Category: Blog Post

A rare blog post by Tim

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It had all the makings of the greatest of fish stories, the kind everyone loves to tell and no one ever believes. But this story had one minor difference… evidence. And not just a trace of evidence either, it was more like… proof. Beautiful, shimmering proof you could hold in your hands. 5 foot 2 inches, 37 pounds of it. I wasn’t always sure it was going to end up that way. At the time, I was certain it was going the route of all great fish tales, especially as I watched the six-foot hammerhead swim between us and the beautiful green and yellow dorado … but… wait, let me back up a bit…

It started like any other day: a cup of coffee while pondering which of the things on the to-do list should be prioritized ahead of the rest. This important task often takes hours to sort through, considering all the data, all the options, parts/equipment availability, the needs of the crew, available time of the captain/mechanic/bottom-scrubber, etc. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. I was knee-deep into my analysis, and only halfway through my grande vanilla latte when the call came in, “Exodus, Exodus, Exodus… this is Lady Carolina”. I could hear the tremor in Steve’s voice, very subtle, but there nonetheless. At first I thought it was the typical drunken Canadian drawl Steve often sported, but then remembered it was only 8am and he couldn’t have had time to hit the rum yet, having only awakened minutes before. It must be something else. I’m sure he wasn’t even aware of it at the time, but somehow it existed, maybe as a sign of things to come. I answered the radio, “Exodus here. What’s up Steve-o?” He rambled on for a few minutes about kids, schoolwork, troubles with his head (I assume he meant his toilet, but knowing Steve, I wasn’t certain), something about a power drain on his battery bank, and, just as I was about to doze off to sleep, I heard the magic words, “dinghy fishing”.  It was like a cloud was lifted over my mind. Everything seemed crystal clear, vibrant, alive. “I’ll be ready in five”, I said, reaching for my pole. Once again, the list would have to wait…

With sleep still in one eye, but vigor in my step, I loaded up the dinghy with everything I might need for the day, including my entire tackle box, pole, fish stringer, and even the telescoping gaff given to me by my brother, who I think fondly of every time I impale and hoist a fish on board. As I arrived at Lady Carolina (the name of Steve’s boat), Steve was waiting at the step with gear in hand. I barely had to slow the dinghy down for him to step aboard before we were off. Like usual, I ignored his attempts at being a smartass- something about my gaff – and headed for the horizon, dreams of yellowtail and dorado filling my head.

We had caught a couple small yellowtail the day before and were keen to improve on past results. Thirty minutes had passed as we trolled along in the dinghy, circling the same area that had proven successful just 24 hours ago. Faster? No. Slower? No. The island? Yes! Steve nodded as if reading my mind. I accelerated and headed north, just half a mile, toward the small island abruptly protruding from the open sea ahead. Known as a sea lion hangout, we figured they must know something about fish, right?

As we skirted the guano covered isle with not even a bite and little interest in our task, I turned the dinghy away from the smelly landmark, heading for deeper water. Then, just as our conversation about radio interference sources had become interesting, it happened. “Fish on”, Steve said. Being the only such comment of the day, I should have been more excited, but it hardly sparked my interest. I looked at his pole, what a sad excuse for a pole it is and didn’t give much weight to the extreme angle to which it was being exerted. (Side note: Now, to be fair, it is a fine piece of fishing equipment- if you were fishing for foot-long trout in a small stream or quiet lake somewhere. Those who know the difference between a spinning reel and an offshore ocean rig will instantly recognize this as a “medium-sized” spinning reel, suitable for a good 2-3 pound steelhead or even a small salmon. Steve says he likes that it makes the fish seem larger when he fishes with this pole. Indeed, Steve. Indeed. ) As I looked at the reel silently paying out its payload of 20lb test line, I remembered him saying that it had stopped its telltale “ticking” sound the day before, you know, the vzzzzzzzzz sound as the fish runs away. Just then I saw a rather large fish jump off in the distance, some 250-300 yards away and thought to myself, “huh, interesting coincidence.” When I looked back at Steve’s reel, I saw the last of the line disappearing quickly. As I reached for the engine throttle, my thoughts of, “uh oh…” were disrupted by his shouts, “That way! Go that way, fast!” I revved the dinghy engine and we were off in the direction of his line, now fully extended from the reel and held only by a single knot onto the empty spool. As I outran the fish, he was able to reel in some line and give himself some room to play it again. We hadn’t lost it yet…

Playing a fish is half the fun of catching a fish. Any fisherman knows it’s a balancing act of tug-of-war: reel it in a little, let it run out a little to tire it out, reel it in some more. Reel too fast and it breaks the line. Don’t let run out fast enough and it breaks the line. Poised for his game of tug-o-war, Steve quickly realized that the now-silent reel had evolved yet a new feature. Not only did it not tick as the fish pulled the drag, the drag feature itself had ceased to function entirely. The only way to let the fish run away was to crank the handle backwards- or simply let it go and let the fish do it. (Upon later inspection, the strain of the fish pulling on the line so hard caused so much heat that the innards of the reel had completely melted, seizing its bearings into a solid mess.) Steve did his best balancing act while I kept the dinghy headed toward the catch. Somehow, ever so slowly, we were making way.

Fifteen minutes later, now just 30 yards away we could see the telltale yellow-green of the dorado as it battled on the surface. “Looks like a decent sized one”, I said obviously misjudging the fish’s true size at that distance. As the fight went on, Steve balanced on the fine line of give and take and the interval between the dorados side of the tug-o-war battle was increasing. We were gaining on it. (Also noted later, the 20lb test line was completely shot. It looked like that thin ribbon used to wrap xmas presents, that you curl with a pair of scissors, and if you do it wrong it doesn’t curl and turns out flat and wavy… You know what I mean…  Between that and the reel, it’s a miracle something didn’t break.) Engine in idle, we let the fish pull us in circles as it tried to slowly swim away.

Now just 10 yards off, we strained to see the catch beneath the water- but the dorsal and tail fins both broke the surface and we could tell… it was big. Steve kept reeling, ever so gently. Just then, to my right I saw a large shape and another dorsal fin appear and then disappear beneath the rear corner of the dinghy, heading below us and toward the dorado. I turned and watched as a hammerhead shark appeared on the other side, easily six feet long, headed for the fish now only 5 yards away. My comment, which I don’t remember exactly but was much more poised and reserved than, “Holy Shit! It’s a HAMMERHEAD!”, went almost entirely unnoticed by Steve. Why in the world he would think that I was joking at a time like this is beyond me. Just as I was sure this was going to turn into a three-way game of tug-o-war, the shark turned and slowly swam away. As I reached for the gaff to haul in the dorado, my head was spinning in all directions, watching for it to return (and ready to do battle, of course). For the record, we just wanted to get the dorado into the dinghy and back to the boat as quickly as possible to “maintain optimal freshness”.

Gaffing a writhing fish can be tricky. I don’t like to upset its stomach and all the yummy juices inside, so I aim for its back, just aft of the gills. Today I was fortunate to get a bullseye the first try. Once I had it on the gaff, its true length became apparent- this fish was fully half the length of the dinghy. Its head was over a foot tall, forehead to chin, and it took both hands to lift it out of the water. Steve’s comment as he got into the dinghy earlier that morning was now priceless, “What are you going to need a gaff for?”

I guess it isn’t a true “fish story” when you actually bring home the fish. But it’s still a fun one to tell…

On the morning Sonrisa radio net, there is a guy who checks in from a shore-based station in Arizona (“from the mile-high island in the sky”).  His contribution is nice because he provides updates on things that those of us more internet challenged boats wouldn’t otherwise know about.  One of the things he does is a “sky is falling report” where he gives us a heads up on comets, meteors, and more frequently satellite or ISS flybys.  The ISS is the International Space Station, and we used to watch it fly by from our backyard in El Segundo.  Out here, we got a much bright view as it passed overhead when we were anchored at Salsipuedes.  Thanks Bob, for the sky is falling reports!

We celebrated Alex’s 12th birthday when we were briefly anchored at Isla Salsipuedes.  In the morning, he got to go on a special father/son spearfishing excursion and Tim taught him to use the speargun for the first time (the boys typically use spear poles when they spearfish).  Brenden stayed behind with me to prepare for the celebration.  We planned on a lunchtime party because we were pretty sure we would need to leave the anchorage and move on later in the afternoon.  We made hot dogs, homemade chili, and homemade oreo cookies.  We even made Alex his very own giant oreo.  The Lady Carolina crew brought over balloons and we used them to decorate the cockpit along with a happy birthday sign Brenden made.  Tim and I had already given the boys their birthday presents when we got back from San Diego (surfboards and long wetsuits), but Alex had a few presents to open including a chess game Brenden had picked out in Santa Rosalia, and some bubbles and a shiny new shackle from Lady Carolina.  The chessboard made our next passage a peaceful one since the boys played it almost the whole time, and at this point I’m really not sure what Alex has chosen to use his shackle for.

Breaking the stories into chapters is actually quite difficult because there’s never really an end, just an arbitrary breakpoint in how I’ve decided to describe our journey.  This segment has been incredible, but it’s had a different tone than the previous one.  I feel like we’ve slowed down a bit and really come to understand that we don’t have a destination.  We have a journey and we are appreciating every bit of it.  Even the heat and the bugs (stay tuned for stories about bugs and other winged creatures).

We haven’t dragged anchor, lost an engine, or ripped the bowsprit off the front of the boat this time, but we have had a couple mishaps and a few boat projects.  The biggest problem we’ve had is the seizing of our solar array supports.  On Exodus, the major way we get power is through three 250 W solar panels that you can manually rotate fore and aft to track the sun (so we have our best sun days if we are pointing East or West, and since we are still in the Northern hemisphere, pointing North isn’t too bad either.)   Since we don’t have a generator, the only other way to charge the batteries is with the engines, which works fine, but adds wear and tear on the engines.  At this point, we haven’t had to run the engines just to charge batteries, but then the solar array supports seized, and we couldn’t rotate them.  Basically, each side is just two hollow stainless steel poles and you move the outer one up and down on the inner one to rotate the panels.  Tim took everything apart when we were in Santa Rosalia, and tried many different things, but couldn’t get the poles to move freely against each other, and by this time, both sides were seized.  He ended up getting new poles made when we were in San Diego, so now the old outer pole is the new inner pole, and they seem to be working well so far.

We had a couple sailing projects to work on in Santa Rosalia.  First, when tacking we tore the bottom of the gennaker, so our new standard practice is to furl/unfurl the gennaker when we tack or jibe.  The other was the mainsail stack pack.  Marsha had sewn one side while she was here, and now the other side was torn.  Unfortunately, we weren’t with Star Passage anymore and Kim’s awesome sewing machine, but there is never a shortage of helpful cruisers.  Dan from Dazzler not only loaned his sewing machine but came and did the sewing as well.  It only cost us a few beers.

Also, while in Santa Rosalia we had a little issue with our shore power connection.   The power often goes out there, and one time after coming back on, we were no longer getting power to the boat.  Tim called our resident electrical engineer, Steve from Lady Carolina, and of course, Dan from Dazzler came down to help too.  They troubleshot for a while, and finally figured out it was a breaker in Alex’s room that would blow when the water heater was on.   It just happened to be the breaker that Tim kept insisting wasn’t attached to anything, just leftover stuff from previous installations, so it took them a while to figure it out.  We still aren’t sure what’s wrong with the water heater, we just haven’t used it since then.

There is always something that needs to be fixed on a boat.  Relatively speaking, we have it pretty easy since we have a pretty new boat, but there’s always a balance to be struck between preventive and corrective maintenance.  I’ve been doing a lot of reading since being out here, and I’ve found some resources that give decent outlines of what should be done when from a preventive perspective.  So, I built a spreadsheet that lists maintenance tasks, by boat system, with the frequency it should be done, and then had it flag things that were overdue.  I forced Tim to sit down and go through it with me to add his take, and now we are better organized and know what needs to be done when.  Of course, I’m pretty sure Tim hasn’t cracked the spreadsheet since.  Oh well, you can bring a horse to water…  I think I’ll work more on my provisioning spreadsheet because I definitely use that

When we pulled into the marina in Santa Rosalia, it was the first time we had stayed in a marina since we left San Diego.  There are good and bad things about being in a marina versus anchoring out, but in Santa Rosalia, the bad was represented more than the good.  In places like La Paz and Puerto Vallarta there are luxury marinas that seem like mini-vacations within the larger cruising journey.  However, in Santa Rosalia there is one option for a marina, and it’s the small, government-run, Marina Fonatur (Singlar).  When we first pulled in it was great fun for about 2 hours.  Other cruisers we knew were already there, and they came and helped us with dock lines, then we all did the same for Lady Carolina, who came in just after us.  We all brought our safe arrival cocktails out on the dock and it was a little social gathering while we chit-chatted about recent events, made dinner plans for the evening, and joked about the very close quarters we have at the marina (no naked showering on the swim step, etc.)  However, the novelty soon wore off, and we all tried to get out of there as quickly as possible.  One of the worst parts about being in the marina was the immense heat while not being able to just jump in the water any time you want (yuck, you don’t want to swim in the harbor!)

The good things about being in a marina are: 1) Shore power, 2) Wifi, 3) Laundry facilities, 4) Dock water, and 5) Shower facilities.  In Santa Rosalia, most of these became a bit of a challenge.   With shore power we can charge the boat’s house battery bank, so we aren’t solely dependent on the sun for our power, and we can directly run AC devices (like the microwave and electronics) without using DC from the battery through an inverter.  In Santa Rosalia, I think the best thing about having shore power was that Lady Carolina had these large AC powered fans.  The boys brought one over one evening and let’s just say Tim hijacked it for a while.  We did end up buying some fans for ourselves.

They had decent wifi in the marina office but for some reason we had trouble getting it from the boat.  One OK thing about that was that the office was air-conditioned, so we would just take our devices and computers up to the office to use the internet.  The boys did that a lot.  I wonder if the marina office staff was glad when we left since those noisy kids wouldn’t be spending all their time there anymore.

Like the marina in Puerto Escondido, the laundry facilities took tokens that you had to purchase at the office.  The problem was they only had like 4 tokens for the whole marina.  Just between the two families of four (Lady Carolina and us) this was a huge problem and we weren’t the only ones in the marina.  You had to do a couple loads, then go get the marina guy to come and open the washer and dryer to get the tokens out to buy more so you could do all of your laundry.  And that’s assuming you were the one with the tokens in the first place.   I grew tired of that pretty quick and just carried our laundry to a place in town where I could just leave it and have them do it and pick it up later that day.

The dock water was nonpotable, but that was OK.  We didn’t put it in our tanks but we used it for everything else: taking showers, hosing down exodus, and hosing down ourselves in the middle of the day when we just couldn’t take the heat anymore.  We were able to purchase potable water and it was delivered in large “Sparklets” jugs and the delivery guys were unbelievably efficient in how they got the jugs on board and poured them in the tanks.

The shower facilities weren’t worth using since they didn’t have hot water, and we could just use the deck water hose dropped down the hatch of our bathroom and shower with that in our own shower.  For the most part the bathrooms and shower facilities were kept pretty clean, with the exception of the day after a huge birthday party for a little kid where clearly the adults did more partying than the kids.  The entire marina and especially the bathrooms were a disaster.

One good thing about being at a marina is it’s a good stable place to give Exodus some love and clean her off and do some boat projects.  The Exodus and Lady Carolina boys teamed up and would do work on both boats together.  Among other things, they were responsible for the care and cleaning of both dingies, and maybe working together made the chores a little more fun.   The kids were also in charge of running to the store every day or so to pick up ice and milk.  They also “hand bombed” some jerry cans to the gas station to fill using the hand carts.  They didn’t exactly do all this without a grumble, but they did do it.  And no one can say boat kids are spoiled!

Some say I have a big head, because, yes, a bird once flew into it (remember that Seinfeld episode?  Well that happened to me once).  At least I can say a fish never jumped into it.  That experience goes to Alex.  They were playing a game on Kyle’s surfboard, and we see jumping fish all the time, but this time, one jumped square into Alex’s head.  I even recorded it in the log.

I cannot exaggerate how hot it has been this summer.  Actually, the heat isn’t the worst part; the humidity is.  Many days are in the high 90s with 80% humidity.  You just get used to always being sweaty.  We stopped using the solar shower bags long ago because it’s just way too hot for hot showers.  When we were in La Paz I would have to shower by 4-5 pm so the water in the solar shower was still hot enough, because a cold shower was still rather uncomfortable.  Now, I take a shower just before bed with warm water from the tank, even on the cold setting, and often wish the water were cooler.  The shower has to be right before bed, because if you do anything at all before hopping into bed you’ll just be sweaty all over again and need another shower.  I have actually come close a couple times to giving up coffee in the morning, which is saying a lot because of how much I love coffee.  However, I couldn’t let that go, but I definitely don’t need a lid on it to keep it warm, and usually when I have about 1/3 of my cup left I throw a few ice cubes in and drink it iced.  We, well especially the boys, have started sleeping outside a lot, and they have sleepovers with the Lady Carolina boys on the net on the foredeck of Exodus.  The only thing that has kept me sane and somewhat cooled off is the fact that the water temperature has still been cool enough to be refreshing (the exception being Bahia Concepcion).  Sometimes, in the middle of doing dishes, cooking, or even just sitting there, I have simply had enough and I drop everything and run out and jump in the water.  The first time I did that I caught one of the boys by surprise and they said, “Mom, is that you?!?”  Of course, it’s so hot we all live in our swimsuits so we pretty much just jump in any time.  The boys only get one freshwater rinse a day, but I figure since I’m the mom, I can have as many as I need.

The tour of the Gypsum mine on Isla San Marcos was definitely one of the highlights so far.  We went with the Lady Carolina crew and also Dan and Kimberly of Dazzler.   The Director of the mine was named Augustus (I think, my memory is so bad…) and he was very friendly and showed us great hospitality.  The first thing we did was all pile into his pickup truck, with most of us piling into the back, and drive up to the mine offices.  There we sat in an air-conditioned conference room and first watch a movie on the history and operations of the mine, and then had a Q&A session.  Before we got there, I had told the boys that since we were taking the day off from school this was an official school field trip, so they had to pay attention and each ask at least one question.  Brenden didn’t waste any time asking his question there in the conference room asking, “Is Gypsum valuable?”  He was disappointed to learn that no, it isn’t really valuable except in very, very large quantities.

Next, we were outfitted with hard hats and masks and all hopped back into the truck.  Three people could fit in the cab of the truck, and we all kept rotating those spots since they were the coveted air-conditioned spots.  We drove all around the mine, and most of the time I was in the back of the truck, and the tour back there was given in Spanish.  I picked up some, but luckily Dan from Dazzler spoke a little more Spanish and helped fill in the holes.   He drove us all around the mine and explained how they blast the hills and then break down the gypsum to smaller and smaller pieces and showed us the miles and miles of conveyor belts.  At one stop we met two college students who were studying mining engineering and were there as summer interns.

At some point along the way we had mentioned to Augustus that we wanted to hit the tienda, but he said it closed at noon and we probably wouldn’t be done by then, so he called them and asked them to stay open for us.  So, at the end of the tour we stopped by the gymnasium and the boys shot a few hoops and then we were able to stock up a little bit at the tienda.  Then we went back to the conference room for a debrief, and to our great surprise, they brought in lunch and drinks for all of us.  Tim tried to return the hospitality by inviting Augustus out to Exodus, but unfortunately, he didn’t bite.

There are a few weather risks staying in the sea this summer. First is heat and humidity. Oh my god there have been days over 100 and all you can do is hang out in the water. One unforeseen advantage of having a catamaran is being able to hang out in the water in the shade under the boat between the hulls.

Another risk is “Chubascos” which are short duration violent squalls that can kick up with little warning in the evening or middle of the night with winds up to 50 knots with thunder and lightning. We think we had a Chubasco a couple weeks ago when we were at Isla Cornados. We had a spectacular lightning show that got very close. I went back to bed but Tim said it came as close as in the bay with us. Then the winds picked up to about 30 kts from the N, which is about the most we’ve seen at anchor so far in our trip. The worst part is the wind died and shifted to the SE but we still had swell from the North winds so we were getting rocked pretty good with swell from the side.

And of course the third risk is tropical storms/hurricanes. It’s very rare for one to come up into the sea as high as we will be going but we have to be prepared. Hurricanes can have much stronger winds but on the other hand you usually know they are coming days in advance. There have been 5 named tropical storms so far this season and the last one (Erick) made it as far north as the tip of Baja. We, well, mostly me, have become incessant weather watchers. There are radio nets with weather reports and a low bandwidth document service where you can download weather info from the national hurricane center in FLA.

Not weather-related, but something that is driving us absolutely crazy right now are the bees! They come looking for freshwater and if they find a drop they go tell all their friends and then it really gets fun. I’m not proud to say we have committed what could be considered bee genocide on more than one occasion. Most cruisers have similar stories of how they tried to help the bees or shoo them away without killing them at first, but at some point, after you have been stung a half dozen times or so, you just can’t take it anymore. Lady Carolina (our buddy kid boat) uses the vacuum cleaner on them.