Mexico – Page 2 – Adagio’s Voyage

Welcome to the Jungle

The Tropic of Cancer runs just north of Mazatlan, so we are officially in the tropics! This was definitely evident when we headed to our next destination – San Blas. San Blas is a small village about 45 miles from Isla Isabel, so it was an all day sailing trip for us to get there.

We had a nice (and interesting sail) to our destination. As we were leaving Isla Isabel, we hooked up on a really nice Sierra (my favorite fish, as you might remember). We were super excited as we got him close to the boat when he suddenly spit the hook. Mike was a bit aggravated, as he really doesn’t like the fish to beat him. I was just sad that I wasn’t going to get my yummy Sierra for dinner.

As we got closer to San Blas, the shallow shoal areas extended miles offshore, meaning that in places we were in only about 30 feet of water where we would normally expect it to be hundreds of feet deep so far offshore. We were hoping to catch something good in the shallow water, but we kept hooking up on these really big Jack Crevalles. They are beautiful fish and put up a fight but no good to eat. Finally, the line zinged and we were pretty sure it was something other than a Jack Crevalle. Jackpot – we pulled in another Sierra! So, we redeemed ourselves with the fishing. After hooking a few more Jack Crevalles, which took some time and substantial effort from Mike to reel in, we pulled the lines in before we reached the harbor entrance.

We had read that there was a bar that crossed the entrance to the San Blas harbor, but with the swell and position of the sun, it wasn’t something we were able to see as we approached the entrance. The sand bars shift and change the depth frequently. We also didn’t know if it was high or low tide, so we were crossing our fingers that we wouldn’t have a problem with the entrance.

As we approached, Adios was just ahead of us. Dale radioed us to let us know that it was quite shallow ahead and to approach cautiously. Mike was on deck putting the sail cover on, and I was at the helm. I slowed the boat down as much as I could while maintaining some steerage. I slowly watched the depth sounder drop and held my breath as I saw it dip below one foot under the keel. Then it quickly shot back up to three feet and then six. Whew. We were over the bar and headed to the marina.

San Blas has a pretty small marina (maybe only 10 or so boats at the docks), but there was a lively bunch of people that all greeted us when we arrived. After putting the boat away, a group was headed into town for some dinner, so we joined in. There are really only a few restaurants around the town square, but lots of food carts with tacos, hamburgers and hot dogs. (Yes, hot dogs are big in every Mexican town we’ve been to, usually wrapped in bacon!) So, we had hamburgers and hot dogs and let the other boaters give us a quick tour of the San Blas square.

The church in the San Blas square…

The next day several boats wanted to go on the Jungle Tour! There is an estuary that runs through the San Blas area, and you can rent panga boats to take you on a tour to see the crocodiles, iguanas and birds. We rented a couple of boats and were on our way through the jungle.

A green iguana in the tree..

Resident crocodile!

There is also an animal sanctuary on the tour that we stopped at. I’m usually not a fan of animals in cages, but they had done a nice job and explained that they were trying to do conservation of animals that were endangered. There were crocodiles, parrots, jaguars and some other various animals.

That night was the night of the US presidential election, which of course we were interested in watching. San Blas isn’t a big town, so in the afternoon we started scoping out where we could actually watch the TV coverage. We found a small bar called the San Blas Social Club which had satellite TV service and could get the US news stations. So, we made a plan to come back into town that night to watch the election results.

That night we camped out at the bar with some local Mexicans, Canadians, Australians, a Kiwi and one other American. The bartenders said they hadn’t had that many people in the bar since the Super Bowl! Everyone was interested in what was happening in the US, regardless of what country they were from. And, like at least half the Americans back home, the bar turned into a state of shock when the results started to come in.

Our Canadian friends starting buying us all tequila shots to get through the rest of the evening. I can’t say it helped much. We later mused that the election of Trump might be like one of those American tragedies in history where people later ask you, do you remember where you where when…? Well, when Trump got elected we were at a bar in San Blas with a very international crowd of shocked onlookers doing tequila shots to drown their sorrows.

We decided we couldn’t take the news the next morning and decided to depart San Blas and go back off the grid for a while. So, we departed en route to Chacala! But, more on that next time.

~katie

p.s. The election shock eventually did wear off, and we have hope for the future of our country. Regardless of who is in the White House, we have the best system on earth that should continue to be a beacon of hope of the rest of the world.

Double Trouble

When we pulled into the marina in Topolobampo, there was a beautiful 68 foot motor yacht in the slip adjacent to us named Kya. We saw the owners of Kya with their adorable dog Penny on the dock and introduced ourselves. We found out they were from Australia and their names were… Mike and Katie. Really.

We only briefly got to meet Kya, so we were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into Mazatlan and Kya was tied up at the end of our dock! Mike & Katie had rented a car in Mazatlan and invited us to head into town to explore with them.

Mazatlan has some absolutely beautiful beaches and incredible views.

Although there are the usual resorts and tourist traps in Mazatlan, the Old Town area of Mazatlan is really cool. There is some really unique old architecture and the traditional square with a beautiful iglesia (church) that you find in every Mexican town. We really enjoyed Old Town and had a fantastic meal in the square.

The two Katies…

After lunch we headed to an amazing indoor market. There were stalls with everything you could imagine from produce, nuts, jams, to chicken, beef and fish. It was like a hundred mini grocery and butcher shops, each with their own specialties. We came across the fish market stalls and found smoked marlin! We had heard from several people over the summer how great smoked marlin was and now we finally found it. We got a huge chunk to share, and it was delicious.

The awesome market in Mazatlan…

After our fun time in Mazatlan, we headed to Isla Isabel. But, first we had to get out of Mazatlan harbor!

So, the entrance to Mazatlan harbor is incredibly narrow and takes a sharp turn right inside the entrance. It is also really shallow, so there is a dredger which is constantly dredging the entrance so that boats can actually get out.

When we exited our slip at the marina, the wind was blowing a good 15-20 knots, so our first challenge was getting out of the slip. Adagio does not turn well in reverse. So, in tight conditions with wind blowing, it sometimes is a 10 point turn to finally get the bow to come around as the wind is trying to blow it in the opposite direction. Thankfully, Mike is very competent and capable and always gets us out of those sticky situations, even if it does take a few tries and lots of stares from concerned boaters on the dock.

So, we made it out of the slip and headed for the harbor entrance. We were told that the dredger stopped at 2pm and it was almost 4pm. We saw a sailboat coming in right as we were about to get to the sharp turn and were barely able to get to the side to let it by. Since they got through, we thought there would be no problems with the dredger. Ugh. We were wrong.

Right as we got to the sharp turn (where there was absolutely no turning around) we saw the dredger working RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHANNEL. I was signaling to the guy that we had no choice and had to go through. He looked unconcerned, unlike me.

We somehow squeeze between the dredger and the rocks with about 1 foot on each side. At the same time, we were watching the depth sounder drop to about 1.5 feet under the keel. I think I finally stopped holding my breath when I saw it jump back up over 3 feet. But, then we looked ahead to the breaking waves just outside the breakwater and had now had about 30 knots of wind on our nose. Mike pushed the engine hard to get past the breaking waves into the open ocean. At this point, I was shaking with too much adrenaline. Somehow we didn’t hit the dredger, the rocks, go aground or get pushed back from the breaking waves. Whew! I never want to do that again.

So, we were finally on our way for an overnight sail to Isla Isabel where we were going to meet up with Adios and Kya to explore the island that is known as the “Galapagos of Mexico.” But, more on that next time…

~katie

Copper Canyon

We left La Paz after a week of provisioning and catching up with friends and headed off to Topolobampo across the Sea of Cortez. Unfortunately, the winds were not with us on our crossing, as we had 20 knots of wind right on the nose with 6-8 foot swells. The boat handled it just fine, but the bashing into the swell made for a bumpy and uncomfortable ride.

We arrived in Topolobampo the next morning after a mostly sleepless night and pulled into the small marina. Topolobampo doesn’t have much tourist traffic, as it is mostly a commercial port on the mainland but it did have some charm. After resting up a bit, we headed into town to check out the town and grab a bite to eat.

Our friends on Adios made the trip over as well, so we met them in marina and worked out our plan for the next day. We arranged to have a taxi pick us up the next morning at 5:00 am to take us into Los Mochis where we boarded the El Chepe train to take us into the mountains to see the famous Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon)!

The train ride took us 8 hours, but the views along the way were spectacular. The train passes over 37 bridges and through 86 tunnels rising 7,900 feet above sea level.

When we arrived at the train station in Los Mochis, we didn’t realize that the only train running that day was the first class train so we got the nicer train. It wasn’t too crowded and we were able to hang out in the dining car and have a great breakfast.

The train stopped in Divisadero where there is an awesome overlook to get some great photos of the canyon. Copper Canyon is actually a group of six canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental in the State of Chihuahua. The canyon system is larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon, but looks nothing like the Grand Canyon. The top of the canyon system is a pine forest, and the greenery really changes the visual effect.

After Divisadero, we boarded the train again for Creel, which was our final stop. Creel is a small mountain town that really has the feel of a small ski resort town. To go from hot, humid Topolobampo on the coast to cool Creel surrounded by pine trees was almost a shock to the system. The next morning we woke up to frost on the roofs!

We met our guide Jesus at the train station who took us on the first part of our tour that afternoon. The area around Creel is home to the Tarahumara people, who are the indigenous people of the area. The have park land equivalent to the Indian reservations in the US and live simple lives farming and selling artisansal crafts to the tourists.

We entered one of the Tarahumara parks and were able to tour the Valley of the Monks, which had completely unique and fascinating rock formations. We got to see some other parts of the Tarahumara way of life including a church that was an early mission in the area. Unfortunately, we got a flat tire in the park, but the guys helped Jesus get it changed before it got too dark.

We stayed in a small but nice hotel in Creel (seriously only cost us $30) and got up the next morning to see more of the sights. We got to see some more beautiful canyon views and meet Catalina, a local Tarahumara woman who lives in a small home built into the side of a cave. She was very welcoming and proud of her home. She made sure we each got a picture with her!

We drove back to Divisadero and got to spend more time at the rim of the canyon walking along some impressive walkways and bridges. There is a zip line and cable car at the top, but unfortunately they were not working when we were there.

Mike & Jesus goofing around on the rim of the canyon…

We planned to catch the train that afternoon from Divisadero back to Los Mochis, but we hit a bit of a snag. There was no place to buy tickets at the train station! Weird. So, we assumed that we must just buy the tickets from the conductor. When the train arrived and let everyone out to check out the views, we asked the conductor where we buy tickets. That’s when he told us we couldn’t buy them here and had to buy them online. What? We thought for sure we were going to be stuck in Divisadero.

Several of us started to look around for other options, hoping to find a bus or some other service. Thank god Mike is persistent. He hopped on the train and hunted down the head conductor to beg him to let us buy tickets on the train. Before we knew it, Mike was hollering at the rest of us to jump on the train, so away we went! It all worked out in the end, but we had a few stressful moments!

We got back to Topolobampo about 9:00 pm and crashed. Our plans were to depart Topolobampo the next morning for the two day passage to Mazatlan.

Overall, it was a great trip but way too short. There were other excursions and sights we could have seen in the canyon if we’d had more time. So, I’d definitely recommend it, but spend a few more days than we did.

If you want to see more pictures of our trip to Copper Canyon, please check out our Facebook page and the album titled “Copper Canyon.” I took over 200 photos, not including all the video. Someday I’ll finally get more video up, I promise.

We’re in Mazatlan now, and had a great time last night at the Dia de los Muertos festivities last night, but I’ll post about that next time.

~katie

Wahoo!

We made it back to La Paz! After 3 1/2 months exploring the Sea of Cortez, we rolled into Marina Palmira in La Paz yesterday afternoon. It was a bit of a strange feeling as we felt like we were coming back home. We had only spent six weeks here earlier this summer, but we had made friends and fell a bit in love with this Mexican town.

When I last wrote, we were en route to Punta Pulpito. From there, we went to Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen, Caleta Candeleros Chico, Puerto Los Gatos, San Evaristo, Isla San Francisco, Caleta Partida and then La Paz. Whew! It was a lot of miles to cover, but we averaged about 30 miles a day (about 6 hours sailing at 5 knots) and were able to stop each night in a beautiful anchorage. We had to do quite a bit of motoring as there wasn’t a lot of wind, but we made it work.

You may recall that we had complained a bit that we hadn’t had much fishing luck in the southern part of the Sea earlier this summer. It didn’t seem like the fishing got good until we got north of San Francisquito. Now back down south, we weren’t too optimistic about our fishing prospects. We had gotten a bit spoiled eating fresh fish every night up north and we were now reduced to eating frozen hamburger patties and questionable chicken I found at the bottom of the freezer!

Mike, ever the fisherman, always has the trolling lines out. We had pulled in several skipjack over the previous few days that we threw back. So, when we were just a couple of miles out of San Evaristo and the line started to zing, Mike was sure we had another feisty skipjack on the line. We slowed the boat down and Mike started fighting the fish into the boat, but we couldn’t yet see him.

Suddenly, as the fish got closer and must have seen the boat, he took off like a bullet peeling out line and creating a huge splash at the surface. Mike turned to me with a huge grin and said “that’s no skipjack!” It was a few minutes later that Mike got him close enough to identify him, and it was a wahoo! We were both shouting wahoo! and jumping up and down. This was the first wahoo we had caught, and this was a big one!

We measured him at 50 inches, and Mike says he was at least 50 lbs. He wouldn’t even fit on our filet table! It took Mike a couple of hours to clean the fish and the mess left on the boat. Thankfully, we got all the fish in the freezer right before we pulled into Isla San Francisco. We shared a bunch of the fish with our friends on Adios who were also in the anchorage, and we’ve now given more fish to some friends here in La Paz. Even eating wahoo for lunch and dinner everyday, it is a lot of fish for two people to eat!

We’re in La Paz for a week to do some serious cleaning of the boat and a couple of maintenance projects. Next, we will be crossing the Sea of Cortez to Topolobampo on the mainland. Our plan is to see the famous Copper Canyon there that is four times a big as the Grand Canyon! I hope to have a lot of great pictures to share with all of you.

~katie

Yellow Butterflies

The locals say that when the yellow butterflies appear the hurricane season in Mexico is over. Well, let’s hope so! We are seeing the yellow butterflies everywhere. They just started appearing one day, and now they are everywhere you look.

We decided to begin the journey back south to La Paz where we will cross over to mainland Mexico. It was hard to make the decision to go, as we loved the northern part of the Sea and we were sad to leave friends behind. One of the great things we discovered about cruising was meeting all of the other boats. But, inevitably our paths will diverge and we have to say goodbye. We were especially sad to say goodbye to our friends on Kenta Anae. Merle, Allison and their two boys Shandro (14) and Matero (11) had been traveling with us for about the last month as we went up to Puerto Refugio, out to Isla Partida and all the stops in between. So many of the cruising boats are older retiree couples that it is fun to meet a younger boat. We all had so much fun snorkeling, diving, hiking, fishing, having fish feasts, making bonfires and just hanging out that we regretted leaving. But, we know that our paths will cross again, hopefully sooner rather than later!

We left Isla Partida and made the 30 mile journey to San Francisquito. We had a calm night’s sleep in the little cove called Cala San Francisquito and prepared to leave the next day for Santa Rosalia. Santa Rosalia is 77 miles south, so we would have to make an overnight trip in order to arrive in daylight. We left San Francisquito in the afternoon and turned south.

We had an interesting night sailing to Santa Rosalia, as the wind just couldn’t decide what it wanted to do! Initially we had some light winds, but enough that we could sail for a little while. But, the wind kept changing direction. So, we kept changing sail configurations. We’d put the pole out on the jib to sail wing and wing, but as soon as we got it up, the wind shifted. Then we put up our reacher asymmetrical spinnaker, but then the wind died down completely. Ugh.

The wind finally appeared to hold a steady 8-10 knots for a couple of hours. I was on watch just cruising along when I noticed the wind start to climb. Mike came up from resting downstairs and we decided to proactively put a couple of reefs in the main. We were approaching an area called Las Tres Virgenes, which is named after three prominent volcanos. The area is known for funneling wind from the west, so we were expecting it to pick up. Well, about a half hour after we had reduced sail the wind was up to about 28 knots! Good thing we reefed that main!

Mike was able to get some fun sailing in and see how the boat performed in the big winds (pretty well), but the winds had calmed down by the time I was back on watch. It was early morning and the wind was almost completely gone, so we made the decision to take down the sails and motor the last couple of hours to Santa Rosalia. Well, the wind didn’t listen to our decision because about an hour later the wind was back up to 25 knots. What??? Mike came back up to the helm just as we were about to round the corner to enter Santa Rosalia harbor when a huge wave swamped the cockpit and drenched him. Welcome to Santa Rosalia.

We spent a couple of days cleaning up the boat and reprovisioning in Santa Rosalia. And, we had to make several trips to our favorite ice cream shop Splash while we were there. Seriously, they have the best homemade ice cream! Then, we were off again headed to Punta Chivato.

We had a fantastic sail to Punta Chivato. The best part for me was the dolphins. I never get tired of seeing dolphins. Often they will come and swim in the bow wake of the boat, but usually it is just for a minute and then they head off. But, this time the dolphins hung around for almost an hour. Not only did they swim in our bow wake, but a couple of them jumped clear out of the water putting on a show. There was a bit of a swell and the dolphins just surfed the swell right next to the boat. So fun to watch. I was up at the bow at one point watching them when a mama and baby dolphin came to swim in the bow. The baby was only about two feet long and swam right above mama. So cool! I’ve never seen a dolphin so little!

Mike, always the fisherman, of course had the trolling lines out. First we pulled in a really big skipjack, so he went back. A few hours later the line started peeling away, so we knew we had something big. It took Mike a while to reel him in, but we had a 45 lb jack crevalle! Not an eating fish, but Mike had fun fighting him into the boat. We took a picture and let him go. But, third time is the charm. Just as we were about to get to Punta Chivato, we picked up a nice sierra! The sierra is by far my favorite fish we have caught in the Sea. Not only are they beautiful with their silver and blue skin with yellow dots, but they are delicious. We had some of it as sashimi and cooked the rest in just a little lemon butter and garlic. We’ve now hooked a couple sierra with our rapala lure, so we’re nicknaming it the sierra slayer.

Here is the Jack Crevalle…

We got to Punta Chivato just before dark and were the only boat in the anchorage. The next day we decided to drop the paddle boards in the water and go exploring. Right at the point behind which we were anchored was a hotel. We had been told by other boats that the hotel was closed and the property abandoned but that you could walk through the grounds. There is a private airstrip at Punta Chivato, and apparently the hotel was once popular with private aviators that flew in. We walked around the grounds and found what was once the outdoor bar overlooking the water that still had tables with benches set up. The view from that patio was fantastic.

While we were playing around a few other boats pulled into the anchorage. We had seen a couple of the boats before but didn’t really know them well. We decided to paddle over to say hello and suggested that we all get together for sundowners at the abandoned hotel bar. So, an hour before sunset we paddled back to hotel with a bottle of wine and the baba ganoush I had made earlier in the day. (I was excited to find eggplant in Santa Rosalia!) The other two boats also brought some wine, apples, cheese, crackers and smoked oysters. We seriously couldn’t have had a better happy hour with the most amazing sunset views. It’s always fun to make your own party, even if it is at an abandoned hotel!

We’re now off again sailing to Punta Pulpito. It is a gorgeous morning, and I’m watching the yellow butterflies come out to our boat from shore. I don’t know if they really are a sign regarding hurricane season, but they sure look like a good omen for something.

~katie

The Dark Side of the Moon?

The new moon was two days ago. Last night headed back to the boat in the dinghy we could see thousands of stars and the milky way in the dark night sky. The night was still and the water flat and calm. When you looked over the side of the boat into the water it looked as though the night stars were reflecting back at us. But, then the stars started to move like fireflies darting through the water. The phosphorescence was as bright as the stars and just as glorious to watch.

We left Puerto Refugio after an amazing 10 days and headed back south to Bahia de Los Angeles. After picking up a few supplies, we left again for a new anchorage, Punta Pescador. As many different beautiful bays and islands we have stopped at in the Sea of Cortez, we never stop gazing in wonder as we enter a new place. They are all beautiful, the same but different. Each place is unique but still has that magical Baja feeling where the desert meets the sea.

Our first morning in Pescador, Mike and I were out on deck blowing up our inflatable paddleboards to drop in the water when something caught the corner of my eye. I saw blows out in the distance right at the entrance to the anchorage. We’ve had dolphins come close to shore where we anchored, but we’ve never seen whales. I got out the binoculars and recognized the distinctive tall black dorsal fins that could only mean one thing – Orcas! They were coming into the anchorage and getting closer. Just as I was focusing my attention off the bow of the boat, I got a call on the radio from one of the other boats in the anchorage that there was another Orca behind our boat.

As I was watching them get closer to shore, and our boat, I could clearly see a grey dolphin just in front of the Orcas. My heart sank. I really didn’t want to see a dolphin kill. But, I kept watching and saw that the Orca that was behind our boat came around from the other side essentially corning the dolphin from both directions right by the shore. There was some splashing and the birds went a little nuts overhead so we knew they got the dolphin. We suspect that they had been chasing him for a while and just tired him out when he came into the anchorage, because he wasn’t moving all that fast. One of the other boats nearby told us that killer whales often kill dolphins and other whales for sport rather than food. I have no idea if that is true, but it made me a bit less excited for another Shamu sighting.

That night we had a squall come through that added a bit of excitement to our evening. The wind and rain weren’t too bad, but there was lightning and thunder all around us. Unfortunately, in a sailboat the mast acts as a big lightning rod, so we’re never thrilled about lightning. We were talking to one of our friends on another boat about the weather over the radio when he asked us how tall our mast was. We laughed and said “not as tall as yours!” His boat was bigger and does have a taller mast. If lightning is going to strike, it’s going to hit the tallest point around. We disconnected the radio and put our handheld electronics and other communication devices in the oven, which can act as a Faraday cage and protect them if we get hit. Mike and I went in our cabin and sat on the bed, as that was the best place to be away from anything metal. We had an hour or two of waiting out the storm as it finally passed and we could relax and get some sleep.

We had been looking at the weather forecast and it looked like we were going to have some calm and settled conditions for the next few days. Mike really wanted to get out to Isla Partida, about 20 miles away. This was the perfect time to go! We told several of the other boats in the anchorage about our plans, and three other boats decided to join us. We had an awesome sail in some pretty light winds, but I think the staysail we added before we left California really helps give us that extra lift in light conditions. We beat the other three boats to the anchorage – not that we were racing. Along the way, we saw a marlin, a fin whale and some dolphins. And, just a couple of miles outside of the island we hooked up on a nice dorado! Not a record breaker, but it was enough to share with the other boats for dinner.

Isla Partida has been fantastic. It is not a very large island, but it has a nice crescent shaped bay on one side that gives us a beautiful anchorage. Like most of the islands in the Sea, it has volcanic origins which are visible on shore as you can see where the molten rock hardened. We hiked up all along the ridgeline of the island which gave us 360 degree views of Baja, mainland Mexico and the other Midriff Islands. I simply can’t describe the views in adequate words. The bright blue water surrounding the boulders at the base of the island, the reefs clearly visible through the clear water, the ripples and waves on the water from the wind and current for miles in every direction – simply breathtaking.

Whale jaw bones we found on shore…

We also found a couple of fabulous reefs around the island to snorkel and dive. The abundance of sea life was almost shocking. We saw schools of yellowtail, grouper, snapper, moray eels, all the various reef fish, octopus and lobsters! It was fun to see those lobsters fly through the water to find a rock to hide under when you get close. Everywhere you looked there was life. The rocks were covered with sea anemones, sea urchins, scallops, sea stars, fans and all kinds of plant life.

Octopus!!

If you came to Baja and only stayed on land, you would think this a barren place. On shore we saw a few lizards and heard some squeaking bats, but that was about it. The minute you look under the water it is a whole different story. It is like a secret world waiting to be discovered. You just have to be adventurous enough to dive in!

We’ve had enormous fish feasts with the other boats here, as the fishing has been amazing. It has been so much fun getting to know the other cruisers who came out here with us and all sharing in the bounty that the Sea has given us. We’ve even had a few laughs. The other day some of the crew from three of the boats (including us) went out diving around one of the points. The fourth boat stayed behind because he said he had some boat chores to do including cleaning the bottom. When we were returning, we all decided to get together to cook the fish that were caught, so we headed over to boat #4 to extend the invitation.
As we approached boat #4 (not telling any names) we saw that the hookah was going and our friend was in the water to clean the bottom. We got a bit closer and saw him behind his boat about to exit the water up the swim ladder. He couldn’t hear us approaching with the loud hookah compressor and was faced away from us. But, as he started up the ladder we saw that he was wearing a mask, weight belt and nothing else! That was our second moon… We all busted out laughing. Not to disparage our friend, but it wasn’t exactly Brad Pitt’s derriere! He turned around, saw us and started laughing too. I guess you have to have a sense of humor if you clean the bottom of your boat in the buff!

The water has started to turn colder and so have the nights, which means that fall has arrived in Baja. We’ll be starting to make our way south soon to follow the sun. It may not be an endless summer, but we’re going to try…

~katie

Going Deeper

We’re still in Puerto Refugio and absolutely loving it. We have had the perfect weather window to be here. We’re pretty remote right now, so the weather is critical. This is no place to be if a norther blows through or a chubasco (a local fierce thunderstorm that can roll through at night). There are so many coves, islands and reefs to explore here, that we can see why a boat would choose to stay a month or more, or until the groceries run out!

The two other cruising boats who made the journey up here with us are Kenta Anae and Adios, both Canadian boats. We’ve gotten to know the folks on both boats pretty well and are having a really nice time hanging with them. It’s always fun to share the experience of exploring with more people.

Aside from the perfect weather, the visibility in the water has been fantastic. It is probably 60 feet of visibility, which is the best we have seen all summer. It certainly makes us want to take to the water every day. So far, we have found some amazing reefs and rocky outcroppings that have let us seen so many new species of fish and turtles, as well as all of the sea life which clings to the rocks of the reef. Sometimes you just have to stop and stare at the cracks in the rocks to see all the fish, starfish, sea urchins, crabs and other creatures I don’t have names for.

Two boats had recommended a book to us called Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves by James Nester. We both devoured the book, and I highly recommend it. The book is about a lot more than freediving, but I found what some of the experts said about freediving to really resonate and connected to it. The author really eschews competitive freediving, but he connects with scientists who are studying the oceans and sea life by free-diving.

If you started reading this blog before we left California, you might remember that I struggled with my Open Water certification for scuba diving. I’ve come a long way since then, and even dove with bull sharks in Cabo Pulmo 60 feet down! That is not something that I thought I would ever do. But, even though I’m more comfortable scuba diving than I was in the beginning, I don’t know that it will ever feel natural to BREATHE UNDERWATER. But, freediving is completely different.

In Deep, the author goes through the science and history of freediving, but one of the things we learned was that it is actually very natural and your body knows how to react. You’re first reaction to sticking your head underwater is going to be to hold your breath. You will do it involuntarily. Apparently if you put a baby underwater, they will naturally hold their breath without instruction. Interesting. And, we can hold our breath for much longer underwater than we think we can.

One of the things that I like about freediving, opposed to scuba, is that you don’t have all that gear strapped to you. If you’ve ever done scuba, you’ll know that the heavy tank and weights restrict your movement. If you free dive, you are just swimming with nothing holding you back. The scientists in the book that are studying whales by freediving explain that the animals are often scared off by the bubbles of scuba, but if you are just swimming, they are much more likely to let you approach. I think this is probably true of most of the sea life. When I dive down and don’t make too much movement, the fish and turtles don’t seem afraid of me.

So, how did we get here? When I first started snorkeling with Mike, he would always dive down 10 or 15 feet to check out something below, but I just couldn’t do it. I hadn’t learned to clear my ears at all, and so I was a bit nervous taking our scuba certification class that I wouldn’t be able to do it. But, I actually learned to do it quite easily with scuba, and that gave me a bit more confidence to do it freediving. The difference, of course, is that with scuba you have additional time and air with which to clear, but freediving you just have that one breath.

My only advice in learning to do this is practice. At first I could get 15 feet down, then 20, then 25, and today I was more than 40 feet down on a single breath! I didn’t even realize I was that far down until I started my ascent. I had been following a turtle around with my Go Pro and just followed him deeper and deeper until I was basically out of air. When I turned to go up, it took quite a while to kick to the surface. But, I did it! And, the more times I do it, the more confident I get that I can go down a bit deeper and stay down longer.

Diving down…

Mike likes to dive with a few pounds of weight on, but I’ve been choosing not to free dive with a weight belt. The water is about 84 degrees, and I can stay in for quite a while without a wetsuit. (I dive with a skin suit to keep off jellyfish.) It really is only the first 20 feet or so where that weight helps you get down. So, I just bend at the waist, point down, stick my fins straight up and start kicking. Once you get down far enough, there is a neutral buoyancy that happens to let you stay down without having to keep kicking to fight your way to stay at that depth. If I had a wetsuit on, I’d have to have weights to combat the buoyancy of the wetsuit. But without it, it seems completely natural. You can swim underwater and become part of the sea life!

One of Mike’s motivations for getting better at freediving is spearfishing. He doesn’t have a spear gun yet, but both of the other boats here have let him take some shots with theirs. In order to get those nice size grouper, you have to be able to dive the 30-40 feet down and wait them out for the perfect shot. Merle on Kenta Anae has been picking up some nice grouper every day with the spear gun.

Mike goofing off under water…

I’m not a hunter, so I’ll skip the spearfishing. But, I love to try and capture this experience on video. What I noticed is that when you are snorkeling at the surface, you are only seeing a small fraction of what is going on below you, even if it is only 15 or 20 feet deep. Once you dive down, everything seems to come to life. So, I’ve been on a diving quest for that great video footage. Right now I have so many snorkeling and diving videos that it will take me months to sort through and find the best clips to piece together. I’ll get it done eventually

The next time you are on vacation to some tropical island and someone suggests you go snorkeling, say yes and try that freediving! You will be amazed at what you will see. In Deep, the author meets with the ama, the ancient culture of Japanese diving women, who free dove for centuries to harvest sea life and whose techniques have been passed down. After he tries to dive with the ama, he asks them if they have any ancient freediving secrets to share. They laugh and say “You just dive. You just get in the water.” I like that.

Aside from the fabulous snorkeling and diving here in Puerto Refugio, we’ve been hiking around the hills looking at rocks and caves. Like so much of Baja, it is raw and beautiful. Last night was the full moon and the air was still. The three boats gathered on shore at sunset, and the kids on Kenta Anae searched for firewood. We built a great bonfire and cooked fresh caught grouper over the coals. We shared stories and were all grateful for the incredible opportunity to be somewhere that so few people get to visit. It was the perfect evening.

~katie

The Turning Point

We survived Hurricane Newton! Newton decided to take a right turn near Bahia Concepcion, about 150 miles from where we were, and cross over the Sea of Cortez to mainland Mexico letting us dodge the bullet of the fierce winds and rain. We just got the outer bands of mild wind and a little rain overnight. Unfortunately, other sailboats in La Paz, Puerto Escondido and San Carlos were not as lucky, as reports starting coming into us over the radio that boats were lost in the hurricane. We didn’t hear of anyone being injured, but like us, most of these boats were peoples’ homes. So, we feel for them.

The group of boats anchored at Puerto Don Juan decided to have a party on the beach the night after the hurricane to celebrate. It was fun to meet lots of new people. Some people brought snacks, some brought guitars, and some of the kids built a bonfire. Overall, good times.

One of the boats we met, Kenta Anae, another Canadian boat, invited us to go snorkeling with them the next day. Merle and his son Matero from Kenta Anae along with Chris and Liz aboard Espiritu all joined in on the fun. They brought a couple of spear guns which Mike was really excited to try out. Mike has talked about getting a spear gun, but having never tried it he didn’t really know what to look for. So, this was a great way to learn about it.

After Merle shot a nice size grouper, he let Mike have a go of it. The visibility was only about 15 feet or so, and the grouper were definitely hanging out at depths below that. Mike and I have both been working on trying to improve our freediving, but I’ll post about that another time. Anyway, Mike took the spear gun and headed head first down to find some grouper. Because of the poor visibility, at the surface Mike seemed to just disappear into the deep. Merle was watching from the surface and gave a shrug like “where did he go?”. But, a minute later Mike emerged from the depths with a fish! He was ecstatic. He nailed a really nice size grouper on his first shot. We estimated that he was probably about 35 feet down, so that freediving practice has been paying off. Now we really need to find Mike a spear gun.

We decided it was time to move on from Puerto Don Juan and headed over the village at Bahia de los Angeles (also known as BLA). BLA is one of the places that we had read that we might see whale sharks in the late summer. So, we were thrilled when we heard on the VHF from another boat that they had spotted whale sharks swimming around their boat where they were anchored just off the village.

Once we dropped the anchor at BLA our first task was seeing those whale sharks before they moved on. We didn’t want to scare them off with the outboard on the dinghy, so we blew up the paddleboards and splashed them in the water. The boat that saw the whale sharks was anchored about a mile away, so we started paddling as quickly as possible to get over there.

Whale sharks aren’t really a whale or a shark. They are the largest fish on the planet. They can grow to up 46 feet long and 15 tons. That’s huge! They are filter feeders that eat tons of krill and plankton each day. They have a very large, wide mouth that they open to filter the seawater through. So, they aren’t dangerous, other than their size. We knew that people had snorkeled with them, and it doesn’t seem to bother them at all. We were just told to watch out for their very large and powerful tail.

We paddled closer to the boat that told us they saw them swimming nearby. Mike was in front of me and kept asking me if I saw anything. Nothing. Then, suddenly, we saw a large mass on the top of the water closer to the anchored boat. We found the whale shark! We got close to it and saw that it was just hovering in one place not really moving, or moving really slowly. So, we both slowly got off the boards and put on our mask and snorkel.

The visibility wasn’t great, so you only saw the whale shark under water when you were within 5 feet of it. But, wow, this guy was massive. At least 20 feet long his wide mouth would open and close near the surface as he filtered the water through. Aside from the wide head and mouth, the rest of his body looked like a shark. A giant shark! Even though we knew they were not dangerous, it was still a bit intimidating to swim that close to a 20 ft long fish! He (or she, I have no idea) was sitting practically vertical. We were only in about 20 ft of water, so his tail was hitting the sandy bottom of the bay. He completely ignored us and let us get pretty close to him. He was beautiful with a brownish skin and white spots that the sun reflected off of.

Mike dove down to get a better look at the whale shark and because of that poor visibility didn’t see the second one that came from the other direction and startled him in turn startling the poor whale shark. It was pretty funny. So, we followed these two guys around when I saw a smaller fin on the surface coming toward us. I was hoping it was a baby whale shark and not another kind of shark. Sure enough, a baby whale shark about 6-7 feet long swam by us.

We got back on the paddle boards and hung out next to the whale sharks for a while, just observing. They would come up next to the boards and then stop. We watched them for about an hour, but I probably could have stayed there all day. They were awesome!

We got lucky and came into BLA the day that the tiny market (smaller than a 7-Eleven) got some fresh produce, which they only get once a week. So, we were able to pick up some fresh fruits and vegetables. We also filled our dinghy gas can and started making plans to move on. Both Kenta Anae and Adios were also interested in heading up to Puerto Refugio on the northern tip of Isla Angel de la Guarda. Puerto Refugio was out designated turning point, the farthest north we planned to travel into the Sea of Cortez. From there, we plan to turn and head south, hopefully about the time that the winds in the Sea switch around from the north.

So, we made a plan with both Kenta Anae and Adios to travel together. We decided to break up the trip and first stop at Ensenada Alcatraz, about 15 miles north of BLA. From there, we would make the 30 mile journey to Puerto Refugio.

We had a nice sail to Ensenada Alcatraz arriving just before sunset. Mike and I were both pretty hot and sweaty by the time we dropped the anchor, so the first thing we did was put on our swimsuits and jump in. There is nothing more refreshing than jumping in the water when you are hot! We swam to shore and walked along the beach before heading back to the boat before dark.

The next morning we did a little snorkel in the morning and then headed out for Puerto Refugio. The winds were quite a bit more than were forecasted. We were seeing 20-25 knots pretty consistently, and there were pretty large seas with short, steep waves. We put two reefs in the main and just pulled out a piece of the staysail and were still doing 6.5 knots! When we were finally able to turn to sail more downwind, we set the sails wing and wing and were surfing down the swell. It was a fun time!

We navigated the narrow entrance around the reefs and islands to find a beautiful anchorage at Puerto Refugio and settled in for the night. The next day Mike, Merle, Matero and I headed out in the dinghy for some snorkeling and spearfishing for the boys. We found a large rock in the middle of the bay that had lots of sea life. And, we were thrilled with the visibility, which was probably the best we have seen yet at least 40 feet. Merle picked up two nice size grouper with the spear gun, so we decided to have a fish fry party on our boat. Good food and good company made for a fabulous evening.

We’re going to do some more exploring around Puerto Refugio until we see the right weather window to do our turn around and head back south. We’ve been heading up here for so many months that I feel pretty accomplished that we made it this far. But, the journey is not over yet!

~katie

It’s a Hurricane Party!

Last I wrote we were in Bahia San Francisquito getting ready to depart due to the prediction of a new tropical storm that was possibly going to make a track up the Baja peninsula in the Sea of Cortez. We discussed the plan with our buddy boat, Adios, and determined that the best place to wait out the storm was a protected bay up at Bahia de Los Angeles called Puerto Don Juan. We wanted to break up the trip and decided to first stop at Isla Salsipuedes before making our way to Don Juan.

I think Adios was ready to get out of San Francisquito as they were having quite a problem with the bees! I’ve mentioned the bees in the Sea of Cortez before. You never know if you are going to encounter them until you drop anchor. They are in search of fresh water difficult to find in the desert, so they come out to the boats en masse. If they find water, they will signal their buddies and you will have a problem. We’d had probably 15 or 20 at one time flying around outside Adagio. We were doing pretty good at keeping them out of the boat. Every once and a while one would make its way in and we would have to evict him. Mike and I each got stung once, but these were honeybees (not wasps) and the sting only lasts for a minute. I’m not sure how the bee got in Mike’s rash guard when he was trying to put it on, but it certainly surprised him!

Well, poor Adios on the morning we were going to leave somehow got hundreds of bees in their boat. They couldn’t think of any way to get them all out except to pull out the Shop Vac and start vacuuming up all the bees. It sounds pretty funny now, but I’m glad it wasn’t me trying to vacuum the bees.

We made our way up the Salsipuedes Channel to Isla Salsipuedes. Salsipuedes actually means “Get out if you can!” But, the channel wasn’t that bad. It can be a challenge at times due to the strong currents. This far north in the Sea of Cortez there is a large tidal swing, and narrow channels can funnel large amounts of water through very rapidly.

We came into the anchorage at Isla Salsipuedes about an hour before sunset. We had to carefully monitor our GPS as we entered the anchorage, as there is a large rock and reef about 3 feet under the water right in the middle of the entrance to the anchorage. Our boat drafts 6 feet, so the rock was a definite hazard.

As soon as we dropped anchor, Mike was anxious to put the dinghy in the water and do some fishing. Some local fishermen further south had given Mike a tip that the fishing was good at Salsipuedes, and he was ready to find out! We took the dinghy out for the last hour of daylight and did what Mike calls “catching” instead of fishing. We hooked up a dorado, 2 cabrilla, 2 triggerfish, and a needlefish. We let all the fish go, but it sure was fun to catch them.

We settled in for the night, but were jostled awake at 2 am by the wind and swell. We checked to make sure all was ok but only half slept as we kept checking on things. The current was strong and moving the boat around quite a bit. Around 3:30 Mike had gone up on deck to check out the surroundings and suddenly yelled at me to get dressed and up on deck. I scrambled upstairs as Mike was starting the engine. Then, I could see that Adios was only about 20 yards from our boat, not where he had anchored. Mike feared that Adios was dragging his anchor and coming way too close for comfort. Dale was up on deck of Adios trying to sort things out too with his engine on. We were prepared to haul anchor and move to avoid a collision.

But, then the boats suddenly swung apart. We were connected to Adios on the VHF radio and determined that Adios wasn’t dragging his anchor after all. Boats in an anchorage that are all anchored with a bow anchor will face bow into the wind with the anchor line pulled out in front of them. As the wind shifts, the boats should all swing the same direction. So, even though we may have 150 or 200 feet of anchor chain out, we should not be at risk for a collision.

What we noticed, however, was that Adagio was stern into the wind with the anchor chain pinned against the bow and under the boat! The current was running in the opposite direction as the wind and keeping Adagio from swinging into the wind. Adios was closer to shore where the current was swirling around instead of directly opposite the wind making his boat swing back in forth in opposite directions about every 10 or 15 minutes. In the middle of this swing, his bow was coming right toward Adagio. In the black of night, this was the frightening sight that Mike saw.

We realized neither boat was in danger, but it was not a comfortable position to be in. So, each boat had someone up on deck all night watching things. Mike and I took turns, but neither of us really got any sleep. When there started to be a little daylight, Dale pulled anchor and moved Adios further away in the anchorage. Of course, by this time the current and wind both died down anyway. Why do these things always happen in the middle of the night?

The next morning (after catching up on sleep for a couple of hours) we downloaded a new weather forecast. The news was not good. The tropical storm was now named Newton and was projected to become a hurricane and head right up the Sea of Cortez quicker than we expected. So, instead of exploring Salsipuedes for the day, we were going to need to head to Don Juan that afternoon.

Since we had not kept any of the fish we caught the day before, thinking we would have time to catch more, Mike wanted one last shot at fishing. So, we hurried out and caught a nice cabrilla. They are locally called cabrilla, but I think they are some sort of grouper or sandbass. Anyway, they are delicious.

We then took off for Don Juan, which was about a 30 mile trip and would take us 6 hours. There wasn’t any wind, so we had to motor. But, we did see some pilot whales and caught a nice dorado trolling on our way.

We pulled into Puerto Don Juan about 6 pm. Don Juan is a large bay that is surrounded on three sides by land with a narrow entrance, making it nearly landlocked. This is what makes it a natural hurricane hole and protected from wind and waves. We came in to find 15 boats already anchored at Don Juan, which is the largest number of boats we have seen since leaving La Paz. Everybody looked to already be preparing for the storm.

Today was prep day for hurricane Newton, which should weaken to a tropical storm by the time it gets this far north. The other boats in the anchorage established a net on the VHF for everyone to monitor. We had boats calling us to welcome us in and offer any assistance that they could give. The boats decided to do a group call every three hours to share the latest weather forecasts, as we all have access to different weather download and radio sources.

Not a bad sunset waiting for the storm…

Mike and I got to work trying to bring into the boat or tie down any loose items. Although the forecasts were saying that we may only get winds of 25-30, further south they were getting gusts up to 85 mph! So, we wanted to prepare for the worst. If the storm track changed even a few degrees, it could hit us much worse. So, here’s a list of our preparations: 1. Chafe protection on the anchor snubber rode
2. Bring below all cockpit cushions, sails and other items that were stored on deck or in the cockpit 3. Take off canvas covers that could possibly catch the wind and blow off 4. Lash the mainsail and cover down over the boom
5. Move the scuba tanks, gas cans and other items onto the cockpit floor 6. Take down the dodger
7. Move all extra lines into the cockpit or lazarettes

As you can see, we had our work cut out for us. The wind started blowing 20-25 around 1:00 and hasn’t let up. There are dark clouds looming but no rain yet. We’re certainly hoping that the storm will follow the projected path and cross over to mainland Mexico before it gets this far north, but we’re prepared! The storm should move over our area sometime tonight, so I don’t expect we’ll be sleeping much.

Waiting for hurricane Newton…

Whenever we have some sort of challenge and I am tired and cranky, Mike always just grins and says, “It’s all part of the adventure!” And, he’s right. There might be a lot of hard work involved in what we are doing, but we both agree that it is the most rewarding work we have done. It is giving us the adventure of a lifetime!

~katie

Which Way is the Wind

After stocking up on groceries and fuel for a month, we departed Santa Rosalia for Isla San Marcos. Isla San Marcos is about 10 miles southeast of Santa Rosalia, and we had past it when we came north. However, we wanted to make the stop to check out the island before heading north again.

While in Santa Rosalia we met up with Adios, a Canadian boat, that we previously met in Bahia Agua Verde. Aboard Adios was Dale, his girlfriend Lana, and Lana’s two kids, Richard (18) and Alex (15). Lana and Alex had to fly back to Canada for the start of the school year, but Richard was staying aboard with Dale for the next few months. They were taking a similar path north as us, so we decided to buddy up with them for this part of our trip.

We left Santa Rosalia late afternoon as the sun was heading for the hills. There was no wind, so we had to motor to get there before dark. We always have the trolling lines out, and just as we were approaching the island we hooked a Dorado (Mahi Mahi)! This was the first one we have seen all summer, despite it being the right season to catch them. It was a little one and Mike didn’t feel right about keeping the baby Dorado, so he got to swim on. But, we thought this was a good sign and maybe our fishing luck was going to turn around.

We anchored in a beautiful, rocky anchorage called Sweet Pea Cove. It is protected by some rocky outcroppings to the north. There isn’t a beach to land on shore, but there were lots of interesting rock formations. I took the paddleboard out several mornings along the coast line to check out the shore. There are hidden caves where you can hear the water rushing in and out under the rocks. Along shore there were lots of bones of fish and birds, and I saw one set of bones that must have been a dolphin or whale. The vertebrae were huge!

One of the reasons we wanted to stop at Isla San Marcos was to explore a couple of sea caves that were mentioned in our cruising guide. The first morning here, Mike & I picked up Dale and Richard on Adios with all our snorkel gear and headed about a mile northeast of Sweet Pea Cove to find the sea caves. These were definitely different caves than we discovered at El Refugio. The openings to the two caves we found were not quite big enough to squeeze the dinghy into. So, we anchored the dinghy, put on the snorkel gear and swam through the opening. Inside the caves the ceiling had eroded so that they were open to the sky. The larger of the two caves we went into had a rocky beach that you could walk on. They really were cool to see and definitely worth the trip.

After exploring the caves, we swam out to do a little snorkeling. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed with the snorkeling. The water was quite a bit colder here than when we were farther south at Isla Carmen. I don’t know if the water temperature was the cause, but we probably only had about 10 feet of visibility. We saw some cool fish, but not nearly in the numbers or variety that we saw south of here. The water was also thick with some type of jellyfish. These were not what I normally think of jellyfish, as you could not even see them. They were more like strings in the water, no thicker than a strand of hair. But when they wrap around your hands, arms, ankles, face, etc. they sting like crazy. Fortunately, they only sting for a couple of minutes, but it was still pretty annoying and did not make us want to stay in the water for too long.

Having seen the sea caves that we came for, and given the lack of good conditions for snorkeling or diving, we were ready to head to our next destination, Bahia San Francisquito. Bahia San Francisquito is 90 miles north, which means at 5 kts it will take us about 18 hours. So, our plan was to leave late afternoon and do an overnight sail to Bahia San Francisquito. Other than Santa Rosalia, there really are not any good anchorages in between Isla San Marcos and Bahia San Francisquito.

The winds in the Sea of Cortez are generally predictable based on the season. In the winter, there are mostly northerly winds, and in the summer there are mostly southerly winds. But, of course, sometimes nature just isn’t predictable. We started looking at the weather forecast and saw that the winds were predicted to come out of the northwest for the next couple of days. This is exactly in the direction we need to go to Bahia San Francisquito. If you sail, you know what that means! You can’t sail directly upwind. And, we really did not want to motor for 18 hours. So, we made the decision to wait.

We’ve now been here for 4 days and are ready to go. The winds have finally shifted around from the south which will make for a pleasant downwind sail this afternoon and evening. So, what have we been doing for 4 days? Normally I would hope to tell you that we have been doing a lot of swimming and snorkeling, but with the visibility and jellyfish we haven’t been in the water much.

Mike has been out fishing every day and took Richard along a few times for company. And, they had great success. The first day Mike caught a Sierra. We were surprised by this as our fish guide said winter was the season to catch Sierra, not summer. They are beautiful fish. They are long, narrow fish with silvery blue skin with yellow spots on them. When Mike filleted the fish it was almost meat. I had never cooked or eaten Sierra, but it turned out perfect. It was such a light and flaky fish and absolutely delicious!

Then, Mike & Richard came back with two Dorado. They weren’t huge for Dorado, but they were big enough to eat. They are also very beautiful and colorful fish. After cleaning the fish and putting them on ice, we had a happy hour with Mahi Mahi sashimi. We sliced some jalapeno on top and a little ponzu sauce. So fresh and delicious! The rest of the Mahi Mahi was baked for dinner.

Aside from my daily paddle boarding here, I’ve been practicing my ukulele while Mike has been out fishing. I’m still pretty terrible, but getting better! Hopefully I’ll have a few songs in my repertoire before long. It’s fun though.

I’ve also been playing with the Starwalk app on the iPad that I previously mentioned. There is no moon right now in the night sky (I forgot what that is called). It is deliciously dark out at night. The stars are absolutely amazing and the Milky Way streaks across the sky. So, I was out on deck the other night and it was so still and calm with absolutely no wind. But, all around us I could hear the sounds of the sea. There was a pod of dolphins not too far away, but in the dark too far to see. I kept straining my eyes to see if I could catch a glimpse of them, but I could see nothing. All I could hear was their breath as they came up for air, the splashes as they jumped out of the water, and I’m guessing what must have been some sort of feeding frenzy at one point. Very cool.

Last night we had a bit of rain, so this morning before the sun came over the hills and onto the deck of the boat, there was still quite a bit of moisture. Well, that drew out the bees. I’ve mentioned the bees before. They are really annoying. If they smell fresh water, they come swarming. I’m so glad we got the screens done on the boat, because we were basically trapped in the boat all morning with the swarm of bees outside. Again, annoying. But, once the sun was overhead and dried off the decks, the bees disappeared back to wherever they came from.

So, we’re getting ready to head to Bahia San Francisquito this afternoon. I have my fingers crossed that the water will be better up there, because we love being in the water. So, wish us luck!

~katie