Sam Landsman 
For the last several years, Kevin and Laura have had solar panels installed on Airship. As we cruised together, we compared notes about electrical systems. Despite their enthusiasm for solar, I remained a solar skeptic (maybe even a solar curmudgeon!). I figured I already had a fancy alternator and reasonably sized battery bank. I only used the generator occasionally, typically when I needed hot water and hadn’t run the engine … Read more
Nine humpbacks surface and exhale fifty yards from our dinghy, between us and shore. Dolphins leap out of the water, inches away, splashing water into our small vessel. A family of brown bears forage on the beach 20 feet away, munching grass. An icy chill briefly blasts as we motor through a waterfall that tumbles from rocky cliffs into the ocean. Tidal rapids roar as we zoom through against the flow. … Read more
The first night in Cabo was a blur. We arrived late in the afternoon, had a celebratory drink with the Brown Eyed Girl crew, and headed to dinner. More celebratory drinks, then a cab ride to San Jose del Cabo for more celebrating. We stayed at Marina Puerto Los Cabos, a huge, modern facility a few miles outside San Jose del Cabo. The marina caters primarily to sportfishing boats and … Read more
The trip so far has been uneventful. That ended today. We departed Mag Bay in predawn darkness for the 185nm, 28 hour run to San Jose del Cabo. This is the most barren section of coast on the Baja Peninsula. No services, no anchorages, just bluffs and beaches and maybe a few villages here and there. The first ten hours were easy. A bit of fog as we exited Mag … Read more
The last week has been a flurry of activity and near constant movement. Officially we’ve spent nights in two Mexican ports—Ensenada and San Quintin—but we’ve yet to really see anything in Mexico. In Ensenada, we cleared customs and went to dinner at the marina, never venturing more than a few hundred yards from the boat. In San Quintin, we arrived at night and departed before dawn, never actually seeing the … Read more
We didn’t intend to run 67 hours, but that’s what happened. And it was great. Most people view overnight passages as an occasional, necessary evil. They can be exhausting. Running at night can be disorienting. Someone must stand watch at all times, watching the radar and other instruments and avoiding traffic. With just two of us on the boat, that means sleeping four hours at a time, then standing watch … Read more
Today is a 16 hour, 105nm run with only 11 hours of daylight. Even though we don’t like running at night, we’re forced to on this leg. Generally I prefer to depart in the dark rather than arrive in the dark. It’s easier to follow our tracks out of a marina we’ve already been into than it is to find our way into a new spot. But that’s not practical … Read more
At four in the morning, the rumble of the Lugger main engine startled me awake. A few minutes later we slipped the lines and headed out of the marina in darkness. San Diego is a busy port, even in the dark, and as we motored out the channel towards the ocean we passed several incoming vessels. Two radars, one set close in, the other further out, made collision avoidance easy. … Read more