Category: Uncategorized

Here is our video of the Orca encounter in the Sea of Cortez in July.  We’ve told a lot of people about seeing the Orcas, and they all said how lucky we are.  They are not that common to see at all and only occasionally visit the Sea.  The video doesn’t really capture how awesome the experience was, but I’m sure you can tell how excited I was!  They are truly magnificent!

Well, we pushed our limits yesterday and did the hardest hike I’ve ever done. We’re anchored at Isla Coronados, just north of Loreto. Our first day here we spent the day in the water snorkeling some fabulous spots around various points on the island. So, yesterday we decided to do something different and go for a hike. Isla Coronados was formed by a volcano, now extinct, and the cone still sits visible on the island. Our cruising guide showed that there was a trail that went up to the volcano, about 1000 ft up, but it didn’t say how long the trek was up to the top.

After the fact, I’m going to estimate that the hike was about 10 miles round trip. That is a decent hike, but should have been easily doable for Mike & I. What we didn’t anticipate was the difficult terrain and unflinching heat! We took our time in the morning relaxing and having breakfast, and so it was about 12:30 by the time we started out on the hike. That was probably our first mistake. The temperature was in the high 90’s and may have reached 100. There were no clouds in the sky, and given that we are still in a desert climate, the sparse brush and cactus did not provide any shade on the hike.

We took the dinghy to the beach to find the start of the hiking trail. There were about 10 pangas on the beach, as this is a popular spot for locals and tourists to come for the day out of Loreto. There is a clearly defined sand trail right off the beach, with signs urging you to stay on the trail to conserve the vegetation. The nice sand trail is probably a mile or so long, and then you reach the fields of lava rocks. Big boulders, small jagged rocks, red pumice lava rock and black obsidian glass littered the next few miles climbing up the hills. There are rock cairns that hikers before us had laid out marking the way forward. Each step was a challenge as not only were we climbing uphill, but the individual rocks were often unstable and difficult to walk on.

Me, before I melted in the heat:

At this point in the hike, I was noticing the heat starting to get to me. We were in t-shirts and shorts with hats and sunglasses and had loaded up on sunscreen before we left. However, not knowing how long the hike was, we each only had one sport bottle full of water. By the time we were half way up, my water was gone. Mike had barely touched his and gave me his water as well. We had not brought nearly enough water. Our second mistake.

We slowly made our way though the fields of lava rocks, stopping to get some fabulous pictures of the island and beach now quite a distance below us. We also got to watch some giant turkey vultures perched up on top of the giant cordon cactus that is present in Baja. These cactus are the largest cactus and can grow up to 70 feet tall. Pretty cool.

When we finally got through the lava rocks, there was a very steep path in front of us toward the top of the volcano. The challenge with this path, besides the steep incline, was that it was all loose dirt/sand and rocks. It was so loose that with every step your foot sank into the dirt and slid halfway back down. We were both wearing our Keens, which we normally like to hike in. But, in this case, it was another mistake. All of the dirt and rocks poured in our shoes with every step. The dirt and rocks were so hot that it seriously felt like hot coals in my shoes at one point.

I was about half way through Mike’s water at this point and getting dizzy every time I stopped moving. My legs still felt fine, but I was completely overcome with the heat and starting to get nauseous. We were probably 75 yards from the top when I had to sit down in the dirt to keep from passing out. Mike wanted to reach the top, so I told him to keep going while I tried to cool down – not an easy task with no shade. At one point waiting for Mike, I told him later, I really wasn’t sure how I was going to get down the mountain and thought I was going to end up as part of the scenery!

View from the top of the volcano:

But, of course, I did make it back down. Thank goodness Mike helped me get down the loose dirt and the lava rocks, as by this time there was no water left and my whole body was shaking. I think this is the first time I’ve ever really felt heat exhaustion!

We finally got to the last mile or so on the sand path and got back to the beach. It was nearly 6:00 and only one panga was left. The guy with the panga must have seen the look on our faces and started asking us about the hike and how long we had been out there. My Spanish isn’t great on a good day, and was probably even worse considering how I felt. We told him how hot it was and that we ran out of water. He quickly grabbed a bottle of Coke out of his cooler and insisted we take it. If you know me, you know I don’t drink soda at all, but I drank that bottle of Coke pretty quickly! I tried to get Mike to drink some, since I had taken all of his water. He took one sip and said it was too sweet. The panga guy then tried to give us some beer, but we declined. We were politely trying to move toward our dinghy so that we could dump our shoes, hats and sunglasses and jump in the water to cool off.

I cannot tell you how good it felt to dive under the cool water. I think we were both immediately refreshed, although we did need to get back to the boat and get some water. I still don’t know how Mike made that entire hike without more than a few sips of water. I joke with him sometimes that he must be Superman, but the heat was serious kryptonite for me yesterday.

So, if you want a beautiful and challenging hike on Isla Coronados, I highly recommend it. However…(1) don’t go in the heat of the afternoon, (2) bring LOTS of water, and (3) wear closed shoes.

~katie

Hello from beautiful Isla Coronados just 6 miles north of Loreto.

The past couple of days have been very busy. We left Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante and headed over to Puerto Escondido for the day to do some much needed chores. Oh that ugly word (chores) that strikes fear in any young persons’ mind. The fear of the complete drudgery of chores. I remember back in my younger days how my mother had to hound me to do some of the most basic chores like just taking out the trash. It wasn’t difficult and only took a couple of minutes but for some reason I always found ways to put it off which resulted in my mother having to wake me up early on trash day just as we could hear the trash truck approaching. My mother truly was and is a Saint for all she had to go through while my brother and I were growing up.

And now for us, simple things like taking out the trash are much more involved. Everything is more difficult and takes more energy when you live on a boat. I could provide many examples but we all do what is necessary to live the lives we choose.

Perhaps for us, even though the chores are very hard work, we have the benefit of knowing that after their completion there are many amazing and wonderful experiences that await. Also, there is a sense of satisfaction in working until exhaustion when you know what you want. I read an article in (The Atlantic) magazine a while back that basically said you can identify the vocation you truly want, and will ultimately be successful at in life as that which you enjoy the struggle for. That is multiplied when you are fortunate enough to have a partner that is there to enjoy that struggle with you. This then leads to the true answer to the question we often get from many people that ask us how long we plan to continue sailing and living this lifestyle: Until we come to the day when we no longer enjoy the struggle. When that time comes we will move on to the next vocation on the list that meets that basic need.

So to start completing our list of chores, we rented some space at the dock for the day in Puerto Escondido so that we could do our laundry and clean the boat which had become extremely filthy. Also, we needed to fill up on gasoline to run our generator, outboard engine, and dive compressor. It was a lot of hard work but at the end of the day we were clean and ready for another month or two exploring the islands with the exception of food.

To solve the food shortage problem we left Puerto Escondido early in the AM the following day and headed 15 miles North to Loreto. We dropped the hook, launched the dinghy and headed into the marina with our soft sided Yeti cooler and two other tote bags to tote our stuff back to the boat. We headed into town on foot and had to stop at our favorite restaurant Islas which is right on the water. They seriously have the best huevos rancheros we’ve had anywhere in Mexico or the U.S. If you’re ever in Loreto we highly recommend you check it out.

After satisfying our need for huevos rancheros we set out to pick up dive and fishing supplies before heading to the grocery store.

On the way to the grocery with dive and fishing supplies in hand, we stopped at a small roadside tortilleria for some tortillas. When I was asked what we wanted, I told the man that we wanted tortillas de maiz (corn tortillas). He then asked how much we wanted and I told him that we wanted cincuenta (50) tortillas. This produced a puzzled look on the man’s face so I resorted to asking for the same amount as the person before me had ordered. I then realized that they didn’t sell them by the (each) but by the (kilo) instead. There was a stack of packaged tortillas de harina (flour tortillas) so I grabbed one of those also and added that to our order. The total was 28 pesos which is just over one dollar U.S. Tortillas are seriously cheap here in Mexico. The other thing that is quite cheap here in Mexico is beer. In fact, it is cheaper to buy beer than it is to buy water in Mexico. If only we could live on just tortillas and beer. Perhaps if we were younger we would give it a go.

Now that we had checked tortillas off our shopping list we headed to the grocery store where we proceeded to buy way more than we could stuff into the bags we brought so we caught a taxi outside the store for a ride back to the marina and our dinghy.

When we first arrived in the marina with our dinghy there was a group of three young locals ready to help us find just the right spot at the dock for our dinghy. We let them assist and they offered to watch our dinghy for us while we were away (for tips of course). I gave them 20 pesos and said that we would pay more when we returned. As a result, when we got back our dinghy was waiting for us and the young locals along with the cab driver helped us load all our goodies into the dinghy for the ride back to the boat. The cab ride was only 60 pesos and I gave the young locals another 50 pesos.

For the ride back to the boat with all our goodies Neptune was gracious and calmed the wind and the seas for us making the ride back to the boat dry and the transfer from dinghy to boat fairly easy. Once we had loaded and stowed all the groceries the wind picked up again and we were off to Isla Coronados which was nice because it allowed us to sail. However, the combination of the ebbing tide moving South and the wind coming from the opposite direction created some very confused seas and a slow bumpy ride. Then the wind died down making it even slower. So since we don’t like to pull into an anchorage we don’t have any experience with at night, (for safety reasons because it is easier to see shallow reefs and other navigation hazards during daylight) we turned on the engine and began motor sailing.

We arrived just about an hour and a half before dark which gave us time to complete all of the work necessary to prepare the boat for being at anchor, and take a trip to the beach in the dinghy to watch the sunset. The sunsets here in the Sea Of Cortez are amazing with the water and the mountains in the foreground and all of the orange, pink and purple colors in the sky in the background. This coupled with the fact that we were the only boat in the anchorage and the only sound was the lapping of the clear green and blue water on the white sand beneath our feet made for a truly unique, peaceful and beautiful experience. A great end to a long day that started at 6:30am and was non-stop until 6:30pm.

A couple of days well lived.

Peace, Love and Islas huevos rancheros.

Mike.

So, Mike told me I had to write this blog post, because apparently fishermen are known for telling “tall tales.” As a witness to our Mike’s fishing experience today, my description will hopefully be unbiased (for whatever that is worth!).

Before I tell you what happened today, I have to give a little background. I do not have much fishing experience. Most of my experience fishing has been reeling in the trolling lines we set out when sailing or trying to learn how to “jig” when we go fishing in the dinghy. Mike, on the other hand, has been fishing for a long time. He would often go out on 3 or 4 day fishing charters out of San Diego, where he would inevitably come back with more fish than my freezer could hold. Whenever he hooks up on a fish, he’ll say “it’s a yellowtail” or “it’s just a skippy (skipjack)”. I’ll look over the side searching the water to see the fish and when I realize it is still down pretty deep, I’ll turn to him and ask, incredulously, “how to do you know?”. He’ll always say “I can just tell.” I’m still amazed when he pulls up the fish he knew it would be.

We pulled into San Evaristo on Friday and anchored in about 15 feet of water. There was just one other sailboat anchored here and several fishing pangas along the shoreline. San Evaristo is a small fishing village with about 20 full time families that live here. The fishing pangas come and go during the day dropping off their catch to be sold in larger markets like La Paz. We walked around the little town the first day and found the only store here that we assume gets some produce in once a week. Unfortunately, when we were arrived at the end of the week, all that was left on the floor were a few boxes of rotting fruits and vegetables. They have some other staples like canned goods, but they look like they had been there for some time. There are a few homes and lean-to huts that dot the shoreline, as well as a small desalination plant where the locals get their fresh water. The large Sierra Gigante mountains create the dramatic backdrop around the bay. It is sparse, unspoiled and beautiful.

Before our fishing adventure, we decided to snorkel around the rocky points in the bay. The numbers of fish and variety were spectacular. We saw lots of angelfish, damselfish, wrasses, triggerfish, and a school of juvenile jacks. The visibility was only 15-20 feet, and we wish it had been better, but it did not ruin the amazing time we had snorkeling. Mike set out to try and find clams which we read we could find down in the sandy bottoms of the harbors. The most popular clams in the Sea are called chocolates (choc-o-la-tays). After diving down quite a few times and digging around in the sand, he came up short. But, he found really large scallops on the rocks about 15 feet down. Because the only scallops we have had came from a restaurant or bought from the fish market, we took one as a test case. We had a book that showed how to clean the scallop, and after somewhat butchering it, we were able to pull the meat out. We cooked it in a little butter and garlic, and it was sweet and delicious. We might have to go back for more!

After the snorkeling adventure, we set out in the dinghy to do some fishing. The snapper that we previously caught was delicious and fed us for a few nights, but we were after some more fish! We started fishing around one of the rocky points leading out of the bay. After a few tries, Mike’s line went “zing!” The reel kept pulling and pulling as I was quickly reeling mine in as fast as possible to get it out of the way. Mike was yelling “look at him run” as we realized that the fish was pulling our 10 foot dinghy out to sea! And, just as quickly as it happened, it ended. The darn thing bit through his line and took the lure with it. We both looked at each other and said “what was that?!”

We continued fishing down the coastline and periodically mentioned the crazy fish that we almost caught, still trying to guess at what could have pulled our dinghy like that. After a couple of hours of only pulling in a couple of triggerfish and needlefish (all of which we let swim on), we decided to start to head back to the boat. As we came up on the rocky point where the monster fish stole our lure in the beginning, we decided to try a little longer before calling it a day. Just as I was starting to say that all of the fish must have gone home, Mike’s reel “zinged” again. We were once again on a wild ride where the fish was pulling the dinghy as it pulled Mike’s line out of the reel. We had recently watched the movie In the Heart of the Sea (the basis for Moby Dick) and I couldn’t help but think of the scene where they harpooned the whale and it was towing their small boat.

I was scrambling to get my GoPro out of my bag to catch the whole thing on video as we were flying along towed by the fish, and then suddenly there was a huge splash on the surface in the direction we were headed. The splash was at least as big as our 10 ft dinghy. Mike and I both screamed “Woah!” at the same time. Mike was standing up at the bow of the dinghy trying to keep the pressure on the beast, as I was at the outboard getting ready to put the boat in gear if this fish decided to try and take us into the rocks. And, just like the last time, suddenly he was gone. Spit the hook. Mike was yelling all kinds of obscenities as I was wide eyed trying to just process what the hell kind of fish was on the end of that line! Whatever it was, we obviously wouldn’t have pulled it into the dinghy. But, I know Mike wanted the satisfaction of reeling it in. And, we both want to know “what the hell was that?!” We don’t have any really good guesses. There are lots of large marlin in the Sea, but they are top feeders and we were jigging on the bottom. Maybe a large grouper? Seems hard to believe. Any good guesses?

Anyway, it was a fun day and left us with a good story to tell. Mike says it was definitely the largest fish he’s ever hooked, and I know he’s pulled in some big ones. We’re going to lovingly refer to the monster as Moby Dick. Seems appropriate.

Our next stop is going to be Puerto Los Gatos. So, we will update you on the next leg of our adventure from there.

~katie

We have finally left La Paz and are now anchored in a gorgeous spot called Ensenada Grande. The water is flat calm, the boat is anchored in about 20 feet of water and we are surrounded by beautiful red rock rising out of the sea. The water is about 77 degrees which is perfect for cooling off in the heat of the day.

We have spent one full day here and we spent it by first sleeping in mainly because we were tired. The night before was a bit restless because we had a power boat come in late at night and anchor uncomfortably close to us especially when the wind picked up at around midnight. We have an Ipad application called Anchor Watch that sounds an alarm when the GPS location of our boat moves out of an identified boundary. Well the alarm went off at about 1 am indicating that the wind had shifted causing our anchor to drag a bit and then re-set itself. As a result we were now only about 100 feet away from this power boat and the wind was still blowing around 17 to 20 knots. The anchor was holding so I re-set the boundary for 50 feet and then went back to bed but didn’t sleep much. Not much fun but all part of the adventure. In the end the anchor held and we enjoyed a great day in this beautiful spot.

After getting a late start because of sleeping in we decide to just spend most of the day lounging in the cockpit reading and relaxing. I did a little bit of work cleaning the water line and the propeller and a few barnacles that had attached themselves to the hull.

It was so nice to spend a day relaxing after all of the work that we did for the past six weeks in La Paz upgrading the boat. Here is a list of the things we accomplished while we were there.

–Installed the new water maker
–Installed a 37 gallon fuel bladder that will allow us to carry more diesel fuel and extend our motoring range without having to store jugs of fuel on the deck of the boat.
–Made new screens for the opening ports and companionway to keep the bugs out and allow the breeze to blow through.
–Installed dinghy wheels that will make it easier to haul the dinghy up the beach when exploring new beaches.
–Re-plumbed the electric and manual bilge pumps and added a secondary backup electric bilge pump.
–Added new custom swim ladder. We paid someone to do this one for us and it turned out great.
–Fixed the SSB radio that I reported earlier had smoke coming out of it when I turned it on. Turns out the remote power switch was the
culprit so the technician just bypassed it. Now it turns on immediately when we turn on the switch at the electrical panel.
–Waxed the hull above the water line.
–Applied a fresh coat of water sealant to all of our external teak.
–Installed a new bilge alarm
–Installed new cabin fans in our cabin and the forward cabin.
–Fixed the boom vang mount that broke on our way down to Cabo from Newport Beach.
–Fixed the roller furling for our yankee jib by drilling and tapping some new holes and adding new screws.
–Added new shelves in one of our hanging lockers and the battery compartment.

So as you can tell we were very busy in La Paz much like we were in San Jose.

Working every day on boat projects is definitely not what we came here for. However, there are some pluses to time spent on boat projects. Self sufficiency
o There is for me a great deal of satisfaction and peace of mind that comes with the work it takes to know your ship and all its systems
Learning opportunities
o There is always something new to learn. This then gives you the ability to help someone else later on and pass on your knowledge.
Attitude check
o The work isn’t always fun when you’re in the middle of it. There is a saying that is actually on the back of my t-shirt as I
sit here writing this (“Attitude” the difference between an Ordeal and an Adventure).

When I look at the above list of projects, it seems like we should have been able to get these things done in just a couple of weeks. I am reminded though that some of the time was spent waiting for parts to arrive and finding a custom stainless steel fabricator that could make some of the parts we needed. I should also say that we did have lots of help finding what we needed from a couple (Tom and Jeanne Brown) that run La Paz Cruisers Supply (http://www.bigleftturn.com/lapazcruiserssupply) right here in Marina Palmira. If you are a cruiser stopping in La Paz they can direct you to anything cruising related that you might need. Without their help we would have probably spent even more time trying to accomplish these projects.

Now I am very happy to say that all of the major projects are done and we are ready for some serious exploring.

La Paz wasn’t all work. We met some cool new people on the docks and we enjoyed some wonderful meals and drinks with them either on our boat or on theirs. Sometimes we had to pay the price for that fun the next day resulting from a bit too much wine or rum the night before. But it sure was fun. One couple performed for us by playing the accordion and singing. Good times.

Tom and Jeanne Brown were nice enough to share their experiences with us of the cruising areas we were planning to see as we travel north into the Sea Of Cortez. It helped us to decide on some places we definitely wanted to see and also about how long it would take to see them.

Now that I’m not so focused on working on boat projects every day I hope to be updating the blog more regularly to keep everyone more informed on the details of our adventure.

Time for another margarita.

As they say in Mexico “Vaya con dios”.

Mike

So… I finally found fast enough WiFi to upload this video!  It only took 2.5 hours to upload!  This is my first underwater video, so hopefully they will get better.  After we took this I got some dive filters for my GoPro. That should improve the color for future videos.  We’ve been told that as the water starts to warm up in the Sea this summer, we will have even better visibility.  Anyway, here is the video from our Cabo Pulmo dive in May.  I hope you enjoy!

Yesterday and today we are getting a serious taste of Summer in the Sea of Cortez.  It has reached 104 both days, and staying cool is definitely a challenge.  Unfortunately, because we are in a marina, we can’t just jump over the side of the boat to cool off.  But, we are doing our best to stay down below with the fans going during the afternoon. And, yesterday we found a coffee shop with AIR CONDITIONING!

There are a few boats here in the marina that have air conditioning, but that’s pretty rare.  A lot of people cover the entire boat in canvas tarps to try and keep the inside a little cooler.  When Mike redid the headliner a couple of years ago, he put insulation in, which really helps us stay at least 10-15 degrees cooler than outside (at 104 that’s still pretty warm).  I think a lot of boats just bake from the sun hitting the decks.

104 is officially too hot to move…

Other than the heat the last couple of days, we are really enjoying our time here in La Paz.  We have met a lot of great people here in the marina who have given us all kinds of tips for cruising Mexico and the South Pacific.

La Paz is a lovely town, which may be big for Baja, but compared to Southern California is really quite small.  We’re able to ride our bikes from the marina into town along the beautiful Malecon and have found all kinds of shops, restaurants, bars, etc.  Two days a week, there is a street market with all kinds of goodies.  Today we got some home baked peasant bread, chimichurri sauce, pate, dried mango and mezcal. We ran out of pesos, or we definitely would have bought more!

We’re also getting some serious stuff done on the boat.  We took the fried SSB into a local electronics guy and we’re hoping that it is going to work.  We were dreading having to put out the money for a new system, so we’ll see.  Mike found a guy who does custom stainless steel work who is going to help him with the installation of the fuel bladder.  This is going to allow us to carry about another 30 gallons of diesel, which will be huge when we do a long passage.

We’ve also been making screen enclosures for everywhere on the boat that will allow us to let the air in and keep the bugs out.  We haven’t had too much of a problem with mosquitoes here, like we did in San Jose.  But, we have had the occasional one find us at night.  The other night one apparently bit me on my eyelid and I woke up with my eye practically swollen shut.  I looked like I had entered the boxing ring in my sleep!

Well, that’s about all the news for now.  I’m off to go try and take a really cold shower and cool off!

~katie

We had a fabulous time in Bahia Los Frailes.  The water was warm and it was nice and sunny.  The bay is a wide open bay with white sand beaches.  Around one side are rock faces where you can snorkel and there is a sea lion colony around the point. We anchored in about 30 feet of water along with several other boats.  We got a chance to meet some other cruisers who are headed up along the same path as us, so I’m sure we’ll run into them this summer in the Sea!

After Mike’s crab incident (see his post below) we blew up the paddle boards and headed to shore to check out the beach.  It really is great getting around on the paddle boards (and lots of fun too!).  They are much easier to get in the water than launching the dinghy, and as we were just playing around in the bay and going to shore there was no need to have an engine to get around.

The only challenge to the paddle boards is when there is a strong wind or swell, which takes some balance practice and perhaps some strong paddle strokes.  And, when there is some surf that you have to negotiate when landing the boards on the beach.  I only dumped the board once when I mistimed a landing. Oh well.

There were some really cool rock formations right on the beach that we climbed to snap some pictures.  Then we decided to hike up to Cerro Los Frailes, which is a scramble up 750 ft.  It was a little challenging at times, but the view from the top was an absolutely fantastic 360 view of the bay, the mountains and Cabo Pulmo on the other side of the point.

After a few days playing around at Bahia Los Frailes, we decided to head up farther north toward La Paz.  Our next stop was Ensenada de los Muertos.  We were able so sail most of the way on the 46 mile trek north until the wind died out an hour or so before our arrival.  Unfortunately we had a bit of a difficult time anchoring, because our anchor chain had toppled over onto itself, which did not allow me to drop the anchor with the windlass.  Mike had to crawl into the anchor locker and literally move 300 feet of chain to untangle it.  Ugh!  We got it straightened out and dropped anchor before we lost the daylight.

We weren’t too impressed with Ensenada de Los Muertos, so we decided to pick up the anchor the next morning and keep moving north.  We had really light winds from the wrong direction, so we ended up motoring most of the day to make it up to Puerto Balandra.

Puerto Balandra is beautiful!  There are multiple sand beaches and several different anchorages.  We had to anchor quite a way from the beaches as it is mostly shallow shoal.  You can probably walk out at least a quarter mile from the beach and still only be in waist deep water.

When we first arrived in the late afternoon, we dropped the hook in the anchorage where the wind was blowing us off of the beach.  We took a quick dip in the water and realized it was about 10 degrees warmer than Los Frailes!  Quite a surprise.  We were greeted by a large manta ray that swam up to the boat, which was pretty cool.

The anchorage really calmed down just before sunset, and the water was completely flat.  However, right after the sun sank over the horizon, the winds started blowing from the complete opposite direction.  Within minutes, we had 15-18 knot winds that would have blown us into the rock face if our anchor dragged.  So, we quickly pulled up the anchor and scooted over to the anchorage on the other side of the bay which would not put us in a lee shore situation.  This was our first experience with the cormwell winds that blow in the La Paz area at night.

The next morning we pulled out the paddle boards again to explore the bay.  The shallow water over sand gave the impression of a giant swimming pool!

It really was a beautiful anchorage, and I hope we make it back there sometime soon!  But, it was time to move on again, so today we took off for La Paz.  We’ll be here at Marina Palmira in La Paz for the next few weeks.  Hoping to get the end of our projects done so that we can spend the rest of the summer checking out the local islands.

~katie

05/18/2016

Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes

Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I took some time to sit and write a post. At the moment we are sitting at anchor in a beautiful spot called Bahia Los Frailes. This is our second day here and we’ll probably spend a couple more days here.

What a relief to finally be away from Marina Puerto Los Cabos near San Jose Del Cabo where we spent the last month. It was nice to explore the town there, meet some cool new people, complete some boat projects, and celebrate Katie’s 40th birthday with her parents but it was definitely time to move on. Two good reasons for getting out of there were getting away from the mosquitos (we couldn’t enjoy sitting outside at night because of them) and getting out of the heat. It was getting so that it was difficult to sleep comfortably because it was so hot even at night. So we cast off the dock lines and headed for Bahia Los Frailes.

Here is a list of the stuff we worked on while we were there.
Project Status
1 Varnish wood in galley Complete
2 Install fresh and salt water foot pumps Complete
3 Install top opening hatch screens Complete
4 Apply fresh coat of Semco to exterior teak Complete
5 Fix fan in cabin Complete
6 Seal inside top of fridge and freezer Complete
7 Fix light in batter locker Complete
8 Trouble shoot fridge compressor overheat issue Complete
9 Purchase and add additional refrigerant to fridge compressor Complete 10 Fix issue with head stay roller furling Complete
11 Re-bed glass in portlights Complete
12 Painting the anchor chain Complete

The trip from Marina Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes was approximately 28 nautical miles. Normally this would have been about a 5 hour trip but the wind didn’t want to cooperate that day and blew straight out of the direction we needed to go. Since we can’t sail directly into the wind we had to tack and head offshore several miles a couple of times to get an angle on the wind that would allow us to sail toward our destination. This turned a 5 hour trip into a 7 hour trip instead. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except that it changed our arrival time from 7pm to after 9pm which meant we would have to approach the bay and drop the anchor at night. I don’t normally like to approach an unknown bay/anchorage at night, but we reviewed the cruising guides we had and determined that the risk was low so we went for it. When we arrived there were already three other boats in the anchorage so we picked a spot a safe distance away in about 40 feet of water and dropped the hook.

The next morning we noticed that a large power boat that was here when we arrived the night before had left. So we pulled up the anchor and moved the boat in closer which gave us better protection from the wind and swell. It was a beautiful day and we decided to just relax and enjoy the scenery around us from the boat for the day.

Today we woke up, ate breakfast and decided to jump in the water to do some cleaning of the hull to keep the marine growth from damaging our paint. During this exercise I noticed a couple of tiny crabs that had taken up residence on the attachment point for our Hydrovane rudder. I brushed them away and didn’t think much of it as I finished the job. About thirty minutes after I got out of the water I was feeling what felt like water draining from my left ear but each time I checked I didn’t see or feel any water. This kept happening for about another 30 minutes and then it dawned on me that maybe one of those tiny crabs decided that my left ear was a good new home after I evicted it from the Hydrovane. To see if my hunch was correct I asked Katie to put some rubbing alcohol in my ear thinking that if the crab was in there it may flush it out. After the rubbing alcohol was in my left ear I started hearing a gurgling noise thinking that this was just the alcohol making its way into my ear. To be sure I turned onto my left side to let it drain out. Once I did this I heard the gurgling again and then checked to see if the alcohol had drained. When I looked down I was staring directly at the culprit. A tiny little crab that was most likely wondering what that nasty substance was that we had just doused it with. My reaction was to simply pick it up and toss it overboard not surprised that I was right once again. Katie’s reaction was something like, “what the ##??!!, that would totally freak me out”. Now I guess I can say that our boat has a clean bottom and I found the cure for getting crab (singular) in Bahia Los Frailes ha ha.

Well that’s enough for now. Time to blow up the inflatable paddle boards and head over to explore the beautiful white sand beach that lines the shore of this beautiful place. We’ll post some pictures once we get to La Paz in the next couple of weeks where we can get a good WiFi connection.

Peace

Captain Mike.

Yesterday I had the brief thought that we had run away from home.  Of course, we brought our home with us, so maybe we just ran away.  Instead of getting up in the morning and putting on “grown-up clothes” to go to an office and deal with client demands, we had a pleasant breakfast on the boat while listening to the fishermen laugh outside on the dock next to us as they got ready to head out for their daily catch.

We put on our “boat clothes” of shorts and t-shirts (why bother wearing shoes!) and starting working on our chores.  Mike headed off on the bike in search of some refrigerant to add to our refrigerator, and I started scrubbing down the sand and dust that had accumulated on the deck in the last week before starting pretty much an all day project of polishing the stainless steel on the boat.  Nothing looks better on a boat than lots of shiny things!

I once heard someone refer to cruising as doing boat work in exotic locations, which is partially true.  Of course we are traveling to explore new places, learn some new things and have fabulous adventures.  But, in order to do that, there is always going to be some hard work keeping the boat maintained.

Mike came back to help me finish polishing the stainless, and then we sat in the cockpit with cold beer and some chips and guacamole later that afternoon.  It was here that I had the thought that we had run away.  As we sat quietly watching the sun dip closer to the horizon as pelicans and frigate birds circled over the harbor looking for a meal, it was then that I realized that today my cell phone didn’t ring, I didn’t receive any texts, there were no emails to respond to, I hadn’t been on the internet all day and there was no TV to distract me.  It was nice.

Our friends and family back home were probably just winding down the work day, but here we were sitting on the back of a boat in Mexico. So, maybe we did run away, but I’m ok with that!

~katie