Liebling in Long Beach, California-Jim and Linda in the Northwest

Jim and Linda crew of Liebling are in the Northwest – Liebling is waiting for us in Long Beach California. After a wonderful cruising season we brought Liebling back to the states. The BASH back was both exhausting and exciting. We left Puerto Vallarta in mid-May and headed over to the Sea of Cortez. We spent 3 weeks up in the sea and explored Lorato and points north. It is so different there than on the mainland. The Sea of Cortez is very beautiful but dry and hot. We rented a car in Porto Escondido and went to San Javier Mission which is about 35 miles inland on a road that was washed out only in a few places but once we got there it was worth every bit of the drive. Jim went hiking in the mountains on the Steinbeck Trail. We anchored at small coves that we were the only ones there. We did have some excitement as one evening a fellow cruiser hailed the fleet in the anchorage that some of his crew was missing on a shore hike and darkness was near. Being a cruiser we immediately put our dinghy back in the water and geared up for a search and rescue for the missing people. I stayed back on Liebling to monitor progress and Jim went to pick up another cruiser. While Jim and fellow cruiser were in transit the captain of the missing crew stated that they were looking for an airplane. Of course we didn’t know what kind of airplane so expected the worst scenario. We even had a call on the radio from 2 doctors anchored a mile away that they were ready to come and treat injured survivors! But alas when Jim got to the vessel of the missing people they had already showed up and were fine. We did learn that the airplane in question was a model airplane and they went to retrieve it. We all had a good laugh. Upon arriving back at LaPaz we waited for our two grandsons who were going to help us BASH back up to San Diego. All was going great until we left and our autopilot stopped working meaning we would have to hand steer the boat. We had replaced the autopilot just 3 months before but it seems that its computer had gone out. We made an executive decision that because Anthony and Nathan were with us to take day and night watches we would go North anyway. One of the things when you don’t have an autopilot is you have to hand steer within 10 degrees of your course. This takes careful monitoring (within 5 degrees on either side of course) and concentration. Needless to say it was a long and tedious trip up the San Diego. Nathan and I decided that we were going to jump ship the next time the autopilot goes out. We are now in the Northwest but will head south again on November 1 to Long Beach and then to San Diego on the 10th. We hope to leave the US once again for Mexico on the 17th of November. We will have a third crew member as our friend Merle from Puerto Vallarta will meet us in San Diego and sail with us to PV. He and his family are planning to do the puddle jump this year so we are bringing some supplies down for him. Our plans right now are to sail without much delay to Puerto Vallarta, Barra de Navidad and then to Zihuatanejo where we will pick up Lucy (Jim’s sister) and head south to the bottom tip of Mexico. We plan on stopping in Huatulco where we will do some inland trips and then cross the Tehuantepec to the southern end of Mexico to Puerto Maderio now named Puerto Chiapas. We will make our decision then as to whether to keep going south or head north and leave Liebling in Barra de Navidad or perhaps back up to Southern California. There is a lot of water to cross and you know cruisers their plans are written in the sand at low tide. More to come……..