Update: What we’ve been doing, where we’ve been, and where we’re going

Since we last posted a blog, we continued with visitors – our last set for a while – being my mother in law Fagel and my 7-year-old niece Hannah.  We had a great time with them, heading to a couple of anchorages in the 12 bays of Huatulco (pronounced Wha–TOOL-Koh).  We spent a couple of nights each at anchor at Chacacual and La India beaches, and then at Cacalutta, which was by far our favorite and most private.  We swam to the beach several times, went for beach walks, did yoga on the beach and on the boat, snorkeled a lot, and, of course, ate well!  We also managed to spend a day actually sailing, and a day at some recently discovered ruins of a Zapotec city from around 300 B.C. to A.D. 1500, called Copalita, where we also got a great view from a look-out point high up on a cliff.  We had some great bonding time:  each of us with Hannah, and each of us with Bobie/mom/Fagel.  It was sad to see them go.

Within 24 hours of their departure, however, we rented a car and drove the eight hours to the gorgeous colonial city of Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-HA-kah). The kids have written a blog about their trip, as required by their teacher, especially seeing as how they were going on five weeks of school break.  Each day after touring in and around Oaxaca, they would get back to the hotel room and journal about their respective days.  Those blogs will be posted shortly following this one.  I will of course supplement their blogs a bit, with photos and a summary.  It was truly an incredible trip, and has given us another idea of how to spend the remaining 8 months of our adventure.

If you’ve been following our blog, you’ll know that for quite some time we’ve been angsting (not a verb but should be) about whether to go south into Central America, head to the South Pacific, or stay in Mexico.  We’ve nixed Central America due to (a) no wind, (b) Costa Rica being relatively unfriendly for cruisers, (c) needing to be out of there in May when the rains and bugs start, (d) not having a solution regarding what we do with the boat at the end, as shipping it back is very expensive, and motoring it back would be very uncomfortable, long and fuel-costly.  So then we became sure we’d go to the South Pacific, a place we’ll likely never get to by plane on a regular vacation, and a place whose ecosystem is perhaps the richest in the oceans but is slowly being deteriorated.  Our issue with this is that we’d need more than one cruising season, and Danielle very much wants to be back at school with friends in September.  With this deadline, we’d be doing drive-by cruising, and then, of course, there’s the issue of what to do with the boat.  We understand there is a market in Australia for our boat, but again, the deadline makes it difficult to get there, get set up with a broker, and then just leave.  Unless we meet other kid boats heading to the South Pacific that will keep Danielle happy, this option is not looking good.  And that needs to be determined by early March in order to cross the Pacific shortly after that.  And get the boat ready for the long three week plus passage before then.

So once in Oaxaca, we realized how much we enjoy the land trips.  It then became clear:  We could stay in Mexico, do a few more land trips, and make it back to California with the boat in time to start school in September.  We are quite excited about this prospect in fact.  But of course, a cruiser’s plans are written in the sand at low tide.  I wouldn’t be surprised if our plans change a few dozen more times before we return home.

-Barbara, written while anchored in Puerto Angel