Couple shares story of sailing from Everett to Mexico

Four years ago, Scott and Monica Stoner set out on a sea voyage sailing their 45-foot sailboat from Everett, Washington to La Paz, Mexico.

The pair loved what they found in the warm waters south and are still sailing around the region. On this week’s show, they joined KIRO Radio’s On the Water host Captain Bob by phone to talk about their experience and what they learned taking the voyage south from the Pacific Northwest.

Monica says they started working on preparations well before they set sail.

“For about a year ahead, I educated myself by reading people’s blogs, people who had gone before us and did the same thing.”

She learned about two pieces of equipment that turned out to be absolutely essential for their journey.

“One was an auto-pilot, and the other was […] the AIS system so you could see the big ships and stuff out ahead of you.”

Monica says both of those items were invaluable, and their autopilot was like their strongest crew member.

“We probably spent a grand total of maybe 10 percent of the time we were actually steering the boat,” says Scott. “The rest of the time it was run by the autopilot.”

For Scott, this was his first time sailing the open ocean. “I so underestimated the scale of what the ocean was like and what it was like to sail that many miles in the open ocean.”

They sailed between 35 to 50 miles away from shore. They learned that the further out they were, the smoother the sailing. But Scott, being a first timer, says it was hard for him not to kind of keep one foot on shore.

The roughest waters they hit were actually just out of the gate, Monica says. “We had set off out of Neah Bay and about 12 hours later the winds started picking up and we peaked out at about 35 knots of wind with 12 foot seas, and about three feet of wind chop over the top of that. The Coast Guard (was) on their weather announcement calling the area we were in ‘hazardous sea conditions.'”

“Probably the most challenging sailing going down (…) was off the Washington and Oregon coast,” seconds Scott, who says you don’t realize how small a 45-foot sailboat is until you’re out in rough ocean waters.

But as they continued south, things smoothed out, and warmed up. “When you get up in the morning it’s no longer cold, all the weather gear goes away, the fleece gets put away, and you break out the T-shirts and shorts.”

Soon enough, they arrived in La Paz, Mexico. A place they can’t say enough good things about.

“La Paz is not a tourist town so you don’t get harassed trying to buy trinkets or go out fishing. It’s just a working everyday town on the water. The people are so generous and friendly. Everybody is willing to offer you assistance,” says Monica.

They haven’t found general safety concerns to be an issue for them.

“After being down into our fourth year here, what we have found is that although you should always use common sense like you would in any big city, including Seattle, for the most part, it is quite safe and the Sea of Cortez area, La paz, and what they call the East Cape down here, which is Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Del Cabo and north. We feel very safe down here,” says Scott.

Listen to the full discussion on this week’s On the Water podcast. Subscribe to KIRO Radio’s On the Water to keep up with all the Northwest boating and sea news.