V. or rush off to Costa Rica. We opted to return to
P.V.
We plan on continuing further south in November. This will
give us more time to spend in the other countries. Since we are not in any
particular hurry anyway, it made sense to leave Jubilee in a marina in Puerta
Vallarta.
We are both just fine and very much enjoying the cruising
life. We had our first spectacular dinghy landing while attempting to come
ashore in Tenacatita. This is the place where Hollywood filmed the movie
McHale's Navy. Everything was quite normal until the swell picked up the back of
the dinghy turned us sideways and dumped us and our 2 friends into the water and
the surf just crashed all over us. We all came up laughing and thoroughly
drenched. The tourists on the beach, applauded us.... We headed for the McHale's
Navy set, which is now a bar, and had a beer or two and dried out, reliving the
landing a few times over.
We took an inland tour and went to see a real live volcano
near the town of Colima. It had started spewing out gases and smoke about two
weeks before we got there. The residents in the area didn't seem too worried
about it. In fact a restaurant owner showed us his home video that he had taken
the previous night, showing molten lava coming down beside his truck. The
volcano was almost perfect in its symmetry, and size. We just stared at it in
awe. The power of nature.
We are now in Florida and will stay here until returning to
Jubilee on October 15th. It is hot, humid and rainy here, very similar to
Mexico.
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The
Wheelers were active members of Fleet 9 for several years. In the fall
of 1999 they did what many of us dream of doing—they went cruising on their
Catalina 36, Jubilee—first down
the California coast, and then to Mexico. To help
picture part of their cruise you can click on the map thumbnail to see a larger map of northwestern Mexico. The arrows
on the map indicate some of the places they visited. From north to south these are: San
Carlos, Loreto, La Paz, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.