May 11, 2012

I have been in Mazatlan, working as a broker at Mazatlan Yachts. It has been really, really slow. So after talking it over with the owner of the company, I have decided to do a delivery or two. If the stars all align properly, the next week I'll deliver an Irwin 38 across the Sea to La Paz. Then I'll join a couple of guys on an Allberg 37 and leave La Paz bound for San Francisco. The infamous Baja Bash. I suspect that it will take at least 3 weeks, and maybe 4! After that, there are 2 additional northward deliveries in the cards, but they're too far out to be very sure of - kind of like a long term weather forecast. I have enjoyed living here in Maz for the past couple of months, and I love the Centro Historico area. But the sailing here is not so good, and the harbormaster couldn't manage a lemonade stand, so the marina is not too full. Bottom line: with the economy as poor as it is, and the lack of great boating facilities, and the negative press that Mazatlan and Sinaloa have gotten, it's time to pursue other opportunities!

So my current plan is to move to La Paz, and do deliveries and explore job opportunities there. The deliveries will allow me to get even more experience on the water, and hopefully see some parts of Mexico that I haven't seen yet. If the situation here at Mazatlan Yachts changes and becomes lucrative, I may return. If I win the lottery, I may return and buy the home across from the Angela Peralta Theatre at Plazuela Machado. In the meanwhile, I want to spend more time on the water.

Mazatlan

2 blocks from my house

SUNDAY, MARCH 25

I haven't written anything for the blog in several months, so an update is certainly in order. Back in December when we arrived in La Paz, I met a broker at La Paz Yachts named Mike. I told him that I was a broker from Portland, and that I wanted to stay in Mexico, and that I was interested in doing deliveries. He asked me if I would consider selling boats, and I said yes.

So after a trip to Mazatlan on the ferry and several interviews, I was offered a position selling boats in Mazatlan. I packed my belongings into plastic garbage bags. Some friends were intending to sail for Mazatlan about a week in the future, and they agreed to deliver my stuff.

I flew to Mazatlan from La Paz on a commuter airline called Aereo Calafia. The airplane was a Cessna 208 Caravan, and I was in the seat behind the co-pilot. The pilot flew the airplane on this leg, and I was unimpressed. But the sky was clear, and we got to Mazatlan in about an hour and 20 minutes, and Ray was waiting to pick me up.

I started working that day, and for several days after work I would ride home with Julie and look at apartments. I found a cute little house with great cross ventilation; it would available on March 1st. I spent the interim, about 15 days, at Ray's house. While living with the boss is not usually a good idea, in this case it was splendid because we got to know each other better than we would have in a year otherwise. 

Geographically, Mazatlan is long and narrow. It stretches along the beach for miles; I think it's about 7 miles from my house to the marina. And my house is only a couple of blocks from the beach. Julie lives nearby and has a truck, so I ride to work with her rather than take the bus. The street is along the beach and the scenery is fantastic! There is a very wide sidewalk, called the malecon, for several miles. A cruiser gave me his bicycle when he was leaving for points south, and last Sunday I rode the full length of the malecon. Today I am going riding with Julie's sister, Susie. 

It has not rained since I have been here. The offshore islands that we pass on the way to work are getting obviously drier. The rainy season is in the summer, and Julie claims that the first rain will be on July 24. We'll see! I'm told that it gets really hot and humid for about 6 weeks in the summer, with spectacular lightning every night. So far, it just gets in the upper 70's in the daytime and down to 60 or so at night.

Olas Altus area near my house

My house is on a corner. Downstairs, I have a living room, dining room, kitchen, half bath, and a little alcove with a washing machine. The kitchen sink has both hot and cold water plumbed to it. Most homes in Mexico do not have hot water in the kitchen. There is a patio off the dining room, and it is enclosed with high walls - again, very typical here. I am currently sitting at a table on the patio with my morning coffee. There is a large rectangular ceramic sink out here, I use it for the mop and messy cleaning jobs that I would rather not do at the kitchen sink. A fountain with several plants in pots graces the patio, but it was never completed and does not work. There is a big black plastic water tank in the corner, called a tinaca. The city water flows very slowly with almost no pressure, and it flows into this tinaca. There is a float valve to turn the flow on and off automatically. I have a little pump with pressure tank to push the water into the house. In most Mexican homes the tinaca is on the roof and water is gravity fed into the house. Julie tells me that during the summer the water in the tinaca gets so hot that it's nearly too hot to take a shower. One more water point: Mexicans do not drink the water. It's used for bathing and cleaning, but drinking water (agua purificada) comes in big jugs called garafons. Okay, back to the tour! Upstairs I have a good sized bedroom and a bathroom. The house is furnished, but not extravagantly. I will stay here for a year, but after that I might move into a little nicer place. Maybe. This place has all the signs of a rental and just needs a few upgrades to be done to it, and if I decide to stay in it for a long time I will get them done. My rent is 4000 pesos per month, and with an exchange rate of about 12.5 that equates to 350 USD.

Plaza Machado

La Paz

2 enero 2012

Well, I have been remiss in updating this blog, so let's see what I have to write about. From Cabo San Lucas, we went to Bahia de Los Frailles. It is a good anchorage with a sandy bottom and protection from northerly winds. I was amazed by the rays there. I think they are Mobley Rays, but I don't know for sure. They jump out of the water about 5 feet and then belly flop on the way back down! They were between 1 and 2 feet in diameter, so they were heavy enough to make quite a splash! The snorkeling there was very good too, but not as good as Cabo San Lucas. We spent 3 nights there, which was about one too many. 

Leaving there, the next stop was about fifty miles north, so we left early in the morning and arrived at Bahia de Los Muertos in the afternoon. Another anchorage with good protection from north winds, but not as picturesque as Los Frailles. A California real estate developer has built a resort there, and has tried to change the name of the bay to Bahia de Los Suenos. Bay of Dreams rather than Bay of the Dead. Imagine that! The resort is first class, with rooms ranging from USD 300 to 800 per night. We spent a few hours at the restaurant/bar, and that part was pretty reasonable. Overall, the place was beautiful and I enjoyed walking around the grounds.

From Muertos is was about 50 miles to La Paz, and we motored most of the way due to lack of wind. The entrance to the channel is a couple of miles north of town, and is well marked with buoys. La Paz is not in a particularly picturesque location, and for the first couple of weeks I didn't take any pictures. But there are lots of cool sights and places there, and I enjoy it very much. I could see myself living there. I have found several awesome places to get good food, and it's not too expensive. The weather in December has been sunny, with highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's. We have had a norther, which was a little cooler and lumpy at anchor, especially trying to get to shore with the dinghy. There are many gringo's living there, and several have established businesses that cater to us. One of them is a restaurant called "The Shack" which has excellent burgers and pizzas at very reasonable prices. Another is Allende Books, which is an English book store. Most of the time though, I prefer Mexican food.

One day we went to Cabo San Lucas and back in a rental car. It was about 150 miles, and the scenery in the mountains was stunning.

Now that we have arrived in La Paz, it seems that my friends at home are sailing more than I am! We have been spending A LOT of time in port. Sometimes I wonder how this is different from being at a slip in Portland, other than the weather. I guess that I love boating, and don't consider boating to be hanging out in port all the time. We finally got out of town on New Years Eve and went up to Caleta Lobos. It's only a few miles, but on the way we spent several hours finding whale sharks. Whale sharks are bis fish that filter water to get their food. The ones that we saw were about 15 feet long. They are really slow swimmers and don't seem to be very smart, so I had to drive out of their way so they wouldn't run into the boat. Saw some dolphins and rays, too.

a whale shark

a pair of dolphins

Stayed there at Caleta Lobos 2 nights and then went north to Isla Espiritu Santo. 

Balandra

Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla la Partida are national parks. They are long and narrow. The west sides have many good anchorages, and we visited several of them on this trip. Lots of good snorkeling and kayaking! I took a ton of pictures, and I think this post is long enough, so the islands will be in the next post. Thanks for reading!

Cabo pics

In the town of Todos Santos, north of Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific side of the peninsula.

The marina in Cabo San Lucas.

This sea lion is at the marina in Cabo. The fishing boat that she is behind had bought several tuna, and the deckhand filleted them here in port. Easy meal! He would put them on the transom, and she jumped up and took them! I did not have my camera then, sorry.

We are currently in Bay de los Muertos, and tomorrow will be headed towards La Paz. I took a lot of pictures today at a resort here, so they will be on the next update.

Cabo San Lucas

We left Mag Bay early on the morning of Monday, November 29th. The wind had been howling from the northeast for a couple of days, and was forecast to blow for one more day, so we figured that if we would stay in really close to the shore it wouldn't have enough fetch to build up big waves. We stayed about a mile offshore in the morning, as we motored southeast along Isla Margarita. The shoreline jumps several miles east at the end of the island, and I thought that we may get the wind there. It was around 1400 hours when we finally got there, and it was clear that the forecast was wrong about the big winds. We did get a little from the west later that day and evening, but most of the time we used the motor along with the sails. We proceeded direct, and before dark we were far enough offshore that no land was visible anywhere. Daylight found us approaching Cabo Falso, and then it was only another couple of hours until we got to Cabo San Lucas.

Cabo San Lucas is a dramatic ridge line that runs east-west and ends in a series of tall rocks. The bay is open to the east. We anchored on the north side of it, along a sandy beach, in about 20 feet of water. It was so clear that I could see the bottom as soon as I donned my goggles and put my face in the water. The beach is lined with hotels, and the water is full of jet skis, glass-bottomed water taxis, and plenty of other boats. The hotels play their music very loud, so it's quite different from Mag Bay and Turtle Bay. To conserve water, I go snorkeling each morning, and then rinse with fresh water. On the west end of the bay, they have dug a man made harbor that is very protected. Their are hundreds of slips in there, and a dinghy dock all the way up at the end, near the marina office. There are high end stores around the harbor, and several blocks of gringo alley type stores catering to people who show up on cruise ships. 

The second day that we were here, we joined some other cruisers and rented a van to drive up the Pacific coast to a town called Todo Santos, where the real Hotel California (remember the 

Eagles?) is located. I made sure to not check in! We left Cabo around lunchtime, and we were hungry, so we stopped on the outskirts of town at a real Mexican restaurant. They didn't seem to have menus, but I ordered cauldo chivo. Hope the spelling is correct. It was a fantastic bowl of soup with goat meat. Topped with fresh chopped onions, cilantro, lime juice, and a little hot sauce with a tortilla on the side, YUM! It was interesting to travel by highway, and driving through the desert was a treat, but really it's just another tourist thing and we didn't even go to the beach. 

Friday, we moved into the marina and stayed there two nights. It was kind of nice to have the boat in flat water and to be able to step off onto a dock. It had been nearly a month since we were last able to do that. It was also nice to have electricity, water, and showers! For this 35 foot boat, the fee was 54 dollars per day. When we are anchored out, getting to shore often means getting wet. Hitting waves in the dinghy sends water spraying over the bow. The water taxi charges $5 per person each way, so that's out. One morning I swam to the beach, but that's not practical if you're buying groceries. So it was nice to be able to just walk away and see the sights. I needed to see a dermatologist, and was able to get the name  and phone number of the one here in Cabo. I was able to get her on her cell phone, but I could not figure out what she was saying when she told me where her office was located. She did tell me to call at 2 pm, and I decided to be in her office at that time. I went to the marina office, gave them her name, and they looked her up on Google. They gave me her address, and I was sitting in her office before 2 pm. She got me in at about 2:15, checked me all out, gave me the sunscreen lecture in Spanish, and sent me on my way for 600 pesos - about 45 dollars. 

Saturday morning, I took the dinghy out in the bay to Greg's boat and picked up Kalel. We went across the bay to Lover's Beach, and then went snorkeling at a rock called Neptune's Finger. The fish were amazing. So was the surge from the ocean swell, and it certainly stretched my snorkeling comfort zone! It's a small world! Later in the day, I moved a load of clothes from the washer to the dryer and headed back to the boat to wait on the dryer. Along the way, a guy came and started walking beside me, close, to get my attention. I looked at him, and it was Jack from Tomahawk Bay back in Portland! He was here with his sister and her husband, we sat and had a cerveza. I enjoyed visiting with them very much! Jack is a sweetheart and it was good to see someone from home.

The Sea of Cortez is prone to strong winds from the north in the winter. These northers are reported to kick up really steep waves, and this year it seems that there have been a lot of them. We have been watching the forecast for several days, and one was forecast to start blowing late Sunday. It looks like it will be windy for most of the week, that means we'll be here for a while.  We will be leaving here on Thursday morning, Dec 8, headed to Los Frailes, which is a bay about 45 miles northeast of here. We will make some sotps along the way, but should be in La Paz and internet coverage in a week or so.

20 November

We are in Mag Bay and have been here for a few days now. It's really Bahia de Magdelena, and it is so long and wide that I can not see across it. We are anchored off a small village, and have spent a considerable amount of time there. No internet access, so this post will be uploaded later. We are here with 7 other sailboats currently, and we know most of them. This morning our friends Rick and Kira, on s/v Nyon, sailed for Puerto Vallarta. I hope to meet them again, somewhere! 

The sail here from Bahia de Tortugas was not uneventful! Our intent was to stop along the way at a place called Bahia San Juanico, but before we got there we ran over some floats and got the ropes wrapped around the prop. It was just after daylight, and the wind was about 15 knots, and we were not using the motor. The water going past the prop makes it turn though, so it can wrap lines even when it's not in use. Maybe the wind was closer to 20 knots - the waves were pretty tall and steep. We were about 20 miles offshore, so we hove-to and Ed put on his mask and fins and went in the ocean to take a look. It was pretty wild with the waves, and there was danger that the boat would hit him, so he decided to wait for calmer conditions before going under the boat. We discussed our options, and decided to continue on towards Bahia de Magdelena. San Juanico would have had us sailing to anchor in a place where there is a shore-wise setting current and rather small anchorage. Later that afternoon, the wind had dropped a bit, and the sea was calmer, and Ed was able to get the prop cleared. We continued sailing southeast toward Cabo Lazaro and Mag Bay, and the wind blew enough that we sailed all day and all night. The next morning, we were at the bay above the entrance to Mag Bay, which is called Bahia de Santa Maria. It is about 4 miles wide and 11 miles long, and we entered it and went to the northwest end of it. We anchored there for a night, and the water was 80 degrees, so I went snorkeling. Having not swam for about 10 years; it was fulfilling! I went swimming the next morning also, and then we left for Mag Bay. Just as we were leaving the Bay and entering the ocean, I saw a whale come out of the water in the distance. It continued coming out of the water, and the whole whale was in the air! You would not believe the splash that an adult Gray Whale makes when it free falls into the ocean! The spray that went up hung in the air for what seemed like minutes. I saw 2 breeches that day, along with a lot of fin slapping.

Back in Turtle Bay, there was a Mexican guy who hung out at Rogelio's palapa, named Kalel. Not sure if that's his real name or not, but he pronounces it like Superman's real name. He told us that he was from Cabo San Lucas, and was trying to get $100 dollars for a bus ticket to get back there. He speaks English as well as Spanish, and is a very nice and funny guy. He was very helpful to us and the other cruisers in our group during our time in Turtle Bay, and I really like him. One of the boats is a single hander from Canada named Greg, and I suggested to him that Kalel might be interested in going as far as Cabo with him. Greg talked to Kalel, and now Greg has crew who speaks fluent Espanol!

Yesterday morning while drinking my morning coffee, I opened a can of corn and used some to bait a hook. I immediately caught a small fish about 5 inches long, and kept it for bait. Later, I took it in the dinghy and went fishing for Rock Fish or Halibut. The problem is that I don't know enough about the habits of my quarry to be successful, yet. I did catch 2 nice fish that were each about 12 inches long, but I released them. It was fun, but I probably should have brought them home and made fish tacos out of them.

Yesterday was "Flag Day" here in Mexico, and last night this little town had a parade and then the whole town had an event at the basketball court. The townspeople brought various food items to sell to each other, and it was interesting! I tried two things: Champra something, which Kalel says is made from flour, milk, and chocolate cookies. It was thick like pudding, and warm, and served in cups. Interesting, but not something that I would drink very much of. The other thing that I tried was a flat crunchy chip like thing that was topped with lettuce, avocado, tomato, and drizzled with crema. It was good, but huge, so I ate half and gave the rest to Kalel. 

22 November

Well, we're still here at Mag Bay. Not sure why -  It's not that I don't want to stay - but better places are waiting! Today I aired up the kayak to get away for a little while, and went to shore and visited with Kalel. We hatched a plan to go snorkeling in an effort to find some scallops, and we came back to the boat and got the dinghy and Ed. We also told two neighboring boats that we were going, and Dave and Neal brought Dave's dinghy. We went about 2 miles to a rocky point, and then spent a couple of hours snorkeling. All the scallops that we found were empty. Kalel thinks that they were eaten by octopus. He caught one and we put it in the bucket. We also found several lobsters and they went in the bucket, too! When we got back to the sailboat, he and I cooked the lobster in butter and garlic, and we had a small feast for 9 people. Then we got the pressure cooker out to cook the octopus. Kalel cleaned it while I got about an inch of seawater in the bottom of the pan, and then I put the lid on and cooked it. I forgot to time it, but I think that it cooked for about 20 minutes after the pressure came up. When it came out of the pressure cooker, Kalel cleaned it up some more and cut it up into bite size pieces. He put it on a plate and squeezed fresh lime juice and hot sauce onto it, and oh my it was good! But back to the snorkeling for a minute - I am a really novice snorkeler, but It is so much fun! I snorkel around the boat here in the morning (it's my bath) but the water here is between 20 and 30 feet deep with a sandy bottom. I can't see it, so it's just about the swimming. But when I got to the rocky area today, and nearer shore, I was amazed by all the fish! The lobsters are not easy to find, because they are hiding under the rocks. Very fun!

29 November

We ended up waiting through thanksgiving, and having a get together at the dulceria on the beach. Teri and several others went to San Carlos and Cuidad Constiticion to get fixins for thanksgiving dinner; it's a "30 minute ride in a fast boat" from the village where we were anchored. Apparently it was quite a trip, because when they arrived in San Carlos, they loaded the panga on a trailer and continued to ride in the panga, on the trailer, for some distance. Teri was not back from that excursion until well after dark. In the meantime, a new cruiser had arrived in Mag Bay, and anchored at Belcher's Cove, which was a couple of miles away from us. They were not able to get their engine started, and somehow I ended up going to see if I could fix it. This boat was beautiful: a 2008 Bruce Robert's design, 54 foot steel hulled center cockpit cutter rig. It had an 84 hp cummins diesel that would not start. I spent most of the day - Thanksgiving day - trying to get it to run. It wasn't easy, because there were a couple of problems. The full tank (one of four) had a plugged fuel line, which I was able to blow out by inserting the fuel hose into one of those compressed air horns and squeezing the button. The major problem turned out to be that the electric fuel solenoid in the injector pump was not working. It took a while to figure that out, because I could hear it operating so I thought it might be working. I took it out and the piston was free, so I put it back together and bled the system yet again. Eventually, everything pointed to that solenoid. So we pulled the piston out and put it back together sans piston. Problem solved! By the time I arrived at thanksgiving dinner, everyone had finished eating and I had to scarf it while they were cleaning up.

The next day, when there should no longer be any possible reason to stay another day longer, we got stuck in a weather hold. The wind howled from the northeast for a few days, and we did not weigh anchor until early on Monday the 28th. The forecast was still for wind from the northeast up to 30 knots, but I was pretty confident that it had blown itself out, and we left Bahia de Magdelena in light winds from the northeast before sunrise. The trip to Cabo San Lucas was about 158 miles direct, and a direct route would take us offshore a considerable distance, which would result in a longer fetch for the wind to build waves if it was from the northeast. We figured that by the time we cleared Isla Margarita (early in the trip) that we would be able to decide whether to proceed direct or to stay close to the shore and take higher winds but smaller waves. 

Look for my next blog update to learn what we actually experienced!

Turtle Bay

Bahia de Tortugas, Baja California Sur. On the charts, it's called Puerto San Bartolome. To cruisers, it's simply "Turtle Bay". The trip here from Ensenada took us 49 hours, and was about 290 miles. Leaving Ensenada, we were visited by several Blue whales, and two of them got to within 50 yards or so from us. They are huge, and graceful, and their spout is like a "V". They are a heck of a lot bigger than this boat! We motored away from Ensenada into a direct headwind, having to go west to get out past Punta Banda, at which point we turned to the southeast and set sail. We motor sailed for a few hours, and then were able to shut it down and let the wind take us. The wind was forecast to be light, but it freshened to 15 - 20 knots and seemed to stay that way all the way here. At one point during one of the nights, I saw it hit 29 knots, and since I was steering the boat, Teri came up to help me reduce sail somewhat. With moderate swell and steep wind waves, it was actually a rather rough 2 days.

The Mexican coastline is very scalloped, and about 100 miles south of Ensenada we left the coastline and took a direct course to pass just to the west of Isla Cedros. This course took us quite a ways offshore, and for the first time I was able to look completely around the boat and not see land. It was also amazing to go for a day and night without seeing any other boats! With the wind blowing up pretty good waves, we made good time but I was very aware that we were on our own. In addition to the isolation, there were also all the warnings that the charts are not totally accurate and some of the coastline was last mapped by the U.S.S. Ranger in 1890 -1892. To drive the point home, the first afternoon out of Ensenada we sailed past two haystack type rocks that were not on the charts! So getting offshore further was good, because the water was charted to be about 7000 feet deep. 

We sailed down the west side side of Isla Cedros, and after clearing it by a good margin we turned southeast again, rejoining the coastline at Punta Eugenia and continuing another 20 miles or so to Turtle Bay. It was morning, and the wind was blowing briskly from the northeast, so it was on the beam or forward a little to close hauled. It was my watch, and the autopilot was doing a great job of driving the boat, so I was kicking back and trimming the sails for maximum speed. I was over 7 knots for a long time, which was perfect because it was fast enough to convince a Yellowfin Tuna that the cedar plug we were towing was its next meal. The handline went tight and I yelled "fish on!" and pulled it in. Ed estimates that it was about 20 pounds, and it was a beautiful fish. In all the excitement, I did not get a good picture of it. Ed filleted it immediately, and we had fish for three days! Too bad we don't have any wasabi aboard!

We had met several cruisers in Ensenada who were heading south, and many of us left there on the same day. I'm happy to report that they all arrived here, although some of them took considerably longer than others. Today most of us got together on the beach at a small place that is run by a guy named Rogelio. He has a little snack bar and happens to sell cerveza for 15 pesos, and it didn't take long until we had quite a party going. It was fun to get to know some of the other people who are doing the same thing as we are, and compare stories about the trip from Ensenada. Many are from the Pacific Northwest. 

SEVERAL DAYS LATER: Well, it's Monday morning, and the storm has passed. We moved to the south side of the bay in advance of a storm, and had a windy but not too rough ride. Those who stayed on the north side reported 6 foot waves breaking, and a local sailboat actually sank. The top of the mast is still sticking up out of the water. We are gathering last minute provisions, and plan to leave this afternoon. We only have 75 gallons of water capacity, and ran out last night. This morning Ed had Enrique bring 50 gallons, and we poured a 7 gallon jug that we had aboard in the tank too, so we have 57 gallons in the tank, and our reserve is empty. So, we are leaving with about 70% of our capacity - not sure about the wisdom of that, but it'll be interesting! In the meantime, I'll be fishing and sailing.