Celebrating 1 Year of Cruising!

Believe it or not, we untied the lines in Seattle exactly 1 year ago today! We’ve been full-time cruising since June 30, 2024. Over the past year we have sailed a total of 7,803 nautical miles, visiting 4 countries. In honor of our one-year anniversary, we’ve each put together our top 10 experiences to recap the year.

Mark’s Top 10

• Alert Bay, Canada: Visiting a First Nation island and attending a traditional dance performance in the Big House.
• Bunsby Islands, Canada: An amazing small group of islands on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, where we had amazing weather to enjoy the nature and being so remote.
• Monterey Bay, USA: Amazing dives in the acclaimed Monterey Bay, tons of whales everywhere, the aquarium, and a nice city to grab beers and great food.
• Channel Islands National Park, USA: Very lucky to have good weather to visit San Miguel Island (the furthest out), and where we saw Elephant Seals. Also our first warm water dives with brightly colored sea life on the West Coast at Santa Cruz Island. And Catalina Island was a lot of fun.
• La Paz, Mexico: A long time favorite for both Kris and I. A great place to relax, explore the town, and eat great food. Amazing anchorages at the nearby islands for diving and exploring.
• Loreto, Mexico: Another great small city vibe, similar to La Paz, with a beautiful malecon and downtown area. Nearby cruising anchorages on the islands also amazing, plus the backdrop of the impressive Sierra Gigante mountains.
• Mazatlan, Mexico: Probably my new favorite city in Mexico, the best cuisine and local culture. Beautiful Old Town area with historic architecture.
• Tahuata, French Polynesia: Picturesque protected anchorage with a large sandy beach, and amazing dives in both anchorages we visited with sharks, mantas, and octopses.
• Raroia, French Polynesia: The quintessential remote atoll life we were looking to experience, with miles of uninhabited motus. Hundreds of coral bommies in the lagoon, each it’s own dive site aquarium.
• Fakarava, French Polynesia: Great diving the south pass during the annual grouper spawning event, with thousands of grouper and hundreds of sharks.

Kris’ Top 10

• Alert Bay, Canada: Attending a traditional dance performance in the Big House.
• Nigei Island, Canada: Amazing dive just below the boat and sea wolves on the beach.
• San Francisco, USA: Cruising under the Golden Gate Bridge after our first multi-day offshore sail.
• Channel Islands National Park, USA: Having the park islands almost to ourselves for diving and beach exploring, including seeing a colony of elephant seals.
• Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico: Enjoying excellent wines and staying in a bubble tent.
• Isla Espiritu Santo National Park, Mexico: Amazing hiking and diving, particularly being wrapped inside a swirling bait ball and dancing with the sea lions underwater off Los Islotes.
• Isla Isabel National Park, Mexico: Diving in the remote waters and hiking through nesting grounds for blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds.
• Tahuata, French Polynesia: Swimming and diving with mantas and sharks surrounded by sandy beaches and rough mountain cliffs.
• Raroia, French Polynesia: Diving the bommies with young curious black tip reef sharks and exploring the motus finding plentiful coconuts and interesting shells and old coral.
• Fakarava, French Polynesia: Diving the south pass with the hundreds of sharks and thousands of camouflage grouper.

Also, in honor of one year of cruising and of crossing the Pacific Ocean, we got tattoos! We found a highly recommended tattoo artist in Rangiroa, who also happens to be Marquesan! We initially talked about getting tattoos in the Marquesas because it was our first landfall and also because the Marquesan tattoo artists are renowned for their excellent skills and unique style. Ultimately we decided to wait until our last stop in the Tuamotus because we wanted to continue scuba diving in the Marquesas and through the Tuamotus, rather than take a break for the healing process. We’re glad we did. We had a really nice day with Moana talking to him about what was important to each of us and what we wanted our tattoos to represent, all while listening to his music. Then he went to work first drawing the tattoos on our skin in pen and then proceeding with tattooing, including some freehand. So, here we are, 1 year in, with fresh Marquesan tattoos!