ANOTHER SAILING ADVENTURE FOR LIEBLING

The 2014 – 2015 Cursing season begins in Southern Mexico for Jim and Linda on Liebling Here it is the end of October and we have been in the NW for 6 months now. While we have been in the NW Jim has gone back to work and play on Liebling 3 times. In June he moved the boat with his grandson Anthony 250 nautical miles from Huatulco to its current location 15 miles north of Guatemala. We flew to Washington DC for a week just to be tourists. We have been able to visit with family and catch up on all the happenings with friends. The first week of October we drove to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, 400 miles north of Seattle, to Port Hardy and Port Alice to visit friends that we met in Bara de Navidad, Mexico. What beautiful and remote country it is up on Northern Vancouver Island. But as the days are getting shorter and colder our thoughts are turning to our next adventure and where it will take us. Because Liebling is in Chiapas (Porto Madero) we are talking about heading south toward Costa Rica and Panama. Chiapas is only 15 miles from Guatemala. If you look on google earth you can see just how close we are and that it will only take 5 days to get to Costa Rica. We could then anchorage hop down to Panama. This means that we could spend the entire cruising season down south and then head back north long before hurricane season and before the temperatures start to heat up again for the summer hot season. Jim is busy mapping out our route and possible places to anchor and stay. Needless to say I am very nervous about leaving Mexico as we know what to expect with anchorages, people, communication and internet. Leaving our beloved Mexico will be uncharted territory for us. We just bought an iPad with built in GPS and downloaded navigation software that will really help. Our departure date from the states is the 30th of October with an overnight in Dallas then on to Mexico City and then to Tapachula and Chiapas. The first half of November will be spent waking up Liebling from her summer nap. Putting sails and lines back up, cleaning the fresh water tanks, servicing the engine and generator, removing the sun cover, conditioning the watermaker, cleaning the bottom of the boat below the water line, a gazillion other things and restocking food and other supplies and preparing for life at sea again. When we leave Mexico we will be prepared to travel for at least four weeks without shopping again. The first leg of our voyage to Costa Rica should take between 4 and 12 days depending on if we feel comfortable stop in El Salvador, Honduras or Nicaragua along the way. There are some anchorages in those countries but we may just pass them by depending on check in and out requirements and the safety of the anchorages. Keep us in your thoughts as we set out on our next adventure. I will be posting more blogs along the way as our adventure continues. Love you all Linda and Jim