Category: Narrative

From Santa Rosalia to BLA

Post author By cruisingrunner
Post date May 23, 2020
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July 29 – August 15, 2012

Summer in the Sea of Cortez has been phenomenal. Way back when we were at La Paz and making the decision whether to head south to Central America or stay here I was racked with indecision having a hard time figuring out what was the right thing to do. Now, I know we unquestionably made the right decision. After reading this you might think I’m crazy… the bugs, the Chubasco scares, the heat, etc. However, this summer gave us a fantastic opportunity to continue to get to know Exodus and to also experience some adversity while still being pretty close to home. Having these experiences and gaining confidence in Exodus and in ourselves as cruisers will be invaluable as we continue south further away from home and ultimately cross the pacific into much more foreign (to us) territory. And as an added bonus we got to spend the summer with a small group of fantastic cruisers and are making great friendships along the way.

We prefer to arrive at an anchorage during daylight hours, so we departed Santa Rosalia in the evening and had our first overnight passage since we were coming south on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula. We waited until after the Chubasco report on SSB radio to make sure we were likely to have a convection free passage, so we pulled out of the Santa Rosalia breakwater at about 9:30 pm. As soon as we were out of the breakwater we were surprised by the surreal vision of what seemed like a hundred lights on the water. They were fishermen out in the pangas trying to catch squid that are predominant in that area. Navigating that was a bit tricky, but I’m thinking, hey, at least they have lights (you can’t always take that for granted). The passage was pretty uneventful after that, starting out with light wind on the nose, so I practiced tacking in these light conditions. The wind picked up and then died again, but we arrived at San Francisquito at about 5:30pm. As usual the boys were in the water about a split second after the 2nd engine was cut off (they have to wait until we are completely done anchoring and engines are off before swimming). Bahia San Francisquito is a large, predominantly NE facing bay with two main anchorages: one good for southerly winds and one good for west and northwesterly winds. We parked at the latter one just off a white sand beach about 1/2 mile long. There is also a small cove hanging off the SE corner of the bay were small boats can enter with great protection. I paddle boarded into this cove and there are residences along the south end as well as a small base for some sort of Naval operations. The Navy did circle through the anchorage past all of the boats (there were 4 of us there) but they didn’t stop or board any of us. They had a dog in the boat, so we suspect they were sniffing for drugs and didn’t get any whiffs from our crowd. The second or third day there, the wind shifted on us and we were getting pretty good swell so we all weighed anchor and joined S/V Interabang at the other end of the bay with better protection. They had just pulled in and we turned their secluded anchorage into a party of 5, including 2 noisy kid boats. I’m sure they were ecstatic!

DSCN4864 — The boys swimming off the front of Exodus at Bahia San Francisquito

When we left San Francisquito we regretted that we never went ashore, but the bug situation somewhat dictated it. We departed bound for Isla Partida along with Lady Carolina. (Recall that there is an Isla Partida that we spent a fair amount of time at down by La Paz. We have learned that it is quite common in Mexico to have multiple places with the same name. Keeps people on their toes, I guess.) We didn’t make it all the way there, though, because the wind just wouldn’t cooperate, so we stopped on the south side of a small island called Isla Salsipuedes. It was a narrow, rocky anchorage, quite beautiful and somewhere I would have loved to stay several days. But we ended up staying just one night there, because it really was good for just fair weather and the wind picked up the next afternoon, not to mention the no-see-ums (bugs of the devil!) We did celebrate Alex’s 12th birthday in that anchorage, and we weighed anchor immediately after the celebration concluded because that’s when the wind shift came.

Our next stop was Isla Partida, which is also a small island. It has a large crescent-shaped anchorage with excellent protection from all directions except due north. We stayed here a few nights and the highlights include long paddleboard excursions, huge fish, and a mini-Chubasco. After that we headed back to the Baja Peninsula to Animas Slot. We didn’t check our map very well before heading out, though, because we were operating under the subconscious assumption that southish winds would be preferable for this passage since our overall general direction has been north from Santa Rosalia to Bahia de Los Angeles. It turns out that from Isla Partida to Animas Slot is actually a SW passage, so with S winds, we had a close reach and even had to tack to get to the anchorage. Live and learn (although I take a much more active role in passage planning after that.) Animas Slot was a fantastic little anchorage, long and narrow, and we knew it would be tight for both boats to fit. We arrived slightly ahead of Lady Carolina so we tried to tuck in as close to the beach as possible. Tim even got in the water and moved the anchor manually. Seriously, he dove down picked up the anchor and walked it closer to shore. In the end, when Lady Carolina got there they figured out the bottomed deepened too quickly so they couldn’t find a spot where the could put out adequate scope and not swing into the sides of the anchorage. Sunset was looming so they moved around the corner to Cala Puertocito de Enmedio. Of course, we took an infinite amount of crap for taking the best anchor spot for ourselves. And there was no doubt about that, Animas Slot was breathtaking. There was excellent snorkeling and paddleboarding, and I even hiked up to the top of the ridge between the two anchorages for some phenomenal views. And even though we were separated from Lady Carolina by a ridge and a reef, it didn’t stop us from gathering for potluck dinners and evening cocktails on the foredeck of Exodus.

We pressed onward, but not very far this time. We stopped at Bahia de Las Animas which is just a few nm away from Animas Slot. In contrast to Animas Slot, Bahia de Las Animas is a huge bay open to the NE, and we chose one of the anchorages on the SE side, also open to the NE. We stayed a couple nights here, but there wasn’t much to see aside from a whale skeleton and a coyote on the beach. We were starting to get that sense of urgency to get to the village at Bahia de Los Angeles because we were down to bare bones of fresh fruits and veggies, but we decided to make one more stop at Ensenada el Quemado. Lady Carolina left a few hours before us and had no wind, and by the time we got our act together and got underway we had 20 kts. Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good. Our navigation system communication network has been having some issues, and on this passage we were without GPS. It’s funny how you get so dependent on seeing that little boat icon move across the chart plotter. El Quemado faces north and we tucked in at the SE corner of the anchorage. While the boys were out spearfishing (as usual) Carolina and I hiked to the SE across to Ensenada el Pescador. Well, calling it a hike is a little generous. It was really a walk across flat, desert terrain, but the beach on the other side was fantastic. It had white sand and was a deep enough beach for some bocce ball or beach football. We decided we would definitely need to visit that anchorage at some point. There was also an abandoned resort where the rooms were small, individual, structures along the beach, and we noticed that some of them were occupied. It’s not clear if the people there are squatters or what, but they have million-dollar views every day. When we left El Quemado we were bound for the village at Bahia de Los Angeles, but we did a drive-by survey of Puerto Don Juan along the way. Puerto Don Juan is a natural “hurricane hole” that provides excellent protection from all directions. This is where we would all flock should the unlikely event of a tropical storm make its way this far north into the sea. We wanted to check it out and be familiar with the entrance and the depths of the anchorage in case we ever had to enter in a hurry. Bahia de Los Angeles (henceforth referred to as BLA) is a very large bay and the village is up at the NW corner with a sand spit providing a little added protection from the NE. We made it to the village just before noon and had time to check out the town in the afternoon.

From Santa Rosalia to BLA (Looks like we forgot to start the inReach beacon when we left Santa Rosalia.)

Narrative

From San Juanico to Santa Rosalia

Post author By cruisingrunner
Post date May 1, 2020
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June 30 – July 29, 2013

We left San Juanico on Sunday, June 30, finally into new territory again. Our first stop was Bahia San Nicolas, and calling it a “Bahia” was a bit generous. It was basically a long stretch of beach on the Northside of a pretty predominant point called Punta Pulpito. It wasn’t a very glamorous anchorage, but it provided protection from the mostly southern wind, so that’s where all the cruising boats were congregating on the way up north. A very redeeming quality of this anchorage was the lobsters, and we had our first of many “lobster fests” on Exodus with Lady Carolina. After a couple nights we continued north and sailed around Point Concepcion into Bahia Concepcion, which is a very, very deep north-facing bay with many smaller bays along the edge of it to anchor. We made our way down to El Burro Cove, which is where the 4th of July Cruisers party was to take place. We maneuvered around the very crowded anchorage to the shore side, set anchor, and then consternated over whether we should stay or not, because we were pretty shallow, and we didn’t know what the tide swing was going to be. In the end, we moved over to the next anchorage, called Playa Coyote, with a lot more room, and to our pleasant surprise, Lady Carolina followed us over. The water there was insanely warm, and so was the air temperature, so we spent the entire day before the party hanging out in the water in the shade of Exodus between the two hulls. There’s a small community there at both El Burro Cove and Playa Coyote, with “houses” lining the shore and a couple small tiendas. The nearest town is Mulege to the North, but there’s not a good anchorage there, so most cruisers get there by hitchhiking. We never got around to trying that.

Lobsters on the grill at Bahia San Nicolas

After a couple days at Playa Coyote and a great 4th of July party, we sailed further south into Bahia Concepcion down to Playa Ventura near Isla Requeson. There is a small hotel and restaurant there, so we had a late lunch/early dinner there with several other cruisers along with many Clamato drinks. Before we left Concepcion we spent of few nights at the Northern anchorage of Santo Domingo, but on the way, we made a quick day stop at Playa Santa Barbara to dive on a sunken sailboat. It ended up being a pretty disappointing dive due to low visibility, but it was pretty nice diving without needing any wetsuit whatsoever. At Santo Domingo it wasn’t quite as hot, but we were infiltrated by a colony of bees, so we moved to a “secret anchorage” just a little way south to get relief from the bees. Secret anchorages are those that aren’t mentioned in the guidebook, and usually cruisers don’t readily share their knowledge of them because they want to keep them low traffic areas, but in this case, Bill and Lisa on Beyond Reason took pity on us and shared this one.

IMG_1553_edited — At the restaurant at Playa Ventura

When we left the Santo Domingo area we were headed for Isla San Marcos, but the wind totally died on us, so we ended up staying the night on the Northside of Punta Chivato. It really was just a rest stop, so as soon as the wind picked up the next day we got moving again. Our first stop on Isla San Marcos was a day stop at the Gypsum mining town at the Southwest end of the island. One of the first things we noticed about the town, after the cloud of gypsum hanging in the air, of course, was how clean the town was. We walked around for a while, but the tiendas were unfortunately closed. We scattered a bit, and as I was checking out the graveyard, Alex and Brenden come back to me and tell me that Dad got on a motorcycle with some guy and drove off that way. Then I notice the Lady Carolina family getting into a large pick-up truck with someone. I tell the boys to stay with me, and all I can think is, “what the heck is going on here?” Not too much later Tim pulls up on the back of a four-wheel ATV with two kids who didn’t speak any English, but they gave Tim a riding tour of part of the town, including the airstrip. Then they showed us where an open tienda was, but it was the type where there is a counter and not much of a selection. Don’t even think about fresh veggies. While Tim was playing around with the kids on the ATV, it turns out Lady Carolina was in a truck with the Director of the Mine and had arranged for us all to get a tour the following day. Score! We anchored for the evening up at Sweet Pea Cove, and then took Exodus back to the town the next day for the tour, and it was an amazing experience. We ended up staying at Sweet Pea cove for a few days where there was excellent snorkeling, and I finally saw a golden grouper. There were several boats in the anchorage, so Tim and I made the rounds in the dinghy and ended up having a big cocktail party on Exodus. One of the highlights of the anchorage, though, was the incredibly loud whales in the moonlight.

DSCN4601 — Approaching the Gypsum mining town

From Sweet Pea Cove we headed into Santa Rosalia for our first stay in a marina since leaving San Diego. We arrived on July 16 and left on July 30, and this included a several day road trip up to San Diego. Santa Rosalia is a nice little town with decent provisioning and air-conditioned restaurants. There was wifi at the marina office, so most days after getting all their boat work done the boys hung out up at the office, which was also air-conditioned.

When we left Santa Rosalia we were bound of Bahia de Los Angeles, where we would be spending the remainder of the summer months with the rest of the small group of cruisers, who like us, were planning to bear the heat, tropical storms, and Chubascos and stay in the sea for the summer.

Narrative

From San Juanico to San Juanico

Post author By cruisingrunner
Post date April 25, 2020
No Comments on From San Juanico to San Juanico

May 22 – June 30, 2013

Most cruisers in Mexico leave for the summer to avoid the heat and the tropical storm season. So, our kid boat flotilla broke up near the end of May so that the rest of them could secure their boats in marinas and head to their various destinations. This phase of our journey covers the wonderful visit we had with Tim’s parents, Gary and Marsha. Their visit was a lot of fun and definitely helped the boys get over the breakup of the kid boats. Having Grandma and Grandpa around is always such a treat. This phase also covers the circles we did around the Loreto area before we finally headed north for the summer. We circled and returned to Loreto so many times Alex cleverly commented that “Loreto is the new La Paz.”

It was a one hour passage each way from Isla Coronados to Loreto to pick up Gary and Marsha for a 10-day visit. They arrived on May 21st, and Tim took a taxi out to the airport to meet them, while the boys and I packed a load of groceries back to the boat to be well provisioned for the duration of their stay. They came with four very heavy suitcases. At home, they had to carefully weigh each one in order to even out the load, so that each one was just under the 50 lb. airline limit. Needless to say, most of their load was stuff they brought down for us. The load included new anchor bridle hooks, a gallon pump of sunscreen, two pole spears for spearfishing, about 20 lb. of Cliff Bars, and lots of other boat-related items including a wind scoop that Tim designed and Marsha sewed for us. We spent the night back at Isla Coronados, and in the morning, Tim, Gary, and the boys went for a hooka before we set sail north to San Juanico. San Juanico is still one of our favorite places. It is a huge, east-facing bay with several spots to anchor on both the North and South Sides. When we were arriving, the wind was blowing pretty hard out of the SE, so we scoped out the small cove on the southernmost side. It was perfect. We had it all to ourselves. There were several boats on the Northern side of the large bay, and due to the large swell that was knocking them around, there was mass migration to the larger southern anchorage next to us. Here, we met up with Star Passage and enjoyed some meals together on each other’s boats once again. The snorkeling in our little cove was absolutely amazing; I called it a fish superhighway. This is where Alex and Brenden first learned to spearfish for the first time. There was also an excellent running beach and some dramatic sea caves that I kayaked around. One of the other cruisers organized a potluck, so we got a chance to meet some new people, and the boys played a few games of Bocce Ball.

The boys learned to spear fish in San Juanico

After about 4 days, we said good-bye to San Juanico (for now) and headed back South to Bahia Salinas, a South facing anchorage on the East side of Isla Carmen. The anchorage itself was not that spectacular except for the small crashing waves that the boys could actually boogie board in and the sunken Tuna Boat in the middle of the bay. It sunk back in the 80s, and it was in fairly shallow water. In fact, you could see one of its edges peeking out above the surface of the water. It was a rare occasion to dive on a boat wreck and need only snorkel gear. We all enjoyed it immensely. After the morning dive, we motor-sailed back to Agua Verde. We enjoyed Agua Verde so much the first time that we wanted to take Gary and Marsha there. This time we anchored on the North side of the bay where I enjoyed a nice hike and easier access to the tienda (small store) in town. This is where we said our final good-byes to Star Passage, but this is also where we finally met Lady Carolina. They are another kid boat with two boys, Joel (age 8) and Kyle (age 13), and we’ve pretty much been with them ever since.

After Agua Verde, we had a very nice sail North to Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante. We had planned for an early morning departure to Loreto, but we left even earlier than planned, because when we woke up, the foredeck was completely covered with bees. The dew had collected on deck and a massive number of bees were enjoying the fresh water. Raising the anchor was precarious work, but Tim took the job on the anchor while I manned the helm. It was very sad for all of us when we dropped off Gary and Marsha in Loreto, but I put the boys to work right away with another big backpacking provisioning excursion around town.

We spent the next couple days back at Isla Coronados, and in the short time we had been away there had been some sort of algae bloom, and the beautiful turquoise water had turned a very distasteful pea green color. We said final good-byes to Sweet Dreams and Fluenta, and we also met Resilience for the first time. Beth and Jim of Resilience are both marine biologists, and one morning, they held class for all the kids on the beach. They investigated the sea wildlife and discussed King Philip Came Over For Grape Soda (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species). All the kids enjoyed it, especially Brenden.

From Isla Coronados we spent a little time on our own. We spent one night in Puerto Escondido getting light provisions, doing laundry, and fueling up. Then we went a little further south to a small cove just outside the Loreto National Park area, called Candeleros Chico. The guidebook describes it as a one boat anchorage, but we squeezed in there with one other small boat. There was amazing snorkeling at Candeleros Chico, rivaling San Juanico for our favorite spot. There were just schools and schools of Parrot Fish. We did a lot of stargazing there and even had a bonfire one night. It was nice to have a little bit of family time. We had a great sail from Candeleros Chico back to Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen, and from there we made another day trip to Loreto. Since it was Sunday, we went to the Farmers market, which was really more of a small swap meet with a few vegetable stands. The produce selection and freshness were amazing.

When we left Loreto in the afternoon, we decided to practice raising anchor under sail since there was wind, but not too much, and there was plenty of maneuvering room. It was a success, but even after all this time, we are still working on our communication approach when needing to do things quickly and correctly. We spent one more night at Isla Coronados before heading back up to San Juanico to hook up with Lady Carolina and Resilience. When we pulled into the very large bay it was totally deserted, which was understandable, since the swell from the Southeast winds would have made for a very uncomfortable anchorage. We found Lady Carolina and Resilience up around the corner to the North at a bay called La Ramada, which had much better protection from southish winds, but wasn’t nearly as pretty an anchorage. However, there was a dirt road and then a trail that led to the North side of San Juanico. The dirt road was littered with Obsidian, so the boys enjoyed some collecting. We also visited the cruisers’ shrine, which is basically a tree that people hang homemade items from, documenting their visit. Some items have been there for 20 years! Unfortunately, we had another good-bye to say as Resilience headed north to eventually cross to San Carlos and then head home. And then there were two. Two kid boats, that is. Exodus and Lady Carolina. And we’ve been mostly inseparable ever since.

From La Ramada, Lady Carolina headed South to pick up some wifi, and we stayed one night at our favorite little south cove at San Juanico. It was a little rolly but not too bad. Then we also headed south and stopped at Nopolo, which is just a little ways South of Loreto. At Nopolo, we fed our own wifi addiction; in fact, I spent pretty much an entire Saturday in the salon on the computer. There is a resort at Nopolo that has open wifi, and we were able to pick it up pretty easily from the boat. Then we met back up with Lady Carolina at Bahia Candeleros after a quick pit stop in Puerto Escondido for groceries and water. The boys were in the water almost immediately with Joel, and they played “try to knock each other off the kayak” with the sunset as their backdrop. It was Father’s Day, but we didn’t get day passes to the resort like we did on Mother’s day. This time at Candeleros is where we first experienced the night time westerlies, which we affectionately call the “hot wind.” After sunset when the air temperature is finally starting to cool a bit the wind picks up from the west and blows the hot air from the land all over us. The temperature rises again taking away the little relief we had.

We stayed several days at Candeleros then we left Lady Carolina and did another day stop in Puerto Escondido to do laundry. This time we were actually down to only 4 loads, probably because it’s so hot we barely wear any clothes. Then we crossed over to Bahia Marquer on Isla Carmen. We had a bonfire there and only later remembered that we were on an island where fires are prohibited. Oops. In the early morning we crossed back over to Nopolo to meet back up with Lady Carolina. Alex and I were up, so we let Tim sleep, and we raised anchor, crossed the channel, and dropped anchor in Nopolo all on our own. That really raised my confidence level. Of course, since we had already been at Nopolo I had the waypoint stored from when we anchored the first time, so picking a spot to anchor was very straightforward. We stayed in Nopolo several nights and made a couple trips into Loreto, first in a Taxi, and then we even rented a car for a full day. We hit the farmers market again and did a significant amount of provisioning since we had the car and all. On our last day, Tim drove the car to Loreto, and the boys and I motored Exodus down to Loreto and anchored. Who needs a captain? It worked out well, and we were able to fill diesel and gas in jerry cans and use the car to get between the gas station and the dock and then dinghy the fuel out to the boats. Our method of filling the boat fuel tanks from jerry cans was, well, to put it mildly, a bit less efficient than Lady Carolina. But we got everything we needed for final Loreto provisioning before leaving for the last time and heading up into the sea for the summer. Of course, we made one last stop at Isla Coronados for a couple nights. Here, we experienced our first mini-Chubasco with lightening very close by and 25 kt winds. The worst part was when it died down the wind shifted so then we were beam on to the leftover swell and had a very rolly time in the wee morning hours. On our way North, we couldn’t pass San Juanico without stopping one more time. But we only stayed one night, because we needed to keep moving North, so that we could make it up to Bahia Concepcion for the cruisers’ 4th of July party. When we left San Juanico that time, we were back into new territory, and we were much more than ready.

Narrative

From Isla Partida to Isla Coronados

Post author By cruisingrunner
Post date April 17, 2020
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April 25 – May 22, 2013

We arrived at Ensenada Grande at night under a full moon to find Star Passage and three other kid boats (Sweet Dreams, Northern Passage, and Fluenta) already at anchor in the bay. Ensenada Grande is an anchorage on Isla Partida that we had previously been to, and while we were mostly on our own before, now these boats would become our companions for the next two months as we made our way North towards Loreto.

Tim and I are both pretty independent thinkers, but we deliberately adopted a follower’s mentality on this leg of our voyage, because our priority was having other kids around for the boys to play with. As it turns out, all four of these other kid boats would not be staying in Mexico for the summer but would be returning home for the hottest months, as most cruisers do. So, we decided we would just go wherever they went since we would have time after they left to return to any anchorage we had our eye on that we felt like we missed. We also acknowledged to ourselves that we didn’t know anyone very well yet, so insisting they follow us around might not win us any friends. Speaking for myself, this was pretty hard. I like what I like and I know what I want and I want to do what I want. But trying to curb my bossiness and keep my opinions to myself was actually only hard on the surface. When I really thought about it, it really didn’t matter where we went, so below the surface, deep down, it was all good. Around this time we kept hearing of another kid boat, called Lady Carolina, who has two boys and who would also be staying in the Sea of Cortez for the summer. What great news that we wouldn’t have the only kids in the Sea! So, throughout the journey of the kid boat flotilla, we kept our radio ears out for Lady Carolina (hint: this is foreshadowing).

Our initiation into the kid boat community was a day trip out to Los Islotes (the third time for us!) to swim with the Sea Lions with all 20 people aboard Exodus. Another cruiser on a catamaran had once told us that having a cat means your boat is always the social gathering spot. We thought we found this true in the beginning, but it did seem to even out in the end, with lots of beach gatherings mixed in for good measure. What a great time we had that day. I was so glad we offered to take Exodus because it provided a closeness that we wouldn’t have gotten if we had taken multiple boats, and the kids got to spend the entire day together. That evening we had a beach potluck with endless games of capture the flag, and I’m pretty sure some of the dads joined in the game playing as well. As for myself, I found a comfortable spot on a blanket with a glass of wine (crappy Chilean wine, but I digress).

The Kids playing bocce ball on the beach

We stayed at Ensenada Grande just a couple days before departing for Isla San Francisco. With two other boats we made a dive pitstop at an underwater peak called El Bajo. Jim on Sweet Dreams was very generous and loaned Tim scuba equipment, so he was able to dive too. The other boats anchored in about 60 ft. of water on rocky terrain, but I opted to just drop Tim off and drift around until he was ready for a pickup. Turns out they spent a lot of time diving checking the anchors, with my favorite quote being, “we anchored so we could dive then we dove to check our anchors.” I used the time drifting along to finally learn how to set waypoints and routes in our electronic chart plotter.

When the dive was complete, we caught up with the other boats at the Southern anchorage on Isla San Francisco. What a breathtaking bay! Just to emphasize, this is the bay that’s on the cover of the Sea of Cortez cruisers’ guidebook, and it lived up to the hype. It was a large, crescent-shaped, white sand beach that I had been looking forward to running on since I first saw the pictures in the guidebook, but unfortunately, because of shells and rocks, it turned out to not be so great for running, regardless of its beauty. Also unfortunately, the weather gods were not with us, and a coromuel picked up that night and we had a bit of a rocky, rolly, night at anchor. When I got up the next morning and checked weather again, I decided to propose to Tim, when he got up, that we move around to a North facing anchorage. There was a narrow strip of the island, easy to walk across, between the anchorages, so even if the other kid boats stayed put, we wouldn’t be too far off. I wasn’t the only one with that thought. Star Passage raised anchor and we all soon followed. We had a nice time at the North facing anchorage where the kids collected agates and we had a potluck and bonfire on the beach in the evening. It was also at this anchorage that Alex first skurfed and Brenden first paddle boarded. We did stay one more night in yet a third anchorage at the very North of Isla San Francisco where the kids searched for seashells and we had a nice birthday celebration for Max of Fluenta.

Skurfing and Paddle boarding at Isla San Francisco

Our next stop was the pretty much forgettable anchorage of San Evaristo. Tim may not think it was quite forgettable, though, because this was where his spear fishing adventures began. Peter (aka Don Pedro) on Star Passage loaned Tim a pole spear (aka Hawaiian sling) and the rest is history. A couple months later and we have 2 pole spears and a spear gun of our own on board and all 3 Gresham boys participate in the hunt.

After San Evaristo we stopped at the beautiful red rock anchorage of Puerto Los Gatos. A lovely spot but not very well protected and billed as a “fair weather anchorage” in the guidebook. Here Tim and I bucked our follower’s mentality just a bit and moved to the very southern nook in the bay since we were expecting winds out of the south, but we still got a fair amount of wrap around swell. One of the other boats joined us while the other 3 stayed put and took more swell, but nose on (for information, nose on swell is more comfortable than side swell). Someone said it was like a catamaran commercial watching the anchor lights of our two boats sway in the swell. We still had a lot of fun at this anchorage, though. There was a nice beach for running and skim boarding and lots of good hiking around the red rocks.

The boys enjoyed skim boarding at Puerto Los Gatos

Next we headed for Agua Verde, but first there was a day stop at Bahia Amortajada on Isla San Jose, and we took a dinghy ride through a mangrove lagoon. It did not live up to expectations for wildlife viewing (I think we saw a single bird) but we had a great time exploring, dinghy racing, and building rock towers.

Agua Verde had it all: Great spear fishing at Roca Solitaria, a nice fishing village with a few tiendas (small stores), hiking, snorkeling, a great beach for playing, and, of course, goats. We enjoyed a group night out at a restaurant, and I use the term “restaurant” loosely. There was no menu, you just got served what they cooked, and you had to walk over to the store for your own beers. But it was a much welcome night with no cooking or dishes. It was in Agua Verde that the flotilla started breaking up, but we would come together a couple more times before the permanent breakup would occur. Northern Passage left a day or so before everyone else because they needed to get some internet connectivity (we had pretty much been without it since we left La Paz). We also left on our own to enjoy some family time at a day stop just North of Agua Verde at Punta El Carrizalita where the guidebook mentioned hot springs. It was a lovely little cove where we enjoyed snorkeling and soaking. This is also where the boys rediscovered “diaper.” Those who made Catalina trips with us might remember that “diaper” is where the boys wear their life vests upside down (like diapers) and float around sitting up. It’s funny how no internet or TV makes everything else a lot more fun.

Exploring the mangrove lagoon at Bahia Amortajada

Tim speared a golden grouper at Agua Verde

We joined the rest of the kid boats in Bahia Candeleros, which is a pretty big bay with a pretty big resort on its shore. Since it was Mother’s day we went ahead and purchased day passes to the resort and spent ALL day sitting by the pool eating and drinking. I was literally so sick from being so full I was actually contemplating purging to make the pain go away. Star Passage joined us at the resort for the day, so the boys had other kids to play with in the pool and we enjoyed some good company for dinner. Next stop was Juncalito where all the kid boats were together again and we enjoyed a nice evening of drinks and snacks on Northern Passage.

Mother’s Day at the resort at Candeleros

At this point we decided we needed to make a stop in Puerto Escondido to take care of some of the not so fun aspects of cruising (boat maintenance, laundry, etc.). We tried to get in and out of Puerto Escondido as quickly as we could since there was a fee to anchor there and it just isn’t quite as nice of a place to be compared with the anchorages we were growing accustomed to. We were there only one night before catching up with the other kid boats at Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen, where the water was comparatively warm and there were lots of bees. The boys spent a lot of time dinghy skurfing and I spent a lot of time in the water. We stayed an additional night after the other kid boats left because we had just rushed in from Puerto Escondido and weren’t quite ready to move on. We were glad we stayed because a couple on a power boat organized a beach happy hour the next evening, so we met some new people, including another ex-Northrop Grumman employee who used to work in El Segundo.

When we left Puerto Ballandra we made a day stop at Loreto for some major provisioning. Loreto does not have any sort of bay or harbor, so there is just roadstead anchoring. Since it’s totally exposed from every direction except West, it’s not typically used as an overnight anchorage except in the very calmest of weather. We anchored Exodus and headed into town where we purchased a directional antenna for wifi, found a nice tortilleria for fresh tortillas, and loaded up our packs at the grocery store. We also passed by the Mission, and learned that it was the very first one of all the California Missions. Since it was fairly late and I was tired, as we raised anchor I did the cruising equivalent of ordering pizza out and just took a pack of hot dogs out of the freezer and conceded we would just have hot dogs for dinner. Turns out to be fortuitous, because when we made radio contact with the other kid boats as we were approaching Isla Coronados we found out the plan for the evening was a hot dog cookout on the beach. I hadn’t put all the groceries away by the time we got there, so of course, my typical way of thinking is I need to stay and take care of this while they go to the cookout and I’ll kayak over when I’m done. Tim’s response was something like, “no, you will leave this here and come eat and drink and socialize and relax with everyone else.” What great advice. (Though I admit that when we got back to the boat I couldn’t go to bed until it was all put away.) Isla Coronados marked the last time all five kid boats were together as we said our final good-bye to Northern Passage the next day. The rest of us would also go our separate ways but would meet up again in different combinations. We would eventually say good-bye to Star Passage in Agua Verde and Sweet Dreams and Fluenta back at Isla Coronados a couple weeks later.

La Paz to Loreto Route — From Isla Partida to Isla Coronados

Narrative

From San Diego to La Paz

March 1 – April 25, 2013

Our route so far has been reasonably paced down the Pacific Coast of Baja California and around the cape up into the Sea of Cortez.

We navigated out of San Diego at night on Thurs, Feb. 28 bound for Ensenada. We weren’t sure we would actually stay in Ensenada, but we wanted to clear into Mexico there so we would be able to stop if we felt like it along the way down the Baja coast. It took roughly 12 hours to get to Ensenada, so we arrived with plenty of daylight to make sure we could get through all of the formalities. The clearing in process was confusing at first. First of all, we didn’t know where we could park the boat, and we were getting no response when hailing the Port Captain on VHF 16. Finally, we enlisted the help of a local marina and after that, it went fairly smoothly. The Port Captain, Immigration, Customs, and the Bank are all in one office building, so there was no trekking back and forth across town required.

We ended up deciding not to stay in Ensenada, since there was no anchoring allowed in the harbor, and having just left home, we weren’t exactly ready to stay in another marina just yet. So, we left Ensenada after being there for all of about 4 and a half hours. Our next stop was Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay), and it took about 3 days to get there. This was longer than it took us during the Baja Ha Ha in October, mostly due to lack of wind after leaving Ensenada. This was the first time in a while that we weren’t in some kind of hurry, so we weren’t frustrated by just drifting along without much wind. And there were whales everywhere! You couldn’t look outside without seeing a spout of water or a fin or a fluke. We didn’t get much school done those first few days. We were just soaking it all in.

Turtle Bay is a small fishing town and we enjoyed relaxing at the anchorage. We were able to pick up fresh veggies and milk and we enlisted the help of some local boys just finishing baseball practice to help us find a restaurant, where Brenden had “the best bean and cheese burrito ever!” After three days in Turtle Bay, we left on Thursday afternoon, and we decided to go on to Cabo San Lucas without another stop along the way. We arrived in Cabo Sunday morning, March 10 after having strong winds behind us most of the way. Cabo was fun because it was familiar to me and Tim but new for Alex and Brenden. We anchored in the bay and we were close enough for the boys to kayak to the beach and play in the water while we stayed on the boat, so they enjoyed Cabo much more than Turtle Bay. Being a larger town, we were able to take care of laundry and some light provisioning, but after four days we were definitely ready to leave the spring break scene behind. We left on Thursday before sunrise, and from this point forward we were in new territory. Also, from this point forward we haven’t had any passages longer than half a day since the anchorages are so closely spaced. We have enjoyed moving slowly and exploring them.

Our first stop around the tip of Baja was Bahia Los Frailes, where there was a long stretch of beach, excellent for barefoot running. Again, the boys were able to easily kayak to the beach and play in the sand and water, and there was also a campground there and other kids to play with. We also had our first cruisers “happy hour” with another cruising couple preparing to make the jump across the Pacific.

After a couple days, we departed at night so we would arrive at the next anchorage, Bahia de Los Muertos, around sunrise. There was no wind, so we motored the whole way, and I had the second watch, so I slowed down so we wouldn’t arrive while it was still dark. We only stayed there for one night because the beach wasn’t as nice for playing or running. The boys actually dumped the kayak trying to launch from the beach to get back to the boat. However, we did enjoy a nice, huge lunch at the restaurant there and a pleasant walk around some tide pools. It was also the first time we were able to get decent wifi from the boat so we were all like addicts getting our fix. I spent all evening uploading photos to Facebook.

IMG_0842_edited (2) — Nice Running beach at Frailes

IMG_0854 (2) — The Tide Pools at Los Muertos

We raised anchor the next morning and passed through the Cerralvo Channel and the San Lorenzo Channel. We didn’t go all the way to La Paz just yet but stopped at Puerto Balandra, and it was absolutely amazing. It was by far the most beautiful anchorage yet. There were several white sand beaches and shallow turquoise water stretching far offshore. We stayed several days, even though our first evening we had our initiation to the night time corumuel weather “feature” of the south sea. There was great shallow snorkeling and I even managed to get another run in on one of the longer beaches in the bay. We were sad to be leaving a nice anchorage to rejoin civilization, but we needed to move on to La Paz and take care of several things.

IMG_0863_edited (2) — Turquoise water and white sand beaches of Balandra

The channel leading into La Paz is narrow, so it creates a relatively strong current as the tides go in and out. A very large cruising community exists in La Paz, and we plugged in immediately joining the morning VHF cruisers net our first morning there, and we were able to easily find out which boatyards had facilities that could haul out a boat as wide as ours. We arrived in La Paz on a Thursday and we were on the rails and Abaroa Boat Yard on Saturday morning. We were living “on the hard” until Wednesday, and by then we were all ready to be back in the water. Tim worked around the clock on boat projects and the boys and I continued our school routine and made several trips to the store for provisioning.

After the haulout we stayed one night in the anchorage and then couldn’t get out of La Paz fast enough. We headed to Isla Espiritu Santo, an island to the north of La Paz, where there is beautiful anchorage after beautiful anchorage. We decided to start at the bottom and work our way up. So, we stayed the weekend at Bahia San Gabriel. Our first day there the Ranger boat came to ask us for our permits since all of the islands in the Sea of Cortez are part of the national park system. We said we would like to purchase them, but they told us we had to get them in La Paz, but since the office is closed they said it was OK for us to stay until Monday or Tuesday. At Bahia San Gabriel we went on an absolutely miserable hike across the island. The beach on the other side was very nice, but nobody thought it was worth the desert wasteland we hiked across to get there. I’m bummed it was that bad because now I don’t think the boys will voluntarily go on any more hikes with me.

IMG_9870 (2) — Hiking through a desert wasteland

On Monday we made a day trip back to La Paz to get permits, which ended up taking me and Brenden several hours and a long taxi ride all over town. This was my first real “no one speaks English and I don’t speak Spanish” moment, but we got through it with the phrasebook and Google translate on my phone. I purchased annual permits, since the price payoff point was only about 5-6 days, and that means we can stop at any of the islands without having to worry about it again. We arrived back at Isla Espiritu Santo at night so we went back to the familiar spot we had previously anchored, and we ended up having our worst night yet at anchor. Bahia San Gabriel is a South West facing anchorage, and the wind kicked up from that direction so we had no protection from wind or swell. It was almost worse than being underway. We moved around the corner the next morning to the bottom lobe of Puerto Ballena. It had a little more protection, but the wind died later that morning, so it didn’t really matter at that point. We stayed just one night and then scooted up to Ensenada del Candalero. Here there are camps on the beach out of where they run kayak tours around the island.

The next stop was Caleta Partida, which was our favorite anchorage on the island. It is actually an anchorage wedged between Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida, and there is a very shallow strip of water between the islands. It offered little wind protection, in fact in North winds they kind of funneled through the landforms of the two islands. However, it offered plenty of swell protection, so we had comfortable nights at anchor. We took a dinghy trip between the islands and around to the other side to visit some sea caves the guide book talked about. The water visibility was amazing and we all had a great time snorkeling. On the way back it was pretty much low tide so we had to walk the dinghy through the islands since the outboard would have dragged on the sand.

After a few nights, we decided we needed to head back to La Paz. We were at a crossroads regarding where we should head for the summer (north or south) and we needed internet access to do some research. By that point, we had also decided we really did need a bigger anchor, so we thought La Paz would be as good a place as any to pick that up. We had good timing because we were here for “Bay Fest” which is a little weekend festival put on by the local cruising club that includes a sailboat race in Bahia de La Paz, a few seminars (including how to prep your boat for a hurricane and how to use a pressure cooker), and lots of fun and games, including Bocce ball and backward kayak races.

04IMG_1047 (2) — Tim and Alex took 2nd place in the Bocce ball tournament

Although our time back in La Paz has been fun, we are very ready to leave. It’s been over 2 weeks since we ordered the anchor so we did make one more trip out to Isla Partida and visited Bahia Grande, Ensenada el Embudo, and Los Islotes. At Los Islotes there is a natural sea lion rookery and they are very accustomed to humans so we were able to swim with them. A few were very playful and spent a lot of time diving with Tim and Alex. Brenden and I get cold too quickly so we are usually out of the water first, which means we watched most of the swimming with sea lions from the dinghy. Since returning to La Paz for the fourth time we have had the good fortune to meet several of “kid boats.” Up to this point, other kids have been very rare, so it’s been a welcome treat to have play dates (for kids) and happy hours (for parents). When we leave La Paz we will start a slow journey up into the Sea of Cortez.

10IMG_1092 (2) — Swimming with sea lions at Los Islotes

Narrative

The Final Days

February 15ish-28, 2013

The final preparations were fast and furious, but once we had set the departure date, we were absolutely determined to leave. We didn’t intend for the departure date to be a firm deadline, but in the end, we somewhat treated it that way. Many people had told us the hardest part of cruising is getting off the dock, but we didn’t really experience it that way. We each had our (very) long to-do lists, but we identified those items that would have to delay our departure if not complete, and we focused mainly on those. We purchased so many last-minute tools, parts, supplies, and provisions that the UPS and FedEx guys were at our house every day.

Most of my time the last week or so was spent figuring out where to store everything on the boat. It was like a giant puzzle, and it wasn’t a huge stretch to get everything to fit, but my concern was not remembering where I put everything. We were running errands down to the last day before leaving and picking up things at random moments of opportunity. For example, “Hey, there’s a sail maker’s shop, let’s stop by and get a sail repair kit.” I started to wonder what else we had forgotten that we didn’t have the good fortune to drive by during those last few days. Tim’s parents were with us our last days in Marina del Rey, and that was a huge help in many ways. They helped us move our last items onto the boat, make several trips to Good Will, and entertain the boys during all the chaos.

We had a going away open house on the boat the day before we left, and it was a welcome opportunity to slow down a bit and hang out with friends. There are so many people we are missing. Brenden had the visibly hardest time saying goodbye and leaving. I comforted him several times telling him it was normal and totally OK to be sad and to write it down in his journal so he can remember how he felt right then. In a year our lives would be totally different and we will want to remember everything, even the sad feelings. Brenden returned the favor when I said my final good-byes to Colin and Jen. It’s like he could tell I was starting to get a little teary inside and he came over and put his arm around me. Alex is also missing everyone, but he is much more Stoic about it. In addition to friends and family, I am desperately missing running. I was nearly devastated not being able to run much my last month at home due to a sore foot, but I did get one last run along The Strand and one last run on Harbor Island in San Diego to remember the beautiful coastal running I was leaving behind.

IMG_0767 (2) — Cheers to a safe journey – Leaving Marina del Rey

We left Marina del Rey at night after sundown on Sun, Feb 24th to find very choppy seas until we turned the corner around the Palos Verdes peninsula. Our first destination would be San Diego, and that made leaving home a lot easier than it otherwise would have been since I knew we would still have the comfort of friends and family while we took care of last-minute to-do items and provisioning before leaving the U.S. We arrived in San Diego early the next afternoon, and it was enjoyable entering the very familiar harbor and seeing the Point Loma Lighthouse and the Coronado Bridge, two landmarks I’ve spent time around over the years. We stayed at the Cabrillo Isle Marina on Harbor Island, and we had an end tie at the furthest possible location from the dock gate, which meant all of our visitors got their exercise walking out to Exodus. We had a final going away party on Tuesday, and other than that it’s regrettable that we didn’t relax more and soak up the time we had with family, instead we were frantically running around doing errands and trying to get everything stowed on the boat.

We had another night time departure when we left San Diego and the real adventure began.

Narrative

The Origin Story

Tim always dreamed of traveling on a sailboat to the South Pacific. He even had a boat name already picked out, “Chasing Summer.” In my cynical way, I pointed out that you don’t actually want to chase summer since that’s when the hurricanes come.

I always wanted to travel but was never quite convinced sailing was my kind of thing. I took a sailing class with Andrew in San Diego Harbor and surprisingly, I thought it was fun (even if Andrew didn’t). I enjoyed it when we chartered from Long Beach to Catalina Island, but that was for long weekends, not days on end in the middle of the ocean.

Then it happened. In early 2012, I had finally had enough of work and in a fit of desperation I walked into Tim’s home office and said, “Let’s do it.” I’m sure it wasn’t as dramatic or as final as I remember, but after that our plans progressed at a crazy pace. Maybe Tim was afraid I would change my mind, because admittedly, I was clearly motivated by wanting a change but not necessarily motivated by wanting this exact change. We put our house on the market and started shedding things via Craigs List and Garage Sales. We couldn’t buy a boat until we had sold the house, and that took a few months. Our timing wasn’t exactly perfect, so we were lucky to get basically what we had paid for it. We moved into a small apartment near the middle school and kept on with the preparations.

I did a lot of reading on destinations, routes, and weather, and we had a tentative plan mapped out. Basically, we would leave in the winter and cruise quickly down the coast of Mexico to Central America. We were really drawn by the idea of visiting Costa Rica, which is where Tim and I went for our honeymoon. Then we’d do a late Pacific Puddle Jump stopping at the Galapagos on the way to French Polynesia. We’d visit as many places in the South Pacific as we could (mapping out the exact route along the way), probably stopping our westward progress in Tonga before eventually ending up in New Zealand for cyclone season. Then after it was safe to return back up to the tropics we’d pick up where we left off and hit the island between Fiji and Australia, ending the journey and selling the boat in Australia. Of course, that’s not exactly how it ended up happening.

We looked for a boat. We knew we wanted a catamaran, because we wanted the space. We had chartered Lagoon 380s so Tim looked hard for a larger Lagoon, preferably a Lagoon 400. He spent time on the Lagoon owners’ message boards and got a response from an owner who was willing to take us out for a sail on his Lagoon 400 just for us to see what we thought of that model. They weren’t planning to sell, in fact, they were planning to take the boat, called Exodus, to Mexico in the fall to do some cruising. After joking with our friends that I would call them if these people turned out to be swingers or serial killers, we met John and Sherry at their yacht club and had a great day on Exodus out on the water in San Diego Harbor. I was confronted with the fact that I had no idea how to sail that boat. Sure, I had taken lessons on a small 22 foot sailboat that required little strength and was steered by a tiller, but sailing Exodus was a lot more work. I stayed calm. I would learn.

Exodus was well equipped as a cruising sailboat with a large battery bank, large solar array, and a water maker. Starting with a boat already in that condition would mean we wouldn’t have much work to do outfitting it to be ready to leave. Tim stayed in touch with John and kept joking with him about selling Exodus to us, and then suddenly one day he bit. And all of a sudden we had negotiated a price and were close to being new owners of the Lagoon 400 catamaran that we wanted. The catch was they were already entered in the Baja Ha-Ha rally, and they still wanted to do it, so they didn’t want to sell before then.

Then someone had an idea, why don’t we do the Baja Ha-Ha with them?

Why yes, I think we will…