Since we were expecting calm weather for a couple days we headed back down to Ensenada el Pescador. Carolina and I had walked across to this beach when we were anchored at El Quemado. Although not featured in these photos, Pescador had an awesome sandy beach good for football, Bocce, and, of course, running! Our last morning we got blown out by SE winds and rain and we headed up to La Mona.
Logbook – August 26, 2013 (Las Rocas to Ensenada el Pescador)
Passage Log Highlights
1005 Depart Las Rocas
1313 Arrive el Pescador
Daily Notes
Football, frisbee, bocce ball on the beach at el Pescador (very nice beach)
Beef stew & cornbread (no fish)
(Edit: Apparently it had to be noted in the logbook when we did *not* have fish for dinner)
Las Rocas to Ensenada el PescadorThe geography of Ensenada el Pescador. With winds forecast to come out of the NW we took the opportunity to spend a couple days here. On our way up to BLA we stopped at Ensenada el Quemado, which is the bay just to the left, and Carolina and I had walked to Pescador and scouted it as an anchorage we’d definitely like to visit)
Logbook – August 27, 2013 (Ensenada el Pescador)
Daily Notes
D – awesome morning run. Beautiful beach. Strong breeze to keep cool (made the paddle to the beach tough, though.
T/Steve spearfishing – yellowtail & grouper. Dinner on Exodus
Email to family and friends dated August 27, 2013
Subject: Ensenada el Pescador
We moved a bit south yesterday. Since winds were forecast to come out of the NW today and tomorrow we decided to head down to this anchorage that we had skipped past before. It has good W and NW protection but usually the wind is coming out of the SE. Tim and Steve (Lady Carolina) are at the beach putting together a treasure hunt for the boys. The beach here is gorgeous, in fact, it is pretty much the best running beach so far. I had a great run this morning (if you call 3 miles in sand and heat great). We are back to school after taking a week off, and it’s a pretty slow day so far.
-D.
Tim and Steve created a scavenger hunt for the boys. this is just a glimpse into their effortThe boys eating their scavenger hunt prize (oreos) on the back of Lady Carolina. Well, except for Brenden. He’s just a monkey.Sunset at Ensenada el PescadorSunset at Ensenada el PescadorSunset at Ensenada el PescadorApproaching Exodus.Should I let these pirates board?Sunset at Ensenada el PescadorSunset at Ensenada el PescadorSunset at Ensenada el Pescador
Logbook – August 28, 2013 (Ensenada el Pescador to BLA Village to La Mona)
We (and by that I mean Tim) bought 3 paddleboards when we were in San Diego. I have no idea why we need 3, but that’s what we have. Two of them are of the inflatable variety and one is rigid. In fact, we have yet to even inflate both of the inflatable ones. I was always pretty sure I would enjoy paddleboarding, and I tried it for the first time at San Francisquito. It was amazing. I went out for over an hour, and really only headed back because I hadn’t taken any water with me. The only real downside is that after about 20 minutes my toes start to go numb, so I have to sit down and paddle for just a bit until I regain feeling. The inflatable paddle board is more stable and the rigid is faster and tracks better in the water. I tend to use the inflatable one because it’s lighter and Alex and I can put it in the water and also because there’s less concern about running it into Exodus (since it has softer sides). I have only fallen off once, and that was when a panga went by and I showed little concern for the wake when I really should have. Luckily, I didn’t lose my sunglasses. Paddleboarding provides at least part of what I used to get out of running all the time. Namely, the solitude and the very simple goal setting (I’m going to paddle there and turn around). However, it doesn’t come close to being the aerobic workout and I still immensely miss running.
Las Rocas is an anchorage on Isla Coronados (Isla Smith). We had a lot of rain and clouds while we were there due to a tropical storm passing along the outside of the Baja peninsula. In fact, here is where we had to run the engines just to charge the batteries for the very first time. But it was a beautiful anchorage.
Logbook – August 22, 2013 (La Gringa to Las Rocas)
Passage Log Highlights
1114 Depart La Gringa
1300 Arrive Las Rocas
Daily Notes
Brenden slept his sickness off all day
Tim, Steve, Kyle spearfishing – sierra, yellowtail, parrot fish cabrilla
D/B – Quiet dinner & movie
T/A – Dinner on LC
La Gringa to Las RocasThe geography of Las RocasLooking through the channel at sailing vessel Lungta anchored off of Isla Mitlan. Isla Mitlan is on the boat in the pictureSunset at Las Rocas
We had a great time at the cruisers party at La Gringa, but one of the highlights had to be swimming with a whale shark. Brenden absolutely loved it! And one of the low points had to be Brenden getting food poisoning at the pot luck and spending all night and the better part of the morning leaning off the back swim step. So, Brenden and I had a quiet movie night last night as he recuperated and Tim and Alex went over to Lady Carolina for dinner and poker. We moved just a couple miles yesterday out to an island to a bay called Las Rocas. It’s really nice, but the wind has picked up. This morning we are seeing gusts up to 26 kts. It’s actually nice and cool for a change (only 81 deg, but still 75% humidity). Sunday is supposed to be the real blustery day with winds up in the 30s. We will probably stay put until that blows through.
Love and miss you all,
D.
Logbook – August 24, 2013 (Las Rocas)
Daily Notes
T, Boys – Spearfish – B got a parrot fish. More yummy yellowtail.
In the anchorage with us – sailing vessel Let it Go (another Lagoon Catamaran) and motor vessel Mai Tai Roa.Las RocasPurple sunset at Las Rocas
Logbook – August 25, 2013 (Las Rocas)
Daily Notes
Rain in the night. Very low batt voltage this morning
T/D – paddle to the first lagoon. Panga wake knocked D off. Rain.
Downpour in the afternoon. Boys soaked on paddleboards
Had to run engines to charge batteries for the first time. No sun 😦
Cocktails on Mai Tai Roa with Alex & Sue
Pelican on a paddle boardTim plays a game with the boys… whoever talks louder than him gets to do boat chores. Alex and Joel decided to ensure they didn’t “win”
Email to family and friends dated August 25, 2013
Subject: Tropical Storm Ivo
Tropical Storm Ivo passed along the pacific coast of Baja. La Paz reported not having any weather fall out, but Puerto Escondido had 30 kt winds and 8 in of rain yesterday. We saw winds in the 20s yesterday, and it rained a bit last night (not anywhere near 8 in) and we are totally socked in with clouds this morning. I actually had to run an engine just to charge the batteries for the first time this morning, because no sun means no power for us. However, I wouldn’t say we have been power neutral with just the arrays. We move anchorages so often that we get engine charging every time we raise and drop anchor and sometimes on passage if there’s no wind. Everything is great here. More yellowtail sashimi last night, and Brenden shot a Parrot Fish that made excellent ceviche.
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Email to family and friends dated August 26, 2013
Subject: Rain
We still have overcast skies and we had some fits of heavy downpour yesterday. If not for the decreased power generation I would be loving the relief we are getting from the sunshine and heat. I actually took a warm shower last night for the first time in months! We will probably head back to the village today or tomorrow, but I’m not hopeful about the internet. We heard on the radio net last night it’s been down.
-D.
La Gringa and the Full Moon Floatie Contest party. Need I say more? OK, I will. La Gringa is the beach on the north end of Bahia de Los Angeles. There is an estuary and at the extreme tides around the full moon you can ride the current in and out. Not exactly rapids, but a lot of fun all the same. There was a floatie contest with 3 categories: 1) Best Store-bought Floatie (which went to Gravel on SV True Companion for his beer can floatie throne), 2) Best Floatie made of Noodles (which went to Craig & LeAnn of True Blue V for their Floatie Chairs that could have qualified for any category, but hey they had noodles on them), and 3) Best Floatie made of anything you can find in your bilge or anywhere else on your boat (this prestigious award went to Lady Carolina). Sue (Mai Tai Roa), Trish (Interabang), and I were the contest judges, and the best bribes we got were from Joel of Lady Carolina which included cookies and hugs, but I’m pretty sure they would have won the contest anyway.
La Gringa is at the very far north end of Bahia de Los Angeles (BLA)
Logbook – August 19, 2013 (BLA Village to La Gringa)
Passage Log Highlights
0940 Depart BLA Village
1119 Arrive La Gringa
Daily Notes
Whales on passage
Alex rescued the compost bucket
D/T paddleboard into the estuary
Dorado and “Costa Rica” rice on Exodus
Chubasco chance – whales in the bay when we were securing the deck
Tide delta is now 10 ft
The Geography of La Gringa
Logbook – August 20, 2013 (La Gringa)
Daily Notes
Boys rode their surfboards in the current at the opening of the estuary
Whale sharks in the bay – B & T swim with them
Diagrammed the SeaTalk network
Played in the rapids at the estuary
Swimming with a whale sharkPelican in flight
Email to family and friends dated August 20, 2013
Subject: La Gringa
We left BLA Village yesterday and moved about 6nmi North to Ensenada La Gringa. Tomorrow is the full moon cruisers party here, and we are helping to organize. There’s about a 10 ft tide swing and a small estuary, so we are going to have a floating party around high tide where we first get sucked into the estuary, then pushed back out. There are prizes for best floaties, so you can believe Tim’s already got diagrams drawn up for the plans for the Exodus floatie. Alex had a good idea of using empty 5 gallon water jerry cans. I’m one of the judges, and yes, I will take bribes, especially if anyone has any CA Chardonnay. 🙂
I’m not sure the inReach acquired GPS signal yesterday when we moved, so I’m not sure the map shows us in the right spot, but we are not too far away from the village, just a little ways North.
Yesterday, we had some excitement on passage… I was rinsing the veggie compost container, and I dropped it overboard. We circled back to get it, and when we spotted it, without hesitation, Alex dove into the water off the port bow. He retrieved it, but then missed the back step as we circled around. Then it was like a man overboard drill… Brenden grabbed the pole and we pulled him in. I promise, grandparents, that at no time during this exercise was Alex in any danger. It was good fun, and Alex got to be the hero. Of course, he said next time it’s my turn, but he always says that.
I heard there was lots of lightning up in the bay area last night… we didn’t have much action here, thank goodness.
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Logbook – August 21, 2013 (La Gringa)
Daily Notes
D – long paddleboard, prep for potluck (oreos & beer bread)
T – spearfish w/ (sentence abruptly ended… assume he went with Steve)
Edit: At the potluck Brenden came to me and told me how someone brought the best bread ever, it was the greatest bread he’s ever had and he had 4 pieces of it. I asked, Brenden, do you mean the pineapple cake?
D out for a morning paddle (photo courtesy of True Blue V)This is the floatie the boys made on their own. It’s made of two large water jugs, two fenders, and a thermarest chairWelcome to La GringaTim made some modifications to the floatie the boys made so that they could have three of them. So each one has one water jug, one fender, and a thermarest chair.They had a lot of fun with the projectAlex took these great photos of a whale shark was swimming under Exodus. As it came out the other side Alex got this shot over the side.Whale shark swimming near ExodusThe floatie contest beginsBenjamin from SV Let It Go. We actually made up a category on the fly of Best Floatie with a costume, just for him!The beer can throneCraig and Leanne of True Blue V and their floatiie chairs with noodlesBrenden screamin down the rapidsAlex, playing it coolTrish and Derek of SV InterabangPhoto courtesy of True Blue VNatalie from True CompanionBack to the basics – two boys on boogie boardsSV Sea Note who came in a close second for best store bought floatie.Team Canada (Kyle and Joel from Lady Carolina), what an awesome raft. That’s their wind scoop being used as a sail.Tim doesn’t mind that our floaties our really lameLooks like Team Exodus is trying to hijack the raft. No, that’s not beer the kids are drinking, but they did tip and Alex fell off, and he kept his drink above water and dry. Impressive!Left to Right: Natalie (True Companion), Pit (Karma Seas), Judy (Code Blue), Sue (Mai Tai Roa), Kevin (Entre Nous), Gravel (True Companion), Alex (Mai Tai Roa). Out here you hardly ever know anyone’s last name, you know people by their boat name.Can’t really see faces, but left to right: Steve (Lady Carolina), Steve (Code Blue), Tim (Exodus, duh), and Derek (Interabang)The kids tried to sail the raft from the estuary back to the boat. They actually made it pretty far. Tough to do without a keel, but luckily the wind was in the right direction.The orange shirt marks the potluck spot. No tables for a potluck? No problem, just use surfboards resting on water jugs.The whole anchorageThe view up the beach to the westLady Carolina and Exodus at anchorNo kids? I wonder what’s in there?Dinghys coming to shore for the potluckAwesome beach potluck, except about half the dishes were desserts. MmmmmmThe whole full moon party gangAwards ceremony for the floatie contest. Team Canada (aka Lady Carolina) took first place and Joel is proudly accepting the prize (a water gun). Yes, I was one of the judges, and yes I took bribes.
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).
Whale Shark at La GringaThe volcano on Isla Coronado (Isla Smith) that we never hiked
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.
La Ventana which means “The Window”
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.
Spinnakers flying on the way to Puerto Refugio
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.
Lady Carolina in the wind chop at Isla Mitlan
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.
Well, we have made it to our summertime destination: BLA. Most cruisers who stay in the sea for the summer spend August and September up here because it’s far enough north that the chance of a tropical storm is pretty slim (although not impossible, we watch it closely) and there is a natural hurricane hole in the vicinity. This summer the number of boats was in the low 20s, and here’s a listing of those I recall: Exodus, Lady Carolina, True Blue V, Sea Note, Interabang, Karma Seas, Odyssey, Entre Nous, Drifter, True Companion, Mai Tai Roa, Sara M, Lungta, Slipper, Take Five, Let it Go, Charra, Dazzler, Deja La, No Mas, Code Blue, Iver. The next essay will shed a little light on the summertime adventures of this crowd. There was also a small crowd who spent the summer down near Puerto Escondido. It’s further south, but Puerto Escondido is about as good a hurricane harbor as it gets. Through the radio nets we kept in contact with at least 3: Jake, Harmony (of Anacortes), and Apolima. There were probably more since not everyone has an SSB radio and not everyone that does checks into the nets. There are beautiful anchorages in the BLA area, and back in the spring someone made the comment that there’s really nothing further north in the sea past San Juanico worth seeing. I’m thinking this was spoken by someone that was going home for the summer and had never ventured up to the rugged, less traveled, and beautiful area.
Later on I’ll write a little more about the BLA village, but our first stop there was a quick one because we just wanted to resupply before heading up to La Gringa for the full moon party. So, I thought this would be a good representative example to share of what it’s like when we reach civilization and try to do a quick turnaround back out to the land of no stores and no internet.-We arrived just before noon, and our first shore excursion was in the afternoon, and it was primarily a scouting and emergency fresh items excursion. I photocopied the map of the town from the guidebook so I could carry it around, and we (along with Lady Carolina) walked around visiting the various tiendas. We were looking for things like who had non-refrigerated eggs, who had a good meat counter, who had what in terms of fresh veggies, and when the next shipment was due to arrive. We also found out where we could have laundry done by asking someone in the Yellow store who took us to Lulu’s house next door. She agreed to do our laundry and turn it around in a day if we brought it the next morning. Kyle was with us to help us solidify that transaction in Spanish. We also found out where we could dump trash, and where there were a couple of internet “cafes.” The next morning we found out there was a morning VHF cruisers net run by Pit on Karma Seas, and he told us where we could get propane.
Our second shore excursion was for getting as many things done as possible. We do things in a strategic order considering we have to haul everything around in our camping backpacks. We dropped off laundry, and we were a little challenged negotiating a price. Lulu wanted to charge by the item, which if added up would have been outrageously expensive. So, Steve offered 200 pesos (each), which she accepted, but which I thought was pretty low balled and was surprised she didn’t counter back. Next we hit the internet “cafe” across from the yellow store. Cafe is in quotes because it was no cafe at all. It was actually a toy store with a couple of computers plugged in. They let us connect our computers directly since they didn’t have wifi. We quickly took care of banking and any other vital internet business. Next, we hit the yellow store and did provisioning of nonperishables. Sufficiently loaded up we headed back to the boat.
The next excursion was that same day, and it was to get propane. It turns out they only had the capability to gravity feed our tanks or we could purchase a full tank and leave a deposit for the tank, and we opted to do the latter. It was a larger tank than ours, but luckily it still fit in our compartment, and it ended up lasting us the entire rest of the summer. And Andres at the propane place was kind enough to give us a ride back to the beach. Yet another shore trip that afternoon was simply to pick up laundry.
Our final trip was the next day to provision for perishables, since a fresh shipment had arrived. And since each store had a slightly different variety, we had to hit multiple stores to round out our purchases. We were very happy to find the nice meat counter at Mochtazuma, the grapes at Isla, and the nice large garlic at Gueillermo’s. We never did find unrefrigerated eggs. I guess they are catering more to the gringos here than expected.
We finally made it to BLA and back to civilization. We only stayed a few days to run errands and provision.
Bahia de Los Angeles (BLA) is about 2/3 up the Baja Peninsula. It’s far enough north that tropical storms and hurricanes very rarely make it up there.From Quemado to BLA with a Puerto Don Juan drive-by
Logbook – August 15, 2013 (Ensenada el Quemado to BLA Village)
Passage Log Highlights
0911 Depart Ensenada el Quemado
1145 Arrive BLA Village
Daily Notes
Troubleshot nav network connectivity issue. Got it to work – still no root cause
Scouted Puerto Don Juan
BLA tide range is 7 ft
Visited town – very good selection at yellow store except for produce
Winds to 20 kt in the afternoon – drinks on LC
Fish & chips on Exodus
Edit: Just like in Santa Rosalia, we got to know the stores by their color.
Edit: Puerto Don Juan is the natural hurricane hole nearby. So, we scouted it and took depth soundings around the edges so if we ever needed to make a speedy entrance we could do it with the advantage of prior intel.
Anchored at BLA villageAshore at BLA village, Joel tries to help Tim keep coolThe BLA village anchorageThe beach at BLA villageThe wharfBrenden found a shady spot to rest (and he still wears the hat Gary the weather man gave him)
Logbook – August 16, 2013 (BLA Village)
Daily Notes
Trash, laundry, groceries. Lo-balled the lady on laundry price. 😦
Blue-footed booby guest on the port bow
Journey around town in search of wifi. Found propane. Ride w/ Andres back to (illegible). Internet cafe at yellow store.
Dinner at Costa del Sol. Carne Asada = shoe leather. Margarita = water.
Sleepover on Exodus.
Blue-footed booby stops by for a visitTim grabs a selfie with the blue-footed boobyBrenden gets a photo with the boobyThis guy got stuck in the lifelines
Email to family and friends dated August 16, 2013
Subject: BLA Village
We made it to the Bay of LA and we are currently anchored off the village. We walked around yesterday, and contrary to what we have heard, the main store has pretty much all grocery items and the prices aren’t too bad either. We fleetingly had internet from the boat yesterday, but lost the signal and haven’t been able to find it again. There is an internet cafe at the other end of town, and we will likely go there this afternoon.
Yesterday at the store we asked, in our broken Spanish, if there was a laundromat in town, and she said no, but there are women who will do your laundry, and she took us to a house next door and the woman there is going to do our laundry for us. I’m also going to ask if she’ll make fresh tortillas. Can’t hurt to ask (that’s what we did in Agua Verde).
We will likely be here for another couple days, then we will head just a little bit North, still in the Bay of LA, to a spot called La Gringa, for the cruisers’ full moon party on Wed.
We’ve rearranged the boys’ school days, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. Now, they do their independent work from the day before first and then we do their lessons after that. That way they can start school whenever they are ready in the morning and don’t have to wait for me. So far so good. We are going to give them next week off because Lady Carolina school books are arriving soon, and then they can all start school together again the following week. It should be a fun week off.
Love and miss you all,
-D.
The view toward the south end of BLAExodus and Lady Carolina at anchor at BLA
Logbook – August 17, 2013 (BLA Village)
Daily Notes
Banana bread!
Veggies get delivered Fri night so we went to the yellow store today. OK, but not great
D- paddleboard and “run” along the “Malecon”
Crazy bird fish feeding frenzy
Fish tacos on Exodus. Another night on the net.
Lost a towel & Tim dove & found.
Sea bird frenzy
Logbook – August 18, 2013 (BLA Village)
Daily Notes
D/T – frustrating internet excursion to Costa del Sol
Boys – kid ice cream excursion
Alex/Kyle reprimanded for drifting too far away w/ the current on surfboards
Soup dinner on LC
Poker game on Exodus. Alex victorious.
Good morning BLABLA VillageBLA VillageBrenden slept in the cockpit
No matter how hard I try, school still just seems like this extra chore that we have to do before we can have fun. It’s almost like it’s ingrained in all of us that school = boring. I wonder if I could shift our attitudes if I just started calling it something else. In any case we have at least made a few changes that make our school day more efficient, and we all like that. The first thing I did is totally scale back Alex’s History and Geography curriculum and I eliminated Art History. I swear if we did all the work his lesson manuals call for we’d be doing school 8 hours a day. So, I’ve made some priority calls. I decided that a large part of what he was getting out of these subjects in addition to the specific information (which I think is far less important anyway) was reading comprehension and critical thinking and inferring. That is, reading a topic and then answering questions about it that aren’t directly given in the text. I decided that between the other two subjects of Reading and Science he was getting enough of that skill development. So, now for History and Geography all we do is read the text so he’s somewhat familiar with topics, but we don’t do all the extra work or tests associated with it.
Another change I made is with the structure of our school day. We are now doing independent work in the morning and then lessons after that. This way, the boys are never having to wait for me to start their school day. They get up, have breakfast, and start their independent work. It’s making the school days end earlier in the afternoon.
I really enjoy doing school with the boys, but I have to say they aren’t that crazy about it. We’ll keep working on it as it’s all a learning process.
Gresham Family Exodus 