March 11 – April 2, 2014
Departure from Punta de Mita, Nayarit, Mexico: 11 March 12:12 (UTC – 6 hrs.)
Arrival at Hiva Oa, Iles Marquesas, French Polynesia: 2 April 11:52 (UTC – 9.5 hrs.)
Days at sea: 22 days 1 hr. 10 min
February 23 – March 11, 2014
Introduction
Before leaving Banderas Bay to cruise south a bit we had tentatively agreed with our buddy boats (Lady Carolina, Chara, and True Blue V) that we would be ready for a 1 March departure for the South Pacific. So, we would have about a week once we returned from our little cruising trip south to Costelegre to tackle final provisioning and all the straggling items left on our to-do lists. Tim and I made an extensive list, assigned one of our names next to each item, and then made a calendar of what we were going to try to complete each day. We stayed on task, for the most part, but various factors kept us there a little longer than expected, and our final weeks in Mexico are a bit of a blur.
Quick Recap of our Final Stay in Mexico
We arrived back in the La Cruz anchorage on 22 Feb, and after a couple days we went into the marina again by way of the fuel dock (fuel – check that one off the to-do list). To be honest, my daily log gets pretty sparse at this point, because we were so busy working off our to do items. On 27 Feb we went back to Paradise Village Marina for a couple days to rent a car and do a 24-hour flurry of provisioning. On 1 March we were ready to go, but it was not yet time to leave. Lady Carolina was a bit delayed because they had to order new glasses for Kyle from Costco, and plus, the beautiful weather window that seemed to be there for the past few days shut closed and the wind was basically non-existent. So, we headed back to the La Cruz anchorage and waited it out.
On 3 March we decided to get away for a few days and headed to Punta de Mita to do some surfing, and we had a 4-hour passage to go 8 miles, because apparently that day, no matter where you went, the wind always blew from Punta de Mita. Lady Carolina left a little after us, and they ended up turning back to La Cruz because they were beating into a head wind and didn’t think they would make it before dark. We had a good time there, and the boys really started getting the hang of surfing. It was here that we said our good-byes to Dazzler Dan as he departed to make his way back north to California.
On 6 March we headed back to La Cruz so the boys could play with all the kids until that weather window opened back up, and they had so much fun. I bussed twice to Paradise Village from La Cruz: once with everyone for the PPJ send-off party at the Yacht Club and once by myself to retrieve my forgotten credit card (oops!). The weather was looking good, so we made our arrangements for final clearance out of Mexico, and we stayed one final night in the La Cruz marina to charge batteries, wash down Exodus, and hang out at our final dock party. On 10 March we left La Cruz for the final time, and it was such a sad moment to wave good-bye to Kenta Anae and Fluenta as we pulled away from the dock. We took care of all of the formalities in Nuevo Vallarta and then spent one final night at Punta de Mita.
Then on Tuesday, 11 March at about noon, we raised anchor and said our final good-byes to Mexico. We also had a little pre-passage toast for Neptune to keep us safe on the journey we had in front of us.
February 7-22, 2014
We escaped Banderas Bay to do a little bit of cruising south before heading back up to do final preparations for crossing the Pacific.
Costalegre is a stretch of the Mexican mainland coastline from Cabo Corrientes (the southern tip of Banderas Bay) to Punta Campos (the southern tip of Bahia de Manzanillo). It literally translates to “happy coast” and it is also commonly referred to as the “Gold Coast.” Although we didn’t get as far south as we would have like, we really enjoyed the anchorages we were able to visit.
We left Punta de Mita on Friday, 7 Feb and had a great overnight sail to Bahia Chamela. We started on a light spinnaker run out of Banderas Bay and by the time we were rounding Cabo Corrientes we were flying along at 8 kts. We had that kind of speed until we dropped the spinnaker in the evening, just because it was getting dark. Of course, eventually the wind died and we limped along most of the night at about 2-3 kts, but it worked out fine since we approached the bay just as the sun was coming up. The boys caught a lot of fish on passage, and after 3 Jack Crevalles and 4 Skipjacks we were all a bit discouraged, but then they landed a Bonita late in the evening and we all had a nice sashimi snack.
Bahia Chamela is a large bay, and the main anchorage is tucked up with excellent protection from all directions but the south, but there was a little wraparound swell entering the bay. We’ve gotten used the the rollier anchorages on the mainland. Gone are the days when the anchorages were flat as glass, and you could pick from the plethera of anchorages around for one that had protection that matched the weather forecast. Chamela has a beautiful white sand beach with palapas dotting the shoreline, not unlike Chacala, but we never actually went ashore. We just wanted to “relax on the boat.” Another feature of Chamela are the many very small islands that are scattered throughout the large bay, and a couple provide an anchoring opportunity, so we took advantage and anchored off of a small beach on the northwest side of Isla Cocinas. This was a spectacular location, and where I got to spend my “39th” birthday. While there we made a dinghy day trip around to the other side of the small island and hung out at yet another beautiful little beach. We all snorkeled, and the boys even went out around the outside of the island to try some spearfishing. The novelty was an area where the water funneled in from the ocean side around the rocks and made a washing machine environment that the boys never got tired of playing in.
Our next move was a day passage down to the next major bay called Bahia Tenacatita, which has many possible anchoring locations. This is a major cruiser hangout, in fact they even have a daily VHF net like in La Paz, Puerto Escondido, and Banderas Bay. We started at the west most anchorage around the first point into the bay that is billed as having fantastic snorkeling, in fact it’s even called “The Aquarium” in the guidebook. It was here that Brenden started getting sick, so he and I didn’t snorkel, but Tim and Alex said it was nothing special. We were pleasantly surprised by the arrival of Fluenta, one of our buddy kid boats, so Alex spent a fair amount of time over there while Brenden was working through his illness. We ended up moving across the bay to anchor off the town of La Manzanilla for one night, in order to take Brenden to the doctor, and after that we headed for the main anchorage in Tenacatita where there were about 20 other boats anchored. We hung out there with Fluenta for a few more days, and then motor sailed north to a small anchorage between Tenacatita and Chamela called Bahia Careyes. We did a little bit of snorkeling when we got there, but again nothing special, since there was a lot of churn and the visibility was poor. The next morning we had another short passage to Bahia Paraiso, another small anchorage just south of Chamela. We were the only boat there, so we had plenty of room, but we chose to stern anchor anyway in order to keep our bow pointed at the swell. Here Tim and I did a fair amount of paddle boarding. We also noticed the weather was starting to turn warmer again, I guess winter was coming to a close. Cold showers in the evening were once again the norm. On Friday, 21 Feb, we had a horrendous overnight passage back to La Cruz, bashing against the wind under motor the whole way. But our arrival and reunion with Lady Carolina was heartfelt, and it was time to get down to the serious business of final preparations for the Pacific crossing.
December 20, 2013 – February 7, 2014
When we left Chacala, we knew the winds weren’t going to be quite favorable for our passage around Punta de Mita and into Banderas Bay. The forecast was for SW winds, so we knew we would be beating. However, we didn’t account for just how much the wind would pick up around the point. It was late afternoon, and the rate we were going we weren’t going to make it to the anchorage by sundown. Plus, with the wind direction, the anchorage off Punta de Mita was bound to be a bit on the rolly side. Steve spotted a potential place to drop anchor on the north side of the point. It’s not listed as an anchorage in the guidebook, but we agreed that was probably our best option. It was nice a calm and we got some rest until, oh, about 11pm when the wind shifted. By daybreak we were getting bounced around like crazy and got out of there as quick as we could. I talked to Steve on VHF, and he had to net control for the Sonrisa net, so they would raise anchor as soon as the net was over. But then as we were leaving, I looked back and saw them not far behind, so Carolina clearly modified that plan. It really wasn’t an anchoring situation you wanted to stay in for very long.
We finally rounded the corner of Punta de Mita the morning of 21 Dec, and we arrived in La Cruz just a few hours after that. We stayed a couple days in the anchorage and then moved into the marina in order to do numerous boat projects that had built up over the last few months. We originally planned to stay in the marina just 2 weeks, but we ended up making it 3 weeks until we left on 12 Jan to go to across the bay to the marina at Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta. We spent 10 days at at the typical tourist resort known as Paradise Village, where my mom came to visit for 5 days. We also spent the first 2 days of a 10 day visit from Gary and Marsha there. We (finally) left Paradise Village on 22 Jan and went back to the La Cruz anchorage for 1 rolly night. While we enjoyed the hot tubs, wifi, high pressure showers, and easy access to shore that marinas provide, it was really nice to be back out on the water. Next we spent 1 night at the anchorage at Punta de Mita then went back to the La Cruz anchorage after a day stop at Tres Marietas for some snorkling. After Gary and Marsha left, we hauled out Exodus at the La Cruz boatyard for a few days. (Why yes, it’s not even been a year since our last haul out in La Paz.) Once back in the water we spent a couple days out in the La Cruz anchorage, then went to Punta de Mita for the night. Finally, we made it out of Banderas Bay on 7 Feb to head south and once again, even if briefly, live the cruising lifestyle that we’ve grown to love.
To summarize: North side of Punta de Mita –> La Cruz Anchorage –>La Cruz Marina –>Paradise Village Marina –> La Cruz Anchorage –>Punta de Mita –> La Cruz Anchorage –> La Cruz Boatyard (haul out) –> La Cruz Anchorage –> Punta de Mita
When we left Chacala we were on our way around Punta de Mita and into Banderas Bay, where a whole new adventure would begin. One that includes marinas, kids, boat projects, provisioning, and generally getting a taste of another side of Mexico. We were sad to have left the Sea of Cortez behind, but on the journey it’s hard to look back and dwell for too long, because there’s always something new and interesting popping up to keep us looking forward.
December 6-20, 2013
The Sea of Cortez has two crossing points that are most common among cruisers, and they are creatively called the Northern Crossing and the Southern Crossing. The Northern Crossing is between the Punta Chivato/Santa Rosalia area on the Baja side over to San Carlos/Guyamas on the mainland side. Likewise, the Southern Crossing is between the East Cape area on the tip of Baja over to Mazatlan/Puerto Vallarta on the mainland side. We never did make the Northern Crossing, opting to stay on the Baja side the whole time. But on a cold, gray, and rainy morning we left Playa Bonanza on Isla Espiritu Santo bound for the mainland, with hopefully a stop at Isla Isabel in between. This was our longest passage in quite some time, since we came south down the outside of Baja between Turtle Bay and Cabo. Unlike that passage where we were isolated and alone, this time we were travelling in a caravan with 3 other boats: Dazzler, Lady Carolina, and True Blue V. We picked a VHF working channel to monitor so we could easily chat without having to first hail and then switch channels. It was a wonderful passage, and it started out with plenty of wind, close hauled, about 17-22 kts. We were starting to pull away from the other boats, so we put one, then two reefs in the mainsail in order to stay close. On the second day the wind died off a bit, and we all discussed whether we should engine up or stay patient, and we decided to stay patient for now. We agreed that if we didn’t make it to Isla Isabel by nightfall the next day we would just hove to and wait until morning to anchor. Then the wind started to pick up and we started making calculations. We had a chance of making it. We definitely had a chance of making it. So, to hell with everyone else, no reefs in the sails tonight, we are outta here! Although, it turned out in the end that everyone made it, and we only arrived a couple hours in advance. Along the way the boys landed a couple of Dorados so we were looking forward to some cookouts with everyone else.
We pulled into the anchorage around 3pm, and there was one other vessel there when we arrived. I felt bad that we were all showing up to disturb their solitude. It is a rocky anchorage, so we did as the guidebook suggested and attached a tripline to the anchor, and Tim dove down to check the holding. While he was still in the water Dazzler pulled in, so Tim dove and checked his anchor too. Repeat for True Blue and Lady Carolina. Leanne called it Tim’s valet parking service.
We were all pretty tired the first evening after being on passage for two nights, but the next day we got together and explored the island. We learned why Isla Isabel is called “The Galapagos of Mexico.” Frigate birds and blue footed boobies were everywhere! Talk about photo ops. I was wearing my running shoes with the bright blue coloring, so Carolina tried to get a photo of me with the boobies, but they wouldn’t quite let me get that close. The island is not that big, so we hike around just about all of it. It was an absolutely amazing place. We were fortunate to have good weather and be able to anchor there for a few days.
The snorkeling was nice as well. Carolina and I and the kids snorkled near the anhorage off of one of the beaches and the visibility was great and the colorful fish plentiful. For the first time I felt comfortable enough that I wish I had a weight belt. When I have my full wetsuit on it is quite a struggle to propel myself down and then I have to fight to stay down and then I have very little air left and have to shoot back up to the top. Maybe next time I will try with a weight belt. Our last day there we went on a family snorkle in the dinghy around to the other side of the island. Can you say “washing machine?” Needless to say, I did not use a weight belt on that day. I kept worrying about where Alex was and where Brenden was, and it finally occurred to me that they should all by worried about where *I* was. By this time, they are both much stronger swimmers than I am, so it was then that a load was lifted from my mind that I no longer needed to worry about them. And it was with great amusement that I told them later that they should be worried about me.
We had a couple of potlucks on Exodus while we were there in order to share the couple of Dorados that the boys caught on passage. It is pretty much unanimous that Tim cooks the best Dorado on the BBQ. He always cooks it just right so it’s juicy and delicious. Just like chicken.
Dazzler went on ahead of us to Chacala, but Lady Carolina, True Blue V, and Exodus headed to Matanchen Bay near San Blas in order to go on the Tovaro River jungle tour. Lady Carolina had done the tour the previous season, so they gave us a full briefing on how we needed to do it in order to minimize the damage done to our bodies by the no-see-ums. Add link to post about No-see-ums.
Now, to describe the really fun stuff, our day of exploring the river and San Blas… It started with us all piling into a large panga with our own personal driver and heading down (up?) the Tovaro River. It was a winding path through mangroves and tons of wildlife: crocs, iguanas, turtles, and birds, birds, birds. It was amazing! However, Lady Carolina had done it the year before, and Steve kept apologizing to us because it wasn’t as good as last year. Funny thing about that is since we weren’t there the year before we had no context, so it seemed great to us. At the far end of the tour we stopped at a crocodile sanctuary, paid our pesos for admittance, and started exploring. It was basically a small zoo, and was really quite depressing. But there was a cage with a couple possums next to a cage with a bobcat and the curious possums and the bobcat who clearly wanted to eat them could have kept the boys entertained all day. On the way back we stopped at a restaurant with a fresh water pool with a rope swing and I’ll let you guess who had more fun with that, Tim or the boys.
After the river tour, we caught a bus into the town of San Blas. We didn’t get to do much exploring, but we found the central market, and stocked up on a few fresh veggies, including mushrooms. We hadn’t had fresh mushrooms in quite some time, so we promptly sauteed them up that evening with just a little butter and cilantro. Tasty. While we were hitting the veggie market, Tim said they were going to go find a bar and have a beer, and I asked him to take the kids and find ice cream. Just a half block (if even that) away from the market they hit the jackpot: an ice cream shop right next to a bar. We joined them for a drink and relaxed a little bit, then we headed up the hill to the “ruins,” which was really just what’s left of some 17th century Spanish buildings including a church and a military fort. The fort had suffered some damage a few years back in a tropical storm, so they had repaired it, but tried to make it still look old, but it just looked a little cheesy. Overall, it was a fantastic day. I would have liked to have had more time to explore San Blas, and I’ve heard from several cruisers since who actually stay in the marina there, but we were so paranoid about the bugs based on what we heard from Lady Carolina and Dazzler, we didn’t even consider it.
Chacala is a picture perfect tropical anchorage… it was clear we had left Baja and had arrived on the mainland. The northern point of the bay is not very prominent so swell bends around and enters the anchorage. So, we got our first experience with setting a stern anchor. The stern anchor is deployed, well, off the stern in order to keep the bow of the boat pointed into the swell, which is the most comfortable way to take it. We were planning on staying only a day or two, but ended up staying 5 days, and we definitely could have stayed longer. There was light surf, and the boys spent hours, literally hours, in the water everyday boogie boarding. At home they could never stay in that long before their lips turned blue and their fingers and toes went numb. Tim and I spent one full day as a beach day where all we did was lounge around on the beach without doing any boat chores or repairs. We also spent one full day as a computer day, and I went crazy after Tim showed me how to embed photos in my essays using html. On one of the radio nets someone told us about a crater at the top of the hill above the anchorage, so Tim and I made our way up there, and the crater itself was only slightly interesting, but the views from up there were amazing. One of our last nights there, we had a wonderful dinner out, just adults, and it was the closest thing to fine dining we’ve experienced since being in Mexico. The wine was flowing and the shrimps were plentiful.
When we left Chacala our intent was to round Punta de Mita into Banderas Bay, but the wind direction compounded by the affects of the geographic point caused us to have to stay one uncomfortable night on the north side of Punta de Mita before finally making our entrance into Banderas Bay.
October 31 – December 5, 2013
We stowed all of our food, gadgets, and boat parts that we had hauled back across the border and bid farewell to San Felipe. We were going through Lady Carolina withdrawals and needed a fix, so our initial plan was to zip down the Baja as quickly as we could to meet up with them again. We planned a two night passage down to Bahia San Fransiquito, and I was more than just a bit concerned about getting sea sick again after being at the dock and on land for so long. Luckily, we all faired pretty well, but this time we decided to stick closer to the coast to avoid the craziness of the middle of the northern sea. The passage itself was uneventful other than landing a couple of dorados, which are always tasty when Tim cooks them on the BBQ. It seemed wierd to bypass the BLA area altogether after making it our home over most of the summer. I strangely found myself wanting to go say good-bye to our laundry lady (who was also named Deanne, by the way). We met her son once, and he’s in grade school, younger than Brenden, and he wants to be an engineer. I was able to tell him in Spanish that I was also an engineer, and his face lit up. So, before we left I had every intention of taking him some of our science related school supplies (magnets, pulleys, thermometers, etc.) but never got around to it. It seems that even the cruising life is conducive to letting all of the mundane everyday tasks get in the way of taking care of the really important things. I need to continue to work on that.
We were the solitary boat at Bahia San Francisquito, which was quite a bit different from the last time we were there. The weather was pleasant, and there were no bugs, so we even enjoyed a shore excursion and walked along a short ridgeline to some caves. The sand on the beach was not too soft, not too packed, and the slope of the shore was not too steep, so I enjoyed a couple of awesome runs on the beach. Once even in the middle of the day! Summer was clearly over. After that, a wonderful overnight passage brought us to Puta Chivato. There were following seas and strong winds such that we kept 2 reefs in the main pretty much the whole way there. On our way up the Baja Peninsula we stayed the night on the northern side of Punta Chivato to take refuge from SW winds, and this time we stayed on the south side to escape a northern blow. We hunkered down for a couple of days here and waited for the norther to blow through without even venturing ashore.
The next stop was Punta Pulpito, and after we left Chivato the winds died down completely and we ended up motoring. We almost aborted the passage by waiting out the calm up at Bahia Santo Domingo, but Tim and I both really wanted to keep heading south and we really wanted to stay at Punta Pulpito. So, we sucked it up and burned the diesel and pressed on. It is a matter of pride among some in the cruising community to use the engines as absolutely little as possible, but Tim and I balance that with other factors and we don’t let a stubborn need to conserve every ounce of fuel or to impress others constrain our behavior. We don’t use our engines much, but we will if we want to. Punta Pulpito is where our race down the Baja came to a screeching halt. As soon as we got there we were awed by the striking point (called “the pulpit” for a reason) with a vein of obsidian running through it. The other quite noticeable aspect was how green the surrounding landscape was. Clearly, this area had received some rain over the summer and was showing signs of life that hadn’t been there before.
Initially, we were the only boat in the anchorage, but we were eventually joined by a power boat called Amiga with a really nice couple on board whom we played a game of beach bocce ball with. Here, we heard the “crazy fish” belly flops for the first time in I don’t know how long. It was like coming home to something familiar and comforting, those crazy rays. The water was crystal clear, and although I didn’t snorkel I paddle boarded around the edge of the anchorage and enjoyed the water from above. Tim went out and caught 4 langostas (lobsters) so we enjoyed that on the BBQ like old times, not quite as fun as with Lady Carolina, though. Tim and I left the boys on board for an afternoon and hiked up to the top of the pulpit. It wasn’t a very strenuous hike, and the views were absolutely amazing! On our way up the coast we had stayed on the north side of Punta Pulpito (Bahia San Nicolas) and we could see that entire bay from way up there. We had intended to stay at this anchorage only a night or two and then head down to San Juanico, but we kept hearing on the SSB nets that there were something like 17-23 boats there, so we extended our stay at Pulpito a bit longer. Our last night we were abruptly awakened by another boat making VHF calls at 3am. They had come into the anchorage to avoid some weather, and they were calling their buddy boat to let them know. That’s totally the kind of thing the radio is for, so no hard feelings or anything, but that was our clue that it was time to move on. We were clearly back in cruising civilization again so we might as well embrace it and join the crowd at San Juanico. You see, it was the time of year that everyone who left for the summer starts coming back for the fall and winter cruising seasons. A lot of people keep their boats in San Carlos, so we were getting caught up in the traffic of the people crossing the sea from San Carlos to the Chivato and heading south.
San Juanico was as nice as we remembered, but due to the prevailing northern winds we weren’t able to stay in our favorite little cove on the south side. Instead, we pulled up in the middle of all the traffic and dropped anchor on the north side. Here we did quite a bit more paddle boarding and spear fishing, and one afternoon when I was feeling a particular need to get off the boat, Alex and Brenden humored me by taking me on a dinghy ride to view the sea caves. (The same sea caves I had kayaked to from the opposition direction months before.)
We motor-sailed down to Isla Coronados, and although we could see a couple boats positioned over on the south side of the island, we decided to drop anchor on the north side since the forecast was for a shift of light winds around to the south. We went ashore almost immediately to scout the head of the trail that led up to the peak of the volcano. The next morning we set out for the hike, and it took us about 3 hours to get to the top and about 2 hours to get back down. The trail started along sand and desert shrubbery, and then progressed along reddish rocks. At that point the trail was marked by rock piles, so you had to keep a close eye out in order to stay on the trail. When we reached the base of the final slope up to the peak, it was a much steeper dirt trail again with taller desert shrubbery, tall enough to scratch your arms and your face, if you were not careful. It was a hot day, but not suffocatingly hot, and we carried enough water and snacks to see us through. We paused at the top just long enough to eat our PuBJa’s (PB & J sandwiches) and soak up the views from all directions. Tim and Brenden raced down the steep part of the trail, while Alex and I took our time and meandered a bit. We meandered so much we found ourselves off the trail and Tim had to come back up and call out so we could move towards his voice. So, we failed survival skills 101 (not even 101 more like the pre-requisite) but thanks to the half of our crew with more aptitude for, well, staying on a trail, we all made it down safely. At the bottom we enjoyed a quick soak in the crystal blue water and also noticed how the beach had changed since the last time we were here. Before, it was a steep shore with coarse sand and lots of seaweed and natural debris strewn about. This time it was a much more pristine beach with a more gradual slope and finer sand. It would have been fine for running this time, but I didn’t take advantage of it. We left the anchorage that afternoon and sailed for Nopolo, where we stayed one night and enjoyed a lazy evening and morning soaking up the internet from the resort.
We had a gusty sail from Nopolo to Puerto Escondido, and we dropped anchor quickly. We could see Lady Carolina way out on one of the mooring balls but the dinghy was up, and we suspected they still weren’t back yet. We headed to shore to try and catch the tail end of the much publicized yacht club anniversary pizza party, but we ran into some acquaintances who told us we had missed it, but that we really didn’t miss much. As we were chatting our handheld VHF lit up, “Exodus, Exodus, Lady Carolina.” They’re back! We helped them empty their car, and they had to be just as creative at loading their car as I had to be. Unfortunately all this was happening around dusk, and we got thoroughly munched on by the all the mosquitos. Everyone was pretty tired, so we had an early night, but the next day we all ventured up the road away from the harbor, across the highway, and up into what is known as “Steinbeck’s Canyon.” Wow, what a hike. Unlike our previous hikes that had been along trails, this was really more like boulder hopping, with a stream running down the middle. The boys had an absolute blast, and they all showed their mountain goat skills as we got higher and higher and had to be creative about finding routes to keep moving up. On the way back down we stopped at a small pool, and Tim started undressing. I was too far away to hear the conversation between Steve and Tim, but soon Steve started also undressing. In their underwear, they moved over to the edge of the rocks above the pool, still bantering back and forth but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. A countdown commenced, and holy crap, they jumped in. Surely, they each thought the other was bluffing? Well, either way, that broke the ice, and pretty soon all the boys were taking turns jumping in and having a fantastic time. I think that hike goes down as one of the boys’ favorite days of our trip so far.
Lady Carolina left Puerto Escondido the same day that Tim left to fly back to LA. Tim would be gone for 5 days and the plan was to hook back up with Lady Carolina in La Paz after that. But in the meantime, the boys and I hunkered down for several days by ourselves in Puerto Escondido. I enjoyed some runs along the road in the cooler weather and we all enjoyed hanging out at the Portobello Restaurant losing ourselves in the internet. We rented a car for a day and did some provisioning in Loreto. I ran around to every store and then found we had some extra time, so we relaxed and enjoyed an afternoon in Loreto, one last time.
We left Puerto Escondio within hours of Tim returning, and we had another overnight sail down to Isla San Francisco. We made really good time, too good actually, in that we arrived a couple hourse before sunrise. We had been to this anchorage before, so we ventured in and chose a spot well away from the other boats. However, we were well exposed to the wraparound swell, and had a couple of rocky rolly hours of sleep before the sun came up. After that we moved and tucked in a little better amongst the other boats, and we were much more comfortable. We had a great time exploring ashore, looking for agates again and meeting some kayakers who were camping on the other side of the island. The winds were howling on that side and the sound and smell of the surf reminded me of the very familiar Pacific Ocean.
On Thanksgiving we sailed down to Isla Partida, to pretty much the only anchorage we hadn’t been to before, Ensenada Cardonal. This is a mile deep anchorage with a beach that shallows very gradually. We had the anchorage to ourselves and enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner of BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, some sort of veggie, I’m sure, and apple crumble for dessert. We hiked across the island the next day. It was a very easy, short hike, and we found the strong NE winds on the other side of the island again. We spent a couple cold and gray days at the anchorage, and when the boys were bored they decided to put a treasure in a jar and leave it in a cave up on a hill on the north side of the anchorage. Then they made a treasure map with clues and put in in a bottle and down the road when we were underway they threw the bottle in the sea. No word on whether anyone has found the treasure, yet.
When it seemed like the right time, we made the short sail into La Paz and dropped anchor right next to Lady Carolina. As we were making our way down the long channel into La Paz, we came across s/v Sara M and her skipper, Alan, who we had gotten to know up in the sea during the summer. Sara M is a large schooner without an engine. However, Alan is creative, and to make his way down the channel he was using his dinghy to “push” Sara M along. It was quite a sight.
We enjoyed a few days in La Paz, including a celebration for Tim’s birthday. I enjoyed a last couple runs along the malecon before it was time to push on and cross the Sea of Cortez on to new adventures. We were a caravan of boats leaving La Paz: Exodus, Lady Carolina, True Blue V, and Dazzler. We stayed the night at Playa Bonanza on Isla Espiritu Santo before leaving for the crossing to the mainland on Friday, 6 December. The boys rode on Lady Carolina for the passage between La Paz and Playa Bonanza, and as far as I know all went well. They commented on the different motion of a monohull versus a catamaran, and Brenden is pretty sure he will get a catamaran when he grows up.
October 16-27, 2013
Our trip home for Danna’s wedding was nothing short of magical, but it did have a somewhat frustrating start. I had wanted to rent a car in San Felipe and drive all the way there, mostly because I wanted to be able to bring a car full of provisions from the states back to Exodus. The guy at the marina office told me that, unfortunately, there are no rental cars in San Felipe, but I could easily take the bus to Mexicali and rent a car there. It’s quite easy, there’s even a rental car agency at the bus stop. But of course there’s not, and I learned that the hard way. Well, I also learned there are 2 bus stops in Mexicali, so it’s possible he was talking about the other one, but that didn’t help me at all.
The boys and I caught an air conditioned bus and watched movies in Spanish from San Felipe to Mexicali. We had to get off at one of the military check points, but the boys didn’t mind at all, since there was a snack bar there and I bought them some chips. When we arrived in Mexicali, we circled the periphery of the bus stop, which wasn’t very big, but we did not see the rental car agency. Because it wasn’t there. I asked the guy at the door who arranges the taxis for people if there was a rental car agency nearby (in Spanish), and he pulled out a business card and a flyer for National Rental Car and said I needed to call this number. I asked if they were nearby and if I could walk there, and he said no, they would pick me up. I hesitated because I figured there must be some place nearby and he was just sending me to this one because he gets a kickback, and he interpreted my hesitation for lack of understanding, so he went and got another guy who spoke English. That guy told me, no there wasn’t one within walking distance, and I should just call that one. So, I did, and after about a half hour a very large guy picked us up in a Smart Car with a standard transmission and he stalled the car at every stop. At first, I was kind, and I joked how it had been so long since I had driven a stick I’m sure I’d be stalling it too. Then I got a little more intentionally helpful, reminding him to give it a little more gas as he released the clutch. And if it had taken another five minutes to get there I think I would have insisted that he just let me drive. He was nice, and he was embarrased, so I let it go, and tried to make conversation on the longer than it needed to be drive back to the office. Renting the car was easy, and I drove away in my much too expensive compact car with automatic transmission but manual door locks and windows. The boys were so used to our mini-van that not only had automatic locks but automatic doors, that they were not just a little impatient when we would get to the car and I’d have to unlock my door and get in and then lean over to unlock theirs. Of course I reminded them that, “back in my day….”
The drive across the border was slow but not as bad as Tijuana, and pretty soon we were racing down the country highway to Brawley to my mom’s house. We had a fantastic dinner with Mom and John, and the without a doubt highlight of the evening was the ice cream. Well, for the boys anyway. For me it was the CA Chardonnay that John had chilling for me in the fridge.
We headed to Vegas the next day, and the fun surprises began. You see, the only people who knew the boys were coming with me were Danna and my mom. So, they got to suprise Papa and Nana (my dad and Karen), their cousins Ethan and Cammy, and, of course, Andrew. Ethan and Cammy were the best with all the excited squealing and Ethan repeating over and over how I tricked him. It was so much fun that Alex and Brenden were able to come, and it made the horrible passage up to San Felipe more than worth it (Well, I’m not sure what Tim would say about that.)
Andrew took a bus, a train, and another bus to get from San Luis Obispo to Las Vegas. I drove downtown by myself to pick him up, looking forward to some one on one time with my biggest boy. Funny thing about heading downtown is that when I was still with my mom I muttered something about being concerned to be heading down there. She took that to mean I was a little concerned about going there by myself. She confided in my Uncle Mike and Danna about it, and they both reacted similarly, with something like, “what is she talking about being concerned? She lives on a boat in Mexico and she’s worried about going to downtown Vegas???” Well, as I was getting ready to go my mom offered for Uncle Mike to go with me since I was concerned about going alone, and I laughed. I told her I guess I never finished my thought, I was actually concerned about the traffic at the time of day I would be going. She got a good laugh about that and shared with me what Uncle Mike and Danna had said. Too funny.
Another funny thing about heading downtown is that it was another of my old stomping grounds. Vegas, baby! When I was too young to (legally) gamble or drink we would road trip to Vegas and stay downtown at a cheap hotel and eat cheap food and play quarter roulette. I could go for a whole weekend on only $40. The bus station is actually right next to Union Plaza where we would play penny slots. Ah, the good ole days.
We had a great weekend with Andrew. We all stayed together in a hotel room, and Andrew and I took turns sleeping with Brenden, since he’s still quite a mobile sleeper. Not Alex, on the other hand. He sleeps like a rock. The day before the wedding the four of us went to the Vegas Strip to do some sight seeing, and while Andrew was quite a good sport, Alex and Brenden basically complained all afternoon, because they just wanted to go back to the hotel room to watch TV. I guess they miss TV, after all. When we were walking through the Paris hotel, someone actually asked Andrew and I if we were married. I laughed so hard, and then I laughed even harder when I saw how horrified Andrew was. I told him I was used to being mistaken for his sister, but this was definitely a first. He commented that of course I’m going to have to tell everyone about it, and I thought, well, yeah!
That night was the rehearsal dinner, and when Danna invited us she let me know there would be beer and wine, “but, probably not anything I would like.” I’m pretty sure that was her calling me a beer and wine snob. Since Andrew rode over with Dylan, and Alex and Brenden rode over with Papa and Nana, I decided to stop and get some respectable beverages to bring along. I found a Whole Foods somewhat on the way, and when I walked in it was like clouds parted and angels started singing. I wanted to fall to my knees and weep. It was the epitome of everything I no longer have access to on a boat in Mexico. The piles and piles of colorful fresh fruits and veggies. The bulk bins with nuts and grains I had forgotten even existed. I’m starting to tear up just thinking about it, so I can’t go on. And I didn’t linger in the store too long either for fear I wouldn’t be able to leave. I grabbed a couple six packs and a few bottles of wine and slowly made my way out of the store. I was hoping to find Arrogant Bastard and Raging Bitch beer for the special occasion, figuring it was appropriate for a wedding rehearsal dinner, but unfortunately they were out of both. The rehearsal dinner was a lot of fun. One of Danna’s friends hosted and it was a very relaxed evening. They had a fire pit out back, and as I’m walking up I hear *Andrew* telling the story from earlier. I guess he got over his mortification and realized how very funny it was.
The wedding was amazing. Whenever I was telling someone I was going to Vegas for my sister’s wedding I would feel compelled to add, …”she lives there.” So, no, they didn’t get married by Elvis in a chapel on the Strip. It was at a beautiful place North of Vegas with a lush green outdoor area with a stream running through it and a large gazebo. Everyone had such a great time at the reception. It was relaxed and fun being with all of my relatives. Alex and Brenden ran around with Ethan and Cammy, and they all showed their moves on the dance floor. Andrew ran around with Dylan, and it was enjoyable seeing them together again after so long.
After Vegas we drove to L.A. and had a great time visiting friends. We stayed with Colin and Jen, and Heather even flew out to visit. So, being with them meant I had a few days of good food, great wine, and even a run on the beach. The boys were able to see thier buddies as well, and they were very sad to leave (again). We spent a night at Dad and Karen’s house and then headed back to Brawley for my step-sister Kristen’s wedding, another wonderful wedding.
The few weeks before the visit Tim and I had started our Amazon purchases, and the boxes were piled pretty high in my mom’s living room. Tim even joined Amazon prime so he could order stuff right up until the last minuite. I also made a Costco run, a Target run, and a grocery store run, so I had quite the puzzle to solve getting everything to fit in the tiny rental car. Everything had to come out of the packages, and every square inch of usable space in that car was used up.
I took a different approach with customs this time and didn’t bother putting together any sort of spreadsheet. We had also bought a Honda generator, so I figured if asked by customs if I had anything to declare, I would just declare that, pay the duty, and be done with it. However, at the border, I inadvertently totally bypassed customs altogether. I needed to stop at immigration to get new tourist visas, but instead of stopping and parking where I needed to I accidentally got in the customs line. So, when the guy came to talk to me I told him I needed to go to immigration, and asked him what I should do, and so he told me I could just leave the car there, and go in. But we took so long in there, they had to come in and ask me to move the car over to the side, which I did, of course. So, when we were done with immigration and went back to the car, I realized that where I was parked was now past the customs checkpoint. I stood there for a minute or so, kept looking around, and then we just got in the car and took off. Sometimes, being a bit of an idiot can actually pay off. We drove the rental car all the way to San Felipe, and the next day Alex and I took the rental car back to Mexicali and rode the bus back. He didn’t want to go with me, but then I told him it was for safety in that he’s big enough now that I would be safer if he went with me than if I went alone (just due to safety in numbers). He puffed his chest out a little and said, OK. He always did like being “grown up.” We had a great time up in the states, but it was nice to be back on Exodus with Tim, getting ready to get back out on the water.
October 1 – November 2, 2013
Our summer in the sea was over, and it was time to head… North? It’s not a common direction to be heading from BLA, but that’s what we did, and it was for one reason only. Danna’s wedding was in Las Vegas on October 20, and there was no way I was missing that. My preference would have been to head south to Loreto and fly from there. But unfortunately, it was just a week or two too early for our comfort level to head south (early relative to the end of hurricane season). Many of the cruisers were heading south and some had actually left already, but like I said, it was too early for *our* comfort level. So, we settled on heading north to San Felipe so I could take a bus to Mexicali and then either rent a car or walk across the border. Since I grew up in El Centro, I was no stranger to Mexicali. In fact, I found it quite humorous that on my cruise around the world I was bussing around my old stomping grounds: San Felipe to Mexicali. Very few Sea of Cortez cruisers make it all the way up to San Felipe, in fact, the authors of our guidebook didn’t even venture that far up. And when we got there we figured out why. First, sailing in the far northern sea can be a bit harrowing. Second, San Felipe, relatively speaking, isn’t really that nice. Sure, it’s a nice vacation spot for folks from southern california wanting to get away but not too far away, but compared to the many other places we had been on the Baja Peninsula it just didn’t compare. However, it was a safe place for Tim to stay with Exodus while the rest of us headed home, and it’s kind of fun to be able to say we circumnavigated the Baja peninsula.
Puerto Refugio
We left BLA village with Lady Carolina on Oct 1 headed for Puerto Refugio, which was a natural stop between BLA and San Felipe. It was about 45 miles away, and we had been there before but didn’t stay as long as we would have liked due to the rampant no-see-ums. We had heard from other cruisers that this time of year, when it has cooled off a bit, the no-see-ums wouldn’t be so prevelant, so we happily headed that direction. We got a bit of late start, so we didn’t make it all the way to Puerto Refugio the first day. We stopped at Alcatraz for one night. The sail from BLA to Alcatrz was kind of crazy. We went from moderate winds to absolutely nothing, and then not 10 min later we had 25 kts and had to reef the head sail. We also lost our big trash can overboard and were much too slow to retrieve it before it sank to the depths. We pretty much failed at that man over board drill, although most of the time was wasted debating whether we should go back for it, which I’m guessing we wouldn’t have done if it was one of the boys that had fallen over.
Our sail from Alcatrz to Refugio the next day was pretty uneventful and we joined Charra in the Middle bight of the East bay. After being in BLA village for several days the guys were all itching to get in the water with spears and guns, and I’m not kidding, they suited up and dropped the dinghy in record time. Bob and Joyce were having us all over for dinner on Charra that night, and they asked about taking fish out of the freezer just in case, but we (Carolina and I) were pretty confident they wouldn’t come back empty handed. And they didn’t. We had a great evening eating, drinking, and talking, and Joyce brought out a deck of cards for the kids, so they could stay entertained as well.
There was a big Northern blow in the forecast, so we either needed to leave the next day ahead of it to get to the next anchorage north up the coast (at Bahia Willard) or wait it out at Refugio, which doesn’t really have a stellar anchorage for north wind protection. We decided to stay at Refugio to enjoy the anchorage and hanging out with Lady Carolina just a little longer. Where we were anchored in the East Bay was wide open to the north so we moved over to what is called the West Bay, but it’s really just the channel between Isla Angel de la Guarda (the huge island) and a much smaller island that we had to pass through to get to the East Bay. When we first moved over there it was pretty rolly from the SW swell, and we thought it would settle down once the wind shifted to the north, but it was strong enough to bend around the point and come through the channel as well. Both we and Lady Carolina moved around within the channel a couple times trying to find the best, most protected spots. While dropping anchor one of those times, the windlass stopped working again (see more info below). Unfortunately because of the strong wind and swell we didn’t really do much while at Refugio until our last two days, but those days were amazing, and more than made up for it. We hiked up on some of the hills and had some amazing snorkling. One day we had a family snorkle, and I called it “land of the minis.” The fish were all very striking with many different colors, but they were all very very small. Not too far away, though, were some bigger fish and Tim and Brenden encountered a school of Yellowtail (mmm… sahsimi). We have a great video of Tim spearing a yellowtail, that one day I will have enough bandwidth to load to facebook . As he was pulling it in it got away and Brenden was johnny on the spot in the background and shot it through the eyes before it got too far. Our last night at Refugio we had desserts and drinks on Exoudus with Lady Carolina to say good-bye and to celebrate our successful summer in the sea (no tropical storms and no chubascos). It’s too bad that because the wind had died the no-see-ums actually found us and we all got eaten alive that night. We toughed it out though and hung out playing cards well into the night. We weren’t going to see Lady Carolina for about 6 weeks, which would be quite strange considering we had been pretty much inseparable for 4 months.
Passage to San Felipe
The passage from Puerto Refugio to San Felipe was about 111 miles, and we planned to go straight there rather than stop at any of the few anchorages along the way simply because with the anchor windlass issues, we didn’t want Tim to have to lower/raise the anchor manually. We had been tracking for a weather window and we left in the mid morning on Oct 8 when the wind was supposed to be high teens low 20s from the SW. Since we were heading NW this would give us a strong beam reach. That’s not exactly how it worked out.
San Felipe
The relief I felt when we pulled into that marina will always result in me having a soft spot for San Felipe. Yes, it was a safe haven, but actually it wasn’t much else. One of the first things to notice about San Felipe and the far northern sea are the immense tide swings. Around the full moon the difference between low and high tide can be up to 22 feet! The harbor is dredged but there are severe shoals, one being right next to the marina berths. The marina was a small, Fonatur (government run) marina, and we were the only cruising boat there among local fishing boats and a couple of research boats. The marina wasn’t connected to running water, so they had a well that was periodically filled. They were very conservative with the water, and they shut it off every evening around 5pm when the guys were off duty. When I first went up to use the bathrooms, they were locked, so I went to the marina office to ask about it, and he said, “yeah, now that you guys are here we will leave those unlocked for you.” They had laundry facilities that kept eating my tokens, but I figured out they left the top unlocked and I could reach the mechanism to start the washer without a token. I gave up on the dryers and dried our laundry in our cockpit. Overall, the Fonatur was comparable to the one we stayed at in Santa Rosalia, however, it was less secure because the dock entrance was outside of the gated marina area.
The marina was located a couple miles south of the town of San Felipe, and we enjoyed walking along the beach at low tide to get there. Well, I know I enjoyed the walk. Alex and Brenden only complained a little bit, so overall, not too bad. San Felipe has a small malecon lined with restaurants and shops, and our first day there we landed at the Taco Factory, which was nothing special, but it’s always fun to eat out after being away from civilization for a couple weeks. The town is very tourist oriented, but it seemed misplaced because it wasn’t exactly hustling and bustling with activity. We found a pizza joint owned by a Canadian where we could watch the Dodger game, and he told us this is one of the slowest times of the year.
Provisioning in San Felipe wasn’t much different than anywhere else, but there were small things that made you realize how close to the border you were. Like lemons. They had huge, juicy lemons, which we hadn’t seen at all anywhere else in Baja.
Although there weren’t a lot of other boats at the marina, we did meet a few interesting people. The same morning we arrived, a very small (19 ft) sailboat pulled into a slip across from us, and the guy got out and went directly over to hang out with the Mexican guys who were working on the research boat. Later we talked to him and had him over for dinner, and he was a single hander who was going to sail the Sea of Corez for a few months. He had launched his boat in BLA and headed North to San Felipe. Like us, he had read that the Northern Sea is a road less travelled, and that drew him to it. However, he was at anchor off the coast just south of San Felipe during the storm that we experienced, and he had a pretty harrowing night at anchor. So, he was rethinking his plan. He was there in San Felipe with us for about a week and ended up loading his boat, Updog (What’s Updog, I don’t know, what’s up with you?) back onto the trailer with intent to drive down to La Paz, relaunch, and cruise around there for awhile. We never heard from or saw him again, so we hope had a satisfying experience, regardless of what he ended up doing.
We also met the scientists who were conducting the research. They were studying Vaquitas, which are small porpoises who only live in the northern Sea of Cortez. They are endangered due to fishing nets, so the research effort is to try to assess the size and health of the remaining population. They had a very successful expedition a few years ago, but this time, mostly due to the weather, they hadn’t seen a single one. They gave us some literature and coloring books for the boys, and Brenden became quite interested in the plight of the Vaquita and did one of his science projects on them.
While we were in the states, Tim befriended one of the guys that worked in the Marina, whose English was spotty at best, but better than Tim’s Spanish, so I can only imagine the extent of their conversations. Of course, everyone speaks beer. He had worked before at a cook in a restaurant, so he showed Tim how to cook shrimp. He also showed Tim around the town, and by that I mean mostly the bars. When we were back and we went out to dinner, a bartender at a restaurant came over and hugged me like we were old friends!
I’m very happy we went to San Felipe for many reasons, but when it was time to leave, we couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I think the thing we absolutely liked the least was the bird poop! The marina is in the flight path and it was near impossible to clean Exodus fast enough to keep up. Good riddance, stupid pelicans! We left San Felipe on November 2 with a plan to stay nearer to the coast this time. We were hoping to get to Puerto Escondido in time to catch up with Lady Carolina, and we were looking forward to stopping a few places along the way.
August 19 – October 1, 2013
After a couple days of provisioning in BLA village, we headed to the far northern end of BLA to La Gringa for the August Cruisers’ Full Moon Party. We arrived a day early with Lady Carolina in order to scout the estuary and figure out the tides. La Gringa is formed by a point of land that is a hook reaching out and down to the southeast. There is a lagoon with a fairly narrow opening such that at extreme tide changes the water rushes in and out at a pretty good clip. The full moon party was a lot of fun but one of the highlights of La Gringa had to be the whale sharks. They are huge efficient eating machines and they are absolutely ambivalent about any human activity going on around them as they swim around sucking in all the tiny plankton, krill, and microalgae they can eat. Tim and Brenden (and many others in the anchorage) got in and swam around with them. They move pretty fast sometimes and it’s hard to keep up.
The day after the party everyone dispersed, and we stuck around one more day with Lady Carolina, and then we headed to Las Rocas, which is an anchorage on the west side of Isla Coronado (Isla Smith). Isla Coronado (Isla Smith) is a small island northeast of BLA, and I have no idea why it has two names. There is a dramatic symmetric cone-shaped dormant volcano on the island, which had a hiking trail to the top, but we never made it there since it was too bloody hot. Las Rocas had nice nooks and crannies to paddleboard around in as well as several nice places to snorkel. It was a beautiful anchorage, but there were no-see-ums there to deal with. This time Lady Carolina was anchored closest to land so they seemed to get the brunt of the visits from the tiny bugs. While we were at Las Rocas was when tropical storm Ivo was traveling up the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula, and we actually got a fair amount of cloud cover and rain for a few days. We had to run the engines to charge the battery bank for the first time (since we primarily rely on solar).
We left Las Rocas on Monday, Aug 26, and since there was fair weather in the forecast we headed back down south to Ensenada el Pescador, which was the anchorage that Carolina and I had walked to when we were anchored at El Quemado. El Pescador has a fabulous beach, and our first afternoon there the boys all played football, frisbee, and bocce ball. The next morning I enjoyed a fabulous run as well. Our fair weather didn’t last long, and we ended up getting blasted out of there with 20 kt winds from the East (straight into the anchorage) and rain. However, the wind died as we turned back into BLA and we ended up motor-sailing first to BLA village for a quick groceries run and then down to La Mona, which is at the very southern end of BLA. La Mona is dotted with houses along the shoreline, which are apparently mostly inhabited with “gringos” who leave for the summer to escape the heat. There were several other boats in the anchorage, and we ended up having a nice beach potluck with True Blue V, Sea Note, Drifter, Entres Nous, and Lady Carolina.
After we spent another couple of days at BLA village, we decided to venture out on our own for the first time in months. What would we do without Lady Carolina at our side? We didn’t go far, just to a small island about 5nmi to the northwest of the village, called La Ventana. It was a very nice, small anchorage, but our time there was tainted a bit because Alex had an ear infection that really flared up, and we had to head back to the village to take him to the medical clinic. Also, while at La Ventana we had our only almost real Chubasco of the season. Jake’s nightly radio Chubasco report put us all at high alert, and sure enough, in the late evening we had lightning all around us. The winds picked up around 11:30, and wouldn’t you know it, at La Ventana we only experienced winds in the high teens to mid-20s with gusts in the 27-30 kt range, while back at the village they saw sustained winds up in the high 30s. There was a lot of VHF radio chatter about how much anchor chain everyone had out and what winds they were seeing. Luckily, no one dragged, and everyone came through totally unscathed.
We couldn’t stay away from Lady Carolina for long, and after La Ventana we hooked up with them on the 35 nmi sail up to the northern end of Isla Angel de la Guarda to an area called Puerto Refugio. We were a four-boat caravan including Dazzler and Chara as well. It was a wonderful full day sail, and we all had our spinnaker chutes flying. Bob on Chara even popped two chutes (since Chara is a Ketch). Puerto Refugio is far enough north that it lays a little further off the beaten path. Not even all the boats that stay in the BLA for the summer make it up that far. It’s a beautiful area, rugged and secluded. We would have absolutely loved this place except for the daily thunder and lightning and, of course, the no-see-ums. We anchored in the middle bight of the east bay, and as soon as we dropped and I was sitting on one of the swim steps the no-see-ums started nibbling, so both we and Lady Carolina hauled anchor and moved out further away from land in almost 50 ft of water. That really didn’t stop them. Actual quotes from our logbook include, “No-see-ums are the devil,” and, “I am an anti-itch gel junkie.” The latter quote was actually the only thing written in the log one day. Finally, after 5 days we could stand it no longer, and we bailed back down south. We had a slow sail with little wind, so we stopped at a lesser-known anchorage (since it’s not in the most popular guide book) called Alcatraz. It is a north-facing anchorage, so we knew we could only stay for one night because the north winds were supposed to blow again. We hung out on Exodus with Lady Carolina, and Craig and Leanne from True Blue V. We learned that True Blue V had left San Diego heading south on the exact same day we did. It took us getting all the way up to the northern Sea of Cortez to run into each other.
We sailed from Alcatraz to La Gringa for some protection from the strong northern wind, and before we knew it it was time to head back to BLA village for the annual BLA “Regatta” and then down to La Mona for the September Cruisers’ Full Moon Party. It was Sept 19th and we were starting to get a much-needed reprieve from the sweltering hot weather. I celebrated one morning when the thermometer read 75 deg when I got up. While at La Mona, we realized Brenden’s birthday was going to come before we needed to go the BLA to reprovision, and Alex hadn’t picked out a gift for him yet. So, we took Exodus for a day trip from La Mona to BLA village so that Alex could get Brenden a present. We also hit a tienda or two, and I almost cried when I saw red, yellow, and yes, actually orange bell peppers. We stayed at La Mona a few more days, including a “progressive” party turned regular old boat party on Mai Tai Roa, and a celebration for Carolina’s birthday (she’s in her late 30’s like we are.)
Brenden really had his heart set on spending his birthday back at La Gringa in order to play in the lagoon rapids, but strong SW winds were expected, so we headed instead to Isla Mitlan. Isla Mitlan is a very small piece of land detached from Isla Coronado (Isla Smith) just north of the Las Rocas Anchorage. The angle of Isla Milan seemed like it would provide decent protection from SW wind and swell. We had a great day for Brenden’s birthday, but the next couple days the forecasted SW winds came more from the west and then the northwest, and it was uncomfortable bordering on unsafe, so we went back to La Gringa after all. The weather continued cooling off and at Isla Mitlan we needed sweatshirts for the first time in I don’t know how long, and at La Gringa the logbook reads “68 deg when I got up this morning!” The wind blew like crazy while we were at La Gringa, so we played a lot of cards. We taught the boys Hearts, and the first time we played Brenden inadvertently shot the moon for a come from behind win.
We made one final stop at BLA village for provisions, fuel, groceries, and internet. We were now on a schedule, because my sister Danna’s wedding was on Oct 20, and we were going to sail all the way up to San Felipe so I could take a bus across the border. I started tracking for a good weather window to head north, and we pulled out of BLA for the last time on Tuesday Oct. 1.
Gresham Family Exodus