Miss Cindy

These are the adventures of the 'Miss Cindy' a Turtle Island 16' Microcat cruiser.

Departing mid October 2008 the plan is to travel from Vancouver Island Canada to San Felipe Mexico by road, down the Sea of Cortez to La Paz, across to Mazatlan, then down to San Juan del Sur Nicaragua. From there over land into Lake Nicaragua, sail in there a bit, then out the San Juan River past some rapids to the Caribbean. Cayman Brac to visit a wrecked boat, up to Cuba, then to Key West to enter the US.

Along the way I have a few destinations, places I will visit, other places are just along the way: The Western Sea of Cortes, San Juan del Sur Nicaragua, Granada, Lago Nicaragua, Solentiname Islands, Rio San Juan, The Fort at El Castillo, San Juan del Norte, Cayman Brac, Cuba.

You may not have entered via my home page so here is the link to my boats page where you will find info on the design and construction of 'Miss Cindy'.

About Plans

Here are some 'Miss Cindys' specifications and some information on her equipment

As I write these initial pages I am anchored in behind the spit at Puenta Arena in Bahia des Los Angles in Baja Mexico. We ( 'Miss Cindy" and I ) just sailed in from about 8 miles north where we had anchored at the end of a 36 hour passage from Bahia San Luis Gonzaga. The trip into this little bay was great, 'Miss Cindy' with her twin rigs sailed herself most of the way with me taking over for the last 1/2 hour. There was a big cruising boat 'Raven' powering into the bay ahead of us from Limon bay and she was anchored when we came around the sand spit in 7' of water watched closely by the pelicans. We took a long tack up into the bay with full sail in 20-25kts and sailed well up on the 6' shoal before tacking one more long tack to a pocket of darker water about 150 yds upwind of Raven. I quickly rolled up her sails and dropped the hook.

It was our first serious windward work since her keel mods in the boat yard just before this trip. She has done well, we split that tack at 90 degrees, much improved from her previous 105. We must have looked pretty interesting to 'Raven' when we came down the bay with our junk type lugsails wing and wing, then cutting quickly upwind , and finally rolled the sails like blinds. I was pretty impressed with her performance! I gave her cabin and decks a bath with a sponge and a toothbrush, took all of 15 minutes.

Along the way these first few weeks people have asked repeatedly for a blog. So here is this freeform travelog.

Updated May 6 2009 from Havana Cuba. Today is exactly 1 year since the start of construction of 'Miss Cindy' She has sailed over 4000 miles in that year.

'Miss Cindy' was trailered back to Vancouver Island by the original Miss Cindy and I in June of 2009.

E-Book of this travelog formatted for Kindle with an added preface and some alternative concept sketches.

Copyright © 2008, 2009 Tony Bigras.