Oh I am loving this! I have a plan to head down that way next spring, so I will be sure to keep in touch and hopefully you will be in the vicinity (I use that term loosely - like the whole southern hemisphere - lol!) I would love to see you and the boat (I have never been on one! I can't wait to continue to follow your chronicles!
OMG HT - that would be so amazing! Backup - thanks for your lovely reaction. But when I saw that you might be "in the vicinity" I flipped! That would be THE BEST - and even though we will likely be on yet another speck somewhere far from everywhere, you would be so, so welcome. Let's start scheming to get you on a boat! Mine! :-)
Hey Tina - great questions - some of which I do have plans to address in future musings.
But first, my previous sailing experience started when I was in college. My boyfriend had a sailboat and we learned a lot the hard way, by doing crazy things. But then I started race crewing, and that taught me a lot. The Captain and I bought our first boat in 1994. We sailed "Wild Wild West" all over the Pacific Northwest, and did a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island. She moved to California with us in 1997 where we sailed San Francisco Bay and vicinity for a few years. Then we took her on a one-year sailing sabbatical to Mexico in 2001/2002. That was when I decided I could live on a boat. It took another 10 years and a couple more boats to get there - learning what it took and how to do it as we went. Then we bought Recalada in 2011 and moved aboard full-time in 2012.
Up until then, our sailing had mostly been coastal - within a hundred miles of shore. I never really thought that I'd be brave enough to sail across an ocean. "Nothing goes to weather like a 747", I always said. But on an 8-day, non-stop sail from Ensenada, MX to Puerto Vallarta, I realized that we'd been hundreds of miles offshore and it was amazing. And that was half the distance that would take us to Polynesia. At that point, I knew I was probably ready for an ocean crossing, and now I love the blue water sailing. The Captain always says that it's way more dangerous close to land - that's where the hard edges are.
And voila - here we are on Duende. (hahaha - sounds so easy, doesn't it?)
And as for spare parts? Yes. We have a lot. Of all types. Nuts, bolts, belts, pulleys, shackles, gaskets, O-rings, you name it. And so many tools. We have to carry a lot of backup - where we go, things are hard to replace. We've learned to fix or fabricate almost anything, usually from what we have aboard. But as many of our friends know, anyone that comes to visit will likely have dozens of things to bring us in an extra checked bag. And whenever I travel back to the US I load up. We are eternally grateful to the Duende Shore Crew (you know who you are - Veronica, Deb, Kevin, Wendy, Josh, Pete, Bryan, Patrick, Kim, other Kim - you've all been receivers or schleppers and we love you for it).
The piece that broke on the mast was a little "soft shackle" made out of spectra line - 1,000 times stronger than stainless steel shackles. I make them. I can write a whole article about that, and I will.
Thanks so much for your curiosity Tina - who knew this response to your comment would be as long as the post was! I love that you want to know more. Makes me think I should do a poll to see what other people would like to know more about.
Hi Ger! I will definitely keep everyone posted on where we are. It would be amazing to see you and Maria, lets see what we can work out. But careful what you wish for in offering to bring parts and supplies. You will get about 100 Amazon deliveries from us. 🤣
Oh I am loving this! I have a plan to head down that way next spring, so I will be sure to keep in touch and hopefully you will be in the vicinity (I use that term loosely - like the whole southern hemisphere - lol!) I would love to see you and the boat (I have never been on one! I can't wait to continue to follow your chronicles!
OMG HT - that would be so amazing! Backup - thanks for your lovely reaction. But when I saw that you might be "in the vicinity" I flipped! That would be THE BEST - and even though we will likely be on yet another speck somewhere far from everywhere, you would be so, so welcome. Let's start scheming to get you on a boat! Mine! :-)
This post prompted a few practical questions for me:
What was your sailing experience before Duende with your previous boat and in life? Did it prepare you for this big crossing?
The part on the mast that broke - do you just have extra parts like that on hand? Do you have to carry certain types of spare parts?
Thanks! Very much looking forward to your weekly stories.
Hey Tina - great questions - some of which I do have plans to address in future musings.
But first, my previous sailing experience started when I was in college. My boyfriend had a sailboat and we learned a lot the hard way, by doing crazy things. But then I started race crewing, and that taught me a lot. The Captain and I bought our first boat in 1994. We sailed "Wild Wild West" all over the Pacific Northwest, and did a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island. She moved to California with us in 1997 where we sailed San Francisco Bay and vicinity for a few years. Then we took her on a one-year sailing sabbatical to Mexico in 2001/2002. That was when I decided I could live on a boat. It took another 10 years and a couple more boats to get there - learning what it took and how to do it as we went. Then we bought Recalada in 2011 and moved aboard full-time in 2012.
Up until then, our sailing had mostly been coastal - within a hundred miles of shore. I never really thought that I'd be brave enough to sail across an ocean. "Nothing goes to weather like a 747", I always said. But on an 8-day, non-stop sail from Ensenada, MX to Puerto Vallarta, I realized that we'd been hundreds of miles offshore and it was amazing. And that was half the distance that would take us to Polynesia. At that point, I knew I was probably ready for an ocean crossing, and now I love the blue water sailing. The Captain always says that it's way more dangerous close to land - that's where the hard edges are.
And voila - here we are on Duende. (hahaha - sounds so easy, doesn't it?)
And as for spare parts? Yes. We have a lot. Of all types. Nuts, bolts, belts, pulleys, shackles, gaskets, O-rings, you name it. And so many tools. We have to carry a lot of backup - where we go, things are hard to replace. We've learned to fix or fabricate almost anything, usually from what we have aboard. But as many of our friends know, anyone that comes to visit will likely have dozens of things to bring us in an extra checked bag. And whenever I travel back to the US I load up. We are eternally grateful to the Duende Shore Crew (you know who you are - Veronica, Deb, Kevin, Wendy, Josh, Pete, Bryan, Patrick, Kim, other Kim - you've all been receivers or schleppers and we love you for it).
The piece that broke on the mast was a little "soft shackle" made out of spectra line - 1,000 times stronger than stainless steel shackles. I make them. I can write a whole article about that, and I will.
Thanks so much for your curiosity Tina - who knew this response to your comment would be as long as the post was! I love that you want to know more. Makes me think I should do a poll to see what other people would like to know more about.
To all the rest of the crew - AMA! :-)
And how could I forget??? Christina and Paul!!! 🙏🙏 Shore crew extraordinaire
Hi Ger! I will definitely keep everyone posted on where we are. It would be amazing to see you and Maria, lets see what we can work out. But careful what you wish for in offering to bring parts and supplies. You will get about 100 Amazon deliveries from us. 🤣