We are off again on our way to re-join Gosling. As I write these words we are heading down I-5 just past Eugene Oregon.
After some frenzied last minute preparations we bid farewell to family and friends for another season. We found a tenant for our home and a friend graciously agreed, once again, to look after Antares for us (thanks Ray). The van is packed to overflowing with a large variety of “stuff” we will need to get Gosling ready for this season’s cruise. No doubt much will remain in the van after we finish our pre-sail projects.
Over the spring and summer we managed obtain the majority of the items on our wish-list. The main items, and the ones contributing most to the weight in the van, are the windlass and chain. We purchased a Lofrans , Tigres and 225 ft of 5/16 high-test chain online from Binnacle, a company in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. They had the cheapest price, free delivery and lowest tax of any other Canadian supplier. By the time we got our act together the Canadian dollar was diving so any US supplier was out of the question. Little did we know at the time that Binnacle’s supplier was in Vancouver and the order was delivered to our doorstep within 2 days?
We are also taking a new family member with us this year. Rosie (soon to be nicknamed Rosalita) is a Sheltie puppy, now 7 months old. She was introduced to boating on Antares during the summer and wasn’t too sure about it all so we are hoping she will adapt quickly to Gosling.
We have heard from many friends in our cruising circle including Linda and on Tanque de Tiburon and Trish and Doug on Ka-Em-Te, and, over the past few weeks we have met a number of people who are in Mexico or heading down there. We have a place to stay on arrival in San Carlos with friends from Victoria and yesterday, on the ferry, Fred and Julie from Sooke, offered us a place to stay in Mazatlan. Sadly we have heard that Ka-Em-Te will be heading back home this season due to medical problems. We hope to share a few weeks with Doug and Trish before their departure.
Our plans for this season are to take a week or 2 to get Gosling ready while on the hard then sail up to San Carlos for a few days before leaving for La Paz for the Holiday season. In early January we intend to sail down to Zihuatnejo for their sea festival then start hopping back up the coast stopping in at all of the cruiser’s havens on the way up. We hope to get back to La Paz for their sea fest the to the Loreto fest in early May. So it will be a fest to fest cruise this year while we get used to Gosling and work out any problems.