Goodbye Safe Harbour, Hello Akeeva!

First of all, apologies for the looooong delay in posting. Much has happened since my last update here. After six years and more than 3500 hours on Safe Harbour, my Nordic Tug 37, I traded her for Akeeva, a Nordhavn 50. As that was happening, the coronavirus situation was rapidly deteriorating. Within days of buying Akeeva, and on the eve of Washington’s stay-at-home order, Anna (my fiancĂ©e) and I practically … Read more

Cruising Down the West Coast in a Nordhavn 55 | Leg 3 | Crescent City to Monterey, CA

According to Rich our magic weather router, it was looking like Monday morning (September 30) would be the optimal time for us to head further south. Unfortunately, Kevin (Morris) had meetings in San Jose to attend staring Monday, so he booked a Sunday flight from Crescent City to San Jose, and the three of us (me, Alison, and Kevin Jeffries) would continue with one less crew member. But with a … Read more

Cruising Down the West Coast in a Nordhavn 55 | Waiting for Weather in Crescent City, CA

Well it appears we’ll have a few days (okay, maybe a week) to kill here in Crescent City due to some weather we’d rather not be out in, so we’ll get to know this town and its surrounds better in the meantime. Day 1: We all happily slept in on our first morning in the marina, but Kevin Jeffries was up (temporarily) to take one of the dogs out and … Read more

Cruising Down the West Coast in a Nordhavn 55 | Leg 2 | Grays Harbor WA to Crescent City CA

Thursday, 4:15 a.m. — Our original plan was to catch the early morning high slack at the Grays Harbor bar, which meant heading out before dark, again. However, in the morning we didn’t get an agreeable bar report (boooo!), so we opted to wait until the midday low slack and went back to bed (yaaaaay!). Thursday, 11:15 a.m. — We left our slip at Westport Marina after a few more … Read more

Cruising Down the West Coast in a Nordhavn 55 | Leg 1 | Neah Bay to Grays Harbor WA

Kevin and I had a few days off in Victoria after our Vancouver Island flotilla ended, so we spent the time relaxing, exploring, eating out, and of course, doing boat projects. We fixed a plumbing leak in the washer/dryer plumbing, worked on getting the boat all dried out with our new dehumidifier, went to the IMAX theater at the museum to see the Great Bear Rainforest movie (which was very … Read more

Cruise Report: Transiting the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a crossroads of the maritime world. About 40 ships a day transit the canal, ranging from yachts to warships and everything in between. It’s a critical economic link between the West Coast and East Coast of the Americas, a monumental civil engineering project, an important political achievement, and a milestone for cruisers. The vast majority of circumnavigating yachts transit the canal, and hundreds of cruisers who … Read more

Baja Day 11-13 | Cabo & La Paz

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

Baja Day 1 | San Diego to Ensenada

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