CHANGES
With reports this month from 'commuter cruisers' on Illusion and Baja Fog; the imminent cruising departure of Thane from her home waters; the 10-year circumnavigation of Totem; and Cruise Notes.
ILLUSION
Illusion – Cal 40 Stan and Sally Honey Commuter Cruising San Francisco We transited the Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean on 19 March. As line handlers we had Tom Condy, Syl-
Stan and Sally years
finally cruising a ter all these
via Seaberg, Kerry Deaver (Dick's daughter), and Dave Wilson, a longtime member of the Pedro Miguel (Panama) YC and Balboa (Panama) YC, and the initial host of the SailMail station in Panama. Dave used to work for the Canal and has done 30 transits. He was terrific to have onboard. I'd transited twice before in the '70s and found that not much has changed. We started cruising in 2014, heading
ILLUSION
Stan le t ith nephe ohn rolyk and atalie avidson ohn had ust returned rom military duty in Syria and borro ed ' llusion' or a little be ore heading or grad school
south in July from San Francisco to and around the Sea of Cortez. The next year, we went from Santa Rosalia to Tenticatita. We left the boat for both of those intervening summers in La Paz at Palmira Marina. Last season we cruised from La Paz South to Chiapas Marina at the Southern edge of Mexico, where we left Illusion for summer 2017. This season my nephew, John Vrolyk, borrowed Illusion for a cruise from Chiapas to Puntarenas, Costa Rica, with his friends. On September 7, a devastating 8.1-magnitude earthquake hit the area. More than 50 people were killed and many buildings reduced to rubble. Illusion was in Chiapas Marina, in the water, during the ensuing tsunami. Many of the docks were ruined by floating off the pilings, but thanks to heroic efforts by Memo, Ronnie, Rolf, and the other staff at the marina, none of the boats in the water were damaged. Illusion made it through without even a scratch, which is astonishing given the photos and stories we've seen since then. Sally and then I picked up the boat again in Puntarenas in January and headed to the Canal where we are now. We will probably leave the boat for this coming summer either at Shelter Bay on the Caribbean side of the Canal, or maybe at Boca del Toro. Next season we will probably see the San Blas Islands then wander up the Yucatan channel, but we're not committed to any specific plans. We might get to the East Coast in time for the Bermuda Race in 2020. We like 'commuter cruising'. The marinas for off-season storage cost no more than SF, flights are cheap, and the scenery changes. — Stan and Sally 4/2/18 Readers — if you don't know who Sally and Stan LindseyHoney are by now, well, you just haven't been paying attention. They are quite simply two of the most accomplished sailors ever to call the Bay Area home. They share three Rolex Yachtsman/Yachtswoman of the Year awards between them; have both founded and run several successful businesses, and
' llusion' escaped damage hen a tsunami upended docks at hiapas arina last year
Transiting the anama
anal
have both raced at the highest levels of the sport, setting numerous records and winning many awards and accolades. (For their whole exhaustive resumes, go to www.honeynav.com) They have owned Illusion (Cal 40 hull #57) since the late '80s. They originally got the boat to go cruising but, as Stan puts it, "old habits are hard to break" — so they have spent a good part of the last 30 years racing the boat. But enough of that racing stuff. After kinda-sorta semi-retiring from the businesses they founded (Sally's Spinnaker Shop in Palo Alto and Stan's Sportvision, based in Chicago), they started cruising a few years ago. Here are a few more of their observations on smell-the-roses sailng... (L38) — We remember you mentioning wanting to cruise years ago. Was there
