2011 Cruising Plans

Hi Everyone---We are quickly approaching our cruising season for 2011. It is hard to believe this is year #7 for us on the water. Our usual routine is to get started in early May and return back to Escondido in mid October and this is what we'll do again. Also, we usually store our boat during the winter in Oak Harbor, Wa. but as you can see from previous posts we brought Mairead down to San Diego. So now we have to get her back north. We have hired a freighter to take the boat in mid May from Ensenada Mexico (about 50 miles south of here) and deliver it to Nanaimo, British Columbia. If you go to http://www.yacht-transfer.com/ you can see the web page of the company we use, Dockwise Yacht Transport. This is a very interesting process. They literall sink the cargo area of the ship, and I will drive the boat into the ship. At this time they have divers under the boats, positioning proper supports. They then pump the water out and the boat settles onto the supports (hopefully)! Five days later the process is reversed and we float off the ship. The date is not exact, but pickup is scheduled for May 17-20th. Delivery will be five days later. We will fly to Vancouver and then take a sea plane from there to Nanaimo to meet the ship. Then, once again, off to Alaska for the summer. We just love it up there, mainly because environment is so pristine, no crowds, very few boats. It is like stepping back in time. We had given serious thoughts about driving the boat to the Panama Canal and then on to the east coast of the U.S. but have decided against doing that for several reasons. The primary reason is we love Alaska. But we also decided we didn't want to endure the heat and humidity of the east coast. Also, traveling in Mexico and Central America is not something we feel comfortable doing. We could ship the boat to Florida from British Columbia but again we relish the Alaska environment and just wouldn't be comfortable in the crowded east coast. BUT, in the boating world, it is often said, we only have INTENTIONS, NOT PLANS.

We will do a much better job of updating this blog as the year progresses. Here are pictures of  the last time we loaded on Dockwise.