January 29, 2010 - La Paz

January 26, 2010 –4:30 am on the way across the Sea to Muertos

It was flat calm in the marina basin, no swell at all, so we were talking on the phone and completely unprepared when we exited the jetty into rolling water. And so it has continued for 15 hours now. It is nothing that the boat can’t handle, no blue water on the windshield or anything like that. But we have been bouncing up and down all the way across. The beautiful shrimp that I bought from a fisherman just before leaving Mazatlan will have to wait until we are at anchor. Peeling and cooking them was beyond me. We had egg salad sandwiches for dinner, and felt lucky that we had the hard boiled eggs on hand. We have had such lovely weather, that even a little roll and I am pouting. As usual, Earl has done most of the watching while I slept with Daisy curled up by my side. He finally admitted he was tired at three am, having mostly been up since four-thirty am , so Daisy and I are on watch. The moon, which was almost full, has gone down, and, with some of the stars hidden, it is quite dark outside. The sun will be welcome when it rises in a couple of hours.

January 26, 2010 – 7 pm, at anchor at Los Muertos

The sea finally laid down around 10 am and then got better and better. We really appreciate the absence of swell having had some for a day. The rest of the day has been relaxed. Earl worked on fishing and I read and watched, more or less. I did peel and cook some shrimp for a salad at lunch. They are huge. I cooked twelve and we ate only at 8. They really are big, but, to be honest (or just provincial) they don’t compare favorably with our Alaskan spots. After 30 hours, we are at anchor with a few sailboats and it is lovely and calm. We had dinner on the back deck and I suspect we will be in bed by eight.

January 27, 2010, 10 am – Los Muertos

It is a beautiful day. Most of the boats pulled their anchors and left early. There are a few small boats fishing right off the beach with considerable success. Earl has been watching with thinly disguised envy. His major reason for not fishing was that he did not have any bait, but I think that can be remedied. Finally he could stand it no longer, lowered the dingy, and took a few pesos to buy some bait and he took off, happy as a a pig in ****. We plan on exploring the bay, including a resort and a small restaurant. If the fishing is good, I think we may stay a couple of days. Why ever not? It is really lovely. Update: It took no more than 10 minutes for Earl to hook a 15 pound dorado. One very happy camper! (Earl, not the fish). Update: 45 minutes since leaving, he now has two fish and is off to see if another boat can use one.

January 29, 2010, 5 am – Leaving Los Muertos

We had two lovely days here. Earl ended up catching 3 nice dorado within about 90 minutes, while I had a lovely swim around the boat. Having bait apparently makes a big difference. The bait that Earl bought from the pangero was fish called ballyhoo. They are about a foot long, nine inches of slender silver body and a 3 inch bill. Anyway, I am now blessed with a nice supply of them in a baking pan in the freezer. Earl laid them out with loving care, separated by saran wrap so that he can take one or more out at a time.

Earl gave two fish away to young couples on sailboats. He invited them to come for drinks and we had a lovely time making their acquaintance. One young couple from San Francisco is between college and graduate school, working during the summer to allow them to sail frugally during the rest of the year. The other couple is from Campbell River on Vancouver Island. They are headed south and west and will sail the Pacific as long as their finances allow, hopefully two years. It was wonderful to see young people cruising. For obvious reasons, most of the cruisers are retired. While we have a wonderful time, I think it would have been quite wonderful to do this in my twenties. Both couples have blogs: svpisces.blogspot.com and svrenova.blogspot.com.

We had a nice time exploring Muertos. The beach has beautiful fine white sand. One day we landed the dingy on the north end of the bay and had lunch at a restaurant that everyone calls the Giggling Marlin. That is no longer its name. It has changed names and owners several times, but apparently the staff stays. I had been told that their chili rellenos were the best ever, and I have to agree. Fantastic. The setting was superb, a large open air palapala overlooking picture perfect water. One the way back to our dingy, some young Mexicans who had been fishing and drinking considerable amounts of beer, invited Earl to taste their tuna, which Earl said was wonderful. Yesterday, we went to the south end of the bay to visit a resort called Gran Sueno. It was lovely. It is a collection of very nice houses, all different, and beautifully landscaped. Everywhere you looked there seems to be another small pool. They have a golf course and a staff of 35 for a total of 14 rooms. Very nice indeed. One of the best things is the dining room, called Train Central. The owner loves electric trains and apparently has a vast collection, some of which is set up here. There are multiple tracks circling the balcony and I have never seen so many different trains. It was fun.

I am sure that we will return to Muertos as a destination rather than just a stop over. For now we are on our way ‘home’ to La Paz. It is about an 8 hour run, so we decided to leave whenever we woke. That was at a quarter of five, and we are now enjoying glassy seas and a full moon. There are porpoises around and I can hear them whistle to one another, but they are busy have breakfast and don’t seem inclined to play.