Salty Podcast: Sailing

Salty Podcast #34 | ⛵️Sailor Stories: S/V Terratima's Epic Voyage | Extended Sail Canada to Mexico⛵️

• Captain Tinsley | Len Rodrigues of S/V Tarratima • Season 1 • Episode 34

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Capn Tinsley of S/V Salty Abandon interviews the crew of S/V Terratima, an Island Packet 465, about their incredible extended sail from Canada to Mexico. Join us live this Wednesday at 6pm Central, August 14, 2024. Watch the Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/SaltyPodcast34

#SaltyAbandon #SaltyPodcast #Sailing #IslandPacket465 #SVTerratima #FamilySailing #OceanAdventure #BritishColumbiaToMexico #BluewaterCruising #LiveaboardLife

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SALTY ABANDON: Cap'n Tinsley, Orange Beach, AL:
Oct 2020 to Present - 1998 Island Packet 320;
Nov 2015-Oct 2020; 1988 Island Packet 27
Feb-Oct 2015 - 1982 Catalina 25

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Capn Tinsley:

Welcome back to the Salty Podcast, episode 34, where it's always a great day to talk about sailing. I'm your host, captain Tinsley, of sailing vessel Salty Abandon, a 1998 Island Packet 320. Tonight, my guest is Leonard Rodriguez from sailing vessel Terratema, an Island Packet 465. Leonard and his crew, his family, recently completed an incredible extended sail from British Columbia, canada, to Mexico, navigating the challenging waters of the West Coast. Excuse me, I'm going to tickle. We'll dive into their experiences of highs and lows of their journey and the things that happened along the way on their epic journey. So grab a drink, get comfortable and let's set sail on this amazing adventure. Welcome, leonard.

Len Rodrigues:

Thank you very much. Good to be here.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm glad you're here and I'm sorry I'm about to cough, but give me one second.

Len Rodrigues:

No problem.

Capn Tinsley:

You see me coughing, coughing. Just keep talking, okay, um so thank you for coming on, and I think you go by lynn as your name tag there says yeah okay, well, we were just talking prior to um tell, tell people how long you've been living on the boat, when you bought the boat and and when you left, left going south.

Len Rodrigues:

OK, the boat is a 2008 Island Packet 465 and we bought her just after she was built and it was commissioned in 2009, in June of 2009. So we bought her when we were living in Alberta and we took delivery of her in the United States, actually at Point Roberts, just south of Vancouver in the United States, actually at Point Roberts, just south of Vancouver. So we were still just in a transition between being Alberta residents and, ultimately, because of the boat, we had sold our house and so forth, and the boat became our home. And so, since June of 2009, we've actually been aboard her, uh the entire time and in a couple of different marinas and sailing hither and yon, but but we've never left her, so we've had her home with us.

Capn Tinsley:

Now, uh, I don't know how many years that is, but it's got to be pushing 13 or something yeah, and I saw on your blog that you don't miss how many years that is, but it's got to be pushing 13 or something.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, and I saw on your blog that you don't miss the things you put in storage. We do not. In fact, I couldn't tell you what storage and I think my wife has a better idea of what it is that we actually had decided to hang on to and put into storage as opposed to getting rid of.

Capn Tinsley:

So it's a pared down version of what you used to have.

Len Rodrigues:

Oh, I would say, drastically pared down. It's a fraction of what we used to have. I think, like many people, you end up being a bit of what we have. I think, like many people, you end up being a bit of a pack rat and you accumulate so much stuff. But we found that most of it you know, things like my tools for woodworking and so forth I sort of gave to my brother-in-law, so it's in his basement. I'll use it if I ever had a chance of going into his basement. I'll use it if I ever had a chance of going into his basement. But that's what we generally did. So it was a drastic downsizing. It was a drastic downsizing so we moved out of a you know 1750 square foot bungalow into which had a finished lower level, which had a finished lower level, so really over 3,000 feet, and we moved into a boat that was 50 feet long and 14 feet wide at its widest point. All right.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, so what inspired you? To buy the boat and move on to it.

Len Rodrigues:

What inspired you to buy the boat and move on to it? The sailing bit has been with me for decades. I mean it goes right back to being in college and learning to sail and sailing at the sailing club and so forth, sailing with the sailing club and so forth. This particular boat I was looking at boats A you can live on and B that was capable of offshore sailing safely.

Len Rodrigues:

So, we were looking for a boat that had a full-length keel, that was relatively heavy and very strong. So the research pointed us to a few boats, but in this particular group of offshore boats there isn't an extensive list of manufacturers, and Island Packet is certainly one of the best known names in that group. Oddly enough, the picture you had up just a second ago was when we first saw her in the in Coal Harbor, and this is Coal Harbor in Vancouver. This is Coal Harbor in Vancouver. And we went to Coal Harbor purposely to take a look at this very boat because it was on our list of an island packet. Can we actually see an island packet in the flush?

Len Rodrigues:

So we flew from Edmonton, alberta, to Vancouver, went down to take a look at this boat, went aboard. To say we were impressed was an understatement. We couldn't believe the amount of room inside, the sense of daylight inside. It looks much larger inside than it is outside, believe or not? And and uh, uh, the biggest issue was, uh, if we were going to live aboard this thing, if, if my wife walked aboard the boat and said I can't do this, uh, because it's dark, whatever, and then then it died there, right, there, right, that's a common tale?

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, it is a common tale.

Len Rodrigues:

She walked down the stairs of the companionway and she said this is beautiful, I can definitely live on board this boat. So here we are, oh, that's beautiful. We ended up. The guy who was the owner on this thing said if you're seriously looking at this boat, we can probably make arrangements that you can purchase here. It took about a year or about several months, but we did buy her.

Capn Tinsley:

And why did it take a year? Because they were building it.

Len Rodrigues:

Well, they built it in 2008, and then she kind of sat in a boat show for a little bit.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, yeah, okay.

Len Rodrigues:

But so, yeah, it was kind of built so it was taken from Florida over to over to Washington and then Washington up to Vancouver. So that's when we, that's when we saw her and and ended up and ended up buying it.

Capn Tinsley:

So it was a few months before we got things sorted out Very nice.

Len Rodrigues:

I'm sure that you were excited and it had to be commissioned, so everything had to be added. All of the systems had to be added radios, everything had to be added Right, and I'm sure you've updated some things since then.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, to say the least, a few things, and part of it being just basic wear and tear right on a number of items. Like the sails began to get a bit soft, the old sails and so we ended up going to Mac sales in Florida and we had our new Genoa made and our new Stay sale made. My rigger here in Vancouver is actually a Mac sales dealer, so that's how we connected with Mac sales a. Mac sales dealer. So that's how we connected with Mac sales and we ended up having.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm going to have Colin Mac on the podcast. I know his brother is the one that does the sales.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah. I can't miss that. That'll be really good. Yes, yeah. So we left Vancouver with the two new forward salesils, but it became pretty evident as we were sailing down the coast that I needed to replace the mainsail. So I actually got on the satellite phone and called my rigger and said put in an order for a mainsail, I'll pick it up in San Diego. And that's what we did so that's very cool.

Capn Tinsley:

So so that was that the first time in 2021 that you made it like an extended sale. I think I saw on your blog that you did some some other sales, but maybe not quite as long no, not quite as long.

Len Rodrigues:

We'd be. We'd'd be gone for two, three weeks at a time. But the country up here in the Pacific Northwest to sail is absolutely spectacular sailing and it's difficult sailing. I mean, the whole place is a submerged mountain range and the whole place is a submerged mountain range. So if you're sailing into Puget Sound and up into the Brattans and over Desolation Sound and so forth, you're doing some of the best sailing that's available on the planet. So you get really good practice at tricky tides and so forth. The one thing you do not experience are swells of any magnitude, because it's protected by Vancouver Island right.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean, I've been on the outside of Vancouver Island as well. I'm going to pull that up. I'm going to pull up the map.

Len Rodrigues:

Okay.

Capn Tinsley:

So exactly where are you right now?

Len Rodrigues:

We are in downtown Vancouver in a place called False Creek. Our boat sits in a marina called Spruce Harbor Marina. Spruce Harbor Marina is actually a housing cooperative. It's the Greater Vancouver Floating Home Association Cooperative.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, I found it. Okay, and then a little bit later on, after we talk about your, your sail in this, in this marina. Let's see. Okay, after we talk about that, I want you to also I don't know if I mentioned this to you I like to talk to people about their favorite anchorages, like I'm really, I'm thinking you might mention that you might mention.

Len Rodrigues:

Oh, you mean some of the anchorages.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, like in Cabo and everything. But if you do, you have a favorite anchorage here at this in Vancouver.

Len Rodrigues:

Believe it or not? Yeah, yeah, I do. Believe it or not, yeah, yeah, I do. And it's a simple. It's a simple one called Clam Bay. So so Clam Bay is that, that's our marina by the way, the one with the radio layout Wow that's an interesting shape. It is, yes, and it is actually a housing co-op, believe it or not. It was originally built in the late 70s and there are people here who were there from the beginning who are living on their boats.

Capn Tinsley:

Are you able to purchase your slip?

Len Rodrigues:

No, what we do is purchase shares in the overall cooperative and we are assigned a slip and every so often a slip becomes vacant and we have a bit of a shuffle, depending on seniority. It actually works quite well. It actually works quite well, it actually works quite well. It actually works quite well, when you see the little red eardrop.

Capn Tinsley:

that's actually a kind of a central building that has a lounge and so forth connected to it.

Len Rodrigues:

Let's see if I can get a view of it here, there you go.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, that's it, and that's downtown Vancouver, right across the way oh wow, so you're right in the thick of things, and this is all protected right, I'm right in the thick of things exactly um do you um?

Len Rodrigues:

so what happens in the winter? Uh, it rains a lot because we don't our water doesn't.

Capn Tinsley:

Does your water freeze?

Len Rodrigues:

oh, no, no, no. First of all the salt water. Um uh even in. In some places sometimes the fresh water will freeze, but but the the climate here is extremely mild, so we don't. So we don't see a lot of snow or ice. The last few years we've had some snow, but what happens is the same as Seattle. It's rain city, right. It starts raining in late September or mid-October and it just keeps raining until March or April.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh wow, it gets very wet. Okay, all right. So now tell me, what did you do to prepare for what made you say let's go to Mexico?

Len Rodrigues:

say, let's go to Mexico. That kind of just popped in as an obvious way of starting off the whole process of dealing with setting out on a journey. We thought Mexico would be a great spot to go, but the biggest challenge is hitting down the United States West Coast. Right, and this is the thing particularly that is always concerning is what happens when rivers meet the ocean. So bars and bar reports. I had to get familiar with what bars and bar reports were all about and we had to pay real attention to them and we got a taste of what happens when you've got a bit of a rough. On leaving Newport, for example, it was pretty rough going through the bar and out into the open ocean at that point, just simply because of what the weather had been like the previous few days of world and so forth.

Capn Tinsley:

I just interviewed somebody last week that's heading out down the West Coast and she said she wants to stay about 150 miles offshore because it's going to be so rough, because it's shallow.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, a lot of people do that. You're committed to whatever weather you end up with. And lots of people do that They'll go 100, 150 miles offshore and their next stop will be San Diego or Ensenada, wherever they check into Mexico. We decided not to do that because we wanted to actually visit a few places.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so where was your first stop?

Len Rodrigues:

So our first stop was Newport, Oregon. So we kind of timed our departure from Neah Bay in Washington, rounded the Cape and headed down to Oregon Sorry and we ended up going into Newport and we ended up in Newport for five days, primarily because of extremely high offshore winds. We had intended to leave earlier but we just sort of sat out the weather window until we had better winds. But that was good, because we got a chance to visit a few things and we were very near a really great sort of brewery that had a fantastic restaurant connected to it, so we had lots of lunches there but that's what we did for five days in Newport.

Capn Tinsley:

So here it is.

Len Rodrigues:

The next stop was Crescent City, so that was a reasonable sail and we had a reasonable weather window for it as well. So the interesting part, as I said, was leaving Newport. We timed our departure, ended up being at half past midnight, in the dark, no moon, leaving Newport and encountering very rough water as we crossed the bar and headed out offshore there we go.

Len Rodrigues:

And then we headed south. There we go, and it was fine, except we contacted there was about three boats that sort of suddenly appeared, and one particularly behind us that their radar was out and it ended up. We had thick fog that morning as the sun rose, and I mean thick fog, so our radar was operative and so forth, and so we were following one other boat that was ahead of us, but the one without radar came relatively close to our position and just hung on to us as we started to head in the channel to the sort of enclosed bay that Crescent City has where you can anchor.

Len Rodrigues:

We opted to actually go into the marina in that particular instance.

Capn Tinsley:

How long did it take you to get to Newport and then to Crescent City? It was actually only an overnight sail.

Len Rodrigues:

I think it was a fairly short distance, but we caught there too for a while. Okay, yeah, we were in Crescent City for five days as well, again because of winds, but the winds that we were concerned about were down at Cape Mendocino. So as we head south in Northern California, that cape was showing winds, just of the Cape, of like 60 knots.

Capn Tinsley:

So we did not want to- Is this it right here, or this area?

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, you have to go in a little bit. So this is Crescent City, eureka, and then there's the Cape Mendocino. Cape Mendocino, it should be labeled Okay.

Len Rodrigues:

I don't see the particular, but capes generate their own weather and that cape is just notorious for high winds and odd weather. So when we left five days later out of Crescent City, our rooter, the Giffords, were doing our rooting for us Bayhan Gifford and her husband and um and it looked like a reasonable weather window and it looked like we would have quartering, quartering, uh wind at our, our backs and that would, that would be a great sale. Turned out that there's a local phenomenon nobody knew about and the entire distance between Crescent City and Cape Mendocino was high winds, 25, 30 knots on the nose, oh, wow. So we were slogging into this stuff and going slow, I'm sure.

Len Rodrigues:

And going slow'm sure, and going slow for sure, um, yeah, and, and it was. It was pretty rough, um, but once we actually got to the cape and rounded it, everything improved. We had really good sailing conditions and, um, and then we continued on from there.

Capn Tinsley:

And then, where was your next stop?

Len Rodrigues:

Our next stop was San Francisco, actually.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Len Rodrigues:

And we went into Drake's Bay before San Francisco, to just time our entrance into the Bay Area, because in the afternoon, the late afternoon, the winds tend to be the contrary. So we decided to anchor overnight in Drake's Bay, which turned out to be really a wonderful spot to stop, and then the next day after breakfast, we upped anchor and headed into San Francisco Bay, which was going under the Golden Gate, with a bit of fog hanging around it, which, for us on board, was a big deal. Oh yeah, oh yeah, this was something we dreamt about, right, going under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay. This was something we dreamt about, right, Going under the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco Bay. It was fantastic, and we ended up staying at a marina on the far side of the bay and spent five or six days there, being tourists more than anything else. It was just huge.

Capn Tinsley:

And what was the name of the marina?

Len Rodrigues:

I'd have to look it up. I don't know. I can't remember what it was, but it was on the far side of the bay, so we had to basically sail across and it was in relatively shallow water. Is it Berkeley?

Capn Tinsley:

Marina. No, it's was in relatively shallow water. It's a relatively shallow, is it Berkeley Marina?

Len Rodrigues:

No, it's near Berkeley, marina though. Okay, give me a second, I'll look it up.

Capn Tinsley:

I've heard that it's kind of it's very, it's kind of a rough Bay. I've been there, I've been to San Francisco, but not by boat, and I took the ferry to Alcatraz.

Len Rodrigues:

But, uh, it can be very windy because, yeah, because a big bay and you've got winds coming in a gap, uh, that goes under the golden gate, so you can get the winds accelerating and um, um and pushing a fair bit of water as it. As it does that, Um, and pushing a fair bit of water as it does that. But the bay is a delight and there's just lots of boats.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean, there's lots and lots and lots of commercial boats and sailboats.

Len Rodrigues:

Oh really, so you've got to keep your eyes out.

Capn Tinsley:

If the weather is good and the winds are up, uh, people are sailing.

Len Rodrigues:

So okay, here's an emory cove yacht harbor or um, yeah, that's that sounds close to it, yeah emeryville, marina part.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, yeah, okay, well, so you enjoyed that. How long did you stay in san francisco?

Len Rodrigues:

how about six days? Okay, that was huge fun.

Capn Tinsley:

That's a nice rest.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, it was. So when we decided to start heading south from there, we actually went into Half Moon Bay, which is just outside the Golden Gate and kind of around the corner as you head south. So we poked in there and anchored overnight just to get just because of the time of day that we we left San Francisco Bay.

Len Rodrigues:

And then we headed off and our next stop after that was Los Angeles headed off, and our next stop after that was Los Angeles. Um, okay, so we sailed for quite a while and and uh, and the one thing that I I was a bit ignorant about, um is I didn't realize there was so much offshore, um oil rigs and so far along the cal, along the california coast. These things are enormous and there are a lot of them, um, more than I ever would have expected. They're particularly prominent at night because they're lit up like christmas trees, so you, you can really see them. But, uh, but there's a, there's a number of them as you head down.

Capn Tinsley:

I interviewed some people that were sailing off the coast of Louisiana and they talked about that Off the coast of Texas, well and Louisiana, but they weren't all lit up.

Len Rodrigues:

Oh, wow, really. Yeah, I hate for them not to be lit up when you're sailing at night, especially if you have no moon, and I was joking with one of our crew that was with us and he said that he'd heard about one guy who fell us, uh, crewing the boat and actually rammed into one of these things. Uh, oh, my gosh, falling asleep and not paying attention to where they were, um, not a good idea.

Len Rodrigues:

I don't think they're enormous no um, but but you know you don't normally associate you associate california, uh, with surfing and and, uh, you know you don't normally associate California with surfing and you know a lot of wonderful restaurants and stuff like that and you don't think of oil rigs and you know, Texas comes to mind when you think of oil rigs. But there are oil rigs and a number of them offshore.

Capn Tinsley:

So where was your next stop?

Len Rodrigues:

So our next stop was Los Angeles and we went into we stayed there for a number of days too, purposely being tourists, being tourists, but we went into what's the big Marina del Rey.

Len Rodrigues:

I see it, yeah, which was the marina we went into. We found a spot, a fairly inexpensive spot, to tie up On the right side of that picture of that channel as you were going in. I think. You see that there's a park there and there are some slips that belong to the Park Authority, and that's where we ended up staying Just a little in. Yeah, right there, you can see that that park. Okay, uh, those those slips in front, uh that, yeah, we were in one of those, right yeah, oh, these right here, one of those, yeah, those right there.

Len Rodrigues:

We were in. We were in one of those for for the duration and we just just take Uber to get around.

Capn Tinsley:

Were those a little more cost effective than the ones over here? Oh yeah, the other places were filled and difficult to get a slip. That's a lot of slips.

Len Rodrigues:

It's a big marina holy cow. It was much more cost effective. That's it right there. Yeah, that looks very familiar. Is that your boat? I don't think, so. Look how little.

Capn Tinsley:

that boat is in that big slip. Those are nice slips, are those floating docks?

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, they are, and they are very nice slips. Are those floating docks? Yeah, they are, and they are very nice slips. And there's a couple of boats in there. There was one boat next to us and I struck up a conversation with the skipper. That was about half the size of ours and he was about to leave for New Zealand.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, wow.

Len Rodrigues:

So this was some serious, serious offshoring in what I thought was a much smaller boat than what we had, so more power to him.

Capn Tinsley:

Do you remember the name of the boat? Do you think I could interview?

Len Rodrigues:

him. Oh, it would be wonderful, but I can't remember the name of the boat.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm sorry, all right, so how long did you stay there?

Len Rodrigues:

Oh, at least a week, and uh, and then we headed down from there over to Catalina Island, um, and we only ended up staying in Catalina, in the bay in Catalina, overnight, but it has what has to be the funkiest mooring system I've ever seen. So the way this works, so that main, if you go to Catalina Island and you go into the main, there's, there's this wonderful bay.

Capn Tinsley:

Right here.

Len Rodrigues:

Let's see. No, that that wouldn't be.

Capn Tinsley:

it Is it on this side.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, there, it is right there. Okay, that's it. Yeah, that's facing the coast and you see, you see the radial way that that the boats are laid out. Um, when you arrive at, yeah, when you arrive there at this avalon bay, when you arrive there, you're met by a motorboat and the motorboat just inquires as to whether or not you want to moorage for the evening, and so forth. Once you've sort of answered their questions, they will lead you to your mooring.

Len Rodrigues:

Okay, they will lead you into the mooring and they will lead you into the mooring and there's a mooring ball at the front of the boat Right and it has a kind of a thing that looks like a whip antenna that you pull that out of the water and you put it on your deck. That out of the water and you put it on your deck. But what it does is it raises a line that goes from the mooring ball at the front, which is reasonably large, to an anchor point at the back. So you tie off that mooring line that you lift out of the water at the forward cleat on your boat and then you walk it back to the aft cleat on your boat so all the boats will stay in their relative position, front to back, in that radial layout. So that's what. That's what it looks like.

Len Rodrigues:

You can see the. So that's what it looks like. You can see the mooring balls, which are reasonably large, and once you pull that little item out of the water and you connect it to your cleats, you're held in position relative to the other boat, so nobody's slamming together. So really clever. I've never seen another one like it, but really clever way of handling.

Capn Tinsley:

Does it act as a bridle? It's a bridle.

Len Rodrigues:

Well, it is because there's a two-point connection, right? So there's a forward and aft connection to that piece. So then when you're leaving, you let go of the aft portion of it on your cleat and then you let go of the forward before you actually this looks like a fun place.

Capn Tinsley:

Did you go out and explore all this?

Len Rodrigues:

Not a lot. There were a lot of parties going on around us, so, yeah, I would say that Avalon Bay is a fun place.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I've heard of Catalina Island and that it's gotten very protected and everything. I saw a documentary about it. Yeah, look at these people.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so how long were you there?

Len Rodrigues:

Oh, just overnight. And then we headed back toward the coast because we were trying to get down to San Diego to spend time there, so we ended up.

Capn Tinsley:

So you went down to San Diego.

Len Rodrigues:

Where did we stay when we left Catalina? Where did we stay? Pardon, I don't remember. Hey, I can't remember. We kind of ended up staying overnight on one other location on the coast and the name of it I forget. It was let's see if we go on Oceanside, that's it. So we went into Oceanside for two or three nights.

Len Rodrigues:

There it is, there. It has a kind of a crazy entrance, but we were actually moored. See where that green teardrop is. There's some boats lined up. Yeah, just right there along the dock there. That's actually the Coast Guard dock, but we were allowed to dock there. That's actually the Coast Guard dock, but we were allowed to dock there. But you've got to be prepared.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, I love it.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, it's a very nice spot. Restaurants all around. It's kind of surfing is happening right on the beach. Very nice place.

Capn Tinsley:

I love a good side tie, especially when I'm solo.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, you know, I can get in and out easy by myself. Yeah, that's exactly what we were thinking. But you've got lots of friends hanging out in the farm of a bunch of seals. They're all over the place.

Capn Tinsley:

So this looks like a fun little place too.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, that was a fun little place as well, and well worth walking around.

Capn Tinsley:

So how long were you there?

Len Rodrigues:

Just a couple nights.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, here's a fish market, a deli and fish market.

Len Rodrigues:

That's right, that's one of many. The ones on the other side of the marina are just line the streets as you go up, so lots of spaces to eat.

Capn Tinsley:

Over here.

Len Rodrigues:

Yep.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, okay, so you're making your way. Where's the next stop, san?

Len Rodrigues:

Diego and that was an interesting. That was an interesting sail. We really enjoyed it going down.

Capn Tinsley:

San Diego has this and I've been there too not by boat, but there was a lot of boats there.

Len Rodrigues:

Oh yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Big marinas.

Len Rodrigues:

And this was just before the Is this it right in here. Yeah, Now where we ended up sailing was in Chula Vista. You see where Chula Vista is on your Chula Vista Marina, which was well down.

Capn Tinsley:

Was it in here.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, you see where it says Chula Vista. It's right, just a little bit above where you're showing. Just move up a little bit.

Capn Tinsley:

Is this it?

Len Rodrigues:

No, it's on the other side. No, it's on the other side. It's on the other side. Over here yeah that's it right there okay that's Chula Vista Marina.

Len Rodrigues:

It's a very nice marina, beautifully kept up, and where we ended up swapping out our mainsail was here at Chula Vista. So we, we were here for like two or three weeks. Uh, we, we were timing our departure to um to the day after two days after the departure of the bahaha, so we weren't caught up in that craziness, um, as were heading. So I highly recommend this marina.

Len Rodrigues:

The only downside of it is it's a long way up from when you enter into the harbor at San Diego and you go all the way down Battleship Row there because all of the maintenance facilities are en route. Down there there's a whole series of you can see all of those large installations of docks that are on the shore side as you go down the bay. You've got aircraft, carriers and destroyers and frigates of every description as you go down. Quite interesting. The other thing was we did it in a thunderstorm so it was raining like crazy as we went under Coronado Bridge Huge amount of rain. So how?

Capn Tinsley:

long did it take you to go from around here to?

Len Rodrigues:

About three and a half hours. Oh, you mean from here, from the mouth, of going into the bay. The Chula Vista is a three-hour motor. Wow, to get down. Okay, it took a while to get down, okay, so where it took a while to get down, so when we decided to leave, um again it it took that long to get out of there, um and uh and and um, we, we made sure that we uh, that we refueled and had everything ready to go heading out. So we left San Diego with the intention of checking in to Ensenada. So that was essentially an overnight sale.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, my camera moved, so let me just fix this Okay. Give me one second, oh there you go. Sometimes it likes to follow me, oh there you go, okay, so next stop, ensenada.

Len Rodrigues:

and that's where we checked in. The checking in process was fairly complicated. The checking in process was fairly complicated and you needed an agent in order to do that. Oh, of course, yeah. So, and the occasion that we had to go into an Ensenada. There are two marinas. One is in the town itself, so if you go in there, it is right there, but that's not where we were. Yeah, that's not where we were. We were up to the. You see the other marina, up up, uh, to the left, uh, a little distance away. That's it right there. That's it right there.

Len Rodrigues:

And the hallmark of this particular marina is it has absolutely the, absolutely the craziest currents we've ever seen. We had to use four lines to secure the boat In there In the slip. In the slip, yeah, wow, just wild currents. The only time they let up is a slack tide, but at ebb tide and flood tides, the boats, like all of the boats, are moving like all the time, except for slack tide. So it's associated with a hotel that's there. That's quite nice.

Len Rodrigues:

Uh, you get access to, um, the pool and and so forth, um and um. And they provided the marina, provided the, uh, the agent that would work with us to get us all checked in. So, um, so a van picks you up at the marina here, takes you downtown to the check-in location and helps with translation and distance away. You better make sure you've got everything you need the boat registration, your passports, everything that you possibly need to go through the process of checking in. Okay, and then how long did you stay there? I don't know. I think we were probably there about three or four nights and then the next stop was actually going get to Cabo, with our first stop along the way, intended to be Turtle Bay, at a time after the madness that is the ah-ha-ha. Once that's done, um, so, um, the the, the baha was, um, had already come through when you get into turtle bay. After that, there may be about, I don't know.

Capn Tinsley:

you'd have a lot if you had a dozen boats there well, did you see the comment at the bottom of your screen?

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, I tried to get a comment to last guest Taking the IP40. South from DC. But you should mention the Coho Hoho rally from Port Town to San Diego. I've never done it.

Len Rodrigues:

I know all about the Baja Ha Ha rally because I've looked into that quite a bit and it it was definitely san diego to cabo and it uh reputation for for every, every place in here. So, uh, when you, when you go into turtle bay, uh, fuel will be scarce after that. Uh, when you go into Turtle Bay, fuel will be scarce after that, when you go into Cabo, don't try and fuel up until the whole group from the HaHa have kind of settled down and began to disperse. Many of them will head further south and some will round the corner up to La Paz and so forth. But getting fuel it's a big deal. Okay, because so many people have come in, they're low on fuel. They've got to get fueled up and there's a bunch that may be in the marina. There's a whole bunch that are anchored out in the bay. So following the ha-ha was interesting, let's put it that way.

Capn Tinsley:

So, augustus, is saying they're both well-run, fun rallies, buddy boats, radio checks, camaraderie all good, yeah, all good.

Len Rodrigues:

Camaraderie all good, yeah, all good. It's just when you're not in the rally and you're sort of following them.

Capn Tinsley:

It's better to go ahead Right.

Len Rodrigues:

Okay, thanks, augustus.

Capn Tinsley:

Good to see you again, Augustus.

Len Rodrigues:

This was a point where we ended up having a major failure on our boat, which was our water maker, which we'd been using extensively. The water maker was fine. What wasn't fine was our inverter. What wasn't fine was our inverter. Our water maker is powered by an electric motor, so we used the inverter to power the electric motor.

Capn Tinsley:

We thought we had enough wattage, but it turned out we didn't, and we actually burnt out the inverter.

Len Rodrigues:

Oh no, yeah, I think I saw that on your blog that you had to get a new inverter. Oh no, yeah, I think I saw that on your blog that you had to get a new inverter. I had to get a new inverter but I sure as hell wasn't going to buy it in Cabo San Lucas. So it was a good thing that we had, just at Turtle Bay, filled up with our tanks, our water tanks, so we had ample water for a crew to head down to Cabo. So we opted to go into the marina in Cabo just to sort of survey what the problems were and sort of check into where the best place would be to actually replace the inverter. And we actually enjoyed the stay in Cabo. We were there a few days, got some information on that. The place we should definitely look to repair it was Puerto Vallarta. So Okay.

Len Rodrigues:

Puerto Vallarta was the stop I'm looking for After this. The marina is up to the right. You need to go up the other way, this way, right there it is. You see that gap there, it is right there. It's surrounded by shops and hotels and so forth, but, and hotels and so forth, but there's a little place that we discovered called Monkey Business, and if you like margaritas, monkey Business has the most extraordinary margaritas and it's right next to it.

Len Rodrigues:

It's right in that area where it says Cabo Tequila, top of the marina. The other way, the other way up, yeah, there's a little side street right down there where this place is located, right here, and it's in that group of buildings and it's called Monkey Business and it's fabulous. It has margaritas in the biggest colorful art glass glasses that you've ever seen in your life and they've got all sorts of different flavors. And don't drink two, because you'll never be able to walk out of the place.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, all right. So where did you go next?

Len Rodrigues:

Actually straight to Puerto Vallarta. So our next sail is now across open ocean to Banderas Bay to the south, which you can see Banderas Bay and Puerto Vallarta there. So we sailed straight across. Most of the sail was actually pretty benign, but the last, I'd say the last portion of it half day at least, through the night and into the next morning, was 30 knot winds. So it was really quite interesting, and so we ended up making Puerto Vallarta Marina by noon two days later after leaving Cabo. So two full nights of sailing and there was just the three of us, my wife and my son and myself, crewing, going down, I was trying to read that in.

Capn Tinsley:

Spanish.

Len Rodrigues:

There was a message that was sending Spanish. Yeah, my. Spanish is non-existent.

Capn Tinsley:

My name is Senorita, my name is.

Len Rodrigues:

Senorita. Okay, so Puerto Vallarta was where we actually got the inverter replaced. Oh, the inverter. Yeah, the power is the water maker and we got back to using the water maker. And we got back to using the water maker, but it's now a 3,000 watt. Wow, where?

Capn Tinsley:

is the? Is there a marina?

Len Rodrigues:

in here. Yes, if you go to. Yeah, it's not that one. Though If you go to keep going over, that's La Cruz, which we did go into, by the way, but after our stay in Puerto Vallarta. So if you go over to the right on your map, keep going, keep going, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Um keep going.

Len Rodrigues:

Keep going. Yep, no, yeah, there, you keep going. There's a big gap that opens up and there's a Marina that's right here. There you go, okay, so you go, okay. So you come in and the cruise ships actually come in there. Oh wow, so we go in and off to the left after you come in. So on your port side, as you're motoring in, you go down that gap Down here, Yep, so all the way down that gap to the marina itself. And was it just in one?

Capn Tinsley:

of these slips here.

Len Rodrigues:

That doesn't look right. No, that doesn't look right. Let's go a little bit further. Is this it? Can you move out a bit? Let me just see. Let's go down a little bit further. Did we miss? Ah, there we go, see, it says Marina Vallarta. That's where we went in, so that's where your arrow is now. That's where the cruise ships park. We were in there, parked in there, ships parked, we were in there. Parked in there, do you?

Capn Tinsley:

remember the prices for these.

Len Rodrigues:

These weren't particularly cheap. It's a well-run marina, it's all gated, it's actually quite all right, but we had to get some repairs done. It's actually quite quite all right, but we had to get some repairs done. So, um, now the that the upside of this is that you can walk around the entire marina and everywhere you go there are restaurants, um, there's housing all the way around, so plenty of places to eat. Um, we were there through through christmas and new years. Uh, new years. Uh, there were parties along the uh the whole stretch of of uh the marina, uh, at the various restaurants. So we we had a, we had a new year's dinner there, and so nothing but good things to say. But we also had really good attention paid to the boat in terms of replacing some elements, including we actually had to.

Capn Tinsley:

I lost our place, oh.

Len Rodrigues:

There's, says Port Puerto.

Capn Tinsley:

Vallarta, what was it called again? Yeah, you went south of that right.

Len Rodrigues:

No, we were in Puerto Vallarta itself. So just north of there, there you go. So just north of there, there you go. And there's the gap that goes into the marina.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so how long were you?

Len Rodrigues:

there. We were there quite a while. We were there a good three weeks through Christmas and New Year's, and it took that long to get parts. We had to order the new inverter. We had to. At the same time, we ended up having our shore power charger fail, so we ended up replacing that as well.

Capn Tinsley:

So, augustus, is asking a question. Yeah, he says, did you make it to the hidden beach inside Islas Marietas?

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, I didn't. I don't think my wife did either.

Capn Tinsley:

Do you?

Len Rodrigues:

know where. That is Not really Okay. We did a lot of walking. Thanks for the tip.

Capn Tinsley:

Augustus.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, but that's, that's a good one. We should, we should write that down. We really did like, yeah, puerto Vallarta, it was a fun place to be, and the old town, taking an Uber into the old town and walking around and well worth it. Well worth it. So our next stop, after repairs and and uh so forth, was la cruz. You saw, you saw that earlier um, that marina that was to the west of, uh, so like cruz. So La Cruz, yes, the second one on your list there, there it is, that's it so right, so right there. You can see the little marina if you go in, and this is also a fun place.

Capn Tinsley:

Little Marina, huh, well, it's a pretty big marina.

Len Rodrigues:

It's a much smaller town but you see that whole area, the breakwater itself, that entire area, all the way down yeah, all the way down that breakwater and where it doglegs and continues to the marina facilities itself and the marina offices which are near that parking lot. Um uh, every sunday they have a market there and you have got to go to this market. It is filled with uh, with uh, umbrellas and and places that people sell all sorts of different things you can. You can see it's quite a nice location, but that market has tremendous amount of stuff all sorts of food, all sorts of clothing and other things. We were really interested in the food, so it was excellent, augustus says, just off Puerto Vallarta.

Capn Tinsley:

Augustus says just off Puerto Vallarta, a hidden entry. Very cool, Look it up online.

Len Rodrigues:

We'll do very cool. Look it up online. Yeah, oh, will do, will do so. We were. We were there for you were there for a couple of weeks. It was a couple of weeks, yeah, we were in la cruz for a couple of weeks. We we enjoyed it so much. Um, so we attended two of those Sunday get-togethers. Then our next stop was Mazatlan. So we left La Cruz early one morning and rounded out of the Banderas Bay and I should caution people to the rest of this as you leave Banderas Bay, if you can just scroll up a little bit, is this it? That's La Cruz. Yes, that's going into La Cruz. So if you so, leaving La Cruz, you're now going out into the ocean again and you have to kind of come around what defines the northwestern edge of Banderas Bay in general. So, if you can scroll up just to zoom out a bit, zoom out, okay, you can see you got to kind of go out and come around the corner as you leave Banderas Bay to head north, right, the trouble was oh, you were heading north.

Len Rodrigues:

Okay, yes, we were heading north. So we're heading out of Banderas Bay and then you can see the point up there. So you got to round the point and then head head.

Capn Tinsley:

Right, right here.

Len Rodrigues:

And then yes, and then, and then head east after you've rounded the point. But in rounding the point we noticed something that we should just point out. I don't know whether it's been corrected. We had Navionics charts on our chart plotter and you can see there's a number of offshore rock outcroppings, and there was quite a large one that we could see from the boat, no problem, and nothing showed up on our charts at all. So you don't want to encounter.

Capn Tinsley:

You're talking about like right here.

Len Rodrigues:

No, I'm talking about a bit further out from shore. There's some fairly major. There you go, Some fairly major rock you go some fairly major rock outcropping, one of which did not show up on our charts.

Capn Tinsley:

This is what he was talking about right here Islas Marietas. He said there's a beach there, yeah. So he said there's a beach. So I don't see the beach. But over here, maybe Did you stop there here's. Oh, look at this, playa Escondida.

Len Rodrigues:

There, you go Playa is beach Ascandida there you go Fly is beach?

Capn Tinsley:

Gabby wants to know the link to your blog. Okay, the name of his website is SV Teratema. Oh, I actually brought. I do have that on here. Hold on, I'll bring it up.

Len Rodrigues:

There it is, there it is. That's it, there it is. Do you have all the places you?

Capn Tinsley:

stopped on your Well. People are going to be demanding this.

Len Rodrigues:

Okay, I will make it a point of updating the blog, because I actually did prepare a presentation for the office that I work in um of all of the stops that we made, including which I have, so I should include that. So, um, yeah, maybe you can post that on your blog. Yes, that'd be good. So we ended up sailing up to Mazatlan. Turned out to be kind of a weird I'm not sure why my internet is so slow.

Len Rodrigues:

It turned out to be a weird sail through the night because we were surrounded by freighters of every description. I could very clearly see them on my AIS, on my chart plotter, but the freighters aren't lit up that way. They have their navigation lights on, but not a lot else. It's no problem seeing. Oh boy, it is inside the island with a circular opening overhead. Wow.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah.

Len Rodrigues:

I saw something labeled Playa.

Capn Tinsley:

Escanido.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, right, there actually a little bit further.

Capn Tinsley:

It was labeled. Oh, there it is. Looks like a little sand trap for a golf course.

Len Rodrigues:

From the shadow it's casting.

Capn Tinsley:

That's interesting.

Len Rodrigues:

Hey Augustus, is this a?

Capn Tinsley:

golf course. Just kidding, okay. So, anyway the oh my gosh. Look at this. Oh, it says the water comes in. Augustus, you're the man.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, I'd say that's incredibly unique.

Capn Tinsley:

There's a little too many people there, though. What do you think?

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah well, try a cup of Cabana Beach or Ipanema. It's much different.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I bet you a ferry brought these people out, so you have to work around that. I bet you a ferry brought these people out so you have to work around that, anyway.

Len Rodrigues:

so we went into Mazatlan and we were there for two, three weeks as well, having quite a had to take Ubers or taxis into locations because the marina was a bit more remote from the center part of the city. So but sailing up during the night, I had to be constantly checking the chart plotter and, on my toes, okay.

Capn Tinsley:

You said Mazatlan.

Len Rodrigues:

Mazatlan, there it is.

Capn Tinsley:

Mazatlan Okay, mazatlan Okay.

Len Rodrigues:

There she is there we go. And we have to go to Marina Mazatlan, which you can see labeled there to the north, whereas the central part of the city is to the south, and so you go in that very narrow. Uh, there it is, there's the marina, and uh, yeah, you go in that very narrow yeah, pathway which um at low tide you better stay to one side or you'll run aground.

Capn Tinsley:

It's very shallow, oh, okay.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

These are very interesting marinas. Look at this out here.

Len Rodrigues:

Really wild. Some new stuff going on here as well, being built out and so forth, so this is obviously a kind of a new area that's.

Capn Tinsley:

Look at this comment.

Len Rodrigues:

Augustus is this rich vein of information that I had no idea about.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, he came on last week when I was interviewing somebody who's about to leave BC and she's about to go around the world. She plans to be gone like 10 years. And he came on last week too and was commenting he's a West Coast guy, he knows, so we're. Dudley Moore ran on the beach dreaming of Bo Derek. That is so funny. So Gabby has a question.

Len Rodrigues:

Dudley Moore ran on the beach dreaming of Bo Derek. That is so funny so.

Capn Tinsley:

Gabby has a question. Yeah, gabby says, have you experienced any issues with the drug cartels along the Mexican coast? Mazatown is in Sinaloa and their cartel is powerful, oh boy.

Len Rodrigues:

We had no issues at all. Yeah, you weren't trying to horn in on their territory, so they probably left you alone, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

That wasn't your business there.

Len Rodrigues:

So this gives you a good idea of what it's like. So this gives you a good idea of what it's like. Just a word about the marinas, all of the ones that we were in. It's really good to tune in, usually around 8 o'clock in the morning, to the marina net. They've got nets on VHF radio.

Capn Tinsley:

Sure, like they do in Bahamas.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, well worth it. Well, huge amount of information from the locals or the people who've been there for a while. It was very useful in Mazatlan Even finding places to places to get stuff, because people have been in the marina for months or in some instances, a couple of years, and they're just a wealth of information and every morning around the net at eight o'clock so we would tune in and listen and ask questions and so forth. Well worth it.

Capn Tinsley:

So Augustus says I'm bi-coastal, Last IP on the East Coast, but I've sailed Louisiana to Maine via the canal. It's intercoastal Lots of West Coast races. Call me Goose, please.

Len Rodrigues:

Okay, Goose.

Capn Tinsley:

Like Maverick and Goose.

Len Rodrigues:

There you go.

Capn Tinsley:

Talk to me Goose Like Maverick and Goose. There you go. Talk to me Goose oh, that is cool.

Len Rodrigues:

Okay, so I take it, this was also. Go ahead. What was that? I was just going to say, our final stop was La Paz, which is across the Sea of Cortez from Mazatlan.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, the Sea of Cortez.

Len Rodrigues:

We've got to go across the Sea of Cortez.

Capn Tinsley:

And I don't know where that is.

Len Rodrigues:

You're basically in it. Just scroll over to the left. That is, you're basically in it. Just scroll over to the left. Scroll over to the left, just keep going and you'll see the south coast of the Baja Peninsula.

Capn Tinsley:

There it is there, okay so you see where it says left. You're back in Kaba.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, so that sail.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, yes yes, that.

Len Rodrigues:

So La Paz was our last stop and we really like La Paz. It's a wonderful, wonderful town. The boats that are anchored there's lots of boats that are anchored in that, particularly in that gap between that outcropping of land and where the town is. You get lots of boats in there, Right? Here, that's right. It has the funkiest tides and the boats tend to sashay around doing what everybody calls the La Paz. Waltz, anchor chains get tied up with one another and there's an art to anchoring in this bay.

Capn Tinsley:

But this is where our so did you like this anchorage?

Len Rodrigues:

No, we didn't anchor. Actually, we ended up going into a marina that was on the far north end of La Paz City. So if you go up the coast, here a bit, no, a little bit further up. Yeah, scroll up, keep scrolling up, keep going, keep going. Yeah, there it is at the top Right there.

Capn Tinsley:

Right here Is that it.

Len Rodrigues:

It's a bit more remote, but it's for us. So that's we ended up going.

Capn Tinsley:

Is this it right here?

Len Rodrigues:

Right there, we returned to Canada.

Capn Tinsley:

Yep, that's it, except we were in the inside portion around that bend. Right here In here.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, if you go a little bit further to the right, a little bit further over, you'll see that there's more to the marina. Just keep going over to the right.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, this is nice there you go. Yeah.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, oh my gosh, and there's some restaurants along there and so forth, but uh, you probably won't um spend a lot of time uh at the restaurants there. You'd probably just take an uber into uh, into la paz itself and hang out for the day and come back. But it's a nice protected marina um yeah but at this point we made the decision to get the boat back to um and we ended up putting the boat on a freighter in order to do that.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I read that.

Len Rodrigues:

And the freighter picked up the boat in La Paz, in a bay that was not far from the marina that that we were in, uh oh, I want to see that bay uh, yeah, if you want to just go out and and. Um, now, if you go up the coast from there, am I going in the right direction you are.

Capn Tinsley:

Am I going in the?

Len Rodrigues:

right direction. You are there, it is there here, right there.

Capn Tinsley:

Yep, right here Right there, Right there.

Len Rodrigues:

It was in that bay that the freighter anchored and we had to go out at 430 in the morning take the boat out.

Capn Tinsley:

To answer Gabby's question, we had it for a year. Okay, so you can get different lengths of time.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah. But they do have a year.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Len Rodrigues:

So, the, the. So we have to go through a fairly complicated process in order to book the space on the freighter, to get out and then to go through the quote checking out procedure for the boat itself can I ask you something about the freighter?

Capn Tinsley:

yeah, yeah is it one of those that you float on it, or is it? Did they have to like take the mast off and everything?

Len Rodrigues:

no, they know, they, they, they. What they do is they have a crane and the crane has has straps that go under the boat and they lift the boat onto the deck and so you don't have to do anything to the boat forth. We had to release the backstays on the boat in order for the crane to negotiate things.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh gosh, who did?

Len Rodrigues:

that it's a little intimidating because you're bringing your boat up against this wall of steel, right?

Capn Tinsley:

Oh my gosh.

Len Rodrigues:

And you're not in that protected area so it was a little choppy and I had every fender out to protect us from. So they throw you down some yellow ribbons and you tie your dock lines to the yellow ribbon and then they haul your dock lines up and they tie you off at their deck.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh my gosh.

Len Rodrigues:

So there you are hanging in the water with your dock lines tied off to a cleat on their deck, and then they tell you to leave. Oh my goodness, so you've got to have everything stowed away, all the canvas stowed away. Our sails had been stowed away. We did it a couple of days prior.

Capn Tinsley:

Do you remember the name of this company?

Len Rodrigues:

I can actually get the name to you, but I don't recall it. Off the top of my head there are several companies.

Capn Tinsley:

This is something that I'm sure that people would want to know, you know.

Len Rodrigues:

So you shut everything off. You got to shut off the batteries, shut everything off. You got to shut off the batteries, shut everything off. And then finally, they get a panga, a couple of Mexican crew in a panga to take you back to the marina. So that's what we did and we stayed in an Airbnb until our flight out back to Vancouver.

Capn Tinsley:

We got to read this comment from Goose, aka Augustus Gabby. If you stay in a marina, cartel members may approach you, ask you to pay cartel members for extra security. Be careful if that happens, but don't complain to the marina or the police. You didn't have any of that happen right.

Len Rodrigues:

Never happened.

Capn Tinsley:

Thank goodness Never happened.

Len Rodrigues:

That was our great adventure Once we flew back. The most stressful part of everything was actually the airport in Cabo San Lucas.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh really, why is that? Why is that?

Len Rodrigues:

Because you had to wear a mask and all that. Well, no, no, that had no bearing on it at all. It happened to be spring break.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh my gosh. So there were Americans and Canadians everywhere.

Len Rodrigues:

Everywhere you looked and they had come in on private jets as well as commercial jets, and it was just madness. So, anyway, we flew back to Vancouver and not long after we arrived in Vancouver, the ship carrying our boat docked at Ogden Point in Victoria. That quick, in six days. It took six days to get up.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, my gosh, that's wonderful.

Len Rodrigues:

So in six days they were back. Our boat was back in local waters.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh my gosh, I know that made you feel good. So Gabby says the police are as corrupt as the cartel. I believe that Well, goodness, so that is amazing. So you got the boat. I was imagining it was going to take a long time when you said you had it shipped back.

Len Rodrigues:

No, it only took six days. Now can you give us an?

Capn Tinsley:

idea of how much that costs.

Len Rodrigues:

I will tell you exactly how much it costs. It costs $20,000 Canadian dollars.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, how much is that in? She has another question how much is that in American dollars, US dollars?

Len Rodrigues:

I can go ahead and do a little.

Capn Tinsley:

Let me figure it out how much.

Len Rodrigues:

Maybe $15,000. Ours is about 30% greater.

Capn Tinsley:

To USD. Let's see. Well, for today it is $14,580. You were right, Did you find a lot of American and Canadian retirees living in Mexico Especially?

Len Rodrigues:

in the middle of the war, absolutely.

Capn Tinsley:

I think Gabby's trying to make a change here. Lots of them. Okay. So Goose says municipal police are infiltrated. Federality is a little less so we're getting the good information, aren't we?

Len Rodrigues:

Goose is a source of all sorts of great information.

Capn Tinsley:

I told Goose last week that he needed to come on the podcast because he's a wealth of information. He is, so we've actually gone longer than any of my other podcasts, but we had to finish the trip, so we've been on here.

Len Rodrigues:

No, no, no to finish the trip We've been on air.

Capn Tinsley:

No, no, no. This is great. If people don't want to listen, they don't have to listen. Oh wait, goose says there are Costco and Sam's Clubs in most of the cities. Did you do any shopping at those?

Len Rodrigues:

There's just about everything you can think of Walmart Okay.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, Goose, email me saltyabandon at gmail. We're going to have you on the podcast. Maybe Lynn will listen to that podcast. So is there anything that you want to add? I do have some questions here. Did you manage the roles of your family?

Len Rodrigues:

How did that that?

Capn Tinsley:

all worked out. Your wife is the admiral.

Len Rodrigues:

Yes, we did three-hour watches.

Capn Tinsley:

And your son was on there too, Christopher.

Len Rodrigues:

He was yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

He was. That's good. That's a nice number of people. I mostly like to be on my boat by myself or with my husband, but I guess when they're family members it's different. Let's see during the more difficult now. What's your? What's your biggest takeaway or lessons learned from this trip? Got to ask some meaningful questions.

Len Rodrigues:

Okay, I think this is just. This gets to the point. It doesn't matter how much you prepare, something's going to break.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, something's going to break?

Len Rodrigues:

Yes, something's going to break, and I can guarantee you it is not going to be a convenient thing, and then you have to deal with it.

Capn Tinsley:

So you know you mentioned the handler of checking into the country. You have to get a hand.

Len Rodrigues:

You have to get an agent, known as an agent, and the agent kind of represents you and helps with the processing of all of the information. And I don't know what it is about the Mexican bureaucracy, but they are really good at just making it complicated.

Capn Tinsley:

When I was in the Bahamas on my boat, I had to have a cell phone mailed to me. That was a nightmare. It never made it out of customs and I had to just come home and buy another cell phone nightmare.

Capn Tinsley:

It never made it out of customs and I had to just come home and buy another cell phone. But people were saying next to me on a boat in the Bahamas they had their water maker broke and they had to have it shipped. They had to hire a agent just to get that handled because they so they wouldn't be, taxed like like to avoid the big tax that those people have to pay. I agree.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah. So I guess it's something similar to that. Let's see what's next for you and your family, you and the crew.

Len Rodrigues:

I don't know. We're going to play it by ear. At some point we will probably end up back on land, as I get older and so forth, but for the moment we've had over a decade aboard Paratima and she's been a great owner.

Capn Tinsley:

Fifteen years. So Gabby wants to know about what makes the western part of Canada such a wonderful sailing area.

Len Rodrigues:

It's complicated as a submerged mountain range, lots of rocks On the coast, lots of rocks, lots of tricky tides, lots of tricky tides, some tricky. For example, you've got to time things as you go through various passes. For example, if you want to go from here on the mainland over to the Gulf Islands, for example to sail the Gulf Island, you have to go through one of two passes. One is called Active Pass, which the ferries go through, and the other is called Porlier Pass. There's a third one a little further to the north, but it's not used that frequently. But in both instances you really aim for slack tide. If you don't aim for slack tide, it can be a little hairy going through it, because in a sailboat, what's your top speed? Seven knots, flat out, yeah. Um. What's your top speed? Seven knots, flat out, um, yeah, eight. If you're a bigger boat, um, you, you've got, you've got, um, uh, currents that could be running at five knots, easy, um oh my gosh.

Capn Tinsley:

yeah, I've got 27 horsepower so you've got to watch it right.

Len Rodrigues:

So as you go through the Gulf Islands, you can see them there. It's kind of hard to distinguish, but there are passes, and then there's all sorts of issues as you're within these particular waters as well, Again, because it is a mountain range that's submerged right.

Capn Tinsley:

Right Lots of hidden rocks.

Len Rodrigues:

Yeah, you learn how to sail, you learn how to anticipate, you learn how to time your movements all stuff you need to know.

Capn Tinsley:

And in case you weren't on here, Gabby, he said it doesn't freeze the water doesn't freeze there, nope. Well, that's cool. Well, okay, Well, I guess that's it's it. I'm gonna try not to cough as we end this. Thank you so much for coming on.

Capn Tinsley:

This was a lot of fun that's what I like to do, like to give information to people. Um, this is a great route. Um, you got some people that Excuse me. What a nightmare with the cough. Some people like to anchor out more. Some people like to stay in marinas. Here's another. Spanish one. I wish I could. Can you translate that for us?

Len Rodrigues:

Not me. It won't let me copy and paste it so I can translate it.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, Gabby says great podcast, as always.

Len Rodrigues:

Thanks for the info, okay thank you, gabby, thanks for coming on, thanks for having me on yes, this was a blast.

Capn Tinsley:

And thanks for listening to our story. Yes, thanks, and there'll be people that listen in the replay, excuse me and on the audio podcast. And with that I'm going to end it, so I don't quit coughing in everybody's ear and face.

Len Rodrigues:

Now the way I like to end it is.

Capn Tinsley:

Thank you, Salty Bannon out you.

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