Happy To Go North By: Jess

About a week ago, all of us as a crew had to make a hard decision. We needed to decide if we were going to still head South or go back North.  The reason we needed to make this decision was because we felt as if we weren't having fun. One reason was because the seas were never pleasant in fact they'd sometimes was absolutely terrifying. Another reason was that we'd always do passages and they were always longer than expected. The anchorages were always rolly and Murphy (the cat) got seasick when we were anchored. Season 2 was a wreck until we decided to go back North. We decided to go North for 1 more reason, we were going crazy because we didn't see one boat in any of the anchorages we were in. While we were  sailing South, the only other boats we saw were headed North.

Even though we really wanted to go South to Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Bahamas etc. we are happy to say that we are going to the Sea of Cortez again. We had so much fun in the Sea of Cortez, I cant wait to see kid boats again!

If you'd like to get in touch please email me jessicarnance@yahoo.com

At Los Gatos

Kid boat fun

Paddleboarding at Agua Verde

The gift of giving -- by jess

My 12th birthday was coming up and I really wanted something special. Living on a boat, there is not a lot of room for birthday presents, good thing I didn't want gifts.

 Since I was born, I've had a love for animals and for a very long time I have wanted to be a Vet. My family and I were volunteering at the local animal shelter (San Miguel De Allende's  S.P.A.) when I decided I want to help the local animals rather than receive gifts for my birthday.

After speaking with the Director of the shelter, she told us they could use a special fund to cover unrecovered medical costs. In addition to adoptions, the shelter also provides medical care to anyone that brings in a pet even though sometimes people can't pay the shelter. We decided to set up "Jessica's Fund" to help cover these medical costs.

I was happy to hear that we raised the funds and help many of the San Miguel de Allende animals. I was even happier to hear that we raised more than 100 percent of my goal!!!!!

Better than receiving gifts was being able to hand the S.P.A. a check to cover medical costs and help other families.

home schooling vs regular school by Emma

Home Schooling vs Regular School 

I like home schooling better than regular school because you can go your own speed on any subject.  Like math I could go faster on math and slower on language arts.

Some days, Jessica and I don't want to do school

You can get more school done with less hours and more time to hang out with your family.  It takes about three to four hours a day with math, langue arts, sciences or history.

You get to interact with your parents more often because your parents are your teachers.  It includes more family time.  If you were at your regular school you would not see your parents every day as your teacher.

More family time!!

The only thing that I like about regular school is that I could hang out with my two best friends Kaylan an Adriana.  I still hang out with kids but not my best friends.

P.S. Kaylan is going to Spain and starting her own adventure. I hope to go to Spain and spend time with her.

What I miss about cruising ------ JESSICA

I love cruising and I would like to share what I miss about it.

 I miss seeing a wide variety of places from tropical lush green jungles to a hot dry Sonoran desert.

 Cruising on a boat means wondering what the next place will look like.
Another thing is not being able to snorkel, its nice to see a new species of fish.

While mom, Emma and I snorkel dad spearfishes which means we have dinner!

 I really miss seeing all of the beautiful sunsets, every sunset is unique in its own different way. I think a sunset is a good way to end the day.

I miss being able to go to the beach when ever we want, its nice because it only takes 2 minutes. I enjoy being able to sit at the beach and look at my home Terrapin!

I miss hiking because it is good exercise and once you get to the top it is a great view

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I am looking forward to getting back on the boat in October and getting back to the life I love!

My favorite things about San Miguel de Allende---Emma

My favorite things about San Miguel de Allende

            One of my favorite things is all the churches because I like the way they look and the design is really artistic. Like the one in San Miguel de Allende is my favorite church of all the other churches I've seen.  

Another reason I like San Miguel de Allende, is it is really different from the U.S.A because they have different rules of doing things in Mexico.  Like you can ride in a back of anyone's truck here in Mexico, try that in the USA!!

The one thing that I'm really surprised by, is how green Mexico is. It's not all desert.

 My last reason is that the food is delicious, it is nothing like the U.S.A food.  What I love about it is when you go to fondas (They are little small restaurants that have one or two cooks a  really small kitchen with lots of pots and pans and three tables. ) they serve you fresh or home made dishes.

My favorite place so far

I've been sailing with my family for almost five months and trust me I've seen some breath taking places. All the places I've seen are very unique from each other.

My favorite place so far is Isla Coronados and I will give you three reasons why.

1. I loved the hike there because you could see the mainland, other islands and all around the island from the top. You could see all the different shades of the turquoise water, it was beautiful! 

2. I was amazed by how many manta rays there where swimming under our boat. They would jump two feet out of the water and do summer salts or belly flops. 

3. Fishing is amazing there because i caught about six trigger fish and one snapper. That made some yummy fish tacos that night!   I love the Sea of Cortez , it very beautiful. I never expected the water to be so clear and the fish to be so colorful. I love the Sea of Cortez !!!!!!!

The Sea of Cortez is full of fish and there are more fish when the water is warm. When I fish I use metal lures instead of rubber ones because the rubber ones will not last as long. I enjoy fishing but its tough to watch my dad filet them. As a animal lover I hate to see my dad filet the fish, but they sure do taste good! 

What keeps us busy.... Legos to moustaches and more

When were not pretending to be filming Titanic at anchor here are some of our favorite things onboard to keep us busy.  We have an enormous amount of space to keep our toys... Thankfully

On an easy passage we love playing with Legos.  We can build anything out of our Legos.  We don't recommend keeping them in a popcorn tin as it's getting rusty. 

Whatever you do, don't leave the dock without stick-on moustaches! Easy to pack and loads of fun. We went over to Sv Makai wearing them for fun. 

Who doesn't love a moustache?

Do you know how fast you were going, meow ?

We have 10-11 Barbie dolls. 3 boy dolls and 8 girls. We also have Barbie's golfcart and her convertible Mini... She really does have everything!!!

Raven is a horrible driver!!!!!

We also love our Monster High dolls

In Cabo we convinced our parents to buy good quality float rings...they're awesome. In Jaltemba we used them to sit and watch an up close and personal dolphin show.  The dolphins swam right up to us and started doing flips

We LOVE our kayaks

It's easy to pack fun Chinese paper lanterns.  Buy them off Amazon, they lay flat and can store under mattresses. Be sure to get the kind with bamboo sticks and not metal frames.... You don't want to create waste in the Ocean!

On a smooth passage we like to create collages using old magazines, scissors and glue sticks

Don't forget cute sun protective shirts!

We love boat slumber parties! We enjoyed hanging out with Sophie from Sv Stochastic in Banderas Bay

We know just enough Spanish to bargain while shopping. We are learning Spanish as we go. 

We both LOVE to fish! Our dad bought us poles and lots of lures.  Unfortunately Puffer and Trigger fish love to nibble our lures... We had to buy more. 

In Turtle Bay our dad bought us about 12 "squiggly" lures. We loved them so much we named them:

Disco, Boogar, Pixle, Mr and Mrs Squiggly, Cool Jazz, Big girl, Baby, Granny, Watermelon, Shimmer, Floppy and Sky. Because most of the "squiggly" lures got torn apart we just bought 4 new metal ones. 

The metal lures have been named: Sunhine, Strike, Ocean and Zebra.  Yes, we're little girls who name our fishing lures!

Don't forget to pack snorkel gear.  We can carry on full conversations underwater while speaking through our snorkels. 

We have tons of books on board, Mad Libs, playing cards, board games, musical instruments, hot wheels, dress up costumes, art supplies, stuffed animals and a HuGE box of Littlest Pet Shops (71 animals to be exact)

Anytime you see us at anchor come play... We have more than enough to share!!!

Turning bread into science

Sometimes my mom makes loaves of bread on the boat. One time the yeast was dead and she made a loaf of bread anyways. After she was done baking and the bread didn't turn out, my dad asked if he could use the bread as bait.  With his fishing line and moms bread he was able to catch a really small fish. We used the fish to learn about science. 

First my dad had us sketch the fish.

He pointed out the different parts of the fish.

Then my dad cut open the fish so we could see the inside

We took out the gallbladder, intestines, liver, heart, and eyeball. 

Emma and I were able to look at the different parts of the fish under our microscope.

I thought seeing all the different parts of a fish was educational and cool. Science on the boat is fun, especially when my dad is a scientist. i love homeschool!!!!!