Under Sail

Finally, thanks to Maja, a photo of Arctic Tern under sail.

Don't Put Too Much Faith in Your Chart Plotter

Chart Plotter shows us passing right through the island

Isla Gallina was actually a few hundred yards to the east of the boat

Spent a few days last week visiting the islands of Espiritu Santo and Partida. Beautiful anchorages and lots of visibility. Did a little snorkeling, lots of colorful fishes.

Hurricane season is about officially over, we were lucky, no storms crossed our path at all. We were told by one of the locals that the arrival of the bright yellow butterflies, mariposas amarillas, signals the end of the hurricane season and we started seeing those a couple weeks ago. It's starting to cool down especially at night, and this is indicated by the fact that the cat has returned to his habit of sleeping with us, which he hasn't down since rounding the cape back in August. I hope this also means that he's going to stop shedding. They also say that October is the best month for diving with visibilities of up to 100'.

I've been working on getting my Scuba Certification, so far it's been a lot easier than I imagined it would be. Would have been done by now if I hadn't caught a nasty cold, waiting for my head to clear up so I can continue with the training. Being underwater and seeing what's around you is a much better feeling than being on top of the water and having no idea what's under neath.

Isla Partida

Morning sun comes up between the two islands, lighting up this east facing cliff on the west side of Isla Partida

Isla Espiritu Santo

Isla Gallo and Espiritu Santo in the background

Pizza!!

Who would of thought that it would be possible to find better pizza in Mexico than you can in most places in California?

The other day we had to make a trip to visit the US consulate in Cabo San Lucas, so we rented a car and made the drive down there. Trying to find the building the consulate was is was a bit of a trick, we got some help from a friendly waiter at a nearby restaurant who actually was nice enough to walk over there with us. The visit took all of 5 minutes, we were done with our mission. We went back to the restaurant for a drink and to thank the guy who helped us out, figured we take him up on the 2 for 1 drink special he offered us. We ordered a couple pina coladas and 2 tacos, we got 2 small ass glasses with a watered down pina colada that didn't taste like it had any alcohol in it at all and 2 crappy little tacos and that came to $17! Some kind of rape the tourist special we fell for. We decided again that we really don't like Cabo.

We took the scenic route back to La Paz, goes along the coast and then up through the mountains. Someone had told us about a pizza place that they liked in El Triunfo. El Triunfo was the site of a gold mining boom back at the turn of the last century and at one time had over 4000 residents. It now has less than 400. You can see the ruins of the old mill and the streets are paved with stones. There's a little pizza place there called Caffe El Triunfo.

Caffe El Triunfo

As we're driving up the mountain to get to this place it starts pouring rain, doesn't seem like it's going to let up anytime soon. We see a sign for pizza and figure that must be the place, pull off the main road and down a side street, find a place to park, get drenched while running from the car, all while hoping that the place is actually open. A women comes out, she's not sure if they are open or not, she goes back to get the owner/chef, he comes out and says yeah I guess, but it might take awhile we're having a bit of problem with all the water that's getting into the kitchen. We weren't planning on going anywhere until the rain let up anyway, it's not like we're in a hurry, so we said we'd wait. 

We ordered a pepperoni pizza and a couple beers. Sat down and watched the rain, with the thunder coming just a second or 2  after the lightening. Moments later he brings out a pizza, hot out of the wood-fired oven out back, it smelled so good. Turned out he already had one cooking that he'd planned on eating himself. We hadn't had pizza in a couple months and even longer since we'd had a good one. It was so good with excellent pepperoni, cheese and a fresh tomato sauce, we ordered another one.

They also bake bread in that wood-fired oven

So while we're waiting for the next pizza to come out he invites us out back to see the arroyo out behind the restaurant. The rain was so heavy that it was roaring with muddy water. 

We also get to check out the real wood-fired oven, not like those fake wood (actually gas) fired ovens they use in the states. 

The guy who owns the place said he's been in Mexico for over 30 years and trained as a chef in Italy. While we were there, 3 ladies came in who had driven all the way from Todos Santos just for a piece of pizza and a slice of pie. If I'd known they had pie I would of skipped that 2nd pizza, but they didn't bring it out until after we'd already ordered. 

Waiting for the rain to stop

Rain finally stopped and we were thoroughly stuffed, and we headed to La Paz. Luckily these roads now have culverts and bridges or the roads probably would of been washed out and we probably would of had to stay the night.

A couple nights ago we went and tried out a La Paz pizza joint and were again surprised at how good it was. 

Tony's was recommended to us by a couple we met here from Australia, she used to work as a gourmet chef, so we thought we could probably trust their judgment. We ordered the house pizza which had pepperoni, mushrooms, olives and fresh basil. It was also very good and at a very reasonable price too. The smell of the fresh basil we he brought it to the table was just heaven. 

As we're sitting there eating, we notice that all Tony's tables are full and that there are several empty tables at the 3 neighboring restaurants. The waitress starts sitting people at the other tables, that just cracked us up, not something you'd get away with in most places, at least it made everyone took busy.

Caleta Lobos

Last weekend we bought a big bag of ice and decided to get out of town for a couple days to find somewhere a bit more peaceful. We headed for the anchorages on the east side of the bay about 10 or so miles from here. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to escape the heat by being out on the water. We found ourselves in the middle of a migration of the most brilliant yellow butterflies I have ever seen. The fishing lines out in hopes of catching a dorado and we're just about to pass Punta Colorado when we saw a bunch of commotion in the water off to starboard. Lots of small fish were flying out of the water, something was obviously chasing them, a whole lot of splashing going on. At first, Jim thought maybe it was a marlin. I could see something was swimming towards us, so I climbed up on the doghouse and saw a whale shark! It was a youngster, only about 10' long (fully grown they can go to 40-50' and weigh over 30 tons). They swim so slowly, we actually had to slow the boat down as it passed behind us so we wouldn't snag it with the fishing lures. Since I was a little girl, I was always fascinated by whale sharks, the biggest fish in the sea. So awesome that I finally got to see one!

We anchored in Caleta Lobos, went for a swim, the water was so nice. Lots of little fish swimming around, some of them flying out of the water trying to escape whatever it was down there trying to eat them. There was one other boat in there with us, Greek guy from Brooklyn, we invited him over and made some pina coladas with some of that ice we bought.

Yellow-Crowned Night Herron

It was so nice and quite that night, no barking dogs or crowing roosters, no sirens or car alarms going off, no revving engines (the Abaroa's who own the boatyard we've been anchored in front of are also into racing cars) or pongas roaring by. The only thing that woke us up was the bright light of the full moon.

Next morning Jim decided he was finally going to tackle the boat's stability problem. When we left San Francisco over a year ago, we were fully loaded. We had a year's supply of food, drinks and booze. Well we've been slowly consuming all that stuff plus getting rid of some of the tools, hardly any really, Jim likes his tools. Anyway, lightening up the boat has made it much more unstable than it used to be causing it to roll quite a bit at anchor and when underway making things quite uncomfortable. So he moved a half ton of lead that was near the front of the boat and moved it back towards the center and lower in the bilge, then he moved 350' of chain up to where the lead had been. Lot of work, especially in this heat, but it was worth it. Now when a ponga goes by (for some reason they always want to come right through the anchorage when it's easier for them to go around) the boat only move slightly, dishes don't rattle, things don't go flying off the table.

Half Ton of Lead Pigs

After working up quite a sweat we headed back to the water did some swimming and tried out the snorkeling gear. Then I took the dinghy to show and went for a short hike, could of been a much longer hike had it not been so hot and I wasn't trying to hike around cactus in the desert with flip flops. Anyway I got a couple good photos of some the plant life. I love the desert with all it's fierceness.

Wish we could of just stayed out there, but on Sunday we returned to La Paz as there are a couple more things that we have to take care of before we can actually get out of this place. Not that it's a bad place to be but so many come here and never leave. So I hope we can before they catch us in their nets and keep us from leaving, like what's happened to so many of them.

La Paz

San Jose del Cabo

When I last posted we were getting ready to leave Marina Los Cabos and start the voyage for La Paz. We left early in the morning in order to try and catch as much of the tide as possible, as there is quite a current created as the tide moves in and out of the sea. Zero's 2 weeks of shore leave were now over and he wasn't happy about it, he actually started growling at Jim when he started to untie the dock lines, at least he decided he was coming with us and jumped down the hatch instead of trying to abandon ship.

1st day we sailed to Los Frailes, I should say motored, no wind or only on the nose the whole way there. The anchorage it self was rolly with a bit of swell coming in. We had thought we would stay an extra day there and do some snorkeling as it's close to the Pulmo Reef, which is the only hard coral reef found in the Sea of Cortez, but it wasn't very calm and we decided we didn't want to stay there another night.

Next morning we headed off for Bahia de Los Muertos, again motoring the whole way, no wind, calm seas, we did see a small whale as we passed Pulmo Reef, hope we can get back there some day. Much better night, got plenty of sleep. Got up early to make the trip through the Cerralvo Channel with the tide. Had good wind for a change and with the current pushing us, we made really good time. Awesome day of sailing, did a little fishing, lost a lure when a rather large dorado hit hard breaking the steel leader, unfortunately didn't catch anything.

We stopped for the night just 12nm shy of La Paz at an anchorage called Puerto Balandra as there were no hurricanes building south of us and we had some extra time. The turquoise blue water was so nice and warm, it was a beautiful place to be. Zero about freaked seeing us in the water, he got all puffy and hissed and growled at us when we tried to get out of the water, he wasn't about to let us back on the boat and we were laughing so hard, it was pretty funny. At least we now know that if anyone should ever try and swim out to the boat he going to let us know like he did the time he got into the face of a sea lion that was looking for a place to rest.

During the night a coromuel blew up and it got pretty rough inside the bay where we were anchored, so we pulled up anchor and moved the boat closer to the cliff face where it was more protected from the wind and so less wave action. We didn't quite get in as close as we would of liked as there was another boat in where we wanted to be and because it was so dark out and our spot light shit the bed awhile back we really couldn't see just how close we could get. It was a lot better where we did end up and did get some sleep, the next morning when we could see, it was obvious that we could of moved in much closer. We left late in the day to make the final leg into La Paz.

La Paz

We were boarded by the Mexican Navy on our way into the channel just as we got close to the city. First time we have had officials on the boat since entering Mexican waters. The were very polite, one of them spoke a little bit of English and was instructing the guy who boarded the boat as to what questions to ask. The forms they use are all in English and he didn't know how to read it, but we got through it okay between the four of us. He used pencil to fill out the form, which I found kind of funny, they don't really take this stuff too seriously. They asked for the boat documents, didn't ask to see passports, asked if we had life jackets, fire extinguishers and a radio on board, and that was about it, they didn't even go below or look around.

So we anchored over passed Marina La Paz near the Navy base just as the sun was beginning to set. Woke up the next morning to the sounds of barking dogs, roosters, and morning revelry coming from the base, nice to be back in civilization. Went ashore, found that Marina La Paz lets cruisers use their dinghy dock for 15 pesos/day, which also allows you the use of their water and trash cans. Met some other boat owners, found some good tacos and a couple beers later, all was good.

One of the many sculptures found along the Malacon

The Catedral de Nuestra Senora do La Paz

The light after the storm in Bahia de La Paz

The people here have all been very friendly and helpful. There are quite a few permanent cruisers here, those who came some years ago and never left or who did and came back to stay. We've run into a few people we know from marinas of the past. It's a nice place, just about everything you need can be found in the city here and most is within walking distance. Lots of good food that is mostly inexpensive. The weather is nice year round although it can get pretty hot in the summer time and it's still hot now, Oct 1st and it's 96 out right now, feels like 111, the humidity is usually between 50 and 60%. Luckily there is usually a nice breeze out on the water and so it doesn't get too bad, thank god we have fans too. It cools down quite nicely at night even to the point where you need a light blanket. So far we've been very lucky and there haven't been any hurricanes that have come up this way, we have a few more weeks to go so we're not quite out of the woods yet. Only had a couple rain storms, most pass right by or get caught up by the mountains south and east of here. We are waiting on some mail which should be here any day now, I hope, we're getting anxious to get out of here, go up north, spend some time exploring before heading over to the main land where we'll be spending the winter.