Salty Podcast #50 |🌎⚓Sailing the World: One Woman's Circumnavigation Update – Currently in Mexico! - Salty Podcast: Sailing

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Capn Tinsley (00:01):
What's it like to sail thousands of miles, explore
new places and dodge a fewsurprises along the way, while
sailing around the world in yourvery own sailboat?
Tonight we catch up with Yorika, a sailing vessel, sarantium, a
1995 Island Packet 40,currently soaking up the sun in
Mexico.
The last time we chatted withYorrica was in episode 33,

(00:24):
August 2024.
She was in British Columbiagearing up to head south.
She's had a mix of crew membersjoin her along the way, each
bringing their own experiencesto the journey.
Now, after cruising the westcoast of the US, Baja and
mainland Mexico, she's got someserious stories, stops, wild
adventures and plenty ofcurveballs.

(00:45):
Before we dive in, please,please, pretty, please, hit all
the buttons like share,subscribe and drop your
questions in the live chat soshe can respond during the
podcast.
I'm Captain Tinsley and this isthe Salty Podcast, episode 50.
Please help me.
Welcome, eureka.
Did I say it right?

Ulrika of SV Sarantium (01:07):
Yes, you did.
Thank you very much.

I was so nervous, so we're having technical
difficulties.
As you can see, I'mdisappearing here, so let me
just try to fix that.
The sun is in my eyes.

The sun is in my eyes.

Yeah, we started off with some good technical
difficulties on your side andthen now I'm having some on my
side, so we talked back inAugust and you hadn't left yet.

(01:46):
You still in british columbia,right?

yeah, I was in victoria, uh, british
columbia, uh, just yeah, waitingfor, waiting to get ready to uh
head out, and at that point Iwas getting out on my own right,
yeah, so gosh, I wish my cameralooked a little better, but
while you're talking, I'll tryto fix that.

uh, some of the things you mentioned were, um,
that you were looking forward tothe flexibility with your time
you're embracing the journey.
Um, looking forward to thenature, looking forward to
learning all about the differentthings, the parts of your boat
and the tools and everything.
You had just sold all yourpossessions, or you recently had

(02:34):
, and now you head out and godown the west coast of Florida I
mean west coast of Florida,that's me, the west coast of the
US and down to Baja Mexico.
So why don't you just start out?
And and I will try to work myvisuals in, but it might take me
a minute to kind of tell usabout the adventure, what, what

(02:56):
happened along the way, whatkind of mishaps happened?

There's always a mishap, so yeah, so
yeah, no, I last time I talkedto you I will when I was on here
I was in Victoria and I was Iwas ready to go solo sailing and
I had, last minute, I kind ofchanged my mind, or I put it out
to a Facebook page women whosail and I put it out there and

(03:22):
I said, hey, if anybody wants tojoin, feel free uh to jump on.
And I had overwhelming response, um from people, um saying you
know they, a lot of them washoping that I could pick them up
in, uh, along the way.
But I wasn't planning on goingin to shore, I wanted to do an

(03:43):
offshore sail completely.
But I did find two women Onewas local and one came from
Eastern United States and sothey flew in and they jumped on
the boat and, yeah, we sailedfrom Victoria, we sailed out of
the Strait, so the one, theStrait of Juan de Fuca, which is

(04:06):
just north of Seattle and wesailed out there and we ran into
some troubles right away withmy plotter.
It wasn't working properly.
The cables were too small, so Ihad to get somebody to come and
help with that.
I was blowing fuses, one afterafter another, so there was

(04:27):
something going on that wasbeyond my knowledge, but we
fixed that um in a place calledsouk outside of victoria and
then we continued and we sailedout and that was kind of
shakedown, getting to know eachother, and we stopped a few
times before we got into thepacific ocean.
Uh, we saw lots of whale, tonsof whale.

(04:50):
It was pretty amazing actually.
We had a beautiful sail out to,uh, what's called nia bay or um
.
Yeah, that was just the laststop before you, before you get
into the north pacific ocean, sothat was kind of the first few
days.

How did it work out being with these folks that
you had never met?

It was good.
Yeah, it was good.
It takes a long time before youget to know somebody.
I had met one of the crewmembers, um, in victoria before
she came and met me and we did aquick um took the boat out.
So I kind of you know um got toknow her a little bit, um, but,

(05:37):
yeah, um, no, it's good.
Um, yeah, everybody was keen,it was everybody's Well.
The two.
I had never done an offshoresale and neither had the woman
from eastern the US.
Where was she from?
Where was she from?

(06:10):
Uh, north, south, not not toofar from chicago.
I think she had done a lot.
She had done some racing in thegreat lakes, I believe.
Um, you know, I don't, the sunis really it looks so much
better whatever's happening withmine.
It looks much better than mineso yeah, so that was her first.
She was working on hercaptain's license, so she wanted

(06:31):
some experience, so it wasperfect.
And then, um, the other womanhad done some offshore sailing
before, but just a little bit.
She was also along for the, soit was good yeah, you know what
I I've been.

I I was just saying that I wanted to
interview somebody that that wasfamiliar with uh, uh, great
lake sailing.

So you think?

she would be, because I haven't had anybody on
to talk about that.
You think she'd be a goodperson for me to talk to?

yeah, yeah she she does some racing
there so I can get you incontact with her.
Okay, she might even that'd begreat watching um.
So, yeah, and um, we were kindof waiting around a little bit,
uh, also because I was hoping tobuddy boat with another boat,
to friends of mine from nanaimo,um, but they it was interesting

(07:20):
, um, they didn't have very goodwind and we had lots of good
wind, um, but we were on thecanadian side and they were on
the us side, but that's, thatchannel is big enough that there
is actually quite difference in, uh, where the wind was blowing
and where it wasn't blowing.
So we were, um just sittingaround waiting for them and um

(07:43):
didn really know where they were.
And then we just decided to gobecause we'd been waiting for a
few days.
So we just kind of sailed outinto the middle of the ocean,
straight out from the NorthPacific Ocean or from the Juan
de Fuca Strait, and you had saidyou were not planning on coming

(08:06):
in and it sounds like you didnot come in.
Not for four days.
So we basically headed west,south well, a little bit south,
but mostly west, and we got outas far as I think I believe it
was 170 nautical miles off thecoast, so it was basically two

(08:32):
full days straight.
Well, it's not straight west,it's south, but you know, it
turns out.
You pretty well go west.

And then you went to Crescent City Is that right,
yeah.

And then what happened was my uh
inverter.
What happened?
There was a leak in the propanelocker and there was water that
got into um to the where theinverter was.
So and it shouldn't have beensituated the way it was.
But I didn't put it in, I hiredsomebody to do it and I didn't
really know.

(09:04):
It got wet and it was fried.
So we went into Crescent Cityjust to see if we could fix it,
and it turns out it was a goodthing that we did, because on
the outside offshore, there wasa pretty decent gale blowing, so

(09:29):
we missed that, and my friendsfrom the nine one did not miss
it.
They were locked down in thecabin for 24 hours oh man, it
was a blessing.

Yeah, you never know when your problem becomes a
blessing yeah, exactly so, um.

So, yeah , we hung out there and it
turned out, we um turned out we,we, we motored into Crescent
City and they had thesebeautiful new docks there and
there was people talking on thestanding on the dock, kind of
catching the boat.
When we came in and one of theguys said oh, I know you and I
guess he had seen me on yourshow.

(10:03):
Oh, cool, I know you and Iguess he had seen me on your
show and we had yeah and anotherIsland packet owner.
So we got to know some peopleand a couple of Canadians, some
Americans and, yeah, it was niceto connect with people who are
also going down to make.

You mentioned about the, the Community and
connection you had mentionedbefore.
You had mentioned how thesailing community was very
helpful to you.

Yeah, yeah, oh, extremely helpful.
As soon as you say that youhave some problems or that
you're not understandingsomething, people jump in with
both, with both feet, and justyou know how can I help.
So that's pretty amazing.
But backing up a little bit,sailing out of Juan de Fuca
straight, we had it was pretty.

(10:57):
I was surprised how I couldn'treally sleep.
I had counting on, I hadcounted on sleeping and that
didn't really sleep.
I had counting on.
I had counted on sleeping andthat didn't really happen
because it is so loud and Ididn't know that because I had
never been offshore before.
I was thinking I was.
We were three of us.
We're going to be able to taketurns and sleep and you know

(11:20):
it'll be great.
I never slept Well.
I slept maybe for 10 minutes ata time, but it was.
Yeah, that part was verysurprising.
I had not 10 minutes at a time.
I, yeah, I hear that I I'm nota good sleeper, obviously, I
don't know.

Wait a minute four to five days it was 10 minutes
at a time.

Wow yeah , and it was noisy Like I kept
saying.
It's like I'm in a shootingrange or a bowling alley.
It was just unbelievable.
It was rough.
Yeah Well, it was nicer to beup at the like in the cockpit,

(12:10):
it was awful to be below.
I don't know if island packetsare worse than other boats.
I know I've had wood boatsbefore, I've sailed on wood
boats and I don't remember thembeing that noisy.

So I guess it just depends on how rough it is and
if you've got stuff rollingaround inside well, I don't
think I did, but it was everytime there's waves hitting, so
anyways it was um, and you don'tcook as much as you I.

I thought I was going to cook more
Um, but you can't really boilmuch on the stove because you
never know when it's gonna.
You know when you're gonna gethot water on you.
So it was um, it was, it was.
Yeah, it was interesting, but Ithink that first few days
coming out of, uh, juan de FucaStrait I've heard from other

(13:02):
people that it is it takesthere's two, three days, so it's
not that pleasant okay, so didit smooth out a little bit yeah,
it did.
Yeah, I did.
We had.
After the first two days, wehad beautiful, beautiful sales.
I had the yeah, I had themorning, the 4 o'clock to 8

(13:26):
o'clock shift in the morning.
We each had a four-hour shift,yeah, and so I got to sit and
watch the sun come up and thedolphins and the whales would
join me almost every morning.
It was pretty amazing.

Wow, okay, wow, so , okay.

So after um you went to catalina on san
miguel island, avalon, yeah,yeah so then we left, uh, we
left, uh crescent city andanother five to six days
offshore down to catalina island.
Uh, we first stopped withMiguel Island, san Miguel, yeah,

(14:08):
yes, san Miguel Island, andthen Avalon after that.

Did you go ashore?

Yes, we did Not San Miguel, but we went
ashore in Avalon.
It's a very I don't know.
I had never been there, so itwas kind of very.
It was a good experience.
It was the veterans.
It was like yeah, uh, veterans,uh, fish derby going on, so it

(14:42):
was extremely busy.
Okay, big, massive power boatsuh there, um, but yeah, no, it
was good.
We were there for about threenights, I believe, okay, and
then, uh, we continued and itwas busy the lots of um, lots of
traffic lanes, so lots ofshipping lanes coming into Los

(15:04):
Angeles.
I was busy up in Seattle tooarea, but this was really busy
and the Navy is there and therewas lots going on in the water
and I talked I would hail lotsof different ships.
Probably every night I wouldhail one or two ships just to

(15:24):
make sure they knew we werethere.
And that's also new for metalking to these big freighters.
But I really enjoyed it.
Actually, I learned lots fromthem.

And you have a transponder AIS so they can see
you.

Yes, yeah, yeah, no, it was good.

But you're right, they're not always watching.
No, yeah.

And often they would just say yeah,
let me, just let me call youback, I just need to look and
see where you are on the radaror on the AIS.
And they always called back,held back and they always said
thanks for keeping an eye outfor us.
We will adjust our coursebecause we are close.

(16:11):
So as long as I contacted them,they would make adjustments if
needed.
Okay, so it was.
And I didn't know that.
I thought, basically they hadthe right of way.
I mean, yeah, I was under sale,but still I'm not going to ask
a freighter to move out of theway because I'm counting.

Usually.
That's the way it works.
You're supposed to move forthem.
That was nice.

Yeah.
No they always adjusted theircourse slightly.
So it was good, their courseslightly, so it's good, yeah.
And then we left Avalon andwe've headed to San Diego.
Same thing, really busy cominginto San Diego it's, you know,
the naval bunch, of naval fleetsare there and yeah.
So I stayed in San Diego.

(16:56):
It was a long time waiting Ithink was a month.
We were kind of waiting for thehurricane season to be over and
kind of waiting for thehurricane season to be over and
I was waiting for a few things.
I had mail coming in San Diego,so so you were there, yeah yeah
, I mean I wouldn't.
I that wasn't planned and I kindof wish I didn't.

(17:17):
That was a.
It was long time we were rightbeside the airport you and the
air.
Yeah, so anyways, yeah.
So then from there we, we wentto Ensenada, which is the first
Mexican Town and that's the portof call.
So you have to check in to thecountry there, and that took a

(17:38):
little bit longer Because I hadthe wrong paper.
But oh no, it all worked outand they're pretty sticky like
they're.
And that took a little bitlonger because I had the wrong
paperwork.
Oh no, it all worked out andthey're pretty sticky, like
they're yeah, so I was afraid Iwas going to get kicked out of
the country, but it was all good, any, advice on that, on
paperwork, on what's the rightpaperwork, and all that.
You just need your registrationpapers, and I thought I had the

(18:02):
right registration papers, butit turned out I didn't.
So just make sure that, oh yeah.
Another advice is that lots ofboats, lots of people buy boats
and the boats have been inMexico previously and they have
what's called a temporary importpermit and if they didn't

(18:26):
cancel that permit, then thepermit is still on the boat and
you can't get a new TIP, a newtemporary import permit, until
the other one's canceled, andthat can be a real pain.

Okay, so you didn't have one right, sorry,
you didn't have one, right?

no?
And then this boat has neverbeen in Mexico before, so there
had never been one on this one.
But lots of people didn't knowthat.
So also, if you sell a boat,make sure you cancel your TIP,
because it's a headache.
How do you know?
You don't.
Well, if you had a TIP on yourboat when you sold it, it's your

(19:12):
responsibility you should be.
But the new owners they won'tknow.
And if they don't know therules about Mexico and they,
then they don't ask for iteither.

So so, yeah, it's just a piece of paper and you
may not even know.

Oh my god, okay yeah, yeah, it's a big
problem.
So then we left and then we wejumped down the coast of Baja
and I wanted to see lots ofplaces there, um, so we did lots
of stops, um, some we justtucked in quickly for the night,
and some were, some werefantastic, some were very

(19:52):
exposed to the northerly and thewesterly swells, but, um, we
stood first one.
We stopped in Baha'i, but um,bahia Soledad, it's the first
one just underneath Ensenada.
Okay, yeah, it's hard to findWell, it's yeah, up a little bit

(20:15):
further.
I don't know, I can't see.
Actually it's a small place.
You might not be able to see itunless you scroll in.
It's a small place, you mightnot be able to see it unless you
scroll in.
And then we went to a couplemore.
It was really foggy.
It was really really foggy onthe coast because we were close
to the coast.

(20:35):
So some of the anchorages thatwe went into we actually didn't
even.
We couldn't even see land, ohreally.
So in the morning we left, evenwe couldn't even see land, so
in the morning we hadn't evenseen land.
It was funny.
So, but the first one that'skind of was interesting was Isla
Cedros, and that's the island,um, just north of, uh, tortuga,

(20:59):
bahia Tortuga, which is TurtleBay, and that's an island that's
just above, I think, the base,if you go down a little bit
further.
Yeah, right there, just abovethere, just about where you are
right now.
There's that not the best there, that island right there, that

(21:21):
is isla cedros, the big oneabove there.
Yes, so you just there we goyeah yeah, so that's um.
So we stopped in there in thetown um, and that's another port
of call, so you have toactually check in with the

(21:42):
authorities to you have to checkin.
But they actually saw us comingdown in the channel so they
actually called us and they werewondering if we were stopping
there.
So they it's funny, I didn'tknow that they would keep watch
like that, but they do.
They see your boat coming downOn the east side of that island.

(22:05):
We were coming down and theyhailed us and said are you
coming into port tonight?
Um, and basically the law isthat you have to go in, um, if
you're going in.
Well, we could have probablyanchored just along the east
side of the island, but we wentin because it was really windy

(22:29):
as well.
It blows over the mountains onthat island and then it just it
gets really, really windy Up to40 nautical miles actually
coming off that mountain.

Wow.
So what if you had not plannedto stop there?
You wouldn't have had to, youcould just bypass it.

No, we could have just sailed by and
said, no, we're not stopping.
But we were tired and I didn'twant to do an overnighter again.
So we went into town.
We tried to fit into theirlittle harbor, but it was tiny,
so we ended up throwing ananchor just outside of the
breakwater a little bit moresouth.

(23:08):
If you go a little more south,yeah, right there where there's
um there right there, that's thebreakwater right there, so you
can squeeze in there if it's notbusy.
But there's a lot of pongas,pangas, little boats in there I

(23:33):
don't know that word, no, sothere's a lot of well, fishermen
and are there.
So we actually ended up justanchoring around the, the
breakwater on the south sidehere.
Right here there's a reallyyeah, so we anchored in there

(23:53):
and then there was actually anice north side and some nice
snorkeling that you could do inthere Are there no trees right
here Trees, no trees there's notrees, no trees, wow, no, it's a
desert, it's desert-y, yeah,it's dry heat, though it's very,

(24:13):
very nice.
Coming from British Columbia,it sure was a nice change.
You started getting it To havedry heat, yeah, so we were there
for two nights, I believe, okay, and then, uh, we had we, then
we left and we sailed beside.
There's this big, um, rightdown to Tortuga, uh, but he had,

(24:33):
tortuga is turtle, turtle Bayand it's just in that Bay, right
there.
Yes, okay, yeah, is that whatit is?
I can't see.
Yeah, that looks like.
Yeah, yeah, bahia, tortuga, soTurtle Bay.
So we sailed in there, we, wecould have, we sailed right into
the anchor, like we saileduntil we threw an anchor in and,

(24:55):
um, then we, we had run out offresh food actually, so we were
just so excited to find a store,so we jumped in our zodiacs oh,
and, by the way, there's onlytwo of us now, because the other
crew member, she, jumped on offin San Diego.
So we jumped in a zodiac and westart going in.

(25:17):
The Sun was just starting toset and there's two, these two,
you could, you could tell therewas a gathering on the beach and
there was these two people fromum, oh, one from canada and one
from united states.
They greeted us at the beachwith the each a beer in their
hands and said welcome, they'vebeen.

(25:38):
They saw the canadian flag andand come to our party.
Come.
They saw the Canadian flag andcome to our party.
So we got off the Zodiac andjoined this big feast that a
bunch of sailors were having.
Yeah, it was great.
So they were also heading downto Mexico, and one person was on
his way another desert townit's all desert wow

(26:04):
yeah, and uh, yeah, we spentthree days there.
I think that was fun, did you?
Did you have fun?
You had fun?
Yeah, that was fantastic.
Um, and yeah, I made moreconnections with sailors a
family of four that's headingdown to French Polynesia in the

(26:26):
boat called Oatmeal Savages, soyeah, and they're a family from
the west coast of BritishColumbia too, and then after
that we went into Bahia Santatoo, and then after that we went

(26:46):
into, uh, bahia santa, oh yeah,and the baja hofa, which is the
big uh, what is it?
I don't know what it is.
It's not a, it's not a race,it's a bunch of cruisers.
Yeah, it's a rally, it's asocial rally.
They were kind of right behindus.
Yeah, they were right behind usand we were trying to stay
ahead of them because there was130 boats.
We knew that we wanted to getinto Bahia Santa Maria before

(27:11):
they did, because we wereworried we were not going to get
an anchor spot, so we left andwe were basically just a day
ahead of them.
And so Bahia Santa Maria isright before Magdalena Bay, and
now we're also in yeah, well, goback to the West coast.

(27:35):
Yeah, tortuga Bay, right.
So you keep going down, down,yeah, down and right.
Oh boy, yeah, yes, in there,right, here Is that Santa Maria?

Yeah it should be Bahia Asuncion.

Yeah, I think so.

Let me see what you.

So we were there for one day, and then
we woke up the next morning andthe boats just start coming in
one sail after another.
They caught up and there wasthere was in that big bay that
you're looking at there wasthree boats, three sailboats.

(28:25):
When we got there, yeah, andthe next day there was 120.
Woo, oh, no, yeah.
So we met so many people andmade so many connections and we
ended up crashing their big bashthat the Mexican had put on for
them.
Oh nice, so it was a big partywith a live band.

(28:48):
Yeah, I was.
It was so fun and, again, wemade lots and lots of
connections.

And this is right in here.

Yeah, it's hard for me to see because
it's yeah, it's called BahiaSanta Maria.
Yeah, it's right there, tuckedin.

Okay.

I believe I guess it's not labeled
so?

and where was the destination of this rally?

the Baja , haha, whatever well, cabo San
Lucas Was the end.
Yeah, so they go from San Diegoto Baja, to Cabo San Lucas, and
there's actually somethingthat's called the cohohoho that
starts in Up in my neck of thewoods, so in Seattle.
So there's Canadian boats thatstart in the Cohohoho and they

(29:47):
end up in San Diego and thenthey continue in the Bajajaja.
It's a social thing.
I think it's great for newsailors who want because you
have to have crew Right so it's.
It's a way for new for sale,for people who have never been

(30:09):
offshore before to to get toMexico with crew and often who
have some experience.
Even if you don't have a lot ofexperience, then you're.
You know you're going to pick upexperienced crew, so it's yeah
yeah, it's so, yeah, um, andthen they yeah, they go to um,

(30:33):
cabo, is there basically wherethey end?
And then there's another partythere.
Except for this year it gotcanceled, apparently because
they closed to the harborbecause it was too windy.
So they kicked everybody out iswhat I understand, but I could
be wrong about that.
So after Bahia, santa Maria, wewent to Magdalena Bay.
We only stayed there one night,because now we're feeling that

(30:57):
we kind of want to get down toaround the corner of Cabo San
Lucas, so we only stayed thereone night.

Let me ask you oh, here's Cabo San Lucas.
What were you thinking by thistime, like about your whole
decision to sail?

Well, I, yeah.
So you know, I really reallyloved it.
But the nights can be reallytreacherous, or not treacherous
that's not a good word, I don'tthink but the nights can be.
Now we're only two on the boat.
Three-hour shifts was too long,but it was too short for the

(31:42):
sleeping person.
So, because you're sittingthere at the helm and I've
pretty well, I fell asleep a fewtimes at the help helm sitting
up um, it's a long.
And you're sitting there lookingat your bearing, you're looking
at the screen, making sure that, at your bearing, you're

(32:04):
looking at the screen makingsure that your, your heading is
within you know, within you.
You're staring at numbers,making sure that you're at the
right, and also you're surfingthese huge waves and you can't
see anything other than stars.
So you can hear the waves.
Unless it's full moon, youdon't see a lot.

(32:26):
So it can be.
Yeah, it's hard.
It's like I had this ideabefore I left.
I was going to be laying on thedeck looking at the stars and
just you know, in the dreamstate, but that's not what
happened.
Looking at the stars and justyou know, in the dream stage

(32:46):
state, but that's not whathappened.

You're sitting at the helm, trying to stay awake
and you can't see much becauseyou're also have the screen on
and it's well, you know well, ofcourse, I guess it depends on
where you are and how muchtraffic's out there, but I
wouldn't have like 30 minutes onand get up and check and
because I was by myself or withmy husband but um, but you could
see the stars, you couldn't seethe stars.

(33:11):
Yeah, I have a yeah, you can't.

Yeah, I had, um, I have a bimini and a
dodger on, just because the sunis so intense yeah so it's hard
to see it unless you go on deck,and you can't go on deck when
you're by yourself at night.
It's just too dangerous, right?
So yeah, and we had some highwinds.

(33:36):
It was gusting 35, some nights36, 38, so that made it rough oh
yeah and so and then you had toreef.
And you know that's never fun toreef.
I have a self, I have a boomfurler and furling system in my

(33:58):
boom so you could do it from thecockpit, um, but you know it's
it's hard to reef when it'sgusting 35 um.
So we had a couple nights likethat where we had to actually
change um and we had to go outfurther than we wanted to

(34:18):
because we needed to have abetter angle, because the way
the person that that left in SanDiego.

Was she planning on leaving then?

no, not at first, but I think it was
taking too long yeah orsomething.

Oh, that's pesky, yeah, and the other one.

She's still here in La Paz.
She's heading back to Canada Ithink so soon, but she's not on
the boat.
She's um, but she did fall.
She came with me all the way toLa Paz, Okay.

Yeah, all right, so you're.
You're now at.
Okay, magdalena, magdalena Bay,where's that?

That's right below Bahia, santa Maria.
We didn't stay there very long,but everybody talks about
Magdalena Bay, and then fromMagdalena Bay we didn't stop
until we rounded the Cape,rounded the Cape of Cabo, cabo
San Lucas.
We did not stop, we just wentin.
We had good wind and we didsail right through the bottom

(35:31):
part of the bottom part of Bajaand then we sailed.
So we have, we rounded that.
So we sailed from that corner,if you go up north again back to
where I was talking before onthe outside, yeah, you see there
.
So that's magdalena bay, rightthere, right there.

(35:52):
From there we sailed for fourdays and we sailed straight down
and we sailed all the wayaround the uh, baja Cabo San
Lucas.
We sailed right by there andand then we'll sail up around,
and then we stopped in LosFrailes, and that's very close

(36:14):
to where you have your cursorright now, right in there, the
little tip right there.
That's Los Frailes, right here.
Yeah, or that's los frailesright here.

Yeah, or that's yes, okay, there it is, yeah no,
what did it?
Did it get it calmed down inhere, or was it still windy uh?

no, if we.
At first it calmed down.
But all of a sudden now you'regoing north, so now you're being
headed, so the north westerliesgot really strong in there.
So we were tacking like crazy,and you know what that's like.
It's like four times thedistance, all of a sudden.
And then we stopped, yeah, andthen we stopped in.

(36:55):
Where did we stop?
We stopped in.
Aguila de los.

Muertos.

Yeah, muertos, we stopped there and
that was also fantastic.
We were there for two nights,or one night, I can't remember
Two nights.
And then we were thinking, oh,we're going to sail to La Paz
and then these strongnorthwesterly winds hit again.
We ended up getting stuck onIsla Saralvo, which is that big

(37:25):
island right beside your cursorand at the very southern tip
yeah, not there, but southwesttip.
We stopped there for one nightbecause the winds were so strong
, or a little bit more west yeah, right there, where that green
cursor is, or the green thing,there for one night because the
winds were so strong, or alittle bit more West there yeah,
right there, where that greencursor is, or the green gosh.

(37:47):
There's nothing there, no,there isn't, but there was lots
and lots of manta rays.
Wow.
So we were there for a nightbecause and that's what they
call Jacques Cousteau Island,which I'm not sure I know
they've changed the Mexican nameis Isla Saralvo, but all the

(38:10):
white folks call it JacquesCousteau Island ok so you were
just pretty much hiding from thewind yeah, and we got up that
morning at three o'clock.
We start sailing.
And then we got headed.
No, the wind died and wemotored all the way into um la

(38:32):
paz okay, and that's over here,right yeah, that's right down in
that channel oh, that's moreprotected yeah, that's where I
am right now in that channel.
I'm not in the basin, but I'min the channel, right in the
middle there, right there.
That's where I am right now.
Yeah, right there oh yeah, see,there's a lot of boats there

(38:53):
yeah, and lots of people getstuck on that bar in the middle
of the shoal right okay, we'rekind of running out of time, but
the isla espirito santos isthat island just north of la paz
and that is is.
That is as nice as it looks.
Every Bay has beautifulanchorages and a ton of wildlife

(39:32):
and good hiking.
It's absolutely gorgeous.

Wow.

Yeah, it's beautiful.
I've spent, I've been out therea couple times now.
It's paradise and it's a park.
So you have to pay, you have topark, you need a park permit.

And they do check.

To anchor, you have to pay.
You have to pay to go on landand they will come and check
your permit.

Okay, Gringo pay yeah.

There are wild goats there.

Okay.

And you're not even allowed to bring
pets along.

So this is a camp right here.

Oh yeah, but the snorkeling is
spectacular.
I had some photos on my.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing, I did see those
pictures.
Let's see.
I had to.
I had to reboot, so I lost itall.
Yeah, I had it already.

Yeah.

The technical difficulties yeah.

The technical difficulties?
Yeah, and now our hour is up.

Not quite 41 minutes.

Oh, I thought you would have to be.

We're at 41 minutes.
Remember we started late, Okay.

Yeah, no , okay.

Yeah, no, okay, all right, so some of these is
is that, is that what we'reseeing here?

Yeah, yeah, it's Northling, is amazing
there.

Wow.

It's, and the landscape is amazing.

It's like isn't that interesting, it's beautiful
is amazing, isn't thatinteresting?

It's beautiful.

Is that a boxfish?

Yes.

I saw the video of you changing the oil.

Yeah.

How many times have you done that?

Only twice because I haven't used the
engine that much.
I've only used it 77 hours fromVictoria to all the way down
yeah but I do sail, I do sail, Ido sail, when it's even two
knots you turn on the engine.

No, you don't turn on the engine, yeah, 1.8.

It depends on the wave action.
I don't have a whisker pole soit's a bit tricky.
I'm looking for one right now.
Is this your boat?

Yes, that's Serantium Some good hiking.

Yeah, and that's another island packet
right there.
Sweet, it was only two boats inthe whole anchor and it's two
island packets, and I know themwe didn't plan it but how long
were you anchored?
Here in that anchorage rightthere, probably four days.

Yeah, it's just so lovely to not have people
around, I know, so tell me whatit was like.
Give me some magic.

Peaceful it's.
You know, it's magic.
It's just you sit there atnight and you watch the sun go
down and you just think, wow,this is, yeah, this is, this is
my life.
It's pretty unbelievable.
So yeah, this is my life.

(43:31):
It's pretty unbelievable.
So yeah, yeah, lots of fun.
That's in Todos Santos.
That's a place on the westcoast.
That was before.

Yeah, so tell me how everything is.
Let's go back to this picture.
Wow, so tell me, go ahead.

Anyways, you can snorkel and dive along
those walls and they're justfull of fish, lots and lots of
fish, and you know lots of fishand you know lots of sea lions
too.

They're pretty playful have you caught any fish
and cooked it?

yeah, I think there's a photo of me
holding up a big I did.

Okay, you were in cold weather clothes.
Sorry, you were in cold weatherclothes.
Sorry, you were in cold weatherclothes.

Yes, it was cold coming down.
It wasn't warm.
I was in cold woolies.
When did it start to warm up?
Not until you turned intoaround Cabo San Lucas.

Wow.

Yeah, it was cold, and it's not that
warm here now either, actually,because it's in the dead of
winter here.
But yeah, I was in full sailinggear, all weather gear, all the
way down to Cabo San Lucas.

So have you been able to stick to your budget,
the budget that you wanted tostick with?

You know yes and no, because I've done a
lot or I bought another battery.
You know I had help puttingthem in.
I've just refurbished the sale.
I had to buy a portableinverter, the day-to-day stuff

(45:29):
food and I don't go into marinasbecause it's so expensive.
Here it's $100.

US.
You haven't gone into any thewhole trip.
No, it's very nice.

Yeah, it's been lovely.
Not, it's very nice.
No, yeah it's.
It's been lovely, um, becauseit's expensive.
But food and um, it's cheap.
So yes, I have been able to uh,but I've dipped into some of my
savings for to add items on theboat.
But, you changed your own oil.

(46:12):
Yeah, I do all that.
I'm learning to do everythingmyself the first time you do it.
You need Well.
Youtube is great too, oh surewell, the youtube is great too.
Oh, sure, yeah, so all right.

(46:32):
Well, so how long?
How long have you been there?
I've been here too long now.
Um, I just got my parcel todaythat I ordered a spare part for
my e electronic, um outboardmotor for my zodiac, so I've
been waiting for that, so I gotthat now.
So I'm leaving.
I'm leaving here on, uh, sundaymorning, okay, and I'm gonna

(46:53):
sail north and I'm gonna sailacross to the mainland to pick
up, to get hauled out and, umpaint the bottom of the boat.

Ah yeah and that's where you know that in Guaymas.

So yeah, so going straight north, past
that other island on the west,on the east coast of the Baja
Peninsula, you go, I'm gonna gostraight up there, and then I'm
gonna cross over diagonally to aplace that's called San Guaymas
.
It's called so north, I'm goingnortheast, so go up the coast

(47:37):
of the mainland.
Oh, that's a good way, yeah,yeah.
So I'm going to sail there,haul out, paint my bottom, clean
the boat, because you can dothat yourself.
Okay, In many places they don'tlike you doing your own work.
They want to do the work, so,but this is one place you can do
it on your own.

So, there's a place in Glamis that there's a
boat yard where you can do yourown work.

Yeah, and live on your boat while you
do it.

Oh, wow, okay.

So that's not in every place.
And then from there I'm goingto go back to the Baja side,
straight across.
I'm going to go straight across, I'm not going to go down.
I'm going to go straight acrossfrom Guaymas.
So straight across, yeah, toLoretta or Rosalita, one of the

(48:30):
two.
And then from Rosalita down toLa Paz is world-class cruising.
That whole coast is supposed tobe absolute stun.

Going south.

Yeah, back to La paz.
Okay, so after la paz I'm goingto go diagonally down to, uh,
puerto vallarta and then I'mgoing to take a flight to mexico
city, flight to Mexico City,and I'm trying to get my Swedish
passport at the embassy inMexico City, and then after that

(49:14):
I'm heading to French Polynesia.

That was my next question.
Let me find this place thatyou're going in over here so
Puerto Vallarta.

So it's down, further down there it is
there it is.
So that's yeah, I'm gonna go inthere flying to Mexico City
yeah, it's like way up hereright yeah, I got it.
Well, no, it shouldn't be, itshould just be inland.
I think okay.
And then I'm going to go to theembassy.

(49:51):
And because if you go to frenchpolynesia as a canadian or as
american, they want the 5 000bond when you enter into french
polynesia because in case ofsomething that happens, they
want you to have, they want tobe in charge of the money so
that they can fly you out if youneed to leave for some reason

(50:15):
is what I understand.
But with the European passportthey pick on.

Americans and Canadians.

Yeah, it's the EU, so French Polynesia
is French and if you're part ofEU, then you have it's getting
dark here.

Yeah, I can't see you anymore.
No, I know, there we go.
Yeah, so that's interesting.
Okay, so if you if you'reAmerican or Canadian you have to
do a $5,000 bond, do I havethat right?

yeah, it's just a guarantee that
you're not getting stuck therewithout money.
So, guarantee that you're notgetting stuck there without
money.
So, but if you're part of EU,which I am, but I just don't
have the passport anymore, Ikind of let it Right.
So then they don't ask for that.

So that's going to take a while for you to get
your passport.

Yeah, they take a little less than a
week.
If you're in person, okay.

So you'll hang out .
You're going to fly to MexicoCity and hang out there until
you get it.
Yeah.

I've heard, Mexico City is really
really nice.

People love it apparently, I think parts of it
are dangerous, but any big cityyou know.
So back to Puerto Vallarta andthen you're going to go straight
across.

So Puerto Vallarta I'm just going
to.
It's better the more south thatyou go, because you will kind
of get into the trade windsquicker and the trade winds will
just blow you right to FrenchPolynesia, marquesas.

So you'll leave from here.

Yeah, yeah, la Paz to Puerto Vallarta,
and then from Puerto Vallartayou're just going to start
sailing south until you hit thetrade winds, and then it's
supposed to be well, other thansqualls.
It's a sleigh ride all the wayto Marquesas oh my gosh, where

(52:40):
is it?

I don't even know where it is it's tiny, yeah,
french Polynesia.

If you google French Polynesia, where
is it?
I don't even know where it is.
It's tiny, yeah, frenchPolynesia.
If you Google French Polynesia,it'll take you right into the
ocean.
Hopefully I don't miss it.
I better not rely on my, on mysextant Cause, I'll miss it,
guaranteed, all right.

So here, wow, how many days, is that going to take
25.
I'll miss it, guaranteed, allright.
So here, wow, how many days isthat going to take 25.
?
Okay, average.
That's the best place to leave,because it starts going further
this way, yeah.
You keep going around, yeah.

Okay, puerto Vallarta or Acapulco.
Acapulco is kind of where youwant to leave.

Right here.
That is incredible.
Look at that.

I can't see it.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

You're enjoying it on your own.
I'm amazed, look at this,you're going it on your own.

I'm amazed.
Look at this.
You're going to go all the wayfrom right here, all the way to
right here.

Yeah, yeah, just above New.
Zealand.

Are you taking somebody with you?

I'm not sure yet there's a person
interested this.
This apparently is it's theoffshore passage that lots of
people say you can do on yourown because it's it's.
It's compared to a lot of otherpassages.
Yeah, crossings, this is theeasier one.

(54:25):
That's what I understand.

Because it's calm right.

Yeah, it's calm, but you're in the.
You don't change your sails fordays and days.
You just.
It's just a sleigh ride.

Other than squalls .
Yeah, okay, wow, I'm speechless.
Of course, I know people dothis, but I'm looking at it like
this and it's a long way.
So you have Starlink.

Yeah, I have Starlink.

I'll be able to track you.
You have in reach, yeah, yeah.

No, I have AIS.
So, ship Finder, you can justput my boat in, just write the
name of the boat and you'll beable to check your email and
everything.
Yeah, yeah, so you can follow.
Yeah, you just write Serantiumand you should be able to find

(55:26):
me.
It's not.
I think it updates quite often,like it's every five minutes or
something like that that itsends and receives.

Well, that's a good place to end right there.
So when is that going to happen, do you think?

I'm leaving the last week in March,
I believe, or middle of March, Ihaven't decided yet.
People leave, yeah, so fromPuerto Vallarta people leave
anywhere from end of March tomid-April, kind of thing.

Okay, so you're going to get all that stuff
accomplished new bottom job, thepassport provisioning you may
take somebody.
I think it'd be kind of cool ifyou just didn't take anybody.

Yeah, I think so too.

At the same time.
I'm saying that it sounds alittle scary, but I do like
being out there by myself.
Of course, I haven't beenacross the Pacific, but I do
like going across the Gulf bymyself, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, no, I think it's yeah,
since it's the friendlierpassage.
That's, that's, that's the oneto see if it's for you.
Um, I think it's, um, I thinkit's a different story.
Going from French Polynesia toNew Zealand, that's, that's a

(56:58):
different.

Um.
What is that like?

I've heard it's.
It can be rough.

Okay.

So that's the one you won't through
on, I think.

And you'll decide what you're going to do once
that.
Yeah, you'll deal with that asit comes.
Yeah, but I'm open to whateverhappens.
Yeah, I like it.
I like your plan.
I'm excited for you.
Thank you, let's put yourinformation up again.
How people can follow you?

(57:31):
Yeah, the blog.
Yeah, the blog.
Sailaway12.com.
Instagram.
Vindoman Vindwoman.
I'm embarrassed.
Vindoman Vindwoman, I'membarrassed.

Not.

Vindoman.
Well, when I would see that, Ididn't know what that meant.
Vindwoman, I'm so embarrassed.
Facebook, norika Schvoback.
Did I have that right?
Yeah, did I say it right.

Ulrika of SV Sarantiu (58:06):
Schvoback , schvoback, did I have that
right.
Yeah, did I say it right.

Spoback, spoback.
Yes, close enough, okay, yeah,so she's on Instagram, facebook
and this blog, so follow alongand I'm going to touch base with
you again.
I'm going to have to get youback here, maybe right before
you cross.

Yes, okay, that'll be exciting.

You'll tell us all the things that you
accomplished.
Oh, wow, I'm excited for you.
I really am Well.
Thanks for coming back on.
Sorry, guys, we were late,sorry for all the technical
difficulties.
I'm glad we pushed through it.
I knew you'd push through it,because that's kind of what
sailors do, you know.
We just, you know, if we werekind of, if we didn't have

(58:52):
perseverance, we wouldn't sailright.

My low-budget Mexican phone
actually was the one that justcame through at the end.

That is amazing, because when the sun was shining
through, it looked like a 4Kcamera.
I mean, it was great, all right.
Well, thank you so much foragreeing to come back on and we
will talk to you again soon.
And that's Salty Bannon out,thank you.

All Episodes

Salty Podcast #50 |🌎⚓Sailing the World: One Woman's Circumnavigation Update – Currently in Mexico!

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Salty Podcast #50 |🌎⚓Sailing the World: One Woman's Circumnavigation Update – Currently in Mexico!