It has been twelve weeks since Garrett and I returned to the United States from Nicaragua on a repatriation flight. Our sailboat, Thisldu, is still in Nicaragua, where she will be until we can safely return and move her down to Costa Rica. Learn more about our future cruising plans, how we came to live in Charleston, and what the transition from cruising to regular life (*as regular as life can be during a pandemic) has been like in this post.
Now that we’ve finally made it back from Nicaragua to the United States, I’m sharing where Garrett and I are now calling home and what’s next on the docket for our cruising plans.
Garrett and I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support in response to our situation and endeavor to get home. Thank you. We’ve also received a lot of questions in response to last week’s blog post and two news articles, so we put together this FAQ to answer the most common questions surrounding our current situation. We hope this helps!
When Garrett and I set out on this cruising season, we had the goal of transiting the Panama Canal by April 30, 2020. That isn’t going to happen anymore. We’ve been sheltering in place at a marina in Nicaragua for 45 days, hoping that Costa Rica and Panama might open their borders and allow us to move south. A lot of that hope was lost this week, so, we’ve made other plans. Click here to find out what we plan to do next.
Inspired by Nick Farriella’s parody “This Side of Paradise: A Letter from F. Scott Fizgerald, Quarantined in the South of France,” I decided to pen my own letter about our experiences in waiting out the Coronavirus pandemic. Note that this letter was a parody and was not written by Fitzgerald. It was brilliantly done, though! The letter below is my own about my experiences being quarantined on our sailboat in the North of Nicaragua.
Garrett and I sailed out of Mexico for Nicaragua four days ago. While we were at sea, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama enforced border restrictions and closures. We got nervous with every passing mile. Would we be allowed into Nicaragua? Will we be able to transit the Panama Canal next month as planned? Learn about the impact of COVID-19 on cruising through Central America here.
Garrett and I have spent the past four months sailing 2,400 miles along the Pacific Coast of Mexico on our 35-foot sailboat, Thisldu. We’ve made twenty-six stops, slightly improved our Spanglish, and have nothing but great things to say about this country. Read about our experiences cruising Mexico along with what’s next for us here.
In this post, I update you on our cruising adventures from late November through late January, Los Muertos through La Cruz, crossing the Sea of Cortez from Baja to the Mainland. AND I share an exciting announcement! Learn what’s coming for us and read about our adventures in Muertos, Espiratu Santo, La Paz, Mazatlán, Isla Isabela, Matanchen, Chacala, and La Cruz.
In this post, Garrett and I sail from Bahia Tortugas, Mexico, to Bahia Santa Maria, San Jose del Cabo, and Los Frailes in the Sea of Cortez. We say goodbye to the Baja Ha-Ha, hello to our first squall, and finally soak in some r&r at an anchorage. Read more about our adventures cruising in Mexico here!
Join us on our first leg of the 2019 Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally as we sail 360 nautical miles from San Diego to Bahía Tortugas, Mexico. The four-day and three-night sail had a lot of ups and downs, learnings, and excitement as we brought Thisldu into international waters.
Santa Barbara. Ventura. Marina del Rey. Newport Beach. Dana Point. Oceanside. One week, seven harbors. It was exhausting. This post captures our experiences with all of these marinas and the time at sea in between. It’s also the last of the Cruising Down the California Coast chapters—we set sail for Mexico on Monday!
Garrett and I said goodbye to our crew in Monterey and embarked on our first long double-handed overnight sail to Morro Bay, and then again to Santa Barbara. We survived 22-hour sails, spotted hundreds of dolphins and a few blue whales, rounded Point Sur and Point Conception, and finally crossed into SoCal. Read more about the third and fourth legs of our cruising journey here!
On October 2nd, after five years of dreaming, planning, and scheming, Garrett and I finally cast off the bowlines and began our cruising adventure. In this post, I talk about our first two legs of the journey, from San Francisco to Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz to Monterey. We experienced all sea states, some of which I’d rather not endure again. Read about our first 110 nautical miles of cruising down the California Coast here!
Six months after leaving our sailboat in Nicaragua in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Garrett has returned. Read about how he prepared for this trip, where he plans to cruise to next, and why I didn’t go along this time here!