Mexico, December 1997

 

Southbound Sails

San Francisco to Ensenada, Mexico
December 12, 1997 to January 1, 1998

By Lennart Lövstrand

 

On December 13, 1997, the 57-foot sailing vessel Sea Star casted off its mooring slip in the Alameda marina outside San Francisco on a three week voyage to Ensenada, Mexico.  On board were five individuals with different backgrounds, the common thread being that they had all met through a USENET news posting seeking cost sharing crew.  In addition, two more were to join us at the trip's destination, Ensenada.  I had joined because I wanted to experience marine life for a couple of weeks.  A few months earlier, I had started thinking about getting a boat myself to live on and this would be a good way to find out more what it would be like.   Besides, it sounded like a fun and interesting way to escape an otherwise overcommersialized Christmas season.

The people were, from left to right:

R1-34-GangPanorama.jpg (18204 bytes)

swedenf.wmf (1398 bytes) Lennart Lövstrand. Swab-in-training. Amateur smart-aleck. Swedish.
ukf.wmf (2006 bytes) Ray Thackeray. Skipper and Sea Star co-owner. Supreme ruler of our little universe. British.
malaysiaf.gif (1179 bytes) Ashikin Wan-Noor. First Mate and Sea Star co-owner. Cook. Wellington's spiritual mother. Malaysian.
mexicof.wmf (6134 bytes) El Bandido. Water taxi man in Ensenada. (Not crew.) Mexican.
usaf.wmf (6486 bytes) Andrew Cheung. Crew. Molecular virologist. Hong Kong born American.
ukf.wmf (2006 bytes) Ken Smith. Seasoned Sea Star crew. Sail mender & Spam fiend. British.
usaf.wmf (6486 bytes) Deborah Clark. Crew. Electrical PR person. American. [Not depicted]
unf.wmf (9110 bytes) Wellington. Ship's cat. Likes to run away whenever possible. DSH. [Not depicted]

 

Now, on with the trip...

 

 

 

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