11:05 - I'm sitting at the helm day dreaming and miss another chance to get a good closeup of a whale we almost ran down, or who almost ran us down. He broke the surface and blew so close the wind put the spray on our deck. By the time I got the camera out he was gone. Bah!
11:30 - We're running in quiet seas, about a mile off the coast, but off in the distance I can see whitecaps and the characteristic dark look of rougher water. We are about 25 miles northeast of Cabo San Lucas near Punta Gordo where the coastline starts to bend to the north. The cruising guide says to expect some rough waters where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez.
12:30 - And it is! Winds 25 t0 30 knots and seas to six feet. We've had to slow down to 5 knots. It's not particularly uncomfortable (We're heading right into it) but every once in a while when we hit a big one and take a lot of water over the bow the scuppers can't handle it and water threatens to come in our open aft doors. At five knots we seem to solve the problem and we've only got 12 miles to go.
15:00 - Los Frailles, an ideal anchorage in this kind of weather. Santa Maria and Black Sheep are here, and have been for a couple of days, waiting for a quiet day. Both give us a call as we arrive and Felix says, "Welcome to Hurricane Cove!". We anchor in about 25 feet of clear water over a sand bottom and, as the hook goes down, hundreds of fish go darting around the chain. It's too windy now but I'll have to check that out when it calms down.
Hadn't been anchored very long before Felix and Elizabeth came over, rowing against the wind in their tiny wooden dinghe. Had a nice visit. We feel very greatful for our boat when we see and talk to people like they, cruising in a 32 foot sailboat with two guests on board.
Had a birthday dinner of porkchops and fresh corn on the cob which we'd picked up in Cabo. Both of us are still a little touchy in the gut, so simple foods work best.
Also stopped by the Santa Maria to talk to Peter and Mary for a few minutes. They are planning on leaving at midnight for Los Muertos to avoid the wind. I think we'll probably try five or six o'clock.
Had a first today! Ever since we got the boat I've been fooling with the HF radio and have never been able to get any confirmation that the transmitter worked. Two or three times I've had a HAM operator aboard and they have tried unsuccessfully to make contact with someone else; so I thought there might be something wrong with the antenna connections, etc. Then today I was listening to one of the High Seas telephone operators and, just for the hell of it, gave him a call. 'Bout fell off my chair when he answered, from San Francisco yet! Later I called in again and, this time, registered with the AT&T High Seas Operator so that we can now make telephone calls directly from the boat. It's expensive, but not as much so as I had imagined: $14.93 for the first 3 minutes and $4.98 for each additional minute. For comparison, it cost about $10.00 for the first three and $3.00 for each additional minute after waiting in line to call from Cabo; and this is available anywhere we go.
07:30 - Punta Arena de la Rivera, sot of the turning point where the coastline bears sharply northwest. It's a straight line now, heading 315 degrees magnetic to our destination. The two other power boats at Los Frailles have now caught up with us and are running parallel courses. I put out the lines and soon have a nice 4-5 pound fish from the tuna family. I put out a call in the blind and one of the other boats, the Princessa, answers. From my description he identifies my fish as a Skipjack and says it's good eating when fresh. Great!
10:00 - Approaching Punta Pescadero, we've passed through the Bahia de las Palmas fishing grounds where the book says more Marlin are taken than anywhere else in the world. None have jumped for our hook, and I'm afraid we'd never be able to land him if he did. We're quite well satisfied with the three more Skipjack that do take our lures.
12:30 - Anchored in Ensenada de los Muertos (Cove of the Dead). It was a bit of a bouncing ride, with three to four foot seas from dead ahead, but all-in-all not bad. We got into the lee just about the time the winds started to really pick up.
This cove is very much the same as Los Frailles, nice sandy beach, a few campers on the dunes, a few wind surfers buzzing by us on their colorful boards, clear water, and lots of wind. Spent the afternoon napping, reading, watching the sailboards. One other boat here, a cruising trawler, the "Marlene J". Talked to Vic, the skipper, on the radio. He said they had spent three months in Alaska last summer.
Discovered we've lost one of our house batteries - it's down to 3.1 volts. Probably caused by our runaway generator. Hope we can get one in La Paz.
Made our first Hi Seas call tonight, to Kristy. Worked great but she was having some difficulty hearing us. She and Bob still haven't decided if, or when they are coming to visit us; keep asking for our itinery. We keep trying to tell people that we don't have an itinery but that anywhere we are is probably going to be fun and interesting. Let us know when, we'll let you know where!
About 1:00 Flying Cloud and Black Sheep came limping in after pounding their way up the coast. We called them and invited all for dinner for which they were very greatful. Lois did her thing all afternoon and we did have a super dinner of pot roast topped with a desert of chocolate cake and banana pudding. She said it was my birthday celebration but she doesn't need an excuse to have a party; she loves to entertain, especially now when we see so few other people.
11:30 - Anchored in Puerto Ballandra after first making a pass by Lobos anchorage a mile to the south. We liked the wide white sand beaches at Ballandra even though the book says Lobos is a little better protected from the swell.
This IS a beautiful place! The book says it is promoted by some of the La Paz hotels as a picnicing and diving area and there were a few people along the north beaches, but it is so big, with the beaches divided by rock outcroppings, that there is plenty of privacy. The water is clear and a turquois blue color in the shallows.
We got down the Metz and went to the beach where I went for a swim while Lois soaked up some sun. Later we motored around the bay for a while just looking into all the little bays hidden around the edges of the main bay. Eighty percent of the bay is knee deep and we can move along, watching the fish and other animals scurry over the bottom ahead of us. Two other boats are here; the "Oz", and the "Morning Winds", both anchored well away from us. Along about 2:00 the northerly wind started to pick up, and with it a swell coming around the corner. We were glad to be here enjoying the sun instead of splashing through the waves we knew were building fast outside.
Along about 2:00 o'clock the wind was getting pretty brisk again so we decided to move on. We were just hauling anchor when the Kolo came by on the way to La Paz. They said Black Sheep and Santa Maria are still holed up at Muertos, Flying Cloud left at 7:00 AM the same morning we did, had a rough ride, and got into La Paz at 4:00 AM this morning. I guess Jerry likes to do it the hard way! Also got a call from a guy named Herm on the "Athenia" who recognized our boat as the old Seaborn. He had known Phil five years ago. He and his wife, Joyce have been down here quite a while and offered to help us when they get back from a short trip to the "islands".
We ran down around the little island that forms the outer shelter for Bahia Pichilinque and into the bay which is the deep water port for La Paz. Here is where the Mazatlan ferry lands, and where there is a major fish packing operation - lots of the big tuna boats, two of the two hundred foot plus types with heliocopters on their decks. We anchored on the west shore near a couple of other boats, the Southern Cross and the Raintree. Later I talked with Lou Corbin, skipper of the Southern Cross, who said that they had been down here for ten years. Said we shouldn't be discouraged, that we are just now getting to the Sea of Cortez and that we would be pleased with what we find on north. He also said that, in his opinion, Puerto Escondido is the safest place to leave a boat for a while. A guy named Keith on the Shangrila rents buoys and watches boats for about $60.00 a month. Good info for possible future use! To finish off a very nice day we got a call from Cara on the Captain Musick who said that her sister had heard from Nan and would be arriving Saturday with our mail. Good news!
9:00 - Anchored as the northerlymost boat in the "Los Archos" anchorage right next to Captain Musick, Flying Cloud, and Pas Time.
From the water La Paz looks a lot like the city of Coeur D'Alene; clean sand beaches, nice buildings and parks along the waterfront, a couple of piers and a marina, mountains in the background, and lots of trees. Of course the trees are palms, the waterfront is tidal, and the mountains are bare here, but otherwise the resemblance holds.
The wind was blowing and the tide flowing by the time we got settled, so we soon got to see what the books refer to as the "La Paz Waltz". Boats were swinging wildly around their anchors in all directions. The Flying Cloud was living up to it's name, sailing off in one direction in response to the wind, being brought up short by the anchor rode, and then heading off in another direction. We held a pretty steady heading with the wind off our starboard quarter and our anchor chain pointing aft off our port bow.
We got on our walking shoes and headed for town, planning on making a day of checking in. At the La Paz Marina we found a very nice lady named Mary who spoke English and could answer many of our questions. For a buck a day we can use the secure dinghe dock, dump our trash and waste oil, send our mail, receive mail (more about that later), send and receive laundry, have access to a dial phone, and who knows what else. It's a little farther from town than the municipal pier, but worth the walk along the beautiful waterfront. We checked in and started off for town. Had a good breakfast of chicken in a sauce on tortilla chips in the Happy Shrimp, a open air restaurant on the waterfront street then went looking for Migracion. I had just recognized the building when Dan Todd, from the Kolo, came bouncing down the stairs. He waited while we checked in, then insisted that we come with him to the Port Captain's office. He and Barb were being driven around by some friends from Washington, Ted and Connie (I didn't get their last name) who, in fact, had owned the "Chandell", a boat moored near us last winter in Friday Harbor. After the ride there, we were glad we accepted his invitation; it`s a long haul!
Once we got through with the check-in process we just walked around town for a while, getting acquainted. Later in the day I left Lois on the boat and went again, this time with Tony hunting for a battery to replace our bad six volt. We walked for a couple of miles through the residential part of town which, as you would expect, looks more like El Paso than Coeur D'Alene. The people everywhere we went were very helpful, but we couldn't find anything like the size 3H deep cycle battery we need. I guess I'll have to change the plan.
During our touring today we found that we have stumbled onto what they refer to here as "Carnival"; so, after our five o'clock martini on the boat, we joined Tony and Cara from Captain Musick and a horse judge named Steve from the (I forgot!) to go see what it was all about. What a neat evening! The people of Mexico have not gotten so up tight and safety conscious that they have forgotten how to have fun. Hundreds of booths and pitchmen line the blocked-off waterfront street where happy throngs of people throw confetti, dance to any of several bands, watch a very informal fireworks display, and eat and drink all kinds of delicious goodies. I had some of the best pork ribs I've ever tasted at dinner on a card table in a tent. I also got pretty good at shooting back with a handful of confetti when some pretty young lady tossed some on my head. It was ten o'clock before we got back to the boat, but 4:00 AM before the music stopped on the waterfront!
For the record, the mailing address here in La Paz is in care of:
Marina de La Paz
Apdo. Postal 290
La Paz, Baja Cfa. Sur, Mexico
And a phone number is (682) 2-16-46
or 5-21-12
In the meantime, Lois had finished spending all the money she had and arrived back at the Marina; so we had a cervesa in the shade (It's about 85 degrees now), then went back to the boat and had another with a sandwich. At 3:30 I was in another of Rafael's taxis, this time with Bernardo, and, just as promised our battery was ready. They had cut off the top over the bad cell and had replaced it's plates. They didn't have the extra long plates that fit our 3H size battery so they had to put in standard plates, but that shouldn't matter if I watch the water level. The whole thing, including taxi fare and tips, came to 90,000 pesos, or about $41.00, a pretty good deal for repairing a three year old battery that cost $120.00 originally. We'll cross our fingers and hope they now keep going.
In the evening we went to the Carnaval again, this time with the camera so that we could record some of the fun. If anything it was louder with more people than last night. Couldn't get Lois to stay up for the fireworks though; that's a switch, usually it's me that's ready to go home!
After a late afternoon recovery period we joined Tony, Cara, and her family who had arrived from the States, for dinner at the bed and breakfast place her parents are staying. Her dad, Rufus Cook, is a geologist who has worked all over the world in the oil fields; her mom, Betty, a fun loving lady who had Valentines for every body. Her brother, Casey, and sister, Cathy were also there, along with Caseys' wife and another couple of relatives, Joe and Lauri. We hadn't realized when we were invited that, in addition to being Valentine's day, it was a birthday celebration for both Rufus and Joe, as well as Rufus' and Betty's wedding anniversary. We felt very honored to have been invited!
The owner of the house where they are staying was also there. He, Chuck Brake, is a very talented gentleman who seems to have lots of fun catering to people. He used to play the fiddle in a bluegrass band and I got some good bits of his playing on video. His house is a beauty; big beautiful Mexican tiled rooms furnished with antiques and a huge central patio complete with palm frond roofed round bar, swimming pool, and big brick barbeque.
Giving that idea up, at least until tomorrow when a 70 foot slip is supposed to be available, we went back and anchored near where we have been for the last several days. Hadn't been there very long when the Navy came along and told us we were too far out in the channel and would have to move. OK, we moved, but then we were too close to a big excursion boat, so we moved again. I'm doing all the anchor cranking for these moves because the current and wind together make it impossible to haul anchor without maneuvering the boat; I crank for a while, then give hand signals to Lois who works the gearshift and throttle.
We finally got settled down about noon and I went off with my bike to find some parts and do some business at the port captain's office. The rest of the day went better; I got everything I needed except a 24 volt alternator which I didn't really expect to find, had a nice ride around town again, and was back at the boat in time for a little rest before we headed for the parade. It was a very nice parade with some nice floats and some very good bands and dancers. We finished up the day with dinner at La Paz Lapa, a restaurant on the beach near where our boat is anchored.
Tonight was the last of Carnaval and we passed; went to dinner at a place called Bismark which had been recommended by several people. I wouldn't! The fish stuffed with shrimp I had wasn't bad, but Lois' Mexican plate was far below standard and the sevice was terrible. We had much better food and service in the little Super Taqueria in the Carnaval tent. We were home in bed by nine, pooped from our hard day's work but, as usual, the festivities went on until after 3:00 AM with lots of speech making, singing, and music making coming from the big building on the far side of the Marina. Kind of nice, the music is more pleasing, at least to my ear, than the hard rock we hear so much in the States.
Most of the things we are used to having in the US are available at CCC but the prices on US import foods are about double what they are at home, so we are learning to do without certain things like boxed crackers and frozen orange juice. Mexican foods, including those brand name things which are packaged in Mexico, are very reasonably priced. The total bill for a very well loaded shopping cart came to $160212 pesos or about $75.00.
Lois took a cab back to the Marina ($3000 pesos) while I got back on the bike in time to help her load the stuff in the Metz. After stashing that I took the bike again and headed off to do our checking out with Migracion and the Port Captain and Lois joined Carol from the Flying Cloud for a bit of shopping before her dental appointment at 4:00. She lost a small filling and Dr. Lau, a dentist recommended by Mary at the Marina, filled it for her for the grand price of $55,000 pesos. There are advantages to Mexico!
In the evening we went to a street festival given by the English students at California College here in La Paz. It's a tiny school with about 200 students but they did a bang-up job with entertainment and a pot-luck type meal served free to any English speaking person who wanted to participate. We played games, inluding musical chairs and blind man's buff, and both Lois and I had lots of fun acting like kids again.
We ran out the channel, past the big Pemex fuel tank farm, north past Pichilingue, Lobos, and Ballandra, and about four miles across Canal de San Lorenzo to Isla del Esparito Santo.
11:30 - Anchored near three shrimp boats in a bay called Bahia San Gabriel. Here we found another of Baja's inviting white sand beaches with crystal clear water. We got our little cooler full of beer and pop, our towels, and our camera and headed for it. Spent a couple of hours lying in the sun and hunting for shells before the fear of sunburn drove us back to the boat. Although we've been down here now for almost three weeks most of the time has been in Cabo, La Paz, or in transito, so we haven't yet gotten a good tan for protection. A few days like today will fix that!
Missed my chance to get some shrimp from the big shrimp boats - they were around all afternoon and when I finally got around to heading over to negotiate they had just cranked up their engines and were hauling anchor. Oh well, we'll catch them later.
While Lois was fixing dinner I got to watching a panga in the bay behind us. It had three people in it and was anchored in not more than eight feet of water. The tree were fishing, and very successfully! They would throw out a hand line, pull it back, and about every other throw would haul in a fish about ten inches long. I got curious so I took the Metz over to see better what they were doing. It was a man, a woman, and a young man of about twenty. They were using a nylon line with a weight attached and a short leader with a hook baited with a small piece of fish the man had cut. They would swing the weight and bait around their head, throw it out about thirty feet, and then immediately haul it back in. I didn't recognize the fish they were catching (Forgot to get a fish book in La Paz!); it looked like a cross between a croppy and a tuna, if you can imagine that. We had fish for dinner - frozen. We'll have to try their method.
06:00 - Hauled up the anchor and set off in search of a more comfortable anchorage. There are lots of neat holes with little sand beaches on Isla Espirito Santo but they are all on the west side and wherever we went the wind and sea were rolling right into the entrances. We went up as far as Calita Partida where we found a bunch of boats, all complaining about the bad night they had had; so, we turned around and ran back to the lee of little Ballina Island, put down the hook, got the Metz up on the deck and the flopper-stoppers down, and prepared to do battle with the wind and sea.
09:30 - Off again, this time with our destination being San Francisco Island, about 25 miles away. It was a pretty bouncy ride! The waves were so steep and short that we tend to porpoise so we have to slow down to keep from taking green water over the bows.
14:00 - We entered the little bay on the SW of Isla San Francisco with a big bunch of dolphins welcoming us. It is a pretty place and if the danged wind wasn't blowing so hard it would be fun to explore. As it was we just sort of hunkered down on the boat for the afternoon watching one hardy windsurfer from one of the sail boats fall on his tail time and again. 'Bout the only high points were that the dolphins that welcomed us here came back again to put on a super show, and I got through my second High Seas phone call, this time to Nancy. She confirmed the Sis and Paul will be in La Paz on March 15 and also said Dick and Allyn will be driving down, to leave Anaheim on the 17 of April. Don't know where we might be by then; we'll call them when it gets a little closer.
The wind blew all night, and then to top off a not very pleasent day, I came down again with the fever and chills - almost like flu but with only a few of the normal symptoms. Oh well, tomorrow will be a new day!
10:30 - The books were right this time. It was a bouncing, splashing ride with winds of more than thirty knots all the way across but, once behind the big rocky headland, the sea was flat and calm. Only the wild gusts sweeping down over the hill reminded us of the winds outside.
By the time we got the hook set I was fading fast, so went below where I spent the next 48 hours fighting a nasty Mexican version of the flu. Everything ached: head, shoulders, chest, arms, legs, et al. My temperature never got above about 103 degrees but I felt like I was either burning up or freezing.
WARNING!
--------
Do NOT attempt to break the connection at the
regulator! Remove regulator and cable, remove regulator cover, disconnect wires to cable inside regulator, then remove four screws holding connector mounting and separate cable from regulator.
I cleaned the regulator points and it works but we won't know whether it does it's regulating job until we run again.
We had put down the Metz in the morning and I must have not been up to par on my cleating because while I was working away on my regulator I looked up and it was drifting slowly away toward shore. I was reluctantly preparing to expose my sore thoat to some salt water (I figured that in my condition swimming was better than the other alternative of getting down the Ranger) when Lois waved down a panga with two men and a boy aboard who brought it back to us. At our invitation they came aboard and drank cervesas and pop while we thanked them and carried on a somewhat strained conversation with much reference to the dictionary since they knew even less English than we do Spanish. We found that there are ten families that live here in San Evaristo, that they have a school here, and that the two ruts of a road that lead up over the hill to the south will take you to either La Pacifia or La Paz. The man running the boat looked to be about fifty, heavy bodied and with the good face of a hard working grandfather. The younger man is probably in his twenties, strong looking, with bare feet that looked like they had never seen a pair of shoes. He pretty much let the older man do the talking. The boy is six, not yet in school, and shy - at least in the presence of his elders. It was fun having them aboard, sure made us wish we knew more Spanish!
We wandered on down the beach past pangas and nets, then across a dry lagoon (still slippery with half dried mud), to the Camino de La Paz, a dirt road carved through the rugged mountains to the south. Walking along it to the north brought us to the first group of homes and the school, a building readily recognized by the neat, clean play grounds, the fairly modern building, and the sound of childrens voices reciting for their teacher. The homes are spaced out like a modern suburbia with the road splitting into a number of "streets" leading to each.
As we reached the crest of the ridge to the north a rather surprizing panorama presented itself; in addition to a picture post card view of the Baja mountains, the Sea of Cortez, and the salt ponds below, which we had expected, there below us was also an oasis just like Hollywood likes to show in the desert, complete with waving palm trees. There, in the midst of lush vegetation, were another half dozen homes, as well as a concrete lined water well and watering trough for a dozen burros. We walked out to the salt ponds the operation of which seems to be very simple. Dikes control water into ponds about four feet deep, fifteen feet across and one hundred feet long. Time after time water is let into the ponds then let evaporate until there is a thick white crust of salt; then, with king-sized hoe and shovel, the crust is broken up, piled, and finally bagged for shipment. I didn't count them, but there were probably 100 to 150 ponds in the diked lagoon which made up the field.
After about a three mile walk and all our exploring in what was already eighty degree weather I was getting pretty pooped, still feeling the effects of my flu, so we went back to the boat and crashed for a couple of hours. Then we decided to run on up to another anchorage recommended by the books called Nopolo. So:
14:00 - Up anchors.
15:30 - Anchored at Nopolo. This is another neat place, a little bay surrounded by high sandstone cliffs pocked with caves, a curving gravel beach, another oasis of palm trees signaling water, and a few houses located to take advantage of the caves in the cliffs behind the beach. In the afternoon we watched as fishermen in pangas came in and threw their catch on the beach for the children to clean. Then, in the evening, we were visited by a young man, Juan, and his uncle, Jesus, in their panga. Juan had obviously been visiting yachts for a long time because when we asked where he learned his fairly good English vocabulary he replied, "Yates!". We talked for quite a while and learned a little more Spanish, then watched some our video tapes with them - very nice guys!
10:00 - Passing Los Gatos anchorage the colors are more like the painted desert; reds and yellows and blue-greys set on black and white. Shapes from vertical cliffs to huge piles that look like a childs mud pies. This is a place we will want to stop later!
11:00 - I've been running reading voltages on the batteries while shifting back and forth between charging with the engine generator and the battery charger. Turns out that the engine generator regulator, the one I just got back together, is demanding 29.4 volts from the batteries before it cuts back the charge rate while the regulated battery charger only requires about 27.5 volts. The D-8's, which have never really been used, can reach that level but the hard working old 3H's never quite get there, so the generator just keeps them boiling and that ain't good! I sure wish I understood regulators better. I guess I'll just screw up my courage and try adjusting it by trial and error - and hope my errors aren't catastrophic!
13:00 - We slide through the "narrow" passage by Punta Candalabras without getting under ten fathoms. Sometimes the guide books scare hell out of you for no reason. Puerto Escondido is visible now, surrounded by mountains and backed by some of the most striking of them.
14:30 - We're looking for a place to put our hook in the "waiting room", an anchorage just outside of the port proper, and a panga with a uniformed man and a woman comes alongside. "Come to my officia tomorrow!", he says. It's the Port Captain and he's eager for business, but not so much so as to work past his 3:00 PM closing time. "OK", I reply.
We took the Metz and did a tour of the main port. It is well protected, surrounded by hills, almost a lagoon, about a mile long and 3/4 mile wide with several little coves around the sides. You could very well ride out a hurricane here - except! There are too many boats anchored, close to a hundred; in high winds some are going to drag. If we are going to leave our home somewhere I think it will have to be on a very well secured dock.
There's lots going on it Puerto Escondido! A huge development to consist of hotels, restaurants, canal-side homes,low-rise condotel and condominiums is planned on small islands connected by bridges over connecting waterways. An architect named Francois-Spoerry has designed the whole thing and a good portion of the excavation and concrete ground work is completed. But so far there's not much here. Other than the Port Captain a sailboat charter outfit, The Moorings, Ltd., is the only game in town. They seem to be doing a pretty good business, outfitting two 40 foot boats while we were there. Nice lady named Lora gave us a little orientation.
We walked up the road about 3/4 mile to the "Trailer Park" which is a very nice facility for the RV tourist. Nice buildings, palm trees, watered bermuda grass, tennis courts, swimming pool, restaurant and bar, and laundermat, all for the motorist from the U.S. Strangely, they didn't have a grocery store!
Did our duty and went ashore to visit the Capitan de Puerto but couldn't find him. Laura Greces, the nice lady at Moorings, said he is sort of sometimes there, and a real pain in the you know what. She also gave us a road map and more scoop on the territory. We took some pictures and when nobody showed up at the Port Captain's office by 10:30, we decided to go ahead and leave.
11:00 - Metz and anchor up and on our way. As we came around the corner we encountered the remains of a pretty good swell which had evidently been running late yesterday. The water was glassy smooth but a nice three foot wave kept us bouncing as we headed north. Looking at the possible destinations on the chart, and not wanting to run too long, we opted for a highly recommended place called Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen not far from Loreto. (Yes, you've seen that name before! Puerto Ballandra is also a bay in which we stayed just north of La Paz. The Spanish who mapped and named the Pacific west coast must have had short memories and have been very short on names to call things. There are lots of San Juans and Santa Cruzes and San Carlos's. Incidentally, we are also just across the channel from Nopolo - the resort Nopolo, not the Nopolo we stayed at two nights ago!)
13:00 - Anchored in Puerto Ballandra. Nice, half mile across, well protected little harbor with steep rock sides part way around and sand beach on the northeast shore. We were the first boat in, and anchored off the sand beach near a small fish camp and a couple of pangas. Wasn't long before other boats started to come in and, predictably, decided that the best place for their hook was right on top of ours. One boat's skipper, from the Sisiti III, got positively nasty when I tried to wave him off; said he didn't know we owned the bay, and ended up hanging within 100 feet of us. There's lots of room, I'll never understand this cuddling tendency. Oh well, I figured that if there was a problem later we'd move. As it turned out the wind shifted in a way that put us over his hook; he's the guy with the problem!
'Bout the time I got though fussing about the other boats and we got the Metz down to go to the beach, a panga showed up with, would you believe it, Juan and Jesus in it. Not the same Juan and Jesus but a similar pair. This Juan a little older than the Nopolo Juan, and Jesus a little more lively. We gave them a Cerveza and told them we were just about to come visit them in their camp on the beach. They seemed delighted! And sure enough, when we got to the beach Jesus ran down to help us land and then led us up to the palm frond covered camp to meet Manuel, an older, heavy set man who seemed to be the boss. They drug out an old padded armchair for Lois and a rusty kitchenett chair for me (the only two chairs around), and we held a lively conversation about fishing, where we came from, where they lived, etc.
Manuel had evidently had some kind of a problem fishing earlier in the day, because he soon ordered the other two to start untangling a net in one of the pangas. He was nursing sore hands and complaining about hauling the net "solo". It was a mess and, when I went back to the boat to get the camera I returned to find Lois right in there with them, working on the tangles. The net is a machine manufactured gill net, made of fine nylon monofiliment with about 2 inch mesh. It's about twenty feet wide with floats on one side and a lead weighted line on the other. When I asked what it cost I think they told me it was about 370,000 pesos, or about $170.00. As they and Lois worked the tangles out they also freed a number of fish, mostly a 12 to 14 inch whitefish called a Pargo (Pah-rroh'), the fillets from two of which ended up in a plastic sack for us to take home. They all, and particularly Jesus, seemed to get a big kick out of Lois helping them with the net and there was lots of cheering and laughing when the job was finally done. The language barrier is tough but we sometimes can manage to get past it, especially out in the boonies away from the crowds.
About 6:00, as Lois was fixing the fish for dinner and I was taping a video for Dad and Mom, Juan showed up in the panga. We had a good time watching our video tape from about Cabo San Lucas to here while we ate a supurb dinner of Lois' super fish sticks. She does it better than anybody!
We ride a nice easy swell that is left over from yesterday's afternoon wind past Isla Coronados and up the coast, the mountains of which gradually change from the Grand Canyon like, horizontal, sedimentary striped cliffs, to piles of volcanic material that look like they had been pushed up by a huge gopher at work. Our first way point is Punta Pulpito, an aptly named point with a huge, flat-topped rock standing alone as it's prime feature.
13:30 - It's been a uneventful ride with not even a fish on our lines to liven things up; then, off in the distance, looking like the Charge of the Light Brigade, come the dolphins. They are heading south, we north, and the sea is alive with the leaping, splashing animals, thousands of them! I'm out on the deck with the camera as few peal off and come to play with us. I get some good pictures but I again miss the best show because it happened too fast and was too unexpected; one fugitive dophin from Marineland who made a giant, ten to fifteen foot high leap in front of our boat before going on with the others. All I got was the splash!
16:00 - Anchored at Punta San Domingo. The wind had been picking up from the southeast all afternoon until we'd been riding a pretty good wave during the last hour or so. Here we have a west shore, protected from the north by the point, and with the wind directly off shore. Nice setup!
I had changed the PC board on the HRO, hoping to stop the annoying false alarms that have developed during our water making, and was fiddling with the HF radio, trying to get the weather report, when I looked up and suddenly realized that our SE wind had become a NW one. Not only that, the seas are building rapidly, now directly on-shore rather than off-shore, a 180 degree shift in about 1/2 hour! Bah!
17:00 - Up anchor and on our way again. Since the wind had changed to the west, we decided to go for the place I had originally intended but had rejected because of the SE wind, Punta Santa Ines. Well, it wasn't long until we realized that our wind shift must have been a local thing, because now it is changing back to the SE. Committed by approaching darkness, we drive on.
19:00 - Anchored in less than 10 feet of water just off the big hotel at Punta Inez. The wind is gone now; we've got a bit of swell left but we put out a stern hook and keep down the rolling, so it's comfortable. This looks like an interesting place. A dozen small aircraft are sitting near the beach just behind us. It's evidently a popular fly-in spot. We'll see in the morning.
After chatting with some of the pilots for a while (and foisting off some U.S. stamped mail for them to post), we wandered on up to the Hotel Punta Chivato which, interestingly enough, is located, not on Punta Chivato three miles away, but here on Punta Inez. In any case, it's a very nice place. Built at the edge of low cliffs on the point, it overlooks the little bay in which we anchored last night and from the dining room you have a super view of the beach and bay with Punta Concepcion off in the background. They have nice rooms, a gift shop, of course a swimming pool, and their rates ($50.00 for a double) seem reasonable. Our breakfast, although not outstanding, was passable.
09:15 - Hauled anchor after deciding to run on into Santo Rosalia today. Not much to haul; Charlie says we've got seven feet under us and I only had out 75 feet of chain. Worked our way around the point and out to deeper water, then off to the north on the outside of Isla San Marcos.
12:00 - Into the little harbor at Santo Rosalia and very surprized to find, back in the corner behind a shipyard and in front of the old smelter, a very tiny but nice Marina with ten slips, only two of which were filled. A sign in English welcomed us to the Rosalia Marina and said the rates were posted in the Oficia. After docking, I went up to the Oficia and found a very nice, English speaking lady named Edith who charged us $22.00 for two nights (includes power and water) and gave us a lot of good poop on the town. The marina rates for a 50 foot vessel are $11.00 per night for a live-aboard or $230.00 per month. For a 60 footer it jumps to $18.00 and $290.00. The harbor is totally enclosed by a high breakwater and I think that, even in a hurricane, damage would come, not from wind or wave, but from flying debris. It looks about as safe as might be found in the Sea of Cortez. I think we may have found our home for the summer!
Once settled, we walked up town which is only about two blocks away. The whole business area, and much residential, is located in a little valley between two hills. It's about six blocks wide and ten blocks long with all paved streets (some with cobblestones). Surprizingly, since it's on the main hiway, there is no feeling of tourism at all. Even the novelty stores seemed oriented toward Mexicans, not Americanos.
We went to the Phamacia California where the Larga Distanca phone station is located and placed our weekly check-in call to Nancy. As usual, I wrote the number on a piece of paper and handed it, and my AT&T calling card, to the girl at the desk. Several other people were standing around, either talking on one of the three phones or waiting. After a while the girl pointed to one of the phones on a post and I went over, picked it up and talked to Nan. The time was 14:15 MST. When I finished I asked the girl how much and she pointed to the drug counter and indicated that I should pay there. Then I asked for my card. She looked surprized and pointed to the desk in front of her, indicating that she had layed it there and that I must have picked it up. Well, a search, which included running down some other Americans on the street who had been in the store, failed to turn it up. I suspect someone accidently picked it up but, not wanting to take any chances, I called an AT&T operator in the States and cancelled the number. So now we are without a means to charge our calls and it will probably take a month to get a new number issued. Bah!
Other than for that unfortunate event, the rest of the day went well. We wandered around town, up and down the clean streets fronted with colorful patios, taking pictures and just generally getting oriented. Had a so-so Mexican dinner at a little joint and poked our noses into what turned out to be preparations for a big boxing night in the sports arena. We'll also have tomorrow to explore because the Port Captain's office isn't open until Monday and we ain't authorized to go nowhere but here!
Found the old battery charger working away this morning even though the batteries are fully charged! Evidently, when we are on shore power I need to cut back the charging rate even though, theoretically, the charger is "Automatic". I labled each cell of the house batteries and for the record:
Cell Voltage Specific Gravity
1 6.7 1300 +
2 6.6 1300 +
3 6.7 1300 +
4 6.7 1250
5 6.7 1300
6 6.6 1300 +
7 6.7 1300 +
8 6.6 1300 +
9 6.7 1300 +
10 6.8 1250 <- repaired cell
11 6.7 1275
12 6.6 1300
Spent a nice day in Santa Rosalia just fooling around. We took the bikes this morning and rode out near to the city limits in all directions. Not an awful lot to see once you get out of the main town area. It's all industrial to the north, residential to the west, and to the south beyond the bus station there's a long hill we didn't have the energy to climb. We talked to the bus agent and found that it costs $33,000 pesos and takes 14 hours on the bus to Ensenada - it's about 700 miles. There are about eight buses each day. We also went over to the ferry terminal to get the poop there. The ferry runs to Guaymas on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday at 23:00 hours. The fares range from about $2.00 for tourist to $30.00 for "Especial" which is more expensive than Cabin fare. It seems cheap but if you figure that it would take three days minimum to go and return, with hotels, etc., it's probably better for us to take the boat.
In the afternoon Lois did the laundry while I started cleaning and drying out the aft lockers. It's nice to have a dock to use when you start laying all the stuff out to dry. I also tied the gas jug to my bike and rode down to the Pemex station to replenish our Metzeler fuel supply. Rosalia is just the right size town, kind of like Friday Harbor. It's easy to get anywhere yet it's big enough to have about anything you need.
In the evening we tried the restaurant which Edith recommended to us, the Mairen, and it was good! We got there about 6:30 just as they opened and were the only customers, but "La Senora" prepared a super dinner of Steak Ranchero for us. It's a tiny place, only four tables, but spotlessly clean with white cloth tablecloths and lots of green plants around the room. El Senor waits the table and La Senora cooks the meal - no menu, just whatever she gives you for a choice when she asks. Tomorrow she will have both Pescado and a chicken in white wine sauce dish that the Senor says is very good. Maybe we can get better acquainted then.
Capitan Castillo also recommended a man named Benjamin, nickname "Pepi", to take care of our boat while we are gone this summer. Edith, however, wasn't too impressed. She said that Pepi used to work at the marina and, while she didn't come right out and say so, she implied that he might not be real fond of work, especially if the boss isn't around. She thinks we can do better. We'll work that problem when we get back in May.
Got our hatches all aired and dried out, rinsed down the outside of the boat, and greased the davit which was getting awfully hard to move. Then we hitched the cart to my bike a did a bit of provisioning; beer, bread, and tortillas - couldn't find any decent oranges (naranja). Also got some whiskey (hard to find in Mexico) for when Paul comes. We were out. In the evening we lucked out and were able to get phone calls through to both Dick and Kristie. Bob and Kris are planning on coming down between the 1st and 8th of April, and Dick and Allyn will be at the Penny Sleeper in Anaheim from the 12th to the 21st of April. We'll go to work and see if we can work out a schedule.
Had dinner again at the Mairen. Lois had chicken and I the fish, both good but not as good as the Steak Ranchero we had yesterday. We found that the restaurant is run by the Familia Espiniza Johnson, that El Senor is Ivineo Espiniza V., and La Senora is Felipa Johnson Fernandez, a very nice couple. Their address is Calle 4, No. 18, Santa Rosalia, B.C.S., Phone 2-03-51.
So ends Febrero! Click here for MORE.