Season three has drawn to a close. Abracadabra is clean as a boat can be, thanks in large part to the guys at Paradise Fishing Lodge. Critter deterrent has been liberally applied from bow to stern. She is tightly bound to the dock waiting for the engine doctor to give us a diagnosis and suggest a treatment.
El Capitan Wondering What Else He Can Have Cleaned . . .
We are currently sipping descafinatos at Starbucks in the Galerias Mall in San Salvador. It's important to experience not only the history of a country but its current culture - and San Salvador is the land of modern shopping malls. More about our tourist time here later when we manage to get more than a few pictures transferred to our laptop. [Remember the camera that went overboard? Well, apparently our old camera was also badly slammed during our bar-crossing incident (at least new batteries have failed to bring it back to life). So, we're now taking pictures with our I-Touch and haven't yet mastered it's photo storage features.]
No more tourist info or pictures here - just lots of (we think) interesting "statistics":
Season three has drawn to a close. Abracadabra is clean as a boat can be, thanks in large part to the guys at Paradise Fishing Lodge. Critter deterrent has been liberally applied from bow to stern. She is tightly bound to the dock waiting for the engine doctor to give us a diagnosis and suggest a treatment.
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| El Capitan Wondering What Else He Can Have Cleaned . . . |
We are currently sipping descafinatos at Starbucks in the Galerias Mall in San Salvador. It's important to experience not only the history of a country but its current culture - and San Salvador is the land of modern shopping malls. More about our tourist time here later when we manage to get more than a few pictures transferred to our laptop. [Remember the camera that went overboard? Well, apparently our old camera was also badly slammed during our bar-crossing incident (at least new batteries have failed to bring it back to life). So, we're now taking pictures with our I-Touch and haven't yet mastered it's photo storage features.]
No more tourist info or pictures here - just lots of (we think) interesting "statistics":
Why Bother With Statistics?
Well, because our posts serve two purposes. Most importantly as our letters to
friends and family. But they also act as our travel diary which, like any good
travel diary helps us settle those travel-related arguments which anyone who has been married for any length of time knows are both inevitable ("Where was it we saw that awesome whale?") and important to resolve (in the gentlest possible way, of course).
What Are These "Statistics"?
Please don't think we take ourselves so seriously as to collect information for the purpose of statistics. The information we decided to post following our first season was in response to questions we had about how we had spent our time traveling on Abracadabra. The information we posted that year was taken from calendar notes, log book entries, cruising guides and websites that purport to know things. Because we found that exercise interesting, we repeated it after season two and will repeat it here again. Rather than true "statistics", think: stuff we vaguely wanted to know and that we have in a vague way documented.
If you catch us in a mistake feel free to let us know - but be ready to hear from us that you have waaaaay too much time on your hands if you're taking these things seriously . . .
# Days Living Aboard:
2013/14: November 5, 2013 - May 16, 2014 = 193 (interesting -- 10 days less each season??)
2012/13: November 9, 2012 – May 30, 2013 = 203
2011/12: October 7, 2011 – May 7, 2012 = 213 (this actually includes a couple of “decommissioning” days at a bed and breakfast in La Paz – days not included in subsequent years)
# Nautical Miles Traveled:
2013/14: 1253 (keep in mind we spent almost two months under embargo this season courtesy of the Mexican government!)
2012/13: 1730
2011/2012: 2639 (that trip down California and Pacific Baja was one loooong shot!)
Guest Crew:
2013/14: Jim Thompson (making his third appearance!) and Bob Romano (braving the dread Tehuantepec)
2012/13: Jim Thompson
2011/12: Frank Chan and Irene DeBrujin-Chan; Rick Nelson and Corinne Hackbarth; Jodi Rafkin; Bob Romano; and Jim Thompson
# Nautical Miles Traveled With Crew:
2013/14: 305 (948 w/out)
2012/13: 225 (1505 w/out)
2011/12: 1424 w/ crew (1215 w/out)
# Nights Underway:
2013/14: 12 (3 with crew)
2012/13: 12 (2 with crew)
2011/12: 19 (10 with crew)
# Nights at Anchor or on a Mooring Ball:
2013/14: 27
2012/13: 72
2011/12: 39
Favorite Anchorage:
2013/14: Caleta de Campos though Acapulco was much better than we had expected
2012/13: Paraíso or Ensenada Carrizal
2011/12: Chacala
Least Favorite Anchorage/Mooring:
2013/14: Outside of the estuary at Bahia del Sol, El Salvador (no one wants to anchor there - its just a holding spot for boats waiting to cross the bar into the estuary)
2012/13: El Mezteño (which was fabulous until the winds shifted . . . )
2011/12: Pichilinque or Yalapa -- it's a tie (though we would love to return to Yalapa WITHOUT staying on a mooring ball!)
Marina Stays:
2013/14: 154 nights (yikes - 79%) -- this of course includes our time under embargo - which we think kept us in La Cruz about eight weeks longer than we would have otherwise been there . . .plus a week visiting family and several "beat the heat" trips inland
2012/13: 119 nights (or 59%) – including two weeks visiting family in El Norte and three weeks at our time-share -- we were clearly getting more comfortable with anchoring out
2011/12: 155 nights (or 73%) – including two-ish weeks for repairs; two-plus-ish weeks to decommission; two weeks for a road trip and assorted days to recover from colds, etc.
Motor Hours / Miles Motored (calculated assuming 4.5 miles per engine hour to take into account time running the motor to dock, set the anchor, make water, etc.):
2013/14: 102 hours or 459 miles (37% of miles traveled; so either we're sailing fanatics or - more likely - we were babying our ailing engine)
2012/13: 143 hours or 643.5 miles (37% of miles traveled)
2011/12: 255.2 hours or 1148 miles (43.5% of miles travelled)
Road Trips:
2013/14: A trip to Oaxaca and a trip to San Cristobal De Las Casas - two of our favorite things about this season - plus a short visit to San Sebastian del Oeste; we're not reflecting our time in Guanajuato as that was before we moved aboard for the season
2012/13: Tijuana to La Paz and return and a day trip from Ixtapa (our "summer vacation” in Guanajuato isn't included, as it began after we decommissioned for the summer)
2011/12: Guanajuato -- which inspired us to spend our second off-boat season there studying Spanish.
Crew Injuries:
2013/14: one embarrassingly spectacular bruised cheek due to a slip and fall while taking down the clothes line at the stern (Molly); a variety of spectacular bruises on various arms and legs as result of our wild ride over the Bahia del Sol bar (Molly); and two bloody foot injuries due to inattention to various cleats (Bryce)
2012/13: nothing we can remember (and we tend to dwell on these things, as many of you know) – so we’ll count this an injury-free season!
2011/12: 2 jammed/broken/and/or wrenched toes (1 Jodi, 1 Molly); 1 toe tip removal (Bryce - just the tiniest bit, but he's now finally installed a bungee cord to hold up the anchor locker hatch!); 1 broken foot (only the tiny little bones on top - but quite spectacular bruising - Molly); 1 set of blackened fingernails (Bryce - but he won't open that hatch the same way again); 1 wrenched shoulder (Bryce - but he's getting much better at controlling the dinghy).
# Blog Posts (summer posts included in season depending on entry and exit visas):
2013/14: 27 (to date - we still have some "flashback" posts in draft form)
2012/13: 23
2011/12: 26
Most Interesting Blog Page Views:
2013/14: Canadian viewers jumped tremendously after our blog was introduced to the Canadian Sailcraft West group - we hope a lot of them join us!
2012/13: Russia, Germany, Poland and France and an annoying spam “comment-er”
2011/12: Latvia - who do we know in Latvia?
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