Tag Archives: Mexico

Postcard from Mazatlán

Catedral Basilica de la Immaculada Concepcion

We spent 3 weeks or so in Mazatlán both anchored at Isla de la Piedra (Stone Island) and docked at El Cid Marina. It was a relaxing time reconnecting with cruising friends from last year and meeting some new ones. The photos tell the best story.

Footloose at El Cid Resort & Marina

Footloose Lights Up Marina

Party Boat at El Cid

El Cid Marina is very “resorty” and we took advantage of all the amenities. What’s not to like about a drop off laundry service and afternoon swims at your choice of pools? We especially liked the pool with the caves and slide! There was always a happy hour going on somewhere. Footloose was on an end tie in the fairway right between the fuel dock and the Aries fishing boat fleet & catamaran adventure boats. We got to know the water taxi driver as he shuttled folks back and forth to the beach across from us all day long. We witnessed quite a few brides being escorted over to the popular wedding site. It was entertaining to watch the action from our back porch.

Footloose Bow in the Moonlight

Super Moon

First Boat Work, then swim…

Pool Time

Friends

There were many familiar faces & boats on our dock. Cruising friends reunited! We hosted a couple of shindigs on Footloose, including the Thanksgiving potluck (see holiday post coming soon). We also met some new people like Mark & Cindy on Delta Swizzler also from Northern California and another couple on C’est La Vie who pulled in for one night and tied up in front of us. We had one short conversation walking back to the boat after a swim. I don’t remember their names because we didn’t exchange boat cards, but something he said stuck with me. This couple has been cruising for 17 years and are still excited about it. Now in his 70’s, the man of the boat swears – “Cruising keeps you young.” I hope he’s right!

Patrice (on Sonamara) out to Italian dinner

Donna (on Single D) having fun with a bartender, “make us a mexican coffee!”

Delta Swizzler departing Marina

Critters

Iguanas rule at El Cid

Marveling at critters is one of my favorite pastimes. At El Cid, I had my first encounter with Iguanas! Wow, they were everywhere. They especially liked the cave pool area. One day I saw one on a lounge chair and a lady was petting him/her like a cat. Tame and used to resort life and its inhabitants I’m sure.

El Gato in Old Town

Night Heron visits Footloose

Every morning they land & sing for us

Iguana at El Cid

Another Iguana

Old Town

Our best adventure off the Marina was a visit to Old Town Mazatlán. I love the colorful streets & celebration.

Town Centro, restaurants & market stalls galore

Christmas Season is here

Dinner at Hector’s, a gem

Michael finds coffee roaster!

Art Walk Tour

Welcome to Art Walk, Dec 2017

The first Friday of each month there is an Art Walk tour in Old Town. Creative artisans display their work in galleries and shops throughout town. Masks & Sculptures delight! No room on the boat for art collecting, but we were happy to look.

Isla de la Piedra

Many cruisers like this spot as a place to prepare for an early morning departure. Much easier to leave in the dark from this anchorage then the marina, which has tricky tides, currents, and dredging to contend with. We left El Cid Marina after sunrise and motored around the corner to anchor. I immediately jumped in the water and cleaned the spluge from our waterline. Spluge: the oily grimy crud that we collect when at a dock a little too long. We stayed two days at anchor and then left for Isla Isabel at 0430.

It’s peaceful here. Wish you all the same.

Lisa & Michael

Now at La Cruz, Marina Riviera Nayarit

Season End

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May 2017

Season End, Haul Out Time

Our first cruising season has come to an end. The last bit of business was to get Footloose settled for her summer home, hauled out of the water in Guaymas. Guaymas is the only yard with a travel lift large enough to handle our beam. We first visited San Carlos, another popular place for people to haul out or leave boats for the hurricane season and then moved on to Guaymas for the final work and haul.

San Carlos

Entering San Carlos

We arrived San Carlos Marina on May 8. The only available slip for us was a bit dicey. We anchored out first, then dinghied in to get a closer look before committing. The space was very tight (29 feet wide) for our beam (25 feet) Plus, one side of the space was not a “dock” but rather a cement wall. We decided to go for it since we wanted a break from windy anchorages. Our friend Joanneke from Witte Raaf kindly offered to come along and help with our landing. She was able to fend off on the starboard side (next to the cement wall), while I took care of getting the lines tied off on the port side. Michael backed her in while the wind did its best to push us toward the wall. Sailing or docking, the wind direction has generally not been our friend this season. Still, no harm done, only a bit of an adrenaline rush. We settled in for a week and began prepping the boat for haul out and dry storage. We made our list of things to do and began chipping away. I cleared the pantry and donated some food to local orphanages. We checked off the list slowly. We both felt lethargic, a bit melancholy. Not sure if it was the work at hand, the heat, or the realization that we would soon be leaving Footloose, our home, for the summer.

Anchorage San Carlos

Martini Cove Near San Carlos

Last of the provisions — omelet

Oops

We planned to leave early on May 15 for Guaymas, hoping to shove off before the wind picked up. We got up early, but had to wait until 0900 to checkout. By this time, the wind was up and had too much west, which was eager to push us directly into “the wall”. Michael recruited several to help with lines to hold us off the wall until he could pull away. It all worked well as he pulled out of the slip and turned down the channel. As soon as the stern cleared the dock, the men threw the lines, which I scrambled to retrieve from the water, first from the stern and then from mid-ships. As the boat was being swept to port, Michael was doing all he could to keep Footloose in the center of the narrow channel. I heard Jan yell to me – get the mid ship lines – and I ran from the stern step to pull them in. Too late – the prop was fouled on the line and Michael had lost steerage. Luckily there was an empty side tie dock and the wind pushed us on. The guys helped tie us off. I sat down and cried. Michael quickly put on his wet suit and dive gear and dove to look at the prop. He cut away the mess of lines, then tested the engines. All clear – we were off to Guaymas. We always debrief after things go well or awry. What could we have done better? In hindsight – 1) we could have anchored out and avoided the risk of the questionable dock space. 2) I could have brought up mid-ships line(s) first; or if docked and using line handlers, we could limit the number of lines, with four being too many for one person to bring in efficiently. 3) we could have brought Jan aboard to help with line retrieval. 4) Michael thought he could have built more speed allowing the rudders to work and steer the boat. Always learning.

3/4 three strand in a propellor

Guaymas

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First, we docked at Marina Fonatour. Again, we took the only space we could fit. The wind helped us this time, with Michael bringing Footloose into position and letting her drift to the dock. Others welcomed us and quickly tied us down. Countdown time — one week to get ready for the haul out. We did manage some breaks from the work detail to walk and eat in Guaymas. We were blessed to find our taxi driver, Jesús, who became our personal driver for the week. Whenever we called, he was there! He recommended Mariscos El Rey, which we enjoyed twice, with delicious seafood cocktails and grilled Pulpo. He drove us around to every Ferreteria in town looking for a fuel filter for the Gen Set. Jesús is married, has five dogs, two cats, and five niños all grown up. I adore him. His air-conditioned rides and our fun, albeit language-challenged conversations, were a pleasant diversion from the work and haul out dread.

Jesús

Hurricane blew out this restaurant.

Tres Presidentes. Some only made it six months

Exercise class in the park

Deserted Building

Pulpo

Fun at Mariscos El Rey

I won’t detail all the boat prep here, but, oh my, it was more work than anticipated. We thoroughly cleaned the inside, polishing all wood trim, scrubbing floors, walls to headliners, cleaned the leather settee cushions, emptied all cabinets to clean some more. No mold will live here! Michael took down all lines and we wrangled in the sails. The main sail was the toughest. We tried to plan it for a windless moment, but when is that really? We got it down late afternoon and began to fold it (950 square feet, 250 pounds), with Michael at the tack and me at the clew. The wind puffed and a section of the sail billowed up over the side. AAAH, NOOOOO. Michael flopped on top of the wad and pulled it back down. Disaster averted. We began again, trying to keep the folds as tight as possible in order to fit sail into the bag for storage. Success. tick tock, tick tock. Watermakers pickled, check. Oil changes, check. Heads cleaned, check. All laundry cleaned and stored check. Suitcases packed, (UGH), check. The list got smaller, we got wearier. On Sunday, with heads now shut down, provisions all gone and nowhere to sit or sleep, we checked in at the Holiday Inn Express where we would stay for the week while we did final work. And then it was Monday morning.

Boat Barf

Strings

Lifting the main with Halyard

Take off the main, check

Haul Out

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After a fitful night, we go, both nervous. It’s my first time. I love our boat. It’s unnatural to take a boat out of water, yes? The space is irregular where we’ll be hauled, narrow and jagged. We carefully placed fenders around the boat. Michael marked where the straps should be placed for hauling under the hull’s lifting points.

We motored over at 0740, hoping to get there just at the right moment for the haul out scheduled for 0800. This is a very shallow area and we did not have much room for circling. As we approached, the travel lift was not in place and there was no one there yet to catch the lines. We radioed Gabriel at Marina Guaymas for assistance. There was some back and forth and around 0830, the men walked down to the dock. I handed off the bow lines on starboard and then stern line on port. Footloose was secure, but where was the travel lift? An hour later, Gabriel called to tell us there was a flat tire on the lift. It would be a couple hours. ok. We waited. We walked to OXXO for some ice and snacks. At 1000, Michael wandered out to the travel lift to check on progress on the tire. Two men were wrestling with the huge tires and were almost ready to remount the wheel. Michael returned to the boat. We waited. It’s hot. At 1300, Michael goes back to investigate and learned that no further progress had been made. He checked with the office about leaving the boat and returning the next morning. The owner of the travel lift agreed to haul the boat at 0900. We walked over to Gabriel’s where the boat will be stored and informed their office that the boat haul was delayed until the next day. Jesús picked us up and we went on our way shopping for filters and pausing for ice cream. At 1500, Gabriel called Michael, “where are you, your boat is in the sling ready to haul.” Michael – “What???!” The operation stopped.

Tight Fit

Shrimpers

This propeller needs some heat.

Where shrimpers go to die

The next morning, Jesús picked us up at 0730 to drive us back to the yard. This time the travel lift was in place and before I’d made a cup of coffee, it was show time. I climbed off the boat, turned my head away from the lift and Michael caught me making the sign of the cross. I bravely turned back to watch and took some photos. Footloose rose and they pulled her out. The travel lift proceeded up this rough roadway to the storage yard with Footloose swaying in the sling. yikes. (Deep Breathing required)

They parked Footloose and put her down on blocks. Relief, temporarily. Unfortunately, when we got back aboard and walked to the bow, we were horrified to find hydraulic oil spots all over the place. It apparently had leaked from the lift overnight. If only they had waited for us, we could have averted the mess by covering it properly. Instead, our custom kayak cover is stained. And our deck was a mess. We spent an additional day cleaning as best we could, but still no bueno. Captain very unhappy.

Hydraulic Oil Leak on deck

Stained cover, no bueno

All Shall Be Well

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We cleaned up today, secured the dinghy on deck, and said our farewell to Footloose. We’ve stored her the best we know how and pray that she’ll be safe for the summer. We’ve met Alejandro, who will likely do some sanding work for the bottom paint job. Everyone in the yard, workers and boaters alike are cheerful about it all, which is reassuring — sort of. Workers are confident in their work and of the safety of the yard. Boaters love to meet you and share their hurricane or other boat yard horror with a chuckle. No problema! What if a hurricane hits? It happens. A guy we met in the yard told us how his boat was hit by a falling wall – without a hurricane. Never mind.

Next

We’re leaving soon, catching a flight to Albuquerque on Wednesday. What an amazing first cruising season from California to Mexico. We are excited to see family and friends this summer and looking ahead to next season, what will it bring? It will begin with putting the boat back together and likely cleaning off all the red dust. But then, Footloose will splash and we’ll be off — Mazatlán, Puerta Vallarta, Banderas Bay, La Cruz, Zihuatanejo, making our way to Panama maybe. All to be determined. Plans and crew are flexible.

We’re tired after the haul out. I’m reminded that it’s best to never make decisions about cruising after a rough passage or grueling boat work. Be mindful that there are far more sunsets than there are fouled props; many more friends than boat yards!

2016-17 Cruising Season

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Santa Rosalia, Midriffs, Crossing the Sea

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Santa Rosalia, April 17 to 28
A blinding light through the stateroom window and a loud horn. I wake up at 2 am with a spotlight shining through the window. AHHHH. It’s the ferry entering Santa Rosalia Harbor. We took a slip at the Fonatur Marina for a week hoping to do an engine repair and perhaps find a doctor to look at my eye. Again, no doctors here, only La Paz, but the eye seems stable and Guaymas is only a day a way or so.

Santa Rosalia

Engine for ore cars

Church by Gustav Eiffel

Stairs to Hospital, If you can climb these you are not too sick.

City Hall

Fearsome Hunter

Tonka’s Grill

Rowing from San Felipe to La Paz

The marina is butt ugly. Black walls surround you with mountains of rip rap. The water is brown…no water making here. Down the dock the Mexican navy keeps their patrol boat and a couple of fast marine rescue boats. The Navy guys seem great– wish I spoke more Spanish. One morning we wake up to the sounds of three guys scraping hard marine growth off of the floating docks that keep the fast boats out of the water with smooth bottoms while they are not in use. They swim for exercise most days in the funky water. Probably keeps them more resistant to disease. These guys look tough and athletic.
The town is a true Mexican town. This is a mining town owned by a French company Compagnie du Boleo and the French influence is there. Represented by the colonial architecture of the city hall and the church was designed by Gustav Eiffel and imported from Belgium. A later remodel of the church added more traditional construction to the sides of the metal church. The remodel was respectful and the new eaves have the same scalloped metal trim as the original structure. The town has many mining artifacts left after the French closed their operation in 1946 after copper prices fell. In 2010, a consortium of Canadian and South Korean companies reopened the mine to extract copper and cobalt an important mineral for newer battery chemistries.

Lisa and I cook on the boat a lot and enjoy the process, but towns are a chance to take a break, and we like checking out the different places. In Santa Rosalia, we had delicious ice cream at Splash where a handsome young Mexican man enjoyed practicing his English on us. At Tercos, we enjoyed the rotisserie chicken although the whole meal was a little heavy for us. We ate Chinese food at both of the Chinese restaurants in town. There are quite a few Chinese people here who came to work the mines at the same time they were coming to California for the gold rush to build a railway… gotta love those immigrants. Our favorite was probably Tonka’s Grill, where we enjoyed a steak and great margaritas.

Repaired with JB Weld

Our raw water pump was leaking, sending a good bit of salt water over the engine block. The water pump went together much easier than expected as we have full rebuild kits aboard but in the process we cracked the raw water connection to the exhaust. In marine engines like ours, fresh water with coolant circulates inside the engine block in the same way as most cars, but instead of a radiator to cool the water, we have a heat exchanger to lower the coolant temperature. The raw water pump provides cool seawater to the heat exchanger and then the seawater is discharged into the exhaust system. This is a pretty slick trick since it cools off the hot exhaust gases both muffling the noise and cooling the exhaust allowing your exhaust to be in a hose instead of requiring a heat proof steel pipe, like an auto. The point at which the cool seawater is injected back into the exhaust is a crazy place as cool salt water is hitting the 500 degree exhaust gases. This makes for a pretty corrosive brew and our cast iron fitting cracked from the pressure of the hose clamp. A leak here is a pretty big problem since you will be dumping the saltwater into your engine room instead of back into the ocean. This part is a Volvo part and would take weeks to get in Mexico. I tried something I have never done before and used an epoxy product called JB Weld. First gluing the pieces of the casting back together, then giving the whole thing a wrap with fiberglass cloth and more JB weld. So far so good.
Our next stop was to be Bahia San Francisquito. We first set off on the 23rd, but as we rounded the first cape, Cabo Virgenes, we had winds gusting to 25 on the nose. With 65 miles to go and our general distrust of weather forecasting, we returned to Santa Rosalia for another 4 days.

Bahia San Francisquito, April 27 – May 2
This time we got around the cape, and motor-sailed to San Francisquito. While we had choppy conditions on the beam, it felt good to be using sails to help us get there. The midriff Islands form a line from San Francisquito to the mainland side of the sea, and their presence accelerates the tides as they pass between the island or the land. As we were approaching San Francisquito, the tide was ebbing and we found ourselves going against two or three knots of swirling current.
More heavy wind, and we spent the first 2 days on the boat. Wow, we have never been so isolated. The scenery is stunning. Groups of Dolphins sweep through the anchorage feeding on the fish. A coyote walks the beach in the evening. We hear them howling in the hills. Ours are the only footprints on the beach. Unfortunately, there are still signs of man. We have not visited a beach that does not have plastic litter. This beach has 4 or 5 black plastic crates, pieces of polypropylene rope from fishing equipment, and the number one item is plastic drink containers.
Typically, we have several other boats anchored with us, but here we are alone and enjoy some peaceful contemplation. After the winds die down, one boat spends the night leaving before sunrise the next morning and one panga ventures out to fish. We can see all the way to Isla Tiburon, which will be our next stop, 65 miles away. We will be crossing to the mainland in preparation for hauling our boat for the summer in Guaymas.

Footloose, San Francisquito

Grebes

Chicken Fajitas

Puffer Fish

Coyote tracks

Exploring by dingy

Feeding Frenzy

Bahia Cruces – Isla Tiburon May 2 – May 3
We cross the Sea of Cortez on a windless day to the Midriff Islands. The sea is a mirror. Above us hundreds of seabirds fly to visit the various bait balls that appear and disappear. We watch sea birds and dolphins plunging into the water which seems to boil with jumping fish and diving birds.

Early in the afternoon we anchor at Bahia Cruces. The Jejenes are relentless. These little flies don’t bite but they exist to be annoying. They walk around on your body preferring your skin to anything else around. There isn’t enough breeze to drive them away. On the beach, an apparently abandoned structure that looks like it may have been a museum, has several stone Monuments surrounding it. Makes you think it was a visitor center or something except there are no visitors here. No roads, no nothing. The front wall of the building is defaced with large white graffiti. On the beach are a bunch of bags and a large black cooking pot. As the afternoon progresses, three pangas arrive and set up camp on the beach. They shelter under the front overhang of the building preparing their meal. No one spends much time in the building. The fisherman are asleep on the beach as the sun goes down.

Panga at Sundown

Las Cocinas, May 3- May 5

Sunrise is coming

We leave Tiburon at 4 am to ensure a daylight arrival for our next anchorage. Glad to be free of the Jejenes. Leaving at night always feels a little eerie. The instruments glow red in their night setting and the cabin lights are red. The plotter is turned down to preserve night vision. Behind us our twin wake glows with phosphorescence in the water. We have a radar return on our port bow, but see no lights. We turn toward our new course, which brings us closer to the return. Suddenly the lights come on. An unlit fishing boat, or Panga has seen us change course and concerned about a collision turns on a lantern of some sort. Two hours later the sun begins to warm the horizon. Best of all we have wind. We sail on a close reach in 15 knots. The seas are pretty lumpy, but we enjoy the boat speed.
We anchor in the lee of a headland with good protection from the southeast winds. A little swell wraps around the point, but we are liking it. We take a walk on the beach and enjoy some of our best snorkeling. The water is clear and the bottom is scattered with starfish, anemones, Lots of fish school past us.

Bahia San Pedro, May 5 – May 6
We move to the next anchorage sailing downwind under the gennaker. Later, we take the dingy past the spectacular cliffs and caves on the northern side of the bay and enjoy a walk on the beach. The next morning an ugly swell has the boat rocking and rolling, and the weather promises more to come. So we move on.

Bahia Pedro

Bahia Algodones, May 6 – May 8
We are definitely back in civilization. The soggy peso bar is at our end of a beach lined with custom homes and resorts. Just like La Paz, the music pounds into the night with the places shutting down at 4 am.

Musica

We are anchored at the north side of the bay expecting a northwest wind and swell. For most of the first day the wind is southwest and the resulting swell leaves us in less than perfect conditions. The swell would make a mono-hull really roll, but we are pretty comfortable; however, the resulting swell makes a beach landing tenuous. We stay on the boat for two days without going ashore. And finally move on to San Carlos where we will get a slip.

Foiling Kite

Tourists at play

Foiling Kite Board

The weather has been the biggest difficulty so far. Our weather provider “Predictwind” gives us 4 models that are based on US and European data. One model comes from NOAA, one from a European Agency and two come from Predictwind which processes the US and European raw data separately with its own algorithm. The problem is that there is often no clear winner. Instead, I find myself looking for a consensus. One page of the forecast can give you a print out of the weather just as a data table. I have seen all 4 compass points represented for one hour of the forecast. We don’t actually care what the weather will be as much as we would just like to be able to plan our next move with some reliability. Where you anchor and when you go are pretty much weather based decisions.

Puerto Escondido and Surround

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Puerto Escondido

Puerto Escondido 2/23/17 – 3/3/17

We hurried north to Puerto Escondido to hide out from a forecast norther. This was a great place to hang out. We met up with some old friends from the HaHa and La Paz.

Hiking Tabor Canyon (Steinbeck Canyon)

We took a walk, crossing Highway One to see this famous canyon that climbs up into the Sierra Gigantes with beautiful rock pools and palm trees–amazing.

Ted, James, Deena, Eliza (Nellie Jo & Serafina)

Bat in Daylight

Honeycomb

Old Building on the way

Carnival in Loreto

We rented a car for a day so we could get some shopping done. Carnival was happening across Mexico, and for the sleepy little town of Loreto, this meant a parade. We had a great time taking photos of the participants.

Loreto

Loreto, carnival princess

Mission in Loreto

We walked through the mission in Loreto which was the first Spanish mission in Baja California that inspired the other missions in California.

Gary the vegetable guy

So we are walking over to the hotel to get lunch and we hear some chatter on the radio, sometimes we carry our portable VHF, about Gary is at the hotel… we are confused, several people are talking about it. Who is Gary? We arrive at the hotel and Gary has a table set up to sell produce. He is an expatriate American with his wife he live in a fifth wheel up in the hills. They have a vegetable garden and come here once a week to sell produce. Cabbage is a staple vegetable of cruisers because it holds up a long time without refrigeration. And Gary has CABBAGE, and kale, chard, beets and other great stuff. That cabbage was amazing. I hadn’t had a cabbage roll in decades, these were delicious.

Cabbage Rolls

Agua Verde 3/3/17 – 3/10/17

After the weather calmed down we went back south to an anchorage called Agua Verde. Another great place to hang out with more wind coming. We anchored alone, but in the end, seven other cruising boats were hiding out in our little cove.

After the Blow

The first day we stayed on the boat and read all day- guess we were tired. Had a couple of meals at the beach restaurant including Chicken Mole.

Lisa paddle boarded and even dove in for a swim and then got ambitious and cleaned the 192 feet of waterline which was covered with brown slime.

Cleaning the bottom of the boat

We went to the local Tienda and bought the world’s best cantaloupe and the world’s worst bacon. Lisa will often ask me what I want for breakfast. She’s thinking yogurt and fruit or oatmeal, but I ask “bacon and eggs?” Kind of a joke, since we generally don’t have bacon. So, I buy this package of bacon at the Tienda. When we open the package, the bacon is actually made of pressed pieces of unidentified pork meat rather than the strips you would normally think of as bacon. The strips are very fragile and impossible to cook in the standard bacon way. We wind up with a pan full of browned bits that smell somewhat like bacon, and taste somewhat less like bacon. We add it to a scrambled egg burrito, still pretty yummy. Oh—what I’d do for a package of Dailey’s with pepper on the edges.

Lisa has been nursing a sore knee since we hiked the Ensenada Grande trail, so I went by myself to visit a prehistoric site with cave paintings. About five miles there and back. I didn’t see a soul. Sitting in this cave, high above the beach by myself, I looked out over the ocean enjoying what must have been a very familiar scene to those those people who left their hand prints at the entrance to the cave.

Handprint cave (6 of 11)

I’m Watching You

Thousand year view

Inside

I spent the last day cleaning the bottom of the boat. With the aid of the hookah, I could go down deeper to clean where Lisa couldn’t reach. It is getting dirty faster as the water warms up and our bottom paint approaches the 2 year mark. The clean bottom gave us a ½ knot of boat speed!

Bahía Candeleros 3/10/17 – 3/11/17

We began moving north again hoping to circle Isla Carmen before returning to Puerto Escondido to meet our neighbors from Tideway who will be joining us for a few days.

We anchored off a hot spring near San Cosme, but never found the hot spring. Later that day we anchored at Bahía Candeleros off a large new resort. We enjoyed a late lunch/dinner. The resort has a golf course, but so far only 11 holes have been completed. A group of golfers next to our table at lunch reported that it’s a beautiful course, complete with whale watching. Quite a site from the 17^th tee box!

Bahía Marquer 3/11/17 – 3/12/17

We had planned to stop at Honeymoon Cove, but it turned out to be a little on the small side with one boat already in the “sweet spot” and rocks too close for comfort, so we moved on to Bahía Marquer.

We even enjoyed about a half hour of actual sailing. If you get the right conditions this boat really goes. With only ten knots of wind we were faster than we are motoring.

This bay has many large Manta Rays basking in the water and occasionally jumping out of the water. The rocky shoreline had lots of colorful fish to see. Dolphins visited too. Unfortunately, so did the flies. We’ve had an increase of pesky flies aboard. We’ve misplaced our repellent, so we’re motivated to go buy some at Loreto.

Loreto Landing Lights

Moonrise

Loreto 3/12/17 – 3/13/17

We had very light conditions and were able to anchor off the town of Loreto, which does not have a marina big enough to take yachts of any size. There is a small enclosure for pangas and a dingy dock. Loreto is a roadstead anchorage and not a good place to be if the wind is blowing.

After dropping anchor, we were boarded by the Mexican Navy. Two young men boarded and checked our passports and boat papers. These guys were totally pleasant and beamed when we mentioned how much we were enjoying our stay in Mexico. I would much rather deal with these pleasant yet earnest young men rather than the self- important Homeland Security Officer we dealt with on our entry to the US from Canada a few years ago.

I took a trip to the store to top off our coffee supply and buy some bug repellent! That night we sat on the porch and had the unusual experience of hearing both the music from Loreto and the sound of a large number of Whales passing in the channel between Loreto and Isla Carmen. The whales sounded like a person exhaling through a piece of 3 inch plastic pipe… Amazing. As the sun was setting, I was able to see the large humps on the far side of the channel.

The next morning we took a walk on Loreto’s Malecon and enjoyed breakfast at The Oasis. While walking about we met an American couple walking their dog, Gilroy, who have lived here for 25 years. It was interesting to hear them talk about the early days of Loreto when they were the only gringos in town and the fishing was bountiful. Loreto is pretty “gringofied” these days and the fish are fewer- sadly.

Loreto Malecon

Isla Carmen

We circumnavigated Isla Carmen. Isla Carmen is across the channel from the town of Loreto. This is the largest Island by far, in the Loreto National Park. This island is privately owned and visitors must stay below the high tide mark. The Loreto National Park is intended to reduce fishing pressure from large trawlers, and preserve the biological diversity of the region. At Isla Carmen, Desert Bighorn sheep have been re-introduced. As the herd increases in size, some are relocated to other islands in the sea. I found this interesting dissertation on the topic of preservation efforts in the Sea of Cortez.

Puerto Ballandra 3/13/17 – 3/15/17

In the afternoon, we moved Footloose across the channel to Puerto Ballandra. The only other boat in the bay was Tinmar, a Bruce Roberts steel boat. Aboard were Ed and Charlene who live in Farmington, a small town in Northwestern New Mexico, which is also where my brother lives. Charlene does graphic design and has designed brochures for the San Juan College Automotive Technology program, where my brother works. Small world?

As we waited for the Tinmar crew to join us for dinner, I was scanning the hillside around the small bay and just as I was remarking to Lisa that I was surprised that I never see any animals, I spotted three Bighorn Sheep at the top the ridge. I have never seen a bighorn in the wild before. Pretty cool. Wish I had a longer lens for that picture

Find the Bighorn Sheep!

The next morning, a panga showed up with three North Americans in fatigues, who got out and began to hike toward the ridge where I had seen the bighorn. I was rooting for the wily sheep.

Bahía Salinas 3/15/17 – 3/18/17

The next day, we motor sailed around the corner to Bahía Salinas, Our third salt works. This one also abandoned years ago. This time however part of the remaining town was torn down and in its place was hunting lodge. Three women lay basking in the sun. Waiting for their men to return from the hunt. The place has a lot of no trespassing signs as the whole island is owned. In an odd juxtaposition, a hunting lodge dedicated to killing the animal that they are also trying to preserve. One reference I found indicated that as of 1999, people were paying $50,000 to take a single big horn sheep. While we were restricted to the beach area we did sneak in to take a look at some of the old abandoned structures. I would have loved to see the salt pond but the presence of the hunting lodge gave the place an unpleasant threatening feel.

Painted Cliffs at Isla Carmen

The swimmer

Cruisers

Plastic Bighorn Target

The next day, we got one of three wishes, wind on the beam for about 45 minutes and had a good sail towards Puerto Escondido..

La Paz Northwards

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La Paz North

After sitting in the marina for two months, it’s time to move on. We loved exploring La Paz… always in search of the perfect loaf of bread. Exploring the restaurants. We loved Dolce Romero for bread and baked goods. A great California’ish breakfast. Favorite restaurants would be Trocadero, Il Rustico, Pizza place next to Dolce Romero was also very nice. You might be wondering why we wouldn’t seek out a Mexican’ish breakfast. In my view they weren’t very satisfying always with sort of thin refried beans, fried tortilla chips on the side, weird sauces. Never had one I wanted again, and I am an adventurous flexible eater. Mexican breakfasts certainly didn’t compare to bagel and lox from the Bagel shop near the farmers market. We loved the farmers market Saturdays and Tuesdays. The Italian sausage lady had great products and would make you a sausage sandwich on the spot. Yummy. Bella sold her restaurant, but still sells French pastry, Quiche, organic sauces at the Market. Then there’s the produce guy, Martine with mountains of organic lettuce, carrots, tomatoes fresh herbs, oranges. We had great meals and met lots of fellow cruisers in La Paz. In summary, we loved La Paz, but Lisa has already covered this.

Caleta Pardita – Feb 8 2017

The first day we motored into headwinds and lumpy seas getting to Caleta Pardita. This popular anchorage is an ancient volcano. It was a pretty windy night so we wound up staying on the boat for fear of the anchor dragging. It didn’t. We spent time there with our guest in January, but since the winds didn’t seem to be lightening up there was no hope to explore the sea caves on the east side of the island.

El Cardoncito – Feb 9, 2017

A stone’s throw up the coast from Caleta Pardita is El Cardoncito, a very small one or two boat anchorage. We planned to stop there or go on to Ensenada Cardonal. Being this close to La Paz, there are usually other boats in the popular anchorages. Cardoncito was empty as we passed, so in we went anchoring in 20 feet of water. The winds funneled down the Arroyo and through the anchorage. At one point a gust came through that was so strong there was “smoke” on the water… We debated moving to a larger space. The walls of Cardoncitio are perhaps 700 feet apart where we were anchored, so it felt pretty close when the boat would swing in a gust. As the afternoon wore on, the wind died and we were treated to a still evening with amazing moonlight glittering on the water. We played an album with Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler, and there was a pelican who came to hang out with us. He stayed about 10 feet off our stern, following the boat as it slowly swayed back and forth… great taste in music. After about twenty minutes we moved onto the back step to see if we could get closer, but after a few minutes he departed. Was it something we said? The next morning was flat calm, as we enjoyed our coffee and the sunrise.

Footloose at Cardoncito

Ensenada Grande – Feb 10-11, 2017

The next day we moved a few miles north to Ensenada Grande, anchoring in the southern most of the three lobes. Lisa, always a hiker, suggested we take the trail up the Arroyo to see an amazing view of the sea. We were sharing the anchorage with a small cruise ship from the National Geographic Society with 56 passengers. When we came ashore, me met the “expedition leader” who told us the trail was about three hours up and back. In describing the trail he said “First it’s like this, a sandy trail, then you get toasters, then microwaves and then refrigerators.” By the time we were getting into the “refrigerator” section, we felt we were at least half way so we persevered all the way to the top to be rewarded with the amazing view. On the way back our footing seemed much less secure as we only had sneakers on. Lisa’s shoes were giving her no ankle support, so we wound up slowly picking our way downhill. As we watched the National Geographic boat pull out along with the other cruisers from the anchorage, we realized from halfway down that we were really on our own. Luckily we had enough water and a little time and patience got us off the hill with no injuries. Note to self, get hiking boots next time we are home.

The Refrigerator Department

Ensenada Grande Hike

Isla San Francisco – Feb 12-14, 2017

With a pleasant southerly, we got to sail off the wind to our next anchorage. First time in a long time to put sails up. So far we have spent a lot of time motoring into big chop with the wind on the nose. Isla SF was beautiful with a huge crescent shaped beach. The first night was pretty windy and the boat dragged about 50 feet during the night. We use the anchor alarm all the time so we know these things. We took long walks on the beach littered with shells. One day we walked through the salt marsh and walked the pebbly north beach. This was an amazing rocky beach with an osprey nest overlooking it all. Supposed to be a good place for a blow from the south, but with lots of submerged rocks, you would need to know what you were doing. We spent three days at Isla San Francisco with Kingfisher (Allison and Jerry) and Nellie Joe (Deena and James).

Moonrise

Isla Coyote

Three days later we motored to Isla Coyote, a quiet fishing village, but decided not to stop because of the exposed anchorage. It also felt like you would be walking into someone’s living room. A guy in bright yellow rain gear was working on a panga.

Bahia Amortajada (Isla San Jose)

We stopped for lunch behind this sandy spit and then explored the mangrove forest and coming out in a big lagoon on the south side of the spit. On the eastern end of the lagoon there were hundreds of pelicans, seagulls, and frigate birds.

Frigate birds

San Evaristo – Feb 15-19, 2017

That evening we motored over to San Evaristo across the San Jose Channel. The late afternoon breeze had kicked up a lively chop, and once again we were motoring into it. We expected a large storm Saturday with 20 to 25 knots predicted from the south, so we anchored in a great position in the southern turn of the bay. We didn’t want to rush up the channel to Aqua Verde which might be a better stop. The plan was to stay in San Evaristo through the storm – until Sunday or Monday. Lupe Sierra operates a beachfront restaurant there where 15 dollars buys a couple of delicious prawn dishes and several beers. Fisherman come and go all day in their pangas. The first night there was an amazing lightening storm with a little rain to rinse the salt off our newly waxed boat. We were anchored under the towering Sierra Gigante range…more eye candy. The next day we hiked out to the salt ponds north of town and to the church on the hill with its white cross overlooking the bay.

Velero

Harbor at Evaristo

School, but no teacher

Salt miners home

Man and two boys harvesting salt.

At the tienda

Lupe is a great guy

Casting for Bait

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Blow out at Evaristo

We were expecting a lot of wind based on Predictwind. The forecast was stable for days in advance. So we were in the anchorage because it is a good hideout for southerly blows. When we arrived (days early) the anchorage was pretty full but we found a position closest to shore where we would not interfere with two deeper draft vessels. On the big day, those two were gone and there were only four other boats in the anchorage. At the predicted time, 11:00 am, the wind began to blow mid-teens with a few gusts into the twenties. We got some rain and then the winds went light and shifted 180 degrees. We drifted across our anchor to the other extreme as the winds shifted north. Things slowed down and I thought we were done. Then suddenly more wind now holding mid-twenties with lots of gusts into the 30’s and our max of 42.2…. our anchor held. But despite that, I had both engines running as the wind direction had us too close to the point, a lee shore. During the blow, two of our neighbors dragged. The third moved and then ran aground when the wind shifted. One dragged with three aboard, and were able to self-rescue. The owner of the second boat adrift was ashore when it happened. Three pangueros rushed out in 30 knot winds to rescue his boat. When the owner started rowing his walker bay dingy through the chop to try and get to his boat, the Panguero came and got him, then tied the row boat to Footloose and saved the guy’s boat. The fourth boat in the anchorage had a dingy hoisted at the side of the boat and this dingy flipped, no motor, but the owner was still out there in the height of it trying to re-establish order. My faith in our Delta anchor was increased as some of the puffs had pretty big direction changes bringing the boat hard against the anchor rode.

Max Gust

Rainbow after the storm

Punta Salinas – Feb 19, 2017

Just across the water from San Evaristo is the remains of an old salt mining operation. Judging by the abandoned vehicles probably in the 60’s or 70’s. Vehicles look 50’s to me. Amazing view as we walked on the salt flats. I think there is reddish/ochre bacteria/algae that forms in the high salinity ponds making for some interesting colors.

Old Salt Mining Equipment

On raising anchor, we discovered that things were not normal. The stripper arm was gone… Not one of those strippers, rather the anchor windlass has a little piece of metal that kicks the chain off of the drum as it goes by called the stripper arm. We still had our back up anchor rigged from the Big Blow, so we decided we would use it in the light airs expected at our next anchorage at Mangle Solo as a practice run.

Dyneema Prussik knot

Snatch block keeps rode straight off of the roller

To the windlass

Mangle Solo has great views of the San Jose channel and the Sierra Gigante mountains. Whales are often seen there. Sure enough a pod of Pilot whales passed us around sun down.

Return to San Evaristo – Feb 20, 2017

The next morning we needed to unrig the back up anchor. This was a lot of work with 150 feet of ¾ line attached to 50 feet of chain followed by our 40 lb fortress anchor. Lisa worked to drive the boat towards the anchor creating slack, so I could haul more easily, but the wind would catch the bows and send the boat away forcing me to give up my hard earned hauling. Finally, I dug out the snatch blocks I had purchased (so that’s what they were for) and rigged the rode to one of our powered sheet winches. The winch was able to hold the load so when we took up slack we kept it. Finally we recovered the anchor. But it was obvious that we needed to get the windlass fixed.

We returned to San Evaristo where Lupe Sierra, the restauranteur, helped me find a vice. With a little help we were able to twist the strippers arm…into the right shape then drill and tap for new bolts since the old ones were pulled out of the winch body. I reinstalled the winch and it seemed to be in working order. Meanwhile, we remained anchored with the backup. We saw gusts to 30 knots and everything held, but I’d much rather have had my all chain set up. We waited for the winds to lighten so that we can recover our back up anchor. My best guess as to what happened to our one year old, looks like new windlass, is that during the height of the storm the stretch in the nylon anchor bridle took up all of the slack in our chain giving a forceful jerk on the windlass… some of the mounting studs were also bent. Another reminder to be sure there is no chain tension on the drum once your bridle/snubber is in place…. We had some in, just not enough.

Bahia San Carlos/ Timbabiche – Feb 22, 2017

We departed San Evaristo. Next stop is Timbabiche, Bahia San Carlos. Another deserted beach where a few Pangueros make their living fishing. In the past, the Sea of Cortez was an active pearl fishery. Here, Spaniards used slaves to harvest the pearls. A huge pile of these shells remain at Ensenada Grande. The Spaniards came back years later to mine the pile of shells for Mother of Pearl.

Here at Timbabiche, there is the remains of a once big beautiful house built in the 20’s. The Story from the Sea of Cortez book (Excellent) is that an impoverished fisherman found a 5.5 carat pearl. This allowed him to buy a fleet of fishing boats and to build this house, aptly named Casa Grande. When he died, the relatives couldn’t agree on what to do with the house and it slowly fell into ruin with many of the parts and pieces being carted away to build other structures.

Coyote

Puerto Escondido – Feb 23, 2017

Starting a few miles north of San Evaristo, the coast slopes northwest and there are very few anchorages that provide good protection from the predominant north winds. For this reason we skipped a few stops and are now on a mooring at Puerto Escondido

This post sounds a little travelogue (y) and our activities might seem boring to an outsider, but I am amazed at how quickly each day passes. The scenery changes constantly and I find myself just staring at the horizon until two hours later I realize I haven’t moved. Lisa says you can spend a lot of time rating pelican landings. The boat is holding up well with only minor fiddles here and there. For much of this leg, we have had no internet and life feels calmer without the around the clock political news.

José the Driver

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Hotel California

We wanted to see Todos Santos, a small community on the Pacific coast of Baja. We stopped at “Hotel California” had breakfast and otherwise enjoyed our day in this cute little town.

Our travel was on board a large Volvo bus with comfortable seats and good air conditioning. We

bought reserved seats from La Paz to Todos Santos with open ended seats for the return. So we could leave when we were ready.

After enjoying the town and an early dinner at the Santa Fe Café. We went back to the bus station turning in our open ended tickets for seats on the 6:40 bus. When we tried to board there were only two seats available and we were a party of three. So even though we had confirmed tickets we had no seats.

The terminal has two companies present; Eco Baja Tours and Aguila a scheduled bus line. They seem to be related as the Eco people sold us our Aquilla seats.
The Aguila driver returns with us to the terminal counter where José, an Eco-driver is leaning on the counter finishing his paperwork in preparation to go back to La Paz for the night. José hears our plight and says, that he is returning to La Paz empty with his van. Without prompting, he makes about six phone calls to get authorization, then takes our tickets as full fare to La Paz even though Eco trips usually cost more than Aguila trips.

José has an accent, but his English is very good. I compliment him on his skill and ask how he learned to speak English so well. Watching movies with the subtitles on and then off to practice. He also loves to sing along with 70’s rock. Queen, Pink Floyd, some Beatles etc. I tell him I thought he sounded a little like George Harrison. We laugh. He is 33 years old. I ask him about his education and he tells me he took IT classes at the La Paz institute of technology but didn’t finish.

Our driver is very upset with his president and we discuss the current oil crisis. The government just raised oil prices 20 percent and people are protesting and blockading highways and gas stations. They raised the minimum wage to 80 pesos per day (US $4.00) per day in January, but gas is now 18 Pesos per liter ($3.40/Gal). He feels the problem exists because the president opted to use Texas refiners instead of building refining capacity in Mexico.

Somewhere along the way José reveals to me that he makes $16 US per day as a driver. His day is six hours driving then 4 hours waiting then 6 driving. After he is done José often has to deliver vehicles for maintenance and so forth “It’s a long day”. I feel guilty about the 600 peso breakfast we enjoyed at the Hotel California.

The modern divided highway unrolls as we drive towards La Paz. He is a single dad and you can tell by his voice that he loves his 12 year old daughter, and desperately wants to give her a better life. I tell him that undocumented workers outside a home depot in the bay area make $20 per hour. He tells me he is unwilling to risk exploitation in the US, the risk of deportation, imprisonment, because of the potential for ill effects on his daughter “family comes first”. He spent $250 (15 days work) for a US Visa application to come to America legally, but despite the fact that he has a clean criminal record, a home and family in La Paz, he has “insufficient reason to return to Mexico” and his application was denied.

He has since discovered that Canada will allow a Mexican to travel there without a visa. If he can find work, an employer only needs to fill out a form stating the duration of that employment and the visit can be extended for up to a year. (Why don’t we do something like that instead of building a wall?)

We talk about quality. He tells me that all Volkswagens sold in America are built in Mexico to German standards. He mentions that Haute Couture designer Carolina Herrera makes her clothing in Mexico. Then he points out his white shirt, “This shirt is Oscar de la Renta, it’s very high quality, and made in Mexico “. As I lean forward between the front seats I notice his clean white shirt, carefully pressed even at the end of a long workday. Previously unnoticed, the fold of the collar is completely frayed where the fabric rubs on his neck. He probably has to buy his own uniforms.

As I leave the van, I triple his income for the day, and wish him the best of luck in his plans to visit Canada. I would hire this guy in a heartbeat.

Shopping

Early Mission Church