Ensenada, Mexico. This is where the cruising adventure begins. The boat is ready. The crew is prepared, a little nervous for sure, but well prepared. Very soon the dock lines will be slipped and Terra Firma, Pat, and Carrie will be “cruising.”
The Boat
Terra Firma is an Island Packet 380 (38′). She is cutter-rigged and has a full keel with a skeg-hung rudder. For those of you who aren’t of the nauti-variety, just know that she is a blue-water boat and beautiful!
We spend a lot of time in the cockpit. It not only functions as the steering station but as a living room, kitchen (there’s a grill) and a great place to take a nap. For those of you who are wondering, we don’t hand steer all of the time. There is an electric autopilot (Chuck) that steers while we are under power and a wind driven autopilot (Casey Jones) for under sail.
Looking down from the cockpit, we see the main salon, navigation station, and galley. Our dining table folds up when not in use which opens up the salon area. There’s Pat at the nav station either paying bills, talking on Skype or playing solitaire. Hmmm…wonder which one.
From the salon looking back into the cockpit, we find the companionway or the entrance to the boat. To the right, we see the entrance to the aft cabin (aka the garage and guest suite). To the left, we see a partial view of the galley.
Carrie likes to spend a lot of time in the galley cooking up new foods and seeing if Pat survives eating them. There is a microwave, 3-burner propane stove, oven, refrigerator, freezer, pantry and lots of cubbyholes for food and galley items. We haven’t starved yet!
This is the navigation station and office. From here we program our global positioning system (GPS) with coordinates that are then sent to the autopilot., hopefully keeping us on the proper course. The communication center is also located at the nav station which includes a VHF radio, a HAM radio, and computer. Our computer contains our chart plotting software, HAM radio email program and wifi (allows internet access when in port).
Looking forward (toward the pointy end of the boat) we have the master stateroom. To the left is the head (bathroom). That about wraps up the tour of the boat!
Ensenada
Now for Ensenada, the Baja 1000 occurred a couple of weeks ago. The race began in Ensenada and the racers rode over rough terrain for 1000 miles to Cabo San Lucas. The vehicles that they drive were really pretty interesting. We watched quite a few of them start the race.
Gratuitous sunset viewed from the bow of our boat.
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