Apologies from the Flyer crew for letting this blog slide a bit over the past couple of months. Rest assured we have found ourselves busy, enjoying the cruising in the Sea of Cortez, as well as making a big trip to visit some family (while still on the continent), and yes doing more boat work. The good news is that we will have time in the coming days to share more about all of this as we are now out to sea.
We departed La Paz yesterday afternoon after a whirlwind of projects and panic shopping. Our good friends aboard Dark Star have been our main cheerleaders, helping hand, and motivation to push off late on a Friday. We’ve enjoyed each other’s company so much that we’ll be buddy-boating our way to Nuku Hiva over the next handful of weeks. It’s about 3,000 nautical miles or so, which more or less equates to a proper family adventure.
Departing the dock was a bit chaotic as the northerly we’ve been riding since showed up a bit early. Dark Star lead the charge and cast themselves off while I was deep in the bilge, Kristen was packing stores beneath Paul’s bunk, Paul was hosing the boat down one last time, and James was in online class. It was a delight to see James arise (in the midst of class) to take a few pictures and bid farewell to La Paz, our defacto home for the last couple of months.
With nerves high with excitement and trepidation, turning the boat in the tight marina proved more challenging than I had anticipated and in the melee of confusion I somehow managed to elbow Paul in the face. He brushed it off but we were all a bit stunned given all that was happening. We swung the boat out of the marina and into the channel, and Flyer was finally underway towards French Polynesia.
Since the work and preparation for a passage like this can be endless, the hardest part is often simply casting off. Despite several surprise maintenance setbacks (more to come on these) in the remaining days before departure, I can wholeheartedly say that Flyer has never been better prepared for a passage. We’ve got a completely refreshed drive-train, holds completely full of food and spares, and a boatload of excitement to experience a small bit of the islands of the South Pacific.
With that, I’ll share a few photos from our departure and first few hours at sea. We’ll hopefully keep a brisk pace up here with more immediate, less polished entries.
And a brief video of the current scene on deck here, about 15nm SE of Los Frailes, Baja:
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