CHANGES With reports this month on Absolute's first season in Mexico; Volare's luck in
Katie and Tom — landlubbers no longer.
none of those romantic visions of cruising strike me as the great takeaway from that life-altering trip into the unknown. The beautiful anchorages, the sun and breeze, the great food … all worthy of many a tall tale over drinks with friends, and there already have been many. More than all of that, leaving it all behind and cruising with the one you love, through all of the good and bad, left us with the more permanent gift of a profound change in character, and a greater appreciation nowadays for the people we meet and the moments we share. Looking back, they could have been any anchorages for all I care. The memories were built more on the decisions that got us there, what we gave of ourselves along the way, and the
CHAOS
Warming up pre-SailFest with buddy-boat buddies Brian and Doug from the Spindrift 43 'Kanumera'.
camaraderie we found when the anchor went down. And the decisions to make were many! Katie and I were relatively new to sailing when the great confluence of life events pulled us toward purchasing our boat. We really only "learned the ropes" a few years prior, but it was an intense love at first heel. We were on the water four days a week. Racing, cruising with friends, we were constantly finding any excuse we could to hoist some sail. San Diego is wonderfully accommodating in that way, and she sent us some luck when it came to finding a good old boat to make our own. I could go on about the admirable sailing character of the Islander 36, but suffice it to say, coming across a storied old racer like Absolute was pure kismet. We purchased her, a well-loved boat from San Francisco that needed little, in January 2019, and promptly prepared her for a departure with the Ha-Ha on November 4 that year. A quick turnaround, but one we were happy to oblige. Having a set departure date was a necessary bit of motivation to ensure we would indeed untie the lines when the time came. After all those hours of prep and the mad rush to get us past Point Loma for the last time in the foreseeable future, we didn't have any real concept of what we'd done until somewhere between Ensenada and Turtle Bay. We certainly figured out that we weren't in San Diego any more when our first real squall hit before Santa Maria. Despite that, and the hurried trip to Cabo prior to the arrival of a tropical depression, the excitement of being out there, of doing it, and the glorious recognition of our own naiveté, was breathing new life into two former landlubbers who'd felt stagnated in their former lives. With that, we began our lives afloat, following the Ha-Ha fleet up to La Paz. Then, at the behest of our new bestie Doug and his cat Shadow, we made our way across the Sea to San Blas before a beautiful, if not raucous, holiday season in Puerto Vallarta. Somewhere during that break, I'm told we all decided over drinks to head south to Zihuatanejo for SailFest. When I was later reminded of this agreement among our cruising friends, the words of our amazing broker Deron, regarding his memories of his last cruising season, stuck in my head: "When ABSOLUTE
ABSOLUTE
Absolute — Islander 36 Tom and Katie Bosch First Season Reflections San Diego Reflecting on our season spent cruising Mexico, a season that would coincide with the start of a global pandemic,
ALL PHOTOS ABSOLUTE EXCEPT AS NOTED
finding a great pickup crew; the pleasures and pains of Salacia's new owners as they headed south; a quick look at Eliana, Georgia and Althea — West Coast boats that just completed circumnavigations; and a tasty digestif of Cruise Notes.
I headed south of PV, each anchorage was more beautiful than the last." Truer words have never been spoken. Once around Corrientes, the tropics welcomed us with one beautiful palapafilled anchorage after another. It seemed the farther south we went, the friendlier the cruisers became, and the drinks and ceviche only got better and more affordable. We chased beautiful conditions farther and farther down the coast. Dodging crocs en route to find moonshine in Tenacatita; enjoying the fresh pastry delivery in the Barra lagoon; and the greatest sailing of our short careers between Caleta de Campos and Ixtapa stand out as some favorite memories. I can't recommend SailFest in Zihua