Summarizing our 2023 sailing season

Just before Jan 1 of 2023 we entered Mexico via Ensenada. After a three week stay in the marina for final packages, paperwork, and supplies we set sail down the west coast of Baja. Some hops where multi-day/night sails in the open ocean, others were single day sails. We got to meet up with long time friends, the Malimish family in Cabo, who we have not seen for seven years. We eventually made it to world renown cruiser’s pitstop; La Paz where we learned to do the waltz. We would spend weeks more cruising up the east side of Baja, past numerous islands and pristine anchorages at a rapid pace. It was not until June that we slowed down, rescued a pelican, and spent our final days at anchor before hauling Meriwether out for the summer in Puerto Penasco. During the six month summer break we set about a large list of repairs and upgrades, got married, and visited family in the states. Finally, in the middle of December, we were put back in the water and sailed overnight to get right back to the good life. Before the end of the year we would travel 300 miles away from Puerto Penasco ending the year in Santa Rosalia, half way down the Baja coast.

The stats for the year are as follows:

Over the calendar year Meriwether took us on 45 voyages (372 total) over 1982 nautical miles and 372 hours of travel. Our tally of experience now consists of 372 voyages, 1900+ hours, and 9200 miles! How time has flown. We cracked through to a new record of 47% sailing (previous was 46%), but so much of our travel was still rushed that we were forced to motor a lot more than we wanted. We anchored 44 more times during 2023, adding 156 more nights spent at anchor (548 total). And lastly, we completed our 23rd night under sail.

On Dec 31st I retired our old log book that kept track of all our voyages through Alaska and down the west coast. Every voyage is generally documented with things like dates, time, miles motored vs sailed, engine hours, locations, to do lists, and tidal information. This data is then entered into an obese spreadsheet. Sprinkled through out the log are notes that we write to ourselves, some making more sense than others;

“Hold on to your cockles!”

“Sucker bucket”

“North t-shaped orange poker”

“Freeze potatoes or special yellow trash cans”
(we figured this one out; to cross into Canada we needed to freeze the potatoes or dispose of them in the yellow cans at the border)

“Fire! Jib furler broke”
(that time when all the screws fell out of the furler system while under sail)

“Fire! Auto pilot jammed” 

The old log book was also used to keep track of our card and other game scores; Dominos, “Tim Rummy”, Yahtzee, Settler’s of Katan, and other games are played regularly so we get off the internet and do things together. The old log and will be missed.