The 2008 season was devoted to cruising Mexico, primarily the Sea of Cortez. In January we passaged south to mainland Mexico, but had only just reached our destination when Mike and I had to cut the cruise short and rush back home when flooding threatened to wash away our house!

Mexico is not as far away from home in Arizona as usual – a good thing this year as it turned out, but still an adventure in a very special country. And it’s warm in the winter! Most off our 2008 cruising was in the Sea of Cortez. There the riveting desert landscapes contrast with one of the richest marine environments on earth.

It’s an easy flight from Tucson to La Paz, and we’ve already had an introduction to the area from a scuba diving trip to La Paz that Mike and I took this past October 2007 with Tucson’s Desert Divers.

In March we flew back to the Manzanillo airport, caught a taxi to Barra de Navidad (translation is Christmas Sandbar) where Raven had been anchored for a couple of months. We unpacked, took a quick tour of Barra, and the next morning started our passage back north again. We had arranged a berth in La Paz at Marina Palmira for the remainder of the year into 2009, planning to make several trips down to La Paz to explore the Sea of Cortez for the remainder of the season.

Anticipating the heat of a desert summer, we bought a household air conditioner from the local hardware store and set it on the deck by one of the hatches, although personally my idea of boating is to be hot enough to want to jump into the water to cool off.