Henrietta II Adventures

Well it's been a week in Nuervo Vallarta. Not too shabby, although we are all ready to be back on the water. We've had some really good times here, downtown Puerto Vallarta is beautiful, lots of local artists and lots of Senor Frogs. We opted to take the bus downtown which costs a whole $1. The transportation here is awesome. Lots of walking and exploring back streets. Our favorite place to eat had 5 tacos for $35 pesos. We met a nice gal who was from the midwest by herself, she called us her "group therapy". She recommended a place called "The Cheeky Monkey" which has a beautiful view of the bay and $1 beers all day long. There was some work to be done on the boat, mostly the auto pilot which was fixed yesterday but now we are waiting anxiously for the wire transfer so we can push off. Our next stop is Barra de Navidad about a days trip from here, known for seafood..... from there we continue south most likely stopping in Acapulco. We hope to catch more fi

Captain’s Report For those of you who don’t know, I grew up “captaining” 10 foot skiffs with electric motors. On more than one occasion, while crossing a “channel” (the low spot between the pond I lived on and the next), I freaked out. In my family, the call of, “Hey Dad, it’s your old friend Greg!”, is somewhat of a joke. I actually yelled that on quite a few occasions, trying to get “help”, though shore was only 5 feet away. Ocean crossings – even being on the ocean – is not something I am accustomed to. But if there is one thing I learned from my dad, it is the importance of confidence. He would call it bullshitting, but there really is no difference. My job as captain is to keep my crew safe, to prepare for any eventuality, and I believe I have done this. We have a satellite phone, an EPIRB (emergency beacon), an actual lifeboat. 4 vhf radios. For piracy, we have tear gas hand grenades, “flare” guns, and slinghshots. I’m a pretty good slingshotter. I monitor the weathe

Jeff's Point of View- At 7 am on March 14th after motoring in zero visibility fog all night we were 5 miles from Punta Pequena and San Juanico where Steve Winn lives. The fog was persistent and we had a strong south breeze. The anchorage at San Juanico faces south and would not have been very safe for "Henrietta II." Then the autopilot quit. We decided (with regret) to continue on to Cabo. We hand steered day and night in very heavy fog (with brief breaks each afternoon) until we were 70 miles north of Cabo. We broke into 80 degree air and blue skies and calm blue seas. Sam BBQ'd Bonito steaks on the grill (15 lb Bonito have been a nuisance on the trolling line) and we had a great dinner in the warm sun up on the upper deck. We arrived at Puerto Los Cabos Marina in San Jose Del Cabo at 11 pm last night after 62 (!) hours of constant running. Greg did an amazing job docking after the bow and stern thrusters quit with overheat warning flashing (at least the hyd

We survived the tsunami warning in Ensenada and quickly got underway by 4:30 in the afternoon to beat a weather window on Friday. It took us about 45 hours to get to Turtle Bay where we all were in desperate need of rest. Once we anchored, Jeff and I took the dogs to shore on the pudgy. It was a great reward for them. Monty swam and chased birds for an hour while Mazie ate whatever she could find on the beach including a small live crab. She was very proud of that one. We celebrated Jeff's birthday on Sunday by sitting on the top deck listening to music and sunning ourselves, then had a nice dinner and all got a great nights sleep. We collectively decided to head south to San Juanico where Jeff's friend Steve lives, it should take us about 26 hours depending on the weather. From there we head to Cabo San Lucas. The last few days were a true test of what we are in store of. The dogs were unbelievable, and Greg has learned so much, especially about driving at night. Not my favori

3:30 am came early this morning. We have made it safely to Ensenada and it took about 10 1/2 hours. The dogs did fine, much better than me...could of been the nerves....I hurled all day long, but better get it out of the way early, right? The boat ran great until we started to dock and we lost all of our thrusters. Great. We have someone coming to look at them tomorrow morning and if they can fix it tomorrow than we may take off straight down to Cabo to beat a weather window. That would mean 3-4 days straight at sea. We enjoyed some awesome fish tacos and Pacificos at the Fish Market which everyone suggested to us, thanks guys! No plans for tonight but that could change. We are happy to be here!!