Sailing to San Diego

A little photo shopping and editing by Simon Lucas.

A look back at Jenée's photo of the view off our hotel in Zihuatanejo.

Relaxing on the beach in Z-What with my darling. All we need is a mariachi band to complete this picture.

BINGO! We kept these senõrs playing for a while. Mas pesos por favor!

A toast to us.

Margaritas make me happy.

That night, we head out for a nice dinner. No one does after dinner coffee quite like they do in Mexico.

Jumping to Barra de Navidad, we get a visit from the French Bakery. This Monsieur delivers great fresh bakery products right to the boat.

Now we are sailing into Puerto Vallarta and we had a humpback whale sighting. We were rushing to get in before dark so we'll have to catch these guys on the way out. Turns out this area (Bahia de Banderas) is a winter time habitat for whales. More on this later.

On land we make friends with the 4 legged guys.

Look at this face! He demanded loving and got it.

Looking forward to dinner.

Check out this red snapper. Delicious. Jenée said it was the best she'd had.

My bride headed home from Puerto Vallarta, while Simon and I set sail to Cabo San Lucas and to see if we can spot the whales.

Our boy is firing away.

Success! Simon is a Zoologist by training and explained this is a male staking his territory to ward off other suitors. We saw pairs of males basically slapping the water to show a demonstration of power. These whales are about the same size as our boat - 50+ feet.

They are so big there movements appear to be in slow motion - beautiful to see live. We saw the males jumping out in pairs, perfectly synchronized, only we were too slow with the camera.

We sailed for two days and pulled into Cabo San Lucas. There are more than a few tourists here. You can see the cruise ship. We anchored just before sunset.

The next day we head in for a quiet lunch on the beach. Hey Now! It's Spring Break. Yeah baby, hanging with the 18 year olds!

Yeah, I'm in my element. Woooo-hooooo! Party!

After that refreshing stopover, we head around the tip of the Baha California Peninsula for our 700 mile run north. The good news is we've sailed 3500 miles from Tortola, BVI, so we are almost home.

Close up view of the famous Cabo San Lucas tip.

View of the even more famous arch.

Looking back at San Lucas.

A final look in the rear view mirror.

We sailed for 2 days and needed to add a little fuel. Topping up at Turtle Bay which is the halfway point to San Diego. Not much here besides fuel.

As we head out of Turtle Bay we get a loud pop and all instruments go dead. Minutes later the engine dies. Yikes!

Well, we are definitely sailing now. We are 300 + miles southwest and more than 2 days from San Diego.

Surprisingly, we are able to continue to sail north at this time. The winds typically blow north to south. Unfortunately, I know this won't last, so I better figure things out or we're sailing to Hawaii.

Simon is keeping his chin up and hand steering at this point.

After troubleshooting and considering alternatives we find we can run Jungle off the generator battery, with the assistance of the running generator. A generator is not something you want to run full time so we'll work out a plan that will allow 3 hours with instruments and autopilot on an 3 hours off. Basically hand steering using more basic navigational tools such as sun and stars - old school baby!

After another 2.5 days of old school sailing we arrive in San Diego. We checked in with Customs and Border Protection and they tell us we can't come in to the USA because Simon does not have a proper visa. Their proposed solution is to sail back 80 miles to Ensenada, Mexico and clear in there and for Simon to apply for a US visa or fly on to Panama - his next destination. I told CBP of our problems coming in and that there was no way I'm heading out of the harbor and put myself and crew in danger. They made another call and came back with Plan B to allow us (Simon) to go through immigration in San Diego. Good plan. This is Jungle happily motoring from the Customs dock to our slip at Cortez Marina.

And here she is, back home after 3 years and over 30,000 miles of sailing the seas.

Simon's mates from New Zealand were touring California and made a detour to San Diego to catch up with their boy. And catch up they did! "San Diego, drink it in, goes down smooth." We were reciting lines from the movie Anchorman all week.

"San Diego, which in German means, a whales vagina" also from the movie. The boys are posing next to the WWII aircraft carrier Midway. Striking.

A farewell dinner for Simon and the boys as they head out in the morning. From left to right we have David, Jenée, Anthony and Simon.

More Jungle updates to come but I wanted to recognize the great guy in Simon and what a wonderful sailing and traveling partner he has been over these last 2 months. I'm not sure if its good parenting or the good New Zealand soil or probably both, but this is one heck of a guy. I just did what I could to boost his confidence to help him with the ladies. I hope it helps. All the best to you Simon James Lucas - and great middle name!

Simon is heading out this summer for the canoe trip of a lifetime that provides a focus on conservation of the Yukon wilderness. Check him out at paddleforthenorth.org.