Just wantd to let you all know I just launched a new Kickstarter campaign trying to raise money for some additional safety gear. This year is now being forecast as an El Nino year (scary, unpredictable weather) so trying to take all the proper precautions. If you'd like to help throw some change in the bucket towards the purchase of a liferaft check out the project  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eerichmond/more-jacques-cousteau-less-huck-finn .

More photos up in the POLAROID GALLERY here!

Sorry for lack of update on here the last few days, for some reason I wasn't able to login into the backend of the website but looks like it's all cleared up now. Man, things happen so fast in this sort of livin', I  guess I'll just summarize!

The trek over from Cabo was pretty forgetable. Didn't really have the nice peaceful days I had coming down the Baja coast, it was a bit of a basher with the winds and current never really vibing with the boat the way one would like them to. Also, the autopilot broke (again, i know! it's so cool when it does that!) about a hundred miles out. Some of the plastic bits inside cracked and broke off from the strain and their age. Somehow I was able to repair them with a 2 part resin mix whilst rolling about like on a carnival ride. But from then on I lived with the constant anxiety that it would break at any moment. It never did but just left me feeling constantly tense....which is obvsly a bummer!

Anyways, moving on being here in La Cruz has been totally amazing. I feel like I've really been charging on getting alot of work done. (For those of you that arent familiar with the boating world, Sailing-Around-The-World is much more akin to "making boat repairs in exotic locations" than it is to swinging in hammocks or spring-breaking it up in, say, Cancun). This is a really interesting place to be for a person like myself because it's one of the very few places on Earth where you are surrounded with your peer group, in my case other ocean-going folk. You see, this particular port is one of the few well-known jumping off points for crossing the Pacific Ocean. Although my plan is do it from Ecuador/The Galapagos Islands, most of the others will head for French Polynesia directly from here. As a result there is always alot going on here that caters to the prep for these passages. There are twice weekly seminars run by various other sailors that covers topics ranging from "how to use your HF radio" to methods of refrigeration. There are also all the necessary chandleries and experts nearby to tend to whatever sort of problem youre trying to solve or equipment you need installed. So nice!

The big thing on my list here is simply awaiting the arrival of my new mainsail. The day I arrived Dave from Island Planet Sails (the company in charge of getting me re-powered in that dept) came out to the boat and verified some measurements and the ball is now rolling on the manufacture. The turnaround on getting the new one in my hands is usally about 4 weeks so I've been doing a but re-scheduling and adjusting of plans to account for the delay here. I'm really insanely happy to get to spend extra time here as it's simply one of my favorite places on the planet. This particular town is just one of those places that really has a magical quiality to it -  packs of wild dogs trotting down cobble-stone streets, fresh coconuts rolling around on the lawns, happy children shrieking in the streets....just a completely wonderful base to being doing all the requisite work for the long passage.

Oh, pertaining to my schedule and routing, there are still some small contingencies with the delivery of equipment, etc but at the moment I 'm now leaning towards doing a straight passage to Ecuador from here rather than plodding down the coast. Since I'm losing a bit of time with the wait here I'm going to try to make it up by not re-tracing the areas I'd been on previous voyages. Everything from here on out will be completely new, a totally new adventure! There is still a slight chance that I could decided to do the crossing from here directly when the other fleet of boats embark for the more traditional "milk run" towards the Marquesas Islands. I'd still prefer to go further south to the even more remote area of Easter and Pitcairn Islands but anything's possible. Every day (every hour!) you get new information about weather and timing recommendations, ect so really it's just a matter of putting together all the pieces when it's time to leave to see what makes the most sense. It's more fun not always knowing what comes next!

Alright, I'm off to hop on a sweaty bus to town to pick up a couple new fuses then it's back to tidy some projects on the boat before hopefully hitting the beach this afternoon. Depsite my twitters messages, I havent surfed at all yet....which is just insane, todays the day hopefully.

Laterzzzzz

OH, PS also I got a really nice delivery of some Polaroid film here a few days ago - many thanks to the kind folks over at The  Impossible Project for that. I have a scanner on its way in a few days so very excited to start getting some of the pictures up on here. So fun!

PPS!! Huge thanks to the various food and drink companies that are now generously supporting the trip with their various products. It's been pretty difficult hunting down healthy food and snack options to restock the boat with here so thanks to them I'll be keeping energized and well fed even when I'm a thousand miles from land. Check the Sponsors page for their info :)

Today we’re very happy to introduce the first-ever Kickstarter podcast! iTunes users can download it here; you can get it on the web here. The first episode is an interview that I did with Emily Richmond, a young woman whose Kickstarter project funded a solo circumnavigation around the globe.

We’ve been huge fans of Emily’s project from the very beginning, and talking to her while she was docked off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico in the midst of an epic storm made us love her all the more. She is a courageous person with a serious passion for life and adventure. A totally inspiring woman. (For more on Emily, check her Vimeo page where she’s posting video updates from sea.)

At the moment I'm coming to you live from a swanky condo/apartment thing in the heart of the marina area. The view is insane. Beautiful, clear blue water flanking against the hulls of multi-million dollar boats. Craggy mountains jutting up out of the sand. A warm tropical breeze seeping through the planks in the blinds...

You see, the craziness has already begun. I dropped anchor here around 8PM last night, changed out of my soaking wet clothing, made some warm pasta and passed out cold. This morning I awoke this little slice of paradise and quickly gathered my things to head inland. It was quite gusty as I attempted to row the very large distance into town so after a half hour or so of beating into the wind with my little rubber boat a panga driver took pity on me and gave me a tow into the marina proper. I asked him to drop me near the entrance to the town but as we cruised by some rows of boats I noticed Abby Sunderland's insanely eye-catching boat docked off to one side. Her dad and my friend, Laurence, was camped out on the dock. The panga driver must have thought i was nuts. I had just finished explaining to him that i was not from here and had just arrived as I began shouting at the dock and waving my arms like a loon at Laurence. It was crazy! You dont expect to see people you know when you're a thousand miles south of the border! So crazy! It turns out that Abby's non-stop circumnav has been derailed for the moment as she had to pull in for another round of repairs by the team. I hadn't seen her boat up close before so it was cool spending the morning with them drinking their coffee, eating, their snacks, and budding down. Apparently the marina here had offered them the use of this condo-thing for free so they in turn are hospitably allowing me to shower, internet, and launder clothing here. So nice!

The trip from Ensenada was quite nice. Up until 5 hours out of Cabo where I encountered a small storm that trashed some gear and left me to hand steer in the sleeting rain and cold everything went really really well. I mean there were stretches of days where the wind was so steady and gentle and the sky so clear it was just pure paradise. Probably one of the most stand out things about the trip was the insane amount of wildlife I saw. I 've done this stretch before but I just dont remember being exposed to so many great sightings - guess it was just good luck this time! During the course of the run from Ensenada down I probably saw at least a dozen whales....probably more if I really thought about it. And not just 'oh hey, there's a whale out there in the distance', I mean real, up-close full broaching of a humpback. The sort of encounter where when they hit the water on their big broad back, you dont just hear it, you feel it. Like a rumble of a train or some sort of big hollywood explosion. what phenomenal creatures...

other noteworthy things: unfortunately, about 300 miles south of ensenada my mainsail blew out. and it was bad. the thing is pretty much in two pieces. the sails are old, i knew this. i knew i would need to replace them at some point in time or at least taket them in for some repairs and reinforcements. but this was pretty unexpected. at the time i was about 30 miles south of an anchorage/town called Turtle Bay so I made the decision to overnight there so I would have the time to assess and possibly repair it. There weren't really any other cruising sailboats during my stopover so unfortunately I wasn't able to enlist the help or tools of some more seasoned veterans. I repaired the sailed with Gorilla tape and headed back out the next morning. It sailed great for 3 or 4 hours and then I could tell it wasnt going to hold, that it would eventually separate if the wind picked up even a hair. From then on I sailed the boat under headsail alone. Although slightly less stable the boat made pretty good time and their was a nice wind from behind to push us steadily downwind. The weather and seas were perfect and what could have been a really shitty, uncomfortable trek turned out to be just fantastic.

Then yesterday happened. When I woke up it was grey. The morning passed, I made some lunch, it was still grey. Then finally around 5 PM or so it happened. The winds suddenly picked up, the rain just let loose. As I rushed to swap out the large, light drifter sail for a sturdier, smaller jib the force of the seas beat the autopilot beyond its breaking point. The repairs I had made in Marina del Rey, which had worked so blissfully for the 850 miles preceding this point, couldnt hold any longer and I was left to handsteer the remainder of the distance, without a spare moment to even go inside to changer out the little shorts i had been wearing during the day, which at night had become a stupid, stupid, freezing nuisance. All in all though I really cant complain. I was given some of the most amazing sailing days, and now I'm here among friends, among sweets. What else do you really want, you know? Oh, besides a new mainsail....

Alright, I'm off now to begin the hunt. Someone to repair, some warehouse to reorder from, some way to continue on the journey...

Speak with you all soon. Here are some little updates I made from sea:

Next stop, Cabo San Lucas!