Latitude 38 - March 2018-2019

who you'd like to be. Despite having sailed over 15,000 miles, we can safely say that sailing is not the hardest part of living the boat life. The human component is. Learning about yourself, how you navigate through life, how you weather the storms, and how you ride the big waves — that's really what you learn at sea.

— gina 10/20/17

Cruise Notes After completing the 2017 Baja Ha-Ha, Charlie and Cathy Simon of the Spokanebased Taswell 58 Celebrate spent a relaxing time in the Sea of Cortez swimming with the sea lions at Los Islotes. Then, they charged down to Panama to transit the Canal before Christmas. They're now in Roatan, Honduras, where they're enjoying the excellent scuba diving while they wait for favorable winds to fi nish their Sail Around North America. If all goes as planned, that will end at Annapolis in late spring. With the Northwest Passage under their belt (east to west, 2017), theirs will be one of the fi rst US yachts to have completed a circumnavigation of North America. This accomplished cruising couple are also veterans of the 26,000-mile World ARC circumnavigation, 2013-2015. Last year, John Zeratsky of the Outbound 46 Pineapple sent a note to say he had just installed Google's Project Fi wireless service on his phones in preparation for cruising Mexico and Central America. Three months later, he reports Project Fi has been nothing short of excellent. "Starting with the basics — our phones just work in Mexico," he says. "It has been so convenient to keep the same smartphones and phone numbers we had back home. We use them daily for all the same stuff as we did back in San Francisco — calling, texting, maps, music, etc." But the best part has been Internet hotspots — with Project Fi, you're always "in" one! "Marina Wi-

Fi is always disappointing, but even when it works, our Wirie Pro with

Telcel SIM card can't compete with the speed and reliability of our Project Fi phones." In a few remote anchorages where there is no Wi-Fi (and thus no Telcel), Project Fi has been the only way of getting online. "Had we known how great Project Fi would be in Mexico, we would have skipped the Wirie and the trip to the Telcel store in Ensenada," says John. "We've been telling everyone we meet about Project Fi — and hopefully this letter can help future Mexico cruisers save a little time, money, and frustration."

Pineapple will be in Mexico for another month, then it's south to Central America, where John will fi le another report on

'Celebrate' transits the Panama Canal.

CELEBRATE