Linda sitting outside our room in Colima

A view of the courtyard of our hotel in Colima

This is one of seven bus terminal buildings in Guadalajara. It has the feeling of an airport terminal. (Guadalajara)

A late evening shot of the hills over Guanajuato.

Here's what Guanajuato looks like at 5 AM. When John can't sleep he gets up and walks around town taking pictures. By 6 AM the place was too busy to be standing in the street. (Guanajuato)

An early morning shot of one of the tunnels in Guanajuato. River water used to be diverted through these before they were converted to roadways.

Another 5 AM picture of Guanajuato. Instead of using cobble stones to pave the streets they use square cut granite rocks which are arranged in patterns. (Guanajuato)

The outside of Mercado Hidalgo. (Guanajuato)

The Teatro Juarez, a favorite hangout for the University students. (Guanajuato)

View from the Pipila. The Temple of San Diego in the foreground with the Jardin Union in the background. The trees in the Jardin are a kind of ficus which are cut high enough to walk under, creating a very shady park. (Guanajuato)

A view from the Pipila. Low center is the basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato. Upper right is the Temple of the Compania. Upper left is the University of Guanajuato. (Guanajuato)

Here's a picture of the roof-top terrace of our hotel in Guanajuato. The white building in the center of the picture is the Hotel Cantarranas. (Guanajuato)

Another view from the Pipila. Center left is the Museum Alhondiga. I'm not sure what the two domes in the foreground are. (Guanajuato)

A couple of pooches watch the evening traffic on the city streets below. (Guanajuato)

Linda really loved the potted garden on the balconies of this house. (Guanajuato)

The Basilica at La Valenciana

Quarantined

16 February 2006
Bahia Santiago

It started with a sore throat on my birthday. Now I'm beginning to get over my cough and congestion, but John's coming down with the same thing. Yesterday morning we dinghied ashore, walked out to the highway, and took the bus to Comercial Mexicana (one of the big U.S. style super market chains) with Joe and Cindy from Maggie Drum. Other than a delicious Valentine's Day lasagna dinner and pinochle on MD, it was the first time I'd left the boat since my birthday in Barra. We shared a taxi all the way back to the dinghies with our groceries so the trip itself wasn't particularly arduous, but the highly air-conditioned hike up and down the store aisles probably didn't do us any good. It's a good thing I bought another jumbo box of Kleenex! We've heard from boats now making their way north after SailFest that a similar bug made its way through the Zihuatenejo fleet.

We saw quite a bit of fog early yesterday, and when we woke up this morning the anchorage was socked in. We suppose this must be due to the colder water temps we noticed on our way down from Barra. It's 72 degrees here in the anchorage, but we logged 67 offshore at one point. This is quite a change from just a few weeks ago, but not a problem now since we won't be doing any snorkeling until we're feeling better.

I think being ill is the hardest thing about living on a boat, and it's even harder when you're cruising. Your "nurse" (the well partner) can't exactly hop in the car for cough drops, DVDs (thank you Maggie Drum for loaning us your collection!), soup, orange juice, and a People magazine to cheer you up. And with both of you cooped up on a small boat the lack of personal space will eventually make both parties testy, to say the least. The good thing is that it's harder to catch anything nasty out cruising because you have less exposure to germ carriers.

I forgot to mention that John stepped in a hole and took a hard fall on concrete around the same time I was catching my cold, and he now has a purple bruise the size of a cantaloupe on the outside of his thigh. A couple of days later he tripped and fell against a stanchion, so he has a matching (though smaller) bruise on the other thigh. Both of these falls were the result of things I did or didn't do so now I have three strikes against me (being the cause of his two spills and a cold) and am serving my time!

But the sun is shining, the days are warm (high 70's), the nights are cool (high 60's), the fish wake us up during the night bumping into the hull (big fish chasing little fish?), John's back into playing Pokemon Pinball on his Gameboy (he now owns a high score of 12 billion points), and I'm reading a wonderful novel that I will be sorry to finish ("Swimming" by Joanna Hershon).

Life is good!

Linda and John

Mainland vs. Baja

John originally called Baja, "Mexico, Rev 2" because it was so different from the Mainland. Now that we're back on the latter I thought it would be fun to compile a list of what makes them different for us.

Mainland (November through March):
Butterflies in lots of cool colors.
Birds and beautiful bird song - Tropicbird, Heermann's Gull, Heron Family (Great Blue, Little Blue, Green-backed, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, White Ibis), American Oyster Catcher, Crested Caracara, Black Vulture, Belted Kingfisher, Ani, Swallows landing on Nakia in the Barra Lagoon, Yellow-winged Cacique, and many others we can't identify.
Greenery and thick woods/jungle mean that you need trails and roads in order to do any land hiking.
Higher humidity makes hot even hotter.
Beach landings (actually it's harder during the takeoffs) in the dinghy are often wet unless you time the swell sets just right.
Almost impossible to enjoy a light air sail because of the Pacific swell rolling the boat and slatting the sails.
Larger numbers of transient cruisers (many leaving for the South Pacific or Central America) makes many anchorages crowded (25-50 boats at a time). Large active VHF nets covering just about all areas; lots of radio traffic. Rare to have an anchorage to yourself.
Wildlife - It was nice to see turtles again; we've had fairly consistent whale and dolphin sightings on passages.
Burning garbage and disco noise - Maybe because many anchorages are off of larger towns (especially the favorite hang-outs like Chamela, Tenacatita, and Barra de Navidad).

Baja (April through October):
Desert flora (rocks and cactus) make hiking easier in all but the thickest cactus areas.
Dryer climate makes it a bit easier to deal with the heat.
Air temps make snorkeling and swimming that much more inviting.
Easy beach landings with the dinghy since there's no swell in the Sea of Cortez.
Light wind day sails from one anchorage to another are extremely pleasant on the flat water of the Sea.
Smaller group of cruisers based in fewer areas makes it easier to get to know people. Summer is especially great due to the smaller community. Even the SSB and HAM nets are more fun and relaxed. Not hard to find places to be alone when you want to be.
Wildlife - We had some incredible up close and personal experiences last summer which I'm not sure we'll ever be able to duplicate (squid, orcas, rays).
Fishing seems to have been much better in the Sea.

Linda and John

Joe Cindy Linda and John drinking margaritas at the rooftop bar for Linda's Birthday.

Life on the hook

29 January 2006
Punta Perula, Bahia de Chamela

This morning we put our 50 gallon/hour water maker to work. Yesterday John worked it out with Guillermo at one of the tiendas to have 10 garrafons (five gallon water cooler jugs) of water delivered to the far end of the beach where we land our dinghies. At 8:15 AM he paddled in to shore with the kayak to wait for the 8:30 delivery. Aldo arrived with the water truck at about 8:45, and John called me on the radio to come in with the dinghy. We anchored it in about 4' of water outside the surf break and, wearing our swimsuits, carried each garrafon from the beach to the dinghy. When all 10 were loaded up John helped launch me in the kayak before he jumped in the dinghy, and we returned to Nakia to fill one of our water tanks. We use a siphon pump to get the water from each garrafon into the tank, carefully pouring the last drops from each jug into the first empty so that we get it all. We completed the process at about 09:30.

After a nice breakfast of eggs and potatoes we loaded the 10 empties, tied in bundles of five, and went around to the remaining boats in the anchorage to say hi. There were 12 boats here last night (including three big power boats), but by the time we got out and about only four besides us were left. We had an uneventful dinghy landing (one boat got dumped badly trying to get off the beach yesterday evening; they managed to recover their expensive glasses, but the outboard was completely submerged so they were rowing back to their boat), dumped our garbage in one of the ubiquitous blue barrels behind a palapa restaurant, and began our walk to the other end of town. When John made the inquiry about a water delivery we were returning from a walk along the beach, and he started at the far end of town because he noticed the tienda had a water truck parked right behind it. Next time we'll probably start at the dinghy landing and work our way down until we find someone who can deliver to the beach.

The town was about as lively as it gets around here since it's Saturday. People were lined up at the carniceria for something fatty looking in a huge steel pot full of fat - maybe fresh carnitas? We bought water and a soda and sat on a shady bench in the zocolo (town square) watching the birds and butterflies in the bougainvillea. There was a small street market set up nearby selling new clothing, cosmetics, hair doo-dads, and house wares. Not many other shopping opportunities here, and business looked brisk. Still no sign of life at the only panaderia in town. Last time we were here the woman doing the baking looked like she should probably retire soon, so maybe she's gone to Guadalajara to live with her family.

Everyone agrees the fishing hasn't been very good on the gold coast so far this season. One of the best things since we've been here is the school of two dozen or more crevalle jacks in the anchorage. They aren't good eating but John says they're a lot of fun to catch. He had one yesterday that fought for half an hour, and was three feet long. He hooked a second one which took out 50 yards of line before bending the hooks straight, releasing itself.

We recently had a discussion with another boat regarding being "sophomores" this year. We all agreed that although we're still enjoying Mexico very much, the bloom of first year excitement has worn off and now, instead of it being all adventure, all the time, we feel as though life is a bit more routine. So we apologize for not keeping up the blog on as regular a basis as we did last year, but now you know the reason why.

Linda and John

Happy Anniversary day

25 January 2006
Isla Passavera, Bahia Chamela

We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary today, and had an especially fine time. We woke up to 13' of crystal clear water in the anchorage where, with the almost all sand bottom, it's the nicest swimming pool anchorage on the mainland. It starts getting bouncy in the swell after the wind dies at sunset each night, but I think it's well worth it especially when we have it all to ourselves. In addition to our school of 8" Pacific bumpers, as of yesterday afternoon we also have three to four 2 1/2' crevalle jacks on the prowl. John calls them "the boys," and sometimes they make quite a racket when they slam into the hull trying to get the smaller fish. It's amazing how much time we can spend just gazing into the water waiting for a glimpse of them as they pass by our hull.

After the morning radio nets we hopped into our inflatable double kayak and paddled out to some rocks on the ocean side of Isla Colorado to watch a blow hole. There was a long low swell running so we had to be careful not to get too close to the rocks, but other than that it was relatively calm two mile round trip. We paddled back to Nakia to get shoes so we could go ashore for a short walk. We hadn't been on Passavera before and it's quite a popular roosting area for boobies, frigates, pelicans, and gray headed vultures. We passed 10' from a booby which appeared to be nesting on the ground, and managed not to disturb her too much.

After an early lunch we spent some time reading, and then threw our snorkel gear into the dinghy to go for a ride while we left the generator running on Nakia to recharge the batteries. There was a blow hole near the mainland shore which was pretty spectacular even from a distance yesterday afternoon so we went there first for a closer look. Then we checked out a potential anchorage which we may try tomorrow in hopes that it might be better protected from the swell. Finally we stopped at one of the beaches over on Isla Colorado for some snorkeling but the visibility wasn't very good there. When we got too close to shore the sand was so stirred up that it was like snorkeling in fog. Out by the rocks and more exposed to the surf the organic matter in the water was so thick it seemed like we were snorkeling in a snowstorm. So there you have our "winter weather" report.

We had planned to go into a beach we'd visited last year, but at the last minute John suggested the one next door since it looked like it had a sandier bottom for walking in through the surf. After walking around the small sandy beach we heard strange bird noises coming from the trees above the rocky shoreline. We could see pelicans roosting, then what appeared to be nests, and then finally we made out the white, plucked turkey shapes of baby pelicans! Once we identified one, we could see that there were probably about a dozen in the area in various stages of development, but all looking completely helpless and awkward. What a wonderful and unexpected anniversary gift that was!

Linda and John

The Mad Gardener

7 January 2006
Ensenada Carrizal (Manzanillo area)

Paradise is still wonderful but not so perfect lately. After happily snorkeling for two days in a row, we jumped in the water for a third round and found ourselves face to face with jelly fish - lots of jelly fish. John doesn't think it's so terrible, but I have to admit it doesn't take many jelly fish to freak me out. So far I've come up with four different species. We identify one of them as "string of pearls" since it's the one that looks like a thin clear piece of line with small brownish dots at intervals along the line. These range anywhere from three inches to two feet long, and are especially frightening looking when you can see their short clear tentacles. The tentacles are only an inch or two long, but John says he's seen tiny fish trapped in them. The other really dangerous one (okay, so I've only seen one in this anchorage so far) is the translucent blue bubble on the surface with dark blue tentacles hanging down from it. Those are supposed to be really painful. There are two others which I don't know anything about. One is golf ball sized, completely clear, and looks kind of like a Chinese lantern. There are lots of these in the water here, so I must have brushed through them without any sting. The one I spotted this morning is something I first noticed when we left Barra de Navidad because there were tons of them out around the point there. It's like a clear nickel sized disc with something brownish in the center. The odd thing is that I've seen them in both single units and multiples attached like rope up to two feet long. I'm not sure I'll be snorkeling today.

Yesterday we took our friends, Roy and Marlene from Jellybean, for our third hike on the beautifully landscaped dirt roads to nowhere in Rancho Majagua. We tried a different fork in the road and once again didn't make it to the end before giving up and turning around. This road stayed right above the coast line headed North, and we turned around when we were almost even with Piedra Blanca. We were almost back to what we assume is the "main" road, possibly leading up to the highway, when a truck with three people in it came roaring up from the direction of the beach. The driver spotted us, screeched to a halt, and backed down to us at high speed. I waved and smiled, happy to finally find someone we could talk to about what this place was all about. But it was immediately evident that this was one pissed off Mexican. His English was limited but he spoke no Spanish to us (even though we were speaking a little to him to start off with). The gist of his tirade was, did we have a problem (which we later understood to mean, did we have a problem understanding that we were trespassing - not, was everything okay), this was private property, even without posted signs it was "logical" that it was private, he had better not see us there again, and "Go back to your boats!"

What left me shaking was that he was clearly so angry with us. This was the first time we'd ever encountered a local who wasn't friendly, even when giving us a gentle admonishment for whatever minor offense we'd committed. Needless to say we analyzed the incident as we hurried the rest of the way back to the beach. The group consensus was that a) he was just a gardener on a power trip, b) he was a caretaker who feared for his job because we had breached security, or c) he had been most worried about us stumbling upon an illegal activity of some sort way back in the woods that might have gotten us into even more trouble. The latter never would have occurred to me, but it seemed to be the most popular conclusion. Or maybe we've all seen too many movies.

Linda and John

Blog-able Day

4 January 2006
Ensenada Carrizal, Jalisco Coast (100 miles S of Puerto Vallarta)

Well looking at our last blog entry it seems we've been absent for a little too long. You'd think that with the holidays we'd have more than enough to write about but the fact is that we really don't have that much special happening.

That was, until yesterday. But I'll get to that in a minute.

We went from Tenacatita to Barra de Navidad on December 23rd after receiving some boat parts from our friends on Jellybean. They personally delivered them to us after carrying these parts all the way from La Paz. The parts had been carried from San Diego to La Paz by another cruiser and arrived after we left La Paz. That's how we get the things we can't get in Mexico - kind of like the Pony Express.

Anyway, we made it into the Barra de Navidad lagoon without running aground in the narrow muddy channel. Which, judging by the number of boats that ran aground while we were there (one of them twice), can be a very difficult thing to do. After getting settled we took care of the necessities first - laundry, vegetable shopping, and eating out - then took care of less important shopping later in the week.

We spent Christmas day at a potluck dinner with the rest of the cruisers in Barra de Navidad. Two turkeys, baked by a local restaurant, cost the group $60 USD but came stuffed Mexican style with potatoes, bread, chorrizo, olives and raisins. Each person had to chip in $2.50 to cover the price of the turkey, which was a little strange for a potluck, but we all got plenty to eat and drink so I guess it was worth it.

We ended up staying in Barra longer than we had intended and were there for New Year's Eve too. The town pulled out all the stops, complete with a 10 second fireworks show followed by numerous celebratory gun shots. We watched and listened from the comfort (and safety) of our bed.

We departed Barra for Santiago Bay on the 2nd of January and again managed to make it out the narrow channel without running aground. That's four transits without a problem. We started off motoring but eventually the wind built enough for us to set the drifter and the main and we sailed the rest of the way.

The first little sub-bay on entering Santiago Bay is call Ensenada Carrizal. We decided to check it out and what a jewel we found. I'm not sure why this place isn't more popular, maybe it's because there's absolutely nothing here. Which of course is exactly why we like it so much. There are no shore side discos blasting music until all hours. There are no beach vendors selling things you don't need. There are no jet skis, water skiers or banana boats. There is no night time brush burning to drop soot all over the decks. No dogs barking at night or roosters crowing before dawn. There's not even anything in the water - it's crystal clear. Heck, we could get used to this kind of nothing!

We have snorkeled each day since being here and have added three new species of fish to our 'seen it' list: Barber fish, Zebra Moray and Gold Rimmed Surgeon fish.

Yesterday I noticed something that looked like an empty lot on a hill over the bay and we took the dinghy ashore to investigate. It turns out there was probably supposed to be a private development (Rancho Majagua) here at one time but the only evidence are dirt roads (some complete with landscaping and curbs) and road signs. The signs point you to condominiums, lots for sale, and beaches but when we walk the roads they just end in a turn around. No buildings or other signs of development. The best thing is that these roads run through some pretty virgin forest. The flowers are in bloom everywhere and at times we would be walking through clouds of butterflies. Pretty cool. We spent three hours walking the roads today and the closest we came to another person was hearing a Mexican work crew working on some power lines across the valley.

All of this is quite out of the ordinary for the Mexican mainland - we're thinking about staying awhile.

John and Linda

Serendipity

15 December 2005
Tenacatita

We enjoyed our time in Bahia Chamela, and this time spent most nights anchored off of the village of Punta Perula (aka La Fortuna). One windy day put us on a lee shore so we moved out to the islands for a night, and visited our second favorite deserted beach. The water temp is in the high 70's so we're swimming every day again, which is practically a necessity given the much higher humidity. Unfortunately the two things I most wanted to do in Punta Perula didn't work out this visit. The panaderia (normally open only on the weekends) was closed because the baker was in Guadalajara, and our favorite taco place (again open only on Saturday and Sunday nights) didn't open until 8 PM which was just too late for us to bother with by ourselves. The only reason we even discovered it last year is because we got to drinking margaritas on Maggie Drum and went in to town so late that it was about the only thing still open!

The best thing about our visit occurred by pure chance on Sunday night. First we decided not to go in to town for tacos. Then we turned down a dinner invitation from Secret O' Life (that's how tired we were from the long hike we took with them in the afternoon). Long after sunset we were hailed by them on the VHF to turn on our Christmas lights, which we'd forgotten to do, so there was some chit-chat on the radio with them about how everyone's lights looked. If it hadn't been for all of the above we never would have received a hail from Finisterre letting us know that they had arrived in the anchorage after dark (so they didn't know we were there until they heard us on the radio) and were leaving before dawn the next morning! Their dinghy was stowed on deck so we rowed over for a visit and got to see the "new" Finisterre, glowing white in the moonlight. Yes, since they're headed for Central America Mike convinced Kay to give up their hot dark blue hull for the coolness of white. It looks great and they had only good things to say about the work done by Opequimar in Puerto Vallarta. It was a bittersweet visit since we know we won't be seeing them for some time, but I would have been so disappointed to have missed them. Talk about almost passing ships in the night!

From Chamela we sailed to Careyes on Tuesday and spotted five turtles along the way, two of which appeared to be very attached to each other, we hope on purpose. Careyes is a beautiful spot but the sound and sight of surf pounding on the surrounding rocks (which are lit by spotlights at night!) is unnerving to say the least. We anchored in front of the deserted Club Med where there is only a little sand covering the coral. Our stern anchor drug a bit during the night which put us sideways to the large swell. We ferried 50 gallons of water from the hose at the cement pad near the base of the center palm tree on Playa Rosa. This was accomplished by anchoring the dinghy outside the surf at high tide. I jumped in the surf and waded to shore to fetch the hose and wade it back out to John in the dinghy, where he filled our five garrafons. During our second trip we watched the photo shoot in the corner of the beach. Everyone was fully clothed so guess it wasn't a swimsuit shoot!

After clearing the anchorage we set sail at 11 AM from Careyes bound for Tenacatita. Had a lovely slow sail with our big jib until it got really light and John set the spinnaker. Saw whales, rays, bill fish, and dolphins, but no turtles (attached or otherwise). Unfortunately the breeze was too light by the time we rounded the corner into the bay and we had to motor the last 45 minutes to the anchorage. We are set bow and stern anchor close against the western shore (Dragonfly's spot last year) with seven other boats. We'll probably stay here until Overheated arrives from La Paz with our goodies, and then go into Barra de Navida a few days before Christmas.

Linda and John

Skype survey

We recently downloaded Skype to our computer and opened an account with them. We were hoping to be able to use it to call friends and family whenever we have internet access, rather than using the expensive Ladatel phone cards here (.50/minute to the U.S.). We didn't have too much luck using the wireless internet at Marina Palmira in La Paz, calling from our computer to a landline. Voice transmission was in and out and often the person we called couldn't hear us at all. We know it depends mostly on the amount of bandwidth available, but we're hoping that a computer to computer transmission will work better than calling land (or cell) lines.

So all you friends and family out there - let us know what your experience has been using Skype, and email us your account name so we can try calling you from Barra de Navidad (our next opportunity for internet)!

Linda

Passage Observations

6 December 2005
Pacific Ocean South of Cabo Corrientes

This is the fourth day of our non-stop passage from Muertos on the Baja peninsula to Punta Perula (Chamela) on the mainland coast of Mexico (south of Puerto Vallarta). We're both a little sleep deprived but still in good spirits. This has been an easier passage than others even with all the sailing we're doing. It's been a bit rolly in the downwind parts (most of it) but it's basically been one tack without too many sail changes, and no winds over 15-18 knots. Although there have been several times (like now) when last year we would have motored through the slow bits, we have finally learned to slow down and take the wind we're given. I think our summer in the Sea of Cortez really helped us over that hump. As long as we have no reason to hurry, what's the rush? A slow spinnaker sail is much more pleasant than listening to the engine for hours.

Late last night we re-entered the area with what I have dubbed "paparazzi fish." This is a phenomenon in the ocean which looks like basketball sized flash bulbs going off underwater. It can last for several minutes and we assume it must be fish disturbing the phosphorescence in the water. During my second night watch last night there were dozens of these surrounding the boat, and then they were joined by the bigger cannonball flashes and glittering white torpedo streaks of dolphins playing with the boat. What was interesting about this (other than the fact that it was incredibly beautiful) was that as the dolphins eventually disappeared so did the smaller flash bulbs. Leaves you wondering where the party went.

As reported earlier by John, he found a flying fish on deck this morning. Later I looked up just in time to admire one flying along above the water's surface when all of a sudden it took a wrong turn and landed clear up on the cabin top. We had already eaten lunch so I threw it back over the side. They are really beautiful little fish, about 4-6 inches and a deep sea blue color.

7 December
At anchor off of Punta Perula

About an hour after writing the above yesterday the wind died and we had to turn on the engine. So we mostly motored after sunset and finally slowly picked our way into the anchorage. If anything bad had happened people probably would have said it was our own fault - heavy overcast blocked all starlight, we were tired, and it was the dead of night. But in our favor we had two navigation tracks on the computer from our previous visits, GPS, radar, depth sounder, calm wind and seas, and slow ahead speed with me up on the bow periodically shining a spot light out ahead. Had the weather deteriorated we would have stood off until sunrise, but as it was we dropped the hook at 0230 this morning and crawled into bed soon after.

The jet lag feeling and another heavy overcast day didn't prevent us from stowing sails, cleaning up the boat, reassembling the dinghy, and jumping in for a swim to another boat to introduce ourselves - all before lunchtime! It's good to be back on the mainland for a change, but it feels very strange to me after being in Baja for so long. Smells different, looks different, is more humid, and even the water feels different (I think it's less salty here). Will be fun to explore it again now that we are "sophomores."

Linda and John

Arrived

Well we arrived early this morning at about 0300 after a slightly tense entry into the bay. There is 100% cloud cover, no moon and Chamela Bay has no lights to help with the entrance. If we hadn't had our previous tracks to follow (the computer stores every place Nakia goes) we would not have attempted the entry. We just took it slow and let the autopilot steer the boat along our previous route and had no problems what so ever.

We have nothing planned for today, that is we intend to do exactly nothing, except eat a hot meal and take a hot shower.

It's still cloudy with a little rain now and again so it's a good day for being quiet anyway.

John and Linda

Almost there

We have about 70 miles left to go and should arrive some time before midnight. We're not too worried about entering Chamela at night, it's our policy not to enter a strange harbor at night or in adverse weather, because we've been in Chamela twice and have very good GPS tracks for both times.

The wind died early this morning and after and hour of 'playing' with the sails (shaking out a reef, polling out the Jib, reefing again, pulling in the pole) I gave up and started the motor. We only had to run for 2 hours under power before the wind filled in again and we set sail.

Linda saved a flying fish from our decks yesterday, Nakia probably frightened him and in his hast to evade us he ran head long into the cabin side. She was right there to put him back into the sea before he ran out of air. Unfortunately she wasn't around early this morning when a small squid landed on deck. I found him this morning nearly dried on the side deck (too old to cook for breakfast :-)

We'll make one more update to YOTREPS from Chamela and then that will be our last report to them, hope that's made following our progress easier for everyone.

John and Linda

Better wind, rougher sea

The fun ended yesterday just before sunset. The wind had finally built to 15-18 out of the NE and we were really moving along when the seas began to build too. By midnight we were rolling badly and had to double reef the main to keep it from blanketing the jib. If there's any silver lining in this cloud it's that we were really moving the whole night doing 5-6 knots for over 12 hours straight. If we can keep 5 knots up we should be in Chamela Tuesday afternoon. That would suit me fine as I have trouble sleeping when the sea is this rough, and am a little sleep deprived already.

PB&J for dinner last night, yep it was rough. This morning Neptune delivered a flying fish on deck for breakfast. Looked like it had been there for awhile so we passed.

John and Linda

Progress, slow but progress

We sailed 19 out of 24 hours yesterday. Unfortunately most of it was to weather. Once the wind came up after leaving Muertos it was from the SE, exactly the direction we wanted to go. So we spent all day and a long way into the night sailing close hauled. It wasn't that bad, except for right at sunset when the wind built to 15 kts. This doesn't sound like much but we have the big jib on and that really is the top of its wind range.

After sunset the wind shifted a little into the south so we were able to make better progress towards our destination. At 0200 the wind finally gave up (after we had four hours of average 2.3 knots) and we started the motor.

The best thing is the seas have been flat and sailing so close to the wind the boat hardly rolls, so sleeping is very comfortable.

Today the wind is light (maybe 5-8 knots) and out of the NE so we are close reaching directly toward our destination. Will hopefully be there on Wednesday.

Chicken Teriyaki for lunch today with lots of broccoli, yes it's that calm.

John and Linda

Slow Start

Well we got under way for Chamela this morning at 0900 local and the wind promptley built from the SE. Just the direction we want to go. So we're sailing slowly (3-4 knots) hard on the wind trying to make some progress without having to run the motor.

The wind is supposed to fill in from the north soon.

Arrived at Muertos

We arrived at Muertos after a long day of motoring, only sailed 3 hours out of 12. It will be good to get under way after a good nights sleep though, the weather forecast continues to be favorable for our trip south.

Caught a small Dorado outside of La Paz, but couldn't get it in the boat, it shook off the hook. Also two small Sierra, but we're not interested in them any more.

Just keeping you all updated...

John and Linda

Tracking NAKIA on the web

While we're at sea we'll be posting regular position reports to YOTREPS

To see where we are go to http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=WBD3734

John and Linda

Pictures, finally.

Hi Everyone,
We're getting ready to leave La Paz tomorrow morning and make our 3 day crossing to Chamela. Since we have such good internet access here in Marina Palmira we've decided to share some of our most recent pictures with you. They are posted most recent first - hope that's not too confusing, but that's how the blog is. (Muchas gracias to SolMate, Milagro, Slip Away, and Ceilidh for use of several of the photos posted here! )

We should arrive in Chamela (south of Puerto Vallarta) on Tuesday or Wednesday, and we'll be sure to keep the blog up to date during our passage.

John and Linda

View from the top of the hill over Marina Palmira. La Paz is out to the left, and the land in the background on the right is 'El Magote,' a peninsula that makes up the northern shore of Bahia de La Paz.

Sailing in the Sea of Cortez is not all light winds and fair weather as the skipper of See Ya, a Newport 30, found out on a dark and windy night just last week. He was entering the La Paz channel at 2 am when he strayed into shallow water and ran aground. High wind and powerful waves soon broke the keel and rudder and drove the boat onto the shore. The next morning several local cruisers worked to salvage anything valuable. The boat, uninsured, is a total loss.

The Sea Ya having her mast removed.

Here's the view from the top of Isla San Francisco. This is looking North. The Baja is on the left. In the foreground is tiny Goat Island where a dozen or so families make their homes. In the background on the right is Isla San Jose.

After sailing from Bahia Salinas we anchored off a special place called Moon Cove. The attraction there is an incredible arroyo made of white sandstone, shell fossils and volcanic rock. We spent a beautiful afternoon hiking in the arroyo and taking picktures. Here's a closeup of a scallop shell embedded in the sandstone.

John stopping for a drink of water near a cactus. The walls in this part of the trail are pure white sand.

Here's Linda showing off her rock climbing skills in one of the water fall coves.

Linda on the rocks again.

Linda and MJ taking a break on the 'Park Bench'.

More rock formation at Moon Cove.

Here are John and Stan showing that they can climb rocks too.

More rock formations at Moon Cove.

Here's John trying to figure out how to get over the hump.

More Sea of Cortez sailing. This time from Bahia Salinas to Moon Cove. This time we're using our big jib instead of the drifter. Linda's at her usual spot on the bow.

We took a walk around the abandoned town of Bahia Salinas on Isla Carmen. This was a salt production plant where they evaporated sea water on the low land and skimmed off the salt. It closed some time ago when another plant on the Baja opened up. All the buildings still exist and it's a fun little ghost town to explore.

The heavy equipment was left pretty much where it stood. Over time the caretaker started planting cactus in the forklifts.

Here's Linda steering one of the fork lifts. It's obvious why she didn't sit in the driver's seat.

We had a beach potluck party to celebrate the demise of hurricane Otis. Jan from Slip Away handed out Tootsie Pops - Linda and I got the 'blue tongue' kind.

Here we all are at the 'big restaurtant'. Burgers and beers for about $5 per person.

A trip into town for tacos. It's a short 5 mile drive on dirt roads from SoBLA to town, but we're all cozy in the back of the truck and Jay is a good, slow driver.

Another light breeze sail in Bahia de Los Angeles. Linda takes it easy in the shade of the drifter.

We took a long walk along the shore at Bahia Pescador. Here Linda shows off her balancing ability using her umbrella to steady herself. (Normally she uses the umbrella for shade.)

Here's one of the rock pillars we found along the shore.

We dressed this cactus up for a pic.

Here's a picture from one of the tougher hikes we did. This is above Puerto Don Juan. ALl of these rocks are 1-2 ft square and offer good footing. You have to be careful though because the gaps between the rocks are big and you can easily twist an ankle if you mis-step.

Here's another pic of the hills above Puerto Don Juan. This is Stan picking his way down.

We had a potluck beach party for Jo's birthday. Here's a picture of the men folk. Left to right: Darrel from Over Heated, Bob from Nuestra Isla, Lance from Milagro, Ed from Easy III, Stan from SolMate, Jay from Ceilidh, and John from Nakia.

Here's a picture of the women of the Sea of Cortez. Left to right: Jennifer from Nuestra Isla, Linda from Nakia, Rita from Over Heated, Jo from Milagro, Janice from Ceilidh, and MJ from SolMate.

I went out fishing one morning to catch 'whatever' and was surprised to hook this nice dorado. The strange part about catching this fish was 1) it was from the dinghy and 2) it was only about 50 ft off the shore!

Sailing in Bahia de Los Angeles was often light and mild. Here NAKIA sails out of the anchorage at sunrise with nothing other than the drifter for a sail. The wind was 1-3 knots and the water was absolutely flat.

We like to do a lot of hiking on the Baja. Here's a picture of our favorite hiking buddies on a hill overlooking Bahia de Los Angeles. Left to right, John, Stan, Linda, and MJ.

This is the view out of the little anchorage of Pata and Bota at sunrise. This spot is just big enough for one or two boats and is very sheltered from the North and South. We liked it a lot.

Here is a picture of NAKIA at sunrise in Pata and Bota.