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Three years later….
It’s NOT True!!
There’s a popular saying among cruisers, that “the happiest two days of a boat owner’s life are the day you buy her and the day you sell her”….well, we’re here to say, it’s not true! We put pen to paper today and tearfully sold our girl, with a hug for each other and thanks to Happy Dance for thousands of excellent escapades.
We happy danced for ten years, across 22,600 miles of ocean, in eight countries from latitude 57.47 N to 07.17 N, longitude 135.00W to 78.00W, from glaciers to the desert, and tropical beaches to rain forests.
So now I’m sitting at my desk in our land home in Cayucos, watching the butterflies in the garden, and realizing that it’s nearly impossible to boil it all down into a few words on paper. How do I begin to describe the moments of delight and the moments of dread, the indescribable beauty of sights and sounds at sea, the lessons learned by taking risks, the kinship of community, the hardships, and the blessings?
Is it even possible that my words could express the thrill of waking at sunrise to the sound of dolphins scratching their backs on the anchor chain, or the hilarity of watching Happy Dance being towed around on a glassy bay by those same dolphin friends? Will I be able to express my trepidation of sailing at night through a lightning storm while 100 miles offshore, or hearing the howl of hurricane force winds in the shrouds?
I’ll give it a go, but I’ll need your help! Imagine the salt air, the gurgle of waves on the hull, the call of the terns, or the slap of a humpback’s tail while I spend a little time on memory lane!
As most of you know, we sold everything before moving to Happy Dance to live aboard for six months while we had lots of new bells and whistles added in preparation for the great adventure. In the spring of 2013, we finally tossed the dock lines and sailed north through the San Juan Islands, the Gulf Islands, up the Inside Passage to the Broughton Archipelago, and continued all the way to Southeast Alaska. It all sounds so easy and precise, and as if we knew what we were doing when I say, “we sailed north to Alaska”, but we were still such newbies! I don’t think we realized or even took notice of the fact that setting sail as live aboard cruisers was a seriously gutsy move!
Learning to communicate was the first order of business. Happy Dance is 43’ long, and when we were at opposite ends of the boat with sails flapping, wind blowing, ocean splashing, we quickly realized that shouting would never work. We tried walkie talkies, we tried short verbal commands, but eventually we realized that hand signals were always best (if we could remember what they meant!). Even when in close quarters trimming sails or fixing leaky water tanks, we had to learn a new language, agree on the meaning of sailing terms, and decide who was in charge in each situation. It took some doing, but we figured it out! I like to say that we learned to talk less and communicate more.
We also had to learn the ins and outs of being a full-time cruiser. How do you provision, what spares do you need, what sailing conditions are acceptable, how do we stand watches, and the most important ongoing question; “what’s that noise”?
With the prospect of being away from the USA and having grocery store anxiety, we went way overboard (not literally this time, as that is a different story) with our initial provisioning and ended up buying every canned item known to man, lowering our water line about four inches in the process. We dutifully wrote the name of the item on the tops of the cans with a sharpie and stored them in the many hidey holes and bilges. Three years later when cleaning out the lockers I found twelve cans of sliced mushrooms, and we just brought back the final roll of aluminum foil from that first Costco run! We quickly learned that lo and behold, other countries had grocery stores too, and often within walking distance of the dinghy dock!
With many a “learning experience” (a.k.a. dumb mistake) we acquired the ins and outs of each sail set, every spot to stub your toe or bang your head, where to keep things so they don’t come rolling out of the lockers after heavy seas, how to stay awake on long passages, and how to fall back to sleep after solving the ever-present question of “what’s that noise?”!
Sometimes I try to come up with the answers to questions like “what was your favorite anchorage?”, “were you ever scared?”, “which country did you like best?”. However, I usually just start getting lost in all the amazing memories, so I end up spouting off a hodge podge of what seem like unbelievable adventures….so bear with me!
The sea life never ceased to amaze, and we’ll always remember the humpback whales breaching next to the boat, a mama and baby humpback nursing while next to our anchored boat, smelling whale breath in the dark and having to alter course to avoid a collision, watching two blue whales slowly, and majestically cross our bow in perfect synchronization, and keeping time with Orcas leaping in the fog.
Dolphins were always a highlight, whether spinning and playing in the distance, riding the bow, scratching on the hull, or even allowing me to swim with them. We’ve sailed though mega size pods of dolphins, all with different personalities and movements. When sailing at night we’ve had magical moments of seeing only the brightly lit phosphorescent trails of the dolphins as they swam toward the boat, truly a sight to behold!
Manta rays leaping and somersaulting, boobies, terns, and pelicans diving, mountain sheep and crocodiles hiding on shore, macaws and howler monkeys screeching, herons hunting and oh so many other wonderful creatures.
And the places! Sailing up the Inside Passage to Alaska, enjoying complete isolation and untouched islands. Brown bears and black bears gorging on the salmon runs, with eagles swooping in to clean up after them. Entering Princess Louisa Inlet in the snow only to see it all melt off in the ten days we were there, creating more waterfalls than we could count, falling 7000’ into the clear blue lagoon below. Motoring through glacier fed water that was so milky that the depth sounder couldn’t give a reading (so of course we touched bottom). Touching an iceberg to gather in some 10,000-year-old ice, blue and sculpted, to put in our sundowner, while watching a huge chunk calve off the glacier to fall into the sea. Lying at rest all alone in a perfectly calm anchorage with a flaming sunset and not a sound other than our sighs. Watching the full moon set in a trail of silver while the sun rose to lead us to sea…. So many “pinch-me I’m dreaming” moments!
From Alaska we pointed the bow south down the Pacific coast all the way to Mexico so that we could enjoy warmer climes. We motored down the outside of Vancouver Island from Ketchikan to San Francisco through the fog for nine days, entering the Golden Gate with tears of joy and relief, then continued down the coast of Baja to Lands’ End for another celebration, and yes, a few more tears!
We lived in the Sea of Cortez for about four years, sailing in the winter months and escaping back to the states during the heat and hurricanes of summer. It was an incredible time. We had the best of many worlds; friends in sheltered anchorages, solitude, or adventure when we wanted it, and beauty all around us. The gnarly and treacherous desert is magnificent when set against the ever-changing colors of the Sea. It’s a unique treasure that we’re so grateful to have experienced.
Eventually we started looking for new places to explore so we decided to trek further south. El Salvador, Guatamala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and eventually Panama. It turned out to be a much more challenging voyage than we’d planned, but at the same time we were rewarded with meeting new friends, learning about the beauty of the people and cultures in these new countries.
After a couple of years heading south, we finally landed on the shores of the Pearl Islands, where we decided it was time to make the big U turn! From the Pearl Islands we made the long slog uphill during the Pandemic, against the wind and the currents, and the frustration of dealing with immovable stamp happy immigration offices to finally reach the Sea of Cortez once again. It felt like coming home, and Happy Dance danced through the chop of an inland sea once again. We left our darling girl in Loreto, after enjoying some visits to favorite anchorages and saying goodbye to Mexico. I know it sounds overly dramatic, but I’ll never forget leaving Happy Dance and motoring away in the dinghy. She holds so much of who I am. She holds our memories and as the song goes…”all our changes were there”…
So don’t let anyone fool you into thinking they’re happy at the prospect of selling their boat. It’s like watching your firstborn get married…will her new partner know how to take care of her, will they let her lead in the dance? We’ll never know, but we do know this; Happy Dance will always be a part of us. She taught us how to live a simple life, she showed us the beauty of this world, and we’ll always remember dancing together across the sea.
Grateful and Grand-full
The red rocks of Bahia Los Gatos, inland adventures in Telaquepaque, snowy walks in Schwangau, La Cruz on the hook, Caleta Partida with the turtles, El Salvador under the palms, Florence with the David, under our new roof in Cayucos…and this year we’ll be floating around Bahia Tenacatita contemplating life and how to fit a turkey in a boat oven. Yes, it’s Thanksgiving….Time to feast, time to remember, time to be thank-full, and time to go for a swim!
I get distracted when thinking about our past adventures, as it’s still amazing to me that we have experienced so many wonderful places and met so many incredible people. As I was looking at photos that might be relevant to my subject I came across one I took from the top of the mast and my mind started going down another path, (yep, squirreled again!), thinking about perspective. What a great word; it applies to the visible world as well as our mental standpoint…”the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance”
I may be getting out of my depth here (I mean we’re anchored in 18 feet, ha!) but this post is about being thankful and that covers a lot of different perspectives, so please bear with me.
As our world has shrunk in size these last couple years it follows that our focus has sharpened on the little things that bring pleasure. On Happy Dance that means that we’re living in our own little floating bubble. Today I went for my morning swim and snorkel and it was awesome. Every day the water clarity has improved and today was a pre-Thanksgiving feast for the eyes.
Since I go to my tiny under water world most every day I have made some fishy friends who don’t seem to mind my floating presence. The larger blue trigger fish allow me in touching distance so close that we see eye to eye and I get to watch the sunlight make beautiful patterns across their scales. There’s also a school of baby Sergeant Major fish that engulf me so that I’m surrounded by flashing yellow and black as if I am sitting in Cayucos watching the Monarch butterflies in our yard. When I surface to sit on my favorite semi-submerged rock I can see the same flashes of yellow and black in the hundreds of what I think might be Western Tiger butterflies in the trees. Perspective, focus, thanks.
Another day comes to a beautiful close 
Our pool and aquarium
Meanwhile back on land our shrunken world expanded this year in a most beautiful way! Our grand selves now have a new grandson and our first granddaughter! Flynn Haggerty and Eleanor Louise are the latest additions to the future Happy Dance crew. They couldn’t be cuter or more welcome and we’re so excited. It will be great fun to introduce the new little humans to William James, who is now a busy two year old!
I really need to make note that while I have been chilling with my fishy friends, Marty has been living out that line that “cruising is working on your boat in exotic locations “. Ah, yet another perspective on our life afloat! Yesterday when I came back to Happy Dance after my swim, Marty greeted me with the worst four words in sailing…”we have a leak”!
A very, very long story short (laced with profanity and quizzical faces) the generator decided to pump water straight into the bilge which of course set off all kinds of alarms. The good news is that we weren’t sinking, the bad news is that Marty has been performing boat yoga for two days! Hopefully he’ll soon have all running again and we’ll have one more thing to be thankful for!
So here we sit, rocking gently in the breeze, listening to the waves on the rocks, watching the bright white flashes of foam as a breaker rolls onto the beach…yep, grateful and grand-full pretty much describes it. Happy Thanksgiving!!
Short but Sweet
This sailing season was once again much different than normal, owing to the ongoing Pandemic. We squeezed plenty of enjoyment into a couple months, moved Happy Dance further north where we’ll begin our next full season aboard, then returned to Cayucos for some William hugs, home improvement, and vaccination shots! Want the full story of our short season? Read on!
We arrived in Tapachula via three flights, two hotels, taxis, trains, and shuttles, with double masks and plenty of hand sanitizer. Leaving the hotel early we were soon removing the crumbling tarps covering Happy Dance and discovering a very dirty boat! Checking to make sure all was well with the exterior as well as any systems that could be checked while out of the water, we called for the “water taxi”, a.k.a. travel lift, and soon we were slowly rolling to the harbor.
Once in the water, more checks, and then the big test; will the engine start? Vroom!!! A puff of smoke, and voila, Happy Dance was ready to roll. Off to the dock we motored, to start working through “the list” to get her back in shape. Did I mention she was filthy? Thankfully only the exterior was covered in dirt, as the interior looked great. Our dehumidifier had done an excellent job of keeping away the mold during Mexico’s rainy season.
A week of boat chores, and we were soon ready to start watching for a weather window in which to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec, an infamous 250 mile stretch of water that has been known to blow boats far out to sea. On our trip south we’d been lucky to have flat seas and had played it safe by staying within a few miles of shore all the way. Feeling a little braver (dumber?) we decided that we would head straight across and cut off about 20-25 miles (4-5 hours).
I won’t lie, I was more than a little nervous about heading straight across, even though logic and meteorology both supported our decision! The Tehuantepecers start forming days before they actually blow into the Gulf so theoretically it’s easy to determine when one is coming. As long as we completed the crossing in the relatively slow 48-hours we had planned, all would be well and we’d reach the other side long before the winds were expected two days later.
With that in mind and with the reassurance of four different weather forecast models, as well as another boat that would be making the crossing at the same time, we scheduled our check-out with the Navy and waited for the power of the paperwork stamp to set us free from port. After clearing inspection, starting the engine, doing a few last-minute checks, off we went! We motored our way down the channel into the swells and hoisted the mainsail to give us a little push and mitigate some of the rolling. Unfortunately, our fellow boat had to return to the marina due to engine troubles, but we were determined so we set the auto pilot on a 285-degree course and settled in for the ride!
Our first day was mostly on a flat ocean with an opposing current slowing us down by a knot or two, so we enjoyed the scenery and sea life, greeting turtles and burtles, dolphins and boobies. At one point I suddenly smelled an overpowering scent of dead fish, and of course asked my darling husband; “was that you?”. He said no, (with a slight hmphhh), which caused us both to think, “whale breath!”. We’d had the privilege of getting up close and personal with whales before, so we were well aware of what whale snot smells like! With no signs of a whale nearby we kept on course while keeping a close lookout. Sure enough, in a few minutes we spotted our friend, a lone humpback slowly moving across our bow immediately in front of us. Making a quick 90 degree turn we moved away until we could see him again and get back on course! Thank goodness he hadn’t brushed his baleen, as we might have run right into him!
All was quiet the rest of the day and into the night, and we enjoyed having a full moon to light our way. A few hours before sunrise when I was on watch I was sitting at the helm trying to remember song lyrics to force some brain activity to keep me awake, when suddenly a black buoy flag passed right down our port side about 8 feet from the boat. Damn! I jumped up and throttled back into neutral, but it was too late; we had caught a fisherman’s long line even though we were over 60 miles offshore.
Marty was instantly awake and on the move to the cockpit as soon as I’d throttled down, so we got the boat hook and flashlights and pulled the line up to the swim step to cut it free from the buoy that was now dragging along with us. However, the rest of the line was still wrapped around the propellor. Our propellor shaft has a line cutter on it which usually does the trick, so we reversed a bit and thankfully freed ourselves of the other end of the line that ran off into the distance for miles. However, we still felt some vibration when running in gear, so we knew there was probably some line wrapped around the prop. After more maneuvers we finally caught an end of the trailing line and pulled it free which stopped the vibration, giving us the hope that all had come free without having to take a night time swim under the boat.
We were both wide awake by now, so it was time for coffee and a sunrise! We’d been on the move for 24 hours and had been making good time. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful which is a good thing! We came in sight of land after dark, and thanks to the full moon and our radar, we headed straight into Bahia Maguey, a small bay with an open entrance. We slowly inched our way into the bay, watching the rock faces on either side and the depth sounder. When we got to 25’ we dropped anchor, at 1:30am. After 42 hours of motoring, it was off to bed for two weary sailors!
It’s always nice to be able to relax after a long passage and after having been in the marina for a while. First things first, coffee and a swim (and a prop check to remove the remaining long line)! Ahhhh, perfect water, nice flat bay, silence…for a bit! The bays around Huatulco are pretty entertaining in that the first wave of pangas show up around 10am to set up beach umbrellas and tables for the tourists that will be arriving around noon. Then there is a parade of boats large and small, some just sight seeing, others putting their customers ashore to spend the day on the beach. It can get pretty busy with boats anchored way too close to Happy Dance, but we just stay aboard and wait a few hours until they all pack up and go, leaving us once again in our own little bay!
We spent a few days in Bahia Maguey, until the swell made it too uncomfortable, then we moved on to sample a few more of the many bays along this shore. Our favorite was La India, a tiny bay protected by a reef, where we set a stern anchor to give ourselves a bit more room from the tourist boats and enjoyed a little corner of calm.
The weather forecasts predicted another Tehuantepecer and even though we were well out of the way, we felt the urge to get out of the Gulf. So, we pushed off on another two-day run up the coast to Acapulco. At one point on the second day of the passage, we decided to put the sails out in what felt like a very light wind (our anemometer gave up a couple years ago), in order to slow ourselves down so that we’d arrive after sunrise. However, the wind angle and flat sea was just perfect for Happy Dance and we were soon dancing along the rhumb line at 7-8 knots…so much for slowing down! Happy Dance was sailing along to such a sweet tune that we didn’t want to stop, so we just grinned at each other and kept going. It’s was like hitting that perfect long drive straight down the fairway after slicing into the woods all day…suddenly you remember why you’re out there!
Rather than go into Acapulco Bay, we dropped anchor in nearby Bahia Puerto Marques, which is a really nice little bay until all the big power boats with their toys and loud music show up! We spent a few days there, enjoying the peaceful mornings and quiet nights, but the wind would pipe up every afternoon, and it was a little disconcerting to have 5 or 6 huge powerboats anchored too close, as well as all their noisy toys; jet skis and water skis. Argh! Time to go! We headed into Acapulco for fuel and kept moving.
Next stop, Zihuatenejo. Yet another two-day run (soooo tired of these long runs!) and we were there. Along the way we saw a zillion turtles, dealt with headwinds and lumpy waves, came too close to a couple of racing sailboats that didn’t show on radar, and chatted with the Navy who was keeping tabs on us.
Zihua, as it’s affectionately known, is an awesome little town. Great people, great food, decent anchorages, lots of music, and nice beaches. We spent two weeks alternating between the anchorage in front of the main town, and the south anchorage by Playa Gatas.
From Zihua we headed up to one of our past favorites, Isla Ixtapa. Thinking we’d stay a couple weeks we dropped anchor near the edge of the little bay and enjoyed some quiet time before the tourist boats came in. It was lots different than three years earlier when the bay was full of cruisers and the tourists came in via ferries. Now the bay filled with huge powerboats and jet skis zipped all over. Holiday weeks in Mexico are full of celebrations, and this week was no different. It was great to see all the families enjoying the island, but it was also a bit noisy! We soon moved on…another overnight run to Bahia Santiago.
The trip to Santiago included more long line adventures; first being led by a panga around the end of one line so that we could see the bazillion coke bottle floats running off in the distance, and later we caught another line on the keel trying to slip through a gap between two buoys. Thankfully we were able to cut the line without it getting caught on the prop. After that it was freighter pinball when we rounded the point and entered the busy shipping port of Manzanillo. Two freighters were leaving port, so we had to wait for them pass before crossing the traffic lanes over to Santiago since we didn’t want to be the next sailboat collision painted on their bow.
With the holiday now in full swing and the Pandemic still raging, we didn’t feel comfortable going ashore to mingle in the busy beachside restaurants, so we stayed at anchor and watched all the crazies buzzing around us on their jet skis. When a jet skier actually bumped into Happy Dance, we decided we’d had enough. Time for a day sail to Barra! Plan A was to refuel in Barra de Navidad and then head out to the Tenacatita anchorage for a few weeks…but we decided to have a few days in the marina first and it seems we got a little too comfortable..ha! With the weather already starting to change and since we’d been unable to really enjoy the places we’d been visiting due to the Pandemic, we decided going home for our vaccinations was a good idea. On to plan B!
We gave Happy Dance the deluxe treatment, and we left her shiny and clean in a double slip tied every possible way. Our friend Pancho will give her a bath and bottom cleaning every month, as well as make sure all is well inside. We miss her, but we’re hopeful that next season will see the world back to normal, so we can visit with friends and go into ports feeling a bit more comfortable!
So here I sit, watching Marty weed the garden in front of our cozy Cayucos cottage. We arrived home during a bit of a cold snap so I’m wearing my slippers and sweater and will soon return to the couch where my blanket and book await. We’ve gotten the first dose of our covid vaccinations, filled the fridge, and looked through the pile of junk mail, greeted the neighbors, refilled the bird feeders, taken a hike along the bluff, and generally just settled in. Now it’s finally time to see the star of San Luis Obispo – William!!
Planes, Trains, and Scrub Brushes
On our beach walks in Cayucos we’d been starting to think more and more that it might be time to show Happy Dance some love and reacquaint our grandma and grandpa selves with our boaty selves. Granted, getting on an airplane sounded a bit scary during a Pandemic, but it didn’t sound as if we would be getting our vaccinations any time soon, so we decided that we could be super careful on the road and once on Happy Dance, isolation isn’t a problem! So, we packed our bags, loaded up on hand sanitizer, donned our double masks and six foot poles and headed for the airport. It was a long but uneventful trip; three mostly empty flights, two spotless hotels, a few moments of airport argh (too many people!!) and chuckling at the amount of TSA head scratching as they completely unpacked our bags wondering what the heck those boat parts were! We’re happy to report that we arrived with all boat parts intact, and it’s now been over a week since our post arrival quarantine began and we’re feeling fine.
We’re smiling – really! 
Happy on the hard!
Aside from a terribly filthy exterior, Happy Dance looked none the worse for wear after sitting on stilts for seven months in Chiapas. The humidifier was still humming along in the cabin and thankfully the interior was dry as could be even after a rainy season. The solar panels kept the batteries fully charged, and at first glance all looked well mechanically, so we removed the disintegrating sun shades, disconnected the humidifier, moved the paddle boards from the salon to outside on the rail, and called for a taxi (the travel lift).
Without any fuss, muss, or “oh sh#ts”, Happy Dance was soon sticking her toes in the water and it felt fine! First check, the bilge – all dry! Next check, the engine – started right up! More checks of shaft seal, through hulls, throttle cables, and pretty soon with a gulp and a prayer we motored slowly off the travel lift. Happy Dance was afloat and happily waltzed her way to a slip…YAY we’re cruisers again!!!
Getting picked up by Memo the “taxi” driver 
And in she goes! 
Boaty people once again!!
For the past week we’ve been getting reacquainted with our lovely Happy Dance; cleaning, polishing, fixing, rigging, sweating, swimming (Chiapas has a new pool!), and smiling, happy to be back on our first home. Everything has gone relatively smooth (it is a boat after all), with only one extra trip to the fix it stores to buy a new battery to replace the dead generator battery. The true test will of course be once we’re under way because as we all know from Captain Ron; “If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen out there!”
Sewing new sun shades 
Shade is GOOD! 
The list…. 
Swabbing the decks 
Captain fix it 
Our neighbors!
Out there is where we’re headed next. We have a good weather window coming in a couple of days, the moon is full, and so are the fuel tanks. Time to go find some new adventures! We’ll be traveling northwest, with a 250 mile (or 48 hours) trek across the Gulf of Tehuantepec from Chiapas to Hualtuco, then slowly anchorage hopping our way up to Barra de Navidad. It’s a short season this year, as we want to get Happy Dance in place for fall of 2021 when we’ll sail into the Gulf of California.
For now, we’re just looking forward to getting back on the hook, and spending some leisurely days floating, and maybe counting a turtle or three. Ahhhh, la vida es Bueno!
s/v Happy Dance 