<![CDATA[DOVKA.COM - Ship Blog]]>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:46:15 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[Crossing the Pacific Oceans]]>Fri, 11 Apr 2025 19:18:50 GMThttp://dovka.com/ship-blog/crossing-the-pacific-oceansI write from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 2000 miles from Mexico and about 1000 miles from the Marquesas. We’ve been underway for about 15 days now having left Banderas Bay on March 24. The passage has been excellent so far, with steady winds most of the way. We’ve been making between 110-130 nautical miles every day and have only had to motor about 24 hours.

A few days out, we caught a tuna and feasted. Dolphins have come to play in our bow wake more than once - always a joyful event. And our crossing of the equator on April 9 at sunrise was particularly special. We inducted Tim into the realm of the shellbacks with a ceremony that included champagne - offering Neptune his share - donning fake pirate tattoos, shaving our heads, and swimming in the deep blue pacific waters. Most special though was a visit from a huge manta ray. It appeared from the blue, just as we were getting out of the water, circled the boat once and then disappeared into the deep. It was a magical welcome to the southern hemisphere.

My crew consists of my brother Jon and my college buddy Tim. I couldn't ask for better crew. They have both been fantastic sailors, learning the ropes quickly. They've not been seasick and have jumped into the galley to cook up delicious meals or wash dishes after we eat. And they've stood watch without complaint.

Our watch schedule is three hour on and then six hours off. This is a nice rotation because it cycles and no one is stuck with the midnight to 3am watch every night. When we're on, we sit in the cockpit monitoring the boat, the electronic charts, the horizon, and the wind and weather. When we're off we have time to sleep, nap, read, cook, clean or do other chores on the boat. Often we will sit around the cockpit together, talking or listening to comedy or music.

Having Internet on the boat, thanks to Starlink, has really changed the feeling of crossing. We're still very far away, surrounded by a lot of water, but being able to instantaneously communicate with our loved ones is very reassuring. Phone calls home and shared texts are a nice way to pass the time.

Now, less than 1000 miles from shore, our thoughts turned to the Marquesas islands, where we’ll make landfall. We’re excited to explore and hike the verdant hills, eat fresh food and drink cold beer, and swim in crystal waters with tropical critters.

But we still have a ways to go, and there surely will be squalls and other challenges before we anchor securely in a safe harbor. So it’s back on watch for now…

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]]><![CDATA[Back to the Boat]]>Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:17:57 GMThttp://dovka.com/ship-blog/back-to-the-boatA 4-minute video update on our 2025 sailing plans:
]]><![CDATA[Land Time]]>Tue, 31 Dec 2024 04:25:27 GMThttp://dovka.com/ship-blog/land-timeIn June of 2024 we put Dovka on the hard in San Carlos Mexico. Hurricane season approached, and it was just getting too hot to be on the boat. And after 8 moths aboard Dovka, we were all ready for some land time. 

We began our overland travels in a beautiful, mountain town called Guanajuato where we shared a home and meals with a local grandmother. The girls and Ben enrolled in Spanish language school, while Lauren enjoyed free time strolling the winding alleyways of this ancient town that used to be the wealthiest in Mexico thanks to its silver mines.

In Guanajuato, Ben contracted Covid, so we quickly bussed (with masks on) to Mexico City, where we were able to quarantine as everyone in the family got sick one-by-one. But it passed quickly and we were able to enjoy the treelined boulevards, delightful cafes, many museums, and splendid churrorias of CDMX. 

By August, we were back home in San Francisco so the girls could enjoy another year at Camp Tawonga and some time in Tahoe with their cousins. But by September we were itching to hit the road and decided to visit as many National Parks in the Southwestern U.S. as we could.

We did pretty well, making it to Great Basin, Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, and Mesa Verde.

In Santa Fe, we went our separate ways. Lauren flew to Paris with her family to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday in style. Ben took the girls to Falls Church to visit his parents and celebrate the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

When reunited in Santa Fe two weeks later, the four of us hopped in the car and drove to Omaha, Nebraska to spend the last three weeks of October working on a Senate Campaign. We did everything we could to help get Dan Osborn, an independent candidate, elected to the U.S. Senate. In the end, while he vastly outperformed expectations, he lost by about 4 percentage points and election night was a sad one all around. 

Come November, we hightailed it back to San Francisco to celebrate more family birthdays, bar mitzvahs, thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, and new years. ]]><![CDATA[Swim Time]]>Tue, 26 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://dovka.com/ship-blog/swim-timeWhen you’re a kid on a cruising boat, there’s only one thing better than pulling into a beautiful anchorage and seeing other kids playing in the water.... seeing kids you know and like playing in the water, on a boat that’s been turned into an all out water jungle gym. (CONTINUED BELOW...)
When we sailed into Chacala, just north of La Cruz, we spotted Dream Reach, a bright yellow Compass 47 with two girls, 8-year-old Eva and 5-year-old Rauni aboard. The kids were swinging off poles, ropes and hammocks strung from the rigging and plopping into the water. Seconds after dropping our own anchor next to Dream Reach, our girls were in the water swimming over to join their neighbors.

For the next week, we lazed about Chacala - a quintessential beach town that was hopping with Mexicans on vacation for the Semana Santa holiday.

As our own kids splashed about, a dozen local kids swam by as part of an official swimming club, chaperoned by a woman and toddler on a paddle board and closely followed by a dog who looked like he too was used to regular long swims.

A panga zoomed past towing a banana - a long inflatable raft straddled by 14 people being towed around the harbor. (After being buzzed repeatedly by reckless, high-speed jet skis in Cabo, this disturbance seemed quaint.)

We quickly met the other cruisers in the anchorage, including a couple from Paris with their two girls, and were invited on a group hike up to the local hilltop overlook. We spent a lovely week, swimming, hiking, getting the occasional meal or ice cream ashore, and generally practicing the art of doing very little while the kids enjoyed the company of other kids.

Our stay culminated with the celebration of Alexandra's 7th birthday. We baked a chocolate cake topped with chocolate frosting and maraschino cherries, carefully rowed it ashore, decorated a palm fringed cabana with a "Feliz Cumpleaños" banner, then were joined on the beach by Dream Reach for a lovely party.
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