LifeOnboard | Vivo O Sonho

Tag: LifeOnboard
- Baseball in Mexico!
  
  Posted at 4:31 pm by Heidi Benson Stagg, on March 2, 2025
  Baseball might be “America’s sport” but it’s also popular in Mexico. The Delfines de La Paz had their Season Opener last night and we attended with two other cruising couples, Pat and Gary Cook on SV Caper, a sailboat berthed a few slips down from us, and Nina Lesowitz and Martin Eggenberger, who sailed from Emeryville, CA to La Paz on last year’s Baja Ha-Ha and currently have their boat berthed in Ensenada and are in La Paz for a visit. The Delfines (Dolphins) compete in the Northern League of Mexico, based in La Paz, Baja California Sur, and made their debut in 2019 with a roster of local players, free agents, foreigners of different nationalities and prospects from the Mexican Baseball League.
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  Posted in LIfe in La Paz | 0 Comments | Tagged Baseball, BCSMexico, BoatingLife, LaPaz, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, MarinaLife, mexico, mlb, SailingWriter, sports, Tayana, travel, VivoOSonho, Writing Sailor
- Bahia de La Paz Dolphin Dance
  
  Posted at 4:14 pm by Heidi Benson Stagg, on March 1, 2025
  I’ve been fascinated with sea creatures, both real and mystical, from the time I could swim at the age of two. I wanted to be a mermaid. And my favorite movie of all time is, of course, the Disney classic “The Little Mermaid.” But if I had to chose which animal I would be, my answer is always a dolphin.
  
  There are more than 40 species of dolphins around the world. Growing up sailing in San Francisco Bay, both bottlenose dolphin and harbor porpoise sightings were common and always a joy. We rarely saw large pods, though, and mostly only viewed them briefly surfacing before disappearing under the dark water near the Golden Gate Bridge.
  
  Cruising the warm waters of Mexico has been a sheer delight with an abundance of dolphins often approaching our sailboat and dinghy and entertaining us with playful splashes and jumping our bow waves. Bottlenose, common and spinner dolphins are found among the islands in the Sea of Cortez and also enter the Bay of La Paz to frolic amongst the boats at anchor.
  
  When we’re at the marina we like to take the dinghy for sunset “dink and drink” outings, putter around the bay, land on the mogote for a beach stroll, and cruise along the malecon. It’s our version of a “Sunday drive.”
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  Posted in Living the Dream ... Finally!!!, Random Topics | 2 Comments | Tagged adventure, BahiaLaPaz, BoatingLife, Cruising, Dolphins, LaPaz, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, MarinaLife, nature, sailing, SailingWriter, Tayana, travel, VivoOSonho, Writing Sailor
- Back to the Blog … Revisiting May 2023 to February 2025
  
  Posted at 12:03 pm by Heidi Benson Stagg, on February 16, 2025
  December 2022. We arrived in Marina de La Paz with the intention of staying for a month … which became three months … and then we decided to take a permanent berth! We’re into our third cruising season in La Paz and still loving it!
  
  I started this blog on April 16, 2018 with the intention of using it as a platform for sharing our preparation of Sonho to embark on our cruising lifestyle after retirement (which we had planned for April 2019 before a series of complicated circumstances delayed us until 2022). I also posted short fiction stories, memoirs and recipes for several years. It gave me so much joy as my readership grew and I became a confident writer.
  
  Life got in the way of writing as I became heavily involved in the La Paz community as soon as my feet hit the Marina de La Paz dock in December of 2022. I found myself coordinating events for our local yacht club, Club Cruceros, and before I knew it, I was back to having meetings and being on a schedule.
  
  I finally published “Sonho’s Journey to La Paz” on April 1, 2023, detailing the timeline, hours and nautical miles of travel from Alameda, California to La Paz, Mexico between October-December 2022. Two weeks later I published the first of what I intended to be eight blogs describing the experiences of each leg down the coast, “Cruising Down the Coast: Alameda to Monterey.”
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  Posted in Living the Dream ... Finally!!!, Random Topics | 1 Comment | Tagged BoatingLife, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, MarinaLife, Tayana, VivoOSonho
- What a Drag! (figuratively and literally)
  
  Posted at 6:00 am by Heidi Benson Stagg, on May 9, 2023
  As our friend Bob Bitchin says, “The difference between adventure and ordeal is attitude.” And as his first mate, Jody, says, “Sometimes it’s just an ordeal!”
  
  The little arrow mid-picture is where we were anchored. The circle around the little island in blue near the top is Isla San Francisco. The green dot at the bottom is Bahia de La Paz.
  
  It was our last night in the tranquil anchorage of Ensenada Grande Norte, a cove located off Isla Partida in the Sea of Cortez, Baja, Mexico. We’d just spent four idyllic days snorkeling and swimming in clear, warm water and taking our dinghy to explore the rugged island shoreline and pristine beaches. Aaron had grilled pork chops and pineapple for dinner, as it was the first afternoon that the wind hadn’t blown in the cove.
  
  That should have been our first clue. At this time of year, there seems to always be a late-day breeze that is just enough to keep the barbeque from staying lit. But not today. We had watched the sun set and were relaxing in the cockpit when a fast puff of wind suddenly blew through the cove. Then a lull. We looked at each other. Then another blast, a brief pause, and full-force steady wind at 18 knots came at us. No build up, just an all-out blow with gusts to 24 kts.
  
  Aaron pulled up the weather model (which he had checked earlier and noted that there was a chance of a very light wind developing later in the evening) and checked our anchor watch app. For four solid days our anchor had held firm and we never moved outside of the scope of the anchor watch perimeter. Now, it appeared we were dragging.
  
  Without another word he started the engine, just in case, and we went topside together.
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  Posted in Living the Dream ... Finally!!!, Random Topics | 2 Comments | Tagged BoatingLife, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, SailingWriter, SeaofCortez, Tayana, VivoOSonho, Writing Sailor
- Cruising Down the Coast: Alameda to Monterey
  
  Posted at 12:34 pm by Heidi Benson Stagg, on April 15, 2023
  For over a decade we talked about “cutting the docklines, heading out the Gate, hanging a left and not looking back.” It’s why we bought our particular boat: to sail oceans. It took a ton of sweat, tears, money and really hard work to get us there, but on October 10, 2022, we did it. (For a detail of our prep, see the blog post Cruising Preparation on a Fast Track.)
  
  We did look back. We knew it was going to be a long time before we saw the Golden Gate Bridge from Sonho, and it was definitely bittersweet. We were leaving our home in Alameda, California for a foreign country and although it was a lifetime dream, it was also terrifying. Did we have all the safety equipment to sail thousands of miles on the ocean? Were we really able enough sailors to handle doublehanding on overnight passages? Would all of the newly installed systems work? Would we like living in Mexico?
  
  So, as I blogged back in November, we cut the dock lines and headed out the Gate and hung a left. Following are recollections of the first leg of our journey to Mexico. (Click here for the first blog post on our journey: Living the Dream on Stagg Time.)
  
  Day 1: October 10, 2022
  Departed 0806 from Marina Village Yacht Harbor, Slip P16, Alameda, California
  Arrived 1538 at Pillar Point anchorage, near Half Moon Bay, California
  
  We left our home of 13 years under the usual fall, coastal conditions … grey skies and cool, light air. As we motored out the Alameda-Oakland Estuary (which I fondly refer to as the Alameda Riviera), we fired up the new electronics and auto pilot, cranked up the RPM’s on our recently tuned engine and put them all to use for the first time. (Thankfully, they all worked perfectly and Aaron wiled away the ocean hours programming and learning.)
  
  We had left ourselves no time to test our new systems. The weeks leading up to our departure were the most stressful we have ever experienced in our relationship. There were so many goodbyes, last minute details and a few surprises that almost kept us from leaving (again). We had put all we had into the preparation (which sorely tested our marriage) and finally figured that whatever needed to be bought or fixed could happen on the way to San Diego. It was time to go.
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  Posted in Alameda to Mexico, Living the Dream ... Finally!!!, You Live on a Boat?! | 1 Comment | Tagged BoatingLife, GalleyCooking, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, MarinaLife, Tayana, TinyKitchen, VivoOSonho
- Watermelon Basil Bites
  
  Posted at 6:02 am by Heidi Benson Stagg, on April 8, 2023
  It’s a rare day when I’m invited to a get-together and don’t bring a hostess gift or contribution to the gathering. This was one of the many lessons ingrained by my Nana, and for her it was usually scones or cookies from scratch or roses from the bushes in her front yard, wrapped in tinfoil. She told me that it was good manners to show appreciation for the invitation and the best way to do so was with something homemade.
  
  Sunset over La Paz .. . the perfect backdrop for sundowners.
  
  On this particular evening, we were invited to our dear friend Lucy’s La Paz home for a Sundowner (Cruiser-speak for sunset cocktails) with two other couples. The three-story house (four, including the rooftop patio) is built on a hill with a breathtaking view of Bahia de La Paz and the Pacific Ocean.
  
  When I was living in California, I could easily pop over to the store for virtually any ingredient I wanted and be home within 15 minutes. Here in Mexico, a trip to the store is an excursion unto itself, and there’s a good chance that some ingredients may not be in stock, so recipes in general can get quite creative and often take the form of whatever is currently in the fridge and pantry.
  
  I’d gotten several craft cheeses at the local Farmer’s Market but no crackers (which are not abundantly available in Mexico). I had a variety of fresh fruit (always in abundance) and fresh herbs. What to do?
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  Posted in In the Galley | 0 Comments | Tagged BoatingLife, Cruising, GalleyCooking, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, MarinaLife, SailingCook, TinyKitchen, VivaLaMexico, VivoOSonho
- Sonho’s Journey to Mexico
  
  Posted at 6:00 am by Heidi Benson Stagg, on April 1, 2023
  Our original itinerary: Leaving Alameda on Sept. 18, 2023 and arriving in Cabo San Lucas on Nov. 14, 2023. (Itinerary graphics and Sonho’s logo were designed by our son’s fiance, Jenna Miller.)
  
  Our initial itinerary had us leaving Alameda on Mon., Sept. 18, 2022 (my 58th birthday), following our Bon Voyage Party on Sept. 16 at Encinal Yacht Club and arriving in San Diego on Wed., Oct. 19, 2022. We would be entering 10 different ports and staying at six reciprocal yacht clubs. It was a relaxed journey and each stay would be at least two nights, with only one overnight at sea.
  
  Fate had other plans.
  
  Due to the late delivery of essential parts and projects taking waayy longer than expected, we ended up leaving Alameda with our hair on fire on Oct. 10, 2022, with a reduced itinerary of now entering only seven ports and staying at three yacht clubs (two of which were in San Diego). We had to add a second overnight at sea and shorten our stays in each port.
  
  Still, our plan was to leave San Diego with the Baja Ha-Ha Rally on Oct. 31 with Aaron’s dad, Jim, and our grandson, Cody, onboard and arrive in Cabo San Lucas on Nov. 14. From there, we’d easily make it to La Paz by mid-December. Our friends Dave & Speranza would meet us and boat/pet sit while we went home for the holidays and returned to Mexico in early January 2023.
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  Posted in Living the Dream ... Finally!!! | 1 Comment | Tagged BoatingLife, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, SailingWriter, VivoOSonho, Writing Sailor
- Nopales (Cactus) Salad
  
  Posted at 9:26 am by Heidi Benson Stagg, on January 21, 2023
  I love trying new ingredients, especially when they are unique and fresh to a region. Currently, I’m living in La Paz, Mexico, and am in love with the fresh fruits and vegetables which can readily be found in supermercados (supermarkets), small local market stalls, farmer’s markets, and even convenience stores (OXXO is the most common corner store; similar to an American 7-11).
  
  Unlike America, where a great deal of produce is picked and shipped in from other countries before it has fully matured, the most plentiful and popular Mexican produce is grown nearby and offered fully ripe. Cactus is in abundance and inexpensive.
  
  Prickly pear cactus leaves have become a favorite ingredient of mine. They taste similar to a slightly tart green bean when eaten raw, and a bit like a green bell pepper when cooked. They produce a gelatinous substance when cut, not unlike okra. Some people find this slimy texture off-putting and it can be removed by cooking, which I prefer. It sounds weird, but by boiling the cactus with the husk of a tomatillo, the gel is absorbed into the husk and there is no slime! You can also cook out the gel by sauteing, which I do when adding to eggs, etc.
  
  Most often you’ll find the leaves (called pads) with the needles removed. If not, gloves and a sharp knife are required to cut off the needles and outer vein. Look for smaller sized, firm pads and use within a few days or wrap tightly and refrigerate for up to two weeks. If they become limp, they are beyond their prime and will have lost their crunchiness but can still be used in soups until mold develops.
  
  Cactus contains beta carotene, iron, B vitamins, and are good sources of both vitamin C and calcium. Research has showed that it contains anti-viral and antioxidant properties, protects nerve cells, may reduce cholesterol and eliminate hangovers.
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  Posted in In the Galley | 1 Comment | Tagged BoatingLife, Cruising, GalleyCooking, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, MarinaLife, SailingCook, TinyKitchen, VivaLaMexico, VivoOSonho
- Cruising Preparation on a Fast Track
  
  Posted at 3:20 pm by Heidi Benson Stagg, on January 14, 2023
  Feliz Año Nuevo (Happy New Year) from La Paz, the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur! We left San Diego, California on November 22^nd with Aaron’s dad, Jim Stagg, and our 10-year-old grandson, Cody Wood, and our Chiweenie, Tiki, and arrived in San Jose del Cabo on Mon., December 5^th. It was more often a rough ride than not, but was also filled with memories that we all will treasure forever. (More details in a future post.)
  
  From San Jose del Cabo, Aaron and I headed north, up the Sea of Cortez, arriving at La Paz on Fri., December 23^rd. The journey held unexpected delays due to weather and we were both a bit shell-shocked from transitioning to this new lifestyle. It’s not all rainbows and sunshine, but also a lot of work to get to where you want to go!
  
  We have a berth in Marina de La Paz until the end of March. Berths are difficult to attain in the winter and there are long waiting lists at all marinas. We had been on a waiting list for over six months and got lucky when someone cancelled. Otherwise, we would be at anchor in Bahia La Paz and having to dinghy to and from shore and deal with making water and electricity. We won’t be in the marina the entire time, but will use it as our home base as we explore the nearby islands and anchorages and hopefully entice our family and friends to come for a visit.
  
  We’ve come to realize that we are not quite ready to completely let go of the ties to land and commit to being full-time sea gypsies just yet! Going with the flow (and winds and waves) is the motto of cruisers, and this is what feels good to us at this point in our new lifestyle.
  
  So, now that we’re stable for a few months and I have the time and internet connection to write, I’ll go back to the beginning of this journey and share some of the highlights and challenges in detail.
  
  Before we cut the docklines at Marina Village Yacht Harbor in Alameda, California, on October 10th, 2022, we had a TON of preparation to do to become self-sufficient. Being a live-aboard in a marina is a far cry from living at sea and anchor.
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  Posted in Living the Dream ... Finally!!! | 1 Comment | Tagged BoatingLife, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, MarinaLife, SailingCook, SailingWriter, Tayana, VivoOSonho
- Creamy Mushroom Soup
  
  Posted at 8:32 am by Heidi Benson Stagg, on January 7, 2023
  I love, really love, mushrooms … raw, cooked, on pizza, in salads, definitely sauteed on steak, and most especially as the featured ingredient in a rich, creamy soup. I often make a meal of the soup, with a big chuck of buttered sourdough on the side, but it’s also a lovely starter or complement to a light main course.
  
  The key to developing the rustic flavor is to cook the mushrooms low and slow in the butter/olive oil. I personally think this is best done in a cast iron dutch oven. I use the one my Nana brought from Ireland to the United States when she immigrated to Washington State in 1946. It was her mother’s and is now over 100 years old. It is one of my most treasured galley items and infuses the secret ingredient of love into every dish.
  
  Variations:
  - Get creative with your choice of mushrooms for a slightly different flavor profile. Fresh baby portobellas and criminis are more robust than the white button variety. Dried oyster, shitaki and lobster each bring a different nuance than porcinis.
  - Make it vegan by replacing the butter and cream with dairy-free alternatives and use vegetable stock in lieu of chicken stock. Or skip the cream al together for a broth-based soup.
  - Don’t have fresh thyme or tarragon? Substitute with 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme and 1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon. You can also leave out the herbs altogether.
  - Some folks prefer their mushroom soup rustic instead of pureed. Simply skip the blender step, if so.
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  Posted in In the Galley | 0 Comments | Tagged BoatingLife, Cruising, GalleyCooking, LifeOnboard, LiveAboard, LivingTheDream, MarinaLife, SailingCook, TinyKitchen, VivoOSonho
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Vivo O Sonho

Heidi Benson Stagg

I live aboard a 42 ft Tayana Vancouver sailboat, hull #5 laid in 1979, with my husband and little dog. We left our berth of 15 yeas in Alameda, California in the Fall of 2022 and now live in La Paz, Mexico. I enjoy blogging about our journey, cooking in my tiny kitchen and writing short stories.

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