We were a bit sad to say goodbye to beautiful Whitecap Beach in North Padre, and our easy living in Texas, but it was time to move on. Nathan was planning to enter the La Ventana Grand Prix in mid February for his first regatta and he was keen to get there to train. And we were all ready for a change. It was starting to get a bit cold in Texas and we were keen for some warmer weather and some delicious Mexican food.
After doing some research on our own and the local Corpus Kite crew (mostly childless young to middle-aged males) who expressed concern about our possible northern mexico driving route, we decided to take the ‘long way around’ and drive back through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on our way to La Ventana. It added two more days to our trip but we just weren’t feeling confident about taking our family through the Texas border into Mexico, about which we’d read and heard some scary stories about travel on the highways into Monterrey. While it probably would have been fine, we didn’t think it wise to take on unneeded risk so we set off on our four-day journey
On the Road Again….
Gavin and Nathan had the driving routine down after their 4 day cross country venture from Vancouver to Texas. But Jules and I were not as happy with the rules about the only breaks allowed being a quick stop that coincided with the time it took to refuel the truck. The sighs started emerging from the backseat area around midday (Jules!) and we managed to press on into the evening for the first two nights. Driving on US highways at night is fine but not in Mexico where cattle roam free at night on unlit windy highways, so we pressed on in the US while we could. Good thing we downloaded some super interesting podcasts that held our interest. We all chuckled along and frightened ourselves with stories about bear and snake encounters and guys who purposely got stung by some of the most venomous creatures on earth so they could come up with ‘pain ratings’ for the rest of us. Outside magazine has some entertaining family podcasts!
We marveled at the Chick-fil-A blimp that we happened to be trading rest stops with as we sped down the interstate west. The blimp was on its way to the Superbowl and we happened to be on the same travel schedule. Who knew those things could go so fast! A bit slower than us but at least 80 to 100km/h. Doesn’t seem like such a bad way to travel actually!
A quick run through the border and we were in Mexico again. Gavin and I had driven the Baja when we were in our early 20’s. I remembered learning what peligroso meant in Spanish (dangerous!) when we kept seeing signs with it posted down the windy highway. Luckily the tarmac is a bit smoother now but the turns are just as windy!
La Ventana…20 years later!
It was a bit of a shock to pull into La Ventana 20 years later. We knew the place had become popular but we were a bit surprised at how much had changed. So many more buildings and houses, a paved road, groceries, fresh fish shop and plentiful fresh vegetables, kite schools and restaurants. Wow! The ‘ditch’ where we had camped our van 20 years ago with one other camper was now packed full with at least 20 campers. Hmmm…maybe we should have bought cheap land here twenty years ago….
We’d decided to forgo camping this year and take the easy road and booked a furnished two bedroom condo. It made homeschool that much easier, and we enjoyed having a comfortable place to return to after being at the beach and on the water all afternoon.
Julia and I were delighted to find early morning beach front yoga classes, circus silks classes and Tai Kwondo classes three times per week. After the unstructured time on the boat and lack of proximity to ‘classes’ Julia enjoyed the new schedule, learning new skills and making new friends.
We found La Ventana reminded us of cruising life, just a bit easier’ being based on land. There is an international group of like-minded folks and families here – people that enjoy wind sports, travel, and healthy living. So that felt familiar. And after all of our changing places over the last few years, it has been nice to not be on the move so much. Maybe things will change but we’ve felt content to just adjust to a daily routine here.
Kite Foil Training – Playa Central Regulars
We became regulars in front of Playa Central where all of the kite racers congregated to launch their foil kites and go training each day. Kite foil racing is a fairly niche activity, with the vast majority of kiters not on the more technical racing gear of foil kites and high aspect foils. So it was great for Nathan to be able to train with a bunch of like minded racers. Soon after our arrival the international teams showed up for winter training – the US and British teams, several Canadians, French and Dutch sailors.
Being an La Nina year, the wind was especially strong in La Ventana this season. The daily thermal with the addition of pressure gradients made for many back to back windy days of plus 20 knots. At least 5 of every 7 days there was strong wind, and still wind available for kiting on the race gear in the less windy days as Nate is able to get out kiting in 8 knots.
We found ourselves actually wishing for a bit less wind, especially as Gavin and Nathan were getting used to the new race gear and foil kites even in smaller sizes coupled with high aspect foils can make for a hairy ride! And I was feeling overpowered on a 6m kite with my foil at times. It was windy for us compared to the South Pacific tradewinds!
There were many weekday mornings when Nate, Gavin and I would all be out on the water foiling by 9:30am, with Julia at her circus camp, and I would marvel at the blue water and sloping desert backdrop and think how lucky we all were. I tried to stamp these images into my mind (a common mental thought process I’ve had throughout our trip) as I know these times will be in stark contrast to the damp cool weekday mornings at school work and home when we return to ‘regular life’.
La Ventana Grand Prix – First Kite Regatta!
The La Ventana Grand Prix in late February was a goal of Nathan’s to compete in – his first regatta. I thought it would be great if he could just finish some races (as even making it around the course on the race gear is tricky, with several racers in the fleet scoring dnf’s being a usual occurrence due to not finishing within 6 minutes of the first place finisher or just crashing and not making it around the course). But after seeing Nate line up with the other racers in training and get around the practice course, we thought he’d have a good shot of finishing some races and even beating some folks.
It turns out that Nate loves racing. The best part was when he came off the water after the first day (I would have been scared to be out there in the strong La Ventana winds and big seas but tried not to let it show) and he said, “This is so awesome. I love racing!”
Nate managed to come 19th out of 29 riders and was the youngest participant at 12 by several years compared to the mostly adult fleet. He had to contend with a broken line on the third day, a runaway kite, getting rescued, then gathering his wits to get back on the course in time for the next race where he pulled it together to beat his closest rival. It was awesome to see him out there persevering in the heavy breeze and big swells. So all in all a successful week!
Family Visits
Uncle Duncan made it down for the week to visit, kite and cheer Nate on in the regatta. It was fun to have family time and Julia had fun showing him her circus and Tae Kwondo classes. And soon afterwards we had Auntie Gill and Uncle Damien arrive and then Nana shortly thereafter. We have loved having time to connect with family again after so long being apart.
It turns out there is actually quite a bit to do in La Ventana, even if you don’t kite. Calm early mornings are perfect for ocean swims and there is a well organized network of trails for mountain biking, hiking and trail running and yoga classes. There are even natural hotsprings at ocean side where we relaxed at sunrise in the warmth of the tidal hot pools. What a treat!
Savouring Last Weeks in La Ventana
Nathan and Gavin flew to California briefly in March for Nathan to kite in the North American Mid-Winter championships – which was the qualifier event for entry into the Youth Sailing World Championships held in the Hague in July of 2022. As the second u/19 finisher and first and only u/19 entrant from Canada, Nathan secured his spot. He did well to beat a number of adult entrants and returned ‘home’ to La Ventana galvanized and as enthusiastic as ever about training.
As May drew closer, we decided to extend our stay for another month and a half. We’d toyed with going to long beach California for a couple of months on our way home but we were having so much fun, there was still great wind, and we had really settled into the groove in La Ventana.
We moved to another location, renting a house just up from La Tuna, and enjoyed the sunrise views from our bedrooms and beautiful ocean views. The incredible biodiversity of plants, cacti chirping birds, wild rabbits and foxes surprised us. And we loved feeding our food scraps to the roaming cows and giving them bellyfulls of water to drink. So yes, La Ventana has grown on us. I can safely say that we will be back!
Near the end of our stay, Nathan got invited to train with the US kite foiling team at a training camp in Long Beach, California so we suddenly had an end date to aim for. We packed up our belongings and again amazed ourselves with both how much and how little squeezed into the back of the Tundra.
Road Trip Home – Not without Adventure!
We’d picked up a couple of air mattresses, tents and sleeping bags with the intent to camp on our way up the Baja. With the training camp suddenly curtailing our baja time we only had a few nights to spend on our way up the peninsula. Our first stop was an idyllic beachside rough camping spot about an hour outside of La Paz on the Pacific Coast. We cozily nestled our tents among some low shrubs and miraculously found a fallen conifer tree washed up on the beach from an earlier storm that supplied some much-appreciated firewood for our evening campfire. For as far as we could see we were the only folks in the area, and we enjoyed falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.
“Mom, I just saw a fox over there,” announced Julia as she neared the camp area. We all craned our necks to watch the familiar slinky trot of a coyote scampering across the desert. “Hmmm, that’s not a fox, Jules!”
That sinking feeling of worry….Truck Trouble in the desert…
The next day brought us some turmoil and concern as our once trusty Tundra began to depower up the hills. “I’m not able to accelerate up the hills”, said Gavin, as we slowly nudged past one of the many semi trucks on the two lane winding highway. Usually when he would pull out to pass we’d feel the truck surge forward. Uh oh… A familiar prickle of worry crept up our spines – we knew this from our boating days when a technical problem cropped up and the ramifications could have a major impact on what happened next. Memories of a broken engine mount in Tortuga bay…and water maker issue in Amanu flashed in our memories. The good news is that Gavin is handy so I knew he’d figure out a solution. The bad news is that we still had over 1500km to the US boarder, not to mention the need to get Nate to his camp on time. Added to this is that it’s desolate between towns along the baja – seering plus 40C daytime heat and barely any services made us worry about being stranded somewhere.
That evening we limped into Baja Conception -amazingly we stayed at the exact same spot as Gavin and I had stayed 20 years earlier. Then we were a new couple barely into our 20’s and now it was special to now be back with our own family and reflect on all the paths taken and adventures in the intervening years. Gavin looked at the truck and checked a few things and we hoped tomorrow would be a better day on the road. Well, it wasn’t.
Again, Gavin’s skills in fixing things came in handy. We stopped at some auto parts stores and did some checks with their code readers. We replaced all the spark plugs and began narrowing down the problem, which was not obviously showing by the codes. The engine was intermittently fine and with Gavin narrowing down the possibilities we were doubtful that any parts needed would be easily found in Mexico. These days trucks are much more dependent on electrical ‘smart’ parts that cannot be fixed and must be replaced. Unlike on Slingshot, we did not have a fully supply of spares! So on we went until just outside of Guerro Negro, when a restart of the electronic system and subsequent stalls made us wonder if we’d need to leave the vehicle there!
Truck Trouble Saga Continues….
A quick regroup where we relaxed in a motel for the night, and some internet research had us thinking that the problem could be nursed along until we made it into the US. But the next day proved us wrong.
With our hearts pounding as we inched up a long winding hill at 30km per hour about 25 km outside of San Felipe and came down the other side, we realized the Truck was not going to make it and we had better pull over in a safe spot on the highway. The outside temperature gauge showed 41C in the early afternoon heat. I waved my phone in the air, walking back and forth, to try to get signal, but I only had one bar of ‘E’. This wasn’t enough to call the emergency tow services that we were told service the Baja.
With fairly regular traffic on the highway we weren’t too worried about actually being stranded in the desert. It was more of just having the headache of more days on the road. Just as I contemplated waving down an intermittent passing car, I saw a new federale dodge charger coming down the road towards us. I waved both arms and they pulled over….
They saw the kids and we explained about our troubles. They immediately offered to give me and the kids a ride to the next town and call a tow truck to come and get Gavin and the truck. But then I asked if they might follow us to the next town. As we didn’t relish separating we thought we could limp there, but how perfect to have the police follow us to help us if the truck completely died. They agreed, after first explaining this would be a ‘special’ service. They happily agreed to accept $50 USD for the service and we were happy to pay!
Gav, do you really think we should let the Police car tow us?
About 10km out from San Felipe, the truck sputtered and Gavin pulled over. Unfortunately it was a soft spot. The police insisted they could ‘tow’ us with their shiny new Dodge Charger. Um…a fully loaded Tundra, okay? They asked if we had a ‘strap’ and of course, Gavin did…. we’re sailors and kiters so of course we had some dynema packed away. With barely 10 feet separating our truck and their shiny new vehicle, they tried to tow us off the side of the road. Nope, we weren’t budging. But it turned out that it was our lucky day. Just as Julia watched the police officers with wide eyes remove two large machine guns out of the back seat to make room for me and the kids, the other officer waved down a tow truck which happened to be driving the other direction.
Before we knew it the tow truck had hooked us up and was pulling us back on to the road. We thought we’d be towed the whole way to San Felipe, but no! The police wanted to ‘tow’ us and so back went on the ‘strap’ and before we knew it we were careening at 60km per hour a mere 10 feet behind their vehicle, with Gavin gripping the steering wheel tightly and us three staring straight ahead, in disbelief that we were getting towed by the police, and at such speed! This wouldn’t happen in Canada!
We breathed a sigh of relief as we came to a stop outside a hotel just out of town. The police asked for more money for the tow which we were fine to oblige. They also asked if we needed a repair shop which we did and they made some calls for us. 30 minutes later they returned with a mechanic who, along with Gavin’ worked through the issues. “When do you need your truck back,” he asked? “Tomorrow morning by 10:30,”I replied, wistfully, not thinking this was remotely possible.
Best-ever Mechanic Experience in San Felipe
“Okay,” he said. “I know what the problem is, I’ll have it back to you by then.” It was Sunday afternoon and Gavin and him went off to the shop together, driving the Truck at 20km per hour. It was a long night and morning when I had researched all bus and tow options to get us up to the border. We had paid and booked accomodation in Long Beach the next day, about 500 km away, and not to mention that Nathan started his training camp the following day after that.
The next morning I was in disbelief when we heard a familiar rumble outside our hotel room door. We opened it to find the truck there fully running and working – at 10:30am! Only $150 USD and this mechanic had dropped the full fuel tank, emptied it, replaced the fuel filter and replaced the fuel pump, on Sunday evening and first thing Monday morning, no less. Wow! We were so thankful.
So back on the road we were as we thankfully drove with a nicely running truck up the highway, through the border, and into the driveway of our cute Long Beach Bungalo that we’d rented, within a short walk of Los Angeles’ iconic Long Beach. Whew, we made it!
Long Beach, California
As the youngest camp attendee, Nathan soaked up a week of training with the best kite foilers in the USA. It was an honour for him to be invited and he was flat out training both morning and afternoon sessions.
Julia and I had fun shopping and going to Knotsberry farm. We’ve never been so scared after being among the first in the park one morning and dashed in through the gates to secure our spot in line to ride the biggest and longest wooden roller coaster in North America: Ghost Rider. Wow, maybe we should have checked the rating of ‘extreme’ beforehand, but then maybe we wouldn’t have ridden it. We were rattled and clinging to one another by the end of it. We enjoyed a full day of going on rides and having fun, finding a few favourite rides such as the airplane gliders and the pirate ship.
After leaving Long Beach, we set off again. We were on the home stretch. It felt funny to be actually heading home for good this time. But we felt ready.
San Francisco – Full Circle – Returning to our first stop on our Sailing Adventure
We stayed with good friends in San Francisco whom we’d met while cruising Mexico – Curtis, Melissa and Declan. We’ve met such great friends along our travels and it was so fun to meet up with this crew again. It didn’t feel like three years had passed and we enjoyed reminiscing and catching up. It felt good to return to the city after having spent almost a month cruising the bay aboard Slingshot at the beginning of our trip. The city now felt familiar and we enjoyed driving through on land this time.
After a cute camping spot just near Mount Shasta, we drove all the way home the next day. Wow, we were really home now. And this time we’re here to stay for a while!
Reflections – Back Home after Four Years of Travel…
So what’s next? Well, the end of our four year travel adventure has come to an end. It will be four years in August from when we first set off. It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but when I scroll through our photos I realize how much has happened and how many experiences we’ve all shared together since that first sail away from the dock in Point Roberts.
Do we miss the boat?
Aside from some wistful moments when I see the moon in the sky in the evening and think about the beautiful feeling of sailing towards new adventures, launching kites from the boat, and mornings sipping coffee in the cockpit nestled together with the family, all of us have been content with our choice to move off of the boat for now. I think this is because we’ve largely been able to continue with the same lifestyle over the past 10 months and have kept up with our water activities so it hasn’t felt like too harsh of an adjustment. But also I think we are all ready for a return to regular life and activities and new projects. I have a feeling that when we return to the bustle of regular life and Vancouver weather we may miss boat life more.
How do we feel about being home?
This is another question people have been asking us a lot and we’ve been asking ourselves… The kids are excited to return to regular school and to be back in our house. And I think it will be good for us to check back into regular life and for the kids to have the experience of going to regular school again and for us to return to work and careers. But as with any change and decision, there are mixed feelings. Some veteran family travelers who have lived all over the world with their now almost grown children gave us some wise advice – give yourself time to adjust. So I think we will do just that.
As we move on to a new season of life I look back at our adventures and precious time together over the last four years and I feel tremendous gratitude as well as a sense of excitement for new chapters ahead.
Thank you for sharing your adventure with us. We’ve been following you for the last 3 years and I’m writing from Fiji. We’re huge fans and Dashew boats and that’s how we discovered your blog.
We left Toronto in July of 2021 aboard our Jeanneau though switched that for a St Francis 50 catamaran we purchased in New Zealand.
Reading about the conclusion of your trip is very helpful as my wife and I sit here in Fiji debating where we go from here and how long we really want to be gone for. East (north) or West to the Med? 1 more year? 3?
Best of luck with your transition back to home life. Our preferred landing spot when we come back is Squamish. Perhaps we’ll cross paths one day.
I’m so glad you have enjoyed following along. St. Francis cats are gorgeous; sounds like a fantastic choice. Good luck with your decisions about next steps. There are so many great options ahead of you. Definitely look us up if you make it back our way. We always love to chat about sailing and exploring!