Puerto Refugio

18 July 2006
29 33' N 113 34' W

Fishing report: John caught one 36" male dorado about five miles out of Isla Angel de la Guardia as we made our approach.

We only had time to anchor here for two nights on our way back to the village at BLA, but we're very glad we decided to include this stop. We were leery of staying here because everyone we know has been chased out by the jejenes, or no-see-ums, the bites of which drive John loco. We exercised extreme caution in the evening and morning hours (socks, long pants, long sleeves, bug repellant sprayed on all screens, and mosquito coils burning), and while hiking on shore (bug repellant and long sleeves for John). So we suffered from being fully dressed in the heat, but we departed with only a few bites between us.

Despite our biting insect paranoia the area more than lived up to its reputation for scenic beauty. The West Bay, where we anchored with SolMate, was swimming pool blue and clear. There wasn't a huge variety of fish but we saw lots of grouper and trigger fish and three turtles over the two times we snorkeled. It was so fantastic to be able to snorkel in warm, crystal clear water for a change.

We took a short walk on Isla Mejilla the afternoon of our arrival. Covered with the most organ cactus we've seen in one area, it was too bad that a fish camp or kayakers have left unsightly garbage along the beach. Today we all took a morning hike on Isla Angel de la Guardia, walking up ridges with views into the East Bay anchorages. This is a very active bird nesting area and we were at the tail end of the season. The gulls had all fledged, but there were still a few young pelicans walking around that didn't seem quite ready for flight. The ground was littered with dead pelicans, but there was a healthy population of juveniles hanging out at the middle bight in the East Bay and we have no way of knowing if this was a good or bad year for them.

We'd like to return for a longer visit but we hear that it gets hotter as the summer progresses. We're very glad we made the stop early in the season, and maybe we'll go back up in September before we cross to San Carlos for our haulout.

Linda and John

North Country

14 July 2006
Gonzaga Bay (29 45' N 114 18' W)

Yesterday at 5 AM we raised anchor at Isla Smith, off of BLA, and mostly motored the 65 miles NW to Bahia San Luis Gonzaga. We didn't drop the anchor until 6 PM which meant that John got to check in as an underway vessel (which take priority and get to go first) to all three radio nets - Sonrisa (HAM), Amigo, and Southbound (both SSB). John tried hard to get some sailing in, but we knew we had a long way to go and what wind there was was from directly aft (which is a very slow point of sail for us) so we only had the engine off for a couple of hours. The rest of the time we had the main up and we rolled the big jib in and out all day long whenever we thought it could help give us a push. We always motor with the main up, for shade if nothing else. We thought we might get an assist from an 8-12 foot flood tide (depending on whether you look at the tide table for BLA or Puertecitos farther north), but just because the beach gets huge at low tide doesn't mean you get any current out in open waters. The only place we really noticed it was exiting Canal de Ballenas that morning.

And the only interesting thing of note during the whole slow long day was a shark sighting. John looked aft and saw something big checking out his fishing lures. When it came to the surface we could clearly see that it was a 6-7 foot shark of some kind. John never felt any tension on the hand line, but after the shark departed and John pulled the line in, there was no lure and the 150 lb test line looked like it had been cut with a razor.

Our other shark story which I forgot to tell you about was when we had our really slow sail from Esta Ton on Isla Angel de la Guardia to Ensenada Alcatraz. We had the spinnaker up all morning making no headway, and by 1 PM we were actually just drifting, the spinnaker hanging limp. I had been thinking that a long day of slow sailing is fun when there's lots to see, but can be pretty boring when there's not much wildlife around. John stepped up to the starboard rail to give Mr. Winky some fresh air, and I looked to port from the cockpit when I heard a sound like an approaching wave in the glassy water. I whispered, "John, John" when I should have just screamed, "Shark!" This 7-8 foot monster made a direct bee-line for the cockpit end of the boat before rolling on its side to pass about two feet from the port side of the boat. Then it went around the bow to do the same thing on the starboard side. I guess I didn't really need to worry about scaring it away before John could see it! It was just incredible when it rolled on its side sort of looking up at us with a big eye in a very huge head. Friends of ours said it was probably a black fin, but it all looked dark gray to me with a big pointed head, so we thought maybe it was a mako. Good thing we hadn't decided to jump in for a refreshing swim before the wind filled in.

Anyway, we're now the farthest north that we've ever been in the Sea of Cortez and, boy, is it hot! It was over 90 degrees when we arrived and it was over 90 degrees when we woke up this morning. The good thing is that the humidity has been in the 30-40 percent range. The water temp is in the low 80's and we had a long soak before dinner last night. But the evening breeze felt like it came from a blast furnace (and is so dry you can't look directly into the wind or your eyeballs dry out), and every time I woke up during the night I was sweating even though we had two fans pointed at the bed. We are drinking liters of water at a time, and I even dreamt last night that I was snorkeling in cool water.

This morning we met SolMate on the beach at our usual 8 AM rendezvous time. (I had debated about making coffee when I got up at 6 AM, but I couldn't not have my morning cup in spite of the heat!) We took a leisurely walk through the section of "vacation homes" above the beach here. Much more primitive than at Punta Chivato, but I think that's because this is even more difficult to get to by dirt road (there's no water or power to these places, and they have dirt airstrips for private planes). There were lots of impressive solar arrays, but they all looked brown with age. The best part was when we got back down to the huge sandy beach exposed by low tide and found all kinds of small shells in the tidal runoff. The boys had to drag the shell collectors off the beach to return to the boats in time for a late breakfast.

Now we are hibernating in the heat of the afternoon. Tomorrow morning we plan to go a bit farther up to Bahia Willard, aka the other hurricane hole up in the Sea.

Linda and John

Eight Miles in Five Hours

11 July 2006
Mitlan anchorage, Isla Smith, Bahia de los Angeles (BLA)
29 04' N 113 31' W

Well, it would have been eight miles if we'd come directly here from Ensenada Alcatraz instead of trying to sail. You'd think between two boats and four sailors that one of us would have realized we'd burn less diesel by putting the pedal to the metal as soon as we left the anchorage. We all knew that we were soon going to be bucking an eight foot flood tide, and the reason we were leaving in the first place was to find a better refuge from the strong south easterlies that came up by mid-morning for the past two days.

But instead, intrepid sailors that we are, we sailed out of the anchorage hoping for more wind to take us south. Two hours later we had the engine on at low RPMs and 20 minutes after that we cranked it up to full cruising throttle after we realized we'd never make the new anchorage if we didn't beat feet. Even so our best hourly average speed over ground was only 3.0 knots, and we ended up covering 15.5 nautical miles.

But the new anchorage is calmer, though still windier than I'd like for swimming. At least there's not much in the way of wind waves so we'll be able to get out in the dinghy. Yesterday we didn't leave the boat at all. Instead John made a new wind scoop to replace the old nylon one that finally ripped in the previous night's high winds. And we watched a movie in the afternoon. He was able to go fishing before we left this morning and caught his first yellow tail jack of the season. He caught a second one but we already had enough for dinner so that one got thrown back in.

The weather had been hot and dry after a humid period, but this morning we woke up to soaking wet decks and 77 degrees in the cabin (was usually about 83). We've been doing a lot of hiking in the mornings with Stan and MJ from SolMate, and I got one nice warm snorkel (water was about 84 degrees on the surface) in at a place called Esta Ton at Isla Angel de la Guardia. That was a beautiful little anchorage (both boats had to bow and stern anchor - it would make a better one boat anchorage), but we got chased out by the no-see-ums. All of the anchorages on this island are notorious for the no-see-ums which is a shame since the places at the north end are supposed to be very pretty. But John is very susceptible to bug bites and we've already had a bad report of bugs up there, so we're probably going to give it a pass.

It was fun to visit the village of BLA again after being away for almost a year, and not much has changed. Laundry is still exorbitant (they wanted 250p for three regular loads - wash, line dry, and fold - but we talked them down to 200p which is still higher than anywhere else in Mexico). There's one additional tienda to add to our list when it's time to search for vegetables, and it's still easy to find most of what you need.

So it should be a good summer, and we're looking forward to seeing the rest of our friends up here soon.

Linda and John

Communing With Nature

25 June 2006
Isla Las Animas, Baja
28 42' N, 112 05' W

Yes, we're no longer up to date on our blog, but let's just jump back in from here. We spent an unheard of six nights in the lagoon at Bahia San Francisquito - unheard of because we're usually in and out of an anchorage after three nights max. But the anchorage there is very protected with no swell, which turned out to be just what John needed for removing the teak from the cabin top foredeck. Except for the cockpit, that's the last large area to be done. It's very nice to be able to walk around without leaving dirty footprints most of the time now. The gel coat is much easier to keep clean.

The bird activity in that area was amazing, and was starting to become a nuisance with all the noise they were making. Hundreds of birds - including pelicans, terns, Hermann's Gulls, blue-footed and brown boobies, cormorants, etc. - were after huge bait balls which ringed the bay. These were so thick that the sandy bottom appeared to be black with undulating "grass." We also saw several young sea lions enjoying the feast.

We took one hike and one beach walk while we were there, had three boats over for cocktails on Nakia, dinner on SolMate (we contributed some of the dorado John caught on the trip up from Santa Rosalia), and movie nights on both Nakia and SolMate. Besides the water being a refreshing 70-72 degrees, the only downside was the number of bees visiting the boat whenever the breeze was down (mostly mornings and evenings). This morning I decided I'd had enough of them and got up from my chair to come down below. I wasn't careful about making sure none were nosing around me and, when I flexed my foot to stand up, I felt something on my instep. I lifted my foot back up off my flip-flop in time to release the bee and see it fly away, but then quickly realized that it had already stung me. I immediately went below where John was waiting with a kitchen knife to scrape out the sting and poison sack, and then applied ammonia and ice. This afternoon the sting isn't much bigger than a mosquito bite and hasn't bothered me at all. I'm sure the key was getting the poison sack out in a matter of seconds after being stung.

We raised anchor at 8 AM and motored for an hour before sailing the rest of the way here. Actually there wasn't any wind to speak of but we got a push from the flood tide. The nice thing about only doing 2-3 knots under sail is that you see and hear so much wildlife. We heard the splashing of a large pod of dolphins before we could see it, and we were surprised a few times by the loud exhalations and inhalations of a few very large whales which we think were fin backs. And it's always fun to hear the splats of manta rays doing back flips in the air. They've already disappeared back into the water by the time the sound reaches us, but they usually accommodate us by doing two in a row so we can see the second aerial trick.

John's out fishing, trying to find the school of yellow tail that our neighbor reported seeing in the anchorage yesterday. We're a little exposed to weather out here so tomorrow we'll probably head back to the Baja coast to continue north.

Linda and John

Project

We've been doing a long term summertime project on NAKIA that I thought you'd all be interested in. We're removing the teak decking from everywhere except the cockpit. This is a long multi-step process which, ultimately, will prepare the deck for gluing down new non-skid fiberglass panels. The process goes as follows: First I take a small chisel and a hammer and remove the wood plugs which seal up the top of the screws. The plugs are about 3/8" of an inch wide and 1/8" deep. This turns out to be about the hardest part because the plugs are very well glued into the deck. In fact on a lot of times, the only thing sealing the screw is glue, the plug having long worn away. After removing the plugs from 150 or so screws, I take my drill driver and remove the screws. This is the fastest step - power tools are great! When all the screws are removed, the hard work begins. Using two pry bars, a couple of wood chisels, a heavy duty putty knife, and a big, heavy hammer I pry the teak planks from the underlying fiberglass. This is usually a challenging effort because the black caulking used to seal the teak planks to the fiberglass is still in pretty good shape and the teak is not in very good shape. Between the strong glue and old wood many of the planks break in the process of being removed, leaving a lot of splinters and short pieces. Once in a while I can actually pull an entire plank without it breaking. Once all the planks are off Linda and I go back over the fiberglass and scrape off as much of the black caulking as possible. The rest will be sanded off later. With all the screw holes open, I take some penetrating epoxy (a runny glue which soaks into wood and fiberglass and then hardens) and squirt it into the screw holes using a small syringe. That's left for 36-48 hours to cure and then I go back and drill out all the screw holes using a counter-sync bit to make a larger surface area for the filler to adhere to. I mix up some epoxy and thickener and then push it into all the holes. This cures over night so the next day I can finish off the job by sanding all the excess epoxy filler along with the left over black caulking. This is the dirtiest step with all the sanding dust blowing all over the place. Finally I vacuum up the dust and Linda wipes down the deck with a sponge and water and we're left with a clean smooth white deck.

Why, you may ask, are we doing this? The primary reason is heat. The teak decks are hot-hot-hot! If the mid-day sun is on the teak it's impossible to stand barefoot on the deck; you have to wear shoes to protect your feet. Also the teak is dirty. It holds dirt and mildew and slowly distributes it to the rest of the boat. So we're hoping that after the removal/replacement process we'll end up with a cooler, cleaner, and lighter boat.

We'll know for sure this winter when we're all done and the deck is newly painted.

John and Linda

Puerto Escondido

After staying in Puerto Los Gatos for a while we started getting itchy feet and since the weather was so calm we figured we'd go ahead and make a 'big jump,' all the way to Puerto Escondido.

Puerto Escondido (Escon-Gringo to some of the more cynical cruisers) is the home of Loreto Fest, a big cruiser party, that had just completed a few days before. We really only went in for one reason, to hook up with our friends Stan and MJ from SolMate. But since we were there anyway we thought we'd go ahead and get water.

PE has great fresh water. But only one spigot. The spigot is on a sea wall about 8 ft high, and the depth next to the wall is only about 4 ft (NAKIA needs 6). However, it's much deeper only a few feet from the wall. There are two ways to get water in PE. You run back and forth between the spigot and your boat with jugs or you can Med-moor to the sea wall and run a hose ashore. Since we were coming in for a quick turn around we decided on the second method.

Before you can get water in PE, you have to call Jose. Did I neglect to mention that the water spigot is under lock and key? Well, Jose has the key. Before you can get a single drop you have to call on the radio and in your best Spanish say "Jose, necesito agua, por favor." He'll come back in his best English, "OK, OK!"

Having contacted Jose, we called Stan and MJ to take our stern line for the Med-moor. (Med-mooring is done by dropping an anchor and then backing down toward a wall or other fixed structure and then tying a stern line to the wall. It's called Med-moor because the only way to moor in many ports in the Mediterranean is by this method.) We had one problem though, we didn't have any way to get our stern line to the wall. Enter John, super sailor. I quickly tied a monkey's fist using some old line and a tennis ball and then tied a 50 ft piece of small line onto the monkey's fist. I'd throw the fist ashore with our stern line attached so we wouldn't have to get to close to the shallow water at the base of the wall.

All set, we entered the harbor and went toward the spigot wall bow first to check the depth. Finding it sufficient, I pivoted the boat around, stern to the wall and motored forward to drop the bow anchor. This maneuver got a "you're showing off" rating from MJ. Before we dropped the bow anchor, Linda and I switched positions. She would drive and I'd handle the heavy anchor while I gave directions via hand signals from the bow (this is our normal anchoring procedure). In went the anchor, back went the boat, and just before we got too close I snubbed the anchor chain and walked back to the cockpit to throw the monkey's fist to Stan (this got an "You even have a monkey's fist!" rating from Stan). He tied off the stern line and we were set. You'd think we'd done it before. After that it was short work to fill NAKIA's tanks.

For our departure Stan just released the stern line and the anchor pulled us away from the wall. The only hiccup came when I wanted to tip Jose. I put a bill in the monkey's fist and threw it ashore, but for whatever reason I did it left handed and instead of arcing cleanly to the top of the wall it went wide left and too high, almost hitting a guy in his dinghy at the base of the wall. Oh well, you can't always be perfect.

John and Linda

LTR

LTR=Long Term Relationship

Movin' up

Well it's been a long time since our last blog, so I thought I'd try to get up to date.

We spent the last part of April in La Paz where we did two things. Well maybe more than two, but two important things. First we renewed our FM-3 visas. We're now legal residents of Mexico for another year, and it only cost $100 each :-( The second important thing we did was to attend several of the seminars at La Paz Bay Fest. This used to be a real 'to do' in the Sea of Cortez but over time Loreto Fest got bigger and Sea of Cortez Race Week (as La Paz Bay Fest used to be called) got smaller. The new format is less party than Loreto Fest, but has a lot to offer in the form of seminars and a good race. Linda attended seminars on diving and snorkeling in the La Paz area, summering in the Sea of Cortez, Mexican laws applicable to Baja Cruisers, and First Aid. John, not as interested in continuing education programs for cruisers, got a race crew together for his friend Bob on Airpower and sailed the race.

While Linda was taking notes in seminars, John was out with Bob and Airpower trying to get the crew in order to race effectively. We must have done a pretty good job, because we won the race. Not only that we managed to fly two spinnakers at the same time in the process. Everyone was suitably impressed. Bob was a true friend and gave us the winning prize of dinner for two at La Divina Uva, which was a real treat and made for a very nice evening out for us.

After we received our new visas and got finished up with Bay Fest we moved Nakia into Marina Palmira for a two night, three day scrub-a-thon. The teak and fiberglass were looking pretty bad so it was time to spruce up for the coming summer. We also managed to do a bunch of last minute shopping, thanks to Lance and Jo on Milagro who have a truck and were based out of Marina Palmira all winter.

We were back out into the wild on April 30th. SolMate told us about a large beach on the east side of Espiritu Santo Island so we headed out that way. The wind didn't cooperate, and we ended up motoring almost the entire way. The beach was as advertised though - almost two miles of white sand. Of course the wind came up right as we were entering the anchorage so we had to wait until the evening before we could take a walk. Anytime we do something like this I think of the classic singles add: "SWF seeks LTR, enjoys long walks on the beach." Heck, we just take long walks on the beach because we want to take a walk, and the beaches are, well, long.

We left Bonanza Beach after only one night (I guess we don't like long walks on the beach that much) and headed out to the north end of Isla Partida. The weather forecast looked good to stay at a little cove there. Of course right as we're within one mile of the cove a Moorings charter boat comes screaming by in front of us, cuts into the cove and drops his anchor. As soon as their anchor was set, everyone went below. I went by close to ask if they were planning on staying the night and not just the afternoon. The cove is only big enough for one boat, and even though it was pretty clear they had 'taken our parking place,' Linda and I decided to let it go. After all, they're on vacation and we anchor in beautiful coves almost every night.

We set the spinnaker, right in front of the Moorings boat, and set off to Isla San Francisco. This is Linda's all time favorite island. We posted a picture of it in the blog last year showing its incredible turquoise water and crescent shaped white sand beach. The one bad thing about Isla San Francisco is that it doesn't protect you very well from the Coromuel, a southwest wind that blows out of the Bay of La Paz nearly every night in the spring and summer. In order to maximize our protection from the southwest, I decided to get in as tight as I could in the crescent. The water in there is not very deep, and there was a minus tide early the next morning, but I managed to get Nakia in far enough to get out of the worst of the wind generated chop and still keep about 6 inches of water under the keel even at low tide. It's a good thing the Coromuel did blow, because if it hadn't I'm sure we'd have ended up hard aground until the next high tide. One useful thing about being in shallow water, when I went down to clean the bottom of the boat I was able to _stand_ on the sand to scrub. Much more leverage that way. :-)

We spent three nights at Isla San Francisco, all of them in a stiff Coromuel. But thanks to our almost too shallow anchoring spot we were snug as could be. We'll have to try that again sometime. We had a good sail to Bahia Rincon, going through the usual antics with the sails: raise the main, roll out the jib on a broad reach, jibe the main, pole out the jib, hoist the drifter in double headsail configuration, drop the main, hoist the main, drop the drifter, jibe the jib, take in the pole, roll up the jib, drop the main, drop the anchor. Sounds like a lot of work for a 15 mile sail, no?

We actually survived our night at Bahia Rincon. It was just what we expected when we got there Wed afternoon; a nice calm anchorage with the wind out in the San Jose channel blowing 12-15. We anchored in 35 ft and put out 200 ft of chain, being careful to set the anchor in anticipation of a west wind Wed night. We went snorkeling and I got a medium sized crawler. Evening was calm and we went to bed.

About 1100 the wind started blasting down a little canyon that Lance warned me about on the Southbound net. We don't have a wind meter, but judging by the spray and short fetch I'd say some of the gusts were in the mid 30s. The wind died about 0100 only to start up again at 0400. No big deal really, we were only in danger of getting blown offshore, but it was hard to sleep with all that noise!

We set sail Thursday morning with the last of the blusterlies and dropped anchor on the north side of the Moreno Rocks. There's a little protection here from the SE wind that came up _after_ we motored almost all the way here. We put the dinghy in and went ashore and walked the beach; no snorkeling, it's just too darn cold. After our walk we got back to the dinghy and noticed a large flock of turkey vultures circling over Punta Cobre. That's when we noticed the smell.

We jumped in the dinghy and went around the south side of Punta Cobre and there on the beach was a medium sized gray whale. Or at least what was left of it. We were motoring away from the scene and, swimming between Isla Morena and Punta Cobre, was a small gray whale. Obviously a baby. Neither Linda nor I thought the whale on the rocks was big enough to be a full grown mother, but what do we know, we're not whale bio-persons. We were probably underestimating the size since we were viewing it from a distance, and there wasn't much left of the animal other then the skeleton and a nasty smell.

When we went ashore the next morning to scavenge a bone for Duffy's Tavern up in BLA, it was apparent that the whale was much bigger than we had originally thought. What a sad story if it really was the mother of the baby we saw in the channel. We chased the turkey vultures off and circled the carcass/skeleton taking pictures. I'd had visions of collecting the jaw bone, but it was huge when we got close enough to really see it. Instead we settled for one of the smaller vertebra, which was still a heavy load for John to carry back to the dinghy. John tied it to the back of the pushpit where it doesn't stink as long as we face into the wind. Let's hope we don't get a true downwind sail until it has a chance to bleach out in the sun. [Addendum: SolMate reports the whale was mostly still intact when they were there a week before us. It will be interesting to compare photographs with them.]

We had a great sail up the beach about 10 miles to Puerto Gato, and anchored next to friends Bob and Jennifer on Nuestra Isla. Other than some overcast, Puerto Gato has been very nice. We've been here three nights and haven't had so much as a light breeze. I did a little snorkeling, complete with wet suit jacket, to see if there were any crustaceans crawling around the rocks. There weren't. We also met a nice couple from Colorado who were on a bareboat charter from the Moorings. We spent an afternoon hiking together in the desert and invited them over for cocktails in the evening.

One of the things we found on our walk ashore was a terrible pile of garbage which looks like it was left by kayakers of all people. So this morning we got a bucket, some kerosene and a lighter and went ashore to clean up a little. We picked up as many of the cans and bottles as we could fit in a 5 gal bucket and then picked up all the paper garbage and burned it in a nearby fire pit. We also gathered as much of the plastic trash as we could and consolidated it into a large bag. We had to leave the plastic trash behind, since we're not going to be anyplace with good garbage service for a while, but we did take all the cans and bottles back to the boat so they can be deposited in deep water (over 600 feet) on our next passage. The beach looks much better.

Well, that should bring you up to date. More adventures to come.

John and Linda

New Pics

Here are a few pictures of what we've been doing lately (mostly racing AIRPOWER). We did two races: the Banderas Bay Regatta, and the La Paz Bay Fest.

La Paz Bay Fest crew

Here's the crew from the La Paz Bay Fest showing what place we came in.

Another view

Here's another view of the two spinnakers.

Two spinnakers!

During the La Paz regatta, Bob called the race commitee to ask if we'd get 'points' by doing a spinnaker change. The commity said we'd be penalized if we had two spinnakers. We countered by asking what it was worth if we flew both spinnakers at the same time. They were duely impressed, we got the extra points.

Airpower at the start

Here's a picture of AIRPOWER at the start of the Banderas bay Regatta.

Nikki and Ralph

This is Nikki and Ralph sailing their San Juan 24 near Punta de Mita. They run a bakery from thier home where they make pizza and wonderful bread.

Hitch hiker

We had a little hitch hiker while crossing Banderas Bay. This turn stoped on our chairs to take a break and preen.

Sea turtle release

Here is a baby sea turtle getting ready to hit the waves. Linda spent an evening 'launching' two sea turtles into the wide world.

Mazatlan to La Paz

13 April 2006

Underway at 0500 from Mazatlan headed for La Paz. Passed a Carnival cruise ship on its way into the port. This makes number five since we arrived - Monday, the Mercury (is that Celebrity Cruise Line?); Tuesday, Holland America; Wednesday, both the Viking of the Seas (RCCL) and the Sapphire Princess. Plus there were two Baja car ferries in and out while we were anchored in the old harbor. Needless to say the Port Captain was too busy to talk to us on the radio, so we didn't really get checked in/out there.

Yesterday we took the Sabalo Centro bus (eight pesos each) all the way from the old harbor (where we were anchored) to Marina Mazatlan. We just wanted to see what it looked like since we've never stayed in either of the two Mazatlan marinas. It's surrounded by condo construction and there's no shopping within walking distance, so it didn't seem like a very nice place to hang out. In spite of its drawbacks (the smell from the sewage treatment plant when the wind blows in the right direction, being the main one) we prefer anchoring in the old harbor. It's an easy walk to the old part of town with the mercado, church, zocolo, and theater, and an inexpensive bus ride back to the boat when you're tired and loaded down with all your purchases. The Club Nautico charges 30 pesos per day to tie the dinghy to their dock and use their showers in the bathrooms (which are old and a bit rundown, so we shower on board). They will also arrange propane and laundry services for you, and they have a shallow draft fuel dock.

On our way back from Marina Mazatlan we took the bus to La Gran Plaza which is the largest upscale shopping mall (with a Mega as its anchor store) we've seen in Mexico. It has a movie theater and we must have passed at least two or three other movie theaters on the bus back to the old part of town. There is also a baseball stadium, but unfortunately we didn't make a side trip to see it this time. We like Mazatlan and can see the Marina area turning into a kind of Nuevo Vallarta when all the condos are finished.

We may end up doing a lot of motoring this trip, but will hope for some wind to sail. We're not sure if we'll go all the way into La Paz for Easter weekend, or stop out at one of the islands until the businesses are open again after the holiday. Either way we should be dropping the hook sometime on Saturday.

Linda and John

Banderas Bay to Mazatlan

9 April 2006 (late Sunday night)

We departed Punta de Mita this morning before dawn (7:15 AM Puerto Vallarta time which I think is 5:15 PDT). It was tough getting up in the dark for the first time in ages. Normally we wake up when it starts getting light out or just before sunrise, so having to use the alarm was painful.

Had an uneventful day motoring until 2:30 PM, sailing until 8:30 PM, and now motoring again. It was actually very nice to be the only boat out there with just the gentle swells, turtles, and sea birds to keep us company. We passed closer to the Tres Marias islands than to the mainland, but kept it mostly up the middle. At least one of these islands is a prison and you are required to keep clear of them. They don't keep the prisoners locked up since they are on an island out in the middle of the ocean. I was a bit concerned when I spotted a fishing panga and saw that the two fishermen were wearing orange jumpsuits (panga fishermen usually wear regular clothes and maybe a black garbage bag with head and arm holes cut out in the bottom to keep them warm and dry at night). I monitored them through the binoculars but they didn't wave for help or approach us so maybe they were out on a day pass.

We're almost half way there now, so we should arrive in Mazatlan by late tomorrow. We'll spend a few days there before looking for a weather window to cross over to La Paz. John may crew for Air Power again in the La Paz Regatta which is sometime around April 20-23.

Linda and John

Banderas Bay

Thursday, 6 April 2006

We were sucked into the black hole of Banderas Bay on March 18 and we're only just barely making our way back out of it.

We left Chamela at 6:30 PM on March 17 for the overnight trip to round Cabo Corrientes. Unfortunately it took us until 4:00 AM to break an average of four knots of speed - motor sailing! I'd look out at the ocean during my watch and I was sure that if I could only walk on water, I'd get there faster that way. It felt like we were wading through molasses. We finally rounded Cabo Corrientes on flat seas at 10:00 AM. This felt great until we remembered that we still had to cross Banderas Bay to get to Punta de Mita. We finally turned the engine off at Noon and sailed slow for four hours. Ninety two nautical miles from our start we dropped the anchor at almost 6:00 PM. Yeehah!

We moved into Marina Nuevo Vallarta almost a week later and tied up to a set of concrete pilings. This was a great deal. No dock, no water, no electricity - but only $7 a night. The two (unisex) bathrooms are nice and clean, and Juan, the dock master, is a very nice guy. John spent the next four days training with Bob and crew on Air Power, a J-41, for the Banderas Bay Regatta. He'd come home wiped out from a long day in the sun, and we'd go out to dinner more than usual as a result. It was non-stop busy and I didn't even have time to check email. It didn't seem like I was getting all that much done on the boat, and I know I wasn't doing much reading, but the time just flew. There's a huge amount of socializing here because it's a such a major waypoint on everyone's itinerary. When John wasn't racing we both had our teeth cleaned, ran errands, and even managed to see a movie (Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang). I got my haircut and bought three kilos of good coffee beans in Puerto Vallarta. I also walked down the beach one evening with some friends to participate in a baby turtle release in Nuevo Vallarta. We each got two baby turtles, set them down on the beach (well after sunset), and watched them slowly walk the 3-4 feet to the water. One of mine was especially reluctant to go, and kept turning around the wrong way, but it finally got swallowed up by the swell.

If you're wondering how the race went, Airpower got a second in class and third over all. We placed second in the first race, third in the second race and second in the third race. All in all a pretty good showing for a (mostly) inexperienced crew. John only had to apologize for yelling 5 times, so you can tell it was a lot of fun.

Tuesday we left Nuevo Vallarta, filled up on diesel and gasoline at Opequimar in Marina Vallarta, and sailed out here to Punta de Mita. Yesterday John changed the oil and we spent the rest of the day reading and doing nothing. Today we had to go back in to Nuevo Vallarta, but we struck out on the two errands we'd hoped to accomplish. We made up for that by having a huge shrimp lunch at Mauricio's in Ixtapa. For 110 pesos each (plus drinks and tip), this is the best deal in all of Mexico.

Now we're thinking about how soon we'll get to La Paz. We may end up skipping Chacala and San Blas on our way to Mazatlan. It will depend on how the trip goes. We're anxious to get "home" to Baja so we'll probably be on the fast track once we leave Banderas Bay.

Linda and John

Chamela

16 March 2006

Wow, what a great sail from Tenacatita to Bahia Chamela! We got underway at o-dark-thirty as planned and we had Nakia gliding under main and jib 15 minutes after raising the anchor. In less than an hour we cleared the rocks at the main entrance to the bay and had the spinnaker set in plenty of time for John to run the Amigo net. I drove the whole time he was transmitting since the radio sends the autopilot into fits. We were on a course to take us off the coast in preparation for the freak southerly we were having to clock around as usual from the north in the afternoon. This gave me lots of room so all I had to do was steer and try not to hit any other boats (and there were about four or five out there with us). It was a blast!

The wind never stopped coming from the south so we had a brief debate about continuing north to Banderas Bay, but there's no reason for us to be there this early so we jibed the spinnaker and sailed back in towards Chamela. It really hurt not to take advantage of the prime weather window, since you never know if you're going to get another one as perfect again (especially when you know at least half a dozen other boats who are charging ahead)!

We finally doused the spinnaker after hitting seven knots pretty consistently and went in to the islands for shelter. We'd heard reports from the anchorage off town that the wind chop was getting a little high since it's wide open to the south. Island Girl followed us in and we ate lunch and hung out for a few hours until the wind died down enough for us to continue on to the main bay. It was a little rolly at first but had calmed down quite a bit by bedtime.

We went into town for fresh provisions yesterday morning and I had a brief swim around the boat in the afternoon. The water is very murky (I hate it when I can't see the bottom) but there are lots of birds, fish, and yesterday a pair of dolphins hung out around the anchorage all day, scratching themselves on Island Girl's rope anchor rode in the morning and leaping clear out of the water before sunset. Just like Flipper, except without all the annoying chatter. I was a little apprehensive about swimming with all the dolphin activity nearby, not to mention that it was only 73 degrees and we'd seen a big long worm swimming by the boat the evening we arrived. So I did a fast 10 laps around Nakia and lived to tell about it.

On our last two passages we've seen dolphins, a ray, a big bill fish leaping out of the water, and a shark swimming on the surface within a boat length of Nakia. The shark was about 3-4 feet from its dorsal to its tail fin, but we don't know what kind it was. The dolphins stayed with Nakia for longer than usual as we were sailing into Tenacatita Bay. I told John that was because the adults told the youngsters that here was a nice slow boat on which they could practice bow riding. John hasn't been fishing at all in ages, so no fish report.

There's a Polish man here named Janusz who runs a beach palapa called La Manuelita (which has a nice professional sign out front complete with a picture of a ketch). He and his Mexican wife both speak excellent English, serve delicious food, and he's begun to offer his services (medical assistance, gasoline, propane) to cruisers on VHF 22. Island Girl tried it yesterday by ordering three blocks of ice which were then delivered by panga fisherman on their way out fishing last night at 10 PM. The price was right, and Janusz could prove to be a great resource for the cruising community.

We'll probably be in Chamela for a few days hoping for another magical southerly to take us sailing again.

Linda and John