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.

Long Leg to Cabo

Light House on Punta Tosca

We finally got tired of Magdalena Bay after trying to kill most of August in hopes of avoiding the worst of the heat that we knew we'd find once we got into the Sea of Cortez. We set off on the what would be to date the longest leg of our journey, 180nm to Cabo. We had thought initially that if it turned out to be a windless day, which it did, we could always break up the voyage by stopping for the night at Punta Tosca on the Southern tip of Isla Margarita. One of the guide books (published in 1988) described it as an acceptable anchorage while another one says for emergency use only. Francisco de Ulloa anchored here in 1539 and described it as a good place to anchor, well a lot has changed since then, Isla Cresiente may not have even been present at that time. What we found when we approached was breaking waves about 100 yards on either side of the supposed anchorage and a number of sharks swimming around, not that sharks would be a problem but it did make it all seem a little more ominous. There didn't seem to be any calm water just east of the light house, so we continued on.

Fortunately the wind finally did pick up as we motored away from Isla Margarita, we put up sail and we were joined by 100s of dolphin heading in the same direction we were.

Sun Setting on our 1st Overnight Voyage

As soon as it got dark however, I got seasick. I had felt fine all day, but something about trying to navigate in the darkness made me nauseous. I went below and tried to get some sleep. Jim woke me up at some point so I could take the watch while he tried to sleep. At around 2am the wind was dying and we were only going about 2.5knots so we took down the sails and started up the motor, that was the last of the wind we'd see for a couple days. I went below to throw up some more, fell asleep for a couple hours, Jim woke me up again to come and see the bioluminescent plankton we were moving through. I've been told by several people that this is why they like sailing at night far more than any other time of the day. It was pretty cool, looked like there was a alien ship with it's lights on hovering below the surface of the water. It made my nausea return though, so was really unable to enjoy it all that much.

Fishing Boat at Dawn

The next morning, I'm still sick, which is strange, the only other couple of times I had been seasick I felt better after throwing up and it would pass after awhile, I now have diarrhea too, so I'm thinking I must have something more, maybe food poisoning. Jim tried again to get some sleep while I went on watch for a few hours. He wasn't really able to sleep, so he let me sleep, which I did for most of the rest of the day. While he was on watch, he saw a school of marlin with one, what he estimated to be about 900lbs, come out of the water about 40 miles north of Cabo. 

It was approaching dusk as we neared Cabo and there were literally 100s of rays flying out of the water, they would jump, flap their wing like fins a few times, fall back in the water and try again. Tried to get a picture, but they wouldn't come out of the water when I had the camera ready, and I wasn't feeling all that hot anyway, so I just gave up. We also saw what we think was a female, which are much larger than the males, being followed by several males, which made us think it was breeding season. Seems I remember seeing a nature show on the sex life of rays where they described the same behavior.

It was dark by the time we reached the anchorage in front of Cabo San Lucas, there weren't any other boats there, and there was a bit of a swell but not too bad, we figured we were tired enough to sleep through just about anything. Slept until about 2am when Jim noticed the movement of the boat had changed and when he got up to take a look, found that the wind was now coming out of the south and the swells had gotten much larger. Not being a good place to be when the wind comes from the south putting us on a lee shore with breaking waves just a few yards away, we pulled anchor and moved the boat into the harbor thinking we could sit at the fuel dock until they opened as we needed to top off the fuel tanks anyway. We got to a fuel dock, tied up the boat and was met by a security guard who said we could not stay there unless we paid for the night. When I asked how much that would be, he pulls out his chart and shows me that it would be $158 US, but I said "it's 3am and you open at 6, you want $158 for 3 hours?!"
"Si"
Tried to talk him into something more reasonable but he wasn't budging. So we untied and went in search of another fuel dock, luckily there was more than one. At the other one, the guy comes out and says "No problema, you buy fuel from me, I not charge you, we open at 5:30". To which we said "Gracias! Senor" and Jim gave him a cigar.

So at 5:30 we got our fuel and we were on our way, it was still dark out and so we did not get to see Cabo, we heard Cabo, it was Friday night after all and the clubs go all night long it seems and there was one rather loud, obnoxious parrot in the harbor making all kinds of noise, not knowing he should of been sleeping because of all the lights.

Marina Puerto Los Cabos

So we only made it as far as San Jose del Cabo that morning, Jim was exhausted and I was still throwing up and Zero was looking pretty miserable too, so we figured we bite the bullet and pay for a night at a much too expensive marina so we could recover before heading on.

Turned out that we didn't get too bad of a deal at Puerto Los Cabos, the marina is fairly new and still under construction and while they advertise that they get $23-32/ft per month and they wanted $100+ for one night for a 45'slip, which was a bit better than the prices they wanted in Cabo, which is all rather ridiculous if you ask me, for one thing it's more than any marina in California charges and for another it's off season and all these marinas are half empty, but anyway, when we balked at the price, they offered us a slip on the other side of the marina which didn't yet have power or security gates for $40/night, we took it. We make our own power, haven't needed to plug into the dock in years, make our own water too by the way, supposed to self sufficient when you go cruising, right?

Marina's Artworks by Mexico's Famous Woman Surrealist Leonora Carrington

After a couple days of finally being someplace hot, it was in the upper 90s when we got here, big change, we were still wearing sweaters on the way into Cabo, we decided that maybe we should stay a few more days, get acclimated to the heat, since it's at least 5-10 degrees hotter in La Paz. The marina manager, Jim, made us a deal for 2 weeks at about $20/night, which we decided to go ahead and splurge a bit, not like we're in a hurry anyway.

Beach where we've been going to swim about everyday

Mothra and the Gecko

Puerto Los Cabos

Made a new friend, he gave us a ride to town in his Jeep

So we've been here, acclimating to the heat, finally gotten to the point where I can function during the day instead of just lay around and sweat, meeting interesting people, making new friends, not learning much new Spanish because everyone here speak really good English, eating at all the different tacos stands (favorite so far has been the fish tacos at restaurant Puertos los Villas and the guy who cooks pollos al carbon while blasting Michael Jackson music), swimming in ocean water that doesn't send you into shock (although I did get stung by something on my foot that created the most unbelievable pain for hours without leaving any sort of redness or swelling), and  just getting to know our way around. Zero's been having a grand ole time too, he sleeps all day under the awning and roams around at night and so far has stayed out of trouble.

Think maybe we'll head out of here in the next couple days, go check out Los Frailes and Ensenada de los Muertos before arriving in La Paz.

P.S. I think maybe it was food poisoning after all, Jim got sick too, but not from anything we ate from Mexico but the peanut butter we brought from the states, a couple days later while cleaning out the frig, I found the jar of peanut butter was bubbling, not good! It was something both of ate before getting sick. Think maybe peanut butter without the sugar and preservatives isn't such a good idea when you get to these tropical places where things like to live and multiply at a much faster rate. You should see the varieties and colors of the different molds that will grow on a corn tortilla after only a couple days, amazing.

Magdalena Bay

Setting Sun on Isla Magdalena

After leaving San Juanico we set sail for Isla Magdalena about 90nm away at about 2am so we could arrive before dark. Motored for quite some time, running over a couple fish traps in the darkness without getting caught up in them (nice thing about a full keel boat) and finally got some good wind around 11am and turned off the motor. We caught a dorado soon after that and man was it good. We arrived in Bahia Santa Maria just as the sun began to set.

Village of Puerto Magdalena

Next morning we headed for Magdalena Bay and anchored in Man O War Cove near the small village of Puerto Magdalena. Puerto Magdalena has a population of about 130 if you count the dogs and is a WiFi hotspot, at least it is in the evenings when the generator is turned on. Met the guy who helped get computers for all the residents of the village so they would be able to get online and learn for themselves about the future plans the government has for the bay, give them a better idea of what they are voting for or against.

Some of the Plant Life on the Desert Island of Magdalena

Went ashore to stretch the legs, meet the people and see if anyone had beer to sell. The lone restaurant was closed, seems only to open for the cruising crowd in the fall during the HaHa, there's also a market and a deli, same deal I think.  Woke several people up in the process of looking for the guy who another fisherman had told us sold beer, guess we arrived during siesta, but did eventually end up with some Tecate Light, hardly worth the effort. Met some Italian tourists who had rented a little house there for a few days so they could get some sun and do some fishing, certainly wasn't expecting that.

Ponga on Magdalena Bay

We then headed up the bay to Puerto San Carlos to get some supplies and top off the fuel tanks. That's where we met Mark and Jane on their way up to Ensenada (that's Jane in the green with the smiling face). We went and found the grocery and the beer store, a good taco stand, then met Jorge who proceeded to get us all shit faced and then tried to do again on the following evening. Jorge works on one of the fishing boats and gave us a bunch of fish which we cooked up, made some awesome fish tacos.

Getting fuel at the dock in San Carlos

Pelicans waiting for the next boat full of sardines

Super Taco in San Carlos

Ernesto Butchering a Baqueta

Ernesto has a little market where he sells beer and also a seafood restaurant where we got some good seviche tostadas. He showed us how to prepare the red grouper for the grill. He cut it from the back and then gutted it and took out the back bone leaving the belly in tack.

The Wednesday Market in San Carlos

Jorge told us about the 'farmer's market/flea market' that is held every Wednesday morning. We were able to find much better produce there than what we had seen in the stores. You can also by fresh meat there and underwear and things like that.We bought some pork chops for the next leg of the trip just in case we don't catch another fish.

Mexican Truck Ferry

We left San Carlos to go back and anchor at Man O War after spending one too many nights bobbing around with the current holding the boat in one direction and the wind pushing us in another. The current running past San Carlos is wicked. Marcos, the guy who runs the internet cafe, told us that next time we should anchor near the Pemex pier, not so much current over there. Anyway, that is when Jim somehow spotted the above spectacle off in the distance. My camera has a 57X digital zoom and I was somehow, from the deck of a moving vessel, able to get this shot. I had been wondering how they got the trucks out to Magdalena Island seeing how there is no pier, dock or anything and this is the way they do it, 2 pongas lashed together and the truck riding on top. Vehicles that make it to the island stay there until they die and then usually abandoned right where they took their last breath.

Uncharted Navigational Hazard in Mag Bay at approx Lat 24.36'.9 N and Lon 112.05'.4 W, NE of Punta Belcher.             Pass on the outside, on the inside is the shoal that this boat struck before it sank.

 

Birds Feeding on Bahia Magdalena