ISLANDER 36’

March 22
4am

I’m up with the site of snow slowly falling outside. It’s been snowing steady for 2 days on and off and it’s been a mess out here to get around. Morning coffee, oats, and a last smooch to Reets on the way out the door.

A few weeks earlier, my friend Naomi pointed out an add for a 1979 Islander 36’ sailboat for sale in the San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist buy currently moored in La Paz Mexico. The boat was out of my budget she explained but might be worth looking at! I planned on sailing to La Paz last December with Max on Le Patriote but we detoured to Mazatlan on the mainland Mexico due to a heavy northerly funnelling down the sea of Cortez.

My chance to see the little harbour town comes only 3 months later! 

I have a flight at Calgary aiport at 9:30am Friday morning. The roads start out okay but turn pretty nasty around Olds. It’s a slow and steady pace to the city. This is not a flight to miss and I take extra caution in the slow lane with both hands on the wheel like a good boy. Arrive on time and make the flight no problem to San Jose Cabo. I arrive fully clothed at 1:30pm to full on sun and +28. What a lovely day out here. 

I’m offered a ride to La Paz by the current owner Casey. He picks me up in his parents car and we make the 2.5 hour journey north! The bus ride was only to be 400 pesos ($25) but he was adamant on grabbing me and get to know each other! He offers me water and fruit right off the bat and the vibes are great. Like an old friend, this could be a good one.

He chats a lot about the boat and the last 3 years of adventures he’s shared with his girlfriend Amber aboard the Islander. Originally from California, Casey is a dive master on a live aboard boat on the Islander here in Mexico and does yacht deliveries on his downtime.

We get going on some conversation and Casey doesn’t realize he’s going 150kmh in a 90! We pass the policia and they flip the lights and track us down. He gets out of the car for a quick search and a LOT of talking. 

We arrive in La Paz and the first thing we do is meet a young fella who has fixed the dinghy for the Islander sailboat. We pay the man and we launch the boat and make our way slowly to the boat. We slowly start taking on water and Casey calmy says the dinghy has been a good little boat but might be on her last few adventures out here in the wild. The dinghy wasn’t even mentioned in the add but it comes with the boat. Also included is  2.5hp outboard 4 stroke engine. This little old reliable engine will always get you there but never in a hurry. “Try Slow”

My first site of ‘Windwalker’ is a good one. She appears in the anchorage with her bright shining white hull, blue pinstripe, black sail and electronic covers. We hop on board and he shows me around the place. He hasn’t been at the boat for a month so the smell is pretty gross. Stuffy hot mess down here. We air it out and get a fine tour. His pal Mike is anchored next to him and was the original owner of Windwalker 3 years ago so that is a good sign. Obviously they are still friends and have a good relationship. Definitely a great sign. 

We decide to skip the business and head into shore and walk the boardwalk in La Paz. I take him out for a delicious veggie burger with live music on the side. Cuute little place all about sailing. Boats are everywhere and also scattered along the shore tipped over everywhere! A huge hurricane last October swept through and whipped out 40 boats and sank 4 in the marina. I have a few cerveza and he has a smoothie since he doesn’t smoke, drink, or have caffeine. How the hell!?

Back to the boat he offers the V berth upfront and I roll out my sleeping bag for a needed rest. 

I’m up a few times in the night with anxious stressful thoughts. Thoughts like wtf am I doing here and what will I get myself into! This has been my dream for a year but it’s becoming obvious that tomorrow I’ll need to make the decision right here if I’ll purchase a sailboat from this chap. I toss and turn all night with nightmares of past mistakes and possibly poor future decisions.. 

The town is roaring with local music and I don’t get much rest. By the sounds of Casey sneezing and coughing all night he didn’t rest much either.

March 23

7am

We have some fruit and turn on the VHF radio for the “marina net” program that comes alive every morning of the week at 8am. Local cruisers ask for assistance or offer advice to each other. A verbal swap meet over the radio frequency ends the 20 minute chat! Very cool way to reach out and meet fellow cruisers.

We dinghy to shore and I grab a free coffee at the yacht club. We snag a metal file from a local sailor named Jimmy. We head back to the boat and get to work trying to file down and fix the mis threaded windless threads that are holding the windless from operating correctly. My morning is a bit anxious because a few things on the original boat add don’t actually work on the boat and it definitely needs some TLC! It is sail ready but needs work. We go over all the projects and I see the good and bad in the boat. The interior is in fine condition but the wood does need some touching up and a HEAVY clean. I’m not afraid of some work like this. The exterior is in better shape as he admits they have painted the bottom, the hull, cockpit, mast, and boom all last year. The paint job was done in La Carlos buy a local guy at the marina up on the hard. As a body man I can see the job was done pretty quickly and was not a perfect job by any stretch by the visual spectrum. Overspray and painters tape still in places shows the price he most likely paid for the job. The good news is he shows me pictures for old owners showing haulouts and bottom paint jobs done in 2009 and 2013 with very clean results. The hull is obviously a solid unit and is structurally in great shape. All the standing rigging was redone in the past 3 years and the main and heads’l are also only 3 years old. Lots of life in both of them. 

Our plan today is to go over the entire boat and go for a sail at slack tide when the wind picks up at 2:30pm. 

Casey offers a homemade salad he made which was unreal. It was smoked tuna he caught and canned while sailing Windwalker. It was prepared with heaps of big veggies and rice. Eaten with tortilla chips. Yum! Very hospitable.

Everything will come down to how the engine runs and the boat performs on this shakedown sail. We go over the engine start procedure and check the oil and levels. It fires right up and we lift the anchor manually since the windless is still not operating correctly. We raise the main, let out the full furling heads’l, and slowly pick up speed heading downwind. We are in light 8-10 knot winds but it jumps to 6 knots with a steady breeze behind us pushing Windwalker forward. Casey is all smiles as he adjust the running backstays and starts to explain how well this boat really handles at sea. I can see he loves this boat and his recent decision to set roots on land and start a family are fresh. He seems pretty quiet and emotional. We round a harbour marker and tighten in the canvass pointing upwind! We make 6-8 tacks heading back to the anchorage. I know at this very moment looking up at the stiff main sail that this boat is for me. She actually sails beautifully. I start showing my excitement and we are both hooting and haulering going 5 knots pointed up into the wind. Not a huge breeze but this gal definitely sails right. He wasn’t kidding about that part. 

We sail for half an hour onwards and there’s no visibility since the dodger plastic window is completely pooched. It’s not clear at all so we need to look around it. That’s not a deal breaker since we have a few seamstresses in the family ☺️

We lower the sails, drop the hook in 15 feet of water, let out the 100 feet of 5/8 chain and decompress after the excitement. I know I’ll take the boat now but we haven’t striked a deal yet so I’ll play it cool.

Casey tries to start talking about the sale and I’m a bit nervous so I mention we go out for veggie pizza. We walk to a cute restaurant and I grab a Pacifico and pizza. I mention there’s a few things that don’t work on the add that’s kinda annoying to have to deal with. Among other things that aren’t currently working is the windless motor, the tackometer, pooched dodger, and a belt just broke on the autohelm motor. I can hear the motor running on the autopilot but it won’t steer the vessel. So it can only be steered by hand at this point. This isn’t a deal breaker but these are just jobs that will need to be done before taking to sea. Windwalker is listed for $29k and I offer him $24k. He looks pretty down actually and I say this is my max with my current budget. He takes 5 minutes to call Amber and comes back saying their absolute minimum is $25k. I say my absolute max is $24,500 and we finish our meals kinda dancing around that awkward moment. He sits there and says he will hire Mike at $50/hr to fix the problems on the boat (excluding the dodger) and they definitely won’t take any less than $25k. He mentioned there are others interested in the boat but he hasn’t shown it since I made the commitment to fly down here to view it. 

I understand the pain because they have put well over $20k in paint, sails, and full rigging.

I order another beer and sit silently until it arrives. As soon as the waitress arrives with a beer a look over and say I’d love to continue the adventures with Windwalker and shake his hand. He’s super excited as am I. I’ve just purchased a 1979 Islander 36’ blue water ocean cruising yacht. He’s so happy and we share a huge smile! It’s really happening now. 

“A great deal is good for nobody”
-Max 

We dinghy back out to work on projects. 

We end up fixing the windless and tackometer that night. I notice the navigation lights are out as well so he offers to have Mike fix them as well at no cost before I return for the boat in the next few months. 

We load up the dingy on the bow and stow the outboard. I sleep much better that night. A bit hot with a burn on my back and shoulders.

March 24

6am

Up and we quickly pack and tuck in Windwalker in and Casey says goodbye. Possibly the last time he will see her. We take his friends dingy into shore and we hit the road south to San Jose Cabo. We both agree to leave early so there’s no stress and we can see the sites and grab tacos en route!

We drive on the pacific side of the Baja by the Sierra de la Laguna mountain range. Such beautiful scenery all around us with cactus, mountains, and plenty of sand and dust. We stop to check out Casey’s old surf spot Los Cerritos and he notices how much the place has grown in the past few years. We stop and I take him out for the best shrimp tacos we’ve ever had at El Barranco. Second coffee of the day and feeling like a dream. We try to start the car and his fob is out of battery! What is with technology where you can’t start an engine of a tiny battery runs out!? It’s insane. So we walk a few blocks to town and get a battery at a local hardware store. That’s why we leave early!

Casey drops me off and I hop a flight to Calgary. Home of the North.

The hard part (I reckon) is done. Now we will take care of payment and transfer of ownership this upcoming week.

My plan is to delivery Windwalker 275 miles across the sea of Cortez to San Carlos and get her out of harms way on the hard. Casey mentioned it is $200/month which would be unreal! I would begin the endless researching and passage planning. It’s all part of the fun of the adventure.

Hurricane season rolls through early June until late October or November. 

Hold the line! This adventure has just begun.