The adventure begins…
“Dear San Francisco, I will never get over you”
February was a month of packing, planning and paying farewell (for now) to family and friends in San Francisco, CA. Boxing up, selling or giving away the material things that accumulated over the 12 years living in San Francisco was tough, but somewhat refreshing. The hardest part was saying “à bientôt” to an incredible community of people and dropping off Redford, our beloved black lab, at his new home in SoCal.
We left San Francisco exhausted, but with full hearts and many incredible memories. As Tony Bennett sang, “I left my heart in San Francisco”
The first stop on our adventure was Loreto, Mexico, where we had left Brizo on a mooring ball. A little fishing town in Baja California Sur, Loreto is about halfway down the heel of Mexico on the coast of the Sea of Cortez. The contrast between the high & dry desert mountains against the azure blue of the sea that is sprinkled with islands makes Loreto a magical place. If you ever get a chance to visit, we highly recommend as it was one of our favorite stops in Mexico.
We managed to have some fun between prepping and getting to know the boat. We hiked above Marina Puerto Escondido where we were greeted not only by incredible views, but also a cactus “amigo”. We explored the islands and rugged coastline - testing each of our sails along the way. It was wild to be the only boat anchored in these beautiful coves. At one anchorage, we discovered a hidden hot spring that is only accessible at low tide.
They describe the Bahia de Loreto as Nature’s Playground and we quickly learned why as we sailed alongside humpback whales, stingrays, dolphins and thousands of species of fish. While discovering the beauty of nature that surrounds Loreto, we also built and tested some new toys - like our dinghy and inflatable SUP - and gave our new drone her maiden voyage (a bit shakily).
These first few weeks on Brizo were really special and memorable but went by too fast. We recently met a boat named Linger Longer, which describes perfectly our feelings of Loreto. We wished we could have lingered just a little bit longer, but the boatyard was calling and we had to say goodbye to this little slice of paradise.
