We're Married!

After nearly eight wonderful years together and a two year long engagement, we felt the timing was about right for a fall wedding. We eloped and exchanged vows in Mt. Vernon, Washington on November 1st and headed on to Guemes Island for a short honeymoon vacation. The newness of the wedding bands hasn't quite worn off, as you find both of us twirling and smiling at our rings! We're looking forward to many, many more adventurous years together!

More pictures from the road home

The road home

Hi all, we're in Monterey, slowly making our way up the coast, having stopped in Joshua Tree Nat. Park, San Gabriel Mts. north of LA, Morro Bay and now Monterey. Having a great drive up the coast.



These pics are from Joshua Tree and Morro Bay

Heading Home

On Monday, April 9th, Om Shanti will be settling in to her new home here in La Paz at Berkovich Boat Yard for the summer season. Today we are tearfully saying goodbye to Christian and Poki (Shawn's brother and sister-in-law) as they set off for a new adventure to the South Pacific and New Zealand on board their boat Irie. We had another wonderful season here in the Sea of Cortez and completed our final research for our up-coming cruising guide for the Sea. Once Om Shanti is put to bed, we will be heading to the mainland by ferry where we will pick up our truck that is in storage in San Carlos. From there we will be taking an extended roadtrip home via coastal Highway 101 to relive our trip that we made 4 years ago by boat. By late April we should be settled back into Washington, in search of that ugly four-letter word, work. We look forward to seeing many of you back in Washington this summer!

In La Paz

We arrived in La Paz a couple of days ago. Irie and my parents came in yesterday. These pictures are from the past two months in the Sea of Cortez.

New home

While we're working, we found a great apartment by Deception Pass.

Travelogue May 9, 2005

Every cruiser loves the excitement of coming into a marina after a long passage or weeks being out at anchor. Town runs, restaurants, ice, real fresh water showers and never ending beer supplies make our mouths water when thinking about being tied to the dock. Not to mention the calm, peaceful, worry-free nights. A strange phenomena, however occurs once tied up safe and sound, no matter how much you want to leave, you can’t.

Knowing full well of this phenomenon, you might try to be proactive and set a date of departure, possibly Tuesday. We all know that Tuesday really means Thursday, but when Thursday rolls around old friends just arrive and since you have no strict schedule to abide to, it would be rude not to stay the night and socialize. Friday morning approaches and you have now sworn off beer and margaritas forever, plus every sailor knows that you never leave port on a Friday. However the superstition got started, it seems like a damn good idea to both you and your hangover to leave Saturday. Saturday morning you listen to the weather forecast, which is marginal, okay, but not great. What’s another day after all? By now you start passing folks on the dock and dodging their questions like, “You’re still here? I thought you were leaving Tuesday?” You are starting to get angry with yourself now because you want to leave, you know you need to leave, but the dock jockey influence has it’s grip on you. By Monday you realize you now need to refill the water tanks, resupply with fresh produce and ice, more beer is essential and you fresh, clean laundry is in need of serious cleaning after all the hot, sweaty days and nights – clearly another day is needed. After a long day of chores and your anxiety and frustration over not having left yet, it is probably in your best interest to take a day to chill, sleep in relax and take advantage of the hotel’s pools. Wednesday is your day!

Paradise Village in Puerto Vallarta sucked us in in a bad way. We couldn’t leave no matter how hard we tried (or didn’t try). People attempt all their lives to attain paradise and here we were trying to escape! We finally did break the ties and made a long haul, 55 miles north up the coast to Chacala, a beautiful, sleepy little coastal village. We had made the break from paradise and spent hours trying to figure out why we hadn’t done it sooner! Chacala is gorgeous to view from the water – palm thatched huts called palapas line the small white beach. At one time it was a coconut plantation and the trees still remain, now backed by fields of pineapples – a piña colada paradise! The only unfortunate aspect of Chacala is the nauseating swell. One of the guidebooks calls it a “peaceful massage.” Clearly one person’s peace is another person’s sleepless night.

With a good weather window we continued north up to San Blas the following day. We anchored in Mantanchen Bay, a giant anchorage where the depth one mile out is only 30 feet. We dropped the hook in 12 feet of water and were still light years from shore. We shared the bay with two other cruising boats, both of which were surfers. With the gentle breaking swell near the beach, our new friends took us under their wings and attempted to teach Shawn and I to surf. We now have great understanding why all those Californian and Hawaiian surfers have such fantastic bodies – surfing is a serious work out, especially if you have no idea what you’re doing. However, it was enough of an experience to whet our appetite for more. Now the question is whether we can brace the cold Pacific Northwest waters this summer in Washington to further our skills!

We finally got driven out of San Blas by what Shawn affectionately calls, “the little bastards.” Millions upon millions of tiny, biting no-see-ums that leave terrible scratchy welts. We were covered with bites by the time we left and scratched our entire overnight trip to Mazatlan.

Our passage north took us by Isla Isabella, a renowned wildlife island that has previously been documented by both National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau. You can spot the rocky little island off in the distance by the cloud of birds soaring over it. Pelicans, boobies, frigates and other sea birds flood the sky overhead.

We continued on past the island and were given quite a show by the manta rays near sunset. Literally hundreds of mantas lined the surface of the water, every which way we looked – jumping, flapping and flipping. Quite an amazing sight!

We reached Mazatlan the following day and braved the tiny breakwater entrance to the harbor. After watching some pretty good breaking waves hit the bar, we picked our time, I closed my eyes, and we full-throttled our way across without any trouble.

This time of year Mazatlan is very quiet and laid back, much to our liking. The temperature is perfect, not too hot and pleasantly cool in the evenings without any humidity.

We installed a brand new ham/SSB radio here in Mazatlan, which has been keeping Shawn entertained into the wee hours of the morning. Who knew that talking to someone in Austin, Texas could be so exciting. Our old radio caused us nothing but headache so we are now in radio bliss with new modern technology. With as much hassle the old radio caused us, we’ve toyed with the idea of giving it a proper burial at sea.

We hope to leave Mazatlan tomorrow and begin our northern progress again towards San Carlos. Only 400 more miles to go traveling at 6 mph! Our best goes out to you all and thank you for all the wonderful emails.

Wing and Wing

Om Shanti crossing Bahia Concepcion

First Posting

This is the first post on our new blog site. In the future we will keep it updated with tales of our travels on Om Shanti, a 1976 Westsail 32 currently in dry storage in San Carlos, Mexico. We will return early next year after the kitty is fattened back up.