11 hours ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

Happy Wednesday Friends!

Hope you'll join us this Sunday as we attempt to stow 330 beers on Calico πŸ˜‚

Our final days in La Cruz was a WHIRLWIND πŸŒͺ There is so much love in this one. It is super close to our hearts and we're excited to share it. πŸ’“ 

9 days ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

And we are officially no longer pollywogs! We crossed the equator last night and today celebrated this milestone with a little bubbly 🍾 We now have 830 nm to go!!!

Make sure you subscribe (and hit the bell for notifications) - We’ll be uploading some unedited shorts of our passage thus far over the next few days 😍 Thank you for following our journey and for all your messages of support! πŸ’• 

11 days ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

Hello from the Pacific Ocean! 🌊

Some smooth seas means we’re able to get a video out for ya (that and Starlink of course ☺️). Check it out tomorrow- it captures a very important aspect of our cruising life, one we value deeply. Our community 😁😍 . Plus Calico Skies is getting a pretty nice upgrade!!! Hint: It has something to do with our sails …!

Hope to see you there! Oh and we’re officially at the less than 1,000 mile left mark!! πŸ’ƒπŸΌπŸ₯³πŸΎ 

13 days ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

More than halfway to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, 1528nm Down, 1288nm Miles To Go! The last few day we have been firmly in the grasp of the ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone). This is where the NE trades meet the SE trades and is characterized by unsettled, squally weather (as evidenced by the radar image LOL). As we get a bit further south we will hit the doldrums where there is no wind. We had some excitement a few day ago when we caught a 56.5 inch Wahoo, by far the biggest fish we have caught on Calico to date! Lets just say we've been eating. a lot of fish the last few days haha. 

Calico is doing well, we've been battling some chafe/hardware issues as a result of  all the miles. We popped our spinnaker tack line, our jib furling line went due to a mislead fairlead and the scariest was a failed shackle for the spinnaker halyard. We got lucky on the shackle, we had an alarm set at 14kt true wind speed and that alarm sounded at  01:00 . Out of caution we took the kite down and were surprised to see the block and shackle at the bottom of the mast as we dropped the sail. It appears the seizing wire failed and allowed the shackle pin to back itself out. If the shackle truly failed the threads on the pin would be destroyed. If we had left the sail up it likely would have eventually dropped into the water potentially causing damage. We aren't flying the kite again until we verify that the shackle and seizing wire on our spare halyard is in good shape. 

We left with three other buddy boats and we have been in frequent contact with each other via whatsapp. Having Starlink onboard is such a change from our previous ocean crossings. We were all pretty closer together in the beginning but now are separated by a few hundred miles. The closest boat to us in  @BreakingWavesSailing , about 60 miles away. 

If you want to follow our progress at home, google "where is Calico Skies" and our tracking page will pop up. We've also been releasing daily updates and short videos for our patrons @ www.patreon.com/calicoskiessailing. Finally click, like, subscribe πŸ™ƒ so you don't miss when the videos are released of this epic passage! 

2 weeks ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

Whoops so yesterday's post got cut off πŸ™ƒ, I'd blame the internet but starlink has been amazing! Here's what we meant to say;


UGH!! Yesterday we were reaching in 13,14 knots when our beloved code zero blew up! The nylon tore out of the leech tape, once unsupported it tore several feet into the belly of the sail. The timing is unfortunate as we are just about to turn downwind into the trades. This sail is our downwind work horse. Luckily we have our assym and staysail so we will figure out new sail plans :)

For regular, real time updates on our passage consider joining our Patreon family for as little as $2 a month πŸ₯° πŸ€—(www.patreon.com/calicoskiessailing)t pulled 

3 weeks ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

UGH!! Yesterday we were reaching in 



For regular, real time updates on our passage consider joining our Patreon family for as little as $2 a month πŸ₯° πŸ€—(www.patreon.com/calicoskiessailing) 

3 weeks ago (edited) β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

Annnnnnd in real time we are OFF! Headed almost 3,000 nm to French Polynesia as we speak :) If you'd like to follow our tracker google 'Wheres Calico Skies' and for regular, real time updates consider joining our Patreon family for as little as $2 a month πŸ₯° πŸ€— ( https://www.patreon.com/CalicoSkiesSailing ) 

The last 2 weeks were absolutely crazy and we filmed a LOT so we'll probably get at least two more 'prep' videos (maybe three) out of our footage. Make sure you check out todays video and the coming Pacific prep episodes that capture our remaining time in Mexico - these ones are superrrr close to our hearts. 

When we set off for La Cruz we expected it to be nothing but work work work but our Pacific experience really began the second we arrived. The cruising community here is absolutely outstanding and we are leaving our hearts in La Cruz, Mexico. We've made some new friends for life and we can't wait to introduce them to you over the next few videos.

We'll be turning on our Starlink daily to check weather so we'll continue to upload videos over the next 20-25 days until we make landfall plus we'll be updating our tracker regularly via satellite phone. In addition Patrons will receive real time videos and blogs documenting our journey.πŸ₯°.  Spirits are high here on Calico Skies and we'd like nothing more than to take you with us so we'll see you out there! 

Thank you for following our journey! BIG Hugs!!! 

1 month ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

For the first time ever in our channels history we are basically real time πŸ’ƒπŸΌπŸ’ƒπŸΌπŸ’ƒπŸΌ

So much has been happening over the last couple of weeks we've been struggling to capture it all so we're sitting down and spilling the beans on everything pacific prep related, our new 'family' of La Cruz friends and our plans for passage making and beyond. Can't wait to share it with you all Sunday!!!!!! 

1 month ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

Ahoy Mateys! 

Well we're finally in La Cruz, our LAST port of call in Mexico before we make the big jump across the Pacific! We've been really buckling down on the to-do list, taking advantage of all the resources this cool spot has to offer sailors and we've made new friends and carved out time for adventure here and there.

Which brings me to these pics :) Shortly after we arrived into La Cruz we were invited for a day sail aboard Rediviva by new friends Ruth & Garrett of Salt and Tar. What a fantastic day aboard with friends from Breaking Waves, plus Blue & Brady. Cant go wrong with this crew, am I right??

We'll be releasing this video on Sunday and we hope you can take a peak at this one, it was super fun to put together :) And friendly reminder that videos go live early on Patreon, if you can't wait πŸ˜‚ We love our Patrons and are so incredibly grateful to them for supporting our journey. We owe the planning of our Pacific adventure in large part to them. So, think about it, there's always room for more and we'd absolutely LOVE to have you!! 😘 Otherwise, we'll see you Sunday 🀩 

1 month ago β€’ Calico Skies Sailing

Well we got a LOT done in Barre but the time has (finally) come to move on. We officially left the marina and pointed the bow north headed for Puerto Vallarta, our final port in Mexico and jump off point for our Pacific crossing!!

Our three day passage started out well - which is when I took this video, but sadly it deteriorated and our good weather turned into a nasty sea state with very strong wind on the nose by day two. Over the years we've learned to just let the GoPros run when its too rough to film and we ended up with some good footage of one of the worst sea states we've ever seen, according to Captain Bill. And for once I think the waves actually look sizable on film ... it was truly nasty!! 

See you Sunday 😬 

Leaving Barre Navidad!

Calico Skies Sailing

1 month ago β€’ 7 views