Local Attractions

September 22, 2005

We left La Mona early in the morning, sailing off the anchor using only the drifter. We only had about five nm to go to get to our destination, and with all day to get there we didn't mind going slow. Everything was going well, we only had another mile or so to go, when I noticed the unmistakable sound of bees buzzing around the boat. The sound grew stronger and stronger, but I couldn't really locate where the bees were. Finally I looked up at the top of the mast and saw a swarm of 25-50 bees buzzing around up there. The wind was very light so they were easily able to keep up with NAKIA. We watched them for awhile and then decided we had to do something. They were starting to land and looked like they were getting ready to set up housekeeping. We started the engine and motored toward the only wind we could see. Slowly the bees dropped away until all of them were gone. Too bad we weren't able to sail all the way but at least we didn't have a bee hive in our mast.

After dodging the bees we headed into the anchorage in front of the town of Bahia de Los Angeles, population approximately 500. Commonly referred to as 'The Village' it has about five stores, one paved road, and one stop sign. It's the only place within 80 miles to get provisions and while the pickings are usually slim, if you're patient and go to all five stores you can usually find enough fresh veggies to keep you happy. We didn't really need fresh food so we went for the other main attraction. Two for one margaritas, and tacos from the roadside taco stand. Our social director, Jo, decided that to avoid the rush we'd go have 2 for 1 margaritas at one of the motels first. By the time we finished there, and had walked down the road to the taco place, it was 8:10 PM and the proprietress had closed up shop and was backing out in her truck to go home. We walked on a little farther to a place that another couple had recommended for hamburgers and fries, which was still open. Our six orders took awhile to prepare but everything was good and worth the wait so we didn't mind.

The next morning we had a date to meet at 8:00 for two stops, 1) breakfast at the motel with the two for one margaritas and 2) a visit to the local museum. The breakfast was excellent (yes we had breakfast, not margaritas)! Linda says it was one of the best meals we've had anywhere. She had chilaquiles, which are basically pieces of tortilla fried up with onion, mixed with salsa and cheese, and can be topped by two fried eggs. Yummy. The museum was nicely done for a place this size and had a great collection of shells and their identifications. Now we know what we've been picking up off the beaches.

That evening we finally got to try the fabled tacos, but we both thought the adobada (marinated pork) and carne asada were a bit greasy and fatty. Guess we'll have to go back to the motel for more chilaquiles and margaritas instead!

John and Linda

Jacuzzi at La Mona

September 19, 2005

We pulled anchor after four nights in Quemado and set sail (literally) for La Mona, inside Bahia Los Angeles. The sailing in this area is pretty nice. Winds in the morning are generally light, but destinations are usually very close (we sailed 8.7 nm to get from Quemado to La Mona) so we don't mind spending all morning going slowly. The best thing is that once you get in the bay, the water is usually very calm. There's no swell and the chop is low or non-existent. It's like sailing on a lake! Our trip to La Mona was one of the faster ones we've done, taking only two hrs to go 8.7 nm (4.3 kt average) and we did it almost entirely under sail. We only had to start the motor for the last 100 yards or so to get the anchor down.

The big attraction at La Mona is the 'Jacuzzi', a small lagoon behind the beach that fills with water during high tides and then empties, creating a whirling stream of water where beach goers can sit and be massaged by the soothing flow. Or so we were told. We got to La Mona a couple of days after the highest tides and, not knowing exactly when to go or how to sit and be massaged, we arrived near the top of the flood. The incoming tide at this point could hardly be referred to as a 'stream' so we splashed about in the water near the beach and planned to come back during the ebb. Then we thought for sure we would be massaged by the soothing flow. We arrived back on the beach having had lunch and headed directly for the Jacuzzi. Imagine our disappointment when we saw only a small stream of water making its way from the lagoon. Surely, THIS isn't the soothing flow, we thought, but we entered the water anyway and attempted to make the best of our situation. Desperately hoping that we didn't look to the other beach goers like two kids sitting in a street gutter after a rain storm.

After returning to NAKIA we decided we needed professional help (no, not that kind of professional help). We enlisted our friends Stan and MJ from SolMate, who are veteran Jacuzzi goers, to come and show us how and when to be massaged by the soothing flow. They arrived the next day and we prepared to have the best beach day possible. We packed a picnic basket, set up our beach umbrellas, put our beach chairs in the sand, put on sunscreen, and waited while the lagoon filled to its maximum height. Then waited more, with the pause at high tide stalling the eventual ebb, only increasing our anticipation. Finally the ebb started and, the critical moment having arrived, we placed our bodies in the stream for maximum relaxation. The ebb built to a mild stream and we had a good time drifting down and sitting in the water. It was fun, to be truthful, but not the soothing flow we'd been expecting. It turns out that two or three days ago, when the tide was at its maximum, we really would have had something to talk about. But the tides were not so high now and as a result we didn't really get the best of the Jacuzzi. Maybe next year.

John and Linda

More Fishing

September 16, 2005

The reason we went from Alacran to Quemado was to celebrate Jo's (Milagro) birthday. Lance, Jo's husband, secretly sent out emails and radio messages to other friends so we could have a surprise party on the beach. Of course Jo figured it out when all these boats that she hadn't seen in a long time started arriving in the bay, but we had a good party even though it wasn't much of a surprise. The men gathered up a bunch of wood and we set up a table on the beach for a potluck. Dinner was wonderful, as all potlucks are, and Nakia served brownies for Jo's birthday cake. We didn't have candles so I held a miniature butane lighter for Jo to blow out after we sang Happy Birthday to her. Cruising is all about improvising...

My main entertainment is fishing. Sometimes I get up early in the morning and troll along the shore to catch grouper and trigger fish, other times I wait for dusk and try for yellow tail and rooster fish along the beach. Well, one morning I went out looking for whatever I could catch, working in and out of the shore. I was catching a few fish, but mostly trigger fish which I wasn't interested in keeping and barracuda, which I wish would find some way to get themselves off the hook so I don't have to handle their slimy bodies. I was about ready to give up and go back to NAKIA when I hooked a pretty big fish, it started pulling line off the reel, and then far back behind the boat I saw a fish leap from the water. At first I thought I'd hooked a large yellow tail but it soon became clear that it was a dorado, hooked within 50 ft of shore! I fought it to the dinghy, identified it as a female, about 38-40 inches long. I don't like keeping female dorado, one female fish can make a lot of baby fish, so I decided to release it if I could. I finally got ahold of its tail and got the hook out and then went about the process of reviving it. When you fight large fish to exhaustion it can take a long time for them to recover, usually I hold the fish horizontally in the water and move it's tail back and forth like it's swimming. This is supposed to stimulate water flow over the gills and help it pump blood to weary muscles. The problem was that it wasn't working, this fish was not waking up. Not only that but a sea lion had noticed me and was swimming around under the dinghy just waiting for me to let go! I tried for another few minutes and finally came to the decision that either the sea lion could eat the dorado or I could, and I'd much rather I ate it. So off to NAKIA we went for a date with the fillet knife.

John and Linda

The latest

Well, it's been awhile since I've updated the blog. I'd like to say it's because we've been too busy, but I know you all would just laugh at the outrageousness of that (how can two people without jobs, kids, or schedule be too busy to do anything). So I'll just say it's because I haven't been in the creative writing mood lately.

After our crossing from San Carlos we met up with Milagro and SolMate at Isla Partida. There's another, better known, Isla Partida just outside of La Paz but this Isla Partida is special in it's own right. It reminded me most of the island of Molikini off shore from Maui. It has the same shape, almost as if it were once a volcano and one side of the crater washed away opening up a 'U' shaped bay. We rafted up to SolMate when we got there to pass off all their treasures from the States as well a few 'bonus prizes' we brought back with us. Milagro came over too, and we had a little party watching Stan put together his new fans. Unfortunately the wind came up out of the north (that's where the 'U' is open) and we had to leave the next morning because of the chop driving into the bay.

Our next stop was Ensenada Alacran where we spent four peaceful nights. Backed by a large white sand beach and a small eco-resort (10 yurts and a hut) Alacran was a great place for fishing, swimming and diving. Of course I'm not qualified to do the latter so I was happy playing support crew for Lance and Stan while they swam around in the briny deep. One of their dives was for large 'free swimming' scallops and they managed to bring back enough so each couple could have 4. Now 4 scallops doesn't sound like a lot, but these are BIG, one scallop gives 3-4 ounces of meat, so four is about all two people can eat. When Lance brought his load up to the dinghy he began examining them closely, explaining that when one is down on the bottom it's hard to tell if the scallop is alive or just an empty shell. He threw out a few empties and gave me four which seemed good. We took them back to the boats to clean them and having done my first three easily I started puzzling over the fourth. The first three opened without much of a fight but the fourth wasn't even starting to open. As an experiment I put my knife in at the hinge of the shell and gave a twist and the shell popped right open. However, the inside of the scallop didn't look like the others, in fact it looked like something else entirely. Gently opening the shell, I peeked inside and found a small octopus staring back at me with several egg sacks attached to the inside of the shell. The octopus was holding the shell closed as hard as it could, presumably four legs on the top half and four on the bottom. I showed my discovery to Linda, and then slipped the expectant mother and her brood back into the water where they can finish their development in peace.

There are places to stay all over in this area, probably 30 anchorages in a 60 square mile area. So the next spot 'down the road' is usually only 5-10 miles away making it easy to sail from one spot to the next. This is just what we did to go from Ensenada Alacran to Bahia El Quemado, a whopping six nautical mile jaunt. Amazingly, we actually passed a third anchorage on our way, El Pescador. Since we weren't going far we decided to sail the whole way, even if it meant having to go very slowly. We set our nylon drifter and sailed at speeds anywhere from 1.0 to 4.5 kts and made it to Bahia El Quemado in two and a half hours sailing 7.0 nautical miles to get there. We used the engine when pulling the anchor, but dropped the anchor under sail. All this slow sailing was very amusing to our buddy boats, Milagro and SolMate. We were the brunt of several comments about being purists. That's okay, I'll get them back when they have to lug diesel fuel from the Pemex to their boats in jerry jugs when they have to refuel.

John and Linda

Travel Log

I've been thinking about our visit to the USA and thought you guys might be interested in some of the statistics.

We traveled approximately 4000 miles.

We bought 15 tanks of gasoline for two different cars.

On our return trip we carried approximately 1000 lbs of food and equipment in our truck including:

6 gal of motor oil
75 ft of anchor chain
5 ea 70 lb batteries
25 lbs of cous cous
25 lbs of granola
32 cans of Albacore tuna
8 swimming noodles
10 splash bombs
50 lbs of cat litter

We started and finished in San Carlos, Sonora, MX and made stops at the following cities:

Tijuana, BC, MX
San Diego, CA
Long Beach, CA
Redwood City, CA
Weed, CA
Grant's Pass, OR
Milwaukie, OR
Vancouver, WA
Seattle, WA
Winslow, WA
Pendleton, OR
Bend, OR
Fremont, CA
Redwood City, CA (return trip)
Tracy, CA
Oxnard, CA
Tucson, AZ
Nogales, AZ

We slept in one bus, one boat, three campgrounds, one hotel, seven houses, one apartment, and one motel:

Mexican Bus 1 night - August 5
Patti's house 1 night - August 6
Sharon's boat 1 night - August 7
Oregon campground 1 night - August 8
Washington campground 1 night - August 9
Seattle hotel 3 nights - August 10,11,12
Linda B.'s apartment 1 night - August 13
Lucks' beach house 1 night - August 14
Leslie and Tom's house 4 nights - August 15,16,17,18
Oregon campground 1 night - August 19
Frank and Lynn's house 4 nights - August 20,21,22,23
Eliza's house 4 nights - August 24,25,26,27
Patrick and Gina's house 1 night - August 28
Len and Norma's house 2 nights - August 29,30
Tucson motel 1 night - August 31

Thanks to all our family and friends for their kindness and generosity during our mega visit to the wonderful West Coast - we couldn't have done it without you!

John and Linda

Back in Baja

8:00 AM September 9, 2005
28 degrees 45' N, 113 degrees 02' W
Underway from Bahia San Francisquito to Isla Partida (Norte)

We moved out of Marina Real on September 5 as planned, after unloading and stowing everything from the truck, and buying more provisions to fill the larder. We used to list to starboard but now we really list to port because of the five batteries for SolMate stored on that side. After wrapping up all the final arrangements for storing the truck, and getting everything we needed before we left the big city, we departed the San Carlos area on September 7 for an anchorage 20 miles north (Las Cocinas). This gave us a better start position for the crossing to Baja.

John talked to Don Anderson, S/V Summer Pasage, (aka The Weather Guy) and got an all clear for no chubasco activity forecast for that night, so we were underway at 9:30 PM. It turned out to be a very monotonous motor trip with glassy seas all night and the next day. The only event to break the boredom was another 30" male dorado which John brought aboard at 11:00 on September 8. We didn't get any wind until we approached the anchorage at 1:00 PM, and then there was a good land breeze creating too much chop to swim in the cool water - 80 degrees!

Last night we didn't get much sleep when the boat started to roll sideways to the swell at around 11:30 PM. We got up at 3:00 AM to get underway for Isla Partida, where we're meeting SolMate and Milagro with their goodies from the States. It's been another long motor sail today and we're pretty tired after two nights of not much sleep. We're really looking forward to staying put in one place for several days after we get to Partida!

Linda and John

Hola from San Carlos

Well, we made it back to Mexico safe and sound and without having to pay any duty at the border. The only hiccup was the hour and a half it took us to get the Temporary Import Permit for the truck. It should have been simple, but we didn't have our passports, or our original birth certificates, and they didn't like the copies we presented. John finally stressed the fact that we already had our FM-3 visas, and he eventually got the TIP.

It was 95 degrees down in the cabin, but except for a fishy smell from the chain locker, all is well with the boat. We put some things away, but are saving most of it for what we hope will be a somewhat cooler morning.

Just a quick one to let everyone know where we are again!

Linda and John

Mosquitoes and Rain and Bears, oh my!

August 9, 2005
Seaquest Washington State Park, about 150 miles South of Seattle

We didn't have far to go from Portland to Seattle, but didn't want to arrive in Seattle before our motel check-in time, so we decided to find a camp ground somewhere in the middle. There were a couple of possibilities and we stopped at Seaquest first.

Seaquest, contrary to its name, is nowhere near the ocean. It's about 15 miles east of I-5, on the highway to Mount St. Helens. From the entry kiosk it looked like a nice park, so we headed into the camp ground to set up. On the way in we passed a bicyclist heading out of the tent camping area carrying all his camping gear. This should have been our first warning. We pulled into our camp site at around 4:30 PM and I started setting up while Linda wandered off to find the bathroom. When she got back she said there was a group of bicyclists leaving their camp site all complaining about the mosquitoes. Linda asked them, 'What time do the mosquitoes come out?' thinking that they would, as usual, come out at dusk. The cyclist replied, 'They're out now!' Of course I already knew that, because of the swarm buzzing around me as I set up the tent. Linda madly searched the camping gear for some bug repellant and found some years old industrial strength stuff which seemed to dissuade the little beasts even though I'm sure it was well past its expiration date.

Our first disaster averted we sat down (in the tent) to read and while away the evening hours. After a nice hot shower and a bite to eat we bedded down for a cozy nights sleep... which was interrupted at about 1:00 AM by the sound of some slobbery animal nosing around outside the tent. Linda was the first to awake, which was amazing because she can sleep through a gale on NAKIA, and promptly roused me with an urgent whisper, 'John, there's an animal outside the tent!' Being not too very awake, I listened carefully and found that whatever it was was either getting quieter or farther away. I sat for a few seconds and confirmed what I suspected - the animal gave us a slobbery sniff or two, decided we were not good to eat and moved on. I then told Linda to go back to sleep. She never follows my advice on these things so while I reacquainted myself with the inside of my eyelids she sat awake making sure the animal didn't change its mind about its dinner options.

The night went quietly by for another couple of hours until I was awakened by a loud splat somewhere near the tent. I sat up and waited and heard another, then another. It was raining, and I hadn't put the rain cover over the tent the night before. The only thing we had between our nice dry sleeping bags and the rain clouds was a layer of no-see-um netting. So I put my shoes on, not bothering with my pants, and hastily threw the rain cover over the tent while Linda slept soundly in her bag. I guess I should have made some bear noises if I wanted to get her attention.

John and Linda

Moving North

August 8, 2005
Vally of the Rogue Oregon State Park
About 250 miles South of Portland

We started our long trip North from San Diego on Saturday afternoon. We didn't have far to go the first day, just to Long Beach to spend the night with Linda's friend Patti. We got to see the results of the extensive renovation done on the house; when we were there many years ago it was just getting started.

We left Patti's house early the next morning (Sunday) and enjoyed a very quick trip into the Bay Area, only 6.5 hours drive from Long Beach. We were amazed that we didn't have any heavy traffic in the LA area or in the Bay Area. We spent the night on Mrs. Robinson (that's a boat, not a person) after having dinner with friends at our favorite U.S. taqueria, La Azteca in Redwood City.

Monday morning found us in line at the DMV before it opened. We want to get our truck back on the road and before we would be able to do that we had to get it registered. When we left it at my sister's house we submitted a certificate of non-opperation. This allowed us to keep from registering it, or so we thought. After standing in line at the DMV we were informed that since we only had it in non-op for 11 months, we had to pay regististration on the 11 months. So we didn't save anything. That's the DMV for you.

After the DMV we made a trip to the Post Office to turn in applications for new passports. That only took a short time so we were on the road to OR before 9:30. Once again we didn't have any traffic to speak of and made it all the way to the Rogue River before we stopped for the night. On the way we couldn't resist stopping for hamburgers at the Weed bowling alley, the best burgers, fries and shakes in Northern California. The camp site at Valley of the Rogue was quiet and clean and there were hardly any mosquitoes in the evening, perfect for a couple of out of practice campers.

The next day we got going bright and early to get to the Portland area to pick up the truck from my sister's house. This we did and then headed to the airport to drop off the rental car. This seemingly simple activity was complicated by having to FIND the rental car office. Which, after driving around the airport, we found is not located at the airport and instead is located in a hotel complex some 3 miles east. We almost had to pay for an extra day because of traffic getting to the return counter.

We made it though and then returned to Milwaulkie to go to Bob's Red Mill for food for the boat. We like a lot of stuff at Bob's Red Mill, especially the Cous Cous and Granola. So, we bought 25 lb bags of both. That may seem like a lot of Cous Cous and Granola (no, we don't mix them together) but we're going to be away from this kind of thing for at least another year so we need to get stocked up.

Our final erand in the Portland area was to investigate puting a cover over the bed of the truck. We'd been thinking about this for awhile and when we noticed a place along the highway that sold pickup tops we decided to stop in and take a look. We were met by a very nice salesman who, after listening to what we wanted, told me it would be about $800 USD to put a shell over the bed of my truck. Now, since the truck itself isn't worth more than $2000 USD, I didn't want to put that much into it. After informing the nice salesman, he remembered a used shell they had in the back - price: $250. Much better. Of course we wouldn't have our choice of color or model, but we could at least take a look and see if we could live with it. Well, it turns out that the used shell matches the paint on the truck pretty close, and is 'high rise' just like I wanted in the first place. Also, it came off an older model Toyota pickup truck. Perfect! So after $20 to have it installed, $20 for a new lock and $20 for a tip to the nice salesman we drove out with a $310 top for our truck. Now we can lock things in the bed and not worry about them getting wet or dirty or stolen.

Off we went with our 'new truck' to find a camp site somewhere between Portland and Seattle...

John and Linda

New Pics!

Hi Everyone,
We haven't posted any pics in a while, mostly because it takes real internet access to do and we haven't had that in months. So here are a few pictures from our recent advenctures.

John and Linda

Back in the USA, here's our campsite in Rogue River on our way north.

The Dorado we caught coming across the Sea of Cortez to San Carlos

Here is a pic of Santa Rosalia in the morning, it looks so peaceful doesn't it?

Here's a picture of Linda and her buddy Rocky at the 'noodle party'. A noodle party is where we all sit around on noodles or other pool toys in the water on hot afternoons.

Here is NAKIA decked out for 4th of July at Burro Bay. Unfortunately you can't see all the flags very well because the sun awning is in the way, but there's no way we were going to take the sun awning down on a 96 degree day!

Here is NAKIA and SOL MATE at anchor in Medano Blanco. Nice Beach!

These are blossoms on a large cactus. This picture is from La Ramada North of San Juanico.

Two 'bugs' we got at Isla Carmen, very tasty.

Linda and John at Rancho Viejo in La Paz, having dinner to say good-bye to Dave and Debbie and Jan and Rich.

West Coast Tour

August 9, 2005
Seaquest Washington State Park, Approx 80 nm S of Seattle (46o 25' N 122o 32' W)

We departed San Carlos/Guaymas late Friday afternoon (the 5th) and started our long driving adventure that will take us up and back down the entire west coast of the United States. Our journey began with the shuttle bus from Marina Real to San Carlos. Just as the shuttle was dropping us off at the bus stop a bus pulled up. We thought this was going to be a good omen (not having to wait for the bus) and boarded the rattle trap local bus for the 15 minute ride to Guaymas. On arrival in town we walked the three blocks to the main bus terminal (actually four separate bus companies located on the four corners of an intersection) and went in to inquire about tickets. We chose to take the TAP line, because the pictures of the busses at their ticket counter were fancier then the pictures at the other line's ticket counters. TAP is $10 more expensive than the other lines too, so we figured it had to be better. The only problem is that the TAP line only has three busses that go from Guaymas to Tijuana 6pm, 7pm and 9pm. All the other lines have busses that leave every hour. We were about two hours early for the 6pm bus and didn't mind waiting. Unfortunately the 6pm bus was sold out so we had to buy tickets for the 7pm bus. No problem, we sat back to wait... and wait... and wait... it would have been nice if the terminal were air conditioned, considering it was about 95 degrees and 80% humidity. Oh well, we had a great bus coming, we were sure. We watched 5 or 6 busses leave the other terminals with 'TIJUANA' showing in their destination board and decided that they were all inferior rides, our bus would be much better, if it would only arrive. 7:15 rolled around and the 6pm bus finally arrived. Great, were we going to have to wait until 8:15 for our 7pm bus? No, the ticket attendant assured me that our 7pm bus would arrive shortly and sure enough, it arrived 'right on time' at 7:45. The rest of the 14 hour ride to Tijuana was uneventful, except for having our passports checked by immigration. We're convinced the only reason Mexican's check gringo's papers is because Mexican's are always getting checked when they're in the US.

We arrived in Tijuana early Saturday morning, ready for our next battle with Aduana, otherwise known as Mexican Customs. We want to bring a few things back with us to the boat. We're bringing our truck back to store in Mexico so this is an opportunity to bring things that won't fit in a carry-on bag. We were advised by other cruisers to get a letter from the marina stating that these things were parts for a boat which was on a temporary import permit. Then we wouldn't have to pay duty. The letter, and a list of the items, would need to be stamped by Customs before we left Mexico to prove that we didn't have these things on departure (or some other similarly confusing reason). Then when we return with the things, we show Customs the stamped letter and list and no duty is paid. Wonderful, no? As they say, it sounds good on paper. The problem was that we couldn't find a single Customs official in Tijuana willing to stamp the letter and list. We tried. Very hard. We spent 2 hours and went to 4 different customs officials and no one would get out their stamp pad. Finally we decided to give up and try again when we return (I'll walk back into Mexico via Nogales the day before we drive in and try to get the stamp then, stay tuned for further developments).

Finally we continued our journey by waiting in line for 45 minutes to walk through the boarder crossing. This wasn't as bad as it could have been, the line was reported to be 90 minutes long that day and it was only because of our search for a Customs agent that we entered the line half way in from the back of the line. We boarded the North bound trolley to meet our friends Ron and Anita who agreed to give us a ride to the airport to pick up our rental car. Not before going to lunch at Point Loma Seafood though. We can't come through San Diego and pass that up! After lunch Anita and Ron drove us to the rental car office to pick up our next ride, a Pontiac Sunfire which we'd be driving to Portland, OR over the next few days.

To Be Continued...

John and Linda