Sunday,
April 27 – Turtle Bay
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| Cross above Cabo San Jose Marina |
We spent
a couple of pleasant days at San Jose del Cabo.
The marina is comfortable– although not anywhere as nice as Costa Baja
with very industrial artwork. We enjoyed dinner at Sharon and Dave’s condo
where we discussed politics until 11:30.
Pretty late for us folks. The
next two days we provisioned and cleaned before picking up Joan and Clark at
the airport. We had a good dinner at the
Tropicana, recommended for Mexican food.
Although it was not the fish tacos which I had expected, the food was
excellent and the entertainment unexpected.
Halfway through dinner a large group in crazy masks and very enhanced
bosoms danced their way up the sidewalk and around us looking for
donations. They were a hoot.
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| Art???? |
We left
San Jose del Cabo on Friday the 18th. The going was not nice and Earl decided when
the wind hit 30 that we would be well served to go and anchor for the night in
front of Cabo San Lucas. It was both
Good Friday and Joan and Clark’s 50th wedding anniversary.
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| Joan and Clark - 50 years and going strong |
Holy Week is a big holiday for the Mexicans
and we felt rather as if we had anchored in the middle of an amusement
park. The beach was literally covered with
beach umbrellas and people, while a few brave souls were in the rather chilly
water swimming or kayaking. One woman
was attached to some kind of device that powered water jets under her feet and
sent her soaring into the air. There was
music blaring and everyone was apparently having a wonderful time. A barge anchored near us selling beer was
covered with drinkers. At sunset, a
number of boats turned on decorative lights and then there were fireworks. It was very festive. Not exactly what I would have thought for
Good Friday in a Catholic country.
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| Cabo beach |
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| Party Boats |
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| Beer Barge |
We
celebrated the anniversary with pepper steaks, champagne and a frozen Costco
chocolate cake that we are still have not finished a week later.
Saturday
morning just as the sky was lightening, we started off for a long run to Santa
Maria just north of Mag Bay. As we
rounded the Cape we were treated to the sight of a large whale breaching beside
us. I guess he was wishing us a good
trip north. It was a lovely start to our
bash.
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| The Cape (Cabo San Lucas) |
Between
Cabo San Lucas and Mag Bay it is a long 152 miles at 6 mph with no place to
stop. It was choppy when we started and
got worse. No fun! We bucked our way north and worked muscles we
had forgotten about trying to keep from falling as we made our way around the
boat. Daisy had the worst of it. She could not stand on the bow to relieve
herself and even walking in the boat was tough.
Earl finally put a towel down on the back deck so that she could get
some traction. It took her several days
to recover. The weather got worse during
the night but by the time we arrived at Santa Maria, 172 miles from Cabo on
Sunday the 21st it was actually becoming pleasant.
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| Bahia Santa Maria |
We were
exhausted and spent the next day recovering. Apparently we are all 5 years older than when
we came south and probably we are better off not doing too many over night runs.
We celebrated our safe arrival with a
luxury dinner of rack of lamb and the next night suffered through fresh
lobsters that Clark bought from a pangero.
They were probably not legal since we have since been told everywhere else
north that the season is closed.
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| Lobster Night! |
We saw
what may be the new generation of Baja fisherman. Still in pangas, these guys wore nice
raingear, spoke some English and had a boatload of hammerhead sharks, which must
be a profitable catch. From what we
could understand, the fins go to Asia and the bulk of the meat is made into
surimi.
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| Panga load of hammerheads |
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| Clark and Daisy fishing |
The
trip south along the Baja with the winds on your tail is called the Baha Haha
and it was a pleasant trip. The trip
north is rightly called the Baja Bash.
As one of the guide books put it:
The prevailing wind and swell that was fun at 15 -20 knots going
downwind, can become a bear when beating into an apparent wind in excess of
20-25 knots. The advice is to hug the
coast to reduce the winds but that adds about 100 miles to the distance. It is also advised to travel early in the day
before the afternoon winds come up.
Thus, we have been making more stops than we did going south and instead
of the 8 days it took us from Ensenada to Cabo in 2009, we will be lucky to
make it in two weeks.
A 3 am
departure from Santa Maria on Tuesday, April 22 got us to Juanico 7:20 pm. It was a long overcast day, but seas were reasonable.
We saw a few large grey whales. One crossed right in front of the boat so Clark
slowed down and gave it the right of way- it was coming from the right. The time was filled with lots of knitting and
naps. Joan is a machine, whipping off a
cap a day.
An 11 hour
run got us from Juanico to Abre Ojos at 7 pm on Wednesday. It was choppy, but
we were treated to gulls fighting for position on our front railing and
porpoises came for Daisy’s delight.
After we anchored, two pangas, each modified by the addition of a cabin,
came by. They were the Mexican federal
fish and game checking to see if we were poachers.
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| Gulls on the railing |
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| Mexican Fish and Game |
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| Leaving Abre Ojos at dawn |
Thursday
April 24th was a choppy nine hour ride from Abre Ojos to Asuncion which
we left early so as to get to Turtle Bay in time to do some shopping on the 25th.
The conditions were wonderful as we
neared Turtle Bay but the weather report was for some big winds on the
afternoon of the 26th and lasting through the am on the 28th. We were tempted to run north, but Turtle Bay
is by far the best anchorage in which to wait out the weather. So there we
stayed
It
would not be boating if there were not some issue. The first day out Clark mentioned that the
water pressure was low. It would start
out fine but quickly fall off. There were
lots of theories and heavy engineering discussions between the capitanos. The first attempt was to check the electrical
connections. That was declared a success
– at least for 15 minutes. The next
attempt, on the theory that something was stuck in the line- was to blow air
through the pipes using an electrical air pump.
Again a success. Again short-lived. The final (always the one that works) was
replacing the pump. Apparently the pump
that we had replaced just before leaving La Paz had a connector that was cross-threaded
and allowed air to leak into the system.
Somebody goofed, but all is well that ends well.
The water
maker was also not working well. It kept
shutting itself off. We assumed it was
connected to the water pressure issue.
But it turned out not to be so.
So when we finally had water pressure, we did not have enough water to
take showers and do laundry. The
situation was becoming desperate when Earl checked the filters and discovered
that they were plugged with plankton.
New filters and new water pump and life is good. We are all less fragrant.
Joan,
Clark and I took a panga ride into the pier to do some shopping in Turtle
Bay. The panga ride was fine, but the
landing was not ideal. We tied up at a dock that was far beyond rickety. The pangero demonstrated walking precisely in
the middle so as to keep from tipping into the water. When we got to the stair
of the pier, we were faced with a sad looking stairway about 2 feet across the
water from the shaky dock. We made it
and walked a guano covered pier to shore.
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| Guano encrusted dock (smelled good too!) |
We had
toured Turtle Bay on our way south and it was as dusty as we remember. The buildings by the pier are derelict and
rusty and the town is worn. The grocery
store was more impressive than I remember – probably due to 5 years of shopping
in tiny village tiendas on the Baja. The
fruit and vegetable selection was not large but we got enough to see us to
Ensenada.
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| Turtle Bay - not really a resort community |
We
stayed at anchor for two days and watched as the harbor filled up. A number of other boats joined us to wait out
the weather and we watched a surprising amount of commercial fishing traffic. There were a couple of old seiners and the
scene was pretty remenisant of our Alaska fishing days.
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| Commercial fishing boats |
So here
we sit making water and doing laundry and resting.
Tuesday,
April 29th – enroute to Bahia San Carlos
After
considerably checking of weather, we left Turtle Bay at 7:15 on Monday morning
headed for the north end of Cedros Island.
It looked as it we would have a lumpy but not impossible ride that day
and better weather the next. We were met
by good sized swells with white caps on top.
Thank God for stabilizers. The
Serenity rides like a duck. Joan and I
spent the morning knitting, playing cards and killing flies. We apparently brought a boatload of them with
us from Turtle Bay.
As soon
as we got in the lee of Cedros Island the water flattened out. The south end of the island has a deep harbor
at which ocean going tankers are filled with salt. The salt is produced in Scammon Lagoon,
loaded on barges and tugged over to the island.
The barges are equipped with conveyer belt system to unload the salt on
to the shore where it is added to the huge pile that is already there.
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| Loaded salt barge |
The
ride up the east side of the island was scenic.
The hillsides are very dramatic.
As we got to the northern end, we started passing beaches covered with
sea lions. They lie on the shore like cord
wood and bark.
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| Sea lions on the beach |
Our
anchorage was steep, so we anchored close the beach and the seals. Earl put out
150 feet of chain and we enjoyed quiet rocking and noisy seals. Earl got up in the middle of the night and
saw some of them swimming through our underwater lights.
We
started off a dawn on Tuesday to head north to San Carlos,
We had
very large swells, 9 or 10 feet, but we seem to be getting our sea legs. Daisy even made it to the front deck and
managed to do her business. A true Salty
Dog. I have rediscovered the technique
of bracing oneself in the galley that I had mastered when we commercial fished. It must be like riding a bike – one never
forgets. The boat continued to perform
beautifully and we passed a pleasant day.
As the evening approached the seas flattened and the report for
Wednesday is excellent. We will probably
do an overnight from San Carlos into Ensenada.
Wednesday,
April 30, heading north from San Carlos
Well we
had quite a night! The anchorage in the
bay is a good way off the beach, but as we anchored we could hear the surf
roar. It seemed almost as if it echoed
around the little bay. At 1 am the wind came up from land to the NE. By 2, the boat was pitching and we could hear
loud banging noises. The wind was warm –
78 degrees – and wild. We clocked 56
mph. Earl and I went upstairs in our
nightclothes to see what was going on – my initial thought was that the
stabilizer had somehow gotten fouled.
But no, our trusty chain hook on the bridle had failed and was
inoperable. Earl managed to find our
spare bridle in a storage box on top of the house and went out to hook up the
replacement and retrieve the bent one.
As soon as he had that done, he replaced the hook on our bridle with a
different model. Just in time, as the
second one also failed. By this time
Clark had come up and we gave Earl our moral support from the cabin as we
watched him bent over the bow roller, his nightshirt around his ears, attaching
the bridle. It was an unforgettable
sight – no photos.
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| Twisted chain hook #2 |
As it
grew light around 5:30, we began the process of pulling up an anchor that was
more than well-set in wind that was still gusting 45. With the wind on our starboard we blew out
San Carlos and headed north.
Fortunately,
once away from the shore, the Santa Ana type wind dissipated and we are
enjoying a good ride with long swells.
We had some unexpected visitors. Some
little yellow birds –identified by Clark as Wilson Warblers-, apparently blown
offshore, landed on the boat and flew in and out of the cabin. They were not the least afraid and made
themselves at home, helpfully doing away with the last of the flies that we had
been carrying with us. One landed on
Daisy’s back and rested, then another tried to preen Daisy’s beard. Joan had one on her finger and Earl’s head
was apparently also an appealing perch. Delightful!
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| Wilson Warbler on our camera. Chain hook #1 in background |
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| Earl's new friend |
Friday,
May 2, 2014 - Ensenada
We did
an overnight to Ensenada, arriving about 8 am.
The seas were wonderful! Earl had
planned on being able to get our check out documents, but, as Joan reminded me,
when in Mexico, expect holidays. May 1
is Labor Day here and nothing was open.
We took
on fuel, significantly cheaper here than in San Diego, and Earl rinsed the first layer of salt and
grit off Serenity, before finally going to bed for a few hours of sleep. He does not sleep much during overnights. Apparently he has inadequate confidence in
the crew.
While
Earl slept, Joan, Clark and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few items
– oranges for 2 mornings worth of juice, some bread, cookies and mangos and,
most critical, a toilet plunger. It was
a short distance, but the heat was awful and it seemed like a steep
uphill. We got back only to find that
we had left the plunger behind, so back to the store I went. Death march.
Dinner
was in the air-conditioned boat. We are
trying to use up any food that might be confiscated, so we had the last of our
steaks. Yummy. We finally finished off the last of the
Costco cake. My freezer is definitely
looking rather empty.
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| Cabo north to Turtle Bay |
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| Turtle Bay north to Ensenada |
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