Tuesday, November 29, 2011

La Ventana Visit


November 26

Martine drove in to town for a little shopping and a change of scene. We didn’t find much to buy besides avocados and salsa ingredients, but it was fun to look round the markets. We had a good browse among the cowboy boots and sandals. Leather is big here. At dusk she cautiously drove Charlie and me to La Ventana. It’s about an hour’s drive and somewhat dangerous to do at night as black cows and horses may wander out onto the road.

Dodging all livestock we ended up at their white adobe casita, watched Fred make vast quantities of guacamole, played games and eventually, with the assistance of a case or two of Pacifico, entered into Mohawk Mania. A couple of nights before one of the guys had had his hair shorn and now Andrew and Fred decided to go for it. Kling did the honors for both, with Fred hoping that he would not look too awful for his work trip to Disney next week. After all, Kling is the Synapse team leader. See before and after shots. There was a later exercising of the clipper when Fred shaved Kling and Kling removed Fred’s remaining tufts. Though it was painful to watch, the padres kept their own counsel, I’m happy to say.



November 27-28

On Sunday after a swim we planned to take the bus back. However by asking at a local cafe, we found the transit website was out of date: no 1 pm bus. Thus was our visit extended. Mid-afternoon the wind finally came up affording us a chance to watch the boys kiteboard.





We caught the 7 am bus the next day, a schoolbus with no springs, for a painful hour’s ride. By the daylight we could observe the sandy dry landscape. Everything that grows there has thorns! I don’t see how cattle survive in the cactus forests of this part of Baja.















Back in La Paz we were welcomed by this cautionary Muerto at the Perla Hotel restaurant.













We also found a faux Starbucks, La Paz style, apparently beyond the corporate reach of Howard Schultz.

Thanksgiving

Martine and Fred came for a visit on Tuesday, November 22, bringing the mail and town access by car! We celebrated on board with Mexican popsicles, more like cremesicles concocted in dozens of flavors, purchased by Martine.

It was determined that their crowd would join us for a sail on the next calm day. By good fortune, that coincided with Thanksgiving.











Thursday, November 24

The self described herd of locusts boarded Gratitude and sent a delegation off to bring joy to the marina store by emptying its shelves of a goodly supply of chips and drinks before casting off. Anchoring at Gaviotta Island, they snorkeled the local reef, swam, napped and read books while Charlie and I scrubbed the boat’s bottom.

For lunch we moved a bit farther north to Balandra Bay, a most beautiful spot. Too bad we didn’t have time for a beach visit. This group of hardy athletes included a number of excellent sailors who, like us were looking forward to a good spinnaker run back to the marina.







Dinner at Bismarkcito on the Malecon concluded the day. Having nothing traditional for fare, the restaurant served up a feast of local seafood. To wrap ourselves in that good Thanksgiving feeling, at the end of dinner each of us described a place, an event and a group of people that we were grateful for.


La Paz Hiatus


La Paz Hiatus


Although Gratitude has been berthed in La Paz for a week now with excellent internet, we have been laggardly in getting up to date! Somehow while making the last few long days on the way to La Paz, we stopped taking pictures, slipped into Marina Palmira and generally took up city life.
Rounding the Baja Peninsula brought us to Bahia de los Frailes, a lovely quiet beach next to Pulmo Reef , a national park. We took a swim but didn’t bother to launch the dinghy. In the park you’re not supposed to release soapy washwater, let alone flush a toilet overboard. This reef serves as a very successful nursery and sanctuary to a number of fish that used to be caught commercially. At the moment another mega marina is planned on the beach next to it, but a coalition of locals and environmentalists are fighting this development. (http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/It-s-groupers-versus-growth-on-the-beaches-of-Baja-2296353.php)
After dinner we went on deck to look at the stars. It was really dark! Tom used the iPad app called GoSkyWatch to find all the zodiac constellations from Taurus to Sagittarius.
The next day we motored to Bahia des los Muertos, getting there early enough to swim, walk on the beach and inspect the turtle nests. There were 6, roped off, covered with green cyclone fence squares, about 8 by 8, staked and numbered. A local fisherman showed us the dorado he’d caught and we watched him tow his panga up the beach with a rope from a pickup. We had a nice dinner ashore and dinghied back through the FUBAR fleet of powerboats, still straggling in, that had filled in the anchorage. Should I mention their bickering, irritated radio conversations over anchoring too close or Charlie’s chagrin at kicking our new LED flashlight into the water where we watched it shine its last 25 feet down?
The forecast predicted stong northerlies for our last sail with Tom and Lee around Punta Arena de La Ventana, passing the house where Fred and Martine had just arrived with a bunch of friends, and north to La Paz. We admired the beautiful 12 mile beach before they were up to enjoy it! The wind turned out to be great for sailing, the mountains of Cerralvos Island and the mixed geology of the shore fascinating with everything from sandstone to purple volcanic rocks. It was a wonderful end to the long push from San Diego, all together about 900 miles.
The next day our next slip neighbors, a Dana Point, CA couple who have just retired here, instructed us in La Paz 101 and away we went to explore the town! The nearest grocery, Aramburo, known to some as “cow on the roof” was a first stop. Soon Tom and Charlie were operating on the boom to diagnose the reefing problem. We cleaned up the boat, the bikes came out, we taxied around to update our cruising permit, buy a temporary import permit to get the alternator replacement into the country, and found a bridge game, thanks to Tom and Lee via their B & B landlady, at the “other” marina downtown.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Cruise Down Baja



Ensenada
Tuesday, November 8
Clearing customs went rapidly due to the amazing services of Marina Coral. Their office made copies of all our documents, a whole dossier, drove us to the port captain, and coached us in the peculiarities of customs and immigration, three windows one building. Then off we went to get our ham radio licenses and for some provisions. At the radio office we learned that the woman who did the paperwork had retired and not been replaced!

The best part of Ensenada was their fish market, a long series of covered stalls with gorgeous artistic displays, done somewhat in the fashion of Pike Place vegetable sellers. We bought some shrimp, returned to the marina and cast off about 3 and enjoyed the wind while it lasted.
The next day we tested out our gennaker. In the process of rigging sheets I found a pin lying on the jib track. It proved to be from one of the shackles attaching the mainsail to the car on the track. Meanwhile Tom found another pin, this one balanced on the leeward toerail! It was from the swivel that attaches the mainsheet to the end of the boom. Soon all the hardware was back in place and happily sailing along again. Whew!

Turtle Bay
Friday, November 11
This morning we took advantage of Enrique’s well run fueling system. One of the Gordo’s Jr pangas towed over a small fuel barge/panga and pumped gas into our tank. Reluctantly leaving Turtle Bay to stay ahead of what looks like a nasty SE blow, we snuck in a little bird watching as we coasted through a flock of at least 1000 white fronted shearwaters. Those sticks in front are sea lion flippers. They like resting with them out of the water.



Tom called a gathering in the cockpit for a special elevenses. We observed on his watch the time and date looking a lot like a number in base two: 11/11/11/11:11:11 (and then we crooked our little finders and prepared tea and cookies.)

Coming down from Turtle Bay we motored almost all the time. Very little wind, light, from the west with increasing overcast and no boat traffic. On the second evening in darkness, we felt our way along the mountainous coastline hoping for the moon to break through thick clouds as we approached Bahia Santa Maria, 17 miles north of the entrance to Magdalena Bay. No luck.

Approaching an unfamiliar shore in the dark, Charlie was a little worried about hazards in the water. He had plans for a bow watch with a radio for communication and powerful flashlights charged and ready! He had even plotted a GPS location for anchoring copied from one of our usually reliable cruising books. The little anchor symbol appeared to be well ashore. How reassuring!

However off the GPS coordinates on the charts, the land outlines are relatively consistent and the radar returns reassuring. This bay has a smoothly sloping sandy bottom and good shelter from the wind. Of course it seemed windier as we rounded up to drop the hook. Only two other boats shared the huge anchorage, a fishing boat at anchor with bright lights and another boat further in. Where did all those FUBAR boats go? We anchored in 20 feet and all slept simultaneously for about 10 hours.

Sunday, November 13
The next morning we ate breakfast hovering close to the companionway as the stern seat grew wetter and wetter in increasing rain. The wind (SW) had been predicted but precipitation was a surprise. In a leisurely fashion we drank coffee, anticipating a short day into Port San Carlos in Mag Bay.

About 10 a.m. we hoisted the anchor, drove onto the yellow land area on the chart plotter to confirm that we could have anchored there (and that we are not in a video game), then chugged across the bay, a long 17 miles. By the time we rounded the headland and entered Mag Bay, it was raining hard. A two knot current was running against the southwesterly wind making tall chop and reducing our progress substantially to about 4 knots. In rain squalls as we approached the long winding channel to the port we relied on radar. Of course many of the channel markers were not as marked on the chart. Magdalena Bay is a huge shallow estuary, about the size of San Francisco Bay, famous for its grey whale breeding and calving grounds in February, not November. The channels are constantly shifting, and as we had proved, the charts were off anyway. Those little purple streaks on the radar, aka buoys made it possible for us to stay in deep water.

We slogged against a 1 to 2 knot current as the ebb ran all afternoon, finally reaching the huge pier developed according to our sources for cruise ships. Passing that, we saw the pelican pier, also used for unloading fishing vessels many of which were tied up there. Hurricane damage from 2009 was evident with a sunken boat’s radar visible just off the pier.

Just past the pier there was one small sailboat hobbyhorsing at anchor where we planned to stop, but a little farther in shore, next to a huge sandbar and pelican hangout, it looked quieter. We dropped the hook and sure enough, found it a quiet evening. After dinner Charlie declared it was movie night and broke out the film 1900 to celebrate.

Monday, November 14
The morning radio nets get Charlie out of bed at 7. He likes to report our location and hear about weather all over Mexico’s west coast. Don Anderson, the weather guru, comes on and gives a report, answers questions, and tries to instruct the daft yachties. “Draw your counter clockwise circle for the low. In the center there’s no wind. NO WIND!”
We listen to see if he knows that we had a lot of rain. Apparently he does and he predicts a 25 knot day outside the bay. We’re glad to be going ashore to a grocery store and to stock up on diesel. At least we think we are. It’s not raining though lots of clouds hover over the low beaches and mangrove swamps along the bay. Getting the dinghy out and pumped up, nobody’s favorite morning exercise, we all head ashore.


The brown pelican, endangered along the west coast of the US in the DDT era, reigns supreme on land, sea and boats in this bay. We pulled our dinghy up the concrete launch ramp dodging a dead pelican I at first thought was a buoy. The birds filled the air above us, perched on fences, rigging, covering huge shed roofs! At least our new fat tire dinghy wheels tested out nicely even if the whole boat will soon be covered in pelican guano.

Getting into town involved a half mile walk down the approach road (paved) in the “authorized personnel” zone of the fishery business before we got to Combustibles de Mar de Cortez, the fuel company, just outside the gate. We stated our request for 150 litros. The office lady thought she was hearing wrong, wrote out the amount and looked at us in astonishment. The price was good, 10 pesos per liter or about $3.80.

A helpful young man appeared in a perfectly waxed, elderly white Lincoln, very clean inside. He was to get us the diesel but first offered to drop off the shoppers at the tienda. He drove us about a mile, mostly on sand roads and leaves with Charlie. Too soon they were back. They went for a little sightseeing tour of the town that included our friend Salvador’s house and baby! Charlie learned that he wouldn’t deliver the diesel in a boat. Oh well, a free ride back to the boat with groceries was a bonus. Further clambering across the language barrier ensued until we realized that he had no idea how to get the fuel to our boat. We didn’t either! Eventually Charlie and Tom made three trips with a big plastic “galon” jerry can he lends us. We hoisted it up, get out the filter funnel and a lot of absorbent pads and still spilt a bit on the teak but we’d done it! 2 p.m. Time to go out for lunch.

This is cruising around here. You read the guide, learn some helpful stuff, but don’t really have all the facts, or enough to handle what you’re going to find. This port, in the biggest town on the whole Pacific coast of Baja, has no practical way to sell gas to sailboats. In some places that would be tough toenails, but in Mexico the people have time to help.

Tuesday, November 15
Having actually measured the distance from the mouth of Mag Bay to San Carlos, we realized that we’d made a 40 mile detour just for a day of shore leave. Adding a mile or two per hour for the adverse current in both directions it’s another 5 or 6 miles. Cabo is 190 miles from here.


At 7 a.m. we were cleaning off the anchor and easing toward a giant oil tanker that was unloading yesterday at the long, long red and white check sided pier we thought was for cruise ships. The ship had an ocean going tug to help it turn. A tiny panga appeared alongside to transfer the pilot, we assumed, and off went the tanker and the tug at 8 knots down the twisty channel and out to sea.

Once outside Mag Bay we passed several draggers not fishing alongside Isla Marguerita’s 22 mile shore. Then it was back out to sea. The wind was light but eventually we started to raise the main and discovered that our second reef line, left pulled up tight when last we furled the sail would not feed through the boom to release the sail. The line had jammed in the boom. Charlie brightly suggested substituting the third reef line and up went the sail. We motored along seeing, among other species, a turtle and a rare red billed tropicbird sitting on the water. Mid-afternoon we raised the spinnaker and enjoyed the quiet of sailing way into the evening. Everyone agreed when Tom says, “This is what we came for.”

Wednesday, November 16
The night breeze lasted until 8:30 a.m., our longest night sail off Baja. We powered the last few hours past desert mountains with a few houses and houses smattered along the shoreline. Finally the hotels began appearing. Around the famous arch on the point we beheld two Carnival cruise ships, jet skis, pangas, glass bottomed boats, noise and commotion everywhere. At last, Cabo San Lucas in all its glory.
Well, at least we could anchor outside the crazy marina. But wait, they charge you $18 even for that. Taking a panga in, we walked around town in search of a bottle of tequila, then returned to swim in the 84 degree turquoise water. That was enough of Cabo.

Thursday, November 17
San Jose del Cabo is an old city, somewhat inland from the shore, with nice treelined streets and artists' galleries as well as the usual tourist shops. Arriving in the morning we were glad to have some time to explore. Many buildings are built in the traditional style with interior courtyards, some with lovely gardens. Lee and Tom visited a number of hotels built in this fashion and found very cheap rates, around $40 to $50 per night, due to the low season and poor economy. The marina is a new development, still under construction with a perimeter of over a mile. The office sends a golf cart to transport customers around to pay. Across the way from us the estuary reserve had nesting egrets, osprey, etc. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to take a walk there.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Breaking the Silence

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Perhaps we have crossed a border in our blogging mission. Certainly we have gone south of the…border. Here I sit in our cozy cabin after the first day out on the water in TWO WEEKS!! It’s extra nice because our crew, Tom Keffer and Lee Christie, are doing the dishes. Okay, so we’re in Ensenada with great internet, crew, gung-ho and vastly experienced, and free of all the preparations we lashed ourselves to in San Diego.

Blogging obviously wasn’t one. Here’s the cold headwind of truth that I’ve come to face. Charlie will NOT write blogs. He will occasionally chip in or kibbitz. He’ll remind me to get going on it. He’ll click away for an hour blabbing with his cruising sailor bulletin board group, but he will not pick up the proverbial pencil even after two weeks of the silent treatment of our reader.

Backing up a little, actually to Charlie’s Birthday, Oct 24, when he had a wonderful present from the sea, I will now quote from the CSBB.

I didn't have a camera on deck when this leviathan passed by about 150 yards away. I mistook it for a nuclear missile sub at first, and thought of the Bahahaha boat sunk by a whale near here last year. Based on the dorsal fin way aft (circled), we're quite sure this was a blue whale. I did my best to get this picture at extreme range. Keep in mind that the dorsal fin is well forward of the tail. What an incredible sight to see. This was yesterday between Oceanside and San Diego. The birds provided a bit of scale. I'm sure this is the biggest living thing I've ever seen.

(You see, the boy can communicate! Just not on Blogger.)

Okay, this doesn’t really answer the question of what we did in San Diego. To be brief, big projects. Paul’s brother Brendan came to the boat, visited a bit, removed the smashed locker door and returned with it all glued back together. He reinforced the locker with an oak strip and pumped in some glue. It looks good and is much stronger.

Charlie found and installed a stern anchor, changed the oil and some filters, cleaned the fuel gauge so that it works again, attached new fat dinghy wheels and visited West Marine every day.





I made a dinghy cover to protect it from sunstroke. One day to pedal to the Sunbrella store and work up a pattern, one day measuring and cutting, three days of sewing in the cockpit.

Our most recreational trips were to a dive store for generic prescription goggles (good idea, Edie!), fins and a body suit for Charlie, should he have to spend a lot of time solving some in cold water, (hope not!) biking along the waterfront with CSBB friend Jerry who lives on his boat nearby, and a terrific day off in a $15 a day rental car to the Safari Park part of the Zoo.
Shopping at the Sunday market on Canyon Street two blocks up from the club in the pouring rain yesterday was also a highlight with good prices and extras the shivering farmers wanted to reward me with at closing time.

SDYC was the perfect place to do the work. We were out at the very end of E dock with lots of space and no traffic. Every day we watched the high school race teams drilling in small boats, FJ's, out on the water as we slaved away. How I wished to be out sailing like them. The best was Halloween when they all sailed by in costume struggling to see through a mask and or roll tack wearing a sombrero or tight black suit. The whole place went crazy with Halloween decorations and parties. A black pirate ship with bow thrusters! came to the guest dock that night and everyone dressed up in costumes for the Monday night hamburger dinner at the bar.

Back to today. We were up at 5:30 to get a good start on our crossing to Ensenada. Still a little out of kilter from “falling back,” no one had slept well, but we were all in good spirits especially as the weather looked great. It was calm all the way requiring us to power the 67 miles. We saw another half dozen boats on the way down with us, a veritable migration.

We all took naps during the day. Got to Marina Coral at about 3:45 having been informed by phone that the port captain was no longer at work at 2:30. Thus ended my thoughts of clearing in today. The office at the marina helped us with our paperwork and made us copies of all the forms we’ll be required to have for the official customs clearance with the port captain tomorrow. It seemed awfully chilly on the return to the boat so we sat down to drink some wine and enjoyed the quiet time. Tomorrow we'll get aboard the Marina's van along with the Fubar powerboat Baja cruisers and be taken straight to the Capitán del Puerto, but not at 8 am when he opens. From 8 to 9 he's working overtime so the price is doubled. "Don't you just love Mexico!" -TK

I do.