A little short, but sweet.

Writing to you from Prescott, Arizona, where the sun is shining and it is a cool 49 degrees outside this morning; a sharp contract to the 95+ heat we were feeling in Guaymas and Phoenix this past week. We crossed the border back into the United States on Sunday with relative ease (I only say 'relative' because I was harboring many fruits and vegetables... which I always seem to forget before border crossings). Somewhere along the drive from the Nogales Border to Phoenix, I managed to loose my wallet... which is always a fun feeling.... and Clif managed to find several important documents that he thought (for the entire drive) he forgot on the boat. Basically--- we both need to turn our brains back on. We're not on the boat anymore and not everything we own is within arms reach. Luckily, Alaska DMV allowed me a temporary license for the road trip up the coast, and my little wallet was made out of recycled bike tire tubing.

All things considered, the quick end of our spring cruising season was wonderful. We spent two weeks exploring the Loreto area, including a couple days playing in Agua Verde, just 25 miles south of Loreto. We sailed up to San Juanico and ended up waiting 3 days for a weather window to cross the sea, 100 miles, to Guaymas. Our crossing was absolutely flat calm. We did a little more motoring than desired, but would rather have it flat calm and fast than the other way around.

 

The sweet life with a sweet cocktail (strawberry margaritas) in Agua Verde.

 We got to enjoy some quality spear-fishing time with our friends Eric and Pam, aboard Emma Bell, along with Eric's brother, Andy. The five of us made a motley crew in our wetsuits, and enjoyed several great meals of fish tacos and ceviche. All of us ended up joining back together in Loreto for drinks and goodbyes before Clif and I started north.

The last couple weeks of cruising went by incredibly quickly, and we smoothly made it back to Guaymas around the time we planned (which is rare for cruising... since we can be so weather dependent). We pulled into the "free docks" (30 pesos a night/$2USD) outside of Guaymas to work on folding sails, coiling lines and stowing all the sailing aspects of the boat. We also walked to Gabriel's yard (Marina Seca Guaymas) from the dock, which was a quick 20 minutes to pick up the truck and schedule our haul out. The yard was ready to take our boat early the next morning, so without any lag time, we motored over to the haul out dock, pulled Sound Discovery out of the water with no hiccups and had her put back in almost the exact position she was in just a couple months before.

Spearfishing bounty from an outing on Emma Bell. (My fish it the furthest to the right... my toes farthest to the left)

Buddy boaters aboard Emma Bell, enjoying some margaritas in San Juanico after a diving session.

Clif working on tying out sun-shades over the boat before we left.

We had one new triangular sunshade made for the bow of the boat to protect our dinghy and foredeck, but other than that, our process for "putting the boat to bed" was the same as last year. We refined our to-do list and worked our way through every chore in three full days. The cardboard over the windows was a last minute effort to cover from the sun... we will see how long that lasts.

Summer Tourist season is rapidly approaching, which means we are making our way north, in the truck, steadily through the states. Going to make stops all the way up the coast and pull into Seattle around the middle of the month. I will be dropping Clif off in Port Orchard, WA to climb aboard Mist Cove (the boat he will be working on for the summer) and I will continue on to Prince Rupert, BC to hop on the ferry up to Juneau.

Plans for Sound Discovery are a little up in the air right now, but thoughts of Panama and Costa Rica are floating in our heads for next fall, so we will see where the wind takes us! Thank you for reading!!

Giselle

Sound Discovery anchored in San Juanico.