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Westward is now moored in La Paz after a breezy voyage south from Loreto. We saw blue and humpback whales, common and bottle nose dolphins, newly hatched frigate bird chicks, jumping Dorado and many beautiful sunrises and sunsets. We depart soon to return to Loreto, and I am eager for our next Sea of Cortes encounters.

Dear Friends: Westward and Baja Status: June 24, 2015 I hauled Westward this morning in Port Townsend. She will be here on the hard getting a short list of projects taken care of while I go back to Catalyst in Alaska. And then…… Five and a half months in the life of Westward. December 20,…

Flying home from Baja for Christmas I was on the afternoon flight from Los Cabos. Due to the prevailing seasonal winds our plane took off toward the north, and that meant that we flew over the Sierra de la Giganta mountains and had a view of La Paz and the islands in the Gulf of…

Rounding Cabo Falso, Cabo San Lucas at dawn today after a smooth 4 day passage from San Diego. We will arrive in La Paz either late tonight or early Thursday. Water temp 76, 15 degrees warmer than it was in San Diego! 1,100 journey from Seattle.

We are now 3 miles from the harbor buoy, and will be moored by 7:30. What a trip! One note of significance, when we tie up in San Diego Westward will have completed a round trip from San Diego to Seattle and back again on one load of fuel! Not many modern off shore cruisers…

It is now 0500 on Monday, January 4. Westward is about 9 miles NW of Palos Verde and is 99 miles from the San Diego Harbor entrance buoy. We sailed from Port Townsend, Washington last Monday night at 2200, and since then have traversed all but 99 miles of the west coast. With the exception…

We left the dock in Port Townsend at 2200 Monday night (Dec. 23rd), and just passed Dungeness Spit off of Squim. Everything is running fine and we hope to be in San Diego on January 3rd. We will spend 2 days there before continuing on to La Paz, Baja California Sur, where we will begin…

We launch Monday, December 20th and then begin final preparation for our repositioning run from Port Townsend to La Paz, Baja Sur. We have been longer than planned here in the boatyard, and spent more than budgeted, but things are coming together and Westward is in better shape than she has been in 75 years…

We encountered amazing bear viewing at Pack Creek yesterday and stayed past our planned departure time. Today’s schedule didn’t allow any room for flexibility, so we traveled through dinner last night and arrived at our anchorage in the late evening. The only illumination as we anchored was a waxing moon, so we couldn’t see if…

  We hauled Westward for regular maintenance in late June. My work list included replacing the rotten foremast, building aluminum outrigger poles from which to set our at-anchor stabilizers and giving her hull its annual paint job. Things took a major twist within a few days when we discovered that much of the wood used in Westward’s…

Dear Friends: Summer 2015, Alaska Newsletter As I write this we are southbound in Stephen’s Passage, on our way to Twin Meadows in Endicott Arm. We are making 8.3 knots with the wind and current at our backs, and the sky is fair overhead.   It is a fine day to be on the water,…

By Lauren Buchholz There are hundreds of ways to fall in love with Baja California. Maybe it’s the waving fluke of a blue whale as she pilots her sandbar-size body through waters less than fifty yards from your ship. Perhaps it’s kindled while you search for geodes on a beach lined with sea caves and hermit crabs….