04/04/2011, Puerto Escondido
We've been on the move almost constantly since our departure from La Cruz last Sunday. In eight days, we travelled a total of 525 miles! Needless to say, the last week has been a blur of GPS waypoints, night watches, coastlines, waves and stars.
The first leg of our trip was a 165 mile, thirty-two hour motor-sail from La Cruz to Mazatlan. The seas were not quite as calm as we had anticipated, and we spent a slightly uncomfortable night beating into the wind and waves. In anticipation of our night crossing, I made a few meals in advance that could be easily reheated even in rough seas. The first night out of La Cruz we both devoured our bowls of beef stroganoff with great enthusiasm. Even though we were beating to weather, we still managed an average speed of 5.5kts, and arrived in Mazatlan a few hours earlier than we'd planned. It was great to be anchored in the calm of the Old Harbor, and we spent most of the afternoon and evening relaxing.
The next morning, we set out on the next leg of our trip, a 250 mile, forty-seven hour crossing from Mazatlan to La Paz. About forty minutes after motoring out of the Old Harbor, a large humpback whale surprised me by surfacing about seventy feet directly in front of our boat. It was so close we passed through the footprint it left in the water. It surfaced a few more times before diving, and Dan was able to get a picture of the signature humpback tail flukes.
Aside from the whale, the first day and night out of Mazatlan were uneventful, with calm seas and variable winds. On the afternoon of our second day, the winds picked up, and the swell became quite uncomfortable. The wind shifted and the seas continued to build, and we decided that, if we continued beating into the swell the way we had been, we might not have enough fuel to reach our intended destination of San Evaristo. Rather than risk an empty fuel tank, we decided to turn a few degrees south and head for the San Lorenzo Channel, and , through it, La Paz.
Just before sunset, Dan spotted another whale ahead of us and called me up from the galley. I was just in time to see a blue whale surface about one hundred feet off our port side. This was our first blue whale sighting, and it was incredible. Blue whales are the largest creature to have ever existed on Earth, and can reach lengths of just over 100 feet. It's hard to get a good idea of how big an animal is unless it is right beside you, but I'm guessing this particular whale was over seventy feel long.
We arrived in La Paz just after sunrise, and it felt strange to be back on the Baja after four months on the Pacific coast. We anchored across the sandbar from town, and, after two nights of watches and mediocre sleep, took a well-deserved nap. We decided that the weather window for heading north was still good, and we would only spend one day in La Paz. We made the most of it by walking the malecon at sunset, stopping at our favorite ice cream shop for some lime sorbetto, and hitting Taqueria el Chino for the best pork tacos La Paz has to offer.
We left La Paz at sunrise, had a good motor-sail up to San Evaristo, and spent a somewhat rolly night before heading further north for Los Gatos. Los Gatos is one of our favorite anchorages on the Baja, with its white sand dunes, turquoise water and bright red sandstone rock formations. We spent just one night in Los Gatos, and hauled anchor in the morning. While raising the anchor, we were treated to the sight of a pod of dolphins entering the anchorage in pursuit of fish. They jumped, spun and dove in an effort to catch the small baitfish, and we certainly enjoyed the show. As we motored out of the anchorage, several of the dolphins swam over and rode our bow wave. The early morning water was still and clear, and proved to be perfect for dolphin watching.
We are currently hooked up to a mooring ball in Puerto Escondido, and will be heading out tomorrow morning. We will most likely spend one night in San Juanico before making the ninety-eight mile crossing to San Carlos, where our cruising journey first began.
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03/26/2011, La Cruz
We've been hanging out in La Cruz for a little over a week waiting for a good weather window to head to north. Being tied up to the docks has given us a chance give the boat a good wash and to get a few small projects done in preparation for our next passage. We've also enjoyed being close to some of our friends and getting a chance to spend time with them. We've had several great dinners with our friends on S/V Cuervo, and look forward to buddy boating with them to Mazatlan.
A few nights ago, Dan and I walked out to the breakwater to watch the "super moon" rise over Banderas Bay. It was a beautiful, calm night, and watching the large, red moon rise over the boats in the anchorage was quite a sight.
We decided to get out of La Cruz for an afternoon, so we hopped on a bus and headed a few miles north to Punta Mita. We weren't disappointed, as Punta Mita's clear blue waters and beachside restaurants offer a fantastic place to enjoy a lazy afternoon. We found a great place to eat called Si Señor, where you can sit with your feet in the sand under the palm trees, all while watching the staff whip up some amazing roasted salsa right at your table. Delicious!
This morning we cast off the dock lines and moved back out into the anchorage. It's good for me to be able to spend at least a day out at anchor before a passage so I can find my sea legs. If all goes well, we will weigh anchor at first light tomorrow morning and make the two day, 180 mile trip to Mazatlan. If the weather window stays open (fingers crossed), we'll spend one night in Mazatlan to refuel before heading across to the Baja peninsula.
We had a great time exploring Pacific Mexico, making new friends and seeing old friends again in new ports. We are looking forward to getting back to the Baja's turquoise waters, calm anchorages and good fishing. The plan right now is to take the boat back to San Carlos and prep her for storage. After that we'll pack up the car and head back to the states. I can't wait to see the Rocky Mountains and the Mile High City again!
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03/18/2011, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
After leaving Tenacatita, we headed north to Chamela to wait for a weather window to round Cabo Corrientes. The wind and swell came right into the anchorage for several days, so we were only able to go ashore once or twice during our stay. The winds climbed upwards of twenty knots and a three-foot swell bounced us around every afternoon. After a few days, the various weather reports gave the all-clear, and we headed out of Chamela with about ten other boats. When we were clear of the anchorage, we cracked a beer and poured the first sip overboard as a toast to Neptune, asking for good weather and safe passage (and good fishing!). We were rewarded about twenty minutes later when the noise-maker on the hand line sounded, signaling "fish on". After quite a battle, I managed to reel in a seventeen pound crevalle jack. Unfortunately, they aren't good eating, so we threw it back, but it sure was fun to catch.
The eighteen hour passage couldn't have gone any smoother. The winds were mostly on our nose, but for the most part they were light and variable. The seas were as calm as the winds, making for a nice, easy motor sail.
The beautiful Pacific
S/V Cuervo sailing into the sunset
We spotted a few whales and a pod of dolphins. At one point, a mother dolphin and her calf paid us a visit and rode the bow wave for a few moments.
We saw lots and lots of sea turtles, floating lazily along. To the seabirds, the turtles look like a great place to stop and rest their wings. The sea turtles don't seem to mind at all.
The next morning, we were happy to see the familiar sight of the La Cruz anchorage. On our way in, we listened to the morning net, and were surprised to hear that our friends Randy and Jenny aboard S/V Mystic were in town. They told us they were leaving for the South Pacific sometime that night, and we were lucky enough to meet them for tacos before wishing them well and saying our goodbyes.
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03/13/2011
We headed south from Ensenada Carrizal towards Manzanillo about 10 miles away. There are two anchorages here and we chose the Santiago one as it was less crowded and supposedly cleaner water. The water was pretty clear, but still cold at around 72 degrees. I checked the hull and it was still pretty clean so I decided to delay a cleaning to a future date.
Manzanillo is a 6 peso bus ride away so we headed into town one morning. They have a nice small old downtown and a huge sailfish statue on the malecon. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and then headed to the market. It is a newly remodeled market and did have a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, but the meat area was not the best we had seen. We still think the Bravo market in La Paz is our favorite.
We woke up this morning to Tsunami warnings so that confirmed our trip back up to Barra de Navidad as we did not want to be in the anchorage during a potential event. We pulled anchor around 10:00 and headed back north and around 1:30 the event did indeed happen. Things were not bad here with only about a 3 to 6 foot rise and fall in the anchorages, but the entrance to the lagoon in Barra de Navidad had very large currents, enough to pull the channel markers under water. So we made the call to continue north up to Bahia Tenacatita, which is another good anchorage only another 15 miles away.
When we arrived there the boats were swirling around their anchors during a 6 foot plus swing in water depth which had the currents running all directions. We waited about 15 minutes while a few other boats reanchored and then set the hook for a good nights sleep.
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03/05/2011, Ensenada Carrizal
After lots of searching for the right place and time, Dan and I got married aboard Akupara at Ensenada Carrizal on March 5, 2011!! We tried to stop at a few small anchorages on our way south from Puerto Vallarta, but were unable to anchor due to the weather. We didn't despair because we knew we had one more anchorage on the list, as well as the opportunity to revisit those we'd missed as we made the return voyage north.
We had our eye on Ensenada Carrizal from the beginning when we looked at potential sites in our cruisers guide. Carrizal is the only undeveloped anchorage on this stretch of the Pacific coast of Mexico, and I love it because it is quiet, rugged and wild. When we arrived in Carrizal, we hopped in the dinghy and went to take a look at the beaches. Both of the beaches are gravel, steep-to and make for a rather tricky dinghy-landing. Not to worry, because we realized we already had the perfect place for the wedding right under our noses. Akupara is a wonderful boat, and has taken care of us on our journey. What better place to get married than on the deck of our own boat?
The next day, we stood on our boat under the Mexican sun, exchanged vows and became husband and wife. Right after the ceremony our new friends Larry and Mel on s/v Hemisphere Dancer, who we'd only met a few days prior, called on the radio to wish us a long and prosperous marriage, and topped it off with a ceremonial blow of their air-horn.
After the radio call, I went below to make a few calls of my own:
"Hi, Mom. Guess what? I'm married!"
We invited Larry and Mel over for a celebratory drink, and they were generous enough to share a bottle of their champagne.
We toasted our marriage and spent a wonderful evening with our new friends.
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Congratulations to both of you. I guess we'll have to get busy on finding that BBQ place now.
Congratulations to you both!!!
Looking forward to crossing paths again someday.
Lauren and Jerry
03/04/2011, Barra de Navidad
Last week Dan and I attended the Carnival parade in Barra de Navidad, a first for both of us. It's hard not to get swept away by the sea of colors, sounds and smiles.
There were around twenty or thirty vehicles/floats in the parade, carrying anything from kids in costumes to transvestites to disco dancers.
We had a great time watching the parade, and everyone involved seemed to be having a lot of fun, which is what Carnival is all about.
The parade in Barra came a week before Mardi Gras, so the locals will now be able to attend the even bigger Carnival celebration in Manzanillo on March 8th. If we can figure out where everything will take place, we are planning to join the festivities. As they say, the only thing better than a Carnival celebration is TWO Carnival celebrations!
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