Baja Ha Ha

I just did the Baja onboard Crescendo - a beautiful Norseman 447 with Mark, Megan, Daniel and Nathan. I will send pictures shortly.

I have learned the difference between cruising and racing - in cruising, you optimize for the resort...

Some takeaways: cruising boats have a lot of systems, with every piece that needs to be accessed for maintenance tucked away in the most inaccessible places, usually a stinky greasy hot place. You can end up spending a lot of time at sea with these systems Vs spending it on say, sailing.

Cruisers also don't work for every half a knot. They don't push the boat and optimize the sail plan for the conditions. However, the comfort and the quality of life on board is fabulous which allows you to enjoy your surroundings.

Motoring is not fun. And it is quite boring from a boating standpoint.

I loved

• the company
• the food (Megan is a pro chef!!!)
• the drinks (Mark's wine cellar on the boat is worth the look...)
• the scenery (you will see on the pictures)
• the dipping in warm water at anchorage
• the swimming to the beach for a drink
• the sailing whenever it happened
• Steve, our cool autopilot (there was also Ray and Alfred)
• the look on this Mexican kid who inherited Steve
• the boat
• the Harry Potter marathon
• the coffee
• carving my first pumpkin
• fixing the toilet (makes for a great line. 'What did you do during your vacation?' - 'Why fixing toilets, you?'

I did not like

• the engine
• the engine
• the engine
• the engine