October 29 - November 1, 2008 Well we finally managed to get out of the boatyard and marina. We stayed one additional day, having to switch boat insurance companies. Boat US has a rider policy which allows you to go into Mexico, but it's discretionary whether they issue it. After being a Boat US customer for nearly 15 years, and never having a claim, we thought it would be no problem. Long story short, goodbye Boat US, hello Jackline insurance. They will cover us not only into Mexico, but around the globe. So we will not need to deal with another insurance company in the near future (knock on wood). We set out a little later in the day than planned, hoping to stay at an island named Todos Santos, about a 15 mile journey. When we arrived, we found that the bay had been filled with the dreaded fish pens. As we circled around the area, a friendly fisherman in a panga gave us the clear signal to get the heck outta there by waving and pointing his arms. No problem, we really did not want to shove our way inside there. So down the road we go to the next stop, a place called Bahia (Bay) Escondido. Only it was getting kind of late and we were concerned about making it there before nightfall. We already knew from others that there were fish pens there that we would have to navigate through to get to the anchorage. Not wanting to arrive in the dark, we decided to head back into the bay to anchor along the inside southern coastline. Not really an anchorage per se, however nights had been very calm recently so we decided to risk it. We anchored several miles in, beneath a small coastal subdivision in 40 feet of water. The bottom was rocky and we were unable to set the hook very well, similar to the problems we had encountered at Coronado Island. So we set the wind alarm for 15 knots and hit the sack. The night was calm and we set sail the following morning just as a gust of wind started to come off the hillside. Nice to have the breeze, but it was coming from the south, the very direction we wanted to head. We tacked back and forth into the 15 knot headwind as we left the bay and headed south. We made very little progress and decided to quit 8 miles down the coast (4+ hours later) at Bahia Soledad. This bay was mentioned in the guide book as €œlooks inviting, but do not stay as it is exposed to the northwest wind and swell€. Well with the wind coming from the south, it looked plenty inviting to us. So we set our hook in 35 feet of water, several hundred yards off a secluded beach. The following day had little to no breeze, and we were quite comfortable there, so we stayed another night. Special thanks go out to Andy and Joslyn for giving us their flopper stopper as they have ended their sailing adventure. With two flopper stoppers deployed, the pendulum effect at anchor has almost been completely eliminated. We are a heavy boat (46,000 lbs) and the second stopper helps tremendously. 3 days out of Ensenada and we had barely gone 20 miles! The next day was a different story. Wind was forecasted to change direction, back to the northwest that is typical for this time of year, so we decided to go 20 miles down the coast to Punta (Point) San Jose anchorage for better protection. The wind had something else in mind. As soon as we got out into open water, a steady 20 knot breeze started to come out of the north/northwest. Soon we were doing 7 plus knots, and in short order, going right past the anchorage we were planning on staying. By the end of the day, we clocked in 65 miles and dropped the hook at sunset at Bahia Colnett. Punta Colnett is unique as it is not the usual point of rock outcroppings that projects seaward. It is a 200 foot tall flat topped segment of the coastal plain, with two very distinct layers. The upper layer is brown volcanic rock and the lower layer is a lighter colored conglomerate deposit. The upper volcanic rock remains vertical while the lower section erodes at a 45 degree angle into the sea. It is quite distinctive and can be viewed at some distance.
Punta Colnett, looking east. We set the anchor into soft mud inside the bay. The hook set simple enough, but it was a little tricky due to the 25-30 knot wind billowing over the bluff and dropping the 200 feet into the bay. We let out plenty of scope to deal with the gusting wind and called it quits for the day. Well I called it quits, Jodie went about making dinner. A peek into our sailing routine: Jodie and I both handle the anchoring, setting course and destination. Jodie and I split the steering while underway (when we are not using the autopilot or windvane); she is the one who steers us into and out of all our anchorages. I handle 90% of the actual sail handling and trimming during the day with Jodie lending a hand when needed. I am the one trying to make the boat go faster, or just maintain our current speed. So as such, I am constantly up and down, trying this, adjusting that and going back and forth over and over again. At the end of day, after we have set the hook, I crash and Jodie usually still has to prepare some kind of dinner. As she gets better and better at adjusting the sails, I guess I'll have to get better at cooking dinner. Now, I will eat basically anything (so true), but Jodie will take it upon herself to cook wonderful and delicious meals for us. And despite the long day for both of us, she drops into the galley and prepares a fantastic chile relleno casserole. We eat and both crash into bed. The night was very windy, loud and generally unsettling as we both felt the need to get up at various times throughout the night to check out the boat. Everything was fine, but we didn't get much sleep.
November 2-5, 2008
Always interesting doing something for the first time, especially when it involves handling a 17' metal pole on a moving platform. I can't explain the spinnaker pole setup to you. It's simple, yet complicated. Google it and you will get the idea. I had to set it up and take it down a couple of times to get the fore guy and aft guy lengths correct. After getting the pole rigged and running the headsail sheet (line, rope) through the end, we pulled out the roller headsail and were able to gain an additional 1.5 knots running downwind, from 6 to 7.5 knots. This is like the difference between driving 60 mph or 75 mhp down the freeway. Another way to see it: For every 4 hours of sailing, I am saving an additional hour of sail time. However you want to look at it, it's gold. The town of San Quintin has its roots in land fraud. In 1888, the town was part of an English scheme and the bay was described as being capable of "holding all the fleets of Europe put together". Except that most of the inner harbor dries up in patches at low tide! The English went so far as to build a flour mill and start a railroad, completing 15 miles in 4 years, before disappearing with the stockholders money. Remnants can still be found with the old milling machines rusting away and sections of the railway track.
A couple of fishermen in pangas came by to tell us that waves break at low tide where we are anchored. I don't have the Spanish vocabulary to tell them that we have already slept through one low tide and didn't have any breakers around us. So I probably looked like a crazy gringo saying in broken Spanish, "Yes, breakers here, ok. No problem. Thanks. Bye." Maybe with a south swell coming into the anchorage, there might be wave action, but the swell has been out of the northwest for days so we see no reason to move, especially since we will be leaving tomorrow for our next anchorage. Another sailboat came in during the night and had anchored in the breaking wave area during high tide, no breakers at the time. Next morning, at low tide, he found himself being tossed up and down with white spray being blown back at him from the tops of the waves. He let out another hundred or so feet of rode to try to get himself into a little safer location. An hour later he left. Tuesday morning we head out for Punta Baja for one night, and then continue on to Bahia San Carlos the following day. Winds are a steady 15-25 knots from the northwest and push us right along averaging 7+ knots. Our fastest ship speed to date is 8.3 knots. Bahia San Carlos is famed for its consistent high winds and was a favorite location for windsurfing in the past. Now more for the current in vogue sport, sky surfing. There were only two sky surfers as we arrived, tacking back and forth in the 25 knot breeze. We anchored in 24 feet, near a trimaran hailing from Germany and a 40 foot Beneteau. This was the first time we encountered other boats in an anchorage since we left Ensenada. Bahia San Carlos sits below a 1,600 foot high desert mesa that runs 25 miles to the south falling away from the coastline. Peppered along the edge, cordon (giant cactus) grows looking like sentinels peering west. The wind settled down around 8 p.m. and we settled in with it and retired for the night. Till 3 a.m. when down the mesa face raced a 30-35 knot wind to slam us in the anchorage. We had anchored in 25 knot winds, so we were safe from dragging, but with the sudden wind and noise, we were unable to fall back asleep till 5ish.
November 6-8, 2008 We left San Carlos anchorage late the following morning, sleeping until 7:30. The plan was to be out by 6:30, and this lost hour would weigh heavy on our minds during the day. The wind was still blowing 30 knots as we left the anchorage, but tapered off as we got out from under the mesa. The steady 20 knot winds we had encountered for the past several days did not materialize out on the open water. With the lack of wind, our boat speed suffered and there was no way we could arrive at our next planned anchorage before dark. We had to change our plans, and make a long overnight passage to either Cedros Island or Bahia Tortugas, 100 and 135 miles respectfully. Our original plan had us doing two separate 50 mile trips to get to Cedros Island. So we bit the bullet, and made the overnight passage unprepared. Had we planned on the overnight trip, we would have meals prepared (ready to reheat), safety gear out, warm clothes, sleeping bags, etc. Most of all we would have been mentally prepared and up for it. One special event happened that afternoon. We have seen dolphin groups feeding before at a distance, but this time we sailed right through a feeding "circle". A hundred or more dolphins, all corralling and feeding on fish in a 200 foot diameter area. The water was splashing white and dolphins were everywhere. A few followed us out, but soon left us to return to their feast. Very cool. We manage to get through the night, taking turns doing our 3 hour shifts. The seas didn't help us out much. Variable winds and irregular seas tossed us around all night and caused us to wander back and forth across our course. When will we get to sleep? Soon I hope. 5 a.m. finds us off Cedros Village, located on the southeast potion of Cedros Island. We decide to continue the 30 miles to Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay) where we can stop and stay for a while. We need a serious break so we can rest and catch up on sleep. Bahia Tortugas is a well protected natural harbor and has a reasonable sized town located along its north shore. We haven't set foot off the boat since we left Ensenada 9 days ago. We are looking forward to stretching our legs by taking a nice long walk, something significantly longer than 47 feet.
A few miles shy of the bay entrance, we were visited by some more of the friendly Mexican porpoises. They gave us quite a show for the next 20 minutes or so, swimming back and forth under the bow. When we have a better connection I will post the video. The file is just too big to upload. UPDATE: Here is the dolphin video!
At 2:30 p.m. we head into the bay, set the hook, eat a late lunch, and hit the sack. I was such a wreck, the next morning I had to ask Jodie if we got up and ate anything for dinner. I couldn't remember. I was pretty messed up. We rested today, I wrenched on the generator a little (seized solenoid, fixed it) and made some water. We will head into town tomorrow to explore and hopefully upload this slog.
November 10, 2008
The town of Turtle Bay is rustic and from what we have heard, a typical Baja township. One asphalt road leads into the town center. The rest of the roads are compacted sand, with the intersections wetted down by a water truck at various times during the day to keep down the dust. There are a few restaurants, bars and small grocery stores dispersed about. People are friendly and greet us as we explore the town limits.
We have some minor grocery shopping to do during our visit here, as well as some calls to make home. The internet cafe does not have wireless and the owner doesn't seem to want to allow us to hardwire our computer into his network, which will make uploading this update difficult. There is one open network we have picked up from the boat, but it is very weak and we can not stay connected. We are going to have to go ashore with the antenna and hunt around a bit till we get a decent enough signal to update. If you're reading this in mid-November, we were successful. For any mariners making their way here, the holding is good and the fuel is reasonable. Mind the fuel war going between Enrique, who runs the fuel dock, and "Annabell's" who has a floating service operated out of the bay. Both will meet you on the water and offer their services before you get the chance to set your hook. If you plan on tying your dingy up to the fuel dock, do not use Annabell's. Enrique, we hear, will ban you from his dock. A beach landing is not a problem tho', and will save you the tie-up fee of a dollar (US dollar only, no pesos!) at the dock. For us, we will make our way towards the beach. We will stay here for another day or two. This is the last real town till we make Cabo San Lucas, 500 miles to the south. We will provision Savannah and head out, continuing anchorage to anchorage for the next 350 miles. Then one big 150 mile push from Bahia Magdalena to Cabo San Lucas. We will update then. Wish us luck! Jodie says "Hi" to all!
November 12-13, 2008 The temperature is getting warmer, that's the first thing we notice as we leave in the early morning. We have a 45 mile journey to Bahia Asuncion, an anchorage that the guide book describes as "good". This is one of the last "good" anchorages available for the next 180 miles. Most of the other anchorages are described as "fair" and we have spent many a night at those type of anchorages. They don't really bother us. "Fair" means limited protection from swell or wind. But there is some kind of protection available and with the fair weather we've been having, a fair anchorage is fine. But Bahia Asuncion is "good" so we are looking forward to getting there and checking out the town as well. We begin the day motor-sailing and as the wind picks up, we shut down the motor and continue under sail. We are making good time and should be there well before sundown. The day goes well with the exception of our feathering propeller, which is not going into feather mode. The prop blades are designed to rotate depending on whether you are in forward or reverse, or if neutral, the blades go inline with the centerline of the boat. This was not happening and was causing the prop shaft to spin while under way. Not the end of the world, but it has never happened before, not to mention we did have the propeller lubed while we were hauled out in Ensenada, so it should be working fine. We try several things to get it to stop spinning, playing with the transmission gears, turning the engine on and off - nothing worked. We figure there might be some kelp or line on the prop affecting the workings. Looks like I will go swimming when we get to the anchorage. We find the town picturesque and the bay pristine. Trees have been planted around the city center many years ago and create a nice green canopy. The water is translucent and free from any sign of pollution. I dive in the following morning. Sea temperature is 75 degrees, much warmer than anything we had this summer in the Channel Islands. Still, it's been a couple months since I have been swimming so I am a big baby as I go in, goose-bumps and all. I quickly adapt to the temperature and inspect the prop. It's totally clean and free from any fouling. I manually turn the blades and they spin freely. Time for plan "B", read the manual. Ugh. Who wants to do that? Not me. Ah wait, Jodie does. The manual says the best way to ensure the feathering of the prop is to stop the engine with the transmission in forward, which we hadn't tried. The only way to try it out is as we sail to our next destination, so that is what we'll do.
Shari came down to Baja close to 20 years ago as a research scientist and never left. She, along with her brother and some friends, has purchased a block of lots and provides fishing charters and rentals to tourist. She takes us out to the new yacht club, one of the beach studios they own, and we christen the club. Turns out we are the first cruisers to make our way into Bahia Asuncion this year. Look at us! Still wet behind the ears and here we are now founding members of the Bahia Asuncion Yacht Club. Burgies (club flags) will follow with something about a lobster playing a guitar while surfing as the logo. We spend the afternoon hanging out and meet two couples from Idaho that are down to do some fishing. One couple lives close to Jodie's sister who resides in Newport, Washington. They went out with Shari's husband, Juan, and caught close to 800 lbs of Dorado and Yellowtail that day! So it looks like Shari's husband knows what he is doing. If anyone wants to stop by here and do some fishing the company name is "Bloody Decks Fishing". I think Shari said they have a web site, so look them up. The whole town shares in the haul, as the couples keep only a small share of the catch (what they plan to eat during their stay). They even give us some of the days catch to take back to the boat. And that's after eating smoked tuna and sashimi with them. Very nice people, I wish I could remember all their names. I will have to start taking a notebook with me so I don't lose all these minor details in the future. We head back at dusk to find some local boys have been up to no good with our dingy. They have messed around a bit with the engine and items in the boat. Worst of all, they have let out most of the air in the tubes. With all of Dave and Debbie's fuel and clothes, heck even with just Dave and Debbie, there is no way to get back to the boat safely. There is still a little air in the tubes, just enough to make the dingy float with me in it. So I race back to Savannah where we have an inflator and pump up the tubes. Then head back to shore, where I find Jodie and crew, including the two young boys who we suspect were the ones having fun with the dingy. Boys will be boys, and they didn't steal anything or do any damage and we laugh it off. Heck, as my family will be quick to tell you, I used to be one of those boys.
November 14-16, 2008 We leave in the morning to 10 knot winds from the east. We have no difficulty with the prop feathering as we turn off the engine while in gear. The wind builds to 15 knots and we make good time for the next 2 hours. Then, poof, where did the wind go? We put away all the sails as there is no swell and motor on. (We would keep up the main sail if there was any swell to counter the rocking action.) We motor all day and as we near our destination a north wind begins to develop. We raise the main sail to catch some of the wind and throttle down the engine to maintain our 5 knot speed. We will arrive at our waypoint, located just outside the anchorage, at 4 p.m., giving us plenty of time to make our way in and find a spot to anchor before nightfall. We traverse around some underwater rock outcroppings located at the point and drop our hook in 25 feet of water in front of the town of Abreojos. With very little swell action, the anchorage is comfortable, but we deploy a flopper stopper anyway. It has become part of our anchoring routine and it is better to have it out and not need it than need it and not have it out. We head into town the following day. There is no protected beach area from the waves, so we follow a set in and make our landing at the end of the panga fleet. There is a paved boulevard that fronts the beach, but each street that leads away is Baja sand. We wander the town, first heading to the light house located at the point. We then backtrack and make a loop through the rest of town. Located a ways beyond the end of town we see the Pemex fueling station and what appears to be the Cervesa Outlet. It's hard to say for because the Corona and Tecate marketing campaign south of the border is not in the form of billboards like in the States. Down here they just paint your whole building in their respective product colors along with a massive logo on the side. So every market that sells beer seems like it is an outlet for that brand. But when you enter, it is much like a gas station mini-market inside. Another thing we find a little odd is that they don't sell beer in "packs". No six packs or twelve packs, all the cans and bottles are loose. And for the bottles, you have to leave an empty for each one you buy or pay a deposit. Of course we had no idea and threw away our bottles all summer long. Now we only have two beers left and no empties which to leave when we buy more. I have been told that the bottle deposit is more expensive than the beer itself. We'll find out soon I guess.
The next anchorage we plan on heading to is Bahia San Juanico, 65 miles away. It is a "world class" surf spot and we look forward to checking it out. The long distance means we will depart at 4 a.m. to get there before nightfall.
November 17, 2008 The moon is waning and not quite ¾ full as we head out to Bahia San Juanico. There is a light 5 knot wind from the east and we take advantage by putting up the main. The seas are calm and tiny flying fish jump out of our path as we sail through. We have our forward "docking" lights on to help us avoid any lobster pots and can see the fish jet away. The day goes smoothly, which is good as nothing goes wrong, and bad, cause it is pretty boring. The wind doesn't fill in enough to shut down the motor and we need to keep our speed up to make the distance in a day. Jodie reads in the cockpit and I stay down below playing games on the computer. We haven't seen another boat under way in our last several passages. Just us and the sea. Five miles out of Bahia San Juanico, Jodie and I are sitting in the cockpit when we hear, "BAWHOOSH" next to us. "What the heck was that?" we say and look to our starboard (right) side and see a column of mist in the air. A California grey whale broached not 50 feet away and we see him slowly swim away to the west. Unfortunately, it was into the afternoon sun and the glare on the water made photos impossible. But, wow, it was scary and exciting as anything that has happened to us so far. We find four other boats at the anchorage. The bay is huge, extending 2 miles eastward from the point, leaving us plenty of room to anchor away from any neighbors. We are exhausted (esp. me, Jodie had napped during the day), and I can't stay awake after dinner. Jodie implores me to stay up, knowing that if I go to sleep now, I'll wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning. That means I'll end up waking her up too. I fall asleep at 5:45 and Jodie wakes me up at 6. I manage to stay awake till 6:20, then lights out, I'm done.
November 18-24, 2008 We both wake at 6 a.m. after a good nights sleep. We clean up the boat and get a visit from one our neighbors. Dan is single-handing a 30 foot trimaran down into the Sea of Cortez. He had some mast problems on his way down from San Diego and has been waiting in San Juanico for just the right conditions to make the final two legs to Cabo San Lucas. He gives us some information about the town of San Juanico and the ever important wifi password for the surf camp that lies along the shore.
Surf is almost non-existent today, but I go out anyway just to get my feet wet. Jodie is going to start learning tomorrow. I'm not very good, but I'll do my best to teach her. I decide to paddle out from the boat and discover it's a very long way to the breakers. Distances are deceiving from the boat and I won't do the trip again without the dingy. I meet a retired Canadian, Rob, who has been coming down here for twenty years. He and his wife, Linda, keep a trailer in town and fly in and out of the town of Larado from British Columbia, Canada. The surf is small, but I catch a couple and head back to Jodie and Savannah.
The following days the surf remains small. The people we have met that come down on a regular basis, have commented that the surf is as small as they have ever seen it. Just our luck. Then on Saturday, things begin to pick up and the surf starts coming in regular sets, if a little on the small size. Plenty of fun, with long sweeping waves that make their way down the shoreline. I still can't manage to keep the board traveling along the wave like I should, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.
Small wave day. You can see the way the waves break, starting at the point.
Jodie is giving surfing a try as well. She seems to especially like lying prone on the board and riding the wave all the way into the beach. When the fins hit the bottom, she rolls off with a big smile. That's good enough for me and we call the lesson a success. We have gone snorkeling in the bay as well, exploring the rocky shoreline. Officially, we are waiting for the wind to fill in to take us farther south, but between the surfing, snorkeling and cheap groceries, we are in heaven here. It seems the lobsters have no natural enemy here, as they just sit out in the open and allow you to come right up to them. It's kind of like the shooting fish in a barrel saying, except with lobster. Don't worry though, there are dozens of baby lobster clusters (they group up and form a ball) remaining to replace the few I caught.
The town of San Juanico is what we have come to expect for a Baja fishing town. One paved road, small grocery stores and a panga fleet. Limited services are available, gas and propane are available in the next town 20 miles away. There is a small area of town that is filled with large multi-story homes. American size, if not style, each residence lying behind 8 foot concrete walls and iron gates. These are vacation homes of Canadian and American families and they provide a valuable income source to the local workforce. Also, there is a surf camp that runs along the shoreline, renting camp sites and bungalos to the vacationing tourist.
The
wind forecast has predicted a northwest breeze for Wednesday. It
will hopefully show up to help push us down our 90 mile trek to Santa
Maria Bay. Then a quick hop into Magdalena Bay, 20 miles further
south. Then the big 150 mile journey to Cabo. All the
cruisers we have met so far are already in Cabo San Lucas by now, some
are already in La Paz inside the Sea of Cortez. We will get there
when we get there, we are not in any rush and are having a great time
so far on our journey down the Baja peninsula. We won't be able
to update again till Cabo.
Michael
(DRUM ROLL) Its Jodie! WooHoo! After several requests, from Michael and others (ok, mostly Danny), I'm finally sitting down to write my first blog entry. I'm definitely more of a verbal communicator, so I've left the writing to Michael, who seems to have a knack for it. The response to our website has been overwhelming, more than either of us ever expected. Initially the idea for the website was to post quick updates on where we were and how we were doing, a way for family and friends to keep track of us since we knew we would never be able to write that many emails. Once Michael got started with it, it tuned into more of an online journal, which most people seem to really enjoy and will actually be great for us later on as a document of our journeys. As you know, we spent the summer in the Channel Islands. Our original plan was always to head directly into Mexico, but due to a number of delays we missed our window of opportunity with the weather, and certainly didn't want to start our trip off by heading into Mexico at the beginning of hurricane season. I know some people think we are a little crazy for doing what we are doing, but we're actually not that crazy! :-) As it turns out, everything works out for a reason and the summer in the Channel Islands was a huge (positive) learning curve for us. We had lived on Savannah for almost 4 years, but living in a marina and living on an anchor (for more than a week) are two completely different worlds. We learned A LOT and made several changes to the boat that makes life on anchor much more enjoyable. Along the way we met some great people, built new friendships, and overall had a wonderful summer enjoying a much slower pace of life. We officially entered Mexican waters on October 16th, which was a great feeling of accomplishment after dreaming about this trip for such a long time. We were scheduled to be in Ensenada, B.C. Mexico on the 15th to have Savannah hauled out at the boat yard, but Logan had other plans in mind for us and ran away from home on the night of the13th for one last hoorah. With Logan back safe at home we left our marina with warm farewells, we will miss our "family" at the marina. Just a couple of days behind schedule, we arrived in Ensenada and Savannah was lifted out of the water. Michael was a nervous wreck until she was safely out of the harness and on solid blocks in the boat yard. We were in the boat yard just over a week, getting the bottom painted (so sea life doesn't grow on it as much) and having a couple other little projects done. Everyone at the boat yard was so nice and Michael enjoyed playing volleyball with them every afternoon at lunch. We had only been to Ensenada once before, so we had fun exploring and trying out our Spanish. The one thing I found funny about Ensenada was the number of pharmacies, there had to be at least 20 in a five block area; some were even right next door to each other. Since leaving Ensenada, we've been very slowly making our way down the pacific side of the Baja California coast. With the exception of one night, we've managed to be in an anchorage every night "“ which is our goal since neither of us really enjoys overnight passages. We'll do them, but given the choice we'd rather be in an anchorage sleeping during the night. We've found that most people we've met are very anxious to get to Cabo San Lucas or La Paz (the next major cities south of Ensenada) and tend to avoid stopping in the small towns and fishing villages, opting instead to make overnight passages and stopping in only a couple places. It actually works out nice for us, because most of the anchorages are empty or only have a few other boats. For
those interested in what is going on with our house, it's sold!!
We had decided that we were going to give it until the end of October
and then take it off the market and rent it. A few days
before we left San Diego we accepted an offer and agreed to a 45 day
escrow. Well apparently financing went quickerthan the buyers had
expected and we found out while in Bahia Asuncion that we've already
closed. A huge THANK YOU goes out to Michael's mom for handling
the entire thing for us. I don't know what we would have done
without her. While it feels a little weird to not have the house
anymore (we owned it for 18 years) it is an enormous relief not to have
to worry about it any longer. Currently we are anchored in Bahia San Juanico (26 14.725 N, 112 28.247 W) off the small town of San Juanico. With no wind currently in the forecast we plan on hanging out here for awhile. Like most of the towns we've explored so far, San Juanico started as a small fish camp and has slowly grown into a small town. I use the term town very liberally, there are a few small markets, a place to buy cement/building supplies, a church, a school, a medical center and homes "“ there is one paved road, the rest are sand/dirt. There is a fairly large surf camp here and we've found quite a few Americano's here (mostly surfers who drive down from San Diego to enjoy the good surf spot).
Well that's it for now, this wasn't so bad. :-) I'll try to make an appearance from time to time, but I think I'll leave the bulk of the writing to Michael, who's much better at it. Love and miss you all,
Who couldn't love this cat?
November 27-29, 2008 We left Bahia San Juanico on Thanksgiving Day. We are truly sorry to go; San Jaunico has treated us well. But the voyage south must continue and the wind forecast predicted 20 knots from the north-northwest. That's about as good as it gets for us and we pull up anchor at 10 in the morning to make the 95 mile passage to Bahia Santa Maria. The wind fills in as planned and we make good time heading almost due south. As day turns to evening we roll in the headsail and continue on under the mainsail. The winds have been consistently steady in both speed and direction and we don't feel the need to reef the main for the overnight passage. Things go smoothly during the night and we arrive at Bahia Santa Maria just before 7am. We discuss continuing on to Magdelina Bay, a short 15 mile run further south. It is early and we could be there in 3 hours, with the hook down by 11ish. We are both tired, but 15 miles done today is 15 miles we can remove from the next passage length of 165 miles. So we decide to go for it. Little did we know, however, that the tide was turning against us as we debated. Bahia Magdelina is a bay that is approximately the size of San Francisco bay located in California. Needless to say, it is very large and a huge amount of water passes through the opening during the tidal shifts. We had been to Mag bay 8 years earlier when we crewed aboard another vessel and it is a beautiful bay, well protected and a safe harbor from almost any storm. When we arrived at the mouth of the bay, we were unaware that the tide was flowing out against us. We quickly discovered through the GPS that our speed over ground was 2 knots despite the fact that we were traveling through the water at 5 knots. So a 2.5 knot current was pulling us back out to sea. This meant that it would take us significantly longer than an hour to enter the bay. What to do? Bahia Santa Maria lies 15 mile upwind of us, and in the wrong direction. We calculate that it would take close to another 3 hours to get to our anchorage location inside Magdelina bay. We check the weather forecast to find out what the wind was going to be doing and discover that today is actually forecasted to have the strongest winds with them gradually dying down over the coming days. We flip back and forth between continuing on to the anchorage or just heading down to Cabo. Felt a lot like Pooh Bear, paw to forehead, "Think, think, think." Given the wind forecast, we decide to continue on the additional 150 miles to Cabo. The wind was with us and we just had to suck it up and tough it out through another night passage. During the day the wind increased in speed till it was blowing a steady 20 and we made some great time under full canvas. At night fall, we rolled in the headsail, but decided to leave the mizzen up along with the mainsail. We took turns on our 3 hour shifts, doing a controlled gybe once during the night to allow course correction. When you are sailing downwind, the course you can steer "off the wind" is fairly tight, 15 degrees or so. When you are traveling 150 miles, there is definitely some wiggle room allowed in your course heading. 5, 10 or even 15 degrees off of your destination path is not that big of a deal. So you will steer a little away from the rumb line (straight line) course to your destination to keep the sails full. However there is a point that you'll need to do a course correction to keep from getting to far off your rumb line course. Now you know in the movies when the boom "the bar" swings across the boat and knocks someone into the water? That's called a gybe, where the wind goes from pushing on one side of the mainsail to the other side. The trick is to not allow it to swing 180 degrees across the boat like they love to do for effect in the movies. You want it to swing, say 20 degrees across the centerline of the boat. That's called a "controlled gybe". This is easy to do. You just change your course to allow you to "sheet in" the mainsail close to centerline, keeping the wind on the "back" of the sail. Then turn the boat so the wind switches around and blows on the other side of the mainsail, this is the gybe part. Then let the main out fully and reset your heading. So if you were heading slightly left of dead downwind before the gybe, you would now be heading slightly right of dead downwind. If it sounds complicated, its not. Here is a link to illustrate: http://www.spinnaker-sailing.com/lessons/keelboat/k_lessona.htm. The point is we had to do this once or twice during the night to maintain our heading. Daylight finds us 20 miles out of Cabo San Lucas. What's this? They have sent out the fleet to greet us! 40 powerboats quickly heading our way. Wait. No. That's all the charter fishing boats heading to the Golden Gate Bank we just passed over an hour ago. Ah, well, look at them go. Maybe I should have put a lure in the water at daybreak. Next time.
At 12pm we round the famous Arch rock at Lands End. Plenty of touristas on Lovers Beach, snorkeling and scuba diving around the point. There are perhaps a dozen boats anchored along the shore. We quickly spot Dan's trimiran and Mike and Wendy's sloop (folks we had met during our stay in San Juanico) and we settle in close by. We put Savannah back in order, take some showers and its lights out. We sleep till 6pm, eat a quick meal and back to bed to finish catching up on lost sleep.
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Some
other cruisers we met in Ensenada, Dave and Debbie from Wavesweeper (I
like to joke with them about name - Wavescrubber, Wavecleaner,
Wavesucker, the list goes on..), contacted a former cruiser, Shari, who
resides in the town and invited us to go along with them to meet
her. Shari married a resident fisherman and has lived at Bahia
Asuncion for the last 19 years. We pickup Dave and Debbie in our
dingy and Shari meets us at the panga landing. Dave has brought a
couple fuel jugs and Debbie has brought some laundry to do while we
hang out at the newly formed yacht club. The yacht club has the
sacred wifi access which will allow us to make some phone calls home
via Skype.
One
fish that managed to elude me was this halibut that kept dashing away
when I came around it. They burrow down and you can just make out
an eye or two in the sand. They are very strange looking flat
fish, but we hear they are quite good to eat. As I swam back and
forth along the reef area, he would swim off and re-dig himself in 30
to 40 yards away. Then as I swam back over the top of him,
I would spot him in the sand. Just as I'd get my spear gun
pointed at him, off he would go! We played cat and mouse for
about an hour. Now that I know what to look for, I'm sure we will
get one in the near future and try it out.
