sailing homepage : log & reports
Getting Started - 2005 Onwards
Sara and I started thinking about sailing after I developed a dangerous habit of crashing roadracing motorcycles at high speed. Dinghy sailing turned into bay cruising, and the dream took hold. We carefully searched out the perfect boat, trialed and tested her, and finally made her ours. (read more)
The Great Refit - Summer 2006
A boat is a hole in the water to which you pour money. A newly-purchased boat is some sort of swirling vortex that sucks the money right out of your pocket. What we thought was a perfectly suitable boat was an incredibly expensive project! (read more)
Leg 1: Sailing from San Francisco to San Diego - Oct 4 to Oct 30
We missed our planned departure date by only three days. On a rainy October 4th, 2006, we quietly escaped our marina slip and wandered off into the bay. We spent a few days doing trials, and watching the fleet week airshow, and then headed out under the gate one foggy morning. (read more)
Leg 2: The Baja-Haha cruiser's rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas - Oct 30 to Nov 12
On October 30th, 2006, we cast off from our slip in San Diego, clustered around the starting line with 150 other boats, then turned left and sailed South out of the US and into Mexican waters. It was the beginning of our two-week journey down the Baja peninsula with the Latitude 38-sponsored Baja-Haha cruiser's rally / race. (read more)
Leg 3: Sailing from Cabo San Lucas to La Paz to Puerto Vallarta - Nov 13 to Dec 9
After the Baja-Haha wrapped up, Briana headed back to the US, and our drinking money ran out, we needed to escape from Cabo San Lucas. On November 13th, super early, we motored out into a maelstrom and hauled up the sails. We were away and not a moment too soon. Our destination: Puerto Vallarta, a three-day sail. Our schedule? One month! (read more)
Leg 4: Puerto Vallarta and our wedding - Dec 9 to Jan 2, 2007
We arrived in Puerto Vallarta on Saturday morning - nine days before our wedding - just in time! We found a place to stash the boat, rented a car, and moved ashore for a month of craziness. It was sad to leave Wanderlust tied to a dock in the marina, but soooo nice to sit under an endless stream of fresh water in a hotel shower. We slept on dry land for the first time in more than three months! (read more)
Leg 5: Sailing from Puerto Vallarta to Zihuatanejo and the sailing festival - Jan 3 to Feb 4, 2007
After a fantastic vacation in Puerto Vallarta - can you take a vacation from a vacation? - we moved back onto the boat, gave her a thorough scrubbing, re-provisioned, and set sail for Zihuatenejo and the sailing festival at the end of January. This section of the Mexican mainland is called the "Gold Coast", and is renown as the some of the best cruising grounds of the entire eastern Pacific. (read more)
Leg 6: Turning around and heading back north- Sailing from Zihuatanejo to La Paz - Feb 5 to Mar 2, 2007
The Zihua sailfest was a wonderful experience, but real life is calling (read: we're suffering a dinero deficit) and the festival is our turn-around point. We are spending February clawing our way back north, and in just one month we will travel all the way back up to La Paz while hosting three different people on Wanderlust! Will's parents and Sara's friend Mari will be joining us. (read more)
Leg 7: Bashing back up the Baja peninsula; returning to California!- Sailing from La Paz to San Diego - Mar 3 to Mar 27, 2007
What goes down must come back up. The trip north is called the 'baja bash': straight into the wind, waves, and current for more than 750nm. With few stopping points along the way, traversing this beautiful desert involves putting our nose to the grindstone and sailing hard and fast. After punishing trips into Puerto Vallarta and crossing the Sea of Cortez, we're ready for more. Bring it on! Sara's friend Angela and cousin Jeff will be joining us from La Paz to Cabo, and Will's friend Duane unwittingly volunteered to join us all the way up the Baja: sucker! (read more)
Leg 8: Returning home - Sailing from San Diego back to San Francisco - Mar 28 to Apr 6, 2007
We're back in the United States! I've shaved my 'Baja Beard', we're both enjoying two or three hot showers a day, and we're enjoying constant cellphone access, accurate weather forecasts on the VHF, delicious guardia-free water, and lots of family and friends. Unfortunately this is the final leg of our trip as we take Wanderlust back to San Francisco. We expect to arrive sometime in the next two weeks - while the California coast has more cities and shorter legs between ports, it is still a dangerous coastline and we're hoping for nice weather. (read more)